1. How did you decide on building your team?
Code:
| 1 | Mienfoo | 6856 | 30.550% | 6069 | 32.563% |
| 2 | Misdreavus | 6674 | 29.739% | 5497 | 29.494% |
| 3 | Abra | 5148 | 22.939% | 4058 | 21.773% |
| 4 | Murkrow | 4841 | 21.571% | 3799 | 20.383% |
| 5 | Chinchou | 3673 | 16.367% | 2998 | 16.086% |
| 6 | Drilbur | 3526 | 15.712% | 2677 | 14.363% |
| 7 | Porygon | 3339 | 14.878% | 2645 | 14.192% |
But anyway, I mostly just used LC teams that I had made previously and still saved, including the Double Rush team that I posted an RMT of (modified to include Magnemite), the Anti-Sand team I made to counter that same Double Rush team, and, yes, my main team in the tourney was Team Top6. I also made a sort of gimmicky hyper offensive team for use in this tourney but I ended up not using it since I found myself only ever counterpicking with Double Rush or Anti-Sand. I won't post that team because after laddering with it last night it loses to too much random crap to be as consistent as a top team needs to be (but if you were curious, it was Drifloon/Archen/Snover/Abra/Croagunk/Bronzor).
For Team Top6, I included standard Abra, Chinchou, and Mold Breaker Drilbur (which IceArrow didn't know about, true story) because those are really their best sets (with Chinchou that's kind of debatable, but with a non-sand Drilbur and Abra, that's incontestable). For Meinfoo, Misdreavus, and Murkrow, I wanted to try something different. I knew that with the team I had as is, I would have little defense against sand teams, whose sweepers can largely ignore what I try to do to them because they're so fast and their supporters are so bulky. Because of this I decided to include FeatherDance on Murkrow. FeatherDance is a gimmick that was used very often to great effect on Murkrow back in the early BW days when everyone was experimenting with Prankster pokemon but then people forgot about it when they remembered that Murkrow is an amazing attacker as well as a annoying status pokemon and started using the standard Sub/Roost/BB/Sucker Punch set that we all know and love today. FeatherDance is the big counter this team has to Drilbur and Sandshrew since after a single FeatherDance, Rock Slide does disappointingly low damage and they have to waste time using Swords Dance to recoup (if they even have it) which gives me time to SubRoost stall and pray for a miss. Misdreavus is another anti-sand pokemon in many ways. When making this team, I had a hard time deciding whether I wanted Will-O-Wisp or Taunt until I finally said "**** it, why not have both?" Taunt helps to stop many common sand pokemon from really tearing this team apart, preventing Hippowdon from setting up rocks, healing, or phazing, and preventing Lileep from Toxic stalling or Recovering. More generally, Taunt is fantastic against a lot of pokemon who try to set up hazards like Bronzor and Ferroseed, which makes Misdreavus my most common lead for this team. Will-O-Wisp also helps a lot against sand. After Hippowdon is taunted and forced out, the first think they usually go to is Drilbur or Sandshrew so that they can Shadow Claw Misdreavus to death. This plays right into my expectations and Will-O-Wisp allows me to cripple them with a burn and Shadow Ball them to death before they can say "Swords Dance". Against the rest of the metagame, Will-O-Wisp is fantastic too - Mienfoo, Murkrow, Croagunk, Riolu, Scraggy, Timburr, Archen, physical Shell Smashers, they all hate getting burned and Misdreavus does a great job of burning them. The last major choice here is Choice Scarf Mienfoo. TBH, I was getting really bored of running the standard Mienfoo, but running Choice Scarf Mienfoo has been just as beneficial for this team, if not better. Fake Out is not missed at all, in fact with the omnipresence of ghost types in this format Fake Out is really only good for making your opponent take residual damage from things like hail, sand, or Toxic Spikes, none of which I have (I mean I guess there's WoW, but whatever). The added coverage from Stone Edge and the ability to choose between Drain Punch and Hi Jump Kick more than makes up for the loss of bulk and support moves. Scarf Mienfoo Drain Punch is a great way to clean up at the end of the game and I've swept with him more times than I've swept with anything else on the team.
For my strategy behind my Double Rush team, read my RMT. Ignore the part about Slowpoke though, I've since replaced him with Magnemite and never looked back. For my Anti-Sand team, I took everything that I knew Double Rush had problems with (Scarf Snover, Ice Beam Porygon, Bronzor with Psychic, and Drain Punch Mienfoo), added WoW Misdreavus and standard Murkrow, and called it a day. It's a pretty simple team but it's really effective at screwing sand over. I can't remember off the top of my head when it has ever lost to a sand team.
2. What was your greatest challenge in the tournament?
I can't really decide if it was IceArrow or UltiMario. I guess IceArrow was slightly harder to beat because my matches with Ulti tended to be a little haxxier in my favor. Double Rush is also significantly harder to beat than just a regular sandstorm team.
3. What was your favorite part of the tournament?
The part where IceArrow missed Rock Slide twice against my Murkrow. Not gonna lie, I was really thankful for that. I was also thankful for earlier in that same match when he let Hippopotas die.
4. What surprised you in the tournament?
Kirbyraeg made a team with Normal Gem Explosion Onix. Yeah. It worked on me the first time too, but then I caught on to his gimmicky teams and won with Double Rush. I also didn't know that Mold Breaker didn't negate Magnet Rise when my Drilbur got killed by IceArrow's Magnemite, but looking back on how Mold Breaker works I don't know why I ever thought it would.
