Reports

Published on September 18th, 2013 | by tanzying

17

Gebebo’s Tenchi Matou Standard: 2013 Worlds Masters Runner-Up Report

This is a translation of the 2013 World Championships Masters runner-up Ryosuke Kosuge’s team report by Tan Zong Ying (tanzying). The original is located at Ryosuke’s blog, and we would like to thank him for his permission to post this translation.

The report spans two blog entries from Ryosuke Kosuge’s blog, detailing his team’s preliminary stages and the modifications it underwent as he used it in successive events. He placed 16th in the Japan Cup Wi-fi qualifier, conquered the Japanese Nationals by taking first place, and finally stormed to an excellent 2nd place finish at the 2013 World Championships, taking out formidable opponents Sejun Park (pokemontcg) and Aaron Zheng (Cybertron) in the top cut but falling to Arash Ommati (Mean) in the finals.

First entry: “Gebebo’s Thunder Wave/Trick Room switch”

In this entry I would like to introduce the team I used in offline competitions which were held between February to March. They later became the foundation of the team I used for this year’s World Championship Series.

Tyranitar @ Dark Gem
Trait: Sand Stream
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
– Crunch
– Rock Slide
– Low Kick
– Fire Punch

• No special notes

I chose to use Tyranitar as its middling speed allows it to fight with either Trick Room or Thunder Wave support, and for its ability to disadvantage opposing Rain and Hail teams by stealing the weather. The moveset is quite offensive in nature and lacks Protect. I felt that when under Trick Room there were almost no situations in which I had to Protect so I did not use it in order to widen Tyranitar’s offensive coverage. However, with Conkeldurr usage surging in the current environment, it might be better to replace Low Kick or Fire Punch with Protect instead. The Dark Gem was due to personal preference.

Scizor @ Bug Gem
Trait: Technician
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Def
– Bug Bite
– Bullet Punch
– Swords Dance
– Protect

• Helping Hand + Gem-boosted Bug Bite OHKOs Gastrodon with defensive EVs up to 252 HP / 124 Def (neutral nature)
• Survives a Jolly Gem-boosted Close Combat from 252 Atk Terrakion barring the highest damage roll (6.25% to OHKO)

I was originally using Metagross in this slot, but due to too many missed attacks I tried out Scizor instead and stuck with it because I found it to mesh well with the team. The reason why I used Bug Gem over Steel Gem was because even without relying on priority, I had quite a few gimmicks which I could use to outspeed and hit things with, so I went with the more damaging option of Bug Gem. The EV spread is courtesy of fellow player R.

Landorus-Therian @ Focus Sash
Trait: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
– Earthquake
– Stone Edge
– U-turn
– Protect

• Helping Hand-boosted Earthquake OHKOs Metagross with defensive EVs up to 252 HP / 0 Def (neutral nature), factoring in multiple targets.
• Stone Edge OHKOs Thundurus with defensive EVs up to 252 HP / 0 Def (neutral nature), barring the 2 lowest damage rolls (out of 16 possible, so 87.5% to OHKO)

I used Landorus as a way to consistently deal with the likes of Excadrill and Fighting Pokemon, which had a tough time facing it. I used an Adamant nature instead of a Jolly nature because having the firepower to OHKO top metagame Pokemon through ways like Helping Hand Earthquake on Metagross, Stone Edge on Thundurus, etc., was very enticing. Jolly is still worth considering though, as it helps with the Landorus mirror matchup, and the synergy of Thunder Wave and Rock slide is simple but strong.

Cresselia (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Levitate
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 212 HP / 60 Def / 160 SAtk / 76 SDef
– Ice Beam
– Psyshock
– Helping Hand
– Trick Room

• Ice Beam OHKOs 4 HP Salamence except in the case of the lowest damage roll (93.75% to OHKO)
• Survives a Helping Hand-boosted Timid Dragon Gem Draco Meteor from 252 SAtk Latios
• HP is an even number so that Sitrus Berry activates after Super Fang hits

This Cresselia is a standard Trick Room Cresselia and is an essential part of my speed control. My other Pokemon are at a disadvantage against things like opposing Landorus-T and Conkeldurr, so Cresselia also functions as a backup against them. The moveset is pretty orthodox, so there isn’t much to discuss.

Thundurus @ Leftovers
Trait: Prankster
Calm Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 204 SDef / 52 Spd
– Thunderbolt
– Thunder Wave
– Taunt
– Swagger

• Survives a Timid Gem-boosted Draco Meteor from 252 SpA Latios
• Outspeeds 252 Spd Modest Kingdra out of Rain

The second essential part of my speed control. Though using both Trick Room and Thunder Wave on the same team is not really seen that often, if used well in tandem with Trick Room they can pretty much control the speed of almost all Pokemon. Because of this, in my personal opinion it is one of the strongest gimmicks out there. The EV spread was designed to just barely survive a Gem-boosted Draco Meteor from Latios, and with mirror matchups, Breloom, Kingdra and others in mind all the remaining EVs were put into speed.

For the moveset, Thunderbolt, to hit Rain teams and steels effectively, and Thunder Wave, the centerpiece of the team, were no-brainers. Taunt was to allow me to fight against various kinds of teams on equal ground. If you want to stabilize your win rate, Taunt is an almost indispensable move on this kind of Thundurus.

Finally, Swagger. I did have an original intention to use a Swagger-Lum/Persim Berry combination with Tyranitar and Metagross (now Scizor), but even after I abandoned that plan, I realised that without Swagger my matchups against Aron teams were so hopeless that I had really no choice but to leave it on. Because I did not invest any EVs in Special Attack at all, I couldn’t possibly expect to do significant damage to things like Thundurus-T, so I made a judgement that it would be better to run Swagger.

Latias (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
Timid Nature
IVs: HP Ground 70
EVs: 132 HP / 4 Def / 120 SAtk / 252 Spd
– Draco Meteor
– Ice Beam
– Hidden Power Ground
– Trick

• Survives Adamant Meteor Mash + Bullet Punch from 252 Atk Metagross
• Survives Jolly Crunch from 132 Atk Tyranitar
• Helping Hand-boosted Ice Beam OHKOs Thundurus/Tornadus (both formes) with defensive EVs up to 4 HP / 0 SDef (neutral nature)

Through the previously mentioned team members I was able to maintain speed control in almost all situations, but there were certain Pokemon which Thunder Wave didn’t work against (mainly Landorus-T and Thundurus-T) which prevented me from reaching that ideal scenario, so to speedily deal with those Pokemon I ended up using Latias. This set was taken from fellow player かげとら-san’s team.

The reason why Latias was used and not Latios was because as かげとら wrote in his blog, opponents tended to be unable to read Scarf on Latias (expecting items such as Haban Berry, Dragon Gem, Choice Specs, Lum Berry)

The original set included Thunderbolt, but because my team had troubles with Heatran I ran Hidden Power Ground instead to give myself a little peace of mind.

That’s all for this entry. Though this team is probably not popular in the current metagame, I wrote about it anyway because I wanted to have this posted before I started writing about my World Championship Series team. One way this team can be improved in is its ability to handle Volcarona, and if I were to use it again now I might do something along the lines of giving Thundurus Hidden Power Flying. Conkeldurr is another formidable opponent that is increasing in popularity.

Next I’d like to write about my Japan Cup and Japan Nationals team so please keep your eyes peeled!

Second entry: “Gebebo’s Tenchi Matou Standard”

In my previous entry I wrote about the foundations my Worlds 2013 team was based on, so this time I will write about the team itself. Although my party line-up did not change from the Japan Cup, to Japan Nationals (it was possible to change teams between the preliminary and finalist leagues but I did not do so), to the World Championships itself, I did change things like movesets and held items, so I shall describe each event in sequence.

Japan Cup Version

Tyranitar @ Dark Gem
Trait: Sand Stream
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
– Crunch
– Rock Slide
– Low Kick
– Fire Punch

• No special notes

Heatran @ Fire Gem
Trait: Flash Fire
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 196 HP / 60 Def / 252 SAtk
– Heat Wave
– Eruption
– Earth Power
– Protect

• Survives 252 Atk neutral natured Infernape’s Close Combat
• HP is one less than a multiple of 16 to minimize weather damage

Thundurus @ Leftovers
Trait: Prankster
Calm Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 204 SDef / 52 Spd
– Thunderbolt
– Thunder Wave
– Taunt
– Swagger

• Survives a Timid Dragon Gem-boosted Draco Meteor from 252 SpA Latios
• Outspeeds 252 Spd Modest Kingdra out of Rain

Landorus-Therian @ Focus Sash
Trait: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
– Earthquake
– Stone Edge
– U-turn
– Protect

• Helping Hand-boosted Earthquake OHKOs Metagross with defensive EVs up to 252 HP / 0 Def (neutral nature), factoring in multiple targets.
• Stone Edge OHKOs Thundurus with defensive EVs up to 252 HP / 0 Def (neutral nature), barring the 2 lowest damage rolls (out of 16 possible, so 87.5% to OHKO)

Cresselia (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Levitate
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 212 HP / 60 Def / 160 SAtk / 76 SDef
– Ice Beam
– Psyshock
– Helping Hand
– Trick Room

• Ice Beam OHKOs 4 HP Salamence except in the case of the lowest damage roll (93.75% to OHKO)
• Survives a Helping Hand-boosted Timid Dragon Gem Draco Meteor from 252 SpA Latios
• HP is an even number so that Sitrus Berry activates after Super Fang hits

Conkeldurr (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Iron Fist
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Def / 60 SDef
– Hammer Arm
– Mach Punch
– Ice Punch
– Protect

• Helping Hand-boosted Iron Fist Life Orb Hammer Arm OHKOs Metagross with defensive EVs up to 252 HP / 0 Def (neutral nature)
• After 1 Intimidate, Iron Fist Life Orb Hammer Arm OHKOs Scrafty with defensive EVs up to 252 HP / 92 Def (neutral nature)
• Helping Hand-boosted Iron Fist Life Oorb Fire/Ice Punch OHKOs Amoonguss with defensive EVs up to 252 HP / 204 Def (Def+ nature)
• Iron Fist Life Orb Ice Punch OHKOs Latios with defensive EVs up to 0 HP / 76 Def (neutral nature)
• Survives 2 hits of Adamant 252 Atk Landorus-T’s Earthquake (multiple targets) plus 1 round of Life Orb recoil
• Survives Adamant 252 Atk Scizor’s +2 Steel Gem-boosted Technician Bullet Punch (along with 1 round of Life Orb recoil if the 7 highest damages out of the 16 possible are not rolled)
• Survives Modest 252 SpA Gastrodon’s Ground Gem-boosted Earth Power (and, barring the highest damage roll, 2 rounds of Life Orb recoil)
• Survives neutral natured 252 SpA Latios’s unboosted Draco Meteor (Along with 1 round of Life Orb recoil if the 7 highest damages out of 16 possible are not rolled)
• HP is one less than a multiple of 10 to minimize LO damage

These were my feelings when trying to improve and overcome the weaknesses of my team.

First of all, the matchup against Volcarona was overwhelmingly difficult. With Metagross, or worse, Scizor as the pivot of the team, I was at the end of my tether trying to deal with that moth, but just as I was thinking “I should probably just construct another team”, I saw my fellow player うぃｗｗるくらげ using an Eruption Heatran while being able to maintain offensive pressure, and thought that my team would be improved by replacing Scizor with Heatran. Thus, Heatran came to be on the team.

Another difficulty came in the form of Scrafty and Gastrodon, who are easily incorporated into standard teams. When setting up Trick Room, it was hard to determine whether these Pokemon were running minimum speed or not, and any misjudgment tended to lead to Trick Room backfiring. I therefore decided it was necessary to have a Pokemon that would be able to underspeed and hit both of them hard, and turned to Conkeldurr.

Although Conkeldurr is slightly faster than Gastrodon, it is able to OHKO Scrafty through Intimidate with a Life Orb-boosted Hammer Arm. With a little EV investment, it is also able to withstand Gastrodon’s gem-boosted Earth Power. Hence, Conkeldurr was able to deal with the two of them well. It’s offensive coverage with Heatran was also excellent, with Eruption and Hammer Arm covering each other’s bases. Before I knew it, the combination of these 2 attacks had pervaded my playstyle, and although Heatran and Conkeldurr were later additions to my team, they came to be its main representatives.

Incidentally, Tyranitar happened to be strong at dealing with the Pokemon that wall both Eruption and Hammer Arm such as Jellicent, Chandelure and Gyarados, so my engagements with them went well.

Even though I would call my team a standard team, in the Japan Cup I ended up almost always using a line-up of Cresselia/Landorus-T/Heatran/Conkeldurr. Turn 1 would be a U-turn as Cresselia set up Trick Room, followed by some switching to get Heatran and Conkeldurr both out and start an Eruption/Hammer Arm sweep. It wasn’t very taxing on the player and thus I was able to rack up easy wins.

By the way, the name of my team (Tenchi Matou Standard) was taken from a certain popular manga, because I felt that Thunder Wave represented ten (sky), minimum speed Iron Ball Tyranitar represented chi (earth), Eruption (Kaiser Phoenix) represented ma (demon), and Hammer Arm (Calamity End) represented tou (combat). It’s not my generation, but Dragon Quest: Dai’s Great Adventure is an awesome manga series!

Results for Japan Cup

• 64 Wins, 13 Losses
• Final rating: 1807 points
• 16th place

Japan Nationals

Tyranitar @ Iron Ball
Trait: Sand Stream
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Atk / 20 Def / 36 SDef
– Crunch
– Rock Slide
– Fling
– Sunny Day

• Iron Ball Fling OHKOs Cresselia with defensive EVs up to 212 HP / 60 Def (neutral nature) if the 4 highest damages are rolled (25% to OHKO) (Helping Hand guarantees the OHKO)
• Crunch 2HKOs the same Cresselia (not accounting for Sitrus Berry)
• Survives Adamant 252 Atk Metagross’s Meteor Mash
• Survives Modest 252 SAtk Kingdra’s gem-boosted Hydro Pump in Sand barring the highest damage roll

Heatran @ Fire Gem
Trait: Flash Fire
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 196 HP / 60 Def / 252 SAtk
– Heat Wave
– Eruption
– Earth Power
– Protect

• (Same as Japan Cup team)

Thundurus @ Leftovers
Trait: Prankster
Calm Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 204 SDef / 52 Spd
– Thunderbolt
– Thunder Wave
– Taunt
– Swagger

• (Same as Japan Cup team)

Landorus-Therian @ Focus Sash
Trait: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
– Earthquake
– Stone Edge
– U-turn
– Protect

• (Same as Japan Cup team)

Cresselia (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Levitate
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 212 HP / 60 Def / 160 SAtk / 76 SDef
– Ice Beam
– Energy Ball
– Helping Hand
– Trick Room

• (Same as Japan Cup team except Energy Ball over Psyshock)
• Energy Ball 2HKOs Gastrodon with defensive EVs up to 252 HP / 132 SDef (SDef+ nature) or 252 HP / 220 SDef (neutral nature) (not accounting for Rindo Berry)

Conkeldurr (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Iron Fist / Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd), 0 Spd IV
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Def / 60 SDef
– Hammer Arm
– Mach Punch
– Ice Punch
– Protect

• (Same as Japan Cup team)

The only changes are Tyranitar’s item, a drastic alteration to Tyranitar’s moveset, and the removal of a Psychic attack in favor of Energy Ball on Cresselia.

Firstly, about the reasoning behind the changes to Tyranitar’s set: Although I was somewhat satisfied in my own way for exceeding an 80% win rate in the Japan Cup, prominent among my losses were Rain teams (3 out of my 13 losses). In particular, minimum speed Iron Ball Politoed entering the field while Trick Room was up was a painful experience for me. When I was unable to send in Thundurus (mainly due to opposing Landorus-T’s presence), I felt quite hopeless when having to deal with Politoed slower than my own Tyranitar So, I enacted countermeasures and went with an Iron Ball of my own.

Next, regarding the use of Sunny Day which caused a commotion in overseas communities like Nugget Bridge, I did not feel too troubled over dealing with normal teams including Scizor. But against Rain teams including Scizor, I had to consider how to deal with Scizor without Heatran, and would tend to eat a lot of powerful attacks no matter what I did, so I used Sunny Day so that I would be able to bring Heatran against opponents playing Rain. With the additional option of sending Heatran against Rain teams, I did not feel constrained during team selection. However, if Politoed still remained after Tyranitar had been dealt with, developments would quickly go south, so I had to handle the situation with extreme care.

Incidentally, as a reason for using two Dark-type attacks, Fling and Crunch at the same time, Tyranitar became able to underspeed and strike Gastrodon under Trick Room with the use of Iron Ball. So I used them as the combination of Iron Ball Fling and Energy Ball would be able to take it out. Also, when using Thunder Wave as speed control, Iron Ball tended to become a hindrance, so being able to get rid of the Iron Ball early in the match and boost Tyranitar’s speed was another reason I used Fling. Crunch was used because I didn’t want to lose the ability to hit Cresselia after flinging away my Iron Ball. The number of Pokemon able to hit Cresselia on my team was very limited, so I thought that further removing another option to do that was nonsensical and decided to go with two Dark type attacks.

Cresselia running Energy Ball was, needless to say, for dealing with Gastrodon. 7 of my 13 losses in the Japan Cup were to teams containing Gastrodon. My chances of winning against such teams were not reliable at all. Thinking that if it would enable me to defeat Gastrodon, spending one of Cresselia’s precious moveslots on Energy Ball would be worth it, I went ahead and dropped my Psychic type attack. Previously, word had been spreading that there were a few participants, myself included, that had won through the Japan Cup using Eruption Heatran. Thinking that others would definitely try to counter this strategy hard, and that Gastrodon was the Pokemon that would be able to do this easily, I prepared my own counters for it. In the end, I fought 2 teams containing Gastrodon in Japan Nationals, so I do not think I made the wrong decision in using Energy Ball.

Results for Japan Nationals

• 6 Wins, 0 Losses (3 wins in preliminaries, 3 wins in finalist’s league)
• Champion

World Championships 2013 Version

Tyranitar @ Iron Ball
Trait: Sand Stream
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Atk / 20 Def / 36 SDef
– Crunch
– Rock Slide
– Fling
– Sunny Day

• (Same as Nationals team)

Heatran @ Fire Gem
Trait: Flash Fire
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SAtk
– Heat Wave
– Eruption
– Earth Power
– Protect

• Fire Gem-boosted Heat Wave OHKOs Metagross with defensive EVs up to 252 HP / 140 SDef (neutral nature) barring the lowest damage roll, factoring in multiple targets.
• Survives 252 Atk neutral natured Infernape’s Close Combat
• Survives Adamant 252 Atk Metagross’s Earthquake, factoring in multiple targets.
• HP is one less than a multiple of 16 to minimize weather damage

Thundurus @ Leftovers
Trait: Prankster
Calm Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 204 SDef / 52 Spd
– Thunderbolt
– Thunder Wave
– Taunt
– Swagger

• (Same as Nationals team and Japan Cup team)

Landorus-Therian @ Focus Sash
Trait: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
– Earthquake
– Stone Edge
– U-turn
– Protect

• (Same as Nationals team and Japan Cup team)

Cresselia (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Levitate
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 212 HP / 60 Def / 160 SAtk / 76 SDef
– Ice Beam
– Psychic
– Helping Hand
– Trick Room

• (Same as Nationals team and Japan Cup team except for Psychic instead of Psyshock/Energy Ball)

Conkeldurr (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Iron Fist
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Def / 60 SDef
– Hammer Arm
– Mach Punch
– Ice Punch
– Protect

• (Same as Nationals team and Japan Cup team)

The only two changes were adjusting Heatran’s EVs to be more physically defensive, and the return of the Psychic attack to Cresselia’s moveset.

Firstly, the reduction of Heatran’s Special Attack and increase of its physical bulk was because I truly had no idea what the foreign metagame would be like. Wondering if the likes of Brave minimum speed Metagross would be common, I allocated my EVs as described above. In reality, there weren’t any such Metagross, but I ran into situations such as being able to survive Jolly Landorus’s Earthquake after an Intimidate and surviving Conkeldurr’s Mach Punch by a sliver of HP, so in retrospect my allocation of EVs was not flawed.

The change to Psychic on Cresselia was because after Japan Nationals, just as ratings were being adjusted, there was a considerable increase in the amount of Conkeldurr and incidents of being unable to beat it were on the rise. Therefore, I started using Psychic to be able to hit it hard.

This is slightly irrelevant but on the eve of Worlds, I had Cresselia holding a Lum Berry in order to counter the likes of Breloom and Amoonguss (I was thinking that Liepard-based teams were mainstream because top foreign players Aaron Zheng (Cybertron) and Sejun Park (pokemontcg) had been using them), but as I was spectating Last Chance Qualifier matches displayed on the monitors I saw that foreign players were using more Conkeldurr than Breloom or Amoonguss. Deciding that I had made a wrong metagame call, and in order to be stronger in a straight-up fight, I hurriedly returned to my original choice of Sitrus Berry. Although this caused me to fall behind in my Finals match, I wouldn’t have been able to get that far without Sitrus Berry, so I have no regrets.

Results for World Championships 2013

• Swiss rounds: 4 Wins, 2 Losses
• Top cut: 2 Wins, 1 Loss
• Runner-up

Lastly, some miscellaneous issues.

Between Japan Nationals and the World Championships there was just under a month of preparation time available, and my team information had been exposed through things like Nico Nico Douga videos and battle videos saved from the play-offs. Because of this I considered changing to a Liepard-based team I had been playing since about April. However, thorough WCS2013, I had been using the same team all the way since the Japan Cup stage, so in a bout of sentimentality I decided that I wanted to fight all the way to the end with these same guys and brought the same team to the World Championships.

Also, with no knowledge at all about the foreign environment, I had no idea what I should set out to counter. Last year’s Japanese representatives Satoru Masukata (huuuryu) and Shota Yamamoto told me that “A team that is able to win no matter what is thrown at it is the strongest”, so I went with a party that allowed me a wide array of choices.

Even the unofficial real-life meetings in Japan did not use the same battling format as the World Championships (best of 3), so I was not used it, but when I played under such a format I tended to use a Thunder Wave-based strategy for the first match and a Trick Room-based strategy for the second.

As for the match adjustments in the time leading up to the World Championships, the LCQ participants helped me by having private Skype conversations with me, so I was quite determined to do well at the actual event. Due to the competition format being not widespread in Japan at all, and not playing under tight time constraints except during official events, everyone including myself was similarly unfamiliar and because of that it wasn’t really good practice. However, we still tried to battle as many times as we could anyway.

I have a habit of wearing headphones and listening to the game’s background music while battling, but when I consulted the Judges at Worlds on this it ended up being decided that wearing earphones would be an interference, so playing without them and composing myself to battle was sort of difficult. I think it would have been better if I had practiced in preparation for this.

When the finals came around and I saw Mamoswine, Amoonguss and Conkeldurr, which my team had hopelessly difficult matchups with, all appear at once during team preview, I panicked and blanked out for a moment. I didn’t realize that Mamoswine was Choice Scarfed until after the match when people told me. Knowing beforehand that my opponent was going to be so formidable, I really should have gotten some Japanese players to make teams containing Pokemon I had trouble with and gotten some internal practice done. When the unexpected happened, it was almost impossible for me to think of a way out of my predicament within the limited time I had. Next year, I would definitely like to have the ability to play multiple matches against standard expected teams, and perhaps last more than five minutes against bad matchups…

Incidentally, because Mamoswine was Choice Scarfed, Heatran would have been able to survive its Earthquake after an Intimidate, so if I had known that it was Choice Scarfed I could have taken advantage of that particular opportunity. With this in consideration, in hindsight my opponent was not completely unbeatable.

For next year’s WCS, I’ll be able to skip Japan’s internal qualifiers and attend the World Championships directly, so I’m definitely looking forward to be able to have a rematch with Arash!

That’s all. Thank you for reading my ramblings all the way to the end. Up until I went to Worlds, I had thought that this team was the conclusion of the BW2 metagame, but after the Worlds experience itself I realized just how much of a frog in the well my then self was. If you were to use this team now, it probably wouldn’t be all that strong, but please feel free to assemble it and give it a try!

Article image created for Nugget Bridge by ryuzaki. See more of ryuzaki’s artwork on deviantART.

About the Author

tanzying is a VGC player hailing from the tropical island of Singapore. Previously involved mostly in translating Japanese VGC blog articles for the rest of the world, organising official VGC events and friendlies with other countries for Singapore has come to be his primary role.

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 →