Reports

Published on July 9th, 2014 | by TulioCaraven

14

The Flower’s Protector Punk: A Third Place Mexico City’s Premier Challenge Report

Hi, my name is Carlos Rendón, also known as TulioCaraven here on Nugget Bridge, and I’m here to tell you my experience at the very first Premier Challenge in Mexico City, the biggest in the world so far, with around 300 players in the Masters division.

It all began a couple of months ago when a trio of official tournaments was finally announced, a Premier Challenge in Mexico City, one in Monterrey and another in Querétaro. The excitement in social networks was so big that I decided to start a serious team building and training process.

The Team at a Glance

I have been playing with a consistent core for a while now that let me handle quite a wide array of teams with lots of dual typing for good switching synergy. It was hard to get it as I have two Fairy weaknesses and there was a time when I had as much as four. That Dark typing in everything…

In the beginning I tried Mega Medicham but it was too frail, then I tried Mega Mawile, but it was too slow and finally I decided to try Mega Venusaur to counter Rotom-W and it ended being my Mega of choice as along with Rotom-H, it gave me two resistances to Fairy and rounded out a very solid core.

The other 2 members help me deal with very specific Pokémon, the aforementioned Fairies and Double Dragon + Rain Teams. The choices to fill these roles were Scizor and Zapdos, so lets see each one in detail.

The Core

Scrafty (M) @ Rocky Helmet (HoodieDaPunk)
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature
– Drain Punch
– Crunch
– Quick Guard
– Fake Out

The nickname is just a description of his look using some cool words.

Scrafty is such a nice Pokémon, it has a wide move pool, with both offensive and supportive moves, and such a cool design that it was an easy addition to my team. During the Nugget Bridge Major 3 I used him offensively with Fake Out, High Jump Kick, Crunch and Head Smash, but it was such a kamikaze set that he fainted when I still needed him, so he needed another set.

Later, when I added Mega Venusaur to my team, I found the perfect move set for Scrafty. Drain Punch and Crunch are his best STABs. I would rather have Knock Off but it is not available this season, but the true stars of the move set are Quick Guard and Fake Out. Although Quick Guard can’t block any other Fake Out apart from slower Scrafty, it can block things like Aqua Jet, Sucker Punch, Bullet Punch, Mach Punch, Pranksters and specifically Gale Wings Talonflame’s Brave Bird, which are all huge treats this year and you may be crazy if you don’t have anything to block priority moves in a team as slow as mine. Fake Out often forces double Protects, and one of its best uses is to surprise Talonflame and knock it out with Fake Out and Quick Guard with a couple of Sludge Bombs from Mega Venusaur.

The bulky EV spread allows Scrafty to take a Sun boosted Mega Charizard Y Heat Wave, or a Salamence’s Draco Meteor on the special side. Physically it can take Mega Kangaskhan’s Fake Out + Return after intimidate, and knock her out with a Drain Punch after the double Rocky Helmet damage, in addition Garchomp sits as a paper weight in front of Mega Venusaur after intimidate… except for the flinches.

Venusaur (M) @ Venusaurite (Kermit Klein)
Ability: Chlorophyll / Thick Fat
EVs: 248 HP / 108 Def / 132 SAtk / 20 SDef
Modest Nature
– Giga Drain
– Sleep Powder
– Sludge Bomb
– Protect

I really don’t like Mega Venusaur’s design, I think its uninspiring and ugly, but I love my Pokémon so I nicknamed him Kermit Klein so he would have a famous and fashion related name and he doesn’t feel out of place with his partners.

The beast of the team, with high defenses and two excellent abilities, Venusaur has jumped to fame and I’m sure that the predictions of being the dark horse at Worlds will be a reality. The EV spread is mine and it makes him survive a Choice Banded neutral Talonflame Brave Bird 50% of the times and then knock it out with Sludge Bomb after recoil, unless it is invested in HP, this isn’t obviously its main goal, but if the worst would happen I would have some peace of mind. It also allows me to handle Mega Kangaskhan better with Scrafty’s Intimidate support due to the high investment in Defense and HP and the recovery from Giga Drain.

Mega Venusaur can Knock out almost anything in 2 or 3 hits if I decide to attack, with very low risk. I use Sleep Powder as a last resort if I know I’m in a tight situation, like a Choice Scarfed Salamence, or a Mega Mawile who are both a threat to Garchomp and I cannot OHKO after their Intimidates.

On top of that its Hidden Ability is a blessing when facing a Sun team, as it has allowed me to win almost lost battles. Usually Mega Charizard Y is more supportive for my team than a threat, as it makes me faster so I Sleep Powder Mega Charizard Y while Mega Evolving in case the Sleep Powder misses and then the flower’s party can begin. With his immunity to the powder moves the next partner is an obvious choice….

Rotom-Heat @ Safety Goggles  (Summer Hiit)
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 244 HP / 36 Def / 140 SAtk / 4 SDef / 84 Spd
Modest Nature
– Protect
– Will-O-Wisp
– Thunderbolt
– Overheat

You know, its Summer, there’s heat… it’s just a words game. Such a cool Pokémon with such a cool design, I mean, it’s an oven!

A cool oven who has taken the stage thanks to its natural bulkiness, an excellent ability and a standard but very efficient move set. After reading the Safety Googles article here on Nugget Bridge I knew Rotom-H would make my life easier against Sun teams and the always pesky Amoonguss, rendering him useless and allowing me to take its partners slowly and safely

To keep bad luck away I only use Will-O-Miss when it is absolutely necessary or when I have used Overheat twice and the opponent expects a switch, catching them off guard most of the time.

The EV spread is from Ray Rizzo‘s WigglyTough is Tough Enough! report, as it can OHKO his own Mega Mawile spread and with Intimidate support Rotom-H gets even harder to take down.

Garchomp (M) @ Lum Berry (SlayMii)
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
– Dragon Claw
– Rock Slide
– Earthquake
– Protect

The nickname is to attract attacks to him, I don’t really know if it works, but I like it. This monster design just rocks!

Same as 99.9% percent of the world, I also love Garchomp and as we all know what this set does I won’t take the time to explain it.

Rounding Out The Core

Scizor (M) @ Life Orb  (Beatle Comet)
Ability: Technician
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 228 Spd
Adamant Nature
– Bullet Punch
– Feint
– U-turn
– Thief

A beatle with a pair of punches that hit at comet’s speed! One of my favorite Pokemon due to his cool design  and nice concept.

For half the year I thought Scizor was not very viable this season, but with an EV Spread from DaWoblefet and a moveset from R Inanimate‘s Villains Always Plot in the Dark report all changed, I really think this is the perfect set for Scizor this season. It allows me to OHKO almost every Gardevoir who threatens Scrafty, Venusaur and Garchomp, it also outspeeds max Speed neutral Tyranitar so I can U-Turn before getting roasted.

Life Orb gives me a lot more flexibility than a Choice Band, as while testing sometimes I was locked into a move needing another without the chance to switch. The EV spread is optimized for Life Orb use, and though I’m no fan of it, as Scizor is very frail, when the opponent is not careful it can wreak havoc.

U-Turn gets the OHKO on Hydreigon and Thief is for preventing Aegislash from Substituting, and hitting other careless Ghost types, like non Scarfed Chandelure, Gourgeist and Trevenant. Feint is an amazing move as it breaks Protect, Detect, Wide Guard, Quick Guard and Sucker Punches due to its +2 priority, it is also a good move to finish off weakened Talonflames as it takes almost one third off of its HP, among others.

Zapdos @ Leftovers (Woodstock)
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 84 HP / 108 Def / 252 SAtk / 60 SDef
Modest Nature
IV’s: 31/x/31/31/31/28
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Substitute
– Protect

I really couldn’t get a nicknamable Zapdos, but if I could Woodstock would have been its name. I think that Zapdos is the grown up form of Woodstock, from Peanuts. I used to hate Zapdos’ design, as I prefer Articuno, but my love for him grew and it’s OK.

Zapdos was the last member I picked for my team, as it was a very though decision. This legendary bird came to my mind on a very bad day in which I was very sick and I couldn’t attend college, so I had a lot of time to think and came to the conclusion that the things that I needed were something that could resist Talonflame’s Brave Bird and another option to face the popular Double Dragon.

The set I had planned was a Sitrus Berry one, it gave me nice results on Showdown but testing it in Battle Spot said otherwise so I changed the set for a Substitute one. As its Speed IVs are 28 I couldn’t even afford a speed tie with other base 100s. I also thought of a Choice Scarf set, which would’ve helped me more in the long run but I didn’t have the time to test it before the tournament.

The spread is a bulky and Leftovers optimized one, so it can take a Rock Slide or a Draco Meteor and retaliate with Hidden Power Ice or hide behind a Substitute after that. It is really a niche Pokémon to help me under very specific situations.

I want to thank No2moloh for providing me this Zapdos with Substitute, as it gave me the idea to use this set and the possibility of using Zapdos itself. If I could only had more time to test this and the Choice Scarf set…. oh well.

The Big Day

On the night before the tournament I was so stressed that I decided to go and watch How to Train Your Dragon 2 (what an irony, due to my 2 final matches not trusting my beloved dragon) which helped me a lot, so I won’t be nervous the next day. Later,  I arranged with my Friend Omar Ruiz to meet us at Xola, where we would ride the subway to General Anaya, the closest station to the Venue. There we found Joaquin Campuzano, another friend of mine who kindly trade me some berries to re-EV Zapdos for Leftovers use. When all of our friends were there we walked for around 15 minutes to the venue, where there were so many people that I couldn’t believe it was finally the time for my very first Live Official Tournament.

The place was full of numbered chairs and there were like 350 of them, they had the function of a “table” in the sense that they were numbered in pairs where players would have their matches. There were no actual tables, so taking notes was something I had to leave for the Top Cut, good thing that we could save battle videos! It was not as comfortable as I would’ve liked, and after some time there was a lot of heat and sweat because there were a lot of people and so little space.

After two hours of registration and with one hour of delay, an explanation of the tournament was given, announcing 9 swiss rounds and only a top cut of 8 players, some kind of insane decision due to the large amount of players, and I knew I won’t have space for misplays or losses. The swiss rounds finally started, and here it goes how it went!

I will only name my opponents from his IGN and sometimes by their real names (all of them were male, if you were wondering), as I have bad memory and didn’t take notes until the Top Cut, if any of you guys are reading this and have an account here on Nugget Bridge tell me your forum names. I also added the battle codes right after the name of my opponents.

The Swiss Rounds

Swiss 1 vs Arm

3GKW-WWWW-WWW8-EYHP

He Brought:    

I Brought:   

Basically I just tried to avoid any status condition from his Rotom-H and Amoongus, those Safety Googles! I connected a Sludge Bomb on his Kangaskhan in a switch so that made the battle a lot easier, knocking it out the next turn with a double target on her as I expected a Fake Out. I missed a Will-O-Wisp, but everything was under control. Win. 1-0

Swiss 2 vs Arthur★♪

RPUG-WWWW-WWW8-76WN

He brought:     

I Brought:     

One of the hardest battles of the tournament, and a shiny Politoed, I love those! I tried to set up a Substitute with Zapdos, but he brought 2 Ice Beamers, or so I thought, so I had to Protect and then switch until I got to a better position while opening up holes on his Pokémon. He waited to Mega Evolve Manectric but finally had to and played his Noivern very well, as it was his only Pokémon who could threaten Mega Venusaur. Finally I could set up Substitute, at the cost of a Life Orb Rock Slide from Greninja and KOed him with a Giga Drain from Mega Venusaur, only to get Zapdos knocked out by his Infiltrator Noivern. I should have had a very funny face from that play, because my opponent’s face was of pure joy. In the end only Noivern at almost full health and Politoed at 50% were left against my 1/3 HP Venusaur and Red HP Scrafty. Politoed wasted his Protect the last turn and tried a second Protect but didn’t manage it, while Scrafty aimed it’s Fake Out at Noivern even if I predicted his Protect, just as a preventive measure. Venusaur drained all of Politoed’s remaining HP. The moment of truth came, could Venusaur resist a Hurricane from Noivern at 3/4 HP?. He did it with 4HP and nailed a Sleep Powder, in a high risk, high reward play, as I didn’t know if he would target Venusaur or Scrafty, then proceeded to knock him out with Crunch + Sludge Bomb. Win. 2-0

Swiss 3 vs Demian (Brian Ochoa)

8KGG-WWWW-WWW8-EYHG

He brought:  

I brought:  

The admin of PokeDF, the Pokémon League I play in, and one of my PokeDudes. Like everybody else I didn’t wanted to be paired up with a friend, but tournaments are mean like pigs meat. I brought Rotom-H and Scrafty as leads to avoid a possible burn and block any other Prankster’s pranks (pun intended). I got the burn on his Sableye because they are difficult to OHKO or 2HKO. He confused my Rotom and my Scrafty but thankfully they made the moves that I needed to KO his Sableye. His shiny Venusaur came out, and was Faked Out, so I had the advantage by Sludge Bombing him first with mine safe for that turn, then switching Scrafty and avoiding a Venusaur flinch by Faking Out his Garchomp. To avoid a very annoying bad hax situation (His Garchomp winning the speed tie and scoring a critical hit)I didn’t bring my own Garchomp until the very end and played conservatively, which paid off. Win. 3-0

Swiss 4 vs Rodrigo Maldonado Weil

He brought:     

I brought:    

This battle was as hard as the one on from the second round. I don’t remember it in detail, but in the end there was only my Venusaur and Rotom-H, both in red HP vs his Paralyzed Mega Mawile  with 3/5 HP (Zapdos did that with a Thunderbolt…) and had already used Sucker Punch four or five times expecting a Rotom’s Overheat, which I expected him to do, so I just used Protect to stall his Sucker Punches, and started to drain his HP with Giga Drain, but then the worst luck happened. The connection was lost and we had to call a judge who decided to give me the loss because the connection error appeared first on my 3DS screen. I was disappointed with that decision, as I thought a coin flip was the fairest thing to do, but my opponent didn’t want to do that. After that he calmed me down telling me we would face each other in the top cut and would have a re-match to finish that uncertain battle. We shook hands and made it something like a promise. It is obvious to say that I couldn’t save this battle due to the connection error. Lose. 3-1

Swiss 5 vs Edgar (Marco Édgar Huerta Rincón)

EA2W-WWWW-WWW8-EYFF

He brought:  

I brought: 

As soon as I Saw his Talonflame on team preview I knew I had to take him out quickly so I picked Zapdos and Scrafty as Leads. I could safely set up a Substitute on turn one but it only helped me to hit his Meowstic once, and got a burn on Scrafty in return from his Rotom-H. After a few turns Venusaur finally came out of his Poke Ball and hit his Rotom-H with a Sludge Bomb, and for some weird reason he used Fake Out in a turn he could not use it anymore so Meowstic went down. He then Mega Evolved his Gyarados and KO’d his own Rotom-H with an Earthquake, while I switched mine for Scrafty to avoid just that. Scrafty went down to a second Earthquake but not without Faking Out his Talonflame, who then received a Sludge Bomb that only took one third of his health, which surprised me. The next turn I Protected Venusaur and Thunderbolted his Talonflame and he had no other option than to forfeit the next turn. Win. 4-1

Swiss 6 vs R. Spark (Ángel Orozco)

Z6KW-WWWW-WWW8-76XE

He brought:  

I brought:  

Another player from PokeDF, and a battle that would decide who would top cut and who wouldn’t. Another Talonflame but this time in a sun team, one of the best match-ups for my core. In this battle I got some luck in my favor but this only tells me that you shouldn’t trust a move with less than 100% as your primary option to attack. Both my Pokémon avoided the Heat Wave from his Charizard Y, but barring a critical hit they would have survived it. I Sleep Powdered and took out his Charizard Y first, and then started to take out the others with my reliable Garchomp. He also missed a Sleep Powder on Garchomp, but my opponent never knew that my Garchomp was carrying a Lum Berry. Only his Talonflame remained and it was KO’d with a Dragon Claw + Thunderbolt. He later complained about hax but remember, don’t trust in moves with less than 100% when you don’t have the need to make risky plays, use them as your last resort, almost all hax can be minimized. Win. 5-1

Swiss 7 vs Ewok (Christian Ramírez Lira)

SFSW-WWWW-WWW8-EYF5

He brought:  

I brought:  

At the start of this round it was announced that the Top Cut would be changed to Top 16 and the crowd went nuts, I knew I would have more chance on top cutting after that disastrous and not deserved loss in swiss 4 and played under less stress. On the first turn I had to switch because of the risk of a burn or a OHKO, his Will-O-Wisp went to the Protect of my Garchomp, and he confused my Venusaur with Dynamic Punch who hit himself in confusion, I didn’t care and left him on the field to get rid of Rotom-W before I could do anything else, Then his Charizard Y came in. My Rotom-H went down to a couple of Dynamic Punches and a Heat Wave, not before Thunderbolting his Charizard, who fell to a Dragon Claw from my Garchomp. The next step was easy, putting his Machamp to sleep and his ability gave me the 100% accuracy that I love. I then took care of his Garchomp without worries, as he didn’t fish for flinches, and with Scrafty’s Fake Out support I didn’t let him whatsoever, and sealed the game with a Giga Drain on his Machamp. Win. 6-1

Swiss 8 vs Bahamut (José Arturo Cervantes)

SB3W-WWWW-WWW8-76XM

He brought:  

I brought:   

I immediately recognized his team from Team Preview, it was Lajo’s Germany Nationals Team. This was also quite a hard match. I knew he would go for a burn and then Trick Room, so I U-Turned and he failed his first Will-O-Wisp of the match. He eventually failed three Will-O-Wisps through the game… See what I told you about all the non 100% accuracy moves? I tried to get rid of that pesky Trevenant fast, mainly because I hate his ability, if you don’t take him down quickly it could be game over. I took his Trevenant on turn 2 and that gave me a huge advantage as it was his only Trick Room setter. He made some good switching to protect his Mega Mawile and got my Rotom-H to -4 SpAtk by misplaying my Overheats, but at least I managed to burn his Goodra at the very high cost of eating a Muddy Water. In the end I had 3 Pokémon left against his Rotom-H but they were either not very effective, severely crippled by a burn or with very low HP, so I had to play carefully and try to predict him, which I did. Win. 7-1

Swiss 9 vs Axel(Axel Macías)

Z6CG-WWWW-WWW8-EYEC

He brought:  

I brought:  

The last round of swiss, if I could win this one I would be very motivated to go for the first place in top cut and get that first place prize, a New Super Mario & Luigi Wii U Bundle. I couldn’t see in team preview that his team was all physical based, but it was a good thing to bring Scrafty. I Faked Out + Sludge Bombed his Talonflame on turn one, then Quick Guarded + Sludge Bombed on turn 2 to bring down that bird, while he focused his Garchomp’s efforts on my Mega Venusaur. Charizard appeared and surprised me as it was the X variant. Scrafty did his work and Intimidated both his Garchomp and Charizard, I then burnt his Garchomp and sent my own Garchomp to “seal the game” but an Outrage from his Charizard X brought my Garchomp down on the switch, that would be the reason why I did hesitate to bring him on a later round… Oh well. I got rid of Charizard X with a Sludge Bomb (Mega Venusaur is such a monster, he KOs things supposed to counter him!) His Garchomp fainted from burn damage and it was only a matter of Punk to KO that Snorlax, good job Scrafty! Win. 8-1

When all rounds of swiss had gone it was time to wait for the results to be processed and printed, the staff took out all the chairs and suddenly I felt better with more space around and less heat and sweat all over me. As I had an 8-1 score I knew that I would Top Cut, and when I checked the table I was very excited, I was seeded second, whatever seeded means. Well, I came in second place only under a player named Dracko, who defeated my friends Joaquin Campuzano and Cesar Ramírez in Swiss. I could scout his team a bit so I would be prepared for a possible match but that never happened, because Bahamut (my swiss 8 opponent) defeated him with that Trevenant on a “must see to believe” round of 16 third match, where it harvested his berry every time he needed it. Just wow, well played Bahamut, you just kept calm and knew when to Protect that last turn!

The Top Cut

Over the course of Swiss my friend Joaquín told me that Luvier was around, as he had seen him on his Passerby list. I got pumped as he is one of the best players of Mexico, well he has a brother who is as good as him, known by the name of Kodama, and both of them were in the Top Cut!!!. Add Dracko, who went undefeated in Swiss and is also an old school player to that list, and don’t forget Rodrigo Maldonado, that guy from my 4th tragic but very hard round, GuPi, and Bahamut, the eventual finalists, among others and the top cut was plagued with very good players!!.

Round of 16 vs Kenichi  (José Carlos González Aguilar)

Game 1

He brought:  

I brought:  

On the first turn I went for his Azumarril as it can become dangerous if it sets up. Turn 2 I went for a double target on Mega Manectric. We made some switches and he confused my Rotom-H with his Murkrow, but it didn’t hit itself and the crow went down to a Thunderbolt. I managed to get a burn on his Garchomp while KOing Manectric and the game was over with two Giga Drains from Mega Venusaur. Win. 1-0

Game 2

He brought:  

I brought:  

I knew his Espeon could be carrying Dazzling Gleam and Psychic so I had to be careful with both Venusaur and Scrafty. After some switching his Azumarril appeared and Scrafty blocked an Aqua Jet, there was more switching and I finally KOed his Meowstic. I also managed to burn his Garchomp and sent Scizor to KO his Espeon, but he switched a lot again and my Scizor U-Turned his Garchomp and KOed him. Finally I Faked Out his Azumarril and Thunderbolted his Espeon to almost knock it out, but he also KOed my Scrafty with a Dazzling Gleam. The next turn I KOd his Espeon with Scizor’s Feint who also fainted from Life Orb Damage, so only his Azumarril remained and KOed my Rotom-H with an Aqua Jet, but Mega Venusaur won the match with a Sludge Bomb, just in case he was running Sap Sipper. Win. 2-0

Quarterfinals vs Aioros

Game 1

He brought:  

I brought:  

His leads were a bad matchup for my leads so I had to switch Scrafty on the first turn and he used Fake Out + Quick Guard, such a weird move. Turn two I switched Venusaur for Garchomp and knocked out his Talonflame with a Thunderbolt. He replaced Talonflame with his Rotom-W and I switched again and Giga Drained his Kangaskhan, who targeted Scrafty and got Rocky Helmet damage to get Kangaskhan to red HP. He switched to Garchomp and burned my Venusaur. The next turn I Protected my Garchomp and KOed his Rotom-W with a Giga Drain. The next turn I double switched to Scrafty and Rotom-H and got the KO on his Kangaskhan with Fake Out and Will-O-Wisped his Garchomp, who was his last Pokémon standing, and I took him in a very conservative way, switching again and sacrificing Scrafty with a Fake Out to avoid a flinch or a critical hit and sealed the game with a Giga Drain. Win. 1-0

Game 2

He brought:  

I brought:  

First turn I had to switch Scrafty for Rotom-H to prevent his Spore, but he used Rage Powder instead and targeted my Protected Venusaur. I then switched Venusaur for Garchomp and he switched to absorb my Thunderbolt with his Garchomp and Protected his Amoongus. I then switched again to Intimidate his Garchomp and Protected, but he managed to Spore my Scrafty. Then he switched his Garchomp for Kangaskhan who ate a Dragon Claw on the switch. She Mega Evolved next turn and Faked Out my recently switched Venusaur and I switched again to absorb his Spore with my already asleep Scrafty. He switched to recover from the Intimidate and his Talonflame took a Sludge Bomb. Next turn I Protected Venusaur and replaced Scrafty for Rotom-H, who took a Brave Bird from his Talonflame who fainted from recoil and Life Orb damage. He replaced Talonflame with Kangaskhan and I switched Venusaur to Scrafty who took a Fake Out from Kangaskhan which fainted from Rocky Helmet’s damage. Then I replaced Rotom-H with Venusaur and sacrificed Scrafty to get Rotom-H in without damage, but didn’t get the KO on his Garchomp by only a little HP. Next turn I switched again Rotom-H for Garchomp and he then forfeited, as only his Amoongus remained after I KOed his Garchomp. So much switching that my head aches just from writing it!!!. Win. 2-0

Semifinals vs GuPi (Jonathan Juárez)

Game 1

He brought:   

I brought:  

I saw his team and it was a little scary, as I thought 3 or 4 Pokémon could counter Garchomp. I didn’t care and picked him for the back, along with all of my core. I switched Rotom-H to Intimidate his Garchomp and as fast as I could I put his Mega Mawile to sleep then I targeted him like 3 times, but couldn’t knock him out. Gengar appeared on one of those turns and ate a Giga Drain and later a Thunderbolt to get KOed, who was then replaced by Conkeldurr and then put to sleep. I went for his recently switched Garchomp with a Will-O-Wisp, but it missed. Conkeldurr woke up and Mach Punched Rotom-H, revealing his Flame Orb and Rotom-H went down to a critical Rock Slide. After some more switching I finally knocked out his Garchomp and then KOed his Conkeldurr to win the first game. Win. 1-0.

Game 2

He brought: 

I brought:  

As I thought that his Tyranitar may be carrying Ice Beam and I could’t see all his Gengar’s moves last game I feared he was carrying either Dazzling Gleam or Will-O-Wisp, so I opted not to bring Garchomp. Instead I picked Scizor as he can 2HKO Mega Mawile and his Focus Sashed Gengar, apart from hitting anything hard.

On the first turn I went for a Giga Drain on his Gengar to break his Focus Sash and switched Rotom-H for Scrafty for the Intimidate support and then Crunch him but he Protected and then Disabled Venusaur’s Giga Drain, so I couldn’t get some recovery for like 3 turns, which gave him a huge advantage and I decided not to switch because I hoped to poison his Garchomp, but didn’t get any luck. When I switched him it was very late, as Venusaur had like 4HP, not without taking his Gengar down. He replaced Gengar with Conkeldurr and I forgot that I could use Fake Out that turn as I recently switched in Scrafty last turn, just before KOing his Gengar, if I did that I could have Giga Drained his Conkeldurr and regained some health but I totally forgot the recent switch. I then switched to Rotom-H, who ate a Drain Punch and then switched again to Intimidate both Garchomp and Conkeldurr, and went for an Overheat on his Conkeldurr’s Protect and sacrificed Scrafty Faking Out his Garchomp. The next turn my Rotom-H went down to a Mach Punch and a Critical Rock Slide, his second critical of the set on my poor Rotom. I then sent Scizor to Bullet Punch his Conkeldurr and took almost half his HP, but I should have went for his Garchomp as he outspeed all my Pokémon and could flinch them. The next turn I tried to secure the KO on his Conkeldurr by Feinting it, but he switched to Mawile and took minimal damage. Next turn I targeted Garchomp and almost KOed it, but Mawile’s Intimidate prevented that. His Garchomp used Earthquake and KOed my Venusaur. I then knew that I was lost, as Life Orb damage would KO Scizor next turn anyway, and that was my first loss in the tournament. Lose. 1-1

Game 3

He brought:  

I brought: 

For game 3 I thought that I should pick Zapdos for his flying typing to resist GuPi’s Guts Conkeldurr and for Hidden Power Ice to KO his Garchomp, so I picked him instead of Scizor or Garchomp, and took the same other members from previous battles.

In turn one I supposed that he would do a double Protect, so I could set up an easy Substitute and switch to a better position, but he instead went for the double target on Zapdos and his Mawile broke the Substitute. In retrospective, I should have used Fake Out + Hidden Power to KO his Garchomp the first turn or Fake Out Mawile and set up the Substitute. After a lot of switching and not attacking, my Venusaur had like 1/3 HP left and his Pokémon were at full health, Venusaur also flinched a lot and was receiving a lot of attacks. I finally managed to put his Mawile to sleep and then KOed his Garchomp. I thought that I finally could set up a Substitute when his Mawile woke up from nowhere and KOed my Zapdos on the switch with a critical Play Rough. I totally forgot that Quick Guard was a thing on Scrafty and sent Rotom-H instead, only to fall to a Mach Punch. I had lost my little advantage from KOing first and lost 2 Pokémon in 2 turns. I thought that all hope was lost, when I finally remembered Quick Guard and used it to block his Conkeldurr’s Mach Punch and KOed him with Giga Drain, but his Mawile used Iron Head on Venusaur, which brought me down to a Gengar’s Sludge Bomb KO range. In the last turn I Crunched his Gengar and used Sleep Powder on Mawile, hoping to not get KOed, but it was too late, his Sludge Bomb KOed Venusaur, and his Mawile sealed the set with a Play Rough on Scrafty. Lose. 1-2

After twelve hours of Pokemon my run at the first Premier Challenge in Mexico City ended, and with it my dreams of finally getting a Wii U. I felt so bad because I didn’t play according to my all day strategy of actively avoiding getting flinched and switching a lot without attacking, but more because I didn’t brought Garchomp to the 2 last matches, as he helped me a lot in winning the first one and then misplaying my other choices, as if I had targeted his Garchomp with Scizor’s first Bullet Punch I would have KOd it in the second game and if I had used Hidden Power on his Garchomp on the first turn of game 3 all hax probability would have been gone in both matches and I would have had better chances of winning.

Right after losing I turned around and watched Rodrigo Maldonado (my swiss 4 opponent), who also lost because he missed a lot of high risk moves, such as Fire Blasts and Rock Slides. We could not finish our unfinished match from round 4, as we both needed to win our semifinals to have a chance of a rematch in the final, which would’ve been amazing! We then received our prizes (both received Kirby) and took some pictures with Ives Roundtree, the tournament organizer. Then I went to watch the final, where GuPi lost his first match and then adjusted accordingly to win both games two and three to become the champion.

What I Won…

Overall it was a great day, although in the end I had a bittersweet taste of mouth as I could have played better but hey, Pokémon is like this and my opponent did what he had to do to win, even beating Luvier at quarterfinals, and Bahamut at finals and I want to congratulate him for getting first place, well played GuPi, I’ll be looking forward to a rematch. I really got a lot more than the prize, firstly I met a lot of new friends, I hope to see you soon guys all of you were very good opponents. Furthermore I won a lot of confidence for the next tournaments, even Nugget Bridge ones, I learnt that I must minimize hax probability if I want to get far and most of all, I proved my team to be very effective and proved myself that I’m a great player even under a lot of stress. I guess that I will try and pull a Zog and win my next big tournament, I just hope there will be a Wii U in there, hehehe, at least I got Kirby Triple Deluxe!

I Want to Thank…

Thanks a lot to César Ramírez and Omar Ruiz for helping me getting in good shape after not playing enough due to school. Thanks to David Morales and Joaquín Campuzano for trading me some berries that I needed to adjust some EV’s. Thanks to No2moloh for trading me the Zapdos I desperately needed as fast as thunder, I had a lot of trouble finding one! Thanks to PokeDF, my local and favorite Pokémon League, who have helped me train and get better every time I attend. And finally thanks to you all guys here on Nugget Bridge, I’ve learnt a lot from you, I went from squab to #3 in the most crowded Premier Challenge in the world in less than a year, as this is my first year playing competitively (started with X & Y), and I can only grow with all the shared knowledge in this site, you guys are really amazing, and I hope that you can learn from this report too, I loved writing it, see you next time!

About the Author

TulioCaraven is a Graphic Designer based in Mexico City. He loves Pokémon since his childhood and recently started playing competitively for meeting people and getting free stuff. In his free time, when he is not working or playing videogames he would probably be playing soccer.

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