Reports

Published on March 13th, 2015 | by Keonspy

29

Lord Heliolisk: Electrify to Top 8 Dutch Regionals

Hello everyone! My name is Jip Snoek, known on Nugget Bridge as Keonspy, and I’m 24 years old. You’ve probably never heard of me, and I can understand that. I have played Pokémon for a long time, as Pokémon Red was my first game. After that I played like every other Pokémon game out there. When the X and Y games came out, I started to play competitively, first starting out with singles and later on trying out doubles and especially VGC. Cybertron’s YouTube videos really helped me with the VGC metagame. I promised myself that when the new Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire games came out, my main focus would be on the doubles format.

The Process

Before I came up with the team I used at the Dutch Regionals, I tried other stuff. It all starts with boredom… I look up Pokémon and their moves, looking for something special. I really don’t like playing with standard stuff, so if I can find something uncommon that works, that’s great! If not, well… at least I had fun using it.

This time, Heliolisk got my attention. I think most people build their team around a Mega Evolution. Well, I built my team around Heliolisk. Heliolisk, which is the only Normal/Electric-type in the game, has one move that caught my eye: Electrify, which is its signature move. The fun thing about this move is that it can turn any attack into an Electric-type move. The moment I saw this move I got crazy ideas on how to use it. The first idea that popped into my head was to Electrify my opponent’s move to give Mega Sceptile a Lightning Rod boost. After unsuccessfully trying Raichu, I considered other potential teammates, particularly Volt Absorb users and Ground-types. I ended up choosing Garchomp as my last option. The idea was to Electrify every super effective move aimed at Garchomp.

I had never tested teams on Showdown before, but this time I thought it would be helpful to get some information before I started breeding. The original team was Heliolisk, Garchomp, Mega Sceptile, Gengar, Gyarados, and Suicune. I gave Heliolisk a Choice Scarf so that it could outspeed essentially every Pokemon in the game. Then, I could lock myself into Electrify, and Electrify everything and let Garchomp set up Swords Dance so he could sweep later on. With a Levitate Gengar and a Flying-type in my team I could switch out Heliolisk so Earthquake would not KO it. After a couple of successful matches on Showdown I was confident enough to start breeding and battling on Battle Spot. The reason I dropped this team was it did not work out just the way I wanted it to online. I faced a lot of leads that could double attack me with Ice-type attacks, and I could only Electrify one Pokémon at the time. The next idea was a rain team with Mega Swampert, which was neutral to Ice but had a 4x weakness against Grass, so I could Electrify a Grass-type move and it wouldn’t effect the Swampert at all. It seemed like a great idea on paper but I failed to use it since weather teams are not my thing.
Back to the drawing board. After the first two failures, I  dedicated myself to making it work. I came to the conclusion that my team was very fast, easy Trick Room bait, and not bulky at all. So after a couple of changes, I made this team.

The Regionals Team

Heliolisk @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Electrify
– Thunderbolt
– Parabolic Charge
– Hyper Beam

If you read this far you’ll know its purpose. In testing I had Volt Switch over Parabolic Charge. I used Volt Switch only once and never got to use it more because of the Scarf. A lot of people asked me if my Heliolisk ran Discharge for the Mega Sceptile boost or for healing Thundurus. The fact is, Heliolisk can’t learn Discharge. But he got Parabolic Charge and that’s almost the same as Discharge. It is a spread move, but also a healing move for Heliolisk, as it gets health back from all Pokémon on the field, except for Thundurus-Therian and Mega Sceptile due to their Abilities. If I lead with Heliolisk and Mega Sceptile I would go for Parabolic Charge, break some potential Sashes/Sturdy and then get a boosted attack off with Mega Sceptile. If I led with Heliolisk and Thundurus-Therian I’d go for Electrify on an opponent and get health back from that Pokémon, and then hit the other one with a Life Orb boosted Thunderbolt or Hidden Power Ice. I also had the option to Electrify my own Pokémon to get an Electric-type attack off for the surprise attack.

Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Energy Ball
– Dragon Pulse
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Detect

Not the most common mega, and definitely not the bulkiest one, but he’s fast and can hit very hard, especially after a couple of boosts. I chose Hidden Power Ice mainly for Landorus-Therian and Mega Salamence. But after the tournament I learned that my Mega Sceptile OHKOs a Mega Salamence with an non-boosted Dragon Pulse, so I may switch over to Hidden Power Fire for Amoonguss and Mega Metagross. The reason I don’t go for HP Ground is that I already had two ground type attacks in my party so far. I used Detect over Protect for possible Imprison Gardevoirs. Mega Sceptile was definitely my MVP of the tournament, getting a lot of KOs.

Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Discharge
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Protect

Heliolisk and Thundurus-Therian are a great couple to lead with. Volt Absorb is threatening since I can Electrify one opponent and get healed then attack the other with a Thunderbolt or Hidden Power Ice. Discharge is there mainly to boost Mega Sceptile.

Gyarados @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Waterfall
– Earthquake
– Dragon Dance
– Protect

Gyarados was a good switch in on every physical attacker with his Intimidate, like Mega Kangaskhan and Terrakion. I saw them a lot in this tournament. I also had the possibility to Electrify my own Gyarados to get a super effective Electric-type Waterfall or Earthquake off against flying types. The Lum Berry was so I could set up a Dragon Dance and still get Will-o-Wisped.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 232 HP / 104 Def / 60 SpA / 112 SpD
Modest Nature
– Overheat
– Earth Power
– Substitute
– Protect

Heatran was my check against Fire-types. With two Grass-types and one Dry Skin user on my team, a Fire-type immunity was a must.  I made it really bulky, so it could take hits and set up a Substitute, and after that I get Leftovers health back or attack. Since it is not the speediest thing ever it was also useful against Trick Room.

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Bold Nature
– Giga Drain
– Rage Powder
– Spore
– Protect

My other bulky Pokemon and Trick Room check. Amoonguss let me redirect away moves and put things to sleep. This set is really common and everyone knows its usage.

The Netherlands Regionals

Did I also mention that this was my first tournament ever? So I went over to have fun and meet new people. I had one goal and that was not to lose ALL my battles. I knew my team was pretty unique and that could work in my advantage, but if I could win at least one battle, I would be already satisfied.

Also I would mention that because I am relatively new to tournaments and battled a lot of international players, I don’t know all their Nugget Bridge usernames. So excuse me if I don’t know yours but I have written down the real names so we’ll have to do with that.

I saved the battles so I’ll put the battle codes down here.

Round 1 vs Andres (000aj)

He brought:
 

I brought:
   

So my first battle is about to start and I don’t know what to expect. I was a little nervous too, was I ready? Was my team ready? All those questions popped into my head. I didn’t look closely at his team. I thought, “I am going to bring these four guys and see where it goes”. I started with my best lead, Heliolisk and Thundurus-Therian and made the first right prediction, which was to Electrify his Mega Metagross while his Thundurus Protects. Then my Heliolisk got Taunted and he knocked out my Thundurus-Therian with an Ice Punch. I brought my Heatran and switched out my Heliolisk. His Sylveon locked itself into Hidden Power Ground and did not even knock out my Heatran. My Heatran misses a couple of Heat Waves and eventually got knocked out by the Sylveon. Maybe I was lucky or he played too safe, but when I only had two Pokemon left and he had four I thought I was done for. Luckily my Heliolisk and Mega Sceptile came through! Sceptile one shot his whole team and ended with +3 Special Attack.

1-0
Battle Code: BDBG-WWWW-WWXA-HF5V

Round 2 vs Micheal Rickert (Michilelele)

He brought:

I brought:
 

In this second match I got a bit lucky. He lead with Mega Kangaskhan and Volcarona. I saw in team preview that I needed Gyarados to deal with Volcarona, so I lead with Gyarados and Amoonguss. I Intimidated his Kangaskhan but forgot that Rage Powder and Fake Out have the same priority so he Mega Evolved into Mega Kangaskhan and Faked Out my Gyarados, Volcarona goes for Quiver Dance and then I thought, “Welp this is it”. But then his Mega Kangaskhan used Return on my Gyarados and it barely survived. Then he used Heat Wave and missed both of my Pokemon. I Waterfall his Volcarona and knocked it out. I Spored his Mega Kangaskhan and he brought in Landorus-Therian. He knocked out my Gyarados and I went for another Rage Powder. He switched Mega Kangaskhan for Zapdos. I brought in Sceptile, Mega Evolved and went for Hidden Power Ice on his Landorus-Therian but he protected. His Zapdos went for Heat Wave, missed my Sceptile and burned my Amoonguss. I went to Hidden Power Ice his Landorus again but he switched in his Kangaskhan and it does minimal damage. He puts up a Tailwind, Amoonguss Rage Powders again, fearing the Hidden Power Ice. Then he switched out Kangaskhan out for Landorus and I Energy Ball it while the Zapdos goes for a Heat Wave, connects both Pokemon, does decent damage on both, and then I Spored his Zapdos. Amoonguss dies to burn and I brought Heatran in, went for my own Heat Wave and an Energy Ball on the Kangaskhan for a knockout. Only Zapdos left, it wakes up, goes for Heat Wave, activates my Flash Fire and the Hidden Power Ice and Heat Wave from my Heatran still doesn’t knock it out. The following turn I beat him with a Dragon Pulse.

2-0
Battle Code: LM3G-WWWW-WWXAHF7V

Round 3 vs Peter Probst (jira)

He brought:

I brought:

I lead with the Heliolisk Thundurus-Therian duo and he led with Metagross and Landorus. I Electrify the Landorus’ incoming Rock Slide, and hit it back with a Hidden Power Ice. Then the Metagross goes for an Ice Punch on my Thundurus and it’s knocked out too. He brings in Salamence and I go with Heatran. He Mega Evolves his Salamence and I predicted the Protect, so I switched out my Heliolisk and brought in Sceptile. Metagross went for Zen Headbutt, which Sceptile survives and Heatran uses Earth Power on the Metagross. It survived with 40% left. The next turn I Mega Evolve my Sceptile and Detect. He goes for a Return on my Sceptile and he switches Metegross for Entei. I go for a Dragon Pulse on the Mega Salamence and knock it out. Then he missed a Sacred Fire on my Sceptile. I Earth Power the Entei and he survived that easily. The Entei Protects and I predict that and Earth Power the Metagross, and he can’t survive that so now its his Entei against my Sceptile and Heatran.

3-0
Battle Code: ZHYW-WWWW-WWXA-HFB3

Round 4 vs Arash Ommati (Mean)

He brought:

I brought:

I heard he was at this Regional, and deep inside I hoped I’d have a chance to battle the 2013 champion. It was such an honor to battle him. The moment I saw my name and his were matched, I got a little scared. He was a really nice guy. This was by far my best battle of the tournament. The battle was so intense.

So he leads with Suicune and Kangaskhan, while I chose Gyarados and Sceptile. I Mega Evolve first and Detect to predict maybe a Icy Wind and a Fake Out, his Kangaskhan Mega Evolves and tries to Fake Out my Mega Sceptile, which fails. My Gyarados goes for a Dragon Dance and the Suicune goes for a Tailwind. This was not an easy match to begin with, but now it was even harder to beat him. He switched Suicune for Thundurus and I switched out my Mega Sceptile for Heatran. The Kangaskhan goes for a Double Edge on my Gyarados, who survives that pretty easily, and I go for another Dragon Dance. I Protect with Gyarados and the Kangaskhan goes for another Double Edge on my Gyarados. The Thundurus goes for a Thunderbolt on my Heatran and he survives as I go for Substitute. I switch out my Gyarados for Mega Sceptile and he goes for a Thunderbolt on the Gyarados slot. I get the boost and the Kangaskhan goes for another Double Edge, and my Sceptile survives just with 4 HP!! Heatran goes for a Heat Wave, connects to both, brings Kangaskhan to the red and Thundurus to half. The Tailwind petered out, and I’ll go for a Detect again fearing the Sucker Punch, but the Kangaskhan switch out to Suicune, but the Thundurus used Hidden Power Ice on my Sceptile and the Heatran got a second Heat Wave off which KOs the Thundurus. He brings back the Mega Kangaskhan and I swapped out my Sceptile, because of the Fake Out threat. I bring in my Gyarados and he took the Fake Out, only surviving with 18 HP. The Suicune goes for another Tailwind. Heatran goes for an Earth Power and KOs the Kangaskhan. He brings in his Life Orb Metagross, the Suicune goes for a Snarl and KOs my Gyarados and lowers the Special Attack of the Heatran. The Metagross goes for a Zen Headbutt and it doesn’t break my sub. I go for an Earth Power again, and this time it is accuracy over power! The attack does half its health with the Life Orb recoil. I’ll bring in my Heliolisk. The Suicune goes for another Snarl but misses my Heliolisk. I get a Thunderbolt off and it KOs his Suicune with a critical hit! The Metagross Zen Headbutts my Heliolisk, of course was knocked out but the Heatran goes for another Earth Power and KOs the Metagross.

4-0 The battle code: Z6PW-WWWW-WWXAA4CP

Round 5 vs Lindomar Obiana

He brought:

I brought:
      

The second Dutch player I faced today. He had two Steel-types: Aegislash and Bisharp. He also had an Amoonguss so I knew my Heatran was the most important Pokémon in this matchup. He lead with Bisharp and Salamence and I lead with Heliolisk and Thundurus. He double Protects to scout out my moves. I went for an Electrify and Thunderbolt on his Bisharp. The next turn I went for an Electrify on the Mega Salamence slot but he switched out to Amoonguss. I went for a Hidden Power Ice on the same slot, which did half. The Bisharp goes for a Knock Off on my Heliolisk and KOs right away. I brought in Heatran. He Protects with Amoonguss and I go for a Hidden Power. The Bisharp used Knock Off on Thundurus and I survived with, again, 4 HP. My Heatran then goes for a Heat Have and brought the Bisharp to its Focus Sash. He switched out his Amoonguss for Mega Salamence and I Protected with Thundurus predicting the Sucker Punch. It does go for the Sucker Punch, but it failed! Heatran went for the Heat Wave and connected with both Pokémon. It did very little to the Salamence but the Bisharp is now KOed. One Steel Type down! He brought in Aegislash and it went for the Wide Guard so my Heat Wave did no damage. The Salamence went for the Return onto Thundurus, who is sent back to the Pokéball. I brought in my Sceptile, Mega Evolved and Detected for the Speed boost. Salamence also Protects, Heatran goes for a Sub and the Aegislash wants to Shadow Ball my Sceptile but he failed. The next turn he switches Salamence for Amoonguss while his Aegislash goes for the King’s Shield. I Dragon Pulsed the Amoonguss which did like 40% damage. My Heatran tries to hit the Aegislash with a Earth Power. Amoonguss went for a Protect and he switched the Aegislash out for the Mega Salamence. I go for a Hidden Power Ice on the Protected Amoonguss and got an Heat Wave off on the incoming Salamence. The Amoonguss goes for the Rage Powder but he forgot that my Sceptile ignored that so I got a Dragon Pulse off on the Salamence, KOing it, The Heat Wave from my Heatran KOed the Amoonguss and all that’s left is an Aegislash.

5-0 The battle code: YZUW-WWWW-WWXA-HFDA

Round 6 vs Kelly Mercier-White (KellsterCartier)

He brought:

I brought:

This was by far my shortest battle and I got 4-0’ed. I could not handle the offensive pressure from the Terrakion and the Mega Metagross. I was surprised by the Lum Berry Terrakion, because I used Spore on it with my Amoonguss. I switched out my Mega Sceptile for Gyarados for the Intimidate. The following turn my Gyarados got double targeted with an Ice Punch and a Rock Slide and Amoonguss hides behind a Protect. Gyarados can’t survive the next Rock Slide and I Rage Powdered with Amoonguss, double KO. I came in with Mega Sceptile and Heliolisk and used Parabolic Charge to get my Sceptile boosted and attack the Mega Metagross with a Dragon Pulse but the attack didn’t KO, which lead to the Ice Punch on my Sceptile, which KOed of course. The Close Combat from Terrakion finished the deal. Made some misplays, but yeah, that happens. Kelly was a really nice guy and I hope to see him again sometime! I think because he won against me he made it to Top Cut, so congrats with your second place!

5-1 The battle code: 9E6G-WWWW-WWXA-HFYV

Round 7 vs Matthias Suchodolsky (Lega)

He brought:

I brought:

My last opponent of day 1, he was 6-0, so I knew he must be a good player! He lead with Amoonguss and Rotom-Heat. My leads were Sceptile and Thundurus. I knew that I had to get rid of that Amoonguss as fast as possible so I double attacked it with two Hidden Power Ices, but it was not enough. The Rotom-Heat Overheats my Sceptile and I knew I could survive that but the Amoonguss Spored my Thundurus. I switched out my Sceptile for Heatran, and he brought in Kangaskhan. The Rotom-Heat goes for an Overheat on my Heatran. Thundurus is still asleep. He switched out Rotom-Heat for Amoonguss and then I did not pay attention and the moment I look, Heatran had fainted to a critical Low Kick. Thundurus wakes up and Protects. I brought in my Heliolisk and Electrified his Kangaskhan. He Double Edged my Thundurus but I got health back from the Volt Absorb. Then the crucial point in the battle, I Hidden Power Ice his Amoonguss and he survived with like 4 HP. Then he puts my Heliolisk to sleep and then it’s game. He Rage Powders on the following turn and I knocked out his Amoonguss with Hidden Power. He Double Edged my Heliolisk and he is gone. He brings in Terrakion and I bring my Mega Sceptile, I use Energy Ball on the Terrakion and brings it to its Focus Sash. He Double Edged my Thundurus and just put him in the red, and then the Rock Slide from the Terrakion ends my dream.

5-2 The battle code: 5WEG-WWWW-WWXA-HFMH

Day 2: Top Cut

I knew my team needed the element of surprise, and I didn’t have it anymore. I heard a lot of people talking about the Heliolisk team, and if you beat a former World Champion, people are gonna talk.

My first opponent was Christopher Arthur (Koryo). I heard from his British friends he was really scared of my team, and I found that really funny actually. On top of that my battles were streamed and normally I don’t like that because I can’t handle the pressure, but I wanted to show the world my Heliolisk. I showed it in my 2 battles against Koyro, they were not my best battles ever.
I had a great time though, we also talked about our shiny Mega Pokémon.

You can see the battles on Twitch. The first battle I lost 4-0 and I saw only 2 of his Pokémon and the second battle I lost 3-0.

I had a really great time that weekend. It was a great experience! Maybe next tournament, I’ll bring a less gimmicky team, but I definitely loved this team I used. I think it’s a smart idea to EV train to survive specific attacks. I hope you all like this report, please let me know if you have questions, I’d love to answer them!

Huge thanks to KellsterCartier for reading and correcting all of my grammar, without him it wouldn’t even be readable!

About the Author

Keonspy A Dutch Pokémon trainer, made it top 8 at my first tournament. I like to use weird stuff. Played Pokémon from the beginning and still love to play, fight and breed. When I am not playing games I like to paint, draw and calligraphy. And when I am not doing all above I study at an Art School in the Netherlands where I study Graphic Design.

Related Posts

Memoirs of a World Champion: by 2015 World Champion SHADEviera →

The Other Fire Doge: A Top 8 Lancaster Report →

Blazing Forward! A Malaysian Regionals 2nd Place Report →

Top 4, Top 4, We’ve Never Used This Team Before →