Reports

Published on September 9th, 2015 | by Sir Chicken

5

Azumarill’s Aquatic Assault – A Massachusetts Regionals Senior Division Runner-Up Report

Hello, everyone! My name’s Michael, and back in May I placed second at the Massachusetts Regional Championships, going undefeated in Swiss and eventually losing to Kylie Chua in the finals. I’ll get into the team right away.

Building The Team

I’d been experimenting with a bunch of different team ideas for weeks before the event, but nothing seemed to be quite as consistent as I would’ve wanted. A few days prior to me leaving for Massachusetts, I decided to revisit the combination of Azumarill, Clefairy and Kangaskhan I’d tried around a month earlier. Clefairy and Azumarill made for a really solid “autopilot” lead in the metagame at the time. Few teams had a good match-up against it and as a result it could be very effective quite consistently. This led to the first version of the team.

Arcanine held a Choice Band with a moveset of Flare Blitz, Close Combat, Wild Charge and Extreme Speed. While it was nice to net so many OHKO’s with the coverage that Arcanine supplied, I realized that my team was able to get pretty much secure the same KO’s all of Arcanine’s non-Fire type moves could net. Since I wanted Landorus-Therian on the team over Arcanine but didn’t want to have double Intimidate, I tried to find a replacement for Arcanine on the team.

The first thing that came to my mind as a replacement for Arcanine was Rotom-Heat. It was able to take out everything I wanted it to with a Life Orb boosted Overheat, and added some nice coverage against bulky water-types and Landorus-Therian with Thunderbolt and Hidden Power Ice respectively. Landorus-Therian gave the team similar coverage against what Terrakion dealt with, but with the addition of Earthquake and Intimidate. Unfortunately, I was dissatisfied with Rotom-Heat’s awkward speed tier and the terrible bulk it had to run since I was using a Life Orb set. I also didn’t like that the team lacked Taunt. I replaced Rotom with Heatran to fix both problems. The night before I left for the event, I was doing some last-second teambuilding with Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka) and Jun Tumaneng (Cypher). Angel mentioned that he thought that Clefairy, Azumarill and Bisharp together was the way to go. I did like the idea of Life Orb Bisharp over Aegislash, since Aegislash wasn’t as useful as I would have liked, plus Wide Guard wasn’t really necessary either. Heatran couldn’t KO opposing Aegislash while Bisharp could and having extra priority in Sucker Punch could help Azumarill sweep with Aqua Jet by helping it KO stuff it usually couldn’t. With that, I finally had a team that was ready for regionals.

The Team

Analysis

Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 4 HP / 204 Atk / 4 Def / 44 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Fake Out
– Return
– Power-Up Punch
– Sucker Punch

Kangaskhan served not only as the devastating attacker it does with Power-Up Punch and Return, but it also fit perfectly with Clefairy and Azumarill. If I didn’t want to lead with Clefairy but wanted to set up Belly Drum with Azumarill, Kangaskhan could use Fake Out on an opposing Pokemon and let Azumarill set up that turn. After that, the opponent would have to deal with a terrifying combination of Mega Kangaskhan and an Azumarill with it’s attack maximized. If I didn’t even want to set up with Azumarill, Kangaskhan and Clefairy made for a great combination that let Kangaskhan fire off a Power-Up Punch, then start dealing massive damage.

Kangaskhan’s EV spread allows it to survive Modest Mega Charizard Y’s Overheat in the Sun with Friend Guard support. I used 252 speed EVs and gave Kangaskhan a Jolly nature to, at the very least, Speed tie with other Kangaskhan and Mega Charizard Y if not completely outspeed them. 4 HP and 4 Defense happened to be the minimum bulk to survive Terrakion’s Close Combat with Friend Guard. The rest of the EVs were put in Attack to maximize its damage output.

Clefairy @ Eviolite
Ability: Friend Guard
EVs: 204 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA / 44 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
– Icy Wind
– Follow Me
– Helping Hand
– Protect

Clefairy is one of my favorite redirection users and among my favorite Pokemon in the entire metagame. With Eviolite, it’s defenses become incredibly solid, plus it has Helping Hand to help its teammates dish out even more damage. Clefairy’s real selling point over other redirection users like Amoonguss or it’s older “sibling” Clefable is the ability Friend Guard, which reduces damage to Clefairy’s partner by 25%. This makes a wide variety of attacks that were impossible or required impractical amounts of investment to survive against certain Pokemon a lot easier to survive (see: Kangaskhan’s EV spread) and makes Clefairy even more frustrating to deal with.

I ran Icy Wind over Moonblast because I already had Fairy-type coverage with Azumarill on the team. While I find Icy Wind to be a lackluster form of Speed control, lowering the stat by one stage on an opponent can be extremely useful for Kangaskhan and Bisharp, giving them just enough of an advantage to make them faster than the majority of the metagame. Redirection lets Kangaskhan or Azumarill set up and destroy entire teams, Clefairy and Azumarill made for a devastating lead against several teams as seen in a lot of my games, and Helping Hand made everything hit harder, but most notably helped Azumarill pick up KOes it would barely miss with a +6 Aqua Jet. The EVs take Iron Head from Jolly Mega Metagross, Life Orb Iron Head from Bisharp, and most Flash Cannon’s from Aegislash.

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Def / 4 SpD / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Aqua Jet
– Play Rough
– Belly Drum
– Protect

Azumarill ended up being a truly fantastic call for the tournament. Most of my opponents lacked a way to prevent Azumarill from punching holes in teams after setting up, and with Clefairy’s support, Azumarill was able to set up pretty consistently. Even without the boost from Belly Drum, she ended up being a pretty powerful attacker on her own.

The EV spread is similar to the one on Alec Rubin (Amr97)’s Azumarill, featured in his Virginia Regionals report a while back. However, I reallocated 8 EVs from Azumarill’s Special Defense to its Speed, feeling that the increased special bulk wasn’t necessary and the extra point of Speed could help me in Speed-creeping other Azumarill or any opposing Mega Mawile. The HP EVs make sure that Sitrus Berry activates after Belly Drum by making Azumarill’s HP stat an even number. The Defense EVs also allowed Azumarill to take a Double-Edge from Jolly Mega Salamence and retaliate with a Play Rough.

Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Iron Head
– Knock Off
– Sucker Punch
– Protect

Simple and effective, your average Life Orb Bisharp. Bisharp was pretty handy in assisting Azumarill’s sweep, as Aqua Jet misses a few KOes even when at +6 Attack. With priority Sucker Punch, I could deal some good damage to an opponent while Azumarill took it out with Aqua Jet immediately afterwards. Defiant was helpful in dealing with Mega Salamence and Landorus-Therian. The pressure that Iron Head had against Fairy-types was pretty useful as well. There isn’t much else to say about it- Bisharp was extremely straightforward and served as a very effective attacker for the team.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 164 HP / 132 Atk / 4 Def / 28 SpD / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Rock Slide
– Earthquake
– Superpower
– Stone Edge

Landorus-Therian offered Intimidate support and additional coverage against a wide variety of Pokemon – most importantly Mega Charizard Y and Thundurus, but also Terrakion, Rotom-Heat, Heatran, Bisharp, and basically anything else it could hit super-effectively.

The moveset is pretty standard except for my decision to run Stone Edge over U-Turn. U-Turn was a move that I almost never used in practice except against Ludicolo. Stone Edge, on the other hand, was great when I needed to deal a lot more damage than Rock Slide would to Thundurus, Rotom-Heat, Mega Salamence, and Zapdos in particular. I found it to be much more effective with wider usage opportunities than U-Turn.

The EV spread is very similar to the one that Zach Droegkamp (Braverius) featured in his Missouri Regionals report. It survives a +1 Life Orb Bisharp’s Sucker Punch, Return + Sucker Punch from Adamant Mega Kangaskhan after Intimidate, and Hydro Pump from most bulky Rotom-Wash. In practice, the extra bulk was also useful in surviving a variety of weaker Ice-Beams from bulky Politoed, Suicune, and Cresselia, and Hidden Power Ice from most bulky Thundurus.

Heatran @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 68 HP / 188 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Heat Wave
– Earth Power
– Taunt
– Protect

I wanted to make sure that the final member of my team would be able to cover any missing essentials, and Heatran happened to fit the bill better than anything else. There were two things that I absolutely wanted to have in the team’s last slot. The first was a Fire-type move for the useful super-effective coverage (especially against Ferrothorn), and Taunt to deal with all manners of setup, status, “weird” strategies I could shut down with it, and any opposing Smeargle.

After choosing Heatran’s moveset, I decided to run Shuca Berry since I wasn’t running Substitute and Life Orb was already taken (and didn’t seem to be worth running anyway). The HP EVs allow Heatran to survive Earthquake from Choice Scarf Adamant Landorus-Therian with the Shuca Berry 100% of the time. I maximized Speed to always have the advantage against opposing Heatran, including other Shuca Berry variants. It was also more than enough to outspeed Bisharp and Smeargle, which was quite useful. The rest was dumped into Special Attack to maximize damage output.

The Tournament

Round 1 Vs. Joy G.

Her team:

She brought:

/

I brought:

/

Looking at team preview, Clefairy and Azumarill looked like they would have a pretty easy time setting up as Joy didn’t seem to have anything that could take down Clefairy in a single hit. I Follow Me and Belly Drum turn 1 while her Mega Alakazam uses Dazzling Gleam, not doing much to either of my Pokemon. Her Milotic went for Mirror Coat that turn, which failed since I hadn’t hit Milotic with a special attack. From there, Azumarill took out both her Alakazam and Milotic over the next two turns. Talonflame comes in, taking out Clefairy as I take out Milotic. This prompted me to send in Landorus to get off Intimidate so that Azumarill wouldn’t be taken down by a Brave Bird before it could move. She reveals Terrakion as her last Pokemon. Brave Bird misses the KO on my Azumarill, and I Aqua Jet + Rock Slide for the win.

WIN 3-0

W/L Record: 1-0

Round 2 Vs. Andrew Sego

His team:

He Brought:

/

I Brought:

/

I have a pretty strong lead advantage this game. I take out Furret pretty early on, and he switches Cryogonal into Sableye turn 2 while bringing in Mega Aerodactyl. The next few turns of the game consisted of me waiting to switch in Bisharp once either my burned Kangaskhan or taunted Clefairy went down. Clefairy goes down first, I switch in Bisharp, and Sableye goes down to Knock Off while Aerodactyl goes down to Sucker Punch next turn after taking damage from Kangaskhan’s own Sucker Punch the previous turn. Kangaskhan then goes down to burn damage, I send in Landorus, and it and Bisharp clean up the game easily from there.

WIN 1-0

W/L Record: 2-0

Round 3 Vs. Anthony Londergan

His team:

He brought:

/

I brought:

/

I talked with Anthony a bit about the event and our teams before the round began, and he was really pleasant and fun to talk with. When the round started, we wished each other good luck and went into team preview. Clefairy and Azumarill appeared to have a very favorable match-up here as long as I was careful with how I dealt with Jellicent. I lead with both and Follow Me + Belly Drum turn 1 while he uses Taunt + Will-O-Wisp. I switch Clefairy out into Kangaskhan as he doubles into my Azumarill’s Protect. I Fake Out Jellicent and Aqua Jet into his Protect the next turn, but then I switch back in Clefairy and Protect Azumarill. From that point on, the match went very smoothly for me as Clefairy and Azumarill took out most of his team and I was able to clean up the match with the Pokemon I had in the back once Clefairy went down.

WIN 3-0

W/L Record: 3-0

 Round 4 Vs. Michael Mirabelle

His team:

He brought:

/

I brought:

/

Right after I got paired up with Michael, I was told that by a friend he had went 3-0 without having a mega ring for his Kangaskhan (he actually ended up in top cut!) and was pretty surprised. I knew that he had probably been playing pretty well to have been able to do that, and was sure to be cautious going into this round. However, the game ended up being pretty straightforward and in my favor. Talonflame used Tailwind turn 1 and his Sylveon protected, his Talonflame going down to my Rock Slide that turn. From there, there was a bit of back-and-forth as Bisharp was able to get to +2 through defiant boosts from his Landorus-Therian. Once Bisharp got those boosts, I sealed up the game with relative ease.

WIN 3-0

W/L Record: 4-0

Round 5 Vs. Mihrab Samad (megachar10)

His team:

He brought:

/

I brought:

/

Mihrab is a pretty good friend of mine and I consider him to be one of the best Senior division players in the country. He was running Kangaskhan and Clefairy, but opted for a Landorus-Incarnate on his team, which I found interesting and was curious as to what it could potentially do. We both lead off with Kangaskhan and Clefairy, which resulted in a LOT of hit trading. The game eventually came down to me taking out his Kangaskhan while he KOed my Heatran with Blaziken’s Superpower, taking Life Orb damage and lowering his defense. Thankfully, his Blaziken had taken solid residual damage from Life Orb recoil and my Heat Wave the turn before, and my Kangaskhan KOed with Sucker Punch for the win.

WIN 1-0

W/L Record: 5-0

Round 6 Vs. Geoffrey Garsson

His team:

He brought:

/

I brought:

/

Unfortunately, I didn’t take many notes on this game for whatever reason. From what I did write down and know from memory, I remember that Azumarill had no problem setting up Belly Drum with support from Clefairy turn 1, and from that point on it was a pretty clean sweep, with my own Kangaskhan taking out his Rotom-Wash for the win on the last turn.

WIN 3-0

W/L Record: 6-0

Top Cut

Top 8 Vs. Jake Rosen (sableyemagma)

His team:

Jake was running a team with a lot of non-standard Pokemon, and during team preview I had to make sense of everything it could possibly do. With Misdreavus and a few slower Pokemon on the team, it seemed to have some sort of semi-Trick Room element to it, with a fast mode possible with speed control from Thundurus. I already knew that Torterra could learn Wide Guard, so I had to look out for that going into this set.

Game 1

He brought:

/

I brought:

/

Given what I had gleamed from team preview, Clefairy and Azumarill seemed to be my best lead. I double Protect turn 1 to avoid Fake Out from his Scrafty. He switches it into Torterra turn 2 while his Empoleon goes for Flash Cannon onto my Clefairy while I Follow Me + Belly Drum. I get the KO on Torterra with Aqua Jet as my Clefairy goes down to a second Flash Cannon. I send in Kangaskhan, and from there I’m in a great position as Azumarill proceeds to KO everything except for Misdreavus, which Bisharp finishes off at the end of the game.

WIN 2-0

Set Record: 1-0

Game 2

He brought:

/

I brought:

/

I didn’t feel that there was a better way to approach this game than the last time, so I brought the exact same Pokemon believing that it was the safest way to go. Jake makes a good adjustment from last game by leading Empoleon and Thundurus. I figured that he was trying to cripple Clefairy and threaten Azumarill at the same time. I Follow Me and Belly Drum turn 1, as he uses Thunderbolt and Flash Cannon on Clefairy for the KO. I send in Kangaskhan, and from there I easily take out Thundurus while getting to +2 with Kangaskhan by Power-Up Punching the Empoleon. Scrafty comes in and gets off the Intimidate, proceeding to Fake Out my Kangaskhan while his Empoleon attacked into my Azumarill’s Protect. From there, I KO Scrafty next turn and my Azumarill goes down, and with Kangaskhan at +1 and Bisharp in the back, I’m able to pull through and win the set.

WIN 2-0

Set Record: 2-0 [WIN]

Top 4 Vs. Stephen Mea (Gramgus)

His team:

I had fought Stephen in a few Premier Challenges before, so I knew that he was a good player and a threatening opponent. Unlike my top 8 set against Jake, Stephen’s team was a bit easier to break down and I decided that the best way to go at this set was to stick with bringing safe, reliable leads.

Game 1

He brought:

/

I brought:

/

I double Protect to avoid Fake Out, and set up Belly Drum the next turn. Clefairy’s taken down by a double target with Thunderbolt and Double-Edge that turn, and I send in Kangaskhan. Things suddenly begin looking incredibly bad for me when I Fake Out Thundurus and his Kangaskhan hangs on with a bit of HP after I hit it with Aqua Jet, and it takes out my Kangaskhan with Low Kick. I take out his Kangaskhan next turn with Aqua Jet, and I Sucker Punch his Thundurus to be safe- it fails and he paralyzes Bisharp. When he sends in his own Bisharp, I Aqua Jet hoping that it wasn’t carrying the Focus Sash, and it wasn’t! Bisharp picks up the KO on Thundurus that turn, and I easily clean up the game once he sends in Landorus.

WIN 2-0

Set Record: 1-0

Game 2

He brought:

/

I brought:

/

This game was much less sloppy than the last, right from turn 1. I set up right off the bat and bring in Kangaskhan next turn to deal with Bisharp. I take out both of his lead Pokemon the following turn, he doubles into my Kangaskhan with Greninja and his own Kangaskhan to take it out, but Azumarill brings his Kangaskhan down to low enough HP that the game was pretty much in my hands from that point onward.

WIN 2-0

Set Record: 2-0 [WIN]

Finals Vs. Kylie Chua

Her team:

Before this set, I was pretty excited to hear that our games would be streamed by CLASH Tournaments, and commentated by Aaron Zheng (Cybertron) and Jonathan Evans (Ezrael). Kylie’s team packed a lot of threats that made this team match-up incredibly difficult for me. The rain mode with three water-types and her own Mega Kangaskhan threatened my Heatran uncomfortably, but I didn’t have much else to deal with Ferrothorn and was torn between what I wanted to bring in each game- in the end I didn’t even bring Heatran once, which, while not being a fatal mistake, put me at a disadvantage as every game I struggled to deal with Kylie’s Ferrothorn.

Game 1

She brought:

/

I brought:

/

I predict Kylie to go with a rain lead, and go with what would give me the safest match-up against it. Kylie leads Kangaskhan and Thundurus, and I predict her to anticipate a double Protect and go straight for a Belly Drum to avoid her Power-Up Punching her own Thundurus and taking out Clefairy  next turn. Unfortunately, this backfires and while I still get Belly Drum off, Clefairy is hit by Fake Out and Azumarill is left at very low HP after Thunderbolt. Eventually, I’m left with my Bisharp and Mega Kangaskhan against her Ferrothorn and Ludicolo. I was pretty confident that I would have been able to take the game after KOing the Ludicolo the following turn with Knock Off, but her Gyro Ball actually KOes my Kangaskhan without a critical hit, which DEFINITELY caught me off guard. Bisharp’s Knock Off the next turn confirms her Ferrothorn’s item, and unfortunately Bisharp can’t close the game due to Iron Barbs + Life Orb damage and additional damage from Gyro Ball.

LOSS 0-1

Set Record: 0-1

Game 2

She brought:

/

I brought:

/

With the exact same leads as the previous game, I double Protect turn 1 to prevent the same situation as game 1. The next turn I Follow Me + Belly Drum, while Kylie doubles into Clefairy for the KO. I send in Kangaskhan and there’s some trades as it and Azumarill eventually bring Kylie’s team down to only her Ferrothorn. I finish it off over the next two turns with Play Rough and Power-Up Punch for the game.

WIN 2-0

Set Record: 1-1

Game 3

She brought:

/

I brought:

/

Kylie makes a smart adjustment this game by switching up her lead to better suit my own Clefairy and Azumarill lead. I was immediately kicking myself inside for not leading with Heatran and not even bringing it, especially given that I should have given the results of the last two games. Regardless, at that point I had no choice but to work with what I had. I get Azumarill to +6 and Clefairy goes down to a double target with Gyro Ball dealing a surprising amount of damage thanks to the Choice Band. Over the course of the game I’m able to wear down Kylie’s team to her own full HP Mega Kangaskhan (which could no longer use Fake Out) and slightly damaged Ludicolo against my 50% HP paralyzed Azumarill and full HP Bisharp. I make a bizarre play the next turn that Kylie points out in her interview with Aaron after the set – I predict her to Sucker Punch with Kangaskhan in anticipation of a double target with an Aqua Jet Azumarill and Sucker Punch from Bisharp – Sucker Punch would avoid any chance of Aqua Jet’s damage roll on Kangaskhan ending up with it surviving. I go for an Iron Head with Bisharp to prevent risking the effects of my Sucker Punch from being nullified, but Aqua Jet just KO’s Kangaskhan anyway and Iron Head hits Ludicolo. I did not think that play through, and should have gone for the Knock Off instead of Iron Head as even if Kangaskhan survived, Knock Off would allow me to KO Ludicolo for the win. Instead, I had misplayed and put myself in a position where the RNG would decide the game’s results. Iron Head doesn’t flinch the Ludicolo, and it hits Bisharp with a Scald and gets the burn, meaning that I wouldn’t be able to KO with Knock Off next turn and Bisharp would certainly faint to Life Orb + Burn damage- to win the game, I had to be able to hit Aqua Jet through Azumarill’s Paralysis for Knock Off to do enough damage to KO. Unfortunately, my Azumarill was fully paralyzed the next turn, and Knock Off barely misses the KO on Ludicolo as I had expected. Kylie then Giga Drains my Azumarill and Bisharp faints to burn damage.

LOSS 1-0

Set Record: 1-2 [LOSS]

Additional Thoughts

This section is written in a post-Nationals perspective.

Unfortunately, my games against Kylie in the finals were not uploaded to YouTube due to technical difficulties on the stream towards the end of the set, and they no longer exist in CLASH Tournaments’ Twitch past broadcasts. However, Aaron’s interview with Kylie after she won was uploaded to YouTube, and if you’re interested in watching it you can find it here.

I’m really glad that I’ve been able to have a fantastic Regionals circuit. I still find it hard to believe I’ve won two Regionals and still placed second at Massachusetts! While my Nationals performance was rather disappointing this season, I already had my Worlds invite locked up and after my disappointing finish in Indianapolis now I’m working hard to make sure that I do well there. With that being said, thank you for reading, and I hope to see some of you in Boston this August!

Shout-outs & Special Thanks

I’d like to thank the following people for some of the great things they did for me as I close out this report.

• Aaron Zheng (Cybertron) and Jonathan Evans (Ezrael) for commentating my finals games. I watched the set after I got home from the event and I really enjoyed the fantastic commentary you guys provided.
• Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka) and Jun Tumaneng (Cypher) for helping me come up with some ideas while teambuilding.
• CLASH Tournaments for streaming my finals games and helping to provide the aforementioned commentary.
• Patty Lefavour for organizing one of the most smoothly run Regionals I’ve ever been to. Seriously, I don’t think that there were even any minor delays throughout the tournament.
• Brendan Webb (FloristtheBudew) for the report art.
• Everyone who’s given me support throughout the season up to this point- you all know who you are, and there are too many to list. I’m really thankful for all the support that you guys have given me.

As I’ve already said, thank you very much for reading!

About the Author

Sir Chicken is a senior-division VGC player who has played in the official format since the fall of 2013, however only began to see real success this past season, becoming a two-time regional champion securing his worlds invite. He hopes to continue performing well this season. He also loves food and traveling.

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