Reports

Published on August 7th, 2014 | by TheBlooFoxx

10

Outback Attack: An Australian Nationals Top 32 Report

Hey guys, I’m TheBlooFoxx, sometimes known as the man with frustratingly too many names. In real life I am Ty Power, in Pokémon my IGN is Joshua, and I ladder on Showdown under the nickname ScHoolboy CHu (A sneaky homage to ScHoolboyQ – for all the TDE fans who hopefully love Pokémon as well). I was lucky enough to be able to compete in the Australian Pokémon National Competition, which was extraordinary both in quality and quantity of players, reaching a staggering attendance of:

• 442 Masters
• 127 Seniors
• 96 Juniors

On the Day

Registration began pretty early, at 8:00AM, and was ongoing until about 12 in the afternoon, with a seemingly never ending crowd of competitors lining the streets. Ideally, I would have been able to say that I was well prepared, and ready to get there on time, because I had sorted out my team weeks earlier. However, in the mixture of excitement and stress that is the night before a tournament, I decided to make a few last minute changes, which caused me to spend hours breeding and training some new Pokémon for the following day. A combination of forgetting to save, getting unlucky with breeding, and waking up to watch the world cup 3rd place match, meant that by the following morning, I had only slept for three or so hours. Fortunately, I wasn’t really feeling that tired and managed to pull through and arrive on time only to be greeted by a wall of competitors, staff, and general lovers of the Pokémon series. After all the registration was sorted, it was time to start battling, which leads pretty well into my next topic.

The Team

The team that I used was something that I’d been working on for a while, and it sort of comes in a few different stages. The first iteration of it was used for a charity event hosted at EB Games Swanston street, Melbourne – an event with about 150 competitors. I actually threw the team together on the morning of the competition because I had been getting frustrated at my other available teams, so I decided to wing it with some favourites.

This was what the team looked like after I had scraped through my boxes looking for a team with decent synergy. I’m a huge fan of Prankster-users in the current format, and as such, I decided I’d build the team around Meowstic (chosen for his ability to use Quick Guard). Garchomp and Mawile have decent synergy together, and can put a lot of offensive pressure on the opponent with powerful spread moves, a strong priority move, and dual STABs that can puncture even the strongest defenses. This was actually my first time running the Garchomp 199 set that originated in Japanese tournaments, and I immediately fell in love with it, especially with support from Meowstic. If curious, I believe there is an article on that shows the spread and function of the set, probably more eloquently than I could. Rotom-H was added to the team soon after, due to its fantastic synergy with Garchomp, its access to Will-O-Wisp, and its strong fire-type STAB move, Overheat, allowing me to OHKO a lot of Pokémon who give my main attackers quite a bit of trouble. Amoonguss and Gyarados were then added to round out the team’s defensive FWG core, and help with status (Spore, Thunder Wave), as well as using Intimidate to cripple physical attackers.

The team was ultimately pretty successful at the tournament, where I managed to go undefeated in Swiss rounds, and even progress to the finals, where I lost to a strong opponent, Sam Lim (unfortunately I’m unaware of any account names etc.). Oddly enough, the competition didn’t enforce VGC 2014 rules, and competitors were allowed to use any Pokémon they wished. This made it sort of hard to gauge the effectiveness of this team within the proper rule-set, but with the amount of Safeguard+Swagger Garchomp sweeps, I had fallen in love with the team already, and decided I had to keep working on it.

The next event I brought the team to was the admittedly disappointing Melbourne Regional Competition, which was Bo3 single elimination. Unfortunately in the first round, I was matched against a friend who I went to the competition with and ended up having to knock him out. The bad luck continued, when in the second round I was matched against another friend whom I’d met at the previous charity event, Layne (Lejn). Meowstic, the crux of the team, was built to live the majority of physical and special hits that it would face, however, using rain to boost already powerful water attacks, it was easily taken out, and as a result, the team began to crumble around it a bit, leading to me being knocked out in the second round. Once again however, I decided I would not give up on the team, just adjust it to deal with its threats more effectively.

After some hard research, damage calculations, and discussion with friends, the team changed forms many times, and remained changing up until 2:00 AM the morning of the competition. I had gone as far as I thought I could with team building and decided to try to get what minuscule amount of sleep I could.

The following is the team I used at Nationals. I put quite a bit of time into over the past few weeks. Names are from the album ‘These Days, Ab-Soul, pretty much because the album is both new and amazing, and it’s most of what I’ve been listening to for the past few weeks.

Sapiosexual (Meowstic) @Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
252 HP / 140 Def / 116 SpDef
Bold Nature
– Swagger
– Light Screen
– Quick Guard
– Safeguard

• 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 252 HP / 140+ Def Meowstic: 135-159 (74.5 – 87.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
• 252+ Atk Scrafty Crunch vs. 252 HP / 140+ Def Meowstic: 114-134 (62.9 – 74%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
• 252+ SpA Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 116 SpD Meowstic: 152-180 (83.9 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
• 252 SpA Chandelure Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 116 SpD Meowstic: 152-182 (83.9 – 100.5%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO

Meowstic was the starting concept for my team, and essentially remained its core throughout the whole process. The EV spread is one that I made, but is honestly pretty straightforward, and allows Meowstic to live an enormous amount of hits from both sides of the spectrum. On top of that, the addition of Light Screen to the move set (after some inspiration from Redemption003’s report from UK Nationals) helped to buff the team’s special defense, and was a way for me to deal with the huge weakness to weather that Meowstic had. The move set itself is pretty varied, and I’d received a bit of constructive criticism and tips about how to improve it, but honestly, these 4 moves fit my play-style with Meowstic perfectly, and while I occasionally would have liked to have Reflect, Intimidate on Mawile served a similar purpose, and I didn’t feel like giving up any of my moves.

The one part of the set that I am a little bit dissatisfied with is the item. Originally I had been running Sitrus Berry which was great for Kangaskhan match-ups, and had just generally been helpful for increasing Meowstic’s survivability in the long-term. However, the introduction of Trevenant to the team on the morning of the tournament meant that Sitrus Berry now had an arguably better user who could replenish it with Harvest, and as a result, I was forced to use Leftovers in an attempt to restore Meowstic’s health.

# of Matches used in Swiss Rounds: 6/9

God’sReign (Mawile) @Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate –> Huge Power
252 HP/ 44 Atk/ 180 SpDef/ 32 Spe
Careful Nature
– Play Rough
– Iron Head
– Sucker Punch
– Protect

• 252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Mawile: 108-128 (68.7 – 81.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• -1 252+ Atk Choice Band Talonflame Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Mawile: 134-162 (85.3 – 103.1%) — 12.5% chance to OHKO
• 252 SpA Choice Specs Salamence Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 180+ SpD Mega Mawile: 134-158 (85.3 – 100.6%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
• 252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 180+ SpD Mega Mawile in Sun through Light Screen: 111-132 (70.7 – 84%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Mawile has been my favourite Mega Pokémon since their introduction, and after Ray’s success at Virginia Regionals earlier in the season, the standard set for it was pretty clearly established. This set famously aimed to live Timid Choice Specs Salamence’s Fire Blast, and be able to flawlessly OHKO back with a Play Rough at -1. This is the set I used for a long time, however I eventually got a little bit frustrated at the speed ties I was encountering with other base 50s. This is what lead me to take some investment out of Attack and the 4EVs from defense, and put them into speed, thus creeping on base 50’s who creep on base 50’s. I was unsure about the attack drop to begin with, but in play testing, the advantage gained through a slight speed advantage was definitely potent, and with the introduction of Azumarill to the team, I was less worried about the Salamence and Tyranitar 1v1s that I had weakened. Aside from this minor change, the set is incredibly standard. I almost opted for Rock Slide over Iron Head while waiting in line to register, and honestly I don’t think it would have mattered that much if I had. However, I ultimately decided that because Greninja was already running Rock Slide, Iron Head was probably better for dealing with fairies.

# of Matches used in Swiss Rounds: 7/9

Twact (Azumarill) @Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
224 HP/ 252 Atk/ 32 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Play Rough
– Waterfall
– Superpower
– Aqua Jet

• 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 224 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 168-199 (82.7 – 98%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Choice Band Bisharp Iron Head vs. 224 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 132-156 (65 – 76.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Mega Manectric Thunderbolt vs. 224 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Azumarill: 138-164 (67.9 – 80.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Mega Venusaur Sludge Bomb vs. 224 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Azumarill: 132-156 (65 – 76.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Azumarill was added to the team in place of Gyarados, mainly because double-Intimidate was causing some issues with my Bisharp match-up. The EVs are once again pretty simple. I figured that because the 32 speed EVs on Mawile were successful, it only made sense that the same would be true for Azumarill, which was essentially proven right both during training and on the day of the event. Assault Vest is my favourite item on Azumarill because it gives it incredible special bulk, which is aided greatly by its enormous HP stat and excellent typing. Many times an opponent will try and double target Azumarill to get rid of the threat as soon as possible, but with the unexpected SpDef boost provided by Assault Vest, Azumarill could live these attacks, thus getting an opportunity to counter attack with its partner. The moves are also pretty standard, and require little explanation. The only thing I could see being debatable is Superpower because of the stat drops that it causes, but I only really carried it for Kangaskhan, Ferrothorn, and Bisharp, so it was rare for it to cause issues.

To me, Azumarill was the secret ingredient for this team, because as soon as I added it, I could almost instantly feel an improvement. Not only does its unique typing and massive attack put a lot of pressure on opponents on the field, but in team preview, Azumarill is usually a Pokémon who requires a specific counter, and as a result, even if I didn’t bring it to a match, it could succeed in throwing off the opponent a little bit. As well as this, after its introduction to the team, and subsequent testing on Showdown, I achieved my own personal best on the ladder, reaching somewhere around 35th, which felt pretty good.

# of Matches used in Swiss Rounds: 7/9

W.R.O.H (Rotom-Heat) @Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
36 HP/ 252 SpA/ 220 Spe
Modest Nature
– Overheat
– Thunderbolt
– Will-O-Wisp
– Protect

• 252+ SpA Expert Belt Rotom-H Thunderbolt vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Charizard Y: 158-187 (102.5 – 121.4%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252+ SpA Expert Belt Rotom-H Overheat vs. 252 HP / 76 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 168-202 (100.5 – 120.9%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252+ SpA Expert Belt Rotom-H Overheat vs. 252 HP / 208+ SpD Amoonguss: 223-262 (100.9 – 118.5%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252+ SpA Expert Belt Rotom-H Overheat vs. 252 HP / 180+ SpD Mega Mawile: 202-240 (128.6 – 152.8%) — guaranteed OHKO

Rotom-Heat was added to the team mainly because I needed a strong fire type move to take out threats like Aegislash, Mawile, and Amoonguss. The EV spread ensures that Rotom will out-speed up to max speed neutral Gyarados, always KO the aforementioned threats, and have a bit of HP investment from leftover EVs. After Regionals I wanted to add a little more bulk into the set, so I tried to find what minimum investment would OHKO 252HP 76SpDef Aegislash, as that seemed to be the most specially bulky variant of Aegislash that was being used. However, due to a combination of laziness to re-train, and not wanting to be tripped up by a slightly bulkier Aegislash set, I decided to keep max SpA.

The item used is something that seemed to cause some confusion among opponents. It was remarked to me by multiple opponents after battling that they thought Expert Belt was a really odd choice for Rotom, and that they wouldn’t have guessed it without me having revealed it to them in post. This surprised me, because this is the set I had been running ever since I bred my first Rotom in X version, and I hadn’t had any desire to swap to what standard Rotom-h was running. However, on the day this seemed to help in a way that I’d never even considered. In my 7th and 8th games in Swiss rounds, my opponents told me they were hesitant to Sucker Punch Rotom, as it was assumed that it carried Sitrus Berry, and/or that it would be too bulky. I’d managed to unintentionally bluff a Sitrus Berry, and it saved me enormously, as had they attacked me, it would have been an easy 2HKO. The real reason I run expert belt is that it ensures all of the KOs that I need Rotom to get for me, and it doesn’t wear down its HP like Life Orb or lock it into a single move like Choice Specs. Expert Belt gave Rotom’s SpA stat the slight boost that it needed to KO threats, and helped to bluff other items as well. Who knew?

# of Matches used in Swiss Rounds: 7/9

TreeOfLife (Trevenant) @Sitrus Berry
Ability: Harvest
244 HP/ 84 Def/ 180 SpDef (0 Speed IV)
Sassy Nature
– Horn Leech
– Will-O-Wisp
– Trick Room
– Protect

• -1 252+ Atk Life Orb Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 244 HP / 84 Def Trevenant: 159-190 (83.2 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 Atk Tyranitar Crunch vs. 244 HP / 84 Def Trevenant: 158-188 (82.7 – 98.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage
• 252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 244 HP / 180+ SpD Trevenant: 150-176 (78.5 – 92.1%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Tyranitar Dark Pulse vs. 244 HP / 180+ SpD Trevenant: 158-188 (82.7 – 98.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage

Trevenant was added to the team as a replacement for Amoonguss. Amoonguss was and is a great Pokémon, and there was a time where it would have been on every team I used, however during testing I noticed that within this team, the only time I would bring it to a game would be if I saw Rotom-W in the team preview, mainly because if I had the chance to bring a support Pokémon, I would be much more likely to bring Meowstic.

The EV spread is the same as Lajo’s Trevenant from Germany Nationals. The HP EVs help to maximize the return from Sitrus Berry + Harvest, and the defense EVs ensure that Trevenant can live a huge spread of hits that are aimed to OHKO. If you want further explanation, there’s a deeper look into the set within Lajo’s report, which I’d strongly recommend that you check out.

Trevenant’s role on the team was pretty simple. As it was a replacement for Amoonguss, I needed to ensure that it could, at the very least, deal with Rotom-W on its own. However, there’s a lot more that Trevenant can do, including Will-O-Wisp to cripple physical attackers, Trick Room to turn the momentum of the game in my favour, and being a fantastic counter to two of the most common Megas, Kangaskhan and Mawile. Unfortunately, my lack of experience with it meant that I was often a little uncomfortable to bring it to matches, but when I did, Trevenant helped swing the game in my favor solidly, especially with Trick Room supported by Mawile and Azumarill.

# of Matches used in Swiss Rounds: 5/9

WorldRunners (Greninja) @Life Orb
Ability: Protean
4 Atk/ 252 SpA/ 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
– Scald
– Dark Pulse
– Rock Slide
– Mat Block

• 4 Atk Life Orb Protean Greninja Rock Slide vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Charizard Y: 203-239 (131.8 – 155.1%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 252 SpA Life Orb Greninja Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Chandelure: 166-198 (99.4 – 118.5%) — 87.5% chance to OHKO
• 252 SpA Life Orb Greninja Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 109-133 (65.2 – 79.6%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Greninja was the most last-minute decision that the team received. Literally whilst walking to the event, I was thinking of ways to deal with the lack of special attackers on the team, and decided that it would perhaps be a suitable replacement for Garchomp. Greninja offers some similar advantages in being able to out-speed the standard base 100 Pokémon and deal decent spread damage with Rock Slide. Scald and Dark Pulse gave solid coverage and helped my match up with a few Pokémon that I didn’t have specific answers for, such as Mega Lucario, Pyroar, and Delphox. (I understand that it’s almost silly to account for Delphox, but circumstances were a little different in Australia, due to the deadly skills of Team Delphox, and their all-star cast)

Greninja worked about as well as I expected considering I’d only used it sparingly before. Mat Block was a great asset and allowed me to avoid a few spread moves, give me some time to set up Trick Room, and just generally give me some breathing room when faced with faster opponents. The idea actually came from a battle I had with Luke Bradley (Chandy) from Poke-Melbourne, who used a Greninja to great effect against me earlier in the season. In retrospect there are definitely better moves that I could have picked for it. Dark Pulse was chosen because I had two ghost weaknesses on the team, so Protean could help get some solid STAB damage off, whilst also gaining a resistance for their own attacks. I decided to forego Ice Beam, as I had two fairy types on the team, and for the most part, I didn’t think I would need it. I also traded Hydro Pump for Scald, because I didn’t want to deal with missing at crucial moments, however I’m unsure how wise a decision that was. Better moves probably could have been things like Grass Knot, Extrasensory, U-turn, or even Rock Tomb to help with speed control. In retrospect that’s probably this move set is probably the only thing I would change given the chance, but for something that was brought in at the last second, Greninja certainly pulled its weight when I brought it.

# of Matches used in Swiss Rounds: 4/9

So that’s it, the probably-too-long story of how this team came to be. I was extremely pleased with its and my own performance on the day, and I think that most issues I faced were either as a result of bad luck or my own errors. The team fits my play style really well and is just generally really comfortable, which I think is important for every player, and is part of why copy teams are rarely as successful as their originals.

The Competition

Round 1

The first game of the day is always pretty nerve-wrecking, especially when you know nothing about your opponent. Thankfully due to a little sleep deprivation and some pep talks with a mate from Poke-Melbourne, I don’t think I had the energy to stress too much, and managed to stay pretty calm. I don’t remember a whole lot about this match, just that it was ridiculous. I started out with Mawile and Rotom-H in an attempt to get some pressure onto his side of the field. From memory he had a Zapdos and a Kangaskhan or something, so I felt pretty safe going forward. That is, until Thunder Wave happened. On the first turn, I decided to hit Zapdos with Mawilite Play Rough, and Kangaskhan with Rotom’s Will-O-Wisp, knowing that my two Pokémon had an advantage over his. Zapdos takes this opportunity to get off a Thunder Wave onto Mawile. For the next 4 turns in a row, Mawile was unable to move, forcing me to switch around my Pokémon a bit to swing momentum in my favor somewhat successfully. Mawile stayed paralyzed and moved maybe 1/6 times in total for the whole match. This got me stressing a little, not wanting to take a loss in the first match. Luckily for me however, my opponent was pretty new to VGC and didn’t really have a full grasp of the game mechanics. After hitting Mawile with Zapdos’ HP ice, trying to Thunder Wave my Rotom, and, trying to burn a paralyzed Mawile, it was clear that my opponent wasn’t an experienced player. That being the case, I just pulled some safe switches and made safe plays for the rest of the match and managed to get myself back into a leading position. A sneaky Rock Slide crit from Greninja managed to take out his Zapdos and whatever else was on the field at the time (maybe Talonflame?), and I won the match with a somewhat hollow 3-0.

Record: 1-0

Round 2

For the second game, I knew that my opponent this time would be someone who had won his last battle, which is always kind of intimidating. Going into the game I lead with Meowstic and Azumarill, versus his Talonflame and Smeargle. I had a pretty good match up from team preview, and Dark Void was really the only thing I was worried about. However, because he didn’t have Fake Out support or anything like that, I was easily able to get up safeguard, and totally shut it down. From that point on, Meowstic controlled the game as it does so well. Quick Guard shut down his Talon flame’s attempt to nab a KO on Azumarill, letting me OHKO in return with Waterfall. His Smeargle ran endeavor which was kind of interesting, and caused me to lose my Azumarill later in the game, after he doubled on it with that and his Tyranitar. All-in-all the game was really straightforward, and his inability to finish off my pokes let me control the game fairly easily. I think the final score was 3-0, as I closed the game out with Trevenant, who couldn’t really be touched after Tyranitar was burned. Smeargle went down to Sandstorm and Tyranitar ate a few Horn Leeches until that was also KO d.

It’s hard to describe how the match went without any form of recording, but it essentially felt as if Meowstic could completely shut down any threat that he presented, using the combination of Safeguard, Quick Guard and Light Screen. In my opinion matches like these are the greatest selling point of prankster-support Pokémon, when they can ensure the longevity of your own Pokémon and aid with counter attacks.

Record: 2-0

Round 3 vs Martin Larumbe

This game was definitely a pretty sharp increase in skill from what I’d been facing before. Immediately in team preview, I saw Bisharp, which sent off warning lights, as there had been a few instances of being pretty comprehensively countered by it when practicing with this team. I lead with Meowstic and Azumarill as he leads with Kangaskhan and Bisharp. I had the goal of Quick Guarding from Fake Out and/or Sucker Punch on the first turn, and trying to get off a Superpower onto Bisharp to ensure that it wouldn’t be a problem later in the game. This failed, as he predicted the Quick Guard, and simply doubled up on Azumarill to get the KO. At this point I was at 3-4 against a Kangaskhan and a Bisharp, without a reliable counter for both at once. I was forced to send in Mawile in an attempt to weaken the Kangaskhan, knowing that I would have to get rid of Bisharp quickly because of his defiant boost. Essentially I failed to do this fast enough, and my opponent’s duo began to rip through my team with a combination of Power-up Punch/Return + Assurance. I was pretty much out of this game from turn one, where he netted a free KO, and was overwhelmed by Bisharp, leading to a tragic 4-0 loss.

Record: 2-1

Round 4

Taking a loss in early rounds of the competition is never fun, especially when it was somewhat unclear how many rounds of Swiss there would be. Going into game 4 I knew I had to step up my game, and conveniently for you as an audience, I began to take notes during battles. Straight away from team preview, I could see some interesting stuff in his team. The combination of Garchomp and Rotom, with a potential Telepathy Gardevoir as an option, gives off strong Discharge-Earthquake vibes, which was made even stronger by the appearance of Krookodile. I decided to lead with Greninja and Mawile, as Greninja had a fantastic match-up against 4/6 of his Pokémon, and Mawile could handle the other 2, whilst also providing intimidate support. He leads with Krookodile and Gardevoir. On the first turn I of course go for Mat Block to scout his moves, seeing if he reveals either Earthquake or Dazzling Gleam. The only Krookodile’s I’d seen in the past were scarfed, which would mean out-speeding Greninja, but because of the Intimidate, I knew that even if he did get an attack off, it wouldn’t KO Mawile or Greninja. As expected, Krookodile attacks first and does a little past half to both Mawile and Greninja. Gardevoir tries to get off a Dazzling Gleam at the same time, but it is eaten up by Mat Block as planned. Mawile tries to get the easy OHKO onto Krookodile, but misses unfortunately, leaving my in a not-so-great position. After that, I ended up switching Pokémon out a lot in an attempt to gain momentum, and eventually I was able to get Mawile and Trevenant out and pull off a Trick Room. After doing this, I could simply under-speed his whole team and get strong hits off with Play Rough and Horn Leech. Unfortunately for my opponent, he had gotten used to not being able to hurt his own Pokémon with spread moves (due to telepathy and levitate), and accidentally fired off a Discharge into his own Charizard Y. After this, the game was pretty much sealed, as Mawile had easy enough KOs on the rest of his Pokémon. I think I won 3-0 in the end, only losing Greninja, and still having Rotom in the back.

Record: 3-1

Round 5

After Game 4 I’d gotten some confidence back, and was really enjoying using my team. For the most part, everything was working how I’d planned, especially after I started taking notes during team preview and counting Safeguard and Light Screen turns more closely. This game had minimal notes, as it was honestly over quite quickly. He leads with Klefki and Jolteon against my Rotom and Mawile. On the first turn I had offensive pressure so I decided to double attack the opponent. I predicted a Klefki switch into his own Greninja in an attempt to live an Overheat, and as such, fired off a thunderbolt. I followed up with a Play Rough in case he switched in Garchomp, or Greninja was focus sashed. The turn played out pretty much as expected as Rotom hit for an easy KO straight away onto Greninja. His Jolteon fired off a thunderbolt into Mawile which did around 30%, who then retaliated with a Play Rough to score a double KO on the first turn. His last two were Klefki and Talonflame which was not an issue at all, as I had Rotom and Azumarill available. The game only lasted a few turns and I think this was 3-0 in the end after Brave Bird nabbed a KO on Mawile after some chip damage.

Record: 4-1

Round 6

Even though I’d managed to pick my game up since my loss, I still felt rather uncomfortable with a 4-1 record, as another loss was likely to knock me out of the competition. During team preview, I saw Kangaskhan as his likely mega, Rotom Wash for support, as well as Talonflame and Aegislash. These 4 Pokémon have great synergy together, and as such I figured those he was most likely to bring those, especially because Azumarill and Mawile threatened his Hydreigon and Venusaur respectively. Honestly in this match I didn’t have too much time for notes. This was easily the closest match of the day so far, and we spent a lot of turns trading blow for blow, only to hit an incoming switch that resisted the attack. We both got off lots of chip damage on each other and I tried to prepare for a more competent attack by bringing in Greninja to put up a mat block while Mawile could hit hard with its dual STABs. The plan paid dividends, as Mawile scored a crit on the Rotom-Wash, which turned a would-be 3HKO (assuming Sitrus) into a clean OHKO. After that point I got a little too relaxed because I thought eliminating Rotom meant I had one. After a few turns of pretty basic plays that didn’t accomplish much, I realized that I was still under quite a bit of pressure, and needed to adjust. The final turns were Rotom + Mawile vs Aegislash + Talonflame. Flare Blitz onto Mawile KO’d both the Mawile and the Talonflame due to recoil and chip damage, which just left Rotom-H vs Aegislash (who had a sub up). The last turn of the battle came down to if Rotom could live a shadow ball from Aegislash, which despite a lack of investment, it managed to. There was a slight chance of failure in Overheat missing, but thankfully it hit its target, and I was handed a pretty narrow 1-0.

This game was the most exciting so far which luckily got me a lot more focused on future games and how to win individual match-ups that I was worried about. I think between this round and the next, I did nothing but try work out how to play around Kangaskhan + Bisharp/Smeargle if I came across it. After checking in with mates around the room we moved on to the next battles.

Record: 5-1

Round 7 vs Jordan Gutthrie

This was an unfortunate match-up, because it was against someone that I knew which never really makes for the happiest of outcomes. We made the childish agreement of saying that the winner of our match would have to promise to take no more losses until Top Cut, just to make sure that we both made it through, and with that, we began to battle. Because I’d been speaking to him between rounds and throughout the day, I knew that Jordan had 2 battles that he won which eventually ran out the battle timer. Before this battle, I didn’t really understand how that was possible and just assumed that it was probably due to bad connection or something. However, the battle that followed explained this to me pretty clearly.

During team preview, I saw that 4/6 of Jordan’s Pokémon were special attackers, and as such, decided that Meowstic must be used to get up Light Screen. I paired that off with Mawile to lead, and brought Rotom and Azumarill in the back. The battle that followed was probably the best example of strong defensive play that I’ve ever seen in VGC (by Jordan). I immediately got up Light Screen as well as a Play Rough with Mawile onto his lead of Hydreigon alongside Scrafty. Hydreigon hit Meowstic with a Specs Dark Pulse after getting up Light Screen, and the little prankster managed to live with about 10HP. While turns kept rolling by, Jordan made consistently strong defensive switches, absorbing most of the attacks that I could dish out, and trying to stall out Light Screen and Safeguard. Finally, after seeing a few turns of this highly defensive play, I made some predictions and was able to nail Scrafty with a Play Rough, knocking it out instantly. Ultimately, Jordan did manage to stall out my defensive buffs, but by that point, the chip damage had built up quite a bit, and I could continue attacking without too much fear. There was one borderline moment of the match where a Play Rough from my Azumarill connected with his switched-in Mawile, and scored a critical hit. After the critical hit, I ended up knocking out the Mawile with an Overheat, and both of us were unsure if the crit mattered, as his set was especially bulky.

Aside from that minor hiccup, this battle was fantastic. Jordan played a near-perfect game against me, and I think my victory is owed much more to my team than to my strategy within the game. His team had 2 Pokémon that were 4x weak to fairy and the only things to resist fairy were weak to fire. This meant that by alternating Rotom, Azumarill and Mawile, as long as I kept them safe, I could ensure victory. I’m not 100% sure about the battle’s final result, but I think it was a safe 1-0. In the end, his Hydreigon had to lock itself into Dark Pulse or Fire Blast against my Mawile and Rotom. Either way I think I was pretty safe unless he got repeated flinches with Dark Pulse.

As mentioned earlier in the team analysis, Jordan told me after the game that he had assumed Rotom-H to be a bulky set with Sitrus Berry, and as such, was very hesitant to Sucker Punch it with Mawile, as it would be a 3HKO or more, and probably not be worth it in the long run. In the second-to-last turn, he fired one off as a saving grace, and was extremely surprised by the damage (~65%). Before this I’d only really considered Expert Belt to work as a bluff while playing singles, but in hindsight there’s no reason that it wouldn’t be the same in the VGC format as well. With an outside perspective of the team in mind, I decided that playing safely with Rotom to reinforce that bluff was probably a good move going forward.

Record: 6-1

Game 8 vs Phil Nguyen (Boomguy)

Game 8 was the one and only game I had against a member of Team Delphox, Phil Nguyen – also known as Boomguy on Nuggetbridge. Interestingly, I played Phil at my first ever VGC competition as well back in February, so I suppose this could be considered a grudge match of sorts 😛 . I went in knowing that Phil is a strong player. I’d seen a few of his battles before, how active he is within the community, as well as having spent the week leading up to this trying to beat his score on Showdown during my test runs for the team, which took a lot of tweaking and fixing to do.

Going into game preview is saw some pretty standard stuff; Amoonguss, Hydreigon, Kangaskhan, Rotom-Wash. But what got me excited for the match was his other two, Delphox and Carbink. Clad in a Delphox hat, with his Delphox plush toy, I could only hope that I would get to see the true power of Delphox in this match, and I was not disappointed.

I brought in Meowstic, Mawile, Rotom and Azumarill, pretty sure that I could handle most situations. He lead with Kangaskhan and Rotom, and went for the standard Fake Out + WoW combo onto Meowstic and Mawile, which I managed to deal with by protecting. On the next turn, I got up Safeguard to rule out any chance of burns on either of my two fairies, and sent Play Rough for his Rotom. From memory, there was a fair amount of switching on Phil’s part here. I was overeager to start attacking once I got the chance to Swagger my own Mawile under Safeguard. He saw through this though, and burned my Mawile with Will-O-Wisp, while Meowstic was KO’d by his partner Pokémon (maybe Kangaskhan?). After this I brought in Azumarill and continue with the goal of an all-out attack. I nailed Kangaskhan with a crit from Mawile who was burned and at +2, which essentially made the game much more one sided. After that happened I could just keep attacking until his Pokémon were gone, providing I didn’t make any dumb plays.

We agreed it was hard to call how big the influence of the crit on Kangaskhan was. Essentially it happened too early on to call if it was integral to the win, which was unfortunate because it did take away from the victory a little bit. In the last turn I finally decided to protect with Mawile, thinking that his Delphox would finally attack. As he Overheated into the protect I burned Kangaskhan with Rotom, as he tried to Sucker Punch my Rotom, fearing my own Sucker Punch from Mawile. Making a defensive play here after having made offensive ones all game was just unexpected enough to work, but it just as easily could have failed. Even after the Kangaskhan crit, Phil maneuvered the game into a position where it was still pretty even, which in and of itself deserves credit. Fortunately I pulled off the last turn and was able to nab another win.

Record: 7-1

Round 9

Finally the Last round of Swiss had arrived. Luckily I could go in pretty confident, as I think even with a loss I would still have made it to the Top 32. Fortunately, this time my opponent wasn’t someone I knew, so there were no bittersweet victories or losses for either of us. Being the final match, this was surprisingly straightforward. My team’s match-up was pretty strong, and I didn’t have too much to watch out for. Greninja had a great chance to shine, as it was able to out-speed all of my opponent’s Pokémon, and either attack, or set up Mat Block to aid its teammates. This game involved a lot of me switching to try keeping momentum with Mat Block and intimidating. I missed a Play Rough early on that would have net me a KO, but fortunately that didn’t make too much of a difference. I was pretty pleased, because after spending some time working out how to deal with Bisharp, I finally got my chance in the last match. I don’t remember the exact number, but there were plenty of Sucker Punches that failed because they flew into Protects or Will-O-Wisp. Once it was burned it was pretty much dead weight, and I took advantage of that to apply some attacking pressure. In the end I think it was 2-0, after Greninja and Mawile KO’d his Gardevoir to seal the deal and to guarantee a spot in Top Cut,

Record: 8-1

Top Cut

After Swiss rounds were over, the Top 32 had been announced. There were a lot of unfamiliar faces, but also a few familiar ones as well, among them Sam P (Cypress), Layne (Lejn), Dayne (Melbourne Regionals Runner-Up). Luckily my friend and I also made top cut and were pretty thrilled. At the end of Swiss, I was the 5th seed remaining and Sam was 8th, both a lot closer to the top than we’d expected at the day’s beginning.

Top 32

Top 32 was conducted in Bo1 format, single elimination, and sadly, it is where my Nationals dream ended. I lead off with Rotom and Greninja against his Charizard and Garchomp. After nothing much at all happening on the first turn, I get off a Rock Slide with Greninja, and manage to take out his Charizard. His Garchomp Rock Slides back in return, hitting Rotom for some fair damage and flinching it so it couldn’t get off its Will-O-Wisp. After this, he sent in his Talonflame, which put huge offensive pressure on, especially with Rotom at such decreased health. In the following turns I tried to make some defensive plays and switches to gain some momentum, but a Talon flame’s Brave Bird managed to crit my incoming Azumarill, which essentially ended the game for me. There was a slight chance at the end where I had Trevenant and Greninja vs his Garchomp and Talonflame. I managed to get the burn off on Garchomp while Talonflame took out Greninja, leaving me with just Trevenant and Rotom vs his remaining 3 Pokémon. Talonflame threw a Brave Bird at Trevenant for an easy OHKO and at that point, there was nothing I could do. and as if to add insult to injury, Garchomp’s final Rock Slide leaves Rotom with 15 HP, only to flinch one more time.

The loss was pretty unfortunate, and of course I would have loved to go further into the Top Cut, but there’s not a whole lot you can do about chance in Pokémon, so there’s no regrets. I got to stay and watch some friends progress through until the later stages of Top Cut, and then ended up watching Top 4 with everyone who was still there. The whole day was a lot of fun and the Top 4 matches on a giant screen in Melbourne Town Hall were crazy, with some really cool and unique Pokémon making appearances like Staraptor, Nidoqueen, Lapras, Heliolisk and Rotom-Fan.

All in all I’m honestly pretty proud that Australia put up such a strong group of competitors, and I wish the best of luck to those going to Worlds in August. I’m sure we’ll see some spectacular results.

About the Author

TheBlooFoxx

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