Reports

Hello everyone, I am benjitheGREAT.  The beginning of this VGC season marks the start of my third season of competitive battling.  In 2011 I competed in Dallas where I lost to Smith_(REVENGE), and in 2012 I went to the Houston Regionals where I ended up 6-2 placing 19th.  My good friend Mrbopper placed 7th with 6-2 and we ended up convincing our parents to let us go to the National Championship in Indianapolis.  In Indy, I was able to play against some awesome people including Sandman before eventually getting out in unfortunate circumstances, just missing Top Cut.  So after Nationals I decided to keep playing around with teams from this meta before the rules were announced.  When they finally came out I started to build some serious teams.

After a few failed attempts I decided to focus on a team that I used in a few Magma tournaments right after Nats.  The original team started off with Choice Specs Zapdos as well as Amoonguss and Scrafty (one of my favorite combinations from the 2011 meta).  I tried to incorporate some sort of TR team with my a few fast mons.  I tried testing the team with Cresselia but ended up never bringing it into the battle so I decided to ditch the Trick Room variant but keep Amoonguss to counter TR with Spore and Rain with Rage Powder.  In the end the finished product was this:

The Team

Terrakion_ @ Focus Sash
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
– Quick Guard
– Protect
– Close Combat
– Rock Slide

Terrakion was my main physical sweeper.  Rotom-H was a big threat to my team, which made Terrakion a great fit.  The Focus Sash is a very standard item on Terrakion, and it is that way for a reason… It works really well on him.  I chose Jolly nature to outspeed Garchomp, however in most cases the extra power from Adamant nature would have definitely come in handy in this specific tournament.  I only saw two Garchomp the entire tournament, and in both of the battles Terrakion was not in when I took them out.

The move Quick Guard was specifically for Hitmontop.  Since this was a Regional tourney I was expecting to see a lot of Fake Out abuse, and thought that Quick Guard would be able to catch a few people off guard.  It came in handy in a few matches in the beginning of the tournament, but as the tournament progressed, the use of Fake Out became less and less common.

Close Combat, Rock Slide, and Protect round off the move set in pretty standard fashion.  Close Combat was chosen over Sacred Sword because of its monstrous base power.  Terrakion is already weak to many of the of the common types that are common in the meta (Psychic, Fighting, Water, Ground, Steel, and Grass) so lowering his stats wasn’t a big deal.

Amoonguss_ (F) @ Mental Herb
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 208 HP / 96 Def / 204 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
– Rage Powder
– Spore
– Giga Drain
– Protect

Though I usually only use him against Rain, this guy came in handy in battles with Rain teams that I encountered.  I made him more of a special wall just because when I was practicing with the team with split defense, other than Psyshock and Zen Headbutt, he was most being hit with special attacks because of the risk of Effect Spore.  Though I did not get to use him much in this tourney, he was my main TR and Rain counter.  I only saw two Rain teams but I did use him in one battle against both Smith and Yellowbox.  I gave him the item Mental Herb just because I was expecting to see a lot of the bulky Thundurus along with other Taunt users to try to stop me from Sporing and and using Rage Powder.  However, I was only taunted once and another item may have been more effective.

Metagross_ @ Steel Gem
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 188 HP / 252 Atk / 68 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
– Zen Headbutt
– Bullet Punch
– Protect
– Meteor Mash

Metagross was my main counter to Latios.  It can take any hit from Latios and hit it back with a Steel Gem Meteor Mash and OHKO.  He is also my only priority user, which always came in handy.  This Metagross spread was made by Dimsun in order to sruvive a Water Gem Hydro Pump from Rotom-W.  With the popularity of all the Rotom formes, it was important to be able to live through some of their powerful STAB attacks.  Though I didn’t use this guy much, when I did the Steel Gem Bullet Punch game in handy.

The original Metagross I was running had a moveset with Ice Punch over Meteor Mash.  I decided to go with Meteor Mash because with the Steel Gem it can OHKO Latios, which Ice Punch can’t, and the Attack boost is always welcome.

Zapdos_ @ Choice Specs
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
– Volt Switch
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Flying]
– Heat Wave

Zapdos is an all around beast of a Pokemon.  Add Choice Specs to it, and it is going to be dealing a ton of damage.  When paired with Terrakion, a Rock Slide plus Thunderbolt KO’d any Rotom-W that I have ever come across.  Heat Wave will do a ton of damage to Metagross and occasionally OHKO depending on the variant they are running  It was the Pokemon that I used most often in the tournament, bringing it into every match.  With not too many walls for this Pokemon besides Rotom-H, Terrakion and Zapdos made for a great partnership as well as a lead.

Volt Switch is a good move to have in addition to Thunderbolt.  It is awesome be able to deal some damage before switching into a Pokemon that is more suited to take the incoming hit.  With Volt Switch, it always keeps the opponent on their toes.

Hidden Power was a move that I debated on for a long time. I worked with both Hidden Power Flying and Ice. With Hidden Power Ice I would be able to do damage to dragons that can do a decent job at walling Zapdos, but in the end I decided that being able to deal with Fighting-types as well as Ludicolo was more important.  This choice definitely paid off for me because I didn’t see as many dragons as I did Fighting- and Grass-types.

Suicune_ @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Def / 136 SAtk / 60 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
– Calm Mind
– Scald
– Ice Beam
– Protect

This Pokemon was one of my bulkier guys.  Given his good defenses I was able to switch him in to take hits for pretty much all of my other Pokemon which was key in me getting so far.  I went with more defensive bulk and also added Calm Mind in order to hit harder as well as increase my special bulk.  Giving him Ice Beam made him an exceptional counter to Garchomp and Sand teams in general. Scald is an all around good water type attack.  With a thirty percent chance to burn, well that just makes it that much better. Throughout the day, Suicune was a dominant force on my team, and I used him in most of my matches.  He does well against most weather as well as against common mons in the metagame like Metagross, Volcarona, and the dragons.  And with the Sitrus Berry, it just made him stay on the field a little bit longer.

Scrafty_ (M) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Atk / 12 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
– Bulk Up
– Drain Punch
– Crunch
– Detect

And finally, the all important sixth man in my team… SCRAFTY.  The main goal of Scrafty was to come in and take out whatever Pokemon had low health and nab a Moxie boost.  It was able to catch a few people off guard.  By having the Careful nature, Scrafty is able to survive Dragon Gem Draco Meteors from a Timid Latios, and Bulk Up was also a good move to have if I was not able to get Moxie Boosts as well as boost his Defense.

Drain Punch and Crunch are both excellent moves that take advantage of his useful offensive STAB options. Drain Punch was also used to help get HP back which is an awesome added effect.  The typing of Scrafty is also good defensively, only being weak to Flying- and Fighting-types.  I wasn’t as afraid of Flying-type moves because of my Zapdos, so Chople Berry was a great fit.  This berry came in handy in Game 1 vs Smith_ when his Tyranitar’s SuperPower with a Helping hand boost was unable to take out Scrafty who fired back a drain punch gaining a MOXIE BOOST.

Scrafty also had great purpose defensively.  When I was testing on Pokemon Online, I saw a lot of people using sand teams along with Tyranitar being one of the most common Pokemon in the metagame.  When facing sand teams, many key parts in them are unable to deal with Scrafty including Excadrill and Tyranitar.  Scrafty is also a MAJOR Cresselia counter.  After getting a Moxie boost, it is able to 2HKO most Cress spreads.  The Psychic giant is also not able to do much to Scrafty either.

Scrafty proved a force to be reckoned with.  I brought it to nearly every battle and it did some serious damage.  It was also very fitting that the TCG playing mat had a Scrafty on it.

Common Leads

    +     

This was my go-to lead.  Against Hitmontop, Quick Guard would catch people off and block the Fake Out, while I did a lot of damage to their partner or often just take out the Top.  This lead gave me a lot of options.  If the match-up was unfavorable, I could always Volt Switch out with Zapdos.

    +     

This was my main counter to trick room as well as Rain.  Against TR I could Volt Switch out to Scrafty and try to put something to sleep first turn.  Or I could try to take something out with a stronger move and Spore the TR user.  Against Rain, Rage Powder and Spore both came in handy.  I can deal a ton of damage, if not kill, Ludicolo with HP flying, but if they were to fake me out, then Spore would be fine and then proceed to take him out the next turn.  All in all, this lead was good for a few matches.

    +     

THE PRESSURE!

This was really the only other lead that I used. Not only did this lead instantly exert its Pressure over the opponent, but it was also my go-to when I expected to see a Garchomp. While I only really used it when I saw Garchomp, I did use it against Smith_ in the last battle.  I usually lead Zapdos in my matches just because he had Volt Switch.  When paired with Suicune it has great coverage.

Conclusion

With this team I was able to go undefeated in Swiss, playing a lot of close games.  In top cut I went 6-2.  I lost game 1 to Yellowbox in the Semifinals, and Game 2 to Smith_ in the finals.

It was fun to hang out with Team Magma as well as the people I met on Nuggetbridge and Skarmbliss Server.  I was fortunate enough to have some great matches and meet some new people as well.

Some of my matches came down to the wire.  In my round three match, it looked like I had the win in the bag, but with a double Rock Slide miss it looked like luck was not with me.  This match came down to me predicting his Protect with his Salamence and double attacking his Rotom-W.

Against JRank, he was able to play around my main rain counter (Amoonguss) with a Substitute Kingdra.  I believe he took out my Amoonguss with two Draco Meteors, so at minus four I didn’t go after it and managed to take out most of his other guys.  His team was really cool, having Volcarona at the start then switching to Rain was a real cool idea.

Yellowbox…  Those were the haxiest battles I have ever participated in.  In the first battle I missed two Heat Waves on his Gengar, leading to his victory.  In game three the luck turned when he missed a Zen Headbutt.  I thought he was going to pull it out when my Suicune started hitting itself.  His team was also cool.  He incorporated Breloom and Gengar in with some more commonly used mons, leading him to a strong finish. Here’s the second battle, courtesy of the Nugget Bridge YouTube:

Ryuzaki and Smith_:  I had to face both of these awesome trainers in both Swiss and Top Cut.  I was able to take the wins against both of them in Swiss before finding out I would be facing Ryuzaki in the First round.  She had a really strong half TR team (SHE USED SCRAFTY!).  The first game was close and was difficult to tell which way it was going to go, but I got a fortunate Ice Beam crit on her Zapdos.  Game two was a little different.  She missed her Swagger on her own Metagross only to flinch my Suicune twice in a row with Zen Headbutt.  It was a close match but when her team was not in Trick Room, my team seemed to have a bit of an edge.

Smith_ and I played in the last round of Swiss and met up again in the Finals.  The finals ended in a three game thriller, with Scrafty playing a key role in both my wins.  It was fun to go up against a good friend in the finals and see that we were running a similar idea team wise, with Suicune and Specs Zapdos alongside a strong Rock-type.

Shout Outs

Dim: Thanks for helping me with some of the spreads man!  Congrats on the good finish in Philly! (Scrafty is a GREAT mon!)

Nightblade7000:  I don’t know how many times we battled between the friendly and regionals, but you make an awesome battling partner and are fun to bounce ideas around with.

Mrbopper:  We both started VGC in 2011 together and have been making teams and battling each other ever since.  Always good practice batting against you.  (also thanks for the ride:)

CHALKEY: The leader of Magma himself! Thank you so much for helping with my Pokemon for regionals, I couldn’t have done it without you!

DrFidget: Mr. Hoothoot! Well done getting 7th in Ft. Wayne! Thanks for helping me finalize the team and adding a bit of Fidget flare to it! Quick Guard was one of the many things that he helped me with.

Article image created by ryuzaki and used with permission by Nugget Bridge. See more of ryuzaki’s artwork on deviantART.

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