A Blend of Sciences: VGC 16 Team Report

Hi guys today I am back to discuss another team with you guys, this time I will be putting forward a team that basically had a five minutes thought up process and then putting it into the builder took another five, the product was just flawless, a blend of sciences is not a clear title however I’ll tell that xerneas + yveltal w/ kang and thundy + ferro reminds me of various science subjects; hence the title. Without further annoying anyone, let’s get into the team that surprisingly worked really well:

The Team:

Xerneas @ Power Herb  

Ability: Fairy Aura  

Level: 50  

Shiny: Yes  

EVs: 116 HP / 4 Def / 132 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  

Timid Nature  

IVs: 0 Atk  

- Dazzling Gleam  

- Moonblast  

- Geomancy  

- Protect

First up the Xotic Deer mah xerneas, this is the same xerneas that I have used in a recent team of mine which was a xern-don team, I believe in such a time of metagame where exist eruption groudons, water spout kyogres of almost all speeds, it becomes really important to have a xerneas that moves before them to set-up a geomancy to bulk itself up also it helps against the opposition of xerneas that is fairily (:3) common. Yveltals are greatly rising in usage as well, it is kinda important to outspeed them often on and set up a precious geomancy which surely sweeps them. this team surely constitute of the pokemons that allow xerneas to be extremely effective and function well, e.g. thundurus, salamence and kangaskahn are all top tier choices to support a xerneas on a team, overall I loved this xerneas and the team complemented it as well.

Yveltal @ Assault Vest  

Ability: Dark Aura  

Level: 50  

EVs: 76 HP / 196 Atk / 4 Def / 36 SpD / 196 Spe  

Jolly Nature  

- Foul Play  

- Knock Off  

- Sky Drop  

- Sucker Punch

Secondly comes yveltal and I really feel like discussing my second restricted slot right after the first one especially on this team as I feel like discussing the importance of this combination together, so usually with xerneas we pair a pokemon that has the ability to handle both the primal, for example, rayquaza, primal groudon or primal kyogre; all do their own jobs well; an yveltal surely becomes a passage to beat the ever dangerous primal without the consent of taking the risk of being out-mirrored in a matchup, there are a few advantages that a yveltal gains that allow it to support xerneas firstly it’s ability of dark aura and the move foul play that it learns, which allows it to threaten the primal, especially when combined with the swagger on my thundurus. An assaultvest bulky yveltal also works the best for this team as it outspeeds the primal as well as takes a few attacks from them before going down to them. yveltal did it’s job amazingly; my moveset has the move sky drop, I never used it but I put it there just in case to allow it to do disruption for xerneas whenever needed. Yveltal’s spread allows it to survive a spread dazzling gleam from a +2 xerneas.

Upnext is the ultimate mega duo; kangaskhan and salamence:

Kangaskhan-Mega @ Kangaskhanite  

Ability: Parental Bond  

Level: 50  

EVs: 12 HP / 164 Atk / 76 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  

Jolly Nature  

- Fake Out  

- Sucker Punch  

- Safeguard  

- Return

Kangaskhan in it’s entirety is standard as it gets, however; the safeguard is here for eliminating smeargles side effects also quite an effective tactic I used was safeswag tactics by combining this pokemon with thundurus and that popular thundurus + kangaskhan combination. The rest is pretty standard; I stole or say borrowed this ev spread from Grant Weldon’s nationals team report, I have no idea what it does… e that’s about it for kangaskahn!

Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite  

Ability: Intimidate  

Level: 50  

EVs: 4 HP / 76 Atk / 172 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  

Hasty Nature  

- Double-Edge  

- Hyper Voice  

- Draco Meteor  

- Protect

Moving on we have salamence, who is quite a menace in this pokemon world, especially vgc 2016. It’s standard don’t have really much to say about it though. I would generally keep tailwind here, bt draco meteor is such an amazing utility move as it allows you to get those important kos on the mirror matchups which are really nice as well as the ever popular mega rayquaza. Draco meteor also allows it to hit some pokemons for effective damage that it can only hit resisted to e.g. raichu, thundurus etc. and that is all we have for salamence.

Thundurus @ Life Orb  

Ability: Prankster  

Level: 50  

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  

Timid Nature  

IVs: 0 Atk  

- Thunderbolt  

- Swagger  

- Thunder Wave  

- Taunt

Thundurus is love, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration if I said that this pokemon ties the team together, having the ability to use swagger to either power up my own pokemons, disrupt opponents or even power up my foul play’s damage output. Thunder wave helps to beat down all the mirror matchups that I get on this team, having paralyses immunity is also nice, taunt helps greatly against smeargles that have choice scarf as well. Life orb is quite an amazing item on this pokemon, once it even did over 70% damage to a primal kyogre which was quite surprising even to me, therefore I never decided to change it. This does it for thundurus. On a side note thundurus has probably been a good friend to me this entire season and I don’t have any complains asi consider the best flying type pokemon in this format.

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers  

Ability: Iron Barbs  

Level: 50  

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  

Brave Nature  

IVs: 0 Spe  

- Power Whip  

- Gyro Ball  

- Protect  

- Leech Seed

Last but not the least is a favorite of mine, as in talking about time, I have probably used it more than thundurus on different teams, here it came for a clear reason, countering xerneas,it surelyhappenedd to do it’s job fairly well. It also created disruption amongst my opponents which really does come in handy especially in the late game stalls where it was often on able to win big. Ferrothorn on this team isn’t one of my most brought members but it was always there to do it’s job whenever the need for it would arise. So far I have to say It has been a very loyal pokemon to me.

Conclusion: so guys this report was it for my somewhat rushed team report, however it’s simplicity speaks up for it’s good effectiveness especially for an offensive playstyle.. hopefully you guys like going through this report and liked it and I really look forward to your feedback, bye for now!