Charlotte Regionals Champion Team

Hey all! Here's the rental code and EV spreads for the team I used to win the Charlotte Regional Championships this past weekend, the largest official Pokemon tournament of all time.

EV Spreads: https://pokepast.es/cd37872768ff4bc6

Explanations below:

-Rillaboom is EV'd to have a 7/8 chance to survive tera poison Landorus-i Sludge Bomb while having enough attack to get a nature bump. I put 12 of the remaining EVs into defense and 4 in speed, because having 12 defense improved some rolls against Urshifu dark, and because I figured nobody else would run 12 speed Rillaboom so the extra speed points would be wasted. Tera Poison was used because my matchup against Glimmora was a little shaky and I wanted a Pokemon that could absorb the toxic spikes and tank boosted sludge bombs.

-Incineroar is EVd to survive tera fairy choice specs flutter mane moonblast and to never be KOd in 2 hits from adamant chien-pao -1 sacred sword. With Farigiraf I realized that I didn't actually want to outspeed other Incineroar, so I invested fully in its bulk, ignoring attack and speed. I'll explain the reason for the speed stat when I talk about Farigiraf. Sitrus is a better overall item on Incineroar but I wanted my team to invalidate Amoonguss, and against Archaludon rain safety goggles was really important to support flutter mane. I spent a bunch of time with tera dragon but I never used it because Incineroar is already so tanky, so after some thought I switched to tera ghost. It's still niche but it can be used in a late game scenario to become immune to a faster fake out user, as well as become immune to fighting moves, a valuable tool against scarf Urshifu-Dark which picked up in popularity before the event.

-Farigiraf was the MVP of this tournament - I brought it to every single game except 2. Its ability is broken and I thought that with throat spray and two fake out users, it could function as a trick room sweeper. I EV'd it to get the nature bump for special attack and then invested heavily in its special defense, aiming to survive specs flutter tera fairy moonblast as well as tera normal life orb helping hand ursaluna-blood moon hyper voice and regular life orb blood mon. This left my physical defense lower - I ev'd to survive tera water urshifu surging strikes. The reason why I was okay not surviving stronger physical attacks such as Ogerpons +1 ivy cudgel and rain or sword of ruin boosted tera water surging strikes was because I had Incineroar to lower physical mons damage output, and because I had multiple good tools against Urshifu-Water. Tera-fairy was essential due to it completely resisting Urshifu-dark, who would otherwise destroy Farigiraf. It's worth noting this EV spread had 4 unused EVs - these can actually be used if your Farigiraf has exactly 25 speed IVs, but the one I caught has 27. The reason why Farigiraf is 78 speed stat and Incineroar is 77 is because it was very important for Farigiraf to be slower than opposing Incineroar in Trick Room, so it could hyper voice before getting hit by a knock off, thus using up the throat spray and lowering knock offs damage output. In testing, I ran into a small handful of 0 speed Incineroars at 80 speed stat (My farigiraf at the time was 81 and my Incineroar was 80), and this not only introduced a speed tie but it made Farigiraf less effective in Trick Room. I therefore decided to run a speed stat nobody else would want, being 79 Farigiraf and 78 Incineroar, but then I realized that if Tornadus dropped both Incineroar and Farigirafs speed, they'd both be at 52 speed stat, creating another speed tie - so I went down to 78 and 77 speed stats to avoid this.

- Flutter Mane was an essential part of this team, though I wasn't able to show it off on stream. I initially had booster special attack with a standard moveset and tera fairy but I realized that it wasn't very effective due to not being able to take advantage of my fake out Pokemon. I came up with this set to allow Flutter Mane to beat Archaludon rain with help from Incineroar and Rillaboom, as well as to just generally be a nuisance against specific matchups such as chien-pao and dragonite. Tera Grass is essential to ignore Amoonguss who would otherwise invalidate Flutter Mane, and speed booster not only allows me to outspeed other flutter mane and scarf Urshifu, it also allowed me to invest a ton of EVs elsewhere I otherwise would have been forced to put into speed. I gave Flutter Mane enough speed to be faster than Tornadus and Ogerpon even without the booster energy, enough special attack to KO most other flutter mane with shadow ball after a calm mind, and enough HP and defense to not get KOd by two Incineroar flare blitz's after Intimidate. This Flutter Mane was amazing against opposing flutter mane because even specs shadow ball never KOs you after a calm mind - it was pretty nuts to have effectively scarf, specs, and av benefits thanks to the calm mind and speed booster.

- Urshifu is probably the Pokemon I have the least amount to talk about - it's a standard moveset and tera, and the EV spread I got from my friend Billa, aiming to outspeed scarf Landorus, survive speed boosting tera fairy flutter mane moonblast if you tera to water, and getting an attack nature bump. Urshifu allowed the team to have another fast Pokemon, giving me a speed upper hand even in matchups where I didn't want flutter mane. I spent a lot of time preparing for the tournament using 252 speed 252 attack Urshifu but it kept dying to stupid stuff so I like this spread better even though it doesn't hit as hard.

-Ogerpon-F is the simplest EV spread, but it actually has a lot of thought put into it. I spent the majority of my testing using 204 attack EVs with 44 in HP and 4 in each defense, but in the end decided to switch to max attack for better odds of KOing Farigiraf, who I was worried about in conjunction with blood moon. I chose to run max speed on Ogerpon because I really wanted to outspeed opposing Ogerpon. Swords Dance is an unconventional choice, but my team has some issues with Incineroar and being able to ignore the attack drops without being forced to switch out is a huge deal. It also is another way I can punish Amoonguss, as switching in a spore immune fake out user and then going for fake out swords dance has no real drawbacks. Grassy Glide is an unconventional grass move, but with Rillaboom for support I really liked how it allowed me to put pressure on my opponent no matter the speed conditions - I really liked switching in Rillaboom, terastalizing, and trying to KO Flutter Mane or Urshifu-Water in one hit. 

I'll discuss more about the reasoning behind the Pokemon and how they all fit together in the video, but for now I hope this gives you an understanding behind why I made the decisions I did going into the event!