Welcome to part two of our series of articles about creating specialized EV spreads. In this section, we’ll cover the “how-to” of making specialized EV spreads, broken up into two chunks. The first chunk covers how to use a damage calculator, and how to use it to do things like survive an attack 100% of the time, always KO an opponent’s Pokémon with an attack, or always outspeed a specific Pokémon. The second chunk covers two very basic tricks about how to get more stat points out of your EV spreads. If you’re looking for what these EV things are or why we bother to make anything more complex than 252 / 252 / 4, check out part one of the series for the answers to those questions and more.

Before We Leap Straight Into Everything…

There’s a few things that will help you understand the content of the article a bit better.

1. “EVing a Pokémon” means “to give a Pokémon an EV spread” which means “to train a Pokémon a certain way to increase its stat points”.
2. We always assume that the opponent’s Pokémon has 31 IVs and your opponent understands how to EV train. With guides like Huy’s covering how to breed perfect Pokémon in ORAS and Simon and Mikoto Misaka’s guide to capturing flawless legendary Pokémon in ORAS, you should count on your opponent bringing in flawless Pokémon to fight your own.
3. When I talk about how much damage a Pokémon deals to the foe’s Pokémon, I often use percentages instead of the actual numbers to show how much damage our Pokémon dealt to the opponent’s. This is the same way Pokémon Showdown displays damage since it’s easier to visualize.
4. When doing damage calculations you almost always disregard critical hits. Even though you can EV your Pokémon to survive an attack when it lands a critical hit, that only happens 1/16 of the time. Taking attacks well is good, but those extra EVs in bulk could have been used elsewhere to hit harder, be faster, or take attacks better on the physical or special side. Unless you’re using a strategy that involves guaranteed critical hits, like Frost Breath or Focus Energy + Scope Lens, critical hits are too luck-based to include in damage calculations.
5. Tournaments in VGC have used level 50 Pokémon even before the games auto-lowered the levels for you. At first, you might not suspect that there’s much of a difference – after all, every Pokémon is still on an even playing field, however it does effect damage calculations.

Level 50: 252+ SpA Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 142-168 (86 – 101.8%) — 12.5% chance to OHKO

Level 100: 252+ SpA Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 273-322 (85.3 – 100.6%) — 6.25% chance to OHKO

As you can see, at level 100 Landorus-Therian takes about 1% less damage from Hydreigon’s Draco Meteor. This might seem initially insignificant, but it actually means Landorus-T is OHKOed 1/8 of the time instead of 1/16 of the time by this Hydreigon’s move at level 50. The way stats are calculated, a Pokémon’s stats at level 50 aren’t exactly half of what they’d be at level 100. Remember to use level 50 Pokémon in your damage calculations rather than level 100 Pokémon.

Using a Damage Calculator

Now that we’ve got the fundamentals out of the way, let’s get into the fun stuff: using a damage calculator. Rather than simply tell you how to use one, you can follow along in the video to help see exactly what you’re reading about. I’ve included timestamps in the article that go along with each point I cover in the video. Please note that when I mention “this particular team”, it’s a completely different team each time. I say “this particular team” to remind you guys that these EV spreads are tailored towards the goals of the “particular team” the Pokémon is on.

0:23: Accessing Pokémon Showdown’s Damage Calculator, created by Honko. Typing “/calc” at any time in any of Showdown’s many chat rooms will also direct you to the calculator. There is an alternative damage calculator out right now with the new ORAS Mega Evolutions implemented into its code as well. While its creator, gamut, does do a fantastic of staying on top of user requests, I still personally prefer Honko’s calculator because it’s supported by Showdown.

2:04: Choosing a Pokémon to use, remembering to set its level to 50. You can scroll down to select a Pokémon, or type the first few letters of a Pokémon’s name and it will pop up. I recommend using the blank sets, as the EV spreads from OU, UU, Ubers, etc. are tailored to Smogon formats.

4:14: Performing a damage calculation. This can be absolutely anything you want. Have fun playing around and seeing how much damage your attacks will do or how well your Pokémon can eat up attacks.

7:19: Using the damage calculator to show the wide variety of damage an attack can do. In this example, we check how much damage Mega Mawile’s Play Rough does to a Zapdos with no EVs anywhere, 252 HP EVs, and even up to 252 HP EVs, 252 Defense EVs, and a Bold Nature. When an attack does more than 100% damage to a Pokémon, it is guaranteed to be KOed by that attack, and when the maximum amount of damage is under 100%, you know that Pokémon can always survive that attack from full HP.

9:10: See how damage Zapdos can do back to Mega Mawile, or in this case, how much damage Zapdos does to Mega Mawile before it attacks. I don’t have any specific goals for my Zapdos’s Special Attack right now, so I just play around with the numbers to show the wide range of damage it can do.

10:07: Calculating the damage of a spread move, any attack that hits more than one Pokémon on the field. In VGC, which is purely Double Battles, make sure to click the Doubles tab in the middle of the screen to account for the spread move damage power reduction. You ONLY click the Singles tab if the opponent’s Pokémon is the only one you’re targeting – a Pokémon is still a target even if it dodges the attack due to missing, an immunity (e.g. Earthquake versus Talonflame), Protect, Telepathy, or anything similar. Here are some examples:

1. You have a Landorus-Therian and Salamence versus an opponent’s Ferrothorn. Landorus-T’s Earthquake is a spread move here, so you click the Doubles tab when calculating damage.
2. You have a solo Landorus-T versus a Rotom-Wash and a Ferrothorn. Landorus-T’s Earthquake is a spread move here against Ferrothorn, so you click the Doubles tab. If you use Rock Slide with Landorus-T and Ferrothorn uses Protect, Rock Slide is still a spread move, and you click the Doubles tab to calculate damage against Rotom-W.
3. You have a Landorus-T and a Life Orb Hydreigon versus a Druddigon and a Mega Mawile. Hydreigon moves first, uses Draco Meteor, and knocks out Druddigon, but Hydreigon is at low enough HP to faint from Life Orb recoil itself. Landorus-T then uses Earthquake, and Earthquake is NOT a spread move, because only Mega Mawile and Landorus-T are left on the field. If you wanted to run a damage calculation for this situation, you would click the Singles tab.

11:28: Comparing two attacks. You probably noticed that Zapdos’s Heat Wave only does a bit more damage than Thunderbolt to Mega Mawile. Keep this in mind when attacking Mega Mawile. If you don’t care about hitting both opponents with Heat Wave, Thunderbolt does very similar damage, but won’t miss. There are all sorts of little quirks like this, and testing out your moves in the damage calculator helps you learn how much damage your attacks can do in a certain situation before you need to know that information mid-battle.

14:26: Choosing an item. This is pretty self-explanatory. Some of the damage calculator’s items are pretty irrelevant for the purposes of damage calculation, like Enigma Berry and Safety Goggles, so don’t use them. Don’t give Mega Evolved Pokémon damage-increasing items, unless you’re playing around with Ditto or Smeargle.

15:13: Choosing an Ability. Only Mega Pokémon come with their Abilties on the blank set option. Don’t forget to give Azumarill Huge Power, give Sylveon Pixilate, or give Breloom Technician. Like with items, there’s no point in giving Pokémon Abilities they can’t get, unless you’re messing around with Skill Swap or Role Play shenanigans.

16:12: Calculating with a Pokémon or move not currently implemented into the damage calculator. You’ll usually only need to know this right after a new Pokémon game’s release, when new information hasn’t made its way into the damage calculator just yet. The quickest way to put in a new move is to use another move of the same type and category (physical or special). For example, if you wanted to see how much damage Blast Burn would do from your Mega Charizard Y, simply choose Eruption instead – they are both special Fire-type moves with 150 Base Power. To choose Pokémon that aren’t in the damage calculator yet, use Bulbapedia’s list of base stats and type in the Pokémon’s correct base stats into the damage calculator. Alternatively, you can find the base stats of Pokémon by typing /dt Pokémon into one of Pokémon Showdown’s chatrooms, with “Pokémon” being whatever Pokémon’s base stats you want to check. For example, if I wanted information on Mega Salamence, I would type /dt Mega Salamence.

Accomplishing Goals

18:33: Surviving an attack 100% of the time. In the example, I show Latias surviving Choice Specs Sylveon’s Hyper Voice, but it can be absolutely anything depending on what your goals are for that Pokémon on that particular team. To give an example, look at Aaron Zheng’s (Cybertron) Gothitelle, which he used both during the World Championships in 2014 and to win the Philadelphia Regional soon after:

Gothitelle @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 244 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Psychic
– Rest
– Heal Pulse
– Trick Room

Cybertron’s Gothitelle was primarily used to abuse its Ability Shadow Tag to limit his opponent’s switching options, and to set up Trick Room so his slower Pokémon to move first. However, his Gothitelle was trained to survive a Choice Specs Dark Pulse from Hydreigon – and Gothitelle can’t do anything back to Hydreigon, right? Aaron explains his thought process in his team report:

Going back to the Hariyama+Gothitelle lead, it was great getting a free Trick Room up the first turn while taking about 90% worth of damage with Gothitelle, just to heal it all back up the following turn with Rest while Hariyama OHKOed the attacker.

In our example, Latias could easily set up Tailwind and still be able to attack once, or be able to get two attacks off to weaken Sylveon or its partners. To find the EV spread, all you have to do is simply guess-and-check until you have the correct numbers you need. For basic EV spreads like these, maxing out HP first is usually a good place to start. Then, keep adding Defense or Special Defense EVs until you survive the attack.

21:16: OHKOing or 2HKOing a Pokémon with an attack 100% of the time. In the example, you see that it only takes 68 Special Attack EVs to foil Azumarill’s plans to use Belly Drum – either it won’t have enough HP to set up Belly Drum, or you can be sure you’ll OHKO Azumarill after it sets up Belly Drum. Since Thundurus’s role on this particular team is to support the team with Thunder Wave speed control, we designed it to be bulky, but this little bit of offensive power helps Thundurus to secure a very important KO for this team.

As another example from last year’s World Championships, let’s take a look at the Scrafty from Wolfe Glick’s (Wolfey) 9th Place Team Report:

Scrafty @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 236 HP / 148 Atk / 108 Def / 12 SpA / 4 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Fake Out
– Snarl
– Drain Punch
– Taunt

While Snarl might be interesting to discuss when talking about Wolfey’s Scrafty, let’s take a look at his 148 Attack EVs. With this investment, Scrafty could 2HKO 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan with Drain Punch. However, the reasoning for this goal was more complex than just that:

I knew that I wanted Scrafty to be able to deal with Kangaskhan, yet I couldn’t decide how much attack to invest because of the wide range of bulk Kangaskhan is capable of using. For this reason, we chose to invest 148 Attack EV’s, which always 2HKO’s 4 HP/0 Defense Kangaskhan. The reason I thought this was so clever is I didn’t actually care whether or not Scrafty 2HKO’d Kangaskhan: I just wanted to be able to tell how much bulk a Kangaskhan was running in a 2 out of 3 match easily. By using the minimum possible to guarantee the 2HKO on bulk less Kangaskhan, I was able to tell in a glance whether an opposing Kangaskhan was bulky or offensive; information that was incredibly valuable as it allowed me to judge how much Mawile’s attacks would do or whether or not I could expect my Hydreigon to outspeed. Of course, there is a chance of a very low roll and me misjudging the opposing Kangaskhans bulk in theory, but every time I used this method to harbor a guess I ended up being correct.

24:29: Outspeeding a Pokémon using the VGC ’15 Speed tiers. In our example, Mamoswine was chosen for that particular team to serve as a way to get rid of troublesome Dragons, Landorus-T, and Thundurus. Looking at the Speed tiers, Mamoswine can reach a 198 Speed stat using the Adamant Nature and holding a Choice Scarf. However, Pokémon like Mega Sceptile, Greninja, and Mega Pidgeot aren’t particularly common for the team to face or difficult for Mamoswine’s teammates to defeat. After looking at Pokémon slower than Mamoswine, Jolly Mega Salamence seems to be the most annoying problem, but is 9 points slower than Mamoswine. Because we don’t care about anything in that Speed range, we can lower the amount of Speed EVs to give us more EVs for Attack or bulk. Since the Choice Scarf multiplies the holder’s Speed stat by 1.5x, we find the actual stat Mamoswine needs to reach by taking 190/1.5, which gives us 126.6666… We can’t have a decimal for a stat though. A 127 Speed stat would be required to outspeed Jolly Mega Salamence. Now all we have to do is find the magic number, which in this case is 212 Speed EVs.

Yet another example from the 2014 World Championships is Ryosuke Kosuge’s (gebebo) Mega Mawile from his 5th place team, which relied on outspeeding and outdamaging the opponent’s team with options like Tailwind Aerodactyl and Choice Band Garchomp.

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 92 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Play Rough
– Fire Fang
– Sucker Punch
– Protect

Specifically, before Tailwind, Mega Mawile’s 164 Speed EVs let it reach a 91 Speed stat. With Tailwind blowing behind his team, gebebo’s Mega Mawile hit a 182 Speed stat – one point above max Speed Mega Lucario. This made Mega Mawile significantly speedy under Tailwind, being able to OHKO the likes of Garchomp, Hydreigon, and Mega Lucario instead of taking a chunk of damage before striking back.

30:17: Underspeeding a Pokémon, and how to find the Speed stat of a Pokémon not on the Speed tiers. This example is reminiscent of the weather wars of 2012, when you would often find slow Tyranitar to make sure Sandstorm remained the permanent weather condition instead of the rain from Politoed’s Drizzle. However, minimum Speed Politoed isn’t on the VGC ’15 Speed tiers – we have to figure it out ourselves. Most damage calculators (and Showdown’s teambuilder) come with built-in stat calculators, we can figure Politoed’s minimum speed. In this case, simply change Politoed’s 31 Speed IV to a 0 Speed IV, and give it any Speed-lowering Nature you can think of. Now that we know Politoed’s minimum Speed is 67, we just need our Tyranitar to have a Speed stat of 66, which is just a 0 IV in speed. Now Tyranitar will always underspeed Politoed to guarantee sand gets up, but still outspeeds other Tyranitar that might be using a Brave Nature and 0 Speed IVs. Similar to the same strategy Ray used in his winning team from the 2012 World Championships.

Underspeeding the opposing Pokémon for weather wars isn’t the only application of this concept. Sometimes, you’ll want to underspeed your own Pokémon for some combos. Wolfey’s team again provides a fantastic example of this concept, where he specifically gave his Mega Mawile a Speed stat of 64 with an Adamant Nature, 17 Speed IVs, and 4 Speed EVs.

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Atk / 60 Def / 60 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 17 Spe
– Play Rough
– Iron Head
– Protect
– Sucker Punch

Despite Mega Mawile being one of Wolfey’s primary forms of offense in Trick Room, Wolfey chose not to go with a Brave Nature and 0 Speed IVs. Why, you ask? Well, Wolfey’s Gothitelle had a Sassy Nature and 0 Speed IVs, so it reached a 63 Speed stat. If Mega Mawile and Gothitelle were on the field together in Trick Room, Gothitelle would always move first. This meant Gothitelle could use Psychic to soften up an opponent for an attack from Mega Mawile, or break a substitute using Gothitelle’s weaker attack before following up with the more powerful Play Rough or Iron Head.

Bringing It All Together

34:18: Let’s make an EV spread for a Rotom-Wash.

Here are the goals we’ll try to achieve:

• Outspeed Adamant Bisharp so it can use Will-o-Wisp to halve the damage Rotom-W or its partner will take from Bisharp’s move
• OHKO 4 HP Landorus-Therian with Hydro Pump
• Make Choice Specs Sylveon’s Hyper Voice a 3HKO, including Sitrus Berry recovery

To start off, using the Speed tiers we find out that Adamant Bisharp reaches a 122 Speed stat. To outspeed Bisharp, we need Rotom-W to reach a 123 Speed stat. This requires 132 Speed EVs.

Next up, we want to OHKO 4 HP Landorus-Therian with Hydro Pump. After playing around with the numbers, it looks like 60 Special Attack EVs is the minimum amount of EVs it takes to accomplish this goal.

Last, we want to make sure Sylveon’s Choice Specs Hyper Voice is never able to knock out Rotom-Wash in two hits. Since we have a Sitrus Berry, we can automatically tack that recovery onto Rotom-W’s max HP stat to save some time. Sitrus Berry recovers 1/4 of your HP, so take Rotom-W’s HP stat (157) and divide it by 4. Then, add the result. In this case, we have 157/4=39.25, and 157+39.25=196.25. Wait a minute, a Pokémon can’t have 0.25 of an HP, right? Nope. In Pokémon, if you see a decimal, you’re almost always going to chop it off, or truncate it. Truncating isn’t the same as rounding, though. If Rotom-W had 196.75 HP, then it’d still only have 196 HP, not 197.

We know that our Rotom-W has 196 HP if you consider the Sitrus Berry. So, if we want to survive two Hyper Voices, each Hyper Voice would have to do less than half to Rotom-W’s 196 HP. 196/2 is 98, so each Hyper Voice can only do at most 97 damage. Now all we have to do is invest enough EVs to make sure Sylveon’s Hyper Voice only does 97 damage. After playing around with the numbers, 252 HP / 148 Special Defense with a Calm Nature accomplishes this goal.

… or not. Unfortunately, while we did accomplish every goal on our list, we used up too many EVs. 132 Speed + 60 Special Attack + 148 Special Defense + 252 HP = 592 EVs, which is 84 more EVs than any Pokémon can have at once. So, what do we do now? Well, if we were just a few EVs over the 508 EV limit, we might be able to just compromise here and there and accomplish our goals “most of the time” instead of 100% of the time. 84 EVs is a lot, though, so that “most of the time” probably isn’t going to be very consistent in the middle of a battle. We’re going to have to change one of our goals completely.

In this case, I’ve decided to change the Choice Specs Sylveon goal, as I feel this team has a better matchup against it than against Bisharp or Landorus-Therian. After thinking about it some more, I think making Ludicolo’s Giga Drain a 3HKO would be a good idea. However, I’m not all that sure about what kind of EVs Ludicolo use. Do they use max Special Attack, or do they focus more on bulk to complement the Assault Vest? To find out what’s popular on Ludicolo, we can look at popular sets from Nugget Bridge team reports. After glancing through the Ludicolo tag, you might notice Blake Hopper’s (Bopper) Ludicolo spread from his 11th place World Championships team report was also featured on many high placing Regionals teams, like Talon’s and majorbowman’s:

Ludicolo @ Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 148 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
– Scald
– Giga Drain
– Ice Beam
– Fake Out

Ludicolo’s 148 Special Attack EVs with a Modest Nature allows it to OHKO 4 HP Garchomp 100% of the time with Ice Beam, but now we’re going to turn this Ludicolo’s popularity back at itself.

It’s important to remember that this is Ludicolo’s popularity at the time this article was written. Perhaps at the time you’re reading this, nobody is using Ludicolo, or absolutely everybody is using it to counter a popular threat. I strongly recommend using recent, popular EV spreads from well-recognized or well-placing trainers in your damage calculations if you want to calculate against EV spreads you think will be reused in future tournaments.

Just like with Sylveon, we use the Sitrus Berry trick to know our Rotom-W has 196 HP. And just like before, we want Ludicolo’s Giga Drain to do 97 damage. After playing around with the numbers, 252 HP / 84 Special Defense with a Calm Nature seems to accomplish this goal using the minimum amount of EVs. While this is less EVs than before, though, it still seems that we’re 24 EVs over the 508 limit. Let’s try using 60 Special Defense EVs and see how much damage Rotom-W takes.

The maximum damage Ludicolo can do to us with Giga Drain is 98. However, it can’t do 97 damage at all, and the rest of Ludicolo’s damage rolls wouldn’t deal enough damage to 2HKO Rotom-W. It would be unlikely to do 98 damage twice in a row. Since there are 16 damage rolls, to hit the same one twice would be 1/16*1/16 odds, or 1/256. That gives Rotom-W a 99.609375% chance to survive two Giga Drains. While it’s not 100%, I’m pretty comfortable with those odds. Now all that’s left to do is place the remaining 4 EVs into Defense, and we’re finally done.

252 HP / 4 Defense / 60 Special Attack / 60 Special Defense / 132 Speed, Calm Nature

• Outspeeds Adamant Bisharp
• OHKOes 4 HP Landorus-Therian with Hydro Pump
• Survives two Giga Drains from Bopper’s Ludicolo when including Sitrus Berry recovery

Level 50 Stats

IVs/2 + EVs/8 should equal a whole number

Remember how I mentioned at the beginning of the article about level 50 Pokémon doing a bit more damage than level 100 Pokémon? There’s another difference between the two. If you check out other EV spread guides like Smogon’s or Serebii’s that talk about EV training Pokémon at level 100, you’ll read that your EVs need to be evenly divisible by 4 to be efficient.

We can use the same concept here with level 50 Pokémon. We’ll say it has 31 HP IVs. Rather than explain the entire stat formula and why exactly the numbers are the way they are, we can use the IVs/2 + EVs/8 trick and get all the information we need.

Plug in our numbers:

Great, that’s nice and even, just like we want it to be. Let’s try taking out 4 EVs like before.

Plug in our numbers:

Round down the remaining decimal, adjust the EV investment.

Plug in our numbers:

We reached the same stat, but we saved 4 extra EVs.

Here are some tips on how to save time with EV spreads:

1. Play around with your EVs in Pokémon Showdown’s teambuilder. Guess-and-check is a perfectly viable method to use for this; just make sure your level is 50, and then play around with your EVs until you have the same stat points as before while using less EVs.
2. Remember that because most IVs are going to be 31, your EVs when divided by 8 just need to have a decimal of 0.5 following them. If you follow this method, you’ll probably memorize the numbers you want to remember on your own. Alternatively, here’s a list of every amount of EVs that works efficiently with 31 (odd-numbered) IVs:

4, 12, 20, 28, 36, 44, 52, 60, 68, 76, 84, 92, 100, 108, 116, 124, 132, 140, 148, 156, 164, 172, 180, 188, 196, 204, 212, 220, 228, 236, 244, 252

When Your IVs Aren’t 31

With all this though, we’ve been assuming we live in a perfect world where all our IVs are 31. Though that is ideal, maybe you were in a rush to soft reset for Terrakion and settled for IVs of 31 HP / 24 Attack / 7 Defense / 12 Special Attack / 31 Special Defense / 31 Speed. Or maybe you have to use 30 IVs in some stats for a specific Hidden Power Type, like Sylveon with Hidden Power Ground or Thundurus with Hidden Power Ice. In these kinds of situations, we can still use our formula to help us out.

Let’s say I was planning to give that Terrakion I caught a basic 252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP EV spread. Because I haven’t changed the role Terrakion plays on my team, we still want to max out Speed and Attack. However, if you’ll notice, Terrakion has a 24 IV in Attack. Let’s see what happens if we invest 252 EVs in that stat:

Plug in our numbers:

We want our EVs when divided by 8 to equal a whole number, instead of leaving behind a decimal of 0.5. In this case, 248 EVs should do the trick.

Plug in our numbers:

Now, we can place our leftover 4 EVs in either Defense or Special Defense to make those leftover EVs more useful. Just like before, instead of hand-calculating your EV numbers every time, you can play around with the numbers in Showdown or look at this list of every amount of EVs that works with 30 (even-numbered) IVs:

8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 72, 80, 88, 96, 104, 112, 120, 128, 136, 144, 152, 160, 168, 176, 184, 192, 200, 208, 216, 224, 232, 240, 248

Remember, this trick isn’t a substitute for getting Pokémon with flawless IVs. With 248 Attack EVs, 24 IVs, and a Jolly Nature, Terrakion’s Attack stat is 177, 4 less than it would have with a 31 IV in Attack (181).

Example:

Let’s say my friend Xavier Liao (finally) just made himself an amazing EV spread for Heatran and wanted to show it off to see what I thought of it. He was a lucky man and managed to soft reset for a Heatran with 31 IVs in everything but Attack and with a Modest Nature. finally says his EV spread of 252 HP / 32 Special Attack / 16 Special Defense / 208 Speed outspeeds Adamant Bisharp, survives 4 Sp. Atk EV Rotom-W’s Hydro Pump with enough HP to use Substitute afterwards, and has the rest in Special Attack for more firepower. Let’s see if we can get any more stat points out of finally’s EV spread.

Since all of finally’s IVs were 31, we can look at our first list.

4, 12, 20, 28, 36, 44, 52, 60, 68, 76, 84, 92, 100, 108, 116, 124, 132, 140, 148, 156, 164, 172, 180, 188, 196, 204, 212, 220, 228, 236, 244, 252

32, 16, and 208 are all not on this list. To fix this, we’ll use the number immediately below finally’s number on the list. In this case, 28, 12, and 204 are the numbers we want.

• 252 HP / 28 Special Attack / 12 Special Defense / 204 Speed

Since we took out 4 EVs from three stats, we now have 12 EVs to put somewhere else. In finally’s case, he didn’t have any specific goals with Special Attack other than additional firepower, so we can put 8 EVs there. Now we have 4 EVs left.

• 252 HP / 36 Special Attack / 12 Special Defense / 204 Speed

Since those 4 EVs would be wasted in any of the stats that already have EVs in them, we have two choices remaining: Attack or Defense. finally is only using special moves on his Heatran, so putting the extra 4 EVs into Attack would be pointless. We’ll put the extra 4 into Defense.

• 252 HP / 4 Defense / 36 Special Attack / 12 Special Defense / 204 Speed, Modest

Overall, we managed to get +1 Defense point and +1 Special Attack point. It might not seem like much, but now we have two extra stat points that you didn’t have before.

Choosing a Nature

We’ve been talking a lot about EVs, but what about Natures? Don’t worry, those are super important too. Mathematically speaking, the Nature of your Pokémon multiplies one stat by 1.1 (110%) and multiplies another stat by 0.9 (90%). For example, the Adamant Nature increases your Attack stat by 1.1, but decreases your Special Attack stat by 0.9. This makes it ideal for Pokémon like Landorus-Therian, Bisharp, or Azumarill, who won’t use their Special Attack stat and appreciate a boost to their already high Attack stats. There’s a Nature that increases and decreases every stat except for HP, and you can check out a full list of them on Bulbapedia.

Choosing a Nature is just like choosing anything else for a Pokémon – what am I trying to do with this Pokémon, and how can my Nature help accomplish that Pokémon’s goals? Here’s a few examples:

My Mega Kangaskhan has Ice Punch, and I want to take Landorus-Therian by surprise who think they’ll be able to survive a Double-Edge after Intimidate. Since I can’t outspeed Choice Scarf Landorus-T no matter what I do, I’ll settle for outspeeding a Jolly Landorus-T. After looking at the VGC ’15 Speed tiers, I know Adamant Mega Kangaskhan only reaches a 152 Speed stat, but Jolly Landorus-T reaches a 157 Speed stat. Because of this, we choose the Jolly Nature, which increases Speed but lowers Special Attack. Our Mega Kangaskhan only has physical moves, so it doesn’t mind a drop in Special Attack.

I plan on getting my Mega Camerupt in under Trick Room and dealing as much damage as possible as quickly as I can. In this case, I choose the Quiet Nature. This is actually rather clever. Since we’re using Trick Room, where the slowest Pokémon moves first, the lowering of Speed actually makes Mega Camerupt faster. The Quiet Nature has also boosted Mega Camerupt’s Special Attack as well, and now its Heat Wave is even more dangerous. This trick doesn’t just work on Mega Camerupt, though. Cresselia, Conkeldurr, Mega Mawile, Amoonguss, and others enjoy the drop in Speed that Natures like Brave and Sassy provide if you plan on bringing them in under Trick Room.

I’m using an Infernape with a Focus Sash, and I decided I don’t want to use Flare Blitz on it. After all, any time I use Flare Blitz, I take recoil damage, making my Focus Sash useless. Instead of using Iron Fist with Fire Punch though, I notice that even with no Special Attack EVs, Overheat does more damage to Mega Mawile than Fire Punch. In fact, Fire Punch can’t get an OHKO while Overheat can. Since I still want the physical move Close Combat to OHKO Mega Kangaskhan and Tyranitar, I’ll choose a Nature that doesn’t lower either Attack or Special Attack. I also want a Nature that raises Speed to be able to outspeed Jolly Mega Kangaskhan, so Infernape can smash it with Close Combat. This leaves us with two choices: Hasty, which raises Speed but lowers Defense, or Naive, which raises Speed but lowers Special Defense. We’re holding a Focus Sash on Infernape, so we survive any attack that would knock it out in one hit. To figure out which Nature to use, look at your team and determine what physical or special attacks might come Infernape’s way, especially attacks that Infernape resists type-wise. Then, experiment with and without Hasty / Naive against those attacks in the damage calculator, and see if adding the Nature makes a 2HKO more likely to occur than a 3HKO.

Boosting the Highest Base Stat

Usually with Natures, you’re going to want to boost your highest base stat. This makes sense mathematically, because 110% of a bigger number will be larger than 110% of a smaller number. However, while you might get more stat points overall by doing this, sometimes it’s better to use a different Nature. How do you know when?

1. Your Pokémon can’t hit a certain Speed stat without using a Speed-raising Nature.
2. Your Pokémon can’t hit a particular defensive or offensive stat without a boosting Nature.

These two points might sound the same, but the first exception shows up a lot more often than the second. After all, we used Speed-boosting Natures in two of the examples above. Knowing how fast and slow your Pokémon are is incredibly important knowledge to have during battle.

Example:

finally is back with an EV spread for his Choice Scarf Landorus-Therian. With an EV spread of 124 HP / 252 Attack / 132 Speed and a Jolly Nature, Landorus-T outspeeds max Speed Choice Scarf Smeargle, which means it also outspeeds Timid Mega Manectric. finally then placed 252 EVs in Attack to deal as much damage as possible, and had enough EVs left for HP to survive some random non-STAB Ice Beam and Hidden Power Ice thrown its way.

However, finally forgot that Landorus-T’s base Attack is much higher than its base Speed. Don’t be fooled just because his Landorus-T is holding a Choice Scarf and is super fast – it doesn’t need a Jolly Nature here.

The quickest way to see if you can get more stat points by switching your Nature is by writing down how many EVs it takes to reach your desired stat points with both Natures. finally’s Landorus-T has a 197 Attack stat and a 140 Speed stat (Smeargle reaches a 139 Speed stat, so if both are holding Choice Scarves, Landorus-T would be faster). Let’s see how many EVs it takes to reach those stats with both a Jolly and an Adamant Nature.

• Jolly Nature: 252 Attack EVs, 132 Speed EVs. Total EVs: 384 EVs
• Adamant Nature: 116 Attack EVs, 228 Speed EVs. Total EVs: 344 EVs

Switching to an Adamant Nature not only gave Landorus-T the same stat points as before, but there’s now 40 extra EVs to place somewhere else. It also just so happens that putting the rest of the EVs in HP allows you to survive a Rotom-W’s 0 Sp. Atk EV Hydro Pump 15/16 of the time. Our final EV spread is this:

164 HP / 116 Attack / 228 Speed, Adamant Nature

Overall, we managed to get +5 HP and +1 Attack, but we could have placed those extra 5 stat points anywhere we wanted. Switching Natures is often times the best way to get extra stat points.

Conclusion

This is the core of creating every specialized EV spread possible, and I hope you’ll be able to create some of your own specialized EV spreads to get an advantage in battle. However, this isn’t everything. Keep your eyes peeled for part three, where you can find a ton of specific tricks and shortcuts to really squeeze out every stat point from the EV spreads you create.

I’d like to give special shoutouts to some fantastic people who helped with the creation of parts one and two of this series.

• Ansel Blume (Stats). After we first started talking post-Worlds 2013, we made so many personal advancements with EV spread creation that it was crazy. For this series in particular, Stats put up with me bombarding him with example ideas and offered some fantastic examples himself.
• Cory. Unique to this list because I can actually go over to his house if I want help with something, Cory was extremely instrumental in teaching me how to use video and audio editing programs for the YouTube video. Without his help, I probably would have been done with the video in about March. He’s more of an overall gamer than a Pokémon nerd like myself, so if you’d like to watch some good Let’s Plays or check out his skills on Guitar Hero, check out his YouTube channel.
• Ashley Haramaki (Cometkins), for creating the stunning article artwork. I continue to be impressed by the amazing work she can create.
• Tommy Yee (tlyee61), for reminding me to mention gamut’s damage calculator and helping develop the series’ name.
• Xavier Liao (finally), for giving me permission to use him as an example in the article.

The post AchiEVing Perfection: Creating Specialized EV Spreads, Part Two appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

This article was a collaboration between Chris Semp (pookar) who did the Virginia, Missouri, and SoCal sections and Chalkey Horenstein (Chalkey) who put together the Oregon section.

The first set of regionals for the 2015 format have arrived. What some can consider a modernized 2013 format, we might find some players that had great success in the 2014 format have to adapt to this vastly different format. With Mega Pokémon involved and the removal of Gems being the main differences between the 2013 and 2015 formats it will be exciting to see what new strategies veterans and new players alike attempt to pull out this weekend. Lets see who some of these players are who are going to be crafting these strategies and who has the best chances of winning!

Virginia Regional

Difficulty Rating:

/ 5
Location: Exhibition Hall at Meadow Event Park, 13111 Dawn Boulevard Doswell, VA 23047

Registration Time: 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM

Last Year’s Winner: Ray Rizzo (Ray)

This year’s Virginia Winter Regional is being hosted at the same venue as in 2014 at Meadow Event Park. It will be a particularly interesting Regional because local YouTube Superstar Aaron Zheng (Cybertron), who has been on a hot streak of late, has decided to take his talents to… St. Louis? Notable other absent regional players include Aaron Traylor (Unreality), Enosh Shachar (Human), Jeudy Azzarelli (SoulSur), Patrick Donegan (Pd0nz) and Edward Fan (iss). It also seems like you can roll a twenty sided die to figure out whether former 2013 Virginia champion Ben Rothman (Nightblade7000) is attending an event or not.

The Usual Suspects

Even without Aaron, Virginia Regional attendees have their work cut out for them. We are going to get this preview going strong with last year’s champion, Ray Rizzo (Ray). Ray has not attended any events yet this year, but he also had not attended any other events at this point last year when he won Virginia Regionals either. Ray is always a threat to flip the switch and dominate the competition. Wolfe Glick (Wolfey) was just kicked out of the Top 8 by Spurrific over the weekend, but looks to pull back into the Top 8 with a strong finish in Virginia. New to east coast Regionals but definitely a familiar face, Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom) sits just ahead of Wolfe in CP with 288 and he looks to continue his success after his third place finish at the 2014 World Championship with his third Regional attempt. Just outside the Worlds trip Top 8 CP boundary is VGC’s favorite “villain”, Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario). Ashton’s unconventional Pokémon have him maxed out on Premier Challenge CP which means that he can only increase his CP total with Regional finishes. He has a Top 128 finish and a pending finish allotted, so he has time to break into the Top 8. Toler Webb (Dim) is another east coast regular and 2014 Worlds competitor in attendance. Toler was able to get sixth place in the grueling 243 person Top 8 cut at the Ft. Wayne Regional in the fall and looks to get another Top Cut under his belt in the first Regional in 2015. Rounding off the list of 2014 Worlds competitors in attendance are Ben Hickey (darkpenguin67) with 166 CP and Michael Lanzano (JiveTime), who also cut the Apex tournament and is no stranger to east coast Regional Top Cuts.

Veteran Presence

There are plenty of players left who have been in the game for a while with past results. Matt Coyle (PrettyLittleLiar) with two Worlds invites in his repertoire comes to mind immediately. Matt made it into Virginia’s Top Cut in 2014, currently has 78 CP for this year, and always has the potential to go far in an event. Trista Medine (ryuzaki) has been to a load of events this year and with her consistent results has earned 160 CP so far and looks to compound that with another strong Regional finish. Simon Yip (Simon) is another east coast regular who has put in work at his Premier Challenges with 174 CP. His friend, Chuppa Cross IV (chuppa), has not had the same Premier Challenge fortune (68 CP), but remains a threat nonetheless. Caleb Ryor (BlitznBurst) has also been cleaning up nicely in the Connecticut Premier Challenges with 152 CP and along with Chuppa and Trista, managed to Top Cut the Massachusetts Regional in 2014. Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka) usually finds himself playing on Saturday at the Trading Card Game but will be playing VGC this time around with his 152 CP from Premier Challenges. Oliver Valenti (Smith) is a solid member of the Boiler Room group who rounds this section of experienced players out.

Young Bloods

It is surprising to wait this long to mention the 2015 leader in CP at this date, but I will start this section off with David Mancuso (Mancuso). After playing through 2014 as a relatively unknown in the overall picture, he exploded with a Regional victory and Top 4 finish in the fall and still has not maxed his Premier Challenge CP yet. David’s situation is very beneficial as he does not have to even cut to have a successful Regional with his two strong finishes unlikely to be matched by most players. Still, look for David to keep up his hard work in this Regional. Another up-and-comer to look out for in Virginia is Nick Borghi (LightCore). A first year Master, Nick was able to top cut the Philadelphia Regional in the fall in addition to a Premier Challenge win. At 178 CP, Nick is on the cusp of the Top 40 Worlds invite. Another first year Master, Paul Chua (pwny person) has been dominating the Battle Spot Doubles ladder in OR/AS. Paul finished second in Seniors at Virginia last year as well. With a Top 8 finish at Philadelphia he has 112 CP so far and definitely has the potential to repeat that performance in Virginia. Alec Rubin (amr97) made a splash last year at US Nationals, finishing 19th overall, and currently sits at 19th in CP for NA. With 224 CP, Alec looks to improve on his two Top 64 finishes this year going into Spring. Tommy Cooleen (Tman) has only attended Premier Challenges this year, but in 2014 he was an absolute monster in Swiss during Regionals and it would be no shocker for him to dominate in Swiss again (118 CP).

Bonus: Premiere Challenge Heroes

I am including this section to go just one step further in the preview process. These are just some players who have put in great PC results but have little or no Regionals experience. It will be exciting to see if these players can translate their success on the next level.

1. Daniel Stein (BlazikenBurner): 134 CP
2. Amelia Zoldy (VioletPumpkin): 160 CP
3. Stephen Brown III (pyromaniac720): 182 CP
4. Daniel Litvin (TalkingLion): 144 CP – Cut Virginia last year
5. Matthew Terriberry (Crazysnorlax): 126 CP – Cut Massachusets last year
6. Jonathan Evans (Ezrael): 78 CP – Top 32 at Philadelphia in 2014
7. Justin Rodrigues (Serapis): 202 CP
8. Arbin Jun Tumaneng (Cypher): 20 CP – Not much CP this year, but former Apex 2014 champion looks for his first top finish

Smart Money: I am gonna have to go with Wolfe for this one… Wolfe always impresses at Regionals and if he takes this the least bit seriously I can see him easing through Swiss into the best-of-three Top Cut where he is such a dominant player. With the metagame still being established with Battle Spot Doubles, Premiere Challenges, and Apex, it will be exciting to see what these players pull out for the first regional of the 2015 format.

St. Louis Regional

Difficulty Rating:

/5

Location: Definitely not St. Louis: St.Charles Convention Center, 1 Convention Center Plaza, St Charles, MO 63303

Registration Time: Saturday: Check In: 9:30-10:30 am. All Players.

Last Year’s Winner: Matthew Carter (mattj)

The folks over at TPCi have decided to officially stream their first Regional, and they have chosen St. Louis! Just when Scott thought he escaped the midwest, he makes his return with Evan to commentate this two-day Regional. VGC coverage will be from 2:30pm to 6pm CST on Saturday and 10am to 1pm CST on Sunday on the official Twitch channel, with additional rebroadcasts on Monday and Tuesday. Be sure to tune in if you do not have the chance to attend a Regional this weekend!

Aaron Zheng (Cybertron) leads off this preview coming off of a recent grassroots victory at Apex 2015 in New Jersey and comes into St. Louis with 320 CP, which puts him at third in North America. Aaron still has a third Regional to fill, plus a few PCs to improve on, but he is looking really good so far this year. Greg Johnson (bgt) joins Aaron in players qualified for a Worlds trip at this point in the season with a near perfect PC record and three Regional finishes of Top 32, Top 64, and Top 64. Greg looks to replace one of the Top 64 finishes with something much better at St. Louis. The third player who just recently snuck into the Top 8 in NA CP with two PC wins over the weekend (Where were you, Zubat?), Justin Burns (Spurrific) looks to add on to his Top 8 Texas Regional finish.

Andy Himes (Amarillo) sits just outside Top 8 at twelfth with 248 CP and it will be interesting to see if he continues to bring the Smeargle that he used throughout 2014 into this 2015 Regional. Jake Muller (majorbowman) is right behind Andy at fourteenth place with 232 CP and looks to improve on his two Top 32 finishes. Hopefully the NB Major PMs do not get to his head. Thomas McCready (Tmac) is just two CP behind Jake at 230 CP and finished fourth at the Ft. Wayne fall Regional. Just behind Thomas is Kamaal Harris (Kamaal) with 226 CP. A veteran of the VGC scene, Kamaal had a less-than-Kamaal 2014 season, but made Worlds in 2013 and with a similar metagame style I expect him to be more comfortable in 2015.

Last year’s winner of St. Louis, Matthew Carter (mattj) enters the competition with no CP for 2015 but cannot be underestimated after taking home the crown last year. Former 2013 Regional god Zach Droegkamp (Braverius) returns to the Midwest with 212 CP in 2015 and looks to get back into the top Regional form that we know he is capable of. Another strong competitor, Keegan Beljanski (Darkeness) currently has 204 CP and managed to go undefeated in Swiss last year at St. Louis, so watch out! Jonathan McMillan (MrEobo) is tied with Keegan in CP and looks to represent Team Michigan and Team Fabulous with the absence of Scott as a competitor at St. Louis. Greyson Garren (Greysong) finished Top 4 last year at St. Louis and got second place at Kansas, too, so expect a strong performance here. Andrew Burley (Andykins) is sitting cozy just inside the Top 40 Worlds range with 192 CP after a Top 8 finish at Fort Wayne and a Top 16 finish at Philadelphia. He also finished ninth at Apex 2015. Jonathan Rankin (JRank) is a Midwest/South regular and made the Top Cut last year in St. Louis and just barely missed a Worlds invite last year (along with Wesley, Stephen, Greysong, and Zach). Just outside the Top 40 is Evan Deligiannis (nave) with a Top 16 finish and 182 CP. Jon Hu (Jhufself) has not done much since his Top 4 at US Nationals 2014 but his creativity is definitely something to look out for.

Hopefully the Morioka trio will be in attendance, too. As I just noted, both Wesley and Stephen narrowly missed Worlds invites last year. What is interesting is that Mama Morioka leads all Moriokas in 2015 CP, beating Stephen 116-114. Other Midwest veterans include 2014 Worlds competitor Tiffany Stanley (Shiloh) who currently sits at 76 CP, Clayton Lusk (Zubat) whose affection for horses does not match his skill at Pokémon, Nico Villalobos (CalmLava), who always manages some solid finishes, and Aaron Grubbs (LPFan).

Bonus: Premiere Challenge Heroes

I am not as familiar with the Midwest area so I am sure a few names will be left off here, but these are some standout names I noticed at a glance:

1. Cody Bernheisel (CodeUmbreon) 192 CP
2. Matthew Peroutka 196 CP
3. Michael Hall 192 CP
4. Kyle Epperson 176 CP
5. Aaron Traylor (Unreality) 162 CP – Look for this Young Buck to get out of his difficult region and into the Midwest and prove himself to the circuit.

Smart Money: Gotta be CT Aaron “Cybertron” Zheng. Cliches aside, he’s on a definite hot streak and is definitely putting the work in lately to make winning events seem easy. Winter Regionals, being the first of the format, are often dice rolls but it would take a lot to outplay or outwork Aaron this early.

Portland, Oregon

Difficulty

(Four Mega Salamence who fled here from states that are having more terrifying winters/5)

Last Year’s Winner: Alex Stempe (Stempe)

Portland, much like St. Louis, had a reputation a few years ago of being a somewhat easier regional compared to others, which overtime has attracted more and more of the affluent players who want easier Championship Points and can make the trip. While I in no way intend to diminish the competition of California and Virginia, this one is no longer a free ride to the top, and frankly wasn’t even that easy to begin with. While the challenge of wading through considerably larger crowds of competition is more apparent in those states, the challenge here comes from having very little room to avoid the big threats that are coming.

I definitely have to give the first mention on the threat list to Alex Stempe (Stempe), who won last year and is very much a contender. Hailing from California, he’ll be making the long commute up here just like last year. During the previous Oregon Regional, Alex made use of Goodra, who at that point in the metagame was considered a very odd choice – and while Goodra got both spots of Oregon’s finals last year and got a handful of other notices, it was still typically overlooked. Expect someone as smart and creative as Alex to pull some interesting choices.

On the more local-ish side, Randy Kwa (R Inanimate) from British Columbia is a nearby opponent who qualified for Worlds last year. Randy is especially noteworthy because he breaks the mold – both in terms of the painfully obvious pun on his overuse of Excadrill and in terms of the fact that he ran basically the same team at four events last year and still did very well in all of them, despite numerous articles on Nugget Bridge explaining how the team works. In short, this is a man that cannot be stopped by team scouting; he’s experienced, and can read players very well. Also, if you play Randy, try not to be too intimidated by his highly probable “BP Earned: 20,000 BP” footnote that you’ll see during idle screens of the battle.

Speaking of British Columbia star players, it is reasonable to assume we’ll see Jason Wynja (Arti) and Tony Cheung (Chinese Dood), who both made top 8 at this tournament last year, and April Hooge (Phenac), who is entering her second year in the Masters Division. April’s first year in Masters kicked off with a 5th place in NorCal Regionals, an already difficult tournament. Considering this is the closest regional British Columbia is going to get this month, if these trainers show up anywhere, it will be here.

Hajime Uesegi (Aravalent) made top cut last year, beating Sam Haarsma (DrFidget) in the eighth and final round of swiss. Both players are both strong players and reliably consistent. Sam has been a little more active this year, having won a handful of Premiere Challenges, and also has a history of doing well at Winter Regionals, getting a top 4 finish in Florida in VGC ’13, despite using an un-EV trained Beartic. Expect him to top cut this year – unless Hajime comes out of nowhere and blocks him again. Coming in 9th at this regional last year was Gabby Snyder (JTK), who has only gotten better in the last year, having gotten 5th place out of 208 at Houston Regionals this past fall.

Leading the troops coming here from the East Coast will be Patrick Donegan (Pdonz), who top cut in Philadelphia Regionals this past fall and has been bubbling near or in the top 40 all season. Patrick hails from New York, a state with some of the hardest Premiere Challenges in the country – and those Premiere Challenges have honed his skills far more than those who have been sniping easy Championship Points in competitively quiet areas. It’s really tempting for a lazy player to analyze an opponent solely on their ranking on the ladder, but considering where Patrick has been training I would not underestimate him.

The big question, of course, is who from Oregon’s top cut last year will be returning. Also on the list of players from last year’s top eight include our National Champion, Alex Ogloza (Evan Falco), Michael Hutchinson, and Sean Webb. It should be no stretch of reason to assume Alex Ogloza has potential to be a huge threat as both a Worlds qualifier and National Champion, though he has been suspiciously quiet this season so far as far as attendance goes. Nonetheless, we can’t overlook the fact that he won the very first three day National Championship for VGC. That’s all sorts of time for people to figure out his team and style – and to win enough games in a row to pull this off in spite of that means a consistency that can’t be forgotten from a little time off.

Premiere Challenge Heroes coming to this regional:

1. Hayden McTavish (Enigne)- 222
2. Conan Thompson (conan) – 212
3. John Steffen (Legend X) – 200
4. Patrick Donegan (Pdonz) – 170
5. Max Douglas (starmetroid) – 166
6. Jason Wynja (Arti) – 146
7. Demitrios Kaguras – 146
8. Rushan Shekar (Firestorm) – 144

The Smart Money Is On: This is going to be an interesting regional; players like Sam Haarsma and Alex Stempe are known for their unique teams that catch people off guard, and players like Randy Kwa and Alex Ogloza are known for their ability to have their whole team apparent to the opposition and still doing well through experience and strong predictions. When you’ve got players known for their tricks and players known for their ability to read others, it’s hard to say either is a real advantage. Right now Sam and Patrick Donegan are probably the ones trying the hardest right now – that we know of. Their Premiere Challenge attendance and successes there are a good indicator of what will happen, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a regional where it was as simple as looking at the numbers. If you want to base this solely on who has been training hard this year and regularly attending and doing well, Sam and Patrick are the easy picks four top four or better. But I would not be surprised at all if Randy, Alex Stempe, and Alex Ogloza are preparing a ton of tricks that we don’t know just yet.

Southern California Regional

Difficulty Rating

/ 5
Location: Pioneer Event Center 45000 Valley Central Way Lancaster, CA 93536

Registration Time: Check-in 9:00 AM Saturday Feb 14th

Last Year’s Winner: Omari Travis (BadIntent)

After last years record breaking attendance for a modern regional, resulting in two flights and a top 32 cut, the SoCal regional moves to Lancaster to be better prepared for similar attendance numbers. Last year there were about 475 masters and 800+ participants across all divisions and it will be interesting to see if those numbers can be eclipsed this time around.

Veteran Leadership

SoCal regionals is full of veterans of the VGC scene, as well as young up and comers. Last year’s winner, Omari Travis (BadIntent) has been playing forever and made Worlds last year and even brought Mega Garchomp when he did. Omari does not stray too far from the norm in Pokemon choice, but almost always has some surprising but effective moveset choices. He was able to get Top 8 at Houston in the fall bringing the Mega Garchomp back, but I do not expect to see it come back a third time from Omari. Huy Ha (Huy) is another one of the oldest members of the community and one of the founders of Nugget Bridge. He has been pretty quiet so far this year, only collecting a few CP from a Premiere Challenge, but Huy is one of those players who could always go on a run, as we saw at US Nationals in 2014. Huy’s brother Duy Ha (Duy) will be in attendance, but not playing, choosing to hone his skills at the caster desk instead. Does Rushan lead all Nugget Bridge founders in CP or what? Paul Hornak (Makiri) has attended a whopping zero events this year but did finish third at last year’s SoCal regional in Long Beach and never holds back when he does attend. Thomas Mifflin (PBB) is another name to add to this long standing list of veterans. He was able to win the NorCal regional in 2013, and finished third at the Seattle regional in 2014. If he is attending then he is definitely a strong player to look out for. And finally, Len Deuel (Alaka) is considerably younger than most of these guys but is just as experienced. He has a bunch of CP from Premiere Challenges and finished Top 32 at Phoenix back in the Fall.

William Hall (Biosci) had a short stint on the east coast last year, but is back on the west coast in 2015 and has two top 64 regional finishes under his belt so far for 166 CP. Look for him to improve on these finishes at SoCal in preparation for the Spring regionals. Gavin Michaels (kingofmars) is definitely one of the most consistently strong players on the west coast. Do not let his 132 CP deceive you, as he got Top 4 at Phoenix in the Fall and only has two PCs to his name. Gavin joins Omari as the two players who made Worlds in 2014 at this regional, and also the two players who met in finals at SoCal last year, too. Kamran Jahadi (Kamz) has two very strong regional finishes for him in the fall, getting second at San Jose and eighth at Phoenix. Riley Factura (gengarboi) has been collecting a lot of CP from premiere challenges and has 232 CP overall including a top 16 finish in the fall. Shreyas Canchi Radhakrishna (Shreyas) was able to take home the victory in San Jose in the fall, so we look for a follow up performance, this time in SoCal. San Jose was his only event this year so it is extra important for him to have another good performance.

Brotherly Love

There are actually two pairs of brothers that we are looking out for attending this event. Anthony Jimenez (DarkAssassin) was the winner of last year’s Nugget Bridge Major and has 144 CP this season from Premiere Challenges. His brother, Alejandro Jimenez (Legacy) is beating him in CP this year with 150 CP, partly due to his Top 64 regional finish in the fall. Our second set of brothers are the Lybbert duo. They have put in a ton of work this year and are both in the top 8 in CP going into this regional. Chase Lybbert (I’m A Rookie) won Phoenix in the fall and has five PC wins, plus a top 64 finish in San Jose. Colten Lybbert (Rookie Slayer MLG) has been a bit more consistent than his brother and sits at 282 CP. He has two Top 8 regional finishes and one PC win. Look out for these two pairs of brothers at this regional as they have shown they can perform at a regional level.

Rest of the Pack

Alec Wild (PM649) does not have any CP this year, but had a strong showing in NPA and definitely would not surprise me with a strong finish this weekend. Kimo Nishamura (TFC) has gotten much more active lately and has 106 CP this season with a Top 8 finish in San Jose. Daniel Cardenas (KermittheFrog14) was able to grab a Top 4 finish at San Jose in the fall and with a few good PC finishes has 186 CP, good for 40th in NA and is the cutoff for the Worlds invite. Alberto Lara had some solid finishes last season and has 30 CP this year from his top 32 finish at San Jose. Sam Johnson (RastaCharmander) has 170 CP this season and was notorious for his scarf Breloom in 2013 so it will be interesting if it makes a return. Tracy McLaughlin (Mack) is one of the few active Pokemon streamers and has 196 CP season including a strong Top 16 finish in the Fall. Hopefully he makes the trip over to this event for some more CP. Erik Holmstrom (Cyrus) has been quiet this season with only 20 CP but finished 2014 with 252 CP good for 28th overall, so we can hope he tries to get back to that level with the increased number of invites.

Smart Money: I’m going to have to with Gavin Michaels (kingofmars) for this regional. As I mentioned earlier, he is one of the most consistent players in the region and that sort of experience is key in an early regional like this.

The post VGC 2015 North American Winter Regionals Preview appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hi guys! Hashegi is here, again. So, as we all know, Pokémon Trainers around the world are competing in the newly-added Premier Challenges. Today, I’d like to happily share with you stories and pictures of the first ever Premier Challenge in Indonesia.

To have a sanctioned VGC event is a great milestone for competitive Pokémon in Indonesia.  In attendance were 104 Masters, 12 Seniors, and 1 Junior! To top it off, the Top 4 from the tournament also were rewarded the position for representing Indonesia in the 2015 Asia Cup that will be a competition between players from Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, with Korea and Japan joining the tournament in the final stages, which will be held from February till April via WiFi. Go on and check Asia Cup 2015!

This event was held in fX Lifestyle X’nter, a mall in South Jakarta, with player registration starting at 10, but the preparation for the event started the day before players arrived. Some of the event staff also stayed at the venue all night and didn’t go home until the morning, and then came back two hours before the event started.

Funnily enough, there was no backdrop during the event because our sponsors decided not to print one at the last minute… but there was always a plan B! If you recall the hanging poster from the Tozka Alkafest Tournament, we actually hung up the dropping banner onto the backdrop stage, and voila! A backdrop poster!  It was an event I would never forget; the crowd, the hype, the enthusiasm was greatly appreciated.

Registration for players began at 10am, and many newcomers had shown up to participate in the tournament. Registration went smoothly, the rules were explained shortly afterwards, and then we immediately jumped into the competition. By the time we started the competition, people who weren’t playing also making circle around the floor to watch their friends and family members battle. Some passers-by even stopped to watch the action, which was a great way to advertise competitive Pokémon events to the public.

Trainers from many different provinces showed up to the event, which really shows how much the player base is expanding in our region. For example, people who came from Bandung, West Java, had left their city at 5:30am to make it to the event on time. I do really appreciate that, and I hope their city will also be able to organize their own Premier Challenge soon.

Teams

The metagame here has changed over the past couple months. For example, many top players now use Mega Kangaskhan, but other skilled players in the Top 8 could be seen using anti-metagame teams. Unfortunately, the tournament usage stats with every used Pokémon were accidentally misplaced, but nevertheless, here are the teams for players who made it to the Top 8:

(1st Place) Josua Marbun

(2nd Place) Adhitya

(3rd Place) Ama Bon

(4th Place) Aya Bon

(5th Place) Icun Prayitno

(6th Place) Ditto Amalsyah

(7th Place) Josha Lawrel

(8th Place) Ronan Ramadhan

Honorable Mentions

• 3rd and 4th place were taken by the  “strongest brothers” in Indonesia! Congratulations Bon Brothers!
• Ryan, who didn’t reach the Top Cut after misclicking Ice Beam instead of Energy Ball.
• Michael Tamara, who’s team is countered by Charizard and met them 4x in a row.
• My mom who actually let me organize this tournament even though the next day I had  finals. (It sucked.)
• James Tamara, the youngest player in the tournament.
• The winner, Josua Marbun, traveling all the way from Bandung, another province.
• Aya Bon, who let me borrow his webcam to stream the videos! #nocapturecardisfine
• Trainers from Bandung who came all the way to Jakarta together.

Shout Outs

• Michael Pond Wijaya as the Tournament Organizer!
• Bima Amalsyah for helping with this report and all the statistics!
• Congratulations again to Josua Marbun for winning the tournament!
• All the trainers who came from other provinces!
• Chalkey who helped me with editing and formatting to make this report more awesome! Of course, thanks to all the other editors who edited my articles!
• Adrian Adi, who was originally a TCG Professor but came to help. No one in Indonesia can handle TOM as fast as he can.
• All of the event staff, including staff from the pkmn-id community! We couldn’t do this without you guys!
• Cashernn Olstore, Duniaku.net and PSenterprise for supporting the tournament!
• Countless other trainers who helped with the tournament. I can’t name them all!
• Thanks to every trainer who participated in the event. See you at the next one!
• And finally, thanks to all you who are still reading this post!

For those in our area, our upcoming Premier Challenge Omega Series 1 will be held inside a Japanese Matsuri of one of the notable universities in Indonesia. We hope to make provide a stream this time. Keep track of our updates, and Get Your Game ON!

The post Indonesia’s First Premier Challenge appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Location: Park Inn by Radisson, 3011 Maingate Lane Kissimmee, Florida 34747
Registration: Masters: 8:00-9:00am, Juniors and Seniors 9:00-10:00am
Last Year’s Winner: Zach Droegkamp (Zach)

Difficulty:

/5

(A genie, an electric street rat, an evil genie, a Raja, and a Mega Jasmine out of five, because if you’re not doing Disney World while you’re at Florida Regionals you’re doing it wrong.)

For the second year in a row, Florida the only Winter Regional for its particular weekend. This means that, while many of the players will be from the Florida area, this one could potentially get players from anywhere. Between all the people that haven’t had a Winter Regional yet and all the people wanting that second chance, expect a huge turnout; last year we had 351 in the Masters Division, if that’s any indication of what is to come.

Our returning champion for this regional will be Zach Drogenkamp Drogkamp DrKamz Droegkamp (Braverius). Zach brings a very analytical side to the game, known for his love of spreadsheets and whiteboards to break the game down – and this hard work pays off, considering he’s probably won more Regional Championships than anyone at this point. Not to mention he scored a 2nd place finish in St. Louis this past set of Winter Regionals just two weeks ago. Having played him before, I can personally say the only thing more difficult than beating him is spelling his last name.

Among the other players that top cut last year and plan on returning include Devon Ingram (dingram) and Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario). While Devon has been quiet this season, Ashton has been tearing up the Premiere Challenge world, having accomplished the feat of five first place finishes. Sitting comfortably at 21st in the Championship Points rankings, all he needs is another strong Regional finish to wrap things up – and considering how well he did last year, I am interested to see how he will fare this year.

Given that Florida is, for the second year in a row, a regional after all the other ones for that segment of the VGC cycle, we can also infer a lot of predictions based on who scored well in Winter Regionals so far. Wolfe Glick is high on the list here, considering he’s 6th in Championship Points rankings, including but not limited to a 2nd place and a top 8 for Regional finishes so far. For those who have been living under a rock, he’s also been National Champion twice in a row and he’s played in worlds for 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. Not many people have a higher track record than that, so you can expect some strong finishes this weekend from Wolfe.

On the note of other players who top cut two weeks ago, Cameron Swan (DrizzleBoy) entered top cut at 15th place in Virginia, Jake Muller (majorbowman) got 9th in St. Louis, and Ben Hickey (Darkpenguin67) got 9th in Virginia. Others who did not make cut but still are reasonable threats for this tournament include Patrick Donegan (Pd0nZ), Gabby Snyder (JTK), Daniel Stein (BlazikenBurner), and Tommy Cooleen (Tman). All of these players have been doing pretty well this season, and we can expect all of them to get some sort of CP from this event.

I should also mention that one infamous team The Boiler Room, specifically Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom) and Logan Castro (Yellowbox). Both of these players have played at the World Championships last year, and have considerable experience by this point in their Pokemon careers. Collin got 5th in Virginia two weeks ago, and Logan got top four at Nationals last year, demonstrating their ability to win consistently and stand out in high pressure tournaments. These players, when not updating their team’s personal website, are always training – and given how pathetically seldom they write an article, they have probably been training a lot. David Mancuso (Mancuso) is also part of this group, and will be attending as well. This guy needs no introduction, but for those living under a rock the last fall: he is currently first in Championship Points for North America, having won a regional and reached semis of another, with a handful of successful Premiere Challenges as well. Expect a strong finish from each of these three gentleman.

Last but certainly not least, I’d also watch out for Tom Hull (TheGr8), Garrett Cresenzi (araluen7), Jeremy Rodrigues (serapis), and Nicolas Borghi (LightCore) – all of whom, while not as visible from this most recent past set of regionals, have all proven themselves at some point or another in this community. Speaking of people who have been lurking in the shadows lately, Ray Rizzo (does he have a username besides bluecookies anymore?) will also be attending, if rumors are correct. While Ray is currently 568th in Championship Point Rankings, his reputation tells us this is more a result of him focusing on his job or something than any real fall from grace. As a three time World Champion, someone who won two regionals last year, and someone who has played in worlds for 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014, Ray is someone you can never really assume is over the hill. That kind of experience never really goes away, and I have no doubt he’ll do well if he chooses to do so.

The Smart Money Is On: Wolfe Glick looks the best on paper, followed by Zach Droegkamp, then Logan Castro. This is gonna be a big crowd, and these three have great track records for high pressure and consistent win records. Not only that, but these three have demonstrated highly active seasons thus far, benefiting both from past experience and knowledge of the here and now.

The post VGC 2015 North American Winter Regionals Preview, Part II: Florida appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

#10 Doduo

Doduo is barely a bird, but because of that fact it sneaks in at #10.

#9 Farfetch’d

The only Pokémon that was eaten to extinction, it has been theorized Mewtwo was actually a test run to clone Farfetch’d.

#8 Honchkrow

Tips fedora. Nothing else needs to be said, m’lady.

#7 Mega Pidgeot

Becoming a Mega rocketed Pidgeot to super stardom, will likely win Worlds this year.

#6 Articuno

The leader of the Legendary birds, it had to be on this list.

#5 Chatot

Chatot was banned from VGC, enough to put it here.

#4 Birdramon

Made a huge impact on VGC with priority Brave Birds, feared and loved by everyone.

#3 Tranquill

I don’t know what it is, but Tranquill is a cool Pokémon overall.

#2 Sigilyph

You might not say this is a bird, up to me though.

#1 Lugia

Not only the best bird Pokémon but the best Legendary, just don’t touch its pizza.

The post Top 10 Bird Pokémon. #5 Will Shock You! appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

The last round of Swiss for the Nugget Bridge Major is here! After nine long weeks we will put a close to the first stage of the largest online Pokemon tournament ever. I would like to personally thank every participant who joined and followed all of the rules to help make this a smooth tournament. For most of you this will be your last round. I hope you received valuable experience through playing in this tournament and that it translates to success in TPCi’s Video Game Championships. For some players this is your most important round as only players who finish with a record of 7-2 or better will advance to the Top Cut. I wish you all the best of luck in making it. Finally to the rest of you who have already secured Top Cut, there are still byes and seeding at stake for you so don’t hold back!

A final thanks to all the flight leaders in this tournament. Without them there is no way this tournament could have been successful. If you ever see these people at a tournament give them your thanks. They put countless hours into this tournament, enduring headaches that are hard to imagine to make sure this tournament runs as smoothly as possible.

Thank you everyone.

As a reminder here is the bracket. Please read the kick off post for instructions on reporting your score and messaging your opponent.

Flight Leaders are an important part of this tournament, make sure you are using them properly. Please do not spam them with requests and private messages. They are busy people and they will eventually be able to help you. In case you may have forgotten these are your Flight Leaders (they have not changed):

• Flight A: Wyrms Eye + feathers
• Flight B: makiri + Hibiki
• Flight C: Gonzo + Unreality
• Flight D: Braverius + majorbowman

Deadline for this round Monday, April 13th, 2015 at 11:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time.

The post Nugget Bridge Major 4 Swiss Final Round appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

As we hurdle along the road to worlds at breakneck speed with time relentlessly ticking away, our attention once again is drawn towards the next batch of European Regionals for this season. Will we continue to see the dominant usage of a few key Pokémon, or will others begin to take up the mantle? Who can we expect to see do well? Who will lead the Championship Point standings following the tournaments? Hopefully I’ll be able to divulge some insight into these questions below.

Prizes

As before, there are a lot of championship points on the line for these regional events. These points are critical for securing the coveted invite to the Pokémon World Championships in Boston later this year. Please note that supplementary prizes may be awarded for individual tournaments, and are subject to further confirmation.

• 1^st Place – 120 Championship Points
• 2^nd Place – 100 Championship Points
• 3^rd & 4^th Place – 80 Championship Points
• 5^th-8^th Place – 60 Championship Points
• 9^th-16^th Place – 40 Championship Points
• 17^th-32^nd Place – 30 Championship Points (Kicker: 64 Participants)
• 33^rd-64^th Place – 20 Championship Points (Kicker: 128 Participants)
• 65^th-128^th Place – 10 Championship Points (Kicker: 256 Participants)

The Metagame

We are now just over three months into the 2015 format, and with it the murky waters from earlier in the season are now beginning to dissipate as players get to grips with the changes in the format. However, this is still a period where the majority of individuals will be looking to refine their teams, building on ideas already in the public domain or creating the next big thing. The winter regional in Arnhem, as well as the five in the North American circuit in February underlined some interesting trends and concepts that I will be highlighting a little further down. But these tournaments primarily showcased how players’ familiarity with their own playstyles led to top results. Many established players are enjoying great success with the same Pokemon and teams that have served them well in the past. Going into these events, we can most likely expect players to begin wandering further away from the comfort zone. With more time to practice, we should begin to see more innovative strategies and more exotic Pokémon choices.

On a more general level, outside of some of the more influential individual Pokémon that I want to highlight, I do want to draw attention to a couple of teambuilding points that are worth noting. I think the first of these is how prevalent Steel types are becoming in this format. Despite a reputation as one of the best defensive types, Steel has suffered from a lack STAB utilization on Steel-type Pokemon. The initial introduction of the Steel-weak Fairy type didn’t do much to boost Steel’s usage, due to the lack of viable fairy Pokemon. This year is different for multiple reasons, and this combination of factors has led to the Steel type being a must-have on essentially every team. The expansion to the National Pokedex meant a wider pool of Fairies in the format, and many of these have seen usage. Many of the Fairies already available have been given a boost from move tutors. As a result, types that are able to defensively cope with the barrage of Fairy-type attacks have been in hot demand, with Steel being the obvious go-to.

This is the reason Fire-types are finding widespread popularity, because they resist both Fairy and Steel-type attacks. It is strange to consider that your Fire types might need to fulfill a defensive role on the team, something many players are not used to. This explains the prevalence of Heatran and Arcanine. Wide Guard also gives Fire types an advantage by allowing teams to neutralize the threat of spread damage from Rock Slide, Earthquake, and Surf, moves that are often spell trouble for Fire types. Pokemon like Aegislash and Swampert provide more options for Wide Guard support to suit a variety of teams and playstyles.

Speed control is essential in this format, usually taking the form of Tailwind or Thunder Wave. Setting up Tailwind is often Talonflame’s role, but there were some interesting users that cropped up in Arnhem regionals, including Hydreigon and Mega Charizard-Y. Being able to double your team’s speed for effectively three turns allows you to fire off attacks with slower, bulkier attackers that may otherwise be threatened by faster opponents. While Thunder Wave only affects one opposing Pokemon rather than the whole field, it doesn’t expire and provides the bonus of preventing your opponents from moving at all. Common users include Thundurus, Zapdos, and Cresselia. Icy Wind and the various derivations are another option, allowing you to deal damage while also slowing the opposing Pokemon. This for the most part is incredibly useful, as it will often bring a fast, frail attacker down into a more favorable speed bracket while also setting up a KO. However, it can carry an element of risk with Bisharp and Milotic still being fairly commonplace in the metagame.

It must be said that it is of no real surprise that Mega Kangaskhan returned with a vengeance to its place as the most popular mega at this early stage of the season. Its ability to run bulky or aggressive builds and fit onto essentially any type of team, its place in a respectable speed tier, and its access to arguably the most broken ability in the game, has been aided with move tutors offering it the ability to diversify its conventional moveset that became a staple of last year. I feel Kangaskhan was obviously a safe, reliable pick for many players early in the season. That was despite the introduction of more Pokemon able to directly threaten it. Terrakion, Landorus-T, and, to a lesser extent, Heatran, all are able to stop Kangaskhan from dominating the field. The big question is how its usage will hold up as we progress further into the season. I would still expect it to give a solid performance in both events this week, so it will be intriguing to see how players build their teams to counter it.

The other interesting feature to come out of the regional data is how much the metagame has shifted to a ‘big six’ of mega evolution options that saw general widespread use. It is fairly safe to say that those seen above, along with Mega Kangaskhan, all have inherent strengths and weaknesses which can be utilized and exploited in a variety of situations, but it’s up to each and every team to compliment them as best as possible. It is good to see that some of the new crop of mega evolutions introduced in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire have proven to be viable. Both Mega Salamence and Mega Metagross were touted to be among the best of the bunch and so far this has proven  to be true. The remaining three are old staples from last year that are still holding strong where most of the other plausible alternatives have fallen by the wayside. Mega Charizard-Y continues to maintain a steady usage track record, providing huge damage output. On the flip-side Mega Mawile has fallen from its spot as arguably the best mega in the game at the end of last year. The change in format has been quite hostile to it, with more hard counters being reintroduced into the format. Individual Pokemon such as Heatran flat out wall it. Mega Venusaur is a slightly more obscure Pokemon choice. Some of its popularity may be due to a certain YouTuber, but on the whole, it plays very differently than the other megas, taking on a much more defensive role in teams rather than an offensive role.

The tiger is definitely on the prowl once again in 2015, and it was no real surprise to anybody that Landorus-T was the second most-used Pokemon across all of the top cut teams in the six regionals that took place. I feel that a lot of its popular usage is down to its Intimidate ability being very useful against the many physical threats currently around. While the data has suggested that regionals focused more on the specially-inclined attackers, Landorus is still a Pokemon that can have a huge influence in a variety of situations.

While its usage is on the increase in a general sense, Blaziken is a remarkably good anti-metagame call, and I expect to see more of them appearing in the UK and Italy. It offers remarkably good coverage and it can tackle a vast majority of threats that are currently popular in the metagame. Not only does it have the capability to knock-out Mega Kangaskhan in one hit, but it also destroys all the Steel types in common use. It gets access to Speed Boost, an ability that can easily snowball a game if given the opportunity, and it can be run as a mega or not. Blaziken usually utilizes its massive Attack stat by running a purely physical moveset, but special and mixed variants are becoming more commonplace. I see Blaziken posing a unique threat to a majority of teams if they are not prepared for it.

Spring Regional Predictions

This weekend we have two European Regionals taking place, one held in the United Kingdom, the other in Italy. Both have strong lineups, so it is definitely going to be an exciting weekend when the dust settles and the results are known. And, being so close to the Nationals, it will provide a very clear picture of what we can expect. The standings that are given within both previews were correct as of the 9th April; subsequent Premier Challenges may have since been uploaded. I will note however that there is a heavy bias in players mentioned from the UK and Italy for their respective National event. While I endeavour to cover as broad of a spectrum of countries and players as possible, and given the wide number of messages I have sent out, most of those I could confirm attending came from the host country.

As ever, a disclaimer about these kinds of articles: Regionals are, without question, the most accessible events to players of all abilities. Very often, Regionals are typically the first level where players establish themselves. There will almost certainly be individuals who make the Top Cut in these events who have never before achieved such success. This is not a bad thing; it merely showcases the growing player base.

United Kingdom Regional

Difficulty Rating

/ 5

(Three Large Chickens that like to troll) / 5

Location: Sutton Coldfield Town Hall, Upper Clifton Road, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, B73 2AB

Registration Time: 9:00 – 10:00

The Scoop

After the rumour mill got set into overdrive post-Arnhem regarding the possibility of further Regionals this season, we were greeted to the news that the UK would be getting its chance to host a Regional event for the Video Game. It’s particularly noteworthy as both Suzie Masters and Ian Fotherington who will be hosting the event have very much been the staple organisers for most of the Premier Challenge events this season for the UK, and their dedication is definitely unquestionable. Having been to two events held in Crawley, very few I have spoken to could argue about the top quality organisation they bring, so I certainly expect that the Regional will be no different. It also goes to show, along with the Italian Regional that TPCi are moving towards more substantial events in more regions.

At the time of writing, the event is close to its maximum capacity that the venue can reasonably hold. As a result, we are pretty much guaranteed to have over 128 Masters competing, meaning that the top 64 will earn championship points. The interest in this particular event has been notable, which is very promising for future regional and national events in the UK! Half of the players who top cut in Arnhem will be in attendance at this event looking to repeat the feat here. There will be many big names present, so the standard of play is expected to be fairly good as reflected in the difficulty rating.

As we near the National leg of the European season, the CP table is starting to take shape and with the Premier Challenges continuing to offer many players the points they crave, we are starting to get an idea of the names to look out for in this season. Once more, the championship points earned here could be significant in deciding who qualifies directly into the Day 2 portion of the Worlds event, and will almost certainly play a huge factor in some securing a spot to attend World Championships at all.

The Main Players

Arnhem certainly has a big hand in the composition of the individuals currently leading the CP standings in Europe. Everybody’s favourite Canadian-living-in-Ireland Kelly Mercier-White (KellsterCartier), the runner-up in Arnhem, leads the pack with 266 CP. UK’s Barry Anderson (Baz Anderson), who defeated Kelly in the finals to claim the title of Netherlands Regional Champion is in second place on the rankings with 252 CP, but crucially still has yet to hit the Premier Challenge best finish limit. Germany will be represented by community favourite Baris Ackos (Billa). Sixth place in Arnhem helped Baris secure third place with 252 CP. I can personally attest to his skill after facing him in swiss. Given his unerring consistency, Billa is a solid pick for top cut here. Christopher Arthur (Koryo) is our final returning top-cut player from Arnhem, placing third at the event. Christopher is definitely an accomplished player in his own right and will certainly be a player to watch. Moving on to players outside of those who top cut in Arnhem, UK’s Lee Provost (Osirus) is currently 55^th in the rankings with 130 CP. Lee has been taking full advantage of the Premier Challenges to put him just within the Worlds invite spot, but this tournament will likely be the first serious test for him this year.

There are, rather unsurprisingly, a large faction of UK players who are worth mentioning. The Miller brothers, Jamie and Justin (Blaze King7 & ThrillerMiller9) have been taking advantage of the Premier Challenge CP giveaway, and are in the hunt for Top 60 in the rankings. Justin is the closest at 64^th place. Jamie made a Worlds appearance in 2014, so is definitely a capable battler and should be within the upper echelons of the standings. Justin is certainly capable of making it to Worlds based on what I’ve seen of him at local Premier Challenges as well as previous exploits at Nationals. However, strong results here will be needed to keep pace with those ahead of them in the rankings. Ben Kyriakou (Kyriakou) is definitely one individual looking to get his season back on track. After scoring his first batch of CP this season at Crawley in March, he has a great deal of catching-up to do on the CP front. A Regional run is certainly on the cards for this double UK National champion and three-time Worlds attendee, but has to be an outside bet at this point. He will be joined by Steve Edgson (SirSmoke), whose season has been patchy at best, but still seems to be getting by in the CP stakes with 106 points, leaving him in 73^rd place. Any Worlds-level competitor is capable of producing momentum that carries them to a surprise winning streak, but given the present form, Steve is an outside bet. Speaking of worlds competitors, one that I am personally looking forward to meeting is Daniel Nolan (Zog). A 2011 top-cut and 2013 world championship competitor, Daniel will once again grace the presence of all in attendance with his unique brand of humour and wit. Heavens knows what we should expect to see, but if his numerous tournament reports are any indication, Sutton Coldfield will never be the same again!

Yan Sym (Sogeking) and William Tansley (StarKO) are two dark horses from the UK, with Yan sitting in 13^th, and Will in 25^th. Both scored important championship points from Arnhem back in February with Top 32 results, and while both have shown tremendous form and consistency in Premier Challenges, their efforts on the bigger stages is still a niggling doubt. The Birch brothers, Jake and Joe (WhiteAfroKing92 & Professor Birch), are also going to be in attendance. They both sit just inside the top 200 on the rankings list, so some work from both is required to climb further. Phillip de Sousa (P3DS) previously top cut UK Nationals in 2014 and placed top 8 in the StreetPass finals, so his is a name worth looking out for, but this will be his first tournament outing of 2015. Richard Fairbrother (NidoRich) is also one to note. Winning Manchester #5, one of the long running grassroots events in the UK, is the obvious highlight for him, but Richard has also achieved top-cut results at UK Nationals in 2012 and 2014. Finally, Samuel East (Samuel996) is the last major name I want to mention. As the runner-up of the Nugget Bridge Circuit for season 3, there is no doubt of the skill and determination of this individual. I am personally unsure if Samuel has been playing much at all this year, but I see no reason why he can’t secure a decent result if he has done his homework on the format. Even with the players covered above, there are still at least a dozen or so individuals who have the capability to do well who have not been mentioned.

The Crystal Ball Predicts…: I’m going to go with Christopher Arthur (Koryo) on this occasion. Given that the event will be a single day, players will need a great deal of physical and mental stamina to get through to the end, and I believe Koryo has that in spades.

Fancy a Flutter: My outside pick for this event goes to Richard Fairbrother. I think a lot of people understate Richard’s capabilities, perhaps due to his lack of a Words showing. However, having been one agonizing match away from achieving this feat in 2012, Richard can certainly match those who compete at the highest level.

Italy Regional

Difficulty Rating

/ 5

(Three Pokemon trying desperately to imitate the Italian flag) / 5

Location: DARK SIDE – Via di Santa Maria Ausiliatrice 82 (Angolo via Coriolano) – 00181 Roma

Registration Time: 10:00 – 10:30

The Scoop

I think this Regional came as quite a surprise to many players, especially given the proximity of the date of the event to its announcement, and the fact that it is scheduled for the same weekend as the UK Regional. That said however, it is nonetheless an important step toward increasing the range of events for us. Italy certainly has a great history in the official format, with the 2013 World Champion Arash Ommati helping to carry the flag of this very passionate nation. It was fitting that Italy should have its own Regional.

One thing to note about this Regional is the attendance cap which is set at 120 entrants. This is a low number, but given it roughly matches the total number seen at Arnhem, I’m expecting it will likely see a similar breakdown of numbers in the respective divisions. While this event only has one player from Arnhem’s top cut event in attendance, it is still worthwhile noting that a number of prominent players will be in the field, many already looking to solidify their position in the invite spots.

The Main Players

I think it is only fitting to begin this article by discussing Arash Ommati (Mean). While Arnhem was possibly a little disappointing for Arash, where he placed 15^th in swiss, the rankings are a much better reflection of his capabilities. At 4^th place in the standings with 240 CP, Arash goes into this event as one of the challengers for the CP lead in Europe. I would personally expect Arash to top cut here. His season to date has been very strong and he has attended a large number of Premier Challenges in order to maximize his CP earnings, such is his dedication to reaching Boston. While Arash claimed the title, let us not discount the fact that Matteo Gini (Matty) was the forerunner for Italians’ hopes at the World Championships. As the runner-up to Ray Rizzo in 2011, Matteo is certainly regarded as one of Europe’s strongest players, and this season is set to add to his list of two world invites and numerous other achievements. Currently sitting 8^th in the rankings with 192 CP, Matteo could easily jump to the top of the standings after this tournament. Similar to Arash, I expect him to top cut this event with relative ease. If we’re going to let one Gini out of the bottle, then it is impossible to stop the second, as brother Alberto (BraindeadPrimeape) is also in attendance. Alberto made his debut at the World Championships last year off the back of a solid season, and is  in good shape to return once again. Currently sitting in 17^th place, any solid number of points should give him some upward movement in the rankings as the point differences between players is still small and a handful of those immediately above him are not attending either event. The German contingent of players is very likely to be led by Florian Wurdack (DaFlo). With respect to Florian, he felt he would likely be making the journey but was not completely sure, but stands a solid shot of doing well if he does. His 6^th place in the CP rankings with 208 CP gives him a solid platform to work from and I think if he does go, he will have the bit between his teeth. Austrian Noah Fuchs (Daydreaming Ninja) burst onto the scene with a 7^th place finish at Arnhem, and currently sits 16^th in the CP standings, right on the cusp of the day-2 and travel award cut-off. Noah may not feel significant pressure to avoid dropping outside the invitation cutoff, but will definitely require a strong result in Rome to fend off those in close proximity in the rankings. The key here will be if he can replicate his strong runs seen in Arnhem as well has his Salzburg Arena Challenge top cut.

The depth of the Italian player base is quite frankly astonishing and it’s apparent as you glance through the CP standings. Players I’m expecting to make an impact include Luigi Lo Giudice (LPROX) and Lorenzo Galassi (Greyfox). Both players have represented Italy at the World Championships in previous years, so they definitely have a solid shot of securing top cut positions. Luigi Orsi (ZPhoenix) is very much in the thick of the invite scrum in a credible 21^st position with 170 CP. One of the unfortunate individuals to miss out on CP in Arnhem by a few places, Luigi will be keen to redeem himself by performing well at his home event. Some points here will be needed to fend off those in the chasing pack. Not so far behind Luigi in 24^th position is Simone Sanvito (Sanvy). One of the more outsider picks for this preview, Simone has had a strong season in the various Premier Challenges, racking up three victories and a further two top cuts for 160 CP. While the local scene differs greatly to a broadly European event, it is still worth noting that his level of consistency shows respectable skill. Aniello Iuliano (Senior14) is currently 33^rd in Europe, and is a player who has made the oftentimes difficult transition to the Masters division this season. Having made the world championships as a senior last year, Aniello seems to have made the transition surprisingly smoothly, despite feeling pessimistic about his chances earlier this season. Three Premier Challenge victories and a top 4 later, you’d have to agree that his chances are fairly decent.

Just as the Pokemon Genies come in a trio, the Ginis also come in threes (cue audible groan from the readers) with Nicola Gini (NicoAkiwa) in attendance with his brothers. Nicola has been doing well in the circuit so far, and sits at a respectable 44^th in the CP standings. There is a very real prospect that all three brothers could top cut this event and looking further ahead, I would not be surprised to see all three of them at worlds, which would be a staggering achievement. Continuing down the CP list, Pietro Chiri (kirro) top cut Italy Nationals in 2014, but unlike those listed above, lies agonizingly on the wrong side of the world invite line at 61^st position. Again, his position is tenuous, and a lack of vital CP will drop him further back in the standings. The final Italian player I wish to mention, Matteo Donati (Poops), is very much a speculative pick, but was supported by a number of his peers when I was trying to conjure up information for this event. The season so far has not yielded much in terms of points, with only a single top 4 finish at a Premier Challenge to his name. That said, I think Matteo is a player who has shown he is more than capable of high level play. At 79 Nugget Points on the Nugget Bridge Circuit, he lies amazingly close to securing an invitational spot, showing the dedication he has made to the game this year. One young German who may be attending, another graduated senior from last year, is Adrian Schwengebecher (xChessx). Once again, most of his previous exploits are from his Senior years. A top 8 in Bochum as well as a top 4 in Manchester last year were more than sufficient to get him to Washington D.C. with a Top 16 finish. This year, Adrian lies 89^th in the CP standings, and seems to be coping with the demands of the Masters division very admirably. His attendance is still in limbo, but he looks likely to be among the field of players.

I am going to preface my final picks with the following: you four are all fruitcakes and insane for what you are attempting! Four players attending the UK event are planning to make the journey over to Italy in the short 12 hour window between the likely end of play in Sutton Coldfield to the start of registration for the Italian event. These players are Ben Kyriakou, William Tansley, Yan Sym and Steve Edgson. Assuming the flight is not delayed, passport control is gotten through with minimal fuss, and they can find an extremely fast taxi, they should make it to the venue before the registration ends. Mind you, they might be dead on their feet, so I don’t know how much stock I’m prepared to put in them doing well here, because they will not be running on much sleep at all! All things considered, they may prove to surprise a lot of people; they are certainly capable of doing so.

The Crystal Ball predicts…: I don’t think it is too far of a stretch to go with Matteo Gini (Matty) on this occasion. Matteo is certainly a stalwart of the VGC events in Europe, and I would be surprised personally if he does not make the top cut. Once there, I feel that his experience and mental strength in such situations will be more than sufficient to prevail against any of the other players.

Fancy a Flutter: Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m going all-aboard the Gini train. I’m a sucker for a good story, and I would dearly like to see Nicola Gini reach the top cut with both of his brothers at the same time. It’s hard to argue against a family trio that has helped to shoulder the burden of Italian VGC for years.

As for me…

As you can probably expect, I am going to be attending the UK Regional in Sutton Coldfield. I hope I will be able to catch up with my fair share of familiar faces and meet new people as well. My aim is to be recognizable by everybody at the event. That may boil down to wearing a loud shirt going dreadfully overdressed for the occasion. We’ll see what happens on that front. As ever, I must thank everybody who was kind enough to help with providing the information that went into this preview. Some of you provided a great deal of information and assistance particularly on the Italian event, and it really is much appreciated. If you want to get involved with the discussion, highlight individuals who you feel are worth drawing attention to that I might have missed, or give your own predictions on who you feel will be victorious, feel free to leave a reply. I look forward to reading your thoughts.

The post VGC 2015 European Spring Regionals Preview appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hello again, this is R Inanimate. One of the first articles I wrote for Nugget Bridge was an article regarding Team Preview. While a lot of points in that article still hold true today, it’s hard to deny that it is out of date with regards to the where we are now with 6th Gen battles. As such, I felt that I should spend the time to rewrite it and bring it up to speed.

Team Preview and selection are a very important part of playing Pokémon battles. This is where the battle begins. This is before the point where we worry about luck factors swaying the results. This is where information and assumptions can dictate the future direction of the battle. Team Preview is a game of information. It tests the player on what they know about the opponent’s team based on the six species that they see and what they know about their own team in order to match up against the opposition. A player needs to take what they know and apply that to a four Pokemon selection that will lead them to victory.

As with my previous article, I state the following disclaimer: “Due to the nature of Team Preview, don’t expect me to be able to tell you a perfect answer to every Team Preview situation you will find yourself involved in with the current team that you are using.” Team Previews are subjective and dynamic. What one needs to pay attention to will differ depending on the team they are using and their own personal play style and skill level.

For example, someone may choose to bring a team and lead based on a prediction of what their opponent might lead, while another player may try to look for a more conservative team set up where they have a safe lead that can keep them from falling behind regardless of what their opponent may bring. In this article, I hope to share some things to look for in Team Preview, as well as some ideas and strategies to keep in mind while making a team selection.

What is Team Preview?

Team Preview is the screen you see just before a battle begins. You will see the six Pokemon team of your opponent on the top screen and your own team of six on the touch screen. Here you will choose the four Pokemon that you want to have participate in the battle. The first two chosen will be who you lead with and the third and fourth member chosen will be in reserve to be switched in or to replace a fainted Pokemon.

A timer is active on Team Preview, providing you with 90 seconds to decide on which four Pokemon to bring into battle. Should a player not CONFIRM their decision within the 90 seconds provided, the game will automatically fill in the remainder of the team, starting from the top of their list.

Just to be clear, this will mean that the two Pokemon in the top row of the screen will be sent out as leads and the two in the middle row will be brought in the back. So, if you don’t want the game making the most lazy team decision for you, it’s critical that you get your selection submitted within the 90 seconds. Likewise, it’s a good idea to take note of what you see as the first 4 Pokemon on the opponent’s team just in case that they run out of time.

What to look for?

It is important to see what your opponent has on their team and quickly assess some of the key features on their team. One way is to simply know and familiarize yourself with what each individual Pokemon can do. Having this level of information is ideal, and it tends to be something that people develop over time through practice, but it can be an overwhelming amount of information for newer players.

If you do want to try to improve your knowledge, start with some of the more common individual Pokemon in the current metagame. There is an overview article that can be found on NuggetBridge that can give you an idea of the Pokemon one may see in VGC 2015. Alternatively, you can check some usage statistics for Battle Spot Doubles for the ORAS League on the GBU website and see what sort of movesets are popular for various Pokemon.

Instead of giving an overview of individual Pokemon capabilities again, I will instead cover a number of supportive Moves and Abilities common in Double Battles. What they do, why you should be aware of them, and what Pokemon have these capabilities. When looking at this list, you should ask yourself:

1. Does your team care about x?
2. If so, how does your team deal with x?

Not every team needs to be concerned with every single little thing. But every team should have at least some sort of game plan for every single little thing they come across. After all, even if something isn’t considered to be a threat, careless actions can make one eat their words. This list of supportive options are not written in any particular order.

Potential Megas

New to XY and ORAS is the introduction of Mega Evolution. Many of the popular Mega Pokemon have a decent balance in how their 100 Base Stat gain is distributed, along with a change in ability that boosts their damage potential (Parental Bond, Huge Power, Tough Claws, etc.) or provides a strong supportive ability (Shadow Tag, Intimidate, etc.).

Since only one Pokemon on a team may Mega Evolve per battle, usually teams will have only one Pokemon that is able to Mega Evolve. While not as common as in 2014, dual Mega teams are still seen on occasion. Unless there’s a lot of threats on an opposing team discouraging its usage, people will bring their Mega Pokemon to the battle, so quickly identifying which Mega you’ll be dealing with is a good place to start when deciding which four Pokemon you want to bring into battle.

Some of the more popular Mega Pokemon include: Kangaskhan, Mawile, Charizard-Y, Metagross, Salamence, Venusaur, Swampert, Gengar, and Camerupt

Fake Out

Fake Out is a 40 Power Normal-Type Move that can only be used on the first turn that a Pokemon is active on the field. The selling point of this move is that it acts at +3 Priority and has has a 100% flinch rate. As such, this move cannot be redirected and its target will be prevented from moving for one turn, provided that they don’t have Inner Focus or Shield Dust.

Fake Out has great utility in covering your partner from a threat for one turn, making potential set ups like Trick Room or Tailwind harder to disrupt. Alternatively, it can be punishing against Pokemon without Protect, forcing them to lose a turn and be at the mercy of your partner, who can get free damage on them.

Recognizing that your opponent does not have any means of Fake Out support can make it safer for Pokemon holding choice items to lead in battles. If the opponent does have a potential Fake Out user, it is a good idea to think about what you can do in order to play around it and avoid falling behind early in the battle.

Fake Out has a fairly wide distribution. Kangaskhan is by far the most common user of Fake Out simply because it is one of the most used Pokemon in VGC 2015, but other Pokemon with Fake Out you may see include: Ludicolo, Infernape, Raichu, Weavile, Scrafty, Hitmontop, Hariyama, Lopunny, and Mienshao

Intimidate

The introduction of Mega Pokemon to the scene has brought in a handful of Pokemon that are able to brute force their way through their opposition with heavy hitting STAB attacks. This motivated players to have a number of ways to handle these Pokemon. Intimidate is one of the tools that people use to weaken these heavy hitters and make them more managable for their team.

Intimidate is an ability that activates upon entering play, either by a Pokemon entering the field with the ability or from a Pokemon gaining the ability in mid-battle with something like Skill Swap or Trace. When it activates, it lowers that Attack of BOTH opposing Pokemon by one stage. Since it doesn’t require any moves to be used at all, it is easy to execute and is a flexible way to debuff the active opponents’ Attack stat.

A person can lead with an Intimidate Pokemon and start the battle off with their opponent’s Pokemon at -1 Attack. They can also switch out to a Pokemon with Intimidate, simultaneously dropping the opposing Pokemon’s Attack while bringing in a new Pokemon that may have a more favourable match up. Looking back at some past articles of teams that made top cut in larger tourneys, you’ll see that a good 66% of teams have at least one Pokemon with Intimidate on them, even for past formats like VGC’13 and VGC’14.

Landorus-T and Salamanece are the two most likely Pokemon that you’ll run into that have Intimidate. However, other Pokemon include: Gyarados, Staraptor, Arcanine, Mawile, and Mega Manectric.

Defiant and Competitive

As a consequence of Intimidate being such a valuable tool, Pokemon with Defiant and the newly introduced Competitive abilities are more popular. These two abilities increase a Pokemon’s offense stats whenever they are afflicted with a stat drop from the opponent. Defiant will increase Attack by 2 stages every time an opponent drops one of the Pokemon’s stats while Competitive will increase Special Attack by 2 stages for every dropped stat.

These Abilities are used to deter Intimidate users, as the Attack drop from Intimidate will trigger a boost to Defiant or Competitive users, leaving them at +1 Atk or +2 SpAtk respectively. If you aren’t careful, feeding a boost into these Pokemon can lead to a dire situation.

Bisharp and Milotic are the two most commonly seen with these abilities, but you may want to keep an eye out for Pokemon such as Primeape, Braviary, or Wigglytuff. Tornadus and Thundurus have Defiant as Hidden Abilities but, currently in VGC 2015, they are not legal for VGC play.

Auto-Weather

Auto-Weather, as the term suggests, refers to Pokemon with abilities that summon a weather condition upon entry. If two Pokemon enter the field at the same time, the slower Pokemon’s weather condition will overwrite the faster Pokemon’s, thus “winning” the weather war. Some Pokemon have an Auto-Weather ability upon Mega Evolution. In those situations, since Mega Evolution occurs after switch ins, they will always win weather wars against other Auto-Weather Pokemon, save for a slower Pokemon Mega Evolving at the same time.

Unlike previous generations, weather from these Pokemon are no longer permanent, lasting for the usual five turns (eight if they are holding their respective weather stone) as if they used a weather move like Rain Dance. Long gone are the days of mandatory weather wars, where it was almost necessary to have some sort of weather changer of your team. Still, every now and then you will see people who run teams with some reliance on weather, particularly rain or sun.

Each weather has a ton of different effects associated with them, so it’s easier to just look up each weather condition on your own. While manual weather users have a use here and there, it’s mostly important to just look at the Pokemon with Auto-weather themselves. Those Pokemon are:

Drizzle: Politoed
Drought: Ninetales, Charizard-Y
Sand Stream: Tyranitar(+Mega Tyranitar), Hippowdon
Snow Warning: Abomasnow(+Mega Abomasnow), Aurorus

Prankster

Everyone’s favourite ability. Prankster grants +1 Priority to all status moves performed by the user. This can make it fairly easy for these Pokemon to spew out status effects and disruption through moves like Taunt, Will-o-Wisp, Thunder Wave, Encore, and Swagger. Most Prankster Pokemon are purely supportive, except Thundurus who’s Base 125 SpAtk allows it to deal respectable damage even without any investment.

These Pokemon can be a huge pain if left unchecked for too long, so being able to find a way to minimize the disruption they can cause to your team can go a long way in winning battles against teams that rely on Prankster support. After all, the last thing you want to see is your entire team bogged down with Paralysis and relying on RNG every time you make a move.

There’s a small selection of Pokemon with Prankster. Thundurus is the most common one, but there is also Whimsicott, Sableye, Meowstic, Liepard, and Klefki that are used as Prankster Supporters.

Trick Room Users

Trick Room is a field effect that reverses turn order within a priority bracket for the next four turns. This means that a Pokemon with a higher Speed stat will move after a Pokemon with a lower Speed stat, but moves with increased Priority, such as Protect, Mach Punch, or Sucker Punch will still move ahead of everyone else. This can be a total nightmare for faster, aggressive teams as they find themselves unable to mount a counterattack, even if they manage to survive the four turns of Trick Room.

Teams that have Trick Room will often include a good amount of slower, bulkier Pokemon. Since Trick Room is a lowered priority move and requires a Pokemon to move last, they often need support to get Trick Room up. Being able to stop Trick Room from ever going up is huge against a Trick Room team, but don’t expect it to be easy. If you think that trying to stop the set up is a good enough to beat Trick Room, you’ll be in for a rough time.

Common Trick Room users include: Cresselia, Gothitelle, Slowbro/Slowking, Aromatisse, Dusclops, Jellicent, Chandelure, Porygon2
Common Trick Room Attackers may include: Mega Mawile, Mega Camerupt, Conkeldurr, Abomasnow, Hariyama, Tyranitar, Gastrodon, Sylveon, Rhyperior, Heatran
Common Trick Room Supporters may include: Scrafty, Amoonguss, Clefable, Choice Scarf Landorus-T

Follow Me / Rage Powder

Often referred to as Redirection moves because of their effect, Follow Me and Rage Powder are +2 Priority moves that will cause all single target moves used by opponents to be redirected towards the user of Follow Me or Rage Powder, with the exception of Sky Drop. Do note that these two moves are not identical. Since Rage Powder is a powder move, it will not redirect moves away from Pokemon that are unaffected by powder moves, such as Grass-type Pokemon, Pokemon with the Overcoat ability, and Pokemon carrying Safety Goggles.

Redirection is a powerful supportive tool in Double Battles, as it allows a Pokemon to cover their ally from a wide variety of moves, guarding them from damage and harmful statuses. It can also be used as a way to disrupt strategies where one may try to target their own teammate.

Redirection lets the user’s ally move freely. If you are not prepared for Redirection, it can put you in a situation where your opponent has a number of free turns where his other Pokemon can attack or set up. If you see a Pokemon with Follow Me or Rage Powder on a team, you’ll need to bring something to deal with it, because you’ll likely have to take it out first whether you want to or not.

Follow Me is seen from Togekiss, Clefable, Clefairy, and Pachirisu
Rage Powder is mostly seen from Amoonguss and Volcarona

Minimize

Minimize is a move that increases evasion by two stages. Every now and then, on Battle Spot, you will run into people who try to set up an Eviolite Chansey with Minimize (or a Clefable with Minimize and Cosmic Power). This can lead to a situation where they try to win by making a last stand with a +6 Evade Chansey, eventually coming back from something like a 3v1 situation simply because you are unable to land consecutive hits while they just restore their HP with Softboiled from the few hits that do land.

It’s a slow and frustrating strategy to play against, but fortunately time is not on their side during live events with the 15min/45s timer. If you ever see a Chansey during a live event, you may want to consider playing towards a timer win as early as possible.

Tailwind

Tailwind is a move that doubles Speed of the user’s team for the next three Turns. Tailwind’s boost is not tied to changes in Speed stages, so being at -1 Speed under Tailwind will be 1.33x Speed while being at +1 Speed under Tailwind is 3x Speed. Teams with Tailwind users typically uses the three turns to mount an offense instead of setting up further.

Since the move Tailwind doesn’t have lowered priority like Trick Room, it is a lot easier to set up, especially with Pokemon like Whimsicott or Talonflame who get increased priority for it. However, the duration of Tailwind is shorter and it can be counteracted by moves like Thunder Wave or Icy Wind, making it not that difficult to endure. Still, it definitely requires some planning and foresight. If you aren’t careful, you may find yourself taking more damage than you would like, or end up in a situation where the opponent can easily set up another Tailwind.

Now that Tailwind has returned as a tutor in ORAS, Suicune, Whimsicott, and anything that has wings can learn Tailwind. The prime suspects will be Zapdos, Suicune, Whimsicott, Togekiss, and Talonflame.

Wide Guard

Wide Guard is a +3 Priority move that protects the user and its ally from damaging spread moves, such as Earthquake, Heat Wave and Rock Slide. The key word here is “damaging”. It does not block multi-targeting status moves such as Dark Void, Teeter Dance or Leer from affecting the party.

Since its update in 6th gen, Wide Guard can be used consecutively as many times as you like without ever failing. However, consecutive uses of Wide Guard will still effect the chances of using Protect successfully. Feint will remove the effects of Wide Guard for the entire party if it deals damage to any Pokemon protected by it.

Wide Guard is not so significant that people will think “Oh boy, I need to have something that can deal with Wide Guard!”, but it is definitely something that one should be aware of.

Most commonly, Aegislash is seen as a potential user of Wide Guard. Aside from Aegislash, Pokemon like Hitmontop, Mantine, Swampert, and Mienshao also often run Wide Guard.

Quick Guard

Quick Guard, like Wide Guard, is a +3 Priority move. However, instead of blocking damaging spread moves, Quick Guard blocks priority moves. In this gen, this includes blocking moves that are acting at increased Priority due to Prankster or Gale Wings. As Quick Guard is the same Priority as Fake Out, one must be faster than the Fake Out user in order to block it with Quick Guard. Lastly, Feint will still break Quick Guard, even though it is a Priority move.

The main selling point of Quick Guard would be its ability to block Fake Out and keep Prankster Pokemon at bay. There is a relatively diverse distribution of competitively viable Pokemon that can learn Quick Guard, but it isn’t a staple move on anything at this given point. For example, looking at Battle Spot statistics, Quick Guard tends to be used, at most, 30% of the time on a Pokemon. As such, it’s something to keep in mind, but not something to really worry about until you actually see it. Hopefully, it won’t be too late by that point.

Lightning Rod

Lightning Rod is an ability that redirects all Electric attacks towards the Pokemon with the ability. The Pokemon is also granted immunity to Electric-type moves and their Special Attack goes up by one stage whenever it is hit by one. This applies to non-damaging Electric-type moves, such as Thunder Wave. Lightning Rod cannot redirect moves that are self-targeting or multi-targeting, though it will still be immune and boosted in the latter case. An interesting quirk about Lightning Rod is that it will also redirect Electric-type moves from its ally.

Lightning Rod is a powerful ability due to its utility in protecting the team from Electric-type attacks and paralysis from Thunder Wave. In this regard, it can severely restrict Electric-type Pokemon from functioning properly in a battle. As such, if you are relying on Electric-types to do some work for you, removal of Lightning Rod Pokemon is a priority.

While Lightning Rod is a powerful ability, a lot of the common Pokemon using it are extremely frail. Either that or they are Rhydon. The usual Lightning Rod users seen in VGC are Raichu, Manectric, and Mega Sceptile. Do note that such terrifying Pokemon as Seaking, Plusle, and Zebstrika also have access to this ability.

Storm Drain

Essentially Lightning Rod for Water-type moves, Storm Drain redirects Water attacks towards the Pokemon with the ability. In addition, it grants Water-type immunity and boosts Special Attack by one stage whenever a Water-type move hits the Pokemon. Unlike Lightning Rod, Storm Drain is strictly for blocking damaging moves, as Soak is the only non-damaging Water-type it can redirect away and block.

Realistically, the only Pokemon with Storm Drain that you’ll ever see in VGC is Gastrodon. However, there is also Cradily, Lumineon, and Maractus who have the ability.

Burn

Burn is a status condition that halves the afflicted Pokemon’s physical attack power and causes them to lose HP at the end of every turn. There are three moves typically associated with this status: Will-o-Wisp, Sacred Fire, and Scald. Will-o-Wisp is a status move with 85% accuracy and it directly burns a target. As the move’s name suggests, it is commonly seen on Ghost-type Pokemon and the occasional Fire-type.

Sacred Fire is a strong Fire-type move with a 50% chance to burn and it is only seen on Entei. Scald is a Water-type move with a 30% chance to burn and you’ll often see it on bulkier Water-type Pokemon, such as Suicune, Gastrodon, Politoed, or Milotic. While most standard damaging Fire-type moves have a chance to burn, a 10% chance is small enough to not worry about until it happens.

A burnt physical attacker can quickly become dead weight, especially against teams with high physical defense. As such, it is pretty important to avoid burns before getting some decent damage in. While Scald’s chances of causing a burn is only 30%, if you give an opponent the opportunity to fire off a number of Scalds, there’s a pretty good chance someone will get burned.

Paralysis

Paralysis is a status condition that reduces the afflicted Pokemon’s speed to 25%. In addition, the Pokemon has a 25% chance of being unable to move for a turn. The decrease in speed can be devastating to Pokemon that heavily rely on speed or depend on speed boost from abilities like Swift Swim or Chlorophyll. The chance of being fully paralyzed tends to manifest at the most ill-opportune times.

While Paralysis has solid utility, do note that it is does not directly reduce the opponent’s offensive strength. People sometimes get a bit too carried away with trying to frustrate the opponent with paralysis and end up fishing for full paralysis when there was another path to victory with better odds.

Thunder Wave is the primary source of inflicting paralysis in VGC and Thundurus is the primary user of Thunder Wave. Less commonly, there is Glare from Serperior and Nuzzle from Pachirisu.

Sleep

Sleep prevents a Pokemon from moving for 1-3 turns. Putting a Pokemon to sleep before they are able to move for the turn will cause them to spend one of these sleep turns. As such, Sleep is a reliable way to stop a Pokemon for at least one turn. Most of the time, sleep is inflicted by Spore or Sleep Powder from various Grass-type Pokemon. In these cases, fellow Grass-types and Pokemon holding Safety Goggles become immune to sleep.

There is also Smeargle, with the infamous Dark Void, who can put both opposing Pokemon to sleep at the same time. Also, there’s a fairly large number of Pokemon that can learn Hypnosis, but the ones that use it are few and far between.

While sleep is a temporary status, being caught unprepared can leave you rolling the dice and hoping that your Pokemon can wake up before getting knocked out. While sleep can be considered an unreliable strategy for the user as well, the odds are still mostly in their favour when they are faster than your team.

Common Pokemon that can induce Sleep are Smeargle, Breloom, Amoonguss, and Venusaur (non-Mega)

Recovery Moves

In particular, the recovery moves that that heal 50% the user’s HP when used. While these moves are a lot more self-serving that what has been previously listed, they are moves that do see usage in VGC. A battle can quickly turn for the worse when something is able to recover their HP and get themselves back into the game.

It can either force people to extend themselves in order to knock it out or leave it alone and let it attack freely. As such, it is important to bring something that can deal with these sorts of Pokemon. Recovery moves create a large advantage for the opponent in late game as they can slowly wittle down your Pokemon while staying healthy. In a 1v1 situation, a Pokemon with a recovery move will have a very good shot at winning the tie breaker when time runs out.

While there are some Pokemon, such as Chansey or Mega Slowbro, who may go all in on trying to make a last stand but are thus prone to timer stalling, Pokemon such as Zapdos, Jellicent, and Milotic tend to play a more active role in battles while still having the ability to heal themselves.

Perish Trap

A strategy that was made possible in VGC 2013 with the introduction of Hidden Ability Gothitelle, a Pokemon that could Protect and has the Shadow Tag ability. Perish Trap is the strategy using Perish Song to knock out your opponent’s Pokemon, with Shadow Tag preventing them from switching out. Teams that attempt this tend to be quite distinct and often are completely devoted to pulling off the strategy. However, every now and then, you may run into a few tricks and surprises.

Battles involving Perish Trap require a lot of forward thinking, as you usually only have a few opportunities to break through the strategy. It is important to identify the strategy early and plan what you bring accordingly in order to try to disrupt the Perish Trap.

Common Pokemon on a Perish Trap team include:
Shadow Tag user: Mega Gengar, Gothitelle
Perish Song User: Mega Gengar, Politoed, Azumarill, Marowak
Support Pokemon: Scrafty, Liepard, Kangaskhan, Amoonguss

Piecing It All Together

Okay, so you have built a team. You know your Pokemon types and basic match ups. You’ve done your research about the various supportive options that can form the backbone of VGC teams. Now it is time to put everything together for the Team Preview.

In order to help you make an informed decision, here are a few general tips:

What do you see?

The first thing to do in a Team Preview is to look at the preview. Quickly survey what Pokemon species are on the opponent’s team and make note of what sort of support tools you believe they have on their team. “What potential Megas do they have?”, “What kind of weather is present?”, “Is there a threat of Trick Room?”, etc. Gather up all the information that you can possibly perceive from seeing your opponent’s six Pokemon and make a judgement call on what you believe they will be trying to do in the upcoming battle.

What do you bring?

After seeing what the opponent has, you should compare it to what you yourself have. Basically, if you feel that you have a strong matchup against the opponent’s team, you should stick to your main strategy and try to maintain your advantage over the opponent while playing conservatively in order to prevent them from mounting a counter offensive. If you feel like your match up is poor, look for a way to gain momentum and catch up to your opponent while avoiding a one sided slaughter.

This is where being familiar with your team and coming up with plans for various difficult match ups are important. By knowing your own team’s personal strengths and weaknesses, you can easily make the proper call and act accordingly in your battles. Often times, a team preview might look like a bad match up, but you can still win by simply making the correct calls in Team Preview in order to avoid a terrible Turn 1 lead match up. Keep a few solid switching options in order to keep your choices open and keep yourself in the game.

If you are having some trouble deciding what to bring against an opponent, sometimes it helps to look at the reverse. What do you think the opponent will bring against you? While you won’t know the moveset and items that they have, sometimes you will be able to rule out certain Pokemon because they just seem bad against everything that you have.

Other times, you get situations where you can anticipate your opponent to bring a certain Pokemon, simply because their entire team is dedicated towards a particular strategy. This situation is most commonly seen with trainers that use a dedicated Trick Room team.

What do you fear?

While Team Preview does provide information before the battle starts, it is still very possible to have surprises on a team. Players can see what Pokemon the opponent has, but will not immediately have information about items and movesets. While it is possible to guess what each Pokemon’s function is on the team based on some background knowledge of what each Pokemon is capable of and what each Pokemon commonly runs, uncommon move or item choices can easily be used to catch people off guard.

If you are planning to take advantage of surprise factors in Team Preview, however, be sure to not go overboard with it. Ideally, you want to have something that can both act as a surprise while still functioning well when people know about it. One-shot surprises can be good, but if it becomes useless if the opponent knows about it, it can be dangerous to rely on in best-of-three play or during larger live tourneys where information about unique things may spread as more people play against your team.

Team Selection in Best of Three

As a best-of-three series involves two to three battles, you go through multiple team preview screens. The first team preview will usually be played out similar to a best-of-one team preview, but after that battle there are a few more things to consider.

What Did You Learn?

A team preview involves a bit of personal judgment and background information in order to speculate what your opponent’s items and movesets are and what their overall team strategy is. But after playing a battle, a lot of uncertainties about the opponent’s team will be revealed.

If you are caught off guard by some surprise moves, you now know about them going into your next battle(s). Information about who is holding what items, which Pokemon have Protect, and any unusual movesets are extremely valuable in making an informed decision on what to bring into your next battle. As such, one of the worst things that can happen is to get completely demolished in the first game and not see all the Pokemon they brought or barely seeing any of the movesets.

Adapting

With the information you have acquired from playing your opponent, you enter your second or third battle with the opportunity to change what you bring in. Too many times I see people who feel that, because they lost game 1, they must change what they bring in game 2. Similarly, some people feel that, since they won, they are completely okay to just stay with the same Pokemon for their next battle.

Cutting corners like that is unacceptable. It is important to look beyond the results of the previous battle and see how that result occured. Here’s a bit of an extreme example:

Your team in Game 1 was having a dominant matchup. However, you lost because you missed a bunch of 90% accurate moves that would have won you the game if any had hit. Also, you know that the opponent can’t really bring their other two Pokemon without making things easier for you. Why would you change what you brought in game 1?

It’s important to look beyond the result of the previous battle and determine how that result came to be. If you relied on a surprise factor in order to win against the opponent, you can’t really expect them to fall for it again. If you got bailed out of a losing battle by a gratuitious amount of luck, it might be a good idea to adjust what you bring in game 2 since it isn’t feasible to bank on luck again.

You also need to consider the fact that your opponent is given the same opportunity to change as well. Depending on how the battle went, it can be possible to predict what they may bring in the next game.

Regardless of the result, it is important to keep your cool between battles. Don’t despair because of luck factors causing an “undeserved” loss and don’t fret if you got crushed in the first game. Likewise, don’t let it get to your head when you crush an opponent 4-0 in the first game. Think through each team preview as you see them and use what you learn from previous games to guide you towards victory. Remember, team preview is the part of the battle where luck is non-existant, so it is important to make it count.

Team Preview in Multi-Battles

In Multi-Battles, you see 12 opposing Pokemon, your ally’s six Pokemon, and you can only bring in three Pokemon. Don’t overthink it. Just have some fun and hope that you and your partner are in sync on what to bring to the battle.

Conclusion

Did this seem like a lot of information to take in? Now try thinking about all of this stuff within 90 seconds. People tend to take the ability to assess team preview information for granted. It’s good to think about exactly what you are doing during those 90 seconds.

For cases where you feel that things don’t feel quite right and you are losing more battles than you should be with your team, perhaps it is a good idea to look at how you built your team and also how you get into undesirable situations. I hope you were able to learn something from this article and hope that it will allow you to improve in VGC.

The post They’re Eying Each Other Warily: Team Preview Guide ver.2015 appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hey guys! This is the first in what I hope will be a long series of beginner content produced for Nugget Bridge. In this article, I’ll be talking about the differences between playing competitive Singles Pokémon and playing competitive Doubles Pokémon because I think that is a point of confusion for a lot of players who try to get involved in VGC. I’ll also explain how some VGC rules are different.

The vast majority of battles in the Pokémon universe are Single Battles, from the moment you get your starter Pokémon to when you finally defeat the Elite Four and become Champion. Only a handful of battles ingame are Double Battles. VGC can seem daunting, but trust me, it isn’t difficult once you get into it. Let’s get started!

Double Means Two

It’s easy to see that Double Battles feature two Pokémon on any side of the field instead of one, which means that four Pokémon are in play at most points in time. Since so many more Pokémon are on the field, that means that each player has double the options they do in a Singles battle. There are different strategies, too: for example, the “double target”, where one player attacks an enemy Pokémon with both of theirs in order to remove it from the field faster. Another riskier move is the “double switch”, where a player switches both of their Pokémon instead of one in order to gain a favorable position.

Protect

Protect is the most common move and the most important move in Double Battles. I could probably write a whole article about Protect (and I probably will), but here’s what you need to know: in order to outplay your opponent in Doubles, Protect is almost necessary, because you can shield one Pokémon while attacking with the other. Unless your Pokémon has four moves so utterly important that you can’t imagine bringing that Pokémon without them, you definitely want Protect.

There are also two important moves that aren’t useful at all in Single Battles, which are Wide Guard and Quick Guard. These moves, while situational, can save your Pokémon from devastating spread attacks and priority attacks respectively.

No Stuff Too Tough

In Singles, threats like Mega Salamence, Mega Kangaskhan, Greninja, Aegislash, Mega Gengar, and Mega Lucario can sweep entire teams. It’s very difficult for one specific Pokémon to dominate in a Double Battles tournament. Since you have two Pokémon out on the field at any given time, not only do you have two ways to attack their top threat, but it is also nearly impossible for a Pokémon to knock out two enemy Pokémon at once, meaning that you can almost always get an attack off even if one of your Pokémon faints. For example, Mega Kangaskhan dominated tournaments for months in VGC 2014, including winning US Nationals. At Worlds, many players successfully used a combination of Gothitelle and Mega Mawile to defeat Kangaskhan easily. Indeed, no Kangaskhan placed in the top 8 at Worlds that year.

… But Don’t Slack Teambuilding

However, this in turn means that you can’t be lazy when countering threats to your team. In a Single Battle, if you have a Pokémon that hard counters another, it is safe to leave it in versus that Pokémon. In a Double Battle, however, what if they use Protect with their threat, and knock out your counter to that threat with their other Pokémon? You’re probably going to lose the game.

In Singles, it’s also possible to switch in a Pokémon that “checks” the opposing Pokémon by being tough for that Pokémon to damage but not defeating it right away. A good example is Ferrothorn, which checks Mega Kangaskhan. In Doubles, if you switch Ferrothorn in too early, Kangaskhan can target Ferrothorn’s partner and still deal massive amounts of damage while being “checked”. Teams have to be balanced in order to adequately deal with every Pokémon.

Shorter Battles

Double Battles move very quickly. VGC battles average 8-10 turns, which could be a tenth or less of the length of a Single Battle. This has two effects: for one, moves like Toxic and items like Leftovers are much less effective. This is because those moves and items damage/heal per turn, and since there are fewer turns in a VGC match than in a Single Battle, they heal less and do less damage. Instead of Breloom holding a Toxic Orb to recover HP with Poison Heal, it instead carries Focus Sash or Life Orb. Second, moves that change the game for a short number of turns are more powerful and common, especially Tailwind and Trick Room.

Also, VGC battles enforce a 15 minute timer, with only 45 seconds per turn. Battles move quickly naturally. At the end of the game, if time is called, the player with more Pokémon on the field wins.

Be Careful Boosting

Don’t expect to have any one Pokémon out on the field for a very long time. Primarily defensive Pokémon (e.g. Blissey and Hippowdon) don’t work out because of the short timer and because they can be easily double targeted and knocked out. Those that do succeed end up in a supportive role. For example, rather than being a monster with Calm Mind or Cosmic Power and the ability Magic Guard like it is in Singles, Clefable supports with Follow Me and Helping Hand. In fact, defensive setup is almost nonexistent, outside of the rare Calm Mind.

The other half of this statement is that offensive setup isn’t amazing, too. Even if you get crazy stat ups on a Pokémon like Mega Blaziken, it can be targeted by both enemy Pokémon when it attacks, leading to its swift defeat. Baton Pass in particular is ineffective. To start a Baton Pass chain, you need to disable an enemy Pokémon so you can go to town boosting. It’s nearly impossible to disable both enemy Pokémon in Doubles. The only Pokémon capable of that is Smeargle with Dark Void, which is easily outsped, Taunted, or evaded. Baton Pass takes a while to get going, and ultimately, it only boosts up one Pokémon, which can then be defeated by double targeting or timer.

This isn’t saying that boosting isn’t good in Double Battles by any means. A boosted Pokémon is a more powerful Pokémon. In Doubles, players need to be much more careful with their boosted Pokémon because they are always threatened.

Follow Me to Victory

In fact, a whole different host of Pokémon are viable in Double Battles. Pokémon like Amoonguss, Togekiss, and Cresselia, while decent in Singles, blossom in Doubles because they can use Rage Powder, Follow Me, Tailwind, Trick Room, Helping Hand, Icy Wind, or any number of strong moves that are made for Doubles. Don’t count Pokémon out because they aren’t working for you in Single Battles!

Spread All Over

Doubles mechanics are bittersweet for spread moves, which have the ability to hit both enemy Pokémon (and sometimes your partner Pokémon!). Physical Pokémon with moves like Earthquake or Rock Slide and special Pokémon with moves like Heat Wave, Hyper Voice, or Muddy Water are able to inflict much more damage overall than they would in Singles. They don’t deal full damage, however: moves in Double battles deal only 75% of the damage they deal one-on-one. Here’s how spread move damage works in a Double Battle:

• “Hit All Pokémon” spread move when both players have 2 Pokémon: 75% power
• “Hit All Pokémon” spread move when one player has 2 Pokémon and the other has 1: 75% power
• “Hit All Pokémon” spread move when one player has 2 Pokémon, the other has 1, and any Pokémon uses Protect: 75% power
• “Hit All Pokémon” spread move when each player has 1 Pokémon: 100% power

• “Hit Both Opposing Pokémon” spread move when each player has 2 Pokémon: 75% power
• “Hit Both Opposing Pokémon” spread move when the player using the move has 1 Pokémon and the other player has 2: 75% power
• “Hit Both Opposing Pokémon” spread move when the player using the move has 1 Pokémon, the other player has 2, and any enemy Pokémon uses Protect: 75% power
• “Hit Both Opposing Pokémon” spread move when the player using the move has 2 Pokémon and the other player has 1: 100% power
• “Hit Both Opposing Pokémon” spread move when both players have 1 Pokémon: 100% power

Skilled double battlers use strong spread moves to their full effect in order to win.

Hazards Aren’t Great

Stealth Rock, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, and Sticky Web are less effective in Double Battles than in Single Battles. Double Battles are shorter, which means fewer switchins. Also, switching isn’t as necessary to outplay your opponent. Using a hazard move is perceived as wasting a turn that could have been spent attacking or disabling enemy Pokémon. No hazard move has been used successfully at any high level of VGC.

VGC: Bring 6, Pick 4

In VGC format, you don’t bring all the Pokémon on your team to battle. Instead, you pick two to leave behind at Team Preview. This means battles go even faster. Because players don’t have to use all the Pokémon they bring, teams with two or even three Mega Pokémon are possible. Also, “Bring 6 Pick 4” adds another element of strategy to the game: if one Pokémon isn’t going to be very good against your opponent’s team, you don’t have to use it in battle.

Wrapping Up

I hope you feel ready to take on the world of Doubles Pokémon, because I think you’ll have a great time. See you next time!

The post Differences Between Single and Double Battles in Pokémon appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

When there is a Gastrodon in team preview, people often wonder what kind of role it is fulfilling. Is it an offensive Pokémon that will hit your Steel and Fire types hard with a super effective move? Or is it a bulky Water type Pokemon using its amazing ability Storm Drain? Gastrodon can fulfill many roles on a team and is flexible with how it performs. This analysis on the Water/Ground type sea slug will hopefully help you understand why and how you should use it.

What is a Gastrodon and what can it do?

Gastrodon is a Pokémon with Water/Ground typing. Most Water types are weak to Electric and Grass types, but with a Ground typing Gastrodon is immune to Electric-type attacks. However; this comes with the cost of having a 4x super effective weakness to Grass-type attacks. It has access to the ability Storm Drain, which makes it immune to Water-type attacks and gains a +1 boost to its Special Attack when targeted with one. Storm Drain can also redirect single-target Water-type attacks from anywhere on the field, which can be used to protect your team members! Gastrodon can provide great synergy support for your VGC team with Storm Drain, one weakness, and its attack coverage. While it is only able to hit 5 types for super effective damage with its Water and Ground attacks, having access to Ice-type attacks brings it’s range of type coverage to 8 types out of 18, nearly half of all Pokemon types. Gastrodon has the ability to hit many common Pokémon for super effective damage, such as Mega Mawile, Terrakion, Thundurus, Landorus-Therian and Mega Metagross.

An Analysis of Gastrodon’s Base Stats

Hit Points: 111
Attack: 83
Defense: 68
Special Attack: 92
Special Defense: 82
Speed: 39
Total: 475

Looking at the base stats, we can see that Gastrodon has excellent base hit points, but the rest of the stats are below average, with the only other notable stat being the special attack. It has a low base speed stat of 39, which is slow enough to be useful in Trick Room. With only having a Base Stat Total (BST) of 475, we can see Gastrodon is not used for its stats, but rather for its useful typing and ability.

How do you build a spread for Gastrodon?

Because Gastrodon has such a high base HP stat, investing more in your defenses can give Gastrodon more bulk. Depending on the team composition, you may want a spread more suited to the common bulky Water types; or perhaps you require a hard hitting Water/Ground type special attacker? Do you have an Intimidate user on your team?  Gastrodon, with its lackluster defense, can really strut its stuff when you patch that up. With a Modest nature, Gastrodon makes use of its best stat for a nature, as it gives the most efficient stat increase. While natures such as Bold/Relaxed or Calm/Sassy can work, they are generally for more niche roles as they are used for a specific purpose.

Why would I use Gastrodon over another bulky Water-type Pokemon?

Why would you use a Gastrodon over Pokémon like Suicune, Swampert (which has the same typing as Gastrodon), Rotom-Wash, or Politoed/Swift Swim users?

Gastrodon is used primarily for protecting members from single target Water-type moves, with team members benefiting directly from this such as Heatran (which also has a 4x resistance to Grass-type moves, which helps cover Gastrodon), Landorus-Therian, Arcanine, Terrakion and Mega Camerupt. Indirectly, Gastrodon can also help by covering types that are otherwise difficult for some popular Pokémon. Mega Salamence, Mega Metagross and Mega Mawile dislike fighting Steel types, with both the Steel Megas disliking Fire types as well. Gastrodon’s Water/Ground typing synergizes well as it can be built to KO said Pokemon that resist Salamence, Metagross, and Mawile.

Gastrodon checks Pokémon like Rotom-Wash, as the only way for Rotom-Wash to hurt Gastrodon is by having Will-O-Wisp, which may not even be seen on every set. It stops Suicune in its tracks other than a potental Snarl, but even then Suicune will not be exerting any pressure on Gastrodon.

Gastrodon, with enough offensive investment as shown in the EV spreads below, can get knock-outs on common Pokémon like Terrakion, Bisharp, Heatran, Mega Mawile and Mega Metagross with Earth Power. Thundurus, Zapdos, Landorus-T, Salamence and other Dragon/Flying types can be targeted with Ice-type attacks such as Ice Beam or Icy Wind.  Gastrodon can also use Water-type moves such as Muddy Water or Scald to get knock-outs on Rotom-Heat, Arcanine, Blaziken, Volcarona and Chandelure.

Gastrodon has a few useful moves, such as: Muddy Water, Scald, Earth Power, Ice Beam, Icy Wind, Sludge Bomb, Recover and Mirror Coat, with the first 5 moves being the most common for a balance between offense and defense. Muddy Water can be used as a good spread move, but it has a shaky accuracy of 85%, so it should only be used if a more accurate Water-type attack is not a necessity. Recover is more effectively used in a Trick Room scenario where it can move before the opponent’s Pokémon and able to recover health. Mirror Coat should only be considered for an Assault Vest variant, which is an extremely niche set for Gastrodon.

What does Gastrodon need to be wary of?

Gastrodon needs to be wary of most Grass types, as most common Grass-type attacks can knock it out. A small amount of defensive investment can make Giga Drain a two-hit KO from Amoongus.

• 0 SpA Amoonguss Giga Drain vs. 180 HP / 0 SpD Gastrodon: 172-208 (82.2 – 99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Gastrodon does not like to be hit with Snarls due to its mediocre special attack or heavy hitting physical moves such as Mega Kangaskhan’s Return/Double-Edge, as it heavily damages Gastrodon. Gastrodon dislikes being burned, but if it has Recover the issue can be slightly negated.

Sample Gastrodon Spreads

Offensive Gastrodon

Gastrodon @ Expert Belt
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 100 Def / 196 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 27 Spe
– Earth Power
– Ice Beam
– Scald
– Protect

Offensive Calculations

• 196+ SpA Expert Belt Gastrodon Earth Power vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Terrakion: 168-202 (100.5 – 120.9%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 196+ SpA Expert Belt Gastrodon Ice Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Salamence: 226-269 (132.1 – 157.3%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 196+ SpA Expert Belt Gastrodon Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Aegislash-Blade: 262-310 (156.8 – 185.6%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 196+ SpA Expert Belt Gastrodon Ice Beam vs. 36 HP / 4 SpD Landorus-T: 245-288 (144.9 – 170.4%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 196+ SpA Expert Belt Gastrodon Earth Power vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Metagross: 139-168 (89.1 – 107.6%) — 43.8% chance to OHKO
• 196+ SpA Expert Belt Gastrodon Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Mawile: 161-190 (102.5 – 121%) — guaranteed OHKO

Defensive Calculations

• 252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 204 HP / 100 Def Gastrodon: 121-144 (57 – 67.9%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 204 HP / 100 Def Gastrodon: 187-222 (88.2 – 104.7%) — 31.3% chance to OHKO
• 252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 204 HP / 8 SpD Gastrodon: 97-115 (45.7 – 54.2%) — 50% chance to 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Landorus-T Earthquake vs. 204 HP / 100 Def Gastrodon: 91-108 (42.9 – 50.9%) — 2.3% chance to 2HKO
• 252 Atk Tough Claws Mega Metagross Zen Headbutt vs. 204 HP / 100 Def Gastrodon: 117-138 (55.1 – 65%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Play Rough vs. 204 HP / 100 Def Gastrodon: 172-204 (81.1 – 96.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO

This is Simon Yip’s (Simon) spread who used Gastrodon successfully in a Premier Challenge. That report can be found here.

The team was composed of physical Mega Salamence, which struggles against Pokémon who resist its Aerilate boosted Flying-type attacks and Pokémon such as Mega Mawile, Aegislash, Zapdos and Mega Metagross. Simon also wanted to use a Landorus-Therian or a Terrakion in his team, but due to conflicting weaknesses, Terrakion was chosen over Landorus-T. These two are still unable to hit some Steel types such as Aegislash though. He used a Drought Ninetales that gave him some added coverage, but he needed more than one Pokémon that could hit certain threats hard in order to have a reliable team counter. This is when Gastrodon was selected for the team. Simon wanted to hit Aegislash in its Blade-form, where it is most vulnerable. Having 196 special attack EV’s with Modest nature and a speed IV of 27 enables it to under speed and KO Aegislash with Earth Power. It also can Knock out 36 Hp / 4 SpD Landorus-T, 4 Hp Mega Salamence, and 4 Hp Terrakion with Ice Beam and Earth Power respectively. This is an example of how Gastrodon can be used to fulfill an offensive role in a team. Having a special Ground-type is extremely useful in the 2015 VGC Meta game as it gets many KOs on common Pokémon highlighted before.

Supportive Gastrodon

Gastrodon @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
EVs: 148 HP / 164 Def / 100 SpA / 96 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Scald
– Earth Power
– Ice Beam
– Protect

This is my own Gastrodon spread, which was made for supporting a team rather than being a major offensive threat. It fulfilled multiple roles in my team. I used Mega Metagross, Arcanine, Gastrodon, Hydreigon, Zapdos, and Terrakion. As you can see, a bit of my team dislikes taking Scalds as Mega Metagross can get burnt, Terrakion can be brought down to its Focus Sash, and Arcanine getting hit for a lot of damage. Arcanine’s Intimidate helped Gastrodon a lot and helped check Grass types that Gastrodon needs help dealing with. The spread was built to tank Salamence’s 252 Adamant Aerilate Double-Edge, and fire back with Ice Beam. The Quiet nature helped out my team against Trick Room teams, and the reduced speed does not impact it in any other match other than against Trick Room. The remainder of the EVs were placed into special defense.

Offensive Calculations

• 100+ SpA Gastrodon Ice Beam vs. 36 HP / 4 SpD Landorus-T: 184-220 (108.8 – 130.1%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 100+ SpA Gastrodon Ice Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Salamence: 172-204 (100.5 – 119.2%) — guaranteed OHKO
• 100+ SpA Gastrodon Earth Power vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Terrakion: 128-152 (76.6 – 91%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 100+ SpA Gastrodon Earth Power vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Metagross: 108-128 (69.2 – 82%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 100+ SpA Gastrodon Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 124 SpD Mega Mawile: 108-128 (68.7 – 81.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO

Defensive Calculations

• 252+ Atk Landorus-T Earthquake vs. 148 HP / 164 Def Gastrodon: 84-100 (40.9 – 48.7%) — 99.7% chance to 3HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
• 252+ Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 148 HP / 164 Def Gastrodon: 175-207 (85.3 – 100.9%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
• 252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 148 HP / 164 Def Gastrodon: 112-133 (54.6 – 64.8%) — 14.1% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
• 252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Play Rough vs. 148 HP / 164 Def Gastrodon: 160-189 (78 – 92.1%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
• 252 Atk Tough Claws Mega Metagross Zen Headbutt vs. 148 HP / 164 Def Gastrodon: 109-129 (53.1 – 62.9%) — 1.2% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery

Defensive Gastrodon

Gastrodon @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 164 Def / 116 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 27 Spe
– Earth Power
– Ice Beam
– Recover
– Protect

This Gastrodon is built to be bulky, trying to prolong its time on the field in order to make use of its ability. The HP number minimizes burn damage. The EV spread takes Adamant 252 Attack Double-Edge from Mega Kangaskhan and Choice Specs Hydreigon’s Draco Meteor. This spread takes nearly any neutral attack, which helps Gastrodon in supporting the team. Rocky Helmet punishes physical attackers, which could potentially help teammates KO opposing Pokémon. The moves are a standard defensive set, with Earth Power dealing decent damage and Ice Beam for hitting Pokemon 4x weak to it. Recover can be used effectively due to the bulk on Gastrodon in prolonging its time on the field. Protect also helps with the goal of keeping Gastrodon on the field

Offensive

• 0 SpA Gastrodon Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 156 SpD Aegislash-Blade: 128-152 (76.6 – 91%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 0 SpA Gastrodon Earth Power vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Bisharp: 128-152 (90.7 – 107.8%) — 37.5% chance to OHKO
• 0 SpA Gastrodon Ice Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Salamence: 140-168 (81.8 – 98.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 0 SpA Gastrodon Earth Power vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Terrakion: 104-126 (62.2 – 75.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 0 SpA Gastrodon Ice Beam vs. 44 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 156-184 (91.7 – 108.2%) — 43.8% chance to OHKO

Defensive

• 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 228 HP / 164 Def Gastrodon: 180-214 (83.7 – 99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 228 HP / 116+ SpD Gastrodon: 168-198 (78.1 – 92%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 228 HP / 164 Def Gastrodon: 175-207 (81.3 – 96.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
• 252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Knock Off vs. 228 HP / 164 Def Gastrodon: 86-101 (40 – 46.9%) — guaranteed 3HKO (Noting that knock off loses power after the first hit).
• 252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 228 HP / 116+ SpD Gastrodon: 79-94 (36.7 – 43.7%) — guaranteed 3HKO

Items that Gastrodon Uses

Gastrodon can use the following items effectively:

• Expert Belt
• Sitrus Berry
• Rocky Helmet
• Assault Vest
• Leftovers
• Rindo Berry

While the items are in no specific order, Gastrodon usually runs Expert Belt, Leftovers, Sitrus Berry or Rocky Helmet. What it uses for you is dependent on what role your Gastrodon will fulfill. Sitrus Berry, Leftovers and Rocky Helmet are used for the more supportive roles, whereas the Expert Belt focuses more on its offensive Ground typing. Assault Vest is a very niche set, but can potentially be used with Mirror Coat to knock out Pokemon who hit it hard on the special spectrum such as a Mega Venasaur’s Giga Drain. This is best used in Best of One as once revealed in a Best of Three, it can be more of a hindrance due to the lack of surprise factor.

Who should I use on my team with Gastrodon?

Gastrodon has good synergy with Heatran, Talonflame, and Volcarona as they quad-resist Grass-type attacks and Gastrodon can redirect Water-type moves away from them. Talonflame in particular pairs especially well with Gastrodon as both Pokemon are either immune or resistant to each other’s weaknesses. Gastrodon can take out many Pokemon that threaten Talonflame, and likewise with Talonflame quickly eliminating opposing Grass types using Brave Bird. Heatran has good synergy with Gastrodon as well, but Gastrodon tends to take a lot of damage when facing Ground/Fighting types before it can KO them.

Volcarona is an interesting choice as it can hit Grass types very hard with both Bug Buzz and it’s array of Fire-type moves. However; Gastrodon does not have a flying resistance meaning that opposing Talonflame and Mega Salamance can hit both of them for a lot of damage.

A Mega Evolution that appreciates being paired with a Storm Drain user is Mega Camerupt, as it has a 4x weakness to water. Gastrodon can take out Landorus-Therian as well, as Landorus is a good check for both Gastrodon and Camerupt. However; other than that, there is not much Gastrodon can help Camerupt with. The shared Ground typing on both is redundant, with neither one helping each other with their weaknesses.

Mega Salamence and Mega Metagross enjoy being paired with Gastrodon as it can redirect potential burns from Scald.  Terrakion can partner with Gastrodon well as it can take out hard hitting physical Pokemon for Gastrodon, and Gastrodon can support Terrakion with Storm Drain as well as take out potential threats such as Mega Salamence.

I hope this analysis has given you an insight on why you would consider Gastrodon for your VGC 2015 team.

Credit to Simon and Angel Miranda (CT MikotaMisaka) for both helping me with the offensive team spread and their own short reports on the team.
​Credit to Stats‘ Pokémon Attack Survival Calculator as it helped with making the last spread.
Credit to P3DS and his idea of an Assault Vest Gastrodon.

The post A Sea Slug Approach: VGC ’15 Gastrodon Analysis appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Powerful, bulky and born to fight! These powerhouses are Steel-type Pokemon, and today we’re going to be looking at Steel-types that dominate the VGC 2015 metagame, and even look at some more interesting Steel-types! One thing that’s interesting about Steel-types is that there are not that many pure Steel-type Pokemon. In fact, only five Pokemon have a pure Steel typing: Registeel, Klink, Klang, Klinklang and Mega Aggron. Due to this, notable weaknesses vary by pokemon, such as pure Steel-types being weak to Fire, Ground and Fighting, while a Steel/Psychic Pokemon like Metagross has weaknesses to Fire, Ground, Ghost and Dark. On the side, Steel-types can hit for super effective damage against Fairy, Ice and Rock-type Pokemon, with Fairy-types being very common in the VGC 2015 meta due to Sylveon and Mega Gardevoir’s popularity.

In terms of offense, Steel-types are excellent and very well balanced, with Mega-Mawile having the largest Attack stat after the Huge Power boost. Other notable Steel-type Pokemon that hit hard include Mega-Scizor, which has a base 150 Attack stat, an excellent ability in Technician, and access to Bullet Punch, which experiences a strong shift in base power from 40 to 90. Another Steel-type Pokemon that carries great offensive weight is Bisharp. Bisharp is arguably one of the most used Pokemon in the VGC format today, a title that it certainly deserves. Sporting a great movepool with Iron Head, Sucker Punch, and Knock Off to boot, Bisharp’s main weight comes from its base 125 Attack stat and its ability Defiant, which boosts Bisharp’s Attack by 2 stages when a stat is lowered. When considering a lot of Pokemon carry the ability Intimidate, such as Landorus-Therian and Salamence, this is an amazing ability to have.

In terms of defense, Steel types don’t slack around either. When in Shield Forme, Aegislash has a Defense stat and Special Defense stat equal to 150. Mega-Steelix and Mega-Aggron are both amazing in the physical defense department, sharing a Defense stat of 230. One main problem with Steel-types and their defensive viability is that their weaknesses are all common types, or at least common moves. Arguably the biggest threat is Mega Charizard Y, which can deal a lot of damage and usually KO many Steel-types with Heat Wave or Overheat. Landorus-Therian can also KO Steel-Types such as Heatran and Mawile with Earthquake, while Fighting-type Pokemon are very common in VGC since they can provide Fake Out or Intimidate support.

Since we have covered the basics, let’s get straight on ahead to some viable Steel-type Pokemon in today’s metagame!

Scizor

Type: Bug/Steel

Notable Items:
Life Orb 30.0%
Lum Berry 23.7%
Scizorite 18.0%
Choice Band 14.6%
Expert Belt 2.0%

Notable Moves:
Bullet Punch 98.9%
Bug Bite 72.1%
Protect 62.0%
Swords Dance 32.2%
Knock Off 30.2%
Superpower 24.3%
U-turn 17.3%

Ah, Scizor. It’s a shame that you got such a nerf since VGC 2014, but I still see some potential in you. Scizor is rather interesting. While it is a bulky physical attacker with only one weakness in Fire, it still burns up like a marshmallow you forgot to take out of the fire against a Charizard Y. It still is being used today, and for good reason. Technician means that you’ll usually be hitting Pokemon like Kangaskhan hard with a Bullet Punch at 90 base power. In addition, since these days most people don’t expect Scizor too much or don’t really know what to do against it, you can usually get off a free Swords Dance if the opponent lets you.

Scizors in VGC 2015 are usually always Adamant, and most other natures can just be overlooked for now. You don’t want to invest too much in Speed with Jolly because you want to hit hard, and you want to keep yourself bulky so you can take hits and whatnot. Bullet Punch is a must for Scizor, as it allows for priority and hits very hard with the Technician and STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) boosts. You also have Bug Bite, which gets a Technician boost and STAB, but also consumes the opponent’s berry, which is super helpful considering that a lot of Pokemon like Rotom-Wash have Sitrus Berries attached to them. Superpower,, in my opinion, is extremely helpful, as it takes care of Pokemon that otherwise wall it completely, like Heatran.

Example Sets

Randy Kwa’s Scizor set (16th Place at US 2014 Nationals)

Scizor @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 12 HP / 236 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
– Bullet Punch
– Feint
– U-turn
– Protect

Aaron Grubbs’s Scizor set (Top 8 at Kansas Regionals 2014)

Scizor @ Lum Berry
Ability: Technician
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 SDef
Adamant Nature
– Bullet Punch
– X-Scissor
– Swords Dance
– Protect

Mawile

Type: Steel/Fairy

Notable Items:
Mawilite 99.9%

Notable Moves:
Play Rough 94.2%
Sucker Punch 90.4%
Protect 80.7%
Iron Head 72.5%
Rock Slide 33.1%
Fire Fang 10.6%
Knock Off 10.2%

Now we get to a very powerful Pokemon in Mega-Mawile, not normal Mawile. It goes without saying that if you’re using Mawile instead of Mega-Mawile, you’re doing something wrong. With amazing utility in Trick Room and rain teams, Mega-Mawile finds its spot in many teams with its enormous Attack stat. Who knew that such a small Pokemon like Mawile could hit so hard? Seen in National Champion teams and World Champion teams alike in 2014, how does Mega-Mawile fare in the VGC 2015 format? Short answer: it still works, but today, we’re putting on our science pants and taking a look at what makes Mega-Mawile work. First, we’re going to be taking a look at Mega-Mawile’s stats: 50 HP / 105 Atk / 125 Def / 55 SpAtk / 95 SpDef / 50 Spe. As you can see, its saving grace is its Defense. Without it, Mega-Mawile would be the equivalent of Cacturne or Golurk, powerful hitters but lacking in everything else. That big of a Defense stat actually allows Mega-Mawile to survive more than what you may give it credit for.

Just like Scizor, Mega-Mawile is usually Adamant nature. If you ask me, the EV spread of Mega-Mawile should usually be a simple 252/4/252. You don’t have to use this spread, but the extra HP really helps Mawile survive a lot of attacks. As you can see up in the Notable Moves list, Mawile actually has a lot of good moves for VGC, like Iron Head, Play Rough, Sucker Punch and even Rock Slide. One of my favorite parts about Mawile is its usage in Trick Room. Mawile’s biggest weakness is its Speed, and Trick Room erases that weakness completely while making Mawile a huge threat. Another usage for Mawile is on rain teams, which can weaken Fire-type attacks directed at Mawile while Politoed covers Fire-types and Ground-types.

Example Sets

Paul Chua’s Mawile set (Top 8 at Philadelphia Regionals)

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
– Iron Head
– Play Rough
– Sucker Punch
– Protect

Collin Heier’s Mawile set (3rd Place at 2014 Worlds in the Masters Division)

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Atk / 4 Def / 116 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Play Rough
– Iron Head
– Sucker Punch
– Protect

Metagross

Type: Steel/Psychic 

Notable Items
Metagrossite 89.2%
Assault Vest 8%
Choice Band 5.1%

Notable Moves
Zen Headbutt  96.1%
Protect 89.2%
Iron Head 52.9%
Ice Punch 52%
Bullet Punch 47.1%
Meteor Mash 27.5%
Hammer Arm 10.8%

Metagross is a Pokemon that is growing in popularity these days, and why shouldn’t it? With base 110 Speed, 145 Attack plus Tough Claws boost, and decent bulk, the only thing keeping Metagross from being amazing is the defensive nerf that was given to Steel-types, leaving it with weaknesses to Ghost and Dark. In terms of movepool, Metagross isn’t the best, but in a weird mix, it isn’t bad either. (Most Steel types seem to have this issue as well.) Zen Headbutt, Iron Head and even Meteor Mash are all fairly decent, and it also gets moves like Ice Punch for coverage. Also, and this applies to most of the Pokemon that I’ve mentioned, be extremely careful for Will-O-Wisp. Pokemon like Gengar, Rotom-Wash, Rotom-Heat, and defensive Arcanine are, in my opinion, the best switch-ins to Mega Metagross with either Intimidate, Will-O-Wisp, or the Fire typing.

I prefer Jolly Nature on Mega Metagross. Metagross is already powerful enough with 145 Base Attack plus the Tough Claws boost, so Adamant isn’t too necessary. Metagross is another Pokemon that can have a simple EV spread. However, it’s usually helpful to make a couple complex EV spreads. For example, if you’re going to run Substitute Mega Metagross, you’re going to want to invest in some bulk. Metagross should always be Clear Body, which blocks Intimidate, while Light Metal isn’t helpful in the slightest. Quick note: on the first turn, I recommend you Protect since you are going to be pretty slow with only 70 Base Speed. However, if the situation is such that it isn’t necessary to Protect on the first turn, then you don’t really have to. A Pokemon you should worry about is Heatran. Except for say, Zen Headbutt, you can’t really do much to Heatran.

Example Sets

KellsterCartier’s Metagross set (2015 VGC European Regional Runner Up)

Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Bullet Punch
– Zen Headbutt
– Ice Punch
– Protect

Rapha’s Metagross set (2015 VGC Oregon Regionals 9th Place)

Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Atk / 4 Def / 36 SpD / 180 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Iron Head
– Zen Headbutt
– Substitute
– Protect

Heatran

Type: Fire/Steel

Notable Items
Leftovers 41.6%
Air Balloon 13.7%
Chople Berry 8.2%
Choice Specs 7.3%

Notable Moves
Heat Wave 86.6%
Earth Power 83.0%
Protect 81.2%
Flash Cannon 47.7%
Substitute 38.3%
Ancient Power 20.4%
Overheat 13.7%

Heatran is currently the 8th most used Pokemon on Battle Spot, and for good reason. With base 130 Special Attack and amazing bulk to cover it, Heatran is one of the best Steel-types you can imagine. Heatran is special compared most Steel-types due to its ability Flash Fire, which allows it to be completely immune to Fire-type attacks. With this ability, Heatran can wall huge threats such as Charizard Y, Gengar and other Steel-types. Unlike most of the other Pokemon that I’ve mentioned in this article, Heatran hasn’t changed too much since 2013. It’s just as good as it was in 2013, so accomplishments from those years are still legitimate. One big problem that Heatran has always suffered is its 4x weakness to Ground-type attacks, making items like Shuca Berry a great item for Heatran.

As stated earlier, Heatran’s biggest weakness is Ground-type attacks. Considering Pokemon like Garchomp and Landorus-Therian are very common, this could lead to a whole bundle of problems. Because of this, players seem forced to run Shuca Berry on Heatran. However, the best set for Heatran is usually the Leftovers Substitute set, as you can set up a substitute that allows you to take at least one Earthquake. This is actually the reason Heatran is so popular on Trick Room teams, as it can outspeed both Landorus-Therian and Garchomp in Trick Room. Bisharp could also be a problem, especially the Focus Sash variant, since it can survive one Heat Wave or Earth Power and then Knock Off for about 50% damage onto a normal Heatran set. Heatran is just as solid if not better than it was during 2013, since now it can put in a lot of pressure on Fairy types that dominate the meta, such as Sylveon.

Example Sets

Hayden McTavish’s set (Seniors 2013 World Champion)

Heatran @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 44 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 204 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Heat Wave
– Protect
– Earth Power
– Substitute

Arash Ommati’s set (Masters 2013 World Champion)

Heatran (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 212 HP / 4 Def / 36 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
– Substitute
– Heat Wave
– Protect
– Earth Power

Bisharp

Type: Dark/Steel

Notable Items:
Life Orb 59.5%
Focus Sash 35.0%
Lum Berry 1.9%

Notable Moves:
Sucker Punch 99.5%
Iron Head 99.4%
Protect 96.2%
Knock Off 95.5%

Bisharp is the most used Steel-type Pokemon on Battle Spot, and just like Heatran, for very good reason. Now before we begin talking about how great Bisharp is, let’s talk about its biggest flaw in my opinion. It’s amazingly easy to counter Bisharp. The reason why I say this is that, well, most Bisharps are usually the same. They usually have Life Orb or Focus Sash, and they usually have the same four moves: Sucker Punch, Iron Head, Protect and Knock Off. You don’t want to replace any of those moves, as they are almost essential for Bisharp to perform well, which means you won’t be running into any Slash Bisharps any time soon. Because of this, you can usually play around Bisharp since you know what it’s going to do…that is if it lets you. Bisharp may just be the most offensive Pokemon in today’s metagame. Is that an exaggeration? Maybe. But at the same time, if you play Bisharp correctly, it WILL take something down with it. Some people are usually turned off to using Bisharp because of its big weakness to Fighting-type Pokemon, and why shouldn’t they? With Pokemon like Conkeldurr, Terrakion and even Hariyama and Hitmontop walking around, it is going to set off some alarms. But like how we explored what makes Heatran a great Pokemon, types don’t mean everything.

Bisharp’s biggest strength is its base Attack stat of 125 and its great (albeit less varied) movepool. With it, it can switch in to Pokemon like Charizard Y and use Sucker Punch, or it can use Knock Off on Pokemon like Heatran for about 55% damage. Most Bisharps run a simple 252/252 spread and are almost always Adamant. Big Pokemon to look out for include Terrakion, Charizard, Heatran and Landorus-Therian. On the other hand, Bisharp can easily counter Pokemon like Sylveon and Cresselia. Focus Sash is still probably the best item to have on Bisharp since it can survive a Heat Wave from, say, Heatran and use Knock Off. Bisharp can also survive an Earthquake from Landorus-Therian with the Focus Sash, then knock it out with Knock Off and Sucker Punch. Life Orb is another option, and can deal much more damage than Focus Sash Bisharp.

Example Sets

Alec Rubin’s Bisharp Set (2015 Virginia Regionals 3rd Place)

Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
Adamant Nature
Evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
– Protect
– Sucker Punch
– Iron Head
– Assurance

Pietro Chiri’s Bisharp Set (2014 Italy Nationals Top Cut)

Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
Adamant Nature
Evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
– Protect
– Sucker Punch
– Iron Head
– Brick Break

Aegislash

Type: Steel/Ghost

Notable Items:
Weakness Policy 45.3%
Leftovers 28.6%
Life Orb 11.6%
Safety Goggles 6.0%

Notable Moves:
King’s Shield 96.9%
Shadow Ball 94.6%
Flash Cannon 83.3%
Wide Guard 64.3%
Substitute 18.8%
Shadow Sneak 18.3%
Sacred Sword 8.7%

Currently 10th on the Battle Spot Doubles Statistics, Aegislash is extremely versatile. It can be a Trick Room Sweeper, a Bulky Wall with offensive power, or even both. Aegislash can run a multitude of sets, depending on what you really want in terms of a Pokemon. Aegislash, like most of the Pokemon on this article, is extremely vulnerable to Spread Moves like Heat Wave and Earthquake. However, it gets a move that does cover this weakness, and that move is Wide Guard. Sure there are moves like Overheat that knock it out through Wide Guard, but that’s why you have King’s Shield. In Shield Forme, Aegislash has a base 15o stat in both defenses. While in Blade Forme its stats switch to 150 in both attacks, further proving the point that Aegislash is extremely versatile.

Aegislash is usually Quiet nature, or sometimes Modest. Quiet is most common because with Quiet nature it can perform extremely well under Trick Room. As for EV spreads, a good example would be Alex Ogloza’s Aegislash EV spread, which I find very useful. The EV spread is as follows: 236 HP / 252 SpA / 20 Spe. With this set, it can stall Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Mawile with Leftovers. Attacks that can do major damage to Aegislash are Talonflame’s Flare Blitz, Bisharp’s Knock Off (which can remove Aegislash’s Leftovers) and Rotom-Heat’s and Charizard-Y’s Overheat. With Substitute, Aegislash can stay on the battlefield for a long time when played right. Because of this and King’s Shield, Aegislash is a big threat.

Example Sets

Alex Ogloza’s Aegislash set (US National Champion in the Masters Division)

Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 236 HP / 252 SAtk / 20 Spd
Nature: Modest
– Shadow Ball
– King’s Shield
– Flash Cannon
– Substitute

Conan Thompson’s Aegislash set (US Oregon 1st Place in Masters)

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
– Shadow Ball
– Wide Guard
– Flash Cannon
– King’s Shield

Honorable Mentions

Steelix is a Pokemon that I personally believe is underrated, but of course, I do see why trainers don’t use Mega Steelix. In my eyes, Mega Steelix is probably one of the best Pokemon to have on a SandRoom (Sand and Trick Room) team, since it gets the ability Sand Force, which boosts its already pretty high Attack stat. With its low Speed, it becomes a powerhouse once you set up Trick Room. However, due to it being weak to a lot of popular Pokemon like Terrakion and Charizard Y, Steelix only gets an Honorable Mention.

Lucario is interesting. It can run Follow Me for a support option, or it can be one of the best Kangaskhan counters if it holds the Lucarionite. However, all the pros of Lucario are outweighed heavily by the cons. The biggest problem Lucario faces is its frailty, as it loses to a lot of common Pokemon like Charizard Y, Terrakion, Landorus-Therian and Heatran. Because of this, Lucario only gets an Honorable Mention.

An Iron-Willed Conclusion!

Terrible conclusion name aside, thank you for reading all the way through! I hope I could teach you a bit more about a fan favorite Pokemon type and some of the strongest Pokemon in the VGC 2015 metagame. That’s all for me, see ya!

The post Metal Detecting: A VGC ’15 Overview of Steel-type Pokémon appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Hey everyone, this is Adib. I’m here today to talk about how you can setup your Secret Base quickly and in a way that can help you raise an individual Pokémon’s EVs, happiness and levels much faster. Notice that I said “individual.” For EV training multiple Pokémon, horde battling is far more efficient. For more details, see Gonzo’s horde battling article for ORAS. For individual Pokémon, however, EV training can basically be a matter of talking to a few NPCs in about two minutes when you have a competitive Secret Base.

NOTE: I won’t talk about decorations and the like in this article. Plenty of other people have already written very good guides about that on more general sites like Bulbagarden. This article will also assume you know the very basics of Secret Bases, such as collecting flags, setting up decorations, adding/generating QR codes, adding Secret Pals, etc.

Why Secret Bases Are Helpful Competitively

Short answer: competitive secret bases allow easy daily access to:

• 300 EVs
• 10 levels
• 10 massages + 1 in Mauvile City

Long answer: read on.

In each Secret Base, you can have up to five Secret Pals, all of whom you can recruit from other Secret Bases you get from StreetPass. Each Secret Pal comes packed with up to four Special Skills, depending on the avatar type of the Secret Pal. To use a skill, simply talk to a Secret Pal in your Secret Base, select “Show me a special skill,” then choose the skill you want to use.

If you have collected 1000 flags and achieved Platinum Rank status, then each Secret Pal can use two skills per day which is huge. The skills are listed in the table below (Source: Serebii & Bulbapedia):

As you can see, most of the skills in the above table are either useless or inferior to other methods available in the game. However, the top three rows highlighted in bold—Massages, Do Some Training, Do Some Exercise—are the reason why you should even bother setting up a competitive Secret Base in the first place.

After getting 1000 flags and achieving Platinum Rank status, you can use these three skills twice a day for each of the five Secret Pals. If you do the math, each Secret Pal can give you 30 EVs per selected stat to a Pokemon twice a day. Multiply those 60 EVs by the 5 Secret Pals available and you’ve got 300 free EVs every day right there. By the same logic, you’ve also got access to 10 free levels or 10 massages or various combinations of the three per day.

The 300 EVs part is huge because it means that when combined with vitamins, wings, and/or 1-2 quick Super Training exercises, you can fully EV train an individual Pokémon without horde battling in many cases — just by talking to a few NPCs over the course of two minutes. The 10 massages, in addition to the 1 in Mauville City, allows you to raise your Pokémon’s happiness very quickly. This is (debatably) good news for Kangaskhan!

However, there is a catch—in order for each Secret Pal to have access to at least three skills and the ability to use them twice a day, you must collect 1000 flags and talk to Aarune to reach Platinum Rank status. That’s a lot of flags. You can collect 1 flag from each Secret Base currently in your game once a day. Sounds like it would take forever, doesn’t it? Well, not really.

Fly by Easy Access

Before I discuss how to efficiently collect 1000 flags, make sure to set up your Secret Base somewhere very close to a place you can Fly to. Don’t forget, you can fly near signposts you’ve checked on routes as well as cave entrances now! Also, avoid setting up your Secret Base in a place where you have to use an HM move like Surf or Rock Smash to access. It’ll get really old really fast. By having your Secret Base in a place you can Fly directly to, you’ll significantly cut down on the amount of time needed to collect 1000 flags and even future EV training once you’re done.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about how you can collect 1000 flags very quickly.

How to Quickly Collect 1000 Flags

User PreyingShark made a very good post about how to do this here, but here’s the process below:

1. Update your BuzzNav once every 8 hours by simply connecting to the Internet. This allows you to receive more Secret Bases through StreetPass.
2. After each update, go to the new bases that appeared and collect their flags.
3. Recruit all of the new Secret Base trainers as your Secret Pals. This may require several trips, as you can only have five Secret Pals at a time.
4. Go back to your base and talk to each Secret Pal. Each will give you 0 – 30 or more extra flags.
5. Tell each Secret Pal to leave your base by selecting “Let’s say good-bye”
6. Repeat steps 1 – 5 every 8 hours.
7. After the game clock rolls over to midnight, the flags in each Secret Base in your game will respawn. Run around and collect them all. And DON’T try to change your 3DS’s clock to try getting more flags. It won’t work.

PreyingShark managed to get about 400 flags in three days using the above 7 steps. Collecting 1000 flags isn’t anywhere near as time-consuming as it sounds. However, this method means that you won’t have permanent Secret Pals until after you’ve collected 1000 flags. Speaking of Secret Pals…

Which Secret Pals to Invite Back to Base?

Okay, so now you’ve collected 1000 flags, talked to Aarune in Fortree City to get the Platinum Rank Flag and won a Garchompite from a Flygon trainer (really, GameFreak?). Now it’s time to invite five Secret Pals with the following three skills we talked about earlier back to your Secret Base for a permanent stay. These skills are:

• Do Some Exercise
• Do Some Training
• Massages

However, you can’t just invite anybody. Different Secret Base trainer classes have different combinations of Special Skills. Unfortunately, since many of the Special Skills are useless, this means that many of the trainer classes available (including the ever popular Ace Trainer) come packed with many useless skills. You’ll want to invite only the Secret Base trainers that have all three of the above competitively useful skills. These trainer classes are as follows:

• Black Belt
• Battle Girl
• Expert (male & female)

Not a lot of options, are there? Well, anyways, after you invite your Black Belt, Battle Girl and Expert Secret Pals to stay over at your base permanently, feel free to add those Lv. 100 Blissey bases that have spread like wildfire across the Internet to your Favorites list since you likely won’t be downloading new Secret Bases like crazy anymore. This way, you’ll also ensure you’ll never lose access to your Blissey bases.

Oh and for those of you who don’t know, these “Blissey Bases” are Secret Bases setup by other players that are filled with three Lv. 100 Blissey without any damaging attacks. Together, they allow you to level up your Pokemon at rates unseen before in the franchise. Definitely download as many as you can by scanning their QR codes!

How to Avoid Overwriting Your Secret Base Team

This last section actually has no impact as far as making your base competitively useful. However, many people have accidentally overwritten their Secret Base teams due to the auto-Game Sync that happens whenever you save online, so this section will talk about how to prevent that from happening. After all, once you get 1000 flags, Platinum Rank status and decorate your Secret Base to your heart’s content, you’ll probably want to show off your awesome base to the rest of the world. This includes creating your very own Secret Base team of literally any three Pokémon in the game. This means you can use that Mega Rayquaza you used to clear the Elite Four or whatever.

However, there’s a few things you need to be careful about. Your Secret Base team of three Pokémon is determined by the order of the first three Pokémon in your party. Every time you Game Sync, your Secret Base team is updated to whatever three Pokémon you have leading your party. Most players automatically Game Sync their games by saving while connected to the Internet. This means that if you’re not careful, that Secret Base dream team of Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza will turn into a Talonflame and two random baby Pokémon you just hatched just before you traded with somebody by going online. It’d be a pain to have to lead with your Secret Base team every time you go online, so how do you save your Secret Base team without a ton of hassle?

It turns out all you have to do is turn AutoSync off. Here’s how you do it:

1. Go to the Player Search System
2. Click on Game Sync
3. Click on Settings
4. Click on Turn off AutoSync

And that’s it. This makes it so that the game doesn’t automatically Game Sync whenever you save while connected to the Internet. Therefore, your Secret Base team won’t be overwritten every time you save while playing online. Now, whenever you want to GameSync, you’ll have to do it manually using Steps 1, 2 and the prompts on the screen while having your Secret Base team occupying the first three slots in your party in your desired order.

On a sidenote, it’s recommended to raise your Secret Base team to Lv. 100 so that people will be more inclined to download and battle against it. Your non-Blissey team may not give as much experience, but it would still give a lot and make things a little more refreshing to other players who’re used to bashing a bunch of Blisseys.

Conclusion

Well, that’s pretty much all I got as far as making your Secret Base competitively useful. Personally, I had a blast decorating and customizing my Secret Base as I unlocked more decorations by collecting more flags, and I hope you will too. Setting up these competitive Secret Bases isn’t hard and it certainly isn’t as time-consuming as it may seem at first. And the reward of being able to EV train an individual Pokémon and/or drastically raise a Pokémon’s happiness just by talking to a few NPCs in minutes is worth it.

The post Competitive Secret Base Training: A Setup Guide appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

It’s that time of year again guys; Nationals season is finally upon us! The bountiful feast of Championship Points will be ripe for the taking as the best that Europe can muster will do battle for the first of three clashes in Stuttgart, Germany on the 16^th and 17^th May. We’ll be looking at how the rankings currently stack up in Europe, give a little time going over the boring information part relating to the event, as well as going over the names that we can expect to see at the front of the field.

Prizes

As expected, there is a mountain of Championship Points on the line for players attending, far above what has been seen so far at the Regional events. These points are critical for securing that important invite to the Pokémon World Championships that are being held in Boston, Massachusetts from 21^st – 23^rd August. In addition to the points, there will be some very valuable Pokémon and Nintendo prizes on offer to those who do well.

1^st Place:

• 1^st Place ‘Champion’ Trophy
• Nintendo Wii U Deluxe
• Groudon Playmat
• 600 Championship Points

2^nd Place:

• 2^nd Place ‘Finalist’ Trophy
• A “New” Nintendo 3DS / 3DS XL
• Groudon Playmat
• 500 Championship Points

3^rd & 4^th Place:

• 3^rd and 4^th Place ‘Semi-Finalist’ Trophies
• A “New” Nintendo 3DS / 3DS XL
• Groudon Playmat
• 400 Championship Points

5^th – 8^th Place:

• 36 Booster Packs of XY Roaring Skies
• Kyogre Playmat
• 300 Championship Points

9^th – 16^th Place:

• 200 Championship Points

17^th – 32^nd Place:

• 150 Championship Points

33^rd – 64^th Place:

• 100 Championship Points [128+ Players Required]

65^th – 128^th Place:

• 50 Championship Points [256+ Players Required]

Current CP Rankings

With the season now starting to reach a climax, each of the preview articles for the National Championships will feature the current CP Rankings in Europe. I will be focusing on the paid world invite positions, the Top 16 in Europe, as well as give the current cut-off for the unpaid invites for reference. These figures are correct as of the 5^th May on Pokémon Global Link:

It is worth pointing out that these rankings do not include the International Challenge held in April, and the CP awarded to those who did well enough to get points has yet to be distributed. Taking this into account, both Barry and Baris are in fact level on 316 CP thus jointly leading the way. Another interesting point is that the standings are still fairly compact so there will be a great deal of change throughout the field, and we will have a clearer indication of who will likely be heading to Boston by the close of play on Sunday. I’m expecting 16^th place to have roughly 320 CP, while 60^th is likely to be in excess of 200 CP following this event.

The Main Event

Difficulty Rating:

/ 5

(Five cogs in a well-oiled machine of German efficiency) / 5

Location: Carl Benz Arena, Mercedesstraβe 73, 70372 Stuttgart, Germany

Registration Time: 7.30am – 9.00am (You must be in the line by 9am to register!), Saturday 16^th May

In addition to the above information, there are a couple of further points that are worth noting. Firstly and possibly most importantly, players are reminded that they need to update to the latest version of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire on their games. It is your responsibility as a participant to adhere to this rule. If a player is found to not have updated to version 1.4, they will be subject to disqualification from the event. You will also require a completed team sheet at this event, which will need to be provided to organizers at registration. Please come prepared, as it will speed up the registration process.

Players are advised that there will be no lunch break during the event. Drinks and snacks will be offered at the venue, and players are advised to consume food and drinks between rounds. Please remember to take your Player ID to the event if you already have one. There will not be any byes awarded for the first round of swiss this year for those at the top of the CP Rankings, so everyone will be starting on a level playing field regardless of their achievement this season to date.

However, the notable piece of information is that the top cut will comprise all players that have an X-2 record or better, assuming that the division attendance is 65 or greater. This will almost certainly be achieved in the Masters Division and is likely also for Seniors, but may not be hit with the Junior Division, based on attendance figures last year. The top cut itself will be a single-elimination bracket, with byes awarded to the top seeds in the opening round should the number of players not equate to a power of two, similar to the format of the Nugget Bridge Major.

There will be a commentated live stream available to watch throughout the weekend for those unable to attend. A brief run-down of the schedule for live stream is given below:

Saturday 16^th May Live-Stream Schedule

• Live-stream starts at 12 o’clock till end of swiss rounds/Saturday top cut.

Sunday 17^th May Live-Stream Schedule

• 09:00 – 10:15 TCG AT Masters Top 8
• 10:30 – 11:45 TCG DE Masters Top 8 (TCG AT Masters Top 4 will not be streamed)
• 11:45 – 12:30 VGC Masters Top 8
• 13:00 – 14:15 TCG AT Masters FINALS (TCG DE Masters Top 4 will not be streamed)
• 14:15 – 15:00 VGC Masters Top 4
• 15:30 – 16:45 TCG DE Masters FINALS
• 16:45 – 17:30 VGC Masters FINALS

You can watch the live stream here; and you can find this information regarding the tournament, including side events to be held here.

Last Years’ Results:

1. Markus Stadter (13Yoshi37)
2. Simon Stanford (Falco)
3. Nemanja Sandic (Porengan)
4. Matthias Suchodolski (Lega)
5. Lajos Kowalewski (Lajo)
6. Zacharias Daum (Mercury)
7. Stephan Appelfeller (Appi)
8. Szymon Wojdat (Szymoninho)
9. Timo Koppetsch (37TimoK1)
10. Florian Wurdack (DaFlo)
11. Carlo Arbelli (shinycarletto)
12. Baris Akcos (Billa)
13. Steve Edgson (SirSmoke)
14. Faaiz Ashfaq (Feis)
15. Ciskejan Giannakos (sagaciousslowpoke)
16. Jake Birch (WhiteAfroKing92)

The Scoop

This tournament without question will feature the biggest number of established names in Europe at one event this year so far. Understandably so due to the volume of points it’s awarding, as well as the prestige of the title, which is reflected in the difficulty rating above. Arguably, Germany is the most important National event for the players in Europe. An excellent result here will potentially provide them with a World Championship invite meaning that any further events they participate in will have less pressure on their shoulders to do well. While winning here is not an iron-clad guarantee to get a paid invite, it certainly will put whoever does win in the driving seat.

The event promises to be a multi-cultural one and numerous countries will be represented in Stuttgart, from Ireland to Italy, Poland to Portugal. This cauldron of clashing styles promises to simmer over the weekend, before coming to the boil in the final matches!

Returning Top-Cut Players

Most of the players who made the top-cut last year will be back in attendance this year. Last years’ undefeated champion Markus Stadter will be looking to have his battling do the talking this weekend as he looks to defend his title, but it would be a herculean effort to have another clean run this year. His season thus far has been solid despite not attending any Regionals so far for various reasons, lying 32^nd in the rankings, which is respectable given the circumstances. However, Simon Stanford, who he beat en-route to the title, will not be attending as it seems he was last seen sat in a cinema waiting for the new Star Wars movie to release. All I will say is may the Force be with him on his wait! Both semi-finalists, Nemanja Sandic and Matthias Suchodolski, will be looking to go further this year. Nemanja has had a relatively quiet season thus far but could be someone to look towards for an unusual team composition that may be his key to unlocking success, especially based from his exploits last year. Matthias meanwhile has some good form with his 5^th Place in Arnhem helping to place him 10th on the rankings list.

Lajos Kowalewski and Szymon Wojdat have confirmed they will be back to try and improve on their quarter-final berths. For Lajos, his exploits at various Premier Challenges, including those under the Arena Cup have given him a workable platform in the standings, currently sitting at 38^th. Lajos looks to be in good form regardless, with a Top 16 berth in the Nugget Bridge Major for another feather in his cap. For Polish player Szymon, this will be his first and only major event for this season, barring a strong run to qualify for worlds. That said, do not discount Szymon because of a lack of live tournament practice, as he’s more than capable of pulling out results.

Of the remaining top-cut players, seven have confirmed their attendance plans. While Faaiz Ashfaq and Ciskejan Giannakos will not be present, Timo Koppetsch, Florian Wurdack, Baris Akcos, Steve Edgson and Jake Birch will be taking part. Of the German players in this quintet, Baris has had the strongest season thus far with two 6^th place finishes at the Regionals in Arnhem and Sutton Coldfield, and goes into the tournament effectively as CP co-leader in Europe. If there is one person I would bank on top cutting, Baris is currently top of the list. Timo is also not to be discounted either, and has had a solid season amongst the Premier Challenges to lie in 29^th on the rankings. With Florian, I think this tournament will hopefully be the spark of life his world championship crusade needs after a relatively low-key spring, though he still remains in the Major at the time of writing. As we saw in the standings above, Florian sits in 16^th place for CP. With all three being ex-world competitors however, they are more than capable of claiming the title here. The British duo of Steve and Jake have had rather contrasting seasons. In Steve’s case, a steady run of good Premier Challenge results has been met with some pretty underwhelming Regional results. His 89^th position in the CP rankings reflects this. However, Steve does boast a flawless record of reaching the knockout stages at Nationals he’s attended, so on that statistic we should expect nothing short of another top cut! Jake on the other hand has had only a couple of notable Premier Challenge performances earning points, but has enjoyed decent success at Regional events with a 9^th Place in Sutton Coldfield and a Top 32 in Arnhem, so sits 105^th in the standings.

Players to look out for

Despite the strong array of players already mentioned, there are still plenty more on the radar that will be looking to carve a path to the trophy. Even looking at the Top 16 of the CP standings there are a host of recognisable names amongst them. As the effective co-leader in the rankings with Baris, Barry Anderson has been able to bounce back from a disappointing UK Regional showing by his standards with his fourth Premier Challenge victory of the season. Barry is a fierce competitor, I have no doubts he will be re-doubling his efforts to make a triumphant return to the top table at the main events. At 3^rd in the rankings, Canadian-Irishman Kelly Mercier-White will be making one of his two planned National appearances for the year.  Kelly’s season has shown a high level of consistency in every event he has attended, sharing many similarities with Baris, so will be a solid shout to do well in Germany. Yan Sym is possibly Europe’s biggest dark horse this year to find himself in 5^th Place for CP. Yan’s 5^th Place at Sutton Coldfield has probably helped to cement the view that he is a valid contender to make World’s this year, and he has earned CP at every regional event thus far. Continuing down the list in 6^th place, Austrian Noah Fuchs will also be looking to get stuck into the thick of the invite battle, and is another person that has put in an assured performance this season to stake his claim to being at the World Championships. Noah will be keen to back up his Top 8 result earned at Arnhem in Stuttgart.

7^th through to 9^th in the CP standings sees unquestionably the three biggest names in the Italian scene in Arash Ommati, Alberto Gini, and his brother Matteo in close company. All three are potentially viable candidates to win the event, but I feel the formbook favours Alberto to date with his Top 8 in Rome only a few weeks ago. Matteo was somewhat unfortunate to end up 17^th in Rome due to resistance, for those extra championship points. And while Arash struggled in Rome, he does have a Top 16 Regional result from Arnhem to his name. Do not be surprised if one of them manages to claim a National title this season. I think it’s some kind of unwritten rule that it should happen, along with the one that also says Zach Droegkamp wins a Regional every season.

Moving further down in 12^th place, Eloy Hahn from Germany is another potential name that could be one to watch. He was able to hit the ground running this season with a top cut in Arnhem, and is a seasoned individual, thus will be able to manage the pressure situations. Just below Eloy in the standings is Christoph Kugeler, who I expect to be in attendance in Stuttgart. However, I’ve only got second-hand information on the matter, plus Christoph has been keen to keep expectation on his performances in check. In 14^th place for CP, Lee Provost will be looking to shift his season into another gear, although I am making the assumption he will be making the trip out rather than from a confirmation. His 10^th place finish in Sutton Coldfield was a positive result to work with, so expect Lee to build on that and go even further, as I am sure he will be keen to replicate his run at Worlds for a second consecutive year. The last name I want to cover within the Top 16 not already mentioned is Austrian Thomas Schadinger. While the other names in this list are fairly high-profile or have produced a notable result this season, Thomas has generally slipped into his current position relatively unnoticed. His 9^th place in Rome went by largely without any fanfare, though it was understandable by the lack of information that came out from that particular event. I would be keen to see Thomas make the single-elimination section of the tournament, but a solid performance will be needed regardless to maintain his position.

The Chasing Pack

We’ve covered a significant number of players, but there are still so many that would be foolish to gloss over. Starting with those from Germany, one player who I’ve yet to mention is Jan Michelberger (Lati). Like many of the players that will follow, he is an ex-Worlds competitor, and should be treated as a valid contender for the title. At 44^th place on the rankings, Jan currently has an invite spot, but a solid result will be required to solidify his position. Michael Richert (Michilele) is well known among the usual suspects as a solid, respected player who can easily take a battle to the strongest opponents. Despite being outside the invite spots at 92^nd, a healthy haul of points would lift him up in the standings; I personally feel he could get a real result from this weekend. I had the pleasure to battle Michael in Arnhem, one match I’m not likely to forget any time soon. One player definitely in need of a strong result is Marcel Kapelle (Massi), who sits in 131^st position currently. I’m not totally sure of the situation regarding Marcel’s lowly position here. I’m assuming it’s a lack of Premier Challenge attendances rather than form, as Marcel is still in the hunt to win the Major at the time of writing. Whatever the reason, this is one of two planned National events he is attending, so keep a sharp eye out for him as the event progresses.

While there are no Dutch players inside the paid invite spots, there are a couple of notable names hovering on the fringes in Andres Escabosa (000aj) and Huib Buijssen (Lolnub) among the fairly solid contingent attending. At 20^th and 23^rd in the rankings respectively, both players will be looking to build on their Premier Challenge platform and push towards qualifying for Worlds, with an eye for a paid trip on the agenda. I think the strength of the Dutch contingent of players this year has improved significantly and I would be disappointed if neither to these two qualify. Realistically, CP is the target for both to maintain pace with the pack.

With regards to Italian players, three more names yet to be mentioned spring to mind. These are Simone Sanvito (Sanvy) lying in 27^th, Andrea Sala (Yaya) lying in 52^nd and Nicholas Rottoli (Wonder) who lies in 70^th. Despite all three being reasonably strongly placed in the rankings, all three failed to make a significant impression in Rome as I had expected them to. It will be interesting to see if any of them step up to the plate in Stuttgart to answer the questions that will be posed to them.

Finally, we move onto those from the United Kingdom, and there are a few here that stand out. Two of the four individuals that made up team fruitcake are key players in William Tansley (StarKO) who lies 28^th, and Steve Edgson’s dutiful and far less good-looking sidekick Ben Kyriakou (Kyriakou) lying back in 126^th. For Will, I have quite often backed him to the hilt as a good friend who I know is capable of results if he’s on form. Premier Challenge results aside, I do not believe we’ve seen him hit his stride in the main events. In Ben’s case however, this season seems to have treated him less than favorably and it shows in his low ranking position. I can’t discount Ben to produce a result here, but smart money is on an average CP haul to keep him in the hunt for an invite. I want to be proven wrong here Ben! Justin Miller (ThrillerMiller9) as well as his brother Jamie (Blaze King7) are both making the trip and should be respected. Justin fared better than his brother in Sutton Coldfield, who struggled badly like many good players on the day. But, as a result of the CP awarded from Regionals, both are in serious need to get a good result from Stuttgart to stay on track for a worlds invite. The same rings true for Christopher Arthur (Koryo) if he is heading out like I assume he will. Christopher should rebound strongly for his average performance in Sutton Coldfield, and will need to in order to regain his place inside the Top 60 in Europe.

As an added extra…

I recently had the opportunity to join Baz Anderson for one of his YouTube videos as one of his guests, discussing the prospective players who we expect to do well in Stuttgart. Many of the names mentioned in this article are also covered in the video, so please feel free to watch as Baz, Lajo and I go over the main players to look out for.

The Crystal Ball Predicts…: Realistically the standard of players here is so high and the skill level of those at the top is so close that it is a frankly impossible task to predict the winner. For me to pick one person would be doing the rest of those going a disservice! Yeah, if you hadn’t gathered by now, I’m taking the cowards’ way out. I think quite a few have recently heard my view on these predictions, how all of the guys I’ve backed thus far have fared poorly. Even to the point that a small number of you have asked for me not to not to get the mention here so as not to curse their chances! Some of you guys are a superstitious lot! Understandably though, Germany will be heavily represented in the top cut bracket simply due to the number of players, so the likelihood is one of the big names from Germany will win here. While I may be chickening out on a prediction, I’m going to put you, the readers, on the spot and ask: “Who do you think will be victorious come Sunday evening?”

As for me…

I unfortunately won’t be attending this event, though not for lack of wanting to go. My holiday time at work is a very precious commodity, as everyone hopefully can understand. I will be endeavoring to bring as much information away from the event from the comfort of my laptop and phone, so do keep up to date with twitter and the various forum threads relating to this event. Information will be available as soon as physically possible, and don’t forget that you can watch the live stream of the event to get your tournament fix! Please feel free to leave your comments, predictions and give your own insight into this event.

The post VGC 2015 German National Preview appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Here we are again; the final stretch of the North American Regionals season as we approach U.S. Nationals in July. These events will be key for players looking to solidify their Championship Point standings before entering Nationals, where the North American representatives for the World Championships will be determined. This preview will cover the first two out of five regional events for the Spring, the Washington and Massachusetts Regionals.

Washington Regional

Difficulty Rating:

/ 5

(Five Pokemon that really enjoy being in the waters. Look how happy they are!) / 5

Location: Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, 305 Harrison Street, Seattle WA

Registration Time: Saturday 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM

Last Year’s Winner: Tony Cheung (Chinese Dood)

The Washington Regional sees a venue change from last year’s event, moving from the Washington State Convention Center to the Seattle Center. To recap last year’s event, the top cut was dominated by a number of Canadian players, such as Tony Cheung, Randy Kwa, Jason Wynja, and Max Douglas. Tony Cheung (Chinese Dood) returns to defend his title of last year’s winner. Max (starmetroid) has had a very successful season from Canada so far, maximizing his Premier Challenge CP and earning second place at the Oregon Regional in the winter. He currently sits at 18th in North American CP and looks to increase that total with this event. Randy Kwa (R Inanimate), the Canadian player most people are familiar with, earned second at the 2014 Washington Regional and sits just outside the Top 64 in North American CP. Randy is known for sticking with a consistent team for the entire circuit season and adjusting it to what the metagame throws at him. He’s been quiet this season, but it’s hard to sleep on Randy. Resident Nugget Bridge Administrator Rushan Shekar (Firestorm) has been doing a lot more than just feeding in League of Legends this season. Along with his Premiere Challenge CP, he’s got a Top 4 finish and is on pace to qualify for Worlds. Rounding out the familiar Canadians are Nugget Bridge moderator Aryana Welsh (feathers) and long time VGC veteran Jason Wynja (Arti). Relatively new Canadian face Tyson Gernack (Firefly) is just outside the Top 40 and has a third regional available for his best finish limit.

The Canadian regulars will also be joined at the event by the West Coast regulars. Conan Thompson (conan) is fresh off of a regional win in Oregon in the winter. Combined with his maximized Premiere Challenge CP, he holds 6th place in North American CP and still has a third regional empty for his best finish limit. Seattle locals and Team Magma members Gabby Snyder (JTK) and Sam Haarsma (DrFidget) aim to break into the Top 40 with this event, with both of them sitting just outside of the boundary. Another Washington player who recently sneaked into the Top 8 of North American CP is Demitrios Kaguras (kingdjk). With a Top 4 and a Top 8 in earlier Regionals, Demitrios looks to round out his best finish limit in his home state. Not as well known as the others mentioned, but just as successful this season is Chris Stotts (MasterFisk) from Oregon. He’s currently at 26th overall for North American CP with a Top 4 finish from Oregon in the winter.

Just a bit further down the coast comes the NorCal crew. The Northern California community is pretty tight knit, evidence being the stream that Duy hosts for all of their Premier Challenges. Arguably held together by players Huy Ha (Huy), Duy Ha (Duy), Kimo Nishimura (TFC), and Cassie Fordyce (cassie), NorCal also includes other strong individuals like Sam Johnson (RastaCharmander), Mitchell Davies (MissingNoL) and Phillip Wingett (NME THATSaplusone). Not to be outdone by the NorCal players, SoCal looks to send their regards in the form of some of the strongest players in VGC history. Gavin Michaels (kingofmars) is a consistent top competitor, winning the 2013 US Nationals and placing Top 8 in the 2014 Nationals. Gavin has also reached the World Championship the last 3 years in a row and will be looking to extend it further. Veteran VGC player and Nugget Bridge founder Paul Hornak (makiri) is also making the trek up to Washington as he reminisces about his glory days of having a 36-2 record over the first five years of VGC Regionals. One of the longest standing members of the competitive Pokemon community, Paul is looking to have a strong showing at this regional and prove to the community that he is still a force to be reckoned with.

If the local players weren’t enough for this preview, there are plenty of players flying in to this event. Former Washington resident and 4-Time Regional champion Zach Droegkamp (Braverius) will be in attendance. Zach has had recent success, placing second to Aaron Traylor at the St. Louis Regional earlier this year and is 7th place in North American CP with two Top 64 regional finishes as well. Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom) has continued his success off of his 2014 Worlds appearance into the 2015 format and currently holds 5th place in North American CP. In order to solidify that placement, he will need to finish in the Top 8 or better. His compadre Ben Irons (benji) will be joining him in Washington as he works towards a possible second World Championship appearance. The 2013 Worlds competitor has one Top 16 finish this year and has a lot of room to increase his CP total to reach that goal. I would not be surprised if this duo has one of the stronger showings of the field with their consistent success across multiple formats. In the midst of all these veteran players flying in, Jake Muller (MajorBowman) is having somewhat of a breakout season with some consistent regionals performances. With a Top 16 and two Top 32 results already, Jake will need a strong performance to improve his best finish limit. Another Midwest region player coming into Washington is Nico Villalobos (CalmLava). Nico’s just outside the Top 40 in North American CP and still has a third regional finish to fill out. Harrison Saylor (Crow) looks to attend his first event this season, and yes this is confirmed. Harrison is an experienced player who top cuts events at a pretty good pace. Usually the doubt lies in whether or not he shows up, not his results. Priciliano Garcia (Pirate Lion Inferno) is coming from Florida to this event which is definitely the longest distance traveled to attend here. He’s at 32nd in CP with a Top 8 finish from Florida to his name.

The Smart Money is on: Zach Droegkamp (Braverius)

It wouldn’t be a VGC season without a Zach regional win, in my opinion. He’s won four in total but at least one in every season since Swiss events started. This regional is really top heavy, with a lot of top players in attendance.

Massachusetts Regional

Difficulty Rating:

/ 5

(Four Clefairy things and a Kangaskhan because let’s be real here.) / 5

Location: Venue: Sturbridge Host Hotel & Conference Center 366 Main Street, Sturbridge, MA 01566 United States

Registration Time: Sunday

Last Year’s Winner: Ray Rizzo (Ray)

Last year’s champion of Massachusetts is coming off of a Top 32 (21st place) finish at the Virginia Regional. This event is especially important for Ray Rizzo (Ray) if he wants a shot at another World Championship run. After missing the cut at Virginia, Ray has motivated himself by producing content on YouTube in addition to streaming his International Challenge competition. As anyone from 2009-2012 can tell you, there is no player more feared than a motivated Ray. For the third time this season we are going to get some double Aaron action at a regional event. Both Aaron Traylor (Unreality) and Aaron Zheng (Cybertron) are having fantastic seasons so far with each taking home a regional Championship. Zheng’s came in Philadelphia in the 2014 format, while Traylor’s came at St. Louis, streamed by TPCi. Despite Aaron Zheng’s humongous point total, he can still easily improve his CP with a Top 16 finish or higher at Massachusetts. Aaron Traylor’s CP total will be even easier to improve as he has not reached the best finish limit for the season. Wolfe Glick (Wolfe) is one of the two players that actually has more CP than Aaron Zheng, eclipsing him by about 40 CP. The reason for this is because of Wolfe’s incredibly high regional placings already. In order to gain CP at this event, Wolfe will need to get Top 4 or better because his best finishes are already very solid. Wolfe has already seen success in 2015, however, so its really not out of his boundaries to improve his CP by even more from this event.

There are a couple of players in the 8-16 CP standings range that can really propel themselves into Top 8 consideration. At 9th place, Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario) can improve his Top 128 finish. A master of using the unorthodox, Ashton saw success in Florida using Eruption Typhlosion in the Sun. Alec Rubin (amr97) has two Top 64 finishes he can boost up with a solid showing in Massachusetts. Third, Pat Ball (pball0100) is at 16th in CP and has not reached his best finish limit yet. It will be important for all of these players to be prepared for this regional in order to avoid their National Championship results being relied upon for their overall circuit performance.

There’s going to be a bunch of players coming from the mythical area also known as “New York Area Premier Challenges” that are apparently legendary and of unfathomable difficulty. Trista Medine (ryuzaki) and Joe Pulkowski (sandman) have qualified for Worlds in the past and are regulars among these events. Angel Miranda (CT Mikoto Misaka) got Top 4 at the Virginia Regional and Arbin Tumaneng (.Cypher) got Top 8. Nicholas Borghi (Lightcore) and Paul Chua (pwny person) both got Top 8 in Philadelphia and are young Masters Division players creating tough competition for the veteran players. Patrick Donegan (Pd0nz) is currently Top 8 in the Nugget Bridge Major and looks to continue his success this weekend. A quick rundown of some of the rest of the notables: Chuppa Cross IV (Chuppa), Matthew Terriberry (crazysnorlax), Jonathan Evans (Ezrael), Tommy Cooleen (Tman), James Baek (jamesspeed1), Dorian Nousias (crazyblissey), Danny Hemchand (Jabberwocky), Daniel Stein (BlazikenBurnerVGC). Chuppa, Danny, Tommy and Matthew actually cut Massachusetts last year, so it will be interesting to see if they can repeat their success this season.

Matt Coyle (PrettyLittleLiar) is another former Worlds Competitor attending this event. He’s sitting at a pretty decent spot in the CP standings, just inside Top 64. With a strong finish at this event he can pave his path to another World Championship appearance. Fellow NGR associate Junghun Yeom (ANGDE) is in his first year as a Master and managed to Top Cut the Virginia Regional in the winter. Mike Suleski (OmegaDonut) hasn’t had too many events to go to, but he did finish second at the Apex tournament that Aaron Zheng won and is also a former Worlds Competitor. Ben Hickey (darkpenguin67) may be in attendance as well. The 2013 Senior World Championship Finalist is 30th in CP and Top Cut the Virginia Regional in the winter. Caleb Ryor (BlitznBurst) Top Cut Massachusets last year and has racked up most of his CP from Premier Challenges this season, but does have a Top 64 finish and a solid group of team-builders behind him.

The Smart Money is on: Trista Medine (ryuzaki)

It seems obvious to go with Aaron or Wolfe at this event, but the stakes for them at this event just aren’t high at all. This doesn’t mean they won’t play to win, but I want to choose a player who is determined to win and make a statement. Trista has made Worlds twice before and plays in every event that is physically possible for her. There aren’t many more players trying to get to events and she has a good track record of results.

The post VGC 2015 North American Spring Regional Preview: Week 1 of 3 appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Of the many viable strategies in VGC, Sand is at the same time one of the least common and most powerful.  Still, like all strategies, Sand has both weaknesses and strengths.  The goal of this article is to help you learn everything you need to know about Sand, including both how to use it and how do beat it.

Sand Effects

• Lasts for 5 turns (unless inducer holds a Smooth Rock, in which case it lasts for 8 turns)
• Effects of other weather conditions are overridden
• All Pokemon except Rock, Steel, and Ground types lose 1/16th of their total health at the end of each turn (Overcoat, Sand Veil, Sand Rush, Sand Force, Magic Guard and the Safety Goggles all negate this effect)
• Weather dependent healing moves (Morning Sun, Synthesis, and Moonlight) recover only 1/4th of the user’s total HP
• Pokemon with Sand Veil have their Evasion increased by 25%
• Pokemon with Sand Rush have their Speed doubled
• Pokemon with Sand Force deal an extra 30% damage when using a Rock, Ground, or Steel type move
• Weather Ball becomes Rock type and its Base Power is doubled from 50 to 100
• All Rock type Pokemon receive a 50% boost to Special Defense

The Summoners

Hippowdon is the same as ever, a slow tank that is for the most part outclassed by both Tyranitar formes, but it does have the slowest Weather ability in VGC discounting Mega-Abomasnow.  This means it is near guaranteed to set up Sand, but it is often left with nothing to do after it has asserted its weather dominance.

Tyranitar is an interesting Pokemon, with good stats everywhere except Speed.  In its regular forme, Tyranitar can use a Choice Scarf to execute dreaded fast Rock Slides with their infernal flinch chance, or it can opt for a slower, bulkier spread.  Scarf variants make use of Tyranitar’s excellent coverage, often running Rock Slide, Crunch/Dark Pulse, Ice Punch/Ice Beam and Low Kick/Superpower, although there are several other options like Fire Blast and Earth Power for special sets.  Slower Tyranitar are often seen abusing the Weakness Policy or the Assault Vest, while Lum Berry and Chople Berry are occasionally selected.  The moveset remains about the same, with the 4th move usually changing to Protect.

While simply a different forme of Tyranitar, Mega Tyranitar is worthy of its own section for several reasons.  First and foremost, its ability remains Sand Stream after it Mega Evolves, which can be surprisingly useful to reset the weather to Sand without being forced to switch out.  Mega Tyranitar almost always run Rock Slide, Crunch, Dragon Dance and Protect, but occasionally the moves will deviate depending on the team.  While regular Tyranitar focuses on supporting its teammates, Mega Tyranitar is just the opposite.  Often it will be paired with redirection (such as Amoonguss, Clefairy, Clefable, or Togekiss) in order to allow it to set up Dragon Dances and then sweep with Rock Slide.

Sand Attackers

Sand Rush

Excadrill on Sand teams almost always run Sand Rush, but occasionally Scarf Excadrill with Sand Force makes an appearance on Sand teams.  Or, if you happen to be Randy Kwa, you can ignore your own Sand and just run Mold Breaker, which is still incredibly useful for its ability to deal massive damage to the Rotom formes.  Excadrill, powerful as it is, suffers from a bit of a shallow movepool.  Almost all sets will consist of Earthquake, Rock Slide, Iron Head and Protect, although Substitute sets can occasionally turn up.  Offensive Excadrill usually run Life Orb, while the more defensive sets that abuse Sand’s residual damage are more drawn to Leftovers or Sitrus Berry.

This guy is nostalgic for me, seeing as I ran a Safeguard Sandslash quite a while back.  Yeah, I didn’t win many games with it.  Sandslash is a cool Pokemon, don’t get me wrong, and on Sand team it can abuse Sand Rush to get off fast damage, but overall it is inferior to Excadrill.  The only things that make it stand out are its access to the aforementioned Safeguard, Knock Off, and Super Fang.  I suppose Sand Rush Super Fang is something to watch out for, assuming you ever see a Sandslash, but I doubt you will.

Ah, Stoutland.  I must thank Haylay Aldworth for giving me an excuse to include this guy.  For those who don’t know, Haylay managed to place 11th at the California Winter Regionals with a Stoutland Sand team.  Stoutland, unlike Excadrill, actually has a decent movepool.  Stoutland sets usually consist of some combination of Return, Iron Head, Play Rough, Superpower, Helping Hand and Protect.  Finally, as a note, Stoutland gets After You, which it can use to deadly effect thanks to Sand Rush.  Well, as deadly of an effect as After You can create anyways.

Sand Force

Excadrill does have Sand Force, but that’s already been covered.

Lagging far behind its Therian Forme, Sand Force Landorus is desperately clinging to what little use it has.  It can actually be pretty deadly though, sporting a fast base 101 Speed and a good base 125 Attack, which is effectively driven even higher with Sand Force.  Landorus all the same moves you’d expect to see on its Therian Forme, but it will often carry Protect over U-Turn unless you’re facing that guy who figured that making his Choice Scarf Landorus the Incarnate Forme would make it cooler.  Assume Life Orb unless proven otherwise.

Now THIS is where the fun really starts.  What’s worse than a base 170 Attack stat?  A base 170 Attack with a free Life Orb boost to that Pokemon’s strongest STAB.  Can it get worse?  Yeah, that STAB attack is spread.  Mega Garchomp boasts by far the strongest Earthquake in VGC, and its other attacks (Dragon Claw, Rock Slide, Iron Head, or Fire Blast and Draco Meteor for mixed sets) deal massive damage too.  Mega Garchomp’s main issue is its base 92 Speed, but that can easily be fixed by Tailwind support.  Its second main issue is the existence of Landorus-T and its Intimidate, which isn’t as easily solved.  Mega Garchomp is a Pokemon that wields extreme power, but requires quite a bit of support to function.

This just keeps getting better and better.  Mega Steelix is like Garchomp, except both of its STABs receive the Sand Force boost.  What’s the catch?  Mega-Steelix is as slow as the ton of iron it is, has a noticeably inferior attack stat when compared to the Super Saiyan Land Shark, and is weak to the common Fire, Water, Fighting, and Ground moves that permeate the VGC 2015 metagame.  In order to have any chance of doing anything, Mega Steelix requires Trick Room support.  I suggest Reuniclus, seeing as Magic Guard blocks Sand damage, but of course Cresselia is always an option with its obscene bulk and Levitate to dodge friendly fire Earthquakes.  Mega Steelix usually runs Earthquake, Heavy Slam/Iron Head/Gyro Ball, Rock Slide and Protect.

Sand Veil

Not much explanation is needed here. Sand Veil is pretty much only going to be seen occasionally on Garchomp, although if you’re running Heliolisk and want to be even more unusual Sand Veil is an option.  Cacturne gets Sand Veil, but Cacturne on Sand teams usually prefer Water Absorb anyways.

Sand Supporters

Storm Drain

Cradily is an interesting case on Sand teams.  It is a repeat Rock type (unless you’re using Hippowdon), but on the other hand it benefits from the 50% Special Defense increase.  Its main job is, of course, to redirect Water type attacks, but it can also be useful as a hard Rain counter.  Cradily usually run special sets to maximize Storm Drain’s potential, the moves usually being Giga Drain, Ancient Power, Recover and Protect, with some people opting for Energy Ball’s extra power.

Gastrodon does many of the same things as Cradily, but there are two big differences.  First and foremost, Gastrodon can function as a Landorus-T counter, which is the most threatening Pokemon to Sand teams.  On the other hand, it’s a less solid answer to Rain than Cradily is simply because Ludicolo’s Giga Drain hits it for 4x super effective damage.  Gastrodon can be run offensively or defensively, and information on all of that can be found here.  Cassie’s article is several years old, but all of the information it presents remains relevant today.  Finally, the one thing Cassie overlooks is Gastrodon’s Sand Force ability.  It does fit in on Sand teams, but honestly a boosted Earth Power is far less useful than Water redirection and immunity.  Storm Drain is definitely the superior ability among the two.

Other Good Sand Pokemon

Scizor mainly fits onto Sand teams due to its Steel typing and subsequent immunity to residual Sand damage, but it also appreciates the extra damage Sand causes to opponents and the breaking of Focus Sashes that Sand provides.  Scizor can easily come in towards the end of a game and clean up Sand-weakened Pokemon with its powerful Technician Bullet Punch.  Scizor is also fortunate enough to be one of the few Steel types to take neutral damage from Earthquake, so you aren’t compounding your Landorus-T weakness too much if you add it, although it is still plenty susceptible to Intimidate.

Honestly, I’m not sure where Ferrothorn went.  It was common in 2014, but then VGC 2015 arrived and the strange steel plant just straight up vanished.  Probably a result of all the new Fire types in this metagame, honestly.  Fortunately for Ferrothorn, if Sand can do one thing it’s beat Fire types.  Tyranitar, Garchomp, Excadrill, Hippowdon, and almost all classic Sand Pokemon have a way to deal with Fire types.  Ferrothorn is in a similar boat to Scizor with Earthquake hitting it neutrally, and it is still vulnerable to Intimidate, but not quite as much due to its defensive nature.  Ferrothorn’s Grass typing also allows it to deal with the Rain teams that can be such a pain for Sand’s main sweepers.

Aegislash is an interesting Pokemon in the Sand.  While it is weak to Ground type attacks unlike Scizor and Ferrothorn, Aegislash has something those two could only dream of – Wide Guard.  Wide Guard is a massive threat to Sand teams, but it can also be an invaluable asset.  With almost all Sand Pokemon being weak to Earthquake, having a reliable way to stop enemy Landorus-T from spamming it can be priceless.  Aegislash also adds some special attacking power into the primarily physical Sand teams.  Finally, Aegislash walls Breloom, which otherwise gives Sand teams issues.  Of course, Breloom will just Spore Aegislash, so it isn’t all good for the ghostly sword.

Another Pokemon that makes it onto the threats list with Aegislash, Expert Belt Swampert is fully content to be a double agent and help Sand out if it’s recruited.  With immunity to Sandstorm and the ever valuable Wide Guard, Swampert functions similarly to Aegislash with a few key differences.  First and foremost, Swampert has better coverage, and besides simply offering Wide Guard against Landorus-T it also has Ice Beam and Scald to strike back.  Unfortunately, Swampert’s excellent defensive typing is a little wasted on Sand teams, as many Sand teams find themselves weak to Grass as it is.  And, while Aegislash has to worry about Breloom’s Spore, Swampert has bigger issues with Bullet Seed.  Unfortunately, -2 Attack Breloom Bullet Seed is a 100% OHKO onto 252 HP 20 Defense Swampert.

Threats

Landorus-T is almost certainly the best Sand counter, as it is immune to Earthquake, takes neutral damage from Rock Slide, and is the premier Intimidate shuffler in the format.  The fact that its own Earthquake deals massive damage to most all Sand Pokemon is just icing on the cake.  Anyone serious about running Sand needs an answer to this monster, and anyone looking to counter Sand needs look no farther.  Of course, other counters do still have merit as Sand teams are less likely to be prepared for them.

Two words – Mach Punch.  While Breloom dislikes the fact that Sand removes its Focus Sash, it’s happy enough to OHKO Excadrill with Mach Punch, cripple Tyranitar, and Spore anything else that feels like getting in its way.  It also has Bullet Seed for the Gastrodon Sand teams might run to beat Landorus-T.  Breloom is just a good Pokemon, and the ability to counter Sand is just something it naturally has.

Conkeldurr is similar to Breloom, but different.  While it makes use of the same Fighting STAB to wreck its way through Sand teams, Conkeldurr also carries Ice Punch for Landorus-T and Garchomp.  Beyond that, Conkeldurr has bulk that Breloom can only dream of but loses out on quite a bit of Speed in exchange.  Still, as long as Conkeldurr survives long enough to get its Drain Punches off, against Sand teams it could really care less.

Now this one is out of the blue.  Well, not entirely.  Altaria is the only Pokemon that can claim to have a viable Cloud Nine, although I suppose Golduck and Lickilicky are lurking in the shadows.  Cloud Nine negates the effects of weather that Sand (well, all weather) teams value so much.  At the same time, Altaria is unspeakably underwhelming before Mega Evolution, and weak to Rock Slide too.  Once it Mega Evolves, it loses the Rock Slide weakness but picks up a Steel weakness, so Excadrill or another Steel type can pick it off just fine.  Sand teams may not fear Altaria, but it is certainly something of which to be aware.

Or any other bulky Water type

Azumarill is scary, heck, all bulky waters are. They’re even scarier when a large portion of your team is weak to them, which tends to describe Sand teams.  Gastrodon can help against Azumarill and other Water types, but if the sea rabbit manages to set up a Belly Drum that’s probably game over.  Sand teams should carry a way to deal with bulky waters (Safety Goggles Zapdos, anyone?) or else Azumarill and its buddies will have a field day.

Some More Things to Watch

Sand teams often focus around spread moves, namely Rock Slide and Earthquake, so Wide Guard can be extremely dangerous.  Aegislash in particular can give Sand teams issues if left unchecked, and the less common Expert Belt Wide Guard Swampert is even worse.

Trick Room can threaten Sand, as it robs Sand sweepers of the speed on which almost all of them depend. I TOLD you Mega-Steelix was the call, IT’S not weak to Trick Room!  But in all seriousness, because of the offensive nature of most VGC Sand teams, losing the speed advantage for four turns can often mean defeat right there.  Taunt is a pretty good solution, but Mental Herb Trick Room setters are depressingly common.  In order to truly counter Trick Room you may need to get more creative (like Ashton Cox’s Roar Terrakion).

Finally, other weather inducers, especially Politoed, threaten Sand because of their ability to remove it from the field.  Of course, Charizard can only be so threatening to a Sand team, and Abomasnow fears Rock Slides and Iron Heads, so the main competing weather that you have to watch out for is Rain.  Rain is the most common dedicated weather strategy too, which is unfortunate.

Conclusion

Sand teams are capable of exerting nearly peerless offensive pressure, but at the same time they often suffer from bad matchups against the omnipresent Landorus-T and the Rain that never seems to go away.  Still, if you are able to play around the Pokemon that threaten Sand, you will have the full force of the desert on your side.  I wish you all good luck, and I hope that some of you give Sand a shot.

The post Storms on the Horizon: A Guide to Sand in VGC ’15 appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

As we enter the second week of the VGC 2015 Spring Regionals, let’s look at some of the top competitors coming to Utah and Kansas City Regionals this weekend.

Utah Regionals

Difficulty Rating:
/ 5

(Three simple but effective Pokemon out of Five)

Location: Utah State Fair Park – Grand Hall 155 N 1000 W, Salt Lake City, UT 84116

Registration Time: Sunday 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Last Year’s Winner: Joey McGinley (joej m)

If you’ve read the Week 1 Regional preview, you’re going to see quite a few familiar names who attended the Seattle Regionals who are also attending the Utah Regionals. Since both events are located in the West Coast area of the United States, it makes sense for repeat appearances by some of the top players looking to maximize Championship Points. We’re going to begin this preview with some of the top finishers of last week’s Seattle Regionals, starting with Riley Factura (gengarboi). In addition to winning Seattle last week, which put him into the Top 8 in CP, he also made Day 2 of US Nationals last year in Indianapolis. Second place at Seattle was Mark Hanson (Crawdaunt). His second place finish actually bumped him into the Top 40 in CP for North America after an otherwise quiet season. Continuing to go down the list, Harrison Saylor (Crow) came out of the shadows last week to come in third at Seattle. It’s possible we might see him again at Utah this weekend with another strong showing. Wesley Warthe-Anderson earned fourth at Seattle last week, and attends University of Victoria in Canada with Mark and Max Douglas (starmetroid), who finished at seventh in Seattle. It wouldn’t be out of reach for him to tag along with his buddies down to Utah and prove himself with another performance. At fifth came last year’s World Championships Senior champion, and last year’s Utah Senior’s champion as well, Nikolai Zielinski (Nikolai). Remembered for his heartfelt World Championship interview, Nikolai has continued his success into the Master’s division this year by controlling a Top 8 CP spot in North America. Kimo Nishimura (TFC) rounds out players who made the Top 16 going to Utah as well.

A couple of players who didn’t do as well as they hoped at Seattle are also attending Utah regionals this weekend. Nugget Bridge admins Rushan Shekar (Firestorm) and Huy Ha (Huy) are both going to Utah. Rushan is in the Worlds qualification hunt and Huy looks to leave the middle of the pack and get a bit higher before Nationals. I can also guess that Duy Ha (Duy) will be on the mic this weekend on the stream, but that only means the field will be missing one more top competitor. Jason Wynja (Arti) is another core Nugget Bridge veteran who is doing the back-to-back. Demitrios Kaguras (Kingdjk) has had a great season so far and actually bubbled out of Top Cut at Seattle last week at 17th. He’s going to have to improve that performance this week in order to gather any CP from this event. Sam Johnson (RastaCharmander) earned 24th in Seattle last week and has room for improvement at Utah. Tyson Gernack (Firefly) has the same Regionals finishes as Sam and can similarly improve from a good Utah placing. Alberto Lara (Sweeper) has been a West Coast Top Cut staple over the last two years, but was unable to place last weekend. It will be interesting to see if a good finish can propel him into the Top 40 for CP. Finishing off Seattle attendees is Conan Thompson (conan), who previously won in Oregon in the winter. He has two Top 64 finishes in addition to his victory, so he goes into Utah looking to replace one of those.

There are still quite a few players left that chose not to attend the Seattle Regionals last weekend. Tied in finishes with Conan is Chase Lybbert (I Am A Rookie). Previously solidified in the Top 8 in North American CP with his brother, Colten Lybbert (Rookie Slayer MLG), other players have caught up and both brothers now sit around the 8-16th place range. In 16th place is Michael Fladung (Primitive). Michael has been a pretty consistent player the last two seasons and has two Top 32 finishes in addition to a Top 4. Alejandro Jimenez (Legacy) is just outside of the Top 16 right now, but has not hit his best finish limit yet for Regionals. His brother, Anthony Jimenez (DarkAssassin) is a bit further out, just outside the Top 40, but also is not at his best finish limit yet. Both of them have high finishes this season and look to repeat their success. Tracy McLaughlin (Mack) and Williams Halls the Third (Biosci) are two Arizona residents looking to invade the neighboring Utah for some Regionals CP. William is right outside Top 16 CP so this event is especially important if he wants to secure a spot in there before Nationals. Tracy is right outside Top 40, and both players’ worst finish is Top 64, so they both need to get Top 32 or better to improve their totals for the season. Mitchell Davies (MissingNoL) has earned all of his CP from Premier Challenges and looks to make a splash with a strong Regionals performance.

Smart Money is on: Nikolai Zielinski (Nikolai). Call it a hunch, I think Nikolai can take Utah for a second year in a row across divisions. He was second in Seattle after Swiss and I think Seattle had a stronger field of players than Utah will, based on experience.

Kansas City Regionals

Difficulty Rating:
/ 5

(Four Royal Pokemon out of Five)

Location: Overland Park Convention Center 6000 College Blvd Overland Park, KS, 66211

Registration Time: Sunday 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Last Year’s Winner: Ben Irons (benjitheGREAT)

The Kansas City Regional came as quite a surprise last year, being announced late compared to the other Regionals. As such, it didn’t have the strongest attendance or players attending. That should change this season, as all players were properly alerted of the event’s existence and planned accordingly. I wouldn’t expect enough attendance for a Top 16 Cut… but it should definitely be more competitive than last year.

Team Michigan

Although former force of Michigan has since gone west to rainier endeavors, Team Michigan looks to show up strong in Kansas City. Team Michigan features who I believe is the person with the most Championship Points attending this event, Andrew Burley (Andykins), who has already amassed three solid regional finishes (Top 4/8/16) during the season. Jonathan McMillan (MrEobo) is another strong trainer from Michigan who is currently at 32nd place for North American CP. He’s maxed out on Premiere Challenge CP, but can improve his Regionals CP with a Top 32 or better. Keegan Beljanski (Darkeness) made a much larger splash last season but has a respectable 204 CP and is just outside Top 64. With a strong finish here and next week at Madison, Keegan could quickly be in the running for Top 16 or better. Kevin Beach (RandomVGC) is just below Keegan in the standings and is in a similar situation where he can really move up in the next two weeks before entering Nationals. Rounding out Michigan is Sam Schweitzer (Sam). Less accomplished than the other four players listed, Sam is a younger player who can use this event to prove he can play.

Team Illinois

Kamaal Harris (Kamaal) leads the pack of Chicago players with a few Worlds appearances and he looks poised to get to another one this season. He’s at 30th overall for CP and can really solidify his place entering Nationals. Evan Deligiannis (nave) borders Top 64 and could definitely push into stipend range with a strong Regionals performance. Rounding out the Chicago area mentions is Matt Swanson (Swanner). Matt has had some decent performances this season and could be a name to look out for.

Team Texas

Arguably the strongest “state” attending the Regional, Texas features some of the strongest competitors in the Video Game Championships. Ben Irons (Benji) is a former Worlds competitor from 2013 who most definitely yearns to get back there and make a statement. He’s just outside Top 64 right now and wants to prime himself for a strong Nationals run in order to get back to the World Championships. Oliver Valenti (Smith) is one of Ben’s close friends and is a strong player when he wants to be. He hasn’t gotten himself to many tournaments this year, so his CP total is low, but the finishes he has are respectable and he’s a player you can’t count out. Cedric Bernier (Talon) echoes Oliver’s tournament appearances, but has better results, winning a Regional in the fall. Along with some strong Premiere Challenge results, his Regional win has him comfortably at 25th in North American CP. Last but not least (literally) is Texas’ leader in 2015 CP, Jake Muller (MajorBowman). He’s made the rounds this season, picking up CP from all over the United States and leads Cedric by just 3 CP. Unlike Cedric, Jake needs a Top 16 or better finish at Kansas City in order to gain CP.

Team Arkansas

It’s just Justin Burns (Spurrific) and Jonathan Rankin (JRank). But Justin has kinda dominated my buddy Clayton all season and has Top 8/16 Regional finishes to boot. And Jonathan is another good regional placement away from a seriously good position going into US Nationals. Arkansas might not be too deep but these two sure can play.

Team Kansas Vacation

As with most Regionals, we’re gonna have some travelers coming. Caleb Ryor (BlitznBurst), Patrick Donegan (Pd0nz), Paul Chua (pwnyperson), and Mike Suleski (OmegaDonut) are coming from the Northeast. Mike was able to top cut last week’s Massachusetts Regional so he might be on a bit of a hot streak. Ben Hickey (Darkpenguin67) comes from Maryland and is right around the 32nd place cutoff for Nationals stipends. Adit Selvaraj (LithiumAcid) has gotten to play in Florida for this season and was able to get Top 8 there in the winter. It will definitely be interesting to see if he can prove himself with another good finish.

The Smart Money is on: I’m going with Ben Irons (Benji) for the Kansas City Regionals. This does mean I am calling for the repeat from Benji, which should be significantly harder to achieve this year with the increased attendance and overall strength, but I believe he is motivated enough to get it done.

The post VGC 2015 North American Spring Regional Preview: Week 2 of 3 appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Alright, luv? Whatever decisions you’ve made across the span of your lifetime, it’s all led you to here: the Sardonic Hipster’s Guide to VGC 2015. I hope you’re proud of yourself. This is a two-part guide to my current take on 2015’s competitive scene. The second part is a teambuilding guide, and a hitlist of all the different threats your team has to cover if you want to have a shot at winning a tournament. This, however, is the first part: a concise opinion piece on what it means to “play to win” at Pokémon in 2015. Get ready for some harsh truths, special snowflakes. :^)

Live to win! ‘till you die!

If you’re playing to win, there is nothing more to it. You are playing to win: to knock out all four of your opponent’s Pokémon before they do yours. Nothing more, nothing less. And if you want the prizes, winning is the only thing that gets them.

When I’m physically playing Pokémon, winning is all that matters. Is that a healthy mentality? A lot of scrubs-I mean, people- would argue that it isn’t. But I say, yeah, why not? It’s a game, and it’s meant to be played properly. You can argue that playing Pokémon is about meeting people and hanging out with friends, but being honest I’d rather do that, and also win all of my games. Everyone plays their Swiss rounds, but if you win them, you’re coming back for more and getting loads of free stuff, so you might as well put the work in. If you want it hard enough, and you make a lucid, reasoned effort to be, you can and will be a winner.

So, how do you go about playing to win? The last piece I wrote was kind of about that, but in all honesty was mostly an excuse to crack some stupid Pokémon jokes. This time’s more about actually building a team and getting some results. The first place to start is with setting up the right attitude.

Obviously, you can’t win every time. Nobody’s perfect, and you’ll always have competition. What you can do is make yourself more likely to win than other people. There’s a lot to it, but here’s a few basic rules to start off with:

Rule 1: First, learn everything you can about the game.

Pokémon’s an information game. That means you have know all the basics, like your type charts and every common Pokémon’s base stats. Otherwise, you’re only handicapping yourself; losing a game to, say, not knowing Heliolisk’s base Speed is preventable and therefore entirely your fault. Learn how fast everything is and what moves Pokémon can carry. It’ll probably seem overwhelming at first, but play enough and you’ll get used to it. It’s not really that big of an investment once you get into the swing of things. Then, the most crucial step in becoming a high-level player is to know your damage calculations. The very top tier Pokémon players always know how much damage they should be doing. You might have to start out using a calculator, like Nugget Bridge’s lovely own, but if you get enough experience it’ll become easy to estimate damage. Once you know the game’s raw information, you can start getting into how to play with that information.

Rule 2: Be rational.

Are you here to win games, or are you here to go home with nothing? If you’re happy just playing games, that’s okay, do what you like. If you want to win them, then you have to be rational. That means if something isn’t working, accept that it isn’t working. Analyse everything and be sure of every decision you make. Be aware of cognitive biases (as beautifully described in Werford’s article) and be sure you’re playing to the highest level you can. For example, you might, say, sing the praises of Gravity Rain Kabutops, and cite many occasions in which it’s won you games. Fair enough. But be honest: if that’s happening, it isn’t because Gravity Rain Kabutops is good, it’s probably because you’re being vain and want to be known for being different. Which sure, people might talk about it for a few days. Good for you. Since Gravity Rain Kabutops is awful, you’re also not going to win, so I hope losing in Top Cut is worth it for you. Meanwhile, your sensible friend just uses something decent and earns a free trip to Worlds. You getting the gist this was something that happened? Yeah, I had to learn the hard way. When it comes to it, nobody cares about special snowflakes. I’m talking to you, Cryogonal, you snotty-nosed mug.

Rule 3: Be proactive instead of reactive.

Use things you made yourself, trust your own (reasoned) knowledge more than other people’s opinions, and generally be a Pokémon go-getter. “Hay you guiz what item should I use on my Talonflame” never won a tournament; get out and make some decisions, you baby. Think of it this way: if you can’t come up with your own Arcanine’s EV spread, nobody will ever love you. Being proactive also means using strategies that control the game. It’s all well and good packing Wide Guard Aegislash to protect against Charizard’s Heat Wave, but there’s nothing stopping it from just using Overheat and instantly ruining you. Likewise, it might seem like a cool idea to EV your Charizard to survive certain Rock Slides, but you still have to bear in mind Rock Slide will flinch you 30% of the time you survive it, meaning you’re better off just preventing any Rock Slides with, say, a partnered Ice Shard Mamoswine. It’s a typical example of a reactive play (EVing Charizard to survive) being a lesser option to the proactive play, which doesn’t give your opponent a shot at Charizard in the first place. Consciously give your opponent as little a chance as possible. You are Maggie, and they are the miners.

Rule 4: In a tournament, winning is all that matters.

Have I stressed this enough yet? The game doesn’t care what Pokémon you’re using, or if you’re being “fair”. That’s for scrubs, also known as losers. The game only cares about who KOs their opponent’s last Pokémon. So if you’re playing to win, the game’s opinion is the only one that matters. “At least I’m using something different“ – nobody cares. “I got haxed” – unless you’re James Green and went 4-1 to 0-1 after a consecutive 4 Ice Beams and 2 Draco Meteors missed on Brightpowder Garchomp, to this day the most sickening luck to afflict anyone in a VGC National tournament, nobody cares, and the bracket still didn’t care about that, because he lost the game. Play to maximise your odds of winning, and while there will be a minority of cases in which you couldn’t have done anything, learn to identify when you could’ve done better. Be the best you can, and don’t make excuses. Become a sassy Pokémon Spartan with a sweet cape, rippling abs, and a wonderful constipated grimace. It’s the cool thing to do.

Rule 5: Do whatever makes you most likely to win.

This is where things get more complicated. What I’m saying, is, whatever you’re using should be the absolute best, most optimal build you can manage. That means playing everything in your team to its best strengths, and having an answer to whatever you come up against. It might seem cool to run, say, Crunch Kangaskhan, but that’s never going to be the optimal move. For every game you win because you had Crunch, you’ll probably lose two to not having Sucker Punch. Likewise, prediction-based Pokémon like Bisharp, as well as anything with inaccurate moves, will do you in at some point and lose the game. Gimmicks never have won, and in all likelihood never will win, a tournament. You can make Top Cut, definitely, but what’s the point in making it that far if as soon as you get a bad matchup, it’s impossible to win? So don’t be “that guy” who brings a staple remover to a gunfight. You’ll only go 1-8 and ruin Mr Staple’s tiebreaker, his day, and consequently his life.

Rule 6: But don’t forget it’s all only for fun.

Some kids get their kicks shuffling on sticky floors, with a drink in one hand and a slack-jawed stranger in the other. Some people really like knitting, and baking cakes they don’t eat. Others enjoy sitting in a darkened room and typing out quotes from Bane from the newest Batman movie on the internet. Personally, I enjoy wrecking scrubs at video games. Whilst you could probably call my playstyle brutal and nihilistic, it’s also really enjoyable to me, and it works. Excluding one 3-3 at Worlds (editor’s note: and the most recent German Nationals), I’ve missed precisely two Top Cuts in 6 years of playing VGC, and had a great time at the tournaments I have cut. Is this the devious and Byronic dark side of Pokémon? Not really, it’s just game theory, which I happen to think is loads of fun.

“Playing to win” doesn’t make you a monster; an unholy fusion of Lance Armstrong, Don King and Beelzebub, a bicycled beast of twisted hair and gaping maw, clutching at stolen treasure and terrorising the innocent. That’s called poor sportsmanship, or Boris Johnson. Playing to win is looking at every match as a puzzle to be solved, and fighting as hard as you can to have the game say “win”. It’s not aggressive; to be honest, I actually find it pretty relaxing. Whilst your nan’s doing sudokus, I’ll get settled in, get t’ curtains drawn, snuggle up with a cuppa and practise some Pokémon. Then go to Nationals, wreck scrubs, and win a nice holiday. That’s the way to do it. I love this game, and VGC’s a nice hobby.

Anyway, that’s a basic summary of what I think it means to play to win. This year’s format, with its seemingly infinite amount of options, makes it easier than ever for that one weird team to get its lucky matchups all the way into a Top Cut, where it’ll get wrecked by somebody competent using something reliable. So, please, please, if not just for my sake, don’t go running in there with Ancient Power Air Balloon Heatran, or throwing Low Kicks into my Charizard, or spamming endgame Scarf Rock Slides and actually getting the triple flinch, or whatever. I’m fed up of having to put my losses down to best-of-one gimmicks and hax. So hey, think you’ve got what it takes? Play your best and see if you can beat me.

The post The Sardonic Hipster’s Guide to VGC 2015: Part One – “Playing to Win” appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

I sincerely hoped everybody enjoyed their appetizer in the Germany National Championships, because the main course is about to be dished up this weekend in the second National event! Once again, players will be dining of a bountiful feast of Championship Points, with Europe’s finest Pokémon Trainers gearing up to do battle in Manchester, United Kingdom on the 30^th and 31^st May. In this preview article, we will have a quick look at how the European standings are looking following the results in Germany, having a small foray into the metagame by having a glance at the usage data for the top teams and going over the important details to be aware of regarding the event. After that, we’ll dive into the players and predictions, looking at who is hot and who is not.

Prizes

As expected, there is a mountain of Championship Points on the line for players attending, far above what has been seen so far at the Regional events. These points are critical for securing that important invite to the Pokémon World Championships that are being held in Boston, Massachusetts from 21^st – 23^rd August. In addition to the points, there will be some very valuable Pokémon and Nintendo prizes on offer to those who do well.

1^st Place:

• 1^st Place ‘Pokemon VG National Champion’ Trophy
• Nintendo Wii U Deluxe
• 600 Championship Points

2^nd Place:

• 2^nd Place ‘Pokemon VG National Finalist’ Trophy
• A Nintendo 3DS XL system (or New 3DS if available)
• 500 Championship Points

3^rd & 4^th Place:

• 3^rd and 4^th Place ‘Pokemon VG National Semi-Finalist’ Trophies
• A Nintendo 3DS XL system (or New 3DS if available)
• 400 Championship Points

5^th – 8^th Place:

• 300 Championship Points

9^th – 16^th Place:

• 200 Championship Points

17^th – 32^nd Place:

• 150 Championship Points

33^rd – 64^th Place:

• 100 Championship Points [128+ Players Required]

65^th – 128^th Place:

• 50 Championship Points [256+ Players Required]

Current CP Rankings (Top 16)

With the season now starting to reach a climax, each of the preview articles for the National Championships will feature the current CP Rankings in Europe. I will be focusing on the paid world invite positions, the Top 16 in Europe, as well as give the current cut-off for the unpaid invites for reference. These figures are correct as of the 23^th May on Pokémon Global Link:

As expected, there was a very large shake-up of the positions that the head of the field. Unsurprisingly those that did very well saw some of the largest gains position-wise. This weekend will see the volatility of the top spots be much less pronounced than before. The estimation from the last article regarding the expected cut-off for the Top 16 was largely on point. However, the Top 60 moved substantially less than what I had personally expected and estimated for. While estimation and modelling can give us a good idea of the possible cut off points, it is by no means an exact science. Expect Top 16 after Manchester to be around 435 CP, with Top 60 looking at 260 CP.

The Metagame

The various events we have already had in Europe so far has given us a fairly narrow but otherwise important view of the metagame thus far. German Nationals will be a significant event that may define how players adapt to what was popular and what did well in general. I’m going to cover two separate breakdowns that I think are worth noting; the usage of Mega Pokemon and the overall usage stats.

• The first thing we should note is there was a surprisingly high diversity of Mega Pokemon used in the top cut, 15 different species across the 38 currently recorded teams. This diversity is wider than anticipated and has some very unorthodox picks such as Tyranitar, Sharpedo and Slowbro.
• Kangaskhan remains the most popular Mega Pokemon to use on a team with around 30% of the usage. This certainly reflects its general consistency, but it is significantly lower than earlier in the season. More players are starting to diverge from the comfort zone and are choosing other popular options, a trend we can expect to see replicated as we carry on through the remainder of this year.
• Charizard-Y has seen a notable upswing in usage with use on almost a quarter of top cut teams. In many ways this is not a surprise as Steel-types have been very common sight on nearly every team, so Charizard-Y is a natural pick, often backed up with a good supporting cast of teammates.
• Venusaur remains a respectable Mega evolution choice among top players thanks to its superb bulk and ability to stick around for extended periods of time. It still showcases itself as a good choice to run on a double mega team on the whole, thanks in part to how it can often be good when the other mega struggles in specific matchups.
• Metagross and Salamence have seen a massive fall from grace since the first half of the year in Europe. Metagross can be explained to struggle thanks to the glut of Fire-types now being used to rebuff the Steel-types that have become a common sight. Salamence’s drop is much harder to explain, and I expect through a combination of factors. Realistically, Salamence has not seen a set that has taken the meta by storm yet, so many people are still trying to experiment with it. It also needs good support to work effectively, something that I expect many have found difficult to work around.
• Gardevoir looks to be creeping up in usage as a Mega, possibly as people try and imitate the surge of popularity it has seen in the Japanese community. I think this will be something people should be wary of in future National events, as it can provide versatility in strategies for a team, and Hyper Voice with Pixilate is not something that will go away quietly.

• Once again, the diversity of Pokemon being used at the top level is quite notable, with 67 different Pokemon choices being used across the known 38 teams. People are trying to experiment with new ideas, which is a good sign for the future National events and Worlds. Just over half of the various Pokemon saw usage on more than one team in the top cut.
• Landorus-Therian was, unsurprisingly, the most common choice of Pokemon on teams with 23 appearances in total, including 7 of the Top 8 players using it on their respective teams. It’s possibly a testament to how good it actually is to see how many players are resorting to using it. It has the perfect storm of Rock Slide and Earthquake at its disposal which covers a wide array of the metagame, and has a plethora of other options such as Superpower, Knock Off, U-Turn etc. You have to be prepared for this threat. I expect this will be the peak of its usage, as people will be looking for ways to bring it under control.
• Outside of the Pokemon commonly used as a Mega evolution, Thundurus, Heatran and Aegislash all saw healthy use across the top cut teams as generally expected. Thundurus is the de-facto best Prankster user in the game in terms of overall bulk, utility and damage output. It can be run with notable items such as Leftovers and Sitrus Berry, and most will carry a combination of Thunder Wave, Taunt, Swagger or Protect in addition to Thunderbolt and the largely common Hidden Power Ice.
• Heatran stands out as the main bulky Fire-type in the meta as well as one of the best Steel-types which have been omniscient thus far this year. The conventional wisdom of how to run Heatran is slowly starting to fragment, as some opt to run Timid over the conventional Modest to out-speed in mirror-matches. General consensus still opts for the reliable Substitute variant with Leftovers, but be aware for the Shuca Berry and Air Balloon Heatran, as they will aim to force the hand of opposing trainers to march to their beat to remove it.
• Aegislash is definitely finding itself as a solid choice for many trainers because of its offensive and defensive qualities that provide versatility in spades. Most Aegislash will run King’s Shield, Shadow Ball and Flash Cannon, and will commonly carry either Substitute or Wide Guard as a fourth move. Leftovers is the common choice of item on Substitute sets, but expect Weakness Policy or Life Orb otherwise.
• Water types seem to be finding themselves gaining traction. Suicune has been a popular choice so far for most of the season after various popular players having success with it. Its bulk and useful team support options makes it a reliable choice. Rotom-Wash however has once more come to the fore with a formidable defensive typing, as well as a nifty Ground immunity. It provides reasonable versatility by being run either as a bulky wall or with a more aggressive preference. I can foresee Rotom-W gaining more use as we continue on towards Boston.
• The fall from grace of Talonflame in Germany is an intriguing showcase that the metagame has shifted away from it at the top level. Only one in the top cut was a surprise to me, but perhaps the top players will say it has been a long time coming for its decline to occur. It can still pose a valid threat to certain Pokemon, but it lacks raw power that can only be truly achieved with the Life Orb or Choice Band. The kamikaze nature of Talonflame can be useful for tearing holes in a team, but often at the expense of leaving a gaping hole in your own.

The Main Event

Difficulty Rating:

/ 5

(Five Pokémon depicting a totally legitimate British experience at the seaside, honest!) / 5

Location: Event City, Phoenix Way, Barton Dock Road, Manchester, M41 7TB

Registration Time: 10.30am – 12.00pm (First seating planned to be around 12.45pm)

In addition to the above information, there are a couple of further points that are worth noting. Players are advised that there will be no lunch break during the swiss rounds. Players should take note that there is a 45 minute block scheduled between the close of registration to the first seating where the organisers have recommend getting lunch. Drinks and snacks will be offered at the venue, and players are advised to consume food and drinks between rounds. Please remember to take your Player ID to the event if you already have one. There will not be any byes awarded for the first round of swiss this year for those at the top of the CP Rankings, so everyone will starting on a level playing field regardless of their achievement this season to date.

As was the case in Stuttgart, the top cut portion of the event will see anyone with a X-2 record or better proceed to the single elimination stages, provided that the relevant age bracket has 65 or more players. It is pretty much a certainty that Masters will hit this modest threshold, and the Senior division may also hit the threshold. Juniors however may run according to fixed top cut numbers, but should be aware of the possibility.

You can find a complete rundown of the event times for the weekend here as well as a comprehensive view of the rules, regulations and schedule here. There may be streamed content, although at this stage this is merely a rumor and should be treated as such until confirmed. Should information become available about this, it will be mentioned in the comments.

Last Years’ Results:

1. Albert Bañeres (Arbol Deku)
2. Miguel Marti de la Torre (Sekiam)
3. Carlo Arbelli (shinycarletto)
4. Kelly Mercier-White (KellsterCartier)
5. Jamie Miller (Blaze King7)
6. Niall Crallan (The Last Sheikah)
7. Baris Ackos (Billa)
8. Joshua Schmidt (Gamebreak0r)
9. Tyler Bakhtiari (Pokeguru01)
10. Terence Dray (Ty Flowsion)
11. Claudio Serpa (TrickSage)
12. Luigi LoGuidice (LPROX)
13. Ben Kyriakou (Kyriakou)
14. Luke Chaplin
15. Dario Crestani
16. Lee Watson (Redemption003)
17. Barry Anderson (Baz Anderson)
18. Sam Bentham (SuperIntegration)
19. Richard Fairbrother (Nidorich)
20. Chris Foulds (Accelerator)
21. Phillip de Sousa (P3DS)
22. Raphael Candelaresi
23. Lajos K. (Lajo)
24. Simon He
25. Steve Edgson (SirSmoke)
26. Joe Wilson (Russian)
27. Pedro Lima (Findow)
28. Erik Anderson
29. Lee Provost (Osirus)
30. Daniel Nolan (Zog)
31. Guillermo Sanavia
32. William Tansley (StarKO)

The Scoop

Historically in Europe, the United Kingdom National event has always pulled in the largest participant numbers and with it, a notable slew of high-profile players. There’s a real expectation that this trend is likely to continue this year, both providing an exciting and daunting prospect for those attending in equal measure. The venue is fantastic in terms of size, is situated in a very convenient location with regard to local hotels and the shopping centre is literally a short walk away to get any required amenities. I do want to temper expectations with respect to the speed and efficiency we should expect at this event. The past couple of years have been notable for the wrong reasons in the view of many players. I am at least hopeful that the organisers will have learned from the mistakes and this event should be a significant improvement. Despite this though, the atmosphere will be electric inside the venue, and should provide some shockingly good battles!

Returning Top-Cut Players

With a top cut of 32 players last year, we have a host of key names to run through on the list, as just over half have confirmed that they will be returning, with a few more potentially also making the trip. Last years’ winner, Spain’s Albert Baneres is one of the few I do not have information on whether he will be back to try and reprise his title, but given the Spanish contingent at this event is likely to be pretty formidable, I’m fairly confident he will be amongst them. The runner-up of Miguel Marti de la Torre I have been given notice of attending thanks to a friendly source. I am hopeful both Albert and Miguel will showcase the strength of the Spanish scene, as they are generally under-appreciated on Nugget Bridge. Of the semi-finalists, I do not unfortunately have any information on Carlo Arbelli being in attendance, and with regards to Kelly Mercier-White, he will now be attending after a late change of plans. Apparently he had tickets to something called a ‘Foo Fighters Concert’ on the Saturday. Personally I think it’s shameful that some hyped-up band of musicians is more important than a National Pokemon event, but there you go! Joking aside, Kelly only managed to acquire 50 CP in Stuttgart, and while still resides in the Top 16, he now feels he needs to attend the UK event to give himself the best chance of the invite.

Three of the quarter-finalists from last year are returning in Jamie Miller, Niall Crallan and Baris Ackos. Jamie certainly made a huge statement of intent last year here going undefeated in his swiss flight and has subsequently followed up with a healthy run to the Top 16 in Stuttgart a couple of weeks ago. As a consequence of his superb performance, he now sits just outside the Top 16 in the rankings, on 306 CP. Niall Crallan is a Brit that has been on the scene for a little while now, but I have very little information to go on. I can only apologise to him for the lack of any meaningful information, hopefully I will get acquainted so I can do more justice to him for future previews. His attendance will be warmly welcomed and I’m he’ll be looking for another strong performance in Manchester potentially. Finally, Baris is here off the back of a very important 3^rd Place result over in Stuttgart. He still however sits 2^nd in Europe after Markus Stefan leapfrogged him in the standings. Despite this however, Baris should be pretty much confirmed for his paid invite, barring some star-aligning permutations. Once again, I expect he will secure another strong result in Manchester to really tighten the screw as he will no doubt want to head the standings at the close of the season.

The remaining players I’m covering are all individuals who have confirmed they will be in attendance. Tyler Bakhtiari will be looking to avenge his poor Sutton Coldfield result and earn some points from this event, something of a rare commodity for him presently with only 26 CP. In a similar situation, Terence Dray is also lacking points to his name with only 20 CP. Last year saw Terence have a breakout performance, but realistically we have yet to see any further notable results, so expectations will be kept in check. Ben Kyriakou meanwhile may be keen to invoke the spirit of past performances from this event given his season thus far. Ben did however claim championship points with his 5-4 result in Stuttgart, giving him a total of 92 CP thus far, and lies in 173^rd position. Barry Anderson meanwhile was the agonising loser from the trip with 129^th in the standings meaning he came away pointless from the trip and falls to 15th in the rankings. Richard Fairbrother will be at the event, currently he sits marginally in front of Ben Kyriakou in the standings at 170^th. I’m honour bound to cut short any further mention because he didn’t want me to curse him again in the preview articles! In all seriousness, Richard will be looking to impress at this event, and I look forward to getting some more battles in with him at some stage.

One individual that we’ve yet to touch upon is the UK Regional winner Phillip de Sousa. Phillip has so far only attended the one event, but the 120 CP is enough to slot him neatly into 125^th on the rankings, and reasonably within reach of the Top 60. I think a few people will be wary of his name, especially if he is continuing to pilot the team that he conquered Sutton Coldfield with. Lajos Kowalewski is another name that people will be worth keeping an eye on, after a Top 64 result in Stuttgart brings his total CP count to 266. This means Lajos makes a modest move up the rankings to 33^rd Place. In a similar manner to Phillip, Lajos is within touching distance of the paid invite slots, a little under 50 points away. One player to bring down the curtain on a flawless Nationals top cut record was Steve Edgson, after he only managed to achieve a Top 128 placing. In all fairness, nobody can reasonably expect to cut every event they attend, so it is always a case of ‘if’ and not ‘when.’ Nonetheless, Steve bagged important points and climbed 23 places in the rankings to 70^th place, but will most likely require a better result here in Manchester. Portuguese player Pedro Lima is also making an appearance in Manchester. His season thus far has seen him earn 142 CP, and is down in 97^th in the rankings. It will be interesting to see how Pedro does here; a strong result here will put him in a strong position heading into Italian Nationals, otherwise it will be a last chance saloon. Lee Provost made the trip to Stuttgart and came away with 50 CP to increase his total to a very healthy 263 CP. Despite that, Lee did drop in the rankings to 34^th Place, down 20 spots immediately prior to Stuttgart. I don’t have many reasons as to why Lee did not have as prominent a showing as would have been expected from him. The home advantage however will likely provide that added boost that’s needed at these sorts of events. I’m happy to say that Daniel Nolan will be once more gracing his holy presence in Manchester after also making the trip to Stuttgart to spread the Zog way of life, with the mystery of the floating Ringbrot just one more story to add to the collective tales. His wit, humour and fashion sense is quite literally infectious, and it is good to see him getting back into competing at more events. Expect a new series of the ‘Tales of Zog’ to appear soon. William Tansley rounds out our top cut players. His showing in Germany was less than stellar, falling outside of the points-paying positions. As a result, Will has fallen back into the main group vying for invites, to 50^th Place.

There may be more names that made top cut last year that I’ve not mentioned who are going, but I cannot be certain due to a lack of information. Most will likely be present as in the case of Joe Wilson as an example, this is their home National event.

Players to look out for

So with the names of those that top cut from last year all accounted for, I’m going to turn my attention to the players at the head of the rankings who have yet to be given a warranted mention. Luca Breitlig-Pause is the highest name on this list at 4^th spot in the rankings, up 34 places after a glorious Semi-Final finish. This is certainly a huge breakthrough for Luca, and will not doubt give him lots of confidence heading into the remaining events of the season, as he looks to claim a deserved paid invite spot. Matteo Gini certainly made a huge statement of intent with his Quarter-Finals run in Germany, with Baris being the player to halt his advance in the single elimination rounds. The healthy injection of points means he moves up 5 places to 5^th in the rankings, with a total of 536 CP. His invite to worlds is essentially secured, but Matteo will be looking to lock up the paid invite with another strong performance in Manchester. Despite only achieving a Top 64 result in Stuttgart and having dropped five spots in the rankings, Yan Sym is looking much more likely to secure his first world’s invitation. Yan still needs another small injection of points to add to his 374 CP to be absolutely sure, but his consistency at earning points across events will stand him in good stead. Markus Stadter had a hard-earned Top 32 from his home regional, and the 150 points was a much needed boost to his tally to lift him 20 places to 14^th in the rankings on 326 CP. Markus will be looking for another strong, assured performance in Manchester to maintain his position, as I feel he has not yet locked up his invite, so expect stiff opposition if you face him. Christoph Kugeler also has a day 2 and paid invite in his sights. The 100 CP he earned in Stuttgart was enough to cling onto the Top 16 in the rankings.

For the sake of completion, there are a few names that I have yet to be mentioned. Luigi Lo Giudice I believe could be in attendance, but I’ve not had any firm confirmation to confirm or deny, while Huib Buijssen was meant to also be attending, but I believe this is no longer the case owing to exams.

The Chasing Pack

Even with all the names mentioned thus far, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg as there are still dozens of respected players who will be scrapping tooth and nail to win this event. Here are a few of the major names I’m tipping to be in the thick of proceedings:

UK

As expected, the cast of names from the UK is a long-winded affair, so the following names are my main picks.

• Jake Birch (WhiteAfroKing92) – currently sits 58^th in the rankings, is always a solid pick to do well at events like this generally, and is well-respected among the British contingent. He will need points to keep inside the invite threshold, something definitely not beyond him.
• Brandon Ikin (Toquill) – currently sitting 92^nd in the rankings, Brandon is a fan-favourite with a cult following. This could be his major breakthrough in the Masters’ division and has shown great form of late with his deep run in the Nugget Bridge Major 4.
• Christopher Arthur (Koryo) – Chris’s earlier success in the season has hit something of a wall of late which has seen him fall down the rankings to 98th. Having come home without any CP from Stuttgart, Chris will be keen for a strong home showing to stop the rot.
• Justin Miller (ThrillerMiller9) – In contrast to his brother Jamie, Justin went down the rankings and currently sits in 100^th Place. Justin is more than capable of producing a virtuoso performance when on form, I’m hopeful this weekend will be the one.

Germany

Outside of the British players, Germany will have a high representation in Manchester, with many of the following names being well-respected players with a myriad of accolades between them.

• Timo Koppetsch (37TimoK1) – Timo currently sits 29^th in the standings after a modest Top 64 result in Stuttgart allowed him to keep in touching distance of the paid invite spots. Certainly one of the favourites amongst the German players listed here to potentially have a deep run.
• Florian Wurdack (DaFlo) – At 35^th in the standings, Florian had a low key German Nationals, only increasing his CP tally by 50. I don’t think he’s totally comfortable with the metagame at present, but I think it’s a feeling a lot of players have had this season. Either way, he’ll be keen to cement his place for Boston this weekend.
• Matthias Suchodolski (Lega) – Sitting 43^rd in the standings, Matthias was unable to add any points to his tally in Stuttgart. His visit to Manchester will therefore be a crucial test of nerve and understanding where improvements can be made.
• Nemanja Sandic (Porengan) – currently sitting at 44th in the rankings, Nemanja was the top seed after swiss in Stuttgart and turned heads with some of his original interpretations for some Pokemon. Expect more of the same in Manchester, although will be interesting to see if he has more aces up his sleeve.
• Jan Michelberger (Lati) – Jan slipped 31 places to 77^th in the standings after Stuttgart, and will need a top cut result to guarantee he is inside the invite spots heading to Italy. Jan is certainly capable of achieving this, but again, this event will be a serious test of nerve.

Italy

While Italy has a heavy representation in the CP standings, as well as a rich history in the game, there will be substantially fewer players making the trip. With Italy Nationals only two weeks away being right on the doorstep, it’s understandable, but there will still be a few big names who will be keen to press home their advantage.

• Arash Ommati (Mean) – 23^rd in the standings after securing another 50 CP, the 2013 World Champion will certainly be looking to turn heads in Manchester. He can certainly evaluate a metagame to make the correct call as he has proven before, can he produce another spell of brilliance here?
• Alberto Gini (BraindeadPrimeape) – Alby also earned 50 CP from Stuttgart and currently lies 26^th in the standings. Once again, the Gini brothers are unrivalled in terms of skill compared to other sibling groups. Alberto will certainly be keen not be outdone once again by Matteo, so expect fireworks!

Ireland

While Kelly is going to be the main standard-bearer for Irish hopes this weekend, we should do well not to forget that there will be other Irish players who are making the trip who are more than capable of getting in the mix.

• Conor McNamara (Garchamp) – Down in 94^th place, Conor is much more of an unknown factor to many players, but as Kelly will attest to, he is definitely no pushover. This weekend will be his first major event this year, and do not be surprised to see his name near the top of the standings.

Outside of Masters…

In the Senior division, home-grown hopes will be firmly looking towards Mark McQuillan (woopahking) to get a big win. Unfortunately the CP lists have not updated with the points from Stuttgart as of writing, but Mark is likely to be within the Top 16 in the standings at a cursory glance. His biggest challenger will likely come from Italian Gabriele Spagnolo who is I am told expected to make the trip over, and will similarly expected to be within the Top 8 for Seniors after the update.

In the Junior division, we have four strong British entrants who will all likely be attending in Ethan K., Jaden D., Lisle C. and Rhys S. However, competition from the continent will be extremely fierce with Samet D. from Germany, Giovanni T. from Italy and Jocelyn A. from France possible opposition in Manchester as they battle for their own invites to Boston.

As an added extra…

Once again, I’ve had the pleasure to join Baz Anderson for one of his YouTube videos along with Jamie Miller and Szymon Wodjat. In this preview video, we discuss our thoughts and reflections from Stuttgart as well as looking forward to Manchester, among other topics. Please feel free to watch as Baz, Jamie, Szymon and I go over the main points of interest.

The Crystal Ball Predicts…: Once again, the high standard of players making their way to Manchester makes this event a very difficult one to predict. In much the same way that Germany’s top cut was largely comprised of home players, we should expect there to be a similar situation occur here. While we did see a sizeable number of established players make the cut a fortnight ago, we should also note that there were also many players for whom we were not aware of. I am this week going to make a prediction, and my head wins over my heart by opting for Markus Stadter. Given Markus is still chasing to guarantee his spot at worlds he will be giving it his all this weekend, and will certainly have made sensible adaptations to his team from Stuttgart to get ahead of the field.

Final Words…

I will be there! It feels like forever since my last major tournament outing, even though that was back in April, but this is definitely the one I’ve been very excited to attend since basically June last year. From sending out all the private messages and replies to obtain the information, I am certainly planning to introduce myself to a lot of people. Okay, so the game is meant to be the main event, but I am genuinely looking forward to hanging out this weekend. I’m looking into a T-Shirt with my Nugget Bridge username on it, but failing that, I’m sure I can recycle the “got lost going to Hawaii Worlds 2012” number I used at UK Regionals! Finally, I want to wish everyone attending this weekend the best of luck, and may the RNG forever be in your favour!

Please leave any comments and feedback as it is always gratefully received, and please feel free to share your opinions about any of the discursive points that have been made in this article.

The post VGC 2015 United Kingdom National Preview appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

The third and final week of the North American Spring Regionals is finally upon us. These are the last two US Regionals before US Nationals in July. A lot of players will be traveling in order to scramble for last minute crucial points as stipends are decided for Nationals, and of course qualification for the World Championships.

Wisconsin

Difficulty Rating:
/ 5

(Four Pokemon definitely native to Wisconsin and an Untrained Mamoswine out of Five)

Location: Monona Terrace, One John Nolen Drive, Madison, WI 53703

Registration Time: Saturday 8:00 AM

Last Year’s Winner: Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom)

Team Wisconsin

Starting off the preview strong with last year’s Madison champion, Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom) is 7th in North American CP entering this weekend. Collin already has his Day 1 World Championship invite from his Top 4 Worlds placing last season, but is playing for his spot for the Top 8 stipend for Nationals as well as the Day 2 automatic qualifier. He’s got a Top 16 regional that he can replace at Madison. Fellow Wisconsin resident Zach Droegkamp (Braverius) will also be competing on “home territory” this weekend. Zach’s got two Top 64 finishes already and there is a lot of potential for an increase in Championship Points for him. A lot of players will enter this weekend with their best finish limit reached already of course, and some will have an “easier” time improving on some of their less valuable finishes. Just as an example, if Zach and Collin both get Top 8 at this regional, they’ll earn 60 CP. But Collin replaces a finish worth 40 CP and Zach replaces one worth 20 CP. So Zach would gain 40 CP and Collin would only get 20 CP.

Team Ohio

Ohio will be sending quite a few highly competitive players to Madison this weekend, including two players in the Top 8 of Championship Points. David Mancuso (Mancuso) and Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario) are at 2nd and 4th place respectively in the Championship Point rankings. Both of them have had incredibly impressive seasons to date. David received a majority of his CP from the 2014 format in the Fall, but also earned 2nd place at the Florida regional in the winter. Ashton recently placed second at the Massachusetts regional a couple of weeks ago. Funny enough, both of these guys got the opportunity to lose to Wolfe Glick in the finals of their respective tournaments. As if having two of the top 4 players in North America wasn’t enough, Ohio could be sending Alec Rubin (amr97), Andy Himes (Amarillo), Kyle Timbrook (TM Ruby), and Thomas McCready (Tmac). Alec, Andy, and Kyle are all top 32 in Championship Points right now, with Thomas just outside Top 40. Top 32 is the $1000 stipend cutoff for US Nationals so these guys are looking to at least do well enough to stay in their respective positions, with Thomas having the potential to sneak right in there.

Team Michigan

I expect most of the Michigan players who attended Kansas City last weekend to show up to Madison this week as well. Sam Schweitzer (Sam) managed to impress last week with a Top 8 finish at Kansas City. He hasn’t had many other top finishes, but I’m sure he is more pumped than ever after his Top 8 finish and another strong performance could really get his name out there. Other familiar faces include Andrew Burley (Andykins) at 16th in CP, Jonathan McMillan (MrEobo) at 40th, and Kevin Beach (RandomVGC).

Team Minnesota

I can’t say much about Minnesota, but they’ve got some solid players that could really break out with some great play this weekend. Aaron Liebersbach (Arch), Cody Bernheisel (CodeUmbreon), Steven Burton (PikaPastor), and Matthew Peroutka (MittensAnimator) all sit in the range of 40-64 with the potential to get into the mix.

Team Illinois

Kamaal Harris (Kamaal) and Evan Deligiannis (nave) should be heading up to Madison this weekend after traveling south to Kansas City last weekend. Kamaal’s at 27th in CP which is a pretty solid spot to be at heading into Nationals, but getting higher than that couldn’t do any harm. Evan is at 62nd which is a ways off, but does have two Top 16 finishes this season. Both of these guys actually just barely missed cut last week in Kansas City and could easily get in with a little bit more luck via Opponents Win Percentage the dream.

Team Other Guys

Got a couple stragglers that couldn’t be lopped into the confines of a state group. Chuppa Cross (Chuppa) comes in from New York. He’s finally conquered being able to top cut premiere challenges, but he hasn’t been able to crack regionals this season yet. Whitney Johnson (brokestupidlonely) was able to earn Top 4 at Kansas City last week, playing in home territory. He’s at 55th for CP this year. Matt Coyle (PrettyLittleLiar) and Trista Medine (ryuzaki) made a surprise appearance last week at the Utah regional and also went to Madison last year, so it is definitely in the realm of possibility for both of them to come to Madison again this year. Oliver Valenti (Smith) has got two Top 32s this year but as always is not a player to sleep on.

The Smart Money is On: I know it kind of bit me in the rear last time I did it, but I have to pick Zach Droegkamp (Braverius). He’s at home, which has to count for something at least. He also got second at the last event that TPCI streamed (St. Louis) which doesn’t hurt.

Georgia

Difficulty Rating:
/5

(One T.I. and one Andre 3000 out of Five)

Location: Classic Center Grand Hall 7 300 N. Thomas St Athens, GA. 30601

Registration Time: Sunday 8:30 AM

Last Year’s Winner: Michael Lanzano (Jivetime)

The Georgia regional has always been one of the weird ones. The attendance last year was able to grant them a Top 16 cut (better than last week’s regionals), but the area doesn’t lend itself to the traditional top players of the country.

Absent from Class

Toler Webb (Dimsun) has been pretty quiet this season with some low attendance in comparison with the other top players. He was able to get into the Top 8 in the Fall at Ft. Wayne and also has a Top 32 finish. Toler has been one of the top VGC players since he was in the Senior division and has carried his success into the Masters division as well. DeVon Ingram (dingram) is another player with some attendance issues. He was able to earn second place at Athens last year which helped him qualify for Worlds. With how much Nationals is worth, it is still not out of reach for him, but a good showing at Athens could really help him earn a repeat appearance there. Adib Alam (Adib) earned a 2014 Worlds invite from a strong Nationals performance but has yet to earn any CP this year. It seems we have a pattern of players with attendance issues at Georgia, but jokes aside Adib has had a pretty good track record of doing well at the Midwest tournaments he’s gone to in the past. Rounding out Team Attendance is none other than Harrison Saylor (Crow). The butt of all attendance jokes since Mike Sankey, Harrison really showed up to Seattle with a Top 4 finish. He’s clearly still got it and could scoop up some solid Championship Points from Georgia.

Jackson Hambrick (Hambrick) has really done well at Premiere Challenges this season and also has a Top 64 regional finish. He’s at a total of 182 CP and could really add to that with this regional. William Collins (wiretap) was able to earn 3rd place at the Florida regionals during the winter and has a couple of Premiere Challenge points under his belt too. Nicholas Borghi (LightCore) earned a Top 8 back in the Fall and has just about maximized his Premiere Challenge CP. At a tie for 55th place in CP, this regional is crucial for securing a Worlds invite for Nick. Michael Groshans (Mikewando) comes from California to Georgia and he’s just below Nick in CP. Unlike most players, Mike has gotten most of his CP from regionals and not Premiere Challenges. He has three Top 16 regional finishes so he would really have to step up for Georgia. Kolby Golliher (KolbyJayke) has been solid at his Premiere Challenges as well and looks to add a solid regional finish to give himself a fighting chance at Nationals. I’ve also heard rumblings that veteran Joe Pulkowski (sandman) might make an appearance here and he could really shake things up for the competition. With somehwat of a hiatus, Joe has been doing great recently at Premiere Challenges this season. Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka) has made a full transition into the video game this season and as expected has been a strong force all season long. He’s got consistent PC finishes and a Top 8 regional placing too. A few other Northeastern players might show up too, including Patrick Donegan (Pd0nz), Daniel Stein (Blazikenburner), Justin Carris (Azazel), and Stephen Brown III (pyromaniac720). Daniel finished 11th in Utah last weekend and looks to put his money where his mouth is with the next event.

The Smart Money is On: Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka). Angel puts a lot of work in practicing with his group of friends and thinking about the game in general a ton. Some of the players in the attendance section have great histories, but Angel is showing up this season and this is an event he can take advantage of. It’s a really shallow group of players in comparison to the other 5 regionals this Spring and can definitely make some lesser known players shine.

The post VGC 2015 North American Spring Regional Preview: Week 3 of 3 appeared first on Nugget Bridge.

Thanks much to LightCore, Talon, and anyone else who helped gather teams and to Heliosan for helping touch up the article!

Week 1

Washington Regionals

1) Riley Factura (gengarboi)

2) Mark Hanson (Crawdaunt)

3) Harrison Saylor (Crow)

4) Wesley Warthe-Anderson

5) Nikolai Zielinski (Nikolai)

6) Yuanhao Li

7) Max Douglas (Starmetroid)

8) Gabby Snyder (JTK)

9) Luis Canseco (Chaivon)

10) Gary Qian

11) Tiffany Stanley (Shiloh)

12) Travis Knickerbocker

13) Carter Powers Beggs (FlacidPanda)

14) Michael Groshans (Mikewando)

15) Jake Hwang-Twigg (Jhoqk)

16) Kimo Nishimura (TFC)

Massachusetts Regionals

1) Wolfe Glick (Wolfey)

2) Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario)

3) Amelia Zoldy (VioletPumpkin)

4) Danny Hemchand (Jabberwocky)

5) Mike Suleski (OmegaDonut)

6) Michael Lanzano (Jivetime)

7) James Ball (pball0010)

8) Eric Bartlett

Week 2

Utah Regionals

1) Alberto Lara (Sweeper)

2) Max Douglas (starmetroid)

3) Bjorn Johnson

4) Matthew Greaves (picklesword)

5) Conan Thompson (conan)

6) Victor Camacho

7) Joshua Sperry

8) Kimo Nishimura (TFC)

Kansas Regionals

1) Michael Garrett

2) Paul Chua (pwny person)

3) Gabby Snyder (JTK)

4) Whitney Johnson (brokestupidlonely)

5) Chance Alexander (Calexander)

6) Eric Graham (ChaosElementX)

7) Ben Hickey (Darkpenguin67)

8) Sam Schweitzer (Sam)

Week 3

Wisconsin Regionals

1) Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom)

2) James Baek (Jamesspeed1)

3) Manoj Sunny (MangoSol)

4) Wesley Morioka (Wesley)

5) Jonathan Neville (TM Gold)

6) Nick Sefranek

7) Matthew Swanson (Swanner)

8) Mario Serrano (Mario C)

Georgia Regionals

1) Jerry Woods III (Sabaku)

2) Cameron Swan (Drizzleboy)

3) Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka)

4) Toler Webb (Dim)

5) Ben Thomas

6) Joseph Brummet (lucariojr)

7) Aaron Riker (rapture)

8) Karl Conception

9) Geoffrey Sauk

10) Michael Lanzano (Jivetime)

11) Edward Glover (Min)

12) Mathew Blackburn

13) Sohaib Mufti (sohaib)

14) Joshua Edwards (General Josh)

15) Eric Hogan (JackOfClubs97)

16) Dan Richard

The post Teams from the VGC ’15 Spring Regional Championships appeared first on Nugget Bridge.