What a Load of Hoopa! Florida Winter Regionals 14th Place Report

Hello everyone! I am Franklin Sujo, a former TCG player and long time competitive singles player that finally got serious about VGC. Playing at large events is nothing new to me. For years, I played Yugioh and various Play! Pokémon events in Florida and South Florida.

I enjoyed watching the amazing work from the Nationals and Worlds streams in 2012 and 2013 and, when my local league was cleared to do the first set of Primer Challenges, that finally got me into playing VGC.

The Team

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite

Ability: Scrappy

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Adamant Nature

– Protect

– Low Kick

– Sucker Punch

– Return

Yes, it’s an older boring spread. And yes, it might be outdated. But yes, it still works. The first thing most people will notice is the lack of Fake Out and that is because the threat of Fake Out is just as good as Fake Out for the rest of my team and I knew that I’d have to fight a lot of Hariyama this weekend. Protect is there to scout out moves or to burn Tailwind, Trick room, and to block Close Combats. I chose Low Kick over Power Up Punch to handle opposing Kangaskhan, Terrakion, and Hydregion.

I’m the type of person that loves more power, but Double-Edge recoil damage is way too much to justify the small boost in power. Kangaskhan, being my Mega, was brought into every single game, usually in the back to disrupt tempo with the threat of Fake Out.

Clefable @ Mental Herb

Ability: Unaware

EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 28 SpA / 68 SpD / 4 Spe

Bold Nature

– Ice Beam

– Follow Me

– Helping Hand

– Protect

So I had Angel’s Clefable in my box already, but I was testing around with Amoongus. In the two weeks leading up to the Florida regionals, I wanted a Fire-Water-Grass core but, in the car ride from the airport with miyukihimeVGC and Mancuso, we where talking and Clefairy was brought up. The desire to have a Fairy type on my team with Helping Hand/Follow Me support made me switch back to Clefable. I would have used Clefairy, but I forgot to breed a new one. Unfortunately I couldn’t bring Clefable into as many games as I would have liked, but it helped a lot in the few games it saw.



Suicune @ Leftovers

Ability: Pressure

EVs: 232 HP / 84 Def / 112 SpA / 80 SpD

Bold Nature

– Ice Beam

– Scald

– Tailwind

– Protect

Oh bulky speed control water type, you will be the underlying theme of this season. I have a good friend of mine, Gary, who came up to me to tell me “I told you so,” after I talked down the bulk and power of Suicune. Now here I am playing this beautiful ribbon butt water dog/cat/gerbil.

100 Special Attack is enough to OHKO 4 HP Landorus and Salamence, with a 31.3% chance to OHKO Garchomp. The extra 12 EVs were added to make me feel better when I have to hit other targets for neutral damage with Scald and Ice Beam. Suicune did have Snarl before the event, but I ultimately voted against it in order to recover HP with leftovers and block double target turns with Protect. Tailwind was a very underused move for me at this event, not because I couldn’t find a situation to setup Tailwind, but because the situation never called for it.



Heatran @ Shuca Berry

Ability: Flash Fire

EVs: 156 HP / 252 SpA / 100 Spe

Modest Nature

– Heat Wave

– Earth Power

– Flash Cannon

– Protect

This is my anti-Steel/Fairy Pokémon. Heat Wave will always be an amazing move as long as it has STAB Earth Power to hit the targets that resist Fire/Steel, or if they’re named Suicune. I was thinking about putting Substitute on this set, but the lack of Steel/Poison type moves on my team made me want to keep Flash Cannon so that I would have more anti-fairy coverage. 156 HP made Scald from Milotic and Suicune typically a 2HKO while also surviving Scizor’s Superpower and Bullet Punch.



Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Prankster

EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 46 SpA / 68 SpD / 28 Spe

Bold Nature

– Thunder Wave

– Taunt

– Hidden Power [Ice]

– Thunderbolt

Once I saw that VGC 2015 was going to allow Genies, I knew I wanted to use Thundurus just for its Prankster Thunder Wave and Taunt. Taking advantage of its natural bulk, it will usually absorb 3 solid hits before getting KO’d. 46 Special Attack is enough to OHKO or 2HKO all relevant non-Rotom Water/Flying types with Thunderbolt and have a very good chance to OHKO 4 HP Landorus-T with HP Ice. It was a toss up of whether Thundurus or Suicune would carry the Sitrus Berry, but the burst recovery is better suited on Thundurus. I had forgot to put Swagger on Thundurus, but having more Ground/Dragon/Landorus coverage never hurts.



Terrakion @ Lum Berry

Ability: Justified

EVs: 20 HP / 228 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

– Rock Slide

– Quick Guard

– Close Combat

– Protect

The EVs gave Terrakion a bit more bulk. It helped in testing, but not against any of the teams I fought during the event. The moveset is pretty self explanatory: Quick guard is to block most Pranksters and Fake Out users. STAB Rock Slide hurts a lot and comes with a nice flinch chance. Close Combat blows up everything else. I did have Double Kick as a way to deal with Focus Sash Bisharp and Smeargle, but figured that the rest of my team would discourage Bisharp, while Thundurus had Taunt for Smeargle to render it useless.

Tournament Report

Round 1 vs. Blake

vs.



Terrakion’s Quick Guard blocked Fake Out, but it still got blown up by a Close Combat. It was very interesting to see Greninja and Nidoking on the same team, as they tend to have the same job of doing a ton of damage with very similar coverage. The Greninja ended up being neutralized by Thunder Wave, but it still KO’d my Thundurus. The main thing to remember is that Greninja’s best tool is its speed, as it hits way hard but doesn’t have much bulk. I believe it was holding an Expert Belt and Nidoking was holding Life Orb based on some damage calcs I ran after the battle. Kangaskhan and Suicune together took their first victory of the day!

1-0

Round 2 vs. Andrew

vs.



This was just an evil match on my end. Andrew’s Salamence only KO’d Terrakion with Double-Edge after getting flinched and fully Paralyzed while its partner Suicune got taunted, preventing it from setting up Tailwind. Andrew’s combo of Rotom-H’s White Herb with Helping Hand boosted Overheats effectively gave him 2 and a half full-powered Overheats, which I found very interesting. There was a support Lickilicky and Bisharp on his team as well, which meant that a Helping Hand Normal Gem boosted +2 Explosion could have been another threat on his team, but I will never know. Heatran and Kangaskhan RMA‘d the oven and fried Cresselia to earn me the second win of the day.

2-0

Lunch Round

Subway with friends while trying to avoid the massive potholes that littered the road leading to and from the venue.

Round 3 vs. Eric

vs.



I learned a very important lesson here, in that Aroma Veil blocks Taunt. It is surprising that Aromatisse is not more popular, since it has a built-in Mental Herb, enough bulk to survive just about anything, and Heal Pulse. Trick Room went up turn one and I had to play around Hariyama’s Close Combat for a few turns. Heatran managed fire off two Flash Cannons to KO Aromatisse and Kangaskhan, at -1, was able to OHKO Amoonguss after getting a crit on the first hit. I really hate having to fight Trick Room teams.

3-0

Round 4 vs. Ziad Elaawar (Zenithian) (Eventual 15th place)

vs.



Another Trick Room team with Zapdos and Rain support. This game I had to take out Gothitelle as fast as possible and play around Hariyama’s Close Combat. Suicune switched in to take a Close Combat for Kangaskhan and the defense drops starting racking up on Hariyama. It came down to Heatran, by herself, staring down a full HP Hariyama and 35~40% HP Ludicolo outside of trick room. Heat Wave hit and KOs both targets!

I was experiencing the best feeling, but then I remembered about the full HP Mega Mawile in the back. Mawile crits with its Sucker Punch, leaving me with a single chance to hit a 95% accurate move that only has a 25% chance to OHKO 252hp/0 SpD Adamant Mawile. HEAT WAVE OHKO’d Mega Mawile, letting me take the round!

4-0

Round 5 vs. Willam Collins (Wiretap) (Eventual 3rd place)

vs.



Round 5 took forever to start, for what ever reason. So, before the match, we played mind games with each other using our plush dolls and my Rotom/Rotom-F playmat. The match opens with one the scariest leads, Scizor and Blaziken. I double protect to avoid any damage while predicting the Protect from his Blaziken. Clefable then wagged his finger and ate Scizor’s banded Bullet Punch to the face and then asked for more. So Blaziken gave it a knuckle sandwich, KOing Clefable.

Kangaskhan OHKO’d Blaziken with Return, which made the match infinitely easier as I had no other way to deal with Blaziken. Suicune and Kangaskhan then made quick work of Mega Venusaur and forced Swampert to switch back to Scizor. I suspect that Scizor + Triple Starter will be a scary team in the metagame until something totally outclasses them.

5-0

Round 6 vs. Josse

vs.



This game was silly. I wish I was able to record this match as a example of offensive play vs. defensive plays. Josse’s Thundurus taunts mine, but I countered by simply using Thunderbolt on his Terrakion, knowing it’s a 2HKO after the Close Combat defense drop.

I switch Suicune in to take the Close Combat and it also gets taunted while his Suicune sets up tailwind. I double target his Thundurus with HP Ice and Ice Beam, cleanly knocking it out without having to deal with Sitrus Berry. Josse’s Metagross comes out and I taunt it, expecting it to set up a substitute, but Thundurus ended getting KO’d by Ice Beam and Zen Headbutt. Kangaskhan and Suicune Sucker Punched and Scalded their way to victory, scoring the burn on Josse’s Suicune. Josse mentioned afterwards that he tried to stop me from setting up, which I read correctly and adjusted by simply attacking.

6-0

Round 7 vs. Kyle Ayala

vs.



Yet another trick room team, but with Cresselia starting in the back. Constant pressure from my Kangaskhan and Thundurus stopped any chances of trick room. It was a really really tough lead, but Kangaskhan and Heatran pulled it off again, with the biggest play being Kangaskhan’s Return KOing a 70% HP Rotom-W still carrying its Sitrus Berry. The crit on the second hit of Return might have mattered, but the first hit did about 60% of its HP, so it might not have been that bulky. Heatran KO’d Mawile and Cresselia without an issue. Maybe if he had lead with trick room, things would be different, but that’s for an alternate reality.

7-0

Round 8 vs. Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario) (Eventual 4th place)

vs.



I kind of lost at team preview by not bringing Terrakion and Heatran in the back. I tried to burn through sun turns and take care of Gourgeist with Ice Beam, but things got out of hand once Kangaskhan and Clefable got burned. Scarf Typhlosion in the sun truly is the the volcano Pokémon, as Eruption takes out Thundurus and a solid 50% on Suicune.

7-1

Round 9 vs. Ben Hickey (Darkpenguin67) (Eventual 9th place)

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This was the first Mega Kangaskan I fought all day and Low Kick didn’t KO it. Also, I wished I had kept Ice Punch on my Kangaskhan as well. It was nice to see Sylveon as well, as I did expect it to lose favor over the course of the year due to Bisharp and Heatran usage going up. Heatran does have a x4 resistance to Fairy, but it still took a lot of damage from Thunderbolt and Choice Spec’d Hyper Voice. My team was simply picked apart, but I knew I’d still make it into Top Cut.

Top Cut Round 1 vs. Cash Koskta (Cash_Koskta) (Eventual 5th place)



The best trick room team I faced in the tournament. In team preview, I was thinking about having Thundurus taunt Cofragrigus, but it was carrying Mental Herb. In Game 1, everything I had got blown up with Cash making great calls on protects and switches, while my Pokemon were taking chip damage from hail.

Game 2 lasted a bit longer, but had the same result. Heatran might have solo’d Mega Mawile, Abomasnow, and Cofragrigus if Heat Wave hits and if Abomasnow didn’t have Sash or Ice Shard. All in all, making it to Top 16 is a great finish, considering it was my first major VGC event.

Conclusion

It would be great if I can make it out to Nationals, but I’m not pulling out my hair about it. I felt my team was fairly “standard”, with 4 legendaries, but those were the four Pokémon that perfectly fill the roles I needed. My team does have issues with fighting Pokémon, being very fighting weak, but I’ve gotten used to playing around it with smart Protects.

Hopefully, by the time Nationals rolls around, I would have mastered the Trick Room matchup. But that feels more like a personal matchup problem and not an actual problem matchup for the team.

I would like to say thank you to Heidi for running the event. It had a slow start but, like Regigigas, it got its act together by Round 5. I wasn’t able to hang out with my TCG friends, but they were all playing their Top Cut matches, so there’s a good reason for that!