Hi there. You probably are very confused at why I think I am qualified to write an article like this with no accomplishments within the Masters division of Pokemon, but quite honestly this is how I’ve approached the game for quite a while and I thought I would share my stance with the new season on the way. The main topic I’d like to focus on here is a reactive team compared to a strategic team, and some examples of both.

Reactive Teams: assert your dominance

Reactive teams are teams that generally tend to just use the best Pokemon and play them in the cleanest manner. In a world without RNG, if two players were to face in a mirror the better player should be the one winning. One example of a reactive team mirror where the better player wins that I would like to show off is the 2015 World Championships Top 4, between Naohito Mizubuchi and Shoma Honami, otherwise known as @SHADEviera. This is honestly one of the greatest sets of VGC 2015 ever played, so go ahead and watch the video along with my summary if you’d like.

The teams

Seed 7: Shoma Honami –

Seed 3: Noahito Mizubuchi –

As you can see, the teams don’t have a clear cut strategy outlined by the six Pokemon. Naohito’s team was definitely more Trick Room oriented, but still featured a max Speed Landorus and likely a max Speed Entei. As you can see in game 1, Shoma was able to make the correct read and let his Landorus enter the battle field for free at a crucial moment. In the beginning of game 2, Shoma was trying to pin his foe into setting up a Trick Room with the onslaught of the faster Mega Kangaskhan and Heatran. However, once the Trick Room was set up like Shoma wanted, he brought in his Amoonguss and cleaned up shop very quickly. Not all forms of CHALK were actually reactive builds as we will later discuss in this article, but these players surely chose to leave the game up to their skill, and reaped the rewards as such, with Shoma and Naohito earning a Championship and a top 4 respectively.

So obviously, that was a good example of a reactive team, but what’s something a little more recent? Well my friend, I’m glad you asked, as VGC 2017 has blessed us with quite a few teams that just aim to outplay the opponent with superior play and strong reads.

FAKE-PG, the Synergy King?

When the six consisting of Tapu Koko, Tapu Fini, Kartana, Arcanine, Porygon2, and Gigalith got its big debut at the Roanoke Regional Championships at the start of May, a few people were wondering whether or not this was the new dominant team to build around in the format before being harassed by the veterans that mocked them for thinking a team would ever reach the dominance that CHALK once had. While the veterans are certainly right, its worth to analyze just what this team does in order to win games that aren’t the mirror. For the most part its simple; preserve the Pokemon that threatens your opponent’s focus the most. If a player using FAKEPG is going up against a player using Mimikyu + Snorlax, it’s most important to use Gigalith to punish setting up Trick Room and use Kartana to force the set up of Trick Room. If the player is playing against a harder matchup, such as Rain, they’ll probably have to think harder and consider making optimal trades such as Porygon2 for Golduck or Tapu Koko for a Trick Room setup. An example of this team is the FAKEPG used by Rajan Bal and Robbie Moore at Virginia Regionals

Strategic Teams: take no prisoners

When I call it a strategic team, you may think of some gimmick like Minimize or Perish Trap, but really all I’m trying to imply is that these teams are making the call to run or even focus around a certain strategy that can be overwhelming for popular teams to handle. For our first example I’d like to throw it all the way back to 2014/2015 Philadelphia Regionals, where Aaron Zheng (@CybertronVGC) was able to overpower Nicholas Borghi’s (@_LightCore) rain setup using the polarizing combination of Gothitelle + Mawile, and Aaron went a step further in aiding his setup by adding Hariyama. This set was actually post-commentated by Aaron, and he gives far better insight turn-by-turn than I could in summary, so go watch that here. If you’re too lazy to watch, here’s the teams below.

Aaron Zheng:

Nicholas Borghi:

As you can see, Nicholas also focused down on a strategic team, his pick being rain, but he does have a distinct rainless mode. With Aaron having more ability to set up his wincondition (Mawile), he came out on top in a clean 2-0 win.

Things are About to Get… Tricky

By the heading alone, 95% of you probably already know what I’m referring to first, but honestly I think it’s a great example of a team that pores lots of energy into maximizing its efficiency with a certain strategy. Without any further stalling, lets take some time to probe Gavin Michaels’ (KomVGC) California winning team, shall we?

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This team is great at emphasizing what a “hard x” team should be. The first 4 Pokemon listed up above play very simply, by setting up Trick Room and dealing out clean damage. This was a very effective mode for lots of games, but in the matchups that can be very hard for a hard Trick Room team, Gavin thought a few steps ahead. He used Max Speed Ghostium Z Mimikyu to pick up a KO on Tapu Lele, whose Psychic Terrain stopped his preferred Fake Out + Trick Room setup. Another interesting pick was the Drampa on his San Jose team, which was a great tech to stop Gastrodon and Torkoal + Lilligant teams, which were both more popular in the earlier Metagame. After taking some inspiration from Aaron Traylor, Gavin teched on Destiny Bond to his signature Ghostium Mimikyu to allow his new powerhouse Snorlax to set up. This ended up being a winning formula that allowed Gavin to cruise to a 2nd regional win, completely uncontested in the entire tournament.

It’s Raining Mosquitos and Sludge!

While definitely not AS focused as Gavin’s team around his core strategy (few things can truly afford to do so and be viable in the 2017 season). Tommy Cooleen does use the “Double Duck” core to apply quick pressure to his opponents with ease. You can read this report here to learn about the synergy of his team, once again way better than I can describe it.

P R O T E C T T H E D E E R

You thought you could read one of MY articles and not here mention of VGC 2016? Ohoho, you fools! Let’s keep it simple though. The centralizing combination of Smeargle + Xerneas + Primal Groudon + Kangaskhan and sometimes some other friends allowed the player to maximize the potential of their Xerneas and make the team as effective as possible. The team I want to dissect for a short moment will be Sebastian Escalante’s (SebasVGC) Top 16 WCS 2016 team. The full version can be studied here.

This team features double redirection from Amoonguss and Smeargle, the former being used as either a back up or as a Trick Room counter while the latter exerts more pressure in general, just by being a Smeargle. This Xerneas is then supported by Kangaskhan’s Fake Out and most importantly, can beat steels with the help of Sebastian’s max Speed Primal Groudon. Sebastian obviously wanted to use the format’s strongest Pokemon with the most support feasible, and although he didn’t win the big prize, he did have a very strong finish and made a great call for the tournament.

Meet Me in the Middle at Dawn

So obviously, not every team has to go in the direction of focusing down on one or two Pokemon, and not every team will be just 6 strong Pokemon assorted in a line. Lots of teams create a healthy balance so that they have more flexibility. One of the most feared Pokemon in the end of the 2015 format, Azumarill, was often added on to CHALK teams as a 6th member to always strike fear into the opponent, even if they never brought it. This is because not punishing a lead of Amoonguss + Azumarill was almost an instant GG. Another team that’s more modern that follows relatively the same principle is the core of Tapu Koko Arcanine Garchomp and Celesteela topped off with Mimikyu and Snorlax. While this team wasn’t popularized by any one player, notable finishes at American tournaments are Top 4 at Virginia Regionals by Kazuki Kanehira and Top 4 at US Nationals by Cesar Reyes as well as Top 4 at Salt Lake Regionals by Patrick Smith.

I hope you all got something out of this article, I really want to get back into writing as we progress into the 2018 season. If you have any concerns or criticisms, positive OR negative, feel free to shoot me a DM @LifeOrb_. Thank you for reading!