Just to start off, this is going to be a non-social warstory. There was enough of that shit this weekend to completely fill another thread OP, trying to mix them together will just get messy. I'll probably post a social-type warstory at a later date.
My team:
Huy (Zebstrika) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Lightningrod
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
- Overheat
Duy (Thundurus) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 20 HP / 252 SAtk / 236 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Discharge
- Hidden Power [Flying]
- Grass Knot
Fake Dan (Stoutland) (M) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Return
- Crunch
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
Papa G (Conkeldurr) (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Drain Punch
- Rock Slide
- Mach Punch
- Bulk Up
Chandrea (Chandelure) (M) @ Ghost Gem
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Heat Wave
- Overheat
- Protect
Scooter (Amoonguss) (M) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect
- Giga Drain
Round 1: Jinhwan Jung from Korea
From the team preview screen, it was quite clear that he was running a team that could be run in or out of Trick Room.
Game 1: I led with Zebra/Thundurus, he led with Scrafty/Chandelure. He Fake Outed my Thundurus while my Zebstrika crit Thunderbolted his Chandelure and activated its Focus Sash. His Chandelure used Trick Room.
Turn 2, he did something I didn’t really expect. Scrafty went first, and used Rock Slide, and Chandelure used Heat Wave to finish off Zebra and Thundurus.
My back two for that match were Stoutland and Conkeldurr. I can’t remember the score for this game, but I know that I ended up getting thrashed and defeated quite handily thanks to my decision to go as if he wasn’t running Trick Room. I had banked on at least one of my leads being able to survive past the second turn, given neither would die to heat wave alone, but the dual spread moves were enough to slay the mighty electric pair.
Game 2: I led Amoonguss/Chandelure, he led Scrafty/Chandelure again. The fact that his Scrafty had Rock Slide was really bad for my team, since my Chandelure/Amoonguss was designed to Rage Powder in Crunches and scare people with the threat of Effect Spore activations. Turn 1, Jinhwan used Heat Wave, my Chandelure used Overheat on his Scrafty for 85-90% damage, and then Scrafty used Rock Slide. Amoonguss died to the Rock Slide, giving Scrafty +1 Moxie, and Chandelure lived with a small amount of HP. This is the one time that my having Flame Body instead of Flash Fire bit me in the ass. If I had the power boost from Flash Fire, my Overheat would have easily OHKO’d his Scrafty.
Turn 2 and beyond: I honestly forget who I sent out to replace Amoonguss, I think it was Stoutland. The key points of this were my second Overheat towards Scrafty missing, him I believe getting a crit Heat Wave on Stoutland, and Scrafty, alive due to the Overheat miss, using Rock Slide and getting two KOs and then getting up to +3 due to Moxie. Conk, alone 1v3 or 1v4, then tried to Rock Slide his Chandelure and Scrafty the next turn, killed Chandelure and missed Scrafty, when Rock Slide could have potentially killed it. Was probably going to lose even without the Rock Slide miss, but that sorta sealed it. Never got to see his back two so I can't say for sure how it would've went for me.
Record: 0-1, Jinhwan wins 2 games to 0.
Round 2: Raphael Candelaresi from France
Games 1 and 2 went by with some hax on each side, with us taking one win each. I honestly don’t remember much that happened in them. Game 3 was the single biggest bullshit match I have had in my entire VGC playing history, even beating out Quick Claw Kyogre at last year’s Nationals top 16. I had saved it, but upon checking I deleted it for a later battle that wasn’t really worth saving in hindsight.
I had already seen several Pokémon on his team, as this was our third battle. He led Landorus(which I hadn’t seen yet) and Terrakion, which I knew was scarfed. I led Stoutland and Conkeldurr. Landorus I wasn’t really afraid of. Given how powerful my Conkeldurr had been against him in previous matches, I knew he would probably target it first. My two moves for that turn were Stoutland using Thunder Wave on his Terrakion and Conkeldurr using Bulk Up. Luck decided that wasn’t a good idea, though. Raphael’s Terrakion Close Combatted my Conkeldurr, which I had expected. What I didn’t expect, however, was a critical hit, which OHKOed it, bypassing my Sitrus Berry and not giving me a chance to Bulk Up that would have turned Conkeldurr into a tank. Raphael’s Landorus, to my surprise, used Psychic on Stoutland – clearly due to the lack of a target from Conkeldurr being dead already. I have yet to run calculations, but Conk might have been able to survive, and if not at least Stoutland would have had like 50 more HP for the rest of the fight.
Turn 2, the bullshit continued. His Terra had already CCed and was -1 SpDef, so I decided to Return his Landorus with Stoutland and Giga Drain his Terrakion. I fully expected him to Psychic my Amoonguss, but the -1 SpDef Terrakion being Giga Drained would have easily given me my health back. Raphael’s Landorus did exactly what I expected – he Psychiced my Amoonguss – and got another critical hit, OHKOing Amoonguss!
I managed to slowly chip away at Raphael’s team over the next 5 or 6 turns, bringing it was 2-4 to 2-2. I ended up losing the match to two low damage rolls – one on Chandelure Shadow Balling his already damaged Landorus and missing the KO by about 5%, and another with Chandelure Shadow Balling his 55~% paralyzed Terrakion and it living with 1HP. The latter one happened on the last turn of the game, and Terrakion then attacked through paralysis – which had not FPed it in any of the 3 or 4 turns it had been out – and Rock Slided, KOing both my Chandelure and Stoutland for the win.
Record: 0-2, Raphael wins 2 games to 1.
Round 3: TJ Tolliver from the United States
TJ had LCQed in on Friday, and I had already heard that he was running a level 1 Trick Room Whimsicott team. I hadn’t faced one with my team prior to this, but after thinking for a few seconds prior to going to my table I already knew a few ways I could beat it. Game 1 I led Amoonguss/Chandelure, he led Scrafty/Level 1 Whimsicott. I believe he had Rock Slide, which was a bit of a pain in the ass, but Heat Wave was a boss. Game 2 I led Amoonguss/Conkeldurr and just spammed Mach Punch on Whimsicott. This wasn’t really a close round, I didn’t come close to losing either time, and I’m not sure that I even lost a Pokémon in either round.
Record: 1-2, I win 2 games to 0.
Round 4: Lionel Fey from France
I remember Lionel had a Scrafty, Amoonguss, Hydreigon, and Reuniclus. I believe he also had a Terrakion.
I can’t honestly remember if this was 2 games or 3. I believe it was 2 -- if Lionel did win a game, I don’t remember what happened in it, so sorry!
Game 1: Turn 1:
I want to say I led Thundurus/Zebstrika vs Scrafty/Terrakion. I double switched turn 1, sending Stoutland in for Thundurus and Conkeldurr in for Zebra. I believe he used Fake Out and Rock Slide.
Turn 2: Pretty uneventful, he pulled out his Terrakion for Amoonguss and I think his Scrafty used Drain Punch on my Stoutland, doing about 40 damage thanks to Intimidate and Chople Berry. I honestly forget what I did, I think I Drain Punched his Chople Scrafty and Thunder Waved his Amoonguss on the switch in, although I don’t fully remember Stoutland’s move.
Turn 3: I went into Zen Mode. I had playtested my team very little since Nationals, relying on my theorycrafting instead of actual play since I didn’t want people to know my team and was also very busy preparing to move to a different state 2 weeks after Worlds. The situation was Amoonguss/Scrafty out for Lionel and Stoutland/Conkeldurr out for me. I knew I could not take out his Amoonguss in one turn, and knew that he would try to Spore my Conkeldurr since it was the bigger threat. At this point something clicked in my head, and I knew what I had to do.
My Stoutland used Thunder Wave on Conkeldurr, giving it a Guts boost and also protecting it from being put to sleep. Conkeldurr then used Bulk Up, putting him at +2 atk/+1 def that turn. Lionel’s Scrafty also used Bulk Up, which I gave him props for as soon as I saw it, and then his Amoonguss used Spore, ineffectively, against Conkeldurr.
I did get a bit lucky from this point on; for the rest of the match my Conkeldurr didn’t get FPed once. I don’t think it actually would’ve mattered unless I was chain FPed, though. Either one or two turns after my zen moment, I got another Bulk Up off, going to +3/+2. His Amoonguss ended up Thunder Waved, and eventually it FPed and I managed to get a Drain Punch off on Scrafty to kill it. He replaced it with Hydreigon. I +3 Mach Punched it and activated its Focus Sash, and it Draco Meteored me for about 50-55%, which Sitrus then healed back half of. With the -2 from Meteor, his Hydreigon was completely screwed, and that was his
Game 2:
Turn 1: I sorta got ballsy, ran Thundurus/Zebra again, Lionel was spooked and led with Hydreigon/Reuniclus. I Discharge with Thundurus and paralyze both Hydreigon and Reuniclus. Hydreigon then used Dark Pulse on Thundurus, I guess he didn’t figure out that Thundurus was running Choice Scarf -- I can’t remember if it ever attacked near the end of game 1, but if it did it was against something that it would have been slower even if I wasn’t using a Choice Scarf. Zebstrika then Thunderbolts Reuniclus, bringing it down to about 15-20%. The turn ends with Reuniclus using Psychic on Thundurus, killing it.
Turn 2: I sent out Conkeldurr. I knew from Game 1 that his Hydreigon was using Focus Sashed and it had been burned from Discharge, so I used Drain Punch to kill Hydreigon and Thunderbolted again with my +1 Zebra to kill Reuniclus. I forget what his fourth Pokémon was, but it was 1-3 and I had a +1 Zebra -- he lost, hard. I apologized for the luck on my end, we shook hands, and after calling a staff member over to verify my victory I went to wait for round 5 pairings.
Record: 2-2, Dan wins 2 games to 0.
Round 5: Greyson Garren from the United States, AKA Greysong
Games 1 and 2 I honestly can’t really remember. I had heard warnings prior to Worlds of Greysong’s awesome Samurott, but apparently the Zebra/Thundurus scared him away from using it in any of our matches. We each won once, and went to match 3 to decide who got the match victory.
Game 3: I knew from discussions with friends prior to Worlds that Greysong was using Lum DD Haxorus on PO during testing. I had played around that in my prior matches, just going for direct attacks and intimidating it instead of trying to paralyze it. I led Amoonguss/Stoutland this round, he led Haxorus and Scrafty. I planned to both Thunder Wave and Spore his Lum Haxorus, figuring that he’d use Fake Out on one of my guys and that whichever status move of mine did go off would take out his Haxorus’ Lum. I was correct in this regard, and turn 1 boiled down to Greyson using Fake Out on my Amoonguss(Risky! No Effect Spore, lucky for him) and using Dragon Dance with Haxorus, which brought him to +0atk/+1speed thanks to Intimidate. My Stoutland used Thunder Wave, which burned his Haxorus’ Lum.
Turn 2: Haxorus Protects, my Amoonguss Spores into his Protect, and my Stoutland Thunder Waves the Amoonguss that he switches in to replace his Scrafty.
Turn 3: This turn should have put me in a position to win the game, but I had a HUGE mental slip here that ended up costing me the game. His Amoonguss was paralyzed, so I couldn’t use Spore on it. I knew he would try to Spore my Amoonguss, so my mind clicked back to my last round against Lionel and how I stopped his Amoonguss from wrecking me. I Thunder Waved my Amoonguss with Stoutland, Greysong’s face went from confident to one that was clearly worried, which gave away to me before the animation played that he was going to Spore my Amoonguss. I got a little smirk on my face, having successfully blocked his Amoonguss from Sporing me…….
And then my Amoonguss’ Lum Berry activated.
My heart dropped. I had decided within the past few days to run Lum Berry on Amoonguss. I had been planning to run Iron Ball for the past few weeks to absolutely dominate enemy Amoongusses under Trick Room, but Synre had convinced me to run Lum. I forgot that I had made the switch, having not actually utilized the Lum Berry in my prior 5 rounds. So I ended up eating my own Lum Berry with Thunder Wave, which then left my Amoonguss wide open to get hit by Greysong’s Spore. At this point we both were completely blown away. Greysong recognized that he would have been in a really bad position if I hadn’t just made easily the biggest mistake I’ve made in my 12 years of playing Pokémon, and we both just sort of sat there stunned for a minute, with me going “Oh my god” over and over and him saying he was sorry. From that point my Amoonguss slept for 3 or 4 turns, his Haxorus got essentially free reign to rampage against my team, and I lost horribly. I put up a bit of a fight near the end, but still ended up losing. I will give Greysong credit, he did not timer stall me, which he could have easily done by double protecting and taking 59 seconds to make his moves, which would have easily cemented his victory since a turn or two after my huge mistake the match was 2-4 in Greysong’s favor.
Record: 2-3, Greysong wins 2 games to 1.
At this point I was absolutely crushed. I had talked to Darrell(TPCI Staff, Sassy Canadian) after losing my second round against Raphael, and he told me that at least one 4-2 could make it through, so I was still holding out hope that I could make the top 8 cut. My gigantic mistake had prevented me from hitting 4-2. I was so incredibly angry with myself, having failed that horribly at a key moment during my first time competing in Worlds. I told some of my friends what I had done, they were all sympathetic. Eventually the Round 6 pairings were posted, and I found out that I was against someone that had been on my flight from Philadelphia to San Diego – Drug Duck’s girlfriend, aka MewMisaki on the Smogon Forums.
Round 6: Jennifer Giwanski from Germany
I was still reeling from round 5. My eyes watered a bit, since if I had any chance of making the top 8 cut for Sunday’s finals, it was gone after my match with Greysong. At this point I honestly didn’t care too much. I saw her team, figured I’d go out using my favorite part of my team even if I didn’t have the best matchup against it.
Turn 1 I led Zebra/Thundurus. Misaki led Haxorus(Mold Breaker)/Scrafty, Fake Outed my Zebra, and used Dragon Claw on her clearly Choice Scarfed Haxorus(outsped Zebra), hitting my Thundurus for a bit over 50%. Thundurus used Discharge, didn’t paralyze either enemy, and gave Zebra +1 thanks to Lightning Rod. I honestly don’t remember much of this game, other than I swept her quite handily.
Game 2 was pretty much the same, I think I used Conk/Stout with Amoonguss/Thund in the back. All I really remember is that Jennifer said something to the effect of “My team can’t beat yours”, and she started spamming Guillotine with her Scarfed Haxorus. It didn’t hit any of the 2 or 3 times she used it.
Record: 3-3, Danny wins 2-0
Wrapup:
I waited a few minutes for the round to wrap up and the final standings to be posted. I ended up being tied for the lowest strength of schedule in the tournament with MewMisaki, my round 6 opponent. Even if I had beaten Greysong and then also beaten my 6th round opponent I wouldn’t have made top 8, so a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders when I realized that at best I would have placed somewhere around 13th, still short of the Sunday top 8 cut. I ended up placing 22nd out of 34 competitors. Was lower than I was aiming for, but I know in my heart I could have at least hit the low teens if I hadn’t messed up.
I’ll add my props and slops later, I need time to compose my thoughts about what was good and bad about this year’s VGC season. It's been a long weekend. This year, from a tournament standpoint, definitely had both ups and downs.
My team:
Huy (Zebstrika) (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Lightningrod
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
- Overheat
Duy (Thundurus) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 20 HP / 252 SAtk / 236 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Discharge
- Hidden Power [Flying]
- Grass Knot
Fake Dan (Stoutland) (M) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Return
- Crunch
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
Papa G (Conkeldurr) (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Drain Punch
- Rock Slide
- Mach Punch
- Bulk Up
Chandrea (Chandelure) (M) @ Ghost Gem
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Heat Wave
- Overheat
- Protect
Scooter (Amoonguss) (M) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect
- Giga Drain
Round 1: Jinhwan Jung from Korea
From the team preview screen, it was quite clear that he was running a team that could be run in or out of Trick Room.
Game 1: I led with Zebra/Thundurus, he led with Scrafty/Chandelure. He Fake Outed my Thundurus while my Zebstrika crit Thunderbolted his Chandelure and activated its Focus Sash. His Chandelure used Trick Room.
Turn 2, he did something I didn’t really expect. Scrafty went first, and used Rock Slide, and Chandelure used Heat Wave to finish off Zebra and Thundurus.
My back two for that match were Stoutland and Conkeldurr. I can’t remember the score for this game, but I know that I ended up getting thrashed and defeated quite handily thanks to my decision to go as if he wasn’t running Trick Room. I had banked on at least one of my leads being able to survive past the second turn, given neither would die to heat wave alone, but the dual spread moves were enough to slay the mighty electric pair.
Game 2: I led Amoonguss/Chandelure, he led Scrafty/Chandelure again. The fact that his Scrafty had Rock Slide was really bad for my team, since my Chandelure/Amoonguss was designed to Rage Powder in Crunches and scare people with the threat of Effect Spore activations. Turn 1, Jinhwan used Heat Wave, my Chandelure used Overheat on his Scrafty for 85-90% damage, and then Scrafty used Rock Slide. Amoonguss died to the Rock Slide, giving Scrafty +1 Moxie, and Chandelure lived with a small amount of HP. This is the one time that my having Flame Body instead of Flash Fire bit me in the ass. If I had the power boost from Flash Fire, my Overheat would have easily OHKO’d his Scrafty.
Turn 2 and beyond: I honestly forget who I sent out to replace Amoonguss, I think it was Stoutland. The key points of this were my second Overheat towards Scrafty missing, him I believe getting a crit Heat Wave on Stoutland, and Scrafty, alive due to the Overheat miss, using Rock Slide and getting two KOs and then getting up to +3 due to Moxie. Conk, alone 1v3 or 1v4, then tried to Rock Slide his Chandelure and Scrafty the next turn, killed Chandelure and missed Scrafty, when Rock Slide could have potentially killed it. Was probably going to lose even without the Rock Slide miss, but that sorta sealed it. Never got to see his back two so I can't say for sure how it would've went for me.
Record: 0-1, Jinhwan wins 2 games to 0.
Round 2: Raphael Candelaresi from France
Games 1 and 2 went by with some hax on each side, with us taking one win each. I honestly don’t remember much that happened in them. Game 3 was the single biggest bullshit match I have had in my entire VGC playing history, even beating out Quick Claw Kyogre at last year’s Nationals top 16. I had saved it, but upon checking I deleted it for a later battle that wasn’t really worth saving in hindsight.
I had already seen several Pokémon on his team, as this was our third battle. He led Landorus(which I hadn’t seen yet) and Terrakion, which I knew was scarfed. I led Stoutland and Conkeldurr. Landorus I wasn’t really afraid of. Given how powerful my Conkeldurr had been against him in previous matches, I knew he would probably target it first. My two moves for that turn were Stoutland using Thunder Wave on his Terrakion and Conkeldurr using Bulk Up. Luck decided that wasn’t a good idea, though. Raphael’s Terrakion Close Combatted my Conkeldurr, which I had expected. What I didn’t expect, however, was a critical hit, which OHKOed it, bypassing my Sitrus Berry and not giving me a chance to Bulk Up that would have turned Conkeldurr into a tank. Raphael’s Landorus, to my surprise, used Psychic on Stoutland – clearly due to the lack of a target from Conkeldurr being dead already. I have yet to run calculations, but Conk might have been able to survive, and if not at least Stoutland would have had like 50 more HP for the rest of the fight.
Turn 2, the bullshit continued. His Terra had already CCed and was -1 SpDef, so I decided to Return his Landorus with Stoutland and Giga Drain his Terrakion. I fully expected him to Psychic my Amoonguss, but the -1 SpDef Terrakion being Giga Drained would have easily given me my health back. Raphael’s Landorus did exactly what I expected – he Psychiced my Amoonguss – and got another critical hit, OHKOing Amoonguss!
I managed to slowly chip away at Raphael’s team over the next 5 or 6 turns, bringing it was 2-4 to 2-2. I ended up losing the match to two low damage rolls – one on Chandelure Shadow Balling his already damaged Landorus and missing the KO by about 5%, and another with Chandelure Shadow Balling his 55~% paralyzed Terrakion and it living with 1HP. The latter one happened on the last turn of the game, and Terrakion then attacked through paralysis – which had not FPed it in any of the 3 or 4 turns it had been out – and Rock Slided, KOing both my Chandelure and Stoutland for the win.
Record: 0-2, Raphael wins 2 games to 1.
Round 3: TJ Tolliver from the United States
TJ had LCQed in on Friday, and I had already heard that he was running a level 1 Trick Room Whimsicott team. I hadn’t faced one with my team prior to this, but after thinking for a few seconds prior to going to my table I already knew a few ways I could beat it. Game 1 I led Amoonguss/Chandelure, he led Scrafty/Level 1 Whimsicott. I believe he had Rock Slide, which was a bit of a pain in the ass, but Heat Wave was a boss. Game 2 I led Amoonguss/Conkeldurr and just spammed Mach Punch on Whimsicott. This wasn’t really a close round, I didn’t come close to losing either time, and I’m not sure that I even lost a Pokémon in either round.
Record: 1-2, I win 2 games to 0.
Round 4: Lionel Fey from France
I remember Lionel had a Scrafty, Amoonguss, Hydreigon, and Reuniclus. I believe he also had a Terrakion.
I can’t honestly remember if this was 2 games or 3. I believe it was 2 -- if Lionel did win a game, I don’t remember what happened in it, so sorry!
Game 1: Turn 1:
I want to say I led Thundurus/Zebstrika vs Scrafty/Terrakion. I double switched turn 1, sending Stoutland in for Thundurus and Conkeldurr in for Zebra. I believe he used Fake Out and Rock Slide.
Turn 2: Pretty uneventful, he pulled out his Terrakion for Amoonguss and I think his Scrafty used Drain Punch on my Stoutland, doing about 40 damage thanks to Intimidate and Chople Berry. I honestly forget what I did, I think I Drain Punched his Chople Scrafty and Thunder Waved his Amoonguss on the switch in, although I don’t fully remember Stoutland’s move.
Turn 3: I went into Zen Mode. I had playtested my team very little since Nationals, relying on my theorycrafting instead of actual play since I didn’t want people to know my team and was also very busy preparing to move to a different state 2 weeks after Worlds. The situation was Amoonguss/Scrafty out for Lionel and Stoutland/Conkeldurr out for me. I knew I could not take out his Amoonguss in one turn, and knew that he would try to Spore my Conkeldurr since it was the bigger threat. At this point something clicked in my head, and I knew what I had to do.
My Stoutland used Thunder Wave on Conkeldurr, giving it a Guts boost and also protecting it from being put to sleep. Conkeldurr then used Bulk Up, putting him at +2 atk/+1 def that turn. Lionel’s Scrafty also used Bulk Up, which I gave him props for as soon as I saw it, and then his Amoonguss used Spore, ineffectively, against Conkeldurr.
I did get a bit lucky from this point on; for the rest of the match my Conkeldurr didn’t get FPed once. I don’t think it actually would’ve mattered unless I was chain FPed, though. Either one or two turns after my zen moment, I got another Bulk Up off, going to +3/+2. His Amoonguss ended up Thunder Waved, and eventually it FPed and I managed to get a Drain Punch off on Scrafty to kill it. He replaced it with Hydreigon. I +3 Mach Punched it and activated its Focus Sash, and it Draco Meteored me for about 50-55%, which Sitrus then healed back half of. With the -2 from Meteor, his Hydreigon was completely screwed, and that was his
Game 2:
Turn 1: I sorta got ballsy, ran Thundurus/Zebra again, Lionel was spooked and led with Hydreigon/Reuniclus. I Discharge with Thundurus and paralyze both Hydreigon and Reuniclus. Hydreigon then used Dark Pulse on Thundurus, I guess he didn’t figure out that Thundurus was running Choice Scarf -- I can’t remember if it ever attacked near the end of game 1, but if it did it was against something that it would have been slower even if I wasn’t using a Choice Scarf. Zebstrika then Thunderbolts Reuniclus, bringing it down to about 15-20%. The turn ends with Reuniclus using Psychic on Thundurus, killing it.
Turn 2: I sent out Conkeldurr. I knew from Game 1 that his Hydreigon was using Focus Sashed and it had been burned from Discharge, so I used Drain Punch to kill Hydreigon and Thunderbolted again with my +1 Zebra to kill Reuniclus. I forget what his fourth Pokémon was, but it was 1-3 and I had a +1 Zebra -- he lost, hard. I apologized for the luck on my end, we shook hands, and after calling a staff member over to verify my victory I went to wait for round 5 pairings.
Record: 2-2, Dan wins 2 games to 0.
Round 5: Greyson Garren from the United States, AKA Greysong
Games 1 and 2 I honestly can’t really remember. I had heard warnings prior to Worlds of Greysong’s awesome Samurott, but apparently the Zebra/Thundurus scared him away from using it in any of our matches. We each won once, and went to match 3 to decide who got the match victory.
Game 3: I knew from discussions with friends prior to Worlds that Greysong was using Lum DD Haxorus on PO during testing. I had played around that in my prior matches, just going for direct attacks and intimidating it instead of trying to paralyze it. I led Amoonguss/Stoutland this round, he led Haxorus and Scrafty. I planned to both Thunder Wave and Spore his Lum Haxorus, figuring that he’d use Fake Out on one of my guys and that whichever status move of mine did go off would take out his Haxorus’ Lum. I was correct in this regard, and turn 1 boiled down to Greyson using Fake Out on my Amoonguss(Risky! No Effect Spore, lucky for him) and using Dragon Dance with Haxorus, which brought him to +0atk/+1speed thanks to Intimidate. My Stoutland used Thunder Wave, which burned his Haxorus’ Lum.
Turn 2: Haxorus Protects, my Amoonguss Spores into his Protect, and my Stoutland Thunder Waves the Amoonguss that he switches in to replace his Scrafty.
Turn 3: This turn should have put me in a position to win the game, but I had a HUGE mental slip here that ended up costing me the game. His Amoonguss was paralyzed, so I couldn’t use Spore on it. I knew he would try to Spore my Amoonguss, so my mind clicked back to my last round against Lionel and how I stopped his Amoonguss from wrecking me. I Thunder Waved my Amoonguss with Stoutland, Greysong’s face went from confident to one that was clearly worried, which gave away to me before the animation played that he was going to Spore my Amoonguss. I got a little smirk on my face, having successfully blocked his Amoonguss from Sporing me…….
And then my Amoonguss’ Lum Berry activated.
My heart dropped. I had decided within the past few days to run Lum Berry on Amoonguss. I had been planning to run Iron Ball for the past few weeks to absolutely dominate enemy Amoongusses under Trick Room, but Synre had convinced me to run Lum. I forgot that I had made the switch, having not actually utilized the Lum Berry in my prior 5 rounds. So I ended up eating my own Lum Berry with Thunder Wave, which then left my Amoonguss wide open to get hit by Greysong’s Spore. At this point we both were completely blown away. Greysong recognized that he would have been in a really bad position if I hadn’t just made easily the biggest mistake I’ve made in my 12 years of playing Pokémon, and we both just sort of sat there stunned for a minute, with me going “Oh my god” over and over and him saying he was sorry. From that point my Amoonguss slept for 3 or 4 turns, his Haxorus got essentially free reign to rampage against my team, and I lost horribly. I put up a bit of a fight near the end, but still ended up losing. I will give Greysong credit, he did not timer stall me, which he could have easily done by double protecting and taking 59 seconds to make his moves, which would have easily cemented his victory since a turn or two after my huge mistake the match was 2-4 in Greysong’s favor.
Record: 2-3, Greysong wins 2 games to 1.
At this point I was absolutely crushed. I had talked to Darrell(TPCI Staff, Sassy Canadian) after losing my second round against Raphael, and he told me that at least one 4-2 could make it through, so I was still holding out hope that I could make the top 8 cut. My gigantic mistake had prevented me from hitting 4-2. I was so incredibly angry with myself, having failed that horribly at a key moment during my first time competing in Worlds. I told some of my friends what I had done, they were all sympathetic. Eventually the Round 6 pairings were posted, and I found out that I was against someone that had been on my flight from Philadelphia to San Diego – Drug Duck’s girlfriend, aka MewMisaki on the Smogon Forums.
Round 6: Jennifer Giwanski from Germany
I was still reeling from round 5. My eyes watered a bit, since if I had any chance of making the top 8 cut for Sunday’s finals, it was gone after my match with Greysong. At this point I honestly didn’t care too much. I saw her team, figured I’d go out using my favorite part of my team even if I didn’t have the best matchup against it.
Turn 1 I led Zebra/Thundurus. Misaki led Haxorus(Mold Breaker)/Scrafty, Fake Outed my Zebra, and used Dragon Claw on her clearly Choice Scarfed Haxorus(outsped Zebra), hitting my Thundurus for a bit over 50%. Thundurus used Discharge, didn’t paralyze either enemy, and gave Zebra +1 thanks to Lightning Rod. I honestly don’t remember much of this game, other than I swept her quite handily.
Game 2 was pretty much the same, I think I used Conk/Stout with Amoonguss/Thund in the back. All I really remember is that Jennifer said something to the effect of “My team can’t beat yours”, and she started spamming Guillotine with her Scarfed Haxorus. It didn’t hit any of the 2 or 3 times she used it.
Record: 3-3, Danny wins 2-0
Wrapup:
I waited a few minutes for the round to wrap up and the final standings to be posted. I ended up being tied for the lowest strength of schedule in the tournament with MewMisaki, my round 6 opponent. Even if I had beaten Greysong and then also beaten my 6th round opponent I wouldn’t have made top 8, so a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders when I realized that at best I would have placed somewhere around 13th, still short of the Sunday top 8 cut. I ended up placing 22nd out of 34 competitors. Was lower than I was aiming for, but I know in my heart I could have at least hit the low teens if I hadn’t messed up.
I’ll add my props and slops later, I need time to compose my thoughts about what was good and bad about this year’s VGC season. It's been a long weekend. This year, from a tournament standpoint, definitely had both ups and downs.
