VGC 2011 1-UP (War)story, High Wycombe
Prior to VGC 2011 I hadn’t played Pokémon against other people since Pokémon Red and Blue. Back in the old days my battling skills were pretty much limited to destroying my friend’s in game team with my own team of lvl. 252 Mewtwo’s (yes, I was that cheap). It is nothing to be proud of and maybe even acted as an incentive to prove that I can do better. Below are some sprites of Mewtwo because Mewtwo is cool:
A few months ago some friends told me that the new Black/White versions were much better than the previous ones, so I decided to check them out. The lacklustre design of the new Pokémon was a bit disappointing but the strategy aspect of the game seemed better. Having gone through some of new the abilities and moves, I tried my luck in the new Battle Subway but I got bored pretty soon. I then found out about the VGC 2011 UK tournament in Birmingham, 3 weeks before the event. This seemed ideal since it was pretty close to London, so I set about making a team...
Making the team:
First off, I had no experience playing other people so prediction was going to be a huge problem for me. I needed a strategy that forced my opponent to play predictably because if it came down to prediction I would certainly lose. Eventually it was decided that my team would be based around this Pokémon:
Why Carracosta? After Shell Smash, Carracosta has the same Speed as a max. Speed Whimsicott! With a respectable 108 Attack to boost, the +2 Rock Slides from Carracosta are causing a whole world of hurt. With some Fake Out support it should be possible to Shell Smash once without dying thanks to its godlike ability: Sturdy.
The idea was that Shell Smash + Fake Out on the first turn makes Carracosta such a threat that the opponent will be concentrating on shutting it down. Knowing that the opponent wants Carracosta neutralised makes the prediction game significantly simpler on my part. Mienshao was added for Fake Out support and Amoonguss to Rage Powder attacks away from Carracosta while he hits like a truck. Scarf-Darmanitan and Sash-Terrakion were also added for some firepower to kill off anything that survived Carracosta. The last thing I added was a Whimsicott with Fling and King’s Rock, to take care of some specific threats while leaving the opponent to guess whether I have a Terracott combo. The full team looked like this:
aaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Carracosta @Wide LensaaaaaaaaaaaMienshao @ Flying Gem
Nature: JollyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaNature: Jolly
Trait: SturdyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaTrait: Inner Focus
EVs: 6HP, 252Att, 252SpdaaaaaaaaaEVs: 6 HP,252 Att, 252 Spd
- Shell Smashaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Fake Out
- Rock Slideaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Feint
- Aqua Jetaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Acrobatics
- Protectaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- High Jump Kick
aaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Amoonguss @ Sitrus BerryaaaaaaaaTerrakion @ Focus Sash
Nature: CalmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaNature: Jolly
Trait: Effect SporeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaTrait: Justified
EVs: 252HP, 164Def, 84SpD, 8SpdaaaEVs: 6 HP,252 Att, 252 Spd
- Protectaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Quick Attack
- Rage Powderaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Protect
- Giga Drainaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Close Combat
- Sporeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Rock Slide
aaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Darmanitan @ Choice ScarfaaaaaaaWhimsicott @ King’s Rock
Nature: AdamantaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaNature: Timid
Trait: Sheer ForceaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaTrait: Prankster
EVs: 12HP, 252Att, 244SpdaaaaaaaaEVs: 252HP,6Def, 252Spd
- Flare Blitzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Fling
- Rock Slideaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Giga Drain
- Stone Edgeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Encore
- Superpoweraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Helping Hand
Anyway, the team was nowhere near finished by the time Birmingham VGC started so I couldn’t participate. Instead I decided to participate in the 1-UP event as this would give me some more time to finish the team. On the 30th July 2011 at about 9:10, I got to the venue because I was told to be there before 9:30. Not surprisingly the tournament didn’t start until about 11am but it gave me the chance to talk to some people and try some practice battles. Anyway, on to the battles:
Qualifying rounds:
Round 1: PenguinX
At first I had to battle a guy called David but it turned out they had messed up the pairings so he left, but we would end up facing each other later on in the day. Since my DSi is a useless turd it took a while until I finally connected and found a character in the union room called ‘Peng’. I lead with Mienshao and Carracosta, having Amoonguss and Terrakion in the back. He leads with Terrakion and something else. He ends up using Quick Guard on Terrakion to block the Fake out but I get Shell Smash up. I get an early advantage which he recovers from a bit but I think I had the upper hand throughout the battle. There wasn’t any hax in this battle and I moved on to the next opponent after winning.
Round 2: Froggy25
He mentioned he was French so I suggested he speak French because I spoke French but that failed miserably with the music being as loud as it was. Unfortunately I don’t remember much about this battle either because it was also freezing and the only thing I could think about was how cold it was >.> I led with the same team as the previous battle and the battle went fairly similar to the first one, no hax as far as I remember. There wasn’t much he could do once the Rage Powder/+2 Rock Slide shenanigans started.
Round 3: Fatom0
I was really worried about this battle once we were in team preview because he had a lot of things that I did not want to face. Tornadus with Acrobatics, Taunt and Tailwind is annoying. So was a Krookodile because of that pesky Intimidate. He also had a Thundurus which was probably going to Thunder Wave my Carracosta if it used Shell Smash. Basically 5/6 members in the team preview were Pokémon I did not want to face, so that was quite inconvenient. It took a while for me to decide what to play with but I went for the Pokémon that ran Protect just in case he tried to set up Tailwind as I expected Tornadus/Krookodile in the lead.
Instead he led with Thundurus and something else, which I was quite relieved about. Carracosta managed to use Shell Smash and when I switched out Mienshao for Amoonguss, his Thundurus was put to sleep by Effect Spore. Then I also got a Critical Hit on Scrafty and a flinch too. I’m not sure how the battle would have gone without the Effect Spore but I’m pretty confident that the Critical Hit and flinch did not make a difference to the outcome of the battle. My opponent was a little annoyed about it, which I could completely understand. The format was Swiss, so the next person I would face will also have won all his battles.
Round 4: James Green (7014gree)
It was tough to believe I had already won 3 of my battles! My next opponent mentioned that he had 4-0’d his previous 3 opponents, so this wasn’t going to be easy (for me at least!). He mentioned he was 15, which was weird because he seemed much older. Anyway, I had no reason believe that I needed Darmanitan or Whimsicott in this battle so I went with my normal 4. He actually had a team with loads of shinies. I only noticed this near the end when I realised his Conkdeldurr had a weird colour! I guess I was too concentrated on the battle at hand. He played really well and it was a close battle with no hax but I think I had a slight team advantage over him. I ended up winning 1-0 after Amoonguss finished off his sleeping Terrakion with Giga Drain.
Round 5: Chris Arthur (Koryo)
We were both pretty stoked to have already won 4 battles in a row and to be in the finals of the qualifier. We wish each other good luck and proceed to battle. He leads with Chandelure and Whimsicott while I send out Mienshao and Carracosta. I was not about to fall into the trap of using Fake Out + Shell Smash only to get Encored into something. So I decide to use Acrobatics on Whimsicott to get rid of it as soon as possible, while Shell Smashing with Carracosta. Whimsicott used Helping Hand on Chandelure and it takes Carracosta to 1 HP with Shadow Ball. At the same time Whimsicott survives the Acrobatics with a Focus Sash.
My opponent does not seem worried so I am pretty sure he is about to Encore that Shell Smash while hitting the Mienshao and anything I send in after it. Feint’s +2 priority comes in handy here as I finish Whimsicott before it uses Encore, then take out Chandelure with Carracosta. At this point I think I Protected with Carracosta and switched in Amoonguss, it ended up being 4-0.
Grand Finals, Group Stage:
We had a pretty tough group I think, everyone knew what they were doing. One player from our group didn’t turn up, so that was the only advantage of being in this group. Instead of having to be Top 2 from 6, we only had 5 players.
Round 1: Mark Duffield
I had played Mark before and it was the only opponent whose team I had played before. I did make some significant changes to my team set up because I knew my standard lead was not going to be successful. Our previous battle ended up being an epic 20-something turn slugfest which only ended up being that close because I got lucky at the beginning.
My decision to change around my set up worked and gave me an advantage from the first turn. It still wasn’t a quick battle and ended up lasting 14 turns. It was a good battle and there was some good play on both sides but I ended up winning. I have this battle recorded and you can see it if you click here.
Round 2: Caitlin
She was running a goodstuff team so I went back to my regular set up. It was a pretty good battle, not much happened. I got flinched once but I could have won despite the flinch if I had played differently. This was the first loss of the day and I was motivated to do well in the next battles because I could still make Top 2 in our group.
Round 3: Swoobat
She had made a Swoobat hat and was wearing it the whole time. It was so distracting that I remember nothing at all about the actual battle except that I won.
Round 4: David Kelman
This was my initial opponent for the qualifier earlier that day before they changed the pairings. Mark had already qualified for the Top 2 in our group because he won his other 3 battles. I was 2-1 up so a win for me meant I would be the second person to go through. There was a lot of pressure and we wish each other good luck before starting our battle.
He leads with Conkeldurr and Musharna against Mienshao and Carracosta. Luckily for me he Protects with Musharna while I use Acrobatics on Conkeldurr and Shell Smash with Carracosta. Unfortunately Conkeldurr survives on a sliver of HP and Drain Punches back a lot of his health. Predicting a Mach Punch, I Protect with Carracosta and switch Amoonguss in for Mienshao. I think he used Trick Room with Musharna and Mach Punch with Conkeldurr. Burnt Conkeldurr ends up killing my Amoonguss with Facade. With Trick Room up he had the upper hand in this battle now. He played well and deserved the win, unfortunately that meant a second loss for me.
Round Robin for 2nd Top 16 spot:
At this point David, Caitlin and I were all 2-2 making this a 3-way tie for the final Top 16 spot. This meant we had to do another round robin between the 3 of us to decide who goes through. Caitlin and I battle first, we both go for the same line-up and I end up winning this one 3-0. She then plays against David and wins. So now I have to face David, a win and I go through and a loss means we are at a 3-way tie for the second time!! I mixed up my team by leading Amoonguss to Spore Musharna. This combined with a delayed Carracosta switch-in secures me a win! I’m on to the Top 16!
Grand Final, Top 16:
That was an incredibly rough group stage round and I only barely scraped through to the Top 16. My next opponent is a 12-year old kid. I am hoping this will be easy but I am not deluding myself into thinking that he made it here by sheer luck. When his trainer card indicates that he won every single group stage battle, this suspicion is confirmed. He mentions that he knows I have a Shell Smash Carracosta and knows how to handle it. Unfortunately it looked like after winning the qualifier, word got round about me using Shell Smash Carracosta. Anyway, I have a decent team and will try my best.
He has a solid team but it all looks fairly standard so I kind of know what moves to expect. He has a Tornadus so I’m taking the Pokémon with Protect on my team to stall Tailwind if necessary. We wish each other good luck and start our match. He leads with Tornadus/Terrakion, which is not my favourite lead to face. On the first turn I Shell Smash with Carracosta and Fake Out Tornadus. I have to Fake out Tornadus because pretty much any move it knows is a disaster for my team. He uses Close Combat on Carracosta, leaving it at 1 HP.
I’m fairly sure he has Quick Attack on Terrakion so Carracosta is in danger. Terrakion is probably Sashed so I can’t take it out in one hit but I can guarantee a fast kill if I go Feint + Aqua Jet. If he is not expecting that he is most likely going to Acrobatics Mienshao with Tornadus, leaving my Carracosta alive while I send in Amoonguss to Rage Powder. This seems like a decent plan because targeting Tornadus’ Acrobatics on Carracosta means he looks pretty silly if I go for the obvious Protect on Carracosta. Unfortunately I spent so much time going back and forth between moves I end up misclicking Shell Smash again with Carracosta instead of Aqua Jet >.> The Quick Attack finishes off my Carracosta while Acrobatics annihilated Mienshao. There was no way I could recover and lost this match 0-3. My opponent went on to make it to the finals where he made some good plays. Unfortunately he made a mistake on one turn that cost him the match, where he should have Rock Slided with Terrakion instead of using Close Combat.
That concluded my VGC 2011 experience. It kinda sucks that I lost with a misclick but I had a really good time and overall I did better than I anticipated. Thanks to everyone who attended, you all played really well and made this event interesting and tough from beginning to end! Over and out!
Prior to VGC 2011 I hadn’t played Pokémon against other people since Pokémon Red and Blue. Back in the old days my battling skills were pretty much limited to destroying my friend’s in game team with my own team of lvl. 252 Mewtwo’s (yes, I was that cheap). It is nothing to be proud of and maybe even acted as an incentive to prove that I can do better. Below are some sprites of Mewtwo because Mewtwo is cool:
A few months ago some friends told me that the new Black/White versions were much better than the previous ones, so I decided to check them out. The lacklustre design of the new Pokémon was a bit disappointing but the strategy aspect of the game seemed better. Having gone through some of new the abilities and moves, I tried my luck in the new Battle Subway but I got bored pretty soon. I then found out about the VGC 2011 UK tournament in Birmingham, 3 weeks before the event. This seemed ideal since it was pretty close to London, so I set about making a team...
Making the team:
First off, I had no experience playing other people so prediction was going to be a huge problem for me. I needed a strategy that forced my opponent to play predictably because if it came down to prediction I would certainly lose. Eventually it was decided that my team would be based around this Pokémon:
Why Carracosta? After Shell Smash, Carracosta has the same Speed as a max. Speed Whimsicott! With a respectable 108 Attack to boost, the +2 Rock Slides from Carracosta are causing a whole world of hurt. With some Fake Out support it should be possible to Shell Smash once without dying thanks to its godlike ability: Sturdy.
The idea was that Shell Smash + Fake Out on the first turn makes Carracosta such a threat that the opponent will be concentrating on shutting it down. Knowing that the opponent wants Carracosta neutralised makes the prediction game significantly simpler on my part. Mienshao was added for Fake Out support and Amoonguss to Rage Powder attacks away from Carracosta while he hits like a truck. Scarf-Darmanitan and Sash-Terrakion were also added for some firepower to kill off anything that survived Carracosta. The last thing I added was a Whimsicott with Fling and King’s Rock, to take care of some specific threats while leaving the opponent to guess whether I have a Terracott combo. The full team looked like this:
aaaa
Carracosta @Wide LensaaaaaaaaaaaMienshao @ Flying Gem
Nature: JollyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaNature: Jolly
Trait: SturdyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaTrait: Inner Focus
EVs: 6HP, 252Att, 252SpdaaaaaaaaaEVs: 6 HP,252 Att, 252 Spd
- Shell Smashaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Fake Out
- Rock Slideaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Feint
- Aqua Jetaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Acrobatics
- Protectaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- High Jump Kick
aaaaaa
Amoonguss @ Sitrus BerryaaaaaaaaTerrakion @ Focus Sash
Nature: CalmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaNature: Jolly
Trait: Effect SporeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaTrait: Justified
EVs: 252HP, 164Def, 84SpD, 8SpdaaaEVs: 6 HP,252 Att, 252 Spd
- Protectaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Quick Attack
- Rage Powderaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Protect
- Giga Drainaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Close Combat
- Sporeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Rock Slide
aaaaaaa
Darmanitan @ Choice ScarfaaaaaaaWhimsicott @ King’s Rock
Nature: AdamantaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaNature: Timid
Trait: Sheer ForceaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaTrait: Prankster
EVs: 12HP, 252Att, 244SpdaaaaaaaaEVs: 252HP,6Def, 252Spd
- Flare Blitzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Fling
- Rock Slideaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Giga Drain
- Stone Edgeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Encore
- Superpoweraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- Helping Hand
Anyway, the team was nowhere near finished by the time Birmingham VGC started so I couldn’t participate. Instead I decided to participate in the 1-UP event as this would give me some more time to finish the team. On the 30th July 2011 at about 9:10, I got to the venue because I was told to be there before 9:30. Not surprisingly the tournament didn’t start until about 11am but it gave me the chance to talk to some people and try some practice battles. Anyway, on to the battles:
Qualifying rounds:
Round 1: PenguinX
At first I had to battle a guy called David but it turned out they had messed up the pairings so he left, but we would end up facing each other later on in the day. Since my DSi is a useless turd it took a while until I finally connected and found a character in the union room called ‘Peng’. I lead with Mienshao and Carracosta, having Amoonguss and Terrakion in the back. He leads with Terrakion and something else. He ends up using Quick Guard on Terrakion to block the Fake out but I get Shell Smash up. I get an early advantage which he recovers from a bit but I think I had the upper hand throughout the battle. There wasn’t any hax in this battle and I moved on to the next opponent after winning.
Round 2: Froggy25
He mentioned he was French so I suggested he speak French because I spoke French but that failed miserably with the music being as loud as it was. Unfortunately I don’t remember much about this battle either because it was also freezing and the only thing I could think about was how cold it was >.> I led with the same team as the previous battle and the battle went fairly similar to the first one, no hax as far as I remember. There wasn’t much he could do once the Rage Powder/+2 Rock Slide shenanigans started.
Round 3: Fatom0
I was really worried about this battle once we were in team preview because he had a lot of things that I did not want to face. Tornadus with Acrobatics, Taunt and Tailwind is annoying. So was a Krookodile because of that pesky Intimidate. He also had a Thundurus which was probably going to Thunder Wave my Carracosta if it used Shell Smash. Basically 5/6 members in the team preview were Pokémon I did not want to face, so that was quite inconvenient. It took a while for me to decide what to play with but I went for the Pokémon that ran Protect just in case he tried to set up Tailwind as I expected Tornadus/Krookodile in the lead.
Instead he led with Thundurus and something else, which I was quite relieved about. Carracosta managed to use Shell Smash and when I switched out Mienshao for Amoonguss, his Thundurus was put to sleep by Effect Spore. Then I also got a Critical Hit on Scrafty and a flinch too. I’m not sure how the battle would have gone without the Effect Spore but I’m pretty confident that the Critical Hit and flinch did not make a difference to the outcome of the battle. My opponent was a little annoyed about it, which I could completely understand. The format was Swiss, so the next person I would face will also have won all his battles.
Round 4: James Green (7014gree)
It was tough to believe I had already won 3 of my battles! My next opponent mentioned that he had 4-0’d his previous 3 opponents, so this wasn’t going to be easy (for me at least!). He mentioned he was 15, which was weird because he seemed much older. Anyway, I had no reason believe that I needed Darmanitan or Whimsicott in this battle so I went with my normal 4. He actually had a team with loads of shinies. I only noticed this near the end when I realised his Conkdeldurr had a weird colour! I guess I was too concentrated on the battle at hand. He played really well and it was a close battle with no hax but I think I had a slight team advantage over him. I ended up winning 1-0 after Amoonguss finished off his sleeping Terrakion with Giga Drain.
Round 5: Chris Arthur (Koryo)
We were both pretty stoked to have already won 4 battles in a row and to be in the finals of the qualifier. We wish each other good luck and proceed to battle. He leads with Chandelure and Whimsicott while I send out Mienshao and Carracosta. I was not about to fall into the trap of using Fake Out + Shell Smash only to get Encored into something. So I decide to use Acrobatics on Whimsicott to get rid of it as soon as possible, while Shell Smashing with Carracosta. Whimsicott used Helping Hand on Chandelure and it takes Carracosta to 1 HP with Shadow Ball. At the same time Whimsicott survives the Acrobatics with a Focus Sash.
My opponent does not seem worried so I am pretty sure he is about to Encore that Shell Smash while hitting the Mienshao and anything I send in after it. Feint’s +2 priority comes in handy here as I finish Whimsicott before it uses Encore, then take out Chandelure with Carracosta. At this point I think I Protected with Carracosta and switched in Amoonguss, it ended up being 4-0.
Grand Finals, Group Stage:
We had a pretty tough group I think, everyone knew what they were doing. One player from our group didn’t turn up, so that was the only advantage of being in this group. Instead of having to be Top 2 from 6, we only had 5 players.
Round 1: Mark Duffield
I had played Mark before and it was the only opponent whose team I had played before. I did make some significant changes to my team set up because I knew my standard lead was not going to be successful. Our previous battle ended up being an epic 20-something turn slugfest which only ended up being that close because I got lucky at the beginning.
My decision to change around my set up worked and gave me an advantage from the first turn. It still wasn’t a quick battle and ended up lasting 14 turns. It was a good battle and there was some good play on both sides but I ended up winning. I have this battle recorded and you can see it if you click here.
Round 2: Caitlin
She was running a goodstuff team so I went back to my regular set up. It was a pretty good battle, not much happened. I got flinched once but I could have won despite the flinch if I had played differently. This was the first loss of the day and I was motivated to do well in the next battles because I could still make Top 2 in our group.
Round 3: Swoobat
She had made a Swoobat hat and was wearing it the whole time. It was so distracting that I remember nothing at all about the actual battle except that I won.
Round 4: David Kelman
This was my initial opponent for the qualifier earlier that day before they changed the pairings. Mark had already qualified for the Top 2 in our group because he won his other 3 battles. I was 2-1 up so a win for me meant I would be the second person to go through. There was a lot of pressure and we wish each other good luck before starting our battle.
He leads with Conkeldurr and Musharna against Mienshao and Carracosta. Luckily for me he Protects with Musharna while I use Acrobatics on Conkeldurr and Shell Smash with Carracosta. Unfortunately Conkeldurr survives on a sliver of HP and Drain Punches back a lot of his health. Predicting a Mach Punch, I Protect with Carracosta and switch Amoonguss in for Mienshao. I think he used Trick Room with Musharna and Mach Punch with Conkeldurr. Burnt Conkeldurr ends up killing my Amoonguss with Facade. With Trick Room up he had the upper hand in this battle now. He played well and deserved the win, unfortunately that meant a second loss for me.
Round Robin for 2nd Top 16 spot:
At this point David, Caitlin and I were all 2-2 making this a 3-way tie for the final Top 16 spot. This meant we had to do another round robin between the 3 of us to decide who goes through. Caitlin and I battle first, we both go for the same line-up and I end up winning this one 3-0. She then plays against David and wins. So now I have to face David, a win and I go through and a loss means we are at a 3-way tie for the second time!! I mixed up my team by leading Amoonguss to Spore Musharna. This combined with a delayed Carracosta switch-in secures me a win! I’m on to the Top 16!
Grand Final, Top 16:
That was an incredibly rough group stage round and I only barely scraped through to the Top 16. My next opponent is a 12-year old kid. I am hoping this will be easy but I am not deluding myself into thinking that he made it here by sheer luck. When his trainer card indicates that he won every single group stage battle, this suspicion is confirmed. He mentions that he knows I have a Shell Smash Carracosta and knows how to handle it. Unfortunately it looked like after winning the qualifier, word got round about me using Shell Smash Carracosta. Anyway, I have a decent team and will try my best.
He has a solid team but it all looks fairly standard so I kind of know what moves to expect. He has a Tornadus so I’m taking the Pokémon with Protect on my team to stall Tailwind if necessary. We wish each other good luck and start our match. He leads with Tornadus/Terrakion, which is not my favourite lead to face. On the first turn I Shell Smash with Carracosta and Fake Out Tornadus. I have to Fake out Tornadus because pretty much any move it knows is a disaster for my team. He uses Close Combat on Carracosta, leaving it at 1 HP.
I’m fairly sure he has Quick Attack on Terrakion so Carracosta is in danger. Terrakion is probably Sashed so I can’t take it out in one hit but I can guarantee a fast kill if I go Feint + Aqua Jet. If he is not expecting that he is most likely going to Acrobatics Mienshao with Tornadus, leaving my Carracosta alive while I send in Amoonguss to Rage Powder. This seems like a decent plan because targeting Tornadus’ Acrobatics on Carracosta means he looks pretty silly if I go for the obvious Protect on Carracosta. Unfortunately I spent so much time going back and forth between moves I end up misclicking Shell Smash again with Carracosta instead of Aqua Jet >.> The Quick Attack finishes off my Carracosta while Acrobatics annihilated Mienshao. There was no way I could recover and lost this match 0-3. My opponent went on to make it to the finals where he made some good plays. Unfortunately he made a mistake on one turn that cost him the match, where he should have Rock Slided with Terrakion instead of using Close Combat.
That concluded my VGC 2011 experience. It kinda sucks that I lost with a misclick but I had a really good time and overall I did better than I anticipated. Thanks to everyone who attended, you all played really well and made this event interesting and tough from beginning to end! Over and out!
