Erik Anderson @ Edinburgh Midseason Showdown!

This report details the experiences of guest writer Erik Anderson’s participation in Edinburgh’s recent mid season showdown!

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Hello everyone, I am Erik Anderson, a competitive Pokémon Player from the UK and I have been participating in the VGC circuit since 2014; my very first official VGC tournament I was UK Nationals back in May 2014 and I managed to reach top cut, finishing 28th place in the whole tournament.

In 2016 I also qualified for Jamie Miller’s UK & Ireland VGC ’16 Friendly competitions where I was battling some of the very best players from the UK & Ireland to earn the right to compete against teams from China and the UAE.

Recently, I went to a Midseason Showdown in Edinburgh, finishing 10th out of 26 players. Whilst I needed to finish 8th or higher to top cut, some people asked me at Edinburgh about my team’s EV spreads as some of the team’s members are built to be much bulkier than usual; I have decided to make this report to showcase my team’s EV Spreads and movesets. I also uploaded ten matches from the tournament which can be viewed through entering the codes on the Festival Plaza PC so you can see first hand how this team operates.

Clefairy @ Eviolite
Ability: Friend Guard
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Protect
– Follow Me
– Wish
– Moonblast

Clefairy was the MVP of this team. Wish allowed it to heal its partners whilst Follow Me (and her ability Friend Guard) allowed her to protect them from taking excessive damage. Protect allowed her to stick around a little longer whilst Moonblast was a last resort in case Clefairy was taunted.

252 HP and 148 SpD EVs let Clefairy survive Timid Life Orb max SpA Nihilego’s Sludge Bomb 18.% of the time whilst the 108 Defense along with 252 HP EVs lets her survive all but the most powerful Celesteela Heavy Slam.

Araquanid @ Assault Vest
Ability: Water Bubble
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Atk / 68 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Liquidation
– Leech Life
– Ice Beam
– Poison Jab

The EV Spread is one Wolfe Glick recommended to people who wanted to use a bulky version of Araquanid and I really liked the Spread suggested; however, I never used Lunge during practice before Edinburgh so decided to replace it with Ice Beam as it would allow me to finish off any weakened Garchomp without taking unnecessary Rough Skin damage as well as giving Araquanid an option to hit the occasional Salamence.

Arcanine @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 4 Def / 124 SpA / 4 SpD / 180 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Will-O-Wisp
– Snarl
– Morning Sun
– Burn Up

Arcanine is used as both a bulky and some way offensive sweeper as the 180 Speed EVs outspeed all max speed Tapu Fini.

Burn Up allows Arcanine to avoid super effective attacks from the likes of Tapu Fini & (on occasion) Garchomp, Snarl and Will-O-Wisp help to slow down both special and physical attackers respectively whilst Morning Sun ensures Arcanine will be sticking around for the majority of the battle.

Tapu Bulu @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 116 Def / 52 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Wood Hammer
– Nature’s Madness
– Protect
– Rock Slide

Since a lot of VGC Players have a Garchomp on their team, I decided to run the common EV spread of 252 HP and 116 Defense EVs to let Tapu Bulu survive Jolly Garchomp’s Poison Jab. Just 76 Attack EVs give Wood Hammer the OHKO on all but the bulkiest of Garchomp, I invested 12 EV’s into speed to creep uninvested opposing Tapu Bulu and threw the remainder into Sp. Def to maximise bulk.

Nature’s Madness was only there to guarantee 50% damage on bulkier Pokémon (such as Celesteela) but I never found myself needing to use it throughout the tournament.

Garchomp @ Groundium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Dragon Claw
– Earthquake
– Poison Jab
– Protect

There isn’t much to say here since this is a very common EV Spread for Garchomp.

Dragon Claw, from what I saw online before Edinburgh, is getting little to no usage, but I feel that it’s still a good option to have just in case I speed tie with other Garchomp.

Snorlax @ Figy Berry
Ability: Gluttony
Level: 50
EVs: 68 HP / 116 Atk / 212 Def / 108 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
– Curse
– Protect
– Return
– Crunch

The HP, Defense and Special Defense EVs for Snorlax don’t carry specific purpose of surviving a particular Pokémon’s attack as the EVs are only there to have a decent bulk balance all round.

116 Attack EVs offers Snorlax more power whilst using Return and Crunch. I feel for a Curse set (as opposed to Belly Drum Lax) you need to run some Attack EVs to substitute for any lack of power caused by intimidates or burns.

Edinburgh Midseason Showdown Tournament (3-2)
(N.B – Battle Videos can be viewed by typing the codes into the Festival Plaza’s PC)

Round 1: Jamie Elliot: Won

Round 1: 46HG-WWWW-WWW5-V46K
Round 2: 6WSG-WWWW-WWW5-V49R

I was concerned going into this match as I felt my team couldn’t take hits too comfortably from a Porygon-Z. Through a few clever switches from Clefairy and Araquanid taking only around 50% damage from a PZ Hyper Beam, I managed to squeeze out a 2-0 win, despite being caught off guard by Alola Marowak’s Perish Song in round 2.

Round 2: Jack Routledge: Lost

Round 1: WEGW-WWWW-WWW5-V4HW
Round 3: R9HW-WWWW-WWW5-V4HF

Facing a team with both Celesteela and Nihilego causes my team countless problems. I managed to win the first round thanks to a timely Defense drop from Snorlax’s Crunch whilst Clefairy’s Friend Guard allowed him to survive Hydro Vortex from Gyarados.

Round 3: Adam Mack: Won

Round 1: LXKW-WWWW-WWW5-V4QE
Round 2: HC3W-WWWW-WWW5-V4QM
Round 3: YNEW-WWWW-WWW5-V4QU

A tight 2-1 victory against a day one world’s player from 2016. I know that in the first round I should have used Liquidation instead of Ice Beam on Garchomp, but since my Araquanid was poisoned I didn’t want to risk the extra damage from Rough Skin.

Round 4: Benjamin Grover: Lost

Round 1: BYTG-WWWW-WWW5-VH9Q

The only thing to say on the first battle is that I didn’t except Garchomp to use Tectonic Rage on Clefairy on turn 2, instead expecting it to Poison Jab my Araquanid instead.

The second battle turned into a disaster when my Arcanine’s Will-O-Wisp missed the Garchomp.

Round 5: Cameron Ward: Won

Round 2: LXBG-WWWW-WWW5-VKJ6

Clefairy was the main reason I defeated Cameron, simply through helping Garchomp and Arcanine survive Tapu Koko’s Hidden Power Ice and Garchomps Tectonic Rage respectively.