The Lion King 'Roars' into reign in Japanese Ganyu-Off

There was another Battle Road Gloria regional held this past weekend in Japan at the Ganyu-off and as some of you might have noticed, there was a surprising Pokemon that reigned the tournament with a first place finish and another finishing at top 16. This Pokemon was Pyroar, used by notable players Viera and See. We have both player's team reports to examine how and why they decided to use this unprecedented lion pokemon and the different ways both players used it.

The first post is a translation of See's Pyroar team which got 1st place at Ganyu Off and the post following is Viera's Pyroar team which got top 16 at the same tournament. 

See's Pyroar-Kan Heavy Offense team (1st place in Ganyu Off)

Original post from: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/see_miru214/20140212/1392205044#seemore

I competed and got 1st place in the 23rd Ganyu-Off,  which is a tournament that I host myself as well.

Results from 23rd Ganyu off (Battle road gloria Kyushu regional): http://d.hatena.ne.jp/ganyu-off/20140211

Finals video: http://twitcasting.tv/masavampharos/movie/38231178

As the title states, this is a team built around Pyroar and Kangaskhan. 

I finished with a 6-1 in pools and undefeated in finals tournament to win the tournament. The only match I lost in the tournament was due to Viera (1st place in Arena Off Battle road gloria and top 16 in Ganyu off), who also used a team based around Pyroar. (Next team to be shown)

The Team:

How I made the team:

In making this team, the pokemon I put the spotlight on was Pyroar. 

Pyroar is a pokemon that has seen very limited to almost no use in the VGC 2014 ruleset. But I realized that Pyroar might actually have the potential to do well in the current meta.  

Before we go any further, I will explain why I decided to use this pokemon.

First, I was looking for a fire type pokemon as fire types can resist both steel and fairy types, which are very common in the current ruleset. Steel types, such as Mawile, Aegislash are pokemon that can easily cripple your team if not countered correctly. Thus, it is very natural for a fire type to be brought into a team in the current meta game. 

Now, the most commonly used fire types in the current meta are:

Arena off usage stats from 115 participants:

42  Talonflame

17  Charizard

 7   Rotom-Heat, Chandelure

 3   Torkoal

Bifu off usage stats from 47 participants:

15  Talonflame

11  Charizard

 7   Chandelure

 3   Rotom-Heat

These are data from past battle road gloria regionals, and as you can see there are very limited species when it comes to typing.

• Talonflame

I consider Talonflame a Flying type more than a fire type due to its ability, Galewings, which gives priority to flying type moves. With attack boosting items, talonflame can provide damage in early game and act as a sweeper in late game. 

However, because Talonflame is literally the only physical fire attacking pokemon in the current meta, King's Shield and Intimidate from Aegislash and Mawile respectively can give Talonflame a hard time beating these two. Of course, sneaking a overheat in the movepool can somewhat resolve this problem. 

• Charizard

A pokemon beginning to see more use in Japan, mega Charizard Y has a powerful ability, Drought which allows Charizard to boost its own attacks as well as counter other weather. Charzard is hands down one of the best steel type counters. 

• Chandelure

Although there aren't many chandelures in the current meta, its ghost type STAB moves are very strong along with its new hidden ability, infiltrator which allows chandelier to hit through substitutes, most notably from Aegislash. 

Rotom-Heat and Torkoal can also deal with steel types pretty well, however all the pokemon listed above have a common weakness.

The first weakness that comes to mind is rock type moves. 

In double battle, rock slide is a very strong move and pokemon with 4x weakness to  this, such as Talonflame and Charizard can take detrimental damage from it. Also, if the pokemon gets hit with rock slide from a faster pokemon, there are always possibilities of critical hits and flinches which can ruin plans. 

Moreover, the most commonly used pokemon in this ruleset, Garchomp will carry a rock type move most of the time, along with its fire type resistance and STAB Earthquake which is just plain bad news for fire types. 

From hearing all this, fire types seem to be in a tight spot, however, Pyroar is a pokemon that can solve these problems. 

First of all, Pyroar can OHKO common spread Mawile and Aegislash with Life Orb Overheat. This part is the same with all fire types.

However, the great part about Pyroar is its 106 base speed which allows it to outspend Garchomp and hit it with a Life Orb HP Ice.

Garchomp is the number 1 used pokemon in the current meta game, and there are only a few pokemon that can do this sort of thing without a speed manipulating item, and if it could, it would be a viable pokemon to fight well in the current meta game.  

Especially with very limited speed control options in the current ruleset, I believe base speed is very important. 

That was a very long explanation, so to put it simply: I wanted to get rid of Mawile and Aegislash ASAP→Use fire type→Garchomp becomes annoying→fire types faster than Garchomp are strong→Pyroar.

Delphox also has a base speed faster than Garchomp, but is weak to moves such as Sucker Punch and Shadowball which steel types carry. 

On the other hand, Pyroar resists every attack from the common special Aegislash. 

After understanding Pyroar's qualities, I looked for a pokemon to parter it with. I looked for a pokemon that didn't need to matchup too well against Mawile, Aegislash and Garchomp, but fought fairly well against any other pokemon. I came to a conclusion of either Mawile or Kangaskhan. 

Both provided great offensive power against most pokemon, however in the end, I chose Kangaskhan to take advantage of the fake out support it provides. The team was going to be a very standard one, with the rest of the pokemon chosen to counter what Pyroar+Kangaskhan had trouble with.

• Salamence provided intimidate and a counter to Charizard Y with scarf Stone Edge.
• Aegislash countered dragons, Mawile, Kangaskhan and Trick Room teams.
• Azumarill for shutting down mixed Tyranitar.
• Gardevoir which lines well with Kangaskhan and can hit dragon types hard with STAB spread move. 

I tried the team with other common pokemon such as Garchomp and Rotom-Wash, but settled with the four above. 

With the result of 1st place, I think my decisions were right. 

Pyroar was discovered by Viera at a pretty early stage and even though I had doubted its strength because of its looks and reputation, I believed that it was strong if Viera said so. After testing it for a couple of battles, it was in fact very good.

I would like to thank Viera and also Inosen, another player who had been thinking of a team based around Pyroar for helping me build this team which lead me to the title of gloria.     

Team summary:

The team is a heavy offense team built around the core of Pyroar and Kangaskhan. 

The members of the team, such as Pyroar defeats threats against Kangaskhan, while Kangaskhan can also be used rashly with Double Edge because the next member that would come in place would have enough offensive power as well. 

Other strong lineups were Kangaskhan+Specs Gardevoir and 2 fairy+Pyroar. 

Although Pyroar and Kangaskhan share a common weakness of fighting, all other members can resist it so it wasn't much of a problem. 

In-depth summary:

• Kangaskhan

What I was looking for in this mega slot was offensive violence.

From looking at past usage stats of this pokemon, it is pretty obvious that Kangaskhan is one of the strongest Mega Pokemon out there. 

I opted for Double Edge instead of Return, which can dish out unexpected damage on opponents with the downside of recoil damage. However, if the opponent is brought to 0%, there is no need to be afraid of counter attacks to KO kKangaskhan, so it was actually a good move choice. I also had Power Up Punch, but almost never used it because I would Fake Out→Double Edge most of the time. Any pokemon that Kangaskhan couldn't handle would be dealt with other members of the team, such as Pyroar. 

• Pyroar

It would not be a lie to say that this entire team was built just for this one pokemon.

Pyroar would basically take out threats to Kangaskhan with Overheat and HP Ice. Overheat OHKOs Mawile and Aegislash with ease, but HP Ice is a 15/16 chance to KO 4HP/0SpD Garchomp, just barely getting the KO. Focus Sash is also a very common item for Garchomp so a Fake Out support from Kangaskhan can come handy. The third move I chose was Hyper Voice, which was originally Snarl, however I changed it because Hyper Voice fitted the concept of 'Heavy Offense' better. Being able to hit water type pokemon such as Rotom-Wash and Gyarados with a STAB attack is also a benefit from the Normal typing. 

• Gardevoir

One of the last pokemons to come in the team. This slot was used to bring in a pokemon which allowed me to do what I wanted to do, and with Choice Specs, Gardevoir added to the offensive power of the team. I also wanted another member of team which would line up well with Kangaskhan, and Gardevoir was perfect for this. The EVs were used to increase the defense side of Gardevoir, even though it is a Specs attacker. This was to ensure that Gardevoir wouldn't be OHKOd by Talonflames because the intimidate user, Salamence wouldn't be in every single battle for the intimidate support. The set was very strong and surprisingly easier to use than the common CS spread.

• Azumarill

Azumarill was also one of the last pokemon I chose. I originally had Garchomp or Rotom-Wash in this slot, but to counter the popular mixed Tyranitar, I chose Azumarill.  In the current meta, Tyranitar has very versatile sets from Dragon Dance mega evolution physical sets to mixed. With Garchomp, there is a need to watch out for Ice Beam and even though Rotom-Wash might seem like a good counter to Tyranitar, there are chances of flinches from Rock Slide and Dark Pulse along with the low accuracy of Hydro Pump and Will-O-Wisp. Hydro Pump is an attack I feel is strongest with Choice Specs, which was taken by Gardevoir, so I ended up with Azumarill. 

Azumarill is able to resist all attacks from a special Tyranitar and able to provide the team with a priority attack along with an answer to Rhyperior. 

• Salamence

The only intimidate user of the team and with Choice Scarf, outspends what it wouldn't be able to normally. With Choice Scarf, Salamence is able to take out speedy pokemon up to the 130 base speed range and hit hard with a Draco Meteor. Also, with Stone Edge, Salamence becomes a solid counter to Charizard Y. Salamence can also be used to hit Mega Manectric, which can threaten many Pokemon with its many moves.

The EVs were just all out on CS, and I didn't find anything wrong with it. 

• Aegislash

The typing on Aegislash makes it an excellent offensive and defensive pokemon. I used the common leftovers+substitute set which I felt works best for Aegislash.

With substitute, it prevents Aegislash from being KO'd when it turns into blade mode. With its resistance to both dragon and fairy moves, Aegislash can be used in a variety of ways. In the finals of Ganyu off, I brought it as a lead to get damage early in the game with strong ghost type STAB Shadow Ball.

It is also a great counter to Mawile and Kangaskhan, the two most common Mega Pokemon, as the opponent cannot easily use a Sucker Punch due to a possibility of a substitute. I have a lot of faith in this Aegislash set from using it in many other teams and being able to learn a new way to use it in this tournament was a benefit for me. 

Conclusion:

It was a good experience using a Pokemon that was underrated in the meta game. I owe one to Pyroar for winning this tournament. I was very pleased and had a 'gloria'(glorious) feeling with my result of 1st place, not only because it was a tournament I hosted myself but because I am now qualified for the nationals for the Battle road gloria. I will try my hardest in the nationals as well. Thank you for reading my post. 

Next is Viera's Pyroar team which takes the same Pyroar, but puts it in a completely different team concept.

Viera's Pyroar Trick Room switch team (1st place in Arena off Battle road gloria and top16 in Ganyu off)

Original post from: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/honasho5/20140212/1392207321#seemore

Pokemon	Move1	Move2	Move3	Move4	Item
Pyroar	Overheat	Hidden Power Ice	Snarl	Protect	Life Orb
Gardevoir	Moon Blast	Swagger	Trick Room	Protect	Sitrus Berry
Abomasnow	Blizzard	Energy Ball	Ice Shard	Protect	Focus Sash
Rhyperior	Earthquake	Rock Slide	Substitue	Protect	Lum Berry
Mawile	Play Rough	Fire Fang	Sucker Punch	Protect	Mawilite
Salamence	Sleep Talk	Draco Meteor	Dragon Pulse	Flamethrower	Choice Specs

Pyroar was a pokemon I only heard bad things about, so I had always seen it as a weak pokemon. However, when I looked at its stats I was surprised that they weren't as bad as I had heard and so began building a team around it convinced that nobody else had realized the strength of this pokemon. 

I began building standard teams with Pyroar in it, but none of the mega pokemons really seemed to fit well with it, so I decided to make a Trick Room switch team with it and after a few test runs, I knew that it would work. 

Pyroar:

Getting a flawless male Pyroar takes a tremendous amount of time and effort, but when I finally bred it, I almost cried because it had perfect IVs with 0Atk. 

I used a HP Ice set with Life Orb helping it get a 15/16 chance to KO 4HP/0SpD Garchomp. Unnerve also negates any potential Yache Berries. Overheat OHKOs even Aegislash and I opted for Snarl instead of Hypervoice for supporting Trick Room set up. 

Pyroar at its best: N3EW-WWWW-WWWW5-ENSQ

Summary by Ryokon:

Pyroar might have looked silly at first, but i'm sure after reading these two posts from two very respectable players, we now understand how this pokemon works and why it landed such success.

Both players utilize Pyroar in a different team concept, but the basic use of Pyroar is the same, hitting steel types hard without having Garchomp in the way. 

I would say that See's 'Heavy Offense' team has a concept that almost symbolizes the strongest concept in VGC2014 rule set which to is hit fast, and hit hard, due to poor speed control in this rule set as See explains as well. 

However, Viera actually utilizes a method of speed control with a Trick Room Gardevoir in a beautifully put team. Abomasnow and Rhyperior put together are also very strong in the current meta as they counter many popular pokemon such as both Rotom-Wash and Heat, Garchomp, Mawile and Kangaskhan, especially under Trick Room. TR Gardevoir is a set I can personally agree on to be very effective as I have had a lot of success with it as well.  

Garchomp+Aegislash+Gardevoir has become a solid and popular core in Japan in the current meta due to its excellent type coverage offensively and defensively, but because Pyroar can basically take on all three of these pokemon, it would be no surprise to see more of it on GBU and upcoming tournaments!  

As of prediction of Pyroar use in the US and Europe, with more people beginning to adopt the popular Garchomp+Aegislash+Gardevoir core, it might not be long until the lion king comes to take over the US and European meta game as well!

Thank you for reading this post, and a very big thanks and Congratulations on the placings in Ganyu off to See (@see_miruo) and Viera (@SHADEviera) and Taroimo for helping me get permission from these two!

-Translation and Post by Ryokon