Since it's more or less confirmed that I will not be going to Nationals, I should just reveal my team (not like it's extremely special or anything) and type up a story before I forget all the battles haha. I pretty much remembered only the major turns for each battle right now anyway. Also, sorry, I didn't take any pictures. My friends did, but too lazy to post them for now (but nothing stood out as extremely special, mostly just pics of the scene at the tournament).
I can't think of a good title so just use your imagination.
My story will focus more on the battling than the non-battling parts of the trip, but I'll include a wee bit of the road trip adventure as well I guess. Enjoy!
O yeah, I'm not sure if everyone will actually be interested in the non-battling parts, so I just put everything in those fancy show/hide thinggies so you can just read what you want to read, etc.
THE DRIVE & LUNCH
MY TEAM
BATTLES!
As mentioned, I was near the end of the lineup. As a result, I faced some fairly easy opponents. I do not remember every battle in detail (in fact, I don't remember any battle in full detail), but I'll try my best to recall.
AFTER THAT
Overall, this was an amazing experience for me! Despite being late entering the tournament and having to leave almost right afterwards and thus missing out on a whole bunch of things (including a lot of time that could have been otherwise used for picture taking), it was definitely worth the drive. I was also pretty happy that my Dragonite did decently well, since I never saw any analysis of it or anyone using it in skarmbliss or smogon.
I can't think of a good title so just use your imagination.
My story will focus more on the battling than the non-battling parts of the trip, but I'll include a wee bit of the road trip adventure as well I guess. Enjoy!
O yeah, I'm not sure if everyone will actually be interested in the non-battling parts, so I just put everything in those fancy show/hide thinggies so you can just read what you want to read, etc.
THE DRIVE & LUNCH
So, I live in Richmond, BC, Canada. Richmond is a city full of Chinese people, south of Vancouver (the more well-known city). My friend Catherine slept over at my place on Friday night. My friend Way drove to my house by 6:30am Saturday morning. At 6:30am, the 3 of us hopped onto my car, and off we went!
Why 6:30am? It was mainly because I was paranoid about being late at the VGC, but then, we ended up being late anyway lol. Our first stop was at Olive Gardens in Lynnwood. Catherine and I had the tradition of always eating at Olive Gardens for lunch when we go to US together, since that's what we did in the past Nintendo events that we've been to (since Canada doesn't get those event Sharymin/Darkrai/Regigigas stuff). However, the past few times, we didn't go this early. This time, we arrived at Olive Gardens at 8:30am. The place opens at 11am lol.
I'm going to skip over the details since it's probably not that interesting to read. Basically, I drove around to see whether there might be free wireless internet so we could sit down and go online (Way and I both brought our laptops). We eventually found a Starbucks and settled in there, only to find that we had to pay to get internet access. Being the cheap asian that I was, instead, we just ended up watching some youtube videos of BadIntent VGC battles that I had loaded on my browser the night before... since I figured he'd be a tough opponent if I ever face him. At 11am, we entered Olive Gardens and ordered our yummy food. There was this incident where I thought I lost my Platinum cartridge and couldn't find it and thought I left it at Starbucks, but at the end it was in my backpack all along. That delayed some time and we were running a bit late. If I did not get lost on the way, we should still be able to make it there by about 12:50pm.
But of course I got lost.
Just when I thought I got back on track, I realize I couldn't turn left on that road because it's a one-way street. Long story short, we made it to the tournament location at 1:10pm, which fortunately was still all right. The lineup's huge, but it turned out that that actually made my battles a lot easier. I'll just get right to my team and the battles now then!
Why 6:30am? It was mainly because I was paranoid about being late at the VGC, but then, we ended up being late anyway lol. Our first stop was at Olive Gardens in Lynnwood. Catherine and I had the tradition of always eating at Olive Gardens for lunch when we go to US together, since that's what we did in the past Nintendo events that we've been to (since Canada doesn't get those event Sharymin/Darkrai/Regigigas stuff). However, the past few times, we didn't go this early. This time, we arrived at Olive Gardens at 8:30am. The place opens at 11am lol.
I'm going to skip over the details since it's probably not that interesting to read. Basically, I drove around to see whether there might be free wireless internet so we could sit down and go online (Way and I both brought our laptops). We eventually found a Starbucks and settled in there, only to find that we had to pay to get internet access. Being the cheap asian that I was, instead, we just ended up watching some youtube videos of BadIntent VGC battles that I had loaded on my browser the night before... since I figured he'd be a tough opponent if I ever face him. At 11am, we entered Olive Gardens and ordered our yummy food. There was this incident where I thought I lost my Platinum cartridge and couldn't find it and thought I left it at Starbucks, but at the end it was in my backpack all along. That delayed some time and we were running a bit late. If I did not get lost on the way, we should still be able to make it there by about 12:50pm.
But of course I got lost.
Just when I thought I got back on track, I realize I couldn't turn left on that road because it's a one-way street. Long story short, we made it to the tournament location at 1:10pm, which fortunately was still all right. The lineup's huge, but it turned out that that actually made my battles a lot easier. I'll just get right to my team and the battles now then!
MY TEAM
Leads:
Giratina - Timid - Pressure - Haban Berry
- Icy Wind
- Draco Meteor
- Aura Sphere
- Destiny Bond
Dragonite - Lonely - Inner Focus - Life Orb
- Extremespeed
- Draco Meteor
- Superpower
- Protect
Other Teammates:
Dialga - Calm - Pressure - Chople Berry
- Dragon Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Thunder
- Protect
Tyranitar - Brave - Sandstream - Iron Ball
- Fling
- Low Kick
- Rockslide
- Protect
EVs:
- Nothing was RNG'd. Just softresetted or bred traditionally.
- Giratina was EV'd to outspeed neutral 90s (so it would outspeed +Mewtwo or modest scarf Kyogre after Icy Wind).
- Giratina was EV'd to specifically survive a Kyogre Blizzard (75%) /Ice Beam followed by Palkia's Spacial Rend, with enough HP to stand one more turn of hail/sand damage. It was also EV'd to survive two Life Orb Toxicroak Sucker Punches
- Giratina and Dragonite were EV'd such that Aura Sphere + Superpower would always KO 252 HP 4 Def Chople Dialga.
- Dragonite was EV'd to outspeed +100s after Icy Wind.
- Everything else is pretty much standard. There's a long list of damage calculations, which I don't think I'll bother pasting here. Dialga was slightly more specially defensive than standard, but I don't remember what it was specifically surviving. I could not SR for a good modest Dialga in time. Dialga has some small amount of speed EVs.
Concept / Weaknesses:
- Obviously, my leads are mainly to put my team at a slight advantage over teams relying on first turn Fake Outs. The team does relatively well (compared to other teams) against exploding teams as well.
- I was originally going to use a Brave Dragonite to not lower defenses/offenses, also so that Dragonite would operate better under Trick Room as well (There were basically 3 main things Dragonite has over Rayquaza: 1)Inner Focus, 2)Superpower, and 3)Lower speed to operate better under TR). But in the end, I ended up with Lonely, because I decided that outspeeding things outside Trick Room was more important. I'm not totally sure now. I was originally going to have a Brave Dragonite with exactly 18 or 19 Speed IV, so it will have 84 Speed at level 50, just underspeeding -90s while also just outspeeding +speed Palkia (167 speed) after two icy winds.
- Giratina -> Icy Wind + Destiny Bond works REALLY well together. Since my Giratina is mostly defensive, I needed something that would actually hurt my opponent (other than Destiny Bond), so Draco Meteor should be obvious. Aura Sphere is mainly to break the Chople off Dialga for Dragonite to KO with Superpower, but also general coverage.
- Good thing about Dragonite's moveset is that Draco Meteor doesn't lower the power of Superpower/Extremespeed and Superpower does not lower the power of Draco Meteor. O yeah, probably this goes without saying, but Dragonite Superpower > Rayquaza Brick Break. Life Orb Extremespeed has a small chance to OHKO 252 HP Smeargle.
- Tyranitar is a good switch in for almost anything thrown at Giratina or Dragonite, and likewise, Giratina/Dragonite are also good switch ins for Dialga.
- I did not have any practice battles before VGC, but I figured dedicated Rain teams would be the hardest for me to win against, since ice + water hurts everything but Dialga pretty bad. That's why Dialga's there, but, while that thing is bulky, it will still go down after a few hits.
- Other than rain, I think this team does OK against most other type of teams, so it all comes down to how I play my battles out. Even for rain, it's a mix of being lucky and playing the right moves.
O yeah I had one Sub which was:
Metagross - Adamant - Clear Body - Life Orb / Lum Berry
- Explosion
- Protect
- Bullet Punch
- Thunder Punch
... to sub in for Dragonite in case my double ice and dragon weak leads turned out to be problematic. TPunch to handle rain a bit better. I never had to use it though, since Dragonite got at least one KO every match I think, or at least was certainly put to some effective use.
Giratina - Timid - Pressure - Haban Berry
- Icy Wind
- Draco Meteor
- Aura Sphere
- Destiny Bond
Dragonite - Lonely - Inner Focus - Life Orb
- Extremespeed
- Draco Meteor
- Superpower
- Protect
Other Teammates:
Dialga - Calm - Pressure - Chople Berry
- Dragon Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Thunder
- Protect
Tyranitar - Brave - Sandstream - Iron Ball
- Fling
- Low Kick
- Rockslide
- Protect
EVs:
- Nothing was RNG'd. Just softresetted or bred traditionally.
- Giratina was EV'd to outspeed neutral 90s (so it would outspeed +Mewtwo or modest scarf Kyogre after Icy Wind).
- Giratina was EV'd to specifically survive a Kyogre Blizzard (75%) /Ice Beam followed by Palkia's Spacial Rend, with enough HP to stand one more turn of hail/sand damage. It was also EV'd to survive two Life Orb Toxicroak Sucker Punches
- Giratina and Dragonite were EV'd such that Aura Sphere + Superpower would always KO 252 HP 4 Def Chople Dialga.
- Dragonite was EV'd to outspeed +100s after Icy Wind.
- Everything else is pretty much standard. There's a long list of damage calculations, which I don't think I'll bother pasting here. Dialga was slightly more specially defensive than standard, but I don't remember what it was specifically surviving. I could not SR for a good modest Dialga in time. Dialga has some small amount of speed EVs.
Concept / Weaknesses:
- Obviously, my leads are mainly to put my team at a slight advantage over teams relying on first turn Fake Outs. The team does relatively well (compared to other teams) against exploding teams as well.
- I was originally going to use a Brave Dragonite to not lower defenses/offenses, also so that Dragonite would operate better under Trick Room as well (There were basically 3 main things Dragonite has over Rayquaza: 1)Inner Focus, 2)Superpower, and 3)Lower speed to operate better under TR). But in the end, I ended up with Lonely, because I decided that outspeeding things outside Trick Room was more important. I'm not totally sure now. I was originally going to have a Brave Dragonite with exactly 18 or 19 Speed IV, so it will have 84 Speed at level 50, just underspeeding -90s while also just outspeeding +speed Palkia (167 speed) after two icy winds.
- Giratina -> Icy Wind + Destiny Bond works REALLY well together. Since my Giratina is mostly defensive, I needed something that would actually hurt my opponent (other than Destiny Bond), so Draco Meteor should be obvious. Aura Sphere is mainly to break the Chople off Dialga for Dragonite to KO with Superpower, but also general coverage.
- Good thing about Dragonite's moveset is that Draco Meteor doesn't lower the power of Superpower/Extremespeed and Superpower does not lower the power of Draco Meteor. O yeah, probably this goes without saying, but Dragonite Superpower > Rayquaza Brick Break. Life Orb Extremespeed has a small chance to OHKO 252 HP Smeargle.
- Tyranitar is a good switch in for almost anything thrown at Giratina or Dragonite, and likewise, Giratina/Dragonite are also good switch ins for Dialga.
- I did not have any practice battles before VGC, but I figured dedicated Rain teams would be the hardest for me to win against, since ice + water hurts everything but Dialga pretty bad. That's why Dialga's there, but, while that thing is bulky, it will still go down after a few hits.
- Other than rain, I think this team does OK against most other type of teams, so it all comes down to how I play my battles out. Even for rain, it's a mix of being lucky and playing the right moves.
O yeah I had one Sub which was:
Metagross - Adamant - Clear Body - Life Orb / Lum Berry
- Explosion
- Protect
- Bullet Punch
- Thunder Punch
... to sub in for Dragonite in case my double ice and dragon weak leads turned out to be problematic. TPunch to handle rain a bit better. I never had to use it though, since Dragonite got at least one KO every match I think, or at least was certainly put to some effective use.
BATTLES!
As mentioned, I was near the end of the lineup. As a result, I faced some fairly easy opponents. I do not remember every battle in detail (in fact, I don't remember any battle in full detail), but I'll try my best to recall.
Round 1:
Opponent sends out Garchomp + Dragonite. I send out Giratina + Dragonite.
--> I did not expect to see another Dragonite. Garchomp is a hard attacker, but with Haban on Giratina (and Icy Wind), I wasn't particularly scared.
I used Icy Wind + Protect. (I noted that Giratina outsped Garchomp even before Icy Wind, so this told me that my opponent probably either did not know about EVs or has an adamant Garchomp with bad speed IVs).
Both opponents' dragons are down to a bit over half HP.
Garchomp used sandstorm (at this point I knew I won unless there's some serious sand veil hax).
Opponent Dragonite used some dragon move on my Dragonite.
2nd turn, Draco Meteor + Draco Meteor KO'd both my opponents. I don't remember how the rest of the battle went. My oppnonent had a Lugia, which was the last thing to go down. The 4th pokemon wasn't an Uber. That's about all I remember. I won 4 - 0.
Round 2:
Opponent led with Lugia + Mewtwo. Icy Wind + Protect. Then 2 Extremespeeds KO'd Mewtwo. I forgot the rest. Lugia was the last thing to go down again. O yeah, lol, Lugia used Fly when Tyranitar used Fling. Woops I guess. Dragonite fainted somewhere along the way. I won 3-0.
Round 3:
Turn 1:
I thought things were getting tougher when I saw that my opponent led with Groundon + Zapdos. I wasn't particularly afraid at this point since Icy Wind + Protect should still put me in a good position. And it did. And... also, in first turn Groudon (at around 75% health after Icy wind) used... Eruption, which was resisted by both my leads of course. Zapdos Discharge didn't paralyze Giratina, so I was fairly confident.
Turn 2: Giratina Draco Meteor crit KO Zapdos. My Dragonite aimed Draco Meteor at Zapdos also, but of course hit Groudon instead. I don't remember the rest of the match. I switched around here and there and won 3 - 0. Dragonite fainted.
Round 4:
I was really nervous since winning this means I get to go to the finalist lounge! I was REALLY happy when I saw my opponents' leads: Electrode + Gengar.
I knew exactly what he was going to do (explode + shadow ball), and even if he didn't do that, I know Tyranitar and Dialga both do very well against both leads. So, I knew I was at a clear advantage.
Dragonite Protect. Electrode used Explosion. Gengar used Shadow ball on Giratina (>50% damage). Giratina used Icy Wind.
After this turn, I knew I won, when my opponent told me that that's what he did in the previous 3 rounds and it worked all 3 times.
I do not really remember how the rest of the match went (again lol). OH, I think this was the opponent who had a restalk life Orb Machamp. So he only had one Uber then. I won 3 - 0. This Giratina used Destiny Bond to take out Gengar I think, or maybe I remembered wrong.
Round 5: (Finalist First Round)
I was one of the 3 people at the end of the line who was originally selected to have a Bye on the first round. The other two were skarm and Chris Tsai. However, the organizers realized they messed up and needed one more match. I ended up getting the bye (we had a draw) and had the bye while skarm and Chris battled.
Round 6:
So, like I said, my team does not do particularly well vs dedicated rain teams, and my opponent's team was a dedicated rain team. He led with Kyogre + Qwilfish. I played decently throughout the match. Eventually, Giratina took down Kingdra with Destiny Bond. At the end it was his full health Leftovers Kyogre vs my 85% Tyranitar + 40% Dragonite, and sand is up.
I totally misplayed in this decisive turn. I picked Superpower + Fling, thinking for some reason that my Dragonite was faster than Kyogre. (I think it was the fact that this was a dedicated rain team, so I figured Kyogre would probably be more bulky than speedy. Plus Dragonite outsped Kyogre before, but I forgot that that was after icy wind). But nope. Kyogre was faster. Water Spout KO'd Tyranitar and put Dragonite in red. Superpower's life orb recoil KO'd Dragonite, and I lost.
I knew that Dragonite's Extremespeed does minimum 38% to a 252 HP Kyogre (which this one is not, so it'd do even more damage), and I know that full health Modest Kyogre does not OHKO 252 Tyranitar in sand, which means at 62% it most definitely would not KO my 85% HP Tyranitar. This means, I actually had 100% chance of winning if I used Extremespeed + Fling, because that Kyogre could only use either Water Spout or Ice Beam. Either way, Tyranitar would have been safe, unless Water Spout Crits. So yeah, I was a bit mad at myself for making that mistake, costing me the match. Good game though!
It was a good, fun experience anyway. I was very happy to have got to where I was, considering I have not had any real VGC battles before this.
Opponent sends out Garchomp + Dragonite. I send out Giratina + Dragonite.
--> I did not expect to see another Dragonite. Garchomp is a hard attacker, but with Haban on Giratina (and Icy Wind), I wasn't particularly scared.
I used Icy Wind + Protect. (I noted that Giratina outsped Garchomp even before Icy Wind, so this told me that my opponent probably either did not know about EVs or has an adamant Garchomp with bad speed IVs).
Both opponents' dragons are down to a bit over half HP.
Garchomp used sandstorm (at this point I knew I won unless there's some serious sand veil hax).
Opponent Dragonite used some dragon move on my Dragonite.
2nd turn, Draco Meteor + Draco Meteor KO'd both my opponents. I don't remember how the rest of the battle went. My oppnonent had a Lugia, which was the last thing to go down. The 4th pokemon wasn't an Uber. That's about all I remember. I won 4 - 0.
Round 2:
Opponent led with Lugia + Mewtwo. Icy Wind + Protect. Then 2 Extremespeeds KO'd Mewtwo. I forgot the rest. Lugia was the last thing to go down again. O yeah, lol, Lugia used Fly when Tyranitar used Fling. Woops I guess. Dragonite fainted somewhere along the way. I won 3-0.
Round 3:
Turn 1:
I thought things were getting tougher when I saw that my opponent led with Groundon + Zapdos. I wasn't particularly afraid at this point since Icy Wind + Protect should still put me in a good position. And it did. And... also, in first turn Groudon (at around 75% health after Icy wind) used... Eruption, which was resisted by both my leads of course. Zapdos Discharge didn't paralyze Giratina, so I was fairly confident.
Turn 2: Giratina Draco Meteor crit KO Zapdos. My Dragonite aimed Draco Meteor at Zapdos also, but of course hit Groudon instead. I don't remember the rest of the match. I switched around here and there and won 3 - 0. Dragonite fainted.
Round 4:
I was really nervous since winning this means I get to go to the finalist lounge! I was REALLY happy when I saw my opponents' leads: Electrode + Gengar.
I knew exactly what he was going to do (explode + shadow ball), and even if he didn't do that, I know Tyranitar and Dialga both do very well against both leads. So, I knew I was at a clear advantage.
Dragonite Protect. Electrode used Explosion. Gengar used Shadow ball on Giratina (>50% damage). Giratina used Icy Wind.
After this turn, I knew I won, when my opponent told me that that's what he did in the previous 3 rounds and it worked all 3 times.
I do not really remember how the rest of the match went (again lol). OH, I think this was the opponent who had a restalk life Orb Machamp. So he only had one Uber then. I won 3 - 0. This Giratina used Destiny Bond to take out Gengar I think, or maybe I remembered wrong.
Round 5: (Finalist First Round)
I was one of the 3 people at the end of the line who was originally selected to have a Bye on the first round. The other two were skarm and Chris Tsai. However, the organizers realized they messed up and needed one more match. I ended up getting the bye (we had a draw) and had the bye while skarm and Chris battled.
Round 6:
So, like I said, my team does not do particularly well vs dedicated rain teams, and my opponent's team was a dedicated rain team. He led with Kyogre + Qwilfish. I played decently throughout the match. Eventually, Giratina took down Kingdra with Destiny Bond. At the end it was his full health Leftovers Kyogre vs my 85% Tyranitar + 40% Dragonite, and sand is up.
I totally misplayed in this decisive turn. I picked Superpower + Fling, thinking for some reason that my Dragonite was faster than Kyogre. (I think it was the fact that this was a dedicated rain team, so I figured Kyogre would probably be more bulky than speedy. Plus Dragonite outsped Kyogre before, but I forgot that that was after icy wind). But nope. Kyogre was faster. Water Spout KO'd Tyranitar and put Dragonite in red. Superpower's life orb recoil KO'd Dragonite, and I lost.
I knew that Dragonite's Extremespeed does minimum 38% to a 252 HP Kyogre (which this one is not, so it'd do even more damage), and I know that full health Modest Kyogre does not OHKO 252 Tyranitar in sand, which means at 62% it most definitely would not KO my 85% HP Tyranitar. This means, I actually had 100% chance of winning if I used Extremespeed + Fling, because that Kyogre could only use either Water Spout or Ice Beam. Either way, Tyranitar would have been safe, unless Water Spout Crits. So yeah, I was a bit mad at myself for making that mistake, costing me the match. Good game though!
It was a good, fun experience anyway. I was very happy to have got to where I was, considering I have not had any real VGC battles before this.
AFTER THAT
After losing, I stayed to watch the final matches. After that, someone from smogon that I haven't talked to before (Coconut something?), who lost round 3 or 4 due to crit hax, asked for a battle. I said sure. Not sure if he might go to elsewhere to qualify, so I'd better not reveal his team. I played a bad opening, but did ok afterwards, but at the end lost mainly because of a flamethrower burn on my Tyranitar. It was a fun match.
After that, my friends and I had other plans, so we left the place to continue our adventure, and the Seattle adventure finally ended around 2am, when I drove back and got home by 4:30am Sunday. What a long day!
After that, my friends and I had other plans, so we left the place to continue our adventure, and the Seattle adventure finally ended around 2am, when I drove back and got home by 4:30am Sunday. What a long day!
Overall, this was an amazing experience for me! Despite being late entering the tournament and having to leave almost right afterwards and thus missing out on a whole bunch of things (including a lot of time that could have been otherwise used for picture taking), it was definitely worth the drive. I was also pretty happy that my Dragonite did decently well, since I never saw any analysis of it or anyone using it in skarmbliss or smogon.
