Reports

Published on June 23rd, 2015 | by WackaboomVGC

20

The Sitrus That Got Away: A Senior Spring Regionals 4th Place Team Report

Hello Guys! My name is Jonathan Melendez, but you can also call me WackaboomVGC! I recently attended the Georgia Spring Regional Championships in Athens as a Senior. I was 5th seed in Swiss with a 5-1 record, and eventually placed 4th in Top Cut.

As a Senior, I haven’t been doing too well, as all of my regional experiences have been bubbles up to this event. The Massachusetts Spring Regional was extremely tough for me, as I started rough with 0-2 but managed to go 4-2 by the end of the day. Even my Premier Challenge results aren’t what I’d like them to be, with only two PC wins under my belt, one Second place and one Third place. Georgia was make-or-break for me; I needed to at least Top Cut to secure a travel stipend and I surpassed what I thought I could do.

In this Report I will be covering my team and the pros and cons of Athens, Georgia! I was given inspiration from this team by my friend Andras O. (TrickRoomMaster) who used the Politoed & Kingdra core at local Premier Challenges. It was a very fun core to use and thank you in advance!

The Team as it Started

This was a beta of the team, Scizor and Raichu/Kangaskhan would be a Common lead as they would Fake Out a target allowing for Scizor to set up a Swords Dance, Politoed and Kingdra would be in the back to wreak havoc with Muddy Water + Helping Hand. Thundurus would be well, Thundurus, allowing for fantastic Speed Control and such.

I realized that Scizor wasn’t doing much and I could have chosen a better Mega to use in Rain. Raichu wasn’t picking up many knock-outs and was only really using Fake Out and providing support for its partners. I decided to give the team a small overhaul as a result.

The Finished Product

The Team

Politoed @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 12 Def / 236 SpA / 4 SpD / 244 Spe
Modest Nature
– Scald
– Hydro Pump
– Ice Beam
– Rain Dance
Deployed: 8/10 times

Politoed was the backbone of my team, being able to set up rain and outspeed most opposing Pokemon. I could have ran Timid with full speed investment in order to be faster than positive natured, max Speed Base 130s, but even then, Scarf Landorus-Therian would still outspeed Politoed. On the subject of damage output, Scald knocks-out Mega Kangaskhan in two hits, while Ice Beam OHKOs Landorus-Therian and Salamence.

As for surviving, it survives what you’d think it survives, Grass Knot from Greninja, barely survives Thunderbolt from Thundurus, and so on. It can’t really take many hits, but as for dealing fair amounts of damage, it succeeds in doing so. An interesting fact: this was originally Eject Button Politoed for Helping Hand Support and the nice addition of Protect, however I scrapped it since all it would really do was Helping Hand. Not that it’s bad, of course, I did like the available techs with Eject Button Politoed, but I also liked outspeeding certain Pokemon like Life Orb Thundurus or Terrakion to weaken them, then let the big guns like Kingdra and Metagross deal with the rest.

Kingdra @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
– Hydro Pump
– Muddy Water
– Protect
– Draco Meteor
Deployed: 7/10 times

My favorite Pokemon this season. If Politoed is the backbone, Kingdra is the muscle. Being able to spread so much damage with Muddy Water, Hydro Pump and Draco Meteor, Kingdra found itself in almost all of my matches, except for one particular match where I faced an odd Trick Room team with Malamar. As the muscle, Kingdra also outspeeds Scarf Landorus-Therian, Greninja, Kangaskhan, Mega Salamence and Mega Manectric in the rain. Also being able to OHKO Bisharp, Salamence (w/ Draco Meteor) Excadrill, Kangaskhan and has a 75% chance to OHKO Sitrus Conkeldurr.

The set is rather standard, I know, 252/252 isn’t the best Kingdra set. However, it has helped me knock-out and outspeed certain Pokemon that I wouldn’t have been able to KO without this set, although I did wish I would’ve optimized it more.

Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Zen Headbutt
– Protect
– Iron Head
– Ice Punch
Deployed: 10/10 times

Metagross: I brought this guy in all of my matches because of how well he fit onto almost every situation. I chose Ice Punch over Substitute because it improved my Salamence, Hydreigon and Thundurus match-ups. Zen Headbutt would be for Conkeldurr and Amoonguss, dealing significant damage to both. Iron Head would be for Fairy-types like Sylveon and Gardevoir, but it was also my best way to deal with Kangaskhan. I chose Jolly over Adamant mostly to outspeed Hydreigon, Terrakion and to Speed-tie with Gengar just in case they carry Shadow Ball.

With a fantastic Base Defense stat of 150, Metagross lives Sucker Punches from Bisharp, Kangaskhan and Mawile without any defensive investment. Because of this, I felt no need to optimize this spread further. I think if I return to this team however, I may switch to Substitute Mega Metagross.

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry None
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 16 SpA / 120 SpD / 44 Spe
Calm Nature
– Taunt
– Thunder Wave
– Swagger
– Thunderbolt
Deployed: 9/10 times

A standard Thundurus set until you realize there’s no item on Thundurus! Woe is me! Long story short, I may have forgotten to attach the Sitrus Berry when I registered this team. I wasn’t paying attention at all, and the rest is history. Despite this, Thundurus was brought to almost every game, since even without an item it was still very useful. I’d usually pair Thundurus up with Metagross which ended up being my favorite lead combination in the entire tournament.

As for the moveset, Taunt would help me with stopping Tailwind and Trick Room. Thunder Wave was the most used move in my tournament run, a necessity in terms of providing Speed Control. Swagger was only really used in my Top 4 match, which I’ll get into later. Overall, Thundurus was used as an amazing support Pokemon in a team filled with offense.

Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Draco Meteor
– Dark Pulse
– Earth Power
– Flash Cannon
Deployed: 3/10 times

Hydreigon was a neat addition to the team. I wouldn’t use this fella’ much, but when I did it proved to be extremely powerful, plus was extremely clutch for me in the last game of Swiss. Hydreigon’s spread is pretty simple, doing what it needs to do: KO things and do it fast. Another little tidbit is that I originally wanted a Hidden Power Grass Hydreigon, but I wasn’t able to get one in time. Hidden Power Grass was going to replace Flash Cannon, which did nothing for me in the entire tournament.

Escavalier @ Expert Belt
Ability: Overcoat
Level: 50
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 88 Def / 96 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Megahorn
– Drill Run
– Iron Head
– Protect
Deployed: 1/10 Times

Escavalier was the one Pokemon I barely used at all in this Tournament. Not that it’s bad, but it does what it’s supposed to do well, by countering Trick Room. Escavalier has been my favorite Trick Room counter so far in this meta, being able to OHKO Cresselia and also two-hit KO Mawile and Sylveon. The one battle I had with a Trick Room team in this regional, Trick Room wasn’t set up and the battle was effectively over before I got to my Escavalier.

Public Enemies

Greninja

This Pokemon was extremly annoying to deal with. I only faced Greninja a couple of times during the tournament, but I didn’t win a battle against it, so that’s saying something.

Charizard-Y

Unlike Greninja where it’s a large Roadblock to my team, Charizard Y is mostly obnoxious to my team once it was able to set up Sun. Even when Charizard does activate Sun, I still have ways to KO it, but it was just a bit more difficult than other megas to deal with.

The Tournament

After about two minutes of driving from the hotel to the venue, I kept on worrying how I’d do. With a Gatorade in my hand, two hours early and my father complaining how my shirt “smelled” I went in with high hopes!

 A Brief Listing of my Battles!

Swiss Rounds

• Round 1: Vs Matt Hogan – Win
• Round 2: Vs Justin Jett – Win
• Round 3: Vs Mahaley McAllister – Lose
• Round 4: Vs Joseph Costagliola (Life Orb) – Win
• Round 5 Vs Luciana G. – Win
• Round 6 Vs Rebecca Broniak – Win
  

Record: 5-1 (Fifth Seed in Swiss)

Top Cut

• Top 8: Vs Abel Goodwin (YummyKittys) – Win (2-0)
• Top 4 Vs Stephen Mea (Gramgus) – Lose (0-2)

Conclusion

In the end I got Fourth Place, losing to my friend Gramgus who later on got Second Place losing to Brady1225. Now I would like to put some pros and cons about my time at the Venue.

Pros

• Getting to meet really awesome people like Life Orb, Gramgus and YummyKittys. You guys are awesome!
• Getting to battle both YummyKittys and Gramgus in my Top cut run.
• Getting a Top 4 in my first year of playing in VGC.
• Getting a Sweet Trophy for Top 4!
• Managing to lock up my Stipend award.

Cons

Honestly there weren’t many. I’m not a stickler for how events are run, plus the venue was beautiful and spacious. If there was one thing that I was pretty sad about, it was that my friend Daniel went 3-3. Daniel’s a great player, and needed CP for his own stipend award, hopefully he could still be able to go to Nationals.

Well that was my team that I used to Top 4 at the Georgia Regional! I wish I remembered my battles more in advance, I hope this report wasn’t too painful to read. Thanks for reading, and I hope to see some of you guys at Nationals!

About the Author

WackaboomVGC Churros for Breakfast, Churros for Lunch, Churros for Dinner. Anyway My Name is Jonathan Melendez, I'm a Senior, I guess, I Top Cut Athens, so does that make me cool?

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