March VGC 18 Team Report

Hi guys today I am back with another team this time am presenting my experiences in the month of march, this time I tried to be creative around kommo-o teams especially after getting super surprised by the costa mesa regional finals in their creative teams especially in term so it being a turtlemoth meme team which was extremely surprising to be seen getting played in a serious tournament and seeing such success. Without further ado this report:

Teambuilding process:

First of all the goal that I did set for myself was to build around kommo-o mainly I didn’t knew how successful would this dragon thing get but I wanted to innovate this concept something other than the mega gengar, whimsicott bulu usual kommo-o stuff.

As common concept of the fantasy cores, around the dragon fairy steel core goes I wanted to put it in one, kommo deals with a lot but mainly goes down to fairies and tapu lele was a big issue for the format tapu koko was my tapu of choice to beat tapu fini something that sticks around much longer than expected and the next option I did add on was a celesteela as I knew it’d deal well with the ever so popular mega metagross + tapu lele combination.

 When the thoughts of supporting these three came to mind hitmontop seemed to be a much amazing option it can help kommo-o clear up the steel types with its fighting coverage and further greatly helps pokemons like celesteela to set up leech seed or attack as well as tapu koko and especially kommo-o to land attacks with feint, fake out supporthelps kommo-o set up and wide guard could form an amazing support to this core didn’t knew it’d work out this well now the last two slots were left to figure out what this core didn’t cover + could use around kommo-o as a mega.

Now as weird as it may sound the two mons I used to round the team out were tyranitar as my mega and then nihilego the most interesting part was that they were part of the trick room mode alongside hitmontop the first few tests went by extremely well and I loved this composition for the team nihilego being reasonably frail was covered by hitmontop’s intimidate, fakeout support whereas its special defense got a boost from tyranitar’s sand stream. Got a 4-0 win streak in the first time playing with the team.

Important calculations:

Offensive Calcs 180+ SpA Kommo-o Clangorous Soulblaze vs. 44 HP / 100 SpD Mega Charizard Y: 84-99 (52.8 – 62.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO +1 180+ SpA Kommo-o Clanging Scales vs. 44 HP / 100 SpD Mega Charizard Y: 73-87 (45.9 – 54.7%) — 52% chance to 2HKO 180+ SpA Kommo-o Clangorous Soulblaze vs. 236 HP / 84 SpD Zapdos: 102-120 (52.3 – 61.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO +1 180+ SpA Kommo-o Clanging Scales vs. 236 HP / 84 SpD Zapdos: 91-108 (46.6 – 55.3%) — 66.8% chance to 2HKO +1 0- Atk Kommo-o Close Combat vs. 172 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 188-224 (100 – 119.1%) — guaranteed OHKO Defensive Calcs 252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. +1 0 HP / 68 SpD Kommo-o: 130-156 (86.6 – 104%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO 4 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. +1 4 HP / 4 Def Kommo-o: 126-150 (83.4 – 99.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO

-1 252+ Atk Landorus-T Earthquake vs. 156 HP / 4 Def Tapu Koko in Electric Terrain: 116-138 (70.3 - 83.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 SpA Mega Gengar Sludge Bomb vs. 156 HP / 76 SpD Assault Vest Tapu Koko: 144-170 (87.2 - 103%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO -1 252+ Atk Landorus-T Tectonic Rage (180 BP) vs. 156 HP / 4 Def Tapu Koko: 276-326 (167.2 - 197.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

0 Atk Celesteela Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tapu Lele: 174-206 (98.3 – 116.3%) — 87.5% chance to OHKO 252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Heat Wave vs. 228 HP / 124+ SpD Celesteela in Sun: 168-200 (83.5 – 99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery 212+ Atk Incineroar Flare Blitz vs. 228 HP / 156 Def Celesteela: 168-200 (83.5 – 99.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery 252+ SpA Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 228 HP / 124+ SpD Celesteela in Psychic Terrain: 51-60 (25.3 – 29.8%) — 0.4% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

The Team:

Kommo-o @ Kommonium Z  Ability: Soundproof  Level: 50  EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 180 SpA / 68 SpD / 252 Spe  Modest Nature  - Clanging Scales  - Flamethrower  - Close Combat  - Protect

So the first member definitely has to be kommo-o here the spread was really satisfying and was taken online from a sample set, this really did work out, to sum up my overall opinion on kommo-o I really don’t think if it ever did extremely well in a match mainly relating to me not being able to use it properly in my games or losing it too early but when it did exerted a big amount of offensive pressure on its opponents, there were thought games where it got all the kos before my opponents happened to quit seeing themselves at loss but I think kommo-o still stands vulnerable to some tactics especially due to then its moves lowering the stat boosts very much soon. I felt like I’d have to write a whole lot of kommo-o in this report but not that much, it is a good pokemon that can exert loads of pressure on your team but then again I felt as if centralizing a team around it which definitely did limit the potent of the team considering it took quite some support to be played on the field correctly.

Hitmontop @ Mago Berry  Ability: Intimidate  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  Adamant Nature  - Fake Out  - Feint  - Close Combat  - Wide Guard

Hitmontop is the mvp of this team pretty much, first of all the support it provides with fakeout and then add that up with the pressure of feint is quite amazing a lot of people will ask why not scrafty? Scrafty does get intimidate and fake out however the stronger option on fighting coverage as well as the wide guard and feint as aforementioned was quite amazing. Strong fighting coverage helps against a whole lot of this fighting weak format, the tyranitars, kangaskhans, heatrans, incineroars, kartanas, you name it! Hitmontop also proved to be a surprisingly good counter to the landorus out there, with the support of wide guard, fake out and especially intimidate it was quite an excellent defensive counter to it. Hitmontop’s wide guard suppot works excellently against others especially for this team which has many mpokemons that need defense against strong support moves, overall I didn’;t think hitmontop would be this useful but I think it was an extremely good support for kommo-o as well as the rest of this team.

Tapu Koko @ Assault Vest  Ability: Electric Surge  Level: 50  EVs: 156 HP / 4 Def / 92 SpA / 76 SpD / 180 Spe  Timid Nature  - Thunderbolt  - Dazzling Gleam  - Sky Drop  - Electroweb

Assault vest tapu koko was something I was against the ret of the entire season as I felt like it couldn’t do anything properly at all. This is the only spread that I made myself and I guess am extremely satisfied with it, the overall role of this tapu koko could be called out as an offensive or supportive utility, electro web is a great addition to this team as it helps against kommo-o’s setup for teams as well as lowering others’ speed for this teams kinda weird speed tier. Dazzling gleam and thunderbolt are staple on any tapu koko sets however sky dropwas also quite awesome especially for the peoplewho missed out on expecting this option once again for the setup of kommo-o as well as lifting off huge threats from the field, while the partner could do the damage. Sometimes the disruption of its electric terrain would also help to disrupt lele or bulu as well as proved to be my primary counter to amoonguss’s spore. Overall I guess this was really the first time I loved using this pokemon after ‘not getting it’ for so long.

Celesteela @ Leftovers  Ability: Beast Boost  Level: 50  EVs: 228 HP / 156 Def / 124 SpD  Careful Nature  - Heavy Slam  - Flamethrower  - Protect  - Leech Seed

Celesteela forms the final part of this core and well did I got after one year what real celesteelas can do the best, this team also did made e realize how celesteela is used however not in the same format ti once happened to dominate. This celesteela is extremely simple of a pokemon and also very simple to use, an excellent pivotal switch in or to be used to pick up kos or settle down on the field easily. Alto o people have started to use it with seeds in combination with any terrain bu I guess this spread calls out better for the more classic versions of celesteela and fit the team amazingly especially when it had to absorb the attacks, for it had a lot to absorb attacks.

Tyranitar-Mega @ Tyranitarite  Ability: Sand Stream  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  Adamant Nature  - Rock Slide  - Assurance  - Ice Punch  - Protect

Tyranitar was the option when I realized I could still use some mons to counter zard y and needed coverage battling against a cresselia with two fighting types to begin with and the other that can’t land a huge amount of damage was going to be tough, tyranitar was the option so for it could also count as my mega, gave me more weather control as well. always thought of tyranitar being as pretty much of an eh-ish mega pokemon however I did got the taste of its power by using it in this team. It can even survive 4x effective attacks of fighting types and then can also land monstrous attacks back. The coverage option after the stab attacks was ice punch as it could give me more offensive coverage against a landorus. Assurance was a really cool option that could potentially allow me to pick up surprise and easy as well as unexpected ohkos in combination whwne a koko, ninilego, hitmontop or kommo-o was on the side of the field with this monster. I loved this mega despite thining of it as something that shouldn’t be appreciated in use.

Nihilego @ Life Orb  Ability: Beast Boost  Level: 50  EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  Timid Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Sludge Bomb  - Power Gem  - Trick Room  - Protect

Last up is nihilego as surprise option as well, nihilego is quite an amazing pokemon especially packing up for that strong poison type coverage in that sludge bomb as wel as giving extre move coverage with more reliable of a accurate rock type attack in power gem nihilego ended up acting as surprisingly bulky on this team especially as the support of hitmontop and then the sand boost gave to its defenses hitmontops wide guard was also quite a big cause. Its cover move after protect, as in for trick room was an interesting option especially as I thought this team ended up being in a weird speed tier with mons like hitmontop, celesteela and tyranitar itself trick room proved to be an excellent and yet again an unexpected speed control option on this team of mine. It worked really well against teams that relied on tailwind as well as unsuspected reversing opposing trick room pokemons.

Full pastebin:

Kommo-o @ Kommonium Z  Ability: Soundproof  Level: 50  EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 180 SpA / 68 SpD / 252 Spe  Modest Nature  - Clanging Scales  - Flamethrower  - Close Combat  - Protect  Tapu Koko @ Assault Vest  Ability: Electric Surge  Level: 50  EVs: 156 HP / 4 Def / 92 SpA / 76 SpD / 180 Spe  Timid Nature  - Thunderbolt  - Dazzling Gleam  - Sky Drop  - Electroweb  Hitmontop @ Mago Berry  Ability: Intimidate  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  Adamant Nature  - Fake Out  - Feint  - Close Combat  - Wide Guard  Celesteela @ Leftovers  Ability: Beast Boost  Level: 50  EVs: 228 HP / 156 Def / 124 SpD  Careful Nature  - Heavy Slam  - Flamethrower  - Protect  - Leech Seed  Tyranitar-Mega @ Tyranitarite  Ability: Sand Stream  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  Adamant Nature  - Rock Slide  - Assurance  - Ice Punch  - Protect  Nihilego @ Life Orb  Ability: Beast Boost  Level: 50  EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  Timid Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Sludge Bomb  - Power Gem  - Trick Room  - Protect

Conclusion:

This was it for my weird yet fun march team I honestly didn’t think that this idea would ever have worked out here, however this got really fun to use and I think I really did got a hang of the offense provided by this team. Hopefully you guys liked it and would give it a try for yourself, as of now I am looking forward to a new month where I would probably be using a mega venusaur team or something anti-meta and defensive. Bye for now!