VGC Need Help Dominating Worlds!

[cagt3000]

SEE BOTTOM OF POST FOR CHANGELOG

Hello again world of Smogon :)

If you don't remember me, I'm the guy that competed for the first time in VGC last year and got 14th in the MA Regional (thread here: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/my-first-try-in-vgc.3478978/). If you do remember me, hello :) Anyways, I'm back, and I'm ready to take on a new challenge: Worlds (well, LCQ, but whatever, same thing)!

THE TEAM: FIRST LOOK

Let's go in a bit more details :)

Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Trait: Scrappy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Return
- Sucker Punch
- Power-Up Punch

Yep, it's Mama Khan alright :)

I think everyone knows already how tough this girl is. Great attack, good enough speed, a bit of bulk, and a moveset that is not only complimentary to her play style, but is also very powerful :)

Fake Out is a classic. Disrupts the enemy by killing their turn 1, breaking Focus Sash, and sometimes even do decent amount of damage against low defense pokemons! It was an easy pick for her.

Return is the damage dealer. Khan here's gonna be in a very good mood when fighting, and with Return, she can deal massive amounts of damage no problem! That along side her mega-evolved stat boost + baby, and we've got a powerful threat. Sucker Punch is a back-up move, in case someone's got low HP, or I can quickly take out a weak pokemon. As for Protect... yeah. It's Protect.

Mienshao (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Rock Slide
- Knock Off

Is it me, or does he look like a cat?

Mienshao's the faster, more powerful version of Scrafty. He's got Fake Out (which was a must in my team), he's got High Jump Kick, which while it doesn't grant you HP, it does do far more damage and can usually OHKO most opponents who are weak to Fighting.

Rock Slide is a very useful move, given the amount of Talonflames and Charizards around here. Knock Off is the surprise move, as not only can it be super effective against some pokemons, but it also gets rid of their items, which can be crucial in a tight match!

Talonflame (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Gale Wings
EVs: 124 HP / 252 Atk / 132 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Brave Bird
- Will-o-Wisp
- Quick Guard

This ain't your average bird...

Talonflame here's fast. And he hurts. So to put that to good use, I put Brave Bird on him. Why? Well for a couple reasons. One: it STABS. Two: it's POWERFUL. Three: it has PRIORITY. Four: EVERYONE'S RUNNING IT. Five: WHY NOT?

Flare Blitz is the backup to Brave Bird. In case some Aegislash or Scizor pops up (and trust me, they do), Talonflame is gonna be able to take care of that (plus, he's got Choice Band, so even more damage there). The recoil damage doesn't matter as much, since he's gonna be killing the other pokemon anyways. Will-O-Wisp is there to disrupt other physical attackers in case I need someone to do it quick. Quick Guard is here to ward off against Turn 1 Fake Outers and such :P

Rotom-Wash @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power Ice
- Will-o-Wisp

What the hell kind of power supply does this thing use?!

Rotom-Wash was a dangerous foe last season, and he still is this season. While he's more used as a Will-o-Wisper now, he's still a great Special attacker.

Hydro Pump blasts through opponents like butter (if that makes sense), and gets a nice boost whenever Rain's around (and it still is, given how many rain teams I've seen). Volt Switch is also a great alternative whenever there's a pesky Politoed on the field, or you need to finish off someone without getting Mr. Washer Masher here hurt.

Hidden Power Ice is very useful against threats such as Garchomp who, most of the time, don't see it coming at all. Plus, having an Ice move is always good to have. As for Will-o-Wisp, it can come as a backup if needed :)

Aegislash (M) @ Weakness Policy
Trait: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SpDef
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield

Who ever thought a sword and shield could become a Pokemon?...

Aegislash is the special equivalent of Kangaskhan in my team. Khan may be powerful, but she has one big issue: she can't do jack shit against Ghost types once she's Mega-evolved (which is usually the first thing I do). So Aegislash here is in charge of taking care of those :)

Shadow Ball and Flash Cannon are his two main selling points. They help greatly against persky ghost types like Gengar and Trevenant (yes I've seen it being used a lot of times), and STABS. Flash Cannon also helps against Fairy types like Gardevoir and Azumarill.

Shadow Sneak is a minor but necessary move to have. While it's not going to be my main attack, if I see someone that's almost dead, or there's a Psychic type with low defense, I can use this to get a quick, clean kill. As for King's Shield, it's a protect with a -2Atk to anyone who falls in the trap :P

Hydreigon (M) @ Haban Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Draco Metero
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Protect

And last, but definitely not least: the 3-headed dragon is back into action!

Hydreigon's here to do the same thing he did last year: come in, do damage, drop out. His timid nature let's him be faster than a lot of the pokemons in the meta, and his powerful stats let him pack quite the punch!

As for the moveset, everyone knows and seen it already. Draco Meteor does it's job quite well, as it's Hydreigon's most powerful STAB move. Flamethrower is a powerful move, and is a backup in case Talonflame falls down or needs some help, and Dark Pulse is a nice STAB move to have.

Protect protects. What can I say.

TEAM PERFORMANCE

07/29
(Almost) Flawless Victory: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2014-146380856
Another (Almost) Flawless Victory: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2014-146384576
Flawless Victory: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2014-146388880
Easy Win: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2014-146391769
(Another) Flawless Victory: http://play.pokemonshowdown.com/battle-vgc2014-146393814
Close Win: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2014-146394591
Unexpected Team, Lost: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2014-146396196

07/30
Flawless... Defeat: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2014-146773223
Mirror Start into Defeat: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2014-146790575
Frustrating but Easy Win: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/vgc2014-146794687

ALTERNATE POKEMONS

None for now :P

SUGGESTED POKEMONS

None for now :P

FINAL THOUGHTS

As you could probably tell, I'm staying with last year's tactic: disrupt and kill. Kangaskhan and Scrafty do a nice job of double Fake Outing + Intimidate, and the rest of the team comes in to deal big damage. I haven't really had any main issues with this team yet, but fairy's probably been the most annoying to deal with so far.

Again, I want to stay with goodstuff. Why? Because I don't have to setup anything, and I can get right into action (see last year's final thoughts for full reasons why).

I do have more experience with VGC now, but that doesn't me you can go all rage on me, so be nice :P

Anyways, see you at Worlds everyone :)

CHANGELOG

EDIT 07/29
Kangaskhan: - Replaced Protect with Power-Up Punch
- Changed from Adamant Nature to Jolly Nature
- Changed description to match changes

Scrafty: - Replaced Life Orb with Rocky Helmet
- Changed EV spread
- Changed description to match changes

Talonflame: - Replaced Leftovers with Choice Band
- Replaced U-Turn with Taunt
- Replaced Protect with Quick Guard
- Changed description to match changes

Hydreigon: - Replaced White Herb with Haban Berry
- Changed EV spread
- Changed description to match changes

TEAM STRUCTURE: - Replaced Ludicolo with Rotom-Wash
- Replaced Gengar with Aegislash
- Changed descriptions to match changes

EDIT 07/30
Talonflame: - Replaced Taunt with Will-O-Wisp
- Changed EV spread
- Changed description to match changes

Rotom-Wash: - Added description

Aegislash: - Added description

TEAM STRUCTURE: - Replaced Scrafty with Mienshao
- Changed descriptions to match changes​

 

[COCKBLOCK]

Couple things.

First off you're not getting anywhere with the majority of those 252/252 spreads. Jolly Kang and Talonflame can run it, but anything else you could do better with HP/Def/SpDef to survive specific hits such as Returns, Draco Meteors, Shadow Balls etc. Your Scrafty and Hydreigon ev spreads just seem completely random. Find out what you want to survive with your Pokemon with enough EVs left over for other scenarios, like into Atk/SpAtk to KO certain Pokemon.

Either have Fake Out or Protect on Kang. Not both. A Fighting move in Power up Punch or Hammer Arm is absolutely essential here. I personally like Fake Out more, but after Turn 1 you essentially only have a 3 moveset Kang, but he's a better user of Fake Out than Scrafty because it's faster. I'll leave that to you. I also recommend Jolly over Adamant if you're not gonna invest in bulk.

Take Life Orb off Scrafty and give it Rocky Helmet to combat physical hitters like Kang. Life Orb + Fake Out is also incredibly bad. Can also try Lum Berry to combat Rotom-W's will-o-wisps.

Take off Gengar completely and replace it with Aegislash. If you want to have two Megas on the same team make sure they compliment each other. You wanted Gengar to combat Fairies, but Kang can combat all the Fairies except Mawile (most of the time) regardless and Aegislash combats Fairies much better, can actually switch into Brave Bird which you currently have no answer for, and has perfect synergy with Hydreigon. Scarf Gardevoir can also run through you as well.

Not gonna go much further so I'll just make some more tweaks. Rotom-W (safety goggles is pretty broken) over Ludicolo, haban berry > white herb on hydreigon, and taunt > u-turn on talonflame to make sure opposing aegislashes don't set up a sub, because that's always a problematic set. If you really want to use leftovers then maybe you can try a will-o-wisp bulky talonflame set to burn things and compliment scrafty intimidate. Talonflame can run multiple sets so it's a good idea to experiment... Overheat talonflame is usable as well.

 

[cagt3000]

Wow, thanks for the quick reply!

Didn't know the meta changed so much (then again, that's what happens when you take a long break). I've made a lot of changes, so you can look it over and see what you think :)

I'm currently testing out the new team, so I'll keep this thread updated.

 

[Level 51]

COCKBLOCK : scrafty's evs are actually to speed creep other scrafty on the fake out

anyway I'd like to say that this is a pretty solid team at a glance; I have a few suggestions though.

try lum over helmet on scrafty? scrafty gets wow'd a lot from experience, and a lum gives you a bit of an edge over rotom-w, which this team isn't too great against.

personally, I favour jolly tflame 1 or 2 speed points above adamant ones. it gives you marginally more bulk, and since you have a choice band you wreck stuff anyway. perhaps try u-turn or giga impact or quick guard over protect also.

rotom-w looks odd too. I'm guessing you're trying to use the safety goggles to avoid rage powder, but rotom-w won't take many hits as is. I suggest either giving rotom-w a sitrus berry and a more defensive set (wow etc) or going for a choice set (with volt switch over protect).

either way, good luck with the team and I hope this helps!!

 

[cagt3000]

Thanks!

I made some changes and added a bunch of battles. They're all victories so far :)

EDIT: I think 7 battles is enough for today xD

 

[cagt3000]

Bump?

 

[qsns]

Two suggestions for Talonflame:

Replace either Taunt or Quick Guard with Will-O-Wisp. You won't be doing to much to Rocky types so you might as well be able to burn them, and it's a better move to be locked into than either of those moves.

Also, I think the EV Spread change for Talonflame was to outspeed other Talonflame by one point so you could have some extra bulk too, and 124 HP/252 Attack/132 Speed with a Jolly Nature is the spread you want.

 

[cagt3000]

Alright, thanks for the suggestion! I made a couple of changes :)