SirScrubbington's 2017 Format Writeup!
Hey guys! My name is Damon Murdoch, also known as Sir Scrubbington in the VGC community. Overall my results at big live events have been pretty mediocre this season, but I had a lot of fun with this format and love writing about VGC so I wanted to share a little on the teams I used. This format was extremely different to past formats I had played such as VGC15' and 16' so I would say it was very difficult for me to adapt to the new format, and to be completely honest I actually really disliked it early on. However, as we progressed through the year and I found teams I really enjoyed playing it actually grew on me quite a lot, and despite my worse performances at events compared to 2016 I actually had a lot of fun with this metagame.
Lets take a look at the teams!
December PC: Top 4 Finish
At the time this was pretty much the most standard team in the metagame and it seemed really strong to me so I felt like it was a pretty safe pick going into my first event of the season. For the most part I was right, I felt like the team performed extremely well in most matchups but I lost two times during the tournament to the same player - who was piloting Bulu Arcanine Celesteela stall. It turned out to be a pretty big issue for the team to deal with, and if I were to change one thing about this team it would be to put perish song on Marowak over bonemerang for that matchup, as well as general utility against matchups such as Eevee.
I ran fast bulky Marowak as I felt like Marowak was the kind of Pokemon that didn't really need the attack investment, as it already gets a massive boost from thick club and I wanted to make sure I was faster than most other Marowak. The benchmark my Marowak hits is one point faster than neutral natured Porygon2, and this felt like an acceptable benchmark because Shadow Ball Porygon2 was reasonably common at the time, and being able to hit it first for sure was pretty nice.
January PC: Top 2 Finish & Zelda's Melbourne Invitational (x-3)
During January, Pheromosa Lele started picking up usage, and I was really interested in the idea of using Lele + Banded Metagross to pick up knockouts. I threw P2 on the team as a safe switch-in from Phromosas u-turns, and it was solid trick room counter the other 3 Pokemon really wanted. I was stuck on what the last two Pokemon should be for a little while, but after thinking of double duck it became an extremely obvious choice for the team. In the PC, the team worked extremely well and I was very satisfied with it, however during finals I got fully paralysed almost every turn game three and lost the event as a result of that. That said, my opponent played very well and my team had a general weakness to my opponent's Togedemaru - So I can't complain too much.
After testing the team more online, I felt that I was comfortable piloting it and decided to use it in Zelda's Melbourne Invitational tournament. I had a really solid start in the tournament, one of my favorite matches of the year being my win against Giovanni Costa at x-1 however during the final two rounds I faced extremely difficult matchups (Black0VGC's Sun Team and Mx0's Koko Raichu team) and finished my tournament run at x-3.
I used this team at a few other events also - I piloted it to 25-5 in one of the international challenges, however I couldn't finish it as I had an event the next day. I also used this team a few weeks during the smogon tournament, but I lost both weeks and decided to stop using it.
Overall, despite a dissapointing finish in the Zelda tournament and the Smogon Tournament I was really satisfied with how this team performed. However, I ended up retiring it as I felt like the team was too read reliant, and I decided I'd rather use teams that were more positioning based rather than being forced to make reads most turns.
January PC & Melbourne Challenge
The Metagross EV spread used on this team was originally made by @CybertronVGC, and I felt like it was really good at the time and decided to use it on my own team.
February PC (X-2 - 10th Place)
This team was basically the team BlackOVGC used in the Melbourne Challenge, which I really took a liking to at the time. After what I just said about not wanting to make reads, picking this team probably looks pretty odd - But I felt like this team was pretty good in the metagame at the time of the event. As it turns out, Brisbane didn't really care about whatever the VGC metagame is at the time and I turned out to be completely wrong, losing both of my games in rounds one and three to prevent me cutting the event. Despite this, I actually think this team is really cool - I felt like it was extremely difficult for my opponent to play at team preview, but I could set pretty clear gameplans for myself which I really liked.
March PC (Top 4) & Aus Internationals 2016 (5-4)
I learned my lesson from the previous to events I'd played at, and decided to use a much bulkier team which made it easier for me to make safe, consistent plays. I started off building this with the idea of using offensive wild charge Arcanine to check Fini and Gyarados, and Ninetales to check Garchomp. Aurora veil was also really nice on the team, as it made it extremely difficult to break my calm mind Tapu Fini. Originally I had assault vest Kartana at the PC, however I felt like I was weaker to faster teams so I swapped it to choice scarf for internationals. Curse Snorlax was really good on this team, as it gave me a good check to trick room which this team really struggled against without it.
At the PC, I felt like the team functioned really well, and I was very comfortable piloting it. However, at nationals the matchups I faced with the team were naturally much harder to beat. Although I feel like the team handled itself pretty well, I had an almost autoloss matchup to Gavin Michael's trick room team - Which I ended up facing twice during the event and lost both times. My other losses were to Sebastian Escalente, who played extremely well against me and Matthew Bockman, who I had a really good set with but unfortunately I got a little unlucky in game 3, and it ended up coming down to a minute difference in HP remaining on time.
Overall for the time, I felt like this team was pretty decent - But it definitely could have been better if I had taken the time to test it more before the event. Gavin room was something I really should have expected to see more of, and it taught me that I needed to prepare a lot more leading into large events in the future. While I was dissapointed by my performance at this event, it was a pretty big learning experience for me and I don't think it would be right to regret that.
At the Miseason Showdown on day two of internationals (which was actually my 19th birthday!) I ended up using the same team I'd used at the February PC, with Oricorio Pheromosa as I didn't really feel like taking the event seriously. I ended up going 4-3, but I wasn't too upset as I lost to really hard matchups.
Smogon Tournament Swiss
For the first few rounds of the Smogon Tournament, I used the double ducks team I posted above. However, after reaching the x-2 bracket in the first 4 rounds I decided to make a different team, which I used for the remaining 5 swiss rounds. I based the team off the team Markus Stadter used to win the Dreamhack regional, only I decided to use Life Orb Nature Power Tapu Koko, as I was really fond of that set and found it really effective during practise. I dropped the Snorlax slot for Tapu Koko, and as a result used roar over helping hand on Arcanine to ensure I still had at least an answer to trick room. I never had to play against a hard trick room team during the tournament, however so it never became an issue.
In all honesty I got extremely lucky in the last 5 rounds after I reached x-2, at least two rounds my opponent just never messaged me and I got the win off that - and a few times during sets I got a lot of hax in my favour, which definitely helped me make cut. I liked this team while I was using it, however I wasn't 100% satisfied that I would be able to pilot it against the calibre of players I was expecting to face in top cut - and that's why I used the team we'll be discussing next in Top 64 and Top 32.
April -> August
I've grouped this whole section together because as far as I can remember, I used effectively the same 6 Pokemon at all of these events, except for a few minor set changes between events. This team was formed during a discussion with my friend Nils Dunlop (@Invicnati) and we actually built it by taking FAKEPG and dropping Porygon2 Gigalith for Mimikyu Snorlax as the trick room mode, as I didn't feel comfortable piloting P2 Gigalith at the time and felt like it was stronger for me to run Mimikyu Snorlax instead, after seeing how incredibly effective it was on Gavin Michael's Trick Room team. This team, in its many different versions over the time I used it is probably one of my favorite VGC teams of all time - It was extremely consistent in most matchups at this point in the metagame, and I never played against a matchup that I felt like was completely unwinnable.
This team saw many different versions, however the final version of the team I have saved can be seen below. The only major differences in early versions of the team and this final version were the speed stats were mostly changing Mimikyu's spread for different points of the metagame. At first, I ran very fast and then slowly shifted to a slower, bulkier Mimikyu as it became convenient in my local metagame. If I played this team at a large event, I would change back to fast (which points towards the team I used at Brisbane Regionals).
The results I had with this team are as follows:
Top 32 Smogon Tournament (Used in T64, T32)
I faced Mx0 (@maximumzerovgc) in top 64, and I won mostly due to having an extremely good matchup to his team. However, I lost to Lukas Muller (@KnappiKing) in a really good set, which saw a little bit of hax going against me but it was a pretty voliatile mirror match and he played well so I don't think I can complain.
Top 2 MSS
The team worked really well during this tournament, and I only dropped 1 set (finals) after my mimikyu got iron head flinched by a Garchomp in game 3 :^)
I placed at a few other PCs with this team as well, but I can't find anything confirming my placings on my Play! Pokemon page so I'm just going to leave them off so I don't make any mistakes.
October PC (Top 8)
I was kind of tired of using the same team, as I felt like Brisbane players were starting to counterteam me a little bit - So for this event, I ended up switching to this team as it had been really effective for me on the ladder at the time, and wanted to try using it at a live event to see how I could perform with it. Due to odd circumstances, I actually ended up showing up late to this event - But thanks to some fantastic stroke of luck I got paired with one of the best players in Brisbane round one so his resistance carried me into top cut, even after taking another loss in round two and then winning out. Unfortunately, I dropped my top 8 set to Graham Amedee after he crit my Mimikyu on the Ice Beam for the KO, when I went for a trick room which would have won me the game. This ended up being really important, as I ended up winning game two but he adjusted well and won game 3.
November MSS (Top 2)
For this event, I wasn't entirely sure what to use, so with his permission I ended up using the team Nils used at worlds. This team worked extremely well, and I was very satisfied with it - I'd been practising with and against this team for several months before this event, so I felt really comfortable in knowing how to play it. However, I dropped round 5 and finals to good friend and fantastic player Malcolm (@MogarVGC), as he had the matchup advantage and played well to maintain it during both sets. I can't provide a pastebin of this team, as I didn't make it - However if you're interested, you can check it out in the Top 8 teams at the 2017 World Championships.
December PC (Top 4)
Around a month before this event happened, Brisbane regionals was announced and I was certain I wanted to use something which was very good, but not necessarily similar to the team I had in mind for regionals at the time for this event. Nils gave me a team he had used to win a midseason showdown in Sweden, which I had helped him test and ended up really liking it - However, he had told me he had retired it as he felt like it was too reads-based for his liking, and I think overall I would have to agree with him there. I ended up losing in top cut against Graham Amedee, who played really well and honestly completely bodied me in both games! The team was very strong, but I definitely felt like I was playing to my opponents plays more than I generally like to. Once again, this team wasn't mine so I can't share the specific spreads. Sorry!
Brisbane Regionals (4-2, 21st Place)
This team probably looks familiar, doesn't it? This team is a little different from the Mimi Lax AFK variants posted above, and I think this is definitely my favorite way to play the team. I built this team with Nils going into the London International Championships, however he and I ended up using very different spreads going into our respective events. The first major difference between this version and my previous versions of the team was that I was using the scarf Tapu Fini + Grassium Kartana core, which became common on FAKEPG geams later in the format. I really liked this core, as it gave you a means to take really cheap knockouts game 1, and grassium Kartana is able to hit pretty insane numbers by itself. Assault vest Togedemaru is actually one of my favorite sets, and I felt like it put in extremely good work on this team. U-turn allows you to prevent opposing Koko from using an electric move that turn, but then switch out and bring in another Pokemon afterward which I thought was extremely useful in a lot of matchups. I opted to use Special Mimikyu at this event, because I was really worried about the MetaMence + Gastrodon matchup, and I felt like Special Mimikyu helped against that significantly.
On the day of the event, I felt like the team performed well - However I ended up losing round 1 and 3, which ruined my resistance and prevented me from getting points at x-2. I lost round 1 to a pretty odd matchup which I really wasn't prepared for, and round 3 to my friend Jack Buckley (@Arahpthos) who played very well in addition to already knowing how to play against my team. I was pretty dissapointed in my finish at this event, as I felt like I really needed the points to maintain a reasonable chance at getting a world invite in this format - However I had a really fun time playing with this team, and while I regret a few of my plays it's something that I will have to learn from in the future.
Conclusion
That pretty much sums up my 2017 VGC season! I didn't do as well at local events as I have in the past VGC formats, however I'm really excited to start proving myself again during the VGC 2018 format. In the past year, we've had a lot of really good players start attending events in Brisbane - And it's actually really exciting for me to watch our playerbase get stronger. It means I have no choice but to keep trying to improve myself as well! Thanks for reading and I really hope you enjoyed my writeup. Before I finish the report, I'd like to write a few shoutouts to people who have helped me a lot, and to some players who have really proved themselves in our local scene this year.
Jack (@Arahpthos)
An amazing player and an even better friend, it's a shame that Jack hasn't had much fun with Pokemon this year and has decided to take a break going into 2018. I really hope that we can continue to be good friends outside of Pokemon, and if you do eventually return I hope you know we'll all welcome you back with open arms!
Graham & Brain Amedee
Given how new both of these players are, cutting Sydney and Brisbane regionals as well as Graham winning the EXP Invitational is extremely impressive. These two players taught me to respect hyper offense as much as any other archetype when piloted well, and watching both of them improve at the game so quickly has been extremely humbling. I look forward to seeing what both of them are able to achieve in the 2018 format!
Malcolm (@MogarVGC)
Another relatively new player who shows great promise, Malcolm has been a good friend and practice partner who has really proved himself with his past few performances at events. I'm also looking forward to seeing what you can achieve in 2018!
Nils (@Invicnati)
It's amazing the different people we meet through Pokemon, huh? I first spoke with Nils before worlds in 2016, and we've been practising for events together ever since. Playing against you has helped me improve so much in the past few years, and the teams he makes are always amazing. I can't thank him enough, and I'm looking forward to building together more this year!
Joe (@Splozion101)
A really close friend of mine, who has always been there for me when I've needed it. Also, he's actually pretty good at Pokemon when he practises! I believe in him going into the 2018 format.
Mitch (Pretenti0us)
Great guy, and a good Pokemon Fan Club President! I haven't written about it here, but I've also had a lot of fun attending unofficial Pokemon events run through the Pokemon Fan Club of UQ this year - and I'm looking forward to another great year of events next year!
Masto (@BB_Mastodon)
AnGeRy
Thanks for not banning me from the Swoles discord!
The Plum
I love you guys, hanging out with you all at events is always so much fun. I can't wait to see you guys at Sydney in February!
P.S Someone please convince Kats not to use Chansey in 2018, I'm very afraid of the dark times to come
All of the Buzzwole Boys
Honestly, all of you are amazing, and are the main reason why people keep coming back to play at Brisbane Pokemon events. The discord is always a great place to hang out and do gay things Play Pokemon with friends :)
This has been a really big year for me, both in my personal life and in Pokemon and I'm really glad that all of you have been here with me. Thanks to all of you!
