Hello, I am Matthew Laughlin and I just recently got top 8(7th) at Daytona Regionals and preparing for the regional I had a different approach in mind. Rather than playing a bunch best of 3's and a ton of battlespot I observed youtube content and studied what the meta was like. I watched youtubers such as Aaron "Cybertron" Zheng, Osirus(Lee Provost), James baek, Francesco Pardini, Alex Gomez, and even the 2015 World Champion Shoma Honami. I played about 25 battlespot games and I had 0 best of 3 practice going into Daytona. The best I did was I came into Daytona relaxed and with no pressure to do well. Next I will go into how the team came to be.
	About a year ago when the GS cup craze was happening my friend JoeUX9 passed me a team that consisted of...

Salamence/Kyogre/Groudon/Kartana/Cresselia/Tapu Koko

...I liked the flexibility of this team and it also provided a Fire/Water/Grass core as well as a Fairy/Dragon/Steel Core. This team fit my playstyle the best as I like to play bulky offense and be able to swap and reposition myself easily. Now don't forget this is still around the time of the GS Cup, so some items, moves, and ev's were way different than since the real meta was not tested out. Fastforward to December when everyone has forgotten about the GS cup and I had a completely different team in mind. The team went through constant edits.

Kyogre/Incineroar/Kartana/Rayquaza/Tapu Koko/Amoonguss
Kyogre/Incineroar/Kartana/Rayquaza/Tapu Koko/Bronzong
Kyogre/Incineroar/Amoonguss/Rayquaza/Tapu Koko/Bronzong
Kyogre/Incineroar/Ferrothorn/Rayquaza/Tapu Koko/Cresselia

Fastforward again to 2 weeks before Daytona when I really started to prepare. As strong as Rayquaza was I often felt like I had to swords dance up a lot just to try some damage and waste a lot of turns doing so. Having that in mind I knew I wanted to change out Rayquaza and the closest thing to Rayquaza was Salamence which also provided me a mega and intimidate. Now that I swapped out one of my restricted pokemon I needed to add to a 2nd restricted pokemon since Kyogre was all I had at the time. I figured the best way to go was with Primal Groudon since it also was able to take advantage of a lot of the speed control I had. Now this is the shocking part, the what are you doing right now? Part. A team without Incineroar. Did pigs just learn how to fly? No pigs did not learn how to fly and yes I am crazy enough to opt out of Incineroar on my team, but in saying that If I had a 7th slot on my team it would definitely be Incineroar. I just felt like the other 6 pokemon would just a bit more important than the King Cat. This is how the team came to be and next will be the ev spreads of every pokemon with some damage calcs and a more in-depth detail of why I chose that Pokemon.

Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 84 Atk / 172 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Protect
- Double-Edge
- Tailwind
- Hyper Voice

So Salamence’s main purpose was to provide intimidate, hit hard, and set up tailwind. Salamence had great synergy with Kyogre, Ferrothorn, and Groudon which allowed it to take attacks easily that those 3 were not able to do. The moveset I chose is very common for a Salamence to have and I believe it is strongest moveset to have. The only Calc I did for Salamence was to 2hko Opposing Kyogre at -1 most of the time. It also allows me to gauge how bulky the Kyogre is and It would tell me if it’s a speedier Kyogre or if it’s a bit slower and bulkier like my own Kyogre. Beyond that Salamence did an excellent job supporting my Primals.

-1 84 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Primal Kyogre: 87-103 (49.4 - 58.5%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO

Groudon @ Red Orb
Ability: Drought
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Atk / 4 Def / 156 SpD / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Swords Dance
- Precipice Blades
- Fire Punch

What is there really to say about Groudon? It is one of the best restricted pokemon in the format and it will never go away in a legendary format like this. If Groudon has the speed advantage and a swords dance up it can start to rip through teams especially if u can get a gravity of with Kyogre next to it. Not much taking a Precipice Blades + Water Spout/Origin Pulse. Now for the speed stat and why it is like that. It is to try and get the leg up on slower Groudons that are 4 speed evs or very little at all, but I have my Groudon outspeeds my own Kyogre by 1 stat point. This is very important to know, so if that in any circumstance you swap in Kyogre and Groudon at the same time at the end of a turn you will get Primordial Seas up. It is more useful for Kyogre to go for Water Spout then for it to be stuck in Ice Beaming and for Groudon it doesn’t need Desolate land to  Precipice Blades everything.

252+ SpA Primal Groudon Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 156 SpD Primal Groudon: 174-206 (84 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Lunala Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom vs. 252 HP / 156 SpD Primal Groudon: 180-213 (86.9 - 102.8%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
60+ Atk Primal Groudon Precipice Blades vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Primal Kyogre: 105-124 (50.7 - 59.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Neptune (Kyogre) @ Blue Orb
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 228 Def / 44 SpA / 4 SpD / 28 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Thunder
- Ice Beam
- Origin Pulse

This is all credited to Lee Provost. This is his sample Kyogre spread for a tailwind/TR Kyogre. If you want to learn more about it a link is below and head to 8:08 in the video. The only thing I did was put on Origin Pulse over Thunder.
As for what Kyogre does for this team. It hits hard, counters Incineroar, and Ice beams a lot of threats in the meta. Kyogre is popular for a reason and if it gets the speed advantage gg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJDhgxR5Npg

Tapu Koko @ Fairium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Taunt

Koko’s main job was to outspeed check all the mons at the bottom. With taunt it checked any spore/hypnosis shenanigans and any random shenanigans that I may have come across in swiss. The moveset looks odd, but I never needed thunderbolt/thunder in the tourney and volt switch was great for winning the weather war. Tapu Koko did exactly what it needed to.

252 SpA Tapu Koko Twinkle Tackle (160 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Mega Salamence: 270-318 (158.8 - 187%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Tapu Koko Twinkle Tackle (160 BP) vs. 4 HP / 4 SpD Yveltal: 222-264 (109.9 - 130.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Tapu Koko Twinkle Tackle (160 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Rayquaza: 222-264 (122.6 - 145.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Tapu Koko Twinkle Tackle (160 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Ultra Necrozma: 228-270 (131.7 - 156%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Luna (Cresselia) @ Wiki Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 228 Def / 36 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick Room
- Skill Swap
- Icy Wind
- Gravity

Somehow, Someway, Cresselia is always overlooked at the beginning of every meta until someone has a great performance with it and it becomes the Moon Queen that it is. I got a lot of questions of why Cresselia over something like Tapu Fini, Bronzong, or ever Stakataka. Tapu Fini is ok imo and it didn’t have Trick room which is super necessary for a team that relies on speed control and hitting away with offense. For Bronzong, it doesn’t do much outside of Trick Room and it doesn’t get icy wind either which helps once trick room is starting to expire. Gravity was important to help Groudon hit Precipice Blades and Origin Pulse when Kyogre couldn’t Water Spout anymore. Skill swap is an amazing move to have. Not only does it help with the weather war, but there are a multitude of abilities you can swap from common pokemon and hinder them. I feel a bit foolish, because my cresselia is 4hkoed by a -1 band Rayquaza and I didn’t utilize that fact in my top 8 match which could’ve made a difference. A +2 dazzling gleam + a -1 band ray does not ko my cresselia and that is vitale when I played XRay in cut. :’(

-1 252 Atk Choice Band Mega Rayquaza Dragon Ascent vs. 244 HP / 228 Def Cresselia: 93-111 (41.1 - 49.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Figy Berry recovery

+2 252 SpA Fairy Aura Xerneas Dazzling Gleam vs. 244 HP / 36+ SpD Cresselia: 96-114 (42.4 - 50.4%) -- 1.2% chance to 2HKO after Figy Berry recovery

Spike (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Protect

Ferrothorn doesn’t have any specific calcs. It was only there to defend against Kyogre and Xerneas, so I wanted to minimize their damage as much as possible against Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn also provided a member that can easily switch into attacks and gain health back with leftovers and sometimes leech seed. Ferrothorn is an amazing pokemon and if u can take care of its threats it can win you a lot of games.
That is the end of the description for the team and next I will go into who I played and their teams. Please forgive me as I don’t remember what went on in the games.

Swiss:
R1: Joshua Mecham WW
Kyogre/Xerneas/Nihilego/Salamence/Amoonguss/Incineroar

R2: Sohaib Mufti WW
Crobat/Tapu Fini/Incineroar/Landorus/Xerneas/Rayquaza

R3: Ashton Cox LL
Yveltal/Salamence/Xerneas/Incineroar/Amoonguss/Metagross

R4: Louis Milich WLW
Lunala/Groudon/Salamence/Incineroar/Tapu Fini/Stakataka

R5: Liza Kate Atkinson WW
Stakataka/Groudon/Tapu Lele/Salamence/Dawn Wings Necrozma(Ultra)/Incineroar

R6: Zain Khalid WW
Groudon/Tapu Fini/Lunala/Incineroar/Stakataka/M-Gengar

R7: Kyle Livinghouse WW
M-Gengar/Tapu Fini/Yveltal/Incineroar/Landorus/Xerneas

Top 8: Zheyuan Huang LL
Rayquaza/Xerneas/Tapu Fini/Amoonguss/Incineroar/Landorus

Round 6 and Top 8 were both streamed. You can find them on Twitch at CriticalHitGG April 20th and April 21st.
There has been a lot of discussion lately about stealing teams and that you should make your own. I just say to be the best you and bring the best team that will give you the highest result. I brought a team to Daytona that used a restricted pair that was thought to be “bad” and I didn’t use an Incineroar. My team defied all odds and proved that anything can be viable if used correctly, so stop worrying about what others think and use what you are comfortable with. Even I myself fall into the use other people team’s category, but I always practice and put my own spin on a team. All the teams in the 2019 format that have gotten me CP were made by my good friend JoeUX9 and he graciously let me borrow them.

That being said this was one heck of a tournament and I had a lot of fun. A few shoutouts. JoeUX9, Bigslim, The Florida crew, and TJ for always providing us with an awesome stream whether it’s a regional or a local event+ the Commentators and everyone else who helps with the production. Aaron Cybertron Zheng, Lee Provost, Alex Gomez, Francesco Pardini, Wolfe Glick, James Baek, Marcus (Professor Marcus), for always providing VGC Content and keeping Pokemon Alive.

https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/usum/BT-4ACC-B5B7

https://pokepast.es/3a2b84ceca5acd53