Hey guys! My name is Jake, but I go by majorbowman here on Nugget Bridge. I recently participated in a Premier Challenge in my hometown of Orlando and finished in second place. It was pretty serendipitous that I was able to participate, as it happened to be the weekend after I came home from college for the summer.

This is actually my first season participating in VGC. I found out about the format by watching the livestream of the 2013 World Championships and fell in love. I instantly set my sights on going to a Fall Regional and eventually made it out to Philadelphia. I had an incredibly fun-to-use speed control/Eruptran team that I’m going to miss playing (RIP Gen 5 Wifi) and ended up 22nd after going 6-2 in Swiss. I knew then that I had potential to do well in this game, and was really excited to play at more events in the future.

Like I said, I’m from Orlando, and the Orlando Winter Regional fell two days after my birthday, so I just had to come home for the weekend. I was using a double-mega team with Manectric, Charizard-Y, Garchomp, Scrafty, Amoonguss, and Rotom-W. I was 5-1 but had to drop because I had a flight back to Auburn to catch and the tournament got started incredibly late. I took the same team to Athens, with the exception that I inexplicably and regrettably used Gourgeist over Amoonguss, and ended up 33rd after going 6-3 in Swiss. The Amoonguss version of this team was used in the Nugget Bridge Major, and ended up carrying me to Top Cut with a 6-2 Swiss record. However, I started getting really tired of this team and thought that it was poorly suited to the evolving metagame. In particular, I had a very poor matchup against Gardevoir (handing me my loss in the Major top cut and 2 losses in Athens), which was becoming very popular. As such, I decided to scrap that team and start anew. I built and tested so many different teams on Pokemon Showdown until I finally found something I enjoyed playing and felt was strong enough to stand up to the current metagame. It ended up being the 60th team on my Teambuilder, hence the title of the report.

This introduction went longer than I expected. Oh well. Without further ado, here’s the team!

The Stars of the Show

Iggy Azalea (Venusaur) @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 HP / 188 SAtk / 68 Spd
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Sleep Powder
- Synthesis

After testing out a lot of Megas, I came to love Venusaur. The Mega-Venusaur / Rotom-Heat / Aegislash core in particular was very intriguing to me, so I decided to build around it. Bulky offense is my favorite way to play, and Venusaur perfectly embodies that style. The special attack was to always OHKO Ludicolo with Sludge Bomb, which gives me a good way to beat rain. It’s also just a good number to deal a lot of damage to any targets. I invested fully in HP for bulk and the speed was honestly just a dump, but it conveniently let me hit a great number. The speed stat was 109, which let Venusaur outspeed Rotom-A with 12 or less speed EV’s. By proxy, this let me outspeed the most common Gardevoir set, which aimed to outspeed 4 speed Rotom-A. This let me nail Gardevoir with a Sludge Bomb before it could use Psychic against me. Venusaur is nicknamed after the Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, mostly because I enjoy her song Fancy and the flowers on Venusaur reminded me of azaleas.

easybake (Rotom-Heat) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 180 SAtk / 60 Spd / 12 SDef / 4 Def
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

I knew I wanted a Fire type Pokemon to make my job against the likes of Mawile, Ferrothorn, and Bisharp a lot easier. Since I wasn’t keen on using a double-mega team again, Charizard was out of the question. Rotom’s secondary Electric typing gives him great coverage with his dual STABs, and he has a great ability in Levitate to negate his double Ground weakness. His natural bulk lets him survive a Kangaskhan Return (without taking Fake Out damage) and then burn and cripple Kangaskhan. He’s also a pretty solid check to Talonflame, a Pokemon that can singlehandedly sweep unprepared teams. I learned this lesson the hard way, but more on that later. The EV’s allow Rotom to always OHKO Ray’s Mawile, which has gained a lot of traction. Nicknamed after everyone’s favorite childhood toy.

Excaliboo (Aegislash) @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 236 HP / 132 SDef / 140 SAtk
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Substitute
- King’s Shield

Aegislash is such a strong Pokemon in this metagame. With Substitute, it walls the two most common megas in Mawile and Kangaskhan. I chose Flash Cannon over Sacred Sword because I was just more comfortable with the special move in that slot, which also gave me two different STAB options. It also meant I could hit Pokemon like Amoonguss and Gardevoir for the same damage with two different moves, which made my opponent’s predictions a bit harder. When it comes to Kangaskhan, Flash Cannon is still a 2HKO, which Sacred Sword can’t do if Aegislash is Intimidated or Burned. The EV spread is of my own creation. The HP EV’s give Aegislash an HP stat of 165, a perfect substitute number. The goal was to be able to set up a substitute after taking a Shadow Ball from an opposing Aegislash should I lose the speed tie. This spread gives me a 13/16 chance to do so if the opposing Aegislash has 252 EV’s and a beneficial nature. If the opposing Aegislash is running 76 Special Defense EV’s, like a lot are doing nowadays, then I have a 100% chance to survive with enough HP to use Substitute. Aegislash is such a good checkmate in battles. If I can eliminate its counters, it can singlehandedly close out games, which you’ll see a bit later. The nickname was just something cute a friend suggested and I liked it.

Chuckles (Azumarill) @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 236 Atk / 252 HP / 20 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Play Rough
- Superpower

I had been testing BellyJet Azumarill with Sitrus Berry and was disappointed in the lack of immediate power. If I wanted to bring Azumarill in to get a clean-up KO with Aqua Jet, I oftentimes found myself leaving the opponent with ~5% HP and subsequently losing the match. I tested out Banded Azumarill and fell in love. It has so much power right off the bat. It even OHKO’s 252 HP Kangaskhan with Superpower, a move that catches a lot of opponents off guard. The vast majority of Azumarill these days aren’t carrying Superpower, so opponents don’t take that threat into account. Since Azumarill didn’t need the Sitrus Berry anymore, that allowed me to give it to Rotom, who I feel makes the best use of it in this metagame. The speed was to creep other Azumarill so, if worse came to worse, I could Aqua Jet them before they could do the same to either of my Pokemon, especially if it has set up a Belly Drum. Waterfall and Play Rough are obilgatory STABs. I considered something like Double Edge instead of Waterfall to deal good damage to Charizard-Y in the sun, but didn’t really think it was worth it considering Rotom-H hard counters Ancient Power-less Charizard. Another cute nickname.

up all night (Scrafty) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 244 Atk / 252 HP / 12 Def
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Drain Punch
- Crunch
- Ice Punch

I absolutely love Assault Vest Scrafty. I’ve actually used Scrafty in some form on every team I’ve ever taken to an event, and when I saw the new Assault Vest item I knew it would work great on the Hoodlum Pokemon. In past events I ran an EV spread of 252 HP/212 Attack/44 Speed so I could outrun zero speed Tyranitar. However, zero speed Tyranitar is becoming less and less popular, and this team in particular wasn’t particularly troubled by Tyranitar anyway, so I decided to change it. The 12 Defense was to guarantee that Scrafty survive Banded Brave Bird from Talonflame after an Intimidate. Fake Out/Drain Punch/Crunch is self explanatory. I chose Ice Punch over something like Stone Edge or Poison Jab so Scrafty could act as a solid check to Garchomp and Salamence, Intimidating the former and taking <50% from the latter’s Draco Meteor thanks to the Assault Vest. Scrafty 2HKOs both dragons through Intimidate, and will always OHKO Salamence without a stat drop. I nicknamed it “up all night” because Scrafty’s droopy eyes make him look perpetually tired. I was fittingly up all night breeding this team before the premier challenge so I thought it fit. I was also inspired by a certain Gourgeist with the same nickname that straight up walled my team in a multi battle tournament back in February (still salty about that one Darkeness).

talonLAME (Staraptor) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 212 HP / 156 Atk / 140 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Final Gambit
- U-turn

This slot was pretty much wide open a couple days before the tournament. I was talking to my good friend Tman109er on Showdown and he suggested Staraptor for Final Gambit and the extra Indimidate. While the Intimidate support was nice, Staraptor ended up not fitting well with my playstyle. Like I said, I love bulky offense, and I feel as though every member on my team except Staraptor worked well with that style. Even with the heavy HP investment (which, by the way, allowed Staraptor to OHKO all fully invested base 80’s and all base 110’s with 4 HP by using Final Gambit from full health), he was just too frail to take hits like I wanted him to. The self-destructive nature of Brave Bird also hurt his survivability. I realize this is probably me just playing Staraptor the wrong way, so I’m either going to learn to use him correctly or replace him by the time Nationals rolls around. The nickname was a jab at Talonflame, who I saw as an inferior bird, though my experience in this tournament would clearly prove me wrong.

The Battles

Based on pictures I’ve seen from other premier challenges, I was expecting a pretty good turnout with somewhere around 50 people. However, we only had 11 people, so the tournament would consist of 4 rounds of best-of-1 Swiss into a best-of-3 top 4 cut. This wouldn’t be so bad if I hadn’t come to the tournament with 4 good friends that were all skilled battlers. I unfortunately ended up battling 3 of them throughout the tournament, breaking our streak of never playing each other in live competitions that began back at the Orlando Regional.

I was also thrilled that we could save battle videos at these tournaments, and I’ll be providing the battle codes for each one so you can watch them on your 3DS. My apologies if you try to watch them and they’ve been taken down, as you can only have 10 videos uploaded at a time and I’ll eventually have to remove these.

Round 1 vs Adam Hoffer

His team: Kangaskhan/Gothitelle/Garchomp/Rotom-Heat/Gardevoir/Aegislash

My team: Scrafty/Azumarill/Venusaur/Aegislash

Battle code: VQTW-WWWW-WWW7-BLXK

I figured I’d battle at least one of my friends during the tournament but I didn’t think it would be this soon. I shared a hotel room with Adam at the Athens Regional, and we trained together on Showdown basically every night. Needless to say, we knew each other’s teams inside and out, so this battle would come down to how well we played and predicted each other’s moves. The fact that this battle went 24 turns basically testifies to that. On turn 1 I thought I had the advantage when I landed a Play Rough straight into Garchomp, but I forgot that it was carrying a Focus Sash, so it stuck around for a while. The battle is pretty uneventful until turn 5 when I made a play I was very proud of. I targeted his 1 HP Garchomp with Venusaur’s Sludge Bomb instead of using my partner to take it out, knowing there was a chance he would switch Gardevoir in. He does just that, and I’m able to deal heavy damage to it, just missing the KO. The next turn I’m able to get a double KO with another Sludge Bomb (outspeeding Gardevoir thanks to my EV spread) and Scrafty’s Crunch into Aegislash. From that point I knew all I had to do was eliminate Garchomp so Aegislash could wall Kangaskhan. That would have gone well, had Scrafty not flinched on turn 8. Instead, I had to keep working around Garchomp and Kangaskhan’s speed in order to finish off Garchomp. On turn 12 he made a fatal mistake in not using Earthquake with Garchomp, and he knew it as soon as it happened. Had he done so, my Aegislash would have been knocked out along with his Kangaskhan, giving him the win. In retrospect, there was one turn where I targeted Kangaskhan with Aegislash’s Flash Cannon when I really should have knocked Garchomp out then and there and secured the victory. The rest of the battle is me stalling out Kangaskhan until I knew I could survive the 2nd hit from Kangaskhan’s Sucker Punch and KO with Flash Cannon. Win, 1-0.

Round 2 vs Nathan Shaw

His team: Charizard/Venusaur/Mamoswine/Zapdos/Azumarill/Conkeldurr

My team: Rotom-Heat/Staraptor/Venusaur/Aegislash

Battle code: M42W-WWWW-WWW7-BLA5

This was a relatively uneventful battle. He told me he had just gotten into Pokemon at the suggestion of his son, who I ended up battling later in the tournament. I played knowing he probably wouldn’t be making any huge predictions, and just methodically used my bulky offense to my advantage. I had a great turn 1 as I knocked out Azumarill before it could move while Conkeldurr protected. I was kinda surprised to see Charizard use Solar Beam on turn 2 considering the Pokemon I had on the field and the fact that it didn’t mega evolve. My guess is that he either forgot or didn’t know about its mega evolution in this instance, since I saw him battling later in the tournament and he had mega evolved it into Charizard-Y. The rest of the battle is pretty uneventful, with Venusaur eating up a Zapdos Hidden Power (I’m guessing Ice based on the low damage, thanks Thick Fat) and Rotom finishing off Conkeldurr with an Overheat. I ended up not losing a Pokemon this battle, and didn’t even reveal my full team as Aegislash just chilled in the back. Win, 2-0.

Round 3 vs Chester Daugherty

His team: Salamence/Politoed/Garchomp/Mawile/Ferrothorn/Mamoswine

My team: Rotom-Heat/Venusaur/Scrafty/Azumarill

Battle code: E4ZG-WWWW-WWW7-BLEL

Friend number 2. I didn’t know Chester’s team at all, since I had never battled him and he didn’t go on Showdown that much. I got a really nice stroke of luck right off the bat when Venusaur dodged a Mamoswine Rock Slide and OHKO’d it with Giga Drain. From there, I hate to say it, but it was a pretty simple win. Mamoswine’s Rock Slide was probably his best answer to my Rotom. He missed another Rock Slide at one point, but I also missed 2 Sleep Powders with Venusaur so luck wasn’t a strong influence on the outcome of the battle. He revealed Power-up Punch on his Mawile, which surprised and impressed me. I know a lot of people forgo Iron Head for an additional coverage move like Rock Slide, but Power-up Punch is a neat option to power up (pun intended) his insanely strong Play Rough and neat priority in Sucker Punch. In the end, Rotom-Heat was the star, as he shut down Ferrothorn and Mawile pretty much singlehandedly. Win, 3-0.

Round 4 vs Mike Shaw

His team: Salamence/Garchomp/Amoonguss/Kangaskhan/Rotom-W/Talonflame

My team: Rotom-Heat/Azumarill/Scrafty/Venusaur

Battle code: TLZG-WWWW-WWW7-BLK7

I’ll be honest, when I was building and testing this team I really didn’t run into enough Talonflame to really test how this team performed against it. I figured Talonflame was on the decline, and since I had Rotom-Heat as a counter I’d be fine. Well, when you rely on one Pokemon to take out a top-tier threat and your opponent has a good counter to your counter (in this case, my opponent’s Rotom-Wash), your life can get pretty miserable. I got off to a bad start when I decided to double switch on turn 1, revealing my entire team to my opponent. I also think I should have dealt some damage somewhere, especially with Rotom-Heat since the Thunderbolt onto Azumarill was pretty obvious. By switching in Talonflame on turn 2, my opponent backed me into a corner and forcing me to switch again. He took full advantage of this knowledge and aptly U-Turned into Kangaskhan, which severely threatens my team when I can’t switch in an Intimidate user or don’t have Rotom on the field to burn it. The rest of the battle was just him making smart switches and smart move choices while I flailed and made poor defensive plays. Loss, 3-1.

Standings after Swiss

So I said 11 people earlier in the report, and I know at one point there were 11 (or a different odd number) because a couple people had byes. But there are 12 on this sheet. I honestly don’t know how many people came at this point. Anyway, I wasn’t exactly sure whether all the 3-1’s would make top cut. I was correct in being slightly worried about my chances since there was one 3-1 that bubbled, and it happened to be Adam, who won his last 3 matches after our round 1 clash. I was lucky enough to battle some strong opponents, none of which finished worse than 2-2, so I was the highest seeded 3-1 and finished Swiss ranked 2nd. However, my heart dropped when I saw that my other friend, Ian Packer, was right below me in 3rd. Ian had top cut both the Orlando and Athens Regionals, so he has obviously proved himself as a threat. Provided that he kept using the same team, I did have the advantage of knowing parts of his team, while mine was completely new to him.

Top Cut Semifinals vs Ian Packer

Game 1

His team: Greninja/Meowstic/Aegislash/Dragonite/Wigglytuff/Kangaskhan

My team: Aegislash/Azumarill/Scrafty/Rotom-Heat

Battle code: XKBW-WWWW-WWW7-BLTV

Thankfully, he was using the same team, with the exception of adding Wigglytuff over some other Pokemon I can’t remember. He shrewdly led with Wigglytuff seeing my two Intimidate users, while I avoided the Competitive boost by keeping Scrafty in the back. He kept his Kangaskhan in non-mega form on turn 1 in order to Fake Out Aegislash, but that was fine with me since Azumarill was able to OHKO it right off the bat. Instead of switching Azumarill out and letting something take free damage, I just stayed in and went for a Superpower on his Greninja, knowing that if he used Dark Pulse to knock out Aegislash, I would OHKO it through the attack drop. Instead he used Hidden Power Fire, a trick I knew about from Athens, so Superpower dealt around 70%. The rest of the battle, I frankly outplayed him. I predicted moves well and was able to identify the targets I needed to eliminate to win, specifically double targeting Wigglytuff on Turn 6 so Scrafty could come back in and checkmate the match with Fake Out and Crunch. Win, 1-0.

Game 2

His team: Greninja/Meowstic/Aegislash/Dragonite/Wigglytuff/Kangaskhan

My team: Scrafty/Azumarill/Aegislash/Rotom-Heat

Battle code: KY8G-WWWW-WWW7-BM57

To put it simply, I got insanely lucky on Turn 1 of this battle. I made a bold move and led with Scrafty hoping he’d think that Wigglytuff didn’t put in enough work last battle and decide to leave it behind. I was correct in that regard, so I had a great matchup on Turn 1. I knew his Meowstic had Safeguard and Swagger, and I wanted to avoid him boosting his Kangaskhan’s attack to astronomical levels before I could stop it. I targeted Kangaskhan with Superpower again, but he got smart and used Fake Out against it. I used Crunch on Meowstic after it Charmed Scrafty, but I scored a critical hit and was able to OHKO it through Charm. That turned the tide of the battle hugely in my favor. He replaced his fallen Meowstic with Dragonite, who I knew was holding a weakness policy. I knew Kangaskhan couldn’t KO either of my pokemon, so I double targeted Dragonite with Ice Punch then Play Rough to break Multiscale and knock it out before it could hurt me. He applauded that play as he switched Kangaskhan out and seemingly inexplicably used Roost on Dragonite that turn before it was KO’d. From that point I knew that all I had to do was take out his Greninja so Aegislash could checkmate Kangaskhan, much like it did against Adam in Round 1. I was able to slowly chip away at Greninja with my burned, -2 Scrafty while I hid behind a Substitute and King’s Shielded away with Aegislash. I was lucky he focused all his efforts on Aegislash, as if he had taken out Scrafty and then Rotom before Greninja fainted he very well could have turned this battle around. However, I was fortunate enough to get Kangaskhan alone, which sealed the win and my spot in the finals. I basically just stalled Kangaskhan out until I knew I could survive the 2nd hit from Sucker Punch if it scored a critical hit. I made the remark that I should have been counting his Sucker Punches, but it just so happened that he ran out the turn before I decided to go for the finishing blow with Flash Cannon. Win, 2-0.

Top Cut Finals vs Mike Shaw

Game 1

His team: Salamence/Garchomp/Amoonguss/Kangaskhan/Rotom-W/Talonflame

My team: Azumarill/Aegislash/Rotom-Heat/Scrafty

Battle code: KE8G-WWWW-WWW7-BMEJ

After the disaster that was round 4, I knew I had a lot of work to do if I wanted to win this set. I was scared out of bringing Venusaur because of Kangaskhan and Talonflame, so his Rotom-Wash was basically free to cause trouble. I led with Azumarill to hopefully knock out Talonflame with Aqua Jet before it could U-Turn away, but he made the very smart play to just hard switch it out for Amoonguss. He also burned my Aegislash right away, so I was unable to do any stalling. On turn 4 I made a bold prediction and decided to leave Aegislash in Blade Form and just Flash Cannon Kangaskhan again, but my opponent was one step ahead of me and Sucker Punched it. I survived with 2 HP and was thrilled, knowing I could KO the Kangaskhan if Rotom didn’t target Aegislash as well. Luckily, Scrafty took Rotom’s Hydro Pump like a champ and Aegislash Flash Cannoned Kangaskhan into oblivion. However, the Amoonguss that replaced Kangaskhan was such a bear for me to take down. My only super effective moves were Scrafty’s Ice Punch (not even a 3HKO with Black Sludge Recovery) and Rotom’s Overheat. I couldn’t King’s Shield with Aegislash since the burn damage would finish it off, so I tried to attack with it again but my opponent saw through this and knocked it out with Hydro Pump. From there it was just a matter of my opponent dropping some very smart Protects and preserving Amoonguss until Rotom-Heat was out of the picture. His Rotom missed a Hydro Pump on mine at one point, but it really just delayed the inevitable. My only hope was on turn 10, when Talonflame was obviously going to Brave Bird my Rotom. I wasn’t clear on my calcs, or else I might have switched Scrafty in to weaken the attack for Rotom the next turn. Instead I left Rotom in, thinking he could take a Brave Bird and KO back with Thundebolt. Clearly, I was wrong. From there I had to Fake Out Amoonguss with Scrafty so it couldn’t redirect Azumarill’s Waterfall. I was left with Azumarill locked into Waterfall against a full health Amoonguss. My only hope was to flinch Amoonguss quite a few times in a row if I wanted to win this battle. I got one flinch, but it was about four too few. Loss, 0-1.

Game 2

His team: Salamence/Garchomp/Amoonguss/Kangaskhan/Rotom-W/Talonflame

My team: Staraptor/Scrafty/Rotom-Heat/Azumarill

Battle code: R6AW-WWWW-WWW7-BMZV (my W key is really getting a workout tonight)

After cleanly losing 2 straight battles, I knew I had to switch something up. I thought if I could take his Rotom out early, I could use my own Rotom to its fullest extent. Staraptor’s Final Gambit could do just that. I don’t know why I didn’t Fake Out Garchomp on Turn 1 and go straight for the Final Gambit onto Rotom. For a second I had a bit of a lapse in judgement and thought that Rotom’s base HP was 86 instead of its actual 50. I thought that since Staraptor’s HP investment allows it to OHKO fully invested base 80’s and below with Final Gambit, I needed some chip damage on Rotom first. I was wrong, and it probably cost me the battle. Staraptor was kinda deadweight against the rest of his team, and I ended up having to switch Rotom in while his own Rotom was out on the field, a situation I desperately wanted to avoid. The rest of the battle went down like the last 2, with him finding ways to eliminate my Talonflame checks and sweep from there. I would like to point out Turn 4, where I made a play I was pretty proud of. I predicted his U-Turn back into Garchomp, so I Will-O-Wisped Talonflame’s slot in an act of desperation. I was right, but it really wasn’t a huge victory since Azumarill easily handled Garchomp anyway. Talonflame beat me again, and my tournament run came to a close. Loss, 0-2.

Closing Thoughts

I was very happy with my team, aside from my poor matchup against Talonflame and my poor play in compensating for this error. I definitely felt that Staraptor was the weak link here, but like I said before, it was probably just me misusing him. I’m definitely going to be tweaking this team for Nationals (readjusting EV spreads, rethinking movesets, and probably replacing Staraptor), but I really do love the way this team plays. Mike won a $10 Nintendo e-shop gift card, while I got a sweet Pokemon lanyard that now holds my car keys. Honestly I would have offered him the gift card if I had won because I really really wanted that lanyard. I went out to dinner with Adam and my other friend Miles (the only one I didn’t have to battle, which is probably good because I literally gave a team to use 20 minutes before the tournament), and we talked about the tournament and our future plans for Pokemon.

Special thanks to TheGhost983 and Dragon_Claw from /r/PokemonLeague3DS on Reddit for all the help. You two were instrumental in me getting this team ready in time. Also thanks to Adam, who traded me a flawless Aegislash that I then used to beat him. I guess no good deed goes unpunished.

Thanks for reading!

The post The Plight of [Untitled 60] – An Orlando Premier Challenge Team Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi, I’m Sam “SuperIntegration” Bentham, and I recently finished 18th at the 2014 UK Nationals. I was 7-1 and 3rd after Swiss in a flight featuring BazAnderson, Kyriakou, Koryo, Zog, both Gini brothers, Massi, Osirus and DaFlo, and many other notable players. Unfortunately, I lost in the Top 32 due to some bad luck and bad plays on my part, but we’ll talk about that later. On to the report!

The journey to Nationals started at 8:30 p.m. on Friday. I left Oxford with Gerald de Oliveira (Geraldinho) by train to Coventry, where we met up with Ben Kyriakou (Kyriakou) and Robert Kendall (Pokérob) for a road trip up to Manchester featuring huge bantz and added KFC, DoTA bashing and (very loud) Halo theme. We got into Manchester at like 1 a.m., where we met CJ Giannakos (sagaciousslowpoke) and stayed up finishing Gerald’s team and discussing Florges until 4 a.m. before the tournament the next day. At this point, the Top 16 hero from Germany, Steve Edgson (SirSmoke), appeared along with Kay Dyson (Cambria) and we finally decided to get some sleep. However, disaster struck: I took an early critical hit and suffered from insomnia as a result as Gerald went for the surprise Snore!

So yeah, I got no sleep, but in the morning (after much coaxing from Ben and Steve), and a lot more caffeine than my intolerance should allow, I was ready… for the 3.5 hour wait between registration and round 1, that is.

Anyway, it was tournament time, so I should probably talk about Pokémon!

The Team

In general, I have found teambuilding for this metagame extremely difficult due to the need to have viable options against the huge range of viable Pokémon. It’s so easy to have an auto-lose matchup against something if you’re not careful. For Nationals, I decided that it was best to play generally solid Pokémon (mostly with high base stat totals), even if this resulted in some overlapping coverage issues and some slightly bad match ups. Since I was confident in my playstyle against most players, I felt that I could play around slight issues. I thought it was better to have a slightly bad time against a few things than an auto-loss against one or two.

This specific team first came about after German Nationals (where I played an entirely different team and did not do well); I saw Markus Stadter (13Yoshi37) ruin everyone in his path with Gengar and thought the idea of a fast Ghost was amazing and so I came to the idea, why not use Sableye? We’ll run through the full reasoning for my decision to play Sableye and not Gengar later, but this was the starting point of the team. I’ll discuss the rest of the teambuilding process as we go through it.

Team at a glance:

This team looks quite unusual and, at first glance, less-than-solid. It has Sableye, three weaknesses to Fairy-type, two Ghost-types, and no Fire-type STAB. However, I was confident in my matchup against Mega Mawile, and had good ways to deal with Azumarill. Aegislash’s Flash Cannon and Tyranitar’s Assault Vest meant that I wasn’t worried about Special Attacks from Fairy-types. Also, I rarely picked more than two of Tyranitar, Sableye and Salamence, and only in about half of the battles did I take more than one. I felt, going into the tournament, that my core was Kangaskhan, Salamence, Rotom and Aegislash, and that I could substitute Salamence for Sableye or Tyranitar as needed. The double Ghost was very strong against opposing Kangaskhan teams (which I expected to see a lot of). As for the lack of Fire STAB, I felt it wasn’t entirely necessary for my team since Taunt and two Pokémon with Fire Blast covered Amoonguss, and the other fire-weak threats could be dealt with in other ways. It did work out this way; I played against six Amoonguss in Swiss and defeated five of those teams, only losing to BazAnderson.

Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 84 HP / 76 Atk / 172 Def / 20 SDef / 156 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Power-Up Punch
- Sucker Punch
- Protect

Kangaskhan: the queen of VGC 2014. Immediately after deciding I wanted to build around Sableye, I knew I had to use Kangaskhan, as they work extremely well together (more on this in the Sableye discussion). Kangaskhan, as well as being the most powerful and certainly one of the best Pokémon in the metagame in general, is also a Pokémon that rewards excellent play and gives opportunities for you to outplay your opponent; you can Power-Up Punch a predicted switch or you can Power-Up Punch your partner if you predict a double Protect. If you play this correctly, you are then rewarded with an absolute monster; a fast Pokémon with ridiculous Attack, priority moves, and defenses that are almost impossible to OHKO. I chose to run Protect as this gives further opportunity to outplay your opponent (and indeed, surprise them in a best of one). The point is that Kangaskhan is such a massive threat that it draws targeting, especially after a boost. It was often the case that I would have Kangaskhan and Aegislash out together, and the sheer threat of Kangaskhan would allow me to simply Protect when my opponent double-targeted, giving Aegislash a free Substitute to win the game on the spot. I don’t feel that Fake Out is that valuable on Kangaskhan; it’s best off when it’s attacking, and in terms of causing Protects and invitations to outpredict or set up Substitutes with Aegislash, the threat of Fake Out is just as good as having Fake Out. Of course this doesn’t entirely hold in a best-of-three match, but I don’t feel that Protect is an inferior option in this case – the two just play differently. I am very glad that I used Protect. The EV spread survives all Hammer Arm from opposing Kangaskhan, outspeeds Smeargle by one point, and does something relevant that I can’t remember on the Special Defense side. The remaining EVs were dumped into Attack.

Sableye @ Roseli Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 236 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 19 Spe
- Foul Play
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Swagger

Sableye was a fantastic pick for this event, and was most definitely the MVP of the tournament for me. The idea was in ways the same as Markus’ Gengar – win the Kangaskhan mirror by Will-o-Wisping it while it can do nothing back. I soon came to discover in testing that Sableye did much, much more than that. I feel this analysis needs splitting into sections, since Sableye is a utility support Pokémon and Foul Play and Swagger do so much.

On Foul Play

Foul Play is a fantastic and underrated move in this metagame. To be clear on the mechanics; it works off the opponent’s stats and boosts, but your status condition, ability and typing. This means, most importantly, that you can burn a physical attacker and do no less damage with Foul Play, lessening their ability to do damage to you while not affecting your ability to do it back.  A standard combination in testing (though I did not get to use it in the tournament) was to Will-O-Wisp an opposing Kangaskhan on the turn they Power-Up Punch to negate the burn. On the next turn, you Foul Play, OHKOing them after the burn chip damage. That would in turn mean that I get more out of my Mega Kangaskhan than my opponent, which  goes a long, long way to winning the game. It also works in conjunction with Swagger, allowing me to do damage to Special Attackers whilst covering the switch into a physical attacker (which I would do big damage to). The 19 Speed IV on my Sableye also means that Sableye undercuts minimum Speed Aegislash by 1 point, allowing me to Foul Play it in Blade Forme to make sure I score the OHKO.

On Swagger and using Swagger

The VGC community in general looks down on Swagger. I feel I should expand on my decision to play it, since I had very good reasons for using it. In the rum-up to Nationals I had a dim view on Swagger and initially had Recover in this slot, but I found there were issues with it; Sableye would sit in front of Special Attackers and not be able to do anything. It was not an immediate threat and was largely ignored as a dead slot. This was an issue, as it effectively put me a Pokémon down whenever the opponent had no physical attackers except the Kangaskhan, for example (which I would bring the Sableye to counter). After looking at options such as Captivate and Trick and deciding they were unreliable at best, I came to Swagger. It was the perfect fit: it boosts Foul Play, largely targets Special attackers, and it helps Kangaskhan get free boosts by forcing switches. The other thing going for it, as well as the legitimate reasons, is that, like it or not, Swagger wins you games that you otherwise have absolutely no chance in. In tournament play, regardless of the means, I would sooner make a play that gives a 45% chance of winning than a move with a 0% chance of winning. What this does not mean is that you use Swagger whenever you can – I used the button only when Sableye had nothing better to do to the Pokémon in front of it, or I had no other way back into the game. However, many times upon seeing a Sableye, people will switch in their Special attackers in haste of avoiding the Will-O-Wisp, and instead get Swaggered. This situation either nets me a free KO with the partner as they hit themselves, or leaves them in a tricky situation about whether to stay in and risk the confusion hit or switch and allow me to Power-Up Punch, set up a Substitute, or just get free damage.

Taunt and Will-O-Wisp are almost completely self-explanatory. Taunt supports Kangaskhan by allowing me to shut down other Will-O-Wispers (including Gengar and all Rotom forms) and also shuts down Smeargle entirely. Even if the opponent switches it still fills a role: it prevents the opponent from Protecting which eases prediction on the next turn. Prankster Will-O-Wisp is just ridiculously strong in general.

Why not Gengar?

I chose to play Sableye instead of Gengar, despite the latter’s Fairy resistance (which this team could have benefitted from) for the reason that it allowed me to Taunt other Gengar before they could move and gave me access to Swagger and Foul Play. Prankster also allowed me to run a lot of bulk as opposed to Speed, allowing me to use an item other than Focus Sash, which I do not like.

Would I play Sableye again? Given that I’m not going to the third European Nationals or Worlds either, I have to say that I probably would not. It was a strong meta pick for 2014 at this particular event. I think it’s an excellent Pokémon and I do not regret playing it in the slightest, but the conditions have to be just right, and it’s very possible that in the future these same conditions will not be there.

The EV spread had enough physical bulk to survive Adamant Life Orb Talonflame’s Brave Bird. I put the rest in Special Defense since Swagger is less reliable than Will-O-Wisp.

Salamence @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Stone Edge

Standard Scarf Salamence. I felt it fit better than Garchomp on this team due to Intimidate, extra Fire coverage (since I have no STAB), and strengthened my Sun and Rain match-ups. I played Timid instead of Modest so that I could outspeed Ludicolo in the rain. In the tournament, I didn’t actually take Salamence very much, and so maybe if I were to play the team again, I would play Lum Berry Garchomp, which is also strong against Sun, and would add a dimension to the team by allowing me to use it in combination with Sableye’s Swagger for a +2 Garchomp.

Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 76 SDef / 4 Def / 20 Spd / 156 SAtk
Modest Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Substitute
- King’s Shield

The second half of the double Ghost, and another Pokémon that works fantastically well with Sableye in helping me beat Kangaskhan teams. The EV spread is Jio’s: it survives a Mega Charizard-Y Heat Wave. The Speed EVs are used for opposing Aegislash – I don’t subscribe to the philosophy that you should be slow in order to get off your Shadow Ball second and OHKO. Instead, I preferred to Substitute in front of other Aegislash, so then if they attack me, I gain momentum as I am faster and they are in Blade forme for the next turn. This often forced them to King’s Shield, allowing me to set up another Substitute on the second turn. It’s also Sableye’s second partner-in-crime: the Swagger and Will-O-Wisp pressure allow me to get up Substitutes very easily.

Tyranitar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 204 SAtk / 44 SDef / 4 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Rock Slide
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast

I take absolutely no credit for the idea or spread for this Tyranitar – it was entirely Kyriakou’s idea. I originally had Mega Charizard-Y in this slot, but to be honest, it was a passenger – I always wanted to take Mega Kangaskhan. However, I needed to have something to change weather for Rain and Sun teams, and so I came to Tyranitar. Originally I was running Life Orb, but this seemed like a waste of Tyranitar’s natural coverage and bulk. That was when Kyriakou showed me this EV spread which is able to take a critical hit Garchomp Earthquake, or a Mega Lucario’s Aura Sphere and do massive damage back to both. With Sand and Assault Vest giving a 2.25x Special Defense boost, this Tyranitar is ridiculously bulky. Some calculations put it into perspective:

• 252 SpA Gardevoir Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 44 SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 68-84 (32.8 – 40.5%) — 100% chance to 3HKO
• 252 SpA Adaptability Mega Lucario Aura Sphere vs. 252 HP / 44 SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 168-200 (81.1 – 96.6%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 4+ Def Tyranitar: 108-128 (52.1 – 61.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Salamence Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 44 SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 46-55 (22.2 – 26.5%) — 17.8% chance to 4HKO

I was very happy with Tyranitar’s bulk, power and presence – it may not be king as it was in 2013, but it is still a very good Pokémon.

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 100 SAtk / 4 SDef / 140 Spd
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

A fairly standard Rotom. The spread was originally for a Rotom-H – it is one Speed point above max Adamant Mega Tyranitar, and two above max Adamant Bisharp because I was scared of Bisharp’s Assurance.  This allowed Rotom to Overheat or Will-O-Wisp in front of the Bisharp before it got to move. On this team, I felt that Rotom-Wash was the best call to do tons of damage to opposing Rotom-Heat with Hydro Pump, and also to not have the Rock weakness that plagues the other Rotom forme. I tested the same spread and found that the extra Speed was still very helpful as it outsped and Will-O-Wisped Mega Tyranitar and also Rotom-H that were running to one point above Bisharp.

Lead Combinations

+

Kangaskhan + Sableye

Huge offensive pressure, plus annoying disruption and a way to stop Will-O-Wisp. This was a great way to lead and often resulted in my opponent needing to allow a Power-Up Punch, from which I gained a big advantage early on.

+

Aegislash + Sableye

This is almost exactly the same theory as Sableye and Kangaskhan. These leads allowed me to set up Substitutes and pile on the pressure with Sableye’s distruption and Aegislash’s sheer power.

Anything + Anything (within reason)

Honestly, the above two combinations are good so often that I didn’t really notice any other patterns, apart from that of course you should use your common sense. Leading Salamence + Sableye into a Dazzling Gleam user is just stupid, for instance.

Weaknesses

This team has no big holes that I’ve found, however, as with any team there are some slight difficulties facing certain Pokémon.

+ /

Amoonguss + Setup

I know it sounds odd given what I’ve already said about seeing six in swiss and beating five, but this team doesn’t enjoy Amoonguss and another setup Pokémon, especially if it’s Aegislash or Azumarill since Sableye can only Taunt one at a time and Rage Powder is annoying. If I were to play this team again, I’d consider Safety Goggles Sableye to help get around this.

Rotom-W

No Grass coverage made Rotom-W slightly difficult – I tended to deal with it by chipping it down to Return range, or gaining a Power-Up Punch on a predicted Will-O-Wisp and then knocking it out with Return.

Tyranitar

If Kangaskhan has been knocked out or otherwise threatened, opposing Tyranitar can be difficult, especially if they are Specially oriented or mixed.

Klefki

This thing renders Sableye almost useless with Safeguard, but it also simultaneously necessitates that I bring Sableye just to Taunt it. If Sableye was Taunted, it could still Foul Play Kangaskhan for decent damage. It was also hard to KO, since I did not have Fire STAB. I did not think about Klefki as I did not expect to see many; ironically enough, it was one of many contributing factors to my loss in the Top 32.

The Tournament

There are a lot of games I can’t really remember much from, so I’ll only discuss the games I can remember. I’d also like to say that throughout the tournament my opponents were excellent sportspeople, never failing to be polite and pleasant in both victory and defeat, and I’d like to thank you all for making this tournament so enjoyable (and my apologies if I don’t remember our game well).

Round 1: Marcel Kapelle (Massi)

( )

Yeah. Not the ideal round 1 opponent. Neither of us were very happy about this, but that’s the nature of tournaments I guess. I remember getting a burn on his Mawile early on, but then misplaying and overpredicting a switch into Salamence, which resulted in my Tyranitar Ice Beaming into a Mawile. After that I was in trouble; the crucial turn was as follows. My 2/3 HP Kangaskhan and full HP Sableye were up against his Burned Mawile and Rotom-H, and he had his Amoonguss in the back. I reasoned that I couldn’t reasonably be sure he’d go for the Will-O-Wisp since he’d seen Taunt on Sableye and as I was already 4-2 down. I thought the only way for me to win was to attempt the Swagger and Power-Up Punch the Rotom. It came off and his Play Rough missed, which simplified my job significantly for the rest of the game. I’m not sure what would have happened had the Play Rough not missed, but the Swagger hit was pretty important for me after I’d misplayed earlier. I did feel sort of guilty, but you have to go for these things: I had a 0% chance to win the game in that position if not for it (as discussed in the team analysis).

Round 3: Jade Batchelor

(

This looked like a Trick Room team, as I surmised in Team Preview. I’d heard Jade talk about Mega Heracross with Kyriakou previously, so knew I could expect it. I led with Aegislash and Rotom, with Kangaskhan and Sableye in the back, as I wanted to be able to smash the Aromatisse to stop it setting up Trick Room if she led with it. This came to pass, as she led Rotom-H and Aromatisse. On turn 1 I simply Thunderbolted and Flash Cannoned the Aromatisse while Rotom-H protected from the Hydro Pump, and the free 4-3 lead was enough to give me the win without further incident.

Round 5: Barry Anderson (BazAnderson)

( )

I hit the dizzy heights of Table 1 and immediately have to play Baz. Wonderful. He also happened to have three of the most hated Pokémon for my team to face: Azumarill, Amoonguss, and Talonflame. He also had Raichu to support them. Also wonderful. In any case, bad matchup or no, Baz outplayed me in this game, managing to force my Sableye out so it could not Taunt while bringing in Amoonguss for a free Belly Drum with Azumarill, by which time the game was pretty much over.

Round 7: Lee Provost (Osirus)

( )

Honestly, this game is only worth talking about because of the remarkable amount of luck involved. I can’t say who would have won if not for the three Draco Meteor misses in my favour… I was glad to see Lee make it to Top Cut anyway, both because he’s an excellent player and because this was a truly horrible game.

Round 8: Daniel McCarthy

( )

Ironically enough, at 6-1, this was my easiest match of Swiss. I realized early on that his bulky Talonflame did not have Flare Blitz, so after his Fire Fang Mawile was safely burned I was able to set up Substitutes with Aegislash (which were hard for him to break) and won the game from there.

Top 32: Lee Watson (Redemption003)

I remember feeling my heart sink at Team Preview. Sun is one of my worst matchups, and he also had Klefki with Safeguard and Venusaur, which meant I had to bring Sableye for Taunt… but once Safeguard had gone up my Sableye was almost dead weight, while his Klefki was still able to do good damage to Kangaskhan with Foul Play. Klefki proved hard to KO due to my lack of Fire STAB. In addition, he had Scrafty as an answer for my Tyranitar (which I have to bring to counter Sun) and a Kangaskhan, too.

Game 1: I remember missing several Will-O-Wisps and also making several sub-optimal plays in this game: I was a little nervous in my first ever Top Cut match. After missing a double Will-O-Wisp on his Garchomp whilst already in a tough situation, I was completely lost, but decided to keep playing to learn information anyway, since he was not taking notes, while I was. I saw my Kangaskhan outspeed his Charizard twice; this would turn out to be important later. I assumed that I was faster, since most Charizard I had seen either ran close to max Speed or not much at all – not to the tier I was at.

Game 2: I don’t remember too much from this game, except that he didn’t bring Charizard so I was able to set up a Substitute with Aegislash and hide behind it for most of the game before winning on time.

Game 3: I led badly in this game and very quickly end up in a worse position. However, I managed to pull it back to a situation where my +2 Kangaskhan was at about 1/2 HP alongside Sableye at full health against a Taunted and Swaggered Rotom-W within Foul Play range, and his Charizard, which had just Protected. I reasoned that as we’d both seen my Kangaskhan outspeed Charizard on multiple occasions, his only win condition was to switch to Venusaur to try and predict the Sucker Punch. So, I Returned and Foul Play, only to learn the hard way that it actually was a speed tie, as Heat Wave scored the double KO. It is possible to argue that using Return was a mistake as it was still possible for the speed tie to occur; however, if he’d predicted Sucker Punch correctly I would have lost anyway, so I think with the information I had it was correct to Return. That said, I’m still not sure, so if anyone has any feedback on this situation I’d love to hear! These were very good games regardless.

So ended my adventures in Manchester, and my chances of going to Worlds this year since I won’t be attending Milan. I’d be lying if I said I’m not bitterly disappointed about going out at the Top 32 stage, only a few wins away from Worlds, but I am still proud of the way this team performed in Swiss.

Thanks

There are a good many people without whom I would either not be playing this game, or would be a good deal worse at it than I am. It’s likely that I’ll forget at least one person, so forgive me if you feel you should be mentioned here and aren’t! In no particular order, thank you:

• To Ben Rothman (Ben7000), for backing me and my play since just before UK Nationals last year, and being a great training partner whenever I needed it.
• To Jonathan Evans (Ezrael), for tolerating my use of Swagger!
• To Oliver Valenti (Smith), for taking me on in the NPA as a relative unknown and giving me the chance to develop my game and improve for this season. We’ll get a Rollouts team picture at Worlds someday!
• To Toler Webb (Dimsun), for lending me half my Pokémon for both German and UK Nationals, and for letting me bounce ideas off you over Skype all the time.
• To Manoj Sunny (MangoSol) for repeatedly calling me an idiot in practise until I improved!
• To Markus Stadter (13Yoshi37), for being patient whilst I questioned him about both Gengar and Sableye.
• To Zach Droegkamp (Zach) and the rest of Buncha Bulls for backing me prior to day 2. Sorry I couldn’t bring Bulls a European win!
• To Jiovaine Neita (Jio) for your friendship, and help with building and breeding all through the season.
• To Steven Edgson (SirSmoke), for constantly overestimating my abilities and playing games with random teams for me to test against on demand until 1 a.m., as well as being an all-around awesome friend.
• To Toby Bundy, for your constant encouragement throughout Swiss and before top 32.
• To Emma Cartwright, my wonderful girlfriend, for her constant emotional support and interest despite not being at all interested in competitive Pokémon.
• And lastly, to Ben Kyriakou (Kyriakou) for being my best friend these last 18 months and teaching me everything I know about this game in the first place. From “Ice Gem Ice Punch Weavile 4 Worldz” to top cutting a Nationals is something I couldn’t have done without your constant help.

That ends my team report. I may not have made Worlds, but I’ll be back all the stronger in 12 months time! See you all around!

The post Gems in My Eyes: A Top 32 UK Nationals Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello everyone, my name is Anthony Jimenez also known as DarkAssassin and this is my first year of competitive battling. I went to a couple of regionals and local tournaments this season but I didn’t have much success other than making top cut in the SoCal regional in Long Beach, CA. Each event has taught me the capabilities of my Pokémon and has taught me how to better predict my opponents. Let’s take a look at the team that I used in most of the Major which I ended up taking first place in.

Team at a Glance

I started making this team after going to the SoCal regional in Long Beach, California. While there, I noticed that there was a lot of Mega Kangaskhan and Rotom who both gave trouble to my last team. I started to search for a Pokémon who would be able to KO both Kangaskhan and Rotom. I needed the Pokémon to be a special attacker due to the fact that Intimidate is fairly common. While searching, I came across Hydreigon who has an amazing base 125 Special Attack and good stats all around. After making some damage calculations, I knew that he would be “the one.”

Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 140 HP / 252 SAtk / 116 Spd
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
Nature: Modest
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Flash Cannon

Hydreigon has always been one of my favorite dragons. It has an awesome design, good stats, and hits like a truck. With Choice Specs, Hydreigon is able to KO 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan most of the time (87.5% chance to KO) and is able to KO Rotom as well as many other common Pokémon. 140 EVs in HP allow Hydreigon to take a Dragon Claw from Garchomp even without Intimidate support. The HP EVs also allows it to take a Return from Adamant Mega Kangaskhan and it KO’s back with Draco Meteor. The remaining EVs were dumped into Speed just so it wouldn’t be too slow. My Hydreigon is faster than neutral max Speed base 70s and max Speed Tyranitar.

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Def
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
Nature: Adamant
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Waterfall/Belly Drum
- Protect

Although Hydreigon was able to take on Garchomp (any without Focus Sash) it still had trouble against Salamence. Since Salamence is so common, I knew I would have to find a fairy to switch into its Draco Meteors. That’s when I found Azumarill, who not only gets the KO on Salamence, but also helps against Tyranitar, who is a huge threat to this team. I originally used it as a bulky physical sweeper, but later changed to a Belly Drum set. DO NOT USE 252HP ON A BELLY DRUM SET. I found this out the hard way when I faced Bjart in my final match. I wasn’t too experienced with Belly Drum Azumarill and had no idea that you need to have a specific EV spread for Belly Drum Azumarill. I have to say that I prefer Belly Drum Azumarill over a bulky physical sweeper one. Once Azumarill sets up it wrecks teams that aren’t prepared.

Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Intimidate / Lightningrod
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
IVs: 31/30/30/31/31/31
Nature: Timid
- Volt Switch
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect

To increase Hydreigon’s and Azumarill’s survivability, I decided to use Mega Manectric. Manectric not only has Lightning Rod allowing it to redirect electric attacks that might be aimed at Azumarill, but it also has Intimidate when it mega evolves. Volt Switch allowed me to spam Intimidate, which I often took advantage of. It made Hydreigon even bulkier on the physical side, allowing it to take up to five spread Rock Slides from max Attack Tyranitar. I decided to go with a max Speed Manectric because it allowed me to outspeed Garchomp turn 1. Mega Manectric has about a 50/50 chance of getting the KO on Garchomp with HP Ice, preventing Garchomp from damaging Hydreigon.

Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 6 SDef
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/0
Nature: Quiet
- King’s Shield
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Substitute

Aegislash’s main purpose in my team is to get rid of any Fairy types that might threaten Hydreigon. Gardevoir in particular was the fairy I was worried about. Gardevoir not only KOs Hydreigon but it does a ton of damage to the rest of my team. Aegislash was also a good switch in to Salamence in cases where I didn’t have Azumarill and was a good check for the common Mega Kangaskhan+Salamence lead.

Tyranitar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
Nature: Adamant
- Crunch
- Rock Slide
- Dragon Dance
- Protect

Honestly, Dragon Dance Tyranitar was used as a second option whenever I knew that I wouldn’t be able to use Hydreigon. I got the idea from my older brother, Legacy, who had a lot of success using Dragon Dance Tyranitar and I thought I would give it a try.  Tyranitar also paired well with Mega Manectric because it could take out Mega Manectric’s biggest nightmare, Rotom-Heat. Mega Manectric’s Intimidate combined with Sandstorm would also allow Tyranitar to take most super effective hits. When I predicted Tyranitar to be hit by a super effective hit, I would often go for the Dragon Dance and then try to finish the game with my +3 in Attack and +1 in Speed Tyranitar.

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP /6 Def / 252 SDef
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/0
Nature: Sassy
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Protect

Amoonguss is the last member of my team who was often used to redirect moves to itself. Amoongus redirected Will-O-Wisps headed towards Tyranitar and Azumarill and it also redirected Draco Meteors headed towards Hydreigon. Now I know what you are guys are thinking. Why the heck are you using Effect Spore over Regenerator? The answer is simple. It’s because I was too lazy to breed for an Amoongus with Regenerator. It was not until the finals against Bjart where I switched to a Sassy Amoongus with Regenerator and a spread of 252 HP/62 Defense /196 Special Defense. The Special Defense EVs allowed my Amoongus to survive an Overheat from max Special Attack Rotom-Heat while the rest of EVs were just dumped in Defense and HP.

Team Combos and Strategies

The overall goal of this team is to hit hard and get the battle over with in just a few minutes. Both Azumarill and Tyranitar could sweep unprepared teams after they set up and Hydreigon hits almost everything hard with Choice Specs. Manectric and Amoonguss bring great support to my three sweepers and Aegislash is a good switch in to most of their weaknesses.

Manectric works well with anyone in my team. It redirects electric attacks from Azumarill and can do serious damage to Grass types that might threaten it. With Intimidate, it can help anyone in my team take a physical hit and they can then retaliate back. It can take on some dragons that might threaten Hydreigon and gets rid of Talonflames that threaten Amoonguss.

Whenever I knew that I wouldn’t be able to bring in Hydreigon, I would use Amoonguss and either Tyranitar or Azumarill. Both Tyranitar and Azumarill can sweep unprepared teams after setting up and Amoonguss can redirect any hit aimed at them. The plan here is to start off with Manectric and either Tyranitar or Azumarill and then Volt Switch into Amoonguss and set up. Afterwards, I would just spam Rage Powder while my Tyranitar or Azumarill would sweep.

Conclusion

Although I haven’t had much success this season, I have learned a lot about competitive battling. I would also like to thank my older brother, Legacy, for helping me finalize this team and my good friend, gengarboi, who encouraged me throughout the rounds. Thank you and I hope you guys enjoyed reading my article.

The post Hail Hydreigon! A 1st Place Nugget Bridge Major Team Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi, I’m Pietro Chiri (kirro). On May 31, 2014 I attended my very first tournament: the 2014 Italy National Championships. For this special event, I wanted to use Heracross, my favorite Pokémon. After many months of testing the team I finally find a good way to use it and finished 24th at the competition. Unfortunately, I don’t remember much of my battles from the tournament, so I’m only going to post a team report.

Team at a Glance

The Final Team

Heracross @ Heracronite
Ability: Guts -> Skill Link
Adamant Nature
EVs: 4  HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
- Protect
- Pin Missle
- Rock Blast
- Close Combat

For Heracross, the star of the team, I chose a moveset that can OHKO a lot of common Pokémon with super-effective damage. The 252 speed EVs are used to outspeed bulky Rotom-Heat and other base 70 Speed Pokémon. These EVs also optimize the Tailwind support provided by Talonflame. Heracross’s base 185 Attack is its best selling point, but its base 75 Speed is a huge weakness, so I decided that Heracross needed Tailwind support in order to outspeed and knock out my opponent’s Pokémon.

Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
Jolly Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
- Protect
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw

This is a standard Garchomp with a Rocky Helmet to help against Kangashkan and other physical attackers. I added Garchomp to the team to have a counter against Aegislash and Talonflame, who are Heracross’s worst enemies. Garchomp it’s a very good sweeper and, with this moveset, it can really destroy many overused Pokémon.

Gardevoir @ Choice Specs
Ability: Trace
Modest Nature
Evs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 180 SAtk / 20 SDef / 4 Spd
- Moonblast
- Shadow Ball
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt

I chose Gardevoir’s EV spread to survive a Brave Bird from Life Orb Talonflame and a Shadow Ball from Aegislash. The Choice Specs were added to maximize the power of Gardevoir’s Special Attacking moves. Psychic is guaranteed to OHKO any type of Amoonguss. Moonblast provides a very strong STAB Fairy-type move for my team and also OHKOes all Dragon-types. Thunderbolt is used for both Talonflame and Azumarill, the latter of which is actually a very good counter against my team. Finally, Shadow Ball can be used for Aegislash since Gardevoir’s other moves aren’t very effective against it.

Aerodactyl @ Lum Berry
Ability: Unnerve
Jolly Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
- Wide Guard
- Taunt
- Rock Slide
- Sky Drop

I knew I needed to have a good support Pokémon to Taunt any Trick Room users, so I originally considered using Smeargle in this slot. At the same time, I also wanted a good physical attacker to use against Fire and Fighting types, so I decided to use Aerodactyl since it can perform both roles. Wide Guard is used to protect both Talonflame from Rock Slide and Bisharp from Earthquake or Heat Wave. I really love Aerodactyl because it is a very balanced Pokémon; it functions as a really good supporter and sweeper at the same time.

Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
Adamant Nature
Evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
- Protect
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Brick Break

Bisharp was my fast sweeper against Fairy-type Pokémon and Intimidate users. Defiant is a very good ability that puts a lot of pressure on the opponent, especially during Team Preview. Sucker Punch is the only Dark-type move, which was a hazard to use against Aegislash since it can put up a Substitute to block my attack and then hit Bisharp on the next turn. I chose Brick Break to use against Scrafty and Kangashkan, which was a great surprise for my opponents. With this move I can OHKO either Pokémon with +1 Attack.

Talonflame @ Focus Sash
Ability: Gale Wings
Jolly Nature
Evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
- Quick Guard
- Will-O-Wisp
- Tailwind
- Brave Bird

This is an unusual, total-support Talonflame. Quick Guard was used for Fake Out users and Pranksters, which assured me a win in many matches since it caught my opponents off guard. Will-O-Wisp was used against any physical attackers. When Talonflame was down to 1 HP after using its Focus Sash, I often used Will-O-Wisp to surprise my opponents who expected Talonflame to use a final kamikaze Brave Bird. Tailwind is Talonflame’s most important move; it allowed Heracross to outspeed my opponent’s Pokémon and OHKO many of them. Brave Bird is Talonflame’s only offensive move, and I often use after Tailwind is set up.

Overall, I had a wonderful experience attending Italy’s 2014 National Championships. I apologize that I didn’t include more explanation of the team during the tournament. For my next tournament, I will be more precise and include more details. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed my report.

The post A Link Between Us: Italy Nationals Top Cut Team Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi, I’m Gazooki, best known for such wonderful things as inadvertantly getting fellow Brit Kinneas disqualified from the 2010 Pokémon World Championships and showing up very much worse for wear at the VGC ’13 UK National Championships before pulling through and making 48th place with a team based around Marowak of all things. This year though, I had an even crazier plan…

The History of the Mono-Fairy Team

Some of you will inevitably wonder how the idea to run a monotype team came about, and that’s a simple enough question. Before the Fairy type had been revealed, many members on IRC were adamant that all the rumours flying around were ridiculously false, and I was the one who stood firm and insisted that this new type would indeed be in Pokémon X and Y. Thus, I made the pledge that if Fairy became a new type, I would play the entire VGC ’14 season with nothing but Fairy Pokémon. Other people on IRC, such as my good friend Matthew Hoyle (Aren142), decided to follow suit, all coming up with their own crazy monotype teams, but as the event drew ever closer, many dropped out, leaving just me and Hoyle as the last men standing.

My initial team looked very different to its current form, utilizing the powerful Ability Pixilate and the odd mechanics of Round in order to deal massive damage as quickly as possible. Dedenne had a Choice Scarf to give it even more Speed, Slurpuff had a Normal Gem so that after one Round it would actually be fast enough to be a threat. Although this team was hilarious to use and sometimes made short work of unprepared opponents, it was severely flawed and definitely wouldn’t carry me through eight or nine rounds (pun not intended) of Swiss, so I went back to the drawing board.

I completely dispensed with most of the Pokémon on my previous team in favour of a strategy that used the slowness of most Fairy types to its advantage in a Trick Room setting. However, unlike three-times Worlds champion Ray Rizzo, I was unable to find a good way of using Wigglytuff, so the Normal/Fairy with a Competitive streak didn’t stick around for long.

I ended up using this team at the Manchester Grassroots Tournament in February. I had finally transitioned to a stage where I was comfortable using five of these team members, but Aromatisse was starting to feel out of place. I was underwhelmed by its lack of power, and all it seemed to do was faint before doing anything of use. Half the time it wouldn’t even be able to get Trick Room up, whereas Gardevoir had more opportunities to do so due to people not knowing which set I was running right away.

After seeing how well Wolfe’s Mr. Mime dealt with the dreaded Double Dragons, I swapped out Aromatisse for something that changed the team dynamic dramatically. Instead of focusing on Trick Room solely, I now had three different forms of Speed control available to me: Thunder Wave from Klefki, Trick Room from Gardevoir, and Icy Wind from Mr. Mime. The additional support of Wide Guard and Quick Guard was something I really liked since it kept certain threats at bay, forcing my opponent to change tactics.

The Final Team

Peacock (Klefki) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 SDef
Nature: Bold
- Safeguard
- Swagger
- Substitute
- Thunder Wave

Right from the start I knew I wanted to use these little jangly keys not just for the Prankster support, but also for its Steel-/Fairy-typing. This grants Klefki a dual-immunity against Dragon- and Poison-type moves, which stops Toxic stall in its tracks. Safeguard is almost a necessity when you’re running three physical-attacking Pokémon (to prevent any burns from Will-O-Wisp). Safeguard also allows the nullification of the confusion effect of Swagger, which grants an instant +2 boost to my physical attackers (providing it hits, of course). Thunder Wave makes it easier to handle the likes of Mega Kangaskhan by dragging its Speed down to the point where my team can hammer away at it with impunity. Substitute allows Klefki to avoid attacks and block moves like Leech Seed that can’t be stopped by Safeguard. Without Foul Play, this set can be vulnerable to Taunt, but this year Taunt was surprisingly rare.

The nature and EVs are pretty standard. This set prevents Mega Kangaskhan from doing any massive damage, and at -1, a Talonflame without Choice Band can’t knock it out. Some EVs were invested in Special Defense to help against Heat Waves from Chandeulre and Mega Charizard-Y.

Nickname Trivia: In Skullgirls, Peacock is an orphaned girl rescued from slave traders by a scientist, Dr Avian, and turned into a deranged cybernetic killing machine with a soft spot for old cartoons. Her mischievous nature and tricky, zoning-based playstyle fits perfectly with the status-based shenanigans of Klefki.

Filia (Mawile) @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Atk / 76 SDef
Nature: Adamant
- Iron Head
- Play Rough
- Sucker Punch
- Protect

When Mega Mawile was revealed, I knew I had my Mega slot sorted out for my Mono-Fairy team. I was hopeful that it would actually be good and not turn out to be utterly underwhelming, and thankfully GameFreak answered my prayers by making it one of the best Mega Evolutions available. Its role in the team is relatively simple: punch holes in everything with its massive Attack stat. Even without fully investing EVs in its Attack, you can still destroy pretty much anything with a couple of hits from Mega Mawile thanks to Huge Power doubling its initial 105 base Attack. Add a +2 Attack boost from Klefki’s Swagger to that and you’ve got an unstoppable monster that hits like a truck full of nitroglycerine.

The three attacking moves grant almost flawless coverage, with this particular combination doing neutral damage to everything in the game now that Steel types have lost their resistance to Dark-type moves. Play Rough is the bread and butter of the set, crushing anything that does not resist Fairy-type moves. Iron Head deals with opposing Fairies quite nicely and offers a more accurate move for those tricky situations where you cannot afford to miss. Sucker Punch, although highly dependent on prediction, is my best bet against Fire and Steel types, who would otherwise resist both attacking moves. I did consider using Fire Fang, but I ended up putting that move on another team member. Again, the EVs are unremarkable, although they do stop certain formes of Rotom-W from being able to 2HKO Mawile.

Nickname Trivia: Filia is an amnesiac schoolgirl who wakes up one day to find a parasite named Samson has taken residence on her head, and now she must fight to regain her memories using the hairy beast atop her scalp. Those huge jaws on the back of Mawile’s head look eerily reminiscent of one of Filia’s special attacks, Fenrir Drive, and so this nickname was born.

Big Band (Azumarill) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 SDef
Nature: Adamant
- Belly Drum
- Protect
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough

Ah, Azumarill: if it wasn’t for Huge Power, it would be a totally unremarkable Pokémon in every way. Thankfully, Huge Power grants a massive boost to its Attack that actually makes it viable. When combining its Attack with Belly Drum, Azumarill becomes four times more lethal.

All of these moves are quite obvious choices: Play Rough and Aqua Jet are two of its best STABs, Belly Drum provides a massive Attack boost at the cost of half its health (somewhat mitigated by the use of Sitrus Berry) and of course, the ubiquitous Protect. Belly Drum opened up a whole new set of options for me, as prior to this, Azumarill had absolutely no way to touch Amoonguss. However, with almost all of those pesky mushrooms choosing to Rage Powder at every possible opportunity, I’m usually able to get to +6 with ease and then deal a colossal amount of damage to it. Having a +6 Aqua Jet ready to go can make the opponent panic too, as they desperately scramble to stop Azumarill from unleashing its unholy wrath upon all manner of opponents. That said, Talonflame can often be its undoing by using Brave Bird to stop the aqua rabbit before it gets a chance to wreak havoc, although with the support of Mr. Mime and Klefki this can be avoided. At Level 50, Azumarill’s max HP is 207, which prevents Sitrus Berry from activating right away after using Belly Drum. By redistributing the EVs, I circumvented this issue and let Azumarill quite happily set up in the face of adversity.

Nickname Trivia: Big Band was the first male playable character added to the Skullgirls universe. A former detective who got on the wrong end of a notorious gang, he’s now kitted out with a robotic life-support system that gives him enhanced fighting prowess. As the only male member of the team, Big Band is a fitting moniker for Azumarill.

Double (Mr. Mime) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Filter
EVs: 220 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk / 4 SDef / 28 Spd
Nature: Bold
- Fake Out
- Icy Wind
- Wide Guard
- Quick Guard

Mr. Mime is my first unconventional team member. Although Fake Out seems like a very good option by preventing an opponent from moving for a turn, it isn’t quite so brilliant when everyone’s wearing a Rocky Helmet to counter Mega Kangaskhan. Nonetheless, I kept it just in case it came in handy at some point to stop a Charizard from demolishing the team right from the start. I was initially torn over which of the Guards to have, but after testing it out with both, I decided I might as well have them both. Wide Guard helps to averting the dangers of powerful spread moves from Garchomp, Mega Charizard-Y, Chandelure, and the rare Abomasnow. Quick Guard offers a reprieve from opposing Klefki, Meowstic, incredibly slow Fake Outs, and Sucker Punch from Kangaskhan and Bisharp, as well as forcing Talonflame to drop its Gale Wings and leave it open to an attack from Azumarill. Icy Wind was the raison d’etre for those EVs. As Wolfe explains in his article, the 28 Speed EVs put Mr. Mime at 114 Speed, which after one Icy Wind is enough to outspeed max-Speed Jolly Garchomp. Since the Bold Nature and full investment in Defense also prevent Garchomp from being able to net a 2HKO on Mime, it’s actually feasible for the creepy clown to take out the land-shark-dragon. The use of Icy Wind is infinitely useful when hardly any Fairies have particularly high Speed. Of course, this does mean I have to be very careful when using it together with Gardevoir since Icy Wind in Trick Room only leads to trouble. The massive Defense investment also prevents Jolly Mega Kangaskhan from being able to KO with a Return, although Adamant can still break through.

Nickname Trivia: Double is an abomination that the minds of mere mortals cannot comprehend. She is a faithful servant of Skullgirl and the Trinity, the gods of this world. She usually takes the form of a nun, but her true form is an amorphous blob of pure terror. Double was the only analogous character I could possibly think of that matched the horror of Mr. Mime’s creepy animation when I first saw it.

Cerebella (Granbull) @ Babiri Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Nature: Adamant
- Rock Slide
- Play Rough
- Fire Fang
- Protect

Now, this is where things get really interesting. Right from the get-go, when looking for Fairy-type Pokémon to use, Granbull struck me as something that would be useful and surprising. Its relatively high base 120 Attack, wide movepool of physical attacks and support moves, and the ever-useful Intimidate Ability led me to add Granbull to the team. Although its own damage output can be underwhelming when compared to the Huge Power users, Granbull is still able to pack a punch when Klefki gets a Swagger or two on it.

Play Rough was a necessity as a STAB option, which is Granbull’s most powerful and consistent attack. Fire Fang is perhaps a contentious choice, as some would argue that Close Combat is preferable due to being a far more powerful option for defeating Steel types and dealing quite good damage to Kangaskhan. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of Close Combat, since I dislike the Defense and Special Defense drop that occurs after using the move. On the other hand, Swagger support allows Fire Fang to score a clean KO on Ferrothorn every time. Fire Fang is also able to hit Aegislash, which would otherwise laugh in the face of my Granbull set. Rock Slide, believe it or not, was a quite late addition, coming after the huge rise in popularity of the Mega Charizard-Y/Venusaur lead. Far too often would I fall foul of that pair, so I made the decision to swap out Crunch for Rock Slide. Rock Slide KOs Mega Charizard-Y if it has anything below 80 HP EVs or any nature that doesn’t improve its Defense. It also knocks out all common Talonflame sets and still does a significant chunk to Chandelure. With two Steel/Fairy types on my team, I felt Earthquake would be far too risky, and so I went for the option that wipes out Fire/Flying types instead, which I’m far better off for. I didn’t try to optimize the EV spread, opting for raw damage instead, and it seems to have worked. Babiri Berry is also a great item, although it took me forever to find one. Originally, I had used Babiri Berry for Scizor, but the Red Baron quickly fell out of usage and I kept it for other Steel attacks. It actually came in extremely handy, buying me extra time against Ferrothorn and Aegislash, which would otherwise totally manhandle this team.

Nickname Trivia: Cerebella is hired by the Medici family (essentially the mafia) as a leg-breaker, but her daytime job is performing at a traveling circus as an acrobat. Granbull reminded me more of the former than the latter, muscling through teams without a care in the world.

Parasoul (Gardevoir) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Nature: Modest
- Trick Room
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Protect

This final member of the team is one of the best for creating mindgames. People often don’t know what set to expect since Gardevoir runs so many, which can grant me an opportunity to set up Trick Room and start sweeping. Psyshock was placed on the set to make it easier to take out Amoonguss if I can’t set up Azumarill, along with actually dealing significant damage to Mega Venusaur and giving me a nice neutral option against Rotom-H. Shadow Ball was carried in order to combat Aegislash, as even if I use it into a King’s Shield there’s no real consequence. I would have liked to have kept Moonblast on this set somewhere to have the upper hand in one-on-one battles against Dragons and Bisharp, but alas, Protect was needed in case someone figured out my gameplan and went for a Fake Out.

I love Trace as an Ability because it can screw up so many strategies. Tracing an Intimidate from an opposing Mawile or Salamence is great for forcing them to either switch or risk being at -2 Attack. Tracing Lightning Rod off Manectric can completely shut its strategies down. Tracing Levitate from Rotom can help against Garchomp… the possibilities are almost endless. If the opponent has an Aegislash on the field, you can even guarantee yourself a certain ability, since Stance Change can’t be Traced. The unfortunate thing is that Trace is random as to which opponent it picks from so you won’t always get what you need. Focus Sash makes it easier to set up Trick Room, survive certain hits, and the EVs are, as I understand it, perfectly normal for a Trick Room Gardevoir. Putting more than four EVs into any given defensive stat seemed a bit pointless in conjunction with Sash.

Nickname Trivia: Parasoul is the fair princess of the Canopy Kingdom, a militaristic regime that seeks to destroy the Skullgirl. The feminine grace of Parasoul lends itself well to the nickname of a Gardevoir, so that’s what I went with.

Team Strategy and Threats

Lead Pairings

+

Gardevoir + Mawile/Granbull/Azumarill

If I see a team that’s incredibly fast, this mode can deal with it quickly. Trick Room with Gardevoir, Protect with the other, and that’s a battle done and dusted. Sometimes I can draw attacks away from the partner and just give them a free turn to do whatever they want. Either way, this is the default for easy mode opponents or the dreaded Charizard/Venusaur pairing.

+

Klefki + Mawile/Granbull/Azumarill

Another ‘easy mode’ strategy, I can Safeguard first turn and Swagger the next, handing a +2 boost to the partner with no real repercussions. I love it when a plan comes together.

+

Mr. Mime + Azumarill

This one’s a risky one, but if I face an opponent likely to use spread moves, then this combo allows me a free Belly Drum. From there, I tear the team apart with Azumarill.

+

Granbull + Mawile

These two provide the classic Double Intimidate. This neuters offensive threats (such as Garchomp) with ease, and forces either switches or defensive plays from the opponent. These leads don’t get used too often, but, when used, can be devastating although a bit slow.

Threats

Steel types

If it’s a Steel type, it’ll cause me problems. Even with the three neutrals and a Babiri Berry I often have to play cautiously to get around these. Aegislash is horribly unpredictable with its two formes: King’s Shield is a form of Protect that knocks Attack down to half if you guess wrong, Substitutes allow it to hide from attacks, and its high Special Attack means a Flash Cannon or Shadow Ball will hurt a lot. Bisharp can soak up Intimidates, which is bad news when two of the things that would ordinarily be good against it have that same ability, and a +1 Iron Head will be dealing enough damage to knock out most of the team. Ferrothorn is marginally more manageable, but it can still soak up damage like there’s no tomorrow and bring Azumarill to a grinding halt. Whenever I see any of these, I know I’m in for a rough time.

Rotom Formes

Both Rotom-W and Rotom-H can cause some massive problems for this team, since I had no way of hitting Rotom-W for super-effective damage and only Aqua Jet or Rock Slide for Rotom-H. Both are capable of burning with Will-O-Wisp, both take forever to KO, both of them immediately threaten Azumarill with Thunderbolt, and Rotom-H has the added threat of Overheat which can outright KO both of my Steel types. It’s incredibly tricky to work around these two, and for this reason they seem to be everywhere. The Electric typing is a royal pain, as it stops me being able to just throw a Thunder Wave at them and call it a day, meaning I have to use one of my other means of Speed control if I need to be faster.

Chandelure

Chandelure is another quite versatile Pokémon that resists Fairy types and requires careful monitoring. Infiltrator means that Klefki can’t hide from it. Chandelure’s good support movepool means Sucker Punch isn’t always a viable solution, and (very rarely) it can be built to shut down Trick Room. Chandelure thrives in this metagame and Fairies aren’t the best for dealing with it.

/ /

Charizard, Garchomp, Salamence, Mega Kangaskhan

These ones aren’t quite as bad as the ones above, but in conjunction with others from the list can be a real handful. Through my practice I’ve come up with various ways to defeat all of them, but when there’s a Rotom, Garchomp, Salamence, Kangaskhan and Aegislash on the same team, that can give this team a really tough time. The propensity to use a Special Attacking, Choice Scarf Salamence really hasn’t done my team any favours, although I do benefit from making it sorely predictable. Mega Kangaskhan dominates the metagame, but if I can get both my Steels in against it at the same time, that eases the matchup somewhat unless it carries Fire Blast (which I’ve seen a few times).

The Tournament

The Saturday of the tournament started slowly. Very slowly. Hoyle and I had shared a room the night before. We ate breakfast at around 7:30am, left all our heavy bags behind and then set off towards Event City, the venue of our proud event. What we’d hoped for was somewhere nice and spacious to queue up, but what we got were 300 people crammed into a box while a man shouted instructions that we couldn’t hear. We ended up queuing with a guy who had £1500 worth of trading cards strapped to his inner thigh, who we presumed was here for the TCG. I texted Jade (evilpinkdragon) throughout this time, updating her and her brother, Eden (Xenoblade Hero), on the situation as they were set to arrive at about 10am-ish. As usual, there was a lot of waiting around with nothing happening.

At around quarter past nine, the staff finally started letting people filter through, although there was a significant amount of confusion as there were two separate queues for people who had preregistered and those who hadn’t, and the staff had shepherded us into the wrong one. We had to cut into the correct queue, where more waiting happened and I encountered FroZen85, who I battled last year. He was telling me about how he had the world’s bulkiest Rotom set and had managed to stall out SuperIntegration for 34 turns, but then he left and went all the way to the back of the queue for some reason. After that, it was business as usual, waiting and standing. Eventually, our queue began moving and the staff checked our battle boxes to make sure everything was Kalos Dex and obtained in Kalos. There were no hack checks due to the lack of freely available hacking devices, so I was able to pass through relatively quickly to get my Battle Box locked up.

Shortly after this, the rest of our party arrived and we joined the queue once again, this time accompanying Jade, Eden, her boyfriend Nick (Decretum), a couple of people I’ve battled with at events before, and several other people I had never met. Everyone seemed pretty cool, which was a good thing because we’d most likely be spending the day with them. Organization for the tournament was subpar; we were supposed to be starting at 11.15am, but come that time only TCG was underway. The primary reason given for this delay was that the staff had difficulty implementing byes into their system. Eventually it became clear that there were other flaws in the system, which even included the fact that, as we found out later, all of the staff had decided to take a lunch break without actually telling anyone where they were going, leaving a handful of volunteers to run the entire event in their absence. Everyone was getting hungry by this point, so a decision was made to make a mad dash to the Trafford Centre to find food, with Hoyle staying behind to let me know if anything actually happened.

It was well past 2pm when we finally received the initial roster check. Over four hundred people attempted to crowd around a small banner with a slip of paper posted on it, and that wasn’t comfortable in the slightest. Even worse, that slip of paper was only for Flight B, which only had half of the competitors, so the rest of us had to cross to the other side of the hall. I ended up in Flight A, which many had identified as the weaker flight of the two, although it still had some fairly strong players in it such as recent German champion Markus Stadter (13Yoshi37), so I’d have to be on my guard.

Day 1 Battles

I wasn’t expecting to do well, I’ll put that out there right now. I’d set myself a target of 3-5, as I was expecting to run into a succession of teams containing all my least favourite Pokémon and thus I’d be relying on the lower-end opponents to grant me a win. Now it’s time to see this team in action:

Round 1 vs Chris Martin (not the Coldplay guy)

He brought:

I brought:

In a strange coincidence, I ended up against the very same person I battled in the first round last year, only this time his team looked a lot more competent, and mine much less so. One thing you should know about this guy: he likes to talk. A lot. So much so that he essentially is creating his own animé-style narrative to our encounters. It’s difficult to take that seriously, but hey, stuff like that is what makes things fun! There’s not much to say about this battle honestly; he got absolutely crushed by Trick Room. I did lose a couple of Pokémon because I didn’t anticipate Chesnaught’s Energy Ball being as powerful as it was, but apart from that it was an easy start to the day. 1-0

Round 2 vs Jose Garcia

He brought:

I brought:

From a small village near Madrid came my second opponent. His team had plenty of things I feared, but he neglected to bring both Dragons due to the psychological effects of having six Fairy types on my team. With the way my leads lined up, I saw a prime opportunity to set up a Belly Drum by using Fake Out on his Rotom-H, and on the same turn his Gardevoir used Thunderbolt on my Azumarill, which activated its Sitrus Berry and left me with enough spare HP to successfully get to +6. From there, I took his Gardevoir out with an Aqua Jet, believing it to have a Choice Scarf and thinking Rotom would Protect. It didn’t; it instead opted to Overheat Mr. Mime. The next turn went badly for him as he missed a Will-O-Wisp, I used Icy Wind to reduce Rotom’s Speed, and Azumarill’s +6 Play Rough took out his Amoonguss (although its Rocky Helmet ensured my sweep was cut short). From here, I had a clear advantage at 3-2 against a slow Rotom at -2 and a Tyranitar. I switched in Granbull first to allow it to take some attacks and Mr. Mime was swapped out for Mawile. On the next turn, I pulled Granbull back out, Protected Mawile from any Overheats, and brought Mr. Mime back in. At this point, he chose to Mega Evolve, but Tyranitar’s Rock Slide still did little damage. At this point, I knew that an Icy Wind would slow his Tyranitar enough for Mawile to KO with Iron Head, while Granbull would be able to finish off the Rotom with Rock Slide. My plan was executed to perfection and the second game was mine. 2-0

Round 3 Vs Laura Stockley

She brought:

I brought:

After stringing two wins together, everything came to a grinding halt. I seriously have no idea what happened. I thought I was being clever using Quick Guard first turn, but of course Kangaskhan always runs Speed EVs and Talonflame has Flare Blitz. On the next turn I ended up allowing her to U-Turn out into Rotom which quickly started burning everything while Kangaskhan set up Power-Up Punches and the two ended up making short work of my entire team, all because I wasn’t really focused. As soon as the momentum was lost, I had no real way to pull it back, and using the exact same leads instead of trying to bring Klefki in to potentially shield against the burns cost me dearly. 2-1

Round 4 vs Andrej Vlajic

He brought:

I brought:

My fourth round opponent came over all the way from Germany, with a very interesting-looking team. I instantly knew he was going to try and Soak something so that he could Thunderbolt it for the KO, so I switched out Mawile and allowed Klefki to be a sacrificial lamb while Trick Room went up, although Protecting with Mawile would have been a much smarter play since, as useless as Klefki was against this team, Swagger could have at the very least given me a bit of an edge later. With Trick Room successfully up, Andrej was forced to switch out his Mega Manectric for Ferrothorn while I dealt some decent damage to Lanturn. Out went Mawile for Granbull to eliminate its Water-typing while Gardevoir finished off the Lanturn. I was surprised to find that his fourth Pokémon was actually Talonflame, but it had little impact as a quick Rock Slide took it out almost immediately. Over the next few turns, I tried to avoid allowing Ferrothorn stalling me out while desperately attempting to keep Gardevoir alive so that Manectric wouldn’t be able to attack it. Before Granbull was finished off, it managed to deal decent damage with Fire Fang, but Trick Room doesn’t last forever and so Mega Mawile was forced to take damage as it took out Manectric. Alas, on this very same turn, I fell foul of Ferrothorn’s sturdy Defenses as it shrugged off a Shadow Ball from Gardevoir, creating a scenario in which I played myself into checkmate. Without Gardevoir, damage from Iron Barb and Rocky Helmet were sufficient to KO Mawile, which gave my opponent the win. Had I not sacrificed Klefki earlier, the game could have been mine for the taking. I was so close, yet so far. 2-2

Round 5 vs Zoe Adams

She brought:

I brought:

Zoe mentioned she was a friend of everyone’s favourite DS hoarder, Rina Purdy (SqishyRina), which I’d already guessed from the multicoloured flag draped across her shoulders. For some reason, the IR connection was taking an absolute age to connect us so we ended up chatting with the two guys next to us. Their infrared connected long before ours did, giving ample time for Zoe to appreciate my Game of Thrones T-shirt (I’m a massive fan). Anyway, the battle did eventually begin, although my 3DS was on a red light so I needed to wrap this up fast. I targeted Tyranitar with Iron Head, hoping for a nice quick KO, but instead I ended up hitting the Ally-Switching Gardevoir. My notes for this battle aren’t quite up to the quality of the ones before, but from what I can recall, Rotom-W was setting up Dual Screens while I smashed holes in the rest of the team, including her Mawile, which didn’t accomplish very much. Tyranitar’s Earthquake took my own Mawile out before I could make it 4-1, but Klefki somehow endured the hit with 2 HP. On the next turn, I tried something really risky and had Klefki Swagger the opposing Rotom, which worked as I’d hoped. Going for the STAB option, and perhaps a flinch, Zoe’s Tyranitar used Rock Slide, which missed Azumarill, allowing me to take the game. 3-2

Round 6 vs Markus Stadter (13Yoshi37)

He brought:

I brought:

That’s right, my sixth round opponent was none other than Bochum’s champion, who had gone undefeated through that entire tournament. Evidently this one had gone less well, but nonetheless I was going to be in for a rough time. I had a bit of a bad lead matchup here. I tried to be a bit clever by setting up a Belly Drum, covering it with a Fake Out on the Rotom, but Gengar was carrying Will-O-Wisp and burned my Azumarill, nullifying most of the massive Attack boost I’d given myself. Nevertheless, I knew that an Aqua Jet, even at +6, would be an incredibly powerful move, and I was very very tempted to aim it right at Rotom to finish it off, but instead I opted to take out the Gengar to stop it from wreaking havoc, as Mr. Mime used Icy Wind. He ended up switching in Garchomp over Rotom that turn, so that turned out to be quite a decent move. Alas, this wasn’t to last, as I for some unfathomable reason went for Quick Guard against two Pokémon that don’t even get priority moves (at least, that’s what my notes imply). Either way, I was down to my last two facing a full health Rotom, Garchomp in the red and a full health Kangaskhan. I managed to bring it to 2-2, but with both of the opposing Pokémon being faster, there wasn’t a lot I could do to salvage this one. 3-3

Round 7 vs Marcus Clarke (No-show)

After ten minutes of sitting around, I received another win. Part of me was glad that I was, for the moment, on a positive record, but it felt hollow because I hadn’t had the chance to earn the win. Oh well. This did give me time to meditate on my previous losses and consider how I’d try and improve my game for the next round. I knew I could make it to 5-3, since opponents at this level would more likely than not be at a similar level to me. 4-3

Round 8 vs Kyle Phillips

He brought:

I brought:

Seeing a bunch of fast things on his team, I decided to go full-on Trick Room mode, but he led with his anti-Trick Room pairing. Thankfully, I pulled off a Double Intimidate on him due to Trace, forcing him to switch to Talonflame. I knew my own Mawile would be a target, so I Protected without Mega Evolving to block Will-O-Wisp, leaving its Intimidate intact for later, while getting a hit off on the Rotom-W. Next turn, anticipating another Will-O-Wisp, I switched to Granbull, the least useful member against the current lineup, and allowed it to burn. Again, my notes aren’t fantastic for this battle, so I don’t know what I was even doing with Gardevoir, but I do know that I went for Rock Slide next, not doing much to Rotom but taking Talonflame into a range where its next move would do enough recoil damage to knock itself out. Gardevoir didn’t last much longer. I never wrote this down, but I recall there being mindgames based around Greninja where my Azumarill soaked up a Scald or two, which may have been what led to it being burned. Greninja didn’t last very long, it would appear, as the match ended with a two-on-one scenario, my Mawile and burned Azumarill versus his own Mawile, and at that point there wasn’t much he could do to win. 5-3

So, the battling for the day was done, and everyone reconvened to share their final results. I’d got the same result as Eden and Nick (5-3), Jade was on 4-4 and Hoyle languished behind the rest of the pack with a disappointing 3-5 finish, somehow dropping below his own personal expectations. Then again, it’s his fault for using a monotype team that included both Flareon and Lampent, although he insisted that Lampent was his MVP for the day. It took a while, but eventually, rankings went up. A couple of people known to our group actually cut, including Jamie Miller and Niall Crallan (The Last Shiekah), a friend of Hoyle’s from way back, who both eventually went to Top Eight. Alas, 13Yoshi37 just missed out, but he already has his trip to Worlds guaranteed. My final overall position, thanks to a combination of Iron Barbs, byes and a recurring early opponent, was 113th, which wasn’t too far off my personal hopes of Top 100, although I won’t be winning any awards anytime soon. This year wasn’t about trying to make the Top 32; it was all about simply enjoying battling with a slightly unconventional team.

Saturday Night Shenanigans

Since the event had massively overrun its expected timeslot, our plans for the after-party had to be slightly retooled. We were still on for a late-night Mario Kart tournament, although there’d be no going out on the town because it was already half 9 and none of us really fancied being out in the middle of Manchester in the dark. It was half past ten when people finally got their plans together. We were instructed to go upstairs to Eden’s room, where all the magic was happening. Jade, Nick and a couple of others went out to get food and drink for themselves, leaving me, Hoyle, and Eden to fend for ourselves alongside Robert and Katy, two others who I hadn’t really noticed all day but seemed nice enough. Pizza was ordered, Mario Kart was played and a few circuits and some moving poetry later, I felt myself drifting off, so I bid everyone farewell and returned to Room 5 around 1:30am where Hoyle was already sound asleep. I did my absolute best not to wake him, which did not go very well because I tripped over everything in the dark.

Sunday: The Day of the Replay

The next morning, we rose at 8am, which was far more reasonable than the previous day’s start. Everybody else was making plans to be at the Event City at 11, so we’d probably be waiting quite a while for them. During breakfast, I made a new discovery: blueberry muffins are awesome. I must have eaten at least five of them before we checked out with all our heavy gear in tow.

As we’d discovered the night before, today wasn’t just about Top Cut: it was also the day of the Replay Tournament, an optional best-of-three Swiss side event you could pay £9 to participate in. At this point, we realised Hoyle didn’t actually have the money so we cut out of the queue in search of a cash machine, which was just next to the door and made horrific alarm noises like someone was breaking into a bank vault to retrieve the cash. Now, we had all we needed to take on the world again with the trusty Monotype teams we’d spent six months making and about ten minutes practicing with. Before it started, the climactic showdown between Fire and Fairy commenced, which I won in Trick Room mode because Hoyle forgot my Gardevoir had a Focus Sash. With our confidence trajectories heading in totally different directions, we begun our second Swiss challenge at about half twelve.

Round 1 vs Robert Simmons

Game 1

He brought:

I brought:

I expected both Steel types to come out, but instead I was greeted with two Dragons. I was able to switch out, predicting a Fire Blast, and scored a quick KO. Ferrothorn was present, but I had Klefki which was able to Swagger my Granbull and take it out in one hit. 1-0

Game 2

He brought:

I brought:

This game didn’t go quite as well. I lost my Speed control early on to a Quick Claw Dark Pulse and Fire Blast, and when Garchomp came into play the rest of my team had been significantly weakened so a couple of Earthquakes were enough to win it for him. 1-1

Game 3

He brought:

I brought:

This time, things went significantly better as I was able to predict certain plays and act accordingly. Here, Mr. Mime’s Speed EVs finally came into play as I managed to take out Garchomp using nothing but Icy Wind. 2-1

Swiss Record: 1-0

Round 2 vs James Brown

Game 1 Battle Video: VLGR-WWWW-WWW7-NCUT

He brought:

I brought:

From looking at Team Preview, I thought my opponent would bring a Charizard-Y/Trevenant combo capable abusing Harvest. Since it was best-of-three, I opted to scout this out first before trying to bring in Mr. Mime to block potential Heat Waves. It’s a good thing I didn’t because it turned out to be the opposite Mega Charizard-X, which proceeded to Flare Blitz most of my team into oblivion while the Trevenant burned anything threatening. I did have Gardevoir in the back, but there wasn’t much point trying to use Trick Room. Thanks to 13Yoshi37, I knew what Lapras’ role in the team would be, so I tried to ensure Azumarill wouldn’t get Freeze-Dried. In the end, it was Aerodactyl that ended up cleaning up and granting James the first game. 0-1

Game 2 Battle Video: L8EW-WWWW-WWW7-NCVX

He brought:

I brought:

Before we started, James mentioned that once his Charizard is down, he doesn’t have much of a counter for Klefki, so this time I decided to capitalize on this while shutting down his Trevenant and stopping it from burning everything. Neither of us actually realized that Substitute blocks Sky Drop, but it did, which worked in my favour. Once Lapras was down it was simply a matter of setting Azumarill up to blast through the team. 1-1

Game 3 Battle Video: FYPG-WWWW-WWW7-NCVA

He brought:

I brought:

I fully expected in Game 3 that James wouldn’t allow Klefki to live, so I didn’t even bring it. As another countermeasure, he swapped out Aerodactyl for Machamp to possibly capitalize on Trick Room and lessen Thunder Wave’s impact. This worked out in my favour because Machamp was relatively useless against my team, only seeing use as fodder late in the game. Charizard-X’s raw power allowed it to steamroll a lot of my team, but I was calculating the amount of recoil it’d be able to take before it wore itself out, eventually culminating in a showdown between Trevenant and Granbull. The last turn hinged on whether or not his Sitrus Berry regenerated, because if it did, he’d survive my Fire Fang and be able to sit there and stall Granbull out. Fortunately for me, it didn’t. 2-1 Swiss record: 2-0

Round 3: vs William Tansley

Game 1 Battle Video: VHSW-WWWW-WWW7-NCVC

He brought:

I brought:

Just my luck: he brought the one thing I had no answer to. Wigglytuff terrified me because I realized it might actually rip through my whole team thanks to the Competitive boost. Kangaskhan also revealed itself to be a Substitute set, presumably lacking Fake Out, which is actually incredibly good in a one-game Swiss scenario. I think I revealed too much, especially with my last-ditch attempt at a Trick Room comeback, but revealing this may have influenced his team selection for the next battle. Ultimately, although I did take out his Wigglytuff, it was a futile struggle. 0-1

Game 2 Battle Video: QXTG-WWWW-WWW7-NCVG

He brought:

I brought:

This time, my gameplan was to ensure that Kangaskhan and Aegislash were never allowed to set up a Substitute because if either of them did, it was curtains. This worked out in my favour when he brought Salamence in over Kangaskhan and I was able to almost immediately KO it. A lot of the gameplan was based on risk, with Klefki’s Swagger and Thunder Wave capable of shutting down Aegislash and Kangaskhan respectively, while the presence of Salamence allowed me to get a crucial Belly Drum off. Without the colossal damage output of Azumarill and putting faith in notoriously fickle moves, I wouldn’t have won this. 1-1

Game 3

There was no Game 3. Our first two matches had taken so long, we’d actually managed to run over the time limit allowed for each round. We couldn’t be granted an extension for the final game as the organizers needed time to calculate points and assign opponents, so we called over a judge who told us that the only appropriate course of action would be to tie the round. Yup, that’s right, I managed to create a tie with my slow and methodical playstyle in the second game. Swiss record: 2-0-1

Round 4: vs Francis Kennington (Junior)

Between rounds I went and grabbed some nachos, which were literally just salted corn snacks with some bland grated cheese thrown on them. It was like eating a bowl full of salt. I have neither match saved, and since I was eating at the same time, didn’t make many notes, but I dominated the first game, where Espeon revealed it had Future Sight, and managed to win the second too, although it was closer than the first one. Swiss record: 3-0-1

Round 5: vs Shaun Towey (SeanSymphony)

Game 1 Battle Video: 2N7W-WWWW-WWW7-NDWA

He brought:

I brought:

I’d known of SeanSymphony before and heard he was a very good player, so I’d have to be on my guard. Indeed, his Liepard was a massive thorn in my side, which gave him the edge. The prospect of being Encored led to me to be far too predictable. 0-1

Game 2 Battle Video: YK2G-WWWW-WWW7-NDWC

He brought:

I brought:

Now, this game was all kinds of ridiculous. I had two Steels up against possibly the best Fire type outside of the Mega Charizards, but from the last game I knew Chandelure was a Substitute variant and so I tried to ensure it wouldn’t be able to keep the Substitute around long. There was a lot of switching around from both sides. When his Azumarill came into play, things went from being slightly shaky on my end to hilariously biased against Shaun. He had the absolute worst luck I’ve ever seen in one single game, managing to miss Play Rough three times in a row. If those had all hit, I would have been severely disadvantaged, but I was able to capitalize on this misfortune and take the round, with a little help from a flinch on Ferrothorn, which mattered much less than the three consecutive misses but was still funny. 1-1

Game 3

By this point, we were the last men standing. Everyone circled around us like vultures, waiting for one of us to fall. I quickly found myself at a disadvantage because the cursed Red Light of Doom was flickering and we were already over the allotted time limit. Flustered, I made several bad plays and was 4-2 down when the judges came over and told us we had to stop immediately. At this point, I accrued my first and only round loss of the day. Final Swiss Record: 3-1-1

Conclusion

We waited in suspense as the organizers produced the final standings. Shaun ended up in second place, and for a brief moment I lamented that this could have been me. Slowly, the names were read out, and I waited on edge, knowing with my tie I’d have to be above all the 3-2′s. Sixth place went to my opponent in the third round, William Tansley, which meant that I’d taken seventh place and would be going home with a £20 GAME gift card.

I was elated, as I’d never expected that I would actually win anything of worth with this team. The whole point of this team was for it to be a bit of a joke, make people laugh, and possibly give me some sort of psychological edge. When the weekend began, I never could have imagined that I’d actually have something to show for my efforts, but here I was, a purple card clutched in my hands, friends congratulating me on my achievement. This was the culmination of a year-long running gag, six months’ worth of preparation, over two hundred practice battles and three days of pure awesomeness. Now, here I was with an actual tangible reminder of all that. For the first time, I’d tasted success, if only in a small capacity. I’d come close to the silver medal with Mono-Fairy! If I could go 5-3 and 3-1-1 with a monotype team, then next year, with an actual well-constructed team without such a huge glaring weakness, who knows what lies ahead for me?

I know what I have to work on next year. I’ll have more time to practice, more time to come up with optimized EV spreads, more time to analyze my plays and improve upon them, and most crucially, develop the mental fortitude to not concede defeat against those players perceived to be of a higher skill level than myself. I’ve demonstrated that I can perform well in a best-of-three setting, so if I do make Top Cut in 2015, you’d better watch out!

Pros and Cons

Pros

• The team itself for being a lot better than I’d ever anticipated
• Eden, Jade, Nick and co for being awesome people
• Late-night Mario Kart and pizza session
• German players for being bros who love Monotypes
• GAME for providing the first prize I’ve won in competitive Pokémon

Cons

• Huge delays and misunderstandings about queues
• Not enough hours in the day to spend with aforementioned awesome people
• Relying on a bye to get to 5-3

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ve enjoyed my report. Hopefully I’ll be back next year with more exciting stories from European events.

The post Magical Manchester Misadventures: A UK Nationals Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello Nugget Bridge! I’m Lee Watson (Redemption003 on the forums here) and this is the team I used to achieve second place at the Pokémon UK Battle Tournament and reach the top 16 at this year’s UK Nationals. I’ve developed the team over the course of the entire season, so I’ll run through a couple of different versions of the team and how the changes I made produced these results.

Humble Beginnings

When the rules for this VGC season were announced, I’d been running a doubles team that was rendered illegal (thanks to three of its members being outside the Kalos Dex). This meant that I had to go back to the drawing board and come up with something totally new. Sign-ups for the UK Battle Tournament were announced while I was on holiday in Japan, so I franticly fought to sign up using a borrowed iPad. A website error meant that I assumed I was unable to sign up and forgot about the tournament in favour of enjoying the rest of my holiday. A surprise invitation e-mail shortly before the tournament left me with limited time to build a team for the Newcastle regional qualifier. I managed to throw together a team using some Pokémon I already had lying around (including a random Choice Scarf Haxorus and Baby Doll Eyes Vaporeon) and qualified for the final tournament in London. A stronger team would be needed to produce a deep run at the London tournament and I had been impressed with how Meowstic-M performed on my team at Newcastle. This became the starting point for my new team.

Meowstic @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 132 SDef
Timid Nature
- Safeguard
- Light Screen
- Shadow Ball
- Thunder Wave

The MVP of the qualifying tournament. My teams always have some form of heavy support Pokémon and Meowstic’s Prankster ability provides invaluable support before (almost) anything else happens in the turn. Light Screen combines with Intimidate and Will-o-Wisp from the rest of the team to help my Pokémon absorb hits that would otherwise threaten to one and two hit KO. Safeguard shuts down the likes of Dark Void Smeargle, while protecting my team from crippling status like burns and paralysis. This removed the necessity for Lum Berry on my team, allowing me to use a stronger item on my Garchomp. Speed control is scarce in this meta-game, so I opted to carry Thunder Wave to give my team the speed advantage when I needed it – particularly to avoid the base 100 speed wars. Choice Scarf Salamence is one threat that was alleviated by Thunder Wave (allowing Garchomp to outspeed it). Shadow Ball is one move selection that I have been questioned about. Early incarnations of this team had problems with Gardevoir and Shadow Ball allowed Meowstic to chip away at Gardevoir’s HP better than a STAB psychic attack would. Kangaskhan’s ubiquitous presence made having Shadow Ball annoying at times, but Meowstic needed to avoid using attacking moves with the kangaroo around anyway due to Sucker Punch. Rocky Helmet is a brilliant way of punishing physical attackers, especially with Meowstic being Fake Out bait. I originally ran Leftovers to keep Meowstic around longer, but the recovery was too small to be game-changing in most cases. The Timid nature was originally due to lazy breeding, but some of the best discoveries are made by accident. This Meowstic is able to outspeed a lot of other Meowstics (unless they are going max speed for Fake Out purposes), giving it the upper hand over those Meowstics. During practice, it was also able to outspeed a lot of random Pokémon that dropped speed in favour of bulk. For that reason I stuck with the Timid nature to see how it would work out in actual competitions.

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
Level: 50
EVs: 92 HP / 164 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Protect

Charizard was one of my favourites in the early days of Pokémon, so the addition of its Mega forms was a welcome one by me. I really wanted to use the offensive nuke machine that is Mega Charizard-Y and this was a quick build that I put together early in the season just to try it out. At that point a lot of players seemed to be running 252/252/4 attacking spreads, but I felt that Charizard was strong enough under the sun to justify removing some SAtk EVs to increase its bulk. I wanted to keep 252 speed EVs to speed tie with other base 100s with an attack boosting nature. As for move choices, Heat Wave is pretty much a necessity due to it being a powerful spread move. Flamethrower was chosen to remove the accuracy issues of Heat Wave and to dodge Wide Guard. I would later regret not using a more powerful move in Flamethrower’s spot, as it was unable to one-hit KO Kangaskhan with just Flamethrower. Solar Beam allows Charizard to hit water types hard under the sun and gives it a coverage option against a number of other types. Admittedly, the EV spread was horribly inefficient and was one of the first things I looked at changing once I had the time to do so.

Scrafty @ Coba Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Atk / 120 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature
- Detect
- Drain Punch
- Fake Out
- Stone Edge

This is a spread I was very happy with at the time. It was designed to bait Talonflames and strike back with Stone Edge. Early versions of this team had issues with Talonflame and this was a strong fallback option for me. I used Scrafty last year to soak up Latios Draco Meteors, so I knew that he had the potential to do the same to Brave Birds thanks to his Defense being equal to his Special Defense at base 115. With this EV spread, he is able to survive with roughly 40% HP remaining without Intimidate and KO back with a Stone Edge. Fake Out is typical team support from Scrafty, shutting down an opposing Pokémon for a single turn and freeing up Scrafty’s partner to do work. Drain Punch keeps Scrafty on the field for longer and deals with Kanganskhans, steel types and dark types. While Detect takes a little more work to get than Protect, it does defend Scrafty from Imprison shenanigans.

• 252+ Atk Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 120+ Def Coba Berry Scrafty: 91-108 (52.9 – 62.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• -1 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 252 HP / 120+ Def Scrafty: 69-82 (40.1 – 47.6%) — guaranteed 3HKO
• 132 Atk Scrafty Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 90-108 (42.4 – 50.9%) — 2% chance to 2HKO

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 124 SAtk  / 4 Def / 116 SDef / 12 Spd
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hydro Pump

I like my Rotoms with a bit of an offensive punch to them and this one is no different. Rotom-Wash forms one corner of my fire/water/grass combo, which is a feature of most of my teams. The UK Battle Tournament coincided with the rise in Rotom-Heat usage and this guy was a key part in my strategy for dealing with the microwave. Along with Light Screen, Rotom-Wash is able to soak up anything a special attacker wants to throw at it – in particular Draco Meteors from Salamence (it can then two-hit KO most variants). Hydro Pump and Thunderbolt provide basic offensive coverage. Will-o-Wisp is vital for crippling physical attackers and again is pretty standard fare, though deciding whether to burn or paralyze an opponent with Meowstic could be difficult at times – particularly in the case of Tyranitar before knowing which set it runs. I often used Rotom as a way of dealing with opposing sweepers with little bulk investment (such as Mega-Manectric) due to its ability to take a hit, heal back up with Sitrus Berry and then proceed to cripple the opponent with a hard hitting attack.

• 252+ SpA Salamence Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 116 SpD Rotom-W through Light Screen: 46-54 (29.2 – 34.3%) — 6.8% chance to 3HKO
• 252+ SpA Rotom-H Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 116 SpD Rotom-W through Light Screen: 30-36 (19.1 – 22.9%) — possible 5HKO
• 252 SpA Mega Manectric Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 116 SpD Rotom-W through Light Screen: 33-40 (21 – 25.4%) — 0.4% chance to 4HKO
• 124+ SpA Rotom-W Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Mega Manectric: 96-114 (66.2 – 78.6%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 124+ SpA Rotom-W Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 12 SpD Rotom-H: 152-180 (96.8 – 114.6%) — 75% chance to OHKO

Garchomp @ Choice Band
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 124 HP / 52 Atk / 76 Def / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Poison Jab
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide

This is the 199 Garchomp set created in Japan by Arue with a minor change to the Atk and Def stats. I stumbled on this set a while ago and fell in love with it. 199 Garchomp is able to win mirror matches with anything other than other Choice Band users regardless of the speed tie result. With Thunder Wave support (and while avoiding Intimidate) it is able to deal with Choice Scarf Salamence. It can also beat non-scarf 140 HP Hydreigon, while other variants of Garchomp will not. On top of its anti-dragon abilities, 199 Garchomp can survive a Mega-Manectric HP Ice if need be (although it will not KO back with a -1 Earthquake) and Light Screen support allows it to stay in on many other super effective special attacks. Iron Head is used to KO Gardevoir after paralysis support (or on the switch in) along with hitting other fairies for a decent amount of damage. The ability to form a paralysis/flinch combo with Thunder Wave was helpful in theory, but was never used in practice. I did play around with using Poison Jab to hit Azumarill with, however this would usually only result in a two-hit KO (which I could also achieve with Earthquake) and I did not enjoy being locked in to a poison type attack. I also had other ways of dealing with Azumarill, such as Rotom and Venusaur.

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
Level: 50
EVs: 124 HP / 140 Def / 120 SAtk / 84 SDef / 40 Spd
Modest Nature
- Protect
- Synthesis
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb

Previously, my grass type was the lesser used Rotom-Cut (to counter the early popularity of Rotom-Wash). However, the switch to Rotom-Wash meant I needed a replacement grass type to complete my fire/water/grass core. Venusaur was beginning to rise in usage while I was building this team and several reports on the old school grass type prompted me to try one. This thing is one of the best bulky-offence Pokémon I’ve ever used. It walls fairies, Rotom-Wash and all sorts of other things. With Light Screen and Thick Fat after Mega Evolving, moves that would otherwise cause problems to Venusaur barely scratch it. Just as an example, this Venusaur took a +3 Atk Crunch from Tyranitar and survived (only to be KO’d by sand thanks to some previous chip damage), showing that it can shrug off attacks from both sides. Chlorophyll on regular Venusaur allowed me to create a hyper-offence mode with Drought from Charizard-Y, but I rarely opted to use this mode in battles. I chose to use Synthesis over Sleep Powder and Leech Seed to give Venusaur strong instant healing and to avoid conflicts with my other status inducers in the case of the former. Synthesis also avoids the immunity that some Pokémon have to Leech Seed and synergizes well with the sun if need be (sun increases the healing to 2/3 of Venusaur’s health). Taunt causes some serious problems for this Venusaur though.

UK Battle Tournament Grand Finals

I won’t go in to too much detail about this tournament, as I have the battle videos for all of them except the final (which I can provide a YouTube link for). The tournament was initially split in to groups (which were drawn by Johnny Vegas sans monkey), with the winner of a round robin in each group going through to a single elimination knockout bracket.

Group Stage Battle Videos

2CCW-WWWW-WWW7-LKKG

RDMG-WWWW-WWW7-LKKJ

QGWW-WWWW-WWW7-LKKN

The group ended in a tie between myself and Steve Edgson. Some panic set in, as Steve had finished all of his battles with a greater total number of Pokémon remaining while I had beaten Steve in our match, with us being unsure as to which tie breaker came first. Luckily for me, the head-to-head tie breaker won out and I was able to advance to the knockout stages. Worth noting is the fact that my loss came against a bulky set-up style Pokémon (perhaps a sign of things to come?).

While the VGC tournament circuit usually demands near perfection, the single elimination format of the knockout stages meant that every turn could cause you to go home empty handed. The pressure was truly on and I wanted to make as deep a run as possible to make my trip from Newcastle an even more memorable one. The knockout stages produced some brilliant battles, with my semi-final match against Sam James being my personal favourite. Sam’s Smeargle managed to Skill Swap Prankster (a move I’d been using myself on a different team, but did not expect from my tournament opponents for some reason), so paralysis and sleep being spread across both teams made the dice rolls more stressful than ever before. This battle also brought to my attention the fact that my Charizard was unable to threaten Kangaskhan with a one-hit KO, which would be vital for future adjustments made to the team.

Knockout Stage Battle Videos

Quarter-final: WANG-WWWW-WWW7-LKKS

Semi-Final: AN2W-WWWW-WWW7-LKLW

The final turned out to be an extremely close match, but I do feel that it did not fully represent the abilities of both me and my opponent (Oliver Reilly). The early turns were a chip damage snooze-fest and I probably could have gone more on the offensive to improve my position in the game. I did not switch early as I felt too comfortable in the position I was in, while not wanting to take any unnecessary damage on my Charizard or Venusaur that I’d brought in the back. In particular, the choice to Mega-evolve Venusaur and protect Charizard on the penultimate turn has been called out many times since the event. I honestly was not expecting Weakness Policy on Tyranitar (in fact, I’d seen an Aegislash in team preview and predicted that to carry a Weakness Policy, if anything) and felt that Mega Venusaur would be more valuable at this point in the battle. I also did not want to activate Drought in case Mawile had Fire Fang (which it did). As for protecting Charizard, that was just a horrible misplay on my part. I was definitely outplayed in this battle overall and I have to congratulate Oli on a well-deserved win.

The final can be viewed here, complete with commentary by PokéRob (thanks to Supereffectivesingh for recording/uploading this video).

We Can Rebuild It, We Have The Technology

With the UK Nationals looming ever closer, I knew that the holes in my team would have to be patched up. The competition at Nationals would be much tougher and I couldn’t have obvious weaknesses being exploited by my opponents. The May International Wi-Fi Competition gave me the perfect opportunity to test out any changes, so I made some adjustments in preparation for the online tournament. For this build, I prioritized improving the defensive side of my team. I experimented with a support Machamp and new offensive Pokémon such as Clawitzer (even with Heal Pulse to apply some late game pressure), but none of them had the impact that I desired and actually weakened the team in some cases. The team’s core would need to stay mostly the same, but I had a few changes in mind that would definitely strengthen it.

Klefki @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 132 SDef
Impish Nature
- Safeguard
- Light Screen
- Foul Play
- Thunder Wave

After experiencing the usefulness of Meowstic first hand, I knew that a prankster support Pokémon would be key. However, Meowstic did not fit my team very well defensively. One thing that was on my list of changes to make was the inclusion of a steel or fairy type and Klefki fit the mould perfectly. The loss of speed compared to Meowstic was slightly annoying, but it was worth the sacrifice to strengthen my team overall. The move set stayed pretty much the same as before for the same reasons. Foul Play allows me to punish the likes of Kangaskhan, along with any physical attackers that feel the need to set up. A lot of people prefer to combine Foul Play with Swagger to increase the damage it deals, but the other moves in Klefki’s set were far too useful to give up. I’m also not a fan of rolling the dice when I can avoid it.

These EVs allow Klefki to survive Earthquakes from a number of opponents even before any Intimidate or burn support. After a Light Screen, it is able to survive a Flamethrower from Salamence (in rare cases where it is more beneficial for Klefki to stay in). The Rocky Helmet punishes Fake Out users even more, thanks to Klefki’s resistance to normal type attacks. Mega-Kangaskhan’s often found themselves in a dangerous position after taking Rocky Helmet damage, with Foul Play threatening to deal a significant amount of damage in subsequent turns. Klefki’s importance to this team was invaluable and it was without a doubt the MVP of my run at Nationals.

• 252+ Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 124+ Def Klefki: 122-146 (74.3 – 89%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Salamence Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 132 SpD Klefki through Light Screen: 96-115 (58.5 – 70.1%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
Level: 50
EVs: 124 HP / 116 Def / 100 SAtk / 4 SDef / 164 Spd
Modest Nature
- Protect
- Solar Beam
- Heat Wave
- Overheat

Right at the top of my list was the fact that Charizard needed to be bulkier. Taking out Charizard seemed to be a high priority in the game plans of my opponents. I decided that speed tying with other neutral base 100s was not as much of a necessity any more, as other trainers were starting to slow their Pokémon down in favour of more bulk. Charizard 2.0 will survive most -1 Atk Rock Slides with at least 25% HP remaining, along with taking hits from Kangaskhan much easier. Most Kanganskhan’s can also now be one-hit KO’d due to the switch to Overheat (while one-hit KOing 252HP/4SDef 37.5% of the time). I decided that the power increase was worth the 90% accuracy that Overheat brings and Charizard’s new bulk meant that missing an attack wasn’t necessarily as crippling as it would have been before. At no point did I regret the change to Overheat and I would highly recommend it to anybody not using it already. These speed EVs would have allowed Charizard to outspeed anything trying to speed creep positive natured 252 speed Smeargle, but I made an error while re-training the EVs on my Charizard and it actually wound up speed tying with the Smeargle speed creepers. This became a key factor in my Top 32 matchup.

Aside from these changes, the team stayed the same with Garchomp, Scrafty, Mega-Venusaur and Rotom-Wash rounding out the line-up. However, I did seriously consider changing Scrafty. My team now dealt with Talonflame really well, so the Coba Berry/Stone Edge combination was not as necessary. I experimented with an Assault Vest Scrafty with Crunch instead in place of Detect, but Scrafty became extremely vulnerable without Detect. This testing brought the usefulness of Crunch to my attention and brought up a hard decision to make: would Crunch be a better move choice than Stone Edge? In the end, I kept Stone Edge to give me an extra way to hit Charizard and Talonflame hard. Hindsight would later show that Crunch would have been a much better choice, but the Coba Berry remained a good item choice (allowing me to survive Talonflame hits while striking at its partner, which on one occasion was a Hydreigon that could have caused some problems). I almost replaced Scrafty with the previously mentioned support Machamp, with Fake Out being the deciding factor in me not sending Scrafty to the bench.

The final team:

The Final Test

Day 1: Swiss Rounds

My notes for the UK Nationals are not the best, thanks to me trying out note taking during battles for the first time at this event. So instead of the usual run down of each battle, I’ll give an overview of the tournament along with some general thoughts about the event.

While the delay starting the event was annoying, it honestly didn’t ruin the day for me. It did mean that my mind was a little off track at first (which the bye round didn’t help with), but playing my first match of the day against Lajos Kowalewski (Lajo) soon got my brain in Pokémon gear. I’d normally hope to play matches against more renowned opponents later in the day, but the way he outplayed me (with an impressive, original team at that) made me focus a lot more on my game throughout the rest of the tournament. Thanks for that, Lajos.

I actually began my second game of the day on the back foot against a Moltres/Ludicolo lead, having lead with Klefki and Charizard (his Moltres was carrying Ancient Power to attempt to KO Charizard, which I managed to scout with a Protect on turn 1). Thankfully some clever switching got me in to a better position. This was one of the few games in which I ran both Charizard and Venusaur in the hope that I could use the sun to give Venusaur a speed advantage. However, I realized that Venusaur would be more valuable (and would need Thick Fat to resist fire and ice attacks) and mega-evolved it instead of Charizard. Charizard was merely used to KO the opponent’s Scizor, which I was able to do through predicting my opponent’s switches well. Opting to not mega-evolve Charizard was actually my favourite play (of my own) of the weekend and seems to have become a tendency of mine (thanks to the final of the UK Battle Tournament).

Round 4 was rather uneventful. I was able to unlock the game controlling power of Klefki though, as it shut down the opponent’s Smeargle. I believe that the Smeargle was Choice Scarfed, so Klefki was really able to shine and feed me the win. He also brought an Amoonguss, so The Key was able to shut down half of his team thanks to Safeguard and Light Screen. Round 5 allowed me to show off another one of my team’s tricks, with Scrafty happily taking a Talonflame’s Brave Bird to the face and in return crippling the foe’s Hydreigon with Drain Punch (all while Rotom-Wash finished off the Talonflame).

My second loss would come in Round 6. Luke Chaplin brought back my apparent Tyranitar weakness and played the game in such a way that I was helpless by the last few turns. His Ferrothorn meant that bringing Charizard was pretty much a necessity, which allowed him to play around the rest of my team and get in to a position where I was unable to reset my sun over sandstorm. Luke did make the Top Cut in the end, so I can at least be happy that both my losses came against high quality players that just straight up outplayed me.

I won my remaining games and feel that I played well, but I would still be relying on my opponent’s win percentages to Top Cut. I scraped by as the 14th seed from Flight A, meaning that I would play the 3rd seed from Flight B – not exactly how I was hoping my first time in Top Cut would begin.

Day 2: Top 32 vs Sam Bentham (SuperIntegration)

The first round of Top Cut had me facing off against Sam Bentham (SuperIntegration). I’d heard his name before, but could not remember seeing any of his battles. I had no idea what to expect from this best of 3. You can read his take on these matches (as well as the rest of the tournament) here.

During team preview it became evident that Klefki would be a key factor in controlling the game. Sableye and Rotom-Wash meant that Safeguard had to be up during these matches as much as possible to block any status moves intended to cripple my team. Light Screen and paralysis are always part of my game plan against Salamence. Game one saw him bringing Sableye, Tyranitar, Salamence and Kangaskhan. This was a strong team, so I needed to gather all the information I could get early on and make things easier for me in later matches. I managed to find out Sableye’s move set (Taunt, Will-o-Wisp, Foul Play and Swagger), so there would be no unwelcome surprises from the darkness Pokémon. He also revealed Protect and Return on his Kangaskhan, so I knew that one of its staple moves would have been dropped to make room for Protect. Game one went my way (aided by Sam’s Will-o-Miss) and gave me a nice confidence boost in my first ever Top Cut.

I wasn’t entirely sure how to play game two, since my experience in best of 3 situations is next to nothing. I decided to see how Mega-Venusaur would fare and sent Charizard to the bench, which turned out to be a mistake. His Aegislash set up a substitute and revealed Leftovers before stalling out the game with us both down to one Pokémon, giving Sam the win on time. Kangaskhan revealed the rest of its move set to be Power-Up Punch and Sucker Punch. Despite this fact, I remember still playing as if he had Fake Out for some reason. I should probably pay more attention to my notes in future.

Aegislash had given Sam a strong win condition in game 2 and I knew that I couldn’t allow that to happen again. Game three saw me going full aggro mode, running both Charizard and Venusaur to make use of Venusaur’s Chlorophyll ability. I managed to take down Aegislash and Tyranitar, but the Sableye Swagger/Foul Play shenanigans started to come in to play. Some good plays on Sam’s part put the game in jeopardy as my weakened Rotom-Wash (confused, taunted and waiting to take extra Foul Play damage due to Swagger’s attack boosts) and Mega-Charizard were sat facing down his +2 Attack Kangaskhan with yellow HP and a full HP Sableye. Venusaur was in the back, so I knew that he’d be likely to use Return instead of Sucker Punch in case I switched. I opted to leave Charizard in and just used Heat Wave (I’d already Protected the previous turn, but probably should have gone for the double Protect anyway rather than hoping that he’d target the wrong Pokémon) and used Rotom’s Thunderbolt on Kangaskhan in the hope that I could KO it, allowing Venusaur to go head-to-head with Sableye. With a stroke of luck, it turned out my Charizard actually speed tied with his Kangaskhan and won. It had previously been outsped by the Kangaskhan a couple of times, so I had assumed that he was faster. Sam mentioned that his Kangaskhan was EV’d to outspeed Smeargle’s by a single point and it became apparent that I’d made a mistake when re-EV training Charizard.

These matches really pushed me and I was glad to have advanced to the Top 16 by beating a high quality opponent. Good games, Sam.

Top 16 vs Joshua Schmidt

It was a good feeling to have made Top 16 and beat my expectations, but I knew that I could have a deeper run if I played at my best. Unfortunately, his team looked very threatening the moment Team Preview came up. My notes for this set of games were really weak, so I’ll do the best I can from memory. Game one went down to the wire, with his Substitute/Leftovers Aegislash being left in a 1vs1 against Scrafty. Aegislash’s Flash Cannon was a 3HKO on Scrafty, but his Aegislash had taken damage previously in the game and I was able to throw Stone Broadside at it (rather than Stone Edge, which misses far too often) until it went down. Another Aegislash was causing me issues already and I was beginning to wish that I had gone with giving Scrafty Crunch.

Even though I was up one game, I was still in a very awkward position. I did not want another Aegislash stall war to begin, but Charizard was threatened by his team in general – Garchomp especially. It would be difficult to maneuver around his team while preserving Charizard. Game two was pretty uneventful and I got completely outplayed, but I did manage to learn that his Garchomp had Lum Berry (which burnt out three turns worth of Rotom Will-o-Wisps, turns that would have been better spent trying to just KO Garchomp). He won game two handily with two of his Pokémon remaining.

Game three was similar to game two. I had difficulty keeping my Charizard alive to handle Aegislash and kept giving up any semblance of a good position on the field. I managed to take down his Kangaskhan and (possibly Choice Banded) Talonflame, putting up at least some kind of a fight. Once again Joshua backed my team in to a corner and I was unable to find a way out. I played an inferior game for most of the Top 16, but at least I can try to learn and bounce back from the losses (and be happy that I managed to take one game in the best of three).

And with that I was out of the tournament. I was satisfied with how I performed, but would have liked to go a bit further after having my first taste of Top Cut. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to attend next year since I will be starting my Master’s Degree later this year, though I was almost unable to attend this year so anything could happen. Regardless, I’ll be hanging around the forums and hope to get in on a few Nugget Bridge tournaments. Thanks for being such a great community.

Where to Go From Here?

I’ll probably retire this team now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t speculate about where to take it from here. I might even use it during the upcoming June 2014 International Challenge if I can’t build a new team in time.

First of all, Scrafty needs to have Crunch. I’m not sure which move will have to be dropped. Fake Out didn’t see as much use as I’d hoped, despite having a useful niche on the team. Stone Edge also became more of a liability than a benefit, but dropping it makes handling the likes of Charizard slightly more difficult. I’d probably test out dropping Stone Edge for Crunch first and go from there. Trying out Assault Vest Scrafty again could also be an option.

Next on the list is Charizard. He was strong a lot of the time, but allowed opponents to break open a gaping hole in my team in some games. I’m happy with the Speed EVs, but the offensive/defensive balance could use some work. Feel free to suggest some more efficient spreads on that front. Personally, I’d probably swap Mega Stones on Charizard and run a physical set that would look something like this:

Charizard @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 108 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SDef / 212 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Flare Blitz

Running Charizard-X would help to lessen the rock type weakness that Charizard suffers from. Offensive pressure would be maintained by clever use of Dragon Dance, taking advantage of opposing Protects to improve my position on the field. The downside of Charizard-X on this team is that it overlaps with Garchomp’s role to some extent and makes the team fear opposing Intimidates more than before. With this in mind, swapping Garchomp for a Salamence would tilt the team back in favour of special attackers and bring another Intimidate to the team. While a Choice Scarf would give me a speed advantage in most cases (outside of Trick Room) without having to rely on Thunder Wave so much, I’d probably lean towards giving Salamence Choice Specs to give it more offensive power – something that my team would really appreciate.

At the moment I’m actually trying to build a team around Mega-Blastoise, but I am really fond of the team in this report. Any other suggestions that you have for building on this team would be welcomed, as well as any other discussion this report may bring up. This team will no doubt make another appearance in any matches I take part in and Klefki will no doubt be a feature on many of my teams from now on. The little key-chain has unlocked the path to Top Cut for me and it would be a shame to throw it to one side after such a great performance.

Thanks for reading what has turned out to be a very long report and I hope to see you all around the forums.

Thanks

A shout out to the following people for helping make this a brilliant tournament season:

• Once again, thanks to you guys: the community. For the most part, you’re an awesome group of people and you make this game a pleasure to be involved in.
• Thanks to my fiancée, Lauren, for putting up with my nonsense and travelling all the way to London just to watch me play Pokémon. She also drew the great artwork for this article.
• Also a big thanks to my friend Jonny, who travelled to Manchester with me and entered the tournament himself (going 6-2 and hitting the bubble outside of top cut in his first ever tournament).
• To anybody that I battled in practice and during the tournaments, you’ve really helped me to push myself this season. It’s a tough learning process, but my ability is improving with every battle, win or lose.

The post The Keys to Top Cut: A 2nd Place Pokémon UK Battle Tournament and Top 16 UK Nationals Team Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi! My name is Cláudio Serpa, also known as TrickSage. Almost no one in the VGC community knows me because I’m too lazy to interact on the forums and IRC chat! But first let me introduce myself a little bit further! I’ve been playing Pokémon since Red and Blue, though my first VGC event was in the year Pokémon Black & White came out. I felt like my VGC story so far is an unlucky one, including having to leave a competition in the last round in order to make my train. This year, I was set on making a statement. I decided to do what I always do, which was use a unique team true to my play style and try to get to Top Cut.

The year before I had run a Trick Room team with Sableye and Dusclops, catching a lot of players off guard, so this year I was set on also doing something unique. I love Shadow Tag and I’ve been working on teams taking advantage of the Ability since almost the beginning of X and Y. I also love Gothitelle as a Pokemon, so I finally decided on building a team around it, instead of building around a Mega or a weather condition. And I Goth to telle you, I couldn’t find a team more fitting for me!

I will spare you all the versions of the team I tested, and just show you the version I used in Manchester:

Gothitelle (F) aka Meema @ Leftovers
Ability: Shadow Tag
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heal Pulse
- Thunder Wave
- Psychic
- Protect

The EV’s are distributed so that Gothitelle is as bulky as possible after an Intimidate. I could have adjusted the HP to a number divisible by 16 to maximize Leftovers recovery, though. The only damage calculation I did when designing this spread was to survive an Aqua Jet from a +6 Azumarill. I felt that I needed to survive at least one of those at full HP. However, the spread was doing its job so I didn’t felt the need to change it.

What really made Gothitelle powerful was its moves and Ability. Shadow Tag is just so powerful if used well. You can dominate the game simply by not letting your enemy switch. Thunder Wave was used as a great form of Speed control. Heal Pulse could punish my adversaries when they think that it’s fine to ignore Gothitelle and focus on its partner. Protect was there to stall and recover HP with Leftovers, so that Gothitelle was even more difficult to put down. I chose Psychic in the last slot for chip damage and to ensure I wasn’t Taunt bait.

Conkeldurr (M) aka DracoeyeZz @ Assault Vest
Ability: Guts
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 180 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Payback
- Mach Punch
- Poison Jab

These Attack EVs enable Conkeldurr to deal considerable damage to a bulky Mega Kangaskhan with Drain Punch, and then knock it out with Mach Punch the next turn. The HP and Special Defense EVs with Assault Vest allowed Conkeldurr to take Special hits like a truck, sometimes allowing it to wall entire teams. Rotom formes couldn’t do a thing to Conkeldurr, and Guts would allow me to benefit from them and other Pokemon trying to Burn me. Even better, this Conkeldurr has only 50% probability of being KOed by a Moonblast from a max Special Attack Modest Choice Specs Gardevoir.

Poison Jab was my secret weapon against paralyzed Fairies, as it could 2HKO Azumarill and Gardevoir. Payback was used as coverage against Ghost types.

Manectric-Mega aka Rubi ◊ (M) @ Manectite
Ability: Lighting Rod
Level: 50 EVs: 92 HP / 24 Def / 252 SAtk / 140 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Volt Switch
- Protect
- Hidden Power Ice
- Flamethrower

Manectric was a great Pokémon to abuse Gothitelle’s Shadow Tag. Lightning Rod before the Mega Evolution let me absorb possible Volt Switches, preventing my opponent from switching. Once Manectric did Mega Evolve, I could spam Intimidate with Volt Switch and switch to a Pokemon that better dealt with whatever was trapped.

The Nature and Special Attack EVs allowed me to OHKO Garchomp with Hidden Power Ice, and gave the additional benefit of letting Volt Switch do enough damage to Azumarill to prevent Belly Drum from being used. The 140 Speed EVs made me faster than Mienshao, but I ended up regretting not being faster than Gengar after Mega Evolving! The HP and Defense EVs made Manectric bulky enough to survive an Earthquake from Jolly Garchomp, even without Intimidate.

This EV spread was made by my friend João Pires.

Gengar (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50 EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

I felt like I needed a fast Ghost type with Taunt and Will-o-Wisp, so why not Gengar? This is the same Gengar that Yoshi used at German Nationals, so I don’t think I need to explain it.

Azumarill (M) aka Necro <3 @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Aqua Jet
- Belly Drum
- Protect

This one doesn’t require much explanation either. It’s a standard Belly Drum Azumarill set, with an HP divisible by two in order to activate my Sitrus after the Belly Drum. I have max Attack to do as much damage as possible.

Pyroar (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Unnerve
Level: 50
EVs: 20 HP / 8 Def / 252 SAtk / 228 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Hyper Voice
- Protect
- Overheat
- Hidden Power

Pyroar did what Pyroar does best. Destroy Steel types, do a lot of damage to Rotom formes, finish off Mega Kangaskhans, and destroy Garchomp and Salamence. The EV spread was designed to outspeed Jolly Garchomp by one point, and to survive a Timid Scarf Salamence Draco Meteor 100% of the time.

You’re possible thinking, with all of these powerful Pokémon, how is the team built around Gothitelle? Why would I use Gothitelle with so many Pokémon that are possibly better choices? Well, I’ll start by letting you know that I used Gothitelle in ALL of my matches. So how does the team work? Let’s start with the lead!

Gothitelle + Something

I always started with Gothitelle except against Trick Room. Why?

First of all, most people underestimate what Gothitelle can do. That alone will give you an early advantage where you can just do some damage, Paralyze your opponent, or play some mind games. Shadow Tag lets you dominate the game from the very beginning, controlling what the adversary can do and letting you play mind games. You can break Shadow Tag yourself to let your opponent think he can switch, just so you can control the next Pokémon coming in and lock that incoming Pokémon at the same time, or just clean it as he’s coming in.

You can also do a sort of pseudo-Ally Switch by switching out Gothitelle and Volt Switching from Manectric back to Gothitelle, letting you stall and maintain the lock longer. One of my best leads was Gothitelle and Manectric, because I could just do some quick damage and switch to a different, more suitable Pokémon to go against the lead the opponent chose. It also helped that a Psychic and Flamethrower double target would knock out most Amoonguss, and two Psychics and a Volt Switch KO a lot of Mega Venusaur.

When I had the chance to trap two Pokémon that would do less than 50% damage to Azumarill, I would Paralyze one of them and set up Belly Drum. After that, I just had to keep the Paralyzed Pokémon in and Heal Pulse Azumarill when needed while KOing the entire enemy team.

Against Trick Room, I would never lead Gothitelle, since the opponent wouldn’t want to waste turns switching anyway. If I couldn’t stop Trick Room from being set up I would bring in Gothitelle on turn two or three in order to lock his Trick Room setter.From there I’d focus on KOing his setter and stalling out the remaining turns of Trick Room. Once that is accomplished, I’d just need to sweep up the rest of the team.

The team has a lot more options available to it, but instead of going into them I would rather just tell you about my battles. I don’t remember everything, so I’ll just do a quick description of the battles.

Day 1

Game 1: Vs Karl

• He used Mega Aggron, Dragonite, Gengar and Blastoise
• I used Gothitelle, Manectric, Azumarill and Conkeldurr

Turn 1 I started with Gothitelle and Manectric and he led with Dragonite and Aggron. We both Mega Evolved, and I Paralyzed his Dragonite while bringing Azumarill to the field with Volt Switch. His Dragonite had Thunder Punch, and I mistakenly let him KO Azumarill. After that I defeated all his Pokemon with Conkeldurr and Gothitelle for a 3-0 win.

Game 2: Vs Oliver

• He used Chandelure, Mega Kanga, Goodra and Malamar

I don’t really remember this game. He had Shadow Claw on Mega Kangaskhan to counter Gengar. I think I missed a Will-O-Wisp and two Play Roughs but ended up winning 3-0.

Game 3: Vs Nico Platz (Wushi)

• He used Politoed, Kingdra, Mega Manectric and Escavalier

He started with Politoed and Kingdra and I led with Gothitelle and Manectric. I didn’t take many notes. I paralyzed his Pokémon and stalled out the Rain. Manectric and Conkeldurr were able to take down his team with Gothitelle’s support. Ended up winning 4-0.

Game 4: Vs Max Strachan

• He used Greninja, Mega Ampharos, Talonflame and Mamoswine

He started with Greninja and Ampharos. Gothitelle went down to a critical hit on the first turn, and I didn’t know that Mold Breaker didn’t let Lightning Rod absorb Thunderbolt (thanks Showdown!). I lost my mind and ended up giving him the game with all the mistakes I made. Lost 2-0.

Game 5: Vs Marcel Kapelle (Massi)

• He used Amoonguss, Rotom-H, Salamence and Mega Mawile

I only took notes on Massi’s Pokemon and their respective attacks. I remember starting with Gothitelle and Manectric, and he started with Amoonguss and Rotom-H. I didn’t Mega Evolve at first, electing to Protect in the hope that he might try to Thunderbolt me. I Psychiced his Amoonguss, and he Spored into Manectric’s Protect while Will-o-Wisping my Gothitelle. The next turn I KOed Amoonguss, and he brought Mawile onto the field. I break Shadow Tag so he would think I was trying to protect Gothitelle, and switched in Pyroar. I anticipated him switching his Mega Mawile out for Salamence, so I used Hidden Power Ice on his Mega Mawile and KOed the incoming Salamence. Then with just Mega Mawile and Rotom-H and me with my entire party, it was game. I don’t really remember if the game ended up 3-0 or 4-0.

Game 6: Vs Niall Crallan (TheLastSheikah)

• He used Slowking, Scrafty, Mega Abomasnow and Nidoqueen

This was a match I didn’t want to play! I love Trick Room so battling against a Trick Room team when I’m not running one made me feel guilty. He started with Scrafty and Slowking and I started with Gengar and Manetric. I knew that I couldn’t risk using Taunt because it could be an Oblivious Slowking, so I just Shadow Balled him to get some damage and tried to Volt Switch on his Slowking just in case he was predicting my Protect. He ended up using Fake Out on Scrafty and got Trick Room set up.

I knew he was not going to double target Gengar so I tried to Will-o-Wisp his Scrafty, but I missed, and I Volt Switched on his Slowking and brought in Gothitelle to lock in his Slowking and his -1 Scrafty. I brought in Conkeldurr because I knew that he would think it was an easy target, and that I could just Heal Pulse all his damage away while taking care of Scrafty. I stalled and was doing some passive damage. I remember that Trick Room was almost finished and Conkeldurr had more damage than I would like, so I switched and sacrificed Gengar so I could Psychic and Mach Punch his Slowking to knock it out. Trick Room ended just as he lost his setter. I remember bringing Mega Manectric to KO his Mega Abomasnow with Flamethrower while I just Heal Pulsed the passive damage. We ended up with my three Pokémon against his Nidoqueen so it was game. I won 3-0.

Game 7: Vs Joe Wilson (Russian)

• He used Politoed, Ludicolo, Manectric and Talonflame.

I was happy when I saw this matchup because I love battling Rain teams. He started with Politoed and Ludicolo, and I led with Gothitelle and Manectric. I knew he saw Manectric as something to KO as soon as possible so I just Protected Manectric and Thunder Waved his Ludicolo while he tried to Fake Out and Scald into my Protect. I then Volt Switched on his Politoed and brought out Conkeldurr, and slowly KOed both his Pokémon with the support of Heal Pulse until the Rain ended. When the Rain ended we were four against two in my favor. I just had to play around his team from there. I don’t remember if we ended up 4-0 or 3-0, but it was a good game.

Game 8: Vs Matthew Harwood (Matt)

• He used Sableye, Mienshao, Mega Manectric and Staraptor.

He started with Sableye and Mienshao and I led with Azumarill and Gothitelle. I just double Protected to start, and then Psychiced his Mienshao and Belly Drumed with Azumarill while he Will-O-Wisped Azumarill and High Jump Kicked my Gothitelle. Next turn he tried to Swagger me but failed, and I KOed his Sableye with Play Rough. From there I just ignored his Mienshao and proceeded to Aqua Jet everything with Heal Pulse support. When I knew I wouldn’t be able to deal enough damage to KO my target,  I just Protected Azumarill and Psychiced the target instead. He was able to bring Azumarill down with Staraptor, but all I had to do was bring Manectric to the battle and the victory was mine. 3-0 win.

With this, the first day was over. I was 7-1 and in 4^th place in my flight. I was quite happy and anxious to play in the top 32!

Day 2

We arrived early at the event. I was playing against Guillermo Sanavia from Spain to get to top 16.

Top 32

Game 1: The moment I saw his team I knew that I had the game. He was running double Mega and neither of them were especially strong against my team. He led with Mega Venusaur and Rotom-H, and I started with Gothitelle and Manetric. I Psychiced his Venusaur and Protected with Manectric, choosing not to Mega Evolve, and Manectric avoided a double target attack. Next turn I tried to double target his Venusaur, while he Protected and Overheated my Manectric that had just Mega Evolved. I double targeted him again with Psychic and Volt Switch, KOing his Mega Venusaur. He Volt Switched to Aegislash and brought Rotom-H again the next turn. I brought in Conkeldurr and just played around his Aegislash with Thunder Wave and Payback. Once in a while I just Drain Punched his Rotom or Heal Pulsed my Conkeldurr to keep my HP up. I don’t remember the details, but we ended up with all four of my Pokémon remaining against his Aegislash. I won the first game 4-0 after his forfeit.

Game 2: I have the video of this battle, so I’m just going to let you guys watch it. My Pyroar KOed himself in the last turn with Life Orb damage, but the game counted the match as a 4-0 victory.

Top 16

My next opponent was Miguel Marti, also known as Sekiam, and he was friends with my previous opponent. Guillermo showed our battle to Sekiam, as well as all his notes on my team. I felt like I lost the surprise factor my team had, and that made me nervous. I became even more nervous when I saw his team. Gengar and Aegislash together would mean trouble for me because my Mega Manectric wasn’t faster than his Gengar. I made a lot of mistakes in these games, and ended up giving him the set. Rather than describing our matches, I’ll just let you watch them instead:

• Part 1 – http://youtu.be/j8kKMwRGMNo
• Part 2 – http://youtu.be/rjROsFeQt4Y
• Part 3 – http://youtu.be/og9L32DgDVY
• Part 4 – http://youtu.be/grLY_IGztbA

I feel that if I had played it right, I could have been able to win. This shows I still need to improve! And to make it worse, I was unable to go to Milan, making this my only chance to get into Worlds, and the rest of the top cut was just Rain teams, a matchup my team did very well against.

So this was my road in Manchester. I improved my team afterwards, and I was quite confident in it, but unfortunately I couldn’t afford the trip to Milan. Maybe next year I’ll be able to make it to Worlds with a freaky and unique team like this one, and represent Portugal even better! I’ll look forward to using Mega Sableye!

I hope I can meet more people in the future! Every year I always get to meet a lot of cool people and make new friends! I’d like to give special thanks to Jamie Miller and Ruben (WorldBestKebab), both of whom helped me put together this team. Ruben gave me a special Manectric to give me luck! Another really big thanks goes to Cíntia Luz (aka Meema) that made my Gothitelle named Meema and made an AWESOME Sableye that was my good luck charm! Thank you to my rival and really good friend Miguel Vicêncio (also known as Dracoeye) for making my Conkeldurr. I also have to thank Tiago Soares (also known as Necro), who made my Azumarill which almost won me some games by itself! I still have to thank Rui Pedro! He was ready to help me and made me a Hidden Power Ice Delphox that I ended up switching for Pyroar that was the son of the Pyroar he had sent me before. And last but not least, a big thanks to everyone that supported me and gave me strength! João Pires, Eduardo Cunha, the annoying pessimist Pedro Lima, Miguel who went to the airport to say good bye, and everyone in Portugal! Forgive me if I forgot any names! I love you all!

The post The Power of Gothitelle: A Top 16 UK National Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hey everyone! My name is Julio Fernández but you might know me as VKoball from the forums (but probably not). I’ve been playing Pokémon games since I was a kid, however it’s only been since the release of X and Y that I got into competitive Pokémon. Here in México we didn’t have a lot of big events until Premiere Challenges came to the country, so I started attending local tournaments and made a few friends there. When I heard that my city was about to hold one of the first official events in México I got really excited and started building my team. I experimented with both usual and unusual strategies because I really didn’t know what kind of metagame I would find at the tournament.

The tournament had an attendance of 32 Masters, which was kind of sad because we were expecting at least 70 of the 102 confirmed in the Facebook event. However, most of the players that did show up were pretty good, and that made our first official event quite interesting. So, let’s start with the team:

Team Analysis

When I started planning the team, I really wanted to use Charizard-Y. I’m pretty familiar with using Charizard-Y as my Mega, and I feel like I’m not the most effective user of Mega Kangaskhan. So, I started building a simple Grass/Fire/Water core with Pokémon that I had used before and felt comfortable with (except for Amoonguss). Rotom-W was the best option for the team simply because of Will-O-Wisp and that amazing natural bulk, and with Amoonguss I really wanted to redirect attacks and disrupt teams with Spore. Mamoswine was my Physical offense, while Aerodactyl and Mienshao filled their support roles quite well. Oh, and also the Sun played an important role on the team, because with my team’s crippling weakness to Water the Sun really helped dealing with the main threats to the team.

Charizard @ Charizardite-Y
Nickname: Smaugan
Ability: Blaze/Drought
IVs: 31/30/30/31/31/31
EVs: 124 HP / 74 Def / 252 SAtk / 60 Spe
Nature: Timid
-Flamethrower
-Solar Beam
-Hidden Power (Ice)
-Protect

This set was originally going to be Modest Natured, but after reading both Keegan’s (Darkeness) St. Louis report and Sir Chicken’s Mega Evolution article I noticed that my set was wasting potential, because the Speed was pretty mediocre. However, by changing the nature to Timid, I was able to reach a Speed stat of 140, letting me outspeed unboosted max Speed Smeargles and neutral unboosted 252 Speed Gyarados, while only losing a small amount of power. The HP and Defense EVs give him a 93.7% chance of surviving Jolly Garchomp’s Rock Slide and all of Timid Mega Manectric’s attacks except for Thunder. Flamethrower was chosen over Heat Wave because I didn’t want to deal with those nasty Weakness Policy Aegislash. Solar Beam was to hit Water and Rock types hard, while Hidden Power Ice made my life easier by always KOing the popular Salamence and Garchomp. With Tailwind support, this beast can outspeed every threat in the metagame. Named after a boss from Ninja Gaiden, that is named after Smaug from the Hobbit.

Mienshao @ Wide Lens
Nickname: Jam
Ability: Regenerator
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
-Fake Out
-Taunt
-Quick Guard
-High Jump Kick

Mienshao was included on the team because of the amazing supporting role it fills. With Fake Out, Taunt, and Quick Guard, I was kind of prepared to face slower Pranksters (especially the unsuspecting Sableye) or annoying Pokémon like Rotom. Quick Guard was always a surprise to my opponents and worked really well. The spread is basic, because I feel Mienshao really can’t do anything with those Defenses even with investment. The question might be: “Why would you put Wide Lens on Mienshao!?” The answer is pretty simple: my Focus Sash was already taken. I also wanted to mitigate High Jump Kick’s non-perfect accuracy, and not risk missing the KO on a foe’s Mega Kangaskhan or some other crucial KO. The item was going to be replaced with Safety Goggles but I decided to keep the Lens at the last minute before team registration. Named after Jam Kuradoberi, from the Guilty Gear series.

Aerodactyl @Focus Sash
Nickname: Camisaurio
Ability: Unnerve
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
-Rock Slide
-Sky Drop
-Tailwind
-Wide Guard

Another simple set. Wide Guard gave both Charizard and Aerodactyl the advantage against a Rock Slide locked Mamoswine or Garchomp, or simply protected teammates from spread attacks. Sky Drop was pretty useful, because it was a good way to hit Fighting and Grass types as well as staving off status inducers for at least one turn. The Tailwind support was beneficial for my team, and Rock Slide was a reliable STAB with a good chance of flinching the foe. Named after a silly character from a flash animation.

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Nickname: Galura
Ability: Thick Fat
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 116 HP / 164 Atk / 116 Def / 76 SDef / 36 Spe
Nature: Adamant
-Ice Shard
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Protect

I don’t remember what this EV spread does, but I recall being inspired by both DrDimentio’s Adelaide Regionals and Umayr’s (ushaikh17) Madison Regionals reports. Mamoswine can take some hits while dealing some a high amount of damage with Life Orb. The STAB priority scares Dragons off, while Earthquake makes holes in opposing teams. Mamoswine was a crucial piece in this event, winning me some important Swiss rounds and filling a protagonist role in my top 8 match. Named after a boss from Final Fantasy V.

Rotom-W @ Sitrus Berry
Nickname: Kool-Aid
Ability: Levitate
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Def / 156 SAtk / 28 SDef / 4 Spe
Nature: Modest
-Hex
-Thunderbolt
-Will-O-Wisp
-Protect

This might look weird but it’s because the Rotom I’d used originally was a Rotom-H. I didn’t really feel like the EVs were that important, since I wanted Rotom to hit hard while taking a few hits itself. Hex was chosen over Hydro Pump, mostly because I really love my Sunny weather and because Hex gave me a reliable 130 base power move when the opponent was either Burnt or Asleep. This really helped me against my Aegislash matchup.

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Nickname: Shaniqua
Ability: Regenerator
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 SDef
Nature: Bold
-Spore
-Giga Drain
-Rage Powder
-Endure

Probably the MVP of my team. Amoonguss was simply amazing, putting foes to Sleep, redirecting physical attacks (especially priority attacks when Mienshao wasn’t on the field), and dealing chip damage. The EV spread is actually Ray’s Massachusetts one, with the only difference being that the Speed EVs are now in Special Defense in order to always survive Modest Tyranitar’s Fire Blast in Sun. I really didn’t made use of Endure, but it was chosen for double targeting and because it helped against Mega Kangaskhan, causing more Rocky Helmet damage without being KOed. The nickname was originally for a Sassy Amoonguss, but I really didn’t had any creativity for this one so I just recycled the old one.

The Battles

Round 1

• He brought: Heliolisk, Seaking, (?), (?)
• I brought: Mienshao, Aerodactyl, Charizard, Mamoswine

This fight was pretty short, since this guy’s team was underleveled. However, when I noticed the strategy in Team Preview I got really impressed that someone decided to take Seaking to a tournament. This happened to be the only hard Sun team that I saw at the tournament. I forgot his last two Pokémon, probably because I was still thinking about what could have happened in the match without the level difference. Win.

Win 1 – Loss 0

Round 2

• He brought: Rotom-W, Kangaskhan, Sableye, Aegislash
• I brought: Mienshao, Aerodactyl, Charizard, Amoonguss

I know, my memory is actually pretty bad. This is the last match where I forgot to take notes, so going forward I will have more information about my matches. Mega Kangaskhan was the most notable Pokémon on his team, so I decided to take two Pokémon that could counter it somewhat: Amoonguss and Mienshao. The latter was also there to shut down Sableye so I could work through my opponent’s team smoothly. I was impressed on the first turn because he choose to lead with Rotom-W and Kangaskhan. I used Sky Drop on Rotom and Fake Out on Kangaskhan, and to my surprise Kangaskhan had Inner Focus, so he got a free Power-up Punch on me. The rest of the battle involved me taking care of the Mega Kangaskhan and annoying the annoyer. Win.

Win 2 – Loss 0

Round 3

• He brought: M-Blastoise, Salamence, Escavalier, Rotom-H
• I brought: Mienshao, Aerodactyl, Charizard, Amoonguss

My opponent’s team gave me a strong feeling of Trick Room, but I didn’t spot a Trick Room setter. He told me that he had wanted to use Porygon-Z, but wasn’t aware that it wasn’t part of the Kalos Dex, so he replaced it with Kingdra instead. His lead was Blastoise and Salamence, scoring an Intimidate on my leads. Turn one, he actually double switched that lead, showing me the rest of his team. I managed to Burn Escavalier and focused on taking care of the other Pokémon. In the end, Amoonguss and Charizard got the job done. Win.

Win 3 – Loss 0

Round 4 vs Martín (Eventual 1^st place)

• He brought: Gengar, Rotom-W, Conkeldurr, Garchomp
• I brought: Aerodactyl, Amoonguss, Charizard, Rotom-W

This was a great battle. Surprisingly, he lead with Gengar and Rotom. I decided to Spore the latter on the first turn, while taking Gengar with Sky Drop and hoping it Mega Evolved. On the second turn, I put Gengar to Sleep as well. After a few turns his leads were KOed, and he sent in a Guts Conkeldurr and a Scarfed Garchomp. My Aerodactyl was down already, but I was able to set Tailwind just before sending in Charizard. I KOed his Garchomp while Amoonguss redirected Mach Punch and caused chip damage. Charizard was able to KO Conkeldurr the next turn. Win.

Win 4 – Loss 0

Round 5 Eventual 2^nd place

• He brought: Rotom-W, Aegislash, Charizard, Heracross
• I brought: Mienshao, Rotom-W, Charizard, Mamoswine

A pretty scary team, since I’ve only battled Mega Heracross once before, when it swept my entire team due to my underestimating it. However, it turns out his beetle was actually Scarfed. I scored a Burn to Aegislash and Faked Out Rotom on the first turn. My opponent then switched Rotom into Charizard, and I scored a clean KO with Thunderbolt while Taunting his Aegislash. As the turns passed, he took my Charizard down with Heracross’ Stone Edge, but then I Burned Heracross. From there, it was pretty much game.  Win.

Win 5 – Loss 0

At this point I was really happy that I made it to the Top Cut as the first seed, and to see that my last two opponents made it there too! I really knew that things were about to get serious and prepared for my upcoming matches.

Top 8 vs Ali

Game 1: He brought: Noivern, M-Scizor, Chandelure, Quagsire I brought: Aerodactyl, Mienshao, Amoonguss, Charizard

An interesting first round, because I really didn’t know what his team could do. I sent out my standard lead try to guess his strategy. He went all-out, as his Scizor Mega Evolved and his Noivern scored a KO on Mienshao. I sent in Amoonguss to redirect his priority and to get my Tailwind up, and I was really pleased that my little fungus survived both the incoming Air Slash and Bullet Punch. Aerodactyl ended up going down next turn, but not before taking Noivern down with it. Charizard comes in and practically ends the match on its own. Win 1-0

Game 2: He brought: Noivern, M-Scizor, Venusaur, Snorlax I brought: Mienshao, Amoonguss, Charizard, Mamoswine

From knowing him as a friend, I know that my opponent likes to take the same lead to catch people off guard in best-of-three matches. I prepared my lead to disrupt his strategy at the very beginning. The battle was as entertaining as the last one, because he kept with his all-out offensive strategy. I took the upper hand when he was only left with Snorlax and a damaged Mega Scizor, while I had Charizard and Mamoswine on the field. I just aimed a Flamethrower at Snorlax to damage it as much as I could so that Mamoswine’s Earthquake could take them both down, and it worked! Win 2-0

Top 4 vs Martin

Game 1 He brought: Noivern, M-Scizor, Chandelure, Quagsire I brought: Aerodactyl, Mienshao, Amoonguss, Charizard

This was an amazing battle. I already knew that Conkeldurr was about to Protect on the first turn to avoid getting Spored, so I double targeted Garchomp to get the flinch and then put him to Sleep. I proceeded to redirect Mach Punches again while hitting Garchomp, until he switched it into Rotom-W. I clearly remember that he got the upper hand in the game when he took down my Amoonguss and his Garchomp woke up, and after that everything went downhill for me. Loss 0-1

Game 2 He brought: M-Charizard-Y, Conkeldurr, Garchomp, Jolteon I brought: Aerodactyl, Rotom-W, Amoonguss, Charizard

This was a quick but exciting battle. In the first turn he Mega Evolved Charizard and double Protected, probably predicting a Thunderbolt + Rock Slide combo and in the next turn he made a smart switch to his Jolteon, who took the Rock Slide like a champ and recovered HP with the Thunderbolt I aimed at his Mega. The battle ended when my Charizard stood alone against his Garchomp and Jolteon. Loss 0-2

Closing Thoughts

The team simply worked wonders for me, although I made serious mistakes that I could have avoided. I feel really happy to say that I finished in third place in my first official event, and I can’t wait for the next ones to come! All those guys who participated in the tournament were pretty cool, and it was really nice to see some advanced strategies and test teams for the upcoming México City Premiere Challenge.

Special thanks to “La taberna de Miltank”, a little group that have helped me in a lot of ways and also cheered for me in my Top 4 match. I really hope that you have enjoyed my very first report and maybe this can help somebody out there, who knows! Thanks for reading!

The post The Wrath Of Smaugan: Querétaro Premiere Challenge 3rd Place Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello, Nugget Bridge. My name is Umberto Pallini, also know as Terrakhaos here, and this is the team I used to get 3rd place at Italian Nationals. This team ended up being very similar to the one that Lajo used to get Top 8 in Germany, but it’s only a coincidence, since I began working on this team three months before his report had been published. This coincidence, however, shows the potential of this team, since two players who worked independently decided to bring almost the same six Pokémon for the same team archetype.

The Team

At the begin of the season, when I looked at the list of the Pokémon that had received the ability to Mega Evolve, Mawile immediately caught my attention: it gains an immense amount of sheer power upon Mega Evolving. Unfortunately, Mawile’s base Speed is very low, and despite a priority move, it is most likely the last Pokémon to move during a turn, so I knew I had to create a Trick Room team to make it shine.

I looked at the list of the avaible Trick Room setters and found that Aromatisse had all I wanted: low Speed, amazing bulk, a great defensive typing, and Aroma Veil, which is probably the best Ability for a Trick Room setter. I also wanted Fake Out support, so I decided to use Scrafty, thanks to its bulk and Ability options. I decided to bring Trevenant as a second Trick Room setter since it can completely wall Kangaskhan and Amoonguss. Rotom-H counters some Trick Room threats, namely Bisharp, Talonflame, Amoonguss, Aegislash and Mawile. For the last slot, I wanted a Pokémon able to completely counter Amoonguss, and thus chose Goodra, since it can use all the elemental moves and, alongside Mawile and Aromatisse, creates a very solid Fantasy Core of Dragon-, Steel-, and Fairy-type Pokémon.

Accelerator (Scrafty) (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Atk / 12 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Fake Out
- Drain Punch
- Crunch
- Head Smash

• 252 SpA Mega Gengar Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Scrafty: 136-160 (79 – 93%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• -1 252+ Atk Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 244 HP / 12 Def Scrafty: 144-170 (84.2 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 244+ Atk Scrafty Crunch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Aegislash-Blade: 200-236 (119.7 – 141.3%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 244+ Atk Scrafty Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Rotom-H: 138-164 (87.8 – 104.4%) — 25% chance to OHKO

The main role of Scrafty was to provide Fake Out and Intimidate support, but thanks to his Fighting- and Dark-type STAB, he also helped a lot against threats like Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Gyarados. and Aegislash, which can easily prevent Trick Room from going up. His item was originally a Coba Berry to help against Talonflame, but with fewer Talonflame in the metagame right now, I decided that the Berry wasn’t worth it; instead, I gave him an Assault Vest and never looked back. Scrafty starts off with incredibly high base Defenses which are further boosted by the combination of Assault Vest and Intimidate. This phenomenal bulk, alongside the HP drain from Drain Punch, helps Scrafty stay on the field for a very long time. Usually the fourth move of an Assault Vest Scrafty is Ice Punch, Stone Edge, or Rock Slide, but Head Smash was the move that caught my attention: its accuracy is quite poor and the recoil is very high, but with a sky-high Base Power of 150 it deals a ton of damage against everything with a Rock weakness, which scores many unexpected knock outs. Scrafty was easily one of the MVPs of the day and the support he brought with the Fake Out and Intimidate combination was really invaluable.

Ouma Shu (Trevenant) (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Harvest
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 84 Def / 180 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Protect
- Shadow Claw
- Will-O-Wisp

• 0 Atk Trevenant Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Aegislash-Blade: 150-176 (89.8 – 105.3%) — 37.5% chance to OHKO
• 252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 180+ SpD Trevenant: 150-176 (78.1 – 91.6%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Salamence Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 180+ SpD Trevenant: 162-192 (84.3 – 100%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO

Trevenant was my secondary Trick Room setter, which I used either in matches where I couldn’t bring Aromatisse or in matches when Trevenant could wall most of my opponent’s team by himself. Originally this Trevenant was way more offensive, with Wood Hammer over Shadow Claw and enough Attack investment to OHKO Ray’s Rotom-W, but after seeing Lajo’s Trevenant from Germany Nationals, I decided to give it a shot. The more-defensive approach really paid off, especially because I saw very few Rotom-W during the tournament. Trevenant’s Grass typing can counter Amoonguss, which is really annoying under Trick Room. His Ghost typing also helps dealing with Perish Trap and hits Ghosts hard with a STAB Shadow Claw, which even puts Rotom-H and Rotom-W in Mawile’s knock out range. Thanks to the Harvest Ability and the chip damage from Will-O-Wisp, he’s also able to stall out dangerous threats and beat them on the timer, scoring victories even in very tough spots.

Silpelit (Mawile) (F) @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Play Rough
- Rock Slide
- Sucker Punch
- Protect

Mawile was the Mega chosen for this team and what the team was built around. I decided not to invest any EVs into Mawile’s Defenses because I needed all the damage I could dish out if I wanted to knock out bulky Pokémon after chip damage or do a good amount of damage with Rock Slide. I preferred to use Rock Slide over Iron Head because I found myself using Iron Head only when I didn’t want to miss Play Rough, and being able to hit two targets at the same time (including Charizard, Talonflame, Rotom-H for super-effective damage) really outweighs the ability to OHKO bulky Gardevoir. If I did see a team with many physical attackers I would usually lead with her and Scrafty to get a double Intimidate off and theoretically burn both of my opponent’s Pokémon for at least one turn.

FlamingShana (Rotom-Heat) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 140 SAtk / 104 SDef
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp

• 252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 104 SpD Rotom-H: 72-85 (45.8 – 54.1%) — 6.3% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
• 252+ SpA Gardevoir Psychic vs. 252 HP / 104 SpD Rotom-H: 70-84 (44.5 – 53.5%) — 1.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
• 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 252 HP / 12 Def Rotom-H: 130-154 (82.8 – 98%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Rotom-H, with its bulk and amazing typing, was what allowed my team to perform many switches and maintain the flexibility of the team. This was also possible thanks to its item, since this Rotom will likely stay on the field for many turns, healing a lot of health and often allowing it to win a 1vs1 match against a burned opponent. Rotom’s role on the team is to counter the counters of Trick Room, namely Aegislash, Amoonguss, Bisharp and opposing Mawile. Rotom really shines against Sun teams, and helps take care of them along with the next member of the team.

Kimochi (Goodra) (F) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Sap Sipper
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Thunderbolt
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Dragon Pulse

• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Goodra Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Mawile: 158-186 (100.6 – 118.4%) — guaranteed OHKO
• -1 252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Goodra: 120-144 (60.9 – 73%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Goodra Dragon Pulse vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 246-290 (133.6 – 157.6%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Goodra Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Rotom-H: 154-183 (98 – 116.5%) — 87.5% chance to OHKO

I tried many different Pokémon in this slot (like Overcoat Escavalier or Safety Googles Chandelure) to help counter Amoonguss before finally settling on Goodra. Her Special Attack and Special Defense are amazing base stats, and she can use all the elemental moves which provides excellent coverage. Her item was originally an Assault Vest but she couldn’t hit hard enough, so often my opponents would simply ignore Goodra and focusing on her teammate. When I tried out Choice Specs, Goodra was no longer dead weight: she could get many unexpected knock outs, and still maintained excellent bulk. Thanks to Sap Sipper as an Ability, Goodra can also ignore Sleep Powder or Spore from Amoonguss and Venusaur, which removed a huge weakness that all Trick Room teams suffer from. Although Goodra’s EV spread is quite simple, please note that she needs exactly 252 SAtk Evs to OHKO Mega Mawile with a Flamethrower.

Inori-chan (Aromatisse) (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Aroma Veil
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Protect
- Skill Swap
- Trick Room
- Moonblast

• 0 SpA Aromatisse Moonblast vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 122-146 (66.3 – 79.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 252 HP / 92 Def Aromatisse: 162-190 (77.8 – 91.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Mega Gengar Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 164+ SpD Aromatisse: 174-206 (83.6 – 99%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Flash Cannon vs. 252 HP / 164+ SpD Aromatisse: 140-168 (67.3 – 80.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Aromatisse, the Taunt-breaker and the cutest wall you’ll ever see! She was my other MVP of the day. In my opinion, Aromatisse, is the best Trick Room setter we have ever been given. Her amazing Fairy typing, Defensive stats and very low Speed could be enough, and unique Aroma Veil ability, make her and her teammates immune to Taunt, Encore and Disable, removing a big weakness that every Trick Room team has always suffered from.

Aromatisse’s purpose is to set up Trick Room, spread chip damage with Moonblast, and most importantly, disrupt the opponent’s team with Skill Swap. It can be used to steal Huge Power from Mega Mawile and Azumarill (actually giving them a -2 drop), steal Lighting Rod from Manectric, reactive Intimidate from a teammate or an opponent, steal Harvest from Trevenant to negate its HP regeneration, and many other things. I decided to give Aromatisse a Lum Berry, because I didn’t want Swagger to bring any random factors into my matches. This also let Aromatisse safely set up Trick Room against Amoonguss and Kangaskhan / Smeargle teams.

Lead Combinations

+  

This is my standard lead which can set Trick Room up quite easily. Once Trick Room is up I usually begin to weaken my opponent’s Pokémon through Intimidate and Skill Swap which helps me switch in Mawile safely. This lead is especially good against Kangaskhan / Smeargle leads and Perish Trap teams.

+

This was my go-to lead if I saw a Sun team, another Trick Rom team or some nasty combination, like Aerodactyl / Bisharp.

+

This was usually how I led against Rain team, or when I wanted to have an immediate offensive presence, since my main lead starts very slowly.

Overall this team’s playstyle is very defensive and tends to win in the lategame, so, when I was in a difficult situation that would have led to defeat, I could potentially stall the timer out to come out with a win, although some may think this is an unfair strategy.

Threats

/

This two Pokémon share one thing: their unpredictability. Their set could be a simple Choice Specs one, a support one or, in the worst case, they could pack a Trick Room + Imprison combination that completely shuts my team down. Their ability to reverse a Trick Room, OHKO a lot of things with a Choice Specs or spread burns makes them the potentially most dangerous threat for this team.

+

This is a combo that, as my first match against Koryo showed, can be very dangerous if not handled properly. The Rock Slide and Assurance combination OHKO almost everything that doesn’t resist it. Aerodactyl can even use Taunt or Sky Drop on my Trick Room setter.

Rotom-W isn’t exactly a threat, but the only way I have to smack it down is to hit it as hard as possible with STAB moves, which isn’t a very reliable method. If Rotom stays on the field long enough, it can easily burn all of my team members, either whittling away at their HP or rendering my physical attackers useless.

The Tournament

I arrived to the event around  9.00 A.M. and since I was pre-registered, the registration phase went pretty smoothly, so I had time to meet all my friends from my team, the ever-mighty Thunderice!

From left to right: Luca, me, Gianluca, Davide, Davide, Alessandro, Chuan

We hung out for a bit, waited for pairings, and made our bossy predictions about the tournament, obviously expecting players like Yoshi, Mean, Billa, Daflo and drug_duck to permorm very well. I also found out that Lajo had come in Italy too, so I took a nice picture with him!

Eventually after two hours the pairings went up , so the tournament could begin!

Swiss Rounds

Unfortunately my memory is quite bad and I recorded only a few matches, so I apologize to my opponents if I don’t go in deep with how our matches went. I can only say that all of my opponents were very polite, both in winning and losing, and they all made the tournament a pleasant experience.

Round 1: Rina Purdy

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A friend of mine told me that Rina was using a very weird team, and when we got in Team Preview I immediately understood why. She was using a Trick Room team, too, but with some very cool stuff, like Zapdos, Hydreigon and mainly Kecleon! I think she really loves Kecleon, since she also brought a very nice plush of it to the tournament. The only thing I remember from this match is that Zapdos went down almost immediately due to Scrafty’s Head Smash,which also fainted too from a combination of recoil and Rocky Helmet damage. Her Kecleon also surprised me with a STAB Rock Slide, netting significant damage on Rotom-H, but Mawile and Rotom-H easily swept through the rest of her team. Good game, Rina!

(1-0)

Round 2: Alessandro de Marchi (Aldragon)

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I had already battled with Alessandro in an online tournament, so I knew that he was a very good battler,  so I was a bit afraid to battle him in the second round. Going into Team Preview, his Nidoking immediately scared me, since it is able to hit for super-effective damage on almost all of my team, while I can’t hit it very hard. His Aegislash was a threat, too, but my Rotom-H took good care of it right from the start. Aromatisse stole Kangaskhan’s ability with a Skill Swap, rendering it useless and eventually the match went down to his Choice locked Sludge Bomb Nidoking and burned low health Hippodown against my full health Mawile, low health Rotom-H and low health Aromatisse. When the timer finally ran out, I ended up winning the game. Thank you for a great match, Aldragon, and I was very pleased to meet you in real life.

(2-0)

Round 3: Alberto Panicucci

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I was quite relieved to have won my first two games, so I entered the third round pretty confident.
Unfortunately, I remember very little from this game. The only thing I remember is that I chose a bad lead while he played greatly. His Trevenant put me in a very tough spot, so the only way I had to win was to stall the timer out. I managed to do that so I won, but he really deserved the win and I apologized to him.

(3-0)

Round 4: Luigi Domenico Orsi (ZPhoenix)

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After winning my first three games, I began to feel overconfident, so I entered into the fourth round pretty boldly, which was a big mistake. I was in a pretty good spot in the match, and decided to make a move that during the testing phase worked very rarely. I tried to Skill Swap and Flamethrower his Mega Venusaur, which was a very risky move, but I felt very confident. My attempt failed badly and he punished me, capitalizing on my error and I lost the match. He played that match very well and it was my own fault that I lost that match. Good game, Luigi! You’re a really good player.

(3-1)

Round 5: Carmelo Arena

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After losing the previous round I was very nervous, since I knew that I could afford only one more loss, but thankfully my friends were amazing and calmed me down before the next match, which was against a player who I knew pretty well. When I got to Team Preview and saw another Trevenant I felt nervous again (remembering my third round against Alberto); so nervous that I didn’t write down his sixth Pokémon! Luckily for me, Carmelo didn’t bring Trevenant and I won the match after Carmelo made a mistake, pretty much giving me the game.

(4-1)

Round 6: Christopher Bianchi

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His team featured two rarely-seen Pokémon in VGC, namely Weavile and Jolteon, but unfortunately he did not bring either of them against me. As usual, I don’t remember anything from this match except that his Greninja, almost OHKOed my Mawile with a very cool Hidden Power Fire.

(5-1)

Round 7: Maksim (MProx)

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I knew that he was using the same team LProx brought to Manchester, so I entered the match knowing what to expect. He led with Politoed and Ludicolo against my Scrafty and Trevenant. I knew that he had to double target Trevenant to take it down so I made the safe move to Fake Out Politoed and Trick Room with Trevenant, as he switched the Politoed out for Mawile and Ludicolo went for the Ice Beam on Trevenant. Fearing a Play Rough, I switched Scrafty out for Mawile and went for the Will-O-Wisp on his Mawile, which Mega Evolved and revealed to be a minimum Speed one. Mawile knocked out my Trevenant with Iron Head while his Ludicolo did just around 20% to my Mawile with a critical Ice Beam. Scrafty came back in, getting an Intimidate off, and I went for the Fake Out on Mawile (which switched out for Gyarados) and a Play Rough on Ludicolo, which replied with a Scald on Mawile, almost KOing it. Ludicolo’s health was now red so, despite I was fearing Mawile to come back, I went for the Rock Slide with Mawile and the Head Smash on Gyarados, netting the KO on both of them. Politoed and Mawile came back in, but I had kept Goodra in the back to OHKO Mawile once Trick Room finished, so I wasn’t worried at all. My Mawile went down to a Sucker Punch, while Scrafty dodged a Hydro Pump and hit Politoed with a Drain Punch. Goodra was sent in and his Mawile went down easily from a Choice Specs Flamethrower, while Scrafty hit Politoed with another Drain Punch and the next turn Politoed went down to a Flamethrower and Crunch combination, winning me the match.

(6-1)

Round 8: Davide Hermander

  (   )

I couldn’t believe that I had gone so far, and now only one win separated me from the Top Cut. I’ve recorded this match too, so the match will be more in-depth. From Team Preview, his Bisharp seemed like the most dangerous threat, but I also feared a Sky Drop or a Rock Slide / Assurance combo from his Aerodactyl. I led with Rotom-H and Scrafty, to immediately threaten Bisharp despite the Defiant boost, and he indeed led with Bisharp and Talonflame. I went for the Fake Out onto Talonflame, which switched out to Amoonguss, and the Will-O-Wisp onto Bisharp, which Protected itself. Then, expecting an Iron Head onto Scrafty, I switched it out for Trevenant, which activated its Sitrus Berry. I went for the Overheat on Amoonguss, knocking it out. Now, his Gyarados came in and I predicted a Waterfall / Assurance combo against Rotom, so I Protected it and went for the Trick Room with Trevenant while his Gyarados Mega Evolved. After that, I simply went for the double burn on Bisharp, which Protected, and Gyarados, which fired off an Earthquake, doing around 60% to Rotom and nearly no damage to Trevenant, which ate another Sitrus Berry and came back to around 75% HP. I expected his Bisharp to switch out to Talonflame, to eat the Will-O-Wisp or Overheat and to allow his Gyarados to fire off another Earthquake, so I Protected with Rotom and switched Trevenant out to Mawile. This was a huge mistake, since his Bisharp stayed in and went for a +2 Iron Head onto Mawile, knocking it out, and went for a Dragon Dance with Gyarados. My Scrafty came back in again, bringing his Bisharp to+3 Attack, going for the Fake Out on Bisharp and the Thunderbolt on Gyarados, while he made the obvious play to Protect with Bisharp and, probably, Earthquake with Gyarados, but luckily my Rotom got a critical hit, immediately knocking out his Mega Gyarados. Talonflame came in, obliterating my Scrafty with a Brave Bird, but Rotom KOed his Bisharp with an Overheat so it was GG and I apologized to Davide for the critical hit.

(7-1)

Round 9: Cristoph Kugeler (drug duck)

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With Top Cut assured for me, I approached to the following match very relaxed, but still determined to win. My last opponent was drug duck, and we had a more unique than rare match: it took the entire timer and finished 4-4 ! I recorded the match but I won’t commentate on it since it would probably be too long and boring. I won it simply because in the last turn, with the timer almost over, I burst out all the damage I could, putting his Tyranitar in low health. I want to thank Cristoph for the incredible match we had!

(8-1)

I had finally made it to the Top Cut, with an excellent record of 8-1. When the Top Cut went out, we discovered that they had decided to let anyone with a record of 7-1 into the Top Cut. The staff also determined that if your record was 8-1 or better you received a bye for the first round, so thanks to my great record I had at least one win ensured for the next day.

Top Cut Rounds

The night before I was really excited, but somehow I managed to calm down and go to bed early… but all my effort was nullified because I suddenly woke up at 4.30 A.M. and there was just no way to fell asleep again. I drank something like two liters of tea to help stay awake, which left me with a very bad stomachache that accompanied me throughout the day. I eventually arrived at the tournament, where I met all my friends again who came there to cheer me up and provide support. I had a bye for the first round, so I simply sat down, took notes, and enjoyed the battles streamed on the big screen.

Top 16: Davide Guaring (Ryokem)

If you’ve read this report so far you know how bad my memory is, and this is probably one of the best examples. Again, I must apologize to Davide for having completely forgotten our matches. I can tell what Pokémon he brought only thanks to my notes… and I’m honestly not even sure if I won both of these games or not.

Round 1

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Round 2

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Top 8: Ben Paul Kyriakou ( Kyriakou)

So somehow I managed to win in the Top 16 against Davide, which left me just one win away from a Worlds invite, so I was both nervous and excited. Unfortunately, my memory fell apart again and although the matches were broadcast on the big screen, neither of us saved the matches. I only remember that he was using an interesting Substitute Moltres, which gave me a very hard time, and that during the second game we both began to misplay due to the stress.

Game 1

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Game 2

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Top 4: Christopher Arthur Koryo (Koryo)

I won both of my games against Ben, so I made it: I had been awarded an invite t0 Worlds! I was really overjoyed but, the tournament wasn’t over yet and now I was aiming for a first place finish! When I saw Christopher’s team, my dreams were crushed: it featured the ever-heated Bisharp!

Game 1

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I remember that I was very nervous facing a Bisharp / Aerodactyl combination, so I misplayed a lot in the early game and, while I made many good plays in the early game, he simply had too much momentum from the start, making it impossible for me to recover.

Game 2

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He led again with Bisharp and Aerodactyl against my Scrafty and Rotom. Both of my Pokémon threatened his Bisharp and I had Fake Out pressure too, so, I expected Bisharp to switch out, and went for the Fake Out and Thunderbolt on Aerodactyl, trying to immediately knock it out. Bisharp indeed switched out to Gengar, but Aerodactyl Protected, nullifying my efforts and putting me in an even worse position. I was pretty confident that my Rotom could take a Rock Slide + Shadow Ball combination and I didn’t fear a burn too much, so I stayed in with both of my pokemon, going for the Will-O-Wisp on Aerodactyl, to render it a dead weight, and Crunch on Gengar, to send it to the Focus Sash. He decided to stay in too, and he went for the Rock Slide with Aerodactyl and revealed Dazzling Gleam with Gengar, doing around 75% to my Scrafty. I got the burn off on the Aerodactyl but Scrafty flinched, so the momentum was still his.

The following turn (expecting a double target onto Rotom), I Protected Rotom and switched Scrafty out for Trevenant, trying to set Trick Room up. This turn went perfectly and now I could try to pull out a Mawile sweep. After that, I switched Rotom out to Scrafty to recycle the Fake Out and absorb a potential Rock Slide + Shadow Ball combination, while I Protected with Trevenant fearing a double target. I predicted this correctly too, as he went for the Rock Slide with Aerodactyl, doing only five damage to Scrafty, and revealed the Taunt with Gengar. He had revealed the Taunt last turn, so he probably wasn’t expecting me to go for the Trick Room, and I was also expecting his Aerodactyl to switch out so I went for a Drain Punch on its slot: Aerodactyl indeed switched out to Bisharp, but Scrafty went down to Gengar’s Dazzling Gleam. Trevenant managed to set up Trick Room, so the loss of Scrafty was a good trade.

Rotom took the place of Scrafty and now his Bisharp was in a tough spot, but I wasn’t sure if he would switch out or not, so I went for the safe Thunderbolt on Gengar, doing around 80%, and I Protected Trevenant from an incoming Shadow Ball, while his Bisharp switched out to Aerodactyl. After that (expecting a Protect or a switch by his Aerodactyl), I double targeted Gengar with Will-O-Wisp and Thunderbolt, to knock it out or burn any possible switch in: Gengar indeed switched out to Garchomp, but the Will-O-Wisp missed and Aerodactyl simply went for a Rock Slide, which did around 25% to Rotom.

The following turn I really expecting his Aerodactyl to Protect or switch out, so I went for the double Will-O-Wisp on Garchomp to burn any potential Lum Berry, but he played it very well, Protecting Garchomp and using Sky Drop on Trevenant. I was almost sure that his Garchomp held a Lum Berry, so I switched Rotom out to Mawile, which ate a Rock Slide, and Aerodactyl completed his Sky Drop, which at -3 would have done a minimal damage, but he got a critical hit, which knocked out Trevenant. Eventually, Trick Room ended, so I Protected Rotom and went for a Play Rough on Garchomp, which did around 50% to Mawile with an Earthquake, and Aerodactyl went for another Rock Slide. Now his Aerodactyl would faint due to the burn the following turn and his Gengar came in, but I simply knocked it out with Sucker Punch, pretty confident to take a -3 Rock Slide with Rotom… but he scored another critical hit, knocking Rotom out and actually closing up the game.

It’s never fun to face off against luck, but I know I should have played my first game better and predicted better in the second one too. This loss is my own fault and also a punishment for all the safe moves I did, so GG Koryo, I’m looking forward to have a rematch at Worlds!

Closing Thoughts

What a fantastic weekend! First off, I would like to thank all my friends, old and new, for their support. I couldn’t have gone so far without you! I’m glad to have shown, alongside Lajo, how powerful Trick Room can still be in this generation: indeed, Koryo knew its potential, too, and was prepared very well for it! The event overall was great: the players, the matches and the atmosphere were the best I could have ever imagined. Final shoutouts to:

• Domenico Vaccariello, for being the only one who understands the charm of a Dusk Ball.
• Luca Lussignoli, for his advice against Mega Venusaur that I ignored.
• Angelo Peruzzi, who came during the Top Cut and played his guitar on the bleachers.
• Alessandro Romolo, who wanted to celebrate his last VGC with all us.
• All the ThunderIce, for being the greatest team ever and the only one where electric rice is dished!

The post Inori’s a Tank: A Third Place Italian Nationals Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

This is R Inanimate here to report about a team that I’ve been running for the past month or two. While the team wasn’t used in a big way, such as at a Regional or National. I ran it in a number of smaller tournaments, including a few live tournaments, the No Megas tournament, and during a Premier Challenge. It was also what I used exclusively during the Summer Scramble.

The team started out with the simple thought of “I want to try out Mega Aerodactyl.” This led me to initially running some similar ideas to Sejun Park’s Korean Regional winning team by using Bisharp, Aerodactyl, and Amoonguss. While this worked well, it didn’t feel like it it had the spark I was looking for in my team, thus leading me towards trying a different team approach. What I changed my team into, took a few ideas from a number of teams that I have had used in past years.

This team was used in a wide variety of settings, so it went through more than one set of nicknames throughout the tournaments it was played in. If you’ve faced someone on Pokémon Showdown that had Pokémon nicknamed “Misaka, Mikasa, Misaki, Misawa, Misato, Misa Room”, it was probably me. Nicknames used on cart were different, and were based off of Touhou song titles.

The Team

Aerodactyl (M) @ Aerodactylite ***Old World
Ability: Unnerve -> Tough Claws
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Ice Fang
- Sky Drop
- Protect

***Held an Expert Belt instead for No Megas tournament.

The Mega of the team. I’ve used Aerodactyl a bit in the past in 2013. For some reason, I’ve always gravitated towards using Aerodactyl as an attacker, rather than a supporter, even with all the support moves that Aerodactyl has at its disposal.

This time is no different from the last; the Aerodactyl on this team is all about attacking the opponent straight up. While there are some merits to going with a Jolly nature, I chose to go Adamant to just further increase my damage output, as having Adamant 252 Speed still lets Mega Aerodactyl move before most of the competition in 2014. -1 Mega Aerodactyl will still OHKO 4 HP EV Salamence with Ice Fang, guaranteeed, when Adamant. When I used this Aerodactyl during the No Mega tournament, I swapped its Mega Stone out for an Expert Belt. This allowed Aerodactyl to still have a 75% chance to OHKO Garchomp with Ice Fang, and kept its Rock Slides hitting strong against the many Rock-weak Pokémon in the field.

Playing Aerodactyl aggressively also leads to a lot of points in battles where I can draw up Rock slide flinches and shift the battle in my favour. Coming off of 205 Attack with STAB, Mega Aerodactyl’s Rock Slides aren’t something you can just shrug off as a mere chip damage.

Staraptor (F) @ Choice Scarf ***Night Bird
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Atk / 156 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Final Gambit
- U-turn

Staraptor Final Gambit Bomb. Another Pokémon that I’ve had the pleasure of working with back in 2013. HP is maximized to dish out 192 damage with Final Gambit, along with Speed EVs to reach 140 Speed to outspeed Choice Scarf Smeargle. Staraptor is a pretty vital member of this team, as its Intimidate can provide me a bit more room to switch around for my team, while Final Gambit can give me a way to threaten taking out a large threat if my opponent isn’t careful.

One thing that is important when running Staraptor is to make sure to properly manage when I want it to make a Final Gambit exit, or to decide to commit to using it simply for its other attacks. It can be pretty rough for me to make a big KO only to find myself pushed down by hard hitting physical attackers after sacrificing my high speed Intimidate support.

Amoonguss (F) @ Rocky Helmet ***Dream War
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 236 HP / 100 Def / 172 SDef
Calm Nature
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Giga Drain
- Protect

***Sometimes had Effect Spore when playing on PS!

Rocky Helmet Amoonguss has beeing something that’s grown in popularity over time in 2014, and for pretty good reason. Amoonguss redirects away Mega Kangaskhan’s heavy hitting single target attacks, and causes it to lose 1/3 of its HP by swinging twice into the helm. Even if you end up sacrificing Amoonguss in the process, it makes Mega Kangashkan much easier to deal with.

While people will often go for a full 252 HP / 252 Def Bold to further harass Mega Kangaskhan, I felt the need to run a more Special Defensive Amoonguss for my team. The EVs I have survives Modest 252 SpA Rotom-H’s Overheat 7/8 times. Don’t ask why I didn’t just make it 8/8. I don’t know either. Amoonguss is the only defensively oriented Pokémon on my team. In short, a number of battles will be decided based on how well, or how poorly I manage the usage of my Amoonguss.

On one of my team versions for PS, I was lazy and forgot to switch Effect Spore for Regenerator. Both abilities have their merits, but I do feel that Regenerator is better for how my team operates. Amoonguss sponging away damage for the team allows me to sustain my offense-oriented pressure. My playstyle involves a lot of aggressive switching, which allows Amoonguss to heal up.

Chandelure (F) @ Life Orb ***BurnInVioIet
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 132 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 116 Spd
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Shadow Ball
- Heat Wave
- Protect

Chandelure holds a rather specific in role for this team. Originally, the team had a set up where I was trying to mislead my opponents into thinking I had a Trick Room option on my team preview. Too bad the amount of people that probably thought I had Trick Room was all of zero.

While the Trick Room bluff failed, Chandelure plays a role in countering Trick Room in itself, along with Aegislash. Infiltrator lets Chandelure bypass Substitute, and the usage of Substitute will leave Aegislash in range to be KO’d by Shadow Ball 100% of the time, even after recovering with leftovers for a turn. Even so, if I want to make sure I get the KO, I can always use Overheat instead. Speaking of which, Overheat has an 11/16 chance to OHKO 4HP Mega Kangaskhan.

I have to be a bit careful when running Chandelure, since it is not particularly fast, nor durable, so it relys pretty heavily on some cover support from its ally to let it incinerate the opposition with Life Orb Heat Waves.

Garchomp (F) @ Lum Berry ***GraveOfBeing
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Standard Lum Berry Garchomp. Wanted an Earthquake user. Didn’t want to be weak to Water. Chose Garchomp.

Rotom-W @ Choice Specs ***MagicalStorm
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 36 SAtk / 24 SDef / 148 Spd
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Volt Switch

Choice Specs Rotom-W. I added in this Rotom-W over an Abomasnow just after the start of the Summer Scramble. Its EVs provide it with 125 Speed to get ahead of Timid/Jolly Tyranitar, 144 Special Attack to OHKO Garchomp with Hidden Power Ice, HP and Defense to survive Mega Mawile’s Play Rough, and the rest into Special Defense. Although I’ve never actually played using a Cresselia, I sort of feel like the use of a Specs Rotom-W here is somewhat similar to the thought of using Life Orb or Choice Specs Cresselia back in 2013. People expect Rotom to not hit that hard, and to be more focused on spreading status, or relying on type effectivity to get out its damage. So they can be in for a rough time if they let me pick up any surprise KOs with this thing.

But who cares about all of that? All you’ll remember about this thing is that it is the little washer that could; who dodged 4 Fire Blasts in a row, while hitting 4 Hydro Pumps in a row like a champ in that one battle on stream at the BC Premier Challenge #2.

Abomasnow (F) @ Focus Sash ***Tabula Rasa
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Blizzard
- Energy Ball
- Focus Blast
- Protect

***Used during the No Megas tournament, and in some earlier Scramble matches over Rotom-W

I might as well talk about my former 6th team member, Abomasnow as it was a pretty key player for my team during the No Mega tournament . My original idea for having Abomasnow was that it could cause people to think that I had a Trick Room play on my team, involving Mega Abomasnow, Chandelure, and Amoonguss causing people to prepare for something that didn’t exist. But, as I mentioned, nobody was fooled. I did find out that a lot of people seem to forget that Sash used to be a standard item on Abomasnow though.

The moveset isn’t anything special. I opted to run Focus Blast instead of Ice Shard to try to handle Pokémon like Bisharp, but didn’t really work out as I would have liked. Abomasnow played a larger role for the team during the No Megas tournament, as it did not have to deal with the common Mega Pokémon such as Charizard, Kangaskhan, and Mawile who would normally give Abomasnow a tough time. It also serves as a stronger answer to Rain, which I felt would be a lot stronger in a tournament without Megas.

Overall

“PS! ladder does a really poor job of convincing me not to use gimmick train wreck teams…” -April 30th

That was a forum status update I had regarding this team, which at the time still ran Abomasnow, and thus had four Pokémon weak to Rock, and four Pokémon weak to Ice. I had a situation where I had brought all 4 Pokémon that were weak to Ice, but still managed to win against a team that had Mamoswine on it. If you told me then that I’d be writing an article about this team based on its successful performances a little over a month later, I’d think that you were lying. But when I think about it… if the opponent doesn’t have much of a way to exploit my team’s widespread Rock/Ice weaknesses, it actually is pretty difficult to face against.

In any case, the team is about pressuring with damaging attacks with Amoonguss as the defensive anchor for the team. As I’ve said a number of times, the team has a lot of common weaknesses, particularly to Rock and Ice, and not that much in terms of defensive bulk outside of Amoonguss. The lack of Steel- or Fairy-types gives Dragons a bit of free reign, but at least the addition of Rotom-W over Abomasnow completes a Fire-Water-Grass triangle to create a proper defensive core within the team. When I had Abomasnow I pretty much wrote the team off as a “defensive train wreck”, but now it’s just on the borderline of being one.

Team Strategy

With Amoonguss, Staraptor’s Intimidate, and a small handful of scattered immunities and resistances, the team runs on a skeleton crew when it comes to its ability to switch around during battle. You’ll need to bank on some sharp team reading skill, and a bit of predictive play in order to sustain your offensive presence and corner the opponent. Some surprises in the form of unexpected Mega Aerodactyl, or Specs Hidden Power Rotom certainly made life easier for me as well. Here are a few points of note for team usage:

Aerodactyl + Amoonguss

As Aerodactyl is the sole Mega on this team, it is often brought into battle. On the other hand, Amoonguss is the defensive anchor to the team. As such, for team selections I’ll often have both Aerodactyl and Amoonguss on the team, and choose two more. I usually try to lead with Aerodactyl in order to have it in safely to become Mega Aerodactyl, as otherwise it can be tough to get Aerodactyl into play. Amoonguss can be placed anywhere on the team, as it is easier to switch in on attacks.

Staraptor, Rotom-W, Amoonguss

Staraptor and Rotom-W have U-Turn and Volt switch, respectively. When this is used along with Amoonguss with Regenerator, I can play a strategy where I can slowly chip away and wear down my opponents with the switching moves, allowing me to pile on Intimidates, or recover HP for Amoonguss.

Chandelure + Amoonguss

Anti-TR set up. Also, even if I’m not facing Trick Room, Chandelure relies very heavily on Amoonguss’s redirection to work effectively. Otherwise, Chandelure is at the mercy of the many Pokémon with Sucker Punch.

Threats

Have I mentioned how this team is a bit of a defensive trainwreck? Most of the time, I can try to keep myself a step or two ahead of my defeat, but some Pokémon just make my chances of survival much, much, worse. There are two huge threats, and a few more lesser, but still noteworthy mentions.

Mamoswine

When Mamoswine can do a huge amount of damage to 5/6 of your Pokémon, you know that you are in some trouble. Staraptor and Rotom-W are pretty much a mandatory choice for me to bring against a team with Mamoswine. From there, I need to do quite a bit of fancy footwork to try to steer the battle towards a victory.

Ludicolo

At some point, I found out that my team has a gigantic weakness to Ludicolo in the rain. I think my only way to deal with a Ludicolo in the rain is to try to KO it by double target, and sacrificing one of my own. In the rain, it can outspeed and OHKO 4/6 of my Pokémon, and it doesn’t get redirected by Rage Powder. I’m pretty sure I flat out lose against this, but somehow I did win one battle with a Ludicolo, and didn’t ever face another. I probably lose on turn 0 against R’s Rain Beat Down.

Mega Tyranitar

Not nearly as potent as the first two, but it tends to come with the team support they need to make it quite difficult for me to get a clean hit in to deal with it. If Mega Tyranitar gets off a Dragon Dance, or two, I’ll be unable to handle it.

Mega Manectric

It outspeeds Aerodactyl, and can do a lot of damage to my Pokémon. However, its attacks are single target, so it can be relatively contained by Amoonguss.

Safety Goggles

Redirection is pretty vital for my team. With how much I feel like I need to plan ahead for my moves, ignoring Rage Powder unexpectedly can put me in a serious disadvantage.

Results and Conclusion

Premier Challenge

I didn’t really face anyone who had a team that could heavily exploit my teams major weaknesses, at least until the person I faced in the last round of Swiss and the Finals, who had Mamoswine. However, since his Mamoswine only had Ice Shard for an Ice Move, it was something that I could manage when I figured that out. I also had to face Phenac in Round 3, where that match pretty much came down to choosing the right move in the final turns.

No Mega tournament

In the end, I won the entire tournament. While there were a lot of activity issues throughout the No Mega tournament, I only had one match where I didn’t end up playing for a round. I sort of feel like I had a ton of lucky breaks during this tournament, as there were so many times where I either got just the right amount of luck, or was able to make just enough of a gutsy play in order to take a victory.

Live Tournaments

This team broke my situation of either going out in R2, or winning the tournament. Had a pretty solid T2, and two T4 finishes I believe.

Scramble

I didn’t really play as many games as I could have, so I ended up missing cut. At one point, I had a record of something like 18W – 1 L, but then played people with a lot of Mamoswine, Mega Tyranitar, and stuff, then dropped to a more reasonable 24-8 or so.

In the end, this was a pretty fun team for me to play. It has blatant flaws in it, but was extremely satisfying to go into mismatched situations, and pull some crazy magical plays in order to come out of the match victorious. While not the kind of team I’d bring to Nationals or Worlds, it was a nice change of pace from my other team this year.

The post Antique Terror Team Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello Nugget Bridge! My name is Terence Dray, and unless you met me in Manchester then you will have no idea who I am! I’m a long-time lurker, practically zero-time poster here on the site. I finished in 10th place at the UK Nationals, and I’m proud to have the opportunity to write this (long overdue) report on the team that got me there. With so many great reports being born from the event, I’ll try to make this one as entertaining and insightful as the rest. Before I kick this off I will add a short disclaimer: I do not consider myself to be particularly great at creating EV spreads, so some could possibly be improved upon. Also, being that this was my first competitive tournament and I didn’t expect to get so far, my notes don’t tell me much at all beyond which Pokémon my opponents chose, so I apologise if I haven’t recounted the battles too well. On to the team!

Team Facts

• The team was roughly 4 months in the making before it reached its final state.
• In terms of damage-dealing moves, my team covers just 8 of the 19 Pokémon types (theoretically it covers 9 if you count the possibility of dropping a rain-influenced Weather Ball).
• The philosophy of the team is to bait out would-be counters and grab almost unpredictable KO’s, manipulate the field to better strengthen my team’s position while hindering my opponents, and all the while hit very hard.

Team Preview

Team Analysis

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Charizard (M) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze -> Drought
Modest Nature
EVs: 212 HP / 4 Def / 252 Sp Atk / 4 Sp Def / 36 Spd
- Protect
- Hidden Power Ice
- Solar Beam
- Heat Wave

Charizard Y was my Mega Evolution of choice, delivering both powerful spread damage and the ability to take on Water-types. Though it requires some support, Drought provides it with the necessary tools to dismantle unprepared teams.

The fastest Charizard will always be slower than Garchomp, so bulk and power was my chosen modus operandi. With this in mind I quickly realised that I could use Charizard to deal with the army of Garchomp that would undoubtedly stand before it, so some form of speed control (read: Trick Room) was in order. I was a little bit worried upon seeing Squirtwo’s team report, as our teams had a lot in common and I was anxious that come Manchester, some of my opponents would be wary of me using Charizard in Trick Room. While it is a coincidence that our teams share several similarities, I did like his rationale at running 36 speed EVs to outspeed all non-scarfed Tyranitar and so re-tweaked my own Charizard’s speed from a redundant 12 speed EVs. Everything else was simply there to maximise damage output and minimise damage received.

I value Protect/Detect and try to find a spot for it when I can. Heat Wave is there for good spread damage, dishing out hits that went from debilitating to devastating once Helping Hand came into play, and nabbed easy KOs on any Manectric that hadn’t come prepared for Trick Room. Solar Beam is there for mandatory coverage to dismantle would-be rain teams and any rogue Mamoswine that pop up. Hidden Power Ice is the real stand-out move of the set, easily OHKOing Garchomp and Salamence. Considering that most teams that run Garchomp would absolutely bring it to a battle, thanks to Wide Guard/Trick Room support my Charizard has KO’d innumerable Garchomp, probably KOing it more than it has any other Pokémon. Furthermore, the popularity of Salamence with a Choice Scarf also made it an easy target, although I always had to be wary of any rare Stone Edge variants.

Aerodactyl (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
Jolly Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
- Protect
- Wide Guard
- Sunny Day
- Rock Slide

I couldn’t solely rely on Trick Room for Charizard to defeat Garchomp, and it was Darkeness’s St. Louis team report that provided me with what in retrospect seemed to be the glaringly obvious alternative: Wide Guard Aerodactyl. Maximum Speed investment was non-negotiable to at least speed-tie with opposing Aerodactyl, and the Focus Sash provided me with some pseudo-bulk, so max Attack also seemed obvious to allow easy KOs on opposing Charizard and Talonflame. I didn’t bring Aerodactyl as much as I normally would have at the National tournament as I felt that maybe my opponents would wise up to Wide Guard alongside Charizard, but it was the difference when I did need it.

The choice of moves don’t need much explanation. Again Protect is self-explanatory. As I’ve mentioned already, Wide Guard is there primarily to stop opposing Rock Slides from wrecking both Aerodactyl and Charizard. Rock Slide is, well, Rock Slide; good typing, STAB, a spread move and capable of flinching. Sunny Day took up the final slot because I believe that all weather teams should have some form of manual weather.

Reuniclus (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Overcoat
Relaxed Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Sp Atk
- Trick Room
- Helping Hand
- Skill Swap
- Psychic

Trick Room support? Check. Skill Swap? Got it. Opinion on mushrooms? Thinks they’re delicious.

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of Reuniclus to this team. I once described it to my girlfriend as the conductor in front of a symphonic orchestra, which sounds ridiculous since I’ve never seen Valery Gergiev OHKO’d by a Choice Specs boosted Hydro Pump. That one hiccup aside (we’ll get to that later), it was this Pokémon’s job to manipulate the field and maintain the most advantageous circumstances for the rest of the team.

Its EVs maximise its incredible bulk. With 110/75/85 as its base defensive stats, maximum HP investment guaranteed surviving a Shadow Ball from max Special Attack, Modest Aegislash. Knowing this, I invested purely in Defense to minimise the damage taken in this heavily-physical metagame. Factor in Intimidate support and Reuniclus has some real staying power, perfect considering I need it on the field for as long as possible.

Trick Room is self-explanatory, and was needed to help support three other members of the team as well as allowing Reuniclus to more often than not move first each turn and therefore for Skill Swap to work to its full potential. In a metagame where many Pokémons strengths lie in their abilities (sometimes quite literally), Skill Swap undoubtedly has more of an influence this generation than in the past. And believe me, simultaneously crippling Mega Kangaskhan/Mega Mawile and using their abilities against them is extremely satisfying. Along with the Wolfe Glick-inspired Intimidate shuffling, Skill Swap allowed both Reuniclus and Scrafty to abuse the power of Parental Bond.

Helping Hand was here to maximise damage. As I mentioned above, my teams attacking options spanned just 8 of the possible 19 types, and as such there were occasions where I couldn’t hit things super-effectively, or I could but the attack would not receive STAB. Helping Hand made up for this, taking my teams high-powered moves and allowing them to grab those KOs that would not be possible otherwise. To give an idea of the power it packs, a Helping Hand-assisted Heat Wave from maximum Special Attack Modest Mega Charizard Y has a 75% chance to OHKO 4HP Mega Kangaskhan with the sun up. However, this was not the calculation that originally convinced me to run Helping Hand, but we’ll get to that soon.

I chose Psychic in the last slot for several reasons:

1. Strong STAB coming off of a base 125 Special Attack stat, allowing Reuniclus to 2HKO Amoonguss should it be my opponent’s preferred method of countering Trick Room. Along with the Overcoat ability blocking Spore and Rage Powder, Reuniclus could easily deal with the annoying mushroom, or ignore it altogether.
2. In case I couldn’t block an incoming Taunt I didn’t want to be forced to switch out. Similarly, if Helping Hand or Skill Swap were not optimal plays, then I could always go for extra, fast damage under Trick Room.
3. In my opinion, no support Pokémon should be without an attacking move. There’s no greater support than being able to KO a threat.

I went with Sitrus Berry to keep Reuniclus on the field for even longer. I did consider going with Mental Herb but the berry proved to be more useful more often. I was wary of Taunt with this team, and if I suspected it in team preview then I would either go fast and leave Reuniclus out/in the back or I would try to prevent it with Fake Out.

Conkeldurr (M) @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
Brave Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Sp Def
- Detect
- Mach Punch
- Rock Tomb
- Drain Punch

Next, I needed a Pokémon that could deal with any Kangaskhan-Smeargle leads that I crossed paths with, but I soon found that Conkeldurr’s utility went far beyond just countering that particular match-up. Boasting some real bulk with 105/95/65 across the base defensive stats, maximum HP investment allowed Conkeldurr to survive a Choice Band Brave Bird from Adamant Talonflame at -1 attack. I went for maximum damage output since base 140 attack translates to big damage against opponents that do not resist the hit, making Conkeldurr one of those Pokémon that had many of its 2HKOs upgraded to OHKOs thanks to some assistance from Reuniclus.

Detect is mandatory for Guts Conkeldurr, allowing the burn to safely take effect should my opponent be threatening with sleep or paralysis. I originally ran Earthquake over Mach Punch to allow Conkeldurr to take on Aegislash, Mega Gengar and Chandelure, but since the team already had several ways to deal with each I concluded that Mach Punch was the way to go, giving me strong priority and some better use outside of Trick Room. Although Conkeldurr would rather not take on Mega Kangaskhan outside of the twisted dimensions, it was the following calculation that gave me solace that Helping Hand and Mach Punch were indeed crucial to the team.

252+ Atk Guts Conkeldurr Helping Hand Mach Punch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 180-212 (99.4% – 117.1%) — 93.8% chance to OHKO

The next move was a toss-up between Drain Punch and Hammer Arm. Hammer Arm provided pure power at the cost of healing and 90% accuracy, while Drain Punch still packed a, well, punch and allowed Conkeldurr to heal off its burn damage. Such was the strength of Drain Punch with a Helping Hand boost that the games frailer Pokémon simply could not take the hit, OHKOing the likes of Kingdra, non-bulky Rotom formes, and a 68.8% chance to OHKO the respectably bulky standard 4HP Garchomp. With 3 Speed IVs (I didn’t have time to breed for 0 and 3 was good enough) Conkeldurr could underspeed even the slowest Mega Mawile and deal 87.8-103.8%, snatching a crucial KO after prior damage from Reuniclus’ Psychic.

Last but not least was Rock Tomb. Quite simply, I needed a Rock-type move to deal with Charizard/Talonflame/anything with wings in Trick Room. Stone Edge was overkill and has horrible accuracy. Rock Slide’s shaky accuracy also had me shaky whenever I needed it to hit. Smack Down, at base 50 power, seemed underwhelming and I had no way of abusing it with Ground-type moves, and so Rock Tomb was my best option. Base 60 power means that it hits harder than Rock Slide after factoring in the damage drop for multi-target moves, and 95% Accuracy was not quite what I wanted but it was pretty darn close. The Speed drop comes in handy should I find myself in the peculiar situation of having both Conkeldurr and Charizard on the field outside of Trick Room with a Garchomp staring them down. In the months of testing I came across this scenario once, against an opponent who was ranked #1 in Australia on the VGC battlespot ladder when it was still around, and Rock Tomb came up clutch and won me the match. Rock Tomb also allowed Conkeldurr to threaten Chandelure and for the most part at least do something to Ghost-types, although it goes without saying that whenever I saw an Aegislash, Gengar, Trevenant or Gourgeist on the opposing team I didn’t immediately start massaging Conkeldurr’s shoulders and discuss tactics with it.

Scrafty (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Brave Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 174 Atk / 12 Def / 76 Sp Def
- Fake Out
- Quick Guard
- Drain Punch
- Crunch

But I did look to Scrafty for some of my ghost-busting needs. One of my favourite Pokémon, I went through 3 or 4 iterations of Scrafty before finally settling on this one.

With 3 team members that are weak to Flying-type moves and a single, frail resist in Aerodactyl, I knew my opponents would more often than not bring Talonflame to the party. Scrafty gave me both Intimidate and vital Quick Guard support, baiting Talonflame out and allowing Conkeldurr to OHKO or Charizard/Reuniclus to hit it for heavy damage. As long as I played Scrafty carefully, Talonflame would not remain on the field for very long.

The HP and Defense EVs allowed Scrafty to survive an Adamant Choice Band Talonflame’s Brave Bird should I have no option but to switch it in, a calculation which generally sat me in good stead against the physical hitters that could only hit Scrafty for neutral damage. I can’t remember what the Special Defense EVs were for, but Aegislash’s Flash Cannon is a 3HKO should I be in the awkward position of relying on Scrafty to take it out. In my opinion Scrafty is one of those Pokémon that really requires some investment in attack, and so I decided to pass-up trying to survive any Dazzling Gleams coming from Gardevoir since Moonblast would be an easy OHKO anyway. While an Assault Vest would have helped in this sense, there was no compromise between it and Quick Guard. Instead, I ran Lum Berry to shake off a burn and to give me the option of switching in on Dark Void.

Fake Out was there to stop an incoming attack if I needed to, whether it be by way of flinching or forcing a Protect. Besides alleviating the teams Talonflame problem, Quick Guard allowed Scrafty to frustrate any Prankster Pokémon that were looking to have some fun. Drain Punch supplements Scrafty’s good bulk and allows it to go head-to-head with Mega Kangaskhan when the field is more conducive to Scrafty than it is Conkeldurr. Crunch threatened Chandelure among other things, and was there for the times when I needed that little bit more damage to grab a KO.

A solid member on most teams, I’m just glad that Sylveon doesn’t get Hyper Voice outside of Gen 5 move tutors. I miss battlespot’s VGC ladder…

Victreebel (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
Timid Nature
EVs: 48 HP / 4 Def / 252 Sp Atk / 4 Sp Def / 204 Spd
- Protect
- Encore
- Weather Ball
- Solar Beam

And finally, the one you’ve all been waiting for…

As with all of these niche, surprise pokemon, Victreebel offered my team something that I couldn’t find elsewhere. First of all I’d like to cover the bad points, of which there are three: 80/65/70. Not the most stellar defensive stats, coupled with the fact that Aerodactyl was already holding the Focus Sash (although I did need the Life Orb in order to further increase damage coming off of its base 100 Special Attack stat) meant that Victreebel could very rarely be switched in, so it was either lead with it or bring it in after a Pokémon faints. As such, I had to choose Victreebel’s battles very carefully. There was no middle ground with Victreebel; either it would be instrumental in getting me a win, or it would essentially make the battle a 4vs3 affair in my opponent’s favour.

So, why did I choose Victreebel? I wanted something that could abuse the sun and really allow me options outside of Trick Room. A Chlorophyll Pokémon seemed obvious, but I wasn’t interested in Venusaur’s 75% accurate Sleep Powder. In fact, I wanted something that could go up against and beat the flower-clad dinosaur. I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t know (and still don’t) what speed investment a standard Chlorophyll Venusaur would run, but I wagered that it wouldn’t be much since that would just be a waste of EVs, so I created my own benchmark in Choice Scarf Garchomp and ran with it. In testing I didn’t encounter any problems, and so the speed EVs stuck. In hindsight I could have EV’d to at least outspeed max Speed Modest Venusaur, just in case. Anyway, versus the Charizard Y/Venusaur lead and partnered first with Charizard and then with Aerodactyl on the second turn, Victreebel was capable of punishing my opponent’s Protects and OHKOing Venusaur in this particular match-up. I tested it more and more against a variety of other teams, and found it to be useful against a good number of opponents.

The EV spread is essentially a 4/252/252 with unneeded speed EVs shifted into bulk. Kind of like how pencil lead adds to the structural integrity of a sheet of paper when you write on it.

The moves are what make this Pokémon so unique. Protect was probably more important on Victreebel than it was any other Pokémon on the team given its awful defensive stats. I chose Solar Beam because if there’s anything Talonflame has taught me this year, it is that base 120 STAB moves deal big damage even when coming off of a base 81 attacking stat, so one coming off of a base 100 attacking stat was good enough for me and, furthermore, I didn’t like the Special Attack drop and 90% accuracy of Leaf Storm. Solar Beam OHKOs bulky Rotom-W and non-Assault Vest Azumarill’ that would otherwise survive a Solar Beam from Charizard. The green beam also really hurts anything that doesn’t resist it, including having a 50% chance of OHKOing 0HP Mega Manectric.

Weather Ball may seem redundant alongside Charizard, but it allowed me to surprise OHKO Bisharp or Mega Mawile. For those who may not know, Weather Ball is a 50BP Normal-type move that changes typing depending on the weather (fire in this case) at which point it becomes boosted to 100BP.  With Victreebel in the back I could afford to play more aggressively with Charizard as long as I maintained a way to get the sun back up should it go down. It was also Victreebel’s job to take on any of these Sucker Punch-wielding threats in the face of Charizard should the orange dragon have already taken prior damage. Encore was the icing on the cake, allowing me to punish Mega Kangaskhan’s Fake Out, any Protect/Detect, and Aegislash’s King’s Shield/Wide Guard/Substitute since Victreebel could only 2HKO defensive stance Aegislash and I never wanted to chance activating a Weakness Policy.

Victreebel also gave me a way to easily deal with the rare but troubling Mega Lucario, and shut down Raichu leads before they could do the same to me.

Careful play was required and having the sun high in the sky was an absolute must, but as long as I provided the right conditions for it, Victreebel could shut down the opposition, force switches, grab KOs and go a long way to getting the team a win. And having a Grass-type capable of setting fire to Steel- and Grass-types just seemed like a good idea.

Since I didn’t record any of my battle replays from the tournament, here’s a video that showcases just how effective Victreebel can be: 7UXG-WWWW-WWW8-5VFV

Matchups

Goodstuffs

Quite simply, if Talonflame was involved then Scrafty had to be too. How I approached goodstuffs teams really depended on which Pokémon my opponent had, and I generally went with which Rotom forme I could be facing, if any. If it was Rotom-H then Trick Room would probably be the way to go, whereas any other appliance meant that a speedier approach could possibly be better. There was no real game plan aside from play carefully and score knockouts when possible.

Sun Teams

Sun teams were usually easily threatened by my team, so a lot of protecting would ensue. I could either take advantage of this with Victreebel and hammer away with Aerodactyl while the ‘bel dropped its Weather Balls onto any opposing Grass-types, or I could go slow and have Reuniclus prey on any dual-type Poison Pokémon. Again, it all came down to what I thought would be the more straightforward approach.

Rain Teams

Rain teams required a strict game plan, but it was one that was often super-effective. Reuniclus and Charizard would be my go-to lead. My opponent would often not lead with Politoed so as not to lose rain upon Charizard’s Mega Evolution, but if they did then it generally meant that their team also carried manual weather. Either way, if Politoed wasn’t on the field and Kingdra or Ludicolo were, then they essentially acted like a sign post that read ‘Politoed incoming to my right/left on the next turn.’ So I would get the sun up, twist the dimensions, then turn two would see Drought Skill Swapped away, and Politoed would be basking under a Solar Beam. From that point, there was rarely a way back into the game if my opponent didn’t have a way of restarting the downpour.

Trick Room

Again, this all came down to exactly which Pokémon would be hopping around on the oppositions side of the field. If Aromatisse was around, then I would be very wary of having Scrafty or Conkeldurr across from it. Reuniclus and Charizard would generally make life difficult for the opposing team, so those two at least would be coming to the battle with the other two members decided based on whether I wanted the fight to stay in Trick Room or out of it.

Threats

Fairy types. Mega Mawile and Azumarill were usually easily dealt with thanks to their dual typings, but any pure Fairy-type or Gardevoir can potentially cause this team huge problems. Since Gardevoir can easily OHKO three of my Pokémon with super-effective damage, if I saw it in team preview then I would hope that Charizard’s Fire-typing and the threat of a Sludge Bomb from Victreebel would be enough to deter it from entering the field of play, but this was rarely successful. The team can KO Gardevoir, and as a last ditch attempt Scrafty could target its low defense stat with a HH-boosted Crunch, but it was something that I simply always had to be mindful of.

‘It’s not on the field, but is it in the back? I better keep Charizard out of harms way, just to make sure.’

Beyond here is my recollection of events at the tournament. Thank you for reading this far, and if you stopped here then I hope you enjoyed the team! As for anyone still remaining, let’s hop right in.

Day 1 – Swiss Rounds

I got registered at about 9.10am and didn’t have my first battle until about 3pm. The time in between was spent sitting around with my girlfriend and watching the Junior competitors of the TCG look like they were going through a mid-life crisis while playing (I wish Pokémon was the most stressful thing in my life). At about 2′o’clock each participant of the Masters Division was given a seat number. Me – in my infinite wisdom – believed that this would be my first battle, but I was later informed that this was just a measure to check that we were all still there or something. I still don’t know exactly what that was about.

Anyway, at this time I sat opposite a cool guy called Tom. We had a chat and he was nice enough to trade me a Moltres that my girlfriend wanted. Being super friendly AND putting me in my girlfriends good books? Top man.

3′o’clock arrives and with it so does a succession of bad note-taking as well as the first battle against a fellow first-timer. Sorry, I didn’t write anybody’s surname down.

Round 1 – Chris

Opponent’s leads: In the back:
Ommitted: Salamence, Rotom-W

I think I chose:

I decide to go full Trick Room simply because I don’t want to fight Salamence out of it in case of a Choice Scarf + Stone Edge. Upon seeing my opponents leads, I decide Skill Swapping Shadow Tag would be the best play since Trick Room no longer seemed like a good idea and Psychic was almost useless. Straight away Reuniclus gets taunted by Scrafty and is kind of just sitting there, so it was down to Charizard to Heat Wave everything away. Luckily, neither of the opposing Pokémon hit as hard as I expected them to, and I was able to turn a bad situation into a favourable one. One faints before the other and Aegislash enters the field. Reuniclus goes down and Charizard finishes off the remaining lead Pokémon. Charizard comes out on the opposite side of the field and Scrafty comes out on mine. In another stroke of good fortune, Charizard Mega Evoles into the X variant, so Intimidate did have some use on the switch-in, and I managed to close it out from there. I started on the back foot but luck favoured me.

Match score: 3/2-0
Overall score: 1-0

Round 2 – James

James was a quiet guy and thus I suspected he had some tricks up his sleeve.

Opponent’s leads: In the back:
Ommitted: Malamar, Dragonite

I chose:

This was it, Victreebel’s grand entrance. Both sets of leads looked precarious at best, so I double-protected turn one to see if my opponent would switch out either of his Pokémon. If he did, fine. If he didn’t, then he obviously had a way of dealing with the mighty combo (not) known as Victreezard. Jolteon went for a Thunderbolt and Greninja went for the Ice Beam. I suspected that Jolteon at least carried Choice Specs, and Greninja threatened a Focus Sash even though I could outspeed and OHKO with Weather Ball thanks to its Protean-gained Ice-typing. I wanted to switch but couldn’t risk allowing Reuniclus to take damage on the way in and subsequently being KO’d by Dark Pulse on the next turn. I kept both leads on the field and my fears were confirmed, with both being OHKO’d but not before Victreebel activated Greninja’s Focus Sash.

Reuniclus and Conkeldurr entered the fray. Mach Punch dealt with Greninja while Reuniclus got to work setting up Trick Room. Amoonguss took that as its cue to join in, leading to a bad play by me: I decided to give away Reuniclus’s Spore immunity in favour of Jolteon’s Volt Absorb. Amoonguss was throwing Rage Powder all over the show, forcing Conkeldurr to hit it with Drain Punch. Skill Swap activates, and Reuniclus gets… Quick Feet. For some reason, my opponent elected to continue Rage Powdering, allowing Psychic to KO in conjunction with a second Drain Punch. From there I was able to KO Jolteon without much of a problem. Scolipede was taken down in one hit by Reuniclus somewhere amongst the mayhem. A very testy game that I felt fortunate to win.

Match score: 2-0
Overall score: 2-0

Round 3 – Timo Koppetsch (37TimoK1)

Opponent’s leads: In the back:
Ommitted: Escavalier, Amoonguss

I think I chose:

Upon asking Timo how long he’d been playing pokemon for, he informed me that he went 8-0 through swiss in the Germany Nationals a few weeks prior and had finished 9th overall. Hearing this, I realised that this was my opportunity to really earn my so-far flawless record.

Seeing rain in team preview, I knew what had to be done. Charizard Mega Evolved and protected against Mega Manectric’s Volt Switch, Kingdra threw out a Muddy Water, and Trick Room went up. I hoped that Manectric would be switched out for Politoed as opposed to Kingdra, and I guessed right, OHKOing it on the switch once Skill Swap re-established harsh sunlight as the dominant weather on the field. Kingdra again went for a Muddy Water, lowering the accuracy of both of my Pokémon. Manectric reappears and I go for a Helping Hand-boosted Heat Wave, with which Charizard overcomes the accuracy drop and OHKOs what could have been a big problem had he missed. Reuniclus misses the Psychic on Kingdra, who starts dropping Draco Meteors. From there, I KO’d Kingdra and my opponent conceded defeat.

Timo was very gracious in defeat, expressing admiration for my team and supporting me for the rest of the tournament (unless of course I happened to face-off against any of the friends he’d travelled so far from Germany with).

Match score: 3-0 I think.
Overall score: 3-0

Round 4 – Greg

Opponent’s leads: In the back:
Ommitted: Garchomp, Amoonguss

I chose:

Greg was in the same position as me: there to have fun but happened to be doing well.

Seeing the Team Preview, I decided that it was once again time for Victreebel. Turn 1 I double-protected to block the Fake Out, Encoring it on turn 2 while Charizard Solar Beamed into Rotom’s Protect. Turn 3 I knew a double switch was coming, and a quick glance at my notes told me that no matter what switched in it wasn’t going to take a combination of Solar Beam and Heat Wave. Gyarados came in for Rotom-W and was promptly KO’d by the combination of the two moves, and Rhyperior dodged the Heat Wave as it tagged out Mega Kangaskhan. Kangaskhan came back out immediately, causing me to make a questionable play. I decided to again go for a Solar Beam + Heat Wave combo on Kangaskhan’s slot, expecting a Protect from Rhyperior. Rhyperior didn’t Protect, and I think it went down like this: Solar Beam hit Kangaskhan, Kangaskhan KO’d Victreebel with Return, Charizard KO’d Kangaskhan with Heat Wave and Rhyperior slid some rocks in Charizards general direction, grabbing an easy KO.

So we’re down to 2vs2, but I still feel as though the battle is in my favour. Conkeldurr KO’d Rhyperior while Reuniclus set up Trick Room, and Rotom fired a Hydro Pump at Conkeldurr. The next turn saw Rotom take a HH-boosted Drain Punch, after which it again hit Conkeldurr with a Hydro Pump. There may have been a critical hit in there somewhere, because after the ensuing burn damage, Conkeldurr was one more burn away from fainting. Expecting the Protect I targeted Reuniclus with Drain Punch, knowing it could easily take the hit. Rotom indeed protected and Conkeldurr again had just enough HP after the burn to allow for one more hit at Rotom. Feeling good about that play, I went for the Drain Punch… but didn’t account for the second Protect. Conk goes down and Reuniclus at almost full HP takes on the low HP Rotom and comes out on top. A tricky game at times.

Match score: 1-0
Overall score: 4-0

Round 5 – Daniele

Opponent’s leads: In the back:
Ommitted: Amoonguss, Politoed

I chose:

Once again, a rain team, so I assumed the usual position and hoped to grab a straightforward win. I saw Meowstic alongside Kingdra and expected the Politoed switch on turn 2. So turn 1 I do the obligatory Mega Evolve + Protect while Reuniclus uses Tr-

Meowstic used Rain Dance!

Kingdra used Hydro Pump!

Reuniclus fainted!

‘Poop.’ said my inner voice, in a much less child-friendly manner. Though Rain Dance was predictable in normal circumstances, I’d been completely thrown off by Politoed in team preview. It was at this point that I started performing a little rain dance of my own in order to get it off of the field, but I honestly saw no way back for me.

Scrafty came in to Fake Out Kingdra and allow Charizard to switch out for Conkeldurr, while Meowstic starts Charming Scrafty. Next turn I switched Scrafty out for Charizard, Meowstic brings the rain once again and Kingdra aims his Choice Specs-boosted Hydro Pump at Conkeldurr…

Conkeldurr avoided the attack!

Conkeldurr then knocks Kingdra’s HP down to the red zone, allowing Mach Punch to KO on the next turn. My fortunes were changing, but Meowstic was still an issue. The rest of the battle is a blur, but I narrowly grab it with Charizard relying on Heat Wave not missing, KOing Mega Pinsir and Aegislash after it was revealed that Pinsir was not carrying a Rock-type move.

Easily the most stressful match of the two days. However, I made a good friend and sparring partner in Dan, and we’ll no doubt be sharing ideas once the new metagame hits later this year. A really cool guy.

Match score: 1-0
Overall score: 5-0

Round 6 – Guillermo Sanavia

My next opponent informed me that he had been playing pokemon for a few years and has done well in prior tournaments, so I knew I was going to be in for an incredibly tough match.

Opponent’s leads (I think): In the back:
Ommitted: Venusaur, Tyranitar

I think I chose:

I don’t remember much other than it was intense. It was like a dance-off, with both of us switching pokemon to try to get the upper hand. At no point did I feel that either player was winning in the tussle for momentum until the very end, when I managed to pull ahead.

A protracted, nervy affair.

Match score: 2-0 I think
Overall score: 6-0

Round 7 – Carlo Arbelli (shinycarletto)

I didn’t know who Carlo was, and up until that point I had simply known him as ‘the vocal guy to my left/right during my battles’. A very skilled player, I would definitely have changed my lineup should I have faced him again.

Opponent’s leads: In the back:
Ommitted: Amoonguss, Blastoise

I chose:

Turn 1 saw Victreebel and Charizard both use Protect, while Tailwind goes up for my opponent and my Aerodactyl dropping rocks on the opponent. Straight away, I had a problem. Again, I don’t remember exactly how it went, but I managed to stall out Tailwind, and predicted a Charizard switch-in which Conkeldurr nailed with Rock Tomb. I got very fortunate at one point, beating the opposing Aerodactyl in a speed-tie, KOing it with Rock Slide and flinching Garchomp, allowing Charizard to grab the OHKO. Against Bisharp, I switched out Aerodactyl for Victreebel while my low-HP Charizard used Protect. Predicting the Protect, Carlo had Bisharp target Aerodactyl with an Iron Head which just put Victreebel in the red and my heart in my mouth. Having survived, Victreebel was able to OHKO with Weather Ball after Charizard was taken out by a Sucker Punch. A fortunate win.

Match score: 2-0
Overall score: 7-0

Round 8 – Tyler Bakhtiari (Pokeguru01)

Tyler and I both sat down at table 1 and congratulated each other on being the only remaining players in flight A with a 100% win percentage. Feeling at ease, we had a chat while everyone else around us started their battles. After a while, it became apparent that some of those battles had already begun to finish, so we decided it was finally time to get down to business.

Opponent’s leads (I think): In the back:
Ommitted: Garchomp, Gyarados, Gourgeist

I think I chose:

Urgh, Gardevoir. I knew I had to get it knocked out as soon as possible otherwise I would have no chance of winning. I can’t remember exactly what happened, but through some clever play on Tyler’s part with the use of Substitute and Ally Switch, my team soon found itself in a hole from which there was no escape, thus incurring my first and only loss of the day. A great guy with a great team.

Match score: 0-4
Overall score: 7-1

Having finished 2nd in the flight, I headed back to the hotel to get some long overdue rest before the next day’s knockout phase.

Day 2 – BO3 Knockout Stage

Last 32 – Pedro Lima

I started this set by asking Pedro how to pronounce his name, making me look like a real idiot. However, the blame lies with Nugget Bridge for spelling his name as Predo on the site the night before, so thanks for that!

Battle #1

He used (not in order): 
Ommitted: Amoonguss, Talonflame

I chose:

Rain mode, activate! I can’t remember the exact order of events, but I got Trick Room up and Charizard was able to OHKO Garchomp and Ludicolo, (Hidden Power Ice and Helping Hand boosted Heat Wave, respectively) and 2HKO Politoed. Kangaskhan stood no chance against the two Fighting-types in the back, and I won quite handily.

Match score: 3-0 I think.
Set score: 1-0

What I learned from battle 1:

1. I expected Politoed to be slower than Charizard but without rain Ludicolo was too.
2. Garchomp carried neither a Focus Sash nor a Yache Berry, and did have Rock Slide.
3. Kangaskhan was expectedly faster than Charizard, and it had Protect over Fake Out.

Battle #2

He used (not in order): 
Ommitted: Amoonguss, Talonflame

I chose:

With the info I had gained from game 1 – and believing that my opponent would switch it up a bit – I decided that going fast with slow in the back was my best bet since Aerodactyl could stop Garchomp’s Rock Slide and deal with the Talonflame that I was certain would make an appearance. As you can see, Pedro’s lineup in fact remained unchanged.

Memory fails me once more, but at one point Kangaskhan Power-Up Punched Conkeldurr as it switched in alongside Reuniclus. Trick Room wasn’t up, and I knew that Kangaskhan would absolutely remain on the field given its +2 attack boost, so out came the Helping Hand-boosted Mach Punch to grab the surprise OHKO. I kept rain off of the field and managed to net win number 2.

Pedro was another in a long line of cool dudes that I met over the two day event, and talked very enthusiastically about my team afterwards. Thumbs up to you, sir.

Last 16 – Niall Crallan (TheLastSheikah)

Battle #1

Opponent’s leads: In the back:
Ommitted: Garchomp, Rotom-H

I chose:

I tried to keep this fight outside of Trick Room, but my efforts were in vain. Trick Room went up, Scrafty revealed Rock Slide, and Abomasnow cleaned up Victreebel and Reuniclus, but not before Nidoqueen fell to Psychic.

Match score: 1-3
Set score: 0-1

Battle #2

Opponent’s leads: In the back:
Ommitted: Nidoqueen, Scrafty

I chose:

Since fast-mode was more like ineffective-mode in game 1, I resigned myself to the fact that game 2 was going to be fought in Trick Room no matter what and prepared accordingly.

This game went a lot smoother than the first. Scrafty was able to OHKO Slowking with a Helping Hand-boosted Crunch, Charizard KO’d Garchomp, and Conkeldurr grabbed KOs on Abomasnow and Rotom-H. I spent part of the game trying to make it seem as though Conkeldurr wasn’t running priority so as not to have to worry about Mach Punching into Protect when facing off against the ice tree. Although I was successful, my opponent now knew that I packed both Mach Punch and Hidden Power Ice going into the final game.

Match score: 3-0
Set score: 1-1

Battle #3

Opponent’s leads: In the back:
Ommitted: Abomasnow, Nidoqueen

I chose:

If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Except this time Charizard faced impending Rock Slides both in and out of Trick Room. It was a long match, ending on the turn that the timer hit 0, with Trick Room being used countless times as each player vied to twist or untwist the dimensions. The game ended in ironic fashion, with Charizard being OHKO’d by the one pokemon and the one move that I had tried so hard to counter: Garchomp’s Rock Slide.

I’ve thought about this set quite a lot since the event, and even now I simply cannot see a concrete, consistent strategy that I could employ against Niall’s team. I felt as though I had built a team that was difficult to counter using conventional methods, but this particular opponent just had the right balance of pressure both in and out of Trick Room to make these matches extremely tough for me. A really great, original team.

Match score: 2-0
Set score: 1-2

Thanks for reading this far, and I hoped that you enjoyed the team and the report. I would like to say thanks to all of the great people that I met that made the experience what it was, and I would also like to thank Olivia, my girlfriend, for making the trip with me from London. Next year, you’re gonna compete too!

Thanks again, and come say hi if you recognise my name at future events. See you there!

The post For Whom the ‘Bel Tolls! A 10th Place UK Nationals Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi, my name is Carlos Rendón, also known as TulioCaraven here on Nugget Bridge, and I’m here to tell you my experience at the very first Premier Challenge in Mexico City, the biggest in the world so far, with around 300 players in the Masters division.

It all began a couple of months ago when a trio of official tournaments was finally announced, a Premier Challenge in Mexico City, one in Monterrey and another in Querétaro. The excitement in social networks was so big that I decided to start a serious team building and training process.

The Team at a Glance

I have been playing with a consistent core for a while now that let me handle quite a wide array of teams with lots of dual typing for good switching synergy. It was hard to get it as I have two Fairy weaknesses and there was a time when I had as much as four. That Dark typing in everything…

In the beginning I tried Mega Medicham but it was too frail, then I tried Mega Mawile, but it was too slow and finally I decided to try Mega Venusaur to counter Rotom-W and it ended being my Mega of choice as along with Rotom-H, it gave me two resistances to Fairy and rounded out a very solid core.

The other 2 members help me deal with very specific Pokémon, the aforementioned Fairies and Double Dragon + Rain Teams. The choices to fill these roles were Scizor and Zapdos, so lets see each one in detail.

The Core

Scrafty (M) @ Rocky Helmet (HoodieDaPunk)
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Crunch
- Quick Guard
- Fake Out

The nickname is just a description of his look using some cool words.

Scrafty is such a nice Pokémon, it has a wide move pool, with both offensive and supportive moves, and such a cool design that it was an easy addition to my team. During the Nugget Bridge Major 3 I used him offensively with Fake Out, High Jump Kick, Crunch and Head Smash, but it was such a kamikaze set that he fainted when I still needed him, so he needed another set.

Later, when I added Mega Venusaur to my team, I found the perfect move set for Scrafty. Drain Punch and Crunch are his best STABs. I would rather have Knock Off but it is not available this season, but the true stars of the move set are Quick Guard and Fake Out. Although Quick Guard can’t block any other Fake Out apart from slower Scrafty, it can block things like Aqua Jet, Sucker Punch, Bullet Punch, Mach Punch, Pranksters and specifically Gale Wings Talonflame’s Brave Bird, which are all huge treats this year and you may be crazy if you don’t have anything to block priority moves in a team as slow as mine. Fake Out often forces double Protects, and one of its best uses is to surprise Talonflame and knock it out with Fake Out and Quick Guard with a couple of Sludge Bombs from Mega Venusaur.

The bulky EV spread allows Scrafty to take a Sun boosted Mega Charizard Y Heat Wave, or a Salamence’s Draco Meteor on the special side. Physically it can take Mega Kangaskhan’s Fake Out + Return after intimidate, and knock her out with a Drain Punch after the double Rocky Helmet damage, in addition Garchomp sits as a paper weight in front of Mega Venusaur after intimidate… except for the flinches.

Venusaur (M) @ Venusaurite (Kermit Klein)
Ability: Chlorophyll / Thick Fat
EVs: 248 HP / 108 Def / 132 SAtk / 20 SDef
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sleep Powder
- Sludge Bomb
- Protect

I really don’t like Mega Venusaur’s design, I think its uninspiring and ugly, but I love my Pokémon so I nicknamed him Kermit Klein so he would have a famous and fashion related name and he doesn’t feel out of place with his partners.

The beast of the team, with high defenses and two excellent abilities, Venusaur has jumped to fame and I’m sure that the predictions of being the dark horse at Worlds will be a reality. The EV spread is mine and it makes him survive a Choice Banded neutral Talonflame Brave Bird 50% of the times and then knock it out with Sludge Bomb after recoil, unless it is invested in HP, this isn’t obviously its main goal, but if the worst would happen I would have some peace of mind. It also allows me to handle Mega Kangaskhan better with Scrafty’s Intimidate support due to the high investment in Defense and HP and the recovery from Giga Drain.

Mega Venusaur can Knock out almost anything in 2 or 3 hits if I decide to attack, with very low risk. I use Sleep Powder as a last resort if I know I’m in a tight situation, like a Choice Scarfed Salamence, or a Mega Mawile who are both a threat to Garchomp and I cannot OHKO after their Intimidates.

On top of that its Hidden Ability is a blessing when facing a Sun team, as it has allowed me to win almost lost battles. Usually Mega Charizard Y is more supportive for my team than a threat, as it makes me faster so I Sleep Powder Mega Charizard Y while Mega Evolving in case the Sleep Powder misses and then the flower’s party can begin. With his immunity to the powder moves the next partner is an obvious choice….

Rotom-Heat @ Safety Goggles  (Summer Hiit)
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 244 HP / 36 Def / 140 SAtk / 4 SDef / 84 Spd
Modest Nature
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat

You know, its Summer, there’s heat… it’s just a words game. Such a cool Pokémon with such a cool design, I mean, it’s an oven!

A cool oven who has taken the stage thanks to its natural bulkiness, an excellent ability and a standard but very efficient move set. After reading the Safety Googles article here on Nugget Bridge I knew Rotom-H would make my life easier against Sun teams and the always pesky Amoonguss, rendering him useless and allowing me to take its partners slowly and safely

To keep bad luck away I only use Will-O-Miss when it is absolutely necessary or when I have used Overheat twice and the opponent expects a switch, catching them off guard most of the time.

The EV spread is from Ray Rizzo‘s WigglyTough is Tough Enough! report, as it can OHKO his own Mega Mawile spread and with Intimidate support Rotom-H gets even harder to take down.

Garchomp (M) @ Lum Berry (SlayMii)
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Protect

The nickname is to attract attacks to him, I don’t really know if it works, but I like it. This monster design just rocks!

Same as 99.9% percent of the world, I also love Garchomp and as we all know what this set does I won’t take the time to explain it.

Rounding Out The Core

Scizor (M) @ Life Orb  (Beatle Comet)
Ability: Technician
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 228 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Feint
- U-turn
- Thief

A beatle with a pair of punches that hit at comet’s speed! One of my favorite Pokemon due to his cool design  and nice concept.

For half the year I thought Scizor was not very viable this season, but with an EV Spread from DaWoblefet and a moveset from R Inanimate‘s Villains Always Plot in the Dark report all changed, I really think this is the perfect set for Scizor this season. It allows me to OHKO almost every Gardevoir who threatens Scrafty, Venusaur and Garchomp, it also outspeeds max Speed neutral Tyranitar so I can U-Turn before getting roasted.

Life Orb gives me a lot more flexibility than a Choice Band, as while testing sometimes I was locked into a move needing another without the chance to switch. The EV spread is optimized for Life Orb use, and though I’m no fan of it, as Scizor is very frail, when the opponent is not careful it can wreak havoc.

U-Turn gets the OHKO on Hydreigon and Thief is for preventing Aegislash from Substituting, and hitting other careless Ghost types, like non Scarfed Chandelure, Gourgeist and Trevenant. Feint is an amazing move as it breaks Protect, Detect, Wide Guard, Quick Guard and Sucker Punches due to its +2 priority, it is also a good move to finish off weakened Talonflames as it takes almost one third off of its HP, among others.

Zapdos @ Leftovers (Woodstock)
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 84 HP / 108 Def / 252 SAtk / 60 SDef
Modest Nature
IV’s: 31/x/31/31/31/28
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Substitute
- Protect

I really couldn’t get a nicknamable Zapdos, but if I could Woodstock would have been its name. I think that Zapdos is the grown up form of Woodstock, from Peanuts. I used to hate Zapdos’ design, as I prefer Articuno, but my love for him grew and it’s OK.

Zapdos was the last member I picked for my team, as it was a very though decision. This legendary bird came to my mind on a very bad day in which I was very sick and I couldn’t attend college, so I had a lot of time to think and came to the conclusion that the things that I needed were something that could resist Talonflame’s Brave Bird and another option to face the popular Double Dragon.

The set I had planned was a Sitrus Berry one, it gave me nice results on Showdown but testing it in Battle Spot said otherwise so I changed the set for a Substitute one. As its Speed IVs are 28 I couldn’t even afford a speed tie with other base 100s. I also thought of a Choice Scarf set, which would’ve helped me more in the long run but I didn’t have the time to test it before the tournament.

The spread is a bulky and Leftovers optimized one, so it can take a Rock Slide or a Draco Meteor and retaliate with Hidden Power Ice or hide behind a Substitute after that. It is really a niche Pokémon to help me under very specific situations.

I want to thank No2moloh for providing me this Zapdos with Substitute, as it gave me the idea to use this set and the possibility of using Zapdos itself. If I could only had more time to test this and the Choice Scarf set…. oh well.

The Big Day

On the night before the tournament I was so stressed that I decided to go and watch How to Train Your Dragon 2 (what an irony, due to my 2 final matches not trusting my beloved dragon) which helped me a lot, so I won’t be nervous the next day. Later,  I arranged with my Friend Omar Ruiz to meet us at Xola, where we would ride the subway to General Anaya, the closest station to the Venue. There we found Joaquin Campuzano, another friend of mine who kindly trade me some berries to re-EV Zapdos for Leftovers use. When all of our friends were there we walked for around 15 minutes to the venue, where there were so many people that I couldn’t believe it was finally the time for my very first Live Official Tournament.

The place was full of numbered chairs and there were like 350 of them, they had the function of a “table” in the sense that they were numbered in pairs where players would have their matches. There were no actual tables, so taking notes was something I had to leave for the Top Cut, good thing that we could save battle videos! It was not as comfortable as I would’ve liked, and after some time there was a lot of heat and sweat because there were a lot of people and so little space.

After two hours of registration and with one hour of delay, an explanation of the tournament was given, announcing 9 swiss rounds and only a top cut of 8 players, some kind of insane decision due to the large amount of players, and I knew I won’t have space for misplays or losses. The swiss rounds finally started, and here it goes how it went!

I will only name my opponents from his IGN and sometimes by their real names (all of them were male, if you were wondering), as I have bad memory and didn’t take notes until the Top Cut, if any of you guys are reading this and have an account here on Nugget Bridge tell me your forum names. I also added the battle codes right after the name of my opponents.

The Swiss Rounds

Swiss 1 vs Arm

3GKW-WWWW-WWW8-EYHP

He Brought:    

I Brought:   

Basically I just tried to avoid any status condition from his Rotom-H and Amoongus, those Safety Googles! I connected a Sludge Bomb on his Kangaskhan in a switch so that made the battle a lot easier, knocking it out the next turn with a double target on her as I expected a Fake Out. I missed a Will-O-Wisp, but everything was under control. Win. 1-0

Swiss 2 vs Arthur★♪

RPUG-WWWW-WWW8-76WN

He brought:     

I Brought:     

One of the hardest battles of the tournament, and a shiny Politoed, I love those! I tried to set up a Substitute with Zapdos, but he brought 2 Ice Beamers, or so I thought, so I had to Protect and then switch until I got to a better position while opening up holes on his Pokémon. He waited to Mega Evolve Manectric but finally had to and played his Noivern very well, as it was his only Pokémon who could threaten Mega Venusaur. Finally I could set up Substitute, at the cost of a Life Orb Rock Slide from Greninja and KOed him with a Giga Drain from Mega Venusaur, only to get Zapdos knocked out by his Infiltrator Noivern. I should have had a very funny face from that play, because my opponent’s face was of pure joy. In the end only Noivern at almost full health and Politoed at 50% were left against my 1/3 HP Venusaur and Red HP Scrafty. Politoed wasted his Protect the last turn and tried a second Protect but didn’t manage it, while Scrafty aimed it’s Fake Out at Noivern even if I predicted his Protect, just as a preventive measure. Venusaur drained all of Politoed’s remaining HP. The moment of truth came, could Venusaur resist a Hurricane from Noivern at 3/4 HP?. He did it with 4HP and nailed a Sleep Powder, in a high risk, high reward play, as I didn’t know if he would target Venusaur or Scrafty, then proceeded to knock him out with Crunch + Sludge Bomb. Win. 2-0

Swiss 3 vs Demian (Brian Ochoa)

8KGG-WWWW-WWW8-EYHG

He brought:  

I brought:  

The admin of PokeDF, the Pokémon League I play in, and one of my PokeDudes. Like everybody else I didn’t wanted to be paired up with a friend, but tournaments are mean like pigs meat. I brought Rotom-H and Scrafty as leads to avoid a possible burn and block any other Prankster’s pranks (pun intended). I got the burn on his Sableye because they are difficult to OHKO or 2HKO. He confused my Rotom and my Scrafty but thankfully they made the moves that I needed to KO his Sableye. His shiny Venusaur came out, and was Faked Out, so I had the advantage by Sludge Bombing him first with mine safe for that turn, then switching Scrafty and avoiding a Venusaur flinch by Faking Out his Garchomp. To avoid a very annoying bad hax situation (His Garchomp winning the speed tie and scoring a critical hit)I didn’t bring my own Garchomp until the very end and played conservatively, which paid off. Win. 3-0

Swiss 4 vs Rodrigo Maldonado Weil

He brought:     

I brought:    

This battle was as hard as the one on from the second round. I don’t remember it in detail, but in the end there was only my Venusaur and Rotom-H, both in red HP vs his Paralyzed Mega Mawile  with 3/5 HP (Zapdos did that with a Thunderbolt…) and had already used Sucker Punch four or five times expecting a Rotom’s Overheat, which I expected him to do, so I just used Protect to stall his Sucker Punches, and started to drain his HP with Giga Drain, but then the worst luck happened. The connection was lost and we had to call a judge who decided to give me the loss because the connection error appeared first on my 3DS screen. I was disappointed with that decision, as I thought a coin flip was the fairest thing to do, but my opponent didn’t want to do that. After that he calmed me down telling me we would face each other in the top cut and would have a re-match to finish that uncertain battle. We shook hands and made it something like a promise. It is obvious to say that I couldn’t save this battle due to the connection error. Lose. 3-1

Swiss 5 vs Edgar (Marco Édgar Huerta Rincón)

EA2W-WWWW-WWW8-EYFF

He brought:  

I brought: 

As soon as I Saw his Talonflame on team preview I knew I had to take him out quickly so I picked Zapdos and Scrafty as Leads. I could safely set up a Substitute on turn one but it only helped me to hit his Meowstic once, and got a burn on Scrafty in return from his Rotom-H. After a few turns Venusaur finally came out of his Poke Ball and hit his Rotom-H with a Sludge Bomb, and for some weird reason he used Fake Out in a turn he could not use it anymore so Meowstic went down. He then Mega Evolved his Gyarados and KO’d his own Rotom-H with an Earthquake, while I switched mine for Scrafty to avoid just that. Scrafty went down to a second Earthquake but not without Faking Out his Talonflame, who then received a Sludge Bomb that only took one third of his health, which surprised me. The next turn I Protected Venusaur and Thunderbolted his Talonflame and he had no other option than to forfeit the next turn. Win. 4-1

Swiss 6 vs R. Spark (Ángel Orozco)

Z6KW-WWWW-WWW8-76XE

He brought:  

I brought:  

Another player from PokeDF, and a battle that would decide who would top cut and who wouldn’t. Another Talonflame but this time in a sun team, one of the best match-ups for my core. In this battle I got some luck in my favor but this only tells me that you shouldn’t trust a move with less than 100% as your primary option to attack. Both my Pokémon avoided the Heat Wave from his Charizard Y, but barring a critical hit they would have survived it. I Sleep Powdered and took out his Charizard Y first, and then started to take out the others with my reliable Garchomp. He also missed a Sleep Powder on Garchomp, but my opponent never knew that my Garchomp was carrying a Lum Berry. Only his Talonflame remained and it was KO’d with a Dragon Claw + Thunderbolt. He later complained about hax but remember, don’t trust in moves with less than 100% when you don’t have the need to make risky plays, use them as your last resort, almost all hax can be minimized. Win. 5-1

Swiss 7 vs Ewok (Christian Ramírez Lira)

SFSW-WWWW-WWW8-EYF5

He brought:  

I brought:  

At the start of this round it was announced that the Top Cut would be changed to Top 16 and the crowd went nuts, I knew I would have more chance on top cutting after that disastrous and not deserved loss in swiss 4 and played under less stress. On the first turn I had to switch because of the risk of a burn or a OHKO, his Will-O-Wisp went to the Protect of my Garchomp, and he confused my Venusaur with Dynamic Punch who hit himself in confusion, I didn’t care and left him on the field to get rid of Rotom-W before I could do anything else, Then his Charizard Y came in. My Rotom-H went down to a couple of Dynamic Punches and a Heat Wave, not before Thunderbolting his Charizard, who fell to a Dragon Claw from my Garchomp. The next step was easy, putting his Machamp to sleep and his ability gave me the 100% accuracy that I love. I then took care of his Garchomp without worries, as he didn’t fish for flinches, and with Scrafty’s Fake Out support I didn’t let him whatsoever, and sealed the game with a Giga Drain on his Machamp. Win. 6-1

Swiss 8 vs Bahamut (José Arturo Cervantes)

SB3W-WWWW-WWW8-76XM

He brought:  

I brought:   

I immediately recognized his team from Team Preview, it was Lajo’s Germany Nationals Team. This was also quite a hard match. I knew he would go for a burn and then Trick Room, so I U-Turned and he failed his first Will-O-Wisp of the match. He eventually failed three Will-O-Wisps through the game… See what I told you about all the non 100% accuracy moves? I tried to get rid of that pesky Trevenant fast, mainly because I hate his ability, if you don’t take him down quickly it could be game over. I took his Trevenant on turn 2 and that gave me a huge advantage as it was his only Trick Room setter. He made some good switching to protect his Mega Mawile and got my Rotom-H to -4 SpAtk by misplaying my Overheats, but at least I managed to burn his Goodra at the very high cost of eating a Muddy Water. In the end I had 3 Pokémon left against his Rotom-H but they were either not very effective, severely crippled by a burn or with very low HP, so I had to play carefully and try to predict him, which I did. Win. 7-1

Swiss 9 vs Axel(Axel Macías)

Z6CG-WWWW-WWW8-EYEC

He brought:  

I brought:  

The last round of swiss, if I could win this one I would be very motivated to go for the first place in top cut and get that first place prize, a New Super Mario & Luigi Wii U Bundle. I couldn’t see in team preview that his team was all physical based, but it was a good thing to bring Scrafty. I Faked Out + Sludge Bombed his Talonflame on turn one, then Quick Guarded + Sludge Bombed on turn 2 to bring down that bird, while he focused his Garchomp’s efforts on my Mega Venusaur. Charizard appeared and surprised me as it was the X variant. Scrafty did his work and Intimidated both his Garchomp and Charizard, I then burnt his Garchomp and sent my own Garchomp to “seal the game” but an Outrage from his Charizard X brought my Garchomp down on the switch, that would be the reason why I did hesitate to bring him on a later round… Oh well. I got rid of Charizard X with a Sludge Bomb (Mega Venusaur is such a monster, he KOs things supposed to counter him!) His Garchomp fainted from burn damage and it was only a matter of Punk to KO that Snorlax, good job Scrafty! Win. 8-1

When all rounds of swiss had gone it was time to wait for the results to be processed and printed, the staff took out all the chairs and suddenly I felt better with more space around and less heat and sweat all over me. As I had an 8-1 score I knew that I would Top Cut, and when I checked the table I was very excited, I was seeded second, whatever seeded means. Well, I came in second place only under a player named Dracko, who defeated my friends Joaquin Campuzano and Cesar Ramírez in Swiss. I could scout his team a bit so I would be prepared for a possible match but that never happened, because Bahamut (my swiss 8 opponent) defeated him with that Trevenant on a “must see to believe” round of 16 third match, where it harvested his berry every time he needed it. Just wow, well played Bahamut, you just kept calm and knew when to Protect that last turn!

The Top Cut

Over the course of Swiss my friend Joaquín told me that Luvier was around, as he had seen him on his Passerby list. I got pumped as he is one of the best players of Mexico, well he has a brother who is as good as him, known by the name of Kodama, and both of them were in the Top Cut!!!. Add Dracko, who went undefeated in Swiss and is also an old school player to that list, and don’t forget Rodrigo Maldonado, that guy from my 4th tragic but very hard round, GuPi, and Bahamut, the eventual finalists, among others and the top cut was plagued with very good players!!.

Round of 16 vs Kenichi  (José Carlos González Aguilar)

Game 1

He brought:  

I brought:  

On the first turn I went for his Azumarril as it can become dangerous if it sets up. Turn 2 I went for a double target on Mega Manectric. We made some switches and he confused my Rotom-H with his Murkrow, but it didn’t hit itself and the crow went down to a Thunderbolt. I managed to get a burn on his Garchomp while KOing Manectric and the game was over with two Giga Drains from Mega Venusaur. Win. 1-0

Game 2

He brought:  

I brought:  

I knew his Espeon could be carrying Dazzling Gleam and Psychic so I had to be careful with both Venusaur and Scrafty. After some switching his Azumarril appeared and Scrafty blocked an Aqua Jet, there was more switching and I finally KOed his Meowstic. I also managed to burn his Garchomp and sent Scizor to KO his Espeon, but he switched a lot again and my Scizor U-Turned his Garchomp and KOed him. Finally I Faked Out his Azumarril and Thunderbolted his Espeon to almost knock it out, but he also KOed my Scrafty with a Dazzling Gleam. The next turn I KOd his Espeon with Scizor’s Feint who also fainted from Life Orb Damage, so only his Azumarril remained and KOed my Rotom-H with an Aqua Jet, but Mega Venusaur won the match with a Sludge Bomb, just in case he was running Sap Sipper. Win. 2-0

Quarterfinals vs Aioros

Game 1

He brought:  

I brought:  

His leads were a bad matchup for my leads so I had to switch Scrafty on the first turn and he used Fake Out + Quick Guard, such a weird move. Turn two I switched Venusaur for Garchomp and knocked out his Talonflame with a Thunderbolt. He replaced Talonflame with his Rotom-W and I switched again and Giga Drained his Kangaskhan, who targeted Scrafty and got Rocky Helmet damage to get Kangaskhan to red HP. He switched to Garchomp and burned my Venusaur. The next turn I Protected my Garchomp and KOed his Rotom-W with a Giga Drain. The next turn I double switched to Scrafty and Rotom-H and got the KO on his Kangaskhan with Fake Out and Will-O-Wisped his Garchomp, who was his last Pokémon standing, and I took him in a very conservative way, switching again and sacrificing Scrafty with a Fake Out to avoid a flinch or a critical hit and sealed the game with a Giga Drain. Win. 1-0

Game 2

He brought:  

I brought:  

First turn I had to switch Scrafty for Rotom-H to prevent his Spore, but he used Rage Powder instead and targeted my Protected Venusaur. I then switched Venusaur for Garchomp and he switched to absorb my Thunderbolt with his Garchomp and Protected his Amoongus. I then switched again to Intimidate his Garchomp and Protected, but he managed to Spore my Scrafty. Then he switched his Garchomp for Kangaskhan who ate a Dragon Claw on the switch. She Mega Evolved next turn and Faked Out my recently switched Venusaur and I switched again to absorb his Spore with my already asleep Scrafty. He switched to recover from the Intimidate and his Talonflame took a Sludge Bomb. Next turn I Protected Venusaur and replaced Scrafty for Rotom-H, who took a Brave Bird from his Talonflame who fainted from recoil and Life Orb damage. He replaced Talonflame with Kangaskhan and I switched Venusaur to Scrafty who took a Fake Out from Kangaskhan which fainted from Rocky Helmet’s damage. Then I replaced Rotom-H with Venusaur and sacrificed Scrafty to get Rotom-H in without damage, but didn’t get the KO on his Garchomp by only a little HP. Next turn I switched again Rotom-H for Garchomp and he then forfeited, as only his Amoongus remained after I KOed his Garchomp. So much switching that my head aches just from writing it!!!. Win. 2-0

Semifinals vs GuPi (Jonathan Juárez)

Game 1

He brought:   

I brought:  

I saw his team and it was a little scary, as I thought 3 or 4 Pokémon could counter Garchomp. I didn’t care and picked him for the back, along with all of my core. I switched Rotom-H to Intimidate his Garchomp and as fast as I could I put his Mega Mawile to sleep then I targeted him like 3 times, but couldn’t knock him out. Gengar appeared on one of those turns and ate a Giga Drain and later a Thunderbolt to get KOed, who was then replaced by Conkeldurr and then put to sleep. I went for his recently switched Garchomp with a Will-O-Wisp, but it missed. Conkeldurr woke up and Mach Punched Rotom-H, revealing his Flame Orb and Rotom-H went down to a critical Rock Slide. After some more switching I finally knocked out his Garchomp and then KOed his Conkeldurr to win the first game. Win. 1-0.

Game 2

He brought: 

I brought:  

As I thought that his Tyranitar may be carrying Ice Beam and I could’t see all his Gengar’s moves last game I feared he was carrying either Dazzling Gleam or Will-O-Wisp, so I opted not to bring Garchomp. Instead I picked Scizor as he can 2HKO Mega Mawile and his Focus Sashed Gengar, apart from hitting anything hard.

On the first turn I went for a Giga Drain on his Gengar to break his Focus Sash and switched Rotom-H for Scrafty for the Intimidate support and then Crunch him but he Protected and then Disabled Venusaur’s Giga Drain, so I couldn’t get some recovery for like 3 turns, which gave him a huge advantage and I decided not to switch because I hoped to poison his Garchomp, but didn’t get any luck. When I switched him it was very late, as Venusaur had like 4HP, not without taking his Gengar down. He replaced Gengar with Conkeldurr and I forgot that I could use Fake Out that turn as I recently switched in Scrafty last turn, just before KOing his Gengar, if I did that I could have Giga Drained his Conkeldurr and regained some health but I totally forgot the recent switch. I then switched to Rotom-H, who ate a Drain Punch and then switched again to Intimidate both Garchomp and Conkeldurr, and went for an Overheat on his Conkeldurr’s Protect and sacrificed Scrafty Faking Out his Garchomp. The next turn my Rotom-H went down to a Mach Punch and a Critical Rock Slide, his second critical of the set on my poor Rotom. I then sent Scizor to Bullet Punch his Conkeldurr and took almost half his HP, but I should have went for his Garchomp as he outspeed all my Pokémon and could flinch them. The next turn I tried to secure the KO on his Conkeldurr by Feinting it, but he switched to Mawile and took minimal damage. Next turn I targeted Garchomp and almost KOed it, but Mawile’s Intimidate prevented that. His Garchomp used Earthquake and KOed my Venusaur. I then knew that I was lost, as Life Orb damage would KO Scizor next turn anyway, and that was my first loss in the tournament. Lose. 1-1

Game 3

He brought:  

I brought: 

For game 3 I thought that I should pick Zapdos for his flying typing to resist GuPi’s Guts Conkeldurr and for Hidden Power Ice to KO his Garchomp, so I picked him instead of Scizor or Garchomp, and took the same other members from previous battles.

In turn one I supposed that he would do a double Protect, so I could set up an easy Substitute and switch to a better position, but he instead went for the double target on Zapdos and his Mawile broke the Substitute. In retrospective, I should have used Fake Out + Hidden Power to KO his Garchomp the first turn or Fake Out Mawile and set up the Substitute. After a lot of switching and not attacking, my Venusaur had like 1/3 HP left and his Pokémon were at full health, Venusaur also flinched a lot and was receiving a lot of attacks. I finally managed to put his Mawile to sleep and then KOed his Garchomp. I thought that I finally could set up a Substitute when his Mawile woke up from nowhere and KOed my Zapdos on the switch with a critical Play Rough. I totally forgot that Quick Guard was a thing on Scrafty and sent Rotom-H instead, only to fall to a Mach Punch. I had lost my little advantage from KOing first and lost 2 Pokémon in 2 turns. I thought that all hope was lost, when I finally remembered Quick Guard and used it to block his Conkeldurr’s Mach Punch and KOed him with Giga Drain, but his Mawile used Iron Head on Venusaur, which brought me down to a Gengar’s Sludge Bomb KO range. In the last turn I Crunched his Gengar and used Sleep Powder on Mawile, hoping to not get KOed, but it was too late, his Sludge Bomb KOed Venusaur, and his Mawile sealed the set with a Play Rough on Scrafty. Lose. 1-2

After twelve hours of Pokemon my run at the first Premier Challenge in Mexico City ended, and with it my dreams of finally getting a Wii U. I felt so bad because I didn’t play according to my all day strategy of actively avoiding getting flinched and switching a lot without attacking, but more because I didn’t brought Garchomp to the 2 last matches, as he helped me a lot in winning the first one and then misplaying my other choices, as if I had targeted his Garchomp with Scizor’s first Bullet Punch I would have KOd it in the second game and if I had used Hidden Power on his Garchomp on the first turn of game 3 all hax probability would have been gone in both matches and I would have had better chances of winning.

Right after losing I turned around and watched Rodrigo Maldonado (my swiss 4 opponent), who also lost because he missed a lot of high risk moves, such as Fire Blasts and Rock Slides. We could not finish our unfinished match from round 4, as we both needed to win our semifinals to have a chance of a rematch in the final, which would’ve been amazing! We then received our prizes (both received Kirby) and took some pictures with Ives Roundtree, the tournament organizer. Then I went to watch the final, where GuPi lost his first match and then adjusted accordingly to win both games two and three to become the champion.

What I Won…

Overall it was a great day, although in the end I had a bittersweet taste of mouth as I could have played better but hey, Pokémon is like this and my opponent did what he had to do to win, even beating Luvier at quarterfinals, and Bahamut at finals and I want to congratulate him for getting first place, well played GuPi, I’ll be looking forward to a rematch. I really got a lot more than the prize, firstly I met a lot of new friends, I hope to see you soon guys all of you were very good opponents. Furthermore I won a lot of confidence for the next tournaments, even Nugget Bridge ones, I learnt that I must minimize hax probability if I want to get far and most of all, I proved my team to be very effective and proved myself that I’m a great player even under a lot of stress. I guess that I will try and pull a Zog and win my next big tournament, I just hope there will be a Wii U in there, hehehe, at least I got Kirby Triple Deluxe!

I Want to Thank…

Thanks a lot to César Ramírez and Omar Ruiz for helping me getting in good shape after not playing enough due to school. Thanks to David Morales and Joaquín Campuzano for trading me some berries that I needed to adjust some EV’s. Thanks to No2moloh for trading me the Zapdos I desperately needed as fast as thunder, I had a lot of trouble finding one! Thanks to PokeDF, my local and favorite Pokémon League, who have helped me train and get better every time I attend. And finally thanks to you all guys here on Nugget Bridge, I’ve learnt a lot from you, I went from squab to #3 in the most crowded Premier Challenge in the world in less than a year, as this is my first year playing competitively (started with X & Y), and I can only grow with all the shared knowledge in this site, you guys are really amazing, and I hope that you can learn from this report too, I loved writing it, see you next time!

The post The Flower’s Protector Punk: A Third Place Mexico City’s Premier Challenge Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hey guys, for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Adib. I also go by honchkro13 on Nugget Bridge. Today, I’m here to talk about my team and experience at the 2014 US National tournament, where I got 2nd place. Since I qualified for the 2014 World Championships, I originally planned on not writing a report at all just in case I wanted to use this team again or improve it.

Then Pokémon uploaded my team with its natures, moves and items to their website for everyone to see (which I don’t have a problem with), so now it doesn’t make a difference if I published a report or not. Other Worlds qualifiers will know exactly what I used at Nationals.

Being a weeaboo, I’ll briefly explain my Pokémon’s nicknames and themes. The title of this article is a pun on the final line uttered in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, my favorite series in all media. It’s also a reference to how I was forced to remake myself as a player in many ways in order to perform well at this tournament.

This report is fairly long, but I’ll go through it in the following order so you know what’s coming and so that you can skip around if you want:

• Team at a Glance
• Team Sets at a Glance
• Teambuilding: First Incarnation and Changes Made
• Teambuilding: How it All Came Together
• Teambuilding: Team Goals/Metagame Calls
• Teambuilding: Notable Tweaks Made
• Team at a Glance (again)
• Closer Looks at Every Pokémon
• Other Notes about the Team
• List of Opponents at Nationals
• Warstory
• Why I Didn’t do Well at Regionals
• Lessons Learned
• Closing Thoughts

It might seem a little excessive to go through the teambuilding but most of the Pokémon here have standard sets anyways. How a Pokémon works together with another Pokémon is the cornerstone of VGC, so that’s why I’ll first discuss the team in a team-oriented way first. Then, I’ll get to any extra details under each Pokémon’s section. If you don’t want to read all this, just feel free to skip ahead to whatever section you want.

 Team at a Glance

 Team Sets at a Glance

Wrath the Gyarados
Nature: Adamant
Item: Safety Goggles
Ability: Intimidate
-Protect
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Ice Fang

Ghirahim the Aegislash
Nature: Quiet
Item: Lum Berry
Ability: Stance Change
-King’s Shield
-Substitute
-Shadow Ball
-Sacred Sword

Goombella the Amoonguss
Nature: Relaxed
Item: Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
-Protect
-Rage Powder
-Giga Drain
-Spore

Lelouch the Tyranitar
Nature: Timid
Item: Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
-Rock Tomb
-Dark Pulse
-Ice Beam
-Flamethrower

Festus the Goodra
Nature: Modest
Item: Assault Vest
Ability: Sap Sipper
-Dragon Pulse
-Feint
-Flamethrower
-Thunderbolt

Captain Kangaskhan
Nature: Jolly
Item: Kangaskhanite
Ability: Inner Focus -> Parental Bond
-Protect
-Sucker Punch
-Return
-Power-Up Punch

Teambuilding: First Incarnation and Changes

So how did this team come to be? Well, that actually happened about a month before nationals when (at the time) a few things turned up and I wasn’t going to be able to compete. No, I did not retire from Pokémon, stop spreading silly rumors, people. My friend El Scorcho came to me with a rough team idea of Goodra, Trevenant, Tyranitar, Mega Lucario, Gyarados and Pyroar. He was inspired to use Goodra after seeing Lajo do well with it over in Germany.

Frankly, I didn’t like the team. It felt awkward since the original movesets on all these guys were all offensive. I also didn’t like the team’s defensive synergy, since it had three Ground weaknesses in a Garchomp-dominated meta, coupled with three Fighting weaknesses, which would make enemy Mega Lucario and Mega Kangaskhan really big threats. However, something about it felt like it had potential. I can’t really explain it. I found three similar replacements for half the team that made the team much stronger defensively while still maintaining decent offense, resulting in what you see below:

With Gyarados and Tyranitar on the original team, the team was practically screaming at me to use Amoonguss over Trevenant in order to redirect dangerous attacks away from them. With Trevenant gone, I decided to replace Lucario with Aegislash, who also walls Kangaskhan but is generally much more effective in the meta overall and can setup Substitute while Amoonguss uses Rage Powder. I then noticed that with Tyranitar and Aegislash using their powers of darkness to blast away Ghost types, Aegislash and Gyarados wrecking Mega Lucario, Amoonguss redirecting attacks, and Goodra’s access to Feint, there was only one possible replacement for Pyroar: Mega Kangaskhan.

Teambuilding: How it All Came Together

• Tyranitar, Aegislash and Goodra beat Steel types, Trevenant and Gourgeist for Kangaskhan
• Tyranitar and Aegislash use their powers of darkness to beat away Ghost types that annoy Kangaskhan
• Amoonguss, Aegislash, Gyarados and even Scarftar will beat opposing Mega Lucario that want to knock out Kangaskhan
• Scarftar with Rock Tomb changes the weather, outruns and knocks out Garchomp with Ice Beam, and provides speed control
• Amoonguss redirects super effective attacks away from everybody
• Sap Sipper Goodra walls every special attacker in existence, including Rain, Sun, Hail, Rotom, and Manectric
• Sap Sipper Goodra Feints targets for Scarftar, boosted Gyarados, and works well with the Fake Out pressure exerted by Kangaskhan
• Kangaskhan beats away enemy Tyranitar for Tyranitar, Aegislash, Gyarados and Goodra
• Kangaskhan can also Power-Up Punch partner Amoonguss and Gyarados for more power
• Kangaskhan can let Gyarados and Aegislash setup by threatening Fake Out support
• Kangaskhan is the best bet against Scarf Mamoswine, who hits everything else hard
• While having a bulky Fire type is usually recommended, it’s not needed on this team. Goodra and Tyranitar fill in pretty nicely
• I predicted Rain to be a popular call at Nationals. With Goodra, Tyranitar, Amoonguss AND Gyarados, I expected to have a relatively easy matchup against Rain, along with Sun and Hail. R Justice’s half-Rain, half-goodstuffs team flew in under my radar though (more on this later), which gave me some trouble in top cut
• On Team Preview, the opponent might expect Dragon Dance Tyranitar, since Amoonguss is next to it. This is great because then I can lure in Lum Berry Garchomps and outrun and OHKO them with Ice Beam!

I really liked the team synergy between all these Pokémon. Since El Scorcho and I each built half the team, we decided to both run it at Nationals.

 Teambuilding: Team Goals/Metagame Calls

• Rain seemed to be getting pretty popular, so I decided to have a strong anti-Rain team. At Nationals, I beat out the weaker, bog-standard Rain teams, but half-Rain, half-goodstuffs teams were unexpected and gave me problems in top cut. I didn’t play well against the three people who finished at least within the Top 8 who used variations of the archetype
• Lucario usage would probably rise to deal with Kangaskhan. Which it did, I beat a lot of them
• Mega Tyranitar+Amoonguss was also getting pretty popular. Ironically, I didn’t battle any of them at Nationals. I did battle an Assault Vest Tyranitar+Amoonguss though
• Bisharp should increase in usage to combat all the Intimidates. I only came across one that I remember (in Top 4)
• I did expect Trick Room’s usage to increase a little, since people have had success with it overseas. I only came across two at Nationals, both during best-of-one Day 1 Swiss. Seems like the difficulty in using Trick Room effectively held it back in the states, from my perspective at least
• Mega Kangaskhan would obviously be popular
• Mega Venusaur seemed to be growing more popular, but I ended up only battling one at the last round of best-of-one Day 1 Swiss
• Rotom-W seemed to be getting less and less popular, while Rotom-H was growing more popular. Made sense. I came across a few of each in the tournament if I remember correctly
• I expected Hydreigon to rise up too, since it had some strong tournament finishes before Nationals, and wasn’t surprised to see a few in Top Cut, from Ray to Evan Falco, the new US National Champ. Did not see the shift from Scarf to Specs coming though
• Dark Void Smeargle was still something that was (annoyingly) relevant. Didn’t battle any, but there were at least two in Top Cut, which I believe R Inanimate and Amarillo used
• Amoonguss would surely be popular

I couldn’t address every single point, but I did try my best and I think my team managed to hit most of the marks, which allowed it to perform well at Nationals.

Teambuilding: Notable Tweaks Made

Other than changing EV spreads here or there, I made only one significant change after extensive testing. Uncle Taint was apparently destroying El Scorcho with Amoonguss+Mega Lucario pretty regularly. We were also having a few problems with Mega Tyranitar+Amoonguss. We didn’t want to change the team significantly to deal with those threats, only to become vulnerable to another set of threats. We looked at both threats and realized that the key to beating them was to bypass Amoonguss somehow. We looked at our options. Taunt is a very good move in general, but I didn’t like how Amoonguss could simply switch out or Protect to block it while its partner killed us. We eventually looked at Safety Goggles and saw that the only Pokémon that could use it well on the team was Gyarados.

I had my doubts at first, since I didn’t want to remove Gyarados’s Sitrus Berry. And while Safety Goggles Gyarados did take some getting used to (and can be situational), I do not regret using it all. It’s a monster. I’ll talk about it more under Gyarados’s section in a bit. First, let me remind you what the final team was.

Team at a Glance (again)

 Closer Looks at Every Pokémon

Wrath the Gyarados
Nature: Adamant
Item: Safety Goggles
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 92 HP / 116 Atk / 78 Def / 4 SDef / 220 Spd
-Protect
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Ice Fang

“I may not have the protection of your Ultimate Shield, but I can clearly see your weakness with my Ultimate Eye”

• Survives +0 Adamant Mega Kangaskhan’s Return 100% of the time
• Survives -1 Jolly Mega Tyranitar’s Stone Edge 100% of the time
• Outruns Noivern and Greninja after a Dragon Dance

This spread took a really long time to make. Jolly sets couldn’t really make great use of that greater initial Speed while lacking in power if I invested in bulk and vice-versa, so I swapped over to this Adamant set. For this team, it provided a nice balance of Speed, bulk and power. Mega Tyranitar seemed scary and I wanted Gyarados to survive at least one of its attacks since I’m using Gyarados to try checking Mega Tyranitar

Fairly standard Dragon Dance Gyarados, except for the almighty SAFETY GOGGLES. It’s not the most revolutionary thing ever, but it felt incredible on Gyarados at Nationals. With it, Gyarados can completely ignore Sleep Powder from Venusaur, and more importantly both Rage Powder and Spore from enemy Amoonguss. This means that common partners for enemy Amoonguss, like Mega Lucario, Tyranitar, Chandelure, Rotom-H, etc. are not safe from my Gyarados at all, even when they’re partnered with Amoonguss. Opposing Amoonguss are usually considered great checks to Gyarados, but with Safety Goggles, my Gyarados can Ice Fang it at its leisure once Amoonguss’s partner has been neutralized. As for bulky Water types that are also partnered with Amoonguss, well, that’s what my own Amoonguss was for.

Safety Goggles also let Gyarados avoid taking damage from my Tyranitar’s Sandstorm, which was especially key in my Top 8 set against Simon. This set was especially important since it determined which one of us would go on to Worlds. My Gyarados hung on with 8 HP and would have gone down to sand damage without the goggles. This would have cost me an important Pokémon in that matchup.

While normally something like Sitrus Berry is the superior item choice, Safety Goggles was what my team needed to perform well. Adjusting my playstyle to Safety Goggles Gyarados’s resulting lower bulk did take a little time, but it was completely worth it.

Safety Goggles Gyarados started out as something just to hit Lucario and Tyranitar while they’re next to Amoonguss, but it became so much more than that. With its fantastic typing, Intimidate, Dragon Dance, coverage and passable bulk (well, in my case), Safety Goggles Gyarados usually threatens or annoys at least four Pokemon on any given Amoonguss team. Including my own. I’m not exactly sure whether this is a property exclusive to Safety Goggles Gyarados, but I haven’t seen any other Pokémon that uses Safety Goggles to essentially take on an entire team archetype (if that’s the right word) on its own. It’s a lot of fun to use. If you’re having Amoonguss problems, try it out!

Gyarados was hands-down my MVP at both 2014 US Nationals and 2013 US Nationals. People always seem to think that Steelix is my signature Pokémon after making 10th at Nationals last year and doing well with it in a few other tournaments. However, Gyarados is the one Pokémon I can never seem to drop. While I was sad that I failed to make Steelix viable again and use it in another Twin Snakes combo with Gyarados, at least I was able to hang on to one of my snakes, right?

Theme

I named my Gyarados after Wrath, a major antagonist in the Fullmetal Alchemist universe. Both are blue, have distinct mustaches and are living incarnations of the sin of Wrath. Wrath also possesses the Ultimate Eye (which he hides under his eyepatch), which allows him to see his enemies’ weaknesses. This lets him cut down almost anything with inhuman speed and power. Gyarados’s Safety Goggles and access to Dragon Dance reference both of these traits. Both Wrath and Gyarados also wear some special eyewear (in Wrath’s case, his eyepatch; Gyarados, Safety Goggles). Just like Wrath though, Gyarados ended up losing his final battle at Nationals. Wrath is also inhumanly skilled at swordplay. Speaking of which…

Ghirahim the Aegislash
Nature: Quiet
Item: Lum Berry
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 172 SAtk / 78 SDef
IVs: 20 Speed
-King’s Shield
-Substitute
-Shadow Ball
-Sacred Sword

“This time there will be no heroic escape. I was a fool to toy with you and let you walk away with your life before, but I won’t make that mistake again. That, I promise!”

• Survives Timid Mega Charizard Y’s Heat Wave in the Sun 100% of the time
• Has a 15/16 chance to survive 252 Special Attack Modest Rotom-H Overheat

EV spread and everything is standard. Shamelessly stole it from Simon’s report.

Now where’s Wrath without his sword? This is a standard Substitute Sacred Sword Aegislash, with the possible exception of Lum Berry. It isn’t seen too often (judging by the crowd and Ray’s reaction to his Swagger getting blocked by it), but it’s necessary to stop Dark Void Smeargle. If it wasn’t for Smeargle, I would have happily run Life Orb instead. Thanks TPCi. Anyway, Lum Berry also prevents Will-o-Wisp from cutting Sacred Sword’s power in half. Lum Berry also blocks Spore from people who are trying to be cute with fast Amoonguss, which lets me setup Substitute to block all future status. The combination of Safety Goggles Gyarados and Lum Berry Substitute Aegislash lets my team stomp all over Mega Lucario+Amoonguss teams that try to stop my Mega Kangaskhan. It’s really bulky, has fantastic typing and still hits hard enough. It deals with the Ghosts that trouble Kangaskhan and provides a Dragon and Ice resist. Not much else to really say over here.

Theme

Ghirahim is a major antagonist from Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, my favorite Legend of Zelda game and one of my top 5 favorite videogames overall. Both Aegislash and Ghirahim are spirits inhabiting swords boasting incredible defenses, so Ghirahim was the one and only name for Aegislash.

Goombella the Amoonguss
Nature: Relaxed
Item: Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 196 HP / 190 Def / 124 SDef
IVs: 18 Speed
-Protect
-Rage Powder
-Giga Drain
-Spore

 “That’s a Goomba. Um…yeah, I’m one of those, in case you hadn’t noticed. Ahem…it says here: ‘Goombas are the underlings of underlings’…that’s totally rude!”

• Survives +6 Azumarill’s Play Rough
• Survives Timid Life Orb Greninja’s Ice Beam (more relevant in the June IC)
• Moves before Rhydon and Rhyperior in Trick Room while moving before base 30′s like Reuniclus and Slowbro outside of Trick Room

Standard Amoonguss. Protects Gyarados while it Dragon Dances, Kangaskhan while it Power-Up Punches, Tyranitar while it kills things, redirects attacks away from Aegislash setting up Substitute, and keeps Fairy attacks away from Goodra. You’ve all seen this before. Rant time: I think Rocky Helmet is a terrible item on Amoonguss. Sure, you deal slightly more damage to Kangaskhan, but Sitrus Berry lets you heal 25% of your HP in one go, which is great for redirecting attacks from both opposing Pokémon and still surviving for more redirection. Any extra turn or two where you can waste your opponent’s turns can let you score much more damage in the long run. With Sitrus Berry, you can steal entire games compared to whatever pitiful amount Rocky Helmet does to Kangaskhan.

Theme

Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door is still easily one of my top 5 favorite videogames. Goombella is a Goomba partner for Mario in this game. I think you know where I went with this. Moving along.

Lelouch the Tyranitar
Nature: Timid
Item: Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 12 HP / 4 Def / 236 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
-Rock Tomb
-Dark Pulse
-Ice Beam
-Flamethrower

“Attention entire world! Hear my proclamation! I am Lelouch vi Britannia! Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire and your only ruler! Schneizel has surrendered to me. As a result of this, I am now in control of both the Damocles and the FLEIJA weapons! And even the Black Knights no longer possess the strength to oppose me now. If anyone dares resist my supreme authority, they shall know the devastating power of the FLEIJAs! Those who could oppose my military rule no longer exist. Yes, from this day, from this moment forth, the world belongs to me! Lelouch vi Britannia commands you: obey me subjects, obey me world!”

• Outruns Scarf Abomasnow
• OHKOs 4/0 Garchomp with Ice Beam
• OHKOs Simon’s 12 HP/36 SDef Garchomp 87.5% of the time (highest odds)
• Dumped the rest into bulk to have as many stat points as possible

Scarf Rock Tomb special Tyranitar. Outruns and OHKO’s Garchomp and Salamence, roasts Steel types like Lucario and Ferrothorn, blasts Gengar and other Ghosts out of the way, and OHKO’s Charizard with Rock Tomb. Also provides weather and speed control.

This Tyranitar is a little more utility-oriented than most other Tyranitar out there. Its job is to get in, KO something quickly and then get out. It’s not a powerhouse. Another thing it does is provide the only form of speed control I have on my team with Rock Tomb. For those of you who don’t know, Rock Tomb is 5% more accurate and deals a little more damage to a single target than Rock Slide. It’s also not blocked by Wide Guard, so Charizard and Talonflame aren’t safe at all.

What really sets Rock Tomb apart is the guaranteed speed drop whenever it hits. This means that even if Tyranitar is burned and Intimidated, or is locked into Rock Tomb and can’t switch, it can still be useful by cutting the opponent’s speed while a partner Protects or switches in. This partner can then pick up the KO afterwards. Due to Choice Scarf, I can reliably drop the opponent’s speed in battle before they attack. And if they do get to attack, I can fall back on Tyranitar’s natural bulk. Scarf Rock Tomb Tyranitar is basically a Choice Scarfer that neutralizes other Choice Scarfers. With the Speed drop, they can’t outrun my team anymore.

This Tyranitar was key to winning my Round 2 top cut set against linkyoshimario (Ashton Cox). Notable moments include outrunning and OHKOing his Charizard, while discouraging his use of Wide Guard Gigalith, which I later saw on stream. In game 3, I Rock Tombed his Scarf Sawk on the switch, then safely switched my Kangaskhan in. Thanks to Rock Tomb canceling out his Choice Scarf, Kangaskhan was able to KO a Pokémon that was specifically built to counter it.

Speaking of Choice Scarf, Tyranitar’s Sand was useful for more than just canceling out weather and dealing extra damage to opponents. It also let me scout for opposing Choice Scarf and Safety Goggles. This is how I was able to find out that Ashton had a Scarf Sawk in game 1. This information was key to winning the set. Unfortunately, the Sand was also a bit of a double-edged sword, because I had to work a bit to hide Safety Goggles on Gyarados so that I could pick up key surprise KO’s in later games of best of three sets.

Theme

My Tyranitar is named after Lelouch–an eventual tyrant in Code Geass, one of my favorite anime series–who is perhaps the darkest hero protagonist I’ve ever seen. Long story there. Seeing how Tyranitar is also a tyrant, the name was perfect. Lelouch the Tyranitar often ordered enemy Pokémon to get KO’d, which they often obeyed.

Festus the Goodra
Nature: Modest
Item: Assault Vest
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 230 SAtk / 4 SDef / 4 Spd
-Dragon Pulse
-Feint
-Flamethrower
-Thunderbolt

“You named him Festus? You know that in Latin, ‘festus’ means ‘happy’? You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the Dragon?”

• OHKO’s 4/0 Salamence 7/8 of the time with Dragon Pulse
• Survives Jolly Garchomp’s Dragon Claw 62.5% of the time
• Basically mindless investment into HP to absorb special attacks

Confession time: this spread is bad. Remember how I mentioned that Choice Specs Hydreigon wasn’t on my radar? Well, fellow teambuilder El Scorcho found out the hard way that our Goodra is actually KO’d by Choice Specs Hydreigon 12.5% of the time. If you want to use this Goodra, I’d recommend moving 16 Defense EVs + whatever else you need from Special Attack to Special Defense to survive that attack, as it is should be more popular right now. I haven’t run the calc.

Standard Goodra. Due to the relative lack of bulky Fire types in this meta and my distaste towards Rotom-H and Charizard Y, I turned to Goodra. It can also use Fire attacks while not being weak to Water and generally being a great counter to Rain, especially Politoed+Ludicolo. Thunderbolt hits Azumarill and enemy Gyarados, while Dragon Pulse is for STAB. Feint takes advantage of my Kangaskhan’s (bluffed) Fake Out pressure to break through Protect in order to nab a KO. Feint also acts as great priority, finishing off weakened opponents. The +2 priority was especially useful in picking off Talonflame and enemy Kangaskhan, who carry +1 priority attacks.

Sap Sipper was chosen for obvious reasons. With it, it stomps over Charizard Y+Venusaur due to its massive Special Defense and Grass immunity to block Sleep Powder. This immunity also made Goodra a great counter to Amoonguss. Speaking of Special Defense, another reason why I picked Goodra was because I figured that thanks to Intimidate and Will-o-Wisp, most teams would have only 2-3 physical attackers, with the rest being special attackers that Goodra can easily wall. Rotom-H and Rotom-W were also really popular and Goodra was there to stomp all over them.

Theme

I named Goodra after Festus, the friendly metal dragon from the Percy Jackson series. The series is kind of like Pokémon in that it’s primarily targeted towards children, but has aspects that appeal to older audiences.

Captain Kangaskhan
Nature: Jolly
Item: Kangaskhanite
Ability: Inner Focus -> Parental Bond
EVs: 52 HP / 166 Atk / 36 Def / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
-Protect
-Sucker Punch
-Return
-Power-Up Punch

Standard 252/252, except Attack EVs were reduced to survive Adamant enemy Mega Kangaskhan’s Double-Edge. I haven’t had problems with the reduced offensive power. The Speed EVs allow it to outrun all non-Choice Scarf Hydreigon and Speed tie with other Kangaskhan.

You guys all know what this thing does and how broken it is, so I won’t spend much time here. It has great synergy with the rest of the team. The main reason why I built and used this team was because I loved using the Kangaskhan+Amoonguss+Gyarados core. It has great defensive and offensive synergy while threatening sleep, redirection, and the ability to boost my stats while cutting down the opponent’s Attack stat with Intimidate. I can use the same three Pokémon and end up going for very different plays from one game to another.

I chose Inner Focus over Scrappy because I’m not running Fake Out to hit Ghosts, who’d most likely Protect anyways. Inner Focus theoretically lets me attack through opposing Fake Out, but I’ve never really used it that way. Speaking of Fake Out, I chose Protect over it instead because Protect allows me to play more defensively i.e. Protecting while switching Amoonguss in so that I can setup and sweep.

Theme

Kangaskhan’s nickname actually refers to a show called Captain Kangaroo, a kid’s show from decades ago that my high school calculus teacher used to watch. I’ve never seen the show, but I thought the name Captain Kangaroo described the VGC 2014 metagame fairly well. Captain also refers to its status the sole Mega on my team. It also references Captain Buccaneer from the Fullmetal Alchemist series.

 Other Notes About the Team

• With Sap Sipper Goodra, Amoonguss, Safety Goggles Gyarados and Lum Berry Substitute Aegislash, four of my six Pokémon were immune to sleep from enemy Amoonguss and Venusaur. Gyarados and Amoonguss could simply ignore enemy Amoonguss altogether.
• There are only two moves below 100% accuracy on this team: Ice Fang and Rock Tomb. And both of those are 95% accurate
• Being virtually immune to sleep and not having to worry about my attacks missing minimized the RNG against me and maximized my chances of making top cut, as I was much less likely now to lose matches and miss top cut because an attack missed, which happens to many players at these tournaments. While my team isn’t exactly a powerhouse, it still hits hard enough to the point where I didn’t really miss having stronger but less accurate moves. And if I needed more power, that’s what my setup moves are for.
• Note: while I normally veer away from low accuracy moves if possible, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t consider them if I absolutely needed more power that I couldn’t reliably get from setup. Considering that you have to get through the always-volatile best-of-one Swiss in order to make top cut and earn the big CP, I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. Now if Day 1 at Nationals was best-of-three Swiss as well, then that’d be a different story.

List of Opponents at 2014 US Nationals

Note: I did not take notes at all. Don’t ask me why. Notes have never really been that beneficial to me in battle where it actually matters. If I accidentally listed someone in the wrong round or didn’t remember notable details about a battle 100% correctly, now you know why. I won’t really talk about the battles either since I only remember key points from some of them. I had to go through 30 battles in Nationals after all. My memory’s limited.

Day 1 Best-of-one Swiss Rounds:

• Round 1: Isaac Pollert (lost) (should have used Protect on Kangaskhan to block Azumarill’s Superpower)
• Round 2: Luke Allen Swenson (theamericandream38) (won) (got lucky with Flamethrower crit)
• Round 3: Jonathan Peters (won)
• Round 4: Chuppa Cross (Chuppa) (won) (this is why Rotom-W is a bad Pokémon in best-of-one Swiss)
• Round 5: Gene (won)
• Round 6: Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom) (lost) (led incorrectly with Tyranitar and Goodra, opened self up to Trick Room)
• Round 7: Tony Cheung (Chinese dood) (won) (epic Goodra+Amoonguss mirror match)
• Round 8: Michael Shaw (won)
• Round 9: Reeseesee (won) (very close match, Goodra was clutch)

Swiss Record: 7-2, 44th seed

Day 2 Best-of-one Top Cut Swiss Rounds:

• Round 1: Zach Crawford (nineinchnailed) (won 2-0) (Safety Goggles Gyarados was clutch against Lucario+Amoonguss)
• Round 2: Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario) (won 2-1) (wacky Pokémon, Rock Slide+Icicle Crash flinches+avoids galore)
• Round 3: Alec Bel (Polecat, Darkeness’s younger brother) (won 2-0) (Amoonguss stopped Belly Drum Poliwrath in its tracks)
• Round 4: Gavin Michaels (kingofmars) (won 2-1) (very good set, had to play more aggressively here)
• Round 5: Ray Rizzo (lost 0-2) (first time encountering and hearing of a variant of R Justice’s rain team. Did not play well)
• Round 6: Jeudy Azzarelli (Soul Survivor) (lost 0-2) (Rocky Helmet Taunt Will-o-Wisp Talonflame is really annoying)

Swiss Record: 4-2, 7th seed

Day 2 Best of 3 Top Cut Single Elimination Bracket

• Top 8: Simon Yip (Simon) (won 2-0) (Safety Goggles Gyarados was MVP. Got lucky here or there with Waterfall flinches)
• Top 4: Logan Castro (Yellowbox) (won 2-0) (interesting sets from Yellowbox actually made it easier to win)

Day 3 Finals: Alex Ogloza (Evan Falco) (lost 1-2) (Should have switched Amoonguss in earlier in game 3 to cover for Kangaskhan)

Final Ranking: 2nd

Warstory

 Ready for Nationals as the Weeaboo Alchemist Fullmetal Alchemist

 This isn’t going to be a traditional warstory since I barely remember my battles. I had 30 battles over three days with a lot of people, which is a lot to remember for a guy who doesn’t take notes. I also won’t talk about things like grabbing lunch or whatever. That’s not what you came here to read. Instead, I’ll focus on certain highlights throughout the tournament I haven’t already talked about.

Friday (Day 1, 9 rounds of best-of-one Swiss)

Let me get this out of the way right now: I fully expected to go 5-4 with this team, or 6-3 at best. I wasn’t feeling confident with this team at all, and given my performance at the past two XY regionals I went to — where I literally got ZERO CP — I didn’t expect to do well at all. After building this team with El Scorcho, I tested some on Showdown, played 40 matches in the International Challenge, then put this game down and started playing Link’s Awakening instead until Nationals.

And sure enough, I lost round 1 right away, which hurt. However, it was still a good match. It was my fault I lost because I didn’t Protect Kangaskhan from Azumarill’s Superpower when I switched Amoonguss in for my other slot. I got a little too greedy trying to get KO’s. This loss forced me to realize that I needed to play better than that in order to make top cut, since only X-2′s and above can make it.

In Round 2, I was paired up with Luke Swenson (theamericandream38). He used Lajo’s Top 8 German Nationals team, so I knew that bringing Amoonguss would be suicide. I got lucky with a Flamethrower crit on his Mega Mawile, but that’s the game we play. This match was interesting because the last time we played was in Fall 2012 Regionals, so this was a rematch of sorts.

I ended up battling a lot of Nugget Bridgers that day. Chuppa was another strong opponent, while later on, I was paired against TheBattleRoom. He was the last guy I wanted to face in Swiss because I really didn’t want to battle a guy who actually knew how to use Mawile and Reuniclus in Trick Room effectively. I led correctly against his double dragon lead of Garchomp and Hydreigon, but since neither Tyranitar or Goodra had Protect, I was forced into the defensive when he double-switched out for Reuniclus+Mawile and setup Trick Room. I tried to stall with Aegislash, but it didn’t work.

At this point, I had lost two matches. I knew that in order to make top cut, I would have to win the next three matches in order to make top cut.

Afterwards, I was paired down to play Tony Cheung (Chinese dood). We had a pretty interesting match where both used Goodra and Amoonguss, but his Goodra didn’t have Assault Vest. Eventually, I double targeted his Blastoise with Thunderbolt and Giga Drain to grab the win from there.

I was then paired against Reeseesee in round 9 to see who would make it to day 2. I made a risky play to Feint+Return on his Mega Venusaur on turn 1, which I should not have done. I was still able to win though. His team did not like Goodra at all. Still, this battle was way closer than it had to be.

I was so relieved when I won and made it to day 2. I was really disappointed in my low resistance though. My opponents weren’t exactly easy. Maybe they dropped? I don’t know. In any case, I was feeling extremely grateful to Chris Brown (AlphaZealot) for making it so that all X-2′s cut instead of a straight top 32. Otherwise, with my 44th seed finish, I would not have made it to Day 2 and someone else would have been writing a US Nationals Runner-Up report right now.

Swiss Record: 7-2, 44th seed

Saturday (Day 2, 6 rounds of best-of-three Swiss)

The Stakes

This just got real. In order to qualify for Worlds, I would have to make Top 4. In order to have a chance at making Top 4, I would first have to make it to the Top 8 stage. To do that, I could only lose 1 set to guarantee top cut. If I lost twice, I’d have to pray that my resistance was high enough, because apparently only two 4-2′s would make it to the Top 8 cut.

And if I wanted to get the free trip+free hotel room at Worlds, I would have to make it to the finals.

No pressure, right?

Top Cut Round 1–VS Zach Crawford (nineinchnailed)

Wrath the Gyarados took no prisoners that day. It destroyed nineinchnailed’s Amoonguss+Lucario+Staraptor team 2-0 to start things off. One key turn in game 2 was where I had a Dragon Dance up and was up against a -1 Defense Lucario + Amoonguss. Amoonguss used Rage Powder and then Lucario went down in a flash anyways, followed soon by Amoonguss. Oh, and I learned in this set that apparently, Gyarados can’t handle nineinchnailed’s Staraptor. It dodged an Ice Fang and scored a crit Brave Bird right back, go figure. Fun fact: that Ice Fang was the only attack I missed in my 30 game tournament run.

Won 2-0
Current Record: 1-0

Top Cut Round 2–VS Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario)

Round 2, I saw that I was matched up against Ashton, which I was both happy and unhappy about, since he’s a really cool guy. I saw his team of Gigalith, Heliolisk, Weavile, Espeon, Sawk, and Charizard. I had some idea of what to expect – people should really research obscure Pokémon if they don’t want to lose to them – but I wasn’t 100% sure. Looking at Team Preview, I wasn’t quite sure what Gigalith was doing there, but I knew it had access to Sturdy and Explosion. Heliolisk was a fast Sun sweeper with Solar Power. Weavile had the Fling+King’s Rock thing going on that Ashton’s known for. Espeon was fast and had Magic Bounce, while Sawk had access to Inner Focus, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it led against my Kangaskhan. Charizard was almost definitely going to be in its Y form since Heliolisk and Gigalith were there.

I can’t exactly remember 100% what happened in game 1, but I learned that he did have Charizard Y and King’s Rock after all. What did surprise me was that Sawk was Scarfed. I didn’t have to find this out the hard way–I had switched in Tyranitar right before Sawk came in and noticed that Sawk took sand damage before my Kangaskhan. I adjusted and won game 1 from there. Game 2 I lost because for some reason I thought it was a bright idea to bring Amoonguss instead of Tyranitar. Very short, embarrassing battle there.

Favorite quote from Game 1: “Why are you using Rock Tomb? AND WHY IS THAT THING SCARFED?”
–Ashton as his Charizard Y gets outrun and OHKO’d by my Scarftar.

Game 3 was one of the funniest battles I ever played. Both of us were laughing at the RNG that kept getting thrown around. Ashton scored multiple Rock Slide and Icicle Crash flinches, while I dodged a few more. I didn’t even know what was going on anymore. Eventually, I hit his Scarf Sawk with Rock Tomb on the switch and that was game as I sent in Kangaskhan to clean up. After I won the match, I started Tebowing, then gave Ashton a hug and wished him luck. I still kept laughing after that match. It really should have been on stream.

GG, Ashton! I hope we get a rematch at Worlds.

Won 2-1
Current Record: 2-0

Top Cut Round 3–VS Alec Bel (Polecat, Darkeness’s Younger Brother)

Double Poli guy. The irony is that Darkeness, MrEobo and I think even my opponent had told me the day before that he was running Belly Drum Poliwrath with Politoed. You know what that meant to me? Amoonguss time. My opponent led with Kangaskhan+Poliwrath while I led with Kangaskhan+Amoonguss. Amoonguss and Goodra worked really well against his Rain team for obvious reasons.

Won 2-0
Current Record: 3-0

Top Cut Round 4–VS Gavin Michaels (kingofmars)

Me (left) vs Gavin Michaels (kingofmars)+plushie army (right)

Last year’s National Champ? Interesting. Well, what was more interesting was that Gavin had a plushie army with Sandile, which was obviously the best part of our set. Seriously, have you seen that Sandile? Anyways, I won’t bore you with details, since Team Rocket Elite was kind enough to record the matches, which are posted below. After losing game 1 pretty badly, I decided I needed to play a little more aggressively against an aggressive player like Gavin, which is how I took back games 2 and 3. It’s strange, really. After last year’s Nationals, I think people expect me to be a really defensive player. Which I am, to some extent. Some of my top cut opponents even outright stated that they think I’m running a bulky Gyarados with Thunder Wave or other things like that.

But there’s a point where you need to open it up to score the big knockouts, and my Pokémon are offensive enough to do that when needed. Also, while Kangaskhan was the Mega on my team, Gyarados was the MVP of this set. Just because a certain Pokémon is a Mega, that doesn’t mean that it’s your only way to win. I didn’t hesitate to sacrifice Kangaskhan to beat Rotom-W so that Gyarados could sweep through the rest of his team later. At the end of the day, your Mega is just another Pokémon, after all. Anyways, I really enjoyed this set overall, especially since the last two games were closer than game 1. What I found interesting was that this was another Mega Lucario team I had to face at Nationals.

GG, Gavin! I hope we get a rematch at Worlds.

Game 1:

Game 2:

Game 3:

Won 2-1
Current Record: 4-0

Top Cut Round 5–VS Ray Rizzo (Ray)

Within two minutes of defeating Gavin, I was told by a judge to go on to the big stage and take on Ray, since we were both 4-0. Which, frankly, I was really excited about. Just how often do you get to battle the 3-time World Champion on the big stage in front of an audience with commentary in the background? As exciting as it was, I do have a LOT of regrets about this battle because the way I played was just plain terrible.

Me vs Ray Rizzo

For starters, I should have seen the Mawile lead coming because of my own Kangaskhan and Gyarados. The reason I led with Kangaskhan and Goodra on game 1 was because up until this point, literally every Rain team I ever faced that had Politoed and Ludicolo would ALWAYS lead with Politoed and Ludicolo. Then again, I shouldn’t have gone into autopilot like I unfortunately tend to do on Showdown against Rain teams. It was a tough team matchup overall since I wasn’t confident about bringing Gyarados to Intimidate and contain the Mawile with that Safety Goggles Zapdos on the loose. I wasn’t confident about Amoonguss being useful for whatever reason but I probably should have brought it to redirect attacks from the rest of Ray’s team so that I could either setup, attack or put things to sleep. I overcommitted to stopping the Rain portion of his team and got demolished by the non-Rain portion of the team.

Ray, if we get to play again at Worlds next month, hopefully I’ll be able to give you a better set than that. GG!

As embarrassing as it was that I lost to a Rain team when I specifically built my team to counter Rain, this set was really enlightening because that’s when I learned about R Justice’s Rain team and how some people were copying parts or all of it and performing well. I pretty much played bog Rain teams up until this point. One other thing that held me back at Nationals unnecessarily was because up until now, I’ve never really actively researched foreign metagames, foreign players and what teams they’re using to win. If I had done some research before Nationals, I probably would have learned about R’s team and either adjusted my team or my playstyle or maybe even both to have a better matchup against all of its variations. Guess it’s better that I learned this now before Worlds next month…

That said, it still felt awesome to battle on the big stage. I still remember the crowd cheering when my Lum Berry on Aegislash stopped it from getting confused from Zapdos’s Swagger. Then it got Swaggered again and almost took itself out in confusion. Still my fault for gambling like that though.

Lost 0-2
Current Record: 4-1

Top Cut Round 6–VS Jeudy Azzarelli (Soul Survivor)

Now I finally got a loss. Which was bad. If I didn’t win against Jeudy, I’d have to pray that my resistance was high enough to make top cut as a 4-2, since only two 4-2′s would make it. I got to the table. Maybe it was just me, but Jeudy seemed to be on the edge of having a panic attack. Understandable, since he had to win this round and make it to Top 8 in order to qualify for Worlds. He calmed down pretty quickly when I discovered the hard way just how annoying support Rocky Helmet Talonflame is. It survives Kangaskhan’s Return, burns my team with Will-o-Wisp, and Taunts half my team. It was surprisingly disruptive, and I ended up losing to another well-built half-Rain team. Again.

Game 2 didn’t go any better, though I did notice that Jeudy brought his rain mode with Politoed and Ludicolo against me. And I left Goodra on the sidelines this time after seeing how my set against Ray and the first match of this set went. I ended up losing. Again. At this point, I noticed a distinct flaw in my team — against really skilled players using Rain, it becomes really hard to tell if the opponent will bring Rain to games 2 or 3 of a best-of-three set, due to the threat of Goodra. Goodra is really good in some specific situations like Rain and Sun, but against goodstuffs teams with Pokémon like Hydreigon, it becomes significantly harder to use well.

Jeudy ended up winning the set 2-0, and had just qualified for Worlds by doing so. GG! I hope we can have a rematch there so that I can knock outl his annoying red bird in every way possible. I wished him luck and left.

Lost 0-2
Day 2 Best-of-three Swiss Record: 4-2

Day 2 Best-of-three Swiss Over

I failed. I lost twice. Sure, my resistance must’ve been high after playing Ray, Jeudy, Gavin and Ashton at least, so there was still a chance that I’d make cut, but I still wasn’t sure because tiebreakers are a horrible thing. I paced around the convention center endlessly, waiting for the final rankings to see who made it to the Top 8 single elimination best-of-three cut. Now I was a little worried. Which was ridiculous.

From the very beginning, I came to Nationals just as an excuse to hang out with some friends I hadn’t seen in a really long time. Qualifying for Worlds wasn’t part of the plan. I tried hard to win my matches because that’s what you’re supposed to do in tournaments. I was just curious to see how well I’d do, maybe learn a few things to become a stronger player, then maybe relax on Days 2 and 3 with my friends watching better players duke it out in top cut. I had only built this team with El Scorcho about a month before, played it for two weeks then started playing Link’s Awakening instead.

What kind of person would be stupid enough to hope that they could actually qualify for Worlds by making Top 4 after a horrible Regionals run? But now that I was so close to making Top 4, part of me couldn’t help but hold out hope that I could somehow do it. Then I told myself that feeling hopeful is a just a waste of time when you can think realistically.

Though I probably sounded really pessimistic in that last paragraph, I actually felt pretty calm in general, since I had already accepted going into Nationals that I realistically didn’t have a chance at all. Getting all emotional and hopeful in these events is just a waste of time and energy and ultimately, a trap. I’ve seen many players who were excited to be 4-0 in Swiss, only to end up going 5-4 at tournaments. Save the celebrations for later, people. Don’t count your successes until you actually get them.

Paradoxically, I think that calm resignation is partially why I won most of my matches at Nationals. Getting all emotional or hopeful or arrogant in these events is the fastest way to lose in this game. Don’t let the game’s RNG bother you. Don’t let the attitudes of other players bother you. More importantly, ignore your hope for actually doing well in these tournaments because chances are, with these tournaments growing more and more popular and players getting better, you’re not going to finish as well as you’d like. Keep the big picture in the back of your mind. Take each game or set one at a time.

In my top 16 set against R Inanimate at last year’s Nationals, I tilted hard in game 3 because all I kept thinking about was that I had to win that game or my season would be over. Don’t do that. Just play the game, find the way to win and do it. Don’t get discouraged if you lose a game in best-of-three. Take long walks around the convention center to stay calm if you have to. That’s probably the number one reason why I disappeared a lot last weekend. My legs ended up getting really sore though.

On a related note, to anyone reading this, if I accidentally ignored you when you were trying to talk to me, I’m sorry. I can zone out quite a bit, especially in situations like this. A number of people later confronted me about supposedly ignoring them, but I would never do that on purpose. I’ll try to be a little more attentive next time!

After a REALLY long walk, I found myself back at the standings board. Saw my name. 7th seed!

Day 2 Best-of-three Top 8 Single Elimination–VS Simon Yip (Simon)

After a momentary burst of happiness (and many hugs from my friends), I stopped smiling. I was still in the tournament, but I wasn’t out of the woods yet. I had to win this round in order to gain enough Championship Points to qualify for Worlds. No pressure.

Before playing in the top 8, the judges had each of the top 8 players fill their team in on a sheet. I somehow found myself next to Alex Ogloza, who had apparently secured his Worlds invite in the top 16. I congratulated him, made some small talk, and thought he was a cool guy. I also learned that he was Evan Falco from Nugget Bridge. He encouraged me to keep on going and make Top 4. I then found out who my Top 8 opponent would be: Simon.

Kind of unfortunate there, since both of us needed to make top 4 in order to qualify for Worlds. Since we were matched up, only one of us would make it. I was still kind of surprised by how calm I felt in spite of knowing all this. I guess, considering that I wasn’t going to be able to go to Nationals just three weeks earlier due to some real life stuff, I knew I was lucky to be there at Nationals at all. Top 8 was just gravy, really, especially since this was already my best performance yet. Wanting anything more than that would just be greedy, given my situation.

Team preview came up and I couldn’t help but feel a little hopeful. Five of Simon’s six Pokémon were weak in some way to my Safety Goggles Gyarados alone. I left Tyranitar and Goodra on the bench in both games because their matchups weren’t favorable, but I was certain that the other four would do some major work against Simon’s team. I won’t go into much more detail here since Team Rocket Elite, once again, was kind enough to record the matches (below). I admittedly did get lucky with some flinches from Gyarados, but that’s the game we play. Sometimes the RNG hurts you, sometimes it helps you. My bulky spreads also pulled some major work here as well. I managed to win the set 2-0.

Game 1:

Game 2:

With my 2-0 win over Simon, I moved on to the Top 4 and secured my Worlds invite. Hugs ensued, congratulations everywhere, and I still didn’t feel like I actually made it to Worlds even though I knew it to be true. Guess I was just too wired up from the past two days of battling and still had the nervous energy of waiting to battle the next opponent. Speaking of whom:

Day 2 Best of 3 Top 4 Single Elimination–VS Logan Castro (Yellowbox)

Some of the pressure I’d been feeling the past few days was gone now that I’d qualified for Worlds. But now that I’d come so far — out of 491 Masters that came in on Friday, only four of them were still standing — I still had to do my best to go as far as possible. I hadn’t secured a free trip+free hotel room for Worlds (yet), so I had to win this round in order to get them. If I lost here though, fine. I could live with driving 11 hours to Worlds. If I won, I’d be able to battle in the finals on the grand stage the next day, with a free trip+free hotel room in my back pocket.

The Top 8 Bracket at this point

Logan was a pretty chill guy. We congratulated each other on making Worlds, talked about how far this game had come competitively, and somehow Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde came up in the conversation. Don’t ask me why. In any case, we soon cut to the chase and started the match. Once again, thanks to Team Rocket Elite, the matches can be seen below:

Game 1:

Game 2:

Game 1 was pretty close. Game 2 I had the advantage most of the time. Logan had a pretty interesting team, with things like Substitute Garchomp, Zapdos, Bisharp and Chandelure. However, once I realized that his Substitute Garchomp was slower than Kangaskhan and couldn’t flinch Gyarados with a Rock Slide he didn’t have, along with the fact that his Gyarados was Scarfed, it became significantly easier to play against his team. I was able to win 2-0.

Alex Ogloza (Evan Falco) becoming my finals opponent

Me vs Alex Ogloza (Evan Falco) (right)

My back felt like it was practically broken after getting hugged and even picked up by what seemed like everyone I knew. My friends were really excited that I had it made it to the FINALS and won an invite+free trip+free hotel room at Worlds. It didn’t exactly help that I’d been sleeping on the floor of the hotel room I was sharing with the Poke-Pokes from OSU, so my back wasn’t exactly feeling great. Combine that with the fact that I barely ate anything at all for breakfast and lunch during tournaments, my stomach had shrunk over the weekend so I could barely eat half a plate of dinner anymore. Anyway, the fact that I made it to the finals didn’t really sink in for me yet, since I still felt wired up, tense and ready to take on the next opponent.

El Scorcho then told me that my opponent in the finals would either be Jon Hu or Alex Ogloza, and that they were battling on the stage right now. I looked up at the screen and my stomach dropped. Jon had both Confuse Ray Sableye and Mega Gengar, both of whom give my team massive problems. While I’m sure Jon Hu is a nice guy, I rooted for Alex because his team wouldn’t be anywhere near as difficult to fight as Jon Hu’s would be if I were to face him in the finals. While people weren’t exactly supportive of Jon because of Confuse Ray Sableye, I could tell that he was really good at predictions, which to me seemed like the main reason he made it to the Top 4, as opposed to the coinflips from Confuse Ray.

When Alex won, I shamelessly Tebowed again, grateful for not having to battle Sableye and Gengar in the finals. I even went up to Alex, congratulated and thanked him and gave him a hug (are hugs the new handshake at US Nationals?) for winning against Sableye. Then I disappeared from the convention center with the Poke-Pokes in order to talk strategy for the next day. But before that happened, I casually checked my Facebook and was taken aback by what looked like 20 different notifications (which never happens to me, guys). You can guess what happened there.

Preparations for the Next Day

Since El Scorcho and I had each built half the team — and since he and a few other people had apparently scouted Alex out for me already — I was pretty lucky to not have to really do much planning the night before. I watched Alex’s streamed match against Jon Hu. I knew that just as I had information on Alex’s team, Alex would have all the information from my team too and was preparing for the next day as well. I did predict that he would lead Kangaskhan+Hydreigon, since that was the most effective lead combo he could use against me. I decided to lead with Kangaskhan+Gyarados, as that was the safest combo against his team. I knew that he might anticipate that, since Gyarados was pretty good against his team, but I went with it because I figured that going overboard on countering his leads would probably cost me the set.

I even planned that in game 1, I would switch Aegislash into Gyarados to absorb Draco Meteor. I knew there was a chance that he would use Dark Pulse in that slot instead, anticipating the switch, but I decided to go for it because I thought he might play a little more cautiously on game 1. What I failed to realize was that since Alex was using an EXTREMELY offensive team, he would therefore have a more offensive playstyle that relied more on hard reads. This is why I lost Aegislash so quickly in game 1.

I also decided that if Kangaskhan+Gyarados didn’t work, then I’d fall back on Kangaskhan+Amoonguss in game 2 to boost up Kangaskhan and use Kangaskhan to create an opening to boost up Gyarados and sweep through his team. I also decided against using Goodra in games 1 and 2 because both Ray and Soul Survivor avoided using their Rain modes against me. In Soul Sur’s case though, he did bring Rain when I didn’t expect him to in game 2. I decided that if there was a game 3 in the set, I would bring Goodra there because that was when his Rain mode was most likely to show up. Not guaranteed since he might expect that, but I couldn’t think of a better alternative.

A Note About Team Scouting

I want to talk about this a little bit, since I’ve seen some people complain about this in the past. Team scouting is an unfortunate reality we have no choice but to deal with as players. Everyone wants to and will talk about interesting things they saw and will want to help out their friends. And frankly, if you lose because “someone knew exactly what you were running”, then chances are you simply didn’t battle well enough. Stop making excuses for why you lost. People like R Inanimate and gebebo have been known to run the same teams forever and STILL win consistently because they’re great battlers. It’d be a different story if someone knew exactly what you were running AND actively built a team specifically to stop you, but with locked battle boxes, that literally can’t happen in live events.

Dawn of the Final Day–VS Alex Ogloza (Evan Falco)

Nothing much really happened that morning. I just chilled in the Convention Center, was encouraged once again by theGr8, Greyson, Mancuso, Stormfront and a giant horde of other awesome people. I was told by a judge the day before to come back to the stage at 1 PM, so I left my friends halfway through lunch, where we ran into Arti and talked about Soaking things in Pokémon and other goofy strategies.

In front of the stage, I met up with Chris Brown (AlphaZealot), Alex (Evan Falco) and two other judges who were apparently supposed to be our escorts or something. We were told to sit in a reserved row of seats in front of the stage along with the finalists of the other divisions and judges. We sat and talked for a while about past VGC competitions, as these judges and Alex had been around for quite a while. I was relatively new compared to these guys. Alex then had to run back to his hotel room because he apparently forgot his game in his pants back in his hotel room, believe it or not. Good thing he caught it an hour before the Junior finals started!

Alex and I filled out what was basically our competitive resumes and handed them back to the judges so that the commentators would have additional stuff to talk about. We basically sat and chilled until the Junior finals started, talking about silly things like Entrainment Durant, which he apparently lost to once on Showdown. We also talked about how AWESOME Goodra is, and how interesting it was that in Masters, neither Garchomp or Salamence made it to the finals. Instead, we had Goodra and Hydreigon, the superior dragons. We also talked about the tournament in general, and interestingly enough both of us lost round 1 on Day 1 of best-of-one Swiss. We both also had relatively low seeds (he was 30th, I was 44th) from Day 1. If we had kept the simple top 32 from last year, I wouldn’t have even made top cut, and someone else would have been in the finals. Thank you very much, Chris Brown!

We also got to meet the senior division finalists, TechnoZ and Aubrey. TechnoZ brought up that he heard I was going to retire from this game. I was taken aback and said that I had made that blog post back when it looked like real life wouldn’t let me come to Nationals. I never said anything about retiring. I’ll be back in VGC 2015! Why can’t rumors ever get it right for once…

Anyways, Alex and I were both pretty hyped to see Goodra in the Junior finals. I was really disappointed that the Senior finalists didn’t have Goodra like the Juniors and Masters finals did. Come on guys, get with the program. Apart from that (major) flaw, I enjoyed both sets.

Now it was our turn. You can watch the recorded finals here.

Justin Flynn introducing the Masters division finalists

Games 1 and 2

This was probably the most aggressive set I had ever played. Most sets at this high level of play aren’t this aggressive, but the insanely hyper-offensive nature of Alex’s team forced me to go on the offensive as well. On game 1, I didn’t think he’d actually risk using Dark Pulse my Aegislash switch-in in game 1. I lost pretty easily since I was stupid and didn’t bring Amoonguss to let myself setup. Game 2 I turned things around. I predicted that he’d leave my Kangaskhan alone on turn 1 and probably switch Talonflame in to destroy Amoonguss quickly. I KO’d it on the switch, then swept through the rest of his team thanks to first Kangaskhan getting to +2 Attack, then Gyarados getting a free Dragon Dance.

Game 3 Team Preview

Game 3 team preview was pretty tricky and the stakes were extremely high. Here we were, in game 3 of the Masters division finals, the FINAL final battle of the tournament, on the big stage, in front of a cheering crowd. Whoever won would become the 2014 US National Champion and get a Wii U (which I wanted badly since the Wii U is actually getting some great games in a few months!). No pressure, right?

I thought he might lead Rain — possibly with Kangaskhan+Politoed or Politoed+Ludicolo — so that he could setup for a Ludicolo sweep. That’s why I led with Kangaskhan+Gyarados again even though I lost with it on game 1. This combo would Intimidate Kangaskhan and deal massive damage with a Rain-boosted Waterfall to it right off the bat if the former lead was chosen, or simply absorb Rain-boosted attacks and setup with Dragon Dance if the latter lead was chosen. After how easily I destroyed Alex last game with Kangaskhan+Amoonguss, it made sense for him to bring Ludicolo, I thought. It could outrun Kangaskhan and Scarf Tyranitar in the Rain, bypass Amoonguss’s Rage Powder and Spore, and take a few hits from Gyarados.

Predicting all this, I decided to keep Goodra and Amoonguss in the back. Goodra to stop Rain, and Amoonguss to setup and sweep like last time. I’d have to be extremely careful about that Talonflame though. Also, there was a chance that he might predict me to use Goodra in anticipation of him using Rain, and thus not use Rain altogether. In that case, if he led with Kangaskhan+Hydreigon, I would end up in some serious trouble. But would he risk using that lead again seeing how he lost last time? Would he expect me to expect him to adapt to how I played in game 2?

I didn’t know.

In the end, I just decided to go with Goodra and Amoonguss to counter both Rain and his goodstuffs mode. Unfortunately for me, Alex didn’t fall for the Goodra trick. Talking with him afterwords, though, it turns out he did seriously consider bringing Ludicolo. I’m really disappointed in how I played this match.

Game 3 Turn 1–Why I Protected Kangaskhan

Alex’s Kangaskhan+Hydreigon vs my Kangaskhan+Gyarados–I (correctly) Protected against Hydreigon’s Draco Meteor, as it is faster than Kangaskhan on the turn it Mega Evolves and would have knocked me out easily otherwise. After I OHKO’d his Talonflame on the switch in game 2 turn 1, I didn’t expect him to be so eager to leave Kangaskhan alone this time.

Game 3 Turn 1–Why I Tried to Dragon Dance with Gyarados

Gyarados’s slot was much trickier though. Do I Protect, switch, attack or Dragon Dance? Since he sniped my Aegislash on game 1 turn 1 so easily, I was afraid he might predict a switch there and double-target as in game 1 and thus didn’t switch Gyarados out. I decided to try setting up Dragon Dance because I figured that would probably be the least expected move, and if I was able to set up, then I would have an enormous advantage. If Gyarados was indeed KO’d on turn 1, then I could switch Amoonguss in for free and go to town with Kangaskhan’s Power-Up Punch.

For whatever reason, I didn’t think that Draco Meteor on Kangaskhan+Fake Out on Gyarados was the best possible play he could have done on turn 1. While I Protected Kangaskhan partially due to this, I still wasn’t used to the bizarre idea that Hydreigon would be faster than Kangaskhan (only when not Mega Evolved), so that was part of the reason why I didn’t see the Fake Out coming on Gyarados. What made things trickier was that the last time Alex was in a position to use Fake Out, he didn’t use it.

Also, in game 1, Alex had used Fake Out on my own Kangaskhan. I thought I might have been able to bait it again since it was also possible that Alex would want to double target my own Kangaskhan with Fake Out+Draco Meteor to stop it from getting a free KO like it did in game 2 against his Talonflame. It was possible he didn’t know whether I invested in my Kangaskhan’s bulk or not to give it a chance of surviving Hydreigon’s Draco Meteor. I thought this double-target would be a little more likely than usual from his perspective since in both the previous games, I had played very defensively with Gyarados. With this in mind, I was hoping to catch him off-guard with a Dragon Dance right from the start. In retrospect, I should have switched Amoonguss in for Gyarados on turn 1 and play the game out similarly to game 2.

Another thing I probably should have realized is that a boosted Gyarados is very dangerous for Alex. I thought I knew this already, but I didn’t consider all the ramfications. What I mean is that from Alex’s point of view, he had to do everything possible to stop Gyarados from Dragon Dancing.

And that meant Fake Out.

Something Else I Could’ve Done

Even on turn 2 of what actually happened in the game, I should have switched Kangaskhan out for Amoonguss to survive the Draco Meteor, healed up with Sitrus Berry, and also Protected with Gyarados to stave off his Kangaskhan so that I could start Dragon Dancing the next turn. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I didn’t think of all this and lost as a result.

Looking back, a lot of what I could have done seems obvious. If anything, this goes to show that choosing your moves when relaxing at home is very different and not at all representative of playing a high-pressure finals set on the big stage in front of a cheering audience. Even if I was relaxing at home, though, game 3′s team preview and turn 1 would have been very tricky either way.

Even though I’m happy to have finished at 2nd place at the 2014 US National tournament, I’m still disappointed with how I played that final game. Even though Alex didn’t end up bringing Rain, I still had a strong fighting chance with the Pokémon I brought. I failed to give the audience a good show on game 3. I failed to give an epic battle that game 3 of the Masters finals called for. I lost embarrassingly easily. I HAVE to do better than that if I want to stand a chance in August. That said, this set was still a good experience that I’ll carry with me to Worlds.

Alex Oglaza (Evan Falco) becoming Champ, me having lost game 3

Final Ranking: 2nd at 2014 US Nationals

Adib got Worlds invite, free hotel room+free trip, 3DS XL, Finalist trophy, useless TCG cards, playmat, & binder for winning!

*cue victory music*

Yeah, fine, whatever, I didn’t actually win, but you know what I mean. Even though I lost, I was still pleased with my performance in the longest Nationals yet. I was also pretty happy for Alex for becoming the Champ. He’s a great guy and I know he’ll do great at Worlds. That said, I’ll be more than happy to send him packing on the tilt train next month

While I’m disappointed that I didn’t win the Wii U, I’m still pretty happy about winning that 3DS XL. I’ve only had an original 3DS all this time. As of now, I’ve transferred all my data over and upgraded to a system with 90% larger screens. Man, what have I been missing all this time… Anyway, I’ll give my youngest sister my old (now blank) original 3DS. Of course it was only after hearing that that she got happy I went to Nationals, go figure. Looking forward to rocking my new 3DS XL at Worlds!

After stepping off the stage, I practically disappeared under a horde of hugs. If this doesn’t tell you how awesome the VGC community is, I don’t know what will. Many of the audience apparently fell into the same trap that I did where I considered Alex brining Rain, when he didn’t actually do that. I got my pictures taken, then left the convention hall soon afterwards to drive an hour back to my apartment to do some homework that I had to turn in the next day.

 Interesting Things I Noticed From Nationals:

• Day 1 30th seed and 44th seed making it to the finals
• Day 2 7th seed and 8th seed–both the only 4-2′s in Top 8–making it to the finals
• Two of my three losses in Top Cut (Days 2 and 3) were featured on the big stage. Great
• No Garchomp or Salamence in the Masters finals.
• This was the 2nd National in a row where I fought someone copying Lajos’s team
• R Justice’s half-Rain, half-goodstuffs team is apparently a thing and I did not account for it going in
• Zapdos surprisingly increased in usage
• Hydreigon was responsible for:
  -one Day 1 Swiss loss (theBattleRoom)
  -two Day 2 best-of-three Swiss losses (Ray and Soul Survivor)
  -my loss in the finals (Evan Falco)
  -I think the only Hydreigon I won against was nineinchnailed’s on Day 2 Round 1
  -This is incredibly ironic because next to Gyarados and Steelix, Hydreigon is my favorite Pokémon
  -I guess this is what I get for betraying Hydreigon. HAIL HYDRA

Villains Always Lose

After Nationals, I remembered how in one of R Inanimate’s regional reports, Randy joked that he lost in the finals because villains always lose the final battle. In my case, with Wrath the Gyarados, Ghirahim the Aegislash and Lelouch the Tyranitar, I guess I was always doomed to lose in the end. Oh well. I’ll just vow revenge and bust out again later or something. As long as the Triforce of Power is in my hand…err I mean, shirt. Whatever.

Why I Didn’t do Well at Regionals

Kind of detracting a bit, but I’m sure people are wondering why a guy who went to two XY regionals and literally got zero CP was suddenly able to finish 2nd at Nationals. I can’t exactly answer that for sure, but I will answer a related question of why I didn’t get any CP at all in winter and spring Regionals, but did so in fall Regionals.

Long answer: check out my blog post here

Short answer: Taking too long to let go of Steelix. After basically inventing Steelix (my favorite Pokémon) as a viable VGC Pokémon last year, I used him successfully at 2013 Nationals, the following Regionals, a few online tournaments, and Apex 2014. It was incredibly hard for me to let go of Steelix when it was no longer viable. I know that in competitive Pokémon, you usually have to accept that you can’t use your favorite Pokémon. That’s one thing. It turns out that letting go of a signature Pokémon that you created & performed consistently well with in the past is a different story altogether. It took getting zero CP from two XY Regionals for me to finally give up on Steelix this year. The fact that I made top 8 at the largest grassroots tournament (Apex) a week after winter Regionals was a big reason why I spent so much time trying to make Steelix work again.

If I had run more standard teams from the get-go, I know I could have gotten some CP at XY Regionals. Maybe even enough so that I wouldn’t have had to go into hero mode at Nationals to clinch my Worlds invite. If you ever invent a viable signature Pokémon, don’t fall for the same trap I did. While other players with signature Pokémon were either smarter or had their signature Pokémon banned this year or some combination of both, I didn’t see them fall into this trap. Don’t make the same mistake I did.

Lessons Learned

• After the Steelix fiasco from January to April, I am now able to heartlessly give up on any Pokémon if I can’t use it well
• As for Nationals, I gained a ton of best of 3 experience. Not just battling experience, but also how to stay calm and advance through marathon tournaments like Nationals was this year. I realized I had to learn how to do this after tilting on game 3 against R Inanimate in the Top 16 at 2013 US Nationals
• I need to actively research foreign metagames and players so that I don’t get blown up by a strong team from overseas
• Adapting to a new meta by using standard Pokémon first, then branching out to try quirkier things. I started playing Pokémon competitively in VGC 2012, so this year has been a harsh learning experience in adapting to new metas

Closing Thoughts

If you made it all the way down here, thank you very much for reading my report on how I finished 2nd at the 2014 US National tournament. I hope you managed to take something away from it.

I’ve already said this, but thank you, Chris Brown (AlphaZealot). The 3-day tournament format you came up with was probably the best thing you could have done for Nationals. Because of it, not only did we have a larger top cut (which allowed me to squeak in at 44th), but it was great practice for the best-of-three format of the World Championships and allowed for a more accurate ranking of the top cut compared to Day 1′s Swiss results. While I’m not sure what team I want to run at Worlds yet, at the very least, I’m prepared for a marathon of high-pressure battles at Washington, DC. Thank you.

The tournament’s been over for a little while and while I’m happy with my result, I can’t help but note that it took some luck for me to finish as high as I did. I did have to play against some bad team matchups (and even won against a good number of them), but I didn’t have to face anything crazy like Confuse Ray Sableye or Dark Void Smeargle like some of my competition did. I have no doubt that there are a number of players that are stronger than me overall that didn’t place as well as I did because I probably got a little luckier in matchups and whatever the RNG decides to do in-game than they did. That said, I definitely plan to try my very best at Worlds to prove that I really do belong there like my performance at Nationals apparently says I do. That said, this is Pokémon. Luck comes with the territory, and it evens out in the long run.

As for the team I used, I’m sorry it’s not as interesting as my 10th Place 2013 US Nationals Steelix team. Sometimes you can come up with cool tricks, other times you can’t. Either way, you have to play to win, and this team was my play at Nationals. Unlike my 2013 team, I don’t feel pseudo-invincible with this team (even though I didn’t finish as well back in 2013) because of certain holes in it. That said, if you want to perform well, I recommend building a team that is 1) viable and 2) you actually like. If you actually have fun using a certain team that’s viable, then you’ll be more encouraged to keep testing and tweaking the team until it becomes strong.

Special shout-out to Matt Siebert (El Scorcho), who laid the groundwork for this team a month before Nationals. If he hadn’t come to me with his rough team idea, then I likely would not have had the inspiration needed to mold the team into what it became, and later pilot it to 2nd place at Nationals.

I would also like to thank no2moloh for providing me with the Tyranitar, since I was too lazy to breed a flawless one myself. I would also like to thank everyone who took the pictures that I used in this warstory, since I’ve always been too lazy to take pictures myself. And finally, I would like to thank everyone else who supported me at Nationals. I had a bunch of great people like El Scorcho, Uncle Taint, Greysong, theGr8, MrEobo, Darkeness, MurraMyrrh (thanks for the cover art!), linkyoshimario, Mancuso and a giant list of other equally awesome people cheering me on all throughout Nationals. The community is hands-down the best part of VGC and I know that because of it, I plan to be back for years to come. I hope to see you all at Worlds in Washington, DC next month!

I guess this means I can’t go back to reaching the 7th dungeon in Link’s Awakening for now *sigh*

The post A Heart Remade Fullmetal: 2014 US Nationals Runner-up Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello everyone, my name is Richard Fairbrother, otherwise known as NidoRich. I started playing Pokémon competitively in 2012 and that year I finished 5th at the UK Nationals (one win away from a Worlds qualification). At the 2013 UK Nationals, I finished 18th overall, and was outside of the Top Cut due to Opponent’s Opponent Win Percentage. I also was the Manchester #5 winner, and if the Pokémon community gave out superlatives, I would be voted “Most Likely to Walk into Walls.” Let’s get started with my report for this year’s 2014 UK Nationals.

Building the Team

I first started building this team with a Lapras, Mega Manectric, and Talonflame core which soon began to take shape with a Garchomp, Aerodactyl, and Ferrothorn added to the team. After a bit of testing on Battle Spot, I found that I wasn’t winning enough matches, so I began to build from scratch again, going with a core of Lapras, Garchomp, and Ferrothorn.

The team needed a bit more speed and some Fake Out support so I added a Mega which, of course, every team needs these days. Enter Kangaskhan. The addition of Mega Kangaskhan provided me with the option of either having Fake Out support or just using its all-out Attack power which can hit most of the metagame for quite a bit of damage. The only thing that annoyed me was the fact that I often speed-tied with other Kangaskhans, which is like rolling a dice and hoping for evens. Aerodactyl was added as a supporter with Tailwind, Taunt and Sky Drop in its arsenal, allowing it to do a fantastic job. I noticed my team really lacked any sort of special attacking presence except from Lapras. Adding Gardevoir to the team helped me gain a big attacking threat against opposing teams, especially with Choice Specs on it, allowing it to get a OHKO on Mega Venusaur and Amoonguss.

As a whole, the team had some good synergy and some fantastic potential to do well in Bochum so I decided to take it to the event. In the end, I finished Germany Nationals at a stale 5-3 with my first loss coming from an Effect Spore Amoonguss and my last loss coming from a critical hit on my Kangashan, which gave my opponent the win. My other loss was against Szymon in a close thoughtful match, which revolved around him being able to finally set up a Dragon Dance on his Mega Tyranitar. As soon as I got home from my trip to Germany, I knew that I would need to find improvements to the team if I wanted to top cut in Manchester so half the team was binned. I dropped my Aerodactyl, Garchomp and Ferrothorn.

The first thing I noticed was that Garchomp just did not perform well on the team at all and Ferrothorn was not a good choice for a Lapras team because almost every single team has a Fire attack. Aerodactyl did not fit in with my playstyle either, so I built my new team around Lapras, Kangaskhan and Gardevoir.

I noticed that my Gardevoir and Lapras could not really handle other Kangaskhan 1-on-1 and that when facing another Kangaskhan they would have another lead that could probably handle my own Kangaskhan, such as Gengar or any other Ghost-type Pokémon. This is where Amoonguss proved very valuable with its ability to Rage Powder and provide Spore annoyance.

I can’t stress enough that every team needs a Fire-Type to handle Aegislash and other assorted Grass and Steel types. Rotom-H is popular right now for a reason, as  it can deal huge damage to these types and even provides Will-O-Wisp support when necessary. Rotom-H was my counter to Aegislash and Mawile, which my team would struggle against otherwise.

My last slot was really up in the air and the thing that popped to mind first was some Intimidate support. Manectric was out and Mawile didn’t fit with my theme, so I added Salamence to the team as it could provide some swift attacks straight from the start.

The Team

Name: Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 76 HP / 132 Atk / 44 Def / 4Sp Def / 252 Spe
Ability: Scrappy > Parental Bond
- Fake Out
- Return
- Power-Up Punch
- Crunch

Kangaskhan is one of the most popular Mega Pokémon and is a staple on the majority of teams for this format. Fake Out support is invaluable to my slower team members. I chose Crunch over Sucker Punch simply because I needed the ability to hit switch-ins and Aegislash without wasting a turn going for a move that could not even work, and the possibility to get a Defense drop was an added perk. Power-Up Punch and Return are obvious picks and quite staple moves for Kangaskhan, as a Jolly Kangaskhan needs the little extra power that a +2 increase provides and even at only 132 Attack investment, a +2 Return gets the OHKO on Rotom formes and the majority of Pokémon that take neutral damage from Return.

The EV spread allows it to take a lot of hits and possibly win most one-on-ones against other Kangaskhans if you play correctly. I much prefer a Jolly Kangaskhan to an Adamant one these days as the more speed you have then the better chance you have of getting your moves off and the more likely you are to hit your Fake Out in the face of another Kangaskhan. I found that I usually lead with my Kangaskhan in most matches as it can be led with pretty much everything in my team and can achieve its job as intended.

Name: Salamence @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Modest
EVs: 20 HP / 236 SpAtk / 252 Spe
Ability: Intimidate
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Stone Edge
- Sleep Talk

Salamence was probably the weak link in my team as I only used it in one match during Swiss and then once during Top Cut. It’s job on the team was to provide Intimidate support as well as a basic fast-mode support against auto-pilot teams with Greninja, Talonflame and other Pokémon that hit hard and fast without much of a thought process. Draco Meteor is a must-pick move for Salamence when it is Choice-locked. Flamethrower was something I decided the day before the event (even though I have two other Fire-type moves on the team) because I wanted a 100% super-effective move for Ferrothorn and Mawile. Choosing Stone Edge over Rock Slide and Rock Tomb was the right pick in my opinion as it can get the OHKO on Charizard-Y and Talonflame and provide good coverage for Salamence. Sleep Talk is the dark horse move on Salamence and was my backup plan against Amoonguss and Smeargle and could possibly get a surprise KO.

The EVs don’t stray too far from the ordinary Choice Scarf Salamence. The slight drop in Special Attack does miss any important KOs or 2HKOs. The extra EVs in HP, however, can make some difference in certain situations. Salamence was definitely the worst member on the team and was never really needed in any of my matches. Looking back, I could have replaced Salamence with a Smeargle and fake a Khan-Artist lead.

Name: Gardevoir @ Choice Specs
Nature: Modest
EVs: 196 HP / 52 Def / 120 SpAtk / 60 SpDef / 80 Spd
Ability: Trace
-Moonblast
-Psychic
-Shadow Ball
-Hidden Power Fire

This Gardevoir was definitely the surprise package on my team. It did work when needed and picked up surprise OHKOs and other KOs in unlikely situations. People really don’t give enough credit to Choice Specs Gardevoir as it is so strong with the right kind of support. Psychic OHKOes Mega Venusaur unless they run a high amount of EVs in HP and Special Defense, but then again, Gardevoir can still outspeed it and gets the 2HKO if needed. Moonblast and Psychic have fantastic synergy and can hit most of the meta for super-effective or neutral damage, apart from mainly Aegislash, which is the very reason why I have Shadow Ball on Gardevoir’s moveset. Shadow Ball does just over 50% to the average Aegislash set. Hidden Power Fire gets the OHKO on Scizor and Ferrothorn which would otherwise wall Gardevoir.

The EV spread is something I really like as I only updated it about 2 or 3 days before the UK Nationals. It can take a max Special Attack Flash Cannon or Shadow Ball from Aegislash 95% of the time. I chose 80 Speed EVs so I could outspeed most Mega Venusaur but it was just my luck that I didn’t face a single one during Nationals. The added Speed also allows Gardevoir to outspeed the majority of bulky Rotoms without Speed EV investment.

Name: Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Nature: Bold
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 244 HP / 188 Def / 4 SpAtk / 68 SpDef / 4 Spd
-Giga Drain
-Rage Powder
-Spore
-Protect

Amoonguss performed so well in this team at the UK Nationals and acts as a good wall in this format. I was convinced by my brother (Combustandy) not to use a Lum Berry the day before so I went into UK Nationals with my Hard-Headed Amoonguss and it actually turned out to be the right choice in the end as I only faced one Smeargle throughout the day. The moveset is totally boring and stale but is pretty solid at any rate as Amoonguss isn’t there for attacking presence; it is there to put things to sleep, redirect attacks, and be an annoying heap of bulk to take out.

I went with 244 HP and 188 Defense EVs to be able to take Physical hits and annoy Kangaskhan to the ends of the earth with Rocky Helmet recoil and the chance of Effect Spore activating. The 68 Special Defense EVs were what I had left over and the 4 EVs in Speed and Special Attack would be wasted elsewhere. Overall, Amoonguss was very useful in Nationals as it provided me with great support during Swiss and during my Top 32 match.

Name: Rotom-H @ Safety Goggles
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 180 SpAtk / 12 SpDef / 60 Spd
Ability: Levitate
-Overheat
-Thunderbolt
-Will-O-Wisp
-Protect

Every team this year needs a strong Fire-type attacker with all the Aegislash and Mawile running around in the format; for my team, it was Rotom-H who filled that role. The attacks are staple on Rotom-H these days. Rotom-H is a great partner for both Amoonguss and Kangaskhan as it has great defensive synergy with the former and can deal heavy damage to Aegislash for the latter, which is something the usual Kangskhan has trouble with.

The EVs seem familiar, right? I honestly came up with the spread myself and then looked on NuggetBridge to compare it with other peoples’ spreads and noticed it matched JRank’s EV spread. The 60 Speed EVs allowed Rotom to outspeed Tyranitar and the 180 Special Attack EVs could KO Mawile  and decimate Aegislash’s HP to prevent it from setting up a Substitute. If I had used a Sitrus Berry Rotom, then I would change my spread to a more bulkier version I had been using earlier in the season to help it take Rotom-Wash Hydro Pumps and handle a couple Rock Slides from Garchomp and Aerodactyl. All in all, Rotom performed as it should by burning the opponent’s Pokémon and countering opposing Mawile, which my team really struggled against otherwise.

Name: Lapras @ Weakness Policy
Nature: Calm
EVs: 228 HP / 124 Def / 116 SpAtk / 36 SpDef / 4 Spd
Ability: Water Absorb
-Hydro Pump
-Freeze-Dry
-Ice Shard
-Protect

Fear the Lapras! Lapras is really undervalued this season and is a fantastic Ice-type for this format. A couple of weeks prior to German Nationals, I wanted to prove that Lapras has more potential then what people give it credit for. After doing a bit of research, I found that the most common item people use on Lapras is Assault Vest, which I almost instantly move away from. Lapras already has fantastic Special bulk paired with a great base HP. Lapras has four weaknesses: Fighting, Rock, Electric, and Grass. The first three are common weaknesses on many teams, which means that most players will be using a move of this type somewhere on their team, which then increases the chance that Lapras’s Weakness Policy will activate.

What some people don’t understand right away is that with the right EV spread, Lapras can survive almost any attack that isn’t boosted, including Thunderbolt from Choice Specs Rotom, Thunder from Mega Manectric, and even a Hammer Arm from Mega Kangaskhan. All of these calculations led me straight to the Weakness Policy item, and let’s face it: who wants to face a +2 Lapras in this format? In my own opinion, Lapras is a great answer to the current meta that has Dragon types in most teams (with two of the most popular Dragons having a 4x weakness to Ice). Rotom-H and Rotom-W can hit Lapras with a Thunderbolt but are then struck back with a Hydro Pump and Freeze-Dry respectively at +2.

As a whole, Lapras doesn’t need too much Special Defense investment so only 36 used to ensure that Lapras could take a hit, get the +2 from Weakness Policy, and then strike back, with Amoonguss providing Rage Powder support. The 228 HP and 124 Defense EVs allow it to take a couple Rock Slides and still be able to score a knock out versus Garchomp, even if Lapras is flinched one or two times. The Specials Attack EVs are at a decent level so Lapras can deal a good enough damage output when the Weakness Policy is not active. Without the boost, it can still get 2HKOs on bulky Rotom-W, Tyranitar, and other Pokémon it can hit for neutral damage. The final 4 EVs were placed into Speed so Lapras t could outspeed other base 60s that don’t have any EVs in Speed. The nature for a Weakness Policy Lapras should always be Calm, because there is no need to give it a 10% increase in Special Attack that doesn’t make a difference in KOs or 2HKOs when you can instead give Lapras some extra bulk with the Calm nature, which means Lapras can stay on the battlefield for a longer time.

The Tournament

It took a couple hours for the swiss flights and first round opponents to be determined. I was in flight 1 while my brother was in flight 2, which was my first priority. Before we start, I do want to apologize for any lapses in my memory throughout my report.

Round 1 vs Jack Hemmingway

Garchomp (Back) | Meowstic | Rotom-H (Lead) | Gothitelle | Vaporeon (Back) | Mawile (Lead)

Looking at the team, I instantly see Meowstic and hope he doesn’t use it purely for Swagger and Thunder Wave. He leads with Rotom-H and Mawile while I lead Kangaskhan and Amoonguss. Turn 1: he Protects Mawile and Overheats my Amoonguss while I Fake Out Rotom-H and Spore the Protecting Mawile. Turn 2: I remember that I switched out my Amoonguss for Rotom-H, which took a critical hit Overheat from the opposing Rotom-H. During the battle, I miss three Will-o-Wisps on Mawile, but Lapras came in to save the day. Lapras knocks out Rotom-H and predicts a Garchomp switch-in for another OHKO. By the end, it was his burnt Mawile and Vaporeon versus my Lapras and Rotom-H. Luckily, he goes for the Hydro Pump on Lapras and I get the clean KO on Mawile followed by a Freeze-Dry on Vaporeon for the win.

WIN 2-0 (1-0 in Swiss)

Round 2 vs Jonathon Kelly

Tyranitar | Venusaur | Gardevoir (Lead) | Hydreigon (Back) | Mawile (Lead) | Rotom-H (Back)

When looking at Jonathon’s team, Venusaur immediately stood out the most to me. Gardevoir was on my team specifically to counter Venusaur but I suspect that if he does bring it then it will be in the back, so I know leading with my Gardevoir is not the best choice to pick. He leads with a Scarf Gardevoir and a Mawile while I lead Kangaskhan and Rotom-H. Predicting the Mawile to switch or Protect, I go for the Will-O-Wisp on the Mawile and Fake Out on Gardevoir; Mawile does Protect and I get a slight advantage. I can’t remember too much other than that but he did have Hydreigon and Rotom-H in the back but Gardevoir does well against them. Once Mawile is gone, I use Gardevoir to secure the win.

WIN 2-0 (2-0 in Swiss)

Round 3 vs Matthew Carter [Mattsby]

Rotom-H (Back) | Gengar (Lead) | Garchomp | Gardevoir | Kangaskhan (Lead) | Bisharp (Back)

I first notice the Gengar and Kangaskhan duo (which gained a lot of popularity recently thanks to Yoshi), so I predict he will lead with that. He does indeed lead with them, so I lead with Kangaskhan and Lapras. This battle is all about the first turn; I go for the Fake Out on Gengar which Protects, while his Kangaskhan goes for the Return on my Kangaskhan, nearly getting the KO, and Lapras switches out for Amoonguss. Turn 2: he goes for the Return and Taunt while I Crunch and Rage Powder, I take a 4-3 lead. He brings in Bisharp and I’m hoping to win the Speed tie with his Kangaskha… but I lose it. From there, it was an uphill battle. During the late game, I could have swung it my way if I went for a second Protect on Lapras (thus allowing it to live a Return and not take a Sucker Punch), while my Choice Specs Gardevoir with Parental Bond gets a KO on his team. He ended up going 3-4 and dropping before the last game, which comes into play later.

LOSE 0-2 (2-1 in Swiss)

Round 4 vs Zoe Adams

Bannette | Tyranitar (Back) | Gardevoir (Lead) | Scrafty (Lead) | Rotom-W | Mawile (Back)

I recognize Zoe’s name and think, “OK, I’m in a tough match now and really cannot afford to lose.” She comes to the table with some McDonalds which forces me to think about how I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast (tricky ploy #37). She leads with Gardevoir and Scrafty while I lead Kangaskhan and Gardevoir. On the first turn, I switch Kangaskhan for Amoonguss and go for the Moonblast on Gardevoir, while she Protects Gardevoir and hits a Fake Out on Amoonguss, getting some recoil damage from its Rocky Helmet. I then hit a Moonblast on Gardevoir followed by one on Scrafty the next turn due to Ally Switch getting a KO. It was here that I find out the Gardevoir is holding Safety Goggles as Spore fails on Gardevoir to my surprise. The rest of the match went smoothly; Mawile was affected by Effect Spore and the Tyranitar was quickly destroyed by Kangaskhan and Gardevoir.

WIN 3-0 (3-1 in Swiss)

Round 5 vs Mike Ball

Garchomp (Back) | Smeargle (Lead) | Venusaur | Rotom (Back) | Scizor | Blastoise (Lead)

Looking at Team Preview, I see this guy has Smeargle and instantly sigh to myself because I will finally need to bring Salamence to a match. He leads with Blastoise and Smeargle while I lead Salamence and Kangaskhan, instantly going for a double target into his King’s Shield while his Blastoise Protects as well. Turn 2: he goes for a Follow Me and Water Spout while I Power-Up Punch and Draco the Smeargle to KO. The next turn, I Draco the Blastoise and get a critical hit which sends it to ¼ HP while I switch my Kangaskhan out for Amoonguss and Salamence gets knocked out by the incoming Garchomp. I finish up by sending in my Kangaskhan to knock out Garchomp and Lapras cleans up the rest of the field to seal another win for me.

WIN 2-0 (4-1)

Round 6 vs Rafiq Sadli

Kangaskhan (Lead) | Rotom-W (Lead) | Scizor (Back) | Salamence | Amoonguss | Chandelure (Back)

I remember seeing the name Raf from the IC tournament the prior week and instantly take my Lapras out of the running. I lead with Rotom-H and Kangaskhan to his Kangaskhan and Rotom-W. I Fake Out his Rotom and switch my Rotom for Amoonguss to take a Fake Out which works perfectly. On the next turn, I Power-Up Punch and Rage Powder as his Kangaskhan gets paralyzed from Effect Spore and my Amoonguss also takes a Will-O-Wisp from Rotom. I predict his Rotom to switch out for Chandelure, so I go for a +2 Crunch on Rotom’s slot, which is the play he goes for. From there, it is smooth sailing for me, although his Scizor does give me some trouble but goes down from a Hidden Power Fire from Gardevoir.

WIN 2-0 (5-1)

Round 7 vs Erik Anderson

Aegislash | Rotom-W (Lead) | Mawile (Back) | Talonflame (Back) | Garchomp | Sableye (Lead)

The first thing I see on the team is the Sableye and I smile because I know Sableye so well and know its calcs by heart. He leads Sableye and Rotom to my Kangakshan and Salamence. I Fake Out Rotom and go for Draco Meteor on Sableye as he proceeds to Will-O-Wisp my Kangaskhan. He then tells me that I am the first to not Fake Out his Sableye which does surprise me a little. I Power-Up Punch and Draco his Rotom while he goes for a Thunderbolt and Recover. I remember I knock out his Rotom with Return and later knock out his Sableye with Crunch and Hydro Pump and from there it was just a case of not making any silly plays as my Rotom-H and Lapras took out his Mawile and Talonflame cleanly.

WIN 4-0 (6-1)

Round 8 vs Alejandro [Pokebasket]

Garchomp | Talonflame (Back) | Gengar (Lead) | Ludicolo (Back) | Salamence | Kangaskhan (Lead)

This was the best game in the tournament that I played in all honesty and maybe the closest game in the whole event. I saw his team and thought, “I can win this if I can knock out his Talonflame and preserve my Amoonguss for late game.” He leads with Gengar and Kangaskhan so the first thing I think of is my earlier match which I lost versus Mattsby with the same two leads. I get the Fake Out on his Kangaskhan while he burns me and I switch in my Amoonguss freely. The next turn I Power-Up Punch and Rage Powder to take a Return or Power-Up Punch. He switches Gengar out at some point and I get a Return critical hit on Talonflame (which didn’t really matter). He then Returns my own Kangaskhan to get the knockout. In the late game, it is my Lapras and Amoonguss versus his full HP Gengar and full HP Ludicolo with my Amoonguss nearly KOd. He goes for the Giga Drain on Lapras which gets a critical hit, leaving Lapras with about 1/3 HP left, activating my Weakness Policy on the big screen for people to see! Unfortunately for my opponent, he Protects his Gengar while I Freeze-Dry Ludicolo for the OHKO and Spore into Gengar’s Protect. Now, it’s my low-HP Amoonguss and Lapras versus a Sash Gengar. I go for a Freeze-Dry and Rage Powder to make sure I hit, as he knocks out my Amoonguss and now I have to risk the damage roll of a +2 Ice Shard since Lapras’s  HP was in the high red zone. ALL OR NOTHING! Ice Shard got the KO on the Gengar, which meant I made it to the Top Cut finally in a National. Unfortunately, he barely missed out on Top Cutting which was a shame as Alejandro was a really, really nice guy. I was left with feelings of shock, disbelief and a whole lot of Lapras.

WIN 1-0 (7-1)

Because Flight 2 had finished before Flight 1 did there was a wait for the final rankings. I was nervous even though I knew I was in because I wanted to see it on paper that I had made it. There was a huge scuffle at the sheets as the ranks went up and joy, sorrow, and laughter could be seen and heard all through the crowd. Some of my friends were ahead of me and I told them not to tell me my ranking as I wanted to see for myself. I managed to make it to the front and saw I finished 6th in Flight 1. I was truly elated, shedding a few tears and laughs with everyone. Lapras had made it and I had made it. After celebrating with people (mainly Kyriakou who was so happy for me as we were jumping around everywhere) we decided to head back to the hotel, eat, and sleep.

Top Cut

Top 32 vs Josh S

Talonflame | Salamence | Garchomp | Kangaskhan | Aegislash | Rotom-W

Match 1

Talonflame (Lead) | Kangaskhan (Lead) | Aegislash (Back) | Rotom-W (Back)

When looking at his team, I instantly told myself he won’t pick a Dragon so I had to plan for the other four remaining. He leads with Kangaskhan and Talonflame to my Kangaskhan and Amoonguss. I start with a Fake Out on Talonflame and Spore on his Kangaskhan. He hits my Kangaskhan with Fake Out so turn 1 works perfectly. On the next turn, I switch my Amoonguss for Rotom-H and Return his Talonflame for the knockout. Later on, it is my Lapras and Amoonguss versus his Rotom-W and Aeigslash. I double up on his Aegislash’s Substitute with a +2 Hydro Pump and a Spore to take it out of the game before Rage Powdering and hitting a Freeze-Dry on Rotom-W.

WIN 2-0 (1-0)

Match 2

Talonflame(Lead) | Kangaskhan(Lead) | Aegislash(Back) | Rotom-W(Back)

He uses the exact same four while I switch my team up, leaving out Lapras. From what my memory serves, he gets his Fake Out on my Kangaskhan before I can Fake Out his Talonflame which uses U-Turn, and my Rotom-H gets a random Thunderbolt off. I really wish we could save these matches so that I can describe them better! I don’t remember much else other than losing this match.

LOSS 0-2 (1-1)

Match 3

Kangaskhan(Lead) | Garchomp(Lead) | Talonflame(Back) | Rotom-W(Back)

This time, he leads with Garchomp and I am really annoyed because I left out Lapras again. I lead with Kangaskhan and Salamence instead. I switch Salamence out for Amoonguss on the first turn and go for a Power-Up Punch on his Kangaskhan as he does the same. The next turn, I Rage Powder and Return his Garchomp for the KO as he gets a critical hit on my Amoonguss with Return (which I think would have KOed at +1 anyway). Now comes the defining turn: he sends in Talonflame as I send in Salamence again, so he has -1 Talon and neutral Kangaskhan, he gets a Brave Bird critical hit on my Kangaskhan and uses Sucker Punch on my Salamence while I get the knockout on his Kangaskhan with Draco Meteor. It finished up with his Talonflame and Rotom-W versus my Rotom-H. I correctly predict a Protect and knock out the Talonflame but he hits the Hydro Pump to knock out my Rotom on the final turn. It was still close though, as it came to my Rotom-H at 70% versus his Rotom-W at 30% so a miss would handed me the game. He played well and capitalized on my mistakes and eventually made it to the Top 8, so congrats to Josh!

LOSS 0-1 (1-2)

So that was it, luck was not with me at the end but I had fun and I learned that Lapras is something I should bring to matches more often. At the end of the day, I had fun and made progress from last year so I’m actually happy with what I managed to do. Yes, I am disappointed that I don’t get to go to Worlds again this year but at least I wasn’t one match off like the past two years!

In conclusion, I would really like to thank Lapras, all my friends, and everyone I played during the two events. Lapras is a really underused Pokémon which can definitely counter a lot of the metagame with the right support. It’s a shame I didn’t make Worlds again because I really want to meet more of the community from across the pond but I am sure I will eventually find a way to the World Championships… anyone got a spare suitcase?

The post That’s My Policy! A UK Top 32 Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

South Africa joined the VGC circuit this year. Most players viewed this as positive news, whilst other players were unimpressed and said that other countries should be afforded the opportunity before South Africa. Although I do have opinions on the matter, today’s report won’t be focusing on that. Rather, I’ll be having a look at South Africa’s very first VGC National event.

We have had the privilege of hosting a TCG National event before as well as several Regional and Cities events, but 2014 was the first year we have had any formal VGC tournaments. The venue was in a very spacious vacant store in Brightwater Commons mall that was more than big enough to comfortably house all of us. The tournament consisted of four rounds of Swiss followed by a Top Cut of 8. I was kind of disappointed to see such a small turnout for the tournament, as there were only 25 Masters, but nevertheless, I knew it would be a great day. The organisation and judging of the event were masterfully coordinated by the judges. Registration started at 8 AM and ended at 10 AM. The Swiss rounds started a lot later, though, as there wasn’t enough judging staff to juggle both the TCG Top Cut and VGC players simultaneously.

The Team

Kangaskhan (KAAAAAAAAA) @ Kangaskhanite
212 HP / 212 Attack / 60 Speed / 20 Def / 4 Sp.Def
Adamant Nature
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
- Fake Out
- Power-Up Punch
- Sucker Punch
- Return

Kangaskhan was my Mega of choice. I’m really comfortable with the role it plays. Kangaskhan hits hard and relatively fast. I went for a bulkier, slower spread because I had Speed control support in the form of Meowstic with Thunder Wave. My set survives an Adamant Mega Kangaskhan’s Hammer Arm 100% of the time. The Speed is so that I can outspeed Tyranitar and anything that was EVed to outspeed it in turn, as I felt that Kangaskhan with no Speed investment was a bit too slow. The HP investment was inspired by the German VGC National champion’s in order to reduce damage taken from Sandstorm, as Kangaskhan’s HP is one less than a multiple of 16.

Garchomp (RELINQUISH*) @ Rocky Helmet
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
Ability: Rough Skin
- Protect
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw

There’s really not much to be said here. This is the same Garchomp set that I’ve used for the entire year. It hits hard and fast. The Rocky Helmet was used to punish Fake Out users that were faster than my Kangaskhan, as well as punishing Kangaskhan in general.

Gardevoir (BLAZEM8) @ Sitrus Berry
252 HP / 116 Def / 76 Sp.Atk / 4 Sp.Def / 60 Speed
Modest Nature
Ability: Trace
- Protect
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Taunt

The defensive EV investment is designed to survive a Choice Banded Brave Bird from Talonflame. I decided against changing the spread to survive only the Life Orb-boosted Brave Bird, because against Mega Kangaskhan, the first Return hit usually does enough damage to activate my Sitrus Berry. I opted for Trace over Telepathy as I thought I could get a few useful Traces during my matches, and I felt as though my choice was correct, as long as I didn’t Trace something useless like Huge Power or Gale Wings. Taunt is used to stop Pokemon like Amoonguss from having free reign when I didn’t bring Meowstic to the match.

Talonflame (HAWKWARD) @ Life Orb
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
Ability: Gale Wings
- Quick Guard
- Taunt
-Flare Blitz
- Brave Bird

Two Taunt users in the same team might seem a bit excessive, and it is. Since I pretty much only practiced with this team on Showdown! I felt the need for a faster Taunt user, as I felt there were just too many teams that could do well if they get set up, e.g. Perish Trap teams. Nothing terribly exciting in the spread and move set department. I used Quick Guard to block Fake Outs and Prankster spam. I have a shirt that I got as a gift from Stephen for Christmas with a hawk that says “hawkward,” and that’s where the nickname comes from. I have a shiny 4 IV Adamant Talonflame, but opted to go the safe route with my flawless one, just in case the extra Special Defense IVs helped Talonflame survive a hit.

Bisharp (Diarmuid) @ Focus Sash
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
Ability: Defiant
- Protect
- Sucker Punch
- Night Slash
- Iron Head

Bisharp replaced my Aegislash, and there is good reason for that. It isn’t as slow as Aegislash, despite being less bulky, and it has a solid priority attack in Sucker Punch. It’s also a really good Aegislash counter, because Bisharp doesn’t need to fear the -2 Attack drop from King’s Shield due to Defiant.

Bisharp’s nickname comes from an animé called Fate/Zero. One of the warrior’s in the show is called Diarmuid. Thanks to EricOfficially for recommending it in the forums!

I decided to use Night Slash, despite Assurance being the better option in most cases. I was comfortable with Night Slash and the increased chance of a Critical Hit was good enough reason to merit its use. Iron Head provided some decent coverage against Fairies and could do a fair amount of damage to Tyranitar. It took me a while to decide on the item. Since my Life Orb was already in use and I didn’t like being locked into a move like Sucker Punch, for example, I opted to forgo Choice Band and ended up choosing Focus Sash. It’s an interesting item choice, but I found that if you aren’t up against Mega Kangaskhan, Bisharp seldom gets KOed in one turn. My opponents usually wouldn’t double target Bisharp due to it being so frail. This usually resulted in me being able to get two attacks off at the least before fainting. I definitely missed Life Orb at times.

During my testing it was very noticeable that Bisharp needed some form of boosted damage output, but I decided to keep using Focus Sash, as I was familiar with it. I only brought Bisharp to three games, but it proved its worth in the Finals, sealing two very close victories and nabbing me the title of South Africa’s best VGC player.

Meowstic (M) (CremeFraiche) @ Mental Herb
236 HP / 212 Sp.Def / 60 Def
Bold Nature
Ability: Prankster
- Thunder Wave
- Light Screen
- Charm
- Safeguard

Meowstic used Mental Herb because there are, again, a lot of tricks to be used while on Showdown! Trainers usually want to minimise their losses against teams that might be a bit more ‘gimmicky’. Due to the common usage of Taunt, I decided to run Mental Herb. This gave Meowstic more staying presence on the field, as I wouldn’t have to use Struggle or switch out to reset the Taunt. The EV spread guarantees survival against Adamant Mega Kangaskhan’s Return. The rest of my EVs were pumped into Special Defense in order to increase my chances of surviving Aegislash’s Shadow Ball. Safeguard helps against Smeargle, Amoonguss, opposing Prankster Pokémon, and Rotom-W, all of which would otherwise have free reign to spam their status moves due to the lack of a Lum Berry on my team. I was really comfortable with the team, as I knew what it could do and what it could not do. I really felt like the team had something up its sleeve to counter any team and to make the matchup a favourable one if I used it correctly.

The Matches

Round 1 vs. Dale Schwikkard (Daleshand)

Dale is a really great guy and I first met him over Nugget Bridge, as we were both South Africans. Dale is a really great player, and I was disappointed to find out that I was paired against a friend in the first round. It’s nicer to get into the groove of things against someone you don’t know, in my opinion.

His team: Diggersby, Blastoise, Raichu, Amoonguss, Talonflame, Hydreigon.

Game 1

He brought: Blastoise, Talonflame, Diggersby and Hydreigon. I brought Kangaskhan, Gardevoir, Talonflame and Garchomp.

This was a really close game, as it came down to my Talonflame having avoided two Rock Slides from Diggersby. Brave Bird was brave indeed, and won the match for me after a bit of RNG luck. I made a poor switch in with Garchomp during the match, resulting in it getting OHKOed by Dragon Pulse from Blastoise. So that put me behind, making this match an uphill battle. I was also really surprised to see that my Gardevoir was able to survive Hydreigon’s Flash Cannon from about 55% health, so it was probably Scarfed and not Specs.

Win (1-0).

Game 2

He brought Raichu, Blastoise, Diggersby and Hydreigon. I brought Meowstic, Gardevoir, Kangaskhan and Garchomp.

Dale’s lead was better than mine as Raichu’s Lightning Rod put a halt in my plans to get some Speed control under way with Meowstic. Garchomp does a bit more work this match, not getting OHKOed by Dragon Pulse this time around. The match boiled down to my +1 Kangaskhan with Garchomp and Meowstic in the back against his Hydreigon and Raichu. I switch out Garchomp for Meowstic, hoping to cripple Hydreigon’s Speed for Garchomp in case it came to down to that. But first, Kanga needed to KO that Raichu. My +3 Kanga and Meowstic were able to come out on top here.

Win (3-0). 1 win, 0 losses.

Round 2 vs. Jan-Hendrick Fick

Jan-Hen is a guy that I’ve known from league. I had a very close match with him earlier in the year, so I was cautious going into this match.

His team: Smeargle, Azumarill, Scolipede, Goodra, Mawile, Gourgeist.

Game 1

He brought: Smeargle, Scolipede, Azumarill and Mawile. I brought: Meowstic, Kangaskhan, Garchomp and Talonflame.   His Smeargle’s Fake Out goes before my Kangaskhan and that’s when I am sorely reminded that base 100 speed Pokémon need 156 Speed investment to out speed max speed Smeargle. My Meowstic can’t get Safeguard up this turn due to the flinch and my Kanga gets his Scolipede with Fake Out. Once I get Safeguard up I don’t worry about Smeargle and Kangaskhan breaks Scolipede’s sub that it got up in the previous turn, but Kangaskhan doesn’t get the KO. The match ends with my +3 Mega Kangaskhan and Meowstic out against his Paralysed Scolipede and Mega Mawile. I learn that Scolipede has no attacking moves, which I thought was rather interesting, and it was an easy enough victory from then on. Charm really helped a lot against Mawile, as its Play Rough did less than 50% damage to KAAAAAAAAA.

Win (4-0).

Game 2

He brought: Scolipede, Smeargle, Mawile and Gourgeist. I brought: Kangaskhan, Talonflame, Garchomp, Meowstic.

After his Smeargle gets Taunted by Talonflame, it’s switched out for Gourgeist. Gourgeist is able to survive Talonflame’s Brave Bird by a couple of Hit Points. Talonflame knocks itself out with recoil damage during the match, and my Garchomp, Meowstic and Kangaskhan are able to pull through for me and beat Smeargle and Mawile. Garchomp was able to get an OHKO on Mawile with Earthquake which was really surprising!   Win (3-0). 2 wins, 0 losses.

Round 3 vs. Rogan Botha

Rogan is a great friend and my “rival”, so to speak. He’s a great Pokémon player, so I knew I was in for some good matches.

His team: Talonflame, Garchomp, Aegislash, Amoonguss, Charizard Y and Azumarill.

Game 1

He brought: Azumarill, Charizard, Aegislash, Garchomp. I brought: Meowstic, Kangaskhan, Garchomp, Talonflame.

This was a really good match, with both teams taking fair trades. He lead Azumarill and Charizard to my Meowstic and Kangakshan. I switch out Kangaskhan for Garchomp and he switched Azumarill for Aegislash. Charizard Protects and Meowstic Paralyses Aegislash.  I am able to learn that his Garchomp isn’t carrying Life Orb, since my Garchomp survived a Dragon Claw at full health, and that his Aegislash is a physical attacker. The match ended with my Kangaskhan and Garchomp out against his Charizard and Azumarill. My Rock Slide missed his Charizard Y, but got the KO on Azumarill. Funnily enough, his Heat Wave then misses my Garchomp, which would definitely have knocked it out, so I wasn’t too upset about the Rock Slide miss. Kangaskhan gets put below 50% health and would have gotten KOed the next turn from Heat Wave, and my Sucker Punch wouldn’t have OHKOd his Char Y, so Garchomp surviving was incredibly fortunate.

Win (1-0).

Game 2

He brought: Azumarill, Talonflame, Garchomp and Aegislash. I brought: Bisharp and Gardevoir as lead and had Garchomp and Kangaskhan in the back.

I decided to lead with Bisharp, as I wanted to immediately apply pressure on his Aegislash. I Protect turn one with Bisharp, as I feared an Aqua Jet and Flare Blitz KO. Instead, Rogan goes for the Brave Bird on Gardevoir, putting it at 25% health and activating its Sitrus Berry. I am able to KO the Talonflame in turn with Psychic, due to the recoil it sustained. Azumarill showed that it had Superpower as it hit into my Protect, so my Kangaskhan and Bisharp need to be careful in this match. He then brings in Garchomp, but immediately switches it out for Aegislash having predicted the Moonblast. My Gardevoir’s Moonblast does almost no damage against his Aegislash, and Bisharp manages to flinch Azumarill with Iron Head. I forego double targeting his Aegislash, predicting the Sub. I need to get the KO, or do enough damage to prevent Substitute from activating. Moonblast does a fair amount of damage against Azumarill, putting it in the red, and with a Critical Hit, Night Slash puts the Shield-Forme Aegislash at 5% health. Azumarill uses Superpower, which activates Sash on my Bisharp, and Aegislash can’t get up the Substitute due to not having enough health.  I realise that his Azumarill isn’t running Aqua Jet, but is instead using Waterfall, so Bisharp would always be able to attack before it. This was comforting, as I didn’t have to worry about being left at 1 HP.   His Azumarill Protects, and Aegislash use King’s Shield. The next turn he again tries to use King’s Shield, which fails. I KO both his active Pokémon and he is left to send in Garchomp. I use Bisharp’s Sucker Punch to get some chip damage on his Garchomp and he reveals that his Garchomp hasn’t got Rough Skin! He uses Dragon Claw to KO Bisharp, and Gardevoir nets the KO with Moonblast.

GG, win (3-0). 3 wins, 0 losses.

Round 4 vs. Nikola Radevic

I hadn’t met Nikola prior to the tournament. I’m not going to lie here, I was fairly intimidated by him, as he’d been wearing his hood all day and was a rather towering fellow. All of this ‘fear’ subsided when I introduced myself and realised that he’s actually an incredibly friendly and talkative chap. He was also at 3-0, so it was scary realising that one of us had to end Swiss with a loss on our records. It turns out that Nikola is in fact a Singles player, and heard about Nats about a fortnight before the tournament.

His ability to predict was one the same level as mine, if not better. However, since he had a few Singles moves, like Stealth Rock on his Tyranitar, Water Shuriken on his Greninja and, by the sound of things, a few last minute Protects added onto some of his Pokémon, the factor of prediction was slightly in my favour once I learnt of this disadvantage.

His team: Greninja, Weavile, Tyranitar, Tyrantrum, Charizard Y, Trevenant.

Game 1

He brought: Charizard Y and Weavile as leads, with Tyrantrum and Greninja in the back. I open with Talonflame and Gardevoir with Kangaskhan and Garchomp in the back.

He Mega Evolves his Char Y and uses Fake Out on Talonflame on the first turn. I predicted the Fake Out but I didn’t know that Weavile was faster than Talonflame, which is entirely my own fault as I had checked for faster Pokémon the night before the tourney. His Charizard uses Heat Wave and Talonflame is surprisingly left standing with one Hit Point. He then switches out Weavile for Tyrantrum. I incorrectly predicted an Ice Shard, so I use Quick Guard to a rather astounding nil effect. Charizard Heat Waves again, which misses Gardevoir and KOs Talonflame. Psychic from Gardevoir does a bit of chip damage against Charizard Y for a booby prize effect.   After a not-so-stellar first two turns, I send in Garchomp and use Protect. This was because I assumed, but still needed to find out whether, Tyrantrum was Scarfed or not and decided to not get greedy go for the OHKO on Charizard. My hunch was correct and he Ice Fangs into Protect! A critical hit from Heat Wave takes Gardevoir off the field.   I bring in Kangaskhan hoping to pick up some steam. The match ends with my Garchomp getting flinched by Weavile’s Fake Out and Greninja Ice Beams for the KO. Unfortunately, I am out-predicted and outplayed this game and I just couldn’t get ahead.

GG, lost (0-1). 0-1

Game 2

He brought: Weavile, Charizard, Greninja and Tyrantrum. I brought Kangaskhan, Meowstic, Garchomp and Gardevoir.

I immediately switch out Kangaskhan for Garchomp. This was somewhat effective, as I knew I’d be able to break Weavile’s Focus Sash with the Rocky Helmet and Rough Skin chip damage due to the predicted Fake Out on Kangaskhan. To make this plan fully effective, I also had Meowstic Paralyse Weavile with Thunder Wave. Weavile was quite the threat to my Garchomp, so I needed to keep Garchomp from fainting. Heat Wave gets both Garchomp and Meowstic below 50% health. I am able to KO his Charizard with Rock Slide, which wasn’t able to quite KO Weavile and it’s left standing with what was probably 3 HP. Thankfully, Rock Slide did manage to flinch his Weavile. He then sends forth his Greninja, which is another huge threat to Garchomp. I Protect Garchomp and make sure that Meowstic also paralyses Greninja before it faints from Weavile’s Night Slash attack. Next up is Kangaskhan, and I quite like the favourable position I find myself in. Rock Slide manages to get a superfluous critical hit on Weavile, but misses Greninja. I Power-Up Punch the Greninja for the knock out, and I have a Garchomp and +2 Mega Kangaskhan against his Tyrantrum. Sucker Punch leaves Tyrantrum at low health but still in the yellow zone. Ice Fang does indeed hit Garchomp for the KO and Rough Skin and Rocky Helmet are able to get a cherry-on-the-top knock out.

Win (2-0). 1-1, we’re both tied and come down to our last game before the end of the Swiss rounds.

Nikola jokes about how the game can be rather bittersweet in giving out those “superfluous crit hits”. I totally agree with him and we mentally prepare ourselves for the nerve-wracking match ahead.

Game 3

He brought: Weavile and Greninja as leads, and had Charizard and Trevenant cover the rear. I brought: Kangaskhan, Meowstic, Gardevoir and Garchomp.

This time around I don’t switch in Garchomp in place of Kangaskhan, as I predict his duo to not fall for the same trick twice. Instead he flinches my Meowstic, and I flinch his Greninja. On the second turn he withdraws his Greninja for Trevenant. I paralyse his Weavile with Thunder Wave. This is super fortunate for me, as Weavile is Paralysed the same turn and doesn’t attack. Nikola correctly predicts the Power-Up Punch onto his Greninja’s slot. I then get Safeguard going with Meowstic, as I’m fairly confident his Trevenant is going to try and burn my Kangaskhan sooner or later, and I Power-Up Punch on Weavile for the knock out and get the +2 Attack boost.  He sends in Charizard and Mega Evolves it; I get somewhat optimistic here thinking that his Trevenant will attack this turn. Sadly my Sucker Punch fails. Thunder Wave cripples Charizard’s speed and my Kangaskhan is Seeded. Not liking the idea of having my health slowly sapped away, I switch in for Garchomp, as Kangaskhan and Meowstic can’t do much against Trevenant. I set up Light Screen, Trevenant uses Ingrain and Charizard’s Heat Wave takes care of Meowstic. I realise at this point that his Trevenant probably isn’t running an attack that does damage. I try to capitalise on this and send in Gardevoir, tracing Harvest, which is great, because now my Sitrus Berry will be even more useful. His Greninja comes out and I Protect with Garchomp. Moonblast swiftly takes care of Greninja. The match ends with about three to four turns of Garchomp and Gardevoir watching Trevenant Struggle as they struggle to get rid of the Harvested Sitrus Berries.

GG, win (3-0), and the series is 2-1. 4 wins and 0 losses.

Phew, I made it into cut without losing a round. I was confident I’d get far in Top Cut, maybe even win it, but I needed to keep a level head. I was actual able to keep calm in most of my matches, and this was thanks to all the practice I had on Showdown! and in my matches in the Dodrio Cup.

Top Cut Round 1 vs. Morné Steinmann (acreland)

Morné said that he and I would get paired up in the first round of cut, as I’m seeded first after Swiss and he was eighth. It’s never ‘fun’ having to go up against a friend, as someone always needs to come out second best. During the lunch break someone mentioned that Morné’s Kangaskhan is running Crunch over Sucker Punch. This information, as important as it might have been at the time, didn’t even prove useful during our matches, as I had totally forgotten his Kangaskhan didn’t even run Sucker Punch. I was really thankful for this, as I didn’t want to win due to information that I hadn’t obtained during one of my own matches against an opponent.

His team: Rotom-Wash, Amoonguss, Mega Kangaskhan, Talonflame, Azumarill, and Hydreigon.

Round 1

He brought: Hydreigon, Talonflame, Rotom-W and Amoonguss. I brought: Kangaskhan, Meowstic, Garchomp and Gardevoir.

I thought his Talonflame would have Quick Guard, as it’s what people usually use when they lead with Talonflame. Accordingly, I don’t use Fake Out with Kangaskhan and make sure Meowstic doesn’t use Thunder Wave or Charm. Here I make, what is quite possibly, the worst misplay of my tournament run thus far. I decide to use Safeguard, of all things, when I really should have used Light Screen to hamper Hydreigon. I pay a dear price for misplay, as his Hydreigon takes out Mega Kangaskhan with a single Draco Meteor. I actually ran the calcs when I got back home, and his Choice Specs Hydreigon had a 6.3% chance to get that OHKO.  I immediately realise that I need to up my game or I won’t find myself in the later Top Cut rounds.

I then send in Gardevoir as Morné retreats his -2 Hydreigon. Talonflame uses Protect, but fails. Morné is surprised to see this happen. I then explain to him that the odds of a protecting move succeeding in succession is lowered to 30% the second time round. Amoonguss is sent in and Meowstic paralyses it while Gardevoir uses Psychic to put Talonflame at 30% health. The next turn he Rage Powders and uses Brave Bird on Gardevoir, activating Sitrus Berry. Meowstic uses Safeguard and Psychic does a fair bit of damage to Amoonguss.  He sends in Rotom-Wash and I only realise after our game that Morné hadn’t brought his Kangaskhan to this match. Meowstic uses Light Screen, and I take out Amoonguss with Psychic. Rotom hits Gardevoir with Thunderbolt leaving it in the red. His Hydreigon then returns to the field. I Protect Gardevoir and make sure that Meowstic gets the Thunder Wave off for the Moonblast OHKO the next turn.

The match ends with Garchomp at 20% and Meowstic up against a Leftovers Rotom-W. Thankfully, Dragon Claw was able to win the damage race after a lucky double Protect from Rotom.

GG, win (2-0). 1-0 so far…

Game 2

He brought: Amoonguss, Azumarill, Talonflame and Rotom-W (no Kangaskhan again!). I brought: Talonflame, Garchomp, Kangaskhan and Gardevoir.

I protect Garchomp and Morné’s Amoonguss does the same. My Taunt hits the Protect and Belly Drum Azumarill is a real thing at the end of the turn. He switches Rotom-W in for Amoonguss and my Brave Bird does minimal damage. Earthquake puts Azumarill at 45% health and Play Rough naturally OHKOs Garchomp, who’s recoil damage sadly leave Azumarill with 5% health. I send in Kangaskhan to gain some momentum now. I go for the Fake Out on Rotom and my Brave Bird hits into Azumarill’s Protect. Amoonguss is sent in and Rotom is retreated. Protect doesn’t work the second time around and Brave Bird takes out Azumarill. Kangaskhan’s Return gets a lucky critical hit on the first attack and the second Parental Bond hit is enough to take out Amoonguss. Amoonguss’s Rocky Helmet recoil did a pretty number to Kangaskhan as revenge.

He then sends in his Talonflame and Rotom, and from this comfortable position I wasn’t able to win it, as I made an incorrect prediction involving Quick Guard and the opposing Talonflame’s Flare Blitz. My Kangaskhan gets taken out by a critical hit Brave Bird and it’s downhill from there.

GG, lost (0-2). The games are now one apiece.

Game 3

He brought: Hydreigon, Kangaskhan (finally), Talonflame and Rotom-W. I ended up bringing: Kangaskhan, Meowstic, Gardevoir and Garchomp.

Turn 1 I switch out my Kangaskhan for Gardevoir as Morné’s Kangaskhan Mega Evolves. I was afraid that his Kangaskhan was Jolly and would attack before me. He uses Fake Out on Gardevoir, Meowstic paralyses Hydreigon and Gardevoir was unaffected by Draco Meteor. My prediction paid off. I then Charm his Kangaskhan and its Return does very little damage to Meowstic. Obviously being locked into Draco Meteor, it really does a number to Meowstic and knocks it out. Thankfully Cremefraiche was able to put in some work before fainting, so I wasn’t too upset about it.

I decided to send in Kangaskhan, as Morné retreats his Kangaskhan for Rotom-W. My Fake Out takes away a quarter of Rotom’s health and Gardevoir’s Moonblast on Rotom leaves it in the red. I mispredicted that his Hydreigon would switch out, but thankfully its Draco Meteor missed Kangaskhan. I have Kangaskhan Power-Up Punch Rotom for the +2 Attack boost as well as the knock out, and Moonblast does its magic on Hydreigon.  Kangaskhan and Talonflame are sent in, and I retreat my Kangaskhan for Garchomp. My thought process with this move was that his Kangaskhan would use Fake Out on mine. I knew that the recoil from Rough Skin and Rocky Helmet would take Kangaskhan below fifty per cent health.   I used Protect on Gardevoir, but it would have been better off attacking this turn, as it could have grabbed the KO on either of Morné’s Pokémon. I didn’t, however, anticipate his Talonflame to double target my Kangaskhan’s slot with Brave Bird. Garchomp was yet again knocked out due to a poor switch in from my part. At least it half performed its job with doing a fair amount of damage to both opposing Pokémon.

I send out Mega Kangaskhan once again. I knew I could win this game if I just played it out cleverly enough. Instead I use Sucker Punch into his Quick Guard. I’m not sure what the dice roll on this next attack was, but Gardevoir’s Moonblast was able to take out Kangaskhan from 45% health.

I had made it into the next round of cut and I was really excited, but I didn’t let this victory go to my head. Morné and I both congratulate each other and we go on to say that these past matches were definitely the best either of us had had throughout the tournament thus far.

GGs, win (1-0). 2-1 and I make it through to the top 4.

Top 4 match vs. Nikola Radevic

I was somewhat thankful that I had the chance to battle against someone whose entire team I had known by now due to my previous matches against him.

Game 1

He brought Weavile and Charizard and I opened with Garchomp and Talonflame. I Protected with Garchomp and Talonflame managed to, in the same turn, a) take Weavile down to its Sash, b) survive Charizard Y’s Heat Wave with 10 HP to spare, and c) get Pickpocketed by Weavile, giving it my Life Orb. Nikola then switches out Charizard for his Tyrantrum. Brave Bird takes out Weavile and Rock Slide doesn’t do much against Tyrantrum.  Greninja enters the battle, and I was surprised to see a Drought-weakened Water Shuriken from the toady ninja. It certainly did the job as Talonflame was knocked out. Garchomp Protected itself from Ice Fang. I send out Kangaskhan and retreat Garchomp for Gardevoir.   In the second last turn both my Gardevoir and Kangaskhan were taken out by Charizard Y’s Heat Wave. I knew that my end game victory was going to happen if I managed to keep Garchomp alive. That’s exactly what I did and thankfully my Rock Slide hit to take down Nikola’s last Pokémon.

Won (1-0). One win so far, one more to go.

Game 2

At the start of this game I could tell that his lead of Trevenant + Tyranitar definitely put a lot of pressure on my lead of Talonflame + Meowstic. But with some paralysis hacks and some clever move choices, I was able to win this game by keeping his Trevenant from using Will-o-Wisp. I was able to gain a lot of momentum when I predicted he’d switch in his Charizard for his Tyranitar. He predicted me to Earthquake again and I took a leap of faith here and went with Rock Slide knowing his incoming Charizard wouldn’t be able to survive the blow. In the end my Garchomp and Kangaskhan were able to take care of Trevenant and Tyranitar, as I was mindful not to Mega Evolve Kangaskhan so that a combination of Dragon Claw and Return were enough to take Trevenant off the field, leaving only his Tyranitar up against my two powerhouses.

GGs, win (2-0). 2-0 and I make it into the final! Nikola is incredibly gifted with predicting and I know that if he takes the time to make a fully VGC dedicated team he can place even better at the next tournament. I take my hat off to you sir, a fellow scholar and gentlemon.

Finals vs. Johannes Botma (dotNinja)

Johannes had also finished the Swiss rounds 4-0, so this meant that he also hadn’t lost more than two games against any one opponent in the same round. The first thing he said to me was “It’s funny that one of us will lose for the first time today.” I totally agreed with him, but I knew I was able to win it if my team had taken me this far already.

His team consisted of Chandelure, Gardevoir, Rotom-W, Charizard, Mawile and Mamoswine.

Game 1

He brought: Gardevoir, Rotom-W, Mamoswine and Mawile. I lead with Kangaskhan and Meowstic and have Garchomp and Bisharp in the back.

On the first turn I Fake Out into his Gardevoir’s Protect. Meowstic gets Safeguard up and Rotom-W connects with its Hydro Pump onto Kangaskhan. I then get Light Screen up and Kangaskhan hits Rotom-W with Return, which reveals it’s holding a Sitrus Berry. A combination of a critical hit Hydro Pump and Moonblast are more than enough to take care of Kangaskhan as it goes down.

I send in Bisharp next and Johannes’s Gardevoir and my Bisharp use Protect. Meowstic uses T-Wave into the Protect and Rotom-W also hits my Protect. The next turn I have Meowstic use Thunder Wave again onto Gardevoir and Sucker Punch from Bisharp take care of Rotom. Moonblast from Gardevoir puts Bisharp at about 45% health.

Johannes then sends in Mamoswine. I Protect with Bisharp and use Charm on Mamoswine. At this point I am unsure of whether Mamoswine out speeds my Bisharp or not. I notice that Mamoswine has Life Orb and Gardevoir ends up being Paralysed as it tries to Protect too. Gardevoir attempts Protect again and isn’t Paralysed this time.

I’m not taking any chances here and have Meowstic Charm Mamoswine and Bisharp attacks before Mamoswine (this is good to know at this point) and Iron Head gets the knock out.  Mawile is sent out and for the first time in the tournament I get a Defiant boost!   I paralyse Mawile with Thunder Wave and Bisharp uses Iron Head on Gardevoir to knock it out. It’s now nabbed 3 knockouts in the same match! Play Rough from Mega Mawile connects and Bisharp finally faints.

I send out Garchomp and I know I’ll need to Charm spam like there’s no tomorrow if Garchomp is to survive and take care of Mawile. I manage to get two consecutive Charms onto Mawile with some clever Protecting and a lucky paralysis. It takes one Earthquake to put Mawile on what looks like 3 HP and Play Rough doesn’t even do 50% damage to Garchomp. Rough Skin gets the recoil damage on and Mawile is history.

GG, win (1-0). One win away from being the champion!

Game 2

He brought: Chandelure, Rotom-W, Mamoswine and Mawile. I brought: Meowstic, Gardevoir, Kangaskhan and Garchomp.

I really didn’t play well this match and I was out-played without a doubt.  I wasn’t sure how to go about beating Chandelure, so thinking it’s Scarfed I Paralyse it. I bring back Gardevoir for Kangaskhan not knowing what to do in this situation. Rotom’s Hydro Pump misses and Chandelure is Paralysed.

The next turn I Sucker Punch onto Chandelure, which fails. Meowstic uses Safeguard and I was surprised to see Chandelure use Substitute. Rotom was comfortably behind a Protect for the turn.   Meowstic uses Light Screen and Kangaskhan uses Power-Up Punch on Rotom. The +2 boost is nice, although short-lived as Hydro Pump and Overheat put Kangaskhan into the red with 18 HP to spare.  My Sucker Punch doesn’t fail this time. I break Chandelure’s Substitute and the second hit leaves it in the yellow. Rotom uses Thunderbolt to get the knock out on Kangaskhan.

I bring in Garchomp to make short work of Chandelure the following turn. From here he sends in Mamoswine and I spend way too much time focusing on it and hitting into its Protects as Rotom and Ice Shard manage to take care of my attackers.

I end up with Meowstic and 20 HP Garchomp against his Rotom and Mamoswine.

Lost (0-3). I now know that I need to get rid of that Mamoswine ASAP. Gardevoir and Rotom were a nuisance, but they were manageable.

Game 3

He brought Rotom, Gardevoir, Mamoswine and Mawile. I brought: Garchomp, Kangaskhan, Bisharp and Gardevoir.

His Gardevoir traces Rough Skin, which isn’t ideal for my two physical attackers, but I needed to work around it. Garchomp Protects and Kangaskhan’s Return takes out Gardevoir from full health. I realised this was possible as his Gardevoir didn’t run Sitrus Berry. Since mine did, I knew that a +252 Return wouldn’t get the one-hit knock out, because Sitrus activates after the first hit. But since his wasn’t running Sitrus Berry I knew that a knock out was possible.

Rotom uses Will-o-Wisp on Kangaskhan and I guess it’s a fair trade at the end of the turn. I kind of anticipated the Will-o-Wisp on Garchomp, but it was not to be.   Johannes sends in Mamoswine and I retreat my Garchomp for Gardevoir and it fortunately Traces Mamoswine Thick Fat. Ice Shard doesn’t do a lot of damage to Gardevoir. Kangaskhan Power-Up Punches on Mamoswine to put it back at its regular attack stat. Rotom-W then uses Thunderbolt, and after the burn damage, Kangaskhan is left with 45 HP. His Mamoswine Protects and my Sucker Punch fails. Hydro Pump from Rotom activates Sitrus Berry. My Moonblast hits into Mamoswine’s Protect. I felt really dumb having double targeted when the Protect from Mamoswine was the most likely move for him to play this turn.

The next turn I use Return on Mamoswine for the knock out, and Moonblast hits Rotom. Kanga faints from the burn chip damage. I now send in Bisharp knowing that it’s going to come in with a Defiant boost from Mawile.  Bisharp and Mawile both Protect. Rotom-W uses Will-o-Wisp into my Protect and thinking a few moves ahead, I use Taunt on Rotom. If either my Garchomp or Bisharp get burnt it will severely limit my chances of winning.

This turn my Gardevoir uses Protect and Sucker Punch packs enough punch to take out Rotom-W. Mawile uses Play Rough and brings Bisharp down to its Sash.   Now it’s Garchomp and +1 Attack, 1 HP Bisharp versus Mega Mawile.  With some clever plays, a Rock Slide and an Iron Head later, I manage to take out Johannes’s final Pokémon! I just became South Africa’s first VGC Masters champion. I congratulate Johannes and he congratulates me too. My friend Stephen had been watching all of my top cut matches and he seemed more excited about me winning than I did.

Props

• Once the Swiss rounds were up and running, the event was very smoothly organised with no hiccups.
• Getting to meet players that I had previously only known from the forums in person.
• Having some top quality matches against fellow South Africans.
• I was able to learn a lot in terms of predicting, making better plays and overall better team choices from the Team Preview. Basically, just being able to become a better player.
• Treven (who placed third) saying that Dale looked a lot like Kyle Bosman.
• Morné making it into cut when he thought he wouldn’t.
• Getting a brand new 3DS, a copy of Pokémon Y, and awesome champion’s trophy.

Slops

• My friend Stephen bubbling at 9th place. We had started to celebrate a bit too early when we saw Stevey was placed 5th, due to the automatically updated ‘standings’ online, we falsely believed he had made it into cut… Sorry pal. Funny thing is, I actually called it before the tournament even started.
• Dale missing out on cut too.
• There was no 3DS for second place.
• The poor-ish turnout for such an awesome event.

Well, anyways folks, I’d like to leave you with this quote. “…A real warrior doesn’t dash off in pursuit of the next victory, nor throw a fit when experiencing a loss. A real warrior ponders the next battle.”

The post South African National Champion’s Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello, Nugget Bridge! I’m Tyler Bakhtiari or, as you may know me, Pokeguru01. I participated in the 2014 VGC National Championship in the UK, taking 9th place overall, so I felt that I should break out of my lurker mode and finally post on here.

Luckily for me, UK Nationals was being held in my home city, Manchester, so this meant I got a decent night’s sleep before hand, unlike previous years. In all honesty though, I wasn’t expecting to get Top Cut since I knew many of Europe’s top tier players would be there. I wasn’t feeling too confident with my team and I hadn’t been practicing as much due to my GCSEs (important examinations). I mainly went to socialize and have fun. However, I trumped my own expectations, and from expecting a 5-3 at the very best, I went 8-0 and ended up in the Top 16.

The Team

The nicknames are from two series that I have fallen in love with over the past year. The first three nicknames are based of characters from a vocaloid series called Kagerou Project. The latter three are in relation to the game Fire Emblem Awakening, my favourite 3DS game.

Ene Enemoto (Rotom-Heat) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 12 Def / 252 SAtk / 36 SDef / 196 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Protect
- Hidden Power Ice

Ene can manifest herself in different machines, but is shown to mainly go into computers and mobile phones. Rotom has a very similar ability, so I felt the name went well.

The sheer power Rotom-Heat has with a Life Orb is outstanding. Even with a Timid nature, Rotom-Heat could score OHKOs on Mega Manectric with Overheat. Hidden Power Ice was nice to hit the likes of Garchomp and Salamence which, without using a specially defensive set, Yache Berry, or Focus Sash, would be OHKOd. Thunderbolt provided nice STAB damage, and Protect allowed Rotom-Heat to function with Mega Gyarados. The Speed investment let Rotom-Heat hit 144 Speed on level 50, which let Rotom outspeed positive natured base 78 Speed Pokémon, such as Blastoise and its Mega Evolution. Whilst I don’t think having this particular Speed gave me any advantage, just running a fast set was favourable since it allows Rotom-Heat to beat most opposing Rotom-Appliance. The defensive investment allows Rotom-Heat to survive a Hydro Pump from a Modest Salamence with maximum investment in Special Attack 12/16 of the time and then hit it back with a super-effective Hidden Power Ice and survive the recoil 3/16 of the time.

Shintaro (Garchomp) (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 204 Atk / 4 Def / 36 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Protect

This Garchomp is somewhat vain. Shintaro fits this description to an extent. I imagine Garchomp not being good at social interactions due to its Rough Skin, so in that way Shintaro was a perfect fit.

This Garchomp set is simply the standard set. 12 EVs in HP and 36 EVs in Special Defense allow Garchomp to survive a Timid Mega Manectric’s Hidden Power Ice 100% of the time. Whilst not a standout member to the team, Garchomp always had a presence and did its job in battle. If I could remake the set, I would probably just make it more bulky, so I could play with it more freely, and make riskier plays more often.

Tsubomi Kido (Gyarados) (F) @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 36 HP / 116 Atk / 188 Def / 4 SDef / 164 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Earthquake

Kido is often described by Kano as having an intimidating glare, and I think you see where I went with this fun fact. Also, both Kido and Gyarados have red eyes.

I initially had Gyarados holding a Wacan Berry. The set was more Specially Defensive, but it wasn’t what I really needed. So after some testing and realizing I had a problem with Rotom-Heat, I came up with this set. The Speed investment on Gyarados was used to outspeed positive base 130s (such as Aerodactly) after a Dragon Dance. By having such a high Speed, I was able to outspeed Rotom-Appliance, which gave me quite an advantage since I would be able to get a bit of damage onto the opposing Rotom-Appliance with Earthquake if I had Mega Evolved or use Taunt to stop Will-O-Wisp. Initially I was worried about having two Mega Evolutions, but, when it came down to it, I didn’t always need Gyarados to Mega Evolve, since Intimidate is such a useful ability. If I brought both Kangaskhan and Gyarados, I just had to be more careful when I played with Gyarados, since one Electric-type attack would easily knock it out.

PairUpBroken (Kangaskhan) (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 50
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SDef / 156 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Return
- Power-Up Punch
- Substitute
- Crunch

Anyone who has played Fire Emblem Awakening or has seen the response from the community will understand this nickname perfectly. In the game, the Pair Up function allows two characters to team up and take on enemies. It’s broken because in addition to helping the primary character in the pair by attacking, the secondary character also provides a stat boost.

Kangaskhan. Anyone who has known me since 2012 knows full well of my love and dedication to Kangaskhan. In the 2012 season it was pretty much my signature Pokémon, and it was simply brilliant, but gone are the days of Life Orb Double-Edge. When Kangaskhan received a Mega Evolution, I was extremely happy because my favourite competitive Pokémon was finally going to see some love.

Inner Focus is a great ability, and for those who don’t know, Inner Focus stops the user of the Ability from flinching. This was extremely useful when dealing with opposing Fake Out leads, since I could take the hit, then proceed to set up a Substitute, which is the reason why Kangaskhan has worked so well for me. If I led with Kangaskhan, the opponent would predict a Fake Out, and that’s a fair assumption. They would therefore take evasive action and either go for their own Fake Out, or Protect. In either case, I was safe to set up a Substitute. In tandem with Power-Up Punch, Substitute made Kangaskhan a massive threat. Kangaskhan is already a bulky Pokémon: it doesn’t go down easy, and with a Substitute, my opponents’ mission becomes even more difficult. If Kangaskhan manages to rack up Power-Up Punch Attack boosts, a situation where Kangaskhan has a Substitute up puts me in a winning position.

Crunch versus Sucker Punch was an interesting debate. Sucker Punch is a great move, but not on Kangaskhan, or at least not in my opinion and I’m not too sure why it got so popular in the first place. By having Sucker Punch over Crunch, Kangaskhan is left nearly defenseless against Ghost-type Pokémon which love to utilize status moves.

Libra (Gardevoir) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Trace
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 68 SAtk / 44 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Will-O-Wisp
- Ally Switch

In Fire Emblem Awakening, Libra is a male character, who looks like a female… I think the connection here is quite clear.

Ally Switch is a move that can turn a match around and make the impossible win possible. For those who don’t know what it does, Ally Switch allows Gardevoir to change positions with its partner out on the field and, best of all, it has +1 priority. This move came to be extremely useful in keeping my Kangaskhan’s Substitute up, and it worked beautifully with Gourgeist’s Phantom Force, allowing Gardevoir to avoid all attacks aimed at it, whilst Gourgeist avoids the attacks via Phatom Force. Now, whilst I do not regret the move one little bit, I feel like it could have been used better. See, in a best-of-one situation, the move is perfect, providing that your opponent does not know that you have the move. However, in a best-of-three environment, the move feels like a hindrance, where I ended up just playing mind games with myself over deciding what to do. (Later on, you’ll see that this was one of the factors which led to my loss against Billa in the Top 16.) A more capable player, who is more reassured of their decisions would probably be able to use the move better. The rest of Gardevoir’s moves are standard, so there’s not much to say other than it was extremely effective and easy to play with.

Before I had finalized this team, Gardevoir was not present. In fact, I added it in with a week to spare, so I ended up rushing the set and possibly messing up during EV training it. However, in practice, I saw that it could take a ton of hits from both ends of the attacking spectrum, and could deal sufficient damage (enough to let my other Pokémon score KOs, so I left it as is. Trace is a great Ability, especially when facing double Intimidate leads, or when Gardevoir is granted with Prankster. Telepathy was up for consideration, but another pull factor for Trace was that it was simply easier for me to obtain.

Frederick (Gourgeist-Super) @ Leftovers
Ability: Frisk
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SDef
Careful Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
- Phantom Force
- Leech Seed

In the first few chapters of Fire Emblem Awakening [especially in the Lunatic and Luncatic + modes], Frederick was a clutch. Gourgeist is an amazing Pokémon, and is the clutch of this team and it is a Pokémon that I strongly recommend to everyone to try out.

Gourgeist was another late addition to this team, so, I didn’t really have time to make my own set. I decided to stick to the solid set that Zach created. To see what the set was made to do, click here.

Day 1: Swiss

I apologize for how brief each summary of the round is; I had a headache for most of the day, and with the counter being shortened to 45 seconds this year, I guess I couldn’t concentrate on battling and writing down many notes.

Round 1: VS Callum Doughty

• What he brought: Aromatisse/Mawile/Scrafty/Amoonguss/Goodra/Politoed
• What I remember bringing: Gyarados/Gourgeist…

I saw Aromatisse and immediately thought, Trick Room. I wasn’t wrong, however, I made the mistake of thinking I could Taunt the Aromatisse with my Gyarados. What this match really came down to was my Gourgeist being free to spam Will-O-Wisp and Leech Seed to its heart’s content, whilst being aided by Gyarados’ Intimidate support.

Round 2: VS Matthew Urquhart

• What he brought: Weavile/Meowstic/Hydreigon/Mawile/Tyranitar/Venusaur
• I can’t remember much about this match, however, I think it was a case that I brought Pokémon that simply had a better match-up against his four Pokémon.

Round 3: VS Kyle Phillips

• What he brought: Greninja/Garchomp/Talonflame/Garchomp/Manectric/Rotom-W

Despite the lack of information I have on my notes, this was definitely one of the most challenging battles I had in the whole day. I was outplayed for the most part and I believe I made some over-predictions. However, this is where my clutch Gourgeist came in. In the closing turns of the battle, Kyle has a 2-1 advantage, with his Greninja and Garchomp up against Gourgeist. I had previously used Leech Seed on his Greninja, and I had set up a Leech Seed onto his Garchomp, which had been Intimidated. Gourgeist was at full health, and I was in a situation where I knew that Gourgeist would have to survive both an Ice Beam from the Greninja and a -1 Dragon Claw from the Garchomp. At this point I accepted defeat, since I didn’t think that Gourgeist would survive the two hits, and I simply selected Phantom Force to hit his Greninja in hopes of the event that Kyle might misclick and select Rock Slide. Then, on the turn of truth, Greninja used Ice Beam and I saw Gourgeist’s HP dwindle down, stopping at around 50 HP. Then, the animation for Dragon Claw started, only for my HP to stop decreasing when I had 9 HP left. From there on, the match was much more simple. Gourgeist was able to KO the Greninja, and with Leech Seed on both Pokémon, Leftovers and the two turn break given by Phantom Force and Protect, Gourgeist was able to heal itself back to a point where I could begin to let off Will-O-Wisp against the Garchomp and whittle it down for the win. I was ecstatic; not only was the match great, with Gourgeist proving itself to be a beast, it was also the first time I hadn’t lost my third round match in Swiss as a master. I was happy to finally beat that obstacle.

Round 4: VS Dan Oztekin

• What he brought: Kangaskhan/Azumarill/Aegislash/Ferrothorn/Tyranitar/Rotom-H

So, from one difficult match to another. To put it simply, I could have lost this game. Early in the match, it was a situation where I had Rotom-H and Gourgeist out against his Kangaskhan and Ferrothorn. I made an over-prediction, thinking that Dan would predict me to use Protect on my Rotom-H, as to not get damaged by Fake Out, and try to burn his Kangaskhan with Gourgeist. So, expecting a Fake Out on Gourgeist, I decided to use Protect on it, whilst I has Rotom-H use Overheat on Ferrothorn. When the Kangskhan didn’t Mega Evolve, I thought I made the right decision, but instead, I saw a Return hit my Rotom-H. Turns out, Dan had misclicked and I got the OHKO on the Ferrothorn. As in the last match, I was outplayed for the majority of it, and I ended up with Gourgeist against Mega Kangaskhan, Azumarill, and Aegislash. Fortunately, I had already burned the former two Pokémon, and due to the Mega Kangaskhan carrying Sucker Punch rather than Crunch, it was like being against two Pokémon rather than three. I whittled down Dan’s Pokémon with a combination of Leech Seed, Protect and Phantom Force. In the closing turns, Gourgeist was low enough in HP, to be KO’d by a Shadow Ball from Aegislash, thus Dan predicted me to use Protect, so I could recover more HP from Leftovers, so, he saw this as the right time to set up a Substitute on said Aegislash. I was able to predict his move, and Gourgeist was able to land a Leech Seed onto the Aegislash, before the Substitute went up. Thanks to Leftovers and Leech Seed recovery, I was able to beat the Aegislash and win the match.

Round 5: VS Rafik Sadli

• What he brought: Kangaskhan/Rotom-W/Amoonguss/Chandelure/Scizor/Salamence

Sadly, apart from the Pokémon, I didn’t write any notes down for this match. It was around this time my headache was getting quite painful, so I was just concentrating on the matches rather than taking notes.

Round 6: VS Nick Bailey

• What he brought: Mawile/Scrafty/Reuniclus/Druddigon/Exploud/Tyranitar

Before the match, we were asked to have our battle shown on one of the screens, so the extra time spent getting the match set up gave me a bit more time to settle and let the headache wear off a bit. This team screamed Trick Room, so I brought Gyarados to deal with Reuniclus. I saw Exploud which made me leave Kangaskhan behind, since it could damage Kangaskhan behind a Substitute using Boomburst. Fortunately, three of the Pokémon Nick brought did not enjoy Will-O-Wisp, making this battle much more easy for my team.

Round 7: VS Callum Douglas

• What he brought: Rotom-H/Azumarill/Amoonguss/Tyranitar/Manectric/Garchomp

This came down to my team having a nice match-up against his. I forgot to take notes on this match apart from the Pokémon, but at least my headache was gone by this point. Yay!

Round 8: VS Terence Dray

• What he brought: Conkeldurr/Scrafty/Reuniclus/Charizard/Victreebel/Aerodactyl

This was, without a doubt, the most interesting match I had all day. Terrance was a very intriguing competitor; his playstyle, movesets, EVs, and even the Victreebel in his team were all well-made choices. For example, having my Mega Kangaskhan’s Parental Bond Skill Swapped away was a real shocker, especially since I forgot that Skill Swap could go through Substitute. His Charizard Mega Evolved into Mega Charizard-Y, which is what I expected from seeing the Victreebel, however, it was unexpectedly slow, which caught me off guard. The battle was very much in Terence’s favour for the first couple of turns, but I was able to pull it back for the win.

So, with eight wins in the bag, I was extremely happy. To date, this was my best run in a swiss competition, and it was something that many people, including myself, did not expect.

Day 2: Top Cut

Top 32: VS Daniel Nolan (Zog)

When I found out I was paired up with Zog, I was slightly taken aback. I’d never beaten him before, which was quite intimidating. Even more so than that, however, was the simple fact that one of us was going to have to knock the other out, which neither of us wanted.

Here’s a stream for our battles.

I was fully concentrating on the battle, so I didn’t make a single note from my battles with Zog. I made some very silly plays, and on one occasion the timer even ran out. I wish I had felt a bit more confident playing, but I did something right when making the Gardevoir set, since a crucial Ally Switch which Zog ended up falling for cemented a win for me: his Salamence used a Dragon Pulse, which was aimed at Rotom-H, but Ally Switch saved the day.

Top 16: VS Barış Akcoş (Billa)

Billa’s team: Gyarados/Talonflame/Amoonguss/Kangaskhan/Aerodactyl/Gardevoir

I was completely psyched out when it came to this battle. My match had been on screen, and I knew that my team had been seen by my fellow competitors. In the first match I had against Billa, I was simply outplayed. In the second, I managed to win by making safe plays.

In the third match, I ended up not using any of the tricks my Kangaskhan or Gardevoir had, due to me being too nervous to use them. Hopefully, I can become more confident in my own decisions, so that next year, I don’t lose by being nervous in a match. This is not to say that Billa didn’t play well, because he did!

In conclusion, I absolutely love VGC; it’s one of the highlights of the year for me, the community is great, and over the years I’ve made many friends by playing a video game. This year was my best experience at a VGC. Going 8-0 was wonderful, and the support I got from so many friends and fellow competitors alike was awesome. Thanks to everyone I met at Event City: you guys made my year!

The post It’s a Trap! A 9th Place UK Nationals Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello, I’m Nick Bailey. I go by Decretum here, but beforehand I used to go by Teh_Black_Mage. I’m relatively new to VGC, only starting to play around the time of the Winter Event Qualifiers after having been convinced to get into the metagame. I used to play a fair amount of UU Singles and a small amount of OU Singles in generation five, and I’ve played the games casually since Red and Blue. While this was technically the second VGC event I’ve attended, it was the first I competed in, and I have to say in the few weeks leading up to the event I really wasn’t in the right mindset for Pokémon. I played a few practice matches about a week before the actual event, using a team I’d made almost one or two months prior to booking a hotel room. I might as well get down to it and go into detail about the team and how I came about making it!

The Background to the Final Team

Following the Winter Event Finals last year, I decided I’d take some of the ideas I got from my team I used then and rework them, now that I had a better idea of what was successful. Over the following months I tried making various teams based on certain ideas, like using Mega Blastoise alongside Prankster Rain Dance, for example. Another such team was devised around the time that Mega Charizard Y and Venusaur were a common lead pair, again using Mega Blastoise as a bait for Grass-type moves while running Goodra and Gogoat as a Sap Sipper core. By the time the Battle Tournament heats had passed, however, I realised I needed a more relevant team.

It was around this time I returned to a team I came up with in February, which was fondly nicknamed ‘The Exploudening’ for its ridiculous strategy. After considering how I could make my Leftovers Exploud stronger from my Winter team, the obvious choice occurred to me. By running Choice Specs on Exploud, its damage output made running this slow and (slightly) bulky Pokémon much more worth doing. I spent the next few days researching how I could build a team around Exploud.

The Exploudening

Lucifer (Exploud) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Boomburst
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast
- Protect

Raphael (Aggron) @ Aggronite
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 HP / 252 SDef
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Protect
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw

Uriel (Mr. Mime) @ Leftovers
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Fake Out
- Trick Room
- Safeguard
- Dazzling Gleam

Fierte (Gardevoir) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Telepathy
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Rest
- Moonblast
- Psychic

Michael (Tyrantrum) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 HP / 252 SDef
Brave Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Crunch
- Fire Fang
- Rock Slide

Gabriel (Shuckle) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Def
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Guard Split
- Helping Hand
- Knock Off
- Gastro Acid

Without going into too much detail, the ideal battle for this team followed a general pattern. Trick Room would be set up by either Gardevoir or Mr.Mime on the first turn, while either Shuckle is switched into the other position out front or uses Knock Off or Gastro Acid on whatever might give me an advantage without its item or Ability, respectively. Exploud would then come in to replace the Trick Room setter while Shuckle uses Guard Split on Exploud, improving its bulk considerably. From there, Shuckle can use Helping Hand to give Boomburst an extreme boost. Given this setup, the team would then win within two or three turns.

There were many flaws with this team, of course. Requiring a two turn setup to reliably win meant that not only was the team inconsistent, but the movepools of the selected Pokémon meant that my choices for bringing Pokémon to each game were extremely limited: essentially, I had to use Exploud, Shuckle, Gardevoir or Mr.Mime, and Aggron or Tyrantrum each battle. Couple this with rarely finding a reason to run Gardevoir over Mr.Mime (as the latter provided Fake Out support), and the fact that Tyrantrum tended to accomplish more than Mega Aggron ever did, including taking Boomburst better in the event Exploud is locked into it and no switch ins are available, and suddenly the team has no variation. The conclusion I reached with this team was fairly simple: Exploud couldn’t viably be run in a team as the core strategy with current movepools being the way they are. I didn’t want to drop Exploud just yet, though.

The Final Team

As I finalised my team, I first focused more on Pokémon that I wanted to use, rather than which Pokémon would provide synergy with the rest of my team. Having used Mega Blastoise on all of my teams to date bar The Exploudening, I wanted to try something a little different. I thought back to when X and Y were first released and my days as a Singles-only player, when I was testing out Mega Mawile. In regards to the nicknames, since the team was still inspired by Exploud I decided to go with song titles, and settled on various Girls Dead Monster songs since a few names fit particularly well.

MySoul (Reuniclus) @ Leftovers

Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 116 HP / 140 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Helping Hand
- Trick Room
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast

When making the team, I figured I wanted a Trick Room user, especially since I still had Exploud and Mega Mawile in mind. Couple that with calculations I made with The Exploudening for Helping Hand boosted Boomburst, and it was just a matter of searching for the right support Pokémon that could do both. As a plain Psychic type, Reuniclus is weak only to Bug, Ghost and Dark types, meaning the range of Super Effective STAB moves it has to look out for is certainly narrowed down. Combine this with Reuniclus’ not insignificant bulk, a sluggish Speed stat, and access to both Helping Hand and Trick Room, and my choice for a support Pokémon was clear. With Leftovers and Regenerator, my Trick Room setter was able to survive longer than my opponents might have wanted.

Normally I’m not a huge fan of running a dedicated support Pokémon, which is why I ran Psyshock and Focus Blast to round off the moveset rather than run any more support moves. In a metagame where burns, Intimidate, and Prankster Charm are everywhere, the advantage on having a Specially bulky Pokémon to deal with non-Physical threats is greater than it would otherwise be. I chose Psyshock over Psychic to exploit these Specially bulky Pokémon. As for Focus Blast, while the accuracy is only 70%, I felt as though I needed a Fighting-type coverage move. While Energy Ball and Flash Cannon were other alternatives for coverage, a fair share of Pokémon that Fighting/Psychic coverage can’t hit at least neutrally aren’t readily used, with the exception of Aegislash, Meowstic, Gardevoir, Sableye, and occasionally other Reuniclus. The other reason I couldn’t help but use two offensive moves on Reuniclus is its hefty Special Attack (125 base), making it an offensive powerhouse against the right teams during Trick Room.

In regards to the EV spread, I wanted to create a spread that could unexpectedly survive attacks in order to more reliably get off Trick Room. I’m a firm believer of capitalising on the advantages you already have, and Reuniclus’ already impressive Special bulk coupled with the double Intimidate in my team made the choice to go Specially bulky obvious. After prioritising the bulk, the remaining EVs could then be invested into Reuniclus’ Special Attack. Using the following a combination of the following calculations I reached the above spread of 116HP/140SpA/252SpD with a Calm Nature:

• 252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 116 HP / 252+ SpD Reuniclus: 134-162 (67 – 81%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 SpA Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 116 HP / 252+ SpD Reuniclus: 108-128 (54 – 64%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Tyranitar Dark Pulse vs. 116 HP / 252+ SpD Reuniclus: 98-116 (49 – 58%) — 96.5% chance to 2HKO
• 252 SpA Mega Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 116 HP / 252+ SpD Reuniclus: 134-162 (67 – 81%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
• 252+ SpA Mega Gardevoir Shadow Ball vs. 116 HP / 252+ SpD Reuniclus: 96-114 (48 – 57%) — 40.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

By dumping the remaining EVs into Special Attack, Reuniclus can pick up OHKOs on some non-Assault Vest Tyranitar variants with Focus Blast, as well as putting hefty dents into a number of commonly used Pokémon.

YourBeats (Scrafty) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Fake Out
- Drain Punch
- Crunch
- Quick Guard

Moving onto the second part to the common dual lead. I previously ran a similar Scrafty back at the Winter Event. The main differences between the two are that this one has a 0 Speed IV for Trick Room, and that it’s running Quick Guard over Protect. While some Pokémon who capitalised on priority moves, such as Talonflame, are used nowhere near as much as they were back in Winter, I’ve found that running Quick Guard is still useful. Quick Guard won’t help me against Fake Out, unfortunately, but it does still provide a defense against Prankster users, the occasional Talonflame, and other priority such as Extremespeed, Aqua Jet and Mach Punch. The only downside is a lack of Protect as a result, although I’ve found that this for the most part doesn’t seem to be a huge problem. On the occasion that Scrafty is threatened and consequently OHKO’d due to the plays I make, I’ve found that I can often trade to get a return OHKO. With a fairly simple spread, Scrafty was designed from the beginning to generally take hits if necessary and hit back as hard as possible. With Intimidate and access to Fake Out, I’ve found it to be a strong lead (or turn one switch in) that can threaten even Mega Kangaskhan if you play it right. Some general calculations to go with its offensive power:

• 252+ Atk Life Orb Scrafty Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 143-172 (67.4 – 81.1%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Life Orb Scrafty Crunch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Meowstic: 195-229 (107.7 – 126.5%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252+ Atk Life Orb Scrafty Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tyranitar: 265-317 (128 – 153.1%) — guaranteed OHKO

If I didn’t use a Life Orb for the extra damage output, I would definitely consider a Lum Berry since Scrafty often attracts a lot of Will O Wisp attention.

CrowSong (Exploud) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Scrappy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Boomburst
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
- Focus Blast

Coming on to one of the selling point of the team, I decided to use a fairly routine set that I’ve used on almost every occasion beforehand. While on some teams Soundproof may be preferred to Scrappy, I felt the added utility of being able to hit Ghost types with Boomburst and Focus Blast is more useful. I’ve considered using Fire Blast over Flamethrower before, as well as potentially using Blizzard over Ice Beam. However, I felt as though both moves were incredibly inconsistent. One thing I’ve enjoyed about this team is that most of the team is built specifically to be bulky enough to not necessarily need Trick Room. However, I feel Exploud requires Reuniclus alongside it for optimal use. Like Scrafty, the EV spread, items, and Nature were chosen simply to try and maximise general bulk while still providing adequate damage output. There are some interesting things to note about the damage that can be dealt with this setup:

• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Exploud Helping Hand Boomburst vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 198-234 (107.6 – 127.1%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Exploud Helping Hand Boomburst vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Kangaskhan: 172-204 (81.1 – 96.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Exploud Helping Hand Boomburst vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Rotom-W: 118-141 (75.1 – 89.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Exploud Helping Hand Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 186-220 (111.3 – 131.7%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Exploud Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Ferrothorn: 236-280 (130.3 – 154.6%) — guaranteed OHKO

Throughout testing this team, Exploud proved to be a nice cannon in the background. Given the right situation, I could bring Exploud into a battle knowing that it would comfortably take a few hits before going down, and at the very least create a dent in the opposing team. Using it requires a bit of time to get used to knowing when to use it, and mispredicting ever so slightly might cost you your own partner Pokémon while not even hitting both of the opposing Pokémon.

Alchemy (Tyranitar) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 108 Atk / 252 SAtk / 148 SDef
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Ice Beam
- Flamethrower

Ever since Gen 6 was released and Assault Vest came into existence, I’ve been a bit of a fan of it. I’ve previously run Assault Vest on Goodra, and to a slightly less successful extent on Tyrantrum. With defenses of 100/110/100 and a Special Defense boost in sand, Assault Vest turns Tyranitar from a bulky monster into a Special wall that couldn’t really care less about any Special attacks. Since the rest of my team consisted of three Physical attackers already, I decided I’d run a mixed Tyranitar, as its ability to be either Physical or Special gives me an advantage in that I could bluff one attacking type, only to surprise with the other.

Originally Dark Pulse was going to be my Dark move of choice, however I was quite unlucky when trying to breed a Larvitar with the move. The 108 Attack EVs were invested so that Rock Slide was a guaranteed OHKO on Mega Charizard Y, even after an Intimidate, while the maximum investment into Special Attack was to boost the latter two attacks. The remaining EVs were invested in Special Defense with the intention of abusing the Assault Vest and Sand Boost to its Special Defense. Below are just some examples for calculations that show its worth:

• 252+ SpA Tyranitar Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Ferrothorn: 160-192 (88.3 – 106%) — 31.3% chance to OHKO
• 252+ SpA Tyranitar Ice Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 208-248 (113 – 134.7%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 108 Atk Tyranitar Rock Slide vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Charizard Y: 216-256 (140.2 – 166.2%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252 SpA Lucario Aura Sphere vs. 0 HP / 148 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 148-180 (84.5 – 102.8%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
• 252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Flash Cannon vs. 0 HP / 148 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 98-116 (56 – 66.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 SpA Gardevoir Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 148 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 92-110 (52.5 – 62.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 148 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 112-135 (64 – 77.1%) — guaranteed 2HKO

I’ve found from playing in the Nationals, as well as in testing, that mixed Tyranitar still catches people off guard. It’s also worth noting that Helping Hand from Reuniclus can turn some of those near OHKOs into guaranteed OHKOs more often than not.

ShineDays (Druddigon) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Atk / 148 Def / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Dragon Claw
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
- Sucker Punch

The decision to run Druddigon mostly came from wanting to run a Dragon in the team that could reliably check Mega Kangaskhan. After looking through a list of VGC-allowed Dragons, I came to the conclusion that Druddigon might actually have some use in my team. With a base Attack stat of 120 and a Speed of 48, Druddigon felt like the ideal physical Dragon to use in Trick Room. As it’s probably quite clear, the main idea behind this set was punish Mega Kangaskhan with Rough Skin and Rocky Helmet and finish it off with a Superpower. The EVs were calculated for this in mind, resulting in a Pokémon that was definitely a situational pickup in my team. Sucker Punch allows Druddigon to hit with priority if Trick Room isn’t up, while its STAB allows it to hit many Pokémon reasonably hard neutrally. There aren’t many relevant calculations to add bar the following:

• 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 148 Def Druddigon: 153-181 (83.1 – 98.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 104+ Atk Druddigon Superpower vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 126-150 (59.4 – 70.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 148 Def Druddigon: 128-152 (69.5 – 82.6%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 104+ Atk Druddigon Dragon Claw vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 134-158 (72.8 – 85.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Ultimately after the event I felt as though Druddigon didn’t accomplish much. Druddigon was a dedicated Mega Kangaskhan counter, but it seemed as though my team was able to handle Kangaskhan without Druddigon to a fairly safe degree.

LittleBraver (Mawile) @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Protect
- Play Rough
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head

This might be my favourite Pokémon on the team. When I first considered running Mega Mawile on this team, I decided I’d run (almost) the same set I used back when I first used it this generation, with the differences being Protect, a 0 Speed IV, and the Nature. LittleBraver certainly lives up to its name, taking Physical hits thrown at it and soldiering on. The premise of this set is simple. Mawile’s Mega Evolution gives both Defenses a boost of 40 base points. Factoring in Intimidate, Mawile is surprisingly bulky on the Physical side. The only real thing to be aware of is that there’s no Special Defense investment, so Mawile will fall to things like Rotom-H Overheat. Another thing to note is Mawile’s Attack. Even without any real Attack investment, this Mawile can output hefty damage. Of course, the lack of Attack investment is made up for by the Swords Dance. Its impressive and underestimated bulk allows Mawile to spend a turn boosting its Attack before hitting incredibly hard with its dual STABs in Trick Room. The fact that the team has three Fighting weaknesses is covered by Mawile alone. One thing I found interesting during the event and in testing was the Mawile vs. Mawile mirror. For simplicity I’ve used Ray Rizzo’s Mawile as a comparison, as well as assuming both Mawile have no stat changes:

• 52 Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Mawile: 117-138 (38.4 – 45.3%) — guaranteed 3HKO

So Rizzo’s Mawile would 3HKO mine, and in return?

• 4 Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mega Mawile: 148-175 (48.6 – 57.5%) — 94.9% chance to 2HKO

Almost guaranteed a 2HKO, and that’s without any boost, which is one thing my Mawile set definitely specialises in. This physically bulky Mawile can also take other attacks while hitting hard back, varying in levels of how prepared you are to take that much damage on Mawile:

• 252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Mawile: 152-180 (50 – 59.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 4 Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Play Rough vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 422-500 (117.8 – 139.6%) — guaranteed OHKO

And if you really want to:

• 252 Atk Choice Band Talonflame Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Mawile: 264-312 (86.8 – 102.6%) — 12.5% chance to OHKO
• +2 4 Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Play Rough vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Talonflame: 267-315 (89.5 – 105.7%) — 37.5% chance to OHKO

That last situation is obviously a last ditch one, but shows that it’s definitely possible to tank a Flare Blitz even without the Intimidate if necessary. The key to running Swords Dance on Mawile like this really is just to know when you need a +2 Attack boost and when the boost is not necessary.

That is the team I ran at the UK Nationals. Generally in most battles I just stuck with Mawile, Tyranitar, Reuniclus and Scrafty, although in a few battle I switched out Reuniclus or Tyranitar for Exploud and Scrafty or Tyranitar for Druddigon.

UK Nationals 2014

I’d like to apologise in advance for how vague the following section might be at times. I didn’t have anything on me to record any of the battles and I have a pretty dire memory, so I ask that you humour me and pretend the attention to detail is superb. Having only booked at a hotel for Saturday night, it only occurred to me on the Friday that I’d need to wake up early enough to actually travel down to Manchester in time. It was with my deepest regret that I still stayed up till the early hours before trying to sleep, because going out to see the new X-Men film was obviously more important than going to sleep at a reasonable time. Following this I then spent the few hours of sleep I could get before 5am waking up and thinking I missed my alarm, only to find I had another hour or two left before I had to get ready and head off for a train from York.

After a relatively uneventful trip down, the next couple of hours went by as planned, meeting up with people I knew and saying hi before heading into the queue to register. Half an hour after signups closed, people started to look around in confusion. Weren’t pairings supposed to be put up 15 minutes ago? Over the next few hours very little happened that can’t be summarised by “If only I could’ve had more sleep, then I’d be fine waiting this long,” aside from a speedy excursion into the Trafford Centre to obtain food. We got back with plenty of time to spare, and before too long the division finally started. There’s not really any point in going into much detail about the organisation considering there’s been enough slating for it all over the internet without me contributing to it, and for a company that apparently is only used to doing TCG tourneys beforehand they did pretty well once the ball got rolling a couple of rounds in. Here’s the time for the vague details about my battles.

Round 2 – Rina Purdy

Of Rina’s team I’m afraid I can only remember Mawile, Gyarados, Kecleon, and Chandelure. I also want to say there was a Hydreigon, but the main details I remember from matches are why the games transpired with their results in the end. My first thought when I saw the Chandelure in this team was that it might be running Trick Room and Imprison, and decided that I’d make the potentially risky play of not taking Reuniclus into battle. Doing so meant that I didn’t have any Speed control, and would almost always attack last each turn. Instead of taking Reuniclus, I figured Exploud might provide a nice advantage if I could get a well timed Boomburst off, especially if the Chandelure was out and my opponent wasn’t expecting Scrappy.

The battle itself was incredibly close, with both of us outpredicting each other on occasion, until it was my Mawile and Scrafty against her Mawile and Gyarados. As Scrafty had just come in, I decided to double target Mawile with Fake Out and Iron Head, only realising after I’d made that decision that a double Protect was the more probable play since both her Pokémon outsped mine. Had I used Swords Dance and capitalised on a free turn, my Mawile could OHKO either of her remaining team members. Because I hadn’t, I needed Scrafty to help get the kill on the Mawile if I wanted to win. Luckily for me Rina’s Mawile missed its Play Rough, allowing me to KO it and go 2v1 against the Gyarados and narrowly take the win.

Round 3

Looking at Team Preview put me on edge before the game even got underway. I remember my opponent having Aurorus, Chandelure, and Jolteon, and I think he used a Wigglytuff but I’m not sure. Due to some of my opponent’s more interesting Pokémon not really being used in this format, I had to consider what movesets they might possibly run. One thing I was certain of was that, again, I did not want to bring my Reuniclus to the battle because of Chandelure. At the same time, I remember Jolteon as a glass cannon back from my days of playing singles, which made me cautious of potentially not Reuniclus after all. In the end, my relevant choices that I used were Scrafty, Mawile and Druddigon, which makes me assume he probably had a Mega Kangaskhan.

In hindsight I was more worried about this match than I needed to be, although I’d rather be careful and hesitant because of unknown factors rather than rush in head first. The match was fairly uneventful, with the only notable things I remember being that I baited a Flamethrower from his Chandelure into my Protecting Mawile, allowing my Druddigon to Sucker Punch it. The next turn he tried to use Flamethrower again, despite being comfortably 2HKO’d by Druddigon’s Sucker Punch. In the end, he used Round on Jolteon and Aurorus, which was only interesting because Round really hurts from Aurorus when you get the power boost.

Round 4

My next opponent came at me with notable Pokémon such as Gengar and Gyarados. In this match I ran with my basic core of Reuniclus, Mawile, Tyranitar, and Scrafty. The battle ended up being drawn out, with me winning by a sliver of HP. The thing I remember most about this match isn’t the battle at all. The most memorable thing was that my opponent’s 3DS was on critically low battery, and after a few minutes of sorting out what to do with the staff, ended up having our match over by the charging station with a personal judge making sure no one came over to confer with us. By coincidence it happened to be Kay Dyson (Cambria), the now ex-head of York PokeSoc, which ended up being the one time I actually caught up with her during the event.

Round 5

Just before Round 5 began, a small group of us on the front table had a little chat about how the tournament was starting to become an endurance test, considering how tired we all were. After a brief amiable chat, the battle commenced. My opponent this round ended up using Mega Gengar, Tyranitar, Ferrothorn and a Rotom-Wash. Again, I used my standard picks of Reuniclus, Tyranitar, Scrafty, and Mawile.

The first turn was a little odd, as I had faced a Gengar or two previously that day and all of them had used Shadow Ball on my Reuniclus. I switched out Reuniclus for Scrafty, expecting a Shadow Ball, only to get KOed immediately by Dazzling Gleam. On the other hand, my Tyranitar successfully used Crunch on his Gengar, equalising the score at 3-3 at turn one. Later in the battle, I finally got Trick Room up as he burned my Tyranitar with Will o Wisp, thinking my Tyranitar was a physical variant. I gave Tyranitar a Helping Hand boost, OHKOing his Ferrothorn with Flamethrower. From there I wore down his Tyranitar and Rotom-Wash before my own Tyranitar was KOed, and my Mawile cleaned up from there. I was now 5-0, and my friends told me I could easily Top Cut if I performed similarly throughout the rest of the tournament. It was at this point that my record took a turn.

Round 6 – Tyler Bakhtiari (pokeguru101)

Sat at position 1 was a good feeling, even if it was in the less prestigious flight, and it was at this point that we were asked if we wanted to play on the big screen. Funnily enough, Tyler was sat across from me in the previous round, and just before our games I mentioned I would never want to go on the big screen because I felt as though I’d just screw up completely. However, now I was feeling more up to it, so I said why not and we both moved to the screen. Tyler’s team for the event consisted of Kangaskhan, Gyarados, Rotom-Heat, Gardevoir, Gourgeist-Super and Garchomp. Looking at his team, I immediately decided I wanted to bring Druddigon along due to the presence of Kangaskhan, and after also choosing Mawile, I was left with two choices for my final Pokémon. In the end, I went with Reuniclus and Scrafty.

I led with Druddigon and Reuniclus, expecting a Kangaskhan, but he never brought it to the fight. He led with Gyarados and Gardevoir, and I realised I should probably switch Druddigon out due to the threat of a strong Fairy move from Gardevoir. I figured Gyarados was going to Taunt my Reuniclus, so I just used Psyshock on Gyarados. I figured Mawile was my only real choice to switch into a Fairy move, but I did not expect Gardevoir to have Will O Wisp. I switched Mawile in, and it got burnt for its troubles. Tyler played safe throughout the match. I was never able to get Trick Room up with Reuniclus, and Mawile was burned from the get go. This meant I was on the back foot as it was, and combining that with the fact that Druddigon didn’t do much damage to the Pokémon he brought, I lost 3-0 in a war of attrition.

It was a good game, and Tyler was pretty cool, even mentioning that my team was interesting. I was now 5-1, and I had a brief encounter with not other than Ben Kyriakou while he was talking to my girlfriend. He mentioned how the Top Cut matchups were organised, and I made a rather confident declaration that I’d fight him in the Top Cut.

Round 7 – Luke Chaplin

This round was really quick for me. I greeted my opponent, and we chatted briefly about the potential to reach Top Cut with certain records. Looking at his team, I saw a Kangaskhan and without really thinking much about the rest of his team, I decided to bring Druddigon, along with Mawile, Scrafty, and probably Reuniclus. I led Druddigon and Scrafty against his Kangaskhan and Salamence. I was worried about being hit by a Draco Meteor, so I withdrew Druddigon for Mawile and realised as I did it that he probably predicted such an obvious play. Turns out that I was right, as my Mawile ate a Fire Blast, leaving me 4-3 on the first turn without my mega. The rest of the battle followed suit, with me falling right into his hands. I don’t even think I took down a single member of his team.

Final Round – Kelly M

It was the final round, and I sat across from someone who was also 5-2. If either of us won, we would most likely make it into the Top Cut. The stakes were high and we were both aware of that fact, so without much waiting we wished each other luck and the battle commenced. After some quick deliberation I decided to play it safe and stick with Mawile, Tyranitar, Reuniclus and Scrafty, while my opponent went with Rotom-H, Tyranitar, Mienshao and Venusaur.

Early on I got distracted and managed to mess up my turn, with my Mawile falling to Rotom-Heat’s Overheat and my Scrafty using Crunch on his Mienshao due to timeout, instead of my planned Drain Punch on Rotom-Heat. Later in the battle I was down two Pokémon to his four. With Reuniclus and Tyranitar out on the field I figured I could Rock Slide to KO his Rotom-H and add some chip damage to his Tyranitar, and Reuniclus could set up Trick Room. Before getting KOed, however, his Rotom-Heat managed to get a critical hit on my Reuniclus with Thunderbolt, making the earlier stat drop from Overheat not count . He apologised for the crit, but it’s part of the game so I said there’s no point feeling sorry about it because it happens. The following turn my Tyranitar now outsped his own and got a timely Rock Slide flinch, saving my Reuniclus and allowing it to knock out his Tyranitar. At this point, it was just Mienshao and Venusaur against Reuniclus and Tyranitar. I managed to KO his Mienshao with a Psyshock, but the next turn another Psyshock was not enough to do KO his Venusaur, and he KOed Reuniclus in return, leaving me in a position where I had to take down a Mega Venusaur with my Tyranitar. In the end it was a narrow loss, but it was a good game like most of my games so I didn’t mind.

That was the end of my Nationals run this year. Our group of friends hung around to see the standings posted. I was 30-something in Flight A, and 68th overall. We hen headed to the hotel for the night, getting takeaway and playing some Mario Kart 7 before resting for the next day. For the most part, we just hung around, watching Top Cut and catching up with people we hadn’t talked to the previous day. I may not have gotten a significant result in the end, but considering how I went not really motivated to play Pokémon I was suddenly back in the right mindset. I met some great people for the first time, and I saw a bunch of people I knew otherwise again. I’ll look forward to the next event.

Shoutouts to my girlfriend Jade Batchelor (evilpinkdragon) for helping me breed my team as well as helping optimise a couple of EV spreads, since I couldn’t really think of where to begin. Another shoutout goes to her brother Eden (Xenoblade Hero) for offering the odd suggestion for my team, and I’d like to thank both of them for encouraging me to get into VGC in the first place. Also shoutouts to York Pokesoc, and all of the guys I hung around during the Saturday that I didn’t mention individually because there’s too many.

The post Boom! Shake the Room: UK Nationals Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Alright, lads and lasses. I got some free time to go play Pokémon again, so here’s another piece from Zog. How about that, eh? It’s your lucky day! Now, as I sip on my glowing glass of rooibos and gaze so soulfully into the moonlit night sky, let me tell you a story. A meandering, Pokémon-related story that comes from the heart and will, hopefully, be a bit of fun to read. If you’re here for a hard-researched team to copy, be warned cause you ain’t gonna get it!

So, you might remember my last article, the one on Manchester Tournament #6, the tournament I won a few months ago. This time, it’d become that time of year again: time for the annual #ladventure to UK Nationals. Never predictable but always a pilgrimage, UK Nationals is quite unlike any other Pokémon tournament on the circuit. A beautiful blend of good simple fun, fortified with several units’ worth of sharp, vintage postmodern ennui – my favourite. Like an Um Bongo spiked with absinthe, UK Nationals is, on the surface, a box of fun full of juice and flavour, with a characteristic grinning hippo. And that’s what you get if you stay on the surface; just a fun day out. But delve deeper, and it’s an intoxicating charade of otherwise cool guys who somehow ended up disaffectedly playing a kid’s video game for money, drowned in totes hilar #lad banter and irony that I really can’t get enough of. It’s absolutely bizarre, and makes me feel alive to be a part of. There’s nothing quite like UK Nationals. It seems so wrong and so stupid, yet it’s so right, like Chuckle Vision with swearing and inappropriate jokes. If Worlds is four guys sat in a room awkwardly watching Extreme Fishing with Robson Green (or whatever it is you people were watching), UK Nationals is four guys in a bed singing along to Heart FM while a man sits in the corner headbutting a can of lager. Not so much Fiddy’s In Da Club as Devvo’s Donny Soldier.

As an event for a kid’s video game, set in various Travelodge havens of the UK á la I’m Alan Partridge, you could be forgiven for expecting a room full of BO and low aspirations. Pokémon VGC isn’t actually like that. It’s just normal people playing a great game that nearly everyone my age shares in common. It’s not perfect, but it’s a game that’s both mature and welcoming, and that’s why I’m proud to say I play it.

We Interviewed North Wales’ Edgiest and Definitely Busiest Pokémon Player

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I’ve had a very (not) busy past few months. Since my last report, I went on an expedition to the Canaries to catch lizards, and came back having had too many brushes with a naked man (who kept trying to swim with jellyfish? I mean really). I got stuck at 3500m in a volcanic crater for four hours with a broken bus, with no signal and only some guy’s belt to tie around the carburetor to apparently make it work again. Despite the guy’s (breathtakingly earnest) insistence that the bus would start with more belts belted around the belt, his strategy didn’t work and I found myself lying in a bush taking selfies in my cat hat like a normal person. I killed it at the Canary Island carnival, got lost in a cloud forest, and got punched in an airport because what happened at carnival didn’t stay at carnival. All in all, strange week, and I haven’t really had a break in the two months since.

Between then and now, I’ve written my entire dissertation in one day, had all my exams, and found myself missing my house keys in a field at 5 AM wearing only beachwear. I’ve had my day made by being told by my straight-faced professor, “I’m sending you on an expedition to Okinawa to capture the vipers you’re researching”, only to have it followed up by “Only joking”. It’s all been very Vice Magazine. Which, incidentally, my supervisor got interviewed in the other week. Despite regularly wearing a t-shirt featuring an angry mantis and the word “ATHEIST”, my university supervisor is apparently cooler than me (he isn’t). It’s not fair.

It was some point not too long ago, as I found myself stargazing in a castle courtyard while a bit tipsy and on the phone, that I realised Nationals was actually coming soon, and that I hadn’t really done anything to prepare for it. Like the incredibly disciplined individual I am, I then proceeded to totally forget about it again.

“I don’t want to” – How One UK Teambuilder Teambuilds Without Teambuilding

As you may have gathered by this point, I really, really was not ready for Nationals. Though to be honest, I never have been. I think I’ve still been making my team on the way to literally every event I’ve been to in the last four years. I’m just that naughty; that, or I have a severely crippling aversion to preparation. I basically threw something together at the last minute, as per usual, and it ended up sort of working. Look, you’d be doing the same if you were the kind of person to find themselves at 7 AM trying to pry an extremely squashed, melted toy banana from a windowsill with a combat knife, a kettle and bicarb of soda, scrubbing it off the windowsill whilst loudly playing a Bjork/Venetian Snares mixtape and wondering just how you ended up in that situation. If you are about that kind of life, this kind of team is probably for you.

“Using the same thing over and over, man, it’s so evocative” – Why Zog Can’t Be Bothered to Make New Teams and Thus Uses the Same Stuff Repeatedly

Satisfaction – Benny Benassi
“Push me. And then just touch me. Till I can get my. Satisfaction.”
Garchomp (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Rock Slide
- Protect

I kid, actually I just use the same stuff because there isn’t anything better than it. In all honesty, Garchomp is quite objectively the best Pokémon in the metagame. If your team doesn’t have a Garchomp, it’s probably missing out. That’s just my opinion, but there you go. It’s fast, it’s hard to shut down, it basically just outdamages the opponent.

This is exactly the same Garchomp I’ve been using for months, so there’s not much else to say here. Now now, dear reader, I know you were hoping I’d have written some funny Garchomp-related jokes, but I didn’t. Sorry. Next Pokémon.

Windowlicker – Aphex Twin
“Don’t try to diss me, girl, I’m a playa. Playa playa girl, for real.”
Mawile (F) @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate/Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Attack / 4 Special Defense
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Protect

Oh hey, it’s my Mawile again! Literally the exact same as back in December, and used for pretty much the same things. Mawile is hand-down one of the best Pokémon in the game, as anyone reading this probably knows already. It’s got a great typing, great abilities and loads of stats. You can’t really go wrong with Mega-Mawile, which is why I dug the old Windowlicker out of the box, ready to come back in style, in that obscenely-long limousine. You should check out the video to the song. It’s a work of art. Unless you’re under the age of 16. Then it’ll probably just make you cry.

Either way, Windowlicker’s a top track in whatever genre you want to say it’s in. There isn’t really a word for it. I’m sorry, what was that from the back there? Did some non-entity just utter the phrase “intelligent dance music”? Would you like to take this outside, pal?

Zog Had a 10-Hour Artistic Mental Breakdown in a Former Premier Inn and These Were the Results

Radio Stereo – Duck Sauce
“We listen to the radio! It’s better than the stereo!”
Rotom-H @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 244 HP / 52 Defense / 124 Special Attack / 4 Special Defense / 84 Speed
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Will-o-Wisp
- Protect

Rotom-Heat. It just kind of works. I wanted to use some other Fire-type like Pyroar in this slot, but the fact is, Rotom also carries the Electric STAB, doesn’t lose to Talonflame, and has respectable bulk, so I went with it. Kinda boring, right?

The EVs were basically random and just intended to make Rotom balanced. The moveset is standard and the name is a song that I like that also makes no sense but sounds good, so I found it appropriate. There was practically no thought at all put into this Rotom and it shows.

High – Peking Duk
“All that you give, is what you don’t deliver. Stuck in a phase, misguided by mistakes.”
Salamence (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Special Attack / 252 Speed
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Stone Edge

Literal random scarf Salamence. It kind of felt appropriate, so I added it, and in the end I wasn’t really sure why. I don’t even like Scarf Salamence, what was I thinking?!?! Though I do really love this song. It’s so good. I could have it on repeat until I inevitably got sick of it – sort of like how I’m a bit sick of Scarf Salamence. I had honestly intended to use Scarf Hydreigon, but in the end I couldn’t be bothered breeding it. A strong work ethic pays off yet again.

The EVs are totally standard and boring, as is the moveset. I’d wanted Hydro Pump over Stone Edge, largely in case I had to play my friend Greg and his Rhyperior, so I could laugh at him. However, I’d forgotten to breed it on as an egg move, so I didn’t bother.

Now, Salamence has been my favourite Dragon to use since pretty much forever. The one that won me flights to Worlds last year, Narayan, is one of my favourite single Pokémon. She’s so big and green and loveable with a Dragon Gem that used to set my inner goddess ablaze. But using Salamence is just not the same since the new games came out, so it’s only fitting that I named my new one after a weirdly uplifting breakup song. I’m sorry, Salamence. You’re special. I’m sure your Draco Meteors and other Special Attack-based moves will make somebody happy. But that weak Stone Edge? Look, baby, the Physical side of our relationship is lacking – that’s why I cheated on you with Garchomp. Even though she’s got… Rough Skin. We should see other people.

Blue Monday – New Order
“But if it wasn’t for your misfortunes, I’d be a heavenly person today.”
Gardevoir (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Trace
EVs: 212 HP / 116 Defense / 44 Special Attack / 116 Special Defense / 20 Speed
Modest Nature
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Protect

Ah, Blue Monday the Gardevoir. I’d intended to breed her as shiny, hence the name. But in the end, I couldn’t really be bothered. Hence, Green Blue Monday, something that still makes me laugh a whole week later. Additionally, I’d intended to give her Ally Switch, but noticed too late it was an egg move, and taught her Shadow Ball instead, which actually would prove useful.

The EVs… I’m pretty sure they had a purpose. I really can’t remember coming up with them, but there was probably a reason, and I’ll remember it someday. I have a sneaky feeling it’s literally “Because the numbers are nice and even”.

As for Trace, it’s definitely the best Gardevoir ability. Telepathy doesn’t really provide much of a benefit, especially with only Garchomp as a spread user, while Trace can occasionally wreak havoc. Blue Monday as a name kind I just felt was kind of befitting. Dejected, good-hearted angstiness is kind of beautiful, don’t you think?

Changes – Faul Ft. Wad Ad
“Honey, I hear you. And I feel for you. It won’t be too long till. We’re back as one again.”
Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Attack / 4 Defense / 252 Speed
Jolly Nature
- Return
- Fake Out
- Sucker Punch
- Power-Up Punch

Well, would you look at that, I’m using a totally standard Kangaskhan. I don’t know, really, it just works. Mega Kangaskhan’s kind of an interesting Pokémon. The entire game is tilted in its favour, to the extent that the main thing keeping it balanced is that, even though it dominates the field when it’s out, its Normal typing makes it hard for it to support its teammates out back.

Changes I think was a really nice name for Kangaskhan. Dissociation is a pretty powerful concept, and Kangaskhan’s Mega-Evolution kind of makes me think, it’s becoming more powerful from baby Kanga leaving its comfort zone and growing up, while the adult Kangaskhan’s like, losing its former sense of self and becoming a new entity even though nothing’s physically changed. Overthinking things? Naaaah, I just think it’s cool. The song itself is great too: a startling deep house-flavoured mix of power and insecurity, each rueful flurry of trumpet a prayer for things to play out in your favour for once. Come on, Parental Bond! Give me those critical hits!

So overall, I ended up with a pretty solid if ramshackle team that was put together at the last minute. It’s just a lot of good Pokémon put together and really not all that difficult to use. I think there’s only the Gardevoir that has a set that isn’t super standard. I didn’t have a clue what the metagame would be like going in, so I just picked Pokémon that would work against anything. The sharp-eyed among you may have noticed: why am I acting like I forgot about Rain? That’s because I forgot about Rain. With literally only Scarf Salamence resisting Water, Rain was basically an auto-lose matchup if in the hands of a competent opponent.

VGC is a Paradise

I’ll begin the story on the Thursday before the tournament. I’d spent a lot of the week up at my university’s main library, which is like an old Edwardian castle perched at the top of a hill. It’s actually rather nice, if I’m honest. This night in particular I was in one of the lounges, mock-haughtily playing Pokémon online with my feet on the desk, the corridors still and the air a heavy midnight haze. I’d been getting slightly annoyed at the fact so many people on the VGC ladder were asking if I was Zog, for some reason. Am I really that bad at hiding? Anyway, Jack (Rebel) and Andy (Shoe) were up to much the same, hunched over their computers, the faint, synthetic glow of laptop screens a reflection of overcast academic doubt. Unlike myself, they did actually have an exam the next day, and were trying and failing to revise. After a while, they packed up and left to go to bed, leaving only me and my friend Kyle, who’d been quietly sat in the corner on a computer. He reminded me of the fact that we hadn’t actually booked a hotel or trains yet, which left me feeling rather unstirred. After a while he said he was booking a train, to which I paid little attention, since I was busy enjoying a phone conversation about beetroot salad. In hindsight I should probably have listened, since the dope went and booked train tickets for everybody without even asking about railcards, in the process wasting around forty quid. I booked a hotel, eventually, and set off down the hill. Aside from being propositioned by an extremely drunk young lady and having to run away, the rest of the night was rather uneventful.

Aside from the weather taking a turn for the terrible, the journey from Bangor to Manchester was relatively normal. I’m pretty sure I was asleep for most of it. Probably the most notable thing to happen was Kyle ruining everything in Wetherspoon’s by being a moron and, despite not having any ID, following me to the bar and declaring that he was with me, denying me the ability to buy myself a martini. Unforgivable. Protip: asking the barman “If I ditch this knobhead, will you serve me?”, while worth the laugh, isn’t going to work.

After arriving at the hotel and over Skype laughing myself to tears at my friend Will playing Hearthstone, I began the arduous process of preparing teams for six people, from nothing, in one evening: the fruits of procrastination. If Andy hadn’t been there to help out and train most of our Pokémon, I don’t know what we would’ve done. He got so exhausted he literally fell asleep on me at around 5 AM, not long after catching me a shiny Bellsprout. I got no sleep at all, and even had to endure an absolute crisis at 7:30 AM when Greg’s borrowed cartridge (with full living Pokédex and everything) went corrupt on me, losing his HP Fire Venusaur and costing around three hours of work. I somehow got it on again, but having to deal with that an hour and a half before registration was absolutely mental. Soon, I’d managed to finish everyone’s teams, including Jack’s Choice Band Aggron, Kyle’s awful Greninja and something completely ramshackle I put together for Greg, including Facade Gyarados and my old Amoonguss in place of his dearly departed Venusaur. “Forgive Me”, indeed.

I slipped on my hate shirt, cat hat, and notorious furry leopard print shorts, and after a brief hiccup wherein I accidentally locked Greg outside shoeless, we all jumped in a taxi for a fun-filled day of Pokémon. I hasten to reiterate that at this point I hadn’t slept properly for something like 48 hours, my entire existence a caffeine-fueled paradox. It was a wonder I managed to survive, to be honest. Since this is UK Nationals we’re talking about, I expected “Masters first round pairings will be posted in ten minutes” to actually mean “Masters first round pairings will be posted in around four hours”, and I was totally right. The delay was actually even longer than last year’s, somehow. It was so bad that a fair amount of people actually left because of the wait. I stuck with it though (no grimer), and eventually it was time to play a children’s video game. Note that due to the game not letting you record battle videos, I have basically no idea whatsoever how any of my games went, so sorry about that!

Round 1 vs Perfectly Reasonable Guy Who Happened to Use Nidoking

Alas, I can barely remember anything about the first round. Or any other round, for that matter. What I can remember is that he had a Nidoking, and I KOed it. A story for the ages.

1-0

Round 2 vs I Don’t Even Remember This Happening

Literally zero recollection of this round. Amnesia is real, and from what I gather, I used it around here. +2 Special Defense! Worth noting at this point is that, after losing to a Robert Kendall in the first round, my brother dropped, giving him the most banterously bad Swiss record in history.

2-0

Round 2.5 vs Jack and the Trafford Centre

Fuelled only by a Belveeta breakfast biscuit I stole off my brother at around 5 AM and an eye-gougingly bad sandwich from the refreshments stand that I threw away after eating only the suspiciously brown bacon from it, fatigue was setting in, and the situation with the gang started to get a bit tense. Thus, like Ross Kemp, I took my cue and got outta there. We found ourselves in the Trafford Centre, for some reason searching for a Subway, by which I mean Jack steamed ahead without having a clue where he was going while I enjoyed myself weaving through Manchester’s greatest tribute to low-level consumerism. Despite there being perfectly good Chinese food available, apparently that wasn’t good enough for Jack. He wanted something more occidental, and carried on through the shopping centre. Hungry and pizzaless but a good half mile away from the venue by now and with round 3 imminent, I called off the hunt and had the lads literally run back through the Trafford Centre, losing my brother somewhere in the process. Amusingly it took like 45 minutes to notice he was gone.

Round 3 vs Girl Who Liked Moss

In a close shave, I managed to make it back just after the pairings had been posted, and found myself up against a girl with my most dreaded matchup: straight Rain. I was weirdly impressed by how she recognised my ingame name Sara Senya as being a play off my favourite plant genus, and it turned out she was a bit of a plant specialist doing a project on Spaghnum moss, which is incidentally what Sarracenia grows in. Coincidences right? That said, I felt reassured about specialising in something as cool as vipers. But doing lab work with moss? Now that’s a prospect worth avoiding!

I ended up winning, anyway, I think by outspeeding Ludicolo with my timid Salamence, who I suppose did come in useful now that I think about it. I still don’t regret the breakup though. I am a strong independent woman who don’t need no Mence. However, I still cling to easy-to-digest comedy catchphrases. *sob*

3-0

Round 4 vs Florian Wurdack (DaFlo)

My first scary pairing of the day! Time to go with Daflo. My former comrade with the Hearthome Holy Spirits gave a great match, and while the only part of the game I remember was Gardevoir’s Shadow Ball winning it for me, I do distinctly remember my brother giving me a box of McNuggets and me subjecting poor Florian to a tirade about the poor quality of the meat, how terrible it tasted, why am I eating it, do you want one, I hate McDonald’s they are a stain on society, this barbecue sauce is just sugar isn’t it, etc etc. I really don’t like McDonald’s. I’ve had one too many 4 AM Filet O’ Fishes for them to still appeal to me. In fact, I could go full Bieber-mop-bucket-mode on them, but since I do appreciate their free Wi-Fi it would be a little undeserved.

4-0

Round 5 vs Joe Wilson (RussianGG)

Oh hey Joe, nice fluffy hair you’re rocking today. Looks like we’re playing again. Once I remember the fact I’m in Flight B and haven’t suddenly become part of Flight A. In fact, why am I leaning against the wall by the Flight A tables? Why am I even here? Some questions were made to never be answered.

Alas, Joe was using Rain, so I had pretty much no chance. After somehow being done in by Snarl, which I’ve always considered a terrible move (because it is a terrible move), the game ended up with just my Salamence with her back against the wall, ready to be KOed to the inevitable Ice Beam from Ludicolo and Politoed, but not without taking one with her. But hey, at least she went down romantically and in the heartbreaking manner in which all lovers should hope to die. Something like that.

4-1

Round 6 vs Alberto Gini (BraindeadPrimeape)

Needless to say I was actually quite thrilled when I saw the pairings for this round. There are a few players in this game that I really love to come up against. Rare people who play with conviction and fire in their eyes. After getting to a high level and beating everybody without having to put in any effort, it’s all too easy to get complacent in the game we call Pokémon. When I was younger and more reckless I got cocky once, and because of that I got put down slow and steady on the timer by one Matteo Gini. I’d still made the Worlds quarter finals, which I was proud of, but I came out knowing I’d have to learn to discipline myself if I was to win a tournament. So it was a pleasure to come up against his brother, who’s just as good!

I couldn’t give you a play by play, but this game was some of the most fun I’ve had with Pokémon in such a long time. Turns entwined with multi-faceted reads and bluffs that could make grown men cry, provided they’re a bit of a wet lettuce who gets emotional at video games. I ended up winning by using Return on a Mega Tyranitar or something weird like that. But this was a great game that made me happy to be playing Pokémon, and question my decision to quit.

5-1

Round 7 vs Luigi Lo Giudice (LPROX)

I’d say I’m a sucker for tempting fate, but literally “You’d better not have a Rain team” and hey, Rain team. Like the late DJ Mehdi, I’m a Lucky Boy. That said, I’d rather have to play a Rain team than fall through my own roof and die. That’d just be sad, wouldn’t it?

But yeah, Rain, I had no chance really. My fault!

My favourite part of this round was overhearing some absolute moron say “Yes, I’ve got a girl! Easy win!”, only to go on and get totally destroyed. I gave that guy a good dressing down, anyway. People like that do my head in. Somewhere around here I gave Tyler Bakhtiari (Pokeguru01) a lovely Krispy Kreme doughnut and he plopped chocolate sauce all over the floor, which was kind of hilarious.

5-2

Round 8 vs Guy With High Jump Kick Scrafty

At this point I was totally resigned from the tournament and really not expecting to Top Cut, so I just had fun with the one game I had left. I can’t really remember what happened aside from being given Tropius cards and Scrafty’s High Jump Kick missing on my Mawile the first time he used it, and me laughing because I’m a heartless man. But hey, I won, hooray, 6-2 and probably 25th or something.

6-2

Florian came over and told me he’d come in with a bye, and beaten somebody with a bye, and I was like… actually maybe I have Top Cut. Funnily enough, when the pairings came up, I had managed to sneak in on 16th place again! Not bad, eh?

How Being a Lad Behind a Tree Became the Hottest Fad in Manchester

This part of the day is just kind of a haze for me. I went to ASDA’s and bought a load of Henry Weston’s extra strength cider, embracing my inner scally and intending to go on a nice night out in Manchester. Then suddenly I found myself having to mediate between hotel staff and my friend downstairs, who apparently was too much of a fire risk to let inside. It’s a long and stupid story but the entire situation was so ridiculous I simply walked out of the hotel and went to find somewhere else to stay. This, incidentally, turned out to involve hiding behind a large bush, playing a lot of CHVRCHES on my iPod and waiting for dad to come and rescue us. Pensively peering through the roadside foliage at 1 AM on the outskirts of Manchester, waiting for a middle-aged man in an SUV, I had never felt so George Michael. Instead of making shapes at Satan’s Hollow, by 3 AM I was in bed at home with Jack KO’d in the corner, watching Andy stroke my rather attractive cat. And I still hadn’t had anything to drink.

After an early start, some Nature Valley bars (which apparently have an anime-based cult following? What?) and a Starbucks, we were soon back in Manchester and ready for the Top Cut.

Top 32 vs Tyler Bakhtiari (Pokeguru01)

Well, what a terrible pairing! Tyler’s deserved to make Worlds for ages and I really didn’t want to have to play him so early. But hey, neither of us could do anything about it.

I won the first game, and going into the second game I remember having the win sealed provided I won the Garchomp Speed tie. Of course, I didn’t, so it went to game three. I think I got done in by a Moonblast Special Attack drop and critical hit, if I remember rightly. But I didn’t mind, really. I hadn’t played perfectly and I’ve kind of had enough with this game.

If I was going to lose to anyone, I’m happy it was Tyler. He played well and had a better team than me, but most importantly he’s a good kid, and I’m glad he did so well.

The Zog Guide to Not Being a Plonker at VGC

So basically, I got Top Cut at Manchester and then didn’t win anything. I couldn’t go to Bochum because of work commitments, then couldn’t go to Milan because of other stuff, even though I really wanted to. So, looks like I’m sitting out of Worlds this year, unfortunately. Which is a shame, but at the same time I’m not unhappy about it.

Pokémon’s been good for me down the years. It’s given me something to do and be good at, and given me an excuse to travel loads of places I wouldn’t have otherwise. I’ve been to Worlds three times and UK Nationals six times, and Top Cut pretty much every tournament I’ve played in. It’s been kind of really, really fun. I’m finding now, though, that I’m just completely incapable of preparing for a tournament. Like the battle-worn Pokémon ronin I sort of am, I’m literally only still playing for the thrill of fighting really strong opponents. I’m in it so deep I’m kind of committed at this point. I know more about Pokémon than I do about my actual degree on real life animals, which is slightly sad and slightly hilarious. I’m at the point now where I can pretty much play and win with the first thing that comes into my head, which means I can’t be bothered teambuilding or testing. At the same time, I’m only happy when I win all my games, so I’m stuck getting bored whether I win or lose, which isn’t all that great. I haven’t been super competitive since 2011, but I’ve decided now’s the time to say I’m retiring from the big tournament side of things and only taking it casually in the future.

So, for now I won’t be playing at all. I’ll be back when the new games come out and bring us a fresh new season, but only because I love a really, really good fight. If you’re learning how to play Pokémon and you want to take it seriously, I want you to be strong enough to beat me. I want, you know, to be thrilled for once. Because it’s so rare for this game to excite me nowadays, and VGC needs new blood. Let me tell you: it ain’t easy bein’ steasy.

Do

• Learn how to get good at Pokémon; it is a load of fun, honest. There’s still not much I love more than a proper Pokémon battle with someone who can give me a run for my money.
• If you’re the right age, obviously, don’t be scared of socialising with the Pokémon lads. We’re a fun bunch of people! Even if some of us are 26, we’re probably not going to deck you. That only happens if you question our choice of employment.
• Even if you’re just starting out, still do your best and don’t be scared. There’s plenty of people who’ve made Worlds this time round on their first year of VGC, and so long as you know what you’re doing, you always have a chance. I mean, my best mate Jack is a complete idiot and he still went 5-3 with Aggron and Mega Aerodactyl.
• Remember to bring refreshments. There are always delays, but there are never adequate refreshments. I was downing prebought cans of Monster all day and would have imploded otherwise, so to avoid imploding bring a bag full of pre-prepared caffeine.
• You’re welcome to ask me anything you like about anything I’ve written here. I am pretty rubbish at replying but I do my best!

Don’t

• Probably a bit ironic coming from the former World No. 5 and current World No. 30, but don’t take the game too seriously. Pokémon is just a bit of fun, not all stats and spreadsheets. Though I admit winning is the good part, if you let preparation consume you then the game itself becomes really unenjoyable. All of the coolest players just pick the game up right before the event and win all their games. It’s the stylish thing to do. So make sure you, like, have real hobbies and hit the gym and stuff on top of the Pokémon, then you’ll also be better at Pokémon. Logic.
• Some people and some trousers just weren’t made for running. If in doubt, wear underwear. That is all.
• Anyone with eagle eyes and a sense of humour may have noticed the lack of toilet-based signage. Why is this a don’t? Don’t mention it again, that’s why!

So that was my weekend in Manchester briefly condensed into a semi-legible format. I hope you enjoyed reading about it! The name of this report again is based on my favourite quote ever, “If you stare into the abyss, it stares back at you”, literally the deepest thing ever and not just because an abyss is really deep. I gave it this name because there’s a bit before the abyss part, which goes “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster”, which means something slightly different. I was talking to my mum the other day and she referred to herself as being “Confused, like a Pokémon”, which firstly made me laugh and secondly reminded me of the fact that I battle with (Pocket) monsters far too much and should probably avoid becoming the next species of Pokémon.

But yeah, that’s that! I might have had enough of playing Pokémon, but I don’t think I’m ever going to let it go entirely. I’ve just had too much fun to do that. See you around!

The post Lest Ye Become a Pocket Monster – How Zog Topped UK Nationals, Badly appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello friends! You may all know me as commentator Duy’s older brother, but many years ago (before my famous 0-7 or whatever at Nats 2011) I used to take pride in doing well at Nationals. The past couple of years have been particularly rough on me in terms of Nationals finishes, but I was determined to at least make it to day 2 this time. I do not have as much time to play Pokémon as I used to when I was in school, but I found a nice balance between work and play after X/Y’s release and got myself a little more established in the game than I have been the past couple of years. I’ve been dabbling here and there with all sorts of different ideas throughout the year, but one thing always stuck out in the back of my mind. Ever since I’ve started playing VGC in 2009, Trick Room has always emerged late season as the way to go to succeed. Every year, I noticed that people always write off Trick Room teams and every year, late season, you’ll see a few really well built Trick Room teams come out and go deep in Nationals or Worlds.

The beginning of 2014 was no different. If you take a broad look at the metagame, you will notice a few things that lead to Trick Room becoming a strong team option:

• 2014 is dominated by fast Pokémon such as Kangaskhan, Garchomp, and Salamence
• The relative lack of speed control means that the options you do have should be strong
• The lack of Pokémon that carry Taunt in the metagame
• An item that allowed a Pokémon to ignore most lazy teams’ “Trick Room counter” (Amoonguss)

All of these things led to me exploring Trick Room options early in the season. Cassie and I played around with Reuniclus and Chandelure as Trick Room setters but the lack of physical bulk made it a little hard to get Trick Room into play sometimes. I tried Gothitelle and enjoyed it immensely but I felt like there was a lack of support options from it. I was ready to go into Nationals with Trick Room Gothitelle, but heard that Ray had been exploring Audino as a Trick Room setter. After looking into it, I decided to put together a team featuring Audino as the setter and took it to a Premier Challenge. While the first build I took to the Premier Challenge did net me the win, something felt a little off about it. I went back to the drawing board, tweaked things a little bit, and lo and behold, I ended up at a serviceable Nationals team that I genuinely had fun with. I ended up finished Day 1 with a 7-2 record and Day 2 with a 3-3 record, putting me at 26th place, but really, you are probably here for the team, so open your ears and listen up!

The Team

Audino @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 20 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Encore
- Trick Room
- Helping Hand
- Heal Pulse

The key player and perhaps most interesting component of the team. After overlooking it for so many years, the bulk that Audino had surprised me. 103/86/86 is definitely nothing to scoff at. With the spread listed above Audino survives almost anything thrown its way. The lack of weaknesses and natural bulk is what drove me to pick Audino as my setter. To get a better idea of just how bulky Audino can be, here are some damage calculations:

• 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 236 HP / 32 Def Audino: 180-213 (86.5 – 102.4%) — 18.8% chance to OHKO
• 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Hammer Arm vs. 236 HP / 32 Def Audino: 201-237 (96.6 – 113.9%) — 75% chance to OHKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 236 HP / 252+ SpD Audino: 142-168 (68.2 – 80.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Mega Charizard Y Overheat vs. 236 HP / 252+ SpD Audino in Sun: 169-199 (81.2 – 95.6%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Adaptability Mega Lucario Aura Sphere vs. 236 HP / 252+ SpD Audino: 172-204 (82.6 – 98%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Factoring Sitrus Berry into all of these calculations, Audino survives some of the biggest attacks the metagame has to offer. This natural bulk, combined with Regenerator kept Audino on the field for a long time. Being able to heal back health simply by switching gave Audino a lot more staying power than any other Trick Room option I have ever played with.

I opted for a full on support set because, let’s face it, Audino has almost zero offensive presence. Audino’s main role is to support the rest of my team and it does a mighty fine job at it. Encore and Heal Pulse are there to change game state to my favor. Encore is an attack that I think should be used a lot more than it is at the moment. With the huge amount of Fake Out (mostly Kangaskhan and Ludicolo) along with Substitute (from Aegislash) Encore gives you a great option to lock down your opponent. In Trick Room, Audino can shut down Pokémon that attempt to Protect stall Trick Room turns with Encore, or simply lock them into attacks while I switch in Pokémon that resist. Audino made the rest of my team a lot stronger and was the definitely what kept the team running. While it does not threaten the other team directly, it’s a great Pokémon with great team presence.

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Atk / 4 Def / 180 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Play Rough
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Ray’s Mawile. There is not much that needs to be said about it. Audino complements a bulky Mawile like this very well. Helping Hand makes up the lack of investment in attack and Heal Pulse keeps a bulky Pokémon around longer than intended. While the spread was taken from Ray the moveset deviates a little bit. I opted for Rock Slide over Sucker Punch in order to have a more solid answer to Charizard, Talonflame, Heat Rotom, and Zapdos. While Sucker Punch is an amazing attack on Mawile, I found that more often than not, I did not end up needing it. The threat of Sucker Punch was more than enough to force my opponent to take the defensive and allowed me to go on the offensive with Helping Hand boosted attacks. While other Mawile’s choose to forgo Iron Head for Rock Slide, I could not. With the rest of my team being so Mega-Mawile weak, I needed Iron Head to at least chunk other Mega-Mawiles. The speed EVs meant that I could play the Mega-Mawile mirror without having to worry about having Trick Room up and Heal Pulse allowed me to get the edge on other Mega-Mawiles. Not much else needs to be said about it. Once Trick Room gets set up, Mega-Mawile would tear through my opponent’s team.

Conkeldurr @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Guts
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
IVs: 14 Spe
- Mach Punch
- Superpower
- Payback
- Detect

Conkeldurr is an amazingly strong Pokémon and was my MVP for the weekend. Conkeldurr’s base 145 attack along with the Guts ability makes it an extremely formidable physical attacker. A lot of players would attempt to Will-o-Wisp the Mega-Mawile slot in order to slow it down, only to catch Conkeldurr on the switch in. Catching a burn made Conkeldurr a complete monster in Trick Room. With Guts activated, Superpower could knockout anything that didn’t resist it, from Rotom to Garchomp. Anything that was weak to Superpower would fall to it (even at -1 Attack). The Sheer Force (excuse the pun) of a boosted Superpower was worth the stat drops that came with it. Even with the drop, a Helping Hand boost brings the attack back to full force and allows Conkeldurr to do some more massive damage.

There are some other choices I made with Conkeldurr that I would like to discuss, namely the 14 Speed IV and the item choice. 14 Speed allowed me to underspeed Quiet 0 Speed Aegislash outside of Trick Room and grab the knock out with Payback. While I did spend the majority of my time in Trick Room, I would often play outside of Trick Room to eliminate slow threats such as Aegislash before I set up Trick Room. Payback was an interesting decision for me to make. I waffled between Payback and Rock Slide for the longest time before deciding that the ability to eliminate Aegislash, Gengar, and Chandelure was more important to me than being able to fish for flinches in Trick Room.

Safety Goggles was an amazing item on Conkeldurr and saved me a ton all weekend. I mentioned most teams using Amoonguss as their lazy Trick Room counter before, and Safety Goggles made sure that Amoonguss did not cause as much trouble for me as it could have. Conkeldurr could ignore Amoonguss and just attack to its heart’s content without having to worry about Spore stopping it. This opened up a lot of teams that depended on Amoonguss to stop Trick Room attackers from dominating them. The biggest thing that Safety Goggles did for Conkeldurr however, was letting it attack through Rage Powder. As the metagame developed throughout the year, you could see that people started to adopt the Mega + Amoonguss pairing to protect their Mega. Safety Goggles Conkeldurr was amazing in that it could bypass Amoonguss and grab a free KO on the three most dangerous and common Amoonguss partners (Mega-Kangaskhan, Mega-Tyranitar, and Mega-Lucario).

Hydreigon @ Haban Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 84 SpA / 140 SpD
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Protect

While most Hydreigon that did well at Nationals carried an offensive item (Choice Specs, Life Orb, etc) I opted for a bulkier Hydreigon. The spread, along with the Haban Berry, allowed me to survive every Dragon-type attack (including Choice Specs Draco Meteor from Hydreigon) that could be thrown at Hydreigon and retaliate back with its own Draco Meteor. While most Hydreigon tend to carry enough speed to outpace Smeargle I decided that on a team with Trick Room support and a large amount of options to dispose of Smeargle, I did not really need the Speed investment. The bulk combined with Audino’s ability to control speed with Trick Room, boost Hydreigon’s attacks with Helping Hand, and keep it healthy and protected with Encore and Heal Pulse made Hydreigon a huge player for me at Nationals. While it might not hit as hard as I would have liked, the bulky Hydreigon contributed in the games that I chose to bring it in.

Wash Rotom @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Hydro Pump

Wash Rotom was chosen simply to mitigate the Heat Rotom issues that I had. I bounced between a bulky Wash Rotom and a Choice Specs Wash Rotom and decided on Choice Specs simply for the offensive presence. Audino was already offensive dead weight on my team and I did not really want to have two pure support Pokémon on my team. This worked out well, however. Choice Specs Rotom gave me the option to hit something hard with Volt Switch on the way out and allowed a free switch on the Trick Room turn to any of my Trick Room attackers. Outside of Trick Room, stacking the Choice Specs boost with Audino’s Helping Hand allowed it to nab a huge amount of KO’s including Gardevoir and Standard Kangaskhan. The moveset is straightforward, and the EVs could use a little bit of refining, but Wash Rotom definitely put in a lot of work.

Aerodactyl @ Lum Berry
Ability: Unnerve
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Sky Drop
- Taunt
- Protect

The last Pokémon on the team is one that didn’t work as well as the rest of the team. Aerodactyl gave me something with Taunt support in order to deal with Smeargle , Amoonguss, and Prankster Pokémon slightly better, and gave my team a sort of fast mode where I could just spam Helping Hand Rock Slides. The Lum Berry was more useful than Focus Sash for me because I almost never let Aerodactyl take a big hit. Lum Berry allowed me an extra turn to deal with Spore or Dark Void and was nice to shrug off a burn or two. Sky Drop was there so I could eliminate a threat so my heavy attackers could play a 1-on-1 game. Sky Drop with Audino also allowed me to pull off the end-game Sky Drop loop if I wanted to. (Fast Aerodactyl picks up a Pokémon with Sky Drop while Audino Trick Rooms. Next turn, Aerodactyl is the slowest on the field so the opposing Pokémon gets released last without attacking while Audino reverses the Trick Room and Aerodactyl becomes the fastest on the field for the next turn. Rinse and repeat). Aerodactyl was by far the weakest Pokémon on the team for me, but Taunt proved to be invaluable in certain matchups.

How it all comes together

This team is a little different from teams that I’ve built in the past in that it is a lot more fluid in how it functions. With my Hail team from 2012 and my Trick Room Mewtwo team from 2010, I relied on a ‘Core 4’ with 2 techs in back to swing matchups that would normally be difficult for me to handle. This team is different in that there was no core. The team centered around bringing 3 Pokémon that were right for the matchup and placing Audino in front or in back depending on when I felt like I needed Trick Room to be up. In the rare cases that I thought I couldn’t start get Trick Room up, or did not need it, I had a good group of bulky attackers in Rotom, Hydreigon, Mawile, and Conkeldurr that could get the job done. Audino plays next to all of my attackers very well. Helping Hand changes many attacks that are otherwise 2HKOs into OHKOs and Heal Pulse keeps them on the field for a long time. Speed control allowed me to keep up very well with Rain teams and between Mawile and Conkeldurr, teams focused around Kangaskhan were easily taken care of. The hard hitting Dragons had to deal with Mawile and bulky Hydreigon. The team had enough offense to deal with the random ‘bad teams’ and Taunt allowed me to avoid rolling dice against Swagger and Confuse Ray teams. At its core, this team had the tools to do a lot of different things well, and it certainly did a great job for me at Nationals.

Weaknesses

Going into Nationals I knew that the team had a couple of weaknesses that could be exploited if I did not play perfectly. I could have changed my team around in order to deal with them better, but I felt like I was familiar with this team enough that maybe I could ignore them and still be okay. While I did way better than I expected at Nationals, the losses that I did take were because I chose to ignore the weaknesses I had which included:

Mega-Venusaur

This was a huge mistake on my part. I knew that Mega Venusaur could give me huge problems because of how bulky it is. I had no reliable way to take it down other than to just go at it hard with Mega-Mawile or Hydreigon. I had banked on most Mega-Venusaur running Leech Seed or Synthesis instead of Sleep Powder. I was wrong. 3 of the 5 losses I took at Nationals were because I chose to ignore Mega-Venusaur in my team building.

Azumarill

This weakness was not as bad as my Mega-Venusaur weakness, but a well placed Belly Drum would run through my entire team. In order to combat this, I more or less had to hope that the opponent would lead Amoonguss and Azumarill. I could then Sky Drop the Amoonguss and score a clean KO on Azumarill with Wash Rotom. If they did not, I had to do a lot of maneuvering to get around it.

Notable Matches

I’m not going to do a full rundown of all of my battles but I want to take a look at some of the battles that I remember from the swiss portion of Nationals.

Ashby (Round 4) – Gothitelle/Scrafty/Mawile/Ludicolo

Ashby and I played a really back and forth match that I thought I would have lost for sure. Ashby led Gothitelle and Scrafty into my Wash Rotom and Audino. Right off the back I was in a huge hole as he had my Audino locked in with Shadow Tag while Scrafty Taunted it. Audino had to Struggle for a few turns while I stupidly Volt Switched Rotom-W out for Mawile. Ashby manages to Charm Mega-Mawile down to -6 and I was ready to give up at that point. Once Audino’s taunt ended, Mega-Mawile somehow manages to make a comeback (without critting anything at -6) through a flinch and a couple of well-timed Heal Pulses. This was the most ridiculous match I played all weekend and was incredibly fun.

Yellowbox (Round 7) Gyarados/Zapdos/Garchomp/Kangaskhan

This was the only match that I have ever gone to time in at an event. I don’t remember much of this match other than Audino being the reason I was able to buy enough time for a timer victory. I caught his Garchomp with Encore while it Substituted twice, allowing me a chance to gain a little bit of momentum with my other Pokémon. The last few turns were intense. In the end, my Conkeldurr and Hydreigon held on in the red against his full health Garchomp behind a sub and allowed me to pull out a victory via timer.

Final thoughts

Overall, I had a ton of fun with this team over the course of a few tournaments. It helped me get a feel of what exactly is needed in this metagame and while I didn’t do as well on day 2 as I wanted with a 3-3 finish, I feel that it wasn’t necessarily the team’s fault but rather a few decisions I made concerning the team along with some questionable in-game decisions on my part. I felt like every one of my matches was at least winnable, which has not really been the case with a lot of the teams I tried this past year. Every loss I took, I can go back and identify what I did wrong and what can be changed the next time I end up in a similar situation. All in all, I had an amazing run and a ton of fun at Nationals ending up with the most successful finish I have had since 2010. While I know I probably could have done a little bit better, I am still proud of my finish and hopefully proved that I’m probably not as washed up as most people thought I was. (Also that I’m better than Aaron ‘CT Cybertron’ Zheng).

The post Audino’s Healing Hands: US Nationals Top Cut Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi guys! Evilwolf here again, with a team report from the sunny island of Singapore! From the weekend of 27-29 June, we had a local tournament at a local gaming event and it was the equivalent of Nationals for us.

I’m sure some of you managed to catch some matches from the top cut on stream, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as our local players did!

The first 2 days of the event were Swiss Qualifiers to determine the top 32 for the top cut on the final day of the event. I managed to qualify for top cut on the first day of qualifiers, but unfortunately I got eliminated during the first match of Top Cut due to terrible playing on my part and also because I had changed my team to a more gimmicky team that unfortunately didn’t work in my favor.

Anyway I’m writing about the team I used that got me first place during the swiss qualifiers. I personally enjoyed playing with the team tremendously and I hope to be able to share it with all of my peers here at Nugget Bridge.

Before I get started, I apologize in advance if any of my analyses on the Pokémon I used below are inaccurate in some parts. I only made the team 4 days before the tournament so some parts may seem rushed or the research done into the team is lacking in any parts.

Kangaskhan
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Scrappy
Item: Kangaskhanite
Usage: Brought for 6 out of 7 matches
EVs: 12 HP, 252 Attack, 4 Defense, 4 Special Defense, 236 Speed
- Return
- Power-Up Punch
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

• Outspeeds max speed Smeargle by 1 point

Pretty standard EV spread. I gave this Kangaskhan enough speed to outspeed Smeargle and invested the rest in bulk. I ran adamant for max power and didn’t really see any reason to run max speed other than speed tying with other Adamant Kangaskhans.  Although Jolly is the more common nature for Kangaskhans, I’ve always felt that Jolly’s damage output was always lacking and I liked the immediate power that Adamant nature gave me, netting some KOs where Jolly could not.

This EV spread is probably not ideal for a Rest-Sleep Talk Kangaskhan but I had originally bred and trained this Kangaskhan for a different team, and I just changed the move set to test it out.

I built the team around Mega Kangaskhan wanting to play around with it for fun, and I knew from experience that common ways to deal with Kangaskhan was to burn it or put it to sleep, and that attacks aimed at Kangaskhan would either KO it outright or deal around 50-75% on average. I wanted a Kangaskhan build that could let it have some staying power.

So I decided to run Rest and Sleep talk, along with Return for STAB (though as a friend of mine pointed out, Façade might have been better for this slot due to my Kangaskhan having a status from Rest; but Return served me well enough), and for the last slot I chose power-up punch for the ability to boost my Kangaskhan even while sleeping so it could be a constant threat and also to beat Mega Mawile. The randomness of Sleep Talk’s targeting also worked in my favor as it made it harder for my opponent to predict what Kangaskhan was going to attack. This Rest-Sleep Talk move set also gives me a good chance of beating the Kangaskhan-Smeargle combination that was rather popular at the time.

Unfortunately, this means my Kangaskhan is completely walled by ghosts if I chose to mega-evolve it.

Scrafty
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Intimidate
Item: Weakness Policy
Usage: Brought in 4 out of 7 matches
EVs: 252 HP, 156 Attack, 4 Defense, 92 Special Defense, 4 Speed
- Fake Out
- Protect
- Drain Punch
- Crunch

• Survives Timid 252 Special Atk Mega-Charizard-Y Overheat 100% of the time
• Survives Timid 252 Special Atk Mega Lucario Aura Sphere 15/16 times
• Survives -1 Choice Banded Talonflame Brave Bird 15/16 times
• OHKOs 252hp/4def Aegislash-Blade 100% of the time
• 2HKOs 4hp/4def Kangaskhan 100% of the time

Credits for the EV spread belong to Lajo. I read his report on Germany Nationals and I liked his EV spread’s survivability which didn’t compromise on the key KOs that I need Scrafty to grab (Lucario and Kangaskhan, mainly).

Here’s the crazy part: When I first conceived this team, I remembered a common strategy in VGC ’14 for Kangaskhan was to take advantage of the opponent double protecting on the first turn to avoid Fake Out and Power Up Punch its partner for a free boost. I wanted to use Weakness Policy to boost the partner at the same time, and by leading with the threat of another Fake Out user would almost guarantee setup. The only Fake Out users in VGC’14 that were weak to Power-Up Punch were Scrafty, Kecleon, Weavile and Delcatty. Delcatty and Weavile were too fragile, and I couldn’t get a Kecleon in time for the tournament, so I decided to go with Scrafty. Scrafty’s Intimidate helps boost Kangaskhan’s survivability, and at the same time its dual STAB of Crunch hits ghosts which wall Kangaskhan, and fighting, rock, and steel types which are common in this metagame. Coincidentally, Scrafty’s weakness policy allows it to OHKO opposing Mega Kangaskhan after they use Power-Up punch or Hammer Arm on it.

Cryogonal
Nature: Timid
Ability: Levitate
Item: Expert Belt
Usage: Brought in 3 out of 7 matches
EVs: 236 HP, 36 Special Attack, 236 Speed
- Freeze Dry
- Ice Beam
- Flash Cannon
- Protect

• Outruns max speed Garchomp
• KOs 4 HP Garchomp, Kingdra and Salamence, and 252 HP Ludicolo and Gyarados
• Survives Modest 252 Sp.Atk Choice Specs Salamence Fire Blast
• Survives unboosted max attack Azumarill Aqua Jet
• Survives Choice Specs 252 Sp.Atk modest Kingdra Hydro Pump in Rain

I didn’t think it was necessary to max Cryogonal’s speed as the only thing it would accomplish was speed tie Mienshao and I didn’t reckon it was really worth it. The 36 Special Attack EVs, coupled with an Expert Belt, give it just enough power to KO the Pokémon listed above. I didn’t think it was necessary to invest EVs to max out its special attack as maxing out special attack didn’t net any KOs anyway and 36 Sp.Atk still manages to get 2HKOs on Pokémon like Azumarill and Rotom-Wash.

Prior to the creation of this team I was playing around with Choice Specs Aurorus and had moderate success so when I built this team, I immediately wanted a Freeze-Dry user on my team due to the amazing coverage the move has. Aurorus didn’t really fit on this team, so I chose Cryogonal as it was the fastest user of the move and it has amazing bulk on the special side, albeit at the tradeoff of being absolutely frail on the physical spectrum.

Cryogonal’s role on the team was just to KO the Pokemon listed above, and including Rotom-Wash. I ran Flash Cannon as Cryogonal’s movepool was limited and it hits Gardevoir and Tyranitar for super effective damage, and Cryogonal could sponge attacks from Gardevoir and Rotom. In fact, Cryogonal could wall practically almost any special attacker due to its high natural Special Defense.

All in all, Cryogonal was a match-up dependent Pokémon, it excelled against the Pokemon I designed it to kill, but was completely useless otherwise when facing other Pokémon. In hindsight, I probably could have run some support moves on Cryogonal such as screens or Icy Wind or Haze in place of Flash Cannon or Ice Beam so that it wouldn’t be total deadweight in case my opponent didn’t bring the Pokémon I needed Cryogonal to KO.

Chandelure
Nature: Modest
Ability: Flash Fire
Item: Life Orb
Usage: Brought in 4 out of 7 matches
EVs: 180 HP, 252 Special Attack, 76 Speed
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast Flamethrower
- Overheat Will-o-Wisp
- Protect

• Outruns non-speed boosting nature Gardevoirs with 4 Speed EVs
• 68.8% chance to OHKO 252 HP 76 Special Defense Aegislash-Shield with Flamethrower
• OHKOs 252 HP Gardevoirs with less than 68 special defense investment

When I chose Kangaskhan to base my team around I knew that I had to have a fire type on my team to counter the steels types that wall it, especially Ferrothorn. I picked one of my favorite Fire types, Chandelure, and never looked back. Chandelure also had the added advantage of being able to hit ghost types and Gardevoir for super-effective damage. Having a Ghost type was also tremendously helpful in my matchups against Mega Kangaskhans and Fighting types (since half of my team was weak to fighting).

I initially ran with Fire Blast and Overheat during practice but I eventually did damage calculations for Flamethrower, and since it was able to KO Aegislash I saw no reason to run Fire Blast and risk missing with it. On the actual day of the qualifiers I decided to drop Overheat for Will-o-Wisp to counter sucker punches from the likes of Mawile, Kangaskhans, and Bisharps, and in practice I had never been able use Overheat to nuke anything anyway because of Chandelure’s middling speed.

Salamence
Nature: Modest
Ability: Intimidate
Item: Choice Specs
Usage: Brought in 7 out of 7 matches
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Hydro Pump
- Rock Tomb

This slot was originally filled by Gallade and then Medicham as I wanted a strong psychic type to deal with Mega Venusaur and they had fighting STAB to deal with Kangaskhan or Tyranitar. However Medicham and Gallade both felt out of place on my team and to compound matters, I had trouble getting the moves I wanted on Medicham. So I made an impulsive last minute decision and randomly chose a Pokemon to replace Medicham, and I picked Salamence for its wide variety of generic coverage moves to hit nearly every possible Pokémon, and Intimidate support. Also, if Salamence was partnered with Kangaskhan, I could use power-up punch on Salamence, something I couldn’t do with Medicham given how frail it was despite resisting it.

I ran Choice Specs over Scarf as I personally felt that Scarf Salamence was always lacking in power and outrunning Garchomp didn’t matter as Salamence survives Garchomp’s Dragon Claw after Intimidate. Salamence’s moves are pretty self-explanatory and standard. Rock Tomb was for speed control and to hit enemy Talonflame and Charizards, but it didn’t really work out as well as I had hoped as my Salamence’s attack IV was nearly 0.

All in all, Salamence proved its worth and did its job exceptionally well. I was able to use it in almost any situation, as you can see. It was the only Pokémon on the team that I brought for every single match.

Aerodactyl
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Pressure
Item: Aerodactylite
Usage: Brought in 4 out of 7 matches
EVs: 220 HP, 52 Attack, 4 Defense, 4 Special Defense, 228 Speed
- Rock Slide Rock Tomb
- Tailwind
- Ice Fang
- Protect

• Survives a Critical Hit Stone Edge from 0 Atk 31 IV hindering nature Salamence
• Outspeeds 252 Spe boosting nature base 80 speed Pokemon holding a Choice Scarf
• Outspeeds maximum speed Talonflame before Mega Evolving
• OHKOs 4 HP Garchomp with Ice Fang after Mega Evolving
• Survives Modest 252 Sp.Atk Rotom Volt switch or weaker

I knew my team needed tailwind support and looking at the list of tailwind users I picked Aerodactyl mainly as I wanted a rock type to counter the like of Talonflame, Rotom-H and Charizard.

I didn’t choose to go with Sky Drop as it didn’t really do any significant damage and made me predictable on the next turn so I opted to run protect instead. I used Rock Tomb over Rock Slide because I noticed in practice most of the time, usually there was only one Pokemon on the opponent’s team that I wanted to hit with a rock attack, so I picked Rock Tomb for higher accuracy, extra speed control, and because it deals more damage than Rock Slide to a single target. Furthermore I didn’t want to be winning based on flinch hax anyway, so Rock Tomb worked out spectacularly for me.

Lastly, I chose to put a mega stone on Aerodactyl because when I was testing this team, Aerodactyl’s item never came into use no matter what I used (Focus Sash, Rocky Helmet, Lum Berry) so essentially Aerodactyl was fighting itemless almost every time so I decided to slap a mega stone on it in case I needed Aerodactyl to deal with Garchomp.

And that concludes my team report for the team of 6 I used for the Swiss qualifiers! I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have playing and writing the report!

The post Nap Time: Singapore CGF Swiss Qualifiers First Place Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.