Hello, my name is Conan Thompson, and I recently placed 1st at the Oregon Regional. Going into it, I was a bit nervous since I had a pretty bad finish at the San Jose regionals earlier in the season and I was not feeling very confident with this format. Thankfully, I was able to finish much better than I expected, so I would like to share the team I used at the event.
Team-Building Process:
What I started with was a team used by a top Japanese player on battle spot (I do not know how to contact him/her though). I really liked this team at first glance, so I wanted to try it out.
This team has 4/6 members of my final team. The reason I ended up not using this exact team was because I was not having as much success with it as I wanted. This made me want to go back to the mega I had on my previous team, which was Mega Salamence. I thought Mega Salamence had good synergy with the Weavile Terrakion core, since Fake Out from Weavile would help Salamence set up Dragon Dances. I also wanted to keep Aegislash because it is one of the best Wide Guard users and Wide Guard support would be great for guarding Salamence from Rock Slides and Terrakion from Earthquakes. I then built off of this core of 4 Pokemon. I was set on the last 2 being Thundurus and Mega Venusaur for a while, but the double Mega option wasn’t working out as well as I wanted. A lot of the times, when I brought Mega Venusuar, Mega Salamence would have helped out a lot as well. The day before regionals there was a Premier Challenge at the same venue and I saw a number of cool teams with Cresselia. Cresselia was a Pokemon I’ve almost never used before since I never played in 2013, but I decided to give it a shot since I still thought it would be better than what I previously had.
The Team:
Analysis:
Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate / Aerilate
EVs: 76 HP / 244 Atk / 188 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Double-Edge
– Dragon Dance
– Roost
– Protect
Salamence was my mega and I think it is one of the best ones. Double Edge was my only attack and I felt it was the only important one. Dragon Dance was used to boost Attack when I wanted more power or neutralize an intimidate drop. It also boosts my speed, which was useful against Scarfed Pokemon and Pokemon with weather speed boosts, such as Venusaur. Roost was an idea I got from Bopper. It let me easily heal up on incoming rock and electric type moves if I was faster and even take an ice type move decently well. Roost also allowed me to get off more Double Edges before fainting or dropping too low from recoil.
The EV spread is not very complicated: enough speed to outspeed max Speed Landorus-T before Mega Evolving, which helped scout for Choice Scarf (if my Intimidate went before theirs, it’s not scarfed, if theirs went before mine, they were scarfed). 244 and 252 Attack made no differences in my calcs and the rest went into HP. Recently, most Dragon Dance Mega Salamence have run more bulkier spreads without max Attack and with a non-recoil move. The reason I chose to go with near max Attack and Double-Edge was so that I can get KOs without having to set up a Dragon Dance first.
Terrakion @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Close Combat
– Rock Slide
– Protect
– Earthquake
Terrakion was part of the main core of the team. The first three moves are pretty standard. I considered a variety of moves for the last slot, including Double Kick, Stone Edge, Quick Guard, and Taunt, but I chose Earthquake because it gave me another coverage attack, which is very helpful when you’re at +2 or +4 Attack and facing a Pokemon, like Aegislash, that resist both your STABS. It’s also handy against something like Heatran with redirection support. The EV spread is the standard max Atk/Spd spread.
Weavile @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Icicle Crash
– Beat Up
– Low Kick
– Fake Out
Weavile is a Pokemon that I’ve really started to appreciate in this format. Not only was it great at supporting other team members, it also has very useful coverage. Of course, the main purpose of Weavile was Beat Up. Beat Up was mainly used to boost my own Terrakion’s Attack thanks to Terrakion’s ability Justified. Beat Up also had about the same power as an unboosted Knock Off at 65 Base Power and, since it hit 4 times, it lets me OHKO Gengar through their Focus Sash, which is usually unexpected. It also does good damage to Pokemon that are weak to it, such as other ghosts and psychic types, provided that I still have 4 healthy Pokemon. Icicle Crash was my choice for a STAB Ice type attack because it is the strongest one, letting me get KOs on Pokemon like Landorus-T, even after an Intimidate.
Fake Out support is always appreciated by the other team members and Weavile, having a high speed stat, can reliably Fake Out Kangaskhan and other Fake Out users. Finally, I chose Low Kick over other moves like Knock Off and Ice Shard because the coverage was important. With Low Kick, I was able to lead Salamence Weavile safely vs. teams with Bisharp. Even if Bisharp gets the Defiant boost, I can outspeed and OHKO it while Dragon Dancing with Salamence to avoid a Sucker Punch. I can also Fake Out Bisharp first if I suspect a Focus Sash. Low Kick also hits for good damage on opposing Terrakion and Kangaskhan. The ability Pressure rarely becomes a factor, but can be used to scout for Choice Scarf on a Landorus-T the same way that Salamence’s Intimidate would. The EV spread is max Atk/Spd since bulk was not needed.
Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
– Shadow Ball
– Wide Guard
– Flash Cannon
– King’s Shield
This is a completely standard Aegislash, so there is not much to say about the moveset. Wide Guard support was great for this team, mainly helping to block Earthquakes and Rock Slides. I chose not run minimum speed on this Aegislash so that I can outspeed most other Aegislash. A Shadow Ball from Aegislash with Helping Hand support from Cresselia will often get an OHKO against opposing Aegislash. I also had the option of activating my own Weakness Policy with a weak Beat Up from Weavile or an unboosted Earthquake from Terrakion, which doesn’t do too much damage unboosted.
Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 4 SpA / 132 SpD / 44 Spe
Calm Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Taunt
– Swagger
– Thunder Wave
Thundurus was one of the last additions to the team. I knew I wanted some form of speed control and Thundurus, with its priority Thunderwave, was what I chose. Thundurus was also my main solution to redirection, Trick Room, and other status moves thanks to Taunt. Thunderbolt is standard and I choose to run the one and only Swagger over something like Hidden Power Ice mainly because, like Weaviles’s Beat Up, it could also boost Terrakion’s Attack. Terrakion would avoid the confusion thanks to its Lum berry. Of course, that was not the only reason to use Swagger.I can also use it to lessen the chance of my opponents’ Pokemon acting. Swagger did become a major factor in one tournament match, causing my opponent’s Pokemon to hit itself on a crucial turn, and it gave me an advantage in many other matches. In other words, Swagger is god. The EV spread primarily maximizes bulk, with the 44 speed EVs there to outspeed positive nature base 70s. I chose a Calm Thundurus over a Bold one because I think tanking special hits makes a bigger difference on this team, since I have no way to reduce special damage, while I have intimidate to reduce physical damage and Wide Guard to stop Rock Slides.
Cresselia (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 220 HP / 172 Def / 4 SpA / 92 SpD / 20 Spe
Calm Nature
– Psychic
– Helping Hand
– Icy Wind
– Moonlight
Because Cresselia was a last second change, I didn’t have time to make my own EV spread. Instead, I found one in a Nugget Bridge report. The spread was from Level 51‘s recent report, so big thanks to him. I chose Rocky Helmet as the item for Cresselia because I thought it would be more useful than any other item, due to how it chips away the HP of physical attackers, especially Kangaskhan. For the move set, I chose Psychic over Psyshock because most Pokemon weak to it are usually more physically defensive. I definitely wanted Helping Hand on this set, because giving a boost to some other members of the team sounded like a really good idea. Icy Wind was an alternate speed control option and it was good against Landorus, which was immune to Thunderwave. Moonlight pairs well with Rocky Helmet, as recovery allowed Cresselia to stay around much longer. Overall, I think the decision of Cresselia over Venusaur did turn out to be better for the team, so I’m happy with the decision.
Conclusion:
Overall, I am very satisfied with this team and the tournament was lots of fun as well. Unfortunately, I don’t remember many of my matches and opponents in swiss, so I couldn’t go over all the matches I had. Thanks for reading, and I hope this was enjoyable!
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