Hi all! My name is Anthony Londergan. I recently made top 16 at the Toronto Regional Championships with a team crafted by myself and two of my building partners and friends, Kian Sayan and June Lintner. Their X accounts are linked, feel free to give them a follow! I wanted to write a team report about this team due to both the apparent lack of physical reports detailing successful teams and reliving the old school days of being able to read physical team reports in Nugget Bridge.
About me
I’ve been playing VGC for around 13 years with my first event being the 2011 New Jersey Regional. Since then, I’ve been playing VGC consistently and taking a break during the 2018 to 2022 seasons to focus on academia. Getting back into competitive Pokémon was one of the best decisions of my adult life, bringing me some of my closest friends and rivals in the New England and Greater Boston area.
Throughout my return, focusing on improving my play was my main goal to shake the rust off. I took the 2024 season to do so, beginning to cut events again later in the season. With the change of the World Championships invite system in the current season, I decided to dedicate myself to try to achieve my invite by going to the most events I can while simultaneously performing well. So far, I’ve been to Baltimore, Louisville, Sacramento, and Toronto this season. This team encompasses Louisville through Toronto with some changes, so those will be the events this report is focused on. Please enjoy the read and feel free to reach out!
Table of Contents
The Team
I was convinced to run a more Trick Room balance-esque core, with Porygon2 being the primary Trick Room setter, and Incineroar, Amoonguss and Gholdengo being the partners to balance the team out. Ursaluna performed as the Trick Room sweeper, paired with Porygon2 to deal massive damage under twisted dimensions. I have previous experience using the FAKEPG archetype*, and using Porygon2 was not a foreign concept. The idea popped up in the later stages of September, so the group decided to optimize how we wanted to approach it.
* FAKEPG was the unofficial name of a successful archetype in the VGC 2017 format, consisting on Tapu Fini, Arcanine, Kartana, an Electric type (usually, Tapu Koko or Togedemaru), Porygon2 and Gigalith.
Fighting-Tera Type Porygon2 had become sensationalized after its placing in Baltimore. We agreed it’d be best if we had defensive spread to offset the rise in Sneasler usage, while also capitalizing on both Archaludon and Kingambit’s weaker Special Defense natures, deciding on a Quiet Nature to underspeed slow threats such as Kingambit and Primarina in Trick Room. The massive boost in bulk provided by Eviolite allowed us to live two -1 Close Combats from Sneasler, as well as denying any damage from Kingambit with the Fighting Tera Type.
Assault Vest Incineroar was our next target. Safety Goggles was the initial item, but deciding to make our Incineroar more specially bulky helped mitigate special damage from non-Life Orb Bloodmoon Ursaluna and Primarina. We decided to max out our Speed stat while being Jolly to allow Incineroar to outspeed many Archaludon in the metagame at that point, as well as many Modest Pelipper. Maxing out our Speed allowed us to be faster than our Gholdengo by one point, meaning comboing Knock Off into Shadow Ball was very important in picking up KOs on slower Pokémon, including fast Archaludon, Sitrus Berry Amoonguss, and Assault Vest Bloodmoon Ursaluna.
Our initial Gholdengo spread was very bulky, giving us an odd HP stat with 212 EV investment to optimize our Life Orb chip damage. The set was very common, so we decided to run the setup version. Our Speed stat still played an important part in the event, as our combo proved crucial for the Knock Off + Shadow Ball/Make It Rain combo. After Louisville, we made adjustments to the Special Attack stat of Gholdengo to focus more on the psyspam Gallade match-up, as our current spread with Shadow Ball was a 50% chance to OHKO. By swapping to 132 HP EV invest, we not only continue to maximize our HP stat by hitting 179 HP for Life Orb chip, but we also make the roll more in our favor, giving us an 87.5% chance to OHKO Gallade with Shadow Ball. The Speed of Gholdengo did not change.
Amoonguss became a lovechild of all our ideas. I initially ran Electric Tera Type on a version on Taro Okada‘s VR September Challenge #1 winning rain team with Salamence, and it continued to prove optimal in testing. Electric Tera Type was originally for the rain match-up, knowing we can live a Hurricane + Electro Shot or Weather Ball + Electro Shot double up.
+1 164+ SpA Archaludon Electro Shot vs. 236 HP / 108 SpD Tera-Electric Amoonguss: 58-69 (26.4 – 31.5%) — guaranteed 4HKO
252+ SpA Pelipper Weather Ball (100 BP Water) vs. 236 HP / 108 SpD Tera-Electric Amoonguss in Rain: 121-144 (55.2 – 65.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO
Covert Cloak, being June’s idea, created a lot of scenarios where Amoonguss can get free Spores off into the enemy and advance our board state in our favor. This includes both Fake Out and Dire Claw, preventing any wacky RNG shenanigans from happening. We collectively agreed to make our Amoonguss more physically defensive to help with the survivability against Kingambit, Rillaboom, and more while still being able to live special hits.
Ursaluna’s spread wasn’t really special, mostly just optimizing damage output with Facade. We went with Flying Tera Type to avoid Close Combats from Sneasler and Grass-type STAB moves from Rillaboom. This changed to become Ghost, as getting pinned by Ninetales’s Ice-type STAB moves and Sneasler’s Close Combat was sub-optimal for our team. Substitute created beneficial mindgames for our team, forcing Kingambit to Sucker Punch in scenarios where it needs to pick up a KO for an advantage.
The sixth was a toss-up. We first tried Primarina for Water-type STAB and complete the Fire + Water + Grass (FWG) core, but its damage output felt lackluster without Life Orb. Choice Scarf Final Gambit Annihilape didn’t feel great due to the Ghost-type redirectors. We ultimately focused on Annihilape, but struggled to find the right set until around a week to a few days before the tournament. This sixth was considered our “flex role” for the team, and an idea would later arise after Louisville to which Pokémon could fit.
Louisville Regional
Get the Louisville team’s paste here!
Louisville granted me with many strong opponents, as well as my technical first top cut in the new era of VGC. Placing 20th, I felt like I could do better with this team and bring it to higher heights with a more optimized version. The five aforementioned Pokémon were the main comp the group had confidence in, but the sixth Pokémon never clicked no matter what we tried. We decided on Safety Goggles Annihilape to deter Intimidate and focus pressure on teams with Kingambit and redirection, while also having a third immunity to Spore, Fake Out and Rage Powder. The peeved primate was the best option we had going into Louisville.
Throughout the day, the group reconvened multiple times to talk about the Annihilape choice. In short, it didn’t really perform how we wanted it to. On the positive, it was a semi-fast Fighting type that helped us deter Intimidate and avoid Spore and Rage Powder. Negatively, we already had two Spore immunities that played off of each other (Gholdengo and Amoonguss), finding that the Pokémon ultimately didn’t come to a lot of our sets, including in June and I’s Day 2 performances. The balance core and Trick Room mode we had provided all we needed, while Annihilape helped in team preview. Notable problem matchups were Male Indeedee + Sneasler, faster rain archetypes, and Kingambit balance. Although I cut Louisville and June made Day 2 with the team, we decided that Annihilape was ultimately a poor decision and direction for the team to go.
Louisville summary: 9-2 — Advanced to top cut, lost in the Top 32 round
In the Middle
After Louisville, the group decided to focus on finding a strong and fast Fighting type that would benefit the team overall.
After deliberation, June came up with the idea of Mienshao. The set was unexpected, as she suggested Close Combat, Knock Off, Ice Spinner, Wide Guard. It made sense for the team, as it had both fast Knock Off and Close Combat, something the team needed to get rid of Ghost-type redirectors like Magmar and Electabuzz with Taunt. Applying pressure to both Archaludon and Kingambit was also a nice touch, as Mienshao still does good chip to more defensive Archaludon sets.
252 Atk Mienshao Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tera-Dark Kingambit: 170-204 (82.1 – 98.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO 252 Atk Mienshao Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Archaludon: 158-188 (80.2 – 95.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Mienshao Ice Spinner vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Rillaboom: 98-116 (47.3 – 56%) — 21.88% chance to 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
After being skeptical for some while, we made lines into different archetypes. Male Indeedee + Sneasler suffered to a Mienshao + Gholdengo lead, as the Psychic Terrain was a huge buff to both Pokémon. This same logic was applied to Rillaboom to avoid KOs with Wood Hammer and priority Grassy Glides we couldn’t avoid. I was still skeptical until June made Day 2 at LAIC with Mienshao. While it didn’t come to a lot of her games, it was an important sack Pokémon in a few match-ups. I was determined to make it work in some of our negative match-ups.
Sacramento Regional
Get the Sacramento team’s paste here!
The minor changes we made to the team heading to Sacramento involved making Amoonguss more bulky, changing Ursaluna’s Tera Type to Flying, and moving from 1 to 3 Speed IVs to not risk speed tying with Kingambit. A lot of my match-ups were against Víctor Medina / Torviv‘s rain teams, which isn’t a great match-up for the team. Focusing on keeping Porygon2 and Gholdengo healthy was the optimal way to deal with this match-up, while using Incineroar + Mienshao or Incineroar + Ursaluna to deal as much damage as possible and knock off crucial items like Loaded Dice or Sinistcha’s Sitrus Berry. There wasn’t much to say about this Regional, although I had a pretty intimidating schedule. The team was only really weak to Safety Goggles or Sitrus Berry Corviknight with Taunt + Choice Scarf Garchomp, and opposing faster Gholdengo + Amoonguss. The Mienshao pick proved useful in going against Marco Silva‘s sun team match-ups, as it outsped a lot of Pokémon and threatened a OHKO on Jumpluff with ice spinner. Mienshao helped me reach Day 2 in this regional, but wasn’t the ultimate factor in getting me there.
Sacramento summary: 8-3 — Advanced to Day 2
Toronto Regional
I used the same team as in Sacramento. Toronto was a crazy experience. All of my Day 1 and Day 2 schedule was basically Day 1 level at Worlds. Even with crazy consistent players on my schedule, I had 50/50 or 60/40 match-ups into most teams with lines I practiced with my building group during meta developments.
Day 1
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | Win |  Aidan Shah (Noodles) |    |  |
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R2 | Win |  Angelo Morle (Andre) |    | |
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R3 | Win | Cedric Bernier (Cedric) |  | |
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R4 | Win | Jeremy Parson (Zanzibar) |  | |
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R5 | Win | Liam McDonald (Doxy) |   | |
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R6 | Win | Giovanni Costa (Gio™) |   | |
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R7 | Win |  Tang Shiliang (20亮亮) |  | |
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R8 | Win | Marcus Dion (Father Dijon) |    | |
I managed to finish out Day 1 as one of three undefeated players, with Mienshao coming to half of my sets and putting in work. The combination of being a fast Fighting type immune to both Fake Out and Intimidate, comboed with terrain-breaking pressure made Mienshao a menace to many of the teams I faced.
In the games Mienshao came to, it was either Game 3 adaptations on lead (usually against predicted Incineroar lead) or was a crutch in match-ups against Torviv rain. Firing off Knock Offs and Intimidates turn 1 proved to be extremely important in that match-up, especially with some variations of the team carrying Eviolite Electabuzz or Sitrus Berry Sinistcha.
Day 1 summary: 8-0 — Advancing to Day 2!
Day 2 Swiss rounds
The team’s notably weak matchups grew out of Torviv rain and variations of Silva sun to a new team that Justin Tang and Tang Shiliang crafted with Aurora Veil Alolan Ninetales and Grassy Seed Gholdengo. It was extremely hard for the team to catch up once Gholdengo was behind the Aurora Veil and had a Defense boost, meaning Ursaluna couldn’t KO it with Guts-boosted Facade. Paired with Hisuian Arcanine, their team was one of my losses in the tournament.
Day 2 summary: 2-1
Total Swiss rounds record: 10-1 — Advancing to Top Cut!
Top Cut
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 32 | Win | Bye |
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 16 | Loss | Luka Trejgut (£) | | |
My other loss came from Luka Trejgut, utilizing a team with Focus Sash Final Gambit Annihilape. Annihilape had always been a constant threat to the team no matter the set, but this set was nightmare fuel with Grass Tera Type. The weekend prior at a Rhode Island League Cup, Zach Weed showcased his ability to utilize Annihilape in such a way that it almost completely denies Trick Room. Finding lines into Luka’s team was incredibly difficult, and unfortunately not being able to come up with a consistent one off lead for both games cost me the set.
Top Cut summary: 1-1
Final Swiss rounds + Top Cut record: 11-2 — Eliminated in Top 16
Both of my losses played incredibly and showcased their caliber as two of the most consistent players in recent memory, making my love for the team and knowledge I gained using it a wonderful learning experience.
Closing Words
That’s about it! I hope whoever reads this can appreciate the team as much as my friends and I did using it. You can find the rental code at the bottom of this page as well as shoutouts. Thanks for reading and enjoy the team!
First and foremost, I’d like to thank my building partners June Lintner and Kian Sayan, as well as the VGC Cats building group as a whole. Huge shoutouts to New England for being my home and hosting so many fun events. Looking forward to the New England Invitational in June!
