Why Purrloin?!

Why Purrloin?! Spooky Cup Team

Now before I say anything else, I did not have the best results playing in the Spooky Cup. I finished 1620 with a 19-9 record and over 20 games left to play when it ended. On top of that my account didn’t even show up on the final rankings so I got DQ’d apparently. Despite these shortcomings, I had plenty of fun playing in the Spooky Cup and even theorymonning with friends so I’d love to share my team with all of you and hopefully inspire people to give these fun Wi-Fi tournaments a shot!

Teambuilding Process

So after talking with a bunch of people from Skype I figured Volcarona, Hydreigon, Aegislash, Crobat, and Weavile would be massive threats in this format. I wanted to make sure I had an advantage over those Pokemon 100% of the time so I figured I would use either Trick Room or Rain to dismantle the aforementioned threats. I ended up going with a Trick Room team because it allowed me to use a lot more Pokemon that I was personally fond of, and in the end I was pretty happy with that decision

So I knew right off the bat that I wanted Jellicent to be one of my Trick Room setters. I have been using Jellicent since VGC 2013 so I felt more than comfortable with throwing it onto this team and expecting good results from it. To keep up with the 2013 aspect, I threw on Marowak next because of the infamous Jellicent Marowak core that was piloted by Sejun Park in Vancouver Worlds. I was a big fan of this core by how perfectly Marowak supported Jellicent with its Lightning Rod ability and being able to compensate for Jellicent’s lack of offensive pressure.

Moving on, I knew that If I was going to run a Hard Trick Room team that having one Trick Room setter wasn’t enough. With that in mind, I scanned the list of available Trick Room setters legal for this format until I boiled it down to Beheeyem and Gothitelle. Beheeyem had a respectable Special Attack stat and low enough speed which would make it an ideal Trick Room Pokemon, but it could not take hits as well as Gothitelle could. On top of that Gothitelle’s Shadow Tag ability appealed to me because it meant I could trap and have the partner KO a threat which paved the way for other Trick Room sweepers. Shadow Tag sounds like a poor choice in a format with a bunch of Ghost Pokemon but it ended up being pretty clutch in practice so I decided to throw on Gothitelle.

Now that I felt comfortable with two Trick Room setters, I wanted another Trick Room attacker to round out the core of my team. I ended up deciding on Granbull for a number of reasons. Both of my Trick Room setters were weak to Ghost and Dark, and even though they could both take hits from those types I needed something to threaten them back. Granbull was a solid answer to most of the Dark- Types in the format thanks to its Fairy typing and had Crunch to threaten Ghost- types. The other neat thing about Granbull was its Intimidate ability which played a huge roll for this team. Both of my Trick Room setters had a ton of SpDef investment to take boosted hits from Hydreigon, Chandelure, and Aegislash which left their physical defense vulnerable. Granbull helped to mitigate this by neutering physical attackers which helped in setting up Trick Room vs other threats like Krookodile, Weavile, and Kabutops and then immediately taking them out with Granbull in position.

With the Trick Room core ironed out, I wanted a Rage Powder/Follow Me user to redirect attacks from my Trick Room setters and sweepers to make their lives easier. With no access to Follow Me users, I turned to Volcarona which was by far the perfect Rage Powder user for this team. Volcarona's role on the team wasn't restricted to redirection spam either. Not only did it have respectable bulk to take multiple hits, it had a solid base 135 base Special Attack which gives it the option to outright OHKO threats to the team. With that in mind I tossed Volcarona on the team and didn’t look back

Finally, I had my 5 Pokemon, but I was missing something crucial to any hard Trick Room team, the Fake Out user. This was probably the hardest part because Scrafty, Hariyama, and HItmontop are usually the go-to Fake Out Pokemon to put on a Trick Room team, but unfortunately none of those were available. I looked at the list of available Fake Out Pokemon and saw Sableye, Liepard, Purrloin, and Croagunk. Liepard was out of the question as it was too fast and frail for a team like this. Croagunk was a good option because it had Knock Off and Drain Punch to dent both Ghost and Dark types for the Trick Room setters, as well as Helping Hand. Sableye was also a good choice as also had Knock Off but had other moves such as Will-O-Wisp, Recover, Leer, Confide, etc. In the end I chose Purrloin for good reason. I really loved the moves Encore and Fake Tears and figured they would be neat additions to the team. Since people love to use Fake Out against Trick Room I knew Encore would be a good tool against that. Also Fake Tears was nice in conjunction with Jellicent and Gothitelle. I’ll go into more details on Purrloin later, but it was a solid choice for the team and I’m glad I stuck with it.

Jellicent @ Mental Herb  

Ability: Cursed Body  

EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpD  

Sassy Nature  

IVs: 0 Spe  

- Scald  

- Ice Beam  

- Trick Room  

- Recover

So my idea with Jellicent was that I wanted her to be as resilient as possible so I maxed out its bulk. The spread enables Jellicent to take a Choice Specs Dark Pulse from Modest Hydreigon and a Life Orb boosted Shadow Ball from Modest Aegislash. I figured those would be two of the strongest Special Attacks for Jellicent to worry about in this format and I knew from past experiences with Jellicent that is was more than capable of taking lethal hits like that. Of course the rest of the EVs go into it Defense which gives me a better shot at surviving random Knock Offs from various threats like Krookodile, Weavile, and Zoroark. I chose Mental Herb because while I knew I could take strong hits I needed an out against Taunt which would severely ruin my momentum. Cursed Body was the highlight of this set as I loved being able to come out on top 1v1 vs Hydreigon, Chandelure, Aegislash, and Weavile just because i disabled their respective super effective attacks.

As for the attacks themselves, Scald was a natural fit on a bulky water type and getting random burns never hurts. I was tempted to put Dazzling Gleam over Ice Beam because it was a guaranteed OHKO on Hydreigon at -2 even with spread damage but I kept on Ice Beam because it also aided in dealing respectable damage to Tangrowth and Gliscor. Recover complimented Cursed Body really well as I could disable a hard hitting move then Recover it off and no longer be threatened. Finally Trick Room was Trick Room and I needed it for obvious reasons.

Marowak @ Thick Club  

Ability: Lightning Rod  

Level: 50  

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  

Adamant Nature  

- Bonemerang  

- Rock Slide  

- Low Kick  

- Protect

Like I said before, Jellicent and Marowak are a match made in heaven. Jellicent sets up Trick Room and can whittle down the opposing team by spreading around burns and disabling certain attacks, while Marowak redirects Electric moves from the likes of Galvantula, Rotom-A, and Pikachu and can come in and clean up when everything else has been weakened. I didn’t see the need to go fancy with the spread here, but I chose Adamant over Brave Marowak because it allowed Gothitelle to outspeed Marowak in Trick Room and then pull off some neat tricks which I will explain later. Bonemerang was really fun because it was able to OHKO 252 Hp / 0 Def Aegislash in Shield Form and doesn't make contact, preventing an Attack drop if it attacks into a King's Shield (previous wording implies it bypasses King's Shield). It also gave me a good shot at OHKOing 252 HP Volcarona so I wouldn’t have to worry about Wide Guard blocking Rock Slide. I had Low Kick specifically for OHKOing Hydreigon so that my two Trick Room setters would be safe from it.

Granbull @ Lum Berry  

Ability: Intimidate  

Level: 50  

EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 228 SpD  

Adamant Nature  

- Play Rough  

- Crunch  

- Rock Slide  

- Protect

First off I would like to say that GRANBULL IS TRASH!!! Anyway, Granbull was probably the least effective mon on the team but it still played a neat niche. As an Intimidate user, it made physical attackers slightly more manageable for the team and there weren’t any relevant Defiant or Competitive users to be worried about which was nice. The other thing was that Granbull a Fairy type which was naturally good against all the Dark types that would plague the format. The interesting thing about Granbull was that it was had the same base Speed as Marowak so I also gave it an Adamant nature which meant that Gothitelle would outspeed it under Trick Room. As for the spread itself, it’s meant to survive a Life Orb boosted Flash Cannon from Modest Hydreigon. The spread is probably not even optimal and hardly ever came into play, but it was still nice to have I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Lum Berry was chosen as it allowed Granbull to absorb a Will-o-Wisp from Sableye and nuke it in return with Play Rough. It also helped me turn the tables on people who don’t know how to use Swagger properly and sweep teams with a +2 Granbull under Trick Room. I gave it Crunch just so I’d have a move to hit Ghost- types with and Rock Slide to drop Volcarona on its neck. Granbull is trash.

Gothitelle @ Sitrus Berry  

Ability: Shadow Tag  

Level: 50  

EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD  

Sassy Nature  

IVs: 0 Spe  

- Psychic  

- Tickle  

- Trick Room  

- Gravity

Now Gothitelle was one of the more unique members of the team and was the centerpoint of the many tricks and traps this team had. Like i said before, Gothitelle may sound like a weird option considering there would be a lot of Ghost- types allowed in the format that could evade Shadow Tag, but being able to trap and KO other threats like Weavile, Volcarona, Hydreigon, and Crobat whenever I wanted to was something I didn’t want to pass up so I decided to give Gothitelle a shot. The spread looks really bland, but Gothitelle specifically needed 252 Hp / 252 SpDef to be able to tank a Choice Specs Dark Pulse from Hydreigon and a Life Orb boosted Shadow Ball from Aegislash in blade form, not at the same time of course. Then I just gave Gothitelle a Sitrus Berry because it had no other form of recovery and nothing else on the team really needed it.

Now I’ll get into the fun part! For about a week I was pondering over other moves besides Psychic and Trick Room to give Gothitelle. After talking with a few friends on IRC and Skype, we came up with Tickle as the third move which ended up being a key factor. As I said before, Gothitelle was one speed point slower than both Marowak, Granbull, and Purrloin. This allowed me to Tickle a target and then have them annihilate that same target at -1 Def immediately after. This came in clutch so many times in practice and Tickle became a staple on the team. Now as I was still figuring out how to round out the Gothitelle I noticed that my team was really weak to Rotom-W as nothing on the team had any moves to deal significant damage to it. This is where Gravity came in as it allowed me to remove the Rotom’s Levitate ability which then enabled Marowak to follow up with a Bonemerang which guaranteed the OHKO on even 252 Hp / 252 Def Bold Rotom-W. Gravity was also nice in that it made all of my moves more accurate so I hardly ever had to worry about Bonemerang missing vs Aegislash or Rotom-W. This set made the team so much more fun to play with and I’m glad that Gravity got to work out in pretty much every opportunity that was granted.

Volcarona @ Charcoal  

Ability: Flame Body  

EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52 SpA  

Modest Nature  

- Bug Buzz  

- Overheat  

- Rage Powder  

- Roost

Volcarona is one of my favorite Pokemon and definitely one of the reasons I wanted to play in this format because I knew it would be a powerful threat. I was looking to find a way to incorporate Volcarona onto every team I built for the Spooky Cup. Eventually I settled on the bulky Rage Powder set to redirect harmful attacks from my Trick Room setters which allows Trick Room to be set up more securely. Rage Powder also doubles as making Volcarona death fodder so that I can send in my Trick Room sweepers as soon as Volcarona eventually gets taken out while Trick Room is active. When I didn’t need Rage Powder I could just fire off powerful Overheats and Bug Buzz which OHKO’d a large portion of Pokemon in the Spooky Cup even with the minimal investment which made Volcarona a valuable member of the team.

The 52 Evs in Special Attack allowed Volcarona to OHKO 4 Hp Hydreigon 100% of the time and OHKO 252 hp / 156 SpDef Aegislash aka “CollinSlash” with the Charcoal attached. The HP and Def were all just a dump and enabled Volcarona to tank random Rock Slides a lot better. Roost was just a random filler move that I figured would be helpful in letting Volcarona stick around a lot longer, but it ended up hardly ever being needed. If anything I should have had Giga Drain there which would allow me to check Rotom-W a tad bit better.

Purrloin @ Focus Sash  

Ability: Prankster  

Level: 50  

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe  

Brave Nature  

IVs: 1 Spe  

- Fake Out  

- Knock Off  

- Encore  

- Fake Tears

Finally we have what was easily one of my favorite Pokemon to use on the team. I would be lying if I said Purrloin was a better overall pick compared to Sableye and Croagunk for a Trick Room team. But like I said before, Purrloin performed a satisfying role for the team and it is also way more adorable than the other two so I could not pass it up. Purrloin was also surprisingly effective when used in practice vs friends so I figured I would give it a shot for the actual tournament. As for the odd looking spread, I needed the 1 IV + the 4 Speed investment which made Purrloin hit 64 Speed at Level 50 which was one point higher than Gothitelle which meant it would be slower than Gothitelle under Trick Room which allowed Tickle -> Knock Off to happen. I know it sounds dumb to use a Purrloin as an offensive threat but considering that a lot of Pokemon in the format were weak to Knock Off, Purrloin fit that role surprisingly well. Also there was no point in maxing out its bulk since it’s still ridiculously frail even with Eviolite and had no reliable form of recovery so it only made sense to give it Max Attack with a Focus Sash.

Encore is my favorite disruptive move, and allows me to put my opponent is very disadvantageous positions which the team thrives off of. One example is baiting out Fake Out onto Gothitelle and having Purrloin Encore them into Fake Out the same turning leaving them locked into Fake Out and forced to stay in due to Shadow Tag. I could also Encore them into a move that was disabled by Jellicent’s Cursed Body and perform a pseudo Encore Disable lock which is always fun. There is just so many possibilities with Prankster Encore and it’s why I love Purrloin and Liepard. Finally Fake Tears was a neat move because it made Jellicent and Gothitelle less of sitting ducks and enabled them to actually inflict some significant damage. For example, Jellicent can 2HKO Hydreigon at -2 with Ice Beam which doesn’t seem like a big deal but allowed Jellicent to win vs Hydreigon under Trick Room without even needing Cursed Body to trigger. Gothitelle could also OHKO standard Bulky Crobat at -2 SpDef with ease.

Closing Remarks

Was Purrloin the optimal last Pokemon for the team? Probably not. Was it the most fun out of most other Pokemon to consider? Definitely yes! I knew this would be a more laidback tournament and a nice break from VGC 15’ so I decided to just have a good time with a bunch of cool mons I would probably never get to use in an competitive environment and I had definitely had fun. If there’s anything I hope you got from this article it is that these casual Wifi tournaments are a lot of fun and I would recommend trying them out to get a feel of different formats and exercising your brain to see what kind of unique strategies you can come up with!

Battle Videos:

I apologize in advance if these battles aren’t very good but these were all I managed to save as the games I had vs higher ranked players ended up in them D/Cing on me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

UAJG-WWWW-WW3W-7FGW

36UW-WWWW-WW3W-7FGR

RULG-WWWW-WW3W-7FHD

LTWG-WWWW-WW2V-UYV4

Fun game vs BlitznBurst despite having a good matchup. Shoutouts to him :]

KN6W-WWWW-WW3W-7FHS

3QBG-WWWW-WW32-VNEY

Uninstall - Top 32 at 2015 Worlds

Hi guys, I’m Alec Rubin (amr97), and I recently got 26th at the 2015 Pokemon World Championships. I hadn’t really given as much effort as I probably should have during this season, which resulted in me having fairly mediocre placements outside of getting Top 4 at the 2015 Virginia Regional Championships, but I ended up finishing consistently enough to earn an invite to Worlds, obviously. I think a lot of what makes this team work will be pretty intuitive, so I’ll just jump right into explaining it.

Deciding on the Team

After underperforming at US Nationals by going 6-3 and missing day two, I decided it was probably time for me to buck down and actually build a team and play more than ten battles on Showdown with it. I knew going into the teambuilding process that I thought the main four mega evolutions that we’ve seen throughout the year would be far and away the best choice coming into the event: Kangaskhan, Gardevoir, Charizard-Y and Salamence are all highly valuable due to their stats, typing and abilities that put them far above all the other megas in my mind. While I was dedicated to building around one of those four, I almost immediately ruled out Charizard as I have never been a fan of how I feel that the rest of the team needs to overextend to support it, so it has never really worked for me. I also decided not to use Salamence, as while I thought it was a solid pokemon the popularity of Ice and Fairy type attacks made me feel like I would never truly feel safe bringing it to a game.

Originally I had been working with some variations of a Gardevoir team that featured a Timid Imprison set alongside Hydreigon and a Fighting type Pokemon like Virizion or Conkeldurr, however most of these teams felt too derivative of the Gardevoir teams that had done well at United States Nationals, so I thought people might come in a little over prepared for them. With that in mind, I turned my attention towards a team composition that had been doing well in several Japanese tournaments; although CHALK (or Viera core, or whatever you want to call it) teams are very well known now due to their high concentration at the top of the World Championship results, prior to worlds it hadn’t been receiving a whole lot of attention amongst most Western players. I thought Kangaskhan was a very strong play heading into worlds, as not only is it incredibly consistent which would help me in making it through the gauntlet of Day 1, but many American and European players seemed to be under preparing for it with largely soft checks such as Landorus-Therian, Aegislash, and other pokemon that could be solid against Kangaskhan but ultimately don’t consistently win against it. I also decided on using Sylveon in the last slot, since it delivered a solid mixture of typing and offense while giving me a way to abuse Trick Room more fully. I think the style of team I came up with is not representative of the “typical CHALK” team, instead focusing a bit more offensively and adapting to opponents’ teams rather than being more dedicated to setting up its own strategies like the Japanese ones. Perhaps this might be why this team underperformed in relation to many of the similar teams in the field, however most of the choices I made put me into what I felt were better matchups against most of the field that ended up not coming into fruition, so a combination of that and me getting a bit unlucky in some of my loses (karma for getting advantageous rng rolls day 1 I suppose) means I would probably still make most of the same choices if I had to go into worlds with this team again.

As a side note, all of the Pokemon nicknames are from the Bokurano manga, although I’m not quite sure what possessed me to think that would make a good choice for nicknames.

Team Analysis

Chizuru (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite 

Ability: Scrappy 

Level: 50 

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe 

Jolly Nature 

- Fake Out 

- Return 

- Power-Up Punch 

- Sucker Punch 

This is probably what has been the most common Kangaskhan set throughout the year, as well as the same one that I used at Virginia regionals. The Jolly nature and maximum speed investment is probably the first thing that jumps out, as most of the Kangaskhan being used in this team archetype are slower and bulkier to better synergize with trick room. Given how I play I wanted Trick Room to be a more reactionary mode for this team, so in most situations I’ll have Kangaskhan able to outspeed most of the Pokemon that play around in that range such as Charizard and Gardevoir, and I’ll be able to bring Trick Room out in cases where my opponent’s team is naturally fast across the board or when my opponent has used a speed control move like Icy Wind, Tailwind or Thunder Wave to try and gain momentum against my faster Kangaskhan. I did consider using Alejandro Jimenez’s (Legacy) 36 HP/76 Defense spread to survive Low Kick from opposing Jolly Kangaskhan, however I kept finding myself missing out on knockouts by only a few hit points, and in most situations I would just switch my Kangaskhan away from a potential Low Kick or switch Landorus in alongside it so as to not have to worry about the opposing Kangaskhan being Adamant or just Sucker Punching me the next turn.

The moveset is very standard. Although I think Protect has a lot of merit over Fake Out on a lot of teams, I appreciated Fake Out on this team as a way to guarantee I can get Trick Room off in situations where I want to as well as augment the relatively low damage output of the team by potentially getting a “free” turn of damage while my opponent’s Pokemon cannot retaliate because of Flinching. I prefer Return over Double Edge on most sets, as by now people are more prepared defensively for Double Edge which makes the increased damage not worth the recoil that is inflicted on Kangaskhan. I chose Power-Up Punch as it has great synergy with redirection from Amoonguss, as well as the ability to punish opponent’s who play more defensively. I think Kangaskhan is best when it has the ability to boost at any moment, which is why I’ve stayed away from Low Kick for most of the year. Sucker Punch is very standard, so as to give a form of priority and hit Aegislash. +2 Sucker Punch is also very need because it has a little more power than normal return but the ability to hit fast Pokemon such as Scarf Landorus-Therian and Mega-Salamence.

Komoda (Cresselia) @ Safety Goggles 

Ability: Levitate 

Level: 50 

EVs: 236 HP / 212 Def / 60 SpD 

Relaxed Nature 

IVs: 0 Spe 

- Psychic 

- Ice Beam 

- Trick Room 

- Helping Hand 

Cresselia is probably the Pokemon that went through the most changes on the team. Originally it was a Mental Herb set that gave me a consistent way to deal with Double Genie leads, before switching to a Sitrus Berry set that was built to take two Adamant Kangaskhan Double Edges. A few days before Worlds I decided that I wasn’t quite satisfied with my answers to Amoonguss, so I made the change to Safety Goggles as it would give me quite a large advantage in CHALK mirror matches as well as generally give me a reliable answer to Landorus-T + Amoonguss which could otherwise give the team trouble. The defensive set allows it to take 2 Jolly Mega Salamence Double Edges with the rest thrown into Special Defense, however the set may not be fully optimized as I didn’t have much time to play around with it given how late I made the change to Safety Goggles. Overall Safety Goggles was pretty underwhelming as an item, as it didn’t really make a difference in any game besides when I managed to take a Spore from Barry Anderson’s (Baz Anderson) Breloom and knock it out in the same turn, however I think the item would still be worth it as there weren’t any games where the outcome would have changed with a different item.

The moveset is fairly typical for Cresselia. Psychic is used to hit Fighting and Poison types as well as provide a general STAB attacking move, while Ice Beam is used largely to snipe opposing Landorus, Thundurus and Salamence. Trick Room provides the team with a method to throw opposing teams off guard, either by turning their own speed control moves against them or allowing me to abuse Sylveon and Amoonguss by providing an environment for their low speed to shine. Helping Hand helps account for some of the lower offensive of this team by providing boosts to my four main attackers, and allowing several more KO’s for Life Orb Heatran and Mega Kangaskhan as well as upping the power of my defensive Sylveon to the levels of a 252 Modest Choice Specs set.

Masaru (Landorus-Therian) @ Choice Scarf 

Ability: Intimidate 

Level: 50 

EVs: 164 HP / 132 Atk / 4 Def / 28 SpD / 180 Spe 

Jolly Nature 

- Earthquake 

- Rock Slide 

- Superpower 

- Stone Edge 

This is a modified version of the Landorus-Therian spread Zach Droegkamp (Braverius) used at the St. Louis Regionals. The Defensive EV’s allow it to survive a +1 Life Orb Adamant Bisharp Sucker Punch and Hidden Power Ices from 252 non-boosting nature base 125’s. The most unusual thing about this set is probably the Jolly nature: I was expecting more people to use things like Scarf Mamoswine and Life Orb Hidden Power Ice Blaziken (this set outspeeds +1 Blaziken by 1). Another aspect is that this Landorus would be able to win the mirror more often, as since I’ll be outspeeding with Rock Slide I’ll have more chances to flinch as well as deal damage first.

The moveset is very standard with the exception of Stone Edge. Earthquake is used as a strong spread STAB move and to hit many Pokemon super effectively. Rock Slide is a consistent move against Charizard, Talonflame, and Thundurus and more importantly has the chance to flinch (because let’s be real that’s what I used it for most of the time). Superpower is used to hit Kangaskhan and Dark types, and can actually OHKO Kangaskhan with the Helping Hand boost from Cresselia. Stone Edge was a tech I used largely for Charizard, as I hadn’t been getting much mileage out of the standard U-Turn. Since every good Charizard team prepares for the threat of Landorus, Rock Slide becomes unreliable at best considering how common Wide Guard is, as well as an increasing trend in bulky Charizards that have a chance to survive Rock Slide. In many situations opponents will also switch in an intimidate of their own to guarantee survive Rock Slide. Stone Edge was able to bypass this, and despite the fact that it missing cost me games in two separate matches, was one of the best moves of the tournament for me, especially on day 1 when I managed to score surprise knockouts on three different Charizard’s that had been left in with the presumed ability to survive an anticipated Rock Slide from my Landorus.

Kirie (Amoonguss) (M) @ Rocky Helmet 

Ability: Regenerator 

Level: 50 

EVs: 188 HP / 164 Def / 156 SpD 

Sassy Nature 

IVs: 0 Spe 

- Spore 

- Rage Powder 

- Giga Drain 

- Protect 

This is the same Amoonguss spread I’ve been using basically all year, and if you read my Virginia Regionals report you might remember what it does. The Defensive investments ensures that it will always survive an Adamant Mega Kangaskhan Double Edge while the Special Defense allows it to always survive a Choice Specs Hydreigon Fire Blast. While the latter isn’t quite a huge metagame threat anymore, it could cause this team a fair bit of trouble so I thought it was best to prepare for. The HP stat is optimized for Regenerator recovery, and the Rocky Helmet is basically there just to cheese opposing Kangaskhan for more damage.

The moveset is by far the most standard for Amoonguss. Spore and Rage Powder are obvious, so as to be able to put opponents to sleep and redirect attacks, two of the most useful supporting options in the game. I know some people prefer Sludge Bomb as an attacking move, however I prefered Giga Drain for both the recover and the fact that it actually gives me a way to deal with Swampert, which can otherwise easily handle every member of the team besides Kangaskhan. Protect is very standard, and I think one of the cooler ways to use Amoonguss is to force opponents to play very aggressively to take it down, only to Protect and nullify their moves for that turn.

Aiko (Sylveon) (F) @ Pixie Plate 

Ability: Pixilate 

Level: 50 

EVs: 180 HP / 212 Def / 88 SpA / 28 Spe 

Modest Nature 

- Hyper Voice 

- Hidden Power [Ground] 

- Calm Mind 

- Protect

This set kind of inadvertently ended up being the same one Riley Factura (GENGARboi) used at Washington Regionals, with the exception of me using a Pixie Plate over Choice Specs (and a moveset to match). I thought the defensive investment, which allows Sylveon to Survive a Jolly Mega Kangaskhan Double Edge or two max Attack Landorus-Therian Earthquakes, would be very useful in a more defensively oriented Worlds metagame and was well worth the attack drop. I chose Pixie Plate over the more popular Choice Specs as I think a lot of people play in a manner as to where their teams can only effectively match up against the Choiced variant, so being able to surprise opponents and change up my moves could put them in compromising positions, and even after the item was revealed still force them to adjust their gameplan heavily from what it normally would be.

Anybody who has played VGC 2015 at all should understand Hyper Voice on Sylveon, as it is a no brainer to include on any set given that is essentially a 117 Base Power spread STAB move with arguably the best Attacking type in the game. Hidden Power Ground was used mostly because it allows Sylveon to beat standard Heatran sets, but it was also useful against Aegislash if they were weakened and tried to get cute and attack in Blade Form. Calm Mind is a move that has enjoyed success on a couple of different teams this year, most recently on the team that Angel, Jeudy and Jun used at Nationals. Even though I only used it once at Worlds, Calm Mind was one of my best moves in practice, as when Sylveon is next to a Pokemon like Kangaskhan or Cresselia most opponents will play a bit more cautiously, which allows me to set up Calm Minds and threaten the opponent immensely, especially if I’m able to set Trick Room up, use Amoonguss for Rage Powder or augment Sylveon’s bulk with a Landorus-Therian switch in. It was also a way to punish opponents who would double Protect either to stall out a Kangaskhan Fake Out or a turn of Trick Room. Calm Mind harkens back a bit to the whole idea of catching people off guard with Sylveon’s moveset, since also in situations where I’ve revealed that my Sylveon’s damage output is low compared to most, opponents may assume it’s not a threat and focus on its partner as I’m free to boost up. I had Protect instead of Detect because I was worried about Pressure users making me run out of Detect PP more quickly in a match, but I've since learned that Pressure doesn't actually effect Detect so I would change that if I were running the team again. 

Ushiro (Heatran) (M) @ Life Orb 

Ability: Flash Fire 

Level: 50 

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe 

Timid Nature 

- Fire Blast 

- Ancient Power 

- Earth Power 

- Protect

Heatran’s set is probably the most bizarre of any Pokemon on the team, and the main reason for that is that I don’t really like using the standard Shuca Berry set. While I think it had merit in the past, I expected most of the other Heatran at worlds to be Shuca Berry as well, and I think one of the main merits of that set is being able to beat opposing Heatran 1-on-1. I really don’t like leaving Shuca Berry Heatran in against Landorus-Therian either, since they can just Superpower and have a chance to OHKO anyway, so I decided to just try and avoid the mirror matchup with my own Heatran. I know the go to item if you don’t have Shuca Berry tends to be Leftovers with a Substitute set, however I was considered with the Aegislash matchup with this team, since I really had no way to OHKO it so in order to prevent it from really doing anything I had to double into it and hope it either wasn’t Substitute or that it didn’t just King’s Shield. Life Orb was a nice solution to that, and also makes up for the main problem I’ve had with Heatran for most of the year in that it comes onto the field and can’t really threaten anything, instead hitting for pretty mediocre damage with heat wave or non-STAB Earth Power. I elected to go for a Timid Nature just so that I could outspeed stuff like Breloom and Smeargle that could be pretty annoying with Focus Sash.

Fire Blast isn’t a move that sees very much use in VGC due to its accuracy, however it was a very nice addition to the team. It’s able to OHKO most common Aegislash spreads and basically all Amoonguss besides ones invested completely in Special Defense. Although I had to hold my breath every time I used it, Fire Blast with LO basically does the same damage as a Modest Overheat, without the drawback of lowering Special Attack by two stages. Although my accuracy in practice with Fire Blast was pretty horrendous (~65%), I luckily only missed one important one during day 1 of Worlds against Shota Yamamoto’s Amoonguss on the first turn of our match where hitting it would have basically won me the game outright, however I was able to get something ridiculous like six of seven Rock Slide flinches to win the game (and I needed every one of them!). Earth Power is a staple on Heatran: although most use it for the mirror, I didn’t plan on doing that unless I could catch them trying to switch into an anticipated fire type attack, so it was mostly effective to give me a way to hit opposing Fire types like Arcanine and Entei or have a guaranteed way to knock out Bisharp and weakened Aegislash. Ancient Power is a move that I’ve thought could be really strong for a while on Heatran, given an appropriate set to use it. One of the main problems I have with Heatran is that it’s used to check Talonflame and Charizard by being able to switch into their attacks, however it does hardly any damage back and allows those two to instead focus on the partner Pokemon. Ancient Power remedies this problem to some degree, letting Heatran easily dispatch Talonflame and beating non-Hidden Power Ground Charizards 1 vs 1. It also gives a way to hit Salamence if they don’t have Earthquake, and if I’m able to get a boost with Ancient Power +1 Fire Blast hits ridiculously hard. I did consider using another attacking move like Heat Wave and Flash Cannon over Protect, however I thought the option should I need it was a better choice than an attack I never really planned on using.

Closing Thoughts

I think the team pretty much speaks for itself in how it works, as pretty much everyone reading this should be familiar with the CHALK archetype by now. I don’t really have much else to say about this team besides the fact that I think I’ll probably look into other things going forward into Fall Regionals, as some people already seem to be compromising the integrity of their team in order to have a good matchup against this one specific archetype, which I learned the hard way when I faced an absolutely abysmal CHALK matchup in the first round of a PC I took this team to. At any rate thanks for reading, and hopefully you enjoyed the report and aren’t sitting there wondering why you read 3,500 words on a crappier version of the team that won worlds.

Plasmagica - 2nd place NY/NJ Invitional mini-team report

Creator: Cypher

Results: 2^nd (4-1) in the 2015 NY/NJ Invitational @ Matawan NJ 8/8/15

Hey there everyone, Cypher here again. This time, I actually did well at another event, the NY/NJ Invitational (not a sanctioned event however). I’m just going to type a short team report about the team I used.

Details about the NY/NJ Invitational: http://nuggetbridge.com/articles/new-york-new-jersey-invitational-preview/

The bracket is listed here: http://challonge.com/nynjinvitational

For this tournament, I took a boring team because I couldn’t think of anything fun to use in time for the tournament.

 Team's theme: Show by Rock!! Title taken from the main band.

9/5 edit: I forgot this was a thing so I am uploading it pretty late. Whoops. Anyways, it's a bit outdated so it should be edited for future uses.

Team building process:

So once upon a [long] time [ago], I talked to Enosh about Pokemon. He mentioned how Rotom-W / Landorus-T / Bisharp core was annoying to battle. So I started with that.

 

I wondered what was good with that core. The first Pokemon that came to mind was Kangaskhan. But then I couldn’t think of two Pokemon that would help.

 

So I scrapped Kangaskhan. The next Pokemon I thought of was Gardevoir because Gardevoir is popular now. Of course, Amoonguss was a natural fit as the next Pokemon. But I couldn’t think what Pokemon was good for the last spot.

 

And then I had a genius moment. What if I took the Kangaskhan idea and the Gardevoir idea… and combined them! BOOM! Team created.

 

However, I had Charizard problem. So I asked friends for advice, and I think it was Jio that suggested Rotom-H over Rotom-W. And then it worked.

 

Finally, I took amr’s spreads from his team report because his team so happens to look like this team right here. It’s pretty much the same team execution except Gardevoir over Azumarill. His report: http://nuggetbridge.com/reports/today-future-born-3rd-place-vgc-15-virginia-regional-championships/

The team

 

Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite *** Angelica

Level: 50

Trait: Scrappy

EVs: 252 HP / 188 Atk / 44 Def / 4 SDef / 20 Spd

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Fake Out

- Return

- Low Kick

- Sucker Punch

Kangaskhan was supposed to be this team’s main mega evolution. However, it was the opposite, it was the least-used Pokemon on the team ironically.

Kangaskhan’s job was to take hits and just do damage. I opted for Return instead of Double-Edge because it defeats the point of bulky Kangaskhan. I also opted for Low Kick instead of Power-Up Punch because I felt like I needed the immediate damage, especially for Heatran.

 

Amoonguss (F) @ Rocky Helmet *** Maple

Level: 50

Trait: Regenerator

EVs: 188 HP / 164 Def / 156 SDef

Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)

- Giga Drain

- Spore

- Rage Powder

- Protect

Amoonguss’s job is to put Pokemon to sleep and redirect attacks. I just went with amr’s Specially Defensive spread instead of the more common Physically Defensive spread because this spread has a chance to live Mega Gardevoir’s Psychic.

Rotom-H @ Sitrus Berry *** Moa

Level: 50

Trait: Levitate

EVs: 252 HP / 116 SAtk / 140 Spd

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Thunderbolt

- Overheat

- Light Screen

- Will-O-Wisp

Standard Rotom-H except with Light Screen over Protect. I had Light Screen because it helps the team against Mega Gardevoir. Rotom-H was pretty awesome since it allows my team to have another out to Aegislash. I like this spread since although it loses bulk, it can deal a whole bunch of damage in return.  

If I could, I would have replace Light Screen with Protect since Rotom-H would take a lot of damage sometimes, and having Protect would have let me saved it for the future.

Landorus-T (M) @ Choice Scarf *** Retoree

Level: 50

Trait: Intimidate

EVs: 12 HP / 236 Atk / 92 Def / 4 SDef / 164 Spd

Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

- Earthquake

- Rock Slide

- Superpower

- Stone Edge

Standard Scarf Landorus-T. I opted for Jolly over Adamant so it can beat opposing Blazikens, ayy lmao. Stone Edge over U-Turn so Landorus-T doesn’t get blocked by Wide Guard. Even though I missed the damage output from Adamant, I think having Jolly was better due to outspeeding neutral Scarf Landorus and anything else that was aiming to outspeed it.
 

Bisharp (F) @ Life Orb *** ChuChu

Level: 50

Trait: Defiant

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

- Sucker Punch

- Iron Head

- Assurance

- Protect

Standard Bisharp with Assurance over Knock Off. Assurance does more damage, especially with the whole team having ways to do damage before Bisharp attacks. I really liked Bisharp since it caused a lot of pressure with Sucker Punch and Defiant, as well as causing a lot of damage due to Life Orb and Assurance.

 

Gardevoir (F) @ Gardevoirite *** Cyan

Level: 50

Trait: Trace

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd

IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SAtk / 30 SDef

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Hyper Voice

- Psychic

- Hidden Power [Ground]

- Protect

Common fast Gardevoir so it can scream at you and KO you before you can do something about it. HP Ground for Heatran. I was supposed to use Gardevoir when I felt something on my opponent's team would threaten Mega Kangaskhan, e.g. Conkeldurr, but instead I just brought it more often than I would thought. I would say it was MVP of this team and the team’s true main mega evolution. Also, it was supposed to Telepathy but I forgot to ask Jio for it so I got Trace instead. 

Opponents

R1: Mihrab Samad | 2-1 Win
Lapras / Landorus-I / Aegislash / Charizard / Mienshao / Salamence

R2: Brendan Zheng | 2-1 Win
Landorus-T / Tyranitar / Escavalier / Cresselia / Charizard / Thundurus

R3: Jeudy Azzarelli | 2-0 Win
Amoonguss / Gardevoir / Landorus-T / Tyranitar / Rotom-W / Braviary

R4: Chuppa Cross | 2-1 Win
Kangaskhan / Blaziken / Aegislash / Amoonguss / Landorus-T / Thundurus

Finals: Nick Borghi | 0-2 Lose
Kangaskhan / Heatran / Thundurus / Landorus / Azumarill / Aegislash

Conclusion

As you can see, this team is quite boring. I also should have brought Gardevoir over Kangaskhan instead in the finals, but oh well. In the end though, I am quite happy with the team since it performed well.

Shoutouts

Enosh for the team idea.

Jio for the Rotom-H idea, giving me the Gardevoir, and teaching it Hyper Voice.

Imoutos for support.

Nick for being cool and giving me the Mega Rayquaza plush.