The most anticipated event by the Pokémon community in Mexico finally arrived: the Monterrey VGC Premier Challenge. Hi, my name is Gilberto Espejel also known as Gilberto Ranger or Empostoise, and this was my first official VGC tournament. I’m not new at the VGC environment but as this was the first year Mexico had official tournaments, I didn’t know what to expect. To prepare for the event, I took a deep look at the metagame and after several battles in Pokémon Showdown I decided to focus on a team capable of both taking hits and retaliating back with a warranted knock out. Now, without further ado, let’s introduce my team.
The Team
After a week of intensive testing, I settled upon these six Pokémon. This team gives me the opportunity to weaken the greatest threat this year, Mega Kangaskhan, before she starts to set up and then knock her out in the first few turns with either Mega Mawile or Tyranitar.
Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 52 Atk / 252 HP / 180 SDef / 24 Spd
Careful Nature
- Play Rough
- Fire Fang
- Sucker Punch
- Protect
As most of us know, Mega Mawile needs to take a hit before it can knock out the opponent, and this is the EV spread I found that accomplishes this task. I took the spread from Sir Chicken from his article about how to use the full potential of Mega Evolutions. Mawile’s goal was to take down as many threats as possible. With Intimidate, I gain extra resistance to physical attacks for all my team for at least one turn. If my opponent decides to switch out to recover his Attack stat, his next Pokémon needs to take a hit from Mawile. Play Rough is Mawile’s main STAB attack and is the greatest weapon against Fighting types (which my team is very weak to), Dark types, and Dragon types. Fire Fang gives me coverage for Ferrothorn, Klefki, and opposing Mega Mawile. Sucker Punch is my main choice against opposing Aegislash when it is behind a Susbtitute because I can break it with a priority attack and then directly attack it with any other of my Pokémon. Sucker Punch also helped me finish off Pokémon weakened by Play Rough.
Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 172 HP / 84 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Ice Fang
Hitting hard, hitting hard and hitting hard: it’s what Tyranitar does best. It’s a very good teammate for Mawile because it removes the sun from Mega Charizard-Y and the rain from Politoed. It also resists Fire-type attacks which is very common due to Rotom-H, Charizard and Talonflame. Thanks to its special bulk, Tyranitar can resist a good amount of Special Attacks and then retaliate back with a potential knockout. I decided to give it a Choice Band because I thought it was a good idea against the Intimidate users as it puts Tyranitar’s attack at neutral instead of -1; however, I always try to bring out Tyranitar when all the Intimidate users are already out. The EV spread is from a standard Choice Band Tyranitar. Rock Slide OHKOes Salamence, Charizard Y, Aerodactyl, Talonflame, and has a 75% chance to OHKO Rotom-Heat and practically 2HKOes anything that doesn’t resist Rock. Crunch is the strongest attack of my Tyranitar and does serious damage to the opposing team. Pursuit traps Pokémon that attempt to switch out or like to use Volt Switch. I put Ice Fang to take advantage of the Choice Band in response to Garchomp and Hydreigon in case I need to bring Tyranitar as my only response for any of those two.
Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 Spd
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
The weakness to Ground that Mega Mawile and Tyranitar have its very well covered by Rotom-Wash. I originally put a Rotom-H on the team trying to protect me from Charizard Y and Talonflame, but it didn’t work out because of the Rock weakness that my team gained, so Rotom-W was chosen instead. It takes on threats like Talonflame, Tyranitar, Garchomp, Rotom-H, and Gyarados and hits many things very hard with both of its STAB attacks. Thunderbolt hits helps againts opposing Rotom-W and possibly Politoed. Hydro Pump is the greatest Water-type attack for an offesive Rotom-W and allowed me to take down a lot of Pokémon very easily. Rotom-W was the Pokémon that I used the most in the tournament.
Talonflame @ Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Brave Bird
- Swords Dance
- Protect
If we talk about hitting hard, we talk about Talonflame. It destroys Venusaur and all other Grass-type Pokémon in the VGC metagame with both of its STAB moves. It can also knock out Fighting-type Pokémon and the abundance of Aegislash and Mega Mawile. I thought I could set up a Swords Dance in some of my matches but in the heat of the moment I realized that the better option was to attack my opponent directly. I gave it Leftovers to prolong its survivability along with Protect to try to avoid the recoil of Flare Blitz and Brave Bird.
Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 116 Spd / 252 SAtk / 140 HP
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
I took the spread from DarkAssassin and I used it for the same purposes he did; this EV spread knocks out 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan and Modest Rotom-W or Rotom-H. I put Dragon Pulse over Flash Cannon because I consider it more important to hit with another STAB move apart from Draco Meteor. With the extra bulk and Intimidate suport from Mawile, this allowed Hydreigon to take a Dragon Claw from Mega Charizard-X and knock it out with a Dragon Pulse or Draco Meteor.
Meowstic (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Bold Nature
- Psychic
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Safeguard
Meowstic was used because of the incredible support it brings to my team. Psychic is my only attacking move in case of Taunt. Reflect and Light Screen gives my team extra bulk. Safeguard was my main move with Meowstic, which prevented Mawile from being burned or hindered by any other status problems. I didn’t brought Meowstic against hyper-offensive teams, because in the tests when I played defensively, I was annihilated due to my own team’s fragility; while Meowstic was setting up the screens, my opponent took the opportunity to set up its own team. I gave Meowstic a Lum Berry just for one reason: Dark Void Assist Liepard.
The Tournament
The night before the event I was so excited that I had trouble sleeping. In the morning, I woke up very early and got ready for the event. At the tournament, I proceeded to fill out the registration form and wait for the tournament to begin along with many of my friends. My friend Chui began telling me how he expected to fail in the tournament due to his own lack of confidence, yet he ended up in the Top 8 along with me by the end of the day.
Round 1 vs Inri Flores
AVEG-WWWW-WWW8-24BJ
He brought:
I brought:
The key to winning this game was Mega Mawile since he had Mega Kangaskhan and Ferrothorn on his team. I used Safeguard in the first turn to avoid the Rotom-W’s Will-O-Wisp and possibly Thunder Wave from Klefki, which worked perfectly since his Rotom-W went directly for the burn on Mawile as Klefi set up Safeguard. Mega Mawile went for Play Rough and did a pretty good chunk of damage on Rotom.
The next turns were basically my Mawile tanking hits and hitting back while Meowstic set up screens. In the last turns, Mega Mawile fainted from Ferrothorn’s Iron Barbs and Rocky Helment and Meowstic fell down from Klefki’s Foul Play. Rotom-W and Talonflame finished the game, giving me the 2-0 victory.
Round 2
In this round my opponent brought two Pokémon that were not in the Kalos dex (Blaziken and Jellicent) so the judges gave me the victory.
Round 3 vs Diego Barrera
XRAW-WWWW-WWW8-24BQ
He brought:
I knew for a fact that this match was going to be one of the hardest of the tournament because Diego is one of the Mexico’s greatest players. I needed to play carefully if I wanted to come out winning. He led with Aegislash and Charizard while I led with Mawile and Hydreigon. I wanted to take out his Aegislash as soon as possible to preserve my Tyranitar in the back, so I went straight for the Dark Pulse on Aegislash after barely survive a Dragon Claw from Charizard thanks to the Intimidate support. I also Protected Mawile just to scout which Charizard he had while his Aegislash survived with about 1%, preventing it from setting up a Substitute. I let him knock out my Hydreigon as I attacked Charizard X with Play Rough and he used Shadow Ball on Mawile. I sent out my Rotom-W and he called back Charizard; from there I started to knock out his team members with Mawile and Rotom while I let his Aegislash recover enough with Leftovers to set up a Substitute (which was a big mistake). Eventually, he sent out his Charizard X and knocked out my Mawile. When I brought my Tyranitar out I thought the game would be mine, but the Brick Break from Charizard took me off guard and the game ended up as a 1-0 victory for Diego.
Round 4 vs Eduardo
W6SG-WWWW-WWW8-24BU
He brought:
I brought:
This battle was more difficult than it should have been because of mistakes I made. My failure to bring Meowstic to set up both Reflect and Safeguard (to prevent Venusaur’s Sleep Powder) would have been very useful. Even without Meowstic I won 2-0.
Round 5 vs Rublax
RL4W-WWWW-WWW8-24C4
He brought:
I brought:
Round 6 vs Luis Canseco
2KUG-WWWW-WWW8-24C7
He brought:
I brought:
Round 7 vs José Eleazar
TU8G-WWWW-WWW8-24CG
He brought:
I brought:
I think this is the easiest match I had in the tournament as I played very safely. I first used Meowstic to set up screens and then started to attack everything with the rest of my Pokémon. I was very surprised that he brought a regular Charizard; if it had Mega Evolved, that could have given me problems. I won this match with a 2-0 score.
Top 8
Quarterfinals
Game 1 vs Hugo Hernández
Game 2 vs Hugo Hernández
Conclusion
Although I was not satisfied with the results from my last two battles, I was very happy with my performance in the tournament overall. I had a great time with my friends and we talked awhile after the event and congratulated the champion, Hugo Hernández, who had travelled all the way from another state, Tamaulipas, to take the glory and the affection of the people. I hope to participate in more Mexican VGC events in the future. Thanks for reading my report!
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