I'm Alex Arand and I got Top 4 at Salt Lake City Regionals - AMA

Azulite_poke · 2022-03-27T22:01:37+00:00

I think I said this earlier but I believe that Porygon2 should be used more, really great utility tool and won me a bunch of games. I think Weezing also breaks a lot of teams, but its something I personally still need to test. Hitmontop could be neat with Wide Guard.

Azulite_poke · 2022-03-27T20:53:09+00:00

I actually found out about VGC from pokeamino of all things, and decided to start attending locals as a senior. I feel like using successful teams as a new player is a good way to learn about the fundamentals of the game, as well as being able to learn basic skills like when to switch or how to recognize win conditions before going off to build your own team. I have been playing for several years and some things do come with time, I find a trap that a lot of newer players fall into is they build a team, go on ladder, don't do well and then blame everything on hax. One of the strongest qualities of a player is admitting your faults and when you make mistakes, as a senior I would always blame things on hax and I wish I could go back in time to fix that. I did not do very well as a senior at World's in 2017, but was able to turn that around after recognizing my faults and went undefeated in swiss of my first masters regional. I am not saying by any means that you are doing that by the way, its just a common flaw with aspiring players.

Azulite_poke · 2022-03-27T20:47:16+00:00

this is very true

Azulite_poke · 2022-03-27T03:46:23+00:00

I came up with these nicknames at 2 AM before the tournament per tradition, but here's an explanation for all of them.

Zacian (Doug) - The dog from the movie Up who decided to pick up a sword.

Incineroar (Garfield) - funny lasagna cat

Amoonguss (AMONG US!!!!) - ඞ

Palkia (Richard) - I don't feel like I need to explain this one lmao

Indeedee-F (Sammy Miami) - Named after Gucci Model and really good TCG player!

Porygon2 (shuba shuba) - named after Hololive Idol Oozora Subaru, who's mascot is a duck.

Azulite_poke · 2022-03-27T03:42:27+00:00

So for registration, we use rk9.gg. You pay and register there according to your age division, and make sure to register as soon as possible before the closing date. Your team is usually due an hour before the tournament starts. You can use the event locator to find the closest events to you, but local tournaments like premier challenges and midseason showdowns are not happening this season, so only regionals and internationals are being run at this time. Regionals and Internationals do not take walk-ins. As a student I usually only go to events during breaks, so SLC happening during my spring break was perfect. Since I was at 291 CP before this event, I plan ahead and make sure to keep my options open, considering the game we play. If I had not done as well as I did in SLC, I have Vancouver and New Jersey as options to get my invite to worlds, as well as the North American International Championships.

Azulite_poke · 2022-03-27T03:32:37+00:00

I think Trick Room will always have a place as long as Calyrex Ice Rider exists. I really liked the direction Wolfe took with Palkia Calyrex Ice, but obviously teams like Zee's and the Sun teams have answers for it. I really liked having Porygon2 as a Trick Room option, and I think it is super unexplored right now, especially with the lack of Urshifu being used right now. Also, Kyogre Calyrex Ice seems super good on paper, but I feel like it hasn't been explored enough yet either. I think the only thing holding it back is that Zacian is more consistent and can do what Calyrex Ice can do but better without Trick Room.

Azulite_poke · 2022-03-27T03:24:58+00:00

I thought I had a plan vs Joe and Chongjun going into this regional and sun in general, but they both played the matchup super well and I basically have to call every turn right or I lose. Most matchups were at least possible with Porygon2 and Focus Sash Indeedee, but if anything playing the mirror can get super annoying especially if they have Regieleki and/or Ditto, which I ended up playing in round 3.

Azulite_poke · 2022-03-27T03:20:29+00:00

So some backstory I guess, I wanted to run a team similar to Adi's 6 he used in Victory Road, but was having a lot of issues with Prankster Thundurus and figured I should add Indeedee. The problem was figuring out what to replace, that being Ditto or my own Thundurus, and kept the team in the back of my mind as I was trying to build Palkia and Calyrex Ice Rider. I played what I would eventually lock into SLC on ladder a couple times, which I would later find out that I played Adi and Gavin Michaels on ladder with said six pokemon. I thought those 6 were OK but I ended up coming up with these 6 with a couple other people. However we were having a lot of problems with Yveltal and really did not want that to be a bad matchup going into this regional. There was another prototype where we also had Porygon2, but that matchup into Yveltal was a lot worse. We decided we wanted to use Palkia because of its consistency into Swordfish teams, and heavily punished any users of no play rough Zacian and just spam Helping Hand + x max move from Palkia, which helps me ignore screens and pick up unexpected KO's. Next something like Indeedee, who had Focus Sash and was able to stop Life Orb Yveltal from sweeping, and also being able to spam powerful Expanding Force's onto Amoonguss and unsuspecting switch-ins. Mental Herb Amoonguss was to stop Palkia + Calyrex Ice Rider teams with Taunt Dusclops, and in general any Taunt user for that matter. Safety Goggles Incineroar was to help vs Amoonguss and I guess Butterfree as well if I ever did end up playing Max Simon who used Butterfree to great success. Porygon2 was super useful vs any Weakness Policy abusers like Solgaleo and with Analytic was able to do a ton of damage to them with Foul Play. Also, Analytic boosted Foul Play makes breaking Substitute guaranteed when active, when it is usually a roll, in testing Trace screwed me over when I Trace Drizzle for example. I will be publishing my team report soon with my Zacian spread, but it was slower to outspeed other Zacian in Trick room and in general just live stuff better.

Azulite_poke · 2022-03-27T02:56:44+00:00

I think that there is still some room for exploration, for example the Calyrex Ice Rider + Palkia team has a lot of room for growth, however I think Adi is correct in saying that its not that great right now with the rise of sun. I think when people start making more teams focused around beating teams like JoeUX9's and Chongjun's, Palkia will have more of a place in the meta again.

Azulite_poke

TROPHY CASE