Back in January when the first 2013 classic ladder came up I was beyond green, while at that point I had been practicing for months to very pedestrian results it was very obvious that my skill level was not on par with that of other competitors. However I had managed to end up 3rd place overall using my interpolation of the Shade-Off a team starring Choice Scarf Kingdra and friends. To be brutally honest at that time I was not ready as a player, my technique was subpar I was far less consistent and I had bizarre building habits that looking back on I still cannot understand. Since however I managed to step up my play Winning a 2013 Limitless tournament hosted by Radio Free C-Side, Winning a 2013 tournament hosted by the B2W2 Discord, Finishing 5th on the VGC 2011 Ladder and Topping my first ever regional last year in May finishing 26th at Portland Regionals in 2025 Regulation I. It has not been purely smooth sailing, from a pedestrian 1200th place finish in 2026 Grand Challenge I, Missing out on Top 30 for the VGC 2018 Ladder and losing my only match in Classics League III vs Paul Chua. There has certainly been rough moments along the way however I can also say that my technique as a player has improved quite significantly since the first VGC 2013 Ladder so for this Ladder my goal was to finish 1st AAAAAAAND that did not happen. While a lot of people would probably be happy with a 4th place result I really wanted to prove that I could win the ladder outright but EmbCPT WhatARandomName and MosquitoVGC were just better than I this time around. Also Edu congrats on 2nd at Lillie if you end up seeing this. I think what became apparent playing both against Edu and Paul on Ladder was just how consistent they were, never making mistakes. It was really eye opening the gap between them and I as players and so moving forward my goal is to improve my consistency which at times this Ladder exposed. With that said, I still wanted to write a team report since last Ladder I did not and ended up regretting it so this will be me going over the team I ended getting 4th at 1409 Rating with for The October 2025 VGC 2013 Ladder.
ORIGIN:
In playing Ladder this time around there were metagame changes compared to the previous time around. The most important was the adaptation of weird "cheese" compared to last Ladder where pretty much everyone was on a sample team or an adaption of a standard Balance team, this time around players experimented with bizarre team combinations, such has Guard Split Latias with Chansey played by UsaUsaBallonVGC, weird Smeargle setup teams played by MosquitoVGC and Lucien Lachance. There was also a strong adaptation of CressTran by zee that was used in classics and on ladder by Edu. All of these factors meant that whatever team I used had to have matchups into unexpected teams and that I could not rely on farming sample teams nearly as much to gain rating. Suicune Balance seemed like the obvious choice for metagame stabilization.
For Those Unfamiliar:
Suicune Balance I would define as a team with the combo of these 3 popularized by oopsgtg the idea is that they are just super neutral into everything with Suicune & Amoongus being damage sponges and Metagross not being Dragon weak means that you have a core that gives you positive speed control with Suicune, Priority with Bullet Punch, Redirection with Rage Powder, Anti-Trick Room with a min speed Amoongus while giving you a switch in to Draco Meteor, 2 switch ins for Muddy Water and a Pokemon that wins a 1v1 vs Cresselia in Metagross. Now this combo does have weaknesses namely Thundurus can be challenging, so is Heatran as well as Scizor and none of these mons resist Earthquake. However, you still have 3 slots to work out the kinks.
Aura (Suicune) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 12 SpA / 4 SpD / 236 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Snarl
- Tailwind
Suicune is the glue that holds this team together, it gives you that temporary double speed with Tailwind that can negate Swift Swim and Sand Rush. It gives you damage mitigation with Snarl against special attackers like Heatran, and against phsyical attackers you can fish for burns with Scald. Ice Beam is nice as coverage and allows Suicune to not be walled by common threats such as Latios. This set was stolen from oopsgtg the idea is 236 Spe hits 135 which is faster than Jolly Breloom and that came up a ton on ladder. besides that it is just invested into bulk. The only things I would consider changes is the speed, as mentioned earlier Smeargle saw some usage. So being able to lead Suicune into that would have helped but in general I don't expect Smeargle to see significant usage again.
GPT (Metagross) @ Psychic Gem
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 52 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Bullet Punch
- Protect
Metagross is by far my favorite Pokémon in the format as it offers what best combination of typing, attack strength and bulk within 2013. Playing with Pre-nerf Steels just feels unfair in general and Metagross was a needed check for a lot of the most Aggro Pokemon in the format like Latios, Tyranitar and Conkeldurr. This set as explained in my previous team report is meant to 2HKO Latios with the combination of Meteor Mash + Bullet Punch and survive a Heat Wave from 252+ SpA Volcarona. The rest goes into speed creep and if you decide to run Icy Wind with Metagross you outspeed a -1 252 Spe Landorus-Therian. Metagross pretty hard countered Amoongus, while also giving me beneficial end games vs Cresselia. I suppose the funniest thing it did for this team was deal with Chanseys by self boosting with Meteor Mash, but besides that its just the best most Oonga Boonga mon in the format.
Portobello (Amoonguss) (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 236 HP / 84 Def / 188 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect
Amoonguss really put in more work than usual for me this time around. Usually Amoonguss is just on this team to sometimes bring against Rain and to force your opponent to bring their outs to it. However it not just felt more than a necessary evil, it actually felt like a significant contributor as I faced many teams that lacked spread moves, many teams that wanted to stall with Chansey or Ferrothorn, and more Hard Trick Room than I expected. Min speed is necessary even thought his team is tailwind just so you can spore first in Trick Room, 236 HP 84 Def is to guarantee survive Life Orb Ice Punch from Conkeldurr, and the rest of the Evs were dumped into SpD. Lum Berry really was just here for Breloom, as it prevented Breloom from getting out of hand against this team especially when paired with Liepard.
Drax (Tyranitar) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Low Kick
- Rock Slide
- Ice Punch
ScarfTar really grew on me this ladder as I noticed a very large uptick in Tornadus-Incarnate which Tyranitar both deals with well with Rock Slide, but also is benefited by a reduction in Fighting types which Tyranitar loathes and I noticed Conkeldurr specifically was much lower usage than normal. Tyranitar also gave me a mon with a positive matchup into Abomasnow + Jellicent and a mon which 1v1s Heatran which this team really likes having multiple answers for. Crunch is to OHKO Latios, at least a couple times it caught a Latios with it, and Ice Punch was here because of this teams overall meh matchup into Landorus-Therian, giving me another attack to threaten the cat with.
Donda (Thundurus) (M) @ Electric Gem
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Taunt
- Thunder Wave
Let me level with y'all, Thundurus is here purely to not lose to cheese. Taunt was incredibly important to stop Hard TR as well as Minimize and Leech Seed shenanigans, Thunder Wave helped alleviate the speed control burden of Suicune which really helped into opposing Thundurus-Incarnates, Scarf Attackers and especially especially Tornadus-Incarnate. Electric Gem Thunderbolt was here to chunk and even OHKO opposing Suicunes which were overall popular on ladder, Hidden Power Ice is further insurance for the meh Landorus-Therian matchup and gave my Thundurus a way to damage its Therian form. Max speed was especially necessary on this set, however I might just be unlucky when it comes to winning the Taunt Speed tie with Thundurus, but into the Sadist Swagger Thundurus set, having the faster Taunt was the difference between playing a real match or going to the roulette table and betting your mortgage on black.
Volskya (Salamence) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 248 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Protect
Salamence was the last Pokemon, despite being the namesake of the team it is by far the least necessary, functionally the team works with the 5 previous, it will just struggle with certain matchups a little bit more. So originally this was an offensive Cresselia, like the one I had won a Limitless tour back in March with. However I realized I never brought it and it overall underperformed. So then I used Landorus-Therian but it was awkward because the only mon I could EQ next to was Thundurus, my preferred Choice Scarf Item was taken by Tyranitar so I had to run Sash and it wasn't really bringable into Rain which is a massive issue when I need this slot to help deal with Scizor. So then I switched to Latios with HP Fire to do that but honestly Latios was just as useless as Cresselia, so then I realized I wanted this slot to be able to deal with both the problematic Steel types of Scizor, Heatran and Ferrothorn and then a lightbulb went off and I plugged in Hydreigon and then suddenly the team autoloss to Conkeldurr. To be honest I was lost, pretty much whatever I ran felt bad and while the other 5 were very strong and dealt with most matchups. Until it hit me Salamence can OHKO the 3 steels, actually all 4 it can even OHKO Metagross, while bring bringable into Rain, giving me a need intimidate for Landorus-Therian and Conkeldurr and even carried the benefit of being able to chunk Rotom which with this in combination with Amoongus gave me a duo to deal with the washing machine. using this Life Orb Salamence and Amoongus I proceeded to go 17-2 to finish Ladder and my only 2 losses were to Sejun's Nationals team which is the really annoying Breloom Liepard team and even in those I got horrendous luck. This team really gave me such a nice matchup spreed with a +++ vs Rain a + vs Sand a ++ vs most Balance cores, a ++ vs Hard TR a + vs cheese and a neutral matchup into CressTran.
COMMON LEADS:
Suicune + Metagross is about as Balance as you can get Water + Steel has always been good in VGC and having the bulkiest of Waters next to the ultimate out to Amoonguss has always felt very good and unstoppable, your lines are very simple and there aren't too many combinations that prevent this lead combo, namely Offensive Thundurus can stop this combo as well as Trick Room Teams but the main idea is you get Metagross in a tailwind and just spam attacks as you debuff the opponent with Snarl.
Suicune + Amoonguss is your full anti-Rain lead, not against all Rain teams is this optimal and a majority MetaCune gets the job done, but for offensive Rain Teams with Breloom or Thundurus-Therian this ends up being the default. Also really awkward for Rotom-Wash to deal with since Snarl + Spore just completely cripples your ability to make progress next to something like a Cresselia.
Metagross + Amoonguss was my Anti-Trick Room lead as Amoongus alone stopped Trick Room, but the support of Rage Powder allowed Metagross to avoid Will-O-Wisp from Jellicent and Rotom-Wash, Redirected Drill Run's from Rhydon while also giving me a good answer for Offensive options like Latios and Tornadus with Metagross.
Thundurus-I + Amoonguss is your anti-cheese lead, you can Taunt stuff like Sableye, Thundurus, or Whimsicott with Thundurus and you can redirect status moves with Amoongus, This lead also allows you to lead Thundurus without risking a stone edge nearly as much, also the threat of dual status moves can overwhelm teams lacking Lum and Chesto Berry.
Thundurus-I + Tyranitar is your anti-cheese annoyed version. the combo of Thunder Wave + Rock Slide is Obnoxious, this lead also gives you two mons which outspeed the whole unboosted metagame. This lead also puts a lot of pressure against Teams that like to setup because you have Taunt + Offense forcing them to have to play aggressive which is really problematic for them if they lead Cresselia. This lead can really punish passive teams well with Hax and offensive pressure better than any other lead this team has and I discovered that it was really effective into the Chansey team that UsaUsaBallonVGC was running.
Generally when you run this team you really want to stabilize and simplify the game state as much as possible and use your picks of Metagross, Tyranitar and Salamence to clean up your opponent after they have already lost the speed control with Tailwind or Twave and have been softened up and chipped by Scalds.
EXAMPLE GAMES:
VS SAND
VS RAIN
VS DISRUPTION
VS GOODSTUFF
VS HARD TR
Pokepaste
*NOTE I do have more probably "Better" replays with previous versions of the team but they would be less helpful anyway since they have Landorus or Latios instead of Salamence which changes a few matchups*
I'd like to give thanks to everyone who competed on ladder last month, I'd like to give a thanks to Radio Free C-Side & nerd of now for drafting me in Classics League, oopsgtg & Infinity.Cypher for practice during classics It was unfortunate our season had to end the way it did but I'm proud to have competed alongside all of you.
ORIGIN:
In playing Ladder this time around there were metagame changes compared to the previous time around. The most important was the adaptation of weird "cheese" compared to last Ladder where pretty much everyone was on a sample team or an adaption of a standard Balance team, this time around players experimented with bizarre team combinations, such has Guard Split Latias with Chansey played by UsaUsaBallonVGC, weird Smeargle setup teams played by MosquitoVGC and Lucien Lachance. There was also a strong adaptation of CressTran by zee that was used in classics and on ladder by Edu. All of these factors meant that whatever team I used had to have matchups into unexpected teams and that I could not rely on farming sample teams nearly as much to gain rating. Suicune Balance seemed like the obvious choice for metagame stabilization.
For Those Unfamiliar:
Suicune Balance I would define as a team with the combo of these 3 popularized by oopsgtg the idea is that they are just super neutral into everything with Suicune & Amoongus being damage sponges and Metagross not being Dragon weak means that you have a core that gives you positive speed control with Suicune, Priority with Bullet Punch, Redirection with Rage Powder, Anti-Trick Room with a min speed Amoongus while giving you a switch in to Draco Meteor, 2 switch ins for Muddy Water and a Pokemon that wins a 1v1 vs Cresselia in Metagross. Now this combo does have weaknesses namely Thundurus can be challenging, so is Heatran as well as Scizor and none of these mons resist Earthquake. However, you still have 3 slots to work out the kinks.
Aura (Suicune) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 12 SpA / 4 SpD / 236 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Snarl
- Tailwind
Suicune is the glue that holds this team together, it gives you that temporary double speed with Tailwind that can negate Swift Swim and Sand Rush. It gives you damage mitigation with Snarl against special attackers like Heatran, and against phsyical attackers you can fish for burns with Scald. Ice Beam is nice as coverage and allows Suicune to not be walled by common threats such as Latios. This set was stolen from oopsgtg the idea is 236 Spe hits 135 which is faster than Jolly Breloom and that came up a ton on ladder. besides that it is just invested into bulk. The only things I would consider changes is the speed, as mentioned earlier Smeargle saw some usage. So being able to lead Suicune into that would have helped but in general I don't expect Smeargle to see significant usage again.
GPT (Metagross) @ Psychic Gem
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 52 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Bullet Punch
- Protect
Metagross is by far my favorite Pokémon in the format as it offers what best combination of typing, attack strength and bulk within 2013. Playing with Pre-nerf Steels just feels unfair in general and Metagross was a needed check for a lot of the most Aggro Pokemon in the format like Latios, Tyranitar and Conkeldurr. This set as explained in my previous team report is meant to 2HKO Latios with the combination of Meteor Mash + Bullet Punch and survive a Heat Wave from 252+ SpA Volcarona. The rest goes into speed creep and if you decide to run Icy Wind with Metagross you outspeed a -1 252 Spe Landorus-Therian. Metagross pretty hard countered Amoongus, while also giving me beneficial end games vs Cresselia. I suppose the funniest thing it did for this team was deal with Chanseys by self boosting with Meteor Mash, but besides that its just the best most Oonga Boonga mon in the format.
Portobello (Amoonguss) (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 236 HP / 84 Def / 188 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect
Amoonguss really put in more work than usual for me this time around. Usually Amoonguss is just on this team to sometimes bring against Rain and to force your opponent to bring their outs to it. However it not just felt more than a necessary evil, it actually felt like a significant contributor as I faced many teams that lacked spread moves, many teams that wanted to stall with Chansey or Ferrothorn, and more Hard Trick Room than I expected. Min speed is necessary even thought his team is tailwind just so you can spore first in Trick Room, 236 HP 84 Def is to guarantee survive Life Orb Ice Punch from Conkeldurr, and the rest of the Evs were dumped into SpD. Lum Berry really was just here for Breloom, as it prevented Breloom from getting out of hand against this team especially when paired with Liepard.
Drax (Tyranitar) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Low Kick
- Rock Slide
- Ice Punch
ScarfTar really grew on me this ladder as I noticed a very large uptick in Tornadus-Incarnate which Tyranitar both deals with well with Rock Slide, but also is benefited by a reduction in Fighting types which Tyranitar loathes and I noticed Conkeldurr specifically was much lower usage than normal. Tyranitar also gave me a mon with a positive matchup into Abomasnow + Jellicent and a mon which 1v1s Heatran which this team really likes having multiple answers for. Crunch is to OHKO Latios, at least a couple times it caught a Latios with it, and Ice Punch was here because of this teams overall meh matchup into Landorus-Therian, giving me another attack to threaten the cat with.
Donda (Thundurus) (M) @ Electric Gem
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Taunt
- Thunder Wave
Let me level with y'all, Thundurus is here purely to not lose to cheese. Taunt was incredibly important to stop Hard TR as well as Minimize and Leech Seed shenanigans, Thunder Wave helped alleviate the speed control burden of Suicune which really helped into opposing Thundurus-Incarnates, Scarf Attackers and especially especially Tornadus-Incarnate. Electric Gem Thunderbolt was here to chunk and even OHKO opposing Suicunes which were overall popular on ladder, Hidden Power Ice is further insurance for the meh Landorus-Therian matchup and gave my Thundurus a way to damage its Therian form. Max speed was especially necessary on this set, however I might just be unlucky when it comes to winning the Taunt Speed tie with Thundurus, but into the Sadist Swagger Thundurus set, having the faster Taunt was the difference between playing a real match or going to the roulette table and betting your mortgage on black.
Volskya (Salamence) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 248 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Protect
Salamence was the last Pokemon, despite being the namesake of the team it is by far the least necessary, functionally the team works with the 5 previous, it will just struggle with certain matchups a little bit more. So originally this was an offensive Cresselia, like the one I had won a Limitless tour back in March with. However I realized I never brought it and it overall underperformed. So then I used Landorus-Therian but it was awkward because the only mon I could EQ next to was Thundurus, my preferred Choice Scarf Item was taken by Tyranitar so I had to run Sash and it wasn't really bringable into Rain which is a massive issue when I need this slot to help deal with Scizor. So then I switched to Latios with HP Fire to do that but honestly Latios was just as useless as Cresselia, so then I realized I wanted this slot to be able to deal with both the problematic Steel types of Scizor, Heatran and Ferrothorn and then a lightbulb went off and I plugged in Hydreigon and then suddenly the team autoloss to Conkeldurr. To be honest I was lost, pretty much whatever I ran felt bad and while the other 5 were very strong and dealt with most matchups. Until it hit me Salamence can OHKO the 3 steels, actually all 4 it can even OHKO Metagross, while bring bringable into Rain, giving me a need intimidate for Landorus-Therian and Conkeldurr and even carried the benefit of being able to chunk Rotom which with this in combination with Amoongus gave me a duo to deal with the washing machine. using this Life Orb Salamence and Amoongus I proceeded to go 17-2 to finish Ladder and my only 2 losses were to Sejun's Nationals team which is the really annoying Breloom Liepard team and even in those I got horrendous luck. This team really gave me such a nice matchup spreed with a +++ vs Rain a + vs Sand a ++ vs most Balance cores, a ++ vs Hard TR a + vs cheese and a neutral matchup into CressTran.
COMMON LEADS:
Suicune + Metagross is about as Balance as you can get Water + Steel has always been good in VGC and having the bulkiest of Waters next to the ultimate out to Amoonguss has always felt very good and unstoppable, your lines are very simple and there aren't too many combinations that prevent this lead combo, namely Offensive Thundurus can stop this combo as well as Trick Room Teams but the main idea is you get Metagross in a tailwind and just spam attacks as you debuff the opponent with Snarl.
Suicune + Amoonguss is your full anti-Rain lead, not against all Rain teams is this optimal and a majority MetaCune gets the job done, but for offensive Rain Teams with Breloom or Thundurus-Therian this ends up being the default. Also really awkward for Rotom-Wash to deal with since Snarl + Spore just completely cripples your ability to make progress next to something like a Cresselia.
Metagross + Amoonguss was my Anti-Trick Room lead as Amoongus alone stopped Trick Room, but the support of Rage Powder allowed Metagross to avoid Will-O-Wisp from Jellicent and Rotom-Wash, Redirected Drill Run's from Rhydon while also giving me a good answer for Offensive options like Latios and Tornadus with Metagross.
Thundurus-I + Amoonguss is your anti-cheese lead, you can Taunt stuff like Sableye, Thundurus, or Whimsicott with Thundurus and you can redirect status moves with Amoongus, This lead also allows you to lead Thundurus without risking a stone edge nearly as much, also the threat of dual status moves can overwhelm teams lacking Lum and Chesto Berry.
Thundurus-I + Tyranitar is your anti-cheese annoyed version. the combo of Thunder Wave + Rock Slide is Obnoxious, this lead also gives you two mons which outspeed the whole unboosted metagame. This lead also puts a lot of pressure against Teams that like to setup because you have Taunt + Offense forcing them to have to play aggressive which is really problematic for them if they lead Cresselia. This lead can really punish passive teams well with Hax and offensive pressure better than any other lead this team has and I discovered that it was really effective into the Chansey team that UsaUsaBallonVGC was running.
Generally when you run this team you really want to stabilize and simplify the game state as much as possible and use your picks of Metagross, Tyranitar and Salamence to clean up your opponent after they have already lost the speed control with Tailwind or Twave and have been softened up and chipped by Scalds.
EXAMPLE GAMES:
VS SAND
VS RAIN
VS DISRUPTION
VS GOODSTUFF
VS HARD TR
Pokepaste
*NOTE I do have more probably "Better" replays with previous versions of the team but they would be less helpful anyway since they have Landorus or Latios instead of Salamence which changes a few matchups*
I'd like to give thanks to everyone who competed on ladder last month, I'd like to give a thanks to Radio Free C-Side & nerd of now for drafting me in Classics League, oopsgtg & Infinity.Cypher for practice during classics It was unfortunate our season had to end the way it did but I'm proud to have competed alongside all of you.