Hawaii 5-0: VGCS Winter Battle Winner & SoCal Regional Runner-Up Team Analysis
Hello Nugget Bridge! Back again since my last team analysis, which didn’t go over well with some people. I had my first chance to actually compete competitively the last Worlds Last Chance Qualifier and got my feet wet in the actual real life scene. Since then I’ve been trying to get a better better feel for the metagame with practice rather than just learning about it through RNGing Pokémon for people. I learned that there was a chance that I could go to the winter regional in Long Beach, so I figured that would be a good time to actually start looking at what good teams I could make in time. I ended up starting with this team which I made a few days before the 2012 VGCS Winter Battle and used that opportunity to test. After finishing first with the team in that, I felt fairly confident in it and made some adjustments before setting out for Long Beach. I never really expected to have this much success! After tons of careful consideration, here’s the team that brought me here today(a means that it was changed after the 2012 VGCS Winter Challenge):
TardyParty (Politoed) (F) @ Wacan Berry
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 236 HP / 36 Def / 44 SAtk / 188 SDef / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
– Scald
– Icy Wind
– Helping Hand
– Protect
As it should be obvious by a quick browse of this team, it’s a rain team. And what kind of rain team can you possibly have without the annoying bugger that is Politoed. Politoed had a huge roll to fill for the team as one of the only bulky support Pokémon with Speed control and the ability to turn so much momentum onto my side late game for a Politoed+Kingdra sweep.
With the introduction of Black 2 and White 2, Politoed got one of the best move combinations it could ever ask for on rain teams with Icy Wind and Helping Hand. I couldn’t resist not using them and they turned out to be some very strong options. Many similar rain teams normally opt for Hydro Pump as a more offensive option for Politoed to use, but with shaky accuracy and my Politoed not being so offensive I chose Scald. Scald was bad at points for it’s very low offensive output, but some games it ended up saving me with Scald burns. Protect was there just because I didn’t have any better option, but you can never go wrong with Protect if you have room for it.
Like I noted before, I opted for a more bulky Politoed. Most of the opposing rain teams that I’ve seen go for a Quiet (or Modest if the team lacks Trick Room support) Politoed with Water Gem Hydro Pump which is really effective, but I felt I needed the defensive bulk to make switching much easier on the team. I had no idea where to start with the spread, so after talking it over with jio we decided to try a physically defensive spread to take things like Rock Slides and Crunches from Tyranitar. The extra added bulk was also really key for being able to switch in on powerful attacks and live so rain could be set up later on in the match. Wacan Berry was just my go to item to make sure there was nothing other than STAB Grass-type moves and critical hits that could OHKO my Politoed.
IAmSober (Kingdra) (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
– Muddy Water
– Draco Meteor
– Substitute
– Protect
My second staple on this rain team. Kingdra served a lot of the time just as a last resort cleaner to clear up the remaining teammates on the other side of the field. I would rarely actually lead the infamous Polioted+Kingdra lead, instead preferring to pack the combo in the back and use it to clean up late game.
This particular Kingdra was one that I’ve been wanting to try for a long time now after much playing on GBU and in various Nugget Bridge tournaments. There’s nothing really special about this Kingdra. You’ve probably seen this kind of set a million times before now, but there’s a good reason why. It’s one of the most effective rain abusing Pokemon and the set is just really effective at making it even better. There are some variations that I’ve seen of the set that I’ve considered and tested for this team on Kingdra — ranging from changing the item to Dragon Gem / Lum Berry or changing Substitute to Dragon Pulse / Ice Beam. As you can tell, I never actually stuck to those changes but they were definitely viable options to consider for the set.
Awoooooooo (Thundurus-T) (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 8 HP / 248 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature Timid Nature
– Volt Switch
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Flying]
– Grass Knot
Probably my favorite Pokemon on the team. Modest Choice Specs Thundurus-T just destroyed so many teams in the Winter Battle. With Infernape support, I could nearly always be safe to pull off an easy sweep by spamming either Thunderbolt or Hidden Power Flying. Or I could use Volt Switch to make setting up rain an easier task. Some people just need to realize how strong this thing can become with Choice Specs.
I really really regret switching to Timid for regionals, but I was just too scared of positive max speed base 100s outspeeding me and OHKOing me with powerful gem boosted attacks. Timid really dropped down my power output and I just hated it not getting those KOs that it should’ve gotten with Modest (jio can attest to the same issue with it being an issue in an important match against wer that decided who would move on to top cut).
The moveset is pretty straightforward. Volt Switch allows me to switch in and out of battle while still being able to rack some damage up, as well as being able to switch in my faster weather Pokemon when the opponent goes for a straight switch to their own weather Pokemon to mess up my game. Thunderbolt was my main mode of offense on Thundurus-T and would destroy nearly anything it touched. With Modest, I could OHKO things like the standard Cybertron Scizor and Salamence, and doing about 99% to 252 HP Rotom-W and Metagross. Timid doesn’t let me grabs these KOs, but still let me put huge dents in these Pokemon and even finish them off if they took previous damage. Hidden Power Flying let me deal with Pokemon like Hitmontop, Conkeldurr, and Volcarona for super effective damage. I did consider using Hidden Power Ice, but most of the time I used it I hated myself for getting locked into a non-STAB Hidden Power that does little damage to what it doesn’t hit super effectively. Grass Knot was there for things like Gastrodon, people who thought they could get cheeky and switch in a Rhyperior or Marowak on my electric attacks, and Tyranitar. Like I said before, I hated getting myself locked into a non-STAB move so this was move was rarely actually used.
I did some experimenting with a bulkier EV spread with less Speed, but I just disliked it for never saving me from anything and making me slower than things I really needed to be faster than. I simply switched to max Special Attack and max Speed right before the wifi tournament and never looked back.
KungFu Ape (Infernape) (F) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 180 Atk / 76 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
– Close Combat
– Heat Wave
– Fake Out
– Encore – Feint
You may wonder why someone would put a Fire type like this on a rain team. When making the team before the wifi tournament I considered my options for a fighting-type with Fake Out support. Hitmontop initially came to mind like for many others, but then I started looking at past rain teams that I’ve seen in action and my eye caught Santo Ito’s rain team that he used at worlds — one that included Infernape. I really liked this idea as Ferrothorn would definitely be much less of a threat with something that has dual-STAB coverage on it.
When thinking about the moveset I still had a few choices to make. I knew Close Combat and Fake Out were given since I was using Infernape and it would be kind of dumb not to use those moves. For the fire-type coverage move, I weighed my options between Overheat and Heat Wave. A Blaze boosted Overheat was not something to be laughed at, but Heat Wave seemed to be the better option with the spread damage that it gave and proved itself in the Winter Battle. My last move was a tough decision. At first, my gut instinct was to just add Encore because Encoring things into Protect or Fake Out was always a good thing. However this just didn’t turn out to be the case most of the time in the WiFi tournament. Encore never got the use that I thought it would get and a lot of the time I hated not having a priority move. This got me thinking about Feint and Mach Punch as possible alternatives. I tested both, but I really enjoyed breaking all of the Protects that I got to with Feint. Mach Punch was still a good alternative though. However, Feint didn’t get much use at regionals because most of my opponents didn’t play the way they needed for me to use it. After thinking it over a lot though, Fake Out and Feint is a scary combo to have at your arsenal against players that fall for the mindgames.
The EVs were actually just from a spread that I had on an Infernape I had sitting in my game from someone who never picked it up. I have no clue what the EVs were specifically there to do, but they worked so I can’t really argue with it. I figured Focus Sash would be a good item due to Infernape’s frailty and I had Politoed to switch in to keep the item intact before I could lose it to weather damage. Using Naive over Hasty was a good call I would say due to all of the common priority moves being physical. Having that sliver of physical bulk saved me from dying to Mach Punches, Sucker Punches, and even Bullet punches.
Quarantine (Amoonguss) (F) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 212 HP / 108 Def / 188 SDef (0 Speed IV)
Sassy Nature
– Spore
– Rage Powder
– Giga Drain
– Substitute
This slot started as Cresselia because I found myself lacking something in the speed control department and I needed a better method for taking on Garchomp and Latios. Cresselia’s job at speed control was pretty awful for the team, but it did really help me with those threats. However after adding Bisharp, Cresselia was pretty useless as I could take on those dragons much easier with Bisharp. I thought about it and I still needed a good counter to not only Trick Room, but opposing rain teams as well. I brainstormed a bit with JiveTime and Nightblade7000 and eventually came to the idea of using Amoonguss as a Trick Room counter to underspeed all of their Trick Room abusing Pokemon and Spore them. It also gave me a better means to beat rain, so Amoonguss seemed like a perfect fit.
The moveset is pretty standard with the exception of Substitute over the usual Protect. I didn’t really like the feel of having Protect on a Pokemon like Amoonguss for some reason or another because it really rarely finds the actual need to Protect when it’s not using its other great moves. Substitute was probably not the best choice to replace it because it never got actual use outside of being a cool thing to use when practicing on GBU.
I had no idea where to really start with an EV spread and after Nightblade7000 suggested the idea he gave me an EV spread to use for it. The EVs allow it to take a non-boosted Metagross Zen Headbutt or a non-boosted Psychic from Modest Latios. The spread let Amoonguss do what it needed to do, so I was satisfied with it. I had been having some issues with Trick Room in the WiFi tournament, so I figured I would make my Amoonguss as slow as possible so it could underspeed all of the things that threaten me under Trick Room. Black Sludge and Regenerator provided decent recovery for Amoonguss, but it didn’t always last all that long for most of the matches anyway.
LethalStel (Bisharp) @ Dark Gem
Trait: Defiant
EVs: 220 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef / 28 Spd
Adamant Nature
– Low Kick
– Night Slash
– Sucker Punch
– Protect
It was getting to the last minute with regards to the VGCS Winter Battle and I had to decide on a Steel-type to use for this team. I didn’t really want to use Scizor due to its lackluster defenses and lack of a Rock-type resistance. Metagross made sense so I grabbed a random Metagross from my PC and just slapped it on my team. Little did I know, I ended up grabbing the Metagross I didn’t want and had to find out the hard way against Matty that it only had 4 Attack EVs and would do nothing compared to what I thought it was going to do. I can safely call this another team where Metagross has done close to nothing for me and lost me almost all of the battles that I used it. After the wifi tournament however, I considered a lot of what my main issues were. I ran into some huge problems with Trick Room Hail, specifically with Jellicent and Abomasnow, and strangely enough, Chandelure. After looking over my options and considering a few other things, Bisharp somehow came up as the most logical choice. The priority, resistances, and pressure that it brought to the team was just insane, and I personally love Bisharp as a Pokemon and having it finally work on a team was great for me.
The moveset is a little strange, but it did what it needed to do. Sucker Punch was a given since I was using Bisharp for the main purpose of killing offensive threats that think they can outspeed me and OHKO. I considered having Substitute or Swords Dance over Night Slash, but it would be really annoying when the other person just set up all over Bisharp and just wasted my time when I could be attacking. Trying to predict whether the other guy would attack or not could be an issue sometimes, so using both of the moves to the best of their ability usually took a great deal of good reads on my part. The 3rd attacking move was a decision between Iron Head, Psycho Cut, and Low Kick. I tested all three and they all worked on Bisharp really, but I just preferred Low Kick for this specific team.
I wanted my Bisharp to hit as hard as possible with it’s Sucker Punches to get the shot at OHKOing 4 HP Tornadus and Thundurus(-T) with a Dark Gem, so I simply started out with maxing out it’s Attack. I then wanted to EV it to be able to tank an Earthquake from a non-boosted Adamant Mamoswine or Garchomp. After that with whatever EVs I had leftover I just dumped into Speed and Special Defense. When I originally wanted to use Bisharp, I tried to give it a specially bulky spread but it didn’t prove to be effective so I dropped it. For this slot, and the reason why I chose Metagross at first, was because I wanted a physical attacker on my team that didn’t get screwed by Intimidate. Defiant was just godlike for this use — especially as the whole double Intimidate core is getting a lot more popular.
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Teammates!
o/ \o
Probably my favorite lead with this team and the most effective. Like Scott said in one of his WiFi tournament articles, to get a winning team going you need to have that easy win “fast mode.” This combo usually just wrecked most of the teams in the 2012 VGCS Winter Battle on its own or led the way so that I could just send in Politoed and Kingdra finish off. After looking over my regionals run, this was also the lead that I used in every single round of swiss just to go and show how solid this lead can be.
o/ \o
This is my favorite lead combination against most of the current teams that feature the double intimidate defensive core. It also serves as my “anti-Trick Room” lead with Infernape Faking Out turn 1 while Bisharp goes for serious damage on their Trick Room setter. I had wider uses that just that, so it was overall really good.
o/ \o
This lead helped me play safer against more semi-defensive teams where I could just Fake Out+Substitute turn 1 and Protect switch into Politoed turn 2 to pull of a quick Kingdra sweep that still kept insurance with Infernape+something else in the back.
o/ \o
Ah Polioted+Kingdra. Such a great combo in the 2013 metagame to just pull off an easy sweep and destroy unprepared teams. Kingdra just hits so danged hard with Politoed now passing Helping Hands to boost its already powerful rain and Life Orb boosted attacks. I actually hardly used this lead, but when I did it just did so much work.
o/ \o
If I know by looking at team preview that Infernape would end up useless against the opposing team and if they have their own weather setter, I’m usually more inclined to lead this duo. This lead combo puts a ton of pressure on the opponent most of the time and usually either provokes a switch or force them to lose a Pokemon. This combo was pretty great in the long run and I wish I would’ve gotten to use it more.
o/ \o
Another lesser used combo, but strong nonetheless. This lead has a lot of mind games to go along with it, and if pulled off right can be devastating to the other side if they chose the wrong move. But the same consequence went for me if I screwed up myself.
o/ \o
My Anti-rain combo. I could be fairly flexible with this lead and go for a Substitute+Rage Powder or a Protect+Spore to get rid of whatever was bothering Kingdra.
2012 VGCS Winter Battle
It was early December; finals were coming up and regionals were getting closer and closer. Then I found out that TPCi had decided to add a WiFi tournament to this busy time. I throw a team together a few days before it and it seems decent enough, so I go in just hoping for the best.
The first day didn’t go over so well for me as I took an early loss to Scott and then had a length of time where I couldn’t find anyone until I changed my DNS back to auto-obtain. I also had a few battles where I had to forfeit (that’s right forfeit, not disconnect) because I needed to leave and go somewhere. Contrary to what some people think, people have lives outside of Pokemon. I ended up battling quite a bit that night though and ended up with a rating around 1675.
I had finals to take Friday, so I had to leave in the morning and take those tests. Afterwards, I was free and able to get a good amount of battles in to end the day at about 1750. I had a few battles against Nugget Bridge players, such as Fatum and his hail room team which showed how incredibly weak my team is to that archetype.
I should have been free to play on Saturday, but I mostly spent the day goofing off and playing Minecraft which I’d purchased the day before. I was pretty much just fading in between playing the two games the entire day until I reached 1900 after back-to-back victories against R Inanimate and Matty around 2AM.
Between laziness, church, and other plans, I only got in about 4 games on Sunday to finish off the tournament. Finishing at 1936, I was fairly certain that I would make the top 16. I knew of a few players above my rating so I can’t tell you how surprised I was that I actually made first. TPCi really cracked down on the disconnectors this tournament. Managing to go through this entire tournament with only 4 disconnections from other people was really shocking and I just can’t really explain how that happened. I can’t really say that I “earned” 1st in this tournament because I know a few legitimate players who were unfortunately DQd, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles when you have spotty WiFi. It was still a bummer for some people.
I don’t remember all of the matches that I had with people from Nugget Bridge, but here’s a list of members I remember battling: Scott, Matty (twice), Cybertron, R Inanimate, N8thePWNr, JiveTime, MrBopper, kingofkongs, lamitie11, and I know that I’m missing a few others.
I have my matches with R Inanimate and N8thePWNr recorded and they can be found below and on the Nugget Bridge YouTube Channel.
(I’m not proud of this match because I played terribly and luck let me get away with my sloppy play. R Inanimate should’ve won, I know I got lucky and don’t need any more comments on that.)
Southern California Regional
I took the end product of the team to the Southern California Regional and this is how the tournament turned out for me:
Round 1: Bye
I start out the day against a player I’d been anticipating playing since the WiFi tournament. Bye is a strong player but after massive studying of his playstyle, I knew what to expect and take the match. He somehow manages to go undefeated the rest of the tournament and ignoring his loss to me. Weird but ok.
1-0
Round 2: Juan Guzman
Being my first actual match of the day, I was pretty nervous going in. We start the battle with my Infernape and Thundurus-T against his Mamoswine and Abomasnow. He fears the possible Fake Out from Infernape and goes for the safe double protect. I just went for the double attack with both Infernape and Thundurus-T not realizing my mistake until turn 2 where he double Ice Shards and KOs my Thundurus-T. I do manage to Heat Wave and bring down Abomasnow to Sash while Mamoswine avoids the attack. I send in Politoed to replace Thundurus-T and go for a Close Combat and Icy Wind to get a KO on both Mamoswine and Abomasnow. He Protects on Abomasnow as he goes out to Suicune to eat the Close Combat. He expects Suicune to stay alive this turn because it could take another Close Combat, but I get the kill on it with a Helping Hand boost and finish it off. His Abomasnow uses Energy Ball on Politoed for very low damage. After that it’s pretty much game as he sends in Hydreigon and I Close Combat that to OHKO and finish off his Abomasnow with Icy Wind. I’m kind of curious as to what item his Mamoswine had, but I’m nearly 100% sure that it was Bright Powder because when I was Close Combatting it to finish the game he seemed kind of hopeful that he could still win. Luckily it hit and I’ll never know.
2-0
Round 3: Zachary Feldman
After coming back from lunch and starting this round I was still a bit nervous. I see his team and it’s pretty standard stuff. I lead my Thundurus-T and Infernape against his Gastrodon and Hitmontop. Turn 1 ends up being a pretty terrible start for me as I go for a double target on his Hitmontop with a Fake Out + Hidden Power Flying to kill it off. When I Fake Out the Hitmontop, it turns out that he has Eject Button so not only do I not get the kill on his Hitmontop but my Thundurus-T also ends up getting frozen by his Gastrodon’s Ice Beam. His Hydreigon is in easy KO range for my Infernape, so he switches out to Chandelure to take the Close Combat as I hope and pray Thundurus-T un-thaws so it can Hidden Power Flying the Gastrodon. Doesn’t happen and he Ground Gem Earth Powers Infernape to bring it down to Focus Sash. After some more back and forth plays and Thundurus-T never un-thawing it ends with my low health Kingdra vs his Sucker Punch Hitmontop. I had enough HP to make a Substitute, but for some reason I didn’t click it and just die to a Sucker Punch. Really regret this match, but what more could I do now.
2-1
Round 4: Robert Vander Veer
I was pretty discouraged after that last loss, but I pushed it out of my mind and focused as I hit Team Preview of the 4th round. I lead Infernape and Thundurus-T against his Staraptor and Dusclops. I figured that it was Scarf Staraptor and that I did not want it thing killing one of my Pokemon, so go for the Fake Out and Volt Switch to kill it and send in Bisharp. But that turns out to be awful for me as he went for a Will-O-Wisp on my Thundurus-T meaning I now had a burned Bisharp. I just used Inferape and Bisharp to slowly kill the Ninetales and Dusclops until Bisharp died then used Thundurus-T to clean up. He sends out Leipard and at that point it’s 3-on-1 so it’s pretty much over. I just go for the attack expecting it to live because it has a Focus Sash, but it turns out to be Normal Gem Fake Out and it falls to my Thundurus-T after Infernape got Faked Out.
3-1
Round 5: Street James
So I look at Team Preview to see the only Tyranitar (and Trick Room team) that I would see all day. I really can’t remember much of this battle, but it did have its weird moments. Like turn 2 after I Faked Out and Volt Switched off of his Musharna as Tyranitar protected, I’m fairly certain his Tyranitar is Chople Berry andwanted it dead right away. So I go for the Close Combat and Low Kick to finish it off. However it was probably Dark Gem or something like it because it died to a Close Combat and I ended up looking like an idiot Low Kicking his Musharna. He also ends up getting Trick Room set up to make matters worse. With some switching to stall out Trick Room it ends up being my Infernape, Politoed, and Thundurus-T against his Burned Meinshao and something else. I’m still iffy on who won at this point, but then Thundurus-T outspeeds and OHKOs Mienshao and I pretty much take the game from there.
4-1
Round 6: Willy Herrera
I wasn’t too scared during Team Preview, but the battle itself got pretty intense. I start my normal Infernape and Thundurus-T leads as he goes for Metagross and Whimsicott. I saw his game and I was actually pretty threatened by what he was doing. I go for the Heat Wave+Thunderbolt to try and KO Metagross and bring Whimsicott down to it’s Focus Sash. He protects Metagross and goes for Tailwind and it seems pretty obvious what he was going for next, but there was nothing I could do about it. Next turn he Protects his Whimsicott and explodes with Metagross killing my Thundurus-T and bringing Infernape down to Focus Sash. Though as he Protected with Whimsicott, I was able to Feint him to bring it down for the count. I’m up 3 to his 2 right now, but he sends in Froslass and Tauros and I start to realize how bad of a situation I’m in. I can’t remember the exact events, but it ends up being his +6 Tauros and Froslass against my Politoed and Kingdra. If I missed the next Muddy Water on his Tauros, I would lose. Luckily both Muddy Waters hit and I win the game.
5-1
Round 7: Enosh Shachar (Human)
I look at the match up sheet and my heart sank thinking my run was over. Before the tournament I talked with Human a bit about my team, but I was lucky enough to leave out some details that would help in battle. I start out the match leading Infernape and Thundurus-T against his Politoed and Kingdra. He Protects with Kingdra going for the safe play as I go for the Feint and Thunderbolt to knock it out. To make matters worse for him, he misses Hydro Pump on my Thundurus-T. After some mind games and other things, it ends up being my Thundurus-T against his Thundurus. It all comes down to if he can roll a high enough damage roll on my Thundurus-T to KO, but he doesn’t get it, netting me the win as I KO his Thundurus. Really insane match, and I was lucky enough to get all the breaks I needed to win.
6-1
Round 8: Matthew Dunham (TheCalmSnivy)
With the number of 6-1s going into this round I knew that I needed to win this match if I wanted to make top cut. We were both had really high opponent win percentages, but nothing was guaranteed at this point. You can actually watch our match, so I won’t give you all the usual commentary. All that I’ll say about the match is that getting the burn on his Conkeldurr was big, but I’m still not too sure how the match would’ve gone without the burn.
7-1: Top Cut!
Top 8: Duy Ha (Duy)
Game 1
I was really scared of his Cresselia/Hydreigon/Ludicolo going into the match, but for some reason I decided to bring the one Pokémon I have that doesn’t do well against his team. I lead Infernape and Thundurus-T as he leads Hydreigon and Cresselia. He switches out Hydreigon and attacks with Cresselia and I don’t really remember what I did here. All I really remember is after he got Trick Room set up, I was in a terrible spot and my only chance was keeping Thundurus-T alive to kill his Ludicolo. However Thundurus-T gets crit with a Giga Drain and Ice Beam and that’s pretty much that.
0-1
Game 2
Lesson learned going into this match up: Amoonguss was gonna shine big time. If I could get him to set up Trick Room again, I could simply just spore everything and take it out with the rest. He didn’t really have much to take out Amoonguss either, so it just made it all the easier to win the match.
The video of the battle can be seen here:
1-1
Game 3
The pressure is on. Duy knows not to be so reckless with setting up Trick Room this time around and managesto get a Swift Swim Ludicolo and Rain Dish Cresselia up early. To be brutally honest I nearly gave up at this point, but Amoonguss still gave me a chance before it got KO’d. It all comes down to my half health Kingdra and Politoed against his full health Iron Fist Conkeldurr. Looking at Kingdra’s HP at the time I was thinking that Mach Punch could easily KO, but damage calcs would prove me wrong later on. However we never got to test if it would kill of not in battle as he targets Politoed when I go for the Helping Hand Draco Meteor to KO Conkeldurr.
The video of the battle can be watched here as well:
2-1 Easily my favorite games of the day, but sorry only one of us could move on from Top 8.
Top 4: Enosh Shachar (Human)
Game 1
I knew I didn’t really have much of a chance going into this match due to the rough match up and a very shaky game plan. I go in with an okay match-up to start with Thundurus-T and Amoonguss against his Politoed and Thundurus. My back 2 Pokemon though were pretty terrible for the match-up. I knew I had to save the Thundurus-T and Amoonguss the most, but reckless playing gets them both asleep at one point. He says gg at this point and I would had had to agree with him too. Luckily though, they both get first turn wake ups which help me get better footing in the battle. And then for the final nail in the coffin, he misses a Draco Meteor on my Amoonguss and I finish it off from there.
The video of the battle can be watched here:
1-0
Game 2
I didn’t really have much to think about this match, so I just tried to go for a lead that would go well against both the leads he used in the previous games I played him. So I end up leading Kingdra and Amoonguss with Bisharp and Thundurus-T in the back and he goes with Thundurus and Politoed as his leads with Kingdra and Amoonguss in the back. The match is pretty fuzzy, but all I can remember was Human saying he had to Thunder Wave with his Thundurus the first time all day in this match as he tried to Thunder Wave my Kingdra. However, Amoonguss kept Rage Powdering the Thunder Waves away until it got full paralyzed and couldn’t protect Kingdra any more. There wasn’t really much hax in this match aside from some full paralyzes, but they really didn’t matter in the long run as I took the game.
2-0
Game 2 was pretty one sided in my favor even though Human played it out pretty well himself. Kind of a rough way to go out, but that’s the game we play.
Finals: Jacob Burrows (Noobly9730)
Game 1
I have a great start leading Bisharp and Infernape against his Hitmontop and Cresselia. Bisharp has a good chance to take care of his Cresselia with a Dark Gem Night Slash while Infernape Fakes Out Hitmontop. It doesn’t turn out to be so simple as he Thunder Waves my Infernape with Cresselia and lives my attack with 1 HP exactly. I have no idea why I didn’t go for the Feint here to finish off the Cresselia, but instead I go for the Heat Wave thinking he would Psychic Infernape and Close Combat Bisharp. Instead he Rests with Cresselia and I’m pretty much out of luck with trying to kill it now. The rest of the battle I couldn’t really get any momentum going as Infernape gets full paralyzed at every turn and Kingdra gets critical hit on a switch into a Close Combat. I have so many regrets about this battle, but I just have to suck it up and move on.
The video of the battle can be watched here:
0-1
Game 2
I decide to change up my strategy knowing how useless Infernape was and how helpless Bisharp was as a lead. I lead Politoed and Kingdra to his Hitmontop and Cresselia once again and start off with predicting his moves pretty well. I figure once Kingdra is safe behind a substitute he’ll probably go for the double attack to try and kill Kingdra. I kind of play it stupid by not Helping Hand Muddy Watering and letting Kingdra go down that turn, but after that he isn’t able to touch Bisharp and Politoed as they sweep without being hit.
The video of the battle can be watched here:
1-1
Game 3
I start out leading the same Politoed and Kingdra this time as it seemed to have a really good match up against nearly his entire team. He leads Garchomp and Cresselia, and turn 1 I think he might go for a Dragon Claw or Earthquake and Thunder Wave Kingdra. I go for the safe move and Icy Wind with Politoed and Protect with Kingdra. He actually makes a really good play and double targets Politoed. It wouldn’t normally kill but he gets a double critical hit on Politoed with both Dragon Claw and Psyshock. I was in a pretty terrible spot after that and after I found out it was Haban Berry Garchomp there was really nothing I could do. It ends with Thundurus-T against his Metagross, Cresselia, and Garchomp giving me no way to win out.
1-2 Not the best way to go out, but Jacob played that last game pretty well so he definitely did the work to earn it. Congratulations Jacob! I then go home with the prospect of $600 waiting for me at Nationals in Indianapolis.
All in All
It was a pretty good run with this one team, going from a quickly put together team of some ideas that I wanted to try out to winning the 2012 VGCS Winter Battle and then taking me to 2nd place at a regional. I never would’ve imagined doing this well with the team, but I can’t say that I’m not satisfied with the 120 CP, $600 travel stipend, and round 1 bye at Nationals. More than likely won’t be using this team at nationals, so we’ll see what I can come up with between now and then. Thanks for reading!
I also wrote up a story about the non-Pokémon related fun I had that weekend which I hope you’ll give a read!
Article image created by feathers for Nugget Bridge. View more of her artwork on her tumblr or Nugget Bridge forums thread.
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