The #imoutos Special - Nugget Bridge Major 3 Top Cut Team Report

Hello, I'm Nickscor/NEETscor/Marco/whatever obscure alt I'm using on Showdown. As most of you know, I am a cute anime girl and a part-time NEET. I sold my soul to anime and manga in late July 2011 which means I've been an anime girl longer than my baka aniki Simon Yop, who has only been an anime girl for about a month during the time this post was made. What some of you may not know is that I do play VGC, contrary to what the whooping 0 CP I've amassed over the past two seasons might indicate. Heading in the Nugget Bridge Major, I didn't really care too much about winning until it was announced that the prizes for the top finishing players was dirty money. And being the (part-time) NEET I am, I wanted money that didn't require going outside and working.

The team itself is nothing spectacular, but was something I was confident in using for my matches. The nickname theme is based off the #imoutos, thus the name "#imoutos Special".

Venusaur ♂ @ Venusaurite **Birchy

Ability: Chlorophyll → Thick Fat

252 HP / 76 Def / 60 SAtk / 52 SDef / 68 Spe

Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)

- Giga Drain

- Sludge Bomb

- Sleep Powder

- Protect

I consider Mega Venusaur to be one of the best Mega Evolutions in the current format because of its excellent stat allocations. While it may not have the capability of hitting for ridiculous damage like Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Mawile can, it definitely has the bulk to stay in for a good portion of the match, and can create many win conditions with help from its teammates. Mega Venusaur's bulk is also enhanced by its Ability Thick Fat, which halves damage taken from Fire and Ice-type attacks—essentially leaving Flying and Psychic as its only weaknesses. The EV spread was stolen off the EV Doctor tlyee61 (who I still think should change his username to tyler16). It survives non-choiced Talonflame Brave Birds among other things that I'm too lazy to list off.

I chose to nickname Venusaur after SapphireBirch/CT MikotoMisaka because we both tend to circlejerk about how good it is, even before Chuppa and R_Inanimate both finished 2nd at Massachusetts and Washington with it, respectively.

Gyarados ♂ @ Choice Band **SoulSur

Ability: Intimidate

36 HP / 220 Atk / 140 Def / 4 SDef / 108 Spe

Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Waterfall

- Earthquake

- Stone Edge

- Ice Fang

When XY first came out Choice Band Gyarados was a member of the team I originally used for Battle Spot Doubles, mainly at the suggestion of SoulSurvivor (which is also the reason I named it after him). I ran a boring 252/252 spread, but after running calcs I deemed it inefficient since the Speed didn't do much for me. The Speed EVs hits 115, which enables Gyarados to outrun max speed neutral Tyranitar since the Modest mixed attacker is a thing now. The Attack ensures Waterfall can 2HKO 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan assuming it could avoid Intimidates and Meowstic Charms. The rest was invested towards Defense so that he could survive moves he couldn't with the 252/252 spread such as Talonflame's Choice Band Brave Bird and Mega Kangaskhan's +1 Return.

Gardevoir ♀ @ Sitrus Berry **ryuzaki

Ability: Telepathy → Trace

#1 - 124 HP / 156 Def / 148 SAtk / 4 SDef / 76 Spe
#2 - 68 HP / 244 Def / 140 SAtk / 52 SDef / 4 Spe

Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Moonblast

- Psychic

- Taunt → Protect

- Ally Switch

Gardevoir, the Waifu Pokémon. From reading some of the Japanese usage stats from Eggy Emporium, I noticed how Gardevoir is a consistently used Pokémon that is common amongst high-placing teams. Seeing as the Japanese are usually competent at making metagame calls, I decided to give her a try after canning Follow Me Lucario.

The first spread enables it to survive Life Orb Talonflame Brave Bird and Mega Kangaskhan Return if you account Sitrus Berry recovery after the first hit. It also has enough Special Attack to OHKO 4 HP Garchomp with Moonblast which helped out in a few situations. The second spread that I used sacrificed HP and Speed for better Defense, which let it survive Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird. The first spread actually had a little extra Special Attack, so I removed that as well, while still being able to get the surprise OHKO on Garchomp.

Initially, I ran Taunt to stop Meowstic in its tracks, but the lack of Protect really hurt me more than Taunt helped me. Ally Switch was my ace card in some games, as it would allow me to keep my Dragons safe while Gardevoir would take a Meteor or Ice Beam for them.

For the nickname I named Gardevoir after ryuzaki since she's the only girl in #imoutos. Being an anime girl does not constitute counting as a female in this case.

 

Aerodactyl ♂ @ Focus Sash **Chuppa

Ability: Unnerve

4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Jolly nature (+Spe, -SAtk)

- Rock Slide

- Sky Drop

- Tailwind

- Protect

Utility Aerodactyl. During testing, I found that Garchomp was the fastest Pokémon on my team, with 4/6 of my members having speed stats between 109 and 115. Rock Slide flinches bitches gets the drop on Charizard Y, while Sky Drop was used to temporarily remove a target to make it safe for his partner to attack. For example, Aerodactyl can Sky Drop an opposing Rotom-W, making it safe for my Rotom-H to roast the opposing Mawile or something. Tailwind also helps with my team's speed problems as long as I don't hilariously set it up while they set up Trick Room (which actually happened during Round 7 of Swiss).

Aerodactyl is nicknamed after Chuppa because I was running out of ideas.

Garchomp ♂ @ Lum Berry **kingofmars

Ability: Rough Skin

4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Jolly nature (+Spe, -SAtk)

- Dragon Claw

- Earthquake

- Rock Slide

- Protect

Standard Garchomp with a standard 252/252 spread and standard moves. It would've held Rocky Helmet to cheese Kangaskhan, but I needed a Lum Berry user on my team.

I chose to name it after KOMaeda kingofmars because I really couldn't think of anyone else. If it was a Charizard Y, that would be a different story.

Rotom-Heat @ Safety Goggles **.Cypher
Ability: Levitate
252 HP / 4 Def / 116 SAtk / 116 SDef / 20 Spe

Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Thunderbolt

- Overheat

- Will-o-Wisp

- Protect

Somewhat standard Rotom-Heat. Safety Goggles is the most notable part of this set, as it allows Rotom to hard-counter Amoonguss by negating its Spores and Rage Powders. It also serves as my answer to the California Sun combination (Mega Charizard Y and Venusaur) as it can shrug off Venusaur's Sleep Powder and resists Heat Wave while being able to OHKO Venusaur with Overheat or dealing good damage to Charizard. The EV spread was copied from so thread on Nugget Bridge and I never really put much thought into changing it. In retrospect, that would've been a smart idea.

As for the nickname, it's a rule that SoulSur and I made up that all Rotom must be named after DotCypher. It just fits.

Hono(u)rable Mentions

These are Pokémon I've used at least once during the tournament even though they're not technically part of the #imoutos Special.

Salamence ♂ @ Choice Specs **SilentLion

Ability: Intimidate

4 HP / 4 Def / 244 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe

Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Draco Meteor

- Fire Blast

- Dragon Pulse

- Hydro Pump

Okay I lied because for the first few weeks before I used Aerodactyl, Specsmence was part of the #imoutos Special. I think Scarfmence isn't that great despite what usage stats say otherwise, so I went the power route with Specs. After an Intimidate, Salamence always survives unboosted Garchomp's Dragon Claw and can KO back with Dragon Pulse—something Scarfmence can't do, meaning it has to launch a Meteor to get the drop on Chomp. In addition, Specs Meteor and Fire Blast deals massive damage to Kangaskhan and Mawile, respectively. As a result of running Specs, it auto-loses to Scarf variants. Hydro Pump was only used for Rotom-H, so Stone Edge might've been better. However at the time of posting this, I still don't have a 6 IV Salamence.

Used during Rounds 2 and 8 of Swiss.
Used during Round 2 of Swiss.
Used during the 8th Round of Swiss since I didn't really care anymore.
Used in my Top Cut Match with EDDCHRIS

Problems With The Team

This team isn't perfect, nor will I ever try to say it is. During many of my games, I saw that I was over-reliant on Rotom-H to take care of Steel-types such as Mega Mawile and Aegislash since my other team members aside from maybe Gyarados and Garchomp couldn't do a whole lot against them. If Mega Kangaskhan gets in at least 1 Power-Up Punch, things tend to get messy for my team. The team also has a hard time against hard Trick Room, which I didn't face too much of. Most importantly Rock Slide flinches, Sleep Powder misses, and Dark Void are the bane of my existence.

Final Thoughts

I hope you found this a little bit informative. I'll try and have this up on my WordPress blog because Blogger sucks so fucking much that even Eggy Emporium ditched it for personal reference. And don't forget to follow me @NickscorVGC!