Reports

Published on June 3rd, 2015 | by ZzamanN

22

A Thunder Storm brews in Brisbane! An Undefeated Swiss Seniors Regionals Report

Hey guys. Not sure if anyone knows me but if you don’t, I’m Matthew otherwise known as ZzamanN on Nugget Bridge.
I recently competed in the Brisbane, Australia Regionals. I ended up finishing sixth in seniors which was a disappointment as I had won it the two years beforehand. I was undefeated in swiss, but lost in my Top Eight match.  Overall the event was a blast and I hope I can do it justice in this report.

The Prototype

This first team was meant to take advantage of Ludicolo under Tailwind. After the speed doubled, Ludicolo out sped scarf Landorus-T meaning I could Ice Beam it before it got a U-Turn off. I ended up trying it out at a local grassroots tournament held every month in my home town. Overall i went 4-1 in swiss losing in Top Four to Jarrod Bennett, whom I later beat at Regionals, and finished 4th place. I didn’t think my placing did the team justice so I went back to the drawing board.

After the tournament I looked back at my matches and decided that Tailwind wasn’t working as well as I hoped as the majority of my team didn’t benefit from the extra speed. I ended up changing to Thundurus as I felt that Zapdos often took way too much damage before it was able to setup Tailwind. Thundurus could fire off priority Thunder Waves before it had even taken damage, giving my team more reliable speed control.

After removing Tailwind, my turn one option of Fake Out from Ludicolo and Tailwind from Zapdos disappeared, so I didn’t bring Ludicolo often. I rarely brought it to matches that weren’t against Rain teams.  After hunting around for a bulky Water-type replacement, Gastrodon really popped out at me. Unlike Swampert, whom was also a valid consideration, Gastrodon has the utility of being immune to Water and getting a free +1 in Special Attack if anyone were to fire off a Water-type Attack on the switch in. It also underspeeds Aegislash, meaning once it fired off its attack, I would be able to knock it out with an Earth Power. This was also the team I brought to the February International Challenge in which my record was 24/6, giving me 2nd place in Australia.

To be honest, I’m not sure if I was on tilting rampage when I made this change but Landorus-T was a still a big problem when you factor in Rock Slide flinches, which is why Gengar changed to Bisharp. I really liked the change as I felt it handled Sylveon a lot better, too. Even if I don’t guarantee the Knock Out on either due to their increase of Defensive investment and the lack of Life Orb, it was still a lot of damage and Kangaskhan or Landorus could come back in later and Fake Out or Rock Slide to finish either off. Also I never really needed Gengar against most teams anyway as I already had Taunt on Thundurus to shut down strategies that rely on non-damaging moves.

The Team

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Double-Edge
– Fake Out
– Sucker Punch
– Low Kick

Mega Kangaskhan is by far my favorite Mega this season. It really fills in a lot of holes most of my teams have and can consistently do a lot of damage before it gets burned or Knocked Out. I went for Jolly and max speed because I wasn’t experienced enough with Bulky Kangaskhan. If there ever was a Pokemon on the other side of the field and I didn’t know what it did or how I should approach it, Kangaskhan was usually my pick to handle them.

I never really regretted running the Jolly set aside from my round four match in which I missed the KO against my opponents Kangaskhan only to find out that he was a Bulky Adamant set. I proceeded to lose my Mega Evolution turn 1 which was slightly frustrating. The Power-up-Punch set was also a likely contender but I much preferred the raw power of Low Kick to get quick and early Knock Outs against popular threats like Heatran and Hydreigon.

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 228 HP / 112 Def / 68 SpA / 28 SpD / 72 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
– Thunderbolt
– Thunder Wave
– Taunt
– Hidden Power [Ice]

Thundurus was by far the best metagame call I made going into the tournament. Expecting a lot of fast Pokémon like Greninja and Weavile, Thundurus provided the crucial speed control my team desperately needed. The defense investment allows me to take a Jolly Mamoswine’s Icicle Crash. This may not seem so big but it allowed me to learn whether or not they were Adamant or Jolly so I didn’t send in my Scarf Landorus and get out sped. Learning that sort of information allowed me to plan future games and did actually come in handy.

The Special Defense investment has a similar story. It allowed me to take a non-boosted, Timid Greninja Ice Beam, which also allowed me to plan out future games against Greninja. I could safely land the Knock Out with Superpower with Landorus or it would go down to its Focus Sash and return with a KO of its own.
The Speed wasn’t as important but it was added anyway so i could outspeed max Speed Jolly Smeargle and Breloom in the process.I never battled either of them, but it was nice being able to outspeed bulkier Thundurus that had little to no speed investment.

Heatran @ Chople Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 20 HP / 252 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
– Heat Wave
– Earth Power
– Substitute
– Protect

Fast Substitute Heatran was one of the last changes I made before Regionals. I opted for Timid with almost max Speed so I could outspeed all the other Modest max Speed Heatrans which were currently seeing usage in Brisbane. Although I much prefer Leftovers, I opted for Chople Berry as it let me comfortably lead it against Kangaskhan + Bisharp without having to make any risky predictions. Timid also allowed me to outspeed Breloom which was a problem for the team in testing.

The 20 HP EVs were used to allow me to set up 4 Substitutes and still have one HP left. I highly doubted the use of Timid Max speed Heatrans on the day and I didn’t need the bulk so I put the rest in Special Attack and then in Speed. Heatran is one of my favorite Steel-types in this metagame currently and for good reason. It allows me to achieve easy win conditions behind a Substitute and tends to end up on almost every team I make due to its reliability in what it does.

Bisharp @ Focus Sash
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Iron Head
– Sucker Punch
– Knock Off
– Protect

Your run-of-the-mill Bisharp. I used Focus Sash over Life Orb because I felt most comfortable with Focus Sash as the usage of Double Kick Terrakion had drastically decreased. It provided a semi-reliable way of dealing with Terrakion as it does threaten the teams usual leads. I had been testing Assurance before the tournament but came to a conclusion that it wasn’t as consistent as Knock Off.

It was great in getting lots of quick damage and really puts a strain on the opponent in team preview whether or not they want to bring their Landorus or Salamence. Definitely put in work on the day and I enjoyed using it.

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– U-turn
– Superpower

The standard Choice Scarf Landorus-T. Although I was testing Assault Vest’s viablity for a little bit after I replaced Gengar, the team’s fastest Pokemon was Kangaskhan at base 100 which isn’t a good speed tier to be working with. Choice Scarf gave the team a last ditch effort option and also allowed me to achieve the previously mentioned combo with Thundurus to play around Mamoswines.

No fancy spread on this Landorus as I wanted it to be fast and get as much damage off as possible. Surprisingly it was my least used Pokemon on the day since most of my opponents were prepared for it. I had tested Knock Off over U-turn but decided against it since U-turn allowed me to get a lot of damage off against Ludicolo and provided an easy way of resetting Intimidate.

Gastrodon @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 180 SpA
Modest Nature
– Scald
– Ice Beam
– Earth Power
– Protect

I opted for Gastrodon due to its ability to switch into both Thundurus and Landorus which are both popular Pokémon. I used a similar set back in 2013 at the first Australian Nationals and it didn’t really help that much which made me reluctant to use it again this year. However after a few test matches against friends, It really helped the team deal with the lack of switch value, which was the reason why I was steering away from using this team.

Underspeeding Aegislash was also nice as it allowed me to survive the incoming Shadow Ball and retaliate with a Earth Power while it was in Blade-Forme. Rindo Berry was an interesting choice which I felt most comfortable using. It allowed me to worry less about Amoonguss and fire off attacks at its partner. Storm Drain is also an amazing ability letting my Heatran set up substitutes for free against Pokémon like Suicune and Politoed and win me games. The EV spread allows it to take an Adamant Kangaskhan’s Return. If I could go back I would change it to take Mega Salamence’s Double Edge which proved to be a problem on the day.

The Tournament

Overall the tournament had 35 Seniors with six rounds of swiss with a Top Eight cut. The matches were Best-of-Three which was nice also as it was my most comfortable style of playing.

Round 1: Massimo

Game 1

He Brought: Togetic, M-Salamence, Typhlosion, Serperior
I Brought: Thundurus-I, Landorus-T, M-Kangaskhan, Heatran

Turn 1 the Togetic goes straight for the Follow Me which concerned me a bit as the incoming Dragon Dance from Mega Salamence was obvious. However Landorus scores a flinch on his Salamence giving me free damage and a taunted Togetic on the other side. From there Landorus switches out due to the the damage output from Rock Slide being dismal. However, the Salamence goes for Hydro Pump onto what was my Landorus and is now a Heatran and does a considerable amount of damage and put me just out of Substitute range which was a headache. Thundurus does pick up the Knock Out on Salamence though, leaving Kangaskhan to finish off the game.

Game 2

He Brought: Lucario, Togetic, Typhlosion, Mega Salamence
I Brought: Kangaskhan, Bisharp, Heatran, Landorus-T

Turn 1 Togetic goes for Follow Me once again as I switch out my Kangaskhan into Landorus fearing the obvious fighting attack. However he targets the Bisharp instead bringing me down to my sash as I one shot his Togetic. After that he sends in Salamence giving me a free +1. Next turn I go straight for the Sucker Punch onto Salamence doing around 55% and Landorus picks up the one shot on his Lucario with a Superpower. Mega Salamence goes for Hyper voice picking up the KO on my 1 HP Bisharp as well as doing around 45% to my Landorus. From there Kangaskhan comes in and Fake Outs the Salamence as Landorus switches into Heatran giving it a Flash Fire boost as he uses Eruption with the recently sent in Typhlosion. From there, Sucker Punch finishes off Salamence and Typhlosion is left alone to suffer its fate.

1-0

Round 2: Michael (5-1, 4th Place)

Game 1

He Brought: Thundurus, Sylveon, M-Lopunny, Mamoswine
I Brought: Kangaskhan, Thundurus-I, Heatran, Landorus-T

Looking back on this game, Bisharp definitely would have been really useful this game but my lead was too prepared for Amoonguss, which didn’t show its face the entire set. Turn 1 I go straight for the Taunt onto Thundurus and Double Edge onto Sylveon. However the Thundurus reveals Mental Herb and Sylveon survives the Double Edge! I take huge damage from the likely Choice Specs Sylveon and Turn 1 does not go to plan. I know my Thundurus is faster so I go straight for the KO on Sylveon with a Thunderbolt and a Sucker Punch from Kangaskhan does lots of damage to Thundurus. In hindsight, knowing that my Kangaskhan is faster than my Thundurus I could of gone straight for the Double Edge. Next turn he sends in Mamoswine against my double genies who aren’t too impressed. I switch my Landorus out for Heatran as he goes for the Icicle Crash into the same spot. My Thundurus goes for a Thunderbolt onto his Thundurus as he does the same to mine. Next turn he goes for Thunder Wave onto my Heatran and Icicle Crashes my weakened Thundurus for the KO as my Heatran gets fully Paralyzed. He goes for Thunder Wave into my Landorus as it fails and Icicle Crashes it. My Heatran is fully Paralyzed again. I thought the game was over as he sends in his Mega Lopunny as I try and go for Protect and get fully Paralyzed for the third time. From their he Encores my Heatran which fails since I hadn’t moved yet. I Heat Wave KOing the Mamoswine and doing 50% to his Mega Lopunny. Next turn Mega Lopunny goes straight for High Jump Kick and thanks to Chople Berry, I live with 2 HP and Heatran hits its Heat Wave through Paralysis for the Knock Out! This game really taught me to never hit that forfeit button before the game is over.

Game 2

He Brought: Thundurus-I, M-Lopunny, Sylveon, Mamoswine
I Brought: Kangaskhan, Bisharp, Landorus-T, Heatran

This game goes a lot nicer for me. Turn 1 I take advantage of the fact that Lopunny is almost certain to Fake Out the Kangaskhan slot so I switch it into Landorus. Strangely enough, Thundurus, Thunder Waves my Bisharp which does come back to haunt me later. Bisharp gets a Knock Off onto Thundurus doing over 50%. Next turn he Thunder Waves into my Landorus again as I U-turn the Lopunny back into Kangaskhan while he Ice Punches into Kangaskhan. Sadly enough my Bisharp gets fully Paralyzed. Next turn I Fake Out the Lopunny and Iron Head it for the KO while Thundurus gets another Thunder Wave onto my Kangaskhan. After that Mamoswine comes in and fires off a Earthquake while Thundurus gets Knocked Out by a Sucker Punch. Thankfully Bisharp does pull through the paralysis and gets an Iron Head onto the Mamoswine doing about 95%. Next turn Sylveon comes in and at this point, Bisharp being paralyzed was a big deal since getting an Iron Head off against the Sylveon was going to be impossible. I go for the double Sucker Punch onto Mamoswine in case one Pokemon gets fully paralyzed. Kangaskhan unfortunately doesn’t get to attack, but Bisharp does, locking up the win condition with Landorus and Heatran in the back to fight the lone Sylveon.

2-0

Round 3: Nathan (Amperes) (4-2, 2nd Place)

Game 1

He brought: Gallade, Rotom-W, Amoonguss, Salamence
I Brought: Kangaskhan, Thundurus, Gastrodon, Heatran
This game was really bad prediction wise, Kangaskhan goes down turn 1 to a Close Combat from Gallade as I expected it to go straight for the Trick Room or Will-o-Wisp. Gastrodon comes in as I Thunderbolt and Earth Power the Amoonguss switch in. It all goes down from there as I make some poor predictions and Mega Salamence quite easily finishes off the game after Thundurus goes down.

Game 2

He Brought: Bisharp, Rotom-W, Amoonguss, Gallade
I Brought: M-Kangaskhan, Thundurus, Gastrodon, Heatran
This game goes much better. I’m able to play around Rotom-W’s shenanigans. This time he doesn’t lead with Gallade so Kangaskhan is allowed to get free hits off without much threat. Once his Gallade goes down in Defense and Amoonguss is gone, Kangaskhan and Thundurus clean up the game.

Game 3

He Brought: M-Salamence, Amoonguss, Gallade, Rotom-W
I Brought: Thundurus, Heatran, Gastrodon, M-Kangaskhan

Judging by leads, I like to think I have the advantage due to the threat of Taunt and Hidden Power Ice coming from Thundurus and free Substitute from Heatran. Turn 1 I expect Amoonguss to switch out to Gallade or Rotom so I go straight for the Hidden Power Ice onto Salamence while Substituting with Heatran. This backfires majorly as Amoonguss goes for Rage Powder and Salamence sets up a Dragon Dance. It all goes down hill from there until he makes a crucial mistake, he plays too safely, and forgetting he used Protect last turn, he goes for it again and it fails meaning I pick up the KO on Salamence. Amoonguss and Rotom-W end up losing the battle against my Heatran and Gastrodon. Unnfortunate that I had to win this way but he gets his revenge in Top 8.

Round 4: Tom (4-2, 9th Place)

Game 1

He Brought: M-Kangaskhan, Milotic, Ferrothorn Latios
I Brought: M-Kangaskhan, Bisharp, Heatran, Thundurus

Turn 1 I go straight for the Knock Off onto the Milotic slot as he switches it for Ferrothorn, getting rid of its Rocky Helmet. My Kangaskhan goes straight for Low Kick into his Kangaskhan’s Protect. From there, his Kangaskhan and Latios are able to finish off my weakened Heatran and Thundurus.

Game 2

He Brought: M-Kangaskhan, Latios, Milotic, Ferrothorn
I Brought: M-Kangaskhan, Gastrodon, Thundurus, Heatran

Turn one he withdraws his Latios for Ferrothorn, likely expecting the Fake Out from my Kangaskhan. Instead, knowing his Kangaskhan is slower, I Fake Out his Kangaskhan. Next turn I double switch avoiding the obvious Low Kick from his Kangaskhan and Power Whip from Ferrothorn. The game is decided after I get a substitute up with Heatran and his Scarf Milotic goes down.

Game 3

He Brought: M-Kangaskhan, Sylveon, Ferrothorn, Entei
I Brought: M-Kangaskhan, Thundurus, Heatran, Gastrodon

This game really came down to luck from my side. Turn 1 he makes an excellent prediction switching his Sylveon out for Ferrothorn as I go straight for the Double Edge on it, losing more than half of my health to recoil. From their I lose momentum drastically after Kangaskhan goes down from a  Sucker Punch from his Kangaskhan. I get a lucky Thunderbolt Paralysis not just on his  Kangaskhan but his Sylveon as well. Heatran comes in after Kangaskhan gets put into Heat Wave range and I’m able to win the game. Unfortunate I had to win in this way as I felt like my opponent really outplayed me this game. I also only just found out that this is the team Eden Batchelor (Xenoblade Hero) used to Top 8 the UK Regionals so that was a pretty neat discovery.

Round 5: Anthony

Game 1

He Brought: Lucario, Clefable, Greninja, Dedenne
I Brought: M-Kangaskhan, Thundurus, Landorus, Gastrodon

Turn 1, my Kangaskhan immediately switches out for Landorus fearing the Follow Me and Close Combat. Taunt also goes onto the Clefable as he Ice Punches my Thundurus and Follow Me’s with his Clefable. Fearing the Ice Beam from Clefable and Protect from Lucario, I U-turn his Clefable revealing the Rocky Helmet which proved to be good information for the rest of the game. He does just that, Ice Beaming my Kangaskhan switch in as well as Ice Punching which unfortunately freezes my Kangaskhan. However after getting a Thunderbolt onto his Clefable, it is now in Thunderbolt  and Earthquake range meaning I can safely pick up 2 Knock Outs.  Landorus and Thundurus proceed to sweep.

Game 2

He Brought: Greninja, Clefable, M-Kangaskhan, Rotom-W
I Brought: Thundurus, Bisharp, M-Kangaskhan, Landorus-T

Not really much to say about this game, Thundurus goes down turn 1 to an Ice Beam as I get a lot of damage off onto his Clefable as he Follow Me’s away from his Greninja. Kangaskhan comes in and Fake Outs the Greninja as an Iron Head from Bisharp Knocks Out the Clefable. His own Kangaskhan comes in threatening both my own Kangaskhan and Bisharp. He Fake Outs my Bisharp and Life Orb Hydro Pumps my Kangaskhan doing over 60% as I go for Low Kick just barely missing the Knock Out on his Kangaskhan. After some Sucker Punch wars and a Rotom-W Hydro Pump miss, the game is mine.

Round 6: Jarrod (5-1, 3rd Place)

Sorry I dont remember much from either games as my VS Recorder ran out of room… I do remember however, my Landorus and Kangaskhan put in a lot of work and Aegislash never showed its face to my relief as it gave the Pokémon I brought major problems. I also do now realize this is a team Paul Chua used to ladder on Battle Spot and Jarrod is notorious for using Paul Chua’s teams at most events I see him attend.

Top 8: Nathan (Amperes) (8th Seed, 2nd Place)

Again, I forget to remove some Battle Videos so I didn’t get to save the games. I remember getting slaughtered after Salamence gets up a Dragon Dance on turn one and some bad reads and good plays by my opponent cost me the tournament. In hindsight, Rotom gave me a lot of problems and getting chip damage off against it was hard as my opponent correctly identified it as his win condition.

Props:

• Anthony in the 5th round giving me his full art Deoxys card for free
• Going undefeated in swiss
• Nicknames being shown

Slops

• First regional I haven’t won
• Undefeated in swiss causing me to lose against the one person I didn’t want to face in cut
• No Lunch break

Thanks for viewing and I can’t wait to see you all at Nationals!

About the Author

ZzamanN is currently a 1st year master reigning from Australia. His most notable achievement would be winning his home town regional 2 years in a row and winning a Nationals in 2015. In his down time you will likely find him Skyping other Australian seniors or doing Martial Arts 2 times a week

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