Brisbane Sceptile Series #2

Hey guys! This is the team I used to win the Brisbane Sceptile Series Premier Challenge #2. Throughout the day I faced a number of really interesting teams, and played some really great games! I was very happy with the team, and incredibly satisfied with my final result! The team is a modified version of the team I had used the previous week, although unfortunately I came 11th and missed making cut during that event. In this post I will write about my team, the teambuilding process and my tournament run.  Without further ado, here is the team:

At a glance, it's a standard Gardevoir goodstuffs team which I based off Scar's 6th Place VGC15 World Championships team, running Azumarill over Tyranitar. However, there are a few surprises in the movesets that I used to keep my opponents on their toes :^)

Team can be found in plain text here.

The Team:

 

Gardevoir-Mega @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Pixilate
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 12 Def / 236 SpA / 60 SpD / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psychic
- Trick Room
- Protect

This is a relatively standard Mega Gardevoir spread, with minimal defensive benchmarks to ensure it survives attacks from a number of intimidated physical attackers and some special attackers. I ran a highly offensive spread because I like pressuring my opponent with high damage output, and felt that my team could adequately support my Gardevoir without me needing to run a highly defensive spread. Gardevoir was an incredibly threatening pokemon on my team, and posed a major threat to my opponent's team in many games I brought it. When supported properly, it was often able to clear through the major threats in my opponent's team for my back pokemon to clean up, or I could deal chip with the rest of my party and sweep with Gardevoir. Overall, Gardevoir was an incredibly powerful member of the team and provided strong offensive pressure in many matchups.

A few spread calcs can be found here.

 

Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- U-turn

This is the Landorus EV spread that Scar used in his worlds team, but I changed knock off and rock tomb to superpower and U-Turn because I like the switching utility provided by u-turn and the offensive output offered by superpower. The EV spread hits all the targets it needs to, while having a higher base stat total than 252 - 252 variants. I rarely brought Landorus in swiss, as I am often fearful of having surprise moves pick up easy KOs on him and swinging the match in my opponent's favour. However, this is more due to misplays on my end than any problems with the Pokemon itself, and he was an incredibly strong pokemon in the games I used him.

 

Thundurus @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 40 Def / 36 SpA / 156 SpD / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
- Swagger
- Thunder Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Protect

Once again, this is Scar's thundurus spread however due to Azumarill needing the sitrus berry I am running safety goggles Thundurus. Thundurus was mostly used for firing off swaggers during swiss, however this rarely resulted in a good outcome for me. Of the five turns of confusion I had on my opponents they only hit themselves once, and swagger missed a few times as well. This demonstrates the voliatility of swagger, and that it should definitely not be relied on as a winning stragegy. Overall, Thundurus was probably one of the weakest members of my team, although I feel that I could have definitely played better with him to improve his potential.

 

Heatran @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 252 SpA / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Overheat
- Protect

This heatran spread did a lot of work during the tournament, and was definitely one of the strongest Pokemon my team. The EV spread is simple, and provides him with strong offensive pressure and bulk while speed creeping opposing bulky heatrans with low speed investment. However, I found throughout the tournament that overheat was an unecessary move which I never needed to use, and in future events I will most likely run flash cannon in order to improve my matchup against opposing Mega Gardevoirs and Sylveons. I brought heatran to almost every game during the event, and found it performed exceptionally in every game. He has a good matchup with a lot of the Australian metagame, and dealt with a number of major threats to my team.

 

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Def / 12 SpD / 24 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Knock Off
- Belly Drum
- Protect

This is the standard Nuggetbridge damage calc Azumarill EV spread, because I've been too lazy to design my own spread and this one seems to work well for me. I didn't use Azumarill too much during Swiss, but I brought it to most of my games during top cut and it performed phenomenally, getting belly drum off in both games during my top 8 match and hitting hard in the later matches. In the previous event I had been using Life Orb Tyranitar in this slot, however I never brought it to a single game and felt that it was dead weight against many matchups, given I already had Landorus as a powerful rock slide user. I decided to use Azumarill because my team needs at least 2 strong physical attackers to be balanced, and Azumarill fulfills this role well as it is one of the most threatening pokemon in the game at the moment, with belly drum and powerful damage output thanks to priority aqua jet. It also gives my team a water type attacker, which I was previously lacking and completes my Fire-Water-Grass core. Azumarill was definitely a strong member of the team, and pulled its weight throughout the event.

 

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Sunny Day

With Tyranitar gone, I needed another method for dealing with weather conditions. For me, the perfect answer to this was Sunny Day Amoonguss. I rarely ever used protect on Amoonguss, and found that often I would have to just let him sit there and do nothing for my team on some turns, and Sunny Day allowed me to take advantage of them instead of wasting them. Sunny day allowed me to deal with rain teams, although I never faced one in the tournament and provided a way for me to deal with other weather conditions like hail and sand. In addition to this, it supported my Heatran and allowed me to weaken opposing water types which threaten my Heatran and Landorus. The EV spread is Scar's worlds spread, which worked well for me during the event and the rest of the moves are standard. Overall, Amoonguss was definitely my team's MVP and supported my entire team extremely well in every game I used it.

Okay, that's the team! If interested, the team can be found in plain text here. Now I will discuss my tournament run and my experiences at the event. 

Round 1: David Palfrey (2-3, 14th Overall)

His Team: 

He Brought: 

I brought: 

Being the first round of the tournament, I was pretty nervous about this matchup. CharY + Venusaur on my opponent's team frightens me a little, given that it can threaten my Gardevoir and the double ghost types made me a little concerned about Gardevoir's matchup. Thundurus surviving with clutch 1HP from Gastrodon's second Ice Beam definitely helped me out, and Gastrodon hitting itself in confusion helped keep Thundurus alive longer. This was a pretty long match, taking ten turns to play through and mostly involved me swaggering everything with Thundurus and dealing big damage to my opponent's team with Gardevoir and Heatran. I ended up taking a 3-0 win in this game, giving me a good start to the tournament.

Win: 1-0

Round 2: Luke Milligan (5-0, Top 8)

His Team:

He Brought:

I brought: 

This game, I was strongly outplayed by my opponent and definitely could have played better. I traced levitate and avoided an earthquake with Gardevoir first turn, killing his Gengar with a combination of psychic and heat wave however took massive damage with both Gardevoir and Heatran in the process. He brings in Kangaskhan and I switch Heatran for Amoonguss and protect Gardevoir, and he power-up punches the Amoonguss. I switch out Gardevoir for Azumarill and Rage Powder and he returns, Killing Amoonguss and U-Turns out Landorus for Sylveon. I aqua jet Kangaskhan and he protects it, hyper voicing with his Sylveon and revealing the life orb. I then protect Azumarill and he Power-up punches Gardevoir for the KO. He then cleans up my remaining two members with sucker punch and hyper voice.

I definitely could have played this game better, bringing Landorus would have helped with many of the matchups against his team. However, I decided against bringing it because of Weavile scaring him off at team preview, even though he didn’t bring it to our game. Gardevoir and Heatran help with the Weavile matchup, so Landorus definitely would have been a better choice over Azumarill in this matchup.

Loss: 1-1

Round 3: Harrison Fielder (4-1, Top 4)

His Team: 

He Brought:

I brought:

As soon as team preview opened I knew I was going to have a rough matchup against this team. I swaggered Sylveon first turn, and brought out Heatran over Gardevoir, while he predicted this and switched Scizor for Rotom-W using U-Turn and hits with the hyper voice. I then switch Thundurus to Amoonguss and protect Heatran, while Sylveon gets off another hyper voice and Rotom hydro pumps the Amoonguss slot. Mamoswine then comes in on the Sylveon slot and he protects Rotom, while I rage powder and heat wave predicting the hydro pump. I then protect Heatran and Giga Drain the Mamoswine, but Amoonguss is KOed before he has a chance to hit from Earthquake and Thunderbolt damage. I then bring in Gardevoir, who traces levitate and I switch in Thundurus to avoid the earthquake and psychic the Mamoswine, picking up the KO while Thundurus is KOed by Hydro Pump damage. Sylveon then comes back out, and I misplay going straight for the Hyper Voice and Heat Wave. I then lose Gardevoir and Heatran to hydro pump from Rotom and Shadow Ball from Sylveon.

I definitely could have played this game better, I needed to deal with Rotom Wash much faster and focus on taking it out, as it was a much greater threat to my team than the Mamoswine was. Landorus definitely would have been useful in this matchup, as he would have been able to provide offensive pressure against the Sylveon and Mamoswine. I generally let my Pokémon take too much unnecessary damage too quickly and lost resultantly.

Loss: 1-2

There was then an hour break before the next pairings, which I used to get something to eat and reflect on my previous matches. I knew that I really needed to perform extremely well if I was to make top cut, and I realised that I had not been using Landorus nearly as much as I should have been throughout the event, and that my reliance on swaggering with Thundurus was not the best method for dealing with many of the threats on my opponent’s team. As break ended I returned to the venue, determined to make a big comeback and make top cut.

Round 4: Sam (0-5)

His Team:

He Brought:

I brought:

This was definitely an interesting match, to say the least. Being 1-2 at the time, I was matched against one of the lowest rated players in the event (0-3 at the time) and managed to easily perform a 4-0 sweep, given his entire team was weak to Landorus. I lead with double genies and practically just Earthquaked every turn to close up the match. I offered to help give him some competitive Pokémon to help him out, but he left the venue during top cut before I had a chance to do so.

Win: 2-2

Round 5: Ryan Currie (3-2, Top 8)

His Team:

He Brought:

I brought:

When I faced Ryan, his win-loss ratio was 3-1. This made me extremely excited, because it meant that I was at the top of the 2-2s and had a chance of coming back to make top cut, but I had to win this match. Unfortunately it seems that I had forgotten to save the battle replay of this match, so I cannot recall exactly how the battle went but I remember that I was able to predict my opponent correctly and ended up winning the match 3-0, the game finishing with his Thundurus against my remaining three Pokémon, who attempted to fire off swaggers to come back into the game but was unable to finish off my team.

Win: 3-2

When the rankings were announced, I was told that I had made 6^th place overall, which landed me a spot in top cut. This was the furthest I had gone in an event before, and I was extremely excited! Although I was happy with simply making cut, I was determined to go as far as I could.

Top cut games for this event were streamed on the Nugget Bridge channel, although only my final match was displayed on the stream. The stream for the other matches in top cut can be seen here. My finals match is at 00:54:00.

Top Cut:

Top 8: Richard Buckley

His Team:

This game was against a fellow Gold Coast player, using a team which I was definitely not expecting to face. At team preview I really had no idea what I was looking at, as many of these Pokemon are incredibly rare and have had very little experience playing against them in the past. I tried to play carefully against him, taking as few risks as posssible against his team as I was unsure how he would play with it.

Game 1:

He Brought:

I brought:

 This game opens with rock slide from Aerodactyl and Landorus, Azumarill setting up belly drum and his Hippowdon flinching. He switches in storm drain Cradily to deal with my Azumarill while I protect and rock slide, again flinching the Hippowdon. I superpower the Cradily and reveal its weakness policy, and knock off the Hippowdon to pick up the KO and reveal its rocky helmet. Azumarill then dies to a Giga Drain from Cradily. I then bring out Gardevoir and he brings in Scrafty, which fakes out the Gardevoir and Landorus KOs the Cradily with superpower. Aerodactyl comes back in, and Gardevoir-Landorus close up the game.

Win: 1-0

Battle Video: 2KQ2-WWWW-WW34-U5CJ

Game 2:

He Brought:

I brought:

 He goes for the icy wind with Milotic and protects Aerodactyl, while I knock off Milotic and switch Landorus for Gardevoir. Milotic switches out for Hippowdon and Aerodactyl Mega Evolves, using sky drop on Azumarill while I use hyper voice with Mega Gardevoir. Gardevoir then hyper voices again the next turn, picking up both KOs and Azumarill gets a free belly drum after returning from sky drop. Milotic then scalds and Cradily giga drains Azumarill for the KO while Gardevoir hyper voices. Heatran comes in, and Heatran-Gardevoir sweep up the remaining members of his team. GGs Richard!

Win: 2-0

Battle Video: JUGG-WWWW-WW34-U5B4

Top 4: Paul Amadee

His Team:

Paulo is a great player, and it is always fun to face the teams he brings to these events. I was really excited to play against him in top cut, and we played some really great games! At team preview, he had a few pokemon which I had tested myself before, as well as a few other rarer pokemon which I had a little experience with. 

Game 1:

He Brought:

I brought:

The game opens with me picking up a double rock slide flinch on his side of the field, and hyper voicing with Gardevoir to bring both members of his team to less than 30%. This puts him in a very rough position right from game one, and in turn two he loses both of his leads while my Pokémon have only taken damage from sand. Gastrodon and Ferrothorn then come in, while Landorus U-turns the Gastrodon and switches in to Amoonguss, which takes an ice beam from Amoonguss. I then hyper voice, and giga drain, bringing both of his Pokémon down to heat wave range but losing my two Pokémon. I then clean up the game with heat wave from Heatran and superpower from Landorus.

Win: 1-0 

Battle Video: NNWW-WWWW-WW34-U5AD

Game 2:

He Brought:

I brought:

This game was a much rougher matchup with me, and opens with Mienshao using wide guard to block both my rock slide and hyper voice while Salamence hyper voices. Next turn, Gardevoir protects while Salamence hyper voices, and Mienshao rock slides while Landorus U-turns out for Amoonguss. Amoonguss rage powders, Salamence hyper voices and Mienshao rock slides, KOing Amoonguss however Gardevoir survives to pick up the double KO on Salamence and Mienshao. Landorus comes in and superpowers the Gastrodon, Hyper voice picks up the KO on Gastrodon and deals 40% to Tyranitar. Heatran comes in and takes a low kick from Tyranitar before cleaning up the game. GGs Paulo!

Win: 2-0 

Battle Video: 6XSW-WWWW-WW34-U59D

Finals: Matthew Trapp

His Team:

At team preview this looked like a pretty standard team, and I had plenty of experience facing teams similar to this before. However, CHALK is always a rough matchup so I still had to be careful and make sure I played the best I could. 

Game 1:

He Brought:

I brought:

Charizard protects turn 1 and Cresselia sets up trick room, while I switch Landorus out for Heatran using U-Turn on Cresselia and protect Azumarill. I then switch Azumarill for Amoonguss, while Heatran takes a skill swap + flamethrower from Cresselia and Charizard Y. I then switch out Heatran for Landorus and spore the Charizard, while Cresselia attacks Amoonguss with psychic. Cresselia switches for Amoonguss and Charizard Y for Landorus while I attempt to spore the Amoonguss and switch Landorus for Heatran. I then spore the Landorus and Heat Wave with Heatran, while Cresselia comes back in and takes a spore from Amoonguss. I switch Landorus into the heatran slot while I spore the Landorus slot, preparing for a wake up. I then rock slide, flinching his Landorus as it wakes up. I then continue to rock slide, chipping his Cresselia and Landorus while Amoonguss takes attacks from his Landorus. The remaining members of his team are then cleaned up by Landorus and Heatran, after my Amoonguss faints to a giga drain

Win: 1-0

 Battle Video: 2KQ2-WWWW-WW34-U5CJ

Game 2:

He Brought:

I brought:

He fakes out the Landorus, predicting the Azumarill protect and I switch Landorus for Azumarill, expecting the Landorus fake out and spore on the Landorus slot. I then switch Azumarill for Landorus and spore the Kangaskhan, while he double-edges the Heatran slot and rage powders. He then switches his Amoonguss for Heatran as I set up sunny day and Heat wave with Heatran, leaving his sleeping Kangaskhan with very low HP. I then rage powder a low kick from the Kangaskhan, which dies to rocky helmet recoil while Amoonguss dies from a heat wave from the opposing Heatran, and his Heatran dies to an earth power from mine. He then brings out Amonguss and Landorus, protecting his Amoonguss and Earthquaking while I heat wave and rock slide. I then rock slide and protect with heatran, while his Landorus flinches and my Landorus is spored by his Amoonguss. I then heat wave with Heatran, taking a rock slide without flinching to close up the game. GGs Matthew!

 Win: 2-0

Battle Video: MBQG-WWWW-WW34-TBZR

Conclusion

Thanks for reading my report! I feel like Australian events need more coverage, so I hope that this article is useful and informative to anyone who wants a better understanding of the Australian metagame. If you have any feedback on either the team or the report, or if I have missed something really stupid while proofreading please don't hesitate to ask me or tell me in the comments or via PM. Thanks!

Shout outs:

• Pockycat for being bae <3

• Splozion and Zoingy101 for being great friends who really helped out during the team building process :^)

• Brendan Webb (Florist the Budew) for being a great friend and an amazing player who really helped out with team building and testing

• Phil Nguyen (Boomguy) for being an awesome tournament host:^)

• Everyone who I played against for being a really good sport and for helping me improve my game. GGs everyone! See you all at the next events!

[Update Fix 1: Had Flash Cannon over Earth Power. Whoops!]