Reports

Published on April 6th, 2015 | by Biosci

17

Screaming Through the Desert: SoCal Regionals 2nd Place Report

Hi. I’ve been building and messing with this team for a long while, actually. Even though the rules were announced back in mid-December, this was a team I’ve been tinkering with for about the last 6 months. The team went through many different changes from the original product I made back then, so I guess I’ll elaborate a bit there before I get into what I did for Regionals.

The Roots

So funnily enough, the only reason why I built this team was because of a team I saw while playing Battle Spot doubles back in June before Nationals 2014. It was a Japanese player named Mikoto Misaka(Not CTMikotoMisaka….) using a team of Mega Gardevoir /  Blastoise / Terrakion / Rotom-H / Aegislash / Hitmontop. I liked the core of team but hated a few elements that this player put on the team. I messed around with the core and after a few ideas thanks to Scott on IRC, I ended up with this:

Mind you, this was only meant to be used for XY Battle Spot. I really loved using this team, even topping the ladder many times with it on both Battle Spot Doubles and Special S6.

More Relevant Times

Now we fast forward to the release of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Here in Arizona, we had a lot of PCs during this time and I wanted to start mixing things up. So I looked back this team I built a few months back. Now obviously, I couldn’t use some elements of the team thanks to the Pentagon rule so I was back to the drawing board. The PCs were also still VGC 2014 rules, just with the inclusion of tutor moves. The next 3 PCs I had different Mega Gardevoir builds that I wanted to try out, so I mixed things up each time. To save some time I’ll just list the teams and their respective finishes:

Top 8, 20 CP

1st, 40 CP

1st, 40 CP

By then I wanted to try out different things for the last PC until Winter regionals, which didn’t go too well so we won’t discuss that.

Pre-Regionals Building

When the VGC 2015 rules got announced I tried putting together a few teams, one trying to bring back the Mega Gardevoir / Zapdos / Terrakion / Scizor / Fire-type / Redirection core. The initial tests really had me re-thinking the team since the last 2 slots were a bit weird this time around. For the longest time I had Ninetales in the Fire-type slot until I got to talking with a few others about it. Heatran was a suggestion, but had the same issue of getting pressured harder than the pressure it applied. I ended up with Talonflame the night before regionals, and liked the choice a lot during the event. The “redirection” slot was a big toss up for me. It started out with Clefable, but I quickly hated having the typing it provided on the team. After some practice, I decided that the redirection piece of the team wasn’t as needed as I was making it out to be. I looked into other options that would give me better match ups against what I saw the team struggle against, and found a couple suitable options.

After much given thought, I ended up giving a Choice Band Landorus-Therian a shot at APEX 2 weeks before Regionals. During the tournament, it proved to be way more mediocre than I thought. Although it wasn’t the sole reason for games being lost, it just didn’t have the synergy to go with the team. After I got back from APEX, I did some test battles with Mack to try and find a suitable Pokemon. The flow just sort of worked its way to Gengar being put on the team. Now the biggest issue was the fact that I already had Focus Sash on Terrakion. Somehow my solution ended up being to just give Gengar a Gengarite, but I ended up liking the choice a lot after practice battles.

The Team

 @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 228 HP / 4 Def / 36 SpA / 84 SpD / 156 Spe
Modest Nature
– Tailwind
– Thunderbolt
– Heat Wave
– Roost

Probably my favorite Pokemon on this team. I usually favored Thundurus-Therian or Rotom-Wash as my go-to Electric-types in previous formats, but using this team on Battle Spot really changed my opinion of Zapdos. Electric-types not being susceptible to paralysis was a great change for Zapdos. Zapdos proved to be a huge asset to the team with its Speed control, longevity thanks to Roost, and the coverage it offered.

Everything on the set should be a given to why I have it, except maybe Heat Wave. My matchup against Steel-types was pretty bad with the extra coverage, so I almost had to give up the option of Hidden Power Ice just for that coverage. Hidden Power Ice would’ve been nice to have against Landorus-Therian and Garchomp, but I don’t think it would work out in the long run with the team. Roost was extremely nice to help sustain Zapdos’ presence on the field to keep it around for Tailwind in the later game.

The first spread I made for this Zapdos EVd to survive a Choice Specs Draco Meteor from Modest Hydreigon and outspeed neutral base 70s. Overtime I opted for a lot more Speed than I had, eventually enough to outrun Jolly max Speed Smeargle. I took the EVs I needed for that out of Special Attack and Special Defense, which changed the previous benchmark to a damage roll.

 (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 20 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Bullet Punch
– Bug Bite
– Feint
– Protect

Scizor was pretty much a mainstay for this team since the beginning. The Fairy-type resistance and pressure from Bullet Punch and Feint were big parts of why I had Scizor in this slot. It was also one of my only ways to hits Cresselia or Gothitelle for super effective as my team did have a hard time against hard Trick Room teams. Scizor just made sense for the time when I was building the team, but I think after recent events I’m gonna be going back to the drawing board for what exactly I want from this team slot. Scizor did have a big role on the team in the past, but I just don’t think it can do much in the metagame right now.

The set and EVs were taken from R Inanimate’s Seattle regional report with Bug Bite instead of U-turn. Though for all the PCs I used this Scizor at, I accidentally used a Scizor that had the EVs from his Choice Band Scizor set in the same report (Which explains all the KOs that I was missing out on….).

 (F) @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 244 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
– Hyper Voice
– Psychic
– Protect
– Substitute

The reason why I used this team in the first place. Mega Gardevoir just seemed pretty interesting for what it could do that Sylveon struggled to do. However, unlike Sylveon, it does have a lot of problems with a bunch of the top used Pokemon. Gardevoir does have good offensive typing with the compliment of an amazing spread move, but the physical defense and poor defensive typing can be a hindrance at times. I do think Gardevoir is a solid Pokemon and Mega choice, but it’s just not a “big 6” threat. There was a reason that it was by far the most used Mega and Pokemon in XY Battle Spot Special when they banned the top 12 used Pokemon.

People questioned my use of Psychic instead of Psyshock, and this was a thing I thought about but just never really made the change in game. I just figured I’d rather keep Psychic as people were training their Amoonguss and Mega Venusaur more physically defensive, and Psychic could get me the KO or just deal a lot more damage. The 4th move is extremely filler on Gardevoir, so I actually went through a good amount of thought before I decided on Substitute. Substitute let me do cool things like block status, avoid Sucker Punch, and punish my opponent for defensive switches or Protects.

The EVs I have now were just put there and I never looked back on it. I did take time to make a bulkier EV spread for Regionals, but decided not to use it as it dropped my Speed by a lot and I didn’t want to be caught off guard by the randomness of Swiss best of 1.

 @ Gengarite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 188 HP / 20 Def / 44 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Sludge Bomb
– Shadow Ball
– Will-O-Wisp
– Protect

As I stated before, this slot messed around a lot. Gengar sounded pretty good in theory for the Ghost-typing and Will-O-Wisp to add to the team. The big issue was that I already had Terrakion holding Focus Sash so I was hesitant with adding Gengar onto the team.  Gengar seemed like a worthy addition to the team so I began theorizing what to do.

Now, when I decided that I was gonna be keeping the Focus Sash on Terrakion, the thought came to mind to maybe just give it a Gengarite as a filler item. Having it like this not only fit my preference, but it added a nice best of 1 factor of my opponent guessing the items on my Gengar and Terrakion. I wanted to have both of Gengar’s STAB options when I was using it, even though Icy Wind was pretty appealing for Landorus-Therian.

Since I wasn’t using Focus Sash, I did want some kind of bulk on this Gengar. I remembered a team that was posted for XY Battle Spot season 5 Doubles that used the Mega Gengar/Whimsicott combo. I looked up the team and saw he got his spread from another on-site report. Other than what else is listed, it can also take a Jolly Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird.

 @ Focus Sash
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Close Combat
– Rock Slide
– Taunt
– Protect

One of the best Pokemon in the format right now. Terrakion offers everything you wanted in a Fighting-type back in 2014, but could never have. Well, with coverage on a lot of the common Mega Pokemon, it’s a pretty big threat. Another pretty big thing right now in the format is that people are commonly assuming that most if not all Terrakion carry a Lum Berry, which is something that helped me out a bit thanks to my actual item choice.

The set is what you would expect to see, just using Taunt in the 4th moveslot. The only other 4th move option I considered other than Taunt was Quick Guard, but before Regionals I opted not to go for it. Taunt did its job with disruption pretty well, stopping the common Spore, Thunder Wave, and Tailwind. I did try out Lum Berry for a bit, but during the practice it really had an extremely low amount of use and Focus Sash just helped me more.

 @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Brave Bird
– Flare Blitz
– U-turn
– Tailwind

Are we back in 2014? I literally added Talonflame the day before Regionals because I was so indecisive on what Fire-type to use. Lunar tried to convince me on Heatran, but I couldn’t figure out a set I wanted to run with this team. Talonflame just sounded great for a lot more options, like against Venusaur, Charizard, and even Terrakion. I think I really just wanted to try and find a Fire-type that could pressure things more than it got pressured. Talonflame just sounded the best at the time.

I did want to keep Life Orb on Scizor, so I just knee-jerked and gave Talonflame Choice Band and didn’t give it a second thought. With Feint on Scizor I wasn’t too worried about being locked out of options against Quick Guard if I chose to lock into Brave Bird. I was considering going Jolly instead of Adamant due to Mega Metagross and Thundurus, but figured the Speed wasn’t too needed and luckily it didn’t play any factor at all at Regionals.

Southern California Regionals

I drove over to Lancaster with Mack and his daughter on Friday for what was supposed to be a 6 hour drive that turned into a 10 hour drive thanks to a highway being closed due to some shooting. Getting to the hotel at 10 pm, I just showered and slept for the next day. I spent the next morning eating breakfast and filling out team sheets for Mack’s daughter and I, only to find out we didn’t need them. Got to the venue nice and early and quickly got registered. Had to go through a giant line for the player meeting roster, and about an hour later round 1 started with a bit of delays due to online pairings and players needing to be added. Finally with rounds underway, let’s get started:

Round 1: John (5-3)

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I brought:

From team preview, it looked like standard Mega Blastoise Tailwind cheese which wouldn’t be too hard to dispatch if I matched his Tailwind with my own. He didn’t really bring much that prevented Terrakion from just chipping everything on his team until it got KO’d, so Zapdos and Talonflame just cleaned the late-game.

1-0

Round 2: Jacob (Noobly9730) (5-3)

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I brought:

The re-match of Long Beach finals from back in 2013. I was extra motivated to not have a repeat of finals that year when we got put on as the stream match for the round. The game started out pretty badly for me when I Traced his Hitmontop’s Intimidate to give his Life Orb Bisharp a +1 boost, but I managed to get out of that when I got the KO on it after he thought I would try to Substitute again. The game got closer at the end when he pulled out the Quick Guard Hitmontop, but Mega Gardevoir and Talonflame clutched out the win.

2-0

Round 3: Fred (3-5)

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I brought:

Not sure what was with all the Mega Swampert today, but whatever. In team preview, Terrakion and Zapdos looked pretty safe to lead and Talonflame and Mega Gardevoir could clean up. And that’s exactly how it went. Terrakion chipped Mega Swampert so that Talonflame could get the KO and let Zapdos do what it needed so that Gardevoir could come in, Trace Swift Swim, and clean up with Hyper Voice.

3-0

Round 4: Jackie (3-5)

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I brought:

The first match after the lunch break, the round 1 nerves seem to come back. Turn 1 I go for Tailwind and Protect Terrakion and pretty much win from there thanks to a Protect from his Terrakion the same turn. It ended pretty quickly, not much else to say about the match itself.

4-0

Round 5: Kimo (TFC) (5-3)

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I brought:

The first player I actually recognized of the day. In team preview I didn’t really like any of my Mega Pokemon here, so I ended up without one for this match. In hindsight, Gengar would’ve actually been good to have but Scizor did its part so I can’t complain. The bulky Sylveon gets me by surprise and takes a Brave Bird and Heat Wave and I lose my Talonflame and Zapdos. Now it’s just my Terrakion against 5% Sylveon and Heatran behind Substitute. I don’t know TFC’s Heatran EV spread, so the Rock Slide might be a damage roll. Luckily, I break the Substitute and KO Sylveon with Rock Slide and Focus Sash allows Terrakion to clutch the game.

5-0

Round 6: Daniel (5-3)

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I brought:

In team preview I see the first Mega Metagross of the day, which was a match-up I was a bit iffy on. I was in a commanding spot early game, but due to a Rock Slide miss I had to backpedal a bit. I got back into a great spot with some well-timed Protects and finished the game without needing Mega Gardevoir to enter the field thanks to Scizor.

6-0

Round 7: Erik (Cyrus) (7-1 10th)

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I brought:

6-0 with a top 16 cut you’d think I’d be pretty relaxed, but I stressed myself a good bit for these last 2 games. Turn 1 was pretty rough with my Gengar missing Will-O-Wisp, getting critical hit by Rock Slide, and Thunderbolt paralyzed. I did however manage to get Terrakion in safely and thanks to a critical hit of my own on Rotom-H I got back into the game. Last turn of Tailwind, I kind of have a brain-fart and switch in Mega Gengar instead of Talonflame, which puts me in a pretty awful spot. I still have a chance at the end if Rock Slide misses either my Zapdos or Talonflame, but Cyrus does land both and takes the game.

6-1

Round 8: Nawraz (Knawraz) (6-2 7th)

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I brought:

I was pretty stressed out now due to me looking at my opponents win-loss records. If I lose this, I’m pretty sure I miss top cut(which turned out to be right) so I’m extra motivated for the win. Terrakion and Gengar led pretty well against the majority of his team, so I decided to give it a try. The game was pretty long thanks to Leech Seed Venusaur, but I managed to chip his entire team so that Gardevoir could just come in at the end of the game and finish things up.

7-1, 7th seed

I look at the standings after they fix a misreported win and see I’m 7th seed and playing Dane Zieman in top 16. Top 16 is gonna be played out tomorrow morning, and after Nic does the hack checks we head back to the hotel. Mack goes to take his daughter to the movies and George (Kobratail), Gavin (kingofmars), Matt (TheCalmSnivy), and I stay at the hotel and talk about what happened today over some pizza. I get on Skype to see Zach getting ready for tomorrow as well. I find out that my top 16 opponent actually played on stream round 1 from them, but with no archive I was still sitting with no bit of info. I was fine with that, but info would’ve been a bit nice. I take a bit of time to see what else happened on stream and note a few things just in case then go to sleep.

We all shower in the morning, pack our things up, and then head out a bit early so Mack and I can get to our matches. I ripped off my wristband from the day before, so I had to get in line and grab a new one. We sit down, get the run down from Nic, and get our matches underway.

Top 16: Dane (agentorangejulius) (6-2 13th)

Game 1: 

I brought:

I don’t remember much of this match, except that Zapdos and Gengar kept control the whole game. I got a lot of info this game, which was really good for me since he only got to see my lead Pokemon.

1-0

Game 2: 

I brought:

When I saw the Conkeldurr on the field, I wanted it gone ASAP as I thought it meant Scizor wasn’t in the back so Terrakion could have a late game field day. I ended up KOing both the Conkeldurr and Scizor early on anyway, and with Roost/Tailwind Zapdos and Terrakion in the back, the game ended shortly after.

2-0

Top 8: Eduardo (JustEdo) (6-2 8th)

Game 1: 

I brought: 

The last 2 Arizona players in cut…paired in top 8. In team preview, I knew Zapdos and Gengar would prove extremely useful in this set. It helped a lot that Zapdos also outran his entire team. The game goes along with us matching each other’s Tailwind and I notice his Zapdos is a lot slower and stronger than my own. The game was a bit dicey at the end but thanks to a Rock Slide flinch on his Landorus-Therian, I managed to seal the game with a Hyper Voice for a KO.

1-0

Game 2: 

I brought:

I wanted to ensure I kept the upper-hand from turn 1, so I decided to bring the pressure turn 1. I get the burn on his Kangaskhan turn 1 and things look good until late game with his Choice Band Landorus-Therian and Life Orb Bisharp left. I end up calling his Protect, which let me preserve Terrakion and Zapdos for the 3 vs 1 against his Landorus-Therian locked into Rock Slide. Both get KOed, but Gardevoir outspeeds after Mega Evolving and wins the game.

2-0

Top 4: Alejandro (Legacy) (7-1 3rd)

Game 1: 

I brought:

I had to wait a good bit for my top 4 match due to how fast my other matches ended, but it ended up being Legacy who advanced on in the bracket. The early- and mid-game he outplays me pretty well with calling that I wouldn’t be attacking his Venusaur, almost to the point where I thought I would lose on time. The game turns drastically in my favor when he allows Venusaur to be KOd and I’m free to just start spamming Hyper Voice. He’s still in a controlling spot from my eyes, but then his Zapdos fails to KO my about 60 HP Gardevoir. Gardevoir is then free to KO Zapdos, Cresselia, and Suicune.

1-0

Game 2: 

I brought:

This game was a lot less of a mess. I want to play turn 1 safe, so I simply Protect turn 1 and set up Tailwind not even noticing I Traced Chlorophyll from Venusaur. Overheat goes off on Zapdos and Zapdos takes it pretty well and sets up Tailwind. From here instead of trying to mess around, I just go for the straight KO on Venusaur and get it as Zapdos safely Roosts back to almost full HP. A Critical Hit from Overheat KOs Zapdos, but I’m sitting in a pretty safe spot with a Substitute and Terrakion switched in. With Taunt for his Swagger/Thunder Wave Cresselia, and Moonblast being a 3HKO, I KO the Cresselia and Charizard. Suicune comes in, and the game is over from here as he can’t KO Gardevoir, Terrakion, and Talonflame without getting KOd in the process.

2-0

Finals: Alberto (Sweeper) (7-1 1st)

Game 1: 

I brought:

I look at team preview, and the game plan just looks to be to set up Tailwind and Hyper Voice to victory. Game 1 gets pretty ugly with Landorus-Therian flinching me 5 turns in a row until it finally gets KOed, which leaves me in a weakened spot for Mega Salamence to clean up.

0-1

Game 2: 

I brought: 

This game goes the exact way I needed it to go, no flinch turn 1 from Rock Slide, meaning I get Tailwind. Will-O-Wisp connects with Landorus-Therian while in Tailwind. From there I get to preserve Zapdos like I needed and once Gengar gets KOed Gardevoir cleans up the game without needing Terrakion.

1-1

Game 3:  ???

I brought: 

He goes back to his game 1 tactics, and I decide that it would be best to not risk Gengar getting KO’d and try to set up Tailwind. Unfortunately this leads to me being in a terrible spot after Zapdos flinches and I’m forced to backpedal as I made no progress turn 1 unlike the rest of the games. From there I decide I have to risk something to get back into the game, and it backfires as I lose Gardevoir to a Double Edge from Mega Salamence which ends up being impossible to recover from and the set ends.

1-2

14-3, 2nd place

The set left a pretty bad taste in my mouth with all those flinches, but I knew I could’ve improved on how I played. Alberto was playing to the outs that he had so I can’t really blame him. 2nd place still gives me a pretty great spot CP-wise and a nice brick.

February International Challenge

I decided try a modified version of the team in the International Challenge that went on during Florida Regionals. The only change I made was replacing Scizor with Bisharp as my Aegislash matchup was awful after looking at the team. The change was pretty good, but the bigger thing that this IC taught me was how good Mega Gengar was on this team. Mega Gardevoir doesn’t have the best of matchups against a lot of the top threats in the format, so this tourney really showed me how much Mega Gengar can shine. I ended up going 25-5 1764, which nabbed me 2nd place in the US and 15th overall.

Conclusion

With that, this report is pretty much over. I’m at a grand total of 266 CP at the moment, with 74 CP left to be gained at PCs, leaving me in a decent spot for a trip to Nationals and an invite to Worlds for my first time. I’m excited for the rest of the season, and hopefully I’ll be able to reach that end goal.

Shout-outs

• Mack – Having someone to hang out with and test teams locally is pretty great. Carpooling to events is pretty great too. The best o/
• CTMikotoMisaka, Simon, SoulSurvivor, and Nickscor – Talking things out while fixing things on the team was incredibly helpful
• Call chat – Thanks for the support
• Jio – Drunk jio the prophet….

About the Author

Biosci Hi

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