This is R Inanimate. It hasn’t been very long, has it? Just last month was the US Nationals, where I was able to put in just enough of a performance to achieve a 16th Place finish, earning my invitation to the World Championships. That tournament has come and gone. In addition, the final tournament of the 3rd season of the Nugget Bridge Circuit occurred between the time of US Nationals and Worlds. This report covers my participation in both the third annual Nugget Bridge Invitational, and the 2014 Video Game World Championships for Pokemon.

From playing my Smeargle Blastoise team in the June International Challenge, I actually found that my team felt very weak to Choice Scarf Politoed Rain teams, which had been gaining in popularity after the success they had during the Japan Cup. For Nationals I didn’t really expect to run into it much, and had a makeshift tech to try to make sure the matchup wasn’t a complete autoloss. I was correct in the sense that I never actually ran into the R Rain Beat Down, but incorrect in the sense that three of the eight Top Cut participants ran the team or a variation of it. Since the team archetype went as far as winning US Nationals, I felt that I needed to make myself have a more solid answer to Rain. A large overhaul would be needed.

I started my team overhaul by… not starting. I instead took a break from playing Pokemon, and completed my Reverse Lunatic mode Fire Emblem 12 run. I did continue to theorize about the options I may have needed to consider in order to fix my team during that time, but I spent zero time practicing on Showdown or breeding. About a week before the Invitational, I drafted up my team changes on Showdown and did some play testing, usually about five to ten battles a day. I found that most of my changes worked as I wanted them to, although they did leave me open to different problems. I planned to run the team in the Invitational as a bit of a test to see if this was something I felt was ready for Worlds, or if I needed to look a bit more into other options.

The Team (Invitational Version)

Since I’m an enthusiast for watching shows in “moonspeak”, and have recently been playing a bunch of Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem under Lunatic, and Reverse Lunatic Modes… for my final team of the season, why not nickname based off of the moon? Pokemon are listed in order of addition to the Team.

Blastoise (M) @ Blastoisinite ***ShootTheMoon
Ability: Torrent -> Mega Launcher
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Water Spout
- Aura Sphere
- Ice Beam
- Protect

“R Inanimate:+0, Pauline:+26, Michele:+26, Ben:+26“

Primary Mega. Same Post-Seattle Regionals Blastoise that I’ve been running. Blastoise has been a key player on my team since around February. While some things have changed since then, the overall concept of what I wanted Blastoise to do has not changed at all. Exploit the raw damage potential it has in Water Spout, and also prey on the many Fighting- and Ice-type weaknesses present on opposing teams. About 86% of my CP this season was brought to me by this one team, and a good deal of my NB Circuit points as well. What gave Blastoise its niche in the metagame wasn’t likely to change at all going into Worlds, so I saw no reason not to let Blastoise play on the highest level stage.

Smeargle (F) @ Focus Sash ***SilentSelene
Ability: Moody
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Helping Hand
- Dark Void
- Follow Me
- Spiky Shield

“月符「サイレントセレナ」
Bonus: 2000000 History 58/191“

Redirection and Void Support. Everyone’s favourite dog, back to plunge the world into darkness one last time. For people who are familiar with my playing style, Dark Void isn’t the primary reason for my usage of Smeargle. Follow Me is. In order to try to make up for the fact that it has zero offense presence on my team, Smeargle provides an impresive amount of redirection and disruption support for me to utilize. It is my most used Pokemon on my team, forces my opponents to react to it on Team Preview, and ultimately decide the outcome of my battles based on how well I utilize it in my battles.

I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ll mention it again: Moody is more likely to cause me to steal games than it is to ever directly cost me one. This is due to the fact that if I ever get a negative stat change, I can always stick to using Follow Me and just give Smeargle an early exit, as I often normally do.

There are two changes since the last team I reported. First, I replaced Encore for Helping Hand. With my team set up, there are a lot of things that can be boosted by Helping Hand to change a missed KO into a clean KO. One example would be Blastoise using Aura Sphere onto a Mega Kangaskhan.

The second is that I altered Smeargle’s EVs to 4 HP / 252 Defense / 252 Speed. This allows Smeargle to survive Jolly Mega Kangaskhan’s Power-Up Punch. I felt that Smeargle was likely to just get downed in two hits to most things, so with this, there was a possibility that I could surprise opponents who think they can just pick up a free +2 Attack and KO my Smeargle. There are a few situations where this sort of thing may backfire on me, but overall, it gives me another potential edge for my Smeargle when faced against Mega Kangaskhan. Also, if I get a Defense boost from Moody, Adamant Kangaskhan’s Return will fail to KO Smeargle. This is definitely useful.

Talonflame (F) @ Life Orb ***Kaguya
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Def / 4 SpD / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Tailwind
- Protect

“How’s that? With this, your spell of eternal night shall be broken, and the dawn shall come!“

Priority Offense. The first new member added to the team was a Talonflame. The EVs put it at 170 Speed to be faster than Garchomp, allowing me to Flare Blitz before being downed by Rock Slide. Attack was then maximized, then the small remainder went into bulk, keeping max HP at 159 to reduce some Life Orb recoil. Nothing revolutionary.

Why do I have a Talonflame all of a sudden on my team? The simple answer is: It makes life miserable for Scarf Politoed Rain Teams with Ludicolo. Outside of this, it kind of plays a similar role to Scizor. In situations where I sacrifice Smeargle to get off a Water Spout against the opponent, this can often put both of my opponent’s Pokemon in Brave Bird KO range. This allows me to apply immense pressure on my opponent. The tricky part about managing Talonflame’s usage is that it is quite ephemeral, as just about any action it pulls will likely leave it vulnerable to being knocked out as a result. Provided that the opponent gets an opportunity to move and land something on my bird.

Talonflame fit pretty nicely onto my team, but sometimes it ended up in a situation where I needed to do multiple things at once with it. I sometimes regret that I didn’t practice as much as I could have in order to better play using Talonflame. It’s a Pokemon that really requires the player to make every action count, and sometimes I didn’t let it do that.

Tyranitar (M) @ Choice Scarf ***Armstrong
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 36 Atk / 212 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Rock Slide
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
- Crunch

“One small step for mon, one giant leap for monkind.“

Scarf Special Attacker. Scarf Tyranitar kind of plays a number of small roles on the team, ranging from outspeeding and donking Garchomp with Ice Beam to acting as a Special attack sponge for the team and cancelling out weathers. I actually found Scarf Tyranitar to be somewhat difficult to use properly on my team. A big issue with it was that Sand would break my own Smeargle’s Focus Sash, severely reducing its effectiveness in redirecting hits. Also, if Tyranitar wasn’t hitting anything for Super Effective damage, its damage output was sorely lacking. Likewise, KOing something with its weak non-STAB Special moves could also leave me in a poor situation. Rock Slide spamming was decent when it could do it, but the opportunity to just sit back and throw the rocks actually didn’t come up as much as I would have liked it to.

Going into the NB:I, Tyranitar was the Pokemon I was least confident in. Playing in the NB:I, I think it was pretty close to being my MVP. Funny how things go. And yet, I wasn’t surprised in the least with regards to this turn of events as this isn’t the first time something like this has happened to me, or to me using Scarftar.

Hydreigon (F) @ Choice Specs ***Moonside
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 52 Def / 236 SpA / 4 SpD / 204 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Hyper Beam

“Welcome to Moonside. Wecomel to Soonmide. Moonwel ot Cosidme.“

Choice Specs Attacker. Choice Specs Hydreigon has been gaining a fair amount of popularity in the last few months. This spot was originally going to be a Choice Specs Rotom-W, but at some point I realized that Choice Specs Hydreigon plays the role better for this team. The EV spread gives Hydreigon 144 Speed and makes it able to survive Jolly Garchomp’s Dragon Claw. 144 Speed allows Hydreigon to outspeed Timid Blastoise, should I ever run into this mirror, and also puts my own Hydreigon a good amount ahead of other fellow Choice Specs Hydreigon, should I ever run into that mirror.

Not too much to say about its moveset, as the first three moves are pretty standard issue. Fire Blast can OHKO on Careful Mawile, while Flamethrower could not. I had Hyper Beam to try to use against Azumarill, but honestly that specific situation has never shown up for me to use it. During testing, Hydreigon did a decent amount of work. During the NB:I, it was hard for Hydreigon to do much of anything against my opponents, as Noivern and Mega Lucario made life very difficult for Hydreigon.

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite ***Lunatic+
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Return
- Sucker Punch
- Power-Up Punch

“Lunatic+ is essentially the same as regular Lunatic, but enemies may possess terrifying Skills, which are unique to Lunatic+.” – Serenes Forest Description about L+

Secondary Mega. Sorry, this team is no longer a @smearglebutcher certified Smeargle team, now that Mega Kangaskhan is a factor. The quick answer to why I added Kangaskhan was that I know that a core of Talonflame, Hydreigon and Kangaskhan is pretty powerful, and that having both Kangaskhan and Smeargle for Team Preview can cause even more headaches for my opponents, as they now have the dreaded Khan Artist staring them down.

More realistically, I could choose either Mega Venusaur or Mega Kangaskhan for my 6th member, and I chose Kangaskhan as otherwise my team would have been almost filled to the brim with Special Attackers, thus making Assault Vest Pokemon sort of a concern. Kangaskhan helps in bringing a bit of balance back to my team in terms of Physical and Special attackers. While I knew that coming into the high-skill, high stakes tourneys at the tail end of the 2014 season that Mega Kangaskhan would be heavily countered, I don’t regret the call to jump onto the Mega Kangaskhan train while so many others made their exit.

The moveset is super boring Jolly standard.

Overview

I literally ended up just keeping Blastoise and Smeargle, tore out the remaining members of my team, and replaced it largely with the Goodstuffs portion of a “R’s Rain Beat Down” team with some various minor changes to EVs. Can’t go wrong with double the “R”, right?

The team is largely in the middle to high Speed range. My slowest Pokemon on the team is Smeargle at 139 Speed. While Trick Room could potentially be devastating to such a team, this team has a fairly large number of tools to help it function under an opponent’s Trick Room, or to simply prevent it from ever getting activated. The team is just loaded with heavy hitters, as the only supportive Pokemon on my team is Smeargle. Where people tend to see a defensive shift from teams as we approach Worlds, I ended up going the opposite direction.

Common Lead Strategies

Blastoise + Smeargle

The Standard Lead. If I don’t see anything too immediately threatening, this is my bread and butter. Double Protect, then Follow Me and Water Spout. Throw in a few Dark Voids, or a Helping Hand boost, and you have a really devastating combo. As this duo often has turns where I spend both actions using Protect, this is also my best combination to try to provide time to roll Moody Dice.

Kangaskhan + Smeargle

The Khan Artist. Sometimes the best play is the simple play. Sometimes you just need to shut your mind off, and play one of the most hated strategies in the game.

Talonflame + Smeargle

Rain Countering/Sacrifical Tailwind Lead. This set up was often my go-to lead against Rain teams. The idea here being that a Helping Hand Boost to Brave Bird actually puts Politoed, Ludicolo, and Kingdra in danger of being flat out OHKO’d Brave Bird. If they lead something like Politoed and Ludicolo, it is pretty safe to Double up Protects Turn 1 to avoid Fake Out, then proceed to drop a HH Brave Bird into Politoed as very few people will be gutsy enough to leave Ludicolo in from the start. If this occurs successfully, I can almost always win the match from there with little trouble. Alternatively, this set is used to simply sacrifice Talonflame for a Tailwind, and bring out my Mega while Smeargle does some Dark Void suppression.

Helping Hand

Here’s a few calculations for Helping Hand boosted attacks to consider:

HH Mega Blastoise Water Spout (100% HP, Multitarget)

• 7/8 chance OHKO 252 HP Mega Mawile
• 11/16 chance OHKO on 252 HP Tyranitar in Sand

HH Mega Blastoise Aura Sphere

• OHKOs 252 HP Mega Kangaskhan
• OHKOs 252 HP Scrafty
• OHKOs 252 HP Ferrothorn
• about 60-70% to 252 HP Assault Vest Lapras

HH Talonflame Brave Bird

• OHKOs 252 HP Politoed
• OHKOs 4HP Kingdra
• OHKOs Hydreigon that are EV’d to survive Garchomp Dragon Claws
• OHKOs Charizard-Y that are EV’d to survive Garchomp Rock Slides
• 7/16 chance OHKO on 4 HP Garchomp

HH Mega Kangaskhan Return

• OHKOs 4 HP Garchomp
• OHKOs 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan (15/16 chance OHKO if EV’d to survive Adamant M Kanga Hammer Arm)

HH Mega Kangaskhan Power-Up Punch

• OHKOs 4 HP Lucario
• OHKOs 252 HP Tyranitar
• High chance to OHKO 4 HP Mega Tyranitar

Threats

Aerodactyl

Playing against a Pokemon that has Speed superiority over my entire team and has Rock Slide is just asking for a lot of trouble. What puts the icing on the cake for why Aerodactyl is the #1 threat to my team is the vast variety of supportive options it gets. Tailwind can counteract my attempts to get ahead of it with my own Tailwind, Sky Drop can completely ignore my Follow Me support from Smeargle, and Wide Guard and Taunt aren’t exactly the most pleasant things for me to play against either. It is possible to play around Aerodactyl and try to deal with it, but if it gets paired up with something like Mega Kangaskhan, things can go south real fast for my team without some luck or some ridiculous plays.

Bulky Fighting-Types

Well, two thirds of my team are weak to Fighting. Naturally this means that I have to be careful when handling Pokemon such as Scrafty or Conkeldurr, who can heal back huge amounts of HP by slamming my team with Drain Punches.

Multiple Fairy-Types

Fairies are mean. I can usually handle one without much problem, but teams with multiple Fairy options can be a real threat to my team.

Nugget Bridge Invitational

The nice thing about the Invitational was that all the Battle Videos were savable which are all on the Nugget Bridge YouTube channel courtesy of Eiganjo. This saves me 11 battles worth of written play-by-plays, so instead I’ll just give some thoughts on my actions on specific turns, and a breif overview of my matches. You can view the videos by clicking on the game numbers.

Round of 32 vs joej m

Much like playing in the upcoming World Championships, there are no easy opponents in the Invitational. My first opponent was joej m.

joej m’s team itself didn’t look like it had anything out of the ordinary on it. Going into the battle, one of my concerns would be his Noivern, as it is faster than Scarf Tyranitar, and can set up Tailwinds. It also provides him with some scouting of my items by Frisk.

Game 1

I didn’t really see any reason not to go with my bread and butter strategy to test the waters for my opening game of the Invitational. joej leads with Garchomp and Kangaskhan, which isn’t anything I haven’t seen before. I end up being put in a hole quickly in this game though, as Blastoise flinches on the second turn, preventing it from getting some much needed damage in against joej’s Pokemon. Despite my best efforts to try to change things around, joej m was able to preserve his lead with some conservative plays and take Game 1. I sort of put myself in a bit of an awkward position when I set up the sand that KO’d my own 7HP Smeargle, but that was kind of the situation I got left with when Blastoise took the early flinch. joej m takes Game 1.

Game 2

Game 1 didn’t go quite as planned, so I decided to change my leads up a bit this time, leading Talonflame and Blastoise. joej switches things up as well to bring Noivern and Kangaskhan. Sparks fly right off the bat, as I put a gamble on hyperoffense, betting that Noivern would take the time to Tailwind to open the match. Noivern indeed does use Tailwind, and this results in my trading my Talonflame for joej’s Kangaskhan. A worthwhile trade.

Smeargle helped in stalling through Tailwind, harassing joej with Dark Void threats and redirection. It goes down eventually to a double targetting of Rock Slide and Draco Meteor, which fortunately doesn’t flinch Blastoise again so I can do another KO trade. This time, my Smeargle for his Garchomp.

In the closing turns on the game, joej decides that using Spore on my Tyranitar was more important than going after my Blastoise, which led to an opportunity to finish off Amoonguss, and clean up the Noivern who was at -6 SpA, tying the series at 1-1.

Game 3

My set up for Game 2 worked out a fair bit better than in Game 1. I spent some time thinking if I should change it up for Game 3, but stuck with my lead from Gam 2, even though I knew that joej would change things up. Indeed, joej m does, as he opens our final battle with Garchomp and Noivern.

The first turn is crucial. There are a lot of possibilities of moves for both sides, and depending on what we each choose, it turn the tide of the battle right from the start. I had a bit of a feeling that joej m would not try to use Tailwind with his Noivern to lead this game, as I burned him pretty hard for doing that last game. I eventually decided on Protecting with Blastoise and setting up a Tailwind, hoping for the best.

The best was what I got, as joej Protects with Garchomp, and my Blastoise Protects to block an oncoming Super Fang from Noivern, leaving my Talonflame free to set up Tailwind. I manage to pull up a sizable lead, as I take out joej m’s Garchomp and get some good damage in on his Mega Kangaskhan. I think I get a bit ahead of myself at one point where I chose to sacrifice my Blastoise over sacrificing my Smeargle. There was a point in the battle where I ended up successfully getting a consecutive Spiky Shield with Smeargle to block a Draco Meteor, but in the end, I don’t think it would have mattered too much, provided that if I didn’t get that, that I would have instead hit my Rock Slide on his Kangaskhan switch in. In a tense three-game set, I manage to squeak by with the victory.

Round of 16 vs emforbes

My next opponent in the Majors was emforbes, who was coming off of a win against [CT] Cybertron. After my first match with joej m, I felt a bit less tense going into my second match for the day.

emforbes’s team has a few interesting choices, such as the Rotom mower, Lucario, Gyarados, and Gengar. I sort of assumed from looking at it that Lucario was going to be the Mega, and that Gengar and Gyarados have potential to try to disrupt my Smeargle’s supporting options.

Game 1

Although I say that emforbes has a number of things that can disrupt Smeargle, I mean that more in a “Dark Void prevention” sort of way. As such, there wasn’t too much of a reason for me not to start this off with Smeargle and Blastoise. Game 1 was largely in my favour. I pretty much get some free damage in on Turn 1 as Follow Me redirects a Shadow Ball, and his Lucario uses Protect. I later get a surprise KO on his Mega Lucario with a Scarf Fire Blast from Tyranitar, which hadsa 37% chance of occuring, factoring in the accuracy and the 7/16 damage roll chance. I kind of felt that my play in the back half of the game after I got up 3-2 was a little sloppy, but I had enough of a lead that I was able to pull through for a win.

Game 2

Game 2 once again had me looking quite dominant throughout the battle, but in the end the tables turned extremely quickly. Looking at where I ended up at in the battle, I thought that I had lost as his Talonflame could outspeed and OHKO either of my Pokemon. I made a play assuming that he’d go for my Talonflame, and used Water Spout. However, this ends up being a massive goof as Talonflame goes for my Blastoise, but it ends up surviving with 3 HP, only to use… one of the saddest Water Spouts you’ll ever see. Whoops. The series is tied up at 1-1.

Game 3

During this match, I switched up a bit and led with Blastoise and Talonflame. I pulled a sacrificial Tailwind, then got Smeargle out and went to town. A full sleep on Gyarados occurred, followed by the turn afterwards where emforbes seemed like he predicted me to switch out Smeargle and Waterfall’d it instead of using Taunt. This led to Gyarados getting put back to sleep. The match was pretty much over from there. I was pretty worried about Garchomp getting any Rock Slide flinches, but fortunately Blastoise stood tall and downed it with Ice Beam.

Quarterfinals vs PrettyLittleLiar

For the Top 8 match, to determine who would receive prizes in the tourney, my opponent was PrettyLittleLiar. I believe this is the first time we’ve battled each other in a tournament setting, so I was pretty interested to see how this match would turn out.

This team looks terrifying to me for various reasons. Sableye can harass my team with status effects, and his remaining team members are all Pokemon with both a strong mix of durability and offensive power.

Game 1

I thought bringing my basic lead would be a good idea. It was not. Even if I didn’t get flinched on T2 by Rock Slide (again), my Lead match up was just way too far out for me to recover from. By the end of Turn 3, I’m down 2-4. Since I didn’t want to reveal my Tyranitar’s Scarf, I forfeit. Information I got from this was that the Garchomp likely does not have Protect, as it used Substitute and Rock Slide, and that his Kangaskhan was Jolly.

Game 2

As mentioned, with the hard loss from Game 1, I had to change things in a big way if I wanted to stay in this. I led Talonflame and Kangaskhan this time, while PrettyLittleLiar goes for Garchomp and Sableye. I start this match off badly, committing hard on going after Sableye only for it to switch to Tyranitar as Garchomp goes for the Rock Slide. I manage to bring things back a bit by countering back with a Scarf Ice Beam KO on his Garchomp, but ultimately this match came down to me needing some luck. Sableye goes for a Confuse Ray on Hydreigon, but my Hydreigon would have none of that, crushing Sableye under a Meteor before being downed by Ice Beam.

In the final turns of the game, I end up winning a Speed Tie, allowing me to get a Sucker Punch off on the opposing Kangaskhan before it could do the same to me. I tie the series.

Game 3

I lead Kangaskhan and Tyranitar for Game 3, against Kangaskhan and Sableye. The first turn ends up being a bit tough for me, but I end up deciding on Switching out my Kangaskhan for Talonflame, and throwing a Rock Slide. Talonflame blocks a Will-o-Wisp, and my Tyranitar ends up taking a Power-Up Punch.

Did you know that Hasty 4 HP Tyranitar can get OHKO’d by Power-Up Punch? I didn’t. So once again, I end up being dropped down to 3-4 by the first turn of the game. Fortunately, this did let me bring back my own Kangaskhan, which now threatened Fake Out against his. This match was full of things to learn, as his Kangaskhan swaps for Garchomp to take a Fake Out… except that there was no Rough Skin damage. There’s a bit of a sickening feeling of fear that sets in when you realize you’ve been facing a Sand Veil Bright Powder Garchomp, in the sand, for the entire series.

However, in the end, I was very fortunate in my match. Garchomp did not dodge a single attack, and I had a turn where I once again win a Speed tie against PrettyLittleLiar’s Kangaskhan to KO it before it could do the same to mine. These factors were able to tip the scales enough in my favour for me to close out the match with the win.

Semifinals vs Samuel996

With every round prior having me win by a hair’s width either by crazy plays and/or  luck factors, I’ve managed to reach the Semifinals, pocketing at least a nice 125$US for my efforts. My next opponent, partly to my surprise, was Samuel996, who had an impressive breakout run in the 3rd Nugget Bridge Majors.

Samuel’s team had a number of things that made it looks similar to joej m’s team that I faced earlier in the day. One big difference was that Sam was packing an Azumarill on his team, which is one of the Pokemon I’m most worried about facing against.

Game 1

Much like with my first match in every other set in the tourney, I led Smeargle and Blastoise. Things in Game 1 were actually going according to plan at first. I traded Smeargle for an opportunity to place both Sam’s leads in KO range of Talonflame’s Brave Bird. Then on Turn 3 I made a play that ends up costing me fatally, as I decided to cover his Noivern with Brave Bird instead of Kangaskhan, expecting it to Sucker Punch to get an attack in before the Brave Bird. Instead, I swung into a Protect and traded Talonflame for Kangaskhan poorly. Sam was easily able to clean up my Blastoise and Specs Hydreigon, as I had little to no hope to survive through two turns of Tailwind.

Hindsight has it that if I took a bit more effort to try to stall out the Tailwind, and played a little less aggressively, I might have made it out of the battle alive. But I don’t feel that what I chose to do was a complete misplay, given the situation. Samuel takes the first game.

Game 2

For Game 2, worried about the potential for Azumarill, I switched Blastoise for Kangaskhan, and left my remaining Pokemon the same. Samuel leads off with Garchomp and Kangaskhan this time.

I had an opportunity to lead with a Helping Hand and Return to take out his Kangaskhan on the opening turn, but did not have the confidence that he wouldn’t try to Fake Out my Kangaskhan, so I instead went for the more neutral play of Return and Dark Void. The game is decided pretty early when I find out the hard way that Jolly Kangaskhan’s Power-Up Punch is about a 50/50 on breaking a 4HP Garchomp’s Substitute. So instead of breaking the Sub and having a situation where I can threaten to finish Garchomp with a Sucker Punch, it stays behind a Substitute and is able to easily handle my Kangaskhan. Smeargle did get double Evade Boosts in this battle, but managed to dodge zero attacks. My back half of Talonflame and Hydreigon cannot do much against the Azumarill that Samuel has in the back, and I am eliminated from the Invitational.

Feeling satisfied with my results from the Nugget Bridge Invitational, it left no question for me that this would be the team that I would want to bring to Worlds. So without further ado…

The Team (Worlds Version)

Most of my team remained unchanged for worlds. Except one…

As you can see, I subbed out my Scarf Tyranitar for a Goodra. Armstrong’s Lunar Landing was put into question, but he went MIA before I could confirm. So I replaced him with a Goodra. More seriously, after the Invitational, I looked into other options for replacing Tyranitar. I really, really didn’t like the fact that I’d break my own Focus Sash with Sand while using one, so I needed to find something to fill the role. As for the other five team members, the only change I made was that I replaced Hyper Beam on Hydreigon with Focus Blast. Anyways, on to my new team member:

Goodra (F) @ Choice Scarf ***HaiteiRaoyue
Ability: Gooey
EVs: 140 HP / 52 Def / 76 SpA / 4 SpD / 236 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt

“海底撈月 – ‘to scoop up the reflected moon from the seabed.‘”

Let me tell you a silly story regarding Goodra. Going into the Salem, OR Regionals, US National Champion, Alex Ogloza, tech’d on a Goodra onto his team because he knew that I was playing at the event, and heard that I was running a Rain Team. We never fought. At Worlds, I decided to use a Goodra, because I needed an answer for rain, since Alex Ogloza won US Nationals with a Rain team and there was a chance he’d still use one at Worlds. We never fought there either.

Goodra has been something I’ve tried using on my team in the past. Back then, I was trying out an Assault Vest set, and honestly wasn’t impressed with its performance on the team. This Scarfed version turned out to be a lot more fitting for my play style, and managed to cover my Scarf Tyranitar’s role on the team very well, without breaking my own Smeargle’s Focus Sash as mentioned earlier. The loss of weather changing is made up by Goodra simply walling common beneficiaries to Rain and Sun. Goodra was sort of my surprise set for Worlds. I think just about everyone who found out that it was scarfed was quite surprised about it.

Admittedly, There were a number of things I wanted Goodra to be able to do, but with the EVs I have to play around with, I couldn’t do everything I wanted to. The Ideal goals I had were:

• 135 Speed to Outspeed Jolly Aerodactyl, and Scarf Politoed
• EV to survive Draco Meteor from Modest Scarf Salamence
• EV to survive Jolly Mega Kangaskhan’s Return
• EV to OHKO 4 HP Mega Lucario with Fire Blast

Trying to hit 135 speed required a Timid Nature while maintaining a respectable amount of offense strength took way too much out of Goodra’s durability to be worth it. So I opted to go for 130 Speed, just to outspeed Weavile (hello Ashton). This allowed me to go Modest and freed up some EVs to go into other places. In then end, I focused to ensure that I couldn’t get donked by the faster Scarfed Salamence I may run into, clocked my Special Attack up to 154 for an extra stat point, and threw the rest into Defense. The result is that Goodra has a 7/8 chance to OHKO 4HP Mega Lucario and LO Bisharps, and has ~95% chance to survive Jolly Kangaskhan’s Return. With regards to some other physical moves, Goodra has ~50% to survive Jolly Garchomp’s Dragon Claw, and will always be able to take a CB Brave Bird from Talonflame.

Goodra didn’t do outstanding for me, but it didn’t disappoint me either. I sort of felt like the Goodra was a little bit experimental so I’m glad it worked out for me. If I didn’t bother trying to outspeed Weavile, I’d fix up the EVs to: 140 HP / 68 Def / 100 SpA / 4 SpD / 196 Spd, which guarantees that 4 HP Lucario gets OHKO’d, and that Jolly Mega Kangaskhan has about a 2% chance to OHKO with Return.

Overview

Replacing Scarf Tyranitar with Scarf Goodra changed very little in how my team functioned. Goodra simply did Tyranitar’s role, but marginally better. As such, the threats to my team remain unchanged, but in some cases I could at least feel like my team synergized better.

World Championships

One of the troubles for playing in the Worlds Tournament is calming yourself to the right frame of mind for playing some of the best players on the planet. More so when you were unable to sleep at all the night before, and decided not to eat a thing during the entire Swiss round. I feel the pressure the most while waiting during the player’s meeting, and barely feel the pressure at all once the battles actually begin. But even if I don’t feel it, I can tell its effects when looking back at my matches. A scary thing about feeling nervous is the times when you don’t even realize that you are.

Round 1: Markus Liu (Henrique)

My opponent to open the Worlds Tournament was Markus Liu. Before battling, Markus seemed sort of nervous and lacking confidence, he was expecting that he probably lose against me. I reassured him that he shouldn’t sell himself short. This is Pokemon, and anything can happen. Who would have guessed that he’d end up making the deep run, and reaching all the way to the Top 4?

In any case…

Hey, look, it’s my good old friend from Spring Regionals, Machamp. Needless to say, the Azumarill and Machamp were my biggest worries on Markus’s team. Venusaur’s presence also makes it tough for me to justify bringing my Blastoise. One thing to note here was that his team was definitely on the slow side, so Smeargle could give him a ton of trouble if he wasn’t careful. Still, if it was a Scarfed Machamp, I can be in some serious trouble, myself.

Game 1

To open the first match of the day, I go with Talonflame and Smeargle, with Kangaskhan and Hydreigon in the back. I was hoping to scare away Machamp, should he lead with it, but Markus opens with Mawile and Rotom-H.

My luck was less than stellar in this game. I have a strong position to just fire away with Dark Voids against Markus’s leads, but my opening attack ends up being thrown into a Protect, and misses against Rotom-H as it fires a Thunderbolt at my switched in Hydreigon. Mawile retreats for Azumarill, and my Draco Meteor misses against the Rotom-H. But I manage to drop both of Markus’s Pokemon into sleep this time. With the Sleep suppression against Markus’s team, I’m free to to bring in my Kangaskhan and start building up with Power-Up Punches in order to try to bowl over his Pokemon. I also end up with a fair amount of luck with Moody, providing Smeargle with a hefty amount of Evade buffs. If I recall correctly, I manage to get to +6. By Turn 6, I have a +1 Kangaskhan, and a full HP +6 Evade Smeargle, so I’m feeling pretty confident. I KO Mawile with Return, as Azumarill wakes up and hits Smeargle with a Play Rough. Machamp is then sent out.

My fortune with Moody proves to be but a ruse though, as Smeargle gets downed by a Aqua Jet through all the evade buffs, and Machamp shows that it is indeed a Scarf Machamp and downs my Kangaskhan with a Close Combat. Hydreigon and Talonflame are unable to deal with Markus’s Azumarill and Machamp so Markus takes the first game.

Game 2

For game 2, I decided not to change my leads, but brought Goodra instead of Hydreigon in the back, Markus goes with Hydreigon and Machamp to start off. I felt like I had a pretty big advantage with the lead match ups for this game. This match ends really quickly. Without hesitation, I expect Machamp to retreat to avoid being taken out by Talonflame, so I target Hydreigon with a Brave Bird and use Dark Void.

Machamp doesn’t retreat.

Next thing I know, I’m already down 2-4 as my leads are downed by a Rock Slide and a Dark Pulse, and I know that this battle is over. Calling my non-attack on Machamp was a pretty gutsy play, and it payed off big for Markus as he takes the series 2-0. Good Games, Markus.

With this, I take a first round loss, my first in my VGC career (2nd if you count losing the first game after having a R1 Bye).

Round 2: Hironomi Seino

Well, with a first round loss, most expectations for me to try to make a run at the Top Cut were killed on the spot. For this round, my opponent is Hironomi Seino. This would be my first, and still only, Japanese player that I’ve played against during the Worlds Tournament.

It’s a bit difficult to describe what I thought about the team. Dispite not battling any Japanese players since the June IC, the team looked like something I was expecting to face against from a Japanese player. I’m not sure why.

Game 1

My opponent’s team has very little in the form of resistances against Blastoise, so I felt that I was free to bring Smeargle and Blastoise to this match with my two Dragons in the back. Seino led with Zapdos and Talonflame. The game opens big for me, as I use Follow Me and land a Water Spout on both of Seino’s Pokemon. Zapdos moved before my Blastoise did, but it got hit by a critical hit Water Spout and was KO’d leading me to believe that it was potentially holding a Choice Scarf. I send out my Goodra while Seino brings out Garchomp and Mawile. Goodra Ice Beams into a Protect while Mawile and Blastoise trade attacks. I take out Garchomp before it can move, then spend the rest of the battle to finish off his Mawile.

Game 2

For Game 2, I reversed my leads, this time going for my Double Dragons. Seino leads with Garchomp and Talonflame this time. He Protects his Garchomp from an Ice Beam and sets up Tailwind as my Hydreigon drops his Talonflame down to about 15% HP. Next Turn, Talonflame KOs itself on my Hydreigon, and Garchomp KOs my Goodra with a Dragon Claw. Dark Pulse drops Garchomp down to about 30%. I send out Smeargle while Seino brings out Mawile. I make the correct asumption that Seino would try to avoid me trying to put his team to sleep, and go for a Spiky Shield with Smeargle, blocking a Rock Slide and Iron Head directed towards it. This left Hydreigon open to take down Garchomp.

Zapdos is sent out. At the end of my last turn, Smeargle got an evade boost. I’m actually not in the best of situations at this point in the match, and recognize that my only way to win is the go for the Dark Void, and hope that one of the attacks miss. Zapdos fires off a Thunderbolt to take my Smeargle down to 1HP, and Mawile slams down with Iron Head against a wall as Smeargle avoids the attack to drop both of Seino’s Pokemon into the void. The match is over at this point.

Round 3: Omari Travis (BadIntent)

A rematch of US Nationals Day 2 Swiss. I was only narrowly able to grab a victory against Omari in July, so I was a bit nervous about this match up going into this match.

I recognized that his team had some similar parts to what he had during Nationals, but some key points that stood out was that he had Kangaskhan now, and also a Florges. Despite the team having zero resistances to Water, I somehow didn’t feel that comfortable in bringing Blastoise to this match up, so instead I used Kangaskhan. Looking back, it is sort of hard to say whether this was the right call or not.

Game 1

For Game 1, I decide to start with Talonflame and Kangaskhan, with Smeargle and Goodra in the back. I’m confronted by a mirror match from the start as Omari goes for his own Talonflame and Kangaskhan. Not entirely sure who he’d plan to use Fake Out on, I end up just going for a Brave Bird and Return onto his Kangaskhan. A Fake Out and Brave Bird land on my Talonflame and I’m down 3-4 from the start. I note that he didn’t actually Mega Evolve his Kangaskhan on the first turn, leading me to believe that it has Inner Focus as an ability.

I send in my Smeargle and Spiky Shield blocking his Kangaskhan’s Double Edge, while I go after his Talonflame with my Kangaskhan. Garchomp is sent out. Garchomp sets up a Substitute, while Kangaskhan attacks my Smeargle. I finish off Omari’s Kangaskhan to go up 3-2, and Conkeldurr is sent out.

My notes for this match actually aren’t that good, rather they are non-existant after Turn 3, probably because I was more focused on playing my game. As such, I’m not entirely sure why I decided to go for a Helping Hand Return on Conkeldurr, as I pay for it greatly by receiving a double target from the revealed Mega Garchomp’s Dragon Claw and Conkeldurr’s Mach Punch. I’m left with my Scarf Goodra and Smeargle. There was a bit of a silly situation where I know that I’ve pretty much lost this, but Smeargle just went insane with Evade, Speed and Accuracy boosts, and was dodging things left and right. But I think this ended when a minimum Sleep from Garchomp led to it being able to attack and finish off my Goodra, leaving my Smeargle alone in the battle. Omari takes Game 1.

Game 2

For Game 2, I decided not to bring Smeargle, the only game in the tourney that I do so in fact. I lead with Goodra and Kangaskhan as Omari once again goes for Talonflame and Kangaskhan. A reversal of roles compared to Game 1, as this time I’m the one to double target and down Talonflame as he Mega Evolves his Kangaskhan and goes for a Double-Edge on my Kangaskhan. Garchomp is sent out. Our Kangaskhans attempt to Sucker Punch each other, with mine winning the Speed tie and staying alive. Goodra lands a Draco Meteor for about 60% on Garchomp as it sets up a Sub.

Next turn, Omari switches out his Kangaskhan for Conkeldurr, seemingly to avoid playing Sucker Punch chicken against my Kangaskhan. This just gives me an opportunity to double up on Garchomp, breaking its Substitute and downing it with another Draco Meteor. With me being up 4-2, I’m able to clean up simply by staying on the hard offensive, as Talonflame was easily able to KO both of Omari’s Pokemon at that point in the game. I tie the series.

Game 3

I try to give Smeargle another shot for this game, and I lead with straight up Khan Artist. However, Omari’s leads were ready for this, as he sends Conkeldurr and Kangaskhan. We open the match by trading Fake Outs on Kangaskhan’s allies, once again, with his not Mega Evolving. On turn 2, I wasn’t sure if a Return and Fake Out would have been enough to KO his Conkeldurr, and I wasn’t sure if a Helping Hand Return would KO his Mega Kangaskhan due to him having some amount of bulk in it. I was also sort of worried about a potential play he had where he could just use Double-Edge to KO my Smeargle and use Drain Punch with Conkeldurr, in order to take out my Kangaskhan.

I end up going for a Helping Hand and Return on Conkeldurr. My Kangaskhan takes a Mach Punch down to low HP, and my Smeargle is taken out with Double-Edge. Next turn, I send out Goodra, while Omari brings out Talonflame. I get caught up thinking of whether I would have been able to survive a Brave Bird if I switched out my Kangaskhan, and ended up leaving it in to get knocked out. Goodra takes out the Talonflame, then gets hit by a Double-Edge leaving it at 13HP. Zapdos is sent out, and the battle is over. I get to see one last surprise in Omari’s team as I trigger Zapdos’s Kee Berry with my Talonflame before it is lights out for me.

At the time, I was wondering whether there was anything I could do differently to try to change how Game 3 went, with what I chose, but after having some time to sit on it I would definitely end up needing some luck on damage rolls, critical hits, or inhumane predictive skills to pull myself out from that starting position.

Good Games, Omari. Definitely the most unique team that I got to face in the tourney.

Round 4: Gavin Michaels (kingofmars)

Speaking of rematches… why not one more with Gavin for the road? With us being 1-2, this match was a lot less stressful than it could have been, and turned out to be one of the most entertaining series I had in the tournament.

No real surprises here, partly due to the fact that Gavin was on stage and displayed a good deal of what his team does there. Unfortunately for me, Gavin is more difficult to play against when people actually know what his team is doing. The only reason I knew he had a Mega Gengar was because he told me that it was a Mega before our match. Thanks.

On the otherhand, he has a good idea what most of my Pokemon are running, so this leads to a series full of Turn 1 life-or-death rock-paper-scissors matches, and sick mind games.

Game 1

Talonflame is going to be pretty important for me in this battle, as it is vital to handle Gavin’s Assault Vest Ludicolo. For this game, I lead with Blastoise and Talonflame, while Gavin goes with Lucario and Tyranitar. I go all in on the first turn with a Brave Bird and a Water Spout, which catches Gavin flat footed as he goes for a Follow Me with his Lucario and a Dragon Dance with Mega Tyranitar. Lucario goes down and Mega Tyranitar loses over half its HP. Salamence is sent out.

Although I mention Talonflame being important, I sacrifice it for a Tailwind, then bring out Smeargle for Dark Void suppression. While Gavin did have Ludicolo on his team, Goodra and Mega Blastoise were able to whittle it down. 5HKO? No problem. I take Game 1.

Game 2

Game 2, I go for Smeargle and Blastoise. Gavin leads Lucario and Salamence. The tables turn on the prediction game as Gavin doesn’t fall for me going hard offense twice. I go for an Aura Sphere on Lucario, but he doubles up on my Blastoise. The only reason I didn’t go down 3-4 right there was due to Salamence missing its attack. Next turn, I use Follow Me, trading Smeargle for his Salamence. I send out my Goodra, while Tyranitar is sent out. Tyranitar Protects as Lucario is taken down by my Goodra. Ludicolo is sent in and I’m actually now in a bit of trouble. I know that Gavin will spend the time to Dragon Dance and Fake Out for the next turn, so I am fairly safe to switch out Goodra for Talonflame and Protect Blastoise.

Now, the issue is that I need Talonflame to do two things simultaneously. My only hope here is that Rock Slide misses against it. I switch out my Blastoise for Goodra to preserve it for the turn, and decide to use Tailwind first. Tyranitar goes for the Rock Slide, and it MISSES… against Goodra! I lose Talonflame as a result, and it is good game. Maybe I should have done the YOLO strategy in the other direction, and stuck in with Blastoise and Brave’d into Ludicolo. The series is tied.

Game 3

Ludicolo has been causing me some significant issues, so this time I decide that bringing Kangaskhan would be the better option. I go Khan Artist lead against Lucario and Salamence once again. I open the battle by having to sacrifice Smeargle, getting off a Power-Pp Punch in return against Lucario to put me at +1.

I send out Talonflame next. Lucario Protects to block Brave Bird, as Salamence Dragon Pulses my Kangaskhan for about 40% before being taken out by +1 Return. Tyranitar is then sent out. I call Gavin’s Protect with Tyranitar, and simply KO Lucario with Power-up Punch and set up a Tailwind, not before Lucario is able to land an Extreme Speed onto my Kangaskhan, putting it in the red.

Ludicolo is sent out and I feel that he is forced to go for the Fake Out on my Kangaskhan. However, I also don’t want to risk Talonflame in case I’m wrong. I go for a switch to Goodra, and use Protect. A Fake Out and a Rock Slide are fired off at my team, dropping Goodra to about half HP.

Now this is where this match gets tense. I take out Gavin’s Ludicolo with a Brave Bird and drop a Draco Meteor onto Tyranitar for about 25%. Tyranitar Dragon Dances. There is one more turn of Tailwind left, and I’m worried that the Tyranitar will go for an attack, so I instead keep Goodra in, while Protecting with Talonflame. And… Tyranitar Dances. Next Turn, I need to put Tailwind back up, I was pretty sure that he was going to just dance again, but somehow convinced myself not to switch, and… Tyranitar Dances.

I’m now staring down a +3/+3 Mega Tyranitar, at about half HP. I really don’t know whether this match is already over, of if I still have a chance. The sandstorm has ended, so at least Goodra can do a bit more damage with its attacks, although it is at -6. My game plan was to Protect with Talonflame, sacrifice Goodra, then Power-up Punch my own Talonflame under the threat of Fake Out, and just hope I could do enough damage in the end. However, things did not get to that point. The follow comment during the battle describes what happened next:

“Oh? My Goodra’s still faster? Well, this would be pretty sad if it cri-woooahhh!”

Goodra outsped, and Goodra landed the critical. Gavin pretty much fell out of his chair, and we were both just sitting there at a loss of words for about a minute at how Game 3 ended. In a sense, it was likely a point in the tournament that I was happy that I already had zero chance at reaching top cut, as it allowed me to just enjoy ridiculous moments like these. My matches with Gavin always seem to come down to some sort of crazy prediction game, and this set at Worlds was no different. Thanks for the games this season, Gavin. I’m sure there will be more battles to come in the future.

For the record, he would have called my attempt to Power-Up Punch myself if Game 3 got to that point.

Round 5: Michael Lanzano (JiveTime)

For the 5th round, I faced Michael Lanzano. We’ve played a few matches here and there against each other on simulator, and played a match in the second NPA. I’ve probably sat beside him a few times during US Nationals, but this would be the first time playing him in the actual VGC circuit for me.

Michael’s team was recognizable to me as being Sejun’s National Rain team. Which was something I was pretty loosely familiar with, in terms of what to expect.

Game 1

As it is a rain team, I go with my rain combat set up of Talonflame and Smeargle, with Kangaskhan and Goodra in the back. Michael leads with his Rain duo, Politoed and Ludicolo. I correctly predict that Ludicolo would Fake Out my Talonflame for the first turn, and had my Smeargle use Dark Void. However, things don’t quite go as plan as his Ludicolo dodges the attack. On the next turn, I take opportunity to Helping Hand Brave Bird to KO his Politoed as his Ludicolo retreats for Garchomp.

For my next turn, looking back at it, I made a big mistake. I decide to Protect Talonflame and sacrifice my Smeargle, where as I could have instead easily set up a sacrificial Tailwind for Smeargle and Kangaskhan. Instead, I give up my Smeargle, then on the following turn I send in Goodra and Ice Beam into Garchomp’s Protect, and lose my advantage in the game. I’m left with a Talonflame and Kangaskhan in the rain, and am unable to attempt a comeback. I find that the Garchomp is holding a Life Orb though.

Game 2

Since Michael’s Garchomp does not have a Lum Berry, I recognize that his entire team is vulnerable to a simple Tailwind + Dark Void Strategy. I stick with my team formation for this game, while Michael switches up his leads from Rain to Double Dragon. I get a Tailwind up on the first turn, while Hydreigon Dark Pulses my Talonflame, and Garchomp misses against Talonflame with Rock Slide, I think. Next turn I down Hydreigon with a Helping Hand boosted Brave Bird, KOing myself with recoil, as Garchomp hits Smeargle. Michael’s Mawile and my Kangaskhan are sent out. The next turn is burned with a double Protect from Michael’s side.

I’ve got Kangaskhan and Smeargle out with a turn left of Tailwind, so I go for the Dark Void and Power-Up Punch. However, things go bad for due to an accuracy drop that Smeargle received on Turn 1. I proceed to miss both targets with Dark Void, which leaves both of my Pokemon heavily damaged. As Smeargle also got a boost in Speed from Moody, I was allowed to try again, but I end up once again missing both, and the game is over. You have to live with the consequences of your choices, and this is one of the few times where choosing Moody was detrimental.

Round 6: Tony Nguyen (competny)

Now at a 2-3 record, I actually do have a bit of determination to try to win my last match. For pride, I wanted to avoid finishing with a losing record. My final opponent for Worlds 2014 was Tony Nguyen from Australia.

Tony’s team looks sort of similar, species wise, to Seino’s team earlier in the day. But I think at this point I wasn’t thinking too hard into this.

Game 1

Tony’s team actually seemed like it had a bit of trouble against my Scarf Goodra. As such, I took a gamble that he didn’t know about the Choice Scarf, and led with my Goodra and Smeargle. My gamble worked out as Tony led with Talonflame and Garchomp, and fired a CB Brave Bird at my Goodra only for it to take it on the chin, then outspeed and OHKO his Garchomp, as his Talonflame took a snooze. Mawile is sent out, but it too just gets shoved to sleep, as I pretty much shut Tony down completely this game with Smeargle as Goodra slowly took down all of Mawile’s allies. This game was over in a flash.

Game 2

For the 2nd game, I switched back to my standard Blastoise Smeargle. Tony leads Garchomp and Talonflame once again. I double my Protects to scout his moves, getting a boost to Smeargle’s Defense in the process. I then use Follow Me taking a Brave Bird, surviving with 40HP, while Garchomp misses a Rock Slide against Smeargle. Blastoise gets off the Water Spout, taking out Talonflame and doing about two thirds to Garchomp. Zapdos is then sent out.

I make the prediction that Tony will go for a Rock Slide again, expecting it to finish off my Smeargle, where as I am confident I’ll be able to survive. This move pays off as Zapdos targets into my Blastoise’s Protect, and Smeargle is able to hang on to put both Pokemon to sleep. From there, the match is essentially over.

Conclusion

In the end, I finished with a 3-3 record, at 33rd place. While I was hoping to improve on my finish this year by achieving a positive record, I’m not too disappointed about my season’s end. The tournament and the event were a lot of fun, and it’s always a pleasure being able to play Pokemon against fellow players of the highest caliber. Looking back at my matches when writing reports always reminds me that as far as I am right now, I’ve still got a lot to learn when it comes to playing the game.

When I first decided to run Smeargle on my team with Blastoise, one of the things I wondered was what people’s reactions to such a decision would be. The other thing I set out to do was show that despite all the inconsistencies and luck based moves revolving around Smeargle, that it was something that can perform consistently. In the end, I feel like I somehow ended up becoming one of the few respected Smeargle players for the season, with me showing some consistently high finishing results throughout the season and often going on stream and winning without hammering down on the Dark Void button all the time. Then again, maybe if I wanted to prove the point that Smeargle is “cheap and unfriendly to newbies”, maybe I shouldn’t have played to show that “Smeargle isn’t only about Dark Void” when displayed on stream?

Alas, a new season will soon be upon us. RIP Smeargle. RIP Darkness jokes. The VGC scene has been growing steadily, so let’s hope things will become even better as we move on. Thank you guys for reading my reports, see you guys next season.

Article image created by feathers for Nugget Bridge. View more of her artwork on her tumblr.

The post Welcome to the Dark Side of the Moon: My Final VGC ’14 Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hey there Nugget Bridge, today’s article is going to be about expanding your local Pokémon scene. I think everyone wishes there were more events nearby, more often, and with better attendance — but that isn’t going to happen overnight. Indeed, a lot of time and effort go into creating a consistent positive experience that people can visit at their leisure.

My goal in writing this article is to share my experiences with starting a University Pokémon Club. In the three years since I started the club, we’ve gone from a small student-attended university club to a thriving weekly league for the video game and card game. So let’s go over what my experience running the club has been. There have been many ups and downs over the years, and I think there’s a lot of experience that others can appreciate. I don’t know the exact recipe for success, but it is my hope that this article can generate discussion to help improve our club, and maybe help start yours!

Some Background

The University of Victoria Pokémon Club was founded in the summer of 2011 after I hosted a Pokémon league event at our local anime convention. We gathered a group together to act as eight Gym Leaders and four Elite Four members. The event was a big success and we realized we had a community that would appreciate a chance to meet up more frequently. We looked into our student society’s club regulations and went through with establishing our club and booking a room to meet in. We were pretty happy as a close-knit group of friends under the guise of a club.

Later on, we found out about the Play! Pokémon weekly league program. We thought it would be awesome to get free swag to give to club members. Additionally, it would encourage Play! Pokémon to host events in our city if we ever became big enough. I became a registered Tournament Organizer (TO) through applying on Pokemon.com, and our league application was approved. We were an official league!

In pursuit of becoming a bigger league that had a chance to host a premier event like a City Championships (TCG), I started a movement to advertise our club to the community at large. I went around to local card/game shops and asked if I could put a poster in their window. Most places were happy to put our poster up for a couple weeks at least. Using this advertising, we managed to bring some kids and others in from around the area. As a university club and registered league, we also had kids find out about our league via pokemon.com, or parents find out by visiting/working at the university. The only major advertising on campus I do nowadays is the club advertisement days at the beginning of the semester and setting my StreetPass message to “FacebookUVicPkMn.” StreetPass is a more valuable tool than you might think!

And that’s about where we stand today. We’re a league that runs every week and that league is run by the UVic Pokémon Club!

What We Do & What We Have Done

Before becoming a weekly league, our weekly activities usually just involved hanging out and playing games. We’d have fun days sometimes. Here’s a list of some of the more memorable fun days we’ve put on:

• Safari Zone-themed scavenger hunt (also Bug Catching Contest)
• “Finger painting and cookies!” night, which got us posters to display
• Pokémon movie nights
• Clay sculpture night (plastecine)
• Group Pumpkin carving
• Halloween Pokémon-themed costume contest
• Fun-format tournaments
• Special events at our local anime convention

At our university, clubs get a budget each semester to put on club events and we’ve done fundraising ventures like selling booster packs at club to help pay for some of the event materials (e.g. printing costs). Selling t-shirts or pins is another great way to raise funds. We are also friends with the UVic Anime Club, who is gracious enough to lend us a projector for movie nights.

What Has Worked Really Well

Having a weekly league has worked really well for having consistent attendance, albeit from a non-student crowd. We get a lot of kids and teens from the surrounding area attending every week. I think this is great for building a Pokémon community in Victoria, but maybe not the best aim for a university club.

Fun days are always positively received. Pokémon is light-hearted childhood nostalgia for a lot of people. Very few university students are interested in the competitive scene and don’t have much to do on days where nothing special is going on. Having regular fun days keeps people coming even if they aren’t competitive.

I’d say the fun days that work out best for us in terms of “effort in : reward out” would be movie nights, finger painting, pumpkin carving and fun format tournaments. Movie nights can be anything from Pokémon episodes to movies to OVAs (like the Pokémon Origins series). Finger painting is just a fun thing to do that people should really do more often. All it takes is a trip to the dollar store to get some poster-board and paints. This also results in a poster you can proudly display to advertise your club! Win-win! Pumpkin carving is just a neat idea and everyone is looking for an excuse to carve a Pokémon pumpkin. The biggest concern is cleanliness, so it’s a good idea to bring spare tools, newspaper, and plastic bags for garbage. Lastly, fun format tournaments are easy to approach and have a lower skill cap so they aren’t as daunting to get into.

For some examples of fun formats we’ve tried, we’ve done:

• Challenge Cup (tell everyone to bring their own computers)
• Restricted Rock-Paper-Scissors (Click here for rules!)
• Battle Spot Special formats (e.g. Eeveelutions only)

What I’ve Found Is More Trouble Than It’s Worth

As much fun as the scavenger hunts are, the cost of printing cool cards on card stock (double sided in colour) is pretty expensive. And you need to print enough cards to hide that people won’t find them all in the first five minutes. The event cost runs something around $30 when I do it and it only entertains for about a half hour. It also requires you to print and cut the cards in advance, and then hide all the cards ~1 hour before the event. I would still run another one, but this is not something I could recommend as a frequent event (at least how we run it).

Clay sculptures was an event put on by a sculptor friend who donated clay for cheaper. Again, I think this is a super fun event, but without someone who has loads of coloured clay they can bring by, it’s hard to justify the cost of purchasing blocks of every colour of clay for a once-a-year thing. We reimbursed my friend for the clay by writing up an invoice for the approximate cost of the clay we ended up using.

What I Wish We Did Better or More

Fun days as a whole. This is more a problem with myself being busy with a Masters degree than a failure of any concept. It’s really important that events be run frequently to make sure people don’t lose interest. I also think we could do a much better job of supporting the singles format for people who are just learning about the competitive scene. Fun formats are one way of doing this, but I’m sure people who play by singles-ladder rules would appreciate having somewhere in-person to practice. I think it would also go a long way in keeping people interested, as not everyone is able/wants to make the the jump to Standard. By only hosting serious tournaments in doubles, I think we might leave a portion of our potential member base disinterested.

I also think that the weekly league is great for the Victoria Pokémon community, but not that good for the UVic Pokémon community. The kids that show up at weekly league tend to scare off new members who were looking for a relaxing night to chill. I’m currently toying with an idea to split the club into two entities: One will be the “Nintendo Club” and the second will be the weekly Pokémon League, hosted by the Nintendo Club. By giving them different titles, it’s easier to get the message across to parents that one is for everyone and the other is intended to be students-only.

Lastly, club leadership is a big problem right now. University clubs are ephemeral things. People graduate and move on, and someone else needs to pick up the reigns and carry the club into the new year. I’ve been running the club for three years now (moving onto four), and the only reason I’ve been able to do so is because I’m doing a Masters at the same university as my undergrad. Generally, a healthy leadership turnaround for a university club is to have a new leader every two years. But finding someone willing to take on that responsibility is often a challenge. Moreover, finding someone you think is right for the role is another problem altogether. I’ll talk about solutions for this a bit later, but I’m still at the chalkboard for a good idea for this one.

What I Try To Keep In Mind

As far as I can tell, the recipe for a successful club or community is this:

• Regular and consistent events
• Ample events with a broad target audience
• Prizes for tournaments (even if it means charging $1 attendance)
• A healthy community is open to new members

It’s important to not only host events regularly, but do so at the same time on the same day. If you’re having trouble booking a room for instance, it’s important to keep things as people expect them to be. Many students plan their semester’s schedule around attending clubs, so you can’t just switch days or times up without giving people a lot of notice. Otherwise, you’re going to lose half your attendance. The same goes for weekly leagues.

I can’t stress enough how important fun days are. If your goal is to build a competitive community, you need to understand the population pyramid of such a community. The base of any large community is built from the casuals-up. It’s important for the energy in the room and the vibe that the club gives off; there should be lots of people having a good time. Competitive games aren’t for everyone, but Pokémon can be. And if people stick around long enough, sooner or later they get their feet wet in the competitive scene. Sometimes they jump back out of the water immediately, but other times they’ll wade a little deeper. It’s important to not lose these people before they ever get the chance to try things out! And even more important is to make them feel welcome even if they’ve decided competitive Pokemon isn’t for them. Groups like this are built from word-of-mouth, and that means you’re going to need mouths to spread the word.

Tournaments are fun ways to encourage people to try out the competitive aspect of the game; they don’t have to be a competitive format. Having prizes for tournaments is very important. These can be little toys like Pokémon Kids, but it’s important that people come away with something. That little $2 prize is a trophy that sits on their shelf saying “remember how much fun this was?” I think it’s important to hand out little prizes randomly to non-winners as well, for the same reason. Everyone should remember a tournament fondly, no matter how they placed. For the random prizes, we give out league promos which helps keep our costs down.

One of the biggest challenges with running a club around Pokémon is that your member base can be more socially awkward than the average person (I’m generalizing). A lot of people have a tougher time making friends because they have a bunch of niche, introverted hobbies with little in-person interaction; Pokemon can be like this. There are groups of friends that are happy to come together and they keep each other entertained and have a good time. But really keep in mind: for university groups, first-years have often moved across the country and don’t have (m)any friends in their new city. University clubs offer a social experience where people can meet and greet. As a leader, you have to make a conscious effort to introduce yourself to anyone new, explain how it works, and become a friend. At the same time, it’s good to encourage members to meet new people. This can be as simple as saying “Hey, I think ____ is looking for a game, would you be interested?” Tournaments and fun days also offer a chance for people to meet and greet. It’s important to help shy individuals become part of the community.

Plans For The Future

• Leadership
• Splitting of the “club” and the “league” and incorporating into a larger community
• Connecting with other universities

First and foremost, our leadership scheme needs to change. I’ve been running it as a monarchy because I’m treating my job as a 1-person job, when it really isn’t. I’ve generally asked a friend to help with leadership duties, but this has completely avoided the normal 2-year turnover we should have strived for, and now I’m left scrambling for a new league leader and a new club president. I’m very thankful that a friend (that’s you Ben!) has stepped in and expressed interest in running the club. But by running our weekly league and inviting kids to attend, we’ve really reduced our student attendance. This makes the club aspects of our… club… kind of difficult. For instance, we don’t have many go-to people to sit at our booth during the Club Advertisement days. We also have a very small group of people to potentially take over the club.

Moving forward, I think I’m going to take a page from our local Anime Club which I help with. At the first meeting of every semester, they vote on Club deputies. These deputies don’t really have much of a leadership role, but they do highlight people who are willing to help out. They also help deputies recognize themselves as someone who can take an active role in helping the club. Jokingly, I describe them when describing the positions as people who can help run the club in a pinch, and maybe bring cookies once. This has the positive side-effect of getting free cookies sometimes! Candidates would then give a 30 second speech about why you should elect them, and then we do a “face down thumbs up” vote. The club would also then (ideally) elect a vice president and president. This creates a stable leadership group with potential up-and-comers who would be more comfortable stepping into the role in the future.

The only issue with this system is that you need an appreciable student attendance in the first place. I think if attendance is low (~10), just asking for a couple of deputies to nominate themselves is appropriate. As the leader, you can talk to people on the side about stepping up into a club president role later. However, if you get a larger group of students together (~20), then adding in presidential elections would be good. Presidential candidates should also hopefully have expressed interest prior to the voting night, and maybe have been a deputy for one semester.

I’ve also been considering splitting our Pokemon club into two entities: the “Nintendo Club” and the weekly “Pokemon League.” The big advantage of this is to regain a student-based club. Community members would be welcome, but by re-branding the club as a separate entity from our weekly league, it would define a time that’s for everyone, and a time that’s for students/older folks. I really really love having the weekly league and I don’t want to see it go, but at the same time, we have to start recruiting more student members and the kids that attend league aren’t helping. If we were a local games shop, it’d be a different story; but we’re not.

The additional advantage of this approach is that we would be able to schedule our club meetings at the same time as other related clubs like the UVic Smash Bros. Club and the UVic Anime Club. These communities have a large overlap of potential member bases, and people often appreciate the chance to attend multiple clubs on their one free night a week. It also helps people organize their schedules, as they don’t have to choose between two clubs that interest them. This would expose members of the other clubs to our group, and members of our group to the larger UVic club community. The problem with this has been the kids, and the fact that other UVic clubs are not an all-ages atmosphere. Another reason for splitting into two entities.

Lastly, there have been grassroots efforts to unite university clubs, but I don’t know of any that ever got off the ground. I think it would be amazing to have a competitive circuit with competition between universities, but before a club can really put together a team of VGCers, it needs the base membership. I think there’s a lot of promise in an organization like the National Collegiate Pokémon Association, but I think the bar was set way too high when everyone was really just taking their first baby steps. For anyone that is reading this article and has a university or high school Pokémon club, or is now interested in starting one, I’d love to propose an annual tournament as a starting point. I think the details for such an event are best left to the forums for discussion. All I can say is we could totally order a plaque to ship to the winning school as a point of pride.

In Closing

So, there you have it. This has been an in-depth view of my experience running the UVic Pokémon Club. Hopefully I’ve been able to offer insight you can take and use for running your own club. No two areas are the same, and I don’t think you can approach things exactly the same from all four corners of the globe, but hopefully I’ve provided some ideas you can take on board or sparked new ideas you can share with me!

My main goal in posting this article is to try and generate discussion about how people can get into running clubs. So hopefully everyone doesn’t leave it here. I really look forward to hearing about all the neat ideas people have, and feedback they can offer, in the forums.

The post Starting a Pokémon Club at Your School appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi Nugget Bridge, I’m Eric Rios aka riopaser, a competitive Pokémon player since 2013. This is the team I used at the 2014 Pokémon World Championships  in the Senior division. With this team I went very far at Worlds, coming third in Swiss with a 5-1 record and reaching the top 4 losing to eventual champion Nikolai Zielinski — who I actually was able to defeat in Swiss!

I’d already put some thought into a team a few weeks before Worlds, but it just didn’t fit me so I changed quite a bit. Originally, it looked like this:

However, I saw that the metagame had progressed and I wanted to make a few changed. Those eventually became a lot of changes and I arrived at this:

The Team

Amoonguss (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Spore
- Sludge Bomb
- Protect
- Rage Powder

• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 148+ SpD Amoonguss: 186-220 (84.1 – 99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• -1 252+ Atk Life Orb Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 108 Def Amoonguss: 166-198 (75.1 – 89.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 252 HP / 108 Def Amoonguss: 162-190 (73.3 – 85.9%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Ludicolo Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 148+ SpD Amoonguss: 82-98 (37.1 – 44.3%) — guaranteed 3HKO
• 252+ SpA Gardevoir Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 108 Def Amoonguss: 168-200 (76 – 90.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Gardevoir Psychic vs. 252 HP / 148+ SpD Amoonguss: 152-182 (68.7 – 82.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Rotom-Heat @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 4 SpA / 140 SpD / 12 Spe
Calm Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Overheat
- Protect
- Volt Switch

• 252+ SpA Gardevoir Psychic vs. 252 HP / 140+ SpD Rotom-H: 63-75 (40.1 – 47.7%) — guaranteed 3HKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 140+ SpD Rotom-H: 135-159 (85.9 – 101.2%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 140+ SpD Rotom-H: 84-99 (53.5 – 63%) — guaranteed 2HKO + Sitrus Berry = 3HKO
• 252 Atk Garchomp (Jolly) Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Rotom-H: 56-66 (35.6 – 42%) — guaranteed 3HKO
• 252+ Atk Gyarados Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Rotom-H: 126-150 (80.2 – 95.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 4 SpA Rotom-H Overheat vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Amoonguss: 128-152 (57.9 – 68.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO= Always 2HKO
• 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Rotom-H: 109-130 (69.4 – 82.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO + Sitrus Berry (69.4%-25%= 44.4% & 82.8%-25%= 57.8%)
• 216+ SpA Rotom-W Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 140+ SpD Rotom-H: 132-156 (84 – 99.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Salamence (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 244 Spe
Modest Nature
- Swagger
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Protect

• Salamence with 244 EVs in Speed beats Specs Modest Hydreigon with 252 EVs in speed
• 252+ SpA Life Orb Salamence Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mega Mawile: 138-164 (87.8 – 104.4%) — 25% chance to OHKO
• 252+ SpA Life Orb Salamence Draco Meteor vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Kangaskhan: 142-168 (78.4 – 92.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Life Orb Salamence Draco Meteor vs. 12 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp: 307-367 (165.9 – 198.3%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252+ SpA Life Orb Salamence Draco Meteor vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Hydreigon: 307-367 (182.7 – 218.4%) — guaranteed OHKO
• -1 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 4 HP / 4 Def Salamence: 112-132 (65.4 – 77.1%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• -1 252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 4 HP / 4 Def Salamence: 110-132 (64.3 – 77.1%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Blastoise (M) @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Water Spout
- Ice Beam
- Protect
- Aura Sphere

• 252+ SpA Mega Blastoise Ice Beam vs. 12 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp: 252-300 (136.2 – 162.1%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252+ SpA Mega Blastoise Water Spout (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 140+ SpD Rotom-H: 164-194 (104.4 – 123.5%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Blastoise: 97-115 (62.5 – 74.1%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Mega Launcher Mega Blastoise Aura Sphere vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Hydreigon: 170-200 (101.1 – 119%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252+ SpA Life Orb Salamence Draco Meteor vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Blastoise: 126-149 (81.2 – 96.1%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Aegislash (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 236 HP / 92 Atk / 84 Def / 76 SpA / 20 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Sacred Sword
- Wide Guard
- King’s Shield

• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 236 HP / 20+ SpD Aegislash-Shield: 138-164 (83.6 – 99.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 236 HP / 84 Def Aegislash-Shield: 84-102 (50.9 – 61.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 236 HP / 20+ SpD Aegislash-Shield: 108-128 (65.4 – 77.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO

After Salamence uses Swagger on Aegislash:

• +2 92 Atk Aegislash-Blade Sacred Sword vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 226-266 (134.5 – 158.3%) — guaranteed OHKO
• +2 92 Atk Aegislash-Blade Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 12 Def Scrafty: 180-214 (104.6 – 124.4%) — guaranteed OHKO
• +2 92 Atk Aegislash-Blade Sacred Sword vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mamoswine: 248-292 (133.3 – 156.9%) — guaranteed OHKO
• +2 92 Atk Aegislash-Blade Sacred Sword vs. 164 HP / 140+ Def Ludicolo (Assault Vest): 105-124 (59.6 – 70.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• +2 92 Atk Aegislash-Blade Sacred Sword vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 206-244 (113.8 – 134.8%) — guaranteed OHKO
• +2 92 Atk Aegislash-Blade Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 206-244 (97.1 – 115%) — 87.5% chance to OHKO
• 76 SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Gardevoir: 120-144 (83.3 – 100%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO

Tyranitar (M) @ Tyranitarite
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 180 HP / 12 Atk / 132 Def / 4 SpD / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Protect

• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Gardevoir Moonblast vs. 180 HP / 4 SpD Mega Tyranitar in Sand: 150-176 (75.7 – 88.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• +1 12+ Atk Mega Tyranitar Crunch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Gardevoir: 162-192 (112.5 – 133.3%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 180 HP / 132 Def Mega Tyranitar: 84-98 (42.4 – 49.4%) — guaranteed 3HKO
• 252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Iron Head vs. 180 HP / 132 Def Mega Tyranitar: 168-198 (84.8 – 100%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
• +1 12+ Atk Mega Tyranitar Crunch vs. 252 HP / 12 Def Rotom-W: 108-127 (68.7 – 80.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage

Lead Combinations

+

I this combination a lot as it allows Amoonguss to soak up attacks meant for Salamence with Rage Powder while Salamence hits the opponent hard. Salamence also helps Amoonguss take hits better with Intimidate.

+

This combination also gave me a lot of options. Rotom-Heat can help cover Salamence’s Ice-type weakness as it fires off strong attacks. Salamence helps my specially-defensive Rotom-Heat with Intimidate to help take hits on both sides of the spectrum.

+

Aegislash can resist physical attacks with better results, thanks to Salamence’s Intimidate. I can also use Salamence’s Swagger in conjunction with Aegislash, as its Lum Berry gives it a +2 in Attack ​​without confusion. A +2 Sacred Sword can then OHKO Mamoswine, Mega Kangaskhan, Bisharp, Scrafty, Hydreigon, and many more. It also grants a 2HKO to Rotom formed, Mega Mawile, Ludicolo, and others.

+

Thanks to Rage Powder, Mega Blastoise can get maximum damage output with Water Spout at 100% life. It also threatens opposing Fire types, which give Amoonguss trouble. Amoonguss also carries the Rocky Helmet, so that at the touch of a rival attack, the opponent’s Pokémon receives damage.

+

This is a very bulky combination. Rotom can Volt Switch out to Salamence with Intimidate, to reduce the damage of  physical attacks against Aegislash.

+

Salamence’s Intimidate really helps Tyranitar withstand many -1 physical attacks, thanks in part to its EVs. This also makes a Dragon Dance difficult to stop, while Salamence also pressures the opponent with its great Special Attack stat.

The Tournament

With Nikolai Zielinski :)

This was my first year in Worlds and I was very nervous. I did not expect to get this far, but I had confidence in myself. I knew if I wanted to win badly enough, I could. I had a great time meeting many people at the tournament, including Paul Chua (Pwny Person), Zack (Technoz), Nicola Tomasini (Un Nabbo), Nikolai Z., Juan Trillo (Greenway) Melisa A. (Billasis), Aaron Zheng (Cybertron), Brendan Zheng (Babbytron), and Umberto Pallini (TerraKhaos). Hope to see you all next year!

Swiss Rounds

Round 1 vs Seung Heon Sah (KR)

Game 1 (Lost 0-2)

If I remember correctly, I lost because my opponent outpredicted me very well.

Game 2 (Won 4-3)

I played very well, and was very much in control during this battle. This fight was decided by one prediction: he predicted that I would target Mawile with Amoonguss’s Spore and switched it out for Ludicolo while I instead used Sludge Bomb, predicting the change.

Game 3 (Won 3-0)

I started very well, predicting everything from the beginning. The match was very tight until the last few turns.

1-0

Round 2 vs Fuko Nakamich (JP)

Game 1 (Won 4-0)

The fight was really on my side. I started very well and with a few predictions, I won quickly without difficulty.

Game 2 (Won 2-0)

In this fight, she made things a little more difficult for me to win than in the previous match. Afterwards, she gave me a keychain with her name on it. Good games!

2-0

Round 3 vs Keita Miyamoto (JP)

Game 1 (Lost 0-2)

Keita started out strongly this match. The battle was eventually won by a decisive avoid.

Game 2 (Won 1-0)

Here, I won because I played very well. In the last turn, with my Aegislash against his Mega Kangaskhan, I had to expend the PP of its Sucker Punch which let me win the battle.

Game 3 (Lost 0-3)

A very tight battle for both, which he won, thanks to very good prediction. I switched out my Aegislash for Tyranitar, while his Kangaskhan used Hammer Arm.

2-1

Round 4 vs Nikolai Zielinski (US)

Game 1 (Won 2-0)

A very close fight for both. In the end, I won by one prediction; she Protected her Garchomp, and I instead attacked her Gengar for the KO with Salamence.

Game 2 (Won 1-0)

I do not remember much of the fight, but I did manage to win!

(3-1)

Round 5 vs Jacob Waller (US)

Game 1 (Won 2-0)

This fight was very epic for me! I used Swagger on my Aegislash to bust up his Scrafty. This match was really in my favor from the start.

Game 2 (Won 1-0)

The second match caused me a lot of stress. My opponent played me very well at the beginning of the match, but in the end I went able win.

4-1

Round 6 vs Mark Mcquillen (UK)

Game 1 (Won 1-0)

This was a very tight battle and could go either way. I won thanks to a critical hit from Salamence’s Draco Meteor on his Rotom-H, although he did paralyze Salamence earlier with a Thunderbolt.

Game 2 (Lost 1-2)

In this battle, Mark wins thanks to some very good predictions. This was a fight in his favor from the start.

Game 3 (Won 2-0)

On the other hand, this fight was in my favor from the start. I won this tight match through a nice prediction.

5-1

The Top Cut

I ended up in the third seed after the final results were posted, which meant I would be competing in the Top Cut!

Top 8 vs JuYoung Hong (KR)

Game 1 (Won 2-1)

In this battle, I won because of sheer domination throughout the battle. I burned Zapdos with Will-O-Wisp to chip away at its health, and it was good game from there.

Game 2 (Lost 1-3)

In this fight, I lose because of a critical hit on my Mega Tyranitar from an Earthquake that it was EVd to survive. What hurt the most was that Tyranitar was sitting at +1 Attack and Speed after a successful Dragon Dance, but there is nothing you can do about critical hits.

Game 3 (Won 1-0)

This fight was really difficult. The opponent’s Garchomp avoided a Will-O-Wisp, but I still managed to win by a whisker.

Top 4 vs Nikolai Zielinski (US)

Game 1 (Lost 2-2)

This fight was too tight; he dominated from the start. We had actually played before, so Nikolai was familiar with and my whole team, including items and movements. He played me very well.

Game 2 (Lost 1-4)

I completely lost it after a long day. I played badly, and Nikolai played very well.

The Farewell

Thank you to everyone that supported me from Spain and other countries across the globe. Also, thanks to the following Spanish VGC players: Marta, who helped me in some parts of the team; Conti, for giving me the idea of ​​Lum Berry Aegislash; Sergio Marcos, for helping test out the team. Well people, thanks for reading my report and I hope to see you all next year at Worlds! Here are a couple final pictures from my trip.

The 3rd Place Trophy :)

Photo with Sekiam, Greenway, and me in Washington DC.

Another photo with Sekiam, Greenway, and me.

The post The Mushroom Dancer: A Senior Division 3rd Place Report from Worlds appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Today on Pokemon.com both the season outline and the breakdown of Championship Points awarded at events were announced. While we still don’t know exactly how players will be qualifying for the mysterious 2015 World Championships in location unknown, almost everything else about the 2015 North American European VGC circuits was revealed today.

Perhaps the most important change is the vast increase in scope and value of Premier Challenges. There is a FAQ about Premier Challenges on Pokemon.com.

The outline for the 2015 VGC season is as follows:

• September 2014: Premier Challenge Kickoff Series
• October 2014: Autumn Regional Championships (US only)
• November 2014–January 2015: Premier Challenge Alpha Series
• January 1, 2015: Format switches to Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire
• February 2015: Winter Regional Championships (US only)
• March–May 2015: Premier Challenge Omega Series
• May 2015: Spring Regional Championships (US only)
• April–July 2015: National Championships

The Championship Point values for the 2015 season follow. The kicker, when applicable, is how many players need to be playing in the event for the CP at that level to be awarded.:

Online Competitions
Best Finish Limit: None

Important Note: CP is now global for Wi-Fi events instead of being a separate pool for each region. Players still need a Player ID to count for Championship Points.

Premier Challenges
Best Finish Limit: 5

Regional Championships
Best Finish Limit: 3

National Championships
Best Finish Limit: 5

We now have a much less foggy view of the 2015 VGC circuit in North America and Europe. To say there is a much greater focus on more local tournaments this year would be an understatement, so find your local Premier Challenges and support your local events! Let us know in the comments what you think about the 2015 schedule so far!

The post 2015 VGC Championship Point Breakdown and Season Outline Announced appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hey, everyone! This week of NPA News is brought to you by Mountain Dew. And also Unreality and Crow.

NPA Draft: It’s Kind of New I Guess

This year marked the first ever NPA Auction Draft. In previous years, NPA employed a Snake Draft, in which players could only draft Snake. Afterwards, since Snake got tired of battling himself, they switched to a Snake Draft format, in which managers picked players in a predetermined order. This was the format for the past two years. Now, in order to give each manager a fair way to fight for each and every player they might want on their rosters, the Auction has been implemented by the Comi$$ioners Duy and Biosci. Each manager had a whopping 90,000 PokeDollars to purchase all of their players with, meaning that the total value of each team is equal to or less than a meal at Restaurant Le Wow — depending on if you’re as popular as NPA Legend and Five-Time All-American-Champion Min Datoo is in Lumiose City.

Stand-Ins: The Backup Dancers of Managers

Along with the first Auction Draft format was the very first appearance of “Stand-Ins”, players who would draft for the managers that could not attend the agreed-upon draft time. Four such players were drafted:

• pookar, to the Fallarbor Flames, for 3000
• Zubat, to the Mistralton Jets for 3000
• Matty to the Sunyshore Chargers for 12000
• Bopper to the Goldenrod Rollouts for 32000

A requirement for the stand-in managers was that they had to play on the team that they drafted for. The first two players, pookar and Zubat, were not put up for auction because they had no notable accomplishments. Matty and Bopper, both high level Worlds finishers at one point or another in their careers, were originally set a price, but then after deliberation were thrown back in the pool and both managers had to bid on themselves. During an interview conducted in Goldenrod’s very empty Hall of Champions, Bopper said: “To be honest, [drafting myself] was a great experience. I’m clearly the best player in NPA therefore I deserve to splurge and possibly ruin the Rollouts due to the fact that I’m just so good.”

The Death of Wildcard

Of the the disappointing aspects of this season is the removal of the wildcard matches. Wildcard matches were some of the most entertaining games of NPA 2 and provided some nice variety compared to the games we had been playing all year. They also had the unique effect of making some of the players who experienced older formats more valuable to managers. When questioned about this decision, NPA co-chairman Biosci had this to say, “I really like the VGC ‘14 format. There’s a lot of good variety in the games. For instance, who doesn’t love seeing Mega Kangaskhan? There’s also Mega Kangourex, that’s French for Mega Kangaskhan, and even sometimes regular Kangaskhan when someone wants to take advantage of Scrappy. I believe this choice will allow for more enjoyment by both the spectators and the competitors alike. Kangaskhan rules!”

Not Just Ash Collectors: A Look Through the Fire in the Flames’ Hearts

The Flames, to everyone’s surprise, drafted a stellar roster under the management of Aryana, known around Nugget Bridge as feathers, who is a site artist, a black market Pokemon merchandise dealer, and a broccoli enthusiast. Of course, she had a little bit of help from her stand-in drafter, pookar. The Flames are hot off their Week 1 victory against the reigning champions, the Seafoam Islanders. Whether they’ll be able to maintain their momentum throughout the rest of the season remains to be seen. Here with us today at the Route 113 Glass Workshop and Broccoli Garden is feathers herself.

NPA News: Good morning, feathers. Afternoon. Night. Whatever time zone Canada’s in. How do you feel about how Week 1 went?
Aryana: Fantastic! What a hot start to what will hopefully be eight weeks of the Flames burning up the competition. Giving the Islanders their first (of many) losses this season was a great feeling, even though fellow Canadian R Inanimate happens to be on their team. You win some, you lose some.

NPA News: What was your reaction when you could not draft fellow Canadians R Inanimate and skarm?
Aryana: While I would have loved to be able to afford R inanimate, spending half of my budget on him was not part of the plan. pookar adjusted accordingly. As for skarm… I’m not even sure his manager knew what province he was in during Week 1. Personally, I think it might be a mistake to put skarm on any team besides mine.

NPA News: Did you feel comfortable handing the reins of your team off to “The Dark Horse” “CHRISTOPHER SEMP” pookar during the draft?
Aryana: Absolutely! pookar was pretty excited at the prospect of being able to draft, so I was more than happy to trust him with it. He has plenty of experience with fantasy drafts and had a gameplan very quickly after I offered him the opportunity. He picked a fantastic team, and even though we don’t have a sub, my team is 100% active so I’m not worried about needing anyone else.

NPA News: Be honest: how bad does pookar (who should really be heading home by now) smell?
Aryana: He smells like a dark horse. ON FIRE.

NPA News: Any particularly tough opponents in the weeks ahead?
Aryana: We play the Chargers in Week 5, and they look like they could be a challenge. There are some great players in their lineup, but I truly believe the Flames burn brighter. I may have done some business with Chargers manager PrettyLittleLiar in DC… but that isn’t important, right?

NPA News: Do you think your team has what it takes to reach the finals?
Aryana: Without a doubt. We have a strong team mentality and I am positive that we can make the finals if we work together. The Flames are no pushovers, and I’m sure we’ve shown just how threatening we can be with our first week victory. If everything goes according to plan, the other teams will be going the way of the air nomads when we’re finished with them. CUE FIRE NATION NATIONAL ANTHEM

NPA News: Any final statements?
Aryana: skarm sucks.

We here at NPA News both condone and affirm the statement that skarm indeed sucks.

The Birds and the Bees: Unfortunate Matchup Name or Scandal in the Making?

Concerned Fortree moms have started protesting the Brave Birds’ game with the Viridian Forest Hornets. The game has been locally dubbed “The Birds and the Bees” and there are some mothers out there concerned with what that undertones. “We are concerned that this game is encouraging the wrong activities. If sports teams do not set good examples for our children, who will?”, stated one mother who wished to remain anonymous. We talked with managers Zach and Dubs for their opinion on the matter. “We both think this is absolutely ridiculous,” said Dubs. Zach added “I’m ashamed this is coming from my city. We have two teams here with players who work hard to provide quality entertainment and these protesters are attacking them because they don’t like how the team names look next to each other? I cannot believe it.” The protests have not impacted ticket sales.

45K For Shuckle: The Inside Scoop

Before the NPA3 draft, only one question was on every manager’s mind: Will I be the one to draft Sejun Park, 2014 Pokemon World Champion? After the draft, only one manager had the answer: Yes. Yes I will. NPA News is here today at the Ever Grande Caviar Bar with manager Dim aka Toler Webb, a World Champion himself. The Ever Grande Elite have started their season with a mediocre week, going 3-3 vs the Lilycove Cruisers. Sipping from his 200-dollar glass of Whisc-ey, Toler kicks back in his custom-ordered Liepard-fur armchair and gives me the scoop behind his decision to pick one of the most famous players ever drafted – if not the most famous player – in the NPA.

NPA News: Toler, how do you feel about your team’s Week 1 performance?
Toler: While I certainly expected more, as I always intend to do with a team like the Elite, I’m fairly pleased with it. There were situations with certain players in final game scenarios where I can’t really blame them entirely for their loss, but overall, it was a decent first week and it set a good tone for the rest of the year. I’ve observed a strong sense of kinship and team pride developing within the team which can help me do my job to motivate players to play and try to win. While certain members of the team have a lot to prove and others don’t, it’s been good to see the entire team interacting and congratulating each other for effort.

NPA News: What was your strategy when bidding on Sejun?
Toler: My strategy actually revolved around pushing players up in the auction. I was focused on knocking other managers around to get in their head and punish them for their set rosters of players. While I didn’t desperately want Sejun (and truthfully, I didn’t believe I would get him) he was certainly on my list and I saw it to be a pretty safe bet to try to push the opposing managers up on him. The later players were the ones I had planned out more so I could focus on having a planned set of people I could try to pick up for cheap prices in case I accidentally dropped half my budget on one player.

NPA News: Did you know Sejun would bring his Shuckle during Week 1?
Toler: Ah! The question I was expecting to see! While other managers have used that particular terminology to trash talk me about the decision, I don’t really mind Sejun bringing his Shuckle or not. I obviously had no idea, but I imagined that if he played and lost he would be motivated to win in the next round because of the type of player he is. So, regardless of what he did Week 1, I’m just going to do the most logical and least panic-based thing I can do and assume he’ll be winning all later rounds. It’s also important to note that the Shuckle team was not actually as gimmicky as it might sound from hearing the word “Shuckle”.

NPA News: How do you feel Sejun will perform in the rest of the season?
Toler: As acknowledged earlier, I expect him to do fairly well. I’m expecting him to finish at least even and it’s more likely that he’ll finish with a positive record. He’s very self-motivated. Aside from that, as a manager, if I focus on the situation where he loses every single week because he doesn’t use serious stuff, I throw myself on tilt as a manager and lose faith in my team. When a manager loses faith in the team, that’s communicated to them and sometimes they question themselves. As far as I can see, this team has nothing to fear. We are strong as a unit as well as strong individually.

NPA News: What are your plans for bringing home the gold to the big city?
Toler: Tell my team to win, have them do it. We’re the elite. We’re already better than everyone else, we just have to try.

NPA News: What words do you have for Ever Grande Elite fans at home?
Toler: Ever Grande Elite fans at home should remember to dream big. In fact, they should always dream big because even the biggest dreams can’t contain the future of this team. Ever Big. Ever Grande. Ever Grande Elite.
Toler: (By the way, if Tan asks, we always order Grande sized drinks)

NPA News: Any closing remarks?
Toler: None, just that we’re better than our first week would imply. I blame hax, and only hax.

The Splashes, Arkansas, and One Big Chance: A Heartwarming Tale

Before the draft, NPA3 manager Len Deuel (commonly referred to as Alaka) was conducting an important private press meeting at NPA News Headquarters. Nonchalantly, he mentioned an aspect of his draft strategy to us here at NPA News: draft one of his Twitter followers at random. A stunned silence fell across the conference room as everyone replayed in their head what they just heard. And then, cheers. Applause. Len, out of the goodness in his heart, was giving one lucky kid the experience of a lifetime: to play in the NPA alongside all of their heroes. It was just a matter of time before we saw whose name would soon grace the screens of every home across the world.

The sixth round of the draft approached, and tension was high. They had neared the final stretch. BlitznBurst went for 5000 dollars to the Goldenrod Rollouts. And then it was time. As Len reached for the microphone, hopeful fans crossed their fingers and ducked their heads, praying. And then Len’s voice rang throughout the arena:
[2014-08-29 22:04:08] I’d like to announce the winner of twitter giveaway: @JRankJustJRank
[2014-08-29 22:04:16] congrats
[2014-08-29 22:04:19] and welcome to the npa
[2014-08-29 22:04:25] !nominate JRank
[2014-08-29 22:04:26] JRank is up for auction.

JRank. A young kid from the streets of Podunk, Arkansas had been called up to the big leagues. Instantly, a bidding war started. The other managers thought that Len had seen something that they didn’t. And Len had– he saw the pure, raw talent of a boy hungry for victory and redemption. JRank went to the Hearthome Holy Spirits, under the management of Ray. Len, unfortunately, didn’t have enough credits to land JRank a spot on his own roster. But his kind gesture sets an example for all of us here at home– with a huge heart, a helping hand, and a little bit of luck, anyone’s NPA dreams can come true. Even if they’re from Arkansas.

There’s not much left to say here. JRank is happily in the NPA on the Holy Spirits, which he led to a 4-2 victory over the Mistralton Jets with his win over countkroeterich. Even though the season is young, and JRank is even younger, he shows promise.

Got a Hot Scoop?

Do you have the next big scoop? Feel free to tweet @NPANews or message either Unreality or Crow on Nugget Bridge. We’re always on the hunt for big stories!

The post NPA News: Season 3, Week 1 appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

After a successful Pokémon Winter Event in 2013, Nintendo UK and StreetPass UK are once again treating UK Pokémon fans to a tournament series! Throughout September, October, and November, trainers will battle it out using their Nintendo 3DS and Pokémon X or Pokémon Y video game. Trainers will compete in Double Battles, constructed to match that of the official 2014 Pokémon Video Game Championships Series format. There will be 14 qualifier tournaments in total, culminating in a Grand Finals in Manchester on Saturday, November 22nd, 2014. To earn entry into the Grand Finals, you will need to place in the top four at a qualifier tournament. These qualifier tournaments are run by the StreetPass Group Founders, who organise gaming meet-ups around the country most weekends.

Prizing at each qualifier tournament is dependent on the tournament you attend and what the host can offer while the Grand Finals will offer great prize support, the most interesting of which will probably be copies of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire setting you up nicely for the VGC format switch in January next year.

The majority of the tournaments will run Single Elimination, Best of One game and competitors are allowed to enter as many of the tournaments as they wish — offering multiple chances at winning an invitation for the Grand Finals. The first events will take place this weekend in Southend and Manchester; we’ll certainly see some great battles throughout this series and an excellent final event in November.

Qualifiers

Southend

Organised by: StreetPass Southend
Date: Saturday, 20th September, 2014
Time: 13:00 – 17:00
Place: Astro City, 2c Southchurch Road, Southend-on-Sea
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/862784620400314/
£3 Entry Fee

Manchester

Organised by: StreetPass Manchester
Date: Sunday, 21st September, 2014
Time: 11:00 – 18:00
Place: Bar21 – 10 Thomas Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M4 1DH
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/306278612892985/

Bangor

Organised by: StreetPass North Wales
Date: Saturday, 27th September, 2014
Time: 11:00 – 16:30
Place: Powis Hall, Bangor University – Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2DG
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/910864362275975/

Yeovil

Organised by: StreetPass Somerset & Yeovil TCG
Date: Saturday, 27th September, 2014
Time: 09:00 -17:00
Place: Labour Club – Unity Hall/Central Rd, Yeovil, Somerset, BA20 1JL
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1450244548571773/
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/195063900663938/

Middlesbrough

Organised by: StreetPass Middlesbrough
Date: Tuesday, 30th September, 2014
Time: 18:00 Onwards
Place: GAME – 71-73 Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough, TS1 5BU
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1461083577501839/

Birmingham

Organised by: StreetPass Birmingham

Date: Saturday, 25th October, 2014
Time: 12:00 – 17:00
Place: The Sack of Potatoes – 10 Gosta Green, Birmingham, B4 7ER
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1480653135528014/

Lincoln

Organised by: StreetPass Lincoln
Date: Sunday, 26th October, 2014
Time: TBC
Place: TBC
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/263530410509952/

Nottingham

Organised by: StreetPass East Midlands

TBC, October

Portsmouth

Organised by: StreetPass Portsmouth & Southampton

Date: Saturday, 1st November, 2014
Time: 12:00 – 18:00
Place: The Royal Maritime Club – 75-80 Queen Street, Portsmouth, PO1 3HS
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/827942917239471/

Leeds

Organised by: StreetPass Leeds

Date: Sunday, 2nd November, 2014
Time: 11:00 – 17:00
Place: Tiger Tiger – The Light, 117 Albion Street, Leeds, LS2, 8DY
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1456719314617509/

London

Organised by: DS London
Date: Sunday, 2nd November, 2014
Time: 15:00 – 18:00
Place: Scenario – 97 Stoke Newington Road, London, N16 8BX
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/352445011585215/

Gloucester

Organised by: StreetPass Gloucestershire

Date: Friday, 7th November, 2014
Time: 18:00 – 22:00
Place: Gloucester Guildhall – 23 Eastgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 1NS
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1496727937236124/

Liverpool

Organised by: StreetPass Liverpool

Date: Sunday, 9th November, 2014
Time: 13:00 Onwards
Place: The Scythe and Teacup Gamer Cafe – 61a, Kempston Street, Liverpool, L3 8HE
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/942090595807091/

Cambridge

Organised by: StreetPass Cambridge

Date: Saturday, 15th November, 2014
Time: 10:00 – 16:00
Place: The Hexagon Room, Frank Lee Centre – Addenbrookes Hospital Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 0SN
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/294734597393426/

Information

• Nugget Bridge Discussion
• StreetPass UK Announcement

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Battle Format?
The Battle Format will be the official Video Game Championships 2014 rules. You can view them in full here.

• Number of Players: Two-Player Match
• Battle Format: Double Battle
• Battle Rules: Flat Battle
• Handicap: Off

What is the tournament format at each Qualifier Tournament?
The tournament format is Single Elimination, Best of One Battle* for all Qualifier Tournaments with the exception of Yeovil. Yeovil was organised before the tournament series was put together, but was chosen to be included in the structure. Yeovil will run a Swiss-style tournament with a potential top cut depending on the number of competitors. Only the top four will receive an invite to the Grand Finals, the same as every other Qualifier Tournament.

*At the judges discretion, they may allow for a different tournament format if the tournament attendance is low.

What is the tournament format at the Grand Finals?
The Grand Finals will run a Swiss-style Tournament with a top cut of eight players maximum. There will be five or six Swiss rounds depending on the number of competitors that attend.

Can I play in more than one Qualifier Tournament?
Absolutely. You are free to attempt qualification at as many events as you’re willing to attend.

Can I play in another Qualifier Tournament even if I already finished in the top four at a previous Qualifier Tournament?
Yes. Invites will be passed down to the next eligible player if a player manages to finish in the top four twice or more. Please make the tournament organiser aware if you have already qualified!

What are the prizes at the Qualifier Tournaments?
Qualifier Tournaments will run their own prizing structure, with prizes being awarded to either the top two or top four players. The top four players at each Qualifier Tournament will be awarded an invitation to compete in the Grand Finals in Manchester on Saturday, November 22nd, 2014.

What are the prizes at the Grand Finals?
The top eight players* at the Grand Finals will each win a copy of Pokémon Omega Ruby version or Pokémon Alpha Sapphire version in time for release on November 28th, 2014. Other Prizes TBA.

*Still to be confirmed.

Will there be travel stipends for qualified players?
Sadly no, there will be no travel stipends for players who finish in the top four at a Qualifier Tournament. Everyone will have to organise their own travel and/or accommodation for the Grand Finals.

Are there any age restrictions or age divisions for the tournaments?
No, anyone of any age can participate. All ages will be combined into one group so bear this in mind when entering any young children who may have to battle against players much older.

The post StreetPass UK Pokémon Autumn Event 2014 appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi guys, Hashegi here. In this report, I am gonna discuss the Indonesia vs Taiwan VGC 2014 Friendly match which was held between August 30-31st of this year. This event was proposed by the Indonesian VGC Community. We proposed this battle during the second week of August and it happened at the end of the month. The trainers playing in this friendly were directly chosen by their respective community leaders or the country’s Tournament Organizer.

Neither Indonesia nor Taiwan have Premiere Challenges yet, which is quite sad. Indonesian itself has around 25-30 dedicated players spread across the nation; not to mention hundreds more who just play Pokémon, but not competitively. Pokémon competitive battling in Indonesia has been around for some time. I remember we had some simulator tournaments on Pokémon Showdown and Pokémon Online since 2010. However, until recently we had no VGC community. The TCG circuit always got sanctioned tournaments — and also Nationals in 2013 — but there was no sign of video game sanctioned tournaments until 2014. After the release of Pokémon X and Y, there was an online store that decided to sponsor a Pokémon tournament in the lobby of a department store. As it turned out, 123 trainers attended the tournament! That was the turning point of Pokémon competitive community. In January, Indonesia decided to join the 2014 Asia Cup which turned out pretty well. One of our trainers went to the Top 8 while another one of our representative reached Top 16. After that point, one of the leaders from a Pokémon forum in Indonesia and I decided to start an Indonesian-speaking online community to expand the level of VGC play in the country. Even though the number of players in Indonesia isn’t as high as in Japan or western countries, our trainers are also very dedicated in playing Pokémon in the Video Game Championships.

This was original posted in Indonesian here. It has been published again in English for you below:

• Format: VGC ’14
• Tournament Type: Wi-Fi
• Tournament Format: Best of Three, Random Pairings
• Date & Time: Sabtu, 30th August 2014 sampai Minggu, 31st August 2014
• Registration: Invitational Only
• Trainers: 5 Trainers from each country

Trainers List

No.	Name	IGN	Country
1.	Irvan Ing (beastlife)	Kuro
2.	Oktavian Jason (witzel)	Jason
3.	Jack Kurniawan (azukanakano)	Azuka
4.	Bima Amalsyah (whoopie)	Atlanta
5.	Michael Tamara Putra	Michael
6.	劉建廷 (Liú Jiàn Tíng) (sayha)	Sayha
7.	簡劭陽 (Jiǎn Shào Yáng) (Frozereon)	バリアン
8.	曹哲鳴 (Cáo Zhé Míng) (duoduo0517)	DUOO
9.	杜震超 (Dù Zhèn Chāo) (ilike282)	ちっちぇな
10.	白宇平 (Bái Yǔ Píng) (univers)	White
11.	Bryan Young (Sub)	Bryan
12.	Ditto Amalsyah (Sub)	Florenza

Pairings and Results

No.	Name	IGN	Score	IGN	Name
1.	Irvan Ing	Kuro	1-2	Sayha	劉建廷 (Liú Jiàn Tíng)
2.	Oktavian Jason	Jason	2-1	DUOO	曹哲鳴 (Cáo Zhé Míng)
3.	Jack Kurniawan	Azuka	2-1	バリアン	簡劭陽 (Jiǎn Shào Yáng)
4.	Bima Amalsyah	Atlanta	2-1	ちっちぇな	杜震超 (Dù Zhèn Chāo)
5.	Michael Tamara Putra	Michael	0-2	White	白宇平 (Bái Yǔ Píng)
FINAL SCORE				3-2

The post Indonesia vs Taiwan August Friendly Results & Videos appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello, Nugget Bridge, this is Jon Hu, known by username as JHufself, and also one of the semifinalists of Pokémon’s 2014 National Championship Masters Division and competitor at Worlds 2014. For those looking for my Nationals setup, my whole team is on Pokémon’s website, albeit without the EV spreads or IV spreads. I’ll be covering both my Nationals and Worlds run in this article, and my experiences at events over the last year. Before my outstanding Nationals run, I was pretty much Unown and nameless, so this is one step I’m taking to get more involved with the community. Before when I was trying to get this report published before Worlds, I was withholding my EV spreads, but now that it’s over, I’ll gladly reveal and explain in great detail these spreads. For those who wish to know, my friends have been joking with me about this report never getting published. I’m still fairly new to Nugget Bridge as a member, and most likely you won’t be seeing too much of me onsite after this report since I’m really more of a lurker.

Team Analysis

If you’ve been following what I just outlined in the introduction, you already know what the team looks like at a glance, so I’ll save you the trouble of having to read through one of those sections. However, this section might get a bit lengthy as I explain in-depth why my team is the way it is. Prepare yourself!

Lapyuta (F) @Assault Vest
Ability: Water Absorb
Sassy Nature
76 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 180 Satk / 244 Sdef
-Ice Shard
-Freeze-Dry
-Hydro Pump
-Ancient Power

Lapyuta is a reference to Miyazaki’s Laputa: Castle in the Sky, also making it a reference to Gulliver’s Travels. It is spelled a little differently though due to the in-game name censors…

Lapras is one of my favorite Pokémon of all time. Not only is she an Ice-Type, my favorite type, but she also has an excellent base stat total and distribution. This generation introduced to us the Assault Vest item, which boosts the holder’s Special Defense by 50% in exchange for not being able to use Status moves like Protect. With Lapras’s massive HP and respectable Special Defense as well as an enormous attacking movepool, I instantly gave Lapras an Assault Vest for the very first competition I competed in this format way back in December 2013 and never looked back. While she has remained relatively unchanged for the entirety of the season, there are certainly some differences between this Lapras and others that makes her job a lot easier.

Firstly, you will notice that she has Water Absorb for an ability. After my semifinals match on Saturday, several individuals approached me with their congratulations and such on getting so far with such a weird team, and some popped the question,

Why choose Water Absorb over Shell Armor?

I understand that Lapras only has two natural resists in Water and Ice, and that because Water is already resisted, the logic follows that Water Absorb would be largely inferior to Shell Armor, an ability that prevents critical hits from ever making contact. However, I have always run Water Absorb on every Lapras I have ever taken to competition for one single reason: Rain teams. It is true that Lapras resists Water, but against a rain team where Water gains considerable firepower even when resisted, the immunity and healing granted by Water Absorb transforms Lapras from a general special wall into a hard counter against Politoed, Kingdra, and other Water-types who take advantage of rain-boosted hits. Granted, the Assault Vest lessens Water damage even further, but even if the damage is less than 10% of Lapras’s health, it is still just that: DAMAGE. Lapras running Shell Armor have no form of recovery outside of Heal Pulse partners, meaning this damage is permanent. With this format’s emphasis on chunking the opponent, Lapras cannot afford to take that resisted Water hit if it means another of the opponent’s Pokémon can come in and knock her out. In the rare off chances where critical hits do take place, I find that the end result does not change most of the time, since Lapras is not built to take repeated Physical hits and Special hits of all sorts just bounce off the Vest. If I ever choose to run Lapras on future teams, which is highly likely, you will never see me run Shell Armor over Water Absorb. So to sum it all up for you skimmers out there:

Pros:

• Immunity to Water
• Source of recovery
• No Scald burns
• More switching power

Cons:

• Not immune to Critical Hits

While you can search and find a standard spread for Assault Vest Lapras, that set places more emphasis on balancing Lapras’s other stats rather than specializing in any one stat. For me, I choose to fully specialize in Lapras’s Special Defense, making it an extremely tough wall to climb for Special Attackers; even those with super effective coverage have trouble conquering Lapras. Since I never want to rely on Lapras to take physical hits for the team, I leave her Defense almost uninvested. The 180 Special Attack allows Lapras to have somewhat of an offensive presence, since its natural stat isn’t all that impressive. 76 HP hits a nice number to mitigate passive damage.

Lapras’s moveset is the standard one. I used to run Thunderbolt over Ancient Power, but Thunderbolt is largely inferior and redundant since Freeze-Dry gets Super-Effective damage on Water-types and Ancient Power hits Charizard-Y under sun and Articuno a lot harder than Thunderbolt. Ice Shard is priority, and Hydro Pump, while a little unreliable at times, is probably the only Water move that is even viable on Lapras since it doesn’t get Scald (darn that Ice type).

Shayuu (F) @Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
Adamant Nature
60 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def / 36 Sdef / 148 Spd
-Dragon Claw
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Protect

Shayuu is the Chinese Pinyin spelling of the two characters which make up shark. The extra “u” is for aesthetics.

When Generation IV had just come out with Diamond and Pearl, I hated Garchomp. Smogon’s eventual ban of it from OU singles cemented my position even further. Yet somewhere along the transition from Generation IV to Generation V, I came to appreciate Garchomp for how good it is, and I think the base stats alone will tell you that it’s good for a reason, although its speed is not the reason I am using it.

On my first team this season, I ran a standard Jolly Garchomp with a Yache Berry. As I played with it more on Showdown one thing really irked me about the standard spread, and that was the inevitable Garchomp-mirror speed tie. Ironically, for someone who used Confuse Ray at Nationals, I really did not like the coin flipping nature of such a matchup. The change from Yache to Lum Berry is in line with the changing metagame, and is mostly there for Smeargle and burn insurance. It did its job just as advertised. This spread has many specific things about it, so allow me to elaborate and throw some calcs at you:

• 252+ Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 158-188 (85.8 – 102.1%) — 12.5% chance to OHKO
• 252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 60 HP / 12 Def Garchomp: 140-168 (73.2 – 87.9%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Let’s start with the Garchomp mirror, assuming no Life Orb, Jolly 252/252 spread. From full health, my Garchomp has a 1/8 chance of flat out KOing opposing Garchomp, while the other Garchomp has no chance at all to OHKO. It is also significant to note that after the standard Garchomp attacks with Dragon Claw, it leaves my Garchomp with more than 23 HP 15/16 times, which is the Rough Skin number for both Garchomp. Considering that the standard Garchomp takes 23 damage from my Rough Skin, leaving them at 161 HP, I then have a 15/16 chance to KO them back. That means for this particular mirror, my Garchomp should win about 87.9% of the time, on top of the 1/8 chance OHKO from full health. Here are some more calcs dealing with Ice Type moves aimed at Garchomp:

• 252+ SpA Mega Manectric Hidden Power Ice vs. 60 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp: 172-204 (90 – 106.8%) – 37.5% chance to OHKO
• 252 SpA Mega Manectric Hidden Power Ice vs. 60 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp: 156-184 (81.6 – 96.3%) – guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 SpA Life Orb Pyroar Hidden Power Ice vs. 60 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp: 177-208 (92.6 – 108.9%) – 50% chance to OHKO
• 68 SpA Ludicolo Ice Beam vs. 60 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp: 148-176 (77.4 – 92.1%) – guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 SpA Politoed Ice Beam vs. 60 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp: 180-212 (94.2 – 110.9%) – 62.5% chance to OHKO
• 180 SpA Lapras Freeze Dry vs. 60 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp: 184-220 (96.3 – 115.1%) – 87.5% chance to OHKO
• 4 Atk Lapras Ice Shard vs. 60 HP / 12 Def Garchomp: 84-100 (43.9 – 52.3%) – 14.1% chance to 2HKO

Those last two were for my personal enjoyment, but you get the point. This Garchomp has a higher chance of living any Ice moves from the common non-STAB users, and even turns some of the weaker ones into 2HKOs. I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve played games with this Garchomp and been thoroughly pleased by how many hits it can take before going down. As an added bonus, 148 Speed EVs speed creeps the Smeargle speed tier.

I don’t think I need to explain the move choices, since it IS Garchomp’s bread and butter set.

MeganeMegami (F) @Choice Specs
Ability: Telepathy
Modest Nature
124 HP / 28 Def / 240 SAtk / 28 Sdef / 88 Spd
IV’s: 14 Atk / 30 Satk / 30 Spd
-Psychic
-Moonblast
-Dazzling Gleam
-Hidden Power (Fire)

MeganeMegami is Japanese for “Glasses Goddess”, a reference to her held item.

Another of my personal favorites, Gardevoir becomes a monster in this Generation because of its new shiny Fairy-type. I toyed around with many different types of Gardevoir before settling on Specs, with Support variants, Scarf variants, and Life Orb variants being among the trial sets. Specs Gardevoir is a massive threat to anyone who is unprepared, and she saw lots of usage during day one’s qualifying Swiss rounds. Unfortunately, she seemed to fall a bit short day two because my opponents were obviously well equipped to deal with her.

The moveset is fairly standard except for the last move, Hidden Power. Taking a look back at my team, I realized I had no Fire coverage. So this was my solution. For the most part, Hidden Power went unused and was only used a few times over the whole tournament, but I do not regret my choice, since if I had run into any Ferrothorn, I would have a lot of trouble trying to take it out without any Fire coverage. This is the following matchup against Ray’s Ferrothorn spread:

• 240+ SpA Choice Specs Gardevoir Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Ferrothorn: 184-220 (101.6 – 121.5%) – guaranteed OHKO

This is the specific calc that I prepared Gardevoir’s Special Attack EV’s for, with the EV’s in HP minimizing passive damage, Speed EV’s to speed creep some Rotom/Venusaur/some invested Base 80s with the rest split between her defenses for more bulk.

Gardevoir’s ability, Telepathy, allows Garchomp to safely Earthquake alongside her, thus forming a very competent duo that I will be covering later. I found Trace to be too situational and inconsistent compared to Telepathy.

->  

Raven (M) @Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate -> Huge Power
Adamant Nature
252 HP / 60 Atk / 196 Sdef
IV’s: 23 Def / 30 Spd
-Play Rough
-Iron Head
-Sucker Punch
-Protect

Raven is named for Mawile’s inherently ravenous nature, not the black-feathered bird written about in poems. If I had two giant gaping jaws and a normal mouth, I sure would be hungry pretty much all the time. He’s also one of the two Shiny Pokémon on this team.

Mawile is a Pokémon I picked up with the generation shift. Up until Mega Sableye was revealed, Mega Mawile was my favorite Mega of the bunch, partly due to the fact that it is basically Sableye’s in-game counterpart. I originally thought the only way to go with Mawile was max Attack investment and max HP investment until I read Ray’s Virginia Regionals report and changed that line of thinking. I don’t remember what exactly I built this spread for, but it survives its fair share of non-STAB Fire attacks and still takes Physical Attacks with an imperfect Defense IV. I would have invested in the Speed stat if it weren’t for the 30 IV. Other than that, the moveset, base ability, and usage in battle are similar to any other Mawile you may find out there.

Gemineye IV (M) @Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
Careful Nature
244 HP / 252 Sdef / 12 Spd
-Will-o-Wisp
-Taunt
-Confuse Ray
-Shadow Sneak

Gemineye IV is the fourth of a long line of competitive Prankster Sableye, with the first being used in the 2012 season. Just kidding.

Probably the Pokémon I’m currently most known for, Sableye is another of my favorites from across the generational transitions. To clarify, I’ve been using competitive versions of Sableye (with little success) since Generation IV, before Prankster even existed. Sableye is one of Mega Kangaskhan’s natural predators in a format where Kangaskhan is at the top of the food chain. Barring any rogue Kangaskhan running Crunch or Shadow Claw, Sableye can literally sit down in front of Mega Kangaskhan, burn it, confuse it, and watch it suffer, not taking her partner into account.

Sableye was only on one of my other teams this season, that team being the first one. To be completely honest, after the first competition, I dropped Sableye for quite a while due to his single Fairy weakness and the rise of Gardevoir. In actuality, he was added onto the team maybe two weeks before competition, but due to the experience I’ve gathered from using Sableye for so long, I was able to comfortably play and utilize him without very much practice.

The EV Spread is simple, maximizing Special bulk and putting the rest into Speed to creep. 244 HP is used to hit an N/4 number so that I don’t waste Sitrus Berry’s benefits.

Will-o-Wisp and Taunt are Sableye staples. I almost contested not putting Will-o-Wisp on Sableye due to some very poor past experiences with the move’s then lower accuracy, but then I remembered there wasn’t any reason to run Sableye over other Pranksters if it wasn’t running Will-o-Wisp. This paid off as I only missed one Will-o-Wisp in the whole tournament, and that miss honestly probably did not affect the outcome (I lost). Confuse Ray and Shadow Sneak are odd choices for Sableye, so allow me to expand on these.

Shadow Sneak

Shadow Sneak is a move I personally like a lot; it has priority, is consistent, and is Ghost-Type coverage, a very strong offensive type in this generation. Before, this slot used to be Sucker Punch, but with the Dark-Type’s arguably less useful coverage against Fairies and Fighters, the low PP, and the conditions of Sucker Punch, it wasn’t as applicable. The only problem with both of these moves is that they make Sableye a sitting duck against Quick Guard users. If I were given the opportunity to change this to a different move, it would probably be one of either Night Shade, Foul Play or Snarl.

Confuse Ray

This last slot was going to be either Recover or another disrupting move. My thoughts were very similar to the thoughts given in Sam Bentham’s Top 32 UK Nationals report, so please read his section on Swagger and using it because I won’t be explaining what has already been explained before. The reason I chose to use Confuse Ray over Swagger is Confuse Ray’s 100% accuracy and lack of an attack boost, as I wanted to be able to also confuse physical attackers at no additional cost. In general, confusion inducing moves tend to get a lot of hate, rage, and a reputation somewhere along the lines of being skill-less so if you plan on running confusion of any sort, be prepared for your opponent’s judgments. It may actually be more beneficial for you as the opponent becomes more annoyed, clouding his or her judgment on making moves, or loses hope in winning, which I find actually goes a long way in a game like this where there is another battle on the psychological level. I was very surprised at the overall lack of Safeguard or other Sableye prevention tactics at this year’s Nationals, and this enabled him to get lots of mileage out of both Confuse Ray and Will-o-Wisp.

->  

Banshee (F) @Gengarite
Ability: Levitate -> Shadow Tag
Timid Nature
4 Def / 252 Satk / 252 Spd
IV’s: 27 HP / 2 Atk
-Shadow Ball
-Sludge Bomb
-Substitute
-Protect

As the other Shiny on the team, Banshee’s name is fitting due to Smogon’s near instant banning of the Gengarite item as well as being female. 

As the final member and probably my MVP for the tournament, Gengar is in an interesting position for this metagame. On one hand, base Gengar acts much like a Sableye would with fast Will-o-Wisps and Taunts being thrown everywhere, with Shadow Ball for offensive presence and its Kangaskhan walling capabilities. On the other, we have a whole team archetype revolving around its Mega with Perish Trap. When I drafted Gengar after the Spring Regionals, it was playing the former role, since I had no intention of actually using Perish Song or even using Mega Gengar, and Sableye had not yet been added to the team. But as a player who has practiced regularly using Dual Mega teams for the whole season, I decided to try out Mega Gengar in this phase, forgoing the standard Focus Sash, but not changing the moveset at all. This didn’t work all that well since Mega Gengar is certainly not meant for the role base Gengar plays. And that’s when I thought of a different role Gengar could play, outsourcing its previous support moveset to Sableye.

The EV spread is a standard special sweeper build, with the extra 4 being dropped into Defense due to imperfect HP IV, although even if it were Perfect, it would still get dumped in Defense to allow Gengar to be able to create up to 4 Subs.

For Gengar’s moveset, I chose Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb for STAB moves due to their consistency and power. Their secondary effects are also quite useful, with the 20% Special Defense drop from Shadow Ball speeding games up and the 30% Poison causing extra chip damage. Substitute was to prolong Gengar’s time on the field and block status from non-Pranksters as well as turning Mega Kangaskhan’s usual OHKO Sucker Punch into a survivable hit at +0 Attack modifiers. I would compare the utilization of Substitute here as similar to Aegislash, minus the really good bulk.

Dual Megas

With Gengar being the second mega on the team alongside Mawile, it was an interesting experience to say the least. Gengar never requires Mega Evolution to be useful, as base Gengar avoids Earthquake, still outspeeds a vast majority of the meta, and has quite a bit of power behind her STAB moves. This means that unlike other Dual Mega team layouts that have two Megas that rely on their evolution, Gengar can actually be run without ever Mega Evolving during battle. I used this to my advantage mostly during day two Swiss and Worlds, but nonetheless I find this setup to be more flexible in dealing with other teams.

Shadow Tag Trapping with Mega Gengar

Mega Gengar has quite a few things going for it that the other trapper, Gothitelle, does not have. For starters, Gengar’s base speed goes from an already high 110 to an even higher 130, tying with Aerodactyl at 200 maximum speed. This allows Mega Gengar to be an effective revenge killer as well as provide it with a fast Sub for a more defensive approach. Second, Mega Gengar’s Ghost/Poison typing provides nearly unresisted neutral STAB coverage over the common threats in the metagame, with mostly only dual Dark types such as Bisharp or Tyranitar resisting both. While it may not be as bulky as Gothitelle, Mega Gengar more than makes up for it with the offensive pressure it provides even against Kangaskhan, whose trainer will have to predict whether Gengar Subs, Protects, or attacks each turn it spends on the field.

Finally, it wouldn’t be a Mega Gengar analysis without the mention of Perish Song. I feel like many players give me too much credit for building a team with Mega Gengar that doesn’t utilize Perish Song, since Lapras and Gengar are actually fairly passable options in this meta without the Perish Song option. I only tried utilizing Perish Trap once during testing. Needless to say, I hated that play style, because personally, I found Perish Trap Gengar to be counter-intuitive since it was wasting Mega Gengar’s ridiculous base 170 Special Attack stat.

Team Synergy and Pair Ups

+  

This pairing is often used against Amoonguss + Setup leads, Fake Out leads, and Perish Trap teams, not that I actually ran into any Perish Trap teams during the tournament. Turn one I simply choose not to Mega Evolve and get a free Sub while Amoonguss wastes away Rage Powder or Spore, and the opposition gets nailed with a STAB Earthquake from Garchomp. For Fake Out users, if their name is not Kangaskhan, Gengar can still get up a free Sub while Garchomp can punish the Fake Out with Rough Skin.

+  

AKA an inexperienced player’s worst nightmare. Specs Gardevoir backed up by STAB Earthquakes can demolish unprepared teams with very little effort due to the immense pressure it provides against teams with slower Pokémon.

+  

The anti-Kangaskhan unit. This pairing effectively makes the battle a two-on-one matchup, since Kangaskhan can do nothing to either unless I decide to attack with Gengar. Also, it makes Confuse Ray a forced coin flip, as the opponent can no longer switch out.

+  

If I can trap in two special attackers, this is the optimal pairing for the matchup. Lapras does a great job at softening up the opposition so Gengar can finish them off with a STAB Sludge Bomb or Shadow Ball. When opponents see these two in the Team Preview, most assume it is a Perish Trap combination, which allows me to gain a surprise factor.

+  

Mawile, due to its excellent typing and offensive prowess, can effectively be paired with everyone but Mega Gengar for obvious reasons, but pairs best with Sableye due to its sole Fairy weakness which Mawile covers. Sableye also allows Mawile to overcome Substitute Aegislash because of Taunt. This combination also happens to put a damper on any Kangaskhan looking to sweep.

The Team’s Shortcomings

No team is without flaws and here are some that I noticed either during testing or during the tournament. Some I chose to ignore and some I just didn’t have enough practice or planning for.

Talonflame

This team has a major problem dealing with Talonflame, and it’s obvious to see why. Only one resist to Brave Bird in Mawile, who is weak to Talonflame’s other STAB move, with Garchomp and Lapras only being able to KO after taking a hit. It also has Quick Guard access, which shuts down any utility Sableye could have had in a game. Luckily, I did not have to fight very many of these throughout the tournament, although it did end up defeating me almost single-handedly in my final game.

Ferrothorn

As explained in the team analysis, I only have Hidden Power for Fire coverage, which means after Gardevoir is taken out, Ferrothorn walks all over this team. Gengar can at least chunk Ferrothorn and possibly get a Special Defense drop before getting OHKOed by Gyro Ball, but it certainly is not reliable. Gardevoir can’t even be considered a counter because she is part Fairy. Fortunately, I ran into a grand total of zero Ferrothorn during the tournament, so I didn’t have to think too hard about this one.

Lucario + Mega Lucario

I’m very glad that there were very few Lucario at the tournament, because Lapras cannot effectively deal with any form of Lucario, Mega or not. Bullet Punching varieties of Mega Lucario also take healthy chunks of life out of Gengar, Gardevoir, and Sableye. Special variants tend to be easier to manage, but still pack a punch against the team. Normal Lucario is also really annoying for its Follow Me shenanigans.

Hydreigon

Hydreigon normally isn’t a problem since I’m carrying two Fairies on this team, but with the right team support like in higher level top cutting teams, Hydreigon is free to drop Specs Draco Meteors, Dark Pulses, and Flamethrowers all over my team. This is even worse if Hydreigon is Scarfed, as it can out speed Gengar even after Mega Evolution to KO with a STAB Dark Pulse.

Dawn of the First Day

Unlike many other players who came from around the country to compete, I live within an hour driving distance from the convention center, so I don’t really have an interesting lead up to the competition. I did stay up until 2:00 am on Friday morning putting together a team for my friend, Tim, who went on to go 6-3 with it, and woke up at 5:00 am in order to actually get to the venue on time. So effectively, I was running on three hours of sleep for the entire first day of the event, with no naps in between rounds or anything of the sort. I’m still amazed that I was able to go nearly undefeated with such little sleep. One final thing before we get into the Swiss rounds: as the day went on, for some reason, my note taking got progressively worse, so I apologize for less than stellar details in the later half of Swiss.

At the player meeting, instead of sitting at a table like I should have been, I was keeping my brother some company before the rounds started. Going into the competition, 50% of my attitude was to have fun and the other 50% was to actually win, having accepted that I could go nowhere fast with previous overall losing Nationals records.

Round 1 – Brenden Hudson – Singles vs. Doubles

He used:    

I used:    

My first round opponent told me that this was his first competition event, which became even more obvious when he told me during the battle that he actually prepared for a Single battle tournament. Whoops!

In any case, the battle pretty much ended as soon as it started, with Garchomp and Gardevoir sweeping his whole team with Dazzling Gleam and Earthquake/Rockslide, with both coming out of the battle unscathed. I did score two neglible critical hits with Garchomp’s Rock Slide on turn two however.

Win 4-0 (1-0)

Round 2 – Danny Z. – Support Salamence and Sableye

He used:    

I used:    

I didn’t really know what to think of Danny’s team at the Team Preview, but all I noticed was the Florges sitting in his battle box. As the battle opens up, I lead off with the double Gar combination while Danny leads with Kangaskhan and Rotom. I decided turn one to eat the possible Fake Out headed in either direction, choosing to Rock Slide with Garchomp and Psychic with Gardevoir. This turns out pretty poorly as he simply switches Rotom for Trevenant and Mega-Return knocks out Gardevoir. Sableye takes Gardevoir’s spot on the field and Taunts Trevenant to block an incoming Will-o-Wisp as Kangaskhan switches out of a nasty matchup for Salamence, reducing the power of Garchomp’s Dragon Claw thanks to Intimidate, and upon making contact with Salamence and taking off less than half of his health, reveals its Rocky Helmet item.

The next turn, I swap Garchomp for Mawile, hoping to catch Salamence using a Dragon-type attack on Garchomp’s slot, and in the process burn Trevenant, making his Shadow Claw do little damage. Salamence Protected that turn, so I still came out of the situation alright. Turn four, Danny makes a risky double switch, switching Salamence into Rotom, and Trevenant into Kangaskhan. Unfortunately for him, I decided to Play Rough on Trevenant’s slot, causing Kangaskhan to faint to Play Rough, AND used Confuse Ray on Salamence’s slot, since I assumed it to be a Special variant anyway. With Salamence back in for turn five, I Protect with Mawile in case Rotom broke through the coin flip with an Overheat and Confused the Salamence. Rotom gets off a Thunderbolt onto Sableye, but Salamence hits itself.

Here’s where the notes get a bit iffy. On turn six, Rotom connects an Overheat with Mawile’s flammable face, but does not earn the OHKO, leaving him with a small percentage of health left. Salamence gets a Roost up, but it also gets burned by Sableye. Mawile does something this turn that I apparently did not find very important, but I assume that by the end of the turn he survived, as my notes say that I switch Sableye out for Garchomp the next turn. This is where my notes end, but my memory has not.

With the rest of the battle coming from my memory, I’m sure to miss a few details here and there. I remember that after these turns, the battle essentially turned into a stall war between Sableye and all of Danny’s remaining Pokémon. There was lots of Confuse Ray shenanigans, a fact easily memorable because of how annoyed Danny seemed to be getting after the first half of the battle. Sableye blocked a Trick Room as well as any more Roosts from Salamence, allowing Garchomp to get the KO after a long, drawn-out battle. I’m not even sure of what record I had by the end of the battle, but I do know that I won almost single-handedly with Sableye and that it survived the whole ordeal. I feel that I must apologize to Danny, as Sableye basically turned my terrible first turn play into a ridiculously long comeback. No hard feelings, I hope.

Win ??-0 (2-0)

Round 3 – John Steffen – Disruptor Rotom, Articuno, and Gardevoir’s Destruction

He used:    

I used:    

Going into round three, I see the Articuno in the team preview and very much wanted John to win, to prove to me that Articuno was usable in this format. But that is not to be the case. He leads with Venusaur and Chandelure, while I send in Gengar and Gardevoir. I know that if Chandelure is Scarfed, it will only be able to OHKO Gengar, but not Gardevoir with Shadow Ball. I decide to Mega with Gengar as John Megas with Venusaur, but Gardevoir gets the first turn KO with Psychic as Chandelure switches into Rotom for some reason. He replaces Venusaur with Articuno, and the second turn begins. I switch Gengar for Lapras, eating an incoming Ice Beam from Articuno, while Gardevoir, still undamaged, hits Rotom for around 75% of its health, which is healed up by a Sitrus Berry as Rotom paralyzes Gardevoir with Thunder Wave.

For the remainder of the battle, Gardevoir and Lapras hold down the front lines until the battle is won. John switches Articuno for Chandelure, who eats an Ancient Power from Lapras, as Rotom Confuses Gardevoir with its own Confuse Ray, causing Gardevoir to hit itself. It is at this point where John chooses to leave Gardevoir to the whimsy of chance and double focuses Lapras with a Shadow Ball and a Thunderbolt. Lapras, still feeling pretty good after those hits, takes out Chandelure with a Hydro Pump as Gardevoir breaks through the Parafusion to KO Rotom. With Articuno as John’s last man standing facing down a Lapras and a relatively healthy but confused and paralyzed Gardevoir, the battle is sealed after a couple of Ancient Powers and Specs boosted Psychics. John was one of the coolest guys I met in the tournament, and he actually helped me out for Worlds, so shout out to him!

Win 4-0 (3-0)

Round 4 – Matthew Meaghar – Sparkling Ghosts, Gengar and Sableye

He used:    

I used:    

This game had some really bad notes, so I apologize once again for my bad note taking skills. Matthew leads with Kangaskhan and Gyarados as I lead Garchomp and Gardevoir. He Megas Kangaskhan Fake Out into Garchomp while Gardevoir gets some nice damage off onto something, probably with a Moonblast, and Gyarados does something that I didn’t write down. The next turn I swap Gardevoir for Sableye, predicting the Return from Kangaskhan, but Matthew instead opts to take out Garchomp with Sucker Punch as Gyarados again does something I did not write down. After this, all I can remember was that Gyarados had Taunt, but I Taunted first, and that his Gengar in the back nearly won him the game with a Dazzling Gleam onto Sableye. This was one of the few situations where Shadow Sneak won me the game, as I was able to cleanly 2HKO Gengar to take it. Matthew also told me his Manectric was Scarfed instead of Mega, even though he didn’t use it.

Win 1-0 (4-0)

Lunch Break?

I don’t remember what rounds lunch break was between, but my friends and I went out to eat at a sub sandwich place run by firefighters down the street, but not before getting our pictures taken with the mascots!

The photo was so awesome, the camera couldn’t focus properly!

I was still feeling pretty relaxed and didn’t feel any different from having my record go from 0-0 to 4-0. With lunch out of the way, it was back into the fray!

Round 5 – Jeudy Azzarelli – The First Rain of Kangaskhan

He used:    

I used:    

Jeudy was my 5th round opponent, and I was to be his only loss for day one of Swiss. He would also make it to the top 8, where we would face off once again to make it to top 4. He leads off with Kangaskhan and Talonflame against my Garchomp and Gengar. Turn one, Kangaskhan Mega Protects as I also decide to Protect Gengar, but not Mega. Talonflame tries to burn Garchomp with a Will-o-Wisp, but Lum Berry clears it up as Garchomp gets the OHKO with Rock Slide. Hydreigon comes in to potentially scare off both of my Pokémon with its still concealed held item, which I found out to be a Haban Berry after sending a Dragon Claw towards it. Hydreigon breaks my now Mega Gengar’s new Sub with Dark Pulse and Kangaskhan goes for the Power-Up Punch onto Garchomp, giving it +2 and some chip damage.

It’s turn three, and here Jeudy makes a rather risky play by going for the Sucker Punch into Gengar with Kangaskhan, probably predicting a Protect from Garchomp, but Garchomp does not wish to Protect himself as I knock out Hydreigon with another Dragon Claw. Ludicolo comes out to replace Hydreigon, and that is where my notes stop. I’m fairly certain it was because I had confidence in my winning chances, but it doesn’t really help me when I’m trying to recount a tale. Most likely, Sableye was able to come in and burn Kangaskhan, while Gengar would have sat behind a Sub and launched Sludge Bombs at Ludicolo. That’s just an educated guess though.

Win ??-?? (5-0)

Round 6 – Andres M. – Wide Guard Aegislash

He used:    

I used:    

This battle had hands down the worst notes. I literally can remember nothing about this battle other than the leads, what Andres used, and my terrible misplay into Aegislash’s Wide Guard on turn two. After turn two, I put on the prediction hat though as I risk using spread moves even with Aegislash on the field. This jumbled memory of a battle eventually becomes a win for me, but I don’t recall what I even did to win. Did it have something to do with Confuse Ray? If I used Sableye, then probably. Apologies to Andres if that is the case.

Win ??-0 (6-0)

Round 7 – Omari Travis – Fight for the Cut

This round marks the last round I would have to win in order to make it to day two’s Swiss. And my opponent for this round was none other than Omari Travis. I’ve heard about him quite a bit, but did not know his play style or his team going into the battle. Since I wasn’t well known, the same could probably be said for him.

He used:    

I used:    

The battle opens with Blastoise and Aegislash for Omari while I lead Gengar and Garchomp. Aware of the Fake Out coming towards Garchomp, I Protect while Mega Evolving Gengar trying to get a free Sub. Aegislash shifts formes and breaks the Sub, putting me at a slight loss after turn one. I switch Gengar for Gardevoir, as I can no longer avoid Garchomp’s Earthquakes, which I use as Aegislash is swapped for Zapdos and Blastoise takes the Earthquake, retaliating with a Water Pulse on Gardevoir.

Next turn, Zapdos shoots a Hidden Power Ice towards Garchomp, which survives in the red, as I Rock Slide and Dazzling Gleam for the knock out on Blastoise and nice chunk damage on Zapdos. Omari then throws in his own Garchomp. Turn four was probably the most eventful turn, as Omari decides not to use Hidden Power on Garchomp despite the fact that he out sped me the turn before, and goes for the Discharge for some damage on Gardevoir. Then, my Garchomp outspeeds his Garchomp and slams it with a Dragon Claw, putting it into the deep red. His Garchomp then follows up with an Earthquake to knock out both of my Pokémon. With Gengar and Lapras as my two remaining Pokémon, Shadow Tag allows both Gengar and Lapras to pick up easy revenge KOs on both with Sludge Bomb and Ice Shard, leaving Omari with only his Aegislash. Omari reveals the Flash Cannon on his Aegislash before going down to a combination of Shadow Ball and Hydro Pump.

I remember thinking to myself after this round that if his Blastoise was a Kangaskhan instead, I probably would have lost. Good game Omari, I enjoyed this game a lot, and hey, no Confuse Ray this time!

Win 2-0 (7-0)

Round 8 – Alec Rubin – Lost Memories

Going into Round 8, I stopped caring about turn-by-turn notes and turned my focus to scouting out the opponent’s team, since I had already guaranteed myself a spot in Saturday’s competition and I knew my opponent had as well. I still didn’t feel all too different, but there was a part of me that was noticeably excited and relieved.

He used:    

Due to not writing down turn-by-turn, I don’t know which Pokémon I chose to use for the battle. I will say that looking back on the notes, I probably used Gardevoir, Garchomp, Sableye, and Mega Gengar, but this is not known for a fact.

This battle, unfortunately, was not very memorable to me and for that I apologize to Alec, since this was probably the only loss you had in the Swiss for day one. All I could really think about was the prospect of battling Ray Rizzo, which didn’t happen because he had lost to a certain Andy H. Ah well. I’m sure it was probably a good game, and I probably had to fight for the win in this battle, seeing as there are partially complete move sets and items in my notes.

Win ??-0 (8-0)

Round 9 – Andy H. – Undefeated Showdown

The final round of the day, and I was one of the two undefeated Masters Division players, with a record of 8-0. I’m feeling pretty good about this position right now, but I’m careful not to let this success go to my head. Andy was my final opponent of the day, and I would also be facing him again on Saturday. We talked about how somehow, Dark Void Moody Smeargle and Confuse Ray Sableye made it through the entire Swiss undefeated and how that said a lot about the competition.

He used:    

I used:    

Upon seeing my team, Andy realizes how anti-Smeargle and anti-Kangaskhan it is and tells me straight out that he is not bringing Smeargle to the game. I deliberately choose not to take Gengar and Lapras, since they are valuable as information in a game where I did not think about winning, but more about collecting data.

Andy leads with Salamence and Rotom as I lead with Gardevoir and Mawile. We Protect Salamence and Mawile from each other’s threats as Andy Overheats Gardevoir, getting a critical hit and knocking her out. While Gardevoir would have lived the hit had it not been a critical, she would not have done much as Dazzling Gleam is resisted by Rotom anyway. Rotom takes Life Orb damage, which I jot down as valuable information. Knowing that Salamence is not Scarfed, I bring in Garchomp to find out if Salamence is still faster than Garchomp or not. Salamence nets the Draco Meteor KO on Garchomp, showing to us that it is faster than Garchomp, while Rotom switches out for Aegislash. Play Rough nets the KO on Salamence, bringing Rotom back in. With Sableye and Mawile as my last two Pokémon, I know that I’ve lost the battle, but opt to continue playing it out to scout some more. Honestly, I probably could have forfeit here, seeing as Life Orb Rotom and Aegislash have very predictable move sets. Either way, Andy takes the game.

Lose 0-3 (8-1)

End of Day 1, Night of the First Day

Knowing that I had already made it into Saturday’s roster, I head over to the Side Tourneys area to hang out with my friends, who had varying records with 6-3 being the highest and 4-5 being the lowest. After waiting for quite some time, the rankings are put up and the usual swarm surrounds the posting. While ranks 47-64 did not move on to Saturday’s top cut due to their records being 6-3, I thought they should have been allowed to move on to make the cut a more even number. Also, here’s evidence of my placement:

3 coincidentally happens to be my favorite number.

As we returned home, I went to my friend’s house to prepare for the next day. And what a way to prepare as I promptly fell asleep around 9:30 pm, getting a much needed, well deserved, well-rested night.

Dawn of the Second Day

We arrive at the convention center nice and early to get in before the crowds arrived. For this day, Matteo, another of my friends, told me to wear the paddy hat that pretty much everyone saw, with his reasoning being that it would help me conceal my identity. I realized upon arriving that this was not the case at all, because the hat attracted SO much attention from lots of people, but by then the deed had been done and that’s the impression I’ve left for you all. If anything, the hat did provide me with a way to avoid eye contact with my opponents, allowing me to eliminate the feeling that I’m playing a match in person, although this honestly didn’t really affect anything.

Round 1 – Rushan Shekar – Storm of Fire

Game 1

Game 2

Rushan’s team did not look friendly to Mawile at all, so my mega of choice for these battles was Gengar.

Thanks to TeamRocketElite for getting the match on video. My first round of day two was against Rushan, who told me he was surprised he made it to day two since he considered himself not an excellent player, but I think he has a good foundation and has lots of opportunities to hone those skills. Admittedly, he was a fairly easy to read, but he still provided a challenge with his solid sun team. I didn’t have a notebook for this round, so it’s lucky that it was on the screen and someone was filming it. Great match Rushan!

Win (1-0)

Round 2 – Andy H. – Undefeated Showdown: Ravengeance

The rematch against Andy was quite eventful to say the least. We ended up being one of the last pairs to finish our games, which isn’t really a good thing considering time constraints.

Game 1

For this battle, I pulled out my two surprises, Gengar and Lapras, which Andy hadn’t seen the day before. Andy wasn’t too phased by the appearance of Gengar, although she did cut Smeargle’s lifespan short with a well-timed Poison. If you’re wondering how in the heck did Smeargle live Mega Gengar’s Sludge Bomb, his Smeargle was in a Special Defense boosting mood for our set. However, his remaining matchups against Lapras did not let him effectively deal with it, allowing Lapras to dish out some major damage across his team before eventually going down near the end of the battle, but by then it was a little too late for a comeback.

Win

Game 2

This was the only game in which Andy brought the dreaded KhanArtist combo. A bunch of poor plays later, Andy takes Game 2 pretty solidly as he was able to utilize the sleep turns provided by Dark Void to easily manage my plays.

Lose

Game 3

This game was a huge reminder to how Pokémon is very luck-based compared to other competitive games and also served as a wake-up call for me for the remainder of the day. Turn 1, Andy leads Salamence and Rotom against my Gengar and Mawile. Here I take an extremely dumb risk with Mawile, as I Mega Evolve and try for the Play Rough, thinking that Andy would double up on Gengar, who I try to get a Sub up with. Salamence misses its Draco Meteor on Gengar’s Sub, and Rotom misses Mawile with its Overheat, resulting in his Salamence going down to Play Rough with no losses on my side of the field. From there, Andy visibly loses hope as that first turn was definitely the most crucial in determining the outcome. His Rotom would go on to miss two additional Overheats, and after the battle, I apologized for having the game and the match essentially stolen from him by the RNG. Understandably so, Andy was angry, however he was a great sport about it. He did distribute some of my team’s details to some of his friends in top cut, and honestly, I think that’s a fair tradeoff for the win I so unfairly wrestled from him.

Win (2-0)

Round 3 – Simon Yip – That Blastoise

Game 1

Simon’s team might have been a counter team to my team, I don’t really know. His matchups against my team were really strong all around, and going in to this match I never even considered that Blastoise might be faster than Garchomp. A quick mental Speed calc later, my suspicions were confirmed: Simon’s Blastoise was Timid with max Speed investment. After losing Garchomp early in the battle, the rest of the battle went downhill since I was relying on Garchomp to take out his Lucario so Lapras could have a field day. That didn’t happen though.

Lose

Game 2

This time I attempted to play some mindgames on turn 1, but it had the same end result in Garchomp going down to Blastoise’s fast Ice Beam. This ushered in Lapras a bit too early for my tastes, but I was able to take out Simon’s Talonflame with an Ancient Power the next turn and Lapras was blessed by a 10% All Stats +1! Simon proceeds to send in Lucario to handle my Lapras, but his Close Combat doesn’t OHKO, instead taking off about 65% of her HP. Here’s where I made a major misplay: instead of just knocking out his heavily damaged Blastoise with a +1 Freeze-Dry, I decided to be a greedy little boy by trying to get another 10% All Stats +1 from Ancient Power. Blastoise lives with a sliver of health and proceeds to Aura Sphere Lapras’s face to finish her off. I ended the battle not even seeing Simon’s reserve 4th Pokémon.

I like to think that had I won the second game, I would still lose the third since there wasn’t really any way I could get around his Blastoise other than Lapras, and even then he had strong Lapras checks in Talonflame, Tyranitar, and Lucario. Luckily, I did not play him in Top Cut because I would’ve surely lost.

Lose (2-1)

Round 4 – Jason Fisher-Short. – Mega Venusaur and Goodstuffs

From the notes I took, Jason was using pretty much all goodstuffs and mostly standard move sets, so I don’t remember a whole lot about this set. We did play all three games, and I came out the victor of two. What did stand out to me about his team was his Life Orb Garchomp surprising my Garchomp with an OHKO and his faster-than-normal Mega Venusaur, which out sped my Gardevoir for another OHKO.

Win (3-1)

Round 5 – Kyle Smith – Self-proclaimed Beginner’s Luck

Kyle told me this was his first ever tournament and that he couldn’t believe he had made it so far in the tournament. I knew there must be something weird about his team since he made it this far into the tournament, so I played smartly and carefully for this set. Battle 1 was in my favor due to Kyle only taking his Mega Mawile to fight Lapras, so it ended in my win once I had knocked it out. Game 2 ended with a 1v1 situation with his Mawile and my low-health offensive mon (I don’t remember what it was), so I thought I had lost because all he needed was to click Sucker Punch and it was lights out. Turns out, Kyle wasn’t carrying Sucker Punch at all on his Mawile, stating that he didn’t like playing with it. Great game Kyle, and I hope you continue playing Pokémon and going to tournaments!

Win (4-1)

Round 6 – Jonathan Rankin – Jonathan Mirror Match

Jonathan’s team looked pretty standard at a glance, but during the set, I could tell there were some differences from the norm. His Helping Hand Azumarill took me by surprise and also took one of the games of the set, while his Specs Salamence and Offensive Mega Venusaur also applied lots of pressure on my team in all three games. It was a great team set up, but Sableye doesn’t really care about how good your team is put together if it doesn’t have anti-confusion or anti-burn measures. I end up taking the set, probably due to Jonathan’s choice to use Kangaskhan in games 2 and 3, which made Sableye’s job easy.

Win (5-1)

Top Cut: What a Ride!

This was the first time I had actually top cut, and I seeded 5th going into it. Oddly enough, I was not excited, but I was determined to at least get to Top 4 for a coveted Worlds invite. With my friends supporting me, and my resolve tempered, I start my first and perhaps only top cut experience.

Top 8: Battle for Worlds qualification – Jeudy Azzarelli – Seawater is Salty

My second clash with Jeudy was quite the event according to my friends who were watching the screen on which it was displayed. Since I had a different notebook from the day before and neglected to review my notes on Jeudy, who I should have considered the possibility of facing off again, this ended being a very weird set of games for me.

Game 1

This game was basically me trying to remember his team. Jeudy had obviously prepared well for my team, and made short work of it in the end with his team’s rain mode. Perhaps I didn’t manage my Lapras correctly this game.

Game 2

He used:    

In the second game, my plan was to lock Jeudy into a favorable matchup for me with Mega Gengar and slowly but surely beat his team out by statusing everything with Sableye and smacking them with Gengar’s Dual STABs. It worked out in my favor, but not before Jeudy revealed the Quick Guard from Talonflame.

Game 3

I didn’t feel the need to change my second game’s approach to the battle, so I stuck with it. As soon as I was able to lock in his Kangaskhan with a partner against Sableye and Gengar, I pretty much considered the game to be won. Indeed, Jeudy eventually forfeit the game after attempting to fight the dice rolls.

This isn’t to say that the battle was impossible for Jeudy. Jeudy’s team had all the right tools to try to take care of my team, with game 1 as evidence for that claim, but with the coin flips almost never falling in his favor, the battle went very smoothly for me and pretty poorly for him.

After the match, my friends told me about the spectating crowd with salinity rivaling the ocean’s over the match. Apparently, watching a Hydreigon hit itself four times in a row with confusion is not fun to watch, but it’s probably even less fun for the Hydreigon’s trainer. Sorry Jeudy, but runner-up at Worlds is a much better title than I’ve ever had, so that makes up for the poor luck here I guess.

Top 4: Semifinal bout – Alex Ogloza – A False Sense of Security

This match was streamed on Pokémon’s official Twitch channel, and you can watch it from Pokémon’s YouTube channel.

Knowing that I had a Worlds Invite at that point, I no longer had any goals in mind, making this match more like icing on the cake in my eyes. Win and get more stuff and possibly a free trip, or lose and just not get as much stuff. This attitude is reflected directly in battles two and three.

In the post battle interview with Alex, he voices that in game two, I had fallen into a sense of safeness, not willing to take any big risks, and he capitalized on that. I believe what he said was true, because honestly after winning the first game, I should have kept on pushing his team with the offensive presence I had rather than relying on matchups, which allowed Alex to start punching holes in my team with his super offensive setup and Talonflame. In the third game, it’s exceedingly obvious that I wasn’t willing to take risks with the double Protect turn one, and then losing Garchomp turn two due to close minded thinking that Alex would still target Gengar. If I were to Rock Slide turn one instead, I could have easily won some momentum for my team, but this wasn’t the case and I recognize my mistakes from this match. Alex is a great guy, and hopefully we’ll have battles whether friendly or not in the future.

Thoughts and Experiences – Nationals

With my 4th Nationals experience coming to an end, I must say that this one was probably the most well organized from previous years. The way top cut was handled, the streaming, and the overall increased promotion of the VGC circuit over the entire past season in general with Premier Challenges, three seasonal Regionals, and other smaller events throughout the season really shows me that the community is growing more and more each year. I’ve always found it convenient that Nationals was always held in Indianapolis being a local, but over my time playing the game competitively, I’ve formed a small group with others who also took interest in the competitive field and been getting a little more involved in events not just in Indiana. The only thing I wish I could have done this year was play in more side tourneys, those were always a blast from years past when I wasn’t in the main event, but I guess getting my name out there probably outweighs the opportunity cost.

Also, I’d like to formally apologize to any of my opponents who had to deal with Confuse Ray and got dealt the bad end of the stick. Just remember to pack a Safeguard user next time, or don’t evolve your Mega Kangaskhan so quickly. Then again, taking Kangaskhan to battle me is like a death sentence.

World Championships 2014

In the lead up to Worlds 2014, there was a lot of hassle in just getting to the event; the van my friends and I were using had a broken AC compressor, leaving us to drop it off at a shop about two hours away from DC. Luckily, a friend of a friend who was going to visit DC with us anyway came and rescued us. The difficulties don’t stop there as we all learned that downtown DC traffic is literally the worst. After arriving on Friday for the LCQ for Tim, we spent some time sightseeing and stuff. I also went to the Symphonic Evolutions concert, which I found was rather hit or miss depending on the source song, with music from Generation 3 being the best and songs from Generation 1 being rather average. At the event, I met Aaron Zheng and we had some formal introductions. Some other friendly faces I saw at the concert include Randy Kwa, his brother Jimmy, and Alex Ogloza. After a pretty fun-filled Friday, it was time to get to business in the main event.

Team Changes

There were two major replacements made to my Nationals Team and one minor change. These changes will be reflected below for you; the rest is the same as my Nationals Team. During this teambuilding process, I decided to swing my focus entirely to Mega Gengar for a while before caving back in for dual Mega with Mega Mawile. As they say, old habits die hard.

Sableye -> Eclipse (M) @Rocky Helmet
Ability: Inner Focus
Calm Nature
188 HP / 164 Def / 156 Sdef
-Yawn
-Snarl
-Helping Hand
-Moonlight

Eclipse is a moon-based nickname. It’s also a long-range Dark magic spell that cuts the target’s HP in half for the GBA Fire Emblem series. 

Umbreon is one of the more overlooked Pokémon in this meta in my eyes, and it actually does a pretty good job against most of the common top tier threats. He was a top contributor for my Worlds matches, but his utility alone wasn’t enough to pull out a winning record. During Swiss, out of the 6 people I faced, at least 4 of them forgot about Inner Focus which prevents Umbreon from flinching. Paired with the Rocky Helmet, Umbreon can rack up lots of passive damage onto the opponent’s Pokémon, especially those that hit twice like Kangaskhan.

I toyed around with a lot of different EV Spreads with varying levels of bulk and eventually decided on this one since it technically has the most balance and chances of surviving things. Umbreon can take a lot of abuse from max HP, especially from Special attackers.

The moves were a bit tougher to decide; Umbreon’s movepool is quite deep and amazing for a support Pokémon and I had trouble choosing anything with Baby-Doll Eyes, Charm, Wish, and of course, Confuse Ray competing for a move slot. Snarl is a move that meshed well with my team, as it hits both opponents and lowers their Special Attack stat. Of important note is that Snarl bypasses Aegislash’s Substitute and hits it for Super Effective damage, making Umbreon a natural Aegislash counter. Yawn applies tons of switch pressure when used correctly, and with Mega Gengar as a potential partner, I could force the opponent to go to sleep if I so desired. Helping Hand boosts its partner’s attack power, turning Gengar’s Shadow Ball into an OHKO on any Aegislash and negating to an extent Intimidate. Finally, Moonlight was chosen because Umbreon otherwise had no recovery, and I felt that on something as bulky as Umbreon, recovery is quite necessary. It also takes advantage of enemy Sun if they run Mega Charizard Y.

Gardevoir -> Spectrecles (M) @Focus Sash
Ability: Flash Fire
Modest Nature
188 HP / 68 Def / 252 Satk
-Will-o-Wisp
-Heat Wave
-Protect
-Trick Room

Spectrecles is a combination of the words “Spectre” and “Spectacles” because it looks like Chandelure has some sort of eyewear.

Since I did not want to lock myself to only Hidden Power Fire for Fire coverage, I chose to switch over to Chandelure for its high Special Attack without Specs and STAB. It also serves as a Trick Room setter, as nearly all of my Pokémon benefit from it in some form. Flash Fire was used instead of Infiltrator because I wanted to be able to be completely immune to Fire, which in practice has worked out quite well. Chandelure forms a nice core with Lapras and Mawile, being able to switch out to one and cover the other’s weakness.

The EV spread is pretty basic. Max Special Attack for the most bang for your buck, and a “minimize passive damage” HP number, with the rest dumped in Defense.

Will-o-Wisp ensured I still had a way to keep Mega Kangaskhan and physical attackers in check, and Protect is self-explanatory.

Raven
Iron Head -> Rock Slide

After making the switch to Trick Room, I replaced Iron Head with Rock Slide for the slightly better coverage in exchange for not being able to win Mawile mirrors. Also, flinch chances.

The Main Event

At the main event on Saturday, I was prepared for battles of the highest caliber, but in the end, I came out with a losing record of 2-4, netting me 50th place out of 59 (one person dropped.) Due to this, after my round 3 loss to Ben Hickey, I pretty much played whatever I felt like instead of having the immense pressure of top cutting. Either way, I’m still going to recount each round with relative accuracy. Every person I faced who had a Kangaskhan never even used it against me, so I guess that says something about my current reputation.

Round 1 – Mike Suleski (2-4) – Fastmoonguss

Mike congratulated me on making Lapras work at Nationals, as he was also a classic Lapras fan. With that, we got into our set, with the amazing battlefield background of the world.

Game 1

He used: Tyranitar, Aerodactyl, Talonflame, Azumarill
I used: Umbreon, Garchomp, Mawile-Mega, Chandelure

Mike chose to go the Megatar route for the first game. His Aerodactyl gave me a lot of trouble with his repeated Sky Drops and Taunts making Umbreon a sitting duck. I pulled a really good Rock Slide predict with Garchomp into his Talonflame switch-in, which I was proud of myself for. In the final face off, it was his below 1/8th health +1 Mega Tyranitar vs. my 1/3rd health Garchomp. He was maybe mentally calculating the damage to see if Rock Slide was enough, but it turns out that he misses it allowing Garchomp to get the KO for the win.

Win 1-0

Game 2

He used: Aerodactyl, Azumarill, Amoonguss, ???
I used: Chandelure, Garchomp, Mawile-Mega, Umbreon

In this game, Mike got his Belly Drum set up and proceeded to sweep, all the while I’m thinking that 100% health Garchomp can live +6 Aqua Jet.

Lose 0-3

Game 3

He used: Azumarill, Aerodactyl, Amoonguss, ???
I used: Chandelure, Umbreon, Lapras, Mawile-Mega

Once again, Mike is able to get up a Belly Drum, but this time I brought the Lapras to eat up those Aqua Jets. Once he brings in Amoonguss, I’m still grasping to a small string of hope that I can knock out his Azumarill, but he surprises me with the Fast Spore onto Mawile, and also on to Lapras. It also had Hidden Power Fire to chip Mawile with! These were a fun set of games and he hid his surprise very well. After the battle, Mike did 20 push-ups for a tradition of his, and was disappointed that my Umbreon was not running Baby-Doll Eyes, a move which would have actually done very well in this battle.

Lose 0-3 (0-1)

Round 2 – Aaron Zheng (4-2) – He Hypes it Up

Aaron got to the table and he looked pretty tired. Even though he looked tired, I knew he would probably bring his A-game to the match anyway even after a first round loss.

Game 1

He used: Hariyama, Salamence, Ferrothorn, Rotom-Heat
I used: Chandelure, Umbreon, Gengar-Mega, Garchomp

Aaron would be one of two opponents I had that day who used Hariyama, the other being Ben Hickey, and the first to forget about Umbreon’s Inner Focus ability. I found out the Hariyama wasn’t Assault Vested early on, so I chose to leave it to do its business, which ended up biting me in the first game. Chandelure was lost early, so his Ferrothorn was able to come in unchecked; a Helping Hand Shadow Ball critical nearly takes it out, but without Chandelure the game is lost.

Lose 0-1

Game 2

He used: Hariyama, Gothitelle, Ferrothorn, Salamence
I used: Gengar-Mega, Chandelure, Mawile, Umbreon

On the first turn, I double into Gothitelle with Mega Shadow Ball and Heat Wave, but it lives with a sliver of health. Darn. Aaron himself doubles into Chandelure and I lose it early in the battle again. Here is where Mawile comes in and does work. With Hariyama at -1 Attack and trapped, I use Rock Slide with Mawile in hopes of picking off his Gothitelle, which he switches for Salamence while I Protect with Gengar. Rock Slide is able to chunk Salamence into KO range with Sludge Bomb, which I proceed to do, while Vanilla Mawile is not done yet as it Play Roughs Hariyama for another KO. At this point, Aaron only has his Ferrothorn left in the back, and with Umbreon I can get the forced Yawn sleep and repeatedly Helping Hand Shadow Ball until it faints.

Win 2-0

Game 3

He used: Salamence, Hariyama, Rotom-Heat, Ferrothorn
I used: Gengar-Mega, Umbreon, Chandelure, Garchomp

I don’t remember too much about this game, but this time I actually preserved my Chandelure for the Ferrothorn. Victory was in sight as his Rotom was in KO range from Helping Hand Dragon Claw or Rock Slide from my Garchomp, the last obstacle standing between Chandelure and Ferrothorn’s matchup. But Aaron makes the best play with a Double Protect, and his risk pays off, letting Ferrothorn KO Garchomp with Gyro Ball. With that, his Rotom is able to KO Chandelure easily as it was taken down to its sash earlier in the battle. Great game, great guy, and don’t forget the hype he brings to the table readers.

Lose 1-2 (0-2)

Round 3 – Ben Hickey (3-3) – Team = Aaron Zheng + Jon Hu

Ben’s team literally is 3 of my Pokémon + 3 of Aaron’s Pokémon, and I point that out before the battle. Obviously there were a few differences and likely he designed his team independent of both of us.

Game 1

He Used: Hariyama, Gengar, Mawile-Mega, Garchomp
I used: Chandelure, Gengar-Mega, Garchomp, Umbreon

Ben’s Hariyama is Assault Vested, and I could tell because Chandelure’s Heat Wave did absolutely jack. His Gengar was a support Gengar with Sludge Bomb as the offensive option, which could cause a few problems for Umbreon down the line. He also falls for the same trap Aaron did in Faking Out Umbreon. I manage the first game well enough, with his Life Orb Garchomp getting hit with a Will-o-Wisp somewhere in there.

Win

Game 2

He used: Rotom-Heat, Garchomp, Mawile-Mega, Hariyama
I used: Chandelure, Umbreon, Mawile-Mega, Garchomp

In this game, I missed a crucial Play Rough on his Hariyama switch-in out of Garchomp, and it was also one of the few games where I was actually able to get a Trick Room up. His Hariyama was then able to take out Umbreon easily with Close Combat taking advantage of my own Trick Room. It was a bad time from there.

Lose

Game 3

He used: Gengar, Garchomp, Hariyama, Mawile-Mega
I used: Chandelure, Umbreon, Garchomp, Mawile-Mega

Ben’s lead of Gengar and Garchomp against mine was just plain terrible. I had no real way of ever winning this matchup without incurring multiple fodders, so the battle was lost.

Lose (0-3)

Round 4 – Adib Alam (1-5) – The Alternate Nationals Championship Duel

This matchup could have happened at Nationals had I defeated Alex in the semifinals, but it looks like the matchup happened anyway. To be completely honest, I don’t even remember anything about our set except his -4 Special Attack Tyranitar being unable to KO 37 HP Mawile with Fire Blast. Also he kept fishing for flinches on Umbreon which never happened, and was caught off guard by Snarl bypassing his Aegislash’s Sub. Adib had a lot of college workload apparently, which severely restricted what could’ve been a great run at Worlds. Needless to say, the top 4 of US Nationals would all bomb the tournament in the end, except Alex.

Win (1-3)

Round 5 – Gavin Michaels (2-4) – Mega Gengar Mirror

From before the match, Gavin ran into both Smeargle users and lost to both I assume. He was pretty under the weather, but that didn’t stop him from having fun with the Gengar mirror.

Game 1

He used: Gengar-Mega, Lucario, Rotom-Heat, Ludicolo
I used: Mawile-Mega, Umbreon, Lapras, and something else

Gavin pulls out the Mega Gengar right away as I noticed at Team Preview that his team doesn’t have any answers to Umbreon other than Lucario and Tyranitar. Coincidentally, although Umbreon does pair up well with Gengar and other Ghosts in general, it also gives opposing Ghosts grief with Snarl. I’m able to Intimidate his Lucario so that it no longer OHKOs Umbreon with Close Combat, slowly getting chipped by Rocky Helmet. Lapras takes care of Ludicolo and Rotom-Heat after a few Snarls.

Win

Game 2

He used: Ludicolo, Rotom-Heat, Gengar-Mega, Lucario
I used: Gengar-Mega, Umbreon, Lapras, and something else

Like the last battle, except Gavin Fakes Out into Umbreon and receives the bad end of the Rocky Helmet. I feel like Gavin was playing on tilt, since he didn’t even attempt to conserve his Lucario for the endgame. Umbreon cleaned everything else up. Either way, I can’t fault him for his bad run, since it was more like his horrendous luck earlier in the day. He came to me afterwards and we had a friendly chat when all the stress was gone. A cool guy, and a fellow Mega Gengar connoisseur.

Win (2-3)

Round 6 – Johannes Botma (2-4) – International Finish

I probably could have won this set if I really tried, but by this point in the day I was super tired and didn’t really want to even try. I was actually paired down with Johannes, as he was 1-4 and I was 2-3. Johannes was playing pretty predictably but I didn’t really care about making massively good predictions any more. Out of his team, his Mamoswine and Hydreigon were probably my biggest threats and in the final game, he was able to squeeze out a win by HP with his slightly damaged Hydreigon versus my burnt Umbreon. I hope Johannes can grow the game a bit more in his nation and continue to improve for future World Championships just like I hope to do.

Lose (2-4)

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

I was pretty underprepared for the jump from the National meta to the World, but I like to think that had the dice rolled a bit more in my favor against opponents like Aaron or Ben that I would’ve performed a bit better. Regardless, I feel content with just being able to attend the event and root for Sejun to win it all; the social aspect of Pokémon events is truly astounding. On Sunday, I hung out with Adib and the Kwa brothers, participating in a Multi Battle side tournament and finding friends to talk to about the event amongst other topics. All-in-all, a great experience that I recommend to everyone trying to place high in tournaments as the ultimate goal above winning. Meeting the people and making new friends holds much more weight than winning an event, and while winning is the aim of competition, it should never be the first thought to cross your mind at competition. You’ll only set yourself up for more disappointment should you fall like me at Worlds.

And with that I thank you for coming to the end of the report. A quick shout out to a few people is in order:

My personal friends:

• Tuba Tim - Our chauffeur to DC and participant in the LCQ where he got matched up round 1 with Shota Yamamoto. Getting better at Pokémon by the day. Used a Stunfisk team to go 6-3 at Nationals 2014. Also a college buddy.
• magayo - A player who could place well in tournaments if he didn’t make teams right before events. Has the honor of causing me to 4-0 ragequit before. Might seem pleasant around strangers but has a totally different persona with friends. Goes to Purdue.
• matteogaminggroup - The guy who convinced me to wear the hat at Nats. He has been mistaken at least once for Ray Rizzo. Likes to play with overlooked Pokémon such as Jynx at Nats 2013 and Tyrantrum this year. Also goes to Purdue.
• the redeemer - He couldn’t make it to compete this year at Nationals, but a great guy nonetheless. Probably has the most fun on Showdown ever. Again, goes to Purdue.
• squirrelboy1225 - aka the WAPS. If you get matched up with him on Showdown!, call him a WAPS. You don’t have to know what that means, you just have to do it. Has an unhealthy obsession with Yanmega and Hidden Power Rock.
• gregoryhu - My bro! Helps me out with teambuilding aspects even if he doesn’t realize it.

And some awesome Poképals:

• Adib Alam, Fullmetal Alchemist
• Alex Ogloza the Ice King
• Logan Castro Ya Boi
• Aaron Zheng
• Mike Suleski
• Ashton Cox
• Randy Kwa
• Jimmy Kwa
• Gavin Michaels

So with that, I leave you with a smaller list of pros, cons, and neutrals for both events:

Pros

• I actually did a thing and placed high using a team of mostly my favorites
• Nationals Tournament setup was very well planned this year
• Met lots of cool people
• Worlds Invite!
• Having a good time with my personal friends and friends from the event
• Cool prizes ‘n’ stuff
• Played in the Multi Battle tourneys
• Pokémon Symphonic Evolutions

Neutrals

• Joined Nugget Bridge (finally)
• Wrote this Team Report
• Got some positive attention
• Shops were kind of okay
• Nats registration on Thursday instead of Friday

Cons

• Couldn’t stick around my friends a lot for both competitions
• Some unwanted attention
• Super tired after the weekend at work the next morning
• Didn’t play many side tourneys
• DC traffic sucks and the road trip sucked too
• Worlds registration was a mess

I do plan on attending the Ft. Wayne Fall Regionals, and trust me when I say I have a few ideas floating around and not only in my head for teambuilding. See you later!

The post You’ve Activated my Trap Card! Story of a 2014 Nationals Semifinalist appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi all, Gilbert here! I come from the modest country of England. Today I’d like to share a report about my first and last year competing in the Senior division. I started playing Pokemon competitively in the summer of 2013 when a friend told me about the Video Game Championships. I had been playing Pokémon for years and had never heard of the VGC before. I was intrigued by the competition and watched many videos of past VGC tournaments. This year, I placed 2nd at UK Nationals, eventually stopped in my tracks by Nicola Gini. I suppose second place wasn’t too bad for my first VGC tournament. My apologies in advance if this report doesn’t live up to one of Zog’s legendary team reports but “I did my best, I have no regrets.”

As you can probably see, this team was inspired by Se Jun Park’s 2013 World Championship team, and I found that his team suited my play style. Much like Se Jun last year, I finished 5th with my team at Worlds, although in my case it was in the Senior division. Although the lack of good Trick Room setters made setting up Trick Room harder this year, I found that my team could still catch many other teams off guard with the surprising amount of offensive pressure it offered. With this team I didn’t have to rely on Trick Room, as I could also slow them down with Thunder Wave. After a lot of practice, I felt confident in the way the team played.

I went 6-0 during Swiss with this team, and came in 5th place overall, only losing to eventual runner up woopahking.

The Team

Sun Tzu (Abomasnow) (M) @ Abomasite
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 68 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Wood Hammer
- Blizzard
- Protect
- Ice Shard

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Hail Room.”

• Survives Brave Bird from -1 Choice Band Adamant Talonflame
• Survives Flash Cannon from max Special Attack from Aegislash
• OHKOs Hydreigon even if it’s running max HP
• OHKOs Rotom-W with 96 Defense EVs

In my opinion, Abomasnow is an underrated Mega. With more Attack than Garchomp and more Special Attack than Hydreigon, Abomasnow can deal devastating damage to teams at both ends of the defensive spectrum. The only area in which Abomasnow is lacking is Speed, which made it ideal for Trick Room. With Mega Abomasnow, my aim was to deal so much damage that my opponent couldn’t recover. This Pokémon also beats double Dragons and Rotom-W, which are really common in VGC 2014. Mega Abomasnow was very good at controlling the weather, and could deal nice chunks of damage to anything that didn’t resist Blizzard. I reckon it would be used more if it wasn’t for that pesky Talonflame.

Bane (Rhyperior) (M) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Solid Rock
Level: 50
EVs: 88 HP / 252 Atk / 168 SpD
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Drill Run
- Protect
- Substitute

“We will rock you.”

• Survives Flash Cannon from Modest max Special Attack Aegislash 100% of the time
• Survives Iron Head from max Attack Mega Mawile 100% of the time
• Survives Aqua Jet from max Attack Choice Band Azumarill 100% of the time
• OHKOs 4 HP Garchomp after +2 from Weakness Policy

This Pokémon was the star of my team and in my opinion is underused this generation. Its amazing Defense and Attack made it a solid check for Talonflame, and it could eat up Kangaskhan’s Power-Up Punch to get a powerful +2 Attack from Weakness Policy. This was my main reason for choosing Rhyperior over Rhydon. Solid Rock meant that it could survive Super Effective attacks throw at it and retaliate with a +2 Attack Drill Run. This thing tanks physical hits and is a great switch-in to Talonflame and Kangaskhan.

I chose Drill Run over Earthquake because most of my team couldn’t dodge Earthquake without Protecting. Substitute was my last move, and not only shielded me from Will-o-Wisps but also gave me a chance to get behind a Substitute if I predicted a Protect from the opponent. I invested heavily in Special Defense as that was an area in which Rhyperior was lacking. These EVs allowed Rhyperior to survive a Draco Meteor from Salamence, as well as other assorted Special Attacks. Rhyperior could deal heavy damage to anything that Abomasnow couldn’t, and vice versa, so they were almost a perfect pair.

Technoz (Scrafty) (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Atk / 64 Def / 68 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Taunt
- Drain Punch
- Fake Out

“Who needs the Incredible Hulk when you have incredible bulk?”

• OHKO’s Aegislash-Blade with 252 HP / 40 Defense
• Survives max Special Attack Timid Choice Spec Hydreigon Draco Meteor 100% of the time
• Survives Adamant Choice Banded Brave Bird from Talonflame at -1 100% of the time

This Pokémon was the primary support member of my team, as it had Fake Out to help Trick Room set up. I used Scrafty mostly to shut down Aegislash and Tyranitar, as both of these Pokemon threatened my Trick Room setters. For a long time I used Quick Guard on Scrafty, but Taunt just seemed to fit the team better, and I already dealt with Talonflame well enough. Taunt also allowed me to completely shut down Aegislash. Intimidate was a major factor in most of my games, helping Gardevoir to survive key physical attacks. I got the idea to use Taunt on my Scrafty from Technoz when he was using it at the US National Championships, and I thought it worked really well for him so I tried it.

Lawiet (Chandelure) (F) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 136 Def / 120 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Overheat
- Trick Room
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

“Can’t touch this.”

• Survives Hydro Pump from Calm Rotom-W with 116 EVs invested in Special Attack 100% of the time
• Survives Adamant Banded Talonflame’s Brave Bird 100% of the time
• Survives Crunch from max Attack Tyranitar 100% of the time
• Survives Life Orb Dark Pulse from Tyranitar as long as it’s not Modest

This Pokémon completely shuts down threats to my team such as Mawile, Kangaskhan, and Amoongus, as well as neutering many physical threats with Will-O-Wisp. I chose Overheat over Heat Wave for the extra bit of power. Chanderlure didn’t attack often, so the Special Attack drop didn’t matter so much. Chandelure was originally my primary means of getting Trick Room up. This is why I put a lot of EVs into its Defenses. I also felt Chandelure had enough Special Attack as it is, and so didn’t need any EV investment in Special Attack. I have used both Scrafty and Chandelure from the very beginning of VGC ’14 as they have very nice synergy together.

Eric1999 (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 220 HP / 196 Def / 36 SpA / 56 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave
- Roost
- Swagger
- Thunderbolt

Shout out to Eric1999 for giving me this EV spread.

• Survives Play Rough from max Attack Mawile 100% of the time.
• Survives Rock Slide from Banded Garchomp 100% of the time.

This was by far the hardest slot on my team to fill. I felt as though I needed something that resisted Steel and that could work outside of Trick Room. I tried several Pokemon in this slot, including but not limited to Mega Gyarados, Mega Blastoise, Clawlitzer, Rotom-Heat, and Mawile. I finally decided on Zapdos after using a team given to me by Eric1999. I found Zapdos to be a great support Pokémon that helped against Azumarill and Aegislash, both of which caused my team problems. Zapdos’s ability to resist weaknesses in my team such as Steel and Fighting made it a great switch in.

For the last move, I chose Swagger over other options such as Light Screen purely because I could Swagger my own Scrafty to get a +2 Attack boost. However, I didn’t get to use this combination in the tournament. I also considered having Hidden Power Ice on this Zapdos, but I found Abomasnow already dealt with Dragons well enough. In hindsight, I feel as though I should have chosen Mega Blastoise instead of Zapdos, as it would have done more work during Swiss and especially against Mark in Top Cut.

Trinity (Gardevoir) (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 180 SpA / 44 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Protect
- Trick Room

“To Trick Room or not to Trick Room, that is the question.”

• survives Life Orb Brave Bird from Adamant Talonflame 100% of the time
• survives 252 Special Attack Modest Aegislash Shadow Ball 100% of the time
• OHKOs 4 HP / 4 Special Defense Garchomp 100% of the time
• OHKOs 4 HP / 4 Special Defense Venusaur 100% of the time

As you may or may not be able to tell, this is almost the exact same EV spread as Lajos’s Gardevoir, but with EVs taken out of Defense and Speed and put into Special Defense. I felt as thought these changes gave Gardevoir the perfect balance between offence and defense, and allowed Gardevoir to get Trick Room up easily when paired with Scrafty. I think because of this factor I brought it to almost every game. I considered using Ally Switch over Psychic to try to keep my heavy hitters alive, but I found Psychic was more reliable.

Synergy

+ 

I used this lead if getting Trick Room up seemed too risky or just not worth it. This lead also caught my opposition off guard when they expected a full out Trick Room mode. These two were a solid lead if I had no idea what to lead, and this came in particularly handy against Mark and Henry. This is often my lead against Rain.

+  or 

This was my main Trick Room lead, as it provided enough support to get Trick Room up without too much risk. These three were probably my most common lead, as all the practice I put in with these leads made me feel comfortable using them. Chandelure was perfect against Sun teams, and Scrafty offered that little bit of support I needed to succeed.

+ 

This was my lead if I needed to slow the opponent’s team down, or if I was playing a team like Mark’s. This was also a very strong lead against the Trick Room killer also known as Aegislash. There was additional synergy in that I had the option to Swagger my own Scrafty, adding a bit more offense to Scrafty and giving it the ability to OHKO 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan with Drain Punch.

+ 

These two were my all out offense mode. When Trick Room was up, I would primarily rely on these two to get damage dealt. As noted above, these two covered each other’s weaknesses very well.

Worlds Matches

Round 1  vs Mark McQuillan (woopahking) [UK]

Of course the first match I play is against my British rival. This was the first time I had met Mark in real life and I was determined to win. From the Team Preview I assumed that Lapras was holding an Assault Vest. However, I was mistaken, as it turned out to be a Weakness Policy Lapras. An awesome item choice that definitely benefited him in this scenario.

Game 1:

Game 2:

He led with Aegislash and got a Substitute up on the first turn. This left me at a great disadvantage, especially as I set up Trick Room on the first turn. He was able to cripple my Scrafty with two Will-O-Wisps, and managed to win Game 2.

Game 3:

I don’t remember a thing about this game but according to Mark, I got Trick Room up and was able to make good predictions. From there, I was able to sweep with Rhyperior. I won the set 2-1.

Round 2 vs Daniele Saracino [IT]

Round 2 and I run into my most feared Pokémon, Bisharp. Luckily he only brought it to Game 1.

Game 1:

I managed to burn his Bisharp with Chandelure once Trick Room was up. During Game 1 Chandelure did a lot of work, as he brought Bisharp, Kangaskhan, and Amoongus, all of which were susceptible to Will-O-Wisp.

Game 2:

I had a clear game plan: knock out Rotom-W and Amoonguss, get Trick Room up, and Rhyperior would do the rest. Abomasnow smashed Rotom-W with Wood Hammers and hit everything else with Blizzards to help me achieve my plan.

Round 3 vs Dylan Salvanera (DullAce24) [US]

This team looked very much like TheBattleRoom’s team so I knew what it was capable of.

Game 1:

He didn’t bring the Trick Room side of his team, so all I needed to do was set up Trick Room and Blizzard would do the rest. That’s exactly what I did.

Game 2:

On the first turn, Reuniclus’ Focus Blast was a critical hit on Scrafty. Scrafty bare hung on with 8 HP, and was able to knock Reuniclus out in return. In the end, it came down to his Amoongus and Mawile against my Chandelure. I missed a Will-O-Wisp one turn, and hit it the next. Mawile was low on HP, so I stupidly Overheated his Amoongus thinking that he might try to timer stall. I was rewarded with a Sucker Punch, which knocked me down to about 30% HP. I Protect to let the Burn do some damage, and then decide to Will-O-Wisp again to avoid Mawile’s Sucker Punch. My opponent predicted this, however, and Play Roughed Chandelure, doing about 20% damage. After another Protect his Mawile was in the red, and I had a choice to make: I could use Will-O-Wisp or Overheat, and if he Sucker Punches on Will-O-Wisp or Play Roughs on an Overheat I win. In the end, I played it correctly and won the set.

Round 4 vs Yuki Takashima [JP]

From Team Preview my opponent’s team looked like a Sun team, but the Charizard could have also been a Charizard X. I decided that the best lead I could use was Scrafty and Chandelure. Once Trick Room was up, I could start dealing damage with Abomasnow and Rhyperior.

Game 1:

He led with Charizard and Aerodactyl. This was perfect, as he couldn’t stop me from Faking Out his Aerodactyl and setting up Trick Room. Once Trick Room was up, I burnt his Aerodactal as he Sky Dropped and eventually took down my Scrafty. Rhyperior switched in and cleaned up from there. I learned that his Aegislash had Wide Guard, but luckily I had Drill Run so I was not affected too much.

Game 2:

This game came down to my Scrafty and Rhyperior with low health against his Aegislash. I had been in this situation before on Battle Spot, and I knew that if I played this scenario poorly I could lose. This is where Taunt came in handy. I knew he was going to use Kings Shield, so I Taunted his Aegislash and Substituted with Rhydon. He forfeited on the next turn and I won the set 2-0.

Round 5 vs Henry Maxon (Snake) [US]

This was the only other person I lost a game to in Swiss. This was due to the power of Life Orb Scizor and smart U-Turning on my opponent’s part. In the end, Chandelure was able to take on Kangaskhan and Scizor by itself. I remember almost nothing from this set, probably because half of the match I was trying to keep the British flag attached to my back.

Round 6 vs Alejandro Gomez (Pokealex1999) [ES]

This was a match I was looking forward to. I knew Alejandro was a good player, as I lost twice to him in the most recent International Challenge.

This was a set where Rhyperior did work, tanking hits and wreaking havoc behind a Substitute. My Rhyperior was dodging attacks left, right, and center in these games. It might as well have been Neo in the Matrix movies the way it dodged attacks. During Game 1 it dodged an Overheat while behind a Substitute, and dodged two Power Whips in Game 2, allowing me to burn his Ferrothorn with Chandelure. The deciding moment of Game 2 was predicting his switch from Hariyama to Ferrothorn and switching out my Gardevoir to Chandelure.

I have to say I was lucky in these games, and they would have been closer if not for the misses. I think I would have cleaned up with Chandelure in Game 2 even without the double Power Whip misses, though. During these games I knew that my win condition was keeping Chandelure alive purely because of Ferrothorn.

Top Cut

Top 8 vs Mark McQuillan (woopahking) [UK]

Of course I had to play against someone who knew my team in the first round of Top Cut. To be honest, I would have preferred to fight anyone other than him in Top Cut, since he and I were fellow Brits and wanted an all Brit final.

Game 1

I led Scrafty and Zapdos. Mark made some smart switches, switching in and out with Staraptor and Rotom-H so minimize Scrafty’s Attack. I ended up losing 2-0.

Game 2

My opponent led Staraptor and Rotom-H, and I started off with Rhyperior and Gardevoir. I protected with Gardevoir, fearing Staraptor’s Final Gambit, and hoped to deal some nice damage with Rock Slide. However, Rock Slide misses Staraptor, and on the next turn he gets the Final Gambit off on my Gardevoir. In doing so, he shuts down my Speed control and without that, I almost have no hope to win. He basically burnt his way to victory the second game. It had been a long day, but getting 5th place wasn’t too bad I guess.

Conclusion

Overall I feel I did well, but I was a little disappointed that I only finished in the Top 8, especially after doing so well in Swiss. Quarterfinalist sounds a little underwhelming compared to semifinalist, but I feel I did what I aimed to do: get into Top Cut without resorting to a standard team. Worlds was a great experience, and I met a lot of people I had played online before but never played in real life. I’m moving up to the Masters Division next year, so wish me luck. I’ll need it.

Shout Outs:

• Matt for telling me about the VGC series.
• Falcor (Trainerfalc) for helping me develop as a player and teaching me about IVs.
• Eric1999 for being my rival and helping me build my team.
• woopahking for an old bit of Scottish/English rivalry.
• The rest of Team UK for forcing me to wear the Union Jack.

The post 6 and 0 in the Snow: 5th Place Senior Division Worlds Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Pokémon Get☆TV was at the 2014 Pokémon World Championships, just like its predecessor Pokémon Smash in 2013. The children’s morning show runs very early every Sunday in Japan and has also been the source of news updates for the past few titles in the series! This year, Pokémon Get☆TV’s Worlds episode included quite a bit of footage as the story of the episode featured their correspondent on a quest that eventually led him to three different world champions to bring their Pokémon back to Japan!

The episode features many members of our community including Nugget Bridge co-founder Huy, one of our trusty community translators Hibiki, 2013 world champions Mean and Babbytron, three-time world champion Ray, and of course all their friends around them as the trades take place. A big thanks goes to Amanatsu who subtitled and cut the highlights you see above.

The post Pokémon Get☆TV Talks to Players at the 2014 World Championships appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi everyone, my name is Lee Provost or some of you may know me as Osirus on here. I’m a UK player and I recently finished 7^th in the 2014 Pokémon World Championships after going 5-1 in Swiss. I have been playing Pokémon for a very long time. I started out playing R/B/Y when the games were first released and haven’t really looked back since.

My first real season playing competitively was in 2010 where I earned an invite to Worlds by placing 3^rd in that year’s UK Nationals although I couldn’t attend as only 1^st and 2^nd places got the paid trips and I just couldn’t afford to pay my own way to Hawaii being a poor student at the time. I eventually made my first official Worlds appearance last year in Vancouver at the 2013 World Championships after finishing 3^rd again in the UK Nationals (this time winning a paid trip) but followed it up with a very disappointing and underwhelming performance finishing 37^th at the event.

And with that, it brings us on to this season and even though I’ve had a pretty tough time finding my feet within this year’s metagame, I seem to have somehow finished my season much better than I really saw it panning out. Whether it being down to luck or not I seem to have eventually found a team I am happy, proud, and comfortable with — which leads me on to my first ever Nugget Bridge team report so without dragging this on any longer, here it is.

Picking the Team

In the run up to Worlds my thoughts were heavily based around the weather. With Rain dominating a number of Nationals in the months leading up to the World Championships it really defined a lot of my thoughts around the metagame and helped contribute to how the team eventually came together. The concept I wanted to implement within the team was to be based around utilising two weather modes (hence the cheesy title). I felt having a dual weather team would give me more flexibility and choice going into the best of three format that Worlds is. The two methods I chose to base this concept around were Rain and Sand — one offering a fast offensive mode and the latter playing a more disruptive one.

With the lack of reliable speed control we have available and how match up based this year’s metagame has become I felt it was quite important to implement a fast mode within my team and ideally something that took as little setting up as possible. Choosing Rain as my first point of call, with the inclusion of Politoed and Ludicolo, fit this mold perfectly. I knew it was potentially quite risky bringing this combination to Worlds especially with any heavy reliance on it as many players would have good solid counters for this pair in light of their recent success, but as I was conscious of the other components I would be trying to include within the team I didn’t think this would be a weak decision.

From here I opted to add Tyranitar as my sand user and main weather disruptor; his ability, natural bulk, and great offensive presence made him a great candidate to fill this role. Tyranitar also offered really nice options against many common threats within the metagame I knew I needed an answer for — including Charizard (Y), Zapdos, and Talonflame along with the common ghosts and Psychic types I may come across. To complement Tyranitar I elected to round off this core of four with Garchomp. Garchomp’s Ground/Dragon typing with its amazing base stats made it one of the best Pokémon in the format which helped make this decision quite easy. Garchomp also offered the core some nice defensive synergy as well as being one of my main offensive tools to combat Steel types for strong and reliable super effective damage.

At this point the core four of Politoed, Ludicolo, Tyranitar and Garchomp offered a nice balance of special and physical offence which I felt was a solid base to move on from. The last two spots in my opinion were probably the most important choices to bring the team concept together. Both Pokémon needed to complement the four already chosen as well as being able to operate efficiently within both a Sand and Rain environment.

I definitely needed a Mega Pokémon to fill one of these slots, so looking through all of the options available I ended up short listing Mega Mawile, Mega Lucario, and Mega Scizor. All three could take advantage of the rain, could operate without any residual damage in Sand and were supported well by the other team members when considering their most common threats. They all had strong match ups against Mega Kangaskhan which was of huge importance but I think the Intimidate support Mawile offered along with its secondary Fairy typing were the factors that really swung the choice in its favour.

When looking at rounding off the team I elected Zapdos to fill my final slot. It gave the team a nice Ground and Grass resistance as well as some strong Electric STAB attacks for additional support. With its versatile and excellent base stat distribution I knew it would be very easy to mold Zapdos to fit perfectly within how I needed it to operate and perform.

The Final Six

The Team In-Depth

Zapdos @ Choice Scarf
Modest
Pressure
EVs: 132 HP / 44 Def / 172 SpAtk / 20 SpDef / 140 Spd
IVs: 31/31/31/30/30/30
- Thunder
- Discharge
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power Flying

• The IV Spread I ended up having to use: 31/31/31/24/0/26
• The Actual EV Spread: 140 HP / 12 Def / 184 SpAtk / 8 SpDef / 160Spd

As the actual IV spread I ended up using was pretty terrible, I think it definitely needs at least a little explanation. I started soft resetting for my Hidden Power Flying Zapdos about three weeks before Worlds, at the time I thought this would give me plenty of time to hit the spread I wanted or at least get something as close to perfect as possible. Oh my friends, how I was wrong! So wrong! I was spending around 4 hours per day on my commute to work and back soft resetting plus some additional hours on evenings when I could. Now, I was either incredibly unlucky or this is what I think to be probably one of the hardest Hidden Powers to get. Over what turned out to be a pretty horrible and tenuous three week period I managed to only get two (out of probably thousands) Hidden Power Flying spreads. The first one was a Quiet nature with a 0 Speed IV (great for trick room right?!??) which was useless for what I needed and the second one was what I settled on and can be seen above. The reason I really had no option but to settle on such poor IVs was because I caught the above Zapdos in the hotel room on the Thursday morning before Worlds started. It was Modest and I worked out I could move EVs around to compensate for the lower Speed and Special attack IVs to hit the numbers I needed as they were probably the key stats for how I wanted Zapdos to operate. The Special Defence literally couldn’t have been any worse but when I thought about continuing on for a better spread I thought doing this would mean I realistically wouldn’t be running it at Worlds. So with that in mind, I promptly saved and that was that. I definitely think having such a low Special Defence IV hurt in a few matches but over the course of the tournament it didn’t make as big an impact as I thought it may have. I really was quite lucky to actually get the Hidden Power when I did. This whole process meant I had very little time to play or get comfortable with the team; I think I had about 5 practice matches before Worlds started which wasn’t ideal. I am currently trying to soft reset for a better spread but at a much more casual pace, so if and when I do get one as near to perfect as possible I may do a giveaway if anyone would be interested.

In any case, I constructed this Zapdos with the main intention to operate it as the team’s main pivot point — helping support both weather modes with fast damage and giving good options for gaining board control, keeping momentum and overall allowing for easier team maneuverability.

The 140 Speed EVs ensured I would get the jump on Scarfed max Speed Politoeds, neutral natured up to 100 Speed ev invested Ludicolos in the rain and all max Speed base 135s and below. I wasn’t too concerned about outspeeding Scarfed Smeargles as I had other methods to deal with it, hence the reason for not investing any further.

The Special Attack investment guaranteed a 1HKO on standard Scarfed Politoeds and 252HP / 4SpDef Azumarills with Thunder.

The Defence EVs allowed me to always survive an adamant Mega Kangaskhan’s Return and with Intimidate support helped boost its longevity in general.

I opted to run Thunder over Thunderbolt mainly for the increase in base power which helped turn a lot of close or near 1hkos with Thunderbolt into guaranteed ones and gave me a stronger option against opposing Rain teams. Thunder’s accuracy outside of rain was a lot less desirable than I would normally be comfortable running but I had my own rain mode to support and complement this as well as other electric attacks I could rely on in other field conditions.

Volt Switch was chosen for a number of reasons. Zapdos was holding a Choice Scarf so it now had the Speed stat to actually make real use of the attack to move relatively freely on the field, getting the jump on a majority of the metagame and avoiding super effective attacks whilst picking up at worst some chip damage along the way. I also liked the options it gave me when facing trapping teams, allowing me to quickly change momentum when I otherwise wouldn’t be able to. My favourite and primary use for Volt Switch though was to be used in conjunction with my Tyranitar and Politoed and using the fast switch to manipulate and disrupt the weather in my favour.

Although Discharge is the third Electric type attack I have elected to use on Zapdos, it again is here for a good reason. I knew from experience I would sooner or later come across one or more of those cute teams carrying a Lightningrod, Rage Powder or Follow Me user to protect their Electric-weak partner setting up and as simple as it is, Discharge was there to combat that. Its other advantages are it has a pretty decent 30% secondary effect to paralyze the opponent and as I was also running Garchomp, I had the option to really overwhelm the opponent with the old ‘DisQuake’ combo if the opportunity presented itself — although the latter was an afterthought.

Why Hidden Power Flying? I originally had Hidden Power Ice on Zapdos as a way of hitting many of the metagame’s Ice-weak threats but when reviewing the team I noticed I had a huge problem in particular with my matchup against Mega Venusaur. This really put a ‘spanner in the works’ as I thought a lot of players would be inclined to bring it to Worlds because of how good a match up it has against Rain. I was also uncomfortable that Mawile was currently my only real way of hitting Venusaur hard as it was almost guaranteed to have a nasty Fire type partner that Mawile would prefer to avoid. So when looking at all of my options to resolve this problem (of which I didn’t have many throughout the team), I realised that Zapdos was realistically one of the only Pokémon that I could alter to turn this matchup into a more favourable one. I decided I didn’t necessarily need Hidden Power Ice as I had Ludicolo and Politoed to deal with the threats I would be hitting with it anyway so Hidden Power Flying just made perfect sense. It also added another STAB move to my arsenal giving additional ways to surprise my opponents and hit many other common threats I previously had no reliable answer for.

I also took full advantage of the fact that in most battles my opponents would be assuming I was running HP Ice. In some games it was nice to reveal the scarf early and not the hidden power type, especially when I was facing off against opposing Garchomp and Salamence where I could almost force switching late game due to their thoughts of ‘not wanting to take an easy KO’ which really helped gain momentum at times. In the same respect, HP Flying was also very effective especially against Mega Venusaur. I found players would happily leave it on the field to eat up the expected HP Ice with the help of its Thick Fat Ability only to take up to, and sometimes over, 50% damage from the incoming HP Flying attack.

Overall I felt my decision to run HP Flying over HP Ice was the right one and it turned out to be extremely effective. Zapdos was definitely my MVP of the tournament and was brought to every game I played.

Damage Calculations

• 252+ Atk Adamant Parental Bond Kangaskhan-Mega Return vs. 132 HP / 44 Def Zapdos: 153-180 (84 – 98.9%)
• 172+ SpA Modest Ludicolo Ice Beam vs. 132 HP / 20 SpD Zapdos: 90-106 (49.4 – 58.2%)
• 252+ SpA Life Orb Modest Ludicolo Ice Beam vs. 132 HP / 20 SpD Zapdos: 125-148 (68.6 – 81.3%)
• 252 Atk Jolly Garchomp Rock Slide vs. 132 HP / 44 Def Zapdos: 70-84 (38.4 – 46.1%) 3HKO
• 252+ Atk Adamant Life Orb Tyranitar Rock Slide vs. 132 HP / 44 Def Zapdos: 151-179 (82.9 – 98.3%)
• 172+ SpA Modest Zapdos Thunder vs. 4 HP / 4 SpD Politoed: 186-222 (112 – 133.7%) 1HKO
• 172+ SpA Modest Zapdos Thunder vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Azumarill: 224-266 (108.2 – 128.5%) 1HKO
• 172+ SpA Modest Zapdos Hidden Power (Flying) vs. 4 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Ludicolo: 68-84 (43.5 – 53.8%)
• 172+ SpA Modest Zapdos Hidden Power (Flying) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Ludicolo: 104-126 (66.6 – 80.7%)
• 172+ SpA Modest Zapdos Hidden Power (Flying) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Venusaur-Mega: 90-108 (48.1 – 57.7%)
• 172+ SpA Modest Zapdos Volt Switch vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Talonflame: 162-192 (105.1 – 124.6%)

Tyranitar @ Lum Berry
Adamant
Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Att / 36 Def / 20 SpDef / 12 Spd
- Taunt
- Thunder Wave
- Rock Slide
- Assurance

Tyranitar offered the team weather disruption, good offence, and helped play a specific support role within the team.

When looking at the different options I had for a Taunt user, one of my main goals was to not force or dedicate a specific slot on the team to something that could perform this support role and offer nothing else. I wanted something that could potentially operate similarly to how Thundurus was used in past formats offering both good support and decent offense. In my opinion Tyranitar has the typing, ability, natural bulk, and offensive presence that can actually allow it to operate effectively as this multi-functional Pokémon within this year’s metagame.

Taunt was elected as a way to stop any annoying status moves like Will-o-Wisp, Spore, Thunder Wave, Swagger and Dark Void (to name a few) that could potential neuter my team. It was also a nice tech to have as a way of stopping Trick Room and although Aromattisse could have caused problems I had Mawile to help with this match up. One drawback I found was that with Tyranitar’s low base speed, ideally you want to be getting your Taunt off before your opponent can move but in most situations this wasn’t possible. Lum Berry was elected to help alleviate this problem. Tyranitar was also my main method to combat sashed Smeargles; with the residual damage from sand and Taunt + Lum Berry I was able to shut it down and break its sash all in the same turn which was very appealing.

Having Thunder Wave on Tyranitar was amazing. It helped support the rest of the team to no end and gave me another option of speed control outside of my rain mode which at times could feel a bit one dimensional. It especially helped against certain problematic match ups I had; being able to paralyze these threats and create an opening for other slower team members to come in and clean-up was a great help. Thunder Wave was also something I liked to use to stop any Dragon Dancers in their tracks — with Thunder Wave + Intimidate from Mawile this combination really helped against this strategy. Thunder Wave also gave me options against many faster opponents in general as well as scarfed Pokémon that were prone to paralysis and anything that had a speed boosting ability to take their advantage away.

Rock Slide was chosen as my initial STAB move as it offered good spread damage and hit many common threats for super effective damage. It also combined well with Thunder Wave for the chance of picking up some nice paraflinching.

I have to admit and give a lot of credit to Simon for my decision to run Assurance on my Tyranitar. After watching him use it on his own Tyranitar during one of his top cut matches on stream at US Nationals I immediately fell in love with the idea — especially with the synergy it has with Thunder Wave.

Tyranitar’s EV spread was designed to try and find a good balance between both defence and offence. The defence EVs allowed Tyranitar to survive a Sacred Sword from a Quiet 0 EV Attack invested Aegislash 100% of the time, as well as a Play Rough from an Intimidated Adamant 252 attack EVed Mega Mawile. The HP and Special Defence investment allowed Tyranitar to survive a modest Mega Charizard (Y) Solar Beam in the sun 100% of the time as well as a Scald from a Standard Modest 172 Special Attack EVed Assault Vest Ludicolo in the rain. The Attack investment made it possible to 1HKO 252HP/4Def Aegislash in defence mode with Assurance after an initial Rock Slide from Garchomp.

I originally had Protect in the Thunder Wave slot, but because of all the switching I would be doing with Tyranitar it seemed more beneficial to elect another tool I could use to support the rest of the team with. Not having Protect did have its drawbacks and did cause issues by restricting my options whenever I had Garchomp Earthquaking, but the pros of having Thunder Wave in place of Protect did outweigh the cons overall in regards to how I wanted Tyranitar to operate.

Damage Calc’s

• Quiet 252HP / 4Def / 252SpAtt Aegislash Sacred Sword vs Tyranitar 252HP / 36Def / 20SpDef = 83% – 98% (2HKO)
• Quiet 252HP / 4Def / 252SpAtt Aegislash Flash Cannon (In Sand) vs Tyranitar 252HP / 36Def / 20SpDef = 53% – 63% (2HKO)
• Quiet 252HP / 4Def / 252SpAtt Aegislash Flash Cannon (without Sand) vs Tyranitar 252HP / 36Def / 20SpDef = 79% – 93% (2HKO)
• Adamant 198Att Ev’s Garchomp Rock Slide (Double Target) Vs Quiet 252HP / 4Def / 252 SpAtt Aegislash in Defence mode = 7% – 8%
• Adamant 188 Att Ev’s Tyrnaitar Assurance (After Rock Slide) Vs Quiet 252HP / 4Def / 252 SpAtt Aegislash in Defence mode = 94% – 114% – Rock Slide followed by Assurance Minimum = 101% Damage (1HKO)
• 252+ SpA Modest Charizard-Mega-Y Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 20 SpD Tyranitar: 170-202 (82.1 – 97.5%)
• Vs Adamant (Huge Power) Azumarill 252 Att Play Rough = 81% – 96% (2HKO)
• Vs Adamant (Huge Power) Azumarill 252 Att Aqua Jet = 17% – 21% (After Belly Drum +6) = 72% – 85% (2HKO)
• -1 252+ Atk Adamant Huge Power Mawile-Mega Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 36 Def Tyranitar: 174-206 (84 – 99.5%)
• 252+ SpA Modest Life Orb Ludicolo Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 20 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 140-166 (67.6 – 80.1%)
• 172+ SpA Swift Swim Modest Ludicolo Scald vs. 252 HP / 20 SpD Tyranitar in Rain: 162-192 (78.2 – 92.7%)

Garchomp @ Roseli Berry
Adamant
Rough Skin
EVs: 12 HP / 198 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpDef / 228 Spd
- Dragon Claw
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Protect

Garchomp offered the team good Ground and Dragon STAB attacks as well as Rock Slide for nice coverage and additional spread damage. Its typing gave me a nice defensive synergy alongside the other members of the team and was an overall reliable choice with its speed and bulk . I didn’t feel it was necessary to run a Jolly max speed spread with how the rest of the team shaped up and therefore opted for slightly more offense instead.

The Speed EVs allowed Garchomp to outspeed Modest max Speed invested Hydreigon by 1 point and all max Speed base 85s and below. The other EVs invested were used to hit specific defensive targets. 12HP / 36 SpDef is one we all know and allowed Garchomp to always survive a Hidden Power Ice from a Timid Mega Manetric. The 36 Def EVs with a Roseli Berry ensured I could always survive a Play Rough from a Mega Mawile. I calculated this more specifically so Garchomp could always survive a Play Rough and Sucker Punch in succession from an Intimidated Mega Mawile which allowed me to hit at least two Earthquakes in between moves picking up a KO 100% of the time with Rough Skin damage even after an Intimidate. The remaining EVs were placed in Attack to maximise Garchomp’s overall damage output.

The Roseli Berry may seem a bit strange but without having a wealth of hard offensive options against opposing Mega Mawiles and knowing how popular it would probably be at Worlds, it gave me more confidence in my general play and more of an advantage in any one-on-one matchups I was involved with.

This probably isn’t the most innovative Garchomp set you will see but it was created to help perform a set role which in my opinion it did incredibly well. I don’t think this is something you can just slap on any team but I have no regrets and feel it was the correct choice.

Damage Calculations

• (-1) After Intimidate Mega Mawile (Adamant) 252Att Ev’s Play Rough Vs Garchomp 12HP/36Def W Roseli Berry= 52% – 62%
• (-1) After Intimidate Mega Mawile (Adamant) 252Att Ev’s Sucker Punch Vs Garchomp 12HP/36Def = 31% – 37% = Max Damage 99% (3HKO)
• Mega Mawile (Adamant) 252Att Ev’s Play Rough Vs Garchomp 12HP/36Def W Roseli Berry = 78% – 92% (2HKO)
• Adamant Garchomp 198Att Ev’s Earthquake Vs Single Target Mega Mawile 252HP / 4Def = 96% – 114%
• (-1) After Intimidate Adamant Garchomp 198Att Ev’s Vs Single Target Mega Mawile 252HP / 4Def = 64% – 76% (2HKO)
• Azumarill (Adamanat) 252 Att Ev’s Play Rough Vs Garchomp 12HP/36Def With Roseli Berry = 50% – 60% (2HKO)
• Gardevoir (Modest) @ Choice Specs 252 SpAtt Ev’s Moonblast Vs Garchomp 12HP/36Def W Roseli Berry = 76% – 90% (2HKO)

Politoed @ Eject Button
Bold
Drizzle
EVs: 252HP / 116Def / 52SpAtt /84Spdef / 4Spd
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Protect
- Encore

With Zapdos as my Choice Scarf user it was no longer an option to run on Politoed and although I saw the benefits to Scarf the little toed, especially within this metagame, I have always personally preferred a more defensively orientated spread.

As well as bringing the weather, Politoed offered nice resistances to Ice and Steel attacks which other members of the team didn’t appreciate having to take.

Politoed’s EV spread was designed to try and survive even the strongest attacks from the likes of Mega Kangaskhan, Choice Specs Hydreigon and other common metagame big hitters which allowed me to get the rain back on the field, hit some decent offensive damage, or disrupt with Encore for additional turns. I think a Sitrus Berry would have been another beneficial item to give Politoed but as this was already taken I had to look further afield.

I chose Eject Button as I felt its synergy with my Volt Switching Zapdos would be extremely useful to help maintain the weather on my side of the field as well as being another nice option to have against opposing trapping teams. I think rather than waffle on and try to describe how I foresaw primarily using this item in combination with Volt Switch it can be better seen in my first round match against Jeudy. You can see how I played around his Mega Evolving Charizard (Y) to maintain the weather and keep momentum on my side of the field.

Encore was a nice tech for being able to shut down and punish some of the slower threats in the metagame; being able to Encore an Azumarill’s Belly Drum or Aegislash’s Substitute or King’s Shield gave the move some nice appeal.

I chose Scald as my main STAB attack because of its reliable accuracy and really nice secondary effect of a 30% chance to burn the target. Boosted with the rain, it was a nice move which let Politoed do some respectable damage with very little special attack investment.

Ice Beam was mainly for additional support against Garchomps, Salamence and other Ice weak opponents as well as giving me the opportunity to double up on opponents like Hydreigon, Amoongus and Zapdos with Ludicolo to ensure a KO when a single hit wasn’t quite enough.

Damage Calculations

• Modest Mega Charizard (Y) 252 Sp Att Ev’s Solar Beam Vs 252HP/84Sp def Politoed = 74% -88% (2HKO)
• Adamant Mega Mawile 252 Att Ev’s Play Rough Vs 252HP/116 def Bold Politoed = 73% – 86% (2HKO)
• Modest Zapdos 252 Sp Att Ev’s Thunder Bolt Vs 252HP/84Sp def Politoed = 77% – 91% (2HKO)
• Modest Mega Manetric 252 Sp Att Ev’s Thunder Bolt Vs 252HP/84Sp def Politoed = 80% – 95% (2HKO)
• Adamant Mega Kangaskhan 252 Att ev’s Double Edge Vs 252HP/116 def Bold Politoed = 82% – 97% (2HKO)
• Modest Hydreigon252 Sp Att Ev’s Choice Specs Draco Meteor Vs 252HP/84Sp def Politoed = 82% – 97% (2HKO)
• Mega Tyranitar 252 Att Ev’s (+1 After Dragon Dancing) Stone Edge Vs 252HP/116 def Bold Politoed = 84% – 99% (2HKO)

Ludicolo @ Sitrus Berry
Modest
Swift Swim
EVs: 132 HP / 20 Def / 212 SpAtk / 28 SpDef / 116 Spd
- Fake Out
- Ice Beam
- Hydro Pump
- Giga Drain

Ludicolo offered the team quick offence in the rain with an array of Water, Grass and Ice attacks as well as good Fake Out support. Ludicolo’s role was to take full advantage of Politoed’s Drizzle abilty and start firing off damage as quick and hard as possible. Ludicolo also gave the team nice defensive options against incoming Ground and Water type attacks as well as being a great switch into Spore or helping combat any Rage Powder abusers.

Assualt Vest was an option I did consider using and would have worked extremely well, but I felt that I would need to overexert with my EVs in defence and HP for Ludicolo to not be an easy one shot for Mega Kangaskhan which I was slightly uncomfortable with. A way of overcoming this was to run a Sitrus Berry. The HP and Defence EVs with the Sitrus berry guaranteed I would be able to survive an Adamant Kangaskhan’s Return. In the rain, a Hydro Pump and Scald combination from Ludicolo and Politoed respectively guaranteed a 1HKO on 4hp/4spef variants.

I chose Hydro Pump over Scald for the additional damage it offered. Giga Drain gave me a nice STAB grass attack and way to further prolong Ludicolo’s life while Ice Beam was there mainly for Garchomp, Salamence, and other Ice-weak opponents.

The 116 Speed EVs allowed me the get the jump on all positive natured base 135s and all positive natured max Speed +1 base 75s and below. I had previously tested another team with a faster Ludicolo to ensure I got the jump on the likes of Timid Scarfed Salamence and other +1 base 100 Pokémon but I never really found the additional speed was needed and decided that the EVs would be more beneficial invested in defence.

Ludicolo also offered a nice option against Spore and Rage Powder users as well as additional defensive support for other team members against incoming Ground, steel and water attacks.

Damage Calculations

• Vs Adamant Mega Kangaskhan Return = 69% – 82% (First Hit)
• Vs Adamant Mega Kangaskhan Return = 34% – 41% (Second Hit)
• 82% Max Damage (First Hit) = 18% Health Ludicolo + Sitrus Berry = 25% = 43% Health – 41% Max Damage (Second hit) = 1% Health Ludicolo (Adamant Mega Kangaskhan 252 Att Return (2HKO))
• 212+ SpA Modest Ludicolo Hydro Pump vs. 4 HP / 4 SpD Kangaskhan-Mega in Rain: 118-139 (65.1 – 76.7%)
• 52 SpA Bold Politoed Scald vs. 4 HP / 4 SpD Kangaskhan-Mega in Rain: 67-81 (37 – 44.7%)
• -1 252+ Atk Huge Power Mawile-Mega Play Rough vs. 132 HP / 20 Def Ludicolo in Rain: 126-148 (73.2 – 86%)
• 212+ SpA Ludicolo Ice Beam vs. 12 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp in Rain: 188-224 (101.6 – 121%)
• Ludicolo Modest 212 Sp att Ev’s Hydro Pump (In the rain) vs 252Hp/4Spdef Mega Kangaskhan = 55% – 65%
• Ludicolo Modest 212 Sp att Ev’s Hydro Pump (In the rain) vs 252HP/4Spdef Mega Mawile = 77% – 91% (2HKO)
• Azumarill Adamant 252 Att Ev’s Play Rough vs Ludicolo Modest 132Hp/20Def = 71% – 84% (2HKO)
• Ludicolo Modest 212 Sp Att Ev’s Giga Drain vs Azumarill 252HP/4Spdef = 61% -73% (2HKO)
• Ludicolo Modest 212 Sp att Ev’s Hydro Pump (In the rain) vs. 252 Hp/4 SpD Aegislash (Defence Mode) = 50% – 59% (2HKO)

Mawile @ Mawilite
Adamant
Intimidate/Huge Power
EVs: 252HP / 196Att / 4Def / 12SpDef / 44Spd
- Iron Head
- Play Rough
- Protect
- Sucker Punch

I chose Mawile as my Mega and it really seemed to be a perfect fit on the team. I initially couldn’t decide whether or not to run a more defensive or offensive spread but when looking at the team support Mawile had around it with the rain, Ludicolo, Politoed and support from Tyranitar, I almost felt the additional defence investment was wasteful and not necessary.

Mawile offered nice team support with Intimidate, a dual Fairy and Steel typing, and offered good offence with its huge Attack stat. It is one of the best checks for Mega Kangaskhan which was one of the major sways in selecting Mawile over another Mega. Its Dragon and Ice resistances helped complement Garchomp especially and gave me a lot of attacking coverage against the common metagame threats my other team members struggled against.

The Special Defence EVs allowed Mawile survive a max Special Attack invested Timid Mega Charizard (Y)’s Overheat in the rain and a it had a 50% chance to survive the same attack from a Modest variant. The Speed investment was there to creep other slightly Speed invested base 60s. The rest were dumped into Attack to maximise damage.

Play Rough, although having obvious accuracy issues, was the only real STAB physical Fairy attack I had to pick from. Though I swear its accuracy in the actual game is less than 90%, it didn’t warrant dropping it for an alternative move and considering the guaranteed KO on pretty much anything it hit for super effective damage. Out of the 12 Play Roughs I used throughout the tournament, only 5 ended up hitting.

Iron Head was my secondary STAB attack which was primarily there to nuke any other Fairies and give me a more reliable attacking option when Play Rough wasn’t worth risking to pick up easy KOs.

Sucker Punch gave me a nice method of priority and worked well to clean up at the end of matches or pick up any last ditch damage on a turn Mawile was going down.

Tyranitar was Mawile’s primary support partner with Taunt and Thunder Wave. Mawile has a pretty terrible base speed which is definitely one of its biggest draw backs; having Thunder Wave allowed me to paralyze opposing threats and set Mawile up to operate as a very effective sweeper. Taunt helped prevent burns, sleep and other annoying status based effects that would otherwise neuter its effectiveness. Taunt was also a nice tool to use in combination with Sucker Punch, forcing attacks and preventing any stalling.

Looking back after the event, I think Mawile would be the only Pokémon (besides possibly Garchomp) that I would make any changes on. The team in general has a few issues dealing with Ferrothorn and by replacing Iron Head with Fire Fang it would help with this matchup. By no means is this change a reliable check but it does give the team a better method for dealing with this matchup than I currently have.

Damage Calculations

• 252 SpA Timid Charizard-Mega-Y Overheat vs. 252 HP / 12 SpD Mawile-Mega (in Rain): 132-156 (84 – 99.3%)
• 252+ SpA Modest Charizard-Mega-Y Overheat vs. 252 HP / 12 SpD Mawile-Mega (in Rain): 144-170 (91.7 – 108.2%) 50% Chance to 1HKO
• 212+ Atk Huge Power Mawile-Mega Sucker Punch vs. 252 HP / 76 Def Charizard-Mega-Y: 93-110 (50.2 – 59.4%) Guaranteed 2HKO
• -1 252 Atk Jolly Garchomp Earthquake (Double Target) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mawile-Mega: 68-84 (43.3 – 53.5%)
• 252+ Atk Adamant Choice Band Talonflame Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mawile-Mega in Rain: 102-120 (64.9 – 76.4%)
• 204 Atk Adamant Mawile-Mega Sucker Punch vs. 4 HP / 132 Def Ludicolo in Rain: 94-111 (60.2 – 71.1%)
• 196+ Atk Adamant Mawile-Mega Play Rough vs. 4 HP / 132 Def Ludicolo in Rain: 157-186 (100.6 – 119.2%)
• 196+ Atk Adamant Mawile-Mega Play Rough vs. 4 HP / 4 Def Politoed: 175-207 (105.4 – 124.6%)

Closing Thoughts

Overall I was very happy with how the team performed and my eventual finish — I just hope this report makes some sort of sense! If you have any questions or opinions on anything I’ve said please PM me or even better post your comments and questions below and I’ll get back to you.

As far as the actual tournament went, I feel I performed quite well on a whole. I still have the same problems keeping my nerves and concentration in check during Swiss rounds when things seem to be going well but hopefully this is something I can overcome and improve on. Of course I would have liked to have gone deeper in the tournament (who wouldn’t?) but hopefully I’ll be there or thereabouts next year for another crack at the title. If not I am just very grateful and lucky to have had the opportunity.

On a whole I do feel I have learned a lot this year about the game and myself as a player in general. I gained a lot of insight from my Worlds experience last year which I think helped and had a lot of bearing on how I prepared and approached this year’s tournament. Hopefully, I can take what I have learned from this season and build on it for next year. Another aspect that has really helped me this season is eventually overcoming the ridiculous “scrub” mentality I have had hanging over my head (for way too long), which I think has being a major factor for me personally not making any real progress as a player in the past. I do think a lot of players still have this “bad” persona around not wanting to use common strategies or certain Pokémon simply because of how popular they are within a specific format. All I will say on this is “get over it.” This is a game. You play to win and use the best tools available. The sooner you realise this, the sooner you will start to see improvements. The only person you are really affecting by not allowing yourself to use the best or most popular Pokémon is yourself, so do yourself a favour and stop making this game harder than it has to be.

I hope my run at Worlds wasn’t a simple “one off” and I will be trying extremely hard to build on this going into next season. I still have a lot of growing to do as a player and I will try to make the right steps to do this going into next year and future seasons.

Shout Outs

Firstly I need to say a huge thank you and shout out to my good friend Koryo. Without his help I would have never made it to Worlds this year! You’re a legend!

There are far too many of you to thank individually and for those of you who are still with me at this point of the report you would probably appreciate a short and sweet ending so:

I just want to thank everyone I have met, played and spoken with this season at Worlds and throughout Europe. You are all what makes the VGC circuit so amazing. Since I started attending these events I have met some of the most incredible people and I feel so privileged to be even the smallest part of this amazing community. I love you all and can’t wait to hopefully see you all again next season.

One last side note, if anyone would like to test or try out the team please feel free! Thanks for reading!

The post Prepare for Trouble, Make it Double! A 7th Place Worlds Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

This is a translation of the 2014 World Championships Masters Top 8 player Ryosuke Kosuge’s team report by Tan Zong Ying (tanzying). The original is located at Ryosuke’s blog and we would like to thank him for his permission to post this translation. Ryosuke, the 2013 Masters Runner-up, earned his invite right back to this year’s tournament, where he demonstrated his consistency as one of the game’s top players by emerging from Swiss undefeated (6-0), before losing in the round of 8 to Germany’s Markus Liu (Henrique).

Original article at http://d.hatena.ne.jp/gebebo/20140822/1408695429

Article artwork by Shawn Tang (http://aquadragontrs.deviantart.com/)

Foreword

(This is going to be a really long foreword so if you only want to see the team please feel free to skip ahead)

First of all… hello everyone!

This is the first time I’m writing an introduction for international players, but I am Ryosuke Kosuge, a Japanese Pokémon VGC player, also known by my online handle “Gebebo”. Last year, I became Champion at the 2013 Japan National Championships and Runner-up at the World Championships, and thus attended the 2014 World Championships as an invited competitor, skipping Japan’s internal qualification tournaments. However, I ended off this year with 5th at Worlds, a slightly more disappointing result compared to last year.

My Pokémon-playing history is long and I have been a die-hard fan of the series since the launch date of the very first games Pokémon Red and Green (Red and Blue overseas), but I first started taking double battles seriously in 2007 and started participating in the World Championship Series (WCS) circuit from 2010 onwards. Around this time, I began to enter offline tournaments and the like under my “Gebebo” alias. During Worlds this time, I was able to meet TanZYinG, the Singaporean player who translated my Worlds team report last year, and he told me he would translate my report for me this year, which I am very grateful for. On top of that, there were a few foreign players at the competition venue who told me “I’m a Ryosuke fan!”, making me so happy. As such, I felt the need to add a few shoutouts to this.

VGC ’14

Now leaving aside the foreword, let’s talk about this year.

The rules for this year’s competition was Kalos Doubles, a ruleset that restricted the allowed pool of Pokémon more than last year and moreover incorporated the new Generation 6 mechanic of Mega Evolution, making it very different from VGC rulesets up until now. From January to April this year, I was busy with job hunting and played Kalos Doubles between working odd jobs, but I couldn’t get into the flow of 6th Generation battle mechanics and couldn’t boast of anything more than a roughly equal win-to-loss ratio on places like Battle Spot Special. Furthermore, at the same time I was job hunting, the unofficial Kalos Doubles ruleset-using Battle Road Gloria grassroots tournament circuit was taking place. As a result, while other Japanese players were busy shaping the metagame, I was unable to play Pokémon much and thus was only able to sit down and tackle the Kalos Doubles ruleset seriously after I had found employment — which was around when the first stage of qualification for the Japanese WCS representatives, the Japan Cup, had ended.

However, also at about this time, the 3rd season of Battle Spot Special had ended, leaving friend-to-friend battles as the only method of practicing the Kalos Doubles ruleset on an actual 3DS which flustered me. Thankfully, there were many avid Kalos Doubles players on Twitter and after being taught by friends on how to use the Pokémon Showdown battle simulator, I was able to do my team testing through this alternative.

The Journey to my Team’s Completion

I had a particular conviction when building my Worlds team, which was to include a Generation 1 (introduced in Kanto) Pokémon, and if possible, make it work well.

This might seem ridiculous coming from someone who is supposed to be picking Pokémon seriously with winning as the goal, but as I mentioned up above, I had been playing Pokémon since the time of Red and Green and the number one region in terms of emotional attachment to me is Kanto (On top of that, I live in Tokyo which is in real-life Kanto too). However, the now well-known team that I used at Worlds last year, the Tenchi Matou Standard, was formed out of Pokémon from Generations 2, 4 and 5 with no representatives from Generation 1. Up until last year’s ruleset, the amount of viable Generation 1 Pokémon was limited, but thanks to the introduction of Mega Evolution in Generation 6, many Generation 1 Pokémon received a fresh chance to vie for the spotlight, which delighted me. And thus, I spent a year teambuilding with this conviction in mind.

The question then was how many Generation 1 Pokémon I should actually use. The Pokémon that I immediately felt like using were none other than Charizard and Venusaur, the badass combination plastered across the boxarts of Pokémon Red and Green.

As everyone knows, this combination works by mega evolving Charizard to make the weather sunny, raising Venusaur’s Speed with Chlorophyll, and then attacking with Sleep Powder, Grass+Fire Pledges and the sheer power of Sun-boosted Heat Wave and Leaf Storm — a combination that seizes the initiative forcefully. However, this line-up was weak to many commonly used Pokémon such as Tyranitar, Garchomp, Talonflame, Mega Kangaskhan, Hydreigon, and as I was not able to build a team that complemented Charizard and Venusaur well enough to solve these problems, I gave up on this combination.

The next thing I thought I wanted to use was Mega Kangaskhan

This was for no other reason besides the fact that Mega Kangaskhan was simply strong. Kangaskhan-Smeargle-Talonflame teams, Gardevoir-Kangaskhan Trick Room switch teams… I tried out many of the well-known teams and they didn’t feel bad to use by any means, but in the end I knew Mega Kangaskhan, being naturally the strong Pokémon, would eventually end up being countered and become difficult to use. Also, I think that the Mega Kangaskhan mirror is fraught with elements of luck, and since I felt that my win rate would be unreliable I gave up on it as well.

The 3rd team I wanted to use was a Trick Room Switch team including Charizard. Tyranitar, Gardevoir, Liepard, Charizard, Mawile and Hydreigon were the Pokémon used.

This team was built as a result of wondering if a Trick Room-Thunder Wave strategy similar to my Tenchi Matou Standard team last year was possible in Kalos Doubles as well — with Charizard Y replacing Heatran, Mega Mawile replacing Conkeldurr, Liepard taking over Thunderus’ role, and Gardevoir substituting for Cresselia.

If I were to explain this team simply, the basic strategy is to send out Liepard, Scarf Hydreigon, Mega Charizard Y, and Gardevoir to prep the field with Thunder Wave and Fake Tears before sweeping through or switching to Gardevoir, Iron Ball Tyranitar and Mawile to wreck teams which looked weak to Trick Room. Due to Mega Evolution mechanics and their speeds, Charizard and Mawile could not both be present at the same time unlike Conkeldurr and Heatran, but Liepard being able to function under Trick Room provided some nice synergy.

I used a Brave minimum Speed Tyranitar with 252 EVs in Attack and Special Attack, and thanks to Iron Ball, I could counter Amoonguss (a nuisance under Trick Room) by Taunting it before it could move. It also could OHKO Aegislash, which vexes Mega Mawile, with an Iron Ball Fling, and could also fire off a wide spectrum of high base power coverage moves such as Rock Slide and Ice Beam, making it surprisingly easy to use.

I used this team only once at an offline grassroots tournament and won it (with Rhyperior in Tyranitar’s place at the time). It was indeed a team I had confidence in, but due to the risk of giving up easy losses due to the Trick Room setup falling into jeopardy if Gardevoir was interrupted even once while trying to set it up by (eg. Rock Slide), I reluctantly decided to disband this team.

My 4th team attempt was a standard Mega Venusaur team.

This is the team which a player called Noshin (@Cynthia_nosin) used to take 3rd place in the Japan Cup. The details are on Noshin’s blog.

I had tried Mega Venusau teams a few times, but kept getting screwed over by Mega Kangaskhans that had accumulated Power-up Punches and had a low opinion of it. However, I had never imagined that such a team would be able to get that far (especially the Bold Salamence), so when I first saw this team it left quite the impression on me.

This year the battle time limit was shortened from last year’s 20 minutes to 15 minutes, so when I first saw this team I wondered if aiming for timeout wins by using the 3 Pokémon with recovery moves well would be possible. But reality was not so kind, and between the domestic increase in Dragon Dance Mega Tyranitar numbers and the unusual surge in popularity of Rain overseas, even winning normally became a struggle — to say nothing of trying to do so on the timer. So while this was an excellent team which I could find no faults with, I gave up on using it for Worlds.

During the time I was using Noshin’s team, Japan Nationals had just ended and the Japanese representatives, including myself, had been decided. Last year, I brought the same team I had been using for half a year to Worlds, so this time last year I had nothing but fine tuning left to do. However, this year I didn’t even have a team to use at such a late stage (June) so I was panicking hard. I dug up every single team I had used before and started to reflect on which one had suited me the best. In the end, the team I won the most with had been the Trick Room Switch team with Charizard in it, but I really could not say I wasn’t worried about using Gardevoir with its flaws, or that Charizard would have fared well against what was used in Japan Nationals with any confidence at all. However, shortly into July Sejun Park won Korea Nationals with a Rain team which resulted in a huge spike in Rain on Showdown, leading me to wonder if Charizard could make a comeback and started teambuilding from there.

I supplemented my teambuilding with the teams of other Japanese and foreign players. By the way, the usage data of various tournaments compiled by Noshin for Japan and Taroimo for overseas were invaluable references, so I’d like to take this opportunity to leave them a word of thanks.

• Japan Nationals usage data
• Showdown July usage data
• Various foreign tournament usage data

Team Details

Charizard (M) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 64 Def / 4 SpA / 76 SpD / 188 Spe
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Overheat
- Solar Beam
- Protect

• OHKOs 4 HP / 0 SDef Mega Kangaskhan with Sun-boosted Overheat
• Survives 252 SAtk Modest Hydreigon’s Draco Meteor
• Survives 252 Atk neutral natured Garchomp’s Rock Slide (multiple targets)
• Survives 252 Atk neutral natured Mega Kangaskhan’s Parental Bond Return
• Outspeeds Smeargle which is at 139 Speed
• 11n SAtk stat value

The starting point of the team, and the Pokémon that I had wanted to build this team to use. In my opinion, Charizard’s fortes are being strong against Rain teams by changing the weather and having very high powered Fire moves under sunny conditions. To preserve these two characteristics, nearly all my EVs went into the defenses and Speed.

Let’s talk first about the reason for the heavy bulk. Investing to survive Specs Hydreigon’s Draco Meteor may be rare, but I did this because the team has nothing to switch into a Draco Meteor besides Mawile — which pretty much can never accompany Charizard due to Mega Evolution restrictions — leaving my only other switch-in option Sash Aerodactyl which was quite unpalatable. Also, I was able to get in an unexpected counterattack against opponents who expected Charizard to fall to Draco Meteor, making it easier to play. I think that all Charizards slower than Hydreigons on teams that have a few Draco Meteor switch-ins should hit at least this Special Defense threshold. The Defense threshold of surviving Parental Bond Return from Mega Kangaskhan, on the other hand, was because I could proceed to revenge kill non-bulky Kangaskhan with sun-boosted Overheat if I could survive. I might not be able to survive Double-Edge, but in a best-of-3 series I could take precautions after seeing it once, so I chose to invest this much Defense.

I originally tested 140 Speed to outspeed 139 Speed Smeargle by 1, but this became a hotly contested speed bracket and so I ended up dumping the rest of the EVs I did not know what to do with into here. I can’t actually think of a situation up until now where increasing the speed to this point paid off, but I still have some worries about how this might lead to speed ties with positive natured base 80s.

Special Attack was almost uninvested in because even only 4 EVs is enough to OHKO Mega Kangaskhan with Overheat. Charizard still packs firepower even with no investment thanks to the sun, so rather than investing in Special Attack, I felt that getting attacks off was more important and thus invested in bulk and Speed instead. This is somewhat similar to how I invested in Defense for Heatran last year.

For the moves, Overheat and Protect were confirmed from the start, while for the remaining two slots I tested out various options such as Heat Wave, Air Slash, Focus Blast, Flamethrower, Solar Beam, Ancient Power and Substitute. Eventually I settled back down on the orthodox choices of Heat Wave and Solar Beam. The other options felt overspecific and/or had shaky accuracy, had little general purpose use, and would just end up reducing Charizard’s capabilities so I did not use them in the end.

This year’s runner-up Jeudy Azzarelli (SoulSurvivor) was also using Charizard, reinforcing my belief thorough the tournament that using Charizard had been the correct metagame call.

As an aside, this team’s composition had problems with Faries + Rotom-H and I wanted to face them in best-of-3s as little as possible, so before Worlds I bought a Mega Charizard X plushie from a Japanese Pokémon Center (about 2000 yen) and attempted some mindgames by letting opponents see it and hopefully making them assume Charizard would Mega Evolve into X when it was actually Y and thus not bring Rotom-H (but I don’t know how effective this actually was).

Mamoswine (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Protect

• 4/16 chance to OHKO 0 HP / 0 Def Salamence with Life Orb Ice Shard, factoring in one Intimidate
• KOs 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan with Life Orb Icicle Crash + Ice Shard
• 2/16 chance to OHKO 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Mawile with Life Orb Earthquake (multiple targets)
• Survives 252 Atk Adamant Talonflame’s Choice Band Brave Bird (and 11/16 times, one round of Life Orb recoil after that as well)

I used Mamoswine because it was strong against the Scarf Salamences, Garchomps and Tyranitars that Charizard has problems with and because when I saw the usage data for Japanese Nationals I thought that it would be very effective against the Pokémon currently in the metagame. The Megas of this team, Charizard and Mawile, tend to take some painful hits from Salamence and Garchomp, but Mamoswine being able to move before them and deal with them allows it to synergise with the Megas quite well.

As for the EVs, Attack was given maximum investment so that Mamoswine would have a high probability of taking out Salamence after being intimidated (there are Salamences out there that are EVed to survive +1 Bisharp’s LO Sucker Punch and thus do not fall to my Ice Shard but thankfully I didn’t run into any of these at Worlds). To speed tie at worst with Specs Gardevoir, Speed was also maxed out.

I was torn between Icicle Crash and Rock Slide, but went with Icicle Crash after considering the damage on Mega Kangaskhan and Gardevoir. However, this makes the previously mentioned Rotom-H + Fairy matchup difficult, so I think Rock Slide could also have been good.

previously

Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Sleep Talk

• 2/16 chance to OHKO 4 HP / 0 SDef Mega Kangaskhan with Choice Specs Draco Meteor
• OHKOs 12 HP / 0 SDef Politoed with Choice Specs Draco Meteor
• 7/16 chance to OHKO 252 HP / 4 SDef Aegislash with Choice Specs Dark Pulse
• OHKOs 252 HP / 0 SDef Mega Mawile with Choice Specs Flamethrower

The anti-Rain slot. I used this to remove Politoeds with Specs Draco Meteor as well as to switch into Water moves with for Charizard. I was originally using a Choice Specs Rotom-W that survived Modest Ludicolo’s Giga Drain and OHKOed Scarf Politoed in this slot, but it was weak to the Hydreigons and Mega Kangaskhans that tag along with Rain teams, had an absolutely dismal participation rate against non-Rain matchups, and was just being a hindrance to the team in general so it got replaced by Hydreigon. In the past, Rain teams had preferred the use of Kingdra over Ludicolo, making it impossible for Hydreigon to be a Rain counter, but in Kalos Doubles the Fake Out-capable Ludicolo with its wider coverage is preferred and used instead, so putting in Hydreigon alone provided sufficient countermeasures.

EV-wise, I started off using the template spread that dropped Speed and survived Jolly 252 Attack Garchomp’s Dragon Claw, but as I was fine tuning, I started to frequently run into Hydreigon mirrors in my Showdown games and practice battles with friends, outspeeding some times and getting outsped others, until finally I scrapped all my Defense and maxed out Speed. Salamence and Garchomp, who could outspeed Hydreigon, could be KOed by Mamoswine’s priority, but it was important for my own Hydreigon to be able to win Hydreigon mirrors since Mamoswine could not outspeed and KO those. As a result, I lost not a single Hydreigon mirror after that (though I might have been simply lucky), so I don’t think there is any other Specs Hydreigon EV spread that feels as safe as this one.

I quickly decided on the cookie-cutter moves Draco Meteor, Dark Pulse and Flamethrower, but was quite lost as to what the last move should be. I personally wanted to use Focus Blast, which would allow me to hit Mega Kangaskhan and Hydreigon hard in situations where I didn’t want to lower my Special Attack, but in my friend battles I lost to a Kangaskhan and Smeargle without being able to do anything, so as the barest of countermeasures I put Sleep Talk on. I didn’t encounter any Smeargles at Worlds, but I did win some friend battles when Sleep Talk called Draco Meteor and it hit the opponent’s Mega Kangaskhan, so having it did me no harm, I think.

previously

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 92 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Fire Fang
- Sucker Punch
- Protect

• Outspeeds Mega Lucario at 181 Speed under Tailwind

Anti-Fairy and Intimidate slot. This too was a different Pokémon previously. At the beginning I wanted an Intimidator and something that could get rid of enemy Hydreigons for sure, so I had been using a Scarf Salamence. It had been serving me well, but my friend Pukumaru (@puku_oyakata) was going to participate in the LCQ and we had been tweaking our teams together. He was using an Assault Vest Wigglytuff which was rare in Japan, which just happened to match up so well against my team that I lost many best-of-3 sets to him straight up.

Well, I thought, this really sucks, and bade Salamence farewell in order to be able to exterminate the incredible thorn in my side, Wigglytuff. I searched for a Steel type which is strong against Faries and came up with the three choices of Aegislash, Mega Mawile and Scizor, but among them only Mega Mawile was strong against both Hydreigon and Mega Kangaskhan so it won out by process of elimination.

Aerodactyl, which I will mention later, had Tailwind, so in order for Mega Mawile to KO stuff under Tailwind I invested EVs in Speed to the point where it could outspeed Mega Lucario. Even outside Tailwind, it was able to move first and do lethal damage to Azumarill and opposing Mega Mawile and Tyranitars who did not invest in Speed, leaving me impressed with the power of a speedy Mawile. The remainder was used to nearly max out Attack with the rest going into bulk.

Play Rough and Sucker Punch were no-brainers. Protect was actually Substitute at first, but being unable to Protect when Mamoswine or Garchomp wanted to fire off Earthquakes was out of the question so Protect it was. For the last slot, I was undecided between Rock Slide and Fire Fang. Rock Slide would be able to hit Rotom-H hard, but because I didn’t outspeed maximum Speed Talonflame under Tailwind and I at least had Sucker Punch for Rotom-H, I used Fire Fang since opposing Ferrothorn and Mega Mawile would become difficult if I chose Mega Mawile (instead of Charizard). I used Mawile because Wigglytuff was being problematic, but Mawile under Tailwind happened to be quite strong, so I am grateful to Pukumaru, without whom I might not have been using this Pokémon.

Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash
Ability: Unnerve
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Taunt
- Tailwind
- Protect

• 2HKOs 252HP / 4 Def Rotom-H with Rock Slide (multiple targets)

Speed controller, Taunter, and part of the so-called Aero-Zard duo. Also, difficult-to-handle Rotom-H would not be allowed to use its Sitrus Berry due to Unnerve, which allowed me to force it from the field with two Rock Slide hits or Rock Slide + Overheat. In Japan which does not play best-of-3s, Pressure would have been useful to check for the presence of Choice Scarf on Salamence and Zapdos, but in a best-of-3 as soon as the information was confirmed once Pressure would become an almost useless Ability for the next game. In a best-of-3 situation I think Unnerve is the only option. The EVs are a simple 252/252 due to Focus Sash.

I was originally running Smack Down as the attacking move with Rotom-H in mind, but in spite of Mamoswine being around, almost all of the Garchomps sent against this team were Sashed. In order to break those and attack both targets, as well as create desperate comeback attempts with flinches, it was changed to Rock Slide. Taunt was for anti-Trick Room, and Tailwind, the reason for using Aerodactyl, boosted the whole team’s speed. I was split between Wide Guard, Sky Drop and Protect for the last move; any of them would have been useful, but because I disliked the possibility of Fake Out + something dropping Aerodactyl before it could get its Tailwind up, I chose Protect.

previously

Garchomp @ Choice Band
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 60 HP / 44 Atk / 4 Def / 148 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Sleep Talk

• OHKOs 0 HP / 4 Def Garchomp with Choice Band Dragon Claw
• Survives 252 SAtk Modest Gardevoir’s Choice Specs Dazzling Gleam (multiple targets)
• Survives 252 SAtk neutral natured Politoed’s Ice Beam
• Survives 252 SAtk neutral natured Pyroar’s Life Orb Hidden Power Ice
• 11/16 chance to survive 252 SAtk Modest Gardevoir’s Moonblast
• 16n-1 and 8n-1 stat value for HP (to minimise Weather and Burn damage)

The Kangaskhan check. This slot was the one I racked my brain the most over and I only decided on it the day before I left Japan. At the stage where the above five Pokémon were decided, two types of teams felt difficult to handle. The first type contained the Mega Kangaskhan-Bisharp line-up, because Bisharp prevented me from carelessly spreading Intimidates and both were able to ignore my Tailwind speed control with Sucker Punch which was annoying as well. The second type were dedicated Trick Room teams.

Switch Trick Room teams don’t have the requirement of setting up Trick Room from the get-go, so Taunt can easily defend against those, but the kind of teams that go “I AM going have my Trick Room” right from the start reliably disrupt Aerodactyl’s Taunt with Fake Out, Rage Powder etc. and allowing them Trick Room made winning difficult. Therefore I was using a minimum Speed Rocky Helmet Amoonguss to counter these two team types at first. The irony and a sense of fatedness hit me when I realised I was using both Mamoswine and Amoonguss just like last year’s Champion Arash.

However, I realised Amoonguss was the wrong choice for the slot due to it having practically no synergy with Aerodactyl’s Tailwind and it making Rotom-H even more threatening than it already was. So the next thing I tried out was a Scrafty with Fake Out and Quick Guard. One might think that with an extra Intimidator, Bisharp would become even more deadly, but being able to block Sucker Punch with Quick Guard and moreover being able to Intimidate Kangaskhan allowed Scrafty + Charizard to check Kangaskhan + Bisharp. Also, Fake Out improved my defenses against dedicated Trick Room, and after trading Fake Outs I could Taunt the opponent, so I found this solution rather nice. Furthermore, I was also using a gimmick where Scrafty was holding a Lum Berry, would outspeed Mega Kangaskhan under Tailwind with its Speed stat of 85, and together with a Swagger from Aerodactyl would be able to OHKO Mega Kangaskhan with a Swagger-Lum Drain Punch. This was all very strong, but made the whole team Fairy-weak and resulted in a dubious win rate against Gardevoir. This, combined with the fact that a Scrafty that has been Indimidated even once has unbearably low damage output, stopped me from using it in the end.

The 3rd choice I tried was a Scarfed Smeargle. I threw this in carelessly half-thinking “this is so irritating, I’m just going to put everything to sleep.” The moves were Dark Void, Transform, Fake Out, and Topsy-Turvy. But on the contrary this made me weaker to Kangaskhan, so after about 2 practice battles with friends in I immediately replaced it.

At this point I composed myself for once and looked over the state of the metagame, and realised that out of all the Japanese and overseas tournaments, the only person who had delivered results with dedicated Trick Room had been Ash (note: Brisbane Regional winner). Thus, predicting a low number of people using Trick Room and pressed for time as I was, I abandoned trying to counter it. In reality, I played zero Trick Room teams in Swiss and the only one I fought in Washington, DC was Aaron Zheng’s during the casual battles after the competition had ended.

Consequently only Kangaskhan-Bisharp was left for me to see to, so I decided on Garchomp, who was strong against this pair, and yet not weak to Rotom-H either. Wanting to survive unforeseen attacks from Scarfed Gardevoir and OHKO opposing Specs Hydreigons, I used the Choice Band Garchomp set which was well known in Japan. In Top Cut against Azumarill, I was unable to knock it into KO range of Rough Skin with Earthquake’s damage and lost, but there were occasions such as me surviving Politoed’s Ice Beam and winning so I think this spread was the correct choice. The moves are standard with the addition of Sleep Talk. It was meant to counter Smeargle but I think it’s up to the user’s preference.

Team Name

By the way, this year’s team’s name was also taken from a certain nationally popular manga, “Dragon Quest – Dai’s Great Adventure”.

Twin Dragon Crest (双竜紋) = Hydreigon and Garchomp, the two Dragons I used.

Medoroa (メドローア) = Charizard and Mamoswine, the powerful Fire and Ice-typed Pokémon I used.

It’s really interesting if you get it and an impressive manga series anyway so please go ahead and read it if you have the chance!

Conclusion

…that was what I had to say.

I’ve written about almost every last thought I had about Kalos Doubles and this has gotten very long, but my sincere thanks go out to those who have read this all the way up to here.

I ended up getting 5th place, but as someone who went to Worlds with less experience in Kalos Doubles than others, I could not conceal my shock at getting through Swiss undefeated (lol).

Also, having an extremely meaningful time interacting and battling with the overseas players after the competition ended made me feel like Pokémon was a truly remarkable thing and so much more than a mere game, and made me want to go to Worlds again next year. However, I let that invitation slip away this year and now have to fight my way through the domestic qualifiers. Also, I’m starting work next year and don’t know whether I’ll be able to take time off or not, so I can’t make concrete plans for Worlds 2015 (Of course I’ll go for sure if I can get my leave), but becoming the Pokémon World Champion is one of the long-held dreams of my life so I’ll be back on the stage that is the World Championships again someday!

Lastly, a word of thanks to the people who supported me, as well as those who helped me refine my teams. Unlike last year, it was definitely not my efforts alone that propelled me to 5th in the world. My humble thanks go out to everybody who collaborated with me. The people I have gotten to know through playing Pokémon will remain treasures for a lifetime even if I should quit playing, but I have no intention of quitting for a long time yet so I continue to look forward to your companionship!!!

The End

The post Gebebo’s Twin Dragon Crest Medoroa Standard: 2014 Worlds Masters 5th place Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

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.

Game 1 vs Hugo Hernández

Game 2 vs Hugo Hernández

He brought:

I brought:

This time, I started off more aggressively but not in the best way since he froze my Mawile on the first turn and it couldn’t do much for the rest of the match. The battle ended up with a 4-0 victory for Hugo, adding another victory to his winning streak and marking the end of my participation in the tournament.

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!

The post Enters the Regios, AJÚA! A Top 8 Monterrey Premier Challenge Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi guys, Hashegi here again. Indonesia and Malaysia played off in a friendly match which was held between September 26th and 27th, 2014. This event was proposed by the Indonesian VGC Community. Like the Indonesia vs Taiwan friendly,  the trainers playing were directly chosen by their respective community leaders or the country’s tournament organizer. Neither of these countries have Premier Challenges yet though Pokémon competitive battling in Indonesia and Malaysia have been around for some time. Before the rise of Pokemon X and Y, the Pokemon competitive scene in Indonesia was mostly seen in simulator battles, but recently we have been growing the Indonesian VGC community with a mission to take Indonesian VGC to the international level. This is one of our main reasons for creating friendly matches towards the end of the X and Y season. Official Southeast Asia VGC Tournaments, Taiwan and Hong Kong included, are under direct supervision of The Pokémon Company (not TPCi). What we want to get from these friendlies is for them to notice that there are dedicated players in Southeast Asia, not only Japan and Korea. It is true that their number of participants overwhelm us, but SEA player skills are on par with much of the international community. Standouts include a Senior division player from Singapore who made it through the Last Chance Qualifier in DC this year or the Masters division player who made it through in Vancouver last year. A Malaysian Masters division player was also able to get through to the top 8 at the Australian National Championships — one round away from an invitation to the World Championships. 

In order to spread out our love for VGC, we’ve set up friendly showmatches with our neighboring countries. To actually hold the interest of players in Indonesia, our community is holding a weekly tournaments with the same system as TCG Leagues. Without official support, more people are interested in playing the TCG here so though most of them are hit and run participants, there are still a number of dedicated players. This was originally posted in Indonesian here. It has been published again in English for you below:

• Format: VGC ’14
• Tournament Type: Wi-Fi
• Tournament Format: Best of Three, Random Pairings
• Date & Time: Friday, 26th September 2014 to Saturday, 27th September 2014
• Registration: Invitational Only
• Trainers: 5 Trainers from each Country

Trainers List

No.	Name	IGN	Country
1.	Oktavian Jason (witzel)	Jason
2.	Jack Kurniawan (azukanakano)	Azuka
3.	Bima Amalsyah (whoopie)	Atlanta
4.	Ama Bon (amadayo)	Ama
5.	Michael Tamara Putra (kitsunesei)	Michael
6.	Zhou Hong	xShinji
7.	Zarif Ayman	Hikari
8.	Muhammad Hairul	atoi94
9.	Muaz Rosjaisam (MuazikaZX)	MUAZIKA
10.	Destiny Soo	DestinySky
11.	Christo Luckysto Ferdinand (Sub)	Crhisto
12.	Vincent (Sub)	s3nrin

Pairings and Results

No.	Name	IGN	Score	IGN	Name
1.	Jack Kurniawan	Azuka	1-2	Hikari	Zarif Ayman
2.	Ama Bon	Ama	2-0	MUAZIKA	Muaz Rosjaisam
3.	Michael Tamara Putra	Michael	2-0	DestinySky	Destiny Soo
4.	Bima Amalsyah	Atlanta	0-2	atoi94	Muhammad Hairul
5.	Oktavian Jason	Jason	2-1	xShinji	Zhou Hong
FINAL SCORE			3-2		INDONESIA WON

Videos

1. Jack Kurniawan vs  Zarif Ayman
2. Ama Bon vs Muaz Rosjaisam
3. Michael Tamara Putra vs Destiny Soo
4. Bima Amalsyah vs Muhammad Hairul
5. Oktavian Jason vs Zhou Hong

Teams

1. Oktavian Jason

2. Jack Kurniawan

3. Bima Amalsyah

4. Ama Bon

5. Michael Tamara Putra

6. Zhou Hong

7. Zarif Ayman

8. Muhammad Hairul

9. Muaz Rosjaisam

10. Destiny Soo

Shout Outs

• Michael Pond Wijaya, the Tournament Organizer of Indonesia, for letting trainers play
• Wilson Kin-chan Choong, for accepting the proposals of this Friendly Match
• Both Country Trainers, for putting your best efforts to play this game
• Christo Luckysto Ferdinand and Vincent, Indonesia’s back up players
• Nugget Bridge, for letting me post this International Friendly Report
• and all the users who are still reading this super boring Report!

Indonesia is planning to play in another event in Southeast Asia, this time against Philippines this November before ORAS release. Hope it will go well!

The post Indonesia vs Malaysia September Friendly Results & Videos appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Since the release of Pokémon X and Y, players have had to choose between the stats of the Super Size Gourgeist or Insomnia on a smaller one. Today, The Pokémon Company International announced a new online distribution for a Super-Size Gourgeist and we’ve just confirmed that its ability can be Frisk, Pickup, or even Insomnia. Stats, Ability, Nature, and Gender change on every reset but you can at least breed it afterwards!

You’ll also need a Super Size Gourgeist to participate in this month’s Trick-or-Treat Friendly so get online and grab yours now following the official instructions.

The post Trick-or-Treat Distribution Introduces Super Size Insomnia Gourgeist appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

This is a translation of the 2014 World Championships Top 4 Junior division player Haruka Narita’s team report by Tan Zong Ying (tanzying). Haruka first qualified for Worlds in 2013 by being part of the winning 3-person team (“Team Rules”) from the 2013 Coro Coro Cup in Japan. She took Top 4 at Worlds in 2013, earning her an invitation to return to this year’s tournament, where she managed to achieve the same result. I had the pleasure of meeting her and her father, @tugaaaru, in Washington D.C., and they kindly approached me with a report that they wanted to have translated and shared on Nugget Bridge. I’d like to thank them for the opportunity, as well as Taroimo (@taroimo_poke), my English-Japanese translator counterpart for his coordination efforts.

Artwork and photos were provided by Tugaaaru, whose blog is located at http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/haruemi1218

Hello Nugget Bridge!

I am Haruka Narita and my in-game name is Rulue. I’d like to introduce my  2014 World Championships team. With it, I managed to reach the Top 4 of Worlds this year, defending my spot from 2013. I think that the only other Juniors who have made Top 4 at least twice are Santa Ito, Kippei Takaki, Brian Hough and Brendan Zheng. Seeing these names alone kind of gives me goosebumps, so it is such a great honour to be included in such esteemed company!

I had my invitation to the 2014 Pokémon World Championships confirmed from last year, so paying Nationals no heed I battled repeatedly in-game and on Pokémon Showdown in earnest. I probably logged more than 2500 battles. There probably isn’t any other Junior who exceeded this! I was happy that my blood and sweat produced results in the end. Perhaps I just needed that little extra bit of luck to become the champion? Anyway the champion was strong!

My Team

Politoed @ Eject Button
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 76 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Protect
- Encore

This team originated from the team known as “Korean Rain.” I researched how to play it by watching the Battle Videos of it that were released many times. Thank you Sensei ^^(I’m taking the liberty of calling Keewan-san Sensei here).

I send Politoed out against opponents weak against rain and grab the weather. Encore handles things like Aegislash’s Substitute. It needed to not faint before ejecting itself, so I bulked it up to survive various attacks.

Ludicolo @ Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 124 Def / 204 SpA / 4 SpD / 172 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fake Out
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Giga Drain

This was Kingdra for a long time, but I changed it to Ludicolo around July because having Tyranitar and Kingdra together accumulated too many Fairy-type weaknesses. Assault Vest and a recovery method together was a good combination. It is faster than Mega Aerodactyl in Rain.

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect

Amoonguss is a staple of Kalos Doubles. It is Relaxed with maximum physical defenses. This cute little guy has been shielding my team ever since the 2013 World Championships. It exists to bring despair to its opponents and hope to its allies. It is the nucleus of my team: protecting Tyranitar with Rage Powder, depriving my opponents of their freedom with Spore, and tormenting Kangaskhan with its Rocky Helmet.

Tyranitar @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Brick Break
- Dragon Dance
- Protect

I put a Lum Berry on a Dragon Dance Tyranitar. Some time ago, Dragon Dance Mega Tyranitar had become popular. With support from Amoonguss and other Pokémon with redirection, it was very strong if it could get a Dragon Dance up. I did actually test it out, but when I used it I kept getting targeted by Will-O-Wisps and other status ailments at an unusually high rate. This made me change my plans. If I could instead lure in status ailments and Dragon Dance while recovering from them with Lum Berry, then its Speed and firepower would be perfect even without mega evolving.

Brick Brick was for hitting Kangaskhan and Bisharp hard. Rock Slide is the strongest move. It has no Dark-type moves, but I could bluff one by using the mentality that Tyranitars usually carry one.

Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Lightningrod
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Overheat
- Volt Switch
- Protect
- Hidden Power [Ice]

I used Manectric for my Mega slot. Overheat does big damage against Ferrothorn, Aegislash and company. I use it alongside Talonflame a lot. Using Volt Switch and U-Turn to get Intimidates off while maintaining the weather correctly is necessary.

Talonflame @ Life Orb
Ability: Gale Wings
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Protect
- U-turn

Adamant with Life Orb. I use it with Manectric often. I tested out Taunt, Tailwind and more but the move that fit my team the best was U-Turn. Priority Brave Bird is too strong.

Member Selection and Tactics

I often led with Manectric + Talonflame or Tyranitar + Amoonguss often. With Manectric and Talonflame, I would get Intimidate off and Volt Switch or U-turn to set up either Rain or Sand. I had to practice hard to develop a reliable intuition as to which slot my opponents would aim Fake Outs at so that I could switch Amoonguss into them. Even when leading Tyranitar and Amoonguss, predicting Fake Outs is important. If I can get momentum going by Dragon Dancing and Rage Powdering together, I move one step closer to victory.

This is a video of my quarterfinals match against Miranda at Worlds:

I was able to keep Brick Brick unrevealed and predict Fake Out thanks to the experience I accumulated in practice.

Lastly…

After the Kalos Doubles-based Battle Spot Special ladder disappeared in May, I could not have gotten my battles done if not for Pokémon Showdown. I’d like to say thank you to everyone who battled me on both platforms! Sadly I didn’t manage to become the World Champion, but I feel that I managed to proved my strength.

However, I’m all burned out from battling too much so I don’t know whether I will come back to Worlds next year, though I still have an invite in the Junior Division next year, though. For now I’m going to concentrate on basketball ^^

Going to Worlds, I was able to meet many excellent acquaintances, and I am grateful to all of them. Thank you so much

The post The Queen of Juniors: A Junior Division 2014 Worlds 3rd Place Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

While it feels like we were watching Pachirisu inexplicably win the World Championships just yesterday, the first of the 2015 VGC season’s larger events start this weekend with Regionals in Pennsylvania and Arizona. After a month of optimistically fierce Premier Challenge play, players will have their first opportunity to make some ground in the Championship Points race that will stick more easily than the current leads from Premier Challenges. One of the biggest changes for this Regionals season is that unlike past years, many players are coming into Autumn Regionals this year with large amounts of Championship Points. Two players have 150 or more Championship Points already, something that wasn’t even possible until the second set of Regionals two years ago. While those numbers would be pretty good Championship Point totals from Premier Challenges at the end of the year, I would expect the gap in Premier Challenge points to close as more players hit and go over their best finish limits. As such, Regionals this year will likely do what it always has in the Championship Points system and function as the major way players can gain an advantage over the marathon part of the VGC 2015 season before the final sprint next summer.

We saw some interesting stories during the Autumn Regionals portion of the season last year, the most notable involving two players who hadn’t really been involved in VGC since 2010. Omari Travis (BadIntent) rocketed out to a massive start with 230 CP on a first and second place finish at two Fall Regionals in 2014. His run last Autumn helped carry him to the top point total going into Nationals last year. Omari’s finals opponent in California last year, Thomas Mifflin (PBB), was also one of the big surprises of the early 2014 season. He was similarly able to carry his early success forward into a bye at Nationals with a top 16 finish. As was the case for those guys last year, starting strong will continue to be important for players looking to finish near the top of the Championship Points standings at year’s end. More important than last year is going to be finishing the job and finishing as high as possible instead of just shooting for top cut. While 2nd place Regionals finishes in 2013 and 2014 earned just 10 less CP than 1st place’s 120 CP with 110 CP for 2nd, 2nd place now only earns 100 CP. Top 4 finishes have similarly been reduced from 90 CP to 80 CP and top 8 finishes from 70 CP to 60 CP, so the importance of winning top cut matches at Regionals has never been greater than it is this year.

Prizes

Players do receive more than just those reduced Championship Points! All the prizes awarded for Regionals in the 2015 season are listed below. Players will be earning Championship Points this Autumn that they’re not completely sure about the function of, but Championship Point payouts are listed regardless. As mentioned previously, it should be noted that the Championship Point payout from Regionals is reduced slightly for the 2014-15 season compared to the previous two seasons.

1st Place

• A Pokémon VG Regional Championships 1st Place award
• A Nintendo 3DSXL system
• A combination of 72 booster packs from current Pokémon TCG expansions
• 120 Championship Points

2nd Place

• A Pokémon VG Regional Championships 2nd Place award
• A combination of 72 booster packs from current Pokémon TCG expansions
• 100 Championship Points

3rd and 4th Place

• A Pokémon VG Regional Championships 3rd or 4th Place award
• A combination of 36 booster packs from current Pokémon TCG expansions
• 80 Championship Points

5th Place through 8th Place

• A combination of 18 booster packs from current Pokémon TCG expansions
• 60 Championship Points

9th Place through 16th Place

• A combination of 9 booster packs from current Pokémon TCG expansions
• 40 Championship Points

17th Place through 32nd Place

• 30 Championship Points (if division attendance is 64 or greater)

33rd Place through 64th Place

• 20 Championship Points (if division attendance is 128 or greater)

65th Place through 128th Place

• 10 Championship Points (if division attendance is 256 or greater)

The Metagame

The unique aspect of Autumn Regionals is that it is still using 2014′s format. While Autumn Regionals count for the 2015 season in terms of Championship Points, they will still be played with the VGC 2014 rules. The dynamic of a Regional played in a format after that format’s World Championships instead of before it makes battling in the Autumn Regionals a very different experience from the Regionals in Winter and Spring. While in the Winter players are still trying to figure out which Pokémon are strong and weak in a new format and in the Spring players are still trying to refine those ideas, the answers are seemingly already on the table for Autumn. The best players in the world have shown what they think the best answers to the VGC 2015 format are. Astute trainers have had a chance to watch which Pokémon and strategies the top players used in the final legs of last year’s format, from qualifying through National Championships to fighting for the World Championship. At each stage those top players revealed powerful teams and Pokémon builds, many of which are now common knowledge. We’ve even seen the team and player that proved to be the strongest in the world in this format already! Many, many teams and strategies proved to be effective throughout the final stages of the 2014 VGC season, and those strategies are now out there for players to use, counter, and modify. Many players at Regionals will seek to emulate proven strategies, while others will try to adapt to them. There are some key threats and trends to keep an eye out for considering what we’ve seen during the past few months of VGC.

The impact of the most visible strategies from the 2014 World Championships will be evident at Autumn Regionals, especially from players who are learning more about the game but may not feel they have the mastery to try to anti-metagame the stars of Worlds. As was the case in the Autumn Regionals of the last two years, I would expect to see chunks or the entirety of top Worlds players’ teams show up frequently in the upper-middle tables of the post-Worlds Regionals. Jeudy Azzarelli, Ryosuke Kosuge, Lee Provost, and Dayne O’Meara from the Worlds top cut have written reports about their teams, and I would expect some other big name 4-2s like Wolfe Glick, Blake Hopper, Markus Stadter and Aaron Zheng who posted information about their teams to be similarly influential among players at Regionals. Knowing what was used in the past will probably be a key to success for many players over the next three weekends of Regionals.

Much like in last year’s Autumn Regionals, where there was a bit of a final renaissance for the Pokémon XD Follow Me users, World Champion Sejun Park will likely cause an uptick in users of unconventional redirective Pokémon this year. Pachirisu hasn’t fought its last battle yet, though I would guess it has probably won its last major VGC 2014 Masters tournament. Look for players to adjust to the sacrificial rodent and have better solutions to it than they did in the World Championships. I think Pachirisu was very much something that worked because it was good in the context of Sejun’s team and good in the context of the in-tournament metagame of the 2014 World Championships. It’s something that is good enough to be a factor at any tournament, but the road will likely be tougher for Pachirisu users with so much attention on it. The fit probably won’t be good enough this time for a win, but Pachirisu is still dangerous enough to have a solid run or two.

Another Pokémon I’d expect to see a lot more of in Autumn Regionals than ever before is Gothitelle. Not only did Sejun use this Pokémon, but it was also used (and posted about on his YouTube channel) by Aaron Zheng, as well as by Wolfe Glick. There is no way this many of the highest profile players using a Pokémon isn’t going to cause it to leak into especially the middle table significantly at Regionals. Unlike Pachirisu, I wouldn’t be very surprised to see more Gothitelle from top players as well. My perception watching games both during and after the 2014 World Championships is that Gothitelle is not something many modern teams are dealing with very well, and even now that people are expecting it, it seems to be very effective. Gothitelle was one Pokémon I really thought should have been used more over the course of the 2014 season and I would expect that low usage to be made up for some here. I think Gothitelle is a really important Pokémon to have a solution for going into this final set of VGC 2014 format Regionals for players aiming to get a win… but I haven’t seen too many good solutions for Gothitelle used yet. Shadow Tag is perhaps the strongest ability in the game, and misplaying into it even once can mean a win for Gothitelle.

The skies were mostly clear in Washington DC, with little Rain to be seen. Now that we’re back at Regional-level tournaments, I think the huge success of Rain teams during the National-level tournaments should be a sign Rain will do well at Regionals if players choose to use it. Countering Rain effectively is tricky in a format where players are already spread pretty thin trying to handle big threats like Kangaskhan and Mawile. In previous events Rain was a matchup some players chose to sacrifice in favor of others, which is part of why Rain teams won three National Championships earlier in this format. I think players are more likely to run into those anti-Rain teams that seem like they can’t possibly win against anything else at Regionals, but I wouldn’t be surprised if many players lose sight of this archetype a little bit in favor of Mawile and Kangaskhan when considering threats. Especially with how much more flexible Politoed and Ludicolo are in VGC 2014 compared to Rain duos in previous formats, Rain is probably going to wind up being a pretty good play here. One big benefit of Rain is that it is one of the few archetypes who can still fit Hydreigon pretty easily, which helps a lot with those troublesome Gothitelle. There should probably be a related uptick in Charizard use to deal with Rain and Mawile. Ludicolo’s increasing usage will also cause some trouble for the Rain that does show up.

While it didn’t even appear in the final, the Mega with the biggest impact at Worlds was Mawile. Mawile was the most common Mega and the third most common Pokémon overall at Worlds. Mawile’s overwhelming presence helped make the 2014 World Championships the only event Kangaskhan struggled in all season. Germany’s Arena Cup, technically a Premier Challenge but realistically a tougher field than any of the North American Regionals, saw this trend continue. Mawile was again being the most common Mega Pokémon and possibly the second most common Pokémon. Using and countering Mawile became as or more important than countering Kangaskhan, which has really increased the value of some Pokémon like Garchomp, Charizard, Manectric, and Talonflame.

My theory is that this focus on Mawile instead of Kangaskhan will not continue into North American Regionals, especially for the field at large instead of just the top. I think it will be an interesting test of the North American players to see both what is used and what succeeds here. Germany’s Arena Cup had usage trends that were very similar to Worlds. Players understood they needed to check Kangaskhan, so many top teams hinged around Kangaskhan’s counters and its counters’ counters. I’m not so sure the larger variety of players in the North American Regionals will lead to the same type of usage. Fewer players playing very metagame-standard teams and fewer players playing very anti-metagame teams means that raw power is likely to be more appealing to players. Mawile’s challenges to switch in safely and low Speed means it may not be the best fit against the field at large at Regionals. I’d still keep it handy, if I was a player looking to take my first big leap toward Worlds, because that shift in priority back to raw strength is helpful for another Mega as well…

The return of the queen?

I’ll be really fascinated to see how Kangaskhan will do in these final five Regionals. To say it dominated the previous XY Regionals would be an understatement, but the World Championships may have shown players the light about how to deal with it. I would expect many more people will have good game plans against Kangaskhan than they did in any previous Regional. The questions now will be will enough players be prepared enough, and if they are, are they prepared enough for other matchups for it to matter? Look for Kangaskhan usage to decrease from previous Regionals and performance to increase compared to the World Championships. I think Kangaskhan will find the middle ground here. No longer is it the de facto favorite to win three Regionals or so, but I would also be surprised to see it get shut out. Some players will find success by going back to it and weaving through a field of anti-Kangaskhan landmines, while other Regionals will be won by players using teams that look like they’d fit in better with the World Championships metagame. Which type of Regional will your event be?

2015 Autumn Regionals Predictions

The section for each Regional will feature some background information on the Regional, the people I would expect to cut and the most interesting story lines (The Story), and the player most likely to win (The Smart Money is on…).

It must be noted before I go any further: Regionals are the most wide open of all VGC events. While established players have had the clamps firmly locked in for Nationals and Worlds the past several years for the most part, Regionals is where players become established. I can basically guarantee that in every Regional there will be at least two or three players in the Top Cut few would consider a favorite coming in. That’s a good thing — it means the game is growing and more players are playing at a high level. We saw more of this with XY than we had in the history of VGC. However, I can’t write about people we don’t know yet, so don’t take there being no further mentions of anyone but established players in any of these sections as an expectation that big names are going to sweep all of the top cut slots. They won’t.

Especially not in Phoenix, I’d wager!

Pennsylvania Regional

Difficulty Rating

/ 5

(four Dark-type Pokémon and a horse out of five)

(how do you complain about how tough Premier Challenges are going to be in the dreaded northeast and then let pookar make the finals of one?)

Location: Pennsylvania Convention Center 1101 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19107

Last Year’s Results

1. Michael Lanzano (JiveTime)
2. Toler Webb (Dim)
3. Matt Sybeldon (bearsfan092)
4. Wolfe Glick (Wolfey)
5. Cameron Kicack (Stormfront)
6. Yuichiro Uzu
7. Kristian Mosquito (Mosquito)
8. Matt Coyle (PrettyLittleLiar)

The Story

The top cut from last year has a lot of early favorites, assuming they actually show up — I know already bearsfan isn’t planning to. I think Wolfe Glick (Wolfey) is the pretty clear favorite in this one. While it looked like things were almost over for him last year after he missed the cut at US Nationals, he blew through LCQ and put up a 4-2 finish at the World Championships to earn a solid 9th place finish. He’s also 4-0 in NPA without dropping a single game, which is noteworthy mostly because it means he’s consistently winning game 1s, the most important factor at a Regional. The best-of-one play was hard on him last year, but it’s hard to imagine a scenario where he doesn’t at least carry his momentum to the top cut at this point.

Last year’s top cut also has another name I want to draw out immediately. Michael Lanzano (JiveTime), last year’s winner, finally got the Worlds invitation he’d probably deserved for years last year. He ended up in the middle of the field with a 3-3 run, but he’s definitely among the top five Regionals players of all time and should be hungry to get back into Worlds and push it a little farther this year. The Northeast has no shortage of players from last year’s Worlds in attendance, and you have to figure that like Wolfe, the people who did well there are the favorites for this event. Jeudy Azzarelli (SoulSurvivor) never seemed to be able to make the mark many people expected him to during Regionals last year, but after his 2nd place Worlds finish he’s certainly proven he does have the ability to do so. Instead, now there’s the question of if he has the motivation, especially if he runs into one of his friends. Speaking of questions, who knows if Ray Rizzo (Ray) is going to bother to show up. If he does show up, it is similarly hard to guess if he’s going to put much effort in. Ray has been awfully good with even a little bit more than the slightest bit of effort at Regionals recently, so if he does decide to give this event a shot, his has to be one of the names you least want to see paired with yours.

The 12th and 13th place finishers from the 2014 World Championships should both be in attendance in Enosh Shachar (Human) and Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario). Enosh used Charizard an event too early last year in the final Regional of BW2, and while I think people forgot about him a little bit after he skipped Nationals, he’s been one of the most consistent players of all time and was still awfulyl close to a more memorable Worlds finish. Ashton was also quite consistent in his ability to top cut events last year. He surprised the world event after event last year, including an 8-1 4-2 finish at US Nationals and a 4-2 finish at Worlds. I think if you asked the other players mentioned in this section in private if they thought Ashton was going to top cut this event, you would get about 90% of them saying no. In spite of the public perception, Ashton keeps getting the job done. At some point he either has to stop or the other top players have to start believing, right?

The 2014 Worlds participant list keeps going. 2012 Senior World Champion Toler Webb (Dim) finished 4th last year at this event, but ended up with one of the worst records at Worlds. I think this was pretty flukey — Pokémon is a game where strange things happen, but his finish didn’t seem like an accurate representation of where he was at going in to me. I would expect him to turn things around some here. A pleasant surprise at Worlds was Aaron “Aaron CT (Cybertron) Zheng” Zheng, who I think many of us had kind of written off due to his struggles during a 2014 CP circuit he didn’t need to participate in. Once he needed to win again he certainly showed us how he made it to the semifinals of the 2013 World Championships with a solid 4-2 run at last year’s Worlds and a win in one of the more contested Premier Challenges this year. At the very least, Aaron has legitimized himself as a threat again.

A new challenger approaching out east is 1942 US National Champion Mike Suleski (OmegaDonut), who will be making a tricky adjustment this year. As is expected, the guys out east and the guys out west like to trash talk back and forth some. Mike’s progress this season as someone who was a top player when he was out west should be an interesting field test about the relative strength of regions. Ben Rothman (Ben7000) was a complete non-factor in the 2014 VGC season prior to shocking the world by making it through the LCQ and then… being a complete non-factor in the 2014 World Championships. I have no idea what to make of him here — he could either be really good or really bad. The last player from last year’s Worlds is Ben Hickey (Darkpenguin67), who I think is possibly the most interesting player in the field. His Worlds run was a middling low-tiebreaker 3-3, but he’s been solid in Premier Challenges and in NPA. I think by virtue of being a former Senior who wasn’t part of that original group he’ll probably be underrated for life, but he’s got a good shot to finish near the top here.

Of course, there are some big threats out east who didn’t make Worlds last year as well. Since we’re still in the 2014 format those guys who did are going to be the favorites here. but there’s definitely more to look at. Simon Yip (Simon), as usual, was just that close to Worlds this year after a top 8 finish at US Nationals. In spite of missing Worlds, I don’t think you can make a good argument he isn’t just as good as the other guys that have been mentioned. Beyond him, I am interested in how Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka) will do now that he hopefully has an event in VGC before he’s knee-deep in children’s card games, but that whole ring of friends seems to be cursed with not doing very well in Premier events for some reason. On a related note, Chuppa Cross (Chuppa) is another interesting guy going into this one, especially after getting to the finals of the last east coast XY Regional and working against that curse a little.

There are also some big threats who didn’t make last year’s Worlds but have been to the big dance many times before. Matt Coyle (PrettyLittleLiar) made the top cut of this event last year, but the last two seasons have been slow for him. Trista Medine (ryuzaki) is sort of in a similar category where she is one of the best players in the game when she’s on, but hasn’t been quite as good as we’re used to her being lately. While I favor the people with long track records when I’m predicting to begin with, I do think Autumn Regionals especially favors the more experienced players who know how to adjust after Worlds and to how much less fluid the metagame becomes at this point in the season a little better than some of the younger players, so this could be a good event for these two.

A few more names to rapid fire: Joey McDonald (joej m) was a surprise Regional winner toward the end of last year and will further add to the difficulty of this already difficult Regional. Dark horse Chris Semp (pookar) did OK at backseat managing his NPA team and Premier Challenging, but is he a one two trick pony? Demhaha is undefeated in NPA, but has been so unnoteworthy in Premier Events I don’t actually know his real name. Fellow NPA undefeated Jonathan Hiller (MrFox) is a bigger name, though he’s part of a group of former Senior division stars who are looking to get it done for the first time in a Masters Premier event. Patrick Donegan (Pd0nZ) and James Baek (Jamesspeed1) get Nostrom’s amazing pre-tournament hype bonus points for Premier Challenge finishes. Tommy Cooleen (Tman) was the king of Swiss last year in the northeast, and he has recently even started finally winning best-of-threes. Oliver Valenti (Smith) and David Mancuso (Mancuso) also had top cuts last year. The first event in Masters tends to be the toughest, but Cameron Swan (Drizzleboy) finished his run in the Senior division well enough to be seen as a threat here. Kristian Mosquito (Mosquito) did well in Regionals last year and always seems to be much more threatening than his hype would suggest.

The Smart Money is on…: I tipped my hand on this already, but Wolfe Glick is the favorite this time. It’s hard to argue with his recent success. Frankly, it’s hard to predict against him even when he doesn’t look this good coming in, but I don’t think there’s much debate he’d have the best betting odds on this one.

Attending this event? Join your fellow competitors in discussion on our forum.

Arizona Regional

Difficulty Rating

/ 5

(Two cacti out of five)

Location: Phoenix Convention Center 100 N 3rd Street Phoenix, AZ 85004

Last Year’s Results

1. Stephen Morioka (Stephen)
2. Benji Irons (benjitheGREAT)
3. Gavin Michaels (kingofmars)
4. Len Deuel (Alaka)
5. Duy Ha (Duy)
6. Mike Ellis
7. Natalie Kaspszak (maski)
8. Erik Holmstrom (Cyrus)

The Story

Since this thread also didn’t have a poll (stop… doing this…) and Phoenix does not have a predictable pool of favorites like the Northeast, this one is going to be really hard to preview. I apologize if I miss some names or give some names that aren’t going to make it out on this one! Tournaments in this part of the country tend to be difficult to predict in general, though. There tends to be a handful of big names who do well consistently when they actually show up and then a void just below them where anything can happen! A lot of “I’m not especially sure if this player is really going to attend the event” in this one, so if ever there was a chance for a dark horse to win one, this is it.

Last year was dominated mostly by players from a decent distance away, most of whom I am unsure about whether or not they will return. Apparently 2014 semi-finalist and Nationals quarterfinalist Gavin Michaels is returning, so that’s as good of a place as any to start. While he started off the first chunk of his first Masters season pretty slowly, Gavin has been one of the more consistent players since his 2013 Masters National Championship in spite of playing a style that seems unsustainably aggressive. He always scares me a little in best-of-one play because he doesn’t tone down the crazy much, but he’s found ways to make it work for him. Fellow returning semifinalist Len Deuel (Alaka) is also someone who could find himself near the top. This Regional was one of few high points to a season that involved many, many Regionals for Len last year, but once again it is a field he can finish on top of. Aided by one of the best supported Premier Challenge areas in the country, getting a decent chunk of points here could put him in a great spot to play the rest of this season out.

I have no idea if the rest of the top cut from last year is going to attend. Ben Irons (benjitheGREAT) is not going to return as far as I know, so there will be a new champion, which is a little unfortunate given the bleak field. Omari Travis (BadIntent) went last year and had his only weak Regionals performance of the season, but he, too, is a player I am unsure will show up. The only player from last year’s top cut I know is actually local is Natalie Kaspszak (maski), who had a nice burst of CP to start the year in last year’s Autumn Regionals. I think she surprised people by doing so last year and I don’t know if she’s planning on going this year, but she seems to be one of those people who can make things work on little notice.

I know it isn’t too much of a hike for Erik Holmstrom (Cyrus) to get out here, and if he does go this may be one of the first events where he can truly be considered a favorite. He had a surprisingly quiet season last year in spite of doing well at a variety of events and finishing very high on the overall CP list last year, to the point he could very easily have qualified for Worlds. While NPA has brought him out in the light a little, he’s one of the better kept secrets in VGC. I would probably make an east coast media bias joke here, but uh, I guess the media is mostly me. If he shows up, this is an event he could definitely take. Kamran Jahadi (Kamz) has had a Masters career full of strange situations, but he was having a great run in the LCQ before running into some battery issues. People don’t become World Champions by chance; I think he’s probably your 2 seed in this tournament. Reigning Senior World Champion Nikolai Zielinski (Nikolai) will be making his first Masters Regionals appearance. The adjustment will be tricky, but this is certainly a viable opportunity for him to ease himself in with a big finish.

Beyond that, there are a bunch of other players who have had good-but-not-great tournament histories that should have a good shot at getting a victory in an open field. William Hall (Biosci) apparently lives in Arizona now. He’s struggled some in most of his past Premier events, but he should be a favorite here. Additionally, in no particular order, expect to see some of Chase Lybbert (I am Rookie), Sam Johnson (RastaCharmander), Alejandro Jimenez (Legacy), Riley Factura (gengarboi), and former Regional winner Michael Fladung (Primitive) in top cut.

The Smart Money is on…: Gavin Michaels. Congratulations on being the only player from last year’s Worlds in a Regional using the same format as that Worlds I am reasonably confident is going to show up!

Attending this event? Join your fellow competitors in discussion on our forum.

The post VGC 2015 North American Autumn Regionals Preview Part 1 appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

We may not know where Worlds is this season and we might not know what it’ll take to qualify, but one thing everyone knows is that to stand a shot at playing in the event they need to play as high as possible in the events they play in. The first Regional Championships kicked off this month and we’ve got the results for you below. Next week we’ll have the event in Houston, Texas before moving onto San Jose, California and Ft. Wayne, Indiana the weekend after.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Masters Division

1. Aaron Zheng (Cybertron)
2. Wolfe Glick (Wolfey)
3. Enosh Shachar (Human)
4. David Mancuso (Mancuso)
5. Jonathan Hiller (MrFox)
6. Pat Ball (pball0010)
7. Paul Chua (pwny person)
8. Nicholas Borghi (LightCore)
9. Jeudy Azzarelli (SoulSurvivor)
10. Anthony Kissoon (Chilebowl)
11. Patrick Donegon (Pd0nZ)
12. Alex Valente (avdc90)
13. Trista Medine (ryuzaki)
14. Andrew Burley (Andykins)
15. Justin Hayes
16. Jeremy Rodrigues (Serapis)

Senior Division

1. Michael S. (Sir Chicken)
2. Jake R. (sableyemagma)
3. Ethan H. (Kirito)
6. Mihrab S. (megachar10)

Phoenix, Arizona

Masters Division

1. Chase Lybbert (I Am a Rookie)
2. Nathan Stangler (Dingling)
3. Gavin Michaels (kingofmars)
4. Javier Madrid (NicaraguaNightmare)
5. Colten Lybbert
6. Jose Chacon
7. Nikolai Zielinski (Nikolai)
8. Kamran Jahadi (Kamz)

Senior Division

1. Ian M. (Raikoo)
2. Abram B. (Abman261)
6. George L. (KobraTail)

Junior Division

1. Cory C.

Photo Credits: Aaron Zheng (Cybertron)

The post Results from the VGC ’15 Pennsylvania and Arizona Regional Championships appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi everyone! My name is Adam or some of you may know me as GiraGoomy here on Nugget Bridge, Pokemon Showdown, or where ever else I may be online. Recently I competed in the Australian National Championships in the Senior Division where I placed in the top 4. The team I used throughout the day was one I really liked as it suited my hyper offensive playstyle. The team is based around BlitznBurst’s Regionals team where he used Helping Hand Azumarill and was also an idea given to me by PokeAlex. Going into Nationals, I prepared a lot as I was very aware that I’d be facing a lot of Mega Kangaskhan and some random Pokemon as well. This is the team I used throughout the day.

Lucario @Lucarionite
Ability: Inner Focus —> Adaptability
Jolly Nature
4 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
- Close Combat
- Flash Cannon
- Protect
- Substitute

Although this mega evolution isn’t the bulkiest, its massive amount of Attack and Special Attack combined with its Speed and Ability makes it a complete beast on the battlefield. Inner Focus is a great ability to have before mega evolving because without any Attack drops, regular Lucario can OHKO Mega Kangaskhan with Close Combat while not being affected by Fake Out. Adaptability gives a 1.5x boost to all STAB moves which makes Mega Lucario even more powerful. Close Combat with a Helping Hand boost OHKOs most Mega Mawile. It also has a chance to OHKO specially defensive Rotoms (OHKOs all Rotoms with Helping Hand boost). Protect shields myself from attacks when I mega evolve to gain the speed boost (and other stats) of Mega Lucario. Substitute is to shield myself from moves like Overheat while the attacking Pokemon takes a -2 drop in Special Attack and shields Lucario from status effects such as Burn, Sleep and Paralysis which make Lucario useless. Lastly I ran Flash Cannon over Bullet Punch because I wasn’t afraid of Scarf Gardevoir and Flash Cannon does more damage overall even with 0 Special Attack.

Offensive Calculations:

• 252 Atk Adaptability Mega Lucario Helping Hand Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 40 Def Mega Mawile: 180-212 (114.6 – 135%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252 Atk Adaptability Mega Lucario Helping Hand Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 100+ Def Rotom-H: 174-206 (110.8 – 131.2%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 0 SpA Adaptability Mega Lucario Helping Hand Flash Cannon vs. 252 HP / 20 SpD Gardevoir: 192-228 (109.7 – 130.2%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252 Atk Lucario Close Combat vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 186-218 (102.7 – 120.4%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252 Atk Adaptability Mega Lucario Close Combat vs. 12 HP / 20 Def Garchomp: 152-180 (82.1 – 97.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 Atk Adaptability Mega Lucario Helping Hand Close Combat vs. 12 HP / 20 Def Garchomp: 226-268 (122.1 – 144.8%) — guaranteed OHKO

Defensive Calculations:

• -1 252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Play Rough vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Lucario: 108-127 (73.9 – 86.9%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• -1 252+ Atk Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Lucario: 91-108 (62.3 – 73.9%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Azumarill @Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Adamant Nature
236 HP/ 60 Attack / 36 Defence / 172 Special Defence / 4 Speed
- Helping Hand
- Play Rough
- Aqua Jet
- Protect

Easily the MVP of the team. This spread was directly taken from BlitznBurst’s Helping Hand Azumarill team because it worked so well in the ‘practice’ I did before Nationals. The aim is for it to act as a well-rounded tank firing off a lot of Helping Hands before fainting. Although this spot could’ve easily been occupied by Vaporeon (another great Helping Hand user I tested), I figured Hydreigon would be everywhere at Nationals due to its recent increase in usage and that Azumarill would fare better against it than Vaporeon. The EV spread KOs Garchomp with a Play Rough + Aqua Jet combo while also beating Rotom-H 1v1 and OHKOing Salamence when not at -1 Attack. It also allows it to survive a 252+ Special Attack Solar Beam from Charizard Y and a 252 Attack Double Edge from Mega Kangaskhan.

Offensive Calculations

• 60+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Play Rough vs. 12 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 152-180 (82.1 – 97.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 60+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 12 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 34-42 (18.3 – 22.7%) — possible 5HKO
• 60+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Play Rough vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Salamence: 174-206 (101.7 – 120.4%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 60+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Tyranitar: 102-122 (49.2 – 58.9%) — 98% chance to 2HKO

Defensive Calculations

• 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 236 HP / 36 Def Azumarill: 172-204 (83.9 – 99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Mega Charizard Y Solar Beam vs. 236 HP / 172 SpD Azumarill: 172-204 (83.9 – 99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Tyranitar @Life Orb
Ability: Sand Stream
Modest Nature
220 HP / 4 Defence / 252 Special Attack / 12 Special Defence / 20 Speed
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Bulky Life Orb Tyranitar. Sounds really weird doesn’t it? The only reason I thought to use Tyranitar was because of the major increase in Rain and also the fact that I just needed at least two Talonflame switch-ins on my team. This Tyranitar is meant to outspeed Mega Mawile and OHKO with Helping Hand + Fire Blast (sometimes the Helping Hand boost isn’t needed). It also has a chance to OHKO 252HP Aegislash in Shield Forme with Helping Hand + Fire Blast. Ice Beam, Rock Slide and Protect are used mainly against Dragons, Talonflame/Charizard and to shield attacks respectively. I was trying to decide between Dark Pulse and Fire Blast on this Tyranitar because I noticed I had an Aegislash weakness due to Lucario not being able to hit it. In the end I went with Fire Blast for two reasons. One, it could hit Mawile, Aegislash and Bisharp (Steel types I was afraid of) and I believed it was worth losing 15% accuracy for the power. Two, there are barely any good Fire types this season in my opinion meaning Fire moves must be used on members of the team even though it doesn’t have STAB. The Defence EVs allow a 4 Attack Sacred Sword from Aegislash to only 3HKO it. A huge thanks to Toquill for helping me create this EV Spread! I’d also like to thank Toquill (once again) and Dragoon124 for providing me with this Tyranitar.

Offensive Calculations

• 252+ SpA Life Orb Tyranitar Helping Hand Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 153-182 (91.6 – 108.9%) — 50% chance to OHKO
• 252+ SpA Life Orb Tyranitar Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mega Mawile: 151-179 (96.1 – 114%) — 75% chance to OHKO
• 252+ SpA Life Orb Tyranitar Helping Hand Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 180+ SpD Mega Mawile: 174-205 (110.8 – 130.5%) — guaranteed OHKO

Defensive Calculations

• 4 Atk Aegislash-Shield Sacred Sword vs. 220 HP / 4 Def Tyranitar: 76-92 (37.4 – 45.3%) — guaranteed 3HKO

Staraptor @Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
212 HP / 156 Attack / 140 Speed
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- U-Turn
- Final Gambit

Staraptor (or commonly referred to as ‘Scrubraptor’ when I used it) is one of my favourite Pokemon ever and using it in a Nationals team successfully made me extremely happy. The HP EVs allow it to take out 4 HP Garchomp with Final Gambit and everything with less HP as well (notably Rotom-W) which did a good amount of damage to my team when I didn’t bring Venusaur. The Attack EVs allow it to still pick up OHKOs on Pokemon such as Tyranitar with Close Combat and Amoonguss with Brave Bird. The Speed investment with the combination of EVs and Choice Scarf allows me to be faster than Timid Mega Manectric. I’ve always loved Scarf Final Gambit and although I was using Reckless in testing (believe me, that is power), I decided that Intimidate would not only help me against Kangaskhan, but also allow my Lucario to survive attacks such as a Mega Mawile’s Play Rough and a Talonflame’s Brave Bird. Helping Hand + Close Combat can OHKO most Mega Kangaskhan making Staraptor a vital part to my team. I decided to go with U-Turn over Double Edge so I could have a decent matchup against Perish Trap and Gothitelle in general since it was seeing a spike in usage. A huge thanks to Mancuso for helping me make this EV Spread!

Offensive Calculations:

• 156+ Atk Staraptor Helping Hand Close Combat vs. 160 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 200-236 (100 – 118%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 156+ Atk Staraptor Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 144 Def Amoonguss: 222-264 (100.4 – 119.4%) — guaranteed OHKO

Defensive Calculations:

• -1 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 212 HP / 0 Def Staraptor: 145-172 (77.5 – 91.9%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Rotom-Heat @Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
Modest Nature
252 HP / 20 Defence / 164 Special Attack / 12 Special Defence / 60 Speed
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Easily the best Fire type this season in my opinion and definitely helped me out with my Steel weakness. Rotom-H also helped me out with Pokémon such as Azumarill and Gyarados which threatened my team. Not only that, but it gave me the option of Will-O-Wisp to cut the Attack stats of Pokemon such as Mawile and Kangaskhan who typically rely on their Attack. It’s a good Sun counter too. The EV spread is one created by my good friend PM649 and its aim is to pick up OHKOs on Pokemon such as Mega Mawile and Gyarados while taking hits and spreading Burn. The use of Safety Goggles was to prevent Rotom-H from taking damage from my own Sandstorm and to counter Amoonguss + Azumarill setup teams. There isn’t really much else to say about Rotom-H other than it did its job on the day and I’m really happy with how it performed. I’d like to thank Dragoon124 for giving me a Shiny Rotom he didn’t need anymore!

Offensive Calculations

• 164+ SpA Rotom-H Overheat vs. 252 HP / 180+ SpD Mega Mawile: 156-186 (99.3 – 118.4%) — 93.8% chance to OHKO
• 164+ SpA Rotom-H Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Talonflame: 186-218 (100.5 – 117.8%) — guaranteed OHKO

Defensive Calculations

• 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 252 HP / 20 Def Rotom-H: 127-153 (80.8 – 97.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Venusaur (Mega) @Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll —> Thick Fat
Modest Nature
220 HP / 196 Def / 28 SpA / 4 SpD / 60 Spe
- Sleep Powder
- Synthesis
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb

This thing is literally the definition of a tank. It can easily gobble up most attacks and then react with either Sleep Powder or a Sludge Bomb / Giga Drain which can gain a boost with Helping Hand. It’s also a nice option to use whenever the opponent has a setup like Belly Drum Azumarill, Dragon Dance Gyarados, or Rain. Suggested by Emforbes and backed up by Toquill, Venusaur is a good enough counter to all three of the attacking weathers this season in my opinion (Hail, Sun, Rain) and is clutch with Synthesis. The EV spread allows it to 3HKO all Rotom-W with Giga Drain and take a Life Orb Brave Bird from Talonflame. Although I didn’t use it once until the first round in Top Cut, I was extremely impressed at what it did and it’s no wonder this Pokemon was in the top 3 most used megas at one stage in the metagame. The EV spread is a magnificent Toquill spread once again and that’s probably why it did so well for me on the day and in ‘practice’.

Offensive Calculations

• 28+ SpA Mega Venusaur Helping Hand Sludge Bomb vs. 220 HP / 172 SpD Azumarill: 200-236 (98.5 – 116.2%) — 87.5% chance to OHKO
• 28+ SpA Mega Venusaur Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 180+ SpD Rotom-W: 84-102 (53.5 – 64.9%) — guaranteed 2HKO (3HKO all the time)
• 28+ SpA Mega Venusaur Helping Hand Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 20 SpD Gardevoir: 176-210 (100.5 – 120%) — guaranteed OHKO

Defensive Calculations

• 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 220 HP / 196 Def Mega Venusaur: 117-139 (63.9 – 75.9%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Life Orb Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 220 HP / 196 Def Mega Venusaur: 151-182 (82.5 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Gardevoir Psychic vs. 220 HP / 4 SpD Mega Venusaur: 140-168 (76.5 – 91.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO

At the end of the day, Nationals was a very fun experience and I met a lot of people there ranging from Matt (ZzamanN) to Sam (Cypress / Zelda / Whatever you call yourself). I ended up going 6-1 (1-1 at a point) in Swiss allowing me to finish 5th going into Top Cut (8 people). Top 8 was a best of 1 in which I was able to win 1-0  securing my Worlds Invite. In my semi-finals match I found out that it would be a best of three set. I ended up winning my first game in the semi final, but lost my next two games in a thrilling set that went down to the wire. In the end I finished 3rd or 4th out of the 126 Competitors which I was extremely happy with!

I’d like to summarise my thanks to a lot of people because this wouldn’t have been possible without you guys giving me support before the tournament. I’d to thank Toquill and Dragoon124 for providing me with some Pokemon (ily guys <3). I’d also like to thank PM649, Toquill, PokeAlex and Mancuso for their help with the EV spreads and just teambuilding in general. Also a huge thanks to Emforbes for giving me the idea of Mega Venusaur. To TwiddleDee, #TeamScrub for life and without you my man this Top 4 wouldn’t have happened. Thanks to everyone else who helped me if I forgot you and make sure to follow me on Twitter and subscribe to me on YouTube!

The post All Through a Helping Hand: Top 4 Senior Australian Nationals Team Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

We’re down to the last two Regional weekends of the VGC 2014 format! This week there’ll only be one Regional, so all eyes will be on Texas. Most of what I wrote previewing Autumn Regionals in general last week is still relevant, but this week we have some usage data from the first two Regionals’ top cuts and a surprisingly packed Texas Regional to cover.

Prizes

Prizes are the same as last week. Play for a shot at a new Nintendo 3DS XL! Also awarded are big chunks of Championship Points, which may or may not help you qualify for the 2015 Pokémon World Championships in location unknown.

1st Place

• A Pokémon VG Regional Championships 1st Place award
• A Nintendo 3DSXL system
• A combination of 72 booster packs from current Pokémon TCG expansions
• 120 Championship Points

2nd Place

• A Pokémon VG Regional Championships 2nd Place award
• A combination of 72 booster packs from current Pokémon TCG expansions
• 100 Championship Points

3rd and 4th Place

• A Pokémon VG Regional Championships 3rd or 4th Place award
• A combination of 36 booster packs from current Pokémon TCG expansions
• 80 Championship Points

5th Place through 8th Place

• A combination of 18 booster packs from current Pokémon TCG expansions
• 60 Championship Points

9th Place through 16th Place

• A combination of 9 booster packs from current Pokémon TCG expansions
• 40 Championship Points

17th Place through 32nd Place

• 30 Championship Points (if division attendance is 64 or greater)

33rd Place through 64th Place

• 20 Championship Points (if division attendance is 128 or greater)

65th Place through 128th Place

• 10 Championship Points (if division attendance is 256 or greater)

The Metagame

We’ll make a big post with all the teams from each Regional’s top cut like usual after the end of the full set of Autumn Regionals. For now, let’s take a look at the usage data of the top cut teams from Autumn Regionals so far to get a better idea of the metagame at Regionals this season. We’re a team short right now, but we do have data from 23 of the 24 teams that cut in Masters last weekend:

Thanks to Zach and all the people who contributed information for helping get this together. Some points I want to draw out relating to the data:

• As with the 2014 World Championships and the recent Arena Cup in Germany, Mawile was by far the most common Mega. It took a while, but the most generally strong Mega that counters Kangaskhan has taken its rightful spot on top.
• It is a little nostalgic to see Zapdos and Garchomp occupying the top non-Mega slots. Four teams used them in tandem!
• Another classic tandem doing well last week was Ludicolo and Politoed. They were actually only used together three times, however: Ludicolo flew solo most of the weekend.
• Garchomp seems to be the one Pokémon who always stays on top of usage in the VGC 2014 format no matter what trends are in the metagame. I think that says a lot about the type of Pokémon it is. Garchomp is never dominant, but it’s never a hindrance either, and it has a good matchup with most Megas. It is the safest Pokémon in the format.
• Kangaskhan and Venusaur, the two most common Megas the last time we had big events in the United States, didn’t do so well this time. They combined for only three uses.
• Aegislash also fell a long way, from a tie as the 2nd most common Pokémon at US Nationals to only five uses at Regionals.
• 46 different Pokémon between 23 teams is pretty impressive diversity this late in the format.
• Given the emphasis on Rain and Mawile, I was a little surprised to see only five Charizard, especially considering only one was from Philadelphia.
• I am a little curious how much the rise of Mawile and fall of Kangaskhan is due to what top players are using instead of what they are countering. I think if you cut off the teams from last week’s top cuts and just look at the names of players, you get mostly players many people would have expected to make it. I wonder if their choice to move away from Kangaskhan isn’t as much the reason why it fell out of the top cuts as their decision instead to counter it, since you’d expect the best players to finish on top relatively irrespective of team choice. It’d be interesting to hear from some of the top players who didn’t cut to see if they’d tried the Kangaskhan route and fell short for comparison.
• The diversity even on top is pretty interesting. Only five Pokémon were on appreciably more than a fourth of teams in top cut. I sometimes wish we’d stick to a more consistent format each year, and I think watching usage trends this year helps to explain why. We actually ended up with one of the most balanced usage lists of the season from top top bottom now that people have a better idea of what they need to counter.

Last Week’s Winners:

Philadelphia Champion Aaron Zheng (Cybertron)’s Team

Aaron used nearly the same team he used to put up a solid 4-2 record at the 2014 World Championships. He did make some minor changes to most of the Pokémon, which you can read in more detail once he gets his report up here or check out his YouTube in the mean time. On a base level, he was one of the many players who moved away from Kangaskhan for this set of Regionals, switching over to the more conventional Trick Room Mega of Mawile. He also swapped Ferrothorn out for Ludicolo, which gave him another reliable Special Attacker, a second source of Fake Out, and some help with probable opponents choices like Politoed, Rotom, and Garchomp.

Phoenix Champion Chase Lybbert (I am a Rookie)’s Team

Chase’s team doesn’t fit as well into an established archetype. What it does have are a bunch of cool tricks, which sometimes work best at the Regional level with its greater focus on single game matches. Unlike most of the players who used Charizard at the World Championships, Chase used Charizard as his only Mega. He did give it a bunch of teammates to help it get safe turns to do damage. Raichu and Sableye standout as its support, with Raichu offering Fake Out and Lightningrod support and Sableye providing some Prankster support options. Raichu and Sableye also play nicely with Azumarill, perhaps the Pokémon that best uses free turns in VGC 2014. The support duo can create plenty of opportunities for Azumarill to get those free turns. Mamoswine also offers one of the classic Charizard combinations, being probably the second most common Charizard sweeper buddy after Garchomp.

2015 Autumn Regionals Predictions

Brief this week with only one Regional, but the same rules as usual apply!

The section for each Regional will feature some background information on the Regional. I’ll then list the players who seem most likely to cut based on previous performance and the events’ most interesting story lines before the event (The Story). The section on each Regional will finish up with the player most likely to win (The Smart Money is on…). I will attempt to mention players who had deep runs in the previous couple of groups of tournaments, players who cut the event in question the previous year, and then move on from there if things are looking a little desolate.

It must be noted before I go any further: Regionals are the most wide open of all VGC events. Regionals are the tier of event where players become established with their performances. I can basically guarantee that in every Regional there will be at least two or three players in each top cut that few would have considered a favorite before the event. That’s a good thing — new faces near the top means the game is growing and more players are playing at a high level. We saw more of this with XY than we had in the history of VGC. However, I can’t write about people we don’t know yet, so don’t take there being no further mentions of anyone but established players as an expectation that big names are going to sweep all of the top cut slots. They won’t.

Texas Regional

Difficulty Rating

/ 5

(Mega Camerupt/Team Magma Hype out of five)

Location: Houston Marriott South at Hobby Airport, 9100 Gulf Fry., Houston, Texas 77017

Last Year’s Results

1. Omari Travis (BadIntent)
2. DeVon Ingram (dingram)
3. Tiffany Stanley (Shiloh)
4. Blake Hopper (Bopper)
5. Yaakov Kohr
6. Evan Bates (Veteran Padgett)
7. Zach Droegkamp (Zach)
8. Ryan Brooker (lolfailsnail)

The Story

Texas tends to be one of the country’s smaller Regionals, with only 99 players competing in Masters last year. It also tends to be dominated largely by people who are Team Magma aficionados, which seems appropriate given the impending Ruby/Sapphire remakes. I don’t expect large changes in regard to either of those qualities, though the event may be appreciably bigger this year now that it is on its own weekend. Given that there are at least about twenty pretty intimidating players planning to enter the fray this weekend, I would expect we’ll see a larger, more challenging event than last year. With so many good players this could be an especially tough run for the players who end up with big finishes, as there will be a lot of names players are hoping to avoid in a smaller, tighter field. Expect some spotlight matches every round!

There seem to be a lot of Regionals this season where big chunks of the previous year’s top cut won’t be attending to try to repeat their performance, and this event is no exception. As always, I am unsure if Omari Travis will be attending this time, and if he does he’ll be one of the favorites even after a disappointing three-loss performance last week in Phoenix. Gone for sure are runner-up DeVon Ingram and annual Regionals monster Zach Droegkamp, which will open up some spots in the top cut for some new, old faces.

Texas will actually probably be the event with the second most competitors from the 2014 World Championships in the Autumn Regionals season. On top of potentially Omari, both of last year’s Texas semifinalists, Tiffany Stanley and Blake Hopper, made it to Worlds. Blake ended up having to go through LCQ in spite of a strong Regionals season, but he made it count and wound up in 11th place. Surprisingly, Blake actually won’t be the highest finisher from last year’s Worlds competing at this event, as semifinalist Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom) will be in attendance. Other than his Worlds finish, Collin is perhaps best remembered for absolutely crushing the last two weeks of the last group of Regionals. He won in Madison and made it to the semifinals of the Kansas City Regional, which was won by 2013 Texas Regional Champion Ben Irons (Benji), who will also be in attendance.

Texas will have a US Nationals semifinalist to go along with its Worlds semifinalist, as Logan Castro (Yellowbox) will be competing as well. Logan was one of those players who needed an insane Nationals finish to make it to Worlds after a weaker Regionals season last year, but he nailed it! He’ll be looking for a big finish at Regionals to make things a little easier this year. The final player from last year’s Worlds is none other than Aaron “Aaron ‘CT Cybertron’ Zheng” Zheng, who is both a favorite from having won the last two tournaments he has participated in as well as perhaps highly disadvantaged by having posted his team on YouTube. It’ll be interesting to see if he comes out with something new here, considering… We could see the start of a new rivalry between him and Benji, who once also told me he was Aaron “CT Cybertron” Zheng.

Omari (presence pending), Logan, Tiffany, Collin, Aaron, and Blake stand out as big threats after making Worlds last year. There are two other players from the top 25 of Championship Points last year I believe are attending. One is Stephen Morioka (Stephen), who is another big threat to take this event as one of the most consistent players throughout the last two seasons. The other is Jonathan Rankin (JRank), who had an impressive 10th place run at last year’s Nationals. Jonathan lived the opposite side of Logan’s story, as he ended up on the wrong side of the 4-2 bubble of Nationals Day 2 and just missed Worlds instead of just making it because of it. He’ll be looking to build some points here to avoid that scenario this year. I think if most people had to guess the player who had the next most CP in 2014 participating in this event, they’d guess Benji, especially since I already mentioned he won a Regional each of the last two years. That’s actually incorrect — it was Evan Bates, who finished 26th overall in CP last year. He made it to the quarterfinals of last year’s Texas Regional and finished 13th at US Nationals, the third best finish among players at this event.

There are a few other names to keep an eye on. Ryan Brooker spends most of his time writing bad fan fiction now, but made it to the round of eight last year. Trista Medine (ryuzaki) and Patrick Donegan (Pd0nZ) joined Aaron in the top cut of Philadelphia last week. Chalkey Horenstein (Chalkey) had a solid 7-2 run in Philadelphia even though he missed the cut, and did make the cut of the last Regional he played in last season. Sam Haarsma (DrFidget) had a rough year in 2014 after being near the top of the Championship Points standings for almost all of 2013. Both have the Team Magma thing going for them, which seems to help in this event. Nico Villalobos (Calm Lava) is good for a strong Regionals finish or two a year, and this could be the one since lava is kind of Magma-themed. Austin Bastida-Ramos (Syncie) is another one of those players who flies under the radar like Evan Bates, but he made it to the semifinals of Kansas City last year and followed it up with a 28th place finish at US Nationals. Aaron Grubbs (LPFan) top cut in Kansas City last year and ended up just inside the top 50 of 2014 CP. Joseph Brummet (lucariojr) made the top cut of St. Charles last year, joining a bunch of the other players mentioned above like Blake, Collin, Jonathan, and Tiffany. Edward Fan (iss) at least made the cut of APEX last year, but isn’t it about time he got it done in a Premier event?

The Smart Money is on…: I’m going with Benji. I predicted him last year, but for some reason he wasn’t able to fight for the team even though he was there… I’ll just use that prediction this year instead. What could go wrong? He’s good for a Regionals win every year, so it’s time to start throwing darts until I catch it!

I was actually really shocked he missed Worlds last year. Really good player, and one of the chosen few in Pokémon with an equally great attitude toward the game and the many strange things that can happen in it. It’s hard to bet against him, and I expect to see him in Worlds this year regardless of what happens in Texas.

Attending this event? Join your fellow competitors in discussion on our forum.

The post VGC 2015 North American Autumn Regionals Preview Part 2 appeared first on Nugget Bridge.