Reports

Published on May 30th, 2014 | by DrDimentio

16

No Substitute for Practice: Adelaide Regionals Top 4 Report

I’m DrDimentio, an Australian player you probably haven’t heard of since our country only recently entered VGC. Adelaide’s Regionals were the second set of Regionals to occur in Australia and had a rather small turn-out (due to the event being held on Mother’s Day); however, this meant that the most dedicated players were there.

I spent a lot of time thinking of team ideas in the weeks leading up to the event, and even practiced quite a lot with various ideas. However, most of this practice was wasted as I ended up changing some team members and moves the night before, so I actually had zero practice battles with my final team.

The tournament had an unusual double-elimination format. My first loss was against the eventual runner-up (he was the only undefeated player until the finals), and my second loss occurred in the top 4, which left me with a somewhat disappointing 4th place finish. Still, it’s not too bad considering my lack of testing with this team.

Team Analysis

I was inspired to run a Tailwind-based Charizard-Y team after reading about a 2nd place Asia Cup team. That was enough to convince me that Mega Charizard-Y is viable. Thus, the first team member I chose was Charizard-Y.

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze > Drought
Nature: Modest
4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
– Heat Wave
– Solar Beam
– Substitute
– Protect

I don’t regret settling for Blaze as its base form’s ability, as Gardevoir can actually make use of Solar Power if it Traces it. Substitute is the only thing that stands out here, which was important for my intended play style: set up Tailwind and then punish opponents that try to stall it out with Protect or switching. When Charizard is behind a Substitute, an opponent may try to double-target it, but that’s risky for them since Charizard also has Protect. There are other ways an opponent can deal with Substitute, which some of my remaining team members were intended to prevent.

The EV spread was simple – I wanted maximum power to take full advantage of Tailwind turns, which also give me the best chance to KO Rotom-W. Maximum Speed seems unnecessary for a base 100 under Tailwind, but I thought it would be pointless to invest in bulk when Substitute takes away from it. It would probably be better to have some bulk to survive certain attacks after one use of Substitute, but I didn’t have enough time to consider that.

Substitute requires good prediction along with a teammate that can deal heavy damage to anything that isn’t threatened by Charizard. That’s where Mamoswine comes in.

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
Nature: Adamant
116 HP / 252 Atk / 140 Spd
– Earthquake
– Ice Shard
– Protect
– Rock Slide

Mamoswine is surely one of the best partners for Charizard-Y in Tailwind. Sun reduces their shared weakness to Water, while Mamoswine KOs the common fast dragons (Scarf Salamence and Garchomp). A -1 Life Orb Ice Shard KOs Salamence, and a neutral Ice Shard KOs Garchomp. Mamoswine also KOs Aerodactyl without defensive EV investment. Ice Shard’s priority meant that its partner Charizard wasn’t necessarily unsafe without Tailwind. Rock Slide is for things like opposing Charizard and Talonflame, although in Tailwind Mamoswine can finish off a weakened Talonflame with Ice Shard before it can Brave Bird. The pure power of Mamoswine’s Earthquake was evident when it finished an opponent’s full-HP Mega Mawile and Tyranitar to win a battle. Rock Slide also does reasonable damage to Rotom-H, but Sitrus Berry and Will-o-Wisp are problematic.

For the EVs, all I remember is that it outspeeds Ray Rizzo’s Rotom spread, and in Tailwind it outspeeds neutral Scarfed Garchomp, not that I expected to see that. The bulk investment doesn’t help much due to Life Orb, but Mamoswine’s speed tier is awkward so it wasn’t necessary to add more Speed EVs.

Noivern @ Lum Berry
Ability: Frisk
Nature: Timid
252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
– Draco Meteor
– Super Fang
– Tailwind
– Protect

My choices for a fast Tailwind user were basically limited to Noivern or Aerodactyl. Aerodactyl had the advantage of Wide Guard to support Charizard, but it added more Electric and Water weaknesses. Aerodactyl also can’t OHKO Dragons with its Ice Fang, so I decided to use Noivern instead. Noivern had the advantage of dealing solid damage with Super Fang after the Special Attack reduction from Draco Meteor, though I typically preferred to Super Fang something and then finish its remaining 50% HP with Draco Meteor. Super Fang was useful against bulky Pokémon such as Ferrothorn. In one of my matches, my opponent had both Tyranitar and Ferrothorn, so I chose Mega Kangaskhan instead of Charizard that time. Kangaskhan’s Power-Up Punch was my only super-effective move on Ferrothorn in that battle, so Super Fang was the only reason I even won the game.

Frisk is a very useful ability in best-of-one matches; it often revealed a lot about my opponent’s intentions, especially when revealing Mega Stones on Pokémon that aren’t necessarily Megas, such as Gyarados. It also confirms if a Salamence is Scarfed, in which case Protect may be used along with Gengar’s Disable to set up Tailwind the next turn, or Noivern can lead with Mamoswine to ensure that faster Dragons can’t prevent the Tailwind setup.

Lum Berry was there because it didn’t really fit on my other team members, and any team without a Lum Berry can struggle against Smeargle or Amoonguss. Amazingly, there was a complete lack of sleep at the tournament, or at least in the battles I watched and played. Focus Sash may have been a good alternative, but that item was already taken by Gengar.

The EV spread was basic. It ensured KOs against Dragons and had the highest chance of finishing a Pokémon after Super Fang. The worst this spread could do was speed-tie with other Noivern, which were surprisingly common at this event.

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy > Parental Bond
Nature: Jolly
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
– Protect
– Return
– Sucker Punch
– Power-up Punch

I really tried to build a team without it, but there’s no denying how good Mega Kangaskhan is. Seven of the top eight teams in Masters used it. I found in practice that Charizard couldn’t always be relied on even with Tailwind up, partly because of the 90% accuracy of Heat Wave, which makes me play too cautiously. Even with Mamoswine on my team, I didn’t want to risk using Charizard against teams with Tyranitar. Having two Megas makes a team more versatile, and also makes it harder for opponents to choose the right counters. Some Pokémon that do well against Kangaskhan (such as Mawile, Aegislash and other Ghosts) are easily defeated by Charizard. Likewise, Charizard’s counters such as Tyranitar are Power-Up Punch bait for Kangaskhan.

The moveset is a slight deviation from the standard, as I found Fake Out wasn’t useful enough – since many opponents double-Protect on the first turn against it, which means it is often better to Power-Up Punch my own teammate on the field. Leading with Kangaskhan + Noivern can allow me to have a +2 Kangaskhan in Tailwind if they both Protect. Protect is an underrated move on Kangaskhan; opponents usually need to KO it more urgently than its partner, especially when its Attack is boosted. It is quite satisfying to punish a double-target onto it. Another reason for Protect is that Kangaskhan was my only Pokémon not immune to Mamoswine’s Earthquake.

Although it could have been a bulky Adamant set because of Tailwind, I didn’t want to be too reliant on setting it up, so I went for the safe option of at least speed-tying against standard Jolly Kangaskhan and other Pokémon in the same speed tier.

Gardevoir @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Telepathy
Nature: Modest
196 HP / 252 SAtk / 60 Spd
– Moonblast
– Psychic
– Encore
– Protect

Gardevoir was added because I wanted further protection against Dragons, and unlike Mamoswine, Gardevoir doesn’t worry about burns, isn’t weak to Rotom, and is not threatened by Intimidate. Its immunity to Mamoswine’s Earthquake lets them work together. Gardevoir also threatens Venusaur (which is a problem for Mamoswine), but I didn’t encounter any in the tournament. I tested many of Gardevoir’s support moves from its huge movepool, and settled for Encore because it punishes opponents that Protect to stall out Tailwind. It can also mess with Aegislash after it uses King’s Shield or Substitute, since Substitute doesn’t block Encore or Disable. In my final battle, I Encored an Aegislash into Substitute, making it useless for many turns. Since Aegislash is tempted to attack Gardevoir with its super-effective moves, Gardevoir can first Protect to block it and then Encore once again after Aegislash uses King’s Shield to switch back to Shield form.

I maximised Gardevoir’s Special Attack to ensure it had some offensive presence in Tailwind, while the Speed EVs allow it to outrun Rotoms without any Speed investment. In Tailwind it even outspeeds Scarf Smeargle. The Sitrus Berry and HP EVs made it less frail, but it still hates taking attacks from the likes of Kangaskhan.

Gengar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
– Shadow Ball
– Disable
– Taunt
– Will-O-Wisp

The final, last-minute addition to the team. I realised I needed a solid counter to Kangaskhan, and had read about 13Yoshi37‘s success with it at Germany’s Nationals. I hatched it the night before the tournament, without having time to test how well it would work with my other team members. That was definitely a mistake. It was also chosen as another partner for Mamoswine that avoids its Earthquake. Taunt had the potential to prevent targets from Protecting to stall out Tailwind, and Will-O-Wisp was my main way to deal with Kangaskhan and other physical threats. Disable is what makes my moveset different. I figured it could help Charizard set up a Substitute if it’s obvious which of the opponent’s Pokémon will try to attack it with the same move they used last turn. Disable completely shuts down Choice-locked Pokémon, although the most common is Salamence, which will probably be discouraged from use when my opponents sees my anti-Dragon measures such as Mamoswine and Gardevoir.

The EV spread is another simple one because Gengar isn’t going to survive much, hence the Focus Sash. In the tournament there were an unusually high number of Tyranitars, all of which were Special Attackers with Dark Pulse. Sandstorm breaks the Sash and Dark Pulse is unaffected by a burn, so I could rarely find opportunities for Gengar to do its job.

The tournament winner, Darkmalice, used an interesting alternative in Sableye. It offers the same Kangaskhan support and anti-Kangaskhan measures, without being weak to Tyranitar and opposing Gengar. It also has Prankster which allows it to invest in bulk rather than Speed. However, with Mamoswine on my team I needed Levitate, and I also wanted to try out Disable.

Conclusion

I probably underestimated the metagame awareness of Adelaide players, as there were countless other Mamoswines to counter the ubiquitous Dragons, and even a few Gengars, probably all inspired by the same team. I think the main problem was that I played too differently from my practice battles on Showdown. Apart from using Gengar (which I had never tested online), I found myself playing too cautiously and not attempting to set up Tailwind from the start, which I usually did online. The higher pressure of real-life tournaments is something most Australians are not accustomed to, as we’ve only had VGC since last year. Note-taking was also new to me, so unfortunately my notes aren’t detailed enough to write a detailed summary of my battles.

I only remember using Charizard twice, because Tyranitar was so common. Since I had mostly tested with Charizard online, I was actually quite inexperienced in using my team’s ‘Kangaskhan mode’.

The tournament format was unusual: double-elimination. My first loss was to one of the only interstate players, who was clearly very dedicated as he ended up in 2nd place, only losing to the eventual champion. His Kangaskhan attempted to Hammer Arm my Kangaskhan as I Protected in case of Fake Out, so I switched to Gardevoir, hoping he’d use the same move. However, he surprised me with Double-Edge, an easy KO. The battle went downhill from there, with luck being on his side – my Draco Meteor missed his Talonflame, but his Rotom-W didn’t miss my Mamoswine with Hydro Pump.

In the Top 4, I faced CassyTheGastrodon who surprised me with a semi-Rain team. It had Ludicolo and Politoed as the Rain component, while the rest were common Pokémon such as Kangaskhan. I managed to set up Tailwind as my Gengar Disabled his Ludicolo’s attempt at a second Ice Beam on Noivern, since I had Protected on the first turn. However, I made the mistake of bringing Kangaskhan instead of Charizard – with virtually no practice against Rain teams, and from knowing that he was a good player to be in the top 4, I assumed he’d have measures against Charizard-Y, such as manual Rain resetters. Thus, I was too paranoid to choose Charizard. Kangaskhan could have performed well, but it was burned by Scald. At one point my Gardevoir Encored his Aegislash into Substitute, but without Charizard I would have struggled against Aegislash anyway – I deserved the loss for my poor choice of Pokémon that round. It’s a shame it wasn’t best of three at that point, as I could’ve adjusted well.

Overall, the event was enjoyable and surprisingly tough. I hope to devise a better team for Nationals, since I’m determined to make up for my costly mistakes in these Regionals.

About the Author

DrDimentio DrDimentio is an Australian VGC player who likes using non-standard movesets and support moves. Since VGC's introduction to Australia in 2013, a Top 4 finish in Adelaide's regionals has been his only notable finish so far.

Related Posts

Memoirs of a World Champion: by 2015 World Champion SHADEviera →

The Other Fire Doge: A Top 8 Lancaster Report →

Blazing Forward! A Malaysian Regionals 2nd Place Report →

Top 4, Top 4, We’ve Never Used This Team Before →