Contents

• Introduction
• The Team
• Ninetales-Alola
• Tapu Lele
• Arcanine
• Drifblim
• Garchomp
• Snorlax
• The Tournament

Introduction

Hello, my name is Justin Burns (@SpurrificVGC on Twitter) and I’m the runner-up from the recent North American regional that took place near St. Louis, Missouri.

I’ve played VGC since October of 2014 and competed in the 2015 and 2016 World Championships. I started off well in this format with a 6th place finish at the Dallas, Texas Regional, which matched what was my best placement at a regional at the time. However, at the next regional in Georgia, I had a performance that felt much worse than my 6-3 record made it look. In the 6 or so weeks between the regionals in Georgia and St. Louis, I had lost almost all confidence in my play and was consistently struggling in practice.

At the beginning of the week leading into the tournament, I threw together a team to use for an online tournament match and afterwards decided to look at the team a bit more. I found myself improving with this team and after making more changes during the week, some of them being as late as Friday night, I decided to go with this team for the regional.

The Team

Ninetales-Alola @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Blizzard
– Aurora Veil
– Icy Wind
– Encore

I had been playing a lot of games with Ninetales teams in the weeks leading up to the tournament, so I decided early on that I would be taking it to the regional. Ninetales makes up for its poor offense with a variety of support moves and a speed tier that allows it to pin down certain threats, most notably Garchomp, with Blizzard. While many players run Freeze-Dry, I opted to go with Icy Wind and Encore to focus on supporting the other members of the team more. I think…

We are launching a mail magazine service!

Contents

• Introduction
• Team Building Process
• Pokémon Details
• Leading Combinations & How to Play The Team
• WARSTORY
• Final Thoughts

Introduction

Hello everyone I’m Albert Bos the champion of the VG Sheffield regional and I’m glad to be here to show you the secrets of my team!

I built it with my friend Àlex the evening before the event, we hadn’t team and we wanted to build something together and it really worked perfectly! Let’s see how we build it and what were we thinking during the build!

Team Building Process

We have no idea what we wanted to build so we decided to start with a Pokémon that we hadn’t already used, a really good Pokémon that put a lot of work against the defensive cores of the meta and breaks well the standard core of Arcanine+Tapu Fini+Garchomp (with hidden power ice of course), the awesome Nihilego!

Ok we had a really good Pokémon to build around, what’s next? easy, let’s think what nihilego loses against! Celesteela Gastrodon Gigalith Snorlax Kartana… So we thought! ey and what about a grass type to cover Gigalith and Gastrodon and cover the ground and water moves? But there are not a really strong grass types in Alola, kartana maybe? but it’s really countered nowadays, so yes, we put Tapu Bulu a really underrated Pokémon and the tape with lower % of usage but a really nice option to weak enemy Garchomp earthquakes and to put a lot of physical damage and a decent bulk.

What now? well if we see Nihilego counters we can see that steel types can counter Nihilego and Tapu Bulu too… really strong type… so what we need now? Of course a Fire type to knock out the annoying Celesteelas and Kartanas around the world! Maybe Alolan Marowak? naah we needed some damage control, intimidate snarl… we had to use the most used Pokémon of the metagame! we needed Arcanine!

We really had a powerful core, with one Tapu, one Ultra Beast, but…

We are launching a mail magazine service!

Introduction

Hey everyone! I’m Alex Ogloza.(@AlexOgloza)

My practice consisted of about 20 or so games on Showdown (1700s) and 3 battles on Battlespot (1750s) (if you remember reading my post about being sick, well, that’s why xD), but in those 23 games, I won a good 80% of them so I actually felt pretty good about the team despite not having a lot of practice on it.

Pokemon Details

Torkoal @ Firium Z
Ability: Drought
Level: 50
EVs: 132 HP / 252 SpA / 124 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 4 Spe
– Eruption
– Flamethrower
– Solar Beam
– Protect

Lilligant @ Wide Lens
Ability: Chlorophyll
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 252 SpA / 60 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– After You
– Sleep Powder
– Leaf Storm
– Protect

We are launching a mail magazine service!

Hello again, my name is Catme and today I want share the team that I used to win the Ai-Off Gloria Qualifier preliminary tournament. This team is very interesting, consisting of a core of 4 fairy pokemon, so I hope you will enjoy reading this report.

Results

Ai-Off Gloria Qualifier preliminary tournament: 1st place
Pokemon Showdown Ladder: 1985(Muscle), 1968(Catme)

How the team was built

This season I have been using a lot of teams that have a defensive play style and slowly wither away at the opponent, so I wanted to use a team that is more aggressive to change things up. After trying out a couple of teams, I caught word that Muscle (@poke06281488) was using the 6 pokemon of Whimsicott, Tapu Koko, Tapu bulu, Tapu Fini, Arcanine and Metagross and I fell in love with how it can catch opponents off guard in a BO1. I was able to get details of the team from him and although I like to make couple of adjustments to teams I take from other people, this team was already complete as it was so I only spent time running damage calculations and getting used to the team. Ultimately, this is 99% Muscle’s team and I can’t thank him enough for letting me use it and allowing me to win the tournament.

About Nature’s Power

The move Nature’s Power is what makes this team unique and is something that isn’t seen much in regular battles. I’d like to give some details about the move before going in depth since some of you might not be familiar with it.

Nature’s Power

Type: Normal Base
Power: Terrain dependent
Accuracy: Terrain dependent
Category: Status
Misty terrain: Moonblast
Grassy terrain: Energy Ball
Electric terrain: Thunderbolt
Psychic terrain: Psychic
Non: Tri Attack

So,

1. By holding a NormaliumZ, It is possible to use a Z move based off Nature’s Power however the type and base power will depend on the terrain. For example, in Misty Terrain, the move will become Twinkle Tackle, and in Grassy Terrain it will be Bloom Doom.

2. It is categorized as a status move so if a pokemon with Prankster uses it, the priority will be +1.

3. If a pokemon with Prankster uses it in Psychic Terrain, it will fail.

Hopefully these facts help you understand this report better.

Pokemon Details

Whimsicott @ Normalium Z
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 12 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Nature Power
– Moonblast
– Encore
– Protect

The main pokemon of this team. This team relies on Whimsicott taking as much advantage as possible by hitting it’s Z move effectively and being alive until the late game.

The moves consist of Nature’s Power, which is the concept of this team, Moonblast which is used to hit Dark types which negate Nature’s Power, Encore to control the opponent, and Protect to keep Whimsicott alive as long as possible.

Even if the opponent uses speed control…
 

We are launching a mail magazine service!

Hi! I’m Chuppa N Cross IV(@chuppavgc). I recently placed in Top 8 at the Athens, Georgia Regionals.

Teambuilding

Our story begins a week before the Regional. After having to sit out a local Midseason Showdown due to snow, I spent the day watching the stream of the event on twitch.tv/libertygarden. While everyone knew that the core of Arcanine/Tapu Fini/Kartana (I’ll be referring to it as AFK) was popular at Dallas and would be popular at this event, the extent of that surprised me. Most of the top cut teams featured all three of them; even the team that I’d planned to run (similar to Azazel’s winning team) was AFK.

Having missed crucial CP and experience from the MSS, I knew that I had to set to work on building a powerful team for Regionals. Since the event was only one week away, I figured that the metagame was unlikely to undergo any drastic changes and would be heavily populated by AFK teams.

After thinking about pokemon that could handle AFK, I came to an answer I was satisfied with. Standard LO Tapu Koko is able to take on most Arcanine and Tapu Fini through its speed and sheer damage output. This only leaves Kartana, whose AV set isn’t 2HKO’d by either of Koko’s staple TBolt and DGleam. However,

252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Hidden Power Fire vs. 84 HP / 164 SpD Assault Vest Kartana: 161-192 (111 – 132.4%) — guaranteed OHKO
(161, 161, 166, 166, 166, 172, 172, 177, 177, 177, 182, 182, 182, 187, 187, 192)

Teching on HP Fire allows Koko to easily OHKO all AV Kartana that aren’t ridiculously specially defensive (at which point they’re so slow that your opponent probably doesn’t know how Kartana works). Now that I had found the cornerstone of the team, I had to build around it. I messaged Gavin (kingofkongs, @komvgc) and he suggested starting with Koko/Gigalith/Gyarados/Kartana/Arcanine, and we quickly added Porygon2 for Ice Beam coverage and for the option of a Gigalith TR mode.

In testing, we agreed that Gyarados was hard to bring due to the presence of Tapu Koko/ TBolt P2, and rarely essential to winning. This was disappointing, since Gyarados was one of my favorite pokemon in the early 2017 metagame, but it didn’t have anything to offer here. I initially added another water type, specs Tapu Fini, since this slot needed to handle Garchomp, and that also avoided being KO’d by Koko while Misty Terrain was up. I saw that being able to take away an opposing Koko’s terrain could extend the team’s bulk significantly. However, with the team’s three ground weaks, just being able to KO chomp wasn’t ideal-outrunning and KOing was. I switched to scarf Tapu Lele because of this and fell in love with it. Being able to snipe Garchomp was great, and the speed let Lele lead off against offensive but frail teams, or come as a lategame sweeper when the opponent’s mons were in range to be KO’d by ridiculously powerful 200 Spatk, terrain boosted Psychics.

Further testing showed that Marowak was a rough matchup. It almost always forced the team to bring its TR mode, since it could sponge attacks from 3/4 of the faster pokemon, and OHKO or heavily damage all four of them. When I was testing AFK cores a few days before this, I was amazed by how strong Groundium Garchomp is. Teams with double or even triple Ground weaks are common (including this one!), and it has an easy time preying on those. Tectonic Rage’s sheer damage output is great even against things it hits for neutral, like Tapu Lele/Fini and Gastrodon. Since P2 generally wasn’t getting used as much as the other 5 members, I replaced it with Garchomp and immediately felt the team improve, as it started coming to and winning most games.

This locked in the six pokemon that I’d end up using at the event. While Garchomp was a good add to the team, it wasn’t as good against opposing Garchomp as Porygon2 had been. Realizing that four of my pokemon had fire coverage and another had fighting, I could stand exchanging Koko’s HP Fire for HP Ice to improve that matchup. Even if I was fighting more Kartana than Garchomp and found Koko’s HP Fire useful for them, I could still beat them without it. This also meant that Koko had to become Modest to secure the KO on Garchomp, though the only real loss from this is giving up the speedtie with opposing Koko. This is a significant downside, but I feel like you want to avoid situations where those speedties matter anyway.

I’d done limited testing with Iapapa Arcanine, but had mostly been using Sitrus. While I was content with Sitrus, the Iapapa seemed stronger in theory, and with the suggestion of some friends I changed to it. Gavin ran the same team that I did, except he kept both HP Fire Koko and Sitrus Arcanine.

Pokemon Details

Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Thunderbolt
– Dazzling Gleam
– Hidden Power [Ice]
– Protect

Brought to 26/26 games
Easily one of the most valuable members of the team. Tapu Koko’s speed and power make it one of the best pokemon in the format, and if you don’t have it somewhere on your Top 5 you need to rethink that. Seriously, base 130 speed backed up with this offensive potential is something that we’ve never seen outside of pokemon like Mewtwo. Whether functioning as a lead to give me early game pressure or as a late game clean up mon, Koko consistently did its job well. The team was originally built around Timid HP Fire Koko, which was used for most of testing, but…
 

We are launching a mail magazine service!

How the team was built

I wanted to use the combination of Golduck + Pelipper, as its usage plummeted after the London International and everyone moved on to different things. This was something I felt could be exploited, as people were not preparing for the matchup as much anymore.

I also really wanted to use the combination of Assault Vest Vikavolt and Choice Scarf Garchomp, as they’re able to cover a lot of the current metagame (especially the popular Tapu Fini / Kartana / Arcanine core), while Vikavolt also has access to Energy Ball to get rid of Gastrodon in case I run into any.

For the last 2 slots I added Celesteela to have better defensive synergies, as well as an option to deal with slower, bulkier teams by stalling them out – and Arcanine with Safety Goggles, because Liligant/Torkoal matchups would be almost impossible to win otherwise with the team.

Team Details

Pelipper @ Focus Sash
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Scald
– Hurricane
– Tailwind
– Protect

This is a very standard Pelipper set and there’s not really much to talk about here. I use Scald over Hydro Pump for consistency, and a Modest nature instead of Timid for better damage output.

Golduck @ Waterium Z
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 124 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 124 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Hydro Pump
– Ice Beam
– Substitute
– Protect

Golduck is the biggest offensive threat on the team and forms the infamous “double ducks” combination with Pelipper (even though Pelipper isn’t a duck!).

The set is pretty standard, but I invested some EVs in HP because I don’t feel like maximizing Speed is necessary with Swift Swim, while the additional HP are nice to have.

The moveset is fairly standard with Hydro Pump, Ice Beam and Protect. For the last moveslot I decided on Substitute, which is a bit unconventional, as most players tend to run Encore or Scald here.

I enjoyed having Substitute, as opponents would expect Golduck to carry Encore, which oftentimes meant that they would switch after using Protect, allowing me to set up Substitute freely. It also helps stall out turns where my opponent will try to focus down on Golduck, giving the partner Pokémon more time to set up or deal damage.

Vikavolt @ Assault Vest
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 60 Def / 12 SpA / 188 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Thunderbolt
– Discharge
– Bug Buzz
– Energy Ball

Vikavolt turned out to be my favorite Pokémon in the format, and I’m very fond of this Assault Vest set. I’ve been playing many variations for this set, using different moves on different teams, but I’ve always kept the EVs and Item almost the same.

For moves I run Thunderbolt for consistent damage, Discharge to combo with Garchomp’s Earthquake, Bug Buzz as a secondary STAB option and Energy Ball to deal with Gastrodon which would otherwise wall the team completely.

The EVs give Vikavolt some crazy survivability, allowing it to survive Hydro Vortex from Golduck in rain and take very little damage from most neutral special attacks. To put it into perspective, Choice Specs Tapu Fini Moonblast or Muddy Water are a 3HKO! The opponent would oftentimes try to focus down Vikavolt with attacks but failing to knock it out because it shakes off special attacks so well.

Pelipper’s Drizzle also ensures that Vikavolt will never be OHKO’d by Arcanine Flare Blitz, and having Golduck also means that the opponent has to think twice about bringing Arcanine to the match, despite being one of the best answers to Vikavolt.
I really recommend trying out this Vikavolt with different moves on different teams, you’ll be surprised by how incredibly useful and strong it is!

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 204 Atk / 4 Def / 92 SpD / 204 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Dragon Claw
– Earthquake
– Poison Jab
– Rock Slide

I strongly believe that if you have a Vikavolt on your team, you also need to have Earthquake on your team.

I chose Choice Scarf Garchomp for my team as I have 2 Flying types and a Levitate user, so I can always lock myself into Earthquake if I want to. Scarf Garchomp handles Tapu Koko exceptionally well, which is a big threat to my Golduck/Pelipper core. It’s also very nice to be able to outspeed Ninetales, Kartana, Nihilego and many other fast Pokémon, as that means I can either trade my Garchomp effectively for one of their faster Pokémon, or outright KO them before they can touch Garchomp (in the case of Life Orb Nihilego for example), breaking through some Pokémon that would otherwise trouble the rest of my team.

In a sense this Garchomp will oftentimes sacrifice itself to remove key threats to my Pelipper/Golduck core or my Vikavolt.

The EVs are very basic for a Scarf build, using Adamant nature and decreasing the Speed down to 148 points so I outspeed Choice Scarf Modest Tapu Lele. 92 SpD EVs are used to ensure that Porygon2 will receive an Attack boost instead of a Special Attack Boost, and the rest is put into Atk.

Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 4 Atk / 172 Def / 4 SpA / 116 SpD
Sassy Nature
– Heavy Slam
– Leech Seed
– Toxic
– Protect

Toxic Celesteela is something my friend Angel Miranda suggested to me after talking about the team in my group chat. At first I had Flamethrower over Toxic, but realized that if I want to effectively beat Porygon2, I would need to run Toxic.

Celesteela is used to break through bulkier teams that are able to withstand my heavy offense, spreading Toxic and Leech Seed to slowly whittle the opposing Pokémon down. Celesteela also has great synergy with the rest of the team. The rain core scares Arcanine away, while Choice Scarf Garchomp can handle Tapu Koko.

I was very satisfied with the Toxic + Leech Seed moveset, it won me games I would’ve otherwise lost easily, as I would not have been able to break my opponent’s defensive cores.

Arcanine @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 4 SpA / 132 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
– Flamethrower
– Extreme Speed
– Roar
– Protect

Probably the worst Pokémon on this team. I rarely ever used it, and I also never played against Liligant+Torkoal, so using a different Pokémon or different set would have been better.

It’s still important to ensure that you don’t lose to Liligant+Torkoal. If you’re not afraid of that matchup feel free to try different Pokémon for this slot. I can personally recommend Hariyama, as it also has a decent matchup with Liligant+Torkoal but provides Fake Out and strong Fighting type attacks for the team.

Leads and Matchups

vs. Tapu Koko + Garchomp standard

front: + /
back: / +

Choice Scarf Garchomp to deal with Tapu Koko and threaten the opposing Garchomp. Lead Pelipper if you want Tailwind early or set up Rain fast, Vikavolt is better most other times. Golduck in the back.

Oftentimes Scarf Garchomp + Vikavolt leads will break the opponent’s team on its own. It’s a very strong lead!

vs. Tapu Fini Arcanine Kartana standard

front: +
back: + /

If the team is more defensively oriented bringing Celesteela might be good. Otherwise bringing Golduck is okay.

Try to overwhelm your opponent with strong attacks. Oftentimes a turn 1 Earthquake + Discharge can win the game.

Don’t be afraid of Arcanine lead. They will either Protect or Switch, which means you can usually knock out or heavily damage the partner (oftentimes Tapu Fini), while you can get a free switch into Pelipper if they KO Garchomp. If they don’t KO Garchomp you can switch Vikavolt into Pelipper on Turn 2 to sponge Arcanine’s attack.

vs. Trick Room

front: +
back: + //

OR

front: + //
back: + //

For Trick Room you want Celesteela. If they lead Porygon2 try to use Toxic right away. Set up your Celesteela and try to slowly whittle down your opponent’s HP.

Pelipper in the back to reduce damage from Fire type attacks. Bring any of your remaining 3 Pokémon depending on the matchup.

You can also lead Arcanine and Roar out the Trick Room user, then try to position yourself so Golduck + Pelipper can start dealing big damage. I don’t recommend this as oftentimes the opponent will expect Roar and react to it accordingly.

Hello my name is Junio and today I’ll be sharing my Mandibuzz Tailwind team which i used to achieve Runner-up in the 2nd Kanto Regionals and Top 8 at the Melbourne Challenge, hosted by @zeldavgc. I think part of my success comes from building this team to be strong in a BO3 situation, hopefully you can take something away after reading this report!

Videos

2nd Kanto Regionals TOP4: Junio vs Yuichi

2nd Kanto Regionals FINAL: Rin vs Junio

How I built the team

Mandibuzz + Nihilego

The meta game at this point of time is full of Tapu’s + Arcanine so i decided to take a look at Nihilego which can hit both of these with STAB weaknesses. I noticed that Mandibuzz + Nihilego have good synergy typing wise so I start the team with these two Pokemon.

Building around Mandibuzz

I think that team building for vgc2017 requires you to be cautious of how weak the team is against ground type moves. Mandibuzz is a Flying type which makes a natural counter against Ground types while allowing your own Ground type to use moves such as Earthquake.

What a Mandibuzz centralized Tailwind team needs

・Enough power to pressure opponent during Tailwind
・Electric immunity
・Fairy resist = something strong against Tapu’s.

Nihilego fills some of these roles, but I figured it wasn’t enough so I looked for what else fit these roles.

With the Kanto Regionals coming up, I knew I wanted to make the team strong in a BO3 situation. In doing so, I kept in mind the following while team building:

・Giving Protect to as many of my Pokemon as possible to allow for flexible plays.
・Having ways to be immune to opposing Z moves.

In a BO3, after game 1 and finding out which of the opponent’s Pokemon uses a Z move, with ways to be immune to that Z move, you have a lot more options and pressure against the opponent in games 2 and 3.

With these aspects in mind, I started building the team. Making both “Enough power to pressure opponent during Tailwind” and not using choice items to do this to achieve max flexibility was not an easy task.

Garchomp

I added Garchomp since it is immune to Electric type attacks while able to use Ground type moves which usually hits a lot of opponents.

The item is Groundium Z to achieve a high power and flexibility.

With Garchomp added, the team now has ways to be immune against Gigavolt Havoc, Tectonic Rage and Shattered Psyche which limits the opponent from mindlessly using these Z moves.

With 2 fairy weaknesses, I decided the rest of the team keeping this in mind.

Arcanine

To achieve flexibility in playing, I needed a Pokemon with Intimidate.
Arcanine only made sense since it had good typing synergy and solid base stats.

Tapu Lele

Mandibuzz not only gets hit super effective by opposing Tapu’s, but has no way of interfering with them. Tapu Fini would come to mind as a Pokemon to neuter other Tapu’s, but since it shares a common weakness with Mandibuzz, I wanted something else.

To check the biggest threat of the Tapu’s, Tapu Koko, I decided on Tapu Lele as my 5th member. This allowed for a Arcanine + Tapu Lele lead for the team as well.

Kartana

Garchomp + Arcanine centralized standard teams lack a consistent way to hit water types, and I still felt that Tapu’s were a threat to the team.

Kartana was chosen to patch up these weakness. I gave it Choice Scarf because it was very powerful and the merits of the item seemed to over ride the demerits of forgoing flexibility.

and so the team is complete!

Looking at the finished team:

Mandibuzz + Garchomp (Electric immune) + Arcanine (Intimidate) + Tapu Lele (Tapu) + Kartana, Nihilego (Tapu checks),

I think I was able to build a well rounded team around Mandibuzz.

With Groundium Z Garchomp, Life Orb Tapu Lele, 2 UltraBeasts with BeastBoost, the team has enough power to take advantage of Tailwind as well.

The team did end up with only 3 Pokemon with protect though…

*I used this team as a reference while building this team, thank you!

Pokemon Details

Mandibuzz @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Overcoat
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 212 SpD / 68 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Foul Play
– Tailwind
– Roost
– Taunt

The center piece of this team with the move Tailwind.

Unlike most other Tailwind users, Mandibuzz has very high defenses, and its special defense is close to a Porygon2 with a Sitrus Berry.

It could often pull of a Tailwind even after taking huge damage such as LifeOrb boosted Thunderbolt from Tapu Koko out of Electric Terrain + Blizzard from Ninetails.

After setting Tailwind, it could recover up most of its health with Roost and go for another Tailwind.

The item is Sitrus Berry since Psychic seed would limit my options in a BO3.

Sitrus Berry was simply a very good item on it.

I have Foul Play as the only attacking move, but it hit some pokemon for good damage despite needing no attack EV investment.

Foul Play allows for…
 

We are launching a mail magazine service!

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Paul Chua, or @Blue_Spider_ on Twitter. Today, I am going to talk about the team that I used to win the 2017 Athens Regional Championship. This regional win put me at 386 Championship Points, putting me even closer to an invitation to the World Championships.

How I decided on the team

The weeks before the event, I have been using a team comprised of the same six Pokemon that were used to win the London international. I did make a few changes to it such as Rindo Berry Gastrodon, Electrium Z Tapu Koko and Focus Sash Garchomp. I was able to do really well on Battle Spot with it, but the closer the event came, I kept losing to Tapu Fini/Kartana/Arcanine teams due to the large amount of offense the team could deliver. I spent the next few days trying to figure what to do at this point. The next team I decided to try out ended up being a variation of the team Alex Gomez used at the London International because I thought that the team fit my style more because of the larger amount of offense that this team had. I took the team to a Midseason Showdown that took place a week before Athens in order to see how it would perform. I ended up getting 3rd place. I learned a lot about how to use this team as well as what Pokemon I had a large weakness to such as Muk and Calm Mind Tapu Fini. Salamence was rarely used at the event so I decided to try and find another Intimidate user to replace it, and I settled with a bulky Snarl Arcanine to counter the Special Attack boosts Tapu Fini can get from Calm Mind. I took that variation on Battle Spot and got my rating all the way up to 1990! I felt like this was a team I was comfortable with and all I had to was wait until the event and see how I would do there.

The team in-depth

Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Leaf Blade
– Smart Strike
– Sacred Sword
– Protect

This is a standard Kartana EV spread. Nothing special about this. I chose Focus Sash as a way to guarantee that I survive two attacks and also have access to Protect.
 

Araquanid @ Mystic Water
Ability: Water Bubble
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Adamant Nature
– Liquidation
– Toxic
– Wide Guard
– Protect

The next Pokemon is Araquanid. Once again, the EV spread is standard, maxing out in HP and Attack in order to hit as strong as possible and survive as long as I can. I originally had Leftovers to go with Toxic and ensure more durability, but I decided to go with Mystic Water due to its added power to Liquidation. This attack boost allowed me to take out some surprise KOs such as Gigalith. Toxic can be considered a bizarre choice, but I decided to use it because it allowed me to have a way to handle Pokemon that take a while to knock it out such as Porygon2 and Gastrodon. Wide Guard is another unique choice because it allows me to protect myself from moves such as Rock Slide so that the partner Pokemon, such as Porygon2, can get their attacks off safely.

Tapu Koko @ Fairium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Thunderbolt
– Dazzling Gleam
– Taunt
– Protect

Tapu Koko is the only Pokemon on this team that has a Z Crystal. Its also a really good form of support with Electric Terrain preventing my Pokemon from falling asleep and boosting the power of Thunderbolt. I decided to not give it a Life Orb because I felt Electric Terrain gave me a good boost in power already and I did not like the recoil that the Life Orb had. This Pokemon has a few things that aren’t seen on a normal Tapu Koko. The first one is Taunt, which I used to stop mainly Porygon2 from using Recover and Trick Room. It was also nice to stop Calm Mind or Leech Seed if necessary. The other special thing about this Tapu Koko is the Fairium Z on it, giving it access to Twinkle Tackle. The team itself was really weak to Garchomp and Tapu Koko in the right position. Using Twinkle Tackle allows me to easily take out Garchomps, which commonly have the Groundium Z as well as take out Tapu Koko around 64% of the time. Even if the Twinkle Tackle gets protected or if I attack into a Pokemon that resists it, it usually does enough so that something else can take it out. I wanted to make sure that I would get my Twinkle Tackle off first in order to surprise my opponent, so I went with a basic EV spread to make it as fast as it can and maximized its damage output. There were some moments where I wished I had a Life Orb, but this was only against Tapu Fini in Misty Surge that had Calm Mind. In the end, I felt completely fine with using the Fairium Z because of the powerful attack that takes out the biggest problems to my team.
 

Muk-Alola @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Gluttony
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Def / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Poison Jab
– Knock Off
– Imprison
– Protect

Muk in my opinion, is one of the best Pokemon in the format. This is because access to Knock Off and Poison Jab help against a majority of the metagame and can give you a huge advantage and its ability Gluttony makes it really difficult to take out. The EV spread is the same one that Sejun Park used on his Battle Spot team. It seemed like it did mostly what I wanted Muk to do, so I just used it. I originally used Shadow Sneak on this Muk to take out any Pokemon that had very little HP. However, Muk would sometimes fail to knock out the Pokemon, making Shadow Sneak’s role ineffective. I was struggling to find a fourth move on this Muk. I tested Minimize, Curse, Flamethrower, and even Rock Slide and none of them worked. Eventually, Grant Weldon posted a picture of a team he used to win a local event with an Imprison Muk. I realized Imprison was a pretty good idea because it is able to stop Knock Off, keeping my Porygon2 as bulky as possible, and also stop Protect from something like Celesteela in order to make managing the game easier. During my Midseason Showdown the week before, my losses were to people with Muk because of its difficulty to KO and Knock Off, so Imprison also helped me shut down opposing Muk, leaving them to mainly use only Shadow Sneak.
 

Arcanine @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 4 SpA / 92 SpD / 156 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Flamethrower
– Snarl
– Will-O-Wisp
– Roar

Arcanine was more of a last minute decision. However, I do not regret using this instead of Salamence. Arcanine’s bulk and large options for support gave me another Pokemon to use if Porygon2 would not be able to be used due to my opponent having a lot of ways to handle it. Snarl and Will-O-Wisp help it support the entire team by making the threats weaker and slowly chipping away at the opponent’s help. Flamethrower was my chosen Fire type move because I did not the like the special attack drop that Overheat gave, the loss of the Fire type from Burn Up and Flare Blitz recoil would make it easier for my opponent to take out Arcanine, which is not something I want happening. Roar was my last move as a way to handle Eevee teams and Snorlax with either Belly Drum or Curse. The EV spread was given to me from @RazerVGC. Since he just gave it to me, I do not actually know what it’s made to do due to a lack of explanation. All he explained to me is that it can survive 2 Psychics from Tapu Lele after a Snarl and survive Shattered Psyche out of Psychic Terrain. Sitrus Berry was the chosen item because the recovery allowed it to survive longer. I did not go with any berry such as the Aguav Berry because during practice, Arcanine’s health never got into the range where the berry would activate.
 

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 20 SpA / 140 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
– Ice Beam
– Trick Room
– Recover
– Shadow Ball

The last member of the team is Porygon2. Porygon2 is probably the best Trick Room user due to its immense bulk form its natural defenses and Eviolite. Porygon2 allowed me to set up Trick Room or reverse it in order to quickly change the momentum. Recover allowed it to survive longer than it should normally and also a way to ensure that my opponent has to waste more attacks or even double target it in order to take it out. Ice Beam hits a majority of the metagame for neutral or super effective damage. Shadow Ball is mainly meant for Marowak, which can be problematic depending on Speed. However, I would probably have changed Shadow Ball for another attack such as maybe Return or even Thundebolt in order to hit more Pokemon for neutral or super effective damage because Shadow Ball felt underwhelming a majority of the time. The EV spread was once again given to me by @RazerVGC, but this was near the beginning of the metagame, before the games were even released. It can definitely be optimized but I was fine with it because it was able to survive many attacks and since its leaned more towards the Special side, I can survive some attacks that other Porygon2’s might not be able to, surprising my opponents.

The event

As I am not writing this immediately after the event and I have lost some of my notes, I will try my best to recollect my matches from the event. We had 9 rounds and a top cut of 16 and started pretty late in the day, meaning that this was going to be a long and stressful day.

Round 1: James Huang [0-0]

This was James’ first tournament and he was a pretty nice guy. He also had a really cool team. I was not sure what to expect from Tsareena so I knew I had to play carefully. I also had to play carefully around Mimikyu due to its diverse movepool. Game 1 I predicted a Taunt from Mimikyu and used Shadow Ball. After that, I was able to sweep through his team mainly with Porygon2. Game 2 was really close, I decided to go a Trick Room route and sweep with Araquanid. Near the end of Trick Room, he ended up getting a double Protect with Tapu Koko and hit Hydro Pump with his Choice Scarf Politoed. Porygon2 ended up avoiding Hydro Pump next turn, allowing me to set up Trick Room and finish off the remaining two Pokemon.

W (OO) [1-0]

Round 2: Will Wetzel [1-0]

(Porygon2/Gigalith/Kartana/Garchomp/Tapu Koko(?)/?)

To be honest, I remember nothing about his team. I just remember winning this series in two games and my Araquanid and Tapu Koko doing a majority of the damage.

W (OO) [2-0]

Round 3: James Court [2-0]

(Tapu Fini/Mudsdale/Kartana/Arcanine/Ninetales/Muk)

I met James at a few events in the past and he was a pretty nice guy. He also has done pretty well at the events so I was pretty scared going into this match. I lost game 1 really badly, so I knew I had to focus really hard in order to win the entire set. Game 2 I felt like I played better by being able to cover his options and preserved Kartana for Tapu Fini in order to take out in one shot. Game 3 was intense, we both played extremely well and it could have gone either way. In the end, my Kartana was able to survive a Sacred Sword from his Kartana and was able to take it out with a Sacred Sword of my own. Definitely a thrilling match! After the set, I knew that this was not going to be easy from this point on.

W (XOO) [3-0]

Round 4: Naeem Denis [3-0]

(Araquanid/Marowak/Tapu Koko/Garchomp/Porygon2/Kartana)

Naeem’s team seemed relatively standard, so I felt like I had a really good matchup going into it. I brought Tapu Koko, Muk, Porygon2 and Araquanid both games. Game 1, he started off with Garchomp and Tapu Koko and Twinkle Tackle was able to take out his Garchomp, making the match a lot easier for me. After that, Muk and Tapu Koko went through the remainder of his team. Game 2, he led with Marowak and Porygon2. My Muk was able to Knock Off Marowak’s Thick Club and Taunt caught him off guard and prevented him from using Trick Room. After that, it was really straightforward. We ended talking after the match and all throughout the event, once again another great person!

W (OO) [4-0]

Round 5: Colby Mearns [4-0]

(Tapu Lele/Metagross/Garchomp/Gastrodon/?/?)

This probably is the one match I remembered the least in terms of what Pokemon he brought. All I remember is that I got lucky game 1 and Porygon2 was able to avoid a Zen Headbutt from his Choice Band Metagross allowing me to set up Trick Room. After that, I was able to sweep him under Trick Room. Game 2, he somehow was able to predict my Twinkle Tackle, which put me in a bad position. The big turning point was when he used Explosion with Metagross, taking out everything but Tapu Koko, which used Protect. I was not expecting that all nor did I understand why he did that, but I guess I’ll take it.

W (OO) [5-0]

Round 6: Erich Schrader [4-1]

(Gigalith/Garchomp/Aerodactyl/Kartana/Tapu Lele/?)

I don’t remember his last Pokemon because he didn’t bring it. I was really scared going into this match because he had a lower record than me, and I didn’t want to lose. Game 1 he mainly used Rock Slide, which I understand as his team was pretty weak to Trick Room if it got up. Many of the Rock Slides flinched, putting me in really bad positions. In the end, I recovered when his Aerodactyl used Taunt, pretty much putting me in a situation where I win if he misses one of two Rock Slides. He didn’t miss either of them. Game 2 he surprised me with his Tapu Lele which was slower than my Tapu Koko, which surprised me. In the end, I was able to win. Game 3 was really close, I don’t remember the beginning or middle but I do remember the last few turns. Garchomp at +2 Attack and Gigalith were under Tailwind against my Araquanid and Muk with Tapu Koko in the back. On the last turn, he made a slight mistake and used Dragon Claw on Muk, which protected that turn and my Araquanid was able to outspeed his Gigalith even under Tailwind and knocked it out. Tapu Koko was then able to take out his Garchomp with Twinkle Tackle and Dazzling Gleam. He did try a nice mindgame trick when I asked what his Garchomp’s ability was, he said it was Rough Skin when it was actually Sand Veil. Had I missed Dazzling Gleam, I would have lost the match and probably have been pretty flustered.

W (OO) [6-0]

Round 7: Diana Bros

(Kartana/Tapu Koko/Mudsdale/Salamence/Araquanid/Porygon2)

Diana’s team was really similar to mine and I never had experience playing against mirrors, meaning this would be a tough match. Game 1, she pretty much destroyed me because I did not know what to do against Araquanid + Porygon2 lead. Game 2, I was able to take win with the use of Twinkle Tackle and winning speed ties. Game 3, it came down to the last few turns where if Muk was able to take out Araquanid, I would win. Alas, it survived with around 1 HP and did not get poisoned from Poison Jab, giving me my first loss in the event.

L (XOX) [6-1]

Round 8: Josse Calzado [6-1]

(Kartana/Gyarados/Marowak/Muk/Tapu Koko/Porygon2)

I knew I had to win one more set in order to make it into top 16 because my opponents were doing really well, with the worst being someone who had only two losses, so I tried my best to win this. Game 1, he started with Gyarados and Tapu Koko. I predicted a Volt Switch from his Tapu Koko and Protected Muk, taking out his Gyarados that turn. That put me in a huge advantage and I was able to handle the rest of his team easily. Game 2, he led the same thing. This time, I predicted him to just switch into Marowak so I used Knock Off onto Tapu Koko. It worked out and once again I was in a really good position. I ended the game using Imprison to stop his Muk from being able to do any attacks that could potentially lead to him making a comeback.

W (OO) [7-1]

Round 9: Alberto Lara [7-1]

(Porygon-Z/Tapu Fini/Kartana/Celesteela/Garchomp/Arcanine)

Alberto’s team consisted of Arcanine, Kartana, and Tapu Fini, a core that was getting really popular. I was not sure how to go about it so I just tried my best to conserve Kartana and set up Trick room so Araquanid can take out his other Pokemon. He surprised me with a Breakneck Blitz from Porygon-Z boosted by a Helping Hand from Arcanine. However, I went full offense that turn because I assumed it would be a Choice Scarf. His Garchomp ended up being Choice Scarf. I won Game 1 after attacking my own Araquanid with Kartana to stop Leech Seed recovery. Game 2 went pretty similarly to the previous game and I ended up winning.

W(OO) [8-1]

I made top cut! I was really tired and I wanted to see who I would play tomorrow. Unfortunately, I was going to play Chris Danzo. Chris was the person who knocked me out of the Midseason Showdown mentioned a while ago, so I was really scared to play him. It also didn’t help that I told him everything about my team throughout the event and that his friends might help him plan his games against me. I just went to bed, not worrying about the match.

Top 16: Chris Danzo [7-2]

(Tapu Fini/Arcanine/Garchomp/Muk/Celesteela/Porygon2)

I watched the games where Chris was playing on stream, so I learned some stuff about his team. I got destroyed Game 1 and felt really upset, I did not want to lose against him again. Game 2, was able to preserve Kartana better and handled his Tapu Fini leading to a win for me. Game 3 took 20+ turns and came down to the last few turns. My heart dropped when I saw that Snarl missed his Tapu Fini, however the Moonblast was not able to take out Araquanid. The next turn, it was Kartana at 20 HP and Arcanine against his own Arcanine and Porygon2 with no Eviolite. I just had to hope that I could survive an Extreme Speed from Arcanine so that I can take out Porygon2. I wanted to scream with joy when he decided to protect Arcanine, allowing me to freely take out Porygon2. The next turn, I learned that Extreme Speed would have left me with 4 HP. With that win, I was on to the top 8.

W (OO) [9-1]

Top 8: Rajan Bal [8-2]

(Kartana/Krookodile/Tapu Koko/Marowak/Tapu Fini/Porygon2)

You can watch it here except game 1:

Prior to this match, someone told me that Rajan was going to bring Tapu Koko/Porygon2/Marowak and Tapu Fini against me, so I played accordingly. Unfortunately, I played super badly Game 1, and got completely destroyed. I got bailed out game 2 when he decided to use Tectonic Rage on my Araquanid instead of Muk, helping me win. Game 3, Krookodile survived with 1 Hp when I wanted it go down, causing a little problem. Luckily, he made a mistake and used Nature Power the same turn as sending out Tapu Fini, helping me win the set.

W (XOO) [10-1]

Top 4: Ian McLaughlin [10-1]

(Incineroar/Gastrodon/Celesteela/Nihilego/Garchomp/Tapu Koko)

You can watch it at :

I knew Ian’s team prior to this and I felt Kartana and Tapu Koko handled all of his leads. Game 1, I felt like I read him pretty well leading to a pretty easy win. Game 2, I made a small mistake and didn’t trust my instincts can could have gotten a knock out on a Celesteela switch in. Game 3, I decided to drop Porygon2 in exchange for Muk. I noticed that he pretty much does the same thing each game so I used that to my advantage and took out his Tapu Koko the first turn. Imprison from Muk made the match a lot easier, stopping Protect from Celesteela and potentially Gastrodon, allowing for another easy win.

W [11-1]

Finals: Joohwan Kim [10-2]

(Nihilego/Gyarados/Tapu Bulu/Torkoal/Lilligant/Tapu Lele)

You can watch this at:

I had no idea what to do against this team. Araquanid usually is what I bring against sun, but his entire team seemed to handle it, so that was out of the picture. People told me prior to this that Muk was really good against him, so used Tapu Koko and Muk in case he starts with Lilligant and uses Sleep Powder. I got a paralysis on Torkoal game 1, which didn’t matter in the long run because I did a lot of damage to it so that Kartana could take it out, so I was fine if any of them went down. The paralysis on Nihilego also didn’t matter because of my Kartana being faster and it not having a Focus Sash making Smart Strike an easy knockout. Near the end, I avoided a Sleep Powder with Arcanine, which made winning the game go by faster because neither Torkoal or Lilligant could really do much to Arcanine with its berry not activated. Game 2 was a whole different story, Joohwan played differently than the previous game making it more difficult to predict him. I also didn’t think some things through so I made a few silly mistakes such as not Taunting Lilligant when Sun wasn’t up and Taunting it when it was. Muk waking up after one turn and getting a Poison Jab off was definitely the turning point for me, as it took out a huge offensive threat. After a few more turns of careful switching, I was able to take the victory and become Regional Champion!

W (OO) [12-1]

Conclusion

First of all, congrats for making it this far and taking time to read this! I’m really happy that I was able to do well with this team as doing well at events always makes me feel happy. Thanks to everyone who supported me and those who helped breed and supply me with these Pokemon. Finally, thank you masavampharos for giving me the opportunity to write this article for his website. I hope that I can get the opportunity to write an article again in the future!

Paul ：)

Introduction

Hey guys, Aaron “Cybertron” Zheng here and today I’m really excited to bring you a team report! Last weekend, I competed in an online grassroots tournament held by Sam Pandelis (@ZeldaVGC) called the Melbourne Challenge. The tournament had 171 participants and had players such as world champions Wolfe Glick and Arash Ommati. It also offered over $1500 in prize money to the winner. I planned on entering just to get some best-of-3 practice, but I was very happy to have won the entire tournament. This report will talk about my team and my team-building process.

Team Building Process

As some of you may know, I have a YouTube channel where I post videos daily for my series “Road to Ranked.” When it was time to use a new team, I wanted to try something different from my last team, which was very hyper-offensive (Pelipper/Golduck/Tapu Koko/Tapu Lele/Metagross/Kartana). At the time, the metagame was filled with bulky Pokémon such as Arcanine, Tapu Fini, and Kartana so I wanted to see if I could build a strong team around some of these Pokémon while also having a positive matchup against them.

After recording a video with 2x National Champion Francesco Pardini (@Alexis_VGC) for his YouTube channel, he mentioned that Alolan-Ninetales was a strong option because of its speed and ability to set up Aurora Veil. I hadn’t looked at Ninetales much before, but given the popularity of Garchomp, I thought it was a good suggestion. Thus, that became my starting point.

Next, I looked at Muk since my last team struggled against Trick Room, and more specifically, Porgyon 2. Muk is an incredible Pokémon in this metagame because of Gluttony, its ability to Knock Off items such as Porygon 2’s Eviolite, and great typing. Muk was a huge threat to my past team, and after losing to it many times, I decided to try it out.

Afterwards, I added Tapu Fini and Arcanine on the team. The main reason I added these two were because I thought they fit the team composition well and could take advantage of Aurora Veil. In addition, I had not used these Pokemon before, so I wanted to understand why they were so strong in the metagame. I chose Calm Mind Tapu Fini instead of Choice Specs because I really like being able to Protect in front of threats such as Kartana and Tapu Koko. I opted for a bulky Arcanine spread since Snarl is incredibly helpful in supporting Calm Mind Tapu Fini.

Finally, in the original version of the team, I added Porygon 2 and Alolan-Marowak. I think many people see Porygon 2 as a utility Pokemon that sets up Trick Room, but it is also incredibly strong offensively in the right positions. If you can get a Special Attack boost, you can really put out a lot of damage, especially against common metagame threats such as Garchomp and Kartana. I really liked having Tri Attack as well – having a Normal-type STAB attack is huge as you can deal good damage against a lot of Pokemon, especially frailer ones such as Tapu Koko. Since my team was relatively slow, Trick Room made sense. I threw on Alolan-Marowak as the 6th member, but after playing with the team, I felt very uncomfortable with it because I struggled to use it outside of Trick Room. Since I was also missing a Z-Move from my team, I thought that Garchomp with Groundium Z was a perfect final member.

After constructing the team, I played many games on YouTube with the team (Road to Ranked episodes 34-46). Since I entered the Melbourne Challenge last second and did not have a team that I liked a lot, I figured I would just use this team since it was strong and I wanted to play some best-of-3s with it. I made one change, replacing bulky Arcanine with a more offensive variant with the Electric Z Move. I struggled against Water-types while playing with the team, so having a way to OHKO threats such as Araquanid and Tapu Fini by surprise was very nice. I was very happy with my final team composition, and I was surprised by how well it performed in best-of-3 in the Melbourne Challenge!

Pokemon Details

PS: The nicknames for my Pokemon are from a TV show called Black Mirror – while I was home over winter break, I watched the entire series. It’s an incredible show!

White Christmas (Ninetales-Alola) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Blizzard
– Aurora Veil
– Freeze-Dry
– Protect

Like I mentioned, Alolan-Ninetales was my starting point. Ninetales does not have too many tricks up its sleeve, but it doesn’t really need to. Focus Sash is essential in setting up an Aurora Veil and getting multiple attacks off. Of course, it only made sense to go with a Timid nature and max Speed – this way, I outsped everything under the 109 speed tier and could at least speed tie with Kartana. Since I had a Focus Sash, there was little reason to have any bulk investment, so I put the rest of the EVs into Special Attack.

For the move set, I originally had Icy Wind instead of Freeze Dry on my YouTube team. While Icy Wind is a neat move, I think Freeze Dry was a more consistent option for this team. Having a way to deal some damage against Water-types such as Tapu Fini, Araquanid, and Gastrodon who otherwise wall me, was very important – I used Freeze Dry multiple times throughout my tournament run and even used it to OHKO a Gyarados early in the tournament. Since my team was relatively slow and I had Trick Room as an option for speed control, it was not necessary to have Icy Wind.

Ultimately, Ninetales was often used as a lead option. With a Focus Sash, it was a relatively safe option and Blizzard still threatens many Pokemon in the metagame, especially Garchomp. Setting up Aurora Veil was very important for Ninetales’s teammates…

We are launching a mail magazine service!

The circumstances of this tournament weren’t the best for Europeans, it was the most important tournament of the year for us CP wise and it took place only 2 weeks after the release of Sun and Moon (and during this period I was away from home for 1 weeek, as if that wasnt enough lol).
Despite the situation, I tried to do my best with the resources I had.

Videos

Round9. vs げべぼ(gebebo)

DAY2. vs Alejandro Gomez

Teambuilding Process

When I first analyzed the new viable resources, something that caught my attention was Alolan-Ninetales, I personally enjoy a lot playing hail teams and Ninetales looked like a really good pokemon to me, because of it’s large movepool, Aurora Veil and the ability to beat dragon and grass types.

Another pokemon I found interesting was Pheromosa. Many players I talked to were overlooking it because of it’s bad defenses, but I like playing very offensive teams and Pheromosa has the ability to outspeed and kill a lot of different pokemon in the format.

I decide to start my teambuilding with this duo because I liked how Pheromosa fighting coverage completed Ninetales ice one, and how ninetales Aurora Veil could help Pheromosa to survive attacks.

The very first version of the team looked like this

This version was good, my winrate was pretty satisfying but once the metagame started to develop I also started to notice it’s cons. Arcanine and Wishiwashi were doing less damage than I wanted, Porygon 2 was getting the SAtk boost pretty rarely, Metagross was not needed very often). Therefore I started trying out many different options and pokemonin order to fix what I thought was not working (I normally take long periods to get used to feel comfortable with new teams, which is why I decided to not change the team core for this time, even if I happened to think what I was using was not optimal).

In the end the finished team was:

Team Details

Ninetales-Alola @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 4 HP / 252SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Blizzard
– Freeze Dry
– Aurora Veil
– Protect

Core of the team. Like I said before, it has good endurance, thanks to the focus sash as well as being one of the fastest pokemon in the format. It uses Aurora Veil at the right time to support the rest of the team.
Freeze Dry was…
 

We are launching a mail magazine service!