Pokemon Forever Draft Analysis (Season 2)

Prelude

Alright so after an abrupt end to season 1 of the PFA, a couple of the managers (Mitch, Mudkiplegend) have decided to host a new season to make up for what happen during the end of summer. Honestly we were only able to get about 12 people including myself so this wasn't as large as maybe the previous season though these 12 are people we all know very well with each other within the PFA community so the chances of the league collapsing won't be as large as before. With any semi-competitive draft-based league, we had to chose our teams again with me being the number one pick in both the OU and RU draft. While this might seem sorta unfair to some, the draft itself was snake-style and so if I pick first in the OU draft, I have to wait for about 22 turns before I get a double pick which happen throughout the night. The draft was hosted on Saturday November 7th and I already drafted my team so without further delay, here's the main roster. For those interesting in the other opposing PFA teams, here's a link as well to compare with mine. 

OU Draft

Again more stalling 

First off let me elaborate on my thoughts for the first round pick since a couple of people have asked why I didn't draft something better like a Mega Evolution. Pretty much I knew this pick was "snipe-proof" and it was going to be 100% mine without no discussion. My overall 1st round pick needed to be a Pokemon who can fulfill many roles for my team,  be relatively bulky itself, and has to be something I'm completely satisfied with since I'm gonna have to wait another 22 turns before my next double pick. Obviously with 22 rounds, I knew certain Pokemon like Mega Altaria, Charizard X, Lati@s, Mega Venusaur, Heatran, Mega Gardevoir, Landorus-T, and a host of other powerful OU Pokemon would be picked so I had to accept the potential losses of desired picks (btw all these Pokemon were gone). Funny enough my main structure of the team itself I had in mine was kept intact and I actually drafted my back up team I felt was going to complement each other well. Kinda getting off tangent there, but for my first round pick of the OU draft and PFA Season 2 is the former Uber now S-tier mon Manaphy.

Alright IMO Manaphy is one of the best, if not the best Water-type in the OU tier currently and I actually debated whether I should get this guy or a possible Mega which was another primary option (won't mention which one). Regardless, Manaphy might look like an average Pokemon compared with base 100 stats across the board, but it access to one move that terrifies many teams, Tail Glow. After a single boost, Manaphy's Special Attack skyrocketed to +3 and can cap out with another boost. This means Manaphy can wall break many team cores and given this is a league-style format, I'll have what sets to bring for my opponent and plan for them accordingly. Aside from Tail Glow, Manaphy has two great STAB options in Surf (for overall power) and Scald (aka my anti-freeze/burn options) to chose from along with an great coverage options like Energy Ball for Water-types, Psychic for Poison-/Fighting-types, Shadow Ball for Ghost-/Psychic types, Dazzling Gleam for Dark-/Dragon-/Fighting-types, and Hidden Power for anything else I can't hit. Sweeping isn't the only thing that Manaphy can do as it can also use Knock Off to remove any items, U-turn to switch out for another Pokemon, Calm Mind as another viable setup option, Acid Armor to bulk up, Heal Bell for cleric support, screens to help my own team, and one last intriguing option. With Hydration as its ability, Manaphy can easily recover from any status in the rain similar to most of the pixies like Celebi or Shaymin when they use Rest. However, unlike switching out to cure from the sleep, Manaphy will automatically recover from the status (likely from sleep) after Hydration activates the end of the turn now it can stay in with its potential Tail Glow/Calm Mind boosts. Remember that with rain up Manaphy will receive a boost into its Water-type attack and pair this up with a self-regeneraton with Hydration/Rest with the SpA increase means very select Pokemon won't likely come off unscathed while KO prince of the seas. The last thing I'd want to mention is that Manaphy has an above average 100 HP / 100 Def / 100 SpDef so it can take any neutral hit if I don't have anything else to do and won't be easy to take down without a super effective targeting. Chances are Manaphy will likely be the kill leader for this team since it can sweep teams after any potential setup option. If fact, I'm certain that Mananphy will be the main MVP of the team and the league no doubt.

Next up is one of the most versatile Dragon/Ground Pokemon to ever come in the competitive Pokemon and among the most feared: Garchomp. People new to competitive should know that Garchomp has a distributed stat allocation of about 108 HP / 130 Atk / 95 Def / 80 SpA / 85 SpD / and its trollish 102 speed tier so it already faster than most of the metagame. As one can see, Garchomp pairs well with Manaphy as it can easily take on any Electric-types and threaten them with an STAB Earthquake (though I have to be careful whether they have HP Ice). To me, Garchomp is not just limited to setting up Stealth Rocks, it can easily be a great Sword Dance/Substitute user, defensive tank with Rocky Helment + Dragon Tail, a Choice Scarf abuser, or all out offense with Life Orb or Band. This Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon has so many potential sets thanks to its 600 base stat allocation and is probably one of the most difficult to switch into since I'll always have a set for each matchup. Dragon/Ground STAB is honestly great attacking coverage as few Pokemon bar Togekiss (who wasn't drafted) can switch this beast. Movepool-wise Garchomp is no slouch as well with access to Outrage, Dragon Claw, Earthquake, Fire Blast/Flamethrower, Rock Slide, Poison Jab, Iron Head, Hidden Power, Draco Meteor, Aqua Tail, and plenty other options.  In all, I expect great things from this Pseudo-Legendary and will prove its worth in future battles. 

The last Pokemon I guess some have commented as the most questionable pick, but I chose Mega Manetric since most of the the good  Mega Evolutions are gone now.  For sure Mega Manetric might seem outclass to something like a Mega Altaria, Mega Charizard X. or Mega Venusaur however this Mega Evolution I know people will struggle against surely. Manetric already comes with its Lighting Rod ability so I can switch this thing on any incoming Electric types against Manaphy and get a Special Attack raise. Of course movepool-wise, Mega Manetric doesn't have the best options with one good set... but Mega Manetric is a damn great Volt-Switch user at it. Manetruc is already a moderately fast with a base speed of 105 and to have it raised to 135 means this thing will likely be the fastest thing on the field bar Scarfers which is advantageous. Lets not forget Mega Manetric is one of the few Pokemon who has access to Intimidate so it can drop the Attack stat of the opponent and immediately Volt Switch out for another Pokemon. The Intimidate drops will allow Mega-Manetric to take some physical hits and stay in more often than usual. 

As I mentioned earlier, Mega Manetric is one of the best Volt-Switch users in the game and it can easily pick off any Water types and most Steel types with the combination of its Electric STABs (Volt-Switch, Thunder, Thunderbolt), Fire-type coverage (Flamethrower, Overheat), and other coverage option like Hidden Power, Signal Beam, Discharge, Charge Beam, Thunder Wave, or even Rain Dance. There are some interesting Electric-type moves Mega Manetric can use as well such as Eerie Impulse (drops the foe's SpA by 2 stages), Magnet Rise (grants Ground-type Immunity), and Electric Terrain grants Sleep immunity and increases the power of Electric-type attacks by 50%. Mega Manetric will probably the main momentum shift Pokemon since I'd expect it to pressure my opponent and continuous maintain a volt-turn core as seen in the next picks 

UU Draft

Now that the OU picks where chosen, I'd have to patch up some glaring weaknesses, get a good core going along with a strong Defog user. Funny enough, my UU picks actually what I'd envision to be since I was last to pick my 1st and 3rd Round UU pick but first for the 2nd round meaning I had a double pick. For sure I'd expected Pokemon like Suicune, Shaymin, Nidoking, Milotic, or Mamoswine to get picked immediately but the next Pokemon I was surprised it wasn't picked sooner...

Of course I'm talking about Crobat, the main MVP of the PFA Spooky Cup (not the actual event) teams I'd use to go perfect a couple of weeks ago. Crobat is one of the best utility Pokemon in the game since it rather unpredictable with its movepool and well-rounded high base stats. As everyone knows, Crobat has a blistering 130 base speed and it can easily get off fast Defogs, Brave Bird, Taunt, or U-turn for my team. This is not the only thing Crobat since it has access to Nasty Plot with a nice Special Attack movepool so I could setup on unsuspecting opponent. Honestly Crobat can the capability to sway the battle in my favor with moves like Super Fang to cut the opponent's HP in half, Haze to prevent any opposing setup, Toxic to wear down walls, Roost for recovery, Hypnosis to put target to sleep, Whirlwind for phazing, and even Tailwind for additional speed control. Though I'd expect my opponent to bring checks to Crobat, they won't know what set it will be until its too late. 

Roserade is a interesting choice for my draft and one I honestly believe will serve me well in the long run. The team needed another resistance to Electric considering Crobat was just picked as well as a strong check to Fairy- and Water-types. From the special standpoint,  Roserade has an incredibly high base 125 Special Attack and 105 Special Special Defense meaning I can use this Grass/Poison type as either an offensive attacker or a semi SpD wall with access to recovery. Even its two abilities highlight just how diverse Roserade is with Technician boosting the power of Hidden Power or any of its weaker attacks by 50%, and Natural Cure which cures Roserade of any status conditions. Offensively, Roserade learns moves like Sludge Bomb, Giga Drain, Energy Ball, Leaf Storm, Magical Leaf, Dazzling Gleam, Extrasensory, boosted Hidden Power, Shadow Ball, and even Weather Ball so its incredibly diverse Special Attacker. On the defensive standpoint, Roserade has access to recovery options (Synthesis, Leech Seed, Rest), status moves like Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, Toxic, Aromatherapy, and two forms of hazards in Spikes and Toxic Spikes. On the latter part I'd just mentioned, now my team has access to all forms of hazards not just Stealth Rocks so this allows for my main attackers like Manaphy, Garchomp, Mega Manetric, etc to have an easier time sweeping the opposing team.

The last pick of the UU draft I was conflicted to chose either Entei or Arcanine on the team however when Entei was chosen before my pick, I knew Arcanine was an automatic pick for me. By having Arcanine on the team, I now had a Fire/Water/Grass core in Manaphy/Roserade/Arcanine, a Flash Fire user to switch into any opposing Fire-type attack, and a secondary Intimidate user to pair with Mega Manetric to form an duel Intimidate core which no one in the league has. Considering my time using Arcanine in VGC and a back in XY UU, this thing can be run in two different way either offensive with a Band/Life Orb or defensive with Rocky Helmet/Leftovers. Coverage-wise Arcanine has a better options than my previous Fire-type Entei (from season 1) with attacks like Flare Blitz, Close Combat, Wild Charge, Overheat, Dragon Pulse, Crunch, and even Extreme Speed priority. From a defensive standpoint, Arcaine has a above average defenses (90/80/80), however when factoring in the Intimidate drops and Will-o-Wisp, Arcanine can be one of the most annoying wall to take down if that wasn't enough, Arcanine is one of the few Fire-type Pokemon with access to recovery in Morning Sun so this move can complement its defensive sets and stall out games. 

RU Draft

Durant was rather an odd-choice at first, however as anyone notice, I haven't drafted either a Steel-type or Bug-type Pokemon so I'd decided this was going to be my main RU pick. While I knew about Durant being a powerful setup user with Hone Claws to alleviate the effects of Hustle, there were three things that caught my eye. The first being Durant has access to Baton Pass so I have another momentum Pokemon like Manaphy, Mega Manetric, and Crobat to chose one that can also pass at least one stat boost (sadly no Hone Claws since that's Attack + Accuracy). Second, Durant has a high base speed stat of 109 which faster than even the Muskateer Pokemon + Infernape! The last thing is with a base 109 Attack with Life Orb + Hustle + Hone Claws boost means this steel ant is going hit hard like a nuke. There are some teams I notice that if Durant is able to get its boost, it can sweep without any hesitations.

With my next double picks coming up, another potential core could be made and funny enough these two Pokemon weren't sniped from me. Starting with the second RU pick, I chose Uxie, the only returning team member for the Los Angeles Nidokings for Season 1.  Though Uxie was brought once in the Season 1 before the league somewhat collapse in Week 5, this thing was able to come clutch against the week 4 matchup by paralyzing targets and pivoting into powerful attacks. Course that battle was haxy with the Thunder Wave paralysis but Uxie definitely slowed down the enough so the rest of my team can potentially breakthrough the opposing team.

Alright I guess I should say the same stuff I'd mentioned earlier about Uxie from my previous analysis of my first team, but will mention it again briefly. To start off, Uxie has an impressive bulk with 75 HP / 130 Def / 130 SpDef overall as well as solid 95 speed for a wall/pivot. In that first analysis, Uxie as mentioned was my main Fighting-/Ground-type resistance/immunity respectively thanks to both its Psychic and Levitate ability. While the current team now has far better dedicated support Pokemon from the like of Garchomp, Roserade, Crobat, and Arcanine, this alleviates Uxie's role for the team of being a wall moderately and it can used a pivot switch option. People often stress Uxie is an inferior Cresselia (which not doubt it is),  however Uxie has access to moves Cresselia would dream of like Foul Play, Knock Off, Memento, Stealth Rocks, and most of all, U-Turn which further cements the team as a strong Volt-Turn team. Lastly Uxie has somewhat notable coverage options like Giga Drain, the elemental punches, Dazzling Gleam, Energy Ball, Water Pulse, and other attacks not mentioned here. In all, Uxie to me is a versatile wall and pivot which I know my opponents will have difficulty dealing in the mid-game. 

My last RU pick was honestly like the only pick I'd probably questioned myself not because it was "forced" but I realized that all of my first 3 priority choices for the tier were chosen. Aromatisse breaks the team's natural speed theme going with its abysmal 29 base speed, however its a great wish passer and cleric Pokemon to recover lost HP and status ailments for my team. Originally I wanted to go with Florges instead of Aromatisse given I had the chance to do so as the last UU pick, though there were a couple things this particular pure Fairy-type had over the other. First off, Aromatisse has an arguably better ability than Florges, probably one in which every cleric would dream of having in Aroma Veil. This basically to put it simple prevents Aromatisse from having its move choices limited so Taunt won't work, Encore won't trap it from using the same move, Disable will fail, Heal Block fails ironically as is sound, and Attract/Torment won't stop Aromatisse from using its moves. This allows Aromatisse to do its job as being a better wish passer or cleric support than any of my other Pokemon on the team and even in this league. Second, Aromatisse has a fair defensive stat total of 101 HP / 72  Def /  89 SpDef  so its can already pass larger wishes and is slightly more bulkier on the physical defensive end than either Clefable, Sylveon, or Florges. Sure its Special Defense isn't as high as the others but I can at least boost it up with Calm Mind, or use other coverage options like Disable, Thunder Bolt, Energy Ball, and hilariously enough Flash Cannon to hit opposing Fairy-types hard. Aromatiss will be the team's dedicated cleric support and one which can do its job effectively.

NU/PU Draft

both are combined

Now that the RU draft was chosen, its finally time to supplement the team with any NU/PU additions like potential wall-breakers, walls, and setup users. There was vote a couple of days before the draft should Greninja be in the  league and most said yes if it were Torrent. I guess where I'm going with this is I wanted another attacker who can certainly gain momentum and pick off the remaining targets so I chose the middle stage evolution Frogadier.  This is for sure my most "questionable" pick of the draft but hear me out... Protean is an amazing ability. Period. Yeah I could have gotten Kecleon as a Protean user but its ridiculously slow with a base 40 speed and I don't want any slow attacker other than my walls for this team. Frogadier has a base speed of 97 so its sits around another speed threshold, though not enough to break the 100s. There are some redeeming qualities in with this frog the first being it has access to Toxic Spikes and U-turn.  It was upsetting to find out Frogadier didn't learn Spikes as a level-up move, but regardless now I have a secondary Toxic Spike setter aside from Roserade which sorta alleviates its to Spikes hazards duties. U-turn allows Frogadier to switch out of any bad matchups and finalizes my fast volt-turn core with Mega Manetric, Manaphy, Crobat, Uxie, and Durant. Lastly Frogadier has vital coverage enough to possibly threaten many teams with Gunk Shot, Ice Beam, Hidden Power, Grass Knot, Hydro Pump, U-turn, and others. Frogadier is a Pokemon I feel like will get 5-7 kills this season nor more no less... and yes that's a bold prediction.

With both Rhydon and Golurk picks gone (though I won't complain about this), I'd debated between choosing  Golem, Regice, and Regirock since I wanted another Stealth Rock user aside from Garchomp/Uxie and a wall. Eventually the decision was made to chose  Regirock for the team considering it forms a fantastic wall core between Aromatisse and Uxie. Both of these Pokemon can threaten Fighting-types while Regirock can handle any other rogue Poison-types. Steel-types might be somewhat problematic but I have my OU and UU drafts to handle them incredibly well and Regirock is extremely bulky on both physical and specially with its 80 HP / 200 Def  / 100 SpDef overall. Not only can Regirock can take strong physical attacks, but it can setup Stealth Rocks, Thunder Wave targets (which Golem can't), and resist Flying-types since I don't have a reliable counter to Bird Spam aside from my Mega Manetric and possibly Arcanine. Coverage-wise, Regirock doesn't need much with Quake-Edge (Rock-/Ground-Type) coverage hitting everything in the game neutrally, though it also has access to the elemental punches, Drain Punch for recovery, Toxic, Iron Head, etc. In all, Regirock is probably going to be my hard wall for anything physically powerful enough to break this team and it will surely take on the strongest Pokemon in the league format.

My last overall pick I guess just looked at what my team didn't have and realized I didn't have a strong Fighting-type Pokemon to complement the team.  I was conflicted between Sawk, Throh and what was the last pick overall, Gurdurr but I chose the latter for the following reasons. Well the main reason why I picked Gurdurr is relatively simple, its basically a weaker AV Conkeldurr from an offensive standpoint, however has an incredibly physical and fine special defense stats thanks to the the Eviolite item boosting both. Unlike the Assault Vest restricting Conkeldurr from using any status moves, Gurdurr on the contrary can especially like Bulk Up to boost both its Attack and Defense stats to threatening levels. The Bulk Up set with Eviolite was intriguing to use since Gurdurr already has a 1.5x defense increase so it can can setup on any weak attacker and just recover back HP with STAB Drain Punch. Another reason why I picked Gurdurr over both Sawk and Throh as it has access to priority STAB Mach Punch (which can be boosted with Iron Fist) and I don't want to rely on Extreme Speed Arcanine or Quick Attack Frogadier though the team is fast enough to not worry too much about priority. The only downside in all this is Gurdurr is going to be a prime target to Knock Off, though the issue there is most Dark-types won't want to stay in on this thing so probably other Knock Off users will try doing so. In all, Gurdurr was definite a steal in this league format and one that will prove its worth in battle. 

Conclusion

So this is my draft analysis so there you guys have it, feel free to counter team me as you please want to do exactly that. Again that statement is for those in this league and I know the Nidokings will take the Championship this season. 

Be Afraid of Your Shadow: A Top 10 U.S Battle Spot Team (Season 10)

Admission & Prelude

I'm gonna be blunt and say the following team reports (including an upcoming one) aren't necessary mine at all (both my "Trap" and "Sand-Room") but taken from a Japanese player by who goes by the name of either Myan or Myon (みょん)  . These two teams are arguably some of the most fun teams I've had the pleasure of using on Battle Spot Doubles from late June to early September. I did happen to battle this player 3 times as he used each of the original variation to what I'm about to post in the upcoming thread. Pretty much owe my successful runs on Battle Spot to Myon.  So without further ado, here's one of those teams.

Background

Around mid-June, I was laddering on the Battle Spot ladder using my old Mega Metagross team and I encountered a particular Japanese team consistent of the following Pokemon: Gengar, Mamoswine, Raikou, Breloom, Gyarados, and Hydreigon. Aside from maybe the Gengar (which I correctly called it as the Mega initially) this team wasn't composed of the more common Pokemon like Landorus-T, Aegislash, Mega Kangaskhan,Thundurus, Sylveon, Amoonguss, etc. To me it looked like a rag tag team but I recalled this guy had a 1870+ rating on Battle Spot so I felt it was some kind of elaborate Perish Trap team. In my first encounter with this team, I used Mega Metagross and Thundurus as he lead with Mamoswine and Gengar. Myon went on a hard read that I'd protect with Metagross and as he double targets Thundurus with both his Pokemon. To his dismay, he actually misses the Icicle Crash on Thundurus and Mega Metagross KOs the Mega Gengar immediately. Pretty much after a couple of turns, he forfeits realizing Mega Gengar was his key win condition and should have prioritize on Mega Metagross instead. The following day I encounter him around the a rating of 1890+ just close to 1900. This time the battle goes poorly on my part as his Mega Gengar goes for a Will-O-Wisp while Mamoswine KOs my Thundurus. Honestly I felt this time he'd protect Mega Gengar but instead goes for a nice counter to my aggressive play and should have recognized it. I send out Hydreigon to setup Tailwind as he switches to Gyarados for Mamoswine and Thunder Wave my dragon the following turn. At this point, I have a paralyzed Hydreigon and a -1 burned Mega Metagross that couldn't do anything else but activate Gyarados's Sitrus Berry item but the match was decided there.

Despite losing to Myon (みょん)  rightfully so in the second battle, there was just something about the team I wanted to work on immediately. The team itself has a somewhat hyper offensive mode reliant upon both Mega Gengar's trapping ability: Shadow Tag to disallow the opponent of making any optimal switch outs and disruption by using certain teammates. Again I don't know the full extend of how his team works out but I was able to get a rating of 1905 with the same team while he was around 1960+ before he probably reset his rating or something. Here's the proof of my Top 10 in the US; for those who want a "clearer" image  just check the Pokemon Global Link and change the current season to season 10.

Prior to Mid-June 2015, I never used or considered Mega Gengar as a viable Mega Evolution in the VGC 2015 format because of the "gimmicks" associates with it. Of course, some of these ideas were based on what some might call "best of one" strategies such as Perish Trap, Encore-Disable, or Fake Tears offense. Yes I'm well aware of others such as P3DS or Wolfey have used before me, both I wanted to actually work for my win and not just rely on 33% double protect chances or losing Mega Gengar prematurely. I'm not criticizing Perish Trap as a viable VGC strategy as its one of the most difficult  to pull off, but its just the reliance of stalling out for 3 turns is what doesn't appeal to me...yet.  Other teams I've used successfully on the ladder were my Mega Scizor Heavy Rain (Peaked at 1884) or Mega Metagross Hyper Offense (Peaked at 1865) team. Not going to lie but I pretty much started using the new Mega Gengar Trap team on the middle ladder (1690+) and continued on a 24-2 (not counting 3 "communication failed" battles were my internet craps out though no rating drops) run to reach to 1905. Those two losses were mostly due to how reliant status ailments are (aka Will-O-Miss) and skewed crits can mean defeat almost immediately. The rest of my wins were based on my opponent bringing what I'd expect and knowing when to let go of Mega Gengar while maintaining my other win conditions.

Recreating the Team

(Note: I'm going to explain all of this in depth later)

The team core started with these three Pokemon in particular: Gengar, Mamoswine, and Gyarados. Essentially I reasoned the goal for Mega Gengar wasn't to setup any "Perish Trapp" mode, rather to help key teams like Mamoswine and Gyarados do their particular role. Mega Gengar + Mamoswine is a great response against the Double Genie as Mamoswine can OHKO most Landorus-Therian and Thundurus-Incarnate by using Icicle Crash. Finally this Gyarados functions as a defensive pivot against most physical targets and even functions similar to Thundurus by using Thunder Wave and Taunt against key targets while spamming Waterfall for the potential paraflinch. Funny enough usually my opponents would bring Pokemon what are meant to handle Mega Gyarados like Thundurus and Amoonguss, however once they realize I'm using Mega Gengar its too late as Mamoswine or Gyarados can neutralize these targets immediately. 

The core was still weak to opposing Ghost-/Psychic-/Water-types like Aegislash, Cresselia and even strong rain teams who are all capable of taking out the original three. For Rain teams, Assault Vest Snarl Raikou was a decent answer as Gyarados can paralyze them while Mega Gengar forces them in with Shadow Tag. Hydreigon is another Pokemon I've actually used extensively for almost 5 months at the time and I almost always had one on a team. This time Hydreigon acted as my main check to Bisharp, Aegislash, Cresselia opposing Ghosts, and even my own secondary speed control by acting as the main Tailwind setter just for weather teams.

http://www.teammagma.net/teambuilder/#?94m|243|286|635|473|130

My only main concern with this team was maintaining "insurance" against opposing Water-types (Milotic, Suicune, Rotom-W, Swampert), Rock-/Steel types (Aegislash, Bisharp, Tyranitar, Exadrill), Dark type Pokemon (Hydreigon, Scrafty, Tyranitar, Krookodile, Greninja) and even Mega Kangaskhan. Breloom was the last Pokemon for this team since it can deal with all these after-mentioned threats (kinda like a poorly used duck-tape) since it has priority Mach Punch which the team lacked to beat Mega Kang/T-Tar/Driller, Bullet Seed to beat Water-types, and Spore to put things to sleep. Though I've only used it lately. Mega Gengar + Breloom is a strong lead as I'm able to put something to sleep as Mega Gengar traps the sleeping Pokemon. Now that I've discuss the main team building element, its time to discuss the Pokemon individual roles.

The Team

Gengar-Mega @ Gengarite  

Ability: Shadow Tag  

Level: 50  

EVs: 92 HP / 164 SpA / 252 Spe  

Timid Nature  

- Shadow Ball  

- Sludge Bomb  

- Will-O-Wisp  

- Protect  

Milestones:

-Max Speed to outspeed base 108 before Mega Evolving

-2HKOs Sylveon, Mega Salamence, Mega Gardevoir, Aegislash, Amoonguss (on a roll), etc with the appropriate moves. 

-Will-O-Wisp give Mega Gengar vital "defensive achievements" without sacrificing speed or SpA

-Sludge Bomb has a 99.6% chance to 2HKO Mega Kangaskhan aside from the the potential poison/crit damage (MAJOR MILESTONE)

-Dumped the rest of the EVs in HP. 

Without question, Mega Gengar is the very nucleus of the team thanks to IMO the best utility-based ability in the game: Shadow Tag. Here's a quick summary of how Shadow Tag works, Mega Gengar is able to trap most Pokemon from switching out aside from Ghost types so that I can break down opposing teams with the appropriate Pokemon. Though it would be wise to add "bulk" into Mega Gengar, I felt that base 110 and 130 speed was a benchmark too important to pass up since Gengar can still outspeed base 108 Pokemon like Terrakion. Aside from the speed investment, the only notable achievement I wanted out of Mega Gengar is to 2HKO 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan nearly most of the time if in case it becomes a problem even if I'd went for Will-O-Wisp against it. Speaking of the status ailment, Will-O-Wisp allows Mega Gengar to burn crucial target especially physical attackers so they are trapped in without being a major threat to my team. Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb round out Mega Gengar's attacking options as Shadow Ball can inflict heavy damage against most team like Mega Metagross or Aegislash while Sludge Bomb 2HKOs most Fairy-types like Mega Gardevoir or Sylveon. Protect is an important move in of itself as it allows Mega Gengar to survive another turn while keeping the opposing side trapped in.

The key for this team's success to to maintain Mega Gengar long enough so that its outlived its usefulness once the opposing side has about 2 Pokemon left, or if  any Fairy-, Ghost-, or Psychic-types are around. Of course there is an element of surprise using this team since people usually don't expect a Mega Gengar without either a Liepard or Perish Trap like team. Once Mega Gengar has Mega Evolved, its mostly up to the rest of teammates below to disrupt/snipe key targets.

Mamoswine @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Thick Fat
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Superpower

Milestones:
-Outspeeds Adamant Scarf Landorus-T
-Can Still OHKO Landorus-T and Mega Salamence (on a roll) with Icicle Crash.
-Speed reaches up to 217 speed with Scarf

Mamoswine is the definition of "anti-meta" if you want something to KO Landorus-T and Thundurus most of the time. With Mamoswine being part Ground-type, it cannot get paralyzed by Thundurus so it can function as a great Scarfer to KO key targets. For instance, with Mega Gengar being vulnerable to any STAB Earthquake from Landorus-T, Mamoswine's job is designated to eliminate any of these flying tigers (or whatever you'd like to call it) with a quad super effective Icicle Crash. Mamoswine is even  great pick against most Mega Salamence teams especially against "Japan Sand" as it can KO most of team archetype with its coverage options. Again Icicle Crash is meant for any Landorus-T, Zapdos, Thundurus, Amoonguss, Hydreigon, and Mega Salamence as most of these targets have a chance of being OHKO. STAB Earthquake is another fine option Mamoswine has to beat most Fire, Rock, Steel, Poison, and Electric types like Heatran, Raichu, Bisharp, Tyranitar, and even opposing Mega Gengar. Rock Slide is meant for Fire-/Flying-types like Mega Charizard Y, Thundurus, Zapdos, Volcarona, Mega Salamence, Gyarados, etc. Though I did have Ice Shard for a couple battles early one, I'd eventually opted for Superpower as another means to OHKO Mega Kangaskhan and, more specifically Mega Tyranitar if I ever encounter it since a Dragon Dance variant is an threat to the whole team.











Gyarados @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Atk / 92 Def / 44 SpD / 76 Spe
Impish Nature
- Waterfall
- Taunt
- Thunder Wave
- Protect

Milestones:
-Jolly Mega Kangaskhan's -1 Double Edge is a 3HKO factoring Intimidate.
-Terrakion's -1 Rock Slide has a near 100% to 4HKO Gyarados.
-Intimidated Gyarados can still 2HKO 4 HP Landorus-T
-Choice Specs Sylveon's Hyper Voice only 3HKOs.
-Survives a Specs Draco Meteor from Hydreigon.


Anyone use to either a Dragon Dance Gyarados, or even expected a Mega Gyarados might be surprised to see this rather unusual set instead. Without question, defensive Gyarados has been the main defensive backbone of the team aside from Mega Gengar due to its Water/Flying-typing and intimidate ability. Since most of the team doesn't have any form of Defense EVs in their spreads, Gyarados's tasked to act as a pivot while spreading Intimidate drops on the opposing side. Coupled with Mega Gengar's Will-O-Wisp, Gyarados can surprisingly help neuter most physical attackers as they are render near useless while being unable to switch out due to Shadow Tag. Taunt is a tech option to shut down any Amoonguss, Cresselia, or any otherd from going for their support options. Since most people expected Gyarados to be either the Mega or a Dragon Dance variant, they would attempt often send in their support Pokemon (aka Amoonguss) and leave it exposed for a Taunt. For sure this has caught many players off by surprised and coupled with Mega Gengar's trap ability, they are rendered near useless throughout much of the battle (or 3 turns).

Thunder Wave is the team's primary speed control method considering Defensive Gyarados has the bulk to live and paralyze most of the top Megas in the game (Kangaskhan, Charizard Salamence, Gardevor, etc). Waterfall is Gyarados only STAB option but paired with Thunder Wave this combination of paraflinching can oftentimes sway a battle into my favor by getting free turns. Despite the lack of attack investement, Gyarados has enough power to 2HKO most Landorus-T and 4 HP Landorus-T if intimidated. In all, most of my victories would have been posssible without Gyarados acting as the defensive anchor of the team.










Raikou @ Assault Vest
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
IVs: 22 Atk / 30 Def
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Extrasensory
- Snarl

Milestones:
- 2HKOes most Milotic/Politoed/Charizard Y variants without SpD investment or Sitrus Berry
- 252 SpA Modest Choice Specs Sylveon has a 10.2% chance to 2HKO with Hyper Voice.
- 252 SpA Aegislash's Shadow Ball can only 3HKO.
- Slightly cut speed investment to outrun Serperior (Rare but Potent Threat)

While Gyarados handles physical attackers, Assault Vest Snarl Raikou acts as the team's semi-special wall and primary counter to Thundurus (aside from Swagger variants of course). It was imperative to find a Pokemon who can actually stand up against the dominate thunder genie while dealing with a vast majority of Water/Flying type Pokemon.  Thunderbolt was Raikou's main STAB of choice...well I guess anyone would have guessed it so the pure Electric-type tiger can rip against Water and Flying type Pokemon with ease. HP Ice is a vital coverage option most Electric-types tend to carry to hit Dragon-, Ground-, Grass-, and Flying-types, specifically Landorus-T and Mega Salamence for considerable damage. Snarl is the crux of this Assault Vest Raikou set as it allows my team to effectively disrupt the damaging power of the opposing two special attacking Pokemon by one stage while giving the team vital momentum to quickly dispatch the weaken threats. Raikou in tandem with Gyarados is often used together when dealing with either rain/sun-based teams since most of these Pokemon are weak to STAB Thunderbolt or are vulnerable to Snarl spam.  Here's the thing, I never consider Snarling the intended special attackers no more than 2 times due to the possibility that my opponent can land a critical hit which can really hamper the team effort.

As mentioned now and in any Raikou set, the classic "boltbeam" combo of Thunderbolt and HP Ice was used to deal with a wide variety of threats, including both Thundurus and Landorus-T... though I'd need to make sure Raikou isn't face-to-face with a Scarf variant. Funny enough, Pressure has been a far reliable ability than I could image for this same reason its one of the many which goes on a particular order based on speed. Since most Scarf  Landorus-T's are either built to outspeed Mega Salamence or Mega Gengar, this will give me invaluable information determining indeed if Landorus-T is Choice Scarf, or holding a different item. Extrasensory was opted over Shadow Ball since I still needed coverage against the following Pokemon who can  beat this team: Amoonguss, Gengar, Nidoking/Queen, Mega Venusaur, Terrakion, Conkeldurr, Blaziken, etc.











Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 16 HP / 4 Def / 236 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Earth Power
- Tailwind

Milestones:
-Outspeed Base 95 speed tier
-Idealized HP Number so Life Orb recoil does less damage
-Can KO Excadrill (on a Roll or with prior LO Recoil), Bisharp, Heatran, Blaziken, etc with Earth Power.
-2HKOs most Cresselia/Aegislash using Dark Pulse
-OHKOs 4 HP Mega Metagross with Dark Pulse

As the team was still weak against Cresselia/Aegislash while maintain "speed control", I decided then to use the same Hydreigon set I'd used to reach 1865 on Battle Spot, except this time its EVs wasn't as "restricted" as before. Without question Hydreigon was often paired to fight opposing weather teams since it has access to one particular move few ran until more recently when Lagos popularized it: Tailwind. Just thinking back to why I'd started using Tailwind Hydreigon, there were times in which I have Hydreigon and it can easily scare off the opposing team by either protecting to scout the potential set, or switch out to a favorable matchup. With Tailwind, I now have a method of punishing most opposing switch outs/protect scouting while still maintaining offensive pressure with Hydreigon. By doubling the speed now, my team can potentially overrun most weather-based teams with their offensive proneness as Hydreigon takes point.

Even without Choice Specs, Life Orb Draco Meteor still hits rather hard against most targets while OHKOing Mega Salamence, opposing Hydreigon (without Haban Berry), 4 HP Landorus-T, etc. Again I'd like to reiterate that Draco Meteor though strong, isn't the most used attack as this Hydreigon is meant to be an all-out attacker and any Special Attack drops will hinder its mid-late game value. Dark Pulse is the preferred attack against most targets due to how strong Dark-type is against the rest of the type chart while the extra chance to flinch can be beneficial at time. Earth Power was chosen over Protect for three reasons: 1) Fire/Steel types were still rather threatening, I don't have an answer to Bisharp aside from Breloom, and 3) to act as a "suicide" lead.  Pretty much the idea of Tailwind Hydreigon is to setup Tailwind for the team ASAP, do as much meaning full damage as possible, and go down as another Pokemon like Breloom or Raikou can finish the job. If Hydreion manages to KO its intended targets while impedes against the opponent's plan then its has done its job and go down. (PS: Life Orb kinda helps Hydreigon achieve this role as well).










Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch
- Spore
- Protect


Milestones:
-Standard Breloom set.
-KOs 4 HP Scarf Tyranitar with Technician Mach Punch
-Can 2HKO Milotic, Rotom-W, and Suicune with Bullet Seed.
-Guess that's it...

I guess I should explain Breloom even though people figure reason why its on this team.With the last five Pokemon in placed, I'd figured that Breloom's tasked to beat out any potential Water-types, Dark-types, and put anything to sleep with Spore. Despite being the least and quite often most replaced member of the team, Breloom was definitely able to pull its weight when I need it to take out either a Bisharp, a Milotic, stop Trick Room, or even finish off any target with its priority Mach Punch. Breloom was an vital asset against Mega Swampert rain teams and even sand in general as it can 2HKO most targets with either a Bullet Seed, Mach Punch or at the very minimum put the target to sleep. Breloom can also handle most Azumarill-Amoonguss archetypes as it can easily puts the aquatic rabbit to sleep so it can't Belly Drum. 

Other Pokemon I've Tried Out
(In place of Breloom)

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers / Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Atk / 108 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Protect

Milestones:
-Level 51's Ferrothorn
- Survives a STAB Close Combat from Terrakion

Standard Ferrothorn set based on the one Level 51 used. Pretty much the replacement Grass-type for Breloom when I don't feel like using it. What I like about Ferrothorn unlike Breloom was the fact its able to beat most Rain/Sand teams almost by itself in addition stall out the opponent with Leech Seeds. Gyro Ball and Power Whip are Ferrothorn's main STAB to hit most Pokemon hard especially with Gyro Ball. The only problem with using Ferrothorn is that my weakness to Blaziken/Bisharp and opposing Fire-types are magnified.  Its still a good Pokemon to handle Double Genie by itself but can really slow the team down especially if it cannot pick up the KOs quickly enough.








Arcanine @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 208 HP / 156 Def / 36 SpA / 28 SpD / 84 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Snarl
- Will-O-Wisp
- Morning Sun

Milestones:
-Speed creep against Jolly Tyranitar and Bisharp without Scarf.
-KOs Bisharp and Breloom with Flamethrower.
-2HKOs most Amoonguss sets.
-100 SpA Suicune's Scald becomes a 3HKO.

This Arcanine set...wasn't well thought out honestly since I'd just looked around for a defensive set and only found from a NB article. Originally I felt that Ferrothorn wasn't doing its job as a damage mitigater well so I've decided that another pivot switch Pokemon was in order. At the same time I felt that Gardvoir-Amoongus teams will rise after the dominating performance it received at US Nationals so I felt the team needed a Pokemon who can beat these two while recovering off HP. Flamethrower and Snarl are Arcanine's main attacking options though Flamethrower was for targets not named Heatran while Snarl was designated for special attacker. Arcanine is also the team's second Will-O-Wisp user to alleviate Mega Gengar and the second Intimidate user so I'm sure as well will see Bisharp or Milotic make an appearance. Safety Goggles Arcanine was another check for Sun teams with Charizard Y and Venusaur since it can Snarl both targets while the Fire-type can't get put to sleep by Venusaur with Sleep Powder.

Leads

About 70% of the time, my leads for this team is Mega Gengar + either Mamoswine, Breloom, or Gyarados dependent of the opposing team. If its standard CHALK without Thundurus, then I might just lead with Gengar + Gyarados to get an Intimidate on either Kangaskhan/Landorus-T while threatening Heatran/Landorus-T for a 2HKO. If Thundurus is on the opposing team, Mamoswine is almost an "auto-lead" especially if they have Landorus-T/Heatran/Mega Salamence as a well. The times I've used Azumarill/Mega Gardevoir/Amoonguss or Kang + Milotic/Bisharp is when I bring Breloom since its able to bypass redirection, put something to sleep, or threaten with a super effective hit. For most Trick Room based teams, I use Mega Gengar with either Gyarados with Taunt or Spore from Breloom to stop the potential setup (though I'll explain why this isn't full-proof in the threats section). If I do lead with Raikou (about 10% of the time with Mega Gengar) if my opponents has a predominate special attackers (about 3+ depending on the team). 

The other 20% of the time (the only time I might not lead with Mega Gengar) is when I encounter  weather-based teams in which Hydreigon/Raikou are my main options for Sun/Rain while Gyarados/Hydreigon is a common lead for most sand-based teams. Most weather teams have a teammate who's reliant of their respective field conditions/abilities to double their speed which is why Thunder Wave Gyarados or Tailwind Hydreigon will see action. Speaking of Hydreigon, its probably my most important win-condition to keep around considering the Tailwind boost will allow the rest the teammates to outspeed the foe to maintain offensive momentum within the next three turns. 

Threats

Of course with such a highly rated team comes some notable flaws in the teambuilding as well as matchups that might be slightly difficult to beat. Here's a list of the top 10 threats for this team I've rounded out for this team report. 

Blaziken + Bisharp

This matchup is honestly the most difficult to face off against considering the fact I'm using an offensive team myself only except it requires the use of stat-reducing strategies (which Bisharp deters), use of two Dark-type/Ice-type Pokemon for speed control (which Blaziken decimates both Mamoswine/Hydreigon), and all 6 of my Pokemon cannot take the combination of Fire/Dark/Steel/Fighting coverage these threats have. The main reasons why I'd even place this so high up on the list compared with anything else is because it all depends on the leads as well as which Pokemon is going to attack/protect on each turn. Hydreigon can setup Tailwind as it threatens both Bisharp and Blaziken with a Life Orb Earth Power, though if my opponent reads this they can easily KO Hydreigon with Superpower. All that Mega Gengar can do against is fire off a Will-O-Wisp to burn Bisharp, or trap either so that Breloom or Raikou can  knock out either or. Even if I setup Tailwind as my opponent protects Blaziken, there's an extreme likelyhood they go for the 33% double protect ( heck even triple protect ) so Bisharp has a straight shot at Mega Gengar. Focus Sash Breloom can put either Bisharp/ Blaziken to sleep though again it comes down to calling who's going to protect at the cost of its item at times. Defensive Gyarados easily no doubt is a hard counter to Blaziken, though if it still has Rock Slide or if Bisharp is still around I'd risk giving the Dark-/Steel-type the Defiant boost.

Competitive/Defiant Users

Bisharp, Milotic, Braviary, and other users like Wigglytuff and Primape (though not much these two in particular) can threaten easily threaten the team archtype since it forces me to reconsidering not bringing defensive Gyarados. Oftentimes this forces me to play hyper-offensive with the team and be reliant that Mega Gengar can stick around as long as possible without being KOed. Breloom and Raikou are my main answers in knocking out either Bisharp and especially Milotic who can easily spam Icy Wind to slow down my rather fast team. 

Mega Kangaskhan

Anyone might be wondering why Mega Kangaskhan is on the list when I claim to have "answers" for it? Well the problem with relying on Will-O-Miss and Intimidate spam is practically the reason why anyone would bring Mega Kangaskhan as they can easily patch this up by having a redirection partner to avoid burns, a Intimidate deter like Bisharp/Milotic to stop Gyarados from switching in so often, and Power-Up Punch to regain their "regular" offensive power back. Again this team's reliance on neutering Kang's attacking power than just start off killing it is the reason why I have Pokemon who are able to 2HKO the standard variant.

Transform Smeargle / Some DV Archtypes like Assist Void

Transform Smeargle with Dark Void is an near auto-loss for the team as I'm extremely reliant upon either Breloom, Hydreigon, Mamoswine, or Raikou to deal with Khan-Artist. Fake Out support from Mega Kangaskhan is almost guaranteed with their team archetype as it can flinch either of my Pokemon for reasonable damage. Again all I can hope against facing Dark Void teams is hope that either Dark Void misses on someone or if my opponent goes for an attack with Kangaskhan instead as Smeargle DVs ; both scenarios are unlikely. I specifically mentioned Transform Smeargle as it can easily turn into a copy of my own Mega Gengar and my opponent now has two powerful Mega Evolutions. This time, all the opponent has to do is trap my own Pokemon while its partner takes out the rest of my team.

Latios/Latios/Hydreigon (Dragon-types)

Again so what do all three of these Pokemon have in common? Well all of them can KO Mega Gengar, have free pass to fire a neutral Draco Meteor, or even Tailwind to maintain speed control. The Lati Twins are the most concerning as they have a fast base 110 speed in which my opponent can go for a speed tie when targeting Mega Gengar, and have enough coverage to threaten most of my team. Hydreigon is surprisingly more concerning for me since I typically don't know if it outspeeds my own so I always have to play with caution. Now here's the reason why they aren't higher on this list: Raikou + Shadow Tag . If my opponent inadvertently fires a Draco Meteor as say my AV Raikou used Snarl (best checks to either), not only will their special Dragon-type receive a -1 from Snarl but an additional -2 from Draco Meteor. Now their special Dragon-type is reduced to -3 and can't switch out now due to Mega Gengar being on the field as I prioritize on the other target. Raikou can continue to Snarl or even while all they can hope for a critical hit Draco Meteor. Once the Dragon-type is low enough, I'd immediately remove it from battle, though I'd usually wait until it cannot switch out anymore by taking out two other opposing Pokemon.

Safety Goggles / Redirection / Fake Out Trick Room

While I haven't battle too many Trick Room based teams as often during my 7th place run, their intermediate hyper offense during those 4 turns can be extremely threatening if I don't bring the right Pokemon. Mega Gengar can easily trap most Trick Room setters though they might have Ghost types like Aegislash, Dusclops, Sableye, even Gengar to threaten my own Ghost-type. Pretty much Mega Gengar has to inflict as much damage on the Trick Room setter like Cresselia while Gyarados attempts to get off a Taunt so the field condition is denied. Breloom is another threat to most Trick Room teams as I can potentially spore the target so either Mega Gengar or Breloom have another turn to KO it.

However since this isn't a perfect world, Trick Room will come some form of support like Safety Goggles Cress, Fake Out Kang/Scafty/etc, or redirection from Amoonguss. The way this team handles most Trick Room teams is Mega Gengar deal optimal damage (or burn Mega Kang), and protect it as long as possible (not spamming consecutive protects btw). To expand on that last point, Shadow Tag denies most TR teams of their main offense (unless its Mega Gardevoir TR) so my opponent has to lead with their most hyper offensive teammates. Cresselia moderately threatening however not offensively capable enough to carry its team in a TR offense. The main concern would be the TR user's partner. If my opponent leads with Gardevoir or Amoonguss, I may counter with Gengar or Gyarados/Breloom (last part dependent on the team). If my opponent leads with Cresselia/Heatran, usually  Mega Gengar/Gyarados are my best leads.

In essence, this team relies on the either Mega Gengar/Gyarados/Breloom to prevent a potential Trick Room with their scare crow-like presence (STAB Shadow Ball/Spore) or a  surprise Taunt. If my opponent does happen to setup TR then the objective would be to stall it out with Gyarados and Mega Gengar taking the brunt of the offense which isn't too great. That's why I started exploring other Pokemon like Ferrothorn or defensive Arcanine who can also take incoming attacks in Trick Room so Mega Gengar can stick around longer.

PuP Mega Kang / DD Mega Mence with either Competitive/Defiant

This matchup  I really don't look forward facing off as I realize this strategy cuts off Gyarados completely. Basically I'm either forced to face a Mega Kangaskhan/ Mence with either respective setup while I can't use Gyarados (or Arcanine later on) to beat these teams since this will risk giving either Bisharp or Milotic a +1/+2 in their respective attacking stats. For Mega Kang + Bisharp/Milotic, Mega Gengar and Breloom were usually my main answer since Gengar traps both of them in and threatens with a Will-O-Wisp burns while Breloom either threatens with a super effective Mach Punch or Spore. Mega Salamence with Dragon Dance is much more threatening IMO since after +1 it can easily 2HKO or even KO majority of my team with the Flying STAB Aerilate + Earthquake. 

Sylveon or Mega Gardevoir

The only reason why I'd mentioned these two is because my only answers are Mega Gengar and AV Raikou with Snarl since the rest of my team isn't resistant to a Pixilate Hyper Voice. Sylveon isn't as threatening since its slow however Mega Gardevoir is a threat in of itself as it can either go for a Psychic STAB on Mega Gengar, spam Hyper Voice for significant spread damage, or even Trick Room to allow its slower Pokemon to move first. My method of dealing with these two are Mega Gengar + Gyarados/Breloom since Gyarados has access to Taunt so it can shut down Amoonguss (a popular partner for Mega Gardevoir) or even paralyze Gardevoir with Thunder Wave. Breloom can easily bypass Rage Powder from Amoonguss, can live one hit from Mega Gardevoir with with Focus Sash to either Spore or KO with Bullet Seed. One thing to note is 164 SpA Mega Gengar can easily do about 70% to Sylveon (assuming 232 HP) and 78% to Mega Gardevoir. This isn't factoring the additional 30% chance of the 1/8th poison damage it can get so any of my Pokemon can take them out with a neutral STAB. 

Redirection

Though Taunt Gyrardos is usually my main answer to neutralize a redirection user like Amoonguss, Volcarona, Clefable, Clefairy, Togekiss etc are still rather annoying to face in battle. All they really need is a two turns like one to call the Taunt from Gyarados or Gengar (since lead Gengar usually carries it and suspect I have one) or the second turn. Once Taunted (and trapped), they are pretty much rendered useless for the next few turns. 

Swagger

Last but not least, Swagger. If my opponent is desperate (say Thundurus Vs. Mamoswine) and wants to win the battle based on a 45% confusion hit (factoring the 10% chance to miss). If I hit myself, it gives my opponent an opportunity, though depends on the circumstances of the match, but if my Pokemon gets past confusion, then it depends on who got swaggered. Mega Gengar, Raikou, or Hydreigon will attempt to take out the Swagger user immediately, though if Breloom, Gyarados, or especially Mamoswine get through then its likely they'll take out Thundurus or OHKO a different target.  Course my opponent can easily get a the free confusion turn and proceed to use this as a momentum shift in their favor.

Second Proof of Peak

Just in case anyone wants physical proof.

Closing Thoughts

So we finally got to the best part of the post...the end! Sure this team never won anything like a tourney but honestly it was one of the most fun teams I've used. Though I admit this team was just a rip off of another talented Japanese player (みょん myon7314) who can sure as hell beat my ass anytime of the day, I guess emulation is a good start to team building especially when you don't have the actually source of the team to work with (like a blog post). If there happens to be a blog post about the original team then I'll give credit where it's due. Well that's about so hopefully I'll make another team report soon. As always thanks for reading.

Finally... An Update!

Hello Everyone! Kevin / Kiev697 / Black117 here!


Its been a while since I posted here on Faraway Island, though I have somewhat of a minor update regarding the schedule of this site. First off, I'm not gonna lie but its been almost about a week since I've done any form of competitive battling, even from league battles (I'll get to that last part in the later bit). There's a loads of stuff to cover so I'm just going to cover them by points.

UPDATE: Experimental Sand Team

The last time I actually tested a team out on Battle Spot or Showdown was actually right after the new Mega Salamence "Quick Sand" team was publish (that's what the author calls it from the respective article). Despite the similarities to my old 1st VGC team, it has gone 20-10 on Battle Spot Doubles and on ranked fairly high on the showdown ladder, even getting close to win a tourney with it on Showdown twice. The team has undergone several changes even replacing Cresselia for Virizion  after facing several a couple of teams which had Suicune-Kang, Mega Gyarados, or rain in general. Pretty much Virizion scares the crap out of these Pokemon has been the reason why I've done well on Battle Spot after a rocky 2-3 start. I guess this is somewhat  of the "big" update regarding how this team is performing so its doing well, but this somewhat leads me to my next point (probably the biggest point to make).

Team Building Struggles + Lack of Interest in Competitive

Now I'm sorta at a crossroads regarding VGC. As far as the RNG goes, yes it can be annoying to lose matches where I've basically win but my opponent gets an out (like say flinch or a 10% chance) and wins off of it. While the the RNG is "unfair" at times and might seem stacked up against me, I'm not total unfazed by it anymore. Instead of focusing in the RNG, I've decided to deal with a larger issue at hand which kinda involves my "team building process". I realized there are many instances where I throw out a team just because its not winning enough times. Trust me, I've probably test many other teams before I posted some of them on my team showcase back on the forum. In other words, I've had more "success" with teams I've used before than make a new one.

Despite these frustrations, I don't think I've sorta "fallen out" of the pack... yet but competitive battling has reached somewhat of a low point for me with the centralization of proven archetypes. Yes there are notable variations of CHALK and other playstyle team for me to try out but with some IRL stuff going on I just don't have the time to even team build or breed a team. Currently I'm within the Top 20 in the U.S at 1832 but I've decided to stop battling seriously and try to focus on developing articles in both Pokemon Forever and yes here as well.


PFA Disbanded for Now

I regret to inform everyone the PFA League has been disbanded just mainly due to the lack of participation on about half of the people involved. For sure the issue came about when we decided to let a bunch of newer people to Pokemon Forever join the league but left immediately during week 1. Pretty much this confirms the fact that for a league to function, it needs to have a means of direct communication with all the participates involved. There were smaller leagues that opened up but I think given the lack of time to team build now, I have to sit myself out for now.


Faraway Island Schedule

Man I really regret not having any information up during the past few weeks but I'm back after handling some IRL stuff (one of them being an attempted home invasion robbery). So kinda stress out about "that" and some others stuff I'm not going to bore everyone here. As of right now, I'm only going to focus on having content here about every 2-3 times a month which is somewhat of a drastic change compared with how I've been able to make about 5 articles in a span of 2 weeks all pre-prepared. For sure I'm going to post two team reports soon and hopefully that will make up for the lack of content. Yes these team reports are somewhat old but consider these two a "break" to the CHALK and other good stuff  VGC teams.


Now that I'm back here. Lets hope that everything will be in order.

Experimental Teams: Revisiting 1st VGC Team

Artist: SailorClef

Prelude

So... after a full month battling hiatus on Pokemon Showdown, I've decided to get up, go on my laptop and just ladder (though the first two steps is exactly the same to access my website). The only reason why I went on Showdown FIRST before going on Battle Spot is 1) I don't want to mess with the results of my Gravity team (yet), and 2) the Battle Spot Meta allows non pentagon Pokemon so I've yet to make a VGC 2015 that can handle non pentagon stuff.   Honestly, I really didn't have a team in mind to use on Showdown, despite me having like 150+ complete teams I've made for myself and for other people for VGC lately. Currently this is the post Worlds/NB Invitational  metagame so I expected Chalk teams to rise drastically in usage following its successes in both formats. Last Saturday the 12th, I ladder with my latest Mega Char Y team just for a bit, however it was against lower ladder stuff. Since the old Battle Spot Doubles ladder was gonna be separated with following the changes made in the official ladder, I've decided to wait a bit until the new ladder was running.

Eventually after some thought, I decided Mega Salamence was a great Mega Evolution (not named Mega Kangaskhan) to begin laddering with. Didn't feel like using my 2nd Place Mega Salamence team since it has a poor matchup against Thundurus and Heatran which both have risen in usage. Since I didn't have any ideas, I thought it be better off to revisit rather "successful" teams in the past and just begin from there.

If anyone knows these 6 particular Pokemon formed the basis of my first VGC team made for the earlier 2015 format in December (the ruleset was just announced at the time) and still the most thought-out IMO. Back then, I wanted to try out a team which not only have great synergy with each other, but at the same time can initiate / maintain offense with their bulk. Well I sorta just described "bulky offense" but that's what its is. The highest I got with this team was around the top 30 on Showdown before I tilted back down. Despite some small setbacks, this same team (just replace Mega Salamence with Mega Kangaskhan) has won me my first subscriber tourney in December 27th and a back to back small online forum tourneys in January which motivated me to continuing to battle more. 

Honestly I only stopped using this team back in late April because I felt "bored" of using the same Pokemon and I wanted to expose myself to as many playstyles as possible. Funny enough Mega Salamence was used more for this team during online laddering, yet Mega Kangaskhan was my primary Mega of choice during tourneys since I wasn't sure about running mixed on Mega Salamence before I started seeing it with Tyranitar and Excadrill back in April. For a time, I decided to drop the team and make others since maybe after some metagame shifts / changes I'll have some ideas to improve this team. Right now here's a version of the first team.

The Current Team

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Levitate

Level: 50

EVs: 244 HP / 4 Def / 36 SpA / 60 SpD / 164 Spe

Calm Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Hydro Pump

- Thunderbolt

- Will-O-Wisp

- Electroweb

Very long rant/thoughts about this peculiar Pokemon

OK not gonna lie, but admit it, we all have a weird love-hate relationship with the washing machine just for several reasons. Rotom-W is arguably the best Rotom-form in the game without question with only one type weakness to Grass, except maybe a  host of other stuff like Mold Breaker, Freeze-Dry, Gravity + Ground attack, and....ok I'll stop since you kinda have to hit Wash Rotom as hard as possible. That last part has truth to it since all Rotom-formes have a poor base stat of just about 50 with an overall defenses of 107/107. Though anyone might think it those high defense stats help, it only makes Rotom subpar defensively as it needs either Sitrus Berry, Leftovers, or heck even Pain Split (something normally seen in singles), to makeup its defensive prowess. Inaccurate moves are an absolute pain in the ass since I hate having to rely on Will-O-Wisp and even Hydro Pump to hit certain targets. Mainly I've stopped using Rotom-W in May since I thought it wasn't consistent enough to use, like I don't want to rely on Wide Lens which I have done when I tested Entei once.

So after ranting my frustrations with Rotom-W, why have I result to using it again? Well... when I used a earlier version of the team, I gave Rotom Light Screen to help out against strong spread damage, which helped mitigate the damage against Drought Heat Wave Charizard Y and Specs Hyper Voice from Sylveon. For a time, Light Screen Rotom-W helped support the team which in turn allowed my Calm Mind Cresselia to setup, Mega Kangaskhan to using Power-up Punch, and for my other teammates to respond properly. This time, I'm not using Rotom-W as a defensive pivot mainly, rather as a pivot to get speed control up with Electoweb. popularized by Lajos Woltersdorf, the only Western player who Top Cut Worlds at Masters . With the rise of Milotic as the premier stat drop deter, I needed a Pokemon who can setup Electoweb and still beat Milotic once weaken and Rotom-W was the best answer. If anyone doesn't know what the move itself does, it basically a weak Electic attack (with STAB) that can drop both targets speeds by about 1 stage, or the first hit by two-thirds of its originally speed.

By the makeup of the team, you might expect Cresselia to be the main speed control utility Pokemon by having either Icy Wind, Thunder Wave, or even Trick Room but Rotom-W fulfills that role nicely since few people expect the Electroweb support. The only main downside with Electroweb is I cannot  freely spam it against Defiant/Competitive users (Bisharp/Milotic) and Ground types (Excadrill, Landorus-T) so Rotom-W has to attack or spread Will-O-Wisp. Speaking of Will-O-Miss... its still a great option to have especially against Aegislash since there's been a move to either Life Orb or Leftovers sets. In addition, burning my opponents physical are nice to have to buffer my Pokemon against  Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Salamence, Landorus-T, Bisharp, etc. For what it is, Thunderbolt is the most reliable attack for Rotom-W though I'd watch out for Pokemon like Raichu, Thundurus-T, or Manetric who all have Lightening Rod/Volt Absorb. Hydro Pump is Rotom-W's strongest attack to offer, though I'd prefer it it got maybe Scald (since everyone would love those burns). Even Rotom-W has given my some issues in the past, its surely picking up its weight since the old glory days.

Cresselia @ Rocky Helmet  / Safety Goggles

Ability: Levitate

Level: 50

EVs: 220 HP / 76 Def / 132 SpA / 36 SpD / 44 Spe (First Spread)

EVs: 220 HP / 148 Def / 4 SpA / 92 SpD / 44 Spe  (Second Spread)

Modest  / Bold Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Psychic

- Ice Beam

- Toxic

- Moonlight

Anyone who observed this Cresselia on this team, you might ask what's the purpose of Cress now that it has no speed control. The best answer I can explain its purpose in one word: Toxic. With this post-worlds metagame, I've seen a notable rise in bulky Water types as well as the  resurgent Calm Mind Cresselia to combat the establish Chalk teams . Given my team has only a handful of responses for CM Cresselia at a time, I decided to use Toxic mainly to put the opposing Pokemon on a timer while still doing damage every turn. If anyone who doesn't know the mechanic of Toxic, every turn the afflicted Pokemon takes about n+1 / 16, which n is the number of turns the badly poisoned Pokemon has stayed in. Some people have called me out for saying that I use stall tactics to win battles, and yes its true semi-stall is my preferred playstyle in Singles and Doubles.  Toxic makes the rest of my team's job of taking out key targets much easier since they don't have to rely on potential damage rolls, survive investment, or other bulky stuff.

Course Cresselia isn't going to stall out the rest of the match without having Psychic for Fighting and Poison types and Ice Beam for the Double Genies and Dragons types. Moonlight works in tandem with both the Rocky Helmet ( inflicts one-sixth to the target for using physical contact moves) and Toxic since Cresselia can easily recover off the damage as the opponents gets afflicted to residual damage. There are numerous situations as well where Mega Kangaskhan Fake Outs Cresselia and does about a one-third of its health due to Parental Bond hitting twice and the effects of Rocky Helmet. Heck even I had moments where Cresselia takes a Double Edge from Mega Kangaskhan or Mega Salamence only to recover to back where Moon Duck was the turn before. Once the opposing Pokemon is weak enough, Cress can finish it off with Psychic, Ice Beam or I can just recover off the damage and get ready for the next switch in.

I've listed 2 EV spreads for Cresselia: one that optimizes its special attacking to allow it to at the very least 4 HP Mega Salamence and most Landorus-T sets with Ice Beam. The second spread is modified to take a Knock Off from Life Orb Bisharp, a Double Edge from Mega Kangaskhan, or most other attack as best as possible to stall the opponents with Toxic.

Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite

Ability: Intimidate --- > Aerialate 

Level: 50

EVs: 44 Atk / 212 SpA / 252 Spe

Naive Nature

- Hyper Voice

- Double-Edge

- Flamethrower  /  Draco Meteor (Might consider Earthquake)

- Protect

Like it or not, Mega Salamence to me is still the de-facto 2nd best Mega Evolution in the VGC format after maybe Gardevoir and Charizard Y because its unpredictability in movepool and sets. Honestly people should not think of Mega Salamence as inferior against the Chalk teams seen on some of the Masters Top Cut teams at Worlds. Seriously like there were 4 teams that featured Mega Salamence and one of them almost Top Cut but unfortunately their resistance wasn't too kind.   Instead of using the recent mono Dragon Dance-Roost set, I've decided for now to return (lol) to the good old Hyper Voice and Double Edge mixed set. Hyper Voice becomes a special Flying type attack  thanks to Aerialate (the only other move that's similar in strength or power are Aeroblast / Hurricane). Some people were skeptical about the use of Hyper Voice since at best it can 2HKO most of things that are not Steel, Rock, or Electric types,  however its now being used for the same reason. Hyper Voice always deals a solid enough damage to the point where another or Double Edge an potentially knock out it opponent. Double Edge is a incredibly powerful Flying move due to Aerialate that allows Mega Salamence to deal heavy damage against the opponent at the cost of its HP.

For the last moveslot, Flamethrower stood out the most given that my team doesn't have a proper response to most Steel types (Ferrothorn, Aegislash, Scizor, Mega Metagross/Mawile ) if in case Heatran or Aegislash goes down. Draco Meteor is a option to consider in the future and one I've used earlier on but again I want more consistence with an attack, especially if it has a chance to miss or drop my special attack by two stages. The EV spread from Cybertron's Nationals Mega Salamence isn't too complicated as it allows Mega Salamence to OHKO max defense Amoonguss 100% of the time, 116 HP / 84 Def Mega Gardevoir 93.5% of the time, 2HKO 4 HP Landorus-T 98.4% of the time, and Mega Kangaskhan with the combination of Hyper Voice + Double Edge. Not much else to say other than Mega Salamence being the main offense of the team.

OK there are a couple things I'd like to point off. First off I tend to not Mega Evolve Mega Salamence if there are physical attackers and it can clearly outspeed in base form. This is so Salamence in base form can spread Intimidate before anything else. The only time where I'd like to Mega Evolve immediately is if I'm facing a something like Terrakion that's faster, or my opponent has a Defiant/ Competitive user in the back and Salamence didn't trigger their ability. The Intimidate drops is to ensure that my team can take physical hit from the likes of Mega Kangaskhan better which helps out Rotom-W, Aegislash, and Cresselia. To end off a really dumb note while I was testing on Showdown, I was wondering  why Double Edge wasn't doing the proper damage until I realized it was still at 0 IV attack which ended up costing me a few games where my opponent's Pokemon lives by a few HP and the only time I notice was I started writing this post.

Aegislash @ Life Orb

Ability: Stance Change

Level: 50

EVs: 236 HP / 204 SpA / 68 Spe

Modest Nature

- Shadow Ball

- Flash Cannon

- King's Shield

- Shadow Sneak  / Wide Guard

I've have been using  two Aegislash sets for the past several days, however this is the set I've use the most so it will get shown first. If anyone is ever using Mega Salamence, there's no reason to not consider Aegislash as its premier partner before maybe other Steel types. Anyone who's read my recent tourney team can tell my "issues"  with Life Orb Aegislash, however this was when I had Landorus-T and Bisharp at the time. Back then the team had a poor matchup against CM Cresselia since she can get all the boost have have her partner protect against any attack like Toxic or Assurance from Bisharp. However since most of Cresselia's partners were Kangaskhan and Landorus-T, Bisharp would have a difficult time getting an attack off against the crescent Pokemon. Life Orb Aegislash gave me an out against Calm Mind Cresselia given the massive damage output it deals with a LO Shadow Ball. In fact, Life Orb Aegislash is capable of OHKOing Mega Gardevoir, Sylveon, Togekiss, Clefable, and even Evolite Clefairy with a powerful Flash Cannon. If they do happen to survive, Mega Salamence can easily pick them off with a Hyper Voice of its own.

For awhile Life Orb Aegislash was the main staple of my teams featuring Mega Salamence since it gave me extra firepower to OHKO specific targets or leave them within range of another Pokemon to knock out. Since the team revolves around dealing residual damage, Life Orb Aegislash can pick off any weaken targets without much difficulty. My only concern with Aegislash is technically it has a limited timer to use since the possibly damage taken, Life Orb recoil, and passive hits can render it obsolete a times. Usually I don't bring LO Aegislash unless my opponent doesn't have a response for it or not prepared for the damage output (like OHKOing Clefable / Evolite Clefary). The last moveslot was a toss up between Shadow Sneak or Wide Guard but since my team lacked priority, Shadow Sneak was opted. Yes I'm using STAB Shadow Sneak with a negative attack nature in most, yet the Life Orb mitigates it. Aegislash doesn't have something like Quiet since it needs the speed to hopefully creep against Sylveon and knock it out with a LO Flash Cannon. Going back to Shadow Sneak, its an great coverage move to secure KOs against targets under around 20% or below (40% if they are weak to Ghost). This actually improves my matchups against opposing Ghost types, especially Gengar. 

Tyranitar @ Lum Berry

Ability: Sand Stream

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Rock Slide

- Assurance

- Superpower

- Protect

This slot use to be rather two Pokemon: Bisharp and AV Landorus-T to be exact. First off, I need a Pokemon who can take a special Dark / Ghost hits from opposing Aegislash / Hydreigons and inflict strong Dark type STAB. At the same time, this Pokemon has to be somewhat bulky and be my main check to most bulky support Thundurus. So who can that Pokemon be that is? THE O FUCKING G BEST DARK TYPE SINCE GEN 2....TYRANITAR.

Literally c'mon who could it been anyways. There's no question Tyranitar is the best Rock AND Dark type in the game with 2 great offensive types....and that's not even the best part. Tyranitar has access to the one of the best abilities in the game being Sand Stream. With Tyranitar's ability Sand Stream, it receives a 50% boost to its special defense for 5 turns, or as long as the sand is up on the field. Before I talk about what Tynanitar's moveset is, I'd really want how important its ability can be to the team. Basically Sand Stream is my main method to disrupt any form of weather (Sun, Hail, Sand) bar opposing sand teams since my team has somewhat of a poor matchup against all three archetypes if my opponent maintain their respective weather.  The sandstorm weather effect pairs well with residual damage done with Toxic and Will-O-Wisp as I can wear down my opponents team if it needs to be.

Tyranitar's EV spread isn't complicated as its able to outspeed Bisharp and maybe those who speed creep Bisharp and isn't faster than T-Tar. However this speed placement is important since this allows for Mega Salamence (like obviously), Heatran and Rotom-W to outspeed Tyranitar so it can deal massive amount of damage with spread move + Assurance. What the move Assurance does is if a an opposing Pokemon has already taken damage from anything (from recoil, Life Orb, muli spread damage, or a single target hit), Assurance base power of 60 is doubled  to 120 before factor STAB. Think of it this way, a full power Assurance is essentially a Dark type STAB without any drawbacks except setting up the attack itself with Salamence's Hyper Voice, Rotom-W's Electroweb, Heatran's Heat Wave, or any double target in which T-tar is last to move before its opponent. STAB Rock Slide is nothing to laugh at either coming from a Tyranitar considering it will do heavy damage to opposing side factoring in the 30% chance to flinch on either target.

Superpower is Tyranitar's last attacking option as its offers vital coverage against Dark, Steel, and Normal types like Hydreigon, Heatran, Mega Kangaskhan, opposing Tyranitar, and many more. Protect is a great move to have so that my opponent can double target thinking this T-tar is the rather common Scarf variant. I've have consider using a couple of "support" options like Taunt or even Thunder Wave, but only time will tell. 

Heatran @ Shuca Berry

Ability: Flash Fire

Level: 50

EVs: 52 HP / 212 SpA / 244 Spe

Timid Nature

- Heat Wave

- Hidden Power [Ice]

- Earth Power

- Protect

The last member of the team and honestly its no surprise seeing Heatran paired with some old timers partners like Cresselia or Rotom-W.  I chose this old Heatran set to be my main special attacker aside from Life Orb Aegislash since it has enough coverage to hit majority of the game. Heat Wave and Earth Power are staples in most Heatran sets as it hits a strong spread Fire damage against my opponent and deal with opposing Fire types, notably enemy Heatrans with Earth Power (bar Shuca Berry / Assault Vest). I guess the last moveslot to explain here is Hidden Power Ice as with the Shuca Berry allows Heatran to lure in Mega Salamence or Landorus-T and smack them down with a strong Ice coverage. The Shuca Berry allows Heatran to take a Ground hit, allowing to function somewhat well as a lure assuming my opponent's Landorus-T or Mega Salamence goes for an Earthquake.

This Heatran has a Timid nature so it can outspeed most opposing Heatrans and at most, Adamant max speed Excadrill with either Earth Power or Heat Wave. Granted with the Electroweb support from Rotom-W, Heatran can outspeed many other threats and deal with them appropriately with the right coverage. Since half of the team doesn't like getting hit with Pixilate Hyper Voice, Heatran is just a buffer against those attacks. Unfortunately I've notice Heatran is somewhat the "weakest" link compared to the rest of my team given it doesn't hit hard enough against the opposing targets. If the Sylveon / Mega Gardevoir user finds out I don't have Flash Cannon, they could just easily stay in to take any of Heatrans attacks while repeatedly fire Hyper Voice against the rest of the team. I've consider replacing Heatran for another Pokemon I'll get to later.

Former Members:

Bisharp @ Life Orb  /  Focus Sash

Ability: Defiant

Level: 50

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Adamant Nature

- Sucker Punch

- Assurance

- Iron Head

- Protect

Bisharp is a very 2 offensive dimensional Pokemon depending on how well you can make predictions. During the early VGC 2015 meta, around December / January,  Bisharp was my team's main response for slow Fairy types not named Mega Gardevoir. What makes this chess-piece inspired Pokemon work is funny enough its own concept design: to set itself up for "checkmate" positions. Basically all the users needs to do is position Bisharp where it can get a Defiant boost from Intimidate Pokemon like Landorus-T, Icy Wind, Electroweb, or just any random stat drop. I wanted to try out Assurance after seeing Cypher, or Jio from the Imouto Island used one to get 2th I believe at the NY/NJ Invitational. If anyone of you are are familiar with Assurance, well basically I've explain in the Tyranitar section, but basically to sum it up the power of the attack gets doubled if the opposing Pokemon has taken damage from a single target or recoil. Life Orb Assurance allows Bisharp to pick up more kills than its Knock Off variant since its total power factoring STAB is like 180 compared to 146 so there is a direct difference there. Sucker Punch and Iron Head are designated for STAB coverage and priority purposes so not much to say.

Anyways the reason I'd dropped Bisharp was mainly the fact experienced  people can play around Intimidate better now compared to maybe early 2015. Course Bisharp is very fail for a Steel type given it won't take a special or a strong coverage weakness too well like from Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Gardevoir, heck even Mega Salamence can KO Bisharp if given the chance. The item choice was somewhat annoying to consider as Bisharp needs the Life Orb to do respectable damage though Focus Sash allows it to take one attack and retaliate with one of its STAB options. After a couple battles in with my first team featuring Bisharp, it really didn't fulfilled its job to handle Fairy types like Sylveon or Gardevoir so it was eventually replaced with Aegislash.

Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest

Ability: Intimidate

Level: 50

EVs: 140 HP / 84 Atk / 4 Def / 84 SpD / 196 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Earthquake

- Rock Slide

- Superpower

- Rock Tomb

This is the same AV Landorus-T set I've been using since August and the one I used to win a small tournament hosted at Pokemon Forever. I guess you can call it a water down version of my original AV Landorus-T since it opts for bulk and speed, rather than nearly full attack investment before. If anyone hasn't seen it what this spread does, I definitely recommend looking at it on the recent team report posted here. since much of the smaller details are there, but will only focus on what matters. The idea of using AV Landorus-T again for this team is to provide support by spreading Intimidate drops and being a pivot against Pokemon that Cresselia or Rotom-W don't want to take hits from if weaken. Since this isn't "choice" locked Landorus-T, I'm free to do whatever I can to benefit the team's overall efforts in the battle from using STAB Earthquake, Rock Slide, Superpower, or even Rock Tomb. The last moveslot might sound like an odd choice but Rock Tomb allows Landorus-T to give the team some unexpected speed control plus a bypass against Charizard Y with Wide Guard.

Landorus-T was the second Pokemon I've consider replacing following facing many Milotics and Bisharps on the ladder. Though Landorus-T and Mega Salamence can outspeed and and hit Milotic first, it can easily survive if my opponent brings in their own Intimidate user. This severally limits my choice of Pokemon as my opponent can easily go for Milotic and have a response for Cresselia or Rotom-W (obviously Bisharp and Heatran aren't going to take a Scald hit well). Having Landorus-T on the field made it much more easier for my opponent to just go for any Ice type coverage on the team.

Tested in Place of (Have Seen Rotation):

Aegislash @ Leftovers

Ability: Stance Change

Level: 50

EVs: 236 HP / 12 Def / 92 SpA / 100 SpD / 68 Spe

Modest Nature

- Shadow Ball

- Flash Cannon

- King's Shield

- Substitute

After testing out Life Orb Aegislash,  I came across the same issues during high ladder matches as Aegislash didn't stick around too often as it should. The final nail to the coffin for the Life Orb set was the fact I added Tyranitar to the team as it deals with CM Cress better than anyone else.  Basically just with Tyranitar's presence it forces my opponents to not consider using Cresselia or bringing the CM version at least since sand stream cuts its recover down to 33% and won't enjoy taking full-powered Assurance too well. So what's the next best set for Aegislash to run one might ask? Substitute Leftovers is one of the more annoying Aegislash set to face as it can gradually recover off its lost HP from direct damage or the decoy its creates and fire strong STAB Shadow Balls and Flash Cannons. While I've used this exact set from the my recent Mega Charizard Y team, what really makes Sub-Leftovers Aegislash far more annoying to deal with is it doesn't necessary have to keep offensive momentum all the time. Granted this is all thanks to Aegislash's Ghost / Steel typing with 9 resistances and 3 immunities which effectly allows it to take most attacks. At times, Substitute  Aegislash can even take some neutral hits and still  have its sub intact for another turn. From here, Aegislash can do progressive damage against my opponents, while stance changing with King's Shield to maintain the Substitute for the following turn. Another tactic in which Substitute Aegislash does extremely well is stalling out my opponent with the residual damage from either Wash Rotom's Will-o-Wisp, Cresselia's Toxic, or the passive sandstorm damage from Tyranitar. 

The EV spread is somewhat complicated, but it lets Aegislash survive a Heat Wave from Mega Charizard Y in the Sun, Specs Dark Pulse from Hydreigon most of the time (7/8), and can take a hit from non-Life Orb Aegislash and knock its counterpart out with a Shadow Ball. The only notable kill that Substitute Aegislash gets with the 92 SpA is 4 HP Terrakion with Flash Cannon 100% of the time (of course non-Focus Sash / Babiri Berry / Assault Vest / invested ).

Entei @ Shuca Berry

Ability: Pressure

Level: 50

EVs: 132 HP / 116 Atk / 4 Def / 84 SpD / 172 Spe

Adamant Nature

- Sacred Fire

- Snarl

- Stone Edge

- Protect

Alright everyone might be wondering why I've been using Entei over Mega Salamence for the past... 20+ battles, its not just of Sacred Fire. By adding Tyranitar onto this team, I've notice it people running Virizion on the higher ladder far many times than even Terrakion. At the same time, Wash Rotom might not be able to get a Will-O-Wisp off a certain target so Entei is my secondary backup option to to burn something. Due to its limited  movepool, Entei doesn't have much options left to chose from (unless they allows for Extreme Speed and Flare Blitz event Entei). This set almost mirrors the one I used to get 2nd place at a 32 Person Tourney with the only modification being its speed investment is 1 point higher to outspeed Timid Heatran. Shuca Berry is opted for Sitrus Berry so Entei can take an Earth Power or Earthquake and get off a Sacred Fire / Snarl. Again Scared Fire allows Entei to burn the target about ~45% of the time (factoring the chance to miss). Snarl is extremely helpful against specially based teams by dropping their special attack stats by 1 stage each use. The last moveset Stone Edge is just coverage for any Fire type (named Charizard Y) who thinks they are safe against Entei.

The reason why Entei has seen more usage than Heatran lately is it can literally disrupt specially based teams with one or two physical attackers (which in turn Entei can burn). Of course  I'm talking about Mega Gardevoir teams specifically since they already have answers for Heatran (Landorus-T/Scrafty), but the combination of Snarl / Sacred Fire from Entei can deal enough so the rest of my team can handle this archetype.  Probably the only few Pokemon who can take on Entei are bulky Water types and strong physical attackers with type advantages, however either have to be careful switching in on either Snarl or Sacred Fire. This tactic actually benefits Sub-Leftovers Aegislash the most as it can take repeated hits in Shield form while still getting up a decoy without losing much. This pretty much give Rotom-W and Cresselia an easier time to wall and break down teams thanks to their defensive capabilities.

Final Thoughts

For this addition of "Experimental Teams", I'm not giving too much damage calculations as before, since this team isn't 100% finalized. Most of the EVs spreads might have changed here and there, but they've been utilized by some of the top VGC players so those are practically standard by now. Some of the attack / special attack investment should do similar damage as those found in the Nugget Bridge calculator as before so I'd go there to find out any damage calculations. There's wasn't much to mention since there wasn't any exemplary KOs some of these Pokemon can achieve and have to rely on  progressive chip damage to maintain offensive momentum.

I'd like to credit again Dreykopff from Nugget Bridge for the idea of Quick Sand as well as Lajos for making me reconsider Rotom-W with Electroweb. For sure I'm definitely going to look over some other stuff people have used on their teams, and maybe integrate in future teams of mines. I'll give an update on how this team is doing on the Showdown ladder since I temporary gonna take break from Battle Spot Doubles on the actual cartridge for now.