Reports

Published on April 14th, 2014 | by tanzying

8

Synthesising Victory: 2014 Asia Cup 3rd Place & Japanese Qualifier 1st Place Report

This is a translation of Bicho‘s team and battle reports from the 2014 Asia Cup. The Japanese Wi-fi qualifier for the Asia Cup was hosted by R_Justice on the 2nd of March 2014 and involved about 128 players. Bicho went very nearly undefeated thorough the tournament, advancing from his round robin preliminaries group 7-1 and continued to win until he took 1st place. In the main tournament of the Asia Cup on March 30th, 2014 comprising of 32 participants from the 8 countries involved, Bicho once again swept the Swiss rounds undefeated (5-0), then beat his top 8 opponent Oktavian Jason before finally losing to eventual runner-up Nu in the semi-finals and then defeating Cantona, the other semi-finalist, to achieve 3rd place. We would like to congratulate Bicho on his phenomenal success and thank him for the opportunity to feature his team.

Trivia: Bicho’s success is not limited to the VGC ’14 Standard ruleset; he also placed 2nd worldwide in the recent Wi-Fi Test Competition (see his report here), as well as Top 4ing and above the majority of the grassroots offline tournaments he participated in last year and even winning a good chunk of them, including Singles tournaments. Truly, a player of exceptional strength.

Team Report

(Original: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/bicho5296/20140331/1396234411)

Asia Cup 2014 Main Tournament – 3rd Place
Asia Cup 2014 Japanese Wi-fi Qualifier – Champion
4th Hokuriku Offline Tournament – Top 16

Here I’ll present to you the team that achieved all of these!

* The actual stats, especially some of the speeds are quite subtle so I’m not going to reveal them.

Preface

When the rules of the Battle Spot Special ladder changed to Kalos Doubles, I was busy with real life and had no time to dabble in Pokémon. Once my graduation thesis had been safely submitted, I rebuilt my favourite season 1 Talonflame Kangaskhan team and attempted the ruleset, but just could not win. Several times when battling, I found Tailwind difficult to use, and after reading others’ blogs, I learned that speed control was not nearly as important in Kalos Doubles as in other metagames up til now, and rather, the ruleset focused more on individual matchups.

The feel of this ruleset, if you asked me to describe it, struck me as rather reminiscent of single battles, so I took the lineup which I felt was the most beautiful from Season 1 Singles — Mega Venusaur, Rotom-H and Azumarill — to use as a core and build my team around. The grass, fire and water typings of these three are the traditional types of the starter Pokémon in-game, and have excellent synergy. From there, I added Salamence, Garchomp and Aegislash, which were strong against the Pokémon at the core of the metagame, namely Garchomp and the strongest Mega Evolutions Kangaskhan, Charizard and Mawile. Thus, the team was complete.

Even in situations where Mega Venusaur can’t be sent out, the other Pokémon have really good stats so I don’t think I lose the stat point war. Even at the present point, one might say that the Salamence + Aegislash + Azumarill lineup, so often included even in Kangaskhan teams, are going to become the conclusion of this metagame, no?

I think what I’ve managed to build here is a team that, even though it does not possess conspicuous firepower or overwhelming strength, collects an assortment of various bulky Pokémon that complement each other beautifully and thus becomes a sturdy team that does not crumble easily. This is not a team that sets out to accomplish something it wants to, but one that aims to thwart the opponent’s win conditions. Because of that, it is hard to play. And yet, though there are difficult matchups, I would say that there are no difficult-to-the-point-of-being-impossible ones, and in that lies the stability of this team. Accordingly, when you lose with it it will mostly be due to either misplays or stupid amounts of luck, so using it might tend to stress one out (lol)

Having built it, I immediately jumped into Battle Spot to playtest it; won some, lost some, and achieved a not particularly spectacular win rate, but as I started getting used to it it began winning and surpassing my expectations to the point where it got me my results in the Asia Cup.

However, it’s quite difficult to find the correct play within 40 seconds, so I think that this is definitely not a team suited for Battle Spot (´-ω-｀)

(TanZYinG’s note: A good portion of competitive Pokémon in Japan takes place in grassroots real-life tournaments and friendly matches between players, where the game cannot be set to enforce VGC time limits)

Individual Analyses

The nicknames are all from the Children of Nisemachi in Madoka Magica: Rebellion

Salamence (nickname: Ibari)
Item: Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
– Draco Meteor
– Dragon Pulse
– Fire Blast
– Stone Edge

Part of Kalos Doubles’ Strongest, and one of the few that can come from behind to take out Garchomp with relative reliability. There are plenty of oppportunities to use it in a physically-oriented metagame that creates a demand for Intimidate. As for the moves, the two Dragon ones are indispensable, and while it may have shaky accuracy I decided to used Fire Blast for the fire moveslot, which can strike Mega Lucario down in one hit and take half of Aegislash’s health off. Lastly, Stone Edge, which ignores Wide Guard and KOs Mega Charizard Y even when intimidated, rounds off Salamence’s quintessential moveset.

As for the EV spread, well, firepower, bulk, speed, it really wants them all so I’ve always been lost regarding this and can’t give an answer!

Regarding how to play it, Intimidate is especially strong so I usually want to preserve it as best as I can. There will be plenty of openings for it to switch in and take attacks, and I don’t want to go crazy over the 10% miss chance of Draco Meteor so avoiding its use as much as possible, spreading Intimidate during the opening, and mopping up with Dragon Pulse during the endgame is the safe way to go. I have two solid switch ins for it in the form of Aegislash and Azumarill so I don’t partake in messy affairs like Salamence mirrors.

Its body is blue and its face looks like Suneo (note: from Doraemon) so its nickname became Ibari. (威張り: to swagger, act pridefully, be haughty, brag)

Garchomp (nickname: Ganko)
Item: Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
– Dragon Claw
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Protect

The other cornerstone of Kalos Double’s Strongest alongside Salamence. It’s been saving up its fury since Generation 5 and now that Cresselia, the Latis, Thundurus and Landorus aren’t around boy is it strong.

When building a Mega Venusaur-centric team, due to Venusaur being the mega evolution, it naturally becomes weak to the three major megas of Kangaskhan, Charizard and Mawile (though depending on the circumstances it can beat out Charizard and Mawile), and thus I use the non-mega that is strongest against all three of them.

At first, due to wanting to compensate for an overall lack of firepower, I ran Life Orb which would let me get the 2HKO on Mega Kangaskhan, but then Life Orb’s demerits just kept showing themselves such as Kangaskhans often getting chipped by Rough Skin and Double Edge recoil anyway, Garchomp barely surviving attacks but then dying to Life Orb recoil, and doing too much damage during the times where I decided I wanted to just go ahead and Earthquake even with my own Mega Venusaur out. Therefore, to patch up my team’s effectiveness against sleep and because Will-O-Wisps often come flying towards Garchomp, I made it hold a Lum Berry.

The moveset is again the quintessential Dragon Claw / Earthquake / Rock Slide / Protect. This is inevitable (I’m pretty sure). For the Rock move, options like Rock Tomb seemed interesting, but in the end Rock Slide off Garchomp’s 102 base speed does a good job at fishing for flinches and is just superior.

For the nickname, since Garchomp looks stubborn and it fits its real name, I used Ganko. It would have been even better if it had been female. (頑固: Stubborn, Obstinate)

Mega Venusaur (nickname: Nekura)
Item: Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll ->Thick Fat
– Giga Drain
– Sludge Bomb
– Sleep Powder
– Synthesis

The axis of the team. After Mega Evolving it is ridiculously bulky.

With Thick Fat removing all but two of its weaknesses, and Flying and Psychic attackers being relatively absent, it really has a lot of staying power. This staying power shines especially against teams without Talonflame. With the exception of Choice Banded Brave Bird from Talonflame, there isn’t really anything that can OHKO it, so if it doesnt get focus fired it won’t lose due to Synthesis.

For the moves, Giga Drain, which gets STAB, hits the popular Rotom-W super effectively and its recovery effect fits right into Mega Venusaur’s own general playstyle, so it was set in stone. So was Synthesis, which heals up all the damage it accumulates and can checkmate opponents. Next, no matter how bulky it is it would be pointless if it just sat there so Sleep Powder, which is punishing against a wide range of opponents, was added. Lastly, I wanted to add HP fire to hit Steel types with, but there were situations where I wanted to hit Fire types too, and being able to hit Gardevoir super effectively was important so I ran Sludge Bomb. I think that in order to win against Salamence, Hydreigon, Goodra et al, attacking with Sludge Bomb interspersed with heals is the only way to win. Mega Venusaur cannot do anything once Aegislash gets a Substitute up, so that has to be covered by other Pokémon. In the worst case scenario where Sleep Powder misses one can usually switch out and salvage the situation in time so the 75% accuracy is somewhat acceptable.

For playstyle, if I feel at team preview that the opponent has no good way to hit Mega Venusaur, then I do my best to keep it on the field and aim to block them completely with it. If they have but one Pokémon that can hit it, I aim for more or less the same thing after eliminating that one threat. Sleep Powder is a powerful move, but one can’t rely on its 75% accuracy so I never want to use it at critical junctures. It is really effective when you fire it off from an advantangeous matchup and are predicting a switch. Even though Sleep Powder is inferior to Smeargle’s Dark Void both in accuracy and the amount of targets it hits, Venusaur’s forte, its bulk, allows it many attempts at the move and increases the number of safe opportunities to use Sleep Powder.

Given that both its body tint and what it does is dark and gloomy I don’t suppose the nickname can be anything other than Nekura. (根暗: dark natured, dull, gloomy)

Rotom-H (nickname: Wagamama)
Item: Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
– Thunderbolt
– Overheat
– Thunder Wave
– Protect

A Pokémon that possesses excellent bulk for the major threats. It feels a little less stable than Rotom-W, but the Fairy resistance and anti-Charizard-Y properties make it stand out. Along with its main roles, it takes all the attacks of Venusaur’s nemesis Talonflame, takes all the Ice that comes flying towards my two Dragons, and basically makes use of its type synergy to the fullest.

On the offensive side, it was important that I could take a large chunk off Aegislash which I don’t have enough ways to hit. It applies some pressure on Mawile, and against other things I guess it’s acceptable. The consistent Thunderbolt and Steel-hitting Overheat were no-brainers, but for a Status move I used Thunder Wave instead of Will-O-Wisp. Though Will-O-Wisp is effective in an environmnet full of physical offense, Will-O-Wisps that hit second were often too little too late, and Rock Slide flinches messed with it a little too often, that I found myself not valuing Will-O-Wisp on Rotom much. It’s better on Rotom-W who does not take super effective damage from Rock Slide though. The team, with many members having middling speed, makes good use of speed support, and because it opens up the possibility of Mega Venusaur stalling out a paralysed opponent with repeated Synthesises, I think it fits the team really well. Lastly, I thought about putting Will-O-Wisp in anyway for two status inflicting attacks, but there were many situations in which I wanted to Protect so Protect was an easy choice.

Rotom takes plenty of hits switching in, and because of that and the need to survive Mega Kangaskhan’s Fake Out + Double Edge, Sitrus Berry is required.

The nickname is Wagamama because its activity in standby mode is noisy and its lack of base stats made EVing it such a pain. (わがまま: Egoistic, Willful, Headstrong, Selfish)

Azumarill (nickname: Manuke)
Item: Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
– Waterfall
– Play Rough
– Aqua Jet
– Superpower

A Pokémon with an excellent typing that completely walls Salamence. Although not used in this team, the terrifying ability of Belly Drum + Aqua Jet to steamroll everything inflicts great pressure on opponents even by just showing it in team preview. It is strong against rain, which despite the presence of Mega Venusaur still gives the team a little pause, and if it doesn’t flinch it can check the likes of Mega Aerodactyl and Mega Tyranitar too.

In my reactionary playstyle, I wanted to make good use of its inherent bulk and firepower to cycle it in and out while racking up damage on the opponent, but the most stable item of choice, Sitrus Berry, had already been taken by Rotom. At first, I had it hold a Choice Band, valuing the fact that Choice Band let it OHKO Dragons even through Initimidate, and also let it have a chance of OHKOing Mega Aerodactyl with Aqua Jet depending on the damage roll, but because I ended up wanting to change attacks often and being choice-locked into Aqua Jet opened up big holes for my opponent, I ended up being dissatisfied with it and rejected it. There were some instances of Choice Specs Rotom-W partnering Aerodactyl and taking out Azumarill in one hit, so to withstand that I tried out Assault Vest. And with it, it became able to attack confidently even in the face of Mega Manectric and win Rotom-H one on one, among many other appealing benefits. Being able to survive Mega Charizard Y’s Solarbeam is huge too.

With the drawback of not being able to use non-attacking moves (well, basically only Protect), and Waterfall, Aqua Jet and Play Rough already decided, I considered the fact that the rest of the team didn’t really have good ways to hit Mega Tyranitar and therefore added Superpower without much deliberation.

Being able to attack with confidence in situations where Azumarill would normally be completely pinned, and being able to induce opponents to overpredict and ignore Azumarill was extremely strong.

For the nickname, well, it’s kind of making a dumb face so… *appropriateness* (まぬけ： stupidity, idiocy, thick-headedness)

Aegislash (nickname: Reiketsu)
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
– Shadow Ball
– Flash Cannon
– Substitute
– King’s Shield

A Steel/Ghost Pokémon with excellent bulk. Hm, I seem to have been using this phrase “excellent bulk” rather repeatedly!

It has magnificent type synergy with Salamence, and since Salamence often wants to switch out after firing off its Draco Meteor having it in the back is extremely handy. And conversely, Salamence can easily takes the Fire and Ground attacks that are aimed at Aegislash, so they are truly the best of partners. Although, because of that, it becomes easy for the opponent to predict the switch so care must be taken. Also, it’s just about the only Pokémon that can safely switch into Mega Kangaskhan’s attacks, and so is rather indispensable to teams focusing on switching based teams.

There are limited ways to hit this guy effectively, and with leftovers recovery factored in, it is another Pokémon you can aim to checkmate the opponent with. My playstyle involves using these two walls, Aegislash and Mega Venusaur, together and thinking about which opponents to eliminate so that either of them can seal the win. With that in mind, and because this is a middling speed bulky team and I wanted to deal with the Trick Room teams I hadn’t really considered up to this point strongly, I added Substitute and Leftovers. Shadow Ball and King’s Shield were in for sure. Sacred Sword can revenge KO Bisharp, whose popularity has been rising recently, in one strike and hit Tyranitar and Kangaskhan for more damage, but since Flash Cannon OHKOs Mega Aerodactyl and breeding a hexflawless Aegislash is such a drag, in the end I went back to the standard Flash Cannon.

It’s made of iron and looks cold so the nickname is Reiketsu. (冷血: cold-blooded/heartedness)

As you see, aside from the core of Venusaur, Rotom and Azumarill which had been determined from the start, the rest of the Pokémon are all high-usage Pokémon running their standard, defining items and movesets. One could say that that makes it predictable, but there are good reasons why those moves and items are there, and when combined with the rest of the team and handled properly I really think they are the strongest.

I guess I can say that I tend to lead with Salamence + Venusaur a little more often than the rest, but really, all of the Pokémon can work well both as leads and in reserves and I think I can say that this is a goodstuffs team with a wide plethora of options in battle. There are lots of things you have to consider while playing it, so it taxes the player alot and I won’t go out of my way to recommend playing it to people, but thank you to those who have read up to this point!

I mentioned this before in the preface, but with this team not being ideal for Battle Spot, I think it would be good if I could come up with a team that doesn’t involve nearly as much thinking and plays more straightforwardly for the Japan Cup.

Battle Report (Asia Cup Japanese Wi-Fi Qualifier)

(Original: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/bicho5296/20140310/1394465689)

I was placed in the K block of the preliminaries, and advanced from it in first place with a record of 7W – 1L. I’ve skipped the preliminary matches because this would be very long if I wrote about everything. However, my one defeat by Ao-san was a guessing game at the very end which I lost. I think I misplayed on the previous turn, but on the turn itself, even if I had chosen to do anything else, all the luck factors combined would have led to a roughly 50-50 guessing game anyway so I don’t think there were any other misplays.

Top Cut R1 – Top 32 vs Vete

Battle Video: 86PW-WWWW-WWW6-3AE2

Opponent:

Me:

Mega Venusaur looked like it had an easy field so I went ahead and proactively led with it. The leads came out as his Salamence and Rotom-W versus my Salamence and Venusaur which was completely in my favour. Because Rotom-W looked as if it couldn’t do anything productive, I swapped Aegislash for Salamence and Sleep Powdered his Salamence. Rotom Protected, Aegislash took a Meteor and I put Salamence soundly to sleep.

The 2nd turn I had Aegislash put up a Substitute while Venusaur Giga Drained Rotom. Salamence switched out for Chandelure, and Rotom moved before Venusuar to get a Will-O-Wisp off on Aegislash.

On the 3rd turn, wary of Chandelure’s Infiltrator I had Aegislash use Kings Guard once while firing a Sleep Powder at it, but wasted the turn completely as he got a Substitute up.

From then on, it became a bitter struggle as he stacked up the Minimizes and I couldn’t land my attacks. I tried to Sludge Bomb Chandelure with Mega Venusaur, but I had no idea that Poison attacks were not very effective against Ghost types. I thought I would have been able to break the Substitute.

Since I couldn’t possibly continue throwing myself at Chandelure in vain and since it looked as if it only had Heat Wave and no other attacking moves, I changed my plan and focused on shutting down the other Pokémon. Switching around and taking attacks, I took down Mega Kangaskhan without incident and created a Mega Venu + Mence + Chomp vs Chandelure situation.

Quite a few attacks got evaded, but in the end Garchomp’s Earthquake landed and I won. If the misses had continued, Chandelure’s 16 Heat Waves could not have outdamaged the 8 Synthesis’s worth of healing Venusuar had available, so if after 16 hits I had not gotten burned, it would probably have led to an ugly ending where I would Synthesis on the last turn and win on the HP tiebreaker.

Top Cut R2 – Top 16 vs Junio

Battle Video: YSEG-WWWW-WWW6-3AE9

Opponent:

Me:

Looking at my opponent’s team, there didn’t seem to be any obvious Mega Pokémon, so I expected that it was probably a Mega Tyranitar build.Letting it get a Dragon Dance off would make dealing with it very hard, so I tried my best to not leave any opportunity open for it to do so. Garchomp seemed to be strong against everything overall, but leading with it would only get it Intimidated by Salamence so I brought it in the back.

His leads were Salamence and Bisharp, and although I had Rotom-H -> Bisharp and Azumarill -> Salamence, being slower than both of them kept me cautious. Happy that I was making my opponent feel threatened at the possibility of Belly Drum, and expecting that no Dragon moves would be fired towards Azumarill’s slot, I switched it out for Garchomp and Thunder Waved Salamence as a precaution against a Scarf. My opponent double targeted Rotom with Sucker Punch and Draco Meteor to take it out, so I survived the LO Meteor and got the Thunder Wave off.

On the 2nd turn, because Garchomp had both Bisharp and Salamence pinned with Earthquake and Dragon Claw respectively, and moreover since my opponent’s team had nothing that could take Garchomp’s Earthquake safely, I deduced that Salamence would have no choice but to stay in and so Dragon Clawed Salamence and Overheated Bisharp. Bisharp’s Iron Head took half of my Garchomp’s HP off, but I successfully took out both of his Pokémon. Then, out came Talonflame and Tyranitar.

Garchomp was being pinned by Talonflame’s Brave Bird, but i thought it would be better to buy a little time rather than let it go down immediately, so I protected once. Rotom was in KO range from Tyranitar’s Rock Slide, but even if it were to go down Azumarill could take its place and handle Tyranitar, and furthermore the worst thing would be letting it Dragon Dance for free, so I Thunder Waved it.

Tyranitar Mega Evolved and Dragon Danced, but ate a Thunder Wave and was easily dealt with later, giving me the win.

Top Cut R3 – Top 8 vs Taruto

Battle Video: FG3W-WWWW-WWW6-3AEY

Opponent:

Me:

The lead matchup was so-so. First of all if Gardevoir was Scarfed, Garchomp would just go down without being able to do anything, so I made the safe switch to Aegislash. I didn’t want Rotom to take a possible Fake Out + Dazzling Gleam either so I Protected with it. Gardevoir used Dazzling Gleam instead of Moonblast so I determined it was using Choice Specs.

On the 2nd turn it was very obvious that Gardevoir would switch out and there was a very high probability of Garchomp coming in, and so I really wanted to switch Rotom out for Salamence, but if my opponent madethe gosu play of sending out Bisharp from behind I would lose, so I timidly Thunder Waved Kangaskhan. As expected it was Garchomp, but I guess there was nothing to be done about it.

On the 3rd turn the probability of Bisharp being in the back had more or less disappeared so I brought Salamence out while Flash Cannoning Kangaskhan.

On the 4th turn I predicted that Garchomp was going to switch out and wanted to dispatch Kangaskhan, so I meteored it but missed. I forgot why I Flash Cannoned Garchomp’s position instead of Shadow Balling it, but Talonflame came in and made me pay for it.

Turn 5, I couldn’t lose my Salamence yet and was fearful of Brave Bird and Sucker Punch so I used King’s Shield and switched to Rotom to take the Brave Bird.

Turn 6, I thought that Garchomp would come in to take a Thunderbolt for Talonflame, so I Shadow Balled Talonflame’s position and chipped away at Kangaskhan with Thunderbolt.

From here on, I thought that Garchomp, who I had preserved well up until now, would be able to plow through everything, so I sacrificed something to get it in safely and continued making safe plays for the win.

Semi-Finals vs Kantona

Battle Video: 7FAG-WWWW-WWW6-3AEJ

Opponent:

Me:

Between Bisharp and Malamar, bringing Salamence was most certainly out of the question (lol)

Azumarill, with water attacks unresisted by my opponent’s entire team and being able to hit the likely leads Bisharp or Malamar hard, was put out in the front, and Rotom-H, which also had lots of room to manoeuvre, accompanied it.

At the opening I was afraid of the possibility of getting outsped and flinched, but it looked like a pretty good matchup for me. Aerodactyl’s Rock Slide and Bisharp’s Iron Head tried to stop my Azumarill from moving, but Azumarill dodged the Rock Slide and took out Aerodactyl with Waterfall, and Rotom managed not to flinch as well and got a Thunderbolt off on Bisharp. At the time, I was sure that Gothitelle and Mawile were in the back so dropping my Special Attack with Overheat would be a terrible idea. Furthermore it was probable that Bisharp was Focus Sashed so I thought Thunderbolt was the way to go.

My opponent’s Rotom-H came out, and I was wondering if I should just sacrifice Azumarill, but then I decided it could still do some work with Aqua Jet if I kept it around, so I switched to Garchomp. A Will-O-Wisp came flying hither but I didn’t mind.

After that, somehow Garchomp still managed to be a good Pokémon even while burned and played sloppily. I recklessly spammed Rock Slide and the opponent’s Rotom just wouldn’t stop flinching. I kept that up and won.

Finals vs Moyomoto

During the 1st battle there was a communication error while the battle was in my favour, so it was decided to turn it into a best-of-3 with me one game up.

1st Battle

Twitcast Video: http://twitcasting.tv/bicho_5296/movie/42615880

Opponent:

Me:

It looked as if leading with Salamence and Venusaur would be good, but then I refrained from that after considering the possibility that Noivern was Scarfed. I didn’t think I would be particularly disadvantaged no matter who I brought so I sent Rotom-H out with Venusaur. I was a little scared of Specs Noivern Hurricane, but decided that that kind of thing would not appear on a Sun team and so abandoned those fears.

I didn’t know which of my Pokémon he would Fake Out at first, so I made both of my Pokémon attack with Sleep Powder and Thunder Wave. Venusaur got to move, but for some reason Noivern was carrying a Lum Berry so that ended in failure.

Turn 2, I couldn’t lose Venusaur so I switched to Aegislash while Thunder Waving with Rotom, but Rotom flinched due to Rock Slide.

Turn 3, I wanted to Substitute with Aegislash but it got flinched. However, I successfully got Thunder Wave off on Mienshao.

The subsequent exchanges created a situation where my opponent was unable to break Aegislash’s Substitute. The communication error occurred when I had caught Charizard on the switch with Sleep Powder and hit it into the red on the next turn.

It seemed that on the turn that Charizard came out, my opponent had originally intended to switch Mienshao out and Protect Noivern, but given that Noivern had already Protected the turn before, its special attack was cut from having Draco Meteored previously, and Aegislash still had its Substitute up, I think I would still have the advantage no matter what happened. Even if Charizard had woken up on the turn of the error, I would have switched Venusaur to Rotom and taken any of its attacks and won regardless of whatever happened, so the set was turned into a best-of-3 and I was given the first win.

2nd Battle

Battle Video: G8HW-WWWW-WWW5-UCAC

Opponent:

Me:

With the fact that Noivern was neither Scarfed nor Sashed exposed, I led with Salamence this time. With my opponent’s leads being Noivern and Charizard, a double pin situation was created and I had to decide who to go after. With Noivern possessing the ability to take out Salamence if allowed to move, and Venusaur’s Sleep Powder and Noivern’s Lum berry both being revealed during the previous match, Meteoring Noivern and Sleep Powdering Charizard certainly seemed like the safe option.

But then if I did that, Salamence could not possibly fight Charizard and Aegislash choice-locked into Draco Meteor with dropped special attack, and I felt that the absolute worst situation for me would be if he made the safe play of double Protecting and I left Charizard free to do whatever it wanted (by locking into Draco Meteor). So, because even if Protected, it would be better to lock into Stone Edge, I Stone Edged Charizard and Sleep Powdered Noivern. It was a dangerous gamble, but I figured it was my best option. My opponent moved exactly as I expected, and the game was sealed almost completely right there and then on turn 1.

After that, I dealt with the remaining Pokémon one by one while maintaining a way to hit his Aegislash hard, and won.

Mega Venusaur is such a beast for surviving Super Fang and Garchomp’s critical hit Earthquake.

Somehow or other I made it through a 150-man strong field and clinched the championship!

About the Author

tanzying is a VGC player hailing from the tropical island of Singapore. Previously involved mostly in translating Japanese VGC blog articles for the rest of the world, organising official VGC events and friendlies with other countries for Singapore has come to be his primary role.

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