WolfeyVGC - Baltimore Regionals Top 16 Team Report

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Hey everyone! Here's the team I used to finish top 16 at Baltimore Regionals this past weekend. Before going any further, I think there's something important to get out of the way: I do not think this team is good. In fact, I think it's pretty terrible. I am thrilled with my finish in large part because I think most of the time I should have been eliminated on day 1 of this tournament due to how bad my matchups were and how difficult this team was to use. While it is possible to win many matchups with this team, almost none of them are easy, and nearly every one requires you to get aggressive predictions right.

I've been extremely busy since Regulation M-C released and knew I wouldn't have much time to prepare for this event. Normally I would have skipped it, but since it was only about an hour drive from my apartment I decided it was worth going. Regulation M-C released on Wednesday 9-9, just 10 days before the tournament. From Friday 9-12 to Monday 9-14 I was out of town at a wedding, leaving me only a few days to prepare on top of a monstrously busy work week. With the extremely limited prep time I had and no prior format experience to go off of, I knew this would be an event where I would likely struggle. Without much time to practice I also knew I'd need to guess which Pokemon would be popular, and after giving it some thought I decided Incineroar, Rillaboom, and Mega Salamence would be the top threats.

I had used Mega Gardevoir on the team I built on day 1 of the format, the team featured in the Mega Golisopod video. I was overall impressed with it, and I really liked how it could KO Mega Salamence in just one hit. When I looked at many of the early teams in the format, I noticed how few of them had a fairy resistance, and many had only one. As such I decided to start with the Gardevoir/Sneasler/Indeedee core I used in that video that I knew worked well and build out from there.

Mega Gardevoir was the first Pokemon I knew I wanted to use. With the addition of Indeedee's Psychic Surge into the format, it's able to have access to two powerful spread attacks in Hyper Voice and Expanding Force. While Hyper Voice is the move I used most often, Expanding Force is situationally very strong - it's just that more Pokemon in the format resist Psychic and Expanding Force has to worry about Rillaboom switching in. Initially I started with the same sets I used on my Golisopod team, and that included Trick Room Gardevoir - but I realized after a few games that Gardevoir wasn't really making good use of Trick Room. The thing about Trick Room in general in Champions is that most teams have Kingambit, and good players won't let you knock it out easily. It's really difficult for teams without a Pokemon added specifically to beat Kingambit inside Trick Room to set Trick Room up in the first place. Realizing this, I switched my Gardevoir to Calm Mind instead. It wasn't a move I used often but it's very dangerous against teams that use a slow playstyle with Reflect and Light Screen, and it's also deceptively powerful against Calm Mind Mega Floette and against Perish Trap.

I had 5 days to work on this team. For the first 4, I used a Modest, slower Gardevoir with 24 HP / 31 Special Attack / 13 Speed. This Gardevoir used Calm Mind a lot better due to it being 20 points of HP bulkier. However, the day before the event I was practicing and struggling a lot with Hisuian Arcanine. Because my team lacks much speed control and priority, Arcanine was able to outspeed and threaten most of my Pokemon in the late game. So I did something I rarely do and made a last second change to the Gardevoir you see here. In two of my three losses the extra bulk and power on Gardevoir would have made a difference - but in more than two of my wins I needed the extra speed to win. I think I made the right decision in the end, but it should be worth noting that the Gardevoir I brought to the event is hugely frailer and noticeably weaker than the one I used in the majority of my practice.

I chose Synchronize despite it never activating in practice or in tournament because I thought the other two abilities could actively hurt me. If I trace Grassy Surge or Intimidate in front of Kingambit it can really mess up my plans, and Telepathy would prevent me from attacking my own Gardevoir to knock it out in a pinch or to reposition with Parting Shot. Since Gardevoir is almost always in Mega form anyway I think this was the right choice.

Indeedee is mandatory on a team like this due to it being the only Pokemon available that can set up Psychic Terrain with its ability. Indeedee is the backbone of this team and it's the only Pokemon I brought to almost every single match this weekend (when I left it behind the opponent had their own Indeedee). Psychic Terrain does a lot for this team - it protects my frail Pokemon from priority moves, it powers up Indeedee, Gardevoir, and Sneasler, and it weakens opposing Rillaboom. Indeedee is more than just a terrain bot though - it offers valuable support with Follow Me, one of the best moves of all time. The real powerful synergy between Indeedee and Gardevoir is not the Psychic Terrain Expanding Force combo, but the Follow Me and Hyper Voice one. Indeedee is almost impossible to knock out in one hit, meaning Gardevoir often has tons of opportunities to spam Hyper Voice against foes who lack resistances. Helping Hand boosting the damage output is dangerous especially after a Calm Mind - this came up a few times. I chose Psychic over terrain pulse so I'd always have access to a STAB move even though Terrain Pulse is stronger - the special defense drop can also be relevant. Lastly, I went with Protect - while the norm is Trick Room, like I mentioned this team didn't really want to fight inside Trick Room, and Protect allowed Indeedee to have more breathing room in front of Rillaboom who often switched in against it. Protect also allows Indeedee to make opponents guess more when choosing targeting, something I found helpful on this team given I rarely had good safe plays I could make to win.

Indeedee is trained to survive Floette Light of Ruin which never came up a single time in practice or in tournament - however, I still like this stat spread. The special defense investment gets you one additional point with a Calm Nature and leaves Indeedee enough defense to survive +1 Kingambit Kowtow Cleave and Max attack Salamence Double Edge. With Sitrus Berry Indeedee your goal is to have a spread that allows you to take 2 neutral attacks without fainting, but with Colbur Berry your goal is to survive one big attack which this spread does.

Sneasler was the next addition and was an MVP during the tournament. With Psychic Seed and Unburden Sneasler becomes 50% bulkier on the special side and 100% faster. This will only happen once per battle - if you switch Sneasler out after activating the Seed you lose all your boosts, so a big skill with this team was finding the exact right moment to bring Sneasler in.

Sneasler is the fastest Pokemon on the team and is really the teams only reliable option to Mega Evolutions faster than Salamence - in particular Aerodactyl and Delphox were two of my three losses in the tournament, and Raichu-Y was a HUGE problem - I just barely eked out wins against it during my run. It pairs well with Indeedee who not only activates the Psychic Seed and protects it from priority moves but can also keep it safe with Follow Me or boost its damage with helping hand. It also works very well with Gardevoir, as it's able to threaten Incineroar and Rillaboom who take Hyper Voice and Expanding Force well, as well as many of the steel types in the format who resist both Steel and Fairy. Sneasler is the teams primary Kingambit answer, something I sorely needed.

Protect, Close Combat, and Dire Claw are all standard on Sneasler. On the original team my Sneasler ran Rock Slide, but here I went with Throat Chop which was definitely the right decision. Throat Chop is needed specifically to hit Gholdengo, who would otherwise wall all of Gardevoir, Salamence, Indeedee, and Sneasler. Throat Chop is also helpful vs opposing Indeedee, Farigiraf, Delphox, Metagross, Basculegion, Gengar, and more.

I considered using some bulk on Sneasler but I wasn't willing to drop any power, and given I could only drop a point or two while still outspeeding Garchomp and Floette, I figured it was better to just be max speed to have a chance to outspeed other Unburden Sneasler. The speed wasn't super relevant but I also didn't lose any sets due to Sneasler going down when I was counting on it surviving.

Incineroar was the first Pokemon I added after locking in my three returning members. I wanted to add Incineroar specifically because of Rillaboom. The issue I had had with the Golisopod team is that when the opponent switched Rillaboom in to overwrite my terrain, I then struggled to reposition in a way that didn't lose me massive ground. You can see this first hand in the final match of the tournament. Even though Incineroar has anti-synergy with Indeedee shutting down Fake Out, I still felt like Incineroar would be a good addition and overall I feel I was right.

Incineroar did what I wanted it to do, which is to serve as a good pivot point against Rillaboom - but it did much more than that too. Incineroar and Gardevoir is a great lead, allowing me to threaten Fake Out Calm Mind while mixing up Fake Out and Hyper Voice against opponents who play too aggressively. Incineroar is also the teams best answer against opposing Trick Room teams, especially ones also using Psychic Terrain. Incineroar also is strong against Steel type Pokemon, which matters quite a bit given Steel resists all of Fairy, Psychic, Flying and Dragon, the four attacking types on my two Mega Pokemon. Incineroar was especially important against Golisopod who is a huge issue for the three Pokemon already on the team.

Sitrus Berry increases Incineroars survivability while Fake Out, Parting Shot, and Flare Blitz are all standard moves. I decided to use Darkest Lariat in the last slot over the more common Throat Chop. This is specifically because of Grassy Seed Gholdengo who I was concerned about popping up, and Darkest Lariat ignores Defense Boosts. Darkest Lariat was also useful against Archaludon and other random Grassy Seed Pokemon, plus the 5 extra base power came in handy once or twice.

I trained Incineroar to be faster than Mega Floette, Garchomp, Adamant Sneasler and Modest Mega Froslass inside Tailwind, then put the rest of the points in its bulk. I focused primarily on its special bulk because the team has Double Intimidate, training Incineroar to survive Modest Floette Light of Ruin. This never came up but the overall bulk still felt correct to me - Incineroar had many clutch survivals to keep me in the game.

Gholdengo was the next addition. I knew I wanted to add a non-mega offensive Pokemon that benefitted from my existing support, and I knew that this Pokemon had to be able to KO opposing Gholdengo who was very hard for both my Mega Evolutions. My own Gholdengo was the natural fit - it benefits from the support Incineroar and Indeedee provide, protecting it while it sets up Nasty Plots or fires off powerful attacks. The Ghost typing helps against Shadow Tag, something I knew I wanted answers for given Perish Trap's presence in the field. Good as Gold is also just a stupidly useful ability, providing a blanket answer to many of the moves in the format. Gholdengo pairs well with Salamence, as it's often possible to sacrifice Indeedee to either get a nasty plot up or get important damage down, then bring in Salamence when the opponent is out of position to set up Tailwind or burst down the weakened opponents. It's worth noting I actually didn't use Nasty Plot very often, instead opting for more immediate damage instead. That's mostly because the teams speed support and bulk were both questionable, so it wasn't always worth it to set up because you might not get to actually make good use of your boosts.

Gholdengo is my de facto special attacker against Pokemon like Golisopod, Archaludon, Metagross and other Gholdengo. With Nasty Plot it can outpace many of these threats, and with the Life Orb and a lot of Special Attack investment it outputs good damage even when unboosted. I used the same spread I used at Worlds because I was on such a time crunch and didn't have much time to find something better. It's trained to survive Adamant Garchomp Stomping Tantrum 7/8ths of the time and to OHKO opposing Sinistcha with Shadow Ball most of the time. These specific situations didn't come up this tournament but the spread felt good for the most part anyway.

Salamence was the final member added to the team. I was looking for a second mega evolution that resisted Water moves (and ideally fire moves too), and Salamence was the obvious choice. While a second Intimidate user made opposing Milotic terrifying, it was a useful ability to have against much of the field, and I beat every Milotic I played anyway.

Salamence provides a second fast Pokemon for the team, something essential to the offensive nature of my build. It also provides a much needed water resistance and ground immunity for a team with limited answers to those types otherwise. It's a very strong Pokemon and I knew adding it to the team would never be a bad decision.

I used Salamence in about 20-30% of my games, but in those games it was good. Not being protected by the Psychic Terrain was difficult to manage at times, and Salamence being a single target attacker on this team made it less easy to use than Gardevoir, especially given it could be Intimidated and its best move has recoil damage.

This Salamence moveset is a bit unusual - it was actually recommended to me by my friend Dillon who helped a ton on this team. The basic idea is that I knew I wanted Protect and Tailwind as defensive and support options - which then left me to choose three of Double Edge, Hyper Voice, and Draco Meteor. Dillon recommended Double Edge and Draco Meteor because Double Edge is your strongest single target move and is what makes Salamence most threatening against many of the top threats like Sylveon, Charizard, and Floette, and if you're training Salamence in its attack stat Hyper Voice wont do much damage anyway. Especially given this team has Gardevoir for spread damage, it made sense to me to drop Hyper Voice. Draco Meteor is here mostly to handle Dragon types like opposing Mega Mence and Garchomp, as well as physically bulky threats like Armarouge. I think the moves I chose for Salamence were correct for this team.

The spread is simple - max speed with a speed boosting nature allows me to speed tie other Salamence, Sneasler, and Froslass at worst, and max attack gives me the highest odds of taking KOs with Double Edge. The damage Double Edge does is significant, and I tended to bring Salamence in the back after I'd managed to chip down my foes major threats, letting me confidently KO Pokemon like Charizard and Floette. I went with a Naive nature because using a nature that dropped my special attack would prevent me from consistently KOing opposing Mega Salamence, and using a special defense dropping nature loses Mega Salamence the fewest points. Salamence could get KOd by -1 attack Arcanine-Hisui Head Smash with Hasty nature as an example, something it doesn't have to worry about with Naive.

I used Salamence a few times outside of Mega to set Tailwind up and provide Intimidate for Gardevoir, but this was more relevant in practice when Gardevoir was slower and bulkier. I tried this in tournament but lost the game where I did it, so I wouldn't recommend it in most cases.

This team had some strong points, and I think the theory behind it was relatively solid, but like I said it was a really really difficult team to pilot. I lost every single game 1 on day 2, and many on day 1 too. If you use the team and have trouble you're getting the authentic experience - I went 1 win and 5 losses in practice the day before the tournament. If you decide to use this team, good luck to you!