August Report and September VGC Report Part 1

Hey guys today I am back and here to share my vgc experiences in the month of august, mostly this whole month went by quite slow for me and was quite frustration as one after the other of my team builds didn’t work out, however we do have a very interesting worlds to talk about so lets get into it!

Worlds 2017:

Here it was on the 2^nd last weekend of august, the biggest event of the entire season and year regarding vgc, the big stage of worlds, where all people who battled through the entire season and qualified only could compete, with vgc really going by much slowly in the entire month of august and later events featuring standardish teams I wasn’t expected a whole lot of new variety, but worlds became a much more enjoyable thing to watch especially because of the variety with fun it brought within itself. Following are my notes on the meta:

Salamence (less popularly Arcanine) + Metagross :

Talking about the meta brings about a metagross with it, I just thought that this whole trend of metagross + bulldoze was just an idea being shared around in the community by different people and would fade itself out very soon, however worlds brought it for a much bigger splash and especially the duo of salamence + metagross was much widely used in this tournament. And for those who don’t know the general strategy, using bulldoze to activate your metagross’ weakness policy with clear body which doesn’t count in the speed drop on metagross, makes it a monster to deal with and salamence provides counter to pokemons like arcanine, kartana and garchomp, some metagross has difficulties facing.

Mimilax:

Another rise of an old strategy was mimilax, found significantly on more teams than usual, I felt as if this duo was done for its success in this metagame, but worlds was making it quite good of a call. Whether with the belly drum lax + psych up mimikyu or the z- destiny bond + belly drum mimilax or just simply as in curse snorlax and trick room mimikyu made quite a name for themselves in this tournament.

Rain is back:

Just like all the other major events of the game, double ducks found itself in the top cut of world championships once again. Also this time not for pelliper’s rain with golduck was all for it, but some combined a hybrid of politoed and golduck whereas few even had a politoed alone on their teams, this may mean more for rain as a weather con in general for this meta.

Raichu and Tapu Koko:

 This was also mentioned on a few teams, an old highly anticipated pokemon, alolan raichu found itself in trend at the world championships with its as predicted partner tapu koko, this might not just be a call and may turn into the metagame.

The new Norm?

We did saw newer trends on some older used pokemons in this metagame as well, most noticeably kartana having the move substitute, snorlax variants carrying protect and a few Persian having quash was a big change, maybe I am mistaking it for some idea circulating in the higher levels of the community but definitely is possible too that they can come out to be the more of new meta picks in the tournaments to come. Lucario was surprisingly another pokemon used by two players as I have seen going into worlds, it was ever so surprising as it is something never seen or discussed before at all.

Surprise Surprise! :

As it has been seen as a trend for the different pokemon world championships, the surprises are always a blast, here’s some noticeable ones: Wolfe’s Special shadow ball mimikyu, Fighitnium Z Metagross, Rain dance + Z-Parting shot Persian, Krookodile!, Brick break Marowak, Iron defense Celesteela, Klefki!

World Championships Finals (My Thoughts):

This finals between Ryota and Sam was extremely interesting to watch as one featured a more passive and highly defensive team that enjoyed to take its time to set up on its opponents in the hands of Sam and then a hyper offensive team held by Ryota (which a few people were mentioning how it was looking like it came straight from December), this was difficult to decide for who to cheer upon because Sam had a good reputation and I would have loved to see him win, whereas Ryota’s team featured an all time favorite, alolan marowak on it, after all (spoilers, if you haven’t watched) Ryota ended up taking the set and becoming the new world champion after a very entertaining set of three games. This meant a lot to me as in the victory of alolan marowak as marowak I feel like after the start of this season has been really looked down upon, GO ALOLAN MAROWAK!

Teambuilding in August:

Woah this was a slow month however world championships incited a lot of spark in me to get back to doing VGC especially as the scene looked as if it shifted a bit, from the norm of the overall meta, with some interesting new viable options as mentioned above, I had ideas to build around.

 Normally I would be going around a very very silly idea however this time, I felt like I wanted to reevaluate myself as a teambuilder and build myself around something solid, yet my style to test myself, especially as this month was very discouraging for me in terms of using mons I wanted to, or building around them, with worlds showing a lot of new potential, I wanted too test out salamence + metagross myself too, that is why I started with that combination, this felt like demanding a dsf core and tapu fini was my choice of comfort here, then adding on a Persian to support with the favorite alolan marowak as I do know that Persian and marowak and especially marowak and fini go very well together + it also seemed fitting for the threat of tapu koko and then finally I felt lke I had trouble with tr and gigalith, however then I realized that tapu pokemons were also not countered sufficiently enough so I decided to test around muk. From this point on I feel like the team was always going to be in testing till the end of august, I wasn’t satisfied with the team that I had. Sorry for now but you’ll have loads f new content regarding this team on the next month’s report.

Conclusion:

I set off after worlds to test myself as a teambuilder, the start was discouraging however working on my current team made me much more confident in it, hopefully it’ll become a big team of mine. Hopefully you liked this post and really enjoyed going through it, bye for now!

 September:

 Hi guys

Teambuilding presumed from August, my September teambuilding:

Uptil testing weird mons as I’ll be explaining here for the team, I settled onto the six of tapu fini, Persian, metagross salamence, marowak and kartana at last. This wasn’t an easy but rather a such struggling build from the start, I had gotten myself a dragon fairy steel (fantasy) core of fini, grosss and mence as well as sets for them I really wanted to use and was comfortable with but the rest three were much confusing, starting from Persian and marowak with gigalith, which became muk , the following is the first updated  version of this team:

Salamence @ Misty Seed   Ability: Intimidate   Level: 50   EVs: 148 HP / 4 Def / 124 SpA / 116 SpD / 116 Spe   Timid Nature   - Draco Meteor   - Flamethrower   - Bulldoze   - Toxic	Metagross @ Weakness Policy  Ability: Clear Body   Level: 50   EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  Adamant Nature   - Bullet Punch   - Zen Headbutt   - Earthquake   - Protect	Tapu Fini @ Leftovers   Ability: Misty Surge   Level: 50   EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 4 SpA / 44 SpD / 164 Spe   Calm Nature   IVs: 0 Atk   - Muddy Water   - Moonblast   - Swagger   - Heal Pulse
Persian-Alola @ Darkinium Z   Ability: Fur Coat   Level: 50   EVs: 4 HP / 4 Atk / 68 Def / 204 SpD / 228 Spe   Jolly Nature   - Fake Out   - Taunt   - Parting Shot   - Foul Play	Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club   Ability: Lightning Rod   Level: 50   EVs: 252 HP / 244 SpD / 12 Spe   Careful Nature   - Flare Blitz   - Shadow Bone   - Detect   - Bonemerang	Tapu Bulu @ Grassium Z   Ability: Grassy Surge   Level: 50   EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe   Adamant Nature   - Wood Hammer   - Stone Edge   - Protect   - Leech Seed

The first major change that came to this team was tapu fini getting hold of the choice specs item, the main thing was swagger worked, but heal pulse was almost always much useless on this team of mine, Persian was putting in work after I noticed how this team needed a option to recovery but heal pulse wasn’t paying much, swagger was much of a passive tactic. Tapu fini’s offense was of value and more damage could be useful so it didn’t take much time to decide for the more offensive choice specs. I am a terrible tapu bulu player, I knew for quite some tme that I was putting Persian to somewhat good use, however whenever I play it wrong I felt like it wasn’t very suitable for this team of mine, I completely decided to take out both marowak and Persian and fit in togedemaru as fini + toge was a viable combination in worlds and aerodactyl to provide speed control and rain dance to stop ninetales, but its matchup against both koko and ninetales was terrible, then I did happen to switch back to marowak and Persian realizing I was playing them a whole lot even in combination with salamence and metagross on this tea of mine. The last slot still did however strugglw, when I wrote down the theory of what my team was wak to I found out I really didn’t have much very solid answers to pokemons like snorlawith curse or porygon 2, moving a few moveslots here and there like roost on salamence and rain dance over taunt of Persian, since wanting to counter ninetales and arcanine as well as being able to add to fini and support metagross, kartana took up being a great tr counter by taking out porygon 2 , the big trick room setter.

Playing with the Team:

Conservative approach, as from the start of this team one mon was put on to support the other, plus as I was strugging for a very good pokemon in the last slot, it is important to play the correct pokemon at the correct time, I’d play it offensively and lose but playing a bit more slow and conservative is the style to go with this team also always keep in mind what your opponent has in the back while playing the game as you may be unintentionally losing your wincon in a match.

The Team:

Salamence @ Misty Seed  Ability: Intimidate  Level: 50  EVs: 148 HP / 4 Def / 124 SpA / 116 SpD / 116 Spe  Timid Nature  - Dragon Pulse  - Flamethrower  - Bulldoze  - Roost

First of all I’d be discussing a pokemon I always wanted to, but never got to use in a team of mine, mon, none other than salamence when you look at salamence in a format filled with faries and ninetales, it feels like its hard for salamence to make its place but then thinking about its defensive matchup against garchomp, kartana and arcane is very very big, plus providing with the amazing utilities of the intimidate ability and bulldoze makes it feel too good of a pokemon. This was indeed the tme for it to shine in this format. The main, my effect of this set has to be the misty seed, I knew assault vest was and is the most common item for a salamence in this format, but moves other than the dragon stab, flamethrower and bulldoze seemed of no good use whereas I felt like I could slip in a very useful move or two alaongside that slot, misty seed will, I thought as an item choie provide me with a middle way to successand help me play salamence in more than one ways especially as I put together fini and mence as a core. The moves now, flamethrower and bulldoze are common, for the others, like dragon pulse is questionable from the much earlier tests of this team I realized draco meter however significantly did more damage however salamence would whittle itself to doing negligible damage and lose o pokemons like arcanine in end game situations, dragon pulse does less damage but was a much better utility. Throughtout the course of the game. Roost works in as a good source of recovery especially when wanting to maintain a stance for a few turns, it isn’t widely used but in some matches it does good work. the ev spread as for the goals I wanted it to reach helps me to outspeed all sorts of arcanine as well as allowing me to get 3hko’d by tapu koko’s dazzling gleam. The rest was put in as a leftovers to special attack stat

Metagross @ Weakness Policy  Ability: Clear Body  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  Adamant Nature  - Bullet Punch  - Zen Headbutt  - Earthquake  - Protect

Metagross that I use seems different but oddly something that satisfies me and makes me feel a whole lot more confident in using this set. Watching worlds however inspired me to use metagross in the games I play, but seeing the major metagross attack missing upsets I felt like I didn’t wanted to roll accuracy’s way and give it more accurate moves, that explaining bullet punch and earthquake, as the discussion starts with its moves: zen headbutt and protect are a staple for all movesets, I chose bullet punch as aforementioned + you don’t have to worry about speeds when at plus two especially the danger of being ohko’d by opposing pokemons before landing a big hit, even though its a base 40 bp move, going through massive attack stat, boosts as well as stab it does quite some damage to its opponents. Earthquake seems to be a much more interesting move in my opinion ere, a move that is usually taken over by other moves like agility explosion, hammer arm or even bullet punch in some sets, here earthauke, in my opinion is very good, one part for being a 100% accurate 100 bp move, secondarily for the importance of the types of pokemons it can hit for super effective damage, all those like muk, arcanine and tapu koko make it such an amazing choice for this team. Also the clear bodyability is such an amazing complement to its sheer power, metagross has quite a really positive matchup against a number of pokemons in this metagame. Glad I was inspired to use this lovely combination of salamence and metagross.

Tapu Fini @ Choice Specs  Ability: Misty Surge  Level: 50  EVs: 148 HP / 44 Def / 148 SpA / 4 SpD / 164 Spe  Modest Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Muddy Water  - Moonblast  - Scald  - Haze

A third blue pokemon gives it those blue squad coincidence vibes I had while teambuilding in vgc 16. Even thought choice specs fini is simple and good to me I’ll be explaining my intial choice of this specific tapu in combination with it. All the tapu pokemon seem to form a really good core with salamence and metagross however my choice of tapu fini felt like much more comfortable as it as far as completing the dsf core also took up to take metagross’ fire and salamence’s ice type weaknesses to itself, being able to have a very defensive and offensive combination against a lot of pokemons in this format made me comfortable to use it, overall I’d say it’s the tapu im most comfortable playing with. Tapu koko I’ve used as a tech. bulu is something I can’t play and always take it too harsh whenever using tapu lele, basically trading kos at some points, tapu fini even in different styles for me, just does fine. Choice specs is quite an interesting item for a pokemon like this, muddy water and moonblast are basically on any tapu fini set however moves like scald were chosen, for powerful yet more accurate damage. Haze was a hasty choice for more gimmick based teams or eeveemancy fear in common it did make quite some people rage quit to haze tapu fini as well as saved me against a scary snorlax that had two stockpile’s set up. The speed stat I’m using on this tapu fini allows it to outspeed bulkier variants of arcanine allowing to dish out a lot of damage even before they make a big move on their end I haven’t even tried speedy tapu fini (except for that one time I used scarfed fini but then regret its choice in every match I brought it in) but it was worth it when a speedy tapu fini happened to outspeed pokemons like tapu lele and mirrors as well as more importantly arcanines and buzzwoles.

Persian-Alola @ Darkinium Z  Ability: Fur Coat  Level: 50  EVs: 4 HP / 4 Atk / 68 Def / 204 SpD / 228 Spe  Jolly Nature  - Fake Out  - Rain Dance  - Parting Shot  - Foul Play

Persian is a pokemon I call as a regulator in this format, its best role is of a tech and utility if put in more literal terms because there are a lot of mons Persian can itself counter, such as snorlax with belly drum or swords dance garhcomp and weakness policy metagross as well as stop ninetales making it a tech ( I know its not the definition of a tech in pokemon terms but I guess it works this way for me when describing its special roles) as well as providing loads and loads of support and ‘regulation’ to its team members helping them cycle around by ,making disruption through parting shot and fake out while cycling terrians, its own fake out and intimidates on the opponents making it touher for them to pull out a win. The Persian spread I choose I simple and the most effective in a my opinion, a Persian wont like anything better than taking a koko’s dazzling gleam for a turn. The item choice as awell as the move rain dance is interesting so let me explain. Firstly I was using taut on this Persian, however as I added specs on the fini and struggled facing off against arcanine with my metagross, and the main idea of taunt being able to stop ninetales from using its aurora veil, raindance seemed a better equivalent and proved to be so in the games I played with it, I have used weird manual weathers with my flying types like mandibuzz and drifblim before but this time it happened to be more meaningful to my team, than just a tech, it became a support move. Darkinium Z started out as a ‘I don’t have a z’move to use’ thing but I realized how important was getting back to full hp was for the mons on this team, especially as it can increase their survivability by a lot in the future turns of a game and as I can make them survive eve if for one more turn.

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club  Ability: Lightning Rod  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  Adamant Nature  - Flare Blitz  - Shadow Bone  - Detect  - Bonemerang

Hey its your favorite a marowak in the team! I knew I wanted to use it on a solid team of mine especially as marowak did won worlds I was feeling more confident than ever to use it on a team of mine, knowing that how good tapu fini and maowak’s synergy is especially as I felt that this team was somewhat weak to tapu koko, marowak’s addition was incoming. Marowak then again adding in as a pokemon that has a pretty good matchup in this format against a lot of mns I felt confident putting it in place especially wanting to cover for a second, fwg core on this team as well. My favorite marowak spreads would have to be the max hp, max special defense that allows it to live things like nihilego’s power gem and strong lele’s psychic, but this time when I had Persian to use parting shot before I felt like going with a simpler more offensive ev spread, especially as the survival surprise tech takes out a whole lot of offense away from marowak which makes it struggle in quite some situations. Item and move choice is quite self explanatory.

Kartana @ Fightinium Z  Ability: Beast Boost  Level: 50  EVs: 20 HP / 148 Atk / 4 Def / 84 SpD / 252 Spe  Jolly Nature  - Leaf Blade  - Sacred Sword  - Detect  - Vacuum Wave

Kartana comes in last but isn’t at all the least, with completing the second core of fwg typing it feels pretty good to have a pokemon like kartana on this team of mine. I starting with this spread and then dropped it and then when doing more serious theory and not random ‘oh I think this might work’ testing kartana felt like the best pokemon to use in this team of mine. Fightinium z gives it a big utility against porygon 2 and snorlax even if they tend to survive I try to double up on them with my partner to draw out that extra bit of chip damage, detect can be good in situations you have basically lost all faith of winning. (z-detect gives +1 evasion) detect can also be a good way of countering any potential imprision users (muk carrying protect) vacuum wave is just simply for a kartana tech if you don’t want to use a speed tie situation, I felt like it would be good of a Persian tech as well, but fini does its part against Persian. The ev spread allows kartana to live a tapu koko’s thunderbolt, which I feel like is a good benchmark to hit especially for a non vested pokemon like z-crystl kartana (took this spread off from wolfe’s report)