I've Been Through the Northwest on a Bull with No Name - Multi-Premier Challenge Report

I took a near two-week trip out to Portland and Seattle and ended up playing in four PCs out there. I've gotten a ton of requests for the team so I figure I'll go in depth here and detail how it came to be, how it's played, and the changes I made and things I observed while playing it.

This is probably a team report that needs to get as in-depth and fantastic as possible so I'm going to start with the roots of the team and go from there. I'll try to make it a fun read!

First off, credit goes to Shun (Follow him on Twitter here: @Jimon_Togekiss Japanese account, @ShinonVGC English account) for creating the core of the Tauros team and sending the Pastebin. The spinoffs were my ideas but the rest of the team and the concept itself is entirely his, so make sure to give credit where it's due!

The idea to even play this team came from a few things. First, I saw him play it vs Lunar (@ChrisDanzo) in a NPA match and was intrigued by the team. It brought back memories of a team that I was joking around with back in the day. Harrison (@CrowVGC) concocted the Angry Garden, which was a ridiculous team consisting of the following Pokemon (and yes, I had lost to it using perfectly legitimate VGC teams...): 

Link to Angry Garden Pastebin

I decided that I'd make a team that could rival his. I didn't really know what else to do so I took inspiration from the infamous Smogon Doubles "Bunnies" team which was as follows:

There wasn't really a theme with these six Pokemon and it was probably not ridiculous enough for me to use it as a joke, so I decided to find the best theme I could with bunnies involved. That just so happened to be the Humane Society!

So I set out to make a Humane Society team in the same vein of both Bunnies and the Angry Garden. The end result was this:

Link to Humane Society Pastebin

The team had three dogs, two bunnies, and a bird, all things you can find at the Humane Society. I tried to fit cats onto it but just never found a cat that I liked, and judging by what animal-identifier Gavin (@komvgc) deems a dog nowadays, there aren't really many cats to choose from anyway. The team was constantly winning PS tournaments and I didn't know why since Arcanine and Talonflame were kind of bad on it. I guess there was something behind it after all, though...

So when I saw Shinon's Tauros team, I figured it might end up being a competitively viable way to play the way I played the Humane Society. I ended up getting a copy of the team and didn't like the way Salamence played in it, so I made my own tweaks. I figured I'd bring it to at least one of the four PCs I was going to on my vacation since I am not taking the season super seriously at this juncture, but it played way better than I had expected it to and ended up netting me two wins and a 3rd place, losing only four total battles in three tournaments (and going 8-0 in one of them.)

First version:

Saturday, November 7th, Portland Oregon PC

1st Place - 3-1 Swiss, 2-0 Top Cut Series, 7-1 Overall

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry  

Ability: Huge Power  

Level: 50  

EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 20 SpD / 4 Spe  

Adamant Nature  

- Aqua Jet  

- Knock Off  

- Belly Drum  

- Protect  

Metagross @ Metagrossite  

Ability: Clear Body  

EVs: 156 HP / 100 Atk / 4 Def / 60 SpD / 188 Spe  

Jolly Nature  

- Psych Up  

- Bullet Punch  

- Iron Head  

- Protect  

Togekiss @ Lum Berry  

Ability: Serene Grace  

Level: 50  

EVs: 244 HP / 156 Def / 4 SpA / 100 SpD / 4 Spe  

Calm Nature  

- Air Slash  

- Tailwind  

- Follow Me  

- Protect  

Lopunny @ Lopunnite  

Ability: Limber  

Level: 50  

EVs: 244 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  

Jolly Nature  

- Fake Out  

- High Jump Kick  

- Teeter Dance  

- After You  

Smeargle @ Focus Sash  

Ability: Own Tempo  

Level: 50  

EVs: 100 HP / 156 Def / 252 Spe  

Timid Nature  

IVs: 0 Atk  

- Dark Void  

- Follow Me  

- Storm Throw  

- Spiky Shield  

Tauros @ Kee Berry  

Ability: Anger Point  

Level: 50  

Happiness: 0  

EVs: 52 HP / 188 Atk / 12 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  

Jolly Nature  

- Frustration  

- Earthquake  

- Rock Slide  

- Protect  

The spreads are pretty simple and self-explanatory except the Tauros and Metagross. Tauros was Shinon's spread which is geared to survive a 252+ Landorus-T Superpower after Kee Berry + Storm Throw. Metagross calcs are as follows:

• +6 100 Atk Tough Claws Mega Metagross Iron Head vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 84-99 (50.2 - 59.2%)
• 252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 156 HP / 60 SpD Mega Metagross: 146-174 (83.4 - 99.4%)
• +6 100 Atk Tough Claws Mega Metagross Bullet Punch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 178-210 (98.3 - 116%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
• 188+ Speed allowed it to hit 169 stat which outspeeds Kangaskhan and Landorus-I as Mega

I ran Iron Head over Zen Headbutt because I needed the KO on Gardevoir and Sylveon before getting +6. This might be the first time I've ever unnaturally had to prepare for those two Pokemon on a team; usually I notice my teams handle them well without having to put any thought into it, so this was very new to me. 

I didn't use Encore on Lopunny because I forgot to ask for it over Frustration when a friend helped get it for me, so I had to stick with After You. It did nothing for me all day and I never saw any reason to use it.

I lost one game in Swiss in the tournament to Scott (@TOOOOSCARRRRY) but ended up winning the set in Top Cut. His team gave me some issues (Gardevoir + Thundurus + Politoed + Ludicolo + Scrafty + Excadrill) but there were a few workarounds that I was able to use. We both ended up leading the same thing all three games we played. I played Chris (@christhebeast5) in Finals, he had an Arcanine + Calm Mind Cresselia team similar to the one that I had used in my first PCs of the season that Chuppa (@ChuppaVGC) gave to me, so I had an idea of how to work around it. Tauros put in a lot of work and helped me clinch the tournament.

Sunday, November 8th, Portland Oregon PC

1st Place - 3-0 Swiss

Not going to get in depth, but I didn't use Tauros team. Shoutout to Kamaal (@FonicFrog) for the inspiration to try Volcarona + Amoonguss. It worked kinda nicely, might try this again in the future. Thankfully I ran into no Salamence though, not sure exactly how to fix that issue. 

There was no Top Cut since there were 14 total players but only 7 Masters. Hopefully one day this type of tournament structuring becomes an old joke, showing up to play three battles is sort of demoralizing...

I ended up playing a KangaMoth mirror vs Chris in finals again and won a best-of-one finals which was actually the third round of Swiss. Hooray I guess?

Monday, November 9th, Auburn Washington PC

1st Place - 4-0 Swiss, 2-0 Top Cut Series, 8-0 Overall

Changes:

 

Staraptor @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Intimidate

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe

Adamant Nature

- Brave Bird

- Final Gambit

- U-Turn

- Close Combat

I felt Staraptor was a better choice than Metagross since it could take out anything with Fake Out from Lopunny + Final Gambit. There was sometimes only one Pokemon that would be able to get in the way of the team and being able to elbow-drop it in one swing was fantastic. I would have made it Jolly, but didn't have a Jolly one with Intimidate in my boxes so I stuck with the Adamant one I had. If it isn't clear yet, I really didn't put 100% into getting my team in-game for these tournaments.

Lopunny @ Lopunnite  

Ability: Limber  

Level: 50  

EVs: 244 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  

Jolly Nature  

- Fake Out  

- High Jump Kick  

- Teeter Dance  

- After You  -> Entrainment

I switched to Entrainment since the screaming Fairy problem opened up a bit with Metagross gone. Guess who's gonna have Normal-type Hyper Voices? It also helped with Salamence, which is also a correct answer to that question. It also allowed me to not risk HJK on Kangaskhan and allowed Smeargle to survive if Kangaskhan was going to attack it and a partner was slower and could be Dark Voided.

I didn't drop a game all day in this one. Matchups were pretty favorable after the first two rounds and this team is all about the favorable matchups. I faced Demitri (@KingdjkVGC) in the last round of Swiss and in finals, and although he did play the games the best he could, he had one Pokemon that outsped Smeargle and no Lum Berry on the team, so it was a pretty rough ride for him.

Monday, November 14th, Mt. Vernon Washington PC

3rd Place - 3-1 Swiss, 0-1 Top Cut Series, 3-3 Overall

No changes at all, went with the same team and ended up making cut again, losing in Top 4 to Hayden (@Encountered144) after he basically spent the entire car ride up to the PC working on a way to beat this team. He did quite a good job of it. I also dropped a game in Swiss to Brandon (@Dragonking700) who was using my Arizona Regionals team which dropped me to 0-3 lifetime vs him. 

So there you have it. If you have any questions about the team or want to leave a comment, hit me up on Twitter @Braverius or drop a comment below!