Bat Out of Hell II: 2013 Ft. Wayne Masters 7th Place Team Analysis
Hi, I’m Sam (DrFidget) Haarsma. You may remember me from such VGC-related media as The Lava Pool podcast, and the documentary Hoot-Hoot: The Face of Evil. Today, I’m here to talk to you about my top cutting Ft. Wayne team.
Team Building
When I’m building teams during the off-season, I build them to test things first and win second. This whole team was built to continue testing the move Screech. I had been fiddling with the “Drop and Pop” format for a few months, testing out moves like Acid Spray, Tickle, and Screech and using abusers like Tentacruel, Arbok, and Ninjask to drop my opponent’s defense and then pop them with a sweeper than can now take them out without investing as heavily in offense.
Immediately prior to this team, I had built a team named “Bat Out of Hell” based around Ninjask and Dugtrio and some other fast mons. I thought if I could have any kind of success with Screech+EQ with Pokémon as weak and frail as Ninjask and Dugtrio, then swapping them out for more well rounded Pokémon would be fantastic. It worked, so I began putting together Bat Out of Hell II to continue testing Screech. The original plan was to use Crobat and Garchomp, but after two different attempts at building the team ended with special Emboar in the last slot, I decided to start again without Garchomp.
Eventually I decided on Mamoswine as my Earthquake user, and that reminded me of a team I had built in January on a dare from Chalkey. He wanted to see if I could make a competitive team out of his favorite Pokémon: Blastoise, Crobat, and Umbreon. So I gave it a shot using Mamoswine, Rotom-C, and Gengar as the other half of the team and ended up winning a few WiFi tourneys with it. But anyway, I decided using Blastoise on here wouldn’t hurt the team at all, and if it went well I could offer the team to Chalkey for Regionals since I couldn’t go.
After getting an early draft of this team done and seeing the final line up being Crobat, Blastoise, Mamoswine, Houndoom, Virizion, and Cofagrigus, I was about to scrap it before I put any time into items, moves, and EVs. But first I put on some filler sets and had a battle with Dimsun to see if it was worth pushing forward. I won, with a little hax I believe, but still wanted to scrap it. Dimsun talked me into sticking with it so I put in the effort, finished it, and started playing on GBU under the name MeatLof with the greeting “I can do anything for LUVDISC.” Screech tested well on there and the team was doing far better than I expected.
Now when I found out last minute that I was able to attend Regionals, I decided to use this team as it was the only team I had recent practice with. Obviously, since I now needed the team to win games and not test moves, the first thing I should have done was drop Screech for Super Fang, which is superior in every way except against some bulky Thundurus — Fake Out +Screech+Ice Punch KOs, while Fake Out+Super Fang activates Sitrus and then doesn’t KO with Ice Punch — but that thought didn’t occur to me until after watching Steven Morioka’s Crobat use it in the finals.
The Team
Crobat (ErytngLoud) (F) @ Wacan Berry
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 36 HP / 252 Atk / 220 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
– Brave Bird
– Tailwind
– Screech
– Protect
With Wacan, this Crobat can survive a non-boosted Thunderbolt from anything and usually have enough HP left over to survive using Brave Bird. It also will always survive a Thunderbolt from Choice Specs Rotom and has a 30% chance to survive the same from Specs Zapdos. The Speed is just enough so that it will always outspeed Weavile. As I said before, Screech was the starting point for this team, and while it’s a great move, it should have been Super Fang.
Blastoise (WastdYouth) (M) @ Eject Button
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 28 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
– Fake Out
– Waterfall
– Ice Punch
– Protect
The Legendary Fastoise had enough Speed EVs to allow Blastoise to outspeed base 80s like Chandelure and Togekiss that were only running 4 Speed, and the HP investment lets it always survive Thunderbolt from non-specs Rotom, with a decent chance of surviving Modest 252 Zapdos Thunderbolts as well. In short, this thing is a natural tank, with Attack EVs that allow it to OHKO most Dragons and Flying types with Screech support.
The Eject Button has multiple purposes. First, to get another Fake Out later. Second, to shrug off Intimidates. Third, to compensate for my hatred of switching.
Mamoswine (Rear View) (F) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
– Ice Shard
– Earthquake
– Icicle Spear
– Protect
This is an incredibly straightforward Mamoswine set. The only thing I was iffy about was Icicle Spear instead of Icicle Crash. Factoring Crash’s accuracy, the 2 moves average almost the exact same base power, but I finally decided, after talking with MrFox, that the ability to KO through Yache Berries and break Substitutes was worth the risk of only hitting twice.
Virizion (WontDoThat) @ Grass Gem
Trait: Justified
EVs: 220 HP / 252 Atk / 36 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
– Leaf Blade
– Close Combat
– Safeguard
– Protect
With 38 Speed EVs Virizion outspeeds neutral 252 Togekiss, which is a mon that always gives me trouble. The Grass Gem allows it to OHKO any bulky water, as well as Terrakion, without taking the defense drops from Close Combat. Safeguard is a move that needs to be on every team, especially in this metagame, and was my answer to players spamming status and especially Swagger.
Houndoom (Frying Pan) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Unnerve
EVs: 188 Atk / 100 SAtk / 220 Spd
Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
– Sucker Punch
– Snarl
– Overheat
– Protect
The EVs allowed Houndoom to OHKO Latios with Sucker Punch, OHKO common Metagross spreads with Overheat, and outspeed almost all Hydreigon spreads, bar Timid 252. Unnerve is a great ability that serves this team really well, allowing Houndoom to ignore Occa Berries and helping the rest of the team around Yache, Rindo, Chople and Sitrus Berries. More than that, it slowed down teams that wanted to Swagger their own mons with Lum and Persim Berries. Snarl is a great support move, and with STAB and Life Orb, the damage it deals tends to catch a lot of people off guard.
Cofagrigus (LfeIsALemn) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Mummy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
– Shadow Ball
– Trick Room
– Calm Mind
– Protect
Cofagrigus was put on here pretty much just to counter Trick Room and help against Cresselia. At some point, though, he became my MVP. I could almost always get up 2 Calm Minds and then wall entire teams. Despite most of my team being incredibly fast, setting up Trick Room myself worked better than expected. Blastoise was slow enough to get some use out of it, and Mamoswine and Houndoom had priority. Usually I could set up Trick Room and let Cofagrigus run the show, while my other mons bluffed being slow and took turns stalling out Trick Room with my opponents team. Then, when TR was over I have a +2, +2 Mummy and, surprise, my other mons were actually faster the whole time.
The Leads
+
This lead let me set up Tailwind without any problems. Finding the right Pokémon to fake out with Blastoise was the fun part. Sometimes I wanted Blastoise to take a hit, even if it almost kills him, just so I could bring in Mamoswine immediately after Tailwind went up. Other times I’d need Blastoise to stay there so it can Waterfall the next turn, even at the expense of Crobat. A lot of the time I didn’t even need Tailwind, so I could Screech immediately. Screech also worked well at scaring the opponent into switching out.
+
This was both my anti-Trick Room lead and also my Trick Room lead. As I said before, my team is fast but leading with these 2 was a bluff that at least half my team was slow. If I set up Trick Room I only needed it long enough for Cofagrigus to set up. Most of the time I could get him set up and even take out a mon before Trick Room was over. The only real threat was Taunt, but Fake Out usually handled that well enough.
+
This was my anti-status lead. Sometimes you absolutely need to get Safeguard up, and these two can do it. Beyond that, they served as my first line of defense against Rain teams. They both wall Rain fairly well and Blastoise’s Fake Out helps keep Virizion from getting Ice Beamed to death before it can pick off a Politoed or Rotom-W.
+
Straight-up dawg time. With Unnerve active, Virizion can take out Tyranitar, Politoed, and Gastrodon that kill Houndoom without a thought. Likewise, Houndoom can destroy the Latios and Metagross looking to maul Virizion. The combined coverage of these 2 is completely unresisted, and Snarl support only adds to Virizion’s natural bulk.
+
Sometimes it looks like Cofagrigus could wall an entire team and win a match solo. Sometimes it looks like it can wall everything except a Tyranitar. Virizion is there to kill Tyranitar while Cofagrigus sets up Calm Minds. Usually I’ll keep Blastoise in the back, in case they switch Tyranitar out until they can take care of Virizion. Virizion also helps by setting up Safeguard because Cresselia always seems to Swagger Cofagrigus before trying to Psychic Virizion.
Conclusion
This team has a lot of moving parts that are hard to keep track of, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for a beginner. It’s Rain and Trick Room weak, and setting Trick Room purely as a ruse for the almighty Fastoise isn’t a strategy I would recommend for inexperienced players either. I’ve gotten a reputation for building odd teams, and while this is nowhere near my best, I think it proves that if you know what you’re doing you can win matches using any Pokémon (or moves) you want.
Article image created by feathers for Nugget Bridge. View more of her artwork on her tumblr.
About the Author
Sam H. also known as DrFidget, works at a hospital and despite this, is not actually a doctor. He finished in the top 32 at his first event, the 2009 National Championships, and recently attended his first regional taking 7th at Ft Wayne in 2012. Beyond just playing Pokémon, he also hosts, produces, and edits the VGC centered podcast The Lava Pool.
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