Pokémon VGC19 Getting back into the Scene:
In the past few months
I have been totally off of playing any pokemon showdown at all, given that and
a bunch of horrid internet connectivity issues, I realized that I wasn’t going
to keep any grasp of this format also with the ultra series being in affect and
the standard structure of a team further being formalized to two restricted
slots, pinch berry holders, mega pokemon even two on one team as well as a tapu
pokemon being the conventional recipe of the format’s success I felt kinda held
out of this trend. Now after watching a lot of matches from the pokemon world
championships and later discussing on showdown chat rooms, taking quite some
time to look into what the metagame was I tried to do teambuilding myself,
ofcourse after quite some failed attempts as trying to spice things up as I
usually do. Following is the teams I built:
The date is 1st
September, 2019 Ofcourse and I decided to take teambuilding seriously after
getting in touch with the most important combinations and trends of the format,
the speeds that most pokemon hit was the most important information I acquired
from the past few days of playing through the format, I noticed that cycling
intimidate and fake out were the winners as well as knowing that this was the
format, if any was to be that revolved on board positioning especially with
such big power houses and pokemon that can shut them down, one had to make
predictions while handling those big restricted slots, using their time
carefully and their move slots intelligently if they wanted to win a match,
this format as crystal clear it becomes of what the teambuilding process should
be after some study, gets as quickly very scary playing into and provides not
that much room into playing around and having a bit of fun, or so I thought at
first atleast.
On this day I was
trying to build around a Psyspam team, I looked at the metagame and after seeing
a few trends I realized that “ ground type attacks are going to be very
affective in this format given the popularity of incineroar, pdon as well as
stakataka in it, also the ground immunities that people are most likely to
switch in as their primal groudon counters, so groudon + a gravity user would
be a good start.” Combining it with a fast hyper offensive setting on the tea
will be somewhat stress free to play around, given that I was studying Gramham
Amedee’s revolutionary Mega Medicham buildand how hyper offensive yet
successful it was, thinking that mewtwo and tapu lele will be great members of
this team, mewtwo can provide damage on physical stat negating the intimidate
cycles in this format as well as provide a really strong z move option for me, as
a special attack, tapu lele will block out any fake out spam and I also decided
to use a fun little trick with tickle+ psystrike to go well together and yes it
did work. This was an idea I discussed as I put some pokemon together to form a
team and following was the first formation of this, rather so called team:
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Mewtwo-Mega-Y @ Mewtwonite Y
Ability: Insomnia
Level: 50
EVs: 68 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD /
180 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psystrike
- Gravity
- Icy Wind
- Protect
Crobat @ Payapa Berry
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 12 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tailwind
- Taunt
- Super Fang
- Hypnosis
Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Tickle
- Moonblast
Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Precipice Blades
- Stomping Tantrum
- Protect
- Overheat
Virizion @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD /
172 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Sword
- Leaf Blade
- Protect
- Helping Hand
Mandibuzz (F) @ Psychic Seed
Ability: Overcoat
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Foul Play
- Snarl
- Tailwind
- Whirlwind
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Now you will hear quite
a bit about this team as we go down but before that I would much like to
discuss my experience in detail with a more or less of a standard team I used.
As I discussed this on showdown I got a private message of a person requesting
me to help me with their team building. I wasn’t much confident at all about my
sills given that I was facing quite a decline in my confidence especially since
I just dove back after a few very significant months where the ev spreads had
developed to a very complex state but I tried my best.
This team we ended up
with me giving my suggestions to this person and modifying the team to this state
was the reason that brought me to write this article in the first place.
The start of the team:
This person simply
give me five pokemon they had come up with while trying to teambuild, I had no
spreads or movesets to work with, these were Primal groudon, Lunala,
Incineroar, Amoonguss and Salamence. I looked at this composition, keeping in
mind that this was my first time looking at a mainstream looking team’s
structure and asked a bit more info, I found that the groudon was special and
this was a trick room team. To this I gave the following suggestions: changing
the amoonguss slot with smeargle to help deal with lunala’s mirror matches with
follow me as well as adding in a tapu lele on the last slot of the team to aid
the spore’s success on this team as well as avoid any spam of fake outs, the
following was the team I built off of in the complete sets are the following
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Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 52 HP / 68 Atk / 4 Def / 252 SpD /
132 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Double-Edge
- Dragon Claw
- Tailwind
- Roar
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Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Precipice Blades
- Eruption
- Earth Power
- Protect
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Lunala @ Lunalium Z
Ability: Shadow Shield
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moongeist Beam
- Wide Guard
- Trick Room
- Protect
|
|
Incineroar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpA
Brave Nature
- Fake Out
- Flare Blitz
- Snarl
- U-turn
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Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Moody
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Spore
- Follow Me
- Heal Pulse
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Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Dazzling Gleam
|
Playing with this
team truly made me realize that my teambuilding skills weren’t entirely trash
and building a team that was full of obvious and conventional tactics as well
as somewhat unconventional options smeargle and tapu lele as well as the spin
on move sets and playing this team, winning while having fun, all this brought
me back into this experience and I felt confident again about my knowledge of
VGC.
Individual Analyses:
Salamence’s overset was directly taken from the move report of
Jamie Boyt’s worlds report it is ev’s to invest usefully in the attack stat as
well as is a relatively bulky in the game being able to take tapu lele’s
moonblasts. This salamence I feel like is the most optimal atleast in this
point of the format, salamence is a pokemon I’d almost always play to go for
damage or click the tailwind button so protect to stall and go around your
opponents wasn’t a much needed move also it did work in roar for resetting any
xerneas lgiven they are not setting up late game as well as other gimmicky set
up based teams + the rising popularity of snorlax’s set ups rising in the
world’s meta.
Primal groudon could be surprising when you see that it is a mixed
set more focused on the special side of the offensive spectrum however, the
quiet nature paired up with the trick room firstly allows it to hit harder to
opposing groudons with its + special attack nature as most do run timid when
specially invested as well as nothing being given up on the attack or defensive
side due to the nature allows it to use precipice blades with great value too
especially on opposing xerneas or kyogres who decide to set up and/or switch in
respectively. This is a simple groudon moveset but affective for what it does,
fast (in trick room or late game tailwind) and big damage.
Lunala is also the tricky part on this team given that it uses
trick room in the contrast to the usual tailwind max speed runners. The main advantage
lunala gains on this team especially in combination with smeargle is to firstly
set up trick room and throw the opponents off guard it can also in combination
with salamence or incineroar’s intimidate on this team, take those Dark z moves
through the shadow shield. Lunala again is a simple pokemon and honestly fake
out + trick room is also a good combination in this format.
Last three pokemon
are simple and somewhat standard with little tricks to explain. Incineroar s most usually used with a
pinch berry or a z move item, this incineroar can take advantage of being a
relatively offensive incineroar as well as takes up the bulk from the assault
vest, where this team does have smeargle and lunala itself to take care of
lunala in the game, incineroar takes great advantage of snarl by punishing
kyogre switchins as well as xerneas’ set ups, it doesn’t need that strong dark
type move to carry the team, the support of snarl is a much better option in
that perspective.
Smeargle is just the bread and butter set apart from the choice of
heal pulse, usually in this slot people use things like tailwind, transform,
etc all those moves that can help support their team, however this smeargle
uses something a little bit unconventional in that regard, this team obviously
already holds wide guard within lunala, however transform wasn’t an absolute
necessary smeargle is a pokemon that is purely a support that is why I felt
like heal pulse would be optimal, in a team that doesn’t have many pinch berry
users, and lunala having shadow shield which is usually broken before it is
faced with powerful attacks, not to forget the special groudon, heal pulse
becomes a great option to utilize that is why smeargle is a great pokemon. The
main choice of putting smeargle on this team was the reason to deal with lunala
mirror matchups.
Tapu lele on a lunala and groudon team seems like a strange choice
given it is chosen over tapu koko and tapu fini which always see more use,
given the special groudon and the trick room mode of this team this tapu lele
fills up quite some holes in this team. Tapu lele firstly and quite obviously
provides a very fast offense option for this team knocking out opposing
salamence, non bulky rayquazas as well as mega gengars which can trap me in
quite easily. Tapu lele also helps to avoid opposing priority attacks, mainly
ones like extreme speed from rayquaza, the revolving door of fake out spam as
well as tornadus’s prankster taunt on my lunala, given the priority blocking
from lele’s psychic surge my team becomes a bit tougher to stall in trick room
with fake outs as well as damaging both lunala and pdon with priority attacks
for both which can be very hindering. Lastly the move choice of taunt can help
taunt opposing pokemon that are looking to taunt lunala before they get to move
and are not named tornadus.
Rebuilding the Psyspam:
Notes on Mewtwo:
As far as the
question of building an affective team with mewtwo and tapu lele combination
went the idea seemed a little bit off to me. Mewtwo is a great pokemon in
regards of the move psystrike I personally wont recommend the use mega stones after
having to try one out but I think its real potential lies in the use of a
z-move slot, with psystrike in psychic terrain boost it has the potential to fire
off big hits tat do damage based on physical stat, that means you can hit
specially defensive pokemons like kyogre and xerneas as well as pokemon built
to survive special attacks for a whole lot more unexpected damage, that is why
I feel like mewtwo could work, however overall this team couldn’t really
materialize as a solid one as I felt like in hyper offense playing very
specific in moveslots was never really my style in VGC also the ever so popular
inciniroar and yveltal alongside the new comers of the format, dark types
including umbreon and mandibuzz make extremely powerful attacks into a bunch of
nothing, combine that with a tapu lele and groudon on the team, things for the
overall composition didn’t look great.
An addition over to
it, while I was writing up this article Bas Anderson happened o snag a regional
tournament win with his gravity hypnosis team that had the mewtwo and groudon
combination, given the priority of sleep and hyper offense as ell as obviously
his amazing playing skills, this team had a smooth run through the combination,
having faced it on showdown I’ve noticed that a mixed groudon under trick room
can completely shit it down as well as some other threats, but guess what if
you can build around it well enough it can work.
The Psyspam and Umbreon
Epidemic:
While trying to
rebuild this team I looked up all of the worlds day 2 teams online and then it
came to me how a few psyspam teams especially ones with ultra necrozma were
using umbreon as a support. This made so much sense to me when I tried to
build, umbreon is a pokemon that is often put off as a niche but it truly does
work the best for these psyspam teams especially with groudons. The main
offensive threats you will be left facing are going to be the yveltal, z move
incineroar as well as the famous lunala especially arrying the z move which can
halt your psyspam quick, umbreon in addition to absorbing up those hits takes
up for the role of stalling out trick room turns with self recovery as well as
providing great utility options and helping hand, a move that is massing up
quite some potential importance in this stage of te format to add up more power
to the nukes of your team.
Why Ultra Necrozma is better
than Mewtwo:
Apart from the
aforementioned reason in addition to having one of the strongest z move options
when combined through stab and psychic terrain, necrozma has itself the
potential to run mixed movesets and does not get blocked out by any opposing
inciniroar or dark types either as it can use moves like earth power as well as
sunsteel strike or moongeist beam to run through its opponents, something that
mewtwo would lack doing affectively, sure mewtwo can run aura sphere, ice beam
and thunderbolt as well however ultra necrozma also have the potential to take
up hits given its prism armor and natural bulk combined with the pivot of
changing type in mid battle as well as boosting its speed.
Psyspam reborn with something
unique:
Needless to say that
the composition of the worlds runner up team of has the best psyspam necrozma
and primal groudon composition and was the most affective teams we saw from the
diverse pool of teams at worlds, however I like to thrive off of the surprise
factor for my opponents as much as I can, I also had the idea of gravity +
groudon and loved the previous + spa natured mixed slow groudon set I was
running. When looking through a partial trick room mode couldn’t find anything
else than affective psychic types and did not want a third one up on my team
that is why I went with. Then came a random idea to mind, using Comfey, at
first I thought this was going to be one of those ideas that I do 2 to 3
battles in test with and scrape It off completely but tried to test it and
actually won those first 3 battles.
What does Comfey do?
·
Comfey is a pokemon that is something no one
ever expects to seeing this format, this cute little fairy flower crown thing
just seems like one of those cute fillers or a meme but when you look into it,
it could promise some serious potential on your team as well.
·
I firstly tried to test comfey because it
learned tick room and wasn’t a psychic type to add up on the same weaknesses,
on the positive side could take up dark z moves and foul plays running around
the format.
·
Comfey has a rather forgettable ability of
triage which basically gives priority to healing moves… giving this comfey not
only learns the move floral healing which works similar to heal pulse, affected
by terrain ( boosts in grassy terrain) it also learns moves like draining kiss
and giga drain which can turn out to be priority attacks on its opponents.
·
Later I found out that comfey also has the
capacity to learn helping hand an amazing move as aforementioned and even
better for a team that is more focused on providing hyper offense other than
pivoting.
·
Comfey can also partner up with lele to
completely shut down any clangorous soulblaze strats that someone still runs,
comfey can do priority healing for primal groudon’s eruption, can break focus
sashes with priority status of attack resists ark moves etc
·
Yes floral healing works through psychic terrain
and obviously so does helping hand.
An Initial Sketch of the team:
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Necrozma-Dusk-Mane @ Ultranecrozium
Z
Ability: Prism Armor
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 4 Def / 212 SpA / 4 SpD /
188 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sunsteel Strike
- Photon Geyser
- Earth Power
- Protect
Tapu Lele @ Choice Specs
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Gravity
- Moonblast
- Energy Ball
Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Earth Power
- Precipice Blades
- Protect
Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Moody
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Follow Me
- Fake Out
- Spore
- Wide Guard
Comfey @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Triage
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Floral Healing
- Giga Drain
- Helping Hand
Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Aerilate
Level: 50
EVs: 196 Atk / 60 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Double-Edge
- Hyper Voice
- Tailwind
- Protect
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This was obvious to
me how smeargle and salamence and even comfey were just filler to test out
primal groudon and ultra necrozma for myself but then I realized comfey seemed
to be more effective than I thought it ever would be so myself, that brought me
to giving a serious thought into this team replacing smeargle and salamence
with something more appropriate on the team, a normal the to counter lunala???
Kangaskhan maybe… salamence is here to set up crucial tailwinds initially and
takes it switch ins and provides intimidates… Kartana or mandibuzz??? How if I
try out mega gyarados which will provide me with an answer to lunala and round
immunity as well as intimidate but then what would work for the tailwind slot?
Is mega gyarados going to work? These were the initial thoughts that ran
through my mind. Following is the reconsideration of the team and ev spreads as
well:
Refining the EV spreads:
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Groudon-Primal
@ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 28 Def / 180 SpA
/ 44 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Earth Power
- Precipice Blades
- Protect
·
116+
Atk Primal Groudon Precipice Blades vs. 252 HP / 28 Def Primal Groudon:
174-206 (84 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
·
+1 4+
Atk Primal Groudon Precipice Blades vs. 252 HP / 60 Def Primal Groudon:
176-210 (85 - 101.4%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
·
252 SpA
Primal Groudon Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 44 SpD Primal Groudon: 176-210 (85 -
101.4%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
·
+2 84+
SpA Fairy Aura Xerneas Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 44 SpD Primal Groudon: 109-129
(52.6 - 62.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
·
180+
SpA Primal Groudon Eruption (150 BP) vs. +2 252 HP / 4 SpD Xerneas in Harsh
Sun: 84-100 (36 - 42.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
·
4 Atk
Primal Groudon Precipice Blades vs. 252 HP / 140 Def Xerneas: 76-91 (32.6 -
39%) -- 99.7% chance to 3HKO
·
4 Atk
Primal Groudon Helping Hand Precipice Blades vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Xerneas:
132-156 (56.6 - 66.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
·
4 Atk
Primal Groudon Helping Hand Precipice Blades vs. 252 HP / 140 Def Xerneas:
115-136 (49.3 - 58.3%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO
|
|
Comfey
@ Aguav Berry
Ability: Triage
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 132 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Floral Healing
- Giga Drain
- Helping Hand
·
-1 184+
Atk Necrozma-Dusk-Mane Sunsteel Strike vs. 252 HP / 124 Def Comfey: 132-156
(83.5 - 98.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
·
252+
Atk Primal Groudon Fire Punch vs. 252 HP / 124 Def Comfey in Harsh Sun:
129-153 (81.6 - 96.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
·
252+
Atk Primal Groudon Precipice Blades vs. 252 HP / 124 Def Comfey: 102-121
(64.5 - 76.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
·
252 Atk
Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 124 Def Comfey: 127-151
(80.3 - 95.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
·
252+
SpA Primal Kyogre Water Spout (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 128+ SpD Comfey in Heavy
Rain: 153-180 (96.8 - 113.9%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
·
252 SpA
Primal Kyogre Water Spout (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 128+ SpD Comfey in Heavy
Rain: 138-163 (87.3 - 103.1%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
·
+2 252+
SpA Fairy Aura Xerneas Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 128+ SpD Comfey: 112-133
(70.8 - 84.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
·
0 SpA
Comfey Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 80 SpD Gastrodon: 108-128 (49.5 - 58.7%) --
96.5% chance to 2HKO
|
|
Tapu Lele @ Life Orb
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 20 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD /
228 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Gravity
- Moonblast
- Protect
212
SpA Life Orb Tapu Lele Moonblast vs. 52 HP / 252 SpD Mega Salamence: 174-211
(98.3 - 119.2%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
-1
196 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tapu Lele:
109-129 (74.6 - 88.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
|
|
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 180 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD /
68 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
- Protect
252+
Atk Mega Gyarados Crunch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Shadow Shield Lunala: 188-224 (88.2
- 105.1%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO
+1
252+ Atk Mega Gyarados Crunch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Shadow Shield Lunala: 282-332
(132.3 - 155.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1
252+ Atk Mold Breaker Mega Gyarados Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 88 Def Primal
Groudon: 102-120 (49.2 - 57.9%) -- 95.3% chance to 2HKO
-1
252+ Atk Primal Groudon Precipice Blades vs. 180 HP / 4 Def Mega Gyarados:
67-79 (34.7 - 40.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+
SpA Primal Kyogre Thunder vs. 180 HP / 4 SpD Mega Gyarados: 140-166 (72.5 -
86%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+
SpA Primal Kyogre Water Spout (150 BP) vs. 180 HP / 4 SpD Mega Gyarados in
Heavy Rain: 80-95 (41.4 - 49.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252
SpA Primal Kyogre Water Spout (150 BP) vs. 180 HP / 4 SpD Mega Gyarados in
Heavy Rain: 72-86 (37.3 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
|
The Final Product:
The following is
probably the most work I’ve put into a team in this format, given the time I
had being occupied by studies and/or other significant work, I’m glad I had the
opportunity t learn this much about the format to go as far as developing my ev
spreads for its specificity and was able to dip my fingers into a much more
developed and enriched vgc format that is starting to see the light of
versatility in its archetypes especially after worlds:
|
Necrozma-Dusk-Mane @ Ultranecrozium
Z
Ability: Prism Armor
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 4 Def / 212 SpA / 4 SpD /
188 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sunsteel Strike
- Photon Geyser
- Earth Power
- Protect
|
Tapu Lele @ Life Orb
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 20 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD /
228 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Gravity
- Moonblast
- Protect
|
Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 28 Def / 180 SpA
/ 44 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Earth Power
- Precipice Blades
- Protect
|
|
Comfey @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Triage
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 132 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Floral Healing
- Giga Drain
- Helping Hand
|
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 180 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD /
68 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
- Protect
|
Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Moody
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Follow Me
- Fake Out
- Tailwind
|
Individual Analyses:
Necrozma:
As aforementioned the
choice of necrozma over mewtwo was for more flexibility while providing top
tier offensive pressure much powered up by tapu lele’s psychic terrain, further
combine this with comfey’s helping hand and you will be picking up OHKO’s all
day long, necrozma was found on to be most of my leads, given its sheer
offensive pressure it can provide against a number of pokemon in this format, I
usually go right ahead to ultra burst and start doing damage with a side
support of either comfey, smeargle or even directly leading it with tapu lele
depending upon my opponents’ team composition, overall necrozma is quite the
star of this team’s rather mostly offensive nature, I would have wanted to put
on a utility move on necrozma given that I don’t usually opt for the option of
protect but honestly in the correct games protect does wonders to provide
longevity of this beast’s presence on the field which is often a much required
for win con, to do as much damage as possible.
Tapu Lele;
In format that is running rampant with choice
scarf tapu lele the choice of a life orb tapu lele seems quite odd to put on my
team however I simply went with this set or two reasons firstly being the
hinderace of choice scarf lele’s offense and flexibility issues as well as to
defeat bulkier pokemons, most of the pokemon are in a mid/slow tier which tapu
lele given the appropriate nature and investment can be built to outspeed,
others are much faster in their tiers of speed such as mega salamence, loppuny,
gengar, tapu koko and so on, while tap lele is mostly built to outspeed these
buggers and get kos on them, the spread that Jamie boyt brought to worlds with
his slaamence was quite a counter to it, also given loppuny teams often carry a
tailwind option as well as shedinja and tapu koko as well as rayquazas have
started to run bulk on their movesets I felt like it was quite a gamble to
throw tapu lele out on the field and try to pick up kos at this time in the
format, that is why I opted for a relatively fast (built to outspeed primal and
landorus t) offensive life orb variant which can give me an edge of offense
against Jamie’s mega salamence set which is built to live tapu lele’s
moonblast, also this sorta mid tier option gave me the flexibility to switch
between psychic and fairy type moves which was also very useful overall as well
as making it much more useful under trick room modes given that I do run them.
Primal groudon:
I am glad I was able
to optimally fit in gravity on my tapu lele. With that being said I really love
the concept of my primal groudon’s ev spread and moveset I think it could be a
real winner in this format given the correct speed options ialso really like
how I was able to fit in the best ev’s to get the most use out of its purpose,
groudon is a good pokemon overall but really shines when gravity is set up and
becomes a merciless monster when it is paired up with priority heal pulse and
helping hand aid from comfey under trick room that is, groudon can pick up easy
ko’s given its dual stab offense of fire and ground type attacks which can pick
up a lot of mons as well as deal a great amount of damage of resisted switch
ins, that is just how powerful groudon is. I really wanted groudon to for
surely outspeed opposing ones and have more definite power than them, that is
why no speed evs with a quiet nature was chosen to wreck havoc on opponents
under trick room.
Comfey:
Time for the somewhat
stupid looking yet kinda innocent and cute flower crown to be discussed. Comfey
was a pokemon I just used as a random test but given the niche it provides on
its own self as well as how well it fits into a psyspam team given its healing
and powerup properties notto mention the amazing pure fairy typing and the
defense it will provide to this team, I was quite impressed and when trying to
optimize the ev spread I learnedit wasn’t as frail as it looked to be either.
Comfey is most oftenly found on the leads of this team paired up with either
necrozma, tapu lele or smeargle, each of its partners can either provide a way
for it to set up trick room or take aid from comfey’s side to start dealing big
damage. Comfey was probably the last pokemon I would look upon and think it had
a potential to be worked with but it did work, quite a niche still but for the
concept of a team with both psyspam and gravity + groudon shenanigans, comfey
was the correct slot to be chosen. These four were the pokemon in rotating
order that I brought to most of my games providing an offensive as well as a
speed control set up which was often sometimes the surprise factor for
opponents, I love these four having a composition that can be worked with and
loved played it even more.
Gyarados:
To my surprise
gyarados was chosen over slamence on this team, why? Here’s why: salamence and
gyarados will most often be found doing the same things on this team, switching
into primal’s powerful attacks, providing intimidate support, whereas salamence
is the only one that can use tailwind which is something I felt like was much
needed in case I didn’t use any trick room or if it was blocked, slamence being
played was quite obvious alongside the rising popularity of dragon moves being
carried groudon as well as kyogre nuking
it with its ice beam on an obvious switchin, gyarados gae me that bit of an
edge upon these switches, bt the main reason I choose it over salamence was its
capability to counter psyspam as well as most importantly lunala, gyarados upon
mega evolution changes types as well,
making it much more dynamic in use as compared to salamence also with
the nature of the team being most reliant on the set up of trick room in the
first phase, then dealing as much damage and finally resorting to the end game
clean up of whatever is left of the opponent, gyarados was naturally a better
fit given that paired with dragon dance it can transition much better in and
out of trick room given that last turn that is usually defensively stalled so
gyardos an get mostly a free attack and speed boost off. Talking of stat
boosts, the speed is ev’d to outspeed lunala at +1 speed.
Smeargle:
I thought I would
find myself changing the last two slots to kangaskhana nd salamnece most
optimally, however the team didn’t eall for it much promisingly, little did I
know smeagle was the ultimate better option, for why smeargle is on this team:
to redirect moonraze maelstorm from lunala with follow me and given its ghost
immunity… that pretty much. For the othr reasons it is there to provide enough
room for its partners to set up, whether it is comfey;s trick room, lele;s
gravity or gyarados’s dragon dance, smeargle can always be there to provide the
leverage its partners need, like gyrados smeargle isn’t the most used pokemon
but provides the time and space for its partners to snag a win with ease when
brought to the correct matchups, given the wish of tailwind I was glad I could
use it on my smeargle in place of wide guard, which isn’t after all, all that
necessary. Similar to gyarados’s dragon dance tailwind similarly can do wonders
when used on the last often stalled turn of trick room.
A few changes of choice:
By the time I was
playing with this team I replaced using sunsteel strike with trick room on
necrozma which was far more optimal also allowing me a potential situation to
reset trick room on its last turn. Also replacing protect with overheat on primal
groudon was to help against late game situations vs yveltal and celesteela
which would stall out a full health groudon easily by witling away the power of
eruption, since groudon only does offense it wasn’t as bad of a trade.
Leads:
Comfey + Necrozma:
This is a lead that
can do a lot in a came usually partnered up with primal groudon and tapu lele
in the back is the most common lead and composition that I’ve brought to my
games. You can set up trick room or you can use comfey; support for necrozma to
spread its spam of offense, dependant upon the situation tapu lele can switch
in on the side to aid with psychic terrain blocking prankster and fake outs,
once trick room is set up groudon can come in with comfey’s support to run
through teams.
Comfey + Smeargle:
This is a lead that I
use when I am not sure that if comfey will be allowed to set u with ease in the
games that I play with it. Usual play is to use smeargle as a distraction to
let comfey set up trick room, in this composition if smeargle is switched out
to groudon mostly, I can bring it in on last turn of trick room to set up an
unexpected tailwind which does wonders in the late game especially.
Threats:
The most serious
threat I would face in this team is when facing the rayquaza + lunala core with tapu fini and incineroar core, pdon is
at constant threat as well as the pivot of rayquaza taking up ground attacks
and tapu fini setting terrain so that fake outs are not blocked punches holes
in my strategy, the most optimal play I have to make against this team is to
set up gravity and/or double target with my attacks to pick up kos which in
turn limits the pivots of my opponents.
Conclusion:
This team is not the
best one out there but I am extremely happy to be able to pilot it as well as I
did knowing I didn’t keep up with the format much at all, I was able to get to
the 1500’s on the showdown ladder which was by best rating so far in this
season, this play on pivots inspires me to do a team around mega gengar with a
partner that limits the pivotal doors of the format. This was all for now I will
hopefully be back for more, hope you enjoyed reading through.
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