I was thinking a little bit about my run at fall regionals, and was sort of disappointed that we transitioned so quickly to 6th gen and sort of ignored what happened at that last set of regionals. I built probably the best team I've ever built, and felt like I had a really solid run despite not having really amazing results to show for it. I'm going to throw the teams I used up here just to reminisce a little bit.
Pleasanton, California:
Suicune / Tyranitar / Cresselia / Amoonguss / Excadrill / Tornadus
Suicune @ Water Gem
Ability: Pressure
(Don't remember the EVs - will edit in when I get back)
Calm Nature
-Hydro Pump
-Ice Beam
-Protect
-Hidden Power Grass
I was using Specs on Suicune in testing before the event, and ended up switching to Water Gem because I wanted to have a Trick user and Cresselia fit the team perfectly. This Cune had a little Special Attack, but was more focused on sustaining with its amazing defenses and HP. I made sure the Hydro Pump OHKOd certain threats like Tyranitar, and made sure Ice Beam 2HKOd Tornadus. I also geared the Special Defense to survive an Electric Gem Thunderbolt from most bulky Thundurus.
Cresselia @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
248 HP / 4 Def / 4 SpAtk / 4 SpDef / 248 Speed
Modest Nature
-Hidden Power Fire
-Psychic
-Ice Beam
-Trick
Kind of a surprise since this thing had disappeared since 2012 nationals. It did major work though - once I realized Psychic could OHKO most Conkeldurr and break most Heatran substitutes, I wanted to test this thing. Sure enough, it ended up being great - the lack of bulk was sometimes an issue, but its ability to whack things right away with a powerful Psychic or Ice Beam was really handy. Trick was to stop any major gimmicks from getting moving, and another check to anyone who ran hard Trick Room.
Tornadus @ Flying Gem
Ability: Prankster
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Speed
Jolly Nature
-Acrobatics
-Superpower
-Substitute
-Protect
I accidentally grabbed Biosci's Prankster Tornadus, which ended up looming large in my last two matches at the event where I faced at least one Intimidate Pokemon that Tornadus would have been able to KO with a +1. It ended up being a Pokemon that I didn't use all day, which was unfortunate as I leaned on it a lot during practice. It was a little too frail for my liking, but it took care of the major threats I needed it to take care of.
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
132 HP / 124 Atk / 252 Speed
Jolly Nature
-Rock Slide
-Stone Edge
-Crunch
-Superpower
Bulky Scarftar was sort of a necessity with a lot of Steel Gem Scizor running around, as it took Bullet Punch 100% of the time. Scarftar is great. Next.
Amoonguss @ Lum Berry
Ability: Regenerator
252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpDef
Sassy Nature
-Spore
-Rage Powder
-Giga Drain
-Protect
I really don't think I need to explain this...
Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Rush
84 HP / 84 Atk / 148 Def / 148 SpDef / 44 Speed
Adamant Nature
-Rock Slide
-Substitute
-Earthquake
-Protect
However, I will definitely explain this one. I wanted to make this Excadrill work since early in 2013, and finally I managed to get it to click. This Excadrill could take care of most bulky Cress, Heatran, Amoonguss, Tornadus, Thundurus, Tyranitar, Scizor, and most of all, Rotom-W. Most people don't understand how this beats Rotom-W, but let's take a closer look. Most Rotom-W were carrying Hydro Pump / Thunderbolt / Will-o-Wisp / Screen or Protect. If so, Excadrill could alternate between Protect and Substitute to stall Rotom out of PP (or wait until Hydro Pump missed) and then improvise with Rock Slides, since Rotom could not touch it and could not burn it while it was behind a Substitute. The major issue I had with this Exca was Rest Chesto Cresselia, as it couldn't power through quickly enough to knock it out. Other than that, all of the mons I listed it could deal with, the biggest being Rotom, which this team had some issues with to begin with.
I ended up going 5-0 before dropping games to PBB and Matt and somehow ending up at 18th despite that hot start. I knew the team was close, I just had to tweak a few things for Houston regionals...
Houston, Texas:
Cresselia / Tornadus / Landorus-T / Tyranitar / Amoonguss / Suicune
This was far and away the best team I built in 2013. I didn't think much of it at the time, but looking back I'm super impressed at how this team turned out, and sort of wish I had another regional to use it at since I don't think even top 8 did justice for it.
Cresselia @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
248 HP / 4 Def / 4 SpAtk / 4 SpDef / 248 Speed
Modest Nature
-Hidden Power Fire
-Psychic
-Ice Beam
-Trick
Same Cress as Pleasanton, didn't feel I needed to change much about it.
Landorus-T @ Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Speed
Adamant Nature
-Earthquake
-Protect
-Stone Edge
-U-Turn
So after getting beat with this thing while using Excadrill, I decided to try it for myself since I knew it was stupidly good to begin with. I honestly think it was the most broken Pokemon in 2013- it had Intimidate, and it relied on you nailing the guesses on which item it had, which move it was using, and how much attack investment it had. I also felt like most people relied way too much on Rock Slide flinches in the end while using it, which I was determined to avoid doing since I thought it was a really unsafe way of winning matches (and happened far too often.) I was looking at Stephen's team from Arizona and realized he ran Stone Edge. After doing calcs on Thundurus and Tornadus, I realized exactly why he did this, so I took a page from his book and ran it. Sash is much more reliable than Scarf, and I already had ScarfTar, so Sash was the easy item choice. I felt that I could still deal with Rotom-W if I put Smack Down on Tornadus (since Excadrill was my Rotom-W check before this), so...
Tornadus @ Flying Gem
Ability: Defiant
20 HP / 188 Atk / 44 Def / 4 SpDef / 252 Speed
Jolly Nature
-Smack Down
-Acrobatics
-Protect
-Superpower
And I didn't use Smack Down all day :(. This was Crow's spread from nationals, which I loved as it took ScarfTar Rock Slide 100% of the time and could KO back with Superpower. It was supposed to be smacking down Rotoms and doing crazy stuff, but I didn't end up doing that because Suicune was going hero-mode most of the time vs it.
Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
236 HP / 28 Def / 160 SAtk / 40 SDef / 44 Speed
Calm Nature
-Scald
-Ice Beam
-Toxic
-Protect
So not only did I not use Tailwind or Calm Mind like about 90% of Suicune that existed, I ran Toxic over those two moves. This looks a little ridiculous at first and probably makes no sense, but it does make sense for the most part - it could slap a Toxic on something and allow me to switch around and either get free damage stacks or force a switch, both of which gave me a turn to push the opponent around a bit. I ended up poisoning more Rotom-W than I smacked it down ironically, and that won me a match early in the day. The spread (if I remember correctly) outsped most bulky Rotom-W, survived uninvested Thundurus Electric Gem Thunderbolt, and took three Earthquakes from Landorus-T, all while 3HKOing Benji's bulky Scizor (which I had serious issues matching up with and admittedly lost a little sleep because of, but all for naught) and 2HKOing the standard Tornadus.
Amoonguss @ Lum Berry
Ability: Regenerator
252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpDef
Sassy Nature
-Spore
-Rage Powder
-Giga Drain
-Protect
Doop doop
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
132 HP / 124 Atk / 252 Speed
Jolly Nature
-Rock Slide
-Stone Edge
-Crunch
-Superpower
" "
I ended up starting 5-0 again and losing round 6 to Zubat before I realized my opponents after round six were 5-1, 5-1, 5-1, 4-2, 4-2, and 4-2, so I all but had a spot in top cut assured since two X-2s were making it. I pulled Bopper and ended up scooping to him, effectively setting myself up for either the biggest humiliation ever or making history as the only person to scoop at X-1 and make top cut. The latter happened, and I ended up losing top 8 to Shiloh in a game three which I made a decision turn 1 that still bothers me. She played better and deserved the win.
I felt the team could have gone deeper, but ultimately it was my own mistake that doomed me, so while that isn't necessarily a good thing, it's comforting to know exactly what went wrong. Both my game 3 loss to Shiloh and my loss to Zubat in Swiss were decided by me not making the play that was obviously going to give me the better chance to win and my opponent capitalizing on my mistake. Nothing I can do but take that experience and work towards making better plays in the heat of the moment.
