Portland Regional Champion Alex Underhill used a very unique Electabuzz team this weekend at the Pokémon North America International Championship (NAIC), giving Dot Esports some insight into where this lineup came from and why it’s currently performing so well in the meta.
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With Electabuzz alongside Annihilape, Farigiraf, Smeargle, Bloodmoon Ursaluna, and Ice Rider Calyrex, Underhill achieved an impressive top-16 finish at Pokémon NAIC this weekend. We saw the bizarre Electabuzz team up on stream during the Swiss regional champion’s Round 13 matchup against Michael Zhang (who also used some off-meta picks like Galarian Moltres).
Underhill's Gen I Electric-type Pokémon served as reliable support for his team. "Electabuzz is a really good Pokémon for making Trick Room teams work," Underhill told Dot. "It has a very unique toolkit for that; Follow Me is a great tool for supporting Trick Room, and Feint is a good way to prevent your opponents from wasting your time under Trick Room by choosing Protect." He continued, "Volt Switch to pivot… to get into one of your Trick Room sweepers, or Taunt to avoid annoying things like opposing Taunts or Spore from Amoonguss. Its ability Vital Spirit also prevents it from being put to sleep."
When asked how he found out about Electabuzz being the NAIC pick, Underhill shared an interesting story. While practicing Regulation G on the ladder, he came across fellow top player Marco Silva who was using Electabuzz on a similar team. "I was talking to Marco and heard that he was coaching someone and she was recommending Electabuzz as something she wanted to use on a Trick Room team," he recalled. "I was playing against Marco in that coaching session and I was like, 'I want to use that! That guy makes so much sense.' So it wasn't that original an idea, but I realized it had a lot of potential."
