@SHADEviera's 2015 World Championship Winning Team!!

Wow, Viera's (@SHADEviera) Worlds winning team is finally out! Before I start, a huge shoutout to Adit  (@mikuudere_) for sharing this link on twitter after I missed it the night before when it was orginally posted. The team, as I'm sure everyone knows, features the exceptionally strong "CHALK" core with Thundurus in the last slot. The original link to Viera's blog post can be found here: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/honasho5/20151103/1446552336 
I strongly urge you check this out as it also goes over some of Viera's past Worlds/Nationals teams, who he played, their teams and some links to his battles including his set against 2014 Worlds Champion, Sejun Park! 

f:id:ChironVGC:20151104062034p:plainf:id:ChironVGC:20151104062047p:plainf:id:ChironVGC:20151104062024p:plainf:id:ChironVGC:20151104061959p:plainf:id:ChironVGC:20151104062007p:plainf:id:ChironVGC:20151104062013p:plain

For the sake of always putting the weakness chart in I will. Everyone should have become relatively familiar with a team similar to this and know what works and what doesn't. The strength of Viera's team is that it can handle anything; fast, slow, physical and special attackers can all be controlled with ease. Trying to build to counter the team results in unquie, tailored Pokemon, in this case they can be outclassed by high BST opponents or become useless in matchups that aren't against "CHALK". 

http://puu.sh/l8jxt/948c620f07.png

Unsurprisingly, Ice has a good matchup here, as does water. Pokemon such as Mamoswine, and Rain in general, look like they have a good matchup on paper. 

Indiviual Pokemon

f:id:ChironVGC:20151104063054p:plain Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite 
Ability: Scrappy 
EVs: 180 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SpD / 60 Spe 
Adamant Nature 
- Fake Out 
- Return 
- Low Kick 
- Sucker Punch

f:id:ChironVGC:20151104064203p:plainCresselia @ Sitrus Berry 
Ability: Levitate 
EVs: 248 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD 
Quiet Nature 
IVs: 19 Spe 
- Psychic 
- Ice Beam 
- Trick Room 
- Protect

f:id:ChironVGC:20151104064230p:plainHeatran @ Shuca Berry 
Ability: Flash Fire 
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 4 Spe 
Modest Nature 
- Heat Wave 
- Earth Power 
- Substitute 
- Protect

f:id:ChironVGC:20151104064256p:plainAmoonguss @ Rocky Helmet 
Ability: Regenerator 
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD 
Relaxed Nature 
IVs: 0 Spe 
- Energy Ball 
- Rage Powder 
- Spore 
- Sunny Day

f:id:ChironVGC:20151104064327p:plainLandorus-Therian @ Assault Vest 
Ability: Intimidate 
EVs: 244 Atk / 12 SpD / 252 Spe 
Jolly Nature 
- Earthquake 
- Rock Slide 
- Superpower 
- Knock Off

f:id:ChironVGC:20151104064352p:plainThundurus @ Safety Goggles 
Ability: Prankster 
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe 
Timid Nature 
- Thunderbolt 
- Swagger 
- Thunder Wave 
- Protect  

Alright, the team! Viera opted to not post his EV spreads but rather the stats of his Pokemon. All these Pokemon match the stats of his Pokemon. For Cresselia mainly, this involved me having to fiddle around with the Speed IV. This can bring us into the first point. 19 Speed IV on Cresselia. After having an anonymous tip off on PS (Thankyou), the Speed IV is confirmed to outspeed base 60s, such as Sylveon, outside of Trick Room whilst still underspeeding base 70s, such as Politoed, in Trick Room. Viera ran Protect on Cresselia in his Japanese Nationals team and works well in the highly offensive Metagame. A double target from Kanga and her partner could end Cresselia more quickly than previously. Speaking of Kanga, Viera ran a regular Adamant with Low Kick and Return. Next is Heatran, sporting a fairly basic EV spread, Viera opted to run Shuca over Leftovers (an item absent from the team). Shuca obviously improves the Heatran mirror match and seems to be increasing more and more in popularity. Amoonguss, for me, is one of the most interesting Pokemon on the team. Energy Ball over Giga Drain favours damage output under Trick Room though Sunny Day stole the limelight. Sunny Day has ridiculous success at Worlds now. 2012-2nd, 2013-1st, 2014-Well sun came 2nd, and now 2015, first again! Sunny day improves the rain matchup, a possible weakness of the team as well as boosts Heatran's Heatwave. Protect was dropped to make room in the moveset. Protect, whilst very handy, is not ideal in Trick Room. You are wasting your own turns in which you want to be maximising your damage. The defensive nature, and inherent bulk of the team, makes switching easy, negating the necessity of Protect. Another team that comes to mind is Wolfe's 2012 Worlds teams. I believe he touches on his lack of protect in "Eggscelent Execution". The defensive nature of the team is furthered through the use of Assault Vest Landorus-T. World's saw a huge shift in how Landorus was played as the typically more common scarf set was dropped for Vested, and Banded sets. The ability to switch moves on Landorus is very underrated. Rock Slide and Earthquake cover such large spectrums that forcing yourself to lock is often beneficial against only one of the opposing Pokemon. It is also an excellent item to grab and early lead against opponents who assume a choice lock too early. Now the final Pokemon, Thundurus! The EVs are again, a bit unique. I guess Viera wanted to be able to sustain the Swagger + Twave pressure hence the 252 Hp / 252 Sp Def but also wanted some form of speed resulting in the timid nature. The 10% boost from a positivet nature outweighs max investment neutral nature. It also enables Thundurus to outspeed Pokemon such as Heatran and Landorus. Thunderbolt and Protect round out the moveset. 

There we have it! The 2015 World Championship winning team piloted by @SHADEviera. It should also be noted that Viera won Japanese Nationals with a similar team (ChariY over Thundurus). Congratulations Viera!! 

I hope you have enjoyed the translation and that their are few to no errors. If their are, feel free to contact me and I'll fix them up. I have (finally) finished High School, completing my last exam just yesterday. This means I will have a bunch of spare time over summer in which I can try and start doing some more work on the blog and maybe work on some other projects! I know its has been a long time since the blog was updated constantly. Thankyou to those that have continued to use it as well as those that have messaged / supported me. It means a lot. Thankyou! 

 

Koki Sakurai's (@yasumatu0714) 16th Place Worlds 2015 Team!

Worlds has come and gone and left us numerous teams to analyse and speculate about. Of the more interesting teams at World's was @Yasumatu0714's double Mega team featuring the uncommon, Mega-Blastoise. The other Mega was Gardevoir. The rest of the team was made up of familiar faces in Heatran, Amoonguss, Thundurus and Landorus-T. Here is the link to the original post: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/yasumatu0714/20150919/1442667926
The full team was: 

As always, the weakness chart is below. 
The, like many this year, has a weakness to Ice thanks to the Genies and Amoonguss. No Rock or Ghost resists are highlighted however they are of no great concern. 

http://puu.sh/kiY8p/33621f7e55.png


Individual Pokemon

Blastoise @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Water Spout
- Ice Beam
- Aura Sphere
- Protect

Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 116 SpA / 4 SpD / 116 Spe
- Hyper Voice
- Psychic
- Trick Room
- Protect

Heatran @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 244 HP / 252 SpA / 12 Spe
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Flash Cannon
- Protect

Amoonguss @ Mental Herb
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 236 HP / 156 Def / 116 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Protect

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 236 HP / 236 Def / 36 Spe
Bold Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt
- Rain Dance

Therian FormeLandorus-Therian @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
- Explosion

The team quite clearly focuses on using Amoonguss to support both Megas as they fire off strong, special, spread moves in Water Spout and Hyper Voice. Mega-Blastoise itself is interesting in that it has seen little use this year despite being able to land super-effective moves against against LandoT, Heatran, Kanga, Thundo, and Amoonguss. Similar teams to this one, such as Yuuchi's World's Team, have seen other water types such as Azumarill run in the Blastoise slot. Standard M-Gardevoir we should all be used to seeing by now. Esports-Runner, the Japanese VGC site, ranked M-Gardevoir as the 2nd best Mega in the game, giving it 9.5/10, edged out only by MKanga herself. Shuca Heatran with Flash Cannon is used in this team to give it a better matchup against Sylveon and other fairies which would have been difficult to play otherwise. Mental Herb Amoonguss is interesting especially as Blastoise greatly benefits from a bit of chip damage onto Kanga to push Aura Sphere into OHKO range, however Mental Herb is a very viable item on Amoonguss as it guarentees it to get off at least 2 Rage Powders, enough for M-Blastoise to KO Thundurus. Super Defensive Thundurus with Rain Dance ensures M-Blastoise's Water Spouts will hit even harder and improves the matchup against ChariY. Taunt is obviously useful for Aegi and Shroom. Defence was heavily invested to ensure Thundurus could survive more attacks from Banded Landorus, the next Pokemon on team! Band-orusT with EXPLOSION. Explosion was used to quickly try and remove water and electric Pokemon such as Zapdos, Thundo, RotomW, Ludicolo, Azumarill and Milotic. This enabled M-Blastoise and Amoonguss to quickly gain an advantage. 

I think this is a really cool and I'm excited to see an underused Mega in the limelight. Yasumatu had an excellent run at World's going 5-2 losing in the 2nd Round to Eloy Hahn (DE) and in the final round to Moriyama (JP) after taking G1.  Yasumatu defeated Paul Chua, Choi Jeong Kyu (Korean Nats Champ?), Sejun Park, Barudoru, and Theron Ho. 

Remember to check out Yasumatu's original post here: 
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/yasumatu0714/20150919/1442667926
It goes into great detail about moves, EVs, and the Pokemon themselves. Google does a good job translating as the sentences are short and concise. Follow @yasumatu0714

Special Season 11 - @PAMELA_emuritto's Rankings

Special Season 11 (S11) is an exciting, limited, new format that sees the top 20 Pokemon of Battle Spot rankings banned.These Pokemon can be seen here as well as the other rules.
http://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/information/4504860d-0554-40ff-add0-65691050178c


Special 11 gives the limelight to other, often over-looked Pokemon. This makes teambuiding, in my and I'm sure many others opinions, more challenging but also more rewarding and enjoyable! 
@PAMELA_emuritto has put together a post compiling the top Pokemon in order of S,A and B after 150 battles in the format. This is a great resource to know which Pokemon are dominating the format and threats to your team! The original post can be found here: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/pamela_emuritto/20150723/1437629071

S
   

A+
   

A-
   
   

 B+
   
       
       

B-
    
       
       

Normally I would offer my own opinion here. Unfortunately I haven't played as much of this format as I would have liked and therefore believe that my opinion isn't valid enough to make any big changes to the established list. I am a little surprised at how low rain is (Kingdra and Ludicolo B-, Poli B+). This is possibly due to people already adapting and preparing heavily for these types. 

A few fun Pokemon that I have used and had success with in my limited experience include  , and . Almost any Pokemon has a shot in this format! I think if their is any format ever to ignore a tier list, this is it. Please take this article as an introduction to Pokemon that are common and pose threats in S11 rather than what Pokemon to use, and what not to use. The competitive season is over for the best part and this is a great chance to kick back, relax and use some fun Pokemon! 

As a final note, many of you may have noticed the blog was extremely quiet for around a month. I had HSC Trial exams, essentially my yearly exams for my last year of school. Obviously these take up a lot time. Unfortunately, I will have my HSC exams Oct-Nov and again, the blog will be very quiet around that time. For the mean time though, I will try to catch up and release content as consistantly as I can leading into Worlds. Thanks, and enjoy!

Post-Japanese Nationals Thoughts

Hi everyone! 

Recently Nuggetbridge has posted a few articles focusing on the 2015 Japanese Nats as well as the teams used. I thought I'd make a post with a few of my thoughts about Japanese Nats, some trends we saw, and possibly of things to come. 

I'll start with one of the most obvious meta trends that their is...

http://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/bw/gardevoir-mega.png 

Garde-Shroom shouldn't have been a surprise. It has been popular in Japan for months to the point where we saw teams almost hard countering it! (See RainRoom with Escav!)
Every Garde was paired with Shroom, LandoT and Heatran barring Barudoru's rain variant with Krook over LandoT. 
I really can't think of a good reason as to why M-Garde hasn't picked up usage in the west. Some have said it lacks power or is underwhelming. Whilst it doesn't have the offensive pressure of the other top mega Pokemon it can support it's team very well with TR compared to say MMence which requires the team to support it so it can Dragon Dance. Garde is extremely strong and I would be very surprised if it wasn't used more and more leading up to Worlds. Redirection has always been incredibly strong and Garde offers board control with TR. These leaves 4 slots for you to work around other modes and functions of the team. It can also be changed very easily to catch your opponent off gaurd. ie Running a faster Garde with a Timid Heatran playing on the fact your opponent would expect a modest or quiet Heatran. 

The next point I would like to talk about is the use of double mega.

This season it has been far more difficult to use doubmega as effectively as last season. Of the 6 Charizards used at Japanese Nats...4 were paried with Kanga. Bicho posted a double mega team of ChariY/Kanga/Thundo/LandoT/Aegi/Sylveon. I cant find the orignal blog post of this team but have the pastebin if anyone is really that interested.This is also the team that both Conan and Adit were reffering to in the Japanese Nats Podcast This was as far as I saw, the first very public double mega team of the kind. I have heard SHADE had been using his winning team for a few months and this fits in with the timing. Clearly this was a missed opportunity for all of the West had a team like this taken off. 
I think this is a really, really strong call for any Bo3 Swiss tournaments as you have so much room to move and change the teams style between games. 

Next point! This is a bit of an elephant in the room; Japan Sand!

Japan Sand was used once at Nats  and ended up being paired in the same group as Paranoia, the player that piloted it to success in the Japan Cup. I think the lack of Japan Sand is really interesting, a team that has taken the western metagame by storm topcutting and performing well at everything from PCs to Nats. The sand team has been used successfully once in Japan during Japan Cup and once at Nats. From this it is clear that the Japanese Meta is on a completely different wavelength than the western one. Goggles Overheat Heatran ( a common set used on the MGarde teams) does well against the sand team with Amoonguss or Gardevoir. On a smaller scale the recent SG Nats had a senior final of MGarde+Shroom+TTar+Goggles RotomH vs Sand. As soon as TR went up the Sand team had a lot of trouble due to the faster, harder hitting Pokemon unable to perform and the slower, anti-TR Pokemon dying out to their counters. ie Shroom losing to Goggles RotomH
I would expect a good handful of JapSand teams, or variations, to perform well at US Nats given that a lot of people will most probably be running it. I dont think we'll see the red back of a sandy Salamence for a while!

The battle of the Thunder-Birds!

In total their were 12 Zapdos' present at Japanese Nats compared to 9 Thundurus-I's. 
In Australia their were 4 Zapdos in topcut (16) compared to only 1 ThundoI. 
The 3 European Nationals saw a total of 36 ThundoI in topcut compared to just 7 Zapdos! This is an interesting comparison as many Japanese value the bulk and recover of Zapdos over the Prankster Thunder-wave. A few months (maybe weeks?) ago I remember Scott tweeting that Thundurus-I's was seeing too much use. I believe this is from the same set of tweets detailing non-mega Pokemon in the format, that were spoken about in my Regs+Nats team report. I'm very interested to see if Zapdos becomes popular going into US Nats following this trend or if they continue the other Western regions and fly in with a Thundurus. LandorusT has, and still is dominating the format. Zapdos has the ability to outspeed it after a tailwind and also threatens the bulkier bulky-waters like Milotic that are becoming more frequent. 

This has been a relatively short, unedited article and I have tried to keep it informal. Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes. Hopefully it has delivered some kind of insight and represented my opinion well. 
One a final note, good luck to everyone going to US Nats. Enjoy, have fun and try your best!!

 

Paranoia's Japanese Nats Team!

One of the most eye-catching teams from the Japanese Nationals was easily @0p0t0p0t0p0t's Liepard-MegaSalamence team. Check out the original post here: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/hrdrk/

The team was:

As always, here is the weakness chart provided by teammagma.net
The team has a very obvious fairy weakness. Aegislash and it's wide guard really have to carry the team past this. Double dragon means that an ice weakness occurred. Again, Aegislash has to put in work to cover this as well as Entei.

Individual Pokemon: 
NOTE - Paranoia did not put his exact EV spreads in his blog post. A common practise in Japan is to use HABCDS to represent Hp(H), Att(A), Def(B) etc A basic 252 spread can be assumed however it is not guaranteed. For this reason I have not included EV spreads but rather the same HABCDS system. 

Garchomp @ Yache Berry
Attack and Speed
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Salamence @ Salamencite
SpAtt and Speed
- Hyper Voice
- Draco Meteor
- Hyper Beam
- Protect

Liepard @ Focus Sash
Defense and Speed
- Fake Out
- Fake Tears
- Thunder Wave
- Encore

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
HP and SpAtt
- Tri Attack
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Protect

Aegislash @ Leftovers
HP and SpAtt
- Shadow Ball
- Substitute
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield

Entei @ Sitrus Berry
HP, Attack and Speed
- Sacred Fire
- Stone Edge
- Snarl
- Protect

It's not often every Pokemon on a team has an outstanding feature! 
The use of Garchomp is interesting in itself as it is almost always out classed by LandorusT. Garchomp holds a Yache berry to take ice attacks better. This means Garchomp can put in work against Pokemon like Thundurus and Milotic which the team already struggles with. LandorusT in this team would also mean double intimidate, a setup some players enjoy though, as previously mentioned, would make this team even weaker to Milotic. Mega-Salamence runs a special set consisting of Hyper Voice, Draco Meteor, and Hyper Beam! This set is designed to be paired with Fake Tears Liepard. Clearly the set was made to nuke threats to the rest of the team and pickup surprise OHKOs in a Bo1 situation. Moving onto Salamence's partner in crime, Liepard. The moveset is fairly straight forward. Fast fakeout, Fake Tears for the support, Encore to try and force switches and put pressure on Pokemon to try and attack against the TearBeam/TearVoice(?) threat. Thunderwave in the last slot means Porygon2 and Aegislash can start to outspeed things as well as stop tailwind strategies. Porygon2 is a unique choice in this team and frankly speaking I can't explain well why it was chosen. It is one of few Pokemon that can effectively use Ice Beam. Tri Attack is a very powerful move itself. I imagine this was one of the latter Pokemon on the team and needed to fit some kind of specific role hence the HP Ground. Porygon plays a similar role to the old offensive Cresselias that were more common in 2012-2013. 4 Pokemon down, 2 to go! Aegislash is one of the more normal sets on the team. Wide Guard is essential for the team to stop super-effective moves onto MSala such as Hyper Voice and Icy Wind. Paranoia opted to run a Flash Cannon-less Ageislash, a choice that is starting to become more and more common around the world. Entei runs a very standard moveset of Sacred Fire, Stone Edge, Snarl and Protect. These are the top 4 moves on Entei this season according to the BS stats. 

This is a really interesting team and a good example of trying to use a team to suit the tournament style. Bo1 can be devasting however, as this team proves quick, clean KOs and surprises can be used to manage Bo1 with ease. 

Congratualtions Paranoia on your result and Worlds invite! I, as well as many others, hope you can make it and show off another great team!

 

Sydney and Nationals Team

Finally I have gotten around to publishing the team I used in Sydney and very slightly modified for Nats. The team building process can be found here for anyone that might've missed it or is wanting a refresher:

http://chironvgc.hatenablog.com/entry/2015/05/13/142042

http://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/bw/kangaskhan-mega.png

 

 

The team itself didn't change from Sydney to Nationals though some EV Spreads, items and moves did. 

http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-xy/icon/115-m.pngKangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 212 HP / 100 Atk / 60 Def / 20 SpD / 116 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Double-Edge
- Low Kick
- Sucker Punch

Kanga didn't change between Syd and Nats. The EV spread, like most from the team, was stolen with the intention that they would be changed later. The speed creeps Breloom and other positive base 70 Pokémon. The bulk came in really useful with Kanga having numerous clutch survivals in both tournaments. In Sydney, Kanga took double mach punch from Johnson's (@ZantarVGC) Breloom and Conkeldurr. At Nats it took an Iron Head from MegaGross, flinched, took another surviving on 5hp to than OHKO a Ludicolo with Double Edge. @levelfiftyone made the original spread. It survives a modest Hydreigon Specs Draco 100% of the time. It also survives Adamant Kanga's low kick 100% of the time. 


http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-xy/icon/488.pngCresselia @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs:220 HP / 100 Def / 188 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Trick Room
- Rest

Cresselia is another Pokemon that didn't change at all between Sydney and Nats. Sunny Day was very seriously considered to improve the rain matchup (which I had to play twice at Nats) and also let me power up my own Heatran. The EV spread went something like. 
"Luke, I need a TR Cress spread, hook me up?"
"Erhm, this should do for now"
It has a 93.8% chance to OHKO 4/0 Landorus and takes every physical hit you would expect a Cresselia to take including LO 252+ Bisharp Knock Off. RestoChesto is the probably the most outstanding feature of Cresselia. Originally it was Helping Hand with a Sitrus berry however whilst testing for Sydney it became obvious that Kanga+Breloom was really difficult for the (TR portion of) team to handle. Rest and the Chesto berry came in very handy during Sydney though it is hard to say if it was as important at Nats. 

Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 156 HP / 92 Def / 244 SpA / 4 SpD / 12 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Hyper Beam

A very standard Sylveon Specs set. Hyper Beam was chosen over Hidden Power Ground to maximise damage during TR turns as well deleting Pokemon such as opposing Kanga, Swampert (knew this was being played in Syd and wide guard was a pain), and Suicune. I considered changing Sylveon to Life Orb or Goggles between Sydney and Nats but a mixture of laziness and lack no solid testing made me end up sticking with Specs.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 236 HP / 148 Def / 44 SpA / 12 SpD / 68 Spe
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Substitute
- Protect

 Standard SubLefties Heatran. Goggles was considered for both Syd however, with the announced of Bo3 battles for Nats I opted against it. As one can see, Heatran is very defensive. Eugene Tan made the original spread!  It is 3HKO'd by 252 Breloom Mach Punch, Terrakion only has a 12.5% chance to OHKO with CC, Kang's 252 Low Kick only has a 1.3% chance to OHKO. Rock Slide from 252+ LandorusT doesn’t break Heatran's sub either! The original spread wasn't made for trick room though I opted to keep the speed. By doing so I could anticipate that I would underspeed non-trick room Heatrans though outspeed hard trick room Heatrans. Throughout both tournaments I didn't feel like I should've changed the spread. 
The EV spread came in very useful multiple times throughout both tournaments. In the Semifinal of Sydne, Heatran was able to fire off a heatwave after it took a Breloom Mach Punch and a Bisharp Sucker-Punch. At Nats, Heatran survived a Terrakion Close Combat and picked up a double KO to win the game. 

Sydney Thundurus
Incarnate FormeThundurus @ Life Orb                                        
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 52 HP / 20 Def / 180 SpA / 4 SpD
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt


Nats Thundurus: 
Incarnate FormeThundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 236 HP / 84 Def / 4 SpA / 76 SpD / 108 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Taunt
- Swagger
- Thunder Wave

Life Orb Thundurus was used in Sydney as the Sitrus was originally taken by Cresselia. It also meant I could quickly remove bulky water types with a helping hand + TBolt. As the RestoChesto change was made only the night before I didnt have enough time to think about changing Thundurus a lot. Max speed to taunt other Thundurus. I made the change to bulky Thundurus for Nats which really improved my rain matchup as well as Perish matchup. Both of which I played. 13 Hp Thundurus was able to 1v1 a Mega-Blaziken with Swagger+Twave (My opponent had been swaggering my team with Liepard all match so I really didn't feel too bad afterwards).


 Therian FormeLandorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 164 HP / 124 Atk / 12 Def / 28 SpD / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
- U-turn (Knock Off used in Sydney)

Fairly standard bulky-scarf LandorusT. Knock Off was used so I could try and touch wide guarding Aegislash though I rarely used Landorus so either works fine. U-turn in theory lets me get an intimidate off, U-turn into Heatran or Sylveon and set up TR. This never happened though. 

Tough Matchups

Amonguss, Double Steel, Redirection+PuP Kanga and priority based teams (ie Double Suck Punch) were all difficult to battle. Amoonguss made playing TR tough and double steel really limited my ability to clean up with Sylveon. Whilst it doesn’t look like it, opposing Heatran could often be difficult to content with especially if they a Shuca berry or were able to get up a sub early. 

Overall it was is a very strong team that can run through unprepared teams quickly and hold its own in the final rounds of swiss. I think Amoonguss over Thundurus would've helped me more at Nats in my latter rounds, though it is hard to say if I would've started so well given how strong Thundurus was in those key, early rounds. 

Scar's Japanese Nationals PT

Scar (@Scar3020), a well known Japanese player and 2014 Worlds Competitor, has already posted the team he used at Japanese Nationals. Check out his original blog post here!
http://clysis.blog35.fc2.com/blog-entry-56.html

Scar used the common core of Mega-Gardevoir + Trick Room Heatran and Amoonguss, but with his own twist, Infernape! This gave the team a better way to function with trickroom but also supported the team's ability to set up trick room with fake out support. 

Here is the weakness chart thanks to teammagma.net
The team has a triple weakness to water, and a double weakness to both ground and flying. Scar could play around water and rain teams with the aid of Amoonguss and Trick Room. The flying weakness is covered with a nice tech on Heatran. 

Individual Pokemon
Infernape @ Focus Sash
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- Quick Guard

Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 116 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Psychic
- Trick Room
- Protect

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 0 Spe
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Protect

 Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 228 HP / 236 Atk / 44 SpD
Adamant Nature
IVs: 4 Spe
- Aqua Jet
- Knock Off
- Belly Drum
- Protect

Heatran @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 252 SpA / 60 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Ancient Power
- Protect

Therian FormeLandorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
- U-turn

Adamant Infernape is an interesting though not completely different choice. Infernape+M-Gardevoir were used earlier in year as Infernape can deal with threatening style types and also support Gardevoir through quick guard and fake out, both of which are seen here. The trick room Gardevoir supports the slower portion of the team in Azumarill, Amoonguss and Heatran. According to Scar's blog the Azumarill has a speed stat of 57 meaning that Azumarill's speed IV is 4-5. The Azumarill had Knock Off over the more common Play Rough. Amoonguss is a very standard set barring the HP Ground. Scar ran this earlier on one of the first, more known TR Mega-Garde teams (The only difference in Pokemon was Infernape over Thundurus). Heatran was min speed with goggles and ancient power. Presumably this is to quickly remove Pokemon like Talonflame that threaten Amoonguss. A choice scarfed LandorusT rounds out the team! 

Congratulations to Scar for making the Japanese Nats! Check out his twitter and (regularly updated) blog here:
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Scar3020
Blog - http://clysis.blog35.fc2.com/