Reports

Published on July 17th, 2014 | by Pokeguru01

16

It’s a Trap! A 9th Place UK Nationals Report

Hello, Nugget Bridge! I’m Tyler Bakhtiari or, as you may know me, Pokeguru01. I participated in the 2014 VGC National Championship in the UK, taking 9th place overall, so I felt that I should break out of my lurker mode and finally post on here.

Luckily for me, UK Nationals was being held in my home city, Manchester, so this meant I got a decent night’s sleep before hand, unlike previous years. In all honesty though, I wasn’t expecting to get Top Cut since I knew many of Europe’s top tier players would be there. I wasn’t feeling too confident with my team and I hadn’t been practicing as much due to my GCSEs (important examinations). I mainly went to socialize and have fun. However, I trumped my own expectations, and from expecting a 5-3 at the very best, I went 8-0 and ended up in the Top 16.

The Team

The nicknames are from two series that I have fallen in love with over the past year. The first three nicknames are based of characters from a vocaloid series called Kagerou Project. The latter three are in relation to the game Fire Emblem Awakening, my favourite 3DS game.

rotom-heat
Ene Enemoto (Rotom-Heat) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 12 Def / 252 SAtk / 36 SDef / 196 Spd
Timid Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Overheat
– Protect
– Hidden Power Ice

Ene can manifest herself in different machines, but is shown to mainly go into computers and mobile phones. Rotom has a very similar ability, so I felt the name went well.

The sheer power Rotom-Heat has with a Life Orb is outstanding. Even with a Timid nature, Rotom-Heat could score OHKOs on Mega Manectric with Overheat. Hidden Power Ice was nice to hit the likes of Garchomp and Salamence which, without using a specially defensive set, Yache Berry, or Focus Sash, would be OHKOd. Thunderbolt provided nice STAB damage, and Protect allowed Rotom-Heat to function with Mega Gyarados. The Speed investment let Rotom-Heat hit 144 Speed on level 50, which let Rotom outspeed positive natured base 78 Speed Pokémon, such as Blastoise and its Mega Evolution. Whilst I don’t think having this particular Speed gave me any advantage, just running a fast set was favourable since it allows Rotom-Heat to beat most opposing Rotom-Appliance. The defensive investment allows Rotom-Heat to survive a Hydro Pump from a Modest Salamence with maximum investment in Special Attack 12/16 of the time and then hit it back with a super-effective Hidden Power Ice and survive the recoil 3/16 of the time.

garchomp
Shintaro (Garchomp) (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 204 Atk / 4 Def / 36 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
– Dragon Claw
– Rock Slide
– Earthquake
– Protect

This Garchomp is somewhat vain. Shintaro fits this description to an extent. I imagine Garchomp not being good at social interactions due to its Rough Skin, so in that way Shintaro was a perfect fit.

This Garchomp set is simply the standard set. 12 EVs in HP and 36 EVs in Special Defense allow Garchomp to survive a Timid Mega Manectric’s Hidden Power Ice 100% of the time. Whilst not a standout member to the team, Garchomp always had a presence and did its job in battle. If I could remake the set, I would probably just make it more bulky, so I could play with it more freely, and make riskier plays more often.

gyaradosgyarados-mega
Tsubomi Kido (Gyarados) (F) @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 36 HP / 116 Atk / 188 Def / 4 SDef / 164 Spd
Jolly Nature
– Taunt
– Dragon Dance
– Waterfall
– Earthquake

Kido is often described by Kano as having an intimidating glare, and I think you see where I went with this fun fact. Also, both Kido and Gyarados have red eyes.

I initially had Gyarados holding a Wacan Berry. The set was more Specially Defensive, but it wasn’t what I really needed. So after some testing and realizing I had a problem with Rotom-Heat, I came up with this set. The Speed investment on Gyarados was used to outspeed positive base 130s (such as Aerodactly) after a Dragon Dance. By having such a high Speed, I was able to outspeed Rotom-Appliance, which gave me quite an advantage since I would be able to get a bit of damage onto the opposing Rotom-Appliance with Earthquake if I had Mega Evolved or use Taunt to stop Will-O-Wisp. Initially I was worried about having two Mega Evolutions, but, when it came down to it, I didn’t always need Gyarados to Mega Evolve, since Intimidate is such a useful ability. If I brought both Kangaskhan and Gyarados, I just had to be more careful when I played with Gyarados, since one Electric-type attack would easily knock it out.

kangaskhankangaskhan-mega
PairUpBroken (Kangaskhan) (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 50
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SDef / 156 Spd
Jolly Nature
– Return
– Power-Up Punch
– Substitute
– Crunch

Anyone who has played Fire Emblem Awakening or has seen the response from the community will understand this nickname perfectly. In the game, the Pair Up function allows two characters to team up and take on enemies. It’s broken because in addition to helping the primary character in the pair by attacking, the secondary character also provides a stat boost.

Kangaskhan. Anyone who has known me since 2012 knows full well of my love and dedication to Kangaskhan. In the 2012 season it was pretty much my signature Pokémon, and it was simply brilliant, but gone are the days of Life Orb Double-Edge. When Kangaskhan received a Mega Evolution, I was extremely happy because my favourite competitive Pokémon was finally going to see some love.

Inner Focus is a great ability, and for those who don’t know, Inner Focus stops the user of the Ability from flinching. This was extremely useful when dealing with opposing Fake Out leads, since I could take the hit, then proceed to set up a Substitute, which is the reason why Kangaskhan has worked so well for me. If I led with Kangaskhan, the opponent would predict a Fake Out, and that’s a fair assumption. They would therefore take evasive action and either go for their own Fake Out, or Protect. In either case, I was safe to set up a Substitute. In tandem with Power-Up Punch, Substitute made Kangaskhan a massive threat. Kangaskhan is already a bulky Pokémon: it doesn’t go down easy, and with a Substitute, my opponents’ mission becomes even more difficult. If Kangaskhan manages to rack up Power-Up Punch Attack boosts, a situation where Kangaskhan has a Substitute up puts me in a winning position.

Crunch versus Sucker Punch was an interesting debate. Sucker Punch is a great move, but not on Kangaskhan, or at least not in my opinion and I’m not too sure why it got so popular in the first place. By having Sucker Punch over Crunch, Kangaskhan is left nearly defenseless against Ghost-type Pokémon which love to utilize status moves.

gardevoir
Libra (Gardevoir) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Trace
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 68 SAtk / 44 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature
– Moonblast
– Psychic
– Will-O-Wisp
– Ally Switch

In Fire Emblem Awakening, Libra is a male character, who looks like a female… I think the connection here is quite clear.

Ally Switch is a move that can turn a match around and make the impossible win possible. For those who don’t know what it does, Ally Switch allows Gardevoir to change positions with its partner out on the field and, best of all, it has +1 priority. This move came to be extremely useful in keeping my Kangaskhan’s Substitute up, and it worked beautifully with Gourgeist’s Phantom Force, allowing Gardevoir to avoid all attacks aimed at it, whilst Gourgeist avoids the attacks via Phatom Force. Now, whilst I do not regret the move one little bit, I feel like it could have been used better. See, in a best-of-one situation, the move is perfect, providing that your opponent does not know that you have the move. However, in a best-of-three environment, the move feels like a hindrance, where I ended up just playing mind games with myself over deciding what to do. (Later on, you’ll see that this was one of the factors which led to my loss against Billa in the Top 16.) A more capable player, who is more reassured of their decisions would probably be able to use the move better. The rest of Gardevoir’s moves are standard, so there’s not much to say other than it was extremely effective and easy to play with.

Before I had finalized this team, Gardevoir was not present. In fact, I added it in with a week to spare, so I ended up rushing the set and possibly messing up during EV training it. However, in practice, I saw that it could take a ton of hits from both ends of the attacking spectrum, and could deal sufficient damage (enough to let my other Pokémon score KOs, so I left it as is. Trace is a great Ability, especially when facing double Intimidate leads, or when Gardevoir is granted with Prankster. Telepathy was up for consideration, but another pull factor for Trace was that it was simply easier for me to obtain.

gourgeist
Frederick (Gourgeist-Super) @ Leftovers
Ability: Frisk
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SDef
Careful Nature
– Will-O-Wisp
– Protect
– Phantom Force
– Leech Seed

In the first few chapters of Fire Emblem Awakening [especially in the Lunatic and Luncatic + modes], Frederick was a clutch. Gourgeist is an amazing Pokémon, and is the clutch of this team and it is a Pokémon that I strongly recommend to everyone to try out.

Gourgeist was another late addition to this team, so, I didn’t really have time to make my own set. I decided to stick to the solid set that Zach created. To see what the set was made to do, click here.

Day 1: Swiss

I apologize for how brief each summary of the round is; I had a headache for most of the day, and with the counter being shortened to 45 seconds this year, I guess I couldn’t concentrate on battling and writing down many notes.

Round 1: VS Callum Doughty

  • What he brought: Aromatisse/Mawile/Scrafty/Amoonguss/Goodra/Politoed
  • What I remember bringing: Gyarados/Gourgeist…

I saw Aromatisse and immediately thought, Trick Room. I wasn’t wrong, however, I made the mistake of thinking I could Taunt the Aromatisse with my Gyarados. What this match really came down to was my Gourgeist being free to spam Will-O-Wisp and Leech Seed to its heart’s content, whilst being aided by Gyarados’ Intimidate support.

Round 2: VS Matthew Urquhart

  • What he brought: Weavile/Meowstic/Hydreigon/Mawile/Tyranitar/Venusaur
  • I can’t remember much about this match, however, I think it was a case that I brought Pokémon that simply had a better match-up against his four Pokémon.

Round 3: VS Kyle Phillips

  • What he brought: Greninja/Garchomp/Talonflame/Garchomp/Manectric/Rotom-W

Despite the lack of information I have on my notes, this was definitely one of the most challenging battles I had in the whole day. I was outplayed for the most part and I believe I made some over-predictions. However, this is where my clutch Gourgeist came in. In the closing turns of the battle, Kyle has a 2-1 advantage, with his Greninja and Garchomp up against Gourgeist. I had previously used Leech Seed on his Greninja, and I had set up a Leech Seed onto his Garchomp, which had been Intimidated. Gourgeist was at full health, and I was in a situation where I knew that Gourgeist would have to survive both an Ice Beam from the Greninja and a -1 Dragon Claw from the Garchomp. At this point I accepted defeat, since I didn’t think that Gourgeist would survive the two hits, and I simply selected Phantom Force to hit his Greninja in hopes of the event that Kyle might misclick and select Rock Slide. Then, on the turn of truth, Greninja used Ice Beam and I saw Gourgeist’s HP dwindle down, stopping at around 50 HP. Then, the animation for Dragon Claw started, only for my HP to stop decreasing when I had 9 HP left. From there on, the match was much more simple. Gourgeist was able to KO the Greninja, and with Leech Seed on both Pokémon, Leftovers and the two turn break given by Phantom Force and Protect, Gourgeist was able to heal itself back to a point where I could begin to let off Will-O-Wisp against the Garchomp and whittle it down for the win. I was ecstatic; not only was the match great, with Gourgeist proving itself to be a beast, it was also the first time I hadn’t lost my third round match in Swiss as a master. I was happy to finally beat that obstacle.

Round 4: VS Dan Oztekin

  • What he brought: Kangaskhan/Azumarill/Aegislash/Ferrothorn/Tyranitar/Rotom-H

So, from one difficult match to another. To put it simply, I could have lost this game. Early in the match, it was a situation where I had Rotom-H and Gourgeist out against his Kangaskhan and Ferrothorn. I made an over-prediction, thinking that Dan would predict me to use Protect on my Rotom-H, as to not get damaged by Fake Out, and try to burn his Kangaskhan with Gourgeist. So, expecting a Fake Out on Gourgeist, I decided to use Protect on it, whilst I has Rotom-H use Overheat on Ferrothorn. When the Kangskhan didn’t Mega Evolve, I thought I made the right decision, but instead, I saw a Return hit my Rotom-H. Turns out, Dan had misclicked and I got the OHKO on the Ferrothorn. As in the last match, I was outplayed for the majority of it, and I ended up with Gourgeist against Mega Kangaskhan, Azumarill, and Aegislash. Fortunately, I had already burned the former two Pokémon, and due to the Mega Kangaskhan carrying Sucker Punch rather than Crunch, it was like being against two Pokémon rather than three. I whittled down Dan’s Pokémon with a combination of Leech Seed, Protect and Phantom Force. In the closing turns, Gourgeist was low enough in HP, to be KO’d by a Shadow Ball from Aegislash, thus Dan predicted me to use Protect, so I could recover more HP from Leftovers, so, he saw this as the right time to set up a Substitute on said Aegislash. I was able to predict his move, and Gourgeist was able to land a Leech Seed onto the Aegislash, before the Substitute went up. Thanks to Leftovers and Leech Seed recovery, I was able to beat the Aegislash and win the match.

Round 5: VS Rafik Sadli

  • What he brought: Kangaskhan/Rotom-W/Amoonguss/Chandelure/Scizor/Salamence

Sadly, apart from the Pokémon, I didn’t write any notes down for this match. It was around this time my headache was getting quite painful, so I was just concentrating on the matches rather than taking notes.

Round 6: VS Nick Bailey

  • What he brought: Mawile/Scrafty/Reuniclus/Druddigon/Exploud/Tyranitar

Before the match, we were asked to have our battle shown on one of the screens, so the extra time spent getting the match set up gave me a bit more time to settle and let the headache wear off a bit. This team screamed Trick Room, so I brought Gyarados to deal with Reuniclus. I saw Exploud which made me leave Kangaskhan behind, since it could damage Kangaskhan behind a Substitute using Boomburst. Fortunately, three of the Pokémon Nick brought did not enjoy Will-O-Wisp, making this battle much more easy for my team.

Round 7: VS Callum Douglas

  • What he brought: Rotom-H/Azumarill/Amoonguss/Tyranitar/Manectric/Garchomp

This came down to my team having a nice match-up against his. I forgot to take notes on this match apart from the Pokémon, but at least my headache was gone by this point. Yay!

Round 8: VS Terence Dray

  • What he brought: Conkeldurr/Scrafty/Reuniclus/Charizard/Victreebel/Aerodactyl

This was, without a doubt, the most interesting match I had all day. Terrance was a very intriguing competitor; his playstyle, movesets, EVs, and even the Victreebel in his team were all well-made choices. For example, having my Mega Kangaskhan’s Parental Bond Skill Swapped away was a real shocker, especially since I forgot that Skill Swap could go through Substitute. His Charizard Mega Evolved into Mega Charizard-Y, which is what I expected from seeing the Victreebel, however, it was unexpectedly slow, which caught me off guard. The battle was very much in Terence’s favour for the first couple of turns, but I was able to pull it back for the win.

So, with eight wins in the bag, I was extremely happy. To date, this was my best run in a swiss competition, and it was something that many people, including myself, did not expect.

Day 2: Top Cut

Top 32: VS Daniel Nolan (Zog)

When I found out I was paired up with Zog, I was slightly taken aback. I’d never beaten him before, which was quite intimidating. Even more so than that, however, was the simple fact that one of us was going to have to knock the other out, which neither of us wanted.

Here’s a stream for our battles.

I was fully concentrating on the battle, so I didn’t make a single note from my battles with Zog. I made some very silly plays, and on one occasion the timer even ran out. I wish I had felt a bit more confident playing, but I did something right when making the Gardevoir set, since a crucial Ally Switch which Zog ended up falling for cemented a win for me: his Salamence used a Dragon Pulse, which was aimed at Rotom-H, but Ally Switch saved the day.

Top 16: VS Barış Akcoş (Billa)

Billa’s team: Gyarados/Talonflame/Amoonguss/Kangaskhan/Aerodactyl/Gardevoir

I was completely psyched out when it came to this battle. My match had been on screen, and I knew that my team had been seen by my fellow competitors. In the first match I had against Billa, I was simply outplayed. In the second, I managed to win by making safe plays.

In the third match, I ended up not using any of the tricks my Kangaskhan or Gardevoir had, due to me being too nervous to use them. Hopefully, I can become more confident in my own decisions, so that next year, I don’t lose by being nervous in a match. This is not to say that Billa didn’t play well, because he did!

In conclusion, I absolutely love VGC; it’s one of the highlights of the year for me, the community is great, and over the years I’ve made many friends by playing a video game. This year was my best experience at a VGC. Going 8-0 was wonderful, and the support I got from so many friends and fellow competitors alike was awesome. Thanks to everyone I met at Event City: you guys made my year!


About the Author



16 Responses to It’s a Trap! A 9th Place UK Nationals Report

  1. sohaib says:

    A very well written report . It’s great to see that gourgiest still got it .

  2. kibago11 says:

    Congrats in the placement dude. As a fellow Gourgeist fan, it’s good to see it getting the love it deserves.
    More importantly though, I really like the assessment of popular meta-Pokémon (Kang, Rotom, Gardevoir) and giving them slight modification. It makes the opponents job so mich more difficult because it messes with their autopilot! Great stuff!

  3. The WaywardDelibird says:

    Congratulations on the placement! Love the Mega-Gyarados and Gourgeist and the Gardevoir’s name is perfect.

  4. Lajo says:

    I usually have not much going for teams featuring Kangaskhan since they all are using it the same (admittedly broken) way, but your Kang is a different Story. Using it with Substitude is smart. Using Inner Focus makes it genius, and with Crunch it is pretty cool and even more dangerous.
    I played someone with a Substitude Kanga in the side Event of Day two and yes, the Substitude really catched me off-guard and forced some really crucial mind games.
    Now Add Ally Switch Gardevoir and you have a fearsome, destructive weapon you can never really be sure of what to expect would happen.
    And man, that combo with Phantom force Gourgeist- I rarely say it, but you deserve it: It´s genius!!!
    I have to admit, I really love that team, probably the first Team featuring Kangaskhan I fell in love with. Good job on your finish and keep up this creativity!

    It´s a shame you couldn´t remember the battles well, would love to read some of the Ally-Switch moments…Also, unfortunately the stream only shows which matches are on the stream, but not the actual match itself 🙁

  5. Pokeguru01 says:

    A very well written report . It’s great to see that gourgiest still got it .

     
    Thanks!! Gourgeist is one of my favourite competitive mons after how far it brought me. It’s definitely a mon that has ‘it’ :P.
     

    Congrats in the placement dude. As a fellow Gourgeist fan, it’s good to see it getting the love it deserves.
    More importantly though, I really like the assessment of popular meta-Pokémon (Kang, Rotom, Gardevoir) and giving them slight modification. It makes the opponents job so mich more difficult because it messes with their autopilot! Great stuff!

    Thanks, and I agree, Gourgeist is a pokémon that deserves usage, it’s so good :3. To be honest, with Kangaskhan, I felt that I had something to prove, due to it being my ‘signature’ pokémon in 2012, so I had to find a way for it to stand above other Kangaskhans hehe. With the other two mons, you hit the nail on the head, especially Gardevoir, since I can either make my opponent nervous with their choices, or I can exploit their initial confidence and gain an advantage in what could be a bad match up for me. 

     

     

  6. Pokeguru01 says:

    I usually have not much going for teams featuring Kangaskhan since they all are using it the same (admittedly broken) way, but your Kang is a different Story. Using it with Substitude is smart. Using Inner Focus makes it genius, and with Crunch it is pretty cool and even more dangerous.
    I played someone with a Substitude Kanga in the side Event of Day two and yes, the Substitude really catched me off-guard and forced some really crucial mind games.
    Now Add Ally Switch Gardevoir and you have a fearsome, destructive weapon you can never really be sure of what to expect would happen.
    And man, that combo with Phantom force Gourgeist- I rarely say it, but you deserve it to be said twice: It´s genius!!!
    I have to admit, I really love that team, probably the first Team featuring Kangaskhan I fell in love with. Good job on your finish and keep up this creativity!

    It´s a shame you couldn´t remember the battles well, would love to read some of the Ally-Switch moments…Also, unfortunately the stream only shows which matches are on the stream, but not the actual match itself :(

     
    :3 Thank you very much :3 
    I think I may have some battle videos saved of the team in action (from the International Competition). If you’re interested in seeing the battle videos, just PM me dude, and I’ll have a look and send you the codes. 
     

  7. Ty Flowsion says:

    I’ve already told you what I think of your team, in particular the Kangaskhan-Gardevoir combo. My sentiments echo Lajo’s, the way you set up and support Kangaskhan was exceptional. I built my team to easily handle standard Mega Kang and slight variants but yours required a different approach entirely. It just goes to show that deviation from the standard can really increase somethings threat level, and the fact that you managed to do this with what is already arguably the most inherently threatening pokemon in the format is fantastic.
     
    It was interesting to see what you had to say regarding Ally Switch in a BO3 situation. I did wonder if it became a psychological issue in that scenario, but you played it perfectly during swiss.
     
    A really great team and report, it deserves more discussion than it’s getting. Thanks for writing this up and congratulations once again on your strong finish!

  8. Pyritie says:

    I wasn’t wrong, however, I made the mistake of thinking I could Taunt the Aromatisse with my Gyarados.

     
    Doesn’t Mold Breaker Taunt go through Aroma Veil? Or did you not mega?

  9. bearsfan092 says:

    God this team looks like a best of 1 nightmare.  Sub Kanga.  Crunch Kanga.  Ally Switch Gardevoir (although to be honest I always think of this after I got smacked around a few times on Showdown with it).  Mega Gyarados with both Taunt and Dragon Dance.  It’s not even a bad Bo3 team, although I think it truly shines more in Swiss than in top cut.  Very cool team.  Especially in the more mature stages of the metagame, the impact of looking like a standard team but having a few wrinkles can go a long way.  I think that’s the main message to take out of this team.

  10. Pokeguru01 says:

    Doesn’t Mold Breaker Taunt go through Aroma Veil? Or did you not mega?

    I did not mega ^^u, I’m guessing I must have feared the moonblast or something hehe. 
     
     

    It was interesting to see what you had to say regarding Ally Switch in a BO3 situation. I did wonder if it became a psychological issue in that scenario, but you played it perfectly during swiss.

    I definitely think that Ally Switch is a Bo1 move, rather than Bo3, but it can help out a lot in the latter, if used later on – to play with it, you either need the surprise factor, or you need to be able to judge your opponents’ thoughts to the move eg, I sometimes end up using Ally Switch in the first two turns of battles because my opponents tend to think it’s a first turn only move, like Fake Out, due to what it does, and its priority, and so I can take advantage of this. But against a well seasoned VGC player, this can be hard to do.

  11. Draco277 says:

    Happy to see your impressive feat at nationals! Using kangaskhan was nice to see as i always associated that pokemon with you. Loved the team and cant wait to see you perform in the upcoming years!

  12. Miner 751 says:

    Just when you think you’ve seen all the different Kangaskhan sets, a new one emerges…
     
    And that Phantom Force/Ally Switch combo… so cruel, yet so brilliant :P
     
    Well done :)

  13. Galemaniac says:

    you know usually a team like yours would drive me up the wall and i’d just push you off as another khan abuser and offensive support with no innovation.
     
    However for some reason it i don’t get that from this team mostly because despite the khan spam BS, i think you actually know what you are doing considering the moveslots on khan aren’t fully cookie cutter and the support isn’t straight forward which in a strategy game which involves predicting your opponents moves plus ally switch/phantom force is as Lajo said genius.  I’ll actually put you in the league of good players not only because you have great nicknames, you have a strategy beyond KHAN SMASH + MORE SMASH + KHAN COUNTER SMASH!

  14. Necrocat219 says:

    Heya, I really enjoyed out match 🙂 Got so annoyed at myself. Again, good job on making so far and getting a perfect switt (Daniel Oztekin)

  15. Keonspy says:

    Maybe a but late! But I am glad I met you at the Arnhem Regional and that we still speak so now and then! And I like this team a lot you used. Very creative and cool tricks to use! Hope we can battle sometime for real in a tournament and that we can build/test many teams together.

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