My team at a glance:
Hello readers and welcome to my RMT thread for the B/W2 Beginning Cup Wi-fi tournament that happened last weekend from this post. I wanted to share with you my team and my movesets, evs, etc. because I thought it did very well. Because of the way Landorus and Arcanine work so well in this team I have dubbed this team: My Arcandorus Team.
For those you unfamiliar of the rules:
You can only use Pokémon from the Black 2 and White 2 Pokédex
No legendaries such are allowed like Victini, Zekrom, Reshiram, Kyurem, Keldeo, Meloetta and Genesect.
Dc rules were implemented, so if you dc’d you’d get booted from the tournament for one hour. (I’ve encountered 3 in the whole tournament) so definitely a good rule there as it tests and proves true Pokémon player’s strength. Ok, so on to the Pokémon team:
Tyranitar
Ability: Sand Stream
Ev’s: 252 HP/ 252 Atk / 4 Sp.Def
Nature: Adamant
- Crunch
- Rock Slide
- Protect
- Low Kick
A Pokémon I would expect to see on every sand friendly team, at this point no words are really needed to talk about this Pokémon in question because it was so OU in doubles but I’m obliged to otherwise you wouldn’t know what my own one does and that’s pretty much the point. What I found strange is that when everyone used him with Excadrill, none of them held Air Balloon whereas mine did which allowed me to have Landorus on my team and to you may be thinking why not use Landorus-I because of sand? Well, I was gunning after the ability much more in the Therian form than the Incarnate form as It helps very well in doubles plus I have that raw power in attack on ALL moves rather than rock and ground moves. With max attack and max hp invested, it gives me the bulk to live and the offensive power whenever I attack, some Pokémon like the ‘genies’ and trick roomers would think twice about staying in on this Pokémon.
Crunch is a staple stab move for great damage and accuracy, Rock Slide is another staple move and grants spread damage to hit foes hard. Protect is there for scouting fighting type and other various moves and also to dodge Earthquakes should my Air Balloon pop and lastly Low Kick to hit other Tyranitar and to hit slower Pokémon harder for about 100 base power damage in the right conditions.
Undercat
Ability: Intimidate
Ev’s: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Nature: Adamant
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- U-Turn
- Superpower
As you all know Landorus was great in sand but with the Therian strength of Landorus in that form, I felt privileged to use its power to plough through teams. Though being much slower than its incarnate form, I had no choice but to scarf it as it would be killed off almost instantly by many faster Pokémon. I could tell from the first few matches I’ve had with it that many other Pokémon whether I knew it or not, was carrying HP ice solely for it and I had to keep my eyes peeled for any Pokémon who would take the opportunity to use it. Some were as obvious as Thundurus to as unobvious as Eelektross and Emolga. Despite being locked into one move at times, he was REALLY flexible to work with as I could just simply switch into another Pokémon like Vaporeon to block ice and water moves and vice versa from thunderbolt back into Landorus.
Earthquake is Earthquake, great STAB and accuracy and provides spread damage to hit Metagross and any grounded Pokémon for good damage. Rock Slide is pretty much in the same boat, though much more technical as it can flinch foes giving me that luck factor and hitting Volcorona and the ‘genies’ for super effective damage. Now here is where things get a bit different, being a scarfed Pokémon I’m staying true to its nature by carrying U-Turn. If things get grim, I’d use that as a hit-and-run tactic so long as I know I won’t get hit by Fake Out or blocked by Protect and lastly, Superpower as a one touch kill on anything that is weak to it. Mainly as a filler and for killing non scarf Hydreigon, that being said, he has trouble hitting some as they often run protect themselves which stops it dead in its tracks and then ends up being smacked by a super effective attack.
Underdog
Ability: Intimidate
Ev’s: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Nature: Adamant
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Protect
- Extremespeed
Landorus’ partner in crime, I absolutely LOVED this Pokémon. I give credit to this guy much more than I ever have (If I ever did lol). He was amazing and was my Landorus’ partner in crime because they both had the same ability and most of the time I sent them out together to severely cut Pokémon like Terrakion, Tyranitar and Excadrill’s attack power by 2 stages before they’ve even attacked! And often results with them either pulling out or doing much less damage if they decide to stick. He was surprisingly bulky and amazed me at how long he stayed on the field whilst being offensive and being Adamant nature I was able to hit as hard as possible. The funny thing is… Arcanine and Hydreigon were having an argument over who should wield the life orb but after this tournament I can definitely say I’ve made the right choice because Arcanine lived on literally on low red at times and life orb would have cut its bulk just like *snap* that. Together with Landorus they worked hand in hand cutting opposing pokemon's attack level down severely on a prompt.
Flare blitz is THE move and will often deal big damage to ANYTHING that does not resist it, lacking life orb kinda hurts as it doesn’t one shot things I’d like to but I have Extremespeed which polishes off weak foes so it shouldn’t be a problem. Close combat is probably what makes offensive Arcanine in 5th gen and of course with the Fighting Gem, it gives him a one-time pseudo STAB fighting attack to deal over 50% on most Pokémon. Lastly, protect is there because he’ll need it to protect himself and usually it helps a big deal and I don’t usually have to reveal it early unless I really need to so I can catch people off guard later in the match and to dodge Earthquakes from my own Landorus and opposing water moves whether it be an Aqua Jet from Azumarill, Scald from Vaporeon or Water Spout from Jellicent or anything else.
Advocate
Ability: Levitate
Ev’s: 252 Sp.Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Nature: Timid
- Draco Meteor
- Earth Power
- Dark Pulse
- Heat Wave
As I was looking through my team so far, I eventually saw that “…I NEED A DRAGON” and Hydreigon was the ONLY viable offensive dragon type so he had to mould in my team. One of the good things was that he had Levitate so Landorus can safely EQ without collateral damage. I wanted to run max speed so that I can outspeed modest nature Hydreigon and speed tie with other Hydreigon. I didn’t want to run Protect as I wanted to run both Earth power and Dark pulse (thanks to the shards in B/W2) and also run a spread move such as Heat Wave. To give you a taste of how powerful Draco Meteor was; it does around… roughly 90% on Azumarill and 90% - 100% on Conkeldurr depending on its ev investment and it can live a super effective physical hit mainly because either Landorus or Arcanine has been sent out alongside it. Using life orb definitely made it a great offensive powerhouse that would make even Latios clap.
Vapour
Ability: Water Absorb
Ev’s: 140 HP / 116 Def / 248 Sp.atk / 4 Sp.Def
Nature: Modest
- Muddy Water
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power Grass
- Detect
Ok, so now is where the bulky pokes start coming into play. Vaporeon was needed mainly as a water counter in this tournament and has helped me very, very much so I’m glad I recruited him into my team. When faced with danger from possible Jellicent Water Spouts, Vaporeon will most likely want to be soaked and then heal any health he may have received in-between the switch. With a great HP stat and a few evs in HP, it can live even Dragon Gem boosted Draco Meteor from Hydreigon on more or less 33 hp from 223 and then get up its Sitrus Berry to recover back to yellow. The ev spread was actually ripped directly from the Trick Room Tank set except the thing was I wasn’t running a trick room team so the logical thing to do was give it modest nature instead. The evs I find are really reasonable as I was able to take 2 or 3 hits and dish back damage as hard as possible. It may be able to live ‘ThundurBolt’, get what I did there? Ahem… Thunderbolts from bulky Thundurus but I wouldn’t like to try that 90% of the time. Mostly I’d detect (because it’s cooler than protect) because I know they can’t resist shooting a super effective hit at it. It seemed that Vaporeon was a common target so having that move proved too useful.
Muddy Water is my option to deal spread damage and without the collateral properties Surf has plus for a trade in accuracy as well I have a 47% chance of lowing either Pokémon’s accuracy (Pretty sure I remember someone saying that and pretty much quoted it just now, correct me if I’m wrong). Ice Beam is there as a complement to a water type and to hit grass, dragon and ground/flying types hard. Detect is there (because it’s cooler than protect) which has a similar job to Arcanine’s Protect and then I have Hidden Power grass which is used to hit Azumarill and Jellicent for appreciative damage.
ShinDogars
Ability: Levitate
Ev’s: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Sp.Atk
Nature: Bold
- Fire Blast
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Ice
- Will-O-Wisp
Oh boy…this Pokémon. I felt so special using it because I haven’t seen ANYONE use it in the tournament. I hope you understand concept behind the nickname because we all know that Dogars is the Japanese name for Koffing so I added Shin before it and I’m sure some of you know what Shin means. (If you don’t go look it up.) It started off by needing a Pokémon that can use HP Ice to surprise kill other Landorus-T, (Landorus-I would just psychic it because every Landorus in that form was sheer force special attacking) secondly, it needed to resist fighting. From that point I gazed upon Weezing. I knew from that point it was the final member of my team. With a combination of pseudo bolt-beam and Fire Blast it was going to mould so good. Weezing says hi to Excadrill and has Thunderbolt to hit other water types. Hidden power ice I already explained and as for the 4th move. I had a bit of trouble. I was deciding whether to use Will-o-wisp or Pain split; Will-o-wisp was there to burn physically attacking Pokémon whereas pain split was for added survivability. I ultimately decided on Will-o-wisp in case I wanted to immediately burn a Pokémon but later in the tournament, I kinda wish I banked on Pain Split and modified the evs a bit like taking a bit from defense into special attack. Still nonetheless he performed very well; I guess that’s a 1-up from the evolved form of this site’s mascot.
Noticeable Pokémon I see from time to time:
Azumarill
I knew that based on my team, it was going to be Azu weak and mainly trick room weak. Azumarill was going to be a pain with pure power and general moveset.
Golduck
I nearly used one myself because of Cloud Nine but then I realized it wasn’t going to be all that great because of 3 reasons:
1. It needed to be scarfed to outspeed target Pokémon.
2. I found a better water type.
3. Landorus-T would suffer without the choice scarf I had stuck with using Golduck.
Landorus (both forms)
EVERY Landorus incarnate form was specially orientated to abuse sheer force and there were plenty of them. It got to the point of whenever it was sent out and so was my own Landorus; it was an easy switch to Vap because every Landorus-I attempted to HP ice it. As for Landorus-T, it was pretty much there to be disruptive with Intimidate (and some were scarfed) but NONE used the Arcandorus combo I used.
Thundurus-I
I encountered what normal Thundurus users do in VGC matches; some were offensive but most were bulky sets. I did see one Therian type and it didn't perform very well. Prankster is what MAKES Thundurus-I on the whole so useful.
Hydreigon
It didn’t cause me as much trouble as I had thought, probably because I had scarf Landy with Superpower and had my own Hydreigon which was Timid to outspeed any slower Hydreigon. If anything, my opponents used them as pivot switches to resist flare blitz or something else then try to outspeed and KO something.
Serperior
I was actually surprised to see quite a few of these Pokémon because grass didn’t seem like an attractive type at all. My guess would be down to the amount of people using that from their starter choice and then throwing it in their final team.
Samurott
Same reason as above, some Aqua Jet using ones were giving me slight trouble considering my team was water weak so Vaporeon was a heavy reliability.
Jellicent
Nearly all sets were trick room and the rest were scarfed. Vaporeon said hi to every one of them and really gave them trouble. I knew this Pokémon would be a popular choice so I came prepared for it.
Metagross
From experience playing VGC matches this year, when I saw this Pokémon within the Unova Dex, I instantly knew it was going to be on nearly every team, if not every team I faced. This more or less influenced my decision to use Arcanine.
Tyranitar
Pretty much the same reason as above can’t really talk more about it other than the fact that most sets were possibly bulky from either end of defense and some were made for trick room. Let me take the time to say I only saw 1 Ninetales in the whole tournament.
Whimsicott
Common sets I saw were either beat up Terrakion sets or Tailwind (often with Terrakion as well)
Terrakion
A very popular choice amongst double battles, I knew what sets to expect whenever I faced one depending on the partner pokemon it was sent out with.
Brongzong
Seen a couple enough to mention, most were trick room sets then often try to psychic something.
Yanmega
Only mentioning this Pokémon because I lost to a team containing one, Bug buzz and HP ice with Detect makes it a troublesome Pokémon to deal with…
Mamoswine
I guessed this would be used to counter any Landorus as well as to pose a threat to other Tyranitar using Earthquake.
Gothitelle
Didn’t face one personally but I was looking at the GBU battles for research and saw one that had a creative team consisting of Azumarill, Jigglypuff, Gothitelle and (I forgot) but what it did was to trap you with Shadow Tag and then proceed to perish song and then protect till you drop. Jigglypuff was to charm opposing physical attackers and the other Pokémon was to use captivate to do a similar job on the other end of the attacking spectrum.
Gliscor
Not many due to the popularity of Landorus but there were a couple, none Vaporeon couldn’t deal with.
Eelektross
A couple enough to mention, all I saw really were random and personal movesets. I don’t see anything much outside Thunderbolt, T-wave and HP Ice.
Mienshao
I actually saw none use High Jump Kick at all, I would suspect the cause is due to the mass amount of protect users out there and some opted for Drain Punch and Low kick. If I remember corrected the sets I saw all used Flight Gem Acrobatics, which HURT.
Musharna
It’s useful, if you want to set up Trick Room and screens as well as helping hand. Otherwise, it’s gonna get doubled before it can do anything.
Reuniclus
Same thing as above except some carry protect with this guy.
Volcorona
One mistake can send you to loser’s row if you don’t take the necessary steps to controllably take it out.
Ferrothorn
Probably a counter choice for water types but I had two of my Pokémon had fire moves and Landorus had Superpower (Tyranitar to a lower extent with Low Kick) so I wasn’t worried.
Amoonguss
I hate this thing, I hate this thing, I HATE this thing so much. All it wants to do is put you to sleep or divert your attention to it via Rage Power. I would know Amoonguss too much to use a move that wasn’t intended to it so all if it wants attention, I will be happy to give ALL of mine to it. Eat Flare Blitz :]
Excadrill
This Pokémon was underwhelming mainly because none were used well at all and with Tyranitar that had no Air Balloons and opted to rock slide instead only for it to be smacked by a super effective move. My Arcanine could take 3 Rock Slides with Landorus support and I had no worry whatsoever.
Conkeldurr
My word… this was on 99% of the teams I faced ranging from Sitrus Berry ones to Flame Orb ones. I constantly feared Ice Punch from any of them and with Drain punch (all of them to my Vaporeon) he had no trouble staying healthy. Generally, I’d switch my Arcanine and Landorus-T to double intimidate and cut its attack in half instantly, other times I resorted to my Hydreigon’s Draco Meteor to one shot it.
Chandelure
Sometimes on trick room teams, Vaporeon and Hydreigon usually dealt with it
Golurk
Lastly Golurk, saw quite a few that had Quick Claw and became nothing more than a nuisance. I was prompted to remove it very early because of that and didn’t want to lose to luck hax and any type of Iron fist boosted punch.
And that concludes my lengthy team analysis for the Beginning Cup Wi-fi Tournament. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did making it. :)
If so, I may prepare another thread for the All Star Cup tournament in September.
