Hello everyone! My name is Daniel Marcelo Reyes @DaniMarceloVGC and I recently made Top 16 at Orlando Regionals. This was the 4th major tournament I’ve attended this season in which I made Top 32 at LAIC, Top 128 at Toronto and Vancouver. I’m currently still trying to qualify for Worlds and really looking forward to accomplishing the qualification before NAIC.

Team Building Process:

The initial team idea was inspired by Altkyle who was very successful in limitless tournaments. He was able to beat top players and win a few tournaments. There were a few things in his version of the team that were unique such as Taunt instead of Parting Shot on Incineroar, Tera Grass Chien-Pao, Safety Goggles Raging Bolt, and of course, Teal Mask Ogerpon over any other form. My friend @DiegoMayto and I thought that the team was really cool but wanted to refine a few things.

The team immediately felt strong, especially with the rise of Choice Scarf Urshifu and Incineroar in the current meta. We were able to take the team to top 30 on the Pokémon Showdown ladder and beat several well-known veteran players along the way.

After the testing was complete, I decided to take the team to Vancouver Regionals. I arrived the day before and decided to play the Premier Challenge in which I won undefeated with an 8-0 record. The next day didn’t go as expected though. My Day 1 result was 5-4 but it helped me to just barely make Top 128 which awarded me 40 Championship Points. I felt that my play was not optimal and made several mistakes that we had gone over in practice. Except for the first-round loss, most of the sets were incredibly close with 2-1 finishes.

After Vancouver, I wanted to take the team to EUIC but unfortunately, I couldn’t get a spot - I even woke up at 4 AM for the 2nd wave =( - So I decided to take this opportunity to try a new team based on what performed well there and do my best at Orlando Regionals. Porygon2 ended up winning EUIC and had a top 4 finish so we spent a few days practicing with it. I didn’t feel super confident with Porygon2 but since it was a balanced team, my mentality was that as long as I played better than my opponent, I should win. 

Just like I did in Vancouver, I arrived in Orlando the day before and played the Premier Challenge. My expectations were not high because it was a relatively new archetype for me but a 2-3 drop was definitely not in my plans. Even the two games that I won felt really sloppy. At that moment, I realized that going with comfort will give me better chances of doing well at the Regional, so I decided to use the same Teal Mask Ogerpon team I used at Vancouver.

The Team Used at the Orlando Regional:

Raging Bolt

• We used Dragon Pulse over Draco Meteor as the -2 drop made our position very bad, and we were not OHKO mostly anything anyway.

• Thunderbolt over Electroweb was used to do consistent damage and OHKO Tornadus and Urshifu. Also, when practicing with the team, we were almost never using Electroweb, and the chance to paralyze the target was really nice.

• This spread allows Raging Bolt to outspeed max speed Bloodmoon Ursaluna, and survive Adamant Icicle Crash from Chien-Pao and Earth Power from Landorus-Incarnate because of the Assault Vest.

Incineroar

• We used Safety Goggles to improve our matchup versus Amoongus’s Spore.

• We tried to maximize bulk and made it Sassy in order to have the slower Parting Shot and help out when opponents set up Trick Room.

• Tera Ghost was to avoid Fake Out when Farigiraf was not picked and to create mind games versus Pokémon like Gallade and Iron Hands.

• If I were to change something, it would be to add Taunt instead of Knock Off or Flare Blitz, this will drastically improve the matchup vs Porygon2 balance teams.

Ogerpon Tealmask

• The spread is very simple, it’s optimized for Life Orb damage, max attack to do as much damage as possible and the rest is on speed. We felt that this speed tier was fine as we had the option to Tera and boost our speed but we also didn’t want to be outspeed by Choice Scarf Urshifu so we couldn’t go very low either.

• In my honest opinion, this spread may be improved but I really liked the damage output.

• Stomping Tantrum was able to OHKO Incineroar, and any ground weak Pokémon with the Defiant boost and next to Chien-Pao. We felt that this move choice was better than Superpower as we didn’t like the stat decrease after using it. 

• Finally, Follow Me is simply broken and helped to create additional game plans so we decided to use it.

Chien-Pao

• A very standard set. We decided to run Ice Spinner over Icicle Crash as it helped vs the Psyspam matchups and to remove Grassy Terrain from Rillaboom.

• We initially tried Jolly but it felt weak so we went with Adamant.

• Chien-Pao was probably the Pokémon that was led and used the most.

Urshifu Rapid Strike

• We tried to use a bulkier set but it was falling short on KOs. We felt that no bulk Urshifu was fine as the team had Armor Tail, Fake Out and Follow Me to block any Grassy Glide or Thunderclaps.

• The bulky set was very popular so we knew that our Urshifu would outspeed other Choice Scarf Urshifu most of the time.

• Urshifu max attack next to Chien-Pao was able to OHKO any Indedee which helped vs the Trick Room matchup.

Farigiraf

• This is the same Farigiraf that Wolfe used to win Charlotte Regionals. 

• We initially had a bulkier giraffe with Sitrus Berry and Dazzling Gleam over Hyper Voice but there were situations where opponents would simply ignore Farigiraf and go after the partner so we wanted to have a way to boost its damage output. This spread also helped us to kill Amoongus after some chip damage.

• Tera Fairy was very important vs the popular Calm Mind Raging Bolts.

Day 1 Standout Rounds:

Round 3 vs Alexavier Alvarez LWW

The first two rounds were relatively easy but this round was super close. I believe he was one of Luca Paz's friends. Alex played amazing, it was a super close set that ended with my AV Raging Bolt at 90% HP without Tera vs his AV Tera Fairy Raging Bolt at 100% HP and -2 SpA because he had used Draco Meteor. He was going to win but I was able to paralyze his Raging Bolt with a Thunderbolt and I ended up taking the set with my Raging Bolt at 15% HP. 

Round 4 vs Sebastian Guerrero WLW

His team was the Calm Mind Raging Bolt balance team. Teal Mask normally goes crazy vs these types of matchups but Sebastian played super well and forced me to use my last resort in Game 1, Tera Fairy Farigiraf. At that moment, I realized that my Farigiraf was not PP maxed, but still won with 10 more HP than his Raging Bolt. I ended up winning the set but was very surprised at how hard it was, especially versus an archetype I thought I had a good matchup into. He ended up making day 2 as well which was not a surprise.

Round 6 vs Averi Biery LL

I didn’t know Averi had made Top 8 at Knoxville with this same team (Porygon2 balance.) I knew my matchup into this was horrible and Averi made really good plays that made it impossible to win. This was my first loss but was not upset.

Round 7 vs Alexander Canceco WW

Alex is a good friend that I met in LAIC where we played a very close set. He’s definitely a strong player. His team was balanced but he had replaced Rillaboom for Amoongus which made the matchup 50/50 - I knew that if I played better I could win. Teal Mask went crazy in this game, ignoring Amoongus’s Rage Powder and taking knock outs.

Round 9 vs Yotam Cohen WW

I knew Yotam was a very skilled player and had very good results in the past. When I looked at his teamsheet, he was running the team that won EUIC which of course, had Porygon2, my nightmare. I was determined to do my best and try to at least take a game from him.

Game 1 Turn 1 starts with Amoongus +  Porygon2 vs Farigiraf + Ogerpon. In this situation, most players think that Farigiraf is there to reverse the Trick Room but he was surprised to see how his Amoongus fainted to Stomping Tantrum + Psychic. After a few reads in my favor, I was able to stall Trick Room and win game 1.

We chose the same leads for Game 2. After knocking out Amoongus in game 1, I knew he would not let it happen again, so I decided to go for Ivy Cudgel + Psychic this time predicting the Tera Ghost on Amoongus. However, I still needed to get high rolls on both attacks or get a Critical Hit with Ivy Cudgel. The latter happened and I was able to kill Amoongus once again in turn 1. After this, I still had to go for a couple of reads but was successfully able to reverse Trick Room and knock out Porygon2 with 2 Ivy Cudgels, and win the set.

This victory felt really good, especially versus a horrible matchup and a top player. My Day 1 record was 8-1 and I was well positioned for Day 2.

Day 2 Rounds:

Round 10 vs Justin Carris WLW

I was immediately paired with another top player. He is a Regional Champion and had beaten Wolfe on stream the day before. I remember playing him on Showdown when practicing with the Porygon2 team and was totally destroyed. 

After a lucky Paralysis on Justin’s Ogerpon, I was able to win game 1 convincingly. I think I still had a very good chance at winning without the Paralysis but it definitely influenced the game because my Raging Bolt was faster than his Ogerpon. 

At the beginning of Game 2, I’m able to catch his Urshifu on the switch and get rid of him immediately with Thunderbolt. This gives me a huge momentum lead for the game, but I ended up throwing by not getting rid of his Indedee. He sets up Trick Room and I go from an almost secure end game to needing to stall the Trick Room. Justin played that game incredibly well. I still remember his words after he won Game 2 “I think I played the best game of my life” - It’s true that I didn’t play optimally but he read me every single turn after he set up the Trick Room, otherwise I could have still won the game.

I felt very upset with myself. I had just given a top player like Justin the opportunity to win the set by not securing the victory in Game 2. 

In Game 3, I was able to predict Tera Water Surging Strikes going into Chien-Pao and swapped it for Raging Bolt. That helped me get momentum to create an endgame of Incineroar vs Iron Crown - Justin crits a raw Tera Blast but Incineroar was bulky enough to beat Iron Crown with Knock Off + Flare Blitz. 

After this round, Justin won the rest of his games and made Top 8. Even though this victory felt super good, I knew I needed to get it together if I wanted to win the following rounds.

Round 11 vs Ben Grissmer LL

Ben was running the Hard Trick Room team with several innovations such as Smeargle, Tera Dragon Indeedee, and Brave Nature Choice Band Urshifu. My team had a very good matchup into the common Hard Trick Room archetype but the Tera Dragon Indeedee on Ben’s team made it impossible to win with my traditional strategy. I knew this team did well at EUIC, and since I was preparing with the Porygon2 team, I didn’t have a chance to practice against it with my Teal Mask team. I had to come up with a strategy on the fly. 

The set finished in about 5 minutes. I needed to successfully predict and reverse his Trick Room with my Farigiraf and failed both times so the game ended at that moment. I lost but didn’t feel upset because I knew the matchup was almost impossible. This is where Taunt on Incineroar would have improved the matchup drastically. 

Round 12 vs Joshua Lorcy LWL

Not much to say here. I had to time Farigiraf coming onto the field perfectly and gain momentum, but Lorcy never fell for the bait and ended up outplaying me. I was able to take a game from him with a lucky Critical Hit on his Ogerpon though. I believe he went undefeated in Day 2 and made Top 8 as a result.

Round 13 vs Chase Mateo LWW

I knew Chase from Connecticut locals and had played 2 very close sets in the past that I had come up on top. He was using the fast Bloodmoon Ursaluna team this time. I lost Game 1 off the lead, but I was able to use Teal Mask and Scarf Urshifu super well in order to take Games 2 and 3 and win the set. 

Round 14 vs Yichun Wu WW

This set was very fast - All I did was click Tera Grass Ivy Cudgel and Tera Water Surging Strikes to KO most of his Pokémon. Farigiraf came in clutch to block any Extreme Speeds coming from Dragonite. 2-0 Victory.

Round 15 vs Andrew Zheng WLL

The most disheartening set of my life. Due to Justin Carris winning all his games, my resistance was super high and I knew it was almost guaranteed to make Top 8 if I won this round. 

Game 1 I won convincingly - I think I still had 3 mons at the end of the game. 

Game 2, Andrew adjusted but I could have taken the game if I was able to predict the Tera Fairy on his Gouging Fire which I thought about but changed my decision last minute unfortunately.

Game 3, I adjust and get a lucky Paralysis on his Gouging Fire. At that moment, I wanted to ignore Gouging expecting him to get Paralyzed any turn and gain more momentum, he was at 15% HP so Gouging would have easily been knocked out by any attack later in the game. 

Gouging didn't succumb to paralysis for 5 turns in a row and slowly chipped my Urshifu with Breaking Wipe until it was knocked out. Towards the end game, I was in an almost guaranteed winning position and so many feelings came to me that distracted me from the game - I felt Top 8 so close. 

The endgame looked like this: Chien-Pao full HP + Ogerpon 30% HP  vs His Chien-Pao 10% + Paralyzed Gouging 15% HP - No Tera available for anyone.

Since I had ignored the Gouging Fire the entire game and it also had the chance to get paralyzed, I thought it was safe to click Follow me + Ice Spinner into Gouging so it would be my Chien-Pao full HP vs his Chien-Pao at 10% next turn, instead, he quickly Protected the Gouging Fire and got rid of the Ogerpon. In the end, it was my Chien-Pao at sash vs his Chien-Pao at 10%. I was under the impression that his Chien-Pao was jolly as he was faster than my Adamant Chien-Pao three times in a row during the set. I tried to stall his sucker punch but I failed a Double Protect as he goes for Sacred Sword and wins the game. 

Looking back, the correct play was to double-protect and scout if Chien-Pao or Gouging Fire would Protect, then simply attack with both mons. I finished 14th place with the best resistance out of all the 11-4. I initially felt super sad but realized that I had a very good run overall and was able to show what the team was capable of. 

Conclusion:

I think this is a clear example that if you work hard enough and have consistent practice on a specific team, you will be able to get results eventually. Our team didn’t work as expected at Vancouver but it popped off at Orlando. The perfect quote for this would be: You never lose, you either win or learn. 

After getting so close, I feel very motivated to keep competing and earn my invite to Worlds. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this report, I hope you found it valuable and helps you for future events. If you want to follow my journey, make sure to follow me on Twitter at @DaniMarceloVGC

Finally, I want to give a special thanks to my building partner @DiegoMayto as well as to all my VGC friends who supported me and believed in me. This game is truly amazing due to the friendships you make along the way. 

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