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 :] )
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