[TEAM REPORT] A 1st place on showdown team report (Part 1)

[Willem]

Hi Everyone!

A couple of weeks ago I became number 1 on Pokemon Showdowns "Battle spot doubles ladder" which is an amazing accomplishment (jk lol). But I really enjoy the two teams I used, and I wanted to make a team report of them. So get your popcorn and prepare yourself for an awful team report!

Team I used from rating 1000-1500's:


Story Behind The Team

I started of by talking to a friend of mine LugiaRocker aka AxilotlVGC about building a team together for Sweden nats and we built a team that consisted of Mega swampert, Mega kang, Talonflame, Aegislash, Breloom, Politoed. It was decent and my friend came 2nd in the whole tournament that I was going to attend, but was home sick instead. When I was home I talked to Riley Factura (GengarBoi) about teams that he's been using on the ladder and done well with. He then passed me this team that he won Seattle regionals with.
At first I didn't think I'll like it, since it consists of the 6 most used pokemons in the current meta. But as I played with it on my alt I started to like it a lot, and what I like about it is the fact that it may seem really standard, but it has some tricks up its sleeve that catches your opponents off guard. I made some changes and when I felt like the team was finished I started laddering with it.

The Team

- Mega-Kangaskhan
- Sylveon
- Landorus-T
- Heatran
- Amoonguss
- Thundurus-I


The Biggest Threats


Kangaskhan

- Kangaskhan is always a threat because it can be ran in so many different ways. But recently I've seen that the bulky variant with power-up-punch has become more popular. If that thing sets up, it becomes a monster. I have no attacks to OHKO bulky kang and that can be a huge problem.

Milotic

- Milotic is such a great pokémon and has had a huge metagame impact! With it's great ability Competitive and with it's natural bulk it is really scary to go up against. The problem isn't just that it's hard to beat because it's so bulky, the biggest problem for me is that when I'm facing a milotic team it almost always has a mega that is a physical attacker. And when I see a physical mega, I want to bring my Landorus for intimidate support. And milotic completely ruins that option.

Life Orbed Aegislash

- Life orbed aegislash. Just hearing those words is scary. Aegislash is so unpredictable, especially with wide guard. And Wide guard is a move that can wall my team since I have 2 choiced pokemons on my team and a heatran with heat wave. Why the life orb is so scary is because it can 2hko every pokemon on my team, and with aegislash's amazing typing it's even better.


The Team 2.0 (Sets and Analasys)


"Walk This Way"
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 100 Atk / 60 Def / 20 SpD / 116 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Return
- Power-Up Punch
- Sucker Punch

"Walk this way" is a song by Aerosmith - RUN DMC which is a powerful duet just like Mama and Baby kang

- The moveset is something I've used this entire season. Inner focus - Fake out is really powerful when going up against a faster fake out user. If you haven't tried bulky kang yet, I really recommend you to try it! It helps me with 1. Being able to make a lot more switch-ins than the standard kang can. 2. surviving attacks that my opponent don't think I'm able to take and then KO it back. For example a game where It was a 1 on 1 situation between my 75% health kangaskhan vs my opponents full health landorus T. My opponent thought he'd kill my kangaskhan with superpower, but I survived and KO'd it back with Returm + Sucker Punch and won the game. Power-up-punch also helps me against mega venusaur/Double intimidate teams that can be really hard to win against. The whole "Double edge vs Return" and "Protect vs Fake Out" discussion is according to me something that the players decide what feels best for them. I personally like fake out more than protect and return over double edge. To summarize, Mega Kangaskhan was the MVP of the team.

- The speed is enough to make it able to outspeed positive natured base 70's, like breloom.

Offensive calculations

- +2 100+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 252 HP / 124+ Def Mega Venusaur: 173-205 (92.5 - 109.6%) -- 58.2% chance to OHKO
- +2 100+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Amoonguss: 223-263 (100.9 - 119%) -- guaranteed OHKO[/b
- [b]+2 100+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Milotic: 207-245 (102.4 - 121.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Defensive calculations

- 252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 212 HP / 60 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 192-228 (92.7 - 110.1%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
- 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 212 HP / 60 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 158-188 (76.3 - 90.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 212 HP / 60 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 172-206 (83 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Overheat vs. 212 HP / 20 SpD Mega Kangaskhan in Sun: 190-225 (91.7 - 108.6%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
- 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 212 HP / 20 SpD Mega Kangaskhan: 174-205 (84 - 99%) -- guaranteed 2HKO



Elton John (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
Level: 50
EVs: 180 HP / 212 Def / 88 SpA / 24 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Moonblast
- Hyper Voice
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Ground]

Elton John is an amazing vocalist and in his songs he uses his "Hyper Voice", and also.. if you find ONE picture where he isn't wearing fancy glasses that looks like he's wearing a pair of choice specs looking specs's you'll get a high five

- Sylveon's presence forces a lot of switches on my opponents side of the field, these switches is something that I can predict and take advantage of and KO the incoming pokemon. This is one of the reasons why Sylveon is such a great pokémon. Sylveon dishes out crazy amounts of damage with just one single move, even some pokemons that resists fairy takes alot of damage from Sylveons main move, Hyper voice.

- The moveset: Hyper voice, no explanations needed. It's literally the only move you need on Sylveon. Moonblast is a move that I'm very glad I used, because in some scenarios when I predict my opponent to go for wide guard to block my hyper voice, I'll go for moonblast and hopefully catch my opponent off guard. Shadow ball is for pokemons like aegislash and metagross that walls sylveons hyper voices which is sylveons "main move" and in my opinion, the only move that sylveon really needs. Hidden power ground is for Heatrans that walls sylveon otherwise. Sylveon has a wide variety of options on what moves it can use, for example: Psyshock, Calm Mind, Quick Attack, Reflect and Light Screen, Toxic, Helping Hand etc. Use whatever you feel like helps your team the most!

Offensive calculations

- 88+ SpA Choice Specs Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Voice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Kangaskhan: 96-114 (53 - 62.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 88+ SpA Choice Specs Sylveon Hidden Power Ground vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Heatran: 168-200 (100.5 - 119.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
- 88+ SpA Choice Specs Sylveon Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 82-98 (49.1 - 58.6%) -- 98% chance to 2HKO

Defensive calculations

- 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 180 HP / 212 Def Sylveon: 162-191 (83.9 - 98.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 180 HP / 212 Def Sylveon: 154-183 (79.7 - 94.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 180 HP / 212 Def Sylveon: 176-209 (91.1 - 108.2%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
- 252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Overheat vs. 180 HP / 24 SpD Sylveon in Sun: 153-180 (79.2 - 93.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- -1 252 Atk Tough Claws Mega Metagross Iron Head vs. 180 HP / 212 Def Sylveon: 140-168 (72.5 - 87%) -- guaranteed 2HKO[/b]



Rock And Roll @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- U-turn

Rock and roll is a song by Led Zeppelin, cause you know.. Landorus likes to throw Rocks, flinch and rolls with it

- Intimidate was really important and Landorus-T helps a lot against Kangaskhan, Terrakion etc. Some people says that U-Turn is bad in the VGC format, but I disagree! U-turn helps a lot with dishing out damage aswell as switching out to intimidate once again.
I chose the standard set because I wanted to outspeed choice scarfed heatran, aswell as speedtie or outspeed other landorus's. This helped me in a lot of situations, especially since I can outspeed other my opponents landorus and flinch it before it flinches my pokemons, because let's face it. Landorus main job is to flinch.
I used 12 / 252 / 92 / x / 4 / 148 earlier this season to survive life orb adamant bisharp's sucker punch. But I hardly see bisharp anymore. Since this is the standard set I won't show any damage calculations.




HotterThanHell (F) @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 36 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 212 Spe
Timid Nature
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
- Earth Power

Hotter Than Hell is a song by KISS, cause you know.. Heatran is hot af

- Now this set is really good! I know that shuca berry have become more popular, but this one has a twist, Hidden Power Ice! Thanks to Riley Factura (GengarBoi) for helping me with building my team and recomending HP ice! Earlier this season I know that leftovers sub was the most common, but items like Life Orb, Shuca/Chople berry, Safety Goggles are getting more common! Now hidden power ice is amazing because you can survive Landorus T's earthquake and OHKO with HP ice, because there's no way your opponent predicts HP ice on heatran on Battle Spot, and if he/she does, he/she's Jesus. I have a reason why I have that weird speed.  With 212 speed with Timid nature you speed creep the breloom tier (positive natured 70's) by 2 points. And the reason why I don't use max speed is because I used to run substitute instead of HP ice, and then in bo3 matches it's great information to know if my opponents heatran is timid or modest! If it was timid I would have enough HP after it's earth power to put up a substitute, and if it is modest I'll outspeed it with substitute and then OHKO with my own earth power.

Offensive calculations

- 252 SpA Heatran Hidden Power Ice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 168-200 (101.8 - 121.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
- 252 SpA Heatran Hidden Power Ice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Salamence: 152-180 (88.8 - 105.2%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO

Defensive calculations

- 252+ SpA Heatran Earth Power vs. 36 HP / 4 SpD Shuca Berry Heatran: 108-128 (63.1 - 74.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252+ SpA Life Orb Heatran Earth Power vs. 36 HP / 4 SpD Shuca Berry Heatran: 140-166 (81.8 - 97%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 SpA Heatran Earth Power vs. 36 HP / 4 SpD Shuca Berry Heatran: 98-116 (57.3 - 67.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252+ Atk Landorus-T Earthquake vs. 36 HP / 4 Def Shuca Berry Heatran: 144-170 (84.2 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252+ Atk Excadrill Earthquake vs. 36 HP / 4 Def Shuca Berry Heatran: 138-164 (80.7 - 95.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252+ Atk Landorus-T Superpower vs. 36 HP / 4 Def Heatran: 154-182 (90 - 106.4%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO


Alice Cooper (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 156 Def / 164 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Spore
- Sludge Bomb
- Rage Powder
- Protect

"Your poison's running through my vaaaiiiiins"

- I almost always use redirection support on my VGC teams, and Amoonguss is so good! Amoonguss sticked the team together and helped it in so many situations. Amoonguss is also a monster under trick room and helps my pretty fast team. I rely on Amoonguss a lot when going up against kangaskhans cause of the rocky helmet Amoonguss is wearing. I can predict Kangs fake out and switch into Amoonguss and make my opponents Kangaskhan lose 25% of it's health. Giga drain is more common than sludge bomb, but I enjoy sludge bomb more, because it'll win 1on1 against opposing amoongusses. I can OHKO brelooms, because let's face it.. sludge bomb always poisons

Defensive calculations

- 188 HP Maximizes HP recovery with Regenerator
- -1 252 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Return vs. 188 HP / 156 Def Amoonguss: 180-212 (84.5 – 99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
- -1 252+ Atk Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 188 HP / 156 Def Amoonguss: 180-212 (84.5 – 99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
- 252+ SpA Mega Gardevoir Psychic vs. 188 HP / 164+ SpD Amoonguss: 182-216 (85.4 – 101.4%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
- 56+ SpA Mega Charizard Y Heat Wave vs. 188 HP / 164+ SpD Amoonguss in Sun: 186-218 (87.3 – 102.3%) — 12.5% chance to OHKO
- 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 188 HP / 156 Def Amoonguss: 180-214 (84.5 – 100.4%) — 0.8% chance to OHKO


God Of Thunder @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 4 SpA / 132 SpD / 32 Spe
Calm Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Taunt
- Thunder Wave

"God of thunder, and Rock and Rooooll" (KISS song) Get it? lol  Thundurus and Landorus.. I'm the smartest person on dis erf

Thundurus completes my Hax core of Landorus, Amoonguss and Thundurus. Thunder wave is my favorite way of speed controll, because it'll stay with your opponents the whole game and it can also get fully paralized. Taunt over Swagger was a very tough decision I had to go through when team building, but now I feel like taunt is necessary because it makes Amoonguss useless and also helps against breloom (No spore) and aegislash so that my kang can sucker punch it! The speed makes it able to speed creep positive nature base 70's pokemons.

Defensive calculations

- 252+ SpA Choice Specs Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Voice vs. 252 HP / 132+ SpD Thundurus: 103-123 (55.3 – 66.1%) — 25.4% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
- 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 88 Def Thundurus: 196-232 (105.3 – 124.7%) — 0.4% chance to OHKO
- 252+ Atk Landorus-T Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 88 Def Thundurus: 90-108 (48.3 - 58%) -- 14.8% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery


Thank you everyone who read the report, let me know if you liked it and please help me improve with writing team reports! And also, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them!

Prepare yourself for "A 1st place on showdown team report 2.0" with the team I used from 1500´s - 1700's kappa kappa

[Rogue]

This is a really great team! Some people may write it off as a "you just threw 6 threats on a team" kind of thing, but it's definitely not the case. Everything down from the EV's, natures, and movesets were all thought out to synergize well with your team. This team also strikes a very important feat imo: Your team can hit every single type super effectively.

Good job on the write up as well! I like seeing people name their pokemon ahaha. What's your name on showdown? Maybe we faced off while I was laddering as well!

Also: Did you run into any problems here with trick room teams?

[Willem]

Thank's man! :D I'm just saying, people who don't name their pokemans doesn't have any creativity I laddered on my alt called ItsAKindOfMagic, I'm 40th something rn, because you lose your rating so fast when you lose like 2 battles xD My main showdown name is SwedishChefVGC, what's your name? I'd love to practice with you some time!

Yeah, there's one team that I have so much problem against. It's a trick room sun team with rhyperior and venusaur, so it has the fast option. But when I face it, I always predict my opponent leading charizard venusaur, so I lead with heatran. But I always lose to rhyperior next to charizard. :/ But the team I used when I was 1600's fairs better against that team. I'll make a team report of it soon!

[GiMYz]

This team features commons pokemon with some surprise sets, i like it.. it's really solid.

I don't give much credit to Showdown since i got to 1500 points but i still usually face Audino + Muk or M-Sableye + Chansey team every 1 out of 3/4 games (chip strats just to climb the ladder), but it doesn't mean it isn't a competitive ladder, there are many great players from 1600+ points and it's really hard to beat them everytime.

Well done.

[Willem]

(Jul 12, 2015, 08:52 AM)GMX Wrote: This team features commons pokemon with some surprise sets, i like it.. it's really solid.

I don't give much credit to Showdown since i got to 1500 points but i still usually face Audino + Muk or M-Sableye + Chansey team every 1 out of 3/4 games (chip strats just to climb the ladder), but it doesn't mean it isn't a competitive ladder, there are many great players from 1600+ points and it's really hard to beat them everytime.

Well done.

Thank you for the compliment. But I, in the team report was sarcastic about the fact that being number 1 on the showdown ladder isn't something to be really proud of :P

[MagnusHexem]

This looks just like the team that won Seattle regionals. I mean, you say that we can't be original if we don't nickname, but these are just the six most commonly used Pokemon. What's the fun in that? :S

[Podfighterninja123]

(Jul 12, 2015, 10:31 AM)MagnusHexem Wrote: This looks just like the team that won Seattle regionals.  I mean, you say that we can't be original if we don't nickname, but these are just the six most commonly used Pokemon.  What's the fun in that? :S

A Team doesnt have to be original to be fun :P

[Willem]

(Jul 12, 2015, 10:31 AM)MagnusHexem Wrote: This looks just like the team that won Seattle regionals.  I mean, you say that we can't be original if we don't nickname, but these are just the six most commonly used Pokemon.  What's the fun in that? :S

I like this quote: "Meta is meta for a reason. I'm getting sick and tired of all these people who wants to be special snowflakes just for the damn sake of it" - LightcoreVGC. You see, MagnusHexem.. if you want to perform well with a team you gotta figure out your play style. And believe me, I didn't just take the 6 most used pokemons in the current meta, slapped them on a team and thought "Hey, since these are the most used pokemons, they must be good". And also, about the nickname thing.. I just like people who nickname their pokemons. And also, why does it bother you so much that I happened to use a standard team (with a twist)? It performs well, it fits my play style etc.. "This looks just like the team that won Seattle regionals", well it looks like just about every team on Battle spot too. Please reply, MagnusHexem

[Willem]

(Jul 12, 2015, 10:33 AM)podfighterninja123 Wrote:

(Jul 12, 2015, 10:31 AM)MagnusHexem Wrote: This looks just like the team that won Seattle regionals.  I mean, you say that we can't be original if we don't nickname, but these are just the six most commonly used Pokemon.  What's the fun in that? :S

A Team doesnt have to be original to be fun :P

Thank you, Owen (Oven kappa)! I can't stand people who are trying to make themself feel better by complaining on others xD

[tygaa2]

Very impressive acomplishment Willem