VGC 20 Team: Prioritizing Victory (Post Isle Of Armor Metagame)

Duraludon @ Weakness Policy  Ability: Stalwart  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 44 SpA / 124 SpD / 68 Spe  Modest Nature  - Dragon Pulse  - Thunderbolt  - Steel Roller  - Protect	Talonflame @ Life Orb  Ability: Gale Wings  Level: 50  EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe  Jolly Nature  - Brave Bird  - Taunt  - Tailwind  - Protect	Conkeldurr @ Coba Berry  Ability: Iron Fist  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 148 Atk / 4 Def / 36 SpD / 68 Spe  Adamant Nature  - Ice Punch  - Mach Punch  - Drain Punch  - Detect
Chandelure @ Focus Sash  Ability: Flash Fire  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 196 SpA / 4 SpD / 52 Spe  Modest Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Burning Jealousy  - Shadow Ball  - Protect  - Trick Room	Rillaboom-Gmax @ Sitrus Berry  Ability: Grassy Surge  Level: 50  EVs: 180 HP / 108 Atk / 44 Def / 100 SpD / 76 Spe  Adamant Nature  - Fake Out  - Grassy Glide  - Acrobatics  - Earthquake	Azumarill @ Assault Vest  Ability: Huge Power  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD  Adamant Nature  - Liquidation  - Aqua Jet  - Play Rough  - Brick Break

Originally I had decided to wait until my exams were done to look into a new team for the updated format however after seeing that the updates of the format were somewhat well covered by the structure of my team I wanted to look into updating the team in a brief so that I’ll have a good team to play with, the overall team changed a lot, mainly in the way that its sets are played. The members of whimsicott and milotic were changed to some new mons returning in the updated dex by talonflame and azumarill respectively.

The movesets and mannerisms of how the sets are played also changed drastically, not all the ev spreads changed but bit of shifting around the items was much more helpful in the end. before i start down with the analyses, the title is given after realizing i have a plethora of priority attacks on this team.

Duraludon now changed to a weakness policy set, with me having 2 options to prock my own weakness policy and with duraludon’s main function in the game being to be able to dynamax and then do damage with all the bulk it carries to survive attacks, its weakness policy has to put in a lot more work, with the decision of giving it bulk and weakness policy I decided to team it the new move steamroller to counter the general psychic spam teams that carry indeedee for redirection and then alakazam for spreading a lot of damage. Especially steelroller can be utilized really well given that I have a terrain setter in rillaboom and in azumarill and duraludon’s own max moves as well as the weakness policy + 2 attack boost coming in handy, as now it will be somewhat more efficient to pick up mons boostd by sand like tyranitar and specially bulky fairies like sylveon.

+2 0+ SpA Duraludon Max Wyrmwind (130 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Dragapult: 474-560 (144.5 - 170.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO +2 0- Atk Duraludon Max Steelspike vs. 236 HP / 196+ Def Togekiss: 198-234 (104.2 - 123.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO +2 0+ SpA Duraludon Max Lightning (130 BP) vs. 236 HP / 12 SpD Togekiss: 220-260 (115.7 - 136.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO +2 0+ SpA Duraludon Max Lightning (130 BP) vs. 236 HP / 12 SpD Togekiss: 220-260 (57.8 - 68.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ SpA Life Orb Kingdra Helping Hand Max Wyrmwind (140 BP) vs. 212 HP / 124 SpD Duraludon: 286-339 (83.1 - 98.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO +2 0+ SpA Duraludon Max Lightning (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Primarina: 222-262 (118.7 - 140.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO +2 0+ SpA Duraludon Max Lightning (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Primarina: 222-262 (59.3 - 70%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ Atk Life Orb Excadrill Max Quake (130 BP) vs. 212 HP / 0 Def Duraludon: 289-343 (84 - 99.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ SpA Primarina Max Starfall (130 BP) vs. 212 HP / 0 SpD Duraludon: 204-241 (59.3 - 70%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ Atk Conkeldurr Drain Punch vs. 212 HP / 4 Def Duraludon: 134-158 (77.9 - 91.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Moving on a new member to the team with a relatively simple job is talonflame with the update I often felt as If whimsicott was being quite the dead weight of this team, as I only ever needed it to set up tailwind and then the interaction of me testing misty terrain on it to stop psyspam and spore spam was interfering with duraludon’s ability to deal damage, talonflame does the job of setting up tailwind just as well, however in addition to that gives me an option to be able to handle the ever increasing rillaboom and the new threat of amoonguss and urshifu much better especially with priority brave birds. Taunt was a good tool to handle trick room setters and protect is placed here to counter fake out however can be replaced by quick guard in case.

Life orb was taken from duraludon to give to talonflame as it was missing some important ranges on rillaboom with having sharp beak as its item. Talonflame also conveniently so adds in a much needed ground immunity for this team.

252 Atk Life Orb Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 36 Def Rillaboom: 205-244 (99 - 117.8%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO 252 Atk Life Orb Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 236 HP / 144 Def Amoonguss: 218-260 (99.5 - 118.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO 252 Atk Life Orb Talonflame Max Airstream (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 136 Def Conkeldurr: 211-250 (99.5 - 117.9%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO 252 Atk Life Orb Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Conkeldurr: 205-244 (96.6 - 115%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO

Chandelure only saw a single change, of teaching it the move burning jealousy over using flamethrower, thought smaller in bp it can still 2hko most required targets with now a the redirection mons in amoonguss indeedee and togekiss are ever so prevalent it can bypass that as it’s a spread move, also 100% acuurate and an amazing side effect of being able to burn dynamax mons like excadrill and cinderace in case they decide to go for stat boosting moves. Overall this small tweak was a great addition to this set.

I also swapped air balloon with a focus sash to increase survivability but kept the reasonably bulkier set as I found myself using trick room more often with a bulkier duraludon and azumarill’s addition, in case sash is broken early the bulk can come in very handy.

252 Atk Life Orb Dragapult Phantom Force vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Chandelure: 205-244 (122.7 - 146.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252 Atk Mimikyu Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Chandelure: 102-122 (61 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ Atk Rillaboom High Horsepower vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Chandelure: 126-150 (75.4 - 89.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Conkeldurr also went through an item and moveslot change for the better, firstly added in detect and ice punch to deal with togekiss, cinderace and the aforementioned grass types much better, then again coba berry is another wall of defense against flying type pokemon and move users as I felt my team often lacked against max airstream, to counter with I had to cut its damage output and then add reverse the speeds with trick room on chandelure.

148+ Atk Conkeldurr Ice Punch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Togekiss: 98-116 (60.8 - 72%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 SpA Togekiss Max Airstream (130 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Coba Berry Conkeldurr: 147-174 (69.6 - 82.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 148+ Atk Conkeldurr Mach Punch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tyranitar: 136-168 (77.2 - 95.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 148+ Atk Iron Fist Conkeldurr Mach Punch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tyranitar: 168-196 (95.4 - 111.3%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO 148+ Atk Iron Fist Conkeldurr Ice Punch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Togekiss: 116-138 (72 - 85.7%) -- guaranteed 2HK

Rillaboom happens to slurp on some tasty mushroom soup and is now able to gigantamax, with the other two starters it was a debatable option to go for as its kinda hindered however with rillaboom, its always the est option to go for as it already sets grassy terrain in addition to its gmax drum solo being a much stronger max move boosted by terrain, its moveset went through some changes as it now has earthquake another trick to prick duraludon’s weakness policy and then has acrobatics in combination with sitrus berry and ability to be used as a max option to get max airstream as I felt like I really didn’t need the use of knock off that much anyways. Rillaboom quickly has become one of the most popular mons in this format and needless to say its because of grassy glide and grassy terrain’s combination in one. I swapped some evs to give it enough speed to outspeed my own duraludon to prock weakness policy.

Azumarill is a really helpful mon on this team, as soon as I looked to update the team I felt that milotic felt a bit dead weight other than when it got competitive boost and with a lot of people trying mons like urshifu, kingdra and rain in general I felt like that azumarill with assault vest will be great and great it was, honestly one of the most enjoyable mons I’ve used this format so for in terms of being able to dynamax. It is able to keep coverage, dynamax tank hits and deal massive damage and is the star of the games where it is dynamaxed, being given that I could go for a conkeldurr + azumarill position of field and then spam either one’s priority moves after getting a + 1 boost from their max knuckle usage.

I hope that everyone reading through likes this team and wants to give it a try, following is the pokepaste for the team to be imported and tested into showdown.

https://pokepast.es/464cd78fb6779651