Reports

Published on November 12th, 2014 | by Hazza

16

Megazard X Steels the Win: An Australian Nationals Top Cut Report

G’day everyone! My name is Harry Boucher, and this past July I competed in the 2014 Australian and New Zealand VGC National Tournament. As this was only my second official tournament, I could not believe the amazing turnout of 442 Masters and roughly 700 competitors in total. It was, according to the event organisers, the second biggest Nationals event all year. Although there were issues that accompanied such a vast attendance, such as a two hour wait in line just to get inside, which in turn caused the event to run quite late, the atmosphere was electric and the event organisers were extremely professional and efficient given the circumstances. Now, on to the team!

Team Overview

This is my first year of competitive Pokémon, so I am still very new to a lot of concepts and strategies. Thus, team building was something I seriously struggled with at first. Personally, I am a strong believer in using a team that goes against the norm and nothing pleases me more than winning with a team that surprises people. I have messed around with the likes of Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Mawile in the past but they weren’t Pokémon that I felt comfortable using. I felt that I was only using them because they were perceived as the best Mega Evolutions and that they must be used to win. If you create a team that you feel comfortable with using and has great synergy, you are far more likely to outplay your opponents than if you were using a team that you were lead to believe is essential to win. That being said, I’m certainly not against going with the metagame. It just isn’t my preferred style of play.

To properly understand my Nationals team, I need to briefly explain the core concept of my Regionals team, as this was the foundation of my team going into Nationals. Earlier this year I came up with the idea of having a fast Water-type Pokémon use the move ‘Soak’ on a Shedinja so that, due to its Wonder Guard ability, only Grass and Electric type moves would be able to hit it. Upon further research, I discovered that not only had this concept already been created, but it was riddled with flaws. First and foremost, status moves such as Will-O-Wisp, Toxic, and Leech Seed were a serious concern, as they provided my opponent with an instant OHKO. Combine this with recoil damage from Rough Skin, Iron Barbs, and Rocky Helmet; and the threat of Sandstorm and Hail damage from Tyranitar and Abomasnow respectively, I suddenly had a very serious problem. The biggest threat of all was the susceptibility to Electric- and Grass-type moves. While Manectric was designed to soak up any Electric attacks that came my way with its Lightning Rod ability, I didn’t have much to counter the omnipresent Amoonguss and Venusaur or any other stray Grass-type moves that may be out there. Needless to say, I was knocked out in the first round at Regionals.

I was still not deterred, and for the two months between Regionals and Nationals I spent the majority of my time trying to create a perfect three Pokémon team (plus Manectric) that I could use when conditions were not ideal for bringing Shedinja. This led me to try countless different teams and ideas, which in the final weeks led to something that vaguely resembles what I had on the big day. Three weeks before game day I was running Mega Charizard Y, Mega Venusaur, and Klefki, inspired by the success of Redemption003. However, Charizard Y just wasn’t working for me, as it was falling to Rock Slide way too easily. I decided to make what would be one of my best decisions yet by changing Charizard Y to Charizard X. Potentially the best decision of all, however, occurred the day before the tournament, when I switched out Shedinja for Garchomp. I just could not justify going with the Shedinja strategy any longer. What was originally designed as my back up team to support Shedinja had become so successful that I wanted to make it the best it could be. My only regret was that I made this decision too late, which left me minimal preparation time to actually create the team in-game. Consequently, Floatzel would make an appearance at Nationals.

The Team

Prince Aegon (Charizard) @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze/Tough Claws
EVs: 60 HP / 156 Atk / 120 Def / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature

• Dragon Dance
• Steel Wing
• Flare Blitz
• Dragon Claw

The clear MVP of the team, Charizard never once let me down. The EV spread was designed to be strong in defence, yet still have devastating offensive power, and it did just that. First turn usually saw me set up a Dragon Dance, which although risky would then provide enough Speed and attack power to OHKO pretty much any threat I would encounter. This EV spread let Charizard survive a Dragon Claw from Jolly 252 Attack Garchomp, and truly surprised me throughout every one of my battles.

As my team included both Venusaur and Charizard, and the role of an offensive Dragon on my team was already occupied by Garchomp, I anticipated my opponents would expect Charizard to Mega Evolve into Charizard Y, as the Drought + Chlorophyll lead is a common strategy that can be a big threat to a lot of teams. This worked very much in my favour, as my Charizard was comfortably able to survive many Rock Slides from my opponent and OHKO them in return. Probably the greatest thing about Mega Charizard X is the ability to use the move Steel Wing, and how many people don’t realise this in the game. Using Steel Wing, when boosted with Dragon Dance, meant that I was able to OHKO every Aerodactyl, Tyranitar, Gardevoir, and Carbink that I encountered, often to the complete astonishment of my opponents. The fact that this move checks Charizard’s Rock weakness is exceptionally useful, and was well worth the sacrifice of not having the move Protect. As for Flare Blitz and Dragon Claw: well, they’re pretty self-explanatory. They both have high damage output, especially factoring in STAB. The nickname is a Game of Thrones reference, as I am a big fan of the books and the TV show.

LaLADis (Liepard) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature

• Taunt
• Encore
• Foul Play
• Fake Out

Liepard is in my opinion easily one of the best Pokémon in VGC ’14, and certainly the best Prankster abuser that can win you games by crippling opponent’s strategies. I nicknamed this Poke after one of my best friends as this setup was his idea, and it was certainly one of his best. Rocky Helmet is a very effective item to give to Liepard as it is prime Fake Out bait and, surprisingly, the item influenced games quite a lot even with such little damage output. The EVs are stock standard so that it will speed tie with other Liepards, and the HP investment is to assist it with sticking around longer. Any VGC player will tell you that Fake Out is extremely useful, so it’s no surprise that I employed it here. Prankster makes this Pokémon so useful because not only can it priority Taunt, but it can priority Encore. This means that at any stage if your opponent uses Protect (or any setup move), you can lock them into that move for the next few turns, and effectively shut it down all together. This is especially useful in situations where they have no other Pokémon to switch into as you can continue to spam the Encore, or then proceed to Taunt them so it forces the Struggle and you get the additional recoil damage. I also found that this works well against Trick Room teams, as when they use Trick Room again due to the Encore it cancels its affects and reverts the field back to default. Due to my last minute changes I didn’t manage to fully train this Pokémon, and consequently I had to run Foul Play instead of Sucker Punch. Sucker Punch would have been extremely beneficial in the tournament as it can provide support by KOing a threat before they can attack (providing they are only have a small amount of HP let), yet Foul Play was still quite useful as it deals damage based off the opponents base attack stat and not your own. In such a physical attacking metagame this is can be a deadly move, and it also means you can’t get walled by any Quick Guard users.

King G VI (Venusaur) (M) @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 124 HP / 120 Def / 140 SpA / 84 SpD / 40 Spe
Modest Nature

• Protect
• Sleep Powder
• Giga Drain
• Sludge Bomb

While I didn’t actually use Venusaur a great deal in the tournament, I found that in practice it was a great addition to the team. Having two potential megas added a lot of versatility to the team and also played an integral role to my strategy. By having the Venusaur featured in my team preview, it really gave my opponents the impression that my Charizard was going to mega evolve into Charizard Y. I knew that, by having two megas, I had the potential to surprise my opponent should I make it to the best of three rounds. Additionally, Venusaur would be much more suited to face a dangerous rock/ground/dragon team that Mega Charizard X would struggle with. Additionally, Mega Venusaur has exceptional bulk which is only enhanced by the HP support that Giga Drain provides. I would much rather be mega evolving Charizard however, so the mega stone may have been wasted on Venusaur but it was a decision I was comfortable with and I think it definitely would have proved its worth if I had progressed further into the tournament. The EV spread ensured that it was capable of hitting hard while retaining its impressive bulk and the moves are rather standard.

The nickname is symbolic. I made sure that the father to this Venusaur was my first Pokémon ever, another Venusaur called G, which I have traded up from Leaf Green over the years. The ‘VI’ part of the name represents the 6th generation that we are currently playing in.

Many Quick (Manectric) @ Zap Plate
Ability: Lightningrod
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature

• Flamethrower
• Thunderbolt
• Protect
• Discharge

First things first, you’re probably wondering why I chose to use a Zap Plate. If you’re waiting to hear some ridiculously cool idea about the hidden potential of the Zap Plate and how it carried me to the glorious Top Cut, you’re going to have to keep on waiting. As I am the king of procrastination, I decided it would be a good idea to put off the team building process for a while, which I can assure you is not a good idea in the slightest. Originally I was using a Focus Sash on Manectric, but the week before Nationals someone was offering an event Deoxys for a Focus Sash and Choice Scarf. Obviously this was an exceptionally good deal for me, but unfortunately I forgot about acquiring another one until it was too late. This led to me scrolling through my bag looking for anything that would be useful as I stood in line outside the tournament, before I finally decided on using the Zap Plate as it was the only thing that may actually help. I’m sure this did play some role in my success and that potentially without it the day could have gone worse, but needless to say I sorely missed the Sash.

The EV spread and nature was designed simply to hit reasonably hard and fast, and it did just that. Manectric was a Pokémon that I brought to every match because of its Lightningrod ability. Whenever my opponent brought in a Pokémon that was likely to use an electric type move I could safely switch in to Manectric and get a free special attack boost if the prediction proved accurate. This also worked with Thunder Wave, which was amazing for Mega Charizard X as I found that, during practice, Charizard became prime Thunder Wave bait after powering up with a Dragon Dance.

The moves are fairly standard with Thunderbolt being the primary STAB attack and Discharge proving helpful at times as it is a multi-target attack that paired well alongside Garchomp. Protect ensured that I could keep it around longer and Flamethrower was a helpful fire type move for when I didn’t want to suffer the recoil damage from Flare Blitz on Charizard.

As I mentioned earlier I originally chose Manectric due to its integral role in my old Shedinja strategy, but I found that it remained extremely useful even after that strategy was abandoned. While I did consider switching him for a Rotom or something similar, I found that my play style had evolved to really rely on having Lightningrod in the back. Additionally, Manectric is rarely seen in the meta save for its Mega form, so I felt that this provided an extra element of confusion for my opponents.

The nickname is a play on Manectric’s name and is accentuated by the classic doge memes.

Saphira (Garchomp) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature

• Earthquake
• Dragon Claw
• Poison Jab
• Rock Slide

There is very little to explain here as it is just a basic Garchomp. I chose the Choice Scarf so that I could out speed any dragon that posed a threat to Mega Charizard, though later I regretted not going with a Lum Berry. While the Lum Berry would have limited my ability to OHKO a Scarfed Hydreigon or Salamence, it would have allowed for more versatility when picking moves and also would have nerfed the Will-O-Wisp that really cripples this Garchomp.

The nickname here is based on the dragon Saphira from the Inheritance Cycle book series that was a favourite of mine in primary school.

The Baptist (Floatzel) (F) @ Quick Claw
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature

• Soak
• Aqua Tail
• Taunt
• Protect

Finally onto Floatzel… What can I say? Floatzel was the smoking ruins of my abandoned strategy. Whilst I never once actually used Floatzel in the tournament, it did work moderately well with the team. Floatzel’s biggest key was that it was a really fast Soak user, which is an extremely underrated move. For those that don’t know, Soak changes the type of the target Pokémon to water type. Seeing as I had strong electric and grass type moves on the team, it really could have caused some devastating damage. This change of type also means that, unless the opponent uses a water type move, they won’t have the STAB. In reality, I probably could have used this Pokémon more, but I didn’t want to risk the chance of wasting a spot on my team that could be better utilized. That being said, I think there is potential here and it is certainly something I plan on investigating further.

The best thing about having Floatzel on the team was that I knew it was going to confuse my opponents in the team preview, because really, Floatzel..?

Team Leads

(Charizard + Liepard)

The lead that I felt most comfortable with and used every game, save for one, was Charizard + Liepard. Liepard was an exceptionally good support Pokémon that gave my team a bit of an edge in almost every matchup. Charizard X alongside Liepard was a monster as the Fake Out support usually provided enough room to successfully Dragon Dance. I managed to pull this off nearly every game, and in all honesty it’s the only lead I really used. I was open to other leads, but I just didn’t see a reason to during the tournament. Venusaur and Liepard would have made another strong lead, but this was not something I capitalised on.

The Glorious Battles

I’m going to apologise in advance for my terrible recollection of these battles. My notes are only of the Pokémon that my opponents had and used and, even then, the notes only cover from the fourth battle onwards. Nevertheless, here’s what I can remember!

In all of the following battles save for one I used Charizard X, Liepard, Manectric, and Garchomp.

Swiss Round 1

This was a good battle that gave me a lot of confidence. My competitor was a girl called Laura whom I had spoken to a few times before hand, so it was coincidental that she would be my first opponent. I don’t remember much, but I clearly remember that Manectric was able to absorb a Thunderbolt and get the Spec Attack boost whilst my Mega Charizard X OHKO’ed her Shiny Mega Ampharos and subsequently the majority of her team. Once the Charizard was down I brought in Garchomp, which provided a swift end to her last Pokémon.

Win. 1-0

Swiss Round 2

Luckily, I just made it to this battle on time and didn’t get disqualified, but as a result missed out on getting a seat. Regardless, this was a good battle. I knew instantly from the team preview that this was a Trick Room team and knew that Liepard would be able to carry me here. He led with Slowbro and Abomasnow and I lead with my Liepard and Zard. I confidently locked in Flare Blitz and mega evolution to take out the Abomasnow and then Taunt to stop Slowbro from setting up the TR. What I didn’t realise was that Slowbro gets the ability Oblivious, which very nearly cost me the game. Abomasnow protected first turn and Slowbro fired of the TR whilst my taunt was completely ignored. It was a complete waste of a turn on my part, and the field was now in my opponents favour. What happened next you ask? Redemption. Liepard encored the Abomasnow forcing it to use and fail a Protect, Slowbro targeted Charizard, causing some mild damage, and Charizard incinerated the Abomasnow with a Flare Blitz. The rest of a battle is a blur, but I know that it was very close.

Win. 2-0

Swiss Round 3

Unfortunately I can’t remember a single thing about this battle, but I vaguely remember thinking it was tight.

Win. 3-0

At this stage, my friends and I were under the impression that the Swiss was going to be out of 6 rounds, so having the 3-0 under my belt was looking very promising. I was still quite nervous though and just focused on keeping a level head while having fun.

Swiss Round 4

From here on, save for one battle, I actually took notes on my matches! Though these notes only consist of the team the opposition had and then which 4 they used… Regardless, round 4 was a good one.

They had

• Conkeldur
• Rotom
• Gardevoir
• Mawile
• Salamence
• Tyranitar

This seemed like an obvious Trick Room with Gardevoir as the setter, so I didn’t see a reason to change the 4 that I used in this match.

They brought out

• Gardevoir
• Mawile
• Rotom
• Salamence

This battle is a blur at best, but I’m fairly sure that I was able to Encore a Protect for a few turns and that Steel Wing is great at killing fairies. This was a comfortable win that made me feel very content with adding Garchomp to the team at the last minute.

Win. 4-0.

Swiss Round 5

He had

• Kangaskhan
• Talonflame
• Ludicolo
• Garchomp
• Aegislash (which amusingly is noted as ‘Sword’ in my notes because I had blanked on its name)
• Gardevoir

Of which, he brought

• Kangaskhan
• Talonflame
• Ludicolo
• Gardevoir

The adrenaline was pumping now as I have never really achieved much success in the VGC world and suddenly was 4-0 and surrounded by pro players. I remember that the guy I played was pretty cool and we both were talking about how awesome it was to make it as far as we had, regardless of what was about to happen in the next game.

This game was RIDICULOUSLY close and I’m fairly sure that my Charizard went down way earlier than I would have liked, leaving me feeling like this would be a certain loss. Then, out of nowhere, something magical happened. Don’t ask me what it was, because I couldn’t tell you if I tried, but the game started to look a little more even. I do remember that a Scald from Ludicolo burned my Garchomp, which caused it faint the next turn anyway, and it was suddenly down to just Ludicolo and Manectric. Mano a mano. 1v1. What happened that day was a battle so great that it was worthy of a song written by Tenacious D. Many Quick pulled through.

Win. 5-0.

Swiss Round 6

I stood before the list of names, ecstatic with a 5-0 record and not stressing about what I believed would be the last round of Swiss, then I saw who my next opponent was… Dayne O’Meara, or Umberrific here on Nugget Bridge. Dayne had come second at the Melbourne Regionals, so I knew he was a great player and I had just read an article by Boomguy in which Dayne had been tipped to win Nationals. Did this formidable opponent intimidate me? Not in the slightest. To be completely honest I’d considered it lost from the moment I read his name, but I was still stoked that I had the opportunity to play someone with such a stellar reputation.

What he had

• Heliolisk
• Venusaur
• Meinshao
• Aegislash
• Charizard
• Staraptor

What he brought

• Heliolisk
• Meinshao
• Venusaur
• Staraptor

This was possibly the greatest display of my strategy ever, as it later became clear that Dayne thought I was running a Charizard Y. I remember there being quite a few errors in this game and a reasonable amount of luck though, thankfully, the luck went both ways evenly. At one stage, I switched in my Manectric to absorb whatever electric type move Heliolisk was going to shoot out, only to be left dumbfounded as Heliolisk used Hyper Beam and KO’ed my Charizard. Manectric also proved invaluable with a quick OHKO to his Staraptor which is always nice. There’s not much I remember about this game, though I do distinctly remember Dayne sending out his Venusaur with three quarters health when suddenly I realised that it was his last Pokémon and that somehow I’d KO’ed his other three. So now it was 2v1 and I had only just sent in Liepard which meant that I had a Fake Out up the sleeve. Needless to say, it was game. What surprised me the most at the time was the Venusaur’s item. I thought “No mega?”, but later, when watching his final battles, it dawned on me that Charizard Y was his only mega and that his team was heavily sun orientated. This explained the no mega conundrum as he must have held back his Charizard and relied on chirping the sun from my ‘Charizard Y’. Priceless.
Overall Dayne was a pretty great bloke and definitely deserved to win the whole event later that night and go on to represent Australia in Top Cut at Worlds. Beating him is definitely the biggest achievement of all my VGC exploits and it’s not something that I will be forgetting any time soon. GG Dayne.

6-0.

Being 1 of 6 people to go 6-0 in Swiss I figured I was certain to make it to Top Cut, right until the commentators announced that it would be a best of 9 rounds. The experienced players didn’t seem surprised in the slightest however, so I figured I’d just have to drink a cup of concrete and win a few more matches, how hard could it be?

Swiss Round 7

What he had

• Gengar
• Aegislash
• Klefki
• Dragonite
• Scrafty
• Staryu

What he brought

• Gengar
• Klefki
• Scrafty
• Staryu

This battle was a serious wet cloth to the old hype train. Within a few rounds it was game and suddenly I started to question how far I might go in the tournament. Credit to this guy for using Staryu though, it definitely seemed to work for him and it was good to see it do well.

Loss. 6-1.

Swiss Round 8

Not even my notes can help me here, as I have nothing but the bitter taste of defeat to help me reflect on this battle…
In all seriousness I was still overwhelmed that I had done so well thus far and wasn’t too disheartened.

Loss. 6-2.

It’s worth mentioning here that one of my friends was also doing quite well and it seemed fairly likely that we would be paired up in the next round (not the most delightful prospect). After losing his 4th and 5th matches (I don’t remember the full details) he had caught up to me as we were both now on 6-2 and desperately needed to win that last round so we would make it to Top Cut.

Swiss Round 9

The pressure was on. I needed the win and my opponents name was worryingly familiar. Later I realised that he was Boomguy, but that’s a different story.

What he had

• Delphox
• Hydreigon
• Kangaskhan
• Amoonguss (written as Mushroom in my notes)
• Carbink
• Rotom

What he brought

• Carbink
• Kangaskhan
• Delphox
• Amoonguss

This battle ended up being another perfect display of my team’s strategy and it was the first battle where I used Venusaur over Manectric. My memory is sketchy, so it may not be 100% accurate, but I’m fairly sure I used Fake Out on the Carbink because I was counting on Kangaskhan to Fake Out my Charizard, which proved to be an apt prediction. Then it was just a matter of encoring the Kangaskhan into Fake Out and, to my opponent’s apparent amazement, OHKO the Carbink with Steel Wing. Priceless. Overall, this battle was close, yet still a reasonably comfortable win with Venusaur landing a Sleep Powder on the second attempt, though by that stage it didn’t really matter anymore. Afterwards, Phil was asking me about my set-up on Charizard which was really awesome as I felt like I’d gone from scrub to legend overnight.

Win. 7-2.

The Results

The results were in and there were murmurings about people on 7-2 not making it which, needless to say, left me slightly worried. By now it was about 9pm, so more than half of the people had left and soon only 32 would be remaining. I finally got to see the list of who had made it and I was at place number 15. Pure elation was all I was feeling and at that moment I knew that, no matter what happened from here on in, I was content. I found my friends and quickly learned that Leigh, the guy I mentioned earlier, had come 33rd.
I still feel devastated for him, but come on, 33rd… You can’t help but laugh a little

The Prestigious Top Cut

Everyone that didn’t make Top Cut was herded into the grand stands around the arena and I was able to have a good look at just how few of us there were left. Then my name was called and I went over to the table where my opponent was waiting for me. Funnily enough it turned out to be a really cool guy that I met earlier on in the day as he had beaten my friend, which didn’t really fill me with confidence.

Regardless, it was game time.

What he had

• Rotom
• Meinshao
• Salamence
• Talonflame
• Aegislash
• Mawile

What he used (not in order)

• Rotom
• Meinshao
• Mawile
• Talonflame

I’d really like to be able to say this game was close, but it just really wasn’t. I changed my strategy for the first time all tournament and opened with Garchomp and Liepard out of fear of the Salamence threat, but alas it never came. I don’t really think that was a big enough difference to cost me the game, but I do wonder what else I could have done as they were a fairly weak lead.

It was down to 2v2 with my Liepard and Garchomp (interestingly the last two and first two on the field) VS his Rotom and Meinshao I think. Once Rotom landed Will’O’Wisp on my Garchomp the full reality kicked in and I knew it was over.

Overall it was a well-deserved win on my opponent’s part and I was really happy to see that he made it to the Top 8.

Things I’d Change

Potentially the greatest strategy I didn’t even consider at the time was Charizard + Venusaur.

This would have almost certainly convinced my opponent that I was running Charizard Y over X and the offensive options, coupled with the bulky Sleep Powder support of Venusaur, would have been a more versatile strategy. This is only something I’ve experimented with recently and the results so far have been overwhelmingly good.

The most notable flaw in my team was the sheer uselessness of Floatzel. Though it did have a little potential and I can’t stress how little that ‘little’ was, it was never going to be a risk I would have been comfortable taking in such a high stakes tournament. I’ve recently bred a shiny 6 IV Honedge so, while I’m slightly more biased towards the Pokémon, I now think it would have provided more options than Floatzel ever did.

Closing Thoughts

I love this team. This team and I achieved far more than I ever expected and it really is just a creation that I am so happy with. Also, big shout out to one of the event organisers that coincidentally always collected the results slip from my table and asked after every match “Did you win?” followed by “Ahhhh good job man!”. He was my real life ‘Yo Champ in the making!’ guy and made this experience all the more surreal.

About the Author

Hazza has been playing Pokemon for years, yet is completely new to the competitive scene. Having made Top Cut at his first Nationals Tournament he aspires to achieve much and more in the years to come.

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