Tuesday, April 8, 2014

WigglyTough is Tough Enough! - A Massachusetts 1st Place Report

I'm still exhausted from the weekend at Massachusetts Regionals so I'm only going to post a team report this time rather than a "Warstory" like I posted after Virginia.





Salamence @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Stone Edge
- Sleep Talk

Standard Scarf Mence, not much to say about it though I'll go over the slight differences from my Virginia Scarf Mence. With Pokebank out I was finally able to get one with a 31 Atk IV (from my #1 fan Paul Hornak) so I could switch from Hydro Pump to Stone Edge. Also with Pokebank released Dark Void Smeargle is seen somewhat frequently, so I added Sleep Talk to help deal with that.


Rotom-Heat @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 36 Def / 140 SAtk / 4 SDef / 84 Spd
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Another standard set for Rotom-H. I don't really like Rotom-H much at all but I wanted a defensive fire type. The Special Attack EVs let it OHKO the Mawile I used in Virginia, the Speed EVs let it speed creep Neutral Nature 252 Speed TTars and Rotom-Ws. 244 HP gives it an even numbered HP for Sitrus Berry since a few people use Super Fang Noivern. I just put the leftover EVs in the defenses.


Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Substitute
- King's Shield

I used 0 Speed IV to get the Shadow Ball off on other Aegislash after they attacked which would let me KO them, as well as to let me stay in Shield Form longer. I opted for Flash Cannon instead of Sacred Sword because they do the same exact thing except one is better vs some TTars and Bisharp while the other is better vs Mamoswine, Aromatisse and when Intimidated or Burned. I prefer the advantages of Flash Cannon. Another aspect of Flash Cannon that I prefer is that it makes it harder to switch in on Aegislash. Many times you'll be in a situation where both Shadow Ball and Flash Cannon will do the same damage. When Aegislash is in a threatening position in one of those situations (For example, when facing a Gardevoir that may opt to switch out) you choose which move based on potential switchins. If the opponent for example has no Pokemon that resist steel and one that resists Ghost, Flash Cannon becomes the easy move to make. That way you punish the opponent no matter whether they stay in or switch out. This situation is a lot more frequent than it may seem.


Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 Spd
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect

This set is probably a little different from most Amoonguss. Many Amoonguss choose to use the minimum speed possible in order to counter Trick Room teams better, but I didn't feel that was necessary for my team since I liked my match-up vs Trick Room teams even without a minimum speed Amoonguss. Instead I opted to use enough Speed EVs to outspeed minimum Speed Aegislash (Which has become extremely common in America compared to Neutral Speed Aegislash) in order to Spore them before they set up a Substitute. Rocky Helmet was to help with Kangaskhan. I chose Regenerator over Effect Spore because I like to switch out a lot and it's a more reliable ability since sometimes Effect Spore can backfire when trying to Spore or Will-o-Wisp with Rotom-H. The rest of the set is standard, there are many Physical threats in the metagame so I focused all of the EVs on Defense rather than Special Defense or a mix of both.


Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Return
- Power-Up Punch
- Sucker Punch
- Fake Out

Standard Kangaskhan. Since a lot of American players are switching to slower bulky Kangaskhans and Charizards I decided on max speed for fine to take advantage of that since I lack any speed control and my team is for the most part really slow. Kangaskhan was the focal point of my team and I based my team and play within each battle to enable it to run through teams. One of the key supporters for it is.....


Wigglytuff @ Assault Vest
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 188 Def / 236 SAtk / 12 SDef / 68 Spd
Modest Nature
- Dazzling Gleam
- Fire Blast
- Thunderbolt
- Hyper Beam

I was originally testing Bisharp in this role instead, but found it extremely underwhelming if the opponent didn't bring Intimidate, and even if they did it had quite a few flaws. I knew some of the Korean players were in love with Wigglytuff and Scott told me he was being terrorized by it and losing against it every time, so I thought why the hell not I'll test it instead of Bisharp. It'll be equally useless if they don't have Intimidate but at least it can take hits. It gets amazing coverage and a STAB spread move as well. Assault Vest was to increase its Special Bulk which helped a lot, and the Defense EVs were there so it could take neutral Physical Attacks better (Like when the opponent leads Salamence/Garchomp). The Speed EVs let it outspeed my Virginia Mawile, and the Special Attack EVs let it OHKO my Virginia Ferrothorn with Fire Blast at +0, my Virginia Mawile with Fire Blast at +2, and Salamence/Garchomp with Dazzling Gleam at +2. Since I had Assault Vest I couldn't use Protect as the 4th move and needed to find a solid filler move. There were pretty much no good choices. I considered Psychic for Gengar but not many people use that in the US. I decided on Hyper Beam since at +2 it OHKOs almost everything, and gives me something to hit Rotoms hard with since Kangaskhan doesn't like getting burned. I really only used it when Wigglytuff was about to die so I wouldn't care about the recharge turn, but it was a pretty useful move to have the option of using.

As of now the only video I have of my team from the tournament is Game 2 of my Top 4 match vs Trista "The Machine" Medine (also known as ryuzaki): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVVgmOd8riA

My Top 8 match was recorded and should be up within the next few days. I think the Finals were recorded as well but I'm not totally sure, but if they were those games should also be up within the next few days. I'll post the videos here and on Twitter (Follow me @RayRizzoVGC ) when they get uploaded so keep an eye out for them as well!

Thanks for reading guys, hope you enjoyed it. Now that I'm most likely qualified for Worlds without having to play Nationals I may try and make some strategy posts/guides here and maybe get into the whole Youtube thing like my man Aaron Zheng is doing, so keep an eye out for that as well.




9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I would have never expected Wigglytuff to be so useful. This has me thinking of some of my own ideas with other Pokemon!

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  3. This is awesome. The speed creep on Amoongus would surely catch my Aegislash off guard by sporing its face before it attacked. Great job Ray. Rooting for you to win World's this year.

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  4. Ray, please reply to this! As a three-time world champion of pokemon, I kinda look up to you as a 19 year old that still plays pokemon. I feel like at some point I need to stop playing pokemon and get on with my life but I keep coming back. Do you feel like you are drifting away from pokemon? How long do you expect to play?(<-- Competitively, just for fun, or whatever)

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    1. I was talking about myself being the 19 year old who still plays. I am just afraid I will look back and say that I wasted so much of my time playing pokemon

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  5. im 45 and still play, its more casual now, but still lots of fun especially since my 6 year old has started playing too, and we went to the regionals together with my brother. its like anything you cant let it take over your life but you can still paly occasionally and have a good time

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  6. Hey ray I can't seem to get a regenerator amonguss . Could you breed up a fonguss for me I'll appreciate it. Thanks!

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  7. Regenerator is a hidden ability...

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