Reports

Published on June 19th, 2014 | by Gazooki666

7

Magical Manchester Misadventures: A UK Nationals Report

Hi, I’m Gazooki, best known for such wonderful things as inadvertantly getting fellow Brit Kinneas disqualified from the 2010 Pokémon World Championships and showing up very much worse for wear at the VGC ’13 UK National Championships before pulling through and making 48th place with a team based around Marowak of all things. This year though, I had an even crazier plan…

The History of the Mono-Fairy Team

Some of you will inevitably wonder how the idea to run a monotype team came about, and that’s a simple enough question. Before the Fairy type had been revealed, many members on IRC were adamant that all the rumours flying around were ridiculously false, and I was the one who stood firm and insisted that this new type would indeed be in Pokémon X and Y. Thus, I made the pledge that if Fairy became a new type, I would play the entire VGC ’14 season with nothing but Fairy Pokémon. Other people on IRC, such as my good friend Matthew Hoyle (Aren142), decided to follow suit, all coming up with their own crazy monotype teams, but as the event drew ever closer, many dropped out, leaving just me and Hoyle as the last men standing.

My initial team looked very different to its current form, utilizing the powerful Ability Pixilate and the odd mechanics of Round in order to deal massive damage as quickly as possible. Dedenne had a Choice Scarf to give it even more Speed, Slurpuff had a Normal Gem so that after one Round it would actually be fast enough to be a threat. Although this team was hilarious to use and sometimes made short work of unprepared opponents, it was severely flawed and definitely wouldn’t carry me through eight or nine rounds (pun not intended) of Swiss, so I went back to the drawing board.

I completely dispensed with most of the Pokémon on my previous team in favour of a strategy that used the slowness of most Fairy types to its advantage in a Trick Room setting. However, unlike three-times Worlds champion Ray Rizzo, I was unable to find a good way of using Wigglytuff, so the Normal/Fairy with a Competitive streak didn’t stick around for long.

I ended up using this team at the Manchester Grassroots Tournament in February. I had finally transitioned to a stage where I was comfortable using five of these team members, but Aromatisse was starting to feel out of place. I was underwhelmed by its lack of power, and all it seemed to do was faint before doing anything of use. Half the time it wouldn’t even be able to get Trick Room up, whereas Gardevoir had more opportunities to do so due to people not knowing which set I was running right away.

After seeing how well Wolfe’s Mr. Mime dealt with the dreaded Double Dragons, I swapped out Aromatisse for something that changed the team dynamic dramatically. Instead of focusing on Trick Room solely, I now had three different forms of Speed control available to me: Thunder Wave from Klefki, Trick Room from Gardevoir, and Icy Wind from Mr. Mime. The additional support of Wide Guard and Quick Guard was something I really liked since it kept certain threats at bay, forcing my opponent to change tactics.

The Final Team

Peacock (Klefki) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 SDef
Nature: Bold
– Safeguard
– Swagger
– Substitute
– Thunder Wave

Right from the start I knew I wanted to use these little jangly keys not just for the Prankster support, but also for its Steel-/Fairy-typing. This grants Klefki a dual-immunity against Dragon- and Poison-type moves, which stops Toxic stall in its tracks. Safeguard is almost a necessity when you’re running three physical-attacking Pokémon (to prevent any burns from Will-O-Wisp). Safeguard also allows the nullification of the confusion effect of Swagger, which grants an instant +2 boost to my physical attackers (providing it hits, of course). Thunder Wave makes it easier to handle the likes of Mega Kangaskhan by dragging its Speed down to the point where my team can hammer away at it with impunity. Substitute allows Klefki to avoid attacks and block moves like Leech Seed that can’t be stopped by Safeguard. Without Foul Play, this set can be vulnerable to Taunt, but this year Taunt was surprisingly rare.

The nature and EVs are pretty standard. This set prevents Mega Kangaskhan from doing any massive damage, and at -1, a Talonflame without Choice Band can’t knock it out. Some EVs were invested in Special Defense to help against Heat Waves from Chandeulre and Mega Charizard-Y.

Nickname Trivia: In Skullgirls, Peacock is an orphaned girl rescued from slave traders by a scientist, Dr Avian, and turned into a deranged cybernetic killing machine with a soft spot for old cartoons. Her mischievous nature and tricky, zoning-based playstyle fits perfectly with the status-based shenanigans of Klefki.

Filia (Mawile) @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Atk / 76 SDef
Nature: Adamant
– Iron Head
– Play Rough
– Sucker Punch
– Protect

When Mega Mawile was revealed, I knew I had my Mega slot sorted out for my Mono-Fairy team. I was hopeful that it would actually be good and not turn out to be utterly underwhelming, and thankfully GameFreak answered my prayers by making it one of the best Mega Evolutions available. Its role in the team is relatively simple: punch holes in everything with its massive Attack stat. Even without fully investing EVs in its Attack, you can still destroy pretty much anything with a couple of hits from Mega Mawile thanks to Huge Power doubling its initial 105 base Attack. Add a +2 Attack boost from Klefki’s Swagger to that and you’ve got an unstoppable monster that hits like a truck full of nitroglycerine.

The three attacking moves grant almost flawless coverage, with this particular combination doing neutral damage to everything in the game now that Steel types have lost their resistance to Dark-type moves. Play Rough is the bread and butter of the set, crushing anything that does not resist Fairy-type moves. Iron Head deals with opposing Fairies quite nicely and offers a more accurate move for those tricky situations where you cannot afford to miss. Sucker Punch, although highly dependent on prediction, is my best bet against Fire and Steel types, who would otherwise resist both attacking moves. I did consider using Fire Fang, but I ended up putting that move on another team member. Again, the EVs are unremarkable, although they do stop certain formes of Rotom-W from being able to 2HKO Mawile.

Nickname Trivia: Filia is an amnesiac schoolgirl who wakes up one day to find a parasite named Samson has taken residence on her head, and now she must fight to regain her memories using the hairy beast atop her scalp. Those huge jaws on the back of Mawile’s head look eerily reminiscent of one of Filia’s special attacks, Fenrir Drive, and so this nickname was born.

Big Band (Azumarill) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 SDef
Nature: Adamant
– Belly Drum
– Protect
– Aqua Jet
– Play Rough

Ah, Azumarill: if it wasn’t for Huge Power, it would be a totally unremarkable Pokémon in every way. Thankfully, Huge Power grants a massive boost to its Attack that actually makes it viable. When combining its Attack with Belly Drum, Azumarill becomes four times more lethal.

All of these moves are quite obvious choices: Play Rough and Aqua Jet are two of its best STABs, Belly Drum provides a massive Attack boost at the cost of half its health (somewhat mitigated by the use of Sitrus Berry) and of course, the ubiquitous Protect. Belly Drum opened up a whole new set of options for me, as prior to this, Azumarill had absolutely no way to touch Amoonguss. However, with almost all of those pesky mushrooms choosing to Rage Powder at every possible opportunity, I’m usually able to get to +6 with ease and then deal a colossal amount of damage to it. Having a +6 Aqua Jet ready to go can make the opponent panic too, as they desperately scramble to stop Azumarill from unleashing its unholy wrath upon all manner of opponents. That said, Talonflame can often be its undoing by using Brave Bird to stop the aqua rabbit before it gets a chance to wreak havoc, although with the support of Mr. Mime and Klefki this can be avoided. At Level 50, Azumarill’s max HP is 207, which prevents Sitrus Berry from activating right away after using Belly Drum. By redistributing the EVs, I circumvented this issue and let Azumarill quite happily set up in the face of adversity.

Nickname Trivia: Big Band was the first male playable character added to the Skullgirls universe. A former detective who got on the wrong end of a notorious gang, he’s now kitted out with a robotic life-support system that gives him enhanced fighting prowess. As the only male member of the team, Big Band is a fitting moniker for Azumarill.

Double (Mr. Mime) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Filter
EVs: 220 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk / 4 SDef / 28 Spd
Nature: Bold
– Fake Out
– Icy Wind
– Wide Guard
– Quick Guard

Mr. Mime is my first unconventional team member. Although Fake Out seems like a very good option by preventing an opponent from moving for a turn, it isn’t quite so brilliant when everyone’s wearing a Rocky Helmet to counter Mega Kangaskhan. Nonetheless, I kept it just in case it came in handy at some point to stop a Charizard from demolishing the team right from the start. I was initially torn over which of the Guards to have, but after testing it out with both, I decided I might as well have them both. Wide Guard helps to averting the dangers of powerful spread moves from Garchomp, Mega Charizard-Y, Chandelure, and the rare Abomasnow. Quick Guard offers a reprieve from opposing Klefki, Meowstic, incredibly slow Fake Outs, and Sucker Punch from Kangaskhan and Bisharp, as well as forcing Talonflame to drop its Gale Wings and leave it open to an attack from Azumarill. Icy Wind was the raison d’etre for those EVs. As Wolfe explains in his article, the 28 Speed EVs put Mr. Mime at 114 Speed, which after one Icy Wind is enough to outspeed max-Speed Jolly Garchomp. Since the Bold Nature and full investment in Defense also prevent Garchomp from being able to net a 2HKO on Mime, it’s actually feasible for the creepy clown to take out the land-shark-dragon. The use of Icy Wind is infinitely useful when hardly any Fairies have particularly high Speed. Of course, this does mean I have to be very careful when using it together with Gardevoir since Icy Wind in Trick Room only leads to trouble. The massive Defense investment also prevents Jolly Mega Kangaskhan from being able to KO with a Return, although Adamant can still break through.

Nickname Trivia: Double is an abomination that the minds of mere mortals cannot comprehend. She is a faithful servant of Skullgirl and the Trinity, the gods of this world. She usually takes the form of a nun, but her true form is an amorphous blob of pure terror. Double was the only analogous character I could possibly think of that matched the horror of Mr. Mime’s creepy animation when I first saw it.

Cerebella (Granbull) @ Babiri Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Nature: Adamant
– Rock Slide
– Play Rough
– Fire Fang
– Protect

Now, this is where things get really interesting. Right from the get-go, when looking for Fairy-type Pokémon to use, Granbull struck me as something that would be useful and surprising. Its relatively high base 120 Attack, wide movepool of physical attacks and support moves, and the ever-useful Intimidate Ability led me to add Granbull to the team. Although its own damage output can be underwhelming when compared to the Huge Power users, Granbull is still able to pack a punch when Klefki gets a Swagger or two on it.

Play Rough was a necessity as a STAB option, which is Granbull’s most powerful and consistent attack. Fire Fang is perhaps a contentious choice, as some would argue that Close Combat is preferable due to being a far more powerful option for defeating Steel types and dealing quite good damage to Kangaskhan. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of Close Combat, since I dislike the Defense and Special Defense drop that occurs after using the move. On the other hand, Swagger support allows Fire Fang to score a clean KO on Ferrothorn every time. Fire Fang is also able to hit Aegislash, which would otherwise laugh in the face of my Granbull set. Rock Slide, believe it or not, was a quite late addition, coming after the huge rise in popularity of the Mega Charizard-Y/Venusaur lead. Far too often would I fall foul of that pair, so I made the decision to swap out Crunch for Rock Slide. Rock Slide KOs Mega Charizard-Y if it has anything below 80 HP EVs or any nature that doesn’t improve its Defense. It also knocks out all common Talonflame sets and still does a significant chunk to Chandelure. With two Steel/Fairy types on my team, I felt Earthquake would be far too risky, and so I went for the option that wipes out Fire/Flying types instead, which I’m far better off for. I didn’t try to optimize the EV spread, opting for raw damage instead, and it seems to have worked. Babiri Berry is also a great item, although it took me forever to find one. Originally, I had used Babiri Berry for Scizor, but the Red Baron quickly fell out of usage and I kept it for other Steel attacks. It actually came in extremely handy, buying me extra time against Ferrothorn and Aegislash, which would otherwise totally manhandle this team.

Nickname Trivia: Cerebella is hired by the Medici family (essentially the mafia) as a leg-breaker, but her daytime job is performing at a traveling circus as an acrobat. Granbull reminded me more of the former than the latter, muscling through teams without a care in the world.

Parasoul (Gardevoir) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Nature: Modest
– Trick Room
– Psyshock
– Shadow Ball
– Protect

This final member of the team is one of the best for creating mindgames. People often don’t know what set to expect since Gardevoir runs so many, which can grant me an opportunity to set up Trick Room and start sweeping. Psyshock was placed on the set to make it easier to take out Amoonguss if I can’t set up Azumarill, along with actually dealing significant damage to Mega Venusaur and giving me a nice neutral option against Rotom-H. Shadow Ball was carried in order to combat Aegislash, as even if I use it into a King’s Shield there’s no real consequence. I would have liked to have kept Moonblast on this set somewhere to have the upper hand in one-on-one battles against Dragons and Bisharp, but alas, Protect was needed in case someone figured out my gameplan and went for a Fake Out.

I love Trace as an Ability because it can screw up so many strategies. Tracing an Intimidate from an opposing Mawile or Salamence is great for forcing them to either switch or risk being at -2 Attack. Tracing Lightning Rod off Manectric can completely shut its strategies down. Tracing Levitate from Rotom can help against Garchomp… the possibilities are almost endless. If the opponent has an Aegislash on the field, you can even guarantee yourself a certain ability, since Stance Change can’t be Traced. The unfortunate thing is that Trace is random as to which opponent it picks from so you won’t always get what you need. Focus Sash makes it easier to set up Trick Room, survive certain hits, and the EVs are, as I understand it, perfectly normal for a Trick Room Gardevoir. Putting more than four EVs into any given defensive stat seemed a bit pointless in conjunction with Sash.

Nickname Trivia: Parasoul is the fair princess of the Canopy Kingdom, a militaristic regime that seeks to destroy the Skullgirl. The feminine grace of Parasoul lends itself well to the nickname of a Gardevoir, so that’s what I went with.

Team Strategy and Threats

Lead Pairings

+

Gardevoir + Mawile/Granbull/Azumarill

If I see a team that’s incredibly fast, this mode can deal with it quickly. Trick Room with Gardevoir, Protect with the other, and that’s a battle done and dusted. Sometimes I can draw attacks away from the partner and just give them a free turn to do whatever they want. Either way, this is the default for easy mode opponents or the dreaded Charizard/Venusaur pairing.

+

Klefki + Mawile/Granbull/Azumarill

Another ‘easy mode’ strategy, I can Safeguard first turn and Swagger the next, handing a +2 boost to the partner with no real repercussions. I love it when a plan comes together.

+

Mr. Mime + Azumarill

This one’s a risky one, but if I face an opponent likely to use spread moves, then this combo allows me a free Belly Drum. From there, I tear the team apart with Azumarill.

+

Granbull + Mawile

These two provide the classic Double Intimidate. This neuters offensive threats (such as Garchomp) with ease, and forces either switches or defensive plays from the opponent. These leads don’t get used too often, but, when used, can be devastating although a bit slow.

Threats

Steel types

If it’s a Steel type, it’ll cause me problems. Even with the three neutrals and a Babiri Berry I often have to play cautiously to get around these. Aegislash is horribly unpredictable with its two formes: King’s Shield is a form of Protect that knocks Attack down to half if you guess wrong, Substitutes allow it to hide from attacks, and its high Special Attack means a Flash Cannon or Shadow Ball will hurt a lot. Bisharp can soak up Intimidates, which is bad news when two of the things that would ordinarily be good against it have that same ability, and a +1 Iron Head will be dealing enough damage to knock out most of the team. Ferrothorn is marginally more manageable, but it can still soak up damage like there’s no tomorrow and bring Azumarill to a grinding halt. Whenever I see any of these, I know I’m in for a rough time.

Rotom Formes

Both Rotom-W and Rotom-H can cause some massive problems for this team, since I had no way of hitting Rotom-W for super-effective damage and only Aqua Jet or Rock Slide for Rotom-H. Both are capable of burning with Will-O-Wisp, both take forever to KO, both of them immediately threaten Azumarill with Thunderbolt, and Rotom-H has the added threat of Overheat which can outright KO both of my Steel types. It’s incredibly tricky to work around these two, and for this reason they seem to be everywhere. The Electric typing is a royal pain, as it stops me being able to just throw a Thunder Wave at them and call it a day, meaning I have to use one of my other means of Speed control if I need to be faster.

Chandelure

Chandelure is another quite versatile Pokémon that resists Fairy types and requires careful monitoring. Infiltrator means that Klefki can’t hide from it. Chandelure’s good support movepool means Sucker Punch isn’t always a viable solution, and (very rarely) it can be built to shut down Trick Room. Chandelure thrives in this metagame and Fairies aren’t the best for dealing with it.

/ /

Charizard, Garchomp, Salamence, Mega Kangaskhan

These ones aren’t quite as bad as the ones above, but in conjunction with others from the list can be a real handful. Through my practice I’ve come up with various ways to defeat all of them, but when there’s a Rotom, Garchomp, Salamence, Kangaskhan and Aegislash on the same team, that can give this team a really tough time. The propensity to use a Special Attacking, Choice Scarf Salamence really hasn’t done my team any favours, although I do benefit from making it sorely predictable. Mega Kangaskhan dominates the metagame, but if I can get both my Steels in against it at the same time, that eases the matchup somewhat unless it carries Fire Blast (which I’ve seen a few times).

The Tournament

The Saturday of the tournament started slowly. Very slowly. Hoyle and I had shared a room the night before. We ate breakfast at around 7:30am, left all our heavy bags behind and then set off towards Event City, the venue of our proud event. What we’d hoped for was somewhere nice and spacious to queue up, but what we got were 300 people crammed into a box while a man shouted instructions that we couldn’t hear. We ended up queuing with a guy who had £1500 worth of trading cards strapped to his inner thigh, who we presumed was here for the TCG. I texted Jade (evilpinkdragon) throughout this time, updating her and her brother, Eden (Xenoblade Hero), on the situation as they were set to arrive at about 10am-ish. As usual, there was a lot of waiting around with nothing happening.

At around quarter past nine, the staff finally started letting people filter through, although there was a significant amount of confusion as there were two separate queues for people who had preregistered and those who hadn’t, and the staff had shepherded us into the wrong one. We had to cut into the correct queue, where more waiting happened and I encountered FroZen85, who I battled last year. He was telling me about how he had the world’s bulkiest Rotom set and had managed to stall out SuperIntegration for 34 turns, but then he left and went all the way to the back of the queue for some reason. After that, it was business as usual, waiting and standing. Eventually, our queue began moving and the staff checked our battle boxes to make sure everything was Kalos Dex and obtained in Kalos. There were no hack checks due to the lack of freely available hacking devices, so I was able to pass through relatively quickly to get my Battle Box locked up.

Shortly after this, the rest of our party arrived and we joined the queue once again, this time accompanying Jade, Eden, her boyfriend Nick (Decretum), a couple of people I’ve battled with at events before, and several other people I had never met. Everyone seemed pretty cool, which was a good thing because we’d most likely be spending the day with them. Organization for the tournament was subpar; we were supposed to be starting at 11.15am, but come that time only TCG was underway. The primary reason given for this delay was that the staff had difficulty implementing byes into their system. Eventually it became clear that there were other flaws in the system, which even included the fact that, as we found out later, all of the staff had decided to take a lunch break without actually telling anyone where they were going, leaving a handful of volunteers to run the entire event in their absence. Everyone was getting hungry by this point, so a decision was made to make a mad dash to the Trafford Centre to find food, with Hoyle staying behind to let me know if anything actually happened.

It was well past 2pm when we finally received the initial roster check. Over four hundred people attempted to crowd around a small banner with a slip of paper posted on it, and that wasn’t comfortable in the slightest. Even worse, that slip of paper was only for Flight B, which only had half of the competitors, so the rest of us had to cross to the other side of the hall. I ended up in Flight A, which many had identified as the weaker flight of the two, although it still had some fairly strong players in it such as recent German champion Markus Stadter (13Yoshi37), so I’d have to be on my guard.

Day 1 Battles

I wasn’t expecting to do well, I’ll put that out there right now. I’d set myself a target of 3-5, as I was expecting to run into a succession of teams containing all my least favourite Pokémon and thus I’d be relying on the lower-end opponents to grant me a win. Now it’s time to see this team in action:

Round 1 vs Chris Martin (not the Coldplay guy)

He brought:

I brought:

In a strange coincidence, I ended up against the very same person I battled in the first round last year, only this time his team looked a lot more competent, and mine much less so. One thing you should know about this guy: he likes to talk. A lot. So much so that he essentially is creating his own animé-style narrative to our encounters. It’s difficult to take that seriously, but hey, stuff like that is what makes things fun! There’s not much to say about this battle honestly; he got absolutely crushed by Trick Room. I did lose a couple of Pokémon because I didn’t anticipate Chesnaught’s Energy Ball being as powerful as it was, but apart from that it was an easy start to the day. 1-0

Round 2 vs Jose Garcia

He brought:

I brought:

From a small village near Madrid came my second opponent. His team had plenty of things I feared, but he neglected to bring both Dragons due to the psychological effects of having six Fairy types on my team. With the way my leads lined up, I saw a prime opportunity to set up a Belly Drum by using Fake Out on his Rotom-H, and on the same turn his Gardevoir used Thunderbolt on my Azumarill, which activated its Sitrus Berry and left me with enough spare HP to successfully get to +6. From there, I took his Gardevoir out with an Aqua Jet, believing it to have a Choice Scarf and thinking Rotom would Protect. It didn’t; it instead opted to Overheat Mr. Mime. The next turn went badly for him as he missed a Will-O-Wisp, I used Icy Wind to reduce Rotom’s Speed, and Azumarill’s +6 Play Rough took out his Amoonguss (although its Rocky Helmet ensured my sweep was cut short). From here, I had a clear advantage at 3-2 against a slow Rotom at -2 and a Tyranitar. I switched in Granbull first to allow it to take some attacks and Mr. Mime was swapped out for Mawile. On the next turn, I pulled Granbull back out, Protected Mawile from any Overheats, and brought Mr. Mime back in. At this point, he chose to Mega Evolve, but Tyranitar’s Rock Slide still did little damage. At this point, I knew that an Icy Wind would slow his Tyranitar enough for Mawile to KO with Iron Head, while Granbull would be able to finish off the Rotom with Rock Slide. My plan was executed to perfection and the second game was mine. 2-0

Round 3 Vs Laura Stockley

She brought:

I brought:

After stringing two wins together, everything came to a grinding halt. I seriously have no idea what happened. I thought I was being clever using Quick Guard first turn, but of course Kangaskhan always runs Speed EVs and Talonflame has Flare Blitz. On the next turn I ended up allowing her to U-Turn out into Rotom which quickly started burning everything while Kangaskhan set up Power-Up Punches and the two ended up making short work of my entire team, all because I wasn’t really focused. As soon as the momentum was lost, I had no real way to pull it back, and using the exact same leads instead of trying to bring Klefki in to potentially shield against the burns cost me dearly. 2-1

Round 4 vs Andrej Vlajic

He brought:

I brought:

My fourth round opponent came over all the way from Germany, with a very interesting-looking team. I instantly knew he was going to try and Soak something so that he could Thunderbolt it for the KO, so I switched out Mawile and allowed Klefki to be a sacrificial lamb while Trick Room went up, although Protecting with Mawile would have been a much smarter play since, as useless as Klefki was against this team, Swagger could have at the very least given me a bit of an edge later. With Trick Room successfully up, Andrej was forced to switch out his Mega Manectric for Ferrothorn while I dealt some decent damage to Lanturn. Out went Mawile for Granbull to eliminate its Water-typing while Gardevoir finished off the Lanturn. I was surprised to find that his fourth Pokémon was actually Talonflame, but it had little impact as a quick Rock Slide took it out almost immediately. Over the next few turns, I tried to avoid allowing Ferrothorn stalling me out while desperately attempting to keep Gardevoir alive so that Manectric wouldn’t be able to attack it. Before Granbull was finished off, it managed to deal decent damage with Fire Fang, but Trick Room doesn’t last forever and so Mega Mawile was forced to take damage as it took out Manectric. Alas, on this very same turn, I fell foul of Ferrothorn’s sturdy Defenses as it shrugged off a Shadow Ball from Gardevoir, creating a scenario in which I played myself into checkmate. Without Gardevoir, damage from Iron Barb and Rocky Helmet were sufficient to KO Mawile, which gave my opponent the win. Had I not sacrificed Klefki earlier, the game could have been mine for the taking. I was so close, yet so far. 2-2

Round 5 vs Zoe Adams

She brought:

I brought:

Zoe mentioned she was a friend of everyone’s favourite DS hoarder, Rina Purdy (SqishyRina), which I’d already guessed from the multicoloured flag draped across her shoulders. For some reason, the IR connection was taking an absolute age to connect us so we ended up chatting with the two guys next to us. Their infrared connected long before ours did, giving ample time for Zoe to appreciate my Game of Thrones T-shirt (I’m a massive fan). Anyway, the battle did eventually begin, although my 3DS was on a red light so I needed to wrap this up fast. I targeted Tyranitar with Iron Head, hoping for a nice quick KO, but instead I ended up hitting the Ally-Switching Gardevoir. My notes for this battle aren’t quite up to the quality of the ones before, but from what I can recall, Rotom-W was setting up Dual Screens while I smashed holes in the rest of the team, including her Mawile, which didn’t accomplish very much. Tyranitar’s Earthquake took my own Mawile out before I could make it 4-1, but Klefki somehow endured the hit with 2 HP. On the next turn, I tried something really risky and had Klefki Swagger the opposing Rotom, which worked as I’d hoped. Going for the STAB option, and perhaps a flinch, Zoe’s Tyranitar used Rock Slide, which missed Azumarill, allowing me to take the game. 3-2

Round 6 vs Markus Stadter (13Yoshi37)

He brought:

I brought:

That’s right, my sixth round opponent was none other than Bochum’s champion, who had gone undefeated through that entire tournament. Evidently this one had gone less well, but nonetheless I was going to be in for a rough time. I had a bit of a bad lead matchup here. I tried to be a bit clever by setting up a Belly Drum, covering it with a Fake Out on the Rotom, but Gengar was carrying Will-O-Wisp and burned my Azumarill, nullifying most of the massive Attack boost I’d given myself. Nevertheless, I knew that an Aqua Jet, even at +6, would be an incredibly powerful move, and I was very very tempted to aim it right at Rotom to finish it off, but instead I opted to take out the Gengar to stop it from wreaking havoc, as Mr. Mime used Icy Wind. He ended up switching in Garchomp over Rotom that turn, so that turned out to be quite a decent move. Alas, this wasn’t to last, as I for some unfathomable reason went for Quick Guard against two Pokémon that don’t even get priority moves (at least, that’s what my notes imply). Either way, I was down to my last two facing a full health Rotom, Garchomp in the red and a full health Kangaskhan. I managed to bring it to 2-2, but with both of the opposing Pokémon being faster, there wasn’t a lot I could do to salvage this one. 3-3

Round 7 vs Marcus Clarke (No-show)

After ten minutes of sitting around, I received another win. Part of me was glad that I was, for the moment, on a positive record, but it felt hollow because I hadn’t had the chance to earn the win. Oh well. This did give me time to meditate on my previous losses and consider how I’d try and improve my game for the next round. I knew I could make it to 5-3, since opponents at this level would more likely than not be at a similar level to me. 4-3

Round 8 vs Kyle Phillips

He brought:

I brought:

Seeing a bunch of fast things on his team, I decided to go full-on Trick Room mode, but he led with his anti-Trick Room pairing. Thankfully, I pulled off a Double Intimidate on him due to Trace, forcing him to switch to Talonflame. I knew my own Mawile would be a target, so I Protected without Mega Evolving to block Will-O-Wisp, leaving its Intimidate intact for later, while getting a hit off on the Rotom-W. Next turn, anticipating another Will-O-Wisp, I switched to Granbull, the least useful member against the current lineup, and allowed it to burn. Again, my notes aren’t fantastic for this battle, so I don’t know what I was even doing with Gardevoir, but I do know that I went for Rock Slide next, not doing much to Rotom but taking Talonflame into a range where its next move would do enough recoil damage to knock itself out. Gardevoir didn’t last much longer. I never wrote this down, but I recall there being mindgames based around Greninja where my Azumarill soaked up a Scald or two, which may have been what led to it being burned. Greninja didn’t last very long, it would appear, as the match ended with a two-on-one scenario, my Mawile and burned Azumarill versus his own Mawile, and at that point there wasn’t much he could do to win. 5-3

So, the battling for the day was done, and everyone reconvened to share their final results. I’d got the same result as Eden and Nick (5-3), Jade was on 4-4 and Hoyle languished behind the rest of the pack with a disappointing 3-5 finish, somehow dropping below his own personal expectations. Then again, it’s his fault for using a monotype team that included both Flareon and Lampent, although he insisted that Lampent was his MVP for the day. It took a while, but eventually, rankings went up. A couple of people known to our group actually cut, including Jamie Miller and Niall Crallan (The Last Shiekah), a friend of Hoyle’s from way back, who both eventually went to Top Eight. Alas, 13Yoshi37 just missed out, but he already has his trip to Worlds guaranteed. My final overall position, thanks to a combination of Iron Barbs, byes and a recurring early opponent, was 113th, which wasn’t too far off my personal hopes of Top 100, although I won’t be winning any awards anytime soon. This year wasn’t about trying to make the Top 32; it was all about simply enjoying battling with a slightly unconventional team.

Saturday Night Shenanigans

Since the event had massively overrun its expected timeslot, our plans for the after-party had to be slightly retooled. We were still on for a late-night Mario Kart tournament, although there’d be no going out on the town because it was already half 9 and none of us really fancied being out in the middle of Manchester in the dark. It was half past ten when people finally got their plans together. We were instructed to go upstairs to Eden’s room, where all the magic was happening. Jade, Nick and a couple of others went out to get food and drink for themselves, leaving me, Hoyle, and Eden to fend for ourselves alongside Robert and Katy, two others who I hadn’t really noticed all day but seemed nice enough. Pizza was ordered, Mario Kart was played and a few circuits and some moving poetry later, I felt myself drifting off, so I bid everyone farewell and returned to Room 5 around 1:30am where Hoyle was already sound asleep. I did my absolute best not to wake him, which did not go very well because I tripped over everything in the dark.

Sunday: The Day of the Replay

The next morning, we rose at 8am, which was far more reasonable than the previous day’s start. Everybody else was making plans to be at the Event City at 11, so we’d probably be waiting quite a while for them. During breakfast, I made a new discovery: blueberry muffins are awesome. I must have eaten at least five of them before we checked out with all our heavy gear in tow.

As we’d discovered the night before, today wasn’t just about Top Cut: it was also the day of the Replay Tournament, an optional best-of-three Swiss side event you could pay £9 to participate in. At this point, we realised Hoyle didn’t actually have the money so we cut out of the queue in search of a cash machine, which was just next to the door and made horrific alarm noises like someone was breaking into a bank vault to retrieve the cash. Now, we had all we needed to take on the world again with the trusty Monotype teams we’d spent six months making and about ten minutes practicing with. Before it started, the climactic showdown between Fire and Fairy commenced, which I won in Trick Room mode because Hoyle forgot my Gardevoir had a Focus Sash. With our confidence trajectories heading in totally different directions, we begun our second Swiss challenge at about half twelve.

Round 1 vs Robert Simmons

Game 1

He brought:

I brought:

I expected both Steel types to come out, but instead I was greeted with two Dragons. I was able to switch out, predicting a Fire Blast, and scored a quick KO. Ferrothorn was present, but I had Klefki which was able to Swagger my Granbull and take it out in one hit. 1-0

Game 2

He brought:

I brought:

This game didn’t go quite as well. I lost my Speed control early on to a Quick Claw Dark Pulse and Fire Blast, and when Garchomp came into play the rest of my team had been significantly weakened so a couple of Earthquakes were enough to win it for him. 1-1

Game 3

He brought:

I brought:

This time, things went significantly better as I was able to predict certain plays and act accordingly. Here, Mr. Mime’s Speed EVs finally came into play as I managed to take out Garchomp using nothing but Icy Wind. 2-1

Swiss Record: 1-0

Round 2 vs James Brown

Game 1 Battle Video: VLGR-WWWW-WWW7-NCUT

He brought:

I brought:

From looking at Team Preview, I thought my opponent would bring a Charizard-Y/Trevenant combo capable abusing Harvest. Since it was best-of-three, I opted to scout this out first before trying to bring in Mr. Mime to block potential Heat Waves. It’s a good thing I didn’t because it turned out to be the opposite Mega Charizard-X, which proceeded to Flare Blitz most of my team into oblivion while the Trevenant burned anything threatening. I did have Gardevoir in the back, but there wasn’t much point trying to use Trick Room. Thanks to 13Yoshi37, I knew what Lapras’ role in the team would be, so I tried to ensure Azumarill wouldn’t get Freeze-Dried. In the end, it was Aerodactyl that ended up cleaning up and granting James the first game. 0-1

Game 2 Battle Video: L8EW-WWWW-WWW7-NCVX

He brought:

I brought:

Before we started, James mentioned that once his Charizard is down, he doesn’t have much of a counter for Klefki, so this time I decided to capitalize on this while shutting down his Trevenant and stopping it from burning everything. Neither of us actually realized that Substitute blocks Sky Drop, but it did, which worked in my favour. Once Lapras was down it was simply a matter of setting Azumarill up to blast through the team. 1-1

Game 3 Battle Video: FYPG-WWWW-WWW7-NCVA

He brought:

I brought:

I fully expected in Game 3 that James wouldn’t allow Klefki to live, so I didn’t even bring it. As another countermeasure, he swapped out Aerodactyl for Machamp to possibly capitalize on Trick Room and lessen Thunder Wave’s impact. This worked out in my favour because Machamp was relatively useless against my team, only seeing use as fodder late in the game. Charizard-X’s raw power allowed it to steamroll a lot of my team, but I was calculating the amount of recoil it’d be able to take before it wore itself out, eventually culminating in a showdown between Trevenant and Granbull. The last turn hinged on whether or not his Sitrus Berry regenerated, because if it did, he’d survive my Fire Fang and be able to sit there and stall Granbull out. Fortunately for me, it didn’t. 2-1 Swiss record: 2-0

Round 3: vs William Tansley

Game 1 Battle Video: VHSW-WWWW-WWW7-NCVC

He brought:

I brought:

Just my luck: he brought the one thing I had no answer to. Wigglytuff terrified me because I realized it might actually rip through my whole team thanks to the Competitive boost. Kangaskhan also revealed itself to be a Substitute set, presumably lacking Fake Out, which is actually incredibly good in a one-game Swiss scenario. I think I revealed too much, especially with my last-ditch attempt at a Trick Room comeback, but revealing this may have influenced his team selection for the next battle. Ultimately, although I did take out his Wigglytuff, it was a futile struggle. 0-1

Game 2 Battle Video: QXTG-WWWW-WWW7-NCVG

He brought:

I brought:

This time, my gameplan was to ensure that Kangaskhan and Aegislash were never allowed to set up a Substitute because if either of them did, it was curtains. This worked out in my favour when he brought Salamence in over Kangaskhan and I was able to almost immediately KO it. A lot of the gameplan was based on risk, with Klefki’s Swagger and Thunder Wave capable of shutting down Aegislash and Kangaskhan respectively, while the presence of Salamence allowed me to get a crucial Belly Drum off. Without the colossal damage output of Azumarill and putting faith in notoriously fickle moves, I wouldn’t have won this. 1-1

Game 3

There was no Game 3. Our first two matches had taken so long, we’d actually managed to run over the time limit allowed for each round. We couldn’t be granted an extension for the final game as the organizers needed time to calculate points and assign opponents, so we called over a judge who told us that the only appropriate course of action would be to tie the round. Yup, that’s right, I managed to create a tie with my slow and methodical playstyle in the second game. Swiss record: 2-0-1

Round 4: vs Francis Kennington (Junior)

Between rounds I went and grabbed some nachos, which were literally just salted corn snacks with some bland grated cheese thrown on them. It was like eating a bowl full of salt. I have neither match saved, and since I was eating at the same time, didn’t make many notes, but I dominated the first game, where Espeon revealed it had Future Sight, and managed to win the second too, although it was closer than the first one. Swiss record: 3-0-1

Round 5: vs Shaun Towey (SeanSymphony)

Game 1 Battle Video: 2N7W-WWWW-WWW7-NDWA

He brought:

I brought:

I’d known of SeanSymphony before and heard he was a very good player, so I’d have to be on my guard. Indeed, his Liepard was a massive thorn in my side, which gave him the edge. The prospect of being Encored led to me to be far too predictable. 0-1

Game 2 Battle Video: YK2G-WWWW-WWW7-NDWC

He brought:

I brought:

Now, this game was all kinds of ridiculous. I had two Steels up against possibly the best Fire type outside of the Mega Charizards, but from the last game I knew Chandelure was a Substitute variant and so I tried to ensure it wouldn’t be able to keep the Substitute around long. There was a lot of switching around from both sides. When his Azumarill came into play, things went from being slightly shaky on my end to hilariously biased against Shaun. He had the absolute worst luck I’ve ever seen in one single game, managing to miss Play Rough three times in a row. If those had all hit, I would have been severely disadvantaged, but I was able to capitalize on this misfortune and take the round, with a little help from a flinch on Ferrothorn, which mattered much less than the three consecutive misses but was still funny. 1-1

Game 3

By this point, we were the last men standing. Everyone circled around us like vultures, waiting for one of us to fall. I quickly found myself at a disadvantage because the cursed Red Light of Doom was flickering and we were already over the allotted time limit. Flustered, I made several bad plays and was 4-2 down when the judges came over and told us we had to stop immediately. At this point, I accrued my first and only round loss of the day. Final Swiss Record: 3-1-1

Conclusion

We waited in suspense as the organizers produced the final standings. Shaun ended up in second place, and for a brief moment I lamented that this could have been me. Slowly, the names were read out, and I waited on edge, knowing with my tie I’d have to be above all the 3-2’s. Sixth place went to my opponent in the third round, William Tansley, which meant that I’d taken seventh place and would be going home with a £20 GAME gift card.

I was elated, as I’d never expected that I would actually win anything of worth with this team. The whole point of this team was for it to be a bit of a joke, make people laugh, and possibly give me some sort of psychological edge. When the weekend began, I never could have imagined that I’d actually have something to show for my efforts, but here I was, a purple card clutched in my hands, friends congratulating me on my achievement. This was the culmination of a year-long running gag, six months’ worth of preparation, over two hundred practice battles and three days of pure awesomeness. Now, here I was with an actual tangible reminder of all that. For the first time, I’d tasted success, if only in a small capacity. I’d come close to the silver medal with Mono-Fairy! If I could go 5-3 and 3-1-1 with a monotype team, then next year, with an actual well-constructed team without such a huge glaring weakness, who knows what lies ahead for me?

I know what I have to work on next year. I’ll have more time to practice, more time to come up with optimized EV spreads, more time to analyze my plays and improve upon them, and most crucially, develop the mental fortitude to not concede defeat against those players perceived to be of a higher skill level than myself. I’ve demonstrated that I can perform well in a best-of-three setting, so if I do make Top Cut in 2015, you’d better watch out!

Pros and Cons

Pros

• The team itself for being a lot better than I’d ever anticipated
• Eden, Jade, Nick and co for being awesome people
• Late-night Mario Kart and pizza session
• German players for being bros who love Monotypes
• GAME for providing the first prize I’ve won in competitive Pokémon

Cons

• Huge delays and misunderstandings about queues
• Not enough hours in the day to spend with aforementioned awesome people
• Relying on a bye to get to 5-3

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ve enjoyed my report. Hopefully I’ll be back next year with more exciting stories from European events.

About the Author

Gazooki666 Gazooki has been playing Pokémon since he got a pirated copy of Gold in Gran Canaria, and never looked back. In 2013 he started taking it seriously and has had moderate success in Swiss-based tournaments. He also just finished doing a Psychology degree, and as such, has a lot of time on his hands.

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