Reports

Published on November 5th, 2014 | by pyromaniac720

13

Turning the Metagame on its Head: A 21st Place Philadelphia Regional Report

Hi guys! My name is Stephen Brown III, also known as Pyromaniac720 on Showdown, Twitter, YouTube, and Nugget Bridge, and this is my report on the team that I used to go 7-2 and bubble at one of the toughest fall regionals. Ever since getting top 16 at LCQ, I kept trying to make new teams based off of my LCQ team (which you can read about here). However, I found that many more people than I expected had actually read my report, so they knew what my Pokémon could do. My opponents knew that I was using tricks such as Choice Scarf Gardevoir, Choice Specs Rotom-Wash, and Mega Charizard X, so I decided that I would just start my new team from scratch.

The Teambuilding Process

I knew that I wasn’t going to use Mega Charizard X this time, so I needed to find another Fire-type Pokémon (I wouldn’t live up to my name without at least one Fire-type Pokémon on my team). At first, I considered Rotom-Heat, but the Special Attack drop from Overheat was unappealing- the best way to reset the drop would have been Volt Switch, and I highly prefer Thunderbolt. Using Choice Specs was an option, but being locked into Overheat is highly problematic. Pyroar and Delphox seemed like good options, but I found that both were extremely frail. In the end, I decided on Talonflame, as its offensive power with Brave Bird and Flare Blitz combined with its support options in Tailwind, Quick Guard, Taunt, and Will-O-Wisp were extremely appealing.

I had the idea to run Mega Aerodactyl with Smack Down alongside Garchomp. I decided to run a Choice Scarf Garchomp that was one point slower than Mega Aerodactyl (credits to TwiddleDee for the idea), allowing me to Smack Down and Earthquake targets such as Rotom-Wash. This allowed me to run a Garchomp that was fast, yet bulky.

Next, I wanted another Dragon-type. I’m not really a fan of Salamence, and my favorite Dragon, Dragonite, didn’t seem it would fit the team I had in mind. Instead, I opted for Life Orb Hydreigon, which gave me many different options in battle. However, I didn’t want to deal with the Special Attack drop from Draco Meteor, and I knew I couldn’t use Draco Meteor and Dragon Pulse on the same set without making significant sacrifices. I decided to use the only Pokémon that could reverse stat drops: my old pal, Malamar. With Topsy-Turvy, I could safely use Draco Meteor and Overheat without being stuck in awkward positions. Since Malamar also learned Simple Beam and Hypnosis, I decided to use it as a support Pokémon. Since Rotom-Heat’s main issue was now solved, I also added it to the team.

I loved the team and in testing, was doing fairly well. However, I realized that the team had some glaring weaknesses, especially to rain teams and Azumarill. I also had issues with Dragon-types if Tailwind hadn’t been set up, so I replaced Garchomp with a Gardevoir from my LCQ team- a bulky Choice Scarf variant. I also decided to replace Mega Aerodactyl, as I didn’t have Garchomp to pair with it anymore. I tested Mega Absol and Mega Blastoise before settling on Mega Kangaskhan. Instead of boosting my attack with Power-Up Punch, I used Hammer Arm and then used Topsy-Turvy to give my Kangaskhan a speed boost, which allowed me to invest all of my EVs into HP and Attack. The final team looked like this:

Team Breakdown

Rotom-Heat @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 180 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
– Overheat
– Thunderbolt
– Will-O-Wisp
– Protect

First up is Rotom-Heat, and it’s pretty standard. The spread is one I made: 252 HP for maximum bulk, 180 Special Attack with a Modest nature for a guaranteed OHKO on Ray’s Mawile, 20 Speed EVs to speed creep other Rotom formes, and the rest invested into defenses. Rotom was huge for me in this tournament and with Topsy-Turvy, I felt very comfortable using Overheat. I used Safety Goggles to shut down the increasingly popular Mega Tyranitar + Amoonguss combination by avoiding Rage Powder and burning Tyranitar.

Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
– Draco Meteor
– Dark Pulse
– Earth Power
– Protect

Hydreigon was my Dragon of choice for this team. Going to +2 after a Draco Meteor (which won me a match) was very appealing. I originally had 108 HP EVs to take a Jolly Garchomp Dragon Claw, but after readying Ryosuke’s report, I switched to his 252 Speed spread to have at least a 50% chance to KO other Hydreigon. It also allowed me to outspeed a lot of bulkier Pokémon with base 100 Speed, such as Zapdos and Mega Kangaskhan. Two days before Philly, TwiddleDee gave me the idea to run Earth Power over Flamethrower. It worked out really well, because it allowed me to hit Mega Mawile in Rain, Tyranitar, and Azumarill, something that I couldn’t really do before. I could also use Simple Beam on Rotom formes with Malamar and then OHKO them with Earth Power, which was always a surprise (although it never came up at a live event). I brought Hydreigon to a ton of matches and absolutely loved it.

Talonflame @ Charti Berry
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Brave Bird
– Flare Blitz
– Tailwind
– Quick Guard

Relatively standard Talonflame. Brave Bird and Flare Blitz provide powerful STAB attacks, Tailwind provides much-needed speed for the team, and Quick Guard shuts down Sucker Punch, Fake Out, and Prankster Pokémon. I used max speed and a Jolly nature to block fast Fake Outs and at worst speed tie opposing Talonflame. Life Orb was being used by Hydreigon so I opted for Charti Berry, which allowed me to avoid OHKOs from non-STAB Rock Slides, giving me an extra turn to hit hard with Brave Bird or setup Tailwind.

Malamar @ Leftovers
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
– Superpower
– Simple Beam
– Topsy-Turvy
– Hypnosis

The favorite part of my team and the inspiration for this report’s title: Malamar. I opted for maximum special bulk since Superpower could give Malamar Defense boosts. Leftovers gave it consistent recovery and allowed Malamar to stick around. Simple Beam was able to neutralize many Pokémon that relied on their abilities, such as Azumarill, Mega Mawile, Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Lucario, and many others. I’ve already explained how Topsy-Turvy affects my team, but I can also use it to reverse the boosts of Belly Drum Azumarill, Dragon Dance Mega Tyranitar, Power-Up Punch Mega Kangaskhan, and any other stat boosts my opponents would gain. Hypnosis was fun since not many people knew that Malamar learns it. It connected both times I used it in Philly, and both times it won me the game. However, I only brought Malamar to three of my nine matches. I had actually planned on Malamar being a huge asset in top cut, but I never got to use it in a best of 3.

Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
EVs: 12 HP / 92 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 148 Spe
Modest Nature
– Moonblast
– Psychic
– Will-O-Wisp
– Taunt

This is the same Gardevoir I used on my LCQ team. The Speed EVs allow it to outspeed positive natured base 110 Pokémon such as Gengar, while the HP and Defense EVs allow it to take a Brave Bird from Jolly Talonflame 100% of the time. Taunt was extremely useful when I played against Trick Room teams or Smeargle. I tested out several different 4th moves, but I found that I was never using any of them, so I decided to use Will-O-Wisp.

Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy —> Parental Bond
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
– Return
– Hammer Arm
– Sucker Punch
– Protect

Finally, my Mega. This was the first time that I wasn’t using Mega Charizard X for an officially sanctioned event. Kangaskhan is a really good Mega that is easy to use since it fits on many teams. Hammer Arm was amazing for Kangaskhan mirrors (and won me my Round 9 game). I opted for Protect over Fake Out because my team didn’t really need Fake Out support. In general I found Protect more useful, especially in a best of 3 situation.

The Battles

Luckily, I was able to record all of my battles between rounds on my camera, and they are now uploaded on my channel below:

• Round 1 vs Thomas Horowitz 
• Round 2 vs Dayne Maust
• Round 3 vs Michael Lanzano (JiveTime)
• Round 4 vs Rob Doyle
• Round 5 vs Anonymous
• Round 6 vs Matt Grooms
• Round 7 vs Josh G
• Round 8 vs Jonathan Evans (Ezrael)
• Round 9 vs Dorian Nousias (Crazyblissey)

Conclusion

I had an amazing experience in Philly. I was so happy to go 7-2 and finish in 21st place. I feel as if I played really well and was only really outplayed in my match against JiveTime. Huge shoutouts to Araragii, Unreality, and Peara for joining me on the 7 hour drive from Massachusetts. Also, huge thanks to TwiddleDee once again for helping me perfect my team; I would not have done as well without the hours of testing and tweaking that we did. I hope to take this experience and build on it for PCs and Winter regionals. Also, check out my channel here! I upload videos almost daily—93 videos in 2 months if that’s any indication. There are also five battles with this team from a Premier Challenge that I won if you want to see more of how the team works. Also feel free to follow me on Twitter (@pyromaniac720) or chat with me on Showdown. Hope you enjoyed the report!

About the Author

pyromaniac720 I started reading up on competitive battling in 2013 after I couldn't beat Ray in the PWT. I became addicted to the competitive scene in Feb 2014 when I found showdown and Nugget Bridge

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