Prelude
If there's one Mega Pokemon that's alluded me throughout the current VGC 2015 ruleset and still today, its definitely Charizard Y. Early on around late January 2015, I'd built a duel Mega Evolution core between Mega Charizard Y and Mega Venusaur just to bluff the sun mode, yet eventually realized Charizard Y was brought only a handful of times while I opted for bulk my other Mega provided. Admitably, this was my most successful iteration of using Charizard Y since it did put in a great amount of work, however I'd lose more often with it than Mega Venusaur. Ever since I've tried but failed to make another "successful" Charizard Y team. Soon afterward my attention turned to the other viable Megas and even some "obscure" ones until recently I revisit it for the 5th time.
One of the biggest nemesis to Charizard Y is not a Pokemon, rather the move: Rock Slide. This attack inflicts quadruple effectiveness against Charizard Y and the added 30% flinch factor, in case it happens to take the hit, but likely will OHKO most of the time. With Pokemon like Scarf Landorus-T and Terrakion running around, its near mandatory to have a Pokemon who can deal with these threats, or at least carry Wide Guard. The ever so popular Mega Kangakaskhan and Mega Salamence can easily destroy Charizard Y with just one Double Edge, let alone Heatran can single-handedly wall most Charizard Y sets. The rise of certain archetypes didn't help my outlook for Mega Charizard Y such as "Japan Sand", Double Genies, Redirection, Rain, and the well-establish CHALK teams.
The funny thing is Charizard Y CAN beat these teams, or the Pokemon built around them since very few of them are capable of taking Drought-boosted Fire attacks head on.
TEAM BUILDING GUIDE
Since I wanted to build around a Charizard Y core, I thought it be a "good" idea to use some of the more successful Charizaed Y team that did well at their respective competitions. It wasn't long before I chose to ditto Angel Miranda/Jeudy Azzereli's US Nationals team: Flamethrower/HP Ground Charizard Y, Scarf Tyranitar, "Special" Landorus-T (this is what I meant Pod/Mudkip/Anime), Will-O-Wisp Jellicent, Sub Aegislash, and Calm Mind HP Ground Sylveon. The only notable edits I made from their team was change the Aegislash for my Leftovers Ferrothorn everyone loves, and replace Ice Beam with Toxic on Jellicent to improve my matchups with CM Cresselia and bulky Water types. To be honest, Ferrothorn and Jellicent is probably the one of the nastiest defensive core I've ever tested out and they can stalled out entire matches to the point where Scarf Tyranitar, Calm Mind Sylveon, Landorus-T, or Charizard Y just cleanup the game. Aegislash gave this team some issues, but it wasn't that problematic when you have Flamethrower Charizard Y, Earth Power Landorus-T and Tyranitar plus the other team members bar Jellicent can take a hit. I've later found out that Terrakion/Bisharp/Hydreigon is an absolute matchup nightmare to face with this team as they can pick off most of of them as I didn't have much speed control. After some thoughts, I've settled with this...
As you all can see, I'd made some considerable changes to the first team such as replacing Scarf Tyranitar for Cresselia for speed control with immense bulk, and Jellicent for Greninja for immediate hyper offense. The only notable edits was I replace HP Ground for Tailwind on Charizard Y, swapped special Landorus-T for my occasional Assault Vest set, and edited the team (bar Ferrothorn) with some minor speed increases for Tailwind "speed" tiers. While this team wasn't as great as the other team in practice, it felt somewhat improved since I've felt more confident using Charizard Y now I had speed control options in the form of Tailwind and Trick Room. Essentially the Trick Room mode was Cresselia, Sylveon, Ferrothorn, AV Landorus-T, and Charizard Y while the fast "Tailwind" mode was with Charizard Y, Greninja, AV Landorus-T, and Sylveon. The only issues I encounter was Kangaskhan can plow through this team much easier now that I didn't have Jellicent or any Ghost types for that matter. Rocky Helmet Moonlight Cresselia was my main "check" to Mega Kangaskhan but she can get worn down immediately. Double Genie surprisingly became more annoying to face as in practice my team would get Rock Slide flinched by Landorus-T, paralysis and swagger confusion by Thundurus on game deciding turns with me getting the short end of the stick. I made some moderate changes afterward so this is the finalized version of the team.
THE TEAM
Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 44 SpA / 4 SpD / 196 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Tailwind
- Protect
Milestones:
- This is Blake Hopper's Nationals Charizard Y
- Survives most Rock Slides after an Intimidate drop.
- Slight speed creeps against those who outspeed adamant Landorus-T
- Just go to the link already....
Without any doubt. Mega Charizard Y is among the top 5 Mega Evolutions in the VGC 2015 format given very few Pokemon are able to take Drought-boosted Fire attacks and Solar Beams to the face. While threats such as Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Salamence, Thundurus, Heatran, and any other Pokemon with Rock type coverage/STAB (Tyranitar, Landorus-T, Terrakion) can beat Mega Charizard Y one versus one, it has a relatively good matchups against the rest of the VGC format. I mean c'mon... who and their right mind would switch in a Pokemon to a Drought boosted Heat Wave / Flamethrower without taking massive chunk of their HP down. The problem with Charizard Y is knowing when to use it in battle instead of losing it indiscriminately to any of these after mentioned threats so I tried to adapt. The first notable thing about Charizard Y is it doesn't utilize the once standard Overheat and Heat Wave set anymore, rather Flamethrower. Here's are my reasons for running Flamethrower:
- With Flamethrower, Charizard Y is able to avoid playing with the Wide Guard mind games from Aegislash, Hitmontop, Conkeldurr, etc.
- Flamethrower Charizard Y deals more damage on the opposing Pokemon due to it being a single target unlike Heat Wave. The most notable aspect is Modest 44 SpA investment is enough to KO Shield form Aegislash even if it has 252 HP and 164 SpD investment 100% of the time. Unless Aegislash is fully specially defensive or has an Occa Berry, it certainly won't live the hit.
- Flamethrower doesn't have a chance to miss or potentially give Heatran an immediately Flash Fire boost (unless my opponent switches in correctly).
- Unlike the move Overheat, Flamethrower does not harshly reduce Charizard Y's special attack by two stages. This mean Charizard Y will always have a reliable single target attack to use which is still boosted by Drought.
Solar Beam is fairly standard on Charizard Y as it hits all Water, Rock, and Ground type Pokemon for super effective damage, though I always caution myself to use this move when faced with opposing weather teams. Tailwind on Charizard Y definitely changed the perception of how I felt about this Mega Evolution since it had a rather poor matchup against increasingly faster metagame capable of OKHOing the Fire Starter. Not only does it double the speed of Charizard Y, but as well as the rest of my team who appreciates the Tailwind boost. Often when Charizard Y is able to setup a Tailwind boost, my opponent will try to protect or stall out the field condition. The problem with this is Charizard Y + anyone of its partners under Tailwind can handle most switch ins: Conkeldurr deal powerful "Iron Fist" attacks, Landorus-T/Sylveon can fire Earthquakes/Hyper Voices freely, Aegislash can setup a fast Sub, and Cresselia can even T-Wave when necessary, speaking of Cress...
Cresselia @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 220 HP / 132 Def / 124 SpA / 4 SpD / 28 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave
- Moonlight
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
Milestones:
-Slight speed creep against Pokemon with Base 80 speed
-Guarantee KO against non-Sash / non-invested Breloom with Psychic
-Takes Specs Dark Pulse from Modest Hydreigon
-Takes Banded Knock Off from Adamant Bisharp. (Main Benchmark)
-Return from Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Salamence is a 3HKO (assuming no positive attack Nature)
-Takes Life Orb Shadow Ball from Modest Aegislash
-Probably gonna update this spread since its honestly not as optimal for today's present meta
DUCKHUNTSWAN RETURNS! In all seriousness, I felt the team needed a reliable Pokemon who can provide some form of speed control without being incredibly frail at the same time. Cresselia is probably my main signature Pokemon since she can reliably provide speed control due to her incredible bulk and access in recovery in Moonlight. The main goal for Cresselia is to spread paralysis with Thunder Wave to allow Charizard Y and friends to outspeed and eventually OHKO. Of course support Thundurus was considered but Cresselia doesn't share the same Rock weakness as Charizard Y so my opponents won't elect to use Rock Slide as often. Funny enough, the moveset for Cresselia is virtually unchanged from my original Mega Charizard and Mega Venusaur team since its was the most consistent Cresselia set not named Calm Mind. While I've used Trick Room and Icy Wind on Cresselia recently, very few people expect Thunder Wave as Cresselia is bulky enough to take hits and spread paralysis. Moonlight adds to Cresselia's longevity and makes her difficult to take out factoring the potential 67% healing factor (of the usual 50%) if Charizard Y's sun is still up. One thing I'd like to point out is Moonlight works in tandem with her item Rocky Helmet as any contact moves from notable physical attackers like Mega Kangaskhan will taken 1/6 damage to their health to make up for Cresselia's lack of offensive presence. Basically if Mega Kangaskhan or Mega Salamence try to Double Edge Cresselia, both will be taking massive damage to themselves and while she can easily recover off the damage or finish them with either Psychic or Ice Beam. The only notable thing Psychic offers is STAB option, capable of OHKOing non-Focus Sash Breloom and doing chip damage when needed. Originally I had Icy Wind for speed control, however the rise of Milotic and resurgence of Bisharp has forced me to use Ice Beam instead.
I'm 100% sure I'll probably start running more "offensive" Cresselia sets which can at least do some damage against my opponent. The EV spread could be tweaked a bit to reflect on the increasingly number of Cresselia running special attack investment. For sure, I can just run about 124 defense EVs just to take a Banded Knock Off from Bisharp, but really people are going to soften up Cresselia for the finishing blow. Rocky Helmet-Moonlight surprisingly enough deals more damage against Mega Kangakhan or any other contact based physical attacker as the opponent will takes "unnecessary" damage while Psychic and Ice Beam barely get notable KOs. Toxic might be another interesting move choice since it can at least wear down Double Genies (notably support Thundurus), opposing Cresselia, Sylveons, Milotic, Rotom-W, or anything considered "slow". Then again these are just some thoughts about some of my future Cresselia sets.
Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 132 HP / 84 Atk / 20 Def / 84 SpD / 188 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
- Rock Tomb
Milestones:
-Outspeeds neutral base 95 speed Pokemon and some Standards: Ex. Arcanine and 188 Speed EVs Charizard Y (clocks in at 144).
-Can take 2 Heat Waves and 2 Hyper Voices from either 44 SpA+ Charizard Y in Sun, 252 SpA+ Mega Gardevoir, and/or 252 SpA+ Sylveon (Not Specs / CM). Of Course can only take 1 of each.
-No notable offensive kills whatsoever other than KOing quad weak stuff (Charizard, Tyranitar, Talonflame, Heatran) without any attack drops.
Jolly Assault Vest Landorus-T. I thinks that's a mouth-full to say so I'll break down the set for everyone. Originally I was gonna run Choice Scarf Landorus-T for this slot but always hated having to be choice lock into an unwanted attack like Rock Slide on Terrakion or Aegislash where I can easily could Earthquake. To me, the best Landorus-T sets are those that offer multiple options and lets it used its STAB Earthquake, or Fly. IMO if you want a Landorus-T set that's able to take any special (even random) Ice/Water attacks while giving it enough staying power and longevity to spread Intimidate drops, just run Ass Vest. K Ogloza you got me on that one. Ever since the announcement of the VGC 2015 format, I've tried and tested mostly Assault Vest Landorus-T because I thought the special defense increase would allow me to take incoming Ice Beams, special Water hits, and most special hits comfortingly without no "aggressive" investment to its special defense already. I never really understood why people would Choice Scarf their Landorus-T sets other than maybe outspeed Mega Gengar and the obnoxious 30% flinch factor which easily sway the battle against the opponent. My Assault Vest Landorus-T set early on was 184 HP / 232 Atk / 92 Spe (enough to outspeed Bisharp), and then moved to Aaron Taylors Landorus-T's spread onced revealed. Now I've moved on from Adamant Landorus-T since I realized it Landorus-T needs to outspeed most Mega Charizard Y and slower Mega Kang sets if the AV set were to be "effective". Prior to this change, one of the biggest issues with Adamant Landorus-T was its speed benchmark since either after-mentioned Megas can deal a chunk of damage to Landorus-T before it can give a proper response. The best counter measure for this issue to to run a Jolly nature with a reasonably high speed EVs without compromising what AV Landorus-T is meant to do in the first place. With a speed reaching about 148 speed, Landorus-T is able to outspeed all base 95 Pokemon by one point and hopefully all the standard Charizard Y and bulkier Mega Kang with the slight increased investment.
The moveset is somewhat standard: Earthquake for STAB, Rock Slide for Talonflame / opposing Charizard Y, and Superpower for Mega Kang, Tyranitar, and others weak to Fighting. The only move that seems out of place is Rock Tomb which definitely helped me out in the Finals against Delta. The idea of using Rock Tomb is to cancel out the Choice Scarf from opposing Landorus-T and drop the speed of threats like Mega Kangaskhan, Charizard Y, Thundurus, etc. Though it might not seem much, the speed drop helps my own Charizard Y outspeed any potential base 100 mentioned since it needs all the speed control to function well.
Conkeldurr @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Iron Fist
Level: 50
EVs: 108 HP / 116 Atk / 68 Def / 132 SpD / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch
- Wide Guard
Milestones:
-"Almost" the same EV spread as Blake Hopper's Nationals Conkeldurr in terms of Attack, Speed and HP.
-Survives 252+ Atk Mega Kangaskhan's Double Edge without Sitrus Berry, in turn....
-Iron Fist Drain Punch + recoil from Double Edge OKHOs most Mega Kang variants
-Ice Punch + Mach Punch OHKOs 4 HP Landorus-T with Intimidate drop
-Has a 6.3% to live a LO Draco Meteor from Timid Hydreigon
-Survives Banded Brave Bird from Talonflame with Intimidate drop.
-Outspeed Adamant Mega Kang in Tailwind. (This applies to all base 100 Pokemon with a neutral nature).
What's this, a non Assault Vest Conkeldurr... blasphemy. Well after giving my Landorus-T the Assault Vest item, Sitrus Berry was the next best thing to run on Conkeldurr. Essentially Sitrus Berry allowed Conkeldurr to have either Protect or Wide Guard (which I elected the latter) and gives it a better matchup against physical attackers now with the 25% recovery from its item in addition to Iron Fist boosted Drain Punch. Speaking of Iron Fist, Conkeldurr receives a 1.2x boost to its "punching" moves so Drain Punch, Mach Punch, and Ice Punch do more damage the Guts variants until they receive a status condition. The moveset is pretty standard for a non AV Conkeldurr set: Drain Punch for consistent STAB damage with recovery, Mach Punch for priority to pick off weaken Pokemon, and Ice Punch for Double Genies (Landorus-T Thundurus), Zapdos, Amoonguss, and Mega Salamence. Wide Guard can surprise my opponents expect an AV variant and block all spread damage for my team. The only notable thing to explain is why the speed investment. Originally this Conkeldurr was modeled after Blake Hopper's version from his 3rd Place Nationals team and it has the same speed investment as well. The idea here to setup Tailwind (or spread Thunder Wave) and basically outspeed most Adamant Mega Kangaskhan, clocking in at 154 speed where most adamant max speed with a base stat of 100 have. Recently the VGC format has had this "love crazy" for speed creeping around 134-148 speed so having a Tailwind Conkeldurr outspeed something like an AV Adamant Landorus-T, Specs Modest Hydreigon, bulky Thundurus, or anything around that speed creep area can be a huge shock to my opponent.
Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 28 Def / 76 SpA / 100 SpD / 68 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Substitute
- King's Shield
Milestones:
- Speed Creep for opposing Aegislash and Sylveon
- Survives Heat Wave from +44 SpA Charizard Y: 44+ SpA Mega Charizard Y Heat Wave vs. 236 HP / 100 SpD Aegislash-Shield in Sun: 134-162 (81.2 - 98.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- Survives Modest Specs Hydreigon's Dark Pulse 12.5% of the time: 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 236 HP / 100 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 144-170 (87.2 - 103%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
- Survives LO Sucker Punch from Adamant Bisharp: 252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 236 HP / 28 Def Aegislash-Shield: 133-159 (80.6 - 96.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- Has a 85.5% chance to 2HKO 4 HP Mega Salamence with either Shadow Ball / Flash Cannon: 76+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Salamence: 82-97 (47.9 - 56.7%) -- 85.5% chance to 2HKO
-Tailwind Speed: Outspeeds both Terrakion and Mega Metagross (base 108s and 110s) under the field condition.
There's a bit of a story with this Pokemon slot, namely something about my playstyle in question. After I lost to Justin Flynn in the 32 Person Tourney and a following week of some of the worse hax-filled battles against me on Battle Spot (after a 21-4 run with a variation of this team), I just quit using Life Orb Aegislash for several reasons. To me, Aegislash has always been a powerful Pokemon in its own right, often considering it to the be "true" pseudo-legendary of Gen 6 with a technical BST of 720 if played well. I asked myself this question since it troubled me a bit: Why am the fuck I'm running Life Orb on a Pokemon who's probably the superglue to the team? With Aegislash having a very limited timer with the Life Orb and paired with its low 60 HP, I began questioning myself seriously about running Life Orb Aegislash in the long run. Of course LO Aegiaslash can just punch holes against teams, especially when paired with a Helping Hand user, but the meta has changed to the point even Cresselia...CRESSELIA opts for protect to "force" the Aegislash user into playing aggressive and be exposed to an attack! While testing both Life Orb Aegislash and Leftovers Ferrothorn on Battle Spot, I realized double Steel on a team isn't as good as anymore considering if my opponent has a Heatran or Charizard Y in team preview. This severally limits my options against these two Pokemon as they'll know I'm going to be bring either 1 of them + the other 3/4 members of the team. While Ferrothorn is an amazing defensive Pokemon in its own right, Aegislash was just the overall 'better' Steel type pick since it can handle CHALK, defeat Cresselia by itself, and potentially deal wall most Pokemon like Terrakion, Choice-Locked Landorus, Mega Salamence, Mega Gardevoir, and even Mega Kangaskhan.
A friend of mine (I'll keep their name anonymous since he's probably gonna use it in a tourney) told me about using Substitute Aegislash, heck even went far to out the famed "Billaslash" coined after a notable German VGC player with Substitute and Wide Guard (since German Engineering, or Theorymoning is fun). At first I questioned the EV spread of the Aegislash but after trying out "Billaslash" I really liked it. Some time latter, I edited the EV spread so that the HP stat is 4n+1 to get an optimal recovery and just dumped it into defense and that's how I got the EV spread you see above. I should probably quit stalling at this point. Since Conkeldurr carried Wide Guard now, I'm pretty much have a "free slot" for Aegislash so...Substitute was given (well no shit after like 2 minutes of explaining this). For sure I could have been "that guy" and ran 2 Wide Guard users to get a thin assurance that Charizard Y won't die to pebbles but as Angel Miranda just perfectly about Aegislash in his co-national report, "Aegislash is a pokemon that can win games on its own." While I've familiar with offensive Life Orb Aegislash, defensive Substitute Leftovers allows Aegislash to stick around more in the long haul and hopeful be the teams main win condition. Shadow Ball and Flash Cannon are the main STAB options for Aegislash so not really much to explain there aside to hit Fairy, Psychic, Ice, Ghost, and Rock types hard. The speed investment allows Aegislash to hopefully outspeed Sylveon and slower Aegislash variants, though I'm fairly certain some Aegislashs are much faster now. Another thing to note about this Aegislash is with Tailwind support from Charizard Y, it outspeed most threats like Terrakion and Mega Metagross and dispatch them with its powerful STAB attacks. Not much else to say about the Steel/Ghost sword other than it being the main superglue of the team.
Sylveon @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Pixilate
Level: 50
EVs: 156 HP / 116 Def / 120 SpA / 116 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Hyper Voice
- Calm Mind
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Protect
Milestones:
- Speed Creep against opposing Sylveon, Aegislash, and even slow Politoeds/Tyranitars
- 93.8% chance to knock out 4 HP Mega Salamence: 120+ SpA Pixie Plate Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Voice vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Salamence: 170-204 (99.4 - 119.2%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
- OHKOs 4 HP Heatran with +1 HP Ground from Calm Mind: +1 120+ SpA Sylveon Hidden Power Ground vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Heatran: 172-204 (102.9 - 122.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
- Under Tailwind, outspeeds Mega Salamence by one point.
Last, certainly but not least, the one of the best Fairy type in the game, Pixilate Sylveon. Like seriously, do I even need to explain what Sylveon does? Well... its a cute little Fairy that screams at you all day and will fuck you up with its feelers...ok I'm not gonna go that far. Most of my Sylveon sets I started out with were mainly supportive with a couple niche support moves like Helping Hand, Screens, Quick Attack, and even Baby-Doll Eyes/Charm of all things just for opposing physical attackers just look at them...
LOOK AT THEM!!!!!
... but this Sylveon is different than most of the others I ran before. Lately, Calm Mind Sylveon was an extremely alluring option to use since after one boost, Sylveon has a pseudo Choice Specs and Assault Vest boost which can only get stronger after every increase. Basically after one boost, Sylveon is already hitting harder than most Specs sets thanks to its small x 1.2 boost from the Pixie Plate. What's the best part about CM Sylveon you ask? Basically since Sylveon has a natural base HP stat of 95, Special Attack of 110, and Special Defense of 130, Calm Mind just turns Sylveon into a "special" tank capable of taking some of the strongest special attacks in the format. Not even most special Steel hits from Heatran or Aegislash are able to KO Sylveon after one boost while Sylveon retaliates with Hidden Power Ground. At this point in the metagame, Hidden Power Ground should be standard on virtually all Sylveon sets to be able hit Steel and Fire types like Aegislash, Arcanine, Heatran, Blaziken, Excadrill, etc. Of course some of these targets will be faster so that's where Charizard Y and Cresselia come in. With Tailwind from Charizard Y, Sylveon is able to outspeed the likes of positive speed Mega Salamence with the full investment! Yeah Greninja might be an issue (unless Conk, Cress or Aegislash has something to say), but anything else below that speed tier of 120 will get hit with a powerful Pixilate Hyper Voice. In fact, in combination with Charizard Y, the only notable Pokemon that can switch in on any of these two's attacks are Heatran and just any other Flash Fire user. Practically anything else will likely get KO'ed between the two. Usually the goal when deploying Sylveon is to either knock out any Steel types on the field, KO / paralyze any target that can OHKO it, leave out any special attackers in the end so Sylveon can Calm Mind and sweep my opponent's team
TOURNAMENT:
I was gonna use this team for Justin Subscriber Tourament, but I was kinda tired the whole day having not slept for 19 hrs (with 30 mins naps) before the tourney started. Fortunately for me it was a Sunday so regardless of what happens, I'm knocking out immediately. (btw This wasn't due to "overpreparing", just some IRL stuff that happen). Instead I tested the team in Pod's Tourney and here's what happen.
Just a quick note I'll separate the Pokemon from the back with this ; punctuation
ROUND 1: VS ZigZagger456 (Team: Mega Salamence, Thundurus, Gastrodon, Aegislash, Heatran)
Leads: Cresselia, Sylveon ; Charizard Y ,?????? (forgot either Aegislash or Conkeldurr)
He Brings: Gastrodon, Aegislash ; Heatran, Mega Salamence
To be completely honest, this was the most loop-sided battle from the single elimination tourney, all because of Cresselia did her job spreading paralysis and my opponent's Mega Salamence, Heatran and Aegislash getting paralyzed almost every turn. Basically this allowed Sylveon to setup two Calm Mind and just sweep his entire team from there. If anything, this battle showed that CM Sylveon is a monster if setup.
ROUND 2: VS ELMIGUELVGC (Team: Landorus-T, Mega Metagross, Thundurus, Bisharp, Politoed, Ludicolo)
Leads: Charizard Y, Cresselia ; Conkeldurr, Aegislash
He brings: Ludicolo, Thundurus ; Bisharp, Charizard Y
This battle... was like as if I called almost every possible play despite facing El Miguel before who's kinda notorious of running somewhat unorthodox sets, but hey they work so you can't complain much. However in this battle I was kinda on fire, literally with some of the calls. Turn 1 I decided to swap out to Conkeldurr thinking that he'll paralyze the former Charizard Y spot, but to my surprise (and relief), he went for Rain Dance with Thundurus and Fake Out on Cresselia which took damage from the Rocky Helmet. Then Miguel double targets my Conkeldurr with both his Pokemon, and despite Ludicolo getting a critical hit Scald and the Thunderbolt from Thundurus, Conkeldurr manages to live on a sliver of HP (thanks to the Sitrus Berry) and retaliates with Drain Punch onto the Ludicolo, which Crits and leaves it low on health about 20%. Surprisingly, Cresselia also crits Thundurus with an Ice Beam doing over 50% to Thundurus and revealing no Sitrus Berry. At this point I can easily get 2 free KOs with Mach Punch and Ice Beam, but he switchs out Thundurus for Bisharp and lets Ludicolo faint to the Mach Punch. Metagross comes in in place of Ludicolo and knocks out Conkeldurr with a Bullet Punch and Bisharp actually does about 80%- 95% to Cress with Knock Off as she paralyzes Bisharp with Thunder Wave.
At this point, I only have a healthy Charizard Y and Aegislash, with a weaken Cresselia to beat the rest of his team. I was in a great position as Charizard Y can easily faint either Steel types with Drought boosted Flamethrower and elect to target the bigger threat, Bisharp. However, Miguel switches out his Bisharp, preserving it for the late game I suppose, and sacks his weaken Thundurus. Metagross fires a Zen Headbutt onto my Cresselia and KOs it with ease. Now this point its Mega Metagross and a paralyzed Bisharp against my Charizard Y and Substitute Aegislash. At this point, I'd decided to go after the Bisharp since he's "forced" to Sucker Punch and Metagross protects, while setting up a Substitute for Aegislash. LITERALLY BEST FAIL SAVE DECISION EVER. The Metagross crits Charizard Y with a Bullet Punch and Sucker Punch actually picks up the KO while Aegislash subs up. This terrified me as I'm forced into playing with King Shield-Stance Change against both a healthy Bisharp and Mega Metagross. So my only win condition was to target the Bisharp and go for King's Shield when Metagross attacked. Fortunately for me, Miguel attacks into Aegislash 2 times with Metagross so it's attack stat is greatly reduced, as Bisharp keeps Sucker Punching. Then it dawn on me that Bisharp was Banded or choiced in some fashion as I did left my Aegislash exposed to get a Substitute so I continuously Kings Shield and attack the Bisharp unto I was able to knock it out in three hits. Basically at this point, it was a -6 Mega Metagross against healthy Aegislash with Substitute up. I forgot how exactly it ended, but I finish the battle with a crit, or even a high roll most likely. Miguel was able to beat me last time off a really high roll with a +1 Zen Headbut (he had Power-Up Punch) unto my heavily physically defensive Thundurus so this battle was kinda a bitter sweet win in honestly. There was hax on both sides but I think had he not Sucker Punched my Charizard Y it would have been over for sure
So I actually have the battle codes for the Semis and the Final matches against Token and Delta. If you like to watch the video, then sure go on since it I'm still going to give my after thoughts about the battles.
Semi Finals Bo3; VS Token (Team: Mega Kangaskhan, Togekiss, Nidoking, Hydreigon, Ferrothorn, Terrakion)
Game 1
I bring: Cresselia, Landorus-T ; Charizard Y , Conkeldurr
He brings: Togekiss, Nidoking ; Mega Kangaskhan, Hydreigon
Battle Code: 8A4W - WWWW - WW2Z -Q9X8
Game 2
I bring: Sylveon, Landorus-T ; Cresselia, Charizard Y
He brings: Hydreigon Togekiss ; Nidoking, Mega Kangaskhan
Battle Code: FKHW - WWWW - WW2Z - Q92Q
Finals: VS Delta (Team: Charizard Y, Landorus-T, Breloom, Mamoswine, Staraptor, Milotic )
Game 1:
I bring: Charizard , Cresselia ; Landorus-T , Aegislash
He brings: Mamoswine, Breloom ; Landorus-T , Staraptor
Battle Code: X4JG - WWWW - WW2Z - Q93U
Game 2:
I brings: Charizard Y , Landorus-T ; Cresselia , Conkeldurr
He Brings: Breloom, Charizard Y ; Staraptor , Landorus-T
Battle Code: K79G - WWWW - WW2Z - Q95W
Friendly Match (Game 3): 9B4W -WWWW - WW2Z - Q95R
Conclusion
For sure I'll leave a description of when I take out the battle code for potential future battles. I've probably discuss the team as extensively as I can so in the future there'll be a follow up post for any changes I make to this squad whether is from the EVs spread, item choices, or individual Pokemon. If I had to chose my MVPs of every battle, it had to be Charizard Y simply because the offensive pressure it provides with the Drought-boosted Flamethrower and the Tailwind to boost the speed for the rest of my Pokemon. Subsitute Aegislash and Thunder Wave Cresselia are the centerpiece of the team's defensive effort aid by AV Landorus-T thanks to the Intimidate drops and ability to freely use any attack. Conkeldurr and Sylveon make up the backbone of the team's overall offense give how powerful their attacks are and sometimes how very teams have capable switch ins when paired with Charizard Y.
I'm definitely going to test out other types of archetypes centered around Charizard Y and a host of other Megas for this blogspot. Thanks for reading and leave a comment below about the team if you like.
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