Hello! Kasper Kallio here! I am a Finnish VGC player known for mind-blowing techs and creative team building.
If you have been living under a rock I just Top 16’d the largest tournament to date, EUIC 2024, with none other than Iron Ball Chi-Yu! 🔥🐟🌑

Want to know how I did it? This is my story.

Table of Contents:

• Team

• Team Building Process
  How does the team work? 

  • Strategy

  • Tactics

• Tournament run

• Highlight Moments

• What’s next?

• Conclusion

• Final words

Team:

This is the team I ran. Archaludon Rain with a Psyspam mode and Iron Ball Chi-Yu to backdoor opposing Trick Room teams to enable a guaranteed win condition under Trick Room next to Hatterene.

Team Building Process:

Let’s jump to the very beginning - I know all of you are curious about how I landed on an idea such as Iron Ball Chi-Yu.

During Regulation E, I was preparing for a local MSS in November where I was going to bring your standard Choice Specs Chi-Yu. So I had a Chi-Yu to catch. As one does with Special Attackers, you soft reset until you land on that 0-1atk iv range. With a Master Ball in my hand, I got to work. After a painful amount of attempts (I believe the exact number was 84, but my brain was fried at that point to keep an even track so I’m not entirely sure about that number) I finally find myself landing on a 1atk iv. I was ecstatic. I had done it! Yet…with closer inspection of the ivs on my Chi-Yu I noticed something slightly…peculiar. Chi-Yu's speed was pretty good. Which got me thinking, could I run this Chi-Yu under Trick Room as well as Tailwind?

I ended up borrowing another Chi-Yu for my MSS and kept that Trick Room idea on the back burner. I got 2nd at that MSS and Regulation E was wrapping up shortly. It was time to look for new ideas for Regulation F.

Jumping forward into February, I decided to revisit my idea of a slower Chi-Yu with more bulk by utilizing items such as Sitrus Berry or a Focus Sash. Those tests performed fairly poorly and I decided there was no merit to this crazy idea of mine…until. I decided to see if dropping Life Orb, Focus Sash, or Sitrus Berry in favor of Iron Ball could be more successful. To my surprise, it did.

Now, Chi-Yu having solid access to TR options as well as the capability to effectively work in Tailwind against medium speed Pokémon was all set to conquer the world! (insert evil unhinged laughter)

How did my EUIC team come about then? It was an evolved version of my early Regulation F team. My first version of Iron Ball Chi-Yu that I used to crush my locals included Farigiraf, Clefairy, Chi-Yu, Urshifu, Chien-Pao, and Ogerpon-Heartflame.

This team was clever in many ways. First I had a superb fast mode due to Chien-Pao running Icy Wind and Ogerpon-Hearthflame and Urshifu being both very oppressive on their damage output in their own right - under Swords of Ruin even more so.

Then my Trick Room mode in this team was very clever. I could auto-win games if they weren’t able to remove Clefairy during Turn 1. On Turn 1 I would Follow Me/Protect or Life Dew on Clefairy and then Nasty Plot with the Farigiraf. Turn 2 I would always click Follow Me on Clefairy to guarantee it going down. This leaves me room for a free swap to Chi-Yu and I end Turn 2 by clicking Trick Room on Farigiraf. Now I have a guaranteed win condition against virtually anything. Chi-Yu can Ruination/Heat Wave the initial target(s) with the 

Tera Normal Farigiraf using Hyper Voice to demolish everything and anything in its wake.

And it worked! I gained one PC win, finished 2nd in an MSS, and gained 5 CP from the Global Challenge.

But soon after in March, the team began to fall off in my testing. The rise of spread moves and manual Taunt neutered the effectiveness of Clefairy which really took apart my initial strategy. I was forced to adapt. 

After replacing the fast mode (Chien-Pao, Urshifu, and Ogerpon-Heartflame) with Flutter Mane, Lilligant, and Torkoal I begin to see more success vs. the meta. Unfortunately, it still didn’t hold up as consistently vs. the wide variety of teams that I was hoping for. Saddened by the reality of the current state of the meta, I decided to give my Chi-Yu a well-deserved break and pivot to an entirely new direction with my team of choice for EUIC.

I stopped playing for a while. I decided to relax and wind down and let the ideas come to me. I hopped on to the builder 2 weeks before EUIC as I was under pressure to figure out a team as I hadn’t come up with any new teams or consistent ideas during my downtime.

Once I began building again I began to feel a slight pull towards an archetype that all of my team-building processes ended up at…

“HOW ON EARTH DO I BEAT ARCHALUDON RAIN?!?”

Archaludon rain is extremely oppressive. After playing it once and alternating between Electro Shot and Body Press I saw my Sp. Atk and Def go up thanks to Stamina boosts, I kept laughing uncontrollably when I could see my opponent struggling as much as I have all this time.

Quickly I put the team’s main core together. Archaludon, Pelipper and Urshifu.
The first interaction ended up being Sableye, Amoongus, Archaludon, Pelipper, Urshifu, and Lando-I (with Covert Cloak Weather Ball to beat opposing Lando-Is).

Soon seeing it wasn’t working well enough due to Sableye being too passive I got to more baking. I baked and I baked, my dough was running out and I had to take another break. Then, like a Thunder from the sky, it hit me! I will add a Psyspam mode to the team with Indeedee-F and Hatterene. Removing Sableye and Amoonguss from the team made the team perform much better. Though…it wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t content. Something wasn’t right, something was missing. Thinking about how the DualSpeed team played, I got the biggest devious smile on my face and my heart filled with joy. “Chi-Yu, my beloved, can I really bring you to EUIC and shock the world?” And so, that’s what I did. Crash or burn, I will bring Iron Ball Chi-Yu to EUIC. It was Wednesday when I had these 6 on my roster, less than 2 days left now before EUIC Round 1 started. I began a fast-paced testing process which proved the team to be effective. I began to hone my DozoTing matchup and Raging Bolt matchups as I deemed those to be the trickiest during my prep. Those came in handy as I faced 1 DozoTing which I won and 5 Raging Bolt teams with 2-3 scores against them. I would have enjoyed more time practicing vs. Raging Bolt teams, but I’m quite content with how I did versus them.
One day before EUIC I made the call to make a crucial tera change with Urshifu changing from Tera Water to Tera Steel. This highly improved my Flutter, Rilla, and Bolt matchups with Urshifu as it allowed it to remain safely on the field while being a high-tier threat. That seemingly small change made my team 5x better. Being able to keep Urshifu on the field vs. Flutters or Rillabooms was crucial.

How does the team work?

The team is essentially a standard Archaludon Rain team that's been…well, modified.

The key player and the MVP of the team is Pelipper. Pelipper enables the team to function perfectly. Drizzle initiating Rain allows me to lean on to the provided weather immediately. My most common lead pairs were Pelipper & Urshifu/Archaludon depending on the matchup. Around 75% of all my games I only brought Pelipper, Urshifu, Archaludon, and Indeedee-F. The Indeedee-F Hatterene pairing provides me with an extremely powerful Trick Room core. It helps to beat Amoongusses as well as Calm Mind Raging Bolts since Bolt can’t touch Hatterene under Psychic Terrain. 

“But what’s Chi-Yu doing there?” I hear you asking. 

Chi-Yu is a powerful backdoor option that serves to function as follows:
1. To counter opposing Trick Room with Snarls.
2. Provide an immense damage increase next to Hatterene and sweep opposing enemies with the combination of two slow attackers breaking Focus Sashes along the way.

I remember Chi-Yu being brought only during my Round 2 & 14 where my opponent didn’t have any good calls to beat my Hatterene + Indeedee-F core which enabled Chi-Yu to come out of hiding due to it being slowed down by Iron Ball. From all the sets Chi-Yu was brought in it secured me the wins in both sets. Iron Ball Chi-Yu reigned supreme with a whopping 100% win rate.

On a side note, I might have brought it versus my Round 4 opponent, but I’m not entirely sure about that. Have to interview him about that I guess. Regardless, I won that set too.

Strategy:

I mainly had two forms of strategies going into my matches. Aim for a Rain sweep or a Psyspam Trick Room sweep. Of these two, Rain is much easier to pull off as Pelipper sets up Rain immediately via Drizzle and has access to great support moves such as Tailwind and Wide Guard as well as blasting powerful attacks with Weather Ball and Hurricane. Tera Ghost and Focus Sash secures Pelipper to have at least some impact in every game through its moveset. Due to Pelipper’s ability, Drizzle, Archaludon turns into an immediate high-tier threat that if left unchecked will sweep entire teams. Electro Shotting to boost my Sp. Attacks while setting up Tailwind was the way I won most of my games. Once I outsped my opponents there was almost nothing they could do.

When it comes to Trick Room, the goal was to play into that mode when my opponent couldn’t punish it. If you look at my Round 14 opponent’s team which consisted of Landorus-I, Heatran, Ogerpon, Zapdos-Galar, Iron Bundle, and Baxcalibur, he had no way to prevent me from setting up Trick Room turn 1 with Hatterene and clicking Follow Me with Indeedee-F. On Game 1 Turn 1 Indeedee-F was Taunted by Landorus-I and was also hit by Heatran’s Flash Cannon. By then, I had already secured that game’s win provided I didn't misplay. Turn 2 all I had to do was Tera Psychic Expanding Force with Hatterene and bring out Chi-Yu. The damage was too much for my opponent and his team couldn’t withstand the pressure of Psyspam. After a failed attempt at Protect stalling, the set was over.

Tactics:

My main tactics under Rain were to lead Urshifu + Archaludon, click U-Turn, and Electro Shot on Turn 1. By U-Turning into Pelipper I could dual target a singular slot dishing serious damage with 2 attacks say vs. Ogerpon-Wellsprings for instance.

After that, I set up Tailwind to secure an overtly oppressive position. Keeping Indeedee-F in the back in case things get hairy I can bring it in to keep Archaludon safe.

Under Trick Room one of my favorite tactics was to click Calm Mind when I didn’t have Psychic Terrain in case of Raging Bolts attempting to Thunderclap me. In my Round 13 game versus another Finn, Teemu Mankinen, I did one of my best and favorite plays of the tournament. I was face to face in a 2 vs. 2 situation looking at max HP Amoonguss and max HP Choice Specs Moltres-Galar who had locked into Fiery Wrath the turn before. I had a 52% Tera Grass Indeedee and full HP Hatterene under Trick Room.

Assuming he would Pollen Puff the Moltres in the hopes of me going for Helping Hand + Dazzling Gleam to go after Moltres I decided to do a complete counter for that play. He still had a few turns of Light Screen left so directly attacking wouldn’t do anything but give him a Berserker boost, on top of almost getting back to full health due to Pollen Puff. I used Dazzling Gleam with Indeedee-F to give me some chip on the Moltres and clicked Calm Mind on Hatterene. Sure enough, I Calm Minded, Amoonguss Pollen Puffs a full HP Moltres, Dazzling Gleam comes out of Indeedee-F doing slight chip damage and Moltres uses Fiery Wrath with both Indeedee-F and Hatterene still living the attack. After that, the game was sealed. A combination of Helping Hand and Dazzling Gleam picked up Moltres and then on the following turn Expanding Force took out the Amoonguss, sealing the game. 

Teemu was toast. 🍞

Tournament run

My team choice was locked in my head only days before EUIC. The day before I made a great call changing Urshifu’s Tera Water into Tera Steel.

Arriving in London late at night, finishing the team in-game, and submitting it to RK9 Labs meant that it wasn’t until 01:00 in the morning that I got to go to bed. 

Upon waking up in the morning I had a realization. When I woke up I told my buddy Teemu, the aforementioned Finnish player I was also traveling with: “Dude, I just realized I don’t have any Protects in my team.” But the truth is real Iron Ballers don’t need Protects!

With not much sleep and a throbbing headache that lasted the whole day, I was all set to conquer the world by storm! 😄
With the power of protein bars, trail mix and plenty (and I mean PLENTY) of water I finished Day 1 with 7-2 standing getting me into Day 2. I was ecstatic! I was feeling really good starting the following day with more sleep and even more confidence in myself and my team.

On Day 2 I only lost my first round versus…well you would have guessed it by now, yet another Raging Bolt team. After that, I won all of my remaining rounds leaving me with a 12-3 finish. I finished in the Top 16 at 15th out of close to 1000 players. It is a shame that I wasn’t put on stream during this run, but Iron Ball Chi-Yu won some hearts and some money!

Highlight Moments:

This clip is my best play out of the whole tournament. On Round 5 I was down a game and had to clutch the win in order to stay in the set so the pressure was definitely on.

Painting the picture 🖌🎨

It’s a 3 vs. 2 situation. Trick Room isn’t up. No Tailwind for me. 

I only have Indeedee-F in the back.

The read that I made here was that my opponent wouldn't go after my Hatterene, him assuming that I would switch it out for Indeedee-F and pick up Urshifu with Hurricane with Pelipper after Surging Strikes.

Since I knew this would be the case I decided to ball and stay in with Hatterene and demolish his spirit with a shocker play.

Next clip is from Game 1 on Round 14.

Painting the picture 🖌🎨

The footage I have starts from Turn 2. On Turn 1 I clicked Trick Room on Hatterene and Follow Me on Indeedee-F. My opponent used Taunt on Landorus-Incarnate onto my Indeedee-F and Flash Cannon was shot from Heatran on to the Indeedee-F. Since my opponent didn’t have many meaningful spread moves I could safely lead Psyspam and demolish him by bringing in Chi-Yu to provide an extra boost in Special Attack for Hatterene by lowering the opponents Special Defense with Beads of Ruin.

The footage ends before I attack, but on this turn I Tera Psychic and my opponent clicks Tera Steel on Landorus-Incarnate. Him not protecting either slot allows Expanding Force to OHKO Lando-I, meanwhile, Heatran lives with ~25% HP and blasts another Flash Cannon aimed at Hatterene. I obviously live that Flash Cannon and win under Trick Room during the next few turns thanks to Hatterene and Chi-Yu blasting powerful dynamic attacks, Chi-Yu moving immediately after Hatterene.

Conclusion:

I do feel like when it came to Reg F, this team was the perfect and ultimate call to make for EUIC having no heavily disfavored matchups while also retaining a highly positive matchup vs. most teams as you could see from my 12-3 standing. Only Bolt teams took sets from me and with more preparation time I would surely win 1 or 2 more of them.

When it comes to the upcoming Regulation G I’m looking to pivot away from Rain. New meta will be faster and stronger thanks to new and old restricted Pokemon being allowed and Rain looks to be somewhat weaker than it ever was before.

I have my own eyes set on my EUIC ‘22 archetypes Snow and Sun. Kyurem-W seems to have an interesting spot in the Reg G meta, playing well into Sun and Rain. Snow also provides a defense boost for it as well as a potential Aurora Veil/Screens that can enable Kyurem-W to be a high-tier threat.

What’s next?:

So you might now be wondering - is this it? What’s next for Kasper?
Well, you can bet on the fact that I’ll be bringing my brightest creations for the world to see in Worlds this August in Honolulu. In the meantime, I’m looking to possibly attend the remaining tournaments between now and NAIC. I’m planning on starting content creation on Patreon to share my knowledge with those who want to become the world’s best players in VGC. Right now I have begun coaching some devoted players that resonate with my playstyle and philosophy on how I approach VGC.

Final words:

Thank you for reading my EUIC 2024 team report on how I Top 16’d EUIC 2024 with Iron Ball Chi-Yu! (pretty rad, right?)

If you’re interested in following my journey shocking the VGC world to its core, make sure to follow my journey on X at @kaspervgc.

That’s all for now!

Iron Baller - out! 🌑

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🎶 (insert ominous music) 🎶

Iron Ball Chi-Yu will return…

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