E4 Pokémon VGC Tournament - Generation 4: OU Singles Bracket Ongoing

[ddk]

Now that the VGC bracket has officially concluded, I thought it would be fun to do a team report. I encourage others to do the same!

I had dabbled in some Gen 8 & Gen 9 VGC before but was unfamiliar with older formats, so I wanted a team that could just cruise (or Surf, in this case) to victory. Weather and spread moves seemed extremely strong in this generation since Wide Guard did not exist yet, so I settled on this team style fairly quickly. Overall, it proved to be a simple team to pilot, where the goal was to either get Rain or Hail up and spam spread moves.

The team did have some noticeable weaknesses, namely fighting types, Trick Room, Toxicroak and Light Screen. Luckily, the dual weather mode of Rain-Hail and Protect gave me just enough tools to pivot around bad matchups. In retrospect, I would’ve changed one or two things about this team to make it less volatile, but hindsight is 20-20.

Fun Fact: the team was named after my favorite Shiina Ringo album, 勝訴ストリップ (Winning Strip). I wanted to create a winning team and it did just that. Each Pokemon was also nicknamed after a song from the album.

闇に降る雨 (Ludicolo) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 60 HP / 4 Def / 220 SpA / 76 SpD / 148 Spe
Modest Nature

• Surf
• Grass Knot
• Fake Out
• Protect

Easily the MVP of my team. I would almost always lead with Ludicolo since Fake Out provided so much free pressure and mind games. Popular partners were either Abomasnow to get hail up or Kingdra/Vaporeon to get the rain train going. I opted for Grass Knot over Energy Ball since it hit all relevant targets harder. EVs were to help take strong special attacks like Timid Gengar Sludge Bomb, but that didn’t end up mattering since the Gengar in this bracket were either Modest or ran Life Orb.

本能 (Lapras) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Water Absorb
Level: 50
EVs: 156 HP / 100 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk

• Blizzard
• Surf
• Thunder
• Protect

Lapras was another integral member of this team and was what truly allowed the dual Rain-Hail core to function. Being able to fire off boosted Surfs in rain, heal from its partner’s Surfs or spam perfectly accurate Blizzards under hail was just so threatening. I gave it some Def EVs to help in the Metagross matchup and Sitrus Berry (+Water Absorb healing) made it incredibly bulky. Provided it didn’t get crit from full HP or take a fighting attack (which happened far too many times), it was sticking around for a while.

罪と罰 (Kingdra) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk

• Surf
• Draco Meteor
• Rain Dance
• Protect

Kingdra is synonymous with fast rain spam. Not much to say here, other than get rain up, go fast and watch Rain boosted Life Orb Surf go brrrrr. Sadly didn’t get to use it in a lot of matchups due to the anti-rain defense on my opponent’s team, but when it had a clear path it just cleaned house.

虚言症 (Abomasnow) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 4 Def / 240 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD

• Blizzard
• Energy Ball
• Hidden Power [Ground]
• Shadow Ball

Abomasnow is the only Hail setter in Gen 4 so it was a mandatory inclusion to enable Blizzard spam. I initially played around with Focus Sash during testing but found Choice Scarf to be invaluable in giving me the speed advantage early on. Timid with max speed EVs allowed me to outrun Garchomp and +Spe Base 110 such as Gengar, Latis. The other 3 moves may have been a formality as once this thing was on the field it was only clicking Blizzard.

依存症 (Snorlax) @ Custap Berry
Ability: Thick Fat
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 84 Atk / 156 Def / 60 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe

• Return
• Crunch
• Self-Destruct
• Protect

Snorlax was added to provide some form of defense against Trick Room by “out-slowing” standard TR Mons. In retrospect, it was the least useful member mainly because it magnified my weakness to fighting types, was useless outside of TR and didn’t hit all that hard or couldn’t hit for effective damage. It was also the only member of my team that hated getting hit by my own Surfs, so it was often forced to Protect those turns. About the only positive thing it did was fire off clutch Self-Destructs and while Boom is nice, it shouldn’t have been my only answer to bad matchups. I feel Slowking or Slowbro in this slot would’ve worked much better to help my matchup against fighting types and TR.

サカナ (Vaporeon) @ Wacan Berry
Ability: Water Absorb
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 12 Def / 220 SpA / 68 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 HP / 2 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD

• Surf
• Hidden Power [Flying]
• Rain Dance
• Protect

Vaporeon was added in at the end because I wanted another rain setter and spammer. It was only used in matchups where I wanted to hard commit to rain or didn’t want to wear down Kingdra too early to get rain up. The core of Vaporeon and Lapras spamming Surfs and healing each other was also hilarious when it worked. Hidden Power Flying was literally only added as a way to hit Toxicroak and not get 4-0’d by Shedinja.

[caughtatpoint]

Team Report

I’ll preface this by saying everyone went into this format almost completely blind. There are extremely few resources available for VGC 2009 so I commend everyone for diving in. As well as actual matches, Discord Voice teambuilding sessions were a lot of fun, and helped shaped this mini-meta we had. There were some really cool teams and I enjoyed seeing what everyone came up with! With that said…

The starting point for my team was Metagross/Cresselia. I remember seeing a Ray Rizzo video where he talked about using Cresselia to Swagger his own Metagross, giving it a +2 Attack boost, while the Lum Berry cured its Confusion. This was for Gen 5, but I figured it would work in Gen 4 too. As well, I really like these two Pokemon so I wanted to use them regardless.

Cresselia

Cresselia @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 228 HP / 28 Def / 252 SpA
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe

• Ice Beam
• Psychic
• Swagger
• Trick Room

Probably the best Pokemon in the format. With its immense bulk, setting Trick Room is virtually guaranteed. Swagger and Trick Room were required for the aforementioned strategy, I opted for Ice Beam and Psychic because so Cresselia didn’t just sit on the field, un-menacingly, wasting turns of Trick Room. Protect is not necessary on a mon this bulky (though there were times I wish I had it). The EVs were not for anything specific; HP was just enough to get the maximum recovery from Leftovers, max Sp. Atk, the rest in physical bulk with a Sp. Def boosting nature.

Metagross

Metagross @ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Atk / 60 SpD
Adamant Nature
IVs: 14 Spe

• Protect
• Iron Head
• Zen Headbutt
• Earthquake

The only stat of note is the speed. An IV of 14 gives a total speed stat of 82—one more than Cresselia’s minimum (81) . This is so you can set Trick Room, then Swagger Metagross before it attacks

I gave it enough Attack EVs to get the nature bump; max HP, with the rest in Sp. Def. I opted for Iron Head over Meteor Mash because I didn’t want to waste Trick Room turns by missing my attacks, Earthquake for strong spread damage, and Zen Headbutt because I still like to miss moves occasionally it’s the best physical Psychic move. Unfortunately the chance to miss ended up costing me in the final

Hariyama

Hariyama @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Guts
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe

• Fake Out
• Protect
• Thunder Punch
• Close Combat

I needed more Pokemon that could take advantage of Trick Room (slow and strong). I settled on Hariyama for a few reasons: firstly, Fake Out is one of the best moves in the game and helps with setting Trick Room. Secondly, Guts-boosted Close Combat is extremely powerful. I also wanted help against Spore/Hypnosis (and Freeze cough cough), so the Toxic Orb was nice in that regard too. Definitely one of the more important parts of the team.

Gyarados

Gyarados @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Atk / 4 Def / 44 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature

• Protect
• Waterfall
• Thunder Wave
• Ice Fang

With hindsight this was the weakest link. I for sure wanted Intimidate (again, with hindsight, this wasn’t necessary), and I also wanted another way to control the speed outside of Trick Room, so access to Thunder Wave was a big plus. Ice Fang for help against dragons, and Waterfall for consistent damage. I gave it a Sitrus Berry to help it stick on the field and spread Paralysis, maximum HP investment, and a ton of Atk so it could threaten KOs on Dragon types. I ended up not bringing it as much as I wanted to. While Paralysis is broken, I found that the matchups where I wanted Thunder Wave were also the matchups where Gyarados was not great. Overall it felt pretty awkward with this set.

Gengar

Gengar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk

• Protect
• Shadow Ball
• Sludge Bomb
• Perish Song

I wanted more speed to give better options outside of Trick Room; I also wanted something that could hit grass types, a better matchup into Explosion/Self-destruct, and help against Cresselia. Gengar ticked all of those boxes. Protect and dual STAB is self-explanatory, but Perish Song is a fun way of guaranteeing a win if you get a lead.

Focus Sash is pretty much obligatory—Gengar is so frail that sacrificing Sp. Atk for bulk doesn’t benefit it much anyway. I went for Modest over Timid because I didn’t expect there to be many other fast Pokemon (and Gyarados could slow them down anyway), though it almost cost me against Zapdos. I think on the whole though the extra damage was the correct choice.

Machamp

Machamp @ Life Orb
Ability: No Guard
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Atk / 100 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe

• Protect
• Close Combat
• Rock Slide
• Dynamic Punch

The last member of the team. I knew Machamp had seen some success in BW VGC, but I didn’t realise how strong it was until I used it in singles. No Guard Dynamic Punch is frankly stupid (the confusion definitely came in clutch on more than one occasion). While Stone Edge is stronger, I opted for Rock Slide to get around Follow Me, as well as the flinch chance. I considered Ice Punch/Bullet Punch for the last slot, but I thought the 20 extra BP from Close Combat might come in handy somewhere, and during practice it felt like I was never clicking the other two moves.

General thoughts/criticisms:

Ultimately I ended up not using the Cress/Metagross strategy as often as I thought I’d have been able to. While it did get me a couple of insta-wins, I think this speaks to the team’s most glaring weakness: really bad speed. All too often I was threatened in Trick Room by something slower, and outside of it I was always moving second. I think this is why, despite my team being pretty bulky, it always felt like I was taking so much damage. A reminder that having Pokemon across multiple speed tiers is extremely beneficial.

While I think I would probably have swapped Swagger on Cresselia for Thunder Wave, I think I also didn’t use Swagger enough as it was intended. There were a lot of special attackers around, and I should have leaned into having them attack themselves 50% of the time.

Overall though I think the team performed well. While I was unable to end the reign of terror, I lost a 96.7% win to double Protect and Zen Missbutt in Game 1 of a finals that was always going to be hard to win, against a very strong player. On such margins are reigns ended or prolonged

[ddk]

Good morning (from Japan)!

@cosrob and @godcomplex, friendly reminder to please play your match. Thanks!

[cosrob]

Good timing.

We played our first game a week ago (but abandoned the 2nd due to poor internet on the bullet trains - my fault)

And scheduled our 2nd game for just now.

A very nervous 2 games my way

Game 1: [Gen 4] OU: cosrob vs. obZen - Replays - Pokémon Showdown!

Game 2: [Gen 4] OU: cosrob vs. obZen - Replays - Pokémon Showdown!

[ddk]

Great games! Scary setup sweepers were not enough to break through the Great Wall of Australia (also wow they have bullet trains there too).

Death, taxes and @cosrob vs @caughtatpoint comes all the same. Once again two titans square off for the final podium spot!

[caughtatpoint]

@cosrob and I will be playing our singles match tomorrow, Saturday 30th at 23:00 GMT/18:00 EST. You know the dance, I’ll be in discord voice.

[caughtatpoint]

Cosrob and I just played; replays below

[Gen 4] OU: e4tourney2023 vs. cosrob - Replays - Pokémon Showdown!

[Gen 4] OU: e4tourney2023 vs. cosrob - Replays - Pokémon Showdown!

[ddk]

Great games! Somehow lucked into catching this one live.

@caughtatpoint congrats on yet another podium finish. You have a rematch against @Tryson21 now!

@cosrob fantastic bracket run as always! You really brought it back after an early winners bracket loss and kept it competitive. See you again in Gen 5!

[lyleberr]

Very impressive matches! Makes me want to understand the pokemon battle strategy more to play better. Then again, there wasnt an explosion so 8.5 out of 10 stars.