Introduction

Hi everyone! My name is James Baek, and I’m known as Jamesspeed1 in the VGC community. Some of you might recognize me from my YouTube channel. I’m a 15 year old student from Staten Island, New York, and I have played at Pokémon events since Pokémon Platinum. I’ve only started playing competitively this year, though. At every Play Pokémon event I have gone to in this past year, I have gotten at least Top 32.

My 2014 Season

When the rules for 2014’s VGC season came out, I started by testing a lot of different Mega Evolutions, getting a lot of practice in with Mega Charizard Y in particular. I went 5-2 at the Virginia Regionals in January, getting a Top 16 finish. At Spring Regionals, I decided to build a team around Mega Kangaskhan with a lot of support. I ended up going 4-3 with a Top 32 finish. I was unable to go to U.S. Nationals because of family matters, but had I played and placed high enough, I probably could have sealed up my Worlds invite.

The Team Building Process

After Spring Regionals, I decided to craft my Worlds team. I wanted a lot of time to get really comfortable with my team. I also brought many different versions of the team to different Premier Challenges. I was pretty successful, with three first place finishes and one third place finish. This is the team I ended up with:

There were some flaws with this team. The team was weak to Fighting types, and I didn’t feel comfortable with bringing some of the leads I would have liked. I found that I rarely brought Mamoswine or Rotom-Heat to any of my battles so I decided to keep the Pokémon I did use and change those two. I then tried using the following:

I really liked Jumpluff on the team, since it offered Helping Hand support and was able to Encore other Pokémon into using useless moves. However, I decided that I didn’t want to use Sleep Powder because it was inconsistent. I ended up changing Jumpluff to Vivillion, but I also wanted a Pokémon that gave me a better matchup against Trick Room, so I just went with good old Amoonguss. I also considered Follow Me/Final Gambit Lucario, but it would miss out on important OHKOs against common Trick Room Pokémon.

I ended up with a core I really liked. It might be standard, but it works. This core (along with Lapras) got me into the Top 16 of Nugget Bridge’s No Mega Tournament, so I felt comfortable using these Pokémon. Hydreigon and Azumarill had fantastic synergy together, as I could switch one out into the other to take hits comfortably. Amoonguss helped support both of them by putting other Pokémon to Sleep or drawing away attacks with Rage Powder. This allowed Azumarill to set up with Belly Drum or Hydreigon to deal heavy damage to the opposing team without fear of being attacked.

Going into Worlds, I expected the main threats to be things like Rain (since Rain was so powerful, winning three Nationals), Kangaskhan, Lucario, Sun, and Trick Room. I wanted my team to have an answer to all of these strategies and Pokemon, so I decided to make my team as anti-meta as possible. Azumarill gave me an answer to Rain teams that used Kingdra and also walled other Dragons. Amoonguss helped out against Trick Room and Rain, and Hydreigon dealt heavy damage no matter how bulky an opposing Pokémon was. I also wanted an answer to Sun teams, Ludicolo, and Mega Venusaur, so I added Talonflame.

Talonflame is an interesting Pokémon in that its stats are pretty bad (except for its Speed) and that needs an Attack boosting item to deal a decent amount of damage, but these drawbacks are made up for by its excellent Ability. Talonflame did help a lot with my matchup against other Amoonguss, being able to KO Amoonguss in one hit. Talonflame also was able to help against Aegislash and Mega Mawile, as those two Pokémon always give me trouble.

Once I settled on Talonflame, I knew I needed a powerful option against Kangaskhan, its counter Lucario, and Charizard Y. I tried several different Fighting types. Conkeldurr, Medicham, Machamp, Gallade, and Meinshao were all considered, but they were susceptible to Fake Out , letting my opponent knock out my supposed counter with their other Pokémon. While watching the U.S Nationals stream, I saw Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario) using a Choice Scarf Sawk. I didn’t even know Sawk was in the Kalos Dex. I had used Sawk a bit in 2011, so I decided to give it a chance. Sawk turned out to be amazing.

Inner Focus meant that opponents couldn’t use Fake Out on Sawk, and if they didn’t know Sawk’s Ability I could score a free KO. Sawk could survive a Draco Meteor from Timid Scarf Salamence, and can destroy standard Kangaskhan. Sawk also performed well against a lot of other Pokémon, such as Hydreigon, Tyranitar, Mamoswine, Lucario, and Bisharp. I have no regrets using Sawk, and I’d highly recommend giving it a try if you haven’t already.

With five of my Pokémon decided, I needed a Mega. I planned on using Mega Manetric, but I didn’t want Intimidate because if I did make it past the Last Chance Qualifier, I would be facing a Worlds metagame which included Bisharp and Wigglytuff. I finally decided on Mega Kangaskhan because it was a reliable Mega with Fake Out support. My final team was this:

If anyone would want to look at the team video, click here.

The Team

Sawk @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 50
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Close Combat
– Rock Slide
– Poison Jab
– Sleep Talk

The MVP and superstar of the team. I originally used Mold Breaker Earthquake Sawk to surprise enemy Rotom, since most players didn’t go for the Fake Out on Sawk, but I decided that Mold Breaker would have worked better in Swiss than in Best of 3. I also forgot that Mold Breaker is shown when Sawk appears on the battlefield, immediately giving away my plan. Sawk did what I needed it to do: get rid of all the threats to the rest of my team. 228 Speed EVs with an Adamant nature gave Sawk a Speed stat of 134, boosted to 201 with its Choice Scarf. This allowed me to outspeed Jolly max Speed Aerodactyl by one point. I gave Sawk max Attack because I wanted it to hit hard as well as fast, and the leftover EVs were dumped into HP. Close Combat is obvious because it is Sawk’s most powerful move, getting the KO on Mega Kangaskhan and Hydreigon. I used Rock Slide for two reasons. First, I didn’t like the lower accuracy of Stone Edge. Secondly, with a fast Pokémon using Rock Slide, I could potentially turn the tide of a game with flinches. Poison Jab let me hit Fairies like Gardevoir and Azumarill super effectively. Sleep Talk was an interesting choice. I anticipated a lot of Amoonguss and Smeargle, so I wanted to be able to get around sleep. Sleep Talk allowed me to catch my opponents off guard. Although I never used Sleep Talk during Worlds, or even faced a Smeargle, I never regretted have the option. Overall, Sawk was amazing and more bulky than I’d thought it would be.

Talonflame @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
Level: 50
EVs: 124 HP / 252 Atk / 108 Def / 20 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Brave Bird
– Flare Blitz
– U-turn
– Quick Guard

Originally, I used standard Choice Banded Talonflame with 252 Attack and 252 Speed. I found that sometimes losing Speed ties with other Talonflame was annoying, so I decided to use a spread that allowed me to survive Choice Banded Talonflame’s Brave Bird. With 124 HP and 108 Defense, I am guaranteed to survive Choice Band Talonflame’s Brave Bird, Choice Band Bisharp’s Sucker Punch, and Mega Mawile’s Sucker Punch. I opted for max Attack because Talonflame is lacking in the Attack stat. The leftover EVs were put into Special Defense and Speed. This Talonflame was a little tricky to use, as it underspeeds my Mega Kangaskhan. Sucker Punch would go before Brave Bird, so I often had to not use Sucker Punch in order to not give information to my opponent. While I did have to play around this disadvantage when Talonflame was in, Talonflame’s power and bulk were good enough to make up for it. I found that the key to using Talonflame was to save it for the late game and pick up KOs when the opponent’s team was weakened. Brave Bird was a necessity on Talonflame, and I chose Flare Blitz over Overheat because of my Choice Band. U-turn allowed me to hit Malamar Super Effectively, as well as get some damage in while switching to get into a better position. For the last move, I struggled to decide between Taunt, Will-o-Wisp, Tailwind, Quick Guard, and Giga Impact. I decided that Quick Guard would be an excellent move choice, since my team has nothing to resist a Brave Bird from Talonflame. I didn’t mind being locked into Quick Guard because of the mechanic change in Generation VI. As a bonus, Quick Guard helped deal with Prankster Pokémon.

Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
– Draco Meteor
– Fire Blast
– Dark Pulse
– Flash Cannon

Choice Specs Hydreigon is one of the metagame’s heaviest hitters. The EV spread is a bit boring, but it fulfilled the role I needed it to. Max Special Attack gave me a good chance to OHKO 252 HP / 4 Special Defense Aegislash with Dark Pulse. I wanted to use max Speed on Hydreigon because I felt Hydreigon would be a popular choice, and with most people were investing in bulk over Speed I took the opportunity to just outspeed non-Choice Scarf and non-Timid Hydreigon. This worked, as the only Hydreigon matchup I lost was against a Scarf Hydreigon. I used Draco Meteor over Dragon Pulse because I needed to do a lot of damage to Rotom, which could give my team some trouble. Dark Pulse was chosen as a reliable STAB and a way to damage Aegislash. I was a bit nervous deciding between Flamethrower and Fire Blast. I really don’t like moves with shaky accuracy, but the chance to OHKO Ray’s Mawile was too good. For the last moveslot, I had to decide between Flash Cannon, Earth Power, and Dragon Pulse. I ended up using Flash Cannon in order to hit Gardevoir Super Effectively. When teambuilding, I like to make sure that I have options against different types, and I didn’t have any Pokémon that could hit Fairies Super Effectively. Even though this helped my matchup, I would probably switch Flash Cannon with Earth Power were I to make the team again.

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Giga Drain
– Spore
– Rage Powder
– Protect

I’ve used this Amoonguss throughout the 2014 season. I think Amoonguss should be special bulky in order to survive certain Fire-type attacks, such as bulky Rotom-Heat’s Overheat, as well as tank other Special attacks. I invested a bit into Defense just so I could also take a few physical hits. The moveset is pretty standard. I opted to go for Giga Drain over Sludge Bomb because it allowed Amoonguss to gain some health back. I used a 0 speed IV in order to function better in Trick Room. Even though Trick Room wasn’t that common, it was still a powerful option, especially since a lot of Seniors who top cut were using Trick Room. I used Rocky Helmet so I could switch on a Kangaskhan Fake Out to do some chip damage.

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 20 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Play Rough
– Aqua Jet
– Belly Drum
– Protect

Azumarill is a powerful option. It can rip through unprepared teams, especially paired up with Kangaskhan. I tried Assault Vest and Choice Band on Azumarill, but I felt more comfortable using the Belly Drum set. 212 HP EVs make my HP stat even, so I can use my Sitrus Berry after a Belly Drum to heal back to 75 percent HP. I opted to invest 20 EVs in Speed in order to outspeed 0 Speed Mawile and to Speed tie Ray’s Mawile. I invested a bit in Special Defense to help take Special hits. This spread did what I wanted it to do, and I had no problems with it. The moves were standard but very effective.

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Return
– Power-Up Punch
– Sucker Punch
– Fake Out

Standard Kangaskhan doesn’t need a huge explanation. I originally only used Kangaskhan for Fake Out support, but soon I started to rely on Kangaskhan more. I knew the Worlds metagame would have teams that shut down Kangaskhan, but I decided that if I played smart, I could still pull out a victory. I originally ran 100 HP EVs in order to survive Choice Scarf Staraptor’s Final Gambit, and I thought Power Up Punch would have made up for the lack of Attack. However, I found myself not being able to do as much damage as I’d have liked, so I just went back to full Attack. I chose Scrappy as my Ability because I wanted to hit Ghosts with Fake Out. Fake Out was my first move because it supported the rest of my team. I chose Return over Double Edge or Facade because I liked having reliable power and I didn’t like the recoil from Double Edge. I felt that Hammer Arm was a good move, but I didn’t want to switch out Kangaskhan every time I used Hammer Arm. I chose Power Up Punch for its ability to negate Attack drops and to increase Kangaskhan’s sweeping potential.

The Day Before Worlds and The LCQ

I had a pretty bad day the day before I arrived at Worlds. I was supposed to arrive in Washington at 5PM, but I missed my first bus and the next two buses were full. I ended up having to take the 4:30 bus, waiting three hours at the terminal. I arrived at the Hotel at 9:30PM, went out to dinner, and fell asleep at 11. I was hoping to get more sleep. I woke up at 7AM and headed straight for the Convention Center. I had to wait on a huge line for the Last Chance Qualifier, and I ended up talking to a lot of friends as well as other people I recognized from Nugget Bridge. The stage looked amazing. I hoped to play on that stage, but I would need to focus on the matches ahead first before I could think about playing on stage. LCQ pairings went up for the first round, and I felt fired up for the battles ahead.

Round 1 – Bye

Over half of the Senior division got a bye in the first round. All of my friends also got a bye, so at least I wasn’t alone waiting for the 20 or so people who did get paired up to finish their games.

Round 2

Game 1

Team Preview: Looking at his team, Greninja was going to be a problem because it could deal heavy damage to my team. I felt Hydreigon would do really well against him, so I wanted to conserve Hydreigon until the rest of his team was weakened.

He brought:

I brought:

I decided to lead with Kangaskhan and Azumarill because I wanted to create heavy offensive pressure. I decided he wouldn’t want to lead with Ferrothorn because I had three checks to Ferrothorn. My opponent ended up leading with Aegislash and Rotom-Wash.

Turn 1: I knew Rotom-Wash was most likely to Protect, not wanting to take any chip damage from Fake Out, and I felt that Aegislash would love to set up a Substitute if he had it. I decided not to Mega Evolve and Faked Out the Aegislash, while switching out Azumarill to Hydreigon so I could threaten both Pokémon on the field. He ended up switching his Rotom-Wash out for Ferrothorn, probably expecting a Fake Out. Once I saw Ferrothorn, I assumed it had a Rocky Helmet. Hydreigon came in for Azumarill while his Aegislash takes the Fake Out. His Aegislash does not Stance Change, and as Leftovers is revealed as the item on Aegislash, I assume my opponent had tried to Substitute. At this point, I can guess all four Pokémon my opponent brought: Rotom-Wash, Aegislash, Ferrothorn, and most likely Mega Kangaskhan in the back.

Turn 2: I wasn’t sure if Ferrothorn was going to Protect or not, but I knew Azumarill wasn’t needed for the rest of this battle. I didn’t want unnecessary damage on Kangaskhan, so I switched out Kangaskhan for Azumarill while using Dark Pulse on Aegislash. Dark Pulse knocks out the Aegislash, and his Ferrothorn elects to Thunder Wave my Hydreigon. My opponent sends out Kangaskhan to replace his Aegislash.

Turn 3: I choose to switch out Hydreigon for Sawk while using Play Rough on Kangaskhan, expecting a Fake Out from Kangaskhan onto Hydreigon and a Power Whip from Ferrothorn onto Azumarill. His Kangaskhan Mega Evolves and does Fake Out the switched in Sawk. Azumarill’s Play Rough does about half to his Mega Kangaskhan, and Ferrothorn’s Power Whip knocks out my Azumarill. I replace my fallen Azumarill with Hydreigon.

Turn 4: I want to make the safe play, using Close Combat on Mega Kangaskhan and Fire Blast on Ferrothorn. Sawk picks up the KO on Kangaskhan, but my Hydreigon is fully Paralyzed and Ferrothorn gets a Thunder Wave off on Sawk. My opponent sends out Rotom-Wash as his last Pokémon.

Turn 5: At this point, I feel like I can win as long as I can knock out the Ferrothorn, so I double targeted the Ferrothorn with Close Combat and Fire Blast. Rotom-Wash’s Hydro Pump KOs my -1 Sawk, and Hydreigon is fully Paralyzed again as Ferrothorn’s Gyro Ball does little damage to my Hydreigon. I sent out Kangaskhan as my last Pokémon.

Turn 6: The score is 2-2, and either of us could win. I really needed to knock out the Ferrothorn for a win, so I Mega Evolve Kangaskhan and Fake Out the Rotom-Wash as it Protects. Hydreigon finally is able to act, but misses the Fire Blast as Ferrothorn Thunder Waves my Mega Kangaskhan.

Turn 7-9: I try to use Return on Rotom-Wash and Fire Blast on Ferrothorn, but I end up with both my Pokémon fully Paralyzed as Rotom Hydro Pumps Mega Kangaskhan and Ferrothorn Gyro Balls Hydreigon. At this point I had given up, so I Sucker Punch the Rotom-Wash before it finishes my Mega Kangaskhan off with another Hydro Pump. Hydreigon misses another Fire Blast. I survive both attacks on the next turn, but Hydreigon is paralyzed again and my opponent cleans up the game on the last turn. Loss 0-2

Game 2

Team Preview: The previous game wasn’t how I wanted my first game at my first Pokémon World Championship to go. I knew I’d need to win the next two games in order to keep going. I decided that since I didn’t need Azumarill in the last game, I’d bring Talonflame this time as another way to eliminate Ferrothorn.

He brought:

I brought:

I led with Kangaskhan and Hydreigon against my opponent’s Ferrothorn and Greninja.

Turn 1: Since Ferrothorn is out on the field, I felt there was no risk in using Fake Out on Greninja. Ferrothorn Protects as my Kangaskhan Mega Evolves and uses Fake Out on Greninja, doing a lot of damage. Greninja flinches, and Hydreigon’s Fire Blast goes into Ferrothorn’s Protect.

Turn 2: I thought that Sucker Punch would be able to finish off Greninja, and I was correct. Hydreigon’s Fire Blast connects with the Rotom-Wash switch in, doing about 20-25%. He replace the fallen Greninja with Mega Kangaskhan.

Turn 3: I felt I needed a free switch-in for Sawk, so I decided to withdraw Hydreigon and send out Talonflame while Power-Up Punching his Kangaskhan to negate any incoming Will-o-Wisp. His Kangaskhan Mega Evolves and does not go for the Fake Out. My Kangaskhan is faster, and Power Up Punch does about 40 percent to his Kangaskhan while his Kangaskhan goes for Power Up Punch on the switched in Talonflame. Rotom-Wash uses Thunderbolt on my Kangaskhan.

Turn 4: I’m in a very good position at this point. I can Brave Bird the Kangaskhan and Return the Rotom-Wash to pick up two KOs. My plan goes off without a hitch, and my opponent is only left with Ferrothorn.

Turn 5: I want to save Talonflame so I can Flare Blitz if needed. I decided to switch Talonflame out for Hydreigon and Fake Out with Kangaskhan. I knew it would fail, but I didn’t want to accrue any Iron Barbs or Rocky Helmet damage. His Ferrothorn goes for a Gyro Ball on the switched in Hydreigon.

Turn 6: Fire Blast from Hydreigon finishes the game. Win 4-0

Game 3

Team Preview: I thought that it could be a good idea to switch leads this time around, but I decided that since Hydreigon and Kangaskhan worked so well in the previous game that I would lead with them again.

He brought:

I brought:

I led with Kangaskhan and Hydreigon against Greninja and Talonflame.

Turn 1: I anticipated a Quick Guard from Talonflame, as I thought the only other reason to lead with Talonflame was that he expected me to lead with Sawk. I decided to switch out Hydreigon for Talonflame to take the incoming Ice Beam and Return his Talonflame in order to get rid of the possible Quick Guard threat, letting me Brave Bird my opponent’s Greninja next turn. His Talonflame goes for Tailwind instead, as Greninja’s Ice Beam does a little more than 50% damage to my Talonflame and my Return knocks out the opposing Talonflame. My opponent sends out his own Kangaskhan to replace the fallen Talonflame.

Turn 2: I needed to knock out one more of my opponent’s Pokémon before I could relax. I decided to double target his Greninja to get rid of it quickly. His Kangaskhan Mega Evolved and Faked Out my Kangaskhan, and Brave Bird knocks out both the Greninja and my Talonflame, as the recoil damage is enough to knock me out as well. I sent out Hydreigon to replace Talonflame, and he sends out his last Pokémon: Ferrothorn.

Turn 3: I needed to stall out the remaining turns of Tailwind. I decided to Sucker Punch and Fire Blast his Kangaskhan, expecting Ferrothorn to Protect. My opponent surprised me by Sucker Punching my Kangaskhan, making my Sucker Punch fail. Fire Blast does about 45% to his Kangaskhan, and Ferrothorn Thunder Waves mine.

Turn 4: I thought that he’d Protect his Ferrothorn, so I double target his Kangaskhan with Sucker Punch and Fire Blast. He does not Protect Ferrothorn and my Kangaskhan gets Paralyzed as his Kangaskhan goes for Power Up Punch onto my Hydreigon as Hydreigon’s Fire Blast brings his Kangaskhan to about 5 percent. Ferrothorn goes for Power Whip onto my Kangaskhan but misses.

Turn 5: I planned to Sucker Punch his Kangaskhan and Fire Blast the Ferrothorn, but his Ferrothorn finally Protects as his Kangaskhan Sucker Punches my Kangaskhan, finishing it off. I switched in my last Pokémon, Sawk.

Turn 6: I used Close Combat the Kangaskhan, knocking it out, as Hydreigon’s Fire Blast misses the Ferrothorn and Ferrothorn Thunder Waves my Hydreigon.

Turn 7: Sawk goes for a Close Combat on Ferrothorn, missing the KO. Hydreigon is fully Paralyzed, and another Thunder Wave hits Sawk.

Turn 8: Sawk is fully Paralyzed, but Hydreigon’s Fire Blast connects, knocking out Ferrothorn and winning the game. Win 2-0

Final Result: 2-1

Most of my friends also got through Round 2, with the exception of my friend Sean (Scal721). Luckily, I didn’t know my third round opponent.

Round 3

Game 1

Team Preview:  His team looked like it was designed to support Mega Kangaskhan. I felt that I needed to bring Azumarill or Hydreigon to effectively knock out his Gyarados.

He brought:

I brought:

I led with Kangaskhan and Sawk, while my opponent led with Mamoswine and Kangaskhan.

Turn 1: I predicted the Kangaskhan to switch out, so I decided that I would Power-Up Punch the Kangaskhan slot and Close Combat the Mamoswine. My opponent’s Kangaskhan does switch out for Gyarados, which fires off an Intimidate onto both of my physical attackers. Sawk gets the Close Combat off on Mamoswine, picking up the KO even at -1 Attack. My Kangaskhan Power-Up Punches Gyarados, putting it at +1 Attack. My opponent sends out Amoonguss to replace the fallen Mamoswine.

Turn 2: I really didn’t want to switch out my Sawk, since I didn’t want a switch in to take a Spore or Thunder Wave for free. I decided to double target Amoonguss with a Close Combat and Return and hopefully knock it out. His Amoonguss Rage Powders as the combination of Close Combat and Return is able to take out the Amoonguss. I learn that his Amoonguss does not carry Rocky Helmet. Gyarados Thunder Waves my Kangaskhan, slowing it down. My opponent sends out Kangaskhan as his last Pokémon.

Turn 3: I have no reason to not Close Combat the Kangaskhan and Return the Gyarados. His Kangaskhan Mega Evolves and Sucker Punches Sawk, but even at -2 Defense Sawk is able to survive and fire off a Close Combat, picking up the KO. Gyarados’s Waterfall fails to KO or flinch my Kangaskhan, letting it knock out Gyarados with a Return. Win 4-0

Game 2 

Team Preview: I expected my opponent to lead with Gengar this game in order to deal with the Sawk and Kangaskhan lead I brought last game. I did not want to lead Hydreigon, though, because of the small chance my opponent brings Wigglytuff or has Dazzling Gleam on his Gengar. I decided that leading Azumarill and Kangaskhan would be good, as I wanted to knock out Gyarados quickly with some offensive pressure.

He brought:

I brought:

My opponent led Gengar and Gyarados against my Kangaskhan and Azumarill, putting both of my Pokémon at -1 Attack right off the bat.

Turn 1: I expected the Gyarados to Protect, but I was curious what his Gengar would do, as he could go for a Will-o-Wisp, Sludge Bomb, or Protect. I decided to Fake Out Gengar and set up Belly Drum with Azumarill. If his Gyarados carried Taunt, I would have been in a bad position, but I could always just switch out Azumarill. Gyarados does go for the Protect, and Kangaskhan’s Fake Out does a good amount of damage to Gengar and gets the flinch. Azumarill is free to set up Belly Drum and heal back to 75% HP with its Sitrus Berry.

Turn 2: I wanted to Protect Azumarill this turn because I expected either a double target onto Azumarill or Gengar Protecting and Gyarados trying to slow me down with Thunder Wave. I felt like Kangaskhan could get a free Power-Up Punch as well, letting me have two scary Pokémon on the field at once. Kangaskhan Mega Evolves as Azumarill Protects. My opponent’s Gengar Sludge Bombs into the Protect, and Kangaskhan gets to +1 Attack by Power-Up Punching Gyarados while Gyarados’ attempt to Thunder Wave Azumarill fails.

Turn 3: At this point, I could safely Aqua Jet my opponent’s Gengar and Return his Gyarados to pick up two KOs. If he were to switch, his Pokémon would still take lots of damage. He doesn’t switch, and I am able to knock out both of his Pokémon. My opponent’s last two Pokémon are Kangaskhan and Amoonguss, I felt like I had the win secured with my Talonflame and Sawk in the back.

Turn 4: I decided to double target Amoonguss because if he uses Fake Out with his Kangaskhan, his Amoonguss would still faint to my other Pokémon. His Kangaskhan Mega Evolved and my Kangaskhan went first, picking up the KO on Amoonguss with Return. A Return from his Kangaskhan was able to KO Azumarill, and I sent out Sawk to replace it.

Turn 5: Close Combat KOs the enemy Kangaskhan, and I advance to Round 4 of the LCQ. Win 3-0

Final Result: 2-0

Most of my friends lost this round (sableyemagma and Lightcore). The only other person I knew who was left in the tournament was Max Glick, a good friend of mine. We spent time in between rounds talking about our previous rounds.

Round 4

Game 1

Team Preview: Mr. Mime looked interesting, and I wanted to know what moveset it had because Mr. Mime gets a wide range of support moves to bolster offensive moves like Dazzling Gleam, Psychic, and Psyshock. Other than that, my opponent’s team looked really standard, but I would need to find out which items he was using on Talonflame and Tyranitar.

He brought:

I brought:

He led with Mr. Mime and Kangaskhan, as I led Kangaskhan and Hydreigon to create some offensive pressure.

Turn 1: I expected a few combos from my opponent’s lead. He could Fake Out and use either Icy Wind or Dazzling Gleam with Mr. Mime. He could also Quick Guard or Fake Out with Mr. Mime and use Power-Up Punch with Kangaskhan. I felt that my safest play would be to Draco Meteor my opponent’s Kangaskhan and use Return on Mr. Mime. I hoped to get a KO on at least one of Pokémon, if he did go for Fake Out. Mr. Mime ended up being the one to use Fake Out, using it on Hydreigon. My Kangaskhan’s Return barely failed to KO Mr. Mime, as it hung on with what looked like 1 HP. His Kangaskhan Power-Up Punched my Kangaskhan, getting to +2 Attack as Hydreigon flinched.

Turn 2: I knew he’d want to quickly KO one of my Pokémon, so unless his Mr. Mime had Dazzling Gleam, I should be fine. I decided to Draco Meteor the Kangaskhan and Power-Up-Punch the Mr. Mime. I figured that if he knocked out my Kangaskhan, I could KO his with a Choice Specs Draco Meteor, and if he targeted my Hydreigon, I could KO his Mr. Mime, get to at least +1 Attack, then safely bring in Sawk next turn. His Kangaskhan Sucker Punched mine, knocking it out, and Draco Meteor misses his Kangaskhan. His Mr. Mime uses Icy Wind, doing a decent amount of damage to Hydreigon and lowering my Speed by one stage. I sent out Sawk to fill in for Kangaskhan.

Turn 3: At this point, I figured that I’d most likely lost this game. I decided to Close Combat the Kangaskhan and switch Hydreigon out for Talonflame. My opponent switched out his Kangaskhan into his own Talonflame, and Sawk’s Close Combat deals about 50% damage while his Mr. Mime uses Icy Wind again.

I don’t remember the rest of the battle, and all I can tell from my notes is that his last Pokémon was Rotom-W and that I lost. Loss 0-3

Game 2

Team Preview: I knew that I needed to change my plan of attack for this game. I decided my best bet was leading Kangaskhan and Amoonguss and the only lead that could screw me was Talonflame and Rotom Wash.

He brought:

I brought:

We both end up leading Kangaskhan and Amoonguss.

Turn 1: I decided to Fake Out and Spore my opponent’s Kangaskhan. My Kangaskhan is faster than his and gets the Fake Out off. His Amoonguss uses Rage Powder, probably predicting me to go for a Power-Up Punch, and my Amoonguss gets a free Spore off, putting his Kangaskhan to sleep.

Turn 2: I felt as though my Amoonguss had done its job, and that there was no need to keep it on the field any longer. I felt as though I could safely switch out Amoonguss for Talonflame and Power-Up Punch to get some Attack boosts in, since my Kangaskhan was probably going to be put to Sleep this turn. His Kangaskhan takes some damage and the guaranteed first turn of Sleep as his Amoonguss does Spore my Kangaskhan.

Turn 3: I decided that my best play was to Brave Bird the Amoonguss, as I did not want both of my Pokémon asleep at once. If my opponent Protects, it wouldn’t matter as my Kangaskhan could knock out both of his Pokémon, and I could always Brave Bird the Amoonguss on the next turn if his Kangaskhan was still asleep. If his Kangaskhan did awaken, he would either knock out my Talonflame, letting me get a free switch in for Amoonguss, or I could Brave Bird the Kangaskhan next turn. His Amoonguss did not Protect and got knocked out by Brave Bird while both Kangaskhan takes a turn of Sleep. He sent out Rotom-Wash to replace his Amoonguss.

Turn 4: I didn’t see any reason to not Brave Bird my opponent’s Kangaskhan and to Return his Rotom-Wash, as I figured I should be guaranteed at least one KO. My opponent withdraws his Kangaskhan, sending out his Talonflame, and my Talonflame knocks it out with a Brave Bird. My Kangaskhan woke up this turn and knocked out Rotom with a +2 Return.

After sending out his sleeping Kangaskhan, my opponent forfeits, and I bring the series to a Game 3. Win 4-1

Game 3

Team Preview: I felt like my opponent wanted to bring Mr. Mime this game to support his team. I expected him to lead Talonflame and Rotom-Wash to counter my lead from the last game, so I decided that I would bring the same lead as game one.

He brought:

I brought:

I led Kangaskhan and Hydreigon against my opponent’s Kangaskhan and Amoonguss.

Turn 1: I was surprised to see him lead the same lead, but I was happy about my position as I had two choices. I could either Fake Out the Amoonguss and Draco Meteor Kangaskhan, or Fake Out the Kangaskhan and Fire Blast Amoonguss. I decided to Fire Blast the Amoonguss, as I did not want to take a Spore late in the game. My Kangaskhan is once against faster than my opponent’s and gets the Fake Out off. Hydreigon’s Fire Blast connects and knocks out Amoonguss, and I take an early lead. He replaces his Amoonguss with Mr. Mime.

Turn 2: I figured my opponent wanted to Fake Out one of my Pokémon, but I didn’t know which Pokémon he wanted to target. One thing I did know was that his Kangaskhan was in Brave Bird KO range, so I decided to switch out Hydreigon for Talonflame and use Return on Mr. Mime because I did not want to deal with Icy Wind again. Mr. Mime Faked Out Kangaskhan, flinching it, and his Kangaskhan’s Return knocks Talonflame out. I sent out Sawk to replace my Talonflame.

Turn 3: I couldn’t make assumptions about what my opponent’s last Pokémon was, so I needed to be careful. I didn’t know if he had a safe switch-in, so I Close Combatted his Kangaskhan and went for a Return onto his Mr. Mime. Sawk was able to knock out my opponent’s Kangaskhan, and Kangaskhan got the knock out on Mr. Mime. My opponent sent out his last Pokémon, which was Tyranitar.

Turn 4: Sawk gets the final knock out with another Close Combat, and I advance to the Top 8 of the Senior Division Last Chance Qualifier. Win 3-0

Final Result: 2-1

Top Eight of the LCQ. One more game, and I’d be participating in the Pokémon World Championships. I found out that Max had also won his last set. We talked for about an hour while waiting for the next round to start. Max and I hoped we wouldn’t be paired against one another because both of us to wanted to make it into Worlds. Pairings went up and thankfully we weren’t paired together. After a handshake, we wished each other good luck.

Round 5 vs Bargens

Game 1

Team Preview: Conkeldurr was an interesting choice of Pokémon. I did have Pokémon weak to Mach Punch, so I couldn’t afford to leave Conkeldurr on the field for long. His team also seemed weak to Garchomp, so I expected the Hydreigon to have a Choice Scarf. I thought Talonflame and Kangaskhan would make a good lead, with Azumarill and Hydreigon in the back to help deal with the bulkier Pokémon on my opponent’s team.

He brought:

I brought:

Both players led with Talonflame and Kangaskhan.

Turn 1: I knew I could win the Talonflame mirror match, so I wanted to Fake Out his Kangaskhan, anticipating him not wanting to go for Protect if he had it. I doubted he had Quick Guard, since his team really didn’t seem to benefit from Quick Guard support. My Kangaskhan was faster and got the Fake Out off. His Talonflame Brave Birded my Kangaskhan, doing enough damage to indicated that it was a Choice Band Talonflame. My Talonflame’s Brave Bird picked up the KO on the weakened enemy Talonflame, and my opponent sent out Rotom-Wash to replace his fallen Talonflame.

Turn 2: I feared a Will-o-Wisp from the enemy Rotom, so I decided to switch my Kangaskhan out for Hydreigon and Brave Bird my opponent’s Kangaskhan. I figured that I could either knock out Kangaskhan with Brave Bird, or if he switched out into Aegislash I could have Hydreigon KO Aegislash on the next turn with a Dark Pulse. Talonflame’s Brave Bird knocks out Kangaskhan, but is KOed in return by a Thunderbolt from Rotom-Wash. My opponent sends out Hydreigon to replace his Kangaskhan, while I send out my Kangaskhan to replace Talonflame.

Turn 3: I had a win condition in mind: all I needed to do was knock out the Rotom-Wash, because Hydreigon couldn’t touch the Azumarill I had in back. I decided to Fake Out his Rotom-Wash with Kangaskhan, because if he Protected Rotom he would have wasted a turn, and if he didn’t I’d have gotten free chip damage in. I switched out my Hydreigon into Azumarill to take the incoming Draco Meteor, and Kangaskhan’s Fake Out flinches Rotom after doing about 30% damage.

Turn 4: I knew if his Hydreigon went before my Kangaskhan, it would confirm that the Hydreigon was holding a Choice Scarf. If not, I could figure out which item it was using based on the damage it did to my Kangaskhan. I simply decided to use Return on Rotom-Wash and Play Rough on Hydreigon. Hydreigon was faster than my Kangaskhan, and knocked it out with a Draco Meteor. Rotom-Wash’s Thunderbolt did about 70% to Azumarill, and Play Rough knocked out Hydreigon. I sent out Hydreigon as my last Pokémon.

Turn 5: Hydreigon KOs Rotom-Wash with a Draco Meteor. Win 2-0

Game 2

Team Preview: I expected my opponent to lead with Hydreigon and maybe Rotom-Wash this game. I decided my best lead would be Amoonguss and Kangaskhan in this scenario.

He brought:

I brought:

I lead with Kangaskhan and Amoonguss against his Kangaskhan and Talonflame. I made a bad play on the first turn by predicting him to expect my Amoonguss to Protect. I ended up with a fainted Amoonguss for my trouble. Later in the game, his Rotom-Wash revealed Thunder Wave and ended up Paralyzing all of my Pokémon. I don’t remember much from this game except Rotom-Wash spreading Paralysis and Conkeldurr doing some heavy work with Drain Punch.

Game 3

Team Preview: That was one of the worst games I have ever played in an official tournament. I decided that because he brought Talonflame and Kangaskhan twice, I would abuse the fact his Talonflame didn’t have Quick Guard. I decided to lead Kangaskhan and Sawk so that I could Fake Out the Talonflame and Close Combat the Kangaskhan. I also assumed that because he didn’t bring Aegislash in the first two games, he probably wouldn’t bring it this game.

He brought:

I brought:

I led Kangaskhan and Sawk against his Kangaskhan and Conkeldurr.

Turn 1: Even though my opponent didn’t lead as I expected, I would still be able to finish the Kangaskhan off on the first turn. I doubted he would switch out his Kangaskhan because of all of the crazy predictions in the first two games. My Kangaskhan Faked Out my opponent’s Conkeldurr, and Sawk got the KO on the enemy Kangaskhan. My opponent sent out Rotom-Wash to replace his Kangaskhan.

Turn 2: I anticipated a Drain Punch on Kangaskhan and a Thunderbolt or Hydro Pump on Sawk. I didn’t want to risk a double target into a Protect, and I couldn’t knock out each Pokémon on my opponent’s side of the field individually. If I tried, I could have lost both of my Pokémon in the process. The safest play I could make was switch out Kangaskhan for Azumarill to take the anticipated Fighting-type attack while getting some damage off on Rotom-Wash with another Close Combat. Conkeldurr’s Mach Punch on Azumarill did almost no damage, while Sawk’s Close Combat left Rotom with around 52% HP remaining. Rotom-Wash knocked out my Sawk with a Thunderbolt, and I replaced it with Kangaskhan.

Turn 3: I decided that I would use Return on Rotom-Wash instead of going for Fake Out, as I was hoping the damage from the first hit would be enough to KO the Rotom without activating its Sitrus Berry. I also decided to Belly Drum with Azumarill because Conkeldurr couldn’t touch Azumarill unless it had Poison Jab, which I highly doubted. Conkeldurr’s Mach Punch does about 50% damage to Kangaskhan, and the first hit of Kangaskhan’s Return barely failed to KO Rotom. Rotom’s Sitrus Berry activated, and my second hit brought Rotom down to about 1 HP with a critical hit. Rotom Thunder Waves my Kangaskhan, and Azumarill gets the Belly Drum off without a hitch.

Turn 4: I felt as though Azumarill’s Belly Drum had won me the game, so I Aqua Jetted the Conkeldurr and Sucker Punched the Rotom-Wash, knocking both out.

Turn 5: His last Pokémon is his Choice Scarf Hydreigon, and a Play Rough gets me the win. Win 2-0

Final Result: 2-1

I felt relieved. I’d finally gotten my invite to the Pokémon World Championships. Everyone I knew congratulated me, and while I was on line for the Pokémon World Championships check in, I spent a lot of time talking to ShadePride who had also gotten in through the LCQ. I got my Worlds items and headed over to the player’s area for the player’s meeting. I ran into Tommy (Tman), who told me that my good friend Vinny (who I played in the finals of two West Babylon Premier Challenges) had made it through the TCG LCQ. We congratulated each other and talked about the things we used to get through our respective tournaments. We found out half an hour later that the player’s meeting was postponed until the next day, so I decided to head back to my hotel. On my way back, I got to run into my friend TechnoZ as well as the finalists of the 2013 Pokémon VG Senior World Championship: Ben Hickey (Darkpenguin67) and Hayden Mctavish (Enigne). I had a great time talking to them.

The Pokémon World Championships

I woke up and felt very confident in my team. Thanks to the Last Chance Qualifier, I got a few extra practice games in before Worlds. Pairings went up, and I was placed right next to Mark McQuillan (woopahking). While waiting me, Mark, Mark’s opponent, and Thomas (my opponent) started talking. They mentioned Bargens, who I’d eliminated the day before in the LCQ.

Round 1 vs Thomas Davies (UK) (51st)

Game 1

Team Preview: My opponent placed in the top 16 at two different UK Nationals tournaments, so I was looking forward to the challenge. His team looked standard with good synergy. I felt that as long as I could find out which items his Pokémon were using, I should be in control of the games. His team looked like it could easily be swept by Azumarill, so I knew that Azumarill would be the key to winning this set.

He brought:

I brought:

My opponent led Gyarados and Hydreigon against my Azumarill and Amoonguss. I couldn’t have asked for a better lead. I was able to set up Belly Drum with ease, and I didn’t have to worry about Taunt from Gyarados since it was a Dragon Dance set. As soon as Azumarill got its Belly Drum up, I started to sweep his entire team, as Amoonguss was able to Rage Powder attacks away from Azumarill or just Spore Pokémon that didn’t threaten Azumarill.

Game 2

Team Preview: Since Azumarill and Amoonguss did so well against my opponent’s team, I figured that he was going to adjust his leads. I expected a Talonflame lead, and I decided that instead of trying to set up Belly Drum with Azumarill, I would instead use it to bait attacks into Protects and have Kangaskhan set up instead.

He brought:

I brought:

I led Kangaskhan and Azumarill against Talonflame and Gardevoir. I was able to bait a double target with both of my opponent’s Pokémon attacking into Azumarill’s Protect, and Kangaskhan was able to set up a Power-Up Punch with ease. At that point I was able to sweep through the rest of his team, and later in the game Azumarill was also able to set up Belly Drum for an unstoppable duo. I took the set 2-0.

Round 2 vs Keita Miyamoto (JP) (25th)

Game 1

Team Preview: I felt ready for this battle. This set was going to be one of the craziest sets I have ever played in my VGC career. My opponent’s team looked standard as well, and finding out moveset and item information would allow me take control of the set. It looked as though Kangaskhan and Talonflame would be my best lead for the first game, so that is what I led with.

He brought:

I brought:

I led with Kangaskhan and Talonflame against Hydreigon and Amoonguss. There was a lot of switching, as he would often switch his Gyarados in to try to Intimidate my Pokémon, but my Kangaskhan was able to Power-Up Punch the stat drops away. Sawk was able to deal a lot of damage to Gyarados and Amoonguss with Rock Slide as my Kangaskhan did damage with Power-Up-Punch or Return. The game ended with Sawk being able to knock out his Hydreigon, Gyarados, and Kangaskhan, and Sawk ended up being the MVP for this battle.

Game 2

Team Preview: I was able to win the first game pretty easily, but I knew that letting my guard down would be a bad idea. I planned to sweep with Azumarill while knocking out the Pokémon that threatened it with Talonflame and Gyarados.

He brought:

I brought:

I led Kangaskhan and Azumarill against Hydreigon and Gyarados. Unlike the last set where Gyarados was not a threat to Azumarill, my opponent in this round used a support Gyarados with Taunt and Thunder Wave. I was able to Fake Out my opponent’s Gyarados and set up Belly Drum with Azumarill, even through Hydreigon’s Earth Power. At this point in the set, Gyarados starts spreading Thunder Waves around on my Pokémon. My Kangaskhan was fully Paralyzed three turns in a row, preventing me from getting chip damage onto his Gyarados. The game ended up coming down to my 1 HP Paralyzed Kangaskhan against his low HP Gyarados. All I needed to do was hit a Sucker Punch, and my opponent used Protect to try to stall out my Sucker Punch PP. Unfortunately, the turn he decided to go for the Waterfall my Kangaskhan got fully Paralyzed again, and I ended up losing a very close match.

Game 3

Team Preview: I decided there was nothing wrong with what I led in the previous game, so I decided I would bring the same Pokémon and try to knock out the Gyarados quickly before it could Paralyze too many of my Pokémon.

He brought:

I brought:

We both used the same leads as before, as I led Kangaskhan and Azumarill against my opponent’s Hydreigon and Gyarados. This time we both made different plays, and his Hydreigon KOs my Kangaskhan with a Draco Meteor. Azumarill still gets the Belly Drum off, but gets Paralyzed by Gyarados. Unfortunately for me, my Azumarill was often fully Paralyzed, and I ended up missing a crucial Draco Meteor on his Gyarados. My opponent made some great plays, like Waterfalling the Amoonguss slot when I switched it out for Talonflame. The game came down to Azumarill being able to attack through Paralysis, but it ended up being fully Paralyzed. My opponent and I ended up laughing at the games we had, and I was already thinking about the next game.

Round 3 vs Takumi Furugori (JP) (14th)

Game 1

Team Preview: I wasn’t feeling too stressed going into this set. This team looked very standard, so I felt that I needed to find out the opponent’s play style and adjust accordingly. I felt Azumarill would be great in this set, so long as I brought Hydreigon to deal with the Rotom-Wash and the Aegislash.

He brought:

I brought:

I decided to lead with Kangaskhan and Azumarill, and my opponent led Rotom-Wash and his own Kangaskhan. I remember getting the Belly Drum off easily, but his Rotom-Wash revealed that it had Thunder Wave, and I hoped that this game would not be like the last. I predicted that Rotom-Wash would not attack my Azumarill, and was able to KO it with a +6 Attack Play Rough. From there, I was able to make quick work of the rest of my opponent’s team.

Game 2

Team Preview: Now that my opponent knew that I had Belly Drum Azumarill, I had to play around that factor and counter his possible leads. I decided that he would probably lead with Rotom-Wash and Kangaskhan again, but change up his strategy. I decided that my best lead would be Kangaskhan and Amoonguss.

He brought:

I brought:

My opponent did lead Rotom-Wash and Kangaskhan. Normally, I would have had the better matchup in this situation, but his Rotom-Wash revealed that it had Safety Goggles, making it free to Paralyze my Pokémon. My Kangaskhan is knocked out by a Hammer Arm from my opponent’s Kangaskhan, and his Rotom-Wash survived a Draco Meteor from my Hydreigon.

Game 3

Team Preview: Now that I knew my opponent’s Rotom-Wash had Safety Goggles, I knew that Hydreigon was going to be crucial. I decided that I would lead Kangaskhan for Fake Out pressure as well as Hydreigon to hopefully KO Rotom.

He brought:

I brought:

I led Kangaskhan and Hydreigon against my opponent’s Kangaskhan and Salamence. I knew that my lead match up wasn’t good, so I decided to pull a double switch, switching out Hydreigon for Azumarill and Kangaskhan for Amoonguss. My opponent ended up Protecting his Kangaskhan and switching out his Salamence for Garchomp. I predicted his next move to be switching out the Kangaskhan for Salamence while using Earthquake with Garchomp, so I felt that I could double target the Garchomp with Play Rough and Giga Drain. I did not want to Spore the Garchomp on the off chance that it was holding a Lum Berry. The turn went as I expected, with Earthquake getting a critical hit on my Azumarill, activating the Sitrus Berry. Play Rough misses Garchomp, and Giga Drain does very little damage. My only out at this point is to Rage Powder and try to Play Rough the Garchomp again, because I knew I could survive another Earthquake. However, Garchomp gets another critical hit with Earthquake and picks up the knock out. I had no chance of winning from that point on.

Round 4 vs George Langford (KobraTail) (US) (40th)

Game 1

Team Preview: From looking at this team, I felt that either Gardevoir or Tyranitar was holding a Choice Scarf in order to deal with Garchomp. The only problem that I had to deal with is if the Gardevoir is holding a Choice Scarf, was my Sawk faster than his Gardevoir? I decided that Kangaskhan and Talonflame would be my best lead because Talonflame could deal heavy damage to his team.

He brought:

I brought:

I led with Talonflame and Kangaskhan against my opponent’s Amoonguss and Kangaskhan. The first couple of turns went in my favor, as I was able to get rid of the Kangaskhan and Amoonguss early with Talonflame. However, I did make a huge mistake when I thought Talonflame could KO my opponent’s Rotom-Wash with a Brave Bird when it was under half HP. As a result, I carelessly lost Talonflame. I still had a favorable situation with my Hydreigon, Kangaskhan, and Sawk against his Gardevoir, but I ended up losing due to the Gardevoir carrying a Choice Scarf. All Gardevoir had to do was use Dazzling Gleam to knock out all of my Pokémon. His Gardevoir was faster than my Sawk, which was interesting.

Game 2

Team Preview: I knew I wanted to conserve Talonflame in order to KO Gardevoir. I felt as though there was nothing wrong with the Pokémon I brought in the previous game, so I just decided to switch up my lead with Kangaskhan and Sawk.

He brought:

I brought:

This game was close, as George and I kept switching out our Pokémon to try to gain momentum and find an opening to attack. I was able to KO his Kangaskhan and Amoonguss with Hydreigon, and he was able to KO Sawk early in the game. On the game deciding turn, I only had Talonflame with a bit of chip damage left against George’s full HP Gardevoir and a Choice Banded Talonflame at 25% health. My Talonflame would always survive an Adamant Choice Band Talonflame’s Brave Bird, but with the chip damage I thought I needed my opponent to get a low damage role with his Brave Bird, knocking his own Talonflame out with recoil and letting me KO his Gardevoir with Brave Bird. His Talonflame does get the KO with Brave Bird, though, and I shake George’s hand. It turns out his Gardevoir was Timid, so that’s why it was able to outspeed my Sawk. I really couldn’t be mad at that game, but I felt like I shouldn’t have made the mistake of losing Talonflame prematurely in the first game. At this point, my chance at making Top Cut was gone, so my goal from there out was to get at least a 3-3 record, with hopefully a Top 32 finish.

Round 5 vs Tim Sudermann (DE) (44th)

Game 1

Team Preview: Looking at my opponent’s team, I thought the Charizard would be Mega Charizard X, as he didn’t have any other physical attackers other than Tyranitar (unless his Aegislash was physical, which I highly doubted). Sylveon was the most interesting Pokémon on this team, as Hyper Beam was the best STAB move it got without access to Hyper Voice. I was very interested in its moveset. I felt that Kangaskhan and Sawk would be a pretty safe lead against this team.

He brought:

I brought:

My opponent brought Charizard and Sylveon against my Kangaskhan and Sawk. I Faked Out Sylveon and Rock Slided to start the match, doing a lot of damage to Sylveon as Charizard Protected. On the next turn, I found out his Charizard was indeed a Mega Charizard X, as Rock Slide does about half HP to Charizard X. Sylveon is KOed by Return as Charizard Flare Blitzed Kangaskhan. I was able to KO Charizard next turn with another Rock Slide, and Talonflame and Hydreigon were able to take care of my opponent’s Amoonguss and Rotom-Wash in the back.

Game 2

Team Preview: Finding out that my opponent had Mega Charizard X was good, as I knew I would have to KO it with by double targeting Charizard instead of just using Rock Slide. I decided that my opponent would probably lead Amoonguss this time, so I led Kangaskhan and Talonflame. I wasn’t sure if he would bring Sylveon, but I did expect Aegislash to appear.

He brought:

I brought:

My opponent led Aegislash and Amoonguss, and I could not have been happier with my lead. I used Fake Out the Aegislash while not Mega Evolving, and pick up an early 4-3 lead by Flare Blitzing the Amoonguss for a early 4-3 lead. Sylveon replaces the fallen Amoonguss, and I Flare Blitzed Sylveon, predicting a King’s Shield from Aegislash. I switched out Kangaskhan for Sawk to be able to create Fake Out pressure later, and Aegislash does attempt a King’s Shield as Flare Blitz knocks out Sylveon. His last Pokémon was Tyranitar, which Mega Evolved and Protected as Sawk wasted a turn. Flare Blitz knocked out Aegislash, but the recoil was enough to knock out Talonflame as well. I sent out Kangaskhan, and I was able to finish the game with Sawk’s Close Combat.

Round 6 vs Melisa A (DE) (50th)

Game 1

Team Preview: I knew that even if I was able to win this next set, I would probably not get a Top 32 finish because my opponent was 1-4 currently. Her team was interesting, with three possible Mega Evolutions and a Sharpedo. I had no idea what to expect, so I decided to lead Kangaskhan and Talonflame since it would hit most of her team hard, especially if she decided to lead with Sun.

She brought:

I brought:

My opponent ended up leading with Sylveon and Sharpedo. I had no idea what this lead combination would do, so I hesitated a bit while choosing my moves. She Protected with both Pokémon on the first turn in order to avoid my Fake Out. The next turn, I ran out of time because I was unsure as to whether or not I should double target Sharpedo, since most Sharpedo carry Focus Sash. Instead, I used Return on Sylveon and Brave Bird on Sharpedo, which indeed carried a Focus Sash. My opponent then uses Round with both Pokémon, and Sylveon’s Round gets the Knock Out on Kangaskhan with a critical hit I’m not sure mattered. I sent out Sawk to replace Kangaskhan, and by knocking out Sylveon with a Brave Bird, I’m able to stop the Round shenanigans. Her last Pokémon were Mega Charizard Y and Tyranitar, and with some switching I was able to win with Sawk and Talonflame.

Game 2

Team Preview: I found out a lot of information in the last game. Her Tyranitar was holding a Choice Scarf. Her Charizard was Mega Charizard Y. I also now knew about here Round combination. I decided that she probably wouldn’t lead Sylveon this time, instead leading with her Tyranitar. I decided that this would be my best opportunity to set up a Belly Drum with Azumarill, so I led Azumarill and Kangaskhan for this battle.

She brought:

I brought:

She does lead with Tyranitar, with the second Pokémon being Talonflame. I used Fake Out on Tyranitar to avoid a Rock Slide flinch, and her Talonflame used Sleep Talk for some reason. I was really confused, like someone had hit me with Swagger. As a result, Azumarill was able to get a free Belly Drum in. Her Talonflame switched out for Venusaur as I Protected my Azumarill and Power-Up Punched Tyranitar. I then Aqua Jetted Tyranitar and used Return on Venusaur for a double KO. From there, I was able to deal with her Talonflame and Charizard in the back.

After Worlds Thoughts

Final standings were posted, and I finished 36th overall. I was decently satisfied with that result after a crazy weekend. I spent the rest of the day battling people with my Worlds team in best of threes, going undefeated. I really enjoyed the Pokémon World Championships. I got to meet so many friends in person that I have known online, such as Zach (TechnoZ) and Alex (Pokealex). I had so much fun playing in the tournament, and I definitely hope to come back next year.

Pros

• Using an amazing team and going so far into the Pokémon World Championships
• Meeting a lot of old and new friends, and making friends with people I have never met before
• Eating Chinese food everyday
• Not running into Smeargle at Worlds
• Having fun at every single moment

Cons.

• The long bus rides, especially when someone right next to you is chatting on his cell phone for three hours
• The first event that I didn’t get at least a Top 32

Conclusion

The Pokémon World Championships were an amazing experience and I highly recommend going, either as a player or just as a spectator. I will definitely be trying hard to make it back next year in the 2015 season. I hope to do well in the Masters Division, and if I make it back, who knows. I could be a future World Champion. Until then, I will be working hard. If you want to get into Worlds, I recommend that you work hard and practice a lot as well.                                      

The post Last Chance, Let’s Have Some Close Combats: A Seniors LCQ Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

“But every game’s like turn one Fake Out, Tailwind on Suicune
Rock Slide, Choice Scarf, prayin’ it’ll flinch soon,
We don’t care, we’re running Camerupt and ice creams.

But everybody’s like Prankster, Thunder Wave, spam it for the paralyse
Brave Bird, Heatran, tigers on their cloud feet.
We don’t care, like my Bibarel we’re Unaware.”

“And we’ll never be boring (boooooring)
We’re having fun just like we should,
Mega Kangaskhan just ain’t for us.
We’re more into stuff like Mandibuzz.
Let’s just say that I’m cooler (cooooler),
I’d even use a male Combee
And baby I’m cool, I’m cool, I’m cool, I’m cool.
Let me live that fantasy.”

This whole time I’ve secretly been Lorde. How’s that for a kooky and hilarious and definitely not completely unfunny plot twist?

Actually no, sadly, I’m going to talk about Pokémon again. It’s the new season, and I’ve been doing my best to get to grips with it online. So I thought I’d write a thing about my practising and teambuilding, and I hope you enjoy it.

Let’s Go Down to the Battle Spot, and Talk it Up like Yeah

There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to competitive Pokémon, and I think it’s important that I address some of them firmly.

You get a lot of people who’ll just slap a whole load of legendaries and high-stat Pokémon onto a team, because they think that it’ll make them more likely to win. Whatever Smogon says is a strong Pokémon, they’ll throw it on their team because it’ll definitely make them win, right? People just going with what they’re told is cool, like those guys that wear their dad’s Rolex and Jack Wills polo shirts, silently head-bobbing to Rick Ross, doing naughty things whilst taking a selfie. You know, the decadent and debauched youth of today. Shallow, stupid people, right? Yeah, sure, if they really exist. But you know what’s really shallow and stupid? Getting mad at people for playing to win, in, you know, a Pokémon tournament. Where you only get stuff for winning. Legendaries, pseudo-legendaries, the biggest Mega Evolutions, why are they popular? They have the most stats and options, so it’s easier to win with them.

That’s the bottom line when it comes to winning: you have to have more options than your opponent. Losing is easy. The option’s always there: all you need to do is press the “Run” button. Winning is more difficult. To win, you have to KO all four of your opponent’s Pokémon. How you go about it’s up to you, but that’s what you have to do to win. If you lose the option to win, you lose the game. So, if you want to win, your team has to have an answer to as many situations as possible. For example: Mega Kangaskhan, the most popular Mega Evolution, is fast, can take a few hits, and can potentially at least two-hit KO every Pokémon in the game. If an enemy Kangaskhan has an uncommon move like Crunch or Fire Punch, your counter’s less use than Gary Glitter at a birthday party. Meanwhile, Mega Heracross, if your opponent has a Talonflame, is 100% done for. A sucked and spat-out Smartie. The Pokémon that usually win are the ones that have a chance against everything, and don’t care what your opponent’s using.

Which is what a lot of this boils down to: having had the chance to win. Look at it this way: are you playing in these tournaments to win, or are you playing to enjoy yourself? For me, those are the same thing. I love playing VGC because each game’s a puzzle; it’s about being given the pieces and finding a solution where I win. The games I don’t win? There’s always a way I could’ve won them. Maybe it was legitimately a luck thing, but there’s always a way in which I could’ve won and usually a way in which I could’ve played better. So I use Pokémon like Landorus and Thundurus, “boring” Pokémon that have an answer to virtually anything.

You can use Simple Beam, Trick Room Audino combined with Minimize, Curse Muk and Psych Up Rotom-Fan as much as you like. But that’s what you’ll be using: Simple Beam, Trick Room Audino combined with Minimize, Curse Muk and Psych Up Rotom-Fan, every game. Well done, you put together a fancy little Pokémon-based Lego set. Everyone thinks you’re very clever. Then your opponent Taunts you and you’ve literally no chance of winning. You’re suddenly Louie Spence in a homophobic Mordor, and it’s entirely your fault.  But hey, you’re unusual, right? I’m sure your opponent had a great time seeing that quirky and interesting setup. And that’s the important part: “your opponent”. They’re playing it once. You’re playing with that team every game, and to win it has to do the exact same thing every time. Surely that’s closer to the definition of boring than having the same Pokémon as other people? Whose opinion do you care more about, yours or your opponent’s?

Like Lorde’s alleged subversiveness (i.e. angsting and not caring about expensive things by writing a song about them), refusing to use popular Pokémon because they’re popular is just another, even more limited, way of conforming. Consciously avoiding something because it’s popular only reinforces insecurity. Likewise having a waxed moustache and riding a unicycle isn’t unconventional; it’s just another set of even stricter conventions, and it also makes you a jerk. Look at Christmas 2009, when dumb people Raged Against the Machine by doing the exact same thing, to prove that there are more of the “I’m going to buy Killing in the Name because Facebook told me to” kind of idiot than the “I’m going to buy the X Factor single because the telly told me to” kind of idiot. Because nothing ticks off authority more than giving it your money. And, you know, buying a T-shirt at the mall is countercultural so long as it’s black and has a picture of Sonic the Hedgehog. Jeez, people can be stupid.

So, what I’m saying is, if you want to be a competent player (and this applies to more than Pokémon), be conscious and critical of what you’re doing. Be a strong, independent person and make your own decisions; express your own reasoned judgments and don’t care what other people think about them. Don’t be a consumer, or a Hot Topic anarchist. Respect is earned, and not given. Nothing great ever came from following instructions. I don’t care if you’re using Heliolisk or Hydreigon, all I ask for is that you give me a good fight. Nobody wants to shoot Old Yeller.

But hey, that’s enough about me and what I play for. How about some Pokémon?

Sir Mix-a-Lot

I have a confession to make. I like big …butts? What, why’d you think of that? I mean, I don’t mind them now you mention it, but no, let’s avoid the cheesy jokes. What I like is a big selection of Pokémon to use, and I cannot lie. Sorry. When I’m playing online, I’ll basically have a whole box of stuff to use and end up changing my team constantly depending on how it’s doing. I won’t be giving you a team here, just a selection of the sets I’ve been using, and what roles they’ve been filling.

When I put a team together, I have a general rule of it needing to have two complementing Mega Evolutions, and preferably three each of Physical and Special attackers. It needs to have a Rock Slide user, some form of Speed control, and an Intimidate. I need to have leads capable of dealing with Kangashan/Smeargle, Kangaskhan/Thundurus, Politoed/Ludicolo, and Kangaskhan/Bisharp, all easily-telegraphed yet dangerous leads that’ll take you down if you aren’t careful. And I have to have an answer to every Pokémon I can think of. It took a long time to find something that fit my little list of criteria. As you can imagine, I went through a lot of Pokémon. I’ll exclude the EV spreads, firstly because I’d like to encourage you to make your own, and secondly because I haven’t a blooming clue what half of them were anyway. Hot mess, me.

Mega Evolutions

So, the first place to start is your Mega Evolutions. They’re going to be your most powerful Pokémon, so you might as well focus the team around them. First off, I had to have a go with Mega Salamence.

Like A G6- Far East Movement
“Now I’m feeling so fly, like a G6!”
Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate/Aerilate
Timid Nature
– Draco Meteor
– Hyper Voice
– Flamethrower
– Protect

See, this is exactly what Lorde’s moaning about. You guys, I’m so cool! I’m so fly like that Gulfstream aeroplane, get it? Because aeroplanes fly and it’s expensive! But really I mean “fly” as in, stylish! Word-plaaaay! Look I’m drinking loads of expensive wine, popping bottles in the ice like a blizzard! Wait, B-blizzard..?! Oh…

My Salamence is “feeling so Fly”-ing type, its Hyper Voice 2HKOs pretty much everything in the game. And exactly that. 2HKO. Then it gets KOed by the things it didn’t KO. This is why special Mega Salamence is better off finishing things, or backed up by Helping Hand. Basically, it sucked, and I need a better set for it.

It’s pretty facile to look at Mega Salamence and think it’s similar to the normal form, which is essentially what I did. Easy mistake to make, grave consequences. Like mixing up Louis and Lance Armstrong. Pol Pot and Paul Potts.

Spitfire- The Prodigy
“’Cause you know that I can”
Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze/Drought
Modest Nature
– Overheat
– Heat Wave
– Solarbeam
– Protect

You know the drill. Charizard is just good, so long as you beat its counters, and is a valuable way of easily stopping Rain teams, the bane of all that is good in the world.

I rage-dropped him after losing at 1890 rating to a double Heat Wave miss, but that was kind of the point. 90% Accuracy moves are bad for your health, so I decided to go for something that wasn’t going to do my head in, and 10% misses do my head in like a little kid with a whistle lolly.

X Rated- Excision
“Explicit expert, the highly exalted, I exercise dancefloors, leave ‘em exhausted”
Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body/Tough Claws
Jolly Nature
– Iron Head
– Ice Punch/Zen Headbutt
– Bullet Punch
– Protect

I’ll be honest. Mega Metagross is pretty bad. I’m sure people’ll make it work eventually, but right now the standard Jolly set is just plain bad. It gets walloped by Bisharp, Fire-types, even Rotom, hence changing to Zen Headbutt. Plus, it isn’t even that strong; when you get used to OHKOing everything with Mawile, it spoils you a little.

So Mega Metagross didn’t last long. Love the name though, it’s absolutely perfect. Had that one saved for a while!

Midnight City- M83
“The city is my church, it wraps me in sparkling twilight”
Gallade @ Galladite
Ability: Steadfast/Inner Focus
Jolly Nature
– Close Combat
– Psycho Cut
– Ice Punch
– Protect

Seemed fairly promising, but, like a Poundland sandwich, low expectations still managed to disappoint. Gallade’s a bit posh, seems like a bit of a lad. Hence he’s named after the Made in Chelsea theme tune (and shiny in a Moon Ball!).

Loads of fun to use with Helping Hand Close Combat, but alas its weakness to Talonflame and being paralysed makes him kind of trashy. I’m sure it’ll find a niche later on in the metagame, and I’d strongly encourage you to work one out, but for now this lad can go back to the Nando’s from whence he came.

Me and You- Nero
“Are you ready? Do you know? I feel it, too!”
Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy/Parental Bond
Adamant Nature
– Return
– Fake Out
– Sucker Punch
– Power-Up Punch/Low Kick

Okay, I sold out. I went for single Mega and Kangaskhan, no less. There’s no avoiding the fact that Kangaskhan is yet again on paper the best Mega in the game, especially now that everyone wants to play with the new stuff, which happens to mostly be weak to Kangaskhan.
It’s especially strong right now because everyone’s scared to pack loads of Intimidate thanks to that buzzkill Bisharp, who as far as I’m concerned is at a party and pulling out Monopoly.

Otherwise, this is just your usual Kangaskhan. Adamant and Low Kick are important to OHKO less bulky enemy Kangaskhan and Heatran. Hopefully, people will start properly countering Kangaskhan like they did last year, but it’s a little harder since a lot of the old 5th gen favourites are weak to it.

So hey, Kangaskhan ended up being my only Mega. How exciting.

Support Role

It’s all well and good having loads of attackers, but they need support if you’re going to be consistent. Time for some support mons.

Pink and Blue- Hannah Diamond
“We look good, in pink and blue! You love me! …maybe it’s true?”
Cresselia @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Calm Nature
– Psychic
– Icy Wind
– Thunder Wave
– Helping Hand

Like gender roles and Bruce Forsyth, Cresselia just won’t die.

But it also barely does anything. Hannah Diamond’s most (relatively) famous, upbeat, and utterly disturbing tune is a befitting moniker for the strange and awkward banana duck; a Pokémon that’s never made sense. What even is it? Why is it always female?

It’s some kind of awful focus-tested abomination, as if Game Freak were told they needed to make a legendary Pokémon for girls. An uncanny, floating, sparkly pile of vomit. As such, I love the bloody thing. This is literally the same set as I used in 2013 and, basically, it kept getting steamrolled by the now-common Kangaskhan, Bisharp, and Specs Hydreigon so I replaced it with…

Saltwater- Chicane
“Fol lol the doh fol the day!”
Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Bold Nature
– Scald
– Ice Beam
– Tailwind
– Protect

Oh, memories. Before I actually became a zoologist- like, when I was like five, my mum and dad would take me to the aquarium on quiet days and me and the brother would repeatedly ride the conveyor belt through the glass tunnel and watch the sharks and rays, the speakers alternating between this song and Enya’s Orinoco Flow. “Look, a stingray!”, the plebs would bleat. “Can you not? That’s a skate, you [yamsing] clown”, my five-year-old self would judge. Now it’s “Look, a Nemo!” and it’s usually me saying it. Because I’m subversive and hilarious.

Suicune’s always had a place in my heart. From that fateful day in 2001 when, in the car park outside the Halifax Chicken Hut, I found “the tentacle cow in t’ Pojo magazine”, I’ve had a soft spot. To the extent that (don’t laugh) I once brought a Sheer Cold Suicune to Worlds. And, in fairness, it’s not even that bad. Pretty good, even. I just found it got wrecked too easily by Kangaskhan and Electric-types. So I dropped it for…

Forgive Me- Infected Mushroom
“Can you show me one more time, just where to go?”
Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Sassy Nature
– Giga Drain
– Spore
– Rage Powder
– Protect

Oh look, it’s the exact same Amoonguss I’ve had for over a year. Sorry for the boring analysis. I hope you’ll Forgive Me. Ugh.
He’s for dealing with Rain teams (especially Mega Swampert teams, which I hate with a passion) and Bisharps (which I also hate with a passion). You know what he does. So, how about some of my attackers?

Physical Attackers

Nightcall- Kavinsky
“There’s something inside you. It’s hard to explain. They’re talking about you, boy. But you’re still the same.”
Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
Adamant Nature
– Iron Head
– Sucker Punch
– Assurance
– Protect

What’s that? Look, I might hate playing against Bisharp but that doesn’t mean I’ve always cared about inflicting it upon other people.

The name just kinda goes. People think Bisharp’s got a new lease on life now that there’s a lot more Intimidate about. It is, in reality, just as terrible as before. Bisharp, however it’s played, encourages risk-taking and throws games down to chance. Defiant and its absurdly powerful Sucker Punch (which fails to have a guaranteed OHKO on Landorus-T at +1, a big deal) essentially puts a lot of games down to “Well Sucker Punch KOs either of his guys, but both threaten Bisharp, attack the obvious one or predict Protect? Who knows what he’ll do, YOLO”. If you’re screenwatching and know what your opponent’s doing, that’s fine. But screenwatching is naughty.

Essentially, Bisharp is for scrubs so don’t use it unless you’re okay with losing a lot of games to predicting wrong. I think it’ll die out as the metagame matures.

Big Boss- Doctor P
“Alright, here we go!”
Landorus-T @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Adamant Nature
– Earthquake
– Superpower
– U-Turn
– Rock Slide

It’s only fair that terrible, brainless, wonderfully danceable dubstep becomes the namesake for Choice Scarf spray-and-pray. Choice Scarf Landorus-T is “Hah, sorry” the Pokémon. “Hah, sorry” in this context meaning “YES!!! YES!!!!!” or “I have no empathy for other human beings, whatsoever”. I confess, I have been caught shouting at my Choice Scarf Rock Slide “FLINCH IT!!! FLINCH IT!!! YESSS!!!!!” at Nationals. This makes me either passionate, an absolute wiener, or both.

It’s just a good Pokémon. I like Landorus.

Special Attackers

Since I had Landorus and Kangaskhan in basically every game I only needed those two on the team, really. So I had loads of choices for Special attackers!

Golden Brown- The Stranglers
“Never a frown, with Golden Brown”
Raikou @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Levitate
Timid Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power (Ice)
– Snarl
– Protect

Ah, nothing says “Raikou” like the colour of a Greggs sausage roll. That’s what the song’s about, right? I’m assuming those are what the British Empire was bringing back from India, anyway.

Raikou’s better than you’d think, but I got critical hit through Snarl enough times to go cold turkey and get my hands on some sweet, sweet black-tar Thundurus.

Hurt- Yung Lean
“I’mma make you hurt, I’mma I’mma make you hurt”
Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Modest Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power (Ice)
– Thunder Wave
– Taunt

There’s something vaguely menacing about a peachy-faced lad in a bucket hat waggling his Pokémon lotion (???) and mumbling about how he wants to hurt you. Why is he going on about drugs when it’s past his bedtime? And was that later line literally a shoehorned-in rhyme for Murakami? Don’t you lie to me Yung Lean, I’m pretty sure it was. I can tell when you’re lying because you do that thing with your face. Ooh… he’s going red! He’s going red!

Thundurus is named Hurt because, well, firstly I can really imagine it waggling its finger condescendingly. Secondly, it’s my Taunt user, and he’s meant to put a stop to any of the absolute nonsense I’d been seeing on the Battle Spot. Stuff like Minimize Chansey, Stockpile Cradily, that kind of thing. As far as I’m concerned, people who bring that stuff to the Battle Spot ought to be lined up and shot. You know, like Paul Potts did in the Killing Fields of Cambodia. Oh… whoops. See I told you, easy mistake to make.

Anyway, I’m on here to practise for tournaments. You can’t use a minimize stall team in a tournament and every game when one takes 45 minutes. Like the Discovery Channel, it’s neither fun nor educational.

I don’t really care about my opponent getting fully Paralysed because firstly I’m using Thunder Wave for the Speed control, and also because I’m inconsiderate and want to make you into a Sad Boy.

Resistance- Knife Party
“This… is a knife!”
Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
Modest Nature
– Flash Cannon
– Shadow Ball
– Wide Guard
– King’s Shield

That’s not a knife. This… is a knife. Aegislash is what I call a “buffer mon”. This is, if you’re winning, Aegislash makes you win more. If you’re losing, it isn’t much good, but it’s great for random switches, and Wide Guard is top when the metagame’s full of spread moves.

I found, though, that especially against Bisharp and Talonflame, Aegislash just wasn’t cutting it. I needed a more offensive Steel-type that didn’t get KOed by Kangaskhan.

Light ‘Em Up- Fall Out Boy
“Light ‘em up up up light ‘em up up up light ‘em up up up I’m on fiyaaaa!”
Heatran @ Chople Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
Modest Nature
– Overheat
– Heat Wave
– Flash Cannon
– Protect

I love shiny Heatran! It’s my favourite legendary. Thanks to Werford for trading me his, and giving it this beautiful name. It’s just kind of inherently funny and the song makes me think of my mum and her awful taste in music.

Chople Berry is the real key to this set, and I’m amazed that I don’t see it more often. It’s so good. Basically Heatran is my catch-all counter to Charizard Y and Fairy-types, and it does a stellar job of it. Simple, quality Pokémon.

But, I was having pretty major problems with Rotom and Bisharp, so I added in the next guy.

Radioactive- Imagine Dragons
“Welcome to the new age, to the new age”
Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Timid Nature
– Draco Meteor
– Dragon Pulse
– Dark Pulse
– Flamethrower

Classic brainless Choice Specs Hydreigon from the new Linkin Park. New Linkin Park since they’re doing Transformers now, with dinosaurs and Marky Mark. Timid because I didn’t breed it, Ninjames did and he wanted to beat other Hydreigon. On the plus side, though, it means my stupid dragon outspeeds Kangaskhan that have gone Adamant for the KO on mirrors.

Otherwise it’s pretty simple. Standard “tank and spank” Hydreigon, that thrives on not being the focus of the opponent’s attention.
So, plenty of Pokémon to get through! There were a few more, like a Milotic and Sylveon, but I didn’t use them enough to make a proper comment. Let’s have some battle videos. I won’t say much about them, though. You’re supposed to like, work out what’s happening for yourself. That, and I can’t be bothered writing a description. They’re good, though.

It Looked Alright in the Battle Videos

Here’s some battles. Enjoy watching!

DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU MESS WITH THE WARRIOR? (Vs. Russian)

R9CW-WWWW-WWXW-4CYR

Giving him Aaron for his money (Vs. Cybertron)

GEUW-WWWW-WWXW-8LCE

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

JS2W-WWWW-WWXW-8MGJ

I forgot to Mega Evolve and Aegislash just can’t Let It Go

6VCG-WWWW-WWXW-8Z3H

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

UQMW-WWWW-WWXW-8ZVE

Hail to the king, baby!

K53G-WWWW-WWXW-8Q44

This is ParaPara

HNDW-WWWW-WWXW-8RN4

So, that’s a little Battle Spot for you. Whether you’re the class clown or the beauty queen in tears I hope you’ve enjoyed reading and watching. See you next time!

The post Let’s Go Down to the Battle Spot (And Talk it Up Like Yeah): Playing to Win Online appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

The long awaited fourth Nugget Bridge Major is finally here. Last year’s Nugget Bridge Major was the largest tournament we ever held here on Nugget Bridge with 449 participants and after a long and grueling tournament, DarkAssassin was declared the victor. We hope this year’s Major will be even bigger and better and the first way we aim to do so is an increase in prizes!

The Major has always had a large prize pool and we are nearly doubling the prize payout compared to last year. This years prizes (US dollars):

• 1st place: $300 + 120 NP
• 2nd place: $150 + 110 NP
• 3rd/4th place: $75 + 100 NP
• 5th-8th place: $25 + 70 NP
• 9th-16th place: 50 NP
• 17th-32nd place: 30 NP
• 33rd-64th place: 20 NP

Of course remember that 100 Nugget Points are needed for an invite to the Nugget Bridge Invitational, so the Major will be key in obtaining that invite.

The second way we hope to make this Major even bigger and better is making it easier to signup and track your progress in the tournament. This year we are using Battlefy to host the entire bracket. No more searching for the right bracket, it will all be right there in front of you. You will need a Battlefy account, so do sign up for one and use this link to actually sign up for the tournament. Signups will be open for 7 days, so don’t delay.

Finally the rules will be important to follow for this tournament. If you don’t follow them you are at risk of losing matches or even being disqualified from the tournament altogether.

• The ruleset will be the Standard Format.
• The tournament will follow the Swiss structure and leads to a final single elimination top cut to determine the champion. This means you play every round whether you win or you lose
• The top 32 players or all players with 2 or fewer losses (whichever is the larger number) will make it to the top cut single elimination stage
• Games will be played in a best of 3 set and the winner of 2 games will be declared the winner of the match. Report the proper score because your tiebreakers are affected. The only results should be 2-0 or 2-1.
• You may not change teams during that best of 3, but you can change teams between rounds.
• Games must be played on Nintendo 3DS systems using Pokémon Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire. In certain circumstances Pokémon Showdown may be used, but it needs to be cleared with makiri, the tournament host.
• This is not a live tournament. Matches will play out over the course of the week.
• The password is “ireadtherules” Do not share this password.
• Use your Nugget Bridge username as your In game name when registering. Do not enter your Pokémon In Game Name twice. Unjoin and rejoin with the correct information if you do this incorrectly. A Nugget Bridge account is required to play.
• As mentioned it is Swiss, just because you lose it does not mean you are done, play the tournament out!
• Please record a video while playing your match (using a phone or camcorder or something similar) to help in case of disputes. We also recommend saving all battle videos.

There is no need to signup in this thread, but feel free to let everyone know you signed up and discuss the tournament. Round 1 will begin on February 2nd, so be ready!

The post Registration Open for the Season 4 Nugget Bridge Major appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi! I’m Level 51, or as I am sometimes referred to in real life, Guan Yang Ze. I recently participated in Singapore’s Asia Cup Qualifier. Attended by 92 players and a government minister, the tournament was comprised of seven rounds of Swiss and a top 8 cut. While I arrived at the tournament expecting to go 4-3 or something, I ended up winning the entire tournament after going 6-1 in Swiss and winning my Top Cut matches 2-1, 2-1, and 2-0.

For a while at the start of VGC ’15, I was running around on the ladder with a team that involved Forest’s Curse Smeargle and Mega Salamence. While this idea was funny and won me a couple of games, I realised that playing with setup moves was pretty much not my style. After chucking around various boring goodstuffs Pokémon for a while, I chanced upon a tweet from Scott Glaza (Scott) which pretty much gave me the entire idea for this team—the pairing of Rocky Helmet Moonlight Cresselia and Mega Charizard Y. While this arguably didn’t end up being the focus of my entire team, it was still a solid trick to have up my sleeve.

The Team

Charizard @ Charizardite Y***Turn↑TheHeat
Ability: Solar Power / Drought
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 44 SpA / 20 SpD / 188 Spe
Modest Nature
– Heat Wave
– Solar Beam
– Overheat
– Protect

• Survives Jolly Garchomp and Mamoswine unboosted Rock Slide 100% of the time
• Survives Modest Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteor 100% of the time
• Survives Modest Thundurus-I Thunderbolt 100% of the time
• Outruns Adamant Landorus-T by one Speed point

This is about as standard as a (bulky) Charizard gets, so I guess I’ll talk a bit about what I didn’t use. There were a few options that I did consider using along the way instead of Overheat, but in general I found that the one-off power of Overheat to be really helpful, especially since the metagame in 2015 trends a lot bulkier than it did in 2014. Focus Blast was a very tempting option since this team has a bit of trouble with Heatran, with Mamoswine being Choiced and three out of the remaining five members being able to do literally nothing to Heatran. I briefly considered trying out Substitute, but I realised that my general lack of skill and prediction ability would hamper the effectiveness of this option. Finally, Tailwind was another option I considered, but apart from Kangaskhan (which couldn’t be used next to Charizard anyway), my team either didn’t care about being fast or was already fast enough to not require Speed control.

I also did not use a typical 252/252 spread as I found that Overheat picked up most of the KOs that I wanted, and besides the general playstyle of this team was not to dish out huge damage all at once with Charizard, but to deal chip damage with other Pokémon and bring Charizard in to clean up. Charizard did this much better with a bulky spread. As for the ability, I didn’t really have much reason for having Solar Power over Blaze — in fact, I think Blaze would have been a better option — but the one fully trained Charizard I had in my box had Solar Power, so I just rolled with that. I don’t think it ended up mattering too much anyway, since I didn’t face opposing sun during either of the two Premiere Challenges I attended with this team, and I always Mega Evolved before attacking anyway.

As I later found out, this Charizard spread also has a 75% chance to survive a Thunder from an unboosted Timid Thundurus, which was really pretty helpful in my finals battle against Max Goh (Evilwolf).

Cresselia @ Rocky Helmet***Crescenda
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 220 HP / 172 Def / 4 SpA / 92 SpD / 20 Spe
Calm Nature
– Psyshock
– Ice Beam
– Thunder Wave
– Moonlight

• Adamant Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird is a 3HKO 100% of the time
• Survives Life Orb Bisharp Knock Off 100% of the time
• Outruns 4 Speed Rotom by one Speed point

The second part of the original core of this team. Again, this is a pretty boring Cresselia set. Psyshock can be really useful for getting chip damage in, especially since the team as a whole doesn’t pack that much offensive presence. Ice Beam is great for dealing with Landorus-T in particular, which is annoying since neither of my Megas have a great matchup against it. I chose Thunder Wave over Icy Wind for a few reasons. First of all, I didn’t want to accidentally Icy Wind into a Bisharp or Milotic switch-in. Cresselia also already has Ice Beam for an Ice-type attack. More importantly, my team tends to cause games to go on for slightly longer than normal, since it doesn’t really have a fast, hyper-offensive mode. This makes Thunder Wave an overall better option in my opinion, since this method of Speed control doesn’t get lost among all the switches that happen. I’m also likely to get at least a few full Paralyses in longer matches, and some of these can really swing the game in my favour.

The last moveslot is where things get interesting. Moonlight in sun heals Cresselia by — quite counterintuitively — two-thirds of its HP, which is an awful lot for a Pokémon as bulky as this lunar duck. A well-timed Moonlight midgame is usually enough to throw some opponents off tempo, opening up opportunities for me to get ahead in the match. Of course, there is also the whole Rocky Helmet thing, meaning that together with Ferrothorn, opposing Kangaskhan don’t have much of a fun time hitting things twice on my team.

In terms of EV spreads, I suppose a more physically bulky Cresselia with a Bold nature would be better in retrospect. As I was preparing the team, however, the only Cresselia I had were lucariojr’s Calm Cresselia and my own Modest HP Ground Cresselia*. I think you can guess which one I ended up using.

* Contact Level 51 today for great trading opportunities!!

Mamoswine @ Choice Scarf***SWINE FLU++
Ability: Thick Fat
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Icicle Crash
– Earthquake
– Iron Head
– Rock Slide

• Wins

With the core as it was, I found that Landorus-T, Thundurus, and Heatran posed significant threats to the team, the former two because they dealt huge damage to Charizard, and Heatran because neither of the two Pokémon I had at this point could deal much damage to it. With this in mind, Mamoswine was a relatively natural choice for a third Pokémon. Thanks to its great combination of STABs, Mamoswine can deal with the three threats I mentioned rather well. In retrospect, perhaps Jolly would have been a better idea so that Mamoswine could outrun Adamant Scarf Landorus-T, but I feel as though Mamoswine’s solid damage output more than made up for its slight lack of Speed. Throughout the course of the entire tournament, I only encountered two Landorus-T (one of which I outsped anyway), so I guess my decision to be lazy and not breed a new Mamoswine turned out okay in the end.

For Mamoswine’s other two moves, I decided to move away from the beaten track a little. While Icicle Spear and Superpower would be nice on Mamoswine in theory, I felt like Icicle Spear was rather inconsistent and redundant since I wasn’t expecting that many Focus Sash Landorus-T. I also didn’t want Mamoswine locked into Superpower at any point in time, since lowered Attack and Defense are no fun. In the end, I decided to use Iron Head to give me another check to Sylveon, as well as Rock Slide to help against Talonflame, which is usually a headache for me on most of my teams. The fact that three of Mamoswine’s four moves had a 30% chance to flinch their targets was also nice, and often had the potential to bring back games off a flinch, or even to cause opponents to play differently due to the threat of a flinch.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers***Free Hugs
Ability: Iron Barbs
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Atk / 108 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Gyro Ball
– Power Whip
– Leech Seed
– Protect

• OHKOs 52 HP /0 Defense Azumarill 100% of the time with Power Whip
• Adamant CB Landorus-T Earthquake is a 3HKO 97.4% of the time
• Survives Adamant Mega Kangaskhan Low Kick 100% of the time

The team was starting to take shape, but it still looked rather weak to Rain. So, I just dumped on the best Rain check I could find. As it turned out, Ferrothorn was the primary win condition in most of the games I played with this team, both during practice and at the tournament itself. Ferrothorn just about single-handedly won me my finals match against a hard Rain team.

This set is about as standard as Ferrothorn gets, but I’m not too sure why I chose this EV spread. One theory that I came up with was that when I was EVing it, I accidentally missed the first digit of Azumarill’s HP EVs, thus EVing Ferrothorn to OHKO 52 HP /0 Defense Azumarill. Regardless, the spread worked fine for me. I didn’t see any need to invest past 252 HP /0 Defense+ in terms of physical bulk, and I didn’t really want to waste 4 EVs by investing in four stats as opposed to three.

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 104 Def / 60 SpA / 108 Spe
Modest Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Taunt
– Thunder Wave
– Hidden Power [Ice]

• Survives fully invested Adamant Mega Kangaskhan’s Double Edge with Sitrus Berry 100% of the time
• Outruns Adamant Landorus-T by two Speed points (and thus my Charizard by one point)

As I played a bit more with the team, I found that it was rather hard to rely on just Ferrothorn and Charizard to beat Rain teams, especially because Rain with Gothitelle could give me a lot of trouble. I added Thundurus for Prankster Thunder Wave, and never really looked back after that because Thundurus did just about everything I wanted it to. Thundurus does bring Pranskter Taunt too, which is always nice, especially for dealing with Mega Gengar / Whimsicott. Seeing as I was using a bulky Thundurus set, Taunt was probably the only reason I used it over Zapdos.

Although Calm or Bold would perhaps be more common options for a bulky Thundurus set, I found that there weren’t really any defensive benchmarks to hit on the Special side that I wanted to hit and which required more than 236 HP /0 Special Defense. Modest was pretty much the most obvious choice to take advantage of Thundurus’ pretty impressive Special Attack stat, which was helpful because a few of my team members have next to no offensive presence. Thundurus was handy for picking up the slack.

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite***#BANKANGA’15
Ability: Scrappy
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 108 Atk / 60 Def / 20 SpD / 108 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Fake Out
– Double-Edge
– Sucker Punch
– Low Kick

• Survives Modest Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteor 100% of the time
• Survives Adamant Mega Kangaskhan Low Kick 100% of the time
• Outruns Mega Gyarados and Milotic by one point after Mega Evolving

Kangaskhan was, interestingly, the very last Pokémon I added to this team. As a bulky Fake Out user to replace Hariyama, it does more or less everything I want it to, except perhaps ironically support Charizard with Fake Out. I tried a bunch of other Pokémon in this slot originally, such as Hariyama, Terrakion, and Greninja, but each of these either made my Rain matchup a lot shakier or were too slow to get the job done before they made a quick exit, courtesy of Talonflame. In the end, I decided to fall back on Kangaskhan simply because Fake Out was an amazing crutch to ease predictions somewhat. I’m not sure if there’s anything else to say about Kangaskhan, because it’s a pretty vanilla option and everyone knows what it does. Funnily enough, I did end up using Kangaskhan more than Charizard, my original mega, but I guess if you’re using Kangaskhan that’s somewhat unavoidable.

Closing Thoughts

As you may have noticed, the team has a rather poor matchup against Heatran. Three of its members cannot touch Heatran, and Mamoswine often can’t do anything to it if it’s Choice-locked into a move other than Earthquake or perhaps Rock Slide. Kangaskhan’s Low Kick was my only form of reliable offense against it. Overall, though, I’m very glad with how this team turned out, and even more so with the strong showing it managed to put up at the tournament itself.

Although the competitive Pokémon scene in Singapore is still rather green (to be quite honest, I credit my victory in part to the fact that not many people had access to troublesome legendaries like Landorus-Therian and Heatran), I have no doubt that the advent of Premiere Challenges in Singapore (and, for that matter, Southeast Asia as a whole) will cause significant growth in our region this year. In fact, as I write this, 18 Singaporeans will be travelling up to Malaysia to attend a Premier Challenge there!

I’d like to take a moment to thank a few people who have made an impression on this team and on my tournament experience this time round:

• Zong Ying (tanzying) and Soon (Soon): Thanks for organizing this tournament! I thought it went really smoothly, and I’m especially grateful for the extra dinner time. Looking forward to more awesome tournaments from the two of you! Special thanks are also due to Zong Ying for getting me into the Singapore competitive scene as a whole and for encouraging me to participate in live events.
• Luke (Dawg) and Shang (slyx183): Thanks for being sounding boards when I was making this team! I daresay without you two this team wouldn’t have been nearly as well-constructed as it turned out.
• Joseph (lucariojr): Thanks for being so generous with your Cresselia! Getting it off you for free made my life so much easier, and I’m really grateful for that.
• You, for reading this! If you skipped all the way here you should be ashamed of yourself, go read the article properly >:(.

The post Moonlight Sonata: Singapore Asia Cup Qualifier First Place Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

The Season 4 Nugget Bridge Major has begun! You can find the brackets hosted on Battlefy. Due to the unprecedented number of registrations, we’ve split the tournament into four flights for a more manageable event. Players who finish with two or fewer losses in their flight will move on to the single elimination stage of the tournament.

We’re incredibly proud to kick off the largest online Pokémon tournament ever and one of the largest gaming tournaments period. 1327 players have signed up and we have some amazing competitors from all six inhabited continents. Thank you to everyone for the support you’ve shown the Nugget Bridge Circuit. We wish everyone good luck in what we hope will be a smooth tournament. That said there are a few guidelines and news items participants should be aware of in making this tournament run as smoothly as possible. Remember that you will be coordinating with players of a wide age range and from time zones as far apart as 12 hours!

Score Reporting

You will report the score in the bracket on Battlefy. Find your match in the bracket and click the icon beside it. Click Report Score. Remember to click “WIN” under the winner’s name and enter if it’s a 2-0 or 2-1 victory before saving.

Never report the score unless you have played a game. If you need to report a missing opponent, report that to your Flight Leader (see the next section). Battlefy’s score reporting will be active until Sunday night. You will have Monday to look at the bracket and make sure everything is correct. You must report any problems to your Flight Leader by the end of Monday. We will not go back and change scores once a new round has been generated.

If you need to report a score on Monday when self score reporting is disabled, please do so by posting in the thread for the current round in our Online Tournaments forum.

Communication

One of the most important parts of the Nugget Bridge Major is communication. Communicate with your opponent by contacting them here on Nugget Bridge using our private messaging system. Your opponent’s username should be relatively close to the one listed in the Battlefy bracket. Try to reply to your opponent as promptly and courteously as possible. You will have about 1 week to complete your best of 3 match so while battles do not need to be done immediately, do keep in mind that there is a deadline to each round. This leads into my next point.

Not every match will be completed. Sometimes people forget they joined the tournament. Sometimes they no longer wish to play. Sometimes you guys just can’t find a suitable time to battle. This is where the Nugget Bridge private message system comes in handy. In case of any dispute or if a battle didn’t get completed, you can add your Flight Leaders (explanation in a bit) to your private message with the following steps:

Step 1

Click “Add” on the left hand side.

Step 2

Type in your Flight Leader’s name and then “Add.”

Step 3

All done. Your Flight Leader is now aware of any issues that you may have with that round’s battle.

Now I’m sure you are wondering what a Flight Leader is. Due to the number of players the entire tournament has been split into four flights and each flight has two Flight Leaders in charge of that flight. The Flight Leaders are the ones who will help determine activity calls so as mentioned it is very important you add the correct ones to your private messages. If you have ANY other issues, contact your Flight Leader first. The Flight Leaders are as follows:

• Flight A: Wyrms Eye + feathers
• Flight B: makiri + Hibiki
• Flight C: Gonzo + Unreality
• Flight D: Braverius + majorbowman

Can’t Find Your Opponent?

If your opponent doesn’t seem to have a Nugget Bridge account search some variations on their name. If your opponent’s name has spaces on Battlefy, maybe they have no spaces on Nugget Bridge. Maybe they have a 3 instead of an E in their name. If you still cannot find your opponent after doing your due diligence wait a couple days, they may contact you. If after several days you do not get contacted and you cannot find your opponent, message your Flight Leaders so they can take care of it. Please give your opponent some time prior to contacting your Flight Leader about this, as mentioned they may have a slightly different name that you just haven’t been able to find.

If you have signed up twice (or more), notice someone else signed up twice, or may just have the same exact name as someone post here with all the information so we can figure out what is going on. Their name, flights they are in, and any other identifying features so we can easily find them. We will try to take care of these ASAP since we know the issues that arise around that.

Please do not make “activity” posts. We don’t use them to judge activity, the only way we will judge activity is through PMs and such.

Prizes

Because of the much larger than expected tournament we have extended Nugget Points to the top 128 now. It isn’t much but it will give points to everyone who makes it to top cut in this difficult tournament. The updated Nugget Point spread:

• 1st place: $300 + 120 NP
• 2nd place: $150 + 110 NP
• 3rd/4th place: $75 + 100 NP
• 5th-8th place: $25 + 70 NP
• 9th-16th place: 50 NP
• 17th-32nd place: 30 NP
• 33rd-64th place: 20 NP
• 65th-128th place: 10 NP

To make top cut, finish your flight as a 7-2, 8-1, or 9-0 player and you will be entered into the top cut. Top cut will be best of three single elimination and will ultimately crown the Season 4 Nugget Bridge Major champion.

Tournament Rules

As a reminder here are the tournament rules:

• The ruleset will be the Standard Format.
• The tournament will follow the Swiss structure and leads to a final single elimination top cut to determine the champion. This means you play every round whether you win or you lose
• The top 32 players or all players with 2 or fewer losses (whichever is the larger number) will make it to the top cut single elimination stage
• Games will be played in a best of 3 set and the winner of 2 games will be declared the winner of the match. Report the proper score because your tiebreakers are affected. The only results should be 2-0 or 2-1.
• You may not change teams during that best of 3, but you can change teams between rounds.
• Games must be played on Nintendo 3DS systems using Pokémon Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire. In certain circumstances Pokémon Showdown may be used, but it needs to be cleared with makiri, the tournament host.
• This is not a live tournament. Matches will play out over the course of the week.
• A Nugget Bridge account is required to play.
• If your match comes down to activity and you either never read your opponent’s communication, never replied to your opponent’s communication, or never logged on to Nugget Bridge during the current round you will be dropped from the tournament.
• As mentioned it is Swiss, just because you lose it does not mean you are done, play the tournament out!
• Please record a video while playing your match (using a phone or camcorder or something similar) to help in case of disputes. We also recommend saving all battle videos.

Highlight Matches

The first round will start off strong! Here are the top ten battles to keep an eye out in the first week. We’ll have battle videos of our top matches up on our YouTube channel once they’re done so subscribe and keep an eye out!

Flight A

• Baz Anderson vs Firestorm
• Dubulous vs Cybertron
• Simon vs Sekiam
• CT MikotoMisaka vs Cobalte

Flight B

• KobraTail vs Linkyoshimario
• Bargens vs Rookie Slayer MLG
• TalkingLion vs Shinon64

Flight C

• Zog vs Legacy

Flight D

• Drizzleboy vs Toquill
• Human vs Alexis

Deadline for this round is Monday, February 9, 2015 at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time.

The post Season 4 Nugget Bridge Major Kicks Off appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

With a new year brings a brand new ruleset, brand new surprises, and brand new experiences for the duration of the season. Which player will have the accolade of winning the first Regional Championship of the VGC 2015 format? What Pokémon will be popular among the players? Will the first event of the season, held in Europe, have any discernible impact on the American Winter Regionals? And can anyone really replace Scott’s preview articles by shamelessly using his format? The answers are likely to be both fascinating and intriguing heading into this weekend!

Prizes

Since this is currently the only Regional event scheduled for Europe, a lot of Championship Points are on the line, which will be helpful to qualify for the World Championships held this year in Boston. Prizes include trading cards and copies of Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire thrown in for good measure (subject to confirmation)!

1st place

• ECC 2015 Champion Trophy
• 36 boosters of XY Primal Clash
• A copy of Pokémon Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire
• 120 Championship Points

2nd place

• ECC 2015 Finalist Trophy
• 36 boosters of XY Primal Clash
• A copy of Pokémon Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire
• 100 Championship Points

3rd & 4th place

• ECC 2015 Semi-finalist Trophy
• 18 boosters of XY Primal Clash
• 80 Championship Points

5th-8th place

• 9 boosters of XY Primal Clash
• 60 Championship Points

9th-16th place

• 40 Championship Points

17th-32nd place

• 30 Championship Points [Kicker 64]

33th-64th place

• 20 Championship Points [Kicker 128]

65th-128th place

• 10 Championship Points [Kicker 256]

2015 Winter Regionals Predictions

There is only one European Regional this week, but because this is the first one with the new VGC 2015 format, it will be interesting to watch the madness unfold.

As ever, a disclaimer on these articles: Regionals are, without question, the most accessible events to players of all abilities. Often enough, Regionals are typically the first level where players become established presences. There will almost certainly be individuals who make the Top Cut who have never before achieved such success. This is not a bad thing; it merely showcases the growing player base. If people do not expect the unexpected, life would be a very boring ordeal, indeed!

Netherlands Regional

Difficulty Rating

/ 5

(Four Pokémon that make a strong core)/5

Location: Sporthal Valkenhuizen, Beukenlaan 15, 6823 MA Arnhem, the Netherlands.

Registration time: 8:00-10:00

The Scoop

As has been stated a couple of times throughout this article, this is the first Regional of the season, and more importantly, the first for Europe, making it much more of an open book in terms of who will attend. It is a welcome step to see Europe get a Winter Regional, and hopefully we will see the European events expand further in the future, perhaps in tandem to the American circuit. Of course, Europe does have multiple National events unlike across the Atlantic, which skews the points distribution somewhat. However, the Championship Points earned here could be the difference between a Day 1 or Day 2 qualification for Boston for a few key individuals, and most definitely may prove vital for some in securing their right to attend the World Championships.

At the time of writing, we are expecting around 100 players to attend for Masters, which is a healthy amount nonetheless. This field is littered with big names and new names, so it’s expected that the competition will be very stiff. The smaller field means that pretty much every player will be looking to avoid big names early during the swiss stage. It is very likely that there will be some interesting matches as early as round 3 of swiss that may prove crucial to the overall composition of the Top Cut on Sunday. In a small and very concentrated field, a little bit of good fortune can go a long way.

Previous World Championship Attendees

It should be no surprise to see me start off by commenting on those players who have reached the pinnacle of the game: the World Championships. I think what will make this Regional a far more compelling contest is the sheer number of confirmed players on the list who have competed in the most prestigious Pokémon event. There no fewer than 13 confirmed names on the list, as well as at least two players who have been invited to play at Worlds but did not attend.

Without question some of the biggest names will come from Germany. Florian Wurdack (DaFlo) is the first of seven German competitors who have participated at the invite-only event, and notably is 2^nd in Europe for CP after a strong string of Premier Challenge results. He will almost certainly overtake the current leader, 2013 World Champion Arash Ommati (who is not attending) if he gains any Championship Points this weekend. It’s also likely Florian will lead the standings and go some way to securing his invite for this year with a Top 8 finish. Baris Ackos (Billa) also sits comfortably inside the qualifying threshold at 10^th in CP for Europe. Baris is a definite community favourite and a consistent tournament player with multiple Top 32 placings across a number of National and World appearances in 2013 and 2014. Other Germans who sit within the Top 60 for European Championship Points include Timo Koppetsch (37TimoK1) and Marcel Kapelle (Massi). It is fair to say neither should be discounted with their experience. Timo qualified for Worlds last summer, and Massi has consistently attempted to grind into Worlds through the LCQ, although the last time he actually played in Worlds 2009. Christoph Kugler (drug duck) is another big name that has to be mentioned among this extensive list of players: a two-time Worlds competitor from 2009 and 2013, he is certainly capable of pulling out big results. Our final two players to note are Matthias Suchodolski (Lega) and Eloy Hahn (Dragoran5). Both are expected to be in attendance, and come off the back of a strong VGC 2014 season. Matthias also made consecutive Worlds appearances in 2013 and 2014, and certainly looks to be well on his way to continuing that streak, sitting 9^th in Europe so far. It would be quite a shock if none of these seven make it to the Top Cut.

The United Kingdom and Ireland also field a healthy number of previous Worlds representatives in Barry Anderson (Baz Anderson), Ben Kyriakou (Kyriakou), Christopher Arthur (Koryo), Kelly Mercier-White (KellsterCartier), Lee Provost (Osirus) and Steve Edgson (SirSmoke). Barry’s run to 9^th at the 2013 World Championships in Vancouver is a real testament to his skill, although he suffered a generally lackluster 2014  season with only one Top 32 cut in Manchester. However, his Nugget Bridge Invitational win could possibly be the confidence boost he needs coming into this year. Ben’s exceptional tournament record speaks for itself: three World Championship appearances and a double UK National Champion to boot. We can expect a similarly strong performance in Arnhem, and he will be a firm favourite to reach the final stages this weekend. Christopher also has made multiple Worlds appearances, and indeed has an impressive record in events over the last two years: three Top Cuts including the final in Milan 2014. Kelly’s strong UK National showing in 2014 was the springboard to his ticket to Worlds. Despite the underwhelming result in Washington, he is still one of the top players in Europe and will be keen to prove his battling credentials. His current rank of 51^st for CP in Europe means he currently runs close to the qualifying threshold, but any points earned here will pretty much provide him with a greater cushion to work with. Lee is another hot favourite based on his 7^th Place in Washington last year. His impressive run at Worlds was backed up with solid performances in Nationals last year, including a Top Cut in Manchester along the way. Lee, currently in 73rd, will also be keen to boost his CP count to vault him up the rankings. Fianlly, Steve boasts Top Cuts in Bochum and Manchester from last year, which were enough to earn his ticket to Washington last summer. It would be fair to say Steve is probably the player I know the least about of the group, but I have no doubt I will rectify this blatant oversight of my inadequate mind by the end of the weekend, although I’m told on good authority he is better looking than Kyriakou.

Other Notable Attendees

Outside of previous Worlds competitors, the field boasts an impressive array of strong candidates who will all be looking to do well. As should be expected, there is a large Dutch contingent taking part with a few key names among them. Andres Escobosa (000aj) is a name to watch out for with an impressive string of Premier Challenge wins under his belt. As such he currently sits 3rd in Europe for CP, and in the same fashion as Florian, could very well take the outright lead with a strong result. Huib Bruijssen (Lolnub) will certainly be looking to return to the Top Cut after his last notable result as a Top 16 finalist at UK Nationals in 2013. His successes at various Premier Challenges has earned him 13^th in Europe with 150 CP. Another Dutch player that has widely slipped under the radar in my view is Ciskejan Giannakos (sagaciousslowpoke). His Top Cut performance at Bochum in 2014 also puts him in good company with many of the names in this article, since he was the only Dutch player invited to play at Worlds last year, although he did not attend. Bjorn Vissers (Eiganjo) finally rounds out the major Dutch names. It would be good to see Bjorn have a solid run; the amount of videos he records for Nugget Bridge should at least expose him to a extensive variety of team ideas!

The UK contingent will also be fleshed out with a few more faces who have made it to the Top Cut. Jake Birch (WhiteAfroKing92) made the Top Cut at Bochum last year. His brother Joe (Professor Birch) will also be making the trip, as is Tyler Bakhtiari (Pokeguru01), who reached the Top 16 in Manchester last year. Other Manchester Top Cut competitors include William Tansley (StarKO) and Sam Bentham (SuperIntegration), who are both becoming solid names in the European circuit, and should be expected to ruffle some feathers among the established core. Both though are in need of the CP to really place themselves more prominently on the rankings; William currently lies just inside the top 60, while Sam sits down in 126th.

One country who we have yet to seriously touch upon is Italy. While the major players of the Italian VGC scene (including Arash, Matteo, and Alberto Gini) are not going to be in attendance, there are still going to be a healthy group of Italian players who will be making the trip. Luigi Orsi (ZPhoenix) is the likely front-runner to bring Italian glory. He made the Milan Top Cut in 2014, but his string of Premier Challenge results are far more impressive; he is currently 7^th in CP for Europe, having long held 2^nd place earlier this season. Lorenzo Galassi (Greyfox) is worth mentioning after doing well at German Nationals, including a Top Cut in 2013 although bubbling out in 2014. Lorenzo was also been invited to attend the World Championships in 2013, but decided not to attend. If Lorenzo imagines he’s in Germany (Arnhem is only a short distance from the German border), we might see a solid result come out once more. The last Italian I want to highlight is Andrea Sala (Yaya). Andrea has been a fixture in VGC since 2011, but broke through to claim his first Top Cut result in Milan last year. Currently 19^th in Europe for CP, he will also be looking to increase his points tally to set him up for the National leg of the season.

From the German perspective, Peer Broxtermann (Bjart) is expected to attend and will be likely to feature in some form amongst the established players. I could cover many more names here that I know are attending from Germany, but I would be here discussing them until after the event concludes. It would be like playing a ‘Where’s Wally?’ puzzle except everyone in the image is Wally.

Outside of Masters

While information is much more difficult to come across with respect to the Senior and Junior divisions, we do often have a few players that are worth highlighting.

Last years Worlds Finalist Mark McQuillan (woopahking) will certainly be the player to beat for all competing in the Senior division. His recent undefeated swiss run at a Premier Challenge mixed in with players from the Masters Division shows that he will be a strong competitor.

The Crystal Ball predicts…: I’m going to play it relatively safe and go with Florian (DaFlo). It would be hard to argue against a German player winning this event, and his impressive start to the season suggests he is in the best shape to capitalize on some notable absentees in the field. I am sure though many of his compatriots also have their eyes on the CP, so expect fireworks to come Sunday afternoon.

Fancy a flutter? This section is where I’m going to put my neck out on the line and select an outside pick who I expect to really do well. In this case, I’m going to go for William Tansley. Despite not having the most glittering of starts to the season in terms of earning points from the Premier Challenges, Will’s understanding and attention to the game is very solid. Battle Spot may not be the perfect indicator, but his consistency from season 7 through the start of the current season suggests he has improved significantly since his performance at UK Nationals last year. An event like this could be the breakthrough he needs to establish himself in the game.

We are hopeful, assuming it gets the all clear to happen, that we will also be able to stream some matches from the event. Streaming adds a great dynamic for us to promote the format, so watch this space for further updates!

As for me…

I will also be in attendance at the event, and look forward to meeting many of you guys for the first time! The article is very heavy on names, but with so many Europeans attending, it would be incredibly difficult to leave out any countries. I hope this preview has been worth the read. It certainly was an eye-opener in terms of the amount of information required and I certainly have a great deal more respect for Scott having written these in the past. I would also like to thank the guys who helped me track down attendees and provided some much-appreciated background info. Without you, this article would not have come to fruition! If you want to get involved with the discussion or give your own predictions on who you feel will be victorious, feel free to leave a reply; I ook forward to reading your thoughts.

The post VGC 2015 European Winter Regional Preview appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

In 2010 and 2011, players took it upon themselves to stream the Pokémon World Championships using their phones (Thanks Alaka, DrFidget, and Danny). In 2012, we received our first ever official livestream at Worlds via GameSpot and NicoNico. In 2013 we saw The Pokémon Company International bring in expert commentators like Scott Glaza and Evan Latt. In 2014, the stream expanded to the US National Championships.

Now it is 2015 and we’re happy to report that the 2015 Regional Championships in St. Louis, Missouri will be streamed officially by Pokémon on their Twitch channel. The video game and trading card game will both span the course of two days over the weekend of February 14th and 15th in what should be one of the biggest events the midwest has ever seen! Your commentators for the video game will be veterans Scott Glaza (Nostrom) and Evan Latt (plaid). On the trading card game side will be the ever knowledgeable Kyle Sucevich (Pooka) and Joshua Wittenkeller (TheJWittz).

Additionally, we plan to stream the Southern California Regional in Lancaster, California on the Nugget Bridge Twitch channel so you can tune in to watch during any downtime. This is also a two day event.

New Abilities & Items

Hot on the heels of the Generation IV starters, the Generation II starters will be entering the metagame with brand new abilities. Meganium, Typhlosion, and Feraligatr will be available with Leaf Guard, Flash Fire, and Sheer Force respectively for anyone who uses Pokémon Bank between February 27th and November 30th, 2015.

Additionally, you can now obtain the Custap, Micle, Rowap, and Jaboca Berry by playing a new minigame in the PokeMileage Club on the Global Link!

Online Tournaments

There are two online ladder-based tournaments on the Global Link coming soon.

Generation Showdown

This follows the ruleset commonly referred to as GS Cup and is the template used for the 2010 Video Game Championships. You will be allowed to use two Pokémon from the restricted list on your team. Registration is open now and the event will happen at the same time as the Missouri, Oregon, Southern California, and Virginia Regional Championships. Check it out on the Global Link.

February International Challenge

Though it will follow the Standard format, this will not award Championship Points like International Challenges usually do. This seems to be more of a test and a concentrated pool to test out your teams in. Unfortunately it will happen during Florida Regional Championships and after all other Winter Regionals in Europe and North America are completed. Check out the full details here.

The post News Roundup: Regional Stream Details, New Hidden Abilities & Items, and PGL Tournaments appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

The first ever Regional Championship in Europe has begun! We have updates straight from the floor on our Twitter feed so remember to keep an eye out! Not sure what’s going on? Take a look at our event preview between refreshes on Twitter.  A stream is not confirmed as this time.

Tweets by @nuggetbridge

The post Live Updates from the VGC ’15 European Winter Regionals appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

The first ever Regional Championship in Europe took place this weekend in Arnhem alongside the European Challenge Cup and we’ve got the results! Players from all over the continent attended in what should be a very important event for the season. No other event currently exists on the same Best Finish Limit. There were 102 Masters division players, 15 Senior division players, and 6 Junior division players in attendance.

Masters Division

1. [UK] Barry Anderson (Baz Anderson)

2. [IRL] Kelly Mercier-White (KellsterCartier)

3. [UK] Christopher Arthur (Koryo)

4. [DE] Eloy Hahn (Dragoran5)

5. [DE] Matthias Suchodolsky (Lega)

6. [DE] Baris Akcos (Billa)

7. [AT] Noah Fuchs (Daydreaming Ninja)

8. [NL] Jip Snoek (Keonspy)

Senior Division

1. Mark McQuillan (woopaking)

2. Ahren Bundy

???

3. Batuhan Can

4. Kevin Salvetto

The post Results from the VGC ’15 Netherlands Regional Championship appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

If you’ve just started to battle competitively, then you might have seen players talking about these weird things called EVs. Perhaps you noticed them in Pokémon Showdown’s teambuilder. Luckily, Nugget Bridge already has basic guides about EVs: this one explains what they are, while this one explains how to get them in-game. This article is different from those two, though: here, I’ll discuss how to use EVs to give you an advantage in battle.

Introduction to Stat Points

Effort values (EVs), individual values (IVs), and the nature of a Pokémon all contribute towards a Pokémon’s stat points. Do you remember that time when your Pokémon barely hung on during a battle, or when you let out a huge sigh of relief after barely knocking out an opposing Pokémon? To make these advantageous situations more common, players want their Pokemon to have as many stat points as possible. This is part of the reason why Pokémon like Cresselia, Landorus-Therian, and Mega Evolutions are so inherently powerful—they have naturally high overall stats, known as base stats. Though you might see the term “base stats” used in-game, especially during Super Training, don’t be fooled—those are actually EVs. Back in Generation III when EVs were first introduced, there was no in-game text to tell exactly what EV-affecting items such as Macho Brace or Protein were for—their item texts were “promotes growth” and “raises the Attack stat”. Due to this, the term “effort values” was created. When the term “base stats” is used, it refers to the natural potential of any particular Pokémon: the stats a Pokémon has due to its species, essentially a species-specific starting point. If you’d like to check out a list of base stats, Bulbapedia has a nice list of every fully evolved (and Mega Evolved) Pokémon’s base stats.

Choosing an EV Spread

Let’s say I have a Landorus-Therian, and I want it to do as much damage as possible, as quickly as possible. I could give Landorus-T a very basic EV spread of 4 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Speed. A Pokémon can have a maximum of 252 EVs in any one stat, and can only have 508 EVs total, so I simply maximize its Attack and Speed while placing the leftover EVs in HP. This is a perfectly viable way to make EV spreads; just maximize two stats, and you’ve got a Pokémon that’s especially strong in two stats.

However, this approach doesn’t always work; take a look at Cresselia, a popular bulky Pokémon. I could give Cresselia an EV spread of 252 HP / 252 Defense / 4 Special Defense, and it would handle physical attacks such as Mega Kangaskhan’s Double-Edge and Bisharp’s Knock Off pretty well. But if I do so, special attacks such as Aegislash’s Shadow Ball and Hydreigon’s Dark Pulse will deal heavy damage to Cresselia, so perhaps maximizing Special Defense instead of Defense is the way to go. This Cresselia also carries Psyshock and Ice Beam, and maximizing Special Attack would allow it to possibly pick up important KOs. What spread should I choose?

Remember, Pokémon aren’t forced to maximize two stats! For example, I could easily give Cresselia a spread of 252 HP / 100 Defense / 156 Special Attack—all 508 EVs are still being used. However, these seem like arbitrary numbers; who knows what they do? Why not just take 508, divide it by 6, and place 84 EVs in every stat? Shouldn’t that make a Pokémon’s stats balanced? Well, doing so is possible, but is typically unoptimal. When damage calculators and teambuilders exist, there isn’t any reason to randomly distribute EVs. This process can be done very precisely; players can invest exactly the necessary amount of EVs to accomplish a goal, and then spend the savings elsewhere. It isn’t just for Cresselia, either—any Pokémon can be specifically trained to accomplish multiple goals with just a single EV spread.

Why Bother?

It may seem as if complex EV spreads aren’t worth the time needed to develop them. The gains are often small—sometimes only a couple of stat points. As such, new players often believe that the ability to create solid EV spreads is relatively useless. However, this is simply not true; games are won and lost on single points of health. By maximizing returns from EVs, these situations can be beneficial more often.

Don’t get me wrong. Learning how to make predictions, manage odds to minimize bad luck, create win conditions, form a game plan at Team Preview, teambuild, and most importantly practice are all important skills that successful players have. Creating EV spreads falls under the teambuilding category, and it certainly doesn’t encompass its entirety. Even if a player learns every advanced strategy, the ability to apply those skills in battle is what truly matter. Pokémon battles are won by the player who picks up four KOs, not the player with the fanciest EV spread. It’s telling that Sejun Park, the most recent World Champion, has used simple 252/252 spreads on many of his Pokémon. As can be seen from his team report, he chose these spreads because they fulfilled his goals perfectly. However, ignoring the benefits of using complex EV spreads is just as silly as solely focusing on them. There is a balance, but it is different for every player.

With that being said, why not just copy an EV spread from a top player? You can, of course, but consider this: when top players create EV spreads, they have specific goals in mind for that Pokémon which are typically team-specific. Let’s take a look at two Hydreigon: one from 2014 US National Champion Alex Ogloza’s (Evan Falco) winning team, and one from Worlds 9th place finisher and LCQ qualifier Wolfe Glick’s (Wolfey) team.

Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 84 HP / 12 Def / 236 SAtk / 4 SDef / 172 Spd
Nature: Modest
– Dark Pulse
– Draco Meteor
– Flamethrower
– Earth Power

Alex’s Choice Specs Hydreigon dealt tons of damage to Pokémon such as Aegislash, Kangaskhan, and Rotom formes, sometimes even being able to OHKO them. At the time, Hydreigon’s arch-nemesis was Garchomp, but Alex’s team carried two Pokémon that could OHKO Garchomp with Ice Beam before it could move: Choice Scarf Politoed and Swift Swim Ludicolo. This meant that Alex’s Hydreigon could afford to invest heavily into Special Attack.

Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 12 HP / 108 Def / 132 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Flamethrower
– Dark Pulse
– Draco Meteor
– Protect

But wait! Wolfe used a very similar team to Alex; he also had Politoed and Ludicolo. So why did he decide to use maximum Speed instead? Here’s his reasoning:

I decided to use Timid with maximum Speed to beat other Hydreigon. If I ran into an opposing Scarf Hydreigon that KOed my Hydreigon with Draco Meteor, odds were that they would be stuck at lower and lower Special Attack due to Gothitelle’s Shadow Tag, so it could essentially be considered a positive trade even if my Hydreigon was KOed. For this reason, Hydreigon+Gothitelle was a decent lead when I expected my opponent to lead Hydreigon, as few things could OHKO Goth and I would be able to take a quick Pokémon lead.

Wolfe’s Hydreigon allowed him to efficiently remove opposing Hydreigon from the game, since they were a major threat to his Gothitelle. This spread also does other cool stuff, such as allowing Hydreigon to OHKO every Rotom with Dark Pulse and Draco Meteor, as well as letting Hydreigon withstand a Dragon Claw from Garchomp and Life Orb recoil. Wolfe chose this EV spread because he recognized a weakness (opposing Choice Specs Hydreigon) and adjusted his own Hydreigon’s spread to help manage that weakness. Although concepts and ideas from historical EV spreads can be beneficial, it remains important to tailor each Pokémon’s EV spread to its surrounding team and metagame. There isn’t a singular “best EV spread” for any Pokémon.

Creating Your Own Goals

You too can do what Alex and Wolfe did! Consider the role of each Pokémon on your team, and then consider how you can create an EV spread that either covers your team’s weaknesses or supplements its strengths. Typically, there are three ways to accomplish this via EVs:

1. Surviving an opposing Pokémon’s attack, or a common combination of attacks
2. Outspeeding a specific Pokémon (or outslowing for Trick Room)
3. Picking up specific KOs on opposing Pokémon.

You don’t have to make goals as soon as you build the team. It’s definitely alright to practice with 252/252 spreads, then create goals as you discover the team’s weaknesses. In fact, it’s encouraged! Once you understand how the team operates, you can make adjustments to your moves, items, EV spreads, and even Pokémon.

When creating your goals, don’t forget that 252/252 can be a very effective EV spread. If your goals simply involve hitting hard and hitting fast, don’t hesitate to use 252/252 just because it’s simple.

Don’t create too many goals for any single Pokémon to handle. Sometimes, not all goals are simultaneously accomplishable; additionally, having too many defensive goals can kill offensive potential. One Pokémon doesn’t have to do everything on the team—that’s what its teammates are for! When you set a defensive goal, make sure that goal is meaningful: that Pokémon should be able to deal significant damage to its specified opponent or provide important support, such as Trick Room.

EVing Against the Metagame

Choosing which goals you want your Pokémon to accomplish not only is determined by your team’s strengths and weaknesses, but also by the metagame itself. If Mega Mawile is very rare, then investing enough EVs to withstand Mega Mawile’s Play Rough is kind of silly, isn’t it?  If I think Adamant Landorus-Therian is going to be everywhere, I’ll give my Hydreigon enough Speed EVs to reach 144 Speed so I can smash it with Draco Meteor before it moves. However, if I end up playing against Choice Scarf Landorus-T, the extra Speed I gave my Hydreigon becomes meaningless and could have been better used elsewhere.

The problem with EVing against the metagame is simple: it’s impossible to know what the opposing Pokémon are until the battle starts. This is especially true with the Speed stat, because a difference of a single point means just as much as dozens. “Speed creeping” is a term some players use for this phenomenon, in which players attempt to have their Pokémon outspeed opposition by a single point of Speed. In VGC 2014, this occured to Rotom. The season started out with Rotom commonly investing only 4 Speed EVs. As it progressed, players began to attempt to win the tie with 12 Speed EVs. As that became common, players bumped up to 20, then 28, then 36, and on and on until the tradeoffs became too big. Speed creeping players sometimes found their Rotom with 36 Speed EVs outspeeding an opposing Rotom with only 4 Speed EVs! As such, top players began to avoid Speed creeping entirely; Markus Stadter (13Yoshi37) gave his reasoning as such in his Worlds team report:

Let’s take a look at Speed: with Speed, it is dichotomous: your Pokémon is either slower or faster than the opponent’s. As such, there is much more potential for wasting EVs in Speed because of the fact that there are only two steps. There is no damage roll. Let’s take a second and compare my Nationals spread to the “standard” 252/252 Jolly Kangaskhan:

Mine: 207 HP, 181 Atk, 121 Def, 133 SpDef, 125 Speed

Standard: 181 HP, 177 Atk, 120 Def, 120 SpDef, 167 Speed

So that means that my Kangaskhan had +26 HP, +4 Atk, +1 Def, +13 SpDef at the cost of -42 Speed. Now what this means is that my Kangaskhan had 44 total stat points more than other Kangaskhan at the cost of going second to some Pokémon. Now if you take a look at common Speeds [from the VGC ‘14 metagame] and common EV spreads, I am sure you will realize that there is not all too much in between 125 and 167 Speed that is worth outspeeding, except for Pokémon such as Smeargle, bulky Charizard-Y and other bulky Kangaskhan. The latter two could also be 167 Speed should they decide to run maximum Speed, so you couldn’t be sure whether your Kangakskhan would outspeed or speed tie even with maximum Speed. And my team had plenty of ways to deal with Smeargle, so I saw no need to outspeed it.

Since Markus felt that he had answers to threats between 125 and 167 Speed, he saw no reason to heavily invest in Speed when the EVs could be used elsewhere.

However, Worlds is a much different event compared to Premier Challenges and Regionals. There are new and inexperienced players using strange gimmicks and a variety of strategies. Due to this, players will often use safe and bulky EV spreads or fast and aggressive ones; these are generally good against a wide range of opponents. Even so, the metagame must be taken into consideration. For example, the likelihood of encountering special Tauros is negligible and Defiant Tornadus isn’t legal, so preparing for those threats is rather silly. These are both extreme examples, of course, but there are plenty of more common adaptations that can only be picked up through practice. Perhaps using 20 Speed EVs is a good idea on Rotom, or perhaps it isn’t. It all depends on what other players are using.

Keep in mind that this concept is good for teambuilding as well. EV spreads aren’t the only way to adapt to the metagame—Pokémon themselves work too. Don’t know what’s popular? Check out the Reports section on Nugget Bridge for EV spreads used by top players, and keep an eye out on the forums for discussion of EVs. The Global Link usage statistics are also helpful in figuring out what’s being used right now.

Conclusion

Where’s the how-to, you might ask? Well, this article is mainly the “what” and “why” of EV spreads—look out for part two, where the “how” will be discussed. There, you’ll learn how to use a damage calculator as well as the basics of getting the most out of your EVs.

Article art created by Cometkins for Nugget Bridge. View more of her artwork on her Nugget Bridge forums thread.

The post AchiEVing Perfection: Creating Specialized EV Spreads, Part One appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

The first round of the Nugget Bridge Major 4 is in the history books. After a hard fought round, everyone is still in a position to make the top cut so don’t give up because you lost already. The second round of the Major is now finalized and you may begin battling and reporting your scores. An important thing to note for this round, the deadline is 2 weeks as opposed to 1 week. Please do not begin to fret immediately when your opponent does not show. The round will end at 23:59 Pacific (UTC-8) on Monday, February 23rd, 2015.

As a reminder here is the bracket. Please read the kick off post for instructions on reporting your score and messaging your opponent.

Flight Leaders are an important part of this tournament, make sure you are using them properly. Please do not spam them with requests and private messages. They are busy people and they will eventually be able to help you. In case you may have forgotten these are your Flight Leaders (they have not changed):

• Flight A: Wyrms Eye + feathers
• Flight B: makiri + Hibiki
• Flight C: Gonzo + Unreality
• Flight D: Braverius + majorbowman

Once again the rules for this tournament:

• The ruleset will be the Standard Format.
• The tournament will follow the Swiss structure and leads to a final single elimination top cut to determine the champion. This means you play every round whether you win or you lose
• The top 32 players or all players with 2 or fewer losses (whichever is the larger number) will make it to the top cut single elimination stage
• Games will be played in a best of 3 set and the winner of 2 games will be declared the winner of the match. Report the proper score because your tiebreakers are affected. The only results should be 2-0 or 2-1.
• You may not change teams during that best of 3, but you can change teams between rounds.
• Games must be played on Nintendo 3DS systems using Pokémon Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire. In certain circumstances Pokémon Showdown may be used, but it needs to be cleared with makiri, the tournament host.
• This is not a live tournament. Matches will play out over the course of the week.
• A Nugget Bridge account is required to play.
• If your match comes down to activity and you either never read your opponent’s communication, never replied to your opponent’s communication, or never logged on to Nugget Bridge during the current round you will be dropped from the tournament.
• As mentioned it is Swiss, just because you lose it does not mean you are done, play the tournament out!
• Please record a video while playing your match (using a phone or camcorder or something similar) to help in case of disputes. We also recommend saving all battle videos.

Any other important information can be found in the kick off post.

Deadline for this round is Monday, February 23, 2015 at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time.

The post Round 2 of the Season 4 Nugget Bridge Major Has Begun appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Welcome to part two of our series of articles about creating specialized EV spreads. In this section, we’ll cover the “how-to” of making specialized EV spreads, broken up into two chunks. The first chunk covers how to use a damage calculator, and how to use it to do things like survive an attack 100% of the time, always KO an opponent’s Pokémon with an attack, or always outspeed a specific Pokémon. The second chunk covers two very basic tricks about how to get more stat points out of your EV spreads. If you’re looking for what these EV things are or why we bother to make anything more complex than 252 / 252 / 4, check out part one of the series for the answers to those questions and more.

Before We Leap Straight Into Everything…

There’s a few things that will help you understand the content of the article a bit better.

1. “EVing a Pokémon” means “to give a Pokémon an EV spread” which means “to train a Pokémon a certain way to increase its stat points”.
2. We always assume that the opponent’s Pokémon has 31 IVs and your opponent understands how to EV train. With guides like Huy’s covering how to breed perfect Pokémon in ORAS and Simon and Mikoto Misaka’s guide to capturing flawless legendary Pokémon in ORAS, you should count on your opponent bringing in flawless Pokémon to fight your own.
3. When I talk about how much damage a Pokémon deals to the foe’s Pokémon, I often use percentages instead of the actual numbers to show how much damage our Pokémon dealt to the opponent’s. This is the same way Pokémon Showdown displays damage since it’s easier to visualize.
4. When doing damage calculations you almost always disregard critical hits. Even though you can EV your Pokémon to survive an attack when it lands a critical hit, that only happens 1/16 of the time. Taking attacks well is good, but those extra EVs in bulk could have been used elsewhere to hit harder, be faster, or take attacks better on the physical or special side. Unless you’re using a strategy that involves guaranteed critical hits, like Frost Breath or Focus Energy + Scope Lens, critical hits are too luck-based to include in damage calculations.
5. Tournaments in VGC have used level 50 Pokémon even before the games auto-lowered the levels for you. At first, you might not suspect that there’s much of a difference – after all, every Pokémon is still on an even playing field, however it does effect damage calculations.

Level 50: 252+ SpA Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 142-168 (86 – 101.8%) — 12.5% chance to OHKO

Level 100: 252+ SpA Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 273-322 (85.3 – 100.6%) — 6.25% chance to OHKO

As you can see, at level 100 Landorus-Therian takes about 1% less damage from Hydreigon’s Draco Meteor. This might seem initially insignificant, but it actually means Landorus-T is OHKOed 1/8 of the time instead of 1/16 of the time by this Hydreigon’s move at level 50. The way stats are calculated, a Pokémon’s stats at level 50 aren’t exactly half of what they’d be at level 100. Remember to use level 50 Pokémon in your damage calculations rather than level 100 Pokémon.

Using a Damage Calculator

Now that we’ve got the fundamentals out of the way, let’s get into the fun stuff: using a damage calculator. Rather than simply tell you how to use one, you can follow along in the video to help see exactly what you’re reading about. I’ve included timestamps in the article that go along with each point I cover in the video. Please note that when I mention “this particular team”, it’s a completely different team each time. I say “this particular team” to remind you guys that these EV spreads are tailored towards the goals of the “particular team” the Pokémon is on.

0:23: Accessing Pokémon Showdown’s Damage Calculator, created by Honko. Typing “/calc” at any time in any of Showdown’s many chat rooms will also direct you to the calculator. There is an alternative damage calculator out right now with the new ORAS Mega Evolutions implemented into its code as well. While its creator, gamut, does do a fantastic of staying on top of user requests, I still personally prefer Honko’s calculator because it’s supported by Showdown.

2:04: Choosing a Pokémon to use, remembering to set its level to 50. You can scroll down to select a Pokémon, or type the first few letters of a Pokémon’s name and it will pop up. I recommend using the blank sets, as the EV spreads from OU, UU, Ubers, etc. are tailored to Smogon formats.

4:14: Performing a damage calculation. This can be absolutely anything you want. Have fun playing around and seeing how much damage your attacks will do or how well your Pokémon can eat up attacks.

7:19: Using the damage calculator to show the wide variety of damage an attack can do. In this example, we check how much damage Mega Mawile’s Play Rough does to a Zapdos with no EVs anywhere, 252 HP EVs, and even up to 252 HP EVs, 252 Defense EVs, and a Bold Nature. When an attack does more than 100% damage to a Pokémon, it is guaranteed to be KOed by that attack, and when the maximum amount of damage is under 100%, you know that Pokémon can always survive that attack from full HP.

9:10: See how damage Zapdos can do back to Mega Mawile, or in this case, how much damage Zapdos does to Mega Mawile before it attacks. I don’t have any specific goals for my Zapdos’s Special Attack right now, so I just play around with the numbers to show the wide range of damage it can do.

10:07: Calculating the damage of a spread move, any attack that hits more than one Pokémon on the field. In VGC, which is purely Double Battles, make sure to click the Doubles tab in the middle of the screen to account for the spread move damage power reduction. You ONLY click the Singles tab if the opponent’s Pokémon is the only one you’re targeting – a Pokémon is still a target even if it dodges the attack due to missing, an immunity (e.g. Earthquake versus Talonflame), Protect, Telepathy, or anything similar. Here are some examples:

1. You have a Landorus-Therian and Salamence versus an opponent’s Ferrothorn. Landorus-T’s Earthquake is a spread move here, so you click the Doubles tab when calculating damage.
2. You have a solo Landorus-T versus a Rotom-Wash and a Ferrothorn. Landorus-T’s Earthquake is a spread move here against Ferrothorn, so you click the Doubles tab. If you use Rock Slide with Landorus-T and Ferrothorn uses Protect, Rock Slide is still a spread move, and you click the Doubles tab to calculate damage against Rotom-W.
3. You have a Landorus-T and a Life Orb Hydreigon versus a Druddigon and a Mega Mawile. Hydreigon moves first, uses Draco Meteor, and knocks out Druddigon, but Hydreigon is at low enough HP to faint from Life Orb recoil itself. Landorus-T then uses Earthquake, and Earthquake is NOT a spread move, because only Mega Mawile and Landorus-T are left on the field. If you wanted to run a damage calculation for this situation, you would click the Singles tab.

11:28: Comparing two attacks. You probably noticed that Zapdos’s Heat Wave only does a bit more damage than Thunderbolt to Mega Mawile. Keep this in mind when attacking Mega Mawile. If you don’t care about hitting both opponents with Heat Wave, Thunderbolt does very similar damage, but won’t miss. There are all sorts of little quirks like this, and testing out your moves in the damage calculator helps you learn how much damage your attacks can do in a certain situation before you need to know that information mid-battle.

14:26: Choosing an item. This is pretty self-explanatory. Some of the damage calculator’s items are pretty irrelevant for the purposes of damage calculation, like Enigma Berry and Safety Goggles, so don’t use them. Don’t give Mega Evolved Pokémon damage-increasing items, unless you’re playing around with Ditto or Smeargle.

15:13: Choosing an Ability. Only Mega Pokémon come with their Abilties on the blank set option. Don’t forget to give Azumarill Huge Power, give Sylveon Pixilate, or give Breloom Technician. Like with items, there’s no point in giving Pokémon Abilities they can’t get, unless you’re messing around with Skill Swap or Role Play shenanigans.

16:12: Calculating with a Pokémon or move not currently implemented into the damage calculator. You’ll usually only need to know this right after a new Pokémon game’s release, when new information hasn’t made its way into the damage calculator just yet. The quickest way to put in a new move is to use another move of the same type and category (physical or special). For example, if you wanted to see how much damage Blast Burn would do from your Mega Charizard Y, simply choose Eruption instead – they are both special Fire-type moves with 150 Base Power. To choose Pokémon that aren’t in the damage calculator yet, use Bulbapedia’s list of base stats and type in the Pokémon’s correct base stats into the damage calculator. Alternatively, you can find the base stats of Pokémon by typing /dt Pokémon into one of Pokémon Showdown’s chatrooms, with “Pokémon” being whatever Pokémon’s base stats you want to check. For example, if I wanted information on Mega Salamence, I would type /dt Mega Salamence.

Accomplishing Goals

18:33: Surviving an attack 100% of the time. In the example, I show Latias surviving Choice Specs Sylveon’s Hyper Voice, but it can be absolutely anything depending on what your goals are for that Pokémon on that particular team. To give an example, look at Aaron Zheng’s (Cybertron) Gothitelle, which he used both during the World Championships in 2014 and to win the Philadelphia Regional soon after:

Gothitelle @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 244 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Psychic
– Rest
– Heal Pulse
– Trick Room

Cybertron’s Gothitelle was primarily used to abuse its Ability Shadow Tag to limit his opponent’s switching options, and to set up Trick Room so his slower Pokémon to move first. However, his Gothitelle was trained to survive a Choice Specs Dark Pulse from Hydreigon – and Gothitelle can’t do anything back to Hydreigon, right? Aaron explains his thought process in his team report:

Going back to the Hariyama+Gothitelle lead, it was great getting a free Trick Room up the first turn while taking about 90% worth of damage with Gothitelle, just to heal it all back up the following turn with Rest while Hariyama OHKOed the attacker.

In our example, Latias could easily set up Tailwind and still be able to attack once, or be able to get two attacks off to weaken Sylveon or its partners. To find the EV spread, all you have to do is simply guess-and-check until you have the correct numbers you need. For basic EV spreads like these, maxing out HP first is usually a good place to start. Then, keep adding Defense or Special Defense EVs until you survive the attack.

21:16: OHKOing or 2HKOing a Pokémon with an attack 100% of the time. In the example, you see that it only takes 68 Special Attack EVs to foil Azumarill’s plans to use Belly Drum – either it won’t have enough HP to set up Belly Drum, or you can be sure you’ll OHKO Azumarill after it sets up Belly Drum. Since Thundurus’s role on this particular team is to support the team with Thunder Wave speed control, we designed it to be bulky, but this little bit of offensive power helps Thundurus to secure a very important KO for this team.

As another example from last year’s World Championships, let’s take a look at the Scrafty from Wolfe Glick’s (Wolfey) 9th Place Team Report:

Scrafty @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 236 HP / 148 Atk / 108 Def / 12 SpA / 4 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Fake Out
– Snarl
– Drain Punch
– Taunt

While Snarl might be interesting to discuss when talking about Wolfey’s Scrafty, let’s take a look at his 148 Attack EVs. With this investment, Scrafty could 2HKO 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan with Drain Punch. However, the reasoning for this goal was more complex than just that:

I knew that I wanted Scrafty to be able to deal with Kangaskhan, yet I couldn’t decide how much attack to invest because of the wide range of bulk Kangaskhan is capable of using. For this reason, we chose to invest 148 Attack EV’s, which always 2HKO’s 4 HP/0 Defense Kangaskhan. The reason I thought this was so clever is I didn’t actually care whether or not Scrafty 2HKO’d Kangaskhan: I just wanted to be able to tell how much bulk a Kangaskhan was running in a 2 out of 3 match easily. By using the minimum possible to guarantee the 2HKO on bulk less Kangaskhan, I was able to tell in a glance whether an opposing Kangaskhan was bulky or offensive; information that was incredibly valuable as it allowed me to judge how much Mawile’s attacks would do or whether or not I could expect my Hydreigon to outspeed. Of course, there is a chance of a very low roll and me misjudging the opposing Kangaskhans bulk in theory, but every time I used this method to harbor a guess I ended up being correct.

24:29: Outspeeding a Pokémon using the VGC ’15 Speed tiers. In our example, Mamoswine was chosen for that particular team to serve as a way to get rid of troublesome Dragons, Landorus-T, and Thundurus. Looking at the Speed tiers, Mamoswine can reach a 198 Speed stat using the Adamant Nature and holding a Choice Scarf. However, Pokémon like Mega Sceptile, Greninja, and Mega Pidgeot aren’t particularly common for the team to face or difficult for Mamoswine’s teammates to defeat. After looking at Pokémon slower than Mamoswine, Jolly Mega Salamence seems to be the most annoying problem, but is 9 points slower than Mamoswine. Because we don’t care about anything in that Speed range, we can lower the amount of Speed EVs to give us more EVs for Attack or bulk. Since the Choice Scarf multiplies the holder’s Speed stat by 1.5x, we find the actual stat Mamoswine needs to reach by taking 190/1.5, which gives us 126.6666… We can’t have a decimal for a stat though. A 127 Speed stat would be required to outspeed Jolly Mega Salamence. Now all we have to do is find the magic number, which in this case is 212 Speed EVs.

Yet another example from the 2014 World Championships is Ryosuke Kosuge’s (gebebo) Mega Mawile from his 5th place team, which relied on outspeeding and outdamaging the opponent’s team with options like Tailwind Aerodactyl and Choice Band Garchomp.

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

Specifically, before Tailwind, Mega Mawile’s 164 Speed EVs let it reach a 91 Speed stat. With Tailwind blowing behind his team, gebebo’s Mega Mawile hit a 182 Speed stat – one point above max Speed Mega Lucario. This made Mega Mawile significantly speedy under Tailwind, being able to OHKO the likes of Garchomp, Hydreigon, and Mega Lucario instead of taking a chunk of damage before striking back.

30:17: Underspeeding a Pokémon, and how to find the Speed stat of a Pokémon not on the Speed tiers. This example is reminiscent of the weather wars of 2012, when you would often find slow Tyranitar to make sure Sandstorm remained the permanent weather condition instead of the rain from Politoed’s Drizzle. However, minimum Speed Politoed isn’t on the VGC ’15 Speed tiers – we have to figure it out ourselves. Most damage calculators (and Showdown’s teambuilder) come with built-in stat calculators, we can figure Politoed’s minimum speed. In this case, simply change Politoed’s 31 Speed IV to a 0 Speed IV, and give it any Speed-lowering Nature you can think of. Now that we know Politoed’s minimum Speed is 67, we just need our Tyranitar to have a Speed stat of 66, which is just a 0 IV in speed. Now Tyranitar will always underspeed Politoed to guarantee sand gets up, but still outspeeds other Tyranitar that might be using a Brave Nature and 0 Speed IVs. Similar to the same strategy Ray used in his winning team from the 2012 World Championships.

Underspeeding the opposing Pokémon for weather wars isn’t the only application of this concept. Sometimes, you’ll want to underspeed your own Pokémon for some combos. Wolfey’s team again provides a fantastic example of this concept, where he specifically gave his Mega Mawile a Speed stat of 64 with an Adamant Nature, 17 Speed IVs, and 4 Speed EVs.

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Atk / 60 Def / 60 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 17 Spe
– Play Rough
– Iron Head
– Protect
– Sucker Punch

Despite Mega Mawile being one of Wolfey’s primary forms of offense in Trick Room, Wolfey chose not to go with a Brave Nature and 0 Speed IVs. Why, you ask? Well, Wolfey’s Gothitelle had a Sassy Nature and 0 Speed IVs, so it reached a 63 Speed stat. If Mega Mawile and Gothitelle were on the field together in Trick Room, Gothitelle would always move first. This meant Gothitelle could use Psychic to soften up an opponent for an attack from Mega Mawile, or break a substitute using Gothitelle’s weaker attack before following up with the more powerful Play Rough or Iron Head.

Bringing It All Together

34:18: Let’s make an EV spread for a Rotom-Wash.

Here are the goals we’ll try to achieve:

• Outspeed Adamant Bisharp so it can use Will-o-Wisp to halve the damage Rotom-W or its partner will take from Bisharp’s move
• OHKO 4 HP Landorus-Therian with Hydro Pump
• Make Choice Specs Sylveon’s Hyper Voice a 3HKO, including Sitrus Berry recovery

To start off, using the Speed tiers we find out that Adamant Bisharp reaches a 122 Speed stat. To outspeed Bisharp, we need Rotom-W to reach a 123 Speed stat. This requires 132 Speed EVs.

Next up, we want to OHKO 4 HP Landorus-Therian with Hydro Pump. After playing around with the numbers, it looks like 60 Special Attack EVs is the minimum amount of EVs it takes to accomplish this goal.

Last, we want to make sure Sylveon’s Choice Specs Hyper Voice is never able to knock out Rotom-Wash in two hits. Since we have a Sitrus Berry, we can automatically tack that recovery onto Rotom-W’s max HP stat to save some time. Sitrus Berry recovers 1/4 of your HP, so take Rotom-W’s HP stat (157) and divide it by 4. Then, add the result. In this case, we have 157/4=39.25, and 157+39.25=196.25. Wait a minute, a Pokémon can’t have 0.25 of an HP, right? Nope. In Pokémon, if you see a decimal, you’re almost always going to chop it off, or truncate it. Truncating isn’t the same as rounding, though. If Rotom-W had 196.75 HP, then it’d still only have 196 HP, not 197.

We know that our Rotom-W has 196 HP if you consider the Sitrus Berry. So, if we want to survive two Hyper Voices, each Hyper Voice would have to do less than half to Rotom-W’s 196 HP. 196/2 is 98, so each Hyper Voice can only do at most 97 damage. Now all we have to do is invest enough EVs to make sure Sylveon’s Hyper Voice only does 97 damage. After playing around with the numbers, 252 HP / 148 Special Defense with a Calm Nature accomplishes this goal.

… or not. Unfortunately, while we did accomplish every goal on our list, we used up too many EVs. 132 Speed + 60 Special Attack + 148 Special Defense + 252 HP = 592 EVs, which is 84 more EVs than any Pokémon can have at once. So, what do we do now? Well, if we were just a few EVs over the 508 EV limit, we might be able to just compromise here and there and accomplish our goals “most of the time” instead of 100% of the time. 84 EVs is a lot, though, so that “most of the time” probably isn’t going to be very consistent in the middle of a battle. We’re going to have to change one of our goals completely.

In this case, I’ve decided to change the Choice Specs Sylveon goal, as I feel this team has a better matchup against it than against Bisharp or Landorus-Therian. After thinking about it some more, I think making Ludicolo’s Giga Drain a 3HKO would be a good idea. However, I’m not all that sure about what kind of EVs Ludicolo use. Do they use max Special Attack, or do they focus more on bulk to complement the Assault Vest? To find out what’s popular on Ludicolo, we can look at popular sets from Nugget Bridge team reports. After glancing through the Ludicolo tag, you might notice Blake Hopper’s (Bopper) Ludicolo spread from his 11th place World Championships team report was also featured on many high placing Regionals teams, like Talon’s and majorbowman’s:

Ludicolo @ Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 148 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
– Scald
– Giga Drain
– Ice Beam
– Fake Out

Ludicolo’s 148 Special Attack EVs with a Modest Nature allows it to OHKO 4 HP Garchomp 100% of the time with Ice Beam, but now we’re going to turn this Ludicolo’s popularity back at itself.

It’s important to remember that this is Ludicolo’s popularity at the time this article was written. Perhaps at the time you’re reading this, nobody is using Ludicolo, or absolutely everybody is using it to counter a popular threat. I strongly recommend using recent, popular EV spreads from well-recognized or well-placing trainers in your damage calculations if you want to calculate against EV spreads you think will be reused in future tournaments.

Just like with Sylveon, we use the Sitrus Berry trick to know our Rotom-W has 196 HP. And just like before, we want Ludicolo’s Giga Drain to do 97 damage. After playing around with the numbers, 252 HP / 84 Special Defense with a Calm Nature seems to accomplish this goal using the minimum amount of EVs. While this is less EVs than before, though, it still seems that we’re 24 EVs over the 508 limit. Let’s try using 60 Special Defense EVs and see how much damage Rotom-W takes.

The maximum damage Ludicolo can do to us with Giga Drain is 98. However, it can’t do 97 damage at all, and the rest of Ludicolo’s damage rolls wouldn’t deal enough damage to 2HKO Rotom-W. It would be unlikely to do 98 damage twice in a row. Since there are 16 damage rolls, to hit the same one twice would be 1/16*1/16 odds, or 1/256. That gives Rotom-W a 99.609375% chance to survive two Giga Drains. While it’s not 100%, I’m pretty comfortable with those odds. Now all that’s left to do is place the remaining 4 EVs into Defense, and we’re finally done.

252 HP / 4 Defense / 60 Special Attack / 60 Special Defense / 132 Speed, Calm Nature

• Outspeeds Adamant Bisharp
• OHKOes 4 HP Landorus-Therian with Hydro Pump
• Survives two Giga Drains from Bopper’s Ludicolo when including Sitrus Berry recovery

Level 50 Stats

IVs/2 + EVs/8 should equal a whole number

Remember how I mentioned at the beginning of the article about level 50 Pokémon doing a bit more damage than level 100 Pokémon? There’s another difference between the two. If you check out other EV spread guides like Smogon’s or Serebii’s that talk about EV training Pokémon at level 100, you’ll read that your EVs need to be evenly divisible by 4 to be efficient.

We can use the same concept here with level 50 Pokémon. We’ll say it has 31 HP IVs. Rather than explain the entire stat formula and why exactly the numbers are the way they are, we can use the IVs/2 + EVs/8 trick and get all the information we need.

Plug in our numbers:

Great, that’s nice and even, just like we want it to be. Let’s try taking out 4 EVs like before.

Plug in our numbers:

Round down the remaining decimal, adjust the EV investment.

Plug in our numbers:

We reached the same stat, but we saved 4 extra EVs.

Here are some tips on how to save time with EV spreads:

1. Play around with your EVs in Pokémon Showdown’s teambuilder. Guess-and-check is a perfectly viable method to use for this; just make sure your level is 50, and then play around with your EVs until you have the same stat points as before while using less EVs.
2. Remember that because most IVs are going to be 31, your EVs when divided by 8 just need to have a decimal of 0.5 following them. If you follow this method, you’ll probably memorize the numbers you want to remember on your own. Alternatively, here’s a list of every amount of EVs that works efficiently with 31 (odd-numbered) IVs:

4, 12, 20, 28, 36, 44, 52, 60, 68, 76, 84, 92, 100, 108, 116, 124, 132, 140, 148, 156, 164, 172, 180, 188, 196, 204, 212, 220, 228, 236, 244, 252

When Your IVs Aren’t 31

With all this though, we’ve been assuming we live in a perfect world where all our IVs are 31. Though that is ideal, maybe you were in a rush to soft reset for Terrakion and settled for IVs of 31 HP / 24 Attack / 7 Defense / 12 Special Attack / 31 Special Defense / 31 Speed. Or maybe you have to use 30 IVs in some stats for a specific Hidden Power Type, like Sylveon with Hidden Power Ground or Thundurus with Hidden Power Ice. In these kinds of situations, we can still use our formula to help us out.

Let’s say I was planning to give that Terrakion I caught a basic 252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP EV spread. Because I haven’t changed the role Terrakion plays on my team, we still want to max out Speed and Attack. However, if you’ll notice, Terrakion has a 24 IV in Attack. Let’s see what happens if we invest 252 EVs in that stat:

Plug in our numbers:

We want our EVs when divided by 8 to equal a whole number, instead of leaving behind a decimal of 0.5. In this case, 248 EVs should do the trick.

Plug in our numbers:

Now, we can place our leftover 4 EVs in either Defense or Special Defense to make those leftover EVs more useful. Just like before, instead of hand-calculating your EV numbers every time, you can play around with the numbers in Showdown or look at this list of every amount of EVs that works with 30 (even-numbered) IVs:

8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 72, 80, 88, 96, 104, 112, 120, 128, 136, 144, 152, 160, 168, 176, 184, 192, 200, 208, 216, 224, 232, 240, 248

Remember, this trick isn’t a substitute for getting Pokémon with flawless IVs. With 248 Attack EVs, 24 IVs, and a Jolly Nature, Terrakion’s Attack stat is 177, 4 less than it would have with a 31 IV in Attack (181).

Example:

Let’s say my friend Xavier Liao (finally) just made himself an amazing EV spread for Heatran and wanted to show it off to see what I thought of it. He was a lucky man and managed to soft reset for a Heatran with 31 IVs in everything but Attack and with a Modest Nature. finally says his EV spread of 252 HP / 32 Special Attack / 16 Special Defense / 208 Speed outspeeds Adamant Bisharp, survives 4 Sp. Atk EV Rotom-W’s Hydro Pump with enough HP to use Substitute afterwards, and has the rest in Special Attack for more firepower. Let’s see if we can get any more stat points out of finally’s EV spread.

Since all of finally’s IVs were 31, we can look at our first list.

4, 12, 20, 28, 36, 44, 52, 60, 68, 76, 84, 92, 100, 108, 116, 124, 132, 140, 148, 156, 164, 172, 180, 188, 196, 204, 212, 220, 228, 236, 244, 252

32, 16, and 208 are all not on this list. To fix this, we’ll use the number immediately below finally’s number on the list. In this case, 28, 12, and 204 are the numbers we want.

• 252 HP / 28 Special Attack / 12 Special Defense / 204 Speed

Since we took out 4 EVs from three stats, we now have 12 EVs to put somewhere else. In finally’s case, he didn’t have any specific goals with Special Attack other than additional firepower, so we can put 8 EVs there. Now we have 4 EVs left.

• 252 HP / 36 Special Attack / 12 Special Defense / 204 Speed

Since those 4 EVs would be wasted in any of the stats that already have EVs in them, we have two choices remaining: Attack or Defense. finally is only using special moves on his Heatran, so putting the extra 4 EVs into Attack would be pointless. We’ll put the extra 4 into Defense.

• 252 HP / 4 Defense / 36 Special Attack / 12 Special Defense / 204 Speed, Modest

Overall, we managed to get +1 Defense point and +1 Special Attack point. It might not seem like much, but now we have two extra stat points that you didn’t have before.

Choosing a Nature

We’ve been talking a lot about EVs, but what about Natures? Don’t worry, those are super important too. Mathematically speaking, the Nature of your Pokémon multiplies one stat by 1.1 (110%) and multiplies another stat by 0.9 (90%). For example, the Adamant Nature increases your Attack stat by 1.1, but decreases your Special Attack stat by 0.9. This makes it ideal for Pokémon like Landorus-Therian, Bisharp, or Azumarill, who won’t use their Special Attack stat and appreciate a boost to their already high Attack stats. There’s a Nature that increases and decreases every stat except for HP, and you can check out a full list of them on Bulbapedia.

Choosing a Nature is just like choosing anything else for a Pokémon – what am I trying to do with this Pokémon, and how can my Nature help accomplish that Pokémon’s goals? Here’s a few examples:

My Mega Kangaskhan has Ice Punch, and I want to take Landorus-Therian by surprise who think they’ll be able to survive a Double-Edge after Intimidate. Since I can’t outspeed Choice Scarf Landorus-T no matter what I do, I’ll settle for outspeeding a Jolly Landorus-T. After looking at the VGC ’15 Speed tiers, I know Adamant Mega Kangaskhan only reaches a 152 Speed stat, but Jolly Landorus-T reaches a 157 Speed stat. Because of this, we choose the Jolly Nature, which increases Speed but lowers Special Attack. Our Mega Kangaskhan only has physical moves, so it doesn’t mind a drop in Special Attack.

I plan on getting my Mega Camerupt in under Trick Room and dealing as much damage as possible as quickly as I can. In this case, I choose the Quiet Nature. This is actually rather clever. Since we’re using Trick Room, where the slowest Pokémon moves first, the lowering of Speed actually makes Mega Camerupt faster. The Quiet Nature has also boosted Mega Camerupt’s Special Attack as well, and now its Heat Wave is even more dangerous. This trick doesn’t just work on Mega Camerupt, though. Cresselia, Conkeldurr, Mega Mawile, Amoonguss, and others enjoy the drop in Speed that Natures like Brave and Sassy provide if you plan on bringing them in under Trick Room.

I’m using an Infernape with a Focus Sash, and I decided I don’t want to use Flare Blitz on it. After all, any time I use Flare Blitz, I take recoil damage, making my Focus Sash useless. Instead of using Iron Fist with Fire Punch though, I notice that even with no Special Attack EVs, Overheat does more damage to Mega Mawile than Fire Punch. In fact, Fire Punch can’t get an OHKO while Overheat can. Since I still want the physical move Close Combat to OHKO Mega Kangaskhan and Tyranitar, I’ll choose a Nature that doesn’t lower either Attack or Special Attack. I also want a Nature that raises Speed to be able to outspeed Jolly Mega Kangaskhan, so Infernape can smash it with Close Combat. This leaves us with two choices: Hasty, which raises Speed but lowers Defense, or Naive, which raises Speed but lowers Special Defense. We’re holding a Focus Sash on Infernape, so we survive any attack that would knock it out in one hit. To figure out which Nature to use, look at your team and determine what physical or special attacks might come Infernape’s way, especially attacks that Infernape resists type-wise. Then, experiment with and without Hasty / Naive against those attacks in the damage calculator, and see if adding the Nature makes a 2HKO more likely to occur than a 3HKO.

Boosting the Highest Base Stat

Usually with Natures, you’re going to want to boost your highest base stat. This makes sense mathematically, because 110% of a bigger number will be larger than 110% of a smaller number. However, while you might get more stat points overall by doing this, sometimes it’s better to use a different Nature. How do you know when?

1. Your Pokémon can’t hit a certain Speed stat without using a Speed-raising Nature.
2. Your Pokémon can’t hit a particular defensive or offensive stat without a boosting Nature.

These two points might sound the same, but the first exception shows up a lot more often than the second. After all, we used Speed-boosting Natures in two of the examples above. Knowing how fast and slow your Pokémon are is incredibly important knowledge to have during battle.

Example:

finally is back with an EV spread for his Choice Scarf Landorus-Therian. With an EV spread of 124 HP / 252 Attack / 132 Speed and a Jolly Nature, Landorus-T outspeeds max Speed Choice Scarf Smeargle, which means it also outspeeds Timid Mega Manectric. finally then placed 252 EVs in Attack to deal as much damage as possible, and had enough EVs left for HP to survive some random non-STAB Ice Beam and Hidden Power Ice thrown its way.

However, finally forgot that Landorus-T’s base Attack is much higher than its base Speed. Don’t be fooled just because his Landorus-T is holding a Choice Scarf and is super fast – it doesn’t need a Jolly Nature here.

The quickest way to see if you can get more stat points by switching your Nature is by writing down how many EVs it takes to reach your desired stat points with both Natures. finally’s Landorus-T has a 197 Attack stat and a 140 Speed stat (Smeargle reaches a 139 Speed stat, so if both are holding Choice Scarves, Landorus-T would be faster). Let’s see how many EVs it takes to reach those stats with both a Jolly and an Adamant Nature.

• Jolly Nature: 252 Attack EVs, 132 Speed EVs. Total EVs: 384 EVs
• Adamant Nature: 116 Attack EVs, 228 Speed EVs. Total EVs: 344 EVs

Switching to an Adamant Nature not only gave Landorus-T the same stat points as before, but there’s now 40 extra EVs to place somewhere else. It also just so happens that putting the rest of the EVs in HP allows you to survive a Rotom-W’s 0 Sp. Atk EV Hydro Pump 15/16 of the time. Our final EV spread is this:

164 HP / 116 Attack / 228 Speed, Adamant Nature

Overall, we managed to get +5 HP and +1 Attack, but we could have placed those extra 5 stat points anywhere we wanted. Switching Natures is often times the best way to get extra stat points.

Conclusion

This is the core of creating every specialized EV spread possible, and I hope you’ll be able to create some of your own specialized EV spreads to get an advantage in battle. However, this isn’t everything. Keep your eyes peeled for part three, where you can find a ton of specific tricks and shortcuts to really squeeze out every stat point from the EV spreads you create.

I’d like to give special shoutouts to some fantastic people who helped with the creation of parts one and two of this series.

• Ansel Blume (Stats). After we first started talking post-Worlds 2013, we made so many personal advancements with EV spread creation that it was crazy. For this series in particular, Stats put up with me bombarding him with example ideas and offered some fantastic examples himself.
• Cory. Unique to this list because I can actually go over to his house if I want help with something, Cory was extremely instrumental in teaching me how to use video and audio editing programs for the YouTube video. Without his help, I probably would have been done with the video in about March. He’s more of an overall gamer than a Pokémon nerd like myself, so if you’d like to watch some good Let’s Plays or check out his skills on Guitar Hero, check out his YouTube channel.
• Ashley Haramaki (Cometkins), for creating the stunning article artwork. I continue to be impressed by the amazing work she can create.
• Tommy Yee (tlyee61), for reminding me to mention gamut’s damage calculator and helping develop the series’ name.
• Xavier Liao (finally), for giving me permission to use him as an example in the article.

The post AchiEVing Perfection: Creating Specialized EV Spreads, Part Two appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

This article was a collaboration between Chris Semp (pookar) who did the Virginia, Missouri, and SoCal sections and Chalkey Horenstein (Chalkey) who put together the Oregon section.

The first set of regionals for the 2015 format have arrived. What some can consider a modernized 2013 format, we might find some players that had great success in the 2014 format have to adapt to this vastly different format. With Mega Pokémon involved and the removal of Gems being the main differences between the 2013 and 2015 formats it will be exciting to see what new strategies veterans and new players alike attempt to pull out this weekend. Lets see who some of these players are who are going to be crafting these strategies and who has the best chances of winning!

Virginia Regional

Difficulty Rating:

/ 5
Location: Exhibition Hall at Meadow Event Park, 13111 Dawn Boulevard Doswell, VA 23047

Registration Time: 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM

Last Year’s Winner: Ray Rizzo (Ray)

This year’s Virginia Winter Regional is being hosted at the same venue as in 2014 at Meadow Event Park. It will be a particularly interesting Regional because local YouTube Superstar Aaron Zheng (Cybertron), who has been on a hot streak of late, has decided to take his talents to… St. Louis? Notable other absent regional players include Aaron Traylor (Unreality), Enosh Shachar (Human), Jeudy Azzarelli (SoulSur), Patrick Donegan (Pd0nz) and Edward Fan (iss). It also seems like you can roll a twenty sided die to figure out whether former 2013 Virginia champion Ben Rothman (Nightblade7000) is attending an event or not.

The Usual Suspects

Even without Aaron, Virginia Regional attendees have their work cut out for them. We are going to get this preview going strong with last year’s champion, Ray Rizzo (Ray). Ray has not attended any events yet this year, but he also had not attended any other events at this point last year when he won Virginia Regionals either. Ray is always a threat to flip the switch and dominate the competition. Wolfe Glick (Wolfey) was just kicked out of the Top 8 by Spurrific over the weekend, but looks to pull back into the Top 8 with a strong finish in Virginia. New to east coast Regionals but definitely a familiar face, Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom) sits just ahead of Wolfe in CP with 288 and he looks to continue his success after his third place finish at the 2014 World Championship with his third Regional attempt. Just outside the Worlds trip Top 8 CP boundary is VGC’s favorite “villain”, Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario). Ashton’s unconventional Pokémon have him maxed out on Premier Challenge CP which means that he can only increase his CP total with Regional finishes. He has a Top 128 finish and a pending finish allotted, so he has time to break into the Top 8. Toler Webb (Dim) is another east coast regular and 2014 Worlds competitor in attendance. Toler was able to get sixth place in the grueling 243 person Top 8 cut at the Ft. Wayne Regional in the fall and looks to get another Top Cut under his belt in the first Regional in 2015. Rounding off the list of 2014 Worlds competitors in attendance are Ben Hickey (darkpenguin67) with 166 CP and Michael Lanzano (JiveTime), who also cut the Apex tournament and is no stranger to east coast Regional Top Cuts.

Veteran Presence

There are plenty of players left who have been in the game for a while with past results. Matt Coyle (PrettyLittleLiar) with two Worlds invites in his repertoire comes to mind immediately. Matt made it into Virginia’s Top Cut in 2014, currently has 78 CP for this year, and always has the potential to go far in an event. Trista Medine (ryuzaki) has been to a load of events this year and with her consistent results has earned 160 CP so far and looks to compound that with another strong Regional finish. Simon Yip (Simon) is another east coast regular who has put in work at his Premier Challenges with 174 CP. His friend, Chuppa Cross IV (chuppa), has not had the same Premier Challenge fortune (68 CP), but remains a threat nonetheless. Caleb Ryor (BlitznBurst) has also been cleaning up nicely in the Connecticut Premier Challenges with 152 CP and along with Chuppa and Trista, managed to Top Cut the Massachusetts Regional in 2014. Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka) usually finds himself playing on Saturday at the Trading Card Game but will be playing VGC this time around with his 152 CP from Premier Challenges. Oliver Valenti (Smith) is a solid member of the Boiler Room group who rounds this section of experienced players out.

Young Bloods

It is surprising to wait this long to mention the 2015 leader in CP at this date, but I will start this section off with David Mancuso (Mancuso). After playing through 2014 as a relatively unknown in the overall picture, he exploded with a Regional victory and Top 4 finish in the fall and still has not maxed his Premier Challenge CP yet. David’s situation is very beneficial as he does not have to even cut to have a successful Regional with his two strong finishes unlikely to be matched by most players. Still, look for David to keep up his hard work in this Regional. Another up-and-comer to look out for in Virginia is Nick Borghi (LightCore). A first year Master, Nick was able to top cut the Philadelphia Regional in the fall in addition to a Premier Challenge win. At 178 CP, Nick is on the cusp of the Top 40 Worlds invite. Another first year Master, Paul Chua (pwny person) has been dominating the Battle Spot Doubles ladder in OR/AS. Paul finished second in Seniors at Virginia last year as well. With a Top 8 finish at Philadelphia he has 112 CP so far and definitely has the potential to repeat that performance in Virginia. Alec Rubin (amr97) made a splash last year at US Nationals, finishing 19th overall, and currently sits at 19th in CP for NA. With 224 CP, Alec looks to improve on his two Top 64 finishes this year going into Spring. Tommy Cooleen (Tman) has only attended Premier Challenges this year, but in 2014 he was an absolute monster in Swiss during Regionals and it would be no shocker for him to dominate in Swiss again (118 CP).

Bonus: Premiere Challenge Heroes

I am including this section to go just one step further in the preview process. These are just some players who have put in great PC results but have little or no Regionals experience. It will be exciting to see if these players can translate their success on the next level.

1. Daniel Stein (BlazikenBurner): 134 CP
2. Amelia Zoldy (VioletPumpkin): 160 CP
3. Stephen Brown III (pyromaniac720): 182 CP
4. Daniel Litvin (TalkingLion): 144 CP – Cut Virginia last year
5. Matthew Terriberry (Crazysnorlax): 126 CP – Cut Massachusets last year
6. Jonathan Evans (Ezrael): 78 CP – Top 32 at Philadelphia in 2014
7. Justin Rodrigues (Serapis): 202 CP
8. Arbin Jun Tumaneng (Cypher): 20 CP – Not much CP this year, but former Apex 2014 champion looks for his first top finish

Smart Money: I am gonna have to go with Wolfe for this one… Wolfe always impresses at Regionals and if he takes this the least bit seriously I can see him easing through Swiss into the best-of-three Top Cut where he is such a dominant player. With the metagame still being established with Battle Spot Doubles, Premiere Challenges, and Apex, it will be exciting to see what these players pull out for the first regional of the 2015 format.

St. Louis Regional

Difficulty Rating:

/5

Location: Definitely not St. Louis: St.Charles Convention Center, 1 Convention Center Plaza, St Charles, MO 63303

Registration Time: Saturday: Check In: 9:30-10:30 am. All Players.

Last Year’s Winner: Matthew Carter (mattj)

The folks over at TPCi have decided to officially stream their first Regional, and they have chosen St. Louis! Just when Scott thought he escaped the midwest, he makes his return with Evan to commentate this two-day Regional. VGC coverage will be from 2:30pm to 6pm CST on Saturday and 10am to 1pm CST on Sunday on the official Twitch channel, with additional rebroadcasts on Monday and Tuesday. Be sure to tune in if you do not have the chance to attend a Regional this weekend!

Aaron Zheng (Cybertron) leads off this preview coming off of a recent grassroots victory at Apex 2015 in New Jersey and comes into St. Louis with 320 CP, which puts him at third in North America. Aaron still has a third Regional to fill, plus a few PCs to improve on, but he is looking really good so far this year. Greg Johnson (bgt) joins Aaron in players qualified for a Worlds trip at this point in the season with a near perfect PC record and three Regional finishes of Top 32, Top 64, and Top 64. Greg looks to replace one of the Top 64 finishes with something much better at St. Louis. The third player who just recently snuck into the Top 8 in NA CP with two PC wins over the weekend (Where were you, Zubat?), Justin Burns (Spurrific) looks to add on to his Top 8 Texas Regional finish.

Andy Himes (Amarillo) sits just outside Top 8 at twelfth with 248 CP and it will be interesting to see if he continues to bring the Smeargle that he used throughout 2014 into this 2015 Regional. Jake Muller (majorbowman) is right behind Andy at fourteenth place with 232 CP and looks to improve on his two Top 32 finishes. Hopefully the NB Major PMs do not get to his head. Thomas McCready (Tmac) is just two CP behind Jake at 230 CP and finished fourth at the Ft. Wayne fall Regional. Just behind Thomas is Kamaal Harris (Kamaal) with 226 CP. A veteran of the VGC scene, Kamaal had a less-than-Kamaal 2014 season, but made Worlds in 2013 and with a similar metagame style I expect him to be more comfortable in 2015.

Last year’s winner of St. Louis, Matthew Carter (mattj) enters the competition with no CP for 2015 but cannot be underestimated after taking home the crown last year. Former 2013 Regional god Zach Droegkamp (Braverius) returns to the Midwest with 212 CP in 2015 and looks to get back into the top Regional form that we know he is capable of. Another strong competitor, Keegan Beljanski (Darkeness) currently has 204 CP and managed to go undefeated in Swiss last year at St. Louis, so watch out! Jonathan McMillan (MrEobo) is tied with Keegan in CP and looks to represent Team Michigan and Team Fabulous with the absence of Scott as a competitor at St. Louis. Greyson Garren (Greysong) finished Top 4 last year at St. Louis and got second place at Kansas, too, so expect a strong performance here. Andrew Burley (Andykins) is sitting cozy just inside the Top 40 Worlds range with 192 CP after a Top 8 finish at Fort Wayne and a Top 16 finish at Philadelphia. He also finished ninth at Apex 2015. Jonathan Rankin (JRank) is a Midwest/South regular and made the Top Cut last year in St. Louis and just barely missed a Worlds invite last year (along with Wesley, Stephen, Greysong, and Zach). Just outside the Top 40 is Evan Deligiannis (nave) with a Top 16 finish and 182 CP. Jon Hu (Jhufself) has not done much since his Top 4 at US Nationals 2014 but his creativity is definitely something to look out for.

Hopefully the Morioka trio will be in attendance, too. As I just noted, both Wesley and Stephen narrowly missed Worlds invites last year. What is interesting is that Mama Morioka leads all Moriokas in 2015 CP, beating Stephen 116-114. Other Midwest veterans include 2014 Worlds competitor Tiffany Stanley (Shiloh) who currently sits at 76 CP, Clayton Lusk (Zubat) whose affection for horses does not match his skill at Pokémon, Nico Villalobos (CalmLava), who always manages some solid finishes, and Aaron Grubbs (LPFan).

Bonus: Premiere Challenge Heroes

I am not as familiar with the Midwest area so I am sure a few names will be left off here, but these are some standout names I noticed at a glance:

1. Cody Bernheisel (CodeUmbreon) 192 CP
2. Matthew Peroutka 196 CP
3. Michael Hall 192 CP
4. Kyle Epperson 176 CP
5. Aaron Traylor (Unreality) 162 CP – Look for this Young Buck to get out of his difficult region and into the Midwest and prove himself to the circuit.

Smart Money: Gotta be CT Aaron “Cybertron” Zheng. Cliches aside, he’s on a definite hot streak and is definitely putting the work in lately to make winning events seem easy. Winter Regionals, being the first of the format, are often dice rolls but it would take a lot to outplay or outwork Aaron this early.

Portland, Oregon

Difficulty

(Four Mega Salamence who fled here from states that are having more terrifying winters/5)

Last Year’s Winner: Alex Stempe (Stempe)

Portland, much like St. Louis, had a reputation a few years ago of being a somewhat easier regional compared to others, which overtime has attracted more and more of the affluent players who want easier Championship Points and can make the trip. While I in no way intend to diminish the competition of California and Virginia, this one is no longer a free ride to the top, and frankly wasn’t even that easy to begin with. While the challenge of wading through considerably larger crowds of competition is more apparent in those states, the challenge here comes from having very little room to avoid the big threats that are coming.

I definitely have to give the first mention on the threat list to Alex Stempe (Stempe), who won last year and is very much a contender. Hailing from California, he’ll be making the long commute up here just like last year. During the previous Oregon Regional, Alex made use of Goodra, who at that point in the metagame was considered a very odd choice – and while Goodra got both spots of Oregon’s finals last year and got a handful of other notices, it was still typically overlooked. Expect someone as smart and creative as Alex to pull some interesting choices.

On the more local-ish side, Randy Kwa (R Inanimate) from British Columbia is a nearby opponent who qualified for Worlds last year. Randy is especially noteworthy because he breaks the mold – both in terms of the painfully obvious pun on his overuse of Excadrill and in terms of the fact that he ran basically the same team at four events last year and still did very well in all of them, despite numerous articles on Nugget Bridge explaining how the team works. In short, this is a man that cannot be stopped by team scouting; he’s experienced, and can read players very well. Also, if you play Randy, try not to be too intimidated by his highly probable “BP Earned: 20,000 BP” footnote that you’ll see during idle screens of the battle.

Speaking of British Columbia star players, it is reasonable to assume we’ll see Jason Wynja (Arti) and Tony Cheung (Chinese Dood), who both made top 8 at this tournament last year, and April Hooge (Phenac), who is entering her second year in the Masters Division. April’s first year in Masters kicked off with a 5th place in NorCal Regionals, an already difficult tournament. Considering this is the closest regional British Columbia is going to get this month, if these trainers show up anywhere, it will be here.

Hajime Uesegi (Aravalent) made top cut last year, beating Sam Haarsma (DrFidget) in the eighth and final round of swiss. Both players are both strong players and reliably consistent. Sam has been a little more active this year, having won a handful of Premiere Challenges, and also has a history of doing well at Winter Regionals, getting a top 4 finish in Florida in VGC ’13, despite using an un-EV trained Beartic. Expect him to top cut this year – unless Hajime comes out of nowhere and blocks him again. Coming in 9th at this regional last year was Gabby Snyder (JTK), who has only gotten better in the last year, having gotten 5th place out of 208 at Houston Regionals this past fall.

Leading the troops coming here from the East Coast will be Patrick Donegan (Pdonz), who top cut in Philadelphia Regionals this past fall and has been bubbling near or in the top 40 all season. Patrick hails from New York, a state with some of the hardest Premiere Challenges in the country – and those Premiere Challenges have honed his skills far more than those who have been sniping easy Championship Points in competitively quiet areas. It’s really tempting for a lazy player to analyze an opponent solely on their ranking on the ladder, but considering where Patrick has been training I would not underestimate him.

The big question, of course, is who from Oregon’s top cut last year will be returning. Also on the list of players from last year’s top eight include our National Champion, Alex Ogloza (Evan Falco), Michael Hutchinson, and Sean Webb. It should be no stretch of reason to assume Alex Ogloza has potential to be a huge threat as both a Worlds qualifier and National Champion, though he has been suspiciously quiet this season so far as far as attendance goes. Nonetheless, we can’t overlook the fact that he won the very first three day National Championship for VGC. That’s all sorts of time for people to figure out his team and style – and to win enough games in a row to pull this off in spite of that means a consistency that can’t be forgotten from a little time off.

Premiere Challenge Heroes coming to this regional:

1. Hayden McTavish (Enigne)- 222
2. Conan Thompson (conan) – 212
3. John Steffen (Legend X) – 200
4. Patrick Donegan (Pdonz) – 170
5. Max Douglas (starmetroid) – 166
6. Jason Wynja (Arti) – 146
7. Demitrios Kaguras – 146
8. Rushan Shekar (Firestorm) – 144

The Smart Money Is On: This is going to be an interesting regional; players like Sam Haarsma and Alex Stempe are known for their unique teams that catch people off guard, and players like Randy Kwa and Alex Ogloza are known for their ability to have their whole team apparent to the opposition and still doing well through experience and strong predictions. When you’ve got players known for their tricks and players known for their ability to read others, it’s hard to say either is a real advantage. Right now Sam and Patrick Donegan are probably the ones trying the hardest right now – that we know of. Their Premiere Challenge attendance and successes there are a good indicator of what will happen, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a regional where it was as simple as looking at the numbers. If you want to base this solely on who has been training hard this year and regularly attending and doing well, Sam and Patrick are the easy picks four top four or better. But I would not be surprised at all if Randy, Alex Stempe, and Alex Ogloza are preparing a ton of tricks that we don’t know just yet.

Southern California Regional

Difficulty Rating

/ 5
Location: Pioneer Event Center 45000 Valley Central Way Lancaster, CA 93536

Registration Time: Check-in 9:00 AM Saturday Feb 14th

Last Year’s Winner: Omari Travis (BadIntent)

After last years record breaking attendance for a modern regional, resulting in two flights and a top 32 cut, the SoCal regional moves to Lancaster to be better prepared for similar attendance numbers. Last year there were about 475 masters and 800+ participants across all divisions and it will be interesting to see if those numbers can be eclipsed this time around.

Veteran Leadership

SoCal regionals is full of veterans of the VGC scene, as well as young up and comers. Last year’s winner, Omari Travis (BadIntent) has been playing forever and made Worlds last year and even brought Mega Garchomp when he did. Omari does not stray too far from the norm in Pokemon choice, but almost always has some surprising but effective moveset choices. He was able to get Top 8 at Houston in the fall bringing the Mega Garchomp back, but I do not expect to see it come back a third time from Omari. Huy Ha (Huy) is another one of the oldest members of the community and one of the founders of Nugget Bridge. He has been pretty quiet so far this year, only collecting a few CP from a Premiere Challenge, but Huy is one of those players who could always go on a run, as we saw at US Nationals in 2014. Huy’s brother Duy Ha (Duy) will be in attendance, but not playing, choosing to hone his skills at the caster desk instead. Does Rushan lead all Nugget Bridge founders in CP or what? Paul Hornak (Makiri) has attended a whopping zero events this year but did finish third at last year’s SoCal regional in Long Beach and never holds back when he does attend. Thomas Mifflin (PBB) is another name to add to this long standing list of veterans. He was able to win the NorCal regional in 2013, and finished third at the Seattle regional in 2014. If he is attending then he is definitely a strong player to look out for. And finally, Len Deuel (Alaka) is considerably younger than most of these guys but is just as experienced. He has a bunch of CP from Premiere Challenges and finished Top 32 at Phoenix back in the Fall.

William Hall (Biosci) had a short stint on the east coast last year, but is back on the west coast in 2015 and has two top 64 regional finishes under his belt so far for 166 CP. Look for him to improve on these finishes at SoCal in preparation for the Spring regionals. Gavin Michaels (kingofmars) is definitely one of the most consistently strong players on the west coast. Do not let his 132 CP deceive you, as he got Top 4 at Phoenix in the Fall and only has two PCs to his name. Gavin joins Omari as the two players who made Worlds in 2014 at this regional, and also the two players who met in finals at SoCal last year, too. Kamran Jahadi (Kamz) has two very strong regional finishes for him in the fall, getting second at San Jose and eighth at Phoenix. Riley Factura (gengarboi) has been collecting a lot of CP from premiere challenges and has 232 CP overall including a top 16 finish in the fall. Shreyas Canchi Radhakrishna (Shreyas) was able to take home the victory in San Jose in the fall, so we look for a follow up performance, this time in SoCal. San Jose was his only event this year so it is extra important for him to have another good performance.

Brotherly Love

There are actually two pairs of brothers that we are looking out for attending this event. Anthony Jimenez (DarkAssassin) was the winner of last year’s Nugget Bridge Major and has 144 CP this season from Premiere Challenges. His brother, Alejandro Jimenez (Legacy) is beating him in CP this year with 150 CP, partly due to his Top 64 regional finish in the fall. Our second set of brothers are the Lybbert duo. They have put in a ton of work this year and are both in the top 8 in CP going into this regional. Chase Lybbert (I’m A Rookie) won Phoenix in the fall and has five PC wins, plus a top 64 finish in San Jose. Colten Lybbert (Rookie Slayer MLG) has been a bit more consistent than his brother and sits at 282 CP. He has two Top 8 regional finishes and one PC win. Look out for these two pairs of brothers at this regional as they have shown they can perform at a regional level.

Rest of the Pack

Alec Wild (PM649) does not have any CP this year, but had a strong showing in NPA and definitely would not surprise me with a strong finish this weekend. Kimo Nishamura (TFC) has gotten much more active lately and has 106 CP this season with a Top 8 finish in San Jose. Daniel Cardenas (KermittheFrog14) was able to grab a Top 4 finish at San Jose in the fall and with a few good PC finishes has 186 CP, good for 40th in NA and is the cutoff for the Worlds invite. Alberto Lara had some solid finishes last season and has 30 CP this year from his top 32 finish at San Jose. Sam Johnson (RastaCharmander) has 170 CP this season and was notorious for his scarf Breloom in 2013 so it will be interesting if it makes a return. Tracy McLaughlin (Mack) is one of the few active Pokemon streamers and has 196 CP season including a strong Top 16 finish in the Fall. Hopefully he makes the trip over to this event for some more CP. Erik Holmstrom (Cyrus) has been quiet this season with only 20 CP but finished 2014 with 252 CP good for 28th overall, so we can hope he tries to get back to that level with the increased number of invites.

Smart Money: I’m going to have to with Gavin Michaels (kingofmars) for this regional. As I mentioned earlier, he is one of the most consistent players in the region and that sort of experience is key in an early regional like this.

The post VGC 2015 North American Winter Regionals Preview appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

The first Regional Championships in North America using the new format are upon us. Europe gave us a look at the metagame last weekend in The Netherlands, but we’re going to see four times as many events today and tomorrow as players face off in Oregon, California, Missouri, and Virginia. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to look at our preview to see who you should be watching out for at each location!

The most exciting news about this set of Regional Championships is that The Pokémon Company International will be streaming them officially for the first time. Scott Glaza (Scott) and Evan Latt (plaid) will be broadcasting live from St. Charles, Missouri alongside TCG commentators Kyle Sucevich (Pooka) and Joshua Wittenkeller (TheJWittz). Additionally, we’ll have a Nugget Bridge stream from Lancaster, California with Duy Ha (Duy) on the mic so you can switch between the two during downtime. This would be a great time to get introduced to Multitwitch! The schedule for Missouri is as follows:

Saturday, February 14

• 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. : Pokémon TCG
• 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. : Pokémon video game
• 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. : Pokémon TCG

Sunday, February 15

• 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. : Pokémon video game
• 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. : Pokémon TCG

We’ll also have updates on our Twitter account throughout the weekend as we usually do. Remember to follow @nuggetbridge and keep an eye on the #PlayPokemon hashtag for news!

Tweets by @nuggetbridge

The post Live Updates from the VGC ’15 North American Winter Regionals appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

With the first weekend of Regional Championships in North America finished, we have big surge in Championship Points. These players have inched ever closer to their invitation to the 2015 Pokémon World Championships. Congratulations to all! Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the teams that saw the light of the top cut.

Lancaster, California

There were 260 Masters, 49 Seniors and 15 Juniors in Lancaster.

Masters Division

1. Alberto Lara
2. William Hall (Biosci)
3. Alejando Jimenez (Legacy)
4. Anthony Jiminez (DarkAssassin)
5. Phillip Wingett (THATSAplusONE)
6. Jobany Vazquez
7. Nawraz Bashir (knawraz)
8. Eduardo Mendez (JustEdo)
9. Nathaniel Christmas (KSpam)
10. Erik Holmstrom (Cyrus)
11. Hayley Aldworth
12. Alexander Ellyson (GMHamilton)
13. Dane Zieman (agentorangejulius)
14. Matthew Greaves (picklesword)
15. Dylan Robison
16. Tracy McLaughlin (Mack)

Senior Division

1. Emilio F. (emforbes)

St. Charles, Missouri

There were about 260 Masters, 70 Seniors, and 15 Juniors in St. Charles.

Masters Division

1. Aaron Traylor (Unreality)
2. Zach Droegkamp (Braverius)
3. Andrew Burley (Andykins)
4. Michael Fladung (Primitive)
5. Jonathan Rankin (JRank)
6. Ammar Baig (Knife)
7. Ryan Brooker (lolfailsnail)
8. Kyle Timbrook (TM Ruby)
9. Jake Muller (majorbowman)
10. Drew Nowak
11. Justin Burns (Spurrific)
12. Andrew Hovis
13. Michael Shropshire (shrop05)
14. Tiffany Stanley (shiloh)
15. Leonard Craft III (DaWoblefet)
16. Ken Wright (DoctorKen2k)

Senior Division

1. Joseph N. (JoeDaPro)
2. Darrin C. (ninten678)
3. Jacob W. (Thank Swalot)
4. Beau Berg (Oreios)
5. Logan P.
6. Brendan Z. (Babbytron)
7. Ben G.
8. Ian M. (Raikoo)

Junior Division

1. Jackson S.
2. Connor W.
3. Gwen E.
4. Calum B.

Portland, Oregon

There were 175 Masters, 44 Seniors, and 6 Juniors in Portland.

Masters Division

1. Conan Thompson (conan)
2. Max Douglas (starmetroid)
3. Rushan Shekar (Firestorm)
4. Chris Stotts (MasterFisk)
5. Nikolai Zielinski (Nikolai)
6. Devin Honer
7. Evan Feroy
8. Demitrios Kagaras (kingdjk)

Senior Division

1. Henry M. (Snake)
2. Carson S. (Dorian06)
3. Theo Y.
4. Ben B.
5. Jackson R.
6. James McGough
7. Benjamin O. (AceTrainerBenVGC)
8. Colby Gamett

Junior Division

1. Cory C.
2. Macaria W. (babbyfeathers)
3. Jaxson P.
4. Jeremy R.
5. Edward A.
6. Norvin B.

Doswell, Virginia

There were 313 Masters, 104 Seniors, and 34 Juniors in Doswell.

Masters Division

1. Karl Concepcion (Masakado)
2. Colin Schonewolf (RedWolf)
3. Alec Rubin (amr97)
4. Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka)
5. Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom)
6. Michael Lanzano (JiveTime)
7. Arbin Tumaneng (Cypher)
8. Wolfe Glick (Wolfey)
9. Ben Hickey (Darkpenguin67)
10. Chris Danzo (Lunar)
11. Jared Fishkin
12. Dan House (SharingIsCaring)
13. Dorian Nousias (crazyblissey)
14. Junghun Yeom (ANGDE1234)
15. Cameron Swan (Drizzleboy)
16. Zachary Rivera

Senior Division

1. Michael S. (Sir Chicken)
2. Zachary B.
3. Joseph C. (Life Orb)
4. Jake S. (Pokebeys)
5. Rebecca B.
6. Joshua N.
7. Lyndon R. (Crys)
8. Mark G.

Junior Division

1. London S.
2. Aiden M.
3. Ian T.
4. Jordan S.
5. Emma C.
6. Caleb K.
7. Hunter S.
8. Meadway D.

The post Results from the VGC ’15 North American Winter Regional Championships appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

We were able to take a small look at what was happening at Europe’s Regional Championship earlier this month, but last weekend gave us a larger picture with four events happening across the United States. Here’s what made the top cut at each event.

Missouri

1st) Aaron Traylor (Unreality)

2nd) Zach Droegkamp (Braverius)

3rd) Andrew Burley (Andykins)

4th) Michael Fladung (Primitive)

5th) Jonathan Rankin (JRank)

6th) Ammar Baig (Knife)

7th) Ryan Brooker (lolfailsnail)

8th) Kyle Timbrook (TM Ruby)

9th) Jake Muller (majorbowman)

10th) Drew Nowak

11th) Justin Burns (Spurrific)

12th) Andrew Hovis

13th) Michael Shropshire (shrop05)

14th) Tiffany Stanley (shiloh)

15th) Leonard Craft III (DaWoblefet)

16th) Ken Wright (DoctorKen2k)

California

1st) Alberto Lara

2nd) William Hall (Biosci)

3rd) Alejando Jimenez (Legacy)

4th) Anthony Jiminez (DarkAssassin)

5th) Phillip Wingett (THATSAplusONE)

6th) Jobany Vazquez

7th) Nawraz Bashir (knawraz)

8th) Eduardo Mendez (JustEdo)

9th) Nathaniel Christmas (KSpam)

10th) Erik Holmstrom (Cyrus)

11th) Hayley Aldworth

12th) Alexander Ellyson

13th) Dane Zieman (agentorangejulius)

14th) Matthew Greaves (picklesword)

15th) Dylan Robison (DylanxArsenal)

16th) Tracy McLaughlin (Mack)

Virginia

1st) Karl Concepcion (Masakado)

2nd) Colin Schonewolf (RedWolf)

3rd) Alec Rubin (amr97)

4th) Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka)

5th) Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom)

6th) Michael Lanzano (JiveTime)

7th) Arbin Tumaneng (Cypher)

8th) Wolfe Glick (Wolfey)

9th) Ben Hickey (Darkpenguin67)

10th) Chris Danzo (Lunar)

11th) Jared Fishkin

12th) Dan House (SharingIsCaring)

13) Dorian Nousias (crazyblissey)

14th) Junghun Yeom (ANGDE1234)

15th) Cameron Swan (Drizzleboy)

16th) Zachary Rivera

Oregon

1st) Conan Thompson (conan)

2nd) Max Douglas (starmetroid)

3rd) Rushan Shekar (Firestorm)

4th) Chris Stotts (MasterFisk)

5th) Nikolai Zielinski (Nikolai)

6th) Devin Honer

7th) Evan Feroy

8th) Demitrios Kagaras (kingdjk)

Usage Stats

The post Teams from the VGC 2015 Winter Regionals (Week 1) appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi guys! Hashegi is here, again. So, as we all know, Pokémon Trainers around the world are competing in the newly-added Premier Challenges. Today, I’d like to happily share with you stories and pictures of the first ever Premier Challenge in Indonesia.

To have a sanctioned VGC event is a great milestone for competitive Pokémon in Indonesia.  In attendance were 104 Masters, 12 Seniors, and 1 Junior! To top it off, the Top 4 from the tournament also were rewarded the position for representing Indonesia in the 2015 Asia Cup that will be a competition between players from Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, with Korea and Japan joining the tournament in the final stages, which will be held from February till April via WiFi. Go on and check Asia Cup 2015!

This event was held in fX Lifestyle X’nter, a mall in South Jakarta, with player registration starting at 10, but the preparation for the event started the day before players arrived. Some of the event staff also stayed at the venue all night and didn’t go home until the morning, and then came back two hours before the event started.

Funnily enough, there was no backdrop during the event because our sponsors decided not to print one at the last minute… but there was always a plan B! If you recall the hanging poster from the Tozka Alkafest Tournament, we actually hung up the dropping banner onto the backdrop stage, and voila! A backdrop poster!  It was an event I would never forget; the crowd, the hype, the enthusiasm was greatly appreciated.

Registration for players began at 10am, and many newcomers had shown up to participate in the tournament. Registration went smoothly, the rules were explained shortly afterwards, and then we immediately jumped into the competition. By the time we started the competition, people who weren’t playing also making circle around the floor to watch their friends and family members battle. Some passers-by even stopped to watch the action, which was a great way to advertise competitive Pokémon events to the public.

Trainers from many different provinces showed up to the event, which really shows how much the player base is expanding in our region. For example, people who came from Bandung, West Java, had left their city at 5:30am to make it to the event on time. I do really appreciate that, and I hope their city will also be able to organize their own Premier Challenge soon.

Teams

The metagame here has changed over the past couple months. For example, many top players now use Mega Kangaskhan, but other skilled players in the Top 8 could be seen using anti-metagame teams. Unfortunately, the tournament usage stats with every used Pokémon were accidentally misplaced, but nevertheless, here are the teams for players who made it to the Top 8:

(1st Place) Josua Marbun

(2nd Place) Adhitya

(3rd Place) Ama Bon

(4th Place) Aya Bon

(5th Place) Icun Prayitno

(6th Place) Ditto Amalsyah

(7th Place) Josha Lawrel

(8th Place) Ronan Ramadhan

Honorable Mentions

• 3rd and 4th place were taken by the  “strongest brothers” in Indonesia! Congratulations Bon Brothers!
• Ryan, who didn’t reach the Top Cut after misclicking Ice Beam instead of Energy Ball.
• Michael Tamara, who’s team is countered by Charizard and met them 4x in a row.
• My mom who actually let me organize this tournament even though the next day I had  finals. (It sucked.)
• James Tamara, the youngest player in the tournament.
• The winner, Josua Marbun, traveling all the way from Bandung, another province.
• Aya Bon, who let me borrow his webcam to stream the videos! #nocapturecardisfine
• Trainers from Bandung who came all the way to Jakarta together.

Shout Outs

• Michael Pond Wijaya as the Tournament Organizer!
• Bima Amalsyah for helping with this report and all the statistics!
• Congratulations again to Josua Marbun for winning the tournament!
• All the trainers who came from other provinces!
• Chalkey who helped me with editing and formatting to make this report more awesome! Of course, thanks to all the other editors who edited my articles!
• Adrian Adi, who was originally a TCG Professor but came to help. No one in Indonesia can handle TOM as fast as he can.
• All of the event staff, including staff from the pkmn-id community! We couldn’t do this without you guys!
• Cashernn Olstore, Duniaku.net and PSenterprise for supporting the tournament!
• Countless other trainers who helped with the tournament. I can’t name them all!
• Thanks to every trainer who participated in the event. See you at the next one!
• And finally, thanks to all you who are still reading this post!

For those in our area, our upcoming Premier Challenge Omega Series 1 will be held inside a Japanese Matsuri of one of the notable universities in Indonesia. We hope to make provide a stream this time. Keep track of our updates, and Get Your Game ON!

The post Indonesia’s First Premier Challenge appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

A key part of teambuilding is tweaking your Pokémon’s stat spread so you achieve the optimal stats to survive the right attacks and grab the right knock outs. To do this, players play around with the effort values, natures, and other attributes on their Pokémon in a damage calculator until they reach the desired results. We have many articles written about this subject. The most widely used damage calculator for the past two generation has been Honko’s in-depth implementation. Honko put a lot of time into listening to the wants of our community, but it is designed to handle Smogon’s many custom formats. As a result, it can be more painful to use for those who are only interested in playing the Standard format used in the Pokémon Championship Series.

Today, we’re proud to introduce the Nugget Bridge Pokémon Damage Calculator! It takes the amazing work that Honko — and later gamut —  put in to make the most comprehensive damage calculator available and streamlines it for those interested in the Video Game Championships (VGC). Pokémon default to level 50 and Doubles is selected as the default format as well. Additionally, all sets from Smogon have been removed to declutter the Pokémon selection process. In their place, we’ve inserted the most common stat spread, nature, item, and moves for each Pokémon from Pokémon Showdown to make for quick defaults to calculate for or against. These will be updated on a monthly basis as a result of Tapin’s awesome work.

If you see anything that looks off or have a suggestion, please make a post in our feedback thread.

Note: Where you select Mega Pokémon has changed. If  you select a Pokémon that can mega evolve, a Forme field will appear under Type for you to easily choose the non-Mega or Mega forme so you can see how the same spread works for both formes of the Pokémon.

The post Introducing the Nugget Bridge Pokémon Damage Calculator appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello my fellow nuggets and nuggettes. It’s been a while since my last team report on Nugget Bridge. My year of Pokémon in 2014 mainly consisted of bad memories, so it very much makes sense you haven’t heard much from me recently. Will that change this year? Only Nostromdamus knows, I’d think. Anyway, I’m back with a team that may be worthy to share.

The New Tale of the Cuccoo and the Mole

Well, you may have already guessed what this “low-budget team building” thing is about. The full story is that I took my sweet time playing through the new game casually, so there was no way I’d be able to soft-reset for a bunch of competitively viable legendary Pokémon in time. There wasn’t much time for me to build a team before the first Premier Challenge using the new standard format on the 3rd of January in Berlin. It would have been more feasible to get some legendary Pokémon for the second (24th) and third (31st) Premier Challenges at the same place, but it turns out I couldn’t motivate myself to deal with soft resetting and instead rebuilt the low-budget team from scratch. Now with the forced tournament break of February, I couldn’t justify continuing to approach the game in the same way. In other words, what I’m going to present you throughout the next set of paragraphs pretty much is a finished product for the time being. I daresay it’s fairly potent for the restrictions it has been made under.

With that out of the way, time for some actual Pokémon talk. The first core I wanted to use was Mega Metagross + Hydreigon, likely but not definitely accompanied by typical Rain stuff. There was another core that I would have actually played around with a year before, had the format not been limited to Kalos Dex: the infamous Togekiss + Excadrill combination. In case that doesn’t ring a bell, I suggest you go right to R Inanimate’s author profile and check out his various Team Reports from 2013. That’s probably my favorite team/core/whatever that I have neither built nor used myself. It’s just very entertaining to watch and play, and at times it’s also an intriguingly strong metagame call.

It happened when I already was in the middle of breeding my Rain Pokémon, assuming I would use Rain. I jokingly asked Simon what to play at my first Premier Challenge. He replied Excadrill. With how I was assuming that people would tend to bring 2014ish teams to early tournaments, and that not too many people would have Landorus and friends already, Excadrill almost looked like a knight in shining armor (and it in fact has armor, so that’s not at all far-fetched!). I threw together an informal draft and played a bit of Showdown, as long as my sanity would let me. Togekiss, Excadrill, Tyranitar, Bisharp, Salamence, Smeargle. It was actually sad how I could cheese people out at times, but that was the absolute minimum of confidence I needed in order to run the team at an actual event. The only issue was that I didn’t like Smeargle much, or rather, I was far from sure of how to play it efficiently, unlike Unreality and Porengan. So, I simply dropped it in favor of a Talonflame, which I was much more familiar with. And with that, my team for the first of three events was complete.

Minor footnote: I heard through the grapevine that Lajo might be trying to bring his infamous Levitran team from 2013 back. That has humiliated me often enough for a whole lifetime, and Togekiss/Excadrill just so happens to be its arch nemesis. In fact, he brought something similar to the only tournament he attended, but joke’s still on me because a) we never got to play each other, and b) he definitely had better answers to the duo this time.

Jan 3: The Official Tournament Debut of the 2015 Standard Format

The Team: Modus Operandi

While I could very well comment on the team in detail, it’s probably better just to leave it here bare and naked. It’s pretty much your typical first-time-playing-the-format team, and as such has its fair share of problems, which in their sum are not acceptable.

Easy Mode (Togekiss) (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 196 Def / 4 SpA / 12 SpD / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
– Air Slash
– Follow Me
– Tailwind
– Protect

Lunatic Mode (Excadrill) (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Swords Dance
– Protect

Bisharp Mode (Bisharp) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
Level: 50
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Knock Off
– Iron Head
– Sucker Punch
– Protect

Reverse Mode (Tyranitar) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Rock Slide
– Crunch
– Ice Punch
– Superpower

Hyper Mode (Salamence) (M) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Hyper Voice
– Draco Meteor
– Fire Blast
– Protect

Hero Mode (Talonflame) (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 244 Atk / 100 Def / 4 SpD / 148 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Brave Bird
– Flare Blitz
– U-turn
– Quick Guard

The First Premier Challenge

I hadn’t played a single competitive battle on my actual Pokémon game yet, so there was no denying I was horribly out of practice. This demon I sought to hide crept up to the surface of the Earth very quickly, letting me make mistakes that were unacceptable without any doubt. While I did win my first round, I shouldn’t have: I somehow managed to stall my opponent’s Trick Room without noticing it, and with only Sylveon and Cresselia in red health left, I let both of my Pokémon Protect. While he didn’t punish this move with a second Trick Room, I did foolishly give him this chance for free. In the second round, I made the next big mistake: I forgot that Follow Me in Tailwind would no longer redirect Fake Out. Changing the priorities of moves every generation back and forth and back again is no good for aged people like me! This gave my opponent a full free turn, and that ended up making the difference in an otherwise good game. My third game I handily won with useless favorable RNG. The fourth and last round was completely full of RNG antics, with close damage rolls, flinch vs. no flinch, and all that stuff. I was on the worse end of it this time.

With that, I finished at 2-2 and 5th place, netting me absolutely nothing because we were stuck with I think 10 Masters or so. Had I somehow won my last match, someone else with a 3-1 record would have bubbled out of Top Cut, Champion Points, and prizes. As vexing as my finish was, I ultimately was very much fine with the result. If you mess up this badly on low level game mechanics, you don’t deserve to win — that’s my own opinion, at least. Had I really gotten a full 20 CP out of this day, you’d have seen me struggle for the rest of the year to erase that shame from my record and then probably not even get it done.

Nugget Bridge Live: The Salty Runback

If there was anything to help me out of my misery, naturally it would be practice. While I didn’t really feel like Battle Spot grinding, this very site we’re on right now offered a live tournament during the evening following my bad PC run. I thought there would be no harm in entering, and enter it, I did.

The Swiss rounds started off about as shakily as I expected. That could have been explained by any combination of me feeling like I didn’t play too well and the team just being far from perfect, really. Still, I got a nice win streak going because most of my opponents somehow didn’t see the threats that I saw, and thus basically threw away the victories they could have sealed. Misinformation and its funny ways also played a part: One game, I opened up with my Salamence unprotected against my opponent’s Thundurus, believing the worst that could happen would be Thunder Wave or Swagger. Later, I learned he had Life Orb Hidden Power Ice and that his Thundurus outsped my Salamence, but because my opponent didn’t take the free knock-out, I got some sort of momentum going to carry me through this whole game. Small things, great impacts.

I did at least lose once during Swiss, in a nice and glorious 0-4. My opponent had a Mega Swampert Rain team, and I had no answer to Swampert. On the first turn, I went for the hard read, double-targetting Swampert with Tyranitar and Bisharp. I got the prediction totally right, with Swampert’s partner Protecting, but the Swampert just survived and Earthquaked my team to an instant 2-4. To let that happen and not even have a real way around it, that’s where quality team building shows. Or not. Anyway, I finished the Swiss portion at 6-1, guaranteed Top 8.

Top Cut gave me two good Swiss rematches, both of which I won, and then a Seafoam Islanders final against Simon, which I also ended up winning by getting good momentum with Togekiss/Excadrill and cheesing my way past Landorus with some infamous Togekiss luck. To sum the whole NB Live experience that night up, I got the best luck I could have ever asked for, with no bad RNG ever stealing games from me, and opponents that should have beaten me using moves that made them lose. If anything, I want that kind of luck in a tournament where there’s actually something on the line, but alas, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

On the bright side, at least some of the games I played well. Suddenly, there was hope. And three weeks to prepare for the next Premier Challenge, to finally…hopefully…maybe break my curse of that lifelong 100% Top Cut missing ratio at official Pokémon tournaments.

Jan 24: Some Footnotes in the Pages of History

I decided I had to get some kind of new team, first and foremost. I’d come up with the idea for what I wanted to try only a few hours after the previous night. I’d keep Togekiss and Excadrill (because they were strong), add Kangaskhan and Milotic, build the team from scratch that way, and see how it played out. The motivation behind this particular “core” was a mix of skepticism and curiosity. I actually believed Kangaskhan was rather bad and that people should use other Mega Evolutions before her, but as we all know, all sorts of usage statistics had it the other way. I also have to admit that my old team didn’t deal with Kangaskhan too well. Additionally, there’s that fun fact that I haven’t used Kangaskhan a single time throughout all of 2014, so there might have been some catching up I had to do. At this point in the season, I wasn’t going to think about what I wanted to play at Nationals later. Anything’s fine in love and war, so why not give “the best Mega” (spoiler alert: she still isn’t, friends) a shot? Milotic was mostly the curiosity part. I needed a break from Bisharp and its shortcomings, but still wanted a way to punish Intimidates. I also had a very special job for Milotic, which you’ll soon discover.

What took me maybe a bit too long was filling the last two slots. I juggled around Pokémon like Hydreigon, Talonflame, Rotom, Sylveon, both Charizards, and some others I can’t recall. However, none of them felt good even on paper. I don’t exactly remember how I found it, and I’ve encountered it a lot before already, but once Scizor crossed my mind and I did the calculations, I was keen on working it in. One of the various issues with the old team was its generally underwhelming position against Terrakion — a problem that Kangaskhan also inherits from Tyranitar and Bisharp, and a problem that Milotic on its own can’t solve. Thus we have Scizor, with a Life Orb Bullet Punch being all it takes to remove your standard Sash-less Terrakion with one action. I was fine with adding more Sylveon hate as well, because people at my previous PC had been using it just like the rest of the world.

Even with Scizor being set, the last slot was still not easy to fill for me. The given party of five was rather Charizard-weak, and just the Scizor alone called for a dire need to get rid of that Charizard before it could move. That’s a tough requirement. There aren’t many ways to do that besides random Stone Edges. Again I looked at Hydreigon and Rotom, but didn’t like how that looked. The inability to find a convincing non-Mega for this job brought me to do something I had never officially done before: run double Mega Evolutions. Salamence, I choose you!

The Team: German Fairytale Princesses

First, let’s have a moment of silence for umlauts and the ‘ß’ character. I’m playing my cart on English, and for some reason that only Game Freak knows, that influences what characters you have available for use. RIP.

Schneeweißchen (Togekiss) (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 196 Def / 4 SpA / 12 SpD / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
– Air Slash
– Follow Me
– Tailwind
– Protect

Set. I am sad if you don’t know this very well yet, but I guess I should introduce the newer players to it a bit. Follow Me is the main purpose behind Togekiss. It is attack redirection that cannot be ignored, and thus nothing less than the one and only best move in the game. Air Slash is probably the best STAB, as it does acceptable damage with Togekiss’s Base Special Attack and has that 57% Chance of making slower foes flinch thanks to Serene Grace. While Tailwind happens to synergize intriguingly well with that, putting Togekiss at double its Speed, it’s even more so used to make Excadrill next to unstoppable against faster teams. As tempting as Dazzling Gleam or a Fire move would be, I do like Protect in the last slot. It helps keep Togekiss around as long as I want, and also protects it from any offensive Fake Out plays (assuming I don’t forget the mechanics again, you know *cough*). Finally, Sitrus Berry is one of the best items in a fast-paced environment, effectively gives the naturally bulky Togekiss 125% health. This enables it to use Follow Me to even greater effect.

Numbers. The Speed and HP numbers I ripped straight from R Inanimate. The former lets Togekiss outspeed Adamant Choice Scarf Landorus in Tailwind, and the latter yields a good HP number for residual damage as well as an immediate Sitrus Berry trigger after Super Fang. What I changed from the original is the Defenses. The old spread, in my opinion, was absolutely perfect in its time, but with the current metagame leaning towards very strong physical attackers, I think taking some points out of Special Defense is prudent. To bring in practical examples, my EV spread lets it survive all Iron Head damage rolls of Life Orb Bisharp and Jolly Mega Metagross. Mega Salamence at +1 Attack also can’t OHKO with Return.

Etc. Game Freak, please let me have Normal/Flying back. Thanks. Even with the slightly inferior new typing, Togekiss still is one of the absolutely greatest Pokémon you can use. Who hasn’t lost hard to one yet? I see it surviving on pixels of health so often and it makes a humongous difference in the flow of battles. Sadly, untimely critical hits against Togekiss serve just as well to break my own neck instead of my opponents’…

Dornröschen (Excadrill) (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Swords Dance
– Protect

Set. This Pokémon is ripped straight from R Inanimate’s work. This Excadrill is a bit tricky to use with how useless it is against the more popular than ever Wide Guard, but if the team building is good (reminder: the initial version of this team full of multi-target moves is a good example of bad team building), you can get around that. This Excadrill simply has the best moves that are available from its movepool. Excadrill mainly wants to attack with Earthquake and boost its Attack with Swords Dance when momentum calls for it. This Mold Breaker Ability is a little subtle thing that both Garchomp and Landorus would eat their hearts out for forever, because it often turns teams that are quite hostile to Ground into teams that are actually weak to Ground! Rotom, Heatran after Levitate + Skill Swap, Gengar, Cresselia, you name it. No Aron or Shedinja cheese as well; I much appreciate that because I lost an important tournament run to Aron once. Rock Slide I’d still say is the best coverage move, because an Electric-immune Pokémon really wants to hit Thundurus hard at the same time. You aren’t doing that with Iron Head, and Stone Edge forfeits both slightly better accuracy and flinch chance.

Numbers. Outspeeds Modest Kingdra by one point and does the maximum damage possible. Focus Sash takes care of the defensive deficits just fine.

Etc. The answer to what’s the best Ground Pokémon is mostly situational, but Excadrill is a very entertaining break from our old, boring friend Landorus when you can get it going. Pity shoutouts to Mega Gyarados, which sadly is but an inferior version of Excadrill at the end of the day.

Schneewittchen (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 116 Atk / 4 Def / 76 SpD / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Return
– Sucker Punch
– Power-Up Punch
– Fake Out

Set. You’ve all seen it before, really. I went the Return + Power-Up Punch route because I wanted the bulk and not another glass cannon, and Togekiss would offer redirection from a theorymonical viewpoint. Having no space for Protect sucked as usual, but it is what it is.

Numbers. This is mostly based on Yoshi’s spread, except I made Kangaskhan faster in order to improve my possibly troublesome Mamoswine matchup. However good that spread may appear, though, it was better to not copy it blindly. I made the oversight of not knowing that other Kangaskhan would OHKO with Fake Out + Low Kick, and without an easy Intimidate available that could have turned into a huge problem.

Etc. Well, so much for what could have well been my only Mega. Kangaskhan was a big disappointment for me. It was all right but far from outstanding during Battle Spot practice, and at the Premier Challenge Kanagaskhan’s only real contribution was to take care of a Whimsicott/Greninja/friends team for me. Everyone else I played was full of Kangaskhan hate, with multiple Gengars and Terrakions, a Virizion, a Ferrothorn, some Rocky Helmets, your usual Intimidates and more, if not much more.

Rapunzel (Milotic) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
– Scald
– Ice Beam
– Hydro Pump
– Hypnosis

Set. And here it is, the very special something of this team: Choice Scarf Milotic. On paper, Milotic would protect Kangaskhan from threats that I expected. Apart from that, I took the popular Choice Scarf Politoed as inspiration, which I think is mostly inferior but still has fulfilled its job usually. About the moves: Scald is your reliable weak STAB, Hydro Pump is needed to OHKO 4/0 Terrakion and possibly other Pokémon weak to it, and Ice Beam to hit and preferably OHKO the various Ice-weak Pokémon out there. For the last slot, one could run pretty much anything. Icy Wind, a Hidden Power, Safeguard, or whatever. I chose Hypnosis because I didn’t see more value in any of the other options, so I might as well try to bail myself out of difficult situations with random unexpected Sleep. It has worked wonderfully, for in the rare cases that I’ve entered it, it has yet to miss single time. Other than that, a really beautiful thing about a non-attacking move like Hypnosis is that you can use it to punish Sucker Punches hard, as they don’t even use up the first turn of Sleep when they in fact attempt it.

Numbers. I used Timid because Modest would be too slow for outspeeding a few threats. I put Milotic a few points above Adamant Scarf Landorus in order to prevent it from U-turning out as it would like, and to maybe even snipe something else around that benchmark. In hindsight, that additional Speed creeping possibly wasn’t the best decision. I didn’t go all max Speed though because a Milotic like that really doesn’t enjoy taking physical attacks at all, so this is some alibi of shifting damage rolls a bit. The specially defensive side is looking better: Charizard still can’t OHKO with Solarbeam, and the worst thing that can happen from weaker STAB Thunderbolts is the stupid 10% Paralysis chance. Finally, max Special Attack is needed to not miss important OHKOs.

Etc. While I have’t seen Milotic and opposing Intimidates on the field simultaneously as often as I would have liked, it still did its job as a simple Choice Scarf user. Those tend to never be outstanding, but helping lock up win conditions is good in my book.

Rosenrot (Scizor) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Level: 50
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Bullet Punch
– Bug Bite
– Knock Off
– Protect

Set. Bullet Punch is Bullet Punch. I’ve never seen a Scizor without it since Diamond and Pearl. Life Orb makes Bullet Punch OHKO popular targets that are weak to Steel. Protect is Protect. Believe me, you want it on Scizor. Knock Off is for hitting Aegislash, and occasionally useful for removing items that could be problematic. I wasn’t sure if I should use Bug Bite at first, but it definitely paid off against all the Cresselia I faced, so no regrets with just keeping it anyways. The other move I was looking at would have been Feint. If you have ever read my older Reports, you may know that Feint is one my favorite moves ever.

Numbers. Speedy Scizor to fit with the offensive role I intended for it, where something like being outsped by most Rotoms would be pretty much unacceptable. With this middling Speed, Scizor can also benefit from Tailwind very well. However, that hardly ever happened in actual gameplay, because I just used Bullet Punch anyway most of the time. The HP EVs are for optimizing Life Orb recoil, and the Attack is at the number where it is because I trained Scizor on random victims and that’s what they happened to reward me with — I think I couldn’t have gotten any luckier there. ツ

Etc. Scizor is really neat. Obviously, it being a hard counter to some (very) popular stuff is a factor, and if you have trouble with exactly that stuff, you better not duck out of at least trying it. Even when that popular stuff isn’t present, Bullet Punch is just Bullet Punch, and that is still a ridiculous move even with our new friend Talonflame the Brave Bird™ having an even more ridiculous move per se.

Aschenputtel (Salamence) (F) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Double-Edge
– Earthquake
– Leer
– Protect

Set. What Bullet Punch is for Scizor and Brave Bird is for Talonflame, DOUBLE-EDGE is for Mega Salamence. Only that and Protect; everything else is filler, and nothing more. I chose Earthquake for anti-Steel/Rock/Electric coverage, and for occasionally dealing spread damage when the situation called for it. And Leer of all things I chose because I think Mega Salamence is a bit too strong, so I had to handicap it a bit in order to give my opponents a fighting chance.

…Well ok, I confess I fooled you. Let’s be serious about this, because I actually am serious in using this move over other options. I had no use whatsoever for Dragon Dance as the “most obvious” choice because of the way I used Salamence: super-fast glass cannon right from the start. There also wasn’t much merit to yet another coverage move because I already had DOUBLE-EDGE, which is the best general coverage move for the coverage move. Maybe GIGA IMPACT might actually be a thing, but the metagame isn’t at that stage yet. The best thing in my case that is not Leer would probably be Substitute for dodging Sucker Punches and punishing defensive play better, but I simply didn’t think of it until I saw it on another Salamence. Another move I considered was Tailwind (“boring”), and I would have likely switched to that in case Leer (“not boring” and “no harm in just trying it as long as failure is allowed”) disappointed.

So, now about Leer: As you may have noticed, this team is mostly about attacking physically, most prominently with Excadrill and Earthquake. There isn’t always time to get a Swords Dance in and Intimidate may mess with my general damage output too, so this fast Leer offers an entirely different out to to manipulate damage to my favor, and it also lets me occasionally and surprisingly circumvent all the detriments that simply attacking with DOUBLE-EDGE could give me.

Oh, in case you didn’t know it: Leer hits both foes at once. It’s essentially “a permanent Helping Hand with normal priority”.

Numbers. I needed Jolly because Adamant would be too slow. For the rest I simply had no better idea; didn’t see merits in not going for the Speed tie when they could just slaughter mine with surprise Draco Meteor for free while mine was still stuck with DOUBLE-EDGE.

Etc. I am so happy that I picked this beast for my sixth slot and not some random weak Pokémon as I was going to originally. Salamence did all that Kangaskhan failed to do: in short, be a good Mega slot. One can say, the team literally changed “on the fly”.

The Second Premier Challenge

First and foremost, the footnotes in history say: attendance almost doubled from last time, so for the first time this shop would have a Top 8 Cut. Top 8 would also receive Championship Points, and five rounds of Swiss would be played instead of just four. If we can now forever keep that, that would be excellent.

The Swiss rounds this time went about as well I could imagine. I got rematches for both of my losses from the first time, and also for the game I should have lost. This time, I cleanly won all three of them. My matches against the others went well too, and with that I entered the illustrious best-of-3 stage as the undefeated first seed. However, I still wasn’t done. 20 CP would have been good last time, but 20 CP would not be good this time, obviously because I had to make up for that debacle. With that out of the way, here’s my first account of a Top Cut run ever.

Quarter Final: vs. Joshua B.

Apparently a completely Mega-less team, don’t see those too often. This was the only lineup of the entire day basically screaming for me to bring Kangaskhan/Milotic.

Game 1. With how offensive both teams were in design, this game played out unusually defensively, as I didn’t do him the favor of knocking out the Whimsicott quickly. Instead, I occasionally sent a Scald its way to discourage him from manually bringing in something better unpunished, and dealing with Whimsicott’s partners alone at any given time wasn’t too hard.

Game 2. This game didn’t go so well. I decided to bring the same four as before while he also brought the same, only switching around the order. First, I was physically disrupted mid-game, and missed parts of a turn because of that, losing my focus a bit. With that having happened, momentum swung in my opponent’s favor, letting him have both Terrakion and Thundurus on the field with a fresh Tailwind. The game could have been just barely recoverable, but the RNG decided otherwise: Kangaskhan flinched from Rock Slide, then was lost to a Thunderbolt critical hit on the next turn. From there, the game was definitely over. I was doing my best to conceal my being upset from the mid-game disruption and what it led me into, because I still wanted that top 4 more than anything else at this point.

Game 3. Carefully reconsidering my options, I figured that while Milotic was certainly good against his individual Pokémon, it had the most severe issues with his Speed control. After all Milotic did, I assumed that I would not see Arcanine in the last game, and this opened up the option of using Scizor’s Bullet Punch to get around the unfavorable Speed matchup, and get around Terrakion specifically, while Kangaskhan and a well-timed Excadrill took care of the rest. This worked out beautifully, with a six turn game to end the set.

Semi Final: vs. Christian C.

Rematch from last round of Swiss. His Cresselia had Trick Room and Ice Beam, who by herself isn’t too much of a problem, but in combination with the rest of the team, it was a generally tricky matchup for me, and my game plans would heavily rely on what he brought.

Game 1. My first notable action was scouting for Charizard’s Speed. Excadrill got outsped by Charizard twice, effectively trading itself in early for most of Charizard’s health. Of the other three each of us had left at (near-)full health, mine handled his very well, and that was the first game for me.

Game 2. In the second game I wanted a bit too much. I sacrificed my Salamence without even getting a knock-out just to get Togekiss/Excadrill going unharmed, but then the combination of a fresh Trick Room, Hitmontop (naturally with Wide Guard) and Ferrothorn were a bit too much to handle. Scizor couldn’t help me out of this position, and so the game got handily lost.

Game 3. Well, I had wanted top 4, and I got top 4. The matchup was far from easy, and we knew (almost) everything about each other’s habits by now, so it was time for me to come up with yet another one of my infamous blood-sacrifice game plans, but this time actually do it right (maybe).

Actually, it was almost simple. Hitmontop ruined my fun in the previous game, but if Hitmontop were knocked out quickly this time, Togekiss/Excadrill would eventually have their way with his team, possibly even if Rhydon finally appeared. Knowing that Excadrill would “outspeed” Charizard in Trick Room and that Follow Me would do all the rest, I wasn’t afraid at all to send Scizor in as a fiery sacrifice, just to weaken the field for Excadrill where no Protect was to be expected and where Salamence could actually be successfully saved in order to then pin Charizard as the only remaining threat down. No regrets, stop at nothing, we’ve had our fun.

The endgame itself did have its own ways, and it still got very close. First, the Leer + Earthquake play definitely looks like a misplay, and technically was one, I guess, because I could have just gone for Double-Edge (I mean: DOUBLE-EDGE?!) instead. I believed that this Earthquake from Hell would be enough to knock out whatever it hit at this stage, and catching a possible Charizard switch-in with Leer would have been desirable. I in fact had gotten a DOUBLE-EDGE OHKO on his Charizard during our Swiss match, but knowing the calculations all too well, I didn’t want to believe the beauty at first sight. Being faster than Excadrill told me nothing about Charizard’s defensive investment, so it being a damage roll was still a very realistic possibility. I wanted to use DOUBLE-EDGE on it, and not weak Double-Edge. Thus, I figured that anything between critical hit and burn (well, and miss) was (way) less likely than failing the damage roll, and then I would ultimately win the game 0-0 if all went right. On the other hand, if I lost the damage roll, I would lose the game, the match, and the tournament, period.

But then… Excadrill and Charizard were Speed-tied and we never knew until now! Way to ruin the epic finish, game. Thanks a mil, but I shall take it.

Naturally, Christian did calculate DOUBLE-EDGE/Double-Edge against his Charizard afterwards, and it was indeed a damage roll.

Final: vs. Kai S. (colspan)

Game 1. I’d been tempted. I was so fed up with fast Icy Winds in about half of my games by now that I brought Kangaskhan against this team just to block the Gengar from doing it again. While he did actually give me the leading Gengar for free, I totally did not expect the Gengar/Amoonguss lead, and then he just Spored all my team for free as well. It all fell apart from there, and I took my sweet time to lose and maybe figure something out.

Game 2. To be honest, I was somewhat exhausted by now, and seeing yet another painful lead matchup in Salamence/Scizor vs. Bisharp/Amoonguss I basically became desperate. I was very happy going out right here. Thus, I decided that if I go out, I go out with a bang: use Leer and bring Bisharp to +3 Attack in order to actually be able to OHKO it, all-in! The turn didn’t go well for me, as I lost my Scizor for it without a move. However, the fortunate detail of the turn was that he didn’t Spore the Salamence, and that way I was able to still turn this game around with Togekiss and a couple Earthquakes, because all he brought was just like in the first game Amoonguss and the three weak to Ground.

Game 3. I was so drained, I just wanted it to be over! Thinking of it now, this had legitimately been the longest I’d ever played in an official Pokémon tournament. Yes, that’s actually a sad thing to say, I know, but can’t take the big steps before mastering the small ones, I guess. At least this was definitely going to be the final game of the event. Continuing with my small “tradition” for this run, have a video:

My very last productive idea of the day was that playing Togekiss/Excadrill aggressively might be worth it. His leads always were Amoonguss and something to be OHKOed by Excadrill, and investing everything into an Excadrill lategame yet again could get stopped much more easily by a Salamence in the back, whereas Excadrill was good against the rest without Attack boosts anyway. As his Salamence again was nowhere to be seen (Scarf Milotic was his biggest worry, he told me later, so even her absence proved valuable to me), my other physical attackers along with Togekiss’s support successfully finished the work that Excadrill had started.

Special shoutouts go to my precious 1/8 female Togekiss. Kai’s Pokémon hadn’t gotten a single move off after any faster Air Slash they received in the whole set, and also factoring the rest of the day in, I can only remember one turn without a flinch. I will likely never have so much Togekiss luck again.

Jan 31: Back Down to Earth

The Team: Back to Solo-Mega

Although Kangaskhan actually did contribute to my previous win, the contribution was so small that I thought someone else non-Mega could do it as well, while also both working together with Salamence and helping with some of the more difficult matchups. For this I picked Conkeldurr, and expected it to…

• be helpful against Trick Room,
• make me less weak to Ferrothorn,
• still take care of Greninja,
• fix my admittedly underwhelming Kangaskhan matchup and
• not be trolled by Gengar.

Practice on Battle Spot went just as well as I desired, so I felt like I made the right decision. Here’s the full set for you, with the rest of the team unchanged.

Meistergriff (Conkeldurr) (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Guts
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Atk / 140 Def / 108 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 13 Spe
– Drain Punch
– Mach Punch
– Stone Edge
– Knock Off

Set. I chose Assault Vest so he could tank the Special hits he feared, most prominently from Charizard. Generally you want to be able to take hits well when you’re slow, and Conkeldurr will always be slow due to how this team works. Guts was used to punish Burns, because they’re still everywhere. Drain Punch and Mach Punch are pretty much mandatory. I just couldn’t drop either of them in good conscience. This sadly fed into a painful moveslot syndrome for the last two: Ice Punch for Landorus, Knock Off for Ghost or Psychic types, or a Rock move for Charizard? As you see, I ended up caring the least about Landorus of all things — had seen only of them at the PCs which I knew was going to be dropped most likely, and even if some more popped up, I felt like this wouldn’t make or break the matchup for me. I might have been irrationally scared by Charizard and Aegislash, though. I picked Stone Edge over the more common Rock Slide, as the latter move could be blocked by Wide Guard. The additional damage was a nice bonus when it actually hit.

Numbers. Taken straight from TheBattleRoom’s Worlds team, no change whatsoever. I wasn’t too happy with the lack of Attack, but attacking for low damage was still better than not getting to attack at all, with the set being Protect-less and the given means of Speed control not doing much to help Conkeldurr.

Etc. Was this change actually worth it or not? One can argue for both answers. A thing that definitely got lost is the Team Preview mindgame of whether I would bring Kangaskhan or not, or more specifically, the possibility of coercing people into bringing their Kangaskhan counters and making them a bit more predictable that way. Truth be told, I’ve ran into enough matchups where bringing Kangaskhan at all made absolutely no sense. On the other hand, as I explained, Conkeldurr gave the whole team more options without coming with the natural Mega drawbacks.

Conkeldurr not happening to be female as well naturally ruined my nickname theme from before. And then just from how funny Conkeldurr’s German name is to begin with, I quickly coughed up a new nickname theme entirely based on that. But to defend my ridiculed digital friends: at least I’m not using any Pokémon in my team whose German names I actually forgot over time. Yes, that has really happened a few times. Shoutouts to all who get the jokes.

• Togekiss: Todgebkuss
• Excadrill: Stahlober
• Salamence: Brutalsandra
• Scizor: Scherenochs
• Milotic: Miilohntnich

The Third Premier Challenge

With my win from the previous week and some good practice in the bag, you can bet I was feeling good. Already knowing beforehand that the good participation numbers would likely be reached again (and they were), I assumed that I could go into this event totally relaxed. That’s because last time, all 3-2s made Top Cut, and repeating Top Cut was exactly my goal for the day. From there, whatever happened, happened. I assumed getting 3-2 wouldn’t be too hard as long as I made no major mistakes. Oh how wrong I was, my friends, oh how wrong I was…

In fact, I did end up getting a 3-2 result, but for some reason we had a lot more 3-2s this time. My resistance was a horrible joke, and thus I missed the cut by light-years, finishing in 13th place. What’s funny about my finish is that it totally felt like a 0-5 run in the end. That’s how horrible it really was.

The two actual losses are simply explained: I played overly defensive instead of properly hunting for win conditions and/or getting good reads, so I just lost by playing poorly. One of them was kind of a dreadful matchup, though, as my opponent had Megagross with Meteor Mash and Life Orb Thundurus, both of which could just snipe Togekiss, and then even more annoying attributes, which elaborating on now would go too far. The wins were as far from convincing as they could possibly be. I was paired down to a Junior not yet too good at the game and ruined his day for absolutely nothing. I won a match that I should have lost because I got a critical hit at the very end of the game to steal it just like that. I might have been able to prevent that entirely by playing the matchup better, but alas I didn’t! I also won a match against a genuinely horrifying matchup in Charizard Y, Ice Beam Greninja, and Choice Scarf Garchomp, because a) Rock Slide never made my Pokémon flinch and b) my opponent, having almost no prior tournament experience under her belt, unfortunately mismanaged her resources while I still played too anxiously for my liking.

That general pattern again reared its ugly head during the NB Live tournament right after I got home; the day was just cursed. One of the more notable things about it is that it reminded me that Smeargle is still around. I ran into a full three of them in the six teams I played. I had no good answers to it, and so I just had to rely on any combination of benevolent RNG and opponents making mistakes. Twice I succeeded, once I failed, with a 4-2 total at the end, a few chip Nugget Points for my “endeavors”, and my inner self compelled to make fun of me for a long time to come in the worst case.

The Aftermath

Naturally, this final day of the month was absolutely terrible and the only good thing about it were the friends I met and the fun I still had. That being said, I have seen way worse days in my time of playing Pokémon before, so all I can really do is laugh about it and (hopefully) do better next time. While it didn’t go well for me personally, at least I got to see first hand the local player-base thriving, and I will get to see that wonderful picture many more times in the future. As someone who has been playing and enjoying Pokémon competitively for more than 12 years now, these Premier Challenges are literally a dream come true. That alone was worth it to keep playing for so long and showing my support to begin with. PCs motivate me to keep playing in the future and… maybe, you know, “git gud”, as they like to say.

In addition to the videos showed above, I have selected three more replays to share. You should be able to watch them for the next few weeks on your trusty games if you choose to do so.

• 6KDG-WWWW-WWXA-MXPW (final Swiss round of Jan 24, also vs. Christian C.)
  This is the back-story I referred to in the respective section, and also one of my favorite games of the day.
• QDFW-WWWW-WWXA-MXLU (game 2 of the final vs. colspan)
  The Leer-on-Bisharp play is right here. Not suitable for children!
• CZNW-WWWW-WWXA-MX85 (taken from Battle Spot practice between Jan 24 and 31)
  I messed up horribly at team preview and 2-4 is the price for it. The dark magic you then see afterwards, I daresay, is a pretty good example of why running all Protect-less teams is very risky especially in this current metagame full of Tailwind.

Some more words on the team to take it away? While I did improve it by a considerable amount over time, the final version you’re looking at pretty much completely neglects the possibility of Mawile in Trick Room. This evidently was not too silly of an assumption in the early metagame, but that fun of Mawile being criminally underrated is not going to last for much longer. Another thing is the recent surge in Megagross, especially in a core of Hydreigon and Landorus around it. I may or may not get back to working on this team depending on what happens when- and wherever, but for the present I can say the team has done its job. I as the player have mostly screwed up on my job, and now it’s time to move on. See you at the next Premier Challenge, Nationals, bigger Report, or whatever else there may be.

(…And this is as far as this 2013 revival thing went for myself. Sadly my own 2013 team most likely is unplayable in this format. But we won’t ever let old spirits rest, will we?)

The post Of Low Budget Team Building and Other Struggles: A Premier Challenge Alpha Season Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

The second round of the Nugget Bridge Major 4 is in the history books. After a hard fought round, everyone is still in a position to make the top cut so don’t give up because you lost already. The third round of the Major is now finalized and you may begin battling and reporting your scores.

Important Note: Players need to be aware that self reporting a game that never happened is against the rules. Whether your opponent is missing or you two could never schedule a time for a match, you should never report a win if the match never happened. Talk to your flight leaders if you feel you deserve a win, but NEVER take it upon yourself to award a win to yourself without playing your match. The tournament staff will find out and you will be disqualified. I hate to continue reiterating this fact but it keeps happening and people keep getting disqualified, don’t risk your tournament by giving yourself a win undeservedly.

As a reminder here is the bracket. Please read the kick off post for instructions on reporting your score and messaging your opponent.

Flight Leaders are an important part of this tournament, make sure you are using them properly. Please do not spam them with requests and private messages. They are busy people and they will eventually be able to help you. In case you may have forgotten these are your Flight Leaders (they have not changed):

• Flight A: Wyrms Eye + feathers
• Flight B: makiri + Hibiki
• Flight C: Gonzo + Unreality
• Flight D: Braverius + majorbowman

Once again the rules for this tournament:

• The ruleset will be the Standard Format.
• The tournament will follow the Swiss structure and leads to a final single elimination top cut to determine the champion. This means you play every round whether you win or you lose
• The top 32 players or all players with 2 or fewer losses (whichever is the larger number) will make it to the top cut single elimination stage
• Games will be played in a best of 3 set and the winner of 2 games will be declared the winner of the match. Report the proper score because your tiebreakers are affected. The only results should be 2-0 or 2-1.
• You may not change teams during that best of 3, but you can change teams between rounds.
• Games must be played on Nintendo 3DS systems using Pokémon Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire. In certain circumstances Pokémon Showdown may be used, but it needs to be cleared with makiri, the tournament host.
• This is not a live tournament. Matches will play out over the course of the week.
• A Nugget Bridge account is required to play.
• If your match comes down to activity and you either never read your opponent’s communication, never replied to your opponent’s communication, or never logged on to Nugget Bridge during the current round you will be dropped from the tournament.
• As mentioned it is Swiss, just because you lose it does not mean you are done, play the tournament out!
• Please record a video while playing your match (using a phone or camcorder or something similar) to help in case of disputes. We also recommend saving all battle videos.

Any other important information can be found in the kick off post.

Deadline for this round is Monday, March 2, 2015 at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time.

Highlight Matches

Flight A

• R Inanimate vs Darkpenguin67
• NidoRich vs Sekiam

Flight B

• Shinon64 vs Havak
• Toazdt vs Fatum

Flight C

• Henrique vs Lajo

Flight D

• Michelele vs Poops

The post Round 3 of the Season 4 Nugget Bridge Major Has Begun appeared first on Nugget Bridge.