I've been putting off posting (or even checking) my ranking and writing up a team report for a while, as I'm very disappointed about my performance in the competition. I went 13-2 on day 1, 10-5 on day 2, and had a horrible day 3, with a mix of bad RNG and me just choking some games (I think I went 8-7). I peaked at 1734, but my poor performance on day 3 made me end at 1679. I think it all went wrong when, in the middle on my day 3 battles, I faced a guy using King's Rock Cloyster, who proceeded to flinch me 4 times in a row. Cloyster was his last Pokémon and any of my attacks would have finished it off. This battle really upset me and I proceeded to play very poorly in almost all of the following matches. Such ending made me want to just forget about the competition. But I had been planning a team report from the start, so I figured I should just get it over with and move on!
Despite the disappointing result, I really loved the team! I think it had potential for high 1700s if I had played better.
Tapu Koko was first made to take advantage of Porygon2 (which wasn't as popular as I had anticipated in the end) to setup and sweep. It was also a handy stallbreaker, but unlike other people's experiences, I haven't encountered a single person trying to stall me during the competition. I expected to use it a lot more, but in the end, I used it in maybe... 7 games? I think Tapu Koko helped me most by just being a psychological factor on team preview. Most people had prepared very well against Tapu Koko, whether it was with scarf Garchomp, Marowak or Muk. Having it on my team allowed me to predict with confidence that the opponent would bring their Koko counter, and helped me choose my own team better. That being said, the few times I brought Koko, it shone and won me games. Best example would be this game, which was against an opponent in the high 1700s : T9AG-WWWW-WWW4-VM88.
Tapu Fini was one of my MVPs for sure. The Fini-Marowak-Kartana core is simply amazing, these are probably the 3 I brought the most by far. I ran enough speed to outspeed max speed Celesteela in order to ensure the Taunt, everything else was physical bulk. Nature's Madness was both the clutchest of all moves, and the one thing that ruined my chances when it missed. Still, with 90%, it was worth running. The Wiki Berry I am now convinced is the better item for 3v3 on a bulky Fini. It can be frustrating if you are ever left with something like 26% HP, but most of the time, it went into the Berry range comfortably thanks to its really nice bulk. Fini was my main Garchomp killer, eating those EQs and Poison Jabs for breakfast.
Nihilego was built as a lone ranger. It doesn't synergize so well with anything else on the team, but it took many games all by itself. Acid Spray ensured nothing could ever stall it out (mostly P2 in mind) or setup on it, but it was mostly used to catch things on the switch and put myself in a good position. The greatest part was that I EVed it to get Speed boosts from Beast Boost, which ensured scarfed Lele couldn't revenge kill it. Nihilego was brought fairly often, and it was overall very good, but kind of hit and miss. It had several sweeps, but it was also useless a few times.
Marowak was meant to help me against Koko and Celesteela mainly. It wasn't standard, but rather a bulky Marowak, which could live an Earthquake from Garchomp and a Shadow Ball from Gengar (I didn't anticipate so see so few Gengar) 100% of the time, not to mention it could eat 2 EQs from most Celesteela. I also had enough speed to outspeed standard Marowak and most Muk (really useful, since Bonemerang did a ton of damage to Muk). Of course, this meant losing in attack power, but Marowak is powerful no matter what thanks to the Thick Club, so I feel that was absolutely worth it. Since Garchomp was the usual switch-in from my opponents, Will-O-Wisp was incredibly useful to have.
Stoutland was a later addition, but it won my heart. I experimented for a while for this slot on my team. I obviously needed something that could help me with scarf Garchomp. I tried many things, almost settled on Air Balloon Metagross, but then I randomly came across Stoutland in the list, and thought I'd try it for fun. I was pretty much convinced this would be a poor choice, but I did many, many damage calcs against all of my team's usual threats, and in theory, it seemed like Stoutland was an absolutely perfect fit. Ice Fang OHKOs Garchomp 100% of the time (well, 95% cause obviously, it can miss), while EQ is usually not even a 3HKO thanks to Intimidate and Stoutland's great bulk. Meanwhile, Kartana's Sacred Sword never KOs, even if it got a Beast Boost previously (thanks to Intimidate), while Fire Fang obviously KOs in return. Otherwise, Return does insane amounts to almost everything - around 80% to Garchomp, as an idea. It 2HKOs bulky Arcanine even after the Intimidate. Muk was a 2HKO even if the band gets knocked off and Muk has a 50% berry. The more I used it, the more I was convinced it was amazing for this metagame. As a matter of fact, I won almost every game I brought it to (and I used it a lot more than Koko). Not to be underestimated, the surprise factor was big, as my opponents rarely feared Stoutland or expected it to do much, which meant they stayed in for several situations where they should have switched out. I could talk for a while about Stoutland, since this competition made me love this Pokémon dearly, but I'll close with a pretty exciting battle replay where Stoutland was excellent against a 1783 rated opponent : SZ2W-WWWW-WWW4-VM5S. Huge thanks and shoutout to
Doobzi for breeding and training Stoutland for me!
Kartana came to almost every game and was amazing, as long as the rest of the team took care of what threatens it. I invested quite a lot in bulk, since I was losing on almost no KOs by doing so, thanks to its sky-high attack. This meant it was actually a pretty good physical tank. SD + All Out Pummelling punished my opponents switching Celesteela in, as it KOed every Celesteela that wasn't Bold with full physical defense investment. It was also great against Scizor, but there weren't too many of these. It could setup easily on any Muk that didn't run Flamethrower (most didn't, but when possible, I tried scouting for it just in case). To my surprise, several people (3 if my memory serves me well) tried to setup Minimize on Kartana, clearly not aware of what Smart Strike does. The Garchomp matchup really depended on what the opponent was running, so I usually preferred Fini and Stoutland to go against it. Finally, Kartana was my dedicated Mimikyu check. Even after a SD, Mimikyu was not a very big threat to Kartana, let alone to the Kartana + Fini combo, both of which could tank its attacks. Not to mention Stoutland could get a free switch-in on predictable Shadow Sneaks and get a handy Intimidate in the process.
Other replays:
- Against Double-Duck : G4TG-WWWW-WWW4-SKCJ
- Got haxed out, but nail-biter ending : 4UMG-WWWW-WWW4-SKBZ
- Bulky Marowak + Kartana coming through : Z5VW-WWWW-WWW5-92RR
- How I handled standardish teams : 5L4W-WWWW-WWW5-92VN
- Facade Garchomp?! : 7TEG-WWWW-WWW5-93XN
- Fini + Wiki Berry = <3 Nice team from my opponent, though! : GK7G-WWWW-WWW5-935M
There is one loss I regret not saving. The opponent was using Dugtrio and Vikavolt (Mud Shot took me by surprise!), and he beat me fair and square, it was a really good battle!
In any case, it was a fun competition despite my terrible day 3, and I'm looking forward to the next one!