[VG] I Somehow Won Another PC

Hello friends. Just played a weekend of PCs, again went pretty much just as this chaotic format really goes. I won the Saturday event with a mostly standard Xerneas team on a 6-2 (9-4) record, and I got last freaking place at the Sunday event with a different team that I'm obviously not posting here (which also happened to be my first ever negative record at an official event, fun fact). Happy reading! *cough*

UltraUmboxer (Groudon) @ Red Orb
Ability: Drought
Timid Nature
- Earth Power
- Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Protect

Braver Vogel (Talonflame) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Gale Wings
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Tailwind
- Quick Guard

Mihiip (Amoonguss) (F) @ Occa Berry
Ability: Effect Spore
Relaxed Nature
- Grass Knot
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Protect

Kalter Hund (Smeargle) (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Moody
Jolly Nature
- Follow Me
- Dark Void
- Fake Out
- Spiky Shield

Victorinox (Salamence) (M) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Jolly Nature
- Return
- Giga Impact
- Substitute
- Protect

ゼルネアス (Xerneas) @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
Timid Nature
- Dazzling Gleam
- Moonblast
- Geomancy
- Protect

It's a variation on the common BIG SIX obviously, no need to explain them, so I'll just focus on what I changed and why. First Amoonguss, that one is in the team because it would be pretty Trick Room weak otherwise -- and Trick Room is a very realistic possibility in my local scene, about half of our players at the very least are known for having been generally fond of Trick Room over periods of time long enough to matter. This most notably came into play in the grand final as well as my Swiss encounter with the same person: an original Kyogre/Dialga team that wasn't overly hard to cheese out with Xerneas/Amoonguss/Groudon.

The other one is another Weird Salamence™. Special Salamence is way too situational for a team that doesn't even have space for Kang as an alternative, I don't know how yet how to run mixed ideally and I'm fairly certain purely physical is strong, too. And a good physical attacker also is what this team really needed, again for lack of Kang. That, and I really wanted Intimidate somewhere, so here it is. With that out of the way, the freaking moveset... Frustration because I'm not fond of killing myself. Substitute because it can win you games and Salamence's physical movepool is too sparse anyway. Giga Impact for the very same reasons, and to make up for the lack of additional damage that Double-Edge would have surprised while actually surpassing even that by a very notable amount. Without it, I would have been eliminated in top 8, where I concealed it till game 3 and then used it to snipe a Ho-Oh. That being said, the team still is horribly Ho-Oh weak, and that's precisely how my Nugget Bridge Live run on the same day ended in, well, top 8!

Another bit on the Kang thing, well very certainly I would have liked to have Kang, it was just space that was the issue. Groudon/Xerneas obviously have guaranteed spots. I wanted the Amoonguss for Trick Room while still keeping Smeargle just to have everyone's favorite duo of animals available (kill the animals, save the frames). And then I also definitely wanted Intimidate and Talonflame (not only to conform with the Bird Challenge™), so yeah, maybe next time Kang.

So as usual, this team is far from optimized. It did its job for the time being, and that's what counts at the end of the day. I'm now at 3 wins in Premier Challenges and 3 more still funfilled results. Can I meet my ambitious goal of 150+/180 CP? Find out next time at...content creation memes.