Hello everyone! I am Huang Yang-jie, also known as KKCWind. This was the first time I got runner-up in a Regionals-level tournament: the 2022 Taipei Regionals!
It had been 1 year since the 2021 Taipei Regionals, and I was happy to have the chance to join the tournament. Because this was the last tournament to use Series 11 rules, I wanted to use an uncommon Restricted Legendary Pokémon. White Kyurem was the first one to come to my mind, and I built the team in one week.
Let’s see how the team came up. Enjoy!
Table of Contents
Teambuilding process
When I joined the teambuilding challenge held by Sie Meng-ru (Ryan), the team was White Kyurem with bulky teammates. Assault Vest White Kyurem is the idea with which Liu Jian-ting (Sayha) came up, since it has a wide move pool and can hit Rotom with Ground-type moves due to Turboblaze.
To support Kyurem, Intimidate is important. The original Intimidate members were Arcanine and Gyarados. I wanted the Intimidate position to be more flexible, so I chose Incineroar and Therian Landorus.
And I wanted Trick Room for slow mode, and a fast mode to help the match without it. Since the Life Orb was still available, I added Dusclops and Regieleki, then added Araquanid to complete the Trick Room aspect, and the first version of the team came up.
The version was weak to Sleep Powder in normal speed and Spore in Trick Room. This was the reason I considered adding Tapu Fini, with the added consequence of Misty Terrain which not only prevents status conditions but also halves the power of Dragon-type moves. On the other hand, Landorus was less selected, less Dynamaxed, and this team had a hard time knocking down Porygon2 and Dusclops, so I tried out Single Strike Style Urshifu.
The combination of Kyurem, Incineroar, Tapu Fini and Dusclops is great, and Life Orb Regieleki has nice breakthrough capabilities. We have Regieleki in normal situations to knock down opponents, and have Incineroar and Tapu Fini in Trick Room to adjust the tempo. After a lot of matches, Urshifu was also less selected, so I added Grimmsnarl for screens.
Light Clay Grimmsnarl can set screens, Scary Face for speed control, and Spirit Break or Fake Tears to weaken the opponents, but it still poses some questions:
- How to deal with Pokémon that can resist Fairy-type moves
- The core of Kyurem, Incineroar, Tapu Fini and Dusclops is complete, but Grimmsnarl is less selected
- Only Incineroar and Grimmsnarl attack with physical moves, so it is hard to knock down opponents with Light Screen and Assault Vest
There was little time left to test, so I just added Kartana to complete at the same time a Steel-Fairy-Dragon combination and a Grass-Fire-Water combination.
Kartana helps to deal with Pokémon holding an Assault Vest, has enough speed, and it is a good Dynamax selection.
This version is more consistent, even though there still are some details that need to be checked… but there is no time to test. After damage calculation, I decided this was the final version for this Regionals. It seems the right call when looking back at the decision: thanks, Kyurem and Kartana!
The Team
Get the team’s paste here!
Kyurem-White @ Assault Vest
Ability: Turboblaze
EVs: 100 HP / 236 Def / 156 SpA / 12 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
– Freeze-Dry
– Fusion Flare
– Earth Power
– Flash Cannon
White Kyurem has great moves to handle a lot of defensive teams. For the combinations of Rotom + Landorus + Gastrodon or Kyogre + Seismitoad + Zapdos + Ferrothorn, Kyurem can break them through on its own!
The big problem is Zacian, so I adjusted the EVs to let it be able to take one Behemoth Blade hit by Jolly Zacian after Intimidate or a Max Steelspike. It can also OHKO Zacian with 4 Special Defense EVs with Max Quake or Max Flare. But Adamant Zacian got more and more relevancy, so it was better to leave it to teammates to deal with it as much as possible.
I had Draco Meteor instead of Fusion Flare before, but I needed a solution for Ferrothorn, and I had Tapu Fini in the final version decreasing the Dragon-type move power, so I made this change.
156+ SpA Turboblaze Kyurem-White Max Quake vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Zacian-Crowned: 168-198 (100.5 – 118.5%) — guaranteed OHKO
156+ SpA Turboblaze Kyurem-White Freeze-Dry vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Dynamax Seismitoad: 384-456 (106.6 – 126.6%) — guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Zacian-Crowned Behemoth Blade vs. 100 HP / 236 Def Dynamax Kyurem-White: 360-424 (84.5 – 99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Def / 196 SpA / 4 SpD / 60 Spe
Modest Nature
– Muddy Water
– Moonblast
– Calm Mind
– Protect
Tapu Fini provides Fairy-type moves and Misty Terrain. It is also an option to Dynamax after a boost with Calm Mind.
The EV spread is copied from another report because I had no time.
Incineroar @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Atk / 68 Def / 148 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Fake Out
– Flare Blitz
– Parting Shot
– Darkest Lariat
Incineroar‘s EV spread is copied from the one used by Ting Yu-liang (Brandon) in his Series 8 2021 Kaohsiung Regionals Top 4 team (see his team report in Chinese here!).
Intimidate, Fake Out and Parting Shot support Kyurem. The Darkest Lariat slot was Assurance before, but sometimes I needed to Dynamax it, so I made this change to have access to a more powerful Max Darkness.
252 Atk Zacian-Crowned Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 68 Def Incineroar: 170-200 (84.1 – 99%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Dialga Max Quake vs. 252 HP / 148 SpD Incineroar: 170-200 (84.1 – 99%) — guaranteed 2HKO
Dusclops @ Eviolite
Ability: Frisk
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 1 Spe
– Night Shade
– Helping Hand
– Haze
– Trick Room
Dusclops is the Trick Room setter. The reasons to select Dusclops instead of Porygon2 were:
- There would have been three Fighting-type weaknesses after adding Porygon2.
- Frisk can help to check items, which can also lead to guess the Ability sometimes.
- Helping Hand provides an immense KO range.
It was very difficult to choose between Haze and Pain Split. In the end, I chose Haze which would allow me to defeat Weakness Policy Solgaleo more easily.
252 Atk Life Orb Dragapult Max Phantasm vs. 252 HP / 156+ Def Eviolite Dusclops: 120-143 (81.6 – 97.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
Regieleki @ Life Orb
Ability: Transistor
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Rising Voltage
– Volt Switch
– Electroweb
– Protect
The presence of Regieleki makes the opponent spend a lot of effort in deciding which Pokémon to bring to the battle. For example, Therian Landorus is a good choice to deal with Regieleki, but it fears White Kyurem. The idea is the same as the Shadow Rider Calyrex + Regieleki pair, and it is better in dealing with Heat Rotom.
Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 244 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Detect
– Leaf Blade
– Sacred Sword
– Smart Strike
The final member to be decided for the team, Kartana, complements the team’s physical attacks.
I had considered whether to transfer the Attack EVs to Special Defense, but the time was really too late, so I just used the 4-252-4-x-4-244 EV spread. Its main use is to to knock down Assault Vest Pokémon, and it can also be used to deal with Glastrier, which is not so easy to deal with for this team.
Tournament run
Some of my matches in the 2022 Taipei Regionals were streamed. You can take a look at my team in the following matches!:
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R3 | WW |  Jian Shao-yang (冰雪系最強) |    |  |
| Finals | LWL | Yang Chieh-lun (血汗淚) |     | |
Conclusion
I chose Assault Vest White Kyurem, built a satisfactory team, and finally achieved good results! It was a pity not to win the tournament, but it did prove that Assault Vest White Kyurem was a feasible threat.
However, although I was runner-up, under the current competition system, only the champion had a trophy, and the top 4 are only guaranteed round byes in the upcoming Taiwan Nationals. Whether I can get a 2022 World Championship invite is still unknown. I hope TPC can pay more attention to VGC!
Anyway, this is a good team, and you can give it a try. See you in next tournaments!
