Seattle Regionals Top 8 Team

Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 84 Atk / 172 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Tailwind
- Double-Edge
- Protect 

 

Xerneas @ Power Herb  

Ability: Fairy Aura  

EVs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 68 SpA / 4 SpD / 44 Spe  

Modest Nature  

IVs: 0 Atk  

- Dazzling Gleam  

- Geomancy  

- Moonblast  

- Protect  

 

Kangaskhan-Mega @ Kangaskhanite  

Ability: Inner Focus  

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe  

Jolly Nature  

- Return  

- Fake Out  

- Sucker Punch  

- Power-Up Punch  

 

Cresselia @ Sitrus Berry  

Ability: Levitate  

EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 20 SpD / 228 Spe  

Modest Nature  

IVs: 0 Atk  

- Psychic  

- Helping Hand  

- Icy Wind  

- Trick Room  

 

Smeargle @ Mental Herb  

Ability: Moody  

EVs: 252 HP / 196 Def / 60 SpD  

Bold Nature  

IVs: 0 Atk  

- Dark Void  

- Crafty Shield  

- Wide Guard  

- King's Shield  

 

Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb  

Ability: Desolate Land  

EVs: 140 HP / 236 Atk / 4 Def / 116 SpD / 12 Spe  

Adamant Nature  

- Precipice Blades  

- Swords Dance  

- Fire Punch  

- Protect

 

 

Strongest team I've used in this format so far. Thanks to Japan for many ideas. Thank you to all who supported me!

Battlespot Season 12: CHALK + Defiant Thundurus

Hi, this is the team I used throughout season 12 on battlespot, which was a no pentagon format. 

 

Results (Japanese rom)

This is the first time I've played battlespot this much, I enjoyed the format a lot but had a lot of disconnects which made it stressful at times

 

As seen, it is as standard as you can get. There was a commonly ran version of this team with Follow Me Blastoise over Cress, but I appreciated having TR more than another redirection mon, so I decided to use this.

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 212 HP / 236 Atk / 20 Def / 4 SpD / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Fake Out
- Low Kick
- Sucker Punch

Standard Bulky Kang, I've been using this since after Worlds. There has been a lot of Protect PuP versions of this Kang, but on this team I prefered the standard Fake Out Low Kick set, since it supports TR and Thundurus better, as well as putting more pressure on opposing Heatran or Kang. Inner Focus was useful a lot of the time, since a lot of max speed Kangs Fake Out this type of Kang turn 1. 

Landorus-Therian @ Life Orb / Safety Goggles
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Originally I was just using the standard LO Lando, which I used in VGC 15 as well, but with Defiant Thundurus having Superpower as well, I didn't see a need for extra power as much, and almost never brought Lando because something like Kang Thund Heatran and Cress/Amoonguss worked better. This made me want to have a better item that can make Lando shine in some match ups more, and goggles worked better than I expected. With this opposing Kang Amoonguss wasn't threatening at all, as well as safely being able to Superpower vs an Balloon Eruptran + Amoonguss, where they would usually Rage Powder Eruption. Although Goggles Lando worked well in this format, I don't think it's as good in 15, since there are no Eruption Trans, and only special Thundurus which lessens the use of goggles, and makes AV an overall more useful item. 

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Heat Wave
- Eruption
- Earth Power
- Protect

Standard Eruption Heatran, minimum speed might not be best but was good for other Heatrans in TR, as well as sometimes outslowing Aegi and getting an unexpected kill. Balloon is way better than Shuca for Eruption Heatran in my opinion, and synergizes well with Amoonguss. 

Cresselia @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Def / 248 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Ice Beam
- Trick Room

3 attack Cress, also something I've used since Worlds. HP Ground really is only useful to get an immediate kill on Shuca Tran with my Cress + Tran, and breaking Heatran/Aegi subs. 

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Sunny Day

Sunny Day really just for rain, even though rain teams are still annoying when they having something like Kang Ferro. I changed to Effect Spore recently and it's been pretty cool, mainly switch in to Fake Outs directed at my Thundurus. I even lived a +2 Return from Kang because I got the sleep on the first hit!

Thundurus @ Choice Band
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wild Charge
- Superpower
- Knock Off
- Sky Drop

Banded Thundurus, could have been LO but I wanted all 4 of these moves, since they all had good uses. There were LO 4 attack Thunduruses that did well, but I'd rather get the OHKO on most Kangs than be able to switch up moves. 

Thanks for reading! Sad to say goodbye to no pentagon rules, at least for now, since I'll miss this team and all the other cool things allowed in this format. Still gonna play season 13, should be fun again once I get into it. 

Kangaskhan Teams I used in the VGC 2015 Season

Hello! This is my first blog post. I'm gonna go over all the Kang teams I've used this season, mainly being 4.

February 2015 - Kang Gengar

This is the first kangaskhan team I used at a 2015 regional, but unfortunately didn't too well at Seattle. The team was based off of Tofu(@tofu_kaze)'s team here, with some changes I made. 

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 92 HP / 196 Atk / 20 Def / 4 SpD / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Double-Edge
- Fake Out
- Low Kick
- Sucker Punch

Fairly standard, I ran adamant over jolly because I wanted a bit of bulk and to OHKO other jolly Kang. 

Gengar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt

So many moves I want this mon to have. :( The last slot was protect for a while, but being able to stop TR and Amoonguss with Gengar often helped. 

Landorus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 116 HP / 116 Atk / 4 Def / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Forgot what the EV spread does, but I think it was mainly just general bulk while outspeeding Breloom. Looking back, jolly seemed like the better option, but since there were a lot more jolly Kang back then I think adamant was not bad either. I was happy to see LO Landorus gain popularity later on in the season, guess I ran it at the wrong time!

Zapdos @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 76 SpD / 76 Spe
Calm Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Tailwind
- Roost

Standard Zapdos, although it lost popularity later in the season. Tailwind was much better back then, but with TR being much bigger now it's not as useful as it used to be.

Cresselia @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 220 HP / 156 Def / 4 SpA / 20 SpD / 108 Spe
Bold Nature
- Psychic
- Icy Wind
- Calm Mind
- Moonlight

Ahh CM Cress, I hate this thing. When I used it, I didn't have that many good matchups, which made it feel pretty useless. It's not bad, but I don't see it beating skilled players much unless they have a bad match up. The speed was for outspeeding Gengar and Terrakion after an icy wind, which made the match up slightly better.

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Substitute
- Protect

Completely standard Heatran for the time, now leftovers isn't as common of an item, and speed invested ones usually run timid. Cress Heatran was my favorite combination on this team. 

May 2015 - CHALK Garde

Right after Washington regionals, I realized I wasn't confident with the team I've been running. When I first saw this team on Yuudachi(@yuudachi_poke)'s blog, I knew it was a good meta call. TR and Garde were both things I wanted to try, since I thought they had potential. I got top 8 at Utah witht his team, which made me confident enough to run this at nationals. I lost to Charizard and Aegislash mainly, which I felt were problems to this team. At the time, there was no phrase called "CHALK", but this team ended up being exactly that. 

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 84 HP / 236 Atk / 28 Def / 4 SpD / 156 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Double-Edge
- Low Kick
- Fake Out
- Sucker Punch

This Kang is just a bit slower than my previous, outspeeding Smeargle by 1. The original team had Return, but I changed it to Edge because I prefered more power at the time, but looking back I do think Return was the better option. 

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 84 HP / 180 Atk / 52 Def / 4 SpD / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
- U-turn

Semi-bulky scarf Lando-T, outspeeds scarf Politoed and lives Bisharp sucker. I decided to go with scarf because I felt the team wasn't fast enough, and I wanted to be able to outspeed things like Terrak without having to set up TR. 

Cresselia @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Def / 172 SpA / 80 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Helping Hand / Sunny Day
- Trick Room

This was the standard Cress back then, more offensive ones being common now. The only move change I made between Utah and nationals was changing HH to Sunny Day on Cress, because I didn't like the rain match up and improved the match up vs waters in general. 

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 20 Spe
- Heat Wave
- Overheat
- Earth Power
- Protect

TR Heatran, 20 speed IVs to outspeed 4 HP Aegi and KO with overheat. Air Balloon was something I didn't believe in at first, but after some testing I fell in love with it! Shuca does have a lot of advantages over it, but balloon does as well. Looking at it now, I think Shuca is the better item for Heatran in this format, but I would prefer balloon in the non-pentagon format with Eruption. 

Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 76 HP / 4 Def / 248 SpA / 180 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Encore
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Protect

Fast no psychic move Gardevoir. Enough speed to outspeed Bisharp non-mega and timid Heatran after mega. Encore was mainly for sub Heatran and Aegi, letting me double protect against a heatran lead on the opponent's side with safety. Surprisingly, I brought Garde much more than I brought Kang, which shows how unprepared people were for this thing.

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Protect

Standard Amoonguss, did it's job well. Amoonguss in TR is such a threat to unprepare teams, which made me like the Cress Amoonguss Heatran core a lot. 

August 2015 - CHALK Tyranitar

After nationals, I really wanted to run Tyranitar. It does well vs Zard Aegi, as well as Thundurus. I also didn't want to run Garde, since I thought it would be heavily prepared for after doing so well at nationals. That immedietly brought me to this team, but wasn't too confident with it at first. I didn't see Ttar do well on a Kang team at all during the season, and having a bad fighting match up scared me as well. After using this team for about a week, I saw the results of a Japanese grassroots tournament, where Moriyama(@mor1yama) placed 2nd with these same exact mons. That made me much more confident with the team, so I decided to run it for worlds. 

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Atk / 28 Def / 4 SpD / 140 Spe   
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Low Kick
- Fake Out
- Sucker Punch

Pretty much the same, replaced Double-Edge with Return. 

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 84 HP / 180 Atk / 52 Def / 4 SpD / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
- U-turn

Same as previous Lando. Might have changed the EV spread a little but I don't remember it. 

Cresselia @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 44 Def / 172 SpA / 80 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Helping Hand
- Trick Room

Now with Tyranitar's weather control, there wasn't a need for Sunny Day anymore. I wished I had HP ground in some cases, but HH was sometimes useful too. 

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 31 Spe
- Heat Wave
- Overheat
- Earth Power
- Protect

This time I ran more speed on Heatran, since I noticed Aegi were running more than 4 speed at nationals. I thought 4 speed 31 IVs would be enought o outspeed all Aegi, but unfortunately Tony's was speed creeping that. 

Tyranitar @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Atk / 12 Def / 4 SpA / 116 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Ice Beam
- Protect

This Tyranitar was a bit different from normal TR ttars, since it has Ice Beam. With Kang's Low Kick and Lando's Superpower, I felt I had enough fighting coverage, so I used Ice Beam to catch Landos and Mences. I don't think I ended up need it, but I didn't really miss Low Kick either. 

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Protect

Same exact Amoonguss.

September 2015 - Kang Entei P2

This team I got 2nd in the NB Invitational with. It was first based on Tony's worlds team, with 2 main changes being Entei and Porygon2. I haven't used this team for as long as I did the other ones, so I don't have as much to say. 

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 212 HP / 236 Atk / 20 Def / 4 SpD / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Fake Out
- Low Kick
- Sucker Punch

Much bulkier Kang than previously, and what was most popular at worlds. After using it, I think it's a lot more solid than the old Kang.

Landorus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Same exact thing as Tony's Landorus, LO Lando has been my favorite Lando recently. 

Entei @ Charcoal
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 36 HP / 188 Atk / 28 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Substitute
- Stone Edge
- Protect

Standard sub Entei, using Charcoal only because leftovers were taken. Jolly to outspeed non-scarf Lando and most Kangs/Zards. 

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
EVs: 244 HP / 140 Def / 88 SpA / 32 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Tri Attack
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Recover

Porygon2 seemed like a pretty cool mon to use, I liked it more than cress because it has better offense as well as not being weak to ghost or dark. There were a lot of Porygon2 in Battle Road Gloria top 8, which was cool to see. 

Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 156 SpA / 156 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Wide Guard
- Substitute
- King's Shield

Sub Wide Guard Aegi, again same as Tony's. Speed lets it outspeed most TR Heatran and other Aegi. Definietly my favorite Aegi set. 

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 60 SpD / 36 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave
- Protect

Seems like the standard Thundurus now, since most have protect. Having Protect makes it easier to use vs Kang, and in general. 

The End

Thanks for Reading! Think thats it for my VGC 15 season, unless I am going to San Jose regionals. Looking forward to no pentagon!