Reports

Published on July 29th, 2014 | by Evilwolf

7

Nap Time: Singapore CGF Swiss Qualifiers First Place Report

Hi guys! Evilwolf here again, with a team report from the sunny island of Singapore! From the weekend of 27-29 June, we had a local tournament at a local gaming event and it was the equivalent of Nationals for us.

I’m sure some of you managed to catch some matches from the top cut on stream, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as our local players did!

The first 2 days of the event were Swiss Qualifiers to determine the top 32 for the top cut on the final day of the event. I managed to qualify for top cut on the first day of qualifiers, but unfortunately I got eliminated during the first match of Top Cut due to terrible playing on my part and also because I had changed my team to a more gimmicky team that unfortunately didn’t work in my favor.

Anyway I’m writing about the team I used that got me first place during the swiss qualifiers. I personally enjoyed playing with the team tremendously and I hope to be able to share it with all of my peers here at Nugget Bridge.

Before I get started, I apologize in advance if any of my analyses on the Pokémon I used below are inaccurate in some parts. I only made the team 4 days before the tournament so some parts may seem rushed or the research done into the team is lacking in any parts.

Kangaskhan
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Scrappy
Item: Kangaskhanite
Usage: Brought for 6 out of 7 matches
EVs: 12 HP, 252 Attack, 4 Defense, 4 Special Defense, 236 Speed
– Return
– Power-Up Punch
– Rest
– Sleep Talk

• Outspeeds max speed Smeargle by 1 point

Pretty standard EV spread. I gave this Kangaskhan enough speed to outspeed Smeargle and invested the rest in bulk. I ran adamant for max power and didn’t really see any reason to run max speed other than speed tying with other Adamant Kangaskhans.  Although Jolly is the more common nature for Kangaskhans, I’ve always felt that Jolly’s damage output was always lacking and I liked the immediate power that Adamant nature gave me, netting some KOs where Jolly could not.

This EV spread is probably not ideal for a Rest-Sleep Talk Kangaskhan but I had originally bred and trained this Kangaskhan for a different team, and I just changed the move set to test it out.

I built the team around Mega Kangaskhan wanting to play around with it for fun, and I knew from experience that common ways to deal with Kangaskhan was to burn it or put it to sleep, and that attacks aimed at Kangaskhan would either KO it outright or deal around 50-75% on average. I wanted a Kangaskhan build that could let it have some staying power.

So I decided to run Rest and Sleep talk, along with Return for STAB (though as a friend of mine pointed out, Façade might have been better for this slot due to my Kangaskhan having a status from Rest; but Return served me well enough), and for the last slot I chose power-up punch for the ability to boost my Kangaskhan even while sleeping so it could be a constant threat and also to beat Mega Mawile. The randomness of Sleep Talk’s targeting also worked in my favor as it made it harder for my opponent to predict what Kangaskhan was going to attack. This Rest-Sleep Talk move set also gives me a good chance of beating the Kangaskhan-Smeargle combination that was rather popular at the time.

Unfortunately, this means my Kangaskhan is completely walled by ghosts if I chose to mega-evolve it.

Scrafty
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Intimidate
Item: Weakness Policy
Usage: Brought in 4 out of 7 matches
EVs: 252 HP, 156 Attack, 4 Defense, 92 Special Defense, 4 Speed
– Fake Out
– Protect
– Drain Punch
– Crunch

• Survives Timid 252 Special Atk Mega-Charizard-Y Overheat 100% of the time
• Survives Timid 252 Special Atk Mega Lucario Aura Sphere 15/16 times
• Survives -1 Choice Banded Talonflame Brave Bird 15/16 times
• OHKOs 252hp/4def Aegislash-Blade 100% of the time
• 2HKOs 4hp/4def Kangaskhan 100% of the time

Credits for the EV spread belong to Lajo. I read his report on Germany Nationals and I liked his EV spread’s survivability which didn’t compromise on the key KOs that I need Scrafty to grab (Lucario and Kangaskhan, mainly).

Here’s the crazy part: When I first conceived this team, I remembered a common strategy in VGC ’14 for Kangaskhan was to take advantage of the opponent double protecting on the first turn to avoid Fake Out and Power Up Punch its partner for a free boost. I wanted to use Weakness Policy to boost the partner at the same time, and by leading with the threat of another Fake Out user would almost guarantee setup. The only Fake Out users in VGC’14 that were weak to Power-Up Punch were Scrafty, Kecleon, Weavile and Delcatty. Delcatty and Weavile were too fragile, and I couldn’t get a Kecleon in time for the tournament, so I decided to go with Scrafty. Scrafty’s Intimidate helps boost Kangaskhan’s survivability, and at the same time its dual STAB of Crunch hits ghosts which wall Kangaskhan, and fighting, rock, and steel types which are common in this metagame. Coincidentally, Scrafty’s weakness policy allows it to OHKO opposing Mega Kangaskhan after they use Power-Up punch or Hammer Arm on it.

Cryogonal
Nature: Timid
Ability: Levitate
Item: Expert Belt
Usage: Brought in 3 out of 7 matches
EVs: 236 HP, 36 Special Attack, 236 Speed
– Freeze Dry
– Ice Beam
– Flash Cannon
– Protect

• Outruns max speed Garchomp
• KOs 4 HP Garchomp, Kingdra and Salamence, and 252 HP Ludicolo and Gyarados
• Survives Modest 252 Sp.Atk Choice Specs Salamence Fire Blast
• Survives unboosted max attack Azumarill Aqua Jet
• Survives Choice Specs 252 Sp.Atk modest Kingdra Hydro Pump in Rain

I didn’t think it was necessary to max Cryogonal’s speed as the only thing it would accomplish was speed tie Mienshao and I didn’t reckon it was really worth it. The 36 Special Attack EVs, coupled with an Expert Belt, give it just enough power to KO the Pokémon listed above. I didn’t think it was necessary to invest EVs to max out its special attack as maxing out special attack didn’t net any KOs anyway and 36 Sp.Atk still manages to get 2HKOs on Pokémon like Azumarill and Rotom-Wash.

Prior to the creation of this team I was playing around with Choice Specs Aurorus and had moderate success so when I built this team, I immediately wanted a Freeze-Dry user on my team due to the amazing coverage the move has. Aurorus didn’t really fit on this team, so I chose Cryogonal as it was the fastest user of the move and it has amazing bulk on the special side, albeit at the tradeoff of being absolutely frail on the physical spectrum.

Cryogonal’s role on the team was just to KO the Pokemon listed above, and including Rotom-Wash. I ran Flash Cannon as Cryogonal’s movepool was limited and it hits Gardevoir and Tyranitar for super effective damage, and Cryogonal could sponge attacks from Gardevoir and Rotom. In fact, Cryogonal could wall practically almost any special attacker due to its high natural Special Defense.

All in all, Cryogonal was a match-up dependent Pokémon, it excelled against the Pokemon I designed it to kill, but was completely useless otherwise when facing other Pokémon. In hindsight, I probably could have run some support moves on Cryogonal such as screens or Icy Wind or Haze in place of Flash Cannon or Ice Beam so that it wouldn’t be total deadweight in case my opponent didn’t bring the Pokémon I needed Cryogonal to KO.

Chandelure
Nature: Modest
Ability: Flash Fire
Item: Life Orb
Usage: Brought in 4 out of 7 matches
EVs: 180 HP, 252 Special Attack, 76 Speed
– Shadow Ball
– Fire Blast Flamethrower
– Overheat Will-o-Wisp
– Protect

• Outruns non-speed boosting nature Gardevoirs with 4 Speed EVs
• 68.8% chance to OHKO 252 HP 76 Special Defense Aegislash-Shield with Flamethrower
• OHKOs 252 HP Gardevoirs with less than 68 special defense investment

When I chose Kangaskhan to base my team around I knew that I had to have a fire type on my team to counter the steels types that wall it, especially Ferrothorn. I picked one of my favorite Fire types, Chandelure, and never looked back. Chandelure also had the added advantage of being able to hit ghost types and Gardevoir for super-effective damage. Having a Ghost type was also tremendously helpful in my matchups against Mega Kangaskhans and Fighting types (since half of my team was weak to fighting).

I initially ran with Fire Blast and Overheat during practice but I eventually did damage calculations for Flamethrower, and since it was able to KO Aegislash I saw no reason to run Fire Blast and risk missing with it. On the actual day of the qualifiers I decided to drop Overheat for Will-o-Wisp to counter sucker punches from the likes of Mawile, Kangaskhans, and Bisharps, and in practice I had never been able use Overheat to nuke anything anyway because of Chandelure’s middling speed.

Salamence
Nature: Modest
Ability: Intimidate
Item: Choice Specs
Usage: Brought in 7 out of 7 matches
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed
– Draco Meteor
– Flamethrower
– Hydro Pump
– Rock Tomb

This slot was originally filled by Gallade and then Medicham as I wanted a strong psychic type to deal with Mega Venusaur and they had fighting STAB to deal with Kangaskhan or Tyranitar. However Medicham and Gallade both felt out of place on my team and to compound matters, I had trouble getting the moves I wanted on Medicham. So I made an impulsive last minute decision and randomly chose a Pokemon to replace Medicham, and I picked Salamence for its wide variety of generic coverage moves to hit nearly every possible Pokémon, and Intimidate support. Also, if Salamence was partnered with Kangaskhan, I could use power-up punch on Salamence, something I couldn’t do with Medicham given how frail it was despite resisting it.

I ran Choice Specs over Scarf as I personally felt that Scarf Salamence was always lacking in power and outrunning Garchomp didn’t matter as Salamence survives Garchomp’s Dragon Claw after Intimidate. Salamence’s moves are pretty self-explanatory and standard. Rock Tomb was for speed control and to hit enemy Talonflame and Charizards, but it didn’t really work out as well as I had hoped as my Salamence’s attack IV was nearly 0.

All in all, Salamence proved its worth and did its job exceptionally well. I was able to use it in almost any situation, as you can see. It was the only Pokémon on the team that I brought for every single match.

Aerodactyl
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Pressure
Item: Aerodactylite
Usage: Brought in 4 out of 7 matches
EVs: 220 HP, 52 Attack, 4 Defense, 4 Special Defense, 228 Speed
– Rock Slide Rock Tomb
– Tailwind
– Ice Fang
– Protect

• Survives a Critical Hit Stone Edge from 0 Atk 31 IV hindering nature Salamence
• Outspeeds 252 Spe boosting nature base 80 speed Pokemon holding a Choice Scarf
• Outspeeds maximum speed Talonflame before Mega Evolving
• OHKOs 4 HP Garchomp with Ice Fang after Mega Evolving
• Survives Modest 252 Sp.Atk Rotom Volt switch or weaker

I knew my team needed tailwind support and looking at the list of tailwind users I picked Aerodactyl mainly as I wanted a rock type to counter the like of Talonflame, Rotom-H and Charizard.

I didn’t choose to go with Sky Drop as it didn’t really do any significant damage and made me predictable on the next turn so I opted to run protect instead. I used Rock Tomb over Rock Slide because I noticed in practice most of the time, usually there was only one Pokemon on the opponent’s team that I wanted to hit with a rock attack, so I picked Rock Tomb for higher accuracy, extra speed control, and because it deals more damage than Rock Slide to a single target. Furthermore I didn’t want to be winning based on flinch hax anyway, so Rock Tomb worked out spectacularly for me.

Lastly, I chose to put a mega stone on Aerodactyl because when I was testing this team, Aerodactyl’s item never came into use no matter what I used (Focus Sash, Rocky Helmet, Lum Berry) so essentially Aerodactyl was fighting itemless almost every time so I decided to slap a mega stone on it in case I needed Aerodactyl to deal with Garchomp.

And that concludes my team report for the team of 6 I used for the Swiss qualifiers! I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have playing and writing the report!

About the Author

Evilwolf

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