Perish Trap was not the Trap! A 9th Place Italy Regionals and Top 32 Italy Nationals Team

Hi guys, my name is Thomas and I am from Austria. After participating in both the Italian Regionals and Nationals I figured it was time for me to share the team I used in both tournaments. Since I tweaked Heatran’s item and EV spread after the Regionals I am going to include two spreads for Heatran.

Teambuilding Process:

After having a lot of success with Perish Trap in my local community, I knew I had to use something similar to what I was used to, but in the 2015 metagame Perish Trap was easy to counter. I avoided this problem by using the enemy’s strategy to counter Perish Trap against them by building a team that looks like a Perish Trap team with regular Kangaskhan, like the one that was featured on Alex Ogloza’s YouTube channel at the time, to predict and counter the opponents lead. The first 3 Pokemon I added to my team were Gengar, Gothitelle and Kangaskhan; however, Gothitelle had little synergy here, until I got the idea to make the team a Trick Room Team. I built the the team so it would work well with and without the Trick Room to counter other Trick Room teams by either using their Trick Room against them or by surprisingly reverting it with Gengar. I added Sylveon and Conkeldurr to the squad to balance out some weaknesses and add 2 things that can do a lot of damage while Trick Room was up. The last Pokemon I used was Heatran. It covered a lot of the remaining weaknesses without adding more. It also provided much needed fire coverage and walled entire teams after I wiped out its counter with Kangaskhan and friends.

The Team:

Gengar (Trip with me) @ Focus Sash

Ability: Levitate

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

– Trick Room

– Shadow Ball

– Protect

– Will-O-Wisp

Gengar was my main Trick Room setter for the team. Although it seems squishy, the only ways to stop it from getting out Trick Room if I lead it with Kangashan are random flinches, Paralysis, Scrappy Fake Out, and Taunt users that cannot be Faked Out. Gengar did most of its work at 1 HP after it got up Trick Room. I would switch it out to preserve it for a fast Shadow Ball in the late game or Will-O-Wisp to cripple Landorus that desperately try to Superpower my Kangaskhan. The spread was pretty standard. I tried running a minimum speed Gengar, which was a horrible idea. It was too fast for Trick Room and too slow without it.

Kangaskhan (F) (Shadow Khan) @ Kangaskhanite

Ability: Inner Focus

EVs: 244 HP / 92 Atk / 148 Def / 20 SpD / 4 Spe

Adamant Nature

– Fake Out

– Low Kick

– Double-Edge

– Sucker Punch

For Kangaskhan I chose survivability over damage, because Double-Edge 2 hit KO’s almost everything that does not resist it and after the recoil my Gothitelle could revive all the damage it took with Heal Pulse. Low Kick was because I did not want to waste Trick Room turns boosting stats as it was difficult to set up Trick Room twice in one game if I chose to bring in Gengar over Gothitelle.

Heatran (Vulcan) @ Chople Berry

Ability: Flash Fire

EVs: 212 HP / 44 Def / 252 SpA

Modest Nature

IVs: 0 Spe

– Heat Wave

– Substitute

– Protect

– Earth Power

For the Italy Regionals I knew that I needed my Heatran to deal with Mega Kangaskhan and all other fighting types. I chose to ditch this spread because Power-Up Punch Kangaskhan rose in popularity a lot and Chople Berry was basically useless. I also had troubles against other, faster Heatrans.

Heatran (Lava Cookie) @ Shuca Berry

Ability: Flash Fire

EVs: 196 HP / 172 Def / 76 SpA / 64 SpD

Modest Nature

IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe

– Heat Wave

– Substitute

– Earth Power

– Protect

This is the Heatran spread I used in the Italian Nationals, since Chople Berry was outdated at the time and I needed a way to beat faster Heatrans in the turn I set up Trick Room without Protecting — a pretty obvious move that put me into a bad position often while testing. The spread takes Scarfed Landorus Earthquake and any Earth Power thrown at it. It can also get up a Substitute after taking a hit.

Sylveon (Fairy Tale) @ Pixie Plate

Ability: Pixilate

EVs: 164 HP / 100 Def / 196 SpA / 44 SpD / 4 Spe

Quiet Nature

IVs: 0 Spe

– Quick Attack

– Hyper Voice

– Protect

– Shadow Ball

Sylveon did exceptionally well in Regionals; however, it was the worst Pokemon on my team during Nationals. The whole metagame got a lot bulkier and Hyper Voice did almost no damage to neutral Pokemon.

Gothitelle (Love Me) @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Shadow Tag

EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 244 SpD

Sassy Nature

IVs: 0 Spe

– Trick Room

– Heal Pulse

– Helping Hand

– Psychic

I sadly only brought Gothitelle a handful of times because Gengar was a safer pick in most of my matches. However, it performed phenomenally in the matches I did pick it for. Heal Pulse made my Kangaskhan almost immortal and forced my opponent to try to deal with Gothitelle first. The spread takes a Choice Specs Dark Pulse from Hydreigon and was similar to the spread Cybertron used in the 2014 season. I used this spread because at the time of the Italy Regionals, Specs Hydreigon was the most common one on Showdown.

Conkeldurr (Nerf) @ Assault Vest

Ability: Guts

EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 44 SpD

Brave Nature

IVs: 0 Spe

– Drain Punch

– Mach Punch

– Ice Punch

– Knock Off

My Conkeldurr was used to deal with Aegislash, Kangaskhan and Mega Salamence while Trick Room was up. It also worked well with Gothitelle because I could Heal Pulse and Drain Punch to get most of my HP back. I also used it as my main Rain counter because it takes very little damage from Politoed and Ludicolo while profiting from burns due to Guts. This also qualified it as a switch in for opposing Will-O-Wisp. The moveset and spread are the standard for Assault Vest Conkeldurr and allows it to take Sylveon’s Hyper Voice without Choice Specs.

Conclusion

I was really happy with my placement in the tournaments, however the 9th place in Rome was rather unfortunate. I got 9th by 1 percent with a 5-2 score in swiss. Other that that I earned my Worlds invite this season and I definitely hope to achieve a reasonable placement there. I also want to thank a special group of people that helped me over the time of this season and helped me come up with some ideas that went into this team. Noah Fuchs (Daydreaming Ninja on NB, Kadoya on Twitter) Kelly MW (KellsterCartier) and Jip Snoek (keonspy)