This team actually began with an attempt to use Shedinja. A common Shedinja strategy is to have a partner use Soak on it, turning it into a Water type and leaving it vulnerable to only Electric and Grass attacks thanks to its Wonder Guard ability. Taking a look at the available Soak users in this metagame, I noticed that Lanturn had picked up Soak as a new egg move in X/Y. Lanturn’s Water/Electric typing and Volt Absorb ability are interesting, and it wasn’t long before I ditched Shedinja and fell in love with this pairing of Lanturn and Mega Manectric.
Lanturn @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 12 HP / 252 SAtk / 244 Spd
Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Soak
Choice Scarf allows Lanturn to do several important things:
- Move before my Mega Manectric, allowing for a Soak + Thunderbolt or Soak + Discharge offensive
- Surprise Garchomp with an Ice Beam OHKO before it can move
- Surprise Mega Charizard Y with a fast Volt Switch, taking over half of its health while evading the incoming Solar Beam
- Surprise Rotom-H with a fast Hydro Pump (sometimes a OHKO depending on the Rotom-H stat spread)
Lanturn did all of this and more in Seattle. It was quite the versatile little beast, with all four of its attacks being crucial to its role. Rotom-W is generally a far better choice for teams that want a Water/Electric type, but only Lanturn can execute this silly Soak strategy. If Lanturn and Mega Manectric get onto the field at the right time, they are an absolute terror. Defensive type synergy won’t help you when Lanturn changes your type to Water, causing you to take super effective damage from Mega Manectric’s Electric attacks. Mega Manectric can either Discharge for spread damage (and 25% health recovery to Lanturn with Volt Absorb), or Thunderbolt to focus on knocking out a single target.
I went with Modest Lanturn because it has a 94% chance of OHKOing standard Garchomp with Ice Beam, as opposed to Timid Lanturn which only has a 56% chance of getting that OHKO.
Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Lightningrod -> Intimidate
EVs: 100 HP / 252 SAtk / 156 Spd
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Discharge
- Hidden Power Ice
- Protect
I actually had Electric Terrain over Hidden Power Ice on this thing until the night before the tournament, when I decided that even I have my limits about how bad of a Pokemon I can let myself use (and I didn’t run into Dark Void anyway, so the change worked out).
In order for the Soak strategy to work, Mega Manectric needs to be slower than Lanturn, so I was able to forgo some speed EVs to maximize special attack and even have some bulk with 100 HP EVs. It’s a shame to not have a Fire move on Mega Manectric, but I really needed both Thunderbolt and Discharge for different situations, so I made sure to have a couple of other Pokemon with Fire moves to compensate.
With Lanturn’s natural bulk and Mega Manectric’s HP EVs and Intimidate support, the pair can survive some surprising hits (especially if the opponent’s STAB is nullified with Soak), but they still really rely on their speed. Outspeeding Garchomp and the entire base 100 speed tier puts them above most of the metagame. I knew that faster Pokemon and priority attacks would be a threat to them, which guided my decisions when filling out the rest of the team.
Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Atk / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Power Whip
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
The idea with Ferrothorn was to provide another Pokemon besides Mega Manectric who could take advantage of a Lanturn partner who is locked into Soak. While not used as frequently as Mega Manectric in this way, Ferrothorn was able to KO a Soaked Talonflame and Soaked Amoonguss with Power Whip. Thunder Wave was a measure to help bring the enemy’s faster Pokemon to a speed where the Lanturn and Mega Manectric combo can go to work on them, but in practice it was not very effective at this because the ever present Fire type attacks made Ferrothorn difficult to use in the early game. Thunder Wave could also be used to target my own Volt Absorb Lanturn or Lightninrod Manectric in a pinch, but that isn’t something I ever actually did.
In hindsight, I think trying to use Ferrothorn in more of an offensive role wasn’t the best idea. But Rocky Helmet was still effective in dealing with contact-attacking threats like Mega Kangaskhan.
Azumarill @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Careful Nature
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Protect
I didn’t go with Belly Drum because I wanted to be able to do a lot of switching with this team. The Careful nature allows Azumarill to survive Timid Mega Charizard Y’s Solarbeam, and the Safety Goggles allow Azumarill to effectively counter all forms of Tyranitar without having to worry about Amoonguss supporters. Tyranitar is unpredictable and can be a big problem for the rest of the team, so I thought this was important, even though I ended up forgoing the more generally valuable Sitrus Berry. I didn’t end up battling any Tyranitars, though.
Besides countering Tyranitars, Azumarill was chosen for its strong Water/Fairy typing, which synergizes well defensively with Ferrothorn and Salamence.
Salamence @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Rain Dance
- Protect
This Salamence is just a general attacker with Intimidate support and an anti-sun bent. In hindsight, I don’t think it was a very effective use of Salamence. Choice Scarf Salamence is amazing, but I needed Choice Scarf for my Lanturn. A power boosting item might have been helpful as well as I found my team didn’t have a great way to threaten OHKOs off the bat and ended up quite susceptible to Perish Trapping Mega Gengar. At least in theory, Lum Berry was mainly to take Sleep Powders from Chlorophyll Venusaur and hit back with Fire Blast in the sun. I also figured Lum Berry + Intimidate would be a favourable lead against Kangaskhan / Smeargle combos.
If you look around at the other Salamence sets that people have run, the choice of Fire Blast vs Flamethrower seems to come down to what is needed to OHKO Ferrothorn. With Timid and without a power boosting item, Fire Blast is the better bet.
Rain Dance boosts Azumarill’s and Lanturn’s Water attacks while making it safer for Ferrothorn to come out and play. But really I just packed this move because sun is terrifying.
Talonflame @ Life Orb
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Quick Guard
Sorry Ray, I know Talonflame is awful. But I really wanted a fast Quick Guard to protect Mega Manectric from Fake Out and other priority attacks (especially +1 Atk Bisharp Sucker Punch, which I faced in the top 16 and successfully Quick Guarded against). Other than that, Talonflame’s priority Brave Bird helps me against some of the fast Pokemon that outspeed Lanturn and Mega Manectric. I probably should’ve gone with Adamant, but I went with Jolly so that I could confidently U-turn in front of Greninja and potentially Choice Scarfed Tyranitar.
Talonflame can also help to check Gardevoir, who is a big threat to my Electric types if it manages to Trace Volt Absorb or Lightningrod (alas, a Gardevoir did Trace Volt Absorb in my final round of swiss, which was a big factor in me losing that match). Other than that, Talonflame just has good type synergy with the rest of the team and fits nicely as the last member.
Overall, I was more than happy with my top 8 finish in Seattle. I got to use something weird and fun that actually sort of worked and, combined with my top 8 finish in Oregon, earned me a travel stipend to Nationals in Indianapolis. With the experience I gained from this tournament, I’ve already made a revamped team around the Lanturn and Mega Manectric combo, and unless I think of something more fun before then, I’ll be using it at Nationals. So if you’ll be in Indy, bring a towel! 
The post The Wild Wild Wet: Top 8 Seattle Regionals Team Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.