3rd Place Japan Cup - Team Summary

Carrying on from the partial Japan cup coverage, tonight we look at the moves and sets used by 3rd Place @0p0t0p0t0p0t / Paranoia's sand team. Featured on @Cybertron's YouTube channel this team is already familiar to many players. 

Full credit goes to the Paranoia! Check out their blog here: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/hrdrk/

The team as seen above, is

Thanks to Team Magma's Teambuilder, it is clear that the team has no overwhelming weaknesses.  A partial weakness to ground is apparent though.

Individual Pokemon

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
- Giga Drain
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect

Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Protect

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
- Rock Slide
- Assurance
- Ice Punch
- Low Kick

Azumarill @ Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Knock Off

Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
- Dragon Pulse
- Hyper Voice
- Fire Blast
- Protect

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield

Some moves have been highlighted to draw your attention too. The first two Pokemon, Amoonguss and Excadrill are quite standard sets. Choice Scarf Tyranitar is used with Assurance as it will be outsped by both spread uses Salamence and Excadrill. Using Assurance is a really nice way to get some extra power from Tyranitar over the more commonly used Crunch. The next thing of note is the choice of Azumarill. Assault Vest Azumarill has always seen more usage in Japan than in the US and EU Metagames and it is proven here yet again. The next key point is the use of Special Mega-Salamence! SpecialMence has seen next to no success this year so it is interesting it is used here. This can also play on the fact people will expect the more common Dragon Dance /EQ/Double-Edge or Return variants. Opponents may believe switching in Landorus or RotomW is a good play, only to take a Hyper Voice or Dragon Pulse. The final point of note is the use of Shadow Sneak in the 3rd slot for Weakness Policy Aegislash. I would be really interested to see if Paranoia found this useful or if another move, namely Wide Guard, would have been better. 

Hopefully we can see a more detailed report of the team one day and learn the teambuilding. Standard sets work relatively well for playing around with this team on PS though building more detailed spreads especially for Pokemon like WP Aegislash would be a good idea for using the team more seriously.