Follow Me to the Ends of the World – VGC Worlds 2013 Report

Hello again, this is Randy Kwa. After a short month’s wait after the US Nationals, the 2013 VGC World Championships were upon us. As I had maintained my place in the Top 12 CP Holders in North America, I would be representing Canada at the Worlds event. After the dust cleared from the brutal LCQ on Friday, it seemed that I would be Canada’s sole representative.

Unlike the time between the April Regionals and US Nationals, I knew exactly which 6 Pokemon I was going to bring to Worlds. I had a few other teams that I could have experimented with, but when I thought about it, I’ve used the same core strategy since the start of the 2013 season. It won me the first NB Major, it won a Regional, placed in Top 8 twice and even #1 in North America during the Wi-Fi competitions. Lastly, the team got me Top 4 in both April Regionals and at US Nationals. They’ve gotten me this far, and it would be a disservice to the team not to let them battle on the stage they worked so hard to reach. This is their final tournament of the 2013 season. Togekiss, Excadrill, Tyranitar, Latios, Breloom, Bisharp! My team will Follow Me to the ends of the World!

From the time between Nationals and Worlds, I went over my team and looked at the moves I used the least, or felt most replacable. I then went over what those move brought to the team, and what impact a change would have for my team. Since the team is largely similar to the one I used in the past, I think I’ll do things a bit backwards, and go right into my battles at worlds. There were 4 move changes total on my team, of which 3 saw usage. Can you guess which moves were changes?

On the night before the competition, I decided to change my Trainer Greeting.

From:
“MIRACLE EYE is strong,
isn’t it?”

To:
“Watch my MOLD BREAKER power
take care of WORLD!”

And with that, I was now ready for the Worlds stage. Lets get right to the battles:

Round 1: Jaime Martinez (repr4y)

To kick off my first Worlds tournament my first opponent was Jaime Martinez, the 2012 Worlds Seniors Runner-up. There’s no shortage of strong players at the Worlds level, so I felt a bit relieved that I would be able to enjoy the feeling of facing tougher opposition from the start without the pain of having that opening opponent being a close friend, as we have seen happen in the past with things like Aaron vs Aaron in 2011.

Team Preview:

A fairly interesting team from the start. repr4y’s team did not have any Trick Room user, and his Thundurus was a Therian forme so I didn’t have to worry much about Prankster status spreading. I came into the battle expecting Specs on his Thundurus, and could probably rule out any Eruption Heatran sets. Looking at his team, Hitmontop was my primary target threat, as it was the only Pokemon stopping my Tyranitar and Excadrill from doing work on his team. Latios could also handle any of his non-Steel Pokemon, but would still need to watch itself against Heatran and Bisharp.

Game 1:

I open game 1 with Togekiss and Latios, while Jaime goes for Thundurus-T and Hitmontop. Since I believe that the Thundurus is holding Choice Specs, I’m not entirely keen on going for a potential trade, by going for the Follow Me and Psyshock on Hitmontop, especially since I do not know the Speed EVs, if any, that are being run on Hitmontop. I instead go for a safer play and Protect with Togekiss and Psyshock Hitmontop with Latios, to scout what Thundurus will do. However, the first turn goes quite a bit differently from what I expect, as Jaime goes for a double switch to bring out his Heatran and Bisharp. Psyshock lands into the Bisharp, and no progress is done.

The next few turns go very well in my favour, perhaps a bit too well though as I switch Latios for Tyranitar, and get an Air Slash flinch on Jaime’s Bisharp, while Heatran uses Substitute. I break the Substitute with Rock Slide while Bisharp Protects, taking a Fire Gem Heat Wave from Heatran, then follow it up by getting a Rock Slide flinch on Bisharp as Heatran Protects on turn 4, and a flinch on Heatran as Bisharp switches back to Hitmontop on turn 5. Jaime was quite flustered about the string of one-sided luck, and I wasn’t exactly too thrilled by it either, as the flinches threw off my plan to try to get Excadrill onto the field sooner.

A Fake Out goes onto my Latios, while I go for an Air Slash on Hitmontop bringing it into the red and 2 hits of Sand away from a KO. Heatran goes for a Heat Wave dropping my Togekiss down being 2 hits away from Sand as well, and does a bit of damage to my Latios. I Protect with Togekiss on the next turn, but Hitmontop reveals Feint and gets the KO as I finish off Heatran with a Draco Meteor.

Hitmontop has shown Feint, so I feel like I have to be a bit careful with handling that. I send out Excadrill, as Jaime bring back his Bisharp. My plan was to try to bait a Feint from Hitmontop, as I switch out for Tyranitar, but instead Hitmontop swaps for Thundurus-T. I switch Latios back out for Excadrill, and KO Bisharp with Fire Punch, while Thundurus-T Grass Knots to finish off Tyranitar. It’s now down to our last two Pokemon, and I make the correct call in the final turn of the match, calling Hitmontop’s feint, and going on the offense to take the battle 2-0, in a bit of a dirty game.

Game 2:

This match ends up being a bit cleaner than Game 1. I decide to switch things up a bit, and go with Latios and Breloom to lead on Game 2. Jaime also changes things up a bit and goes with Hitmontop and Heatran. I feel like this is a good position for me to be in, as I can force his Hitmontop to sacrifice itself. I go for a Spore on Heatran and Psyshock on Hitmontop, who indeed sacrifices itself to Fake Out Breloom in order to allow Heatran to get off a Substitute.

Latias is sent out. Since I feel like I can put Breloom to some use later in case Bisharp shows up, and also because I felt that Jaime would try to preserve his Heatran’s Substitute, I make a fairly safe switch from Breloom to Tyranitar.. My Latios outspeeds Latias but misses with Draco Meteor, and both my Pokemon are slowed down by an Icy Wind. Latias then decides to go for a Sunny Day to boost Heatran’s offense, possibly predicting that I would Protect with Latios. Heatran’s Heat Wave misses against my Tyranitar and does a considerable amount to my Latios, while I drop a Meteor onto Latias, activating Haban, and Rock Slide comes down, breaking Heatran’s Substitute, and dropping Latias into the Red. Feeling that I have a cosiderable advantage in the match up, I proceed to continue on the attack. Jaime doubles up on Tyranitar, to knock it out while Latios finishes off Latias, and itself. Leaving it as a 2 vs 2 Game.

I send back out my Breloom and Excadrill, while Jaime brings out Thundurus-T. I Protect with Breloom to scout the move that Thundurus was planning to use, and went for a Rock Slide, expecting Heatran not to try to attack me on this turn. Thundurus goes for a Grass Knot for about half, and Rock Slide connects to bring Thundurus down to about 1/3 of its HP. I then go for Spore on Heatran, and Rock Slide again. Thundurus’s Grass Knot leaves Excadrill at 2HP, and I finish it off with a Rock Slide while putting Heatran to sleep. The game is over at this point.

1W – 0L

Round 2: Kamaal Harris (FonicFrog)

Going into Round 2, my next opponent was Kamaal Harris, also known as FonicFrog on the forums, and formerly known as Sixonesix. You’ll start running into people you know really quicky in a swiss competition of about 40 or 50 of the best players in the world. We’ve played a few matches throughout the season, although I don’t think I ever faced him when actually using my Mold Breaker team.

Team Preview:

A team that looks pretty standard fare from what I can remember from facing against Kamaal, however I’ll always need to be careful about small modifications he may have made to his team. One thing of note is that his entire team can be hit for decent amounts of damage by Excadrill, and there being a sand portion to the team, Breloom would thus become a good choice as well.

Game 1:

Although I tend to use Excadrill as a cleaner in a battle, I went straight for Togekiss and Excadrill to lead off against Kamaal’s Latios and Volcarona. The situation isn’t the most ideal for me, but it is something I can work with. I feel that Kamaal will try to focus on Togekiss with Latios, so I go hard on a play to switch Togekiss out for Tyranitar and use Rock Slide. Latios uses an Ice Beam towards Togekiss’s position, which bounces off my Tyranitar, as a Rock Slide comes down on Latios for a bit of damage. Since I know that he’ll not take a risk against my Scarf Tyranitar, make a switch back from Tyranitar to Togekiss. All the Pokemon except my Excadrill make a switch this turn, and I tag Kamaal’s Gastrodon and Excadrill on the switch in, KOing Excadrill. After that decisive play, things go south for Kamaal very fast as Excadrill gets a critical hit onto Gastrodon, taking it out and letting Air Slash retarget and KO Latios. After which, I easily cleaned up Volcarona in a 4 vs 1 situation.

Game 2:

For Game 2 I decided to reverse my leads, going with Tyranitar and Breloom instead of Togekiss and Excadrill. Kamaal goes for Tyranitar and Cresselia this time. Knowing that he has run a Choice Scarf on Tyranitar in the past, and that I do not know Cresselia’s held item, I go for a Mach Punch on Tyranitar and a Crunch on Cresselia. Kamaal goes for a Helping Hand Rock Slide, missing against Breloom and doing about half to TTar, while my attacks land hard upon his two leads. A Sitrus Berry activates, keeping his Cresselia in the green. I go for another Crunch on Cresselia, and Protect with Breloom to play things a bit safe. Crunch misses out on KOing Creselia, and Kamaal’s Tyranitar finishes off mine with a Low Kick. A Trick Room is activated and Cresselia faints to the sand.

Trick Room changes the pace of the game, but Kamaal makes a comment that that turn couldn’t have gone worse for him. It seems like his usage of Trick Room may have been a bit of a mistake, but I probably wouldn’t be able to see the reason until things play out a bit more. I send out Togekiss, while Kamaal goes for Volcarona. I am sort of worried that the Volcarona has Rage Powder, which will stop me from defeating Tyranitar with a Mach Punch. I end up going for a risk on this turn, and use Air Slash on Volcarona and Superpower on Tyranitar. If Volc tries to redirect my attacks, it should be KO’d so my main worry was whether I’d end up missing or not. Tyranitar goes for a Rock Slide, but does not get any flinches while my Air Slash flinches Volcarona, allowing me to KO Tyranitar. With the remaining Pokemon, it was simply a matter of landing another Air Slash on Volcarona, and hitting Excadrill with Spore or Superpower. The match was over.

2W-0L

Round 3: Alberto Gini (BraindeadPrimeape)

Taking out Kamaal in a convincingly decisive win helped boost my confidence a bit, after having a bit of a Luck filled round 1. My next opponent was Alberto Gini, Matty’s Brother. I’ve battled Alby once or twice throughout the season in the Wi-Fi tournaments, and he played those matches pretty well, so I was interested to see what would happen this time.

Team Preview:

Since I did catch a glimpse of Matty playing a match against Matsumoto Yuuki on the TV on the previous round, using what seemed to be his Nationals team, I entered this battle thinking that Alby would also be running the same 6 Pokemon species as before, and I was right. While I didn’t know any specifics of the team, I could probably expect, Sash Breloom, Cybertron’s Scizor, and a Calm Thundurus based on the Team Preview.

Game 1:

Obviously, I’m worried about Breloom, but also Rain. In that sense, 3/4 team member spots are already taken on my team with Latios, Togekiss and Tyranitar. In the end, I settled for Breloom as my 4th. Alby leads with Scizor and Hydreigon for the first game. Scarf Hydreigon was certainly a possibility, but I ignored the idea and predicted that it would Protect. Being a Steel-type Swords Dance user myself, I know that Scizor will use any opportunity it gets to try to get off a Swords Dance, so I gun for it.

Hydreigon Protects, and I focus on Scizor. Draco Meteor ends up missing, but I do get an Air Slash Flinch on it, delaying its move. Next turn, I switch up and KO Hydreigon with Draco Meteor and take out another 1/3 of Scizor’s HP. Scizor now gets off its Swords Dance, but it has already been dropped into the yellow range.

Alby Sends out his Politoed. I Protect with Togekiss, as I try to avoid having to take a +2 Gem Bullet Punch. Scizor also Protects itself on this turn, but I go for Draco Meteor on his Politoed. Draco Meteor misses for a second time this game, and Politoed hits my Latios with an Icy Wind. Next Turn, a Helping Hand boosted +2 Gem Bullet Punch is used to OHKO my Togekiss as Latios finishes off Scizor with Draco Meteor.

I send out Tyranitar, removing the rain, as Kingdra is sent out. I continue to go hard on the offense, with Rock Slide and Draco Meteor. Kingdra takes damage from Rock Slide, then sets up a Substitute with is broken by Draco Meteor. Politoed Flinches. Tyranitar then cleans up Kingdra on the next turn, as Latios retreats for Breloom. at a 3 vs 1 situation Alby concedes.

Game 2:

For Game 2, I swap Togekiss’s position with Breloom. Alby goes straight for the Rain, leading with Politoed and Kingdra. I switch out Latios for Tyranitar to remove the rain, but Alby also switches out his Politoed for his Thundurus to allow himself to be able to get a reset. Kingdra KOs my Breloom, but not before losing over half its HP to a Gem Mach Punch.

I send Togekiss into play here, to try to cover my Tyranitar from being paralyzed. Togekiss gets hit by Taunt as it uses Follow Me, and Tyranitar drops a Rock Slide into a Protecting Kingdra and Thundurus. Next Turn, I switch out Tyranitar for Latios, while Alby swaps Kingdra for Politoed, bringing back the rain. Latios becomes paralyzed, and Togekiss lands a Critical Hit with Air Slash against Politoed. I continue to go on the offense, going for an Air Slash on Politoed to try to Flinch it, while Latios goes for a Psyshock to finish off Thundurus. Unexpectedly, Alby switches Politoed for Kingdra on this turn, which ends up letting me KO Kingdra with an Air Slash while Latios takes out his Thundurus after it Thunderbolts my Togekiss.

Scizor and Politoed are sent out as Alby’s final Pokemon. Scizor goes for a Gem Bullet Punch, KOing my Togekiss while Latios lands a draco Meteor onto Politoed, finishing it off. I then send out my Tyranitar and finish off Scizor with a Fire Punch. I breathed a sigh of relief as Tyranitar’s HP Bar stopped in the yellow range, meaning I did not get Critical’d at last moment.

3W – 0L

Round 4: Sejun Park (pokemontcg)

Since I managed to finish my 3rd round match pretty quickly, and we didn’t have time for a lunch break, I took the time between rounds 3 and 4 to have lunch. When I got back, my next opponent was Sejun Park.

Team Preview:

Magmar! Sejun certainly delivers once again with another interesting team. I can be pretty sure that Magmar’s going to be an Eviolite/Follow Me variant, and he will likely be going for Trick Room Jellicent. Looking back at this set of matches, I feel like I didn’t manage to play close to the level that I wanted to be at, and ended up playing a step behind the entire way, dispite knowing what was going to happen. I probably should have just started off with Excadrill and not worried as much about intimidate, in order to get an Earthquake off to damage Jellicent from the start.

Game 1:

I lead Togekiss and Bisharp, to Sejun’s Scrafty and Jellicent getting a +1 Atk boost from the start. I go for a Night Slash on Jellicent and Air Slash onto Scrafty, but Sejun swaps Scrafty out for Magmar while Jellicent Protects. For some reason, I was worried about Magmar having Flamethrower and didn’t want Bisharp to be KO’d by it while trying to Night Slash, so I ended up using Sucker Punch and an Air Slash on this turn instead, which turned into a very silly play as Magmar uses Follow Me and Jellicent sets up Trick Room. Next turn, I Protect with Bisharp and let Togekiss get hit by a Gem Water Spout as I continue to try to deal damage to Magmar with Air Slash. Thinking that I would be okay in attacking on the next turn, I get completely caught off guard by Magmar using Helping Hand, thus leading to both my leads being taken out. My Back end of Breloom and Excadrill can do little to help me in this situation and I get easily taken out.

Game 2:

This time I lead Bisharp and Breloom, and have Latios and Tyranitar. Sejun leads with Magmar and Jellicent. I have a strong feeling that he would attack with Jellicent for this turn, and should have gone with a safer play of Protect w/ Bisharp and Spore with Breloom. Instead I attack with both of my Pokemon, taking out Magmar, and a Gem Water Spout KOs my Bisharp. I send out Latios, and Abomasnow shows up. My Breloom is in range to be KO’d by Ice Shard, and thus gives Sejun the opportunity to set up a Trick Room. The game is pretty much over by that point.

3W – 1L

Round 5: Christoph Kugeler (drug duck)

My first loss was a tough one, as I didn’t quite get the message that his answer to my Pokemon was always Magmar. Moving on to Round 5, my opponent was Christoph Kugeler, drug duck. Personally, my track record against German players in Wi-fi tourneys is actually surprisingly bad, so I was hoping that this wouldn’t carry to the World’s event.

Team Preview:

A bit difficult to read exactly where his team was heading towards from the start. Amoonguss, Scrafty, and Heatran did mean that I had to worry a bit about potential for a Trick Room strategy, and Eruption Heatran, but the two genies did mean that I had to worry about his faster Pokemon as well.

Game 1:

I lead off with Latios and Bisharp for Game 1, to try to handle the Intimidate users that are on Christoph’s team. He leads with a Tornadus and Scrafty. It quickly turns out to be a bad idea for me, as Tornadus reveals Substitute on its moveset, as Scrafty fakes out Bisharp, and Latios drops a Draco Meteor on Scrafty for about 80% of its HP. Next turn, Bisharp Protects from a Superpower, while Scrafty Drain Punches on Latios, predicting a switch. Latios Psyshocks to break Tornadus’s Substitute. Bisharp and Tornadus go for Protect on the next turn, while I try to finish Scrafty off with a Draco Meteor, but instead hit the incoming Heatran, revealing Leftovers, and thus a Substitute Heatran. Next Turn, I switch out Bisharp for Togekiss, and go for a Draco Meteor on Tornadus, breaking the Substitute. The match ends up very one sided, as I do not have the right tools to get around the Substitutes and not the right switch options to keep myself from being caught, and my team quickly falls. I do manage to get a bit of information, in that Scrafty did not hold a Chople Berry.

Game 2:

I felt that Bisharp and Breloom were not the right Pokemon for the job, and felt that Landorus-T will likely not show up due to fear of Bisharp. I instead lead with Togekiss and Tyranitar this time, to face off against Christoph’s Tornadus and Heatran.

I could go for a risk on Stone Edge on the first turn against Tornadus, but I didn’t want to risk swinging into a Protect or missing, so instead I went for a Rock Slide and Follow Me, in case of Superpower. Christoph switches Heatran for Scrafty, and Tornadus goes for an Acrobatics for 2/3s of Togekiss’s HP, while taking about 60% from a Rock Slide. I continue to go on the offensive, with another Rock Slide and Air Slash on Scrafty. Togekiss is hit with Fake Out, and Tyranitar throws a -1 Rock Slide at Scrafty, and Heatran who returns to the battle. I expect a Substitute to be used, and also worry about Drain Punch, so I switch Tyranitar for Latios while using an Air Slash on Scrafty. To my surprise, Christoph sacrifices Tornadus, and Heatran gets a Substitute up.

Togekiss will be KO’d by Sand Damage on this turn, and while I do think that it was likely that Christoph would double Protect with Amoonguss and Heatran, I continued on my relentless offense. Both Pokemon do Protect, and Togekiss goes down.

I bring out my Excadrill. There are a number of moves that each player can run for this turn, and I decide to go for a bold prediction that he would switch in Scrafty, and go for a Draco Meteor and Earthquake. However, Amoonguss stays in and uses Rage Powder. My attacks land and KO Amoonguss and break Heatran’s Substitute. Heatran uses Heat Wave, but misses Latios and drops Excadrill to its Sash. Scrafty returns to the battle.

I switch out Latios, and once again go for a big move in Earthquake. Scrafty plays it safer though and Fakes out to KO Excadrill, as Heatran sets up a Substitute. Latios returns to the battle, I drop a Draco Meteor to KO Scrafty, but my Latios is finished off by Life Orb and Sand damage. This leaves my Tyranitar, who has to lock itself into Stone Edge against a Heatran with Substitute and Leftovers. You can see where this match is heading to… except you’d be wrong. Stone Edge hits every time I use it, but when it came down to my last uses of Stone Edge, Christoph manages to get a consecutive Protect off and my Tyranitar runs out of PP for Stone Edge, KOing itself with Struggle.

3W – 2L

Round 6: Stephen Morioka (Stephen)

Dropping my last 2 matches now puts me into a danger zone. Had I won one of those matches, I could be fairly confident that I would reach the Top Cut even with a 4-2 record, but now even if I win my 6th round there still may be an element of chance to my tournament fate. My last round is a rematch from Nationals Top 8, a good friend, and fellow Battle and Seattle player Stephen Morioka. This match would determine who would end the Swiss rounds with a winning 4-2 Record and a chance to potentially move on.

Team Preview:

A team that has the same 6 species as before vs…
A team that has the same 6 species as before.

You can already tell that this is going to be a good match.

Game 1:

Not really knowing if Stephen had made any changes to his team, I go with Latios and Tyranitar, with Togekiss and Breloom in the back. The same set up I used in our last game at Nationals. Stephen makes a good read on this and goes with Tyranitar and Breloom.

If his Tyranitar still has a Choice Scarf, I’m in a very bad position. I choose to Protect with Latios, and go for a Fire Punch against Breloom, but the turn ends up as a bit of a surprise for me as Breloom switches out for Cresselia to take the Fire Punch. I then proceed to switch out both my Pokemon, swapping Latios for Togekiss, and Tyranitar for my Breloom. It turns out that my switch choices were right as Stephen drops a Crunch and Psyshock onto my Togekiss for about 60% of her HP. I switch my Togekiss back out for Tyranitar, and use Spore against Stephen’s Tyranitar, predicting a switch. Thundurus switches in and is put to sleep, while Cresselia drops Breloom into the red with a Psyshock. Not knowing Cresselia’s held item, I didn’t want to risk sporing into a Lum Berry, so I switched out Breloom for Togekiss, while Stephen switched his Thundurus back out for Tyranitar. My Tyranitar deals some damage with Rock Slide, and activating a Sitrus Berry. Stephen pulls out a surprise move and uses TRICK ROOM. It was at this point that I started to really question whether the Tyranitar was actually scarfed or not.

Stephen switches Cresselia out for his Breloom, as my Togekiss uses Protect and the Tyranitars trade Rock Slides. A Gem Mach Punch is then used, finishing off my Togekiss while his Tyranitar goes for a Low Kick, confirming that it is not Scarfed. I’m left with my Breloom and Latios, who try to desperately stall out the last half of Trick Room, but both of them failed to perform a consecutive Protect. I end up in a 4 vs 1 situation, and just throw a Mach Punch into his Tyranitar to try to see if it has a Chople Berry. Stephen switches out Tyranitar for Thundurus, and I get 4-0′d.

Game 2:

Now that I know that his Tyranitar is not scarfed, I decide that Excadrill becomes an option against for facing against Stephen’s team. I make a change and go with Breloom and Togekiss to lead, with Excadrill and Latios in the back. Stephen leads with Thundurus and Tyranitar.

Thundurus does not have Protect, but I am worried about Hidden Power Flying or Taunt being used, so I go for a Follow Me and Spore. Tyranitar is swapped for Cresselia, and Thundurus drops a Thunderbolt on my Togekiss for 60% before taking a nap. I switch Togekiss out for Excadrill while locking down Cresselia with sleep as well. Breloom tags out for Latios, while Excadrill sets up for a sweep with Swords Dance. However, Cresselia doesn’t stay asleep for long, waking up this turn to use Icy Wind on my Pokemon, but Latios avoids it. Stephen then switches out Cresselia for Breloom, who is crushed by a Draco Meteor while Excadrill takes care of the Thundurus who slept through the entire thing.

Tyranitar and Cresselia return to the battle, and I Draco Meteor the Cresselia before wiping both Tyranitar and Latios with Earthquake. The match is pretty much over after that, as I bring back Breloom to shut down Cresselia with Spore and finishing it off with Excadrill.

Game 3:

Vs Stephen Morioka, Round 6, Game 3 – 15-28749-19453

For the first time this tourney, I was going to go to a Game 3. I switched things once again, and led Latios and Breloom, with Togekiss and Excadrill in the back. Stephen leads off with Thundurus and Breloom. Things go very smoothly for me for the first few turns, as I manage to avoid falling into any of Stephen’s predictions. Breloom and Tyranitar both Protect on the first turn, and Thundurus switches out for Cresselia who takes a Draco Meteor for half its health. I then Spore Cresselia and keep Latios in who takes a Low Kick from Tyranitar, who was predicting a switch out. I then switch Latios for Excadrill while Stephen switches out Tyranitar for Breloom who gets bowled over by a Gem Superpower. Tyranitar comes back in, and I went for a switch out for Breloom to Togekiss and a Swords Dance with Excadrill.

…or at least that was what I was planning to do. There’s a first time for things, and this definitely wasn’t the time I’d be hoping to do this. I misclick. Rather, I didn’t cancel out all the way, so instead Breloom used Superpower into Tyranitar’s Protect, while Excadrill switched for Togekiss. Naturally, Cresselia woke up on this turn and activates a Trick Room, and things in the battle couldn’t go any worse. Fortunately, I still had a big advantage in the battle, I took a bit of time to think, and had pretty much the entire duration of Trick Room planned out. I could still win this. I started off by sacrificing Latios while I Protected with Togekiss. Then I sent in Excadrill, and went for an attack. My Togekiss flinched preventing it from Air Slashing to finish off Cresselia, but I then adjusted my plan. Next turn, I left Cresselia alive. Both Excadrill and Tyranitar Protected and Cresselia finished off my Togekiss. Next turn, I had Breloom come out, and threaten Stephen’s Tyranitar. I go for a Mach Punch on Tyranitar and a Swords Dance as the last turn of Trick Room expired. Cresselia got off one last Psyshock, dropping Breloom to 8HP, exactly enough to be KO’d by sand, and both Cresselia and Breloom went down.

Thundurus and Tyranitar stared down my +2 Excadrill. All I needed to do was hit with a Rock Slide on two targets and I had the game. I go for the Rock Slide and… Tyranitar avoided the attack. A brief feeling of defeat went over me, followed by acceptance. It felt somehow fitting that this great set of matches would end in a way unexpected. I was thinking of going for an Earthquake instead of Rock Slide, to guarantee that Tyranitar would be KO’d, but even then I’d still lose since Thundurus got a Critical hit with Gem Hidden Power, leaving me in KO range on the next turn.

3W-3L

Final Swiss Ranking: 18th Place

In the end, after a strong 3-0 start, I end up with an even 3-3 record, the highest 3-3 based on Resistance. Had the Rock Slide not missed, and all other results remained the same, I would have squeaked by with a 4-2 record as 8th place, pushing out Ryosuke Kosuge from Top Cut. Perhaps things would have gone much differently in the Top Cut if that happened, but that’s a road not taken. Despite a misclick leading to a 90% chance victory that fell through, I felt that I took the loss quite well, and am happy that my team was able to hold up to even the competition that the World had to offer. No regrets! Now, let’s have one last look on my Team.

The Team, One Last Time:

These changes will be in Bold for my team. For details about my other Pokemon, be sure to check out my previous articles regarding the usage of this team. Nicknames this time are based off of the school team names of the anime Girl und Panzer. It was a Worlds event so I went with nicknames of teams that have themes based on various countries. No quotations this time though.

Excadrill (F) @ Focus Sash ***Kuromori
Trait: Mold Breaker
IVs: 31/31/28/00/22/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Swords Dance
- Protect

Deployed in 8/13 Battles in the 2013 World Championships

SwordsSash Mold Breaker Excadrill. Same as before. In fact, I’ve used the same Excadrill for the entire 2013 season. It has been my earliest team member, and has not been replaced for another with better IVs, unlike Togekiss, Bisharp, and Breloom. To be honest, I felt that Excadrill ended up pulling its weight more in Worlds than it did at Nationals, and I probably should have relied on it a bit more in some of the matches that I lost. The moveset has been the Sash Swords Dance variant since the January Regionals, and I still really love using this moveset. Despite the Togekiss and Excadrill pair being a selling point on the team, the combination doesn’t get used as much as people may think it does. All the other Pokemon are plenty dangerous enough, even if I don’t bring Excadrill.

Togekiss (F) @ Lum Berry ***Pravda
Trait: Serene Grace
IVs: 30/28/30/31/31/31
EVs: 240 HP / 80 Def / 4 SAtk / 116 SDef / 68 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Air Slash
- Tailwind
- Protect
- Follow Me

Deployed in 11/13 Battles in the 2013 World Championships

Personal Standard Follow Me Togekiss. Same as during Nationals. I kept the Lum Berry on Togekiss for Worlds, but she actually managed to avoid being hit with Status for most of the battles, so it was a case where a Sitrus Berry would have been more helpful for me in the end. A staple to my team’s survival as ever. Follow Me for a session of Serenely Graciously Flinching moves!

Latios (M) @ Life Orb ***Ooarai
Trait: Levitate
IVs: 23/24/24/30/27/31
EVs: 4 HP / 248 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Thunderbolt
- Protect

Deployed in 10/13 Battles in the 2013 World Championships

Life Orb Latios. At last moment, I decided to go with Thunderbolt on Latios. I never used it during Worlds, but the specifics for having it was mostly in case I ran into any Gyarados. Thunderbolt also gave me a way to hit some Dark- or Steel-types without throwing a Draco Meteor and burning my Special Attack, but in the end I didn’t use it. Latios was most prone to being KO’d by friendly fire. While Draco Meteors are quite punishable these days if you rely too heavily on it, Latios did a very good job at scaring opponents, forcing Protects, and managing to get a lot more damage in than it has any business doing by decent prediction and fearlessness. I’m sure I’m doing something right (or very wrong), when I can manage to get Latios to drop down to -6 SpAtk in battles, and it lives to tell the tale.

Tyranitar (F) @ Choice Scarf ***Saunders
Trait: Sand Stream
IVs: 31/31/23/xx/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
- Fire Punch

Deployed in 9/13 Battles in the 2013 World Championships

Choice Scarf Tyranitar. During testing, I almost never use Tyranitar’s last two moves. I was this close to having myself decide its “flavour” moves by the roll of a pair of dice:
1 = Stone Edge, 2 = Superpower, 3 = Fire Punch, 4 = Ice Punch, 5 = Earthquake, 6 = Dragon Tail
But, in the end I went with Stone Edge and Fire Punch. Fire Punch came in handy against Alby, where it did roast a Scizor, but Stone Edge dissapointed. There was one point in the tourney where I could have risked a Stone Edge use, but aside from that, I would have been better off with Earthquake or Superpower, as they would have won me my 2nd game against Christoph.

Breloom (F) @ Fighting Gem ***Anzio
Trait: Technician
IVs: 31/31/30/14/26/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Superpower
- Protect

Deployed in 11/13 Battles in the 2013 World Championships

Standard-ish Breloom. One of the biggest changes that I made was to remove Bullet Seed from Breloom. To be honest, I don’t miss Bullet Seed at all. I found that in almost every occasion that I would want to use Bullet Seed for during the Wi-fi tournament and Nationals, Superpower would have worked as well, and I didn’t have to be worried about running out of bullets prematurely and leaving things alive from 2 Hit Bullet Seed. What I gain from using Superpower is a way to KO Tyranitar through Chople berries, and slam a huge chunk of HP out of Pokemon like Conkeldurr, Metagross, and Scizor. While the usage of my Fighting Gem is shared between my two attack moves, Breloom tends to not have the staying power to fire off much more than one or two attacks, and it’s not too difficult to manage when you want to be attacking and when you want to be using Spore. The only pokemon that I really worry about not having Bullet Seed for was Jellicent. But Spore can do plenty enough to them, as they seldomly run Lum/Chesto Berries. Since Bullet Seed is a Breed move, and I didn’t want to replace it on my current Breloom, I instead rebred Breloom, hence the Gender change and improved IVs, providing about 3 more Defense.

Bisharp (F) @ Dark Gem ***StGloriana
Trait: Defiant
IVs: 28/31/31/31/27/31
EVs: 192 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 60 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Sucker Punch
- Night Slash
- Swords Dance
- Protect

Deployed in 3/13 Battles in the 2013 World Championships

Swords Dance Bisharp. I would say that Bisharp’s performance during Worlds was a bit dissapointing, as I only brought it to three battles, and I lost all three. But I do know that Bisharp is also a Pokemon that doesn’t really need to be in battle to be an aid to the team. It’s mere presence on a team can make people think twice about bringing Intimidate, and that is enough for such a physical attack heavy team that I run. I replaced Iron Head with Night Slash, although I actually did find use in Iron Head previously. The reason for Night Slash was to provide me with another Pokemon that can damage Jellicent when it isn’t attacking, since I got rid of Bullet Seed on Breloom. The change was a bit of a mixed bag. Night Slash allowed Bisharp to perform better against pokemon like Metagross, Cresselia, Thundurus, Jellicent, and Politoed, but loses out against Intimidate Fighting-types and Tyranitar.

The move changes since Nationals are:
Latios: Helping Hand -> Thunderbolt
Tyranitar: Superpower -> Stone Edge
Breloom: Bullet Seed -> Superpower
Bisharp: Iron Head -> Night Slash

The team’s general idea hasn’t changed since Nationals, so if you want a more in-depth talk about how the team works, be sure to check my previous articles. The changes in moves were to add a few “pitfalls” for opponents who know my team and think that it will be exactly the same. Falling for one of my move changes would likely mean that I would get a surprise KO, and would often be enough of a game changer to ride to a victory. And even if I didn’t use them, I felt that the team could still function at highest level, as I was replacing moves that I seldomly used in the first place.

Worlds was an amazing experience, and was quite different from the experience of the US Nationals event. Meeting and playing against international players in-person is definitely something special. While my performance was just shy of moving to the next level at the 2013 Worlds, you can likely count on me giving it another shot in XY next year in Washington D.C. Will my team will Follow Me to the next Worlds? We’ll just have to wait and see!

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