Another regional championship wrapped up in Portland, Oregon with Aaron “Cybertron” Zheng taking the title. With his first regional win of the season, Zheng finally claims his Day One invite to the 2017 World Championships.

Zheng’s Tapu Lele and Drifblim combination should be familiar to most of us considering its success over the last two months. Despite three recent big tournament wins, Portland showed us that the meta game is about adapting to this new fearsome combo. But before we get into that, let’s check out the results:

Results & Teams (Top 8 Cut)

1) Aaron Zheng

2) Conan Thompson

3) Max Douglas

4) Hayden McTavish

5) Alberto Lara

6) Jirawiwat Thitasiri

7) Nikolai Zielinkski

8) Bennett Piercy

Countering Drifblim & Tapu Lele

Despite the popularity of the combination, we only saw two teams running it in
Portlands’s top 8. What we did see twice in top 4 is Gigalith, which can be an excellent counter. Conan Thompson’s Trick Room mode of Gigalith and Mimikyu was able to effectively pressure Zheng’s Tapu Lele and Drifblim after Mimikyu was able to set up Trick Room.

Without the speed advantage, Tapu Lele can easily be knocked out before it gets a chance to make an impact. This is most likely why we’ve seen the adaptation of Taunt on Tapu Lele in order to stop a potential
first-turn Trick Room. Thompson was prepared for this as his Tapu Koko had Sky Drop in order to stop Zheng’s Tapu Lele from Taunting his Mimikyu. Zheng made a great adjustment to his play in game three by double-targeting Mimikyu, which allowed a clean Tailwind sweep with his Tapu Lele and Garchomp.

This new development in the meta game adds yet another piece to the conflict of Tailwind and Trick Room teams. Each strategy seems to keep finding new ways to counter the other, which makes the match up increasingly more difficult. It shows how vital speed control is in competitive Pokémon, so expect to see either Tailwind or Trick Room on any successful team.

Highlight Analysis: Finals

The finals set between Aaron Zheng and Conan Thompson was nothing short of exciting. Here are some of the many highlights with analysis. You can watch the entire set HERE.

Highlight #1: Thompson reveals his tricky Sky Drop strategy to ensure Mimikyu’s Trick Room. This is clever since the Pokémon taken into the sky cannot move the next turn if it is faster than the Pokémon that used Sky Drop, and Trick Room makes Tapu Koko the slowest Pokémon on the field. Thompson gets up a free Trick Room and takes Tapu Lele out for essentially two turns.

Highlight #2: Zheng makes an excellent call on Thompson’s switch into Celesteela. Zheng knocks out Thompson’s Mimikyu allowing his Arcanine’s Flare Blitz to redirect to and KO Thompson’s incoming Celesteela.

Highlight #3: Kimo explains this really well in his commentary when he remarks on Thompson’s ability to get so much free damage all at the cost of Mimikyu’s disguise.

Highlight #4: Zheng’s Garchomp outspeeds Thompson’s Garchomp in the Trick Room (not sure if it was a speed tie) allowing it to score a crucial KO with Tectonic Rage.

Highlight #5: Zheng misplays here as Garchomp could have easily just used Earthquake to finish off Thompson’s Tapu Koko and Gigalith despite being in Trick Room. Thompson’s Tapu Koko is Assault Vest and can’t protect itself so Garchomp would’ve easily knocked it out while surviving Gigalith’s Rock Slide. Even if Gigalith were to survive the Earthquake, Trick Room would be gone and Zheng would have a 2v1 against Gigalith. Zheng could’ve been fearing Wide Guard which Thompson reveals next turn.

Highlight #6: Thompson finally reveals Wide Guard to stop Zheng from winning the game as Tapu Koko gets the KO on Drifblim. Even though this was a clutch turn from Thompson, it revealed a ton of information. Plus the game’s not over yet.

Highlight #7: The longest highlight that just involves mind games with Gigalith using Wide Guard, Garchomp trying to attack, and Tapu Koko trying to whittle down Garchomp. There’s an interesting moment at the end of this highlight where Zheng Protects on a turn where Gigalith uses Rock Slide, which could have been a big missed opportunity for Zheng.

Highlight #8: Thompson’s Tapu Koko finally uses Sky Drop to try and take out Garchomp which allows Gigalith to set up a free Curse. The Curse is not only good to increase Gigalith’s Attack, but it’s the Defense boost that proves to be more crucial.

Highlight #9: Zheng makes an amazing play to no avail as Gigalith survives the Earthquake and recovers 50% of its HP with its Figy Berry. Its hard to say if it was a roll or not, but it was definitely a momentous break for Thompson.

Highlight #10: Zheng makes a great play to KO Mimikyu on turn one. Shutting down the Trick Room option makes the game much more difficult for Thompson which Zheng capitalizes on.

Highlight #11: Another great play from Zheng as he correctly predicts the double protect from Thompson’s Pokémon in order to set up a free Swords Dance. This play basically guarantees Zheng the win as he now has a +2 Garchomp and his Tapu Lele with a turn of Tailwind to spare.

Highlight #12: Zheng is a very safe player in the endgame which is exactly how he plays it here. Amazing set from both players, but Zheng made the better moves in the end to take Oregon Regionals.

A Niche Pick: Slowking

A bit of an interesting choice for a Trick Room setter made its first top cut appearance in Portland courtesy of Bennett Piercy. I’m surprised that it took this long for a Slowbro or Slowking to make its way into the meta game, since both have been reliable Trick Room setters in the past.

One advantage Slowking has over Slowbro is its higher Special Defense, which seems like the preferred defense stat to train in this format. Slowking gets access to some versatile attacking options which likely explains it being on a team with Tapu Lele to potentially capitalize on Psychic Terrain. Expect Slowking to slowly make its way into the late-season meta game.

Final Thoughts

Shoutout to NuggetBridge for streaming the tournament with some great commentary from a variety of commentators. The next upcoming regional is keeping it out west as we head to Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ll have a recap just like this one for all upcoming major tournaments so make sure to come back for coverage from Utah regionals. Thanks for reading!

Art of Pokémon courtesy of Pokémon and Ken Sugimori

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