Hey guys, my name is Carson, better known as Footballfreak99. I started playing VGC this year after watching the Nationals and Worlds streams. I have racked up an impressive amount of CP, but mostly from small PCs. My only regional finishes had been subpar, with 14^th and 27^th at Ft. Wayne and St. Louis respectively. After my 3-3 flop in St. Louis, I was determined to make a better team that could get me into Top Cut. After working with a terrible Trick Room team, a good, but outdated, regionals team, and a bad Choice Scarf Milotic team, I finally settled on this team.

Teambuilding Process

I tried using Metagross on my friend Justin (Spurrific)’s regionals team, and immediately fell in love. It had speed, bulk, power, and coverage against many common pokemon.

After mulling over some core ideas, my friend Rapha (rapha) suggested I use Togekiss Metagross. It looked good on paper and he had results with it, so I just went from there.

Landorus-Therian is one of the most powerful pokemon in the meta, and synergizes well with Togekiss.

I needed a Fighting-Type Pokemon, and also wanted him to be able to beat bulky water-type Pokemon and abuse Spore, so I chose Breloom.

Breloom is one of the most common Pokemon in the Seniors Division, so I needed another way to stop it, so I turned to a really cool idea I saw in amr97’s report: Safety Goggles Rotom-Heat

Last but certainly not least, Jellicent. During St. Louis Regionals, Trick Room was very common, and was a deciding factor in most of my losses, so I needed a Trick Room counter. I also wanted to complete the Fire-Water-Grass core, so I turned to Jellicent.

The Team

Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Bullet Seed
– Mach Punch
– Spore
– Protect

This guy is the seniors metagame right now. He has good Fighting-type STAB, counters bulky waters, and can spore everything. I opted for the standard set, as it accomplished all of my goals. Focus Sash was used almost every battle I brought Breloom to, and in my opinion is necessary for Breloom to function.

Togekiss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 4 SpA / 60 SpD / 76 Spe
Bold Nature
– Air Slash
– Tailwind
– Follow Me
– Protect

This set was given to me my good friend Rapha (rapha). This set was written about in his report No Substitute for Rain in the Northwest. This set survives an Iron Head from Bisharp, activates the Sitrus Berry after a Super Fang, and outspeeds defensive Rotom. The rest were dumped into Special Defense. Air Slash dug me out of a hole many times with its flinching power during the tournament, and after a Tailwind was just evil. Tailwind was to speed up, and Follow Me was to redirect Ground and Dark type attacks away from Metagross.  Speaking of Metagross…

Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Iron Head
– Zen Headbutt
– Ice Punch
– Protect

Ah, nothing like a Shiny Metagross. When I was building this team, my friends told me to go the route of bulky Substitute, but it really wasn’t my playstyle. Another problem was the lack of powerful Ice coverage on this team. I decided that since I was running a slower team, to use the standard Jolly 252/252 set, to capitalize on Mega-Metagross’s best stats. Iron Head and Zen Headbutt were my two mandatory STAB moves, and I chose Ice Punch for coverage. My Round Three opponent Matt F. (aerodactyl) was dumbfounded when I revealed Ice Punch and One Hit KOed his Salamence and Landorus-Therian.

Landorus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Superpower
– Protect

Now you may be saying, “Life Orb Landorus-T? Who does he think he is?!” I tested Choice Scarf Landorus-T, and found it underwhelming and that it didn’t synergize well with Metagross. I decided to try out Life Orb, so that I could switch moves while gaining a higher damage output. Life Orb Landorus was amazing, and it performed its job beautifully. It checked many Pokemon weak to its moves, and was able to chip many Pokemon to set them up for a KO.

Rotom-Heat @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 108 SpA / 4 SpD / 140 Spe
Modest Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Overheat
– Thunder Wave
– Protect

Another spread I shamefully stole, this time from amr97’s report Today Our Future is Born. This spread outspeeds Adamant Bisharp by two points, has maximum HP to be bulkier, and the rest went into special attack to hit harder. I only recall being hit by one Spore and no Rage Powders with Rotom-H, but he did his job as offensive Fire-type well.

Jellicent @ Power Lens
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 72 SpA / 36 SpD
Calm Nature
– Scald
– Ice Beam
– Will-O-Wisp
– Trick Room

Last but certainly not least, we have the wonderful Power Lens Jellicent. I eved this guy in the car on the way, and must have forgot to change his item. Power Lens did end up saving me in the Finals, where I was able to do 40% to a Blade-Form Aegislash. This spread is made for Colbur Berry, and is 3HKOed by Timid Scarf Hydreigon Dark Pulse, survives all other Dark attacks, and survives Leaf Blade from Life Orb Virizion. If I were able to do it over again, I would use Sassy 0 Speed with the same spread and Colbur, so I could at least speed tie Quiet 0 Speed Aegislash. For move choices, I chose Ice Beam and Scald as basic attacks, capable of hitting a lot of things for decent damage. Will-O-Wisp was chosen to neuter physical attackers, primarily Kangaskhan. Trick Room was a tech I put on there for two reasons.

1. Trick Room was incredibly common at St. Louis Regionals, so I could reverse their Trick Room.
2. Some members of my team are slow, and Trick Room could be used to speed them up, or punish a Tailwind.

At the Event

After only going 3-3 at St. Louis and letting myself get depressed during the event, I decided to approach this event very differently. I built my team and practiced many times, and when I got to the event, I just told myself to not stress, have fun, and be nice. During the tournament, I tried to follow those three things at all times. These three things are what allowed me to be 4-0 by the team Round Five came around. However, I lost this Round to a great player by the name of Kylie, and an extremely good Rain team. Round Six, however, the opponent ran a Sand Team, which I luckily was strong against. I won this round, and I was shocked to see that I was the second seed after Swiss, the highest 5-1. My Round Six opponent was also the seventh seed, so I knew I would play him in the first Round of Top Cut. After a 45 minute lunch break, I battled him. They were incredibly close matches. Good games to you, Caleb. Afterwards, I found out Kylie had lost her Top 8 match, and that I wasn’t going to have to face her. I was overjoyed, because I can almost guarantee had I played her she would have ended my run. I ended up battling Tristan, my Round Four opponent. After some incredibly close games, we parted ways. I couldn’t believe it! I was in the Finals of Regionals! My opponent was Max S. (Maxdeese), who hadn’t dropped a game all day. Going in, I kept my eyes on the prize, and focused, trying my best to get that 120 CP and a New 3DS XL. We had the two closest and most nerve-wracking games I have ever played. I somehow came out on top, and then after some announcements and prize-getting, we took some pictures, parted with friends, and drove home. One of my favorite memories is the TO handing me my trophy and me being afraid I would drop it since my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. It was probably the most fun I have ever had, and now cannot wait to go to Nationals. See you all there!

Shoutouts

• Justin (Spurrific), Aaron (LPFan), Rapha (rapha), and Tim(6iv) for being great friends and for hanging out with me at the event and helping me teambuild.
• Also Arsal (OneTrueKing), Sohaib(sohaib), and Evan (FlashSentry) for also helping me teambuild.
• My parents for letting me attend.
• My dad for driving through a storm the whole way here and for sitting there all day.
• My brother who made me realize you can relax and have fun while competing.
• Anyone who I faced at the event or on Pokemon Showdown!
• Thowra for the beautiful Article Art.
• Rapha for introducing me to Togekiss.

Thanks for reading this far, it really means a lot to me. Good Luck in all your future endeavors, and Play Pokemon!

The post They all be Jelly of my Power: A Kansas Regionals First Place Senior Division Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi everyone! My name is Stephen Brown III, or pyromaniac720. Today I’ll be discussing the evolution of a Sun team that I’ve been using all spring. I won’t cover every single revision (there were far too many), but I will cover every version of the team that I used at an event. There’s also going to be a bunch of videos at the end so you can see how the team functioned.

Teambuilding Process

The night after my 6-3 performance at the Virginia Regionals, I was brainstorming my next team. I wanted to find something that I could use throughout the following Premier Challenge season. At first, I tried some ridiculous teams, such as Kabutops with rain and Lucario with Riolu. Nothing really stood out, but then my friend Jake Miller (Araragii) suggested that I use Shiftry in sun. I disregarded the idea at first, but then I realized that Shiftry was surprisingly good: its base 100 Attack and Chlorophyll could allow it to be a threat. Obviously, sun teams require a Drought user; although Mega Charizard Y was tempting, the lack of sun on the first turn meant that Shiftry couldn’t get a speedy Fake Out, so Ninetales was chosen. I then decided to go as offensive as possible, so I gave Ninetales a Choice Scarf so it could spam Heat Wave. After adding a few pieces, including Mega Salamence, I started testing the team on Pokemon Showdown.

Evolution of the Team

I immediately fell in love with the team; its speed and power could quickly overwhelm opponents, which fit in well with my offensive playstyle. In February, I used the team at a Premier Challenge and during the International Challenge. The team looked like this:

The team did well in the International Challenge, reaching fourth place in the US. Swampert was a good addition to the team, providing much-needed Wide Guard support as well as an easy way to deal with Heatran. For a more detailed look at the team, check out this video. Despite its success, I felt that the team still had some untapped potential; I was winning games mostly due to Shiftry, Ninetales, and Mega Salamence. As such, I made a few revisions:

Life Orb Hydreigon gave this team even more firepower, while still dealing with Heatran due to Earth Power. Choice Specs Sylveon did lots of work, as opponents were hesitant to bring Steel-types thanks to the threat of sun. It also provided a shaky check to rain teams. At the Premier Challenge, I made it to top cut before losing to Tom Hull (TheGr8). The team had amazing offensive pressure. However, it had major issues—it was incredibly weak to Fighting- and Fairy-type attacks, and had few ways to deal with bulky Water-types such as Suicune and Rotom-Wash. After some revisions, I ended up substituting physical Nidoking in place of Hydreigon. With Poison Jab, Drill Run, and Ice Punch, it added some very important coverage. This variant of the team placed fourth at a Premier Challenge.

Still, even with Nidoking, the team’s issues with Trick Room, rain, and bulky Water-types persisted. Additionally, I became aware of an annoying weakness to Landorus-Therian, who could only be OHKOed by Ninetales’s Overheat. After considering my options, I went with Mamoswine and its powerful Ice-type attacks. Additionally, I added Life Orb Thundurus-Therian to deal with Water-types; it was fantastic at doing its job, so I kept it on the team. I tested a variety of attackers in the last slot, but in the end I ended up with Porygon-Z.

Porygon-Z brought a ridiculous amount of damage between Choice Specs and Adaptability. When boosted by Shiftry’s Tailwind, it was incredibly powerful. I also tossed in a quirk on this version of the team by giving Salamence Giga Impact, allowing it to finish matches in style. In back-to-back Premier Challenges, I finished in fifth and second. I was still unhappy with how the team played; Trick Room was essentially an autoloss, and Bisharp’s Sucker Punch was also a huge issue. As such, prior to the Georgia Regionals, I took out Porygon-Z for Sableye to cover the remaining threats.

Shiftry @ Focus Sash
Chlorophyll | Adamant
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
– Fake Out
– Leaf Blade
– Knock Off
– Tailwind

Shiftry was far better than I ever could have expected. When led with Ninetales, its incredibly fast Fake Out gave Ninetales a free Heat Wave or switch. Leaf Blade had solid coverage, hitting a good chunk of the metagame for super effective damage. Knock Off dealt good damage and could remove items right from the get-go; this was amazing for disruption and scouting. Tailwind, however, was certainly Shiftry’s best move. It gave Mamoswine the ability to outspeed and OHKO common Pokemon such as Thundurus and Landorus-Therian, and gave the team a fighting chance against opposing weather teams if sun wasn’t up. The combined boost of Chlorophyll and Tailwind could also cancel out paralysis, allowing Shiftry to outspeed many slower Pokemon even after a Thunder Wave.

Ninetales @ Choice Scarf
Drought | Modest
60 HP / 252 SpA / 188 Spe
– Overheat
– Heat Wave
– Solar Beam
– Hidden Power Ground

Shiftry’s partner in crime. Although its Special Attack is underwhelming, sun allows Ninetales to still put out respectable damage with Heat Wave. Overheat had OHKO power and could avoid Wide Guard. The other two moves gave it coverage against Water-types and Heatran. Choice Scarf caught many opponents off guard, and could lead to quick KOs when combined with Overheat. Hidden Power Ice is unnecessary, as Mamoswine covers that niche well and Overheat can OHKO Landorus-Therian. I had contemplated using a bulky set with Will-O-Wisp, but I never got around to testing it.

Salamence @ Salamencite
Intimidate / Aerilate | Jolly
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
– Double-Edge
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Protect

Salamence has become my favorite Mega Pokemon due to its raw power and Speed. Rock Slide brings useful flinches and gives me a good option against Mega Charizard Y and Talonflame. This set originally had Dragon Claw and later Giga Impact; on the final version, I chose Earthquake to give me an additional option against Heatran. I brought Salamence to every game, and it never let me down.

Thundurus-Therian @ Life Orb
Volt Absorb | Timid
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IVs: 8 Def / 30 Spe
– Thunderbolt
– Focus Blast
– Hidden Power Ice
– Protect

Thundurus-Therian is awesome. With Life Orb, its attacks hit extremely hard against most of the metagame; it can also bait out attacks from opponents expecting a Choice item. Except for Focus Blast, this set is standard; I chose to use it over Grass Knot because I already had two Grass-type attacks, and Focus Blast gave me an out against Kangaskhan and Heatran. Although I never ended up using the attack at Regionals, it was helpful in testing and during a few Premier Challenges. Thundurus-T was undefeated at Georgia, going 6-0.

Mamoswine @ Expert Belt
Thick Fat | Adamant
28 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Def / 4 SpD / 204 Speed
– Icicle Crash
– Ice Shard
– Earthquake
– Protect

This is a fairly standard Mamoswine set; Expert Belt was necessitated by Thundurus-T’s use of Life Orb. The EVs allow it to outspeed Bisharp (and Pokemon attempting to Speed creep it) and withstand a Close Combat from an Intimidated Terrakion. Although Mamoswine was usually helpful, I didn’t play against many genies in Georgia, so it wasn’t brought very often. I still don’t regret using it, though—I think it’s a very underrated Pokemon that should definitely be used more.

Sableye @ Mental Herb
Prankster | Careful
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
– Feint
– Taunt
– Quash
– Will-o-Wisp

I chose Sableye to support my attackers. Prankster Will-O-Wisp was a fantastic tool, allowing me to neuter physical attackers and chip away at bulky Pokemon. Taunt and Quash went hand-in-hand; Taunt prevented Speed control moves such as Trick Room, Tailwind, or Thunder Wave from being used, while Quash negated them if they did go up. This team greatly appreciated going first, so Sableye’s role here was very important. Feint made predictions far easier, and could punish opponents attempting to stall out Tailwind or sun with Protect. As a bonus, it also broke Wide Guard and Quick Guard. Mental Herb gave it a crucial edge against opposing Thundurus attempting to Taunt first. I used Sableye far more than I had expected, and it did a lot of work—it only missed a single Will-O-Wisp!

Tournament Battles

I’ve uploaded a bunch of battles with this team from Premier Challenges and the Nugget Bridge Major. Those videos are in this playlist. Below are my games from Georgia Regionals.

Round 1: vs Karl Concepcion (Masakado)
Final record: 6-2

This is the only battle I didn’t record during the event. I was excited and nervous this game, as Karl had won Virigina Regionals. His team featured both a Tailwind and a Trick Room mode. Even though I was able to prevent him from using either, he was able to take out Mega Salamence, and I didn’t have enough damage to finish off his Suicune with Sableye. It was a close game that I would’ve won had I brought Thundurus-T instead of Ninetales, but that’s all hindsight. Karl ended up making top cut before losing in top eight.

Round 2 vs Cory Craven
Final record: 4-4

Round 3 vs Ellie Hols
Final record: 1-4 (dropped)

Round 4 vs Harrison Williams
Final record: 5-3

Round 5 vs Jake Hatch
Final record: 5-3

Round 6 vs Chet Daugherty
Final record: 6-2

Round 7 vs Ian Packer
Final record: 6-2

Round 8 vs Edward Glover (MinVGC)
Final record: 7-1

Overall, I had an amazing time in Athens. My final record was 6-2, which was good enough for 17th place; I missed top cut on opponent’s opponent’s win percentage, partially due to my round 3 opponent who dropped. However, I mostly have myself to blame—if I had won my last match, I would’ve easily made top cut. Both of my losses were to teams with bulky Water-types and I didn’t bring Thundurus-T in either game, so I definitely didn’t do a great job in team preview. I also got a bit headstrong in the last game: I assumed Ed’s sand team was bog standard, and his Lum Berry Tyranitar surprised me and gave him a huge advantage.

Shoutouts to everyone who helped me:

• Jake Miller (Araragii) for giving me the idea to use Shiftry. Even though you meant it as a joke to bully me, it managed to put in some serious work and earn me my best regional finish ever.
• Andy Anderson (TwiddleDee) for being my main support and team builder every step of the way. When I tested overly ridiculous things like Mega Houndoom, he’d help me find a Pokemon that would actually work well in that spot on the team. Also thanks for letting us stay at your house. Can’t wait to do some more team building with him for Nats!
• Mitchell Davies (MissingNoL), Brendan Lewis (Mrbdog46), and Phil Nguyen (Boomguy) for giving me little tidbits of advice here and there that helped the team evolve into what it is today. I’m exciting to do some more extensive team building with Brendan for nationals!
• Chance Alexander (Paragon), Tyson Gernak (Firefly), and Nick Borghi (LightCore). It was awesome meeting you guys and hanging out with you!
• Brendan Lewis (Raptor) and Sohaib Muffti (Sohaib) for taking the trip with me. 18 hours alone would’ve been a nightmare but you guys made it super fun.
• To anyone else I met or that helped me team build. I’m sure I’m missing a few people and I’m sorry if I missed you. Also, this report is getting kind of long and I need to wrap it up and mentioning everyone would probably take another page.

I hope you guys enjoyed the team—if you did, check me out on Twitter (@pyromaniac720) and YouTube. Thanks for reading!

The post The Tree Thing in High Heels: A Spring Season Team Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello, My name is Jake Hwang-Twigg, although I’m known as Jake HT or Jhoqk mostly. I have been playing Pokemon competitively since 2009, where I finished in 5th place at my first regional, and have been hooked ever since. My first real accomplishment was in 2012, where I ended up winning the Oregon Regional in Salem, got to travel to Nationals, where I finished in 35th place. I came back the next year in Salem for another regional win, but I ended at 64th in nationals that year, which was a bit of a letdown for me.

Fast forward to 2014, my first year in the Masters division, I ended with a 3-5 record at the Salem regional, and 6-2 at the Seattle one. I had really hoped to transition smoothly into the Masters division, but that simply isn’t what happened. I really wanted to step up my game in 2015, as I knew I could do better than I had in 2014.

With that in mind, I put more effort into the game than in 2014, and did what I did best; making a team based around an uncommon or underused Pokemon. This year, I started with Mega Absol, and with that in mind, I built my team around it, and this was what I came up with.

The Team Building Process

The team started out with Mega Absol, whose set I still hadn’t decided on. I just knew I wanted to use it, and I make the best teams when I have a goal from the very start.

With an amazing 1/6th of my team (somewhat) done, I looked for inspiration for the rest of my team. It came from two of my friends, who has been running Sableye for the longest time. It provides Fake Out support, Will-o-Wisp, and Foul Play as a source of damage for a support. So I went with it to try and test it out. In the end, I loved it, and it became a permanent addition to my team.

With double Dark-types, I knew that I needed something with Wide Guard to protect me from Sylveon and Gardevoir, along with a Steel type to either wall or knock out any fairies I might see. I added Swampert for its amazing coverage and Wide Guard, and Heatran for the Steel type, as it takes almost no damage from the loudmouths of the metagame. I also usually like to have solid switch options and a bulky team, so I chose those as my next two.

From here, I didn’t have much to beat rain or defensive teams. I ended up adding Mega Venusaur, as it beat rain, as well as making defensive teams struggle to break through it. Heatran was not working out for me, so I needed to find something else to replace it with. Excadrill provided the Steel typing I was looking for, as well as being able to offensively pressure Fairy types.

With my team nearly complete, I still had a few important choices to make. I still had not decided on what to run on my Absol, and with a team based around it, it is somewhat important. I had a rough idea of what I was going to do, but it wasn’t solidified. The other big choice was figuring out what to run in my last team spot. I ended up trying so many other pokemon, from Blaziken to Lapras, Clefable to Virizion, I couldn’t find something that fit well. About a week before the tournament, I knew what I wanted, but hadn’t been able to find it. I wanted a pokemon with Helping Hand, to pick up KOs the rest of my team couldn’t get, and a Fire type to complete my Fire/Water/Grass core. I looked, and I found Arcanine, who I tested and immediately liked. So with that, I had my finished team!

The Team

CryWolf (Absol) @ Absolite
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 148 Def / 124 SpA / 236 Spe
Naive Nature
– Foul Play
– Ice Beam
– Superpower
– Protect

(Used in 1/10 games)

“Once I was afraid I’d find you, your patient trembling eyes would unwind me, and all I’ve become”

I can already hear it through the internet, and I can explain. When I was looking over my team, I was relying on Venusaur to beat defensive teams, and Absol to beat offensive ones. I also wanted Absol to cover for Venusaur’s weaknesses, which were Mega-Metagross and Mega-Salamence. Metagross was easy, as I had a natural typing advantage, but no Dark type attack would OHKO, so I would have to settle with a 2HKO. Of my options, I liked Foul Play the most; it let me invest in other stats, while still doing good damage to other physical threats. For M-Salamence, I chose Ice Beam, as M-Absol has a usable Base Special Attack stat of 115, so I wouldn’t have to invest too much into it to have it KO Salamence. For my last spot, it was a choice of Flamethrower to hit Steel-types (mostly Aegislash), or Superpower, to hit Heatran primarily. I chose Superpower as it allowed me to hit Heatran as well as being able to pressure M-Kangaskhan and Terrakion.

The EV spread is something I worked carefully to balance. The offensive EVs allow me to one-shot M-Salamence, and have 50% chance to OHKO Lightcore’s bulky Salamence. It also guarantees a clean knock-out on Landorus-T, which is nice. I can 2HKO M-Kangaskhan, with Foul Play followed by Superpower, or OHKO with Superpower and Helping Hand assistance. Defensively, I can take a M-Metagross Iron Head, Landorus-T U-Turn, an intimidated M-Salamence return, and a damage roll on M-Kangaskhan Low Kick, where I survive 72% of the time. It also allows for general physical bulk, which helped in testing. I ran enough speed to outspeed M-Lucario, which I didn’t think would be popular, but better safe than sorry.

M-Absol was one of those things that works well in theory, decent in testing, then when it gets to the main event it flops. I only got to use it once in the main event, and I ended up losing that game due to a low damage roll. Was definitely fun though. And here is your disclaimer, don’t just throw this set onto your team and expect it to work. In fact, don’t use M-Absol unless you have a VERY specific purpose for it, as it takes a lot of support and doesn’t really fit anywhere in this metagame.

As for the nickname, I was reading Zog’s articles from last year, and fell in love with the idea of nicknaming my pokemon after songs. Sorry! But Absol’s nickname isn’t after a song, but a producer, and I felt that it fit. Quote is from one of his releases, titled “Angels”, as I would need a miracle for this to work out well.

DISCOnnected (Sableye) @ Mental Herb
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 212 SpD
Careful Nature
– Will-O-Wisp
– Foul Play
– Fake Out
– Quash

(Used in 10/10 games)

“D-d-d-d-d-DISCONNECTED!”

Part of the original core, I knew generally what I wanted to run on Sableye. Fake Out, since I love the pressure it brings, Will-O-Wisp to burn opposing physical attackers, and Foul Play to be able to do something when I’m Taunted. The last moveslot is something I had played around with, and I decided to run Quash. It allowed me to have a form of pseudo Speed control, so Absol could “outspeed” Salamence, and other members could also take advantage of this. It allowed my medium speed team to tear apart faster ones, and is definitely a great addition to this team. It was always useful to this team, which is why I brought it to every single battle in the tournament, and I never regretted the decision.

A lot of people asked me in testing why I didn’t run Taunt on Sableye. I feel like while Taunt is good, and definitely has its place on SOME Sableye’s, I feel that it wasn’t necessary on mine. The only thing it really helped with was Trick Room, which I felt I already had a decent matchup with. It helped neutralize other support pokemon, but I felt that it wasn’t enough of a reason to run it. The utility of Quash had a higher priority over Taunt.

The EV spread is simple, it gave a bit more Physical bulk, and let me survive attacks. I can’t remember what specifically, but it let me live some notable hits. I would have added more physical bulk to live more attacks, as I can’t survive a positive-nature M-Salamence Return, so I would go back and calc for that. Otherwise, the EV spread is very simple, nothing much to explain.

Sableye is named after this specific song because I can see Sableye being one of those people going absolutely ham at a rave, and this song fits that pretty well. It also is somewhat twitchy, also like Sableye, plus Sableye lives in a cave for crying out loud, how much more Disconnected from society could you get?

CityOfDreams (Swampert) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Torrent
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 228 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
– Earth Power
– Ice Beam
– Scald
– Wide Guard

(Used in 8/10 battles)

“Everything seems like a City of Dreams, I never know why, but I still miss you”

I really wish I had some imaginative, spark of creativity here. Something to rival my Scarf Amoonguss from 2012, or the full Special Garchomp I was running earlier this season. Nope. Same old Swampert set that everyone has ingrained into their mind by now. Thanks to CT MikotoMisaka for creating this set, it’s truly a wonderful, amazing thing.

As for the purpose of Swampert on this team, it provides Wide Guard support to protect Sableye and Absol from any fairies who have the need to yell incredibly loud. It also protects from general spread moves, which I believe is a must in this metagame where Rock Slide, Earthquake, Heatwave, and Hyper Voice are commonplace. Swampert also gave me a way of beating the infamous double-genie lead, which I despise with my whole being. And in addition to being a fantastic addition to the team support wise, it also strengthened various match-ups, such as, but not limited to, those against Aegislash, Heatran, Terrakion, Salamence, Metagross, and so many other match-ups. This is compounded by Sableye’s Quash, so I can “outspeed” those pokemon, and OHKO them. This surprised some people, and is definitely a neat trick. I’m honestly surprised at Swampert’s lack of usage, as against almost every team it is useful in some way, and it puts a lot of pressure on the opposing team if they lack a Grass-type.

The nickname is from the song, City of Dreams, simply because when you believe in something, anything can happen. Seriously though, Swampert simply carried me through several games, completely decimating the opposing team. So it definitely earned the title of this name.

Thru (Excadrill) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
Level: 50
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 212 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Earthquake
– Drill Run
– Rock Slide
– Iron Head

(Used in 6/10 battles)

“Don’t know about you, but I can feel it Thru and Thru”

Excadrill, old friend. I missed you, and would have given almost anything for your offensive presence last season. I added Excadrill, not only for time lost, but as a way to OHKO fairies I might encounter, as well as pressuring Terrakion, Aegislash, Salamence, Charizard-Y, and Metagross. Seeing a pattern of what pokemon I hate? But it’s role on the team was simple, was to be a fast offensive Pokemon designed to put pressure on the enemy team. It’s moveset is very standard, with Drill Run in case I didn’t want to hit my own team, or just slam a single target harder.

The EV spread is simple, but effective. It allows me to hit 135 Speed, which lets me outspeed base 130s, any random stuff that is scarfed and trying to outspeed base 130s, and lets me outspeed Breloom in case I got hit with Knock Off, Trick or something similar. Max Attack for big damage, and the rest was dumped in HP, which actually let me live several important attacks, such as Kangaskhan Low Kick, Heatran Earth Power, and a chance to live bulky Politoed Scald.

Excadrill’s nickname is Thru, ’cause it can and will tear right Thru unprepared teams.

Begin Again (Venusaur) @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
Level: 50
EVs: 156 HP / 12 Def / 172 SpA / 100 SpD / 68 Spe
Modest Nature
– Giga Drain
– Sludge Bomb
– Protect
– Hidden Power [Ice]

(Used in 9/10 battles)

“You’ll be the moon, I’ll be the earth, and when we both start over, oh darling, Begin Again, begin again, begin again”

The secondary mega that ended up being the MVP of the tournament, Venusaur has the power to break both defensive and some offensive teams, which is invaluable in this metagame. It has so many good matchups, it is crazy. The only problem, is that it has bad matchups with the popular megas of this format, Kangaskhan, Metagross, and Salamence. The original solution to this problem was Absol, but Absol has bad matchups to so many things, that it was usually better to just bring this monster of a pokemon. The rest of the team was (unintentionally) prepared to deal with the big threats to Venusaur, which let me bring it in almost every game, which it was always able to do work.

The moveset is somewhat standard. Sludge Bomb and Giga Drain for offensive STABs, Protect for Protect, and the last slot I always have trouble figuring out. I decided on Hidden Power Ice, which I have valid reasoning for. I believe that double-genie + rain is absolutely terrifying, and Swampert can’t deal with the Rain portion of that combination. Venusaur on the other hand, can easily deal with it, being able to pretty much ignore all of their attacks. My offensive EVs almost always guarantee the OHKO on 4 HP Landorus-T, along with giving me a 31% chance to OHKO 4 HP M-Salamence. You may think, I would have to take a hit to get that damage off, but with Sableye having Quash, I could easily dismantle both Salamence and Landorus, which is amazing for a Venusaur to do.

The EV spread is also fairly unique, so I’ll elaborate. I know bulk is very important on Venusaur, but I needed the offensive EVs to get KOs with Hidden Power Ice. And the extra damage was useful too, as it allowed me to hurt the opponents much more than they expected. The bulk allows me to take an intimidated Salamence Return, burned Salamence Double-Edge, a possible 3HKO from a burned Metagross, Adamant Kangaskhan Double-Edge, which became a 3HKO when Kang is burned, 3HKO from Landorus-T Earthquake, have a 2HKO from Level51’s Charizard-Y Overheat, 3HKO from Aegislash Flash Cannon and Shadow Ball, and just a lot of general bulk. The Speed allows me to Speed creep neutral no investment Rotom-A by 3 points, just in case people were afraid of Rotom.

Overall, Venusaur was the MVP of the team, allowing me to win many matchups just from the defensive pressure it gives me. Let let me comfortably combat rain, which is a matchup I have struggled with in the past, and Venusaur was one of the best checks to rain in the format, which I am grateful for.

The song that Venusaur is named after, Begin Again, references that Venusaur is a plant, and will keep rising from the ashes or something or another. I had run out of ideas at this point, and I made the loose connection that in the song it says “I’ll be the earth”, which made me think of Venusaur. I really need to get better at this nicknaming thing.

OneForAll (Arcanine) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 Spe
Bold Nature
– Helping Hand
– Snarl
– Flamethrower
– Protect

(Used in 6/10 battles)

“Are you ready?”

The last minute addition to the team, I wanted Helping Hand to get some surprise OHKOs, Intimidate because it is my favorite ability in the entire game, and a Fire type to round out a Fire/Water/Grass core. Even though it was the last minute addition to the team, it worked wonderfully, and definitely earned its place on the team.

The moveset is a bit of standard, and a bit of non-standard. Helping Hand is a move rarely seen on Arcanine, and it worked great to get surprise OHKOs, which is amazing. Snarl not only allowed me to control both the physical attackers on the enemy team with Intimidate, but also let me control the special attackers. It generally added bulk to my team, which is always a good thing. I chose Flamethrower as my Fire-type STAB, as it is the most consistent. Heat Wave has spread, but can backfire against Heatran, and can miss. Overheat is a good one-time nuke, but again can miss, and can only be used once per switch, and with no investment it can’t get many important OHKOs, as it only has a chance to OHKO M-Metagross. Flamethrower can 2HKO all the threats I needed to beat with Arcanine, and for a support Pokemon I find that absolutely amazing. Protect is mandatory, as it gives me a free turn, and many focused Arcanine to stop it from controlling the pace of the match.

The nickname is not only because it is one of the supports for the team, but because it provides support for the whole team by reducing the enemy’s offences. It really does support the entire team for one team slot, which is great. Also, another weird connection with the song is that the video is four minutes and 20 seconds long, which is somehow fitting seeing that Arcanine is a Fire type.

Common Leads

+

This was one of my safe leads; it gives me a lot of safety with Fake Out, Will-O-Wisp, and Wide Guard, along with being able to pressure the enemy offensively with Quash and Swampert’s coverage. I was able to safely take control of the match with this lead, and it was one of my favorites.

+

This is my other safe lead, and I lead it when there is nothing the enemy can do about Venusaur. Sableye again can take control of the match, while Venusaur was this undying wall that still chunked the enemies. I again have offensive pressure with Quash + Coverage, but it isn’t as good as Swampert’s damage wise. Sableye also could burn the opposing threats to Venusaur, which just made the game a whole lot easier.

+ Everything

While I could put the above two leads under this category, those were the ones I used the most in the tournament. In practice, I lead every Pokemon + Sableye, each having their own reason, and Sableye acted very much like the glue to this team, and there was always a reason to bring it.

Match Ups for the Team

Goodstuffs

I had a pretty good match-up versus goodstuffs, and while it varied based on the team, I had answers to almost everything on a standard goodstuffs team. I had multiple ways of checking all the popular megas, barring Mega-Kangaskhan, but thankfully I didn’t face any in my Regionals run.

Trick Room

I felt that I had a decent matched against Trick Room, as none of my Pokemon are outrageously fast barring Absol and Excadrill, and I could still use Quash as a means of Speed control. I was used to my Pokemon not going first, so it wasn’t that bad.

Sand/Japanese Sand

Sand is a match-up I am very comfortable with, as my entire team can either hit the opposing Pokemon for super effective, or control the match very easily. Swampert and Venusaur especially help with the matchup, and while Japanese sand has Salamence to deal with Venusaur, I have Swampert to deal with it, along with generally having a good match-up against it.

Rain

I have a decent match-up against rain, with me relying on Venusaur to carry me through those match-ups, with the help of Swampert and possibly Excadrill to deal with any Metagross I might see. Otherwise, this is a pretty balanced match-up, but if I can take control of the match early I can stay in control the rest of the game.

Random Stuff

My team has a general good match-up against pretty much everything, and so I can deal with anything thrown at me, with the amount of control my team has over the pace of the match. The only match-up I was scared of was Charizard-Y, as I had no solid answer for it. I didn’t face any during the tournament though, so all ended well.

Closing Thoughts on the Team

I ended up really enjoying the team, as well as being glad that I could place as high as I did with one of my favorite Pokemon. After the event, I went onto Showdown to try out some changes, so if you consider running this team, or something similar, here is what I changed post tournament. I ended up swapping Absol for Terrakion, as it made my Kangaskhan match-up better, along with allowing me to deal with Charizard-Y better, as well as being more consistent in general. I switched Venusaur’s EV spread to a bulkier one, and changed Hidden Power for Leech Seed, as it helped me play the “Venusaur win condition” that I had somewhat wanted in an earlier iteration of this team. I gave Sableye a more physically bulky EV spread, as I fail to survive a neutral 252 Attack M-Salamence Return, and that cost me a game later in the tournament. Protect was exchanged for Roar on Arcanine, as while Trick Room isn’t a bad match-up, it isn’t the best one either, so that helps a bit.

The Tournament

I was able to take some notes about each battle, and along with my wonderful(ly bad) memory, here are my matches from the tournament.

Round 1 vs. Daniel Tapp

His team: +

My team:

I had the early advantage, as I get a lot of free damage onto his Jellicent, and Conkeldurr can’t do anything due to Fake Out. He sets up Trick Room, but he doesn’t have anything out to pressure my Venusaur. He swaps in Mawile, which I predicted and ended up burning, and from there he has nothing to take care of Venusaur as the match ends 4-0 due me controlling all of his offensive pressure.

1-0

Round 2 vs. Tony Cheung

His team: +

My team:

This match was really fun, and also had a lot of pressure (not the ability thankfully) on me, facing last years Seattle Regional champ. As far as the game goes, I can’t remember much, but he ended up swapping Infernape for Gyarados turn 1, as I got a Fake Out and Ice Beam onto his Thundurus, when ends up freezing. Next turn I KO his Thundurus, his Gyarados sets up a Dragon Dance, and I then OHKO’d it with a Foul Play from Sableye. After that, I can limit hit offensive pressure with Arcanine, and the match ended 3-0 in my favor

2-0

Round 3 vs. Ben Demian

His team: +

My team:

Yay, another trick room team! I ended up using Fake Out on his Reuniclus turn 1 to prevent his Trick Room from going up, while Conkeldurr protected and I hit Reuniclus with a Sludge Bomb, which ended up scoring a critical hit and getting his Reuniclus in KO range next turn. After that, he struggled to gain control over the match, with Venusaur pretty much soaking up all of his damage while Arcanine (again) kept control over this game.

3-0

Round 4 vs. Gabby Snyder

Her team: +

My team:

I had joked with Gabby the round before, as we were sitting next to each other and her table won hats, that she needed to win so we could get paired up together to win prizes. Well, it happened, and while we didn’t get prizes, we got our game on stream. So here is the game, and there isn’t much else, was a great game, and I really had fun!

4-0

Round 5 vs. Mitchell Moscrop

His team: +

My team:

I was against a somewhat standard sand team, and there wasn’t anything big that happened in this match. He Overheated my Sableye turn 1, and swapped out his Gastrodon for Landorus. His Landorus started spamming Rock Slide, while I burned it and started to work on the rest of his team. I predicted his switch out of Landorus, and OHKO’d Gastrodon that was coming in. From there, his Tyranitar came out, and I burned it immediately. With him down to his last two, both burned, and now intimidated from me switching in Arcanine. I swapped it out for Swampert, and from there it was a slow grind for the 3-0 win.

5-0

Round 6 vs. Nikolai Zielinski

His team: +

My team:

At the pairings I was both worried, and excited. Facing last year’s Senior World Champ is pretty cool, but also hard knowing that he is a fantastic player. And he is running Trick Room. Great. The game pretty much went his way the entire game, as I go for the safe plays, while he punished me with good defensive switches. The game comes down to my Excadrill, full health, and Swampert, half health, against his Gardevoir in the red, half health Heatran, and Jellicent in the red. Excadrill can easily clean up the game, but his trick room is 1 turn from ending, and he cleans up the game. This game was great, even though I lost, as it really came down to the wire, and was an intense match all the way. it ended 0-3 for me, but I wasn’t to mad. I just needed to win 1 of my next 2 games to make it into cut, as I have fairly high resistance at this point.

5-1

Round 7 vs. Gary Qian

His team: +

My team:

It is time. This is the team that Absol dreams he could face. I didn’t want to lead it however, as he has multiple things that can KO Absol, so I go for the safe Excadrill + Sableye lead. His Terrakion has Quick Guard, which stops Sableye’s Fake Out, and I can’t remember what I do with Excadrill, as he sets up a Dragon Dance with Salamence. The next turn, I go for the Foul Play with Sableye, and swap in Arcanine to lower Salamence’s attack. His Terrakion Quick Guards, and Sableye fails to live the neutral Return. I swap in my Absol, mega-evolve, and double Protect as his Salamence Protects. I manage to KO his Salamence an Ice Beam the next turn, after Arcanine takes a Return and lives. This sparked quite a reaction from Gary, which was very entertaining to watch, as he didn’t expect Ice Beam from a Mega Absol. It comes down to Arcanine and Absol, Excadrill in the back, against his Terrakion and Smeargle with an unknown Pokemon in the back. Arcanine has 6 health left at this point, but I can still turn this. His Smeargle goes for the Fake Out on Arcanine, which I should have seen coming, and it faints. His Terrakion is at 90%, as it had taken Life Orb recoil earlier this game. I go for the Superpower with Absol, knowing that I can KO his Terrakion… As I get the lowest possible damage roll, fail to KO Terrakion, and he takes Absol out with a Close Combat, then faints from Life Orb Recoil. It becomes my Excadrill against his Scizor and Smeargle. I can turn this, I say to myself. I go for the EQ, Smeargle lives from Focus Sash, then Transforms into Excadrill, while Scizor KO’s me with a Superpower. It was a good game, but it puts me on edge, as I need to with my next game to make it into cut. 0-2

5-2

Round 8 vs. Paul Hornak

His team: +

My team:

Japanese Sand! I had actually wanted to play against this team, as I have heard good things about it, and I have a good match-up against it. The game is fairly anticlimactic though, as I go for the safe plays, and it ended very easily in my win, as I had control almost the entire match, and he couldn’t do anything to Venusaur once I took care of his Salamence.

6-2

I had ended 6-2, and hoped that I didn’t bubble from cut. They post the standings, and in no rush, I try to get in close to see who cut. With me being fairly tall, I was able to see from afar that I had cut at 15th seed, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I walk over to the other standings, to look for some of my friends, and I see Gabby screaming, running to her group of friends. I guessed correctly that she had cut, which was awesome, as she was a good player and I wanted her to cut. After that, I hung around, got my DS checked and then went home, planning on how to play my matches the next day.

Dawn of the Second Day

After getting a decent night’s sleep, I head over to the venue. I show up early, and get to chill out for a while, and meet up with Gabby and her group of friends. After waiting a really long time, We finally got into the pairings, and I’m up against Nikolai Zielinski as my first top cut opponent. After yesterday, I reviewed the matchup and what I could do to improve it, so here are the games!

Round 1 vs. Nikolai Zielinski

Game 1

His team: +

My team:

I know from our battle yesterday that he is running minimum Speed Gardevoir, as my Venusaur can outspeed it. The leads look about even, and my general plan is to not take too much damage, and have Arcanine gain offensive control with Snarl, as his team is mostly special attackers. This ends up not working out, as he predicts my every move, and he wins this game 3-0

0-1

Game 2

His team:

My team:

With me having the momentum turn 1, things are looking good. I manage to get a little bit of control, but it slips away as he was able to get Trick Room up, and from there things go downhill, as I lose 0-2.

The Aftermath

It was somewhat disappointing to get knocked out of top cut in the first round, but I had fun, and I top cut, so I can’t really complain about anything. Pretty much all of my games were good, and none were really decided on chance. Overall, it was a good tournament, and I am glad I was able to cut after being pretty much non-existent (I’ll probably still be non-existent).

Big thanks to-

• My friends, for believing in the Mega-Absol dream, and inspiring some of this team
• The editors, as well as my friend Jared, who helped with this monstrosity of an article
• The NB community, as you guys have been a great help in my teams in the past, and are really fun to hang around with
• The tournament organizers, even though the tournament didn’t start until like 2 PM on the first day

And again, disclaimer, don’t run my M-Absol set, it was specifically for this team, so unless you run this team, don’t run this Absol. Ever.

Thanks to Kagekabuki for the awesome article art!

The post Mega Absol Brings a Disaster! A Seattle Top Cut Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

This is posted and translated by Martin Tan (mewmart) from Singapore on behalf of Hugo Ng Chi Yat (hugo0379) from Hong Kong.

Greetings from Hong Kong! I’m Hugo Ng, an avid VGC player starting since 2014. First I would like to express my appreciation to Martin Tan who helped me to translate my report into English. I’d also like to thank HIMTE from Hong Kong, who has taught me tons about VGC. This report is for me to introduce to everyone the team that I’ve been using for the past year. It’s the result of my hard work and dedication in creating and play-testing this team. With the conclusion of the VGC 2015 season, it’s a good time to retire this team and move on to the next season with new ideas, new beginnings and hopefully new strategies! I certainly feel rather attached and emotional with the team’s retirement and bidding farewell, but as the Chinese saying goes, it is necessary to renew ideas and it can only be possible with the departure of the old and obsolete. So yeah, let’s get to the introduction of my team members!

My results with this team are as follows:

1. 1st for 2 Premier Challenges in Hong Kong
2. 12th place finish for the 1st Hong Kong Regional Championships (with 3 – 3 record)
3. 25th place finish for the 1st Singapore National Championships (with 5 – 2 record)

I wanted a team that reduced the likelihood for me to be in a losing position even with one mistake made in-between turns and preventing unforeseen factors from breaking my momentum. This provided the inspiration and objective of the team! I also wanted a team that was able to deal with the ever annoying Sylveon, and also exercise better speed control for opponents who go “auto-pilot” in their plays.

Hence Mega Venusaur was my pick, with its superb bulk and versatility.

Eventually, the 1st Premier Challenge that I won was with a team of:

Through some play-testing I also tried other variants to try and find the team synergy and balance, the team variants included:

and

Eventually, before the Singapore Nationals, I landed with this as the final version, which I’m very happy with!

Without further ado, let’s dive into the team members and their individual analysis!

The Team

>

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 76 SpA / 44 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
– Giga Drain
– Sludge Bomb
– Protect
– Leech Seed

Here are some damage calculations to illustrate Mega Venusaur’s bulk:

• 252+ Atk Life Orb Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 132+ Def Mega Venusaur: 148-174 (79.1 – 93%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 132+ Def Mega Venusaur: 168-200 (89.8 – 106.9%) — 37.5% chance to OHKO
• 252+ SpA Mega Gardevoir Psychic vs. 252 HP / 44 SpD Mega Venusaur: 168-198 (89.8 – 105.8%) — 31.3% chance to OHKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Sylveon Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 132+ Def Mega Venusaur: 92-110 (49.1 – 58.8%) — 98% chance to 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Aerilate Mega Salamence Hyper Voice vs. 252 HP / 44 SpD Mega Venusaur: 128-152 (68.4 – 81.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• -1 252+ Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 132+ Def Mega Venusaur: 146-174 (78 – 93%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 Atk Tough Claws Mega Metagross Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 132+ Def Mega Venusaur: 134-162 (71.6 – 86.6%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Sylveon Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 132+ Def Mega Venusaur: 92-110 (49.1 – 58.8%) — 98% chance to 2HKO
• 76 SpA Mega Venusaur Sludge Bomb vs. 244 HP / 0 SpD Sylveon: 104-126 (51.7 – 62.6%) — guaranteed 2HKO

The main objective for Mega Venusaur in this team is to act as a lure for the ever annoying Sylveon and other Fairy-types. Its natural bulk coupled with its Thick Fat ability makes it a superb tank for its teammates. After its teammates get rid of its adversaries; Mega Salamence, Mega Metagross and Talonflame to name a few, it can single-handedly control a game, just like a boss that doesn’t go down at all!

Although it can be stopped by a lot of popular megas such as Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Salamence or even Mega Metagross, it can also be a bane for rain teams, Japanese sand and bulky Waters such as Rotom-W, with its Grass STAB Giga Drain. It improves my matchup against Sylveon with Sludge Bomb as well.

Notably, before mega-evolving it’s not really bulky, so my way of optimizing its use is mega evolve as soon as possible, or to have a window of opportunity to switch in.

Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 140 HP / 148 Atk / 12 Def / 112 SpD / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 30 SpD
– Earthquake
– U-turn
– Rock Slide
– Superpower

Some notable calculations about this set:

• +1 252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 140 HP / 12 Def Landorus-T: 153-181 (84 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• +1 252+ Atk Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 140 HP / 12 Def Landorus-T: 142-168 (78 – 92.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 148+ Atk Landorus-T Earthquake vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Bisharp: 144-170 (102.1 – 120.5%) — guaranteed OHKO
  Outspeeds 252 Speed Bisharp by 1 point
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Voice vs. 140 HP / 112 SpD Assault Vest Landorus-T: 76-91 (41.7 – 50%) — 0.4%(1/256) chance to 2HKO
• 148+ Atk Landorus-T Earthquake vs. 244 HP / 0 Def Sylveon: 100-118 (49.7 – 58.7%) — 98.4% chance to 2HKO
• Same speed as 252 Speed+ Sylveon

The reason I picked Assault Vest for Landorus-Therian was with the following objectives in mind. Firstly, Landorus-Therian has a superb coverage it offers in terms of moves. Second, the Assault Vest allows me to fully exploit the coverage by not being locked into a single move that you see on most variants because of the Choice items they tend to hold. Finally, its able to tank hits like a boss; just look at the damage calculations!

At full health, it can deal with Steel and Dark types with no issues and can even survive a 252+ SpA Hyper Voice from Sylveon! It can also deal with Mega Kangaskhan Double Edge and fire back a SuperPower to nab the crucial OHKO. Its bulk is certainly not a walk in the park. It is also capable of surviving non-STAB Ice Beams fired by the likes of Suicune, Ludicolo, Milotic, etc.

Being able to U-Turn to Mega Venusaur to gain momentum is also another role that it can play in this team. However, this is really very situational, as Venusaur before mega-evolving is much more frail than I would have liked.

Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
– Dark Pulse
– Earth Power
– Draco Meteor
– Hidden Power [Ice]

In the beginning, I opted for Choice Scarf with minimal speed investment to outspeed Choice Scarf Landorus T and Mega Sceptile. However, as time went by, I had issues with speedier Dragons and I didn’t want to risk any under-speeding and hence I decided to max Speed to prevent any unnecessary speed ties. Hydriegon is my solution to Heatran, Landorus-Therian via Earth Power. It is also my solution to Salamence and Latios via Hidden Power Ice, of which these 2 can cause major issues for my Mega Venusaur.

Hidden Power Ice to me has a great surprise factor that I can use, and certainly improves my match-up against Landorus-Therian. At the same time, it provides defensive synergy against Fairies and Psychic attacks against my key player Mega Venusaur. Furthermore, a speedy Hydriegon provides the momentum, initiative and certainly a surprise factor for this team.

Milotic @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 244 Def / 20 SpA / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
– Ice Beam
– Scald
– Recover
– Toxic

Initially, I was using Suicune in this slot as I believed that it could help me in a Rain match-up. For instance, under Rain, it powers up Water moves against the powerhouses such as Salamence, Gardevoir, Hydriegon and Heatran which again are key nemeses of Mega Venusaur. The objective for my plays and game plan is always to get rid of the hard counters for Mega Venusaur using its teammates to allow it to dominate. However, I found that I was encountering difficulties with Calm Mind Cresselia which grew in popularity as the season went by, and hence I found a unique solution: Toxic Milotic.

I started to play-test Milotic, to very interesting but positive results. It could be a good counter to Salamence due to its ability Competitive acting as a strong deterrent. Since the team revolves around a strategy of attrition, bulk is absolutely essential.

Her EV spread just outspeeds Mega Venusaur by 1 point, so that it can help to thaw Mega Venusaur via Scald in the event of a freeze hax! It was a reliable option, but certainly very situational.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 56 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
– Heat Wave
– Flash Cannon
– Protect
– Substitute
*Note that the HP EVs should be 212 such that it’s HP should be 16n+1 while it is going with substitute and leftovers. It is a mistake while building this team*

Standard bulky Heatran set. It is certainly a core member in my team, completing the Fire, Water and Grass core. In terms of defensive and offensive synergy, it pairs up with Mega Venusaur flawlessly. Its Steel typing resists Aerilate boosted attacks from Mega Salamence, Mega Metagross and Mega Gardevoir (or non Mega, but who would use non-Mega?). The reason I dropped Earth Power is because of its very limited use other than to deal with opposing Heatran. By opting for Flash Cannon, it certainly improves my match-up against Fairies in general. The defensive synergy with Venusaur was my prime consideration.

Although Aegislash is an excellent candidate as the steel-type partner of Mega Venusaur, Heatran, being non-ghost type, works a better role of utilising types complement and makes an easier switch-in for Mega Venusaur and bringing it to the field when necessary.

Terrakion @ Focus Sash
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Rock Slide
– Close Combat
– Protect
– Safeguard

Terrakion’s pick was simple: Hard counter against Mega Charizard Y and Mega Kangaskhan. Similarly it has great switching synergy with Venusaur, which boosts its chance of survival. The choice of Focus Sash is to ensure the 1HKO on opposing Terrakion in the event of a speed tie.

As for Safeguard, its main role: To stop Smeargle’s Dark Void, which is a major weakness to my team due to the team’s speed range generally. It certainly was very situational however, compared to the more popular Quick Guard or even the occasional Substitute or Taunt, Safeguard fits the team’s requirements really well.

Common Matchups

Rain

Certainly Venusaur in Rain is a match for the Rain meisters Politoed and Ludicolo with its Giga Drain and Sludge Bombs respectively. However, it is almost given that such teams would have counters for Venusaur as well, such as Metagross, Salamence, Gardevoir, Talonflame, etc.

Therefore in team preview, I would exercise caution as to my team member’s choice in order to get rid of such counters before I let my Venusaur run rampant. For Gardevoir, Heatran is certainly a good counter to warrant me bringing it to the party even though my opponent will make use of Rain to swing things in his/her favor. In terms of plays, they could drop their guard as they may have assumed that it was a mistake to bring Heatran in view of Rain during team preview, assuming that the rain was a bluff.

Japanese Sand

Venusaur doesn’t even need to be on the field when dealing with Japanese Sand teams. Certainly, to counter Mega Salamence and Excadrill, Hydriegon and Landorus-T is a must for me. However, team mate selection during team preview has to expand beyond just considering about Salamence and Excadrill. Selection largely depends on the remaining composition of the opposing team.

Mega Salamence

Usually for teams built around Salamence, they will almost certainly contain Pokemon that will be countered by Venusaur, so Sylveon, Amoonguss or Rotom-W for example. Hence, in order to remove Salamence from the field, preservation and utilizing Venusaur to its full potential is the key to stop Salamence from doing its thing. So as long I make the right calls, my win condition would be me having Venusaur and my opponent biting the dust with all the above.

Trick Room

Substitute and Leech Seed are my main tactics to out-stall Trick Room. I aim to win the battle of attrition by slowly inching my way towards victory via Leech Seed. Coupled with Protects, Substitutes and smart switching, I can burn the Trick Room turns and regain momentum with the opponent not being able to optimize the turns of Trick Room.

Mega Kangaskhan

Against Mega Kangaskhan teams, its hard counter Terrakion acts as a lure for Landorus-T to appear to Intimidate. Never would they expect that when paired with Hydriegon, I can drop a surprise HP Ice on Landorus-T and gaining considerable momentum. This limits their ability to switch freely as well.

From my perspective, I would aim to use Landorus-T to drop Kangaskhan’s attack, while Milotic acts as an Intimidate deterrent against other opposing Landorus-T or Salamence.

Charizard Y

In the case I run into a Mega Charizard-Y, my main leads would be Terrakion and Hydreigon with Heatran and Landorus-T as the main checks in the back. Venusaur would occasionally debut but it is often situational, depending on the team preview.

Mega Gardevoir (with Heatran, Amoonguss, Landorus-T)

Mega Venusaur and Hydreigon are the core for the match up because of the typing to switch in and out while taking a Psychic or Hyper Voice. At the same time, Mega Venusaur is EVed such a way that it can always survive a Psychic from Mega Gardevoir and deal tons of damage back to Gardevoir via Sludge Bomb.

Assault Vest Landorus-T can also take hits from Mega Gardevoir. Similarly, Heatran can also help to seal a win condition by walling opposing Gardevoir, provided that the opposing Heatran is gone too.

Nationals

Here are some of the replays during the VGC Nationals held in Singapore on 29th June 2015.

Round 1: Win

• Game 1
• Game 2

Round 2: Lose

• Game 1
• Game 2
• Game 3

Round 3: Win

Game 1: Disconnection when winning soon and opponent give up.
Game 2

Round 4: Lose

*The guy who helped to translate this report*

• Game 1
• Game 2
• Game 3

Round 5: Win

• Game 1
• Game 2

Round 6: Win

• Game 1
• Game 2
• Game 3

Round 7: Win

• Game 1
• Game 2
• Game 3

Closing thoughts

Overall, I finished 25th out of 130+ Masters, which I felt wasn’t too bad a result. I’m glad that I made the trip to Singapore to meet new friends who share the same interest as me and I hope to come back stronger in VGC 2016! Thanks everyone and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed penning them down! Hope to see you guys next year!

Shoutouts

• Credit to Juliet Kong for the featured art
• Credit to Martin Tan (mewmart) for the translation
• Dedicated to HIMTE for all the help that he has rendered for my VGC journey

The post The Boss You Can’t Take Down: A Top 32 Singapore National Championship Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi, I’m Jamie Boyt, and I recently came in 3rd place at the first UK Regionals. This was quite the achievement for me because not only did I go 8-0 in Swiss, it was my first official tournament apart from a Premier Challenge, where I came 12th. I had been a singles player until X & Y and only properly started VGC when ORAS came out, so my experience is still very limited. However, I had a number of people come up to me during and after the tournament commenting on how cool my team was, and asking what I was using to be doing so well, which was a very surreal experience as I still considered myself somewhat of an amateur.

Teambuilding Process

First Draft

Would you believe that my team started out around an Assault Vest Shuckle? In the sand, an Assault Vest Shuckle can reach a special defense stat of 697 at Level 50! It had Struggle Bug, Rock Tomb, Infestation, and Bulldoze (which works great with Serperior) and is a lot of fun to use. However, it was far too gimmicky for a tournament, so I swapped some things around, while still trying to keep the fire-grass-water core, and eventually came up with the six Pokemon I would end up using.

Final Team

Before I get to the spreads, I will just point out something. It’s strange how I didn’t really realise this until after the first game in the tournament, but I only had one Pokemon with Protect on my team. While this may seem very strange, I felt that every move was necessary and I didn’t want to give any of the moves up, so I figured I would just have to rely on my predictions. I also figured that a lot of players would expect Protects here and there, so I could make use of this and go for some fairly unexpected plays, which worked out very strongly in my favour in the end. I don’t recommend having no Protect though, there were definitely points throughout the tournament where it would have been very useful.

The Team

Charizard-Mega-X @ Charizardite X
Ability: Tough Claws
Level: 50
EVs: 92 HP / 220 Atk / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Flare Blitz
– Dragon Claw
– Earthquake
– Dragon Dance

Used in 12/13 games, KOed 12/45

The final change I made to the team was changing Charizard from Y to X. Drought did not help my team at all, and hindered Suicune, although the main reason for changing to X was that Heat Wave missed waaaaay too often for my liking, hence the nickname I gave it (HW90%AccHaHa). I also got to bluff Charizard Y, which would put me in a great position as opponents would always predict Y and would choose different moves, and even different Pokemon in Team Preview as a result. This helped me in many games.

Flare Blitz and Dragon Claw are obviously two great stab moves, and Dragon Dance was necessary for very fast, very strong attacks. Earthquake was chosen as the final move as I expected to see a lot of Heatran, which would otherwise completely counter Charizard X. I didn’t end up facing any Heatran in the whole tournament, and only used Earthquake twice, both to not much use, as the power was very underwhelming, mainly because it doesn’t get the Tough Claws boost. After a Dragon Dance, it only did about 60% to a Mega Metagross, so I would not recommend Earthquake unless you really hate Heatran.

The Ev spread allows Charizard to outspeed Scarfed Landorus Ts after a Dragon Dance. After looking at the damage calculations, I didn’t feel that having 252 EVs in Attack did anything more significant than 220 Evs, so I settled with 220 and put the rest in bulk.

Thundurus @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 84 HP / 4 Def / 156 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk, 30 Def
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Nasty Plot
– Thunder Wave

Used in 12/13 games, KOed 9/45

This was my favourite pokemon of the whole tournament, and the one people were commenting on the most. Everyone was saying how cool it was to have Nasty Plot, and I am quite surprised by this because Thundurus can OHKO most non-resisted pokemon after one boost, so I don’t understand why it isn’t more common. This definitely worked out in my favour though, as there was more than one opponent who predicted a Taunt here and there, which allowed me to set up a Nasty Plot and basically sweep. Thundurus was also chosen over Thundurus-T as 111 Speed is a much better base speed than 101, and after a Nasty Plot, the difference in Sp Atk becomes negligible.

You may notice that there are 8 EVs missing. This was just bad training on my part, it was meant to be 164 SpA. Max speed was necessary to outspeed base 110s, and surprises some people who expect a bulkier Thundurus. I thought I would be fancy and gave Thundurus the bulk it has to nearly always survive a Tyranitar’s Rock slide. I found this bulk added nothing to Thundurus, as it was OHKOed by every strong attack that hit it, so the Evs could have been invested in more SpAtk, which would have helped in the tournament as I missed out on two important knockouts, one of which lost me the first game of the Semis. I will be changing the spread to 36HP, 220 SpAtk, 252 Spd since the extra bulk doesn’t add anything significant, it hits a very optimised 159HP for life orb recoil, and allows Thundurus to survive a Ludicolo Fake Out + Politoed 252+ Ice Beam with two Life Orb hits left.

Suicune @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 212 SpA / 4 SpD / 36 Spe
Bold Nature
– Scald
– Ice Beam
– Tailwind
– Calm Mind

Used in 9/13 games, KOed 7/45

After a random match on Showdown, where my Suicune was left against three opposing Pokemon and still won, Suicune has become my favourite Pokemon in VGC and a staple in most of my teams. It is definitely one of the best Tailwind users as it has amazing bulk, while still having decent attacking power, and I prefer it to Zapdos as it lets you have a Thundurus on your team as well. My team was already fast, but Tailwind ensured I could outspeed anything that wanted to try and boost its speed, had a Choice Scarf, negate Icy Wind’s speed drop, or match an opposing Tailwind. Calm Mind was used as more than once in practise I was left with my Suicune against an opposing Cresselia, and I wanted to be able to ensure a win in this situation.

The EV spread was my favourite one I made. I wanted max HP for the most benefit from the Sitrus Berry, enough SpAtk to OHKO standard Mega Salamence with Ice Beam, outspeed Scarfed Landorus Ts under Tailwind while creeping other pokemon trying to do the same, and have all this while having a Bold nature. Achieving these goals left me with 4 Evs for each defense stat, which I found very satisfying indeed.

Serperior @ Meadow Plate
Ability: Contrary
Level: 50
EVs: 132 HP / 4 Def / 116 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Leaf Storm
– Reflect
– Light Screen
– Protect

Used in 7/13 games, KOed 7/45

The only Pokemon I had on my team with Protect. I’m surprised there aren’t more Serperior around, not just because of Contrary Leaf Storm, which is amazing, but because of its base speed of 113, which outspeeds so much of the Metagame, so it can get off a base 130 power move off before them. Serperior was very strong in a lot of my games, where it was just able to sweep. In one of my games I managed to get up to +6, and effectively sweep with just Serperior.

Since I figured that I would be having Sylveon’s Hyper Voice Syndrome with Leaf Storm, and I prefer Pixie Plate as opposed to Choice Specs on Sylveon, I did the same for Serperior and gave it a Meadow Plate. Having Choice Specs would mean I would have to have three other attacking moves that I would almost never use, so Meadow Plate was used so that I could have supporting moves, which ended up being Reflect and Light Screen, and allowed Protect. When I settled on dual screens, I considered Light Clay, but removing Meadow Plate would mean I would have to give up considerable bulk for the SpAtk stat I wanted. I did consider Glare instead of Protect, which would really live up to the team name, but I already had Prankster Thunder Wave on Thundurus, so I didn’t feel it was necessary.

The EV spread was effectively chosen as a Terrakion counter, with maximum speed to even outspeed Mega Lucario. 60 SpAtk Evs is enough to KO 252 Terrakions, but I gave Serperior 116 SpAtk Evs to KO a certain Substituting Terrakion, as I thought that people would want to copy the spread since it was successful at the Arnhem Regionals (Hint hint). The rest I put in bulk, while keeping an odd HP number in case any Super Fangs came my way.

Lucario @ Focus Sash
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Close Combat
– Bullet Punch
– Follow Me
– Roar

Used in 6/13 games, KOed 5/45

I hate Trick Room, you have to alter your whole playstyle to try and counter it, and my team was very fast, so I needed to find a way to stop it, and I wanted to be able to do it with one Pokemon. After many failed Taunts into Mental Herbs, and many times being Faked Out by the Trick Roomer’s partner, I found what I believe to be the single greatest counter to Trick Room, Inner Focus Lucario. It can bluff Mega Lucario, possibly attracting Fake Outs, which then don’t work thanks to Inner Focus, and can then just Roar away the Trick Roomer since Roar has one more priority than Trick Room. With Focus Sash, even when the Trick Roomer’s partner goes for the KO on Lucario, it will still always be able to get the Roar off. This worked very elegantly in one of my Swiss games, and I was almost disappointed that that game was my only battle against Trick Room, which is usually a weird thing to say. A quick mention should go to Dragonite, Crobat and regular Kangaskhan, as they also have Inner Focus + Roar/Whirlwind (But who is going to use regular Kangaskhan with Roar?).

Lucario also played another huge role in my team: it countered Mega Kangaskhans. It couldn’t be faked out by them, and worst case scenario speed ties with them before Mega-Evolving, and always outspeeds Adamant Kangaskhans. This meant that I could lead with Lucario against a Kangaskhan and pretty safely Close Combat it, in a lot situations KOing it without it doing anything. Adamant Lucario would almost guarantee a KO on even the bulkiest of Kangaskhans, but Jolly ensures you speed tie at worst. Bullet Punch was good priority, and Follow Me came in handy for allowing a teammate to set up, especially since my Togekiss was not running it.

Togekiss @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Dazzling Gleam
– Air Slash
– Aura Sphere
– Flamethrower

Used in 6/13 games, KOed 5/45

This Togekiss was originally a standard Follow Me and Tailwind Togekiss, but since I already had both of those moves on my team, I opted for a Choice Scarf variant, which caught a lot of people off guard and got a couple of surprise KOs. People were coming up to me saying to me about how they had heard about my Scarfed Togekiss, so it was the other celebrity of my team.

The moveset is pretty standard for a Scarfed Togekiss. Air Slash flinches more often than not, and is coming from a Pokemon faster than Landorus, which can be game-changing. I chose Flamethrower over Fire Blast as I wanted all my moves to be as accurate as possible. I gave it Max Speed Timid so I would creep Scarf Landorus Ts, and the rest in SpAtk for as much power as possible, which, in the end, turned out to be pretty underwhelming.

The Tournament

Round 1 vs David Williams

()

I brought:

I was already nervous going into this match as David won the Premier Challenge that I had done so poorly at. I chose Charizard and Serperior as they were my best counter to rain, thanks to my Y bluff, and in the first turn of the tournament it came into play as he proceeded to Ice Beam my Serperior barely missing the KO, allowing me to OHKO Kingdra with Dragon Claw and set up a Light Screen while his Politoed went for Rain Dance. He then brought Swampert, which I knew had to Protect to get the Swift Swim so I Leaf Stormed Politoed and switched to Suicune, while Politoed Icy Winded, KOing Serperior. Helping Hand Rock Slide OHKOed my Thundurus, leaving Zard and Suicune to face his last three. Another predicted protect on Swampert let me set up and eventually 1v1 Swampert with Suicune.

W, 1-0

Round 1 vs Nigel Baker

()

I brought:

I was no longer nervous going into this game, as I had redeemed my awful Premier Challenge and won a game, so I would at least be satisfied with however the tournament would turn out.

This was a cool looking team, and I knew it was Trick Room, so I led with Lucario to Roar away Reuniclus or Jellicent, and Serperior since he was very weak to grass. Roar worked perfectly, and I swept with Serperior’s Leaf Storm, a very simple game.

W, 2-0

Round 3 vs Lyndsey Swift

()

I brought:

This was the only match I forgot to take notes for, so I can’t remember the other two members. I switched Lucario for Charizard to avoid Will-O-Wisp and got Faked Out by Liepard. Liepard paralysed my Charizard and Rotom protected, but I doubled on Liepard for the KO. Kang came in and I switched Thundurus for Suicune while Zard got Faked Out and Suicune dodged a Will-O-Wisp. Kangaskhan KOed Charizard, Suicune Scalded Kang and Rotom revealed Hex. Lucario Close Combated the Kangaskhan after a failed Sucker Punch on my Calm Minding Suicune. Follow Me stopped a Brave Bird on my Suicune, which scalded Talonflame, leaving Rotom against Thundurus and Suicune, giving me the win.

W, 3-0

Round 4 vs Brandon Ikin

( )

I brought:

Thundurus dodged a Rock Slide and barely missed KOing Charizard, while it Flamethrowered Thundurus for the KO, while Serperior set up a Reflect. I brought in Togekiss, and decided Drought boosted Flamethrower would be my strongest attack, which worked amazingly, as Bisharp came in for Landorus, and was brought to its Sash. Serperior Light Screened as Charizard Protected, which was a perfect turn. Togekiss’ Flamethrower then swept the rest of his team, with Charizard KOing the Sylveon, Dragon Dancing in normal form to reduce Hyper Voice’s damage.

W, 4-0

Round 5 vs Jake Birch

( )

I brought:

The one time Earthquake can be useful, and he doesn’t bring his Heatran. Intimitdated Lucario fails to KO Kangaskhan as Thundurus is Faked Out and Lando U-turns. Cress comes in and I switch Lucario for Serperior as Kangaskhan swaps for Rotom. I Hidden Power the Rotom as I expected Lando to come back in, and Serperior gets a speed boost from the Icy Wind. I predict the Protect from Rotom and switch Thundurus for Lucario and Leaf Storm the Cresselia. I then KO Rotom with Leaf Storm, and chip Cresselia with a Close Combat as Cresselia Psychics Serperior. Kangaskhan comes in, then is brought straight back out for Lando, as I Leaf Storm that slot for the KO. Serperior Protects to avoid the Fake Out, then proceeds to sweep.

W, 5-0

Round 6 vs Stephen Gibbon

( )

I brought:

The nerves started to come back going into this game as I realised how well I was doing. Going into the tournament, I was hoping for at least a 4-4 record, and I had already done better with my 5th win, so the tournament suddenly got a lot more intense for me.

Metagross had to Protect to get the speed boost and I expected Thundurus to Thunderbolt Charizard expecting Y, which is exactly what happens as I Dragon Dance and Nasty Plot. His Thundurus paralyses Charizard and he switches Metagross for Suicune to take a Flare Blitz, which doesn’t happen as I Flare Blitz the Thundurus and Thunderbolt the Suicune for the double KO. I then misclick and Hidden Power Metagross instead of Breloom as it puts Thundurus to sleep. Zen Headbutt then misses the KO on Thundurus and Earthquake breaks Breloom’s Sash and Halves Metagross’s HP. I switch Thundurus for Togekiss to take a Mach Punch, and Charizard faints to an Iron Head. Togekiss then cleans up with Flamethrower.

W, 6-0

Round 7 vs Yan Vianna Sym

 ( )

I brought:

* Yan’s Report can be found here.

I Air Slash the Zapdos to try and stop Tailwind and get the flinch as I Thunderbolt the Aegislash switch. I switch Togekiss to Suicune to take the Flash Cannon and Thunderbolt the Zapdos, which Thunder Waves Suicune and Aegislash actually Shadow Balls Thundurus. I predict him to stay in Blade Forme, and KO with a Thunderbolt as Suicune takes a Thunderbolt and sets up Tailwind. A second Thunderbolt misses the KO on Zapdos after its Sitrus Berry, Suicune takes a Dark Pulse, Heat Wave KOs Thundurus and Ice Beam KOs Zapdos. I then realise that Charizard Y can’t touch Charizard X, so I KO the Hydreigon with Dragon Claw, and then KO the helpless Charizard Y.

W, 7-0

Round 8 vs Andy Waddell

( )

I brought:

*Andy’s Report can be found here.

This was a game where I was both relaxed and nervous, as I was guaranteed top cut, but I could also get a perfect Swiss, which would be amazing for my first big tournament.

Terrakion was scared out by Serperior, Aegislash comes in, only to see my Thundurus set up a Nasty Plot and Serperior set up a Light Screen, while Cresselia paralyses my Serperior. I then KO Cresselia with a Thunderbolt crit which mattered, but the worst Cresselia could have done was Ice Beam, which from the later report turned out to be the case. but with my Light Screen and the SpAtk Cresselia had, the worst it could have done was 38%, but Aegislash could have KOed it afterwards, but I was Leaf Storming Cresselia as well anyway, but I got fully paralysed, so it was important because of the full paralysis. Terrakion comes in and switches straight to Hydreigon to take a Leaf Storm, but I get fully paralysed again and Thunderbolt KOs Blade Forme Aegislash. I then Thunder Wave the Hydreigon in case it was scarfed so Charizard could clean up as Thundurus faints to Dark Pulse, Terrakion Protects, and I set up a Reflect. Charizard then KOs Hydreigon after a Rock Slide, Leaf Storm KOs Terrakion, and I have just gone 8-0 in the first ever UK Regional.

W, 8-0

Quarter Final vs Eden Batchelor

The match is available to watch here.

*Eden’s Report can be found here.

Match 1

vs

I was very nervous going into this game, as I had never played a best of three match before, and I felt that my team was much more suited to best of 1, as I had a couple of surprises in the team. It was also the first time I had ever been on stream.

The first turn he sets up Tailwind and Protects, as I close Combat into the Protect and Thunder Wave the Latios. Thundurus then faints to a Double-Edge as Lucario KOs with Close Combat, and Psychic brings me to my Sash. I bring in Charizard as he brings in Sylveon, then he switches Latios for Entei and Protects Sylveon as I Bullet Punch and Flare Blitz into the Protect. Lucario then Follow Mes away a Stone Edge and Charizard KOs itself after taking a Hyper Voice, while missing the KO on Sylveon, revealing a much bulkier Sylveon than usual. Scarfed Togekiss can’t do anything to the rest of his team so I forfeit after a Dazzling Gleam, which I probably should have done before so I didn’t reveal my Scarf, but this was my first best of three, so I made the mistake.

L, 0-1

Match 2

vs

We start off by matching Tailwinds, and Serperior sets up a Reflect and takes a Double-Edge. I then Leaf Storm the Kangaskhan and get KOed by Double-Edge. Latios Psychics Suicune which sets up a Calm Mind. Thundurus comes in and KOs Kangaskhan with Thunderbolt, and takes a Psychic while Suicune Ice Beams Latios, bringing it to red. Sylveon comes in and Latios switches out for Entei. I ended up doubling on Sylveon, bringing it to red as it Hyper Voices for the KO on Thundurus. Charizard comes in and Earthquakes to knock out Sylveon and do decent damage to Entei, while Suicune sets up a Tailwind after taking a Sacred Fire to ensure I outspeed both his Pokemon next turn, and I proceed to KO with a Dragon Claw and a Scald, bringing the match to 1-1

W, 1-1

Match 3

vs

I predict a change in leads for the final match, so I ended up bringing Lucario since I still thought he would lead with Kangaskhan, and bring Charizard to try and set up straight away. I go for Close Combat on Kangaskhan for the KO, which switches into Latios which takes it nicely. I don’t Mega-Evolve Charizard so that it can take Hyper Voice better and set up a Dragon Dance, and Sylveon ends up Protecting anyway. Charizard then KOs Latios and Lucario Bullet Punches only doing 40% to Sylveon, while Hyper Voice brings me to my Sash and about 30%. Kangaskhan comes in, and I predict the Sucker Punch on Charizard, so Follow Me to redirect it, which ends up working perfectly as Sucker Punch fails and Flare Blitz KOs Kangaskhan while KOing Charizard from recoil, and Hyper Voice KOs Lucario, so it comes down to my Suicune and Thundurus vs his Sylveon and Entei. I make a huge prediction as he has shown that Sylveon has Protect, and double target the Entei expecting Sylveon to Protect, which is exactly what happens. Thundurus brings Entei below 50%, activating its Sitrus Berry. Entei then Reveals Snarl, lowering Suicunes SpAtk enough that Scald Doesn’t KO. I then double target Sylveon as I know all of Entei’s moves, and I realise that Sylveon can’t Protect, and if its Suicune vs Entei I would win, so I don’t mind Thundurus taking a Stone Edge. Thundurus ends up critting Sylveon for the KO as Entei Protects, and then I take the match with a Thunderbolt on the Entei. I did some calcs after the tournament, and the crit theoretically mattered since Thunderbolt and Scald would not have KOed Sylveon, but since Sylveon wasn’t Specs, he wouldn’t have KOed either of my Pokemon, so I could have just Thunderbolted Entei and Scalded Sylveon the turn after, so in the end, I don’t think the crit mattered. I go into the top 4 amazed that I managed to pull through.

W, 2-1

Semi Final vs Philip de Sousa

Match 1

   vs

This match was not streamed, and I am very pleased it wasn’t. I was still so shaken by the fact that I had made it to the Semis that I did not register with me that, if there is a Whimsicott, the Gengar is Mega, and I foolishly assumed it was sashed for some reason. I end up Thunderbolting Gengar to “bring it to its Sash” and Dazzling Gleam to KO it, but he just Mega-Evolves, survives both attacks and gets off a Perish Song, while setting up Tailwind with Whimsicott. I then make another stupid play as I know he will double Protect, so I go for a Nasty Plot, which I obviously get Encored into, while he Disables my Dazzling Gleam. He then switches Gengar for Terrakion, Beats Up, and sweeps with Terrakion. An embarrassing loss.

L, 0-1

Match 2

vs

I am very shaken by the first loss, that I don’t really feel that I can recover. I change leads to Lucario so I can Roar myself out to avoid Perish Song. I double on Gengar with Bullet Punch and Thunderbolt, which fails to KO as he Beat Ups and Shadow Balls Lucario, missing the KO. I then predict the Protect on Gengar and double on Whimsicott, KOing it after it sets up Tailwind. He then brings in Terrakion and uses Quick Guard to stop my Bullet Punch, Shadow Ball KOs Lucario, and Thundurus Thunderbolts Terrakion for 60%. Zard then gets critted by Rock Slide which I thought might have mattered at the time, but Shadow Ball would have KOed Charizard anyway, which is a shame, as I was going for Earthquake, which would have KOed Gengar and Terrakion, leaving Zard and Suicune against his Suicune, so I would have stolen the second match. Rock Slide also KOs Thundurus, and seals up the game for him as Suicune cannot take on his last three. I give him a scare by saying that I was using Surf to KO both his Pokemon, and that at least gives me something to smile about as I am knocked out of the tournament.

L, 0-2

Conclusion

In the end, I was over the moon with where I had placed, as I had not even expected to top cut, or even win more games than I lost. This has encouraged me to attend more tournaments, as the regionals was very well organized and a lot of fun, and it was a great experience to have all these world class players saying how much they liked my team and congratulating me on my place. Hopefully this won’t be my only report I post on here, although I’m expecting that as much as I was expecting to get 3rd in the first UK Regionals, but we now know how that turned out

Update: So I ended up qualifying for Worlds; how did that happen?

The post Who Needs Protect? A UK Regionals Top 4 Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello there, Nugget bridge! This here is MrGX, bringing to you a beginner’s guide to Speed control!

Introduction

Are you tired of being outsped by your opponent and seeing your Pokemon get knocked out? Are you always forced to use fast, frail glass cannons in battle? Well, no more! This guide will teach you all there is to know about Speed control: What it is, how to use different methods of Speed control, their strengths and weakness, and how to counter it. Without further ado, let’s get on with it.

What is Speed control?

Being able to move first and KO your opponent’s Pokemon before they can even touch you is something valued by Pokemon players of all levels. Being able to manipulate which Pokemon moves first comes down to more than just Base Stats and EV’s – it comes down to Speed control, a term used to describe the many and varied methods of manipulating the order in which Pokemon attack, generally to make your own move first and pick up those vital knock outs that win battles.This article will explore all of these methods, how they work, and their strengths and weaknesses.

While Speed control has been available and used in competitive battles from the very start (see Thunder Wave), features introduced in Generations Three (Abilities), Four (Trick Room, Tailwind), and Five (Quash, Pledge Swamp, Hidden Abilities) in particular have led to a proliferation of Speed control methods to the point where modern teams tend to have at least one method of Speed control available to them due to their wide availability and utility.

Trick Room started to get popular with the introduction of Jellicent, Musharna, and Chandelure in 2011. With the additional availability of Cresselia in 2012, a lot of teams had Trick Room in their arsenal. Trick Room was the most prominent form of Speed control back in 2012, along with Drizzle Politoed and Thundurus-Incarnate. Thundurus-Incarnate was widely used for its infamous Prankster Thunder Wave as a primary mode for Speed control on many teams. VGC 2013 was based on heavy bulk, and Speed control was employed mostly in the form of Thundurus-Incarnate. VGC 2014 saw the rise of Speed control due to the introduction of Mega Charizard Y and its Ability Drought, along with Chlorophyll Venusaur. With new Pokemon like Aromatisse and Trevenant, Trick Room also began to see a rise in usage in order to exploit the power of Mega Mawile and Mega Abomasnow. Due to the lack of Thundurus-Incarnate in VGC 2014, Speed control mostly involved weather wars and Trick Room. VGC 2015, however, saw the biggest rise in Speed control. With more Mega Evolutions, low speed Pokemon found it difficult to keep up with the elevated speed tiers.

Why do you need Speed control?

Speed control, while not mandatory, is seen as an important part of the game plan for most teams because of its ability to control good match ups while creating the opportunity to turn around potentially bad match ups. To reiterate the point made in the first paragraph, Speed control allows you to move first and deliver big damage and knock outs without taking damage first. Speed control can also put you in a position to gain advantage from RNG dice rolls that you would not have had available to you otherwise (full Paralysis and Rock Slide flinches being the main culprits here).

Speed control is not essential on all teams, especially on heavy bulk teams. Some teams, however, gain huge advantages, allowing their heavy hitters to hit hard and fast. Sylveon is a Pokemon with tremendous power but low Speed. Pokemon like Bisharp and Kangaskhan can easily beat Sylveon due to its low Speed. With the help of some form of Speed control, this problem is easily solved. Thunder Wave a Kangaskhan and it’s slow enough for Sylveon to outspeed it. Use Tailwind and Sylveon’s speed is doubled, making it higher than Kangaskhan’s. Pokemon with extremely low speed like Rhyperior or Mega Abomasnow can become the fastest Pokemon on the field by using Trick Room, thus enabling them to use their devastating attack power to crush the opposition.

Different types of Speed Control in VGC

In this section, we will be talking about different ways to manipulate the Speed of Pokemon.

Speed control can be achieved mainly by two methods: Lowering the speed of an opponent’s Pokemon, or increasing your own speed (either by literally increasing your own Pokemon’s Speed, or by flipping turn orders with Trick Room). Here, we will talk about how to lower an opponent’s speed, and different ways to do it.

Paralysis (Nuzzle/Thunder Wave/Glare)

Paralysis is a Status Condition commonly used to reduce the Speed of an opposing Pokemon. Mainly inflicted by Electric attacks, it can also be inflicted by non-Electric Type moves like Glare and Body Slam, or by Abilities like Effect Spore or Static. Thunder Wave is the most common method used to inflict Paralysis, though Nuzzle was used by Sejun Park’s Pachirisu at the 2014 World Championships.

Because of its 25% chance to fully paralyze an opposing Pokemon on any given turn, Paralysis is often used along with Rock Slide and Swagger to try to disable a Pokemon for an entire turn. Rock Slide and Paralysis, often called Para-Flinch, is used because of its 55% chance to prevent a Pokemon from attacking. Para-Fusion, a combination of Paralysis and Confusion, can be effective because of its ability to either make a Pokemon fully Paralysed or Confusing it to hit itself for damage.

Paralysis is one of the best ways to control the Speed of a Pokemon. It lowers the current speed by 75% and has a 25% for a full paralysis, disabling a Pokemon for that turn. Offensive moves like Thunderbolt have a 10% chance to paralyze a Pokemon, while Nuzzle has a 100% chance to paralyze the Pokemon it hits. Thunder Wave is the most used method to inflict paralysis on an opposing Pokemon, and one of the most used Pokemon to do this is the ever-loved Thundurus-Incarnate. With its high Speed and Prankster ability, it is almost always guaranteed to move first and inflict paralysis on an opposing Pokemon. There is one catch, however. Ground type Pokemon are immune to Electric type moves, thus rendering Thundurus’ Speed control method obsolete. Landorus-Therian, a commonly used Pokemon for its Speed and high physical Attack power, can render this strategy useless if you are not careful. Gastrodon and Swampert are immune to Thundurus-Incarnate due to their partial Ground Typing.

One advantage paralysis has over other forms of Speed control is that paralysis is permanent. Unlike Tailwind or Trick Room, paralysis is a Status Condition and it lasts forever, unless the opposing Pokemon has Lum Berry or some form of Status relieving Move or Ability. As a status move, it can be used with priority by Pokemon with the Prankster Ability like Thundurus-Incarnate. Paralysis is no doubt the best form of Speed control, as it reduces the Speed of an opposing Pokemon by 75%.

Inflicting Paralysis on an opposing Pokemon means you cannot inflict any other Status Conditions like Sleep, Burn, or Freeze, two of which are almost necessary in the current metagame. This forces players to switch to other forms of Speed control, one that doesn’t inflict Status Conditions.

Cresselia is a Pokemon used mainly for support and setting up Trick Room. Thanks to its huge support movepool, Cresselia is capable of learning Thunder Wave and Icy Wind as well. With access to Helping Hand and three forms of Speed control, opponents will have hard time deciding what type of Cresselia you are using. With access to Ice Beam and Icy Wind, Cresselia can handle itself against Landorus-Therian. The only possible disadvantage that comes with running Cresselia is its mid-range speed; most Pokemon that run Taunt will outspeed Cresselia. One should always carry a counter for Thundurus-Incarnate before adding a Cresselia to their team.

Zapdos is a bulkier Electric/Flying type compared to Thundurus-Incarnate. With high Special Attack power and a good offensive movepool, Zapdos can be used as a bulky support Pokemon or as a purely offensive Pokemon. Having access to Tailwind and Thunder Wave, Zapdos has one advantage Cresselia will never have – Speed. Ranging from Choice Specs offensive variants to Sitrus Berry bulky supporter, your opponent will have to think twice before Taunting a Zapdos. While Tailwind is popular among bulky Zapdos, Thunder Wave has its own advantages as stated previously. The only two possible solutions to work around Paralysis are redirection or setting up a Trick Room.

The above Pokemon are commonly used for inflicting Paralysis on opposing Pokemon. While Paralysis has its own disadvantages against Ground Types and Trick Room teams, it has the potential to win matches thanks to its permanently lasting effects. While Paralysis may be the best form of Speed control, it makes you unable to inflict additional status conditions on an opposing Pokemon. That is when one needs to make a choice between Paralysis and other forms of Speed control.

Icy Wind

While not as common as Thunder Wave Thundurus-Incarnate, Icy Wind is used by bulky water types as another form of Speed control on many teams. It has the additional benefit of targeting both Pokemon your opponent controls. Some Pokemon that employ this method are Suicune, Milotic, Jellicent, and Cresselia. While this move cannot be blocked by Taunt like Thunder Wave, it is dangerous to use against Pokemon with the Abilities Defiant and Competitive as it will boost their attack power to higher levels. One Pokemon to watch out for while using this move is Bisharp. A clever switch in can give Bisharp a big boost of +2 Attack thanks to Defiant. Icy Wind can be used as an offensive form of Speed control, hitting frail Pokemon like Landorus-Therian and Breloom really hard in the process.

Since Icy Wind does not inflict Status Condition, you can also employ crippling moves like Will-O-Wisp to inflict Burn on an opposing Pokemon. While no Pokemon is immune to Icy Wind, one still has to watch out for Pokemon like Bisharp and Milotic.

Almost all Milotic use this move due to Milotic’s good bulk and average offense. With access to Recover, Icy Wind slows down the opposing Pokemon, enabling you to use Scald to inflict a Burn and Recover to heal back Milotic’s HP. What makes Milotic special among other Icy Wind users is its Ability Competitive, which gives Milotic a +2 boost in Special Attack if any of its stats are reduced, turning this beautiful creature into a deadly monster.

Suicune, on the other hand, has access to a large number of support moves like Snarl, Tailwind, and Icy Wind. Icy Wind is mostly used by players who are worried about Taunt from opposing Thundurus-Incarnate. Due to Suicune’s ability to stay on the battlefield for a long time, it is an ideal move to use on bulky Suicune for chip damage as well as for Speed control.

Non-Water Type Pokemon like Cresselia and Gengar also have access to this awesome support move. Cresselia, being a bulky supporter, has access to a large number of support moves, forcing the opponent into Taunting it, and that’s where Icy Wind becomes useful. Gengar, on the other hand, is a Pokemon with lots of options, ranging from Perish Trapping to Encore-Disable strategies. Nowadays, Gengar is also used for crippling physical attackers by using Will-O-Wisp or slowing down opposing Pokemon with Icy Wind. Icy Wind allows Gengar to deal with fast Pokemon so the slower Pokemon on the team can make their move.

Electroweb

Electro Web, like Icy Wind, is a damaging move that reduces the speed of both Pokemon your opponent controls. The only difference is that Electroweb is an Electric Type attack while Icy Wind is an Ice Type attack. While not as common as Icy Wind due to it being useless against popular Ground Types like Landorus-Therian, it can be used by bulky Pokemon like Lajo’s Rotom-Wash. This is especially helpful in catching the opponent off guard and reducing their speed, enabling you to take control of the battle.

This move is something that cannot be used by every Pokemon, and is inferior to Thunder Wave. The only Pokemon worth mentioning here are the Rotom Forms, as they have a variety of uses, and Electroweb can definitely make your opponent go nuts.

Pledge (Water Pledge + Grass Pledge)

Pledge moves, while uncommon, can be used to halve the Speed of the opposing Pokemon. It works as a backward Tailwind, reducing the opponent’s Speed for 5 turns. The Water Pledge and Grass Pledge combination creates a “Swamp” that halves the Speed of all the Pokemon on the opponent’s side of the field until the swamp wears off. While it cannot be stopped by Taunt, it takes up a moveslot on two of your Pokemon, and you are forced to use two starter Pokemon.

Two of the most used Pokemon to create the “Swamp” are Greninja and Venusaur, often used in triple starter teams along with Mega Charizard-Y. It is important to note for Flying and Levitating Pokemon that, for all intents and purposes, the Swamp is in the sky (nothing dodges its effects).

Quash

​Quash, while not a common move, is a Status move that makes the target move last in its Priority bracket. A move used in niches, it is something that cannot be spammed like Thunder Wave.

The drawbacks of this move are that it only lasts one turn, so the move is a temporary solution and high offensive pressure is recommended with its use. The move must of course go before its target to actually work, so Pokemon with the Ability Prankster like Sableye can put this move to full use. Only a few Pokemon have access to this Status move, and when it is used, it can catch the opponent off guard. No matter if the opponent used Trick Room, no matter if they used Tailwind, if Quash hits, the Pokemon will move last in its Priority bracket. Since only a few Pokemon learn Quash, if used correctly, it can hurt the opponent where it hurts the most.

The two Pokemon that ever use Quash are Sableye and Murkrow. Murkrow not only has access to Quash, but also learns Feather Dance, a move that harshly lowers the Attack of the target. Pokemon like Thundurus-Incarnate and Ice type Pokemon can easily beat Murkrow due to its low Speed, even though its Dark typing and access to Foul Play allow it to deal enormous damage to Ghost type Pokemon like Gengar.

Sableye, while slow, has access to a huge support move pool, like Recover, the coveted Will-O-Wisp, and Quash. With its Ghost and Dark typing, Sableye ensures only Fairy type Pokemon can hit it for a Super-Effective damage. The Ghost typing gives Sableye an excellent match up against Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Metagross. With Mental Herb, it doesn’t have to worry about Thundurus-Incarnate, and Prankster Recover enables you to burn stall the opposing Pokemon. While Sableye maybe an awesome Quash user, one has to watch out for Thundurus-Incarnate and Liepard, as they can shut down your Quash user quite easily (unless the Sableye holds a Mental Herb).

Conclusion

If you have read this far, you should be up to speed with the uses of Paralysis, Icy Wind, Electroweb, Quash, and Pledge as forms of Speed control. But where are the rest of the moves and tricks like Tailwind and Trick Room, you ask? You can look out for them in ‘Where’s the Speedometer?: A Beginner’s guide to Speed control – Part 2.’

Special thanks to MindApe and Floristthebudew for helping me edit the article and giving me some neat ideas. Thank you, Sam, HeliosanNA and MrScaryMuffin, for pointing out the mistakes. Without you guys, this article wouldn’t exist.

The post Where’s the Speedometer? A Beginner’s Guide to Speed Control: Part 1 appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

It has been revealed today on Pokemon.com that, in addition to the main World Championship 2015 event, there will be an open event titled the Boston Open occurring on Saturday, August 22, 2015. Available to both TCG and VGC players, the event will use VGC 2015 standard ruleset. The Masters players are capped at 512 across four 128-person flights and will play out a Top 32 single elimination cut on Sunday morning before finals. After removing the Last Chance Qualifier, which allowed players one last shot at qualifying for the World Championships, this looks to replace the large event for players who have not qualified for the World Championships.

The event will count for Regionals-level Championship Points and count towards the Regionals Best Finish Limit. It will cost four side event tickets, equivalent to $20, to enter.

Boston Open

Rules:

• 512 Master division and 256 Junior and Senior division cap
• Swiss rounds
• Cost: 4 tickets for Masters, 1 ticket for Junior and Senior
• Standard VGC 2015 Rules

Prizing:

• Regional level Championship points based on attendance.
• 1st: $200 Gift Card for the Pokémon Center and 3 Booster Boxes
• 2nd: $100 Gift Card for the Pokémon Center and 2 Booster Boxes
• 3-4th Playmat and 3 Booster Boxes
• 5-8th Playmat and 2 Booster Boxes
• 9-16th Senior and Junior divisions: Worlds Playmat and Booster Box
• 9-32nd Masters division: Worlds Playmat and Booster Box

Read more at the Boston Open page and the full side event schedule for the weekend.

The post Worlds 2015: The Boston Open announced appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi, my name is Joaquin Campuzano (Joaquin Page) and I’m 23 years old. I’ve been playing Pokémon for a long time and I’ve always enjoyed it. This is the first year that Mexico had official tournaments and I’m really happy with my performance during this 2015 season.

The Team

I started building this team after Pokemon X and Y were released. In VGC 2014 I thought that a rain team was excellent as an anti-meta option, but this season saw rain and the team itself find its best performance.

Relevant Team Accomplishments

• 2^nd Place – Mexico 1^st Regional (April 2015)
• 1^st Place – Pokémex  TNT Tlatelolco (May 2015)
• 1^st Place – Mexico 2^nd Regional (June 2015)

Kangaskhan @Kangaskhanite

Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 248 HP / 212 Atk / 44 Def / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
– Fake Out
– Return
– Crunch > Sucker Punch
– Protect > Low Kick

When X and Y came out, I started analyzing all the available Mega Evolutions, and to no one’s surprise Kangaskhan was the obvious call as the best mega in the game. Even with the introduction of all the new Mega Evolutions such as Salamence, Kangaskhan hasn’t lost her place. I used Adamant nature from the very beginning (even before using Trick Room) and the main reason was that most defensive damage calculations were performed using a Jolly nature.

There are some Kangaskhan that work perfectly without Fake Out, but it is essential for my team to have Fake Out since it is my lead to ensure that either Trick Room or Tailwind goes up and also my only priority attack during the first regional when I didn’t use Sucker Punch. I chose Return over Double-Edge since I really don’t like the recoil damage which affected Kangaskhan’s durability on the field, plus it affected the defensive damage calculations and Return is just enough to disrupt the opponent.

For Mexico’s 1^st Regional I chose Crunch/Protect over Sucker Punch/Low Kick which actually worked great as I was able to catch many opponents by surprise while having both Fake Out and Protect. This saved me many times, and I probably wouldn’t have made the finals without this combination. I chose Crunch for that first Regional since it can assure some damage on ghost types and some other Pokémon that are capable of resisting Return.

For the 2^nd Regional I opted for a more standard Kangaskhan moveset, as most players that know me would expect me to still have Protect. Additionally, as it is well known, Sucker Punch and Low Kick provide more coverage.

• 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Low Kick (100 BP) vs 248 HP / 44 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 174-208 (82.4 – 98.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 44 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 194-230 (91.9 – 109%) — 50% chance to OHKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 248 HP / 4 SpD Mega Kangaskhan: 177-208 (83.8 – 98.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Politoed @Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 204 SpA
Modest Nature
– Surf
– Scald
– Ice Beam
– Sleep Talk > Focus Blast

When I first thought about using rain in VGC 2014 I searched for the most efficient Politoed set. Bulky Politoed sometimes tends to become dead weight when it doesn’t have enough power. Scarf Politoed, even though it came as a surprise at first, didn’t have the the bulk I wanted. That’s when I thought, “Why not take full advantage of Politoed’s own rain?” To be honest, I have no regrets over this decision as the Politoed became a powerhouse, tearing holes in my opponents’ teams. The move I used the most was Surf, unless I had to focus on getting a KO with Scald. It is really not a good position for your opponent when they find themselves with both Pokémon under 50% HP, especially after the Fake Out from Ludicolo. I used Sleep Talk for extreme conditions at the first Regional. I only got to use it once and it worked perfectly. However, with the increase of Ferrothorn usage I decided to switch to Focus Blast which can provide me a win condition in case I have to get rid of Ferrothorn.

You’re more than welcome to try some offensive damage calculations from Politoed, and I’m sure you are going to like it.

• 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 52 Def Politoed: 177-208 (89.8 – 105.5%) — 37.5% chance to OHKO
• 52+ SpA Thundurus Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Politoed: 144-170 (73 – 86.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 52 Def Politoed: 169-201 (85.7 – 102%) — 12.5% chance to OHKO

Ludicolo @Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 100 HP / 68 Def / 188 SpA  / 4 SpD / 148 Spe
Modest Nature
– Fake Out
– Scald
– Ice Beam
– Giga Drain

Ludicolo’s set is pretty common. It has enough EVs in Speed to outrun Choice Scarf Landorus in Rain, and the 188 Special Attack EV’s are there to have a chance to OHKO bulky Mega Salamence.

• 252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 100 HP / 68 Def Ludicolo: 140-165 (83.3 – 98.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 188+ SpA Ludicolo Ice Beam vs. 52 HP / 84 SpD Mega Salamence: 168-200 (94.9 – 112.9%) — 68.8% chance to OHKO

Ferrothorn @Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Atk / 108 Def
IVs: 0 spe
Nature Brave
– Power Whip
– Gyro Ball
– Leech Seed
– Protect

I really love this Pokémon. Ferrothorn was part of my team when I built my VGC 2014 rain team. This year after trying out the double mega with Venusaur and seeing standard results, I decided to find a substitute for it and I think Ferrothorn was the best decision I made all season.

I really want to thank Moises Briones (NekronV) for trading me this Ferrothorn, which bailed me out at the 1st Regional (I wasn’t able to breed for a 0 IV speed Ferrothorn). There is a curious story behind this Ferrothorn – this EV spread was built for my 1^st Mexico Regional, but after some confusion with another Ferrothorn I had and my distracted nature I used a different spread with the EV’s in Special Defense instead of Defense. Whoever watched the finals of the 1^st Regional will see how I realized I made this mistake, as Ferrothorn was supposed have a chance to survive Terrakion’s Close Combat.

Ferrothorn is one of the best anti metagame Pokemon in the format and one of the best ways to get rid of Kangaskhan. It is also the perfect Pokémon to deal with other Rain Teams. It works perfectly in rain as it can take Fire type attacks decently, but I would prefer to deal with its threats before sending Ferrothorn onto the field. Ferrothorn is also a great end game Pokémon since it can stall many Pokemon out with Leech Seed.

• 252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 108 Def Ferrothorn: 150-176 (82.8 – 97.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 108 Def Ferrothorn: 164-194 (90.6 – 107.1%) — 43.8% chance to OHKO
• 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 108 Def Ferrothorn: 124-148 (68.5 – 81.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 148+ Atk Ferrothorn Gyro Ball (95 BP) vs. 180 HP / 212 Def Sylveon: 140-168 (72.5 – 87%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Gardevoir @Sitrus Berry
Ability: Telepathy
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Def / 60 SpA
Bold Nature
– Psychic
– Dazzling Gleam > Moon Blast
– Trick Room
– Ally Switch

Without this Gardevoir, all the magic of the team would be lost. I started using Trick Room with the rise in usage of Tailwind, as this team can take full advantage of the speed reversal. Even some opposing Trick Room teams feel the pressure as my team can use their Trick Room to its advantage.

Gardevoir was the perfect switch in for obvious Fighting type attacks directed against Kangaskhan or Ferrothorn. Additionally, Gardevoir could use Ally Switch with its +1 priority to take Fighting type attacks without many negative effects. I believe one of the best plays I could make was having Ferrothorn and Gardevoir on the field against Kangaskhan, since if the opponent would go for a Low Kick it would hit Gardevoir for minimum damage while Ferrothorn would attack with a Gyro Ball, or if the opponent opted for the Double-Edge/Return it would take Iron Barbs and Rocky Helmet damage. I was able to use this play not just against Kangaskhan but any other attacker. If needed, Gardevoir would attack using her STAB moves.

Also, Gardevoir’s ability was necessary while using Surf with Politoed without any issues.

• 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 196+ Def Gardevoir: 164-195 (93.7 – 111.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
• 252 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 196+ Def Gardevoir: 144-169 (82.2 – 96.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
• 252 SpA Gengar Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Gardevoir: 138-164 (78.8 – 93.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
• 60 SpA Gardevoir Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Scrafty: 168-196 (97.6 – 113.9%) — 81.3% chance to OHKO

Zapdos @ Weakness Policy > Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 36 HP / 64 Def / 212 SpA / 196 Spe
IVs: 30 Def
Modest Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Heat Wave
– Tail Wind
– Roost > Hidden Power Ice

At the 1st Mexico Regional, I used a bulkier version of Zapdos so I could make sure I successfully got Tailwind up and secured a +2 Special Attack boost for some extra power. However, during the weeks prior to the 2^nd Regional I started to have a lot of trouble with the rise of Charizard Y usage and I wanted to increase my chances against those teams.

I tried to use Terrakion, Landorus-T, and Life Orb Thundurus, but I was a little afraid of having to deal with opposing Ferrothorns and I wanted to have my own Fire type attack.  I decided to go back to Zapdos but use a Life Orb this time, which would ensure that I would get the OHKO on most Bulky Charizard Y and Ferrothorn while outspeeding them. I personally prefer Hidden Power Flying so I can have a better matchup against Mega Venusaur (a Pokémon that gives me a lot of trouble), but I wasn’t able to get one in time. HP Ice was really helpful in some situations against Landorus-T during the tournament.

• 212+ SpA Life Orb Zapdos Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Ferrothorn: 187-224 (103.3 – 123.7%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 212+ SpA Life Orb Zapdos Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 20 SpD Mega Charizard Y: 182-218 (98.3 – 117.8%) — 93.8% chance to OHKO

The Tournament

I really don’t want to extend too much, so I’m just going to leave my top 4 match against Daniel Nuñez (DannyTDS) and the Finals match that was streamed on Pokémex’s Twitch channel against Daniel Rivera (Zlatant). If you want to watch my whole journey in Top Cut for both regionals, I’m going to leave the Battle Codes at the bottom.

Top 4

Thank for the video – César Ramírez (Cesariego)

Finals

Closing and Acknowledgements

This year I started the season a little late and at that point I didn’t even think about having a chance to qualify to Worlds, but just like the saying over here goes, “Lo hecho, hecho está” (Editor’s note: this translates to “What’s done is done”), and I’m really happy with my results. I really hope that fellow Mexican players can qualify and attend Worlds so Mexico will get some representation. I also wish everybody from Latin America the best at Worlds.

I would like to thank PokéDF League for all the incredible experiences. Without them, I wouldn’t have reached the level I am at today. I would also like to thank my friend Luis Canseco (Chaivon) for all his advice and talks that we had since we met. Lastly, big thanks to my friend Cristopher Muñoz (Cris Torchic), who has always provided me with all his support.

Battle Codes:

Mexico 1^st Regional (April 2015)

• Top 8:

1. YQTW-WWWW-WW28-GGAP
2. KJGW-WWWW-WW27-G3SZ

• Top 4:

1. 8XTG-WWWW-WW27-G44H
2. 9ZCG-WWWW-WW27-G454

• FINAL:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24xHeani7Go

Mexico 2^nd Regional (June 2015)

• Top 8:

1. PAWW-WWWW-WW28-GGD5

The post Tlaloc’s Rain Room: Mexico Regional 1st Place Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the commencement of the 4th NPA! Everything (or at least most of it) that you need to know will be laid out in this post. If you plan on signing up, you need to read through everything here. It’s a lot, but if everyone is educated on the rules and understands what they’re diving into this year, we’ll have a much more smooth season.

NPA will be run by me and AP Frank (Nationals head judge Nic Freda) this year, with a committee of five respected, level-headed community members (TBA within the week) to help with any major decisions during the season. I’ll be doing more of the community side and the setup of the league, while Nic is your “head judge” so to speak – he brings experience from head judging both Nationals and Worlds and is one of the most knowledgeable in the community when it comes to problem solving and event logistics.

Before we get going, we want to make a few general things about the season clear:

• We’re running NPA as a fun activity for the VGC offseason and a showcase of the best players in the game
• There is no reward for winning other than “Nugget Bridge street cred”
• This year, we want to return to this being a lighthearted endeavor. This doesn’t mean it has to get less competitive, but we want everyone to understand that this isn’t very important in the grand scheme of things. We’re hosting this so that people can have fun. The guidelines in place are there to help ensure that the league is directed towards doing so for the majority of people. If you aren’t in agreement with them and don’t plan to follow them, please think twice about signing up.
• Give each other the benefit of the doubt. The very vast majority of players in the league mean well and are not doing anything as malicious as it may seem at first glance. Let the decisions be made by the managers and commissioners on a situation before you react to it. Be as patient as possible, and give other people some credit. No one is out to get each other as much as it seems at first glance. The quickest way to start unnecessary drama is to overreact to a situation you don’t have much information on.
• Note that some rules may be adjusted over the course of the season. We haven’t had a ton of eyes on everything yet, and we want to make sure everything runs smoothly and continues to do so in the future. Any rule changes or updates will be posted in the thread here.

Teams and Managers

Next up, what you’re all probably most excited to hear, your NPA Teams, Managers, and Assistant Managers for the season! It was a really difficult selection process and was more realistic to go with 12 rather than 10, so we bumped it up two extra slots.

1) Goldenrod Rollouts
Manager: Benji
Assistant: Smith

The Rollouts return after having won the NPA title a year ago. Benji, who has qualified for Day 1 Worlds this season, returns to manage along with Smith, a longtime player and former Celestic Stars member.

2) Lilycove Cruisers
Manager: Simon
Assistant: Jio

The Cruisers are back with a new captain of the ship, with the former captain working on deck. Last year, the Cruisers made a run to the finals and lost a tight set to the Rollouts. Simon, a Worlds qualifier in 2011, has played all three years in NPA, while Jio has played one year and managed last year’s finalist team.

3) Viridian Forest Hornets
Manager: Dubulous
Assistant: Alaka

The Hornets were the strongest team in the regular season last year, and after losing in the semifinals, they’re back to prove they can win on the next stage. They have the managing experience to get there, with Dubs (Dubulous) and Alaka at the helm. Dubs is one of only two head managers this year with managing experience dating back to NPA1. Dubs and Alaka both managed in both NPA1 and NPA3, and Alaka has qualified for worlds three times, including qualifying for Day 1 this year.

4) Fortree Brave Birds
Manager: Kingofmars
Assistant: Hibiki

The Brave Birds bounced back from a rough NPA2 with the 2nd best regular season last year, only to be bounced by the eventual champion Rollouts in the semifinals. This year, Kingofmars takes over for yours truly, and has another former Brave Bird, Hibiki, alongside him. Gavin (kingofmars) has qualified for Worlds the past four years, including a Day 1 invite this year. Hibiki earned his first trip to Worlds this year with a Day 1 invite as well.

5) Mistralton Jets
Manager: Makiri
Assistant: Unreality

The Jets, another playoff team from last season, return with an experienced staff. Makiri played in NPA1 and managed in NPA2 and NPA3, and Unreality managed in NPA1 and NPA2 and played for the Jets last season. Makiri qualified for Worlds back in 2008 and has managed successful teams in both NPA and SPL, and Unreality was a qualifier in 2011 and was one spot away from grabbing his invite this year.

6) Sunyshore Chargers
Manager: Prettylittleliar
Assistant: Dtrain

Coming off of their second playoff appearance in a row, the Chargers are back and ready for another deep run. He-who-has-too-many-names, Prettylittleliar has managed in the last two runnings of NPA and qualified for Worlds back in 2011 and 2012, reaching at least top 8 both years, and Dtrain has played in all three seasons of NPA.

7) Fallarbor Flames
Manager: Pookar
Assistant: Feathers

The Flames, who had one of the most feel-good drafts last year, came up just short of the playoffs. This year, they return with the man who drafted for them, Pookar, heading the team. Feathers, last year’s manager, will keep watch over her Flames as an assistant.

8) Celestic Stars
Manager: Tan
Assistant: Chalkey

Although Tan had posted saying he was not going to manage this year, he had a change of heart and will end up managing his Stars yet again. Tan has managed for two years and has become the face of the league, holding up signs at Worlds and advertising his Celestic coffee all over. Chalkey, who played back in 2012, has been around the community for what feels like forever.

9) Fuchsia Ninjas
Manager: TalkingLion
Assistant: Cypher

The Ninjas return for a third year in a row, headed again by TalkingLion. Both years the team has been a middling threat, and ended up forcing five ties last year on one of the league’s toughest schedules. This year Cypher, who has played in all three NPA seasons and was part of the NPA1 champion Sacramento Slakings and NPA2 champion Seafoam Islanders, brings championship experience as a co-manager.

10) Hearthome Holy Spirits
Manager: Wolfey
Assistant: Ray

After getting the most undesirable schedule in NPA3 having to play five playoff teams in eight weeks, the Holy Spirits return in a season that won’t hand them a schedule of such unholy proportions. Wolfey, 2012 Worlds runner-up and four-time qualifier, takes over the team this year after playing in the previous two seasons of NPA. Three-time world champion Ray returns to the Holy Spirits to assist Wolfe on his Mission to win the championship. Amen.

11) Castelia Cones
Manager: Darnell Washington
Assistant: Duy

The Cones have always meant bidness. Big bidness. Darnell returns as the longest tenured manager in NPA, being the only manager to manage all three previous years that’s returning this year. He called up Duy on his Bluetooth to help him manage this year. Duy will provide solid comments on players’ practice games and also has qualified for Worlds once back in 2010, along with coming painfully close to an invite in 2013.

12) New Bark Loud Puppies**
Manager: Scott
Assistant: ???

We have one expansion team this year, and it’s going to be headed by Scott, who has played in all three of the previous NPA seasons. Scott qualified for Worlds in 2012 and 2013, and now essentially gets free analysis of players as part of his job, so he looks to have one of the most well-drafted lineups this season.

**Unfortunately, this is a placeholder, the New Bark Loud Puppies aren’t for real. The actual team name will be announced in the coming weeks.

Season Schedule & Setup

Season Length: 8 Weeks (3 superweeks + 5 regular weeks)
Playoff teams: 6 (3-6 seeds play round 1, 1-2 get byes; re-seeded pairings each round)
Players per team per week: 8 during regular season, 7 during playoffs
Draft format: Auction, 120k budget, 0.5 increments, starting bid of 3k.
Trade deadline: End of Midseason
Draft Date: TBD, very likely between August 26th and August 30th

All Nugget Bridge Circuit rules apply.

Format: VGC 2015 for all 8 slots
Additional Rule: The moves Minimize and Double Team are banned from play. Anyone to use Minimize or Double Team during a match will receive an automatic match loss. This is to prevent games from going to the full 60 minutes as a result of a single move.

Draft order (randomized order) (snake promotion):
1) Jets
2) Chargers
3) Holy Spirits
4) Flames
5) Cones
6) Loud Puppies
7) Brave Birds
8) Cruisers
9) Rollouts
10) Ninjas
11) Hornets
12) Stars

Season Schedule:
Week 1-2: Aug 31 – Sep 6
Week 3-4: Sep 7 – Sep 13
Week 5-6: Sep 14 – Sep 20
Midseason: Sep 21 – Sep 25
Week 7: Sep 26 – Oct 2
Week 8: Oct 3 – Oct 11
Week 9: Oct 12 – Oct 20
Week 10: Oct 20 – Oct 29
Week 11: Oct 30 – Nov 8
Quarterfinals: Nov 9 – Nov 15
Semifinals: Nov 16 – Nov 22
Finals: Nov 23 – Nov 29

Team Schedules: Will be released soon, along with the rest of the season spreadsheet!

Midseason:
Players will be able to be sold back for 50% of their original value. All auctions start at 3k and will end after 12 hours without bidding activity. All auctions will automatically end at 11:59pm GMT+0 on September 25th.

Dynasty Rules:
Starting next year, teams will be able to retain their players. The cost for retaining will be either 10k + 3k or the player’s value + 3k, whichever is more expensive. Retaining rights will also be able to be traded between teams before the season begins.

Activity Rules:

This year, there are going to be slightly more objective rules on activty as to prevent as many issues as possible. However, if too many rules are created, players will find workarounds and play the activity system rather than try to schedule a match, so most activity calls will be left in the hands of the commissioners. Please get your matches done; playing out a game is much easier and less stressful than pushing for activity in most situations.

Both players must message each other with their availability within 48 hours of the round being posted. Players must post at least three time frames of five hours each on three different days in which they are available to play (the more time frames and the more hours in each, the better – please work on getting matches actually complete rather than rule sharking.) If there is too much conflict in the times, the commissioners must be notified no later than 72 hours from the start of the week. “Anytime” and “Sunday” are NOT time frames; any player using these types of vague descriptions of times to play are going to be given significantly less leverage in a decision. Please be respectful of your opponent’s circumstances and at least give them a very concrete time window in which you’re able to get the match done.

Example of good dialogue:
Player A:
Hi! We’re paired for this round. I’m GMT+0 and am able to play Thursday and Friday from 5-10pm GMT+0, Saturday from 2-10pm GMT+0, and Sunday from 5-11pm GMT+0. Let me know your times and dates so we can organize a time effectively.
Player B:
I’m in US Mountain Time (GMT-7) for reference; I’m able to play 5pm-10pm GMT-7 Friday, Noon-Midnight GMT-7 Saturday, and Noon-5pm GMT-7 Sunday. In your time zone, that’s midnight-5am and 7pm-midnight Saturday and midnight-7am and 7pm-midnight Sunday. It looks like we’re both able to play from 7-10pm your time Saturday and also 7-11pm your time on Sunday. Should we plan for 8pm on both nights, Saturday as the primary time and Sunday as a backup time in the event one of us would miss the Saturday time?
Player A:
9pm my time would work slightly better for me than 8pm on both nights, would that work for you?
Player B:
Yes it would. See you at 9pm GMT+0 Saturday!
Player A:
See you then!

Example of bad dialogue:
Player A:
Hi! I’m from US Eastern Time and I can play Friday and Sunday basically anytime.
Player B:
Hi, I’m GMT+0 and I can play Thursday, Friday, and Saturday basically anytime as well, what’s best for you?
Player A:
Afternoons are better in general
Player B:
Let’s plan on Friday afternoon then, I’ll be around pretty much all day as I said. See you then!
Player A:
Sounds good!

The bad example is usually when one person shows up for /their/ afternoon and things get extremely out of hand and haywire. Please follow the first example and be conscious of your opponent’s time zones and their situation when scheduling. Schedule exact times and show up to them a few minutes before if possible to coordinate things such as exchanging friend codes and setting up streams more easily. The player exhibiting the better manners and following protocol when scheduling will be more likely to receive the activity call in a scenario where both players have equal leverage otherwise.

Again, all activity calls will be handled by the commissioners, and the committee will vote if necessary. Our goal is to have no activity calls at all, but in the event that things do get too sour or too impossible to schedule, we will do our best to make the most reasonable call possible and provide transparency to everyone involved to help explain our reasoning.
Now if you’ve read all of this and are wanting to play in NPA this year, sign up in the thread over here!

Note for first-timers: not everyone who signs up will be guaranteed a slot. Players will be put up for auction and bid on by the managers.

Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks! If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments, feel free to post them in the thread.

The post NPA 4 Commencement appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

G’day, I’m Mindape. You may recognize my username from the Showdown chat, a post on the forums, or the Twitch chat during a stream. When I’m not playing Pokemon, I train and compete at an elite level in athletics (my event is the glamorous 20 km Walk). I have represented Australia at international events, and I’ve traveled to many foreign countries. My ultimate goal is to compete at the 2016 Olympics.

I often see threads or chat questions where people ask “How do I get better?” or variations thereof, with responses ranging from “Get good” to in-depth advice from big-name players. But after delving in to the article archives, I realized that there isn’t a great wealth of resources dedicated to explaining how one might actually get better. Although I have negligible Pokemon achievements, I might be able to offer some insight into the behind-the-scenes work required to become the very best at something, based both on my own experiences in sport, and from my interactions with champions. Fortunately, you don’t have to be blessed with great genes or freakish talent to be a great trainer…all you need is a DS, a game cartridge, and the right attitude. Since there is no single right answer to the question of how to get better, this article is intended to be a general guide to help you find a system that works best for you.

Outline:

• Making Goals and Planning your Season
• Training (to be the very best)
• Tapering – the lead up to competing
• Competition Day (or Days)
• Post Competition (what to do next)
• Summary (TL;DR)

Making Goals and Planning your Season

As mentioned before, my goal is to compete at the Olympics. However, that goal can’t be achieved overnight, and one doesn’t just simply turn up to an Olympics or a Pokemon World Championship. You have to make plans for how to achieve that goal, and often those plans have to span months, even years. I’ve been working towards the 2016 Olympics since before the 2012 Olympics. This will all depend on the size of your goal and how far away it is.

So, to start, make a goal. For a Pokemon trainer, it doesn’t always have to be winning the World Champions. It might be something as small winning a Premier Challenge or hitting a certain rating on Battlespot. Once you have the goal, modest or grand, you’ve got something to work towards, and you can start planning how to reach that goal.

If you’re a beginner, the first steps towards achieving your goals in Pokemon will be to improve yourself as a player. This includes things such as:

Game Knowledge: Type charts, game and move mechanics, movepools, stats, movesets, team archetypes and strategies, how particular Pokemon match up against other Pokemon, usage rates and metagame trends, and relevant damage calculations.

Teambuilding: Top players are often are inspired by other teams, borrow teams, or pilot shared teams, so don’t feel like you always have to try to build your own teams entirely from scratch.

Planning, Logic, and Probability Management: Choosing the right Pokemon at team preview, preserving Pokemon that are important in a particular matchup, and being able to infer movesets based on your opponent’s team. Being able to determine the course of action that gives you the best chance of winning by taking possible flinches or status conditions into account, or by anticipating different move choices by your opponent. Knowing when you can afford to take risks.

Information Assessment and Quick Decision Making: Paying attention to the battle timer, making decisions under pressure, and staying observant throughout the battle.

These skills will need to be honed regularly. No matter how good you think you are at Pokemon (or anything, really), you need to always strive to keep learning and growing. Once you stop trying to learn, you stop improving. Once you stop improving, other harder-working players surpass you.

While most athletes have coaches, Pokemon trainers tend to be their own coaches. As your own coach, it is ultimately up to you to decide how you will approach improving those skills, or keeping them sharp, in a sort of a Pokemon training regimen. I particularly enjoyed Phil “Boomguy” Nguyen’s article last year, explaining how he tried to improve as a trainer during the 2014 season. I’ve had the pleasure of watching him continue that progress this year, and I think his approach exemplifies what I hope to cover in this article.

Planning on improving as a player is only one part of the puzzle, though. Especially if you want to do well at big events like Nationals or Worlds, you need to plan your season out in advance. The first part is knowing what needs to be done to get there. Play Points or Championship Points needed, how well you need to do in particular lead up events, and roughly when and where events will take place. Being on top of these things means you can decide which events you want to target throughout the year, and when you have more time to experiment with ideas and when you need to get focused on performing well. It also means you should have a good idea of whether you’re on track to achieve your goals throughout the season, and will be in a better position to evaluate if your plans need changing during the year.

Second, travelling costs money, so unless you’re a billionaire flying around on a private jet, you’ll need to plan which events you can make with worst case scenario in mind, in terms of not getting stipends. Knowing that you need to save to travel to certain events can help motivate you at work, and it gives a purpose even to your time not spent playing Pokemon. Planning for the worst-case scenario can land you with a nice surplus if you do manage to snag a stipend.

Third, even if you have infinite money, time can be an issue. If you want to be the very best, you’ll need to know when you have free time to go to tournaments. There will be a bare minimum number of events you should be attending before you should question whether your goal is realistic, and whether you can actually commit enough time to achieve your goals. It is important to have a life outside of Pokemon, so even those aiming to be the very best shouldn’t go overboard. But if you want to be the best Pokemon trainer in the land, you need to be prepared to prioritize Pokemon over other activities of lesser importance, at least during key points in the season.

Training

Now it’s time for the “training phase.” The long, steady grind you need to go through to make your dreams a reality.

Routines and Training Schedules

All competitors have a training routine, and Pokemon should be no different. If you’ve made the commitment to playing Pokemon seriously for the season, you’ll need to schedule regular “training sessions,” where you work on the skills that you’ve identified previously as needed. This training can be any or all of battling, teambuilding, watching YouTube videos, doing research on blogs, discussing teams or games with friends, whatever it is you think may be useful to improve your skills.

When training for anything, you need to make sure that the training you are doing is is good quality. There is no point doing lots of training if it is not benefiting you. Mindlessly running through games on Showdown without any goals for improvement in mind is nothing more than a way to pass the time.

A good way to get in to good training habits is to have a pre-training routine, something that tells your mind and body to be switched on because it is training time. Something like having a cup of tea before/during your Pokemon training session, taking a short walk outside are all examples. Feel free to experiment and find a pre-training routine that you like.

Another step to ensuring your training sessions are beneficial to you is to make a training schedule, and write down what you aim to achieve in that particular training session. It could be anything from setting the number of battles, to making a conscious effort to begin and improve at taking notes, reading x number of articles, learning how to use a particular team archetype, as long as you know what you are getting out of a session. In particular, if you have a bad day of battling, having a set limit to the number of battles you planned to do can help you avoid tilting and chasing wins to repair your ego. Training schedules make sure that you are doing enough training, but also that you are not doing too much training. If you feel like all you do is play Pokemon 24/7, it’s likely that you’ll get sick of the game and burn out before the season even finishes.

Here is a sample training schedule and session plan I threw together (with materials within reach at the time) to give a rough visual idea of what I’m talking about. As can be seen from image one, this sample trainer still goes to high school, and has to factor in large amounts of study time and a commitment to a sport. But that’s not a problem. Even if your scheduled training time is small, what matters is that you have a regularly scheduled time set aside on specific days. You can fill in your schedule according to what you do in life, and can draw it up in Excel if you want.

There appear to be no competitions for that trainer this week, but as you can see even scheduling in just 9-10 hours of Pokemon related activity a week should not be too onerous, and if you calculate it, it adds up to 450 to 500+ hours of Pokemon training a year, which is a solid amount of time.

Not all of your ‘training’ has to involve Pokemon. Elite athletes often do what is known as cross training, whereby they do something a little different to their regular training – a runner might go for a swim or a bike ride every so often, for example, as a way to keep their fitness up while giving their mind and body a break from running. Similarly, a Pokemon trainer might do things like play other games they feel improve their ability to analyse situations and make quick decisions, or simply play another fun game for mental relaxation.

Training Diary

In addition to planning your training sessions, it is advisable to keep a training diary as well. By noting what you accomplished during a training session, especially in relation to what you aimed to do, you can identify what worked and what didn’t, and be reassured as to whether you have been training well, or enough. You can also track progress in terms of developing certain skills, such as note taking, and overall improvement in terms of win/loss ratio. It also makes writing season battle stories easier. While your training diary doesn’t have to go into serious detail, simple things like tracking your own Pokemon usage, teams you faced, and win loss ratio would be the bare minimum for battles, and perhaps your satisfaction with and the success of a particular team if you were practicing teambuilding. If your session had a specific objective, you can also note whether or not you achieved it.

On my end, It’s nice to know that if I planned a 12km walk, I then will have a record of whether or not I completed it, how I felt, my time, and so on for every other training day. That way I can get a feel for long term improvements, and the sort of training load I can tolerate in the future to help with planning an appropriate future schedule.Presumably, in Pokemon it would help you identify flaws in your playing or teambuilding that you need to improve, or observe changes in the metagame that you might be able to pick up.

I thought about including a sample of a training diary, but then I also considered using practical examples as potential inspiration. Cybertron and Alex Ogloza’s daily battlespot battles serve as a great public training diary for them. Additionally, in Boomguy’s previously mentioned 2014 article, he showed his note taking progression, demonstrating how quickly one can go from messy to effective when it comes to note taking.

Before

After

While Battlespot and Showdown are great places to practice, it is important to train specifically the event you are planning to attend. If you are aiming for Top Cut or attending a National or Worlds, you will need lots of practice with best-of-three battles.

Friends/Rivals, Practice Competitions, and Miscellany

Playing Pokemon doesn’t have to be a lonely exercise. Athletes in individual events often attend training camps with other athletes, where they can learn new skills and swap ideas, training sessions, and such. Making friends with people around your level gives you people to measure your progress against, as well as people you can rely upon to give you challenging practice battles with good feedback. Sometimes it can take a level of rivalry to push the best out of each other. These friends can also potentially form a group where the stresses of team building and testing are shared around, and you can get better feedback on improving your team than the average RMT might offer. There is a reason why groups like Team Magma, The Boiler Room, Imouto Island, and the Delphox Cubs see regular success from their members.

Competing regularly, even in lower level events, is another important aspect of the process of training. There’s no way to truly replicate the experience of playing in a live event. The increased weight of the value of winning, the fact that you can’t just put your DS down when you feel like it, dealing with distractions, stress, and anticipation. Usain Bolt didn’t just train and then turn up to the Olympics and race without having done many races previously, training him how to respond in those big moments and how to race against other people.

Although it is not directly related to anything I do in my athletics pursuits, I feel it is also important to mention that preparing Pokemon for use on your cartridge should also be a part of your preparation, whether you breed and train them yourself, or rely on contacts and friends to source things for you. Try to make this part of your actual training session, to avoid the temptation to procrastinate. Not only does this make competitions significantly less stressful, it also makes teambuilding and testing on Battlespot easier.

I’ve been pretty vague on the exact design of training programs and year schedules, since I’m not in a position to say what the best way to train for Pokemon is. As such, it is advisable to do a bit of background reading to help you make the best decisions when it comes to designing your own training. A good starting point in identifying good habits to get into might be Bearsfan092’s article on effective trainers. Youtube channels like Cybertron’s and Alex Ogloza’s are particularly good if you want to learn how to self analyse and talk through your thoughts during turns. The sidebar of the forums hosts a bunch of Twitch streams you can watch, including the above two’s Twitch channels, if you want to interact with the players live.

I suppose the underlying point of these last couple of paragraphs is a reiteration of what I said in the planning section. In order to stay at your peak as one of the best in the game, you need to consistently keep trying to learn and grow as a player, in whatever way you think you need, because if you stop, you risk being left behind.

Tapering: The lead up to a competition

Now we fast forward through all that training, hopefully with a cool montage, and arrive at the last week prior to a big competition, let’s say a National Championship. Spending all that time preparing and improving yourself shouldn’t go to waste by you stuffing it up in the last week, so here we will cover things you can do to like an elite athlete in order to make sure your final competition preparation is good. It is important to reiterate here that there is no cut and dry way to prepare, so you will need to find a process that works for you.

Elite athletes generally spend the last week or so prior to their event “tapering,” a process whereby they freshen up their mind and body in order to make sure they perform at their best on race day. To put it simply, this involves paring back the length and intensity of their training sessions (at least if you do long distance events, like myself), and essentially storing up energy.

This doesn’t translate perfectly in to Pokemon, but I’ll give my two cents on what I think tapering means as a Pokemon player:

Making sure you have a team ready (including their items), or mostly ready save for some last minute tweaking, that you are happy with and comfortable using. That way you don’t have to panic build the night before, or be frantically testing in the last week or so. I have read stories of successful regional teams being finished in the registration queue, but I’d like to think that these were aberrations, whereby the player’s skill and the relative solidness of the team carried them through their relatively poor planning.

By having your team more or less ready, you have the freedom to only battle as much as you feel you need to keep your skills sharp for the upcoming tournament, rather than potentially wearing yourself out or not being fully settled on a team because you haven’t had enough time to iron it out and get fully comfortable with it. This also means that if you have a team ready, you shouldn’t be doing so many battles as to potentially lose confidence in yourself or your team at the last minute by going on a losing streak, whether it be because of rough matchups or poor play.

You should also try to ensure that your travel and accommodation plans are confirmed well in advance, as the stress of trying to organise these things at the last minute can detract from your performance.

Additionally, you should try to make sure that you get good sleep not just the night before the tournament, but the week leading up to the tournament. You sometimes can’t help but have restless nights just before big tournaments, especially if you’re full of nervous energy, so having had a good rest on previous nights means one night of poor sleep is less likely to have a detrimental effect. Remember, big tournaments are long.

You should try to prepare everything you need to bring for the big day(s) a night or two in advance, depending on what is practical. This includes food and drink to get you through a day, especially on the off chance that food options suddenly become limited or nonexistant during the day, but also so that you don’t have to risk missing rounds while getting lunch. Make sure your DS is fully charged to start the day, and bring extra charging devices in case you need them.

You also need to have your travel plans set out so that you have got lots of leeway for unforeseen delays to not ruin your day. You don’t want to miss registration because of a flat tire, or because your bus was delayed, or something relatively minor like that. It might not always be fashionable, but in this case it is much better to be early than late.

If I had to sum up this section in one sentence, it would be “Don’t be unprepared like Ash was on his first day as a trainer”

Competition Day (or Days)

Finally, the big day is here. Worlds, Nationals, whatever it is, this is what you’ve worked towards. You even got your taper week perfect. Now what?

I think the most important thing for competitors in all events at all levels is to stay relaxed, and to stay focused. In the Pokemon context, staying relaxed and focused means not dwelling on losses, misplays, or bad RNG, as well as not being overawed by your opponents, and not getting overly nervous if you are going x-0, or are getting close to bubbling – just take it one battle at a time, one set at a time. After all, you’ve already done the hard work, you need to have faith in your training to get you through, and once your mind is elsewhere, you risk not making full use of your training. You won’t be phased by problems getting to the venue (because you planned to get there early, remember?) and by things going wrong in the running of the event (apparently par for the course in the UK), such as late starts, and long delays between rounds. If you deal with those problems better than your opponents, you improve your chances of beating them.

A recent top players talk article in the lead up to US Nationals had some great advice regarding mental preparation, and I think this either says what I want to say better, or at least augments it, so I do recommend giving it a read if you haven’t already.

Additionally, it’s a great idea to have friends, family, or people you just met on the day around to chat to between rounds, and to follow your progress. These people (and potentially you for them) should be able to help keep you focused in between rounds, whether you need them to help you chill out or relax, or to get you fired up and excited again. Just as you should try to have a good training routine, if you can find a good routine for between rounds that keeps you playing at your best, try to stick to that routine. Again, the time to develop or start routines is in tournaments earlier in the season if that’s possible. You shouldn’t have to be experimenting during a big event.

For multi-day events, if you make the second (or even third) day, you want to make sure you have something left in the tank mentally. There is no point going 9-0 on day one if you choke out at the first opportunity on day 2. Stay focused on the job overnight, do whatever matchup planning you think you need if team info is available and time allows, but the most important thing is to keep well rested and relaxed, so try to have an early night if you can, and if you can find some way to unwind that refreshed you and doesn’t exhaust you for the next day, that’s also good.

It has been remiss of me to leave it this late in this section, but through all of this, remember to have fun. If you ask Olympians why they do their sport, most will answer “because they enjoy it.” I have fun competing whether it is against the world’s best, or just against people from my locality. The same should apply to Pokemon, especially since it is a video game, and hence meant to be fun. Obviously not all training sessions will be fun, but if you still enjoy the game, and have fun at tournaments (big or small) no matter how you perform, then that’s the most important thing. Obviously you’re striving to be the best, but what is the point of being the best if you get no enjoyment out of it?

Post Competition (What to do next)

We fast forward again, and this competition is over. What do you do now? The simple answer is to recover mentally, and then analyse your performance, and use that to help you decide your future plans.

However, it can be a little more complex than that. You may have performed much worse than you expected, in which case you might need a bit of time to pass before you’re in the right mood to properly analyse your performance. You should take all the time you need so you can make decisions that aren’t clouded with disappointment or frustration.

Try to identify things you thought you did well during the competition, and things you think you didn’t do well. Also make a note of what your goal was for that competition, whether you achieved it or how far you were from achieving it, and how your performance affects your ability to achieve your season’s goals. This analysis might help you understand shortcomings in your training and preparation, which you can then note and improve for next time, be it for competitions later that season, or for future seasons. It might also highlight parts of your training that were really useful, that you will want to keep the same. As well, you might notice that what had originally got you frustrated or disappointed on the day was actually not such a big issue, or was something outside of your control and as such not worth losing sleep over.

If you can view your battle videos, it may be beneficial to look over them again in time and appraise your own play, again noting things you could have improved, but also noting when you or your opponents simply made the best possible plays.

Just like in your preparation, your analysis might benefit from the insight of friends, or rivals. You can, if you want to, involve them however you think is most useful, whether it’s helping you go through battle videos, asking for advice, or just trading war stories and complaining about things.

Now, you may have been fortunate, and achieved your goal in this tournament. You should ask yourself what your next goal is. Where to from here? If this was a stepping stone tournament, the answer may already be clear, but it is still good to think about it. If you qualified for Worlds this year, is aiming for a paid invite, a top 8, or more the next year the next step? If you’re a Senior transitioning to Masters, what is your aim in your debut season? Whatever the question, it is important to ask yourself if you still have the desire and the commitment to do everything you need to do to achieve that next goal, or to continue chasing your goal. If the fire is no longer burning, or you no longer have the time, maybe you need some time off, however long that may be. Maybe you are satisfied with your achievement and content with playing on a more casual level.

Remember, the best in the world don’t usually become the best overnight, so it may take several seasons to reach your ultimate goal, so don’t stress if you fell short in your first year. Use that new knowledge and experience to get even better and go even further in future years.

Summary (TL;DR)

For those lacking the time or the inclination to read through all that text (Yes, I know it’s a lot), here is a bullet-point summary that covers the gist of what this article intends to convey.

• Make a goal
• Figure out what’s needed to achieve that goal – skills to acquire and improve, events to attend, money and time to budget
• Once you know that, use that knowledge to make season plans and training plans

• Do good training (weird tricks not compulsory) – read widely and battle with good habits often and consistently
• Make a training schedule, keep a training diary
• Get some good friends/rivals to practice with and measure yourself against

• Make sure you’re prepared – travel, team, sleep, food, mentally
• Leave plenty of time for things so you don’t have to feel rushed
• Don’t stuff up all the earlier hard work with poor decisions late in the piece

• Have fun, enjoy the day, but stay focused the whole time, and have the right people around you, and routines between rounds to keep you on the right track
• Do the right thing between days to make sure you back up strong day one performances on multi-day events
• Don’t get flustered, or salty. No Johns (whatever that means)

• Take however long you need after an event to analyse how it went, your own progress, and to decide on your future plan of attack. But make sure you analyse it at some point.
• If you’re willing to keep going for another season, chasing the same goal or a new one, return to the planning stage, rinse and repeat.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully this was helpful for you. If not, please consider at least leaving me a flattering comment to boost my ego. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, this guide is not prescriptive, and while it is long, it is not exhaustive, so take whatever advice from it you think is useful, and please keep asking questions and reading articles in your pursuit of becoming the best Pokemon trainer in the land.

The post Training for Pokemon like an Elite Athlete appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Evening all, most of you won’t know me, but my name is James Kean and I’m fairly new to the competitive scene. A few of you may actually recognise my name, as I was featured in this year’s Italian Nationals preview article, and for those of you who are fans of free-for-alls, I’ve been in a couple of DuncanKneeDeep’s YouTube videos and live streams.

This report features the team I used at all five of the tournaments I attended this year and, with the exception of the Italian Nationals, I placed in top 32 in all of them, which included Top Cutting both the UK and the German National championships.

Finding Where to Start

Knowing where to start was probably the most difficult part of building a team. For the longest time I was adamantly against using other people’s teams, but eventually I got over myself and saw the benefits of using a team that had proved itself in the past. That’s a big part of why I wanted to write my own article, to help people the same way I was helped a year ago. In the end, I must have replicated at least six different teams I saw on Nugget Bridge. Some worked for me and some didn’t, but without that experience I wouldn’t have had a clue of what I’m doing now.To give credit where it is due, Crobert’s Perish Trap team and Prof Teak’s Worlds team were two teams that helped and influenced me the most.

At the start of the 2015 season I was still pretty new to competitive Pokemon. I had little experience in tournaments and barely even knew what Championship Points were. So, I set small, achievable goals: ‘I will take this year to learn about team building and hopefully I’ll improve enough to make an impact in 2016.’ But despite setting the bar for myself pretty low, I found myself getting nowhere with my teams, and it was frustrating. It wasn’t until I saw a YouTube video about “knowing your playstyle” that I actually decided to take a look back at the teams I mentioned earlier and what it was about them that worked for me.

The Original Team

The first tournament in the UK I found out about was actually the UK Regional Championships (I didn’t know Premier Challenges were even a thing until early May). It was there that I tested the first incarnation of the team. To say it has changed a lot would be an understatement, but the core concept and idea surrounding the team is still the same.

I really like control or ways that make the game less fun for other people. The basic idea behind the team was that I would limit their options with Shadow Tag while the rest of the team bothered them with speed control, sleep, and encore. I added Fake Tears to Liepard to get the surprise KOs on things when paired up with Gengar as well as  to make Suicune and Thundurus have a bit more of an offensive presence. And Terrakion… Well, Terrakion was just there.

Even with a less focused version of the team, I did quite well and managed to go 6 – 2 in the Swiss rounds, missing out on top cut due to tie-breakers. Despite this, it didn’t take much for me to see the massive flaws within the team.
Liepard and Breloom just don’t work. In theory they do, but in practice they’re frail, predictable, and don’t do much unless you’ve got a good bit of luck on your side. Suicune, while bulky and with  good coverage, it’s so passive that it just wasn’t pulling its weight on the offensive side of things.

The team on the whole was just too frail. If I lead incorrectly, I would be playing down because I didn’t have the bulk to switch and pivot around to improve my chances against what I was facing.

The Team

To say that I was unprepared for the German National Championships would be a massive understatement. I didn’t settle on the final members of the team until the morning of the competition. The only two that were still around from the original team were Mega Gengar and Thundurus.

Terrakion was replaced with Landorus-T, the extra support provided by Intimidate was something I was severely lacking and it fit nicely with Shadow Tag. It retained the same coverage, albeit sacrificing a little power for more utility. I added Heatran to deal with those pesky Steel types with Sucker Punch that kept giving me a lot of grief. Whimsicott seems so obvious now, but it took me longer to come to that conclusion than I care to admit. I wanted the shenanigans of Liepard, the speed support of Suicune, and the Grass typing of Breloom. Whimsicott was the best part of all three of those Pokémon rolled into one little handy puff. Breloom was powerful, but with a team more focused around Special Attackers there was a lot of weight on its shoulders to bring the pain on the physical side. Moreover, after just one Intimidate, Breloom just couldn’t really do anything anymore and banking on sleep turns was a risky game. Bisharp was suggested by a friend on the day before Germany and it turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It countered fairies, loved intimidate, and added more of that beautiful, beautiful priority to my team.

For the sake of my own convenience I’m going to only include the most up-to-date version of the team’s spreads and moves, because, as absolute display of unpreparedness would have it, most of my Pokémons’ EV spreads were wrong in Germany. Too many things didn’t out-speed what they were supposed to or live hits they were supposed to, it was just a mess.

Gengar @Gengarite
252 HP / 44 Def / 4 SpAtk / 28 SpDef / 180 Speed
Timid
– Protect
– Disable
– Perish Song
– Shadow Ball

I shamelessly stole this spread from Wolfe Glick two days before the UK National Championships, but it does things my original spread only wished it could, such as surviving -1 Landorus EQ. The speed investment is to out-speed Jolly, max speed Mega Salamence.

I started out using offensive Mega Gengar, but the more and more I used it, the more I got disappointed when I couldn’t even take resisted attacks. Gengar, even without any special attack investment, is still stronger than most things.

Perish Song might seem like an odd choice on the team, but I put it there as a way of dealing with annoying pokemons that are hard to OHKO or double KO. Before adding it, I ran Will ‘O Wisp, but changed it before Germany. Burns are always nice, and it’s probably my favourite status, but the amount of times I missed the WoW, and Gengar fainted because of it, meant I had to re-assess its value.

I did, however, miss Sludge Bomb at first, but Disable opened up a lot more opportunities for Gengar and the rest of the team. While I lost the ability to hit Kangaskhan, I could disable it, Perish Song, and then just forget about it for a while until it went down whilst dealing with its partners.

Whimsicott @Focus Sash
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Speed
Timid
– Tailwind
– Fake Tears
– Encore
– Giga Drain

Whimsicott, the handy combination of all things right with the first version of the team. The spread is as standard as standard can be, but it does everything it needs to. Tailwind offers a lot more options, but is primarily there to get me away from those nasty Rock Slide flinches. Encore, alongside Disable and Shadow Tag, can create some very annoying situations for my opponents, thus limiting their options while I shuffle around and go on the offensive without fear. It also helps when I need to resort of Perish Trapping.

Fake Tears was one of my main forms of offence. The idea being to use it to get some surprise KOs. A lot of players have certain expectations when they see Whimsicott and Gengar, so they’ll switch (the turn I’m mega evolving) or be more aggressive leaving them open, and Fake Tears takes advantage of that. At the UK National Championships, I OHKO’d a grand total of four Cresselias in the first turn of the game.
Giga Drain was to give Whimsicott a bit more longevity as well as deal to deal with Gastrodon, which the team really didn’t like going up against very much.

Landorus @Choice Band
172 HP / 60 Atk / 12 Def / 36 SpDef / 228 Speed
Jolly
– Rock Slide
– Earthquake
– Superpower
– U-Turn

Landorus @Choice Scarf
68 HP / 132 Atk / 60 Def / 4 SpDef / 244 Speed
Adamant
– Rock Slide
– Earthquake
– Superpower
– U-Turn

The first Landorus was used during both German and UK Nationals. With an investment of 228 Speed, it out-sped max speed, neutral nature, base 100 pokemons; it guaranteed the OHKO on 4/0 Mega Kangaskhans; and it survived both Bisharp and weaker ice attacks. However, I changed into a Scarfed Landorus with different spreads, because I didn’t want to roll the dice against other Landorus’ Rock Slides.

The second Landorus spread was a gift from one of the United Kingdoms other top level Jamie, Jamie Miller (Blaze King7). The perks to this set are simple, but notable! It out-speeds max speed Scarf Heatran (as well as usually other Landorus since very few run max speed), it lives +1 LO Adamant Sucker Punch from Bisharp, and most importantly it is a Landorus.

The move set is pretty standard. Rock Slide is the best move in the game for a reason, though I must admit I had very few flinches over the course of all the tournaments. In all honesty, the most valuable move of cheeky Lando’s was U-Turn: pivoting during Shadow Tag, shuffling Intimidate, and just having an all-round good time.
With the exception of Water, Landorus and Heatran cover each others weaknesses almost perfectly – meaning I could usually switch without much fear.

Thundurus @Sitrus Berry
236 HP / 116 Def / 4 SpAtk / 76 SpDef / 76 Speed
Bold
– Taunt
– Thunder Wave
– Hidden Power Ice
– Volt Switch

Oh! Thundurs, my old friend, I should never have doubted you. Thundurus was one of the only two remaining members of the original version of this team, but I briefly subbed it out for Rotom-W for the Italian National Championships. I will try to include a video detailing my opinions on the brief change, but if I don’t, it means I couldn’t figure out how.

The spread has that nice and golden even HP stat, so Super Fang will activate my Sitrus Berry. The defence allows it to live a Landorus’ Stone Edge, with Rock Slide being a 3HKO after Sitrus Berry. The speed speed creeps things that are speed creeping Smeargle, and the rest was added into SpDef.

The moveset is for the most part fairly standard, with the exception of Volt Switch over Thunderbolt. The drop in power is notable, but it allows for a lot more opportunities alongside Shadow Tag. It also means that in situations where I need to Perish Song in order to get past a particularly problematic pokemon I don’t have to worry about Thundurus not having Protect to stall turns.

Bisharp @Life Orb
4 HP / 252 Atk  / 252 Speed
Adamant
– Protect
– Sucker Punch
– Iron Head
– Knock Off

Bisharp was the last member to be added to the team, and honestly I don’t know how I managed without it. It adds a completely alternative style to the team by itself, with potentially ridiculous levels of offensive pressure. Bisharp is effectively the replacement for Breloom, even though they function as very different pokemons. While I did like Breloom – Spore was nice, as were both of its STAB moves -, whenever it was Intimidated it was effectively dead weight. Bisharp, on the other hand, does not have that problem. Bisharp with even just a +1 boost forces your opponent to play differently if they want to get by it unscathed.

Everything about the set screams standard cookie cutter Bisharp, but it is one of those Pokemon that doesn’t need to do anything fancy in order to be effective or be a threat. Its STAB moves offer the mostly reliable way of dealing with both Fairy and Ghost types, which was something the team struggled with beforehand.

When I was adding Bisharp to the team, I initially thought I was being the craftiest person alive with a last ditch Fake Tears from Whimsicott to give me a free +2 when my back is against the wall. Luckily, it was pointed out to me that that doesn’t actually work before I accidentally gave myself less of a fighting chance.

Heatran @Safety Goggles
44 HP / 4 Def / 204 SpAtk / 4 SpDef / 252 Speed
Modest
– Protect
– Heatwave
– Ancient Power
– Earth Power

Ah, Heatran! I added it because I really did not like facing Amoonguss with its Spore and redirection and because with the beta version of the team Mawile just laughed at me. Although I do like its defensive typing a lot, I initially considered Arcanine for this slot.

Ancient Power might seem like an odd choice on a non-scarfer, but I really don’t like Mega Charizard Y.
The EVs are fairly simple. I didn’t want to be under-speeding rival Heatrans and even with the amount of speed control on my team, I’d rather have the option to win the speed-tie than not. The 44 HP / 4 Def means that it can live Adamant Mega Kangaskhan’s Low Kick at -1, though the only time that situation ever arose it got a critical hit, so if it’s really worth it or not is debatable.

I’m still trying to decide whether I want to run Flamethrower over Heatwave or not. I really don’t like Heatwave’s shaky accuracy (I swear I’ve missed more than I’ve hit), but the spread damage is nice. Especially when I can Fake Tears whichever side is giving me the most bother. Catching things like Landorus on the switch is nice since at -2 with Fake Tears, Heatwave has a 31.3% chance to OHKO the spread I use.

Leads and Using the Team

The leads are pretty much exactly what you’d expect from looking at the team. Mega Gengar plus guest or double genie. Gengar is 9/10 times what I want to lead with (if I’m bringing it to the match), because getting that early Shadow Tag can really disrupt the opponent.

If the opponent has a nasty looking physical attacker, Gengar/Landorus was the choice to make. While getting that intimidate off, I’d mega and trap them, and usually U-Turn to cycle the intimidates.
Whimsicott was for situations where I felt like the team looked easy to exploit with Encore and Disable, or if they had a Cresselia. Scoring the surprise first turn OHKO on Cresselia before it can do anything can sometimes decide the game right from the get go. In fear of the Encore, it also pressures my opponent to make decisions they wouldn’t normally make with their leads. If Whimsicott got Parting Shot, I would have been the happiest man alive.
Thundurus does essentially what Whimsicott does, but with different moves. They’re useful for very different situations, but when paired next to Gengar the goal is the same.

Double Genie was the lead of choice when using “good stuff” mode of the team, on occasions where I didn’t bring Gengar and Whimsicott at all, or only brought Gengar, but conserving him was key. I don’t feel like I need to explain to you why these two are a good lead pairing.

The team on the whole works best when you’re playing it aggressively. VoltTurning for momentum, Fake Tearing to create more pressure on the opponent to Protect, and then punishing them for going on the defensive with Encore and Perish Song. Bisharp adds to this pressure with Sucker Punch (especially when at +1), meaning they’ll be reluctant to go for the attack if they know a Sucker Punch will KO, thus forcing them into a situation of deciding to either go down to Sucker Punch, or do nothing because of Encore.

The team doesn’t lose to opposing Perish Trap teams either, as in absolute dire straights (or if you can’t predict where the Eject Button pokemon is switching in) it can VoltTurn on itself.

The Struggles

There are two pokemons in particular that I’d like to mention which are the ones I have the hardest time dealing with.

The first,

“But Jamie, you have the three best checks to Charizard on your team. Don’t be such an idiot.”
Why yes outspoken reader, I do. The problem though is every good Charizard-Y has the supporting cast to deal with those three Pokemons exclusively. Meaning, I usually have to deal with them before Charizard does too much damage. Which is difficult! The best way to deal with it, is to hopefully lock it into a move that’s going to be doing nothing for it or Disable Heat Wave, and buy yourself some time while you deal with its supporting cast.

The second,

Milotic is an actual pain. It wasn’t so much of an issue in Germany and the UK Nationals, but its increase in popularity was one that I did not welcome. While it doesn’t do a lot of damage to any of my team members without the competitive boost, dealing with it without giving it that boost is not an easy feat. I also end up reluctant to Shadow Ball with Gengar, because I fear the accidental Sp. Def drop. I can’t pivot Landorus around at all, because I’ll make it a problem, and I can’t deal with it quickly enough with Whimsicott or Thundurus without Fake Tears support. Heatran doesn’t like Water and Bisharp doesn’t like Fire. Once again,  it is something that can only be dealt with smoothly by either Encoring or Disabling or both. Though again, how easy that’s going to be depends on what’s in Milotic’s corner.

I’m going to give an honorable mention to Aromatisse. I have only faced one in my time, but before that battle I didn’t realize Aroma Veil blocks Disable. I now know better. It severely limits the amount of shenanigans I can go for.

Closing Comments

This was the first team I’ve ever truly built myself, and to have had so much success with it has been a satisfying ride. It has secured me my first ever World Championships invite, which three/four months ago when I went to the the first tournament felt like nothing more than a pipe dream. I want to do it justice and retire it by putting it out there for everyone to see, because of just how proud I am of it.

I hope you enjoyed reading my team report. I have always wanted to write my own as I read every single one published. It’s always been a personal dream to be able to write my own report and I’m so excited for when it finally gets published. I hope it helps people in the way other team reports have helped me, and I really hope I end up facing someone using it on Battle Spot or Showdown.

The post Mr. Top 32 or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Shadow Tag appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi everyone,

I’m Jen Badamo, Tournament Organizer and VG Judge from Queens, NY.

I’ve been a TO for about two years and was lucky enough to be included in the group chosen to pilot Premier Challenges last year. Right now, I run PCs in Brooklyn, NY and Matawan, NJ. This past Nationals, I had the privilege to Judge VG for Masters and Seniors. You’ll also see me in Boston staffing Worlds!

It’s an understatement when I say this year has been a great one. So when a few players approached me about running a tournament similar to the BC Invitational, I thought it would be a great way for me to say thanks to the community and showcase local players.

Tournament Format & Details

The Invitational will be a best of three single elimination tournament. We wanted to do double elimination but decided on single due to time constraints. To make up for this, the first 16 and next eight players eliminated will go into two separate brackets (Alpha for 16, Omega for 8) to compete for prizes, including free entry for the winners to one of my Premier Challenges next season.

Invitations were decided by a number of factors:

1. Overall Championship Points earned at all of the Premier Challenges I organized
2. 1st and 2nd place finishers at these PCs
3. Player’s Choice survey
4. TO’s Choice

We have a lot of great Seniors in the area so I definitely wanted to include them in this tournament. We can’t showcase local talent without featuring our Seniors. It’s worth noting that all of the Seniors playing in the Invitational have secured invites to the World Championships.

List of players

• Aaron Traylor (Player’s Choice)
• Aaron Zheng
• Angel Miranda
• Brendan Zheng
• Bryan Tong
• Chuppa Cross
• Dan Levinson
• Dorian Nousias
• Jake Rosen
• Jake Skurchak
• James Baek
• Jeudy Azzarelli
• Jiovaine Neita
• Jonathan Evans
• Joseph Pulkowski
• Joshua Lorcy (Picked by Paul Chua to receive his Player’s Choice slot)
• Jun Tumaneng
• Kazi Rahman
• Matthew Terriberry
• Michael Lanzano
• Michael Spinetta-McCarthy
• Mihrab Samad
• MK Choy
• Nicholas Borghi
• Patrick Donegan
• Simon Yip
• Sohaib Mufti
• Stephen Mea
• Tommy Cooleen
• Trista Medine
• Walter Morales
• Zach Droegkamp (TO’s Choice)

Invited but not attending:

• Kylie Chua
• Mark Garas
• Paul Chua (Player’s Choice)
• Rayad Khan
• Sean Caliendo
• Zachary Boyd

Here’s some background on the competitors.

Aaron Traylor (Unreality) has 30% of the overall votes from the Player’s Choice survey, deservedly so. He won St. Louis Regionals this year and has the most CP in New England for 2015. Other finishes of note: 1st in San Jose Regionals, 4th at Nationals and 14th at Worlds all in 2011 as a Senior as well as top 32 at Nationals in 2012 as a Master and top 16 in the 2013 LCQ.

Aaron Zheng (Cybertron) really needs no introduction. He’s very well known in the community, both through his competitive accomplishments (back-to-back Senior National Championships in 2011 and 2012, 3rd at Worlds in 2013, and most recently 4th at 2015 Nationals, just to name a few) and his excellent YouTube channel. Aaron is heading off to college on the West Coast in the fall.

Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka) is known for playing both the trading card game and the video game but made the decision this year to focus solely on VGC, to everyone else’s detriment and dismay. Angel has had an excellent season with two Regional Top 4s– Athens and Virginia– and Top 8 at Nationals. Angel’s notable TCG finishes include 1st at 2013 PA States, Top 4 at RI States, Top 8 at Virginia Regionals and Top 16 at Massachusetts Regionals in 2014.

Brendan Zheng (Babbytron) is the 2013 Junior World Champion, as well as a five time Regional Champion and 2nd place finisher at Nats in 2011. Admittedly, we haven’t seen much of Brendan locally, though he did come out swinging early on in the season, taking 1st at the Kick-Off Premier Challenge. Even though he seems to be binge watching Netflix instead of practicing, he still had a better season than most players. He can most often be found antagonizing Aaron, his older brother, on Twitter.

Bryan Tong (AwakenedZero) has a 1st place and 2 Top 8 finish for Premier Challenges this season and has attended every one of my PCs this year.

Chuppa N. Cross IV (Chuppa, aka Choopa Croos) is the vegetarian of the group, likes plaid shirts and alt rock… ahem. I mean he finished top 16 at APEX in 2014 as well as 2nd at Massachusetts Regionals in the same year. This season, Chuppa has the most CP earned by a Master from my PCs.

Dan Levinson (dtrain) “bubbled to make Worlds” in both the 2010 and 2012 LCQ (his words), was Top 4 at the 2006 JAA NYC Qualifier, Top 8 at the now defunct Newark Regionals in 2010, Top 16 at Virginia Regionals in 2011, Top 8 at Virginia Regionals and 2nd at Toronto Regionals both in 2013. He also has two Top 8 finishes from Premier Challenges this season.

Dorian Nousias (CrazyBlissey) had an impressive Premier Challenge run this season with two 1st place finishes to go along with 3rd and 4th place finishes. He was 13th at Virginia Regionals this year and placed Top 32 at last year’s Worlds LCQ. Dorian was also the NYU Grassroots Tournament Champion and is the creator of CrazyDojo.

Jake Rosen (SableyeMagma) is the Senior most known for constantly changing his teams at the last minute but he has a pretty sweet resume so I guess it works. Jake’s most recent (2015) achievements include 2nd at Philly Regionals, 8th at Massachusetts Regionals, 1st at a Holmes Premier Challenge, six 2nd place PC finishes and Top 64 at Nationals.

Jake Skurchak (Pokebeys) started off in TCG but (in his own words) “found out he was terrible at it,” so he switched to VG in 2014. The switch paid off and Jake has had a breakout 2015 season, finishing Top 4 at Virginia Regionals, 2nd at Madison Regionals and Top 4 at US Nationals.

James Baek (Jamesspeed1) just aged up into the Masters division this year, much to the delight of local Seniors. In 2014, he had three consecutive Premier Challenges victories, grinded his way into Worlds via the LCQ and finished 36th. While some players find the transition to Masters difficult, James has seen great success with a 2nd place finish at Madison Regionals, two 2nd place finishes at PCs and a Day 2 (34th) at US Nationals.

Jeudy Azzarelli (Soul Survivor) qualified for his first World Championships last year and made it all the way to the finals before falling to Se Jun Park. He has the fortune of reliving this moment every time there’s an official live stream (sorry, dude). With his invite to this year’s Worlds intact, Jeudy could have taken the year off but instead he made it to Day 2 at US Nationals.

Jiovaine Neita (Jio) achieved 19th at Nationals in 2013, top cut at APEX in 2014 and 2015 and came back this year to take 1st at a PC and 1st at the last tournament we held before Nationals. He also managed the runner-up team “Lilycove Cruisers” from NPA 3. On a personal note, Jio wrote the most useful article for EV spreads that really helped me when I was first trying to learn competitive VG and I recommend it to everyone.

Jonathan Evans (Ezrael) is one of the most outspoken and eloquent players I know, which might stem from his years of Speech and Debate in high school. Notable finishes include 17th at Philly Regionals in 2014, 3rd in one of my PCs and 4th at this year’s APEX. He leaves us for Oxford in the Fall where I’m sure they’ll enjoy asking him not to sit on the table every day.

Joe Pulkowski (Sandman) came out of nowhere for me this season. I started out in card game so I really didn’t know VG player history beyond 2014. Sandman showed up to one of my PCs this year, a quiet and unassuming guy (I understand it was his first after a long break). Coming back from lunch he was late and unfortunately earned a loss for that round. He went on to win that tournament. Joe’s accomplishments include 2nd at Nationals and 4th at Worlds in 2012. 

Joshua Lorcy (Lorcylovesyou) is a newcomer to the VG scene but he sure had a great start. He has multiple top cut finishes at Premier Challenges this season and he’s extremely popular amongst the local community. Case in point, Player’s Choice Paul Chua (40% of the votes) asked if he could pick Joshua to take his spot since he couldn’t make it.

Jun Tumaneng (Cypher) likes to melt faces with his sick gloving technique when he isn’t bodying MK at Pokemon. Jun finished top 16 at Nationals in 2013, took 1st at APEX in 2014 and finished Top 8 at Virginia Regionals this year.

Kazi Rahman (AwakenedCity) chose last year’s LCQ as the perfect time to pick up VGC (ouch, dude). He stuck around though and has two 2nd place PC finishes and two Top 64s at Regionals this season.

Matthew Terriberry (CrazySnorlax) is the 2nd half of the “Crazies” duo. True to his nickname, he was too busy sleeping in the middle of the road to be interviewed for this write-up. Now where did that Poké Flute get to…

Michael Lanzano (JiveTime) wanted to play so badly that he punched Wolfe Glick … just kidding. I’d be here for a few days if I tried to fit in all of JiveTime’s accomplishments so I’ll stick to the past two years: 1st at Philly and Georgia Regionals, 3rd at APEX, 14th at Nationals and 26th at Worlds in 2014, 6th at Virginia and Mass Regionals and 10th at Georgia Regionals in 2015.

Michael Spinetta-McCarthy (SirChicken) has the unfortunate honor of being the first player to have something stolen at one of my tournaments (hopefully also the last). Luckily, said stolen item was later recovered by some diligence from the shop. Michael has pretty much steamrolled the Seniors this season, going undefeated at Massachusetts Regionals before finishing 2nd, taking 1st at Virginia and Philly Regionals, and has also thrown in two 1st, one 2nd and two Top 4 PC finishes for good measure.

Mihrab Samad (Megachar10) has 4 PC wins, Top 4 at Massachusetts Regionals, Top 8 at Philly Regionals and top 8 at US Nationals. He is also cool enough to have his own groupies. Get on his level, people.

MK Choy (Byaaakuren) is the wise old master of the group and has the credentials to go along with it – but on the TCG side of the game. MK was a Worlds Competitor in 2004 and 2008, Top 32 at Nationals in 2005, 2nd place at NY States in 2006, 4th at DE States in 2007, 3rd in NY States in 2009 and Top 8 at Regionals in 2006, 2007 and 2010. On the VG side, he took 2nd at a PC this year and has been helping me as a Judge ever since.

Nicholas Borghi (LightCore) has four 1st place finishes at Premier Challenges this season, along with a Top 8 at Philly Regionals, Top 64 at Georgia Regionals and Top 64 at US Nationals. Nick was voted “most likely to call you every day to tell you about his super cool Rattata.”

Patrick Donegan (Pd0nz) is “arguably the most omnipresent member of the Pokemon Community”… Anyway, Patrick has streamed pretty much every one of my Premier Challenges this year and hopefully he’s fixed his computer so we can stream the Invitational. When not racking up millions of frequent flier miles travelling to Italy and every which place for tournaments, he’s playing the Nugget Bridge circuit, with a Top 8 at the NB Major and has also qualified for the NB Invitational this year.

Simon Yip (Simon) has eight Premier Challenge top cuts in a row this season and was Top 8 at US Nationals in 2014. According to Simon, he bubbled Worlds in 2013 by 2 CP and again in 2014 by “slightly more than 2 CP.” He got Top 4 at Nationals and 17th at Worlds in 2011. He also carried Jun to the NPA2 Championship and will tour Europe this summer.

Sohaib Mufti (Sohaib) finished Top 64 in last year’s LCQ and followed that up by winning a Premier Challenge, finishing Top 16 at Athens Regionals and Top 128 at Nationals this season.

Stephen Mea (Gramgus) had a standout season with a BFL for Premier Challenges of 1, 1, 2, 2, and 4. He added to that with a Top 2 at Georgia Regionals, a Top 4 at Massachusetts Regionals and a Top 64 at Nationals.

Tommy Cooleen (Tman) is a member of the “5AM Crew” and is also made of titanium, not to be confused with Wolverine even though they both have that shaggy look going. Tommy’s resume include Top 32 in the Senior division at US Nationals in 2013, going undefeated in Swiss before finishing Top 16 at Virginia Regionals in 2014, Top 8 at Massachusetts Regionals also in 2014, and tTop 16 at Florida Regionals in 2015. He has three Premier Challenge wins as well.

Trista Medine (ryuzaki) has a 3 digit POP ID and is definitely tired of being asked about it every time she goes to a tournament. “Even though I couldn’t get out to many tournaments while living in rural Louisiana, I kept up with everything online and participated in the first iteration of the professor program where you only needed to be 15.”  To sum up her arm’s length list of accomplishments: Top 16 at Texas Regionals and Top 32 at Nationals in 2010, Texas Regional Champ and 9th place at Worlds in 2011, Top 16 at Texas and Missouri Regionals and Top 16 Nationals in 2012, 2nd at Georgia Regionals, Top 8 at Houston Regionals, Top 16 at Virginia Regionals, and Top 32 at both Nationals and Worlds in 2013, Top 4 at Massachusetts Regionals, Top 8 at Wisconsin Regionals, Top 16 at Philly Regionals, and 4th at APEX in 2014, and finally Top 16 at Philly Regionals and 9th at APEX in 2015. Plus some top cuts at Premier Challenges if you didn’t already feel completely inadequate in comparison to Trista.

Walter Morales (Wally1021) happened to find Nugget Bridge right before the LCQ last year, read up on competitive Pokemon and “figured DC would be a nice mini vacation.” He has three Top 4 finishes and many more Top 8 finishes at Premier Challenges this season.

Zach Droegkamp (Braverius) is the final player and the “TO’s Choice” for the Invitational. I knew coming in that I wanted to have a wild card choice. I had a few players in mind (Aaron Traylor and Josh Lorcy) but they were both chosen as part of the “Player’s Choice”. One name kept jumping out at me, though, and then he messaged me directly. From there it was a no-brainer. Zach has four Regional Championship wins, a 2nd at Missouri Regionals this year and has qualified to play in Worlds in 2013 and 2015.

So there you have it! The NY/NJ Invitational will be held on Saturday, August 8th at Jinx Collectibles in Matawan, NJ. We’ll be streaming from Aaron Zheng’s channel. Mike Suleski and Justin Carris will be commentating initially but I’m sure all of our players will jump on the stream at some point.

Thanks for reading and I hope you log on to watch!

Picture credits to Doug Morisoli, Sabrina Chowdhury, Team Magma and Jen Badamo.

The post New York & New Jersey Invitational Preview appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello! My name is Jackson Lakey, but some of you might know me as FamousDeaf. I’ve played competitive Pokemon since late 2011, with my best friend Nicholas Steer (IncredibleChaos) who initially introduced me to the VGC format and I loved it.

Over the past few years, I’ve watched the best players on YouTube, Pokemon Showdown and Live tournaments on Nugget Bridge, and I’ve learnt a lot of stuff from them. In 2013, Australia finally got events that were sanctioned and contributed towards the World Championships. I was a semi-finalist in the Melbourne Regional and top 16 in the National for that year. The format for the events that year were unfortunately single-elimination, but things improved with the structure of events moving ahead to 2014 and this year.

While I was testing on Pokemon Showdown for VGC 2014 I came to find I hated the format because it restricted me too much. I couldn’t find any teams that I completely enjoyed using, and while Charizard-Y/Garchomp or Mega Tyranitar/Amoonguss were decent for me, I still was not 100% satisfied. I had no passion and no motivation for VGC 2014. I didn’t have a good result from either regional or national events in 2014. I decided to have a long break until the next format because of it.

When I found out the format for this year, I came back from my self-imposed break. I really enjoy the format and I wanted to get good results from the regional and national events I planned to attend. Before regionals, I knew I needed to build a good team and test it with the help from the Delphox Cubs. As a result of my preparation, I made top 4 at the Melbourne regional and I was pretty happy about it.

When the Australia National was announced to be a Best-of-three Swiss, me and fellow Australian CatGonk went absolutely crazy on Facebook and Twitter.

Australia Metagame analysis:

Australians have this massive love affair with using Mega Kangaskhan, Breloom, Landorus-T, Thundurus-I, Heatran, Sylveon and Suicune, so these were key Pokemon to bear in mind while team-building. I knew I wanted to have a good match-up against the common archetypes such as Sun, Rain, Trick Room and general good-stuff teams.

Australia’s metagame also tends to have some unorthodox choices; they used random Pokemon such as Whiscash, Serperior and other lesser used options in the regional events. I wanted to make sure to not lose against those sorts of teams.

Because of the nature of best-of-three swiss is affecting players’ decision-making, most would want to go with the safe Mega Kangaskhan and friends, standard sand team or other team archetypes. The Best-of-three format would help to remove a significant portion of the gimmicks and unorthodox Pokemon choices.

Teambuilding and Decision Process:

I was testing a lot of various cores such as Mega Salamence/Raikou, Mega Metagross/Hydreigon/Landorus-T, Mega Charizard-Y/Landorus-T, Mega Kangaskhan/Clefable and lot of other things.

I used this team in the PokeMelbourne tournament and came 2^nd overall. This was a really good team and suited my play-style. However the metagame had shifted, with Mega Metagross much weaker compared to the start of the season due to Aegislash, Heatran, Scrafty as well as the Japanese sand team. The team itself was also really weak to Mega Charizard-Y with Icy Wind support and Rain teams in general. I decided to scrap that team.

I used this team on a WiFi Easter VGC tournament, specific to Australian players, where I made top cut and lost to Luke Curtale (Dawg) in top 4. However I was still not happy with my team and decided to scrap it as well as I wasn’t enjoying using it or found it comfortable.

I decided to find a draft team that I was really successful with on Battle Spot, Pokemon Showdown and the live tournaments.

The dual-mega team is a good option but I prefer to have one mega evolution where possible on a team so that I can focus my support around it. Mega Salamence is my favorite mega to use because it’s perfect for my play-style. It has the Intimidate ability, a reliable recovery move in Roost, and is able to set up with a boosting move, have the bulk to survive and is able to hit hard as a result. That’s what I want with everything. I wanted to protect Mega Salamence better otherwise I would have a hard time to find the momentum to deal with the biggest threats

I replaced Mega Charizard-Y for Heatran and Aegislash for Clefairy, and was really happy with how they fit. Heatran is able to control the board with Substitute and is able to do good damage. Clefairy is a good Pokemon for Mega Salamence because of redirecting the myriad of Ice and Dragon-type moves among many to allow Mega Salamence to set up. Heatran/Salamence/Clefairy is a good Dragon/Fairy/Steel core. Additionally Heatran and Salamence have a good offensive and defensive synergy.

I was not happy with Ludicolo and Terrakion because Ludicolo is not good Pokemon anymore. Most of the time, Ludicolo was dead weight and doesn’t carry enough offensive pressure. Terrakion has good STABs and was able to apply offensive pressure and provide a supportive role with Quick Guard and Taunt. However, a combination of its best match-ups, Mega Charizard-Y, Talonflame and Bisharp dropping the usage and the Japanese Sand team becoming a thing, meant that Terrakion struggled to carve out a purpose for itself. Terrakion was a mediocre Pokemon in today’s metagame. Me and the Delphox Cubs had a discussion about them; they agreed with me and so I dropped them both.

I was looking for Pokemon that threatened Water-types, Mega Kangaskhan, Heatran, Tyranitar and many Pokemon besides. Virizion was the perfect Pokemon, acting as a perfect partner for Mega Salamence and Heatran on the team. Virizion and Salamence can also apply a lot of offensive pressure.

At this stage, I had one slot available for my team. I was looking at bulky Water-type such as Swampert, but none really were a good fit onto my team. I needed to find another Pokemon able to give more protection for Mega Salamence to fulfill its role. I was talking with the Delphox Cubs about this, and Catgonk was suggesting me to test Aegislash again now that the team had changed. I decided to have another go with Aegislash. Its ability to provide Wide Guard support to protect my team from spread moves and more switching options was incredibly helpful. I had double Steel-types on the team, Heatran and Aegislash, but they are doing different functions. Aegislash was a perfect Pokemon for my team.

Finally, I finished my team and I was pretty happy about it!

The Squad

Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 52 HP / 236 Atk / 4 Def / 20 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature

– Dragon Dance
– Double Edge
– Protect
– Roost

Salamence my favorite mega evolution for a good reason. Dragon Dance allows me to set up when it’s next to my re-direction or when the opponent’s Pokemon can’t do much to it and it’s able to bring more offensive pressure after the Dragon Dance. I prefer Double Edge over Return (or Frustration if your that sort of trainer) because it can OHKO a lot of Pokemon at full HP, or after some chip damage with without a boost. It’s able to OHKO bulky Sylveon and some Mega Charizard-Y too. Protect is an obvious move, it allows me to scout an opponents’ move and allow Salamence to mega evolve without taking unnecessary damage. Roost is a filler move that is more defensive. It provides a better end-game option against threats such as Rotom-W, Bisharp (without defiant boost) and Heatran (without Flash Cannon) and provides survivability. While Earthquake is a good move to hit Heatran, my team only has one immunity to Earthquake in Thundurus-T, and it was the least used member in both the regional and national.

Defensively, it has a high chance to survive two Rock Slides from 0+ Attack Terrakion. It’s able to survive some Suicune’s Ice Beam occasionally, depending on the investment into Special Attack, and also some random Hidden Power Ice users, but I normally retreat it rather than taking the hit. The 20 Sp.Def was leftover, it’s allowed to take a special hits bit better. After Dragon Dance, it can outspeed everything relevant in the metagame. It’s able to outspeed Jolly Breloom in Tailwind after a single Dragon Dance which it’s important because Breloom is everywhere in Australia. It is able to 100% OHKO 252 HP Sylveon unless it is EV’d to survive my Mega Salamence’s Double Edge.

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 236 HP / 252 SpA / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk

– Flash Cannon
– Shadow Ball
– King’s Shield
– Wide Guard

Aegislash is a really good Wide Guard user, with plenty of resists and immunities. Aegislash’s ability to resist Ice, Dragon and Fairy-type moves, as well as Rock Slide are really important factors for my team. It has a nice synergy with Salamence by being able to protect my Salamence from spread moves plus the Ice and Dragon-type moves. Wide Guard is one of the best moves in VGC at the moment; it’s really important to have.

Aegislash’s move-set is straightforward, the Weakness Policy is used as Aegislash is able to take a ‘Super Effective’ move and can retaliate hard. I wanted my Aegislash to outspeed other Aegislash, as Mega Salamence’s Double Edge and Aegislash’s Shadow Ball onto opposing 252HP Aegislash comes pretty close to a guaranteed knockout. I’m not that bothered whether the Sylveon is faster or slower than my Aegislash, its unlikely to be a threat in the long run.

I’m almost always bringing Aegislash against Trick Room teams because it is able to threaten Cresselia while being slower than it. Wide Guard is amazing in Trick Room match-up, it’s able to protect my team from Abomasnow, Camerupt and Rhyperior as they are the main Trick Room sweepers that are seen.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature

– Heat Wave
– Earth Power
– Protect
– Substitute

My Heatran is a pretty standard set. I love Heatran’s ability to control the board with Substitute. I felt like outspeeding Breloom and Smeargle are really important. I couldn’t see how I needed the Modest nature to have more damage output and Timid Heatran felt like a good choice for my team. Substitute allows me to set up on Amoonguss that try to get off a crafty Spore and provides me the potential to set-up a better match-up against Trick Room.

I tested Flamethrower and Fire Blast for Heatran’s primary STAB, but I feel like spread moves are an important tool to have on a team, and the team would otherwise lack a spread move. I needed it because it’s able to do some damage on both opposing Pokemon to allow Mega Salamence, Thundurus-T and Virizion to pick up key knockouts. Earth Power is there to hit opposing Heatran, Tyranitar and those Aegislash that attempt to use Wide Guard.

Virizion @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature

– Close Combat
– Leaf Blade
– Stone Edge
– Protect

The fact that Mega Salamence and Heatran have problems with Water-types such as Rotom-W and Suicune, the need for something to cover this issue. Hence choosing Virizion for the team, who can deal with them effectively. I used Virizion over Breloom because the 108 base Speed is really important to outspeed Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Charizard-Y and Timid Heatran since it’s become popular, all of which usually outspeed Breloom. I also don’t really like Breloom either, because it doesn’t fit my playstyle. Virizion is a decent Pokemon to deal with Thundurus-I, able to largely tank hits and reply back with Stone Edge.

Mega Salamence and Virizion has one of the best offensive synergies in my team, they cover each other to beat a lot of Pokemon. Life Orb is needed to hit extra hard with its various attacks; to OHKO Mega Kangaskhan unless it runs a crazy bulky setup. The move-set itself is standard. I was testing various moves in the 3^rd slot such as Taunt, Quick Guard and Double Kick. I felt that hitting Thundurus-I and Mega Charizard-Y with Stone Edge is important, thus I chose Stone Edge. The Grass-Type legendary continues not to disappoint.

Clefairy @ Eviolite
Ability: Friend Guard
Evs: 236 HP / 212 Def / 12 SpA / 44 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk

-Protect
-Moonblast
-Follow Me
-Helping Hand

I used this Clefairy in Regionals because its Friend Guard ability is amazing and provided support to my other team members. Moonblast is just for chip damage without being completely dead-weight from Taunt. The remainder of the move-set is straightforward enough. The EV spread is one from the Nugget Bridge forum that I found. It can survive Bisharp’s Iron Head, Aegislash’s Flash Cannon a large majority of the time, Mega Kangaskhan’s Double-Edge, Mega Salamence’s Double-Edge and Life Orb Heatran’s Flash Cannon most of the time.

I was not happy with Clefairy in Regional because it’s being dead-weight in lot of matches in the Regional. It lacks any presence in the team preview stage, because it has a lack of Ice Beam, Sitrus Berry and the Unaware ability. I was desperate for Ice Beam and Sitrus Berry, so I decided to replace it for its evolved brethren for those benefits.

Clefable @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 244 HP / 164 Def / 28 SpA / 68 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature

– Ice Beam
– Protect
– Follow Me
– Helping Hand

Clefable is one of the best Follow Me users in the format. This Clefable is a carbon copy of DaWoblefet’s, with investment in what it needs to survive hits from Bisharp, Life Orb Heatran’s Flash Cannon the majority of the time and Aegislash’s Flash Cannon. In response, it’s able to OHKO Landorus-T the vast majority of the time which is very important with it being practically everywhere. I feel like Helping Hand is important move to allow other team members to OHKO Pokemon such as Cresselia and Suicune, among other bulky options.

Sitrus Berry is an important item for Clefable because I want to be able to use multiple Follow Me’s compared to those that run Rocky Helmet and Safety Goggles. Being able to support for more turns with Helping Hand to boost my Pokemon’s attacks also cannot be understated.

Follow Me allows to Mega Salamence to orchestrate my plans to set up without worrying about any potential Ice Beam’s and Dragon-type moves. You never want to let Salamence set up and sweep or rack up a lot of damage your team if your an opponent, so Clefable allows me to apply pressure via Salamence. It’s not just Mega Salamence though, it can support everything on my team. It proved to be a pretty good replacement for Nationals, I am really happy with how it worked out.

Thundurus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature

– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Grass Knot
– Volt Switch

Thundurus-T is my least used team member, but it’s good at what it needs to do. Thundurus-T is important to use against Landorus-T, Thundurus-I, Mega Salamence, Mega Charizard-Y, Suicune and Talonflame. It’s able to protect my Salamence from Thunderbolt and Thunder Wave, as well as the other big threats in Thundurus-I, Zapdos and Rotom-W.

The move-set are standard for a Choice set. Grass Knot is important because it has an 88% chance to one-shot 4/0 Terrakion, Swampert and Rhyperior. Volt Switch is a good move for my team, it lets me to maintain or gain momentum with it. I can switch out Salamence and use Volt Switch then switch in Salamence for second Intimidate or one of the Steel-types on my team. I wanted to keep it simple with Thundurus-T’s EV spread because I couldn’t see how it needed any bulk.

If I were to use my team again, I would look to test Zapdos, Thundurus-I and Rotom-W in this slot to provide better support and switching options, which my team would appreciate.

Team Synergy

Heatran and Aegislash are the Steel-types here but as I mentioned earlier, they serve completely different functions. They both provide good switching options. Aegislash is able to use Wide Guard to protect Heatran from Earthquake. Heatran and Aegislash can be used as a lead against Landorus-T, force it to use Superpower on Heatran and therefore Salamence can switch in, then look to set up on it or Intimidate Landorus-T to allow Aegislash to take a -1 Earthquake and OHKO Landorus-T or the other opposing Pokemon with +2 Shadow Ball or Flash Cannon.

Salamence/Heatran/Aegislash was used a lot in both the Regional and National events; they can win a lot of games against inexperienced and experienced players, and they are a really good core to use.

This core provides a lot of offensive pressure by being able to set-up Substitute and Dragon Dance. Virizion is able to beat Water-types, Tyranitar, Heatran, Mega Kangaskhan and Hydreigon relatively easily. Mega Salamence is able to beat Talonflame, Sylveon, Landorus-T and soften up a lot of physical attackers with Intimidate. Heatran is able to beat Aegislash and switch into Mega Charizard-Y, with the possibility of catching a Flash Fire boost. They all cover each other offensively and defensively so well.

Clefable is arguably one of the best options in providing a good support, and on this team its role is protecting Mega Salamence with Follow Me to allow it to Dragon Dance. This is a duo I often brought to games against someone who was weak or completely unprepared to deal with Mega Salamence and Clefable.

Honestly, every member of my team was able to work together, and no single member was the MVP because everything worked so well between them.

Threat List

This combination of Pokemon is one of my worst match-ups, and one that understandably I really hate. Mega Gardevoir is able to set up Trick Room or fire off an Icy Wind with Scrafty’s providing Fake Out support. Aegislash wouldn’t be able to protect my team from Hyper Voice for long because of Scrafty and Heatran. Both Matthew Jiwa (JiwaVGC) and Callum Witt (CruiseVGC) beat me with this setup in the Swiss Rounds. I couldn’t see how I can win against that team unless I make some crazy plays. That match-up is pretty harsh and borders on being an auto-loss, depending on the teammates that complete the roster.

I don’t like to play against Rotom-W, as I need to rely on Virizion and Aegislash to deal with it. I could try to get end-game scenario with Mega Salamence on Rotom-W. Wherever possible though, I need to remove Rotom-W as soon as possible, but its not biggest problem like Mega Gardevoir/Scrafty/Heatran.

I don’t like to play against Rotom-H either to be fair, but it depends on the item it holds. I don’t have any safe switch for it’s STABs and I don’t have a 100% accurate move that hits it for Super Effective damage — only Stone Edge does — which is an issue. If it has the Safety Goggles, it’s a bit easier to deal with it because I can damage it with Mega Salamence, Virizion and Heatran. Clefable can help by providing redirection on the Will-o-Wisp’s and attacks in general. If it’s using the Choice Scarf however, it’s worse for me, basically I would need to OHKO it quickly. Fortunately enough, I only had to battle one Rotom-H at Nationals.

You may be sitting there thinking that my team is bit weak to Landorus-T, but it has a good match-up against it because Heatran can be sat next to Aegislash and threaten to Wide Guard. I also have options all round; Clefable’s Ice beam, Mega Salamence in general, Thundurus-T and Virizion are all great against it.

Matchups:

Sun:

• My team has a really good match-up against Sun teams.
• I need to scout out my opponents’ Mega Charizard-Y to see whether it has Hidden Power Ground.**
• I need to find out what items are being held on opposing Heatran and Landorus-T if the opposing team has them.
• Aegislash can be really useful if the sun team is reliant on spread moves, particularly from the likes of Landorus-T, Mega Charizard-Y and Heatran who are commonly seen.
• Mega Salamence and Heatran are almost always brought in the battle with such a team.

Rain:

• Salamence and Clefable is a pretty good lead against the common Politoed and Ludicolo/Kingdra and using Follow Me and Dragon Dance then allows Salamence to outspeed Ludicolo. Mega Salamence is unable to outspeed Kingdra after a Dragon Dance, but I can use Double-Edge to OHKO Kingdra anyways.
• Aegislash is pretty important if the rain team have either Mega Metagross or Mega Mawile.
• Thundurus-T is a good Pokemon to bring against the rain team with the likes of Landorus-T and Thundurus-I.
• Virizion is a good Pokemon to use against a rain team with Mega Kangaskhan.

Mega Kangaskhan/Thundurus-I or Zapdos/Landorus-T/friends:

• This is one of the common team archetypes in the Australian metagame because it’s really successful and easy to use. It’s really important to prepare against them.
• Sometimes I don’t bring Mega Salamence against this kind of team, because Landorus-T can Intimidate it, with Thundurus-I and Heatran (if it has Flash Cannon) can threaten it.
• Aegislash and Heatran make a really good duo against teams that are similar to Chiron’s regional winning team, because it can limit the damage taken from Sylveon and Landorus-T.
• Virizion can be brought against this type of team as it can threaten Mega Kangaskhan and Heatran with Close Combat and the fact it outspeeds both under normal circumstances.
• Clefable can be helpful against Thundurus-I in combination with Mega Kangaskhan and Heatran. By using Follow Me, it can allow me to set up Substitute with my Heatran or assist Virizion without needing to worry about Thunder Wave.
• Thundurus-T is just really good against a double genies lead. Other than that, it’s not usually worth bringing.

Clefable/Mega Salamence:

• It’s a mirror match.
• I need to scout out whether the opposing Mega Salamence has Earthquake. Sometimes Heatran can prove to be really good against this team strategy.
• Thundurus-T is an amazing Pokemon against Mega Salamence because it outspeeds and use Hidden Power Ice before Salamence can do anything… unless it’s next to Clefable.
• Virizion is not usually bring against that archetype unless they have Terrakion/Bisharp/Suicune/Salamence pretty much on a single team. I did encounter them in Regionals. As long as I can remove Salamence from the occasion before I can bring it out, then it is a valuable pick.

Trick Room:

• This squad has a pretty decent matchup unless Mega Gardevoir, Scrafty and Heatran are all together, as previously mention in the threat list.
• Heatran and Aegislash are the best Pokemon my team has against Trick Room. Wide Guard is just amazing against Rhyperior, Abomasnow, Sylveon and many other Trick Room sweepers. Heatran is able to set up Substitute before Trick Room is set up, providing added security.
• Mega Salamence and Clefable can be brought against Trick Room due to Intimidate and putting pressure on a possible Scrafty and Amoonguss lead. Clefable can also use Follow Me to let Mega Salamence get free damage with Double Edge or even set up a Dragon Dance in last turn(s) of Trick Room.

Japanese Sand:

• This can be a tricky matchup because while a team of Heatran, Aegislash, Thundurus-T and Virizion is good against Mega Salamence/Excadrill/Tyranitar/Rotom-W/Aegislash/Amoonguss, they in return are good against my team.
• Heatran and Aegislash is amazing against the pair of Excadrill and Salamence because they are able to limit sweeping with spread moves.
• Virizion is normally a good pick against a sand team, as long as I can rid of Salamence and Aegislash specifically.
• Salamence and Clefable rarely brought, because the conventional sand team has 3-4 Pokemon that is resistant to Flying-type attacks. In addition, Excadrill and Aegislash effectively helps to render Clefable useless.

Mega Venusaur team:

• Mega Venusaur is uncommon in the Australian metagame but my team is usually has a good matchup against teams built around this behemoth.
• Heatran and Mega Salamence are almost 100% picks because they can force Mega Venusaur to play really defensively or switch out. The plan for the endgame is to force a situation where it’s their Mega Venusaur against either one of my Mega Salamence or Heatran.
• Aegislash is useful, it’s another Pokemon to switch into Mega Venusaur and is able to protect my Mega Salamence and Heatran from any potential spread moves such as from Landorus-T.

Event Summary:

My experience was amazing for both the Regional and National events I attended. The events ran smoothly, so thanks a lot to Jamie and his staff! I am looking forward for next season. I can say I’m really happy with my strong performance at Regionals and Nationals because I came back really strong from my horrible season that I endured last year.

I had some amazing matches across these events. I had one of my best battles with (Yourf) in the top 16 at Nationals, I just wish it was on stream or I could have saved the battle video of it. It was nail-biting and were really close matches. I also had a good battle against Sean Ronzani and Matthew Roey (RoeySK) in the Quarter and Semi-Finals of the National.

The staff asked me to battle with CatGonk for some exhibition battles. We weren’t serious in that battle. The battle had a huge amount of luck such as Ice beam freezing Zapdos and it let Mega Salamence set up a second Dragon Dance then the game was over quickly. His Heatran’s Flamethrower was devastating on my Virizion switch in. We had a lot of fun though and enjoyed our result, it was the perfect way to finish the amazing days we had.

Shout-out:

• The Delphox Cubs who helped me to build a team and suggested some Pokemon to try. They were able to provide the legendaries I needed to help me to build a team.
• (Dawg), (MitchVGC), (Yourf), (Zyihk), (BaseIn2), (ZeldaVGC), (UchihaX96), (ha1cy0n), (JiwaVGC) and many people who made the weekend so much fun and being able to catch up with them. We usually spend time chilling on a group Facebook chat. It’s sometime less than savory but it’s really fun nonetheless, and they did help me with a few things such as Virizion.
• Jamie, the Nintendo staff and TCPi whom organized the Regional and National events. They were run very smoothly and have improved from last year. I can’t wait to see you organizing the events for next year, I’m sure they will be bigger and better.
• Some people from Nugget Bridge and on Twitter who were supporting me during these events. I got sent numerous private messages saying congrats on making the Semis at Nationals. I really appreciate those who supported me.

The post A Deafinite Victory: Top 4 in Melbourne Regional and Australia National appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi guys, my name is Thomas and I am from Austria. After participating in both the Italian Regionals and Nationals I figured it was time for me to share the team I used in both tournaments. Since I tweaked Heatran’s item and EV spread after the Regionals I am going to include two spreads for Heatran.

Teambuilding Process:

After having a lot of success with Perish Trap in my  local community, I knew I had to use something similar to what I was used to, but in the 2015 metagame Perish Trap was easy to counter. I avoided this problem by using the enemy’s strategy to counter Perish Trap against them by building a team that looks like a Perish Trap team with regular Kangaskhan, like the one that was featured on Alex Ogloza’s YouTube channel at the time, to predict and counter the opponents lead. The first 3 Pokemon I added to my team were Gengar, Gothitelle and Kangaskhan; however, Gothitelle had little synergy here, until I got the idea to make the team a Trick Room Team. I built the the team so it would work well with and without the Trick Room to counter other Trick Room teams by either using their Trick Room against them or by surprisingly reverting it with Gengar. I added Sylveon and Conkeldurr to the squad to balance out some weaknesses and add 2 things that can do a lot of damage while Trick Room was up. The last Pokemon I used was Heatran. It covered a lot of the remaining weaknesses without adding more. It also provided much needed fire coverage and walled entire teams after I wiped out its counter with Kangaskhan and friends.

The Team:

Gengar (Trip with me) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Trick Room
– Shadow Ball
– Protect
– Will-O-Wisp

Gengar was my main Trick Room setter for the team. Although it seems squishy, the only ways to stop it from getting out Trick Room if I lead it with Kangashan are random flinches, Paralysis, Scrappy Fake Out, and Taunt users that cannot be Faked Out. Gengar did most of its work at 1 HP after it got up Trick Room. I would switch it out to preserve it for a fast Shadow Ball in the late game or Will-O-Wisp to cripple Landorus that desperately try to Superpower my Kangaskhan. The spread was pretty standard. I tried running a minimum speed Gengar, which was a horrible idea. It was too fast for Trick Room and too slow without it.

Kangaskhan (F) (Shadow Khan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 244 HP / 92 Atk / 148 Def / 20 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Fake Out
– Low Kick
– Double-Edge
– Sucker Punch

For Kangaskhan I chose survivability over damage, because Double-Edge 2 hit KO’s almost everything that does not resist it and after the recoil my Gothitelle could revive all the damage it took with Heal Pulse. Low Kick was because I did not want to waste Trick Room turns boosting stats as it was difficult to set up Trick Room twice in one game if I chose to bring in Gengar over Gothitelle.

Heatran (Vulcan) @ Chople Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Heat Wave
– Substitute
– Protect
– Earth Power

For the Italy Regionals I knew that I needed my Heatran to deal with Mega Kangaskhan and all other fighting types. I chose to ditch this spread because Power-Up Punch Kangaskhan rose in popularity a lot and Chople Berry was basically useless. I also had troubles against other, faster Heatrans.

Heatran (Lava Cookie) @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 196 HP / 172 Def / 76 SpA / 64 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
– Heat Wave
– Substitute
– Earth Power
– Protect

This is the Heatran spread I used in the Italian Nationals, since Chople Berry was outdated at the time and I needed a way to beat faster Heatrans in the turn I set up Trick Room without Protecting — a pretty obvious move that put me into a bad position often while testing. The spread takes Scarfed Landorus Earthquake and any Earth Power thrown at it. It can also get up a Substitute after taking a hit.

Sylveon (Fairy Tale) @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 164 HP / 100 Def / 196 SpA / 44 SpD / 4 Spe
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Quick Attack
– Hyper Voice
– Protect
– Shadow Ball

Sylveon did exceptionally well in Regionals; however, it was the worst Pokemon on my team during Nationals. The whole metagame got a lot bulkier and Hyper Voice did almost no damage to neutral Pokemon.

Gothitelle (Love Me) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 244 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Trick Room
– Heal Pulse
– Helping Hand
– Psychic

I sadly only brought Gothitelle a handful of times because Gengar was a safer pick in most of my matches. However, it performed phenomenally in the matches I did pick it for. Heal Pulse made my Kangaskhan almost immortal and forced my opponent to try to deal with Gothitelle first. The spread takes a Choice Specs Dark Pulse from Hydreigon and was similar to the spread Cybertron used in the 2014 season. I used this spread because at the time of the Italy Regionals, Specs Hydreigon was the most common one on Showdown.

Conkeldurr (Nerf) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Guts
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Drain Punch
– Mach Punch
– Ice Punch
– Knock Off

My Conkeldurr was used to deal with Aegislash, Kangaskhan and Mega Salamence while Trick Room was up. It also worked well with Gothitelle because I could Heal Pulse and Drain Punch to get most of my HP back. I also used it as my main Rain counter because it takes very little damage from Politoed and Ludicolo while profiting from burns due to Guts. This also qualified it as a switch in for opposing Will-O-Wisp. The moveset and spread are the standard for Assault Vest Conkeldurr and allows it to take Sylveon’s Hyper Voice without Choice Specs.

Conclusion

I was really happy with my placement in the tournaments, however the 9th place in Rome was rather unfortunate. I got 9th by 1 percent with a 5-2 score in swiss. Other that that I earned my Worlds invite this season and I definitely hope to achieve a reasonable placement there. I also want to thank a special group of people that helped me over the time of this season and helped me come up with some ideas that went into this team. Noah Fuchs (Daydreaming Ninja on NB, Kadoya on Twitter) Kelly MW (KellsterCartier) and Jip Snoek (keonspy)

The post Perish Trap was not the Trap! A 9th Place Italy Regionals and Top 32 Italy Nationals Team appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello there reader! Rapha “bagel bagel” Bagara here! I recently earned a second place finish at the US National Championships, losing to former World Champion Toler Webb (Dim) in the finals. Playing 18 best-of-three games, meeting people who were merely usernames to me before, receiving lots of support during the weekend; it was far and away the best experience I’ve in Pokemon ever.

I’ve always viewed myself as just another player in this community and I never could have imagined I would have this kind of run during what was considered the most difficult US Nationals ever.

Let me give you some background information on me as a player. I first started playing VGC just last season after I discovered it thanks to Worlds being hosted in my hometown of Vancouver in 2013. The first event I attended was a 50 person Premier Challenge where I lost to Randy Kwa (R Inanimate) and his villain-mode Smeargle in the finals. I attended another Premier Challenge two weeks later, but lost in top 8 because Bidier’s Ice Beam Kangaskhan froze my Aegislash (still salty!).

Over the past year I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know the BC community quite well and I even joined the VGC With Hats crew, a blog founded by two fantastic and accomplished players in Max Douglas (starmetroid) and Mark Hanson (Crawdaunt).

I’ve also met people I had known about online during regionals and, while I was having a very middling season before my miracle run during Nationals, I don’t regret the time and effort I’ve put in trying to earn a worlds invite. My near disastrous finishes during spring regionals (4-4 in Seattle, 5-3 in Kansas) taught me not to take opportunities for granted and I realized I needed to be more attentive in my practice if I wanted to salvage my season at Nationals.

Team Building

Sohaib once told me of Trick Room Mega Gardevoir with Amoonguss and I immediately dismissed it as being a dumb idea because of Mega Gardevoir’s high base speed (oops!). Months later, I saw Lajo using it and, after being better informed of how the team functions, I was immediately interested in trying the team structure for myself. Lajo used Hydreigon on his team, but training partners Spurrific and LPFan, who were both also trying the team, had decided that Scrafty was a better fit.

Some time after those two were using the team, Ray started streaming with pretty much the same Pokemon, and I copied his Super Fang Scrafty set. I created a version of the team that had Gardevoir / Amoonguss / Heatran / Scrafty / Landorus-T / Rotom-W and won the BC Invitational with it, going undefeated the entire way (check out my report of that tournament here!).

After I won the BC Invitational, however, I started to struggle while practicing for Nationals. I tanked on the BattleSpot ladder due to bad plays and new techs, like Safety Goggles Aegislash, that gave the team a rough time. Two weeks before Nationals, I started toying around with other teams, such as Charizard / Cresselia, and I even entertained the idea of bringing back MegaGross Rain. However, those ideas also led to nowhere in practice and I kept coming back to Gardevoir.

It was at this point that I decided to try Thundurus over Rotom-W. I liked Rotom-W over Thundurus in theory because its Water-typing was useful against Heatran and Landorus. However, I realized that I would play situations sub-optimally, acting as if Hydro Pump would always miss, and Rotom ended up being a massive weak link to the team. Thundurus was very helpful in its ability to Taunt problematic Pokemon like Aegislash and Breloom, while priority Thunder Wave and Swagger worked well in conjunction with Landorus’ Rock Slide. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this change meant that I ended up with the same six Pokemon as Ray, even though this team was originally taken from Lajo.

I used the team of Gardevoir / Amoonguss / Heatran / Scrafty / Landorus-T / Thundurus-I in the June International Challenge and had solid results, but the biggest thing I took away from the online tournament was that I had started to feel very comfortable with the team. I probably should have learned all my damage calcs but, overall, I knew exactly what I wanted to use for Nationals.

The team structure is something a lot of people are familiar with, so I’ll go over it quickly. The team relies on two different modes with Trick Room and Thunder Wave. Which mode I would go with largely depended on how easily I could set up Trick Room, how Amoonguss and Scrafty fared against my opponent’s team, and where Gardevoir’s speed stat lies relative to my opponent’s bigger threats.

For example, I wouldn’t care too much if my opponent had Pokemon like Suicune or Cresselia because they exert little offensive pressure against my team, but I would be more inclined to use Trick Room versus a team with Garchomp or Terrakion than one with a Sylveon or Mawile. These are very specific requirements, which is why I used Thunder Wave more often than Trick Room throughout the tournament, but having these two modes allowed this team to excel in the best-of-three format of US Nationals.

My go-to lead during the tournament was Landorus + Thundurus, because it had so few bad matchups and it was a combination that allowed me to pivot into even more favorable positions. Even in bad lead situations I could always U-Turn out with Landorus and start putting myself in a better position with Thunder Wave. Swagger was also used effectively to discourage my opponent from staying in to take advantage of a good lead.

If I wanted to set up Trick Room, the preferred lead was Gardevoir + Landorus. I could start the game with Intimidate and U-Turn out in order to have a turn two Fake Out with Scrafty and another Intimidate. Typically from there, in most situations, Scrafty would use Super Fang (or Knock Off on a Sitrus Berry holder) so that Gardevoir’s powerful Hyper Voice can get the KO. Alternatively, I could also bring Amoonguss out in Trick Room and start putting things to sleep quickly so that Gardevoir can get several uninterrupted attacks off in quick succession.

The Team

Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 220 HP / 252 SAtk / 36 Spd
Modest Nature
– Hyper Voice
– Psyshock
– Trick Room
– Protect

As expected, given that it’s my mega of choice, the team is centered around Gardevoir. I have double Intimidate to support its pitiful physical bulk and two forms of speed control to solve the problem of Gardevoir’s middling speed. Redirection from Amoonguss allows Gardevoir to attack more freely and Gardevoir pairs well with Heatran as Fairy / Fire / Ground attacks offer fantastic coverage.

I have tried Mega Gardevoir in the past, but was left largely unimpressed by its frailty. However, it’s a Pokemon that can shine in this archetype and I was glad that I didn’t face too many players that tried to counter this team with specific techs. The EV spread is pretty lazy, but I haven’t needed Gardevoir to do much else: 36 Speed is there to speed creep Bisharp after mega evolving, 252 special attack for maximum damage output, and the rest into HP for generic bulk. I chose Psyshock over the more powerful Psychic because a lot of opposing Amoonguss and Mega Venusaur are trained to survive Psychic already, so both attacks are only 2HKOes, but Psyshock allows me to hit Pokemon like Milotic, Sylveon, and Ludicolo for more damage.

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 108 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spd
– Giga Drain
– Rage Powder
– Spore
– Protect

I honestly don’t think Amoonguss is a very good Pokemon. People have wised up to its antics and started using items like Safety Goggles, Rage Powder is greatly inferior to Follow Me, and lots of popular Pokemon, such as Charizard, Salamence, and Talonflame, have a field day against Amoonguss. On this team, however, there weren’t very many good alternatives, as redirection has become a staple on every team I’ve built and it helps set up Trick Room.

Under Trick Room, Amoonguss can Spore targets quickly to give Gardevoir free turns to use Hyper Voice. The set is incredibly standard, but I’ve been asked why I use Sassy nature with Rocky Helmet. I trained my Amoonguss to always survive the first hit from +2 Mega Kangaskhan’s Return without requiring Relaxed nature. Plus, I already have double Intimidate to help soften the blow from physical attackers. Amoonguss’ defenses are more split and choosing Sassy over Relaxed was more efficient. During the BC Invitational, I used an EV spread that mostly focused on just physical bulk, but I didn’t like how that spread was damaged by Sylveon so easily.

Heatran @ Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
– Heat Wave
– Flash Cannon
– Earth Power
– Protect

I don’t know whether I’m ahead or behind the curve with my use of Life Orb Heatran. Literally all the opposing Heatran I faced at Nationals had Shuca Berry. I like Life Orb a lot on Heatran because I felt that it would never quite hit hard enough without it. Also, yes, this Heatran is indeed Timid and max speed despite the team having a Trick Room option. I felt that if I leaned too heavily with making this team slow that I would have trouble handling Breloom and Bisharp. Also, given that this team uses Thunder Wave more, I was better off with speed over bulk.

The Trick Room portion of this team was mostly just Gardevoir / Amoonguss / Scrafty anyway. During the BC Invitational, I used Overheat over Flash Cannon, but I felt that this team needed more ways to deal with Fairies. I never needed Overheat during Nationals and Flash Cannon was useful beyond hitting Sylveon for good damage. Also, Heatran was the only Pokemon on this team that wasn’t significantly trained in defense, which follows the bulky-offense approach I went with when building this team.

Scrafty @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
– Fake Out
– Drain Punch
– Knock Off
– Super Fang

One half of the double Intimidate combo and an integral part of the Trick Room mode for this team. Scrafty helps set up Trick Room with Fake Out and, once the dimensions have been twisted, Scrafty supports Gardevoir a great deal by softening up Pokemon with Knock Off and Super Fang, making them even more vulnerable to Hyper Voice.

Relaxed Scrafty with max defense is an idea that I outright stole from Ray Rizzo. All that defense investment coupled with Assault Vest made Scrafty capable of taking hits from both sides of the spectrum and gave Scrafty great longevity to support the rest of the team. I never needed much attack investment, nor did I particularly care for burns, as Scrafty’s offense came primarily from using Super Fang. I generally don’t like Scrafty very much and it was my least used Pokemon during the tournament, but its role on this team was irreplaceable. It’s also difficult to overstate how good of a move Knock Off is in best-of-three play.

Landorus-T @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 164 HP / 20 Atk / 4 Def / 68 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– U-Turn
– Superpower

This was my favorite set on the team, and Choice Band has always been my favorite item on Landorus. I didn’t have much use for Choice Scarf because I typically only like that item for the purpose of outspeeding Terrakion, but I already have plenty of options to deal with the Rock-type muskateer. Assault Vest was taken by Scrafty and Choice Band allowed me to forgo investing too much in Landorus’ attack, which in turn allows it to be heavily trained in speed and bulk.

This Landorus is able to survive an Ice Beam from 100 SAtk Suicune 100% of the time, survive a +1 Sucker Punch from Life Orb Bisharp, while still OHKOing Pokemon like Charizard and Kangaskhan that were trained to barely survive attacks from 252-Attack Adamant Choice Scarf Landorus. During the tournament, the use of Choice Band was most useful against all the Shuca Berry Heatran I faced. The moveset is standard, because this is still Landorus after all. I did consider Knock Off, but U-Turn allowed me to shuffle Intimidate better, as well as do neat things like reseting Scrafty’s Fake Out or healing Amoonguss with Regenerator while still keeping it on the field.

Thundurus-I @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Def / 4 SAtk / 180 SDef / 68 Spd
Calm Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Thunder Wave
– Taunt
– Swagger

I hit 140 speed to outrun other Thundurus and, while I thought that this was excessive at first, I ended up facing three Thundurus that were faster than mine. This was a struggle to work around as I was heavily dependent on Thundurus to Taunt problematic Pokemon like Aegislash. For my Thundurus, I chose to invest heavily into special defense due to my team’s lack of concrete answers to Sylveon and because I already have double Intimidate. This Thundurus was trained to only be 3HKOed by Choice Specs Sylveon’s Hyper Voice but still maintains enough physical bulk to avoid a 2HKO from Landorus’ Rock Slide, even without Intimidate.

Though my team doesn’t have a way to hit Landorus for super effective damage, I chose to forgo Hidden Power Ice in favor of Swagger and this is a decision that I want to talk about a little bit. Though it gained a reputation as an amateur strategy, Swagger is a move that often has little downside when used and, even beyond its ability to win games from a sure-loss situation, Swagger can turn bad positions into neutral ones, neutral positions into positives, and positives into an insurmountable advantage. Preventing your opponent from moving even just once in a battle is a powerful tool, especially when stacked with Thunder Wave and Rock Slide. The worst thing it can do is discourage your opponent from trying to attack. This is especially true if I use Swagger on Aegislash. Despite missing Swagger a whopping nine times during the tournament, the move was still instrumental in allowing me to win matchups where I otherwise would have no chance.

Day 1

Round 1: Whitney Johnson (brokestupidlonely) (2-1W)

Round 2: Zach Droegkamp (Braverius) (2-1L)

Round 3: Ethan Simpson (2-1W)

Round 4: Sheryl Rummel (2-0W)

Round 5: Nathan Powell (Illuminatimon) (2-1W)

Round 6: Hanna Coder (2-1L)

Round 7: Walter Morales (Wally1021) (2-0W)

Round 8: Kyle Ayala (crazyck) (2-1W)

Round 9: Sohaib Mufti (sohaib) (2-1W)

I played very poorly versus Hanna Coder to drop to 4-2, and I legitimately feared that my tournament life would end because I put myself in a position where I no longer had any margin for error. Two rounds later, I played Kyle Ayala, who was making very strong reads that put me on the edge. Thankfully I was one step ahead when I needed to be and won a very close set. In round 9, I was paired up against friend and training partner Sohaib, who was using a team that I had a hand in putting together. It was a messy set because of double genie shenanigans on both sides, but I won based on a good prediction in the final turn of the final game. It was a shame that one of us had to knock the other out of the tournament.

Day 2

Round 1: Blake Hopper (Bopper) (2-1L)

Round 2: Nikolai Zielinski (Nikolai) (2-0W)

Round 3: Alex Underhill (Lexicon) (2-0L)

Round 4: Leonard Craft III (DaWoblefet) (2-1W)

Round 5: Gavin Michaels (kingofmars) (2-1W)

Round 6: Evan Bates (Veteran Padgett) (2-0W)

I lost to Blake in round 1, but playing that set gave me some insight on how to approach Charizard / Aegislash teams, which helped me win versus Leonard in round 4. In round 5 versus Gavin, Swagger really proved its worth as I won a very messy set. After beating Evan in round 6, I guaranteed myself a worlds invite with a guaranteed Top 16 finish.

I was on cloud nine. I played a lot of Pokemon that weekend and I was ecstatic that all my effort culminated to an invite to Boston. I celebrated with friends, watched the stream a little, and I didn’t think about anything other than the fact that I had earned the invite. I didn’t even think about top cut because of my 1-2 start. I didn’t want to trick myself and get my hopes up for top cut because the most important thing was that I had an invite. Did I mention I had a worlds invite?

The celebration lasted a fair amount of time because I finished the round 6 set quickly. After some time passed, Justin (Spurrific) had pulled up the standings and informed me that I had made top cut as the 8th seed.

Somehow, some way, despite my poor start, I was still moving on. The rest of the day disappeared in a blur. Eventually, it had sunk in that I made top cut and I realized that I would be playing against good friend and former world champion Hayden McTavish in the first round. At that moment I honestly would have been perfectly fine with getting destroyed since I was already happy to have made it this far but, of course, I still wanted to give it my best to go even deeper in the tournament. Anything less would be a waste of the opportunity. Also, man, my name still looks out of place next to everyone else in top cut.

I also want to talk about how much sheer, dumb luck helped me get into top cut. I got paired up and won in round 2 versus Nikolai, which helped my resistance tremendously. Meanwhile, the eventual 9th place finisher Aaron Liebersbach (Arch), who I edged out on the secondary tie-breaker, lost a pair down in round 5. A certain Volcarona user also mysteriously disappeared from competition when he was 3-1. Of course, if I wasn’t the one to have gotten lucky, it would have been someone else. I just wanted to express how grateful I was for the opportunity and that I didn’t squander it.

Top 8: Hayden McTavish (enigne)

Sadly, I have to start this section to acknowledge some of the unfortunate conversations Hayden and I had with other people. Hayden is typically reluctant to scout his opponent. He will often tell people that one of the major factors to his win at Worlds was because his final opponent refused to scout him. However, people had gotten in his ear about the scholarship prize for top 4 finish at Nats, how he he apparently had a fantastic team matchup versus me, and a certain former opponent of mine had told him that my Landorus had Assault Vest (which it most definitely doesn’t).

This all caused Hayden to think that he already had the set won and was pressured to do everything he could not to lose this set. Also, a mutual friend of mine and Hayden’s, Demitrios Kaguras (kingdjk) had accidentally blurted out to me that Hayden’s Aegislash did not have Wide Guard.

Mutual unsolicited scouting aside, Hayden is a fellow BC Invitational competitor and he had read my report on that tournament. Hayden had some crazy sets on his team, such as a Conkeldurr that didn’t carry Hammer Arm or Drain Punch. Also, his Salamence was trained to survive a Hyper Voice from my Gardevoir. I abused Swagger a fair bit in this set and, while it wasn’t anything like my set against Gavin, Swagger gave me a few crucial turns that allowed me to win this very close set.

Towards the end of game 3, Hayden said something along the lines of “that cost me $1500″ and I had no idea what he was talking about at the time, but he was referring to the scholarship, and “that” was his decision to scout me before our set started. He had known my Landorus had Choice Band and was capable of OHKOing his Heatran through Shuca Berry from my BC Invitationals report but, motivated to secure assurance, he had gathered team information to his detriment. I genuinely felt awful to see Hayden crushed after this set. Unfortunately, as a certain NPA manager once taught me: there are no friends once the round starts.

Top 4: Blake Hopper (Bopper)

After I won my top 8 match, I was immediately pulled aside to the play area that hosted Day 2 Swiss. I was honestly confused at what was happening, as I was hoping, and expecting, to be on the stage and stream. Blake and I weren’t being streamed and, instead, were relegated to one of the side TVs, much to my disappointment. I had badly wanted to get on stream, but I suppose it became another thing motivating me to win the set.

It really was too bad that this match wasn’t streamed, as I thought it was a phenomenal set filled with high level plays from both sides. Thanks to the close nature of this match, the atmosphere of the crowd that we gathered, the giddiness that Blake and I shared over the fact that we were in top 4 of US Nationals, this was probably the most fun set of games I had all weekend.

In game 1, I realized that I hadn’t actually revealed Heatran’s Flash Cannon during our Swiss match, and I was able to pick up a KO on his Sylveon on turn 1. I win game 1 handily with that early advantage. In game 2, I had given his Aegislash a Weakness Policy boost that allowed it to KO my Heatran. I don’t remember any particulars of game 3, but man, that game was the one I enjoyed the most all weekend because I was doing cartwheels in my mind over how I played. I felt that I was making off-the-wall reads that allowed me to win this set and I got to move on to the finals!

At this point I learned that everyone in top 4 earned a scholarship, not just the winner like I had previously thought. I also completely forgot that the finals were going to be played on the next day because I was still struck by how surreal everything was: I didn’t think too highly of my season’s performance before Nationals, but I now somehow found myself in the finals of what was widely considered the most difficult US Nationals ever. I was met with congratulations from everyone and it took some time for everything to sink in.

It’s worth mentioning that my opponent in the finals, Toler Webb, was also one of my roommates for the weekend. It would have been impossible for me to prepare if I had gone back to my own hotel room, so I spent the evening with Mark, Max, Hayden, and Demitri at their hotel in order to prepare for the finals. Preparation that night admittedly went nowhere, so when I finally returned to my hotel room, Toler and I had some awkward conversations because our teams were published online. I don’t think this sort of information really changed anything considering we had already shared a good deal of team information before we even knew we’d be facing each other in the finals, but it really was strange that our teams were posted before we even played. Toler even ran into someone online who had been using his exact six Pokemon.

The next day, nerves really had their way with me, as I had serious difficulty eating anything. We checked in at 10 AM but didn’t play until after 4 PM, so it was a solid 6+ hours for nerves to continue piling up. It was during this wait that I also realized that I really, really hate Wailord. I spent some time during the wait with Mark and Max to see how I should approach the upcoming matchup, and this time, we were able to assess certain things about the matchup that I thought would help me. Once the VGC matches had begun, excitement started to replace the nervousness that I felt and I was ready to finally play.

Finals: Toler Webb (Dim)

I know this is Nugget Bridge, but if I had any regrets about the weekend, it is that I wish I would have played better in the finals. Apologies to the viewers and Toler for not making the best plays. For those wondering why I chose to Super Fang Landorus instead of Gardevoir at the end of game 3, my answer to that is that I was already in a losing position and KOing Gardevoir sooner wouldn’t help the situation. If I chose to Super Fang Gardevoir, the best that could have happened is that I lose Scrafty in exchange for Gardevoir and I would then lose to timer against Landorus since my Thundurus had no way to touch it.

I needed Gardevoir to not attack so Scrafty could KO Landorus with Super Fang and then Knock Off. Had that happened, Thundurus would have had enough turns to KO Gardevoir. What I should have done in that game prior to that scenario, though, was conserve my Gardevoir and Heatran better. I fully acknowledge that played them recklessly and lost the game and set as a result. Props to Toler for the Helping Hand + Earthquake play, though. I did not see that coming and it gave him a huge advantage.

Congrats once again to Toler for his incredible performance that weekend, as he truly deserved his National title. I was genuinely happy for his win and, if I had to lose to anyone in the finals of such a large and high level tournament, it would be to him. In the end, only one of the two Mega Gardevoir users could take home the title! America won, Swagger lost, and the VGC With Hats crew keeps the second place finish streak alive.

See you guys in Boston,

Rapha

The post We Stand on Garde for Thee: 2015 US Nationals Runner Up Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hey everyone! My name is Alberto Lara, and I go by CaliSweeper/Sweeper online (just call me Alberto though). I will give a quick competitive background on myself before I get into it. I have been playing Smogon OU since the release of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl in 2007, and I got into VGC during VGC14. I have been a fairly consistent player top cutting 5/8 Regionals I have attended, and winning 2 Regionals along the way. I typically keep to myself when it comes to both the Smogon and Nugget Bridge communities, but I decided why not write a team report (you can also thank GENGARboi for hassling me to write one a while now). Basically I will cover the team I have used the whole season in 3 different sets of tournaments, Winter Regional, Spring Regional, and Nationals. Anyways let get straight into it, considering this is a thorough report.

Origins of the Team

I will make this short and sweet. Salamence is one of my favorite Pokémon, Mega Salamence was broken in ORAS OU, so it should be good in VGC 15. Sylveon did well during VGC 14.5 I heard (I did not play this format), it is a Fairy type, so I threw it onto the team. Might as well use a steel type to complete a fairy/dragon/steel core, Ferrothorn seems cool. Choice Scarf Landorus-Therian is the most used Pokémon in OU, so I should add it to the team. Rotom-W is bulky, and lets me abuse Earthquake. I want to deter intimidators for my Salamence, Landorus-Therian, and Ferrothorn, so Bisharp fits the job. The team was created the day VGC15 rules were announced, in about 1 hour, and I stuck with it because of my lack of enthusiasm for VGC at the time. The team was surprisingly very solid for a first draft and little testing. Moving on to Winter Regional.

SoCal Regional

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Ability: Inner Focus
Adamant Nature
– Double-Edge
– Low Kick
– Fake Out
– Sucker Punch

This slot was originally a Bisharp, but I changed it the morning of the tournament. I changed it to have an easier time dealing with Bisharp, and for a double mega option. I chose an Adamant nature, because it was what I had ran in VGC14. Adamant with Fake Out was a terrible choice, and protect would have been the better option. I auto lost the mirror match most of the time, since most Kangaskhan were Jolly. I remember leading off with Kangaskhan, getting faked out, getting low kicked turn two, and getting zero value out of my Kangaskhan during one of the rounds. The spread was simply meant to maximize damage output, and catch opponents off guard with Adamant Double-Edges.

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 4 SpA / 148 SpD / 12 Spe
Ability: Levitate
Calm Nature
0 Atk IV
– Hydro Pump
– Thunderbolt
– Protect
– Will-O-Wisp

Defensive Damage Calculations

• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Voice vs. 252 HP / 148+ SpD Rotom-W: 82-97 (52.2 – 61.7%) — guaranteed 3HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
• 252+ SpA Mega Charizard Y Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 148+ SpD Rotom-W: 132-156 (84 – 99.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 148+ SpD Rotom-W: 135-159 (85.9 – 101.2%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO

Rotom-W was put on the team to help my Landorus-Therian be able to use Earthquake easier, and to have a bulky water type. The spread was meant to be able to take most power special attacks, and the rest was put into bulk for physical attackers. I am not a big fan of the spread, since it does not out speed Adamant Life Orb Bisharp. Bisharp out speeds Rotom-W, uses Knock Off doing 63 – 75.1% (+ an extra 25% if you count the Stirus Berry that is lost), and Rotom-W only has an 85% chance to burn it with Will-O-Wisp. I would definitely recommend running enough speed to out speed Adamant Bisharp. The choice of moves are standard, since it is Rotom-W 4 best moves.

Salamence @ Salamencite
EVs: 76 HP / 180 SpA / 252 Spe
Ability: Intimidate
Naive Nature
– Double-Edge
– Draco Meteor
– Fire Blast
– Protect

Offensive Damage Calculations

• 180 SpA Mega Salamence Helping Hand Fire Blast vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Metagross: 158-186 (101.2 – 119.2%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 0 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Helping Hand Double-Edge vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 181-214 (100 – 118.2%) — guaranteed OHKO

Salamence is an awkward Pokémon to use in my opinion. The reason is that its only real standard move is Protect, and the 3 other move slots are up to your discretion. It has amazing total base stats of 700, versatility, a great move pool, high speed, great bulk, and more. I ended up going with a mixed Salamence with Fire Blast, because I had expected certain steel Pokémon to be popular (Mega Mawile, Mega Metagross, and Aegislash). Draco Meteor and Double-Edge were there for dual stab, and just being powerful attacks in general. I do not remember the full purpose of the spread. A few things I do remember about it though were the Offensive Damage Calculations above, and I wanted it to be the fastest Pokémon on the field (except for choice scarf users). I felt HP investment would be best in order to avoid fainting from Double-Edge + Helping Hand recoil. At the end of the tournament I had not run into a single Aegislash, Mawile, or Metagross. For this reason, I began testing a Dragon Dance variant for the rest of the season. I also disliked running a Naive nature, since it lowers the great natural bulk Salamence has.

Sylveon @ Pixie Plate
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 76 SpA / 4 SpD / 12 Spe
Ability: Pixilate
Modest Nature
0 Atk IV
– Hyper Voice
– Shadow Ball
– Helping Hand
– Protect

Offensive Damage Calculations

• 76+ SpA Pixie Plate Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Voice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Terrakion: 168-198 (100.5 – 118.5%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 76+ SpA Pixie Plate Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Voice vs. 4 HP / 0- SpD Mega Salamence: 186-218 (108.7 – 127.4%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 76+ SpA Pixie Plate Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Voice vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Scrafty: 180-216 (104.6 – 125.5%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 76+ SpA Pixie Plate Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Voice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian: 91-108 (55.1 – 65.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO

The MVP of the season. I credit most of the team and season’s success to Sylveon, as a result of its great typing, amazing ability, and its bulk. I think Sylveon is the best non mega Pokémon, because it has very few flaws. The spread was originally based off a standard Smogon OU Sylveon, which is typically 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA with a Bold nature. I already had Sitrus Berry on Rotom-W and Leftovers on Ferrothorn, so I was unsure of the item to use on it. I looked at other popular items, and I was personally not a fan of Choice Specs. I ended up going with Pixie Plate, because it was really the only other viable item to run on it. It ended up being the perfect item, since Pixie Plate let me minimize special attack investment in favor of physical bulk. The offensive damage calculations I had in mind are listed above alongside having an 81.3% chance to OHKO a 4 HP Jolly Salamence. Shadow Ball was meant for Aegislash, but I never used it. Helping Hand was extremely useful, since Sylveon almost always lived attacks with <10% which let me get off a priority Helping Hand before being targeted down. Protect was also appreciated, since most opponents assume Sylveon to be Choice Specs. The 12 speed EVs were to help me speed creep Pokémon with a base speed of 60. The rest of the EVs were dumped into HP and defense, but it was not done optimally. At the time I really did not have any defensive benchmarks that I wanted to meet, but this was later fixed.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Ability: Iron Barbs
Relaxed Nature
0 Spe IV
– Power Whip
– Gyro Ball
– Protect
– Leech Seed

Another crucial member of the team. I saw that my only good answer to Rain was Sylveon, so I threw Ferrothorn onto the team, and it was a great choice. It also helped me complete a Dragon/Fairy/Steel core which is something that I typically aim for when team building. Ferrothorn is a great Pokémon, because many teams simply do not have a great way to deal with it. If a team does not run a Pokémon with a strong fire attack, it is very difficult to knock out Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn can take Fighting type moves with ease, since I run both Landorus-Therian and Salamence with Intimidate. The spread is a standard Smogon OU spread, because I did not know of any other bulky spread. It really is not meant for VGC, since the benchmarks of this spread include surviving a 252 Atk Mega Lopunny High Jump Kick and 252+ Atk Choice Band Scizor Superpower, which really are not relevant benchmarks in VGC. The spread worked fine though for the tournament. Leftovers was the item of choice, since when paired with Leech Seed and Protect, I could recover a ton of HP after being heavily damaged. Gyro Ball was the main STAB attack and Power Whip was there for bulky Water types.

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 212 Spe
Ability: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Superpower
– Explosion

Landorus-Therian is very predictable, but it does a really good job at being a revenge killer, Rock Slide flincher, intimidator, and more. The spread was simply to maximize damage and out speed Pokémon like 252+ Spe Mega Lopunny and Mega Manectric. The rest was put into HP for a bit of bulk. Earthquake, Rock Slide, Superpower are all standard, and I chose Explosion as my last move slot because of lack of testing. I was unsure of U-turns utility in VGC, and I was not a fan of Knock Off. After the tournament I felt that Landorus-Therian was the weakest member of the team. Besides being able to constantly Rock Slide flinch Biosci in the Finals, it did not have much of an impact on my tournament run. While I felt that it was the weakest member of the team, Landorus-Therian is one of my favorite Pokémon, so I refused to remove it from the team.

After winning SoCal Regional, I decided to play the rest of the season, and chase a Worlds invite (I intended SoCal to be my last tournament of the season for lack of interest in Pokémon at the time). I did not want to make the same mistake that I did the previous year, and abandon a successful team abruptly during the season. My biggest regret last season was going into nationals with a new team that I was not comfortable with, which cost me my Worlds invite. So I decided that I would like to stick with the same team, make changes to improve it, and adapt to the metagame. This time around I heavily focused on efficiency, and meeting many new offensive and defensive damage calculation benchmarks.

Seattle and Utah Regional

First Pokémon Change Kangaskhan ———> Charizard

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
EVs: 188 HP / 196 Def / 8 SpA / 116 Spe
Ability: Blaze
Modest Nature
1 Atk IV/ 30 SpA IV / 30 SpD IV
– Heat Wave
– Solar Beam
– Hidden Power Ground
– Protect

Offensive Damage Calculations

• 8+ SpA Mega Charizard Y Helping Hand Heat Wave vs. 12 HP / 4 SpD Landorus-Therian in Sun: 177-208 (106.6 – 125.3%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 8+ SpA Mega Charizard Y Helping Hand Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 148+ SpD Rotom-W: 170-200 (108.2 – 127.3%) — guaranteed OHKO

Defensive Damage Calculations

• 252+ Atk Landorus-Therian Rock Slide vs. 188 HP / 196 Def Mega Charizard Y: 148-176 (83.6 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 188 HP / 196 Def Mega Charizard Y: 146-173 (82.4 – 97.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 188 HP / 196 Def Mega Charizard Y: 72-85 (40.6 – 48%) — guaranteed 3HKO
• +2 252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 188 HP / 0 SpD Mega Charizard Y: 148-175 (83.6 – 98.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Zapdos/Thundurus Thunderbolt vs. 188 HP / 0 SpD Mega Charizard Y: 146-174 (82.4 – 98.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO

As mentioned earlier I am a big fan of dual Mega Pokémon on my teams. It gives you better options when it comes to team preview and team matchup. After testing variants of the team with Salamence as a Dragon Dance variant, steel types such as Metagross, Mawile, and Aegislash were a huge issue for the team. I originally ignored this flaw in the team, since I had faced 0 of those 3 Pokémon during my tournament run at SoCal Regional. Testing though made me realize that the metagame was evolving, and Aegislash and Metagross were rising in popularity quickly. Charizard was a good answer to the steel types that gave problems to the team. Charizard also essentially made my rain match up from favorable, to almost an auto win. The spread was designed to be able to out speed Jolly 252 Spe Metagross, Breloom, and Bisharp by 1 point, as well as a decent amount of bulky Thundurus with minimal speed investment. There is only 8 special attack investment, since Heat Wave is a 2HKO on most popular Pokémon anyway (Cresselia and Sylveon are not threats to Charizard). 188 HP and 196 Def EVs was the most HP optimized spread to be able to live 252+ Atk Landorus-Therian Rock Slide. I chose to go with Hidden Power Ground after testing Charizard with Sylveon, since I realized the combination of Hyper Voice and Heat Wave have almost no switch ins, besides Heatran and Charizard. Hidden Power Ground was then put on both Charizard and Sylveon to lure Heatran in, and KO Heatran with ease. Hidden Power Ground also hit other fire types like Arcanine. Charizard and Sylveon is an amazing offensive core, and many teams get punished if they lead wrong against it with powerful spread moves like Heat Wave and Hyper Voice. Solar Beam and Protect are the last two moves, since they help with Bulky Water types and Pokémon that threaten Charizard.

Second Pokémon Change Rotom-W ———> Conkeldurr

Conkeldurr @ Sitrus Berry
EVs: 196 HP / 140 Atk / 172 SpD
Ability: Guts
Adamant Nature
– Drain Punch
– Wide Guard
– Mach Punch
– Knock Off

Offensive Damage Calculations

• +1 140+ Atk Conkeldurr Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 198-234 (100 – 118.1%) — guaranteed OHKO
• +1 140+ Atk Conkeldurr Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Scrafty: 182-216 (105.8 – 125.5%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 140+ Atk Conkeldurr Mach Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Smeargle: 162-192 (100 – 118.5%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 140+ Atk Conkeldurr Mach Punch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Bisharp: 148-180 (104.9 – 127.6%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 140+ Atk Conkeldurr Mach Punch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Terrakion: 84-98 (50.2 – 58.6%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Defensive Damage Calculations

• -1 252+ Atk Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 196 HP / 0 Def Conkeldurr: 170-204 (82.9 – 99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Life Orb Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 196 HP / 172 SpD Conkeldurr: 173-204 (84.3 – 99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Another big flaw with my SoCal team was that it was vulnerable to burns (Kangaskhan, Landorus-Therian, Salamence, and Ferrothorn). For that reason I wanted a Pokémon that could absorb Will-O-Wisp, but still be an offensive threat. Conkeldurr was the answer, and it also helped with other match ups like against Trick Room Teams. It was also great against the rise of “Japan Sand”, with having priority Mach Punch. I did not feel max attack was necessary, since most Pokémon that were weak to fighting fainted by the combination of Drain Punch + Mach Punch. I opted for Knock off over Ice Punch, since I wanted a way to hit Aegislash and other ghost types hard. In hindsight I should have ran a Brave nature so that I would always attack Aegislash in Blade Forme. I originally had Assault Vest over Sitrus Berry, but I changed the item about a week before Seattle Regional for a few reasons. 1. I went to a Premiere Challenge, and while I knew the team was weak against Sun Teams, this Premiere Challenge made me realize that I almost auto lost against them. 2. I saw Aaron Taylor’s Team Report on his Missouri Regional win, and read that Assault Vest was a terrible item on Conkeldurr. At first I highly disagreed, since in testing Assault Vest had worked fine. After testing Sitrus Berry though, I agreed that Assault Vest on Conkeldurr was inferior to Sitrus Berry. Sitrus Berry is almost identical to Assault Vest (turning typical 2HKO to 3HKO etc.), except it gives you more HP bulk, and allows you to run Protect or Wide Guard. So Sitrus Berry allowed me to run wide guard, which slightly improved my match up against Sun Teams.

Salamence @ Salamencite
EVs: 148 HP / 196 Atk / 4 Def / 60 SpD / 100 Spe
Ability: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
– Double-Edge
– Earthquake
– Dragon Dance
– Protect

Offensive Damage Calculations

• 196+ Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon/Terrakion: 168-198 (100 – 117.8%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 196+ Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Landorus-Therian: 168-198 (101.8 – 120%) — guaranteed OHKO
• +1 196+ Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ferrothorn: 181-214 (100 – 118.2%) — guaranteed OHKO
• -1 196+ Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Scrafty: 182-216 (105.8 – 125.5%) — guaranteed OHKO

Defensive Damage Calculations

• -1 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 148 HP / 4 Def Mega Salamence: 81-97 (42.8 – 51.3%) — 0.5% chance to 2HKO
• 252 Atk Terrakion Rock Slide vs. 148 HP / 4 Def Mega Salamence: 78-92 (41.2 – 48.6%) — guaranteed 3HKO
• 252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 148 HP / 4 Def Mega Salamence: 75-91 (39.6 – 48.1%) — guaranteed 3HKO
• 252+ SpA Zapdos Hidden Power Ice vs. 148 HP / 60 SpD Mega Salamence: 152-180 (80.4 – 95.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 100 SpA Suicune Ice Beam vs. 148 HP / 60 SpD Mega Salamence: 144-172 (76.1 – 91%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Cresselia Ice Beam vs. 148 HP / 60 SpD Mega Salamence: 160-192 (84.6 – 101.5%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO

Adding Charizard to the team let me use a bulky set up sweeper Salamence. I went with a bulky Adamant nature, since I think that Salamence does not need to be Jolly if you run a Dragon Dance variant. The large amount of bulk allows Salamence to set up at least 1 Dragon Dance with ease. The speed was meant to out speed neutral base 100 speed Pokémon, and most Choice Scarf users like Landorus-Therian after a Dragon Dance. The bulk was typically clutch, since most opponents always played around the Salamence as being fast anyway. Earthquake is there for Heatran and other steel types. Adamant nature with 196 Attack EVs also allowed me to OHKO Mega Kangaskhan after it took recoil damage from its Double-Edge.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 140 SpD
Ability: Iron Barbs
Relaxed Nature
0 Spe IV
– Power Whip
– Gyro Ball
– Protect
– Leech Seed

Defensive Damage Calculations

• 252 SpA Adaptability Mega Lucario Aura Sphere vs. 252 HP / 140 SpD Ferrothorn: 152-180 (83.9 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO

The least changed Pokémon of the team. It served the same purpose and role, win against Rain Teams, and frustrate opponents. There was only one benchmark that I wanted to meet on the special defense side. The rest was put into defense, to be able to more likely live two 252 Atk Mega Kangaskhan Low Kicks after Leech Seed recovery + Leftovers + Protect.

Sylveon @ Pixie Plate
EVs: 236 HP / 172 Def / 80 SpA / 8 SpD / 12 Spe
Ability: Pixilate
Modest Nature
1 Atk IV / 30 SpA IV / 30 SpD IV
– Hyper Voice
– Hidden Power Ground
– Helping Hand
– Protect

Defensive Damage Calculations

• 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 236 HP / 172 Def Sylveon: 169-200 (84.5 – 100%) — 0.4% chance to OHKO
• 252+ Atk Bisharp Iron Head vs. 236 HP / 172 Def Sylveon: 164-194 (82 – 97%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 236 HP / 172 Def Sylveon: 84-100 (42 – 50%) — 0.4% chance to 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Mega Charizard Y Overheat vs. 236 HP / 8 SpD Sylveon in Sun: 169-199 (84.5 – 99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 44+ SpA Mega Charizard Y Heat Wave vs. 236 HP / 8 SpD Sylveon in Sun: 81-96 (40.5 – 48%) — guaranteed 3HKO
• 252+ SpA Life Orb Aegislash-Blade Flash Cannon vs. 236 HP / 8 SpD Sylveon: 174-205 (87 – 102.5%) — 12.5% chance to OHKO

In my opinion, this is the best Sylveon spread (talking to you GENGARboi). Putting Hidden Power Ground over Shadow Ball let Sylveon be a better partner for Charizard, and be able to 1v1 a Heatran without Flash Cannon. Unfortunately there is not a spread that lets you live 252+ SpA Life Orb Aegislash-Blade Flash Cannon, without giving up special attack investment or defense investment, which are higher priorities. The special attack investment did not change (besides 4 SpA EVs to make up for using Hidden Power Ground), since it was still sufficient. I did not speed creep any further, since I felt that most Sylveon still opted for only 4 Spe EVs. The change in HP and defense investment was more optimal than the previous set in order to better meet the defensive benchmarks above.

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
EVs: 44 HP / 156 Atk / 92 Def / 4 SpD / 212 Spe
Ability: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Superpower
– U-Turn

Offensive Damage Calculations

• 156+ Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Bisharp: 144-170 (102.1 – 120.5%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 156+ Atk Landorus-Therian Superpower vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon/Terrakion: 168-198 (100 – 117.8%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 156+ Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Sylveon: 102-120 (50.4 – 59.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Defensive Damage Calculations

• +1 252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 44 HP / 92 Def Landorus-Therian: 140-165 (82.3 – 97%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 44 HP / 4 SpD Landorus-Therian: 141-166 (82.9 – 97.6%) — guaranteed 2HKO

I wanted my Landorus-Therian be more of a utility Pokémon, than a Revenge Killer/Pokémon that just dishes out damage. For this reason, I replaced Explosion with U-turn. I tested U-turn after SoCal, and really liked it as it let me reset weather with my Charizard, spread intimidates, and gain momentum on switch outs. 156 Attack investment is sufficient to net important KOs, and leaves EVs for bulk. The bulk spread out between HP/Defense/Special Defense is not optimal, so I do not recommend it. I messed up the EV spread, since I had about 4 different spreads, and could not settle on one. Speed stayed the same, since I don’t think there is a reason to go higher unless you are scared of Choice Scarf Smeargle.

I was tempted to go with a completely new team at Nationals, since Pokemon.com posted all of my items and moves after Utah Regional. I did have a second team that was doing extremely well in testing for nationals, but I was not comfortable enough with it. I did not want to make the same mistake as last year, and miss out on my worlds invite by disbanding a successful team. So I decided to stick with the same team with some minor tweaks. So while I was paranoid about my team being recognizable, I was still extremely comfortable with the team.

U.S. Nationals

Pokémon Change Conkeldurr ———> Greninja

Greninja @ Life Orb
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Ability: Protean
Naive Nature (Timid the day before the tournament)
– Ice Beam
– Low Kick (Hidden Power Ground the day before the tournament)
– Grass Knot
– Protect

Offensive Damage Calculations

• 0 Atk Life Orb Protean Greninja Low Kick (120 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 164-195 (98.2 – 116.7%) — 81.3% chance to OHKO
• 252 SpA Life Orb Protean Greninja Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Zapdos: 187-221 (94.9 – 112.1%) — 68.8% chance to OHKO
• 252 SpA Life Orb Protean Greninja Grass Knot (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Suicune: 164-195 (79.2 – 94.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery

Defensive Damage Calculations

lol

I will just start off by saying Greninja is the most underrated Pokémon this season, it is a top 20 Pokémon. While it does not always net OHKOs, it usually has a good shot to do so, or its partner can finish off Pokémon with a spread move (Landorus-Therian Rock Slide, Sylveon Hyper Voice, Charizard Heat Wave, and Salamence Earthquake). Greninja has a bad stigma because of how frail it is, but that is well worth the trade off for stab everything, unmatched offensive versatility, and a speed base stat of 122 to out speed Mega Salamence. No opponent can ever know what to expect from Greninja, since it legitimately has 10+ viable offensive moves, can be a special attacker, a physical attacker, or mixed. Greninja being such an offensive threat, paired extremely well with Mega Salamence. In testing, Greninja’s unpredictability allowed my Salamence to set up a Dragon Dance turn 1 very often, because opponents would typically double Protect to scout. The reason I added Greninja to the team was simply because I hate Thundurus and Zapdos (these damn Pokémon don’t die). While Thundurus can Thunder Wave and cripple Greninja, it risks being OHKOd by Ice Beam depending on its EV spread. Grass Knot was added because Grass/Ice/Ground coverage is great offensive coverage. Hidden Power Ground was for steel and fire types, and Protect was the last move for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, I switched Hidden Power Ground to Low Kick the morning of Nationals, because I was stupidly paranoid about Shuca Berry Heatran. This was a terrible last minute decision, since I had tested Hidden Power Ground for over a month with great success. Without Hidden Power Ground, it made my match up against any Wide Guard Aegislash unbearable.

Salamence @ Salamencite
EVs: 92 HP / 196 Atk / 220 Spe
Ability: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
– Double-Edge
– Earthquake
– Dragon Dance
– Protect

I opted to prioritize speed over bulk this time around, since I had removed Conkeldurr from the team. This let me out speed Mega Kangaskhan and hit it hard or KO it before it got off a hit. With the addition of Greninja to the team, there was no need to be able to live a Suicune Ice Beam, since I could pick it off with Grass Knot + Double-Edge. As mentioned earlier, the offensive presence of Greninja still let me set up a Dragon Dance, even without the bulk.

Charizard @  Charizardite Y
EVs: 228 HP / 148 Def / 8 SpA / 124 Spe
Ability: Blaze
Modest Nature
1 Atk IV/ 30 SpA IV / 30 SpD IV
– Heat Wave
– Solar Beam
– Hidden Power Ground
– Protect

Defensive Damage Calculations

• 252+ Atk Landorus-Therian Rock Slide vs. 228 HP / 148 Def Mega Charizard Y: 156-184 (85.7 – 101%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
• 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 228 HP / 148 Def Mega Charizard Y: 153-182 (84 – 100%) — 0.4% chance to OHKO

In testing after Spring Regional, I never really found the physical bulk to be able to live 252+ Atk Landorus-Therian Rock Slide useful. I had only run into this situation a few times. So I opted to go with a more HP invested EV spread to be able to take special attacks better. This spread still lived 252 Atk Jolly Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge mostly, but it gave Landorus-Therian Rock Slide a 6.3% chance to OHKO Charizard. This was something I was willing to trade for more HP investment, since the odds were still in my favor if I was ever forced into that situation. I invested 8 more speed EVs just to speed creep on bulky Thundurus.

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
EVs: 108 HP / 156 Atk / 28 Def / 4 SpD / 212 Spe
Ability: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Superpower
– U-Turn

This EV spread accomplished the same physical benchmark as my Spring Regional spread, except it is optimized. What I mean by optimized is that this is the highest HP investment you can run, while still surviving +1 252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Sucker Punch. The higher HP investment is nice, because of the better odds of living special attacks, such as Rotom-W Hydro Pump.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 140 SpD
Ability: Iron Barbs
Relaxed Nature
0 Spe IV
– Power Whip
– Gyro Ball
– Protect
– Leech Seed

No changes from Spring Regional.

Sylveon @ Pixie Plate
EVs: 236 HP / 172 Def / 80 SpA / 8 SpD / 12 Spe
Ability: Pixilate
Modest Nature
1 Atk IV / 30 SpA IV / 30 SpD IV
– Hyper Voice
– Hidden Power Ground
– Helping Hand
– Protect

No changes from Spring Regional.

Now I know what you are probably thinking, why in the world does this guy run Hidden Power Ground on 3 of his Pokémon, and Earthquake on 2? This was something that I was also against originally; I had convinced myself that 5 ground moves was over kill. In reality though, I discovered through using this team the whole season that the team actually really revolves around Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn’s amazing typing gives many teams trouble, because many opponents only reliable way to knock it out is with a Fire type attack. Take out the Fire type Pokémon threatening Ferrothorn, the most popular being Heatran, and just win with Ferrothorn. This is an over simplification of the goal of the team, but at its core this is the way the team earns many of its wins. So I eventually accepted that while 5 ground type attacks are over kill typically, it is not for this team.

Final Team Results

• 1st of 260 SoCal Regional
• 1st of 159 Utah Regional
• 4th of 97 Utah Regional Premier Challenge
• 50th of 229 Seattle Regional
• 7th of 69 Seattle Regional Premier Challenge
• 24th of 418 U.S. Nationals

Shout Outs

• Riley Factura (GENGARboi) He is the one who basically got me write this extensive team report. It has been fun hanging out and rooming with you the majority of the season!
• The Jimenez brothers (Legacy & DarkAssassin) I know I always give you guys a hard time, but you know it is all in good spirit!
• Everyone else I have conversations with or hang out with at tournaments as well!

Closing Comments

While this is not my favorite team I have ever built, it probably is my most consistent and successful team. This team report is already deep enough in my opinion, and I did not want to have it drag on with sections on common leads, the team’s biggest weaknesses (just know it hates Aegislash), etc. While I keep to myself online, that is the complete opposite at tournaments. I do not use it often, but follow me on Twitter @Alberto310 if you have any questions on the team, and I will answer them. Otherwise, I hope you found this team report enjoyable and insightful. This season has been a ton of fun, and I am looking forward to Worlds!

The post 20XX Mence: Two Time Regional Champion & Top 32 US Nationals Team Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello and thank you for clicking on this report.  My name is Phil Nguyen, also known as Boomguy.  I am a 27 year old part time professional Pokemon VGC player from Brisbane, Australia. OK, I don’t get paid to play Pokemon video games but I treat it as my profession so I can become the world champion. Most of us on this website dream to be the Pokemon world champion, striving to achieve our childhood dreams of being a Pokemon Master recognized by the Pokemon Company Hall of Fame.  Some of you may recall my previous report on November 2014, followed me on Twitter, seen me stream on my Twitch channel, moderate the VGC chat room on Pokemon Showdown or maybe you heard me shout out ‘C’MON!!’ at live Pokemon events. Yeah that was me Australia, Singapore & 2014 worlds.

In this report I will go through a brief story of my of online & regional events at the beginning of the VGC 2015 season where I was in a really dark place with depression.  Then I will show you how I turned my season around for the better at the most important national events where I qualified for the paid invite for the 2015 VGC World championships.

Goals for VGC 2015

The Championship Points system debuted in the Asia Pacific region (Not including Japan or Korea) for VGC this year, with the top 18 players receiving invites to the world championships and the top 2 getting paid invites. My aim was to be in the top 18 at least, and I would do whatever I needed to make it possible. I also wanted to qualify for the Nugget Bridge Invitational again and win the Nugget Bridge Major.  My qualification for the Nugget Bridge Invitational this season was going to be a much more difficult challenge for me, as all the live events were now Swiss tournaments during the weekends with each likely to take 3-4 hours to complete.  My work schedule meant I was only able to play a live event every 2 weeks.  So my best chance of qualifying was to earn my place through the Major or the Dodrio Cup.

ORAS Release and the Rest of 2014

In my previous report I mentioned I was only going to play ORAS for a week, to set up breeding in this game and get to a stage where I could soft-reset for the good legendary Pokemon for the VGC 2015 format. That didn’t happen because I forgot it’s best not to do a career move during December and the 1st week of the new year, so I stayed at my current job during that period.  So I continued playing by testing the new Mega Pokemon & played the Nugget Bridge Circuit online tournaments during December. It ended up being a horrible start to the circuit, bubbling out in a live tournament and a shocking 2-10 record in the Holiday Scramble challenge using a Whimsicott, Terrakion team with Mega Houndoom.

VGC 2015 Team Building Evolution

During the 2014 season all the teams I used were with Pokemon that were either different, that I like or could deal with the meta game.  Then my team building went to Pokemon I liked with Pokemon that were good. How ever I regressed in January by picking Pokemon I liked, plus I liked to be tricky on some Pokemon sets.  I had a team with Mienshao with Regenerator, Thundurus-I, Mega Abomasnow, Heatran, Swampert & Cresselia with Trick Room. This team did work in a best of 1 format on Battle Spot, especially against good players like Billa and Bopper who I defeated on Battle Spot. But it unfortunately didn’t work against some oblivious people who don’t know that Mienshao’s most common ability is Inner Focus and they use Fake Out in it and tends to lead to a loss. That made me realize to not use the tricky stuff at an open tournament where there are more casual players than good players, especially in Australia.

My next team I created wasn’t much better.  It contained Aegislash, Milotic, Staraptor, Mega Heracross, Entei and Parchirisu. Whilst I was playing with this team on Pokemon Showdown, a wonderful man from Switzerland named Daryl Sprenger (Dr Sugus) took interest on what I was using and we helped each other build this team to it’s potential.  While he found success with the team at his local Premier Challenge events in Europe, I found that it instantly failed against the inexperienced players at a local Brisbane Bisharps January VGC event.  I kept trying to use the team due to Daryl’s success but I didn’t feel comfortable playing with it because most of the Pokemon were slow.

With the struggle of creating teams and the Nugget Bridge Major about to start in February,  I decided to play with more standard Pokemon so I could get an understanding on why they are popular and what other trainers were using to counteract them. I was using Mega Kangaskhan, Choice Scarf Landorus-T, Bulky Thundurus with Sitrus Berry, Sash Bisharp and a mixed Life Orb Blaziken.  I left the 6th slot open to anything because I was struggling to find a good fit.  By using this team my results on Pokemon Showdown and Battle Spot started to improve and my knowledge for the meta game was growing. Because of this, I decided to use the Kangaskhan and friends team for the Nugget Bridge Major because it was good for thrashing the more casual players and it was good enough to challenge the good players.

Let the Real VGC 2015 Competitions Begin

The first major tournament of my VGC 2015 season was the Nugget Bridge Major in the beginning of February. The tournament, an online tournament that lasted three months this year, attracted over 1000 players worldwide and the tournament was split into 4 flights playing 9 rounds of best of 3 Swiss.  I was excited to play a tournament this big and I wanted to test myself against the world.  By the time tournament started my 6th Pokemon on the aforementioned team was a Cloud Nine Golduck to counter the weather teams, as I had a huge weakness to them.  My opponent for round 1 was against YouTuber Nipps from New York. Nipps is generally an entertainer more than a serious Pokemon player and he got a real taste of playing a world quality professional player as I gave him his most depressing 2-0 thrashing which you can watch here. Prior to our scheduled match I was watching his YouTube videos and took notes on how he battled which helped me to get an edge.

Back at home the Brisbane Bisharps hosted another VGC throw down in February. By this tournament the 6th Pokemon had changed to Mega Latios so I was running dual megas in a team for the first time in my VGC competitive life. The reason for changing Golduck to Mega Latios was because it wasn’t doing well against the weather teams and Latios has good bulk and offense to survive the weather match up. This event was the event to test my local city of how it can handle against the most standard Pokemon in the meta game.  They handled it really well since most of my matches gave me a good test as I lost 2 games in the Swiss rounds including to fellow 2015 Worlds qualifier mustytkd.  I made it to the top cut stages where the matches were best of 3, winning my first match 2-0 then took revenge against Musty in the semis. A hard fought 2-1 victory in the final against an anti-meta team followed shortly after.

Round 2 of the Major took me to Indonesia and with some information from lolfailsnail helped me take a 2-0 victory as he lost to my opponent in the previous round. Round 3 took me to Chile where I played SebaGomez and this was when I started streaming.  Seba likes to put on a show and I think his nerves got to him as he lost to me 2-0.  I thought I considered myself lucky for avoiding a well known player but that all ended in round 4 as I took on German Lajos Kowalewski . This was going to be a tough battle against a player who I admire and look up to. When I know I have tough competitor in front of me I repeat this quote “To be the best. You have to beat the best”.  This quote helps me take on the challenge and makes me believe that I am the best.  I saved this battle on my Twitch channel here to remind myself of this moment.  In turn 1 of game 1 I was so nervous that I ran out of time. I was happy how I almost recovered to save the game but the Assault Vest Conkeldurr was too bulky that it survived Mega Latios Psychic. In game 2 my fear got in the way that I didn’t stick to a game plan; he consequently dominated the match and I suffered my first loss for the Major.

With my new found understanding of the meta game, I decided to create a 2nd team just in case I was playing someone who wanted to counter team my main team for Nugget Bridge Major. What I learnt about most of the popular Pokemon is that they are strong offensively and defensively and with the right support they can create pressure. So I decided to test what I learnt into a fun team for the February International Challenge, which was the perfect tournament to test a new team as there was no points on offer.  This is what the team looked like for the tournament.

I won’t go in depth with the team as a whole but I’ll explain the reason for Mega Audino.  I tested Mega Audino when I finished the story in ORAS. Back then I made a supportive Mega Audino with Trick room which didn’t work.  I wanted to re-test it and this time I made an offensive set.  I realised that Mega Audino is one of those Pokemon that doesn’t need Protect; it’s really bulky and I was using Draining Kiss to recover HP. I put Hyper Beam to get KO’s on Pokemon, Fire Blast to help damage Steel types and Calm Mind to increase it’s special bulk and offensive pressure.   What I found with Mega Audino is while it can bulk attacks well, do some decent damage and potentially recover HP from the Draining Kiss, I found getting critical hits against me really hurt Mega Audino. Without Calm Mind set-ups, it was hard to deal good damage. In many respects it’s similar to a Cresselia.  There were multiple games where I couldn’t bring Mega Audino. I finished the International Challenge with a 19-11 record.  I also used this team in March Brisbane Bisharps event as a joke because I didn’t want to win again.  I made one small change by putting Icy Wind on Ludicolo for speed control and surprisingly I won the event.

It was my Birthday weekend during the March Brisbane Bisharps event, so afterwards I had a laser tag party with my fellow Pokemon players and friends outside of the game. So going into my 5th round against Colombian Albus Magus it was the day after my party. I was using my Kangaskhan team but was mentally fatigued in our battle. I didn’t have the brain power to figure out a strategy for game 2 after learning his Specs Sylveon was max Speed Timid and that it out-sped my Adamant max Speed Bisharp and lost game 1 and 2. I was therefore in a familiar spot from last years Major where I lost 2 matches at the same stage. The fight to stay alive got scary in round 6 when I was paired up with a Japanese player.  The game was played at midnight my time so I got a coffee at night to make sure I was mentally aware for the do or die match. After losing game 1, I adjusted well enough to win game 2 and won game 3 by making some gutsy calls that paid off.  Round 7 was against American LPFan which certainly made making the cut harder. I was considering using a different team for this battle because I know LPFan knows who I am and may potentially counter team me even though he has never done that before.  By the time we had our battle I ended up using the Kanga team because I wasn’t confident in the 2nd team and I didn’t want to risk it since I was fighting for my survival in the tournament.  I lost game 1,  LPFan disconnected in game 2 and RNG was too kind to me in game 3.

In round 8 I played against American LudiImpact and again similar to playing LPFan I knew he knows me and this time I had a 2nd team ready.  In this secondary team I wanted to include my favorite Pokemon Delphox which is a real difficult thing to do but I managed to build a team that I was satisfied with.  The 2nd team contained Life orb Delphox, Mega Salamance, Clefairy, Roserade with HP ground holding the Expert Belt, Sitrus Berry Swampert and a Sash Bisharp. Once again I lost game 1 learning about his team.  In game 2 I disconnected so by the rules that meant I lose, but LudiImpact was a champion and allowed a replay to the same conditions as we left off.  So upon resumption I won game 2 and in game 3 he brought his Perish Trap mode.  He successfully trapped my first 2 Pokemon but I knew I could still win the match with my last 2 Pokemon. However, I forgot he had 3 Pokemon left and I ignored his Politoed because I didn’t think it was a threat. He proceeded to Perish Song my last 2 Pokemon and he managed to survive at the end of the song.  I didn’t regret my Pokemon choices it was battling that let me down and this is something I really want to improve on.

Let the Championship Points Hunger Games Begin

The first Australian/New Zealand CP events kicked off with the regional circuit in April, 6 regional events held on consecutive weekends.  After looking at my work schedule and finances I booked myself for four regional events to give myself a buffer in case I failed badly at one of the events, as there is a 3 best finish limit for regional events. I was scheduled to work at the first regional event in my home city of Brisbane, but managed to make a deal with one of my co-workers in order to go. I didn’t want to miss the event because I wanted to reclaim my home title that I won in 2013 when VGC first started officially in Australia.

I planned to use my Kanga and friends team at the regional, but I replaced the Mega Latios for a good old Calm Mind Moonlight stalling Cresselia since our regional events are untethered.  Thanks Dawg for this advice. Days before the regional I played my 9th round dead match of the Nugget Bridge Major with the regional team against Brazilian Henricosta and I defeated him 2-0, so I was feeling confident prior to the event. Brisbane regional had seven rounds of swiss; I won my first 3 matches followed by a loss to a Quash Sableye team in round 4.  I proceeded to recover and win round 5 & 6 with my round 6 match being a carbon copy of my round 4 match that I lost to because the 2 players were friends.  In the last round I was paired down and lost that match and bubbled out of the top 8 cut finishing 9th.  If I had won the match no x-2’s would have made the cut.

Going into the next regional event Sydney I was starting to lose confidence in the team I used in Brisbane and I wanted to use the Delphox team because I was getting better results in practice. But I stuck to my theory that standard Pokemon will be best against Australians and it was half right.  At this event there was 8 rounds of Swiss and the quality of players was much stronger than my home city. In round 1 I was paired against a player I knew that likes to use anti-meta Pokemon. He almost defeated me,  were it not for his Arcanine missing a key Will-O-Wisp and that I won a key mind game call with Sucker Punch from my Bisharp against a faster user. Round 2 was an easy win as my opponent had no answer to Life Orb Mixed Blaziken but in round 3 I got a real challenge against the eventual champion Daniel Pol (Chiron). I got thrashed in 5 turns because I was not expecting Trick Room from a Cresselia when at the time most were using Icy Wind or Thunder Wave for speed control.  I recovered in round 4 to get a win but returning from the lunch break I lost in round 5 to a level 1 Aron/Sandstorm team followed by another loss in round 6 to heavy rain.  I continued playing in the tournament in the hope I could finish in the top 32, which I did by winning my last 2 games.

My next CP event was the April International Challenge.  I was really frustrated about my poor result in Sydney that I wanted to make another team that was suited for a best of 1 format and something I would use in my next regional event in Melbourne. Some of you may remember me streaming my IC run on my Twitch stream and this is the team I used for the competition.

It was another disappointing tournament as I went 20-10 record in the tournament with a ranking of 583rd in the world. Looking at the team now it was poorly built. There was no speed control, although surprisingly I did get to a final of a side event at Australian Nationals with it, eventually losing to Chris G’s real team.

So it was back to the drawing board again, building a new team for the Melbourne regional which was on the weekend after the International Challenge and I was really struggling.  When the International Challenge results came out. I saw that my best American fan & friend Legacy finished 4th overall in the International Challenge. I asked him for a copy of his team, got testing & made minor adjustments.  The team was Mega Kangaskhan, Sitrus Suicune with Tailwind, Sub Lefties Heatran, Specs Sylveon, Breloom and AV Landorus-T.  The minor change I did was increasing his Sylveon speed to out-speed Terrakion in Tailwind since his IC spread was designed for max Speed Mega Kangaskhan in Tailwind.  I really liked what I saw and I grew comfortable with the team quickly so my confidence was back on a high going into the Melbourne regional, where Australia’s largest Pokemon community is.

Going into the regional with the 4th best team in the West in a best of 1 tournament that only just happened last weekend and none of my Australian rivals knew what a powerful team I have in my game.  I was thinking this tournament is going to be mine. What could possibly stop me?  While waiting for our round 1 matches to start my opponent Zak Tober (Zakdos) who knew who I was, but I only recognize his name through Facebook posts in Australian groups.  He said to me “I’m about to get a thrashing am I?” in the most deflated voice.  So I was feeling good that I was going to win my first game when you got an opponent with no confidence in himself.  Once the battle started he made an excellent call by using Earthquake with his Choice Scarf Metagross against my Kangaskhan and Sylveon, which I swapped into Heatran and it survived.  But things went down hill as he set up Trick Room on his Trevenant and I couldn’t recover.  I was so upset that I slammed my fist onto the table in disgust that I got out played by an inexperienced player. Turns out he went 7-1 in the end finishing 2nd in Swiss, so major props to him.

I was still angry with myself after the match that everyone could see in my face that my ego was damaged.  When round 2 was posted I regrouped as it was still possible to make top cut, but meant I must win all my remaining matches.  Round 2 opponent was a complete random to me and he had a fairly decent looking team on preview.  I got myself in a commanding lead setting up tailwind and getting myself to +2 attack on Kanga with his Terrakion KO and his Aegi behind a sub who wouldn’t like to be snarled.  In the next turn he protected his Raikou from getting KOed from Kangaskhan but my Snarl missed Aegislash and it proceeded to KO my Kangaskhan. I was fine with that because I got Landorus in the back and Tailwind is up. I sent in my Landorus and I was 100% sure he wouldn’t have Wide Guard on Aegislash having already revealed Substitute and Flash Cannon, so surely his last 2 moves were King Shield and Shadow Ball. Also since my team has zero ground-immunity partners surely he wouldn’t think I would be crazy enough to Earthquake my team mate.  Then I got a shock of my life when he reveals Wide Guard and KO’s my Suicune, then I got to see the Shadow Ball the turn after. So I lost to a King Shieldless Aegislash. I got full on depressed with tears after that match because I knew my tournament was over. Cutting from 0-2 is near impossible and I didn’t believe he was good enough to get more wins to make my resistance good.

I told Legacy the bad news online, put my hoodie up, ran off to a place where I wanted to be alone and no one could see me crying. Not only I was upset of my loss but I was really down with how my season was going in general because I had achieved just average and bad results. My ego took a huge bruising and I was just lost mentally. I kept saying that I suck, I’m not good enough, I am a loser and whatever negative self talk you can think of.  I decided to play on in an attempt to get some points from the event.  Going into round 3 I had my hoodie up looking and feeling deflated sitting at the back tables alone where all your friends are at the front tables because they were winning. Prior to the start of the match my friend Jesse walked past me and saw the distraught look on my face. So he tried to cheer me up saying “It’s OK”, I snapped back at him and said “It’s over.  I cannot make the top cut now with 2 losses already”. I was facing another Trick Room team in round 3 and with the mental state I was in.  I proceeded to lose the match and of course I wanted to get away to hide myself from the public and cry.

It didn’t take long for my friends to know what happened to me.  First FamousDeaf saw me crying at the spot I choose to hide and he asked “If I was OK” in my best attempt in translating sign language.  Then when I got up to play round 4, walked into the playing area and I saw Luke (Dawg)  & Bockers (Zyihk) along the way.  Luke surprised me with a hug to cheer me up.  It was good to know that I had people to cheer me up.  In Round 4 I defeated my mate Jesse girlfriend Samantha, then we had a lunch break.  After the match Jesse and Sam talked to me to snap me out of my depression which I really appreciated.  One of the keys things to beat depression is to think about others and help them.  At the lunch break I saw Bargens and he was really looking defeated after losing the previous round.  So we chatted about his previous match, talked about what he can do for future matches and I reassured him that he is a good player.  Looks the pep talk did the trick because he didn’t lose another Swiss match defeating Lejn in the final round.

My mood was slightly lifted afterward but I still didn’t want to be in human contact and Jesse saw me sitting alone.  So he invited me to sit with him to have a chat which helped lifted my mood a little. Without Jesse actively looking out for me who knows what could of happened. Thanks from the bottom my heart mate for helping me get out of the darkness and checking up on me through out the event. I did get one good feel good story at the tournament.  I thrashed Yourf in our 6th round match by making gutsy plays at the start of the match that paid off.  I consider Yourf a greatest threat mentally because he is very smart and is mentally strong since he can play very good mind games.

On the plane ride home I was again depressed about my season, too much alone time on flights has that effect, considering how much time into the game I’d invested with very little reward. So I got home, called in sick from work the next day because I got home late, and I was really depressed.  Things didn’t improve the next day at home because I had no energy for my life. Going into work the next morning my fellow co-workers saw me depressed about my weekend. As I was doing my job caring for others problems and solving them, by the end of the shift my mood improved dramatically and I had energy for my life again.

When I got home from work I went though my collection of business improvement books and I decided to start a reading habit of a chapter a day.  So I started reading a new book called “The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth” by John Maxwell.  By reading the first chapter that night it opened my mind and inspired me for my future as a Professional Pokemon player.  I also restarted listening to some business talks from various entrepreneurs and coaches around the world. That night I choose to listen to a series called “Overcoming Temptation of leadership”.  It made realized why my season was average and also learnt what let me down during the Melbourne regional.  These were things I learnt from my season:

1. I was assuming I was going to succeed automatically and easily, just because I had some experience of success in the past
2. My pride literally killed me in Melbourne regional.  It’s good to have confidence but it is dangerous to have too much confidence where you become too arrogant and lazy to improve because you feel like you don’t need to learn.
3. My battling skills is still my biggest weakness and I need to commit to a growth plan.

So I went into action to improve myself everyday by first of all changing the way I think about life.  I deleted the word easy in my vocabulary because everything we want in life will be hard. The other mental change I needed to do is to balance my confidence and not get arrogant and also committed reading a chapter each day and applying each law into my Pokemon profession. I also limited my Battle Spot to 8 battles a day made sure I was playing like I was in a tournament with a notepad and seated the same way.

I kept using Legacy’s team because I still believed that the team was good and worked in the current metagame. Everyday I was starting to see small improvements that 1 week into my growth the 9th season of Battle Spot ended and I finished in the worlds top 100 for the very first time of my playing career, defeating a mirror match against Legacy and Portuguese player EmbC as my last 2 matches of the season. I was getting excited to test the new and improved Phil at the Adelaide regional that weekend.

Even at Adelaide I made sure I committed myself to growing so I read my book early in the morning I only played 1 or 2 matches on Battle spot prior to leaving for the regional event.  At the regional we played 7 rounds of Swiss.  I won my first match 4-0 then going into round 2 my assumption that a +2 Return Kangaskhan can OHKO Cresselia almost killed me because it lived the attack. Thankfully it stayed asleep so I won the match in the end. In round 3 against Luke (Dawg) the hax was in my favor as I froze his Amoonguss that never thawed.  Luke tried to Swagger me to win the game but to no avail. Round 4 was against Bailey (Bargens) and our teams almost match. However Bailey outplayed me and I brought the wrong Pokemon.  In the fifth round I took on Chris G (TheBatman) and I did have a good start against him but a few wrong moves cost me the match.  So mentally I was a mess going into the next round, but I refocused to win the match with my newly learnt skills of how damage calculation works.  I learnt that Sylveons Pixilate Hyper beam does more damage than Shadow Ball to a Mega Charizard Y.  In the final round I played against Nathan (Cappa) and played the most perfect match against him.  I finished 5-2 and bubbled at 9th for the 2nd time this season scoring 110 CP from the regional circuit.

Bubbling again did kind of hurt me but at least it was better than my Brisbane regional 9th and least I was growing as a trainer, so that is more important to me.  I spent the rest of the weekend watching the German Nationals and Utah Regional in the USA to get inspiration and watch how others battle, which is important for development as a player. On Monday night the pain of my regional failure was still lingering so I spoke to my mate Jesse who helped with my depression in Melbourne about how I was feeling because I didn’t want to keep it to myself and I knew he cared about me. He showed me this video to keep me inspired and I suggest everyone to watch it.

The Completed Team

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
Level: 50
EVs: 36 HP / 140 Atk / 76 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Fake Out
– Sucker Punch
– Return
– Power-Up Punch

This is the original spread that Legacy used in the April IC.  This spread was very good especially against the Kangaskhan mirror matches where I got good recognizing the opponents Kangaskhan spreads.  We noticed in the April IC stats that there was more Kangas were Adamant nature so when I get into a mirror match I had the confidence that my Kanga was going to be faster.  The Jolly nature also surprised some opponents because usually when you see Kanga in a Tailwind team you assume it’s an Adamant Bulky variant.  This spread also helped against the Tailwind mirror-match.  As for the defenses EV’s. It helped against the Jolly Kangaskhan mirror-matches as it can survive Low Kick from Jolly Kangaskhan’s and if other Kangaskhan gets the KO using Low Kick then that means it’s Adamant nature.  I also can survive Max Attack Landorus-T Superpower.

• 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 36 HP / 76 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 154-184 (83.2 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Landorus-T Superpower vs. 36 HP / 76 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 150-178 (81 – 96.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Protect
– Spore
– Mach Punch
– Bullet Seed

Basic Breloom spread. Breloom was one of my outs for Trick Room. Having a fast Spore user provides great offensive pressure.  With Rage Powder being a common re-director Breloom was a good threat against the partners.

Suicune @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 100 Def / 108 SpA / 20 SpD / 36 Spe
Bold Nature
– Tailwind
– Snarl
– Scald
– Ice Beam

The speed stat is designed to out speed a Choice Scarf Adamant Landorus-T under Tailwind and the Sp. Attack is enough to KO it as well. Bulk-wise it has enough to live Life Orb Thundurus-I and gave many Pokemon a tough time taking down Suicune besides. Snarl is a great move in doubles to annoy special attackers.

• 252 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 244 HP / 100+ Def Suicune: 108-127 (52.4 – 61.6%) — guaranteed 3HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
• +1 252 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 244 HP / 100+ Def Suicune: 160-189 (77.6 – 91.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
• 252 SpA Life Orb Thundurus Thunderbolt vs. 244 HP / 20 SpD Suicune: 172-203 (83.4 – 98.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery

Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 252 Def / 84 SpA / 4 SpD / 68 Spe
Modest Nature
– Hyper Voice
– Shadow Ball
– Hyper Beam
– Psyshock

The set that Legacy originally gave me had less Speed and more Sp. Attack. The original speed set was only faster than Mega Kangaskhan under Tailwind, but I felt it was important to be faster than Terrakion at least so it doesn’t get Rock Slide flinched by it. Sacrificing some Special Attack for the Speed wasn’t ideal, but it was still enough to KO a max HP Mega Kangaskhan:

84+ SpA Choice Specs Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mega Kangaskhan: 211-250 (99.5 – 117.9%) — 93.8% chance to OHKO

The bulk means Sylveon can survive Neutral Nature max Attack from the 2 most popular mega Pokemon and also Adamant Scizor.  If the megas are Adamant Nature then Intimidate is required to survive these attacks:

• 252 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 100 HP / 252 Def Sylveon: 148-175 (80.8 – 95.6%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 100 HP / 252 Def Sylveon: 153-182 (83.6 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Life Orb Technician Scizor Bullet Punch vs. 100 HP / 252 Def Sylveon: 151-182 (82.5 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 156 HP / 84 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
– U-turn
– Knock Off
– Rock Slide
– Earthquake

Same set Legacy gave me since April.  I always liked Landorus but didn’t like being choice-locked into a move.  I was an immediate fan of the Assault Vest variant because it gave me the freedom to pick whatever move was necessary. It can survive all non STAB Ice-type attacks and can survive most rainy water attacks depending on the user.  The EVs are designed to live +1 Life Orb Bisharp Sucker Punch.  I loved having max Speed just in case I have Tailwind up and when people use Icy Wind on it.  I love the mind games against people that don’t know my set.  Most people assume I’m a using the Choice Scarf which helps against the Mega Gengar match-up.  People do ask why no Superpower? Knock off is really handy to have to remove items plus I really needed U-Turn for the Cresselia match up because my other Pokemon cannot damage it well and I can do the old hit and run to it and escape traps.

Rotom-Heat @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 116 HP / 252 SpA / 140 Spe
Modest Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Overheat
– Will-O-Wisp
– Protect

So this is the only Pokemon change I did to Legacy’s team after Adelaide regional.  I found that I was having problems against Amoonguss Spore and Breloom is my only safe Spore switch.  I could of slapped the Safety Goggles to Heatran but I really wanted a Earthquake-immune partner for Landorus and the Heatran mirror is fraught with issues.  The EV spread, 252 Sp Attack is to maximize my chances of OHKO Amoonguss with Overheat, 140 Speed is 2 points over 252 speed adamant Bisharp and the rest was just dumped into HP. The other benefit of this change is that I know have 2 Pokemon immune to Thunder Wave paralysis. So with this change my team was starting to look like Billa’s team because we share 5 Pokemon that are the same but we have different sets on our teams.

Australian Nationals

About 2 weeks prior to Australian Nationals I made a commitment to only play 4 battles on Battle Spot a day whilst focusing on my growth plan. I only missed 2 days of training and I played around 50 games in a 2 week period including 2 games on the morning of Nationals. I was 38 wins and 12 losses on Battle Spot in practice, a 76% win ratio and I was the Australian number 1 on the ladder. The week before Nationals I managed to organize a Premier Challenge with one of my local Tournament Organizers with 3 days notice and we had enough people that turned up to the event.  I went undefeated at the event scoring the important points I needed.  During the week of Nationals we were told  that it was going to be Best of 3 Swiss, which was very good news to me as I prefer the format. I got to work asking my friends from other countries for best of 3 battles so I could get used to that format again without exposing myself to other Aussies. I’d like to thank Pephan from Chile, American pyromaniac720 for using the Japanese Sand team, DrSugus from Switzerland and Britons Wyrms Eye for the training. I got myself to Melbourne on the Thursday morning to enjoy the great food and I spent 2 hours in the library on Thursday, Friday and Saturday reading, growing and practicing.

Round 1: Romany Coventon W 2-0

For the 2nd time in a row at Australian Nationals my first round opponent is a girl.  She was full of energy and fell in love with my Delphox plush, so I continued to use my rugged charm against her. But she was playing rough when we battled and I wasn’t going to let her dominate me.  She started Salamance, Clefairy in both games and things got tricky in the start as she had Dragon Dance on Salamance and her Clefairy had Thunder Wave.  Both matches were hard fought but I got my goal correct to remove the Clefairy quickly so I could set up Tailwind and dominate.

Round 2: Richard Buckley (Arahpthos) W 2-0

Standard-looking team from the preview but there was a few strange things. His Rotom-H was slower than my Suicune and it wasn’t holding a Sitrus Berry, his Amoonguss didn’t have Rocky Helmet and his Mega Kangaskhan was slower than my Landorus.  In game 2 I got the luckiest automatic move selection when I ran out of time in turn 1.  My Rotom-H’s first move is Overheat and it targeted Richard’s Thundurus which KOed it after my Kangaskhan faked it out and I was able to capitalize from that lucky break to win the game.

Round 3: Theron Ho (BlazingSceptile) L 2-1

First time I got to play against a player from Singapore.  In game 1 he took control of the battle by taunting my Suicune with Thundurus and paralyzing my team. His Terrakion was a massive offensive threat with it’s Focus Sash and he was also predicting my switches really well, so I proceed to lose game 1. My plan for game 2 was not to be obvious in the switch outs but I wasn’t on the defensive at the start, as I had the stronger leads with Kangaskhan and Sylveon whilst he led with Thundurus and Bisharp, with Kangaskhan and Terrakion in the back. Despite the good start he did make it tough for me by making some good calls on my obvious plays but I edged him out in the end. In game 3 I lead with Kanga/Sylveon again whilst he started with Bisharp/Terrakion and I was already on the back foot from the start. I decided to Power-Up Punch the Bisharp whilst I was going to swap my Sylveon for Landorus so I could survive the Close Combat and KO the Bisharp before it gets any attack off.  I thought it was a clever idea because not many people are crazy enough to give Bisharp a free Defiant boost. But he actually saw it coming, Sucker Punching and Close Combating my Kangaskhan to knock it out and the game was over.  I was annoyed at myself that I didn’t commit to the gutsy stay-in aggressive play. He kept doing the non-obvious move meaning he wasn’t going to Iron Head my Sylveon. But my stupid fears got in the way and made me pick the safe moves which killed me.

Round 4: Jordan Taskovski W 2-0

This was the case of ‘my Tailwind team is faster than yours’ and ‘why are you using Tailwind and Aegislash in the same team?’  Of course I caught his Kangaskhan being Adamant and bulky. I was able to dominate the match as he just made the obvious plays of protecting his weaknesses and attacking the obvious targets.

Round 5: Luke Hey W 2-1

This was the most interesting team of the whole day. From the team preview it was really anti-meta having both Bisharp and Milotic just to prevent Landorus-T.  Mega Gallade was there to scare Kangaskhan.  Going into game 1 he lead with Rotom-M and Thundurus, whist I lead with Kangaskan and Rotom-H. What I noticed straightaway was that his Thundurus was not holding a Sitrus Berry and his Rotom-M was holding the Choice Specs as Volt Switch did 50% to my Kangaskhan.  I noticed his Gallade in non-mega form was slower than Rotom-H. I wasn’t quite sure on normal Gallade’s Base Speed (Editors Note: It’s Base 80), but knew Mega Gallade hit a Base Speed of 110.  The biggest surprise was his Gallade knew Skill Swap and stopped my Sylveon cold to win game 1.  Game 2 I lead Kangaskhan/Breloom whilst he lead with Rotom Mow/Bisharp.  I dominated game 2 by putting most of his Pokemon to sleep and I crucially learnt that my Jolly Mega Kangaskhan was faster than his Mega Gallade.  Going into game 3 I knew every single item his Pokemon were holding and none of them were anything to prevent Spore.  Also knowing that my Kangaskhan was faster than his Gallade, I dominated game 3. After the match he admitted that his Gallade is only faster than 252 Speed Adamant Kangaskhan.

Round 6: Ben Munroe W 2-0

I wasn’t quite sure if Ben was trying to reinvent the Japanese Sand team or this was his own idea. I took it as if it was his own idea because it looked worse than the Japanese Sand team on team preview. Game 1 saw his Mienshao miss the Hi Jump Kick into the switched-in Landorus and noted it was holding the Safety Goggles as it took no damage from the Sandstorm. My Suicune sets up Tailwind and I dominate game 1 without revealing my 4th Pokemon.  Game 2 he readjusted by leading Tyranitar and Clefable so he could set up a Dragon Dance on Tyranitar, but I took control of the speed once again and got a lucky Scald burn on his Tyranitar.  He did surprise me having Ice Punch on Tyranitar just to KO enemy Landorus. But as he was burnt I lived the hit and I went on to win game 2.

Round 7: Shawn Tang W 2-1

Another match against a player from Singapore. His team confused me on what speed method was he going to use. I expected it to be Trick Room because of the Amoonguss. Gothitelle are always scary to play against and he did bring it to all 3 games.  In game 1 he was very protective to Gothitelle and I learnt that my Mega Kangaskhan was faster than Mega Metagross and that its attacks were Ice Punch, Protect, Bullet Punch and Zen Headbutt.  His Gothitelle revealed it held the Safety Goggles with the moves of Psyshock and Tickle; despite not showing his 4th move I was very sure it was Trick Room because of the Mega Metagross being notably slow. Shawn decided not to set up Trick Room and brought Terrakion, which helped him win game 1.  In game 2 I lead with Kangaskhan and Landorus whilst he started with Gothitelle and Terrakion.  It was a ideal start for me as his Terrakion cannot KO Kangaskhan in 1 hit whilst intimidated.  I vaguely remember this battle but it was tense and no Trick Room was set up. I learnt that my Landorus was faster than the Mega Metagross and I popped his Air Balloon Heatran on a switch in, so he had a really bad Landorus match-up and I won the game.  In game 3 he led with Gothitelle and Scrafty and I lead with Breloom and Landorus.  This time, Shawn sets up Trick Room and all I remember is that I managed to put his Metagross asleep in the Trick Room. I managed to stall out the Trick Room and somehow won by making good moves because I shouted “C’Mon!” a lot. I only tend to do that if I make good moves or escape confusion/paraflinch hax which he doesn’t have. Needless to say, the Singapore people at home were not happy about the result!

Round 8: Chris Giagozoglou (TheBatman) W 2-0

I have known Chris ever since I got into VGC tournaments in Australia. I know how he behaves and plays.  I have never known Chris to be an especially good team builder for himself and he tends to stay with the same team all season which he did in 2013 & 2014. This happens especially if he has been winning with it because he thrives on his confidence which turns into ignorance.  The night before at the TCG event there were side tournaments and I was only playing just to fill the numbers, so I played using the May IC team. Chris was playing in the tournament as well and used the same team he has been using all season.  He and I made the finals of the side tournament and I got thrashed as to be expected because I was using a bad team.  I managed to save our battle and later that night I analysed his team using the mock battle feature to find out his spreads and if he had made any subtle changes. Coming into this battle I was loaded with information after finding out that I was playing Chris. I saw Saamid (Yourf) who defeated him in the earlier rounds and asked for his advice.  He told me to stay aggressive which reaffirmed my game plan and I just recently played Chris at the Adelaide Regional, so I knew the mistakes I made there.

Going into game 1 our leads was a deja-vu of Adelaide. I lead Kangaskhan and Breloom and he leads Kangaskhan and Sylveon, the exact same leads in Adelaide Regionals. Our moves were also the exact same in Adelaide.  He swapped his Kanga for Landorus, whilst I use Power-Up Punch on the Kangaskhan slot and spored his Sylveon.  In turn 2 he did the exact same thing as our previous match. He used Superpower onto my Kangaskhan which it survived, then I used Return to KO Sylveon because it destroyed me last time and I stayed in with my Breloom this time to spore his Landorus because on the previous occasion I switched it out to reset the Intimidate. So this was looking like a much better start for me and I didn’t get let go to that lead. In game 2 he changed his leads to Kangaskhan and Landorus whilst I kept the same leads, so he had the early advantage and this was going to test me. I wanted to stick to my game plan by standing my ground and being aggressive, because going against my original game plan failed against Theron. I know Chris likes to recycle intimidates using U-Turn and he certainly did that in turn 1, swapping into Amoonguss.  I think I used Fake Out and Spore into his Kangaskhan because I have sleep turns for it written in my notes. Next turn I swapped my Kangaskhan into Rotom-H to reset the attack drop and protect it from a possible Spore which he end up doing. All I remember about the rest of game 2 that it was really tense and longer than the first game but I still took control the game to win the match.

Round 9 : Nicholas Bingham (Spiritbomber) L 0-2

Seeing how I was paired up against the only undefeated player, I felt comfortable about making the cut win or lose. But I wanted to win because I tend to bubble at x-2. Nick is also one of my best fans and he did offer to drop to me since he was already guaranteed cut but I refused his offer after seeing Theron winning his last Swiss match. During the tournament all day I felt like throwing up, I couldn’t eat a proper meal so I was left snacking on protein bars, nuts and coffees.  I have spent a lot of mental energy on my battles that I don’t remember much on this match.  My note taking this this match was minimal as well and all I remember is that I was close to winning game 1 but I lost due to either lower damage roll or a miss.  I got dominated in game 2.

I was super nervous and worried about the top cut results. We had to wait a long time for the results and to my shock I made the cut and not bubble but I was also shocked that I was ranked 14th. I was expecting to be seed higher because I lost to 2 players with great Swiss results but I was wrong. I make a mental note for myself to make sure I don’t go x-2 in any future Swiss rounds.

Round 1 top cut:  Matt Jiwa (JiwaVGC) W 2-0

Figuring out the top cut draw is easy and I knew I was going to play Matt. When I got home I started messaging people that had played Matt during the Swiss rounds to get as much information about his team.  When FamousDeaf told me about the Pokemon on his team, I felt very comfortable about my match up, because I have defeated this Mega Gardevoir Japanese Trick Room team every time I played against it on Battle Spot.  I got more information from Ty Power (Sarkastik) and Nihal Noor (UchihaX96) as they both played Matt during the Swiss rounds.  I was told that the Garchomp is a filler and never used, Heatran has Safety Goggles and Amoonguss was wearing a Rocky Helmet. I asked a couple of questions about his play style as well so I could understand his behavior.

Prior to the match I was planning to bring Kangaskhan, Breloom, Sylveon and Rotom-H. I brought Kangaskhan for offensive pressure, Breloom to prevent Trick Room being set up, offensively scare his Pokemon and he negate Spore abuse. I brought Sylveon because I figured he’d bring Scrafty against me so I needed good offensive pressure against it. Rotom-H was there to provide an additional way to block Spore from Amoonguss and Heatran can’t touch it.  In game 1 I stuck to the game plan and I must of prevented Trick room because I wasn’t counting Trick Room turns on my notes for game 1.  I remember that it ended with Sylveon waking up and finishing off Gardevior and Scrafty.  In game 2 I started with Breloom and Rotom H whilst Matt started with Gardevior and Scrafty.  Matt manages to set up Trick Room immediately, I managed to stall it out successfully and I won the match.  I was the first person to move on to the top 8 and my homework paid off.

Quarter finals:  Matt Roe (RoeySK) L 0-2

I was really happy that Roey won because he pretty much qualified for worlds getting this far and he is a fun person that I really liked. Going into the match I knew I can beat the Japanese Sand teams, as I have played many of them on Battle Spot and I knew exactly of how I was going to play this. I brought Kangaskhan/Rotom-H with Landorus and Breloom in the back whilst Roey led Salamence/Tyranitar with Rotom-W and Aegislash in the back. I ended up losing game 1 as I missed a Will-O-Wisp and made some bad plays. I learnt that he plays defensively and our Rotom Speed tie. At this event I was only 1 point faster than Bisharp. Game 2 we lead the same and brought the same 4 Pokemon. This time he starts with switching in Rotom-W, which made life difficult without Breloom in play and when I tried to switch it in, it got burnt. I did put it to sleep and it got to a point where I was 2-3 down when Roey had his Salamence and his 2HP sleeping Rotom Wash with Tyranitar in the back whilst my last 2 were Kanga and a full HP Rotom-H. I caught him out protecting his Salamence as my Kangaskhan Power-Up Punched my Rotom because I wanted a +2 boost and not 1 from his Rotom.  Then the most unfortunate thing happened his Rotom won the speed tie, woke up and hit Hydro Pump into my Rotom and it was game over.  My Rotom was going to Thunderbolt his Rotom because I knew he would Protect the Salamence. This is the reason why my Rotom-Heat is now 2 points faster than Bisharp.

Once again my arrogance killed me again.  At the time I thought using Suicune was a really bad idea to use in this match up because of the Amoonguss. I know Suicune can be good against this because of the value of Tailwind set up. Generally my match-up against Japan Sand teams is 50/50; it depends on how well me and my opponent plays because some of my Pokemon can destroy some parts of this team whilst they can be destroyed by other parts of the team.

South East Asia Nationals

I was planning to make my decision going to Singapore depending on my Aussie National result.  I knew I was a strong shot of qualifying for worlds as I was comfortably inside the cut-off in CP for Asia Pacific after Australian Nationals so I didn’t need to go to Singapore. I was considering going because this year is my last year of playing unless I win worlds.  The local players were encouraging me to be there plus I haven’t been to Singapore as an adult and I love summer.  It wasn’t until the next day that the organizers announced that their Nationals was also going to be best of 3 Swiss and that validated me going to the event for primarily the battle practice, then social reasons and a chance on getting the paid invite.

Practicing for this National was completely different as I made it very public by streaming my 4 daily Battle Spot battles plus inviting a guest to do a best of 3 battle afterwards. On my days off at work, I organised private battle appointments with American players and I create a schedule of one best of 3 battle every hour for 6-8 hours to simulate a tournament situation.  My Battle Spot results did improve as I entered the worlds top 10 for the first time getting as high as 4th at one point. I wanted to keep battling with that high rating because it was good pressure practice to get to world number 1.  My stay in the worlds top 10 only lasted 3 days as streaming plus battling in the same time can be distracting as you miss some information.

As the event came close, some doubt in my team was starting to creep in as I was losing some matches and was concerned about some match-ups. I asked Luke (Dawg) for some advice and gave me some changes. I was practicing the changes doing best of 3 battles with Americans and it failed badly there.  So I stuck with my old team with the belief knowing I have beaten some of the bad match up Pokemon before and they are rarely seen in the meta game as well for example Mega Venusaur and Clefairy.

The tournament attracted just short of 128 players around Asia Pacific from countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia. We were playing 7 rounds of best of 3 Swiss with only a top 8 cut.  People back in Australia calculated that only x-1’s would make the cut.

Round 1: Melvin Keh (Shaman) W 2-1

I knew I recognized my opponent’s name from the streams of Asian events and he quickly reminded me of our International Challenge match last year where I successfully timer-stalled him. It was my Aerodactyl against his Aegislash where I had no right in winning without the timer. So I knew I was in for a tough battle.  I lost game 1 because of his tricks. His Kangaskhan was Adamant with the Inner Focus ability, Rotom-W had Thunder Wave for speed control which shut down my Tailwind, My Landorus was faster than his, and was holding a Lum Berry. I’d managed to get good information about his team and how he played, promptly using it to my full advantage and made good gutsy plays to win games 2 and 3.  The gutsy play was in the start of game 3 where I used Fake Out on his Kangaskhan because I was pretty confident he was thinking I wasn’t going to fake out his Kangaskhan. Singapore was starting to hear my battle cries really early!

Round 2: Zulherryka Yosuf (Mewzxc) L 1-2

It turns out I’m actually known in the Asian market as young Zul recognized my name and praised me.  His team looked scary as I didn’t want to bring Suicune because of the sun and knocking out Cresselia in the sun is a massive challenge. I managed to win game 1 because I lead well with Kangaskhan/Sylveon against double genies and the game finished with my Rotom’s Overheat in the sun knocking out Cresselia at 60%. In game 2 he started with his Fire-power with Heatran and Charizard whilst I kept the same leads. Things didn’t look good at all and he dominated the match. In game 3 I figured he might want to keep the same Pokemon so I decided to bring Suicune and he knew I was going to do that so he adjusted to that. At the end of the match my Suicune became dead weight in the sun and I lost the game.

Round 3: Ezer Tan W 2-1

Thank goodness for best of 3 because I lost game 1 thanks to his tricks.  This was a full on Trick Room team with his Heatran being slower than Suicune and my Breloom being faster than his Kangaskhan. Game 2 I learnt his Cresselia wore the Safety Goggles and Trick Room went up again, however I successfully stalled it out and won the game. I cannot remember much of game 3 other than me getting critical hits and Scald burns which made my life easier to win game 3.

Round 4: Vishal W 2-0

I was happy in team preview because the team composition looks seriously outdated. Talonflame and Bisharp were past their prime but I promised myself not to be arrogant this tournament so I played with due caution.  First turn of game 1 I faked out the Thundurus and set up Tailwind, whilst his Kangaskhan used Low Kick onto mine and it hung on, which indicated that his Kangaskhan is Jolly natured. Next turn I won the Sucker Punch mind game and he made other questionable plays like not protecting Landorus in front of my Tailwind Suicune which got a free kill.  Game 2 I completely dominated him; he was just doing the safe plays and his team was really outdated in the current meta at the time.

Round 5: Chi Yuen Fu W 2-0

Playing a player from Taiwan and seeing rain made me comfortable in bringing Suicune to set up Tailwind do some serious water damage. He starts with his rain duo of Politoed and Ludicolo whilst I started with Kangaskhan and Suicune. I escape the Scald burns, noticing he was being very protective to his Pokemon. I took Politoed out quickly so when Tailwind ended I could stall out the rain and take control from there. He lead with rain again in game 2 and the same thing happened, despite using Thundurs instead of Terrakion to control my speed. It was nice to get 2 less stressful wins.

Round 6: Ericsson Marquez (MaximumZero) W 2-1

Ericsson from the Philippines was the next opponent. While on the surface it’s another rain team, this one looked more threatening than the previous team. I dominated game 1 as he started with Politoed/Terrakion against my Kangaskhan/Suicune lead.  I noticed his Politoed was holding a Choice Scarf as Drizzle activated before Suicune’s Pressure.  I use Fake Out on Terrakion and promptly set up Tailwind whilst avoiding a sScald burn from the Politoed. I took control of the match without revealing my 4th Pokemon but the result was the reverse in game 2 where he adjusted by not bringing rain. Going into game 3 he’d brought Mega Scizor both games and he didn’t use rain in game 2 so I left Breloom behind and took Rotom-H with me. I still lead with Kangaskhan and Suicune whilst he started with Weavile/Terrakion. His lead was more favorable than mine but in the first turn things didn’t go as planned for Ericcson. I swapped my Kangaskhan for Landorus whilst his Weavile used Icicle Crash on my Suicune and Terrakion used Close Combat into the Kangaskhan slot, whilst my Suicune sets up Tailwind. From there I took control of the match and won as I correctly assumed he wouldn’t bring rain. At the end of the game, Ericsson said that he thought I was going to swap my Suicune for Landorus so I can make sure Kangaskhan could live the Close Combat and Power-Up Punch his Weavile.

Round 7: Jaryl Chan L 1-2

This must win match was being featured on stream, so I was looking forward to putting on a good show for the world. Looking at team preview I was having concerns of a Calm Mind Cresselia and Charizard Y combo but that was not the case when I lost game 1 to Trick Room, whilst I used Tailwind.  By the time I stalled out the turns, my Pokemon were too hurt that I couldn’t recover. In game 2 I readjusted and brought Sylveon into the party. I made a good call in game 2 expecting his Landorus to switch out for Charizard and it took a Thunderbolt to get the KO. Jaryl ended his Trick Room early when I had my Sylveon out and Jaryl made a comeback thanks to some favorable rolls. My Sylveon was in prime position to KO his Landorus and Cresselia with Hyper Voice. I swapped in my Landorus to make sure I was going to survive his Life Orbed Landorus’s attack but the critical hit Earthquake took out my Sylveon. The organisers gave me the win in game 2 because Jaryl was taking too much time selecting his moves as there was a strict enforcement of the 45 second turn selection rule (Editors Note: This was down to the fact the event was ‘untethered’ – they didn’t have the luxury of the official software). I knew Jaryl was doing this because he looked extremely nervous and tense during the game.  So my game plan in game 3 is to continue applying pressure.

Going into game 3 I knew that my Lando was faster than his. I started game 3 perfectly. I knocked off the Life Orb from his Landorus, preventing a KO to my Kangaskhan from the Helping Hand-boosted Superpower. I took control in game 3 by leaving his Cresselia alone and picking off its partners Landorus, then Condelkurr in the Trick Room leaving me with a 4-2 lead.  His last Pokemon was Sylveon, and had Trick Room turns remaining. My Sylveon and Rotom-H had about half HP left and I thought his Sylveon would just finish me off with Hyper Voice because I thought it was holding Choice Specs.  So I just picked Hyper Voice on my Sylveon because it was choice-locked into it and Thunderbolt the Cresselia.  But to my shock, my Sylveon was slower than his, plus it wasn’t holding a choice item because he used Calm Mind whilst his Creeselia used Moonlight to heal. Then the Trick Room ended. His Sylveon was at about 30% of health and I didn’t know how much damage a Thunderbolt would do to his Sylveon at +1 so I went for Will-O-Wisp so I could slowly accumulate damage because I knew we were going back into Trick Room. But my Will-O-Wisp missed and my Kangaskhan failed to KO Sylveon with Sucker Punch, giving Jaryl the win. The biggest mistake I made in game 3 was thinking that I was going to lose my Pokemon on the turn he used Calm Mind with Sylveon. If I’d said to myself ”What if I somehow lived this attack?’ I would of picked proper attacks against him and not careless ones.

I was pretty sure my tournament was over for me but there were people who dropped out the tournament, so maybe at least 1 x-2 was going to cut. I wanted to find out where I finished because if I finished 9th I was going to celebrate with Bubble tea – thanks Level 51 for the idea! Soon the Tournament Organizer voiced out the top cut line up and he said that there will be 4 different countries representing the top cut. 4 players from Singapore, 2 from Hong Kong, 1 from Malaysia and 1 from AUSTRALIA!!! I was in total shock that I made the cut and but it was no surprise when they showed the tie-breaker resistances on screen. The 2 people I lost to were x-1 plus 3 players I defeated joined me at x-2. Thank you Melvin, Chi Yuen Fu and Ericsson!

Quarter Final: Wai Yin Low (TextFont) W 2-0

So this is it.  The winner of this match would get the paid invite because if either of us got into the semi final no one else in the top cut can catch up to our points and Wai Yin was only 10 CP ahead of me. I was trying to do well in the International Challenge that weekend to negate the deficit, but it was no longer needed because I had full control of my fate in front of me. The Aussies back home were quick to find YouTube videos of Wai Yin playing the Malaysian Regional where she won.  I got back to the hotel after having a real dinner and took notes on how she plays. The morning after I enjoyed a good swim in the Singapore heat and I remembered that Zarif (Hikari0307) the eventual champion played her in Swiss and I got the information regarding her team.

I knew she had a Tailwind team but my team absolutely dominates Talonflame in general. I lead with Kangaskhan and Suicune vs Kangaskhan/Sylveon. In the videos of the Malaysian Regional, I noticed that her Kangaskhan was bulky and it was most likely an Adamant nature. That was true going into our battle as my Kangaskhan outsped hers and it was going to be another case of Phil’s Tailwind team is faster than yours. I dominated game 1 by not giving any control. Game 2 was a repeat of game 1 as she struggled to find an out to Suicune and Breloom. After the match she admitted to me that she forgot to add King’s Shield on her Aegislash prior to the tournament.  So she went 7-0 in Swiss without King’s Shield. Wow. So the 2nd paid invite was mine as my trip to Singapore ended up being a profitable one. The same could be said about Theron Ho after finishing 2nd in Australia and top 32 in Singapore.

Semi Finals : Zulherryka Yosuf (Mewzxc) L 0-2

I knew it was going to be difficult playing Zul again. I started really badly game 1, with Kangaskhan/Sylveon against his Charizard and Heatran.  He dominated me as I had no real switch into the fire attacks so I was stalling game 1 whilst figuring out a plan for game 2 because this was an extremely difficult match up.  In game 2 I led better with Kangaskhan/Landorus whilst he kept up with his fiery duo. In the previous game he protected against the Fake Out so I thought he would do the same in game 2 so I decided to Power-Up Punch my Landorus. To my shock he didn’t Protect and went all offense and it was over for me. My biggest down fall in this match was not committing the same amount of homework that I did against Wai Yin. I had a lot time to do it as well, so it was my own lack of commitment that cost me here.

TV Interview

After returning from Singapore I contacted an Australian TV show called Good Game and I sent a tweet to the host of the Online E-Sports show called Well Played and pitched the story about the Pokemon World Championships.  I was invited to travel to Sydney and got interviewed to showcase to the audience about high-level Pokemon VGC.  Here is the interview:

Thank Yous

• Thank you to my awesome and sexy friend from the best coast of USA,  Alejandro Jimenez (Legacy).  Using your team has taught me a lot about the game. I cannot wait to see you at worlds and get your picture & autograph.
• Thank you to my great mate in Melbourne Jesse Wilsone for always being there for me plus getting me out of the darkness.
• To the Team Delphox Cubs: thanks for assistance of getting legendary Pokemon, practice battles and bouncing ideas off of each other.
• Thank you Australia for cheering me on and supporting me.  I have seen the Twitch chat logs of the stream and I have never had so much fun whilst competing.  I will do you guys proud for worlds.
• To all my international fans: thank you for supporting me, giving advice and battling me.
• Thank you Nintendo Australia and Russell Peters for organising a successful national event.
• Thank you to team Singapore for your hospitality and your tournament was equally well ran like Australian Nationals.  I love your dedication for excellence and you all have good team synergy.

Closing Words

Here is commitment to my supporters.  I will be working hard and smart to make sure I do come home with the World Championship trophy. There is still heaps for me to learn to become a champion because I have yet to win a tournament this season despite these great results.  I cannot wait to see all my new friends I made this season and see all the old friends I saw last year at worlds!

The post From Wannabe to Professional: Asia Pacific Circuit Top 2 Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello everybody! My name is Blake Hopper, but you can call me Bopper. I’m here to talk about my team that I used at the United States National tournament where I placed 3rd. This was not only my first time to place in the top 8 of any major tournament, but also my first time to make day 2 of nationals! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy!

Team Building Process

Imagine me on Tuesday prior to Nationals without a team. It’s not a pretty sight. I was extremely stressed out as my entire season would be riding on this tournament at which I had to place within the top 32 in order to lock up my Worlds invite. I was talking with Oliver Valenti (Smith) and Toler Webb (Dim) while at dinner and Oliver suggested I mess around with Alberto Lara’s (CaliSweeper) team that he used to win two Regionals. The team sounded very appealing as it had both Salamence and Charizard, two Pokémon that I was very comfortable with, so I went with it.

I really didn’t like Ferrothorn on this team and felt like it should go as it doesn’t fit my style. I also wanted to have a solid steel type but also needed a good strong fighting type that allowed my team to gain a lot of offensive momentum.

This version seemed to click much more than the previous. However, I rarely brought Salamence and whenever I did, it never really pulled its weight, as the team didn’t really seem to work well with it. In addition to this, Breloom was way too inconsistent for my liking, so I decided to switch it out for a more consistent fighting type that still put a lot of pressure on the opponent in the form of type coverage.

This version of the team is what stood out the most to me. It had a lot of speed control in the forms of Charizard and Thundurus which had access to Tailwind and Thunder Wave respectively. On the original draft of the team, I didn’t like Conkeldurr in conjunction with Salamence because Conkeldurr was always too slow to help out the rest of the team. With Thundurus, I was able to control much more of my matches and it was also a very reliable way to prevent any gimmicks that I might have faced in a Swiss style tournament.

The Team

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 36 SpA / 4 SpD / 196 Spe
Modest Nature
– Flamethrower
– Tailwind
– Solar Beam
– Protect

• OHKOs 252HP/156SDef Aegislash with sun boosted flamethrower
• Survives a Rock Slide from -1 Jolly Terrakion
• Survives Choice Specs boosted Draco Meteor from Hydreigon 93.7% of the time
• Outspeeds Adamant Landorus-T by 2 points, hitting 145 speed

Charizard was one of the megas that not a lot of people really believed in going into Nationals. Due to the large spike in usage of the famous Japanese sand team with Mega Salamence, Charizard didn’t seem to be a great play for the event. However, Charizard has amazing matchups against some of the top pokemon when supported correctly. There are always some matchups where Charizard severely lacks the offensive pressure that I love to apply. It was situations like these that made me want to try out Tailwind on Charizard in order to fill a support role for whenever Charizard couldn’t apply much offensive pressure on its own. With the use of Tailwind, I was able to set up a lot of really weird win conditions that my opponents didn’t really see coming, and these win conditions were usually able to immediately lock up games.

Conkeldurr @ Assault Vest
Ability: Iron Fist
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 100 HP / 116 Atk / 140 Def / 68 SpD / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Drain Punch
– Mach Punch
– Ice Punch
– Rock Tomb

• Survives Life Orb Hyper Voice from modest Sylveon
• Survives a -1 Return from adamant Mega-Salamence 93.7% of the time
• Outspeeds max speed adamant Mega-Kangaskhan in Tailwind
• KOs 4 HP Landorus-T with a -1 Ice Punch + Mach Punch

Hands down the MVP of the entire tournament. Conkeldurr was a Pokémon that I was testing with constantly prior to Nationals. I thought that Conkeldurr had the most potential out of any Fighting type going into Nationals seeing that it was able to OHKO Landorus-T and Kangaskhan, which were two very threatening Pokemon for Charizard if I were to lose Aegislash. Conkeldurr was one of the best pokemon I used in the tournament due to its access to a strong priority move in the form of Mach Punch, which gained a power boost from Conkeldurr’s ability Iron Fist. There were a few moments where I wished I had Guts instead of Iron Fist, but there were far more times where I was happy about having Iron Fist instead. I decided that Conkeldurr needed to act as the sort of “glue” to this team, meaning it was able to patch up some of my weird matchups and generally provide solid coverage to help support the team. Rock Tomb was an interesting choice that I decided on the day prior to the tournament. I was really afraid of opposing Charizards so I wanted some hidden ways to take out Charizards in order to clear up some of my opponents’ offensive threats. Rock Tomb also counted as a form of speed control but was unfortunately never used in that way.

Sylveon @ Life Orb
Ability: Pixilate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 156 HP / 20 Def / 212 SpA / 116 Spe
Modest Nature
– Hyper Voice
– Hidden Power [Ground]
– Helping Hand
– Protect

• Survives -1 Mega-Kangaskhan Double-Edge AND Life Orb recoil
• KOs 4HP Heatran with Hidden Power
• Outspeeds Mega-Salamence in Tailwind

Sylveon used to be one of the best pokemon in the metagame with little to nothing to stop it quickly. But now, I feel as if Sylveon has dropped down in usage as people are becoming more aware of how to handle it. With the abundance of Salamence and Kangaskhan which both OHKO Sylveon and Aegislash which prevents Sylveon from using Hyper Voice, Sylveon can have a bit of a tough time getting damage off in some matches. I feel like outside of these pokemon and a few others, Sylveon is a monster that specializes in punishing switches that the opponent may be making due to being in a bad position. Charizard was able to plug up a lot of the things that give Sylveon some issues. Charizard OHKOs Aegislash and Amoonguss, two very annoying pokemon for Sylveon, and Charizard is able to set up a Tailwind which allows Sylveon to outspeed and KO Salamence, and do very sizeable damage to Kangaskhan.

The spread was probably one of my favorite spreads that I used on my team. Sylveon being able to outspeed Mega-Salamence and Tyranitar holding a Choice Scarf was extremely useful and netted many KOs throughout the tournament.

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 212 HP / 104 Def / 4 SpA / 72 SpD / 116 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Thunder Wave
– Taunt

• Survives Kangaskhan Double-Edge with Sitrus Berry recovery
• Outspeeds Jolly Landorus-T by 1 point
• Dumped Special Defense

This specific Thundurus was mainly just ripped from Jake Muller’s (MajorBowman) Winter Regionals team. I wanted to use Timid Thundurus because I felt like it was a stellar meta call going into nationals, as it could outspeed and Taunt opposing Thundurus reliably and prevent any Swaggers or Thunder Waves they might have been trying to set up on my team. Thundurus was amazing support for this team. My team had three forms of speed control in the forms of Charizard’s Tailwind, Conkeldurr’s Rock Tomb, and Thundurus’ Thunder Wave. This allowed for me to be able to control the momentum of a large portion of my matches due to how many options I had to speed up my team.

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 236 HP / 4 Def / 140 SpA / 76 SpD / 52 Spe
Modest Nature
– Shadow Ball
– Flash Cannon
– Wide Guard
– King’s Shield

• General speed investment to speed-creep opposing Aegislash
• Survives 252 SAtk Timid Charizard Heat Wave in sun
• Dumped Special Attack

Many of the teams that I played seemed to only have a Landorus-T as their “Charizard counter,” which was easily stoppable with the support of Aegislash and its move Wide Guard. After Nationals, I’m convinced that Aegislash is tied with Landorus-T for the best Pokemon in the metagame. Aegislash is able to fit on nearly any team and offer either offensive or defensive support. It’s also easily one of the best defensive pivots in the entire game due to its insane amount of type resistances and lack of weaknesses. What Aegislash brought to this team was mainly the threat of Wide Guard and its ability to freely switch into opposing Kangaskhan, which none of my Pokemon really wanted to take a hit from. Not much else to say about this guy – it’s an Aegislash, it’s good.

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 108 HP / 156 Atk / 28 Def / 12 SpD / 204 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– U-turn
– Superpower

• KOs 4HP Hydreigon with Superpower
• Outspeeds Mega-Gengar with choice scarf
• Survives +1 Life Orb Bisharp Sucker Punch

Oh hey! That one Pokémon that’s used on almost every team! I wonder if there’s a reason for that. Well there is! Landorus-T is almost too good of a Pokémon. With access to intimidate, base 145 Attack and amazing coverage for the metagame, there’s no surprise that this Pokémon is used on over half of the teams. I wanted to use a less common Landorus set at nationals but this team lacked speed and didn’t have a lot of options for Kangaskhan due to that. I figured Choice Scarf was going to be the best option to fix that issue, and it definitely was. A fast Landorus paired with the multiple forms of speed control gave me options outside of the speed control options to still outspeed my opponents and apply a lot of offensive pressure. Another thing that Landorus was able to bring to this team that ended up saving my butt in a lot of situations was Intimidate. With Intimidate, my team immediately is able to do a lot of insane things defensively that wouldn’t have been possible without it. Because of this, it allowed my team to be much more flexible and get out of sticky situations.

The Tournament – Day 1

At the start of the first day of the tournament, I was a nervous wreck. I had never cut a National tournament prior to this year and I knew that if I wanted to qualify for Worlds, I had to play my best for the entirety of the tournament to make day 2, which was no small task. Going into the tournament, I tried to keep a different mindset before each of my matches. In the past, I always seemed to let losses get to me and affect how I play in future rounds. This always resulted in me not playing my best and translated to preventable losses. Going into this tournament though, I tried to stay as confident as possible, set my goals high, and to not expect to do great. This allowed me to look at each game positively and not get too down on myself if I were to lose, which was absolutely huge for a best-of-3 tournament where losing a game could ruin your mentality halfway through a set.

Round 1 [0-0]: Martin Gajdosz (ThunderRaikou22)

Going into this match, I immediately had an advantage due to his mega being Venusaur. Typically a Venusaur team’s goal is to set up Venusaur to lock up games. Due to the fact that my mega was Charizard and I had a lot of speed control, it was tough for Martin to set up his Venusaur late game. He put me in some weird spots and played pretty well.

Win 2-0 [1-0]

Round 2 [1-0]: Mark Hanson (Crawdaunt)

Prior to Nationals, I knew I needed answers to this exact team because it’s a very good Swiss team that has a lot of offensive pressure and I didn’t want to fall victim to it. Going into this match, I knew I had a pretty solid matchup. My Charizard’s ability to Tailwind really payed off and my fairly speedy Sylveon really did work in this match.

Game 1 he didn’t bring Terrakion which surprised me, so anticipating this, I brought Landorus-T game 2. This practically sealed the game for me as he didn’t bring rain and brought Terrakion and Thundurus instead.

Win 2-0 [2-0]

Round 3 [2-0]: Patrick Ball (PBall0010)

Prior to sitting down, I tried to think of what I could do against Patrick matchup wise. I knew Pat had been using the Charizard / Sylveon / Landorus-T core for nearly the entire season and that it wasn’t a great matchup for me. I had Rock Tomb on Conkeldurr for matchups like these, but the fact that he had Aegislash and Cresselia in addition to Sylveon really limited Conkeldurr and forced me to not bring it.

I lost game 1 because I didn’t play to my win condition and Pat played better.

Game 2 I got an early lead by KOing his Charizard turn 1 by correctly calling a Protect from his Hydreigon which was expecting my Landorus to superpower it. After this, I just rode my momentum to comfortably take game 2.

Game 3 Pat didn’t really bring the right pokemon and it sort of bit him in the butt. I got an early KO on his Sylveon that he lead and got to paralyze his Hydreigon. What the match came down to was his Landorus locked into rock slide and Wide Guard Aegislash at full versus my +2 Aegislash at 30HP and Landorus that were both faster than Pat’s corresponding Pokémon. On the turns I decided to be bold enough with my Aegislash to attack his Aegislash, I first flinched from his rock slide which was then followed by him missing my Aegislash which was at the time, at around 10HP. Really unfortunate way to win it, but the flinch did happen so it sort-of-not-really balances it out.

Win 2-1 [3-0]

Round 4 [3-0]: Kolby Golliher (LoveTrain)

As soon as I saw team preview I knew I was going to have a tough time with this set. I really hate playing against Talonflame + Kanga + another Fighting weakness due to Talonflame’s ability to knock out my Conkeldurr before I can even Mach Punch.

Game 1 Kolby lead Kangaskhan Smeargle and I came prepared (but not really) with Thundurus and Landorus. I was fortunate enough that Kolby used Tailwind first turn instead of Dark Void. After that, I was able to just Taunt the Smeargle and make it worthless and unable to use Dark Void until it switched out. After that, I was able to Thunder Wave things and slowly build back my momentum, taking game 1 very convincingly.

Game 2 I knew that if he was going to be playing Smeargle cleverly, he wasn’t going to bring a counter lead to what my best lead against Kangaskhan Smeargle is. And he did just that by leading Kangaskhan and Landorus-T which just completely ran through my team.

Game 3 he did the same thing and 100% outplayed me. Most people hate on Smeargle but Kolby played it very well in games 2 and 3. Because of Smeargle in team preview, it limited a lot of my options lead wise, and he was able to capitalize off of that completely.

Loss 1-2 [3-1]

Round 5 [3-1]: Justin Stipe (Panko)

Going into this match, I knew Justin was testing a lot with a fun combo using the move Round. The way the mechanic works, the second user of Round moves right after the first and has the power of the move doubled. This meant that Sylveon could get some really strong attacks off against unsuspecting victims. I wasn’t having any of that, and played knowing he was likely going to test the waters with it game 1.

Game 1 I got a free Thunder Wave off on his Salamence as he doubled into my King’s Shielding Aegislash, and that gave me enough momentum to clean up the rest of the game fairly handily.

Game 2 I lead with Sylveon and Thundurus knowing that I could put a lot of pressure on his Salamence, which I assumed to be fully special, and could potentially get me into an amazing position from the very start. He lead with Blaziken and Sylveon so I was glad I didn’t stick with the Aegislash from game 1. Once I took out his Blaziken, Tyranitar and Thundurus sort of cleaned up the remainder of his Pokémon.

Win 2-0 [4-1]

Round 6 [4-1]: Matthew Jackson

Once team preview came up I already wasn’t feeling great about the match. Talonflame + Kangaskhan + Fighting weakness seemed to be a trend among my Swiss rounds. However this matchup was much worse due to Bisharp limiting my lead options as it was very risky to lead Landorus, which helps with Talonflame and Kangaskhan. I really don’t remember much about this match, but I remember having to dance around his Talonflame quite a lot. Once it went down, it was smooth sailing from there

Win 2-0 [5-1]

Round 7 [5-1]: Chris Danzo (Lunar)

Prior to this tournament I had only heard about how solid of a player Chris is. I’ve actually never seen him play in a serious setting before, and boy was I in for a trip. Chris threw me for loop after loop with his highly aggressive playstyle and after I figured that out immediately from the first turn of our set, it made for a crazy couple of games.

Game 1 was fairly clean and close. My Thundurus ended up surviving a Sucker Punch and a Flare Blitz from his Bisharp and Talonflame respectively with only 4HP and was able to get an early KO on his Talonflame. After that, I had a lot of options and was able to clean up carefully.

Game 2 was stupid and we should have gone to a third. I ended up getting a critical hit on his Talonflame with my Charizard’s Flamethrower which 100% sealed the game since I was forced to switch in my Conkeldurr in the following turn as it was my only Pokémon left. His Gardevoir got fully paralyzed twice as it was, I assume, attacking my Charizard with Psychic. I didn’t deserve to take the set 2-0 as Chris played really well and I got lucky but that’s how it turns out sometimes. Nothing but respect for Chris, very well played.

Win 2-0 [6-1]

Round 8 [6-1]: Jake Muller (MajorBowman)

This match was streamed! You can watch it below thanks to Pokémon streaming the games and Eiganjo for uploading the set to YouTube!

I was very sad to see I was playing my friend Jake in the eighth round of Swiss as we both needed Day 2 to confirm our Worlds invites and I wanted both of us to make it there if possible. While it was possible, the loser would have to play at 6-2 in the last round of Swiss and a loss in that match would result in being knocked out of top cut.

Game 1 was pretty gross. I played way too risky and brought the wrong Pokémon. I left both of my Pokémon open to being flinched and possibly KO’d. Jake got a KO on my Landorus as I flinched with Charizard which was trying to pick up a KO his Charizard. Got destroyed after that.

Game 2 I had a bit of a poor lead matchup due to Jake deciding to bring Kangaskhan. I just tried to get as much damage on things as possible and set up for some late game KOs with Landorus. After I got a lot of chip damage on his Thundurus and Sylveon and KO his Landorus, my Landorus was able to get a double KO with a Helping Hand boosted Rock Slide, locking up the game.

Game 3 I started pretty strong by immediately knocking Jake’s Landorus down to very low red health with an HP Ice as he also got some very solid damage off on my Thundurus. After the Landorus was heavily damaged, I was able to send in Sylveon and limit a lot of Jakes switches. He couldn’t switch in anything to comfortably take a Hyper Voice because he opted to not bring Aegislash. After his Landorus was gone, Charizard was able to do big damage to the remainder of his team and Landorus was able to beat whichever mega he had in back, which ended up being Charizard. I hit my Rock Slide and locked up the game, securing Day 2!

Great games, Jake.

Win 2-1 [7-1]

Round 9 [7-1]: Aaron Liebersbach (Arch)

I told Aaron that I promised Jake I would try my hardest to win the next game. He said he knew Jake and was kind enough to give me the win to help Jake make Top 64 in case he lost. Jake did end up losing his last round, but still got Top 64 to secure his invite so it paid off!

Win 0-0 [8-1]

Day 2

I ended up doing what I thought was impossible; I managed to top cut nationals! I knew that if I wanted to 100% lock up my worlds invitation, I had to get top 32. Which seemed very reasonable considering it was only a top cut of only 38 (technically 37 in rankings, hi Ian!). Going into Day 2, I tried not to expect too much from it. I wanted to be very cautious of my attitude as to not completely bomb and miss Worlds. Of course, I wanted to do the best I could, but I knew that I was going to be perfectly content with only making it as far as Top 32.

Round 1 [0-0]: Raphael Bagara (Rapha) [2nd Place]

Going into this first round, I wanted to start strong so I wouldn’t have to worry about needing wins later on in the Swiss rounds. I knew the matchup was in my favor and I just needed to play around his Heatran properly to seal up a win.

Game 1: I can’t quite remember how this game went down, but I know that I ended up putting a lot of pressure on his Landorus and Thundurus which allowed my Sylveon to sort of clean up after his Heatran was paralyzed.

Game 2: His Thundurus and Gardevoir went crazy on me and I let him get a lot of chip damage off that came back to bite me in the end game.

Game 3: Raphael ended up setting up Trick Room, which allowed my Conkeldurr and Sylveon to run through his team.

Win 2-1 [1-0]

Round 2 [1-0]: Evan Bates (Veteran Padgett) [14th Place]

I know Evan from the local Dallas scene. This isn’t the first time I’ve played him so I kind of knew what to expect in terms of his play style.

Game 1 I knew that Kangaskhan was the biggest threat on his team so I immediately paralyzed it, which ended up really paying off as it got fully paralyzed twice during the duration of our match. After his Kangaskhan was paralyzed I was able to clean up with Conkeldurr fairly easily, but the two full paralyses on Kangaskhan really saved me.

Game 2 I had to tackle differently and not bank on full paralysis to get by. He changed things up by bringing Noivern to game 2, which barely missed a KO on my Conkeldurr with Hurricane and immediately went down to an Ice Punch. Conkeldurr was able to put a lot of things in KO range for attacks from Charizard and Aegislash, which ended up narrowly securing a win.

Win 2-0 [2-0]

Round 3 [2-0]: Kolby Golliher (LoveTrain) [13th Place]

I ended up getting paired against my only loss in Swiss from day 1, so I had to approach this set very carefully in order to take a win.

Game 1 can be perfectly summed up in the first 2 turns. I lead Thundurus Landorus as he leads Kangaskhan Smeargle. He fakes out my Thundurus as I try to Taunt and Rock Slide him, doing about 45% to Smeargle. He doesn’t flinch, misses my Landorus with Dark Void, and gets an Evasion boost and a Defense drop from Moody. My Landorus is able to connect with Rock Slide despite Smeargle being at +2 Evasion, and thanks to the defense drop, Smeargle was knocked out. After that, some paralysis happened and that “cleaned up” game 1 in one of the grossest matches of Pokémon I’ve seen in a long time.

Game 2 I was ready for him to not lead Kangaskhan Smeargle, so I led accordingly and was able to get a straightforward win as he didn’t bring Talonflame, making things much easier for me.

Win 2-0 [3-0]

Round 4 [3-0]: Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka) [6th Place]

Knowing I had clinched Top 32, I was happy with whatever was to happen in the following rounds. I saw that I got paired up against Angel and I got excited. Angel is a very solid player that always manages to use very creative teams that never fail to impress. However, he’s never really had too many stellar performances outside of this season so I was glad to see him at 3-0 on day 2.

Game 1 was pretty straightforward but had a lot of momentum shifts. Turn 1 Angel revealed his Landorus-T carried Earth Power, which made me assume it also had a Rock move and Hidden Power Ice. This helped me later on in the set. Angel also revealed that his Aegislash was faster than mine on the first turn, which was quite surprising but very nice to note. I ended up sealing up game 1 by setting up Tailwind with Charizard and cleaning up swiftly with Sylveon as it outsped his Tyranitar and others under Tailwind.

Game 2 Angel completely overpowered me with his team’s offense and made a very impressive read and Hidden Powered my Charizard as I switched to Landorus, sealing the game.

Game 3 I was able to get a quick KO on his Landorus with my Thundurus early on, which freed up my Charizard a lot. Towards the end of the game, I was hesitant to mega evolve my Charizard so I could wait to set up the sun after he sent in his Tyranitar. I ended up calling a switch and double targeted his Aegislash with Flamethrower and Thunder Wave as he switched to Tyranitar, virtually sealing up the game.

Great set, Angel.

Win 2-1 [4-0]

Round 5 [4-0]: Hayden McTavish (Enigne) [5th Place]

This set was recorded! Thanks to Team Rocket Elite, this set is on YouTube here:

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

Hayden is someone I didn’t really know too well but have a lot of respect for. I’ve seen a few of his matches before and I know he can play really well and always has some interesting teams, which made me excited to see what I was in store for.

Game 1 I knew that I had a rough matchup against Salamence / Cresselia / Heatran, and it wasn’t going to be easy if I was going to beat Hayden. I kinda got destroyed game 1 as his Cresselia just sat around and I couldn’t do much to it.

Game 2 I played Thundurus the best I could as it was my win condition for the entirety of the game. I had to slow down Hayden’s team and set up for Conkeldurr and Aegislash to clean up. Unfortunately for Hayden, I got a very timely full paralysis on his Heatran which allowed me to take game 2.

Game 3 I let Hayden get a solid start by getting a free switch into his Aegislash. I anticipated his Salamence to switch in, so I used Hidden Power on his Rotom’s slot, but he brought out Aegislash instead. I started to gain some momentum in the middle of the game as I switched in my Aegislash into a Shadow Sneak from Hayden’s Aegislash, activating my Aegislash’s Weakness Policy. After Hayden KO’d my Thundurus, I was able to set up a Tailwind with Charizard to put myself in a very good position. I knocked out his Choice Scarf Rotom-W with Solar Beam, leaving his Salamence up against my Charizard and Aegislash. Unfortunately, Hayden was able to KO my Charizard on the same turn I KO’d his Rotom and my Aegislash then went down to an Earthquake, sealing the set for Hayden.

Loss 1-2 [4-1]

Round 6 [4-1]: Wolfe Glick (Wolfey) [8th Place]

This set was streamed! Thanks to Pokémon for streaming it and Eiganjo for uploading it, this set is on YouTube here:

This set was pretty crazy and full of luck on both sides. If I wanted to guarantee my spot in the Top 8, I would have to take this win, which was no small task as Wolfe is easily one of the best players in the country. I knew that Wolfe really likes to preserve his Pokémon whenever he can and control the positioning of his Pokémon defensively, so calling those switches and defensive set ups was going to be very key in taking the win here.

Game 1 got off to an unfortunate start as I burned his Kangaskhan with Flamethrower. As the match progressed, I was able to set it up to where all Wolfe had left was his Landorus and Heatran, both at full health but Landorus was intimidated and Heatran was Paralyzed, versus my Conkeldurr and Charizard. I made a pretty risky and unsafe play and just went for the Drain Punch on Wolfe’s Heatran. I saw that his Heatran didn’t protect so I was ecstatic that I had the game locked up as long as I didn’t flinch, which I unfortunately did with both Conkeldurr and Charizard, losing me the game. It’s Pokémon, and I could have possibly gotten around that by just Mach Punching his Heatran instead of Drain Punching, so I guess I was asking for it there.

Going into game 2 I had to get rid of Wolfe’s Milotic as fast as possible to set up my Landorus and Conkeldurr to be in a great spot to clean up the remainder of his team. I tried to focus on that going into this game, hoping it would pay off. This game started off pretty roughly as Wolfe got an early Scald burn on my Conkeldurr, which limited a lot of what I could do. I had to completely change the way  my Conkeldurr played in the set from a Pokémon that was picking up KOs to something that was putting on bits of chip damage for the rest of my team. I was eventually able to KO his Landorus, which allowed me to potentially clean up his team with Landorus as long as his Heatran wasn’t behind a Substitute. Wolfe saw that as his only option but I was able to call the Substitute and went for a Drain Punch on his Heatran as his Heatran went for Substitute and his Kangaskhan protected itself. This then allowed my Landorus to swiftly clean up the remainder of Wolfe’s team, sealing game 2.

Game 3 was pretty gross as I got handily outplayed and forced into some weird positions. My Conkeldurr once again got burned from Scald but Wolfe set himself up really well the entire game and easily took it.

Loss 1-2 [4-2]

Top 8 [5th Seed]: Wolfe Glick (Wolfey) [8th Place]

This set was recorded! Thanks to Team Rocket Elite, this set is on YouTube here:

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

After my match against Wolfe in Swiss, I noticed that I wasn’t capitalizing on Wolfe’s switches enough and that was really hurting me because he was able to set up better board positioning very quickly. If I wanted to advance into the Top 4, I was going to have to punish those switches even harder and make some very risky plays to come out on top.

Game 1 I opted to bring Aegislash instead of Thundurus, which seemed to be a much better idea because my team was much less prone to flinching from Rock Slide. This would free up a lot of breathing room during the set. I was able to get up an early Tailwind but at the expense of Wolfe getting up a Substitute with his Heatran, which immediately slowed me down. I ended up calling his switch from Landorus into Milotic and doubled that slot with Solarbeam and Shadow Ball, taking out the Milotic. Landorus was able to intimidate his Kangaskhan after it replaced the fallen Milotic and my Aegislash got knocked out, which put a lot of pressure on Wolfe’s Heatran. Unfortunately for him, he missed a Heat Wave on my Landorus in the sun which could have set him up for a Sucker Punch or a Rock Slide KO later on in the game. After that, I was able to clean up with Landorus and Conkeldurr to take game 1.

After seeing the leads in game 2, I figured Wolfe would go for the Rock Slide to take out my Charizard and score huge damage on my Thundurus. I risked a possible flinch to set up a Tailwind, which I managed to set up at the expense of taking huge damage with my Charizard and Landorus. I make a somewhat bold play and go for the Earthquake against Wolfe’s -1 Kangaskhan and Landorus as he switches out his Landorus into Heatran. Getting rid of the Heatran was huge for me as it took out a huge defensive pivot on his team, which allowed me to attack without worrying about it switching in later in the game. Seeing as my Landorus was locked into Earthquake against a Landorus and a Kangaskhan, I decided to switch out my Landorus into Thundurus, which unfortunately got KOd due to Wolfe’s Kangaskhan’s Return scoring a critical hit on both hits. After that, I didn’t have Thundurus there to really help support the team speed-wise, and that made this match much harder to lock up. Everything seemed to be doable but I then missed a Rock Slide on his Milotic as I was also Ice Punched his Kangaskhan that switched into Landorus. Had that rock slide hit and KOd, I would have had the game won, not much else I could have done in the moment.

Game 3 was a bit crazy and I had a few lucky breaks towards the end of the game. I started off the game strong by doubling Wolfe’s Kangaskhan, expecting his Landorus to switch out or U-Turn anticipating a Wide Guard from my Aegislash. Because of this, I was able to KO his Kangaskhan, but my Charizard took roughly 90% in the process. I was then able to set up a Tailwind which let me take a lot of control of the match after Wolfe activated my Aegislash’s Weakness Policy. I managed to take out his Heatran thanks to the help of the Tailwind, which set myself up very nicely for the rest of the match and made it to where I didn’t have to worry about Heatran being able to fire off sun-boosted Heat Waves left and right. I was able to get an Ice Punch off on Wolfe’s Landorus, which survived since Conkeldurr had been intimidated. After that I should have gone for the Mach Punch to not risk the flinch but opted for Ice Punch while I unfortunately flinched. After Aegislash getting a double King’s Shield and dodging Wolfe’s Landorus’ Rock Slide, I was able to get a Shadow Ball off onto Milotic, which sealed up the game for me.

Win 2-1; Advancing to top 4

Great games, Wolfe. Really unfortunate that we couldn’t have a clean set, see you at Worlds!

Top 4: Raphael Bagara (Rapha) [2nd Place]

I’m not even going to lie here. I was completely dead after my matches with Wolfe and that resulted in me not making the best plays I could have. Raphael was on top of it all and outplayed me completely.

Game 1 I let Raphael get a KO on my Sylveon on turn 1 in exchange for his Thundurus being taunted. Not a great start. It was incredibly difficult to come back from that and I kind of got stomped.

Game 2 I was falling behind but I was able to catch back up because Raphael activated my Aegislash’s Weakness Policy which let me KO his Heatran, sealing the game.

Game 3 I lost a lot of momentum early on because I didn’t play around his Gardevoir and Heatran too well. I had a very obscure win condition in the end game if I could double flinch Raphael’s Pokemon with Rock Slide two times in a row in addition to my Sylveon attacking through Swagger and paralysis. I got the double flinch on the first turn and one flinch on the next, but I needed both to flinch if I wanted a chance.

Loss 1-2; Eliminated from tournament

Closing Thoughts

Prior to this year, I had never cut a national tournament before. I knew that I had the potential to but for some reason I always lost my drive halfway through the tournament. This year though, I had a very healthy mindset going through the entire event. If I ever lost a game, I never let it get to me and was able to shake it off quickly before my next round. Another thing that I did at this event that I don’t think I’ve ever done before is do a few breathing exercises in-between rounds and individual games. This allowed me to calm down and get the nerves out of my system so I could really focus on the match. I couldn’t be happier with how I performed at Nationals. I felt like I was playing my best during a large majority of my games, which I can’t regret in any way.

Shout-outs

Ben Irons (Benji): Hey we did it! We both qualified for worlds on the same year finally. So happy you were able to finally cut Nationals for the first along side me and Collin, seeing us both succeed really made this Nationals special. Also thank you for helping me iron out team ideas, I wouldn’t have used that Thundurus if you didn’t talk me into it.

Oliver Valenti (Smith): Thank you for hyping me up to everybody and saying I’m good even though I suck. Stop lying to people. But seriously, thanks for being a great friend and helping me out with teams at your house with Toler, it really helped.

Toler Webb (Dim): Oh man. You did it! Couldn’t be happier that you won and I’m so happy for you. Thank you so much for helping so much with my team the week of Nationals and keeping me calm. I would have been even more of a nervous wreck had you not been there to help me out, I really appreciate it.

Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom): You’re a weirdo but you’re amazing at Pokémon, so keep it up. I’m glad you were able to cut Nationals for the first time and go deep as well.

David Mancuso (Mancuso): Thank you so much for letting me stay in your room. Sorry for hogging the bed, but giving me a place to stay made this weekend possible.

The rest of The Boiler Room: For anybody else that I didn’t mention, you all know how much you mean to me. Thank you to all of you for being there when I needed it and helping me out with whatever it is whenever I need it. I wouldn’t have done so well at Nationals without all of you people.

Article image created by ryuzaki and used with permission by Nugget Bridge. See more of ryuzaki’s artwork on deviantART.

The post Flaming in Indiana: A US Nationals Top 4 Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello everyone, my name is Jon Hu (JHufself) and today I’m writing about my VGC 2015 season and the team I created and cultivated from the start of the format change. However, I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself, so let’s start with the small time window before the format change.

After Worlds

As I wrote about previously, I did not have a great Worlds run although I took a lot of important lessons and made a lot of good friends from the experience. Up until Fall Regionals, I decided to just stick with my Nationals 2014 team and have fun with it. The reason for this is because I consider the Fall Regionals tournaments to be the resolution to the previous season. If the US Nationals and World Championships are the highest points in a season, then Fall Regionals is both the end of a format and the start of a new season, and thus has a tendency to stagnate. Because I put very little effort into actually making a new team, the team I took to Ft. Wayne this season was

Yes, that is a normal Rotom, and no, that is not a mistake. I really brought a normal Rotom to Fall Regionals. As expected, I didn’t really make any big splashes at Ft. Wayne due to this lazy stance I had settled into. After that came the Alpha Premier Challenges, which continued to use the VGC 2014 format up until November 21st, where it became VGC 2014 + tutors. For these events I began to mess around with the following team:

The goal of this team was to take advantage of the player-conceived notions of the VGC 2014 metagame, especially the fact that most players will assume Kangaskhan is a Mega Evolution. Known as the “Dumpy Kang” team, this was an early concept that would eventually evolve into the team I used for the National Pokédex format. I attended and won exactly one Premier Challenge with this team before I had to scrap it due to the format change.

2015 – A New Format

In the days leading up to the format change, I used the Smogon Doubles ladder to test a plethora of oddities that I wanted to try out. These were mostly terrible ideas, but to give you a taste of how terrible it was, I’ll concede that I once tried to make Assault Vest Serene Grace Blissey work. After testing a good amount, including most if not all of the new Mega Evolutions, I took a shine to Mega Lopunny. There were other Mega Evolutions I leaned towards as well, like Gallade, Metagross, and Swampert, but it took too much team support to make those pull their own weight, or in the case of Metagross, I had no idea how to craft a spread that achieved what I wanted it to. With the decision made, I then began to think about how to build a team to complement Mega Lopunny. Instead of thinking logically about how to provide support for Lopunny, I came up with a thematic idea. What if I ran Azumarill next to Mega Lopunny for double the bunny power? And thus, Double Bunnies was born.

This was one of those coincidences where the thematic idea was also very workable as a team idea. Azumarill applies offensive pressure after a Belly Drum to potentially draw away attention from Lopunny, while Lopunny allows Azumarill a turn to set up due to the fast Scrappy Fake Out. With Azumarill, a redirector was needed, and because this was an idea quite similar to the “Dumpy Kang” team, I ended up transferring a lot of the members on that team to this one, and the first draft of the team looked like

I would be lying if I said this team was made with winning as the primary goal in mind. I took it to the in-game Battle Spot ladder where it achieved moderate success, reaching just under 1800. After messing around with it there, I decided that this was the team I was going to take to every event this season. After I attended and narrowly missed cutting another Premier Challenge, I discovered that this version of the team was fairly inconsistent for a few things.

1. I was using Teeter Dance Lopunny. At the time, it was just a way to make impatient and intolerant opponents on Battle Spot forfeit as well as being funny to watch. The animation is hilarious.
2. Smeargle. In the early days when not everyone had a Thundurus running around, it was still pretty good if by good you mean free sleep turns. Until you missed that is.
3. Nothing was bulky. The bulkiest thing on the team was Azumarill, and even then that’s probably not who you want your bulkiest Pokémon to be.

So it looked bad. I cut off all of the excess and started back with Lopunny and Azumarill. I also dropped Teeter Dance during this time because I wanted to have a serious outlook on how to make the team as successful as possible, testing out various other moves that could help such as Ice Punch and Return. However, as I’ll discuss later the final version of the team still had Teeter Dance. The next team I came up with was the team I used at the Missouri Winter Regionals.

At the event, I ended up going 7-2, missing top 16 by a tiny margin. This team also had major faults that I knew about and decided to just deal with.

1. Weakness to sun. Any matchup against sun was basically an autoloss. I fought one sun team at Missouri and lost majestically.
2. Dual Mega with Lopunny and Mawile was very limiting. I didn’t like it, and Mawile was bad most of the time anyway.

Fun fact: That Ludicolo was running Own Tempo to synergize with Teeter Dance. As much as it pained me to change this team, which I thought was pretty good, I knew that I couldn’t continue to be weak to sun since it is a very common archetype. During this time, I continued to play on Battle Spot, even claiming the #1 spot on the BS Doubles ladder in America for a time, and I also participated in the Nugget Bridge Major, where I played some of my earlier rounds with this team. After much deliberation, I settled on a new team for use at Madison Spring Regionals.

Those who faced me when I was using this team may remember that Chandelure was carrying Minimize. A cheesy move indeed, it was a good fit for a playstyle like mine, but I don’t recommend its use in the slightest. This team fixed a lot of the previous iterations’ problems. Chandelure and Goodra handled sun very well, Excadrill was a Fairy slayer as well as a nice check to Rotom formes with Mold Breaker, and the overall bulk of the team increased. Even though I had improved the team overall, I only went 6-2 at Madison, and 4-2 at the attached Premier Challenge, disappointing finishes for a team I thought to be very solid.

And so with a measly 128 Championship points at this point, I knew that to get an invite to Worlds I would need to reach bracket at Nationals, but to actually go I would need to pull another semifinals placement for the money. Since I started taking summer courses right after Spring Regionals, I didn’t have much time to make a whole lot of improvements on the team. About a week or two before Nationals, I made the final changes to the team, and the end result is to be discussed here.

The Team:

I piloted this team in the June International Challenge before Nationals to obtain necessary battle data to finetune it. I ended up going something like 21-9 in that affair, a fair result for a team that had never been played prior. Without further ado, let’s hop right into the team and take a look at the inner workings.

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Lopunny @Lopunnite “Koto”
Ability: Limber -> Scrappy
EVs: 148 HP / 116 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Fake Out
– Drain Punch
– Encore
– Teeter Dance

“I have no idea what’s going on!” –Koto, Kyousougiga

What began as the central Mega for the team slowly turned into more of a tech with each iteration of the team. Lopunny is a strange Mega to consider for a primary offensive source, since compared to Mega Kangaskhan it seems to be outclassed in almost every way. So let me lay down what exactly sets it apart from the reigning queen of Mega Evolutions.

First off, I have to say that Mega Lopunny IS NOT an offensive powerhouse like Mega Kangaskhan, nor is it truly effective in that way. Lopunny’s job is to offer SUPPORT. You read that right. While Kangaskhan’s job provides momentum for the user through sheer offensive presence, Lopunny’s job disrupts the opponent’s momentum and attempts to redistribute it to the user. One of the traits that most distinguishes Lopunny from Kangaskhan is its vast support movepool, which includes Encore, Charm, Thunder Wave, Baby-Doll Eyes, Entrainment, Healing Wish, After You, and Teeter Dance. The second thing that separates them is Lopunny’s much faster base Speed of 135. While Lopunny’s 136 base Attack screams physical attacker, I think most players will find that Lopunny’s damage output against neutral targets is anywhere from disappointing to downright awful after Intimidates and burns. This is because Lopunny really likes having a Jolly nature to maximize its speed. Now that I’ve laid out why I think Lopunny should play a partial supporting role, let’s move on to what I chose to run.

Let’s address the elephant in the room first because I’m sure to catch a lot of hate regardless of what I say anyway: Teeter Dance. Teeter Dance is a move that confuses everyone on the field other than the user. It is not blocked by Wide Guard, nor is it reflected by Magic Coat or Magic Bounce, and has 100 Accuracy. Effectively, a three-way Confuse Ray. There wasn’t a specific reason to run Teeter Dance other than the fact that no matter what I tried putting there instead, Teeter Dance yielded the best results. Teeter Dance requires no real skill to use and can change the flow of battle in an instant. Did I have to confuse my own Pokémon to win? The answer is yes, a lot, and I don’t regret running it. Moving on.

Every Lopunny set should be running Fake Out and Encore in tandem at all times. That combination is just too good to pass up for anything else and is the reason that Pokémon like Raichu or Liepard who run it perform their roles. The last slot was reserved for a Fighting move, and I chose Drain Punch to extend my longevity.

For the spread, I ran a complex pseudo bulky spread to make sure Lopunny wasn’t entirely useless in her base form. The Speed EVs hit 170 base, 203 Mega, which outspeeds all base 102 Speed and below in base form, while still outrunning Scarf base 70s in Mega form. This set misses out on Speed ties with other base 105s for the initial turn, but they’re so rare to begin with that I didn’t miss the two points. HP EVs gives her a nice passive damage minimizing max HP, while the Attack EVs guarantees an OHKO on 4 HP/ 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan with a Helping Hand boosted Drain Punch. One notable attack that Lopunny can take is unboosted Hydreigon’s Draco Meteor, but as witnessed throughout the competition she more than took her fair share of hits.

Azumarill @Sitrus Berry “Honey”
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 228 HP / 236 Atk / 4 Def / 36 SDef / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Belly Drum
– Aqua Jet
– Return
– Protect

“Picking on my friends is bad, got it?” –Honey, Ouran High School Host Club

A fairly standard BellyJet Azumarill, but the one thing that sticks out is the move choice of Return. Originally, I was using Play Rough, but I found Grass/Poison types like Amoonguss and Venusaur very inhibitive to Azumarill’s sweeping potential. With a +6 Return, Azumarill will cleanly OHKO nearly anything that doesn’t resist, and believe me when I say Normal isn’t a commonly resisted attack type as evidenced by Kangaskhan still dominating. Water/Normal coverage only misses out neutral coverage on a few things: The Halloween Kalos Pokémon which are both fairly uncommon, Ferrothorn which resists Water/Fairy anyways, Jellicent, and Empoleon. Return also has the benefit of 100 Accuracy over Play Rough’s 90. Lack of a strong STAB option meant I was a little more reliant on Belly Drum, but on the day of the tournament sticking with Return ultimately helped me out more than Play Rough would have.

EV spread is also nearly bog standard, but I decided to dump the leftover 44 EVs mostly into Special Defense to have a better chance at surviving 0 Special Attack investment Thundurus and Rotom. This paid off both in practice and at the event.

Togekiss @Rocky Helmet “Kanade”
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 244 HP / 84 Def / 4 SAtk / 116 SDef / 60 Spe
Calm Nature
– Follow Me
– Air Slash
– Thunder Wave
– Protect

“I’m not an angel.” –Kanade, Angel Beats!

Togekiss’s main goal is to redirect attacks from Azumarill so that it can sweep. Another role I delegated to Togekiss with was spreading Thunder Wave, especially on Water resistant Pokémon like Venusaur or Salamence so that Azumarill or other team members could get the KO. Tailwind was considered, but since Tailwind was a short lived 3 turns of Speed boosts, I decided Thunder Wave was the better option. No Togekiss is complete without Air Slash, so of course that’s here as well. Finally, Protect is here to stop a lot of unwanted damage. EV spread deviates a little from the standard as I opted to go a bit more bulky on the special side, but still handles the majority of strong attacks with ease.

At Nationals I found myself sorely wanting Tailwind a whole lot more than Thunder Wave as I faced more and more Thundurus and Landorus. So that’s one thing I would have changed going into it, but ultimately did not.

Excadrill @Focus Sash “Simon”
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe, IVs: 18 HP
Adamant Nature
-Drill Run
-Iron Head
-Rock Slide
-Protect

“My drill is the drill that creates the heavens!!!!!” –Simon, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Aside from being a Pokémon representation of Gurren Lagann, Excadrill’s best claim to fame was usage by Randy Kwa. Similarly to how he ran it, I also happen to have a Togekiss on this team. However, a simple glance at my team composition will tell you that Togekiss is my only Ground immunity on the team. Several of the other Pokémon also lack Protect to dodge Earthquake. So I instead chose to run Drill Run, which holds other properties that Earthquake doesn’t have such as a higher base power (80 vs. EQ’s spread 75), a 12.5% critical chance, hits through Wide Guard, and has a way cooler attack animation, all at the cost of 5 Accuracy and loss of spread damage. The other moves, Iron Head, Rock Slide, and Protect are all self-explanatory. I kept the Focus Sash on Excadrill because most Excadrill being run on Battle Spot are Choice Scarf or Life Orb variants and the ability for Excadrill to take one hit and retaliate back comes to be invaluable in many 1v1 situations where Excadrill normally loses.

Out of all the Pokémon on the team, I was surprised to find that Excadrill was the least helpful, mostly due to the swarming Landorus and opposing Excadrill Sand teams. While it didn’t perform quite as well as it did at Madison, Excadrill was still pulling its weight most of the time, just not as much.

Arcanine @Safety Goggles “Scooby Doo”
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 36 SAtk / 12 SDef / 60 Spe
Timid Nature
-Flamethrower
-Will-o-Wisp
-Helping Hand
-Snarl

“Scoob, what’s your conclusion?” “Bunny!” –Scooby and Shaggy, Scooby-Doo series

As a way to mitigate the damage against my Pokémon, Arcanine is one of the best damage managers in the format. I call it a damage manager because in addition to having Intimidate, many Arcanine run Will-o-Wisp and Snarl as moves, or have Rocky Helmet as a held item. What some people don’t realize though is that Arcanine has access to Helping Hand, which on this team is quite a boon. With it, the lack of maximum Attack investment on Azumarill is made even more negligible, Lopunny earns an OHKO on 4/0 Kangaskhan, Gengar hits even harder, and even Excadrill or Togekiss can receive some bonus damage on their STAB attacks. Since Rocky Helmet was already on Togekiss, I decided to give Arcanine the Safety Goggles to safely ignore Amoonguss, Breloom, and other Powder users. Its EV spread maximizes its HP, since Arcanine does not often take passive damage, with only poison status and Leech Seed affecting Arcanine. Speed lets it outspeed Jolly Breloom; in conjunction with the Special Attack EVs, it gets the OHKO with Flamethrower 100% of the time on it and 4/0 Bisharp. The rest was dumped into the Defense for maximum survivability.

->

Gengar @Gengarite “Saya”
Ability: Levitate -> Shadow Tag
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe, IVs: 27 HP
Timid Nature
-Shadow Ball
-Icy Wind
-Substitute
-Protect

“How wicked and terrible Saya is. Perhaps others would fear and loathe her; to me, however, her malevolence is irresistibly charming.” –Saya no Uta

Gengar remains the same from my last season, but I’ve replaced Sludge Bomb with Icy Wind to snipe Landorus, avoid redirection, and have another form of Speed control. Shadow Tag as usual works extremely well for my team, as having certain matchups and knowing the opponent won’t be able to switch benefitted me greatly. At one point changing Gengar’s EV spread to be more defensive was considered, but in the end the use of Substitute conflicted with any kind of defensive investment. Gengar would also miss out on OHKOs with Icy Wind if it were running anything other than 252 SAtk.

Team Performance: Leads and Matchups

Double Bunny Special – +

The team’s origin, this lead is the basic lead to almost any matchup. The main idea is to Fake Out a threat with Lopunny, who I may choose to Mega or not, while Azumarill sets up a Belly Drum. If I deem my opponent’s leads to be too threatening or if it appears obvious that they will double target Azumarill, I will instead Protect Azumarill and Teeter Dance with Lopunny. Since Lopunny plays the red herring in this duo, it’s not uncommon for her to take a lot of damage or even get knocked out in the first turn. Not knocking Lopunny out allows her to support Azumarill in future turns, while getting knocked out allows me a free switch into Togekiss or something else in the back.

Double Fairy Standard – +

If I feel generally safe from spread moves I bring in the fairies, since Togekiss can redirect to allow Azumarill a setup opportunity. This lead could be considered the converse lead to the Double Bunny special, since pretty much the same principles apply to Togekiss as they did to Lopunny, but replace Fake Out with Follow Me and Teeter Dance with Thunder Wave. Thunder Wave is especially important against Pokémon like Suicune, Salamence, and Venusaur that resist Aqua Jet so this is another reason I would lead these two.

Luck+4: Dancer Class Exclusive Skill – +

Usually if a team has no immunity to Thunder Wave, I use Togekiss as a lead to spread the paralysis love while Lopunny provides the confusion end of the bargain by Dancing. It’s usually topped off with Air Slash spam with just a pinch of Encore locking. The end result is a lot of salt. Not an ideal offensive lead, but the amount of free turns given by all of these attacks stacking with each other often lends me a big advantage regardless of the opponent’s move choices.

The Mystery Gang – +

The name of this lead comes from the obvious pairing of a ghost and Scooby-Doo. It was a perfect naming opportunity. This lead is my answer to Amoonguss + Gardevoir, seeing as Arcanine can Snarl to decrease the threat of Gardevoir while being immune to Amoonguss while Gengar will lock the two of them in and get up a Substitute on the first turn, where Gardevoir presumably Protects or Trick Rooms. Amoonguss generally has a rough time doing anything in the time that it is trapped here, while Gardevoir will just faint to a Helping Hand boosted Shadow Ball. This lead also performs well against Landorus and Salamence leads, as a Helping Hand Icy Wind will OHKO the standard sets, even when spread.

Mega Mystery – +

Truly the most bewildering lead combination of them all, this lead has me leading both of my potential Mega Evolutions. While for the most part I will choose to Mega Evolve Gengar for the Shadow Tag, occasionally I will Mega Evolve Lopunny. Just like last year’s Sableye + Gengar combination, this combination performs similarly, where Lopunny provides the disruption and Gengar takes advantage of board position. An added synergy bonus results from when Lopunny Teeter Dances next to Gengar’s Substitute, as Substitute will allow Gengar to avoid getting confused.

I will now discuss the inherent flaws of running such a team, which became apparent in Day 2 Swiss due to the skill level of the player pool being drastically higher than what I am used to playing.

+

The Double Genies lead is not a lead combination I normally have problems with. That is, if the player piloting the genies isn’t playing proactively and is instead reacting to my moves. By now, many players will have noticed that a team along the lines of Kangaskhan, Thundurus, Landorus-Therian, Sylveon, Heatran, and a Bulky Water, otherwise known to me by the name “Battle Spot Special” appears regularly in every competitive VGC 2015 environment. It is a fairly solid team that is as good as it is common when it is being handled by an experienced player. Wolfe Glick (Wolfey) and Gavin Michaels (kingofmars) come to mind as some of the players that used “Battle Spot Special”-like teams at Nationals. Other than that, it is apparent to almost anyone looking that my team is indeed torn apart by this combination, should I let them erase my win conditions.

It wouldn’t be a Jon Hu team without a glaring weakness to the big bird himself. Outprioritizes Azumarill? Check. Hits my whole team for unresisted damage? Check. Has Quick Guard, Tailwind, and other moves that can hamper the effectiveness of my Pokémon? Check, check, and check. I only fought one in the entire tournament, and it definitely took the game pretty handily.

This thing caused me grief throughout the whole season due to my choice to run Return over Play Rough. The only way for me to reliably KO it was with Gengar, a Pokémon who in turn is weak to Jellicent should they choose to run Shadow Ball. It was generally bulky enough to take a lot of abuse from my side of the field and often carried Trick Room or Will-o-Wisp to further stop my progress.

Ironically, Azumarill is also a rough matchup for this team, as it will often have multiple opportunities to set up its own Belly Drum and sweep with it. Arcanine and Gengar, while efficient at checking Azumarill, cannot do much if the Azumarill is paired with a Follow Me user. I also tend to forget that most Azumarill run Play Rough, an unfortunate force of habit for running Return for the majority of the season.

In conclusion, this team has a number of glaring, gaping holes, which appear to be quite obvious to more experienced players. In Day 2, rarely would I have an opponent that would ever change their leads due to the fact that they reasoned any other lead would result in an autoloss should I decide to lead Double Bunnies. As a player who has mostly concerned himself with improving his punish game this season rather than his pressure game, I have yet to obtain the amount of wisdom necessary to consider myself among the top level of VGC players. However, I feel content using Double Bunnies to net myself a Top 32 at US Nationals 2015, a team I poured much effort and time into to make work to the best of my ability. With that, I would like to thank the following individuals:

• Adib (Adib), for being a great Theorymon partner and convincing me to use Arcanine (eventually). Good luck with your last few classes of college!
• Kaston (Chronos), for providing me the Arcanine I used in competition. I hope we can continue to interact despite that dirty Round 9 elimination set on Day 1.
• Chris (Icekingz), for giving me some much needed practice before Nationals. He recently started his own Youtube channel, check it out if you’re interested!
• My close personal friends, squirrelboy1225, Zefrin, Quill292, and Truthwalker for going with me to the event and for the endless fun (and salt) we have during our Theorymon sessions.
• The commentators, for making rewatching all of my losses on stream a lot more manageable because you put a smile on my face with what you have to say about my team.
• Anyone who I had the pleasure of facing in battle, be it Day 1, Day 2, or even the Multi-Battle Side Event! You’re all wonderful people.

Will I use this team again at the next Regionals, after the end of the season? That remains to be seen, but I will continue to try my hardest to make up for my lack of presence this season. And so, I will leave you until the time comes again for me to spout nonsense about the next big happenstance. Good luck to all of the Worlds qualifiers! I’ll be watching this year, so do your best!

The post Mad as a March Hare: A VGC 2015 Season Team Report appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Honestly, it was rigged the entire time. MAJORBowman. Nugget Bridge MAJOR. Coincidence?

Yes, actually. Hey there, I’m MajorBowman, and I recently won the largest Pokemon tournament ever held. This 4th edition of the Nugget Bridge Major attracted 1,327 participants, and I was able to walk away with the title, $300 in cash, a spot in the Nugget Bridge Invitational, and most importantly, ultimate bragging rights.

For those that don’t know, the Nugget Bridge Major was a tournament held completely online over the course of a few months. The participants were split into four flights and played nine rounds of Swiss in their flight. Each player that finished Swiss with a record of 7-2 or better moved on to Top Cut and was placed into a single elimination 128-man bracket. Each match was a best of three set, which meant that a player who made it to the finals had the potential to play 48 battles throughout the tournament. I ended up playing only 38, with an overall (official) game record of 32-6 and set record of 14-2.

Due to the nature of the tournament, changing teams between rounds was allowed. I used similar teams in early rounds, but began to switch it up as the tournament progressed. With the gracious help of my opponents (thanks everyone!), I was able to compile almost all of the teams I used and faced throughout the tournament. In this report, I’ll walk through each round and talk a bit about each set I played, as well as give my thoughts on the tournament format and some of the issues that arose. But first, statistics!

Usage Stats

My Usage

My Opponents’ Usage

Note: I only remember 3 Pokemon from one of my opponents’ teams and I’m completely missing another. GamerMan or lovemaryn if you’re reading this, send me a PM!

As you can probably guess from my high usage of Pokemon like Metagross and Hydreigon, I ended up using my Missouri Regionals team a good amount. It was mostly confined to Swiss though, as I began to make adjustments once I got into Top Cut. I really appreciated the ability to change teams, as there are always slight adjustments that can be made to any team. I also think that this tournament in particular helped me grow as a player in that I learned how to use teams with different objectives and tools. It challenged my teambuilding more than one tournament ever has or will, which was an incredibly valuable experience.

Thoughts on Scouting and Counterteaming

Counterteaming was a hot button topic this year during the Major. I know that a lot of players were annoyed when they were counterteamed by their opponents, and somewhat justfiably so. However, scouting and counterteaming are unavoidable in a tournament like this, and players need to be aware of that. I frankly think it’s pretty naive to assume that your opponent won’t have any information about your team going into a match if you’ve been using the same team over and over again. This is part of the reason that I began to switch up my teams more when I got to the latter stages of the tournament. There was a good chance that people who made it that far knew how to play the game, and I’m not just talking about battling. I’ll admit that I did a bit of counterteaming myself, and I’ll talk about specific instances when I go through each round. As Braverius has said, people will do anything they can to win when there is money on the line, and I am no exception. I was never ghosted and I didn’t ask people for advice during my matches, but I always made sure I was prepared.

What You Really Came Here For

Now that my little sermon is over, it’s time to talk about the battles! A lot of the details from early rounds are pretty fuzzy, but I’ll do my best to recall what went down. I saved replays to my 3DS each round, but I must have cleaned out my VS Recorder at some point since I could only find replays from Round 8 on. VioletPumpkin was gracious enough to send me codes from our battle (Thanks Amelia!), so I was able to record and upload all of my battles starting from Round 7. The playlist containing each video can be found here.

Round 1 vs GoldenEmp

My team:
Their team:

My first opponent was a player from Mexico whose name I had seen around the forums before. His team was pretty threatening, with Pokemon like Charizard and Aegislash that could give me issues. His Cresselia used Thunder Wave instead of Trick Room for speed control, so Metagross was able to control the match pretty well with its Substitute. If I recall correctly, I won the first game pretty handily. My opponent made some great adjustments in game 2 and I got a little lazy, so he was able to take even up the match. I remember game 3 being pretty close, but I ended up taking the game and the set.

W 2-1

Round 2 vs 8BitSnowman

My team:
Their team:

The only thing I remember from this match is that his Mamoswine had a Choice Scarf, which actually made it a pretty big threat to my team. It had the potential to OHKO 5 of my 6 Pokemon and I couldn’t slow it down with Thunder Wave. I imagine that Sash Terrakion put in some good work in this set, but I can’t remember specifics. Devin introduced himself to me at Nationals and I was happy to see he earned his Worlds invitation in the Seniors division. Good luck at Worlds, Devin!

W 2-0

Round 3 vs lovemaryn

My team:
Their team:

Unfortunately, I remember very little from this match. I had the flu at the time and the match was played pretty late at night, so nothing really stuck in my mind except that my opponent had a Mega Steelix Trick Room team. At least I won! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

W 2-0

Round 4 vs Shinelo

My team:
Their team:

Sitting at a comfortable 3-0 record, I decided to have a little bit of fun with my team this week. It started out as somewhat of a joke team that I used for fun on Showdown, but it ended up being halfway decent. The team was based around Jolly Assurance Bisharp, and the other 5 members of the team were both faster than Bisharp and carried a spread move, which allowed Bisharp to fire off boosted Assurances pretty easily. The funny (or sad?) thing is that I couldn’t bring Bisharp to this match because my opponent’s Conkeldurr scared it off. I even used this team (with Mega Gardevoir instead of stupid Scarf Gardevoir) in a Nugget Bridge Live tournament the next day and faced 6 Conkeldurr in a row. Needless to say I retired the team that night.

During this match, I know that I played game 1 very well and took it pretty convincingly. Similarly to my first round, I got careless and gave up game 2 without much of a fight, and needed to regroup to maintain my undefeated record. Game 3 was going pretty well until my Zapdos was frozen by an Ice Beam from my opponent’s Suicune. This was pretty detrimental, as Zapdos was incredibly strong in this matchup as long as it could keep Roosting away damage. Zapdos never thawed, so I lost game 3 and the set. It was pretty disappointing to lose like that, but I can only blame myself for not wrapping the set up in 2 games and giving my opponent the chance to come back.

L 1-2

Round 5 vs raptor

My team:
Their team:

The team I used this round basically had two modes: Belly Drum Azumarill and Calm Mind Cresselia. I would see what my opponent was using and decide which of the two sweepers had a better matchup. The majority of the time, I would bring Kangaskhan and Amoonguss, then either Cresselia and Heatran or Azumarill and Zapdos. Heatran carried a Life Orb and the move Overheat so it could eliminate opposing Aegislash quickly, as Aegislash is probably the hardest thing for Calm Mind Cresselia to beat. Zapdos held a Choice Scarf and was useful for picking off Scarf Landorus and other faster Pokemon, like Mega Salamence.

It was cool to see my opponent’s team, as it looked like it was inspired by my Winter Regionals team. Azumarill and Cresselia both had pretty even matchups, and I know that I set up one during each game of the match, though I forget the order. The modes aspect of the team proved its worth in this set, as I took it in two games.

W 2-0

Round 6 vs GamerMan

My team:
Their team:

I’ll be honest, I remember literally nothing about my opponent’s team. I’m not even 100% sure that this is the team I used, but it’s a good guess. This match was played the night before the first Texas States’ Premier Challenge, and this is the team I used there. I had been at a Smash 4 tournament and driving all across the DFW metroplex that night, so I was beyond tired once my opponent showed up. At least I won! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

W 2-0

Round 7 vs VioletPumpkin

My team:
Their team:

Battle videos: Game 1 Game 2 (Game 3 unavailable)
Note: these battle videos are from VioletPumpkin’s perspective

I know Amelia had a lot of success at New England Premier Challenges, so I knew she would be no slouch. Her team looked pretty similar to mine, but had a few key differences. Most notably, her Thundurus was max Speed Timid, help a Life Orb, and carried Rain Dance to activate Ludicolo’s Swift Swim. Her Hydreigon also held a Choice Scarf, which really hurt me in game 2. Game 1 was very tight, and I ended up taking a very close win after I was fortunate enough to attack through paralysis and possible flinches multiple times. Amelia dominated game 2, even after my Clefairy managed to survive an Iron Head from what I assume was an Adamant Mega Metagross. Her Choice Scarf Hydreigon was able to pick off my Terrakion, and there wasn’t much I could do after that. Rotom and Talonflame weren’t enough to beat her combination of Thundurus, Hydreigon, and Metagross. Unfortunately, there was a disconnect during game 3 that prevented the battle video from being saved. The game started out very poorly for me, however. I led Rotom and Terrakion into her Thundurus and Metagross. She reavealed Bullet Punch on turn 1 and was able to knock out my Terrakion before it could even move with a combination of Bullet Punch and Thunderbolt. We couldn’t tell whose end the disconnect was on, but Amelia was awarded the win due to her commanding position. I was very happy to see Amelia do so well at Massachusetts Regionals. Great set!

L 1-2

Round 8 vs KVI

My team:
Their team:

Battle videos: Game 1 Game 2 Game 3

This set is a little bit embarrassing for me. I used a bulky Rage Powder Volcarona for this set, and I was pretty happy to see that it could do some serious work against KVI’s team. It could knock out his Abomasnow and Escavalier with Overheat, and comfortably redirect attacks from his Heatran, Scrafty, and Escavalier…or so I thought. It turns out that Overcoat does, in fact, make the user immune to Rage Powder, which I thought was not true. There were a couple turns when I used Rage Powder in front of Escavalier, assuming it would redirect a Drill Run away from Metagross. Luckily, my opponent ended up targeting Volcarona those turns anyway, or maybe he had a different ability, but I could have shot myself in the foot pretty hard.

Game 1 my opponent managed his Trick Room turns very well, and played the game pretty much flawlessly. Towards the end I thought I was in a really good position, with my low health Hydreigon out against his Jellicent and Abomasnow without Trick Room active. Turns out I also forgot that Abomasnow often carries Ice Shard, which cost me the game. I switched up my game plan for game 2, and decided to go straight for damage on KVI’s Jellicent rather than a Substitute. I was a little annoyed that I wasn’t getting any Flame Body burns, but I stalled out Trick Room much more effectively in this match and took the win. Game 3 started a bit differently, and my opponent saw right through the Quick Guard + Taunt play. He switched his Pokemon around very well, and managed to get his Jellicent back on the field when my Thundurus was on the bench. I realized that the only way to prevent Trick Room from going up was to pray for a Rock Slide flinch, and RNGesus blessed me with not only a flinch, but a critical hit as well. The game was still very close until the second to last turn, when I correctly guessed that my opponent would Ice Shard my Hydreigon as opposed to Protecting Abomasnow and setting up Trick Room. I sent in Terrakion as a sacrifice and Hydreigon was able to come back in and clean up the weakened Jellicent.

W 2-1

Round 9 vs Unreality

My team:
Their team:

Battle videos: Game 1 Game 2 Game 3

Aaron was one of the last people I wanted to see myself paired with. After meeting him at Missouri Regionals and seeing him take the title, I had a lot of respect for him as a player and as a friend. Since he played and defeated my Metagross team (under Andrew Burley‘s control) in his Top 4 match at Missouri, I didn’t think that was a good call. I looked at the teams I had on my cartridge and decided this one had the best matchup against his regionals team, which I correctly assumed he would bring (apart from switching Conkeldurr to Mega Gengar). I did decide to switch Heat Wave to Flash Cannon on my Heatran since I knew it would knock out his Clefable in one hit.

These were some pretty clean cut matches. Game 1 was basically over as soon as Azumarill got a Belly Drum off without much objection. Aaron managed Azumarill very well in game 2, not allowing me to set up as early. I was still able to get Azumarill to +6, but it didn’t have enough support to finish off the rest of his team at that point. Turn 1 of Game 3 was one of the biggest plays I made in the whole tournament, and it set me up very well for the rest of the game. I knew Aaron’s Clefable would be important and that he probably wouldn’t risk losing it on turn 1, so I just double targeted his Kangaskhan with Fake Out and Overheat for the knockout. Amoonguss was huge during this game, surviving so many attacks and firing off crucial Spores. I almost choked the game at the very end when I brought in Heatran instead of Kangaskhan. His Assault Vest Landorus managed to survive the Flash Cannon with a sliver of health, and would have won Aaron the game if it had woken up and fired off an Earthquake. Luckily enough, it stayed asleep and I booked my ticket into Top Cut.

After the match Aaron was very encouraging and told me that he believed I would win the tournament while offering his help with practice matches and the like. I sort of laughed it off, but the thought that someone was backing me was pretty inspiring.

W 2-1

Top 128 vs dingram

My team:
Their team:

Battle videos: Game 1 Game 2 Game 3

After making it to Top Cut in last year’s Major and losing to Simon right away, I really wanted to win this match. Playing DeVon wasn’t going to be easy, and I knew he had been having a rough season so he’d be determined to do well. Knowing that DeVon was on the KangClef hype train, I was pretty comfortable with this version of my Missouri team in that matchup. I switched Landorus from Choice Band to Assault Vest to add some survivability, which ended up being pretty valuable. I also switched U-Turn to Knock Off, a move that I think is great on Landorus but not on choice item sets. DeVon was just two steps ahead of me for the entirety of game 1. He made some great switches and maintained offensive pressure quite well, taking the game pretty decisively. Game 2 started out similarly, but I managed to bring it back a little bit, thanks in part to some timely full paralyses. I was very happy with the way I played game 3, specifically getting a big Superpower off against his Kangaskhan as it was brought in. Suicune pulled a lot of weight in this match, and Assault Vest / Knock Off Landorus proved its worth.

W 2-1

Top 64 vs TrickRoomMaster

My team:
Their team:

Battle videos: Game 1 Game 2

Thanks to Showdown replays, I knew that my next opponent was fond of Mega Metagross rain with Life Orb Thundurus-T and what I assumed to be Choice Specs Kingdra. I liked the rain matchup with the altered Metagross team I had been using, but figured that a simple switch from Terrakion to Virizion would make it even better. I did consider Stone Edge for its third attack since it could hit his non-Choice Scarf Thundurus-T for big damage, but realized that using Sunny Day to turn off the rain would be more beneficial in the long run. I never got to use Sunny Day in the actual set, but it was a neat option I liked having. Game 1 was pretty clinical, and Virizion showed us just how great it is against rain. My opponent a great play at the beginning of game 2, but unfortunately missed a crucial Super Fang which allowed Hydreigon to survive a Hidden Power and knock out his Thundurus. From there, I was able to quickly clean up the rest of his team with Zen Headbutts and Leaf Blades.

W 2-0

Top 32 vs Lati

My team:
Their team:

Battle videos: Game 1 Game 2

At this point I had decided I was done with Metagross for good. I knew Lati was a former worlds competitor, and he should know that I had been riding the Metagross train pretty hard. Once again, I trolled Pokemon Showdown for replays and found a team that Lati had been using that included Blaziken and Mega Gyarados. These two Pokemon were both reasons to drop Metagross, so that was the final straw. I built this team to somewhat model the Kangaskhan Clefairy teams that had been running around. However, I really don’t like Clefairy, and if Round 7 told me anything it was that I’m not too great at using it, so I replaced it with a super bulky Sitrus Berry Sylveon that knew the moves Helping Hand and Baby Doll Eyes. For those that don’t know, Baby Doll Eyes has +1 priority and will lower the target’s Attack by one stage, so it’s basically a targeted Intimidate that you can use at will. It was a neat move that I had been using pretty well in practice, but I ended up not bringing Sylveon to either battle in this match. Lati used a team other than the one I had scouted, but I was still pretty happy with my matchup. I played pretty well during this set, calling the Fake Out target correctly on the first turn of game 1, which basically set the pace for that battle. Lati caught a bit of an unlucky break in game 2 when he missed a Will-O-Wisp on my Hydreigon, which allowed it to stick around and whittle away at his Arcanine at the end of the battle. An unfortunate end to what was otherwise two very entertaining games, but Lati was a great sport and he and I had a good conversation about the tournament once it was all over. I would also just like to say that this was easily the best set of nicknames I had used all tournament. There’s always money in the banana stand!

W 2-0

Top 16 vs Lajo

My team:
Their team:

Battle videos: Game 1 Game 2

This is where I thought the line ended. In my prediction bracket, I had myself losing right here to Lajo, as did most people who thought I would beat dingram. That’s not to say I didn’t think I had a chance, but Lajo is a player I’ve come to respect a lot since I’ve joined this community. He’s had some really consistent results in Europe with incredibly well built teams, and he’s kicked my butt a couple times in Nugget Bridge Live tournaments. I was really excited for this match, and I really didn’t have anything to lose. Between reaching Top 16 in the Major and results from some Lives, I had already qualified for the Invitational. I knew that Lati and Lajo were countrymen and most likely friends, so I would need to use a different team. A friend of mine had just played Lajo in the Summer Scramble, so I talked to him about what Lajo had used and what I should use. I came up with this wonky team, including Intimidate / Choice Band / Final Gambit Staraptor and Assault Vest / Dragon Tail / Mirror Coat Milotic, which was meant to have solid matchups against the team my friend had seen and other teams Lajo was known for using, specifically involving Gothitelle and Mawile. While the exact team was obviously not what I expected, the general archetype was similar and I knew I was in for a fun set.

Game 1 started out almost perfectly, as Gardevoir traced Staraptor’s Intimidate and gave Milotic a Competitive boost. Final Gambit didn’t take out the intended target, but did a hefty amount to Amoonguss, a trade I was fine with. I got a Scald burn on Lajo’s Gardevoir on Turn 1 as well, which put me in a pretty solid spot even though Trick Room was active. Whimsicott came in to Taunt the Amoonguss and prevent it from spreading Spores, but Lajo was ready with the Sludge Bomb. Luckily Whimsicott wasn’t poisoned, or else the game probably would have been over there. I was able to whip out Mirror Coat for a surprise knock out on Lajo’s Rotom the next turn, and Milotic underspeeding Gardevoir to knock it out in Trick Room was a huge bonus. The match was to be decided by an Earthquake, and luckily Milotic survived with 9 HP to knock out the Landorus and seal up the game.

In game 2 I wagered that he wouldn’t lead with his Landorus, considering my Milotic lead from the last game, and thought that TerraCott was a solid option to get some quick knockouts. I was so happy to see Amoonguss and Hydreigon, because that meant I could basically Beat Up and Rock Slide for free. Unfortunately, I missed the Rock Slide on Lajo’s Hydreigon and his Landorus just barely survived thanks to Intimidate. His Hydreigon was able to set up a Tailwind, which completely threw me off. My Whimsicott actually wasn’t carrying Tailwind, so I couldn’t just Protect and Tailwind myself to cancel it out either. I was forced to withdraw my boosted Terrakion and bring in Gengar to take the Hyper Voice as I went for a desperate Beat Up knockout with Whimsicott. After Tailwind ran out, I was able to get Staraptor and Gengar on the field against Amoonguss and Taunted Gothitelle. Since Lajo saw Final Gambit and probably assumed Choice Scarf Staraptor, I knew there was a good chance he would Protect Amoonguss from the potential faster Brave Bird. I was able to knock out Gardevoir with Sludge Bomb and U-Turn, and from there I played a few really solid turns to clean up the game. I set up a Substitute with Gengar at the perfect time, and that momentum carried me to victory. I was so thrilled to have won this match and moved on to Top 8. It was about this time when I realized there was a very real chance that I could win this tournament.

W 2-0

Top 8 vs Pd0nZ

My team:
Their team:

Battle videos: Game 1 Game 2

Between Patrick, Ben Hickey (darkpenguin67), and myself, there were three Americans left in the tournament, and this match would guarantee that at least one would move on to Top 4. I knew Patrick was quite fond of using Charizard and Latios, so I knew I had to come prepared for those. After seeing TerraCott almost sweep a match from turn 1 against Lajo, I thought it would be a good idea to bring against Patrick. I asked my good friend Tommy Cooleen (Tman) for his best TerraCott team, since I knew Tom Hull (TheGr8) had used a team Tommy had built to win a recent Premier Challenge. He ended up giving me the same team Tom used, and it was really entertaining. Between Beat Up and Fake Tears, Whimsicott was all about helping teammates do more damage, while Charizard and boosted Terrakion in Tailwind are all kinds of threatening.

I played the beginning of Turn 1 a little bit risky, since I knew Patrick had used Choice Scarf Latios against DaFlo the week before. I left my Choice Scarf Thundurus in to scout the Latios item, and I was lucky enough to survive the Draco Meteor. I was able to set myself up for a pretty clean Beat Up sweep, which is exactly what happened from that point. I had 3 turns of Tailwind with +4 Terrakion, which wasn’t to be stopped. I know I should have used Close Combat on the last turn to guarantee a knock out on one of Patrick’s remaining Pokemon, but I had Aegislash and Thundurus in the back. Even if I missed Rock Slide on either Patrick’s Latios or Charizard, I had a Pokemon in the back that could OHKO the survivor without any trouble. I would have needed to double miss the Rock Slide to lose that game, and I risked the 1% lose condition for some style points.

Game 2 was much less cut and dry. I knew Patrick had a fondness for Assault Vest Landorus, so I was confident that my bulky Charizard would outspeed to launch an Overheat its way, then most likely survive the Rock Slide. The game was pretty tight up until I called a King’s Shield right and doubled up on Patrick’s Weavile on the last turn of Tailwind. For those that were wondering, I did have Earthquake on Terrakion, but chose not to reveal it just in case I missed a million Overheats and had to go to a game 3. I did end up missing one, but I still had Thundurus in the back at full health. I nailed my next Overheat and moved on to Top 4!

W 2-0

Top 4 vs Lumina

My team:
Their team:

Battle videos: Game 1

Ah yes, the famous 5 move Volcarona. I was completely blind going into this match, so I decided to use this combination Pledge + Cresselia / Rhyperior team that a lot of my friends used at Kansas City Regionals. Lumina outplayed me pretty hard in game 1 and won it without much of a fuss. I didn’t get Trick Room up fast enough, which needed to be my goal against that team. I got off to a much better start in game 2, baiting a Fake Out and setting up Trick Room on turn 1. However, I let my lead slip as Lumina revealed the infamous “Billaslash,” which carried both Wide Guard and Substitute. I won’t say that I was definitely going to lose that game, as I think I still had a chance to come back, but then something happened that made any effort I may have made unnecessary. In game 1, Lumina revealed all 4 attacks on his Volcarona, including Quiver Dance, Heat Wave, Hidden Power, and Protect. Midway through game 2, Lumina’s Volcarona used Bug Buzz, which was immediately followed by a disconnection. Lumina messaged me saying that he had two versions of the team in his Party and Battle Box that he was using to test on Battle Spot, and he accidentally picked the wrong one for game 2. It was certainly an unfortunate circumstance, but I was awarded the match win after the stream was reviewed. Again, I won’t say that I was 100% going to lose that second game, but Lumina had a good amount of momentum that could have carried him to victory. However, I was once again moving on, and needed to regroup for what was to be the biggest set of my career so far.

W 2-0*

Finals vs Juan Carlos Mateos

My team:
Their team:

Battle videos: Game 1 Game 2

Full set with commentary by Duy and Evan Falco can be found here:

I was sad to see fellow American Ben Hickey lose in the semi finals, since that would have made for a fun All-American finals. Ben was nice enough to give me a bit of info instead, which influenced what type of team I would bring to the finals. Again, I built this team a couple days before the match with Tman, who also played a lot of practice battles against me with similar teams to what I had seen. Juan Carlos ended up using a slightly different team, but with similar components, so I knew that his Landorus was probably slower than my Breloom and holding an Assault Vest, and that his Rotom was most likely wearing a pair of Safety Goggles. The rest of his team was incredibly bulky, so there weren’t too many turns where either of us scored huge damage on anything. This match was mostly a war of attrition. The player would could whittle down the opposing team first would be the one to win.

Game 1 started out somewhat poorly, with Juan Carlos reading through the Taunt immediately and going straight for some damage. It took a few turns for me to get the gears turning, as he kept spreading little bits of damage across my team. On turn 3, I knew that if I could Power-Up Punch the Suicune without activating its Sitrus Berry, I’d be in a pretty commanding spot. Suicune ended up barely getting knocked under half health, so it survived the subsequent Thunderbolt, but I was still able to get my Kangaskhan up to +1 Attack without losing much. The rest of the game turned into an Intimidate fest, with my Landorus and Juan Carlos’s Landorus and Salamence switching in and out. Eventually, I forced myself into a position where Breloom could start Sporing by switching it in without it taking any damage. At that point, Rock Slide did it’s thing, and I eventually racked up enough damage to win the match. I did get a few timely flinches, but nothing that was too game altering…yet.

Game 2 started out in a similar fashion, with neither me nor Juan Carlos making a whole lot of progress. I almost took a big lead early on when I read the Safety Goggles Rotom switch in the Suicune slot and Spored the Landorus instead, but his Rotom barely survived the combination of Mach Punch and Return on the next turn and was able to burn my Kangaskhan. Had Rotom gone down, Breloom would have been able to command the match with its fast Spore, and could take one attack from Salamence with its Focus Sash. Unfortunately, I had to play the switching game, trying to get myself into a spot where I could start getting knockouts. This game is where luck was clearly on my side, as I scored a crucial first turn full paralysis on Juan Carlos’s Suicune, as well as a million flinches on everything else. Juan Carlos made some good plays, like not letting my Breloom stick around and Spore the Salamence like it did during game 1, but there was unfortunately not much he could do. I’m not necessarily apologizing for what happened, since Rock Slide was pretty clearly the best move to use damage-wise in most of those situations, but I felt pretty bad that Juan Carlos had played a solid game and had nothing to show for it. He was an incredible sport however, and he had nothing but congratulations for me. Juan Carlos proved himself to be a classy competitor and person, and I wish him all the best in his future tournaments.

W 2-0

Closing Thoughts

I had done it! I was the Nugget Bridge Major Champion! It felt pretty surreal to have won the biggest Pokemon tournament to date, and the only thing that could get me down that day was getting called in to work a closing shift. This entire tournament was such a great experience for me. I got to play some intense matches with great players, and it helped me grow a lot as a teambuilder and a player. I was not hesitant to spend my prize money, and I’m really looking forward to the Invitational. Can’t wait to defend my title next year!

Huge thanks to everyone that helped me teambuild for each round and calmed me down when I got nervous, specifically Tman and Adam Hoffer (AdamHoffer). Whenever I needed help I went on Showdown and at least one of the two was usually there to talk me off the ledge.

Also thank you to everyone who commentated my matches, including Ben Irons (Benji), Cedric Bernier (Talon), , Kenan Nerad (Lucien Lachance), Chuppa Cross (Chuppa), Jon Evans (Ezrael), Duy Ha (Duy), Alex Ogloza (Evan Falco), and anyone else I may have forgot. Streaming my matches was really entertaining, and I’m sure the viewers appreciated your presence.

Huge shoutout to FloristtheBudew for the article art!

Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter at @jakesaysstuff!

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