Hello everyone! Emanuele Briganti here, a VGC player who joined the Italian army a year ago. I’m there to present the team I built and used to win the VR World Cup Open, so sit back and enjoy.
I’m glad to present a creature born from a superior intellect. After numerous attempts with concerning fails, I, Lele, nestled like gems on a ring these six Pokémon, giving life to the most destructive war machine! Handle it could make you crazy because its only possession creates a sort of addiction… Jokes aside let’s look at the teambuilding phase.
Table of Contents
Teambuilding process
So until the evening right before the open I had been very busy, didn’t manage to work on something and so I ended up without a team. Some hours before the tour, while discussing with my good friend, more like a brother Francesco Pero on what I could use he suggests me to try Palkia as he was doing but with a more offensive approach, then I decided to try and make a team around two Pokémon that looked strong together with a more bulkish idea, the aforementioned Palkia and Amoonguss with the idea of supporting it by using rage powder and pollen puff.
For the third slot I chose Incineroar, it came a bit by itself, I wanted a lead that could work against most of the stuff and as a big fan of Trick Room I already knew I wanted to run it on Palkia and having Fake Out + Trick Room as a back-up option other than Rage Powder + Trick Room has been useful.
Playing Palkia I was aware a single Amoonguss was not gonna be enough to handle Xerneas composition, so Stakataka took his spot to help me doing that and work as a Trick Room Abuser.
At this point I felt like I had most of the options covered, what I needed was a Pokémon able to give me a speed control for when I could not or didn’t want to play with TR up and Landorus Therian looked like the perfect pick there, giving me speed, a second Intimidate and after i used it in the Zelda Challenge i was sure it was going to do good as he did there.
For the last but not least slot Zapdos comes out. Talking in the TUB a day Rajan Bal starts talking about it, trying it in an offensive way and being enough satisfied of how it acted, then I wondered if a more defensive approach could’ve work as well, since it gave me a very positive match up against the most standard archetypes that were getting played during the last days, the Incineroar, Rillaboom, Urshifu (+Zacian) core being able to take well all the hits from those and even scare them to focus it because of Static + Rocky Helmet.
So here we have all the six parts of the puzzle.
The Team
Get the team’s paste here!
Palkia @ Lustrous Orb
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 212 HP / 20 Def / 236 SpA / 36 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
– Spacial Rend
– Hydro Pump
– Trick Room
– Protect
Here it is. Palkia. This thing has been great during the whole tour. When it decides to hit there is nothing it can’t 2hko. Its evs allow it to always live Modest Tornadus Hurricane + Modest Kyogre Ice Beam.
236 Special Attack evs to get the bump and then i gave the rest in Defense and 4 in Speed in order to outspeed those who want to hit 120 to outspeed Thundurus at +1.
252+ SpA Life Orb Tornadus Hurricane vs. 212 HP / 36 SpD Palkia: 109-129 (56.7 – 67.1%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Kyogre Ice Beam vs. 212 HP / 36 SpD Palkia: 52-62 (27 – 32.2%) — guaranteed 4HKO
Incineroar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Atk / 156 Def / 20 SpD / 84 Spe
Impish Nature
– Fake Out
– U-turn
– Flare Blitz
– Darkest Lariat
This cat is like nutella, good everywhere. 244 HP + 156 Defense Impish allow it to always survive a Close Combat from Mienshao and with the vest supporting it on the special side this becomes the first cat with 10 lives. I wanted to make it faster than the others Incineroars in order to Fake Out them before and U-Turn later when trick room is up. Darkest Lariat over Throat Chop because of 5% bp and the fact that it ignores target status changes such evasion or defense boost.
Amoonguss @ Coba Berry
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 212 HP / 60 Def / 236 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
– Spore
– Rage Powder
– Pollen Puff
– Grass Knot
Little mushroom has been great. With double intimidate, Stakataka and a Zapdos I was sure I wanted this to be invested on the special side with this EVs it always lives Life Orb Shadow Ryder Calyrex Expanding Force and the combination of Modest Tornadus Hurricane + Modest Mystic Water Kyogre and also has chances of living it when Tornadus holds a Life Orb. The rest of the EVs in Def. In the few games I managed to play before the tour I took in consideration the idea of running it with protect but both Grass Knot and Pollen Puff came useful many times in different situations and decided to go with that.
252 SpA Life Orb Calyrex-Shadow Expanding Force (80 BP) vs. 212 HP / 236+ SpD Amoonguss: 179-213 (82.8 – 98.6%) — guaranteed 2HKO 252+ SpA Tornadus Hurricane vs. 212 HP / 236+ SpD Coba Berry Amoonguss: 84-100 (38.8 – 46.2%) — guaranteed 3HKO 252+ SpA Mystic Water Kyogre Water Spout (150 BP) vs. 212 HP / 236+ SpD Amoonguss in Rain: 88-104 (40.7 – 48.1%) — guaranteed 3HKO
Zapdos @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Static
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 20 HP / 204 Def / 4 SpA / 44 SpD / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
– Roost
– Hurricane
– Thunderbolt
– Protect
Zapdos took a spot in my heart since this is the second huge tournament I win also thanks to an usual set I ran on this. Everytime I played against a Zacian team I knew I could even solo with it and everytime I needed it did its job, only thing I maybe should’ve let it practice a bit more on its aim 🙂. I wanted to always be faster than Urshifu and so 236 Spe EVs are gone. Like I said before I wanted this to be especially bulky on the phisical side based on when I wanted to bring it so I decided to invest my EVs in Defefense more than HP, this combination of HP and Defense “always” allows it to live 3 Zacian Behemoth Blade and to live 94% of the times Choice Banded Dark Urshifu Wicked Blow, as for Amoonguss the rest of evs are just going in Special Defense.
+1 252 Atk Zacian-Crowned Behemoth Blade vs. 20 HP / 208 Def Zapdos: 72-84 (42.8 – 50%) — 0.4% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu Wicked Blow vs. 20 HP / 208 Def Zapdos on a critical hit: 142-168 (84.5 – 100%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 36 HP / 4 Atk / 140 Def / 116 SpA / 212 Spe
Naive Nature
– Earth Power
– U-turn
– Rock Slide
– Bulldoze
Landorus has been great during the whole tour, I could’ve brought it every game and it would’ve still done something. 212 Speed evs make it faster than Calyrex and than those who want to outspeed it by a point, 116 Special Attack EVs are to always 2hko max hp Eternatus and a very bulky Special Defense Incineroar. HP and Defense evs are to give it a great chance to survive Zacian Behemoth Blade at +1 and always getting 3hkod by Max Attack Adamant Miracle Seed Rillaboom.
116 SpA Landorus-Therian Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Eternatus: 126-150 (51 – 60.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO
-1 252+ Atk Miracle Seed Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 36 HP / 140 Def Landorus-Therian in Grassy Terrain: 63-75 (37.2 – 44.3%) — guaranteed 3HKO +1 252 Atk Zacian-Crowned Behemoth Blade vs. 36 HP / 140 Def Landorus-Therian: 147-174 (86.9 – 102.9%) — 18.8% chance to OHKO
Stakataka @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Beast Boost
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Atk / 20 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Rock Slide
– Gyro Ball
– Trick Room
– Wide Guard
Staka with Ray-Ban (Safety Goggles). Another beautiful piece of the team, it worked like a second restricted, its damage output is ridicolous when played right. I noticed that with just a slight bit of Special Defense it could always live Thunderbolt from Choice Specs Timid Regieleki and so I gave it those since that doesn’t really make a big difference on Attack rolls. Wide Guard as last move just because i think its the best move on it and it came useful different times, even when I didn’t click it just to put psychological pressure to the opponent.
252 SpA Choice Specs Transistor Regieleki Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 20 SpD Stakataka: 141-166 (83.9 – 98.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO
Common leads
The team is very versatile so it doesn’t really have “defined” leads, even though the most common leads to the team are:
| Pokémon |
|---|
| + |
| + |
| + |
| + |
| + |
As I just said, the team is very versatile so in the back you pick two Pokémon based on what you think is going to help you more on the match-up.
Tournament Run
Swiss rounds
Top Cut
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top 32 | LWW |  Jeffrey Bird (Jeffrey) |   |
| Top 16 | LWW |  David Oakley (TacCat) |  |
| Top 8 | WW |  Wang Bingjie (kokoro) |   |
There I faced another Palkia, I was surprised to see another Palkia make it this far and really appreciated Bingjie’s team while I enjoyed a bit less the match-up since Palkia + Female Indeedee lead gives me lot of trouble.
G2 he then leads Palkia + Indeedee while i go Palkia + Amoonguss.
| |||
| Top 4 | WLW |  Matteo Ghisini (Frost*☆) |  |
| A Zacian team I was prepared for but even if I didn’t it still has been hard to win, sadly I dont remember many details about the game but I do remember they all were very long ones played on slowly getting progress other than going for damage, one of the funniest Bo3 I’ve played in a while. | |||
| Finals | WLW |  Yuki Safari (Yuki) |  |
The scary Shadow Rider Calyrex arrived in finals. Such a heavy scary team that did put me under pressure since team preview. G1 I remember she totally got the lead going Incineroar + Urshifu into my Palkia + Incineroar, we just exchanged Fake Out turn one and turn two she gets the KO on my Incineroar while I Spacial Rend her Urshifu and it lives letting me know it was another of those bulky ones. As for the other games I don’t really remember many details, I just remember that somehow my Zapdos managed to stay alive and win the game with Landorus’ help. I have no memories of game 2 other than the fact that I missed a Hydro Pump that would’ve given me the win and so I lost. G3 there, it was a very fast one, I lead Palkia + Amoonguss and she leads Incineroar + Urshifu, turn one she doesn’t Fake Out any of my Pokémon and so I just managed to Hydro Pump KO Incineroar and Spore Urshifu that just chipped my Amoonguss with Surging Strikes, she then comes in with Shadow Rider Calyrex, clicks Substitute but I double it by doing Spacial Rend + Spore and from there I just won the game by killing Calyrex with Palkia and Urshifu with Grass Knot. | |||
Conclusion
Gotta say that Im very satisfied with the run and didn’t expect to win it all with the very little preparation I had going into it.
I want to thank Francesco Pero (Cicciott) for giving me the idea of Palkia, in Italy we would say “It doesn’t miss one like Charlie Charles”; and Emanuele Ciliberto (Asuya) for acting like my mother between round breaks letting me vent in PMs so I could play calm and focused my games, love you both southerner brothers <3.
Hope you enjoyed the team and the report! Have fun trying the team!!
