The Wrath Of Smaugan: Querétaro Premiere Challenge 3rd Place Report
Hey everyone! My name is Julio Fernández but you might know me as VKoball from the forums (but probably not). I’ve been playing Pokémon games since I was a kid, however it’s only been since the release of X and Y that I got into competitive Pokémon. Here in México we didn’t have a lot of big events until Premiere Challenges came to the country, so I started attending local tournaments and made a few friends there. When I heard that my city was about to hold one of the first official events in México I got really excited and started building my team. I experimented with both usual and unusual strategies because I really didn’t know what kind of metagame I would find at the tournament.
The tournament had an attendance of 32 Masters, which was kind of sad because we were expecting at least 70 of the 102 confirmed in the Facebook event. However, most of the players that did show up were pretty good, and that made our first official event quite interesting. So, let’s start with the team:
Team Analysis
When I started planning the team, I really wanted to use Charizard-Y. I’m pretty familiar with using Charizard-Y as my Mega, and I feel like I’m not the most effective user of Mega Kangaskhan. So, I started building a simple Grass/Fire/Water core with Pokémon that I had used before and felt comfortable with (except for Amoonguss). Rotom-W was the best option for the team simply because of Will-O-Wisp and that amazing natural bulk, and with Amoonguss I really wanted to redirect attacks and disrupt teams with Spore. Mamoswine was my Physical offense, while Aerodactyl and Mienshao filled their support roles quite well. Oh, and also the Sun played an important role on the team, because with my team’s crippling weakness to Water the Sun really helped dealing with the main threats to the team.
Charizard @ Charizardite-Y
Nickname: Smaugan
Ability: Blaze/Drought
IVs: 31/30/30/31/31/31
EVs: 124 HP / 74 Def / 252 SAtk / 60 Spe
Nature: Timid
-Flamethrower
-Solar Beam
-Hidden Power (Ice)
-Protect
This set was originally going to be Modest Natured, but after reading both Keegan’s (Darkeness) St. Louis report and Sir Chicken’s Mega Evolution article I noticed that my set was wasting potential, because the Speed was pretty mediocre. However, by changing the nature to Timid, I was able to reach a Speed stat of 140, letting me outspeed unboosted max Speed Smeargles and neutral unboosted 252 Speed Gyarados, while only losing a small amount of power. The HP and Defense EVs give him a 93.7% chance of surviving Jolly Garchomp’s Rock Slide and all of Timid Mega Manectric’s attacks except for Thunder. Flamethrower was chosen over Heat Wave because I didn’t want to deal with those nasty Weakness Policy Aegislash. Solar Beam was to hit Water and Rock types hard, while Hidden Power Ice made my life easier by always KOing the popular Salamence and Garchomp. With Tailwind support, this beast can outspeed every threat in the metagame. Named after a boss from Ninja Gaiden, that is named after Smaug from the Hobbit.
Mienshao @ Wide Lens
Nickname: Jam
Ability: Regenerator
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
-Fake Out
-Taunt
-Quick Guard
-High Jump Kick
Mienshao was included on the team because of the amazing supporting role it fills. With Fake Out, Taunt, and Quick Guard, I was kind of prepared to face slower Pranksters (especially the unsuspecting Sableye) or annoying Pokémon like Rotom. Quick Guard was always a surprise to my opponents and worked really well. The spread is basic, because I feel Mienshao really can’t do anything with those Defenses even with investment. The question might be: “Why would you put Wide Lens on Mienshao!?” The answer is pretty simple: my Focus Sash was already taken. I also wanted to mitigate High Jump Kick’s non-perfect accuracy, and not risk missing the KO on a foe’s Mega Kangaskhan or some other crucial KO. The item was going to be replaced with Safety Goggles but I decided to keep the Lens at the last minute before team registration. Named after Jam Kuradoberi, from the Guilty Gear series.
Aerodactyl @Focus Sash
Nickname: Camisaurio
Ability: Unnerve
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
-Rock Slide
-Sky Drop
-Tailwind
-Wide Guard
Another simple set. Wide Guard gave both Charizard and Aerodactyl the advantage against a Rock Slide locked Mamoswine or Garchomp, or simply protected teammates from spread attacks. Sky Drop was pretty useful, because it was a good way to hit Fighting and Grass types as well as staving off status inducers for at least one turn. The Tailwind support was beneficial for my team, and Rock Slide was a reliable STAB with a good chance of flinching the foe. Named after a silly character from a flash animation.
Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Nickname: Galura
Ability: Thick Fat
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 116 HP / 164 Atk / 116 Def / 76 SDef / 36 Spe
Nature: Adamant
-Ice Shard
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Protect
I don’t remember what this EV spread does, but I recall being inspired by both DrDimentio’s Adelaide Regionals and Umayr’s (ushaikh17) Madison Regionals reports. Mamoswine can take some hits while dealing some a high amount of damage with Life Orb. The STAB priority scares Dragons off, while Earthquake makes holes in opposing teams. Mamoswine was a crucial piece in this event, winning me some important Swiss rounds and filling a protagonist role in my top 8 match. Named after a boss from Final Fantasy V.
Rotom-W @ Sitrus Berry
Nickname: Kool-Aid
Ability: Levitate
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Def / 156 SAtk / 28 SDef / 4 Spe
Nature: Modest
-Hex
-Thunderbolt
-Will-O-Wisp
-Protect
This might look weird but it’s because the Rotom I’d used originally was a Rotom-H. I didn’t really feel like the EVs were that important, since I wanted Rotom to hit hard while taking a few hits itself. Hex was chosen over Hydro Pump, mostly because I really love my Sunny weather and because Hex gave me a reliable 130 base power move when the opponent was either Burnt or Asleep. This really helped me against my Aegislash matchup.
Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Nickname: Shaniqua
Ability: Regenerator
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 SDef
Nature: Bold
-Spore
-Giga Drain
-Rage Powder
-Endure
Probably the MVP of my team. Amoonguss was simply amazing, putting foes to Sleep, redirecting physical attacks (especially priority attacks when Mienshao wasn’t on the field), and dealing chip damage. The EV spread is actually Ray’s Massachusetts one, with the only difference being that the Speed EVs are now in Special Defense in order to always survive Modest Tyranitar’s Fire Blast in Sun. I really didn’t made use of Endure, but it was chosen for double targeting and because it helped against Mega Kangaskhan, causing more Rocky Helmet damage without being KOed. The nickname was originally for a Sassy Amoonguss, but I really didn’t had any creativity for this one so I just recycled the old one.
The Battles
Round 1
- He brought: Heliolisk, Seaking, (?), (?)
- I brought: Mienshao, Aerodactyl, Charizard, Mamoswine
This fight was pretty short, since this guy’s team was underleveled. However, when I noticed the strategy in Team Preview I got really impressed that someone decided to take Seaking to a tournament. This happened to be the only hard Sun team that I saw at the tournament. I forgot his last two Pokémon, probably because I was still thinking about what could have happened in the match without the level difference. Win.
Win 1 – Loss 0
Round 2
- He brought: Rotom-W, Kangaskhan, Sableye, Aegislash
- I brought: Mienshao, Aerodactyl, Charizard, Amoonguss
I know, my memory is actually pretty bad. This is the last match where I forgot to take notes, so going forward I will have more information about my matches. Mega Kangaskhan was the most notable Pokémon on his team, so I decided to take two Pokémon that could counter it somewhat: Amoonguss and Mienshao. The latter was also there to shut down Sableye so I could work through my opponent’s team smoothly. I was impressed on the first turn because he choose to lead with Rotom-W and Kangaskhan. I used Sky Drop on Rotom and Fake Out on Kangaskhan, and to my surprise Kangaskhan had Inner Focus, so he got a free Power-up Punch on me. The rest of the battle involved me taking care of the Mega Kangaskhan and annoying the annoyer. Win.
Win 2 – Loss 0
Round 3
- He brought: M-Blastoise, Salamence, Escavalier, Rotom-H
- I brought: Mienshao, Aerodactyl, Charizard, Amoonguss
My opponent’s team gave me a strong feeling of Trick Room, but I didn’t spot a Trick Room setter. He told me that he had wanted to use Porygon-Z, but wasn’t aware that it wasn’t part of the Kalos Dex, so he replaced it with Kingdra instead. His lead was Blastoise and Salamence, scoring an Intimidate on my leads. Turn one, he actually double switched that lead, showing me the rest of his team. I managed to Burn Escavalier and focused on taking care of the other Pokémon. In the end, Amoonguss and Charizard got the job done. Win.
Win 3 – Loss 0
Round 4 vs Martín (Eventual 1st place)
- He brought: Gengar, Rotom-W, Conkeldurr, Garchomp
- I brought: Aerodactyl, Amoonguss, Charizard, Rotom-W
This was a great battle. Surprisingly, he lead with Gengar and Rotom. I decided to Spore the latter on the first turn, while taking Gengar with Sky Drop and hoping it Mega Evolved. On the second turn, I put Gengar to Sleep as well. After a few turns his leads were KOed, and he sent in a Guts Conkeldurr and a Scarfed Garchomp. My Aerodactyl was down already, but I was able to set Tailwind just before sending in Charizard. I KOed his Garchomp while Amoonguss redirected Mach Punch and caused chip damage. Charizard was able to KO Conkeldurr the next turn. Win.
Win 4 – Loss 0
Round 5 Eventual 2nd place
- He brought: Rotom-W, Aegislash, Charizard, Heracross
- I brought: Mienshao, Rotom-W, Charizard, Mamoswine
A pretty scary team, since I’ve only battled Mega Heracross once before, when it swept my entire team due to my underestimating it. However, it turns out his beetle was actually Scarfed. I scored a Burn to Aegislash and Faked Out Rotom on the first turn. My opponent then switched Rotom into Charizard, and I scored a clean KO with Thunderbolt while Taunting his Aegislash. As the turns passed, he took my Charizard down with Heracross’ Stone Edge, but then I Burned Heracross. From there, it was pretty much game. Win.
Win 5 – Loss 0
At this point I was really happy that I made it to the Top Cut as the first seed, and to see that my last two opponents made it there too! I really knew that things were about to get serious and prepared for my upcoming matches.
Top 8 vs Ali
Game 1: He brought: Noivern, M-Scizor, Chandelure, Quagsire I brought: Aerodactyl, Mienshao, Amoonguss, Charizard
An interesting first round, because I really didn’t know what his team could do. I sent out my standard lead try to guess his strategy. He went all-out, as his Scizor Mega Evolved and his Noivern scored a KO on Mienshao. I sent in Amoonguss to redirect his priority and to get my Tailwind up, and I was really pleased that my little fungus survived both the incoming Air Slash and Bullet Punch. Aerodactyl ended up going down next turn, but not before taking Noivern down with it. Charizard comes in and practically ends the match on its own. Win 1-0
Game 2: He brought: Noivern, M-Scizor, Venusaur, Snorlax I brought: Mienshao, Amoonguss, Charizard, Mamoswine
From knowing him as a friend, I know that my opponent likes to take the same lead to catch people off guard in best-of-three matches. I prepared my lead to disrupt his strategy at the very beginning. The battle was as entertaining as the last one, because he kept with his all-out offensive strategy. I took the upper hand when he was only left with Snorlax and a damaged Mega Scizor, while I had Charizard and Mamoswine on the field. I just aimed a Flamethrower at Snorlax to damage it as much as I could so that Mamoswine’s Earthquake could take them both down, and it worked! Win 2-0
Top 4 vs Martin
Game 1 He brought: Noivern, M-Scizor, Chandelure, Quagsire I brought: Aerodactyl, Mienshao, Amoonguss, Charizard
This was an amazing battle. I already knew that Conkeldurr was about to Protect on the first turn to avoid getting Spored, so I double targeted Garchomp to get the flinch and then put him to Sleep. I proceeded to redirect Mach Punches again while hitting Garchomp, until he switched it into Rotom-W. I clearly remember that he got the upper hand in the game when he took down my Amoonguss and his Garchomp woke up, and after that everything went downhill for me. Loss 0-1
Game 2 He brought: M-Charizard-Y, Conkeldurr, Garchomp, Jolteon I brought: Aerodactyl, Rotom-W, Amoonguss, Charizard
This was a quick but exciting battle. In the first turn he Mega Evolved Charizard and double Protected, probably predicting a Thunderbolt + Rock Slide combo and in the next turn he made a smart switch to his Jolteon, who took the Rock Slide like a champ and recovered HP with the Thunderbolt I aimed at his Mega. The battle ended when my Charizard stood alone against his Garchomp and Jolteon. Loss 0-2
Closing Thoughts
The team simply worked wonders for me, although I made serious mistakes that I could have avoided. I feel really happy to say that I finished in third place in my first official event, and I can’t wait for the next ones to come! All those guys who participated in the tournament were pretty cool, and it was really nice to see some advanced strategies and test teams for the upcoming México City Premiere Challenge.
Special thanks to “La taberna de Miltank”, a little group that have helped me in a lot of ways and also cheered for me in my Top 4 match. I really hope that you have enjoyed my very first report and maybe this can help somebody out there, who knows! Thanks for reading!
About the Author
VKoball is a mexican player that found his love for Pokémon in his early years. He got into semi-competitive gaming with gen IV games but it wasn't until the release of gen VI that he started attending to local events with relative success.
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14 Responses to The Wrath Of Smaugan: Querétaro Premiere Challenge 3rd Place Report
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This is a pretty wasteful Charizard EV spread. You should always have your Nature boosting your highest stat, unless a different Nature is required to achieve an otherwise unreachable stat.
In this case you say you use Timid to reach a Speed stat of 140, but this is completely feasible using a Modest Nature too.
Your Charizard stats as Timid:
EVs: 124 HP / 72 Def / 252 SAtk / 60 Spd
HP 169
Defense 107
Sp. Attack 211
Sp. Defense 135
+Speed 140
Potential Charizard stats as Modest:
EVs: 124 HP / 72 Def / 156 SAtk / 156 Spd
HP 169
Defense 107
+Sp. Attack 218
Sp. Defense 135
Speed 140
Same amount of EVs, but a profit of 7 stat points. Every stat helps!
You also don’t need that many defense EVs to have a 93.7% chance to survive Garchomp’s Rock Slide. 12 less EVs provide the same survival chance. So 124 HP / 60 Def / 164 SAtk / 4 SDef / 156 Spd is another alternative.
Thanks Baz, I really appreciate this observation. As a fairly new player, I didn’t knew that a mere Nature change could bring that waste of stat points. I’m definitely being more careful at building EV spreads from now on.
Glad to help.
It is IV 30 in Defense Carbonific, so at least 64 EVs are required there.
I really like this team, congrats on placing 3rd with it!
Though, one question about the Mienshao: why use Regenerator if you didn’t use U-Turn? Reckless seems like it would have been a bit superior, since you were already using Wide Lens to help take care of that accuracy problem, and it could have increased the damage output a bit more. But aside from that little nitpick, I really like a lot of the unconventional choices you made with this team. I especially like Endure on Amoongus, it seems hilarious against Mega-Kang, and I’m definitely going to have to run some calcs on the Hex Rotom, it seems like it can really help vs. Gengar and Aegislash.
I totally forgot about Reckless on Mienshao. However it may seem funny that I was running Inner Focus before, because I had some trouble facing faster Fake Out users. I used the one with Regenerator because I didn’t noticed that my other Mienshao was Adamant natured until the night before…
I’m glad that you liked those weird choices.
Oh, I see. It’s understandable, I used a similar Mienshao in the May International Challenge, but instead of Fake Out I used Feint. The damage output was phenominal even with a Jolly nature because of Reckless, though getting outpredicted and forced to take that High Jump Kick recoil when its target Protects or switches into Aegislash or Gengar really sucks. >.<
Also, I know that you stated that the Rotom’s EV’s were for a Rotom Heat variant, but what was it EV’d to survive anyways?
I don’t remember that much, however one of the main goals of the set (when I was running Rotom-H) was to survive a Waterfall from an unboosted +252 Gyarados outside the sun. The Special Defense EVs gave it a decent chance to survive an Hydro Pump from the popular 116 Sp.A Calm Rotom-W in the same conditions.
I didn’t know Rotom forms could NOT know their signature move and retain their form. How is that possible at all?
You teach Rotom the move when it changes formes, then delete it as you would any other move via the Move Deleter
i haven’t a match against you but…. congrats for the 3rd place and i’ll be waiting for the next tournament. you’re a player incredible, you growth so much in a few months, be proud of yourself n.n but don’t think i’ll be soft with you MUAAKAKAKAKA :p
I’m glad I inspired someone’s successful team – thanks for mentioning me! I’m surprised you used Flamethrower as your only STAB attack – personally I’d think Hidden Power Ice is wasting Charizard’s damage potential with sun-boosted Fire attacks. Rotom-W’s Hex is also surprising – I guess Aegislash wouldn’t expect to take that much damage from a Rotom-W in the sun. It looks like your opponents used some interesting and unusual teams.
Well, I definitely fell in love with that Orbed Mamowine when I saw it. About the Hidden Power Ice, usually I don’t feel comfortable running the standard Charizard-Y set with double Fire STAB, and since I kind of knew that in some matches Mamoswine was predictable and a priority target for my foes, Hidden Power Ice granted me a way to deal with the unsuspecting opposing dragons. This helped alot in practice, against Mawile + Salamence/Garchomp match-ups, because either the switch or Protect on the fairy was obvious.
I tend to play a bit weird, however, I might try a more standard Charizard set on the future. Thanks to you!
I have to apologize. It seems that my memory failed me again and I made the giant mistake of placing Mega Mawile instead of Weavile in the team of my round 5 opponent. I feel really ashamed of this but hopefully in the upcoming events I’ll take better notes. :S