Reports

Published on September 2nd, 2015 | by shihhan0718

4

Be My Friend: Taiwan Regional 1st Place Team Report

This is a translation of 2015 Taiwan Regional Champion Tsao Che Ming’s team report by shihhan0718. The original is located at his blog.

Hello everyone. I’m Tsao Che Ming, or Duoo in-game. I won the Taiwan Regional in June, and it was a complete accident! I didn’t expect to get first place, since due to my schedule I would not be able to play at Worlds. As such, I originally intended to not compete to boost my countrymen’s chances at a Worlds spot. However, after a speech at the opening ceremony of the regional, I realized that giving up would be disrespectful to the spirit of the game. Therefore, I did my best in the event, and managed to prove myself to everyone else.

At Regionals, I used my “Crossrange Team”. I had used this team to get first place in the Asia Cup, which was held shortly before Regionals. I thought that it had a good matchup against the metagame, so I continued practicing with it on Battle Spot. However, at the Premier Challenge on May 23, I went 5-2 and missed top cut. I started thinking about using the very popular Japanese sand team instead, and even switched for a while. However, on the morning of the event, my friend shihhan0718 asked me if I was going to give up on my old, tested team. In the end, I decided to believe in myself and stick with the team I’ve been using all season.

Teambuilding

If you’ve read my previous report, you know that Clefairy is the core of my team. Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka) used it at a Premier Challenge in the United States in February, and it really caught my attention. Friend Guard makes it a great support Pokémon that covers the entire team. I originally tried to pair it with Mega Kangaskhan or Mega Charizard Y, but it didn’t work very well.

In March, I went 5-2 at a Premier Challenge (missing top cut) with the following team:

I noticed that this team has no way to deal with Heatran and Rotom-Heat. It also lacks spread moves, making it difficult to play. I was trying to modify this team when my friend Sayha gave me a new idea, revolving around Salamence and Breloom.

Salamence and Breloom have enough power to knock out an opposing Pokémon in many cases. If they can’t, Spore is also a good option to give me a few extra turns. Salamence and Clefairy are also a very good combination, so I started with these three Pokémon.

I needed to deal with my Fairy-, Ice-, and Fire-type weaknesses, and Rotom-H was the best option that resisted all three. Doing so, however, gave me two Rock-type weaknesses, so I added Aegislash for its Wide Guard. I think Aegislash is the best Wide Guard user available, since its Steel-type gives it many useful resistances. Yoshi (13Yoshi37) also used the Rotom-H/Aegislash combination.

For my last Pokémon, my friend Sayha advised me to use Gastrodon. It can deal with Heatran, Landorus-Therian, Thundurus, and Rotom-W. Salamence threatens Grass-type Pokémon, which definitely helps out Gastrodon. However, I felt that the team didn’t have enough Speed control. After reading Barry Anderson’s (Baz Anderson) report, I was interested in the Breloom/Cresselia combination. As such, I replaced Gastrodon with Cresselia.

Team Analysis

Clefairy @ Eviolite
Bold | Friend Guard
236 HP / 204 Def / 12 SpA / 52 SpD / 4 Spe
– Protect
– Helping Hand
– Moonblast
– Follow Me

Clefairy is a fantastic support Pokémon and is the true centerpiece of the team. It’s got many options between its four moves. Moonblast’s sole focus is Hydreigon, which would otherwise be a huge threat to this team. Helping Hand is great on Pokémon that are as weak offensively as Clefairy, and allows me to create many KO threats. Follow Me… well, I think you already know what it does. It is especially important for Salamence, as it needs to Dragon Dance to start dominating. Friend Guard deals with the spread moves that Follow Me doesn’t cover, and Salamence’s Intimidate makes it even more potent. The initial version of this set had Thunder Wave as the final move, but I noticed that I already had two forms of status and Speed control, so I chose Protect instead.

The EVs allow Clefairy to withstand Life Orb Bisharp’s Iron Head and Aegislash’s Flash Cannon, two of the biggest threats to it. Overall, Clefairy is very bulky, and usually stays on the field for a long time. I’d like to thank Angel for finding this great Pokémon.

Salamence @ Salamencite
Jolly | Intimidate / Aerilate
4 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
– Protect
– Dragon Dance
– Return
– Earthquake

This is a fairly standard Mega Salamence, and it’s a huge threat to any opponent. On this set, I decided to use Return over Double-Edge, as I’d like to keep its health high to take advantage of Friend Guard. Earthquake deals with Steel- and Rock-type Pokémon; I was originally going to use a Rock-type move, but that would really hurt Salamence’s coverage. I know that the current set struggles with Zapdos and Rotom-Wash, but it is possible to brute force through those Pokémon. Dragon Dance is great with Clefairy, and even a single boost (which is what I aim for) is gamechanging. At +1 Speed, Salamence outspeeds Excadrill in sand and Ludicolo in rain.

I’m not a fan of 252/252 spreads, so I distributed a couple of EVs into its defenses. Salamence are usually Adamant, but I decided to make mine Jolly for several reasons. Firstly, the additional Speed makes it more flexible, as I don’t have to Protect and Mega Evolve on the first turn. Secondly, I can determine opposing Landorus-Therian’s item through which Intimidate goes first. Lastly, since Japanese sand is so common, winning the Speed tie is typically quite crucial. Salamence is fairly bulky with Friend Guard, being able to withstand weaker Ice Beams, and can knock out Mega Charizard Y with Return at +0 and Mega Kangaskhan at +1.

Breloom @ Focus Sash
Jolly | Technician
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
– Protect
– Mach Punch
– Bullet Seed
– Spore

This is a pretty standard Breloom, and I don’t have much to say about it. Mach Punch is the primary draw of the set, OHKOing Tyranitar, Bisharp at -1, and Hydreigon and Terrakion after a Helping Hand. Bullet Seed and Spore deal with bulky Pokémon, giving me some more time and damage to deal with them. Since this is a Focus Sash set, the EVs are very simple. I put the final 4 EVs into Defense instead of HP, but it doesn’t matter at all.

Rotom-Heat @ Sitrus Berry
Modest | Levitate
244 HP / 4 Def / 124 SpA / 4 SpD / 132 Spe
– Protect
– Will-O-Wisp
– Thunderbolt
– Overheat

Rotom-H patches up several holes on my team. Originally, I had Rotom-Wash in this slot, but I found that I really needed a Fire-type. I originally had Hidden Power Ice over Will-O-Wisp, but the EV spread wasn’t offensive enough and missed KOs on even 4x weak Pokémon. The spread does a variety of things: it can take Mega Kangaskhan’s Double-Edge, Choice Specs Hydreigon’s Draco Meteor, and avoid 2HKOs from weaker super effective attacks such as Landorus-Therian’s Rock Slide. Offensively, it can knock out Mega Charizard Y with a Helping Hand boost and take down Amoonguss with Overheat. I gave Rotom-H an odd HP stat (156) to make sure that Super Fang would activate Sitrus Berry. Lastly, the Speed EVs give it 123 Speed, enough to outrun Bisharp and most Pokémon after an Icy Wind.

Aegislash @ Leftovers
Quiet | Stance Change
252 HP / 140 Atk / 4 Def / 108 SpA / 4 SpD
IVs: 0 Spe
– King’s Shield
– Sacred Sword
– Shadow Ball
– Wide Guard

This Aegislash is slightly different from the typical one. Back in 2014, Sacred Sword Aegislash was commonly seen to OHKO Kangaskhan after a Weakness Policy boost. I decided to keep it around this year, as it was very useful against Minimize Chansey, Bisharp, and Mega Gyarados. Wide Guard is crucial to the team’s success: Salamence and Breloom attract Hyper Voice and Blizzard, Breloom and Aegislash attract Heat Wave, and Salamence and Rotom-Heat attract Rock Slide. Aegislash prevents my entire team from being run over by spread moves. The EVs allow Aegislash to 2HKO Mega Kangaskhan and OHKO Tyranitar with Sacred Sword, while barely withstanding a litany of powerful attacks.

Cresselia @ Rocky Helmet
Bold | Levitate
92 HP / 76 Def / 220 SpA / 4 SpD / 116 Spe
– Icy Wind
– Psyshock
– Calm Mind
– Moonlight

Cresselia was a useful Pokémon for the team, serving several different roles. I chose Psyshock over Psychic to hit Sylveon and Assault Vest Ludicolo harder, two big threats to this team. Icy Wind served as my primary Speed control. Calm Mind and Moonlight made Cresselia essentially unstoppable against special attackers, and could even sweep entire teams when physical threats were neutered by Intimidate and burns. However, it never really worked out in battle—I always got burned, frozen, or critical hit. The EVs allow it to take Choice Specs Hydreigon’s Dark Pulse and Life Orb Bisharp’s Knock Off while outspeeding base 130 Speed Pokémon after an Icy Wind. The set was originally ChestoRest; however, I never really found time to use Rest, so I gave it a Rocky Helmet to improve my Kangaskhan matchup instead.

Battles

I’d like to quickly apologize for the videos; my VS Recorder was full, so all of matches below were recorded by my opponents (thanks!). Here’s how my top cut matches went.

Top 8: vs Che Chang (PolitoZZ)

Game 1

Che Chang is a really strong player. In this game, he outpredicted me almost every turn. I was so frustrated, I even forgot to Mega Evolve my Salamence. However, I realized that he was a very defensive player, so I would have to make some risky plays in the next games. I ended up losing 4-0, but I got the information I needed, and set up a nice trap.

Game 2

I got pretty lucky in this game; aside from Cresselia’s sleep, I only got flinched once. I essentially won this game by hitting his Amoonguss with Overheat on the switch-in.

Game 2

We both led with our primary leads: Kangaskhan and Suicune for him, Salamence and Clefairy for me. I was able to snag a free Dragon Dance on turn one, then knock out his Mega Kangaskhan and Bisharp with the boost. Rotom-H managed to not miss any of its attacks this game, which was crucial to my victory.

After the game, I saw that my friend Sayha would be my next opponent, so I knew I was in for a tough match.

Top 4: vs Jian-Ting Liu (Sayha)

Sayha knows my team very well, since he helped me build it. He’s also a great player who won a previous Premier Challenge. However, when I played him, I didn’t feel much pressure; I knew he could represent Taiwan just as well as I could. Of course, I played my best against him; doing anything else would be disrespectful.

Game 1

I knew I would need to make some risky plays to win, so I went for a big one on the first turn. However, his Sylveon used Protect, so it didn’t work out at all. Still, how he reacted gave me good information on his playing style, so I knew what to do in the following games.

Game 2

I went for another big play on turn one, and this time it paid off with a quick KO on his Amoonguss. I managed to use my Clefairy and Aegislash very well, and eventually the latter was able to sweep through his team.

Game 3

He went for a risky Choice Band Will-O-Wisp early, and I was able to use Follow Me successfully. Kangaskhan got huge hits onto his Sylveon and Greninja, allowing me to take this game fairly easily. Finally, I was almost the champion…

Final: vs Mark Duffield (Lord Gatr)

Mark is a very good player from the UK, and I greatly respect his spirit and dedication. He got into top cut at the last Premier Challenge. But this time, I was determined to stop him; it’s the Taiwan Regionals, there’s no way a foreigner can win. I wanted to bring home the championship for Taiwan!

Game 1

At the start of the match, I tried to scout his Politoed set. After I saw Icy Wind, I was confident that Salamence could stay on the field and attack. Although Clefairy and Cresselia went down to critical hits, the rain also stopped. I remembered that one of my friends had called a rain team without rain “a team with very low offensive power.” Therefore, I kept on the attack, and eventually won the game. Honestly, I was fairly surprised that I managed to do so.

Game 2

My game one lead worked well, so I used it again. Mark went with a completely different lead in Aegislash and Thundurus. Afterwards, I managed to take out his annoying Thundurus with two Returns despite the attack being resisted. From there, I carefully played my advantage, and I was able to take the win. This was my first 2-0 win ever in a best-of-three, and it got me the title of Taiwan’s first Regional Champion!

Conclusion

In the interview, I was asked which of my Pokémon was the most useful. I immediately answered, “Clefairy!” Of course, everyone laughed, and some people said that they thought it was a weak Pokémon. I completely disagree; Clefairy was my true MVP for the entire season.

Honestly, I’m not a very good best-of-one player. At all the events I go to, I always end up 5-2 in Swiss, sometimes even losing in the first round. I know I’m more suited for the best-of-three ruleset, but that’s just me—I like to observe my opponents and figure out what they’re thinking or how they play the game. After I graduated and got a job, I didn’t have much time to study the game, so I’d like to thank all of my friends for all their support in helping me teambuild and practice.

I wore my 2014 Worlds shirt during Regionals, and during the interview, I told everyone, “this is the last time I’ll wear this T-shirt. I don’t know if “Taiwan” will be on the back of this year’s shirt, but I’m really happy that we [Taiwan] have finally joined the world!”

Last year, when I went to Worlds, I felt pretty helpless at first; Taiwan has never been part of VGC, so everything just seemed so unfamiliar to me. But I met some good players there and made some friends too. One thing I remember is that I met a player from Puerto Rico in the elevator of my hotel. Puerto Rico, just like Taiwan, had never participated in VGC.

I asked him, “Are you a Pokémon VGC player?”
He said, “Yes.”

That was our entire conversation. But from that simple, short conversation, I felt so warm. I realized that although we haven’t been in Worlds yet, we were not alone. All of the Pokémon fans from different countries were making their own efforts to make it to the top. And now, in 2015, we’ve even sent a player to day two of Worlds in Seniors as the #1 player in Championship Points in Southeast Asia. You can read his report here. I’m very proud of that! I knew we could do it!

And lastly, I’d like to conclude my whole 2015 season with a single sentence:

“I did my best, I have no regrets!”

Thanks for reading my report. I’ll see you in the 2016 season.

About the Author

shihhan0718 A VGC player from Taiwan, a small country located in east Asia. Trying to develop competitive VGC community in Taiwan, so that one day Taiwanese players can compete with other great players from all over the world on the stage of world championship.

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