This is a team report about my cobalion team, one built to be played in august and then another one where I try out charizard sun, the thing with my last, cinderace team was that since after the popularity of charizard sun teams rose in players cup and my team being quite lackluster against it, I decided to put in to rest, and move on with another team, experimenting with new mons that I wanted to try out… and this is the result of that:
I was initially interested in a few styles of teams, I felt like charizard teams were very strong, I was particularly pulled towards the torkoal with a supportive moveset, being placed alongside an offensive gmax venusaur.
Secondly I wanted to try to use a cobalion beat up team, why cobalion? I feel like the current metagamae, apart from redirecting the beat up user away is quite underprepared for this lead combination, also the thing with this one is my memories with it. When I first played gen five in pokemon black, I didn’t knew that cobalion existed, then stumbling into driftveil cave, exploring and finding this legendary musketeer with its lore was everything for me. Also the cherry on the cake being me only having a single great ball in my party that I used to catch it with a critical capture.
With being inspired more towards my affection for cobalion, I decided to try out cobalion teams. The first team I tested was of cybertron, and almost won a PS tournament with it, then I tried to mix things up feeling like his team was quite 1 dimensional, and following is a result of those tests; finally I got a to a point where I concluded that amoonguss and incineroar are amazing in the back for cobalion + dragapult being the prime lead, for covering trick room options and providing a defensive cover to cobalion, and they worked really well. The last two slots I needed were of a trick room setter to add diversity and then a wwater type for the core, the most obvious answer would be a primarina + dusclops or primarina with porygon 2 to round out the team, however knowing I am terrible at playing primarina I thought I’d rather not, the it struck to me, I could also use comfey alongside a lapras, this ill provide me another really threatening lead combination while covering a lot, and ofcourse it just fit right in with the team.
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Cobalion @ Lum Berry Ability: Justified Level: 50 EVs: 52 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 196 Spe Jolly Nature - Iron Head - Close Combat - Bounce - Protect |
Dragapult @ Safety Goggles Ability: Clear Body Level: 50 EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe Jolly Nature - Beat Up - Ally Switch - Will-O-Wisp - Dragon Darts |
Amoonguss @ Focus Sash Ability: Regenerator Level: 50 EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD Sassy Nature IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe - Spore - Rage Powder - Protect - Sludge Bomb |
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Incineroar @ Assault Vest Ability: Intimidate Level: 50 EVs: 252 HP / 60 Atk / 124 Def / 28 SpD / 44 Spe Careful Nature - Fake Out - Darkest Lariat - Flare Blitz - Snarl |
Comfey @ Babiri Berry Ability: Triage Level: 50 EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 4 SpA / 20 SpD / 12 Spe Bold Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Floral Healing - Giga Drain - Trick Room - Ally Switch |
Lapras-Gmax @ Weakness Policy Ability: Shell Armor Level: 50 EVs: 220 HP / 28 Def / 28 SpA / 228 SpD / 4 Spe Timid Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Hydro Pump - Freeze-Dry - Thunder |
So for the starters lets discuss cobalion, this is not an assault vest variant, thought assault vest cobalion does provide me the option of using stone edge to counter charizard directly, I feel like whnever I need to bring cobalion in the back for late game offense, the idea makes it feel like dead weight, base 90 attack is not too effective. Also in the matchups where I feel like leading dragapult and cobalion, risking the follow me user on lead and getting caught, cobalion can hold itself up with swords dance, this swords dance option also allows it to max guard when dynamaxed as teams who do not have a direct answer to it will often on respond with hyper offense against it.
The item choice of lum berry also works wonders against burning jealousy incineroar as well as sleep powder and spore from venusaur and amoonguss respectively. This also makes my dragapult + cobalion lead sleep spam resistant which really works well in my favor. I love this mon and I feel like it definitely is underexplored.
Dragapult is the partner in crime for cobalion, the sadder part about this spread of support is that dragapult cannot work really well with other mons on the team, whereas other support options can interchange which center piece they can support. However that doesn’t kick it back from being an amazing partner for cobalion. This lead alongside dragault instead of any other beat up user, particularly whimsicott, makes these 2 fake out immune, this is a very popular move choice especially since incineroar and rillaboom are being spammed together on every other team.
The item choice of safety goggles makes it immune to the teams that opt for amoonguss as their source of redirection and often surprises them on leads, allowing for a very much free set up. Then come the 2 move slots of will-o-wisp which is great against many physical attackers to further favor cobalion’s natural bulk and then ally switch alongside a steel type can work wonders, especially allowing me to save myself from many fighting and normal max moves completely and taking others as resistances. Last up dragon darts, a very very useful move, especially punishing many defensive protecting mons and redirection options (except togekiss) on my opponents’ end trying to stall out my cobalion. Dragon darts can also take great advantage of my cobalion’s attack boosts from the side.
Next up is amoonguss. Quite a simple mon and I don’t need to explain the build. Since usually amoonguss’ job is to survive hits and deliver spore and rage powders to help its partners, I opted for focus sash since this slot on my team was still open to ensure survivability of any big hit, this combined with regenerator also meant that sometimes amoonguss can gain its sash in activated form back from a chipped state after switching out.
Sludge bomb is a move of choice I really would like to discuss here. Amoongus is a pokemon always looked upon as a member on a team that is there to support its partners purely, however now, since rillaboom, togekiss, whimsicott, primarina are at peak popularity and often found in combinations on the same team, I feel like poison coverage is quite amazing to cover them, sometimes I find myself bringing amoonguss as the fourth slot as it can disrupt while coverage 2-3 mons offensively as well.
Incineroar is once again something I dont need to explain much in detail, I choose for the item choice of sitrus berry to improve my late game incin vs incin matches, also close combat is quite a coverage move to keep here, I inspired this from david koutesh’ players cup team where he used a weakness policy variant of incineroar with close combat, this move allows incineroar to cover mirrors as well as tyranitar, from a point of not being able to touch them, providing more cover for my team.
Incineroar is a mon I definitely feel like struggles from wanting like 5 more moveslots on this set, parting shot, snarl, lash out, burning jealousy all do seem quite tempting, however I feel like having close combat, even as a element of surprise helps this team out a lot.
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-1 252 Atk Life Orb Cinderace High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 124 Def Incineroar: 172-203 (85.1 - 100.4%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO -1 252+ Atk Tyranitar Max Rockfall (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 124 Def Incineroar: 158-188 (78.2 - 93%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage 252+ SpA Liquid Voice Primarina Hyper Voice vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Incineroar: 134-162 (66.3 - 80.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO |
Comfey is once again quite standard for the job it does, floral healing for lapras or cobalion, giga drain covers grass weak options somewhat decent like rhyperior and gastrodon that we still do occasionally see around as well as fills the primary purpose of procking the weakness policy of lapras, trick room provides the team with its main source of speed control and works wonders for incineroar, amoonguss and most importantly lapras. Helping hand buffs up the offense on this team, especially when you have mons with somewhat sub standard offense. With lapras comfey is quite the match to play however in other matchups comfey is the mon I am most hesitant to bring due ton it kind of being quite specific.
Lapras with such a bulky ev spread, paired up with weakness policy covers the offense and defensive options on this team at the same time, it can deliver quite some blows given its max resonance and max geyser both being 140 base attacks due to blizzard and hydro pump, once dynamax is down, lapras also feels quite comfort is using blizzard against late game togekiss and rillaboom, not to mention max lightning provides an extra cover for sleep spamming options of the metagame.
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252+ Atk Miracle Seed Rillaboom Wood Hammer vs. 220 HP / 28 Def Lapras in Grassy Terrain: 392-464 (84.1 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery +1 28 SpA Lapras Max Geyser (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Arcanine: 198-234 (100.5 - 118.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO +2 28 SpA Lapras Max Hailstorm (120 BP) vs. 236 HP / 12 SpD Togekiss: 218-258 (114.7 - 135.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO +2 28 SpA Lapras Max Hailstorm (120 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Dragapult: 312-368 (95.1 - 112.1%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO 252+ Atk Rillaboom Wood Hammer vs. 220 HP / 28 Def Lapras in Grassy Terrain: 192-228 (41.2 - 48.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery 252+ Atk Life Orb Excadrill Max Steelspike (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 220+ Def Babiri Berry Comfey: 130-153 (82.2 - 96.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO |
Charizard Sun:
In another time I wanted to try something quick and fun, I definitely think that the team is easy to use and works well however I wasn’t able to pilot it that well often miscalling the predictions I needed to win. Charizard with sun soa was on my mind for uite some time and then ofcourse seeing its latest success I put together the following composition in under five minutes on a 4 A:M.. wasn’t having much high hopes for it, but it worked wonders for me.
I was actually able to score a victory on a P.S double eliminations tournament, going down in semifinals; however figuring and adjusting to the matchup and winning against the same opponent in the bracket reset.
The team starter with putting the three mons I knew I needed: charizard, venusaur and torkoal, the main core of this team. Following are its advantages:
Ø Torkoal is the slowest weather setter in the game, contesting on leads it will always win the weather war.
Ø You can have a lot of pressure and viability from the venusaur + charizard lead, then according to the matchup switch one into torkoal and gmax the other to threaten your opponent, both venusaur and charizard can dominate mid to late game turns with their offense and disruptive potentials, even better when in sun.
Ø Now moving o I needed to counter mirros as I hate them, speed ties are not my ground to play with comfort in, I went forward and added clefairy so I can break ties with using icy wind, clefairy also helps counter trick room with after you, provides redirection with follow me, buffs nup the defenses with friend guard and then offense with helping hand… quite a whole lot is added to the backbone of this team.
Ø Indeedee is here for one simple reason, every other team has fake out revolving doors of rillaboom and incineroar paired up, rillaboom’s grassy glide is quite a threat and more than that talonflame is a real threat to my venusaur, indeedee has that all covered in one switchin. Furthermore it provides a good cover against trick room and sets up for the team in tailwind matchups.
Ø Last up is terrakion, it can directly threaten opposing charizards, the rock and fighting typing can cover a lot in the format, from togekiss, incineroar, tyranitar, marowak, torkoal and so on, its quite valuable, this slot is interchangeable for tyranitar, it can provide a better more insuring matchup against opposing sun teams.
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Charizard-Gmax @ Charcoal Ability: Solar Power Level: 50 Gigantamax: Yes EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Modest Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Blast Burn - Heat Wave - Protect - Air Slash |
Venusaur-Gmax @ Life Orb Ability: Chlorophyll Level: 50 Gigantamax: Yes EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Modest Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Frenzy Plant - Sludge Bomb - Earth Power - Sleep Powder |
Torkoal @ Sitrus Berry Ability: Drought Level: 50 EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Relaxed Nature IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe - Body Press - Burning Jealousy - Yawn - Protect |
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Indeedee @ Focus Sash Ability: Psychic Surge Level: 50 EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD Quiet Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Expanding Force - Trick Room - Imprison - Hyper Voice |
Clefairy @ Eviolite Ability: Friend Guard Level: 50 EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 SpD Calm Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Follow Me - Helping Hand - Icy Wind - After You |
Tyranitar @ Safety Goggles Ability: Sand Stream Level: 50 EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD Adamant Nature - Rock Slide - Lash Out - Superpower - Protect |
An insight to series 6:
Writing this down after about 2 weeks after the first two… now looking back I feel like I, simply by chance got the opportunity to play a charizard sun team aswell, otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to explore the archetype fully.. now that series 6 is imposing ban on the Top 20 VGC and Singles ladder mons, I have the following idea in mind:
Gourgeist is basically a poor man’s dusclops, however it gets grass typing and grass type coverage, now that porygon z is the talk of the town and rhyperior as well as gastrdon seem very valuable in the upcoming format, not to forget much more usage of politoed, gigalith and dracovish, gourgeist can surely use its ghost grass typing aswell. It also adds somewhat of a element of surprise to the game.
With that I added two big powerhouses supported by the speculation that rain and dracovish are common and rillaboom and other valuable grass types are gone, gastrodon and rhyperior can shine together on the same team. Not to forget the double ground typing in case of powerful hits from dracozolt as well as if people popularize thunder wave grimmsnarl or liepard as prankster tailwind is only talonflame’s business. With that for now, I added charizard and ninetales and just for the completing 6 mons a galarian darmanitan; later I am thinking of replacing ninetales with grimmsnarl of my own to help against other stuff as well as set up sun manually which is much more valuable other than switching in a fast mon.
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