When it Rains, It Pours-Top 5-4 Nationals Team Report

Hey guys! My name is Stephen Brown III, also known as pyromaniac720 in the Pokemon community. This is my first post on Brendan and I’s new blog and it’s going to be about my nationals team.

The Process

I really really REALLY wanted to use Gardevoir for Nats. But I didn’t like running semi trick room teams (I’m okay at it but not great) so I needed another form of speed control. The first draft of the team was Crobat, Gardevoir, Infernape, Landorus, Lickilicky, and Suicune. Crobat was an amazing setter with Mental Herb as an item. The ONLY way it couldn’t get up Tailwind is if it’s outsped and OHKO’d, which most Pokemon can’t do. With Inner Focus, Scarf Rock Slide from Lando can’t flinch it and neither can any Fake Outs. The only time that I didn’t set up Tailwind turn 1 was when someone used Fake out with a Kang and then Overheated me with a Scarf Volcarona. Gardevoir paired well because nothing likes taking super-fast Hyper Voices. My Gardevoir spread survived certain Brave Birds from Talonflame, -1 Double-Edge from Mega Salamence, and outsped +1 max speed Salamence under tailwind, since a lot of Salamence would Dragon Dance turn 1, predicting my Protect/Tailwind play. I don’t want to get to in depth with this team since I didn’t use it, so I’ll do a quick rundown of everything else. Landorus was Adamant LO, Lickilicky was my weather control with Cloud Nine with Knock Off, Icy Wind, Disable, and Protect, Infernape was mixed with Overheat, Close Combat, Fake Out, and Feint. Feint was nice because people would double protect turn 1 so I could Feint and Hyper Voice something. Eventually I changed Lickilicky for Breloom and Infernape for Weavile. The team just wasn’t working though so I eventually scraped the idea.

            After trying a couple more Gardevoir teams, I gave up and tried something new. Brendan suggested that I try Mega Swampert. I figured rain would be a good at Nats and Brendan pointed out that Mega Swampert fits my hyper offensive “Gotta Go Fast” play style. It’s a great rain sweeper that heavily damages most of the relevant metagame such as Sylveon, Aegislash, Thundurus, Landorus, Kangakshan, Metagross, Salamence, Charizard, Heatran, and many others. With a Helping hand boost from Politoed, Swampert could OHKO every Pokemon listed above, and can OHKO many of them with simply a rain boost. I obviously added Politoed for Drizzle. I normally run Scarf but decided that bulky Toed with Helping Hand would benefit the team more. I added Ludicolo to go hard rain. I went with a traditional AV. I also added LO Scizor and Scarf Hydreigon. I needed something else. The team as it was struggled with Fighting and Grass types so I was looking for a flying type. I immediately looked at my favorite new mega: Salamence! There are some matchups that Swampert just doesn’t like and for most of them, Salamence was good. After some tweaking and testing, I eventually switched Hydreigon to support Dragonite and then to support Thundurus.

The Final Team

Politoed @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Drizzle

EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 204 SpD

Calm Nature

- Scald

- Ice Beam

- Helping Hand

- Protect

Politoed’s role here is pretty self-explanatory.  Be bulky, fish for Scald burns, and support the heavy hitters with Helping Hand. The spread allows it to take a Timid LO Thundurus-Therian Thunderbolt. I wanted to be more specially bulky since I had Scald burns and Intimidate to help on the defensive side.

Ludicolo @ Assault Vest

Ability: Swift Swim

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 100 SpA / 4 SpD / 148 Spe

Modest Nature

- Fake Out

- Scald

- Giga Drain

- Ice Beam

Again, the moves here are as standard as it gets. The spread was designed to outspeed Adamant max Speed Scarf Landorus by 4 points in Rain. I maxed out HP, threw 4 in each defense to get an extra stat point, and put the rest in Special Attack. Ludicolo was as good as you’d expect. No regrets using it.

Swampert @ Swampertite

Ability: Torrent

EVs: 100 HP / 252 Atk / 156 Spe

Adamant Nature

- Waterfall

- Earthquake

- Ice Punch

- Protect

Now for the cool part of the team-my first mega and Rain sweeper. Swampert is amazing because it wrecks Pokemon that typically slow down/check rain (Like Sylveon, Mega Gardevoir, Thundurus). I originally had Rock Slide over Ice Punch but Boomguy convinced me that Ice Punch was better and he was right. Ice Punch at least allowed me to not be walled to death by Grass types, something that can hurt Swampert. The spread is simple: Outspeed my Ludicolo, max attack, rest in HP. I wanted to outspeed my Ludicolo for a couple reasons. One, I didn’t want speed ties because I didn’t want to lose a match because I didn’t know who would move first. Also, if I decided to Earthquake with Ludicolo on the field, I wanted Ludicolo to be able to heal that damage back with Giga Drain after taking it. Swampert was amazing and actually had a better win percentage than Salamence in the tournament..

Salamence @ Salamencite

Ability: Intimidate

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Double-Edge

- Rock Slide

- Roost

- Protect

I wanted a second mega because there were some matchups that Swampert was just atrocious in. I gravitated towards Salamence for a couple reasons. I ‘m very comfortable using it since I’ve used it a ton and it patched up most of the team’s weakness. Double-Edge for power, Rock Slide for Zard and fast flinches, and Roost to stick around. Honestly, I hated Roost. If I could change anything about this team, I would swap Roost for Fire Blast/Flamethrower.

Scizor @ Life Orb

Ability: Technician

EVs: 188 HP / 252 Atk / 60 Def / 4 SpD / 4 Spe

Adamant Nature

- Bullet Punch

- Bug Bite

- Feint

- Protect

Scizor is pretty standard. I always enjoyed LO Scizor because it hits hard with a great priority attack. Also, Feint is my favorite move in the game. It allows me to punish people trying to stall rain by protecting. The HP gives me a perfect LO number, and the HP + Def allows me to survive some sort of Flare Blitz from Talonflame in Rain.

Thundurus (M) @ Rocky Helmet

Ability: Prankster

EVs: 180 HP / 60 Def / 12 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

- Thunderbolt

- Thunder Wave

- Taunt

- Swagger

The final member of the team, Thundurus gave a form of speed control and a way to hit bulky water types like Suicune or Jellicent that could wall the team. I opted for Swagger over HP Ice because I already had three Ice type moves on the team and Swagger gives me a win condition when there normally isn’t one. It single handedly won me my round 4 match vs Lolfailsnail. I opted for max speed because Thundurus has an amazing speed tier that allows me to speed creep things like Mega Metagross, Gengar, and the Lati twins. Also, I wanted to guarantee that I could Taunt other Thundurus before they did the same to me. I chose Rocky Helmet because I figured it would be a good way to get some chip damage on things like Kangaskhan.

Team Issues

This team had one issue: Ferrothorn. I went into nationals knowing that Ferrothorn completely shuts down my team. But I was hoping that I wouldn’t face any at Nationals. I faced 2 and went 1-1 against them. I need to hope that the Ferrothorn is offensive so that HH Double-Edge can knock it out or I need some luck. Like I said before, I wish I had dropped Roost for Fire Blast/Flamethrower so that I could hit Ferrothorn. 

A lot of people hated on my team, saying that triple water was really bad. Honestly, Water is so solid offensively and defensively that it never posed an issue, except against Ferrothorn. Also, I enjoyed the team because it didn't even need rain. Thundy, Mence, Scizor, and Ludi perform well and I brought those four a few times at nationals and in practice. 

So that’s the team! If you have any questions about it, feel free to contact me via twitter @pyromaniac720 or on nugget bridge as pyromaniac720. I also have some battles with the team on my channel here!