[TEAM REPORT] A 1st place on showdown team report (Part 2)

[Willem]

Hi again! This is the second and last part of my team report of the teams I used to get to the number one spot on pokemonshowdown's doubles battle spot ladder.


Team I used from rating 1500's - 1700's

Story Behind The Team

- I felt like I wanted to use something more unoriginal when climbing to the top of the ladder, and I was also really interested in trying out a mega gardevoir semi trick room team that performed really well in Japan nats. And since I've used "Cybersand" aka "Japsand" for a while, I was really familiar with using the sand core that consists of Tyranitar and Excadrill. I saw a couple of teams in the Japan nats that used Gardevoir-Tyranitar without a pokemon with an ability that takes advantage of the sand which was pretty interesting. And at spring regionals (Athens regionals) I think we all got really impressed over the fact that Angel Miranda (Mikoto Misaka) used Landorus Incarnate form in sand! Now I absolutely loved Landorus-incarnate in VGC 13 when you could use the ability Sheer Force on Landorus-I, but Sand Force obviously works. And when it came to teambuilding, I had all these ideas of trick room Mega Gardevoir, Mega salamence Sand etc but I didn't know which one to use. And I decided to try out fast tailwind Mega gardevoir with HP ground (for heatran) with the sand core Tyranitar - Landorus-I. I liked them together but felt like I was too weak to trick room teams. Now what's the best solution to counter trick room? That's right.. by using a semi trick room team, that works under and without trick room! It might sound strange, but think about it! Your opponent leads with his trick room setter and thinks that He/She'll succesfully put up trick room and sweep with their teams 3-4 sweepers. But if I with my rather fast Gardevoir use trick room before my opponent, my opponent will reset the trick room and since most trick room teams rely so much on getting trick room up, I can outspeed and KO my opponents pokemons. And since I always use redirection on my teams, I decided to use amoonguss on this team aswell which helped so much, because everyone know that Amoonguss under trick room is such a dissruptive pokemon.

- I have used semi trick room teams a lot throughout this and the last season, and I'm pretty good at using it, so I wanted to use it on this team aswell! I thought about using thunder wave as my second speed control option but if I during a match wanted to use trick room to end a match, thunder wave made my opponents pokemons faster than me. So instead of using Thundurus, I tried Zapdos with tailwind and it really helped my team a lot! Because some matches I would use tailwind with my rather fast part of the team, and when tailwind had pewtered out I could go for trick room to sweep my opponents last pokemons if they were fast. This was a really great strategy, using the 2 biggest speed control options in the same team.

- The last pokemon I added to the team was Aegislash, because Aegislash is such a great pokemon, both supportive and offensive. I often lost to Sylveon and Kangaskhan and Aegislash can both use wide guard to wall Sylveon and provide amazing switch ins to Kangaskhan! I will go more in depth with my aegislash moveset in my team analasys, but I tried different variants and I still don't think I've found the right one for this team, so I'd love some help with that!


The Team

- Mega-Gardevoir
- Amoonguss
- Tyranitar
- Zapdos
- Landorus-I
- Aegislash


The Biggest Threats


                                                                Kangaskhan

- Kangaskhan is as I've said, always a threat. But sometimes the problem with this team is the fact that it can be really hard to OHKO it without it KO'ing my pokemon before.  

                                                                Breloom

- Breloom with the ability to wall my rather slow team with it's fast spores can be both annoying and hard to beat. And also it's a threat offensively too with mach punch and bullet seed. Breloom is one of the reasons why I use sludge bomb on my Amoonguss.

                                                                Ferrothorn

- Ferrothorn is really hard for this team to beat, because I have no taunt, no fire move coverage and it can also OHKO my Gardevoir, do a lot to my Tyranitar and Landorus and also leech seed can be really disruptive.



The Team 2.0 (Sets and Analasys)



Montserrat Caballé @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 108 SpA / 4 SpD / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Hyper Voice
- Protect

Montserrat Caballé is my favorite opera singer who've made an album with my favorite singer, Freddie Mercury. She has a voice that can be described with the word "hyper" Also mega Gardevoir totally looks like an opera singer lol

- Gardevoir is an amazing meta call. It came first and second in US nats, and it did really well in Japan nats aswell. Even though it took quite a while, the metagame in the US has finally caught up to Japans metagame. Players in the US has favoured mega metagross and venusaur unlike the players in Japan who opt for mega Gardevoir and special mega Salamence. This Gardevoir moveset is really standard and I opted for psychic over psyshock, since what I've noticed is that most pokemons that's weak to psychic attacks are built more defensively than specially defensively, for example all the mega Venusaurs with the bold set and Amoongusses etc. I don't have to explain why I use hyper voice, since it's used on all mega gardevoirs to take advantage of the ability Pixilate that makes normal type attacks into fairy type. Gardevoirs role in the team was to put up trick room, take some hits and dish out amazing amounts of damage under trick room and under tailwind.

- The 28 in speed allows it to outspeed neutral base 70's (Bisharp) by two points, since there's a lot of pokemons that invest speed to outspeed the "Bisharp tier".

- I want to thank Kiev (Black117) for this really great spread that does everything I want it to, especially since I opted for the more bulky gardevoir.


Offensive calculations

- 108+ SpA Pixilate Mega Gardevoir Hyper Voice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 108-127 (65.4 - 76.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 108+ SpA Pixilate Mega Gardevoir Hyper Voice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Kangaskhan: 90-106 (49.7 - 58.5%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO
- 108+ SpA Mega Gardevoir Psychic vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Mega Venusaur: 152-180 (81.2 - 96.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 108+ SpA Mega Gardevoir Psychic vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Amoonguss: 218-260 (98.6 - 117.6%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
- 108+ SpA Pixilate Mega Gardevoir Hyper Voice vs. 76 HP / 0 SpD Mega Salamence: 198-234 (110 - 130%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Defensive calculations

- 252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Overheat vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Gardevoir in Sun: 150-177 (85.7 - 101.1%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
- 252+ Atk Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 116 Def Mega Gardevoir: 148-175 (84.5 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
- 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 252 HP / 116 Def Mega Gardevoir: 153-182 (87.4 - 104%) -- 16% chance to OHKO
- 252 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Return vs. 252 HP / 116 Def Mega Gardevoir: 148-175 (84.5 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO



Painkiller @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 164 Def / 156 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spore
- Sludge Bomb
- Rage Powder
- Protect

I'll remove it if it's too offensive, but Amoonguss puts things to sleep and reminds me of a painkiller which also is a song by Judas Priest

- Amoonguss is a great support pokemon that offers redirection support, it can put things to sleep and is really great at disrupting. I chose sludge bomb over giga drain so that I can OHKO brelooms and break it's focus sash if I'm in sand. Sludge bomb can also poison your opponents pokemons, which helped me a lot against bulky pokemons such as cresselia, dusclops, milotic etc.
This spread is really good and does just about everything I need it to do.

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



I Wanna Rock (F) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 220 Atk / 76 Def / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Superpower
- Protect

I WANNA ROCK... slide

- This Tyranitar set is really interesting! I've tried choice scarfed tyranitar, life orbed, weakness policy etc as items for Tyranitar on this team, but expert belt is by far the best. It might not do as much damage as life orbed tyranitar, but expert belt makes it so that I can under tailwind bluff the choice scarf and this has helped me a lot! First of all, many of my opponents that I faced on the ladder didn't think that my tyranitar would've had protect because they've watched Aaron Zheng used choice scarfed tyranitar aswell as other players, and some of my opponents thought that I was locked into a move, for example rock slide. This was really helpful. And expert belt gets all the KO's that life orb does. And believe me, under trick room or tailwind you don't want to face an adamant expert belt tyranitar using rock slide next to a mega gardevoir using hyper voice, because it sweeps through teams unless you're using wide guard of course.

- The moveset is really standard. Superpower over low kick, since superpower OHKO's mega kangaskhan. I tried ice beam and ice punch, but I already have my ice coverage so superpower helps more. And this ev-spread that I made is something that I'm really proud of since it does exactly everything I want my tyranitar to do for my team. Sweep through my opponents team under trick room and tailwind with enough bulk to survive a lot of attacks!

Offensive calculations

- 220+ Atk Expert Belt Tyranitar Superpower vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 182-216 (100.5 - 119.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
- 220+ Atk Expert Belt Tyranitar Rock Slide vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Salamence: 101-122 (59 - 71.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage
- 220+ Atk Expert Belt Tyranitar Rock Slide vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Thundurus: 168-202 (108.3 - 130.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
- 220+ Atk Expert Belt Tyranitar Superpower vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 173-204 (103.5 - 122.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
- 220+ Atk Expert Belt Tyranitar Crunch vs. 220 HP / 172 Def Cresselia: 137-161 (61.4 - 72.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage

Defensive calculations

- 252+ SpA Choice Specs Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Voice vs. 204 HP / 4 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 146-174 (72.6 - 86.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 Atk Technician Breloom Mach Punch vs. 204 HP / 76 Def Tyranitar: 180-216 (89.5 - 107.4%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
- 252+ Atk Landorus-T Earthquake vs. 204 HP / 76 Def Tyranitar: 132-156 (65.6 - 77.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Iron Head vs. 204 HP / 76 Def Tyranitar: 164-195 (81.5 - 97%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 Atk Tough Claws Mega Metagross Iron Head vs. 204 HP / 76 Def Tyranitar: 168-200 (83.5 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252+ SpA Heatran Earth Power vs. 204 HP / 4 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 76-90 (37.8 - 44.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO



Wind Of Change @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 44 Def / 52 SpA / 148 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost
- Tailwind

Taaaake meee to the magic of the moment on a glooory niiight. Wind of change is a song by Scorpions about the big changes in east Europe in the 90's. But it's also the perfect nickname for a tailwind user lol

- I have to thank Eckley for this really great Zapdos EV-spread. The only thing I changed is the HP, since I'm using the sitrus berry variant your HP should be able to be divided by 2. Anyways, this set isn't much to talk about, since it's the standard zapdos moveset and an EV-spread which maximizes the bulk on Zapdos. I was either going to use suicune or zapdos, but I went with zapdos because it deals with bulky water types which my team is fairly weak to. Zapdos role is to put up tailwind when needed, deal with bulky water types, dragons, Landorus and provide switch ins.

Offensive calculations

- 52 SpA Zapdos Hidden Power Ice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 140-168 (84.8 - 101.8%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
- 52 SpA Zapdos Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Suicune: 110-132 (53.1 - 63.7%) -- 3.5% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
- 52 SpA Zapdos Thunderbolt vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Talonflame: 174-206 (112.9 - 133.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
- 52 SpA Zapdos Hidden Power Ice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Salamence: 128-152 (74.8 - 88.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Defensive calculations

- 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 244 HP / 148 SpD Zapdos: 166-196 (84.6 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
- 252+ Atk Landorus-T Rock Slide vs. 244 HP / 44+ Def Zapdos: 76-90 (38.7 - 45.9%) -- 60.3% chance to 3HKO after Sitrus Berry recover
- 252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Overheat vs. 244 HP / 148 SpD Zapdos in Sun: 180-213 (91.8 - 108.6%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
- 44+ SpA Mega Charizard Y Overheat vs. 244 HP / 148 SpD Zapdos in Sun: 175-207 (89.2 - 105.6%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
- 252 SpA Life Orb Protean Greninja Ice Beam vs. 244 HP / 148 SpD Zapdos: 159-190 (81.1 - 96.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery




Bad Reputation @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Force
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Stone Edge
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
- Earth Power


Landorus Incarnate has had a bad reputation (Song by Thin Lizzy) this season, but now it's Landorus-I's time to shine


- Landorus Incarnate is pretty interesting since it was so good in VGC 13 when the genie's hidden abilities were available. This EV-spread is the standard Landorus-I spread. It makes it able to outspeed positive base 100's like Mega-Kangaskhan. I don't think there is an analasys of Landorus-Incarnate yet, so I guess I can make one. Anyways, since you want to take advantage of the ability Sand Force you want to use rock, ground and maybe steel moves, but since Landorus Incarnates special attack is higher than it's attack I wanted to use as many special attacks as possible. Earth power is a pretty obvious move to use, and Hidden Power Ice is for dragons and mainly to deal with Landorus T. And I "stole" the fourth move of Angel Mirandas set, stone edge. Stone egde is for Charizard and other flying types. I really enjoy Landorus-I, because it provides a lot of offensive pressure and people aren't really used to battling the Incarnate form of Landorus. There are a lot of moves that Landorus-I can use and provides great coverage with moves like: Psychic, Sludge Bomb, Grass Knot etc. The problem is that they won't get boosted with Sheer Force, but it'll still do a lot with the life orb.

Offensive calculations

- 252 SpA Life Orb Sand Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Shuca Berry Heatran in Sand: 229-273 (115.6 - 137.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO (LOOK AT THIS POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!)
- 252 SpA Life Orb Sand Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Kangaskhan in Sand: 121-142 (66.8 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage
- 0- Atk Life Orb Landorus Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Mega Charizard Y: 203-239 (109.7 - 129.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
- 252 SpA Life Orb Landorus Hidden Power Ice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 203-239 (123 - 144.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
- 252 SpA Life Orb Landorus Hidden Power Ice vs. 164 HP / 28 SpD Landorus-T: 192-229 (103.7 - 123.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
- 252 SpA Life Orb Sand Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Mawile in Sand: 250-296 (159.2 - 188.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
- 252 SpA Life Orb Sand Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Aegislash-Shield in Sand: 172-203 (102.9 - 121.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (If you haven't tried Landorus-I, do so. This power is crazy.)
- 0- Atk Life Orb Sand Force Landorus Stone Edge vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Thundurus in Sand: 185-218 (119.3 - 140.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
- 252 SpA Life Orb Landorus Hidden Power Ice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Salamence: 182-218 (106.4 - 127.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Defensive calculation

- 252 SpA Thundurus Hidden Power Ice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus: 160-192 (96.9 - 116.3%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
- 252+ Atk Landorus-T Rock Slide vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Landorus: 41-49 (24.8 - 29.6%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO
- 252+ SpA Choice Specs Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Voice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus: 132-156 (80 - 94.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Landorus: 141-168 (85.4 - 101.8%) -- 3.1% chance to OHKO




Iron Man @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield

Has he lost his mind? Can he see or is he blind? (Black Sabbath)

- I don't have much to say about Aegislash. It has an amazing typing which provides a lot of switch-ins. It deals with Kangaskhan since the only move it uses that can touch Aegislash is sucker punch which only works if you use an attacking move, so I can PP stall my opponent and then win the match. This set is really standard, and therefore I don't feel it's necessary to write much about it. BUT! I would like your opinion on what Moveset, EV-spread, Item you think is best for me to use, because I feel like this doesn't fit this team.

Thank's for reading my first team report, and if you haven't read part 1. Read it here: http://pokemonforever.com/Thread-TEAM-RE...ort-Part-1

Take care everyone! / Willem