Reports

Published on July 14th, 2015 | by Team Rocket Elite

16

Schrödinger’s Cat Box: US Nationals Multi Cup Champions Report

This is Team Rocket Elite and my partner is R Inanimate. Together we are Schrodinger’s Cat! We won the VGC Multi Cup Tournament side event during the 2015 US National Championship and we would like to present our winning combination.

The inspiration for our team dates back to after the Multi Battle tournament during the 2014 US Nationals where I started to wonder how the move Assist interacted with each team during a Multi Battle. I immediately tested it and found out that it worked exactly how I wanted it to. However, it was too late to field the team in the tournament (and we had slept through registration anyways). Unwilling to wait an entire year, we ended up showing off a prototype of our eventual team at Worlds that same year and we were happy with the results.

Just before the 2015 US Nationals, a top prize of a pair of Wii U’s was announced for the VGC Multi Cup Tournament so we knew that we had to sign up. Leading up to US Nationals, R Inanimate and I threw around a few ideas on what upgrades we wanted to make to the team. One of the obvious upgrades was changing out Incinerate for Heat Wave on Mega Houndoom. We used Incinerate last year because Heat Wave was not available on a Blue Pentagon Houndoom. Initially, we were not sure how seriously we wanted to take the tournament. It was not until we were both eliminated on Day 1 of Nationals and heard about how many other Multi Cup competitors intended to use an Assist Liepard team that we really decided to put effort into the team.

Team Rocket Elite’s team:

liepard
Liepard (F) @ Wide Lens ***Anshin’in
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 204 HP / 252 Def / 52 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Assist
– Encore
– Sunny Day
– Protect

Liepard is one of the two MVPs of our teams. Assist normally chooses a move at random from all of the moves known by other Pokemon on your team and has Liepard perform the selected move. Due to Prankster, Liepard will use the selected move at +1 Priority. Assist will not select a move from the moves Liepard knows and will not select certain restricted moves even if another Pokemon knows that move. Assist will still select moves from Pokemon that have fainted.

Some of the more important restricted moves that can not be selected by Assist are Destiny Bond, Detect, Protect, King’s Shield, Spiky Shield, Nature Power, Focus Punch, Thief, Follow Me, Rage Powder, Transform, Bounce, Dig, Fly, Dive, Phantom Force, Shadow Force, Sky Drop, Roar, Whirlwind, Dragon Tail and Circle Throw. Keep in mind that this is not a complete list. For the most part, restricted moves are unusual and poor at straight up offense.

My team takes advantage of how Assist works by setting up Smeargle and Amoonguss so they only know restricted moves and Dark Void. This means that Assist has no choice but to select Dark Void and let Liepard use Dark Void at +1 Priority. On top of that, Dark Void has a respectable 88% accuracy due to Wide Lens. Liepard using an Assist plus Dark Void combo like this is known as a Void Cats strategy.

We also take advantage of another feature that is unique to Multi Battles. In a normal Double Battle, Assist can select a move from any of your other Pokemon so all of the Pokemon on your team are limited to using restricted moves. However, in a Multi Battle, Assist does not select moves from your partner’s team. This means that only my team is limited to using restricted moves while R Inanimate’s team can use any move that he wants. This lets R Inanimate provide offensive power to go with my Dark Void support.

Protect is used for defending against Fake Out and for scouting countermeasures to our team. It is also useful for stalling out Safeguard and potentially blocking an attack from an opponent that just woke up.

Sunny Day combos with R Inanimate’s Mega Houndoom. Our goal is to set up a Mega Houndoom with 2 stages of Special Attack boosts and fire off Heat Waves that are further boosted by Sunny Day and Solar Power. The damage output from this set up is no joke as you will see later on.

Encore is used as another way of locking down our opponents. In particular, I can target opponents that think it is a good idea to Protect or Fake Out in front of Liepard. I can also Encore other non-damaging moves to buy time for R Inanimate’s team to defeat our opponents.

Liepard is given enough Speed EVs to be faster than Taunt Thundurus which tends to be slow and bulky. The low amount of speed investment usually means other Liepard are faster than mine. Priority attacks almost always come in the form of physical damage so Liepard is heavily invested in Defense and HP EVs. Liepard survives Brave Bird from 252 Atk Adamant Life Orb Talonflame and usually survives if Talonflame holds a Choice Band instead. The Defense investment also means Liepard is better able to absorb hits from the +2 Priority attacks Extremespeed and Feint.

smeargle
Smeargle (M) @ Choice Scarf ***Pascal
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 72 HP / 100 Def / 84 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Follow Me
– Destiny Bond
– Dark Void

For Assist to be able to call up Dark Void I need to bring a legal Pokemon that knows Dark Void. The only Pokemon that can perform this role is Smeargle. Smeargle also acts as a back up Dark Void user in case Liepard is knocked out. Follow Me and Destiny Bond are restricted moves that can not be selected by Assist and Smeargle uses these moves to support R Inanimate’s team. Transform is a good fourth move to have but we ran out of time before we could put it on Smeargle. The EV spread comes from a Smeargle we already had on hand since we just needed one with max speed.

amoonguss
Amoonguss (M) @ Mental Herb ***Indolent
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 244 HP / 188 Def / 76 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Rage Powder
– Protect
– Nature Power

Rage Powder, Protect and Nature Power are also moves that can not be selected by Assist. Amoonguss’s role is to sit around and use Rage Powder to redirect damage away from R Inanimate’s team. In Link Battles, Nature Power turns into Tri Attack. Amoonguss has no Special Attack investment so Tri Attack does not do much damage. It is used as a last report when we have no better means of dealing damage. If we get lucky, Tri Attack can freeze an opponent to bail us out of a tough situation. The EV spread comes from a preexisting Amoonguss that is just generally bulky.

salamencesalamence-mega
Salamence (M) @ Salamencite ***DragonBullet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
– Double-Edge
– Hyper Voice
– Draco Meteor
– Protect

Filler team member #1. Bringing Salamence means we have abandoned our Liepard strategy since Salamence knows moves that can be called by Assist. In the end, Salamence never saw battle.

greninja
Greninja (F) @ Life Orb ***VGCwithMATS!
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Ice Beam
– Dark Pulse
– Rock Slide
– Protect

Filler team member #2. Greninja also knows moves that can be called by Assist. Like Salamence, Greninja was unused.

talonflame
Talonflame (F) @ Choice Band ***Tsukihi
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Def / 4 SpD / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Brave Bird
– Flare Blitz
– Sleep Talk
– Quick Guard

Filler team member #3. Like the other filler team members, Talonflame knows moves that are select-able by Assist. Sleep Talk, Quick Guard and priority Brave Bird act as anti-Void Cats techniques. Brave Bird can OHKO opponent Liepard unless their Liepard almost fully invests in HP and Defense EVs. Even if their Liepard survives, it will be very close to being knocked out. The EV spread here comes from a Talonflame we already had on hand so this Talonflame is actually too slow. Talonflame needs 220 Speed EVs to be faster than 252 Timid Liepard. Talonflame’s Quick Guard can be used to block Prankster Assist Dark Voids while Sleep Talk can be used if Talonflame falls asleep due to Dark Void. In the end, Talonflame was also not used in battle.

R Inanimate’s Team:

houndoomhoundoom-mega
Houndoom (M) @ Houndoominite ***Crimson Dead
Ability: Unnerve
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Heat Wave
– Dark Pulse
– Protect
– Nasty Plot

+2 252 SpA Solar Power Mega Houndoom Heat Wave

  • vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mega Kangaskhan in Sun: 288-339 (135.8 – 159.9%) — guaranteed OHKO
  • vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Salamence in Sun: 156-185 (91.2 – 108.1%) — 50% chance to OHKO
  • vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Terrakion in Sun: 156-185 (93.4 – 110.7%) — 62.5% chance to OHKO
  • vs. 220 HP / 92+ SpD Cresselia in Sun: 195-231 (87.4 – 103.5%) — 25% chance to OHKO
  • vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Suicune in Sun: 127-150 (61.3 – 72.4%) — 98% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry
  • vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Blissey in Sun: 184-217 (50.8 – 59.9%) — guaranteed 2HKO

+2 252 SpA Solar Power Mega Houndoom Dark Pulse

  • vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Heatran in Sun: 204-241 (103 – 121.7%) — guaranteed OHKO

A cat’s best friend is a dog?! Mega Houndoom is Liepard’s primary partner and the offensive core of the team. Since my team has little to no offense, R Inanimate’s three Pokemon need to beat all six of our opponent’s Pokemon. If everything goes according to plan, on turn one Liepard uses Dark Void to put both opponents to sleep while Houndoom uses Nasty Plot to double its Special Attack. On turn two, Liepard uses Sunny Day while Mega Houndoom unleashes a powerful Heat Wave that OHKOs almost all Pokemon that do not resist it and even some Pokemon that do. Even if our opponents survive the onslaught, they need to get lucky to even wake up and attack back. Each turn after this, we repeat the process of sending our opponents to sleep and blasting them with Heat Wave until we win. Dark Pulse is used to target down bulky Water or Dragon Pokemon that may not be knocked out by Heat Wave or as a single target attack to get around Wide Guard. Also, since Mega Houndoom uses special attacks, it is not susceptible to Intimidate which would reduce the damage output of a physical sweeper.

Houndoom’s Unnerve ability is a key anti-anti-Void Cats technique. If R Inanimate suspects our opponents are using status restoring berries he delays Mega Evolving Houndoom so that Unnerve prevents Lum or Chesto Berries from activating. Mega Evolution goes before all attacks so when Houndoom Mega Evolves the berries immediately kick in and wake up our opponents just before Liepard hits them with another Dark Void.

The EV spread is designed for Mega Houndoom to take advantage of its base 115 speed to outrun threats and hit them as hard as possible.

rotom-wash
Rotom-Wash @ Choice Scarf ***Life Spring
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 20 HP / 252 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
– Thunderbolt
– Hydro Pump
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Sleep Talk

Rotom-W is one of the two Pokemon that R Inanimate frequently chooses to clean up should Houndoom ever faint or be forced to switch out. Rotom-W can fight off both Choice Scarf Landorus-T and Mega Salamence which are very dangerous if they can not be put to sleep since they are faster than Mega Houndoom. Sleep Talk is for fighting other Void Cats teams and allows Rotom-W to try and attack even while sleeping.

aegislashaegislash-blade
Aegislash (M) @ Life Orb ***Dream World
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 4 Spe
– Shadow Ball
– Flash Cannon
– Shadow Sneak
– King’s Shield

Offense is king on R Inanimate’s team which makes Aegislash a good fit. Aegislash is the second Pokemon that R Inanimate tends to favour as back up to Houndoom. I focus on raining down Dark Void and Rage Powder on our opponents while Life Orb Aegislash dishes out heavy damage without needing to constantly go back to Shield Forme. Ideally, Houndoom has defeated enough of our opponents that there is not much left for Aegislash to clean up. Shadow Sneak is useful for taking out opponents that have already lost 99% of their HP to one of Houndoom’s Heat Waves.

EV spread is designed to focus on high Special Attack based offense while putting the rest into bulk.

sylveon
Sylveon (F) @ Choice Specs ***Fanelia
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 28 HP / 156 Def / 92 SpA / 4 SpD / 228 Spe
Modest Nature
– Hyper Voice
– Sleep Talk

Sylveon is another Void Cats countermeasure through the use of Sleep Talk and Hyper Voice. The EV spread is once again from a Sylveon we already had on hand. Sylveon was not used very often.

aerodactyl
Aerodactyl (M) @ Choice Band ***VisionTuning
Ability: Unnerve
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Rock Slide
– Sleep Talk

Aerodactyl is a countermeasure for opposing Liepard plus Mega Houndoom teams. Aerodactyl is faster and OHKOs 4HP Mega Houndoom with Rock Slide after Mega Houndoom takes damage from Solar Power. If Liepard puts Aerodactyl to sleep then Sleep Talk is still an option. Aerodactyl was not used very ofter either.

kangaskhankangaskhan-mega
Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite ***Buddhist
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SpD / 156 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Return
– Power-Up Punch
– Sucker Punch
– Protect

Kangaskhan is supposed to be an alternate Mega to use in place of Mega Houndoom but in the end was unused.

Team Preview

We always lead with Liepard and Houndoom. I have Smeargle and Amoonguss in the back while R Inanimate brings two other Pokemon that he feels like they work best against our opponents. This is usually Rotom-W and Aegislash. Bringing Aerodactyl or Sylveon is also possible if we faced a Void Cats team but we never did.

Anti-Anti-Void Cats

The official Multi Battle rule set disallows communication between partners so R Inanimate and I had to prepare preset counters to what we predicted other players might try to do to break our combo. At the actual tournament, enforcement of the rule turned out to be inconsistent. We ended up letting our opponents decided whether to allow communication during battle since we were prepared to play either way.

Fake Out + Safeguard

The counter to Fake Out is Protect. It sounds straight forward but knowing when to Protect in a Multi Battle where you can not talk to your partner can be more complicated than it seems since your partner may be expecting you to take action rather than defend. I always use Protect against a Fake Out user. If it looks like our opponents are planning to set up Safeguard as well, R Inanimate tries to sneak in a Nasty Plot since the Fake Out is likely heading towards Liepard. After that, I have the option of using Encore to lock down my opponents or set up a Sunny Day so we can set our opponents on fire. For the most part, Fake Out users are slower than Mega Houndoom and get OHKO’d by Heat Wave which forces our opponents to regroup and gives us time to stall out Safeguard.

Lum and Chesto Berry

As mentioned earlier, Houndoom has Unnerve before Mega Evolving. This prevents our opponents from using status healing berries until we already have our combo going and Mega Houndoom is launching out high power Heat Waves. At this point, the Pokemon with the status healing berry may not survive long enough to attack even if it does wake up. Furthermore, since the berries will trigger as soon as Houndoom Mega Evolves it is possible for Liepard to use Dark Void in between the berries activating and the opponents actually getting to attack.

Sleep Talk and Magic Coat

Against Sleep Talk and Magic Coat we bank on our opponents being too aggressive towards stopping Dark Void instead of realizing how dangerous Mega Houndoom is. Choice locked Sleep Talk Sylveon was sort of used earlier in the VGC season so we expect Sylveon to be a prime Sleep Talk candidate. Our game plan is to do a first turn Protect against Sylveon to scout for Sleep Talk. We also hope that Sylveon’s partner uses Protect to avoid being put to sleep while Sylveon deals with our Dark Void user. After Sylveon reveals its plan, Houndoom has hopefully snuck in a Nasty Plot while Liepard locks down Sylveon’s partner with Encore. Furthermore, Sylveon may be choice locked into a non-damaging move giving us free time to set up.

Taunt

For Taunt to be threatening, it needs to be on a fast Pokemon with the Prankster ability. Taunt Thundurus are usually slower and bulkier so we EV’d Liepard to be faster than them. Whimsicott and fast Taunt Thundurus are problems that we just need to deal with if they show up. In the end, we never fought a fast Pokemon with Prankster Taunt.

Insomnia, Vital Spirit, Sweet Veil, Magic Bounce

These abilities are largely on Pokemon that were not that threatening. We made a call that we would not see them and we were right.

Quick Guard

R Inanimate’s team probably should have something with Feint to deal with this. It does not. Fortunately, we never faced this since we did not have solid answers to Quick Guard.

Battles

Round 1: Schrodinger’s Cat vs Typhlosion .Rek (Devan / Ian)

Battle video: 4HDG-WWWW-WW2B-KV82
In our first game we managed to get Dark Void to connect on both opponents while Houndoom used Nasty Plot. However, there was a disconnect so we had to redo the battle. Next time our opponents lead with Fake Out Lopunny and a Toxic Orb Gliscor. Liepard Encore locked the Lopunny’s Fake Out to buy time for Houndoom to use Nasty Plot and start Heat Waving. Liepard missed a Dark Void on Scarf Typhlosion near the end of the battle so we ended up losing Houndoom and Liepard but Aerodactyl and Amoonguss were able to clean up. W 4-0

Round 2: Schrodinger’s Cat vs Team Scrubadub Dub (Devin / GTiffy)

Battle video: FWNW-WWWW-WW2B-KVMW
On turn one and two we successfully performed our full combo of Dark Void and Nasty Plot followed by Sunny Day and Heat Wave against Cresselia and Thundurus leads. However, Cresselia barely survived, woke up and used Thunder Wave on Houndoom. While Liepard did put an incoming Mamoswine to sleep, Houndoom got fully paralyzed then missed a Heat Wave which prevented us from getting rid of Mamoswine. I just kept up a sleep and Encore lock on our opponents while R Inanimate switched in Rotom-W to deal with Mamoswine. Rotom-W and Aegislash managed to clean up without needing Houndoom to come back. W 6-0

Round 3: Schrodinger’s Cat vs Team M (Evan / Ev)

Battle video: NZSG-WWWW-WW2B-KVNM
One of our opponents this round had an XY game card so they ended up getting disqualified. We decided to play this exhibition game against them anyways. Our opponents lead Suicune and Kangaskhan so we Protected on turn 1. Suicune did not want to go to sleep and Scalded Houndoom into critical HP while Houndoom set up Nasty Plot. I could no longer put up the sun without knocking out Houndoom with Solar Power damage. We ended up using a combo of Dark Void and Heat Wave to just get in as much damage as possible. Even without the sun and Solar Power +2 Heat Wave did a lot of damage. Suicune eventually took out Houndoom and an opponent Gengar dodged Dark Void to knock out Rotom-W with Energy Ball. We set up Aegislash with Amoonguss support to finish off a lone Suicune after Gengar went down. However, Suicune gave us a scare when it turned out to be Safety Goggles Suicune and nearly knocked out Sword Forme Aegislash. W 4-0

Round 4: Schrodinger’s Cat vs Team 5-3 (Ninten / Beau)

Battle video: NZAW-WWWW-WW2B-KVZL
Our next opponents lead with Weavile and Cresselia to perform Fake Out and Safeguard as their Dark Void counter while Liepard used Protect and Houndoom went for Nasty Plot. Liepard Encore locked Weavile while Houndoom attacked to take it out. However, Landorus-T came out next which was a big problem due to Safeguard. Liepard continued to stall out Safeguard while Rotom-W came it to deal with Landorus-T. When that failed due to Rock Slide flinches, R Inanimate tried to use Aegislash. Liepard used Encore on Cresselia to prevent another Safeguard as the first Safeguard wore off. After that, Liepard focused on using Dark Void while R Inanimate wiped out Ninten’s team and then Beau’s team. We did not lose anyone, but it was a tough match. W 6-0

Quarterfinals: Schrodinger’s Cat vs PUCL’s Powerhouse (Maximus / Scron)

Battle video: 2F9G-WWWW-WW2B-KVPU
This battle was a mess due to a critical error I made in battle. We lead the usual Liepard and Houndoom against Aegislash and Klefki. Klefki switched for Gyarados while Liepard used Dark Void and Houndoom used Nasty Plot without going Mega. Our opponents thought they were okay until their berries did not kick in. They then realized that they forgot about Unnerve. We did not know Gyarados had a Lum Berry so we went on the offense with Sunny Day and Heat Wave. Gyarados survived the Heat Wave and woke up but fortunately only ended up using Dragon Dance. I decided to continue using Dark Void to put the opponents to sleep. This was the critical error I made. Gyarados was very dangerous right now so I should have guaranteed a lockdown with Encore instead of gambling on Dark Void. As you might have guessed, during the next turn Dark Void missed Gyarados and it knocked out Houndoom with Earthquake. For the first time this tournament, we trailed in Pokemon count.

R Inanimate sent in Rotom-W to try and fix things. I lockdowned Aegislash while Rotom-W finished off Gyarados. Mega Venusaur replaced Gyarados and Aegislash switched for Chandelure. Liepard continued to use Dark Void in desperation to keep Mega Venusaur sleeping while Rotom-W knocked out Chandelure and Aegislash and even heavily damaged an opponent Rotom-W. However, it was at this point that my luck ran out and Liepard got a double miss with Wide Lens Dark Void. I lost Liepard here and our Rotom-W took a lot of damage. I sent in Smeargle for more Dark Void shenanigans. Our Rotom-W knocked out the opponent Rotom-W while Smeargle missed another Dark Void on Mega Venusaur. Mega Venusaur took out Smeargle in response so I could no longer use Dark Void for the rest of the battle.

Mega Venusaur also defeated our Rotom-W without any trouble while my Amoonguss constantly used Tri Attack via Nature Power. Tri Attack did not do very much damage but it let me fish for status effects and kept the healing from Giga Drain in check. R Inanimate sent in Aegislash which got put to sleep via Sleep Powder. Eventually, Aegislash woke up and attacked with Life Orb Shadow Ball which, along with the Tri Attack chip damage, managed to defeat Mega Venusaur. The last target was a Klefki. Amoonguss used Rage Power while Klefki went for Swagger. We got the luck rolls we needed and knocked out our final target. Somehow, we won. W 2-0

Semifinals: Schrodinger’s Cat vs Satellite Has More Channels (+MajorBowman / Andross)

Battle video: KVHG-WWWW-WW2B-KVSA
We used the same leads as always while our opponents lead Sylveon and Mega Salamence. We were afraid of Sleep Talk so we used Protect with both of our Pokemon on turn one. Sylveon used Magic Coat! That was not Sleep Talk but it was just as dangerous. Salamence made a mistake and used Protect on turn one. We suspected that Sylveon was either choice locked or would just use Magic Coat again due to fear of Dark Void and we were right. As a result, Liepard was freely able to lock Salamence into Protect with Encore while Houndoom set up with Nasty Plot. Salamence switched out for Landorus-T but we already had our combo in place. Liepard put the sun up and Houndoom OHKO’d both Sylveon and Landorus-T. From there we continued our offensive with Heat Wave and Dark Void. Houndoom did eventually go down due to a Mega Salamence that did not sleep for very long and Solar Power damage but Rotom-W cleaned up after that. W 4-1

Finals: Schrodinger’s Cat vs Sunnyshore Chargers (ZAKI / EnFuego)

Battle video: 2JVW-WWWW-WW2B-KVT9
Liepard and Houndoom lead into Togekiss and Kangaskhan. Kangaskhan attempted to use Fake Out on a Protecting Liepard while Togekiss set up a Safeguard. Houndoom used Nasty Plot to once again prepare for running over our opponents. Next turn, the sun went up again and we knocked out the opponent Togekiss and Kangaskhan with a single Heat Wave. Thundurus and another Kangaskhan came in which forced us to use Protect while Thundurus showed off Swagger. Kangaskhan retreated for a sacrificial Amoonguss while I had Liepard lock Thundurus into the non damaging Swagger. Houndoom broke through confusion and launched a Heat Wave to bring us up 6-2. Confusion prevented Houndoom from Protecting to waste the last turn of Safeguard so Houndoom got knocked out next turn. At that point we mostly had the game in hand. Sylveon came in and Hyper Voice plus Dark Void let us bring home the championship! W 5-0

Assist plus Dark Void lock down is not exactly a fun strategy for our opponents to face but it is something we wanted to try in at least one tournament. We especially wanted to use it after hearing all the buzz around Void Cats and anti-Void Cats just before the tournament. We certainly never expected to end up winning the tournament! A big shout out to TPCi for providing a Wii U to each of the winners and a New 3DS to each member of the second place team (so R Inanimate could trade his Wii U for one of their New 3DSs). After winning, will we ever use Void Cats again? No one will know until they look inside our Battle Box to find out!


About the Author

Team Rocket Elite is a Pokemon game mechanics researcher from Canada who has been playing since 1997. If you want to know about the past or an obscure game scenario, he may be able to help you out.



16 Responses to Schrödinger’s Cat Box: US Nationals Multi Cup Champions Report

  1. This is great, and a nice break from the usual reports on VGC Doubles. One question: how long did you two prepare before this event? I heard about Multi Battles at this year’s Nats and I’m hoping for there to be Multi Battles next year (when I can actually go), but the specifics are lost to me, as is the pairing system.

  2. JHufself says:

    Sounds like you’re up to your old tricks, Jimmy. You too for that matter, Randy. I went and used a Voidcats team too, but it wasn’t as well planned out as this team was that’s for sure. Congrats on the win! I’m also very surprised you didn’t run into any Voidcat mirrors.

  3. Keonspy says:

    I am glad thing thing can only happen in multi battle events lol, really clever tactic and it was fun reading about it!

  4. This is great, and a nice break from the usual reports on VGC Doubles. One question: how long did you two prepare before this event? I heard about Multi Battles at this year’s Nats and I’m hoping for there to be Multi Battles next year (when I can actually go), but the specifics are lost to me, as is the pairing system.

    The Liepard plus Houndoom core was something we made last year to use in casual Multi Battles and is also where we did initial planning regarding playing without communication. Smeargle was was automatically part of my team so Liepard would work. Amoonguss was added to my team about a month before US Nats. After that we threw around a lot of ideas but didn’t formally put anything else together until the night before the tournament. That’s why a lot of the EV spreads are based on Pokemon we already had (although R Inanimate does have a lot of premade Pokemon to choose from). We did have the general idea that R Inanimate’s team was going to be very heavy on offense since my side was pretty much 100% support. We also added a lot of the anti-sleep moves in the night before but as mentioned they went unused in battle. I imagine Multi Battles will be back next year as well as it was a popular event this year. You can either bring a friend or make a new friend at the event to partner with in battle.

  5. Scron says:

    This is Scron from PUCL’s Powerhouse speaking. My partner and I really had not prepared for this match-up at all. Team Rocket Elite and R Inanimate later explained that we could have used Klefki’s Safeguard and Infernape’s Fake Out to evade this whole shenanigan, but by that time it was far too late. I really have to hand it to these guys for knowing what they’re doing. I’m glad they could represent a great site like this at such a neat event. I hope to have the opportunity to face them again in the future, but with preparation tenfold.

  6. illuminatimon says:

    Congratulations and good job!

  7. Pikachu Head says:

    Voidcats?

    ;3

  8. Hibiki says:

    Really dominant strategy, I wonder what players will do about it at the inevitable World’s side event, assuming Dark Void won’t be banned.

  9. MajorBowman says:

    It was an honor to be destroyed by this team

  10. Cheesecake44 says:

    i was in semi finals 

  11. Tristan says:

    Is it too late to react to this ? I just found out about it and it’s a really cool and tricky situation to get out of, especially if you don’t have a team built for it.

    I’ve come up with a rather simple lead counter to this : Synchronize (Mega) Alakazam.

    Here’s the moveset I’d use :

    – Encore
    – Dazzling Gleam
    – Focus Blast
    – Ally Switch

    As a partner, let’s add a standard Greninja with Protect.

    Your first turn is crucial if I lead with this. Here’s the scenario :

    On the first turn, I can just safely go for a Dazzling Gleam or Focust Blast on Houndoom knowing you’ll go for Assist (Dark Void) or Protect with Liepard. If you go for Assist, you just also put your Liepard to sleep which breaks your strategy … And if you choose to Protect, on the second turn, I Mega Evolve Alakazam to Trace the Prankster ability and go for Encore to lock you in Protect before Liepard could do anything. Liepard is totally incapacitate no matter what on turn one or two. As for Greninja, I simply go for Protect not risking the sleep status.

    Your partner’s Houndoom on the first turn can go for a Dark Pulse or Nasty Plot but he’d risk a OHKO from the obvious Focus Blast … The better option is to go for Protect. On turn two, Houndoom can’t go for Protect anymore so you lose Houndoom to Greninja. Best case scenario : on the first turn Focus Blast misses, you go for the Dark Pulse which damages Alakazam (asleep if you went for Assist with Liepard) but not OHKO … Liepard is asleep or won’t be able to do anything on turn two since Encore will strike. Alakazam may be asleep or not, but you’ll lose Houndoom to Greninja if you don’t Protect on turn two …

    Turn three is a mess depending on what happened on the previous turns and considering the fact that Alakazam could be asleep. Greninja is still on the run anyway and teamed up with Alakazam if awake, Liepard or Houndoom will perish this turn. There is also Ally Switch to consider.

    Bascially, no matter what you do, you have a Pokémon incapacitated on turn one or two … Your only way out is to switch out, which means taking free hits and your VoidCat strategy is pretty much broken.

    I just came up with this, any thoughts ?

  12. Nucleose says:

    Well, for one, ally switch doesn’t work in multi battles

  13. Speed priority is determined before mega evolution, so tracing prankster wouldnt help.

  14. Unreality says:

    Synchronize also does not pass sleep.

  15. Hibiki says:

    Vital Spirit Magmortar let’s go.

  16. Tristan says:

    Well, butts.

    ‘Should have done my researches. It didn’t seemed to farfetched on paper.

    Thanks guys !

Leave a Reply

Back to Top ↑