LAIC 2025! Top 64 Day 2 Report
Hi, I always wanted to share on a blog my runs, and since right now on my life I have to write a lot, I think this would be a nice practice to put more words and practice to that. My name is Luciano Muñoz, I'm from Chile, and I've played Pokémon practically all my life, since my cousin showed me the game when I was like 3-4 years. I started playing competitively on late 2022, with SWSH Series 7? I guess. I really like the idea of doing reports despite the results, being a good or bad run.
On this time I want to share my thoughts on the Latin America International Championships, held on November, 2024. I personally didn't practice much, due to personal issues, but knew that the call for the tournament on my part was to play a comfortable balance team, and it had to have Ursaluna (at the time both seemed pretty good, and results agreed with me i guess). I started the early Regulation H meta with this team:
I took Nils's EUIC champion core and started pivoting the 2 slots left by Flutter and Urshifu. Gholdengo automatically was the first choice, starting with choice specs to emulate Flutter's damage, and full speed since Reg G gholdies where bulky speedy but modest. My 6th slot i wanted something that could serve me as a mon that doesn't struggle that much versus intimidate, and has flying type / good tera flying choice / levitate, to spam earthquake with ursaluna inside or outside Trick Room. I pivoted with many mons on the 6th slot, like Tyranitar, multiscale Dragonite, assault vest Hydreigon, Volcarona and Dragapult. When the season started officialy, I wasn't surprised of not being the only one that used the composition, and started using the 6th slot that was on the meta (Tytar, Flamigo). Since I didn't play any Regional, I only watched the results, learned some counter picks that were on the meta (taunt w/ Electabuzz, Misty Terrain Clefable, Imprison), and waited to see what to play at LAIC. Having not much time, and struggling with creating a new composition, I decided to run the same 5 Pokémon, and waited till' last day to decide on the last 'mon. Since the lowering of usage (and rise of others) affected the meta and results on different regionals, I wanted to use different sets than the common ones. So the team i brought was this:
I returned to Hydreigon, and made the team in a form that the uprising and dominance by Sneasler wasn't a much issue. Having 4 mons weak to fighting (and maybe 5 if we count Scrappy Flamigo) wasn't much problem with the adjustments. Hydreigon was a good call for my tournament run, making my oppoonents to think better their strat because there was no Tytar/Flamigo on the 6. Having a 2nd special attacker, and a direct damage dealer was very very good. I wanted and Incineroar that could handle almost every hit of the meta, and impish assault vested did it very good. I calc'ed it to live 252 Close Combat from Jolly Sneasler without the intimidate (also covers -1 Helping Hand CC), to not be on that bad spot eventually, and changed tera ghost to tera grass, in case i needed to play vs Amoonguss on Trick Room. The speed was to outcreep fast Gambit. Covert Cloak was a clutch on the team. Many balance teams that the team struggle to mostly rely on faking out Gus to set up, so having Covert Cloak + pretty good bulk to resist Gambit or Volc, was a good advantaje to play. Also that could cover me up on a bad spot of Fake Out + Fighting move to my other slot, or Spore/Pollen Puff/Clear Smog on every trick room turn, not worrying about Rilla/Inci that much.
The paste of the team is here: https://t.co/DUmzUNUGbI
Not much to add to P2 and Ursa. Both work pretty well. Leading Hydreigon + Ursaluna was nice to put me on an offensive advantaje, since my opp had to make the protect call, and the 2 deal a lot of damage.
On the tournament run, I had to play a lot of Imprison and Rain. R1 was a Sand Psyspam with Corviknight and Covert Cloak Blaziken. I remember playing on TR, and reading the protects on the non Corv mon, calling the double target right, and cleaning G1 with Gholdie and G2 with Hydre
R2 I faced another Sand + Psychic Terrain. Milotic was a bit troublesome on previa, but I knew that if I put Ursa on a good spot I could win. Both games they let me set Trick Room, and from there I swept with Ursa + P2, closing with Hydreigon.
R3 was a Amoonguss movie. I led Gus P2 both games, versus Rilla Gambit, they couldn't set up bc of the Covert Cloak, and i was able to remove the Gambit with Fighting Tera Blast on G1, and G2 I played with Ursa supported by Gus + Inci.
Round 4 was a really scary team. With a friend we saw that Bo3 ladder on PSD had a high elo Weavile team (Wolfey), and I really had a hard MU into that because Weavile messed up with both of my special attackers and had Taunt, and I couldn't just lead Inci bc of Annihi. G1 they made a bad call thinking I would protect my Gholdengo, so I was able to OHKO Tera Water Annihilape with +2 Shadow Ball. G2 I went for a TR strat that went well, sweeping most of the threats with Ursaluna, and having their Tera Flying P2 for the end
R5 I faced Daniel Bezerra, who got me out of the win & in last LAIC. I really wished I had a Taunt on my team. I made some mistakes counting the Trick Room turns, and didn't attack when I had to. Also this match I realized that my Gholdengo had 0 IVs in ALL my stats (except Speed). Tough loss.
R6 I faced 2018 World Champion Paul Ruiz, in a very intense and good set in my opinion. I started winning G1, leading Hydreigon versus MausApe, I remember closing very well the endgame on Trick Room. Game 2 I made a huge mistake that cost me the game inmediatly, going for all on a call, going for Tera Fire Heat Wave + Clear Smog on a supossed Tera Grass on the Archaludon, that didn't happen. G3 I went for a better strat, but Paul really outplayed me on most the mid and endgame. But it was a really fun set, with I could adjustted better on G2. With that, I went from 4-0 to 4-2, having to win my next 2 rounds.
Before round 7 I started walking around and having myself cool, to face the end of the day 1. I faced Joao Eduardo, i can't remember (and didn't write) the 6th mon. Shortly, I won using Trick Room, having to Tera Grass Inci because of Amoonguss, and pivoting well between them 2 and Ursaluna to KO and no being KO'd. Score now 5-2.
Last round I faced person from my country, Esteban Ojeda. We played some times before on locals. I went for the same strat as Round 3, and decided my next turns after turn 1, expecting Electabuzz + something as their lead. I led Gus + P2, turning the ball to them, on wich mon Taunt on turn 1, and switching one of my mons to Ursa to have the burn already. Won G1 eventually on playing with Ursaluna, had to Tera Ghost without knowing if there was Gambit on the back. Fortunatelly, there wasn't. G2 I repeated the strat but went for TR and Spore, they taunt P2 and I spore thei Volc. Weirdly, there was not Gambit again on the back. On mid game they forfeit, so I made Day 2! 6-2
Day 2 was a bit short in term of rounds. I was happy that I made Day 2 already on my first major of the season, and leaving behing 2 of my worst majors before this (Worlds 2024 1-3 drop, and Santiago Regionals 2024 4-4 T64). On round 1 (R9 overall) I faced Juan Lucin. Game 1 they got me bad because I wasn't expecting a Dragapult lead. I was more preppared for an anti TR open. G2 I went for the TR strat and won good. G3 I repeated and they changed leads. I remember a turn where they switched their slept Ursa over Inci, and I critted it OHKOing with Tera Fight Tera Blast (was a surprise for me the OHKO tbh). That made the endgame more affordable, but not easier. Eventually I win because Ursa didn't wake up when it needed to, so I was able to go for Trick Room again, and KO Ursa & Sneasler with P2 alongside Amoonguss. R10 was very short, facing finalist Victor Medina. R1 I made a huge mistake, having already KO'd their Pelipper on Trick Room, Ursaluna entered the next turn, and I went for Knock Off into it, and switched my P2 for my Ursa. They went for Tera Fighting with Archa, Ursa didn't protect (as I called) and used Earthquake, killing my Inci, chipping my Ursa, and giving a +1 Def to Archaludon, who went for Body Press into my Ursa, KO'ing it. Game 2 I lead Gholdie + Hydre, versus their Archa + Dragonite, I went for Make it Rain + Draco to the Nite. I miss the Draco Meteor, Make it rain does like 50% to Ursa and 20-30% to Nite, this last goes for Scale Shot into my Hydre and Ursa goes for Headlong Rush into Gholdie. I lost my 2 mons on turn 1, and had only Ursa + P2 on the back, needing to dodge the scale shot on turn 2, wich didn't happen. And with that, my run ended 7-3, placing on Top 64 (43th If recall correctly). Unfortunately my resistance wasn't that good to climb to the 32 left spots past the asym top cut, but I was happy to have a pretty good run without much prep. Looking to play hopefully one more regional or internats (besides Santiago Regionals that are on my city), and do well on the GCs, to qualify for Worlds. Thanks for reading :)