Surfing in a Winter Wonderland: Worlds LCQ and Top 10 Team Analysis
The night before flying out to Hawaii, I sat in my room and weighed my options. I really only had two teams to choose between for the Last Chance Qualifier, and I wanted to pick before I left. It’s a long way from Hong Kong to Hawaii so I wanted to get it out of the way so I could just relax on the way there. I had to make a tough choice between a proven winner in Cassie’s Nationals team or a team that began with me playing around with something that I encountered on GBU back in November. I eventually decided on the latter because of how comfortable I was with the team and maybe just a tiny bit to show people that this team wasn’t as silly as it sounds.
After getting wrecked by a fully Special based Gyarados on GBU, I decided to throw together a very rudimentary team with the standard 252/252 EV spreads just to mess around with. I threw a Choice Specs onto Gyarados and added Abomasnow to that I could just start firing off Blizzards. By this time, I realized that I had a speed issue, so I went with Rotom-F in order to get something faster. I ended up picking Gastrodon, Heatran, and Virizion to round out the team and took it into the last week of SPL. While it didn’t net me a victory, I did notice that it gave Randy (R Inanimate) a little bit of trouble so I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be cool if I actually finished off this team?” That didn’t happen until the week before LCQ.
I don’t know what compelled me to open up this team and finally tweak it around to make a better version of it, but I am extremely glad I did. With some help from Cassie and Jio I finally got a version of the team that did everything I wanted it to do. I know a lot of people did not take me seriously when I said I was using Specs Gyarados (even the people that saw it in Team Preview thought it was physical despite my insistence otherwise), but the team is a lot more fundamentally sound than it looks at first glance. Because of how this team was put together, I’d going to explain just a little bit of why each Pokemon was chosen and get into how it actually works after.
Swag Team at a Glance
Abomasnow (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 140 HP / 116 Atk / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
– Blizzard
– Giga Drain
– Ice Shard
– Protect
At its core, this is most definitely a Hail team, and you can’t really have a hail team without Abomasnow. Nothing is very out of the ordinary about this Abomasnow. It sets Hail, hits things, and survives attacks with Focus Sash. This spread, which allows Abomasnow to survive unSTABed Rock Slides and deal some damage with Ice Shard, was lifted from Cassie’s Nationals team and stuck onto the team. Abomasnow’s Grass-typing is great for the current metagame. With many Thundurus foregoing offensive options for Thunder Wave and Swagger, Abomasnow can safely come in and out of Thunderbolts without having to worry.
Gyarados (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 60 HP / 204 Def / 244 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
– Surf
– Fire Blast
– Blizzard
– Thunder
This team’s claim to fame. Choice Specs Gyarados was something that I stole from GBU and ran with. It turns out it was just what I needed for a Hail team. It offers a Fire resist, Intimidate support to ward off Fighting and Rock attacks and a Special Movepool matched probably only by Mewtwo. Gyarados’ defensive EVs turn Tyranitar Rock Slides into a 3HKO after an Intimidate and Hail/Sandstorm, while Gyarados’ Special Attack EVs one shots 252HP Metagross with Fire Blast and Hail damage, taking a small chunk of damage from whatever Metagross can throw at it.
The rest of the moveset was chosen based on team synergy and coverage. I initially had Hydro Pump in over Thunder but found that Gyarados became next to useless against Rain heavy teams so I switched to Thunder. Blizzard was chosen because that’s the whole point of using an Abomasnow. However, the attack I used most often with Gyarados was Surf. Not very many expect Gyarados to be hitting from the Special side of the spectrum and even less expect it to be able to attack two Pokémon at once. Heatran, Volcorona, Chandelure, Terrakion, and Tyranitar had a hard time taking repeated Specs-Boosted Surfs and that wasn’t even the main reason I chose Surf…
Gastrodon (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 28 SAtk / 120 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
– Earth Power
– Muddy Water
– Protect
– Recover
…And here it is. This Gastrodon won me an insane amount of battles. Gastrodon loved sitting next to Gyarados and grabbing boosts off of the Specs Surf. Plus, between Gyarados’ Intimidate and Gastrodon’s bulk, it could shrug off any physical attack and keep its health up with Recover and Sitrus Berry while Gyarados continues to power it up with Surf. The EVs on Gastrodon were, again, lifted from Cassie and Jio. I was looking for something more defensive than what I had before because Gastrodon could afford to forego the power if it was grabbing boosts, and this worked perfectly for me. After an Intimidate, a Fight Gem Close Combat from Terrakion/Hitmontop will do less than 55% percent, allowing Sitrus Berry to kick in and bring it back to formidable health. On the Special side, Gastrodon had enough investment to take a random HP Grass and still have enough in the tank to fire back with Muddy Water. Originally, I was running Blizzard on Gastrodon in order to take advantage of the Hail, but I found that I never really used it because I had 3 other better options for Blizzard and had issues keeping it alive. I added Recover and fell in love. With it’s bulky EV spread, Intimidate support, and the rest of my team scaring off some stronger threats, Recover kept Gastrodon alive way longer to grab more boosts.
Rotom-F @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 28 HP / 4 Def / 248 SAtk / 4 SDef / 224 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
– Volt Switch
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Fire]
– Blizzard
Rotom was one of the best Pokémon on this team. I EV’ed Rotom to outspeed Base 130s when holding Choice Scarf to take out a few uncommon Pokémon that would have given me trouble. Aerodactyl and Crobat, for example, were both very scary because of their Speed and ability to hit many of my team members hard, but this spread made sure Rotom would go before them and take them out before they can do anything. Volt Switch was integral to playing this team, allowing me to abuse my many resistances and bounce Pokémon back and forth to block my opponent’s strategy. The speed from Choice Scarf made it difficult for my opponents to deal with and most definitely won me the most matches of any of my Pokémon. Rotom-F was by far the biggest source of offense from this team and would either clear a path for Gastrodon and Gyarados to sweep or clean up their leftovers. He is a fridge, after all.
Scizor (M) @ Occa Berry
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
– Bullet Punch
– Bug Bite
– Protect
– Feint
At this point in the teambuilding process, I realized I didn’t have a Dragon resist. Looking at my options, I decided to go with Scizor because, in addition to the Dragon resist, Scizor has access to excellent priority, and I also had a bit of trouble with Calm Mind Cresselia. Scizor’s ability to hit Cresselia for super effective damage, and potentially steal a Sitrus Berry, made him the natural choice. Cassie and I went back on forth on the last move for Scizor but eventually settled on Feint, which was amazing on a Hail team. Usually, the opponent has to Protect with its Ice-weak Pokémon and hope its partner can take down the Pokémon spamming Blizzard. With Feint I could break the Protect and take down the Protecting Pokémon anyway. I made the decision to use Occa Berry because of the sheer amount of HP Fire Cresselia I noticed being used at Nationals. As Scizor would be the only Pokémon I had that could hit Cresselia for super effective damage, I wanted to make sure it could survive for at least one Bug Bite.
Rhyperior (M) @ Babiri Berry
Trait: Lightningrod
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
– Earthquake
– Protect
– Rock Slide
– Megahorn
This was just kind of here to scare people away from using Electric Pokemon. I never actually intended to use it. I mean, in a pinch, it could do work, but it definitely changes the way the team functions.
Swag Team Analysis
98% of the time I used the same four Pokémon in the same four slots. Since the introduction of team preview, I’ve felt that a lot of people have lost the ability to build a team that functions well as a unit and have turned the game into a Pokémon-beats-Pokémon-with-Move situation, ignoring creating their own strategies. In any case, my leads were almost always Rotom-F and Gyarados. This allowed me a good amount of flexibility. If I was facing a number of Ice weak Pokémon, I could just switch Abomasnow in and fire off Blizzards with Rotom. If there were strong Physical leads, I could switch Gyarados out for Gastrodon and Volt Switch Rotom out for Gyarados again to get the 2nd Intimidate in a turn, forcing my opponent to deal with two Pokémon at -2 Attack. If it looked like a Trick Room lead or something resistant to Ice, I could Volt Switch Rotom out and bring in Gastrodon while Gyarados Surfs.
I had a lot of switch-in options for the middle of the match as well. I can switch any of the other 3 Pokémon in for Gyarados to eat an Electric-type attack, and I can switch Gastrodon in for Rock-type attacks. My Hail-abusing Pokémon will have two Water-type Pokémon in the back to take Fire-type attacks, and Gyarados and Gastrodon can switch in to Fighting- and Rock-type attacks respectively. Between Volt Switch, Hail damage, and my opponent having to switch in and out to keep up with the Pokémon I had on the field, it was very easy to read what would be coming next and choose my Choice attacks accordingly. Often times, I would have a very easy time getting Gastrodon a midgame boost, forcing my opponent to choose between attacking an extremely bulky and boosted Gastrodon that can heal itself or a Pokémon firing off strong, Specs-boosted STAB attacks.
Though I didn’t use Scizor much, his role was also important to my team. Often times, if I felt like people were using partner matchups in order to protect their Ice weak Pokemon, I could use Scizor to break their Protects and trade Pokémon for Pokémon to ruin their game plan. Going into the turn, they had expected to come out with both Pokémon but after the Feint their gameplan has to change, while mine remains virtually the same.
Swag Team Threats
Rain was a fairly easy team to prepare for. Between being able to set my own weather and having Rotom-F and Abomasnow to relentless beat down on the poor Water-type Pokémon with their STAB super effective Electric- and Grass-type attacks, there really wasn’t much to be concerned about. The only threat to my team was Ludicolo, so I used Rotom-F and Abomasnow to get rid of Ludicolo, which allowed Gastrodon to sit there, absorb whatever else was thrown at it, and then go to town with a couple of boosts.
I really didn’t have any issues preparing for Sand at all. The majority of Sand teams rely on Garchomp and Excadrill sweeping with Sand up, but you’d be hard pressed to find someone courageous enough to bring a Garchomp against a Hail team. Excadrill versions find themselves on the receiving end of Choice Specs-boosted STAB Surfs from Gyarados and boosted Muddy Waters from Gastrodon. Sand teams are generally weak to Intimidate, so being able to set up multiple Intimidates with Gyarados and Volt Switch would neuter many of the common Sand threats and make things very simple. Between the Gyarados/Gastrodon mode and Abomasnow to change the weather, Sand abuse teams would have their work cut out for them.
This one might be a little bit more tricky depending on their Trick Room set up. If it is a Fake Out/TR set up, then I would have to switch Rotom out for Gastrodon/Abomasnow and play accordingly. You’ll notice that I have two relatively slow Pokemon in Abomasnow and Gastrodon which aren’t really hurt by Trick Room and can do some damage until TR runs out and Rotom can come in to clean up. For other Trick Room set ups (i.e. Rage Powder) it’s very easy to see where the TR is coming from and just Volt Switch Rotom out and bring Gastrodon in while Gyarados Surfs. From here, it’s a matter of relying on residual damage from Volt Switch/Hail/strong spread attacks to attack while Trick Room is up.
These were probably the most fun teams to play against. I had a little bit of something for everything that is common in the metagame so it would turn into a lot of mind games. For me, I would play around with Volt Switch and switch around my resistances to force their hand. When I was 100% sure of what I was up against, I could start the Blizzarding or play a more methodical offense depending on how they picked their team to deal with Blizzard. Things like Latios, Salamence, and Hydreigon were basically sitting ducks against the Ice portion of my team and threats like Metagross, Heatran, and Scizor had issues with the Water portion of the team. The advantage I had against these teams was the ability to come in and out while building up residual damage with Volt Switch and Hail so that I could finish things off with my spread attacks. Things like Hitmontop became easy to predict T2 or T3 of a battle when I could find out if they had Wide Guard or not. If they didn’t have Wide Guard, I was free to do as I pleased with my spread attacks. If they did, I would just nail it with Volt Switch or Earth Power until it eventually wore itself down. Cresselia was a weird one for this team. By itself, it wasn’t much of a threat to the team, but the way that it supported its partners did. The thing I found about opposing Cresselia, though, was that they never really had a way to protect themselves. While it was bulky, it still did not like taking all these boosted Spread attacks and simply could not mount the offense the overcome the Blizzard storm coming its way. The only exception were the heavy Special Defense Cresselias or Calm Mind Cresselias. If I ran into these, I would have to switch a Pokémon out for Scizor and play around it with Scizor.
Concluding with Swag
Though the team probably looks a little shaky on paper, I can guarantee that you will have a tough time keeping up with it in practice. This team is all about setting the pace and forcing your opponent to play your game. If you make one wrong move, you’ll be staring down a situation where you have to take a risk and switch into a strong spread move in order to try to get back into an advantageous position. I had a lot of fun playing around with this team, and it didn’t only succeed based on the element of surprise either. Games 2 and 3 of sets were often times more lopsided than the first matches because I can simply refer back to Game 1 to see how you handled situations and change my plan accordingly. Since I don’t change Pokémon, it’s a lot easier for me adjust my game plan because I don’t have to stray too much from what I was doing before. I enjoyed playing it immensely and seeing how people would react to a sort of ‘old school’ approach to team building that has sort of become a lost art. Though I fell short of my usual Top 8 Worlds placing by one, I was still very impressed by how well this team performed. I rolled through LCQ without dropping a single game and only lost a handful of matches in the actual tournament. Hopefully this isn’t the final run for this team, and I can tweak it to make it even better but for now I feel like I did my best with it. I have no regrets.
Article image created for Nugget Bridge by ryuzaki. See more of ryuzaki’s artwork on deviantART.
About the Author
Huy is a grizzled Pokemon veteran. Having played competitively since RBY, he picked up VGC in 2009 and never looked back. He has played in 3 World Championships (Second only to Ray Rizzo) and has placed in the Top 10 in all 3 while managing to secure Top 8 in 2. He is the only American in the world to have won two Customized Worlds DS'es.
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