DrDimentio

I prepare my teams when I have holidays; fortunately the main tournaments are generally pretty well-timed in terms of holidays, so I can around my uni schedule. But that was back when my uni-timetable was like other uni students (for the first 3 years of the course). It'll be different from now on though. I hope it doesn't interfere with AVcon and the State tourney (if held) this year.

I tried Ray's team online. It's extremely solid, more so than what you would think just from trying it. I personally found Excadrill better than Garchomp on his team though. From watching Ray, I got the impression that he's brillliant at long-term thinking and prediction. I would guess in your Metagross example that he knew that he didn't need it anymore.

If I had known that I could have taken my prize later, I might have done that. I don't play card games either, which admittedly is pretty uncommon amongst SA Pokemon players. Regardless, taking my prize in booster packs worked to my advantage. I sold one of the cards I got for $80. Plus I have some cards should I ever feel like playing Yugioh with a friend.

My uni times are horrible now till I graduate. I start the year early, and I get 3 weeks holidays for the entire year. I have no mid-semester breaks. Long hours each day too (though I don't know exactly how long yet). Only good thing is that I get a 3 week SWOTVAC.

My playstyle in singles is different to that of doubles. It does depend on the team I'm using though. You'll find out what it's like when you play me :)

I don't spend much time watching VGC battles; very little actually. I should probably start watching more, though it's hard to find time to do so, particularly now. I do it mainly to learn how the pros play and in analysing the players moves, add to my battle experience and knowledge.

I would have preferred for Wolfe to win too; his team was extremely innovative, and I thought it was the better team. However, Rizzo played better. I think Wolfe might have been affected by stress during the match though; him using Close Combat on Cresselia was very gutsy (I guess Wolfe was predicting a Hydriegon switch, though it would unreasonable for Rizzo to switch Ttar out when it's his only Pokemon that can beat Levitate Heatran and it can take one Close Combat, particularly with his Cress threatening Hitmontop.

I will try to make it to the tournament, but I can't guarantee it. Uni will have started for me by next week Monday, and I'm quite busy for the start of it. I also don't normally raise Pokemon for comeptitive single battles, so it would be harder for me to make a team from scratch. I am good at singles though; I've played lots of matches on online stimulators. Apologies for forgetting to answer; it slipped by me as I was writing my response.

They always make games for sales. I'm guessing there wasn't another Battle Revolution because it didn't sell as well as the other Pokemon games, so they worked on XY instead. A new Pokemon Stadium would be better; I'm not sure whh they didn't make another one. Hoping for one for WiiU. XY will have battle animations being able to turned off. It's been present since RBY, and they'll know that there are people who will want to turn them off. I'll admit, not many big things were introduced in BW; it was many small changes. Probably the biggest was Triples and Rotation battles, which aren't that big. It was quite fun to play though

He should have still attempted to set up TR. He had plenty of chances to set up TR. It would have made his Pokemon 'faster,' which he could have used to at least gain an advantage and damage your Pokes before you could reverse it, possibly fainting your TR user in the process. It would have been better than trying to fight the whole match being slower than you. It does kinda dependent what's on the field atm though. It's a tricky situation if one team has the fastest Pokemon on the field and the slowest on the field, like I did against you (Breloom and Hariyama respectively).

I've never seen contrary used in VGC, but I'm guessing that's because only Spinda can have it legally.

I still thought Gen 5 was a good step forward. The graphics did improve and they let the camera move view from time to time, both when running around the map and during battle. The gameplay was better, with a better in-game and enjoyable story compared to 4th gen. I was not expecting it to become outdated so soon though; it seems to have flown by pretty quickly. Nevertheless, Pokemon X & Y excites me. I've also wanted to see 3D animations on a hand-held console when the Pokemon attack and are attacked. The graphics and animations outside of battle are also a huge step forward.

There were some weird things about his team. I agree with your points; seems strange to even use EQ and hit his ally when he could have used Gyro Ball, or even better set up TR (I'm hoping that team was a TR team; it looks like one). He even tried to Crunch Scrafty! Though FB is understandable; it's the only way Reuniclus can take on Steel- and Dark-types. He had some smart play though, like switching in Gastrodon to absorb Water Spout.

Skill Swap is a greatly underrated move, though I've only seen it used well on Cress excluding gimmick teams. But as you said, it has multiple uses, especially with good teammates. I have fantasied of a Pokemon with Skill Swap and Contrary to pair with Overheat Chandelure, Draco Meteor Latios and Intimidate Close Combat Hitmontop. Complaints about unconventional tactics being stupid are not warranted if the tactics are good and are shown to work, especially if one loses to said tactics. That's how the metagame develops, with new tactics being used and shown to be viable. Often it's the unconventional tactics that win tournaments at the highest level of play.

Also http://www.pokemon.com/pokemonxy/en-us/

I went to Malta, Germany and Austria in that order. Malta to see my relatives, and Germany and Austria as part of a cruise to see some countries I've never been to before. It was interesting arriving back in Adelaide at 42C given how cold it was in Austria.

I had not seen that match before. You played better and deserved the win, though you got two fortunate early crits. The match was fairly one sided. I was surprised by the large amount of switching on both sides, more so with you, but I know that's your playstyle. I enjoyed the use of Skill Swap, even if it was only a luxury at that point in the game. I'm guessing you know the team that Wolfe used to reach runner-up in last year's Worlds VGC Master tourney. He spoke very highly of Skill Swap Cress.

Apologies for my late reply. I just returned from an overseas trip today.

That match was very unfortunate. You deserved to win. I've seen a doubles match like that before, which was essentially Rotom-W, Suicune and Metagross vs just a Garchomp and they lost. I also support a Sand Veil ban. I was very impressed with your video's audio; it's clear that you put a lot of work into it.

I won 14 / 15 battles. Most of my opponents were sadly against not-so-good players. I lost a match against a rain team in which my Draco Meteor missed twice in which I deserved to win. Admittely, one of my matches was won because an opposing Metagross missed with Zen Headbutt against my Terrakion.

Also congrats on your SA tourney win :)

I had used the Water-focused team in an much smaller, informal tournament about 2 months earlier. It was the same team as I used, but with Slowking and Gastrodon instead of Breloom and Jolteon. The team did very well and I easily came first with it; Gastrodon paired with rain support and Surf users is brilliant. However, I found setting up TR after the 1st time harder, and with DW Breloom released, I decided not to risk the weaknesses of 4 Water-types. Generally I don't want a significant risk to certain threats when I spam types. So far, I've had good teams with Fire, Water and Fighting-types spammed. 1st two are based on weather; Fighting was used in the recent online VGC Winter tournament (Hariyama, Breloom and Terrakion). It works as Fighting is a great type offensively and has few weaknesses defensively (and Hariyama's and Breloom's are difficult to expose in a TR team).

Also I hate relying on luck as well. Concerning Protect, I try to avoid risking double Protects, where as triple Protects I will; it's only a 12.5% chance of working.

Henry's battles were the most interesting; no one else came close to winning. I lost my round to Henry in the Swiss part of the tourny. You were probably the next closest to winning. Ironically, Henry won that match because he managed to use Protect 3 times in a row, where as in our rematch, he lost because he failed to do so.

I meant last year's AVcon when I won with my Drought team. I had never played doubles with almost all Pokemon allowed before nor had I been to AVcon before, so I was unsure as to what to expect. I was also worried about having checks to defeat threats to Drought teams. The team I planned to use at this year's was going to be completely different.
I never go through entire lists of Pokemon as well, but I try to cover the important threats, released DW abilities included. For example, I was originally going to enter Daniel's tournament with 4 Water-types built for TR, but then I decided that if TR was to end and I only have Water-types left, Technician Breloom would end me.

It wasn't the best idea to give up Breloom so easily when I could have kept it with better play. LO Technician Mach Punch is very helpful against a Hail team regardless of if I have TR up or not, and it could have Spored Kyurem who was a large threat to my team (it had favourable match-ups against all of my Poks except Hariyama.) However, better Breloom gone than Hariyama. It would have been hard to kept Breloom alive too, as you said.

I find it hard to decide on my teams too. I'm fairly sure that most good players do; otherwise I'd suspect they haven't put enough thoughts into it. AVcon last year was the hardest for me. The worse moments are when you've decided on your team, but then something you didn't think of pops up, such as a threat to your team. and then you have to decide how to change your team or if it's worth changing