A Comprehensive VGC Teambuilding Guide by Pokeventurer

 Hi everyone! I am Talha. I go by the name Pokeventurer. Before you might ask ‘Talha, Pokeventurer is a strange alt’ I will tell you that it was the best my 13 year old self could come up with while using 2% of the brains I had. This is my take on providing you all with a detailed guide as an amateur VGC player. Even though I had become interested in VGC upon watching the legendary 2014 Worlds Finals, where Sejun Park beat the competition with his Pachirisu; I wouldn’t and couldn't truthfully describe myself as an overnight success. 

Infact the first time I tried playing the VGC format on Pokémon showdown I entered the Doubles OU ladder with a team consisting of a Watchog with thunder-wave and super fang… only upon inquiring I found out how to actually select the VGC ladder on showdown. (To waive of responsibility, this too is something I attribute to being a 13 year old thing)

A lot of my concepts were and still are abhorrently bad, like some unspeakable horrors that better be left in the dark before I embarrass myself even more. But then again I have this strange relation with VGC and teambuilding, I have failed soo many times at it yet I come back to it again. I would love to tell you about the grand tales of my long list of titles but I do not even own a switch. To put it in other terms, I am a Showdown noob. And having built 100s of teams (mostly bad) since 2015 to the present day 2024 when we have entered the VGC 2025 circuit I have developed a few steps for teambuilding that I wholeheartedly believe attribute to a solid team. This guide is about me sharing this knowledge.

Since teambuilding is so complex, this guide builds from the ground up starting for someone who is a casual player looking into the idea of competitive battles. I will be going into theory of what makes a competitive Pokémon team, what knowledge it takes to build a VGC team and also how can you build your own. If this is something you find interesting, then keep on reading!

1. The Precursors

1.1 Pokémon, a cog in a machine:

Some people would tell you that Pokémon would be a lot like chess with the RNG factors removed. Yes only if there were a potential of 1000+ (forms excluded) chess pieces with virtually endless possibilities of the ways they not only play themselves but interact with each other in a game. As a casual game player you might already be familiar with the stats, movesets, types and abilities for Pokémon but you need to look deeper at them to understand how each element works on the competitive battling scene.

Types:

There’s 18 of them and each one is going to interact differently with the other. As of generation 9 a single Pokémon can only have 1 or 2 types maximum, dual type Pokémon will also change the type chart for the individual unit. It is an essential to have a good grasp on the type chart, something you are probably already familiar with through casual play. But just in case here’s a type chart showing how the types interact:

The signature type of Pokémon also works in tandem with its damage output. This is commonly known as the Same Type Attack Bonus or ‘STAB’. This is where the damage output for a ‘same type bonus is boosted by a damage multiplier of 1.5 times the base damage.

For example if a ground type Mudsdale used high horsepower, a ground type attack, it will do 1.5x more damage to the opponent than if the same attack is used by a grass type Rillaboom.

Abilities:

These are traits assigned to each Pokémon. Some Pokémon can have multiple different ability options available but can only carry 1. Some in game mechanisms such as the ability capsules allow you to switch these abilities. With generation 5 Pokémon were assigned hidden abilities, which are usually competitively stronger and take more complex in game mechanisms to access. Each unique ability adds perks to a Pokémon.

For example one of VGC’s all-time renowned abilities, Intimidate initiates a game state where when you switch a Pokémon with this ability on the field it will reduce the opponent’s attack stat by a single stage. Different abilities can interact with each other as well! If an intimidate carrying Pokémon lowers the attack of a Pokémon with the defiant ability its attack stat will drop a stage followed by increasing 2 stages. The contrary ability will reverse the effect and turn a stat drop into a stat boost.

Natures:

There are multiple natures available to Pokémon. Some are neutral natures, which do not have any positive or negative impact on a Pokémon, whereas others can favor a boost to 1 stat and lower another. Assigning a Pokémon the appropriate nature can give it an essential competitive edge. Neutral natures are almost never of good use.

Nature	Increases	Decreases
Adamant	Attack	Sp. Atk
Bashful	Sp. Atk	Sp. Atk
Bold	Defense	Attack
Brave	Attack	Speed
Calm	Sp. Def	Attack
Careful	Sp. Def	Sp. Atk
Docile	Defense	Defense
Gentle	Sp. Def	Defense
Hardy	Attack	Attack
Hasty	Speed	Defense
Impish	Defense	Sp. Atk
Jolly	Speed	Sp. Atk
Lax	Defense	Sp. Def
Lonely	Attack	Defense
Mild	Sp. Atk	Defense
Modest	Sp. Atk	Attack
Naive	Speed	Sp. Def
Naughty	Attack	Sp. Def
Quiet	Sp. Atk	Speed
Quirky	Sp. Def	Sp. Def
Rash	Sp. Atk	Sp. Def
Relaxed	Defense	Speed
Sassy	Sp. Def	Speed
Serious	Speed	Speed
Timid	Speed	Attack

 

For example:

A nature such as Adamant allows an increase in physical attack stat, while lowering the special attack stat of the Pokémon. So for a Pokémon reliant on its physical attack stat and an already low or borderline useless special attack stat, adamant nature is a perfect fit.

Effort Values or EVs:

Effort Values or EVs are basically a way to get enhanced stat points. A single Pokémon can be given a total of 512 EVs, where a maximum of 252 EVs can be invested into a single stat. These can be gained by defeating Pokémon in the game or giving your Pokémon specific EV boosting items to either directly increase the EV yield or directly increase the EVs in a stat point.

For the competitive VGC format, played at level 50: a Pokémon gains its first stat boost with 4 EVs gained in a single stat, additional single point boosts are obtained by gaining 8 EVs in said stat.

Read Serebii’s guide for a detailed explanation here.

Individual values or IVs:

Individual Values are much like EVs assigned uniquely to a Pokémon in the game. They can be changed but less freely than the system for manipulating EVs is allowed. Each stat can have an IV value ranging from between 0-31. The higher the value, corresponds with higher stat points. One might wonder that having maxed out IVs is the ideal situation, but in VGC it is not always the truth.

This is due to 2 main reasons: in competitive play some defensive Pokémon can run moves like foul play, an attack that uses its opponents’ attack stat to deal damage. So if your Pokémon is purely a special attacker, in an ideal situation, it is optimum to have 0 attack IVs to reduce the potential damage you are going to take from foul play.

Another nuance of VGC is the viability of the trick room archetype. When the move trick room is used, the speed order of Pokémon is reversed. This means that the Pokémon with the slowest speed stat will move before the faster ones. If your team is built around the move trick room (more detail on the archetype below) it would be ideal to keep 0 speed IVs to ensure you hit hard and fast in trick room.

 Read Serebii’s guide for a detailed explanation here.

Importance of items:

As a casual player you might have thought highly of giving your Pokémon items, but in competitive play they are an absolute must. There is very little evidence, only a single Pokémon that I can remember, in 2023 Japan National’s Champion’s team having a Talonflame with no item on it. This was for the reason to give acrobatics a higher base power from the start. Items are here to give buffs to a base Pokémon. Certain items also work similar or the same as some abilities for example the item clear amulet works the same as the clear body ability.

Following is a list of some competitively viable items in VGC. Different formats favor different items however the following are usual staples and competitively supreme over the long list of available items.

Choice items: These items allow stat boosts of 1.5x multiplier to your Pokémon but only allow them to be locked into the first move they use when they enter the field, called a ‘choice lock’. Choice band gives a attack boost, choice specs give a special attack boost whereas choice scarf gives a speed boost. By their nature they are designed to be used by offensive sweeper Pokémon. Sometimes an additional strategy can be employed with choice items where they will carry the move trick or switcheroo; allowing them to switch their items with the opponent. This can be useful to trap supportive Pokémon who rely on their variety of support moves and force them to repeat the same move over and over again. Most well known users of this strategy are Gholdengo and Rotom forms.

Berries: Each berry comes with its own effect, but within the context of VGC they are largely considered a defensive item. Sitrus berry and the pinch berries allow for 30-33% HP recovery respectively, activating at 50 and 75% HP bars respectively. This allows a Pokémon to have a virtual 30% increase to its HP bar if it is not getting OHKO’d (One it knock out).

Other damage reducing berries allow the Pokémon to take halve damage from super effective attacks such as Yache berry allowing Pokémon to take half damage from ice moves. An ideal example of berry users would be Amoonguss which can increase its survivability further more paired with the already daunting regenerate ability that heals 1/3^rd of its health upon switching in.

Clear amulet: Working like the clear body ability, this item is a premier option in generation 9 and prevents all forms of stat drops from happening for the item holder. It provides an essential intimidate and other speed reducing moves like icy wind or electro web from slowing you down. This also means that moves like parting shot fail when used, it would not be farfetched to call this item the Incineroar immunity item. The most prevalent user of this item in generation 9 has been Calyrex-Ice Rider

Covert cloak: Fair to call this the anti fake out item as it blocks all secondary effects of the opponent’s attacks. This item is used to further block icy wind or electroweb speed drops or from being flinched, frozen, burned or paralyzed by chance of any attack’s secondary effect. Again this item is mostly preserved for bulky, semi or fully supportive Pokémon. We have also seen this item be utilized on Pokémon who’s sweeping can be blocked via disruption from aforementioned speed control or fake out cycling.

Assault vest: There is a term used for a Pokémon coined by the fandom as a tank, something bulky that can deal significant damage. The item assault vest was built for such Pokémon as it gives a special defense boost but limits the ability to use any non-damaging moves. Rillaboom is the one who excels at exhibiting the usefulness of this item

Life orb: This item allows for an additional damage boost for you attacking moves at the cost of 1/8^th of your maximum HP with each successful use. This item works for both special and physical attacks and is reserved for the Pokémon who like to switch around their moves, unlike choice locked users, would benefit from using protect and the HP loss does not hamper the pressure they put on the field. Another fan coined term of glass-cannon is used for such Pokémon, something that hits hard and fast but is also prone to going down easy.

Damage boosting items: Apart from life orb or choice band and choice specs various other items also increase the damage output of a Pokémon these are either going to be the type exclusive items like mystic water which boosts water type damage by 1.2x multiplier and its counterpart for the splash plate (a set of type specific damage boosting items designed for Arceus but work on any Pokémon) each type has its own damage boosting item and a respective ‘plate’ item giving the same effect.

Expert belt, although rare in usage boosts the damage of super effective attacks. Wide glasses give a 10% power increase for special attacks and muscle band does the same for physical attacks.

Rocky Helmet: Another excellent defensive item enables the holder to inflict chip damage on the opponent whenever they are hit by a physical contact move. This item is extremely useful in every VGC format allowing you to passively wear down your opponents. Pokémon that have multi-hit physical contact moves lose sleep over this. Mega Kangaskhan with its parental bond ability, Maushold with population bomb and Urshifu with its rapid strike are reasons that justify use of this item.

Amoonguss or other redirection users particularly enjoy the use of said item as sometimes the opponent can end up on the losing end of the bargain even after directly attacking your Pokémon.

Gimmick or Mechanisms:

Ever since generation 6 we have had a signature mechanism added to the games that significantly impacts the competitive play. Generaton 6 stirred up the competitive scene with mega evolutions, generation 7 introduced z-moves, generation 8 expanded on the concept with Dynamax and Gigantamax mechanisms and for the current generation, we have Terastallization. Understanding the mechanism is a pre requisite of playing the game.

Terastallization allows you to change and assign a single type to any 1 Pokémon per game. For example if a Pokémon like Kingambit has the pre-determined dark Tera type, you can Terastallize and turn its dark and steel typing into a pure dark type. Likewise if the assigned tera type for Kingambit is a fairy type, you can trade the dark and steel type for a fairy type.

To understand the competitive significance, take the above example. In the case you are Terastallizing to the same type that a Pokémon already has, it is considered largely as an offensive terra, this is because the Terastallization will increase the STAB boost of the attack to a 2.0 multiplier rather than the base 1.5x multiplier, allowing you to hit harder. However you also can look at it from a different angle here the Tera dark typing will allow Kingambit to now take neutral damage from fire type attacks and drop a 4x super effective fighting type weakness for a 2x super effective weakness.

Speaking of the defensive Tera types, Kingambit’s biggest fear is facing said fighting types. Albeit it is a reasonably chunky fellow when it comes to its defensive stats, a fighting move is sure to land a clean KO! Keeping a Tera type like fairy allows you to use this mechanism to turn that weakness into a resistance.

Tera types can also increase the type coverage of a Pokémon through the move tera blast, this is a base 80 power move hitting either physical or specially offensive depending on which stat is currently higher on a Pokémon. If Kingambit was to keep the tera blast in 1 of its 4 moveslots, it would allow the latter variant to launch a relatively solid base power fairy move right back at the fighting types and score an OHKO back.

Stellar Terastallization is another cog in the machine of Terastallization mechanism. This tera type does not change the Pokémon’s original typing whatsoever but allows for a damage boost multiplier on each type’s offensive move on the Pokémon’s moveset. In case you are running the tera blast on a stellar type Pokémon you can hit any opposing Terastallized Pokémon super effectively at the cost of both your special and physical attack stat dropping a single stage.

This type’s use is rather niche, fitting mostly on Pokémon that can go for a wide variety of offensive moves. Moreover it works well in tandem with the ability contrary shifting the single stage special and physical stat drop into a stat boost. Serperior is an ideal Pokémon for this Tera type given its contrary ability.

1.2 Knowing the Format:

VGC or Video Game Championships is and always has been a 4 vs 4 double battle format. Such a format allows for greater complexity through larger number of possible game state interactions. With that being said, there are more specifications for each season or regulation announced for a VGC format.

The current VGC format in addition to being a 4 vs 4 doubles format. Even as an amateur player you would know that a Pokémon team is made up of 6 members. Modern VGC battles are a picking of 4 from a team of 6.

Official VGC play comes in two forms; the online ladder and official tournaments. Both of these battle formats provide you with a team preview section where you are able to look at the members of your opponent’s teams. Official online battling system, the ladder, which is a ranked battle system is best of 1 or bo1 approach, the win or loss is decided in a single game. For official tournaments that provide you with championship points, the battles are a best of 3. The open team sheets allow you to note the opponent’s tera type, held items, moveslots and abilities for each Pokémon on the team.

In the earliest recorded history of VGC, we did not have the present day team previews or open team sheet systems. VGC used to be a team of 4 format in the year 2010, then in 2011 team previews got introduced to the game. It was only in the 9^th generation of Pokémon that (possibly due to the complexity of Terastallization mechanism) that the official tournaments switched to an open team sheets approach.

Generation 9 of Pokémon has been rolling out varying rulesets termed as regulations. It started from regulation a format when generation 9 was launched through Pokémon scarlet and violet. Although the games have not switched over to their successors, we are currently on Regulation H ruleset. This ruleset implies that all Pokémon in the Paldea dex apart from legendary, paradox or mythical Pokémon are allowed. This is in stark contrast to the regulation G format which allowed for a single, usually banned (termed ‘restricted’ Pokémon by the fandom) to be allowed on a team as well as the comparatively lower level legendary Pokémon, or paradox Pokémon being allowed without any restrictions.

Knowing the format is quite important. We will explore how each regulation as its develops its own metagame, a complex mix of valuable archetypes which collectively define a certain power level and speed tiers of the format.

Tropes of VGC:

Field effects:

Between rain, sun, sand and snow, weather is an absolute staple of VGC. You are not playing for yourself, you are also working in tandem with a partner Pokémon on the field next to you. This is why using it can mean great benefit for your teams.

For example rain teams will employ a use of a rain setter Pokémon with the ability drizzle and be usually paired with a partner Pokémon that has the swift swim ability doubling its speed and an offensive EV and item to deal big damage. Such teams will also carry Pokémon like grass types and steel types, otherwise weak to fire type moves, for which rain weather condition can carry water moves to outright take out fire types or protect the steel or grass types from fire type damage.

Terrain effects, ever since being made available as abilities in generation seven have been a common trope in VGC whenever available. The terrain effects include Grassy terrain, Psychic Terrain, Electric Terrain and Misty Terrain, each boasting its own effects and ability to overwrite each other. Just the last available regulation ruleset allowed the use of Miraidon, a legendary Pokémon that has the ability to set up electric terrain when it switches in. this pairs well with Pokémon with the Quark Drive ability Pokémon, a perk provided to futuristic paradox Pokémon in generation 9. This birthed many teams with the combination of Miraidon along with Iron hands.

Protect! Protect! Protect!:

Without carrying this absolute essential of VGC any Pokémon can be double targeted essentially making it so that you use your most important Pokémon in a matchup in one turn, protect is useful here. Stalling out field effects including terrains, weather, and speed effects can also be helped by the use of protect.

It should be noted duly that you do not need to put protect as the 4^th move on every Pokémon. Some Pokémon carry items that will not allow them to use protect to good effect and others might have more useful moves to put in place for this slot.

Protect! Protect! Detect?! Detect is a move with a much smaller distribution rate but is often preferred as an optimization approach for a Pokémon. Why? This is because some Pokémon can use the move Imprison which blocks opponents from using anything in the user’s arsenal. Since protect is the absolute most common move, imprison carries are likely to carry it, in this situation detect can still be used whereas protect carries would be open to a barrage of attacks.

Speed control:

Major speed control moves are bigger in doubles VGC as compared to single battles. Moves like tailwind, trick room, icy wind, electroweb, thunder wave or other paralysis inducing moves are staples of nearly all VGC formats.

Disruptors:

In doubles you are not only playing the game for yourself as a single unit Pokémon, you also want to be able to support your partners. Moves like fake out which have +3 priority and cause a flinch (unless the conditions block the effect) redirection moves of rage powder and follow me as well as disruptive abilities like Intimidate are big in VGC.

Setup:

In singles surely setup oves are a thing when you are in a favorable position on the field however in doubles setup can be assisted by your partner Pokémon with disruptors such as abilities, fake out users or redirection moves to draw away attention from the setup Pokémon. Volcarona is an ideal example of such a Pokémon. A historic pairing known as Topmoth was one of Volcarona’s most successful VGC runs where Hitmontop would carry the trifecta of wide guard, fake out and intimidate to assist Volcarona in setting up its quiver dances and then sweep!

1.3 Knowing the Metagame:

A metagame in my view is essentially the collective of the most effective strategies and Pokémon that exist given within the given ruleset, something formed and agreed upon by the mutual experience of the players.

As each format develops, people figure out the most effective strategies to tackle the vast field of available Pokémon. The top threats are usually going to be Pokémon with higher stat points, good typing, abilities and flexibility; something that can threaten a lot of the available options but has little to counter it. Obviously no single Pokémon is going to be so overpowered that it breaks the game and you cannot win without it, everything has its counters. And so the metagame develops.

For example in the current regulation H format, people realized that the combination of Dondozo and Tatsugiri is quite powerful, this made people recognize the importance of Pokémon like Primarina, Decidueye and Amoonguss which can carry the moves haze or clear smog respectively, to remove the absurd stat buffs the Dozogiri combination gets. Moreover strategies like focus energy + scope lens Hydreigon develop to further stand in the way of this combination as a strong move like Draco meteor having a 50% chance of critical hitting bypasses the stat boosts that Dondozo has.

Now as the format goes on, people get better and better at countering dondozo, so people drop its use for alternative strategies. This in turn makes people switch moves like clear smog or haze on their Pokémon or explore strategies like life orb hydreigon, as the trend shift, people will recognize the room of viability for dondozo is growing and it will rise back up.

Some times a wildly effective, but hidden strategy carries great potential that just gets shrugged off by the masses due to being considered uneccesary, such trends can cause a huge boom in the middle of a format forcing teams and strategies to adapt.

So in a nutshell:

^^^X > ^^^Y à X drops in usage > Y also drops in usage à ^^^X

Pokémon work in tandem with one another. The complex interplay of their types, abilities, stats, speeds and more form a fully functioning team or core that can take on multiple strategies. This gives rise to some single unit and other combinations of Pokémon becoming commonplace in every format. Knowing what you are most likely to face in a format is key to making good teams. Following is a visual decoding of how I have understood the regulation H metagame.

I built this graphic to help myself realize what Pokémon are common in the format and what overarching roles they play

The trends of the past show that each format starts out with a wide range of strategies and as official tournament results start to compile, many of the initial, thought of potent strategies fall off the map; condensing the metagame. Each metagame starts out with more offensive strategies and as the format would develop, people start to optimize their EV spreads to allow Pokémon to take more damage, hence becoming more defensive in nature.

It is also important to recognize the most used cores or team compositions in a developing format

1.4 Knowing your Resources:

Gone are the days when data on VGC and teambuilding was scarce. I remember watching Wolfe Glick’s video essay/ documentary/ interview with the 3x World Champion (in a row at that) Ray Rizzo and Ray explaining how he got his team ideas from the Japanese teams that were going around in the early years of VGC. The community has grown a lot since that point and we have amazing people who have generated nonprofit resources that have evolved the accessibility and ease of practice tenfold.

Following are some of the resources, that are both well-known and I use in my practice:

Pokémon Showdown: allows you to simulate battles online in different formats with full availability of teambuilding, recording of game replays and playing ranked games with thousands of users all over the globe. In my opinion this website has completely transformed the scope of competitive battling ever since its inception.

Pikalytics: keeps you up with the format’s usage statistics. You need to discover the trend or are confused in what is the most standard item or ability or moveset for a Pokémon? Pikalytics has you covered.

Pokémon Damage Calculators are a staple whenever you want to up your gameplay. It can be a huge help to help you guide what EVs you need on a Pokémon (more on EVs later)

PASRS: this is an amazing Google spread sheet tool developed by @BauerdadVGC on twitter that allows you to insert our showdown gameplay links. This tool automatically gives you a short visual for how your games went, gives you a slot to take notes on games and also gives you percentages on move usages and the Pokémon you brought. Read more about PASRS here.

SPAMS: another excellent Google spreadsheet tool, which is developed by SableyeVGC. This allows you to plan out your gameplans versus the teams you want to. It allows you nice visuals to go along with notes and it gives the opportunity to keep replays which showcase said gameplan in action. I used it a lot last regulation ruleset where mastering your matchups was absolute key.

VGCPastesRepository: an extremely valuable resource that allows you to access the Pokémon showdown based pastes for popular or standardized teams. This resource can be used in varying ways, you can either pick up a team to practice, can use some team inspiration or learn about the details of a team you may have seen online. It should be noted that not all teams are made available at a moment’s notice by the regulators of this resource. Some top players might reveal their teams in full forms, some will only allow for the open team sheet paste which does not include the EV spread and Pokémon nature details (which is highly valuable information for how a team plays).

Limitless VGC and RK9 labs are going to allow you to view tournament results and standings with an open team sheet included, working much like the usefulness of understanding team composition and trends through the VGC Pastes Repository.

Victory road VGC are also a great resource, covering the major tournament results and tournament announcements. This can help you study on teams, sometimes in greater depths as compared to simply having assess to a cold pokepaste link. Sometimes players like to share their journeys of a tournament through team report or tournament report posts with great emphasis on the teambuilding experiences or choices.

2. Building your own Team:

2.1 Methods for the first step:

You need to know where to start off with and this part of the guide helps you take the first step, under the assumption that you understand what VGC is all about!

Testing other people’s teams

If you are someone who is just starting out with VGC and the complete idea of teambuilding seems highly daunting, you don’t have to jump in headfirst. Through the aforementioned resources feel free to dip your toes into the world of competitive Pokémon by using someone else’s team. This can help in multiple ways. either to familiarize yourself with the VGC format, learning how to play a team or recognize your own playstyle.

Being inspired

Looking at other’s teams for inspiration is a great way to start teambuilding. For example you have played with a team or watched a team play in an official or online tournament, you may be inspired by a particular core of Pokémon or how a Pokémon impressively handled an opponent’s team. This can be your idea to start building your team around said idea if you feel like you can innovate or mix and match different strategies.

The Light Bulb Moment.

Inspiration can strike at any moment. I get some of my ideas literally as a shower thought and I get to teambuilding. This is so for me as I do believe teambuilding is one of the most enjoyable part of the game, but it could also be something that resonates with you. Did you watch a VGC game on a tournament and thought that one Pokémon could be very powerful to build around? Or were you going through the Dex list and pointed out something that you feel like could be potent? That is the foundation of your team right there!

For the sample team I will be building here my inspiration was a Pokémon I played with a bits during getting the feel for Regulation H VGC format when it was first announced, something that I quite liked the potential: Gholdengo!

Gholdengo understandably is going to be one of the mainstays of the format due to its amazing typing, movepool and most particularly its signature move of Make it Rain. This is a highly potent move, having 100% accuracy, targeting both opponents with a high base 110 power dealing massive damage. If you factor in the move nasty plot which raises its special attack stat by 2 stages, item provided damage boosts and doubling up the STAB with a tera steel; Gholdengo can clear games within a couple of turns.

2.2 Making a Core:

Synergy

Pokémon work with each other. Have you looked at the trio of starter Pokémon and how each counters the other in a triangle, in a sort of rock, papers, scissors situation; this is how types work in tandem with each other to form a core. Surely you could conceptualize a team of 6 water type Pokémon boosted by rain users but then your strategy can blow up like a house of cards as soon as you face dragon types and grass types, God forbid someone sets up a sunny day in front of you. One cannot rely on sheer power to win, you need you teammates to carry themselves and also cover for each other’s weaknesses.

One of the best examples and probably the most competitively viable cores is the Fire/ Water/ Grass core, abbreviated as the FWG core as evidence by the aforementioned starter Pokémon. Similarly another type core is Dragon/ Steel/ Fairy core also sometimes referred to as the fantasy core, owing to the fantasy like elements of these types.

Read Smogon's Guide to Type Cores, Smogon University is a Cornerstone of Competitive Pokémon 

Even though double battles do not require as much switching within a game and last a lower number of turns, having type synergy and the ability to switch and take resisted damage as well as dealing offensively with a large array of opposing Pokémon is essential for any competitive team.

Since Pokémon can carry up to two types, and have differing abilities, playing with these additional factors further enrich a core.

Particular examples are the vastly popular Incineroar and Amoonguss core which was most usually paired with a water type like Pelliper or Urshifu as recent as Regulation G. This core works amazingly because incineroar’s dark typing allows it to take psychic moves where amoonguss and urshifu are weak to them, incineroar loves to switch out using the move parting shot and put pressure on the field via its intimidate ability and fake out; this works extremely well with Amoonguss’ regenerator ability and an already defense oriented build. Amoonguss can carry the move pollen puff which allows the already terribly defensive Incineroar to regain its HP.

Meta relevance

Sure you can make perfect type synergy cores on paper but that would not define its success in the metagame. Each format develops its own general speed level (the collective speed stats that are present within a format) and power level (the amount of offensive pressure a Pokémon can put on the field) which means different formats suit different cores.

Comparing the current regulation set with the previous one we had, I can give you an example: Palafin has proven itself as an excellent Pokémon which tears through teams with its offensive capabilities. However it was nowhere to be seen in the regulation G format due to powerful restricted Pokémon punishing any predictable switching even through resisted hits. Now that the restricted, and other neighboring legendary Pokémon like Ogerpon or Urshifu in particular are not allowed, the general damage output is lowered quite a bit in the regulation H format. This allows for a need for water type offense and Palafin is the hero we all need. Lower power levels mean an expanded ability to switch in and out during a battle and taking less damage in the process; something that Palafin thrives off of to activate its Zero to Hero ability.

The entire point of explaining metagame relevance was to learn and know what you will be facing before you try to brainstorm a core for your team. If I build by team to counter a potential core of Cacturne, Camerupt and Bruxish I might as well have banged my head into a wall because I would not be able to keep up with the actual game where the majority uses a core of Incineroar, Amoonguss and Pelliper.

No Pokémon can stand alone on its own, even an already proven beast of the metagame like Gholdengo needs its teammates to shine! What can I do to build around it?

Gholdengo is already a particularly offensive Pokémon that can deal with multiple opponents with just 1 attack, it would be super helpful if I pair it with a partner that helps it boost up or deal that damage more efficiently.

On paper Gholdengo has the dark, ghost and ground type weakness, I know this from my previous knowledge of playing the game that Gholdengo is often paired with tailwind support, redirection support or fake out support Pokémon; to start off with something that keeps the type synergy in check; I chose Murkrow as its partner in crime! In addition to providing prankster based tailwinds, Murkrow could have metagame specific perks such as using haze vs a dondozo or using it to reset my own make it rain special attack drops all the while providing a surprise weather check for the increasingly threatening Typhlosion + Whimsicott lead as well. Its singular attack in brave bird is surprisingly nothing to scoff at as well, as many of Gholdengo’s premier threats such as Volcarona and Araquanid get hit super effectively by it.

I put together a visual for this guide in particular allowing me to clearly see what Gholdengo could not answer well: it was tons of threatening water types and dark types ready to tear it down: Pawmot was a Pokémon I was interesting in trying out and it works exactly as intended for this slot. Pawmot can further help the setup by providing its fake out support.

After starting off with the example of standard type cores you must be wondering why is this not a perfect type core? The thing is you don't need a perfect type triangle to make a core effective. the formula of A covers for B and B covers for C whereas C covers for A works out without type matchups owing to what makes up a format's metagame. Metagame's relevance is perhaps more important than type synergy.

Becoming a maverick or keeping with the trends.

One might think that innovation is a hopeless idea to think of especially as there is a huge metagame developed by a hive mind of sorts of highly skilled players all over the world, however this is not the case! There have been many examples in VGC history where innovation was the key to victory for many players. Wolfe Glick, one of my favorite players of the game is a renowned user of off the wall strategies, some for fun and some ideas that are termed meta breaking.

Perhaps I should tell you about the most well-known example in history where Ray Rizzo piloted a bulky Thundurus to a world championship victory. You might be thinking that it is a ludicrously common Pokémon to have seen even as early as VGC in the year 2013, but the idea was unheard of before this, allowing Ray Rizzo to see this meta threat in a new light and it absolutely worked wonders for him.

If you are to study in Regulation H metagame, Gholdengo’s most popular tailwind partner is Talonflame and white testing this team I figured out why that is (more on testing later in the guide) Talonflame being a fire type covers for Gholdengo’s fire weakness and this typing prevents it from being burned by Volcarona’s Flame body ability. It can also pack on the covert cloak item allowing a fake out immunity and the move will-o-wisp. While knowing this I am going with murkrow, why is this? Let’s compare the two:

Talonflame @ Covert Cloak  Ability: Gale Wings  Level: 50  Tera Type: Grass  - Brave Bird  - Tailwind  - Will-O-Wisp  - Taunt

Murkrow @ Eviolite  Ability: Prankster  Level: 50  Tera Type: Ghost  - Brave Bird  - Tailwind  - Haze  - Rain Dance

Talonflame works with Gholdengo as: ·         Doesn’t get burned by Volcarona’s flame body and KO’s it with stronger brave birds. ·         Provides will-o-wisp to support the team’s defensive output

Murkrow might not have Talonflame’s perks but it does the following, something in theory I found more convincing for my Gholdengo: ·         Ability to switch weather on the whimsicott + Typhlosion lead; Talonflame could not deter the eruption damage via Brave bird because all current Typlosion teams have Farigaraf on them. ·         Talonflame cannot do much against a psyspam team trickroom team. Murkrow here can both be immune to Expanding Force and surprise flip the weather in Torkoal’s face. ·         Talonflame can be taunted or encore locked via a fast prankster user, Murkrow does not have to worry. ·         Talonflame cannot use haze for the partner Gholdengo or against the heavy setup, particularly Dondozo featured in this format.

 

2.3 What Type of Team is This Going to Be?

Not all viable competitive teams function on the same principle. Of course you have to score knock outs to get a victory however the paths to achieving this ultimate goal can be different for differing teams. VGC players often refer to something as a play style, which is your affinity for a type of team philosophy that you in particular enjoy playing or play your best with. It is important to note that others believe learning a team is the real deal and play styles, while set in one’s own comfort can be a distraction to winning big things. anyhow the following is to be considered before i discuss team types:

Team modes:

Not all teams are going to be revolving around a single dedicated, infact most teams work in the form of having different modes for different matchups. sometimes a team can handle a single opposing team by 2 methods which throws another curveball to your opponents in the form of a guessing game in team preview as to what mode will you bring out to the game. for example: a team can have a weather mode alongside a balance mode. the weather mode of say rain is a hyper offense or disruptive strategy accompanied by a steel type that takes defensive advantage from the rain, it is important to consider that the two modes you choose for a team complement each other well and not clash or get in each other's way. this is the main reason I am not considering weather teams as their own dedicated type as they most often exist in tandem with other team modes or options.

This is a stellar example of a rain team: ペリイトウ (OTS) (pokepast.es)

Offensive teams:

The crux of winning any Pokémon battle is to knock out your opponent’s Pokémon before your Pokémon get knock out. Just archetype works on the same logic we all had as a kid playing Pokémon who though that any move other than the ones that do big damage are useless (although almost never true for competitive VGC)  A prime example is the recent worlds 2024 Koraidon teams using combinations of the biggest damage dealers in Koraidon, Chi Yu, Gholdengo, Flutter Mane and Raging Bolt on the same squad.

Pros: Offensive teams often termed as hyper offense teams hit hard and fast, require less setup and end games quick.

Cons: you might need to rely on big predictions to keep up the offense. The term glass cannon is often used for the Pokémon employed on such teams, which basically means they lack defensive prowess, if your opponents can trap you into poor positioning and you lose steam.

This Typhlosion Team by Wolfe Glick is a VGC Regulation H hyper offense team, employing huge damage dealers with disruptive and supportive options: Untitled 473 (OTS) (pokepast.es)

Defensive teams:

If everyone is using the big guns, you need to put up a barrier. This welcomes the defensive teams of a format. This is quite interesting that almost all VGC formats start off with higher offense outputs and then almost every other Pokémon adjusts to take hits better.

Pros: you have more opportunity to survive attacks and readjust. Teams carry both bulky and disruptive Pokémon.

Cons: the games are longer and more drawn out needing higher vigilance and number of predictions that need to be made. Longer games are more prone to higher RNG disasters such as critical hits, sleep turns or getting paralyzed.

Just like weather teams 6 defensive players cannot do much to rack up a victory, it is the combination of a defensive backbone with sweepers that gives rise to the defensive archetypes: Untitled 1 (OTS) (pokepast.es) this team uses disruptors of flash fire and setup sweeping options that will be facilitated by the defensive backbone. Even the big sweepers Kingambit has a great defensive typing and Glimmora can set up toxic spikes which help out in the longer more drawn out games a defensive team would play

Balanced Teams:

These are teams that mix both offense and defense. An iconic example for the VGC community is the CHALK teams that took worlds 2015 by storm. These teams used Cresselia, Heatran, Amoonguss, Landorus therian and Mega Kangaskhan as a central core that has some of the best offensive (mega kangaskhan, heatran and Landorus), defensive (Cresselia and Amoonguss) and disruptive (Kangaskhan’s fake out, amoonguss spore and rage powder, cresselia’s trick room or status moves) options available for the format.

Pros: you can approach the gameplan with multiple options, either going for burst damage right out of the gate or play safe with defensive pieces to scout out what your opponents are going to do.

Cons: preserving the lower defense, high offense output Pokémon paired with your supportive options is the key, if you lose your big damage pieces, the gameplan can crumble.

The Volcarona Balance is a great example of a VGC Regulation H balance teams: Copy of Copy of Copy of Untitled 67 (OTS) (pokepast.es)

Anti Meta Teams:

Going against the norm can be cool… and it is! The historic example of an anti meta team is Sejun Park’s Pachirisu on his World’s winning team way back in 2014. This is a Pokémon that no one was prepared for paired with a Mega Gyarados, another strong, yet underexplored Pokémon.

Pros: people are highly prepared for the usual metastuffs. People know how their Pokémon’s damage output interacts and what their game plans should be, if you bring them something they haven’t seen before, opponents will have to think on the fly which can be used to your advantage.

Cons: people are most likely using the high standard of Pokémon, finding something unusually yet effective is a tougher task to do. Moreover anti meta Pokémon always do not have the best stats.

It is tough to come up with 6 Pokemon that everyone else has overlooked, alot of times anti meta is combining or using the already popular Pokemon in a new way that gives you the competitive edge. this team illustrates it perfectly by combining a less common substitute Dondozo with a assault vest Tatsugiri and a Kingdra based rain mode: Untitled 82 (OTS) (pokepast.es)

Gimmick Teams:

These teams rely on a single, often unusual strategy to overwhelm unprepared opponents. Biggest example is Wolfe Glick’s iconic Perish trap teams which employ the use of the move perish song paired with trapping abilities of Pokémon like Gothitelle.

Pros: the game plans are almost flowchart based for such teams, allowing you to play better with ease as you gain experience.

Cons: such teams can fall when facing bad matchups. For perish trap teams they can be ghost types that avoid all forms of trapping effects. Moreover your opponents know the deal making your game plan and moves rather predictable.

Gimmicks are most successful when used as partial modes on a team like the aforementioned successful example of perish trap teams. Relying on a single flowchart based strategy to win against the entire span of metagame is a hard bargain for anyone.

An example of a successful gimmick and part offense in VGC Regulation H is of Dondozo Archetypes: Dondozo (OTS) (pokepast.es)

For me personally, I resonate with something between a hyper offense and balance style of play. This I feel like is so as I prefer to have big damage dealers and majority of my Pokémon to have the ability to deal significant damage. If I have too many defensive pieces on the team I feel like I loose track of preserving, essentially what is the ‘queen’ of a match (the big damage dealer or otherwise termed sweeper) and lose the game frustratingly as I couldn’t stay sharp for a longer game. Furthermore I am not the most confident in my ability to call high level reads consistently and love the ability to adjust my gameplan, bringing in more of a balance aspect to my teams.

2.4 Rounding out the team:

Filling in the gaps

The tandem of 2, 3 or even 4 Pokémon cannot take on all possible combinations of the metagame, you need all six members to work well with each other to take on whatever you will be thrown at. To fill the gaps is essentially to cover for the weaknesses of what you initial core lacks.

Brainstorming: Now I need more Pokémon to help defensively

Now Gholdengo and Pawmot are both ground weaknesses, sure I have murkrow for them but I would like to counter these types offensively. This pointed me to a direction that I was quite interested in trying out. This would add another dimension to the team all the while supporting the mons that came before it; the duo of Tatsugiri and Dondozo.

Dondozo and Tatsugiri are special. Tatsugiri is the sushi and Dondozo is the Sushi chef and they can certainly cook together! Tatsugiri’s commander ability allows it to hop into Dondozo’s mouth giving it a +2 stat boost in every stat. this mechanism is balanced by the inability of dondozo to switch out from the field when combined with tatsugiri and the situation becomes a 2 vs 1 against Dondozo. But doubling your attack stat, doubling your defenses and even doubling your speed, you can take the 1v1 by dealing monstrous damage and that too with speed all the while you survive multiple attacks with the defense boosts.

Now that the two slots were taken up, I only have the final one to fill in the gaps. I actually went over the list of Pokémon I felt like would need more coverage on my end and discovered that Dragonite can get the job done well. The thing with adding the dondozo mode onto the team also has some downsides. The metagame is filled with Pokémon ready to click the haze or clear smog button; two moves that reset the target’s stat changes and thus dondozo and tatsugiri cannot always be brought to every game. This means that I need a quartet that can stand on its own. To further increase the type coverage, offensive prowess and defensive synergy; Dragonite is a great fit.

Not to mention along with its monstrous attack stat it gets the inner focus ability preventing it from being affected by both the intimidate ability and fake out.

Choosing moves and tera types: With this team I did not have much of an idea for what could specifically be the best item for each Pokémon so one has to use guess work in order to determine what is best for each member. Of course every metagame relevant Pokémon already has a solid 2-3 moved signature to their success which are almost always opted for, you can also choose initial movesets on the basis of what you think will be effective. For example for this gyarados I chose to give it a dragon dance moveset to help it be able to sweep the opponents.

 

3. Testing the Team:

You might truly believe that you have cracked the code and have the most broken team down on paper however you cannot assure its success until you practice. With the ease and accessibility of Pokémon showdown it is almost always a bad move to start breeding, trading and training the Pokémon directly in game without testing them on the showdown ladder. 

Similar was the case with the first iteration of my team. Watching your near 1.5 hours of brainstorming session turn out nothing hurts a lot and this is where you need to remain steadfast as a teambuilder. However as Albert Einstein has stated: “Failure is success in progress.”

A beautiful thing I learned from watching a lengthy, I believe 26 part EUIC tournament prep series by Jamie Boyt was how freely he was able to test the odd ideas, drop ideas and test the other ones he had in mind. With each video he progressively got towards a team he liked, even collaging together the different ideas he liked to build his final EUIC team. Jamie is one of the GOATs when it comes to creativity in teambuilding and this practice was something I have implemented before. I know firsthand how discouraging it can be to know you failed miserably with teambuilding, but the only way forward is to recollect yourself and look at things from a different angle.

3.1 Recognizing the downsides:

It is important that during testing you take notes, some general and others more specific. Ask yourself: Is the team feeling clunky? Am I getting outspeed or overpowered by something easily? Are the Pokémon on my team working with or against each other?

Thankfully this team did not have many glaring weaknesses (which is great for me) however there are some big question marks that got answered really well.

I was personally interested in using the counter + mirror coat Tatsugiri sets. Since I did not want to give up on using focus sash on my Pawmot, I tried using bulkier EV’d Tatsugiri spreads but how much can a little fish take. If I invest into bulk on the physical side, then the specially offensive mons wash me away and vice versa. What I did notice during testing was how tatsugiri was a wasted slot under this regime and would often get put to sleep by an amoonguss. I’d rather have it to anything other than nothing, going with the obvious I went for a choice scarf Tatsugiri with the move sleep talk allowing it to land a random move even if it is asleep.

Gastrodon is a Pokémon I felt like I did not have much of an answer against, this is something I need to explore!

3.2 Construction, Destruction, Reconstruction!

It is ideal that you develop a gameplan for each expected archetype you will be facing of course theory-crafting in your head does not translate exactly as is to when you are playing against a human opponent. This is where repeated practice can come in.

What I do is utilize the resource of PASRS and record replays and review them if need be. This tool provides you with a shorthand summary of the game in a visual and more digestible format. This will allow you to note what teams you are winning or losing against, what moves you use, what do you lead, what your opponents lead all in a visual spreadsheet.

This allows you the data to improve upon on your gameplans and gives you ideas for how and where the team can be adjusted. As the format develops and changes over the course of tournaments being played a team built right now might not be as relevant or require an update 1 or 2 months later. “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” ― Leonardo da Vinci.

Within the journey of testing this team, I with my added inexperience of using Dondozo I felt as if I needed something to chip down opponents that would enhance my Dondozo’s offensive capability. What’s a better strategy to do that then use a Glimmora, but just to explore the options I did consider the use of Weezing and even theorized about a Revavroom to use poison gas, but glimmora was by far ideal. Given that poison types can switch in to dissolve the toxic spikes added with steel types being immune to the status condition, the variant I tested was with a corrosion glimmora that had mortal spin.

In theory I felt a step ahead of the field but soon taking to testing I realized that I had basically nothing for the formidable Psypsam archetype with Glimmora. I then also kept a assault vest Glimmora variant with a energy ball but I ended up never bringing it to the 1 Gastrodon matchup that I faced immediately as this idea has popped up into my head and I won that set my smart maneuvering too, so back to Dragonite we go!

4. The Detail Work:

4.1 Building EV Spreads:

Building EV spreads is actually a lot less complicated than the idea is proposed. Ofcourse you can finetune it down to the individual single digits but in 90% of the cases, you can make great EV spreads by having a solid knowledge of what you want.

Ofcourse team testing is the main procedure that helps inform what you actually need, something much better than theorycrafting a pretentious list of benchmarks you want a Pokémon to achieve before even testing it out. I suggest you build your EV spreads when you are fairly sure for the atleast 5 Pokémon you want on a team and have figured out which mons get brought to what matchups.

An example of this would be me trying to EV my Gholdengo to like a tera dark sucker punch from a Kingambit when I don’t even intend to bring it to a Kingambit matchup or atleast don’t intend to or ever attack with Gholdengo in face of a potential sucker punch on the field. On the other hand you don’t need to finetune everything to a matchup as in more open, more flexible formats like regulation H you might need to bring something to a matchup that normally wouldn’t be brought to the game.

The following is a rather minimalistic approach to EV’ing my team, but it should give you an idea for what you might need to do when building your own EV spreads:

Murkrow: 

Outspeeds 252 EV Positive Nature Ursaluna

4 Atk Murkrow Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Whimsicott: 138-164 (82.6 - 98.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

4 Atk Murkrow Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Rillaboom: 132-156 (63.7 - 75.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery

4 Atk Murkrow Brave Bird vs. 236 HP / 156+ Def Amoonguss: 120-144 (54.7 - 65.7%) -- 16% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery

 

252+ SpA Life Orb Hatterene Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 140+ SpD Eviolite Murkrow: 135-164 (80.8 - 98.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Life Orb Ursaluna-Bloodmoon Blood Moon vs. 244 HP / 228+ SpD Eviolite Murkrow: 142-168 (85.5 - 101.2%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

252+ SpA Tera-Stellar Pelipper Weather Ball (100 BP Water) (1st Use) vs. 244 HP / 228+ SpD Eviolite Murkrow in Rain: 124-146 (74.6 - 87.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Thunderbolt vs. 244 HP / 228+ SpD Eviolite Murkrow: 138-164 (83.1 - 98.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tera-Steel Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 244 HP / 228+ SpD Eviolite Murkrow: 138-164 (83.1 - 98.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+1 164+ SpA Archaludon Electro Shot vs. 244 HP / 228+ SpD Eviolite Murkrow: 180-212 (108.4 - 127.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Basculegion Flip Turn vs. 244 HP / 4 Def Eviolite Murkrow in Rain: 145-172 (87.3 - 103.6%) -- 25% chance to OHKO

Gholdengo:

252+ SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 236 HP / 28 SpD Gholdengo: 240-284 (125 - 147.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Black Glasses Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 236 HP / 44 Def Gholdengo: 162-192 (84.3 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

+2 252+ Atk Black Glasses Tera-Dark Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 236 HP / 44 Def Tera-Steel Gholdengo: 214-254 (111.4 - 132.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Defensive sets feel not worth it ATM, going with the following defensive benchmark right now:

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragonite Stomping Tantrum vs. 100 HP / 20 Def Tera-Steel Gholdengo: 146-174 (83.4 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Pawmot:

Following illustrates an example of how running calculations for a Pokémon can help inform a choice. I was confused between adamant or jolly nature, the Kingambit calculation made me vouch for the speedier variant because the it can speed tie at best vs its mirrors.

252 Atk Pawmot Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tera-Dark Kingambit: 162-192 (78.2 - 92.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Pawmot Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tera-Dark Kingambit: 180-212 (86.9 - 102.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO

252 Atk Tera-Electric Pawmot Double Shock vs. +2 4 HP / 4 Def Dondozo: 112-136 (49.5 - 60.1%) -- 82% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Dondozo: 

Outspeeds Max speed Baxcalibur at 154 speed stat under tailwind or when combined with tatsugiri

Offensively:

+1 100+ Atk Dondozo Wave Crash vs. 236 HP / 20 Def Incineroar: 264-312 (132 - 156%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+2 100+ Atk Dondozo Earthquake vs. 20 HP / 36 Def Glimmora: 288-340 (178.8 - 211.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+2 100+ Atk Dondozo Wave Crash vs. 244 HP / 0 Def Ursaluna-Bloodmoon: 284-336 (129.6 - 153.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+2 100+ Atk Unaware Dondozo Wave Crash vs. +2 4 HP / 4 Def Unaware Dondozo: 36-43 (15.9 - 19%) -- possible 8HKO after Leftovers recovery

+2 100+ Atk Tera-Grass Dondozo Tera Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Primarina: 282-332 (150.8 - 177.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

I never ended up using order up and kept getting hazed in front of Primarina so I figured that carrying tera blast grass improves my matchup vs opposing Dondozo, Primarina and Gastrodon. In the off chance I do bring Dondozo to these matchups: if I don’t catch them in a one hit knockout, I can force them to tera.

Defensively:

252+ SpA Life Orb Tera-Normal Ursaluna-Bloodmoon Blood Moon vs. +2 228 HP / 4 SpD Dondozo: 164-195 (64.5 - 76.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Tatsugiri I did not run any calcs for as Tatsugiri is not intended to ever be used as a sweeper. Its job is to pick off the rest of the HP bar once Dondozo falls, which it can do solidly enough between strong dragon STABS and muddy water.

Dragonite:

Once again this is something that helped inform my choice. I wasn’t really picking up the big 1 hit Kos with aerial ace and neither the Tera Normal extreme speeds. I decided on a tera blast flying based Dragonite and removed stomping tantrum for outrage as I never clicked the former in practice.

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragonite Aerial Ace vs. 236 HP / 156+ Def Amoonguss: 170-204 (77.6 - 93.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragonite Aerial Ace vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Rillaboom: 186-222 (89.8 - 107.2%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO

Playing with numbers: I stumbled upon bits of information when designing this EV spread for another team, this time I was trying to build an EV spread for a Tauros, a Pokémon built to Outspeeds Max speed positive nature Glimmora at 152 speed stat. After investing in the defensive stats for surviving a hurricane from peliper, i wanted to use the rest towards speed and attack. While giving tauros the speed evs, if you replicate this yourself you will notice a very strange thing on the slider between 148 EVs with a positive nature corresponding to a speed stat of 152 but investing 8 more EVs, which usually only aware a single stat point, would bump up the speed to 154. This is termed as hitting the bump, where a Pokémon gains an extra point due to the numbers rounding off.     Moreover I wanted to see which investment paired with the nature gives me desirable stat number in both attack and speed. I figured if I invest 252 EVs in speed with a neutral nature I get my desired speed stat, however with a 116 adamant nature (+ attack and – speed) I get a few extra stat points in attack as compared to vice versa:  Defensively: 252+ SpA Pelipper Hurricane vs. 68 HP / 68 SpD Assault Vest Tauros-Paldea-Aqua: 134-162 (84.2 - 101.8%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

EV’ing hacks: HP is a particularly important stat for some of the EV spread hacks, consider following for optimization: ·         Chose an even HP stat for a sitrus berry carrying Pokémon as when it gets hit by the move super fang (cutting it down to exactly 50% hp) the sitrus berry will activate, with an odd number as your HP stat it can be up to a roll. ·         Use multiples of 16 to get maximum recovery from leftovers or grassy terrain, this maximum recovery is just a difference of 1 hp point but in the name of optimization it can go a long way in impacting damage calculations over a long drawn out game. ·         A number ending in 9 in the HP stat makes it so that the life orb holder takes the minimum chip damage from life orb. Again this is the equivalent of 1 HP less in damage but it can work in your favor ultimately.

 You might want to switch back and forth between focusing on the details and testing the team to develop and finetune things further. for example, on this team I made a few final changes and realized how they informed my choices much better. since i am not using Talonflame the threat of being burned by a Volcarona is very real, therefore switching over to the tera blast flying Dondozo was a great option in retrospect. the final change i made to the team was switching Dondozo's order up to a tera blast grass slot. this was done due to me not using the move much in testing combined with the fact that i could surprise KO an unsuspecting Primarina ready to click haze in Dondozo's path and also Gastrodon, two things I usually wouldn't bring the order up variant of the Dondozo to. This allows me to potentially trick the opponents with having a defense increasing Tatsugiri so that they might think that I have body press in closed team sheet.

This is the final team I came up with:

MidasTheSurfer Gholdengo @ Life Orb  Ability: Good as Gold  Level: 50  Tera Type: Steel  EVs: 100 HP / 20 Def / 180 SpA / 4 SpD / 204 Spe  Modest Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Make It Rain  - Shadow Ball  - Nasty Plot  - Protect	Magicrow Murkrow @ Eviolite  Ability: Prankster  Level: 50  Tera Type: Ghost  EVs: 244 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 228 SpD / 28 Spe  Careful Nature  - Tailwind  - Brave Bird  - Haze  - Rain Dance	Gokumon Pawmot @ Focus Sash  Ability: Natural Cure  Level: 50  Tera Type: Electric  EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  Jolly Nature  - Fake Out  - Revival Blessing  - Close Combat  - Double Shock
Let Him Cook! Dondozo @ Leftovers  Ability: Unaware  Level: 50  Tera Type: Grass  EVs: 228 HP / 100 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 172 Spe  Adamant Nature  - Wave Crash  - Tera Blast  - Protect  - Earthquake	ForTheAesthetics Tatsugiri @ Choice Scarf  Ability: Commander  Level: 50  Tera Type: Stellar  EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  Modest Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Draco Meteor  - Muddy Water  - Dragon Pulse  - Sleep Talk	Baja Blast Dragonite @ Choice Band  Ability: Inner Focus  Level: 50  Tera Type: Flying  EVs: 204 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 44 Spe  Adamant Nature  - Tera Blast  - Extreme Speed  - Outrage  - Ice Spinner

 Access the team's pokepaste here!

Gholdengo Dozo Final (pokepast.es)

4.2 Developing Matchups:

It is extremely important to start developing a methodology for how you tackle each team. Of course all teams you face in practice or in tournament play are going to be of the same 6 Pokémon you have practiced many times before but what you can do in more diverse formats is to know your outs against the most popular cores of the game. If you are playing a more serious game with the team or are in a tournament it is extremely useful to already have a solid idea for how you deal with what as soon as you see the opponent’s team. It takes most of the pressure off from the team preview section of the game and allows you to look deeper into the open team sheet and identify something that might trip you up in the usual gameplan you follow.

As you practice more and more you will realize the weaknesses of a team. Every team does have its own set of pros and cons and yours is not going to be any different. For my team a glaring Pokémon that I feel weak against is a Gastrodon. Gastrodon between its ground type and usual ice type offensive coverage that it carries; is able to hit 4/6 of my Pokémon with supereffective damage further threatening with yawn trapping if I am going to switch around to reposition. Its storm drain ability also makes it so I cannot use my Dondozo’s only STAB move in Wave Crash when Gastrodon in on the field.

So do I need to change my team? No you don’t need to tear the team apart and switch around the 6 members you know can win you majority of the games, however in some cases swapping a Pokémon can be beneficial. For this team I chose to go with improving my play against a Gastrodon team, carefully maneuvering around it to avoid having it run away with a win with the tools it has at its disposal, paying more attention to damage calculations and how I chose to approach Gastrodon teams was generally enough for the team.

A Good VGC Team: Something Controversially Vague

Teambuilding is a strange thing to be addicted to, as in my honest opinion there really is no objective criteria to determine whether a team is the best team out there. I have heard Cybertron saying it in one of his earlier teambuilding guides that the team is only around 50% of the equation of victory for a player. The opponent you play both in terms of what their team consists and also how well you play against the player determines overall success in VGC.

A team’s success is only relevant to a time frame, as I explained how the metagame works in cycles a team that wins a tournament today might not stand strong in a tournament that happens two weeks after as people have prepared and adapted their own strategies against it. Of course after a certain period of time the Pokémon allowed and other nuances of a format will change invalidating the previous rule set’s monstrous archetypes.

What’s funny is that you can win the world championships which is the highest accolade in competitive Pokémon but then not be considered the best and be called out for ‘just playing easy matchups’ or if ‘X player played Y player, X would not have won the title’ arguments which again cannot be objectively solved because lady luck, otherwise known as RNG along with who and what you play are parts of the game out of your control.

The above is not an unsubstantiated claim. Absurdly enough this was the case of Sejun Park’s historic 2014 World Championship win with a Pachirisu, criticized online for of his tournament run luck. Similarly, one of my all time favorites and an anti meta genius; Ashton Cox has also been on the receiving end of negative criticism for him ‘just getting lucky’ with his anti-meta team runs. Neither Sejun Park or Ashton Cox have 1 hit wonders as Sejun earns his VGC world championship invite every year, whereas Ashton Cox was the first player to get 2 International Championship wins.

Since the matter cannot be solved by objective measures, when you are preparing for a tournament one has to take some subjective liberty. If you are preparing for a big international level VGC event then you are unable to evaluate how well said team would do before the tournament happens. Sure you can pick an already popular archetype within the established metagame but what if the people on tournament field are prepared for it so much so that it goes out of relevance? This sounds terrifying to hear at the end of a huge teambuilding guide but if you are paying a hefty travel expense and enrollment fee for a tournament, what can determine a ‘good team’ for you?

·         Getting Feedback:

VGC community is amazing! All of the resources mentioned are what I learned the ropes from, all are nonprofit in nature. Furthermore for more specific detailed analysis some VGC players are offering Patreon services, one of the most popular ones is Wolfey Glick’s Patreon. Otherwise you will find renowned players offering coaching services so if you lack confidence before a big tournament reaching out for help via non-profit community resources or paying for more focused coaching can help improve your confidence and skill.

I would generally recommend staying away from putting a team up to the hive mind of the internet and asking for improvement suggestions. This is usually helpful in the earlier stages of teambuilding when you might want a quick fix option but as I explained, every team has its weaknesses and people who have not yet played with your team will point out the obvious flaws sometimes a thing that can lead to you losing confidence in your play.

Some top level players have their private practice groups to play against each other and develop game plans for an archetype, get improvement suggestions for teams by the people their competitive likeness aligns with the most and also sometimes build/ collaborate on a team together as two (or multiple) heads are better than one. The smaller your practice group is and the more 1 on 1 discussions you can have with people the more focused your suggestions become making improvement easy.

Practice Makes Perfect!

Practice makes you more knowledgeable and helps you learn the ins and outs of your team better. The more knowledge you have the more comfortable you can be when you play the team. Unless you face something wildly off-meta, you don’t have to think on the fly to figure out a strategy midgame to play against the opponent’s team. Your comfort with the team betters the quality of your play and racks you up more consistent teams.

Don’t Rely on Unreliability:

As discussed RNG is a part of the game, how much it influences a gameplan is up to you in the teambuilding phase. For example if I am able to easily EV a Pokémon to OHKO an opponent 100% of the time as compared to 75% of the time, I should always prefer the former option to turn the odds in my favor. Choosing lower power moves over higher power but lower than 100% accurate moves, not relying on (albeit boosted by item or ability) critical hit chances as an essential part of my strategy are great ways to reduce how much luck interferes with your games. Not everything is in your hands and it is ultimately in your favor to realize if your team or play needs improvement or whether you lost due to tough luck, reviewing your games turn by turn is a great way to figure this out on your own.

Coming to the end of this guide, I believe I have poured in most of the essentials that I know of regarding teambuilding in VGC. Pokémon is a very complex game and building a team can be a very daunting task, however as an amateur player, teambuilding is also my favorite part of the game! So this was my small attempt to familiarize everyone with the steps I take to make my own teams and I sincerely hoped you liked it! Bye for now!