Black117's Team Showcase (December 2014 to April 2015)
Black117's Team Showcase (since December 2014 to April 2015)
(TOTALLY UNFINISHED POST HERE)
INTRO
Hello everyone Black117 or Kevin here! Everyone reading this might be wondering "what kind of crazy stuff Kevin has in store for use" but this time....well I really don't have a team to present today... rather a list of team I've used throughout the entire VGC 2015 season. The reason why I'm doing this is basically accountability... showing my growth as a upstart Smogon player who now spend his time playing Battle Spot Doubles or the current VGC 2015 format. Though I'll eventually return to Singles soon, I'd thought it be fun to showcase these teams just to help out players who don't know where they're going in this format.
Notes:
- First off, I'm not going to change the EVs spreads, movesets, Pokemon, anything for that matter as I want to STRESS THIS ISN'T an RMT or Team Report. If I do plan on working on some RMTs very soon, then I'll write one up with the movesets, reasoning for EVs, and whatnot, which leads me to my next point...
- When I'm discussing an team I have with an RMT, don't expect me to say every detail again. I'll even have the liberty of giving the RMT links to about some of my RMT post so anyone can go back and forth.
- I'm not taking any set suggestions unless there was something stupid I made on Showdown like having SpA EVs on Mega Kangaskhan or Atk on Sylveon. If there are some obvious mistakes on my end, I'd like to know so I can change these errors
- Anyone is welcome to use these teams, just please don't act like a pompous *** claiming these team were built by you, especially if it has exactly the same EVs, Pokemon, and stuff. Some of these teams were heavily influenced by Cybertron, Alex Ogloza, Angel Miranda, Braverius, Myan (Japanese Playey), Ray Rizzo, and a bunch of uncredited Japanese players and VGC players who I don't know their names so its a disservice if anyone of us does so. Heck I'd admit a couple of teams where straight modifications or rips from theirs, but with my edits.
- Lastly, don't expect to ladder high with these teams as each team were able to do moderately ok at the time I used them. Then again I am sorta retiring these teams.
EARLY VGC 2015 META: The Beginnings
1) First Sub-Tourney Team (Got 2nd Place) December 12, 2014
Welp I guess we shall begin with the team sparked my interest in VGC Double battling. To be honest, I only joined Justin Flynn's Sub Tourney see how far I'd go knowing I'll probably get stomped on really hard by some "next meta stuff" and that happen in the finals. This team is honestly so bad... its not funny given that I only won all three of my games with some form of hax involved (all of them involving Gyarados in some way). The team I had was one I'd had to gather from my boxes of OU Pokemon and just gathered random stuff in less than 10 minutes after having my name get called. The whole "premise" of this team was "attempt" to cover the post-2014 VGC stuff knowing things like Mega Kangaskhan/Mawile, Garchomp, or Sejun-inspired Mega Gyarados teams I have read about. Mega Manetric and Gyarados were my main duel Intimidate core so I can prevent physical attackers from doing heavy damage to the team while Rotom-W can burn targets 'safely' thanks to the attack drops. I thought it be a fun idea to pair Mega Manetric with Gyarados by taking advantage of its base form Lightening Rod ability and hope both Gyarados and M-Manetric can setup respectively... unfortunately that didn't happen. Substitute Leftovers Aegislash and AV Conkeldurr were the two main glues to the team as both can take special hits like a champ and Scarf Hydreigon was my emergency revenge killer.
Turns out after doing a team synergy check-up , this team doesn't seem that bad at all, until you realize how weak it is to Fairy type Pokemon, particularly Pixilate Hyper Voice from Mega Gardevoir/Sylveon and Defiant users like Bisharp. Well if any of you have the chance just watch my battles in the Replay Flynn against the eventual 1st place ItalianG62 who had both of these Pokemon and destroyed me as predicted. I knew after seeing Mega Gardevoir Mega Evolve and fire off a Hyper Voice that my team would crumble fast as I had no Wide Guard support, even then Talonflame can just kill either Aegislash and Conkeldurr with its respective STAB Flare Blitz/Bird move. After this battle, I really wanted to try out VGC seriously just to improve my skills as a player and as team builder since IMO VGC players have to consider everything the have to face in their format. Definitely in the future I'll make sure that Mega Manetric can win big in a tourney one day, but for now I'm already invested on other team archetypes. Honestly didn't want to place this team at all but hey I have to start out somewhere. :]
2) Bulky Mega Kangaskhan Team (won multiple tourneys including 1st Sub Tour feat. VGC 2015) Dec 2014 - April 2015
oh this team.... (this might take awhile) AKA SPECIAL TREATMENT INCOMING!
This won't be a personal showcase without discussing probably my best and longest serving team after retiring it this past April. After getting beaten up by Hyper Voice spam in the December Sub Tourney finals, I knew I had to build a bulky offensive team capable of taking punishment from the likes of Mega Kangaskhan and Pixilate Hyper Voice from Sylveon and Gardevoir. The only problem was I didn't know the exact format rules... until the 15th of December which was the expansion dex I hoped for since the beginning of XY. Immediately the two Megas that came to mind were Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Salamence since both had incredibly damage outputs and defensive enough to take hits. At first, the ability to have double Intimidate with both Salamence and another Pokemon like Landorus-T or even Gyarados intrigued me so the decision was made to keep Mence. Given that I felt double Intimidate cores might become common, Mega Salamence was optimized to run a special set with Aerilate Flying Hyper Voice. I did my research regarding which cores were popular in the 2013 formats such as Rain mode, Hailroom, Double Genie, Double Dragon, etc and I immediately decided on the Cresselia/Rotom-W/Heatran/Landorus-T core used by both Aaron "Cybetron" Zheng and Ryosuke Kosuge (though his team had Thundurus instead of Rotom-W).
Why this core instead of something more say "original"? Basically.... because I'm a filthy scrub and needed some training wheels knowing that a format change was about to occur. I didn't know much about VGC till my research on Nugget Bridge, Youtube, and Smogon, even then the information was rather scarce. Practically there wasn't much thought here honestly compared to mayber now. I'd already familiarized myself with most of the common Pokemon in the OU tier being Landorus-T, Heatran, and Rotom-W given their overall bulk and fantastic defensive typing. Cresselia is a defensive monster with its stellar 120/120/130 defenses so I felt it'd be a great and "original" idea to give it a Calm Mind set with Psychic and Icy Wind (also the main speed control) as my only attacking options. Now for the last Pokemon, I'd decided on Bisharp since 1) I knew how to predict when to Sucker Punch, 2) gave my team an Intimidate/Icy Wind determent, and 3) gave the team a check to Fairy types like Sylveon (but Mega Gardevoir remained an issue). Initially, the team played well on Battle Spot, however Mega Gardevoir Tailwind teams completely dominated my team. This became so problematic I'd switch Special Salamence for Mega Kangakhan just to nuke the Fairy type with its powerful attack. Plus Mega Kangaskhan has a great variety of attacks now that move tutors gave it most its best coverage moves.
Well on the day of the 2nd tourney, I practiced with my new team now sporting Mega Kangaskhan as the lead offense. Well I guess I kinda overdid myself.... since I'd took 1st by showing a dominating performance in nearly all my matches. The same results with an additional 2 back-to-back weekend tourneys held in the VGC2015 Forum Chat were my team was consistent throughout much of the "mock" Swiss Rounds and Top Cuts. Of course, I do believe the success of this team was entirely dependent that most of my opponents unaware of how and/or didn't have the right Pokemon to break this rather strong core early on in the meta. Eventually after the VGC metagame had shifted, my team weaknesses became more notable: strong offensive pressure. If my opponent can break the defensive core of the team with the combination or either redirection, strong spread damage, or other bulkier teams, then this team falls apart almost immediately. Despite changing the Megas back and forth, I knew that this team mileage was done, yet somehow it still does moderately well on Showdown, till around spring time when I knew this team was dead, then again everyone's there to test build. Shout outs to Rouge for helping me with this team as well as Tygaa2 for helping me make the teambuilding changes needed for the meta.
Here's a link to the first version of the team, and the second updated version.
3) The "No Legends" Tourney Team (Won 1st)
Right around after I won my first Sub tourney, there were talks about hosting a tourney without the use of any mythical or 'Legendary Pokemon". It was an interesting idea of sort given I knew that the current VGC 2015 was and going to be filled with "Legendary Pokemon", even though I don't follow the common fan stigma about them. So I thought about joining so I can prove to everyone here I wasn't some kind of scrub who uses "legends". While building this team, I felt that it needed to be bulky enough to take on *cough Hyper Voice spam* and defensive synergy-wise to support each other. After trying out both Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Salamence, I began team-building around Mega Metagross, my most Overused Mega from OU Singles who I think players were only starting to figure out. Immediately I knew that Mega Metagross was going to be a rather difficult Mega to team build given how prominent both Tyranitar, Gengar, Aegislash and Bisharp were back then which all might make an appearance of sorts. I decided on having Scarf Tyranitar as Mega Metagross's main partner as its literally beats all these guys... except for another Scarf Tar which I had to rely on other mons: Specs Sylveon, Rotom-W, Banded Arcanine, and Rocky Helmat Ferrothorn to take on.
Surprisingly enough, I honestly can't say which Pokemon was my MVP because all these Pokemon put in a enormous amount of work, except Ferrothorn who kept missing its attacking moves and was frozen for 4-5 turns straight. Specs Sylveon was able to wall-break enough so my defensive team can finish the job and picked up the slack when Ferrothorn was frozen. Rotom-W for ensuring my 6th swiss round victory against President Eckley kappa with its Light Screen and being a nuisance. Scarf Tyranitar for its fast Rock Slides, Ice Punches, and most of all ensuring my win against Tygaa2, who I'd thought would win the whole thing. Mega Metagross for taking hits like a champ and retaliating with Zen Headbutts and priority Bullet Punches. Ferrothorn for ... stuff, though it did help me win my matches with Rthorne. Finally Banded Arcanine, who put in the most work with its Intimidate drops and wall-breaking with its powerful attacks. For more info about this team, here's the RMT of the team.
4) Duel Mega Team: Mega Charizard Y and Mega Venusaur Fake Sun team (Won my own small tourney with it)
Ok at this point I wanted to build a new team given that just about everyone here knew my Mega Kangakhan team extremely well and was about a month I haven't built a new team. This team wasn't as original as expected given that I'd use three of the same 6 Pokemon from my 2nd team: Rotom-W, Heatran and Cresselia given all three formed my wall core. All three had the same moveset and EV's, except Cresselia who now sports Thunder Wave to reliably handle the popular Tailwind teams. Eventually I settled with having Charizard Y as my main Mega of choice given I'd never used the Y variant too seriously even in XY OU. This Charizard Y set, if I can recall has the bulk to take a Double Edge from both Mega Salamence and Mega Kangaskhan well while deal incredible damage thanks to the Drought powering up Fire moves. Given my core, the next Pokemon added was Conkeldurr since it was capable of 1v1 the popular Double Genie combo thanks with its incredible defensive investment and coverage attacks. At this point, the team needed a "glue" of sorts so I heavily debated who deserved the last spot. INCOMING COMMON THEME HERE: Eventually after watching Cybertron win Apex that Mega Venusaur was going to fulfill the last slot of the team.
Basically I chose Mega Venusaur as the team's secondary Mega Evolution of choice since it dealt with Mega Kangaskhan, Double Genies, Terrakion, Faries, and most of the early meta stuff largely well. Best part was that Mega Venusaur was able to form a good defensive synergy with the rest of my team (Heatran, Cresselia, Rotom-W). Back then, Mega Venusaur was probably the main defensive Mega to build around given it was such a great anti-meta Pokemon. Honestly, Mega Venusaur was a great pick given I can "fake" the sun core between Mega Charizard Y and regular HA Venuasaur we see from time to time. The only problem I felt the team had was against strong offensive Pokemon, Aka Mega Kangaskhan Mega Gardevoir, and Mega Salamence, as well as a couple nuisance things like Dark Void and Minimize Psych-Up (on showdown). Eventually I realized that Mega Charizard Y wasn't cutting the team, even though I kinda built this team around him and Mega Venusaur. Even them, I usually picked Meega Venusaur far more than Charizard and eventually developed a new team around the plant.
5) Defensive Mega Venusaur Team
Following couple weeks after winning my own tournament, I realized that Charizard Y held the team back considerably given that it fared very poorly in the meta filled with Mega Salamence and Mega Kangaskhan, (or just proved the I didn't have the "right" core going). I focused on what "worked" with this team and ultimately decided to run my original FWG + Cresselia core with Mega Venusaur being the main focal point. Afterward, the decision was main to cut Conkeldurr from the group and replace it with Scrafty as it helped me with the teams duel Ghost-Dark weakness plus against Mega Metagross. For my last Pokemon, I got lazy and chose Landorus-T after seeing Wolf Glicke win Florida Regionals with a duel Intimidate core to supplement the overall bulk of the team. In all honest, this team looked solid on paper, it still had its fair share of notable weaknesses like from Mega Gardevoir, Mega Salemence (especially if it were the the special Hyper Voice variant), Power-Up Punch Mega Kangaskhan, and reliance on Cresselia for speed control. Despite all these flaws, this team managed to get me to the 1800s on Battle Spot, only to tilt afterward.
Probably the only other plus for this team was beating Cybertron on the ladder with this team, only to realize that my battle videos were full..... yeah. The only other notable proof I have of this battle was tweeting and getting a response from Cyberton himself so there's that I guess. Regardless this battle made me motivated as to continue playing VGC for at least some time since I was able to beat someone I looked up to in teams of teambuilding and battling.
6) Revisiting Metagross: 2nd Mega Metagross Team
After using my Mega Venusaur team, I decided to build a new side team in the meantime centered around Mega Metagross and I knew it was going to be a difficult task. Fortunately for me, a bunch of Mega Metagross articles were released at Nugget Bridge around this time so I decided to read through most of them and figure out a core. Here's a bunch of stuff I team tested and somehow worked on Showdown. For this team, Mega Metagross ran max attack for maximum damage output and optimized to use Substitute since it was the only way it seemed to make Mega Metagross work in Showdown at the time. Mega Metagross was paired with Hydreigon and Sylveon to form my offensive "fantasy" core, Terrakion to handle my matchup with Charizard Y/Kangaskhan/Bisharp, Suicune as my main Tailwind setter, and finally Scarf Landorus-T as the main fast option that doesn't rely on Tailwind. There were some cheeky stuff I tried on this team such as Reflect on Suicune, Light Screen on Sylveon, Stone Edge Lando-T (wasn't as common then), and even Substitute Terrakion. Though the team struggled against rain teams and Prankster T-Wave, it performed moderately fine on both Battle Spot and Showdown.... until the International Challenge February happen.
*...sigh....* (deep breath).....Yeah well, the first few battles I started off great on a 5-0 start, and eventually went down hill form there. Everytime I got paired with some gimmick team this team struggled and yet I was doing moderately well against the standard teams with some closes wins/losses. However one battle stood out to me the most and I just quit when my opponent had an all electric type team and well critted Landorus-T turn 1 with a scarf Hyper Beam..., then proceed to parahax the team. Anyways rant aside, this team was only moderately on the actual battle spot and showdown ladder but after a huge tilt I decided to ditto a certain team...
7) COPY-AND-PASTE Ogloza's First Ladder Team ( Got 1862 on Season 8 Battle Spot Doubles)
Yes I'm admit I'm a fraud. Following a huge tilt probably the day after I won against Cybertron, I felt that my Mega Venusaur team wasn't cutting it anymore. I do recognize now that during some of my "tilt" battles, there were questionable plays I made that gave my opponent with the opportunity to hax me out. Plus Dark Void was still a thing on the ladder so there's that. After watching Alex Ogloza's rather standard team jump to the 1800s, well I decided to ditto the team... well at least try. First off I'd like to point out this is NOT EXACTLY THE SAME TEAM OGLOZA USED in terms of EVs, movesets, and possible item choices. I believe the only key difference were that Alex Ogloza had offensive Life Orb Thundurus, max special defense AV Conkeldurr, and Banded Bisharp. Now I was very intrigued about exploring redirection and Togekiss was honestly the best Follow Me users at the time. Power Up Punch Mega Kangaskhan is honestly the most deadly Pokemon when paired with redirection since it can plow through teams effortlessly with +2 Returns and Sucker Punches. This was also the first time I tried the Double Genie core with Scarf Landorus and Charti Berry defensive Thundurus (Togekiss had the Sitrus Berry btw). Rounding up the team was my Focus Sash Bisharp and AV Conkeldurr (same sets) who both were able to come clutch when needed.
This team was probably the most hyper offensive I tried out yet given how powerful Togekiss-Mega Kangaskhan were. At any point in the battle, this duo can become an immediate threat given IMO how easy it was to setup Tailwind and PuP boost. If both are able to setup, then basically my opponents usually have to hope I choke the games hard, which in some cases I do. Double Genie was a great lead choice to start off the battle, especially if Landorus-T can Intimidate both physical attackers on the field. Thundurus remained as my main utility check to weird setup and paralysis spreader thanks to Prankster T-wave. At this time I decided to test out Swagger and well... I can see why people have a love/hate relationship with it. Basically Swagger was used as my "get out of jail" card, in case things don't fully go my way. Pairing Swagger with Thunder Wave, Rock Slide, and Serene Grace Air Slash, I can probably made about 7+ people rage. In the end, this team was able to go to 1862 on the Battle Spot ladder for Season 8, placing me around 18th in the US.
8) Tailwind-T Mega Mawile Team
This team is the start of my "Rain Teams" series where I'd go over probably the most overpowered weather in 5th gen and still rather annoying to face, if you don't have the proper responses to face. Whenever I played against Rain team, its a usual 50/50 for me depending on whether or not my opponent has those proper checks. Eventually after some testing on showdown, I decided to build around a rain team centered around Mega Mawile-Tailwind Zapdos with some rain support. First off I'll start off by saying Tailwind Mega Mawile was and is a terrible idea (well at least now) since Garchomp was never around in VGC 2015 and Thundurus practically supports Mega Mawile better than Zapdos. When you commit to a Mega Mawile spread with significant attack and speed investment, don't expect it to tank every hit in the game well especially against resisted Hyper Voice. I guess the only thing this idea had going was how totally unexpected it was. Politoed and Ludicolo make up the rain core of the team so nothing truly special but Politoed has Helping Hand to power up Mawile and friends. Scarf Heatran was something I tested awhile in an OU team back so I wanted to bring it to VGC and it kinda worked. Basically I can snipe out Terrakion (well now it can't) and even some fast mons like Greninja. Choice Specs Modest Hydreigon is powerful. Period but you know what's even more powerful....Helping Hand Boosted Choice Specs Modest Draco Meteor...
Well this rain team was quite fun but still had some notable flaws. For starters Mega Mawile absolutely needs to come in on a free switch in or as a potential lead with Zapdos as it cannot deal with strong neutral hits. The only reason why I started using Tailwind Mega Mawile was to surprise people with how has it becomes under Tailwind, though all the opposing team team has to do is match it with their respective weather. Eventually this team evolves into probably my most successful team I've personally built on battle spot after making some tweak and major changes in the mega choice. Regardless, here's the link to my first main rain team.
9) Blazing in the Rain (went 23-7 in the April International Challenge)
ok GMX you win... I suck at nicknaming stuff so might as well call this "Fire Chicken meets his match: Rain!"
To be honest, this is probably the most hyper offensive doubles team built by myself, provided with some 'ripped' (call it as is) EVs spreads (thanks to ModernGamer for the EVs on Mega Blaziken as I searched endless on NB), and team cores. Now this team everyone might be wonder is an enigma frankly. I still keep getting people mentioning why the hell I have Mega Blaziken as my main mega for a Rain team. Why the f*88 not? When I had the finalized team members in place, yes I almost laugh my *** off because this is what the team looks like... and it actually looked solid on paper. That's a good check for testing given this team has 6 resistances to Steel, so basically this is a "no steel type" zone. Originally I was building around a core between Blaziken, Scizor, and Thundurus (either form were open) yet the issued I came across is how can I beat Landorus, Thundurus, Sand, and opposing weather. Well after some thought, I checked how well would Kingdra and Politoed would be for fun's sake and realized this might not be the worse thing I've conceived. Usually some of the most successful rain teams run some fire coverage or go far as facing Fire type Pokemon like Moltres, Volcarona or even Heatran. The last Pokemon I decided Ferrothorn as another win condition once I got rid of all Fighting, Fire, or practically anything that can potentially one shot Ferrothorn.
Now I kept debating what kinda of items I wanted for Kindgra, Scizor and Blaziken since well all three love to have Life Orb to boost their power. Originally this team had Mega Scizor but I felt it wasn't the right call as I didn't have much to protect Mega Scizor against Charizard Y other than rain or hyper offense. Eventually I decided that Blaziken would be my main mega, Scizor would hold Lum Berry as a safety net for DV, and Kingdra would be the Life Orb recipient. During the 3 days of the IC April, this team did surprisingly well except only to lose out of some unlucky factors/stuff like double Protect plays, flinches, crits, and some untimely parahax. There was one thing I forgot to do was teach Scizor Quick Guard as it literally helps me with my Talonflame/Thundurus matchup. For anyone who likes to look at the team, here's the link.
10) Final Rain Team (Peaked at 1884 at the Battle Spot Doubles Ladder)
After trying out my Mega Mawile Taiwind-Rain team for sometime, I'd decided to make a Rain team around Mega Metagross... until I realized again how it fairs poorly against its nemesis Aegislash. Before I'd tried out other ways to make Mega Metagross work with rain especially on the higher ladder but it I'm always tempted to run Substitute, Hammer Arm, Ice Punch, and/or both its STAB options. So as you can see Metagross suffers a bit of 4MSS as you'd want to have all these options, but just can't function well without all of them. Now I turned to Mega Mawile but it's still kinda slow for the new team not to mention Sucker Punch isn't the best priority attack at times. Most of the when I tested this new team out, Mega Mawile always got double targets because my opponent knows that the Steel/Fairy can't take too much punishment due to its low HP stat. Then after like some thought and I tried out Mega Scizor as the main Steel type Mega...
Honestly Mega Scizor has been one of the most underrated Mega Evolutions (though not among the best) since its ability to setup Sword Dances thanks to its ridiculous defenses and natural typing. Probably the main reasons why I'd pick Mega Scizor over something like Metagross and Mawile is it doesn't need speed control to perform well, rather just ways to cover its Fire weakness, neutrality to Ghost/Dark types, and Technician boosted Bullet Punch to bypasss speed control. Of course the one thing that completely renders Scizor useless is Quick Guard support so its important to knock out these targets with the 5 other mons. Politoed and Ludicolo served as my team's main rain core: Politoed being the secondary support with Helping Hand and speed control with Icy Wind and Ludicolo serving as the team's main rain abuser, special wall, and Grass type (for immunity to Rage Powder and Spore). Thundurus was added to the team for Thunder Wave support and Taunt user, though I only wish it were more bulkier than Zapdos. Terrakion scared away Mega Kangaskhan, Charizard Y and other Dark, Steel, Flying, types. Hydreigon fairs as the team's special nuke/wall breaker with Specs Draco so not much to say
Do note I plan on releasing an RMT of this team very soon but just haven't got time to work on it. Its long overdue and I think this team really deserves some recognition.
So those are the teams I used from December to the end of April. I'm gonna to try and polish up the other post since it has all my latest teams I've currently used. Again for anyone who has gotten this far thanks and see you latter :D
