The November Report: VGC17

Hi guys I am back this back yes this will be quite different from what I usually post, so as you may have guessed by the title, from now on I will be doing monthly posts other than usual posting just teambuilds, these posts will consist of my experiences w/ combined team reports, there may be one or multiple of teams there, these will also cover up my concepts so that others jumping into the community can learn from them, this I will also keep a track of the format somewhat; first one would be November from where we conclude the VGC 16 season and jump into the loads of hype of the new generation and the new games:

(CREDITS TO WEBSITES: POKEMON SHOWDOWN and POKEMON.COM for the arts and images, I DO NOT OWN THEM)

A Black and White Conclusion:

So November marked the last month of November, what should I do to make this month memorable for me? Um I think and think and then it comes to me and first of all I say myself how dumb do you have to be to get this idea just by now; as my last team of the season I came up with the idea of doing what is my generation 5 love, indeed the restricted slot combination of Reshiram and Zekrom what could have been better than this; also November was the time I had my examinations which ended up… well don’t ask. Also thanks a lot to my final vgc 16 team for carrying me through the final stages of this format also during the hard times of exams. This team was the following:

This team was really loads of fun and a successful build in some manner I remember climbing up to the 1400’s on showdown with this team of mine, I actually struggled a lot with getting this team a proper structure, firstly I tried out zekrom and reshiram but then I was redirected towards using kyurem white with zekrom, but then decided I had to use freaking reshiram and zekrom, so I decided to make type cores around both these mons, then came the core members in the form of meinshao and bronzing, kangaskhan seemed the most suitable mega and the one I was also comfortable with, claydol was quite a MVP in the matches I played with this team to my very own surprise , it just had explosive tons of coverage and the correct amount of power too.

Reshiram and zekrom mainly came from the inspiration of making that silly fusion combination work, I knew that it would be strong and also that zekrom really needed to go before the reshiram, as the kyogre wouldn’t allow the fusion flare to go before, so a scarf had to be added to my zekrom, it only gets a 37% chance throught that to ko kyogres but combine that with a helping hand and then it ohko’es completely, also for emergency situations I could use fusion bolt if needed, the ev’s are rather simple and it could get me out of the struggles against scarfed smeargle. Zekrom was pretty good against the rayogre combination and did came into function quite much.

Oh and then comes the poekmon that I could call to the closest one being my favorite, it’s just too amazing!!! And also constitutes of my two favorite typings of dragon and fire; enough of me blathering about my love for reshiram  for now let’s focus o a miraculous thing that it did; it actually happened to OHKO  primal groudon at full health, it was probably one of those timid groudons with 0 bulk but even then; and the fusion flare went through the fusion bolt boost+ the harsh sun and the stab boost, all that power was able to get the OHKO on a freaking primal groudon even! Dragon pulse was further good against the dragons of this format and tailwind helped out a lot of my pokemons like kangaskhan which is a combination I always love.

Meinshao and bronzing formed a core well around reshiram and zekrom, it was indeed a type core, for those who wonder why not a hitmontop? The thing is that I have tried using hitmontop many times during this  season but it just doesn’t work for me though , the second best thing was a meinshao, providing that fast fake out was super good and wide guard support was even nicer, bronzing is as standard as itcan get I choose to give it skill swap and protect other than any other combination; swapping levitate to zekrom and reshiram was good against primal groudons, further protect covered it up, I love bronzing also because of it’s offensive coverage against xerneas.

Kangaskhan is kangaskhan, simple but this oen is yet again a bit different I chose to give my kanagskhan the move safeguard to control smeargle with all safety measures, the thing is that salamence + smeargle was becoming crazy common and intimidate didn’t allow kang to ohko smeargle so safeguard had to come against non-scarfed smeargle to handle then with surety. Hammer arm was good at this point in the metagame as it allowed me to take the kangaskhan matchup easily and also allowed me to do loads of damage to ferrothron and dialgas. Hammer arm was put on it later on as I felt like I needed the bronzing on y team which is bad without trick room

Claydol, the final member of the team patched up the team for good, I needed an offensive trick room pokemon that would handle primal groudon too, cresselia could only go so far, so I took on the road with a different pokemon that I tested out with a x-ray team of mine which was then later scrapped, claydol was super duper good as it allowed me to offensively deal with gengars, primal groudons and also became a surprise counter to the mega salamences, claydol further allowed me to set-up trick room as well, I was indeed a MVP on this team of mine.

So with this team we had conclude out VGC 16 season with good memories  (forbid smeargle shenanigans) for a brighter and most hyped VGC season to come.

Start of the New season VGC 17:

So as the days pass by sun and moon get their release dates closer and closer and more importantly the VGC ladder gets up as soon as it will, like some other people I also as my team ready to test before the format even took any form, but then due to the unfortunate events of the sun and moon games leaking and the datamine being out we learned a lot more about the complexity of the potential metagame (which I think proved to be helpful for the competitive side of the game, but then again spoiled a big number of fans who didn’t intend to be revealed to it) and building a team even if hypothetically was a far too though to think clearly about, Terrain wars were something that we thought about which are indeed very common. let’s get into the following few heading, let’s take them as my initial thoughts, some of the downward headings are very important for people who are willing to jump into the competitive side of the game and I think that early metagame tactics always prove good to test around the time of worlds such as skill swap cresselia and the funnily considered lava plume primal groudon which atleast made it to the nationals team of wolfe glick, hence the following are important in my perspective:

Ultra beats allowed?! Format ruined or Saved?

Probably the biggest shock in a manner was learning for the people that ultra beasts are allowed, for those of you who don’t know what are ultra beasts, they are about 6 of legendaries that have a stat total of 680 which is probably why people are mad at this and also they are legendary pokemons, so people think that they are going to be too overpowered, and as soon as their presence in vgc was confirmed, it was discussed often on that celesteela and kartana also xurkitree were going to be used a lot, which did later on became true as you will learn in the metagame section of this post, following is why I believe that the format wasn’t ruined and is saved even due to the presence of the ultra beasts:

First of all ultra beats are not that much overpowered, first of all he total stats are all seemingly scary however if you guys have a look at the individual stats, starting from ub-01 nihilego, it happens to have a very low base defense stat and a rock poison typing which makes it 4x weak to rock type attacks, then moving on to ub-02 absorption who has a terrible base special defense, so expect it to be easily knocked but then against also it’s typing is 4x weak to flying type attacks. Ub-02 beauty has terrible defenses and is extremely frail. Ub-03 xurkitree has extremely high spa stat but low defense and a not very high speed stat. glutton is 4 times weak to fairy attacks and isn’t the most offensive of things as well, ub-05 blade and blast a.k.a kartana and celesteela have their own weaknesses kartana is 4x weak to fire whereas celesteela where it seems very good and better than all other ultra beasts can not handle some pokemons well at all in the metagame making things more or less of a auto-loss in a 1v1 situation, as you will learn later on.

Further on arguing why are the ultra beasts now that good is that they all have the same ability called beast boost which boosts the most proficient stat of a pokemon, in simpler working the highest stat if the pokemon ohko’s an opposition or say any pokemon in general, then why is this bad? Also the reasoning can be a solid answer to the question why don’t people have all ultra beasts on their teams, wouldn’t that work well? well first of all the clash of abilities is very bad also very good ultra beasts can be trapped by certain mons in the metagame, all the ultra beasts will be terrible at supporting each other, so they can’t be hashed onto every team and need further or say a variety of pokemon to work around them and support them in the process of being useful themselves.

Moreover they also have terrible movepools and can be easily predicted/ viability in them cannot be much mucked around with them.

In conclusion: THE FORMAT IS STILL REALLY GOOD, FUN AND EXITING AND IS NOT THREATENED OR LIMITS OPTIONS DUE TO THE PRESNESE OF THE ULTRA BEASTS”

Nerfs and Buffs for Pokemon Sun & Moon, Competitive Influence:

These are in the following points, I feel like that each one is extremely important and makes sure to be taken note of:

• ·         Gengar now only gets the ability cursed body, other than levitate as seen in the previous generations, this makes is a nerf and it loses its immunity to ground type attacks.
• ·         Now pelliper and torcoal as well as vanilluxe and gigalith have been given weather setting abilitites which are drizzle rain), drought(sun), snow warning(hail) and sand stream (sand) respectively which really gives them a much noticeable buff.
• ·         Certain pokemons have also been given buffs in their stats, which potentially makes them more viable, this list includes masquerain, delcatty etc. they have also been given new moves.
• ·         Some pokemons have been removed some pokemons from their movepools which include examples like iron head from metagross and tailwind from salamence. These are a noticeable nerf.
• ·         Burn damage has been nerfed by making the hp loss a 1/16 as compared to the previous 1/8 health loss, it is a nerf.
• ·         The biggest nerf and the good news, only darkrai can use the move dark void; that means no smeargle with dark void

The Metagame of November:

This metagame is just taking form, or can be said that November forms the every basis of the VGC 17 metagame, there might be significant changes to it on the metagame after a major event, The London Internationals in December, but this is the base of the format/expected pokemons to be in the internats in December. Without further ado let’s jump into our list (I got loads of helps from wolfe’s competitive guides for this post on the standard sets and partners on most of these, the opinion and personal view is my own)

Xurkitree:

• ·         First up has to be the literally strongest pokemon in this format, xurkitree, this pokemon first of all most noticeably has a amazingly high special attack stat base 189 to be exact, sure is to dish out a lot of damage.
• ·         Even though ultra beasts can’t get a lot of moves, this one gets essential to it’s strategies, tail glow, it’s main usage revolves around this move, which makes it a set up sweeper by raising it’s special attack stat by 3 stages.
• ·         Xurkitree can also allowed to be fast with a choice scarf to take advantage of it’s natural offense and pick up boosts through it’s beast boost ability to sweep even easily.
• ·         Set back of xurkitree have to be it’s lower other stats, most noticeably it’s low defenses and not the fastest of speeds.
• ·         Potentially good partners can be Tapu Koko, A-Marowak, Pelliper and Garchomp.
• Sample sets:

A-Marowak:

• ·         Alolan marowak means coverage in this format.
• ·         Has a very straight forward and common moveset of flare blitz, bonemerang and shadow bone with adamant or brave nature. Varies in EV investments.
• ·         Lightingrod is an extremely scary ability on top of all those things, it can redirect super scry electric type attacks most noticeably from overpowering tapu koko and xurkitree.
• ·         It doesn’t has a bad defensive typing too, for example taking attacks from tapu bulu and steel types which are super scary to survive with most pokemons in the metagame.
• ·         Alolan marowak has to be the most dominating pokemon in this format, it can do a lot and surely does especially when combined with its signature item of thick bone.
• ·         Potentially good partners include: tapu koko in leads.

Tapu Koko:

• ·         Tapu Koko is often found as xurkitree’s partner in crime.
• ·         There are two variants of this pokemon, physically offensive and specially offensive and almost always follow the all out offense policy.
• ·         It can also adopt to different items, mainly an offensive one as choice specs or life orb, choice band variants are somewhat rare.
• ·         Good partners for tapu koko can include celesteela, xurkitree, alolan raichu and tapu lele.

Celesteela:

• ·         Celesteela unlike most other mons can be defined as a wall, it is a bulky pokemon with almost always defensive purposes.
• ·         Celesteela is the most used ultra beasts because of it’s good offensive type against the fairy type pokemons and great defensive type, making it have only one weakness.
• ·         Main wall or say defensive aspect of celesteela lies in the leech seed + substitute set with the beast boost giving benefit to it’s defenses.
• ·         Celesteela’s drawbacks have to be not having a broad movepool which makes it much easier to predict.

Oranguru

• ·         Oranguru’s main function and role has to make it the best trick room setter in this season.
• ·         The demand of the move instruct is amazing, it works amazingly well with all kinds of partners turning 2hkos into kos in a single turn also surpassing it’s own much defensive and un-required during trick room turns presence it allows it’s partners to do double the damage which really makes it worth the use.
• ·         Most orangruru sets include protect, psychic, trick room and instruct with sitrus berry. This can vary according to a team’s own needs. Such as the second most popular item for it after sitrus has to be the mental herb
• ·         Major drawbacks have to be the overpowering strong moves and dark type coverage against it; it needs support for itself to be covered up
• ·         Defensive aspects of oranguru are good too that allow it to escape tapu lele’s psychics with ease also allows it to be immune to marowak’s shadow bone.

Tapu Bulu:

• ·         Pure and surely scary offensive potential is surely to be discussed, take the scariest example as in here: wood hammer + base 130 attack stat + stab boost + grassy terrain boost, all this power going into a single target will be doing a great amount of damage and a lot of those who cannot resist the type may not survive this power.
• ·         Tapu bulu is one of those pokemons that keep a z-crystal as in grassium z, which allows it access to the scary z-power.
• ·         Tapu bulu is sure to take up loads of damage after ko’ing a lot with wood hammer, to balance it out it also has supportive aspects as in horn leech, leech seed + the grassy terrain recovery to keep it sure that it is healthy.
• ·         Major setbacks of tapu bulu have to be it getting completely walled against some pokemons as well as it’s terrain also providing recovery to the opposition. Celesteela and marowak, also intimidate users like arcanine and salamence(minority) are big challenges to it providing offense.
• ·         Good partners with tapu bulu have to be: Arcanine, Raichu and Marowak.

Tapu Lele:

• ·         No if you are wondering tapu lele does not get trick room, it’s main job in this format is to do loads of offense.
• ·         It’s ability psychic surge which allows it to set up a psychic terrain is very beneficially disruptive, other than boosting the powers of psychic type moves by x1.5 it also protects the pokemons present on the ground from any priority attacks, it comes with the benefit of protection from things like fake out and other attacks like sucker punch and ice shard (any attack that gets + priority) the latter 2 are not that common, but can be considered.
• ·         Tapu lele varies in its item choice between various offensive and defensive items like sitrus berry, leftovers and even life orb also for the 4^th filler slot after proper psychic, fairy coverage and the customary for vgc, protect. This one is a little bit less predictable than the other tapus after finding out one of their offensive moves.
• ·         Tapu Lele’s drawbacks include it getting walled against some pokemons like celesteela and oranguru, which with the correct moves can do a lot of damage back to this mon in return.

Gyarados:

• ·         Gyarados has somewhat of a good supportive importance in this format. In intimidate is the major form of its support for the team mates.
• ·         Apart from it’s supportive aspect it can also stack out loads of damage in the form of dragon dance sets + two attacks as commonly in ice fang and waterfall, these sets have good importance as many important fire types have crept in after the popular celesteela, also the presence of garchomp is much threatened by this pokemon.
• ·         Gyarados can get those scary boosts that surpass defensive investments if let go off freely in battles, it can go wrong in many manners and many ways against you. Getting a significant speed boost in a relatively slower metagame makes gyarados threaten a lot with potential offense too.
• ·         Some drawbacks of this pokemon have to be the ever common since the beginning electric type pokemons in this format including tapu koko, xurkitree and the bits of raichu.
• ·         Some pokemons that can support gyarados might be marowak which covers up for its electric weakness good.

Alolan Muk:

• ·         Alolan muk overall can be gimmicky and tossing over the game to luck, but it isn’t just about that.
• ·         Alolan muk has some very useful aspects in itself that allow it to become the part of this metagame. Dark and poison typing with the move minimize and the ability power of alchemy can make it useful enough
• ·         Power of alchemy is alolan muk’s signature ability which allows is to copy it’s partners’ ability as it faints, it works similar to the ability receiver. This ability opens up a lot of potential in this format if used correctly such as copying a-marowak’s ability lightningrod ability against a electric type, or copying the beast boost ability which will be raising it’s own proefficent stat is indeed very much useful for it.
• ·         Major drawbacks include mudsdale which can somewhat completely nullify it’s offensive presence through it’s ability called stamina and ground coverage. Garchomp can be a good answer to it as well
• ·         Never allow a muk to stack up loads of minimize, which will make it less likely to get hit by an attack and also less likely for you to win match.

Arcanine:

• ·         Arcanine stands for ultimate disruption in this format.
• ·         Arcanine is less like gyarados, and is certainly more disruptive. It can use it’s ability and its moves to lower the attack and special attack of both it’s opponents in the form of intimidate and snarl.
• ·         This isn’t it for arcanine, it an also provide offensive coverage in the form of a new move called burn up which burns out it’s fire type after a single use, more or less of a overheat it is, this can be good in taking defensive measures in certain cases, the effects of this move in easier language would mean something like ‘losing stab boost after a single use’ this can do loads of damage to steel and grass type oppositions.
• ·         The good dog of this format, arcanine has the most use in my opinion and witness out of all the previous generation games, it has the ability to threaten a lot and weaken them.
• ·         Major threats to arcanine include milotic which can really threaten it and minior can also have sets that can be very much beneficial for beating an arcanine.

Torcoal:

• ·         The hot rising star of the season has to be a torcoal, yes the things you always looked down upon at… they are now actually good and can beat you in a bout.
• ·         Here is why torcoal getting a major buff with drought makes it a part of the metagame. Assaults of full powered eruptions in the sun can surely do devastating amounts of damage to any opposition.
• ·         Spamming fire type attacks in the sun has to be torcoal’s main purpose in the metagame as in pure offense.
• ·          However its short comings often include it giving amounts of support for proper functioning and without them torcoal can’t be as much threatening to an opposition. On the other end of the meme pelliper can also threaten it loads.
• ·         Good partners include oranguru with instruct and lilligant with after you and chlorophyll which are the main supports around it, garchomp can also be considered good for it.

Hariyama:

• ·         One of the only fighting types of this format, it makes the usual fake out + trick room role in this format, like scrafty has in the past formats; with the absence of scrafty in the alola dex, hariyama seems to be the second best option.
• ·         Hariyama apart from helping out setting up trick room also gets an impressive attack stat as well as a wide variety of coverage with moves like close combat knock off, rock coverage as well as the elemental punches.
• ·         Apart from that, hariyama can also be of somewhat supportive importance, it can use moves like feint, wide guard etc to support it’s opponents.
• ·         Ofcourse the shortcoming of hariyama have to be the ever popular tapus especially the ones carrying fairy coverage, lso with things like hurricane pelliper cbecoming common in this format and the always used oranguru, it can be countered somewhat easily.
• ·         Good partners for a hariyama can be considered in a trick room setter which can support each other good, it’s presence on the teams f proygon 2 are somewhat found more common than it supporting oranguru.

Porygon 2:

• ·         The second most popular trick room setter of the alola region is porygon 2, porygon 2 can also be a one with really good bulk and the ability to survive loads of attacks. It’s advantages over oranguru include it not being weak to much significant stuff, with fighting coverage being not that common at all.
• ·         Porygon 2 can also have interesting abilities as in trace and download which can either allow to to raise it’s special attack by one stage or copy a the opposition’s ability, this can open up loads of potential for strategies.
• ·         Porygon 2 mainly uses offensive attacks like tri attack and ice beam, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that porygon 2 can provide more offense than an oranguru which seems more fitting for some teams and playstyles unlike the all-out supportive oranguru.
• ·         Shortcomings of porygon 2 include it’s ability to survive against knock off users wherever they may be and hariyamas in common, also against taunt users it cannot stand a chance as it requires an eviolite to use.
• ·         Good partners could include a hariyama and a alolan marowak.

Pelipper:

• ·         Yes I’ll be saying it again, pelliper is actually good in this format, and if you are still unaware of this fact, it was blessed with the ability drizzle, which makes it of a role similar and next to politoed.
• ·         With hidden abilities being released until now for politoed, pelliper is getting loads of usage in a surprising manner for setting up the rain, this rain more than offering offense is a good form of support with pokemons like tapu koko and xurkitree to use 100% accurate thunders or to save your steel and grass types from the dangers of a fire type.
• ·         Pelliper itself can be a support and an offensive pokemon, it can use powerful hurricanes to potentially confuse its opponents or it can use scald to burn them, also using the move tailwind gives the side of pelliper a leaping advantage in this generally slow metagame.
• ·         Shortcomings are obvious in the forms of electric types in this format, also alolan marowak can’t be used to support it directly by the field because of its drizzle ability
• ·         Good partners can include tapu koko and xurkitree with thunder.

Incineroar:

• ·         Poor incineroar has its usage nerfed because of the unreleased hidden ability of intimidate which will make it the new scrafty, but that doesn’t mean it still isn’t viable.
• ·         Incineroar gets loads and loads f really useful coverage and a significant amount of bulk which makes it somewhat of a naturally good defensive of a mon as well.
• ·         Most movesets of incineroar are simple with darkest liarat, flare blitz, fake out and protect with a positive attack nature like adamant or brave(rare). The offensive coverage of incineroar is very useful about this metagame as there happens to be a lot of oranguru and celesteela spam around this format.
• ·         Shortcoming include it competing against intimidate user whose effects darkest lairat cannot surpass, ground types can also be a lot more challenging for incineroar’s presence.
• ·         Good partners include oranguru and a fire water grass core in bulu, wishiwashi and incineroar itself (as I have used, that you will learn ahead).

Garchomp:

• ·         Standard garchomp still rules the metagame.
• ·         Main moves include the ever popular 2014 moveset of earthquake, dragon claw and rock slide.
• ·         Garchomp does garchomps tuff being a dragon type with ground stab it is sure to take out any alolan marowak threats, it’s ground typing also proves it good against the annoying alolan muk
• ·         Shortcomings include the popular tapus in this format which can do a lot of damage to this pokemon, less popular tapu fini and water types with usual ice coverage can do loads to it as well. Gyarados, alolan ninetales and weavile are sure to be its big enemies.
• ·         Even after all these struggle garchomp can find its way to creep into the metagame and make a good core around tapu koko and celesteela.

Gengar:

• ·         Gnegar gets a major nerf with restricting it to only getting the ability cursed body which removes a significant weakness from its overall typing of ground, with ground coverage being common, it’s presence is threatened, also ever popular orangruru has advantage against it, but it also has some traits that allow it to creep into this metagame.
• ·         The ghost type coverage against pokemons like tapu lele and alolan marowak which are really big I sure to be making it into a popular pokemon, apart from that have essential poison coverage against the tapus is also very big and a great point in its favor.
• ·         Gengar can also disrupt its opponents with the move taunt, another tactic it could use is the z-destiny bond, this basically works like a destiny bond + follow me, which means all attacks land into the destiny bond user making it really threatening.
• ·         Shortcoming of gengar as discussed above are ground type move users and oranguru.
• ·         Good partners could include in a build around core that counter its threats and make a good type core with loads of coverage.

Mudsdale (it’s good)

• ·         Oh mudsdale is satisfying with it’s ability stamina it can be really amazing.
• ·         An important point to discuss here is it’s ability known as stamina, it does not work like shown in the trailer, however it works like: with every hit this pokemon has its special attack stat raised by one stage.
• ·         Mudsdale can surely cover up a lot of things and also gets useful coverage, especially the move high horsepower which is a strong single target ground type attack and is independent of he grassy terrain nerfs really makes it worth a shot. Alolan marowak and muk are scared of this thingie and don’t forget the electric duo.
• ·         Shortcoming include extremely strong mons and flying types like tapu bulu and gyrados as well as celesteela to which it cannot do much damage.
• ·          Good partners include tapu koko with discharge and mons in general weak to electric types for it to support them.

Salazzle (somewhere, somewhat):

• ·         Salazzle might seem like a joke in the first impression but it can be pretty useful, more of less call it the gengar alternative.
• ·         Salazzle can use terrible strong attacks thanks to it’s special attack stat, fire and poison coverage are sure to be big in this format. Fire covers up celesteela and kartana as well as bulu whereas sludge bomb is sure to get those significant fairies of the format.
• ·         Salazzle can also learn a wide variety of very good supportive moves mainly including the move called fake out and taunt this gives a salazzle loads of potential in itself.
• ·         Major setbacks then against are ground types.
• ·         Salazzle always carries a focus sash to make it work somewhat better against the ones that threaten it and for it’s 4x weakness to ground types (except bonemerang)

Nihilego (it’s there)

• ·         Nihilego is the third most used ultra beast in this format, main reasons are obvious it’s poison typing against the tapus, its rock typing also is useful against some pokemons in this format.
• ·         Nihilego uses the items of focus sash and life orb most of the times and runs max speed to outspeed a garchomp.
• ·         Nihilego can threaten pokemons like the tapus as well as gyarados and fire types like arcanine and alolan marowak with its rock coverage in the form of power gem.
• ·         Major drawbacks of nihilego can include it’s 4x weakness to ground and its relatively low defense stat which can leave it frail against a lot of pokemons.
• ·         It can form good partners with pokemons like gyarados and alolan marowak as well as tapu koko; other intimidate setters especially salamence can suit it as well.

Milotic:

• ·         Ultimate arcanine counter is one of milotics jobs.
• ·         Providing icy wind speed control is also an advantage of having a milotic.
• ·         Shortcomings are electric and grass types.
• ·          Good partners include strong physical attackers especially tapu bulu.

Mimikyu:

• ·         Being cute and interesting enough, mimikyuu is very viable for multiple reasons, like having the ability disguise which works as a automatic substitute.
• ·         Mimikyuu’s fairy and ghost typing is also no joke it can dish out loads of damage with these attacks.
• ·         Mimikyu is also a trick room and z-destiny bond abuser, which makes it worth the usage it naturally gets.
• ·         Shortcomings include attacks like bonemerang and disruptions that can rally become big hurdles in its ways.
• ·         Good partners include which can cover up for mimikyu’s fairy and ghost weakness.
• Krookodile: is also used in the metagame.

Sample sets:

Gengar @ Ghostium Z 

Ability: Cursed Body 

Level: 50 

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe 

Timid Nature 

IVs: 0 Atk 

- Shadow Ball 

- Sludge Bomb 

- Destiny Bond 

- Protect 

Gengar @ Focus Sash 

Ability: Cursed Body 

Level: 50 

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe 

Timid Nature 

IVs: 0 Atk 

- Shadow Ball 

- Sludge Bomb 

- Taunt 

- Protect 

Porygon2 @ Eviolite 

Ability: Download 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA 

Sassy Nature 

IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe 

- Trick Room 

- Tri Attack 

- Ice Beam 

- Recover 

Hariyama @ Flame Orb 

Ability: Guts 

Level: 50 

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Def / 124 SpD / 4 Spe 

Adamant Nature 

- Fake Out 

- Close Combat 

- Knock Off 

- Ice Punch 

Pelipper @ Sitrus Berry 

Ability: Drizzle 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe 

Modest Nature 

IVs: 0 Atk 

- Scald 

- Hurricane 

- Protect 

- Tailwind 

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club 

Ability: Lightning Rod 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 HP / 140 Atk / 116 SpD 

Adamant Nature 

- Flare Blitz 

- Shadow Bone 

- Bonemerang 

- Protect 

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club 

Ability: Lightning Rod 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 HP / 180 Atk / 4 Def / 68 SpD / 4 Spe 

Adamant Nature 

- Flare Blitz 

- Shadow Bone 

- Bonemerang 

- Protect 

Mimikyu @ Ghostium Z 

Ability: Disguise 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe 

Adamant Nature 

IVs: 0 Spe 

- Shadow Claw 

- Play Rough 

- Destiny Bond 

- Trick Room 

Mimikyu @ Sitrus Berry 

Ability: Disguise 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk 

Adamant Nature 

- Shadow Sneak 

- Play Rough 

- Shadow Claw 

- Protect 

Garchomp @ Lum Berry 

Ability: Rough Skin 

Level: 50 

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe 

Jolly Nature 

- Rock Slide 

- Earthquake 

- Dragon Claw 

- Protect 

Muk-Alola @ Leftovers 

Ability: Power of Alchemy 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def 

Adamant Nature 

- Knock Off 

- Poison Jab 

- Minimize 

- Protect 

Celesteela @ Leftovers 

Ability: Beast Boost 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD 

Bold Nature 

- Heavy Slam 

- Leech Seed 

- Protect 

- Flamethrower 

Gyarados @ Sitrus Berry 

Ability: Intimidate 

Level: 50 

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe 

Jolly Nature 

- Waterfall 

- Ice Fang 

- Protect 

- Dragon Dance 

Arcanine 

Ability: Intimidate 

Level: 50 

IVs: 0 Atk 

- Snarl 

- Protect 

- Burn Up 

Torkoal @ Charcoal 

Ability: Drought 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD 

Modest Nature 

IVs: 0 Atk 

- Eruption 

- Heat Wave 

- Hidden Power 

- Protect 

Torkoal @ Firium Z 

Ability: Drought 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD 

Mild Nature 

IVs: 0 Atk 

- Eruption 

- Heat Wave 

- Solar Beam 

- Protect 

Salazzle @ Focus Sash 

Ability: Corrosion 

Level: 50 

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe 

Timid Nature 

- Fake Out 

- Sludge Bomb 

- Flamethrower 

- Protect 

Tapu Lele @ Life Orb 

Ability: Psychic Surge 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 SpA 

Modest Nature 

IVs: 0 Atk 

- Psychic 

- Moonblast 

- Protect 

Tapu Lele @ Sitrus Berry 

Ability: Psychic Surge 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 SpA 

Modest Nature 

IVs: 0 Atk 

- Psychic 

- Moonblast 

- Calm Mind 

- Protect 

Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf 

Ability: Psychic Surge 

Level: 50 

EVs: 100 HP / 252 SpA / 156 Spe 

Modest Nature 

IVs: 0 Atk 

- Psychic 

- Moonblast 

- Nature's Madness 

- Thunderbolt 

Oranguru @ Sitrus Berry 

Ability: Inner Focus 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 SpD 

Sassy Nature 

IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe 

- Psychic 

- Instruct 

- Trick Room 

- Protect 

Oranguru @ Life Orb 

Ability: Inner Focus 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD 

Quiet Nature 

IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe 

- Psychic 

- Instruct 

- Nasty Plot 

- Trick Room 

Oranguru @ Assault Vest 

Ability: Inner Focus 

Level: 50 

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA 

Modest Nature 

IVs: 0 Atk 

- Psychic 

- Thunderbolt 

- Shadow Ball 

Xurkitree @ Focus Sash 

Ability: Beast Boost 

Level: 50 

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe 

Timid Nature 

IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD 

- Thunderbolt 

- Hidden Power [Ground] 

- Protect 

- Tail Glow 

Xurkitree @ Choice Scarf 

Ability: Beast Boost 

Level: 50 

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe 

Modest Nature 

IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD 

- Thunderbolt 

- Discharge 

- Dazzling Gleam 

- Hidden Power [Ground] 

Tapu Koko @ Life Orb 

Ability: Electric Surge 

Level: 50 

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe 

Jolly Nature 

- Wild Charge 

- U-turn 

- Brave Bird 

- Protect 

Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs 

Ability: Electric Surge 

Level: 50 

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe 

Modest Nature 

IVs: 0 Atk 

- Volt Switch 

- Discharge 

- Dazzling Gleam 

- Thunderbolt 

Tapu Bulu @ Grassium Z 

Ability: Grassy Surge 

Level: 50 

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe 

Jolly Nature 

- Wood Hammer 

- Superpower 

- Protect 

- Leech Seed 

Tapu Bulu @ Leftovers 

Ability: Grassy Surge 

Level: 50 

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe 

Jolly Nature 

- Wood Hammer 

- Horn Leech 

- Leech Seed 

- Protect 

Others discussable:

Golisopod: golisodpod has the ability to underspeed alolan marowak and always outspeed marowak in the trick room environment that it is usually put in. aso strong bug coverage especially with an attack like first impression can be good against the psychic types present in this format.,

A-Ninetales is also another contender in this format, especially because of it getting the snow warning ability and activating the slush rush ability of some pokemons which who knows how potentially viable it is. Also alolan ninetales was present on the first few teams that top the ladder and it getting the move aurora veil can potentially make it a lot more viable too.

Team Report:

Personal interests:

So going in to the first ever teambuild for vgc 17 format of mine I knew I had to do something different and something surprising, as soon as I got to know that ultra beasts were allowed I had to completely scrap the idea of usage of the hypothetical team of tapu koko, raichu, wishiwashi, oranguru, mudsdale and dhelmise/tapu bulu and had to work on a new remedy before the 2017 format started and to build around some lead that could threaten the much discussed celesteela, kartana and xurkitree, so I came up with this very idea of, call it a secret weapon alolan marowak (lol, you will know what happens next with this very secret weapon) no one was interested in talking about the alolan marowak so I though I was gonna do greatly with this mon, knowing it will be a slow pokemon I partnered it up with a alolan exeggutor to cover up for its weaknesses and threats and then filled in the back with a specially offensive celesteela with a z-move that I really liked rest of the team had tapu koko and raichu in it as well, the team in practice ever took any good form because guess what, now EVERYONE IS FREAKIN USING AN ALOLAN MAROWAK! Oh yeah then that team idea gets taken down fast, now next to move onto a new team with this rough idea that to call a metagame, I came up with the following ideas:

Teambuilding:

I wanted to try out kartana with the amazing power of tapu bulu further supporting it, I knew this was going to really support my more offensive approach and intention towards a team and a big and threatening grass duo to start with, during practice with the previous team I knew the shortcomings of a alolan marowak against a wishiwashi, oh I knew it was soon enough becoming very threatening to my team so I added a wishiwashi, I added the trusty partner of an oranguru with it to come up with that surf + instruct tactic (which I will explain ahead) I was really scared of the big scary z-moves and double targets as well as the opposing incineroar at this time, so I added my own incineroar to help support the team, but this one is special as you will learn ahead, last up I added a mudsdale to offensively handle any electric types and further help me even more to counter alolan marowak, the overall team became really synergetic and worked really well.

The Team:

The following is the team with the spreads and the movesets with items:

First up really want to discuss the kartana and the tapu bulu, kartana allows me do dish out huge amounts of damage with it’s z-more in combination with its moves of smart strike and leaf blade. The reason I chose to give my kartana the z-crystal with my pokemon instead of a item like focus sash is that I really wanted tio use the advice of kyle cole here as I put it into the last team of mine that using the z-moves gives you a terribly strong attack likely to ohko many opponents, which then activates your beast boost, now you attack stats are raised and you attacks become even more stronger than ever and especially for a pokemon like kartana this was unbelievably strong of a pokemon. Next big question regarding kartana has to be why does it have the move substitute? Most people here like to run sacred swords by I went with the option of substitute to give my kartana and give defensive side to it, many times when opponents will have a fire type against kartana you wouldn’t be able to do anything much, without protecting turn one and then getting ko’d whereas substitute gives you more room, in terms of bringing in your counters In to the threat while you stall with substitute and then kartana can do offense after the threat is down. Substitute aids kartana’s weak defenses and also gives a leftosub feel in combination with a tapu bulu’s grassy terrain. Kartana wrecked through many teams with getting the dangerous setups.

Tapu bulu was also very useful, however I often really wanted to replace it, mostly because of the fact that it wasn’t getting much use, I often on feeling like bringing the other five pokemons other than tapu bulu as it only was providing me with offensive support with the grass coverage that kartana on it’s own had as well and the grassy terrain recovery wasn’t much in the actual game at all, some things I really like about this tapu bulu is that it does get the recovery forms, in horn leech, grassy terrain, this was useful in some games.

Oranguru is really good two words actually three; trick room and instruct, that is what makes this oranguru really op, trick room is really useful about my mudsdale, wishiwashi and even incineroar too which can dish out loads of damage. Instruct tactic can work with wishiwashi and mudsdale really really well, I thought since I needed a sitrus berry for my wishiwashi so I needed a different item for my oranguru, then came the mental herb that was really good especially against the people who were using taunt on their salazzle. Another unusual thing you notice on my oranguru is the offensive pressure and thunderbolt, thunderbolt I needed for gyarados and pelliper which walled my trick room mode and after that psychic when taking advantage from opposing tapu lele’s psychic terrain can also be very much useful. Oranguru really stood as a great support pokemon and supported me well.

Wishiwashi is also surprising another good pokemon which I seem is quite overlooked, it can use strong water type attacks with such high special attack stat, often on in matches it was a big threat to alolan marowak and it gets the blessing of outspeeding it in trick room which made it surely ko loads of pokemons with its strong water coverage, ice beam was very much useful against garchomp and grass types like tapu bulu. This pokemon really has some potential and needs to be used more in my opinion.

At this point you are like CAN THIS PERSON BE NORMAL!? Well idk cuz this incineroar is also really strange, my incineroar is here to somewhat counter other incineroar. That is why you probably guessed it is fast for, and also the snarl which can allow me to down my opponents’ special attacks which comes in really surprising and can be clutch for a lot of games. Life orb gets it that little boost that it needs to get ohko’es on pokemons that it leaves out by a little bit.

Mudsdale was my love from the last team, especially the coverage it gets was something I really liked, apart from spamming the ever threatening ground type attacks in this format, it can also use close combat for a form of fighting coverage, this gives it the ability of countering porygon 2 offensively as well as incineroar. On my previous team I was using a payback mudsdale but on this one I am using rock slide to use moves against pelliper and gyarados.

Conclusion, a more constructive approach towards a new team:

This team really does leave me with a positive attitude, I honest felt way better than the start of the last season I think I am growing and this season is gonna be the most fun one for me; however to make a conclusion from this team, I think that this will be a season where my offensive playstyle will be very much benefitting me also that I am loving this format and still can innovate with the limited alolan dex.

Now let’s set into the format, an anti-meta approach, so what are some of the new pokemons that I think of really interesting me? It has to be the kewl anchor pokemon, seriously I was in love with this pokemon, the first few points of this pokemon are that it can get three stab moves out of two which can be very useful as in steel and ghost type coverage. So I put in in my second team, I was also really interested in using nihilego and abusing it’s trick room, also I thought dhelmise would very much need it which I wasn’t wrong about. Later when I looked about these two they had some decent synergy around which I wanted to core around, I added a tapu fini which was inspired from me seeing a player on showdown use a water type alongside the nihilego which I thought could work really well as tapu fini could cover up loads for the nihilego’s ground type weaknesses. To round out the core I added a salamence, note here that I build this team before cybertron had his first vgc upload, however hilariously enough I found out that he too was using the same item and moveset, I feel like using salamence because it can cover up for many type weaknesses as well as beat garchomps for nihilego, outspeeding kartana is also a big advantage for it. I rounded out my second team build with the duo of marowak and tapu koko, which became a common lead in my practice matches; which I predict to become big, this is so as marowak can cover loads of the meta on its own, whereas tapu koko can use moves against waters and garchomps that threaten marowak a lot. Currently the team is the following:

This team is something that I plan to use up to the December internats after which I will be building up an entirely new team or who knows maybe modify this one to a better extent, to present into the developing format.

This would be it for my November coverage, also I am planning to do more series and be more helpful to the VGC community, these series won’t be spoiled much but the ones I am thinking as of now are putting anti-meta pokemons and giving them potential, posting a general calcs document and maybe who knows an individual pokemon analyses. Wish you a fun season to come! Bye for now!