Reports

Published on February 13th, 2013 | by Jacob B.

0

No Team, No Sleep, No Problem!: Long Beach, CA, Regionals Champion Report

Article image created by ryuzaki for Nugget Bridge and used with permission. See more of ryuzaki’s artwork on deviantART.

Hello Nugget Bridge, my name is Jacob Burrows (aka: Noobly9730). Some of you might know my brother Abram Burrows (abman261), the 2012 Juniors World Champion. I am currently rated 22^nd in the championship point hunt and rated to be in the top 10 of the United States by the Pokémon ELO system (as of 1/26/13). But in reality I am just a 15 year old in high school who loves Pokémon and this is my mini-report/team analysis on my win at the 2013 Winter SoCal regional.

The “Team” Building Process

Although I would love to be able to say that I am one of those amazing players who can build these amazingly thought through teams that have every “I” dotted and every “t” crossed, I cannot. I did have an idea of what I liked and disliked in team structures but I did not have any concrete idea on what to run until about two weeks before the tournament.

After examining a lot of the winning teams, and a little bit of online research, I found that many teams that were successful were running a 4:2 split of physical attackers to special attackers. This has been a taboo for me ever since I started playing competitively and got completely walled by a Blissey when using my first Rain team. So with time running out I decided to take my chances and try to find a gimmick that might exploit this pattern. Then, while watching my brother test, I noticed how powerful Burn was, both for the persistant and annoying damage it provided and the substantial attack drop. Following this path I sought to find the most effective Will-o-Wisp user. Although Sableye is arguably the most fitting Pokémon to fill this role with its Prankster ability, I found that it was much to easily predicted and lacked the ability to do much else after completing its role.

Frustrated, I nearly gave up until my brother jokingly suggested to use Rotom-W for the job, but then something clicked. Rotom also satisfied another role that I was looking to fill in having Thunder Wave to auto inflict paralysis. Although this double status is great the thing that put it really over the top for me was the fact that everyone seems to expect Rotom to be an attacker. Many may remember this sort of surprise factor being used on Aaron Zheng’s Thundurus from his 2012 Nationals winning team. The rest of the team was then built around the Rotom’s ability to both shut down physical attackers, chip away at tanky supports (like Cresselia), and its ability to slow down those nasty sweepers.

Metagross and Garchomp should seem familiar to many as they are nearly (if not) identical to the ones used by Ray Rizzo. I chose those two in particular because I enjoyed their wide coverage, tankiness and speed respectively, and their ability to survive anything. Hitmontop, although a rather common choice overall, was another one of my little surprises. With its attack maxed out it could OHKO nearly anything that wasn’t built with physical bulk with just one Fighting Gem-boosted Close Combat (CC) while Stone Edge punished many of the popular Flying-types that had seen a rise in popularity recently, namely Thundurus and Thundurus-T. The next role I wanted to fill was a bulky special attacker, which is a rather hard role to fill, but Cresselia fit the bill perfectly. Finally was the role of the special sweeper. Despite having another dragon on the team, I felt that Hydreigon fit this role well because it had an improved movepool in Pokemon Black and White 2. Although I had high hopes for this team the week prior to Regionals, it was not to be. Time had gotten the better of me, and I could not complete the group before having to register for Regionals so this is what really happened.

The Original Team

Please keep in mind that this team was really just a patch work done minutes before registration closed and not everything was thought through/completed to my liking, much less to the standards of other more experienced veteran players. Unfortunately, time constraints are a real thing and I had to make do with the tools I had available at the time.

Latios (M) @ Dragon Gem
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
– Draco Meteor
– Psyshock
– Thunder
– Protect

Latios was literally a last minute decision. I was searching for anything to fill the void left by my unfinished Hydregon, and it just so happened that I had my brother’s Latios in the Pokemon Black cart that I was trading all of the other Pokémon from, so I took my chances not even checking its moves and added it to the team. It is a pretty standard 252/252 sweeper Latios that my brother had apparently been using in rain explaining why it had Thunder, and at the end of the day it played the role of a special sweeper to perfection.

Cresselia (F) @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 220 HP / 164 Def / 124 SAtk
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
– Toxic
– Psyshock
– Thunder Wave
– Rest

Cresellia was intented to be a bulky special attacker that could still spread paralysis with Thunder Wave. It turned out to be another one of those last minute headaches that just happened to work out, thank goodness. I had already taught it the TM moves it could learn when I was training it. But naturally, being the optimist I am, I thought I would have plenty of time to teach it Icy Wind but time got the best of me so I taught it Toxic, literally the only Cresselia compatible TM I had in my White 2. So I modified its role from attacker to bulky, annoying status spreader. The EVs on it were initially intended to do damage while having the bulk to tank most anything, which it proved to do in practice.

Garchomp (M) @ Haban Berry
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 36 HP / 120 Atk / 196 SDef / 156 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
– Dragon Claw
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Protect

Garchomp was a near carbon copy of Rizzo’s Garchomp (minus Substitute, plus Rock Slide) which I happened to like due to its ability to face tank other dragons and survive along with its nice overall coverage. I am a fan of the Earthquake + Rock move combo so this was really a good choice for my team as it brought good coverage and had nice tankiness while still doing sizable damage.

Rotom (Rotom-W) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 180 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
– Thunder Wave
– Will-O-Wisp
– Thunderbolt
– Confuse Ray

Rotom had to be the biggest headache for both me, although I am sure it gave my opponents an even more frustrating one in many situations. I was in line to register for the event when I realized that I had completely forgotten to teach Rotom Pain Split or give it a Sitrus Berry. Trying to scramble together something I found an Expert Belt (the only viable item in the game at the time) in my Bw2 and attached it, put Rotom in the Battle Box, and registered for fear of getting a round one loss. Although it lacked HP recovery in the form of Pain Split and the Sitrus Berry it did “gain” Confuse Ray which had made it even more annoying to play against when combined with Thunder Wave. This form of attack denial was very humorous for me but made for a very frustrating game for my opponents. The EVs on Rotom were designed to make it a pure tank with 252 HP ensuring you could always get the most from Pain Split. I then tried to focus the rest of its EVs on Special Defense feeling that Will-o-Wisp would be enough physical denial.

Hitmontop (M) @ Fight Gem
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Atk / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
– Fake Out
– Close Combat
– Stone Edge
– Detect

Hitmontop was one of my favorite Pokémon in this set just because of its “boxer” like play style. Since it was basically purely devoted to attacking it became an easy target for opponents to counter KO after it had used Close Combat. This was why I chose Detect on it over a support move. When it had the support of Rotom or Cresselia it would simply hide behind Detect and wait for its partner to slow down the threat before it attacked again meaning it could very easily trade 1-for-1, if not 2-for-1, which would swing the game heavily in my control and often seal the game right away. The EVs on Hitmontop are purely focused on attack. I chose HP instead of Speed, however, because I found that all too often opposing Hitmontop would CC each other leaving only the one who attacked second surviving. I also found defenses to be a poor place to raise because the defense drop of CC would eliminate the effectiveness of the defenses all together so I decided to invest the remaining 252 EVs into HP because if it could even survive 1 more hit that would be good enough for me.

Metagross @ Occa Berry
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Atk / 136 SDef / 8 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
– Meteor Mash
– Earthquake
– Zen Headbutt
– Protect

The final ingredient in my team was a tank and weighing in at 1212.5 lbs it pretty much fits the definition of tank. More seriously I wanted a Steel-type on my team, but after trying Scizor and being rather disappointed with its movepool I opted for Metagross. Metagross seemed to fit my team well because it had a nice movepool and could be tanky without giving up much damage. Running out of time to do fine tuning though I just copy-pasted Rizzo’s Metagross set and changed Lum Berry for Occa so that it could take a hit from a Fire-type and ran with it. The decision to run Occa over Lum actually ended up winning me the third game of the first round of top cut.

Basic Team Matchups

Notice these are not in-depth, well-tested matchups to go by; these are just my observations from personal experience and a bit of theorymon thrown in the mix.

VS “Good Stuffs”
 

This matchup is favorable if you can catch them by surprise with Rotom because many “good stuffs” teams that I have encountered often have an imbalance of physical attackers to special attackers leaning towards the physical side. Knowing this you should have the advantage in Swiss where your opponent is bound to take Rotom for a normal one but becomes more 50/50 or so in top cut when your opponent knows what you are trying to do.

VS Rain

This is one of, if not the, worst matchups for the team overall because Rain groups simply don’t give you the time to spread your status, but if somehow you do manage to get their ridiculous Speed under control and don’t take heavy losses in the process the game should be yours because you now out speed them and in most cases can easily OHKO them.

VS Sand
 

Although I cannot say that I have played this matchup extensively it does exist so I will include it in the team matchup. Considering how many Sandstorm “abusers” (yes we are all looking at you Excadrill and physical Landorus) suffer greatly from being burned, Rotom is the MVP of this matchup, though special Landorus would give this team quite the headache. I confidently say that so long as Rotom lives long enough to get two important burns on the field then the game should be heavily in your favor. However if your Rotom is targeted down off the bat, it makes it harder and more of a 50/50, predictions based matchup.

VS Trick Room

This is a rather poor matchup overall because many Trick Room teams do have leads that are very effective in ensuring that TR does get set up and their Pokemon all have considerable bulk. This matchup is more of a waiting game; you really have to be patient, identify your opponents main attackers and effectively limit them while not over extending and giving up too much ground by the time TR ends. Once TR ends you have to go full out aggressive and make sure that even if TR is re-set that you are in a position to win no matter what happens.

The Report

Notice: I am very sorry if I get some details wrong or the order of matches confused. I was not planning on winning, much less writing a report on winning, and was working with about 5 hours of sleep that day so many of the details were forgotten. Also I apologize if these reports sound like “easy” wins, I assure you every one of these opponents gave me a run for my money and could have easily won if a little hax had gone their way.

Round 1: N themed Group

I initially see this group of assorted N Pokémon and under estimate it heavily. I see Sableye and Cresselia so I lead Latios, Rotom to combat the pesky Prankster. He leads “Sableye” aka Zoroark and Cresselia. His Cresselia helping hands and I immediately identify the Sableye to be a fraud which would have been fine if Latios hadn’t missed Draco Meteor only to be OHKO’d by the trickster. What a great way to start off the tournament, no? I rally to meet his pressure and Thunder Wave + Confuse Ray his entire team whenever I get the opportunity, leading to his eventual loss as his Pokémon lacked the raw damage and type match ups to compete with my Garchomp and Metagross.

Round 2: Pure Swift Swim Rain Team (Rain Team #1)

As stated above, one look at this team and you know exactly what it was: it was a simple Drizzle + Swift Swim combo that aimed to abuse Swift Swim to the max with Kabutops, Kingdra and Ludicolo. I just attacked in between Detects with Hitmontop, taking out his Thundurus and Kingdra with Stone Edge and Close Combat respectively, and then mopped up with Garchomp.

Lessons learned from this round:
1) Swift swim isn’t scary when they are easily OHKO’d
2) Thunder Wave wrecks Swift Swim, and
3) Toxic Cresselia isn’t bad.

Round 3: Thundurus-T + Clefable and other stuff

He lead Clefable and a Thundurus-T which I would later find out was Scarfed. Even from the team preview my Spidey Senses are tingling all over when I see the innocent looking, pink gen 1 ‘mon. Knowing full well that it can snowball out of hand quickly if allowed to, I simply turn one Close Combat it for the KO and then he is left with 3-4 while his Thundurus runs away with Volt Switch. From here I keep the pressure on with my double dragons and finish the game 4-2 after losing both Cresselia and Hitmontop.

Round 4: Human Bulky Rain (Rain Team #2)

I can’t really say that I enjoyed this match, not to say that Human is a bad guy, its just that well it is no fun to be completely destroyed when you are trying so hard! This game was really lost from turn one when he out-predicts my Cresselia and Hitmontop and OHKOs my Hitmontop with a critical hit, Water Gem, Drizzle-boosted Hydro Pump from his Politoed. Although it would have likely KO’d without the crit, I would never admit it to his face. After that it was a pure sweep with my double dragons falling to his faster double dragons.

Round 5: ????

Honestly at this point I thought I was out of the tournament entirely, but I was determined to finish the day with a positive record so I play it out and win, although I don’t remember much of the specifics. I remember just spamming statuses in order to win.

Round 6: Anti-Rain Rain, Thunder and Hurricane abuse (Rain Team #3)

This game was won by two factors: first I get lucky with a Hurricane miss from his Volcarona onto my Hitmontop and second he opted not to bring his Politoed. The lack of Rain to boost the accuracy of his moves cost him the game in the end because 70% accuracy isn’t nearly consistent enough to win. After losing Volcarona to a Hitmontop Stone Edge, he then lost his Blissey to a Fighting Gem Close Combat next turn, and my dragons in the back made easy work of the 2 remaining paralyzed Pokémon.

Round 7: Scrafty and Scizor + others

This was another one of those fuzzy rounds for me all I remember was that at one point in the game he had a burned Scrafty and Scizor that could deal next to nothing to my Pokémon, and I decided to let the Scrafty live and kill the Scizor and everything else he had while leaving the burned Scrafty to do next to nothing.

Lesson learned from this round is that if something doesn’t deal damage then don’t kill it immediately. Instead take advantage of the effective 2v1 situation.

Round 8: Hayden Morrison (hakemo)

Judging from his team comp I figured that I could take the game if I burned his major attackers and ensured Metagross survived, but Will-o-Wisp got the best of me. He leads Rotom-W and Tyranitar/Mamoswine (don’t remember but probably Mamoswine) into my Rotom-W and Hitmontop.

I decide turn one to fake out his Rotom for fear of an OHKO on either of my leads and attempt to burn his Metagross which switches out to Garchomp and avoids the Burn. Turn two Close Combat his Rotom to prevent an OHKO from a potential Gem-boosted attack and launch another Will-o-Wisp at his Garchomp, which misses. He responds with a good old-fashioned Discharge + Ground-type combo and Dragon Claws my Rotom, chunking down my Hitmontop and dealing decent damage to Rotom as well.

Stubbornly I decide to throw caution into the wind and attempt another Will-o-Wisp on Garchomp, and this one hits. Fortunately my Hitmontop was safe behind its Detect and takes no damage from Garchomp’s Dragon Claw or Rotom’s Discharge. My Rotom, now hanging by a thread, was very much missing its Pain Split, but I decide to sacrifice it and switch Garchomp in for Hitmontop in order to have the option to Fake Out and Intimidate later. As predicted he decided to Dragon Claw Rotom and discharge does no damage my Garchomp. I bring out my own Metagross to replace the KO’d Rotom.

I know I have to ensure the survival of my Metagross to win this game so I Dragon Claw his Garchomp for an OHKO after he hits my Garchomp with a Dragon Claw as he KOs my Garchomp with a Hidden Power (HP) Ice. He is forced to bring out Mamoswine and Tyranitar, and I replace my Garchomp with Hitmontop and Intimidate both of his remaining attackers. I Fake Out and Meteor Mash the Mamoswine fearing its Earthquake and he Dark Gem crunches my Hitmontop fearing a CC. Next turn Metagross OHKOs his Tyranitar with a single Meteor Mash. With that I am in top cut.

Top Cut

For the sake of space these will not be “comprehensive” in depth reports but rather generalizations of the match as a whole.

Top 8: Mathew Dotey with “Good Stuffs”

Round 1: This round was rather easily won by burn because he brought three physical attackers, two of which got burned and lost all their damage. But this would be corrected in Round 2.

Round 2: As I suspected he brought all 3 of his special attackers (Latios, Volcarona, and Rotom-W) and his Metagross. Although I cannot say I would have won the game decisively like I did in the first round, I do feel that the game was lost when I used Rock Slide on his low HP Quiver Danced Volcarona and paralyzed -2 Latios only for both of them to avoid it. Hax sucks for sure, but it’s not like I didn’t have some coming to me eventually.

Round 3: This time I am a bit more wary of his Volcarona and Latios and we bring it down to a nail biting conclusion where my 50% Metagross was facing his 100% Metagross that was locked into Ice Punch due to Choice Band. Those 8 speed creep EVs pay off and my Metagross walks away from that show down with about 33% of its hp thanks to having Earthquake.

Top 4: Hayden Morrison (hakemo)

Round 1: This game was characterized by his hate towards my poor Rotom. He immediately goes for the Leaf Blade on my Rotom with his Virizion, though my Rotom survives and I am able to burn Virizion and OHKO its partner with Hitmontop. From there I sacrifice Rotom in favor of having a healthy Hitmontop with Garchomp and then use the same 2v1 strategy as I did with the Scrafty from round 7 and win.

Round 2: I really don’t know how to describe this game other than a stomping (sorry Hayden). I predict his Virizion start and decide to lead with Latios and Hitmontop. I spend the first three turns OHKOing three of his Pokémon until only Virizion remained sealing me a spot in the top 2.

Finals: William Hall (Biosci) using off Rain. (Rain Team #4)

Round 1: You can watch it for yourself on the GTS, battle video: 33-29997-60276

Round 2: You can watch this one from Biosci’s perspective at:

Round 3: This game was characterized us focusing down specific Pokémon. In my case I wanted to take his Kingdra first and then his pesky Bisharp, while he on the other hand simply wanted to kill my Hitmontop that had been causing him mischief all match. After KOing Kingdra in exchange for my Hitmontop we both took turns KOing each other’s Pokémon, however I came out on top of this trade in the end due to his having Choice Specs on his Thunderus-T, leaving it choiced into Thunderbolt against my Garchomp.

Closing thoughts

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Rain seemed to be a powerful contender, contrary to my initial prediction, and it doesn’t look like it will be going anywhere soon so add it into the list of things you need to counter when team building.

Never Give Up

This is the most basic principal in the game. Never count yourself out, and never say you can’t. If I had just given up at the start when I dropped my match against Human I never would have made it to the finals and eventually the Championship.

Have No Regrets

This one is simple once a game is done it is done, if you dwell on past games it will only stop you from improving your future ones. It is OK to forget what mistakes you made in the last round, just don’t forget what the mistakes taught you. Always make sure you do your best and have no regrets!

About the Author

Jacob B.

Related Posts

Memoirs of a World Champion: by 2015 World Champion SHADEviera →

The Other Fire Doge: A Top 8 Lancaster Report →

Blazing Forward! A Malaysian Regionals 2nd Place Report →

Top 4, Top 4, We’ve Never Used This Team Before →