Rampaging to the Top(4) – A Nugget Bridge Invitational Team

Hey there everyone, I’m TalkingLion, or Daniel L. For those of you who don’t know me very well, I have placed in the top 32 at the Philadelphia and Sandston regionals this season, and also like to playtest a lot with fun Pokemon such as Furret and Honchkrow. Throughout the Nugget Bridge Circuit I competed in 16 Live Tourneys, 4 Forum Tournaments, and the Nugget Bridge Major, netting me a total of 546 Circuit Points and bringing me up to the 8th seed. Going into the Invitational I didn’t feel that confident in myself, as I had only been using my team for a few days and wasn’t as comfortable with it as I would have liked to be, but the team clearly worked so let’s get on with the show!

The Team

Rampardos (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
– Rock Slide
– Crunch
– Superpower
– Fire Punch

Rampardos was the first Pokemon I chose for this team, as I felt like it had a lot of potential with its staggering base 165 attack stat. What makes Ramparods often overlooked are its frail 97/60/50 defenses, and its low base speed of 58. While there wasn’t much for me to do about its defenses, I knew right away that a Choice Scarf and Jolly nature Rampardos would be both able to strike both hard and fast, as well as take enemies by surprise. Sheer Force is another amazing asset of Rampardos, as it helps boost the power of Rock Slide, Crunch, and Fire Punch even further.

One of the things I was often asked about Rampardos was “Why not a Scarf Tyranitar?”, and while a Tyranitar would be able to last a lot longer, the sheer force (pun intended) of Rampardos’ attacks was just too much for me to say no to. A Rock Slide from Jolly Sheer Force Rampardos is roughly 50% stronger than one from a Jolly Tyranitar. While Tyranitar does boast a stronger Crunch, Rampardos can still get the KO on Latios and a 2HKO on most Cresselia with it. Although Superpower doesn’t get the boost from Sheer Force, it still proved to be useful against Tyranitar, Hydreigon, and Scrafty. Fire Punch was used to combat Scizor, as Scizor could OHKO Rampardos with Bullet Punch.

I have a 252/252 spread because Rampardos needs to deal as much damage as possible and also outspeed some fast threats such as Timid Latios, Thundurus/Tornadus and Terrakion. One downside to using Sheer Force was that I couldn’t get flinches with Rock Slide, defense drops from Crunch, or burns from Fire Punch, but who needs those additional effects when you KO the opponent anyway?

Togekiss (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 236 HP / 92 Def / 68 SAtk / 60 SDef / 52 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
– Air Slash
– Follow Me
– Tailwind
– Protect

Togekiss was the first Pokémon that came to mind when I thought of good partners for Rampardos. Despite this, Togekiss was my least used Pokémon, as I only used it once throughout the entire invitational. The original idea was to have Togekiss use Follow Me to sponge attacks aimed at Rampardos, and thus allow Rampardos to last longer and get more attacks off. Air Slash was used as my attacking move and with Serene Grace it gave me a 60% flinch chance. While I tried my best to not rely on this, it did come in handy and could get me out of a pinch. Tailwind allowed the rest of my relatively slow team to outspeed faster enemies and could also help Togekiss flinch with Air Slash at times. I originally had Thunder Wave over Tailwind, as it would further increase my chance of disabling the opponent for a turn with Air Slash, but I decided that making all of my Pokemon faster and outspeeding Ground-types was more important, even if it does only last for 4 turns. Protect may seem like an odd move on Togekiss, but it was helpful when the opponent would predict me to use Follow Me and then double attack Togekiss, in an attempt to KO it.

The EV spread was given to me by Mr Fox, as it was the same one he used at Nationals and Worlds in 2012. It can survive a Dragon Gem Draco Meteor from Timid Latios, and also gets 3HKOd by Tyranitar’s Rock Slide(4HKOd after an intimidate!), assuming that its a spread move.

Hitmontop (M) @ Fighting Gem
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Atk / 92 Def / 28 SDef / 36 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
– Fake Out
– Close Combat
– Sucker Punch
– Stone Edge

This is the same Hitmontop that I used at both the Philadelphia and Sandston Regionals this season. I have always liked Hitmontop’s Intimidate and Fake Out combination. I got the EV spread from Cypher after Nationals, and I have been using it since then. The EV spread allows it to survive a non-boosted Psychic from Latios and 2HKO it back with Sucker Punch. It can also OHKO the standard Tyranitar with a Fighting Gem Close Combat. The Speed EVs allow are there to outspeed most other Hitmontop, which was useful to allow me to use Fake Out before they did.

As for the moveset, Fake Out is a staple on Hitmontop as it allows me to flinch one of the opposing Pokemon to help a partner set up or get an additional attack off. Close Combat is also a staple, as it can deal a lot of damage, further boosted by the Fighting Gem. Sucker Punch is a move that is starting to be used less on Hitmontop, but I always like the priority and ability to damage Latios and Cresselia. Before I had Stone Edge, I was using Wide Guard, and while it proved to be very helpful at times, I felt like Stone Edge would be a lot more useful as it provided me a way to deal solid damage to Voclarona, Thundurus, and Zapdos.

Gastrodon (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 244 HP / 20 Def / 100 SAtk / 140 SDef / 4 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
– Scald
– Earth Power
– Ice Beam
– Protect

This Gastrodon is a standard offensive Casstrodon, but with an extra 4 speed EVs instead of HP, allowing me to outspeed other Gastrodon but still underspeed Rhyperior in Trick Room. As Cassie stated in her article, the defense EVs allow it to survive a Fighting Gem Close combat from Adamant Hitmontop and a Dragon Gem Draco Meteor from Timid Latios. The offensive EVs allow me to 2HKO most Metagross, as well as deal a good amount of damage overall. Leftovers was my item of choice for its ability to consistently heal me, as Sitrus Berry was already taken by Togekiss. However, Leftovers was more useful since I would usually need to recover health before I got down to the 50% range, and could also heal me while I used Protect.

I was using Muddy Water over Scald until just before the Invitational, I liked Muddy Water for its ability to hit both of my opponents and the chance to lower their accuracy, but I was never fond of it missing so I went with Scald for its consistency and burn chance. Earth Power was my main damage dealer, as it could deal good chunks of damage to Hetran, Metagross, and Bisharp. Ice Beam gave me super-effective coverage against dragons, mainly Latios, Garchomp, and Salamence, but it was also useful against Grass types such as Amoonguss and Virizion, provided that I could get Togekiss to redirect their attacks with Follow Me. Normally you would see Recover instead of Protect on a Gastrodon, but I found that Gastrodon would always get KOd on the turn that I would use it, so I chose Protect instead as it could help me heal more with Leftovers.

rotom-heat
Rotom-H @ Fire Gem
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 188 HP / 252 SAtk / 68 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
– Overheat
– Thunderbolt
– Will-O-Wisp
– Protect

Rotom is a Pokemon that I absolutely love using, regardless of its form. I don’t quite remember what this spread does, but I’ve been using it for roughly 6 months and it has worked out quite well for me. One of the main reasons I love using Rotom is for its ability to burn foes with Will-O-Wisp. Although it isn’t seen on many Rotom, I think it should be used a lot more than it is now. While it can miss, the ability to completely shut down a physical attacker permanently is great. In addition, Will-O-Wisp can do a lot of damage to opposing bulky Pokemon that I would struggle to deal with otherwise, most notably Cresselia and Gastrodon.

Besides Will-O-Wisp, my main source of damage was Overheat. A Fire Gem boosted Overheat could do tons of damage to just about anything(even Cresselia and things that resist it!), and would often net me a lot of KOs early on. Thunderbolt was my other STAB attack, which allowed me to attack without lowering my special attack.

Cresselia (F) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 148 HP / 248 SAtk / 112 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
– Psyshock
– Ice Beam
– Hidden Power [Fire]
– Signal Beam

Ending this team is one of the most commonly used Pokémon. Offensive Cresselia is one of things I took out of Cybertron’s Nationals/Regionals team. I was never able to use any kind of support Cresselia, so I would always use this one instead. However, I did make a few changes to his set. I originally had this Cresselia on a Trick Room team, so I EVd it to underspeed his Cresselia in Trick Room and still outspeed many other Pokemon. Ice Beam over Icy Wind was a change I made as I preferred to do more damage than to lower their speed.

The biggest change I made to his set was Signal Beam, although commonly laughed at, I loved using it to hit other Psychic-types (most notably Cresselia) for super-effective damage. This helped me always beat opposing Cresselia one on one, but it also proved useful against Dark-Types such as Tyranitar. Prior to the Sandston regional I was using Shadow Ball instead, as it could do slightly more damage and hit Ghosts harder, but I decided on Signal Beam instead because I could hit Ghosts with Psyshock but had no other way to deal solid damage to Dark-Types.

Conclusion

Overall I was really glad to be able to participate in the Nugget Bridge Invitational, and even happier to do well with a team that I enjoyed playing with. I had a lot of fun testing with Rampardos on GBU and throughout this tournament, and I hope that my opponents enjoyed playing against it as well. Unfortunately I was not prepared for Wolfey’s Delcatty, so he easily defeated me in the Top 4. I would like to thank Biosci, dingram, MrFox, and Cypher for giving me the Pokemon on this team (and in general). I dedicate all of my victories to KiwiDawg, who inspires me to create teams like this everyday. To end this team I would like to say that creativity in teams can be useful, and also makes playing more fun for both you and your opponent.

Article image created by feathers for Nugget Bridge. View more of her artwork on her tumblr or Nugget Bridge forums thread.