SONM Pokémon VGC '16 Thread - Nationals 14th-15th May!

[Aren142]

The trek back was entertaining

I almost died.

[lol95]

Great read Xeno! I stopped teambuilding and practicing for VGC this year when I realised work would stop me from attending but I was kicking around a similar Latios without the HP Ground trying to make it work towards the end and I'm so happy to see so many familiar faces from some of the battles we had early this season; Scarf Milotic, Entei and Ferrothorn!

[Xenoblade Hero]

Sorry I was away when this first went up! Glad you all thought it was a good read, 8500 words and over a days worth of solid writing, combined with the weeks it took to produce the team went into this and I was gutted I didn't have the money to travel the entire European circuit (I felt I entered two of the "toughest" events of the season too, UK Regionals probably being less tough than the first German one but not by much). Let's see what happens next season :)

[ABoxerWhoIsPacifist]

Been considering getting back into pokemon.

Before I buy anything I'll play on Showdown for a while, but I'm not sure what team to use, I'm a little rusty. Anyways, my first draft was

Gliscor

Item: Yache Berry
Ability: Sand Veil
Moves: Swords Dance
Sky Attack
Double Team
Baton Pass

Tyranitar

Item: Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Stream
Moves: Rock Slide
Foul Play
Earthquake
Protect

Garchomp (Mega)

Item: Garchompite
Ability: Sand Force
Moves:Dragon Rush
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Iron Head

Ferrothorn

Item: Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Moves: Magnet Rise
Power Whip
Gyro Ball
Curse

Magnezone

Item: Occa Berry
Ability: Sturdy
Moves: Magnet Rise
Thunder
Flash Cannon

Umbreon

Item: Chople Berry
Ability: Inner Focus
Moves: Swords Dance
Baton Pass
Foul Play
Psychic

Any advice/criticism on the team would help.

[JenovaPX]

Significant fighting weakness you might want to address, especially with ice punch being reasonably standard. Water types could also be a problem with scald making ferro a bit risky, magnezone being the only reliable counter or Umbreon tanking.

[Xenoblade Hero]

Anything on the team for the common Landorus + Thundurus double genie combo?

Also your sets don't carry Protect which is somewhat of a staple in double play. I recommend testing on Showdown or Battle Spot to get a feel of the format

[Sabrofra]

Xeno's covered it if you're interested in playing doubles VGC rules.

If you're interested in singles on the other hand... It's obvious you're choosing to use a sand team, but you can probably replace 1 or 2 with different Pokémon. Just because you're running a sand team doesn't mean that nearly all of them have to be resistant to sandstorm. As Jenova's pointed out, you've got a pretty big fighting weakness, especially if that fighting type's running ice punch. Examples of Pokémon which would normally run Ice Punch would be Scrafty (I think), Machamp and Conkeldurr.

If you're planning to play VGC doubles though, ignore most of the paragraph I wrote above (and assuming you posted in this thread, that's probably the case).

[ABoxerWhoIsPacifist]

Played around with it earlier.

Won: 0

I started to tinker then. I took out Espeon for Slowking, as Baton Pass just wasn't working. In light of that, I also gave Gliscor Cross Poison instead of Baton Pass. Ferrothorn was replaced with Gengar. After those changes started winning most games. The genies gave me problems, as did Mega Salemence and Scrafty. Might bring Frosslass into the team, I think.

[Sabrofra]

An article for the upcoming World Championship.

[Decretum]

Gonna be at a barbecue that weekend so won't be able to watch it likely (might be able to sneak an occasional peek)

[evilpinkdragon]

fine enjoy your barbecue loser 8)

[Xenoblade Hero]

I'm looking forward to the World Championships and seeing many of my UK buddies compete in it :D

[Xenoblade Hero]

The World Championships start today! For anyone who wants to watch the tournament - www.twitch.com/pokemon

[Sabrofra]

I'm not really around this weekend to catch the rest of Worlds. I'll hopefully be able to catch the Masters' finals as that's the main thing I want to watch.

[Aren142]

It'll be in Japanese. Japan OP. 7 of the top 8 in Masters and the juniors top 4.

[lol95]

We finally have a Champion from the UK!!

[Aren142]

We finally have a Champion from Scotland!!

Fixed. And in Seniors. Juniors also had the first female World Champion. And Master had the least diverse set of top teams ever. Everyone had Mega Kangaskhan, and most people had Cresselia, Amoonguss and Thundurus. The only "surprise" was Entei.

[lol95]

But, but we always claim our sovereignty over the Scots when they do well...

[Aren142]

I won't stand for him succumbing to the same fate as Andy Murray.

[evilpinkdragon]

Was great to see Mark win after coming second last year, he absolutely annihilated the poor kid with the video even making it onto pornhub hurr
Masters was a great final, I think people need to remember not to take the teams at face value - there were some neat tricks and techs in the top 8 teams, Shoma (winner) had Sunny Day Amoonguss to boost his Sub Heatran's Heat Waves, Trick Room on Cress (which was Quiet over Modest) for speed control, and Safety Goggles Thundurus to cause problems without worrying about Spore or redirection. Meanwhile, BIDC (runner-up) had a more offensive Cress with Hidden Power Ground for Steels, and Icy Wind over Beam as alternate speed control. He was running a very different Thundurus too, with HP Ice over Swagger and Life Orb; additionally, he had a Sash Landorus instead of A.Vest. In fact, the top 3 all had different Genie sets, with Yosuke using a Bold, Sitrus Thundy variant with HP Ice and a Life Orb Lando. All 3 Aegislashes in the Top 4 had different sets, and only 2 of the Kangs had the same 4 moves - those had Low Kick and FO, another had PuP and Protect, and Naohito's was Brave with FO, Frustration and Low Kick!
I'd say that Entei wasn't the only surprise either, Volcarona is strong but was very much underused this season (I faced someone at Nats with one and it was a huge worry), and Hayato's Scrafty is another uncommon pick. But this isn't about surprises, this is about what works and will form a strong team that's consistent enough to win Worlds.

Anyway, onto the new season! Next year's Worlds will be in/around San Francisco, California!
Debate is raging in the community about what the new format could entail (if there is a change at all!), what would you all like to see?

[Sabrofra]

Didn't manage to catch much of Worlds as I was pretty busy last weekend.

Anyway, there's a Pokémon tourney in Manchester on the 24th of October if anyone's interested.

[Decretum]

Tbf part of what makes a number of the top 8 mon so good is that they can feasibly run a number of set alterations effectively.

It's not about one set being extremely strong (because a set can always be countered), it's about several sets being reasonably strong and you have to play a bit of a guessing game.
They're consistent mon that can run the odd surprise that can catch people out in any format, but also are reliable enough to not rest all their hopes on the surprise.

[Cinaclov]

Just FYI, the next ruleset for Battle Spot has been announced;

Get ready for Rating Battle Season 12, starting September 15 at 00:00 UTC! During this Rating Battle Season, you’ll be able to use Pokémon you brought into your Pokémon Omega Ruby or Pokémon Alpha Sapphire game via the Poké Transporter in the standard Single, Double, Triple, and Rotation Battles. (In other words, your Pokémon won’t need to have the blue pentagon on their info screen.)

Essentially Battle Spot doubles will no longer require the Blue Pentagon meaning it will no longer reflect VGC rules. Seismic Toss Kangaskhan anyone?

[Aren142]

Battle spot =/= VGC

Pentagon rule will probably remain in VGC.

[evilpinkdragon]

Battle spot =/= VGC

Pentagon rule will probably remain in VGC.

Hope so tbh haha