Hi. I’m Joseph Costagliola, c9joseph, lifeorb, Joseph Costa, or whatever the hell you wanna call me. This is my uncensored, unfiltered report of the Charlotte Regional Championships where I managed to top 8. I’ll try my best to convey my thoughts as exactly as they were when I was playing my games. Let’s begin! Actually, before we do, take a second to listen to Childish Gambino’s Bonfire; it’s the song that helped me psych myself up the most for this tournament.
Before we talk about Charlotte, I think I should give some background on why this tournament was SO important to me. I aged up from seniors in the fall of 2016, meaning my first regional in masters was the Philly 2016 regionals, where I went 6-2 and finished 19th, 3 spots away from top cut. Before that, I cut 3 regionals, finishing 2nd at two in the 2016 season and 3rd at one in the 2015 season. But fuck that, seniors is irrelevant and I was trash then. This is the story of how I became decent.
2017 Roanoke Regionals
This was the first decent team I made in the 2017 format. Coincidentally, it was the last team I made in the 2017 format. After going 5-3 at Roanoke regionals, I decided it was best to leave 2017 behind. I didn’t know if I was going to play Pokemon ever again or not in all honesty. And… then I won a Midseason Showdown a month later LOL free. But really, after that I decided to hang up the towel for quite a while. I didn’t attend any events for the rest of the entirety of 2017, post-worlds included. But this team is important. Look at it, study the fundamental skeleton. It was the first Snorlax centric team I ever made. I think the problem with this team was that it was TOO Snorlax centric, I had no gameplan for teams that had answers to it other than to just power through.
2018 Dallas Regionals
Between Roanoke and Charlotte there was this weird outlier called Dallas. A bunch of friends convinced me to go on a whim and I built my team on a winter vacation trip to West Virginia to go see some family. As you can see, it’s pretty hard Trick Room. I liked this team at first, because it was a team that won games at team preview. But it also lost them at team preview, and it lost them quite a lot. I finished 5-4. Press F, I’m trash.
Interphase
I felt really motivated to play for Charlotte!… for like 3 days zzz. I kind of fell into a spell of a bad mood due to some personal IRL stuff that doesn’t belong on this platform, but I was in a state where the last thing i wanted to do was play some fucking Pokemon. I threw around the idea of Chansey and Kommo-o, similar teams that didn’t require much skill, just matchup knowledge that could be learned in 50 ladder games if you played the right stuff. But sooner than later, I was back on my bullshit of playing Hard TR. I gave my team to Grant Weldon @grantcweldon who took my team with some edits to a strong 0-2 drop at Costa Mesa two weeks before Charlotte. I was worried. So for about 5 days I ditched hard TR to use the exact same Charizard / Marowak team that won Costa Mesa. I had more room for good play but it didn’t feel insanely right. Then Intimidate Incineroar came out. I had pretty much given up all hope. But that night, I built a team. I built this.
It was an alright team, but most of the games that I was winning were due to Lax’s abilities and not that of Venusaur’s or the double TR mode. I decided to dump Mimikyu for Manectric so that I could have a more “consistent” mode, and then use Venusaur for teams that had no answers. Instead, I had a genius idea. Celesteela is just boneless Venusaur, boneless in this case meaning weak to Fire and Electric, resisting Psychic, and NOT taking up a mega slot. It was pretty easy to justify making the change overall. So now, I present to you…
BONFIRE
Call it Lou’s team, standard Snorlax, “ew that needs a Gothitelle in the Poygon2 slot”, but it’s really just my team, and the set choices as well as the teambuilding process above should prove that. I don’t really have anything against stealing teams, but I feel like I did a decent job making this squad and I would prefer to not have its success written off as a shell of a team some other player used.
I’m gonna take it step by step as to how each of these Pokemon was vital to my success. I only regret literally 1 move choice on the entire team, without a single one of these Pokemon my result would have been much worse. If you read all the way down to here, thanks for reading through my bullshit. If you’re just skimming, which I have no problem with, this is probably the part you wanna read!
THE TEAM
Manectric-Mega @ Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 244 HP / 20 Def / 4 SpA / 20 SpD / 220 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Volt Switch
– Rain Dance
– Overheat
– Protect
In 2016, I stole my worlds team from Gavin Michaels, and you might recognize it as the exact same team Jonathan Evans used to get 2nd that year. But with my placing of 30th in seniors, I vowed to never use such a shit mega ever again, and then 2018 happened. The emphasis on the base 130 speed tier, the presence of an Electric-type on the majority of teams, and the dominance of Charizard made Rain Dance Manectric seem like a pretty good call, and I’m glad to say my hypothesis was correct. The freedom that it gives with it’s switching and pivoting, not to mention the cycling of intimidate adds so much bulk and flexibility to the team. Lots of people see these types of teams and in their heads picture something overly linear, but the truth is that Manectric opens the door for so many different modes and plays with this team. On a given turn where I lead Manectric and Tapu Fini, my most common lead, I have a total of about 50 different plays I can make, factoring in Z-moves, switches, Volt Switches, Mega Evolving, and regular attack combinations. This lead giving me so much freedom is a good reason as to why I lead it in so many of my games.
I want to take a second to discuss the spread. Frail Manectric never impressed me, because it would still be too easily OHKO’d by somewhat strong attacks. With this bulky spread, I was able to survive much more, especially in base form, which was crucial to a team with two electric weaknesses and no other resistances.
Tapu Fini @ Waterium Z
Ability: Misty Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 228 SpA / 12 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Muddy Water
– Moonblast
– Haze
– Protect
Without a doubt the MVP of the team was Tapu Fini. Most people think of it as some bulky Pokemon that throws out Muddy Waters and prays to net drops as it recycles Misty Terrain and gets up an occasional Calm Mind, but I decided on a different direction. The whole premise of Rain Dance on Manectric was to shut down Charizard, but I felt like I could capitalize much more if I went all the way in and used offensive Tapu Fini. Waterium Z is great, and you’ll see some plays later on in the warstory where I was able to win games in 1 turn, that turn being where I fired off a Hydro Vortex at the right time. Also, Haze was a very optimal support move. Very few people expect it on a team that focuses on lowering opposing stats while boosting your own, but it gives the team a soft check against Azumarill teams and Chansey.
Snorlax @ Figy Berry
Ability: Gluttony
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 244 HP / 204 Def / 60 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 10 Spe
– Belly Drum
– High Horsepower
– Return
– Recycle
Snorlax was the team’s other powerhouse Pokemon. Unlike Tapu Fini who quite literally could seal up games in a turn, Snorlax ALWAYS had the ability to win games with the click of the Belly Drum button. You all know that Snorlax is THAT bitch, and that she will completely slap any heathen that attempts to fuck her man(ectric). I ran a bit of a faster Lax to speedcreep other Lax and to KO Amoonguss before Amoonguss could Clear Smog me, making plays such as leading Manectric and Snorlax into Amoonguss + X, Volt Switching something into Tapu Fini to dodge the spore and then Belly Drumming in the same turn, ready for the sweep. Snorlax didn’t autowin as many games as I would have liked, but the big boy certainly did pull through.
Incineroar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 92 Atk / 44 Def / 188 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Flare Blitz
– Knock Off
– Low Kick
– Fake Out
Incineroar provided a much more better Intimidate user than Landorus in the context of this team. The lack of a 4x weakness and an immunity to Psychic-type attacks made it something that I could really appreciate. Its speed tier isn’t terrible and the utility of Knock Off is too much to pass up on. It meant that I could remove Eviolites, Choice Scarves, or, most importantly, 50% berries. It’s definitely not a gamebreaking Pokemon with an insane amount of offensive presence like Mega-Metagross, but it’s certainly a GOOD Pokemon, and I don’t think we’ll ever see Incineroar fade into obscurity for the rest of this format. I’m also a proud Landorus hater, so I’m glad to see that the Pokemon Gods gifted us with an alternative.
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 244 HP / 108 Def / 156 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
– Foul Play
– Ice Beam
– Trick Room
– Recover
If Tapu Fini wins the most valuable player award, Porygon2 easily earns the least. But don’t let that fool you. It still won me games at regionals and many more in testing, and I still stand by the fact that it was a better Trick Room setter than Gothitelle, providing offensive coverage rather than passive support meant I could do more under Trick Room, and my turn wasn’t just wasted if I ended up attacking into a protecting slot with Snorlax. Foul Play proved to be alright in testing, but in all honestly, this should have been Shadow Ball. I would have had a much better matchup against Nate in top 8 if I had it, seeing as I could do 40% to Gardevoir instead of 15% with Ice Beam. It also did better against Metagross, especially if I was gifted a Special Attack boost.
Celesteela @ Misty Seed
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 84 Atk / 4 Def / 148 SpD / 28 Spe
Careful Nature
– Leech Seed
– Acrobatics
– Heavy Slam
– Protect
In the week and a half I had before the tournament, I was struggling on what to use on this slot. I was toying between Kartana and Venusaur for the majority of the time, but then Saturday before the tournament I decided to try Celesteela, and with that, my team was finalized. I hopped on the ladder in the 3-4 days before I left for the tournament, and I grinded on the ladder and quickly realized lots of teams don’t have answers to Celesteela, especially those starting with a Misty Seed boost. It also gave me a super bulky Snorlax-less mode involving Manectric / Tapu Fini / Incineroar / Celesteela where I cycled intimidates to support Celesteela, brought the rain to support Tapu Fini, and just all around aimed to maintain positive board control.
TOURNAMENT REPORT
Without a whole lot of rap music, my DS, and some Chipotle, my mom and I set off for regionals. If you haven’t met my mother yet, just know that her going to my tournaments is both a blessing and a curse. Anyways, we get to the hotel, check in, and I proceed to listen to even more rap music and shower as well as get some last minute best of 3s with some friends from one of my discord channels. I went 4-0 in those sets and that made me feel extra confident for the day ahead.
Saturday morning starts and I begin my day almost the same way; Bonfire on loop and a shower to hype myself up. After waiting what felt like a fucking eternity for my mother to get ready, we were on the way to the venue. I was so happy to see friends that I haven’t seen since Philadelphia 2016 Regionals, which was on my 15th birthday. Being a 16 and some change year old now, it’s quite obvious to say I missed my friends, but I’ll save that for the shoutouts section. Anyways, we all chill around as we wait for pairings, and they finally go up. I was hoping for an easy round, but instead for round 1 I was faced up against the bobby fischer of competitive Pokemon himself…
Round 1: VS Case Bongirne (0-0)
I saw I was up against Case for round 1 and pretty much accepted my 0-1. Case and I became pretty decent friends after meeting him at Dallas, and I knew he was most likely going to be playing Mega-Gengar/Kommo-o. While I had played the archetype on the ladder, I never really made the effort to test against it in my bo3 play. I simply relied on ladder games and theory. My thought process going into Team Preview for game 1 is that he needs all of Gengar, Whimsicott, Kommo-o, and Tapu Bulu for me in at least the first game, or else a well played Tapu Fini could get out of hand. Luckily for me, I knew this made him especially Celesteela weak. I lost game 1 because I got my Celesteela involved in an Encore Disable trap, and then my Porygon2, and after that I had 0 momentum to win the game. (0-1)
Game 2 I knew I couldn’t fall for the same Encore/Disable lock with Celesteela and Porygon2, as they were my win condition. Game 2 starts pretty similar to game 1, but I remember being able to bait a Close Combat onto my Incineroar and I go for Acrobatics on his -1 Kommo-o to score a critical hit knock out. I thought I hadn’t consumed my seed, but I mentioned it to Case and he told me I did, and my heart immediately sunk. He couldn’t touch my Celesteela from there. (1-1)
I can remember the first turn of game 3 perfectly. Case lead Gengar and Kommo-o just as he did for the past two games, and I knew he would predict my Tapu Fini to switch this time and get a free Clangorous Soulblaze. He goes for Sludge Bomb onto my Tapu Fini as it lives with 3 HP, and sure enough the Clangorous Soulblaze goes off… only to faint to my Tapu Fini’s Moonblast seconds later. Case Didn’t have what he needed to beat Incineroar and Celesteela, and I moved on to my first game win. Also, 252 SpA Mega Gengar Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 12 SpD Tapu Fini: 150-176 (84.7 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO. (2-1)
Holy Fuck, what a way to start the day.
Round 2: VS Maura Hazen (1-0)
AAAAAA SHIT. I knew what this team did, seeing as my friend Jake Skurchak used pretty much the same team at Dallas. The problem was that I didn’t think about Intimidate Incineroar actually making this team good.
I knew that if I didn’t lead Manectric I would autolose to Gothitelle Tapu Koko in the lead, so I decided to lead Manectric and Celesteela, giving me the ability to pivot into Tapu Fini if Maura Decided to lead rain. I see Gothitelle and Incineroar sitting in front of me on turn 1, and I’m quite ready to accept a loss and go 1-1, thinking there’s no way that I can break this. But I got over my shit and battled back. I was in a winning position, but then I got hit with a critical hit Flare Blitz onto Celesteela when Maura’s Incineroar was at -2 attack, but seeing as I did nearly the same thing to Case last round, I decide not to flip my shit. Then I double missed Muddy Water onto her Tapu Koko and Mawile, and that really stung because if I had hit those Muddy Waters, I would have had enough momentum to win game 1. No matter, I jumped into game 2 straight away, as if game 1 didn’t happen. (0-1)
Honestly game 2 is such a blur to me. I knew I lead the same thing, with Incineroar and Celesteela in the back, Incineroar filling in for my Snorlax pick game 1 as it did relatively little. I just know that because I had double Intimidate and Knock Off, I had so much board control during the set. Plus, not having to worry about Tapu Koko was such a bonus. (1-1)
Game 3, I decided to make the call. Maura is definitely going hard Rain mode this game, so I decided to pull the trigger and lead with Tapu Fini and Celesteela. I’m not exactly right, but I’m definitely not on the losing end. Maura leads Incineroar and Gothitelle, which leads me to believe Mawile is in the back. Based on the Ludicolo’s damage output in game 2, I’m 90% sure that the pineapple fucker isn’t coming back, leaving Tapu Koko as her obvious final Pokemon. I pulled off a clutch Rain Dance at one point and there really wasn’t anything Maura could do from there (2-1).
Round 3: VS Collin Heier (2-0)
Really? Can I catch a break? Seeing Collin’s name in the pairings gave me my 2nd heart attack of the day in only two rounds. Once again the same thought came into my head, “well I’m ready to accept my loss and be x-1 now”. But then I saw team preview and the nerves went away. Months of the PS and Battle Spot ladders taught me how to deal with Metagross Lele + Rain.
Game 1 I open with Celesteela Tapu Fini with Porygon2 and Snorlax in the back, normally I’d pack Manectric but Tapu Koko is absent from the team. He opens up with Tapu Lele and Politoed and I’m smarter than to just Heavy Slam into Collin’s Tapu Lele, so I make a read turn 1 game 1. I Hydro Vortex and Acrobatics into the Lele slot, covering any possible switchin. He goes into Metagross and that thing DROPS almost immediately, leaving Politoed free to eat an Acrobatics. Interesting to note that his Politoed was slower than my Celesteela. Collin just didn’t have the momentum to come back from here and I take my first game 1 win of the day pretty cleanly (1-0)
Game 2 I lead the same, but I’m met with Politoed and Ludicolo. I double protect to block the Hydro Vortex from Ludicolo, but Collin doesn’t take the bait. I can’t really remember much about this game other than Collin making clever switches and taunting my Porygon2 so that I couldn’t setup my endgame properly, and a scald burn on Snorlax pretty much closed the game out. (1-1)
Game 3 we both find ourselves in the same lead position. Vortexes and Acrobatics are exchanged, and in all honesty all I can remember is Porygon2 and Snorlax being in trick room position vs all of Collin’s 4. This was a pretty scary position but I managed to put myself in a Lele vs Snorlax endgame, and since his Lele was Life Orb, I could just recycle and stall turns out until his Lele was confidently in range of a Frustration. (2-1)
Collin had already cut one regional this format, not to mention he finished 3rd in the world and his a multiple time regional Champion, so that felt good going into my later rounds.
Round 4: VS Mitchell Beyer (3-0)
I hadn’t heard of Mitchell before, but 3-0 at Charlotte was no joke. His team was just some fatstuffs and a Salamence, which definitely wasn’t bad, but not something that I haven’t seen before. Nothing that Manectric / Fini / Porygon2 / Snorlax couldn’t handle.
Game 1 I recall knocking out the Incineroar with a Hydro Vortex and then simply setting up my Snorlax and winning. One of the few rounds I had where Porygon/Lax put in serious work. (1-0)
Game 2 He revealed Specs on his Fini, Ally Switch Helping Hand and Trick Room on his Cresselia, and that has Incineroar was non AV. I lost a lot of momentum this game by copying my exact game 1 gameplan, but I still felt pretty comfortable. Mitchell played this game better and he won, simple as that. (1-1)
Game 3 I felt like I got a really good lead on my opponent’s playstyle, and I decided to bring Celesteela over Manectric to pressure him more. It worked out pretty well, as I was spreading Leech Seeds and Heavy Slams, switching constantly. My wincondition was removing his Incineroar and then stalling with Celesteela. This was easier said than done though. I had to catch it on a turn where Mitchell didn’t Ally Switch or hard Switch, but thankfully when I pulled the trigger Incineroar stayed right in its place. From there, I had locked up my 4th win in some solid play. (2-1)
Round 5: VS Irving Johnson (4-0)
The man, the myth, the legend himself, Irving Johnson was sitting across from me at 4-0. I had no no clue what his playstyle was since I dont play in the same locals as him, but I heard his team has some ridiculous hyper offense on it, but I was prepared.
Game 1 I lead Manectric and Tapu Fini into Snorlax and Metagross. I decided to double down on the Metagross with a Volt Switch and a Hydro Vortex, removing it for good and preparing to Haze the Snorlax’s Belly Drum on the next turn. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happens, as I Volt Switch into Celesteela. Irving forfeited shortly after. (1-0)
Game 2 I decided to stay the same as Irving leads Tapu Lele and Pheromosa. I doubled down on the Pheromosa as Irving protects and goes for Nature’s Madness on my Tapu Fini. I can’t remember what happened here, but it was only a 4 or 5 turn game before Irving decided he didn’t want to play anymore and forfeited, so I net my only 2-0 win of the tournament.
Round 6: VS Benjamin Hartman (5-0)
In 6 rounds, I’ve played 3 Metagross Tapu Lele teams. What made this match so difficult was the Gastrodon. I needed to get rid of his Incineroar so that Celesteela could close the game, but couldn’t Hydro Vortex into it because Gastrodon was always either on the field or in the back.
I’m not gonna make this out to be some long drawn out paragraph, because in short this is what you need to know about this round; I cannot touch MetaLele + Gastrodon + Incineroar. I tried in game 1 and got utterly destroyed, and only managed to take a game off of Benjamin because he misplayed heavily in our second match. In the final game, he regrouped and there was simply nothing I could do. Ben was super nice and actually ended up making top cut, which is important for later on in the story. (1-2)
Round 7: VS Brady Smith (5-1)
For all of my concerns, this was an elimination match. And I hated that it had to be against one of my best Gazpacho friends, Brady Smith. Brady and I have known each other for a long time and it was really sad that we had to be in this situation. What was even worse was the fact that we were selected to be on the stream this round. Thankfully, this saves you some reading. Check out part 1 of the set here and part 2 here. I especially recommend part 2, you’ll see why.
Round 8: VS Ashton Cox (6-1)
Ashton was the last person I wanted to play going into top cut. We’re pretty good friends and he’s already gotten top 4 at Sydney and finals at Collinsville with this exact team. But prior to our match taking place I decided to check my resistance. To my surprise, I had 5 opponents with a 5-2, a 6-1, and a 7-0. My resistance was phenomenal and I was likely to top cut regardless of this outcome. But I really wanted to win so I could 100% ensure my appearance. Here’s how it went down
Actually just kidding…. I was so exhausted at that point that even though our match happened 48 hours from the time of writing this report, and I can’t tell you what happened. Game 1 was pretty even, but I found a hole and managed to break through. All I needed to do was Low Kick his Tyranitar for the win, but I flinched before I could move and lost the game. Game 2 I played to my win conditions smarter and managed to pull out a win. How exactly, I really can’t tell you. By game 3, we were the last x-1 match left so we drew quite a crowd, and the judges kept coming by to shoo people away, which didn’t really mess with my concentration any. My plays were alright and my positioning was good, I needed to hit a Muddy Water in the Rain to seal the game… and I flinch. Ashton takes the set, but I’m not really mad since its’s quite likely I will make the cut.
So we wait about 20 minutes for the standings, and lo and behold, I cut at 7th seed. I had the highest resistance in the tournament at ~74%, and would be playing another Gazpacho member, Nate Wright, for top 8 tomorrow morning. One of my goals, to cut a Master’s regional, had finally come true.
Top 8: VS Nate Wright (2nd Seed) (7-1 Day 1)
So it all came down to this. Most of you know how the match went, but I’ll link the set right here for your enjoyment. I’m sorry I couldn’t go further, but Nate’s such a good player and I take no shame in losing. Congratulations on the brick bro.
Conclusion & Shoutouts
So that’s it for my first Master’s top cut, and I’ll try my hardest to make sure it’s not the last. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you guys next time. Before I go, here’s some shoutouts.
-Gazpacho. Ultimate Squad
-Tommy Yee for his practice. GOAT
-Carson Confer, also for his practice.
-Raghav Malaviya and Emilio Forbes for being west coast lords who didn’t help me prep much for this specific tournament but generally help me, so I feel like I should thank them.
-Adit Selveraj for talking through my team and theory with me.
-TTT444 for existing.
-Case for being my king.
-Jonathan Melendez. Jonathan Melendez.
– Sachit99, IcebergVGC, NightOwlVGC and the rest of the VGC Memes crew
-Team Rank Up
-Jonathan Melendez
-123e45 aka Josh Mecham because he talked with me about my team the week before and he’s a pretty smart dude. radical 7.8/5
-Childish Gambino
-Give Gum.
Thanks for reading.
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