No Legends Team (Went 10-0!)

No Legends Team (Went 10-0!) 

January 12th 2015

Hi Everyone! Kiev697 aka Kevin here and I want to discuss/showcase my winning 10-0 team with you all. Here's a disclaimer: this team is not perfect and I just wanted to use it for fun in Eeveeli's No Legendaries Tournament. I think everyone kinda knows me for that guy who used that "legendary spam" team I used to win the first mock VGC2015 mini tourney. For this tournament in mind, which featured a ton of finalists and tourney winners from Justin livestream tournaments I at least wanted to prove I'm a capable player that can adapt without using the inevitably staple legends while having an early mindset of  VGC 2015 metagame. (well at least try considering I am new to VGC). Without further adieu here's a small team building guide.

Team Building

Immediately I wanted to use a considerable bulky mega pokemon capable of taking repeated neutral and some super effective hits in mind. For this torunement considered either Kang, Mawile, or even both at the time. I realized that hyper voice sylveon was relatively popular as well as rain considering these previous tournaments players used rain. In turn I felt like having M-Metagross fit the bill as the main mega to build around as it had an impressive 80/150/110 defenses as well as a 110 speed. Honestly M-Metagross would have been so much easier to build around if it weren't for it losing both it resistance to ghost and dark. I had to think of some counter measures to dark/ghost types for M-Metagross while in turn M-Metagross can shut down opposing mons. In the end I went with a standard-ish team that I thought would under preform against pokemon like M-Char Y and rain in mind but this team did ok I guess. So here's the team.



Cybertron (Metagross-Mega) @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 28 Atk / 48 SpD / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Zen Headbutt
- Hammer Arm
- Bullet Punch
- Protect

OK I know what you are thinking. Why the hell aren't you invest into attack instead for hp, speed and special defense. Truth is you are all right. M-Metagross is one of those pokemon that needs the attack and speed boosting nature to get the jump on the the base 108 pokemon and below. That's not what I had in mind. I wanted a metagross that can take hits with proper intimidate support thanks to Arcanine and can retaliate hard. To be frank, I don't think M-Metagross needs to much attack investment considering it adamant and tough claws make up for this. The speed investment is to outspeed at least neutral base 100 pokemon like M-Kang and virtually gave it enough bulk to live modest heat wave in the sand, sucker punch from adamant kang and bisharp, shadow ball from Aegislash and at least two earthquake from -1 Garchomp. I figured having Zen headbutt was my best stab option to hit bulky pokemon like Rotom-W, Amoonguss, and M-Venusar hard as well as 2hko anything not resisted or immune. As far as coverage is concerned, I decided to drop ice punch for bullet punch for two reasons: one to out prioritize sucker punchers like Bisharp while leave it open to any attack from a teammate, and two, pick off weaken pokemon. For my last option I opted for hammer arm as my answer to M-Kang, T-tar, Ferrothorn, and particularly Bisharp. Looking back I could have dropped hammer arm for ice punch because I basically was gonna rely on my five members just to handle M-Metagross weaknesses better then again I was expecting these pokemon to be popular. Practically this M-Metagross was meant to be a tank capable of doing reasonable damage and while absorbing enough hits as possible.


Despotar (Tyranitar) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Low Kick
- Ice Punch
- Crunch

Btw I love Tyranitar's german name so much better. Makes it more intimidating. Anyways this is my main scarfer and weather setter in case people bring M-Charizard Y or other speedy threats. Ev spread once again just the same as a usual scarfed Tyranitar with a reasonable movepool to abuse from. The main purpose of T-tar is to immediately pick up the KOs on dragon type pokemon with ice punch or use its stab rock slide to provide flinches. I opted to run low kick as my emergancy check to M-Kang, Bisharp, and opposing tyranitars. Finally crunch is there to catch pokemon like Gengar for a surprise. Honestly Tyranitar was able to function as a my surprise offensive pokemon capable of picking off pokemon M-Metagross despises.


Fruit Loops (Rotom-Wash) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 76 SpA / 124 SpD / 12 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Light Screen

My old Rotom-W set return as the main defensive captain of the team! Likewise if any of you have read my analysis on Rotom-W in these forums, I explain in better detail there but since this is a "new team" might as well discuss its roles. The ev spread given is enough to survive at least one hit from Mega Kang's double edge. Mega Mawile's play rough, and has a 6.3 chance to be ohkoed by Modest Mega Charizard Y's solar beam. Hydro pump and thunderbolt are somewhat standard moves you always see on rotom-w, nothing wrong nor innovative there. Light screen is basically my teams response to heavy special attackers but considering that there weren't any lengendaries (most are special attackers), I could have run reflect or protect instead. Funny thing is that Eckley may have actually beaten my team had I not decided to pull light screen to counteract against M-Camurupt and  this move practically gave me the 6-0 in the Swiss round to begin with. I can see why screens deserve more usage in this format as it cuts special attacks in half and buys enough time for your team to wall or beat the opposing team. Well Rotom-W may not have had its eyes  checked out (can't believe how many hydro pumps and will-o-wisp I missed) but it got the job down for my team nonetheless.


Clifford the Big Red Dog (Arcanine) @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Wild Charge
- Extreme Speed

Now for probably the most interesting choice for this team, choice band Arcanine. One of the main problems with this team is that it lacks proper priority and can get get wrecked by Talonflame regardless if I had Rotom-W and Despotar with me. Arcanine wasn't my first choice when considering a fire pokemon but I need another pokemon to resist hyper voice and check Mawile reasonably well. Acranine has a somewhat bulky base stats of 90/80/80 and with the ability intimidate, it can be a fantastic lead to against heavily physical teams lacking defiant/competitive users. Now onto the moveset and well its kinda obvious what the fire puppy is gonna run. Choice band flare blitz hits like a truck and no pokemon weak to fire or is weak defensively would want to take a hit like that. Close combat is another way for Arcanine to beat M-Kang as well as threaten rock type pokemon. Wild charge is once again coverage for water type  and flying pokemon like gyarados and talonflame. Finally its most important move: extremespeed. With this move Arcanine can easily out prioritize Talonflame and sucker punch users while doing a reasonable damage considering it is max adamant and choice band. CB Arcanine was my team's answer to rage powder/follow me users like Amoonguss, Togekiss, Volcarona, and others for sizable damage. I actually thought this set wasn't gonna be that great but honestly it better than I had anticipated. though I would change the ev spread to something more optimal considering their just standard. Anyways don't sleep on Arcanine or this fire puppy will rekt you!


hug (Ferrothorn) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Atk / 116 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Protect

Ferrothorn is Rotom-W partner in crime to beat water pokemon, M-Kang, faries, and main check to rain teams. Honestly, Ferrothorn can wall a ton of other pokemon lacking high offensive capability or lacking either fire/fighting coverage. Rocky helmet in tandem with iron barbs just makes life miserable to any physical attackers that makes contact with Ferrothorn. Leech seed is just twice as annoying considering how much health Ferrothorn can drain out of its opponent every turn. Protect is just there to scout out for any attacks and gain back leech seed damage back. The last two moves are somewhat self explanatory: gyro ball doing considerable damage to faster threats while power whip hits water, ground, and rock types hard with stab. If teams don't have an answer to Ferrothorn, chances are this thing will come out and just sit there chipping away at the opposing team with residual damage and stab moves. Make no mistake, Ferrothorn can wall teams if given the chance.


Rammstein (Sylveon) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
Level: 50
EVs: 108 HP / 116 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Shadow Ball
- Psyshock
- Moonblast

Seriously I bet Sylveon is gonna win a ton of regional and premier challenges just because of the sheer power of pixilated boosted hyper voice. I deviated the evs for this Sylveon a bit to take defensive hit a bit better though it wasn't much changes. Well there isn't much to discuss about this specs set other than just to hit hyper voice spread attacks. Shadow ball and psyshock are there to hit ghost and poison type pokemon like Amoonguss, Gengar and Aegislash hard. Moonblast it to get past wide guard users and hit them hard with a relatively strong attack. As far as synergy is concerned, Sylveon nukes every dragon, dark, and fighting type in VGC2015 and allows more room for Rotom-W, Ferrothorn, Tyranitar, and M-Metagross to setup or provide more offensive pressure.


Well here are the battles by other of swiss rounds and top cut battles
[SPOILER]
Round 1 Vs Connor: NXNW-WWWW-WWWV-GXG8
Round 2 Vs EvilSabre: FPMW-WWWW-WWWV-G9MM
Round 3 Vs Levi: HWBW-WWWW-WWWV-GJWW
Round 4 Vs Tygaa2: 9CJG-WWWW-WWWV-GRXB
Round 5 Vs Rthorne80: LQRW-WWWW-WWWV-H7KN
Round 6 Vs Eckley: YW9G-WWWW-WWWV-H7MK
Game 1 Vs Evilsabre: AWBW-WWWW-WWWV-HYFH
Game 2 Vs Evilsabre: CUPG-WWWW-WWWV-HYHE
Game 1 Vs Rthorne80: VF7W-WWWW-WWWV-Y4EG
Game 2 Vs Rthorne80: DRWG-WWWW-WWWV-Y4HW
[/SPOILER]

I'm glad this team was able to go 10-0 considering how many recognizable players where in Eeveeli's No Legendary Tournament. Hopefully I'll continue to participate in more tournaments like these so that everyone can get to have fun and get better that the game. Alright that's pretty much all I have to say.