Friend of the show, Sam Chandler competed in the Pokemon Regional Championship this weekend in Collinsville, Illinois (the finals of which are apparently happening as I am posting this). I was there to support Sam, spectate and learn a little more about competitive Pokemon play. To hear more about the day, listen to Gamers on the Go Episode 61. Sam was nice enough to give me the rundown on his team and strategy for the event.

In building this team, I elected to stick pretty close to some of the most popular Pokemon in the metagame at the moment. I did this seeing as it was my first tournament; I wanted to have a team that had some tried and true battlers on it. However, I did branch out on a couple of choices (movesets, items) I think really did make a difference in the end.

Pokemon:

Arcanine @ Firium ZAbility: IntimidateLevel: 50EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpeJolly Nature– Flare Blitz– Extreme Speed– Wild Charge– Protect

This is a pretty standard moveset for one of the Video Game Championship’s most popular Pokemon. The Firium Z allowing me to use Inferno Overdrive managed to win two key battles for me.

Tapu Fini @ LeftoversAbility: Misty SurgeEVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpeTimid NatureIVs: 0 Atk- Scald- Taunt- Nature’s Madness - Moonblast

This was one of the Pokemon that really put in a solid day’s work for my team, and also one I went a bit against the grain with in terms of setup. Originally was testing a Calm Mind-using setup build, but found it to be underwhelming in terms of how many Pokemon it could knock out vs. how often it was knocked out in turn. So, I decided to go with a bulkier, utility build.

The two keys from my standpoint ended up being Taunt and Nature’s Madness. Taunt was able to shutdown a Curse-using Snorlax and a couple of Trick Room teams. Nature’s Madness helped against many of the bulkier Pokemon I faced, dealing a guaranteed 50% HP regardless of Tapu Fini’s relatively mediocre Special Attack stat.

Kartana @ Focus SashAbility: Beast BoostEVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 SpeJolly Nature– Leaf Blade– Smart Strike– Sacred Sword– Psycho Cut

A pretty standard Focus Sash Kartana. I found that a lot of people were prepared for Kartana at this tournament, leading me to using it as a later game send in. In retrospect, I would likely replace Psycho Cut with Detect.

Porygon2 @ EvioliteAbility: DownloadEVs: 244 HP / 76 Def / 188 SpDSassy NatureIVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe– Ice Beam– Return– Recover– Trick Room

Porygon2 is one of my favorite Pokemon so I’ve been very happy seeing it have so much success in this year’s VGC! This is a pretty straightforward Trick Room user (a move that allows slower Pokemon to take their turn first), leading off with the twisted dimensions and having a lot of staying power by virtue of its bulk and Recover. Ice beam dealt with Garchomp each time I met one and ended up scoring a key freeze moment. The one tech I put on this build is Return, a physical attack. This has seen a slight bump in popularity recently and it stems from Porygon2’s Download ability. Essentially, Return makes use of the SpAtk or Atk boost afforded by download no matter which boost you get.

Muk-Alola @ Iapapa BerryAbility: GluttonyEVs: 204 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Def / 4 SpD / 4 SpeAdamant Nature– Poison Jab– Knock Off– Curse– Protect

I included Muk as my primary Trick Room attacker who can also do fine without the TR support. He did just that. Muk’s excellent bulk and attack served me well all day, especially with Knock Off causing a lot of chaos for the opposition, often knocking off a useful berry, rocky helmet or assault vest. I did find that he was targeted quickly when on the field, lending more credence to his high value.

Garchomp @ Groundium ZAbility: Rough SkinLevel: 50EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpeJolly Nature- Earthquake- Dragon Claw- Poison Jab- Rock Slide

The final member of my team was another popular one. Garchomp is able to threaten a large variety of opposing Pokemon with a strong and varied moveset. Rock Slide in particular scored a key double KO in my second battle. This is another build I wish I had run Protect on, likely replacing Dragon Claw.

Usage:

I led with Trick Room whenever I was able; the bulk of Porygon2 and Muk were very difficult to overcome for unprepared opponents. I also found the threat of Trick Room to have a certain effect during team preview. Seeing Porygon2 would often times make my opponent take in one of their slower Pokemon as coverage. The few times I went all offense (no Trick Room use) were a direct result of this line of thinking. Under Trick Room settings, Muk was excellent except for being prey to the many Garchomps that saw use. When Porygon2 wasn’t able to check the ground/dragon type, Muk had a hard time. Luckily, his bulk kept him useful even in this situation.

My team was also able to hold its own against a hyper offense team, being no slouches on the attack themselves and generally fast enough to keep up with any team.

The Tapus are very popular at the moment, and my Tapu Fini performed admirably, especially against the hard Trick Room team I played. Getting in a Taunt and being able to drop the bulkiest of ‘mons to half HP from the get go applied a lot of pressure to this team, causing its user to abandon Trick Room in the second match to try and weather my team’s damage output.

On the converse, almost every team is carrying a poison attack to handle the Tapus, so they had to be used intelligently.

Kartana, Garchomp and Arcanine being the primary physical attackers for the team worked well. Kartana is absolutely incredible at dealing massive damage, and I found myself using him and keeping him safe with switch-ins regularly. Garchomp surprised me the most on the team, as before the tournament I didn’t use him nearly as much as I clearly should have.

As far as weaknesses, I never found a situation where I truly felt like there wasn’t some way to be productive. This is a pretty well-rounded team that checks and balances its members effectively. However, I did find some issues. I found myself wanting for another special attacker, perhaps a Special Attacking Arcanine as he’s not often expected to be played in that way. I made the mental error of not including Protect on Garchomp and Detect on Kartana. Both of these would have been useful many times. I also would likely run a more bulked up nature for Tapu Fini, as her special attack was just ok and not a game changer very often.

I really liked using Trick Room, and also really liked using Muk. However, I think another valid option would be Araquanid given the popularity of ground types.

Overall, a lot of the team’s shortcomings came from user error. I’m a new player, so I’m not super effective (ha) at figuring out when to switch or how to identify a win condition off the bat. One player complimented my use of Tapu Fini and Garchomp to get rid of an opposing Arcanine in order to clear the way for my Kartana to finish the game. Had I known I was doing that at the time, I probably would have agreed with that assessment.

It was a great experience to just be playing such a fun game among so many strong battlers. In my four battles (I unfortunately had to leave early), I went 2-2 with this team, and all but one of the battles went the full three rounds. The games I won, I stuck to my team’s strengths and the games I lost I tended to have a couple of lapses. Not only that, but I played against very strong opponents who really had me learning on the fly. In the end, I wish I could have stayed the whole time to see my battles through.

This was a really awesome first experience at a Pokemon competition. I was most surprised at the sheer number and variety of players. I think nearly very demographic in America was represented, from the awesome African American guy who I laughed through our entire match with, to the 70-year-old woman battling right alongside her son, it was an amazing melting pot of an event that really inspired me. I hope I can get back to an event and come away with a winning record in the future, but as for my rookie tournament, I couldn’t have asked for a much better experience.