Josh Krieger's 28th Place 2012 US Nationals (Seniors) and 9th Place 2013 Santa Clara, CA Regionals Team (Seniors)

Staraptor @ Choice Scarf  
Ability: Intimidate  
Level: 50  
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe  
Adamant Nature  
IVs: 25 Atk / 24 Spe  
- Brave Bird  
- Return  
- U-turn  
- Close Combat

Raikou @ Life Orb  
Ability: Pressure  
Level: 50  
Shiny: Yes  
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  
Rash Nature  
- Thunderbolt  
- Thunder  
- Hidden Power [Ice]  
- Weather Ball

Scizor @ Flying Gem  
Ability: Technician  
Level: 50  
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  
Adamant Nature  
- Bullet Punch  
- Bug Bite  
- Protect  
- Acrobatics

Cresselia (F) @ Mental Herb  
Ability: Levitate  
Level: 50  
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpD  
Bold Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Psychic  
- Light Screen  
- Trick Room  
- Helping Hand

Politoed @ Water Gem  
Ability: Drizzle  
Level: 50  
Shiny: Yes  
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA  
Modest Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Scald  
- Ice Beam  
- Protect  
- Psychic

Rhyperior @ Ground Gem  
Ability: Solid Rock  
Level: 50  
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  
Adamant Nature  
IVs: 24 Def / 26 SpD / 0 Spe  
- Rock Slide  
- Earthquake  
- Protect  
- Megahorn

by Scarlet Belvedere

Lightning in a bottle. Still one of the best teams I've ever made. Compared to my first team in Oregon, it... shares quite a bit of DNA. Helping Hand EQ spam next to a TR Mon; fast Choiced aggressive option; Weather; Scizor(TM). I played as fast or as slow as I needed to: Cress/Rhyperior/Scizor/Politoed made up the TR core; Cress/Rhyperior/Staraptor/(Scizor or Toed) made for a TR core that could lead Cress/Raptor to feint goodstuff, or leave Staraptor in back for harder TR strats that cleaned up later; Cress/Scizor/Staraptor/Raikou was an aggressive goodstuffs core, and; the team's signature quasi-Rain core in Scizor/Staraptor/Politoed/Raikou. This core was made with an abundance of irritation with common Rain teams of the day, foregoing Toed for Cress into those matchups; "Your team is built around Rain, so if you don't bring Rain, you're at a disadvantage, and if you do, you still give me an advantage." Even into non-Rain teams, the Politoed variant was quite potent, partly because it was usually best played with the frog in back: My fast goodstuffs core and Rain core share a possible lead: Staraptor/Raikou. Call my four Pokemon incorrectly, and the likes of Heatran and Tyranitar fall to Weather Ball after a U-Turn into Politoed (and not the Aura Sphere people thought they were safe from with Chople Berry). Weather being eternal, and Sand being the only other viable Weather variant, all I needed was a well-placed turn to win Weather wars. Shoutout to the friends I made between Oregon Regs and right before Nats who helped me get some of these Mons (but not all of them, clearly lol). One of you even made the off-meta call to use Staraptor over Salamence. Glad you did.

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