Mindape’s Journey to the West

A Pokemon VGC Blog

Melbourne Battle Association: Week Twelve

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Week Twelve vs Burwood Buizels

 

 

Hi guys,

Here we go with the penultimate round of the season. A win here would seal me up a top 3 spot, and make a top 2 finish increasingly likely, so I was pretty keen to stay focused on the job at hand. You can find the results both by scrolling through this post, or in the League's Google Doc

 

Teambuilding:

Firstly, here is Burwood's squad.

 

Tornadus-T
Weavile
Manaphy
Reuniclus
Ampharos
Porygon-Z
Amoonguss
Cofagrigus
Dugtrio
Skuntank
Rhydon
Audino

 

Here were my notes:

 

Has several checks to Keldeo. Likely to bring them. - Tornadus, Reuniclus, Amoonguss. Manaphy is also a little bitch with Energy Ball. Amoonguss won't do much to Keldeo under sub, but I can't do much back. Tornadus takes a bunch if I have sub set up, Hurricane can miss. At +1, can do huge damage, live Hurricane's from full HP.+1 scald 2HKO's most Reuniclus, so it can't really switch in on Keldeo at that point. Still, Keldeo will have a hard time. Maybe give it another weeks rest?

Tornadus is annoying. Bisharp and Stealth Rocks will be needed to take care of it.

Weavile, Manaphy are both hampered by Sticky Web, not sure he can remove it.

Dugtrio is a menace, but frail. If brought, be careful with switching or leaving myself open to being switched in on.

Latias is very strong, he may struggle to bring it down if Weavile and Tornadus are gone.

Bisharp is also strong here.

Speed+Malamar good option. He has a lot of slow things and not as many speedy things (Tornadus, Weaville aside). Speed+SD Bisharp is a nice option. Makes for a good way to break through his bulky but relatively passive supporting element. Substitute on things will also be nice, in that case.

If Amoonguss is gone, TR option may be nice on Malamar to beat speedy things.

Ninjask can also be good to speed pass, especially if something like Amoonguss gives it free turns to set up. A bit of offense can also punish him if need be.

Rocks will be really nice to counteract his Regenerator Core. Claydol can also offer ok damage output against some things with STABs, and stops him from setting up anything like Rocks that would hurt Ninjask.

 

With that in mind, this was my team

Pinky Pie (Latias) @ Latiasite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 128 SpA / 128 Spe
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Dragon Pulse
- Psychic

Apple Bloom (Arcanine) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Extreme Speed
- Wild Charge
- Morning Sun

Nightmare Moon (Bisharp) @ Black Glasses
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Knock Off

Twilight Sparkle (Malamar) @ Leftovers
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 220 HP / 252 Atk / 32 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Superpower
- Knock Off
- Psycho Cut
- Substitute

Applejack (Claydol) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Psychic
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin

Fleetfoot (Ninjask) @ Leftovers
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Aerial Ace
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
- X-Scissor

Team Caps: 12 - Latias; 11 - Arcanine, Bisharp; 9 - Keldeo; 8 - Galvantula; 6 - Shuckle; 5 - Claydol; 3 - Aromatisse, Malamar, Ninjask; 1 - Togetic

 

Note that I followed through on an early season promise and named all my mons after My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters just to annoy Burwood's coach.

I was lazy this week, making Latias just bog standard by my usage. I figured that set would probably be enough to survive things like Weavile, and Manaphy and trade positively with them. I gave Arcanine Morning Sun on an offensive set so it could wallbreak effectively on Burwood's bulky mons, but also stay around against them rather than just KO'ing itself futily with recoil damage.

I went for BlackGlassses on Bisharp because they're very fashionable and suit him. Also I figured it would help Bisharp keep damage output high while staying around much longer. This was kind of important given that I had decided to bring Ninjask again, and needed to break through some bulky mons with repeated hits, so Bisharp needed all the turns on the field it could get.

Malamar came again because I felt like it matched up really well offensively, and with Ninjask support I think Malamar because a lot more useable for me. I put substitute and leftovers on it this time so I could set up on things like Cofagrigus, as well as give myself some insurance against things like Tornadus-T's U-turn.

I felt like Stealth Rocks would help dint Burwood's regenerator core, and in an effort to help out Ninjask I also decided Rapid Spin would be useful, so Claydol came along. I added STAB moves because I felt like they could do ok damage if need be, while Claydol can tank many hits.

Ninjask was brought to help Latias, Bisharp and Malamar set themselves up as win conditions. I decided to forgoe protect in favour of a second offensive move, in case I needed some extra help getting over the line with damage should Ninjask survive the demise of its teammates, and also to be more useful on low health opponents by not giving free turns, and making better use of its own time.

 

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Battle and Replay:

Replay Result: 5-0 WIN

Key Moments: 

We originally tried to battle early in the weekend, but a server restart interrupted us after turn one. Two days later, we restarted. my ability to spin away Rhydon's Stealth Rocks meant that Claydol was a solid lead choice, while Burwood could not get rid of my rocks easily - it was nice to get this out of the way quickly. Surprisingly, Burwood did not bring two of its biggest hitters in Manaphy and Weaville, opting for a more defensive team.

Latias was Roared in, and after getting solid damage on to Rhydon, predicted the Skuntank switch in, and was rewarded with a critical hit, following up with another hit to get the first KO of the battle. Audino was nasty and got off a Thunder Wave - a tactic many people seem to be using to counter my own speed control these days. Audino's clerical ability allowed it to survive a while, but Latias' Calm Minds and ability to break through Paralysis KO'd Ampharos on the switch in, causing Tornadus-T to come in. Tornadus then managed to use rng to its favour with Air Slash and Paralysis putting Latias in U-turn range, all the while risking being KO'd if I managed to move - if that would have happened, it would have definitely been game over then and there with Burwood's meagre offensive presence gone. 

Claydol did its job to check Rhydon's utility again, and with decent damage taken even after recieving a Wish, Malamar was happy to be Roared in to action to set up a substitute, getting much damage on Amoonguss before finishing off Rhydon with a Superpower after it switched in. Fearing the U-turn from Tornadus again, I switched Arcanine in, and was rewarded for my Flare Blitz by taking out Amoonguss, then taking out Audino. While Audino managed to get one last wish off, and Arcanine KO'd iteself with recoil (Good fearless doggy), it was soon Life Orb Tornadus-T against 4 other guys. I cheekily switched in Claydol in search of a KO for it, but it kept flinching me with Air Slash, the bugger. Burwood seemed to get really good luck with that, I'm not sure if I even got an attack off against Tornadus when it moved first in this battle. Eventually I switched in Bisharp, and I really hoped Tornadus didn't have Roost since its fourth move had not been revealed. Fortunately it didn't, and Bisharp's Sucker Punch was able to win the day for me - I think that Ninjask would have helped me get over the line in any case if he did, mind games aside.

So, many Pokemon shared the KO's in this battle, as a strong team performance led to a 4-0 victory. This win seals me a spot in the top 3, which means I get a qualifying final according to the finals system just announced - if I win that, presumably against the Sydney Shuckles, I get a bye week and a pass straight in to the Semi Finals. I have to keep focused for next week though, I'd love to finish this season with only two losses to my name.

 

MVP Votes Week 11 - This was easy, I only used three pokemon in this battle

2 - Claydol, Latias; 1 - Arcanine, Malamar

Overall MVP Tally

14 - Bisharp; 12 – Latias; 11 - Keldeo; 10 - Arcanine,  7 – Shuckle; 6 - Claydol; 5 - Galvantula; 3 – Aromatisse, Malamar; 1 - Ninjask  

Golden Fist Week 11

2 - Arcanine, Latias; 1 - Bisharp, Malamar

Overall Golden Fist

18 - Bisharp; 15 - Keldeo; 12 - Latias; 10 - Arcanine; 4 - Malamar; 2 - Aromatisse; 1 - Shuckle, Claydol

 

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Art by ice-cream-skies. Check out more of her work at http://ice-cream-skies.deviantart.com/

 

Season Results: (10-2; +25 Differential, 2nd Place)

Week 12: 4-0 WIN vs Burwood Buizels (Replay)

Week 11: 5-0 WIN vs Utah U-Turners (Replay)

Week 10: 4-0 WIN vs Sydney Shuckles (Replay)

Week 9: 0-3 LOSS vs Miami Heatmor (Replay)

Week 8: 2-0 WIN vs Richmond Raikous (Replay)

Week 7: 2-0 WIN vs Epping Eevees (Replay)

Week 6: 0-3 LOSS vs East Side Excadrill (Replay)

Week 5: 2-0 WIN vs Tottenham Espurr (Replay)

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 Brelooms (Replay)

Week 1: 3-0 WIN vs Wildwood Wobbuffets (Replay)

 

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Next Week:

Vs Sunshine Squirtles

Sableye
Thundurus-T
Mew
Infernape
Snorlax
Azelf
Ambipom
Glalie
Hitmonlee
Gourgeist
Swellow
Floatzel

 

Sunshine are sitting in 10th with a 4-8 record, and playing for pride. While I can definitively say that I will be bringing Accelgor next week to make sure it gets a run this season, Sunshine have a bunch of interesting options that could trip me up if I'm not careful, and it would be foolish to underestimate them based on their record. While I will look to have fun in this last round, I'll still be aiming for the win.

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