For those that don't remember me, I'm the guy that got second place to Alaka last year in Dallas. Here's what happened this year.
THE TEAM THAT ONLY GOD COULD DEFEAT (more on that in a minute)
Rayquaza @ Focus Sash
Dragon Dance
Extremespeed
Outrage
Draco Meteor
Lucario @ Black Belt
Follow Me
Feint
Low Kick
Extremespeed
Empoleon @ Expert Belt
Grass Knot
Ice Beam
Brine
Flash Cannon (changed this from Aqua Jet at the last minute, probably a bad decision but meh)
Giratina @ Leftovers
Protect
Spite
Shadow Force
Dragon Claw
The idea behind this team is for Rayquaza to rape things while Lucario covers for him. Even though Lucario has sub-par defensive stats, his resistances complement Rayquaza perfectly. Empoleon and Giratina are great cleanup hitters. And if you're going "?" at Spite, keep in mind that most moves being spammed in these tourneys like Blizzard have only 5 base PP.
Round 1: Against a girl, Tabitha (Tabby). She didn't have any ubers, but her team was EV'd and move-tutored properly so it was a good fight. She had Scizor, Charizard, Kingdra, and Crobat. I saved the video of this match, id number 58-31729-95232.
Round 2: Against a guy, think his name was Adam. He had Torterra, Dialga, and two other non-ubers. Not good at all. He gets a Roar of Time off against Ray, but Focus Sash covers it while Lucario OHKOs him with Low Kick. Ray sweeps the rest of his team, only Lucario dies. Also, he thought using Leaf Storm against Empoleon was better than Earthquake. LOL.
Round 3: Against cute Asian girl Christine (aka Tine female symbol). She leads with Feraligatr and Kyogre. Not a problem, since Ray laughs at Water Spout and Lucario laughs at anything else Ky might be using. Anyway, I get my Dragon Dance set up, Ky appears to be using Choice Scarf along with Water Spout, even better for me.
And then things start going wrong. Feraligatr survives Dragon Danced Outrage. W. T. F. Things go downhill from there, and I'm soon left with only Giratina versus a healthy Garchomp and Gengar. I can get off a Shadow Force here and kill Gengar, but if it has a Focus Sash I will lose since I can't take multiple hits from both heavy hitters. But I don't feel comfortable with the odds of me killing Garchomp in one hit either. So I go after Gengar. Luckily it is not Sashed, so it dies. Giratina has no problem handling Garchomp one on one after that.
Round 4: Against guy named Rodolfo. He's using Metagross, Garchomp, Palkia, and some other uber that I can't remember. Starts off well, he's not equipped to deal with Lucario's Follow Me, so he eventually explodes his Metagross (which Lucario survives and activates Ray's Sash). He manages to finish off Lucario who soaks another hit for Ray while it rapes the rest of his team. Empoleon comes out and does 90% to his Garchomp with Ice Beam (Yache berry), while Ray does the same to Palkia (Haban berry). Ray gets killed finally, Giratina comes out and Shadow Forces, and Empoleon dies before it gets to move again.
So I am in a fantastic situation. Giratina's already up in the air targetting Palkia, both his Palkia and Garchomp have a sliver of health so will die in 1 hit, and Gar cannot kill Giratina even with a critical hit. I have this match won.
And then God said NO.
The power shuts out at our whole table (both us and the match next to us).
We have to start the match over.
I am understandably worried at this point, because my team relies on the initial element of surprise in order to get Rayquaza setup properly. I go with my standard setup, since I don't have a backup plan. He swaps his other uber for a Giratina, which he leads along with Metagross. I am almost certain he's going to explode with his Metagross, since it doesn't seem to be good for anything else. So I swap both Ray and Lucario for Emp and Gira. This was probably a partial mistake, as I should have let Lucario take the hit instead of the more useful Empoleon. But at the moment I'm feeling pretty good because he's down a poke already and I only have a damaged Empoleon.
But things don't go well. His Giratina turns out to be faster than mine, which becomes a *huge* advantage. He can dodge everything I throw at him with Shadow Force, and also has Shadow Sneak as a priority move (which lets him nuke 1 hp Ray after Ray Draco Meteor's his Garchomp). In the end, I only have my Giratina left against his Giratina and Palkia, and I can't handle two enemies hitting weakness on me at once. I lose.
But I'm not bitter about the experience. I wasn't planning on going to Nationals anyway this year, and I don't need another DSI, so the remaining rounds would just be bragging rights. I know my team worked and (for all intents and purposes) I was in the top 32, so I'm content.
My kid also competed and went 1-1. I made his team better than mine, but he's not very experienced so he still managed to muck it up.
Also saw Alaka get eliminated right before I got to my round 4 table. He was throwing quite a fit to the judges but I guess it didn't help him out.
THE TEAM THAT ONLY GOD COULD DEFEAT (more on that in a minute)
Rayquaza @ Focus Sash
Dragon Dance
Extremespeed
Outrage
Draco Meteor
Lucario @ Black Belt
Follow Me
Feint
Low Kick
Extremespeed
Empoleon @ Expert Belt
Grass Knot
Ice Beam
Brine
Flash Cannon (changed this from Aqua Jet at the last minute, probably a bad decision but meh)
Giratina @ Leftovers
Protect
Spite
Shadow Force
Dragon Claw
The idea behind this team is for Rayquaza to rape things while Lucario covers for him. Even though Lucario has sub-par defensive stats, his resistances complement Rayquaza perfectly. Empoleon and Giratina are great cleanup hitters. And if you're going "?" at Spite, keep in mind that most moves being spammed in these tourneys like Blizzard have only 5 base PP.
Round 1: Against a girl, Tabitha (Tabby). She didn't have any ubers, but her team was EV'd and move-tutored properly so it was a good fight. She had Scizor, Charizard, Kingdra, and Crobat. I saved the video of this match, id number 58-31729-95232.
Round 2: Against a guy, think his name was Adam. He had Torterra, Dialga, and two other non-ubers. Not good at all. He gets a Roar of Time off against Ray, but Focus Sash covers it while Lucario OHKOs him with Low Kick. Ray sweeps the rest of his team, only Lucario dies. Also, he thought using Leaf Storm against Empoleon was better than Earthquake. LOL.
Round 3: Against cute Asian girl Christine (aka Tine female symbol). She leads with Feraligatr and Kyogre. Not a problem, since Ray laughs at Water Spout and Lucario laughs at anything else Ky might be using. Anyway, I get my Dragon Dance set up, Ky appears to be using Choice Scarf along with Water Spout, even better for me.
And then things start going wrong. Feraligatr survives Dragon Danced Outrage. W. T. F. Things go downhill from there, and I'm soon left with only Giratina versus a healthy Garchomp and Gengar. I can get off a Shadow Force here and kill Gengar, but if it has a Focus Sash I will lose since I can't take multiple hits from both heavy hitters. But I don't feel comfortable with the odds of me killing Garchomp in one hit either. So I go after Gengar. Luckily it is not Sashed, so it dies. Giratina has no problem handling Garchomp one on one after that.
Round 4: Against guy named Rodolfo. He's using Metagross, Garchomp, Palkia, and some other uber that I can't remember. Starts off well, he's not equipped to deal with Lucario's Follow Me, so he eventually explodes his Metagross (which Lucario survives and activates Ray's Sash). He manages to finish off Lucario who soaks another hit for Ray while it rapes the rest of his team. Empoleon comes out and does 90% to his Garchomp with Ice Beam (Yache berry), while Ray does the same to Palkia (Haban berry). Ray gets killed finally, Giratina comes out and Shadow Forces, and Empoleon dies before it gets to move again.
So I am in a fantastic situation. Giratina's already up in the air targetting Palkia, both his Palkia and Garchomp have a sliver of health so will die in 1 hit, and Gar cannot kill Giratina even with a critical hit. I have this match won.
And then God said NO.
The power shuts out at our whole table (both us and the match next to us).
We have to start the match over.
I am understandably worried at this point, because my team relies on the initial element of surprise in order to get Rayquaza setup properly. I go with my standard setup, since I don't have a backup plan. He swaps his other uber for a Giratina, which he leads along with Metagross. I am almost certain he's going to explode with his Metagross, since it doesn't seem to be good for anything else. So I swap both Ray and Lucario for Emp and Gira. This was probably a partial mistake, as I should have let Lucario take the hit instead of the more useful Empoleon. But at the moment I'm feeling pretty good because he's down a poke already and I only have a damaged Empoleon.
But things don't go well. His Giratina turns out to be faster than mine, which becomes a *huge* advantage. He can dodge everything I throw at him with Shadow Force, and also has Shadow Sneak as a priority move (which lets him nuke 1 hp Ray after Ray Draco Meteor's his Garchomp). In the end, I only have my Giratina left against his Giratina and Palkia, and I can't handle two enemies hitting weakness on me at once. I lose.
But I'm not bitter about the experience. I wasn't planning on going to Nationals anyway this year, and I don't need another DSI, so the remaining rounds would just be bragging rights. I know my team worked and (for all intents and purposes) I was in the top 32, so I'm content.
My kid also competed and went 1-1. I made his team better than mine, but he's not very experienced so he still managed to muck it up.
Also saw Alaka get eliminated right before I got to my round 4 table. He was throwing quite a fit to the judges but I guess it didn't help him out.
