Four Underscore and Seven Swiss Rounds Ago: 2013 Houston Finalist Team Analysis (Masters)
If the title made you cringe, remember that, here at Nugget Bridge, vomit-inducingly pun-tastic titles are basically the norm. [Hey! – Ed.]
Hey everybody, I’m Oliver and this is the team I used to get 2nd place at Houston. I was going to post a full report but my notes look like hieroglyphics, so I decided to post about the only really entertaining part of my run: my team. This is the team I’ve been making since I heard that the Autumn Regionals format was just going to be 2012 rules again and tweaking ever since, although it only has two of the original six members. The team fits my playstyle very well, as it is abundant with switching options, tight on defensive synergy, yet able to pack a punch when necessary. For me, it’s also a very easy team to use, as I can usually identify which of my Pokémon will present the biggest problem for my opponent and focus on keeping him alive, so that I can keep the pressure on my opponent and force him to play a reactionary game, which just makes my opponent easier to predict. I think this team was about a week of fine tuning from being exactly where I wanted it to be, but it clearly worked okay so I’m not too concerned. Without dragging this on too much, here’s the squad!
The Team
Senokot (Suicune) @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 228 SpAtk / 12 SpDef / 12 Spe
Modest Nature (+SpAtk, -Atk)
_Scald
_Icy Wind
_Protect
_Rest
Suicune was a really important member of this team, and probably one of the stars: in fact, I brought it in 90% of games. Suicune was one of the Pokémon I built this team around because, in my eyes, he hadn’t gotten nearly enough usage over the course of the season, despite his absurd bulk on both sides of the spectrum, support potential, and fantastic typing. He also has this awesome trait of basically dominating most of the attention over the course of the battle — Suicune is just one of those Pokémon that forces your opponent to respond, since he requires pretty specific counters to prevent him from walling a team.
Suicune is one of my preferred counters to weather teams; I tend to bring him against any team with both Tyranitar and Garchomp and against most rain teams. Scald was used over Hydro Pump because I knew that in a largely best of 1 format, I wouldn’t want to miss a crucial Hydro Pump, and in reality I preferred the burn chance anyway — Suicune’s bulk lets him abuse the residual damage, and it allows him to put a lot more pressure on more careful players that didn’t want their physical sweepers to get burnt. It also let me win a Suicune war against Benji in our Game 2 Finals game.
Icy Wind is a really important move that lets Suicune serve as not only another check to the ubiquitous dragons but as a form of speed control against more offensive teams. After an Icy Wind, the rest of my team could capitalize on their greater bulk and equal or greater attack power to win out.
Protect is a very important move, and one that is really valuable on a Pokémon like Suicune, who applies a lot of pressure over the course of the battle and draws more than his fair share of Gem-boosted attacks and the like. Rest is probably my favorite move on the set: several teams couldn’t hit Suicune with any substantial, gem-boosted super effective hits, and had to instead chip away at him and rely on his rather paltry attack output to win match-ups. Because of this, Rest was pretty amazing when your opponent is at -2 Speed thanks to Icy Wind and you’re sitting at around 13 HP with Sandstorm up. It induced its fair share of groaning over the course of the tournament.
jazz handz (Virizion) @ Fighting Gem
Trait: Justified
EVs: 196 HP / 180 Atk / 132 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpAtk)
_Close Combat
_Leaf Blade
_Protect
_Stone Edge
Virizion had a fairly underwhelming tenure on this team and usually didn’t “threaten” the opponent as much as I would have liked, but he was what the team needed for this slot and I don’t regret using him. Virizion was one of my main anti-weather Pokémon, resisting Water-, Rock- and Ground-type attacks while not really caring about weak Ice Beams off of that mammoth Special Defense. His other main role was to deal with Hydreigon: this team isn’t very enthusiastic about Hydreigon, since he beats Cresselia 1-on-1 and Icy Wind from Suicune isn’t usually very powerful, so Virizion being able to outspeed and OHKO Ray’s Hydreigon spread was more than worth his spot on the team.
Fighting Gem let me KO most Hydreigon and ChopleTar, as well as put a relatively big dent in many otherwise troublesome Pokémon, such as Metagross. Leaf Blade was my saving grace against Rain teams, since, when paired with Cresselia’s Helping Hand, he could OHKO most Politoed and some Rindo Gastrodon. Protect is fairly obvious, but Stone Edge is the weird 4th move on the set. This used to be a number of different things, from Safeguard to Swords Dance to Taunt. I settled on Stone Edge some time ago to help me deal with Volcarona, who this team isn’t particularly fond of, especially the Quiver Dance versions. In retrospect, considering that I didn’t run into a single Volcarona and that, even so, this isn’t a particularly reliable method of dealing with him, one of the other options would have been preferable.
Pillow (Zapdos) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 120 HP / 212 SpAtk / 96 SpDef / 80 Spe
Modest Nature (+SpAtk, -Atk)
_Thunderbolt
_Volt Switch
_Heat Wave
_Hidden Power (Flying)
Zapdos was the other stand-out, star member. Choice Specs Zapdos is a set that was really awesome in US Nationals, but then was forgotten about after Worlds for reasons I continue to not fully understand. Specsdos has power, bulk, and potentially speed on his side: what’s not to like? He was a really valuable asset against almost every team archetype (except Sandstorm), since if he was fighting something he didn’t enjoy, like a Tyranitar, rather than just switching out he could use Volt Switch to incur some damage and possible put it within KO Range for a Thunderbolt later, or soften it up for a partner.
The Choice Specs were a mixed bag for me, but I think I made the right decision there. I hated not being able to Protect, but since I had “pivot” Pokémon in the back like Cresselia and Suicune, plus an excellent safety net of resistances, I found that the added power was more than worth it most scenarios. Hidden Power (Flying) was vastly appreciated, since it allowed me to actually OHKO Ludicolo, who are some of the most obnoxious Pokémon in the 2012 format in my opinion, as well as actually do something to the Garchomp and Gastrodon and what have you that inevitably switched into Zapdos. Heat Wave is basically the only thing keeping Scizor from mauling me on this team, and honestly Zapdos doesn’t have any other attacking options and I didn’t feel like doing the Detect-on-a-choice-mon gambit.
I think another reason I loved Zapdos so much was that he really messes up the cadence of Rain teams. Once he KOs something with Thunderbolt that he isn’t supposed to, which is advantageous enough, suddenly a bunch of rather paltry Ice Beams start getting aimed his way, giving me more opportunities to switch in Tyranitar or to act with Zapdos’ partner. Some more Speed probably would have come in handy, but overall I’m pleased with his performance.
Mole Slaw (Excadrill) (M) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 212 Atk / 68 Def / 20 SpDef / 208 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpAtk)
_Drill Run
_Rock Slide
_X-Scissor
_Protect
Excadrill is one of those Pokémon that holds a very interesting niche but requires a lot of team support, which can turn off players looking to jam him on a team like you can with Metagross. Every team needs a Steel-type, and this used to be a number of different Pokémon until Dimsun suggested that I try out Excadrill, and I haven’t looked back. Everybody knows that Excadrill is fast and strong, but what they don’t know is that he can actually be rather bulky and can shake off most resisted hits fairly well.
Excadrill fulfills some very important roles on this team: he is my secondary switch in for Latios, and is also my preferred way of scaring off Metagross. He also adds speed and power to an otherwise slow, defensive team, with the bonus of being immune to Thunder Wave — and Thunderbolt while we’re on the subject.
Drill Run is an awesome move that totally sold me on Excadrill. While I have only one ground weakness on the entire team, I prefer not having to play around my own moves and don’t see the point in spread moves when the opponent probably doesn’t even have more than 2 Pokémon weak to ground, let alone out at the same time. Drill Run has more power than Earthquake on an individual foe, so I can take the accuracy cut. Rock Slide is his only Rock-type option, but when you outspeed literally everything on the field, a 30% chance to flinch never hurt anybody. X-Scissor started out as filler but was surprisingly helpful in chunking Cresselia, Latios, etc.
Expert Belt was a last minute change from the mediocre Occa Berry, since most of Excadrill’s attacks were super effective against SOMETHING, but I found it pretty underwhelming as well and in retrospect, probably would have benefited from Earth Gem more. Excadrill was awesome in testing but unfortunately wasn’t used very often, as I didn’t see quite as many dumb Hitmontop / Latios / Zapdos / Chandelure / Metagross / Gastrodon teams as I was expecting (namely, more than zero).
Ukazy (Tyranitar) (M) @ Passho Berry
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 212 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpAtk)
_Crunch
_Rock Slide
_Protect
_Superpower
Where there’s Excadrill, there’s Tyranitar. Tyranitar is, in my opinion, one of the best Pokémon to run on this style of team. He’s one of those Pokémon that you can switch into most special attackers and still come out okay, if you’re in a pinch and you really need him to, and can still dish out more than he takes in typical pseudo-legendary fashion. He also has two traits that make him invaluable on a more defensive team: he sets up Sandstorm, to get that extra residual damage on annoying stuff like Thundurus and throw a wrench into Rain’s whole set up, and he has that all-important something-super-effective-against-Cresselia-STAB-attack that every team in this metagame should have, in my opinion.
This is your cookie-cutter Tyranitar, complete with stolen EV spread that I absolutely adored. Tyranitar’s extra Speed really helped me in situations against Rotom-A, Dragonite, fast Cresselia, Heatran, other Tyranitar and everything that kinda of awkwardly sits around this Speed tier. Superpower is much better than Low Kick on a switch-heavy team such as this one, since I don’t mind the lowered stats and would much prefer to actually put a dent in stuff weak to Fighting. I found myself not particularly enthusiastic about any item on this Tyranitar, so I used Passho as an extra insurance against Rain, and more specifically that scary Water Gem Hydro Pump toed that I really didn’t want trucking my best weather counter. As much as I wanted to be hip and use Fire Punch or Earthquake or Ice Punch or Curse or something on this Tyranitar, Crunch and Rock Slide were both really important moves that I’m glad I brought to allow Tyranitar to do what Tyranitar does best: check Dragon- and Flying-types.
PATTYCAKE♥ (Cresselia) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
224 HP / 180 SpAtk / 100 SpDef / 4 Spe
Calm Nature (+SpDef, -Atk)
_Psyshock
_Ice Beam
_Thunder Wave
_Helping Hand
In truly anti-climatic fashion, I end with the most boring member of my squad, but Cress was still an important aspect of this team. Cresselia was my main counter to annoying fighting types like Terrakion or Hitmontop and another stop for dragons (after all, Excadrill isn’t the most reliable defensive pivot in all of existence).
I avoided turning her into a do-nothing wall by endowing her with two very annoying moves that earn her attention: Thunder Wave and Helping Hand. Thunder Wave was a thorn I reserved mostly for Rain teams, who usually failed to have a consistent answer to Cresselia, but if I felt that my opponent couldn’t really touch Cresselia much but was instead choosing to focus on my other members and deal with Cresselia last, I had no qualms with spamming Thunder Wave until she got noticed.
Helping Hand was also a very important move in nabbing KOs I should be able to nab, like OHKOing Politoed with Virizion. It was also great to lead against Trick Room teams, since more often than not Cresselia, rather than my partner, was who got Faked Out, for fear of the turn 1 Trick Room reversal, which let me launch an obscenely powerful attack with my partner courtesy of Helping Hand boost — I distinctly remember a situation turn 1, game 1 of my semi-finals match, where he lead Hitmontop / Rotom-w and I lead Cresselia / Zapdos, and when he faked out my Cress, I Helping Hand / Thunderbolted his Rotom-w before he even knew what happened.
Psyshock is better than Psychic for chunking annoying stuff like Amoonguss and Hitmontop, while Ice Beam prevents Garchomp from having a field day with the rest of my team. Expert Belt would have been nifty, but when you have a Sand Stream user, Leftovers are really much more helpful.
Preferred Leads
I say “preferred” because, depending on the situation, I could make a “viable” lead combination from almost any two Pokémon on the team, and more often than not, I just led with the two Pokémon my opponent hated most, to fetch momentum from turn 1. Since the team was built around being able to switch when necessary, the leads weren’t hugely important, but I definitely didn’t want to be behind. That said, these are solid, well rounded combinations that I use against really cookie-cutter teams of definitive archetypes, and some of my go-to options.
+
If I had no real idea what the hell was going on with my opponent, this was what I lead with. Zapdos and Cresselia are my favorite Pokémon to lead with on the team. Cresselia can Helping Hand in conjunction with any of the other 5 Pokémon on this team and start Thunder Waving right away if I fear something on the team. Zapdos is a great lead by simple virtue of Volt Switch, which has all the benefits of switching but also immediately gets damage on the opponent’s Pokémon. This lead works well because if a Specs Pokémon gets a Helping Hand boost, it hurts. It hurts so much that it OHKO’s most things and seriously chunks others. This was also my preferred option against Trick Room since, again, Cress would more likely than not receive the Fake Out, and Zapdos could chunk something with a x2.25 Thunderbolt with almost no repercussions.
+
This was my option for Rain teams. If my Tyranitar was slower than their Politoed, then Sandstorm was up and I had a relatively fast, powerful, electric type out that could OHKO Ludicolo and seriously dent every other Rain sweeper. If their Politoed was slower, or if it was “cleverly” waiting in the back to snatch the weather back and launch a powerful water move in one fell swoop, I just switched Tyranitar out and Volt Switched something, immediately bringing Tyranitar back in.
or +
This is what I brought against Sand teams. Cresselia and Suicune both function pretty similarly against these sort of teams: they use their Ice-type moves to keep Garchomp at bay. The choice between them mostly boiled down to deciding between being weak to Tyranitar, or having the ability to Helping Hand and an Earthquake immunity, and it depended on what type of sandstorm team I saw. Either way, this lead forced my opponents to not use Earthquake and start firing off weaker Rock Slides, while I hit the rest of their team super effectively, with Virizion tackling the inevitable Tyranitar and Cress or Suicune handling the Sand sweeper of choice, usually Landorus or Garchomp.
Conclusion
This team was a lot of fun to use and very well suited to me. Once you get really, really used to a team, it becomes very easy to use, until it just becomes YOUR Pokémon team, and this is the kind of feeling I hope that every VGC player brings into an event. Your team should be intuitive, and it should fit you like a well-tailored suit; it was this feeling of comfortableness with the team that I think carried me to a solid placing in Houston, even if I wasn’t the best player there holistically, and even if I wasn’t using the best team there, all things considered. I also want to thank everybody that helped me with the team (hi Dimsun, rest of Magma) and let me practice against them.
Article image created by feathers for Nugget Bridge. View more of her artwork on her tumblr.
About the Author
Smith has been playing competitive Pokemon since 2009, but was mostly a singles player until relatively recently. Oliver has been attending the Southern Regional for 3 years, landing in the top 10 each time, and recently, to his astonishment, cinched 2nd place at the 2013 regional. When he isn't building more teams then he can use, he benchwarms in his 4th season on high school JV Hockey and procrastinates on college applications.
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 →
