Reports

Published on June 27th, 2015 | by CatGonk

17

Ruby Slippers: Top 4 Australian Nationals Report

Preamble – That Zero Two Start Feeling

2015 has not been a good season for me.

Although I had expected this due to a number of real-life commitments, I didn’t expect to start 0-2 at Perth Regionals and also fail to win any CP at the single West Australian Premiere Challenge. Regardless, I was set on going to Nationals just to catch up with friends, in some ways relieved at the lack of pressure to perform.

and
then
it
happend

A surprise best-of-three Swiss announcement filled me with a burst of confidence even though I’ve barely played VGC15 and have no results this season to speak of. Regrettably, young Cat-Gonk slips the leash and this horrible thing blurts out of me on Twitter..

Well, with such a bold claim like that it’d certainly be embarrassing, if I didn’t follow up!

The Team

I practice what I preach; this is a standard line-up with a few tweaks and wholly unsuited to best-of-one, but with all the tools I need for best-of-three (save for Taunt and a Ghost type, which I sorely regreted not having in Round 5).

The main design goal was to run the Kangaskhan + Landorus-T + Heatran + (electric/flying) standard core on a team with two Ice moves, two Fire moves, and some sort of speed control. Thundurus-I was originally on the list, but didn’t last through testing.

Other design objectives included:
– Fire/Water/Grass core
– Reduce Thundurus-I to the glorified flying meowstic that it is
– Strong game against Trick Room and rain teams
– Bulk to offset the triple Ice weakness

An earlier variant of this team with Raikou over Suicune kept me at 1800 for a fair while during BS season 9 after ~150 games, and achieved absolutely nothing in any event that awarded CP. After switching Suicune in over Raikou, I rose to just under 1800 after ~60 games in season 10. I should really have played more, but I wasted a week of testing because at the time I couldn’t be bothered.

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Return
– Power-Up Punch
– Sucker Punch
– Fake Out

This is the same Kangaskhan I used last year. Keeps things simple.

Had I kept in shape all season I’d be running a Mega Salamence team instead since Mega Salamence is amazing, but you need to be good to use Mega Salamence whilst with Mega Kangaskhan you only need to be average. Then again, had I lost one more game in testing due to Sucker Punching something slower or something with valid non-attacking options other than Protect, I would have switched to Mega Salamence out of frustration.

Low Kick gets KOs, including the all-important Heatran as well as other Kangaskhan, but Power-Up Punch wins you games. Adamant seems like a better choice for a Tailwind team, but winning that speed tie is just too important for me, and people often assume Mega Kangaskhan doesn’t have maxed Speed when they see Zapdos and/or Suicune in Team Preview. Oh, and since it will come up, +6 Sucker Punch will not OHKO Terrakion, and will obviously raise its attack stat because of Justified.

Kangskhan was used in every game except against FloristTheBudew due to the amount of hate he was running.

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 92 Def / 4 SpD / 148 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Knock Off
– Superpower

I used amr97‘s build. Even though I did miss U-Turn, Knock Off is a godsend in best-of-three. The Intimidate is required for a lot of my team to survive common Fighting attacks and the flinches are required for me to win games against Better Players.

Zapdos @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 116 HP / 232 Def / 4 SpD / 156 Spe
Modest Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Heat Wave
– Tailwind

Zapdos is possibly the most important member of the team, when it’s required. If brought to the wrong matchup, Zapdos can become dead weight really fast.

Fighting the Tailwind war is a necessity for this team and fortunately it contains all the tools to do so. Even if there’s a free KO on the table against an opposing Tailwind opener, it is almost always better to set up Tailwind instead. Although this team is quite fast, many common Pokemon can cause issues unless the team can KO them before they can react, so much so that in 9/10 games Mega Kangaskhan/Zapdos will be in the lead.

Zapdos’ EVs are a little interesting, and credit goes to AdaVGC for the inspiration. It outspeeds Smeagle, which is obvious, but this Zapdos has a perfectly realistic chance to take a Double Edge and a follow-up Sucker Punch from Jolly Mega Kangaskhan. Furthermore, it can survive three Rock Slides from Landorus-T and even a Stone Edge critical hit from a Life Orb Jolly Virizion (most of the time). I originally wanted to put enough EVs into Special Attack to ensure the OHKO on zero-investment Landorus-T, but, in the end of the day, being able to survive against Mega Kangaskhan feels more important and Landorus-T usually gets chipped by Fake Out damage anyway.

Ferrothorn is also really common in Australia, bizarrely enough. The “Ghetto FWG” core of Arcanine / Milotic / Ferrothorn pops up with surprising regularity and, while not ideal, can still be quite threatening if played well.

Heatran @ Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Flamethrower
– Flash Cannon
– Earth Power
– Protect

The frog race is real. Fast Heatran was shown to be a thing in Worlds 2013 and is again rapidly becoming the standard. There were at least three that I know of on Day Two. Zero bulk investment is a problem, however -1 Mega Kangaskhan can’t OHKO with Low Kick (but -1 Life Orb Blaziken still can).

The pros run Substitute over Flash Cannon, but Flash Cannon is great for neutral damage (with surprising effect on Mega Salamence) and I have never lost a game wishing I had put up a Substitute the previous turn, even though I’ve lost plenty of games against enemy Heatrans who have.

Flamethrower was chosen over Heat Wave, because I got sick of this attack missing more often than not, and I wanted something to surgically remove Amoonguss and Aegislash after they had taken some chip damage. Flamethrower also helps against anyone expecting to block the Heat Wave with a Wide Guard and who doesn’t have the opportunity to use King’s Shield first to scout.

Suicune @ Assault Vest
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 188 SpA / 4 SpD / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
– Scald
– Ice Beam
– Snarl
– Mirror Coat

It’s ironic, given how much I loathe using Suicune, that it ended up being my MVP over the weekend. Suicune is something of a necessary evil. Bizarrely, Water is now a vital offensive and defensive type, but with only one legendary Water type (this format would be completely flipped on its head if Keldeo was legal) good users are few and far between. Suicune is horrible, but something’s got to do it.

Suicune comes in against any team that has multiple weaknesses to Water and Ice, and there are no shortage of those in this format. In addition, Suicune has an important role as a Snarl user that I can lead with against Rain, and cripples the special spread attackers that are common in Trick Room teams. I can understand why people have had success putting Snarl on physical Pokemon in the past, such as in Wolfe’s VGC14 LCQ team, because it’s such a versatile move. The hard part is remembering that sometimes Suicune still has to attack for damage, and that Snarl boosts the abilities Justified, Defiant and Competitive.

The EVs aren’t anything special. They were pretty much copied from DaWobleFet’s build, but I took out the Special Defense investment and put it into Special Attack to boost Suicune’s pitiful damage output.

Mirror Coat did not get used once during the tournament, possibly due to a lack of Thundurus-I in my pairings, but was a never-ending source of amusement on Battle Spot. The only time I had a chance to get value with Mirror Coat was in game one of the Top 8 set.

Amoonguss @ Mental Herb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Giga Drain
– Rage Powder
– Spore
– Protect

I’ll be honest, this was a vanity pick. Sylveon was originally in this spot and is arguably just as useful against Trick Room and Breloom is probably better overall since I have Tailwind on Zapdos and a potential Icy Wind on Suicune, but Amoonguss is family and family means no-one gets left behind.

Amoonguss gets brought in blindly against Trick Room (barring Escavalier shenanigans), anything relying on single-target moves that I can sneak a Power-Up Punch in on, Cresselia (yolo knock off + spore is a totally valid play, okay), as well as any team with a quad Grass weakness to exploit.

With this EV spread, Amoonguss  can withstand a Zen Headbutt from a Jolly Megagross 100% of the time. Then, I decided to take the risk against Breloom (which can’t OHKO Mega Kangakhan anyway unless it carries a Fighting move other than Mach Punch) and leave out Sludge Bomb, or the trendy Foul Play. Due to every member of the team, other than Landorus-T, carrying something with good effect on opposing Amoonguss, this team can often win the mushroom war against anything other than Japanese Sand or hard Trick Room, which is a nice change.

Mental Herb deserves its own paragraph. Rocky Helmet is nice, especially as a switch-in against a Kangaskhan + Landorus-T lead that points Low Kick + Superpower at my own Mega Kangaskhan, but Mental Herb utterly neuters Thundurus-I and allows me to Power-Up Punch my own Amoonguss in the face of a first turn double Protect. If the Nationals metagame is anything like Perth (spoilers, it wasn’t), I’m going to play a Thundurus-I in every round; winning one game out of each set thanks to a surprise Spore that shouldn’t have landed sounds like better value than the occasional 1/3rd of the health of a Mega they may not even be running.

Threats

Conkeldurr:

• Conkeldurr is great in this format and does serious work here, hitting five of my six Pokemon for super-effective damage while ignoring everything Suicune can do.
• The only real solution is to hope the Conkeldurr does not have Sitrus Berry and swing in with Mega Kangaskhan, or to put it to sleep with Spore.
• Goggles Conkeldurr is so the new meta.

Infernape + Pixillate Hyper Voice Lead:

• Lead Landorus-T / Suicune, lock in Earthquake + Snarl and hope for a miracle. The Fake Out is almost always going at Landorus-T.

Gyarados with Lightningrod support:

• Fortunately, Gyarados is horrible in this format unless there’s something next to it that neuters Thundurus-I, or in this case Zapdos.

Lum Berry or Safety Goggles Cresselia:

• Amoonguss is my primary out for Cresselia despite the Psychic weakness.
• With nothing on this team that can really deal damage to Cresselia, other than Power-Up Punch boosted Returns, there’s not much to do other than focusing on Cresselia’s partner and just accepting that the other player will have speed control.

Perish Song:

• This match-up is a write-off. Can occasionally push through with damage, usually can’t.

Common Setups And How To Deal With Them

Double Genies: Kangaskhan/Zapdos lead, Landorus-T in back.

• This is a guessing game dependent on Rock Slide flinches, but one ultimately in this team’s favor.
• A Mega Kangaskhan / Zapdos lead (which remains the safest lead for this team) followed by a switch from Mega Kangaskhan to something else or a Fake Out on Landorus-T does well here.
• Leaving Mega Kangaskhan in can be risky because Thundurus-I is highly likely to Thunder Wave it.
• While it leaves Zapdos open to a Rock Slide flinch or a double target, if Zapdos stays in without a Fake Out, the odds are still in its favour.

Terracott: Landorus-T/Zapdos lead

• Don’t laugh.
• It’s almost legitimate this gen now that Beat Up can’t be redirected with Rage Powder and Whimsicott has all its egg moves available at once.
• Landorus-T / Zapdos and Earthquake + Tailwind is probably the best lead. If the Whimsicott Taunts the Zapdos, an Earthquake will KO the Terrakion next turn; if they Tailwind + Protect they gain nothing and will be magically compelled to Encore the Zapdos slot next turn thus allowing for a free switch.
• Watch Whimsicott’s moves; almost all of them have Tailwind and Encore… What are the other two? Beat Up and Protect will be the two most common options, but write down whatever they use. Once they reveal their set they’re not quite as dangerous.
• There are, of course, a lot of other really frustrating things that Whimsicott can do, but Good Players Who Use Whimsicott are a really small subset of the player base.

Clefable + Dragon Dance Mega Salamence: Kangaskhan/Zapdos/Landorus-T/Heatran

• In just over 200 games I have yet to see a Mega Salamence with Dragon Dance on Battle Spot… Possibly because they all already hit 1900.
• Either is fine individually, but together they can cause problems. Salamence stops Amoonguss, Unaware blocks Power-Up Punch boosts, Heatran’s Flash Cannon isn’t a guaranteed OHKO on 252/4 Clefable, Clefable shuts down Landorus-T with Ice Beam and also gets a guaranteed 3HKO on Zapdos. In addiction, two Ice moves aren’t worth anything if they get redirected onto Clefable.
• It is extremely safe to lead Mega Kangaskhan + Zapdos/Landorus-T here. Unaware ignores the -1 Attack from Intimidate and many Clefable users don’t even use Sitrus Berry (Double Edge from Mega Kangaskhan is a guaranteed OHKO regardless and Safety Goggles answers Breloom).
• Pretty much every Salamence will still outspeed Kangaskhan on the turn prior to Mega Evolution (188+ Jolly lets them outspeed 252+ Ludicolo in rain), but not all of them run this much speed. Moreover, a Double Edge from max speed Mega Salamence can never OHKO a Mega Kangaskhan (94.4% maximum against 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan, Adamant is a 25% chance to OHKO). Sometimes the best thing to do is just to stay in and swing!
• An unintimidated Mega Kangaskhan will actually win a 1v1 against many Mega Salamence. Return + Sucker Punch is a possible, but unlikely, KO on most Mega Salamence and Double Edge (from either party, haha) guarantees it.

Sun: Kang/Zapdos/Landorus-T/Heatran

• Sun Room is an auto-loss unless Mega Kangaskhan can land a Power-Up Punch.
• Sun itself is not so bad, just keep Landorus-T alive, keep Heatran in the back, and maybe slip in a Tailwind. Depending on how much hate they have for Landorus-T, Suicune comes in over Zapdos (a lesson I forgot in round 4).
• Scout out the Hidden Power Ground on Charizard Y. Make them use it. They might not have it, and if they do, they’ve traded Overheat to get it.

Trick Room: Kang/Heatran/Amoonguss + Landorus-T/Suicune

• Gothitelle implies Trick Room. Cresselia and Amoonguss probably imply Trick Room.
• This team scoops for Helping-Hand boosted Choice Specs Sylveon unless it can stop the Trick Room going up or stem the bleeding with Suicune. Hopefully, all the kids running Bisharp, Talonflame, Thundurus-I and other older line-ups will keep Trick Room down, and I have my doubts that anyone will be brave enough to use Safety Goggles at a live event with a wide range of players.
• Mega Kangaskhan, Amoonguss and Heatran are required, and depending on what the enemy team looks like, Landorus-T (Knock Off, Intimidate) or Suicune (Snarl, Scald) will be the fourth. Snarl from Suicune isn’t an auto-win here since Cresselia doesn’t always attack and may just use Helping Hand.
• Keep Amoonguss alive at all costs, sacrificing Mega Kangaskhan is worth it. This depends on the environment at the time though, sometimes Mental Herb is everywhere, sometimes it’s Goggles or berries
• Cresselia can take a double-target from practically anything. Therefore, Power-Up Punch is very good here since Cresselia will always need at least two attacks to die, and attacking twice unboosted does less damage than a Power-Up Punch plus an attack.

Rain: Amoonguss/Suicune lead

• This is the one situation where it’s okay to lead with Suicune / Amoonguss. Snarl + Protect on the first turn is often a guaranteed win. Watch for when Pressure resolves since Scarf Politoed can get two Ice Beams off before the first Snarl lands.
• Amoonguss is required to tank boosted Water attacks which still do a ton of damage, and Scald can burn Mega Kangaskhan regardless of how many Snarls have been thrown around.

Japanese Sand: Depends on their choice of water type

• This can be tricky since all these Pokemon are good against theirs, but the reverse is also true.
• Landorus-T is a must as is Mega Kangaskhan, but the other two slots could be anything. Even Zapdos can be useful here if a sneaky Tailwind can go up to help Heatran. In general, most players won’t bring Excadrill against a team with Suicune, Landorus-T and Amoonguss, so that often makes it safe to bring Heatran.
• A lot of this match-ups hinge on locking Scarf Tyranitar into something unfavorable and then sending in something that can slip the leash like Amoonguss (which will always survive an Aerialate Hyper Voice from Mega Salamence, though Amoonguss won’t like it very much).

Day One – Zero Point One Five Percent

Unfortunately, I can’t remember much of what happened since I realized way too late that replays weren’t going to be available.

Round 1 (W 2-0): Jackson Mayberry

Game two was very eventful. I switched into a few too many resisted snarled Ice Beams and got my Kangaskhan frozen… Which then immediately thawed and attacked his Ludicolo! I couldn’t actually stop myself from exclaiming RIPPERRINO when this happened, but Friend Guard allowed Ludicolo to survive and the moment was lost. Rocky Helmetless Amoonguss KOed a 50% HP Life Orb Talonflame with recoil to seal the game.

Round 2 (W 2-0): Kyung-Min Kim

Great to see players coming out of New Zealand! Milotic gave me problems, but defensive Snarl Arcanine was more of a hindrance than help. Game one involved a critical hit burn from Scald on my Kangaskhan as well as a nonlethal critical hit on my Landorus-Therian, but it was still not enough to overcome a crucial Rock Slide flinch.

Round 3 (W 2-1): Liam Paternott

Game one I won the Mega Kangaskhan speed tie and got a relevant critical hit later on.

When I saw the Suicune on team preview I knew what was going to happen and that I had to fight the Tailwind war, but in game two I let him get Tailwind up over me in exchange for his Mega Kangaskhan. This wasn’t a good trade for me and his Breloom was then free to run over my team.

I didn’t make the same mistake in game three.

Round 4 (L 1-2): The Other Tony Nguyen

I saw the name and was hoping for another go at Competny, but he was 2-2 at this point.

In game one, I beat him 4-0, but in game two he cracks wise and started his game leading Landorus-T + Mega Charizard-Y. I had to bring Suicune in to stand a chance and make big plays, but I kept running Zapdos like an idiot and lost. A single Heat Wave critting Zapdos and burning Kangaskhan in one stroke didn’t help either. Great team, protects Mega Charizard-Y really well.

Round 5 (L 0-2): Paulo Amedee (Mastodon)

perish trap
yeah
nah

Round 6 (W 2-0): Aaron

At 3-2 I figured we’d both just be playing for funsies and my opponent was pretty chill. It turns out he was using a borrowed team and wasn’t too familiar with the game, but he put up a great fight all the same. Looking forward to playing him next year once he’s a bit better prepared.

Round 7 (W 2-0): Eamon Connor

I can’t remember too much about what happened here. Some long sleeps helped me out a lot, as did a Cresselia without Ice Beam. This could have easily ended up a repeat of round four had he started with leading Landorus-T + Mega Charizard-Y, though.

Round 8 (W 2-1): Zarif Ayman

For once I was not the loudest person on the table since both pairs next to us were somewhat exuberant.

Zarif is back for revenge after our game at Brisbane Regionals last year and after round four I wanted the scalp of someone wearing a Brisbane Bisharps shirt. Sadly, we only got to play one actual game of Pokemon since game one involved three Rock Slide flinches plus a Heat Wave miss and I can’t repeat what RNG did to him in game three on a PG rated site. Thanks again for not conceding the next round!

Round 9 (W 2-0): Bronson Kung

This was the fifth Ludicolo I saw that day.

Once again, great to see NZ stepping up to the plate. Bronson was using MajorBowman’s Missouri Regionals team, but I’ve practiced this match-up in my head a lot and know what to do despite not having Sylveon. He also didn’t know my Amoonguss had Mental Herb and was playing a little too safely. A Zen Headbutt critical hit on my Amoonguss didn’t stop the bleeding and I took game one.

Game two involved a LOT of RNG going my way. Without that double Thunderbolt paralysis + full paralyzes on Ludicolo there would have been a game three. Looking forward to our inevitable rematch in the future.

Day Two – Tactical Espionage Action

It is worth mentioning that two of the four West Australians who went to Nationals made it to Day Two, and neither of them made cut at Perth Regionals. Free-est Regional indeed.

Top 16 (W 2-1): Nicholas Bingham (Spiritbomber)

Since he has played so many of my friends we had a lot of intel. He was using my team from 2014 modified for the new format, with that other popular scarf intimidate user, the original Life Orb steel type, and the amr97 Rotom-Heat rather than my gangster Lum Berry build. Somehow, he dodged every rain team in the room (the reason I abandoned that team early in the season) and was now up against me in a match-up I felt I couldn’t win.

All he had to do to win was lead Rotom-H / Landorus-T and I go onto the back foot, but he didn’t in game three and in game two I had the RNG on my side.

Top 8 (W 2-0): Brendan Webb (FloristTheBudew)

My comrades provided me with intel, but his team is somewhat obvious and having tested support Volcarona with Famousdeaf early in the season I know exactly what to expect when Amoonguss is conspicuously absent from Japanese Sand.

This is a hit or miss match-up for me, but with so much of his team dedicated to dealing with Kangaskhan I could just choose not to bring it. Since he had Ferrothorn I couldn’t really bring my non-RH Amoonguss either, which made picking my four nice and easy.

None of this means anything when I RNG like a madman live on stream, KOing his Rotom-Wash from outside of Sitrus Berry range with a critical hit in game two.

(audio cuts in and out a little bit on this video)

Top 4 (L 1-2): Theron Ho (BlazingSceptile)

Haha omg! I got ruined…

I did well enough in game one, but didn’t make the plays I needed to in the next two games. Boomguy had even told me beforehand that BlazingSceptile calls all safe plays and that I needed to play fast and loose, but I just… didn’t.

For real though, how does one man has the courage to call the t1 no fake out?

Wooden Spoon Playoff (W 2-1): Jackson Lakey (Famousdeaf)

Neither of us were playing too seriously at this point, but this is a fitting end to the season.

We knew each others’ teams front and back. With no Fake Out or speed control on his team, he’s cold to a Tailwind which is why I blindly lead Kang + Zapdos each game. My guess is that he didn’t bring Aegislash because he knew my Heatran has Flamethrower and Life Orb which isn’t quite a kill, but would be with any chip damage. He also knew I was running Assault Vest Mirror Coat Suicune which might explain why he was reluctant to bring Thundurus-T, his usual out for opposing Heatran.

Without Earthquake on Mega Salamence only a freeze in game two could slow me down and constantly winning the timid Heatran race as well as Landorus-T blatantly cheating, kind of helped just a little bit, maybe. And if I do say so myself, my read on the game three Virizion switch-in was d i s g u s t i n g

(commentary on this video from Dawg and Chiron is tight as, give it a watch!)

Conclusion

This isn’t the championship trophy I’ve been chasing for the last sixteen years and top 4 in one event might not be enough for a Worlds invite, but it’ll do.

Props:

• Nintendo Australia and TPCI. This tournament was the envy of the world. No VGC event has been run this smoothly and best-of-three Swiss for VGC on top of that is unheard of!
• My opponents. All of them were Cool Dudes and must have gone 6-3 for me to make cut, so I guess the drinks are on me next time we’re all in town. Thanks again, guys!
• My wife, my kid and my cat. Thank you for all the support while I fly away for the weekend to play a game for ten year-olds.
• Team Delphox. It’s invaluable to be able to bounce ideas off teammates as well as having a library of traded 5IV legendaries to select from. Sorry not sorry for being cringey in that interview.
• Speaking of cringe, thank you to the Australian VGC chat for, uh, umm..
• The Random Number Generator. I won several games off of Hail Mary flinches and lucky procs. Sadly, luck is still a huge factor in best-of-three.
• Seeing all of you again 🙂 group hug

Slops:

• Perish Trap. On that note, thank you based Mastodon for the final round choke that almost knocked me out of cut.
• I don’t like VGC15. The only thing I like about it is the accessibility since anyone can just run the standard core, add two Pokemon to taste, and come fourth at Nationals. It’s ironic that Japanese Sand, a copy-pasted team, feels like a breath of fresh air since it has no legendaries! Here’s to hoping that VGC16 will be a restricted format.
• Can a brother have some Personal Space?!

About the Author

CatGonk might be a familiar face to anyone who played in the days of Red and Blue. After taking his leave from Azure Heights during RSE, Cat-Gonk entered the ring again in 2007 and has been part of the West Australian scene ever since.

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