So, These Last couple weeks I have been taking part in a community tournament for the B2W2 Discord Server in a VGC13 Bo3 OTS tournament where the winner receives a legitimate Event Celebi from 2011. Now, coming off my Portland Regional Championship top (Which I should make a team report for as well lol) I was feeling very confident about my skills as a player and as a builder, Moreso than in the past. However preparing for a Bo3 OTS tournament was actually quite hard for me because I had never prepared for an OTS Tournament in 2013 format. Previously I had gotten 3rd Place on the RoA VGC13 Ladder in January (Should probably make a team report for that too) and had won a similarly small VGC13 Bo3 CTS Tournament (Which I also should make a team report on lol) however both with with CTS so I was not entirely sure how I should prepare going into this tournament.
The main thing I was afraid of was Spore, Breloom and Amoongus become significantly stronger in OTS because your opponent can see which of your pokemon are Lum Berry and Chesto Berry and target accordingly. So I knew what I needed to play had to be strong into Amoongus. Furthermore I was very concerned about Rain because it is similarly buffed in Bo3 because of the sheer amount of offensive pressure Kingdra in Rain has so I know I needed something with an overall + Rain matchup. Originally I was going to do some Skill Swap CressTran Shenanigans, but I then realized that Heatran is nearly impossible to build around without having multiple weaknesses so instead I opted for my usual Metagross Balance type teams and ended up coming up with something that was heavily inspired by Radio Free C-Side Lucien Lachance & Mogo But with a Twist of my own personal flavor.
THE TEAM:
Luna (Cresselia) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 140 HP / 164 SpA / 204 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 12 Atk
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Safeguard
- Trick Room
So this team starts with Cresselia, but I am not going to lie to you at all, this set was very wrong. Cresselia was the final set I finished and also the one I was least satisfied with in the end. Before the tournament I really wanted Safeguard to prevent Spore, and in Cresselia's defense it was actually alright. However multiple times I would have just preferred a Chesto Resto set which would have came up in my finals match. However let me explain the idea of this set. 164 SpA was the number I needed to OHKO 4 HP 164 SpD Landorus-T with Ice Beam which was the absolutely bulkiest Scarf Landorus-T I have ever seen. 164 SpA also allowed me to guarantee 2HKO standard 252 HP 108 Def Calm Amoongus with Psyshock and uninvested Latios with Ice Beam. I have actually enjoyed running Ebelt Cresselia in this format since it allows Cresselia to take care of a lot of the Ice Weak threats in the format easily. 204+ Spe was mostly for Breloom, but it also allowed me to also outspeed Neutral nature Landorus-Therian which in theory could have been useful, but never actually came up in game where I could put a Sash Landorus-Therian to 1HP before it U-Turns. The rest was of the EVs were dumped into HP. Now you may be asking why on earth am I Trick Room on Cresselia while also being Timid? To be honest it was probably wrong, not because I was so fast but moreso because Trick Room just wasn't that useful. In Theory it could be good into Suicune Balance Teams, and would be my Team's only real punish into Suicune + Latios Lead. But in Hindsight I probably could have afforded to cut some speed and also play a better Speed Control move like Thunder Wave instead or even Energy Ball to make my matchup into Gastrodon more playable. However Trick Room was also better for OTS because my opponent's would see the Trick Room, and assume I had no speed investment when I was very much in fact FAST, kind of a similar idea to my Portland Regional Team with Calyrex-Ice. In General Luna still performed well overall but I really feel like a different set would have fit this team better.
Rawr (Landorus-Therian) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 76 SpD / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Superpower
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
Landorus-Therian was my second mandatory pick mostly because it deals so well with Pokemon Cresselia hates like Scizor, Metagross, Heatran and Tyranitar so well, while giving my team a speedster to force my opponent to respect my speed tiers. This set was just the bone standard Scarf Landorus-Therian Set. I Opted for Superpower instead of Rock Slide mostly because I wanted to hard punish anyone brazen enough to bring Scarf Tyranitar against me. Also Superpower I felt was necessary was it gave me a way to hit Heatran for super effective damage ever after a Skill Swap. Superpower ended up never coming up, but to be honest Rock Slide probably never would have either. I was always just clicking U-Turn or going for Oonga Boonga damage with Earthquake the whole tournament anyway. In general Landours-Therian perfomed as a 600 BST Pokemon with Intimidate should, It was fast, Ignorant and hit like a Truck. For anyone wondering 172 Spe in the minimum speed because of Scarf Mamoswine, 252 Atk I feel is mandatory since OHKOing Thundurus with Stone Edge is usually a roll anyway, and the rest was dumped into SpD so I could give myself decent odds to live Ice Beam from non Ebelt Cresselia's. Rawr performed flawlessly, and I would not have changed a thing about this set.
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
I am starting to believe it is impossible for me to justify playing a team without the super computer in this format. It just has all the qualities I appreciate about a Pokemon, it is Intimidate Immune, Counters Amoongus, is a good switch in for over half the attack types in the game, and has enough bulk to be 3HKO by most thinks, while also having enough Atk to 2HKO most things. This set is definitely my favorite of all the Metagross sets just an optimal beat stick. 196+ Atk allowed me to KO Latios with a Meteor Mash + Bullet Punch Guaranteed, 252 HP 4 SpD allowed me to survive Heat Wave from 252+ SpA Volcarona guaranteed, and the rest of the stats were just dumped into Spe. Normally this spread also is good with Icy Wind but for this team I opted out of that move. Yeah, I mean for this set there just isn't much to say it is just total Dragon and Amoongus hate and is my favorite set in the entire game essentially. GPT has always been good as a clean up, not just because of Bullet Punch but also because it does a really good job in late game 1v1s against the Tanks like Cresselia and Tyranitar and generally will win so it always gave me the option to just ignore them and attack the other slot.
Drip (Rotom-Wash) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Def / 60 SpA / 180 SpD / 20 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Light Screen
- Will-O-Wisp
Rotom-Wash was the last "Mandatory" party member and functioned as my hard rain counter. Now normally I like to run a more Physically bulky Rotom who guarantee OHKOs Tornadus-Incarnate for good measure. However when building I noticed that with my 2 add-ons to this core I essentially farm both Conkeldurr and Tornadus-Incarnate anyway so I could opt into more Special Bulk. 244 HP and 180+ SpD allowed me to survive Dragon Gem Draco from Timid Latios guaranteed, which further would help my suboptimal matchup into Latios. 20 Spe was kinda random, the idea was I would speed creep other Rotom with like 4 and 12 Spe investment, however I probably should have gone more since a lot of other players likely think the same when it comes to Rotom so I may adjust that. 60 SpA gave me 9/16 Odds to OHKO Tornadus-Incarnate anyway so a coinflip in my favor, but as I mentioned before my team was really strong into Tornadus-Incarnate anyway so it never really came up. Drip I pretty much brought to every matchup, I used it to deal with weather teams and other bulky water-types which permeate the format.
Amaterasu (Volcarona) (F) @ Bug Gem
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Def / 4 SpA / 68 SpD / 188 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk
- Overheat
- Bug Buzz
- Rage Powder
- Protect
Volcarona was stolen from the #1 Rank Ladder team, with some of my own personal flavor added namely the spread was much different, instead of opting for offensive firepower I opted for bulk and speed. 188+ Spe was to guarantee outspeed all non-Scarf Landorus-Therian and to outspeed all neutral base 102 and lower Pokemon. 244 HP 68 SpD was to guaranteed survive Dragon Gem Draco Meteor from Timid Latios, once again covering for my natural weakness to Latios in the builder. This set also allowed me to guarantee survive Scald from Politoed while giving me a 1/8th chance to survive Muddy Water in Rain from 252+ Life Orb Kingdra, and also guanteed survival against Lum Berry Kingdra in Rain. This set was incredibly powerful and turned Volcarona when paired with Hydreigon into a complete weapon against Rain Teams who often lead Metagross and Scizor just to deal with your Dragon type just to autolose when the fire moth shows up. It is also a great option against Perish Trap since it makes Gothitelle unusable in that matchup turning their team into a suboptimal Rain Team. Amaterasu was amazing and really benefits from OTS since I could see who was on Hidden Power Flying and Rock Slide and did not have to guess before hand.
Titan (Hydreigon) (M) @ Dragon Gem
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 6 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Earth Power
- Protect
Last but certainly not least we have Hydreigon. Hydreigon was my final pick and what I opted for instead of Tornadus-Incarnate which makes this team significantly different in my view. People within the community have always not understood my fascination with Hydreigon, especially in relation to Latios who many consider the superior dragon-type. However to me I have always found that Hydreigon not just performs just as well in most spots Latios is "Prefered" but also comes up way more often where it feels strong in comparison with Latios. Hydreigon was used in this team because I felt I needed another Water Resist while also providing me a total hard counter to CressTran teams such as Aaron Zheng's World Championship team. The idea with this set is that you just NUKE Rotom-Wash when it hits the board, chunk Cresselia (And Threaten a KO when paired with Volcarona) and also OHKO Heatran essentially nullifying the entire CressTran Core. Into Rain the combination of Redirection + Dragon is very difficult for them to crack, especially when your redirector is actually strong into Rain Teams usually Dragon counter in Metagross. In General this set overperformed and throughout the whole tournament I felt a serious competitive advantage that I was the player on Hydriegon and they were not. Titan was definitely the MVP of this team.
Common Leads:
Cresselia + Rotom-Wash is the most standard and neutral lead into pretty much everything, against Balanced Rain Teams this lead is usually enough to beat them as well as into Sand this lead is usually enough to beat them, personally I like opting out of this lead because of how Dragon-weak it feels but as a defensive fronts these are about as good as it gets, if you see a Dragon you usually hard switch Rotom into Metagross, or if you see Tyranitar you go for WoW into it immediately. Also This lead was great for dealing with the Genies since they don't threaten a KO on either Pokemon.
Cresselia + Landorus-Therian is also standard, this lead feels a little bit better when uncertain about your opponent's team, because Landorus-Therian can get an Intimidate off early and then can U-Turn pivot out of danger into Metagross or Rotom-Wash to eat Ice Beam and Icy Wind. This lead also feels quite good into Amoongus and autowins into Sand
Hydreigon + Volcarona is a lead which surprisingly came up a lot, this is my primary lead into Rain teams because it stops any Gothitelle Shenanigans from going on and forces them to lead Politoed + Kingdra or usually autolosing. Even if they find the courage to lead hard Rain mode into you, the game then turns into a battle of Reads, where the RNG is favored on my side compared to theirs. This lead also just hard counters teams which use Cresselia as a hub to enable all their plays with Trick Room or Icy Wind.
Hydreigon + Landorus-Therian was the sleeper lead that really helped me this tournament. It just hard punishes other balance teams similar to mine which lacked strong forms of speed control like Tailwind or Trick Room as I can just threaten way too much damage immediately. In CTS practice this lead is a lot riskier but in OTS where I can see your moves, I can tell what teams can and cannot handle this level of offensive pressure immediately and helped me understand why oopsgtg likes leading Latios + Landorus-Therian so much.
MATCHES:
Round 1 VS LoupBlanc
G1: 61-27878-23948
G2: 25-92782-38320
Going into Round 1 I already knew I was going to win, my team matches up incredibly well into Sand. Pretty much the only thing I was afraid of was the Latios, especially since this one was Ice Beam instead of the usual Hidden Power Fire. However I felt overall fine, this was because his Terrakion was useless because of Cresselia, and his Excadrill was also bad because I had 4 Ground immunities. I knew if I brought Metagross with 3 Ground Immunes there was no way he would beat me unless he got multiple consecutive reads in a row correct and or a bunch of RNG. In game 1 I just lead Cresselia + Landorus-Therian with Rotom-Wash and Metagross in the back he lead Cresselia + Tyranitar with Latios and Excadrill in the back which was a fair choice but not optimal considering I got the Intimidate off on Tyranitar Immediately T1 I decide to hard switch Cresselia for Metagross and U-Turn Cresselia to bring out Rotom-Wash as the game progressed I was able to get a timely WoW into a Excadrill switch and a Mash into a Latios on the double switch. evntually I was able to convert my advantage into a simple win. Game 2 he lead Latios + Cresselia with Thundurus-Incarnate and Excadrill in the back, I opted for the exact same 4, this time my opponent made a solid adjustment, but it still did not really matter in the end since the matchup was just very unfavorable for him. I suppose he could have timed his Draco Meteor's with Latios a little bit better but Landorus-Therian U-Turns into his Cresselia was just too free and too punishing every time.
Round 2 VS Lewwy
G1: 39-33122-47037
G2: 72-38989-34058
Going into Round 2 I also knew I was going to win, while this matchup may look fine on face value, the only Pokemon on his entire team with Protect was Politoed, his Kingdra was physical Dragon Dance set, and his Tornadus-Incarnate was Prankster instead of defiant. Because of this I knew there was nothing he could do to prevent himself from being Blitzkrieg'd by Hydreigon + Landorus-Therian. I put Rotom-Wash and Metagross in the back for safe measure just incase he somehow managed to crack my leads. In Game 1 he lead Politoed + Rotom-Wash with Scizor and Kingdra in the back and I actually misplayed T1 going for U-Turn into his Eject Button Politoed forgetting that eject button prevents U-Turn. I still was able to win easily but misplays like that could not continue to happen if I wanted to win the tournament. In Game 2 my opponent lead Politoed + Tornadus-Incarnate with Scizor and Kingdra in the back. The game was also similarly easy and we moved into Round 3 undefeated.
Round 3 VS oopsgtg
G1: 43-13910-58299
G2: 90-96664-88926
My Round 3 pairing being Oops was both exciting but also scary, after all Oops may actually be the best Oldgen Pokemon player out there currently, and he was playing his version of Perish Trap which turns the game more into Chess, than Pokemon. I knew the matchup was favorable for me, but considering it was Oops I knew I would have to actually play well to capitalize on that advantage. In Game 1 I lead Hydreigon + Volcarona with Rotom-Wash and Metagross in back against his Landorus-Therian + Kingdra lead with Politoed and metagross in the back. Immediately when the game started I felt I had a serious advantage on the lead, I switched Volcarona for Rotom-Wash predicting a switch into Politoed and Draco Meteor'd the Kingdra slot to keep him honest. unbforunately he switched into Metagross but I read the stone Edge into Volcarona well. On the following turn I stayed in with my now -2 Hydriegon and chipped Landours-Therian with another Draco. Now eventually we went back and fourth and Oops pulled a solid play of locking my Rotom into Thunderbolt and switching in Landorus-Therian into a Tbolt. Unfortunately his Kingdra had only 5 HP and was in range of a Bullet Punch. However on the second turn I made a crazy read to sack my Metagross but he tried to double protect the Kingdra and missed the double protect immediately losing him the game when he KO'd his own Kingdra leaving me with the faster Pokemon left. Game 2 was much more simple. I brought the same 4 while Oops changed to Kingdra + Politoed lead, and Metagross and Landorus-Therian in the back. On Turn 1 I expected a safe play of Substitute Kingdra Protect Politoed so I double upped into Kingdra with Volcarona and Hydreigon. Which was a misplay mostly because I clicked dark Pulse with Hydreigon which definitely would not have killed Kingdra from 75% but either way he either read the no Rage Powder and then missed Draco Meteor... yeah not my proudest win but a win nonetheless.
Round 4 VS Goose
G1: 11-07775-99036
G2: 59-05656-01718
Now before people look at this team and be like "Wow how did this team go 3-0?" It didn't my opponent was actually winless but because of how our tournament was formatted I ended up facing an 0-3 to avoid tiebreakers. The match did not matter I was already guaranteed to play a Semi-Final Match, but with that said my opponent was just not ready for primetime and was beaten pretty easily.
SEMI-FINALS VS Lewwy
G1: 81-97441-09674
G2: 40-65422-31315
The Rematch with Lewwy went exactly the same as the match in swiss, Hydreigon + Landorus-Therian was just too strong for him to deal with, and once he finally dealt with it, he didn't have good enough Answers for Rotom-Wash + Metagross in the back.
FINALS VS MosquitoVGC
G1: 41-55344-69247
G2: 94-50101-56268
Now going into this match was Mosquito I definitely felt I had the upper hand quite significantly in the matchup department, much more than I had with Oops, and so I felt that unless Mosquito got both lucky and played perfectly that I was going to win. With that said if anyone was going to play perfectly it was going to be Mosquito. The battles were both incredibly close and intense and if RNG had gone differently for myself or Mosquito, the results could have been different I would highly recommend watching the match. Also I believe Mosquito posted his Team Report as well for this tournament so check that out, However the main thing in this matchup was that he ran a Life Orb Timid Landorus-Therian that lacked a Rock move, meaning that he had nothing to hit Volcarona for super effective.
Last thing I would like to say is thank you for everyone who made this tournament possible, and everyone who has helped me improve to be where I am now currently as a player and to my team which performed incredibly and got every big break I needed throughout this tournament, a 12-0 games result even if not the most comp tournament was pretty impressive result and goes to show the raw power of these 6.
The main thing I was afraid of was Spore, Breloom and Amoongus become significantly stronger in OTS because your opponent can see which of your pokemon are Lum Berry and Chesto Berry and target accordingly. So I knew what I needed to play had to be strong into Amoongus. Furthermore I was very concerned about Rain because it is similarly buffed in Bo3 because of the sheer amount of offensive pressure Kingdra in Rain has so I know I needed something with an overall + Rain matchup. Originally I was going to do some Skill Swap CressTran Shenanigans, but I then realized that Heatran is nearly impossible to build around without having multiple weaknesses so instead I opted for my usual Metagross Balance type teams and ended up coming up with something that was heavily inspired by Radio Free C-Side Lucien Lachance & Mogo But with a Twist of my own personal flavor.
THE TEAM:
Luna (Cresselia) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 140 HP / 164 SpA / 204 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 12 Atk
- Psyshock
- Ice Beam
- Safeguard
- Trick Room
So this team starts with Cresselia, but I am not going to lie to you at all, this set was very wrong. Cresselia was the final set I finished and also the one I was least satisfied with in the end. Before the tournament I really wanted Safeguard to prevent Spore, and in Cresselia's defense it was actually alright. However multiple times I would have just preferred a Chesto Resto set which would have came up in my finals match. However let me explain the idea of this set. 164 SpA was the number I needed to OHKO 4 HP 164 SpD Landorus-T with Ice Beam which was the absolutely bulkiest Scarf Landorus-T I have ever seen. 164 SpA also allowed me to guarantee 2HKO standard 252 HP 108 Def Calm Amoongus with Psyshock and uninvested Latios with Ice Beam. I have actually enjoyed running Ebelt Cresselia in this format since it allows Cresselia to take care of a lot of the Ice Weak threats in the format easily. 204+ Spe was mostly for Breloom, but it also allowed me to also outspeed Neutral nature Landorus-Therian which in theory could have been useful, but never actually came up in game where I could put a Sash Landorus-Therian to 1HP before it U-Turns. The rest was of the EVs were dumped into HP. Now you may be asking why on earth am I Trick Room on Cresselia while also being Timid? To be honest it was probably wrong, not because I was so fast but moreso because Trick Room just wasn't that useful. In Theory it could be good into Suicune Balance Teams, and would be my Team's only real punish into Suicune + Latios Lead. But in Hindsight I probably could have afforded to cut some speed and also play a better Speed Control move like Thunder Wave instead or even Energy Ball to make my matchup into Gastrodon more playable. However Trick Room was also better for OTS because my opponent's would see the Trick Room, and assume I had no speed investment when I was very much in fact FAST, kind of a similar idea to my Portland Regional Team with Calyrex-Ice. In General Luna still performed well overall but I really feel like a different set would have fit this team better.
Rawr (Landorus-Therian) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 76 SpD / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Superpower
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
Landorus-Therian was my second mandatory pick mostly because it deals so well with Pokemon Cresselia hates like Scizor, Metagross, Heatran and Tyranitar so well, while giving my team a speedster to force my opponent to respect my speed tiers. This set was just the bone standard Scarf Landorus-Therian Set. I Opted for Superpower instead of Rock Slide mostly because I wanted to hard punish anyone brazen enough to bring Scarf Tyranitar against me. Also Superpower I felt was necessary was it gave me a way to hit Heatran for super effective damage ever after a Skill Swap. Superpower ended up never coming up, but to be honest Rock Slide probably never would have either. I was always just clicking U-Turn or going for Oonga Boonga damage with Earthquake the whole tournament anyway. In general Landours-Therian perfomed as a 600 BST Pokemon with Intimidate should, It was fast, Ignorant and hit like a Truck. For anyone wondering 172 Spe in the minimum speed because of Scarf Mamoswine, 252 Atk I feel is mandatory since OHKOing Thundurus with Stone Edge is usually a roll anyway, and the rest was dumped into SpD so I could give myself decent odds to live Ice Beam from non Ebelt Cresselia's. Rawr performed flawlessly, and I would not have changed a thing about this set.
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
I am starting to believe it is impossible for me to justify playing a team without the super computer in this format. It just has all the qualities I appreciate about a Pokemon, it is Intimidate Immune, Counters Amoongus, is a good switch in for over half the attack types in the game, and has enough bulk to be 3HKO by most thinks, while also having enough Atk to 2HKO most things. This set is definitely my favorite of all the Metagross sets just an optimal beat stick. 196+ Atk allowed me to KO Latios with a Meteor Mash + Bullet Punch Guaranteed, 252 HP 4 SpD allowed me to survive Heat Wave from 252+ SpA Volcarona guaranteed, and the rest of the stats were just dumped into Spe. Normally this spread also is good with Icy Wind but for this team I opted out of that move. Yeah, I mean for this set there just isn't much to say it is just total Dragon and Amoongus hate and is my favorite set in the entire game essentially. GPT has always been good as a clean up, not just because of Bullet Punch but also because it does a really good job in late game 1v1s against the Tanks like Cresselia and Tyranitar and generally will win so it always gave me the option to just ignore them and attack the other slot.
Drip (Rotom-Wash) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Def / 60 SpA / 180 SpD / 20 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Light Screen
- Will-O-Wisp
Rotom-Wash was the last "Mandatory" party member and functioned as my hard rain counter. Now normally I like to run a more Physically bulky Rotom who guarantee OHKOs Tornadus-Incarnate for good measure. However when building I noticed that with my 2 add-ons to this core I essentially farm both Conkeldurr and Tornadus-Incarnate anyway so I could opt into more Special Bulk. 244 HP and 180+ SpD allowed me to survive Dragon Gem Draco from Timid Latios guaranteed, which further would help my suboptimal matchup into Latios. 20 Spe was kinda random, the idea was I would speed creep other Rotom with like 4 and 12 Spe investment, however I probably should have gone more since a lot of other players likely think the same when it comes to Rotom so I may adjust that. 60 SpA gave me 9/16 Odds to OHKO Tornadus-Incarnate anyway so a coinflip in my favor, but as I mentioned before my team was really strong into Tornadus-Incarnate anyway so it never really came up. Drip I pretty much brought to every matchup, I used it to deal with weather teams and other bulky water-types which permeate the format.
Amaterasu (Volcarona) (F) @ Bug Gem
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Def / 4 SpA / 68 SpD / 188 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk
- Overheat
- Bug Buzz
- Rage Powder
- Protect
Volcarona was stolen from the #1 Rank Ladder team, with some of my own personal flavor added namely the spread was much different, instead of opting for offensive firepower I opted for bulk and speed. 188+ Spe was to guarantee outspeed all non-Scarf Landorus-Therian and to outspeed all neutral base 102 and lower Pokemon. 244 HP 68 SpD was to guaranteed survive Dragon Gem Draco Meteor from Timid Latios, once again covering for my natural weakness to Latios in the builder. This set also allowed me to guarantee survive Scald from Politoed while giving me a 1/8th chance to survive Muddy Water in Rain from 252+ Life Orb Kingdra, and also guanteed survival against Lum Berry Kingdra in Rain. This set was incredibly powerful and turned Volcarona when paired with Hydreigon into a complete weapon against Rain Teams who often lead Metagross and Scizor just to deal with your Dragon type just to autolose when the fire moth shows up. It is also a great option against Perish Trap since it makes Gothitelle unusable in that matchup turning their team into a suboptimal Rain Team. Amaterasu was amazing and really benefits from OTS since I could see who was on Hidden Power Flying and Rock Slide and did not have to guess before hand.
Titan (Hydreigon) (M) @ Dragon Gem
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 6 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Earth Power
- Protect
Last but certainly not least we have Hydreigon. Hydreigon was my final pick and what I opted for instead of Tornadus-Incarnate which makes this team significantly different in my view. People within the community have always not understood my fascination with Hydreigon, especially in relation to Latios who many consider the superior dragon-type. However to me I have always found that Hydreigon not just performs just as well in most spots Latios is "Prefered" but also comes up way more often where it feels strong in comparison with Latios. Hydreigon was used in this team because I felt I needed another Water Resist while also providing me a total hard counter to CressTran teams such as Aaron Zheng's World Championship team. The idea with this set is that you just NUKE Rotom-Wash when it hits the board, chunk Cresselia (And Threaten a KO when paired with Volcarona) and also OHKO Heatran essentially nullifying the entire CressTran Core. Into Rain the combination of Redirection + Dragon is very difficult for them to crack, especially when your redirector is actually strong into Rain Teams usually Dragon counter in Metagross. In General this set overperformed and throughout the whole tournament I felt a serious competitive advantage that I was the player on Hydriegon and they were not. Titan was definitely the MVP of this team.
Common Leads:
Cresselia + Rotom-Wash is the most standard and neutral lead into pretty much everything, against Balanced Rain Teams this lead is usually enough to beat them as well as into Sand this lead is usually enough to beat them, personally I like opting out of this lead because of how Dragon-weak it feels but as a defensive fronts these are about as good as it gets, if you see a Dragon you usually hard switch Rotom into Metagross, or if you see Tyranitar you go for WoW into it immediately. Also This lead was great for dealing with the Genies since they don't threaten a KO on either Pokemon.
Cresselia + Landorus-Therian is also standard, this lead feels a little bit better when uncertain about your opponent's team, because Landorus-Therian can get an Intimidate off early and then can U-Turn pivot out of danger into Metagross or Rotom-Wash to eat Ice Beam and Icy Wind. This lead also feels quite good into Amoongus and autowins into Sand
Hydreigon + Volcarona is a lead which surprisingly came up a lot, this is my primary lead into Rain teams because it stops any Gothitelle Shenanigans from going on and forces them to lead Politoed + Kingdra or usually autolosing. Even if they find the courage to lead hard Rain mode into you, the game then turns into a battle of Reads, where the RNG is favored on my side compared to theirs. This lead also just hard counters teams which use Cresselia as a hub to enable all their plays with Trick Room or Icy Wind.
Hydreigon + Landorus-Therian was the sleeper lead that really helped me this tournament. It just hard punishes other balance teams similar to mine which lacked strong forms of speed control like Tailwind or Trick Room as I can just threaten way too much damage immediately. In CTS practice this lead is a lot riskier but in OTS where I can see your moves, I can tell what teams can and cannot handle this level of offensive pressure immediately and helped me understand why oopsgtg likes leading Latios + Landorus-Therian so much.
MATCHES:
Round 1 VS LoupBlanc
G1: 61-27878-23948
G2: 25-92782-38320
Going into Round 1 I already knew I was going to win, my team matches up incredibly well into Sand. Pretty much the only thing I was afraid of was the Latios, especially since this one was Ice Beam instead of the usual Hidden Power Fire. However I felt overall fine, this was because his Terrakion was useless because of Cresselia, and his Excadrill was also bad because I had 4 Ground immunities. I knew if I brought Metagross with 3 Ground Immunes there was no way he would beat me unless he got multiple consecutive reads in a row correct and or a bunch of RNG. In game 1 I just lead Cresselia + Landorus-Therian with Rotom-Wash and Metagross in the back he lead Cresselia + Tyranitar with Latios and Excadrill in the back which was a fair choice but not optimal considering I got the Intimidate off on Tyranitar Immediately T1 I decide to hard switch Cresselia for Metagross and U-Turn Cresselia to bring out Rotom-Wash as the game progressed I was able to get a timely WoW into a Excadrill switch and a Mash into a Latios on the double switch. evntually I was able to convert my advantage into a simple win. Game 2 he lead Latios + Cresselia with Thundurus-Incarnate and Excadrill in the back, I opted for the exact same 4, this time my opponent made a solid adjustment, but it still did not really matter in the end since the matchup was just very unfavorable for him. I suppose he could have timed his Draco Meteor's with Latios a little bit better but Landorus-Therian U-Turns into his Cresselia was just too free and too punishing every time.
Round 2 VS Lewwy
G1: 39-33122-47037
G2: 72-38989-34058
Going into Round 2 I also knew I was going to win, while this matchup may look fine on face value, the only Pokemon on his entire team with Protect was Politoed, his Kingdra was physical Dragon Dance set, and his Tornadus-Incarnate was Prankster instead of defiant. Because of this I knew there was nothing he could do to prevent himself from being Blitzkrieg'd by Hydreigon + Landorus-Therian. I put Rotom-Wash and Metagross in the back for safe measure just incase he somehow managed to crack my leads. In Game 1 he lead Politoed + Rotom-Wash with Scizor and Kingdra in the back and I actually misplayed T1 going for U-Turn into his Eject Button Politoed forgetting that eject button prevents U-Turn. I still was able to win easily but misplays like that could not continue to happen if I wanted to win the tournament. In Game 2 my opponent lead Politoed + Tornadus-Incarnate with Scizor and Kingdra in the back. The game was also similarly easy and we moved into Round 3 undefeated.
Round 3 VS oopsgtg
G1: 43-13910-58299
G2: 90-96664-88926
My Round 3 pairing being Oops was both exciting but also scary, after all Oops may actually be the best Oldgen Pokemon player out there currently, and he was playing his version of Perish Trap which turns the game more into Chess, than Pokemon. I knew the matchup was favorable for me, but considering it was Oops I knew I would have to actually play well to capitalize on that advantage. In Game 1 I lead Hydreigon + Volcarona with Rotom-Wash and Metagross in back against his Landorus-Therian + Kingdra lead with Politoed and metagross in the back. Immediately when the game started I felt I had a serious advantage on the lead, I switched Volcarona for Rotom-Wash predicting a switch into Politoed and Draco Meteor'd the Kingdra slot to keep him honest. unbforunately he switched into Metagross but I read the stone Edge into Volcarona well. On the following turn I stayed in with my now -2 Hydriegon and chipped Landours-Therian with another Draco. Now eventually we went back and fourth and Oops pulled a solid play of locking my Rotom into Thunderbolt and switching in Landorus-Therian into a Tbolt. Unfortunately his Kingdra had only 5 HP and was in range of a Bullet Punch. However on the second turn I made a crazy read to sack my Metagross but he tried to double protect the Kingdra and missed the double protect immediately losing him the game when he KO'd his own Kingdra leaving me with the faster Pokemon left. Game 2 was much more simple. I brought the same 4 while Oops changed to Kingdra + Politoed lead, and Metagross and Landorus-Therian in the back. On Turn 1 I expected a safe play of Substitute Kingdra Protect Politoed so I double upped into Kingdra with Volcarona and Hydreigon. Which was a misplay mostly because I clicked dark Pulse with Hydreigon which definitely would not have killed Kingdra from 75% but either way he either read the no Rage Powder and then missed Draco Meteor... yeah not my proudest win but a win nonetheless.
Round 4 VS Goose
G1: 11-07775-99036
G2: 59-05656-01718
Now before people look at this team and be like "Wow how did this team go 3-0?" It didn't my opponent was actually winless but because of how our tournament was formatted I ended up facing an 0-3 to avoid tiebreakers. The match did not matter I was already guaranteed to play a Semi-Final Match, but with that said my opponent was just not ready for primetime and was beaten pretty easily.
SEMI-FINALS VS Lewwy
G1: 81-97441-09674
G2: 40-65422-31315
The Rematch with Lewwy went exactly the same as the match in swiss, Hydreigon + Landorus-Therian was just too strong for him to deal with, and once he finally dealt with it, he didn't have good enough Answers for Rotom-Wash + Metagross in the back.
FINALS VS MosquitoVGC
G1: 41-55344-69247
G2: 94-50101-56268
Now going into this match was Mosquito I definitely felt I had the upper hand quite significantly in the matchup department, much more than I had with Oops, and so I felt that unless Mosquito got both lucky and played perfectly that I was going to win. With that said if anyone was going to play perfectly it was going to be Mosquito. The battles were both incredibly close and intense and if RNG had gone differently for myself or Mosquito, the results could have been different I would highly recommend watching the match. Also I believe Mosquito posted his Team Report as well for this tournament so check that out, However the main thing in this matchup was that he ran a Life Orb Timid Landorus-Therian that lacked a Rock move, meaning that he had nothing to hit Volcarona for super effective.
Last thing I would like to say is thank you for everyone who made this tournament possible, and everyone who has helped me improve to be where I am now currently as a player and to my team which performed incredibly and got every big break I needed throughout this tournament, a 12-0 games result even if not the most comp tournament was pretty impressive result and goes to show the raw power of these 6.