#imoutos VGC '15 Topcut Premier Challenge Teams.

Imouto Party v2.0

Creator: CT Mikoto Misaka
Results:
1st Place Blue Bell Premier Challenge (Piloted by CT Mikoto Misaka)
Top 8 Ohio Premier Challenge(Piloted by Mancuso)

Hello I’m Angel Miranda, or CT Mikoto Misaka and I recently won a Premier Challenge with this team. I normally don’t find Premier Challenge tournaments worthy of team reports. Since the metagame is still very young and I constantly get messages asking about the team I won with, I thought it would be a good idea to just post about the teams we (the #imoutos) used to get decent results with. Anyway here’s the team.



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

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about this Pokémon, such as “Why special over physical?” and “Why not Mega?” and the answer is simple: Special attacking Swampert gets KOs and isn’t hindered by Intimidate and burns. Physical Swampert lacks the power to get any good KOs let alone get KOs reliably. I wanted something with Wide Guard to help my team out with Sylveon’s Hyper Voice and Swampert did a great job at handling that. It also gets key knock outs on Pokémon such as Landorus-T, Mega Salamence and Mega Mawile.



See VisionS (Bisharp) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Nature:  Adamant
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- Protect
- Iron Head

This is a pretty standard Pokémon right now. Dark + Steel hits a bunch of Pokémon for super effective damage and it has a pretty strong priority move in Sucker Punch. Not only that, it also scares away potential Intimidate users thanks to Defiant. I chose Focus Sash over Life Orb because I feel like Bisharp is a Pokémon you want to get attacks off with multiple times. Focus Sash makes it harder for opponents to get rid of Bisharp. Life Orb may get some neat knock outs but if I can make Bisharp live even a turn longer I feel like it’s a much better trade-off.



DearMyFriend (Terrakion) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature:  Jolly
- Close Combat
- Double Kick
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Boy am I glad this Pokémon is back in the format. Terrakion is a fast Fighting-type that can KO Mega Kangaskhan along with having a fast STAB Rock Slide. Lum Berry was a perfect item for dealing with Thundurus and things that spread burn, but I guess you guys wanna know why DOUBLE KICK of all things is included the set. Why Double Kick? It’s a weak Fighting move and I already have Close Combat. Terrakion’s 4th move is mainly filler anyway with options such as Stone Edge, Quick Guard, and Taunt—all of which you will use on a rare occasion. Simon told me about Double Kick as a way of dealing with Focus Sash Bisharp and Smeargle, both of which are annoying Pokémon. I find Sash Bisharp to be a more threatening set (specially to a non-Focus Sash Terrakion) so having an out to that was very nice.



FutureGazer (Rotom-Heat) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 92 HP / 252 SpA / 164 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt
- Protect

I’m gonna be honest here and say that not much thought went into making this spread. The Speed investment is to outspeed things that speed creep max speed Tyranitar. I wanted a Fire-type and Rotom-H had the perfect typing for what I wanted along with some very nice resists (namely Flying). I liked the offensive pressure Rotom-H put and got a lot of surprise KOs due to people expecting a more bulky version.

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PSI-Missing (Salamence) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
- Return
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
- Protect

This is a set that Bopper gave to me and it is honestly my favorite Salamence set. I will not reveal the EV spread and nature out of respect to Bopper who was kind enough to let me use his set.  There’s a lot of debate about Double-Edge vs Return and I personally like Return better. I think the recoil you take from Double-Edge puts you in a lot of awkward situations where you are either forced to Roost or KO yourself and sometimes even give your opponent outs to KOing you when they otherwise couldn’t. In my opinion, using Return as your only attacking move is fine since resisted Returns still do a ton of damage. Also Salamence's non-Flying attacks are pretty weak despite its hefty Base 145 Attack stat. I think Salamence might be my favorite Mega Evolution right now.


SistersNoise (Clefable) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 28 SpA / 68 SpD / 4 Spe
Nature: Bold
- Follow Me
- Ice Beam
- Protect
- Helping Hand

This is probably the talk of the town right now. In my opinion, Clefable is the best Follow Me user in the game. I think Clefable is better than Togekiss mainly because of the lack of extra weaknesses Togekiss has (such as Rock, Electric, and Ice). Clefable also has a respectable Special Attack stat when considering it’s a support Pokémon. I chose Ice beam over Moonblast because I dislike Landorus-T very much and I enjoy getting the KOs on the non-bulky ones since Choice Scarf is the scariest set to me. The big question I usually got was “Why Unaware over Magic Guard?” and while I do think Magic Guard is a good ability, I simply wanted avoid scenarios where Clefable gets OHKO’d by things such as +2 Mega kangaskhan, +1 Mega Salamence, +6 Azumarill, +1 Bisharp, and so on. It might seem counterintuitive to have Unaware when it ignores my own Intimidate but I would rather have Clefable survive a boosted attack that would otherwise KO it otherwise than turn a few 2hkos into 3hkos thanks to intimidate. The EVs allow for Clefable to survive Bisharp Iron Head and Aegislash Flash Cannon. The Special Attack also grabs the KO on 4 HP Landorus-T with Ice Beam.

Overall the team was very fun and was definitely one of my favorite teams I ever built.

Physical Attackers Please Go

Creator: SoulSur
Results:
Top 8 Kings Game PC (Piloted by SoulSur)


Hello everyone I'm Jeudy Azzarelli (SoulSur) and I've been playing VGC since 2010 and my most recent (and only) accomplishment was getting 2nd at WCS 2014 last year. Moving on to the 2015 metagame most of my practice has come from using Angel's Imouto Party v1. I decided for the first PC of the 2015 metagame that I would make my own team. As a really offensive player I noticed a lot of things I used ended up on the frail side of the spectrum and a lot of teams I made felt too "2014". As such a lot of games were decided early on if I led wrong so I decided my next team would have some longevity to it while maintaining a high pressure play style. My primary focus shifted to beating physical attackers that were so prominent in this metagame.

The Team


--->
DreamFever (Latios) (M) @ Latiosite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Reflect
- Protect

When I was first throwing around cores I wanted something that can instantly pressure many of the Fighting-types, a fast Will-o-Wisp user, and an Intimidator. The night before I made this core I remember Enosh talked about Reflect Latios and Gengar, and this made me want to test these two as they filled 2 of the 3 requirements in the core I wanted. While I did consider Mega Metagross for the slot it does not outspeed targets like Infernape and Terrakion without Mega Evolving, allowing these Pokemon to get a move off. Latios already came with the base 110 speed and the ability to OHKO most Fighting-types before they can act. Reflect was used for further physical attacker hate which worked out in my Round 1 match against dtrain where Reflect made his Scarftar unable to KO Landorus or Latios when it was switched in. I got a lot of questions regarding why Mega Latios and not Mega Latias. To answer the first question, the item was basically filler. It started out as Life Orb Latios, however another Pokémon on the team would eventually need it and by the time I completed the team I was also using Expert Belt. I didn't have a Mega so I just gave it a Latiosite. Mega Latios has slightly better calcs than Expert Belt while gaining extra bulk in the process. For the latter question Mega Latias only has a Based 140 Special Attack and Psyshock does not OHKO Terrakion 100% of the time. I could've used Psychic to remedy this, but I also wanted to deal a lot of damage to Sylveon just in case it was chipped and Psyshock does more.



Fake Doll (Gengar) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Sludge Bomb
- Shadow Ball
- Protect

The fast Will-o-Wisp user of the core and another overall solid Pokémon in this metagame. This is a really standard set but I basically wanted something that can dent Fairy-types and puts pressure on Aegislash and Metagross. Sludge Bomb and Shadow Ball accomplish this and also I used Protect because I really value it on frail Pokémon.



Suki Kirai (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge

Landorus filled the role of the Intimidater, and I also wanted something that can deal heavy damage on Thundurus who I felt could be really annoying. Apart from Stone Edge, the set is as standard as can be. Stone Edge was primarily for Thundurus and other Flying-types that could survive Rock Slide. Rock Slide was kept on the set because fast Rock Slide is really stupid.



ShinkaiShoujo (Rotom-Wash) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 4 SpA / 36 SpD / 132 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- Will-O-Wisp

Another standard Pokemon. I really hated Landorus-T when making this team and wanted to make my team have a strong matchup against double genie. Rotom-W functioned as another Will-o-Wisp user if I decided not to bring Gengar while acting as a bulky pivot if needed. I originally had Thunder Wave and Will-o-Wisp but I valued Protect since Rotom-W was a prime target for getting doubled into. The EVs allow Rotom-W to outspeed Bisharp, OHKOs 4 HP Landorus-T with Hydro Pump, survives a Solar Beam from a certain Charizard-Y one of my friends at the PC was using, with the rest was added into defense.



Po Pi Po (Virizion) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Leaf Blade
- Stone Edge
- Protect

Virizon, the Grass-type Terrakion was definitely my MVP of the tournament. At this point I felt I wanted a fast Fighting-type to put even more pressure on Bisharp and Kangaskan both of which could still do a lot of damage despite my team having a lot of Physical hate. I had to choose between this, Infernape, and Cobalion. I ultimately decided on Virizion due to it's typing and ability to pressure bulky Water-types who were becoming a problem (namely Suicune and Milotic). Additionally, Virizion always being able to win 1v1 against Terrakion whether or not it wins the speed tie was another factor for why I used it. Stone Edge was mainly for surprising opposing Charizard, Zapdos, Thundurus, and Togekiss who thought they were safe against Virizion.



Sweet Devil (Heatran) @ Chople Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 52 HP / 252 SpA / 204 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Flash Cannon
- Taunt
- Protect

The last Pokémon on the team and while it did not come up a lot in practice, during the tournament Heatran put in quite a bit of work. The moveset is definitely something different from what most players are used to seeing. I wanted something to that could shut down the Sylveon/Aegislash core. This made me originally lean towards Mega Charizard Y. Even though I didn't have a Mega while teambuilding, having a Charizard on invites Rock Slide which was something I didn't want to deal with. Heatran has the ability to OHKO Aegislash while eating Hyper Voice spam. Taunt was mainly for utility and I didn't think Substitute was really going to be useful with how I play, and Earth Power just felt weak and was really only for other Heatran. The EVs are also simple and allowed me to out run Bisharp while the rest went to bulk. The item was something that changed a lot but I decided that Chople Berry was the best option just in case I got into a situation where a Terrakion would have the chance to Close Combat. As a note to those who watched the stream, I did forget I had Chople Berry as this was a last minute change and it never activated during the whole tournament. Angel was also the one showing off my team to the stream so I was unaware of my item in my game vs Paul which led to a really laughable play turn 1 in game 2 by me. I'm really upset with my play in the Top 8 game but it happens and I'll just have to focus on the next PC.

Thank you for reading my team report. I had really fun with this team as it was the first I made myself this metagame, and am looking forward to seeing the teams players use as the year progresses!

CANCER.pkm

Creator: Simon
Results:
2nd Place Cedar Grove NJ Premier Challenge (Piloted by CT Mikoto Misaka)
7th Place Cedar Grove NJ Premier Challenge (Piloted by Simon)

Hey its Angel again, and Simon is too lazy to explain his team so I'm going to fill in for him. It's his team so I wont be able to explain everything perfectly but I'll try my best to explain what I know. I also wanna explain the team is called "Cancer" because it has a bunch of Pokémon and sets we think are bad most of the time but somehow they all work together here and thus it gives us both cancer.



Gengar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sludge Bomb (Angel used Shadow Ball in this slot)
- Icy Wind
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp

Gengar has about 10 different moves it would like to run and picking which to use is definitely hard. Simon wanted something with both Icy Wind and a fast Will-o-Wisp and Gengar was that answer. Taunt was a mediocre answer to Trick Room teams that didn't have Mental Herb and stopped some gimmicks from working. Sludge Bomb hits things like Sylveon hard and is stronger than Shadow Ball. I personally chose Shadow Ball over Sludge Bomb to better the Aegislash match-up and be able to hit things such as Heatran.



Ninetales @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Drought
EVs: 172 HP / 60 Def / 212 SpA / 12 SpD / 52 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Power Swap
- Solar Beam
- Protect

I think Ninetales is really underrated it beats both Steels and bulky Waters such as Suicune and Milotic without having to dedicate your Mega Pokémon like Charizard does. Power Swap is a cool little trick that lets you swap out your special attack drop after an Overheat to your opponent. It can also send back intimidate that way too! The EVs allow it to KO Bulky Aegislash and speed creep the Bisharp speed tier. It also survives Jolly Return from Mega Salamence.



Terrakion @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 20 HP / 228 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Double Kick
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Same Terrakion used in Imouto Party but EVs changed to survive Calm 4 SAtk Rotom-W Hydro Pump.

-- >
Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Aerilate
- Dragon Dance
- Return
- Earthquake (Angel used Roost in this slot)
- Protect

Same Salamence used in Imouto Party but Simon chose to use Earthquake over Roost to hit Steel-types harder.



Gastrodon @ Expert Belt
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 204 HP / 100 Def / 196 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 27 Spe
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Scald
- Protect

This is probably the biggest reason the team is called Cancer. Simon and I have hated this Pokémon since 2012 and always thought it was the most overrated Pokemon. We still think that but it fit here perfectly. Gastrodon was another answer to Steel types and also OHKO's Terrakion. 27 Speed IV was to outspeed Trick Room Mawile and outspeed neutral nature Amoonguss. EV'd to survive Jolly Double Edge from Mega Kangaskhan.



Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Protect
- Substitute

Offensive Sub Ferrothorn. Teams with few answers to Ferrothron had a difficult matchup due to the combination of Substitute and Leftovers. If you can set up a free substitute, your opponent would generally be put in a hard spot to recover from unless they had multiple things to threaten it. Max Attack investment allows Ferrothron to always 2HKO Landorus-T with Gyro Ball at -1 Atk.

THE SQUAD

Creator: TalkingLion
Results: 2nd Place Maryland Premier Challenge(Piloted by TalkingLion)

Hi, I'm TalkingLion and I don't usually attend many events but I have attended most of the Premier Challenges in the Metropolitan area. When this year's ruleset was first announced I made many different teams, but struggled to find a concept that I liked. After a few weeks I finally found something I really enjoyed and decided to bring it to my first event with the 2015 ruleset, where I got 2nd place. I found the team a lot of fun to play with and hope you'll enjoy it just as much as I do.


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♥Tomoyo♥ (Salamence) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Double-Edge
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
- Protect

I knew from the start that Salamence was the mega I wanted to build around due to its ability to nuke just about anything with Double-Edge. I personally prefer Double-Edge over Return despite the recoil, since the extra power allows me to grab OHKOs on things such as Sylveon and Charizard. I initially used an Adamant nature for even more damage, but found myself in many situations where I wanted to outspeed things such as Terrakion and Gengar which made me opt for a Jolly nature instead. Dragon Dance was seldom used, but there was nothing else I would have wanted to run and was usually helpful when I did use it.



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

Angel told me that he had been testing out special Swampert and I was instantly intrigued. Swampert paired really nicely with Salamence since it can block Hyper Voice and Rock Slide with Wide Guard, and also OHKO Mawile and Landorus. I feel Special Swampert is definitely the best way to run it at the moment, and the results its picked up at recent Premier Challenges should show that.



Nattorei (Ferrothorn) @ Chople Berry
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Atk / 108 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Protect

At the start of the season, many people usually forget Ferrothorn exists and thus don't run many solid answers to it. I generally felt safe bringing Ferrothorn into any matchup where my opponent lacked a fire type, since Chople Berry can help me deal with Fighting Types. I know most of the other Imoutos prefer Substitute on Ferrothorn, but I've always liked the classic Leech Seed variant in order to provide me with additional HP for myself while also dealing damage and forcing switches from my opponent.



RIP Inori (Dusclops) @ Eviolite
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp
- Trick Room
- Night Shade

Dusclops was added when I realized that the majority of my team was already slow and would benefit from a Trick Room mode. Dusclops could also hard counter Kangaskhan, which is always a threat. Frisk was also a great tool for scouting items. Many Pokemon, such as Landorus, Terrakion, and Bisharp become much easier to deal with once you know their item and can plan accordingly. Pain Split was a nice move to recover my HP and also Dusclops' main method of damage, as Night Shade was pretty much only used when there was nothing better for me to do or when I was taunted. Dusclops being such a huge Taunt-bait is what made me initially want to stay away from it, but I usually did not find this a problem as I did not rely on Dusclops to set-up in most of my games.



Moffle (Conkeldurr) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Guts
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Atk / 144 Def / 108 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Rock Slide
- Mach Punch
- Knock Off

I knew I wanted something to deal with Bisharp, Charizard, and Terrakion, and Conkeldurr fit that bill perfectly. The EV spread and set is almost the exact same that Collin Heier got 3rd at worlds with, the only change being Knock Off over Payback due to the tutor not being available before. I also considered changing one of the moves to Ice Punch, but I felt like I already had enough answers to Landorus and dragons and needed a prioirty move and something to hit Aegislash with more, and I almost never found myself wishing I had Ice Punch. Guts was a useless ability most of the time and I would probably change it to Iron Fist now, but it felt nice at the time to have something I could safely switch in on Will-O-Wisps and Thunder Waves.


HawtKiwiDawg (Heatran) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 212 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 36 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Substitute
- Protect

Heatran was added as the last member of the team because I felt like it patched up my weaknesses fairly nicely. It could wall Charizard, Sylveon, and Mawile, and also help deal with Aegislash and Bisharp. I initially tested out Chople/Shuca Berry, but found many situations where they would go unused, so I instead decided to test out Leftovers to pair nicely with Substitute. The additional HP I would recover helped me in many situations, so it was definitely the right call in the end. I couldn't figure out a good spread to run, so ended up just maxing out special attack while leaving the HP at a good number for Substitute+Leftovers and dumping the remainder of EVs into Special Defense.

Closing

Also come check out Zach's team he used for his PCs at his blog!( http://braverius.blogspot.com/2015/01/premier-challenge-team-january-10th.html)

I hope you enjoyed some of the teams we used. I thought it would be a good idea to show off what some of us were using at this early point in the meta and maybe help you guys get some ideas for your own teams. Big thanks to Jeudy, Daniel and Simon who agreed to let me post their teams on here. Feel free to comment any questions you may have about our teams!

- Angel Miranda