Reports

Published on April 22nd, 2014 | by ushaikh17

11

Will-O-Miss: A Seniors 9th Place Madison Regionals Report

Hi all! My name is Umayr Shaikh, but people know me as ushaikh17 here on the forums. This weekend I attended the Madison Regionals and competed in the Seniors division. Despite large number of seniors in attendance, I still felt confident going in, but it took a lot effort for me to get to Madison because I live in Indiana. I met so many cool people from Nugget Bridge, including FonicFrog and ryuzaki , who gave me great advice on my team. I faced a lot of tough opponents from all different places, including Grace Arnold, a previous Georgia Regional champion in the Juniors division. Everyone I faced was a great player and I did not have a single easy match. I ended Swiss at 5-2, just barely missing Top Cut. Anyway, enough of my babbling; let’s get to the team itself.

The Team

salamencemamoswine ferrothorndragoniterotom-washmawile-mega

salamence

Salamence @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
– Draco Meteor
– Stone Edge
– Dragon Pulse
– Fire Blast

This is an incredibly standard Choice Scarf Salamence. This did not seem popular in the Senior division at all, as I only saw one other team with using Salamence and it had the Moxie Ability instead of Intimidate. In addition to that, my opponents throughout the day seemed to be amazed that I ran Choice Scarf on it, instead expecting it to hold a Life Orb. Due to this lack of knowledge, Salamence helped me clean up a lot of Garchomps and Hydregions that I faced. In addition to this, he could still OHKO the majority of Charizard Y’s and Talonflames with Stone Edge, but its 80% accuracy arose as a problem for me, as I ended up nearly losing a battle because my Stone Edge missed my opponent’s Charizard-Y.

mamoswine

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 28 HP / 164 Atk / 84 Def / 36 Sp.Def / 196 Spd
Adamant Nature
– Icicle Crash
– Earthquake
– Ice Shard
– Protect

Mamoswine: Salamence’s partner in crime. I always love pairing Salamence with Mamoswine. While Salamence may not be a very common Choice Scarf user in the Senior division, apparently Mamoswine is. Lots of my opponents thought Salamence’s and Mamoswine’s items were the reverse of what they were, with Salamence having Life Orb and Mamoswine instead having the Choice Scarf. I picked up on this very early on and always got a few chuckles when sending them out as my leads that caused some opponents to make some pretty bad mistakes on the first turn of the match.

Mamoswine’s EV spread is very unique, as it has a 56% chance of OHKOing a 4 HP/ 0 Def Salamence with Ice Shard at -1 Attack. In addition to this, it also survives an Iron Head from an Adamant Bisharp and outspeeds max Speed Timid Tyranitar. Surprisingly, I did not run into any of these guys at the tournament. The only Salamence I faced had defensive bulk. Mamoswine still served me well throughout the day, as priority Ice Shard saved me in a couple of my battles.

ferrothorn

Ferrothorn @ Lum Berry
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Atk / 156 Spd
IVs: 0 Spd
Brave Nature
– Power Whip
– Gyro Ball
– Leech Seed
– Protect

This is the Ferrothorn that Ray Rizzo (Ray) used at Virginia, and it has definitely served me well. This spread allows it to OHKO the very common 252 HP / 44 Def Rotom-Wash. Lum Berry is used to cure any potential burns from a Will-O-Wisp. Once again, nothing went as expected, and I did not face a single Rotom-Wash. As a matter of fact, I only faced one Rotom, and it was a Rotom-Heat. Despite this, Ferrothorn held a great position on my team, and its amazing late game presence helped me to clutch a couple of my battles as well.

dragonite

Dragonite @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 124 HP / 252 Atk / 90 Def / 44 Sp.Def
Adamant Nature
– Dragon Claw
– ExtremeSpeed
– Dragon Dance
– Earthquake

To be honest, I have always preferred Dragonite over Garchomp. People often ask me why I bring two Pokémon with the same Dragon-typing to the tournament. Well, the answer is quite simple, actually. Salamence is there for coverage and quick, speedy KOs, while Dragonite is there for the tanky setup. The only con that I found with Dragonite was that I couldn’t switch into him to take a hit, otherwise the Multiscale setup would be all but ruined. In fact, there was only one situation where Dragonite was able to fully setup and quickly get a KO, and that was just in a one-versus-one situation with an opponent’s Rotom-Heat. That being said, Dragonite was my least used Pokémon, as I only battled with him once. However, when I did, he was able to win the match for me.

rotom-wash

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 4 Sp.Atk / 132 Sp.Def / 4 Spd
Modest Nature
– Hydro Pump
– Thunderbolt
– Will-O-Wisp
– Protect

This is somewhat similar to Ray Rizzo’s Rotom-Wash, except Modest instead of Calm. Changing Rotom’s nature to Modest over Calm drastically reduces the chance that it survives a Solarbeam from Mega Charizard-Y: from 6.25% to 62.5% to be exact. However, I figured I needed more firepower on my team, and that Salamence should be able to KO an opposing Charizard before it got a chance to touch Rotom-W. Rotom-W is definitely the MVP of this team, as it helped me drastically in all of my matches. In fact, there was only one match in which I did not bring Rotom-W, as I needed him almost all the time. The only problem I had with it (and a rather big one, at that) was Will-O-Wisp. As a matter of fact, my Will-O-Wisp’s missed more than they hit, despite being an 85% accuracy move. I lost one of my matches to Grace Arnold because I missed three Will-O-Wisps against her consecutively. Due to this, her team of physical attackers, including Mega Kangaskhan, was able to defeat me. Despite Will-O-Wisp’s overall performance, Rotom-W deserves the MVP title, as I won more battles because of him than I lost.

mawile mawile-mega

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate -> Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Atk / 4 Def / 196 Sp.Def / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature
– Play Rough
– Iron Head
– Sucker Punch
– Protect

Here it is: my Mega Evolution. I tested at least 18 different Mega Evolved Pokémon for this tournament, and I eventually came down to the decision between either Mawile or Manectric. Manectric’s frailty and limited movepool led me to Mega Mawile. At first, I started using Ray’s Virginia Mawile, but the more I tested it, the more I noticed that it brought a more defensive presence to the team, whereas I wanted an offensive presence. In addition to this, he used 20 EV’s to speed creep other Mawile, and I found this to be incredibly excessive, as the majority of Mega Mawile run a 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def anyway. I did agree with the bad Special Defense however, and found a way to give Mawile more firepower while somewhat compensating for that lack of Special Defense as well. As a result of my thinking, this set was born. I actually did not face a single Mawile at all and I was stunned. Mawile is just so good, as it is one of the few Pokémon that can wall and knock out Mega Kangaskhan. I brought Mawile to every single one of my matches, and ended up needing it in each match.

Well, there you have it; that’s the team. Though I missed the top cut, I think I performed decently at this tournament, and I look forward to meeting so many more people at Nationals. Thanks to all who took time to read!


About the Author



11 Responses to Will-O-Miss: A Seniors 9th Place Madison Regionals Report

  1. Maffs says:

    Nice write-up, I can definitely feel you on Will-o-Wisp missing on what feels like 50% of the time 😛

  2. Senran says:

    Very nice team you have there =), im really interested in that mamoswine, i might steal it and put him into my experimental team for VGC UK this my 😉 congrats on making it as far as you did too.

  3. Amarillo says:

    Hey congrats on doing so well in your first regional!

  4. shadowopz1337 says:

    nice team

  5. squirtwo says:

    Good job with the finish! Will-O-Wisp can be a pain, I agree, but it is awesome that you still did well and had a great attitude even with the bad misses.

  6. LudiImpact says:

    I happened to notice that the Ferrothorn spread is wrong, there are too many. I think you meant 252 HP / 204 Atk / 52 SDef not 152

  7. ushaikh17 says:

    Hey thanks so much to everyone for reading this! This being my first year in VGC, its nice to have so much support from this community! Oh and by the way, Ludlimpact, thanks for finding that! I actually didnt notice that, so I will try to get that sorted out. Thanks!

  8. LPFan says:

    grimer man, nice report. Makes me wanna be a senior again. The glory days. 

  9. ushaikh17 says:

    grimer man, nice report. Makes me wanna be a senior again. The glory days.

    Haha I feel ya man. It’s my last year in seniors and I’m nervous for next season lol

  10. PurityVGC says:

    Yeah, I know what you mean about Will-O-Miss. It feels like it’s less accurate than Sheer Cold!
    Great report! This is my second year in seniors, and I qualified for the South Korean Worlds Qualifiers. Wish me luck!

  11. tyraniar360 says:

    nice team. it’s a shame you lost to willowisp misses

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