There were some interesting Pokemon used in the recent Japanese Championships.
This past week in Japan, VGC competitor Ryouta Ootsubo won at the Japan National championships. He shocked more than a few by using Tsareena, a Pokemon which doesn’t usually place well in competitive battling
For those who don’t know, Japan’s qualification format for Nationals is slightly different than in other countries. It’s the Top 50 that go to Nationals after qualifying in what’s called “The Japan Cup”, a best-of-one online tournament. Japanese Nationals itself is for the most part a best-of-one tourney. This helps opens up more opportunities for those who wouldn’t be in normal competition to shine.
Tsareena, it turns out, makes sense for this purpose. It has no 4x weaknesses, and the ability to learn Feint. This attack allows it to get around tricky Protect moves. Tsareena also has Trop Kick to lower attack stats, and equipping Fightinium-Z to double damage to Normal types. All of this showed that Tsareena can be a handy secret weapon in the best of one format.
Ryouta now gets to skip the first day of Worlds competition, but he wasn’t the only one who left some heads scratching.
Fourth placed Gouki Nakagawa ran with a Choice Scarf Celesteela. This Pokemon is usually a slow, defensive option, but with Choice Scarf it can gain an edge. The speed boost gives it an edge when locked into a single attack. Gouki’s team also featured a Midday Form Lycanroc, which is backed up by a Gigalith. This helps activate Midday Form Lycanroc’s speed boost ability by using Sandstorm. A Swagger Ninetales and Tapu Fini help round off the team. Swagger usually causing confusion, an opponent has a 50/50 chance of attacking itself on a given turn, but with Tapu Fini’s Misty Terrain ability, it allows an ally to double its attack stat.
Other competitors saw much more straightforward teams, but it just goes to show how different a Best-Of-One format can change the competitive scene.
Source: Kotaku
