Bifu-Off Battle Road Gloria Top 16 Sun/Rain Team Translation

Original Post from rouのポケ日記: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/rou-34/20140202/1391353579

This was a team I had originally made for another upcoming tournament, Ganyu-off, but I lent it to Torun to use in the 5.5 Bifu-off. The result was top 16, however the team seemed to do very well so I decided to make a post. 

Pokemon	Move1	Move2	Move3	Move4	Item	Ability
Politoed	Hydro Pump	Ice Beam	Surf	Rain Dance	Choice Scarf	Drizzle
Kingdra	Muddy Water	Draco Meteor	Hydro Pump	Protect	Life Orb	Swift Swim
Meowstic	Fake Out	Charm	Sunny Day	Quick Guard	Leftovers	Prankster
Chandelure	Heat Wave	Shadow Ball	Overheat	Energy Ball	Choice Specs	Infiltrator
Mawile	Iron Head	Play Rough	Sucker Punch	Protect	Mawilite	Intimidate
Hydreigon	Draco Meteor	Dark Pulse	Flamethrower	Flash Cannon	Assault Vest	Levitate

Summary:

I started off with the team with Choice Specs Chandelure. 

Chandelure is a great check to both Aegislash and Gardevoir, which have become popular since around December~January. 

It can also take advantage vs. Aegislash with ability Infiltrator which ignores popular Substitute.

The next pokemon I chose was Meowstick, which can counter Sucker Punch and Earthquake as well as allow Chandelure to move more freely with Fake Out support.

The rest were used as baits to make the opponent to bring Aegislash and Gardevoir to battle. 

Chandelure @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 36 Def / 220 Spd / 60 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Heat Wave
- Shadow Ball
- Overheat
- Energy Ball

The star of the team. The basic line up of the team is Meowstick+Chandelure with the goal of allowing Chandelure to move most efficiently with the support from Meowstick. 

In addition to the massive damage sun+Heat Wave provides, with 6th gen's new typing, ghost type moves can only be resisted or innefective by dark and normal types. Therefore, Specs Shadow Ball is a great STAB move which can destroy a team if not prepared for. 

I prioritized the Sp. Attack EV spread before Defense and Speed EVs

1. To allow Chandelure to get the KOs it needs onto the Pokemon it has an advantage against

2. Next, the Speed EVs due to the lack of speed control in the team

3. Lastly the Overall Defense EVs to survive certain hits

For the moves, Overheat was used a lot as it can OHKO most pokemon under sun if neutrally hit, and can also defeat Aegislash without sun.

Energy Ball was used to get super effective damage on Rotom-W and Tyranitar. 

The ability Infiltrator is useful for hitting Aegislash under a substitute but Flash Fire could also be considered for making Charizard Y match ups easier.

Meowstic @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Charm
- Sunny Day
- Quick Guard
Meowstick was an all out support pokemon for Chandelure. 

The basic role was to use support moves such as Charm and Quick Guard to get rid of threats so Chandelure can attack as much as possible.

Fake Out allows for a safe attacking opportunity for Chandelure turn1. 

For Earthquake and Rock Slide→Charm, for Brave Bird, Sucker Punch→Quick Guard, for Water type attacks→Sunny Day. 

Sunny Day is useful for not only making it possible to bring Chandelure against rain teams, but for fire type boost as well. 

I think having a speed boosting nature is key for vs. Mega Kangaskhan. 

Politoed @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Def
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Surf
- Rain Dance

I decided to include a rain mode consisting of Politoed+Kingdra to counter opponents that could not be dealt with by Chandelure+Meowstic. 

To be specific, teams with Gengar which the main core has trouble with were dealt in this way. 

Furthermore, with Choice Scarf, Politoed can deal with Garchomp and Tyranitar which the main core has some trouble with as well. 

I was comfortable with the Choice Scarf on Politoed as i had been using a rain team with it prior to VGC 2014 ruleset. 

By showing the rain mode on preview, there will be a high chance that the opponent will bring Gardevoir, which is preferred for the Chandelure+Meowstick core. 

The nature is Timid to outspeed Mega Gengar, but it thankfully has enough stats to OHKO Garchomp with Ice Beam without the +nature on Sp. Attack. 

Kingdra @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature
- Muddy Water
- Draco Meteor
- Hydro Pump
- Protect

The standard for rain teams, Kingdra. 

With the addition of fairy types, nerfed weather, decrease in power of its main attacks and new weather Mega Pokemon, Kingdra has a tough time this generation, however I think it is still a strong pokemon nevertheless. 

The item, moves and EVs are very straightforward with nothing fancy because I would only bring it to battles where rain would be advantageous against the opponent's team.

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 172 SDef / 252 HP / 84 Atk
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Play Rough
- Sucker Punch
- Protect

For the mega slot, I chose Mawile because:

1. It can be brought to both the Sun and Rain core

2. The Meowstic, Mawile, Chandelure line up gives a false impression of a Trick Room team

3. Intimidate

4. For the Steel/fairy type slot that complemented my team

5. It can deal with Trick Room teams effectively. 

The ideal situation would be to clean up/sweep after Chandelure with Sucker Punch. 

Mawile is also a Tyranitar counter, although I feel almost 100% of Tyranitars have a fire type move. By getting a hint from a US tournament winner's team, I used a variant with relatively high Sp. Defense to not die from random fire type attacks. 

I think for a team with no speed support, defense EVs on Mawile is a good idea. 

Hydreigon @ Assault Vest
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 124 HP / 4 Def / 188 SAtk / 180 Spd / 12 SDef
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Flash Cannon
The last member of the team is Hydreigon. 

I needed something that was afloat and could resist Shadow Ball, which penetrated through my team. 

With Assault Vest, Hydreigon did this job magnificently as it was very strong against Aegislash, Gengar and Rotom-W. 

Assault Vest also prevented instantaneous death from Dazzling Gleam. 

After investing enough EVs in Sp. Defense to survive Dazzling Gleam from Gardevoir, I put the rest into Sp. Attack and Speed to outspend neutral base 100 moons.

Moves are very standard. Flamethrower vs. Fire Blast for the fire type move slot is debatable, however I feel Flamethrower provides enough at the moment. 

Wolfe's thoughts:

I don't have a ton of time at the moment and will have even less over the next few days, but I wanted to share this team even if I haven't given it a super thorough look. I think this team also uses a really interesting, creative approach, and I especially like that the builder was not afraid to mix sun and rain or experiment with Hydreigons item choice.