With the 2013 ladder over, I wanted to share the team that Radio Free C-Side and I piloted to tremendous success on the ladder. At one point we held 4 of the top 10 ladder spots (1, 5, 9, & 10), and ended the month holding #1 overall (1479) and #10 overall (1418), with two other accounts in the top 30.
This team has been in the works for several months. I first created it for the second Classics League last year and the team underwent several revisions during the course of the VGC13 ladder. Despite all the games and changes I made, I still do not consider this team “finished.” There are matchups I am not content with, options I wish I had tested more seriously, and always more work to be done personally as a player. However, the current version has undoubtedly proven itself to be consistent and I think worthy of this writeup.
https://pokepast.es/df3de9aebc627205
I was fortunate enough to get drafted to play in the Classics League again to play the 2013 slot for my team despite an abysmal performance in the first one. My team gave me a week off and I was tasked with coaching a player who had no native 2013 experience who was up against a fierce competitor in Zee. After some scouting, my hard read was that since there was nothing to prep on Mogo in 2013, that Zee would run something standard that had neutral matchups against as much as possible and then rely on their experience with their team to beat Mogo. I felt that if we prepped something that Zee did not have a lot of experience playing against that gave us the best chance of getting an upset, and I settled on Breloom + Tornadus. It gives every native 2013 player PTSD flashbacks when they see it in team preview. Prior to 2013 US Nats, that combo was terrorizing the ladder and we all made adjustments to our teams in order to beat it. We then had to make those same adjustments again before Worlds in response to Baz’s Breloom + Liepard team.
I pretty hastily threw together the rest of the team, really just thinking “what does well into what Zee showed in the previous weeks” and accidentally ended up picking a core four that played fantastically together but we didn’t appreciate at the time. Looking at the teams Zee had used, I felt that an offensive Cresselia with HP Ground played fantastic into what they like to use. Top threats like Latios, Amoonguss, Conkeldurr, Genies, Heatran, and Metagross are all hit surprisingly hard by Cresselia. It also paired very well with Breloom, because after an Icy Wind Breloom was almost assuredly the fastest thing on the field. Breloom also drew a lot of attention towards itself, letting Cresselia freely attack. We added a Metagross – (Mogo’s was Band for his match, I opted for a Steel Gem later in the tour) – which could OHKO Tyranitar, Latios, Amoonguss, and Conkeldurr while being very threatening to Thundurus, Cresselia, Jellicent and others. Choice Scarf Lando-T gave us damage mitigation via Intimidate, the ability to pivot with U-Turn, and it always has the funny Rock Slide button if things came down to it. In the event we ran into a Toxic Jellicent, which Zee had used the prior week, we added ChestoRest Rotom-W to ensure that we always won that 1v1.
None of the EV spreads are interesting. Metagross has a few points of speed to play around opposing Metagrosses or low speed Politoeds, Cresselia was EV’d to be faster than a Latios after it was hit with an Icy Wind, Rotom-W survives a Latios DGem Draco Meteor, and some general bulk on Lando-T.
I was fortunate enough to get drafted to play in the Classics League again to play the 2013 slot for my team despite an abysmal performance in the first one. My team gave me a week off and I was tasked with coaching a player who had no native 2013 experience who was up against a fierce competitor in Zee. After some scouting, my hard read was that since there was nothing to prep on Mogo in 2013, that Zee would run something standard that had neutral matchups against as much as possible and then rely on their experience with their team to beat Mogo. I felt that if we prepped something that Zee did not have a lot of experience playing against that gave us the best chance of getting an upset, and I settled on Breloom + Tornadus. It gives every native 2013 player PTSD flashbacks when they see it in team preview. Prior to 2013 US Nats, that combo was terrorizing the ladder and we all made adjustments to our teams in order to beat it. We then had to make those same adjustments again before Worlds in response to Baz’s Breloom + Liepard team.
I pretty hastily threw together the rest of the team, really just thinking “what does well into what Zee showed in the previous weeks” and accidentally ended up picking a core four that played fantastically together but we didn’t appreciate at the time. Looking at the teams Zee had used, I felt that an offensive Cresselia with HP Ground played fantastic into what they like to use. Top threats like Latios, Amoonguss, Conkeldurr, Genies, Heatran, and Metagross are all hit surprisingly hard by Cresselia. It also paired very well with Breloom, because after an Icy Wind Breloom was almost assuredly the fastest thing on the field. Breloom also drew a lot of attention towards itself, letting Cresselia freely attack. We added a Metagross – (Mogo’s was Band for his match, I opted for a Steel Gem later in the tour) – which could OHKO Tyranitar, Latios, Amoonguss, and Conkeldurr while being very threatening to Thundurus, Cresselia, Jellicent and others. Choice Scarf Lando-T gave us damage mitigation via Intimidate, the ability to pivot with U-Turn, and it always has the funny Rock Slide button if things came down to it. In the event we ran into a Toxic Jellicent, which Zee had used the prior week, we added ChestoRest Rotom-W to ensure that we always won that 1v1.
None of the EV spreads are interesting. Metagross has a few points of speed to play around opposing Metagrosses or low speed Politoeds, Cresselia was EV’d to be faster than a Latios after it was hit with an Icy Wind, Rotom-W survives a Latios DGem Draco Meteor, and some general bulk on Lando-T.
https://pokepast.es/1017a557132f9121
The first few days on the ladder were just a nightmare. I had a couple bad ideas that I wanted to test and see if I could make something work but was just getting frustrated playing the same sample teams over and over and getting outplayed by Swagger and losing games I didn’t think I should have in a Bo1 setting (I’m talking t1 swaggering a Lando-T). I was playing a lot of games on my phone and one of the teams I had the paste for was Mogo’s team. Turns out all the people playing VGC13 for the first time in a decade (or for the first time ever) ALSO had no idea how to play against Breloom + Tornadus, so I was able to steal a lot of wins from players much better than I thanks to that combination. This team rather quickly became the primary team I laddered with because of that.
A lot of the players trying out VGC13 for the first time opted to use the sample teams. I would say >75% of the games in the first week were just those teams. I felt it necessary to make some changes in order to win more games against those teams. Not only were those sets always the same as the paste, but if someone did make their own team they often defaulted to the sets of those pastes, so beating Zheng’s Rotom-W/Cress or Arash’s Mamoswine/Heatran was essential to success on that ladder. I still retained the 6 Pokemon, but made some item, move, and EV changes to better play against those teams.
The first change was that Tornadus dropped Superpower in favor of Heat Wave. A lot of people were running Gini’s rain team which featured Breloom and Scizor. Tornadus being able to do significant damage to both of those Pokemon at the same time was helpful. That team does have a Hydreigon, which is OHKO’d by Superpower but not Acrobatics, but because the team had two forms of priority I felt fine with missing the OHKO. Metagross shifted to Psychic Gem, being able to OHKO Conkeldurr and Amoonguss, while Meteor Mash + Bullet Punch combined for a KO onto Latios and Tyranitar. It also was better against the plethora of Steel-resists like Rotom-Wash and Thundurus. Cresselia shifted a bit here. I dropped the Expert Belt in favor of a ChestoRest set and swapped Icy Wind for Ice Beam. I wanted more ways to dispose of and play into opposing Sleep (Amoonguss) and found that Cresselia could often get a late game Rest and be at 100% and ready to sit on the field for another few turns and rack up damage. I found that EBelt did not give Cresselia any significant KOs. Things were a 2HKO with or without it, save non-Sitrus Thundurus-I sets. Rotom had to lose ChestoRest since Cress had it, so it became Sitrus and we added Light Screen, giving the team good options into Rain, Heatran teams, Latios, etc. Zheng definitely had that one right for Worlds.
The EV spreads changed quite a bit. The speed stats on Metagross, Cresselia, and Rotom-Wash are all particular, at 108, 109, and 110 respectively. Metagross is 2 points faster than 0 EV Rotoms, so we get the jump on a stray 4 EV spread and can fire off a Zen Headbutt before they can WoW us. Cresselia is one speed faster than Metagross so that Psyshock + ZHB combines for a KO on Zheng’s Rotom-Wash set 100% of the time. Rotom-W is one speed faster than that in order to break Arash’s Heatran’s Substitute with Thunderbolt before Cresselia lays into it with HP Ground. This also gave me the added bonus of usually being faster than opposing Rotom, Cresselia, Metagross, Politoed, and Scizor, giving me flexibility in the matchup at the cost of a few EVs. The Lando-T spread looks bad, and perhaps it is, but it always survives an Ice Beam from Zheng’s Cresselia set. While you typically don’t want to take that attack and would prefer to U-Turn and switch into one of the two resists or Cress, having this special bulk gave me a lot of flexibility in how I can play my Lando-T. Them predicting a switch no longer cost me a Pokemon; and I could also stay in and attack the other slot if I really wanted or needed to.
The first few days on the ladder were just a nightmare. I had a couple bad ideas that I wanted to test and see if I could make something work but was just getting frustrated playing the same sample teams over and over and getting outplayed by Swagger and losing games I didn’t think I should have in a Bo1 setting (I’m talking t1 swaggering a Lando-T). I was playing a lot of games on my phone and one of the teams I had the paste for was Mogo’s team. Turns out all the people playing VGC13 for the first time in a decade (or for the first time ever) ALSO had no idea how to play against Breloom + Tornadus, so I was able to steal a lot of wins from players much better than I thanks to that combination. This team rather quickly became the primary team I laddered with because of that.
A lot of the players trying out VGC13 for the first time opted to use the sample teams. I would say >75% of the games in the first week were just those teams. I felt it necessary to make some changes in order to win more games against those teams. Not only were those sets always the same as the paste, but if someone did make their own team they often defaulted to the sets of those pastes, so beating Zheng’s Rotom-W/Cress or Arash’s Mamoswine/Heatran was essential to success on that ladder. I still retained the 6 Pokemon, but made some item, move, and EV changes to better play against those teams.
The first change was that Tornadus dropped Superpower in favor of Heat Wave. A lot of people were running Gini’s rain team which featured Breloom and Scizor. Tornadus being able to do significant damage to both of those Pokemon at the same time was helpful. That team does have a Hydreigon, which is OHKO’d by Superpower but not Acrobatics, but because the team had two forms of priority I felt fine with missing the OHKO. Metagross shifted to Psychic Gem, being able to OHKO Conkeldurr and Amoonguss, while Meteor Mash + Bullet Punch combined for a KO onto Latios and Tyranitar. It also was better against the plethora of Steel-resists like Rotom-Wash and Thundurus. Cresselia shifted a bit here. I dropped the Expert Belt in favor of a ChestoRest set and swapped Icy Wind for Ice Beam. I wanted more ways to dispose of and play into opposing Sleep (Amoonguss) and found that Cresselia could often get a late game Rest and be at 100% and ready to sit on the field for another few turns and rack up damage. I found that EBelt did not give Cresselia any significant KOs. Things were a 2HKO with or without it, save non-Sitrus Thundurus-I sets. Rotom had to lose ChestoRest since Cress had it, so it became Sitrus and we added Light Screen, giving the team good options into Rain, Heatran teams, Latios, etc. Zheng definitely had that one right for Worlds.
The EV spreads changed quite a bit. The speed stats on Metagross, Cresselia, and Rotom-Wash are all particular, at 108, 109, and 110 respectively. Metagross is 2 points faster than 0 EV Rotoms, so we get the jump on a stray 4 EV spread and can fire off a Zen Headbutt before they can WoW us. Cresselia is one speed faster than Metagross so that Psyshock + ZHB combines for a KO on Zheng’s Rotom-Wash set 100% of the time. Rotom-W is one speed faster than that in order to break Arash’s Heatran’s Substitute with Thunderbolt before Cresselia lays into it with HP Ground. This also gave me the added bonus of usually being faster than opposing Rotom, Cresselia, Metagross, Politoed, and Scizor, giving me flexibility in the matchup at the cost of a few EVs. The Lando-T spread looks bad, and perhaps it is, but it always survives an Ice Beam from Zheng’s Cresselia set. While you typically don’t want to take that attack and would prefer to U-Turn and switch into one of the two resists or Cress, having this special bulk gave me a lot of flexibility in how I can play my Lando-T. Them predicting a switch no longer cost me a Pokemon; and I could also stay in and attack the other slot if I really wanted or needed to.
I was seeing a lot of success with the team but I noticed I was using Breloom less and less as the days went by, and when I did, I found my opponent pretty much always had a Pokemon with Chesto Berry, another with Lum Berry, and sometimes also a Taunt user. Clicking Spore with Breloom felt like an exercise in futility. On the off chance you could put something to sleep, you often wanted it to be for longer than 1 turn. In a Bo1 ladder setting, you can only lose so many games to multiple 1-turn sleeps before you decide Breloom is not consistent enough to climb the ladder.
It was also around this time I noticed people started using Skill Swap CressTran teams which the previous iteration of the team did not play particularly well into. A lot of the time, beating Heatran involves Rotom and Cress whittling it down while behind a Light Screen. But if the opponent knows they’re going to give it Levitate, the biggest threat to Heatran is the Rotom-W, so by the time I learn I need to be preserving the Rotom, it’s too late. The first idea I thought of was dropping the Breloom for Tyranitar. It hit Cress with Crunch and Heatran with Low Kick, while being able to freely switch into Cress and resisting Fire-type attacks from Heatran. I knew that Radio was just laddering a bunch during the day and was mostly just using random teams for fun and I reached out and asked if he wanted to test a change for me while I was busy. We each played a few games with the Tyranitar and independently found it just atrocious on this team and elected for something different.
And that brings us to the current version. It was with a heavy heart that I, after taking counsel from Radio, swapped the Breloom for a Volcarona, stripping the team of its core identity in favor of having better matchups. Radio suggested a Bug Gem Volcarona to just blow up the Cresselia and prevent it from using any combination of TR, Sunny Day, Skill Swap instead of trying to react to things after they’ve happened. What’s also very nice about Volcarona is if they do Skill Swap their Heatran, you can just Overheat the Heatran for massive damage. Radio had more success piloting the Volcarona. I am, somehow, not entirely comfortable with it still, and remain unsure if it is the best fit for the team (or perhaps, the best fit for me as a player). But it does exactly as advertised: it blows up Cresselia and threatens things with Overheat, and that’s what we wanted.
Tornadus’s moveset changed again (can you tell I’m unsure what it should be?). I found I was just never clicking Tailwind so I dropped it for Taunt, giving me another way to answer TR aside from just stalling it out with Cress, Rotom, Metagross. It also could prevent Cress from doing CressTran things from the jump. Radio continued to use Tailwind for the remainder of the ladder, but said it was only used meaningfully one time. We also dropped Heat Wave, which no longer served a purpose with Volc on the team, and readded Superpower, giving us a way to hit Rotom-W, Tyranitar, and Heatran should the need arise. These changes, however, do leave the team without any method of speed control, which is rather unorthodox. I however do not think that swapping Rotom-W for Thundurus-I and mashing TWave is to the betterment of the team. Nor do I think dropping Sunny Day (or Rest) for TR is either.
It was also around this time I noticed people started using Skill Swap CressTran teams which the previous iteration of the team did not play particularly well into. A lot of the time, beating Heatran involves Rotom and Cress whittling it down while behind a Light Screen. But if the opponent knows they’re going to give it Levitate, the biggest threat to Heatran is the Rotom-W, so by the time I learn I need to be preserving the Rotom, it’s too late. The first idea I thought of was dropping the Breloom for Tyranitar. It hit Cress with Crunch and Heatran with Low Kick, while being able to freely switch into Cress and resisting Fire-type attacks from Heatran. I knew that Radio was just laddering a bunch during the day and was mostly just using random teams for fun and I reached out and asked if he wanted to test a change for me while I was busy. We each played a few games with the Tyranitar and independently found it just atrocious on this team and elected for something different.
And that brings us to the current version. It was with a heavy heart that I, after taking counsel from Radio, swapped the Breloom for a Volcarona, stripping the team of its core identity in favor of having better matchups. Radio suggested a Bug Gem Volcarona to just blow up the Cresselia and prevent it from using any combination of TR, Sunny Day, Skill Swap instead of trying to react to things after they’ve happened. What’s also very nice about Volcarona is if they do Skill Swap their Heatran, you can just Overheat the Heatran for massive damage. Radio had more success piloting the Volcarona. I am, somehow, not entirely comfortable with it still, and remain unsure if it is the best fit for the team (or perhaps, the best fit for me as a player). But it does exactly as advertised: it blows up Cresselia and threatens things with Overheat, and that’s what we wanted.
Tornadus’s moveset changed again (can you tell I’m unsure what it should be?). I found I was just never clicking Tailwind so I dropped it for Taunt, giving me another way to answer TR aside from just stalling it out with Cress, Rotom, Metagross. It also could prevent Cress from doing CressTran things from the jump. Radio continued to use Tailwind for the remainder of the ladder, but said it was only used meaningfully one time. We also dropped Heat Wave, which no longer served a purpose with Volc on the team, and readded Superpower, giving us a way to hit Rotom-W, Tyranitar, and Heatran should the need arise. These changes, however, do leave the team without any method of speed control, which is rather unorthodox. I however do not think that swapping Rotom-W for Thundurus-I and mashing TWave is to the betterment of the team. Nor do I think dropping Sunny Day (or Rest) for TR is either.
The core of the team remains Cress / Rotom-W / Metagross / Lando-T. These Pokemon can be confidently brought to pretty much every matchup and they will do their job and sometimes more. When Aaron Zheng wrote in his world’s report that he led Cress + Rotom-W p much every game, I totally get it. They’re not going to kill something off the bat, but they just grind down the opponent faster than they can beat you.
Cresselia (F) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 220 HP / 4 Def / 248 SpA / 8 SpD / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Psyshock
- Sunny Day
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Rest
Cress was never something I piloted in 2012 or 2013, much less an offensive set, and I really don’t understand why I never gravitated towards it. Its natural bulk means it effectively resists most attacks, and its pitiful base 75 SpA is surprisingly more than enough to get the job done, picking up 2HKOs on key threats and 3HKOs on a lot of other things. A fair amount of people were running a TR core of Cress/Conk/Amoonguss/Heatran, and an offensive Cress can single handedly beat that core. Since few other people were running offensive Cress, a lot of people will waste a turn taunting it with Thundurus instead of doing something actually detrimental to my gameplan, like clicking TWave.
I elected for Psyshock because it does more damage against the numerous specially bulky Pokemon in the meta, such as Jellicent, Rotom-W, Thundurus-I. It still 2HKOs Conkeldurr and Amoonguss, but getting extra damage onto the rest of the meta felt more valuable than fishing for 10% SpD drops. HP Ground is Cresselia’s other attacking move, and really there just to hit Heatran and Metagross. It doesn’t OHKO Heatran, absolutely not, but the 60% that it deals is more than enough to neuter an Eruption set or even prevent a Substitute, particularly with Rotom and Landorus whittling it down as well.
Sunny Day was added when we dropped Breloom for Volc, because it made our Rain matchup significantly worse. We ended up ultimately dropping Ice Beam, which still sounds awful as I type this weeks later, but in practice it was the correct change. Ice Beam was only 2HKOing Latios and Tornadus, both of which are answered by multiple other Pokemon on the team. No opposing Lando-T was ever going to let you Ice Beam it (yeah, I can no longer OHKO a switch in, but Psyshock does enough to advance the game state), nor did I consider Garchomp or Lando-I major threats to this team. So we traded having an additional way to dispose of two threats to have a clear lane into an archetype we were struggling with. It is really nice that on T1 against Rain that I can lead Rotom-W + Cress and if they lead the Rain mode I am guaranteed to get both Screen and Sun up and then they have to pivot insanely hard to adjust for that board state while you mindlessly click Psyshock and TBolt for 35% damage and march onward towards your win condition. Do I miss Ice Beam at times? Yes. Would I lose probably every game against Rain if I added it back? Also yes. Choice seems obvious to me.
Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 4 SpA / 180 SpD / 28 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Light Screen
- Will-O-Wisp
Rotom-W was initially added as a Jellicent counter, but it has turned into a super utility Pokemon. Its fantastic typing, ground immunity, and stats let it sit on the field a long time and fire off attacks and, again, just wear down the opponent. The moves are rather self-explanatory, with WoW and Light Screen providing damage mitigation from both physical and special attacks, letting my team survive a lot longer than they should. I know that Bo1 ladder rewards consistency, and Rotom-W has the reputation of being anything but that, in no small part due to Aaron Zheng, but Rotom-W IS consistent, provided you are in situations where you don’t HAVE to click its inaccurate moves. I almost never found myself in situations where I felt that if I missed an early WoW or Hydro Pump I was going to immediately lose the game. And I never found myself in those situations because I instead got an Intimidate off with Lando-T, U-turned into Cress, clicked Light Screen with Rotom. Then I didn’t need to click WoW, as they were at -1, and I was free to mash TBolt and grind them down. I consider Hydro Pump strictly a move of opportunity. If I felt the opponent was going to switch in a Ground-type or Heatran and I could afford to miss Hydro Pump if they did not switch (or did), I would go for Hydro Pump. Otherwise, I was content to collect my chip damage. For every 1 Hydro Pump I clicked, I was pressing TBolt at least 3+ times. Because I played Rotom in this manner, I have nothing bad to say about it.
Metagross @ Psychic Gem
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 172 HP / 196 Atk / 140 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Bullet Punch
- Protect
Metagross has been a favorite of mine in BW VGC since 2012, and for obvious reasons. Pre-nerf Steel-type gives it incredible resistances, its base stats are ridiculous, it's unaffected by intimidate, and its movepool fits whatever its team needs. This is not an exciting Metagross set, but it gets the job done. Ironically, another Pokemon that is inherently inconsistent because its moves can miss, but like Rotom, it's bulky enough that games are recoverable if you do miss an attack. Metagross is a much needed answer to Tyranitar, which threatens half the team, Latios, and most importantly Amoonguss.
I love Amoonguss. I love playing it, I love what it provides a team, I love what it provides you in team preview. It’s a top Pokemon every year that it's legal for a reason. You have to respect Amoonguss in builder or you will lose to it. At Dallas Regionals 2017, Tri-Divisional Regional champion Cedric Bernier knew that Kartana was the better fit for his team, but because people were not respecting Amoonguss it was the better call for the event and was a big reason why he won that regional. I respect Amoonguss, and you should too. Metagross is Psychic Gem because I respect Amoonguss. I want that thing off the field immediately. Being Psychic Gem is also very useful for picking up KOs on things it hits for neutral damage, namely Rotom-W and Thundurus-I, and it does do tremendous damage to Lando-Ts switching in and bulky waters.
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 164 Atk / 4 Def / 164 SpD / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Stone Edge / Superpower
- U-turn
Lando-T is Lando-T, it's easily among the best Pokemon in the format. Its existence relegated 2012 staples like Terrakion and Garchomp into all but total irrelevancy. Lando-T finds its way on almost every team for a reason, and ours is no different. I personally prefer Scarf over Sash because I enjoy feeling like I can switch my Lando in without potentially nullifying its item, as well as being able to set up endgames where a Scarf Lando-T is faster than everything on the field and can clean up weakened Pokemon. You also have the funny Rock Slide button if you need it, and that move is most effective when you attack first. When we first dropped Ice Beam on Cress, we dropped Superpower on Lando-T for Stone Edge for a way of swiftly disposing of Tornadus and Thundurus. I go back and forth between the two moves, as missing an 80% with Lando-T is not recoverable like missing an 85% with Rotom-W. You are Stone Edging a Pokemon which can OHKO you back; missing means death. It is really nice to be able to delete their Thundurus before it does Thundurus things. It’s also nice being able to delete a Scarf Tyranitar or hit a Levitating Heatran with Superpower. Both have their merits and uses. I think Stone Edge is probably better in a Bo3 setting but for a Bo1 ladder I enjoyed not having to play the odds.
Tornadus (M) @ Flying Gem
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Taunt / Tailwind
- Superpower
- Protect
I’ve appreciated Tornadus as an anti-meta Pokemon since 2012 when it didn’t even have Defiant, pairing it with a Metagross for my 2012 Nationals team. There are so many top threats that Tornadus OHKOs, and it’s really easy to build a team that is weak to Tornadus. While originally added to pair with Breloom, it now pairs most effectively with Landorus-T, as they cover each other's weaknesses well and can combine for KOs on a lot of the meta.
Also like our Lando-T set, there is a little room for personal preference between Taunt and Tailwind. I felt I was not clicking Tailwind often enough and Taunt is insanely free against a lot of TR teams, while Radio kept Tailwind on his Tornadus. I had games earlier in the month where a late game Tailwind enabled me to win but fewer of those as the month went on. I think me ending up with Taunt could have been more of a reaction to the teams I was playing against on ladder and less what’s actually “best” for the team. Tailwind is the team’s only form of speed control, and although we had plenty of success without ever clicking it, it does feel like we’re violating a commandment of VGC by not having any speed control on our team.
The moves on Tornadus changed with every version of the team, and there were moves that I think we should have tested as well. It was originally Superpower, we tried Heat Wave, then went back to Superpower, and now we have dropped Tailwind. I think Substitute, U-Turn, and even Smack Down were worth consideration and testing but we just never felt the need. If you see me play this team in a later 2013 tour, don’t be surprised if Tornadus has a different moveset.
Volcarona @ Bug Gem
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 4 HP / 44 Def / 212 SpA / 4 SpD / 244 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Bug Buzz
- Overheat
- Heat Wave
- Protect
Volc was the final addition to the team and I do think it completed the team in a way that Breloom and other alternatives were unable to. Volc was considered to help beat CressTran teams by removing the Cress before it can do Cress things, and if we can’t prevent it, Overheat does massive damage against their now levitating Heatran. Bug Gem Bug Buzz does a surprising amount of damage into the many things it hits for neutral damage, and if you can get Volc in safely and protect it from a Rock Slide, its offensive pressure was well needed on the team. Because pretty much every Volc on the ladder was Lum Berry + QD, a lot of games against Thundurus-I they would Taunt the Volc instead of using T-Wave, only to eat an Overheat for massive damage (or be KO’d with some prior chip damage). Our uncommon set, which is actually super weak to Thundurus-I, somehow made it better into that major nuisance by merit of them having to respect the QD.
The EV spread outspeeds Modest Hydreigon and survives a -1 Rock Slide from Lando-T 100% of the time. The rest was dumped into SpA. We do not survive a Latios Draco Meteor, but the team has enough ways to deal with that Pokemon that we felt it was fine to go all in on speed and offense. It absolutely survives one behind a Light Screen, letting Volc win that matchup when that circumstance arises. It would be nice if it could always survive the Draco, but doing so comes at too high of a cost in terms of speed or damage output.
Concluding Thoughts
I am very proud of the team and what Radio and I were able to accomplish. Although the quantity of players thinned rather quickly, I felt the quality of dedicated players remained rather high. Radio ending the month #1 overall was no small feat and is a testament to not only his play but the soundness of the team. I look forward to seeing how this team will continue to evolve over time. It was very solid in a Bo1 setting, I’m curious to see how it will perform and change in an extended Bo3 setting, and if I ever figure out what the final learnset of Tornadus should be.
Special shoutout to Carneyasadaa and HanaS for drafting Mogo and me, creating the situation for this team to be developed in the first place. Big thanks to Mogo, Radio, Cypher, and Mosquito for being a sounding board for some of these ideas as I worked through them over the month. Endless thanks to Radio for being a better pilot of this team than I was and making this writeup impressive as #1 overall as opposed to #10. And thank you to the RoA team for giving VGC13 a temporary ladder. It was so much fun getting to relive a simpler time and format and reconnect with old friends over a game we adored so much over a decade ago. For my friend groups, this was a celebration of that era of VGC, as we all dug up our old Nationals and Worlds pastes from 2012 and 2013 and put them to the test for the first time in over a decade and realized how much this format still has to give. I hope we get to more old VGC formats on the ladder, and I look forward to the next opportunity to play VGC13 in a serious setting.
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