Fort Wayne Top 4 Team

Hi everyone! I'm back again, this time with the team I used to get top 4 at the recent Fort Wayne Regionals. During this event, I went 7-0 in Swiss and lost in the top 4. After an abysmal X-3 performance at Philly, I knew I had to step up my game for this event. I also remembered that this would be the last regional of the 2016 format, so I should use a team that I would have a lot of fun with. Without further adieu, here is the team I used!

The team

 At a glance:

   

As you can see, I just ended up using the Big 6, which was the very first team I used in the format. I went with it because I felt most comfortable using this and I also thought it would be cool if I won the last regional using the team thats been around since the beginning.

In depth look:

Time for the fun part, the EV spreads and other important aspects. I'll try this new format out since I talked about a version of this team previously. There will also be little explanation as everything is pretty straightforward, so I will just put a large block of text at the end explaining the more bizarre choices.

Italicized- Noteworthy
Bold-  Change I wish I made prior to the event


Xerneas @ Power Herb 
Ability: Fairy Aura 
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe 
Timid Nature 
IVs: 0 Atk 
- Geomancy 
- Moonblast 
- Dazzling Gleam 
- Protect 


Groudon @ Red Orb 
Ability: Drought ---> Desolate Land 
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe 
Timid Nature 
IVs: 0 Atk/ 30 SpA --> 31 SpA 
- Eruption 
- Earth Power 
- Thunderbolt 
- Protect 


Smeargle @ Focus Sash 
Ability: Moody 
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Def / 60 SpD --> 252 HP/ 252 Def/ 4 Def 
Bold Nature 
IVs: 0 Atk / 9 Spe 
- Dark Void 
- Follow Me 
- Spiky Shield 
- Wide Guard 


Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite 
Ability: Intimidate ---> Aerilate
EVs: 6 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe 
Naive Nature 
- Roar 
- Hyper Voice 
- Double-Edge 
- Protect 


Kangaskhan-Mega @ Kangaskhanite 
Ability: Scrappy  ---> Parental Bond 
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe 
Jolly Nature 
- Fake Out 
- Return 
- Low Kick 
- Sucker Punch 


Talonflame @ Life Orb 
Ability: Gale Wings 
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe 
Adamant Nature --> Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird 
- Flare Blitz 
- Taunt 
- Tailwind 

Alrighty, so that is pretty much everything about it. Now, onto the weird stuff on it. I gave my Groudon Thunderbolt as a way to hit Salamence and Levitating Kyogres harder compared to the other options available. Roar was mainly used as a way to stop Trick Room, which is pretty evident that this team struggles against. It can also be used as a way to stop Geomancy Xerneas if I am brave enough to do that. Another rare case in which this can be useful is when Salamence does not have Aerilate and is trapped against a Mega Gengar, Roaring the Gengar regains the ability to switch. Taunt on Talonflame is the last of the cooler things on it. This was pretty much meant to do the same thing Roar does without forcing the opponent to switch out and the Gengar aspect I mentioned does not apply here.

As for changes I could have made, there are not that many that I believe would have made a difference. In fact, these changes are probably so small they would not have made a difference in the long run. A 31 SpA IV to make my attacks a little more powerful from Groudon, but I never really noticed the difference so I didn't really mind it. Max Defense and HP on Smeargle would have allowed me to take attacks from Kangaskhan better, which definitely would have helped near the end. Jolly nature on Talonflame would just make it so that I would be faster than Whimsicott, which I realized could be a problem for this team.

How do I use this team? 

For the off chance you're crazy enough to still be playing VGC 2016, here is a short guide in terms of what to bring against certain matchups. I might revisit this in the future and actually add explanations if there is a demand for it, but for now I'm just going to list what to bring. This is also done in order, so the first two are the leads and the latter two are the ones you keep in the back.

(Except Big B)

Bring:

  or  

If you feel like they will not lead Salamence, bring :

(Big B)

Bring:

or   

(No Crobat+Gengar)

Bring:

or 

(w/ Crobat+Gengar)

Note: This is probably the hardest matchup, so good luck with this!

Bring:
  

(Wolfe-esque teams)

Bring:

or   

 

(Dual Primal)

Bring:

or  

Conclusion

Thanks again for reading this! I am overall satisfied with how I performed with this team and am upset that I will no longer be able to use this anymore. I look forward to the 2017 season and the format and hopefully I can get some more success there!