Liepard Returns: Arnhem Champion and Beyond Team Analysis
Hello Internet. Earlier in the year, Europe had its first ever Regional level tournament in Arnhem, The Netherlands. As the new VGC ’15 format was both so new and open, I thought it would be fun to re-introduce my successful VGC ’13 Worlds team to the metagame.
Perhaps a somewhat lucky run through the Swiss rounds placed me in the top 8 cut. From here, I did not drop a game putting me at 12-1 for the entire tournament and becoming the first ever European Regional Champion.
You can watch my entire tournament run in this playlist:
As for the team, I continued to plough through Premier Challenges with it, with four Premier Challenge 1st place finishes and one 9th placing. I also made minor changes and felt pretty confident entering the German Nationals a few weeks ago. Unfortunately that did not go so well, although mainly due to bad plays on my behalf. This team, with some luck, did top cut the UK National last weekend, but could not go any further through it, thus resulting in my first top cut loss this season.
Perhaps this is an appropriate time to finally reveal my sets, spreads and changes I have made to adapt the team to the current VGC ’15 format. Therefore, I included below videos introducing the team, and detailing the moves, spreads and roles of each member.
The Team
Liepard
Liepard @ Black Glasses
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 156 HP / 100 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Foul Play
– Fake Out
– Swagger
– Encore
Good old Liepard. This set is very similar to my Worlds 2013 version with Swagger instead of Trick (as used in late 2013) or Taunt (as used in 2014). The Black Glasses replaced Dark Gem to pick up some useful 2HKOs and OHKOs at +2.
Scizor
Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 92 Atk / 4 Def / 156 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Knock Off
– Bullet Punch
– Swords Dance
– Protect
Scizor kept its place on the team and gained the place as the Mega evolution. Bullet Punch is essential for neutralising Fairies, and the inclusion of Knock Off gives me another option against Aegislash and provides item scouting utility.
Breloom
Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Bullet Seed
– Mach Punch
– Spore
– Protect
No surprises here, no changes here. Breloom is still a great Pokémon, but the new Spore and Sleep mechanics as well as the introduction of Safety Goggles means Breloom has to be played much more carefully.
Cresselia
Cresselia @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 28 Def / 200 SpA / 8 SpD / 172 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 SpA / 28 SpD
– Psychic
– Hidden Power [Ground]
– Icy Wind
– Calm Mind
Cresselia @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 4 Def / 200 SpA / 8 SpD / 196 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 SpA / 28 SpD
– Psychic
– Hidden Power [Ground]
– Icy Wind
– Calm Mind
I went back to the Calm Mind set, since Cresselia at +1 is a monster. Moreover, in order to provide me with another option against the vastly popular and greatly threatening Heatran, Hidden Power Ground was included on this set. The newer version of Cresselia on the right outspeeds Modest 252 Heatran and base 125 at -1.
Terrakion
Terrakion @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 68 HP / 148 Atk / 36 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Close Combat
– Rock Slide
– Substitute
– Protect
Terrakion @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 68 HP / 148 Atk / 36 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Close Combat
– Rock Slide
– Rock Tomb
– Protect
Because Substitute sees less viability with Hyper Voice, Rock Tomb was included on the newer version as a means of avoiding Wide Guard. It also provided my team with more Speed control and it was a slightly more accurate alternative to Rock Slide.
Thundurus
Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 164 HP / 32 Def / 52 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Taunt
– Thunder Wave
Thundurus @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 36 HP / 220 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Taunt
– Thunder Wave
Thundurus was the team member that changed the most after Arnhem. It went from a defensive version with Sitrus Berry to an offensive Life Orb version that threatened OHKOs on most Charizards and could do a substantial amount of damage to everything else. The most unconvincing member of the team split half way between offensive sweeper and support.
Thank you for watching/reading! Feel free to try the team out yourself; it is harder to use than it looks! What is next for Liepard? …who knows!
About the Author
Baz Anderson has a wealth of knowledge and experience playing Pokémon VGC, most notably placing 9th at Worlds in 2013 and becoming Nugget Bridge Invitational Champion in 2014. He works as an animal ranger, writes as a heavy metal critic and has a degree in Psychology.
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13 Responses to Liepard Returns: Arnhem Champion and Beyond Team Analysis
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Great team, and I love the video analysing each member, as well as the brief history of the team
I enjoy all of the analyses you put up, Baz, and this team is no exception. Thanks for giving me plenty of hours to waste away watching one of the best Poketubers on the Internet! I hope Milan goes better for you than the other National events have treated you so far, but I don’t have any doubt that you can perform extremely well.
Hello Baz!
I finished watching all the video analyses earlier today, just before this article got put up, and I really enjoyed them as always
I also wanted to just say a huge “Thank you”, as you have really helped me step up my game, Baz. This year saw my first seriously competitive season, as well as my first live tournaments in the Germany and UK Nationals, and I think that it’s safe to say that your videos more than anything else has helped me find my playstyle et cetera (that video in particular was really amazing!).
Who knows, maybe next year I’ll actually say hello to you in one of the Nationals, this year I was a bit too Quiet to do so…
Haven’t gotten around to watching the videos yet, but it’s pretty inspiring to see a player update a favorite team from 2013 to work well in 2015. I’ve been working on updating my 2013 team with Mega Steelix on the side, even though this is supposed to be my off-season lol. It’s so close to being done, but there’s still some kinks to iron out. Maybe next season…
I also love that you used Rock Tomb on Terrakion. It’s such a good move, I’m glad to see it slowly catch on. Good luck the rest of the season!
WOW
I love you Baz
Really awesome to read this before I went to Nats. I watched all the videos but some text is always refreshing. Good luck in Milan!
Awesome report dude, tough one to call which team I prefer out of this and your Invitational team in 2014. Both were so well thought out and have been a great insight into your approach to team building. All the best for the rest of the season (now you really can’t bring this team again XD….. go Parasect team!).
Hope I can ask this question, although a bit unrelated to the report itself:
Have you run into cases where Liepard is majorly suffering 4MSS? I’ve been using Liepard for a while and I keep wishing that I could have both Thunder Wave, Taunt, and Swagger on the same set, as I feel my team would benefit from all 3. However, after shuffling the 4th move around with all 3, I couldn’t really decide which was the better one, so I just ditched changing my Liepard and was appraently left with Taunt as the 4th move. My actual question would be: how would you assess which 4th move is the better move for the team? I play Eject Button Liepard, but I might switch to Black Glasses if I ever use Swagger in the future. I’ve also thought of ditching Encore, but I’m pretty sure people will pick up on if my Liepard doesn’t have Encore pretty fast and Fake Out priority Encore is kinda the main thing that makes Liepard bidoof scary.
Reading your take on Lieloom back in 2013 had me try out the combination this year, aiding me in nabbing my first (and only) Premier Challenge! Thank you for the inspiration.
My only comment is that you wrote down Scizor’s ability as Technician. If you were going to Mega Evolve Scizor anyway, wouldn’t Light Metal be the superior option?
Thanks for your comments! Glad you seem to enjoy this video format – amusingly I think the Terrakion has the most interesting spread/moveset, yet has the least views, haha.
Witchard: I am undecided with what I will take to Milan, but Liepard is always an option. It’s not like everyone didn’t know it already.
Zekira Drake: I have not had so much stress over Liepard’s four moves as I have Thundurus. Perhaps you need another supporting Pokémon on your team if you feel it is over-stretched.
MissingNoL: I suppose it would be able to switch into Low Kicks better, but that is about it. Sometimes if my opponent put TR up, I might want to keep Scizor normal for a little while for the lower Speed.
Hmm, maybe. I just feel so obsessed with speed control that I don’t think the Tailwind I’m using on the team it’s on (it’s on a Zapdos) is enough. I don’t use Taunt as often and I have different ways to deal with Trick Room on the team… although Taunt has been very useful in taking down Calm Mind Cresselia a few times. My team does have a weakness to fire-types though, and… that might actually signal me to use Swagger since most Fire-types really don’t like getting hit by it. Maybe I’ll also replace Eject Button with either Glasses or Sash to be really annoying…
Thanks to your analisis I’ve ran Liepard, Scizor and Suicune instaed of Cresselia -like in one of your teams- for set up control. I love that style and I will keep trying. If anything I agree, Thundurus is a bit lack luster at the end of the day where it counts -specially the offensive variant – I had the same problems with a team involving double speed mode.
Once again thanks for this team that has indeed come across generations