Translation of Japanese Bifu-off convention top 16 team

Original Post from すらぃりーのつらぃりーだいありー: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/slylypokemon/20140202/1391324603

Attended 5.5th Bifu-off (Battle road gloria convention) with a result of 4-2 in pools and top 16 overall.

The team did pretty decently on rated special battle spot, wandering around the 1900 points range.

However, I feel that this team has an accountable amount of instability.

Pokemon	Ability	Move 1	Move 2	Move 3	Move 4	Item
Salamence	Intimidate	Draco Meteor	Dragon Pulse	Flamethrower	Rock Slide	Choice Scarf
Charizard	Blaze (Drought)	Heat Wave	Overheat	Solar Beam	Protect	Charizardite Y
Rotom W	Levitate	Thunderbolt	Hydro Pump	Will-o-wisp	Protect	Sitrus Berry
Mawile	Intimidate  (Huge Power)	Play Rough	Iron Head	Sucker Punch	Protect	Mawilite
Garchomp	Rough Skin	Dragon Claw	Earthquake	Rock Slide	Protect	Lum Berry
Gardevoir	Telepathy	Dazzling Gleam	Energy Ball	Psychic	Shadow Ball	Choice Specs

I started the team building process with an inspiration from Viera's Arena Off Convention winning team core consisting of Gardevoir, Mawile and Charizard. 

The team originally had Tyranitar instead of Charizard, however it had problems with dealing with Gardevoir and rain teams with Bisharp in it. 

As a result, I replaced Tyranitar with Charizard Y, which surprisingly fit well as Charizard could do the job Tyranitar had been doing before, such as countering Aegislash, Abomasnow and Mawile to an extent. 

Although Mawile and Charizard cannot be brought into the same battle, because of the restriction to one Mega Evolution, I think that its not too big of a problem because both have clear threats and strong points.  

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

Draco Meteor

Dragon Pulse

Flamethrower

Rock Slide

@Choice Scarf

I didn't like the situation where a Salamence mirror occurs and the opponent's intimidate triggers first, allowing them to chose a fire type move to counter a Mawile switch in, so I just made my own Salamence full speed to be at least able to compete in a speed tier and force a speed-tie at worst.

Draco Meteor is a move that will miss when most needed, so keep in mind to sometimes use Dragon Pulse instead to at least get off some damage. 

However, I lost a game in pools because I was afraid of a Draco Meteor miss on a Choice Band Garchomp and used Dragon Pulse, which missed the KO and resulted in my loss. This was just purely my fault.

EVs: 196 HP / 92 Def / 116 SAtk / 4 SDef / 100 Spd

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

Heat Wave

Overheat

Solar Beam

Protect

@Charizardite Y

Charizard was really strong, especially for countering fairy types. 

Charizard+Salamence was a solid combination as anything that would come out to resist Draco Meteor would be hit by Heat Wave for massive damage and Overheat OHKOs Gardevoir. With Intimidate support, Charizard can also cling on, even if a rock type move hits it. 

However, Heat Wave and Overheat can miss and screw you over.

EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 4 SAtk / 132 SDef / 4 Spd

Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)

Thunderbolt

Hydro Pump

Will-o-wisp

Protect

@Sitrus Berry

The spread is just a copy of Ray Rizzo's!

I chose Rotom W to counter Garchomp, Kangaskhan, Mawile, Aegislash, Chandelure and Talonflame.

The spread focuses more on SDef than Speed to survive most Charizard Y Solar Beams.

I think Rotom W is a great pokemon, however its biggest weakness would be - once again - accuracy.

EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 4 Def / 148 SDef / 28 Spd

Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)

Play Rough

Iron Head

Sucker Punch

Protect

@Mawilite

When I had tested this team with just Charizard Y in it, there were some matches that I felt the need for Mawile which counters pokemon that Charizard has a hard time with pretty well. Most notably Rock Slide users like Garchomp, Salamence and Tyranitar.

I think 2 megas in a team is not bad!

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd

Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

Dragon Claw

Earthquake

Rock Slide

Protect

@Lum Berry

The standard set so there is nothing more to say.

EVs: 252 HP / 132 SAtk / 124 Spd

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

Dazzling Gleam

Energy Ball

Psychic

Shadow Ball

@Choice Specs

Honestly, I am still not fully sure of item choices for Garchomp and Gardevoir. 

To counter Smeargle, I was unsure weather to give Lum Berry to either Garchomp or Gardevoir, however I came to the conclusion that Garchomp did a better job of countering Smeargles and Lum Berry would come useful to negate burns coming from Rotom-W. 

As a result, I gave Choice Specs to Gardevoir to boost the overall fire power of the team.

Telepathy was chosen as ability so Garchomp can use Earthquake more freely. 

Wolfe's analysis

This is a team that contains a lot of ideas I think are becoming popular at the moment.  The Choice Scarf Salamence set is identical to the one I used at Regionals, and I know it is already a popular Pokemon to begin with. Charizard and Mawile are two of the most powerful Mega Pokemon, and are on the top of the threat list for most teams. Garchomp and Rotom-W are mostly standard, and Choice Specs Gardevoir is a reliable choice as the Choice Scarf was already on Salamence. I personally do not like the use of both Charizard and Mawile on any team together as I find it limits a team to five Pokemon per game, which can be problematic if both Charizard and Mawile are essential to removing threats. Two fairy Pokemon helps to cover for the popular double dragon core that has become so popular nowadays. Additionally, although the team has a wealth of offensive firepower, the defensive typing of each individual Pokemon complements the core as a whole, allowing good playing to cover the weaknesses found in lack of defensive investment. Most of the Pokemon used have very good natural bulk even without investment as well. I would recommend testing Aegislash over Mawile if one were to try and limit the use of Mega Stones, though without testing that might be a horrible idea.

Markus' analysis

Contrary to Wolfe, I do appreciate the use of up to twp Mega per team and I would recommend that people should try it out. While one can say that having 2 Mega limits one in team picking, I could also say, that only 1 Mega leads to picking it every game, resulting in a limitation as well. However, the power of Megas is just so strong that you generally want to have one on your team. This does not mean that all teams should have two of them, but I think it is definitely worth considering! I like the odd choice of a Choice Specs on Gardevoir quite a bit and thing that it can be a good way to hit stuff with Dazzling Gleam or Psychic, which should both do a lot of damage on any target. I am not sure about Energy Ball on it and I would prefer Moonblast as a more powerful fairy-type attack. Apart from that, I really like the team but I can agree with the author that it seems a little bit unstable. Have fun testing this or versions of it yourself!