Reports

Published on September 19th, 2014 | by JHufself

19

You’ve Activated my Trap Card! Story of a 2014 Nationals Semifinalist

Hello, Nugget Bridge, this is Jon Hu, known by username as JHufself, and also one of the semifinalists of Pokémon’s 2014 National Championship Masters Division and competitor at Worlds 2014. For those looking for my Nationals setup, my whole team is on Pokémon’s website, albeit without the EV spreads or IV spreads. I’ll be covering both my Nationals and Worlds run in this article, and my experiences at events over the last year. Before my outstanding Nationals run, I was pretty much Unown and nameless, so this is one step I’m taking to get more involved with the community. Before when I was trying to get this report published before Worlds, I was withholding my EV spreads, but now that it’s over, I’ll gladly reveal and explain in great detail these spreads. For those who wish to know, my friends have been joking with me about this report never getting published. I’m still fairly new to Nugget Bridge as a member, and most likely you won’t be seeing too much of me onsite after this report since I’m really more of a lurker.

Team Analysis

If you’ve been following what I just outlined in the introduction, you already know what the team looks like at a glance, so I’ll save you the trouble of having to read through one of those sections. However, this section might get a bit lengthy as I explain in-depth why my team is the way it is. Prepare yourself!

Lapyuta (F) @Assault Vest
Ability: Water Absorb
Sassy Nature
76 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 180 Satk / 244 Sdef
-Ice Shard
-Freeze-Dry
-Hydro Pump
-Ancient Power

Lapyuta is a reference to Miyazaki’s Laputa: Castle in the Sky, also making it a reference to Gulliver’s Travels. It is spelled a little differently though due to the in-game name censors…

Lapras is one of my favorite Pokémon of all time. Not only is she an Ice-Type, my favorite type, but she also has an excellent base stat total and distribution. This generation introduced to us the Assault Vest item, which boosts the holder’s Special Defense by 50% in exchange for not being able to use Status moves like Protect. With Lapras’s massive HP and respectable Special Defense as well as an enormous attacking movepool, I instantly gave Lapras an Assault Vest for the very first competition I competed in this format way back in December 2013 and never looked back. While she has remained relatively unchanged for the entirety of the season, there are certainly some differences between this Lapras and others that makes her job a lot easier.

Firstly, you will notice that she has Water Absorb for an ability. After my semifinals match on Saturday, several individuals approached me with their congratulations and such on getting so far with such a weird team, and some popped the question,

Why choose Water Absorb over Shell Armor?

I understand that Lapras only has two natural resists in Water and Ice, and that because Water is already resisted, the logic follows that Water Absorb would be largely inferior to Shell Armor, an ability that prevents critical hits from ever making contact. However, I have always run Water Absorb on every Lapras I have ever taken to competition for one single reason: Rain teams. It is true that Lapras resists Water, but against a rain team where Water gains considerable firepower even when resisted, the immunity and healing granted by Water Absorb transforms Lapras from a general special wall into a hard counter against Politoed, Kingdra, and other Water-types who take advantage of rain-boosted hits. Granted, the Assault Vest lessens Water damage even further, but even if the damage is less than 10% of Lapras’s health, it is still just that: DAMAGE. Lapras running Shell Armor have no form of recovery outside of Heal Pulse partners, meaning this damage is permanent. With this format’s emphasis on chunking the opponent, Lapras cannot afford to take that resisted Water hit if it means another of the opponent’s Pokémon can come in and knock her out. In the rare off chances where critical hits do take place, I find that the end result does not change most of the time, since Lapras is not built to take repeated Physical hits and Special hits of all sorts just bounce off the Vest. If I ever choose to run Lapras on future teams, which is highly likely, you will never see me run Shell Armor over Water Absorb. So to sum it all up for you skimmers out there:

Pros:

• Immunity to Water
• Source of recovery
• No Scald burns
• More switching power

Cons:

• Not immune to Critical Hits

While you can search and find a standard spread for Assault Vest Lapras, that set places more emphasis on balancing Lapras’s other stats rather than specializing in any one stat. For me, I choose to fully specialize in Lapras’s Special Defense, making it an extremely tough wall to climb for Special Attackers; even those with super effective coverage have trouble conquering Lapras. Since I never want to rely on Lapras to take physical hits for the team, I leave her Defense almost uninvested. The 180 Special Attack allows Lapras to have somewhat of an offensive presence, since its natural stat isn’t all that impressive. 76 HP hits a nice number to mitigate passive damage.

Lapras’s moveset is the standard one. I used to run Thunderbolt over Ancient Power, but Thunderbolt is largely inferior and redundant since Freeze-Dry gets Super-Effective damage on Water-types and Ancient Power hits Charizard-Y under sun and Articuno a lot harder than Thunderbolt. Ice Shard is priority, and Hydro Pump, while a little unreliable at times, is probably the only Water move that is even viable on Lapras since it doesn’t get Scald (darn that Ice type).

Shayuu (F) @Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
Adamant Nature
60 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def / 36 Sdef / 148 Spd
-Dragon Claw
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Protect

Shayuu is the Chinese Pinyin spelling of the two characters which make up shark. The extra “u” is for aesthetics.

When Generation IV had just come out with Diamond and Pearl, I hated Garchomp. Smogon’s eventual ban of it from OU singles cemented my position even further. Yet somewhere along the transition from Generation IV to Generation V, I came to appreciate Garchomp for how good it is, and I think the base stats alone will tell you that it’s good for a reason, although its speed is not the reason I am using it.

On my first team this season, I ran a standard Jolly Garchomp with a Yache Berry. As I played with it more on Showdown one thing really irked me about the standard spread, and that was the inevitable Garchomp-mirror speed tie. Ironically, for someone who used Confuse Ray at Nationals, I really did not like the coin flipping nature of such a matchup. The change from Yache to Lum Berry is in line with the changing metagame, and is mostly there for Smeargle and burn insurance. It did its job just as advertised. This spread has many specific things about it, so allow me to elaborate and throw some calcs at you:

• 252+ Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 158-188 (85.8 – 102.1%) — 12.5% chance to OHKO
• 252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 60 HP / 12 Def Garchomp: 140-168 (73.2 – 87.9%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Let’s start with the Garchomp mirror, assuming no Life Orb, Jolly 252/252 spread. From full health, my Garchomp has a 1/8 chance of flat out KOing opposing Garchomp, while the other Garchomp has no chance at all to OHKO. It is also significant to note that after the standard Garchomp attacks with Dragon Claw, it leaves my Garchomp with more than 23 HP 15/16 times, which is the Rough Skin number for both Garchomp. Considering that the standard Garchomp takes 23 damage from my Rough Skin, leaving them at 161 HP, I then have a 15/16 chance to KO them back. That means for this particular mirror, my Garchomp should win about 87.9% of the time, on top of the 1/8 chance OHKO from full health. Here are some more calcs dealing with Ice Type moves aimed at Garchomp:

• 252+ SpA Mega Manectric Hidden Power Ice vs. 60 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp: 172-204 (90 – 106.8%) — 37.5% chance to OHKO
• 252 SpA Mega Manectric Hidden Power Ice vs. 60 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp: 156-184 (81.6 – 96.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 SpA Life Orb Pyroar Hidden Power Ice vs. 60 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp: 177-208 (92.6 – 108.9%) — 50% chance to OHKO
• 68 SpA Ludicolo Ice Beam vs. 60 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp: 148-176 (77.4 – 92.1%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252 SpA Politoed Ice Beam vs. 60 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp: 180-212 (94.2 – 110.9%) — 62.5% chance to OHKO
• 180 SpA Lapras Freeze Dry vs. 60 HP / 36 SpD Garchomp: 184-220 (96.3 – 115.1%) — 87.5% chance to OHKO
• 4 Atk Lapras Ice Shard vs. 60 HP / 12 Def Garchomp: 84-100 (43.9 – 52.3%) — 14.1% chance to 2HKO

Those last two were for my personal enjoyment, but you get the point. This Garchomp has a higher chance of living any Ice moves from the common non-STAB users, and even turns some of the weaker ones into 2HKOs. I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve played games with this Garchomp and been thoroughly pleased by how many hits it can take before going down. As an added bonus, 148 Speed EVs speed creeps the Smeargle speed tier.

I don’t think I need to explain the move choices, since it IS Garchomp’s bread and butter set.

MeganeMegami (F) @Choice Specs
Ability: Telepathy
Modest Nature
124 HP / 28 Def / 240 SAtk / 28 Sdef / 88 Spd
IV’s: 14 Atk / 30 Satk / 30 Spd
-Psychic
-Moonblast
-Dazzling Gleam
-Hidden Power (Fire)

MeganeMegami is Japanese for “Glasses Goddess”, a reference to her held item.

Another of my personal favorites, Gardevoir becomes a monster in this Generation because of its new shiny Fairy-type. I toyed around with many different types of Gardevoir before settling on Specs, with Support variants, Scarf variants, and Life Orb variants being among the trial sets. Specs Gardevoir is a massive threat to anyone who is unprepared, and she saw lots of usage during day one’s qualifying Swiss rounds. Unfortunately, she seemed to fall a bit short day two because my opponents were obviously well equipped to deal with her.

The moveset is fairly standard except for the last move, Hidden Power. Taking a look back at my team, I realized I had no Fire coverage. So this was my solution. For the most part, Hidden Power went unused and was only used a few times over the whole tournament, but I do not regret my choice, since if I had run into any Ferrothorn, I would have a lot of trouble trying to take it out without any Fire coverage. This is the following matchup against Ray’s Ferrothorn spread:

• 240+ SpA Choice Specs Gardevoir Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Ferrothorn: 184-220 (101.6 – 121.5%) — guaranteed OHKO

This is the specific calc that I prepared Gardevoir’s Special Attack EV’s for, with the EV’s in HP minimizing passive damage, Speed EV’s to speed creep some Rotom/Venusaur/some invested Base 80s with the rest split between her defenses for more bulk.

Gardevoir’s ability, Telepathy, allows Garchomp to safely Earthquake alongside her, thus forming a very competent duo that I will be covering later. I found Trace to be too situational and inconsistent compared to Telepathy.

->  

Raven (M) @Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate -> Huge Power
Adamant Nature
252 HP / 60 Atk / 196 Sdef
IV’s: 23 Def / 30 Spd
-Play Rough
-Iron Head
-Sucker Punch
-Protect

Raven is named for Mawile’s inherently ravenous nature, not the black-feathered bird written about in poems. If I had two giant gaping jaws and a normal mouth, I sure would be hungry pretty much all the time. He’s also one of the two Shiny Pokémon on this team.

Mawile is a Pokémon I picked up with the generation shift. Up until Mega Sableye was revealed, Mega Mawile was my favorite Mega of the bunch, partly due to the fact that it is basically Sableye’s in-game counterpart. I originally thought the only way to go with Mawile was max Attack investment and max HP investment until I read Ray’s Virginia Regionals report and changed that line of thinking. I don’t remember what exactly I built this spread for, but it survives its fair share of non-STAB Fire attacks and still takes Physical Attacks with an imperfect Defense IV. I would have invested in the Speed stat if it weren’t for the 30 IV. Other than that, the moveset, base ability, and usage in battle are similar to any other Mawile you may find out there.

Gemineye IV (M) @Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
Careful Nature
244 HP / 252 Sdef / 12 Spd
-Will-o-Wisp
-Taunt
-Confuse Ray
-Shadow Sneak

Gemineye IV is the fourth of a long line of competitive Prankster Sableye, with the first being used in the 2012 season. Just kidding.

Probably the Pokémon I’m currently most known for, Sableye is another of my favorites from across the generational transitions. To clarify, I’ve been using competitive versions of Sableye (with little success) since Generation IV, before Prankster even existed. Sableye is one of Mega Kangaskhan’s natural predators in a format where Kangaskhan is at the top of the food chain. Barring any rogue Kangaskhan running Crunch or Shadow Claw, Sableye can literally sit down in front of Mega Kangaskhan, burn it, confuse it, and watch it suffer, not taking her partner into account.

Sableye was only on one of my other teams this season, that team being the first one. To be completely honest, after the first competition, I dropped Sableye for quite a while due to his single Fairy weakness and the rise of Gardevoir. In actuality, he was added onto the team maybe two weeks before competition, but due to the experience I’ve gathered from using Sableye for so long, I was able to comfortably play and utilize him without very much practice.

The EV Spread is simple, maximizing Special bulk and putting the rest into Speed to creep. 244 HP is used to hit an N/4 number so that I don’t waste Sitrus Berry’s benefits.

Will-o-Wisp and Taunt are Sableye staples. I almost contested not putting Will-o-Wisp on Sableye due to some very poor past experiences with the move’s then lower accuracy, but then I remembered there wasn’t any reason to run Sableye over other Pranksters if it wasn’t running Will-o-Wisp. This paid off as I only missed one Will-o-Wisp in the whole tournament, and that miss honestly probably did not affect the outcome (I lost). Confuse Ray and Shadow Sneak are odd choices for Sableye, so allow me to expand on these.

Shadow Sneak

Shadow Sneak is a move I personally like a lot; it has priority, is consistent, and is Ghost-Type coverage, a very strong offensive type in this generation. Before, this slot used to be Sucker Punch, but with the Dark-Type’s arguably less useful coverage against Fairies and Fighters, the low PP, and the conditions of Sucker Punch, it wasn’t as applicable. The only problem with both of these moves is that they make Sableye a sitting duck against Quick Guard users. If I were given the opportunity to change this to a different move, it would probably be one of either Night Shade, Foul Play or Snarl.

Confuse Ray

This last slot was going to be either Recover or another disrupting move. My thoughts were very similar to the thoughts given in Sam Bentham’s Top 32 UK Nationals report, so please read his section on Swagger and using it because I won’t be explaining what has already been explained before. The reason I chose to use Confuse Ray over Swagger is Confuse Ray’s 100% accuracy and lack of an attack boost, as I wanted to be able to also confuse physical attackers at no additional cost. In general, confusion inducing moves tend to get a lot of hate, rage, and a reputation somewhere along the lines of being skill-less so if you plan on running confusion of any sort, be prepared for your opponent’s judgments. It may actually be more beneficial for you as the opponent becomes more annoyed, clouding his or her judgment on making moves, or loses hope in winning, which I find actually goes a long way in a game like this where there is another battle on the psychological level. I was very surprised at the overall lack of Safeguard or other Sableye prevention tactics at this year’s Nationals, and this enabled him to get lots of mileage out of both Confuse Ray and Will-o-Wisp.

->  

Banshee (F) @Gengarite
Ability: Levitate -> Shadow Tag
Timid Nature
4 Def / 252 Satk / 252 Spd
IV’s: 27 HP / 2 Atk
-Shadow Ball
-Sludge Bomb
-Substitute
-Protect

As the other Shiny on the team, Banshee’s name is fitting due to Smogon’s near instant banning of the Gengarite item as well as being female. 

As the final member and probably my MVP for the tournament, Gengar is in an interesting position for this metagame. On one hand, base Gengar acts much like a Sableye would with fast Will-o-Wisps and Taunts being thrown everywhere, with Shadow Ball for offensive presence and its Kangaskhan walling capabilities. On the other, we have a whole team archetype revolving around its Mega with Perish Trap. When I drafted Gengar after the Spring Regionals, it was playing the former role, since I had no intention of actually using Perish Song or even using Mega Gengar, and Sableye had not yet been added to the team. But as a player who has practiced regularly using Dual Mega teams for the whole season, I decided to try out Mega Gengar in this phase, forgoing the standard Focus Sash, but not changing the moveset at all. This didn’t work all that well since Mega Gengar is certainly not meant for the role base Gengar plays. And that’s when I thought of a different role Gengar could play, outsourcing its previous support moveset to Sableye.

The EV spread is a standard special sweeper build, with the extra 4 being dropped into Defense due to imperfect HP IV, although even if it were Perfect, it would still get dumped in Defense to allow Gengar to be able to create up to 4 Subs.

For Gengar’s moveset, I chose Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb for STAB moves due to their consistency and power. Their secondary effects are also quite useful, with the 20% Special Defense drop from Shadow Ball speeding games up and the 30% Poison causing extra chip damage. Substitute was to prolong Gengar’s time on the field and block status from non-Pranksters as well as turning Mega Kangaskhan’s usual OHKO Sucker Punch into a survivable hit at +0 Attack modifiers. I would compare the utilization of Substitute here as similar to Aegislash, minus the really good bulk.

Dual Megas

With Gengar being the second mega on the team alongside Mawile, it was an interesting experience to say the least. Gengar never requires Mega Evolution to be useful, as base Gengar avoids Earthquake, still outspeeds a vast majority of the meta, and has quite a bit of power behind her STAB moves. This means that unlike other Dual Mega team layouts that have two Megas that rely on their evolution, Gengar can actually be run without ever Mega Evolving during battle. I used this to my advantage mostly during day two Swiss and Worlds, but nonetheless I find this setup to be more flexible in dealing with other teams.

Shadow Tag Trapping with Mega Gengar

Mega Gengar has quite a few things going for it that the other trapper, Gothitelle, does not have. For starters, Gengar’s base speed goes from an already high 110 to an even higher 130, tying with Aerodactyl at 200 maximum speed. This allows Mega Gengar to be an effective revenge killer as well as provide it with a fast Sub for a more defensive approach. Second, Mega Gengar’s Ghost/Poison typing provides nearly unresisted neutral STAB coverage over the common threats in the metagame, with mostly only dual Dark types such as Bisharp or Tyranitar resisting both. While it may not be as bulky as Gothitelle, Mega Gengar more than makes up for it with the offensive pressure it provides even against Kangaskhan, whose trainer will have to predict whether Gengar Subs, Protects, or attacks each turn it spends on the field.

Finally, it wouldn’t be a Mega Gengar analysis without the mention of Perish Song. I feel like many players give me too much credit for building a team with Mega Gengar that doesn’t utilize Perish Song, since Lapras and Gengar are actually fairly passable options in this meta without the Perish Song option. I only tried utilizing Perish Trap once during testing. Needless to say, I hated that play style, because personally, I found Perish Trap Gengar to be counter-intuitive since it was wasting Mega Gengar’s ridiculous base 170 Special Attack stat.

Team Synergy and Pair Ups

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This pairing is often used against Amoonguss + Setup leads, Fake Out leads, and Perish Trap teams, not that I actually ran into any Perish Trap teams during the tournament. Turn one I simply choose not to Mega Evolve and get a free Sub while Amoonguss wastes away Rage Powder or Spore, and the opposition gets nailed with a STAB Earthquake from Garchomp. For Fake Out users, if their name is not Kangaskhan, Gengar can still get up a free Sub while Garchomp can punish the Fake Out with Rough Skin.

+  

AKA an inexperienced player’s worst nightmare. Specs Gardevoir backed up by STAB Earthquakes can demolish unprepared teams with very little effort due to the immense pressure it provides against teams with slower Pokémon.

+  

The anti-Kangaskhan unit. This pairing effectively makes the battle a two-on-one matchup, since Kangaskhan can do nothing to either unless I decide to attack with Gengar. Also, it makes Confuse Ray a forced coin flip, as the opponent can no longer switch out.

+  

If I can trap in two special attackers, this is the optimal pairing for the matchup. Lapras does a great job at softening up the opposition so Gengar can finish them off with a STAB Sludge Bomb or Shadow Ball. When opponents see these two in the Team Preview, most assume it is a Perish Trap combination, which allows me to gain a surprise factor.

+  

Mawile, due to its excellent typing and offensive prowess, can effectively be paired with everyone but Mega Gengar for obvious reasons, but pairs best with Sableye due to its sole Fairy weakness which Mawile covers. Sableye also allows Mawile to overcome Substitute Aegislash because of Taunt. This combination also happens to put a damper on any Kangaskhan looking to sweep.

The Team’s Shortcomings

No team is without flaws and here are some that I noticed either during testing or during the tournament. Some I chose to ignore and some I just didn’t have enough practice or planning for.

Talonflame

This team has a major problem dealing with Talonflame, and it’s obvious to see why. Only one resist to Brave Bird in Mawile, who is weak to Talonflame’s other STAB move, with Garchomp and Lapras only being able to KO after taking a hit. It also has Quick Guard access, which shuts down any utility Sableye could have had in a game. Luckily, I did not have to fight very many of these throughout the tournament, although it did end up defeating me almost single-handedly in my final game.

Ferrothorn

As explained in the team analysis, I only have Hidden Power for Fire coverage, which means after Gardevoir is taken out, Ferrothorn walks all over this team. Gengar can at least chunk Ferrothorn and possibly get a Special Defense drop before getting OHKOed by Gyro Ball, but it certainly is not reliable. Gardevoir can’t even be considered a counter because she is part Fairy. Fortunately, I ran into a grand total of zero Ferrothorn during the tournament, so I didn’t have to think too hard about this one.

Lucario + Mega Lucario

I’m very glad that there were very few Lucario at the tournament, because Lapras cannot effectively deal with any form of Lucario, Mega or not. Bullet Punching varieties of Mega Lucario also take healthy chunks of life out of Gengar, Gardevoir, and Sableye. Special variants tend to be easier to manage, but still pack a punch against the team. Normal Lucario is also really annoying for its Follow Me shenanigans.

Hydreigon

Hydreigon normally isn’t a problem since I’m carrying two Fairies on this team, but with the right team support like in higher level top cutting teams, Hydreigon is free to drop Specs Draco Meteors, Dark Pulses, and Flamethrowers all over my team. This is even worse if Hydreigon is Scarfed, as it can out speed Gengar even after Mega Evolution to KO with a STAB Dark Pulse.

Dawn of the First Day

Unlike many other players who came from around the country to compete, I live within an hour driving distance from the convention center, so I don’t really have an interesting lead up to the competition. I did stay up until 2:00 am on Friday morning putting together a team for my friend, Tim, who went on to go 6-3 with it, and woke up at 5:00 am in order to actually get to the venue on time. So effectively, I was running on three hours of sleep for the entire first day of the event, with no naps in between rounds or anything of the sort. I’m still amazed that I was able to go nearly undefeated with such little sleep. One final thing before we get into the Swiss rounds: as the day went on, for some reason, my note taking got progressively worse, so I apologize for less than stellar details in the later half of Swiss.

At the player meeting, instead of sitting at a table like I should have been, I was keeping my brother some company before the rounds started. Going into the competition, 50% of my attitude was to have fun and the other 50% was to actually win, having accepted that I could go nowhere fast with previous overall losing Nationals records.

Round 1 – Brenden Hudson – Singles vs. Doubles

He used:    

I used:    

My first round opponent told me that this was his first competition event, which became even more obvious when he told me during the battle that he actually prepared for a Single battle tournament. Whoops!

In any case, the battle pretty much ended as soon as it started, with Garchomp and Gardevoir sweeping his whole team with Dazzling Gleam and Earthquake/Rockslide, with both coming out of the battle unscathed. I did score two neglible critical hits with Garchomp’s Rock Slide on turn two however.

Win 4-0 (1-0)

Round 2 – Danny Z. – Support Salamence and Sableye

He used:    

I used:    

I didn’t really know what to think of Danny’s team at the Team Preview, but all I noticed was the Florges sitting in his battle box. As the battle opens up, I lead off with the double Gar combination while Danny leads with Kangaskhan and Rotom. I decided turn one to eat the possible Fake Out headed in either direction, choosing to Rock Slide with Garchomp and Psychic with Gardevoir. This turns out pretty poorly as he simply switches Rotom for Trevenant and Mega-Return knocks out Gardevoir. Sableye takes Gardevoir’s spot on the field and Taunts Trevenant to block an incoming Will-o-Wisp as Kangaskhan switches out of a nasty matchup for Salamence, reducing the power of Garchomp’s Dragon Claw thanks to Intimidate, and upon making contact with Salamence and taking off less than half of his health, reveals its Rocky Helmet item.

The next turn, I swap Garchomp for Mawile, hoping to catch Salamence using a Dragon-type attack on Garchomp’s slot, and in the process burn Trevenant, making his Shadow Claw do little damage. Salamence Protected that turn, so I still came out of the situation alright. Turn four, Danny makes a risky double switch, switching Salamence into Rotom, and Trevenant into Kangaskhan. Unfortunately for him, I decided to Play Rough on Trevenant’s slot, causing Kangaskhan to faint to Play Rough, AND used Confuse Ray on Salamence’s slot, since I assumed it to be a Special variant anyway. With Salamence back in for turn five, I Protect with Mawile in case Rotom broke through the coin flip with an Overheat and Confused the Salamence. Rotom gets off a Thunderbolt onto Sableye, but Salamence hits itself.

Here’s where the notes get a bit iffy. On turn six, Rotom connects an Overheat with Mawile’s flammable face, but does not earn the OHKO, leaving him with a small percentage of health left. Salamence gets a Roost up, but it also gets burned by Sableye. Mawile does something this turn that I apparently did not find very important, but I assume that by the end of the turn he survived, as my notes say that I switch Sableye out for Garchomp the next turn. This is where my notes end, but my memory has not.

With the rest of the battle coming from my memory, I’m sure to miss a few details here and there. I remember that after these turns, the battle essentially turned into a stall war between Sableye and all of Danny’s remaining Pokémon. There was lots of Confuse Ray shenanigans, a fact easily memorable because of how annoyed Danny seemed to be getting after the first half of the battle. Sableye blocked a Trick Room as well as any more Roosts from Salamence, allowing Garchomp to get the KO after a long, drawn-out battle. I’m not even sure of what record I had by the end of the battle, but I do know that I won almost single-handedly with Sableye and that it survived the whole ordeal. I feel that I must apologize to Danny, as Sableye basically turned my terrible first turn play into a ridiculously long comeback. No hard feelings, I hope.

Win ??-0 (2-0)

Round 3 – John Steffen – Disruptor Rotom, Articuno, and Gardevoir’s Destruction

He used:    

I used:    

Going into round three, I see the Articuno in the team preview and very much wanted John to win, to prove to me that Articuno was usable in this format. But that is not to be the case. He leads with Venusaur and Chandelure, while I send in Gengar and Gardevoir. I know that if Chandelure is Scarfed, it will only be able to OHKO Gengar, but not Gardevoir with Shadow Ball. I decide to Mega with Gengar as John Megas with Venusaur, but Gardevoir gets the first turn KO with Psychic as Chandelure switches into Rotom for some reason. He replaces Venusaur with Articuno, and the second turn begins. I switch Gengar for Lapras, eating an incoming Ice Beam from Articuno, while Gardevoir, still undamaged, hits Rotom for around 75% of its health, which is healed up by a Sitrus Berry as Rotom paralyzes Gardevoir with Thunder Wave.

For the remainder of the battle, Gardevoir and Lapras hold down the front lines until the battle is won. John switches Articuno for Chandelure, who eats an Ancient Power from Lapras, as Rotom Confuses Gardevoir with its own Confuse Ray, causing Gardevoir to hit itself. It is at this point where John chooses to leave Gardevoir to the whimsy of chance and double focuses Lapras with a Shadow Ball and a Thunderbolt. Lapras, still feeling pretty good after those hits, takes out Chandelure with a Hydro Pump as Gardevoir breaks through the Parafusion to KO Rotom. With Articuno as John’s last man standing facing down a Lapras and a relatively healthy but confused and paralyzed Gardevoir, the battle is sealed after a couple of Ancient Powers and Specs boosted Psychics. John was one of the coolest guys I met in the tournament, and he actually helped me out for Worlds, so shout out to him!

Win 4-0 (3-0)

Round 4 – Matthew Meaghar – Sparkling Ghosts, Gengar and Sableye

He used:    

I used:    

This game had some really bad notes, so I apologize once again for my bad note taking skills. Matthew leads with Kangaskhan and Gyarados as I lead Garchomp and Gardevoir. He Megas Kangaskhan Fake Out into Garchomp while Gardevoir gets some nice damage off onto something, probably with a Moonblast, and Gyarados does something that I didn’t write down. The next turn I swap Gardevoir for Sableye, predicting the Return from Kangaskhan, but Matthew instead opts to take out Garchomp with Sucker Punch as Gyarados again does something I did not write down. After this, all I can remember was that Gyarados had Taunt, but I Taunted first, and that his Gengar in the back nearly won him the game with a Dazzling Gleam onto Sableye. This was one of the few situations where Shadow Sneak won me the game, as I was able to cleanly 2HKO Gengar to take it. Matthew also told me his Manectric was Scarfed instead of Mega, even though he didn’t use it.

Win 1-0 (4-0)

Lunch Break?

I don’t remember what rounds lunch break was between, but my friends and I went out to eat at a sub sandwich place run by firefighters down the street, but not before getting our pictures taken with the mascots!

The photo was so awesome, the camera couldn’t focus properly!

I was still feeling pretty relaxed and didn’t feel any different from having my record go from 0-0 to 4-0. With lunch out of the way, it was back into the fray!

Round 5 – Jeudy Azzarelli – The First Rain of Kangaskhan

He used:    

I used:    

Jeudy was my 5th round opponent, and I was to be his only loss for day one of Swiss. He would also make it to the top 8, where we would face off once again to make it to top 4. He leads off with Kangaskhan and Talonflame against my Garchomp and Gengar. Turn one, Kangaskhan Mega Protects as I also decide to Protect Gengar, but not Mega. Talonflame tries to burn Garchomp with a Will-o-Wisp, but Lum Berry clears it up as Garchomp gets the OHKO with Rock Slide. Hydreigon comes in to potentially scare off both of my Pokémon with its still concealed held item, which I found out to be a Haban Berry after sending a Dragon Claw towards it. Hydreigon breaks my now Mega Gengar’s new Sub with Dark Pulse and Kangaskhan goes for the Power-Up Punch onto Garchomp, giving it +2 and some chip damage.

It’s turn three, and here Jeudy makes a rather risky play by going for the Sucker Punch into Gengar with Kangaskhan, probably predicting a Protect from Garchomp, but Garchomp does not wish to Protect himself as I knock out Hydreigon with another Dragon Claw. Ludicolo comes out to replace Hydreigon, and that is where my notes stop. I’m fairly certain it was because I had confidence in my winning chances, but it doesn’t really help me when I’m trying to recount a tale. Most likely, Sableye was able to come in and burn Kangaskhan, while Gengar would have sat behind a Sub and launched Sludge Bombs at Ludicolo. That’s just an educated guess though.

Win ??-?? (5-0)

Round 6 – Andres M. – Wide Guard Aegislash

He used:    

I used:    

This battle had hands down the worst notes. I literally can remember nothing about this battle other than the leads, what Andres used, and my terrible misplay into Aegislash’s Wide Guard on turn two. After turn two, I put on the prediction hat though as I risk using spread moves even with Aegislash on the field. This jumbled memory of a battle eventually becomes a win for me, but I don’t recall what I even did to win. Did it have something to do with Confuse Ray? If I used Sableye, then probably. Apologies to Andres if that is the case.

Win ??-0 (6-0)

Round 7 – Omari Travis – Fight for the Cut

This round marks the last round I would have to win in order to make it to day two’s Swiss. And my opponent for this round was none other than Omari Travis. I’ve heard about him quite a bit, but did not know his play style or his team going into the battle. Since I wasn’t well known, the same could probably be said for him.

He used:    

I used:    

The battle opens with Blastoise and Aegislash for Omari while I lead Gengar and Garchomp. Aware of the Fake Out coming towards Garchomp, I Protect while Mega Evolving Gengar trying to get a free Sub. Aegislash shifts formes and breaks the Sub, putting me at a slight loss after turn one. I switch Gengar for Gardevoir, as I can no longer avoid Garchomp’s Earthquakes, which I use as Aegislash is swapped for Zapdos and Blastoise takes the Earthquake, retaliating with a Water Pulse on Gardevoir.

Next turn, Zapdos shoots a Hidden Power Ice towards Garchomp, which survives in the red, as I Rock Slide and Dazzling Gleam for the knock out on Blastoise and nice chunk damage on Zapdos. Omari then throws in his own Garchomp. Turn four was probably the most eventful turn, as Omari decides not to use Hidden Power on Garchomp despite the fact that he out sped me the turn before, and goes for the Discharge for some damage on Gardevoir. Then, my Garchomp outspeeds his Garchomp and slams it with a Dragon Claw, putting it into the deep red. His Garchomp then follows up with an Earthquake to knock out both of my Pokémon. With Gengar and Lapras as my two remaining Pokémon, Shadow Tag allows both Gengar and Lapras to pick up easy revenge KOs on both with Sludge Bomb and Ice Shard, leaving Omari with only his Aegislash. Omari reveals the Flash Cannon on his Aegislash before going down to a combination of Shadow Ball and Hydro Pump.

I remember thinking to myself after this round that if his Blastoise was a Kangaskhan instead, I probably would have lost. Good game Omari, I enjoyed this game a lot, and hey, no Confuse Ray this time!

Win 2-0 (7-0)

Round 8 – Alec Rubin – Lost Memories

Going into Round 8, I stopped caring about turn-by-turn notes and turned my focus to scouting out the opponent’s team, since I had already guaranteed myself a spot in Saturday’s competition and I knew my opponent had as well. I still didn’t feel all too different, but there was a part of me that was noticeably excited and relieved.

He used:    

Due to not writing down turn-by-turn, I don’t know which Pokémon I chose to use for the battle. I will say that looking back on the notes, I probably used Gardevoir, Garchomp, Sableye, and Mega Gengar, but this is not known for a fact.

This battle, unfortunately, was not very memorable to me and for that I apologize to Alec, since this was probably the only loss you had in the Swiss for day one. All I could really think about was the prospect of battling Ray Rizzo, which didn’t happen because he had lost to a certain Andy H. Ah well. I’m sure it was probably a good game, and I probably had to fight for the win in this battle, seeing as there are partially complete move sets and items in my notes.

Win ??-0 (8-0)

Round 9 – Andy H. – Undefeated Showdown

The final round of the day, and I was one of the two undefeated Masters Division players, with a record of 8-0. I’m feeling pretty good about this position right now, but I’m careful not to let this success go to my head. Andy was my final opponent of the day, and I would also be facing him again on Saturday. We talked about how somehow, Dark Void Moody Smeargle and Confuse Ray Sableye made it through the entire Swiss undefeated and how that said a lot about the competition.

He used:    

I used:    

Upon seeing my team, Andy realizes how anti-Smeargle and anti-Kangaskhan it is and tells me straight out that he is not bringing Smeargle to the game. I deliberately choose not to take Gengar and Lapras, since they are valuable as information in a game where I did not think about winning, but more about collecting data.

Andy leads with Salamence and Rotom as I lead with Gardevoir and Mawile. We Protect Salamence and Mawile from each other’s threats as Andy Overheats Gardevoir, getting a critical hit and knocking her out. While Gardevoir would have lived the hit had it not been a critical, she would not have done much as Dazzling Gleam is resisted by Rotom anyway. Rotom takes Life Orb damage, which I jot down as valuable information. Knowing that Salamence is not Scarfed, I bring in Garchomp to find out if Salamence is still faster than Garchomp or not. Salamence nets the Draco Meteor KO on Garchomp, showing to us that it is faster than Garchomp, while Rotom switches out for Aegislash. Play Rough nets the KO on Salamence, bringing Rotom back in. With Sableye and Mawile as my last two Pokémon, I know that I’ve lost the battle, but opt to continue playing it out to scout some more. Honestly, I probably could have forfeit here, seeing as Life Orb Rotom and Aegislash have very predictable move sets. Either way, Andy takes the game.

Lose 0-3 (8-1)

End of Day 1, Night of the First Day

Knowing that I had already made it into Saturday’s roster, I head over to the Side Tourneys area to hang out with my friends, who had varying records with 6-3 being the highest and 4-5 being the lowest. After waiting for quite some time, the rankings are put up and the usual swarm surrounds the posting. While ranks 47-64 did not move on to Saturday’s top cut due to their records being 6-3, I thought they should have been allowed to move on to make the cut a more even number. Also, here’s evidence of my placement:

3 coincidentally happens to be my favorite number.

As we returned home, I went to my friend’s house to prepare for the next day. And what a way to prepare as I promptly fell asleep around 9:30 pm, getting a much needed, well deserved, well-rested night.

Dawn of the Second Day

We arrive at the convention center nice and early to get in before the crowds arrived. For this day, Matteo, another of my friends, told me to wear the paddy hat that pretty much everyone saw, with his reasoning being that it would help me conceal my identity. I realized upon arriving that this was not the case at all, because the hat attracted SO much attention from lots of people, but by then the deed had been done and that’s the impression I’ve left for you all. If anything, the hat did provide me with a way to avoid eye contact with my opponents, allowing me to eliminate the feeling that I’m playing a match in person, although this honestly didn’t really affect anything.

Round 1 – Rushan Shekar – Storm of Fire

Game 1

Game 2

Rushan’s team did not look friendly to Mawile at all, so my mega of choice for these battles was Gengar.

Thanks to TeamRocketElite for getting the match on video. My first round of day two was against Rushan, who told me he was surprised he made it to day two since he considered himself not an excellent player, but I think he has a good foundation and has lots of opportunities to hone those skills. Admittedly, he was a fairly easy to read, but he still provided a challenge with his solid sun team. I didn’t have a notebook for this round, so it’s lucky that it was on the screen and someone was filming it. Great match Rushan!

Win (1-0)

Round 2 – Andy H. – Undefeated Showdown: Ravengeance

The rematch against Andy was quite eventful to say the least. We ended up being one of the last pairs to finish our games, which isn’t really a good thing considering time constraints.

Game 1

For this battle, I pulled out my two surprises, Gengar and Lapras, which Andy hadn’t seen the day before. Andy wasn’t too phased by the appearance of Gengar, although she did cut Smeargle’s lifespan short with a well-timed Poison. If you’re wondering how in the heck did Smeargle live Mega Gengar’s Sludge Bomb, his Smeargle was in a Special Defense boosting mood for our set. However, his remaining matchups against Lapras did not let him effectively deal with it, allowing Lapras to dish out some major damage across his team before eventually going down near the end of the battle, but by then it was a little too late for a comeback.

Win

Game 2

This was the only game in which Andy brought the dreaded KhanArtist combo. A bunch of poor plays later, Andy takes Game 2 pretty solidly as he was able to utilize the sleep turns provided by Dark Void to easily manage my plays.

Lose

Game 3

This game was a huge reminder to how Pokémon is very luck-based compared to other competitive games and also served as a wake-up call for me for the remainder of the day. Turn 1, Andy leads Salamence and Rotom against my Gengar and Mawile. Here I take an extremely dumb risk with Mawile, as I Mega Evolve and try for the Play Rough, thinking that Andy would double up on Gengar, who I try to get a Sub up with. Salamence misses its Draco Meteor on Gengar’s Sub, and Rotom misses Mawile with its Overheat, resulting in his Salamence going down to Play Rough with no losses on my side of the field. From there, Andy visibly loses hope as that first turn was definitely the most crucial in determining the outcome. His Rotom would go on to miss two additional Overheats, and after the battle, I apologized for having the game and the match essentially stolen from him by the RNG. Understandably so, Andy was angry, however he was a great sport about it. He did distribute some of my team’s details to some of his friends in top cut, and honestly, I think that’s a fair tradeoff for the win I so unfairly wrestled from him.

Win (2-0)

Round 3 – Simon Yip – That Blastoise

Game 1

Simon’s team might have been a counter team to my team, I don’t really know. His matchups against my team were really strong all around, and going in to this match I never even considered that Blastoise might be faster than Garchomp. A quick mental Speed calc later, my suspicions were confirmed: Simon’s Blastoise was Timid with max Speed investment. After losing Garchomp early in the battle, the rest of the battle went downhill since I was relying on Garchomp to take out his Lucario so Lapras could have a field day. That didn’t happen though.

Lose

Game 2

This time I attempted to play some mindgames on turn 1, but it had the same end result in Garchomp going down to Blastoise’s fast Ice Beam. This ushered in Lapras a bit too early for my tastes, but I was able to take out Simon’s Talonflame with an Ancient Power the next turn and Lapras was blessed by a 10% All Stats +1! Simon proceeds to send in Lucario to handle my Lapras, but his Close Combat doesn’t OHKO, instead taking off about 65% of her HP. Here’s where I made a major misplay: instead of just knocking out his heavily damaged Blastoise with a +1 Freeze-Dry, I decided to be a greedy little boy by trying to get another 10% All Stats +1 from Ancient Power. Blastoise lives with a sliver of health and proceeds to Aura Sphere Lapras’s face to finish her off. I ended the battle not even seeing Simon’s reserve 4th Pokémon.

I like to think that had I won the second game, I would still lose the third since there wasn’t really any way I could get around his Blastoise other than Lapras, and even then he had strong Lapras checks in Talonflame, Tyranitar, and Lucario. Luckily, I did not play him in Top Cut because I would’ve surely lost.

Lose (2-1)

Round 4 – Jason Fisher-Short. – Mega Venusaur and Goodstuffs

From the notes I took, Jason was using pretty much all goodstuffs and mostly standard move sets, so I don’t remember a whole lot about this set. We did play all three games, and I came out the victor of two. What did stand out to me about his team was his Life Orb Garchomp surprising my Garchomp with an OHKO and his faster-than-normal Mega Venusaur, which out sped my Gardevoir for another OHKO.

Win (3-1)

Round 5 – Kyle Smith – Self-proclaimed Beginner’s Luck

Kyle told me this was his first ever tournament and that he couldn’t believe he had made it so far in the tournament. I knew there must be something weird about his team since he made it this far into the tournament, so I played smartly and carefully for this set. Battle 1 was in my favor due to Kyle only taking his Mega Mawile to fight Lapras, so it ended in my win once I had knocked it out. Game 2 ended with a 1v1 situation with his Mawile and my low-health offensive mon (I don’t remember what it was), so I thought I had lost because all he needed was to click Sucker Punch and it was lights out. Turns out, Kyle wasn’t carrying Sucker Punch at all on his Mawile, stating that he didn’t like playing with it. Great game Kyle, and I hope you continue playing Pokémon and going to tournaments!

Win (4-1)

Round 6 – Jonathan Rankin – Jonathan Mirror Match

Jonathan’s team looked pretty standard at a glance, but during the set, I could tell there were some differences from the norm. His Helping Hand Azumarill took me by surprise and also took one of the games of the set, while his Specs Salamence and Offensive Mega Venusaur also applied lots of pressure on my team in all three games. It was a great team set up, but Sableye doesn’t really care about how good your team is put together if it doesn’t have anti-confusion or anti-burn measures. I end up taking the set, probably due to Jonathan’s choice to use Kangaskhan in games 2 and 3, which made Sableye’s job easy.

Win (5-1)

Top Cut: What a Ride!

This was the first time I had actually top cut, and I seeded 5th going into it. Oddly enough, I was not excited, but I was determined to at least get to Top 4 for a coveted Worlds invite. With my friends supporting me, and my resolve tempered, I start my first and perhaps only top cut experience.

Top 8: Battle for Worlds qualification – Jeudy Azzarelli – Seawater is Salty

My second clash with Jeudy was quite the event according to my friends who were watching the screen on which it was displayed. Since I had a different notebook from the day before and neglected to review my notes on Jeudy, who I should have considered the possibility of facing off again, this ended being a very weird set of games for me.

Game 1

This game was basically me trying to remember his team. Jeudy had obviously prepared well for my team, and made short work of it in the end with his team’s rain mode. Perhaps I didn’t manage my Lapras correctly this game.

Game 2

He used:    

In the second game, my plan was to lock Jeudy into a favorable matchup for me with Mega Gengar and slowly but surely beat his team out by statusing everything with Sableye and smacking them with Gengar’s Dual STABs. It worked out in my favor, but not before Jeudy revealed the Quick Guard from Talonflame.

Game 3

I didn’t feel the need to change my second game’s approach to the battle, so I stuck with it. As soon as I was able to lock in his Kangaskhan with a partner against Sableye and Gengar, I pretty much considered the game to be won. Indeed, Jeudy eventually forfeit the game after attempting to fight the dice rolls.

This isn’t to say that the battle was impossible for Jeudy. Jeudy’s team had all the right tools to try to take care of my team, with game 1 as evidence for that claim, but with the coin flips almost never falling in his favor, the battle went very smoothly for me and pretty poorly for him.

After the match, my friends told me about the spectating crowd with salinity rivaling the ocean’s over the match. Apparently, watching a Hydreigon hit itself four times in a row with confusion is not fun to watch, but it’s probably even less fun for the Hydreigon’s trainer. Sorry Jeudy, but runner-up at Worlds is a much better title than I’ve ever had, so that makes up for the poor luck here I guess.

Top 4: Semifinal bout – Alex Ogloza – A False Sense of Security

This match was streamed on Pokémon’s official Twitch channel, and you can watch it from Pokémon’s YouTube channel.

Knowing that I had a Worlds Invite at that point, I no longer had any goals in mind, making this match more like icing on the cake in my eyes. Win and get more stuff and possibly a free trip, or lose and just not get as much stuff. This attitude is reflected directly in battles two and three.

In the post battle interview with Alex, he voices that in game two, I had fallen into a sense of safeness, not willing to take any big risks, and he capitalized on that. I believe what he said was true, because honestly after winning the first game, I should have kept on pushing his team with the offensive presence I had rather than relying on matchups, which allowed Alex to start punching holes in my team with his super offensive setup and Talonflame. In the third game, it’s exceedingly obvious that I wasn’t willing to take risks with the double Protect turn one, and then losing Garchomp turn two due to close minded thinking that Alex would still target Gengar. If I were to Rock Slide turn one instead, I could have easily won some momentum for my team, but this wasn’t the case and I recognize my mistakes from this match. Alex is a great guy, and hopefully we’ll have battles whether friendly or not in the future.

Thoughts and Experiences – Nationals

With my 4th Nationals experience coming to an end, I must say that this one was probably the most well organized from previous years. The way top cut was handled, the streaming, and the overall increased promotion of the VGC circuit over the entire past season in general with Premier Challenges, three seasonal Regionals, and other smaller events throughout the season really shows me that the community is growing more and more each year. I’ve always found it convenient that Nationals was always held in Indianapolis being a local, but over my time playing the game competitively, I’ve formed a small group with others who also took interest in the competitive field and been getting a little more involved in events not just in Indiana. The only thing I wish I could have done this year was play in more side tourneys, those were always a blast from years past when I wasn’t in the main event, but I guess getting my name out there probably outweighs the opportunity cost.

Also, I’d like to formally apologize to any of my opponents who had to deal with Confuse Ray and got dealt the bad end of the stick. Just remember to pack a Safeguard user next time, or don’t evolve your Mega Kangaskhan so quickly. Then again, taking Kangaskhan to battle me is like a death sentence.

World Championships 2014

In the lead up to Worlds 2014, there was a lot of hassle in just getting to the event; the van my friends and I were using had a broken AC compressor, leaving us to drop it off at a shop about two hours away from DC. Luckily, a friend of a friend who was going to visit DC with us anyway came and rescued us. The difficulties don’t stop there as we all learned that downtown DC traffic is literally the worst. After arriving on Friday for the LCQ for Tim, we spent some time sightseeing and stuff. I also went to the Symphonic Evolutions concert, which I found was rather hit or miss depending on the source song, with music from Generation 3 being the best and songs from Generation 1 being rather average. At the event, I met Aaron Zheng and we had some formal introductions. Some other friendly faces I saw at the concert include Randy Kwa, his brother Jimmy, and Alex Ogloza. After a pretty fun-filled Friday, it was time to get to business in the main event.

Team Changes

There were two major replacements made to my Nationals Team and one minor change. These changes will be reflected below for you; the rest is the same as my Nationals Team. During this teambuilding process, I decided to swing my focus entirely to Mega Gengar for a while before caving back in for dual Mega with Mega Mawile. As they say, old habits die hard.

Sableye -> Eclipse (M) @Rocky Helmet
Ability: Inner Focus
Calm Nature
188 HP / 164 Def / 156 Sdef
-Yawn
-Snarl
-Helping Hand
-Moonlight

Eclipse is a moon-based nickname. It’s also a long-range Dark magic spell that cuts the target’s HP in half for the GBA Fire Emblem series. 

Umbreon is one of the more overlooked Pokémon in this meta in my eyes, and it actually does a pretty good job against most of the common top tier threats. He was a top contributor for my Worlds matches, but his utility alone wasn’t enough to pull out a winning record. During Swiss, out of the 6 people I faced, at least 4 of them forgot about Inner Focus which prevents Umbreon from flinching. Paired with the Rocky Helmet, Umbreon can rack up lots of passive damage onto the opponent’s Pokémon, especially those that hit twice like Kangaskhan.

I toyed around with a lot of different EV Spreads with varying levels of bulk and eventually decided on this one since it technically has the most balance and chances of surviving things. Umbreon can take a lot of abuse from max HP, especially from Special attackers.

The moves were a bit tougher to decide; Umbreon’s movepool is quite deep and amazing for a support Pokémon and I had trouble choosing anything with Baby-Doll Eyes, Charm, Wish, and of course, Confuse Ray competing for a move slot. Snarl is a move that meshed well with my team, as it hits both opponents and lowers their Special Attack stat. Of important note is that Snarl bypasses Aegislash’s Substitute and hits it for Super Effective damage, making Umbreon a natural Aegislash counter. Yawn applies tons of switch pressure when used correctly, and with Mega Gengar as a potential partner, I could force the opponent to go to sleep if I so desired. Helping Hand boosts its partner’s attack power, turning Gengar’s Shadow Ball into an OHKO on any Aegislash and negating to an extent Intimidate. Finally, Moonlight was chosen because Umbreon otherwise had no recovery, and I felt that on something as bulky as Umbreon, recovery is quite necessary. It also takes advantage of enemy Sun if they run Mega Charizard Y.

Gardevoir -> Spectrecles (M) @Focus Sash
Ability: Flash Fire
Modest Nature
188 HP / 68 Def / 252 Satk
-Will-o-Wisp
-Heat Wave
-Protect
-Trick Room

Spectrecles is a combination of the words “Spectre” and “Spectacles” because it looks like Chandelure has some sort of eyewear.

Since I did not want to lock myself to only Hidden Power Fire for Fire coverage, I chose to switch over to Chandelure for its high Special Attack without Specs and STAB. It also serves as a Trick Room setter, as nearly all of my Pokémon benefit from it in some form. Flash Fire was used instead of Infiltrator because I wanted to be able to be completely immune to Fire, which in practice has worked out quite well. Chandelure forms a nice core with Lapras and Mawile, being able to switch out to one and cover the other’s weakness.

The EV spread is pretty basic. Max Special Attack for the most bang for your buck, and a “minimize passive damage” HP number, with the rest dumped in Defense.

Will-o-Wisp ensured I still had a way to keep Mega Kangaskhan and physical attackers in check, and Protect is self-explanatory.

Raven
Iron Head -> Rock Slide

After making the switch to Trick Room, I replaced Iron Head with Rock Slide for the slightly better coverage in exchange for not being able to win Mawile mirrors. Also, flinch chances.

The Main Event

At the main event on Saturday, I was prepared for battles of the highest caliber, but in the end, I came out with a losing record of 2-4, netting me 50th place out of 59 (one person dropped.) Due to this, after my round 3 loss to Ben Hickey, I pretty much played whatever I felt like instead of having the immense pressure of top cutting. Either way, I’m still going to recount each round with relative accuracy. Every person I faced who had a Kangaskhan never even used it against me, so I guess that says something about my current reputation.

Round 1 – Mike Suleski (2-4) – Fastmoonguss

Mike congratulated me on making Lapras work at Nationals, as he was also a classic Lapras fan. With that, we got into our set, with the amazing battlefield background of the world.

Game 1

He used: Tyranitar, Aerodactyl, Talonflame, Azumarill
I used: Umbreon, Garchomp, Mawile-Mega, Chandelure

Mike chose to go the Megatar route for the first game. His Aerodactyl gave me a lot of trouble with his repeated Sky Drops and Taunts making Umbreon a sitting duck. I pulled a really good Rock Slide predict with Garchomp into his Talonflame switch-in, which I was proud of myself for. In the final face off, it was his below 1/8th health +1 Mega Tyranitar vs. my 1/3rd health Garchomp. He was maybe mentally calculating the damage to see if Rock Slide was enough, but it turns out that he misses it allowing Garchomp to get the KO for the win.

Win 1-0

Game 2

He used: Aerodactyl, Azumarill, Amoonguss, ???
I used: Chandelure, Garchomp, Mawile-Mega, Umbreon

In this game, Mike got his Belly Drum set up and proceeded to sweep, all the while I’m thinking that 100% health Garchomp can live +6 Aqua Jet.

Lose 0-3

Game 3

He used: Azumarill, Aerodactyl, Amoonguss, ???
I used: Chandelure, Umbreon, Lapras, Mawile-Mega

Once again, Mike is able to get up a Belly Drum, but this time I brought the Lapras to eat up those Aqua Jets. Once he brings in Amoonguss, I’m still grasping to a small string of hope that I can knock out his Azumarill, but he surprises me with the Fast Spore onto Mawile, and also on to Lapras. It also had Hidden Power Fire to chip Mawile with! These were a fun set of games and he hid his surprise very well. After the battle, Mike did 20 push-ups for a tradition of his, and was disappointed that my Umbreon was not running Baby-Doll Eyes, a move which would have actually done very well in this battle.

Lose 0-3 (0-1)

Round 2 – Aaron Zheng (4-2) – He Hypes it Up

Aaron got to the table and he looked pretty tired. Even though he looked tired, I knew he would probably bring his A-game to the match anyway even after a first round loss.

Game 1

He used: Hariyama, Salamence, Ferrothorn, Rotom-Heat
I used: Chandelure, Umbreon, Gengar-Mega, Garchomp

Aaron would be one of two opponents I had that day who used Hariyama, the other being Ben Hickey, and the first to forget about Umbreon’s Inner Focus ability. I found out the Hariyama wasn’t Assault Vested early on, so I chose to leave it to do its business, which ended up biting me in the first game. Chandelure was lost early, so his Ferrothorn was able to come in unchecked; a Helping Hand Shadow Ball critical nearly takes it out, but without Chandelure the game is lost.

Lose 0-1

Game 2

He used: Hariyama, Gothitelle, Ferrothorn, Salamence
I used: Gengar-Mega, Chandelure, Mawile, Umbreon

On the first turn, I double into Gothitelle with Mega Shadow Ball and Heat Wave, but it lives with a sliver of health. Darn. Aaron himself doubles into Chandelure and I lose it early in the battle again. Here is where Mawile comes in and does work. With Hariyama at -1 Attack and trapped, I use Rock Slide with Mawile in hopes of picking off his Gothitelle, which he switches for Salamence while I Protect with Gengar. Rock Slide is able to chunk Salamence into KO range with Sludge Bomb, which I proceed to do, while Vanilla Mawile is not done yet as it Play Roughs Hariyama for another KO. At this point, Aaron only has his Ferrothorn left in the back, and with Umbreon I can get the forced Yawn sleep and repeatedly Helping Hand Shadow Ball until it faints.

Win 2-0

Game 3

He used: Salamence, Hariyama, Rotom-Heat, Ferrothorn
I used: Gengar-Mega, Umbreon, Chandelure, Garchomp

I don’t remember too much about this game, but this time I actually preserved my Chandelure for the Ferrothorn. Victory was in sight as his Rotom was in KO range from Helping Hand Dragon Claw or Rock Slide from my Garchomp, the last obstacle standing between Chandelure and Ferrothorn’s matchup. But Aaron makes the best play with a Double Protect, and his risk pays off, letting Ferrothorn KO Garchomp with Gyro Ball. With that, his Rotom is able to KO Chandelure easily as it was taken down to its sash earlier in the battle. Great game, great guy, and don’t forget the hype he brings to the table readers.

Lose 1-2 (0-2)

Round 3 – Ben Hickey (3-3) – Team = Aaron Zheng + Jon Hu

Ben’s team literally is 3 of my Pokémon + 3 of Aaron’s Pokémon, and I point that out before the battle. Obviously there were a few differences and likely he designed his team independent of both of us.

Game 1

He Used: Hariyama, Gengar, Mawile-Mega, Garchomp
I used: Chandelure, Gengar-Mega, Garchomp, Umbreon

Ben’s Hariyama is Assault Vested, and I could tell because Chandelure’s Heat Wave did absolutely jack. His Gengar was a support Gengar with Sludge Bomb as the offensive option, which could cause a few problems for Umbreon down the line. He also falls for the same trap Aaron did in Faking Out Umbreon. I manage the first game well enough, with his Life Orb Garchomp getting hit with a Will-o-Wisp somewhere in there.

Win

Game 2

He used: Rotom-Heat, Garchomp, Mawile-Mega, Hariyama
I used: Chandelure, Umbreon, Mawile-Mega, Garchomp

In this game, I missed a crucial Play Rough on his Hariyama switch-in out of Garchomp, and it was also one of the few games where I was actually able to get a Trick Room up. His Hariyama was then able to take out Umbreon easily with Close Combat taking advantage of my own Trick Room. It was a bad time from there.

Lose

Game 3

He used: Gengar, Garchomp, Hariyama, Mawile-Mega
I used: Chandelure, Umbreon, Garchomp, Mawile-Mega

Ben’s lead of Gengar and Garchomp against mine was just plain terrible. I had no real way of ever winning this matchup without incurring multiple fodders, so the battle was lost.

Lose (0-3)

Round 4 – Adib Alam (1-5) – The Alternate Nationals Championship Duel

This matchup could have happened at Nationals had I defeated Alex in the semifinals, but it looks like the matchup happened anyway. To be completely honest, I don’t even remember anything about our set except his -4 Special Attack Tyranitar being unable to KO 37 HP Mawile with Fire Blast. Also he kept fishing for flinches on Umbreon which never happened, and was caught off guard by Snarl bypassing his Aegislash’s Sub. Adib had a lot of college workload apparently, which severely restricted what could’ve been a great run at Worlds. Needless to say, the top 4 of US Nationals would all bomb the tournament in the end, except Alex.

Win (1-3)

Round 5 – Gavin Michaels (2-4) – Mega Gengar Mirror

From before the match, Gavin ran into both Smeargle users and lost to both I assume. He was pretty under the weather, but that didn’t stop him from having fun with the Gengar mirror.

Game 1

He used: Gengar-Mega, Lucario, Rotom-Heat, Ludicolo
I used: Mawile-Mega, Umbreon, Lapras, and something else

Gavin pulls out the Mega Gengar right away as I noticed at Team Preview that his team doesn’t have any answers to Umbreon other than Lucario and Tyranitar. Coincidentally, although Umbreon does pair up well with Gengar and other Ghosts in general, it also gives opposing Ghosts grief with Snarl. I’m able to Intimidate his Lucario so that it no longer OHKOs Umbreon with Close Combat, slowly getting chipped by Rocky Helmet. Lapras takes care of Ludicolo and Rotom-Heat after a few Snarls.

Win

Game 2

He used: Ludicolo, Rotom-Heat, Gengar-Mega, Lucario
I used: Gengar-Mega, Umbreon, Lapras, and something else

Like the last battle, except Gavin Fakes Out into Umbreon and receives the bad end of the Rocky Helmet. I feel like Gavin was playing on tilt, since he didn’t even attempt to conserve his Lucario for the endgame. Umbreon cleaned everything else up. Either way, I can’t fault him for his bad run, since it was more like his horrendous luck earlier in the day. He came to me afterwards and we had a friendly chat when all the stress was gone. A cool guy, and a fellow Mega Gengar connoisseur.

Win (2-3)

Round 6 – Johannes Botma (2-4) – International Finish

I probably could have won this set if I really tried, but by this point in the day I was super tired and didn’t really want to even try. I was actually paired down with Johannes, as he was 1-4 and I was 2-3. Johannes was playing pretty predictably but I didn’t really care about making massively good predictions any more. Out of his team, his Mamoswine and Hydreigon were probably my biggest threats and in the final game, he was able to squeeze out a win by HP with his slightly damaged Hydreigon versus my burnt Umbreon. I hope Johannes can grow the game a bit more in his nation and continue to improve for future World Championships just like I hope to do.

Lose (2-4)

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

I was pretty underprepared for the jump from the National meta to the World, but I like to think that had the dice rolled a bit more in my favor against opponents like Aaron or Ben that I would’ve performed a bit better. Regardless, I feel content with just being able to attend the event and root for Sejun to win it all; the social aspect of Pokémon events is truly astounding. On Sunday, I hung out with Adib and the Kwa brothers, participating in a Multi Battle side tournament and finding friends to talk to about the event amongst other topics. All-in-all, a great experience that I recommend to everyone trying to place high in tournaments as the ultimate goal above winning. Meeting the people and making new friends holds much more weight than winning an event, and while winning is the aim of competition, it should never be the first thought to cross your mind at competition. You’ll only set yourself up for more disappointment should you fall like me at Worlds.

And with that I thank you for coming to the end of the report. A quick shout out to a few people is in order:

My personal friends:

• Tuba Tim – Our chauffeur to DC and participant in the LCQ where he got matched up round 1 with Shota Yamamoto. Getting better at Pokémon by the day. Used a Stunfisk team to go 6-3 at Nationals 2014. Also a college buddy.
• magayo – A player who could place well in tournaments if he didn’t make teams right before events. Has the honor of causing me to 4-0 ragequit before. Might seem pleasant around strangers but has a totally different persona with friends. Goes to Purdue.
• matteogaminggroup – The guy who convinced me to wear the hat at Nats. He has been mistaken at least once for Ray Rizzo. Likes to play with overlooked Pokémon such as Jynx at Nats 2013 and Tyrantrum this year. Also goes to Purdue.
• the redeemer – He couldn’t make it to compete this year at Nationals, but a great guy nonetheless. Probably has the most fun on Showdown ever. Again, goes to Purdue.
• squirrelboy1225 – aka the WAPS. If you get matched up with him on Showdown!, call him a WAPS. You don’t have to know what that means, you just have to do it. Has an unhealthy obsession with Yanmega and Hidden Power Rock.
• gregoryhu – My bro! Helps me out with teambuilding aspects even if he doesn’t realize it.

And some awesome Poképals:

• Adib Alam, Fullmetal Alchemist
• Alex Ogloza the Ice King
• Logan Castro Ya Boi
• Aaron Zheng
• Mike Suleski
• Ashton Cox
• Randy Kwa
• Jimmy Kwa
• Gavin Michaels

So with that, I leave you with a smaller list of pros, cons, and neutrals for both events:

Pros

• I actually did a thing and placed high using a team of mostly my favorites
• Nationals Tournament setup was very well planned this year
• Met lots of cool people
• Worlds Invite!
• Having a good time with my personal friends and friends from the event
• Cool prizes ‘n’ stuff
• Played in the Multi Battle tourneys
• Pokémon Symphonic Evolutions

Neutrals

• Joined Nugget Bridge (finally)
• Wrote this Team Report
• Got some positive attention
• Shops were kind of okay
• Nats registration on Thursday instead of Friday

Cons

• Couldn’t stick around my friends a lot for both competitions
• Some unwanted attention
• Super tired after the weekend at work the next morning
• Didn’t play many side tourneys
• DC traffic sucks and the road trip sucked too
• Worlds registration was a mess

I do plan on attending the Ft. Wayne Fall Regionals, and trust me when I say I have a few ideas floating around and not only in my head for teambuilding. See you later!

About the Author

JHufself started his competitive career in 2010 at that year's Nationals LCQ. He has always been interested in using favorites to win, and has a very unhealthy obsession with confusion moves. When he's not playing Pokémon, he's probably playing Fire Emblem.

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