Sejun’s Tapu fini – PorygonZ Report [VGC2017]

Japanese(日本語)	English(英語)

Original：[WCS2017] 카푸느지느-폴리곤Z 축 파티 리포트
Author：Sejun Park(@pokemon_tcg)
Translate Korean to Japanese：John(@virgoh0093)
Translate Japanese to English：Ryokon(@ryokonVGC)
 

To start of, I would like to thank shochan (@shochan_poke) who is the pioneer of this team.

How the team was built

On the 17/18th of December, I attended a small vgc tournament in Busan, however I was overwhelmed with tests in school until the day prior so I decided it was impossible for me to build an entirely new team on my own, meaning I had to find a team I can use.

However I had no progress as I hopped on the train to Busan, and on the 17th my TCG run ended in top 8 as my M Rayquaza deck got annihilated by a Trevenant Break Deck, and I prepared with JJI (@jungin365) and MeLuCa(@MeLuCaVGC) for the upcoming VGC tournament.

I didn’t feel comfortable with a team I had borrowed earlier, and seeing this MeLuCa showed me a team that was on a blog he found on google.

The team was unique for the time and as I read the report I could see why the team had such a high rating. I especially liked the Tapu Fini and Porygon Z on the team and decided to use this team by adding my own Arcanine and Muk-A which I had already.

It was already very late so I didn’t have any time to practice after borrowing the team.
After a quick 4 hour sleep I headed to the venue.

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The team was stronger than I had initially expected (I got bodied by Belly Brum Snorlax in the finals).

After heading back home I had to test this team more on battle spot after seeing a lot of potential in it.

Again this team did not disappoint me on Battle Spot as well, however I failed two attempts to reach 2000 rating due to this team gaining more popularity meaning I had to face more mirrors.

Enough with me talking, here is the actual team.

Team Details

Tapu Fini @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Muddy Water
– Scald
– Dazzling Gleam
– Moonblast

Tapu Fini’s strength comes from its high defenses and its STAB attacks which are very hard to take safely. Water and Fairy typing are good both offensively and defensively and giving it just 252 Evs in HP gives it enough bulk on both the physical and special side.

Firing strong spread moves with the Choice Specs boost from the high defenses is already enough to destroy teams that do not prepare for this.

Misty terrain allows Tapu Fini to erase any other terrain meaning even if Tapu Fini isn’t particularly strong against the other Tapu’s, it could make a relatively safe lead as it is slow enough to over write most terrains.

Erasing terrains such as Electric or Psychic synergies well with PorygonZ who doesn’t have the best defenses. Having the effect to lower dragon type attacks such as Sala-mance’s Z moves came in handy as well, along with not being frozen or paralyzed through moves like Blizzard and Discharge.

Muddy Water has enough power to OHKO Marowak-A and does not need to worry about being completely sucked by Storm Drain from Gastrodon meaning it was a move I could spam without thinking giving too much thought. However it can be irritating when it misses but Tapu Fini’s natural bulk covers for 1~2 misses per game. I would most often use Fini to chip the opponent with Muddy Water or Dazzling Glam and the other moves were used to avoid Wide Guard and for situations where I needed more power.

Porygon-Z @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Adaptability
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Tri Attack
– Hyper Beam
– Ice Beam
– Dark Pulse

When most people saw PorygonZ, they would expect the Z Conversion set and thus would not protect, which meant I would mostly likely get an attack off with the Choice Scarf vari-ant. Try Attack would hit a lot of pokemon hard, and it is able to take down 4 HP Tapu Ko-ko 37.5% of the time, which if I end up getting would win me the game right there most the time.

Ice Beam gives me the option to OHKO Garchomp too (Even with Assault Vest, a 4EV HP Garchomp goes down most the time).

Dark Pulse is for hitting Marowak-A, and is an important move to hit all three of Kartana, Arcanine and Marowak-A for damage and although this might seem like a shaky slot I did use this move during the event.

PorygonZ was hard to get OHKO’d other than from a Z move with how little hit it for super effective damage and the Misty Terrain to help as well.

I initially had the speed to just creep neutral max speed EV Pheromosa but I changed it to max speed after getting flinched by a scarf Rock Slide from Tapu Bulu.

Arcanine @ Firium Z
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SpD / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Flare Blitz
– Wild Charge
– Extreme Speed
– Protect

With good base stats + Intimidate and being a fire type, Arcanine was very good when paired with Tapu Fini. Z Flare Blitz was used just so I didn’t get recoil damage so I don’t have specific calcs for it.

Wild Charge was to hit Gyarados, Pelliper, Araquanid.

Extreme Speed is a powerful priority move that can finish off what Tapu Fini and PorygonZ chipped.

The Evs are max attack, 16n-1 in HP for hail/sand damage, and the speed out speeds neutral max speed Xurkitree (still not completely sure about this number) and the rest is in special defense to minimize the chance of a special attack Download boost.

Arcanine is the only pokemon in my team strong against Celesteela but this wasn’t an is-sue because the rest of the team wasn’t particularly weak against it either so I would let it sit doing nothing but maybe a Leech Seed/Substitute until all its partners go down and have it face off against this Arcanine at the end.

Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Leaf Blade
– Smart Strike
– Sacred Sword
– Protect

Kartana is a strong fast hitting attacker who also pairs well with Tapu Fini, able to hit Gas-trodon and has a good matchup against Tapu’s other than Tapu Koko and can hit Pory-gon2 hard as well.

Same with the Tapu Fini/PorygonZ pair, the immediate offensive pressure Kartana pro-vides is very important.

Kartana also does not mind Celesteela who only carry Heavy Slam as an attack as it can not Leech Seed so I could again ignore Celesteela until the late game.

However, Kartana is a sad pokemon when it loses the speed tie against Ninetails.

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

Alolan Muk was a filler for the team who would take care of opposing Marowak-A and Ta-pu’s.

Muk is also strong against Porygon2 and Oranguru while having a good priority move as well.

The EVs are just a carbon copy of what was originally on the blog post.

I wanted to give it some speed to speed creep Marowak but couldn’t find the right spread so ended up with the 4 EVs in speed.

This insures Muk is faster than Min speed Tapu Bulu in Trick Room.

I would bring Muk to teams with a lot of Tapu’s or Trick Room teams, however it is weak against Garchomp so I would not bring it as much if I see it in team preview.

Gastrodon @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
EVs: 164 HP / 92 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
– Scald
– Ice Beam
– Sludge Bomb
– Protect

I had Gastrodon to pressure any Rain, Araquanid, Gyarados, Milotic in team preview as well as having a good synergy with Arcanine.

Gastrodon can switch into Garchomp and Tapu Koko which wants to be dealt with quickly (be careful of ground Z Garchomp though) and can disrupt Trick Room as well to an ex-tent.

The EVs are again a copy of the blog post and it has 3 attacks + protect to act as another attacker for the team.

However I did not use Gastrodon much like the Muk, and would only bring it against teams that had Trick Room or very little answers to Gastrodon.

Gastrodon is a strong pokemon in team preview to influence what the opponent brings.

How to play the team

I would most often lead the most offensive two being Tapu Fini + Kartana/PorygonZ.

If the opponent didn’t have a clear answer to Tapu Fini like Kartana, this lead normally won me the game.

Against Trick Room I would try to maneuver in a way to never be in a bad position and wait until Trick Room turns to take out the TR setter so I doesn’t get a second Trick Room up.

If the opponent accounts for this it becomes a very tough match up. Belly Drum Snorlax is especially tough.

This team consists mostly of just simple attacking moves so gimmicks such as Eevee teams are a tough match up as well.

Kartana and Ninetails are a pain to face as well. Torkoal Lilligant as well…

To conclude

As Tapu Fini and scarf PorygonZ have become much more poplar now this team has got-ten harder to win with but I did have a very fun time with it for a while.
Ofcourse I still think it is a very strong team so I hope this article helps anyone who reads it.

Lastly, this team is built off Shochan (@shochan_poke) ’s team.

Thank you for reading and I will try even harder in 2017 as well!