Reports

Published on April 30th, 2014 | by Braverius

16

GyaraDos Veces Dieciséis

Before spring regionals, Harrison (Crow) wanted to build a team around Mega Kangaskhan + Mega Venusaur. I kind of just threw four Pokémon out there that seemed like they’d work. They kinda did. He liked it, so he took it to Athens reached Top 16 with it. I tweaked it a little to my own liking and used it at Utah and also reached Top 16 with it… so it’s pretty consistently decent, I guess. We’ll walk you through how it worked in this dual team analysis.

Harrison’s Venusaur:

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
220 HP / 4 Def / 140 SAtk / 76 SDef / 68 Spe
Modest Nature
– Leaf Storm
– Sludge Bomb
– Leech Seed
– Protect

• Credit goes to Enosh (Human) for the spread
• Leaf Storm OHKOs 252 HP / 172 SDef Calm Rotom-W 100% of the time
• Sludge Bomb + Leaf Storm KOs 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan 100% of the time
• Speed creeps 4 Speed Rotom-W

Zach’s Venusaur:

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
220 HP / 4 Def / 140 SAtk / 84 SDef / 60 Spe
Modest Nature
– Leaf Storm
– Sludge Bomb
– Leech Seed
– Protect

• Same as Harrison’s except I wasted a point in speed because I was too lazy to optimize the spread

Harrison’s comments: Venusaur has been a pretty cool Mega. If the opponent doesn’t have Talonflame or Mega Kangaskhan it’s really hard for them to take down most of the time. Running it with Mega Kangaskhan probably seems odd, but between Leaf Storm, Leech Seed, and Chlorophyll, it could function as a non-Mega often enough. In testing I seemed to speed tie a lot with Rotoms, so I opted to take some EVs out of Special Defense and put it into speed to raise it a point.

Zach’s comments: With Kangaskhan it might seem almost useless to run the Mega stone on Venusaur as well, but there were some matches where Venusaur could carry the team similar to how Gourgeist worked on my Florida Regionals team. I mostly regret running Venusaur here, as I think Amoonguss would have been a smarter choice, but it did decently in 2/3 battles I brought it (albeit flopping pretty badly in the other.)

Harrison’s Kangaskhan:

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Double-Edge
– Power-Up Punch
– Sucker Punch
– Return

Zach’s Kangaskhan:

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Return
– Power-Up Punch
– Sucker Punch
– Fake Out

Harrison’s comments: It’s Mega Kangaskhan and I’m pretty sure everyone knows all about it at this point. I used Double-Edge over Return because a) I didn’t want to deal with happiness and b) I liked the slightly increased damage. The recoil didn’t really bother me. Jolly because I don’t find the Adamant sets to be nearly as effective. Kangaskhan is a lot less scary when it doesn’t have the Speed investment.

Zach’s comments: Mega Kangaskhan has been a pretty tough thing to take down most of the season, mostly when it’s surrounded by things that help it do its job. It paired very well with two Intimidate users and especially well with the Gyarados, which was the major draw to this team.

Harrison’s Gyarados:

Gyarados @ Lum Berry
252 HP / 44 Def / 212 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Waterfall
– Taunt
– Thunder Wave
– Ice Fang

Zach’s Gyarados:

Gyarados @ Wacan Berry
252 HP / 20 Atk / 20 Def / 28 SDef / 188 Spe
Impish Nature
– Waterfall
– Stone Edge
– Thunder Wave
– Taunt

• Survives Modest Mega Manectric Thunderbolt 100% of the time
• 2HKOs 252HP Tyranitar with Waterfall 100% of the time
• Outspeeds Jolly 252 Speed Tyranitar
• I realize a Jolly nature would have given me one extra speed point, but I already made Snake breed like 15 Pokemon for me over the span of a week so I wasn’t about to ask for another after I realized my mistake just to get one more stat point

Harrison’s comments: Gyarados was mostly a last minute addition in order to stop Smeargle, because no one wants to lose to one. Despite Lum Berry not being used once (and therefore Leftovers or Wacan Berry would’ve been a better choice) Gyarados tended to put in solid work whenever I brought it. There’s not a whole lot of speed control right now, so having it was nice, especially on something with Intimidate. The 44 Defense EVs were legitimately just an EV dump. Up until the day of the tournament I had Stone Edge, but made a last second change to Ice Fang. It was a good choice; I ran into no situations where I would’ve rather had Stone Edge.

Zach’s comments: Wacan Berry was handy during three battles, two times versus Rotom and one time versus Gardevoir, allowing Gyarados to survive their respective Thunderbolts. Although it was a pretty good choice that day, I think it could afford to be tested; I didn’t do much testing with Gyarados before the Regional with any other item, so there are a ton of options out there that could potentially be superior to Wacan. As far as the Gyarados itself goes, I loved this version of it. I’ve run both Choice Band and Mega in the past, and while I think both of those are solid options, this bulky one was far and away my favorite fit in any of the metagames we’ve had this year. It helped Kangaskhan immensely with Thunder Wave + Intimidate, it outsped and Taunted a lot of common threats, and provided some decent attacking coverage moves, as Tyranitar and Charizard-Y were looming issues for the team without Gyarados around.

Harrison’s Rotom-H:

Rotom-H @ Choice Scarf
36 HP / 252 SAtk / 220 Spe
Modest Nature
– Overheat
– Hidden Power Ice
– Volt Switch
– Thunderbolt

Zach’s Rotom-H:

Rotom-H @ Sitrus Berry
244 HP / 4 Def / 188 SAtk / 4 SDef / 68 Spe
Modest Nature
– Overheat
– Thunderbolt
– Will-o-Wisp
– Protect

• From max health, knocks 252 HP / 4 SDef Aegislash out of Substitute range for two turns 100% of the time (assuming Leftovers heals it back up)
• OHKOs Ray’s bulky Careful Mawile 100% of the time
• Survives Timid Life Orb Salamence Draco Meteor
• Outspeeds -1 Kangaskhan

Harrison’s comments: Rotom-H is garbage. It missed every Overheat it used all day and got critical hit more than once during inopportune times. Legitimately every loss I had could be traced to some fault of Rotom-H.

Zach’s comments: Sitrus Berry was nearly mandatory on Rotom. I know Harrison ran Scarf, and I did like that, but I felt with the huge upswing in Aegislash, it was important to be able to take two Shadow Balls (allowing me a turn to risk damage on a switch in if needed.)

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
252 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 172 SAtk / 76 SDef
Quiet Nature
– Shadow Ball
– Shadow Sneak
– Sacred Sword
– King’s Shield

• Credit goes to Simon for the spread
• Survives 252 SAtk Timid Charizard Heat Wave in sun 100% of the time
• Still does all the other Aegislash things other than KOing Biosci’s anti-Simon-Aegislash Gardevoir

Harrison’s comments: To me, Weakness Policy Aegislash is one of those early metagame Pokemon that everyone moves past and doesn’t give a second look at. However, a bulkier spread has definitely given it new life. I’m sure there’s a number of people who think I should have Substitute over Shadow Sneak, but there were really only one or two games where I could’ve safely gotten the Substitute off. I’m not really sure why, but it seemed to be the most consistent Aegislash I’ve used.

Zach’s comments: I really wanted to test the Weakness Policy Aegislash after being pushed into a corner numerous times by them on Showdown. I think the Substitute + Leftovers set is more consistent and a better option on most teams, but for some reason this just seemed to click here. I needed something on this team to put offensive pressure on the opponent outside of Kangaskhan, and this filled that role pretty well. I liked the locks it gave me on Garchomp and Salamence especially. Hilariously enough, I was put to sleep more times by Infiltrator Jumpluff than by Amoonguss all day, so there’s that, too, I guess…

Salamence @ Life Orb
4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Draco Meteor
– Fire Blast
– Rock Tomb
– Protect

• As straightforward as spreads go
• Rock Tomb was really solid for slowing Kangaskhan down to allow Rotom to outspeed and either burn or KO before it took a Return

Harrison’s comments: I think Scarf Salamence needs to be phased out. Between Garvdevoir and Azumarill I think Choice Scarf is more of a liability than an asset. Life Orb was pretty solid. Rock Tomb is the weirdest thing here; it was mostly included in order to nail Mega Charizard Y without the risk of Stone Edge. The speed control was a neat bonus, but probably ultimately unnecessary since Gyarados had Thunder Wave. Hydro Pump probably would’ve been more useful.

Zach’s comments: Constantly went back and forth between LO and Scarf the week before, but with Gyarados having Thunder Wave and an extra Intimidate to help deal with opposing Salamence and Garchomp, respectively, I figured having a little extra power for non-dragons would be appropriate as I didn’t need the speed as badly. The lack of a second resistant switch in for Dragon-type moves also nudged me towards going with the item that allowed me to Protect. There were pros and cons to both, but on this team, Life Orb was the better choice.

About the Author

Braverius started playing competitive Pokemon in April 2011. Since then he has been fortunate enough to compete in numerous official live events, qualifying for Worlds in 2013 and winning four Regionals along the way.

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