[RATE MY TEAM] 0kamii's April International Challenge Team

[0kamii]

Hey, everybody! It's 0kamii, and I just finished participating in the April International Challenge.

Over the three days of the tournament, I battled a lot of interesting people and saw many interesting strategies. Unfortunately, because I lost track of time on Sunday the 30th, I wasn't able to complete all 15 battles the last day giving me a grand total of 36 battles out of potentially 45. Out of this 36, I won 20 battles, and I lost 16. This makes my win-to-lose-ratio about 1:1. Below is a breakdown of all three days of the competition:

Day 1:
Ranking: 1500 - 1570
Wins: 10
Losses: 5

Day 2:
Ranking: 1570 - 1591
Wins: 8
Losses: 7

Day 3: 1591 - 1620
Wins: 2
Losses: 4

Total:
Max Ranking: 1620
Wins: 20
Losses: 16

Now that the specifics are out of the way, and you know how my team and I prefromed, I would love to post my mons here and get some feedback from better battlers than myself. I've really grown fond of this team, and I'd hate to just ditch them now that the competition is over. Thank you to everyone that participated, and I look forward to other comeptitions in the future!
 

My Team:

  

  

This is a pretty unique VCG Team, if I say so myself. At no point during the competition did I see anyone with the exactly same team, and that gives me hope in the coming tournaments. Of course, if I went 20/36, then clearly there's room for improvement. The EV spreads and movesets are below:

Tapu Bulu

Nature: Adamant
Ability: Grassy Surge
Item: Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP/ 56 Atk/ 108 Def/ 92 Sp. Def
Moveset:
Protect
Horn Leech
Leech Seed
Substitiute

Marowak-Alola

Nature: Adamant
Ability: Lightning Rod
Item: Thick Club
EVs: 244 HP/ 180 Atk/ 4 Def/ 76 Sp. Def/ 4 Speed
Moveset:
Protect
Shadow Bone
Bonemerang
Flare Blitz

Muk-Alola

Nature: Adamant
Ability: Poison Touch
Item: Figy Berry
EVs: 252 HP/ 252 Atk/ 4 Sp. Def
Moveset:
Protect
Knock Off
Poison Jab
Shadow Sneak

Porygon2

Nature: Sassy
Ability: Download
Item: Eviolite
EVs: 244 HP/ 76 Def/ 188 Sp. Def
IVs: 0 Atk/ 0 Speed
Moveset:
Recover
Ice Beam
Trick Room
Thunderbolt

Gyarados

Nature: Jolly
Ability: Intimidate
Item: Waterium Z
EVs: 4 HP/ 252 Atk/ 4 Def/ 4 Sp. Def/ 244 Speed
Moveset:
Protect
Earthquake
Dragon Dance
Waterfall

Garchomp

Nature: Jolly
Ability: Rough Skin
Item: Assault Vest
EVs: 28 HP/ 252 Atk/ 4 Def/ 52 Sp. Def/ 252 Speed
Moveset:
Fire Fang
Earthquake
Poison Jab
Crunch

 

It's hard for me to post damage calculations directly from the Pokemon Damage Calculator, because I'll admit, I'm not entirely sure how to do that just yet. But what I can tell you is that with the following calculator (https://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc), every calculation will go exactly as expected, especially since some of these spreads are VGC Standard and fit right into my team for all intents and purposes. Getting into my team's strengths and weaknesses:

My Core

  

The idea I was going for was a bulky offense play, as I see a lot of VCG Teams doing straight offense. I thought if I could tank a few hits while I formulated a strategy, I would be in a good position to win. And I was right! About 55% of the time... I am already aware that Bulu/Muk is an established core, I just added Marowak to it to try and offset the Fire-Type damage against Bulu. Not only that, but Muk covers any and all Ghost-Type damage that combatants tried to throw at Marowak. Overall, I really enjoyed playing with these three, and while they compliment each other well, clearly the synergy isn't perfect. I'm open to any advice you can give.

Strengths:

I will say that Bulu's Grassy Surge really offset any damage from major Earthquake users, and it let the rest of the core set up or strike when it mattered. Other strengths that I observed was the ability to have Marowak switch into any potential Electic-Type attacks that were intended for Gyarados. Having Protect on most of my team made Earthquake a safe play in almost any situation, and Garchomp used it to great effect! Speaking of Garchomp, you may be wondering why it's running Crunch instead of Rock Slide. To put it simply, the popular Fini/Lele + Drifblim has really been on the rise, and I wanted to be prepare for this team. As such, I gave Garchomp Crunch to take out this threatening mon with high single target damage, and it came in handy more often than not. One of the final strengths I observed over my 36 battles was the staying power of my core. Tapu Bulu actually managed to win a 56 turn battle when someone tried to stall the game. Thanks to Leech Seed and his bulk, he outlasted the bulky Mandibuzz to secure my first Day 3 victory, and that's not something I thought I'd say. Another strength I observed is that it's very useful to have a mon that does super-effective Ghost-Type damage. I came across a lot of Metagross, Drifblim, Mimikyu, and Tapu Lele, and they all went down in a single hit thanks to Shadow Bone. The last thing I want to mention is that with Grassy Terrain up, Tapu Bulu, despite being a bulky variant, hits quite hard. I usually 2HKO other Garchomp and Tapu Koko, and I even OHKO-ed a Tapu Lele. Bulu also came in handy against common VGC 2017 walls like Tapu Fini and Gastrodon. Sure its got a number of weaknesses, but I think its usability made up for it.

Weaknesses:
Frankly, as I battled, there were a lot more weaknesses within my team than I had initially noticed. One of the first things that I realized, admittedly too late, is that Lightning Rod apparently forces all single target moves to target the mon with Lightning Rod. This means that every time Porygon2 and Marowak were on the field together, I couldn't use Thunderbolt, and if I did, I wasted my move. And if I'm to be honest, I made this blunder more than once. Another weakness I noticed was that Tapu Bulu's Grassy Surge hindered the damage from my own Earthquake user, which I admittedly forgot while building the team. On at least one occasion, this cost me the game, as I failed to knock out a Tailwind-ed Lele and it used Psychic. Moving into the problems with my Garchomp, not having a STAB Dragon-Type move came into play several times, especially against other Garchomp. I thought Porygon2's bulk and use of Ice Beam would be enough, but it wasn't. Garchomp, even with its Assault Vest often went down to a Moonblast or two, and there was even a case where I was knocked out my a +1 Comfey using Draining Kiss. Sure it was fast, and it could OHKO almost any Tapu it came across, but my Garchomp was almost always OHKO-ed right back. A last weakness I want to mention is that giving Gyarados a Waterium Z didn't hit that many opponents for super-effective STAB. It was mainly there to target mons like Torkoal, Arcanine, and Gigalith, but I didn't come across enough of those to warrent its use. Usually I was hits mons like Garchomp for neutral damage, and that wasn't enough to KO. And lastly, I want to talk about Porygon2. I'm starting to think that Porygon2 isn't the best VGC 2017 Trick Room setter anymore. Usually during my higher tier games, my opponents had Buzzwole, a Close Combat Mudsdale, or even a Brick Break Grachomp specifically to combat Porygon2's arrival. The use of Porygon2 is starting to become far more common, and people are preparing for it. So in my opinion, it's time for a different Trick Room setter.

Well, that's everything I can think of for now. Like I said earlier, I would love advice and tips on how I can improve my team! This isn't the only VGC team I'm working on right now, and when I come up with more I'll be sure to post that one as well. Thank you all to everyone that read my post, and I thank you in advance for any advice you have to offer me! Thanks again, and battle onwards!

- 0kamii