Reports

Published on May 29th, 2014 | by ImOliLetsBattle

28

Tyranitar’s Tyranny! Pokémon UK Battle Tournament 2014 1st Place Report

Hi! My name is Oliver Reilly, known on Nugget Bridge as ImOliLetsBattle, and I’m a player from the UK. I’m relatively new to VGC, which is why there hasn’t been any activity – yet – on my profile. I will be getting much more involved in the online community soon, though.

This event was the Pokemon Battle Tournament UK Grand Finals 2014. 19 Regional Heats were held with two winners from each going on to the next round, a total of 38 participants in the Ultimate Pokemon Expert Category. We were split into eight groups, each with four or five members. During the group stages we each played each other once – no best of three, just one battle. A winner was declared for each group, and then the eight of us were put into the knockout stage.

This was the first competitive event I’ve been to. My friend Ben and I, filled with excitement and nerves, queued for what seemed like hours to get into the Music Room in Mayfair, London. I genuinely had no idea what to expect. I was really lucky to get through Regionals given I hadn’t prepared at all, and I wanted to prove that I deserved to be there. What was up for grabs? A bye to the second round of the UK National Championships for the finalists. Oh, and a weeklong trip to Japan for the winner, which made the final a little more nerve-wracking!

Leading up to the event, I wanted a team focused around Mawile and Tyranitar that was bulkier, rather than faster, and was not threatened by status conditions or Confusion. My team was focused around removing threats to Tyranitar and Mawile and allowing those two to sweep. After a long run with a completely different team, I scrapped it and started again from scratch around three days before the tournament. I only got about three hours of sleep on the day of the tournament – a terrible idea that I would not recommend to anyone. I just hadn’t finished training the team!

Tyranitar @Weakness Policy
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 4HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def / 4 SDef / 236 Spd
Jolly Nature
– Protect
– Dragon Dance
– Rock Slide
– Crunch

This Tyranitar was the strongest member of my team. Most players were expecting a Special set, given that Special Tyranitar is the most popular at the moment. Switches by my opponent became an opportunity for me to Dragon Dance. Tyranitar can Dragon Dance on a Garchomp, take an Earthquake, and respond with a +3 Crunch to KO. There isn’t much that can survive once Tyranitar is at +3. Rock Slide provides powerful STAB spread damage with potential flinches.  Crunch was very helpful for dealing with Aegislash and other popular Steel types, and it also worked as a single-targeting move when you predict a Protect.

What’s great about Tyranitar is that a lot of Special attacks in particular are Super Effective against it, but since the Sand is up (and hopefully Screens) Tyranitar can more easily take the hit, and your opponent ends up suffering for it. If they don’t take the bait, they end up having to KO it with neutral moves.

The EVs provided allow Tyranitar to outspeed Jolly Garchomp after one Dragon Dance. Attack was maximised to KO all the things, and the remaining EVs were thrown into the defensive stats.

Mawile @Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate — Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Atk / 132 SDef
Adamant Nature
– Play Rough
– Fire Fang
– Protect
– Sucker Punch

I decided to run Fire Fang rather than Iron Head on Mawile. Iron Head would only ever have been useful in the tournament against Gengar when my opponent Disabled my Sucker Punch. Instead, I decided to run the slightly unusual Fire Fang. It ended up being one of the most helpful moves on the set, because of the surprise factor and the large number of Fire weaknesses that plague various top tier threats. The EV spread allowed me to OHKO Ray Rizzo’s Ferrothorn, which I came across a lot and threatened my Tyranitar. The rest went in HP and Special Defense, similarly to the way Ray Rizzo used his Mawile.

Sucker Punch was always helpful, either as a Super Effective hit, to provide chip damage to support another Pokemon, or to provide enough power to finish off weakened opponents.

Mawile complimented my Tyranitar incredibly well, providing Intimidate support and giving decent typing synergy, as well as working well in a Sandstorm. Play Rough helped with the Fighting types that Tyranitar hates.

Meowstic @Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature
– Psychic
– Light Screen
– Reflect
– Safeguard

No, this isn’t one of those annoying Meowstic with Thunder Wave or Swagger.

Tyranitar took all of the glory, but Meowstic was probably just as helpful. It was absolutely key that I brought Meowstic. I originally wanted Meowstic just to deal with Venusaur, Amoonguss, Smeargle and Rotom-W by blocking status, preventing Mawile and Tyranitar from getting shut down. However, I think having Screens up is far too underrated. Barely anyone I played set them up, and I don’t know why. The bulk that they add to your teammates will surprise your opponents, such as when your Mawile survives a Talonflame Flare Blitz. They were also especially helpful for my team, because my team was slow and really benefited from being able to survive hits first and then respond. Also, since Tyranitar needs to take a Super Effective hit to activate Weakness Policy, it really benefits from the increase in bulk.

My set is far less bulky than most. There’s a reason for this. First of all, Meowstic’s bulk is improved by the screens you set up anyway. Secondly, it allows Meowstic to respond with a STAB Super Effective Psychic on Amoonguss or Venusaur that will deal a surprising amount of damage, as well as finish off any other Pokemon that you need to. Also, Meowstic isn’t really needed once you set up Screens and a Safeguard – just Psychic away until it faints, allowing you a free switch into another Pokemon. Also, when previously your opponent could simply ignore Meowstic after it had set up Screens, this set forces them to eliminate it before it deals any more damage. In this way, it also acts as a dummy that your opponent must take down before they focus on your other Pokemon.

Rotom-Wash @Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4SDef
Modest Nature
– Hydro Pump
– Thunderbolt
– Trick
– Volt Switch

This Rotom was used for a number of reasons. I needed to bring some powerful Special offense, and I also wanted another way of countering Pokemon that I had issues with. Tricking a Pokemon with a Choice item removes some of the mind games that are being played when you’re in a tight situation, providing you with a more reliable idea of what your opponent is going to do and potentially crippling an opponent if they need to switch up their moves as you switch up your Pokemon. Trick also completely neuters opponents if they are down to their final two Pokemon. Rotom was also helpful in that I really needed a Pokemon that could switch into an Earthquake.

Aegislash @Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature
EVs: 0 Spd
– Substitute
– Flash Cannon
– Shadow Ball
– King’s Shield

Nothing much to say here, pretty standard Aegislash. It was helpful to switch into when Tyranitar was threatened by a Fighting move and it provided reliable damage at the end of every turn. Gengar occupied this slot until just before the Tournament, but I found that it was too frail. I didn’t want to run a Choice item set with it either, because of the ubiquitous Sucker Punch.

Amoonguss @Black Sludge
Abiliy: Regenerator
Level: 50
Evs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 Spd
Calm Nature
– Giga Drain
– Spore
– Protect
– Rage Powder

I could talk about what I wanted Amoonguss to do, but there’s not much point because I never even brought it. It could have been really helpful, but I had very little experience with Amoonguss which is why I didn’t feel comfortable bringing it. I probably would have brought it in a different scenario, like if I ever faced a Rain team where I needed the Spore support and the ability to redirect damage with Rage Powder.

Special Mention:

Garchomp @Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
-Stone Edge
-Fire Fang
-Outrage
-Earthquake

What a stupid set, right? Right. I hadn’t used Amoonguss all day, so I swapped him out for Garchomp. That way, I could sponge Thunder Waves and add Rock Slide support for Charizard. I forgot to check his moves though, and as a result I picked the wrong Garchomp going into the final. I ended up making my life a lot harder in the finals.

Battles

I’m not going to say too much about my battles. I’ll put the codes up – they’re pretty self-explanatory. However, I will talk about the final, because unfortunately there is no battle video to upload, since the battle happened on a different 3DS so it could go up on the big screens at the event.

Match 1 vs Justin Miller(ThrillerMiller9)

MTQG-WWWW-WWW7-4ELP

Match 2 vs Sam (WM Sam)

ZDEG-WWWW-WWW7-4ERU

Match 3 vs Sam (MCPanda69)

8QYG-WWWW-WWW7-4ESD

Match 4 vs Sam (samgei)

Far too many Sams…

I actually lost one of my matches in the group stages against MCPanda69. I didn’t play as well as I would have liked. He played really well, however, predicting my Sucker Punch, switching to prevent large amounts of damage, and winning the game by Perish trapping my last two Pokemon. We had one of the most competitive groups of the eight that were competing.

I was still able to go through to the quarter finals because luckily no one won all four games. Justin and I both had 3-1 records and both had the same number of Pokemon remaining in each, but since I had defeated him I was selected to go through. It was a shame that there was no time for a rematch or a best-of-three.

Quarter-Final vs Garry

R6TG-WWWW-WWW7-4ETY

Semi-Final vs Connor

ETMG-WWWW-WWW7-4EUA

Final vs Lee Watson (Redemption003)

Opponent’s team:

Rotom-W / Meowstic / Charizard / Venusaur VS. Meowstic / Garchomp / Tyranitar / Mawile

My opponent lead with Rotom-W and Meowstic and I lead with Meowstic and Garchomp. I left my Garchomp in as fodder, not really worrying about it getting statused, and set up my screens first before trying to set up a Safeguard. Unfortunately, my Meowstic got paralyzed multiple times before it faints, and I was unable to set up Safeguard. The first half of the battle was boring – it was just chip damage turn after turn. Eventually, with significant damage to both his Pokemon, my Meowstic and Garchomp both fainted, forcing me to bring in Mawile and Tyranitar. I mega evolved and went for the Play Rough onto his Meowstic, KOing it, and I set up a Dragon Dance. However, he was able to Thunder Wave my Tyranitar and Will-o-Wisp my Mawile before his Meowstic went down and his Rotom fainted due to Sandstorm. Things were not looking good for me. He brought in his Charizard and Venusaur. Predicting him to Protect with his Charizard fearing the Rock Slide, I Crunched the Venusaur. He does in fact Protect with his Charizard, but he mega evolved his Venusaur instead – strange! My Tyranitar is hit with a Giga Drain, but thanks to Sandstorm and Light Screen, my Tyranitar is able to survive and its Weakness Policy was activated. I Fire Fanged the Venusaur with Mawile and proceed to land my Crunch through Paralysis – thank god. The damage was nail-bitingly close – just enough to bring Venusaur into the range where it would be taken out by Sandstorm, leaving me with a burned Mega-Mawile and a paralysed Tyranitar with low HP against his Charizard. Charizard outspeeds and goes for the Flamethrower onto T-Tar, which would be a 2HKO at the range of HP Tyranitar was at. However, I am able to hit through Paralysis again and get off a Rock Slide (I really should have Crunch’ed) to knock out the Charizard. What an incredibly close game.

This was a fantastic tournament, and I was so happy to win, although at the end of the day the winner could have been anyone. I was definitely very lucky. For example, my team has severe issues with Kangaskhan, but luckily I did not face a single one, which was strange. I hope to go to Nationals later on in May and I hope to see some of you there!

Many thanks to Ben Dyson for spending many hours helping me build my team and test it. He deserves half of the credit. Maybe a little less. Because of that, he’s going to accompany me to Japan.

About the Author

ImOliLetsBattle Hi! I'm Oliver Reilly, a VGC player from the UK. I enjoy physics and maths, sport and STOMPING ON PLAYERS ON THE BATTLE SPOT LADDER I'm relatively new to VGC. I won the Pokemon Battle Tournament UK 2014, which has sparked me create this profile.

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