VGC 20 Not your Average Sunny Room Team

                This was a rather strange team to be made overall by me. I wanted to get back into playing pokemon showdown or atleast build a new updated team for myself in the new series where sleep is a much bigger problem to face and incineroar is re introduced making some new tricks much more important. This allowed me to go ahead and pull some idea out of my own.

Initially I thought that starting out building a team with tyranitar would be much advantageous as with the introduction of teams abusing venusaur in torkoal’s sun, lapras being able to threaten with its gigantamax and incineroar running rampant… a weakness policy tyranitar set seemed quite good here for my offensive playstyle.

I needed a trick room setter to go with this mon and then realized that having a mon that was interesting yet bulky like duosion (which to my surprise carries a base 125 spa) would do good in the combination since tyranitar’s no 1 threat of conkeldurr is going to be something to watch out for and then adding on ally switch is something that I needed to put on duosion to make the thing even more solid. To discourage intimidate I added milotic and then threw on a awkward combination of ninetales with nasty plot and venusaur without protect to make a f/w/g core. I just added in an assault vest sir fetch here to counter the numerous fighting weaknesses this format has and also get some more coverage on the last slot.

Th team, as exoected of me just trying to put together these random puzzle pieces was not going to work out at al so I just clicked some thing here and there in a team on a joking manner I just lead ninetales and venusaur ad clicked things like nasty plot and then sleep powder… for a moment I really liked this combination and then I realized for the most part this is what I was leading and tyranitar was something that faded in the back.  Saw initial problems with this combination like fakeout or dynamax setups and I decided to re build around this lead combination.

Best way to sop priority and faster hyper offense which will completely run over this combination I added in an indeedee and knowing that indeedee best partners with hatterene. Knowing that hatterene had an interesting gmax move, which I was surprisedto learn that it confused both opponents at once was a game changer. Naturally I had found myself a trick room setter for my aforementioned pick of tyranitar and then to round off the team I kept milotic, but neither do I know how to effectively play a milotic, neither did I brought it to any games. When trying to research for my teambuilding I was trying to read up a few team reports and read about Gary Quan’s leek carrying sirfetch hich gives 100% crit chance on a leaf blade is something interesting as it had its fighting and psychic weakness well covered for.

Following is a detailed analyses:

Ninetales @ Life Orb  Ability: Drought  Level: 50  EVs: 52 HP / 20 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 180 Spe  Modest Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Heat Wave  - Nasty Plot  - Dark Pulse  - Weather Ball

Ninetales is a simple mon I lead off with it and try to click nasty plot if possible, it Is usually possible as it allows venusaur to get in a sleep powder or I bait a fake out and switch on the side into a indeededd switch in and get the nasty plot set up. From this point on the combination of ninetales rather faster speed in this format combined with the somewhat bulk that dynamax provides or me just spamming heat waves to do effective spread damage happens. Sometimes knowing that a mon in the back like a hatterene or tyranitar or evn sirfetch is something that I’d like to dynamax I would try to call off ninetales’ dynamax and just do as much damage as possible. The evs re somewhat smart I guess after maxing out the sub optimal special attack stat it carries. Knowing that nasty plot rotoms were a new rising trend in the format I hypothesized that this format had the capacity to allow a mon to set up a high risk high reward move like nasty plot, that is why I put it on a frail mon like ninetales to begin with and combine that with indeedee and venusaur the setup is assured further making the strategy affective.

+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Ninetales Max Overgrowth (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tyranitar: 309-367 (74.6 - 88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO +2 252+ SpA Life Orb Ninetales Max Darkness (130 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Dragapult: 390-460 (118.9 - 140.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO +2 252+ SpA Life Orb Ninetales Max Flare (130 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Assault Vest Conkeldurr: 216-255 (51.1 - 60.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO +2 252+ SpA Life Orb Ninetales Max Flare (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 48 SpD Assault Vest Conkeldurr: 204-242 (96.2 - 114.1%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO 252+ Atk Life Orb Excadrill Max Quake (130 BP) vs. 68 HP / 4 Def Ninetales through Reflect: 272-323 (86.6 - 102.8%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO 252+ Atk Life Orb Excadrill Max Quake (130 BP) vs. 52 HP / 20 Def Ninetales through Reflect: 265-314 (85.4 - 101.2%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

Venusaur @ Focus Sash  Ability: Chlorophyll  Level: 50  EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  Modest Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Light Screen  - Sleep Powder  - Sludge Bomb  - Leaf Storm

Venusaur is a simple man. Spread sleep powder… that all I ever did with it, so I probably some point down the line decided to make it speedy with some bulk however quickly gave up on it soon. I never clicked much move slots so I just added on a light screen which ended up saving me in a few games and became very crucial. That’s all for venusaur really. If in a game I felt like venusaur’s fast offense or sleep powder may be superior to other mons in the late game when I’m starting out with a trick room approach, hatterene can also play the role of setting up the sun conveniently as trick room ends, given it is dynamaxed.

Indeedee-F (F) @ Psychic Seed  Ability: Psychic Surge  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD  Bold Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Psychic  - Helping Hand  - Follow Me  - Reflect

Indeedee is also another simple mon on the team. This is quite what an indeedee does. It is a bulky follow me user that sets up psychic terrain for the benefit of its team members carries psychic type coverage and strikes down fighting types or poison types with boost of psychic terrain. Indeedee’s helping hand can also be crucial for its offense oriented team partners. In the end reflect is a situation move here which did actually saved my hatterene. I don’t feel the need to ever use protect on this mon either and heal pulse wasn’t worth it so I decided to place another screen move on it.

Hatterene-Gmax (F) @ Babiri Berry  Ability: Magic Bounce  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 196 SpA / 60 SpD  Modest Nature  IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe  - Psychic  - Dazzling Gleam  - Trick Room  - Mystical Fire

Hatterene is a lovely mon . it sets up trick room and then attacks opponents with full force with either of its three moves given the support of indeedee’s follow me redirection and also its helping hand. Hatterene is also another immunity to sleep powders. One thing I learned about hatterene is to not have it out against an incineroar. That is what influenced my opinion to keep a sirfetch on the last slot on this team. A parting shot with magic bounce is able to switch out a gigantamax hatterene.

252+ SpA Duraludon Max Steelspike (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Babiri Berry Hatterene: 112-133 (68.2 - 81%) -- guaranteed 2HKO +2 252+ SpA Duraludon Max Steelspike (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Babiri Berry Hatterene: 178-211 (108.5 - 128.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252+ SpA Life Orb Duraludon Max Steelspike (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 60 SpD Babiri Berry Hatterene: 138-164 (84.1 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

Tyranitar @ Weakness Policy  Ability: Sand Stream  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  Adamant Nature  - Rock Slide  - Assurance  - Dragon Dance  - Brick Break

Tyranitar doesn’t have as big of a story as other mons on this team however it gets the job done. Its coverage and stab options are good enough for the current metagame also giving my team a second weather setter giving me the advantage of a bit of chip damage. Option people don’t expect tyranitar to carry dragaon dance as well, however when dynamaxed it can protect. Often for a surprise factor or when I need that extra bit of speed I click dragon dance and am immediately at an advantage against my opponents. Especially imagine a last turn of trick room where my opponents opt for a double protect or where I know my opponent is going to switch into a defensive position. In both these cases tyranitar can set up a dragon dance to its advantage.

Sirfetch'd @ Leek  Ability: Scrappy  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  Adamant Nature  - Close Combat  - Brick Break  - Protect  - Leaf Blade

Last but not the least is sirfetch. Being able to have a 50% crit chance on all of its moves and then leaf blade hitting for 100% crit chance. Not to mention the tremendous base attack stat that this duck knight carries. I had to put it on. Scrappy in advantage to not making me hesitant to attack with stab options expecting a ghost type in the back is now also immune to intimidate making I a more ideal option against incineroar in particular.