SirScrubbington's VGC 2016 Format Report

Foreword

Hey all, I’ve recently discovered this report which I had almost written and published to my blog back in 2016 however it was forgotten and never uploaded. Unfortunately many pastebins have been lost in the past three years, so I've attempted to recover as many as possible without recreating them unauthentically. In additon to this, I’ve tried to more or less leave it as it was as it’s an interesting reflection of my mindset as a player back when it was written. However, I’ve had to rewrite the regionals and nationals sections as they pointed towards a Nugget Bridge report I wrote using the blog system that is no longer accessible. Regardless, I hope you can find some interest in this report and I'd like it to be seen as a kind of time capsule for my development as a player in the later sections, potentially for the format itself.

Introduction

Hey guys! 2016 has been an incredibly big year for me as a Pokemon player, I’ve met a lot of amazing players at events, completely outperformed my expectations and I’ve honestly had a pretty fantastic time playing the 2016 format, which is something I would have never expected to say during the first few months of the format. 2016 was my first full year playing VGC, as I started in around March of 2015 and was also my first year attending the National Championships in Melbourne - Which had really been a huge goal for me since I’d started playing. In this report I’ll be going through my tournament season, as well as a few teams I made on the side which never got to see play at a tournament. Thanks for reading, and I hope you all enjoy the report!

Early Season Testing

The 2016 format was announced early on in November 2015, which gave me about 3 weeks to prepare teams before the Nuggetbridge Summer Scramble was announced. My first impression of this format was that Shadow Tag was really good, so I attempted to use Gothitelle to make a Dual Primal trick room team.

NB Summer Scramble (1-x)

My general gameplan was to use either Kyogre or Groudon depending on which primal my opponent was using, or both in certain matchups. I based the team off Scar’s Team in the Battle of Legends, as I used the same 5 pokemon as him with Gothitelle over Cresselia. My version of the team was really awful, and I ended up doing really badly in the scramble but I feel this tournament and my performance helped me get used to the format and the kind of play required to be successful in 2016.

Aus V Malaysia Qualifier (0-1)

In preparation for the Aus v Malaysia qualifier, I prepared a Xerneas Kyogre team, which I really enjoyed using on ladder on Showdown. However, I had very few answers to the Xerneas Smeargle lead which became clear to me during the qualifier for the Australia vs Malaysia Qualifier - Where I lost in the first round to Saamid (Yourf) who was able to flowchart me easily.

Looking back at this team, I see that Bronzong would have been a fantastic Pokemon choice over Gothitelle, but at the time I simply had Gothitelle because I wasn’t sure what else I wanted and Bronzong hadn’t really picked up in the metagame yet. It would have made the team better in so many matchups and I truly regret not trying it.

International Challenge January (Top 10 Australia)

After losing so easily I was pretty demoralised, so Luke Brown convinced me to try a more standard team with Scarfed smeargle and Quick Guard Talonflame.

I ended up using this team in the International Challenge, and just barely made 10th in Australia. Early in the metagame these teams were decent, but more or less relied entirely on hitting dark void and getting good sleep turns to position yourself, which I considered to be very inconsistent and unreliable in the long run. I hated relying on that to win games so I changed this team pretty quickly after the tournament.

Nugget Bridge Major (4-5)

Unfortunately it is impossible for me to retrieve my team and matchup combinations due to the Nugget Bridge forums deletion, I can give a basic rundown of the opponents I faced and how I fared in the tournament. For most of the tournament I used fairly standard Big Six variants, teching in new moves and Pokemon occasionally but for the most part my team remained the same each week.

Round 1 - ReuvenVGC (win)

Round 2 - CYGC (loss)

Round 3 - KingWill53 (loss)

Round 4 - davethebrave (loss)

Round 5 - LithiumAcid (opponent drop)

Round 6 - TheChaz (opponent drop)

Round 7 - LPFanVGC (loss)

Round 8 - HaxnandezTH (win)

Round 9 - PephanVGC (loss)

Finishing the Nugget Bridge Major with a negative record was a little bit demoralising, however it was only early on during the season and I can recognise that most of the opponents which I lost to were skilled players. Regardless of my performance, it was a good opportunity to learn more about the format and improve my skill level against international opponents.

Brisbane Premier Challenge #1 (2-3)

This was the first live event of the format for me, and I used a modified version of my international challenge team which dropped the scarf on smeargle for Sash, and I actually ran feint as a tech move for beating opposing smeargles.

My justification for this was that feint + Brave Bird would be able to KO any opposing smeargles, although I found that Smeargle + Talonflame was a very passive lead against any team that did not lead smeargle themselves. I also used Flamethrower + Eruption special Groudon, which was good in some matchups but during the event I got paired against a Ho-Oh team piloted by Mastodon - Which fairly well destroyed me. He also managed to sheer cold my Geo’d Xerneas on the first attempt which did a pretty good job at tilting me going into the next round, where I lost to Boomguy’s RayOgre team with Roar Zapdos after a double dark void miss.

Brisbane Premier Challenge #2 (Top 4)

This tournament I used practically the exact same team, as I’d been testing a lot of teams online but I wasn’t really satisfied with any of them. The only massive difference I can remember between them was that in this tournament my Primal Groudon had rock slide - literally just because I didn’t want to lose to Mastodon’s Ho-Oh again.

I made the horrible decision of using a special defence reducing nature, which made my Groudon get easily 2hkod by Salamence and realised the day after the event that Groudon actually got Ancient Power which I could have used instead. I also discovered a few weeks after the event that I wasn’t actually running max happiness on my return Kangaskhan - I was starting to wonder why my return wasn’t even strong enough to kill Talonflame at neutral. I lost in Top 4 to Boomguy, who was using a Cresselia Big 6 team which I really liked the look of and began testing with after the event.

Brisbane Premier Challenge #3 (Winner)

I had planned on bringing a RayOgre team to this tournament, but after testing and refining the Trick Room Big 6 Cresselia online, I found I really enjoyed using it and decided to bring it to the PC.

The team proved really consistent in swiss, and I felt like I had answers for pretty much everything I faced during the day. I played against Luke Milligan (Pidgey) in the finals, who was one of my swiss losses but after careful consideration of my game plan I was able to take the finals set 2-0. This was also the first tournament where I met Malcolm (MogarVGC), a skilled VGC player who has become a good friend of mine since the event.

Brisbane Regionals (Top 8)

For this event, I don’t think there was ever very much doubt in my mind that I was going to bring Cresselia Big 6. The team provided strong neutral matchups across the board, and having a trick room mode with slow Groudon ensured that I would have a playable matchup against other trick room primal teams.

This was a best of one swiss regional with a best of three top cut, and I felt like this was of benefit to a less standard Xerneas Groudon team as my opponents may not have a specific gameplan. In this event I went 7-1 in swiss, which was absolutely necessary for me to top cut as I had the worst resistance of any other player in the top cut of that event. This is due to the fact that I lost my games extremely early, and my round one opponent dropped round two, forfieting to me after winning. This was not something I did not nor would ask for, and felt really uncomfortable about it for the rest of the event but I guess in the end, it determined me to play strong into top cut so to that much I am thankful for.

I lost to Mitch Kendrick (@MitchVGC) in Top 8, as I didn’t have a well defined gameplan against Kyogre Xerneas. Game one, I lead in such a way that allowed me to be susceptible to the Smeargle Xerneas flowchart, which was regrettable as I did not predict the lead as I should have. Game two I switched up my leads to provide a stronger matchup, and my Groudon win condition took a critical hit which cost me any chance of taking the match.

Australian Nationals (Top 8)

Australian nationals was held the week after my first semester at University ended - So I was extremely busy with work and didn’t really have any time to test new teams for the tournament as I would have liked to. Up until the night before the main event started, I had every intention of playing the tournament using a slightly modified version of my regionals team, with a more offensive, slower Xerneas EV spread and a few more optimised EV spreads elsewhere.

The Xerneas EV spread change was due to the general increase in bulk on opposing Xerneas in this point in the metagame, as my low investment and neutral nature on my regionals Xerneas meant that I was no longer picking up non-Geo’d Xerneas with Moonblast. When this became an issue, there was no way I could keep using my current spread. However, after testing this team on Battle Spot the night before the event, I was unsatisfied with my losses and felt that I was playing a number of teams which I was incapable of beating consistently, so I cut Cresselia for Salamence and switched to fast Groudon.

This is the standard, full Big Six team which I felt was experienced enough with to play most matchups and at least understand my win conditions, especially in a best of three set. The main problem with using a team like this at regionals or other smaller events in my mind was that it was easily understood by my opponents, and weak to being teched against in best of one. However, I felt that in a best of three scenario I could play around most techs as they are revealed and using a team with consistent neutral to favourable matchups was acceptable.

I ended up going 7-2 in swiss at this national with my team, taking losses to Sam Hughes (@Sammy_Slug) in round four and Mitch Kendrick (@MitchVGC) in round six. Sam was using Rayquaza Kyogre Ferrothorn, which is a difficult matchup for my team and he outplayed me convincingly in game three, and Mitch Kendrick was using Xerneas Groudon Bronzong, and his Smeargle worked well to make the set difficult for me to play. Another memorable match I played this day was Bailey Owen (@BargensVGC) in round three, which was one of the toughest sets I played all day, against who was at the time one of the strongest VGC players in Melbourne. He outplayed me extremely convincingly game one, however I was able to make a comeback in game two. Game three was an extremely close game, which I was able to bring into a winnable position by making a number of extremely aggressive plays and winning a Groudon speed tie.

This national was a two-day swiss event, where rounds eight and nine were played on day two, so going into day two with an x-2 record was probably one of the most nervewracking experiences of my life. However, on day two I was able to take wins against Jimmy Farrujia (@jfaybzplays) and Bailey Gabell (@BaileyGabell) who were both skilled players who forced me to play for my chances at top cut.

Jimmy was playing an extremely interesting archetype in Xerneas Yveltal, which was something I did not have matchup experience with and lost game two pretty convincingly, however I was able to take game three with the team weaknesses I had learned in games one and two. Bailey Gabell was piloting Rayquaza Kyogre, which was a difficult matchup however it was a more standard variant than Sam Hughes’ version so I had a better understanding of the matchup and won 2-0. After going x-2 early, I was very nervous that my resistance would not hold up enough to get me a top cut spot, however I was lucky enough to make the Top 16 cut at 13th!

My top 16 opponent was Bailey Owen again, who was one of my most difficult games day one and I felt like his Crobat made the matchup a little bit unfavourable. After losing game one I made a punishable play in game two for which I was rewarded for with a critical hit and for him this was tilting enough for me to win game three without too much competition.

In top 8 my opponent was Sam Pandelis, a well-known Australian VGC player and a multiple time Australian regional champion. Due to the unfavourable setup of the invite structure in 2016, the low number of events in Australia made it extremely difficult for Australians to achieve travel awards to the World Championships, even with numerous good regional placings. As a result of this, myself (and a number of other people) threw matches in top cut of this national to ensure that those of us that could would get their paid invites. It was quite difficult for the stream team to show games, as for example in top eight there was only one set which was actually played.

This is something which for me was extremely dissapointing as it was an anticlimactic conclusion to one of my proudest achievements as a VGC player after a poor pre-season performance however the Top 4 placing was far more important to Sam than it was for me, as he needed it for his worlds invite and I had no chance of getting paid even with a win. Regardless of this, I was still very proud of my achievement and it felt amazing to make top cut at my first national and prove myself as a player in the Australian VGC scene.

Australian Pokemon League (3-1)

The Australian Pokemon League, or APL was one of the best experiences which I could have asked for as an early Australian VGC player, and it’s something which I really hope comes back for future formats. I think it’s an extremely useful tool for introducing new players to high level competitive play, and providing an opportunity for players to learn the value of group teambuilding and discussion despite the nature of Pokemon as an inherently one-versus-one game in terms of offical competitive formats.

I played almost every week for the Lumiose Mimes, which was an APL team captained by Phil Nguyen (@Aussie_Phil_N). At the start I was incredibly nervous, as I have trouble under pressure especially when there are more people than just myself relying on my results, which was something I was not used to I had an amazing team which I was happy to play for, and I think having the opportunity was a priceless experience for me. When playing in the APL, my matchups were as follows:

Week 1: Didn’t Play

Unfortunately I had an assignment due this week which had to take priority over playing, but I promised Phil I’d play in the next week in whichever slot he preferred.

Week 2: (VGC16’) - Rhydian Cowley

Me:

Rhydian:

This was actually a really fun set, and was our highlighted set for this week of the APL. Game one I was able to Smeargle Xerneas flowchart pretty safely, and game two I mixed up a little bit, however lategame I made a prediction based upon a move which Rhydian did not have so I ended up losing. Game three, I was able to get the fake out swords dance off freely, and through some faily shaky mindgames in the midsection I was able to close the game out with Groudon.

Week 3: (VGC16’) - Jay Tyrrel

Me:

Jay:

This was the week after Australian nationals, and as we were playing against Bargens’ team I felt pretty certain they were just going to counterteam big six. The strongest big six counterteams are generally dual primal teams, so I felt like they were just going to abuse that matchup. As a result of this, I put together a powerful Rayquaza Kyogre team which in theory has an extremely favourable dual primal matchup and through a little bit of luck in game two I was able to take this set 2-0.

Week 4: (VGC15’) - Sam Pandelis

Me:

Sam:

Sam is a good player, so this was an extremely stressful set to prepare for. I wasn’t expecting him to counterteam me, as I wasn’t particularly well known as a VGC15’ player at this point in time so my tendency to use Gardevoir CHALK was most likely not known to him. On the other hand, I was expecting him to use a very offensive team so I had to prepare myself for the possibility of playing some pretty heavy mindgames. I got pretty heavily rolled over in game one, however in games two and three I was able to navigate through the onslaught of mindgames and take the set.

Week 5: (VGC15’) - Jerikho Bulandi

Me:

Jerikho:

I didn’t know too much about Jerikho, however I knew that Dawg had spent a good amount of money drafting him onto his team so I wasn’t underestimating him. I decided against using my Gardevoir team again, as the other games which had been played already that week were mostly played using counterteams - so I decided to use a more experimental archetype in Charizard Y Gengar Whimsicott. It never really had a big performance at live events, but it popped up a little in the late season as a powerful Japanese Battle Spot archetype so I decided to give it a shot, as it had a reasonable matchup to standard teams. Overall I felt like I got a little unlucky in the set, but Jerikho played really well with a strong team so he won 2-0 pretty safely.

BSPL

The BSPL, or Battle Spot Premier League was another draft league I signed up for which was based around Generation five and six Battle Spot Formats - Including Battle Spot Doubles, otherwise known as VGC2015. This meant that a lot of VGC players wanting a break from the power-heavy format of VGC2016 signed up to have a chance to play for the doubles matches. I played for the Viridian Rhydons, which was a really fun team to play on which also featured my good friend, Brendan Webb (@FloristTheBudew) as another doubles player. This league, while similar in structure was a very different experience for me than the APL, as I was placed on a team of Pokemon players from all over the world, all involved with different Pokemon formats - Including Battle Spot Singles, and even GBU Singles! It was a really great opportunity for me to play some really great matches, which were as follows.

Week 1: Bailey Owen (@BargensVGC)

Me:

Bailey:

As you’ve probably seen from elsewhere in this report, Bailey and I played quite a lot of times this year so I felt like he’d know me pretty well and decide to counter my standard Gardevour CHALK team. As a result of this, I was a little bit lost on which team choice to pick so I ended up going with a HyperOffense team which I built in mid 2015 after a practise set with Jack Buckley (@Arahpthos) renewed my confidence in it. My team had an extremely favourable matchup to his self-admitted Gardevoir counterteam, so I was able to win two fairly clean games, with game two being a little bit messier after a scald burn on his end and a high low kick roll on mine.

Week 2: Kimo Nishimira (@TapuKimo)

Me:

Kimo:

After the success of the team last week, I decided I’d try using the same team this week as well. While I am more of a defensive player generally, as it allows you to make safer plays and still win I felt that this team allowed me to take games off highly skilled players if I were able to predict them accurately. However, Iost this set 2-0 from Kimo as he played extremely well, and despite the fact I was able to make the correct read and eliminate his Thundurus both times he was able to win the war of attrition and take both games.

Week 3: Matame

Me:

Matame:

Playing hyper aggressively didn’t pay off for me the previous week, so I decided to go back to my comfort zone and play with my Gardevoir CHALK team. He ended up using a fairly standard kangaskhan team, with a few interesting choices such as Milotic for the water slot, Volcarona over Heatran and then Aegislash over Cresselia. He played far more aggressively than I was prepared to deal with for my team, knocking out my Amoonguss on the switch-in turn one game one with Hidden Power Ice and Double-Edge and I didn’t have the offensive pressure to deal with his team after that. Game two I wasn’t able to keep things together and ended up losing, in what I think was at least a somewhat unfavourable matchup. However Matame played really well, and gave me a new appreciation to the skill of high level Smogon Doubles players.

Week 4: MiltankMilk

Me:

Miltank:

After losing the last two weeks, I thought I’d experiment a little with a somewhat unusual team, based off a relatively standard but less common archetype. I kept the scarf Tyranitar set, but decided to use a mixed timid set with Ice Beam, Flamethrower and Dark Pulse in order to catch my opponent off guard and put pressure on intimidate switch-ins. My Salamence was bulky dragon dance to compliment this, and provided for a strong setup support combination with Azumarill and Amoonguss. With the right plays and a pretty favourable matchup, I was able to take this set in two games.

Week 5: Didn’t Play

We were already out of contention of making playoffs, so we decided to let the people who hadn’t had many opportunities to play have a chance this round. As a result of this, Pyritie and Quixxter took the Battle Spot Doubles slots this week.

Ladder Hero Meme Dream: Shedinja

Outside of VGC tournaments and online competitions, one thing which myself, Jack Buckley (@Arahpthos) and Paulo Amedee (@Mastodon_Swoles) played around with on ladder quite a lot was a Shedinja team, which saw many variations over several months of playing.

The team abused the fact that in VGC2016, very few teams had any way to hit a soaked Shedinja so in many games you could simply lead Smeargle Xerneas, switch your Xerneas to Shedinja, click soak and call it a day. Of course, the game didn’t always end there - Often you’d get to play out twenty to thirty turns of your opponents abusing you, but honestly that was at least a good part of the fun. The most variable slot on the team was the Amoonguss, which overwent a number of changes including Bronzong, Golduck and Mega Kangaskhan.

Additional Pastebins

While many of my teams were lost, there are a number which I have been able to recover. They don't fit into any other section, so I'll be going into them a little bit here.

Xerneas Kyogre

Dual Primals

Rayquaza Kyogre

Rayquaza Xerneas

Groudon Kyurem

Dialga Kyogre

Zekrom Kyogre

Yveltal Kyogre

Conclusion

While my season started incredibly poorly, I think overall this was an extremely important format for my development as a player and helped me learn some key skills about playing video games competitively at any level - And this lead to my two breakout performances, at Brisbane regionals and Australian nationals. It was also the year where I got to meet a number of interstate and international friends for the first time, which has really helped me keep involved with the game since. Competition has only gotten harder since 2016, as the general player skill level has increased and the skill level of Australian top players has increased immensely. As the competiton improves, you have to improve as well and I think this has been an exciting time for Australian VGC and our standings as a country in terms of global player skill. In addition this, I feel very privileged to have been able to represent the Lumiose Mimes in the APL and the Virdian Rhydons for BSPL and both teams helped me improve immensely as a player, and tought me new things about Pokemon - VGC and otherwise. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this report, and look forward to sharing more Pokemon content with you all!