Reports

Published on April 13th, 2015 | by Unreality

24

Timequake! 1st Place Missouri Regionals Team

Hey! I’m Aaron Traylor and I won the Masters Winter Regional 2015 in St. Louis. The art above was made by my wonderful sister Amanda (Charmanda).

Teambuilding Process

One night, Scott brought up the idea of Kangaskhan and Minimize Clefable, and I tried to build the team with pookar and him a couple times, but they were busy. I figured I should just throw the team together myself. I realized that Kangaskhan and Bisharp was a stupidly good combination that I really needed to counter, so I decided to just use it myself and counter how other players dealt with it. I wanted a Wide Guard Pokémon, so I turned to Aegislash, but two Steel-types left me slightly weak to Fire-type moves. As such, Conkeldurr and Heatran made it onto the team—Heatran would be my Fairy-type resist. Finally, I had Sylveon, but it overlapped with Clefable so I switched to Assault Vest Landorus-Therian, which is my favorite Landorus-T set. The team started winning, so I just rolled with it. This team is affectionately referred to as “No Speed Control, No Water Resists—The Dream”.

I went with a mishmash of nicknames this time. No overarching theme, but three duos.

No Wifing (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Scrappy / Parental Bond | Adamant
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
– Fake Out
– Return
– Power-Up Punch
– Sucker Punch

The first half of the powerful Wife Her / No Wifing duo. Anyway, this is the same Mega Kangaskhan from my last team report. I changed the nickname and switched Double-Edge for Return, because Double-Edge plus redirection did not equal fun times. Follow Me is pointless if the Pokémon you’re attempting to protect knocks itself out. I thought that Adamant Mega Kangaskhan provided the power I needed and the Speed I needed, and, let’s be honest, when was I ever going to actually use any extra bulk? I like to keep my spreads simple so I know what my Pokémon can do. I would have used Jolly just to outspeed opposing Mega Kangaskhan, but a nature change just for a Speed tie was pointless. Fake Out synergized well with Clefable, and it gave me a lot of momentum in situations where I needed to be offensive. Power-Up Punch allowed Kangaskhan to really abuse free turns created by Follow Me, and Sucker Punch was simply necessary. Ice Punch would have worked to beat Salamence, which gave this team problems before I switched to Unaware Clefable, but then I wouldn’t have been abusing boosted Sucker Punches as much as I wanted to.

Kangaskhan was more of a comfort choice. I have used Kangaskhan at every sanctioned event since the 2014 Spring Regionals. Furthermore, I thought that most players would forget exactly how powerful it was. Its popularity had started to fade at the end of 2014, and even players aware of its power wouldn’t counter it too hard (unlike the metagame at Worlds).

TRIGGER WARNING: MINIMIZE AHEAD.

Boogeyman (Clefable) @ Leftovers
Unaware | Bold
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
– Protect
– Minimize
– Follow Me
– Moonblast

“Cause I’m a gamblin’ boogeyman, and no, I don’t play fair.
It’s much more fun, I must confess, with lives on the line–
Not mine, of course, but yours, oh boy, now that’d be just fine.”

Let’s talk about the elephant on the screen. “Oh, wow, it’s Minimize!” Yeah. I get it. It’s Minimize and I used it to win a Regional. Minimize was the most useless move on my team all weekend and I would have swapped it for Icy Wind in a heartbeat. The only attacks I dodged over the course of both days were Zach’s Scalds. Each game in Swiss I used Minimize in I lost, and I used it Turn 1 in each of those games, so it’s not like it was after the fact. I didn’t actually use Minimize in any practice battles: I didn’t want the practice games to come down to RNG. I wanted to make sure that I would be able to make plays at Regionals without using evasion as a crutch. This team has a lot more to it than Minimize. If Minimize is all you’re going to take from this report, please think about what Wolfe said to me when I tried to convince him it was the best choice. He said, “Aaron, why do you always go for these luck-based strategies? If you’re a good player, you don’t need Minimize to beat people at Regionals. And if you’re a bad player, it’ll only save you four out of ten times.”

I used Clefable instead of Clefairy because I wanted to stop boosting strategies (specifically Dragon Dance Salamence) with Unaware, even though it had negative synergy with my Landorus-Therian’s Intimidate. I also wanted Leftovers recovery, as Clefairy would be stuck with Eviolite. I brought Moonblast because Clefable is actually pretty strong when it attacks, and Fairy-type is a good attacking type. I also wish I had Helping Hand instead of Minimize so I could actually handle Rotom-Wash, but I think that might have baited me into some awful plays. Clefable’s EVs are probably more simple than they needed to be, but whatever. I was much more afraid of physical threats than dealing any specific amount of damage or taking any particular special attack. I could have EVed it to withstand Aegislash’s Flash Cannon, but I didn’t. I ended up seeing zero Aegislash, so it worked out.

Seriously, don’t use Minimize.

Wife Her (Bisharp) @ Focus Sash
Defiant | Adamant
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
– Protect
– Sucker Punch
– Knock Off
– Iron Head

[15:58] <Zubat> wife her

This is the third Pokémon of the core. Originally, I was testing Choice Band and Life Orb so that I could fit Gengar on the team, but both of those overly relied on Clefable and weren’t as good at being standalone Pokémon. Focus Sash Bisharp is just a monster, and it makes most of its “checks” (bar Kangaskhan) take so much damage. I tested Assurance, as a previous iteration of this team had Aerodactyl (as well as various priority moves), but it didn’t end up panning out. I feel like Bisharp has a few cool options if you break away from these four standard moves, but I wasn’t willing to take those routes myself at this tournament.

Fun fact: in 2013, I swore I’d never take Bisharp to another tournament after I played ~500 games on GBU with it and then immediately tossed a game to Enosh at Massachusetts Regionals by making every Sucker Punch/Night Slash decision incorrectly. I’m glad I had Bisharp at this tournament, but I’m still leery of its potential to completely fail via prediction.

BIG DATA (Conkeldurr) @ Sitrus Berry
Guts | Adamant
84 HP / 192 Atk / 68 Def / 164 SpD
– Wide Guard
– Mach Punch
– Drain Punch
– Ice Punch

BIG DATA BIG DATA. I’m going to start this off by saying that Assault Vest Conkeldurr is horrible and I have no idea why so many people are running it. Conkeldurr has so many options and Assault Vest barely does anything for it. I think that in the future, we’re going to see a lot of non-Assault Vest sets doing well. I wanted to take advantage of this Conkeldurr unawareness by running Wide Guard on my Conkeldurr; since Assault Vest sets can’t use it, I knew most opponents wouldn’t try to play around it. Wide Guard was cool to have with Clefable—opponents would try to avoid Follow Me with spread moves and run right into a Wide Guard. It also protected Bisharp and Heatran from opposing Landorus-Therian, which is the first Pokémon people think I’m weak to when they look at this team. The other three moves were chosen because I didn’t want to miss out on anything Conkeldurr had to offer, especially Mach Punch. Guts allowed it to switch in on and absorb burns directed at Kangaskhan.

Spoiler alert: this is an Assault Vest spread for a Sitrus Berry Pokémon. I had planned to update it before the event but I didn’t end up changing it. 84 HP minimizes residual damage, and the Defense EVs allow it take a Brave Bird from an Intimidated Talonflame. Wolfe told me to just maximize HP and Attack for general bulk, but I didn’t fix it in time. Also, I was missing 16 EVs in HP at the tournament—oops. Conkeldurr was my least chosen Pokémon over the course of the two days, although it was definitely my MVP in some of the streamed games—I just didn’t see as many Terrakion, Kangaskhan, or Bisharp as I thought I would. Thanks to Scott for the spread.

By the way:

132+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 84 HP / 164 SpD Conkeldurr: 186-219 (97.3 – 114.6%) — 81.3% chance to OHKO

Cybertran / Santy Claws (Heatran) @ Shuca Berry
Flash Fire | Timid
252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
– Protect
– Overheat
– Heat Wave
– Earth Power

Hey guys, Aaron “Cybertran” Zheng here. I used maximum Speed Heatran after Wolfe did so well with it in practice against me. It slaughters all sorts of Bisharp and outspeeds max Speed Breloom, which is really funny. The other half of this set that’s important is Overheat. Amoonguss is something that gives my team way too much trouble, and Overheat knocks out it and Virizion faster than Heat Wave does. It also beats Wide Guard + Fire-type weakness combinations by luring them into a false sense of safety. I didn’t miss Flash Cannon, as Fairy-type Pokémon aren’t doing anything to Heatran on this team anyway; I just don’t think it’s a good move on Heatran. I sometimes used it to switch in on a Will-O-Wisp aimed at Kangaskhan, picking up a vital Flash Fire boost in the process. With Shuca Berry, it always won the mirror due to its Speed. The EV spread is an error: I thought it always survived Earthquake from Landorus-Therian, but it turns out there’s a 25% chance of a knockout. I’ll definitely update this spread in the future by removing some Special Attack for Defense. Thanks for everything, Cybertran.

Garmfielfd / the dark web (Landorus-Therian) @ Assault Vest
Intimidate | Adamant
140 HP / 140 Atk / 12 Def / 108 SpD / 108 Spe
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Superpower
– Knock Off

This Pokémon is probably the most out-of-place and anti-synergistic thing on what could have been a very beautiful and nicely-packaged team. The commentators made a lot of fun both on stream and off of my choice here. Unfortunately, it worked better in practice (and at the tournament) than any other Pokémon I could have chosen. Assault Vest Landorus-Therian is my favorite variant of Landorus-T. Not only did I absolutely not want to be locked into Earthquake (or be forced into a suboptimal move), I also wanted it to take special attacks well. Obviously, there was still some awful synergy: in top four, it had to Rock Slide a Metagross and a Terrakion (behind a Substitute) while having no chance at a flinch. Originally, Landorus-T had U-Turn, but Knock Off let me get the damage I needed against Water-type Pokémon. Landorus-T really didn’t do much damage—it kind of just sat there in the hope that opponents would hit it. I thought I would never bring it, but I brought it to almost every game at Regionals.

Thanks again to Scott for the EV spread, which does a ton of things. 140 Attack allows it to knock out Bisharp 15 out of 16 times, while the HP and Defense EVs let it take a Defiant-and-Life Orb-boosted Sucker Punch. The Special Defense EVs give it great survivability, as Landorus-T can take two Hyper Voices from Choice Specs Sylveon and a sun-boosted Overheat from Charizard. The Speed EVs allow it to outrun Jolly Tyranitar, Adamant Bisharp, and Speed creepers in that range.

Team Synergy

This is my catch-all lead. It works pretty well if the opponent lets Kangaskhan boost up or if they have no solid way to knock out Clefable. Also, there are no spread moves that are super effective on Kangaskhan or even have the ability to straight-up knock it out (outside of, like, Helping Hand Life Orb Kingdra in rain), so I was always sure Kangaskhan would get at least one attack off.

This is another very general lead, and probably one of the most common leads in the format. Bisharp deters Intimidate, although often opponents lead with it anyway. Kangaskhan usually lets Bisharp get a few attacks off, which is especially nice if the latter snags a Defiant boost. If I predict a double Protect, I can just switch in Clefable and Power-Up Punch it. Finally, double Sucker Punch is outrageous. I first got on the double priority hype train in 2012 with Dragonite’s ExtremeSpeed and Bisharp’s Sucker Punch. It was monstrous then and continues to be monstrous now, mostly because Kangaskhan is really, really good.

This combination can be lethal if an opponent can’t deal with it. It’s even better if their team has no way to get past Clefable. It works well against opposing Landorus-Therian, too, because I could just knock it out with a Moonblast and a Sucker Punch. Out of all of the leads on the team, I feel that this one has the most 4-0 potential.

If an opposing team has Landorus-Therian and Terrakion (or relies on Landorus-Therian), I’ll bring this lead and watch them struggle against Bisharp behind Wide Guard and Focus Sash.

I was always in awe of people who made BIG PLAYS by switching their physical Pokémon out for a burn absorber. With this team, I decided that it would be amazing for Kangaskhan if I had not just one, but two ways to handle burns offensively. The trickiest part was getting my opponent to actually Will-O-Wisp the correct slot (because I had other burn targets), so if I wanted to make sure that I could absorb the burn, I led with Conkeldurr or Heatran and switched the other in. This worked out all the time in practice, but I only got to do it in round four of the tournament. It won me the game though, so I can’t complain!

Threats

Public Enemy #1: Water-types

You may have noticed that this team has no Water-type resist. Yeah, that was kind of an issue. I kind of went into this Regional believing rain (with Kingdra) to be an automatic loss. Luckily that wasn’t the case, but it made a lot of games harder than they needed to be, such as in the finals where Jellicent put in more work than the rest of my opponent’s Pokémon combined. My counter to Water-types was that they generally dealt minimal damage to Clefable, so I could run amok with the rest of my Pokémon if I played correctly. Obviously this didn’t pan out when my opponents started catching on, as seen in the finals against Zach. Ludicolo wasn’t an issue thanks to all of my physical attackers.

Public Enemy #2: Rocky Helmet

This team has four physical attackers, one support Pokémon, and one special attacker. All four of my physical attackers make contact with at least one move, so there is literally no way for me to avoid taking massive damage from Rocky Helmet. If I can avoid less than four activations of the item, I consider it a successful game. It doesn’t help that Pokémon such as Suicune, which I’m already very weak to, love to carry Rocky Helmet. Also, people will throw it on random Pokémon on their team just to counter Kangaskhan. Ironically, I ran into some strange Rocky Helmet Pokémon like Azumarill in the first rounds of the tournament.

Not Actually a Huge Threat: Landorus-Therian

The first thing many people say when they see this team is, “Wait, aren’t you really weak to Landorus-Therian?” As long as the opposing Landorus-Therian doesn’t have Protect, I’m totally fine. Landorus-Therian can’t deal major damage to Clefable outside of Earthquake, and Kangaskhan and Clefable buy Bisharp enough time to deal a massive amount of damage to Landorus-Therian, especially Choice Scarf or Choice Band variants. Conkeldurr prevents it from doing any significant damage with Earthquake and Rock Slide, and has Ice Punch to deal a major blow in return. Heatran can withstand non-Choice Band Earthquake and can return fire (excuse the pun) with Heat Wave or Overheat—sometimes, it was actually faster. My own Landorus-Therian could also use Intimidate to mitigate it even further. I really was not very afraid of opposing Landorus-Therian.

Conclusion

In short, this team attempted to deal with as many of Kangaskhan’s counters as it could: Bisharp handled Intimidate, Conkeldurr, Clefable, and Heatran absorbed burns, and Conkeldurr and Landorus-Therian dealt with Terrakion. At times, it definitely felt like it was glued together by spit and prayers. It’s a very me team: I never use Speed control, so I’m pretty experienced with playing reactively in that regard. I don’t know how much success you’ll have if you straight up copy and paste this team, but it’s a lot of fun to use and you should try it out. Also, don’t use Minimize.

Stay tuned for part 2 where I’ll talk about my Swiss battles, the battles on stream, and finally the adventure I had in St. Louis with Cybertron, Babbytron, feathers, and Zubat! See you later, friends!

About the Author

Unreality Hi! I'm Aaron "Unreality" Traylor and I love short walks on the beach and making lots and lots of friends. Following mild success in the Seniors division in 2011, I quickly lost all steam upon entering Masters and have done slightly well since. Now I am a moderator on Nugget Bridge! Hooray!

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