Hail Hydreigon! A 1st Place Nugget Bridge Major Team Report
Hello everyone, my name is Anthony Jimenez also known as DarkAssassin and this is my first year of competitive battling. I went to a couple of regionals and local tournaments this season but I didn’t have much success other than making top cut in the SoCal regional in Long Beach, CA. Each event has taught me the capabilities of my Pokémon and has taught me how to better predict my opponents. Let’s take a look at the team that I used in most of the Major which I ended up taking first place in.
Team at a Glance
I started making this team after going to the SoCal regional in Long Beach, California. While there, I noticed that there was a lot of Mega Kangaskhan and Rotom who both gave trouble to my last team. I started to search for a Pokémon who would be able to KO both Kangaskhan and Rotom. I needed the Pokémon to be a special attacker due to the fact that Intimidate is fairly common. While searching, I came across Hydreigon who has an amazing base 125 Special Attack and good stats all around. After making some damage calculations, I knew that he would be “the one.”
Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 140 HP / 252 SAtk / 116 Spd
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
Nature: Modest
– Draco Meteor
– Dark Pulse
– Flamethrower
– Flash Cannon
Hydreigon has always been one of my favorite dragons. It has an awesome design, good stats, and hits like a truck. With Choice Specs, Hydreigon is able to KO 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan most of the time (87.5% chance to KO) and is able to KO Rotom as well as many other common Pokémon. 140 EVs in HP allow Hydreigon to take a Dragon Claw from Garchomp even without Intimidate support. The HP EVs also allows it to take a Return from Adamant Mega Kangaskhan and it KO’s back with Draco Meteor. The remaining EVs were dumped into Speed just so it wouldn’t be too slow. My Hydreigon is faster than neutral max Speed base 70s and max Speed Tyranitar.
Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Def
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
Nature: Adamant
– Aqua Jet
– Play Rough
– Waterfall/Belly Drum
– Protect
Although Hydreigon was able to take on Garchomp (any without Focus Sash) it still had trouble against Salamence. Since Salamence is so common, I knew I would have to find a fairy to switch into its Draco Meteors. That’s when I found Azumarill, who not only gets the KO on Salamence, but also helps against Tyranitar, who is a huge threat to this team. I originally used it as a bulky physical sweeper, but later changed to a Belly Drum set. DO NOT USE 252HP ON A BELLY DRUM SET. I found this out the hard way when I faced Bjart in my final match. I wasn’t too experienced with Belly Drum Azumarill and had no idea that you need to have a specific EV spread for Belly Drum Azumarill. I have to say that I prefer Belly Drum Azumarill over a bulky physical sweeper one. Once Azumarill sets up it wrecks teams that aren’t prepared.
Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Intimidate / Lightningrod
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
IVs: 31/30/30/31/31/31
Nature: Timid
– Volt Switch
– Flamethrower
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Protect
To increase Hydreigon’s and Azumarill’s survivability, I decided to use Mega Manectric. Manectric not only has Lightning Rod allowing it to redirect electric attacks that might be aimed at Azumarill, but it also has Intimidate when it mega evolves. Volt Switch allowed me to spam Intimidate, which I often took advantage of. It made Hydreigon even bulkier on the physical side, allowing it to take up to five spread Rock Slides from max Attack Tyranitar. I decided to go with a max Speed Manectric because it allowed me to outspeed Garchomp turn 1. Mega Manectric has about a 50/50 chance of getting the KO on Garchomp with HP Ice, preventing Garchomp from damaging Hydreigon.
Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 6 SDef
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/0
Nature: Quiet
– King’s Shield
– Shadow Ball
– Flash Cannon
– Substitute
Aegislash’s main purpose in my team is to get rid of any Fairy types that might threaten Hydreigon. Gardevoir in particular was the fairy I was worried about. Gardevoir not only KOs Hydreigon but it does a ton of damage to the rest of my team. Aegislash was also a good switch in to Salamence in cases where I didn’t have Azumarill and was a good check for the common Mega Kangaskhan+Salamence lead.
Tyranitar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
Nature: Adamant
– Crunch
– Rock Slide
– Dragon Dance
– Protect
Honestly, Dragon Dance Tyranitar was used as a second option whenever I knew that I wouldn’t be able to use Hydreigon. I got the idea from my older brother, Legacy, who had a lot of success using Dragon Dance Tyranitar and I thought I would give it a try. Tyranitar also paired well with Mega Manectric because it could take out Mega Manectric’s biggest nightmare, Rotom-Heat. Mega Manectric’s Intimidate combined with Sandstorm would also allow Tyranitar to take most super effective hits. When I predicted Tyranitar to be hit by a super effective hit, I would often go for the Dragon Dance and then try to finish the game with my +3 in Attack and +1 in Speed Tyranitar.
Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP /6 Def / 252 SDef
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/0
Nature: Sassy
– Spore
– Rage Powder
– Giga Drain
– Protect
Amoonguss is the last member of my team who was often used to redirect moves to itself. Amoongus redirected Will-O-Wisps headed towards Tyranitar and Azumarill and it also redirected Draco Meteors headed towards Hydreigon. Now I know what you are guys are thinking. Why the heck are you using Effect Spore over Regenerator? The answer is simple. It’s because I was too lazy to breed for an Amoongus with Regenerator. It was not until the finals against Bjart where I switched to a Sassy Amoongus with Regenerator and a spread of 252 HP/62 Defense /196 Special Defense. The Special Defense EVs allowed my Amoongus to survive an Overheat from max Special Attack Rotom-Heat while the rest of EVs were just dumped in Defense and HP.
Team Combos and Strategies
The overall goal of this team is to hit hard and get the battle over with in just a few minutes. Both Azumarill and Tyranitar could sweep unprepared teams after they set up and Hydreigon hits almost everything hard with Choice Specs. Manectric and Amoonguss bring great support to my three sweepers and Aegislash is a good switch in to most of their weaknesses.
Manectric works well with anyone in my team. It redirects electric attacks from Azumarill and can do serious damage to Grass types that might threaten it. With Intimidate, it can help anyone in my team take a physical hit and they can then retaliate back. It can take on some dragons that might threaten Hydreigon and gets rid of Talonflames that threaten Amoonguss.
Whenever I knew that I wouldn’t be able to bring in Hydreigon, I would use Amoonguss and either Tyranitar or Azumarill. Both Tyranitar and Azumarill can sweep unprepared teams after setting up and Amoonguss can redirect any hit aimed at them. The plan here is to start off with Manectric and either Tyranitar or Azumarill and then Volt Switch into Amoonguss and set up. Afterwards, I would just spam Rage Powder while my Tyranitar or Azumarill would sweep.
Conclusion
Although I haven’t had much success this season, I have learned a lot about competitive battling. I would also like to thank my older brother, Legacy, for helping me finalize this team and my good friend, gengarboi, who encouraged me throughout the rounds. Thank you and I hope you guys enjoyed reading my article.
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28 Responses to Hail Hydreigon! A 1st Place Nugget Bridge Major Team Report
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Beautiful team!
I like your team and the courage to pick hydeigon over garchomp or salamence, the safe switch in azumarill or aegislash is really the key. Good job and congratulations.
I liked this core a lot when I saw it during the NB Major finals. Felt like you gave yourself a good matchup with Bjart who was using a more standard team and that all of your Pokemon had pretty cool Bo3 options. Nice work.
So cool to see Manectric win a big tournament! Definitely not the most hard hitting mega around but it just does so much to help Hydreigon and Azumarill sweep. Still can’t believe you won with that Azumarill spread though haha. Nice work!
Once, I started building a team around Manectric. I thought: What´s cool about Manectric that no other Mega can do? And I thought that its main selling point is HP Ice to knock out Garchomps.
Then I decided to choose my next member to be Specs Hydreigon, to make use of that and have something truely powerful in the team that can take good care of Rotoms.
I felt to be weak to fairys and Kanga, so I opted to choose Aegislash as my next member.
To help Hydreigon being safer against Dragons and against Kanga, I decided to use Rocky Helmet Amoonguss as my next member.
With Amoonguss and Manectric support in the team, I thought that I would have great opportunities to set up Azumarril. With the Fairy type, I would also be able to beat Dragons more easily, and with aqua jet doing chip damage to things like Garchomp or Aerodactyl.
Now I only had one Problem: Sun, especially with Rhydon. Azumarril, Amoonguss and Aegislash really doesn´t enjoy sun much and I can´t OHKO Zard immediately, so I needed a Rock Slide user. Giving the support Amoonguss already provides, Tyranitar came in my mind, and given the support of Intimidate, I thought Weakness Policy would be nice.
Really, I ended up with literally the same team and therefore fully understand your thought process while team building. We just had another starting Point, it seems. It is in fact a very strong team and I am glad you did so well with it!
Once, I started building a team around Manectric. I thought: What´s cool about Manectric that no other Mega can do? And I thought that its main selling point is HP Ice to knock out Garchomps.
Then I decided to choose my next member to be Specs Hydreigon, to make use of that and have something truely powerful in the team that can take good care of Rotoms.
I felt to be weak to fairys and Kanga, so I opted to choose Aegislash as my next member.
To help Hydreigon being safer against Dragons and against Kanga, I decided to use Rocky Helmet Amoonguss as my next member.
With Amoonguss and Manectric support in the team, I thought that I would have great opportunities to set up Azumarril. With the Fairy type, I would also be able to beat Dragons more easily, and with aqua jet doing chip damage to things like Garchomp or Aerodactyl.
Now I only had one Problem: Sun, especially with Rhydon. Azumarril, Amoonguss and Aegislash really doesn´t enjoy sun much and I can´t OHKO Zard immediately, so I needed a Rock Slide user. Giving the support Amoonguss already provides, Tyranitar came in my mind, and given the support of Intimidate, I thought Weakness Policy would be nice.
Really, I ended up with literally the same team and therefore fully understand your thought process while team building. We just had another starting Point, it seems. It is in fact a very strong team and I am glad you did so well with it!
I like this team man, very creative. I saw a few hydregions at Italian Nats probably because of you aha
Congrats on winning the Major!! I love how you have learned to better predict your opponents as the rounds went by. I remember thinking Scarf Hydreigon was better than Specs Hydreigon but after seeing your success I think the increased power of specs is worth it. And thanks for making it obvious that you are better than your older brother in Pokémon. P.S. I will still beat you in any other video game. 🙂
Oh wow … this team has exactly the same six as mine right now!
Great team.
Hail Hydra.
I am curious why you would run adamant Tyranitar. When you get to plus one you speed tie with max speed jolly Garchomp. Running Jolly Tyranitar would solve problem.
Heil Hydreigon would’ve been a better pun (Captain America, HYDRA, etc).
Definitely a nice team, and grats on 1st place.
Good team and congrats on 1st!
That’s interesting. Hopefully you have as much success with it as I did
Thats interesting. Hopefully you have as much success with it as I did.
Haha I’ve been told that I started the Hydreigon trend
Mhmm whatever you say
You sir have created the specs Hydregon Trend lately haha. I admit of using it myself now. But I go a different EV build than you. Well done on your win man. You are good enough, good luck at USA Nationals
Don’t worry, it’s a known fact that the younger brother tends to be superior when it comes to VGC.
Congrats on winning NB Majors 3. I guess I should ask.. noting how you have no Lum Berry anywhere on the team, and only one Pokemon that’s actually faster than 139 Speed… was Smeargle something that you had worries about?
I love this team, I have a similar core in which Hydreigon plays a big part in, wonderful synergy.
I enjoyed reading this team report, nice work. I like the core and the team overall, and I definetly agree with your thoughts about Hydreigon. I would have changed some spreads/movesets, for example that popular 212 HP / 252 Atk / (…) for Azumarill, and maybe the Amoonguss, but that bulky Specs Hydreigon is a nice choice. Also, that Tyranitar could be improved I guess for some more bulk, since it can boost its power with WP or DD. But, like I said, its a great team, and a funny one to play. Again, good job, and congratulations for your victory, too 🙂
PS: “Don’t worry, it’s a known fact that the younger brother tends to be superior when it comes to VGC.” Haha, I guess there is a NB mod that will enjoy these words 😛
Such a beautiful team. Hydreigon and Azumarill really do put great offensive and defensive pressure respectively on the majority of teams relying on Double Dragon.
I have to say, I did laugh out loud when I saw that your Azumarill not activate it’s Sitrus Berry after using Belly Drum. Sorry about that.
I wasn’t too concerned about smeragle because it wasn’t all that common to be honest. When I do face it though, I do have trouble with it but I always find a way to work around it.
252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 12 HP / 60 Def Hydreigon: 141-168 (83.4 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
I would love to see that team battling. Any YouTube vid??
Go on youtube and seach for nuggetbridges channel. They have many videos of me using this team
Love the specs Hydreigon, I’m glad it’s getting some well deserved recognition! I posted a http://nuggetbridge.com/forums/topic/5616-hydreigon/ with my set in it a couple months ago, and I’m curious, why did you decide to run 116 speed evs? Hydreigon only needs 52 speed to outpace Timid T-tar, though I ran 60 myself just to hit a sanstorm hp number. I’ve always figured Hydreigon’s decent defenses appreciated as much hp evs as possible…
Anyway, amazing team and congratulations.
Im defiantly gonna try this hydreigon out, awesome team!