Nobody Expects the British Inquisition: A Multi-National Team Report
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and now it’s finally time I officially retire this team. I’ve been using one variant or another of it for just over a year now and I think it’s time I tucked it away into a box and looked for something more specific to the current metagame. Even Cybertron is looking at new teams, so I guess I don’t have an excuse now! So, here it is, laid bare for all of you to see. I’m sure most of you have seen it in some way shape or form as I’ve been on some real adventures with it. I took it around Europe through the UK, France, and Italy Nationals last year; I ground out some serious WiFi hours with it in a couple of the tournaments; it even took me to Top Cut of US Nationals in it’s most recent incarnation! I brought it into the early part of the 2013 season, with some limited success, but now the game has changed too much and I can’t just tweak it to adapt. Every Pokémon played its part somewhere and, even though I won’t have any war stories, I’ll try to mention points where it did its job.
This team came about as a result of my personal team building strategy. I always set myself a “ban list” early in the season, where I tell myself which very overused Pokemon I want to avoid. I always stuck to my guns on this one, and banned weather reliant teams, Hitmontop, Latios and Metagross for the duration of the year. I’m sure it sounds ridiculous to most, but it means I keep enjoying my play, and hopefully keeps my teams a bit more interesting to play against.
The Lineup
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Chandelure (M) @ Choice Scarf Trait: Flash Fire EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk) – Overheat – Heat Wave – Shadow Ball – Energy Ball |
The ruse is up, I’ve been running the scarf variant all year. I’ve raved about it for quite a while and I still believe it’s an incredibly strong ‘mon to be running in many teams. I’m an aggressive player (play style that is, not leaning over the table for punch up) and dealing some big damage early doors, without having to worry about Fake Out, is really rather appealing to me. When starting out all I saw were Metagross and Latios everywhere; they seemed to be the two most popular pokemon on the continent. So I was immediately drawn back to Chandelure, which I had used the previous year to decent success, as a solid counter to both of them. I ran the calculations (probably the only time I did all year) and figured that it would need a modest nature to guarantee an OHKO on 4HP Latios, so I went with this. I didn’t want to risk getting hit with the Draco Meteor and it seemed like an easy way to surprise my opponent, taking an early scalp. It also chunked Cresselias pretty hard. I came to an awkward choice when picking the fire move. I much preferred Heat Wave for neutral situations when I wanted to deal some damage to both, and maybe grab a burn, but I couldn’t help shake the feeling I’d regret not having Overheat in some situations. In the end I was greedy and just picked both. Overheat was perfect for OHKO’s when it was required, but at times just staying in for a couple of Heat Waves without the need to switch immediately was also much appreciated. It may seem daft having Energy Ball as well, with Virizion in the team, but I wanted a solid way to beat Gastro and it’s still not always expected. This way I don’t have to bring Virizion every time either. When it came to EV’s, I made sure I had enough to outspeed things I needed to, such as full speed Timid Latios, and basically accepted losing to quicker scarf variants. I think it was enough though, as I took a game at US Nats against editor-in-chief plaid winning the speed war on an opposing Chandelure.
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Terrakion @ Focus Sash Trait: Justified EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpAtk) – Close Combat – Rock Slide – Quick Guard – Protect |
This is potentially the laziest Pokémon choice ever. I knew I needed a better out than Overheat on the Genies and with Rock and Dark type weaknesses on my Chandelure, which I loved to lead with, Terrakion seemed like a pretty perfect choice. The only downside to this is the double Ground weakness, but on the whole I liked to lead with these two as much as possible, looking to play myself out of any sticky situations when staring down an Earthquake. The final moveslot was the only one I had a real choice with and in the end I settled with Quick Guard. Why you may ask? Well, particularly across Europe — and in part America — Dark Gem sucker punch Hitmontop was still very much a thing and often in the lead. Knowing I’d mainly be pairing it with Chandelure, I liked to stop the Fake Out or the Sucker Punch with this. This meant it often took quite a prediction (or a tip off that I was running it) to actually just attack the Terrakion. It really did work for me, as it’s still not taken off as a popular choice on Terrakion — or really on any Pokémon at all.
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Swampert (M) @ Ground Gem Trait: Torrent EVs: 166 HP / 252 Atk / 92 Spe Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpAtk) – Earthquake – Waterfall – Ice Punch – Protect |
This is where I started to try and show some originality in my team. I know it got popular when it top cut the seniors division at Worlds, but I’ve been using this mean mother all year. I was noticing a lot of people bringing Gastrodon and, being a total hipster, I went for its type counterpart. It was a good counter to the large amount of Zapdos the Europeans used, and the Thundurus the Americans loved, as I could switch it in on Thunder Waves, or just Thunderbolts from the back, and then threaten immediately with Ice Punch. I discussed at length with Osirus and Rees the possibilty of a special set but, knowing it would often be paired with a Cress to just “tidy up” out the back, I decided I could get away with Earthquakes in the end. The one change I did make throughout the season was the item. I originally went with Rindo Berry, but after I got KO’d through it on a couple of occasions, I felt there was no point: you just lose to Grass moves. I switched over to a Ground gem, purely for the extra damage on Metagross and to make neutral attacks people may think they can tank a little more threatening to nab some KOs on his way to seeing out the win. If I’ve removed the grass threat early on with Chandelure, he can fairly readily see out a game for me.
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Cresselia (F) @ Lum Berry Trait: Levitate EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52SpDef Calm Nature (+SpDef, -Atk) – Psychic – Icy Wind – Helping Hand – Trick Room |
I needed some kind of support for what I’d picked so far, and unfortunately, I just couldn’t replace such a classic support ‘mon with anything quite as effective. I needed an out to Trick Room and went for a maybe more straightforward way in just reversing it when it was set up, rather than tiddling about with taunts or double targets. I also accepted the fact that every team needs some speed control and opted for Icy Wind over Thunder Wave, purely so I had an option for everything, and because I enjoyed hitting both opposing Pokémon at once. I felt that Thunder Wave was overkill when usually it would only take one speed drop to get things below my fairly brisk team — particularly the middling Pokemon I wanted to out speed with Swampert to see out games. I also didn’t have a super effective attack to hit the ever present Hitmontop so I just (lazily) slapped Psychic on there, usually doing a good chunk before or after the Close Combat stat drop. I had one more space, and after a few games where Cress ended up being quite passive, I gave her Helping Hand. This just plays into the quick aggressive strategy I liked the team to execute.
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Virizion @ Expert Belt Trait: Justified EVs: 212 HP / 184 Atk / 76 Def / 36 Spe Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpAtk) – Leaf Blade – X-Scissor – Hidden Power [Ice] – Protect |
I spent weeks trying to get Rotom-Cut to work, as I loved the look of the little lawnmower, but having to switch it out every time after it did anything was a bit of a nuisance so I spoke to renowned thespian, and part time athlete Wolfey, and we looked in-depth at Virizion as a good answer to weather which my team was really lacking. It’s really not my normal kind of Pokemon. It has bulk investment, strange moves, and isn’t just maxed out in the speed department. Expert Belt Leaf Blade was KO’ing most Politoeds i saw running about fairly handily and X-Scissor was doing big damage on the Ludicolos people loved to pair with them. I didn’t bring a fighting move on here, as I felt it wouldn’t be required considering what I was using it for. Only once did I actually desire it and that was near the end of my run at US Nationals. Although there was no investment in SpAtk, the Hidden Power Ice that Human convinced me to put on was fairly helpful — particularly against those with a 4x weakness to Ice who thought they were safe. In more recent times, this has done well against Landorus, with his new Therian Forme seeing decent amounts of play.
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Sableye (F) @ Sitrus Berry Trait: Prankster EVs: 252 HP / 240 SpDef / 16 Spe Careful Nature (+SpDef, -SpAtk) – Fake Out – Will-O-Wisp – Captivate – Taunt |
I’ve been running with Sableye all year and fell in love with the tricky little prankster early doors. She needs about 12 move slots, but the 4 she picks are probably going to be useful in any team. I started with her as part of my weather counter with Virizion. I knew Virizion would be able to hurt them, but I wasn’t really stopping them from getting the benefits from their atmospheric changes. I looked at Thunder Wave and such, but I thought as a coverall it would just be much easier to change the weather to sun which very few people would benefit from. Prankster Sunny Day helped Virizion in dismantling rain and sand teams from the get go.
I got to US Nationals though and I wasn’t really sold on it, but I hadn’t found anything to fill the slot either. It seemed like a kind of wasted Pokémon. I waited at Indianapolis airport, met Cybertron briefly, and waited for Cassie. On the bus wagon, we got talking about our teams for the weekend and she was really animated about the Sableye that she’d devised with Huy and jio. Although it took Huy all night to convince me, I gladly took it off them, and found out what a nuisance Captivate/Will-O-Wisp could be as a combo — essentially having an answer to either type of attacker. In fact, one of my games was on me getting lucky with 5/5 WoW hits keeping my opponent in check, even with Lum Berry. I wasn’t too upset at being able to cripple many special attackers, including the male-only Latios and the Genies guaranteed. Fake Out wasn’t really that useful, I’d rather just get down to some proper disruption as soon as possible. Taunt proved useful though, stopping some Trick Room and support pokes fairly readily.
So there’s my thought pattern when I team build, it might seem simple, but it led me through a few decent tournaments to a decent level. I promised sometime, I’d write an article about it, so there you have it. I’d like to hear from you guys what you think in the discussion, and I might even dabble in another article in the near future!
Article image created by feathers for Nugget Bridge. View more of her artwork on her tumblr or Nugget Bridge forums thread.
About the Author
Dozz is a British player and Interactive Design student who splits his time between the UK, and the Sunny state of Florida. He's done nothing of note since taking Durant to Worlds in 2011, but still turns up to entertain with a silly accent.
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