MattJ's EXTREMELY Lucky, Skill-Devoid Nationals Warstory!!!

Before I post a thing I want to say thank you to...
R S E FR LG C XD D P P BR, Chaos669, Kataphrak, Corn Snake, pwnualot1, freshest of them all, Alhamebird, htmlmaster, imperfectluck, Invictus, helloiamchris, drcossack, NestW, picklesword, Fightgar, Sidd, and of course to that guy who I always seem to leave out. You know who you are :P Each of these guys helped me with countless IV Battles, last minute TMs, VGC Test Battles, and most importantly ADVICE!!! Thanks! ^.6 Without you guys my team would have been the kraps. YOU guys got me to worlds...

Also, I want to say that warstorys bore me, so this one will be bare bones, no play by play, just names, impressions, pokes and outcomes. THERE WERE LIKE 8 FREAKIN BATTLES ANYWAY WHO WANTS TO READ ALL THAT?!?!?! 0_o

My Team:
As you can probably see, I forgot to teach something better to 2 of my pokes that STILL knew SB from being on a SD team and IMO Flamethrower is a waste on Typlosion when he could learn Blast Burn. 3 wasted move slots IMO. Also, I somehow forgot to put a Choice Band on my Dugtrio to give it more of a bite. I had to whip together my lil cousin Jesse's team Friday Night, so I ran out of time to polish my team. Oh well. Still made it. Lucky me! ^.6

1st Opponent-Justin (4/0)Justin seemed like a very nice guy that I would get along with quite well if we knew each other better. He said he was a fellow guitar player who played in a metal band. Small world eh? We got along well and talked through the whole battle. I couldn't believe my luck though when we brought out our 2 starter pokes and he said to me, "Hey, how'd you get a L50 Heatran?" I was just like, "Yesssssss!!!!"

Long story short, it lasted 2 turns. Heatwave, then Rock Slide, Double KO, Heatwave, then Rock Slide then Double KO. Yay!!!

I'm really not being cocky when I say this, but the shocked stare on his face after it was over was priceless. He just stared at his screen for a lil while, then he smiled, we shook hands and wished each other luck. Again, I really don't mean that in a cocky way, it was just funny! ^.6

2nd Opponent-Peter (4/1)
Peter was a very quiet and polite kid. He said he had been at Nashville too and didn't get picked either XD. I'm 99.9% sure I shook his hand there and introduced myself to him down there, but I forgot to ask. He's really into Indian Mythology as all his pokes are named after Native American Legends. Pretty cool IMO.

The Battle lasted 3 turns this time as his Frosslass KOd my Aero. And his Mr. Mime took my Heatwave with like 2HP. He took it great, and was polite as ever as he shook my hand and wished me luck!

I'm starting to see how lucky I've been so far. 5 turns in, 2 easy (no offence) teams so far and neither my Heatwave, nor my Rockslide have missed once! That's when my luck ran out momentarily...

3rd Opponent-Stephen (1/4)
Wow. That's all I can say. He really mopped the floor with me. He was great! ^.6 He was very Focused, confident, and skilled. It was obvious that he had good IV/EV pokes, and more importantly that he had a coherent strategy that worked and he knew how to implement it. He definitely deserved the win, no contest here. He seemed totally intent on winning it all. We didn't talk that much, but that might have been because he had me scrambling to keep my head above the water to last even 4 turns!!!! I didn't even KO one of his pokes! He KOd his Dusknoir when he finished me off with EQ! XD Afterwards he was very gracious, shook my hand and wished me luck. He even gave me permission to post his team here (as did all the rest that I make public :D)

Some people would feel bad about a loss. But I don't. It was very good that I went up against his team and lost. Before I faced Stephen's well thought out TR Team, I didn't realize just how much my team DEPENDED on speed and how much of a threat TR was. I've since gotten a couple of ideas to hopefully overcome that weakness so all in all it was a great learning experience! ^.6

4th Opponent-Steve (4/2)Man I liked Steve! I somehow didn't notice the names of his pokes at first, but they were all but 1 Zelda Names!!! Yay!!! I remember his Metagross was named Tektite!!! That's soooo perfect!!!! He should have named it Blue Tektite though ;P Blue Tektites are always the only decent challenge from Tektites in any Zelda Title! ^.6

The match actually lasted a few turns because We kept missing each other?!?! My rock Slide missed his Salamence then his Hydropump missed my Aero. Then my Ice Fang with 95FRIGGIN% ACCURACY missed his Salamence, but then he must have misclicked or something because he thundered my Heatran instead of my Aero. 0_o Then, the flinch hax started. I believe it was his Metagross I double flinched, and I believe I flinched his Gengar once too. That sealed it.

It was nice to get what was basicaly (no offence) an easy win after TR Stephen, and Zelda Steve took it really well. We talked the whole time through, then shook hands and went on. With all those misses and flinches I was really lucky (once again) to make it through.

5th Opponent-Siddarth (4/1 IIRC)It's kind of difficult to write about a battle if you can't list what pokes were involved. But if you'll notice the score, you're shure to understand that something went horribly wrong. All I can say at this time is that I got CRAZY LUCKY. Both my starters were faster than his and knew moves that were powerful AND super-effective against both his starters. I KOd the 1 real threat to my team in the 1st turn, and then proceded to TRIPPLE flinch one of his pokes with Rock Slide. I also Critical hit one too I think. I'm pretty sure my Heatran went down so I replaced it with Typhlosion and Erupted his team to oblivion, still outspeeding them.

All that said. Siddarth is a good guy with a good team that deserved to go to worlds.

Luck Happens I guess?

6th Opponent - IPL I won, He won, He won again! Yay for IPL! ^.6
First off I've gotta say that IPLs one cool guy. We got along great and chatted the whole time. We even shared info about each others teams back and forth because it seemed like less of a high pressure match and more like 2 friends just playing around. You rock IPL! ^.6

1st Battle: I think I beat him like 4/1 or something. Thank God it wasn't single elimination ;) He seemed a lil surprised.

2nd Battle: Yeah he had me figured out. Switched his team around and used a move that totally made my team useless and wiped me clean. Way to Go! ^.6

3rd Battle: Switched his team around again and it still overcame me.I had made some comment earlier about surviving an explosion the other day and he exploded and I survived AGAIN and he said "Oh, well, congratulations on living!" And I was just roooooooling with laughter! He's so funny You'd had to have been there XD

Yeah he whipped me fair and square 2 wins to 1, and everybody knows how it turned out in the end! ^.6

In Conclusion...

I've gotta say the whole thing was a blast. The best part by far was seeing my lil cousin Jesse go up against Omegadonut (I think?) and do so well. He's still talking about that! XD Dude, you made his day, if not his year! It was also cool to get to battle so many times without fear of elimination. That totally took the edge off of anything. By far my favorite battle was, well actually the 3 with IPL. He was such a good sport! It was good to talk with all the Smogoners, and non-Smogoners and find out where they were from, what they do for fun, and where they get the names for their pokes too.

See y'all in the Big SD! ^.6

Nice story, and congrats. I'll be in San diego, so I'll see you there. ;)

That was a pretty nice story, congrats.
I got into competitive pokemon too late to make a team for VGC, but I've already started making one for next years. The tests have gone well so far, hopefully see you next year. ;O

See you again at worlds dude, feel free to pm me for practice VGC matches ;)

PS: since you didn't know what Summon Night was, here is the link to the game series my nicknames are from.

Hey congratz matt glad to see you made it. Funny thing was I was sortof on the lookout for you the whole day,but had no idea what you looked like. Little did I know you were pretty close near on sunday. Gratz.

Awesome story. Always happy to help.

Your team has a major water weakness (except for the SolarBeams), btw. Just thought I'd point that out. :P

Let me know if you want practice for Worlds, I'm always up for giving/getting an ass-kicking.

Awesome mattj! Congrats on getting past the RNG too, and if you need any practice for VGC worlds, PM me! Congrats man!

Matt, you can post my team now if you want, it doesn't matter anyways.

Oh, and good luck in San Diego, I hope to see you and your nephew go far.

EDIT: One last thing, i didn't go 4 for 1, i went 3 for 2. I'd only have gone 4 for 1 if I'd beaten you.

Sidd said:

Matt, you can post my team now if you want, it doesn't matter anyways.

Oh, and good luck in San Diego, I hope to see you and your nephew go far.

EDIT: One last thing, i didn't go 4 for 1, i went 3 for 2. I'd only have gone 4 for 1 if I'd beaten you.

Click to expand...

He listed the score by listing how many pokemon were KO'd. So he KO'd 4 of yours and you KO'd 2 of his. Anyway, congrats dude and if you want any help with your team, I would be willing to offer some advice. Nice to see someone who didn't get picked in Nashville get lucky this time and end up making it to San Diego!

Thanks for the shoutout! And nice story, clean cut and too the point, and the first one posted :D Good luck in worlds, I'll gladly help you prepare!

gee thanks! ^.6

Trust me, I'll take eeeeeevery one of you up on those test battles between now and then! :D

Your team has a major water weakness (except for the SolarBeams), btw. Just thought I'd point that out. :P

Click to expand...

Oh yes, please, by the way, feel free to list ANYTHING AT ALL that you think could improve my team WHATSOEVER in this thread. It would make it easy to find.

My solution to my water weakness was1) Speed and 2) Dragon Pulse on Heatran (for the OU Kingdra) and Thunderfang on Aero (pretty much for Gyarados/anybody else) That did work on the 1 Kingdra, but failed horribly on the Swampert. Any better ideas?

Good job making top 16. I think you can post Sidd's team since he used a different team in every battle. So it really doesn't matter.

Huh, solarbeam without sun support?

Though it's really tricky to get, I'd recommend HP grass over solarbeam on both Heatran and Typhlosion. It's a lot weaker, but seeing as you're running it on fire types, they'll get KOed during the charging turn by the only targets it's meant to hit. Vulnerable to being abused by protect, too. Not sure about choice items, either: in doubles, especially 4v4, switching carries an extremely high price. I've always found choice users to be underwhelming in doubles when using them personally.

Good luck at San Diego.

Edit: Oh yeah, and the fangs are sort of rubbish too. Say you use thunder fang on Gyarados, it hits for only 220BP while rock slide would hit for 150BP (still pretty lousy) as well as for whatever on the other pokémon, and with a 30% chance of flinching for each hit. I wouldn't say it was worth a moveslot- sunny day on Aerodactyl would actually be good imo. It sets up your solarbeams from the other guys and also powers up your multitude of fire attacks while reducing damage from your water weaknesses. Solid, just like drill peck.

It is a shame that you had no other team to change to. I am sure that's a fair warning for all next year. Well, I dunno if St.Louis already said about swiss.

Anyways, a nice read and definately worth considering your blast burn next time. I mean why flamethrower? :P

On a small note, hope you earn yourself some memorable prizes at the worlds. Better still, buy a camcorder ffs so us guys can watch the show!

Not a bad story. :) Some of us knows Sidd's team already though, so meh. :P We all know who we are.

I look forward to actually meeting you in San Diego this time! (We missed each other last time) It shouldn't be that hard, since there won't be many American VG players this time! Hahaha

Zog said:

Huh, solarbeam without sun support?

Though it's really tricky to get, I'd recommend HP grass over solarbeam on both Heatran and Typhlosion. It's a lot weaker, but seeing as you're running it on fire types, they'll get KOed during the charging turn by the only targets it's meant to hit. Vulnerable to being abused by protect, too. Not sure about choice items, either: in doubles, especially 4v4, switching carries an extremely high price. I've always found choice users to be underwhelming in doubles when using them personally.

Good luck at San Diego.

Edit: Oh yeah, and the fangs are sort of rubbish too. Say you use thunder fang on Gyarados, it hits for only 220BP while rock slide would hit for 150BP (still pretty lousy) as well as for whatever on the other pokémon, and with a 30% chance of flinching for each hit. I wouldn't say it was worth a moveslot- sunny day on Aerodactyl would actually be good imo. It sets up your solarbeams from the other guys and also powers up your multitude of fire attacks while reducing damage from your water weaknesses. Solid, just like drill peck.

Click to expand...

Sunny Day on Aero?!?!?! What the crap? You may be onto something! I might just GTS clone my Aero and give that a whirl! ^.6 I was just going to tutor or TM something new onto them, but I ran out of time. Thanks! That might just plug up my water hole (god that sounded aweful XD) And here I was going to abandon my original idea of a SD team?!?!?

Great advice from eeeeeeveryone! ^.6

Glad to help, and congratulations on making it to the World Championship (right?).

RANT ALERT!

Heatran(Scarf) Heat Wave/Dragon Pulse/Ancient Power/Solar Beam
Aerodactyl(Chesto)Rock Slide/Thunder Fang/Ice Fang/Crunch
Dugtrio(Orb)Earthquake/Rock Slide/Aerial Ace/Sucker Punch
Typhlosion(Specs)Eruption/Heat Wave/Flamethrower/Solar Beam

Heatran: Replace SolarBeam with Earth Power (or something else). I like how you used AncientPower, not many people would do that.

Areodactyl: Moves are great, but what's with the Chesto Berry? You probably forgot to change it. If you didn't, then Lum Berry is always better. If you did and don't know what to put on it, I think Life Orb would be a good item.

Dugtrio: Good

Typhlosion: 3 Fire moves? IMO, keep Eruption and get rid of the other two.

Also, yes, all of your Pokemon are weak to Water. You usually don't want any Pokemon to have the same type as another (Heatran and Typhlosion). IMO, keep Heatran and Areodactyl and ditch the other two. Dugtrio has bad defenses, and can easily be replaced by another Pokemon (if you care about Speed that much, then put a Scarf on the Pokemon, unless there is an item clause). Typhlosion has nothing really going for it (except Eruption) and has average Sp.Atk and Speed. Also, Heatran and Areodactyl compliment each other on the other type matchups.

This team seems like it would be a Sandstorm team, so you could add Torterra (you can get one on the GTS and breed). The Grass-type fights the others' weaknesses well. The other Pokemon seems like it should be Scizor, it is very powerful, is a Steel-Type (but you have no Steel-STAB on Heatran, and Bug resists Fighting and Ground which Heatran is weak against, causing Neutral damage on two very common attack types). But I shouldn't tell you how to make your teams. Just add some Water counters, think about the Sandstorm idea (doubly effective in Doubles), and polish up your team (you know better than to have 3 Fire moves on Typhlosion :-P).

Also, the only real counter you have to TR teams is Taunt (which Areodactyl are famous for, coincidentally, so if you care more about TR teams (and Weather Teams and Stall Teams) than having 4 moves, then get rid of one of the Fangs (I recommend getting rid of Ice Fang if Areodactyl is still going to be one of your leads with Heatran being the other, and Thunder Fang otherwise). Do NOT use slow Pokemon on purpose as you might not outslow them anyways and you need to outspeed the other teams. On the other hand, if you use a really slow Pokemon like Bronzong, you could always try to make it slower :-).

Also, the use of Choice items in Doubles is more hindering than in Singles, as switching two Pokemon is simply a waste of time. Wise Glasses and Muscle Bands are pretty good alternatives (1.2x for all Special/Physical moves). Or just use Lefties ;-). But IDK much about competitive Pokemon (just conceptual Pokemon, lol), so check with others if you try to follow any of this advice.

Good luck. :-D

EDIT: What's with the ^.6 stuff?

EDIT2: Yeah, the SD team idea is also great. Swampert and other Water/Grounds only have one weakness, Grass. Grass pretty much should be on your team (good against Water and resists it too).

Oh, just one question. How does your Typhlosion have Eruption? Unless Serebii's wrong, it can't learn it naturally until level 57. I'm assuming, of course, that this is the only way to learn for Typhlosion to learn it. I'm not familiar with the 3D games like XD, Colosseum, and PBR, so I have no idea if it's a Move Tutor in any of those games.

drcossack said:

Oh, just one question. How does your Typhlosion have Eruption? Unless Serebii's wrong, it can't learn it naturally until level 57. I'm assuming, of course, that this is the only way to learn for Typhlosion to learn it. I'm not familiar with the 3D games like XD, Colosseum, and PBR, so I have no idea if it's a Move Tutor in any of those games.

Click to expand...

Breed it onto Cyndaquil.

Batpig said:

Breed it onto Cyndaquil.

Click to expand...

Cyndaquil learns Eruption at level 49, have it learn it when the game asks, then it will evole into a Quilava, at level 49, then level it up one more level and it will turn into Typloshion. :]


Also, congrats Matt and GL @ the Worlds :]
The team of yours is good, the other day I could've sworn I faced a copy. I think it was Aero/Typlosion as leads though. Haha I like Typloshion it's pretty good, it basically owns everything that isn't a Dragon.

No Protect on a single Pokemon... Congratulations and good luck at Worlds.

1) Cyndaquil can learn it at Lv.49

2) He doesn't have any Egg-Moves, so he could have bred a Female Cyndaquil/Quilava/Typhlosion with Eruption with a Male who also had Eruption (in the same egg group), like another Cyndaquil/Quilava/Typhlosion.

Thanks again for everyone who gave me advice above. Trust me I'M READING EVERY SINGLE WORD AND TAKING IT INTO CONSIDERATION!!! Keep it coming! ^.6

So why does my team look like a mixture of a sandstrom team and a sunny day team? Because first I tried a Sunny Day team and it didn't work so well for me. Then I tried a Sandstorm team and it didn't work well for me either. But for some reason 2 from each worked out pretty well for me on PBR and Battle Now, so I ran with it. Great advice y'all!

Oh and by the way, this... ^.6 is my fancy smiley face.

Why is it fancy?

BECAUSE IT HAS A MONICLE!!! XD

If only I could get a mustache on it it would be the monopoly man! :D

Oh, and I kept it as a Cyndaqul till 49, learned the move, let it evolve, leveled it up again, and finally let it evolve again. It would have been much faster in hindsight Breeding it onto him, but hindsight's 20/20. It was a pain, but Eruption's the Bomb. Literally. :P

Like my team, as soon as TR comes into play, its pretty much over for this team. But then again, its worlds, so maybe there won't be TR there? Who knows.

NestW said:

Like my team, as soon as TR comes into play, its pretty much over for this team. But then again, its worlds, so maybe there won't be TR there? Who knows.

Click to expand...

Oh, I don't know, I think he might run into one. That being the case, Matt might want to put Taunt on his Aero. It'd also stop the Rain Teams he might run into.