In The Zone

Hey, this is Stormfront. When I began building this team, I wanted to recreate the team I used in Philadelphia to success. That was the basis of this team, originally featuring the three pokemon that were still legal (Articuno, Ludicolo, Garchomp) and three replacements for the others (Suicune, Heatran, Metagross). Eventually most of the original build got dropped, or heavily modified, and a new team was born. There’s nothing extremely fancy about this team, it’s a simple read and react style build that can take hits and hit back.

Garchomp @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Rough Skin

EVs: 20 HP / 252 Atk / 236 Spd

Adamant Nature

- Dragon Claw

- Earthquake

- Stone Edge

- Iron Head

Garchomp was carried over from my team in Philadelphia. I still ran a scarf Garchomp, for multiple reasons. A. Speed ties suck. B. I can run Adamant with a scarf. C. It allows me to catch people off-guard and get some solid KOs nobody expects. The main change from the previous Garchomp I used in Philly is the switch from Crunch to Iron Head. Iron Head is much more useful against the fairies (namely Gardevoir/Mr. Mime/Wigglytuff) than Crunch is to me with the lack of Jellicent, Cresselia, and Musharna, who were the main reasons to run Crunch in VGC 13. The speed EVs let me outspeed Max Speed Scarf Rotom-F (I played too many of those) 100% of the time.

Rotom-Heat @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Levitate

EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 4 SAtk / 116 SDef / 28 Spd

Calm Nature

- Thunderbolt

- Overheat

- Protect

- Will-O-Wisp

Rotom-H eventually replaced Articuno who was almost never brought into battle and it really opened up my options when I brought it to the team. The EV spread allows it to survive Gyarados Waterfall 100% of the time and either burn or T-Bolt back. It also survives most Rotom-W Hydro Pumps. 28 Speed was to speed creep all those 20 Speed Rotom seen early in the year. The lack of offense really didn’t take away from Rotom as my style often was dealing a lot of chip damage and adding that up, and the bulk really let it stick around longer helping me a lot in the end.

Ludicolo @ Leftovers

Ability: Rain Dish

EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 92 SAtk / 56 SDef

Calm Nature

- Protect

- Fake Out

- Giga Drain

- Scald

Ludicolo, the MVP of my team in Philly ended up being the least used and most worthless pokemon on the team this time around. The spread does the exact same as the one I used in Philly, but better optimized and I had extra EVs to add to Def, adding a little more survivability. Scald was chosen over Hydro Pump as the burn chance is extremely great for me, and Hydro Pump wasn’t as effective in VGC ‘14 as compared to ‘13 with a lack of stuff to really hit hard with it.

Charizard @ Charizardite X

Ability: Blaze

Shiny: Yes

EVs: 212 HP / 196 Atk / 100 Def

Impish Nature

- Flare Blitz

- Dragon Claw

- Will-O-Wisp

- Protect

Probably the MVP of the team was this here Charizard. Originally a Charizard-Y, I didn’t like how it played at all and soon changed to Charizard X for better matchups against Garchomp and other pokemon. Charizard added a great element of surprise to the team as everybody expects Charizard Y. One of my favorite things to do was Mega Evolve on a Garchomp Rock Slide and OHKO with Dragon Claw. Will-O-Wisp is what made this set a pokemon usable as it completely crippled so many pokemon and not many people expected a WoW from a Charizard either. The EVs allow me to survive two Rock Slides from Max Atk Tyranitar Rock Slide (outside Sandstorm). The remainder of the EVs were placed into attack to maximize power.

Scrafty @ Chesto Berry

Ability: Intimidate

Shiny: Yes

EVs: 244 HP / 72 Atk / 84 Def / 108 SDef

Careful Nature

- Low Sweep

- Rest

- Crunch

- Fake Out

Being completely honest, I don’t remember what this spread does at all. Rest was a great move, especially when they protected or double targeted my other pokemon because they were threatened by the partner or thought Scrafty was not a threat to them. Low Sweep was amazing at providing speed control for the slower mons of this team. Sometimes hiding Garchomp’s scarf, other times letting Charizard outspeed Garchomp or other threats that would otherwise outspeed and threaten Charizard.

Magnezone @ Shuca Berry

Ability: Analytic

EVs: 252 HP / 156 SAtk / 100 SDef

Calm Nature

IVs: 28 Spd

- Flash Cannon

- Hidden Power [Ice]

- Thunderbolt

- Protect

Magnezone was a replacement for Metagross in the original build, at that time carrying an Occa Berry. When this spread was made, it was built to handle Charizard-Y Heat Wave and Overheat with an Occa Berry. Eventually, as I started seeing less Charizard-Y and fewer Talonflame, and an increasing number of Garchomp, I decided to add HP Ice and switch to Shuca Berry. I left the EV spread the same as the original because I loved the solid bulk it provided against the rest of the special attacking metagame. The 28 Speed IV was just what I happened to breed, and added to the chance of my going slower and gaining the Analytic boost. Analytic added so much power when I moved after both of the opposing pokemon, it netted many OHKOs and 2HKOs because of the power boost.

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