Reports

Published on February 21st, 2014 | by Evilwolf

15

Singapore Asia Cup Qualifier – A First Place Report

A very good day to you readers on Nugget Bridge! My name is Maxie and I hail from the tiny island of Singapore in Asia.

Before I jump into my team report, I guess I should provide a brief introduction of myself, since this is my first time posting on Nugget Bridge.

I’ve been playing competitive Pokémon since Generation 4’s HGSS era. I played doubles exclusively, but I was also really terrible player back then! I joined the local Singapore community for Pokémon (where I first met member TanZYing) just as it was starting. As the community grew, I participated in more and more mini-tournaments of ours with varying levels of success. The XY Asia Cup Spring Qualifiers was my first time getting first place in a major tournament.

I joined the Pokémon XY Asia Cup Spring Singapore Qualifiers which was held on January 11th, 2014. It was an unofficial grassroots tournament to determine Singapore’s representatives for the upcoming Asia Cup in March. The top eight players for this tournament would move on to participate in a Wi-Fi tournament against players from other Southeast Asian countries.

I went into this tournament not expecting to top cut, but decided to just give it my best and treat it as practice for my VGC ’14 team. Somehow, I went undefeated in six rounds of Swiss, making it to the Top 8. By this point, I was equal parts elated and nervous, and I was hoping to at least make it to the Top 4. I played to the best of my ability, and emerged champion. I was so thrilled!

I definitely couldn’t have done it without my team, which surprisingly had only two weeks of playtesting behind it. I was really satisfied with how well my team played out and the amount of control it afforded me over my opponent. Please remember, my team is designed to be reaction based rather than relying on a core of four Pokémon to win games.

The Team

Mawile (Darla)

Item: Mawilite
Nature: Brave
Ability: Intimidate → Huge Power
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Attack, 4 Special Defense
– Play Rough
– Iron Head
– Sucker Punch
– Protect

With the introduction of Mega Evolutions, several Pokémon have risen to the foreground of competitive play. Any successful teambuilding process will take into account all the new Mega Evolutions, which was my first step to creating my team.

I knew the two most popular Mega Evolutions dominating the metagame during the Asia Cup qualifiers were Mega Kanghaskhan and Mega Mawile, so I chose to use Mawile to beat Mega Kanghaskhan, since Mega Mawile resists Mega Kanghaskhan’s STAB Return as well as its priority Sucker Punch. Mawile also forces Mega Kanghaskhan to resort to using Power-Up Punch or Hammer Arm in order to damage it. Mega Mawile also scores a 2HKO on Mega Kanghaskhan easily before Kanghaskhan can KO it. I ran a standard Mega Mawile set, albeit with a Brave nature instead of the usual Adamant nature because I wanted to use it in Trick Room. This way, I could turn Mega Mawile’s weakness of low speed into an advantage during the battle.

Mega Mawile has, I would say, one of the best typings in the whole game. Mawile received a new Fairy typing this generation. Fairy is a great anti-metagame typing because it is immune to Dragon attacks and resists Fighting, Dark, and Bug-type attacks. Mawile’s Steel-typing further complements its Fairy typing, giving immunity to Poison-type attacks (which would normally hit Mawile for super-effective damage) as well as letting it take neutral damage from Steel attacks. This leaves Mega Mawile weak to only Fire and Ground attacks, both of which are fairly obvious and easy to predict.

On top of all that, Mega Mawile has significant bulk after Mega-Evolving. Both of its defensive stats are doubled and the Huge Power ability doubles Mega Mawile’s Attack stat. Huge Power combos well with Mawile’s Intimidate, as Intimidate has no use in battle after switching in. Intimidate support was also another reason why I chose to run Mawile, nerfing opposing physical attacks (which are more common than Special attacks this meta).

The EV spread is blandly standard, investing in HP to complement its bulky defenses as well as Attack for maximum damage output. The remaining 4 EVs I put into Special Defense as Mega Mawile’s Special Defense is lower than its Defense.

The moves are standard as well, running dual STAB on Mega Mawile. Iron Head hits other Fairies, Rock-types and Mega Mawiles, and Play Rough beats Dragons, Dark and Fighting-types as well as hitting neutral on many common Pokémon. I chose Sucker Punch for Mawile’s third coverage move as I needed the priority attack in case Trick Room failed. Sucker Punch can also be used to OHKO Mega Gengar and Chandelure and to hit Scizor for neutral damage (which otherwise resists both Iron Head and Play Rough). For the last move, I ran Protect, since a Pokémon as threatening as Mega Mawile was bound to draw a lot of attacks, as well as to guard against the obvious Fire and Ground-type moves as I mentioned above.

While a Brave Nature with 31 IVs in speed might seem weird, this Mawile was actually given to me by my friend. I decided to go ahead and use it since the 31 speed IVs allowed me to outspeed other Brave-natured Mega Mawiles outside of Trick Room, while still underspeeding Adamant Mawiles during Trick Room.

Chandelure (Caius)

Item: Colbur Berry
Nature: Quiet
Ability: Flash Fire • IVs: 31/0/31/31/31/10
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Special Attack, 4 Defense
– Flamethrower
–  Energy Ball
– Trick Room
– Protect

I needed a Pokémon that could set up Trick Room and handle opposing Mega Mawiles. After perusing the list of Trick Room users available for VGC ’14, I picked Chandelure, an old favorite of mine. Chandelure resists both of Mega Mawile’s STAB attacks and complements my own Mawile’s Fire weakness with the Flash Fire Ability, which powers up Chandelure’s own Fire-type attacks. 252 HP, 252 Special Attack, Quiet-natured Chandelure was the standard Trick Room spread, so I started with that.

Next, I knew that Mega Mawile and Mega Kanghaskhan’s Sucker Punch would OHKO my Chandelure, and Mega Kanghaskhan would KO it through Focus Sash, so I used an old favorite item of mine from VGC ’12 for Chandelure: Colbur Berry. This would allow Chandelure to survive both of their Sucker Punches, and then KO Mega Mawile back with Flamethrower. This also lets Chandelure beat Bisharp.

Quite obviously, the one gimmicky thing about my Chandelure is that it didn’t carry Shadow Ball. My team was having trouble against Rotom-W, so a week before the tournament I decided to drop Shadow Ball for Energy Ball. Shadow Ball was a 3HKO on bulky Rotom-W, while Energy Ball 2HKOs it. I decided to go for the risk, thinking that any extra bit of damage I could get on Rotom-W would help my team KO it faster. I also made the decision during playtesting that Shadow Ball didn’t hit anything super-effectively other than Gengar, and during the tournament, I never even felt the need to use Shadow Ball on Chandelure.

Gardevoir (Irydii)

Item: Mental Herb
Nature: Quiet
Ability: Trace
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/11
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Defense, 4 Special Attack
– Psyshock
– Moon Blast
– Trick Room
– Safeguard

While Chandelure could be reasonably bulky against the right opponents, it still had a myriad of weaknesses which meant it could be OHKOd. Therefore, I needed a backup Trick Roomer, in case it was unsafe to bring Chandelure in. This slot was originally filled by Malamar, with an Adamant nature and an EV spread of 252 HP, 180 Atk and 96 Special Defense, holding Safety Goggles to beat Tyranitar and Amoonguss. However, Malamar was entirely too frail, even with the defensive EV investment. Plus, Swagger effectively cripples Malamar, due to its Contrary Ability. After my Malamar got OHKOd by a Timid Hydreigon’s Draco Meteor, I decided to drop it and look for a replacement.

One of my friends jokingly suggested Gardevoir, and I gave it serious consideration. Gardevoir was able to beat all the Pokémon that Malamar was supposed to beat: Scrafty, Amoonguss, and Tyranitar. On top of that, it wasn’t weak to Fairy-types and had better utility and coverage. Gardevoir’s own Fairy typing was a blessing, because it removed some of Gardevoir’s former weaknesses and gave it an immunity to Dragon moves, most notably Draco Meteor. Unfortunately, this left me with a weakness to Steel.

I ran 252 HP and 252 Def for maximum bulk, which allowed Gardevoir to survive many hits which would normally beat it: Choice Band Talonflame’s Brave Bird, Scrafty and Tyranitar’s Crunch, Mega Scizors unboosted Bullet Punch, Life Orb Gengar’s Shadow Ball, Mega Kanghaskhan’s Return, and more. Gardevoir’s Quiet nature reduced its 80 base Speed to a usable number for Trick Room (81 Speed) and boosted its Special Attack to enable Gardevoir to use Moonblast to OHKO Pokémon with a weakness to Fairy, such as Hydreigon, Scrafty, and Greninja. Garchomp takes 89-105% from my Gardevoir’s Moonblast, and it’s Earthquake is a 3HKO on Gardevoir in return, to illustrate how effective this EV spread can be.

Psyshock was used for hitting Venusaur and Amoonguss and OHKOing Gengar. Safeguard was used to block opposing Spores, Dark Voids, and Will-o-Wisps, which my team hated. Lastly, Gardevoir had Trace, which was fun for exploiting my opponent’s abilities. During the tournament, I managed to Trace Intimidate and Solar Power when sun was up.

I ran Mental Herb on Gardevoir to block Taunts and Encores which would stop Trick Room. Unfortunately, it was never used at all during the whole tournament.

Tyranitar (Theralion)

Item: Weakness Policy
Nature: Brave
Ability: Sand Stream
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/10
EVs: 252 HP, 88 Attack, 72 Defense, 96 Special Defense
– Rock Slide
– Crunch
– Ice Beam
– Protect / Fire Blast

I daresay many of my victories could not have been possible without this beast. The EV spread for Tyranitar is an old VGC ’13 spread, modified with a bit of Attack shifted to Defense for more bulk against Garchomp’s Earthquake since I had Weakness Policy to boost my attacks.

This Tyranitar was originally chosen to counter Garchomp, since I noticed Garchomp was rather common in the metagame. I ran Ice Beam on Tyranitar just to hit Garchomp. An unboosted Ice Beam was 82.6-97.8% to Garchomp, which would KO it after some chip damage. If Garchomp hit Tyranitar with Earthquake, Tyranitar would only take 72.4-85%, which triggered Weakness Policy. Tyranitar would then revenge KO it with Ice Beam.

This Tyranitar set is decently bulky to take most super-effective non-Fighting hits except Mega Mawile’s STAB attacks, and Tyranitar also has a wide enough range of weaknesses to trigger Weakness Policy every time.

At +2, Tyranitar gains enough power to OHKO most things that don’t resist it, and in Trick Room can be very scary. Protect was necessary alongside both of it’s STAB moves, to provide Tyranitar with longevity and to scout moves. I did consider dropping Protect for Fire Blast to hit Mega Mawile, but ultimately decided to trust in the rest of my team to deal with Mega Mawile.

Tyranitar also counters Talonflame, another popular metagame Pokémon right now. The Sandstorm that Tyranitar provided was crucial to checking Sun and Rain teams, as well as breaking Focus Sashes and Multiscale.

Smeargle (Smaugol)

Item: Focus Sash
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Moody
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Speed, 4 Defense
– Dark Void
– Fake Out
– King’s Shield
– Quick Guard

Smeargle’s purpose on this team was to help get Trick Room up. Its mere presence on the field would threaten the opponent with Fake Out or Dark Void. Unfortunately, almost every opponent I fought carried Safeguard or Misty Terrain, so my opportunities to use Dark Void were limited.

Everyone knows Smeargles usually carry Dark Void, since it is the only Pokémon which can learn that dreadful move in this metagame. Seeing Smeargle during Team Preview would force my opponent to immediately attack Smeargle or set up Safeguard, which created an opening for my own Pokémon to set up Trick Room, which was the main reason for Smeargle’s presence on my team, really. It was literally a “Hit Me” sign.

Dark Void and Fake Out on Smeargle are self-explanatory and standard support moves, so I’ll just move on to King’s Shield and Quick Guard. Originally I ran Protect on Smeargle, but realized that there were other alternatives to Smeargle such as Spiky Shield and King’s Shield. King’s Shield was the choice for me as it reduced Attack by 2 stages for physical attackers who touched it, which was significant for demoralizing the opponent and giving my team more bulk, especially in a metagame infested with physical attacks. Smeargle, as a Pokémon which practically invited my opponent to beat it up, was perfect for baiting my opponents into a King’s Shield.

Unfortunately though, this left Smeargle completely susceptible to Taunt. In hindsight Mental Herb would have been a better item on Smeargle rather than Focus Sash, since Smeargle was sort of a suicide lead for me. However, Focus Sash did come in handy several times when I wanted Smeargle to survive.

The newly buffed Quick Guard was my choice for the last slot. It blocked Brave Bird from Talonflame, as well as Sucker Punches and Bullet Punch, which could be damaging for my team. No one expects Quick Guard from Smeargle so it always worked for me.

I had opted to run a level 50 Smeargle rather than a level 1 Smeargle, as I wanted it to be able to survive Mega Kanghaskhan’s Fake Out or outspeed threats to my Trick Roomer.

This brings me to my last point: Moody. Since my Smeargle was level 50, it could make use of the stat boosts from Moody. Moody came down to random luck. If Smeargle got the wrong boosts, it wouldn’t change the game for me. If Smeargle was lucky, though, the right boosts were a godsend.

• A boost to defenses helps in survivability, while a decrease in defenses wouldn’t matter too much since Smeargle is already frail. The same theory applies for Evasion boosts.
• A +2 Speed outside of Trick Room helps me get Dark Void off, while a decrease in Speed in Trick Room was beneficial as well.
• Attack increases did nothing, but at the same time Attack drops were inconsequential as well.
• Accuracy boosts make Dark Void 100% accurate, but accuracy drops could be detrimental. If Accuracy dropped, I still could use Quick Guard and King’s Shield.

To sum Smeargle up, it was either invaluable in a match, or complete deadweight, depending on the opponent’s team and how Smeargle was played.

Hydreigon (Malkor)

Item: Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest
IVs: 31/0/31/31/31/11
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Special Attack, 4 Defense
Moveset:
– Draco Meteor
– Flamethrower
– Dark Pulse
– Protect

I tried many Pokémon for this last slot of an offensive attacker. Clawitzer’s damage was disappointing, Azumarill and Talonflame left my team too weak to Rotom-W. Using Roserade to nuke Rotom-W was an idea, but Roserade would be walled by Mega Mawile since I didn’t have access to a Technician Roserade with Hidden Power Fire.

I thought long and hard for a Pokémon which could nuke both Rotom-W and Mega Mawile because my team couldn’t handle these two Pokémon very well. There was no Pokémon which could learn both Grass and Fire moves, so I ultimately decided to just put my faith in Hydreigon, which happened to have Levitate to cover my own Mawile’s ground weakness.

While Hydreigon didn’t have a legitimate answer for Rotom-W, Modest Draco Meteor did 85-100% to a 252 HP Rotom-W, which was good enough for me. Even on the lowest damage roll, Rotom would be left with 15% HP which my Chandelure, Mawile, Tyranitar, or Gardevoir could easily take care of. Flamethrower dealt 94.2-112% to Mega Mawile, with a 68.8% chance to OHKO it. I opted for Flamethrower over Fire Blast (although Fire Blast would guarantee a KO), since I didn’t want to lose a match because Fire Blast missed.

Dark Pulse was for STAB and hitting those annoying Meowstics, which had a high chance to OHKO unless the Meowstic had invested in max Special Defense bulk, which was unlikely due to the prevalence of physical attacks in this metagame. Protect was for scouting moves and buying time for setting up Trick Room.

I definitely couldn’t run 252 Speed on my Hydreigon since I was using Trick Room, so I invested in HP for bulk instead. The HP investment paid off, letting Hydreigon survive non-Life Orb Garchomp’s Dragon Claw, Choice Band Talonflame Brave Birds, and even a mixed Salamence’s Draco Meteor. The HP investment definitely paid off for me.

Hydreigon was also a good anchor in case I had to fight outside of Trick Room, since Hydreigon wasn’t as slow as the rest of my team.

Countering Luck

I wish to take a moment to address the issue of luck, the bane of many competitive players. I first learned about this in an article published in the Smog magazine, “Minimizing the Effects of Luck in Pokémon Battles”. I will briefly sum up the article and how I applied when teambuilding and playing during the tournament, which was vital to my first place finish.

Everyone knows that you can’t control when bad luck happens (and I myself received my fair share of it during the tournament), but bad luck is preventable.

For example, (as stated in my Hydreigon’s entry above) I chose Flamethrower over Fire Blast even though it was not a 100% guaranteed KO. In doing so, I eliminated any possibility of my Fire attack missing. Even if Flamethrower got a low damage roll (and it happened during my Quarter Finals match), I had a contingency plan, i.e. Tyranitar could finish Mawile off. Plus, 94% damage is still better than 0% damage. If I had used Fire Blast and missed, I would have lost the match.

Likewise, in battle, you can reduce chances of missing by not taking unnecessary risks. Let me illustrate with an example. In my sixth swiss round vs. Low Kit Meng, I had a chance to KO his Liepard with my Mega Mawile. Rather than go for the super-effective Play Rough and take the chance of it missing, I opted to use Iron Head as I knew Liepard was still frail enough to be knocked out.

Similarly, Mega Mawile’s Play Rough and Iron Head are both 2HKOs on Mega Kanghaskhan and that is why I always opt for Iron Head against Mega Kanghaskhan, despite it having less power than Play Rough, unless of course it is in KO range of Play Rough or you’re banking on the attack drop from Play Rough to trigger (highly unlikely). This is how I avoid turning a 2HKO into a 3HKO.

I hope from these examples of mine, that you have been able to learn about how to mitigate hax and use this knowledge to become a better player. Cheers! 🙂

That concludes my team report, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this report as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. I sincerely hope that you were able to take something away from this report!

Article image created for Nugget Bridge by ryuzaki. See more of ryuzaki’s artwork on deviantART.

About the Author

Evilwolf

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