Reports

Published on March 4th, 2014 | by Bopper

10

Maintaining Inner Focus: A 5th Place Missouri Regional Team Analysis

Two weeks before regionals, I had a team that I had been testing alongside Collin (TheBattleRoom) for a while and I had gotten comfortable with it. Then, the Tuesday before the event, I decided to completely scrap the team and build a new one from scratch with Pokémon that I had in my box. I had been testing with Talonflame and Mega Lucario for a little bit and thought that could catch a few people off guard and give me some easy wins so I started with that core and built from there. The team that I made that day was the team that got me 5th place at the St. Louis Winter Regional Championships and here it is!

At A Glance

The Team

Orange Peel (Rotom-Wash) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 76 SAtk / 132 SDef / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Hydro Pump
– Will-O-Wisp
– Protect

What a really creative and interesting way to start things off, right? This kind of Rotom-W is anything but exciting in the current metagame, but it gets the job done. Whenever I was building this team, I really wanted to use Rotom-W due to previous difficulties in beating it with my other teams. Rotom-W is one of those Pokémon that you just need to get rid of as soon as possible or else it’s going to start spreading status and chip damage across your entire team. This pressure is one of the main reasons for having Protect on it. Protect was a move that I never really used on Rotom-W due to its great movepool but as I was testing, I kept getting doubled up on and inevitably knocked out before I could do anything. Utilizing protect allowed me to stop those double targets and gain some momentum back with my ally by taking advantage of the free turn.

Rotom-W’s spread was a pretty tight spread that barely managed to work out. With the Special Defense investment, it can survive a Modest Mega Charizard Y’s Solarbeam 93.7% of the time and heal up with a Sitrus Berry. Keeping Rotom at full HP was really important if I were to bring it against any sun teams because any chip damage really messed up my calcs and could put me in a bad position as far as survivability goes. With the defensive investment, Rotom-W survives a Mawile’s Play Rough 100% of the time. I figured that this was something I might as well live through, even though I assumed most of the Mawiles I played could very possibly be bulkier to imitate the team that Ray was using in Virginia, but taking the hit was just a safety net for those “what if” situations. Finally, Rotom-W’s Special Attack allowed it to KO 4 HP Talonflame 100% of the time with Thunderbolt. Talonflame isn’t a Pokémon that my team was too fond of. I didn’t have huge issues with it, but it could cause issues if not handled properly, so I wanted to try to take it down as easily as possible.

Get Richard (Salamence) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
– Draco Meteor
– Flamethrower
– Stone Edge
– Dragon Pulse

Since the rest of the team has a few issues with opposing dragons, I felt like I needed to add something to threaten them with high speeds and powerful attacks, and Salamence did just that. While there was a large spike in Choice Scarf Salamence around this time, I managed to only face two of them during the entire tournament which made my life easier. If my opponent didn’t have a faster dragon, I could typically use Salamence as a way to scare out and take out opposing dragons to clear the way for Rotom-W and my other Pokémon to get more damage off. Draco Meteor was needed to ensure that I could KO Garchomp, Hydreigon, and Salamence. Dragon Pulse was mainly only used in the late game when I had already severely damaged the opposing Pokémon to where a Dragon Pulse would be worth it. Dragon Pulse was also a good, safe move that I could use even on opposing dragons if I felt that a Draco Meteor miss was too high of a risk. Another big issue with this team was opposing Steel-types, most notably Mawile and Aegislash. My team just didn’t have much to really hit hard enough to get rid of them quickly. Flamethrower really helped with that weakness because it was consistant and I could always rely on it hitting compared to Fire Blast which, to me, seemed like a risky pick for this team. I needed the consistent, 100% accuracy damage on those opposing Steel-types to maintain pressure. It never actually knocked out any Steel Pokémon, but it could still easily knock them into double target range of just about anything. Stone Edge was a last-second move choice, but proved to be semi-helpful in the swiss rounds. The only issue I ran across with Stone Edge was that there was a chance that a -1 (Intimidated) Stone Edge would miss the KO on a Charizard-Y that had some bulk invested. The main cause of this wasn’t as much the Modest nature as much as it was the non-flawless Attack stat which would have prevented a certain bulky Charizard from surviving Stone Edge with 3 HP in swiss. Other than that, Stone Edge took out the Charizard every time.

The spread really doesn’t need much explanation. With Draco Meteor, Salamence had chances to miss KOs on Mega Manectric and a few other semi-frail Pokémon and I really didn’t want my chances to be any lower, so I felt like max Special Attack was necessary. I looked at the Speed investment like I would a 2013 Scarf Tyranitar. Sure, I could have taken some EVs out of speed to add a bit of bulk to guarantee surviving certain hits, but then I would always lose 1v1 against an opposing Modest Salamence. While I never actually kept Salamence in if I had to risk it, if a match ever came down to Scarf Salamence versus Scarf Salamence, I would rather have a 50% chance to win than a 0% chance to win, so the Speed stayed at max.

Overrated (Talonflame) @ Life Orb
Ability: Gale Wings
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
– Brave Bird
– Flare Blitz
– Quick Guard
– Protect

From the start of this format, I thought Talonflame was one of the worst Pokémon. Yet somehow, even though Talonflame didn’t always get big KOs, it still did way too much damage and forced me to play catch-up. I figured I would test it out but not so much for the Brave Birds, but rather for the Quick Guard support. I had been testing with Quick Guard Talonflame paired with Mega Lucario for a while and I was impressed with how they worked together. Lucario could get off huge hits and maybe miss a KO, then Talonflame could pick that KO up with priority Brave Birds. Talonflame was also a pretty important metagame call for my team. It was my thought to completely wipe out Venusaur which I felt would be more of an issue and more popular than it actually was during swiss. Flare Blitz from Talonflame did huge damage to Mawile, OHKOing with no Intimidate and putting it in the red with Intimidate. Even though it didn’t pick up the KO sometimes, it was important to be able to cripple Mawiles due to the massive offensive presence they had against my team. Finally, Protect let me stall out opposing Protects which would prevent me from KOing big threats to my team. The only issue I had with Talonflame was that I needed it for a good chunk of threats and that made me rely on it a bit too much. Relying on Talonflame too much paired with Talonflame’s major setback of practically KOing itself after 3 turns made my matches pretty difficult and made me think on my feet a majority of the time.

Talonflame’s spread was pretty straightforward. I had the same mentality about Talonflame that I had with Salamence: keep the damage rolls as high as possible and deal out damage as fast as possible. I found myself outspeeding a large amount of opposing Talonflame with mine, which proved how important my seemingly excessive Speed investment was.

PATRICE! (Florges) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SAtk
Modest Nature
– Moonblast
– Psychic
– Calm Mind
– Protect

Florges was 100% inspired by Toler Webb (Dim) after his top 4 finish in Virginia a week prior to St. Louis regionals. After a bit of testing, I found that Florges was capable of taking on teams of three Pokémon all by itself, if set up properly. I typically used Florges as a checkmate similarly to how most players play Ferrothorn. When using Florges, I tried to get rid of the big threats like Mawile and Bisharp first and then tried use it from there on out. Honestly, Florges was one of my least used Pokémon due to bad matchups, making me a little reluctant to use it in most of my matches. Florges still had a good team matchup against the Garchomp / Salamence cores that seemed to be running around. I liked to keep Florges in the back for Pokémon like Chesnaught, Rotom-W, Gardevoir, Manectric, Dragon-types, and anything else that couldn’t take a huge chunk of Florges’ health with huge physical hits. Moonblast and Psychic did really well in terms of coverage. Florges really doesn’t need to hit that many things super effectively as long as it has a neutral hit available. I really liked using Psychic because it allowed me to hit Venusaur and Amoonguss for big damage and possibly KO them if I had enough Calm Minds set up. If I could get Florges into a good spot, it could easily wall an entire team.

The spread is somewhat simple and made sense for the team. The Special Attack EVs allow Florges to OHKO 4 HP Salamence 100% of the time with no boosts, while surviving an Adamant, max Attack Return from Mega Kangaskhan with the Defensive EV investment. When I wasn’t too concerned about making Florges sweep, I could easily switch out a Pokémon for Florges against Salamence, absorb the Draco Meteor, and KO the following turn. Florges was pretty niche but did well at what it needed to do.

Oscar (Lucario) @ Lucarionite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
– Close Combat
– Rock Slide
– Bullet Punch
– Protect

Of the Lucarios that I’ve seen being used so far, I’ve pretty much only seen Follow Me sets. I figured I would try to branch out from that and use Lucario as a strong offensive presence that applies pressure as much as possible. With Lucario’s ability to Mega Evolve, Lucario gains the ability Adaptability which allows it to OHKO semi-bulky Kangaskhan (up to 164 HP), even at -1 Attack. If Lucario doesn’t get Intimidated, it OHKOs every possible Mega Kangaskhan without even needing an Adamant nature to boost its Attack. Rock Slide was really helpful for getting rid of Talonflame and Charizards. Lucario, while it might not seem like it, was actually a pretty reliable check to Talonflame barring critical hits and misses. While Talonflame has priority over Lucario, Lucario can take a Brave Bird and Rock Slide back. If Talonflame is Adamant and tries to Flare Blitz, Mega Lucario outspeeds and Rock Slides before it can even get off the attack. If supported by Quick Guard, Talonflame hardly gives Lucario any issues. The main reason I used Lucario is simply its sheer power. Garchomp, Mawile, and bulky Rotom all take 90-100% from Close Combat which leaves them in KO range from chip damage. If I ever got to a spot where Lucario had to get rid of a threat faster than it, it had access to a priority Adaptability-boosted Bullet Punch which is about the same damage output as a Scizor’s Bullet Punch with Technician.

Again, just like Salamence and Talonflame, I wanted Lucario to be as fast and powerful as possible. There are a few damage rolls that I could miss out on if I ran anything less than max Attack, which is something that I didn’t want to happen.

Shaniqua (Amoonguss) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SDef
Calm Nature
– Spore
– Giga Drain
– Rage Powder
– Protect

The majority of the Pokémon on my team are pretty frail and are not very good at absorbing hits when switched out, and Amoonguss was able to help out with that weakness. Whether it was switching Amoonguss in or Rage Powdering to prevent damage on the Pokémon switching in, Amoonguss helped support the team and messed with my opponent. Whenever I had a rough matchup, I could use Amoonguss to Spore the biggest threat which helped increase my momentum and try to get in a winning position. Amoonguss was also one of my best answers to Trick Room, even if he is honestly not that great of an answer. Trick Room is one of the biggest weaknesses to this team so I’m very fortunate that I didn’t have to face any teams that could abuse that kind of set up.

The spread was actually just a spread that I’ve been using since 2012. It was supposed to survive Metagross’ Zen Headbutt, but that is no longer an issue in this metagame. I really was too lazy to make a special spread but this one did just fine mainly because all I needed was for Amoonguss to take strong special hits. If there were any physical hits that I needed to take, I could support it with Will-O-Wisp or Intimidate.

Common Leads

Talonflame + Lucario

This was a common lead that I used if I saw a Kangaskhan in Team Preview. With Talonflame’s Quick Guard support, it allowed me to Quick Guard the Fake Out and go for the KO on Kangaskhan before it could get going. With this lead, my bulkier Pokémon were still in back so if I didn’t like my lead matchup I could easily switch out to take an Earthquake, Rock Slide, or Heat Wave. This lead was great for some of the lower level players that were weak to hyper offensive play, which helped secure wins in the early rounds of swiss.

Rotom-W + Salamence

This was an anti-Talonflame lead that worked pretty much every time. Salamence Intimidated any possible physical attackers and had great coverage to support Rotom-W and give it some breathing room. The biggest issue with this lead was if the opponent had a Salamence, then things could easily go south — especially if their Salamence was supported with Fake Out. This lead was primarily supposed to shut down physical attackers with Will-O-Wisp + Intimidate and it did a great job at doing that.

Amoonguss + Lucario

I only used this lead if I knew Lucario could sweep and if Amoonguss could redirect the super effective hits. This lead was pretty good for some of the better players if they didn’t quite know what Lucario did and didn’t have an immediate answer for Talonflame. If I saw Talonflame in Team Preview, I was very hesitant to lead this but sometimes it worked out.

Matches – Swiss

Round 1: Bye

There were over 250 players and only one random bye was given for round 1. Yeah, I guess I got a tad bit lucky. Having a bye was nice, but I felt like it put me at a bit of a disadvantage going into my next round. My opponent would already have a win under their belt  while I was just starting to get warmed up.

Record: 1-0

Round 2: Tiffany Stanley (Shiloh) [1-0]

Team: Manectric / Drifblim / Ferrothorn / Gardevoir / Gyarados / Tyranitar

She chose:

It took me a while to actually comprehend the person that I was paired up with. Shiloh is a good friend that I had practiced with for regionals, so going into this match was a bit frightening. Due to me practicing with her, I pretty much knew every nook and cranny about her team barring a few surprises. I actually changed my team from the last time we had practiced so I was at a large advantage going in, but I knew how consistent of a player Shiloh was so this round was going to be a tough one regardless.

She led Manectric / Tyranitar into my Lucario / Amoonguss and I knew I had an amazing advantage going into turn 1. Amoonguss easily redirected all of her attacks and allowed Lucario to get some easy KOs. Turn 1, I Protected Lucario and Spored her Manectric in an attempt to disable it long enough for Lucario to get some of the easier KOs even while Intimidated, but to my surprise she Flamethrowered into Lucario as expected and Taunts my Amoonguss with Tyranitar, which is not something I knew about. The Taunt really screwed up all of my plans due to Amoonguss not being able to Rage Powder the big hits directed at Lucario, so I had to double switch Amoonguss to Rotom-W and Lucario to Salamence the next turn. She goes for Flamethrower on Lucario and Protected Tyranitar. The match continued like this for the next ten or so turns; she would make a play that put me in a bad position and I would switch to reapply the pressure. Most of my switches were pretty good switches and never really got punished. By the end of the match, I had Amoonguss / Rotom-W out with Lucario / Salamence in the back (all in green health) against her Manectric at half and Ferrothorn at 75% as the time runs out. I won on time due to my side having four Pokémon left and her side only having two. If we had kept playing, Flamethrower would be able to KO both Ferrothorn and her Manectric at 50% health.

This was my toughest match of the day and made me think way harder than I wanted to so early in the day!

Record: 2-0

Round 3: Only person I don’t know the name of “Chatot-Mr. Mime guy” [2-0]

Team: Lucario / Rotom-W / Chatot / Gyarados / Talonflame / Mr. Mime

He chose:  

Oh hey, Chatot is legal now? I really didn’t know what to expect from this team except for an obvious Fake Out + Icy Wind combo from Mr. Mime. As expected, Mr. Mime uses Fake Out turn 1 and Icy Wind turn 2. What he did turn 3 though is what truly made me sweat. I figured I was safe with Amoonguss / Rotom-W against his Mr. Mime / Gyarados, but to my surprise he Teeter Dances with Mr. Mime making it really tough to get off some hits on him. He managed to set up a Dragon Dance with his Gyarados versus my Amoonguss and Rotom-W out on the field. He Mega Evolved Gyarados, which really scared me. The following turn I was able to regain the momentum by switching out Rotom-W to Salamence while Amoonguss Spored the Gyarados after it used Earthquake. As soon as the Gyarados went to sleep, I had control of the match. I slowly took out the Gyarados with Dragon Pulse and Giga Drain. Once Gyarados went down, I cleaned up with Lucario. It knocked out Mr. Mime with Bullet Punch, Rotom-W with Close Combat, and Chatot with Close Combat, giving me the win.

After a few more rounds of swiss, it was brought to my attention that this kid actually had quite a dirty strategy up his sleeve. He would Teeter Dance his Chatot, which would activate his Tangled Feet, raising his evasion by 2 stages. He would then have Chatot set up a Substitute and Nasty Plot, followed up with a Boom Burst next to his Soundproof Mr. Mime. It was a scary strategy, but required too much set up.

Record: 3-0

Round 4: Nathan Rollins (Truth Walker) [3-0]

Team: Rotom-H / Venusaur / Garchomp / Gyarados / Scrafty / Charizard

He chose:

I remember talking to Nathan a few days before the event because Chalkey had introduced him to me, so Nathan wasn’t a new face. I didn’t really know what to expect in this game because I was pretty scared of his team in Team Preview. I knew that Salamence was going to be essential to win this game, so I would have to keep it alive as long as possible. I sadly do not remember everything about this match but I do remember key points. My Salamence (at -1 Attack) went for a Stone Edge on his Charizard which, to my surprise, missed the knock out, leaving his Charizard with only 3 HP. The turn after, I used Stone Edge on Charizard for the KO as he Protected his Garchomp and attempted to go for a Solar Beam on my Rotom-W. Getting rid of his Charizard pretty much set up my Rotom-W to demolish the remainder of his team because he had not brought Venusaur into the match. Nothing exciting happened until his Rotom-H used Overheat when I switched in Rotom-W. The following turn I accurately predicted his switch to Gyarados and Thunderbolt knocks it out. He is left with Garchomp / Rotom-H against my Rotom-W / Florges / Salamence. I manage to nab a KO on Garchomp with Dragon Pulse and knock out Rotom-H with a Hydro Pump and Dragon Pulse.

Record: 4-0

Round 5: Kyle Epperson [4-0]

Team: Charizard / Amoonguss / Talonflame / Kangaskhan / Salamence / Rotom-W

He chose:

I lead Lucario / Talonflame into Talonflame / Amoonguss and it looks like a great lead for me. I Mega Evolve Lucario and use Protect while my Talonflame Brave Birds his Amoonguss (which switches into Salamence) and his Talonflame uses Protect. Brave Bird does over half to Salamence, so I go for the safe Brave Bird to knock out Salamence. Lucario uses Rock Slide to knock out Talonflame. He then brings out his last two Pokémon, which are Charizard and Amoonguss. I felt like he would Protect his Amoonguss here due to the threat of Brave Bird so I double up on Charizard with Brave Bird and Rock Slide to knock it out. The next turn I go for a Flare Blitz on Amoonguss and, thanks to the sun boost, easily knock it out.

Record: 5-0

Round 6: Brayden Glad (Styrofoameon) [5-0]

Team: Rotom-W / Talonflame / Mamoswine / Meowstic / Mawile / Salamence

He chose:

He leads Talonflame / Meowstic as I lead with Talonflame / Rotom-W. There really wasn’t anything that his Talonflame or Meowstic could do to me because I carry Quick Guard on my own Talonflame. He Protects Talonflame as I Quick Guard, which prevents his Meowstic from Swaggering my Rotom-W. I burn the Meowstic with Will-O-Wisp. From there on out, I continued to Quick Guard while he kept Swaggering into it. My Rotom was able to demolish his entire team. Brayden’s DS was blinking red towards the end of our match so he was making very fast and quick moves (which I kind of took advantage of) so I was able to make plays that perfectly counteracted the simple, safe plays he was making. It was a clean and easy win.

Record: 6-0

Round 7: David Kubiak [6-0]

Team: Rotom-W / Kangaskhan / Liepard / Conkeldurr / Garchomp / Talonflame

He chose:  

I lead with Lucario / Talonflame as he leads with Talonflame / Kangaskhan. I go for the slightly risky Quick Guard and Close Combat aimed at Kangaskhan as he double Protects. On turn 2, I go for Brave Bird on Kangaskhan which takes it down to about 50% health and Rock Slide for the KO on his Talonflame (which I can assume was attempting to Flare Blitz my Lucario). His Kangaskhan uses Return on Talonflame, knocking it out. From there on out, Lucario and Salamence are able to clean up the Rotom-W, Garchomp, and Kangaskhan. The rest of the match was really straightforward and overall another easy win.

Record: 7-0

Round 8: Keegan Beljanski (Darkeness) [7-0]

Before this round, the head judge comes up to me and notifies me that if I want to draw this round, I would be allowed to. I told Keegan about it and we talked it over and discovered that if we were to draw, we would both be guaranteed top cut. We did not know that a draw was not allowed in tournaments and honestly, even though we would have very likely made top cut without the draw, we didn’t want to risk the unpredictable 7-2 bloodbath for top cut, so we took the draw.

Record: 7-0-1

Round 9: Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom) [7-1]

Team: Gyarados / Aegislash / Hydreigon / Garchomp / Rotom-H / Kangaskhan

He chose:  

Collin was the only other person besides Shiloh who I absolutely did not want to play against this regional. Collin was someone who I have built teams with for over a year and we both knew each other’s teams inside and out. In fact, I was about to use his exact team for this event but chickened out a few days prior. Collin was on the verge of having to risk going 7-2 and possibly not making top cut. Luckily for Collin, my record allowed me to be able to forfeit to someone I deemed worthy of top cut. Our match was recorded which can be found above. I tried to make the match not look too bad, but the loss was intentional. I attempted to play seriously for the first few turns but failed at doing that properly. The turns following turn 2 were extremely nasty and honestly, Collin deserved that win even if I didn’t try to lose. He brought better Pokémon that game compared to my team of four and played much better than I did.

Record: 7-1-1

Matches – Top Cut

Top 16: Erick Herrera (Godofcloud9) [7-2 in swiss: 12th seed]

Team: Tyranitar / Manectric / Roserade / Azumarill / Scrafty / Delphox

I knew a few Pokémon on Erick’s team because we had stayed in the same hotel room. He had a couple tricks up his sleeve on one Pokémon, but it was the only Pokémon he did not bring into the match. I knew the Roserade was going to give me issues if it was the Hidden Power Ice / Focus Sash set that I thought it might be. I knew if I could keep my Salamance alive and handle his Roserade effectively that I should be able to take the win.

Game 1

He chose:

He leads with Manectric / Azumarill as I lead Rotom-W / Amoonguss with Lucario and Salamence in back. In turn 1, I gain a lot of momentum by Sporing his Manectric and Will-O-Wisping his Azumarill. I only take a Hidden Power Ice onto Amoonguss and a burned Play Rough from Azumarill onto Rotom-W. I switch to Lucario and Thunderbolt his Azumarill as he goes for another Play Rough on Rotom-W. From there on out, I’m able to Close Combat and Thunderbolt safely and get a somewhat easy win with mainly using those two moves. I figured out that his Roserade must be carrying a Choice Scarf, due to the fact that he used Hidden Power Ice on my Salamence but then switched it out when I brought in Rotom-W, which was really important information for the rest of our set of games.

Game Count: 1-0

Game 2

He chose:

I honestly can’t remember too much about this match. I know that I was able to predict that he would switch Roserade out for Manectric, so I made a risky play and Spored Roserade’s spot to put his Manectric to sleep. I managed to get his Roserade burned which helped knock it into Flamethrower range later on in the match. His Scrafty managed to take out my Amoonguss from about 40% with an Ice Punch that shocked me a bit. After I KO his Roserade with Salamence, I was able to get Lucario and Rotom-W in a winning spot against his Manectric and Azumarill. I still had Salamence in back, so I kept my focus on the Azumarill. On top of that, his Manectric was asleep for a while, which allowed me to focus Salamence on KOing the Roserade without worry of getting KOd by Manectric. Azumarill went down and I was able to take the match.

Win 2-0.

Top 8: Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario) [8-1 in swiss: 4th seed]

Team: Weavile / Garchomp / Clawitzer / Charizard / Diggersby / Chesnaught

To be completely honest, I went into this set feeling extremely cocky because I knew Ashton’s entire team, all the way down to the sets. The only thing I pretty much didn’t know were a few moves and spreads. I thought I had won before I even got behind the DS which ironically led to my defeat.

Game 1

He chose:

Every time I thought I had a way to take out one of his Pokémon, Ashton found a way to beat my Pokémon first. He made a good play of double switching when I double Protected on turn 1. Later on, he locked the win by Brick Breaking my Lucario switch from Rotom-w. I didn’t quite play like I should have.

Game Count: 0-1

Game 2

He chose:

What happened in game 1 pretty much repeated itself in game 2. Every time I had something to take out a big threat, he had something to take out my Pokémon before it could do anything to him. I didn’t bring Salamence, which was probably the biggest mistake I could have made due to its ability to OHKO his Diggersby with Draco Meteor and then clear the field for a possible Lucario / Talonflame sweep. Instead of bringing Salamence, I brought Florges which I felt could do well against his team due to it hitting nearly all of his physical attackers for super effective damage. While Florges did do decently well against half  of his team, Salamence could have taken out the Diggersby which was exponentially more important than taking out any of the other Pokémon. If I had brought Salamence, the set would have been different, but I was too arrogant and rushed into Team Preview without recognizing the win condition that Salamence could give me.

Loss 2-0.

Closing Thoughts

While I didn’t play my best and made poor choices in top 8, I was extremely satisfied with how I did overall. Getting top 8 at this event put me in the top 16 for the CP standings, which is far better than I could have imagined. I had an amazing time in St. Louis. It was a blast to see everybody once again. The tournament was really smooth and pairings were up quickly. Yeti Gaming did a great job by recording a match from each round and then posting them all online right after the tournament. I am glad I was able to get my feet in the water for this metagame and hopefully I can continue to do just as well in the future.

About the Author

Bopper started playing competitive VGC in 2012. He now looks at VGC as not only a competition, but a great way to meet up with friends and meet new people who share the same interests as him. Outside of Pokemon, Mrbopper is studying Mechanical Engineering at Texas Tech Univeristy

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