I Can Already See The Ending! – A Nationals Report
Hey all, Marco here with a Nationals Report. This is my second year in the VGC scene and my first year attending Nationals. While most people tend to go with the same Pokémon for VGC battles, I prefer using uncommon stuff to make the game more fun. I ended up winning first place at the Pleasanton, CA, Regional using the team R Inanimate used in the International Wi-Fi Tournament in March, and it was a matter of customizing my team to make it better suited for Nationals.
In most RPGs, I have a preference towards Ice-based skills and magic. Naturally, this would carry on to Pokémon, and my preferred teams and strategies are Hail teams. I started creating my Nationals team by using my Regionals team as a template and made a few adjustments from there. While it may not the best team in the world, it did better than I had expected despite being put together right before registrations.
Here’s the team I ended up having in my Battle Box at the time of registrations. Little did I know that they would help me get into Top Cut at the end of the day.
As you could probably see, it looks a bit like the team I used back in Pleasanton. You may notice that none of them are shiny—I personally prefer that so scrubs won’t call me out on cheating when watching from the TV. Besides, a lot of shinies are ugly as dirt.
Togekiss (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Def / 188 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
– Follow Me
– Softboiled
– Thunder Wave
– Air Slash
One of the best Pokémon in the game and one that people should use more often. It was completely unchanged from Pleasanton and still as bulky as ever. During my battles, Mrbopper and Zach commented on how bulky it is, and is really a testament to how good Togekiss is in VGC. Follow Me is the main move that I use with Togekiss, as it diverts any potentially fatal attacks from its teammates. For example, with the given spread Togekiss can tank a Gem-boosted Draco Meteor from Latios while its partner (usually Garchomp) can take Latios out with a Dragon Claw. Softboiled was thrown in for gimmick value because when I received this as an untouched Togepi, it came with a full moveset of 3rd Generation-exclusive Tutor Moves–Softboiled being one of them. I ended up keeping it for fun and figured I may as well have kept it since I didn’t have any other Calm Togekiss on hand. Definitely the MVP of the tournament as I brought it to almost every match. However, it does not like taking a Stone Edge from Tyranitar (particularly ones with Choice Scarf…), nor does it enjoy taking five Icicle Spears to the face.
Garchomp (M) @ Yache Berry
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, – SpA)
– Dragon Claw
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Protect
This is just a standard Garchomp, and one of the few standard Pokémon that I ever play. Pairs well with Togekiss and Mesprit since they are immune to Earthquake. Super effective Earthquakes hit common Pokémon such as Tyranitar and Metagross for a lot of damage, and Garchomp can take a hit or two before going down. Does not like Ice-type attacks, especially when they freeze him, nor does he like Cresselia since he can’t really do a whole lot against her.
Bisharp (M) @ Dark Gem
Trait: Defiant
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
– Sucker Punch
– Iron Head
– Night Slash
– Protect
This guy is literally a double-edged sword. On one hand, he completely destroys Cresselia but on the other loses to a lot of stuff such as Heatran. When I was first using him on Random Matchup, I noted it stacked a Fighting-type weakness but dealt with Cresselia with relative ease. Sucker Punch also requires a certain amount of prediction in order to be used effectively. Defiant is a nice Ability, as it gets a hefty attack boost if hit by Icy Wind from Cresselia and takes advantage of Intimidate. Does not like Fighting-types and Heatran.
Mesprit @ Colbur Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 248 SpA / 4 SDef
IVs: Attack 30, Special Attack 30, Speed 2
Quiet Nature (+SpA, – Spe)
– Psyshock
– Blizzard
– Hidden Power [Fire]
– Trick Room
This was meant to be a Trick Room Mesprit since it has low Speed, but the main reason I wanted to use it for my team was for the fact that it can learn Ice Beam and Blizzard for almost no reason. I probably should’ve made it more defensively inclined, as Mesprit does have a good supporting movepool — Helping Hand, Trick Room, Safeguard, Imprison, Charm, Swagger, Thunder Wave to name a few. Colbur Berry was held because I honestly didn’t know what else to give it. But hey, Tyranitar’s Crunch won’t OHKO through it as long as it’s not a critical hit.
Abomasnow (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
IVs: Speed 0
Quiet Nature (+SpA, -Spe)
– Blizzard
– Giga Drain
– Ice Shard
– Protect
Abomasnow is back with the fury! This was something I ended up using after Regionals as the actual one I used…
- Was shiny.
- Didn’t have Giga Drain since it was bred in 5th Gen.
- Had a weird EV spread due to me EV training it the night before.
Anyways, this thing can win weather wars assuming the opponent doesn’t pack Iron Ball Politoed or Tyranitar. The initial theme of the team was Blizzard spam, so having Hail up was certainly critical to the strategy. It didn’t perform exactly as I would have liked simply because it faints easily. Blizzard does a decent amount to scrubs (in my Round 3 match, the opponent’s Cloyster was pretty close to getting 2HKO’ed by Abomasnow’s Blizzard after a Shell Smash) and Giga Drain was used because it’s consistently powerful against Water and Ground-types as well as providing healing. Ice Shard is my backup in case it’s down to 1 HP, and Protect is there since it’s the best move in VGC. The main reason I wanted to use Abomasnow was to deal with Rain teams, but every time I brought him, nobody used Rain. Tyranitar was trouble too. There are some Pokémon I can work with, just as there are some that I can’t, and Abomasnow is one of those Pokémon that I can consistently use without it taking up unnecessary team space.
Gastrodon (F) @ Rindo Berry
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
IVs: Speed 0
Quiet Nature (+SpA, -Spe)
– Muddy Water
– Earth Power
– Ice Beam
– Protect
I figured offensive Gastrodon would be a good roadblock to any Rain teams I would encounter and a top dog if I got Trick Room up since it’s slow as dirt. One of my major problems with Gastrodon, though, is Muddy Water’s 85 accuracy: it seems more like 50. It does have pretty cool defensive synergy with Togekiss in that Togekiss could practically absorb any predicted Grass-type attacks with Follow Me (no one uses Razor Leaf, which happens to be the only spread Grass-type attack in the entire game) while Gastrodon can dispatch team threats that Togekiss and other teammates can’t touch such as Metagross and Heatran. I think that I should have probably added a few more Defense EVs just so it could take more attacks and Recover over Ice Beam so that it could troll anything that fails to 2HKO it. Does not like Rotom-W, especially those that carry Hidden Power Grass.
The Tournament: Swiss
After registering my team, I got inside the actual room where battles were going to take place. There was a player meeting, and the Master Division was split up into two sections—Black and White. It actually confused some players since they didn’t know whether or not the color indicator was the tablecloth or the number sign for each seat. After the meeting, everyone just hung out until pairings were announced. I had byes from Regionals so I skipped the first 2 Rounds.
Round 3: Vs. Greg Petravicz (2-0)
He leads off with Cloyster and Sableye, so I played it safe and had Togekiss use Follow Me to absorb the Sableye Fake Out. Turns out his Cloyster was a Shell Smash variant, and the funniest part about it was that Abomasnow’s Blizzard came pretty close to 2HKOing it after the Special Defense drop. Turn 2 comes, I let Togekiss take the axe so that Abomasnow could finish off Sableye and Cloyster or at least do enough to get their HP to red. They ended up having low HP, and Sableye was knocked out by the Hailstorm at the end of the turn. Greg sent out Metagross while I brought in Gastrodon over Bisharp, since I had a feeling he would have Cresselia as his last. I ended up taking out his Cloyster with Muddy Water while Metagross Protected. I knew that I had the game there. Gastrodon took out Metagross the next turn, leaving his Cresselia against three of my Pokémon in the Hail. Naturally, Bisharp immediately took care of it when he was switched in.
2-0 Win
Battle Video #: 82-75162-59352
Round 4: Vs. Brandon Degarimore (3-0)
I lost at the last second due to my Muddy Water missing his Landorus. If I had KO’ed his Landorus, I could have stalled out his Zapdos since it had very low HP and Hail was up. I had a gut feeling that I should have used Ice Beam, but in the end I didn’t. Lesson to be learned here: Trust your first instinct! He ended up making Top Cut, so it wasn’t too bad.
0-1 Loss
Round 5: Vs. Brian March (3-1)
All I remember about this battle is that he used a semi-standard team with Hitmontop and Cresselia. It had the same flavor as “The SkarmBliss Special.” I naturally knew what to do with it in regards to his moves and enjoyed the delicious taste of victory.
2-0 Win
Round 6: Vs. mrbopper (4-1)
I’m going to be dead honest here, when I found out he was mrbopper I knew right away that I did not want to lose to him. I had seen a few Battle Videos he had posted at the time during the Wi-Fi Tournament back in May, and I knew his exact playstyle. During Team Preview he noted how we both had a Bisharp and Mesprit. Keeping that in mind, I knew that I would need something to counter his Bisharp if he brought it in. He would use his Bisharp, Virizion, Heatran, and something else; I brought in Togekiss, Abomasnow, Gastrodon, and… Mesprit? My memory’s a bit hazy — I should’ve actually taken notes. As expected, he did bring in Bisharp. From my own experience using Bisharp, I knew when to use an attacking move and when not to so I wouldn’t get hit by a Sucker Punch. Turn after turn I outplayed him, except for the time I used Ice Beam on his Heatran expecting the switch to Virizion. It came down to my Togekiss against his paralyzed Heatran mano-a-mano. Thankfully Hail was up, so it was a matter or stalling out his Heatran with Softboiled while Hail whittled away its HP. Heatran’s Heat Wave was a solid 3HKO, so I ended up playing it safe and kept using Softboiled until Heatran’s HP was red. He remarks about how bulky my Togekiss is, and I end up finishing the Heatran off with an Air Slash.
1-0 Win
Round 7: Vs. Shiloh (5-1)
She introduced herself as part of some Wi-Fi league. I completely choked this round. She ran a Scarf Tyranitar of all things and OHKO’ed my signature Togekiss with Stone Edge on Turn 1. Things looked pretty grim from there on out, and it just ended up going terribly on my side. I died a little on the inside whenever she knocked out one of my Pokémon because she was clearly expressing joy when doing so. After signing the slip at the end of the match, I really felt terrible, and I was unmotivated to play the next round but knew that I had to win it if I wanted to make Top Cut.
0-3 Loss
Round 8: Vs. Syed Kamran (5-2)
Syed was in control of the match most of the game despite my sheer determination to win the battle and make Top Cut. It came down to my sole Garchomp at -1 Atk against his Latios and Tyranitar. I was about to forfeit the match but decided to go through with it like a man. Except this happened instead…
The foe’s Latios used Draco Meteor! The foe’s attack missed!
Grachomp used Dragon Claw! It’s super effective!
The foe’s Tyranitar used Crunch! The foe’s attack missed!
The damage taken from the Dragon Claw was enough for Sand to knock out Latios at the end of the turn, and I proceeded to knock out his Tyranitar and Volcarona, thus winning the game. While I think this was a very unfair for him I suppose the Random Number God wanted to make up for my Round 4 loss, where I lost solely because my Muddy Water missed at the last minute.
1-0 Win
And after pulling off that miraculous win, I checked the rankings when they were posted up and saw that I had made it into Top Cut — 10th Place, Flight 1. With that, I spent the rest of the day watching the Seniors division battles and getting involved in some shenanigans. Top Cut would have to wait for the next day.
The Tournament: Top Cut
I check the pairings and found out my opponent would be Zach. I knew that he took first place in Madison, but I didn’t really know how he played or what he was running. When we both got to our seats, we shared introductions. I joked about his unEV’ed Mamoswine from Regionals, and we talked about teams and such. He tells me that I was pretty close to winning by default, as his alarm didn’t go off on time and Sapphire Birch woke him up around 20 minutes before battles started.
Round 9: Vs. Zach (6-2)
Game 1: I choked. I was busy Thunder Waving his team while they were busy beating me. He got a freeze on my Garchomp with his Metagross’s Ice Punch, and Substitute Heatran blew off any chances I may have had of winning.
0-3 Loss
Game 2: I choked again. His Metagross must have been specially bulky as Mesprit’s HP Fire did a bit less than half. I attempted to switch up my strategy and used Trick Room. By the time it was out, I was down to my Gastrodon while he had his Tyranitar and Rotom-W with low health and both at -1 accuracy from the previous turn’s Muddy Water. However, the drop wasn’t low enough to prevent them from hitting me. Well played there Zach, and good game.
0-2 Loss
Zach would go on to win 7th Place at the end of the day, so I was pretty happy for him. When I left the battling area to get my prize, all I got was the same hat I got from Regionals (which I ended up selling to Alaka later for $4).
Results
Considering that this was my first year at Nationals, making it into Top 32 and finishing 22nd isn’t bad at all. I got to play many good players, but I felt that if I had taken the time to make a proper team I could have probably placed higher. However, I did have a great time meeting and hanging out with a lot of fellow Pokémon enthusiasts, so in the end it was an amazing experience.
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