Making the Opposition Sleep on Gardevoir: A Top 16 Australian Nationals Report

Introduction:
How’s it going, I’m Matt Jiwa, known as JiwaVGC on Twitter and Nugget Bridge, and I’m a VGC player from Melbourne, Australia. I played VGC casually throughout 2014 and decided to get involved in the actual circuit this year. I got more involved with the community, and got to know some of the Australian players via Pokemon Showdown and Facebook. This is going to be a report about the Australian Nationals of 2015; my second VGC event, and my team building journey leading up to it.

Teambuilding prior to the event:
Early in the format I felt somewhat lost due to the vast number of options available for team building, particularly due to my absence during the '13 format. I ended up just testing whatever the common, popular archetypes were at the time, seeing if anything would stick. A couple of months into 2015, I encountered a Japanese player on battlespot using a Trick Room Mega Gardevoir team. After he caught me off guard and tore me asunder, I decided to test out my own approximation of their team for a while, and immediately found it interesting. I stumbled across a Japanese player's blog featuring a very similar team to the one I'd faced on battlespot, and ended up with M-Gardevoir, Heatran, Hydreigon, Landorus-T, Amoonguss and Gyarados as a starting point. After some testing, as well as influence from other player's reports and input, I ended up bringing a team of M-Gardevoir, Safety Goggles Heatran, Rocky Helmet Amoonguss, Assault Vest Azumarill , Life Orb Hydreigon, and Scarfed Landorus-T to my first VGC event; Melbourne regionals, finishing with a somewhat disappointing 5-3 record.

With my first face-to-face battling experience under my belt, I was keen to improve before nationals, and set about testing various other Pokemon around the core of Gardevoir, Heatran and Amoonguss. After coming across another player using a similar team to mine on Pokemon Showdown, I discussed their choice of Rotom-W over Azumarill as a bulky water type. As they explained, the additional levitating Pokemon was definitely appreciated with a choice scarfed Landorus on the team, so Azumarill made way for the washing machine. As it turned out that person was Lajo, who later helped me out with other aspects of my team, as well as making top cut in the UK nationals and top 8 at worlds with the very 6 Pokemon he’d been using at that point.

Up until this point, I’d been relying somewhat on catching my opponent off guard with Trick Room, as only a couple of my Pokemon could seemingly utilise it, but with Trick Room becoming increasingly prevalent on Gardevoir and nationals announced as a best of 3 swiss format I wasn’t confident in this paying off for me. I was keen to press on with the archetype as a whole, however, as it had solid match-ups against the popular Japanese sand team, as well as many variants of the Kangaskhan goodstuffs. I began toying around with the idea of Scrafty instead of Hydreigon, giving me a Fake Out option to help get Trick Room up more reliably. I went with a set of Fake Out, Drain Punch, Knock Off and Stone Edge, the latter of which prevented Quiver Dance Volcarona from 4-0ing me with the help of Wide Guard, as well as defeating Charizard-Y (albeit only 80% of the time), which could otherwise cause a fair amount of problems. At this point, speed tiers became my main focus, particularly in deciding what speed I wanted my Heatran to hit. I spoke again with Lajo, as well as Szymon (Szymoninho), whom Lajo had mentioned, and who had recently used the same 6 as Lajo to make top cut at German nationals. I found that their teams were entirely different, despite using the same Pokemon. Lajo’s team utilised various forms of speed control with mid-speed Pokemon to gain the speed advantage in any condition, whereas Szymon’s was more focussed on slower sets and using Trick Room as the only form of speed control. After some testing, I settled on a modest Heatran with no speed investment, allowing me to outspeed any common variants of Sylveon and Aegislash. This was due to the fact that, upon it’s suggestion from Szymon, I’d decided on Overheat as a 4th move instead of Substitute or Ancient Power. This set allowed me to consistently outspeed and OHKO Aegislash before it could attack or substitute, as well as KO Sylveon in combination with a Hyper Voice from Gardevoir. The final change to my team was also a product of my discussion with Szymon, as LO Garchomp replaced the scarfed Landorus-T. This gave me a better check to Charizard-Y, as it could switch in more reliably to its fire-type attacks, as well as either OHKO with Rock Slide or 2HKO it through Wide Guard with Dragon Claw. This change also removed my second intimidate, which really loosened my options against teams with intimidate deterrent, most commonly Bisharp and Milotic.

The team:

Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite  
Ability: Trace  
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 100 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe  
Modest Nature  
- Hyper Voice  
- Psychic  
- Trick Room  
- Protect  

Reasonably standard spread and moveset here. Enough speed to outspeed adamant Bisharp, enough SpAtk to put it in range of 1 hit of Life Orb/Rocky Helmet with a spread damage Hyper Voice. The Def EVs allow it to survive a CB Brave Bird from Talonflame, and the SpDef prevents Mega Gengar’s Sludge Bomb from KOing.

Heatran @ Safety Goggles  
Ability: Flash Fire  
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD  
Quiet Nature  
IVs: 0 Spe  
- Heat Wave  
- Earth Power  
- Overheat  
- Protect  

“But Jiwa, you just said you settled on a Modest Heatran with 31 Speed IVs!?” Yup, I managed to lock in the wrong Heatran before the event, failing to realise my mistake until midway through day 1. Though a seemingly small difference, this had a real impact on the team, making it far weaker to Sylveon than I had intended, as well as making Aegislash more of a nuisance, as I would have to do some scouting to find out whether or not it outsped my Heatran, rather than consistently outspeed it. Heatran's general role on the team is to deal with steel-types as well as Amoonguss. The EV spread isn’t particularly interesting, had I been able to make one to survive Earth Power from timid Heatran or Low Kick from jolly Kangaskhan I would’ve loved it, but that’s not possible to do consistently, so this had to suffice. It does, however, survive a +2 Shadow Ball from Aegislash, and has the ability to OHKO it with Overheat provided it doesn’t invest heavily in SpDef. It did its job well, and Overheat was a godsend.

Scrafty @ Assault Vest  
Ability: Intimidate 
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Atk / 92 Def / 24 SpD  
Relaxed Nature  
IVs: 2 Spe  
- Fake Out  
- Drain Punch  
- Knock Off  
- Stone Edge  

The moveset is reasonably standard, perhaps with the exception of Stone Edge, which is for Charizard and Volcarona, as mentioned. Aside from those, Scrafty also improves the rain match-up, as well as weakening physical attackers upon switch-in, and helping Gardevoir set up Trick Room with Fake Out support. The speed IV allows it to hit 57 speed, moving after min-speed Aegislash to hit it in Blade-Forme, as well as outspeeding any variant of Jellicent or Abomasnow in Trick Room, should they show up. The attack investment allowed the combination of Drain Punch and a Hyper Voice to pick up the KO on 4 HP Kangaskhan, which I was expecting to encounter a fair amount of the time at nationals. Here are some calcs to show Scrafty’s offensive and defensing capabilities:

140 Atk Scrafty Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mega Charizard Y: 196-232 (105.9 - 125.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

-1 252 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 92+ Def Scrafty: 144-170 (83.7 - 98.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

-1 252 Atk Tough Claws Mega Metagross Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 92+ Def Scrafty: 49-58 (28.4 - 33.7%) -- 0.5% chance to 3HKO

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

Amoonguss makes bad match-ups manageable. I opted for Giga Drain over Sludge Bomb, electing to hit the likes of Rotom-W, Gastrodon, and Suicune harder rather than Breloom and Sylveon. I resented that choice somewhat in my top 16 match, but appreciated having Giga Drain for much of the rest of the event. I considered Sunny Day to boost Heatran's attacks and disrupt opposing weather, but all of my moves were vital to the set, and my match-ups against most weather based teams was pretty favourable, perhaps, ironically, with the exception of sun teams (though the later additions of Stone Edge and Garchomp may have swung this). Additionally, with the switch of Heatran's final move to Overheat, the need for boosting its Heat Waves became lessened. All of that said, it would definitely make certain match-ups easier, for example a rain team with Ferrothorn can be hard to deal with. My recollections of the purpose of the EVs are vague, but here are a couple of hits that I made sure my Amoonguss survived:

252 SpA Life Orb Protean Greninja Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 92 SpD Amoonguss: 182-218 (82.3 - 98.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Azumarill Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 164+ Def Amoonguss: 186-219 (84.1 - 99%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry  
Ability: Levitate 
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 12 SpA / 108 SpD / 20 Spe  
Calm Nature  
- Hydro Pump  
- Thunderbolt  
- Will-O-Wisp  
- Protect  

A good answer to the likes of Heatran and Talonflame (which is more relevant in Australia than one would expect for reasons I can’t quite fathom), as well as being yet another great Pokemon in the Japanese-Sand and other Mega-Salamence match-ups. Rotom-W was a valued member of the team, and fortunately didn’t miss too many important attacks over the course of the event. I initially ran a faster and more offensive spread, but with Rotom-W becoming the sole levitator on the team, I found myself occasionally having to switch in rather obviously. This caused me to switch to a bulkier set, able to switch in on both physical and special attacks with a decent degree of comfort. The speed EVs were, in theory there to outspeed Pokemon that were made to outspeed adamant Scarfed Landorus with a tailwind up, such as Suicune. I didn’t find outspeeding Bisharp too necessary, as I had better answers to it on my team. I managed to calculate that with the Sitrus Berry, defense and HP EVs, the combination of Fake Out and Double Edge from a jolly M-Kangaskhan had a 1.4% chance of KOing, and M-Metagross’s Zen Headbutt had a 1.2% chance of 2HKOing. I resent the fact that I was opening myself up to being on the less favourable end of some unfortunate rolls with these EVs, but I felt that with each round being best of 3 I could recover in a later game should these rolls occur.

Garchomp @ Life Orb  
Ability: Rough Skin 
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Earthquake  
- Dragon Claw  
- Rock Slide  
- Protect  

Garchomp didn’t get much chance to shine at nationals, as I didn’t face a single Charizard team all weekend. Being my least used member, I only brought it to about a quarter of my games, though that said, I didn’t lose a single game that Garchomp made an appearance in. The EV spread is unremarkable, I briefly considered Substitue, but found all 3 attacking moves to be vital to the set. Here’s what it was here for anyway:

252 Atk Life Orb Garchomp Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mega Charizard Y: 203-239 (109.7 - 129.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 Atk Life Orb Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mega Charizard Y: 109-129 (58.9 - 69.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Weaknesses:


The snarling dogs can completely neuter the team’s damage output, allowing my opponent to stall out Trick Room or set up with the likes of CM Cresselia. Shoutouts to Luke (DawgVGC) for making me aware of just how alarmingly bad this match-up was by THRASHING me on battlespot with substitute snarl Entei just days prior to nationals.

I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that my team was quite so weak to such a common Pokemon as it was, though I feel that it would’ve been much less threatening had my Heatran been the intended nature. I did face a few Sylveons throughout the event, and things didn’t go as badly as one might expect. The severity of this weaknesses really hinges on its teammates.


Yes this team is dated at this point, and Maranga Berry Milotic massacres it. If I were to alter this team to bring to a future event, I’d likely opt to implement the solution used by Lajo in his world championships team; Toxic on Rotom-W instead of Will-O-Wisp.

When you only have one Pokemon that outspeeds it, Smeargle is an issue. Having Lum Berry on Garchomp would help out in this match-up, but I was far more concerned about Charizard-Y than Smeargle, so that was off the table. Though it can generally get off a Dark Void successfully, the team does have ways of dealing with the more common strategies that are paired with Smeargle, but I'd really prefer not to see this thing at team preview anyway.

I don't regard too much else to be a terrible match-up. Opposing steel-types that carry substitute are naturally important against a core of Gardevoir and Amoonguss, but with correct management of the other team members, they can definitely be overcome. 5 of my 9 swiss rounds featured an opposing sub-steel, and more often than not I was able to come out on top.

The Event:
I’ll apologise in advance for my patchy recollections of the games, nationals was some time ago and my memories are vague for the most part.

Round 1: David Ripper (2-0W)

I didn’t recognise my opponent’s name, and as we waited for the round to begin, it became obvious that he wasn’t hugely confident in his chances at winning. Team preview showed me some things I wasn’t too happy to see, but I felt confident that with Trick Room up I’d be able to deal with his team reasonably well. I lead with Gardevoir and Rotom-W against his Serperior and Infernape, which promptly set up Stealth Rock as I protected. I was able to get up Trick Room and from there the combination of Amoonguss, Rotom-W, Gardevoir and Heatran were able to beat his team.

Game 2 went in a similar fashion, as I ended up seeing all of his Pokemon except for Mawile across the course of the 2 games, a peculiar decision from him in what seemed like a reasonably good match-up for it, but I won’t complain as I took the set 2-0.

Round 2: David Patane (2-0W)

I felt that I had seen David’s name before, and as it turned out he had made top cut at Adelaide regionals. His team was a fairly standard, though somewhat outdated, even for the time, Mega Metagross team. Despite this, I wasn’t hugely pleased to see it, as it was far from my best match-up, but it definitely seemed manageable. He lead Terrakion and Thundurus against my M-Gardevoir and Scrafty. The game started in my favour, as I read into his Quick Guard and Taunt and dealt massive damage with a Hyper Voice and Stone Edge, leaving his Terrakion hanging on by its focus sash and Thundurus at about 10% HP. From there the game swung in my favour, and despite his Terrakion’s last ditch Close Combat KOing my Scrafty with a crit, I took game 1.

Game 2 was less straightforward, and looked to be slipping out of my grasp, but a bit of fortune came my way when his Specs Hydreigon failed to KO my Heatran from a little over half HP with a Dark Pulse, getting what seemed to be quite a low damage roll. My Rotom-W avoided getting flinched by his Metagross to close out the game. It was after this match that I noticed my Heatran was Quiet natured as I went to check its EVs.

Round 3: Justin Lok (2-0W)

Justin was one of the travelling Singaporeans, so I presumed he wasn’t a casual player. I later found out that he was 12th in the CP rankings going into the event, but later went on to miss out on a world's invite. My heart sunk at team preview, mainly due to the fact that my newly discovered Sylveon weakness was bound to come into play in this game, particularly as the combination of Talonflame and his rain mode could really neuter my Sylveon checks, namely Amoonguss and Heatran. I lead Amoonguss and Gardevoir into his Politoed and Ludicolo, protecting Gardevoir and switching into Scrafty, which took minimal damage from an Ice Beam. I used Fake Out on the Ludicolo, and got Trick Room up finding out that his Politoed wasn’t choice scarfed as it switches move to Scald, snagging a burn on my Gardevoir. Knock Off revealed the Assault Vest on his Ludicolo, and its removal allowed Gardevoir’s Hyper Voice to pick up the KO. The game continued, and came down to my Scrafty at approximately 70% health vs. his non-intimidated LO Talonflame at full health. Brave Bird left Scrafty at 3 HP, who went on to land the Stone Edge to seal the game.

After its ineffectiveness in game 1, I predicted that my opponent would leave out his rain mode in game 2, and decided to bring Heatran. This made the game much easier, as he did indeed leave Politoed out. I took advantage of Sylveon’s turn of recharging after using Hyper Beam by Sporing it, and the game was sealed rather more comfortably than the first one as Sylveon failed to wake up in time to do too much damage.

Round 4: Brendan Webb (floristthebudew) (2-0W)

I wasn’t aware of my opponent’s online alias as we sat down to battle, though at this stage I figured my opponents were bound to know what they’re doing. I found myself much more relieved at team preview this round, as my match-up looked much stronger here. I decided that getting up Trick Room will be important, as would Scrafty and Heatran, with Rotom-W rounding out my 4. I remember knocking out his Tyranitar as it aimed a low kick at my Heatran, which promptly switched out, before realising that his remaining 3 Pokemon of supportive Sitrus Berry Volcarona, special attacking Mega Salamence, and Ferrothorn couldn’t really touch my Heatran, so it proceeded to clean up the game.

I decided that I would take a similar approach to game 2 provided I saw that he’d brought 2 or more of those 3 Pokemon that Heatran walled, so I double targeted his Rotom-W turn 1 with a combination of Psychic and Giga Drain to knock it out. Much to my surprise I found that he had, in fact, brought all 3 of the aforementioned Heatran fodder mons, so the second game went much the same way. I later talked to Brendan before top cut the next day he recognised that he had really needed to focus harder on checking my Heatran, though the match-up was a bad one for him nonetheless. He went on to make top 8, so good work on that part, and congratulations on the strong finish.

Round 5: Nihal Noor (UchihaX96) (2-0W)

Nihal’s was the first name I recognised with any real clarity, as we’re a part of the same Facebook group. I also recalled the fact that he won Adelaide’s regionals this season, so I was well aware that this match wouldn’t be easy. He was running what appeared to be the popular Japanese-sand team with the addition of Landorus-Incarnate over the more standard Excadrill. My game plan this time wasn’t much different to my initial plan last round, with Rotom-W and Goggles Heatran set to come up big once again. Game 1 got off to a strong start, as I got the guaranteed Intimidate Trace off against his Salamence and Aegislash, leaving them at -2 after Scrafty's Intimidate also activated. Turn 1 I predicted his Protect + Shadow Ball into my Gardevoir, protecting with Gardevoir and hitting Aegislash’s Blade-Forme with a Knock Off, revealing its leftovers. I didn’t have to play spectacularly to win this game, since the strong match-up allowed me some freedom. I managed to whittle his team away, before Rotom-W and Heatran cleaned up the latter end of this game.

My game plan didn’t seem particularly flawed, so I entered into game 2 with a similar mindset. He played more conservatively with his Aegislash this game, setting up a substitute, but he wasn’t able to stall out my Trick Room without it costing him too much of his team to recover, as his Landorus was OHKOd upon switch-in by my Heatran’s Overheat. Good games to Nihal, who fought valiantly against a very tough team match-up, ending up marginally bubbling at 18th place.

Round 6: Saamid Zikria (Yourf) (1-2L)

At 5-0 with a game record of 10-0 I was feeling confident and happy with how the team was performing. I’m not surprised that I again recognised my opponent’s name, Saamid is also a member of the same Facebook group. It was also apparent that I had been paired against both finalists of Adelaide's regionals in consecutive rounds, as Saamid had taken second there, losing to Nihal in the finals. We’d played multiple games on Pokemon Showdown, with mixed results, and he clearly remembered them too as he started writing down my team members before team preview had begun. I was well aware of how competent he is, so I was expecting a great set, and I was not disappointed. Going into team preview, I recognised what was much the same that he had used at Adelaide regionals. I don’t feel that the match-up was heavily in either player’s favour, and the game would likely be decided by his management of his Heatran, though Cresselia and Breloom would also be potentially influential factors as well. Going into game 1, I believe I lead Garchomp and Gardevoir, keen to pressure his Heatran early on, as he leads Heatran and Kangaskhan. My recollections of the start of the game are shaky, though I remember him making a good play on turn 1, Faking Out my Garchomp as my Gardevoir switched out for Rotom-W. I eventually got up Trick Room, losing Garchomp in the process and his Cresselia set up a Calm Mind. I began to watch the juniors’ game on the big screen as I wore the timer down, believing that I could no longer remove his Cresselia with my remaining Heatran + Scrafty. The game came down to his Cresselia with a Calm Mind set up, plus his just-protected-Heatran at low HP vs. my own Heatran and Scrafty with 2 turns of Trick Room remaining. He was able to nail the double protect as I Earth Powered into it, targeting the Cresselia with a Knock Off, revealing its Rocky Helmet. With 1 turn of Trick Room remaining, I ignored his Heatran as it went for an unsuccessful triple protect, and instead doubled into the Cresselia, which fell to the combination of a Knock Off and an Overheat. The game was mine from there, and we moved on to game 2.

I decided that the game would’ve been easier had I tried to get up Trick Room earlier, so I lead Gardevoir and Amoonguss into his Heatran and Kangaskhan. I was able to get up Trick Room, though I allowed his Heatran a substitute in the process. Beginning to get a feel for his playstyle, I decided to predict him to predict my Heatran to come in in favour of my Amoonguss, so I left it in, switching Gardevoir out for Scrafty. Sure enough he directed an Earth Power, as well as a Low Kick at my Amoonguss slot. From there I was able to put Kangaskhan to sleep, and whittle at his team with Scrafty, stubbornly refusing to bring my Heatran in as he again aimed another Low Kick at my Amoonguss upon waking up. The game came down to my Scrafty and Gardevoir vs. his Heatran at about 60%, and full health Landorus-T, with 1 turn of Trick Room remaining. Rueing my own lack of Ice Punch, I figured that Scrafty could survive 2 Heat Waves and beat his Heatran in the subsequent turns if I could just knock out his Landorus before it got an attack off, so I doubled into it with a Hyper Voice and Knock Off. Unfortunately, this failed to KO as his Superpower knocked out my Scrafty. He took game 2 from there.

I hate to use the phrase “on tilt” since I feel it’s thrown about as a poor excuse too much within the community, but I feel it might be applicable here. I started to wonder how I could win if he brought the same 4, as I had lost despite feeling as though I had made enough plays based on correct predictions to put myself in a winning position. I played poorly in game 3, losing badly in an underwhelming conclusion to an otherwise thrilling set. Looking back, I feel as though Garchomp was more important to the match-up than I gave it credit for, and though its impact in game 1 was minimal, I should've gone back to it for game 3. This was the one time I really resented the lack of option to save replays in tournament mode, as I would’ve liked to be able to watch this entire best of 3 set back, both for entertainment and education. We both took a step outside for a breather after that set, well played to Saamid, and congrats on going on to make top cut and finish in the top 16.

Round 7: Emily Woodward (2-0W)

Emily’s team looked to be comprised of mainly standard Pokemon, with the exception of  Dugtrio, which could actually be a nuisance to me given it could trap and OHKO my Heatran. I was keen to play a conservative game 1 to find out as much information as possible. I find out her Rotom-H has HP-Ice as it does negligible damage to my Heatran as it switches in for Garchomp. Her Metagross carried Leftovers, confirming that her Salamence was the mega, which fell to a Hyper Voice following my late game Trick Room to seal game 1.

Game 2 was rather more straightforward, as I went for Trick Room much earlier, cleaning up with Heatran and Gardevoir, good games to Emily.

Round 8: Jackson Lakey (FamousDeaf) (2-0W)

 
We’re back to the recognisable names, and this time it’s Jackson, one of the Australian players with reasonably consistent finishes, who managed to make top 4 at this years Melbourne regionals. I recognised his team as the one he brought to Melbourne, with a Clefable in the place of what was previously a Clefairy. His double steel types looked to be the key to the match-up, as they were the only things preventing Gardevoir from sweeping through. My Heatran and Scrafty also looked good here, with Rotom-W rounding out my line-up. Game 1 saw Gardevoir met with little resistance, as I got up Trick Room with the aid of Scrafty’s Fake Out, proceeding to sweep through with Gardevoir and Heatran.

He opted not to bring Aegislash to game 1, and I expected him to leave Virizion behind in favour of it going into game 2. He made a good adjustment, leading with Clefable and Heatran, allowing himself to get up a substitute safely. I played around trying to bait out a Moonblast with Scrafty, but he revealed his attacking move to be Ice Beam, allowing me to bring Scrafty back in to sponge his Heatran’s attacks alongside Rotom-W. I’m able to whittle his Heatran and force it out, which allows Gardevoir to get up a Trick Room once again. He revealed Virizion again, perhaps sticking with it in fear that he would be stranded with no way to effectively hit Rotom-W, though in my opinion Aegislash was a more solid option in this slot. I was later able to Overheat the Virizion upon its switch in for his Heatran as he attempted to stall out my Trick Room. He was unsuccessful in doing so, and Gardevoir and Heatran sealed the game one again. Jackson went on to make top cut and finish in the top 4, well played to him for making it so far, another solid finish.

Round 9: Ty Power (Sarkastik) (2-0W)

Yet another name I recognise, I’m a lot more relaxed for this round as I both of us will likely make top cut regardless of the result. Ty seems similarly chilled out, and due to it being at the end of a very long day, my memories of this set are vague at best. Goggles Heatran came up big once again, and alongside Rotom-W and Amoonguss there was little he could do. His Aegislash was a pain to deal with as it ran Safety Goggles, as well as substitute, but was unable to do much more than stall briefly. I was worried that his Suicune could be a nuisance by spamming Snarl, but that didn’t happen, and I was able to take game 1.

Trick Room went up early in the second game, and he mentioned to me that he wasn't even going to bother trying to Spore my Heatran as the Goggles were blatantly obvious. This game was a grindy one, though it never really strayed out of control. His Aegislash continually set up substitues as my slow Heatran failed to outspeed it to KO, but since my -2 Heat Waves were able to continually break the subs he wasn't able to gain any advantage from the exchange. We were about to run into time before Heatran was able to finally finish the game with an Overheat. Both games passed by with few hiccups, as he unsuccessfully battled his way through a tricky match-up, and the match was mine.

Interestingly, Heatran’s Safety Goggles didn’t come into effect once across the course of day 1, as both opponents that carried Spore were aware of my item. That said, it didn't bother me particularly, as their presence allowed me to switch in fearlessly.

The End of Day 1:

I finished the day at 8 wins and 1 loss, with a game record of 17-2, guaranteed to make top cut. I stood around for a while, talking to various people before the top cut was finally posted. It looked like this:

I was to be 3rd seed going into top cut the next day. I recognised a number of the other names in top cut, including 4 of my opponents from the day, so I congratulated them, wished them luck for the next day and then headed home for a decent rest.


Day 2 - Top Cut:
Top 16: Phil Nguyen (Boomguy) (0-2L)

Phil’s a fairly recognisable figure within the Australian VGC community, and I was half wishing I’d lost my final round seeing as it might’ve gotten me an easier pairing going into top 16. I hadn’t bothered asking any of his day 1 opponents about his team since I didn’t have the energy to during the previous evening, having slept pretty much immeidately upon getting back from the venue. Had I asked around I wouldn’t have liked what I’d have heard, however, as I was about to face my least favourable match-up of the event so far. We waited around for quite some time before top cut got under way, and the hack checks had me hurriedly checking Serebii to make sure that Gabite evolved before level 50. All of that out of the way, we finally got into team preview. On the surface, the match-up didn’t look too bad, I recognised his team as similar to that used by Billa in some of the European nationals, so began to think that his items could potentially be similar; Sitrus Berry on Rotom-H and Rocky Helmet on Suicune. Amoonguss and Rotom-W looked good to press through his team with some assistance from Gardevoir. Choice Specs Sylveon was a clear problem, particularly thanks to my own blunder in selecting my Heatran, but if I could get it to sleep, some favourable sleep rolls could see me through the game. Going into turn 1, Phil revealed Power-up Punch on his Kangaskhan, leading me to believe that it was likely running Protect instead of Fake Out, which could certainly work out in my favour. I opted to try to beat down his team with Gardevoir and Heatran, and the end-game came down to Gardevoir and Amoonguss against his Rotom-H and sleeping Sylveon. As it turned out, his Rotom-H was in fact carrying the Safety Goggles, as my Spore failed, and from there his Sylveon was able to wake up and finish me off.

My options were starting to look severely limited, I decided my best option was to get up Trick Room as soon as possible, and hope to read his switches often enough to prevent him from stalling it out. I lead Scrafty and Gardevoir, hoping to abuse his lack of Fake Out, but I was in fact mistaken once again, as his Kangaskhan was able to Fake Out my Scrafty, which promptly fainted to the subsequent Hyper Voice. I wasn’t able to efficiently punish his switches from there, and the game quickly went in his favour.

After our match, Phil admitted that he knew of my team as he’d asked some of my day 1 opponents about it, though the match-up was so poor on my end that information was pretty much irrelevant, and the game between our two teams in the hands of two competent players would almost always end up going against the Gardevoir player. That said, some planning and research wouldn't have gone amiss, and I should have gone into the set with some sort of plan, even if it was to just paint a pentacle on the table and spam Rock Slide with Chomp.

Though I was somewhat disappointed not to progress further through top cut, I can’t deny that I was pleased with making top cut at all. I hung around to watch the finals then headed off for some more rest. Workload permitting, I'll be back again next season, hopefully we’re in for a similar run next year!

Shoutouts:

• Lajo: Really helped me get my thoughts in order regarding the team I was building, thanks for the openness and generosity with your own thoughts

• Szymoninho: Similar comment here really, your help was invaluable, Overheat Heatran was MVP on the day for sure

• Dawg: Caused me to hurriedly try to paper over the glaring weakness to Entei, thankfully Luke can't win a round 1 in Melbourne, so we never got paired up

• UchihaX96: Helped with the production of the report and played a good set despite a bad match-up, I'll make sure to go into top 16 with a plan next time meat

• Yourf: Gave me my most entertaining match of the tournament by some distance, keep on low kicking Amoongusses, they'll switch out one day

• Sarkastik: Gave me a great set and went on to make top 8, please don't bring goggles Aegislash ever again that thing is just unpleasant

• The event organisers: It's worth mentioning that despite being best of 3 swiss and having a large number of entrants, nationals ran on schedule consistently, which is worth mentioning given the apparent fiasco that was UK nationals this year

• All the pear: You know who you are, thanks for making the weekend memorable, hopefully there are many more similar experiences on their way