Reports

Published on April 17th, 2015 | by Daydreaming Ninja

10

Surprisingly Windy Sweep: Top 8 European Winter Regionals Report

Hello everyone! My name is Noah. I am from Austria and recently I played at the European Winter Regionals in Arnhem. When the new ruleset for 2015 was announced, there were so many things for me to try out and I was motivated going into the new year! Thomas (TH1806) and I started playing together on Showdown with Tailwind Suicune and were really successful. However, as popular players started picking up Suicune as well, people got a lot more familiar with it, making it less effective.

I played with Charizard-Y and Mega-Salamence, but I wanted something creative for Arnhem. Looking at all the popular Megas used in recent tournaments, Mawile was the perfect counter to almost every one of them. Since I was comfortable with Tailwind, I knew I wanted a Tailwind user on my team. I decided that Hydreigon was the perfect partner for my Mawile. Not only did the typing have good synergy with Mawile, but Hydreigon also had access to Tailwind.

The next two Pokémon I added were Thundurus and Breloom. Thundurus was my second way to gain speed control. It reminded me of the popular Mawile-Hydreigon-Zapdos core from 2014. Breloom was my second lead combination with Hydreigon. It gave me access to Spore and was a check to Bisharp, which was common this season. For the last two slots, I needed a switch in on fire type attacks and a Wide Guard user. I chose Heatran and Aegislash.

Overall, I felt satisfied that the team could handle most match ups. The only thing that bothered me about the team was running three steel-types, but I managed to play around this weakness.

The Team

mawile-mega

Mawile (M) @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Atk / 4 Def / 172 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Play Rough
– Iron Head
– Sucker Punch
– Protect

  • Iron Head OHKOs most Clefables and Clefairys
  • Surivives Charizard-Y Heat Wave outside of sun

Mawile was great to use and I brought it to every match. Back in 2014 I was using Mawile for half of the season, making me really confident with it in Arnhem. When I led with Mawile, I usually Protected the first turn and setup Tailwind with Hydreigon or paralyze something with Thunder Wave. After some setup, Mawile just sweeps through opposing Pokemon.

hydreigon

Hydreigon (M) @ Draco Plate
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 76 Def / 204 SpA / 36 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Draco Meteor
– Dark Pulse
– Tailwind
– Protect

  • survives Close Combat from 252 Jolly Virizion
  • 50% chance to survive Close Combat from -1 252 Jolly Life Orb Terrakion

My secret weapon! Nobody expected Tailwind on Hydreigon, so I got to set it up freely almost every match without the risk of Taunt. The only thing that stops Hydreigon is an opposing Draco Meteor as I often Intimidated fighting types, making them not a threat.

In a match against a special Mega-Salamence, my opponent predicted a Choice Scarf on my Hydreigon, allowing me to setup Tailwind and KO Salamence on the following turn. When I created the spread I thought about investing more into SpAtk, but the 36 SpDef saved me a lot of the time in practice. The reason why I did not opt for Life Orb was because I wanted to stay on the field as long as possible. In the beginning, I carried a Haban Berry but it never activated. My friend Thomas (TH1806) suggested Draco Plate, which turned out to be the best choice for me!

breloom

Breloom (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Bullet Seed
– Mach Punch
– Spore
– Protect

A standard Breloom. I chose Adamant nature for the extra damage output and speed didn’t matter under Tailwind anyways. With Tailwind up, Breloom was a beast. It dealt tons of damage and spammed Spore.

thundurus

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 164 HP / 76 Def / 36 SpA / 196 SpD / 36 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Thunder Wave
– Swagger

  • Outspeeds base 70 like Breloom and Bisharp

My Thundurus was also a beast! I was satisfied with the spread that I created, though I forgot what the EVs do exactly. But trust me, they work. Thundurus was there to give me the edge in RNG and provided another method of speed control. I chose Swagger over Taunt because it seemed more viable to me, but made me a bit weaker to Spore users like Breloom. In round five of swiss I was behind by a lot, but Swagger brought me into a situation were I was able to win.

aegislash

Aegislash (M) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 228 SpA / 76 SpD
Quiet Nature
– Shadow Ball
– Sacred Sword
– Wide Guard
– King’s Shield

  • Survives most Charizard-Y Heat Wave in the sun

Aegislash was there for coverage, defensive switch-ins, and Wide Guard. I like the spread I created. In Tailwind I can outspeed most Heatran and Bisharp and KO them with Sacred Sword. Because I also had Mawile, I didn’t miss Flash Canon. Wide Guard was rarely used, but the option was important.

heatran

Heatran (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Heat Wave
– Earth Power
– Substitute
– Protect

Heatran was really valuable to the team. I got around 4 Flash Fire boosts during the tournament through smart switching. I opted for a 252/252 spread because my own matchup against Heatran wasn’t good, so I wanted to be able to outspeed and KO it. I didn’t need extra investment in bulk since Heatran is generally bulky. In retrospect, Leftovers were fairly useless. In the future, I would use Chopple Berry, Shucca Berry, or maybe even Life Orb.

Conclusion

During the tournament, I often brought Hydreigon, Mawile, and Breloom, with the 4th Pokémon being dependent what I saw on the opposing team during team preview. Tailwind surprised a lot of people and allowed me to finish the tournament in top 8! I think the core of the team is really powerful and, if adjusted to keep up with the meta, can still be viable.

Overall, I had a really nice weekend and met a lot of cool people. I am also looking forward to participating at the Germany Nationals and Regionals as well as the Italy Nationals and Regionals.

Shout outs to my friends. Nothing is as cool as playing on Showdown together with Jip (Keonspy), Kelly (KellsterCartier), and Thomas (TH1806)! You guys helped me improve and also inspire me to make new teams! Credits to Jip (Keonspy) for creating the wonderful cover art for this article!

Thanks for reading!


About the Author

Hello, my name is Noah! I am from Austria and I enjoy playing Pokémon VGC. Besides Pokémon I like to watch Anime, boxing and to hang out with my friends. Follow me on Twitter @Kadoya97 ! :D



10 Responses to Surprisingly Windy Sweep: Top 8 European Winter Regionals Report

  1. Cinaclov says:

    I approve of any team using Tailwind and Mawile 😀

  2. Pyrolemons says:

    Why run 3 steel types on the team? I feel like some other mons could have at least filled heatrans spot. Cool team though anyways. Surprised how well it did with how weak it is to bulky lando.

  3. Yaiba says:

    Very nice report and team 🙂
    Good to see someone from Austria being successful!
    Weiter so 😀

  4. Makenzie says:

    How did this get in the trading forum :)

  5. KellsterCartier says:

    Well done Noah! Great report. Looking forward to seeing you again at Nationals.

  6. vgchut says:

    congratulations

  7. Dusk Ball Tom says:

    I really like this team because it certainly fits my play style and uses Pokemon that I like very much and has my favorite core of mawile/hydreigon/aegislash. One question I have though is why did you specifically chose heatran? I feel as though milotic and rotom h could fill the same role while still giving you some more niches. Is there a particular thing heattran does that they do not? Also, congratulations on doing so well.

  8. Lajo says:
    Well, Noah… Congratz on your performance at Arnhem!
    I have the feeling you are quite new to this game, and looking at your EV spreads, most of them are just not optimized.
    First of all, if you want to max out the bulk on a Pokémon, keep in mind that, as long as you do not reach the point where hp=def+sdef, investing in HP will give you more bulk than investing in the defensive stats, since HP applies for both def and sdef.
    I want to show you some calcs with some of your spreads and EV-spreads that are kind of similar, but with more HP EVs:
     
    1. Hydreigon:
     
    252 Atk Virizion Close Combat vs. 188 HP / 76 Def Hydreigon: 162-192 (84.8 – 100.5%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
    148+ SpA Ludicolo Ice Beam vs. 188 HP / 36 SpD Hydreigon: 84-100 (43.9 – 52.3%) — 16% chance to 2HKO
     
    That was your spread, where you invested 300EVs in total in bulk. Now let´s see how it looks when we max out hp, invest 44EVs in def and just 4 in sdef: (still 300EVs in bulk):
     
    252 Atk Virizion Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 44 Def Hydreigon: 168-198 (84.4 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
    148+ SpA Ludicolo Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Hydreigon: 88-104 (44.2 – 52.2%) — 10.9% chance to 2HKO
     
    Same with your Thundurus-spread. I´m sure you can improve it yourself, just wanted to give you an idea on how to build effective EV-spreads.
    Good luck in the future!
  9. Keonspy says:

    Cool report Noah! To bad we didn’t talk in Arnhem or battled! A team with 3 steel types making is a gutsy play and it worked for you! Hope we can build together in the future and see you in Germany!

  10. Why run 3 steel types on the team? I feel like some other mons could have at least filled heatrans spot. Cool team though anyways. Surprised how well it did with how weak it is to bulky lando.

    Well you are right the team is terribly weak to LandoT. I handled them with Aegislash and my Hydreigon, once I setup Tailwind I was able to hit it for good damage. I picked Heatran because at this time of the metagame noone used a fast Heatran and I saw it’s potential!
     

    I really like this team because it certainly fits my play style and uses Pokemon that I like very much and has my favorite core of mawile/hydreigon/aegislash. One question I have though is why did you specifically chose heatran? I feel as though milotic and rotom h could fill the same role while still giving you some more niches. Is there a particular thing heattran does that they do not? Also, congratulations on doing so well.

     
    Hey Tom, glad you like my team! I picked Heatran because I was sure it would surpise a lot of people due to its speed invest, i also enjoyed the ability Flash Fire!

     

    Well, Noah… Congratz on your performance at Arnhem!
    I have the feeling you are quite new to this game, and looking at your EV spreads, most of them are just not optimized.
    First of all, if you want to max out the bulk on a Pokémon, keep in mind that, as long as you do not reach the point where hp=def+sdef, investing in HP will give you more bulk than investing in the defensive stats, since HP applies for both def and sdef.
    I want to show you some calcs with some of your spreads and EV-spreads that are kind of similar, but with more HP EVs:
     
    1. Hydreigon:
     
    252 Atk Virizion Close Combat vs. 188 HP / 76 Def Hydreigon: 162-192 (84.8 – 100.5%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
    148+ SpA Ludicolo Ice Beam vs. 188 HP / 36 SpD Hydreigon: 84-100 (43.9 – 52.3%) — 16% chance to 2HKO
     
    That was your spread, where you invested 300EVs in total in bulk. Now let´s see how it looks when we max out hp, invest 44EVs in def and just 4 in sdef: (still 300EVs in bulk):
     
    252 Atk Virizion Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 44 Def Hydreigon: 168-198 (84.4 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
    148+ SpA Ludicolo Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Hydreigon: 88-104 (44.2 – 52.2%) — 10.9% chance to 2HKO
     
    Same with your Thundurus-spread and Aegislash-Spread. I´m sure you can improve it yourself, just wanted to give you an idea on how to build effective EV-spreads.
     
    2. Some Calcs you made are simply not effective, too. You want Mawile to survive Heat wave from Chari-Y without sun? I doubt this happened yet…A good Point to calc for would be to survive Heat Wave from max satk modest Heatran, or even Volcarona, however, since these situations are common enough to calc for (and you´d keep some evs for offense, too)
    Bulky Hydreigon might be nice, too but I´m afraid being slower than Bisharp/Breloom can be problematic, also investing to survive something like cc from Virizion won´t help much if almost every Virizion runs Life Orb, and living an attack half of the time is not worth calcing for, either. Use benchmarks you can make sure to survive, but are efficient (like -1 CC from LO Virizion, -1 CC from Terra).
     
    Good luck in the future!

     

     
    Thanks for the advise Lajo!

    Cool report Noah! To bad we didn’t talk in Arnhem or battled! A team with 3 steel types making is a gutsy play and it worked for you! Hope we can build together in the future and see you in Germany!

    Thanks! Can’t wait for Germany Nationals mate :D
     

    Well done Noah! Great report. Looking forward to seeing you again at Nationals.

    Thank you Kelly! Can’t wait until we all meet again! :)

Leave a Reply

Back to Top ↑