Leading Efficiently (kinda)

Leading efficiently ( kinda ) in VGC16

This is gonna be a boon to write and probably to read since its such a difficult topic to cover, but since a lot of people ( Myself included sometimes ) struggle on how to lead. This can lead to autopilot decisions that can prove disastrous, especially in a format as volatile as this. I'll attempt to cover some of the more commonly led pairs from popular archetypes and some specific Pokemon and also Pokemon with useful traits that won't immediately lose you the game.

Note the specific Pokemon will be Mons that are relatively splashable in any team, IE Thundurus Salamence. Because even if Lum berry Empoleon  beats Smeargle Xerneas, chances are you'll lose the majority of your games just by having a silly Pokemon on your team.

Also note your lead can depend heavily on what Pokemon you plan to bring in the back so this isnt a guide on How to win every lead matchup. It just highlights things to look out for and how to counterplay them with the options you have.

Fake out pressure:

This is incredibly common in any format as getting a free turn to get off any attack whatsoever be it speed control, set up or just letting a strong mon blow a hole in the other team is lovely. Its incredibly important to immediately find the opponents Fake out Pokemon (they probably have one) and identify its speed stat. There are very few viable Fake Out Pokemon in this format, but the one's that can effectively use it, happen to be very strong Pokemon. These include Kangaskhan ( 90speed pre mega) Raichu ( 110 ) Liepard ( 105 ) and  Weavile (125) and a mention should go to Smeargle (75) that sometimes run it. On team preview you can expect a faster FO Pokemon to be led with. This might not always be the case but its very important to consider it as an option as giving the opp a free turn. 

Counterplay to FO leads differ vastly in risk levels and actual effectiveness. A riskier move is Quick Guard which is common on Pokemon such as Crobat and Talonflame. However a Kangaskhan can quite easily just use a strong attacking move and pick up a KO early. Inner Focus also stops FO from inflicting a Flinch, although the only Pokemon of note with this is Crobat. A double protect may also appear safe if the other side doesn't have any form of obvious set up, although an unexpected Swords Dance or Substitute can lose massive amounts of momentum. An easier way is to lead with a faster Fake Out user than the opponents which can provoke them to not even try or trade Fake outs. Prankster Pokemon that learn Encore like Whimsicott and Liepard can deter a Fake out but will draw out a stronger attack so be aware of that. Make sure your answer to Fake Out isn't in a vacuum however, Always always consider the partners options as ignoring the partner can result in a swift loss. 

Speed control:

This is often paired up next to a FO user, IE: Kangaskhan Talonflame but can also be seen next to a Primal Pokemon which is arguably more threatening as allowing them to successfully use the move will result in a Primal Pokemon running through your team. This is a MASSIVE thing to consider on preview, however autopilot it may seem. A common pairing of this nature is Groudon Talon or Crobat Kyogre. Seeing both of these Pokemon on team preview should be enough to force your hand into leading with your own speed control (if you weren't doing that anyways) While Pokemon like Thundurus can Thunder Wave the turn later, this obviously won't work if the opponent has a Groudon or is clicking Quick Guard so this isn't foolproof. If one goes this route be sure to immediately ko the opponents Quick Guard user. Leading with Trick-Room or  Tailwind of your own can prevent a mullering as well so don't fret if Thundurus isn't gonna cut it/they have a Groudon. Again the partner to the Tailwinder should dictate your play.

Another big option is Trick-Room which is easily identifiable on team preview. This is arguably the hardest speed control to prevent as the setters are often incredibly difficult to KO. IE: Cresselia Bronzong. Gengar may also be seen with T-room but this is uncommon. Different teams will approach this differently, with some abusing the free turn you get whilst t-room is set up and other's attempting to OHKO the setter: Yveltal.

A safeish pick against possible T-room is Amoonguss as this dissuades T-room altogether out of fear of rampant Sporing. If they don't choose to set up t-room however, Amoonguss isn't deadweight as it can redirect attacks from your stronger Partner.

Thunder wave/Thundurus is a huge huge Pokemon to consider as a lead since it is commonly led alongside Fake out Support : Kangaskhan Thundurus. Unfortunately there isn't much out there that can viably shut down Thunder Wave spam. Attempting to Taunt a Thundy with your own can result in a speed tie so its not a safe option. Raichu is a decent shut down to Thundurus but it's incredibly frail and prone to being ko'd early. Ground Pokemon like Groudon and Landorus are immune to Paralysis but it won't protect your partner from getting Paralysed. Slower Pokemon like Ferrothorn tend not to mind the speed drop but the 25% chance to miss your turn is huge enough to be wary. The best way to prevent Thunder wave spam is to Ko the user as fast as possibly before your team is bright yellow and you're bright red.

Icy wind is mentionable but the only real user of this move is Gengar, this can be counterplayed by leading with your own Speed control, especially Trick Room.

Gimmicks:
I won't spend too much time on this as its hardly relevant but no one likes losing to Soak Shedinja. Its important to notice the gimmick asap and do as much as you can to disrupt it. Be it with Fake out, Quick guard , Redirection or just plain offence. These tend to be noticed by very obscure Pokemon choices like Floatzel , Spinda and Magikarp. These teams are only really found at low level play so its not something your likely to run into at a tournament. 

There is one team you might though... and that team is Voidcats/Sheercats. This team is destroyed by one move. Quick Guard. If you have it be prepared to lead with the Pokemon that has it and click it until the game is won. If you lack Quick guard however, you should lead with your most offensive pairing (Kang Primal) and cross your fingers.

Big 6:

Oh dear. I'll start this part with saying that the pairing of Thundurus Groudon will give Big 6 a lot of trouble. Lum berry Bronzong is an incredibly strong lead utilised by T-room Double Primal. Teams can also lead Salamence Thundurus to cause issues. The biggest thing to remember when you face off against Big 6 is the Smeargle. Don't just throw on Lum berrys onto random Pokemon and expect to beat it however. The threat from Smeargle should come from the fear of Follow Me + Xerneas with Moody mixed in. This equals you wanting to KO the Smeargle as fast as possible or taunting it to have it sit there. Disabling the Follow me through any means will leave the Xerneas open to attacks and Status such as Thunder Wave. Generally you want to lead something that threatens massive damage or hindrance to Xerneas whilst also beating Smeargle. Kangaskhan,Thundurus,Faster Groudon.Talonflame variants with taunt also work.  Your leads also want to be able to deal with Groudon and Salamence to some degree as these can easily be led. You'll have to use your own judgement on your team to decide your safest lead, as teams and the techs they have change dramatically. Big 6 is a complex matchup but getting the lead correct often gives you enough momentum to win the game.

Gravity stuff:

This is a relatively simple matchup for most teams given the predictability of the lead. Its just important to keep your head and remember the late game. Since Sableye will lead 9/10 times, you just have to figure out the other member. Groudon and Whimsicott are seldom seen as leads but are extremely common in the back. This leaves Gengar, Salamence and Kyurem-w. If you have multiple Ice weaks expect a Kyurem lead, Double Primal and lone Ogre  tends to lure in Gengar as a lead to trap and sleep everything. Anything else can expect Salamence. I won't tell you how to actually play against it but your mons in the back are incredibly important. Strong Pokemon against this archetype include, Thundurus, Kangaskhan, Yveltal, Groudon, Talonflame. 

While this 'Guide' doesn't highlight literally every lead combo ever (obviously) I hope its enough to give a general understanding of Pokemon to lead against certain common lead combo's seen. Thundurus is a common mention in this which really highlights its strength in the format right now. If I've missed anything let me know and I can edit it in. Above all, trust your judgement but keep every option your opponent has at the front of your mind and choose your leads wisely. 

Best of luck 

-Matt

Top 8 UK Regionals 2016 :]

Top 8 Sutton Regionals 'Rundown'

Quick disclaimer before I get started, I'm calling this a run down instead of a report which means it won't have Ev's or anything, but instead the cool story behind it. The reason for this is the community is a bit of an arse hole these days, not reading for entertainment or trying to improve but instead just using it as a scouting guide which upsets me greatly. If you do want Ev's and all the details, feel free to message me on Twitter or NB and I'll gladly share. Just putting my best hope at getting worlds in public is sadly a bad idea nowadays.


ANYWAYS, lets start by me sharing my love/hate relationship with the format that is known as VGC16. First of all: it kinds sucks.....But...I think there is massive potential hidden away beneath the suicide Tailwind and Smeargle moody boost nonsense. A well fought weather war is always splendid and well thought out at a high level. It also sucks.

Start of the format was an incredibly rough time for me, I had no idea what I was doing and kept losing and losing till it got to the point that for every win I'd have about 6 losses. I'd tried all sorts in the early meta, mainly the preliminary core that would eventually become BIG 6. But I hated Xerneas and the dependency I felt the team had on it. Granted when it sets up (easily) it runs rampant, I just didn't believe it to be the thing to win events for myself personally. I eventually settled on one Pokemon deemed shitty by almost everyone I talked to. (Snowflake confirmed)

That Pokemon was:

Oh man do I luurvee this thing. I was drawn by the cool typing being both offensively and defensively strong towards anything not named Xerneas. Granted Xerneas is literally everywhere, but its a fairly one dimensional Poke that's only gonna be doing one thing, which makes it fairly predictable and much easier to shut down than people think.



So how do you check Xerneas enough for Yveltal to thrive? Well old Matt thought Mawile Trick room with Ogre was the play. I was very very  wrong and got roflstomped at Glasgow Regs going  2-5 disgracefully. It was at the coach station on the way back that I had an idea on how to not rage quit the format and it was to try Yveltal again but in a different environment. I was also really bloody ill that night so apologies to Tom (TheSaxlad/noob) for being with me at midnight when you'd rather be in the pub :P


That team was to be used at a Manchester PC the following week. It was:

Yveltal

Groudon

Mawile

Gengar

Kangaskhan

Talonflame

Just by switching the Kyogre to a Groudon the team felt infinitely stronger. It wasn't an insta loss to big 6 with Tailwind, Gengar, Mawile, and Physical Groudon but it still wasn't consistent against it. I managed Top 8 at that PC losing to a stupid Rock Tomb miss against The Haxlad that I built the team with but it didn't bother me super hard, I had gotten my first CP and it was the middle of February. I had another PC the week after that I managed top 4 in with the following change:

Cresselia > Gengar

Something clicked that day, I suddenly understood the format and felt like I could do anything, but a dumb Smeargle got some boosts and shut me right up. But I kept the confidence gain and random understanding of the format and got ready for the next big one.. The Manchester Midseason Showdown



The MSS

Going into this I had thrown out Mawile because its really bad and added a Thundurus because its not a team of mine without Paralysis spam. The team now looked like this:

Kangaskhan

Groudon

Yveltal

Cresselia

Thundurus

Talonflame

I went into this event super nervous since it was my last chance to get a chunk of CP before being forced into a deep nationals run. I was pretty crushed when I lost the first round to a friend in Jonathon Marston.
I was pretty much forced to go all or nothing and not drop a game for the rest of the day. I played a few friends on the way and was forced to batter them aside #nomercy ;)  and managed to go 5-1 5th seed(ofc)
I was over the moon and I had a chunk of cp but I was super thirsty and wanted all of it. I learnt I had to play P3ds in top 8 who had a gravity Kyurem-w team that scared me as a lot of my tourney runs have ended in freezes. Unfortunately the stream recording has been deleted so I can't link it.  I ended up winning this set surprisingly as I had a better match up than I first thought. Top 4 was revenge against Jon and finals I lost to Conan Wild because I didn't have Skill swap on Cresselia x_x I couldn't care less though, I'd gotten a big finish and a chunk of CP  but I knew the team had its issues that needed correcting before Sutton Regionals rolled around.

And with all that useless filler text sorted, I can get onto the main course being the Regional that I somehow did well in :]

Team:

Kangasbabe @ Kangstone
Scrappy
Jolly Nature                            
Fake out                                  
Return                                      
Power Up Punch                    
Sucker Punch


Super Bog standard Kangaskhan happens to be the best Kangaskhan. Able to quickly pressure and deal   big damage easily. Also gets a boosted Sucker from Yveltal's Dark aura. Didn't Opt for Low Kick on the set as I simply didn't care about Dialga or Ferrothorn.




Groudong @ Red Orb
Drought
Jolly Nature
Precipice Blades
Fire Punch
Substitute
Protect

This is a cool set that I rather like, Pblades does big damage to Xerneas post boost and is good as a field clearer if you trust the accuracy. Fire Punch is really strong single target damage boosted further in the Sun and was mainly used to get a KO 100% when Pblades was a bad idea. Also good at chargrilling Ferrothorns who wanna get cheeky. Sub is the 'weird' move I guess. With Jolly you can get a substitute up for free on any Smeargle and it also provides a massive shield against T-room teams as they have to waste a few turns trying to get rid of it burning T-room turns. 9/10 would recommend.

Yveltal @ Blackglasses/Swagshades
Dark Aura
Jolly Nature
Foul Play
Sucker Punch
Tailwind
Protect



Have I mentioned how awesome this thing is? Cus it's really awesome! Being able to 2shot most of the relevant Pokemon in the format bar Xerneas. Yveltal really piles on the pressure especially against T-room teams and double primal where speed control is key, when Yveltal threatens to completely shut down whichever you try you have a big problem. Notably this set lacks Knock off as I wasn't super scared of t-room and the presence of Amoonguss on the same team is enough to assume they wont even bother trying  
(not one player tried) Foul play is a very strong attack being able to 2 shot Groudons regardless of preference to Phys or Special, Sucker punch is really stupid and does wayyyy to much damage, Even Xerneas takes a good 30% in an emergency. Its also really fun to pair this with Kangaskhan and Sucker Punch the format into the floor. Tailwind is a move used to support the rest of the team which is obviously strong..



                                       U watt m8  @ Focus Sash
                                       Prankster

         Timid Nature
         Thunderbolt
         Hidden Power (Ice)
         Thunder Wave
         Protect


If you don't hate this thing there's something wrong with you and if you don't love this thing there's something wrong with you. Its lose lose which is very accurate when it comes to Thundurus. Its incredibly hard to stop it ruining your day in some way. I ran HP ice because I like one shotting Salamence and Landorus which otherwise annoy me greatly. Protect is ran because its commonly targeted by Fake out and a well timed one gives a burst of momentum.

Kevin @ Life Orb
Gale wings
Adamant
Brave Bird
Quick Guard
Tailwind
SWAGGER




Standard Talonflame because its really good. Swagger is really bad though don't try and use it, I never clicked it once but wanted to get some sexy Swagplay going. Never happened never will. 1/10




                      Guss Fring @ Lum Berry
   Regenerator
   Bold Nature
   Spore
   Rage Powder
   Grass Knot
                         Protect

On a side note look at the gen 5 Amoonguss sprite. He know's he's gonna spore the bejeezus outta you.
Anyways.... I added Amoonguss > Cresselia because I felt the speed controls clashed where I to bring T-wave and T-room, especially against big 6. This mon is basically to scare away T-room and to check Manectric Yveltal teams which I really really don't like facing. Lum berry is also good to outcheese those Gravnosis teams with Rage powder spam.


Yeah this probably horrible team got all the way to top 8 going 6-1 before losing to a friend ( Eden ) and his stupid Togekiss in strong wind which I just couldn't get past without massive loss. The 4th move on Talonflame can be taunt to try and shut down Togekiss so that's a likely step forward for the team. Thanks to all my 'Friends' who constantly call me and Yveltal shit. It's been pushing me to keep using it for the strong banter game and I'm actually doing quite well now. A late start in the season means worlds hasn't been attained yet but I'm starting to catch up.Hoping to get there soon! Um, that's it I think. Peace out

Shoutouts to Lucky Shirt!

-Matt Carter

Xerneas!

Xerneas!

HP:126, Att:131. Def:95, Spa:131, Spdf:98, Speed:99

Ability Fairy Aura: Strengthens Fairy moves to 1.33× their power for all friendly and opposing Pokémon.

This new addition to the series debuting in XY is the only legendary Fairy type Pokemon and is understandably one of if not the strongest Fairy available in the game. Up until VGC16 this monster has been locked away in the darkest depths of hell unable to be abused. Sadly the cage has been opened and this stag has been unleashed upon the masses of players. In this article I'll talk about just why this Pokemon is so strong and some of the sets I feel are viable.

Now the obvious start on why this Pokemon is as scary as it is. Xerneas learns the move Geomancy which boosts its Special attack Special Defense and Speed by 2 after one turn of charge. This sounds pretty terrible until you remember the item Power herb, the seldom used item finally has a strong and effective use outside of random Sky Attack hype. Now imagine a +2 +2 +2 Fairy Pokemon with access to spread moves ploughing through your team like a knife through butter. Add the boost received from Fairy Aura and you'll find very few Pokemon being able to resist and actually beat Xerneas when its used Geomancy.

Xerneas does lack one thing though... Good Coverage. Often forced to run a Hidden power (usually Ground) to attempt to get past bulky fires and steels that stand in its way. A typical Xerneas will look like this:

Xerneas @ Power Herb  
Ability: Fairy Aura  
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  
Timid/Modest Nature  
- Geomancy  
- Protect  
- Dazzling Gleam  
- Hidden Power [Ground]/ Thunderbolt/Psychic/Moonblast

This may change to incorporate more bulk during the year but at the time of writing the typical 252/252 is effective and more than usable.

A more interesting set might use a Choice Scarf:

Xerneas @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Moonblast
- Rock Slide/Swagger
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power [Ground]

This set aims to surprise opponents with swift KO's to their faster dragons or frailer Pranksters hoping to Encore it into Geomancy. Rock Slide can hit Ho-Oh and provide sweaty flinch potential or Swagger can be used because its a good move and the movepool is dire as is.

Checks:

The problem with Xerneas is the variety of partners it can utilise to set up quickly and easily so finding a Counter is pretty difficult so checks will be used instead.

The obvious check to Xerneas is Primal Groudon which can resist fairy and smack it back with a strong Ground attack. However if Xerneas has the usual partner in Kangaskhan a swift double attack can be used to rid Groudon of the field.  Groudon has access to a much larger movepool than ground attacks though so other options can be explored. Thunder wave can be used to neuter Xerneas for another Pokemon to weaken or even KO. Roar is also a niche option although its best used on the turn of set up to render Xerneas unable to boost for the rest of the game if it tries to set up.

Ho-Oh utterly walls Xerneas without thunderbolt with its massive Special Defense stat and the resistance along with recovery moves. It can also hit Xerneas on the frailer physical side with strong STAB attacks like Sacred fire and Brave bird. Ho-Oh can also utilize Whirlwind to similar effect as Groudon with Roar if the need arises. Ho-Oh also pressures the common Kangaskhan partner with a Sacred Fire burn.

Other Pokemon include: Fast Prankster Encore users, Thunder wave, Greninja w/Gunk shot. Bulky Fires, Aegislash W/Gyro ball, Ferrothorn. Swagger :]

The common Xerneas core going around at the time of writing is Kangaskhan,Groudon-P, Xerneas, Cresselia,Amoonguss so keep those Pokemon in mind when choosing a Xerneas check as most checks fall to Groudon.

If I've missed anything I'll come back and add it. I'll be doing Primal Groudon next (oh dear ) so look forward to that.

-Mattsby

That one annoying thing no one likes

Landorus-T

Two words can describe this Pokemon: Oh dear/Oh no/ Oh S**t etc. If you've ever played a game of VGC then chances are you've seen this thing and I'm willing to bet its flinched you out of an otherwise won game. It'd be hard to argue against this thing being one of; if not the BEST Pokemon legal in the format right now. The interesting thing about this Pokemon is that for the most part, it will run the same 4/5 moves, but the item its holding will drastically change the way it operates. In this post I'll look into some of the most common sets and a set that I think is pretty cool but have yet to test thoroughly.

Now before we start I need to address something regarding Landorus-T and that's everyone's favourite move...Rock Slide. A lot of Landorus' success can be attributed to that fabled move. 4-1 down? You still have a teensy chance to win because of that move. Simisear here is demonstrating the sign for Rock Slide that you may see irl. If you see the opponent performing this action, you better be ready for some flinching fun.

Onto the most common set and arguably the best albeit the most exploitable.

Blandorus@Choice Scarf 

EV's 252 Flinch, 252 Speed.... 36 HP/76 Def/ Rest in attack Speed 

Adamant/Jolly

Rock Slide/StoneEdge

Rock Slide/Earthquake

Rock Slide/U-turn

Rock Slide/Superpower

Knock off

Importance of Rock Slide highlighted on this set since that's the move it'll be clicking most of the time. The Hp and Def investment prevents Adamant Life orb Bisharp from OHKO'ing the majority of the time which is a poor yet semi common check.  Joking aside the draw of Scarf Landorus is the rapid flinching potential and the ability to check a lot of Pokemon who happen to be weak to one of its moves. Scarf can be played at any time in the game but it much prefers late game where it doesn't have to worry about the opponent switching. While this set is incredibly effective the majority of the time it is exploitable. If you can force it to Rock Slide then your Heatran will have a fun time attacking it whilst it switches out ( or flinches you to death anyway ) Your potential play options increase drastically when you find that it is indeed choice locked. Locked into Superpower? Bring in your own Landorus and punish it for being too forward on its date with Kangaskhan. Locked into EQ? I know a million Pokemon that would love to step in on that. The choice lock on its moves is this sets massive downfall which leads onto the next few sets.

Bandorus@ChoiceBand

252 POWER 252 STREMPH

Adamant/Jolly/Careful

Same moves as above set + Explosion sometimes

This set also suffers from Choice lock and a much poorer Speed, in exchange for better bulk( but slower so not really :o) and an amazing boost in power. It doesn't care about the choice lock as much as Scarf since its attacks are doing an insane amount of damage and it can be quite hard to switch into it. Most of the Ev's that would be invested into speed can now be thrown into HP DEF and Spdf for increased survivability. Explosion is quite an entertaining move on the Band set, I'm not sure quite how effective it is since I haven't tested it at all but I imagine some late game fireworks could be very pretty to watch on a streamed match.

Londorus@Life Orb

252 Innovation 252 Anti Lando

Jolly/Adamant/Naive/Timid

Same Moves as other sets + Protect and HP Ice

This is an interesting set... It trades a bit of the power from the Choice band and the choice lock in exchange for Protect and in some cases Hidden Power Ice. Just the move Protect on a Landorus can blow your opponents head clean off his shoulders when he doubles into it trying to ko Lando or the switch in. The momentum gained must be unreal. More momentum is gained when you OHKO the other Landorus with a sneaky Hidden Power Ice the next turn. The issue here is, once the opponent knows about your sly set, it becomes a lot harder to net that momentum you gained in a prior game. And in a big tournament info like this spreads like wildfire. While I don't personally believe scouting is That big a deal, I'd still much prefer all of my opponents to have to react to a Landorus than have prior knowledge. It just makes reading an opponent much harder. I guess the same can be said for any Pokemon set but with this one, you're almost forced into going for the surprise options just in case they are unaware which can lose momentum which is contrary to what the set is supposed to achieve. By all means try it out and when it works well come slap me in the face.

Much shorter part here about other non choiced Lando item's that I personally dislike but have probably already seen success and me living under a rock didn't hear about it.

Yache 

Sash

Landorus-I ;)

Lum

All of these are viable in some way or another but I'm not seeing it :]

Onto the post worlds terror:

Landorus@Assault Vest

Adamant/Jolly

Bulkyyy Most Just run 252/252 Attack Speed but there's much better out there. Go experiment

Stone Edge

Rock Slide

Rock Tomb

Earthquake

Knock Off

Superpower

U-Turn

Hidden Power Ice?

I really like this one. It gives Landorus an appreciated Spdf boost along with no choice lock at the exchange of Speed/ boosted Power and Protect. This might sound pretty horrible but Landorus has 145 base attack so it never really needed boosting unless you're actually insane, Protect wasn't used on the other choiced variants anyway. The biggest loss is the speed which forces Landorus to play differently. Although most players will assume Scarf from the get go, which is exploitable. Bring in Heatran on a Knock off will you? Eq to the chin. By the time they find out the item they've probably taken a lot of damage. My personal favourite along with Scarf and Life orb.

Now for a dodgy set I think would be pretty sweet (and probably bad)

Landorus@Lum Berry/Sash

Swords dance

Only need that one move to change things up big time. At + 2 Landorus is looking pretty nasty, able to Earthquake and Rock slide through most teams. The big issue here is the lack of speed and bulk, and the requirement of an SD to become truly scary. Just a bit of theory here but it could be pretty good or pretty bad. Someone test it for me I'm lazy :]

Partners: 

Literally anything. Just having this Pokemon on your team will pressure your opponent from the get go. Have a Spinarak and an Aipom on your team? Landorus will make it 50x better. You probably still wont win but the pressure is there. Add a Kangaskhan and who knows...

Jokes aside, Landorus either loves or requires numerous Levitators to give it as much EQ spamming freedom as possible so keep that in mind. Landorus having a nasty Ice and Water Weakness is something to watch out for as well as it's easy to stack up those weaknesses on a team.

Threats: 

I use this sparingly as Lando can just U-turn away or choose to drop some rocks on these mon's head's.

Rotom-W+++

Suicune

Milotic++++

Insert Bulky water here

Insert Wide Guard here

Aero-M

Sceptile-M

Alakazam-M

Insert faster than scarf mon (not ninjask) here

Cresselia

Thundurus

(random Ice moves)

Landorus's problems come from Pokemon it cant outdamage which isn't really a lot ( Scarily ) It's far from unbeatable however. You just need to find your own method of dealing with it. Just remember that if your check to Scarf Landorus loses to Jolly Scarf, Then it's a bad check. Sorry Scarf Washtom, I loved you but it was too much :[

That about sums it up. Landorus is one of the best Pokemon in the Format and Game as a whole. It'd be interesting to see if a GS cup ruleset gave it a smack but I somehow doubt that. While I say its one of the Best I don't think it IS the best. That honour goes to something else that everyone should be familiar with. And it's not Kangaskhan. I'll get around to writing that one up when I can be bothered but for now, Enjoy a 'Got Flinched out Face' Courtesy of my good friend Silcoon.

PS: Doesn't he look so sad :o

Thoughts on Kangaskhan (post worlds)

Kangaskhan and VGC16

Sigh, the sound every player makes when a Kangaskhan comes in at the end of a game primed and ready to crush. You've played the game to perfection, its 4 v 1 and you SHOULD win bar any craziness, shame your checks to Kangaskhan are looking a little weak. Boom clap smash and 3 turns later you've lost the game. How on earth did that happen? Was it hax? Was it poor playing? Or was it just Kangaskhan being a bit too strong for its own good? Probably a combination of the three but what could you of done about it? You could of had 6 fighting types.. but then you lose to the handy Cresselia or Latios thats sat next to that Kangaskhan. Or how about 6 ghost types? What about that Aegislash, Heatran, Thundurus (insert Kang partner here)  Long story short, Kangaskhan on its own isn't THAT bad, but when you add the right ingredients things get real explosive.

 Lets start with some bias... I love Kangaskhan, as a Pokemon before a 'tool'. Catching that thing in the safari zone back in Pokemon Red was exhilarating as a child, it was one of my first lvl100's. When it was announced it would be getting a mega evolution in XY I was ecstatic, the clip of it hitting twice didn't mean much at the time but as we all came to find out, Gamefreak had created a monster. I didn't care of course as it was cool and Kang was fun to use, as time went on you get called names and get generally abused for using it, even in actual irl tournaments which is disgusting. How can you hate someone just because they use a good Pokemon, I'm pretty sure if I was using a Sigilyph I'd receive similar abuse for being an idiot or a snowflake. You can't please everyone or anyone it seems. 

Kang in the VGC14 metagame:

The 14 metagame was by far my least favourite, games went down to team match up more than actual predictions and its only praised by its 'diverse' usage of mons ( Even though you were almost forced to use stupid unpredictable trubbish to stay on top) How does Kangaskhan fit in then? Kangaskhan started the format as an underdog, no one used it instead focusing on trying to use as much as possible, which is how a metagame is formed. Around Christmas time the UK winter series finals were being played. And Kangaskhan Garchomp and Talonflame was the big core to beat, We saw a lot of scarfed Salamence and Mawile to attempt to beat it but it wasn't strong enough with Kangaskhan taking the title. Over the Pond in America the Kang hate was in full swing, With Mawile Garchomp Ferrothorn winning a regionals and starting the Mawile train. For a while it seemed like you were either on the Kang train or the Mawile train. With both eventually opting for a rain mode. It was fairly even throughout the Nationals with Kang winning two and Mawile winning two also along with a rogue Venusaur and Charizard X in Italy. As worlds came around, Kangs time was up. Everyone went full anti Kang and it almost disappeared from the standings withstanding one decent finish. 

Why was Kang such a force in 14? It was a combination of the move Power Up Punch and the format being filled with generally 'bad' Pokemon unable to take a hit from the monster. Alongside that was a lack of intimidate in the format being generally limited to Salamence Mawile and Gyarados. The nerf of special moves also contributed making Kangaskhan much harder to take down with its superb bulk. But what held it back from crushing worlds? Some say better partners, some say tutor moves, some say Mawile was too good a counter ( It really isn't xD) With ORAS announced however and the predicted open format looming, we all wondered if Kangaskhan would survive the transition with ease or if it would be left in the dirt.

Kang in VGC15

Kang seemed to be dead in 15 with the introduction of all new mega Pokemon, seemingly introduced to put a stop to Kangaskhan. Gamefreak forgot one simple thing though... Kangaskhan has friends. Gallade loses after a single speed control option is performed, Lopunny is the same and Slowbro is just really slow and really weak to special attacks. Some of the less direct 'counters' Salamence and Metagross were fairing better, Salamence especially. Metagross was forced to adopt substitute as a way to stop Kang was simply sucker punching it out of the way which became predictable and Metagross eventually fell off the radar.

Salamence however, with intimidate and base 130 def after mega! was fairing much better. However, in most Kang Mence stand off's, it commonly ended in a trade or Kang barely hanging on. Kang's partners typically T-waved Mence or just plain Ice beamed it. 

Kang also picked up one of the most important tools it could ever hope to have... Low Kick. This move is capable of one shotting Heatran, Ttar, Hydreigon, Terrakion, other Kangaskhan, Lopunny. While some argue that PuP is still the best option, the results lean more towards Low kick being 'the play' Kang dominated all the way through the year along with Salamence and later on Gardevoir. until worlds where we all thought it would fall off. We were wrong... Kang plowed through the whole event ending up with 7/8 teams in top cut having one.

Obviously this upset many people claiming Kang is broken and Kang needs to go. This may or may not be true, Kang was always one of if not the strongest Pokemon available to use over the past two years but it took a worlds domination for people to realise this. I guess you can call Kang a cake, you can just have it and its alright, but when you start adding more ingredients and toppings, then that's just icing on the cake.

Kang teams have different archetypes than just 'Kangsquad' Some where 'CHALK' ( Cresselia Heatran Amoonguss Landorus Kang) and some where Kangwind, Kangroom,Kangrain,Kangsun. The options Kang had access to over the other mega's is what pushed it over the edge. With the best Kang teams seeming to differ on the choice of fire type with some having Heatran with others having Rotom-H, Entei, Arcanine or Volcarona.

What can we do to stop Kangaskhan though? Honestly I don't think its 100% possible too in such an open format. Given as of the time of writing, we have no new game on the horizon to potentially nerf Kang a little   (maybe only have the STAB move hit twice?) we can only speculate on the next format. In my opinion it can be one of three things, only one of them I'd be okay with playing. 1: Keep the format the same... This wouldn't help anything and it'd be staler than 40 week old bread. 2: Remove the top 12 Pokemon from this year... This has issues as well, without Kangaskhan or Landorus around, some other Pokemon will step up and likely completely dominate with the lack of checks, To some people this is completely fine as they are blinded with Kang hate and would rather get pounded by a Pinsir than a single mother. 3: The return of GS cup... GS cup was the format played in 2010 which allowed 3 'Uber' Pokemon per team with only 2 being allowed in the match. This can be made less confusing by only allowing 2 'ubers' per team. There are many arguments against this, one being it encourages hacking, not that this year did the same.... Another is the massive power creep being scary for newer players, but personally if I was just starting out and was told I could use Mewtwo, I'd be over the moon. Another is the issue with the Primals being stupidly overpowered, I agree on this one and if GS cup were to exist I'd hope there would be some kind of rule, maybe impose a cap on BST with the highest being 700 which would exclude the Primals, Mega ray and Mega mewtwo's. The issue here is the move Dragon ascent which would leave Rayquaza available to mega evolve at any time whilst it has it learnt. The move could be banned but any viability Rayquaza had would be stripped away.

Honestly I don't know what the format will be, I'm personally hoping for GS cup after playing in some of the BS competitions that allow the bigger mons. But I wouldn't be surprised if the top mons were taken away and people get their wish. One can only hope something less checkable than Kang takes Kangs place and ruins everything . I'm so spiteful :) Anyways, I'll see you next year whatever the format ends up being       (Bar VGC98)

PS: Kang is the best cri moar ;)))

Mattsby

Bubble Buddies Part 2: Musings of a Masochist

                                            Bubble Buddies part 2: The Musings Of A Masochist

Hey there, and welcome to another report which will mostly be made up of further evidence as to why Kangaskhan is far and away the best Pokemon in the game, and has been for the last 2 years!

This follows on from Mattsby's report a while back, since we both had extremely similar results throughout the course of the VGC season, with teams that were somewhat similar in their build, but with noticeable variations based on our own personal preferences. All of our play with our teams eventually culminated into a Top 8 showdown in a Premier Challenge to see which team would reign supreme, so here's how it looked after the final tournament of the main season, Milan Nationals!

The Team:

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Adamant nature – Ability – Inner Focus
36hp/132atk/180def/4spdef/156spd
-Fake Out
-Double-Edge
-Low kick
-Sucker Punch

Kangaskhan. What more needs to be said? It’s the best pokemon in the game, therefore I'm going to use it. There are other megas in the format which compete with it for power and popularity, notably Charizard Y, Salamence and Gardevoir, but none of them can boast the team building options that Kangaskhan has at it’s disposal. It doesn't care who it's paired with, it’s just going to put a shift in.
I used the same spread throughout the season, and although it may not be entirely optimal, it does what I wanted. It can survive a low kick from any opposing Kangaskhan, maintain a good chance to OHKO in return, has a good chance to survive Terrakion's Close Combat and out speeds Smeargle after mega-evolving.

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Adamant Nature
12hp/196atk/92def/20spdef/188spd
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-U-Turn
-Superpower

A very standard Landorus set here, and I don’t care, it’s another excellent Pokémon that is so good that you don’t care if your opponent knows the set before the game begins. It can flinch, it can Intimidate switch, it can batter things. Keep it away from ice moves, and it’s the perfect Pokémon.
The EV spread ensures Landorus can survive a Life Orb Sucker Punch from a +1 adamant Bisharp 100% of the time, while giving me a little more chance to survive some of the weaker HP Ice attacks. The speed allows me to outrun Pokémon in the Base 130 speed category, and in the event that Landorus’ choice scarf is knocked off, it can still out speed Breloom by 1 point. Looking back, I may have wanted to lower the attack stat a little more in order to invest a little more into special defence to feel more comfortable around HP Ice users, but nevertheless, I was still happy with this spread.

Breloom @ focus sash
Jolly nature
4hp/252atk/252spd
-Protect
-Spore
-Mach Punch
-Bullet Seed

Standard set again. There really is nothing more to say about Breloom. Its a nuisance when paired with Kangaskhan, and helped out with my Trick Room matchup by simply Sporing the setters before they could move. An all around annoying Pokémon that can quickly irritate your opponent if they allow it to get out of hand.

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Calm nature
252hp/44def/60spatk/148spdef/4spd
-Protect
-Will-o-Wisp
-Thunderbolt
-Hydro Pump

One of the biggest “Marmite” Pokémon around, I definitely love Rotom-Wash. Yes it misses it's moves a lot, but if you can deal with that then there isn’t much to complain about. I always felt it was criminally underused midway through the season, with it's good bulk, it's solitary weakness, and it’s potential to make opposing genies think twice about the situation they're in. This pokemon got me through some of my toughest matches this season, and I don’t regret using it one bit. EVs were unchanged from the standard 2014 spread. Survive Kangaskhan's Double-Edge with Sitrus Berry, Mawile's Play Rough, and Charizard's solarbeam 100% of the time.


Heatran @ Chople Berry
Modest nature
44hp/28def/196spatk/36spdef/204spd
-Protect
-Heat Wave
-Overheat
-Flash Cannon

Onwards into the slightly more interesting sets in the team now. This Heatran set is the one pokemon that myself and Matt 100% agreed on in every way, it’s fantastic. Yes, by running Chople berry and dropping earth power you are immediately consigning yourself to losing the Heatran mirror matchup, but here are the reasons why that doesn’t matter.
Firstly, during the time that this team was in it's prime, roughly half of all heatran were timid Max speed, suggesting that even if you opted for that set and ran earth power, in theory, you would still lose the Heatran mirror match an alarming amount of the time. Secondly, in being able to take strong fighting attacks, this opens up an abundance of opportunities to take on otherwise horrifically threatening Pokémon, such as Kangaskhan, Terrakion and Conkeldurr to name a few. Thirdly, this team has a Landorus, a Kangaskhan and a Rotom Wash in it. Opponents rarely bring Heatran to this match up at all so you would rarely use earth power anyway. EVs here were to outspeed adamant Bisharp, OHKO 252hp/4spdef Aegislash 100% of the time with Overheat, and to ensure that Breloom's Mach punch would always be a 3HKO with the Chople Berry.

Cresselia @ Safety Goggles
Bold nature
220hp/76def/212spatk
-Thunder Wave
-Calm Mind
-Psychic
-Ice Beam

Although the surge of Aegislash since nationals ended has led to a huge drop in Cresselia usage, it was still pretty stunning at the time. The move set or item slot on this Cresselia changed with every single tournament I entered, as there was just so much it could do, but I will go into more detail during the tournament analysis. The EV spread was very basic here, simply KO'ing as many Landorus as possible while still being nice and bulky.


The Tournaments:

- Sutton Coldfield Regionals – 6-2 (9th Place)

I went into this tournament far more confident than I usually do, believing that some of my funky move/item choices would see me through. Kangaskhan's ability was still scrappy here, while Cresselia was holding leftovers and had Protect in place of Thunder Wave, and icy wind over ice beam.
I started the tournament strongly like I often do, seeing off Jason Finch (Die2Distroy) in Round 2, before seeing a daunting matchup in Round 3 against a former travel buddy in the Netherlands... Koryo. I'd lost my 2 previous matches with Koryo, both including some dubious amounts of bad luck, and I certainly didn’t want to turn it into a hat trick! Long story short, I won in a very one sided game with Cresselia and Heatran getting out of control, the battle video can be found here – GU7G-WWWW-WW2G-EYQG.
At 4-0 I was absolutely demolished by Jamie Boyt. When you Icy Wind the opponent, and he switches in serperior to get a speed boost, it never ends well. Nevertheless, I soldiered on, got haxed on stage, and finished 6-2, but knew my resistance was going to be good. It was an agonising wait for the final standings, but unlike in Germany ’14 there was no fairy tale ending. I missed out on the top cut by one place, on opponent's opponent's win % to fellow Nosepass, Eden Batchelor!


Germany Nationals – 6-3 (78th Place)

Germany is a great country, I'd been looking forward to going back there all year, this time with a huge crew of new travellers to make it even better! Ringbrots were consumed, ringbrots were worn, ringbrots were thrown... Onto the tournament itself!
Cresselia was changed once again with icy wind making way for ice beam.
I started strongly again, beating Solarii in Round 1 by managing to out speed his Virizion with Cresselia in the end game thanks to the choice scarf he had initially tricked onto me on turn 1! The strong opponents didn't stop there, with Round 3 pitting me against Riopaser, fresh from his top 4 finish in the senior World Championship last season. It was an incredibly close match which was finally turned when I predicted his Terrakion to protect from Kangaskhan’s Fake Out, so I simply smashed straight into his ludicolo, then survived the Close Combat the next turn, to pick up another KO with low kick. GG! 3-0!
The tournament was turned on its head the following round, suffering 9 Thunder Wave paralysis in a row, where hitting through once would have been enough to win the game. I never really got over this match, and in some ways, the next match was worse. When your mind is angry, the last thing you want to see is your name paired with Lajos Kowalewski. He never gives you an easy game, always long lasting with huge amounts of thought required, and that’s exactly what happened. Yet I found myself in a winning position, with just one more turn required for me to take the game! Only one problem, there's 19 seconds left on the timer and he's double protecting to take the match. The game could have been won much earlier if I had played a little riskier, but that’s the game. Lajo saw that the timer was his win condition, and he played it just right.
I whimpered to a decent 6-3 finish, which I wasn't upset with, but was certainly left contemplating what could have been.

- Sutton Coldfield Premier Challenge – 3-2 Swiss (2nd Place after Top cut)

I finally decided to give in and drop protect on Cresselia for this tournament replacing it with thunder wave, for the all important hax factor, whilst also switching Kangaskhan to an Inner Focus variant.
This was a bloodbath, from round 2 onwards, every single opponent I faced was a friend. The games were rough, and the final round of Swiss paired me against Mattsby’s himself. I lost the match but still managed to make the top cut, seeded 5th as the highest ranked 3-2 player. My opponent for top 8... Matt... Again. However, this time I had more of a game plan. Shut down the Scrafty. It was a menace in the Swiss round, and I knew that if I could contain it better this time, I’d have a good chance.
It was a great set, lasting much longer than the other top 8 matches, and here are the 3 games for you to enjoy:
3FKG-WWWW-WW2G-EPX3
CUMW-WWWW-WW2G-EP4K
4DNW-WWWW-WW2G-EP66

Eventually I ended up in a satisfying 2nd place after losing to Toquill in the final, onward to nationals!


UK Nationals – 6-3 (74th place)

Another really fun tournament with another consistent result. A crippling early loss to Billa where only a final turn critical hit prevented me from winning the game was costly. At 6-2 going into the final round, I needed a win to make the top cut. The matchup was perfect. My Cresselia and Rotom-Wash were facing down Salamence and Blaziken mid-way through the match, surely I couldn’t mess this one up.

“The opposing Salamence used Swagger!”

GG

- Italy Nationals 6-3 (48th place)

Cresselia was finally changed again to match the set seen in this report. With Arash introducing “Japsand” to Europe, I wanted to make my matchup a little better than it already was, just incase I was paired against that team. The safety goggles helped, playing 3 exact replicas of the team along the way, and 2 attempted to spore Cresselia!
Going into the tournament, I was aware that 100cp from this event would most likely seal up my world's invite, so the goal was simple, win the early rounds and I'd be fine. It went according to plan, aside from a hiccup against Lega in round 4 where my own mistake stopped from winning the game, I flew ahead into a 6-1 score. (Massive apologies to Riopaser who I got a nasty freeze on when we met again in round 7.)
Although I disappointingly lost my final 2 matches, I was just happy to seal up my worlds invite, and knew my time with this team had probably run it’s course.

Concluding Thoughts:

Overall, I feel a team like this is exactly what was required to have a good chance of qualifying for world’s this year. Nothing too outrageous, just a team with solid foundations that is difficult to beat. Providing you could get consistent tournament results, and gain CP from every single one, like I did, then your worlds invite is almost guaranteed.
Thanks for reading, and bring on Boston!!!

Bubble Buddies P1 : 6-3 is a bad dream

                                                           Bubble Buddies P1

Figured since my season has effectively ended at the point of writing this ( post UK and German nationals )

I'd do a 'little' write up on the power squad that I've used at every event this year, including how it came into being and the changes I made after each event. You might notice by the title that this is going to be a two part report, with the first part written by myself and part two written by 'ya boi' Jake ( whiteafroking ) who just so happened to get the same results as me in the major tournaments we both took part in, having the same CP for most of the year. At the time of writing Italian Nationals have not taken part yet so who knows what'll happen. ( hopefully an 0-9 the dream so this report can be less fiddly xD ) 

The start of this season had me in jitters, so many options, so many new mega's and so much potential to do well with the promise of local events in the UK. As is standard I started the year by messing around with all the new mega's and some of the old ones with the new tutor moves providing options previously unavailable.

My general synopsis on everything turned out something along these lines ' Everything is terrible'.  Mega Salamence was completely unusable for me, Mega Metagross seemed pointless with all the new weaknesses, and Mega Charizard Y missed all its attacks. After exhausting the terribad choices like Glalie I decided there was only one thing left to do... Use every ones favourite teen parent Kangaskhan again. This was all well and good for me since I already knew a bunch of calculations from the previous year and Kangaskhan being one of my favourite Pokemon let me use something I liked to win, completely offsetting my inner hipster. Now Kang is a terror but not on its own, so naturally I needed some strong partners like Gengar and Bisharp. This lasted about 30 seconds as the Metagame seemed to evolve to destroy this core immediately. The next step was completely stripping the team down to its base component (Kang) and try the old classic approach of Kang + Fire Water Grass. And thus Kang Entei Virizion Swampert was born. This core was really strong for the most part but over time I got incredibly annoyed at how Intimidate and constant 50% rolls ruined Entei and Virizion, Swampert and Kangaskhan were working really nicely together however so I once again stripped down :] to the starting point and tried again. Next I stuck with the FWG and tried another approach. This would come to be my UK Regionals team. 

REGIONALS HYPE

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite

Ability: Scrappy

Nature: Adamant

EV's: 28HP 188ATT, 76DEF, 28SPDF 188SPE

-Double Edge 

-Sucker Punch

-Low Kick

-Protect

Nice and boring Kangaskhan, The Ev's were terrible and I cant remember what they did apart from outspeed Adamant Bandorus by 1 Point on the off chance. I ran Protect over Fake out as I felt that Kangaskhan can be targetted down by the Pokemon it does not choose to disable for the turn and that chip damage can be huge, It also can be used to get a huge momentum boost if the opponent decides to double into it on the turn it protects. While Double Edge does off set the bulk of Kangaskhan, I feel the extra power is 100% necessary in a format as bulky as this one where Kang needs to rip holes as effectively as possible. Sucker punch is Sucker punch and Low kick decimates those weak to it, including other Kangaskhans.

Swampert @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Torrent

Level: 50

EVs: 252 HP / 68 Def / 156 SpA / 4 SpD / 28 Spe

Modest Nature

- Scald

- Wide Guard

- Ice Beam

- Earth Power

I opted for Sitrus on this Swampert as I wasn't a fan of it getting utterly destroyed by Kangaskhan and a swift double target. This meant I couldn't hold the popular Expert Belt item which I didn't mind too much as it still Ko'd or 2hko'd most of the Pokemon I wanted it too and I had multiple options for dealing with Aegislash. Wide guard is used to dump on the popular Double Genie core and to provide a late game win conditions alongside Heatran.

Cresselia @ Leftovers

Ability: Levitate

Level: 50

EVs: 220 HP / 100 Def / 108 SpA / 60 SpD / 20 Spe

Modest Nature

IVs: 15 Atk / 1 Spe

- Ice Beam

- Psychic

- Thunder Wave

- Trick Room

Yes I'm aware the Ev's and nature waste an atrocious amount of points. Yes I do fix this in the future and yes this Cresselia has both Thunder Wave and Trick room. This Cresselia set came to be known as Best set Cress among friends as it provided a way out of unwinnable situations, A good example comes from my round 6 game at Regionals. I have paralysed and neutered my opponents Kangaskhan and knocked it out, in comes Terrakion to stare down my own Kangaskhan. I cant risk it being a Lum Terrakion so I have to Protect Kangaskhan and T-room, My opponent does not see this coming due to the previous T-wave and proceeds to get ruined by Kangaskhan winning me the game. Basically, T-room is used as a late game lock down move, causing many games to be instantly won and providing more speed control than T-wave over one turn. While T-wave was used much much more, the few occasions where T-room can be used are often gamechanging and I wouldn't change it for the world. It also allows me to avoid insta loss to Aromatisse Hariyama. Ice beam with the investment Ko's the biggest mon I cannot paralyse Landorus-T most of the time and Psychic is used over Psyshock because Shock is bad.

Heatran @ Chople Berry

Ability: Flash Fire

Level: 50

EVs: 52 HP / 44 Def / 188 SpA / 12 SpD / 212 Spe

Modest Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Heat Wave

- Flash Cannon

- Overheat

- Protect

Chople Berry Heatran is an absolute lord. After reading yung zoggy's early meta report thing on NB I fell in love with this thing. Being able to stare down one of the most common (and worst) Kangaskhan checks Terrakion is an amazing skill to have. Providing Heatran is above 80% it can reliably take on most Terrakions and get a surprise KO and paves the way for Kang to plow through unhindered. Flash cannon is used because I didn't feel like losing my Heatran to other Heatran when I can just switch out into something much more comfortably and I wanted a safe reliable stab move to finish or chip opponents. Overheat is an interesting choice for roasting foolish Aegislash that think they can Wide guard safely and getting some neat Ko's. A Kang that switches in on HW is in range for Overheat for example. I opted for a much faster Heatran because I wanted to protect Cress from Life Orb Bisharp, Sash Bisharp don't do enough damage to worry me so I wasn't too fussed with those surviving. 188 spa gives a really good chance of one shotting  252 12 Aegislash and the rest is slapped into bulk. This EV spread does not change over the season.

Thundurus-I @ Life Orb

Ability: Prankster

EVs: 36 HP / 220 SpA / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

IVs: 10 Atk / 26 Def

- Thunderbolt

- Hidden Power [Ice]

- Taunt

- Protect

The Iv's are pretty not great but it was the best I could get at short notice.

Before I added the thunderburd I was constantly losing to other Thundurus paralysing everything and this aggravated me to no end. Then one day at the Pub with friends I had an epiphany, Max speed Taunt Thundurus would shut them down quickly. I could easily add a Life orb to match the damage output of the Thundurus-T I was using at the time and taunt to stop my embarrasing instaloss to Dusclops. The Ev's hit the bump on SPA and the HP was a lovely Life orb number . This things job was to wreak complete havoc on the opponents team with unexpected chunks of damage and it did that job fantastically. I opted for Protect over Thunder wave or Swagger as Cresselia had T-wave already and Protect put me in more favourable positions than Swagger did in testing. This set does not change all season.

Breloom @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Technician

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Superpower

- Bullet Seed

- Rock Tomb

- Spore

Be ready to get some serious Ebola with this amazing Breloom set. Choice scarf Breloom is absolute cheese and not a great cheese at that. It was supposed to put on heavy pressure on the opponent threatening lightning fast Ko's on Kangaskhan, Terrakion and Charizard and also provide a spore option in emergency's. Sadly it didn't quite work out this way, It was threatened massively almost every game and I was terrified that it would of somehow been leaked to my opponent prior to the match. A stupid assumption but you can never be too careful in tournaments. I think I brought it to 2 games out of 8 and it did nothing but instantly die and lose me the game on the spot. This was a mon that really really needed changing.

I ended up going 6-2 and 16th place at this event losing cut on both of my losses playing each other last round to decide cut. Oh well, maybe if I hadn't used Breloom I'd of done better, who knows. All I knew was that it had to go and changes had to be made.

Before all the nationals I noticed that slowly and slowly I wasn't using Swampert anymore and at some points I was getting grass knotted by what I'm assuming was Specs Thundurus-I. However I was far too fixated on fixing this Breloom spot. I needed something that patched up my weakness to Cresselia, Metagross/hydreigon cores and could stand up to Kangaskhan. Obviously my first port of call was the beastly burd herself, Mandibuzz. On paper it did everything, one shot kang and metagross with Foul play after Helmet recoil, beat out Cresselia and roost stalled Hydreigon out. It was brilliant in testing and I was fully about to bring it to German Nationals. Sadly though, the week before I was having a standard case of Landorus flinched your check, Kangaskhan wins! This aggravated me to the point of me releasing the Vullaby I had bred ready for Nationals. I quickly needed another option that performed similar roles and didn't invite Rock Slide spam from the get go. My main man Luke suggested Scrafty and I disagree'd solely on the fact it was weak to fighting and I HATE sharing weaknesses, I was then directed to the fighting resists I had and gave in, giving it a quick try. Oh dear what I had missed out on... Quickly becoming one of my favourite Pokemon to use, I brought this thug to almost every game. I was utterly lost on what set to run though and I instantly reverted to VGC13 Lum Berry but this was underwhelming, It ended up being a toss up between Safety goggles and Assault Vest. Goggles purely for the poor Breloom match up and AV for general usage.

After a literal coinflip I ended with Assault Vest and I don' regret this one bit. As for the moves I had the standard Fake out Dual stab and Snarl. However, after watching ya boi LebronronaldoHD (Raf) on PS using Super Fang Scrafty, I fell in love and stole the set instantly (sorry bruh) It was now time for German Nationals.

German Nats HYPE

Team remained the same with the following change added

Scrafty @ Assault Vest

Ability: Intimidate

EVs: 252 HP / 160 Atk / 12 Def / 72 SpD / 12 Spe

Adamant Nature

- Drain Punch

- Crunch

- Fake Out

- Super Fang

Now this little hoodlum thug thing was easily the MVP of the whole tournament despite my lack of practice with it. Learning matchups on the flow and the synergy it had with Cresselia was just brilliant for what I needed. Cress was able to perform the preferred method of speed control with Fake out support and then Scrafty could rampage through the opponents team with unresisted Normal, Dark and Fighting coverage. Super fang patched up my problem with t-room  teams in that it's easy for the opponents to switch around into resists for a few turns, Super fang made this incredibly difficult as something was going to take a massive chunk of HP for Kangaskhan to clean up later in the game If needs be. The EV's allows Scrafty to beat Kangaskhan 1v1 with Drain punch and take an Zard Y's Overheat in the sun the majority of the time with help from the AV. I'm often asked ( to my annoyance ) on why I use Crunch over Knock off. The answer is simple... Consistency. I like to know how much damage I'll be doing on the next attack, and 2 crunches does ever so slightly more than 2 knock offs. It's also nice to let Landorus keep its scarf since I'd rather face one locked into a move than one with freedom. It also aids the perish match up by smacking Mega Gengar around, however silly that might sound I believe that every team that can be considered good must have some way to deal with Perish trap regardless of if you think its a gimmick or not. Smeargle is seen as a gimmick, doesn't make it acceptable to instalose to does it?

I ended up finishing German Nationals with a 6-3 record losing in the last round of swiss, ending up in the Top 64, enough for a 100 CP boost. Over the 9 grueling swiss rounds I noticed I brought Swampert a whopping 0 times. With UK being my last major tournament of the year I knew I needed to refine what I currently had into something special and something that would get me into the top 32 cut I needed so badly

When looking into new mons for the role left empty by Swampert I instantly went to try and salvage the Fire Grass mini core. I went to Torterra which was surprisingly not an terrible mon, I just disliked it being outsped and smeared by common Pokemon. Then I piled into Jake's suggestion of a Landorus-T much to my dismay. I really really wanted it to suck, but then it really really didn't. It provided a double intimidate core to shut down Kangaskhan massively barring crits, U turn was a great momentum move to have and also to Intimidate shuffle around in a single turn. Earthquake was Earthquake and Rock Slide is a stupid unfair move everyone should run.

However, it was not without its issues. I kept getting sniped by random Ice beams and Hidden powers so I went to what is possibly an extreme conclusion... I must make Landorus fat enough to prevent an outplay costing me the game on the spot. Could I of simply played better? Probably. Do I care? Nope. Bulky Scarf Landorus came into play countless times in testing and during the Nationals itself and even the PC the week before, succesfully taking a Washtom's Hydro Pump and living to flinch another day (It did). 

One other thing I noted was how popular Gardevoir was becoming and how horrible my Kangaskhan spread actually was. This worked out perfectly for providing a base goal for Kangaskhan to EV for.  I was going to drop Kangaskhan at one point due to how hostile the German Metagame was towards it. I convinced myself it would fare well against the expected Greninja Talonflame spam from the homely Nationals.  And  then all of a sudden.... UK Nats was upon us.

UK Nats HYPE?

So as is standard now, UK nationals sucked in more ways than one, the general organisation was grim and my mentality was similar. ( Being in the same room that I went 3-5 in was pretty harrowing ) But I'm not here to whine about how unforgiving the event was so onto the finalised team.

 Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite

Ability: Scrappy

EVs: 220 HP / 116 Atk / 4 Def / 52 SpD / 116 Spe                             

Adamant Nature

- Low Kick

- Double-Edge

- Sucker Punch

- Protect

Kang has kept the same moves all year and the way its played is similar to the Regionals as well. However, the juicy and probably inefficient EV's changed everything for me. The set is 3hko'd by Mega Gardevoir's Modest 252 spread Hyper voice the vast majority of the time, changing Kang from a soft check into a much harder one. 4 def was opted for since the opponent was often Intimidated, 52 Spdf allows the 3hko' from Gard, survival from Specs Hydreigon  Draco meteor and a Charizard's sun boosted Overheat. The speed allowed it to outspeed Breloom in Mega Forme as it proved to be a huge problem for me without the Kanga outspeed.

While the UK didn't have the expected tissue mon core, it still seemed a bit lenient on Kanga rampaging and as a result it tore through most opponents after a quick softening and was brought to every game compared to Germanys 7/9 games. 

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Intimidate

EVs: 36 HP / 108 Atk / 52 Def / 100 SpD / 212 Spe

Adamant Nature

- U-turn

- Superpower

- Earthquake

- Rock Slide

Now this is something I'm proud of... Even though its likely inefficient (I'm poor at Ev's)  This lean mean flinching machine was amazing for me in the PC before Nats and handled itself well at the Nats themselves despite what appeared to be a 'screw off Landorus' Meta. The bulk on this Landorus was an attempt at mixing Scarf and AV Landorus together and It semi worked out. It was Ev'd to survive +1 LO Bisharp Sucker punch most of the time and 212spa Cresselia Ice beam. The special investment allowed some strange survivals such as an Ice Beam from Milotic and also one from a Suicune in testing. The speed outsped Mega Lopunny by 2 points as I expected that to be a popular tier for scarfers to hit. This ended up being nice as Mega Lopunny was my most fought Mega oddly.

Heatran @ Chople Berry

Ability: Flash Fire

EVs: 52 HP / 44 Def / 188 SpA / 12 SpD / 212 Spe

Modest Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Heat Wave

- Flash Cannon

- Overheat

- Protect

Cresselia @ Leftovers

Ability: Levitate

EVs: 220 HP / 20 Def / 188 SpA / 76 SpD / 4 Spe

Bold Nature

IVs: 14 Atk / 30 SpD / 0 Spe

- Ice Beam

- Psychic

- Thunder Wave

- Trick Room

Thundurus @ Life Orb

Ability: Prankster

EVs: 28 HP / 4 Def / 220 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

IVs: 10 Atk / 26 Def

- Thunderbolt

- Hidden Power [Ice]

- Taunt

- Protect

Scrafty @ Assault Vest

Ability: Intimidate

EVs: 252 HP / 160 Atk / 12 Def / 72 SpD / 12 Spe

Adamant Nature

- Drain Punch

- Crunch

- Fake Out

- Super Fang

Again I finished 6-3 but I dropped to X-3 much earlier this time (same time as Jake did in Germany weirdly) but I kept on trucking and snatched a paltry 50 CP from the top 80 placement which I was rather upset about. I lost R1 to my own timer as I was Crit down to lower than my opponent which was unfortunate but expected from that cursed venue. I then dropped a game to my own misplay but it was still a wonderfully close game so I don't mind, and then the third loss I won't go into but if you were there with me after that round you know exactly why :[ . This poor performance has me seriously doubting my top 60 position at the end of the season since the whole reason I'm playing is just to get that email saying I'm invited to worlds xD. I'll be upset if I miss out but its just another reason to try harder next year. I won't be retiring this team this year so if you see it it's probably me messing about on showdown or Battle spot. I guess this kinda combats the whole scouting business that's been going on. hopefully by me posting everything I have, others will do the same and it'll return to the good old days when team reports where a blessing for both Author and Reader.

Hope you enjoyed this massive wall of text and my story this year, hope I wasn't too boring and I apologise for the lack of play by play as it was simply too much to remember. Stay Classy and enjoy the Power Squad. Plus a huge thanks to everyone in the chat for being such babes and stopping me from using craziness, its really appreciated  :]

Mattsby 

Credit to Harshdeep for the lovely Pic of the whole Pokefamily in Manchester >3                                                            (I'm the happy chappy the picture is giving a smooch too :] )