Team Origins:
The origin of this team started out when I oh so desperately wanted to incorporate a Haxorus into my new team. I had a look over multiple of the Pokémon this generation and figured that Haxorus felt like it has a genuine niche in this format against Rotom and Hydreigon especially factoring in the tera types that Hydreigon uses. To add to the structure of this team I debated between whether a rain or a hail combination would suite it better. In my theory Haxorus would compliment a rain team much better as it covers for both Hydreigon and Rotom. From there on I added an Amoonguss to counter trick room and protect Floatzel. Amoonguss here acts as a great counter to Maushold that are running around. To finish the team my initial thoughts were to counter Dondozo strategies so I added this cool Skeledirge spread by Daniel Munuera García, DaMuGa https://victoryroadvgc.com/2023/01/05/daniel-munuera-gamergy-report/ . the last Pokémon on this team n theory felt to be a Tinkaton. It would add great synergy to the team, have good coverage, provide fake out support and take advantage of tailwind; however in testing it felt lackluster right away so I had to rethink this option.
The quick second draft of the team included a Farigiraf which patched up a completely overlooked issue of priority attacks. Even though I had initially invested in my floatzel to overcome the basicpriority moves at times it felt a bit underwhelming. Moreover having Farigiraf on the team would help me to add more dimension to the team given I already have some Pokémon like Skeledirge and amoonguss that favored from a trick room. Having Imprison + trick room on this set made sure I could counter opposing trick rooms really well.
Following was the version of the team I felt like was most effective in its own:
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Haxorus @ Life Orb Ability: Mold Breaker Level: 50 Tera Type: Steel EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Adamant Nature - Earthquake - Dragon Dance - Iron Head - Protect |
Pelipper @ Sitrus Berry Ability: Drizzle Level: 50 Tera Type: Grass EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 4 SpA / 60 SpD / 4 Spe Bold Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Hurricane - Wide Guard - Tailwind - Helping Hand |
Floatzel @ Choice Band Ability: Swift Swim Level: 50 Tera Type: Water EVs: 164 HP / 164 Atk / 20 Def / 156 Spe Jolly Nature - Liquidation - Wave Crash - Brick Break - Ice Spinner |
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Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet Ability: Regenerator Level: 50 Tera Type: Dark EVs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 116 SpD Bold Nature IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe - Rage Powder - Spore - Clear Smog - Giga Drain |
Skeledirge @ Expert Belt Ability: Unaware Level: 50 Tera Type: Grass EVs: 92 HP / 124 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 36 Spe Modest Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Torch Song - Protect - Tera Blast - Shadow Ball |
Farigiraf @ Colbur Berry Ability: Armor Tail Level: 50 Tera Type: Normal EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA Quiet Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Trick Room - Imprison - Hyper Voice - Shadow Ball |
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0 SpA Pelipper Hurricane vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD
Meowscarada: 158-188 (103.9 - 123.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252 Atk Choice Band Tera-Grass Meowscarada
Flower Trick vs. 252 HP / 148 Def Pelipper on a critical hit: 138-164 (82.6 -
98.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 Atk Choice Band Tera-Grass Meowscarada
Flower Trick vs. 252 HP / 52+ Def Pelipper on a critical hit: 138-164 (82.6 -
98.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 Atk Lycanroc-Midday Rock Slide vs. 252 HP
/ 188+ Def Pelipper: 66-80 (39.5 - 47.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO 252+ SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball
vs. 252 HP / 60 SpD Pelipper: 141-166 (84.4 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 4 SpA Pelipper Hurricane vs. 236 HP / 116 SpD
Amoonguss: 126-150 (57.5 - 68.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after pinch berry
recovery 4 SpA Pelipper Hurricane vs. 236 HP / 116 SpD
Amoonguss: 126-150 (57.5 - 68.4%) -- 55.9% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry
recovery 252 Atk Choice Band Tera-Water Floatzel Wave
Crash vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Garchomp in Rain: 276-326 (150 - 177.1%) -- guaranteed
OHKO 252 Atk Choice Band Tera-Water Floatzel Wave
Crash vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Eviolite Murkrow in Rain: 228-270 (136.5 - 161.6%)
-- guaranteed OHKO 252 Atk Choice Band Tera-Water Floatzel
Helping Hand Wave Crash vs. 188 HP / 20 Def Hydreigon in Rain: 211-249 (110.4
- 130.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252+ Atk Choice Band Tera-Normal Arcanine
Extreme Speed vs. 164 HP / 20 Def Tera-Water Floatzel: 154-183 (85 - 101.1%)
-- 6.3% chance to OHKO 252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Sucker Punch
vs. 164 HP / 20 Def Tera-Water Floatzel: 123-145 (67.9 - 80.1%) -- guaranteed
2HKO 252 Atk Sharp Beak Talonflame Brave Bird vs.
252 HP / 140+ Def Amoonguss: 186-218 (84.1 - 98.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ SpA Choice Specs Tera-Fire Torkoal
Eruption (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 116 SpD Amoonguss in Rain: 164-196 (74.2 -
88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 Atk Technician Maushold Population Bomb
(10 hits) vs. 252 HP / 140+ Def Tera-Dark Amoonguss: 190-240 (85.9 - 108.5%)
-- approx. 6.3% chance to OHKO 252+ SpA Life Orb Armarouge Armor Cannon vs.
252 HP / 116 SpD Tera-Dark Amoonguss: 149-177 (67.4 - 80%) -- guaranteed 2HKO |
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Although I was quite underwhelmed by the performance of this team. Was constantly losing battles and dropped by 1600s rating very quickly down to 1400s on showdown at best. I either need to drop this idea completely or come with a revised composition from the elements that I really liked.
It lacked consistency in its game plan. in some games Floatzel and Pelliper will soften up the opponent’s team quite easily but my team in the back will lack the general offense needed to pull out a win. My pokemon in the back were not huge tanks to begin with and will easily be ko’ed by a hyper offense response.
Redo of this Team:
I loved working with two things on this team; first was this bulky Pelliper spread I worked out, I loved every single aspect of it. I also love Floatzel’s damage output into most stuff this format; it functions almost like a budget, however ready to use Palafin. Moreover I somewhat enjoyed the utility that a Farigiraf could provide.
One of the new reasons I wanted to come back to this team was a particular team that finished well in hands of Aaron Brok in the San Jose Regionals (https://pokepast.es/c08dd38bcaad798c) . This composition reminded me much of when I liked this team the most. Another tech on my mind was to utilize twin beam Farigiraf to counteract the rise in Pawmot usage on Dondozo Teams.
The Revised Team:
I chose the rain lead combination and put Farigiraf and Amoonguss on there as I really liked them. then to deal with the Hydreigon problem I put up a Hariyama in the mix. For the last mon I wanted to go with hydreigon but I had my eyes set on bringing a Pincurchin to the table as I felt like none was running a lightingrod mon to cover for their water types. With Paldean Tauros becoming more common by the day, rain being the most dominant weather and Garchomp falling off a bit in usage... Pincurchin felt like it could work in trick room. Moreover it will set up electric terrain which will protect my own team from Amoonguss’ spore and will override the psychic terrain which could sweep me. Pincurchin can also cover for the rising population of tera flying Dondozo.
At this time I felt like that the team could need more offense and coverage. I thought removing Amoonguss which was initially a Maushold and counter trick room wasn’t the biggest component in the current composition which all had offense to offer. Putting on a dark type seemed good against indeedee and Armarouge + more coverage against hydreigon would be lovely. What is better than a meowskarada. Now with intimidate picking back up in usage having a mon that essentially ignores it is going to be good.
I did some testing and immediately realized that Pincurchin was quite underwhelming it had a good niche for this team but didn’t fit in like I needed it to. I then testing out copperajah which was surprisingly pulling its weight behind the base 30 speed under trick room in combination with sheer force boosted widespread coverage moves. Running copperajah gave me the idea to switch my Hariyama tera type to a tera steel and keep iron head as it completely flips the Sylveon’s barrage of attacks to a counter, even though it was dropped it taught me how to utilize my Hariyama on this team much better.
The final rendition of the team came with the idea of solidifying my dondozo counters paired with the reasoning that I quite liked the ‘trick room’ mode on my team and didn’t need to go overboard with it. Scope lens hydreigon with a steel tera type seemed to check a lot of the boxes I needed; coverage and great strategy into Dondozo team. To round out the team I tried giving another try to Tinkaton as I felt like this Pokémon could have good use and it definitely clicked really well on this team.
 Pelipper @ Sitrus Berry Ability: Drizzle Level: 50 Tera Type: Grass EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 4 SpA / 60 SpD / 4 Spe Bold Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Hurricane - Wide Guard - Tailwind - Helping Hand |
 Floatzel @ Life Orb Ability: Swift Swim Level: 50 Tera Type: Water EVs: 100 HP / 252 Atk / 156 Spe Jolly Nature - Aqua Jet - Wave Crash - Protect - Ice Spinner |
 Farigiraf @ Throat Spray Ability: Armor Tail Level: 50 Tera Type: Fairy EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD Quiet Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Hyper Voice - Twin Beam - Trick Room - Imprison |
 Hariyama @ Flame Orb Ability: Guts Level: 50 Tera Type: Steel EVs: 252 HP / 148 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 100 Spe Adamant Nature - Fake Out - Close Combat - Headlong Rush - Iron Head |
 Hydreigon @ Scope Lens Ability: Levitate Level: 50 Tera Type: Steel EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Modest Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Draco Meteor - Flash Cannon - Dark Pulse - Focus Energy |
 Tinkaton @ Assault Vest Ability: Mold Breaker Level: 50 Tera Type: Grass EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def Adamant Nature - Fake Out - Gigaton Hammer - Play Rough - Brick Break |
Pelliper + Floatzel:
My favorite things on this team has to be my Pelipper’s EV spread it has so much bulk to offer in combination with some of the best support moves in the entire game right now. Whereas bringing floatzel always warrants that I bring Pelipper to the matchup, I did see myself bringing pelipper to some matches without Floatzel for defensive pivoting.
Choice band Floatzel was quite hard to maneuver, I really loved playing with a life orb variant for this reason. I could easily use protect turn 1 to swap into a disruptive mon such as Tinkaton or Hariyama and then fire off powerful wave crashes much more safely. There are tons of games where floatzel is able to pick up atleast 2 Ko’s in 2 turns as well as deal over 50% damage onto resisted hits on its opponents making it an absolute monster. I didn’t quite believ in floatzel’s potential but I feel like it offers a nice alternative to Drednaw and Palafin by 1) being faster than them and 2) by not having to rely on a tera type or switching to be effective.
The EV spread is quite simple with enough speed to outspeed a Garchomp in opponent’s tailwind; rest is to max attack and leftovers into bulk for surviving wave crash recoils + life orb recoils
Farigiraf +Hariyama:
What I like about these two is their ability to spread damage on opponents without switching in a trick room sweeper. The boost from throat spray on farigiraf piles up well and guts boosted hariyama with these super strong base power attacks also does ridiculous damage to opponents.
It should be noted that against any opponents I wouldn’t like to use my own trick room. This is where the imprison move comes in handy with my farigiraf. Moreover the speed investment on my hariyama allows it to outspeed a hydreigon under tailwind also helping it outspeed mirror matches.
Even though on this team the trick room mode seems a bit out of place it acts as a great late game option after floatzel and pelliper do their damage. Switching in farigiraf to protect floatzel from opponent’s strong priority attacks is quite useful; the initial trick I based this team after.
Tera steel allows hariyama to live expanding forces and sylveon’s attacks. Tera fairy is a great option for farigiraf to tank dark attacks from kingambit, hydreigon and meowskarada.
Hydreigon:
It acts as the perfect dondozo counter and adds tons of useful coverage to this team. I felt like I needed flash cannon and dark pulse coverage for sylveon and gholdengo and tera steel for surviving sylveon and dondozo + mirror matches. Moreover the speed allows it to outspeed timid max speed gholdengos, the modest nature gives it a better chance at ohko’ing 168 hp dondozo. It is simple yet highly effective and really ties the team together.
Tinkaton:
Another mon that allows this team more room. Having a fairy and steel offensive coverage was a great option for this team. most importantly it helps to dish major damage to opposing sylveons which seemed a big threat if Floatzel is out of the equation.
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0 SpA Pelipper Hurricane vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD
Meowscarada: 158-188 (103.9 - 123.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252 Atk Choice Band Tera-Grass Meowscarada
Flower Trick vs. 252 HP / 148 Def Pelipper on a critical hit: 138-164 (82.6 -
98.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 Atk Choice Band Tera-Grass Meowscarada
Flower Trick vs. 252 HP / 52+ Def Pelipper on a critical hit: 138-164 (82.6 -
98.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 Atk Lycanroc-Midday Rock Slide vs. 252 HP
/ 188+ Def Pelipper: 66-80 (39.5 - 47.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO 252+ SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball
vs. 252 HP / 60 SpD Pelipper: 141-166 (84.4 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 4 SpA Pelipper Hurricane vs. 236 HP / 116 SpD
Amoonguss: 126-150 (57.5 - 68.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after pinch berry
recovery 4 SpA Pelipper Hurricane vs. 236 HP / 116 SpD Amoonguss: 126-150 (57.5 - 68.4%) -- 55.9% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery 252 Atk Life Orb Floatzel Wave Crash vs. 12
HP / 0 Def Garchomp in Rain: 183-216 (98.9 - 116.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO 252 Atk Life Orb Floatzel Wave Crash vs. 252
HP / 116 Def Eviolite Murkrow in Rain: 183-216 (109.5 - 129.3%) -- guaranteed
OHKO 252 Atk Life Orb Floatzel Helping Hand Wave
Crash vs. 188 HP / 20 Def Hydreigon in Rain: 138-164 (72.2 - 85.8%) --
guaranteed 2HKO 252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Sucker Punch
vs. 100 HP / 0 Def Floatzel: 127-151 (73.4 - 87.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ SpA Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 116 HP /
0 SpD Dondozo on a critical hit: 252-297 (105 - 123.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252+ SpA Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 4 HP / 0
SpD Gholdengo: 158-188 (96.9 - 115.3%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO 252+ SpA Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. +1 252 HP /
4 SpD Indeedee-F: 96-114 (54.2 - 64.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Make It Rain
vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Tinkaton: 81-96 (42.1 - 50%) -- 0.4% chance
to 2HKO |
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