We’re 2013 players, of course we write warstories.
I had a lot of fun playing in the most recent Classics League in the 2013 slot and I thought that Jun and I did a lot of experimenting with unconventional Pokemon that piqued people’s interest so I wanted to take some time to talk about the prep work and teambuilding we did as well as highlighting some of my matches throughout the tour and the lessons I learned from playing.
Week 1: vs. Teka
I prepped two main rain teams for Teka, the first was inspired by R_Justice’s rain team which has a fast mode but also a TR mode. My rendition had Swagger Cress + Lum Berry Metagross to pair with the fast mode of Kingdra / Thundurus-I, but I found the team did not play well against Teka’s team (read as: I missed the self-swagger in the majority of my practice sets). I learned that if he led Hitmontop + Tornadus or Latios and clicked FO + Tailwind / Sunny Day the matchup against rain was quite favorable for him. Excadrill outspeeds Kingdra and my ground-immune Pokemon do not threaten Excadrill at all. No matter the method of speed control he used, Latios and Tornadus threatened the majority of the Pokemon on this rain team and so I scrapped the idea pretty quickly.
I instead opted for a more traditional defensive rain team but with Lando-T as my anti-weather and anti-Thundurus Pokemon as opposed to Terrakion. Against opposing weather Pokemon, I could lead Politoed + Lando-T, and if they were fast Ttar I would get rain up and Lando-T could threaten an OHKO onto a (presumably) ScarfTar. If they were slower than Politoed I could double into the Ttar (or Abomasnow) and pick up the KO and then switch Politoed back in later to win the weather war. I saw success with this adjustment in testing and felt confident about the MU.
Unfortunately despite all the prepwork I did, Teka no showed for the match and after patiently waiting an hour oh the guilt was subbed in, a player who I don’t think had any prior experience playing 2013. I had a strong suspicion that they would take a very standard 2013 team and that I could capitalize on their inexperience with both the team and in the format to a victory. I should win the MU the majority of the time, but my odds would be their lowest if they brought Zheng’s Worlds team, which is a bit of a nightmarish MU for rain with Light Screen Rotom-W and Rest Cresselia, which the my team could only whittle down. I, however, know that Zheng’s win condition against Rain is clicking Light Screen with Rotom-W, but they might not know that without experience. This made me still feel that my odds with my planned rain team were better even if I drew a bad MU than if I made a last minute switch to something that had a better MU into Zheng’s worlds team but I wasn’t as practiced with.
Unfortunately they brought Zheng’s world’s team.
My team:
oh the guilt's team:
Teka then messages me a minute later asking if I’m ready for our match (we don’t play).
Week 2: vs. Jun
Jun and I have been friends for over a decade, but over the past few years we've gotten a lot closer over playing 2013 and RCT with our mutual friend and fellow grizzled veteran Kristian. He and I prepped all of our matches together, we built together, scrimmed, etc., so we know each other’s playstyle and tendencies. We also know that we want to have fun, and we agreed to play with a banlist of every Pokemon used in week 1. Big shoutouts to both of our managers for letting us play our silly little match and putting fun first.
The banlist was: Amoonguss, Bisharp, Conkeldurr, Cresselia, Excadrill, Heatran, Hitmontop, Jellicent, Kingdra, Landorus-T, Latios, Mamoswine, Metagross, Politoed, Rhydon, Rotom-W, Thundurus-I, Tornadus-I, & Tyranitar.
I did not know at the time, but Jun used our good friend Dingram’s US Nationals team and he did not know that I was using Krelcroc’s Korean Nationals team. Both of our teams had a core of Latias + Raikou and we immediately could tell what the other’s sets looked like.
My team:
Jun’s team:
GGs friend. I look forward to the next stupid idea we come up with.
Week 3: Mogo vs. Zee
My managers decided to give me the week off before potentially playing Gavin and Krelcroc the final two weeks and we slotted Mogo in instead. They had not played any 2013 but had done some testing with me in prior weeks so they were not totally green to the format. Still, I knew I had a bit of coaching and prep to do with them to give us the best chance at beating Zee.
Mogo and I played like 8 or 9 Bo3s to get him the experience he needed against a standard DOU team, and after a little growing pain he was a seasoned veteran and I felt we had a very good shot at winning, especially when Zee’s team was basically what we had practiced against all week.
Mogo’s team:
Zee's team:
G1: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2155827981
G2: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2155829758
G3: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2155831144
As I was not playing, I cannot dive into the mind of Mogo here, but Mogo leaned into the threat of Spore more than regularly utilizing it, drawing Taunts from Thundurus to waste its turn while Breloom did significant chip damage to things with Bullet Seed. The game plan was solid, as Cress had several free turns to click Icy Wind and Mogo was able to upset Zee 2-1.
Later that week I get a ping from my manager asking me to sub in for 2022 since our player was not responding and our subs were afk. Unfortunately I was busy doing grown man shit (reading Good Night Moon six times to my child before bed) and despite my managers’ best efforts to buy time, they called activity instead of letting grandpa have a go at it.
Is what I WOULD have posted in my youth, but now I share my unneeded shit talking in Discord (and I guess here now).
Week 4: Vs. Gengarboi
Now this was SUPPOSED to be Gavin, and we were SUPPOSED to play NFE Cup, but due to various circumstances he dodged the MU and subbed in Riley instead. He’s lucky too because I had a disgusting perish trap team locked and loaded.
My team:
Riley’s team:
In retrospect, this MU is much more manageable for my team if I was Focus Sash Lando-T rather than Scarf. Being slower than Latios is ideal because if Latios uses Sunny Day and I U-Turn into Politoed rain is up at the end of the turn (and before Heatran would move). As it stood, there was little difference if I switched in Politoed or used U-Turn, they would Sunny Day after and I remained on the backfoot. This was something that seems so obvious after having played the MU and had I played more practice sets I would have made this change.
Another change in my play that I should have made was to lead the rain mode and click Substitute with Kingdra t1 while Ice Beaming or switching out with Politoed. Yes, they will get Sunny Day off, but I at least have a Kingdra behind a Sub that takes two turns to KO and have the option to either switch Politoed back in or I’ve done some valuable chip damage to either Amoonguss or Latios.
Week 5: vs. Caleb
Ah, Caleb. Another long time friend of mine. We played in the first Classics League and I lost 0-2 to a hail team (I blame the two freezes he got which didn’t matter too much). Not only was this a revenge match for me, if our team tied or won then we made the playoffs, and if his team won they made the playoffs. There was a lot on the line, so I hit the lab more earnestly this time.
Caleb and I were slatted to battle on Saturday, but we pushed it back a day as date night with the wi*e lasted a bit longer than I anticipated. During the time of the delay, my team dropped to 3-4, meaning it all came down to me and my Regirock to secure a tie, guaranteeing my team a spot in the playoffs.
My team:
Caleb's team:
you thought
Although I got a bit of a break in these games, the victory was only possible due to some of the prep that I did. Because my team was awkwardly weak to opposing Amoonguss, I had a lot of wonky speed IVs (and sometimes EVs) on my team to play with speed tiers both in and out of TR. Of note for this match was that my Abomasnow had 2 speed IVs, making it one point faster than min speed Jellicent (which both Caleb and I had). In practice, I wanted to be able to break a substitute with Jellicent before firing off a Blizzard, but in game 2 because TR was never set up Abomasnow was always faster than his Jellicent and could threaten a Giga Drain KO at any point, perhaps influencing some of his decision making.
Semis: vs. Smudge
As fate would have it, this match once again decided everything for my team. We were down 3-4 and it was up to me to win to force tiebreakers. With everything on the line again, the ANTIFA SUPER GAMER returned to Showdown confident after all my testing.
My team:
Smudge's Team:
This is the same 6 that Mogo used Vs. Zee, but I made some changes to EV spreads and used Steel Gem Metagross instead of Band. Otherwise it was the same team.
Thank you to my opponents for being very patient and understanding with me as I could never promise an actual start time as you never know when a two-year-old is going to go to bed.
Thanks to the staff for arranging this tour. I hope we see another one and I hope a BW format makes the cut (be it 13, 12, or even 11).
Thank you to my wife who had to put up with me blabbering about Pokemon for a month or so while pretending to listen. Her phone heard me say Pokemon so much that her X the everything app algorithm then fed her every tweet related to Worlds (sorry).
Huge shoutout to Jun for telling me that there even was another Classics League so I would sign up. Thank you for all the help with building, testing, scouting, etc. wp on 10%.
Thank you to my teammates, Mogo and Nerd of Now, who helped grind matches out with me in a format they had never played.
I want to thank my wonderful managers, Benji and Hana, for drafting me. I was worried that without having Chris to pick me as a nepo hire I would get passed over for players who have played at a TPCI sanctioned tournament more recently than 7 years ago. It was lovely getting to meet y’all and I hope we get to work together in the future.
Till next time. Vamanos, explorers!
I had a lot of fun playing in the most recent Classics League in the 2013 slot and I thought that Jun and I did a lot of experimenting with unconventional Pokemon that piqued people’s interest so I wanted to take some time to talk about the prep work and teambuilding we did as well as highlighting some of my matches throughout the tour and the lessons I learned from playing.
Week 1: vs. Teka
Teka has played basically the same 2013 team for a while, consisting of Ttar/Excadrill/Tornadus/Hitmontop/Latios/Volcarona.
Unfortunately, all of the replays from the first classics league were deleted so I could not scout items or movesets, but I could see that they brought the same 6 every match, even after losing with it, so I had no reason to believe they would deviate from that team. I felt that rain had a solid MU into it, and figured that his team had to have Sunny Day Latios and Tailwind Tornadus as an additional way to check rain teams outside of Ttar.
Unfortunately, all of the replays from the first classics league were deleted so I could not scout items or movesets, but I could see that they brought the same 6 every match, even after losing with it, so I had no reason to believe they would deviate from that team. I felt that rain had a solid MU into it, and figured that his team had to have Sunny Day Latios and Tailwind Tornadus as an additional way to check rain teams outside of Ttar.
I prepped two main rain teams for Teka, the first was inspired by R_Justice’s rain team which has a fast mode but also a TR mode. My rendition had Swagger Cress + Lum Berry Metagross to pair with the fast mode of Kingdra / Thundurus-I, but I found the team did not play well against Teka’s team (read as: I missed the self-swagger in the majority of my practice sets). I learned that if he led Hitmontop + Tornadus or Latios and clicked FO + Tailwind / Sunny Day the matchup against rain was quite favorable for him. Excadrill outspeeds Kingdra and my ground-immune Pokemon do not threaten Excadrill at all. No matter the method of speed control he used, Latios and Tornadus threatened the majority of the Pokemon on this rain team and so I scrapped the idea pretty quickly.
I instead opted for a more traditional defensive rain team but with Lando-T as my anti-weather and anti-Thundurus Pokemon as opposed to Terrakion. Against opposing weather Pokemon, I could lead Politoed + Lando-T, and if they were fast Ttar I would get rain up and Lando-T could threaten an OHKO onto a (presumably) ScarfTar. If they were slower than Politoed I could double into the Ttar (or Abomasnow) and pick up the KO and then switch Politoed back in later to win the weather war. I saw success with this adjustment in testing and felt confident about the MU.
Unfortunately despite all the prepwork I did, Teka no showed for the match and after patiently waiting an hour oh the guilt was subbed in, a player who I don’t think had any prior experience playing 2013. I had a strong suspicion that they would take a very standard 2013 team and that I could capitalize on their inexperience with both the team and in the format to a victory. I should win the MU the majority of the time, but my odds would be their lowest if they brought Zheng’s Worlds team, which is a bit of a nightmarish MU for rain with Light Screen Rotom-W and Rest Cresselia, which the my team could only whittle down. I, however, know that Zheng’s win condition against Rain is clicking Light Screen with Rotom-W, but they might not know that without experience. This made me still feel that my odds with my planned rain team were better even if I drew a bad MU than if I made a last minute switch to something that had a better MU into Zheng’s worlds team but I wasn’t as practiced with.
Unfortunately they brought Zheng’s world’s team.
oh the guilt's team:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2148379876-qnfwq0kl661t4oqxtqp53lpiv78bakmpw
I led Landorus/Politoed and they led Landorus/Rotom-W. I knew that I needed to chip down Rotom-W and elected to U-Turn with Landorus to switch in Kingdra and preserved Politoed by switching in Amoonguss, giving me two Pokemon which could threaten Rotom-W. They didn’t Light Screen which confirmed my suspicion that they weren’t aware of that win condition. On turn 2, I used Muddy Water with Kingdra to both chip Rotom as well as break the Sash on Lando-T and Spore the Rotom. They chose to not Light Screen again and instead KO’d Kingdra with a Thunderbolt and EQ, but with a 1 HP Lando-T and half HP sleeping Rotom-W, I was comfortable with that trade since screens were not up.
I brought Lando-T back in and picked up the knockout on Rotom-W the next turn with Rock Slide + Giga Drain while they switched their Lando-T out for Cresselia to threaten both of my Pokemon. They then sent Lando-T back in after Rotom-W fainted. I protect my Amoonguss and switch Politoed in for Lando-T. They double into Amoonguss. I then switch Lando-T in for Amoonguss and chunk the Cress with a Hydro Pump, leaving it with around 30% HP while he does minimal chip damage to both Lando-T and Politoed.
And then I make a major misplay. I decide to Rock Slide and Ice Beam the Cress (min rolling on both hits) leaving it with single digit HP while it Rests back to full HP. In my mind the other option was to Hydro Pump the Cresselia and risk the miss and I completely ignored that U-Turn was a guaranteed KO. Conk is revealed as his 4th mon and because I already expended my Water Gem on Politoed I knew I could not OHKO it, but if they TR Amoonguss should underspeed everything and I still felt confident.
I traded Politoed to get Conk down to ~15% while they TR. And then I was reminded that -1 Speed Conkeldurr is exactly 1 point slower than Amoonguss, moving first and OHKOing my Lando-T, leaving Amoonguss with no way of beating Cress. Whoops. Had I protected on Politoed and not let him Hammer Arm, or U-Turn with Lando-T this was my game. Now on the backfoot, I needed to make an adjustment.
I led Landorus/Politoed and they led Landorus/Rotom-W. I knew that I needed to chip down Rotom-W and elected to U-Turn with Landorus to switch in Kingdra and preserved Politoed by switching in Amoonguss, giving me two Pokemon which could threaten Rotom-W. They didn’t Light Screen which confirmed my suspicion that they weren’t aware of that win condition. On turn 2, I used Muddy Water with Kingdra to both chip Rotom as well as break the Sash on Lando-T and Spore the Rotom. They chose to not Light Screen again and instead KO’d Kingdra with a Thunderbolt and EQ, but with a 1 HP Lando-T and half HP sleeping Rotom-W, I was comfortable with that trade since screens were not up.
I brought Lando-T back in and picked up the knockout on Rotom-W the next turn with Rock Slide + Giga Drain while they switched their Lando-T out for Cresselia to threaten both of my Pokemon. They then sent Lando-T back in after Rotom-W fainted. I protect my Amoonguss and switch Politoed in for Lando-T. They double into Amoonguss. I then switch Lando-T in for Amoonguss and chunk the Cress with a Hydro Pump, leaving it with around 30% HP while he does minimal chip damage to both Lando-T and Politoed.
And then I make a major misplay. I decide to Rock Slide and Ice Beam the Cress (min rolling on both hits) leaving it with single digit HP while it Rests back to full HP. In my mind the other option was to Hydro Pump the Cresselia and risk the miss and I completely ignored that U-Turn was a guaranteed KO. Conk is revealed as his 4th mon and because I already expended my Water Gem on Politoed I knew I could not OHKO it, but if they TR Amoonguss should underspeed everything and I still felt confident.
I traded Politoed to get Conk down to ~15% while they TR. And then I was reminded that -1 Speed Conkeldurr is exactly 1 point slower than Amoonguss, moving first and OHKOing my Lando-T, leaving Amoonguss with no way of beating Cress. Whoops. Had I protected on Politoed and not let him Hammer Arm, or U-Turn with Lando-T this was my game. Now on the backfoot, I needed to make an adjustment.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2148383179-izfql0a51sbbvcqhruabhofo0kkx4pypw
This time they Light Screen immediately, seeing that I brought 3 special attackers, and it is not a good spot for me early into game 2, as I am staring down Cress & Rotom-W with Politoed and Amoonguss. I know that I need to stall out these light screen turns to let Politoed and Kingdra do damage, so I protect Politoed and swap in Metagross for Amoonguss. They cover the switch with a T-Bolt, bringing my Metagross down to about half HP. They then read my Protect again, doubling into my Politoed as I switched into Amoonguss and protected Metagross. I have two Pokemon on low HP, they have Light Screen up, I’ve done like 30 damage max.
I decided to sac Amoonguss (which is sitting at 1%) in order to get a Zen Headbutt on the Rotom-W, a 2HKO. Unfortunately I missed, leaving me now 3v4 with one more turn of Light Screen to stall out. I bring in Kingdra, stall out the Light Screen with a double Protect, and they TR, not good, especially since I chose to let Amoonguss faint earlier. I double the Rotom-W as it sets up Light Screens, critting it with Draco Meteor (deserved). I Protect Metagross and elect to do minimal damage with Kingdra, missing the Cresselia but picking up an accuracy drop on the Conkeldurr. They switch out Conk for Lando-T while I switch Politoed in for Kingdra. I break Lando's Sash with a Zen Headbutt.
Last turn of trick room: Kingdra switches back in for Metagross while Politoed fires an Ice Beam at the Landorus while their Cresselia Trick Rooms to reverse it (unsure why they didn’t elect to chip something). We have one more turn of Light Screen, but I feared they were going to reset TR, so I fired off a Muddy Water and Hydro Pump into the Cress. They switch in Conk for the Lando-T and opt to pick up a knockout on the Kingdra with Psyshock.
It’s now my Politoed at 75% HP and Metagross at half against a Cress at 1/3, Conk at 40%, and Lando-T at 45%. My Politoed is faster than his Cress and Metagross is faster than Conk. This is winnable. They Mach Punch the Politoed and I manage to land both of my attacks, picking up two knockouts. And on the final turn I reveal all of my unrevealed items and moves. I Helping Hand with my Politoed and pick up the KO on Lando-T with a Steel Gem boosted Bullet Punch. Had I not been Helping Hand it would have been a roll, had I used my Steel Gem earlier in the match it would have been a roll. Instead, I was able to create a win con.
This time they Light Screen immediately, seeing that I brought 3 special attackers, and it is not a good spot for me early into game 2, as I am staring down Cress & Rotom-W with Politoed and Amoonguss. I know that I need to stall out these light screen turns to let Politoed and Kingdra do damage, so I protect Politoed and swap in Metagross for Amoonguss. They cover the switch with a T-Bolt, bringing my Metagross down to about half HP. They then read my Protect again, doubling into my Politoed as I switched into Amoonguss and protected Metagross. I have two Pokemon on low HP, they have Light Screen up, I’ve done like 30 damage max.
I decided to sac Amoonguss (which is sitting at 1%) in order to get a Zen Headbutt on the Rotom-W, a 2HKO. Unfortunately I missed, leaving me now 3v4 with one more turn of Light Screen to stall out. I bring in Kingdra, stall out the Light Screen with a double Protect, and they TR, not good, especially since I chose to let Amoonguss faint earlier. I double the Rotom-W as it sets up Light Screens, critting it with Draco Meteor (deserved). I Protect Metagross and elect to do minimal damage with Kingdra, missing the Cresselia but picking up an accuracy drop on the Conkeldurr. They switch out Conk for Lando-T while I switch Politoed in for Kingdra. I break Lando's Sash with a Zen Headbutt.
Last turn of trick room: Kingdra switches back in for Metagross while Politoed fires an Ice Beam at the Landorus while their Cresselia Trick Rooms to reverse it (unsure why they didn’t elect to chip something). We have one more turn of Light Screen, but I feared they were going to reset TR, so I fired off a Muddy Water and Hydro Pump into the Cress. They switch in Conk for the Lando-T and opt to pick up a knockout on the Kingdra with Psyshock.
It’s now my Politoed at 75% HP and Metagross at half against a Cress at 1/3, Conk at 40%, and Lando-T at 45%. My Politoed is faster than his Cress and Metagross is faster than Conk. This is winnable. They Mach Punch the Politoed and I manage to land both of my attacks, picking up two knockouts. And on the final turn I reveal all of my unrevealed items and moves. I Helping Hand with my Politoed and pick up the KO on Lando-T with a Steel Gem boosted Bullet Punch. Had I not been Helping Hand it would have been a roll, had I used my Steel Gem earlier in the match it would have been a roll. Instead, I was able to create a win con.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2148386415-wio5omb2hyvzgaado34k2rx12r1xc75pw
Since they’ve shown their newfound willingness to mash Light Screen, I need to now prevent them from using it rather than stalling out several turns of it. I lead Thundurus to taunt the Rotom and Metagross to threaten most of his team while they lead Lando-T and Rotom-W.
I taunt the Rotom and Meteor Mash the Landorus, bringing it down to Sash, while they double into the Thundurus with a Rock Slide and Hydro Pump, which Thundurus survives thanks to its Sitrus Berry.
I go for a Bullet Punch on Lando-T, which switches in for Cress, and I do 40% to the Rotom with a T-Bolt before he knocks out my Thundurus with a T-Bolt of their own. Politoed comes in, I Helping Hand, Metagross survives a Hydro Pump with 5% (I was guaranteed to survive) and then KOs Rotom with a Zen Headbutt while his Cresselia Trick Rooms. Conk freely switches in and I begin stalling TR turns, as I had Kingdra in the back and not Amoonguss.
They Hammer Arms my Politoed, which survives with 1% (a 56.3% chance to KO) and Psyshocks the Metagross which ALSO lives with a sliver of health (Showdown says Metagross had 4-6% HP and Psyshock does 4-5% HP). I double into the Conk (just in case I missed) with Hydro Pump and Zen Headbutt, but Politoed does the job and I do minimal damage to cress with Metagross.
Lando-T comes in, I double protect to stall out another turn of TR.
I then trade Metagross for another 35% to Cress as TR expires and Kingdra switches in for free.
Helping Hand Muddy Water picks up the double knockout to secure the set victory.
Since they’ve shown their newfound willingness to mash Light Screen, I need to now prevent them from using it rather than stalling out several turns of it. I lead Thundurus to taunt the Rotom and Metagross to threaten most of his team while they lead Lando-T and Rotom-W.
I taunt the Rotom and Meteor Mash the Landorus, bringing it down to Sash, while they double into the Thundurus with a Rock Slide and Hydro Pump, which Thundurus survives thanks to its Sitrus Berry.
I go for a Bullet Punch on Lando-T, which switches in for Cress, and I do 40% to the Rotom with a T-Bolt before he knocks out my Thundurus with a T-Bolt of their own. Politoed comes in, I Helping Hand, Metagross survives a Hydro Pump with 5% (I was guaranteed to survive) and then KOs Rotom with a Zen Headbutt while his Cresselia Trick Rooms. Conk freely switches in and I begin stalling TR turns, as I had Kingdra in the back and not Amoonguss.
They Hammer Arms my Politoed, which survives with 1% (a 56.3% chance to KO) and Psyshocks the Metagross which ALSO lives with a sliver of health (Showdown says Metagross had 4-6% HP and Psyshock does 4-5% HP). I double into the Conk (just in case I missed) with Hydro Pump and Zen Headbutt, but Politoed does the job and I do minimal damage to cress with Metagross.
Lando-T comes in, I double protect to stall out another turn of TR.
I then trade Metagross for another 35% to Cress as TR expires and Kingdra switches in for free.
Helping Hand Muddy Water picks up the double knockout to secure the set victory.
Teka then messages me a minute later asking if I’m ready for our match (we don’t play).
Week 2: vs. Jun
Jun and I have been friends for over a decade, but over the past few years we've gotten a lot closer over playing 2013 and RCT with our mutual friend and fellow grizzled veteran Kristian. He and I prepped all of our matches together, we built together, scrimmed, etc., so we know each other’s playstyle and tendencies. We also know that we want to have fun, and we agreed to play with a banlist of every Pokemon used in week 1. Big shoutouts to both of our managers for letting us play our silly little match and putting fun first.
The banlist was: Amoonguss, Bisharp, Conkeldurr, Cresselia, Excadrill, Heatran, Hitmontop, Jellicent, Kingdra, Landorus-T, Latios, Mamoswine, Metagross, Politoed, Rhydon, Rotom-W, Thundurus-I, Tornadus-I, & Tyranitar.
A format without Genies, Latios, the usual bulky Steel-types, rain, and Ttar. We were excited to cook up new ideas given these restrictions.
I thought there was about 70 or so Pokemon that could be viable and put them into 3 groups:
1 - Pokemon that do similar things to Pokemon on the banlist but are worse or outclassed for various reasons. Eg. Hydreigon or Latias replacing Latios. Zapdos replacing Thundurus-I, Scrafty replacing Hitmontop/Lando-T.
2 - Strategies that were good already but now have one or two major threats banned. Eg. Breloom + Tornadus/Togekiss (both struggle with Taunt Thundurus), Scrafty + Volcarona (has issues with Lando-T/Ttar), hard TR (which no longer needs to beat Amoonguss), Whimsicott + Terrakion, sun and hail teams, among others.
3 - Pokemon that have several major checks or counters on that banlist. Eg. Terrakion and Garchomp were major threats in 2012 but fell off a cliff in 2013 basically entirely due to Lando-T.
I built 3 teams in preparation for the match. The first was a rebuild of my 2012 Nationals Team and had Gastrodon, Mismagius, Terrakion, Hydreigon, Scizor, and Zapdos. The second was an offshoot of a sun team I built with JRank also in 2012 which had Choice Scarf Darmanitan as its sweeper. I then looked at a series of 2012/13 teams that only had zero or one Pokemon on the banlist that I could just plug and play. I looked at Huy’s T10 World’s team centered around Specs Gyarados in Hail, Baz Anderson’s T9 World’s team with Breloom & Liepard, and Krelcroc’s T4 Korean Nationals team with Raikou/Latias.
I know that Jun likes to use Hail in various forms, so I wanted a team which played well against hail but could also handle the offensive pressure of Terrakion & Hydreigon. I ultimately ended up using Krelcroc’s Nats team, replacing the Garchomp for Band Arcanine. I knew I wanted an intimidate user, and with rain, Ttar, Lando-T all banned, I felt it was time for Arcanine to shine.
Gastrodon’s major checks, Amoonguss and Latios, were both banned, and I liked its MU into the remaining dragons, Zapdos, etc. Latias’s moveset could not have been more perfect for our restrictions. Safeguard was vital against Breloom teams, its Haban Berry gave it an out against the more offensive dragons, it had HP Fire for Scizor and was faster than the premiere physical attackers and could mitigate their damage with Reflect.
I felt Scizor was going to be really good in this format. Its biggest counters were all removed (Heatran, several bulky waters, Thundurus, etc.) and I knew I had to have it on my team.
I thought there was about 70 or so Pokemon that could be viable and put them into 3 groups:
1 - Pokemon that do similar things to Pokemon on the banlist but are worse or outclassed for various reasons. Eg. Hydreigon or Latias replacing Latios. Zapdos replacing Thundurus-I, Scrafty replacing Hitmontop/Lando-T.
2 - Strategies that were good already but now have one or two major threats banned. Eg. Breloom + Tornadus/Togekiss (both struggle with Taunt Thundurus), Scrafty + Volcarona (has issues with Lando-T/Ttar), hard TR (which no longer needs to beat Amoonguss), Whimsicott + Terrakion, sun and hail teams, among others.
3 - Pokemon that have several major checks or counters on that banlist. Eg. Terrakion and Garchomp were major threats in 2012 but fell off a cliff in 2013 basically entirely due to Lando-T.
I built 3 teams in preparation for the match. The first was a rebuild of my 2012 Nationals Team and had Gastrodon, Mismagius, Terrakion, Hydreigon, Scizor, and Zapdos. The second was an offshoot of a sun team I built with JRank also in 2012 which had Choice Scarf Darmanitan as its sweeper. I then looked at a series of 2012/13 teams that only had zero or one Pokemon on the banlist that I could just plug and play. I looked at Huy’s T10 World’s team centered around Specs Gyarados in Hail, Baz Anderson’s T9 World’s team with Breloom & Liepard, and Krelcroc’s T4 Korean Nationals team with Raikou/Latias.
I know that Jun likes to use Hail in various forms, so I wanted a team which played well against hail but could also handle the offensive pressure of Terrakion & Hydreigon. I ultimately ended up using Krelcroc’s Nats team, replacing the Garchomp for Band Arcanine. I knew I wanted an intimidate user, and with rain, Ttar, Lando-T all banned, I felt it was time for Arcanine to shine.
Gastrodon’s major checks, Amoonguss and Latios, were both banned, and I liked its MU into the remaining dragons, Zapdos, etc. Latias’s moveset could not have been more perfect for our restrictions. Safeguard was vital against Breloom teams, its Haban Berry gave it an out against the more offensive dragons, it had HP Fire for Scizor and was faster than the premiere physical attackers and could mitigate their damage with Reflect.
I felt Scizor was going to be really good in this format. Its biggest counters were all removed (Heatran, several bulky waters, Thundurus, etc.) and I knew I had to have it on my team.
My team:
Jun’s team:
G1: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2152504737
G2: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2152508040
G3: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2152512393
Since this was a fun exhibition styled match I won’t go into excruciating detail. Jun and I’s practice matches are often a hax fest, and these matches were no different (and I wouldn’t have it any other way). I think any of the games could have been won by either of us if we played a little better or if luck broke our way a tad bit more.
From team preview, I knew that I really wanted to bring Gastrodon. His only way to quickly KO it was to have Giga Drain Volcarona, which he forgot to tech. Otherwise it could sit on the field and threaten things with Earth Power and Ice Beam. I also knew that Arcanine could OHKO just about anything on his team save Latias, so it felt like a must bring as well. Ultimately, I won the first game off the back of a helpful crit at the end of the match (after getting crit earlier in the match). Game 2 came down to a stall fest between Scrafty and Gastrodon, neither of us being able to KO the other. If Jun got a defense drop with Crunch it would secure him the game and if I got an Ice Beam freeze it could secure it for me. I got the freeze, he thaws almost immediately, and he gets a defense drop and I lose. What can you do.
Game 3 ultimately came down to my lack of balls to click the Swords Dance button with Scizor in front of a low health Volcarona, electing to Bullet Punch to cover a Heat Wave while he Protected. Afterwards, I lacked the damage to muscle through his team (and he then crit my Gastrodon with Drain Punch).
G2: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2152508040
G3: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2152512393
Since this was a fun exhibition styled match I won’t go into excruciating detail. Jun and I’s practice matches are often a hax fest, and these matches were no different (and I wouldn’t have it any other way). I think any of the games could have been won by either of us if we played a little better or if luck broke our way a tad bit more.
From team preview, I knew that I really wanted to bring Gastrodon. His only way to quickly KO it was to have Giga Drain Volcarona, which he forgot to tech. Otherwise it could sit on the field and threaten things with Earth Power and Ice Beam. I also knew that Arcanine could OHKO just about anything on his team save Latias, so it felt like a must bring as well. Ultimately, I won the first game off the back of a helpful crit at the end of the match (after getting crit earlier in the match). Game 2 came down to a stall fest between Scrafty and Gastrodon, neither of us being able to KO the other. If Jun got a defense drop with Crunch it would secure him the game and if I got an Ice Beam freeze it could secure it for me. I got the freeze, he thaws almost immediately, and he gets a defense drop and I lose. What can you do.
Game 3 ultimately came down to my lack of balls to click the Swords Dance button with Scizor in front of a low health Volcarona, electing to Bullet Punch to cover a Heat Wave while he Protected. Afterwards, I lacked the damage to muscle through his team (and he then crit my Gastrodon with Drain Punch).
Week 3: Mogo vs. Zee
My managers decided to give me the week off before potentially playing Gavin and Krelcroc the final two weeks and we slotted Mogo in instead. They had not played any 2013 but had done some testing with me in prior weeks so they were not totally green to the format. Still, I knew I had a bit of coaching and prep to do with them to give us the best chance at beating Zee.
I knew that Zee was (relative to me) a newer VGC player and that they had no significant experience with VGC 2013, but I knew that they were confident in their ability to play BWDOU. From looking at their past teams from the first Classics League and seeing their team the first week, I was certain that they were going to bring a very standard DOU team to the match. That’s the format they know and play regularly. Without anything to prep for against Mogo, the safest bet was to use something standard that has neutral matchups and to try and win on comfort. It is my opinion that there’s a shallow pool of Pokemon used in DOU that are legal in VGC that people mix and match from when teambuilding for 2013. As such a lot of their teams feature 4 of the same 6 Pokemon with slightly varied sets. I knew we were going to see a goodstuffs team containing 6 of some 10 or so high base stat Pokemon. Of this shortlist, I would have bet money we were going to see Jellicent, Latios, Thundurus-I, and one of Heatran/Metagross.
My immediate first thought was to give Mogo something that Zee has probably never had to regularly play against because they didn’t ladder in 2013, and that something was Breloom + Tornadus. That combo has at worst 50/50s against everything (which slot is protecting, is Breloom sporing this turn?, etc.) and the MU can feel unwinnable for the opponent if T1 or T2 goes your way and you get a free Spore or Tailwind off or even pick up a KO. Prior to 2013 US Nats, that combo was terrorizing the ladder and we all made major adjustments to our teams in order to beat that combo. We then had to make adjustments again before Worlds in response to Baz’s Breloom Liepard team. I wouldn’t imagine Zee has that muscle memory, and if I played enough sets with Mogo and made him lead Breloom + Tornadus over and over into all different iterations of DOU teams, he could get the muscle memory and be playing with an experience advantage.
The worst MU that we could reasonably expect was max speed Substitute Heatran alongside Taunt Thundurus-I. I had a feeling we’d see Taunt Thundurus, but had no idea if DOU players run slow or fast Heatran. We prepped for the worst case scenario just to be safe.
POV: you messed up the 50/50.
A part of the team that Mogo really liked was Expert Belt Cresselia. This was popularized by both Wolfe and Aaron Zheng when they won 2012 US Nats in the Masters and Seniors division respectively. This paired really well with Breloom because after an Icy Wind, Breloom was the fastest thing on the field (barring Tailwind or Swift Swim), and Breloom drew so much attention to itself that Cresselia was free to sit on the field and fire off attacks uncontested. We also teched Gavin’s ChestoRest Rotom-W as it gave us a guaranteed win in the 1v1 against Zee’s Toxic Jellicent (which let Gavin win his previous week’s match). It also does well against Heatran, Metagross, Lando-T, and Thundurus-I, all Pokemon on that shortlist.
The worst MU that we could reasonably expect was max speed Substitute Heatran alongside Taunt Thundurus-I. I had a feeling we’d see Taunt Thundurus, but had no idea if DOU players run slow or fast Heatran. We prepped for the worst case scenario just to be safe.
POV: you messed up the 50/50.
A part of the team that Mogo really liked was Expert Belt Cresselia. This was popularized by both Wolfe and Aaron Zheng when they won 2012 US Nats in the Masters and Seniors division respectively. This paired really well with Breloom because after an Icy Wind, Breloom was the fastest thing on the field (barring Tailwind or Swift Swim), and Breloom drew so much attention to itself that Cresselia was free to sit on the field and fire off attacks uncontested. We also teched Gavin’s ChestoRest Rotom-W as it gave us a guaranteed win in the 1v1 against Zee’s Toxic Jellicent (which let Gavin win his previous week’s match). It also does well against Heatran, Metagross, Lando-T, and Thundurus-I, all Pokemon on that shortlist.
Mogo’s team:
Zee's team:
G1: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2155827981
G2: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2155829758
G3: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2155831144
As I was not playing, I cannot dive into the mind of Mogo here, but Mogo leaned into the threat of Spore more than regularly utilizing it, drawing Taunts from Thundurus to waste its turn while Breloom did significant chip damage to things with Bullet Seed. The game plan was solid, as Cress had several free turns to click Icy Wind and Mogo was able to upset Zee 2-1.
Later that week I get a ping from my manager asking me to sub in for 2022 since our player was not responding and our subs were afk. Unfortunately I was busy doing grown man shit (reading Good Night Moon six times to my child before bed) and despite my managers’ best efforts to buy time, they called activity instead of letting grandpa have a go at it.
Is what I WOULD have posted in my youth, but now I share my unneeded shit talking in Discord (and I guess here now).
Week 4: Vs. Gengarboi
Now this was SUPPOSED to be Gavin, and we were SUPPOSED to play NFE Cup, but due to various circumstances he dodged the MU and subbed in Riley instead. He’s lucky too because I had a disgusting perish trap team locked and loaded.
I didn’t recall Riley playing much 2013, but I know they’re a very fierce competitor who has a tendency towards risk mitigation. They apparently asked my teammate Borghi how to access the sample teams so that narrowed down the teams to prep down to 5. I would have been very surprised if RIley chose rain, given there are no 100% win conditions with Kingdra, and just as surprised if they used Rotom-W and Aaron’s World’s team. This left Arash’s worlds team, Blake’s Dancing Queen team (which has not aged well), and Baz’s Breloom Liepard team (hard to use). I still did some prep work for all 5 matches just in case, but I should have trusted my initial suspicions a bit more.
I did not do my due diligence for this week when it came to mapping out every possible MU. For every other week I played at least 6 Bo3s against every main team I felt would be coming my way. This time I only played about 6 total. I definitely did not properly respect Riley’s ability to pick up 2013 on the fly and felt that, similar to my match against oh the guilt, I could use rain and win off experience.
I elected to use the same team as week 1, making only a minor change to Thundurus’s EV spread to perform better into Baz’s team, and sent it.
Riley was very patient with me as I kept pushing back our start time as I was desperately trying to get my kid to go to bed, and I ultimately had to drop him into the crib and let him scream while I played our match from the room over.
I elected to use the same team as week 1, making only a minor change to Thundurus’s EV spread to perform better into Baz’s team, and sent it.
Riley was very patient with me as I kept pushing back our start time as I was desperately trying to get my kid to go to bed, and I ultimately had to drop him into the crib and let him scream while I played our match from the room over.
Riley’s team:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2159432324?p2
Riley immediately identified that the winning MU against rain is Latios + Amoonguss. I did correctly lead Politoed + Metagross, so I could threaten both Pokemon with Metagross, but otherwise my team does not have a way to deal with Amoonguss. If he ever decides to click Sunny Day + Rage Powder, the game becomes quite difficult.
Fortunately he does not mash Sunny Day in game 1, letting me chip his Heatran which switched in. On turn 2 my Metagross barely survives a sun-boosted Heat Wave (this had like an 80% chance to OHKO), and then I picked up the KO on Latios. I then sac Metagross the following turn to safely reset the rain and I begin whittling down the Amoonguss with Politoed and Kingdra. They had Mamoswine as their 4th which uneventfully died to a Muddy Water, and I managed to pick up a victory in game 1, but a game that definitely was stolen from him.
Riley immediately identified that the winning MU against rain is Latios + Amoonguss. I did correctly lead Politoed + Metagross, so I could threaten both Pokemon with Metagross, but otherwise my team does not have a way to deal with Amoonguss. If he ever decides to click Sunny Day + Rage Powder, the game becomes quite difficult.
Fortunately he does not mash Sunny Day in game 1, letting me chip his Heatran which switched in. On turn 2 my Metagross barely survives a sun-boosted Heat Wave (this had like an 80% chance to OHKO), and then I picked up the KO on Latios. I then sac Metagross the following turn to safely reset the rain and I begin whittling down the Amoonguss with Politoed and Kingdra. They had Mamoswine as their 4th which uneventfully died to a Muddy Water, and I managed to pick up a victory in game 1, but a game that definitely was stolen from him.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2159435852?p2
Idk what I was doing here to be honest. I lead Genies so I could taunt the Amoonguss and T-Wave Latios and Lando threatens the Heatran. They Draco my Thundurus, which survives, and I U-Turn out into Kingdra. I did not do the damage calc (no idea why) and clicked Substitute with Kingdra, thinking Riley would switch or do something else. I should have just protected, or Draco’d that slot myself. Instead, my Kingdra takes 99% from a Draco (a roll to OHKO) and does nothing as I don’t have the health to Sub. I was making some headway in the MU, getting rain back up, Taunting the Latios to prevent Sunny Day, and getting Kingdra back in, but on turn 6 they Protect Amoonguss while I double target it (didn’t need to for the KO) and they pick up the KO on my Kingdra with a -6 Latios HP Fire in the rain. It’s 2v4 and I click the game losing Rock Slide instead of EQ (which would hit Heatran SE and Amoonguss and Conk neutral), but I wanted to hit both slots like a moron and fish for hax after playing poorly all game.
Kudos to Riley who did not play poorly and capitalized on me making unnecessary reads all game.
Idk what I was doing here to be honest. I lead Genies so I could taunt the Amoonguss and T-Wave Latios and Lando threatens the Heatran. They Draco my Thundurus, which survives, and I U-Turn out into Kingdra. I did not do the damage calc (no idea why) and clicked Substitute with Kingdra, thinking Riley would switch or do something else. I should have just protected, or Draco’d that slot myself. Instead, my Kingdra takes 99% from a Draco (a roll to OHKO) and does nothing as I don’t have the health to Sub. I was making some headway in the MU, getting rain back up, Taunting the Latios to prevent Sunny Day, and getting Kingdra back in, but on turn 6 they Protect Amoonguss while I double target it (didn’t need to for the KO) and they pick up the KO on my Kingdra with a -6 Latios HP Fire in the rain. It’s 2v4 and I click the game losing Rock Slide instead of EQ (which would hit Heatran SE and Amoonguss and Conk neutral), but I wanted to hit both slots like a moron and fish for hax after playing poorly all game.
Kudos to Riley who did not play poorly and capitalized on me making unnecessary reads all game.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2159438208?p2
Game 3 they again made the right adjustment, leading Latios and Heatran. Heatran was faster than Metagross and he could Sunny Day + Heat Wave t1 and get the OHKO onto my Metagross before it could do anything while taking the wind out of my sails in the process.
I switch out Politoed for Lando-T and Protect Metagross, eating a Heat Wave for ~60%. I then switch back in Politoed and EQ myself to pick up the KO onto the Heatran the following turn while Latios protects. They bring in Amoonguss, Sunny Day uncontested, and spore my incoming Metagross, my only real way to rid myself of Amoonguss. My one remaining win con is: I need something to faint on a turn that I switch Kingdra in so that I can safely switch Politoed in to ensure Kingdra is the fastest threat on the field. Unfortunately for me, nothing dies when I wanted them to, which secured the game for him. I could never break through Amoonguss + Latios and he could click Sunny Day + Rage Powder uncontested. A well deserved victory for Riley and definitely not my finest performance.
Game 3 they again made the right adjustment, leading Latios and Heatran. Heatran was faster than Metagross and he could Sunny Day + Heat Wave t1 and get the OHKO onto my Metagross before it could do anything while taking the wind out of my sails in the process.
I switch out Politoed for Lando-T and Protect Metagross, eating a Heat Wave for ~60%. I then switch back in Politoed and EQ myself to pick up the KO onto the Heatran the following turn while Latios protects. They bring in Amoonguss, Sunny Day uncontested, and spore my incoming Metagross, my only real way to rid myself of Amoonguss. My one remaining win con is: I need something to faint on a turn that I switch Kingdra in so that I can safely switch Politoed in to ensure Kingdra is the fastest threat on the field. Unfortunately for me, nothing dies when I wanted them to, which secured the game for him. I could never break through Amoonguss + Latios and he could click Sunny Day + Rage Powder uncontested. A well deserved victory for Riley and definitely not my finest performance.
Another change in my play that I should have made was to lead the rain mode and click Substitute with Kingdra t1 while Ice Beaming or switching out with Politoed. Yes, they will get Sunny Day off, but I at least have a Kingdra behind a Sub that takes two turns to KO and have the option to either switch Politoed back in or I’ve done some valuable chip damage to either Amoonguss or Latios.
Gavin and I tentatively agreed to do an NFE match if we ended up playing, and unbeknownst to me Caleb and Jun also agreed to play with NFE Pokemon. Since Jun and I prep together, we worked together for his MU. I had already prepped a Perish Trap team to use against Gavin, but we needed to stress test it against the strongest Pokemon in this restricted format: Gurdurr and Haunter.
Gurdurr is basically Conkeldurr, but in a format with much lower base stats and basically no intimidate users (your options are Growlithe, Scraggy, and Krokorok. Don’t even tell me Ekans is an option, get real). Its base 105 Attack is not the highest offensive stat in this format (Cranidos and Duosion have base 125 Atk and SpA respectively for some reason), but what sets Gurdurr apart is that it can stack damage multiplication with STAB, Iron Fist, and Life Orb. This lets it OHKO most things, and if it misses the KO there’s always Mach Punch.
Haunter sports an impressive base 115 SpA (3rd highest in the format) and a very nice base 95 Speed (slower only than Sneasel and Electabuzz). Ghost/Fighting/Poison also has perfect neutral coverage, and anything that resists one or two moves gets hit SE by another. Gurdurr has the option to run any of the elemental punches or Rock Slide for more SE coverage and Haunter can run TR to set up Gurdurr for a sweep. This makes this duo incredibly threatening within this limited format.
Another huge threat which did not make its way onto Jun’s team was Gligar. A Flying Gem Acrobatics is about as strong as a Hammer Arm from Gurdurr (at least for one turn). It’s also a Poison and Fighting resist (although it gets obliterated by an Ice Punch).
Jun elected to use a hard TR team with Gurdurr and Rhydon as the sweepers supported by two Ghost-types to beat opposing Gurdurrs and two redirection users to keep the team safe. Dusclops was a last minute addition of my initiative. It walls Gurdurr and can WoW it while Shadow Sneak is a 2HKO onto Haunter. We also teched Rest in case Caleb decided to run things like Toxic stall Porygon2.
Jun's Team:
Caleb's Team:
G1: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2161053874
G2: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2161056411
This format was really fun to play, but Gurdurr and Haunter are definitely oppressive. With some tweaking to the banlist or time to explore it perhaps they’re not as broken as they appear. Maybe Scyther owns or Gligar is the answer. Would play it again.
Gurdurr is basically Conkeldurr, but in a format with much lower base stats and basically no intimidate users (your options are Growlithe, Scraggy, and Krokorok. Don’t even tell me Ekans is an option, get real). Its base 105 Attack is not the highest offensive stat in this format (Cranidos and Duosion have base 125 Atk and SpA respectively for some reason), but what sets Gurdurr apart is that it can stack damage multiplication with STAB, Iron Fist, and Life Orb. This lets it OHKO most things, and if it misses the KO there’s always Mach Punch.
Haunter sports an impressive base 115 SpA (3rd highest in the format) and a very nice base 95 Speed (slower only than Sneasel and Electabuzz). Ghost/Fighting/Poison also has perfect neutral coverage, and anything that resists one or two moves gets hit SE by another. Gurdurr has the option to run any of the elemental punches or Rock Slide for more SE coverage and Haunter can run TR to set up Gurdurr for a sweep. This makes this duo incredibly threatening within this limited format.
Another huge threat which did not make its way onto Jun’s team was Gligar. A Flying Gem Acrobatics is about as strong as a Hammer Arm from Gurdurr (at least for one turn). It’s also a Poison and Fighting resist (although it gets obliterated by an Ice Punch).
Jun elected to use a hard TR team with Gurdurr and Rhydon as the sweepers supported by two Ghost-types to beat opposing Gurdurrs and two redirection users to keep the team safe. Dusclops was a last minute addition of my initiative. It walls Gurdurr and can WoW it while Shadow Sneak is a 2HKO onto Haunter. We also teched Rest in case Caleb decided to run things like Toxic stall Porygon2.
Jun's Team:
Caleb's Team:
G1: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2161053874
G2: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2161056411
This format was really fun to play, but Gurdurr and Haunter are definitely oppressive. With some tweaking to the banlist or time to explore it perhaps they’re not as broken as they appear. Maybe Scyther owns or Gligar is the answer. Would play it again.
Week 5: vs. Caleb
Ah, Caleb. Another long time friend of mine. We played in the first Classics League and I lost 0-2 to a hail team (I blame the two freezes he got which didn’t matter too much). Not only was this a revenge match for me, if our team tied or won then we made the playoffs, and if his team won they made the playoffs. There was a lot on the line, so I hit the lab more earnestly this time.
Caleb in these tours has a tendency to play teams built by his friends. Those teams performed well during the year and he was part of their building process and knows them well, so it is to his advantage. However, Caleb has primarily used two teams: Tan’s Hail team or Ben’s Rain team. I lost to Tan’s team last time and he used it to beat Gavin earlier in the tour, so I thought there was a good chance I could see hail again. Ben’s rain team was built off of Blake’s rain team which was built off of my rain team, so I knew that team as well as anyone. While I was not certain I could expect either of those two teams for our matchup, I was relatively sure that I would face off against an established team with a paste or article attached to it.
An idea that had been swimming around in my head for a while was Magmar supporting a Modest Latios. Although Latios would then be slower than some of its biggest checks (namely opposing Latios & Tornadus), neither of those can break through Magmar, while Modest Latios can turn guaranteed to survive Draco Meteors into OHKOs. After running some numbers, everything becomes a roll, and although it is slightly in your favor to OHKO things like Thundurus-I, building my team around 50/50s that I have no control over wasn’t particularly appealing. So I binned the idea of Latios rather quickly, but Magmar stuck around.
A team which always comes to mind is JRank and I’s 2013 US Nats team, which he piloted to a respectable T32 finish that year, losing to veteran Stephen Morioka who finished T8. https://nuggetbridge.com/reports/punches-of-steel-jranks-2013-u-s-nationals-report/ Our team was inspired by the recently concluded Korean Nationals, where the core of Iron Fist Conk, Water Gem Jellicent, & Amoonguss which was dominant and omnipresent at that tournament. We hastily slapped together a back three, sent fewer than a dozen ladder games and both decided to run the team at Nationals, ditching our prior ideas. The core carried it to many victories, but the back 3 definitely needed work. The team was far too Lando-T and Amoonguss weak as constructed, so when setting off to rebuild this team, I knew I needed to change Zapdos/Ttar/Volc in some manner and I ended up drastically changing the composition of the team.
Still having Magmar on my mind, I went to THE team with Magmar in 2013, Sejun’s world’s team. I was intrigued by its incredible bulk and redirection, but primarily its access to Helping Hand, which would enable Jellicent to pick up KOs it should not and sending Conkeldurr’s already ridiculous damage into the stratosphere. I then drafted a team of Jellicent/Conk/Amoonguss/Magmar/Scrafty/Abomasnow.
Scrafty, like Amoonguss and Magmar, was to give Jellicent an abundance of ways to set up TR. It threatens Latios, which can beat the primary core, and having Intimidate is always nice. Abomasnow was there to give me an additional out against both Lando-T and Amoonguss, which I felt were the two threats to the team at the time. It also gave me a much needed answer to opposing Jellicent, which otherwise walled my team (and can beat Amoonguss in a 1v1 with a timely Cursed Body proc & Recover). I also appreciated having a source of chip damage and another priority user.
I played some matches with this 6, found out that I was insanely weak to Tornadus and opposing Amoonguss, and decided to change things up again.
I was not a fan of Scrafty on this team. It did help set up TR, yes, but I felt like it did next to nothing after that, and TR is often too short to waste a turn switching in something which then does something. I much preferred having Amoonguss help set up TR because, even though it also has negligible offensive pressure, Sleep is broken in gen 5 and it could easily let me reset TR when it expired or completely immobilize the opponent. Even if Amoonguss died to a double target on a Rage Powder, I could freely switch in my Conkeldurr and begin demolishing the opponent with Hammer Arm. Scrafty was weak to Lando-T, Tornadus, and did nothing against Amoonguss, so it had to go. It solved none of my problems, perhaps exacerbated them, and was redundant on the team as constructed.
I also was not impressed with Magmar’s performance (read as: my ability to pilot Magmar). It did have Follow Me and Helping Hand, but I also found that I’d rather Amoonguss be on the field alongside Jellicent than Magmar. I still needed the valuable Fire-type offensive coverage to KO opposing Amoonguss and after some discerning I settled on a relatively speedy Specs Rotom-H. It resisted Acrobatics from Tornadus, it was immune to a Lando-T EQ, and it could OHKO Amoonguss, Tornadus, and Lando-T with its Fire/Electric/Ice coverage. It was also faster than Breloom, so I can lead Abomasnow + Rotom into Breloom/Tornadus and drop Breloom down to its sash and let Hail do the rest.
I still needed a 6th Pokemon, and it’s here where my already unorthodox team went off the deep end. Jonny and I returned to our Nats team throughout the remainder of the 2013 season. He used it in a post-worlds tournament or online tour (I forget) and I brought it to a regional and bubbled out of cut. One major change that Jonny made to the team was adding Regirock over the Tyranitar. Lando-T 4HKOs Regirock with EQ and thanks to Regi’s ability Clear Body (I bet you didn’t even know it had that ability because who thinks about Regirock), it's immune to Intimidate and can OHKO back with an Ice Punch. Stone Edge is an OHKO on Tornadus, which tickles Regirock with a Superpower, and it has the option to be Drain Punch to KO opposing Ttars. While perhaps not the strongest of TR sweepers, it was very good into Genies and I felt it was the right call.
This team isn’t finished, and is something I want to continue working on, if only because this team has a special place in my heart and reminds me of my friendships, memories, and simpler times. It’s still super weak to Amoonguss (if the opponent has it, I cannot TR until their Amoonguss faints), and I think weak to Tornadus still. Rotom-H and Regirock do in theory shore up a lot of MUs, but they also feel like the odd Pokemon out most of the time. Jellicent/Amoonguss/Conk/Abomasnow were the go to 95% of the time, with the other two along for the ride sometimes, but few teams are perfect.
A team which always comes to mind is JRank and I’s 2013 US Nats team, which he piloted to a respectable T32 finish that year, losing to veteran Stephen Morioka who finished T8. https://nuggetbridge.com/reports/punches-of-steel-jranks-2013-u-s-nationals-report/ Our team was inspired by the recently concluded Korean Nationals, where the core of Iron Fist Conk, Water Gem Jellicent, & Amoonguss which was dominant and omnipresent at that tournament. We hastily slapped together a back three, sent fewer than a dozen ladder games and both decided to run the team at Nationals, ditching our prior ideas. The core carried it to many victories, but the back 3 definitely needed work. The team was far too Lando-T and Amoonguss weak as constructed, so when setting off to rebuild this team, I knew I needed to change Zapdos/Ttar/Volc in some manner and I ended up drastically changing the composition of the team.
Still having Magmar on my mind, I went to THE team with Magmar in 2013, Sejun’s world’s team. I was intrigued by its incredible bulk and redirection, but primarily its access to Helping Hand, which would enable Jellicent to pick up KOs it should not and sending Conkeldurr’s already ridiculous damage into the stratosphere. I then drafted a team of Jellicent/Conk/Amoonguss/Magmar/Scrafty/Abomasnow.
Scrafty, like Amoonguss and Magmar, was to give Jellicent an abundance of ways to set up TR. It threatens Latios, which can beat the primary core, and having Intimidate is always nice. Abomasnow was there to give me an additional out against both Lando-T and Amoonguss, which I felt were the two threats to the team at the time. It also gave me a much needed answer to opposing Jellicent, which otherwise walled my team (and can beat Amoonguss in a 1v1 with a timely Cursed Body proc & Recover). I also appreciated having a source of chip damage and another priority user.
I played some matches with this 6, found out that I was insanely weak to Tornadus and opposing Amoonguss, and decided to change things up again.
I was not a fan of Scrafty on this team. It did help set up TR, yes, but I felt like it did next to nothing after that, and TR is often too short to waste a turn switching in something which then does something. I much preferred having Amoonguss help set up TR because, even though it also has negligible offensive pressure, Sleep is broken in gen 5 and it could easily let me reset TR when it expired or completely immobilize the opponent. Even if Amoonguss died to a double target on a Rage Powder, I could freely switch in my Conkeldurr and begin demolishing the opponent with Hammer Arm. Scrafty was weak to Lando-T, Tornadus, and did nothing against Amoonguss, so it had to go. It solved none of my problems, perhaps exacerbated them, and was redundant on the team as constructed.
I also was not impressed with Magmar’s performance (read as: my ability to pilot Magmar). It did have Follow Me and Helping Hand, but I also found that I’d rather Amoonguss be on the field alongside Jellicent than Magmar. I still needed the valuable Fire-type offensive coverage to KO opposing Amoonguss and after some discerning I settled on a relatively speedy Specs Rotom-H. It resisted Acrobatics from Tornadus, it was immune to a Lando-T EQ, and it could OHKO Amoonguss, Tornadus, and Lando-T with its Fire/Electric/Ice coverage. It was also faster than Breloom, so I can lead Abomasnow + Rotom into Breloom/Tornadus and drop Breloom down to its sash and let Hail do the rest.
I still needed a 6th Pokemon, and it’s here where my already unorthodox team went off the deep end. Jonny and I returned to our Nats team throughout the remainder of the 2013 season. He used it in a post-worlds tournament or online tour (I forget) and I brought it to a regional and bubbled out of cut. One major change that Jonny made to the team was adding Regirock over the Tyranitar. Lando-T 4HKOs Regirock with EQ and thanks to Regi’s ability Clear Body (I bet you didn’t even know it had that ability because who thinks about Regirock), it's immune to Intimidate and can OHKO back with an Ice Punch. Stone Edge is an OHKO on Tornadus, which tickles Regirock with a Superpower, and it has the option to be Drain Punch to KO opposing Ttars. While perhaps not the strongest of TR sweepers, it was very good into Genies and I felt it was the right call.
This team isn’t finished, and is something I want to continue working on, if only because this team has a special place in my heart and reminds me of my friendships, memories, and simpler times. It’s still super weak to Amoonguss (if the opponent has it, I cannot TR until their Amoonguss faints), and I think weak to Tornadus still. Rotom-H and Regirock do in theory shore up a lot of MUs, but they also feel like the odd Pokemon out most of the time. Jellicent/Amoonguss/Conk/Abomasnow were the go to 95% of the time, with the other two along for the ride sometimes, but few teams are perfect.
Caleb and I were slatted to battle on Saturday, but we pushed it back a day as date night with the wi*e lasted a bit longer than I anticipated. During the time of the delay, my team dropped to 3-4, meaning it all came down to me and my Regirock to secure a tie, guaranteeing my team a spot in the playoffs.
My team:
Caleb's team:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2165154920
Not to my surprise, Caleb is using a recognizable team. To my surprise, it’s Sejun’s team. We’re both TR Hail-based teams, and while he does have the scary Tornadus he does not have an Amoonguss, so if TR ever goes up I am at an advantage.
I lead Jellicent + Amoonguss to go for the hard TR and he leads Scrafty + Tornadus. I did not want to risk giving up either Jellicent or Amoonguss, so I decided to play it safe by Protecting Amoonguss and switching to Regirock, which would be 4HKO’d by his team and can threaten Tornadus immediately. Unfortunately for me, he subs with Tornadus (which I completely forget Sejun’s team had) and he Crunches Regirock for 25%. I go for an Ice Punch on the Tornadus while it Protects and I switch in Rotom-H for Amoonguss. Scrafty Drain Punch’s Regirock (which would 4HKO with Sitrus) and Regirock is now at ~60% after eating its berry. Caleb switches Tornadus into Abomasnow and it eats Volt Switch and Ice Punch, dropping down to just under 50%. I switch Jellicent in for Rotom-H and he crits my Regirock for the KO. I take advantage of the free switch to bring in Rotom-H.
The following turn I predict a switch from Abomasnow and T-Bolt and Water Spout the Scrafty, picking up the knockout while his Water Absorb Jellicent switches in. Abomasnow replaces his Scrafty. I elect to double the Abomasnow again, with an Ice Beam from Jellicent this time. Caleb Giga Drains my Jellicent, doing ~50% only to proc Cursed Body. Caleb sets up Trick Room, but my Jellicent moved after his Abomsanow, so I pick up the KO the next turn, trading my Rotom-H for his Abomasnow, as he launches his Water Spout, just missing on the KO on my Jellicent as well.
We both sent out our final Pokemon, his Tornadus and my Amoonguss, and with TR up I was feeling confident. Caleb double protects to avoid a Spore, letting me freely Recover with Jellicent to avoid dying to Hail chip. I Spore his Tornadus the following turn and recover again, allowing me to survive an incoming Shadow Ball (which procs Cursed Body again).
Caleb protects his Jellicent on the final turn of TR while I pick up the KO on his Tornadus. Jellicent is then unable to beat either of my Pokemon and I win 2-0.
Not to my surprise, Caleb is using a recognizable team. To my surprise, it’s Sejun’s team. We’re both TR Hail-based teams, and while he does have the scary Tornadus he does not have an Amoonguss, so if TR ever goes up I am at an advantage.
I lead Jellicent + Amoonguss to go for the hard TR and he leads Scrafty + Tornadus. I did not want to risk giving up either Jellicent or Amoonguss, so I decided to play it safe by Protecting Amoonguss and switching to Regirock, which would be 4HKO’d by his team and can threaten Tornadus immediately. Unfortunately for me, he subs with Tornadus (which I completely forget Sejun’s team had) and he Crunches Regirock for 25%. I go for an Ice Punch on the Tornadus while it Protects and I switch in Rotom-H for Amoonguss. Scrafty Drain Punch’s Regirock (which would 4HKO with Sitrus) and Regirock is now at ~60% after eating its berry. Caleb switches Tornadus into Abomasnow and it eats Volt Switch and Ice Punch, dropping down to just under 50%. I switch Jellicent in for Rotom-H and he crits my Regirock for the KO. I take advantage of the free switch to bring in Rotom-H.
The following turn I predict a switch from Abomasnow and T-Bolt and Water Spout the Scrafty, picking up the knockout while his Water Absorb Jellicent switches in. Abomasnow replaces his Scrafty. I elect to double the Abomasnow again, with an Ice Beam from Jellicent this time. Caleb Giga Drains my Jellicent, doing ~50% only to proc Cursed Body. Caleb sets up Trick Room, but my Jellicent moved after his Abomsanow, so I pick up the KO the next turn, trading my Rotom-H for his Abomasnow, as he launches his Water Spout, just missing on the KO on my Jellicent as well.
We both sent out our final Pokemon, his Tornadus and my Amoonguss, and with TR up I was feeling confident. Caleb double protects to avoid a Spore, letting me freely Recover with Jellicent to avoid dying to Hail chip. I Spore his Tornadus the following turn and recover again, allowing me to survive an incoming Shadow Ball (which procs Cursed Body again).
Caleb protects his Jellicent on the final turn of TR while I pick up the KO on his Tornadus. Jellicent is then unable to beat either of my Pokemon and I win 2-0.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2165159184
I opt to lead Jellicent + Amoonguss again, while Caleb leads Jellicent + Tornadus. Not wanting to risk Amoonguss, I switch it out for Rotom-H, hoping to eat the Acrobatics. Instead, he targets my Jellicent, doing 80% and Water Spouts, OHKOing my Rotom and finishing off my Jellicent. I am off to a horrendous start. I switch in Amoonguss and Abomasnow and play to my outs.
I spam clicked Rage Powder + Blizzard, knowing I needed a freeze (or two) to win and a misplay from Caleb. Caleb double protected the first turn and then subbed with Tornadus, and then double protected and subbed with Tornadus again. I think he was trying to stall out Blizzard PP, perhaps thinking I was choiced (although I moved after his Tornadus so idk), or perhaps he felt the game was on lock and wasn’t thinking as much as he needed to. Amoonguss was in KO range of an Acrobatics, and he was only bringing his Jellicent closer and closer to Giga Drain KO range by stalling.
After 4 turns of stalling Blizzard PP, Caleb made his move and I read it perfectly. He Protected Jellicent and went for an attack with Tornadus while I Ice Shard his Tornadus, picking up a free KO. Jellicent was nearing KO range of another Blizzard, and if I could freeze whatever he had in the back I had a win condition. He clearly had not brought Magmar, or else he would have revealed it ages ago.
Caleb brings in Scrafty, I double Protect on the Fake Out and he forgoes a Recover, opting instead to try and pick up a KO with Shadow Ball. Abomasnow was faster than Jellicent, and if he flinched my Abomasnow then I could Spore him. It made sense why he attacked. I then (finally) am allowed to sacrifice my Amoonguss, doing 40% to his Scrafty with a Blizzard. I was Sash, and if I Protected to try and get Scrafty into KO range via Hail chip, he was definitely going to Recover (or TR) and I could not risk that. At this point, it felt obvious that me bringing Regirock in game 1 baited Caleb into bringing Marowak to game 2. If he brought anything else he would have switched it in. Scrafty was two Blizzards from being KO’d, I always had the chance to freeze it, and he could not KO me. I felt very safe going for an attack and I ended up critting his Scrafty for a double knockout.
Caleb then reveals Marowak as his fourth and Blizzard picks up the OHKO, securing the tie (playoff clinch) for my team.
I opt to lead Jellicent + Amoonguss again, while Caleb leads Jellicent + Tornadus. Not wanting to risk Amoonguss, I switch it out for Rotom-H, hoping to eat the Acrobatics. Instead, he targets my Jellicent, doing 80% and Water Spouts, OHKOing my Rotom and finishing off my Jellicent. I am off to a horrendous start. I switch in Amoonguss and Abomasnow and play to my outs.
I spam clicked Rage Powder + Blizzard, knowing I needed a freeze (or two) to win and a misplay from Caleb. Caleb double protected the first turn and then subbed with Tornadus, and then double protected and subbed with Tornadus again. I think he was trying to stall out Blizzard PP, perhaps thinking I was choiced (although I moved after his Tornadus so idk), or perhaps he felt the game was on lock and wasn’t thinking as much as he needed to. Amoonguss was in KO range of an Acrobatics, and he was only bringing his Jellicent closer and closer to Giga Drain KO range by stalling.
After 4 turns of stalling Blizzard PP, Caleb made his move and I read it perfectly. He Protected Jellicent and went for an attack with Tornadus while I Ice Shard his Tornadus, picking up a free KO. Jellicent was nearing KO range of another Blizzard, and if I could freeze whatever he had in the back I had a win condition. He clearly had not brought Magmar, or else he would have revealed it ages ago.
Caleb brings in Scrafty, I double Protect on the Fake Out and he forgoes a Recover, opting instead to try and pick up a KO with Shadow Ball. Abomasnow was faster than Jellicent, and if he flinched my Abomasnow then I could Spore him. It made sense why he attacked. I then (finally) am allowed to sacrifice my Amoonguss, doing 40% to his Scrafty with a Blizzard. I was Sash, and if I Protected to try and get Scrafty into KO range via Hail chip, he was definitely going to Recover (or TR) and I could not risk that. At this point, it felt obvious that me bringing Regirock in game 1 baited Caleb into bringing Marowak to game 2. If he brought anything else he would have switched it in. Scrafty was two Blizzards from being KO’d, I always had the chance to freeze it, and he could not KO me. I felt very safe going for an attack and I ended up critting his Scrafty for a double knockout.
Caleb then reveals Marowak as his fourth and Blizzard picks up the OHKO, securing the tie (playoff clinch) for my team.
you thoughtAlthough I got a bit of a break in these games, the victory was only possible due to some of the prep that I did. Because my team was awkwardly weak to opposing Amoonguss, I had a lot of wonky speed IVs (and sometimes EVs) on my team to play with speed tiers both in and out of TR. Of note for this match was that my Abomasnow had 2 speed IVs, making it one point faster than min speed Jellicent (which both Caleb and I had). In practice, I wanted to be able to break a substitute with Jellicent before firing off a Blizzard, but in game 2 because TR was never set up Abomasnow was always faster than his Jellicent and could threaten a Giga Drain KO at any point, perhaps influencing some of his decision making.
Semis: vs. Smudge
Like Zee, they’re another DOU player who did not play VGC back in the day. They had played 2013 the 3 weeks prior, using two standard goodstuffs teams (Rhydon excluded) and then they used Randall E. Kwa’s 2013 Nats & Worlds team against Jun, perhaps unaware Randy and Jun are very close and knew every in and out of that team. They were 1-2, winning with a standard DOU rain against Teka (who piloted their standard 6 again). I pulled up their team from the first classics league and it was another standard DOU team. From the replays, I learned that they favor Thundurus-T >> Thundurus-I and their Latios carries Ice Beam as a 3rd attacking move over a Hidden Power or utility like Tailwind or Safeguard. For the same reasons as when I prepped Mogo to play Zeen, I felt confident that a Breloom + Tornadus team would be a good point of departure.
I played 3 wildly different teams in this league so far. Rain (used twice), the Raikou/Latias team, and the Jellicent/Conk team. If they did some other scouting on me they would have seen some other wildly different teams that I’ve used in 2013 (like Gavin’s standard 2013 team, ZachDro’s DatTeam, my 2012 Nats team with Mismagius, and others). I knew that whatever they used would have a good rain MU, because it is my most played archetype, but guessing anything else seemed futile. This made me feel confident that I would see a standard team from them, the same trap Zee fell into.
I played a dozen or so practice matches against a standard looking DOU team as well as their Rain team and had a lot of success with the same Breloom + Tornadus team I had Mogo use back in Week 3 and I felt it had a good enough MU into both of the archetypes I was going to see from Smudge that it was a safe enough bet. I really like some of the ideas on their rain team. Using Gothitelle to trap the opponent’s weather setter to win the weather war is an interesting alternative to just trying to muscle through their team or pivoting a dozen times. Add onto the ability to make Politoed (or Ferrothorn for his case) the trapper with Skill Swap and you have a lot of options with when and how you choose to attack your opponent. I do think their team is far more effective in a 6v6 setting than 4v4, as you get many more opportunities to try and utilize Gothitelle, but I also knew they would be able to get off their combo given their experience and comfort with the team.
I played 3 wildly different teams in this league so far. Rain (used twice), the Raikou/Latias team, and the Jellicent/Conk team. If they did some other scouting on me they would have seen some other wildly different teams that I’ve used in 2013 (like Gavin’s standard 2013 team, ZachDro’s DatTeam, my 2012 Nats team with Mismagius, and others). I knew that whatever they used would have a good rain MU, because it is my most played archetype, but guessing anything else seemed futile. This made me feel confident that I would see a standard team from them, the same trap Zee fell into.
I played a dozen or so practice matches against a standard looking DOU team as well as their Rain team and had a lot of success with the same Breloom + Tornadus team I had Mogo use back in Week 3 and I felt it had a good enough MU into both of the archetypes I was going to see from Smudge that it was a safe enough bet. I really like some of the ideas on their rain team. Using Gothitelle to trap the opponent’s weather setter to win the weather war is an interesting alternative to just trying to muscle through their team or pivoting a dozen times. Add onto the ability to make Politoed (or Ferrothorn for his case) the trapper with Skill Swap and you have a lot of options with when and how you choose to attack your opponent. I do think their team is far more effective in a 6v6 setting than 4v4, as you get many more opportunities to try and utilize Gothitelle, but I also knew they would be able to get off their combo given their experience and comfort with the team.
As fate would have it, this match once again decided everything for my team. We were down 3-4 and it was up to me to win to force tiebreakers. With everything on the line again, the ANTIFA SUPER GAMER returned to Showdown confident after all my testing.
My team:
Smudge's Team:
This is the same 6 that Mogo used Vs. Zee, but I made some changes to EV spreads and used Steel Gem Metagross instead of Band. Otherwise it was the same team.
G1:https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2169288318-otodf48h2x1r19k2gzg2vv1e7r8dfndpw
G2: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2169293163-5xruf0dytvbhpxjgm02u20tfacxb544pw
I think the replays speak for themselves. It felt like anything that could have gone wrong for me did. Game 1 was definitely well played by them in positioning their Gothitelle + Ferrothorn combo, but two 1-turn sleeps, Scald burns, and missing attacks did not make my game feel very playable. I probably could have executed better, made better targeting decisions, turn 1 they gave me a free Tailwind or Acrobatics opportunity on Tornadus I did not take, etc., but it’s much easier to say that this game was no fault of my own and if we ran it back the exact same moves I would get the one or two breaks I needed to be in a position to win.
I flushed game 1 and chalked it up to them getting off their combo and me not being able to play mine to its fullest extent. I tried to make an adjustment for game 2 and went in not stressing. Luck would even out in the end and I would get the 3-turn sleep I needed and Scald wouldn’t burn and Muddy Water would miss instead of hitting, etc. And then I continued to be on the receiving end of another batch of bad luck.
It was quite funny after a certain point in Game 1, and I laughed aloud when Tornadus was Scald burned in Game 2. It didn’t matter how much prep I did and how comfortable I was in that MU, sometimes it’s not your night. It is a reminder of the reality of playing Pokemon. Sometimes you get unlucky. Sometimes you get really unlucky. Sometimes it feels like you didn’t really get to play that set at all. And of course we forget all about the times that we got a crucial critical hit, or a same turn T-Wave into fully para or whatever. If I wanted to play a game without luck I wouldn’t play games at all.
G2: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2169293163-5xruf0dytvbhpxjgm02u20tfacxb544pw
I think the replays speak for themselves. It felt like anything that could have gone wrong for me did. Game 1 was definitely well played by them in positioning their Gothitelle + Ferrothorn combo, but two 1-turn sleeps, Scald burns, and missing attacks did not make my game feel very playable. I probably could have executed better, made better targeting decisions, turn 1 they gave me a free Tailwind or Acrobatics opportunity on Tornadus I did not take, etc., but it’s much easier to say that this game was no fault of my own and if we ran it back the exact same moves I would get the one or two breaks I needed to be in a position to win.
I flushed game 1 and chalked it up to them getting off their combo and me not being able to play mine to its fullest extent. I tried to make an adjustment for game 2 and went in not stressing. Luck would even out in the end and I would get the 3-turn sleep I needed and Scald wouldn’t burn and Muddy Water would miss instead of hitting, etc. And then I continued to be on the receiving end of another batch of bad luck.
It was quite funny after a certain point in Game 1, and I laughed aloud when Tornadus was Scald burned in Game 2. It didn’t matter how much prep I did and how comfortable I was in that MU, sometimes it’s not your night. It is a reminder of the reality of playing Pokemon. Sometimes you get unlucky. Sometimes you get really unlucky. Sometimes it feels like you didn’t really get to play that set at all. And of course we forget all about the times that we got a crucial critical hit, or a same turn T-Wave into fully para or whatever. If I wanted to play a game without luck I wouldn’t play games at all.
Jun was 2-0 against Gavin (with some teambuilding and prep help from me) and we were looking to make it 3-0. Jun ended up using a fun team and I wanted to talk a bit about how it came to be.
Scouting:
Gavin is an incredibly accomplished player who is capable of playing any style of team in any format. However, in recent 2013 matches they have given preference towards two teams.
The first was his “standard” team of SD Scizor / Thundurus-I / ScarfTar / ChestoRest Rotom-W / Landorus-T / Latios. He used it in all but one match in the prior Classics League and used it against Zee in this tour as well. Gavin is an excellent player and can navigate any unfavorable MU, but on paper that 6 is weak to Abomasnow, provided you can remove the Scizor. Gavin had also been using Ben’s rain team, the same one that Caleb has used before. It’s hard to prepare for everything, but we definitely needed to be able to play into those two teams.
Teambuilding:
Jun’s first thought was to also run Jellicent/Amoonguss/Abomasnow/Conkeldurr, but wanted to add Scrafty and Latios as the fifth and sixth Pokemon. After thinking about the MU for more than 15 seconds we realized that it does not do well against Scizor Rain. This 6, like mine, is also very weak to Tornadus, so he teched Coba Berry on Amoonguss. After some testing, Jun came to the same conclusion I did: that there was redundancy on the team. Where I chose to drop Scrafty, he chose to replace Conkeldurr.
Jun wanted another source of redirection that was not weak to Scizor and had a good enough MU into rain. His first thought was Eviolite Electabuzz, but he ended up going for Electivire so he could run Lum Berry and redirect away a Spore. It has a great MU into Thundurus, on both of Gavin’s most recently used teams, Tornadus, which owns the rest of our team, and has options against Amoonguss, a massive problem for TR. It resists Bullet Punch and can draw them away from its allies while threatening a Static proc.
Jun's Team:
Gavin's Team:
G1: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2168129023-tgn4lukr38psabpgwobqoud328c5s2hpw?p2
G2: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2168130982-7g29xjgdbi2s54un1mqn0j0tfe9sdmtpw?p2
G3: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2168133399-pkl0ang828xowc8aph2cmakv2edvqpepw?p2
Gavin played 4-mon rain, with BOTH Amoonguss and Tornadus, so not a very good draw for him at all. An ability to remove 100% accuracy Blizzards and two of our toughest individual Pokemon matchups.
Jun was able to clutch out game 1 off the back of just mashing Water Spout with Jellicent and redirecting away all the threatening attacks away from Jellicent with Amoonguss and Electivire.
In game 2, Jun had to take some damage with Jellicent earlier in the match and thus quickly ran out of options for Gavin’s Metagross. In game 1, Jellicent disposed of Metagross with 100% HP Water Spouts, but that was not a luxury afforded to Jun in the second match.
In game 3, Jun got Amoonguss’d, setting up TR only to stall out most of the turns himself against Gavin’s Amoonguss. Jun then was unable to position Jellicent to come in safely and Water Spout, giving Gavin the same win con as game 2.
Jun didn’t get a single freeze though, I mean c’mon…
Scouting:
Gavin is an incredibly accomplished player who is capable of playing any style of team in any format. However, in recent 2013 matches they have given preference towards two teams.
The first was his “standard” team of SD Scizor / Thundurus-I / ScarfTar / ChestoRest Rotom-W / Landorus-T / Latios. He used it in all but one match in the prior Classics League and used it against Zee in this tour as well. Gavin is an excellent player and can navigate any unfavorable MU, but on paper that 6 is weak to Abomasnow, provided you can remove the Scizor. Gavin had also been using Ben’s rain team, the same one that Caleb has used before. It’s hard to prepare for everything, but we definitely needed to be able to play into those two teams.
Teambuilding:
Jun’s first thought was to also run Jellicent/Amoonguss/Abomasnow/Conkeldurr, but wanted to add Scrafty and Latios as the fifth and sixth Pokemon. After thinking about the MU for more than 15 seconds we realized that it does not do well against Scizor Rain. This 6, like mine, is also very weak to Tornadus, so he teched Coba Berry on Amoonguss. After some testing, Jun came to the same conclusion I did: that there was redundancy on the team. Where I chose to drop Scrafty, he chose to replace Conkeldurr.
Jun wanted another source of redirection that was not weak to Scizor and had a good enough MU into rain. His first thought was Eviolite Electabuzz, but he ended up going for Electivire so he could run Lum Berry and redirect away a Spore. It has a great MU into Thundurus, on both of Gavin’s most recently used teams, Tornadus, which owns the rest of our team, and has options against Amoonguss, a massive problem for TR. It resists Bullet Punch and can draw them away from its allies while threatening a Static proc.
Jun's Team:
Gavin's Team:
G1: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2168129023-tgn4lukr38psabpgwobqoud328c5s2hpw?p2
G2: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2168130982-7g29xjgdbi2s54un1mqn0j0tfe9sdmtpw?p2
G3: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5vgc2013-2168133399-pkl0ang828xowc8aph2cmakv2edvqpepw?p2
Gavin played 4-mon rain, with BOTH Amoonguss and Tornadus, so not a very good draw for him at all. An ability to remove 100% accuracy Blizzards and two of our toughest individual Pokemon matchups.
Jun was able to clutch out game 1 off the back of just mashing Water Spout with Jellicent and redirecting away all the threatening attacks away from Jellicent with Amoonguss and Electivire.
In game 2, Jun had to take some damage with Jellicent earlier in the match and thus quickly ran out of options for Gavin’s Metagross. In game 1, Jellicent disposed of Metagross with 100% HP Water Spouts, but that was not a luxury afforded to Jun in the second match.
In game 3, Jun got Amoonguss’d, setting up TR only to stall out most of the turns himself against Gavin’s Amoonguss. Jun then was unable to position Jellicent to come in safely and Water Spout, giving Gavin the same win con as game 2.
Jun didn’t get a single freeze though, I mean c’mon…
Thanks to the staff for arranging this tour. I hope we see another one and I hope a BW format makes the cut (be it 13, 12, or even 11).
Thank you to my wife who had to put up with me blabbering about Pokemon for a month or so while pretending to listen. Her phone heard me say Pokemon so much that her X the everything app algorithm then fed her every tweet related to Worlds (sorry).
Huge shoutout to Jun for telling me that there even was another Classics League so I would sign up. Thank you for all the help with building, testing, scouting, etc. wp on 10%.
Thank you to my teammates, Mogo and Nerd of Now, who helped grind matches out with me in a format they had never played.
I want to thank my wonderful managers, Benji and Hana, for drafting me. I was worried that without having Chris to pick me as a nepo hire I would get passed over for players who have played at a TPCI sanctioned tournament more recently than 7 years ago. It was lovely getting to meet y’all and I hope we get to work together in the future.
Till next time. Vamanos, explorers!
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