Melbourne Battle Association: Week Four
Week Four vs Tullamarine Auras (Ethan)
Hi guys,
As I got my battle done very early again this week, it's time to update you with the results of my MBA Week Four battle against yet another newcomer to the league, the Tullamarine Auras. You can find the results both by scrolling through this post, or in the League's Google Doc.
Firstly, here is Tullamarine's squad.
| Dragonite |
| Talonflame |
| Lopunny |
| Lucario |
| Sceptile |
| Forretress |
| Rhyperior |
| Eelektross |
| Medicham |
| Ludicolo |
| Skuntank |
| Torkoal |
Now although Tullamarine came in to this round at 0-3, with a -10 differential, my team has often been rolled by Dragonites during testing, so I was quite worried about choking this battle and getting my first loss of the season. Not only with Dragonite, but also with Talonflame, as its Swords Dance or Bulk Up sets could potentially run through me too. I wasn't as concerned about the rest of Tullamarine's lineup, but I knew they could potentially do enough to clear a path for Dragonite or Talonflame to sweep, so I would have to be careful. With that in mind, here were my notes:
Talonflame + Dragonite – really need rocks up. If that happens, Latias with decent speed investment can dominate.Scarf Keldeo might be useful against Lopunny, Dragonite to revenge KO.
Shuckle can fuckle with them provided no bs substitute shenanigans.
Lopunny is wrecked by Web, not much else is. Electross will be bulky, find a way to deal with. Arcanine will be good for intimidate. Toxic can be decent.
Need a way to beat annoying Ludicolo, esp if Shuckle not around. Many Physical attackers, so Reflect = good. Bulky Fairies also good?
Make sure you get in to positions where you don't let Talonflame or Dragonite get set up. If you can stop that, will probably win. Have to make use of Keldeo sparingly, making use of multiple defensive pivots for it, and keep it away from Talonflame until its gone. Make sure you don't leave yourself open to a late sweep.
Based off of that, this was the team I came up with to bring:
Inigo Montoya (Keldeo-Resolute) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Scald
- Hydro Pump
- Secret SwordHoenn Airlines (Latias) @ Latiasite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 136 SpA / 120 Spe
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Dragon Pulse
- PsyshockBetterthanEntei (Arcanine) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Flare Blitz
- Morning Sun
- Close CombatKeep Spinning (Claydol) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Reflect
- Psychic
- Ice BeamScarecrow (Aromatisse) @ Leftovers
Ability: Aroma Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 24 SpA / 84 SpD
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Moonblast
- Charge BeamBlue Cheese (Shuckle) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Contrary
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 SpD
Bold Nature
- Shell Smash
- Rest
- Toxic
- Encore
Season Team Caps: 4 - Keldeo, Latias, Arcanine, 3 - Bisharp, Galvantula, Shuckle; 2 - Claydol, 1 - Aromatisse
You may notice that my Claydol had only three moves, and was missing Stealth Rocks. A large oversight by myself during the teambuilding process, and almost a very costly one. While I noticed this in team preview, I battled on regardless because I don't want to make a habit of having false starts where I've got to fix things or what have you. If that costs me, that's my fault, and I'll have to learn to not make those mistakes when building my team in the future. Regardless, Reflect was brought to counter the many physical attackers I expected to face, with Ice Beam brought for Dragonite, and Psychic for its decent matchup against the likes of Lopunny and such.
I brought a Choice Scarf Keldeo this time because I felt like it would probably do better than a Substitute version against Tullamarine. This allowed me to run Hidden Power Ice for Dragonite, as well as Hydro Pump if I needed massive damage output depending on if it was required at certain points of the battle.
Latias was kept basically as normal, aside from being built to outspeed max speed Dragonite by 1 point, again to try to limit its effectiveness. Both that and HP Ice Keldeo had in mind that I might have Stealth Rocks up, so the above mentioned oversight in teambuilding really stuffed me around a bit.
I made Arcanine much bulkier than usual and with a Rocky Helmet in order to function much better as Physical Wall and to be able to be a more reliable and long lived defensive pivot.
Aromatisse was brought to this battle as well, in its debut for Glen Waverley, in order to further contain the threat of Dragonite, as it could switch in to Outrages with ease, and support its teammates with Wish and Heal Bell, as well as offering reasonable damage output against many opposing Pokemon, especially when used in conjunction with Charge Beam and Heal Bell, say against things like Forretress, or Ludicolo, who Tullamarine like to run as a Toxic+Leech Seed Stallmon.
Given the low amount of Poison immunities I felt would be brought, I decided to drop Infestation on Shuckle to run Encore, potentially annoying set up mons and defensive mons alike, while keeping the Shell Smash Contrary +Rest set otherwise the same as it appeared to have a reasonable matchup all around.
Replay Result: 3-0 WIN
Key Moments:
I couldn't have asked for a better start as Arcanine completely shut down the opposing Lopunny for a quick 6-5 lead, but I did err in leaving Arcanine to be revenge KO'd by Dragonite - I'm not sure what I was thinking there, but I guess I didn't want to give him a free Dragon Dance (Even though his Lum Berry would have made a Will-O-Wisp irrelevant), nor take any damage on a switch. Additionally, because of a lack of Stealth Rock on Claydol, I hadn't been able to make use of Lopunny's demise by setting them up, so Dragonite's Multiscale was unbroken. Luckily, Shuckle was able to annoy Dragonite a bit, getting Toxic off and encoring his Outrage so that Aromatisse could get a free switch in.
In hindsight, I should have used Scald on Forretress with my Keldeo after switching it in for Aromatisse, instead locking in to Secret Sword, but neither would have done that much to Dragonite. Definitely an oversight later in the battle though, as you may see, especially since Keldeo is still keen to add to its week one tally.
Once Aromatisse was able to finish off Dragonite, Latias was much happier, but I still had a Forretress to get past before it would be truly happy, especially with the threat of Toxic.
Latias saw its first action, chipping away at Forretress, and then again I for some reason chose to attack Forretress' higher physical defense with Keldeo. Sceptile then switch in on a Secret Sword and took a lot of damage, but allowed Shuckle to faint to Stealth Rocks while I forgot about the unburden boost, causing me to needlessly lose Keldeo after switching it back in confident with my Choice Scarf. Another case of me seeming to be not at my best this battle.
Latias made the most of a free turn to Calm Mind up, allowing it to finish off Forretress, and then still have enough health to live against Talonflame's Brave Bird, transforming a poor 3-4 deficit in to a 3-2 lead, with neither Ludicolo nor Sceptile truly threatening Latias, but Latias being my last line of offense with which to win the battle.
It also turned out that my relatively slow Latias speed tied with Tullamarine's Sceptile, and from there it was a simple matter of keeping on clicking psyshock in order to finish of Ludicolo, with Latias having plenty enough HP to survive the attempted Toxic Stall, and hitting hard enough for an easy 2HKO. Latias picked up the last 4 KO's, and landed me a 3-0 victory which was probably closer than in needed to be thanks to some of my mistakes, but also understates how close I was to choking the battle and losing. The bulk and survivability that Latias demonstrated today, especially once its threats were cleared or weakened, is one of the reasons it was on my shortlist to pick up as my mega, and why I have been very happy having her on my team despite her having a quiet first few weeks of this league.
Team Golden Fist
Week Four: 4 - Latias, 1- Aromatisse, Arcanine
Overall: 6 - Bisharp, Latias; 5 - Arcanine; 4- Keldeo; 1 - Shuckle, Aromatisse
Team MVP Votes:
Week Four: 3 - Latias, 1 - Aromatisse, Shuckle, Arcanine
Overall: 7 - Bisharp; 5 - Latias; 4 - Arcanine; 3 - Keldeo; Shuckle; 1 - Claydol, Aromatisse
Art by Ryota Murayama. Check out more of his work at http://ovopack.tumblr.com/
Season Results:
Week 4: 3-0 WIN vs Tullamarine Auras (Replay)
Week 3: 2-0 WIN vs New York Klefkis (Replay)
Week 2: 4-0 WIN vs Blackburn (Replay)
Week 1: 3-0 WIN vs Wildwood (Replay)
Vs Tottenham Espurr (Mark)
| Hippowdon |
| Victini |
| Alakazam |
| Hydreigon |
| Mienshao |
| Empoleon |
| Tangrowth |
| Hitmontop |
| Magneton |
| Miltank |
| Lilligant |
| Linoone |
Assuming that he wins his Week Four battle, this will be a clash of two undefeated sides, top of the table too. In preseason battles we split it 1-1, and as last season's champion with a very similar team, Mark will be a really tough opponent. I will need to be more switched on to make the most of my chances and minimise mistakes if I want to win this one, but I'm up for the challenge, and I'm confident that my team has what it takes if I pilot it well.
