WCS2023 30th Place Team Article
Introduction
Hello! It's been a while since I wrote an article like this. I finished 30th place with a 4-3 record at the 2023 Pokemon World Championships (WCS2023). Today I would like to document my teambuilding thought process going in to the event. In particular, I would like to hopefully provide some insight on how I approach teambuilding for a new format since WCS2023 was the first event for the Regulation D ruleset. For those that previously read my Thundurus/Zacian/Blastoise team article for Series 8, you can expect a similar style here. Without further adieu, here's my thought process preparing for WCS2023.
July RegD Beginnings
The first thing I do for any new format is look at the available Pokedex and try to identify the top new threats. For Regulation D, the main new Pokemon which stood out to me (and I imagine for others as well) included:
Urshifu (rapid and single strike)
Ursaluna
Cresselia
Landorus-T
Tornadus-I
Heatran
Rillaboom
Thundurus-I
Goodra-H
Arcanine-H
Lilligant-H
Basculegion
This is in addition to most of the existing threats from Regulation C. Since I had a local grassroots tournament early on in the format, I built a team from scratch taking into consideration the above threats and my experience from the 2023 season:
Unfortunately Pikalytics does not include tera types so I have attached the pokepaste, you can see them there. I won't go in to too much detail on how I came up with this team, since this isn't the team this article is about, but I'll touch on things I learnt about Regulation D from using this team which led to my decision-making for worlds:
- Answers for Urshifu-water were necessary (Gastrodon or not) because I faced it nearly every round; as predicted it was really strong.
- Intimidate was good to have especially for Ursaluna teams
-As predicted, Chien-Pao and Flutter Mane were just really strong Pokemon. They were good vs Chien-Pao/Dragonite which was one of the most common duos at the beginning. Chien-Pao outspeeds and hits a wide range of the top threats super-effectively whilst being immune to Prankster Thundurus with its Dark Typing. Flutter Mane's strengths from Series 2 and Regulation C as a special attacker with its stats and typing just carried over.
- Heatran was as good as predicted. The constant chip from heat wave was significant. Being strong vs sun and especially Flutter Mane and Chi-Yu was notable. Grass Tera Blast gave you a good reversal option vs Urshifu-water which is something that continued to be adopted throughout the format. It also helped vs Sushi (Dondozo + Tatsugiri).
- Without an Amoonguss (i.e. redirection + sleep), speed control felt necessary. Icy Wind was just not nearly as effective as I envisioned because many Tornadus held Covert Cloak at the time, so for many rounds I just had to eat hits from opposing Tornadus teams as they always got to move first for 3 turns.
- Even with Chien-Pao, Flying Tera Blast Landorus, Taunt Grimmsnarl and Safety Goggles Heatran, opposing Amoonguss can be very disruptive if they get a Spore off, which they can do if they position well (e.g. intimidate Chien-Pao, switch in to take Specs Flutter Mane attack, pair with Fake Out, Tera Water and Spore Heatran's partner to set-up with another Pokemon etc). Unfortunately this is something that never really changed for my Worlds Team but it just goes to show the insufficience of counterplay for Amoonguss in Scarlet/Violet thus far, and the fact that Amoonguss can turn the tides of almost any matchup, even disadvantageous ones with the right plays/circumstances.
Rather than try to refine this team which seemed like a lost cause, I decided to take what I learnt and continue to build on my understanding of Regulation D by trying out many rental teams. At this point, the meta was starting to take shape as well with the VR Tourney and Japanese grassroots tournaments that took place at this time. I learned what Pokemon and aspects were good against common archetypes (e.g. Iron Hands + Rocky Helmet Cresselia are good vs Chien-Pao/Dnite/Urshifu-water etc) whether it was from the team I was trying at the time, or what my opponents were doing to beat me. I won't elaborate on all the teams I tried but the one team which I found to be strong, and ended up being the starting point for my Worlds team, was Mizumi's team:
I thought this team had a lot of strong elements for Regulation D at the time. I managed to reach 1800s on Showdown with some slight changes (Specs on Flutter, Tera Ghost Ursaluna, Tera Grass on Iron Hands, Rain Dance instead of Sunny Day on Torn: https://pokepast.es/c457156ec89ba85d) and what I noticed was that I was winning majority of games with Torn/Flutter/Hands/Urshifu-Dark. The power of Choice Band Tera Dark Urshifu was just ridiculous if you got to position it in Tailwind and have your Fake Out ready for their Rillaboom. Swords Dance Ursaluna was also really strong and this move pretty much became a must for this Pokemon moving forward. Cress/Ursaluna wasn't brought as often maybe as it should have but it just covered so many matchups on its own - it is strong vs Amoonguss (until they started using Leaf Storm/Grass Knot), Heatran, Iron Hands, Indeedee/Armarouge to name a few. However I didn't like that the team is so all-in on offense; Hyper Offense is not necessarily bad but it's not something I've respected as a consistent playstyle, especially for Worlds where we will be playing Bo3s against the best players as Cresselia was really the only 'defensive pivot' on this team. Generally I prefer more balanced teams with more defensive options to allow for more opportunities to outplay so to speak. Given you can't Protect vs Urshifu, I thought maybe this kind of offense was just a necessary evil at the time. I spoke with my good friend Dorian (@ppl_Dorian) about the team, whom I agreed to work with for Worlds. He didn't like Tornadus constantly missing its moves which I agreed with, and suggested Talonflame:
Talonflame was actually quite good - it never missed its flying move which is the main problem we had with Tornadus. Quick Guard was deadly against Chien-Pao/Dragonite and Fake Out, which enabled Urshifu even further. Taunt not being Prankster was also useful. Additionally, Acrobatics was a strong attack vs Flutter Mane since it was physical. Another important realisation was that Tera Water Iron Hands was better after all - it made opposing Flutter/Chi-Yu much more palatable amongst other matchups as water typing just has more relevant resistances. Not only this, adding more speed so that it could outspeed Modest Flutter Mane under Tailwind was so effective it won games on its own - many times opponents would just attack with their Flutter Mane or similar-speed Pokemon expecting to get a hit off before my Iron Hands moved in Tailwind. I actually ended up winning more with this version, hitting 1900s on Showdown for the first time in Regulation D. However, there were some problems I noticed:
- If they lead with Fake Out, you are put in to an awkward position of needing to switch out Talonflame or use Quick Guard so that Gale Wings is not broken.
- When Gale Wings is gone, you often can't get Tailwind up again given the speed of the format.
- Not being able to attack with Acrobatics when Full HP if they have Psychic Terrain was inconvenient
- Talonflame is much, much frailer than Tornadus
-You can't even block Urshifu-water's Aqua Jet with Quick Guard so sometimes you're fighting at a number-of-Pokemon disadvantage.
So with this I concluded that Tornadus is the best Tailwind setter after all, even considering Bleakwind Storm's accuracy. Traditionally I have avoided using inaccurate moves where possible but I reminded myself that to get far in Worlds, I am going to need some luck anyway - Pokemon is a game of variance to begin with; if I miss a lot of Bleakwind Storms then it just wasn't meant to be and that's a fact that needs to be accepted. I feel this was especially highlighted by Hirofumi's 2nd place Worlds 2019 Team Report - he had doubts about using physical Primal Groudon but "Precipice Blades is just too strong not to use, plus there are many instances where you can afford to miss. If you lose a game due to missing, then just win the other 2 games in a Bo3." I felt like the same concept applied here (though Precipice Blades is stronger than Bleakwind Storm) so with confidence I decided on keeping Tornadus. I really liked Mizumi's bulky Rocky Helmet Sunny Day set to be overall stronger vs Urshifu-water so I stuck with it.
Inspiration
At this point I was quite satisfied with Tornadus/Iron Hands/Urshifu-dark/Flutter Mane as I was winning most games with these 4. Cresselia/Ursaluna were very strong in the right spots and covered a lot of matchups on their own, but I thought that perhaps there might be a pair of Pokemon that are more of a suitable 'match' for the team. I also didn't like that I was often beating opposing Flutter Mane by gambling that mine was faster and OHKOing them with Shadow Ball which isn't reliable at all. At this stage I got stuck, so I decided to try a bunch of other teams for inspiration. Since there were so many (including variations) I won't elaborate further for the sake of brevity, but the most notable one was Jude's team. He got 2000 on the Showdown ladder so he had to be doing something right.
What I learnt from using his team:
- The defensive options of Gyarados/Amoonguss/Iron Hands were very strong for turning the tides of a match, coupled by the offensive pressure offered by Specs Chi-Yu (especially) and Flutter Mane. These factors gave the team tools to beat almost any matchup, even difficult ones.
- I liked the Flutter Mane set; Substitute made it stronger vs Amoonguss (as opposed to Specs Flutter which often gives them a free Spore) and Pixie Plate powered up its Fairy moves without the drawback of losing the power when switching, which was something I didn't like about Booster Energy. However these were at the cost of not having Shadow Ball.
- At this point, I was starting to see more Tornadus/Landorus/Gholdengo teams which were a bit difficult to deal with
The team was clearly strong but I wasn't able to win as much with it - probably partly because I wasn't good at identifying when/how to use Roaring Moon. But it gave me an idea - I thought about replacing my initial team with Landorus/Gholdengo since I was struggling against these at the time and they felt more suited for Tailwind:
I thought they might be able to replace Cresselia/Ursaluna whilst covering similar matchups they did. Gholdengo helps vs Amoonguss and Cresselia, whilst Landorus' ground coverage and intimidate aids vs Heatran, Iron Hands, Ursaluna. Indeedee/Armarouge were a problem so I tried Trick Room (which Mizumi originally had) and Imprison on Flutter Mane. Some thoughts on this version of the team:
- Landorus was too frail; I just gave it 252/252 atk/speed because it was initial testing and I wasn't sure what to EV for at the time.
- Soft Sand Landorus was actually not bad, this item gave Landorus the extra 'oomph' it needed sometimes, but there might be better options. I just went with it because I wasn't sure what to use at the time, as I wanted to keep Choice Band on Urshifu and I didn't want Life Orb recoil.
- Gholdengo was sometimes really good but it didn't feel quite right. I liked the steel coverage, especially for Tera Fairy Pokemon that wall Urshifu, but I didn't like doubling up on Ghost typing with Flutter Mane. Without redirection, Nasty Plot wasn't the most reliable set-up option. Even if you got an opportunity to set up, the opponent could have made a switch to force you to burn Tera if you wanted to keep the boost/positioning which I didn't like. Sometimes I thought it would have even been better to just be Specs and hit harder immediately.
- Opposing Flutter Mane/Chi-Yu matchup was contingent on me having Landorus under Tailwind; I had no switch-in to recover from a wrong lead whatsoever. This was the most major problem.
- In general the team just didn't quite have the defensive type coverage to make switches to take advantage of Landorus' power as a defensive pivot, which felt stifling since I couldn't pilot the team how I wanted.
- As a result, Trick Room matchups could also get out of hand.
Problem-Solving
The obvious reason Chi-Yu was such an issue was because outside of Tera Water, there was no fire resist on the team (lol). I could win if I got the lead right but that's not reliable especially for Bo3. So I thought about what I could replace Gholdengo with to solve this problem. First I tried to summarise in my head what conditions I wanted this Pokemon to fulfill:
1. Resist fire
2. Assist with the Trick Room matchup
3. Add more bulk to the team to enable Landorus more
4. Hit Flutter Mane hard
5. Assist with Amoonguss
Given 1. and 3. I thought a bulky water would be the best replacement. There's not much choice in RegD - Gyarados and Dondozo. Gyarados didn't make sense given I already had 2 Flying types so I immediately thought more about Dondozo. I used Yawn Dondozo for most of RegC after EUIC (including the team I taught Takumi that he got to NAIC junior finals with) so it's a Pokemon I'm already comfortable with; I was surprised it took me that long to consider it for RegD as it was now the Friday one week before Worlds. But as I thought more about it, it made more and more sense as to why it could be a good pick. Oblivious is a great ability in RegD, stopping the common opposing Tornadus taunt and Landorus Intimidate. It can underspeed and hit Ursaluna hard with Wave Crash; its natural bulk, water coverage and Yawn is just good vs Trick Room in general. With Sitrus Berry, it can stand up well to the likes of Flutter Mane/Chi-Yu and OHKO either of them. Yawn can disrupt Cresselia and has good synergy in general with Landorus U-turn and Flutter Mane Substitute. It also gave the team the option to play a slower, control mode when needed which I really liked. The only condition Dondozo didn't really fulfill was 5. but there's only so much a single Pokemon can do - I decided Tera Grass might help, which is what I used in RegC anyway so I just went with it, and I'll just try to cover Amoonguss more with my other Pokemon.
The other change made here was the Landorus set - Dorian suggested a bulkier, more specially defensive spread which I tried and immediately liked. It made sense to take Flutter Mane, Chi-Yu and Heatran's attacks better in particular. He also advocated that Protect is necessary so we dropped Earthquake for it. I also thought about replacing Soft Sand - as discussed above I was wary of Amoonguss, especially because I don't have a Grass type to switch in to Spore, so I decided to try Safety Goggles. It was very effective, especially since Amoonguss is often paired with Iron Hands, so it was helpful to be able to Intimidate and pressure the Iron Hands freely next to an Amoonguss. The only issue was that Landorus couldn't threaten Amoonguss itself after switching in to it - Flying Tera Blast like Zeen had would have achieved this but I didn't think of it at this time. Other than that, I was very satisfied with how the Landorus turned out.
Following the theme of covering Amoonguss more, I changed Flutter Mane to Jude's set since I thought Substitute and Protect would be much more reliable. I didn't need Trick Room anymore since Dondozo could handle opposing Tailwind or Trick Room teams now with its bulk and Yawn.
So with that, this is the version of the team I thought I was going to bring to Worlds (yes there is more…):
Change of Heart
I managed to reach 1800s again with this version of the team after a week of barely being 1700s trying all sorts of things, so I was quite relieved I was able to stabilise my winrate before Worlds again. I liked the flexibility this team offered between playing offensively and defensively. All the changes made seemed to work as Dorian and I theorised. I liked that there were a lot of strong lead options as well. However, with only 1-2 days remaining until I left for Japan, I started to have doubts about Urshifu-dark. It was incredibly strong if it got in position, it destroyed Gholdengo teams and any team without a Flutter Mane easily, but majority of teams would have at least 2 of Flutter Mane/Iron Hands/Urshifu, all of which were strong against Urshifu-dark making it unbringable a lot of the time. Furthermore, I noticed an increase in Tera Fairy on Pokemon like Heatran and Farigiraf to name a couple, which of course made Urshifu less effective. I suspected that I'm going to be facing a lot of Flutter/Hands/Urshifu in Day 2 worlds as well, so I thought about replacing Urshifu-dark to something else that could be brought to more matchups. I re-evaluated what Urshifu-dark's key targets were:
- Gholdengo
- Dondozo/Tatsugiri
- Thundurus
- Cresselia
- Farigiraf
So whatever I replace Urshifu with, I would still need to be able to manage these Pokemon. I decided that another Dark Type might be the way to go - naturally I thought about Chien-Pao and Chi-Yu. I decided to go with Chien-Pao in the end because of its speed and priority to help vs Flutter Mane, as well as its ability to hit a lot of top threats super effectively with its Ice coverage. It doesn't help against Dondozo/Tatsugiri without Haze, but I thought that this combination won't be common in Day 2 so there's a good chance I don't even face it, and in the event I do, I can probably manage with my own Dondozo Yawn and Flutter Mane Substitute.
With Chien-Pao, I easily settled on Focus Sash and Sucker Punch but I had to think carefully about the moves and nature. After talking with my friends Antonio (@ImRahxen) and Yuki (@fortevgc) I came to the following conclusions:
- Icicle Crash > Ice Spinner even though I don't have a Rillaboom because it does affect some damage rolls on Pokemon like Tornadus. I figured the same thoughts I had for Bleakwind Storm's accuracy apply here as well.
- Sacred Sword is great coverage for things like Chi-Yu, Heatran and opposing Chien-Pao, but Crunch makes the Gholdengo matchup much more reliable. Since Urshifu was needed for Gholdengo, it made sense in my specific circumstance to go with Crunch. Forte and other Japanese players said that Icicle Crash/Crunch/Sucker/Protect was perhaps the best moveset which gave me confidence.
- I initially wanted Jolly nature to outspeed Flutter Manes, but Adamant would help with dealing more damage to ensure KOs on Gholdengo, Thundurus and Tornadus which I thought could be important. So I went with Adamant.
- Tera Ghost was standard on Chien-Pao but I saw Suica's report for the team he used to go 13-0 at a Japanese grassroots which he released only days before Worlds. In this team, he used Tera Grass on his Chien-Pao, which I thought could be interesting. Since I wanted more counterplay for Amoonguss, and being able to ignore Rage Powder and Sucker Punch seemed strong, I just decided to use it which actually ended up winning me a game at Worlds, so at least for me it was a good call.
And with that, prep time was over and I was on my way to Japan the Wednesday before Worlds. The final version of the team I actually brought to the competition:
The Tournament and Key Takeaways
I was comfortable with my choices and thought I had the tools for most matchups/Pokemon I had encountered thus far in all my games I played in RegD:
- Torn/Urshifu-water/Flutter Mane (Iron Hands and Sunny Day Rocky Helmet Tornadus can trade well)
- Iron Hands (Landorus intimidates, walls barring Ice Punch, and hits it back. Flutter Mane also threatens it but need to be careful of trading. My own Iron Hands can also switch in to it)
- Rillaboom (Tornadus walls and hits it, Wood Hammer recoil + Rocky Helmet hurts, Landorus can Intimidate and U-turn for solid damage)
- Amoonguss (Tornadus Taunt/Bleakwind Storm, Tera Grasses, Substitute Flutter Mane, Goggles Landorus but it's still not easy at all if they outplay)
- Cresselia/Ursaluna (Dondozo can hit hard with Wave Crash, Yawn Cresselia, Landorus can Intimidate)
- Flutter/Chi-Yu (Tera Water Iron Hands and Dondozo can tank + OHKO both)
- Rain (Sunny Day Tornadus, or Dondozo can take advantage of the Rain. Iron Hands again can trade well and Chien-Pao can Sucker Punch Basculegion)
- Gholdengo (Resist Make It Rain with Iron Hands and/or Dondozo, hit it hard with Chien-Pao Crunch, if they Tera Water/Steel then hit it with Iron Hands)
- Heatran (SpDef Landorus, Dondozo, but need to be careful because Flutter Mane does not have Shadow Ball so it is completely walled, also Magma Storm was the most threatening move for me but they have good chance to miss)
- Chien-Pao/Dragonite (Flutter Mane, Iron Hands)
- Thundurus (Chien-Pao, Iron Hands and Landorus all immune to Thunder Wave which I really wanted to avoid)
- Urshifu-dark (Flutter Mane and Iron Hands, but it also depends on their Tera/Item)
- Dondozo/Tatsugiri (My own Yawn Dondozo + Substitute on Flutter Mane in combination of Iron Hands attacks/Landorus Intimidate depending on their Dondozo set/game state at the time)
- Sun (didn't think this would come up but just in case, I figured Taunt Tornadus to stop Lilligant-Hisui and Goggles Landorus should be pretty good here)
- Indeedee/Armarouge (again didn't think this would come up in Day2 but I was at least prepared to fight with Yawn Dondozo. Can waste their TR turns, hit Armarouge hard with Wave Crash and wall Torkoal. Substitute+Protect Flutter can also help with wasting their TR turns).
- Farigiraf (can threaten with Chien-Pao Crunch, or play in Trick Room with Iron Hands/Dondozo/Landorus)
- Goodra-Hisui (can get out of hand since only Flutter Mane can hit it after it Iron Defenses. I can disrupt it with Tornadus Taunt, Intimidate Landorus to weaken Heavy Slam and take Body Press, Yawn Dondozo to punish its set-up etc. But I was confident I won't see it in Day2 anyway)
That about covers everything I saw in RegD barring a few Pokemon. Whilst I had tools/answers, that doesn't at all mean I will win the matchup since my opponent could outplay me and win anyway. But I was satisfied with the team knowing I at least had a chance no matter what I faced, even if my team was perhaps not the best team in the tournament. As a side note, I brought Iron Hands to 100% of games at Worlds. Dondozo was 'okay' - it won some, it lost some. The others were all good.
In the end, I went 4-3 just narrowly missing the top cut but I snuck into 30th place, yielding the Top32 goodies. For the rounds I lost, I could have picked up if I played a little bit better perhaps - it wasn't necessarily because of my team and I didn't regret any of my choices including Chien-Pao. Urshifu-dark would have made some games much easier, but Chien-Pao also won me games so it's hard to say what was 'correct'. Chi-Yu might have been good, who knows. Maybe I should have used Urshifu-water because it's too good. I could replace Dondozo -> Urshifu-water (water coverage) and Tornadus -> Amoonguss (support+sleep that's usually better than Yawn) which was the winning Worlds team, I could have used Flying Tera Blast on Landorus, but I didn't think of these things. The fact is, we only had a limited amount of time to prepare for the first tournament of RegD, so despite the disappointing result I was pleased with my preparation for the tournament given this circumstance. As discussed in the introduction, teambuilding for the first tournament of a format in a limited timeframe is a specific skill which is difficult to hone and does come up sometimes - hopefully this isn't needed for a future WCS at least! As with my Blastoise/Zacian report, I'm not going to do individual Pokemon analysis like you see in traditional team reports since this article is already way too long, but in summary, given my journey, I will close with the following take-aways I believe are important for future teambuilding under such circumstances:
- Quickly identify the best Pokemon/compositions and effective ways to beat them.
- Try rental teams if stuck. But don't just mindlessly play them; even if you don't win much, it is important to identify what elements were strong/weak, and keep in mind how opponents are beating you. This knowledge can be taken and used for other teams.
- This goes hand-in-hand with playing sufficient quantity of games and seeing what people are doing.
- Being mindful of not only having ways of KOing the top threats, but also having switch-ins to them where possible, which comes with good defensive type coverage.
- Understanding how Pokemon is a game of variance and straying away from certain Pokemon/move choices is not necessarily the correct decision.
Acknowledgements
Thank you for reading! If you got here, I must applaud you, as this was a long one. Hopefully you got some further insight into preparation for an event like this and perhaps it will help for your future teambuilding. This may not be the best team I have created but I learned a lot and enjoyed the journey, I hope you did too. After WCS2023 I just enjoyed my time in Japan and am still having a break from VGC until RegE. I'd just like to write some small acknowledgements for people that were interactively part of this process:
Dorian for working on the team closely with me
Antonio for discussing RegD (and every format for that matter)
Forte and Lacquer for discussing VGC, watching my replays and always listening to my
complaintsthoughtsJude for sending me his team
I will do my best to get invited again next year for WCS2024. Hope to see you there and thanks again!