Gigalith

Volt Switching it Up: 3rd Place Oregon Regionals Report

Hello Hat Lovers!

I placed third at Oregon Regionals. I used more or less the same team as I did at the MSS.

After the MSS I tried out Drifblim teams. I used Fini/Drifblim/Garchomp in the IC that was focused on setting up Tailwind and Swaggering Garchomp to facilitate sweeps. This was fun and while I did well with the team (22-4 in the IC) it didn’t seem like Regionals material. I could see a lot of flaws that my opponents weren’t exploiting due to the best of one setting.

When I saw teams similar to my MSS team picking up top finishes around the world I decided to try out these teams in order to understand how they played. I kept Koko, P2, Gigalith and Arcanine with a revolving door of Pokemon filling the last two slots. I didn’t like using the common stand-ins like Gyarados, Kartana or Lele. I also tried out a number of other Pokemon before coming to the conclusion that the original six were what worked best for me.

The QR Code for this team in available.

 785  Choice Specs  Thunderbolt  Dazzling Gleam Volt Switch  Hidden Power Fire
 233  Eviolite  Return  Ice Beam  Recover  Trick Room
 526  Rockium Z  Stone Edge  Rock Slide  Earthquake  Protect
 445  Groundium Z  Earthquake  Poison Jab  Swords Dance  Protect
059  Mago Berry  Flare Blitz  Extreme Speed  Snarl  Protect
 797  Leftovers  Heavy Slam  Flamethrower  Leech Seed  Protect

At a glance this team looks very standard. What sets it apart is the defensive the more frail Pokemon are trained. Tapu Koko is known as the frail Tapu but I expect mine to survive pretty much any non Z-move. Garchomp and Celesteela survive common attacks that exploit their weaknesses. Porygon2, Arcanine and Gigalith are all super bulky by nature.

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OMG Another Giant Rock! MSS 2nd and T8 Report

Hello Hat Lovers!

There was a Midseason Showdown in Vancouver last weekend. I made the trek from the island alone so I could chase those Championship Points.

I made the initial draft of this team about a month ago after the last PC. The starting point was Specs Koko and Helping Hand Arcanine which would allow me to OHKO Garchomp with Dazzling Gleam. I added Porygon2 and Gigalith as a Trick Room mode and tried a myriad of Pokemon in the last two slots.

In the weeks leading up to the MSS I noticed Rapha was using a similar team to what I was testing. We decided to collaborate to create the teams we would go on to take 2nd and T8. In this report I’d be listing my version of the team and Rapha will share his thoughts and where his team differed from mine.

Here’s the team at a glance:

 785  Choice Specs  Volt Switch  Dazzling Gleam  Thunderbolt  Hidden Power Fire
 233  Eviolite  Return  Ice Beam  Recover  Trick Room
 526  Rockium Z  Stone Edge  Rock Slide  Curse  Protect
 445  Groundium Z  Earthquake  Poison Jab  Swords Dance  Protect
059  Mago Berry  Flare Blitz  Extreme Speed  Snarl  Protect
 797  Leftovers  Heavy Slam  Flamethrower  Leech Seed  Protect

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Top 10 Pokemon from London/San Jose: Number 5 Will Shock You!

Hello Hat Lovers!

The first two major VGC 2017 tournaments have finished over the last two weeks. I’ll be looking at the top 10 Pokemon from these events that I didn’t write about in the last post. The list is not sorted in order of importance.

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