I'm posting this team because I love it very much, it's probably my favourite team to use ever. It's also seen quite a bit of success and use, but now the metagame trends and principles it's based on are starting to age so I'd like to retire it before it's just dead in the water. Furthermore, I'd like to use this occasion to tell the story of Team Canada, or well, what it is now.
I'll only be able to tell the story from my perspective, so I'll start in 2013, the first year I joined the team. Hope you enjoy.
Anyway, onto the team:
At a glance:
Specifics:
Heatran @ Choice Specs *** Burial Mounds
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Overheat
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Flamethrower
SpecsTran leads this team off. Boy, is it a monster though. Being able to threaten the strong "tilt leads" turn 1 with them being unable to do anything is absolutely great. Jirachi gets cooked too. On top of that, SpecsTran is just great with Blissey: you spread Paralysis, switch in on an unsuspecting opp or just a walled one, rinse and repeat. On top of that, Blissey can set up SR on Starmie so that dudes like Dragonite don't even like to take advantage of a -2 Tran. Other Trans switching in isn't even an issue, you can just go to Blissey and get your SR up. Obviously though late game it gets annoying with the possibility of Explosion but you should be able to see that coming and play accordingly.
I honestly think this is the optimal setup for SpecsTran though. Don't think Dragon Pulse is overly useful unless you're like... deathly afraid of Kingdra. But I feel like the HP Grass strong hit on other waters (especially bulky ones like Suicune or Milo) far outweights that. Just Earth Power if you think Kingdra is coming in. The extra Fire STAB is entirely necessary, you shouldn't have to take the -2 just because you need to kill a 28% Bronzong.
My recommendation for new players is: play Heatran as aggressively as you can. It is absolutely NOT vital to keep it alive for you to win the game. However what you DO need is to get strong hits off early so that you can break the opponent's momentum and just win through your dudes mopping up their crippled team. Don't hesitate to let Tran take a hit. Also if you absolutely need to sac something it should be pretty high on your list.
Zapdos @ Leftovers *** Sanctuary
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Heat Wave
- Roost
Oh, Zapdos. Broken Zapdos as I like to call it. It really holds the team together. Honestly, it's pretty hard for most team to beat Zapdos unless they have Sand and a way to keep SR up against Starmie. It's just so bulky and the coverage is a pain in the ass for anything that's not Tyranitar, Clefable, or Blissey. Anyway, Zapdos is there mostly to answer to physical dudes of all kind. Breloom, Flygon, Metagross, you name it, Zapdos can (probably) beat it. It's always funny to see ScarfGon Stone Edge this for 44%.
It really annoys me when some of you guys use Discharge over Thunderbolt btw. It's like you guys want to fail to kill a Starmie or something. You can use Roar over Heat Wave, but it's not overly useful without Spikes. It does keep certain boosters at bay though. Don't compromise any of the physical bulk, otherwise you'll be folding to physicals quick.
My advice to new players: don't hesitate to send Zapdos in when SR is up. You can always Roost off the damage. He can usually take it, especially if Sand isn't up. Be careful with it though, because Zapdos is probably the most important member of the team defensively. If it dies, you will rely on Jirachi a lot for revenge kills.
Blissey @ Leftovers *** Coagulation
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seismic Toss
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Soft-Boiled
It's funny, because Blissey, in a way, allows you to play extremely aggressively. It basically guarantees you'll have Stealth Rock up early, and thanks to Thunder Wave, it's easy to get one of Breloom or Heatran in quickly. This moveset might not look like much but it absolutely terrorizes teams of all kind thanks to those traits. Furthermore, thanks to Blissey's gigantic bulk, you're not forced to Softboiled quite as much as if you were using Clefable. This allows for more... deliberate play.
Even if this moveset is good, this team could maybe use Ice Beam or Flamethrower as one of the moves. The truth is that Gengar is actually a pretty big threat and you'll often have to play the waiting game against it. I've usually just sucked it up and said whatever, if I do face a SubSplit Gar I'll play accordingly while I enjoy my suprerior moveset against well... everything else.
My advice to new guys: Blissey should be one of the first things to switch in. It's not hard to find opportunity and you can really use them to turn the heat on your opponent. SR up is such a big deal for this team.
Breloom @ Toxic Orb *** Zanzibar
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 236 HP / 136 Atk / 56 Def / 36 SpD / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Mach Punch
- Seed Bomb
- Superpower
- Spore
That mon is so super duper strong!!! I love Breloom. It's just so easy to get in on a slow wall and then make them regret switching in. The sleep itself is also pretty interesting, because sleep absorption is pretty unreliable in DPP. Anyway, it's pretty important for Breloom to show up here, because otherwise slow walls that are tough to wear down will just kind of outlast you. Through Heatran and Breloom, though, you can force them into a much more fast paced game which this team thrives in.
Bulky EVs are actually really sweet on Breloom. I don't rate the Speed that much because you'll usually be able to force things out through the sheer threat of Superpower and Poison Heal making Loom hard to wear down. You can also just force out a Pert or whatever. Meanwhile, Loom's modest bulk means that even weaker Ice Beams will tear it to shreds, so putting up a bit of extra weight is always appreciated.
My advice: be patient with Spore. You don't always need to cripple the opponent's first answer with sleep. Sometimes all you need is Superpower to clear out room. You might very well hit a sleep sac early, making your Spore useless. You'll get plenty of opportunities to switch Breloom back in. Spore is an absolute killer late game.
Starmie @ Leftovers *** Gemini
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 156 HP / 136 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
As you'd guess for most Zapdos teams, there's its #1 partner in crime, Starmie. Removing SR (and other hazards) can completely change the flow of a game, especially if the SR setter was KOed. Starmie also serves the purpose of being a generic fast mon that can put pressure on a frailer frame. It's why I like Ice Beam here, it hits a ton of things really hard, like Dragonite, Shaymin, or Breloom. All those things are particularly dangerous and Not Fun to deal with.
As far as the actual moveset goes, it does a bit of everything. I like my Starmie slightly more on the offensive side, but with the ability to shrug off weak hits. Recover is pretty clutch in longer games, especially when they carry Rotom to block your spin. I've considered Psychic here before for the stronger hit against Breloom, Gengar, and Kingdra, but overall I feel like Ice Beam is superior.
My advice: Starmie is very, very bad if you jump the gun and play it hastily. You need to be really patient with it. I like to keep it for late game when they don't have a lot of options left, their Tyranitar was already weakened, etc. so that you can guarantee the spin and still be useful. You don't NEED hazards off early. Don't be greedy.
Jirachi @ Choice Scarf *** Ivory Tower
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Thunder Punch
- U-turn
So, to round up this team, here's the real villain. ScarfRachi is just so clutch. Fills a defensive niche, revenges all the threatening dudes, can clean with Iron Head... It's the miracle worker of this roster. The Steel type is actually pretty handy since you'll sometimes need to hard switch it into Dragonite to lock up endgames, and resisting the Dragon STAB helps with that a lot. I've seen other people running a similar roster, but with ScarfTar over this. I don't like it much, I think this team really likes Sand not being up, and the Speed obviously helps a lot with well... not losing.
Thunder Punch is sort of a bad move but since Starmie has no Electric move it's very important to hit Gyarados. On top of that you might be able to finish off a Suicune without needing to flinch it down. I've toyed with Trick here before and it's certainly not bad, but the Gyara matchup might get scary if rocks go up and stay up. Another thing I've used is Fire Punch to snipe Lucario and Scizor, but usually Zapdos does a fine job against them.
My advice: keep Jirachi healthy for late game. A 100% healthy Jirachi has very few losing matchups.
So anyway... There you have it. Hope you enjoyed the read. Catch you guys later!
I'll only be able to tell the story from my perspective, so I'll start in 2013, the first year I joined the team. Hope you enjoy.
2013
So here we are. 2013, the first year I joined the team. The truth is, I wasn't really planning on playing for Canada in the first place. My friends were mostly British and were ready to give me a place on their roster. Dead set on joining them, I was actually on their original roster, but Texas heavily recruited me and Iconic offered me a starter position on Canada which I couldn't refuse, obviously.
Our roster was absolutely terrible. We had two good players: Iconic, and Atticus who didn't play a single game. The rest of our roster consisted of then NU extraordinaire FLCL (first year on the team as well,) hellpowna, Ezio (or hyperbeem for the intimates,) Sayonara (who managed to beat Ginku's rain with 0/0 Rotom-W as only water resist,) and myself. Atticus was soon subbed out for Toaster as we sank to something terrible like 2-9.
My first game went horrible; I brought a terrible sand balance with Hippowdon and LO SD Garchomp as kokoloko brought Smurf offense. He swept me with Volcarona, which isn't surprising considering that mon is broken as a fucking bitch -_-
Then my second game came along, and it was one for the archives. I brought a weatherless team with SD Scizor and LO Latios (don't remember much of the rest). My opponent was then rising-star Shoka; his team was a Froslass weatherless with Reuniclus and DTail Garchomp. Anyway, I haxed the shit out of him, won as LO recoil knocked me out, and the confusion probably added poured oil on the fire. I had just triggered Sweepage's wrath! He spent a good amount of time insulting me on IRC, at least it made for a good first wcop win story lol.
We finished terrible, something like 15th. It was still overall a good experience though, I was just getting used to team tours and I had a lot of fun building teams with my teammates. The fact that most of us were new and without much experience probably helped the overall team atmosphere, no big egos to feed yet. BTW, FLCL went 0-3 lol.
2014
With a new year of experience under our belt, I felt like we were ready to take the next step. XY was released that year too (well, late 2013) so it made its entrance in WCoP; DPP and ADV were also added that year. It was the infamous 5-3 format that was changed the year right after.
Either way, leading up to that tournament, Iconic stopped being very active on Smogon and we were in need of a new captain. I was pretty interested by the title because I felt like I cared the most about the team. Truth be told, I probably wasn't ready yet though, because I was still pretty new to tournaments. Soon enough I'd make mistakes that'd turn out to be costly.
We had an influx of new blood with the new gen; my favourite new player being Wepwn, who was just coming off a XY Smogon Tour win. FLCL also dominated the Smogon Tour scene in gen 6 so despite his poor record the prior year he was by far our most accomplished player. Soulgazer was a new face and not really experienced in OU, but I was an assman on his SPL team so I knew he could play. On top of that, previous year sub Mizuhime was getting known for playing all sorts of tiers so I figured I'd place her in OU. Our lineup would be completed by myself in XY, Iconic in DPP, Krack in ADV, and my good friend Funkasaurus in BW. On top of that I had convinced recent OST champion Atticus to sign up again even if it was just to sub, so I felt good about our chances.
Then came the whole FLCL drama. He wanted to leave for Asia. I felt bad telling him no so I let him go. Then I sent him a super long pm about why I couldn't let him go and actually forced him back on Canada. The rest is history now, but it goes to show how some things could have gone differently had just a little detail changed. [Also, to the everlasting laughter of ShakeItUp, I rejected Tesung from the team so he went to West instead. Ha Ha Ha.]
Round one started and I wasn't sure if we'd compete. I mean, we had some pretty solid players on board, but our previous year was just a catastrophe. Plus, I was pretty unproven myself, and some of our XY players were just not OU players. We started off slow, I couldn't get a game done until the first deadline (Pridy johned) and SG got infamously beaten by Nelson's 8 items wielding Garchomp. Krack disappeared without playing a single game. I had to sub in Texas for him, even though he barely played ADV.
Then it all clicked. I won my first game against Pridy thanks to ultra aggro plays. Texas won 2 games, Funk started winning too. I won another game, this time against Reymedy. Being 2-0 as a new captain on a surging team felt incredible, to be honest. I probably got too confident, I went into my last game against a relative unknown who goes by Steve Angello thinking I couldn't lose. I got my ass beaten, but whatever. We were still in an ok position (about even in record) and I had a great performance. I felt good about our chances.
The qualifying night was just... insane. We won a ton of games, including SG going 2-0 in the span of a few hours. He destroyed PttP with his Keldeo clicking ridiculous moves at ridiculous times. We had two games left with what I though were our two best players: FLCL against Yusuke, and Funkasaurus against Felony (AKA Shining Latios.) We only needed 1 win to make it. Unfortunately FLCL lost. One problem remained though: Felony was nowhere to be found, and the Afrabs had no available subs. So we were granted to activity win.
Unfortunately, we were 8th to qualify, and our activity win knocked Team France out. That sparked quite a bit of drama. Ultimately we were still allowed to proceed, but there was a three way tie for the 6th seed; so we had to tiebreak for it. US East was the first seed so everyone wanted to avoid them at all cost (their XY had lost just one game in the whole tournament.) I don't remember who Asia chose, but Atticus lost to that player. We swapped him out for FLCL who got his ass beaten by Tamahome. So we had to face East R2 (yikes!)
As the round started and matchups were revealed, I had drawn a friend of mine from a shared social circle, bro fist. He was doing quite well, notching a 3-0 in R1 including a game where he missed all 8 of his Focus Blast pp lol. Either way, the game itself was an incredible nailbiter, which I highly encourage you to watch.
But yeah we got our wigs snatched, as blunder would put it. At least Wepwn won with Beartic. Oh and, FLCL lost to Joey's giant Talonflame.
2015
That year will always be the worst experience I had in a Smogon Tournament. But I can't really blame it on anyone or anything but myself. I was coming off my big breakout tour, everyone was expecting me to do well, and our roster had no place to go but up. FLCL was still tearing it up in Smogon Tour, tons of vets from the golden years were coming back, and we just added two new promising players in Tokyo Tom and blunder. I thought our roster was stacked.
Then the tournament started... And we lost. And lost again. We started on such a terrible streak, it killed all morale. blunder lost to Amir's Beedrill + Magneton nonsense (what the fuck blunder) and FLCL started losing again. On top of that, most of the vets who came back did terrible, aside from franky. It all culminated when I lost my first game against .Robert, by pulling aggressive plays which he capitalized on (ok to be fair though, who Scalds a Gastrodon only to burn to Hydreigon switch in, what the fuck)
It was so bad, we actually had to tiebreak to keep the team alive. Our tiebreak lineup was me in ADV, and blunder + Tokyo Tom in ORAS. Fortunately blunder and I won, but Tokyo Tom actually lost although his opponent never posted. So there, Ryan, consider yourself exposed.
2016
Not sure why, but overall I had a very positive experience that year. It was probably because I was playing my favourite gen, or maybe because we made a huge cleanup in players and started anew. Either way, even if we sucked, it was a lot of fun.
Lots of new guys on board once again. Nedor was touted by Some as the next big teambuilding genius. Genesis who was a sub the year before put a lot of effort into making the actual team better. FLCL was once again dominating the tournament scene. Tokyo Tom could slide into BW and I felt like I could support him well. Always and Hector Hard Mode were pretty good for new guys. Mizuhime and SG picked up the two oldest gens in an attempt to freshen the blood in those tiers. Heysup, the LC master, could start in ADV. The only downside was that blunder didn't want to play so we had to keep him as a sub. All in all, we had a lot of promising stuff, but not a lot of sure things.
I was really motivated by the group I had drawn. 3 legends of the game were my opponents; Sweepage, McMeghan, and Phillip7086. That was my opportunity to finally prove myself as a top DPP player.
When the games started, it was kind of like the previous year... Without the expectations. Honestly it made it a lot better. I just had to focus on my games and doing well without really worrying about others. We had our moments honestly, like when Heysup beat Golden Sun with a Jolteon that couldn't touch Flygon AT ALL, or when Always solo'd Snou's Volcarona with Mega Scizor. My games were a lot of fun, beating both Sweepage and McMeghan who I had a lot of respect for. I regret changing my team up against Phil because I had made such a beautiful team but ran right into the TormentTran matchup.
The peak of that tournament though was surely iloveleague vs Laurel. I encourage you to look up the whole thing in the 2016 WCoP thread if you haven't, it's a goodie. It's pretty funny too, because originally we hadn't planned on adding league to the roster: a bunch of Big Clout Team Members thought he was extremely annoying and veto'd him.
Either way, we fucking sucked, ended like 13th or something. But we were rebuilding so I was fine with it, and at the end of the day our team atmosphere was mostly cool.
Oh and in case you didn't know, FLCL lost a lot
2017
Man this one is sort of a blur to me. I had started getting really busy irl and my love for the game was at an all-time low after a terrible SPL that ended in a heartbreak loss. But I still wanted to help the team as much as I could because I saw the potential we had in the previous year.
Our dudes were mostly all on a rising curve. Tokyo Tom had just beasted the latter half of SPL (he beat ME after all.) FLCL was, once again, dominating the tournament scene. Genesis had a surprise rise to form in SPL and could take up ORAS. I had been able to convince blunder to play and boy was he doing well. I had sort of come to terms with starting Texas again after seeing him play very well in GSC cup. In a surprise twist iloveleague reached OST semis and was probably the hottest riser in all of tournaments. Nedor had just gone positive in SPL. Overall we had a lot of quality guys and blue chip prospects ready to fly out the nest.
Honestly the first game probably ruined the team atmosphere, which hurt our chances a lot. league rushed with a stupid team and got his ass handed to him by psym2. blunder and I said some... not very nice things to him. We were pretty dead from there on out.
Then the unthinkable happened. FLCL went THREE fucking ZERO in groups. We were finally blessed with the performance we knew he could bring to the table. It's just a shame that the rest of the team blew it at the same time. blunder did some beastly shit though, most notable beating gods like mazar and reyscarface, so props.
The rest of us fucking sucked though. I probably haven't been more ashamed at my performance in a tournament than this one. Just straight up 0 fux given I'll just use the team I used every round of dpp cup type of stuff. I'm really sorry for that. Not my brightest moment.
2018
And here we are. The current year.
As you can see, our experiences so far pretty much amount to a legacy of failure. I didn't know if I wanted to play this tournament in the first place, to be honest. Things looked grim, no new guys really did well in the past year. I couldn't give up on my brothers though, so I decide to assemble the taskforce once again, with a simple motivation that I had to give it my all for this team because, well, I like to compete. Especially for this team.
On the plus side, blunder was willing to play again, although he told me there was a high possibility he'd bail if he lost in Smogon Tour. osgoode was also willing to play for the first time. SG was doing well in DPP, so it freed up a slot for us to slot Rui and I in other tiers. Bushtush did really well in SPL, even if it was a lower tier, I had good experiences with lower tiers dudes switching to OU. On top of that this new jytcampbell dude looked pretty decent. Deciding the lineup was tough. I didn't have much faith in suapah after Snake because he messed up heavily. Then we made him play Jrdn and he fucking crushed him, so we decided to give him a shot.
Then it started. We fucking won 6 fucking games in a fucking row.
I was getting really hyped up. Was this finally the year we'd get in? Getting back there has been a goal of mine ever since we got bounced by East in 2014. Every year, seeing my friends doing well was kind of crushing. You could maybe even call it jealousy. But this time it was going to be different, and I was incredibly fired up about it.
It's really a shame that I lost to linear and his cocktail mono Ice Punch Gengar. I loved the team I made for that game. Magdol with CB Mence, on top of that it had Heal Bell Bliss + Rest Cune. It just felt like it meshed well and wasn't something you'd expect from me. Then the game starts and I played really well to start, faked out his Skarm to ensure the trap. Then he pulls out that MOTHERFUCKER of a Gengar and bombs my Bliss... sigh. That was painful.
The game vs eden was something I was really confident about. He's not really the kind of player who changes it up much. UD's 4 attacks Tyranitar was something I thought would do really well against what he liked... Then he pulls out friggin Milotic. I was in for a tough game after that. Thankfully broken Zapdos did really well against his team and I didn't listen to McMeghan and put HP Grass on it lol.
Against smilzo was a weird one... I feel like I could have won without that Ice Punch freeze. He was pretty weak to both Starmie and Tyranitar at that point of the game. Oh well, he played very well too, can't be mad, but at the time I was STEAMING cause we really needed the win. Couldn't catch the TD, sorry blunder :(
I don't think I've ever been more proud of a team than when we qualified on that day. Rui winning that last game... somehow. blunder pulling off ridiculous plays with heavy payoff. At that time I felt like as a team we had come from so far... We were finally a real team. We had not just a past, but a present and a future too. Playing Europe was gonna be tough but if we put up a good fight in R2 I'd be happy with what we'd achieve.
And suddenly, we're 5-4. One game left: ADV. I had swapped with Rui because he was feeling unconfident in his GSC. He couldn't (or wouldn't?) make it for his game so we had to sub Texas in for him instead... I gave Texas the team I made for Rui to use. The opponent, We Three Kings, was pretty linear in his team choices so we could take advantage of him through Magdol. Turns out W3K brought something completely different, but the team won either way.
Suddenly, I wasn't going to be satisfied with just a playoff participation. I felt like this team had what it takes to win it all. We had star power, and new guys who cared a lot. Not just that, but these new guys were actually GOOD too. Like damn, we might actually do it all this year. Expectations set in, and man, do I hate them.
My own game against Valentine was just kind of disappointing I guess. I expected the exact opposite of what he actually brought. It was actually pretty hard to bring back from there. I guess that's a lesson against counterstyling, lol. At the cruelest of times.
Oh and by the way. FLCL sucked again.
2019
If this tournament taught me anything, it's that expectations are your worst enemy. Still, I think we have what it takes to improve even further next year and be a full blown dominant team. We still have kinks to hammer out, but the framework is there to turn the team into something great. I love to see this team evolve.
Hoping to team with FLCL and blunder again. You guys are my closest friends on the team. Keep on being great.
So here we are. 2013, the first year I joined the team. The truth is, I wasn't really planning on playing for Canada in the first place. My friends were mostly British and were ready to give me a place on their roster. Dead set on joining them, I was actually on their original roster, but Texas heavily recruited me and Iconic offered me a starter position on Canada which I couldn't refuse, obviously.
Our roster was absolutely terrible. We had two good players: Iconic, and Atticus who didn't play a single game. The rest of our roster consisted of then NU extraordinaire FLCL (first year on the team as well,) hellpowna, Ezio (or hyperbeem for the intimates,) Sayonara (who managed to beat Ginku's rain with 0/0 Rotom-W as only water resist,) and myself. Atticus was soon subbed out for Toaster as we sank to something terrible like 2-9.
My first game went horrible; I brought a terrible sand balance with Hippowdon and LO SD Garchomp as kokoloko brought Smurf offense. He swept me with Volcarona, which isn't surprising considering that mon is broken as a fucking bitch -_-
Then my second game came along, and it was one for the archives. I brought a weatherless team with SD Scizor and LO Latios (don't remember much of the rest). My opponent was then rising-star Shoka; his team was a Froslass weatherless with Reuniclus and DTail Garchomp. Anyway, I haxed the shit out of him, won as LO recoil knocked me out, and the confusion probably added poured oil on the fire. I had just triggered Sweepage's wrath! He spent a good amount of time insulting me on IRC, at least it made for a good first wcop win story lol.
We finished terrible, something like 15th. It was still overall a good experience though, I was just getting used to team tours and I had a lot of fun building teams with my teammates. The fact that most of us were new and without much experience probably helped the overall team atmosphere, no big egos to feed yet. BTW, FLCL went 0-3 lol.
2014
With a new year of experience under our belt, I felt like we were ready to take the next step. XY was released that year too (well, late 2013) so it made its entrance in WCoP; DPP and ADV were also added that year. It was the infamous 5-3 format that was changed the year right after.
Either way, leading up to that tournament, Iconic stopped being very active on Smogon and we were in need of a new captain. I was pretty interested by the title because I felt like I cared the most about the team. Truth be told, I probably wasn't ready yet though, because I was still pretty new to tournaments. Soon enough I'd make mistakes that'd turn out to be costly.
We had an influx of new blood with the new gen; my favourite new player being Wepwn, who was just coming off a XY Smogon Tour win. FLCL also dominated the Smogon Tour scene in gen 6 so despite his poor record the prior year he was by far our most accomplished player. Soulgazer was a new face and not really experienced in OU, but I was an assman on his SPL team so I knew he could play. On top of that, previous year sub Mizuhime was getting known for playing all sorts of tiers so I figured I'd place her in OU. Our lineup would be completed by myself in XY, Iconic in DPP, Krack in ADV, and my good friend Funkasaurus in BW. On top of that I had convinced recent OST champion Atticus to sign up again even if it was just to sub, so I felt good about our chances.
Then came the whole FLCL drama. He wanted to leave for Asia. I felt bad telling him no so I let him go. Then I sent him a super long pm about why I couldn't let him go and actually forced him back on Canada. The rest is history now, but it goes to show how some things could have gone differently had just a little detail changed. [Also, to the everlasting laughter of ShakeItUp, I rejected Tesung from the team so he went to West instead. Ha Ha Ha.]
Round one started and I wasn't sure if we'd compete. I mean, we had some pretty solid players on board, but our previous year was just a catastrophe. Plus, I was pretty unproven myself, and some of our XY players were just not OU players. We started off slow, I couldn't get a game done until the first deadline (Pridy johned) and SG got infamously beaten by Nelson's 8 items wielding Garchomp. Krack disappeared without playing a single game. I had to sub in Texas for him, even though he barely played ADV.
Then it all clicked. I won my first game against Pridy thanks to ultra aggro plays. Texas won 2 games, Funk started winning too. I won another game, this time against Reymedy. Being 2-0 as a new captain on a surging team felt incredible, to be honest. I probably got too confident, I went into my last game against a relative unknown who goes by Steve Angello thinking I couldn't lose. I got my ass beaten, but whatever. We were still in an ok position (about even in record) and I had a great performance. I felt good about our chances.
The qualifying night was just... insane. We won a ton of games, including SG going 2-0 in the span of a few hours. He destroyed PttP with his Keldeo clicking ridiculous moves at ridiculous times. We had two games left with what I though were our two best players: FLCL against Yusuke, and Funkasaurus against Felony (AKA Shining Latios.) We only needed 1 win to make it. Unfortunately FLCL lost. One problem remained though: Felony was nowhere to be found, and the Afrabs had no available subs. So we were granted to activity win.
Unfortunately, we were 8th to qualify, and our activity win knocked Team France out. That sparked quite a bit of drama. Ultimately we were still allowed to proceed, but there was a three way tie for the 6th seed; so we had to tiebreak for it. US East was the first seed so everyone wanted to avoid them at all cost (their XY had lost just one game in the whole tournament.) I don't remember who Asia chose, but Atticus lost to that player. We swapped him out for FLCL who got his ass beaten by Tamahome. So we had to face East R2 (yikes!)
As the round started and matchups were revealed, I had drawn a friend of mine from a shared social circle, bro fist. He was doing quite well, notching a 3-0 in R1 including a game where he missed all 8 of his Focus Blast pp lol. Either way, the game itself was an incredible nailbiter, which I highly encourage you to watch.
But yeah we got our wigs snatched, as blunder would put it. At least Wepwn won with Beartic. Oh and, FLCL lost to Joey's giant Talonflame.
2015
That year will always be the worst experience I had in a Smogon Tournament. But I can't really blame it on anyone or anything but myself. I was coming off my big breakout tour, everyone was expecting me to do well, and our roster had no place to go but up. FLCL was still tearing it up in Smogon Tour, tons of vets from the golden years were coming back, and we just added two new promising players in Tokyo Tom and blunder. I thought our roster was stacked.
Then the tournament started... And we lost. And lost again. We started on such a terrible streak, it killed all morale. blunder lost to Amir's Beedrill + Magneton nonsense (what the fuck blunder) and FLCL started losing again. On top of that, most of the vets who came back did terrible, aside from franky. It all culminated when I lost my first game against .Robert, by pulling aggressive plays which he capitalized on (ok to be fair though, who Scalds a Gastrodon only to burn to Hydreigon switch in, what the fuck)
It was so bad, we actually had to tiebreak to keep the team alive. Our tiebreak lineup was me in ADV, and blunder + Tokyo Tom in ORAS. Fortunately blunder and I won, but Tokyo Tom actually lost although his opponent never posted. So there, Ryan, consider yourself exposed.
2016
Not sure why, but overall I had a very positive experience that year. It was probably because I was playing my favourite gen, or maybe because we made a huge cleanup in players and started anew. Either way, even if we sucked, it was a lot of fun.
Lots of new guys on board once again. Nedor was touted by Some as the next big teambuilding genius. Genesis who was a sub the year before put a lot of effort into making the actual team better. FLCL was once again dominating the tournament scene. Tokyo Tom could slide into BW and I felt like I could support him well. Always and Hector Hard Mode were pretty good for new guys. Mizuhime and SG picked up the two oldest gens in an attempt to freshen the blood in those tiers. Heysup, the LC master, could start in ADV. The only downside was that blunder didn't want to play so we had to keep him as a sub. All in all, we had a lot of promising stuff, but not a lot of sure things.
I was really motivated by the group I had drawn. 3 legends of the game were my opponents; Sweepage, McMeghan, and Phillip7086. That was my opportunity to finally prove myself as a top DPP player.
When the games started, it was kind of like the previous year... Without the expectations. Honestly it made it a lot better. I just had to focus on my games and doing well without really worrying about others. We had our moments honestly, like when Heysup beat Golden Sun with a Jolteon that couldn't touch Flygon AT ALL, or when Always solo'd Snou's Volcarona with Mega Scizor. My games were a lot of fun, beating both Sweepage and McMeghan who I had a lot of respect for. I regret changing my team up against Phil because I had made such a beautiful team but ran right into the TormentTran matchup.
The peak of that tournament though was surely iloveleague vs Laurel. I encourage you to look up the whole thing in the 2016 WCoP thread if you haven't, it's a goodie. It's pretty funny too, because originally we hadn't planned on adding league to the roster: a bunch of Big Clout Team Members thought he was extremely annoying and veto'd him.
Either way, we fucking sucked, ended like 13th or something. But we were rebuilding so I was fine with it, and at the end of the day our team atmosphere was mostly cool.
Oh and in case you didn't know, FLCL lost a lot
2017
Man this one is sort of a blur to me. I had started getting really busy irl and my love for the game was at an all-time low after a terrible SPL that ended in a heartbreak loss. But I still wanted to help the team as much as I could because I saw the potential we had in the previous year.
Our dudes were mostly all on a rising curve. Tokyo Tom had just beasted the latter half of SPL (he beat ME after all.) FLCL was, once again, dominating the tournament scene. Genesis had a surprise rise to form in SPL and could take up ORAS. I had been able to convince blunder to play and boy was he doing well. I had sort of come to terms with starting Texas again after seeing him play very well in GSC cup. In a surprise twist iloveleague reached OST semis and was probably the hottest riser in all of tournaments. Nedor had just gone positive in SPL. Overall we had a lot of quality guys and blue chip prospects ready to fly out the nest.
Honestly the first game probably ruined the team atmosphere, which hurt our chances a lot. league rushed with a stupid team and got his ass handed to him by psym2. blunder and I said some... not very nice things to him. We were pretty dead from there on out.
Then the unthinkable happened. FLCL went THREE fucking ZERO in groups. We were finally blessed with the performance we knew he could bring to the table. It's just a shame that the rest of the team blew it at the same time. blunder did some beastly shit though, most notable beating gods like mazar and reyscarface, so props.
The rest of us fucking sucked though. I probably haven't been more ashamed at my performance in a tournament than this one. Just straight up 0 fux given I'll just use the team I used every round of dpp cup type of stuff. I'm really sorry for that. Not my brightest moment.
2018
And here we are. The current year.
As you can see, our experiences so far pretty much amount to a legacy of failure. I didn't know if I wanted to play this tournament in the first place, to be honest. Things looked grim, no new guys really did well in the past year. I couldn't give up on my brothers though, so I decide to assemble the taskforce once again, with a simple motivation that I had to give it my all for this team because, well, I like to compete. Especially for this team.
On the plus side, blunder was willing to play again, although he told me there was a high possibility he'd bail if he lost in Smogon Tour. osgoode was also willing to play for the first time. SG was doing well in DPP, so it freed up a slot for us to slot Rui and I in other tiers. Bushtush did really well in SPL, even if it was a lower tier, I had good experiences with lower tiers dudes switching to OU. On top of that this new jytcampbell dude looked pretty decent. Deciding the lineup was tough. I didn't have much faith in suapah after Snake because he messed up heavily. Then we made him play Jrdn and he fucking crushed him, so we decided to give him a shot.
Then it started. We fucking won 6 fucking games in a fucking row.
I was getting really hyped up. Was this finally the year we'd get in? Getting back there has been a goal of mine ever since we got bounced by East in 2014. Every year, seeing my friends doing well was kind of crushing. You could maybe even call it jealousy. But this time it was going to be different, and I was incredibly fired up about it.
It's really a shame that I lost to linear and his cocktail mono Ice Punch Gengar. I loved the team I made for that game. Magdol with CB Mence, on top of that it had Heal Bell Bliss + Rest Cune. It just felt like it meshed well and wasn't something you'd expect from me. Then the game starts and I played really well to start, faked out his Skarm to ensure the trap. Then he pulls out that MOTHERFUCKER of a Gengar and bombs my Bliss... sigh. That was painful.
The game vs eden was something I was really confident about. He's not really the kind of player who changes it up much. UD's 4 attacks Tyranitar was something I thought would do really well against what he liked... Then he pulls out friggin Milotic. I was in for a tough game after that. Thankfully broken Zapdos did really well against his team and I didn't listen to McMeghan and put HP Grass on it lol.
Against smilzo was a weird one... I feel like I could have won without that Ice Punch freeze. He was pretty weak to both Starmie and Tyranitar at that point of the game. Oh well, he played very well too, can't be mad, but at the time I was STEAMING cause we really needed the win. Couldn't catch the TD, sorry blunder :(
I don't think I've ever been more proud of a team than when we qualified on that day. Rui winning that last game... somehow. blunder pulling off ridiculous plays with heavy payoff. At that time I felt like as a team we had come from so far... We were finally a real team. We had not just a past, but a present and a future too. Playing Europe was gonna be tough but if we put up a good fight in R2 I'd be happy with what we'd achieve.
And suddenly, we're 5-4. One game left: ADV. I had swapped with Rui because he was feeling unconfident in his GSC. He couldn't (or wouldn't?) make it for his game so we had to sub Texas in for him instead... I gave Texas the team I made for Rui to use. The opponent, We Three Kings, was pretty linear in his team choices so we could take advantage of him through Magdol. Turns out W3K brought something completely different, but the team won either way.
Suddenly, I wasn't going to be satisfied with just a playoff participation. I felt like this team had what it takes to win it all. We had star power, and new guys who cared a lot. Not just that, but these new guys were actually GOOD too. Like damn, we might actually do it all this year. Expectations set in, and man, do I hate them.
My own game against Valentine was just kind of disappointing I guess. I expected the exact opposite of what he actually brought. It was actually pretty hard to bring back from there. I guess that's a lesson against counterstyling, lol. At the cruelest of times.
Oh and by the way. FLCL sucked again.
2019
If this tournament taught me anything, it's that expectations are your worst enemy. Still, I think we have what it takes to improve even further next year and be a full blown dominant team. We still have kinks to hammer out, but the framework is there to turn the team into something great. I love to see this team evolve.
Hoping to team with FLCL and blunder again. You guys are my closest friends on the team. Keep on being great.
Anyway, onto the team:
At a glance:
Specifics:
Heatran @ Choice Specs *** Burial Mounds
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Overheat
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Flamethrower
SpecsTran leads this team off. Boy, is it a monster though. Being able to threaten the strong "tilt leads" turn 1 with them being unable to do anything is absolutely great. Jirachi gets cooked too. On top of that, SpecsTran is just great with Blissey: you spread Paralysis, switch in on an unsuspecting opp or just a walled one, rinse and repeat. On top of that, Blissey can set up SR on Starmie so that dudes like Dragonite don't even like to take advantage of a -2 Tran. Other Trans switching in isn't even an issue, you can just go to Blissey and get your SR up. Obviously though late game it gets annoying with the possibility of Explosion but you should be able to see that coming and play accordingly.
I honestly think this is the optimal setup for SpecsTran though. Don't think Dragon Pulse is overly useful unless you're like... deathly afraid of Kingdra. But I feel like the HP Grass strong hit on other waters (especially bulky ones like Suicune or Milo) far outweights that. Just Earth Power if you think Kingdra is coming in. The extra Fire STAB is entirely necessary, you shouldn't have to take the -2 just because you need to kill a 28% Bronzong.
My recommendation for new players is: play Heatran as aggressively as you can. It is absolutely NOT vital to keep it alive for you to win the game. However what you DO need is to get strong hits off early so that you can break the opponent's momentum and just win through your dudes mopping up their crippled team. Don't hesitate to let Tran take a hit. Also if you absolutely need to sac something it should be pretty high on your list.
Zapdos @ Leftovers *** Sanctuary
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Heat Wave
- Roost
Oh, Zapdos. Broken Zapdos as I like to call it. It really holds the team together. Honestly, it's pretty hard for most team to beat Zapdos unless they have Sand and a way to keep SR up against Starmie. It's just so bulky and the coverage is a pain in the ass for anything that's not Tyranitar, Clefable, or Blissey. Anyway, Zapdos is there mostly to answer to physical dudes of all kind. Breloom, Flygon, Metagross, you name it, Zapdos can (probably) beat it. It's always funny to see ScarfGon Stone Edge this for 44%.
It really annoys me when some of you guys use Discharge over Thunderbolt btw. It's like you guys want to fail to kill a Starmie or something. You can use Roar over Heat Wave, but it's not overly useful without Spikes. It does keep certain boosters at bay though. Don't compromise any of the physical bulk, otherwise you'll be folding to physicals quick.
My advice to new players: don't hesitate to send Zapdos in when SR is up. You can always Roost off the damage. He can usually take it, especially if Sand isn't up. Be careful with it though, because Zapdos is probably the most important member of the team defensively. If it dies, you will rely on Jirachi a lot for revenge kills.
Blissey @ Leftovers *** Coagulation
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seismic Toss
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Soft-Boiled
It's funny, because Blissey, in a way, allows you to play extremely aggressively. It basically guarantees you'll have Stealth Rock up early, and thanks to Thunder Wave, it's easy to get one of Breloom or Heatran in quickly. This moveset might not look like much but it absolutely terrorizes teams of all kind thanks to those traits. Furthermore, thanks to Blissey's gigantic bulk, you're not forced to Softboiled quite as much as if you were using Clefable. This allows for more... deliberate play.
Even if this moveset is good, this team could maybe use Ice Beam or Flamethrower as one of the moves. The truth is that Gengar is actually a pretty big threat and you'll often have to play the waiting game against it. I've usually just sucked it up and said whatever, if I do face a SubSplit Gar I'll play accordingly while I enjoy my suprerior moveset against well... everything else.
My advice to new guys: Blissey should be one of the first things to switch in. It's not hard to find opportunity and you can really use them to turn the heat on your opponent. SR up is such a big deal for this team.
Breloom @ Toxic Orb *** Zanzibar
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 236 HP / 136 Atk / 56 Def / 36 SpD / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Mach Punch
- Seed Bomb
- Superpower
- Spore
That mon is so super duper strong!!! I love Breloom. It's just so easy to get in on a slow wall and then make them regret switching in. The sleep itself is also pretty interesting, because sleep absorption is pretty unreliable in DPP. Anyway, it's pretty important for Breloom to show up here, because otherwise slow walls that are tough to wear down will just kind of outlast you. Through Heatran and Breloom, though, you can force them into a much more fast paced game which this team thrives in.
Bulky EVs are actually really sweet on Breloom. I don't rate the Speed that much because you'll usually be able to force things out through the sheer threat of Superpower and Poison Heal making Loom hard to wear down. You can also just force out a Pert or whatever. Meanwhile, Loom's modest bulk means that even weaker Ice Beams will tear it to shreds, so putting up a bit of extra weight is always appreciated.
My advice: be patient with Spore. You don't always need to cripple the opponent's first answer with sleep. Sometimes all you need is Superpower to clear out room. You might very well hit a sleep sac early, making your Spore useless. You'll get plenty of opportunities to switch Breloom back in. Spore is an absolute killer late game.
Starmie @ Leftovers *** Gemini
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 156 HP / 136 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
As you'd guess for most Zapdos teams, there's its #1 partner in crime, Starmie. Removing SR (and other hazards) can completely change the flow of a game, especially if the SR setter was KOed. Starmie also serves the purpose of being a generic fast mon that can put pressure on a frailer frame. It's why I like Ice Beam here, it hits a ton of things really hard, like Dragonite, Shaymin, or Breloom. All those things are particularly dangerous and Not Fun to deal with.
As far as the actual moveset goes, it does a bit of everything. I like my Starmie slightly more on the offensive side, but with the ability to shrug off weak hits. Recover is pretty clutch in longer games, especially when they carry Rotom to block your spin. I've considered Psychic here before for the stronger hit against Breloom, Gengar, and Kingdra, but overall I feel like Ice Beam is superior.
My advice: Starmie is very, very bad if you jump the gun and play it hastily. You need to be really patient with it. I like to keep it for late game when they don't have a lot of options left, their Tyranitar was already weakened, etc. so that you can guarantee the spin and still be useful. You don't NEED hazards off early. Don't be greedy.
Jirachi @ Choice Scarf *** Ivory Tower
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Thunder Punch
- U-turn
So, to round up this team, here's the real villain. ScarfRachi is just so clutch. Fills a defensive niche, revenges all the threatening dudes, can clean with Iron Head... It's the miracle worker of this roster. The Steel type is actually pretty handy since you'll sometimes need to hard switch it into Dragonite to lock up endgames, and resisting the Dragon STAB helps with that a lot. I've seen other people running a similar roster, but with ScarfTar over this. I don't like it much, I think this team really likes Sand not being up, and the Speed obviously helps a lot with well... not losing.
Thunder Punch is sort of a bad move but since Starmie has no Electric move it's very important to hit Gyarados. On top of that you might be able to finish off a Suicune without needing to flinch it down. I've toyed with Trick here before and it's certainly not bad, but the Gyara matchup might get scary if rocks go up and stay up. Another thing I've used is Fire Punch to snipe Lucario and Scizor, but usually Zapdos does a fine job against them.
My advice: keep Jirachi healthy for late game. A 100% healthy Jirachi has very few losing matchups.
Heatran @ Choice Specs
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Overheat
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Flamethrower
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Heat Wave
- Roost
Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seismic Toss
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Soft-Boiled
Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 236 HP / 136 Atk / 56 Def / 36 SpD / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Mach Punch
- Seed Bomb
- Superpower
- Spore
Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 156 HP / 136 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Thunder Punch
- U-turn
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Overheat
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Flamethrower
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Heat Wave
- Roost
Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seismic Toss
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Soft-Boiled
Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 236 HP / 136 Atk / 56 Def / 36 SpD / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Mach Punch
- Seed Bomb
- Superpower
- Spore
Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 156 HP / 136 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Thunder Punch
- U-turn
So anyway... There you have it. Hope you enjoyed the read. Catch you guys later!