Hi guys I am back today with a new report, this will be the
part 2 of the December report, last time I covered up London internationals,
now I am going to put up some teams that I have been using and they are quite fun.
I didn’t had a lot other to do, so this will be quite a detailed team post,
most likely closest it can get to being a team report as I have done quite many
in the past, but recently have changed my format for blogs, also San Jose regionals summarized in my terms are present in this post; now without further
discussion let me get into this post:
Teambuilding process:
So soon after seeing the number of gigaliths in the
internationals at Londons I saw as you may have read right in the last, that I
got my inspiration from alolan dugtrio. Main thing in this pokemon that I
really wanted to abuse was its physical offense in combination with the item
life orb and the all important ability sand force which gives a boost to this
pokemon’s steel, ground and rock type attacks even more power, so from this duo
I started building something out like the following:
Firstly to start of on paper, I listed possible meta threats
to this duo of mine, these under my notes are: ground moves, Intimidate, water
types like peliper, golduck, politoed, gyarados and the all popular alolan
marowak and tapu bulu under some conditions can really give my duo a
troublesome game. Seeing tapu bulu and bulky water types I decided to add
goodra in as the third member, goodra sure could do a whole lot with its
offensive moves and its bulk against most of these pokemons but my team still
could have trouble against intimidate users like salamence and gyarados, to
counter which I added in a milotic, on initial thoughts I gave milotic a toxic
staller set, I didn’t had any idea how would it work.
In the last two slots I was sure to settle on using a trick
room user to favor my gigalith which would give me two modes to function in and
will make my team reasonably flexible and fun to play with some bits of
complexity. Tapu bulu was becoming more of a threat, the two option as I had of
using as my trick room setter were oranguru and porygon 2 with porygon 2 being
bad for the team I was using so I went to oranguru atleast oranguru could give
me the strong instruct combinations inside trick room as well as not give me
another fighting weakness for however common a hariyama may be after the
internats. I ended upon the decision of having to scrap the idea of my goodra,
sure it was doing a lot, but I could not think of exactly two pokemons to take
out the rest of metagame, then I settled upon adding oranguru and a vikavolt.
Now I start having thoughts about garchomp, who to put into
the last slot, I thought maybe tapu lele was going to be the best partner t
could give me a fast counter to garchomp as well as provide me freedom from
fake out disruptions, tapu lele could form a somewhat silly oranguru booster
where I was planning to run it with nasty plot knowing my hyper offensive and
weird-mons playstyle; but then bulu I put on for much better reason after
thinking loads about the last slot, at a point I was actually considering to
rebuild my team entirely from the duo of dugtrio and gigalith but believe me
bulu came for the best of this team of mine.
The Team:
Dugtrio-Alola @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Force
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Protect
- Bulldoze
So as somewhat a traditional thing for me I will explain my
team’s star for the first, which you know is dugtrio. The charm of its
relatively high speed in combination with a decent attack stat and its ability
+ potential item choice really had me attracted towards it, dugtrio was the
first pokemon I planned out as the one the team will be build around. Most
common questions that I got about dugtrio from random opponents were that why
am I running adamant nature? It does not let me outspeed a garchomp, to them my
explanation was: dugtrio is one of those pokemons that can get close to
ohko’ing a lot of pokemons but not just get the factor working correctly, instead
of relying on different rolls in damage I decided to give myself a damage
investment that would straight up allow me to OHKO me a lot of things. Which I
was really comfortable with. Overall I would say dugtrio hardly changed much
during the teambuilding process. Dugtrio also gave me the amazing ability to
threaten the most popular tapus which it could outspeed well, I was really
happy to use it in my team.
Bulldoze is one of those moves you might just not be able to
fully understand but it came for the best, I don’t use it much but its there
for its very reasons. The thing about bulldoze coming into this team is that
originally I had icy wind planned fr my milotic but like a lot of other water
types, milotic also lost the ability to use that move, I felt that it would be
a good way of abusing dugtrio and mirrors even further but wasn’t possible with
milotic, going with a somewhat similar alternative, bulldoze also gave me the
speed control option and as a secondary effect became very useful about my team
members too, as you will lean that my gigalith has a weakness policy and
milotic ofcourse has the competitive ablity, bulldoze could be a great way of
boosting their offensive potential even further in some games where it was just
needed to get the ko. There were some points where I felt about using rock
coverage but it was only against celesteelas which I could handle a lot better
with my other pokemons anyways.
Overall talking about dugtrio I never felt that dugtrio was
going to be much outclassed by some other pokemon, it had its own place and was
the role of a glass cannon, there were funny occasions where it helped me in
defensive situations, where mostly I expected my opponents muk to poison jab my
tapu bulu and then I was in a much better position against the muk, it also got
most of the kos in my battles,I remember a battle in which it got five kos, one
was my own poor gigalith :P but hey whatever works out for it in getting kos
thought right!
Damage Calculations:
252+ Atk Life
Orb Sand Force Dugtrio-Alola Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tapu Lele in Sand:
268-320 (151.4 - 180.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Thick
Club Marowak-Alola Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dugtrio-Alola: 492-578 (447.2 -
525.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life
Orb Dugtrio-Alola Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Torkoal: 112-135 (63.2 - 76.2%)
-- guaranteed 2HKO
-1 252+ Atk
Life Orb Sand Force Dugtrio-Alola Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arcanine in
Sand: 159-190 (80.7 - 96.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage and
Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Life
Orb Sand Force Dugtrio-Alola Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Bulu in Sand:
190-226 (107.3 - 127.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life
Orb Sand Force Dugtrio-Alola Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Tapu Koko in Sand:
252-299 (173.7 - 206.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life
Orb Sand Force Dugtrio-Alola Earthquake vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Xurkitree in Sand:
260-307 (163.5 - 193%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk
Garchomp Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dugtrio-Alola in Grassy Terrain: 98-116
(89 - 105.4%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
Gigalith @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Protect
- Wide Guard
- Heavy Slam
Gigalith happens to be dugtrio’s partner in crime, however
it does not abuse sand in an offensive way but what provides it that 1.5special
defense boost is worth its use. Best thing between this duo was that I can even
lead with the duo of gigalith and all thanks to its wide guard it was able to
stall out all the earthquake damage from dugtrio in sand, which hurts opponents
a lot. On other notes gigalith other than supporting dugtrio also works as a
great individual unit in the games that I play with it. Best example has to be
with its item.
In the history of this gigalith while teambuilding I had
planned on a lum berry, if you ask why? Well then it was to 1v1 against water
types, because of scald burns, it did help out in some games, but then I felt
there was some lacking factor in gigalith and then I was like how could I be so
dumb, weakness policy can be the best item for it, it works somewhat just like
lum berry but better in most cases, the idea was that in 1v1 I can survive
their scald and if I get burned I would heal because of my lum berry and do
more damage, the idea with weakness policy was that if I get to face a water
type attack in the late game it will activate my weakness policy and make me do
double the damage , even if I get the burn on my gigalith it offers the same
attack stat to deal the damage to the opposing pokemons, overall gigalith did
me more benefit with the weakness policy than it could do with lum berry.
The sand providing the stall aspect to my team’s bulkier
side as you will further explore into it, you will see that sand benefits my
team from the residual damage it does to my opponents, and the damage I take
can be much easily recovered.
Milotic @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 244 Def / 4 SpA / 60 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Recover
Milotic is the next mon on my team and works just fine into
this team. There have been a lot of intimidate users poping up into this format
and can threaten my sand mode of the team, they are krookodile, gyarados,
arcanine and salamence; best part about milotic is that it can counter all of
these in a offensive way and can become a big mistake for my opponents to bring
it into the matches.
Milotic forms one of the major components of the stall
aspect or side of this team of mine, the combination of toxic and recover which
seems like a to-try out thing in the first place and I myself thought it would
very much change upon testing I was quite surprised to see how well it worked
especially against pokemons like porygon2, oranguru and gastrodon, toxic in
itself is a great move in the format and I sure have now got a taste of its
power, I quite recommend it to be used also in the great pairing combination of
recover, milotic could last for quite some time on the field keeping me really
happy
Milotic was soon a thorn in the way of this team, when I
noticed once again how dumb I was to be using this pokemon in the “GREAT”
threat of kartana to this team, I had surely ignored that pokemon and thought I
had it handled quite well; to adjust this I must make a few adjustments on the
team, milotic was something to be changed out as a first. Before this I was
running a leftovers milotic with maximum recovery evs. First thing I had to do
was make milotic survive kartana’s leaf blade, hence I gave it the crucial
number of surviving that attack, since it was then left with a very low amount
of hp, sitrus berry was the better item, in other games it really helped me
survive loads of attacks too in combination with recover.
Oranguru @ Mental Herb
Ability: Telepathy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Protect
- Instruct
- Trick Room
Oranguru is the simplest member of my team, oranguru has one
job which you would have guessed by now which is to use trick room. Oranguru
has been getting in-general outclassed loads by porygon 2 in the most recent
London internationals but for this team oranguru was the best, especially as I
was planning some instruct combinations on this team of mine.
I combination to instruct + trick room; telepathy also has
great importance for this team, you will notice many all-out spread moves,
including discharge and earthquake both of which arise from very powerful
pokemons as in vikavolt and dugtrio. Oranguru gave more room to these pokemons
to use their moves more freely in battle. Another thing you would notice on my
pokemon is the item mental herb, mainly was my choice building this team after
the internats was that I was afraid of seeing more and more taunt tapus which
were quite a thing in the internationals. Also with sitrus berry being utilized
on milotic the second best item choice for oranguru was probably a mental herb
as trick room became a big part and portion of the team.
Vikavolt @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- Discharge
- Bug Buzz
Vikavolt I choose over others considered much better
electric types like xurkitree and tapu koko was because I really wanted to make
more from my trick room portion on my team other than just putting in oranguru
and gigalith, vikavolt seemed the best option, it was offensive which suits my
style a lot and it also counters the water types offensively really well,
moreover it had the amazing levitate ability combining that with my dugtrio a
pair up of disquake is formed out. Vikavolt also works excellently with
oranguru’s instruct combination and does loads of damage to oppositions.
At first on my vikavolt I was using a occa berry to survive
attacks against marowak but that didn’t go that well it only gave me a 25%
chance of survival which I wasn’t gonna compromise on I thought of adjusting my
plays better against that celesteela + alolan marowak stance other than that
discharde non stop I would switch into my gigalith to handle the marowak on the
same time and instead give my vikavolt a expert belt which will increase its
special attack against significant pokemons especially the all annoying
celesteela.
Vikavolt’s bug type coverage also was somewhat significant
and allowed me to hit pokemons like oranguru for super effective damage.
Tapu Bulu @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Atk / 84 Def / 4 SpD / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Horn Leech
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Swords Dance
Tapu bulu is surely a very important pokemon on this team of
mine, it was a lot of conflict in my mind over the choice of tapu lele or bulu,
in the end I end up choosing tapu bulu for the reasons mainly that it added to
the more defensive aspect of my team with the ability of switching as well as
the ability to activate a grassy terrain which proves much beneficial in many
ways.
At first I was using a very much offensive tapu bulu
moveset, it was kinda also stupid as I wasn’t having much experience using the
z-moves and then I understood how they worked, before I was using a farium z
tapu bulu to handle those suspected goodras thank this metagame there weren’t
many of them, tapu bulu couldn’t get a physical fairy z-move for itself ok that
was shattering for me ;( then again I was like why am I using this tapu bulu
even? It was so wrong of me to choose such a variant over discovering my main
problem.
I was at first running a 252/252/4 jolly speedy offensive
spread but then I realized that tapu bulu was doing a more defensive job on the
team a move I really needed to counter was garchomp’s poison jab; then I moved
over to this current spread. Also I added horn leech and leech seed to stay up
the longest and moved over to the item of leftovers for even more and more
recovery. This time tapu bulu worked much fine and better for its job, swords
dance was for those games when I was in a much comfortable position with my
tapu bulu on the field and then on the side I would mostly have milotic to
threaten any intimidate switchers and go for a swords dance, this boost really
helps me finish up games quick and worked overall really well.
Overall thanks a lot to this really fun team of mine, loved
it overall!
After this team I was really interested in using a double
ducks team and thought about using one especially with soak+ electric types in
the back combinations which will be super hyper offensive and I have been
hearing some really good things about it also getting to know my in general
calcs is something I plan on doing before moving onto my next team, making a
document and might as well post something it in some organized manner.
San Jose regionals
start!
So san jose regionals was sure looking a more positive
tournament unlike londons, it was most expected with a top 16 cut which could
bring in a lot of good players.
Day 1:
Oh this was super fun to watch shadypenguinn compete in his
first regionals event and then get streamed and win round one with great
command
Round two was very interesting we saw Bjorn Vessels’
amazingly fun team with pokemons like alolan Persian, nihilego, tapu fini and
the somewhat never before seen trevenant, although he didn’t won, we could see
a lot of potential in his team. From this point on I missed the stream because
of it was getting pretty late and I had to rest, I woke up to a much amazing
day 2 to come.
Teams on Stream:
1.
Arcanine, Magnezone, Tapu Lele, Tapu Bulu,
Gigalith, Garchomp.
2.
Tapu bulu, Mimikyu, Primarina, Toxapex, Alolan
Marowak, Alolan Raichu.
3.
Celesteela, Arcanine, Gastrodon, Tapu Lele, Tapu
Koko, Garchomp.
4.
Alolan Persian, Tapu Fini, Nihilego, Trevenant,
Hariyama, Alolan Marowak.
5.
Arcanine, Mimikyu, Muk, Porygon 2, Tapu koko,
Gastrodon.
6.
Phermosa, eevee, tapu fini, clefairy, tapu bulu,
Krookodile.
7.
Tapu fini, Araquanid, Kartana, Alolan Marowak,
Krookodile, Porygon 2
8.
Alolan Marowak, Tapu koko, Celesteela,
Gastrodon, Porygon 2, Krookodile.
(apologies as I do have some teams missing
here)
Day 2:
Day2 just had the best top cut of
16 so far; especially as it had some personal favorites like Enosh Sachar,
Cybertron and Gary Quan in it. The finals match of this tournament was so far
the best probably that I have ever seen; two players with some of the most
innovative and interesting teams; playing at a top tier level made it to the
final, I was on the side of Enosh knowing his crazy team as well as Gavin
Micheals’ full trick room team. Some of the wonders of these teams included,
flame orb hariyama, cloud nine drampa (gavin’s side) and from enosh we had a
party of surprises like tapu fini with that calm mind substitute set and even
more interesting was that muddy water on it. Enosh also having that perish song
marowak for late game stalls and the z-stockpile using araquanid was also a big
one on his team. We do know that Enosh is a veteran at this game but even then
a team with such crazy components also went undefeated until the finals of San
Jose regionals where Gavin Micheals beat Enosh to become the regional champion.
Teams on stream:
1.
Tapu fini, Araquanid, Kartana, Alolan Marowak,
Krookodile, Porygon 2
2.
Tapu koko, Butterfree, Garchomp Alolan Raichu,
Tapu lele, Gyarados.
3.
Politoed, Magnezone, Arcanine, Gasttrodon,
Porygon 2, Tapu Bulu.
4.
Hariyama, Mimikyu, Drampa, Porygon 2, Magnezone,
Araquanid.
5.
Tapu Lele, Tapu Koko, Kartana, Pelipper,
Golduck, Metagross.
(again apologies for missing out on some
teams)
One thing San Jose regionals really represented was that
this format is going to be even more fun as we progress into it and will also
have just loads and loads of diversity and fun.
Expected metagame
after San Jose regionals:
These are just my wild analyses guesses:
·
Drampa might as well be considered with its
other abilities other than berserk, especially cloud nine and even more
confident on that sap sipper because of all the tapu bulu around in this
format.
·
Z-stockpile might become a certainly more
popular late game tactic.
·
Perish song might be considered a good move to
counter the late game stalls.
Using Double Ducks:
So soon after the san jose regionals we did not saw an
actual drastic change in the metagame, so I kept with my ideas before and
decided to test out some double ducks for myself. To be every honest I didn’t wanted
to build from the start on this concept, so the first thing I did was search
youtube for any possible core guide or a team report focusing on these two
mons. I came across Tommy Cooleen’s team report, he was the person to take the
farthest into the London internationals for the double ducks archetype, so I
could not have been more pleased to have found something. After watching the
report, I quickly went over to test his team, in the first few games I couldn’t
use it properly, but then after thinking about the team structure I felt more
confident and comfortable about using it however there were those little bits
of things where I felt that the team lacked, so I planned on making
adjustments, what I ended up with was a very close variation of Tman’s team but
the changes I made to made me felt more comfortable with the team the way I was
playing it. So the following is kind of the modifications I made for it and my
experience using the much interesting guide for the double ducks:
Double ducks as a duo:
When I first looked at these two pokemons I was like omg
they are so bad, but the factor they provide is surely enough for them to get
effective usage; in the most simple and basic words they might be referred to
as the ‘double up trouble duo’ which means they can loads of damage with their
attacks and by doubling up on their opponents to get loads of damage off n the
very first turn of the battle, this surely does give you a big head start and
makes a double duck theme comfortable to play for a player with preference to
the hyper offense strategies. Also further combining it with the chances to
scald burn or to get a confusion through your hurricanes surely can make this
duo having even a disruptive aspect in their usage.
Golduck @ Waterium Z
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Protect
I will discuss my experience with golduck. Especially the
switch that I made to substitute, but firstly discuss golduck as an individual
unit. Golduck holding the waterium z crystal and being able to use the move
hydro vortex combined added from the power of hydro pump’s base 120 in the rain
boost is surely one of the most damaging attacks this format has had. Not only
for its z-move but golduck can also provide other important coverage’s with its
ice beam covering numbers of grass, dragon and ground types further, golduck
being one of the fastest pokemon in a format with little to no priority is what
makes this pokemon quite worth the usage. Now for my decision of using the move
called substitute, so clearly I was unimpressed by everyone using simple
attacks, some had encore but even then it wasn’t that interesting for me. Also
when playing golduck I noticed a major problem in my way, often on in a battle
I wanted to utilize that z-move power but my opponents being smart were able to
get rid of this pokemon before it could land any strong attacks by just
protecting and attacking with the partners into the all frail golduck, with
that being a thorn in my way I knew I had to go with substitute, golduck’s
speed allows it to put up fast substitutes and also provide it better and safe
positioning, I can’t remember how many times was substitute very effective in
the games that I played. Especially it gave me loads of advantage on the last
turn of rain which was surely stalled by a double protect.
Cons of golduck did include opposing weathers where I really
wanted to utilize my golduck, my plan was to lead with golduck + filler and
then switch into pelliper to get some sweeps and the weather in my favor. Most
of these teams turned out to be gigalith + porygon 2 most of the times I would
be able to take out the duck with a double target, but when against a p2 w/
golduck and filler I could not have gotten the ko on 2 which ended up in my
opponents setting up trick room. Other cons of the golduck include its
restriction to bring it about in a battle, I could never and never did brought
golduck without pelliper in any of my games.
Pelipper @ Focus Sash
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Hurricane
- Protect
- Tailwind
Reading all the aspects up there with golduck, you would
have guessed it by now that pelliper on this team performs more of a supportive
role other than being an offensive option. I know that I said up there that I
wanted to build around the concept of soak + electric types in the back right?
But yet you guys see no soak even on this pokemon, the thing is that I didn’t
have much room left for using soak on this set, for the reasons firstly; I
didn’t want to be the one flying around with no water type attacks on his
peliper especially as I have golduck with hydro pump only; secondly hurricane
is important in many cases especially the tapu bulu ones; third reason being I
really needed tailwind and it was indeed the best source of speed control for
my team as you will see tailwind is extremely important for this team of mine,
it helps my slower tapu bulu outspeed most pokemons, it also helps my modest
tapu koko to outspeed other tapu kokos, muk can get its speed p to a stat total
of 142 which makes it outspeed the traditional tapu bulu spreads. I also really
needed protect. Drizzle ability also has major importance in this team of mine,
it helps out tapu bulu defensively whereas it gives tapu koko and golduck an
offensive advantage, it wouldn’t be incorrect to call pelliper the glue to this
team.
Tapu Bulu @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Atk / 108 Def / 4 SpD / 52 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Stone Edge
- Whirlwind
- Protect
Tapu Bulu is my favorite tapus so far just because of its
ability to dish out a huge amount of damage in a single hit, and yes I will
once again be quite honest about this pokemon that I do not use much other moes
than wood hammer, as you can see that this tapu bulu is actually very
interesting, having the item miracle seed allows it to do more damage than
other tapu bulus; stone edge is very situational against fire types and flying
types but whenever I got to use it gave me the role I required of it; the final
move is even more interesting and rarely seen, whirlwind, it serves two
purposes here, one being ofcourse the trick room counter and the other being
its ability to destroy eeveemancy teams, I used it just once and it was so
worth it. The ev spread mainly allows it to live a garchomp poison jab. Grassy
terrain from grassy surge also had the ability to have my tapu koko from the
major threat of a garchomp’s earthquake so I can ko it before it kos me.
Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Protect
If you guys remember in about my last month’s report I said
that I could expect to see the tapu koko + tapu bulu teams in internats, and I
wasn’t that wrong. We did saw one on this team in the top cut, tapu koko pairs
with bulu so well for the eq nerfing reason as well as they both providing a
lot of offensive pressure something I mainly wanted to take advantage of going
into using this tempting team. Tapu koko is quiet simple other than it having
the move thunder on it, and yes I will tell you right here that tapu koko can
100% guaranteed ohko a celesteela with its thunder which was extremely tempting
once again to be added to this team. Modest tapu koko is tempting as it makes u
outspeed fast pokemons like garchomp as well as gives you that extra push of offense
that really does come in handy loads during a battle.
Muk-Alola @ Figy Berry
Ability: Gluttony
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Def / 20 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Poison Jab
- Knock Off
- Curse
- Protect
Muk is then again a interesting and to be discussed pokemon,
I just loved the way in functioned in a battle with having only one weakness as
in ground typing, muk is a very defensive pokemon, especially with the gluttony
+ figy berry strategy. And I know normally you won’t get to hear about muk in
this way but it is quite a good trick room counter, given the recovery option
it can stay active for many turns, whereas curse allows it to raise its attack
and defense by 1 stage as well as drop its speed by 1 this proves amazing against
the combination teams of marowak partnered with oranguru or porygon 2. It was
loads when I got to use curse on that last of rain or that last turn of that
tailwind and turned muk into a auto-wincon. Muk provides amazing coverage with
its attacks especially as in poison jab covering the fairies as well as doing
in general some good damage. Knock off is something I would consider the best
utility move in vgc 16 especially as it gives you loads of information about your opponents as
well as makes celesteela and marowak lose their all essential items which they
surely do need.
Salazzle @ King’s Rock
Ability: Corrosion
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP/ 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge bomb
- Flamethrower
- Fling
- Protect
Last up is salazzle and I’ll start off by explaining why.
Tommy’s team had a porygon 2 and I am sure was for good reason but whenever I
went into a match not once, and exactly not once even brought about using it, I
felt like that the team could be weak to a kartana also sometimes I felt that
muk’s speed was an issue in countering the fairies, that is why I felt like I
needed faster to take them down, kartana problems on paper, so I felt like
going for a testing of salazzle might as well be the better option for me. Since
I had just the focus sash doing the trick on my pelliper, I needed another item
so came the idea to me of using kings rock and somehow to my surprise it was
working out really well in numerous matches I was able to take the surprise
advantage of salazzle going for the fling on my opponents and got me a huge
head start, atleast I felt that I was bringing salazzle a bit more than that
porygon 2.
In conclusion I would like to say that thanks to tommy
cooleen for reporting his team so that I got this very close variation of it,
it was really worth using, with signing this team off I will probably go
forward and try searching around more team building inspiration ideas and soon
after this I tried out Gavin Micheals’ weird looking full trick room team as he
was nice enough to put up a pastebin of it on his twitter. I really didn’t
thought that it would work even a little bit for me, however I was surprised to
see the amount of wins it was able to fish me out of the matches I played with
it. In experience with this team it really made me love and respect the mimikyu
as well as his drampa, both prior to this usage experience I thought they were
just really bad pokemons that got some little usage in specific teams. Drampa’s
offensive coverage and power amazed me as well as the flexibility of mimikyu’s
ability disguise.
Sample spreads for
December:
Last time I also did this section in my report but for
December quite an interesting swirl in the metagame stir which made it more of
a mix of defensive and offensive styles, archetypes and teams, this surely was
the after effect of London Internationals combined with the San Jose regionals.
Following spreads include from some of the team reports that came out during
this month from players like gavin, wolfe glick and tommy cooleen so I thought
it would be good to include them into this one as well with the headings, some
pokemons like tapu bulu have completely shifted in usage during this month from
a faster to a bulkier spread composition:
Wolfe glick:
Politoed @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 4 SpA / 76 SpD / 68 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Protect
- Perish Song
- Encore
Salamence @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Protect
- Substitute
Magnezone @ Leftovers
Ability: Magnet Pull
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 148 SpA / 44 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Protect
- Substitute
Tapu Bulu @ Lum Berry
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Atk / 60 Def / 140 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Horn Leech
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Tri Attack
- Ice Beam
- Recover
Muk-Alola @ Figy Berry
Ability: Gluttony
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Atk / 108 Def / 100 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Poison Jab
- Knock Off
- Protect
- Shadow Sneak
Double Ducks: Londons top 8 (Tommy Cooleen)
Pelipper @ Focus Sash
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Hurricane
- Protect
- Tailwind
Golduck @ Waterium Z
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Protect
Tapu Bulu @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Atk / 108 Def / 4 SpD / 52 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Stone Edge
- Whirlwind
- Protect
Muk-Alola @ Figy Berry
Ability: Gluttony
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Def / 20 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Poison Jab
- Knock Off
- Curse
- Protect
Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Protect
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 20 SpA / 76 SpD / 4 Spe
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Tri Attack
- Toxic
- Recover
- Trick Room
KomVGC San Jose 1st place:
Magnezone @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 HP / 0 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Araquanid @ Waterium Z
Ability: Water Bubble
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Liquidation
- Leech Life
- Wide Guard
- Protect
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Recover
- Trick Room
Hariyama @ Flame Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
Level: 50
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Feint
- Knock Off
Drampa @ Life Orb
Ability: Cloud Nine
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Energy Ball
- Protect
Mimikyu @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Disguise
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Play Rough
- Shadow Claw
- Trick Room
- Taunt
Shadypenguinn San Jose: (6-3)
Tapu Bulu @ Grassium Z
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Leech Seed
- Superpower
- Protect
Magnezone @ Leftovers
Ability: Magnet Pull
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Protect
- Substitute
Gigalith @ Rockium Z
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Atk / 52 Def / 84 SpD / 4 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Rock Slide
- Wide Guard
- Protect
- Heavy Slam
Garchomp @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Veil
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Dragon Claw
- Poison Jab
Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Energy Ball
- Thunderbolt
Arcanine @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 76 HP / 4 Def / 108 SpA / 68 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Snarl
- Flamethrower
- Protect
Ninetales-Alola @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Freeze-Dry
- Aurora Veil
- Protect
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