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Published on October 18th, 2012 | by Hayden M.

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Hayden’s Hexagon: 2013 San Jose Regionals Masters Runner-Up Team Analysis

If you ask anyone who has ever met me (especially those that I know particularly well, such as friends and family), one of my biggest flaws is that I talk a lot. In every aspect of my life, this is a bittersweet combination of a blessing and a curse (I mean, just look at the title of the article). Hopefully, when it comes to writing an analysis, this proves to be a blessing. And thus, without further ado, let us get to the actual meat of the article.

While I have been playing Pokemon for my whole life — I was in Elementary School when it first came out — I have only been playing it competitively since I first learned what EV training was, back in the HGSS days. It took me even longer to understand IVs, and in the 2012 Regionals earlier this year, I had concluded that the best I could do with IVs was non-RNG breeding and trying to get as many IVs as possible using a fairly complicated and overall ineffective method. It wasn’t until I read a certain article on 5th Gen RNG that I was actually able to make a competitive team.

In the time between my introduction to the competitive scene and my introduction to not being godawful in the competitive scene, however, I played the Pokemon TCG. While a fun game, it was really hard for me to get by without worrying about typing and weakness before every match-up. That is why, even though I never used it myself, I was quite interested in the idea behind a deck called “Six Corners.” To those of you who are unfamiliar with it, the idea behind it was to use several different types of Pokemon, as opposed to the usual 1-3 types per deck, and hit the opponent for weakness, dealing major damage without giving them much time to retaliate.

That’s the idea that I built my team, which I named “Six Corners,” around. The team basically consists of bulky, high-powered Pokemon that work well together to exploit weaknesses in the current metagame. I’d like to call it anti-meta, if I may. If not, then we’ll just call it weakness/neutral beatdown.

Six Corners

garchomp
Garchomp (Dragonshy) @ Yache Berry
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
– Dragon Claw
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Protect

Let’s start with the most popular Pokemon in the entire game, based on the 2012 Autumn Friendly usage results. Mine was a standard set, using the Dragon-, Rock-, and Ground-type moves for all-around nice coverage. I decided to max out Speed, leaving the outspeeding of any other Garchomp to “Hope that they didn’t have the chance to Icy Wind me!” and a coin flip (let’s not talk about the results of that bet, shall we…?).

Some people asked me why I went with Sand Veil as my ability instead of Rough Skin. Well…the idea was that Sand Veil would be used to put me on (somewhat) even footing with the Sandstorm teams that I was expecting to face. While Rough Skin is actually useful in most match-ups, as opposed to Sand Veil being dead if I’m fighting any team not focused around Sandstorm, I decided that the bet for a Sandstorm equalizer (the best word I can think of for this situation) was more important to my team as a whole.

…I also didn’t have a Rough Skin Garchomp, but that’s neither here nor there.

For one final note, the Yache Berry. Garchomp has so many viable item choices, but I ended up deciding on this one. Why?

Well, I was really just terrified of having to deal with being OHKO’d by an Ice Beam to the face. While the extra speed or power from a Choice item would have been a welcome addition in a Garchomp War (is that a thing? It should be a thing. Let’s make it a thing.), Ice-type attacks are so prevalent in our metagame — Cresselia, Rain teams, that one guy who hates Dragon-types so much and thinks that anyone who uses them is the “dumbest, lamest, most uncreative super noob that has ever walked the Earth…” — that I couldn’t bring myself to use anything other than one of my favorite Berries.

But this is the standard item, so perhaps I did not need to go into so much detail.

rotom-wash
Rotom-W (Fl. Wonder) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpAtk / 4 SDef
Modest Nature (+SpAtk, -Atk)
– Discharge
– Hidden Power (Ice)
– Hydro Pump
– Protect

Here he is, the MVP of my team. There is no chance at all that I would have won any of my games if this little buddy had not been on them. He was the only Pokemon I used in every game of the day, and the only one with the bulk to last from beginning to end (sometimes).

That being said, I consider this to be a standard Rotom-W set. Hydro Pump was able to outright murder anyone even 2x weak to it. Though I did not use it too much due to the lack of pure Sandstorm teams, the large amount of opposing Tyranitar (and one Hippowdon) ensured that I did not regret my decision. And that’s not to mention what the move did to Pokemon that took neutral damage from it, especially the generally squishy ones…

Discharge managed to check the skies and seas, and its was the only reason that I was able to beat the Rain team I fought during Swiss. Hidden Power Ice dealt with the 4x weak Dragon-type Pokemon, as well as dealing reasonable damage to Thundurus when I was unable to use Discharge for any reason (see: Garchomp is not out, used Protect the last turn, etc.).

Of course, I can’t go without mentioning the item choice. No matter how standard it may be considered, it is worth noting that Sitrus Berry is what helps Rotom-W retain its tank status, combining with its amazing defenses (and notably awful HP) to allow it to take far more attacks than I ever would have expected before testing it out on my team.

virizion
Virizion @ Fighting Gem
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SpAtk)
– Close Combat
– Leaf Blade
– Stone Edge
– Protect

Grass has always been my favorite Pokemon type… Sadly, it is one of the least competitive. There are, however, a few Grass-type Pokemon that manage to alleviate this sadness, Virizion being one of them.

When you look up “Virizion”, the physical set is the first one that you’ll find. While there is a special set that can match this one (I’m told), I like this one simply because I prefer Close Combat over Focus Blast: Cresselia is common enough that I simply don’t have the luxury to allow for a 70% accuracy risk. Thus, the physical set.

There’s not much else to say about this set; Virizion was mostly around to help pick up the slack that Rotom might not always be able to carry against the Rain teams that I expected to see (even though I only ran into one). Thus, Leaf Blade is a given, hitting those pesky Water-types for super effective damage, though it can also hit a large number of popular Pokemon for heavy neutral damage.

Close Combat, as mentioned before, has its drawbacks, but it makes up for them with the 100% accuracy. Virizion is squishy enough anyways (barring Sp. Def, but I’m thinking more Psyshock here, anyways) that I don’t particularly mind the defense drop.

Stone Edge was there for pesky Flying-types (I’m looking at the Kami Trio, here), but mostly because I did not feel comfortable with any other options. X-Scissor might have been nice, but the Cresselia I would have ended up using it on wouldn’t have minded it, so I’m overall fine with my choice. …Although I did not use it even once all day.

If I were to go back and change things, I might have given Virizion something other than the Fighting Gem. While it was certainly useful for giving some Pokemon more damage than they would have normally taken from Close Combat, I wonder if maybe I should have simply given Virizion the Life Orb and stuck Hydreigon with something different like a Gem, perhaps, or a Choice item. Or maybe I should have given my fair Virizion a Grass Gem instead… Well, what is done is done, but it is hard to stop thinking about it.

hydreigon
Hydreigon (Galashy) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SpAtk, -Atk)
– Fire Blast
– Draco Meteor
– Dark Pulse
– Protect

One of the more popular Gen 5 Pokemon, Hydreigon was a Pokemon that I hesitated to put on my team. In the end, I chose Hydreigon over Latios mostly due to Cresselia, a Pokemon that I expected to see much of during this tournament. And boy, was I right…

Another standard set, if you ask me (see a pattern?). There tend to be a few choices when debating between moves, though, so allow me to explain my own.

In the debate between Draco Meteor and Dragon Pulse, I ended up deciding on the former mostly because I expected Hydreigon to either kill or be killed by the time the Special Attack drop mattered, which ended up being the case. Fire Blast and Flamethrower faced a similar debate, but I fired off so few of them during the tournament (did I even use a single one? Can any of my opponents testify…?) that it ended up not mattering. Still, I liked Fire Blast’s power, deciding it was worth the risk of an accuracy drop.

Now, Dark Pulse: alongside Protect, this is Hydreigon’s most used move and the sole reason I kept him on the team. With Life Orb, Hydreigon was able to two-shot most Cresselia, leaving the rest of the work to a second Dark Pulse, or another teammate (occasionally I’d use Garchomp’s Dragon Claw to weaken the opposing Cresselia if it had nothing better to do and I thought I could get away with it).

The item choice was simply “Life Orb for the power boost.” I figured a single Fighting-type attack would end Hydreigon anyway, so why not go all-out while I could? Life Orb is probably the only reason I was able to two-shot Cresselia, anyway.

metagross
Metagross (Moeshy) @ Occa Berry
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
– Meteor Mash
– Bullet Punch
– Earthquake
– Protect

Metagross was one of the two most underused Pokemon on my team, but whenever I did use him, he managed to play a significant role. As you all know, Metagross is a tank. He takes attacks even better than my Rotom due mostly to the fact that his HP is not completely atrocious. Thanks to that, he was able to switch into Cresselia’s Icy Wind and Ice Beam really well, even though he was mostly sitting around and waiting for the Hail teams that I expected to see (at least one!). Fortunately or unfortunately, they never came, leaving Metagross to instead take some time to read a book, pay taxes, or whatever else he may have done while waiting for Top Cut, where he saw most of his usage.

The set is fairly sta– alright, I’m starting to sound like a broken record here. You all understand that each of my individual Pokemon has nothing particularly special about them (again, as an individual) at this point, right? Good, then I’ll quit with the disclaimer.

In any case, the moves. Meteor Mash was there as a nice STAB move to complement Metagross’ monstrous attack. Whenever Metagross came out, a Meteor Mash was sure to follow close by. Bullet Punch mostly came in handy for picking off Pokemon who were running low on HP. If there were more Ice-Types around, I probably would have spammed it a bit more, but they weren’t and I didn’t. Earthquake goes well with the two powerful Levitate-using Pokemon on my team. Not much to say about it beyond that…uh, it kills things? A lot?

Yeah, let’s go with that.

The idea behind the Occa Berry is that I wanted Metagross to be able to take as many of the strong Fire-type moves that I expected before he went down, hopefully retaliating with an Earthquake at least once before dying. Well, since I only fought against one Fire-type all day, I’m almost ready to say that it was a wasted Berry, but…it actually wasn’t, considering that Fire-type was a Chandelure, and I am not not entirely sure if Metagross would have been able to take its Sp. Atk to the face without some serious repercussions.

volcarona
Volcarona (Flutterguy) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SpAtk, -Atk)
– Heat Wave
– Bug Buzz
– Hidden Power (Ice)
– Protect

The last member of my team. It bugged me how little he was able to come into play, despite the ideas I had for him. Granted, he fulfilled most of those ideas, but less often than I was expecting. Much like Metagross, he was one of the least-used members of my team, sitting on the sidelines for most of Swiss, possibly all, but I can’t quite remember for sure.

Volcarona was added mostly in preparation for Scizor, Metagross, or any other annoying Steel-types I might have run into. As an added bonus, I was hoping that it might be able to, alongside Hydreigon, do something about any Sun teams that might block my path. In the end, Volcarona was used only as a back-up Cresselia killer (which didn’t work out too well) and my go-to Pokemon for the one Scizor I fought all day. While I’d consider those worthwhile ventures, I’m wondering if perhaps there could have been a better choice of Pokemon for the job, maybe one that doesn’t have such a problem with Rock Slide, like Heatran.

Heat Wave over Flamethrower wasn’t something I struggled over: even if each target receives less damage than normal, the overall damage is nothing to scoff over. And that’s not to mention how both of them have the chance to get burned… Bug Buzz was mostly thrown in there for a non-spread STAB attack, but being able to have the option to use it against Cresselia was a plus, too. It also helped to knock out any Tyranitar that Virizion may have failed to finish off. Hidden Power Ice was a back-up to Rotom’s, used to hit the most threatening Dragon-types for as much damage as possible, hopefully knock-out.

The Focus Sash did not actually come in handy as much as I thought it would. Every time I was prepared for a Rock Slide to come down on my Volcarona and the Sash to kick in…it didn’t. Of course, this only proves that the biggest flaws of standard sets is that people tend to know them. Because, you know, they’re standard. That’s basically the definition.

Closing Thoughts

There’s not much else to say about my team. I could mention that Rotom-W + Garchomp was my main leading team of the day, but that much is probably fairly easy to infer… After all, while it doesn’t happen often, a nice Earthquake + Discharge combo is beautiful.

In the end, I’d like to think that my desire for an anti-meta VGC “Six Corners” was a success. It was a fun team, and definitely much better than my 2012 Regionals’ team. Yeah…I really don’t want to talk about that one…

How would I improve this team? Well, if I were given the chance to go back in time and use different Pokemon, I would probably replace Metagross with a Heatran and Volcarona with a Tyranitar. Of course, I’d test more to see if those would be good ideas, but for now, there’s not much I can do about that. Hey, maybe I’ll make them anyway, test online, and report how things work out.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my by now far too lengthy article. It has been an honor to win 2nd place at my Regionals, and I hope to do my best to ensure that I receive an even higher placing in the future. Thanks to all of the opponents I faced on that day, too — not even one of you was an easy opponent, and for that I was thankful.

Congratulations once more to the winner, Kamran (Kamz). May nobody doubt that he deserved the title of best in Northern California: he was the better player, and one that I was honored to face.

And that’s the end of it. Good luck at the following Regionals, everyone. I hope to see you at Nationals!

Article image created by feathers for Nugget Bridge. View more of her artwork on her tumblr.


About the Author

While his school may recognize him as a teacher in training, do not be fooled. In reality, Hayden Morrison is the one who does the training- Pokemon training! A competitive battler of three years, Hayden hopes to make a name for himself in the Pokemon community so he can have something to tell his students about...when he finally has his own students, of course.



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