Reports

Published on May 2nd, 2015 | by corsolafan

26

After You My Friend: A SoCal Regionals Team Report

Hi guys! Alvin “corsolakid” Mo here with my very first event and team report! Here with me is my beloved DOUBLE DOG VOICE QUAKE PLANT PUNCH team that netted a 6-2 record at Socal Regionals, earning me a 28th place finish.

Teambuilding

I’ve been asked how I came up with such a strange team, so here is a rundown of my team building process. I was home for winter break and, if there was one thing I wanted to accomplish over the 2 weeks, it was to build a solid team for the upcoming Alpha series Premier Challenge. The initial conception was slow, but eventually, during one late night solo team building session, I decided on After You Stoutland, with a Sandstream Tyranitar that would activate Stoutland’s Sand Rush ability!

For those of you unfamiliar with After You, it is a non-attacking move with no priority that forces the target to move immediately after the user. This means that slow Pokemon, or Pokemon using lower priority attacks such as Focus Punch, Trick Room, Roar, and the like are able to move based on my Stoutland’s speed, regardless of priority!

For the next four Pokemon, I tried not to focus on the metagame too much. I wanted a team with great synergy, but also made up of members who could shine on their own. Perhaps I got lucky, or perhaps I just really wanted this team to work out, but I never changed any of my initial Pokemon. As always, however, picking the right moves on each Pokemon proved difficult and I’ll elaborate on this in the individual Pokemon analysis below.

The Team

Friendly (Salamence) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 108 HP / 148 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
– Double-Edge
– Protect
– Hyper Voice
– Flamethrower

If you skim through my team, you can see I have an enormous fighting weakness, with half team being weak to it. Mega Salamence offers Intimidate support, outspeeds, and destroys fighting types with Aerilate boosted Hyper Voice and Double-Edge. Salamence provides great support and offensive presence for his teammates.

The reasoning behind having both Double-Edge and Hyper Voice is that I needed a powerful and reliable attack. Paired with a monstrous 145 base attack, even zero-investment Double-Edges were getting KOs. Another option was Draco Meteor, which provided great coverage but, because it would hinder my subsequent attacks and is also unable to damage threatening fairies such as Sylveon and Gardevoir, I decided against using it. Flamethrower is important for handling Scizor, Aegislash, and other pesky steel types. Finally, for Mega-Salamence, being the huge Frisbee-UFO target that it is, protect is essential for its livelihood.

I decided against using a 252/252 spread because Hyper Voice was not usually a one hit KO either way, so I went for a bit of bulk to absorb Rock Slides and other attacks better. The spreads on many of my Pokemon are quite arbitrary, but the 108 hp allows me to survive uninvested Suicune Ice Beams 15 out of 16 times.

Turtle Lion (Torterra) @ Yache Berry
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Atk / 196 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe  (note that, on my in-game team, the IV is more like 8)
– Wide Guard
– Wood Hammer
– Earthquake
– Stone Edge

In a metagame where Terrakion and Sylveon run rampant, Wide Guard protects my team from common spread moves such as Hyper Voice, Heat Wave, Rock Slide, and Earthquake. Wood Hammer and Earthquake were my STAB attacks of choice. Originally, my Torterra carried Protect over Stone Edge. Protect is great for when Torterra was my win condition, such as against teams with Tyranitar and/or Terrakion. In general physical attackers were weak to Torterra’s Wood Hammer while Stone Edge was good for nailing common flying type switch-ins, such as Crobat or Thundurus, which Wood Hammer and Earthquake did not cover.

As for the EV spread, it’s my personal lazy spread. 252 in what needs 252, 196/60 in the other two. After playing with damage calculations, I was pleasantly surprised how well Torterra could take special attacks, even without any Special Defense investment. Ice Beam didn’t even come close to knocking out Yache Berry Torterra. I am considering changing the spread around and invest more in attack because I already easily survive Brave Bird from Adamant Life Orb Talonflame. A small attack boost would be nice, as there have been a few instances where I just barely miss out on knock outs on Battle Spot.

In my experience, Torterra synergizes really well with Mega-Salamence. Salamence’s typing leaves it very vulnerable to super effective spread moves such as Icy Wind, Rock Slide, and Pixelate Hyper Voice, which are all nullified by Wide Guard. Torterra can also Earthquake freely with Salamence on the field, putting opponents in KO range of my powerhouses in the back. Torterra’s relaxed nature also allows Torterra to move after any Aegislash (barring Iron Ball).

Wan (Entei) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 120 Atk / 28 Def / 104 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Sacred Fire
– Stone Edge
– Reflect
– Protect

 Woof woof. Entei, in addition to providing a doggy (yes, Entei is a dog) companion for my Stoutland, deals with Steel and Fairy types quite well. For the moveset, I knew that Sacred Fire is a must. On top of having a 50% burn chance, Sacred Fire is a physical non-contact attack, meaning it ignores Iron Barb, Rocky Helmet, King’s Shield’s attack drop, as well as any other pesky contact effects. Stone Edge is great against Charizard Y who puts out huge pressure against my team when the sun is up.

I opted for Reflect over Will-o-Wisp, as Reflect never misses and covers both allies. Also, it does not activate Guts boosts on Pokemon like Hariyama or Conkeldurr. There are drawbacks with Reflect, of course. Opponents can stall out Reflect, there is no chip damage from burns, and Reflect only reduces physical attack damage by a third in doubles, as opposed to half in singles.

Safety Goggles protect me from sand damage and from powder moves. I opted for maximum speed with a Jolly nature, as Entei is great for protecting my team against the aforementioned Kangaskhan and Charizards. Again, EVs were quite arbitrary. My Entei’s IVs were not perfect, so my EVs made it so that my defense and special defense values were equal and that I had nice round numbers, such as 150 attack and 190 HP on my Entei in game.

Foes punched over the weekend

TYsomuch (Tyranitar) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 196 HP / 220 Atk / 16 SpA / 76 SpD
(Speed IVs were 15, not 31, which has actually saved me against a Flareon trick room team)
Brave Nature
– Ice Beam
– Rock Slide
– Focus Punch
– Protect

Now we reach the point in the article where I hope I can inform the skeptical and the curious alike! Focus Punch Life Orb Tyranitar is extremely powerful. With some assistance from Stoutland’s After You, I have nailed countless unsuspecting Kangaskhan and Heatran. I also have the option for a super fast, super strong Rock Slide!

I know what you guys are thinking, “But Terrakion can take out Kangaskhans and has a fast Rock Slide by itself! Why bother even wasting a move with After You?!” But! Has your Terrakion ever OHKOed a Landorus? Or a Mega Salamence? My Stoutland can outspeed scarfed Landorus, Garchomp, and Dragon Dancing Mega-Salamence in the sand, so I can easily remove them with an After You assisted Life Orb Ice Beam from my Tyranitar. A fatal drawback of this strategy is, of course, that a timely Protect completely wastes a turn for me. In addition, many Landorus carry Assault Vest or Focus Sash now, which unfortunately allows them to survive an Ice Beam from Tyranitar.

After putting 220 EVs into attack, I placed the majority of the remainder into bulk as the brave nature allowed Tyranitar to function decently under an opponents’ Trick Room, being slower than Pokemon such as Cresselia.

I really want to talk more about Focus Punch though! People have suggested less risky alternatives such as Low Kick or Superpower, but I feel that, in this meta, I’ll always wish that I had Focus Punch. Low Kick, and even Superpower, just don’t provide enough power. Check these calcs

220+ Atk Life Orb Tyranitar Focus Punch vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 244-289 (115 - 136.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
220+ Atk Life Orb Tyranitar Superpower vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 195-231 (91.9 - 108.9%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
220+ Atk Life Orb Tyranitar Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 161-192 (75.9 - 90.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage

As you can see, Focus punch will knock out even bulky Mega-Kangaskhan variants with Focus punch, while Low Kick struggles to even knock out 0 HP/0 Def Mega-Kangaskhan. After playing with this team for a while, I would still attempt a Focus Punch confidently, even without After You support. Just being a Pokemon four times weak to fighting in a metagame filled with Low Kick, Close Combat, and Superpower is risky. Raw Focus Punch in doubles is quite simple to play with since, for most scenarios, I either get a Focus Punch off or I would have be OHKO’d before I could attack anyways. Plus, landing a raw Focus Punch just feels soooo gooood.

BFFF (Stoutland) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– After You
– Protect
– Return
– Crunch

 After reading the Tyranitar analysis, you may think Stoutland is just here to support Tyranitar. But After You and Sand Rush gives Stoutland an amazing amount of flexibility in team plays. For example, Mega-Sceptile, as rare as it is, out right destroys my Mega-Salamence. However, with the sand up, my Salamence will have the chance to knock Sceptile out first! Stoutland can also help a paralyzed teammate move first, which was crucial in one of my battles at Regionals! Stoutland is often targeted by Prankster Thunder Wave and Taunt, so one must learn to play around this.

Max speed EVs is a must, since Stoutland is the team’s only form of speed control. Max speed allows it to essentially outspeed everything speedy, even if they’re under tailwind. Having a Focus Sash allows me to survive at least one hit and invest maximum EVs into attack since I didn’t have to worry about bulk. Sand Rush negates sand damage, so sand wouldn’t break my Focus Sash. Return does a good amount of damage, even on some bulkier foes like Suicune and Venusaur. Crunch was my ghost coverage and prevented any endgame scenario where my Pokemon just cannot do any damage. Those situations are really demoralizing. Finally, Protect is necessary to block Fake Outs and similar attacks.

NP Man (Cradily) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 SpA
Sassy Nature
– Ancient Power
– Giga Drain
– Mirror Coat
– Recover

Cradily and its unique Storm Drain ability is a popular pick for many sand teams, as it protects partners from single targeted water attacks and also receives a special defense boost from the sand. Giga Drain and Leftovers gives it a favorable match up against bulky water types, such as Suicune and Milotic. Recover is great for regaining health if the opponent starts to ignore Cradily, or double protect to stall out sand or Reflect.

Mirror Coat also allows it to deal massive damage to Heatran and Sylveon who love to fire off spread moves that are forced to also target Cradily. Unfortunately Mirror Coat does not effectively deal with Substitute Heatran or any dark type Pokemon, such as Hydreigon, making it tricky to use. Finally, Ancient Power is a great coverage move and the 10% chance to boost all stats is certainly an amazing secondary effect.

Tournament Report

I did not take any notes during my matches, so I must apologize. I will try my best to detail some of the matches, especially the ones that I lost, as they stuck out the most in my memory!

Round 3 (W) vs. Michael Hart

This was a showcase of Tyranitar and Stoutland tearing through a team. The Darmanitan, I presumed, was Choice Scarfed with Superpower or a similar move, but it went down in one blow from After You + Rock Slide. The Gardevoir survived, but was unable to knock out either of my Pokemon with Dazzling Gleam. From my recollection, Tyranitar and Stoutland took down the whole team with a combination of Rock Slide, Crunch, Return, Focus Punch, and Ice Beam. The game ended in 3-0, with my Tyranitar fainting from Life Orb recoil.

Match 4 (L) vs. Matthew Greaves (picklesword)

     /  ( )

This match happened right after the lunch break and I was really, really nervous—heart pounding, face red, and jittery even before the match started. Fortunately, we were able to talk before the match about my Lillipup plushie. We revealed to each other that we were both using sand teams, his featuring an Excadrill and mine, a Stoutland. This battle was, without a doubt, the closest and most exciting match I had of the weekend.  He brought Excadrill, Cresselia, Gyarados, and Mega-Tyranitar while I brought Entei, Torterra, Mega-Salamence and Stoutland. This is a rare instance where I decided to bring Stoutland without Tyranitar.

The lead matchup was perfect for me, as he leads Excadrill and Cresselia against my Torterra and Entei. Torterra blocked any Icy Winds Cresselia would want to use and Entei threatened Excadrill with Sacred fire. For the first half of the match, I felt I was leading and in control, having set up a Reflect and burning his Gyarados on the switch in. Even after Gyarados had paralyzed my Entei with Thunder Wave, I was still able to land a Sacred Fire on Excadrill with some After You support! Sacred Fire did not KO, due to Gyarados’ Intimidate, and failed to burn, which was definitely important.

Even with the good start that I had, my opponent played very well to gain the momentum. He had a super bulky Mega Tyranitar in the back and played around my reflect turns while also resetting the sand with Protects and switches. A crucial double target into my Torterra midgame while I Protected with Mega-Salamence swung the game in his favor. Eventually the game ended with a duel between low HP Mega-Salamence and a Mega-Tyranitar in the yellow. He managed to get a double protect and my Mega-Salamence unfortunately went down to sand damage. GG Matthew and thanks for the great battle!

Match 6 (L) vs. Anthony Jiminez (DarkAssassin)

/ ( )

As I often try to learn from my losses, I remembered my losses much better than my wins! And this one was a pretty solid loss. I believe I lead with Torterra and Entei against his Sylveon and Kangaskhan. Sylveon switches out, perhaps suspecting Wide Guard from Torterra, and Kangaskhan Fake Outs my Entei. I was playing from behind for the whole battle and, to make things worse, his Landorus-T was able to survive After You + Ice Beam from Tyranitar, likely because of Assault Vest.

I recall losing 0-3. His prankster Thundurus taunted my Stoutland after seeing the first After You, preventing any possible Rock Slide flinches to swing the game on my side. Good game Anthony and congrats on the Top 4 finish! 🙂

Conclusion

It was definitely a fun tournament run. Sharing a hotel room with seven friends over the weekend was also quite the experience. I’m glad I could make it so far into Regionals with my unique team. I was really excited when I won the final round and had a 6-2 finish, since it meant I would have a chance at top cut.

To say I wasn’t disappointed with missing cut would be a lie. Missing top cut hit me hard, I lost my focus and couldn’t move. That’s not to say my VGC run is anywhere near complete, however. I’ll take this event as a learning experience and sprint further than ever before. Thanks for reading and I hope to bring even more freeze-shocks and astonishments with my future teams!

Shoutouts:

• UCSD Pokemon!!
• My posse : Alex, Mike, Stephen, Andrew, Amiko, Danny, Jon, DJ, Matt!
• Double shoutout to Mike and Stephen and Jon for driving!
• Nugget bridge for all the VGC knowledge!
• Serebii and Bulbapedia for all my researching needs!
• All the great Pokemon Youtube content out there~
• You, the reader!! Any feedback or questions are welcome~ Leave comments and I’ll be sure to read em’ :]

About the Author

corsolafan is a big fan of Corsola and Olivine City and also co-president of a growing Pokemon community at the University of California San Diego. Long time Pokemon player; his competitive roots have been planted since gen IV, however he has only been playing vgc since the XY era. His motto is "Keep trying, you can only get better!" 8)

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