VGC Series 2: A Commitment To Greatness!

Even though I was planning to build a team for series two and have it well rehearsed for when the s2 ladder starts I struggled to make out any time in January due to my semester finals. So here I was on feb 3^rd trying to build a team.

Actually beforehand I had been using a team which I built by combining roaring moon + Gholdengo as a solid combo to start off of with rain mode and rounding off the team with an Amoonguss and iron hands. I didn’t learn much or feel too comfortable at all with this team.

                                           

My preferences for what kind of paradox Pokémon I liked changed quite significantly over the past few weeks. My opinion matured and instead of preferring roaring moon or iron moth as my favorites; I felt like great tusk was something special. For once they gave a truly underrated mon in Donphan a much needed and well thought out makeover (don’t talk about the future form) and gave it fur and scales to make it fit the theme even better. all elements of its design still flow together very well and the radioactive themed shiny is a plus in my books as well!

Enough of me babbling about my likeness for great tusk; here is how I started to build my own team:

I was already short on time and quite late to start with my team; so I took to some convenient learning resources; NeilVGC, Jamie Boyt’s youtube was quite an amazing learning resources to get started on whart great tusk does best. I also took time to look at pre series 2 format s2 tournaments that happened online to sketch out what great tusk teams looked like.

I figured from the teams showcased in beanie brawl that great tusk had the following cores:

·         Great Tusk + Tailwind Setter (Talonflame, salamence or Roaring Moon) with some teams having the gholdengo + Roaring Moon I was trying out earlier.

·         Great Tusk + Iron Bundle/ Flutter Mane/ Iron Moth

·         Teams had arcanine, sylveon and amoonguss, kingambit as common partners

So as is the point of this team, I start off by putting a great tusk in my team builder. From my observation and recent familiarity with salamence and gholdengo core; I really wanted that duo for the tailwind mode of this team and knowing great tusk pairs well with an iron bundle; I knew where the team was going. Iron bundle has had a very strong hold on this format and for good reason too; I might replace it with something like a flutter mane due to its poor accuracy with hydro pump but it wouldn’t hurt to try it out.

With these two the big threats like garganacle, gholdengo, arcanine, kingambit, armarouge, volcarona, talonflame. Iron bundle also has a decent matchup against the rain duo of Palafin and Pelliper, Gastrodon,

Now flutter mane, sylveon, opposing iron bundle, dondozo + tatsugiri, talonflame, baxcalibur looked threatening. I felt like adding a steel type right now would be the way to go for. Of course here the best choice would be gholdengo, then add on a roaring moon and the main thing I would need to cover then would be dondozo+ tatsugiri and the overlapping weaknesses. I also needed additional support against trick room modes in this format.

What two would be better than choosing to go for an Arcanine + Amoonguss. With this relatively offense oriented the team this duo in the back gives me tons of flexibility and a lot more options in flutter mane. Trick room and dondozo matchups both check out.

In the end even though I made a team that I was quite familiar with and had seen a few people run in the beanie brawl the teambuilding thought process, for me personally goes a long way into understanding the core functionality of a team. With this I was off to testing.

After some testing with this team I felt like I could improve on the following:

·         I was testing with tera water amoonguss but ultimately decided that a tera rock would be better due to greater numbers of talonflame in the format, dragonite that could greatly chip my team. Rock tera still allows me to resist fire types.

·         Booster energy iron bundle was by far the biggest threat to the team, it outsped and can take care of my team with faster icy winds. I needed to carefully maneuver around it.

·         Speed on Arcanine would be valuable to land fast snarls and will-o-wisps. I ran no bulk on the set I was testing and it could definitely be quite useful.

·         Gholdengo could also go for some useful bulk.

·         I needed to get more data on the generic calculations in this format.

These pointers gave me all the relevant data I needed to improve and essentially finalize the team. The reason I am not going into further great detail for building this team is due to Orlando Regionals being the same weekend after which the metagame is supposed to solidify and centralize by quite a bit. With that being said following is what I built.

EV Spreads Notes:

·         Great Tusk outspeeds gholdengo with jolly nature.

·         Iron bundle outspeeds Flutter mane by a single point.

·         Gholdengo lives a non boosted Flutter Mane’s shadow ball.

·         Arcanine outspeeds booster energy speed boosted iron bundle under tailwind.

The Team:

Calculations:

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tera-Fire Torkoal Eruption (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tera-Rock Amoonguss in Sun: 142-168 (64.2 - 76%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ Atk Choice Band Tera-Normal Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 252 HP / 140+ Def Tera-Rock Amoonguss: 59-69 (26.6 - 31.2%) -- guaranteed 4HKO 252 SpA Choice Specs Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 252 HP / 108 SpD Amoonguss: 186-218 (84.1 - 98.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 SpA Tera-Ice Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 252 HP / 108 SpD Amoonguss: 164-196 (74.2 - 88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO   252 SpA Flutter Mane Shadow Ball vs. 100 HP / 36 SpD Gholdengo: 146-174 (83.4 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 116 SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Flutter Mane: 164-194 (126.1 - 149.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO   252 SpA Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 244 HP / 76+ SpD Arcanine: 182-216 (92.8 - 110.2%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO 252 SpA Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Roaring Moon: 116-138 (64 - 76.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 SpA Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 108 HP / 84 SpD Assault Vest Iron Hands: 75-88 (30.8 - 36.2%) -- 50.9% chance to 3HKO 252 SpA Tera-Water Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 108 HP / 84 SpD Assault Vest Iron Hands: 100-118 (41.1 - 48.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO 252 SpA Tera-Water Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 236 HP / 0 SpD Multiscale Dragonite: 116-140 (59.1 - 71.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 SpA Tera-Water Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. +2 116 HP / 0 SpD Dondozo: 84-98 (35 - 40.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO 252 SpA Tera-Water Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 236 HP / 116 SpD Amoonguss: 122-146 (55.7 - 66.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after pinch berry recovery 252 SpA Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Great Tusk: 300-354 (157 - 185.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252 SpA Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 20 HP / 132 SpD Assault Vest Great Tusk: 164-194 (84.9 - 100.5%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO 252 SpA Tera-Water Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 20 HP / 132 SpD Assault Vest Great Tusk: 220-260 (113.9 - 134.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252 SpA Tera-Water Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 252 HP / 140 SpD Pelipper: 264-312 (158 - 186.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252 SpA Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Palafin: 170-204 (96.5 - 115.9%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO 252 SpA Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Armarouge: 218-258 (113.5 - 134.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252 SpA Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 244 HP / 252+ SpD Garganacl: 140-168 (67.9 - 81.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery 252 SpA Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Iron Moth: 168-200 (107.6 - 128.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252 SpA Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tera-Grass Iron Moth: 108-128 (69.2 - 82%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 SpA Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Sandy Shocks: 210-248 (130.4 - 154%) -- guaranteed OHKO     252+ Atk Choice Band Tera-Normal Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tera-Water Iron Bundle: 103-123 (78 - 93.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO +2 156+ Atk Dondozo Wave Crash vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tera-Water Iron Bundle: 78-92 (59 - 69.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

https://pokepast.es/204d5a9e06eb6f60

 

So in the end I’d finish off with saying that I got to mid 1400s on showdown during the testing phase. I might update this information from trying to ladder on showdown with this team. If you like this build make sure to try it out for yourself. With that said, I’ll be back with more soon!

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So after watching and thoroughly enjoying the Orlando regional I went ahead and made quite some useful changes to the team.

 Albeit I should be honest in noting that I felt like I was loosing my footing in winning with this team all the while being hesitant to jump into a new archetype for laddering.

https://pokepast.es/e0ce66445c204fc5 

Overall I think I am quite satisfied with the team that I have built and think it has full functionality. It will most likely benefit from playing in an Open Team Sheet format as the ev spreads now have much more significance than they used to in the earlier iterations of the team. Following are the reasoning’s for the changes I’ve made:

·         Great Tusk had its tera type change from fire to ground as ground already removes the fairy weakness alongside adding great offensive potential to this mon. increasing the staying power of great tusk was not the smart choice to make since you are dropping your defenses by the turn. Keeping earthquake became a much more consistent option for offense especially during open team sheet battles.

·         Roaring moon got a very defensive ev spread as I felt like it went down to attacks I often wanted it to survive. Its main purpose was to set up fast tailwinds. This is why I changed the ev spread to now give me a speed boost and invested majorly into its defensive stats to increase the survivability all the while spreading very decent damage across the field.

·         Choice specs gholdengo was easily getting maneuvered around by my opponents. Especially in the time that choice specs is the most valuable gholdengo set; giving it an air balloon and nasty plot made it much easier to set up. This means I am practically immune to great tusk in a 1v1 situation, can launched earthquakes of my own with gholdengo on the side and set up to sweep against the highly defensive teams in this format. This pairing also gave rise to the duo of amoonguss + gholdengo particularly as a way to counter the mouse + ape combination which has been picking up popularity.

i also lost almost all the speed i had on gholdengo in favor of defensive evs since i felt like bulk was more important. the tera type of iron bundle was changed to ice to spread out more consistent damage through the more accurate freeze dry.

SSome more calculations:

252 SpA Life Orb Flutter Mane Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 212 SpD Gholdengo: 159-190 (81.9 - 97.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Life Orb Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 212 SpD Gholdengo: 159-190 (81.9 - 97.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

28+ SpA Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Flutter Mane: 114-134 (87.6 - 103%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

+2 28+ SpA Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Flutter Mane: 222-264 (170.7 - 203%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+2 28+ SpA Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 20 HP / 132 SpD Assault Vest Great Tusk: 129-153 (66.8 - 79.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 28+ SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Gholdengo: 282-332 (173 - 203.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Tera-Ice Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 36 HP / 0 SpD Roaring Moon: 156-184 (84.3 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tera-Steel Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 164 HP / 0 SpD Roaring Moon: 170-200 (84.5 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 252+ SpA Tera-Steel Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 164 HP / 0 SpD Roaring Moon: 226-268 (112.4 - 133.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+2 252 Atk Dondozo Order Up vs. 228 HP / 100 Def Roaring Moon: 176-208 (84.2 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 252+ SpA Armarouge Aura Sphere vs. 228 HP / 92 SpD Roaring Moon: 176-208 (84.2 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

12 Atk Roaring Moon Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Armarouge: 122-146 (63.5 - 76%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

12 Atk Roaring Moon Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Indeedee-F: 116-138 (65.5 - 77.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

12 Atk Tera-Flying Roaring Moon Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Flutter Mane: 97-115 (74.6 - 88.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

12 Atk Tera-Flying Roaring Moon Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Flutter Mane: 133-157 (102.3 - 120.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

12 Atk Tera-Flying Roaring Moon Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Great Tusk: 134-158 (70.1 - 82.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

I might give this archetype 1 final push and ladder with it; or go for a team that takes much less stress to play with to hit the intended goal of mid 1800s on showdown ladder this season. Some ideas revolving around my head include a weakness policy armarouge set or the classic dozogiri compositions which I did well with last season.

The Final Upgrade:

I was feeling quite the burnout for a week in vgc. I tried picking up multiple different archetypes. I tried the GIFT core with tyranitar which in composition was quite solid but I wasn’t able to pilot it to any success. Then I tried the sand team that seems to be quite stellar for laddering however I wasn’t able to play it well either. Finally I decided to come back to something I knew, my own great tusk team.

I played a few games and realized what needed some modification. I decided to change some things about this team:

Armarouge indeedee was quite tricky to play around. The usual lead I will make for this lead is roaring moon + great tusk however the threat of indeedee using tera fairy or armarouge going for tera grass would foil my plans and then I had almost nothing against expanding forces. Moreover if the indeedee lived; it can redirect away from armarouge further allowing it to scores ko’s.

Due to this a main difference I wanted to make were adding ice spinner to great tusk in place of earthquake as it was almost becoming a source of anti synergy for me.

Moreover I can add covert cloak to my iron bundle to help it protect against opposing bundle and fake outs and maybe add some bulk to the set. Moving the iron bundle’s ev spread to be a tad bit more defensive was super useful all the while maintaining good offensive benchmarks on it. (refer to calculations)

Gholdengo was quite the success for me. The bulk allowed it to live a lot more attacks and using nasty plot for when opponents tried to switch into a neutral make it rain was great. I just needed to swap this item to life orb as: air balloon gives away that the set I am running is nasty plot one. Now with earthquake removed for ice spinner I did not need this item to go for dual spread attacks.

After thinking about it the team had very decent answers to amoonguss already so I switched tera grass on my arcanine to give it additional amoonguss immunity; have it survive ground type attacks alongside a resistance to water types in the format. Changing the item to assault vest gave it more significant bulk but also allowed me to run close combat on it as another check to kingambit and tyranitar.

For me I think this is the final push I needed to improve this team, before testing I needed to do some calculations:

220 Atk Roaring Moon Throat Chop vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 150-176 (92 - 107.9%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO 220 Atk Roaring Moon Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Flutter Mane: 112-133 (86.1 - 102.3%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO 220 Atk Roaring Moon Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Indeedee-F: 134-158 (75.7 - 89.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 220 Atk Tera-Flying Roaring Moon Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Great Tusk: 152-182 (79.5 - 95.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 220 Atk Tera-Flying Roaring Moon Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Flutter Mane: 154-183 (118.4 - 140.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO 220 Atk Roaring Moon Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Armarouge: 140-168 (72.9 - 87.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO   252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Armarouge: 206-246 (107.2 - 128.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO -1 252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 244 HP / 100 Def Arcanine: 150-176 (76.5 - 89.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery 252 Atk Great Tusk Ice Spinner vs. 236 HP / 0 Def Dragonite: 196-232 (100 - 118.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252 Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 272-324 (150.2 - 179%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 108 HP / 76 Def Iron Hands: 182-216 (74.8 - 88.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 Atk Tera-Ground Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 108 HP / 76 Def Iron Hands: 244-288 (100.4 - 118.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252 Atk Tera-Ground Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 244 HP / 12 Def Garganacl: 220-260 (106.7 - 126.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO   28+ SpA Life Orb Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Flutter Mane: 148-174 (113.8 - 133.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO 28+ SpA Life Orb Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Sylveon: 151-179 (74.7 - 88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO   252 SpA Life Orb Tera-Fairy Flutter Mane Dazzling Gleam vs. 124 HP / 68 SpD Iron Bundle: 122-146 (82.9 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 Atk Protosynthesis Tera-Flying Roaring Moon Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 124 HP / 0 Def Iron Bundle: 115-136 (78.2 - 92.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO   60 SpA Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Iron Bundle: 75-88 (57.2 - 67.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 60 SpA Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 244 HP / 156+ SpD Arcanine: 144-170 (73.4 - 86.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery 60 SpA Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tera-Flying Roaring Moon: 102-120 (56.3 - 66.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

The Final Team:

https://pokepast.es/0bb018fbecd1695b 

Realizing that I was somewhere in the middle of a burnout and being stubborn I decided to reform the team. Better late than never…

By a stroke of luck I dedicated myself to try out one of the best teams in the series 2 format right now; The GIFT core paired with Tyranitar and Gothitelle. Quickly realizing how much the pairing of Tyranitar and Gothitelle can add to a team + how much I liked 3 Pokémon from my last team in Gholdengo, Great Tusk and Iron Bundle I had some very strong references to build the team off of.

The first rebuild of the team came with a murkrow but quite quickly I realized how niche at use and honestly not optimal murkrow was in the series 2 metagame. I was testing out Murkrow + Kingambit + Gothitelle in the first rebuild but realized many a times that the double steel pairing could hold the overall composition back and Tyranitar could have more useful bulk and coverage into certain matchups. Murkrow was not good in testing despite having haze to counter the dondozo teams; so talonflame was added to give me the talontusk lead when I needed it most. Gothitelle + tyranitar greatly patched up any troubles with trick room and psyspam and the overall composition looked much better on its own.

The last swap I could make is simply opting for a flutter mane in place of my Gholdengo to more or less completely borrow the team I drew inspiration from; but I liked the placing of Gholdengo. This was coupled with the fact I had no prior experience in playing with flutter mane so making such a major change might seem detrimental.

What Gholdengo offers me is to switch into fairy type attacks, set up a nasty plot, be immune to any status moves and function well in a trick room mode when I opt for it. To be honest I can very clearly see why flutter mane would be better and more functional for this team comp given the opponents lead Dondozo + Tatsugiri and against Mausape leads but I really like Gholdengo here too.

By these changes, despite using simple 252/252/4 spreads for the 3 new additions for this team I was quickly able to ease into mid 1550s on the ladder.

https://pokepast.es/b993dec5d49afc71

Strategies:

Iron Bundle + Great Tusk/ Gholdengo:

A lead that I can use to immediately pressure a lot of teams, pairing up speed control and offensive terrastalization can quickly punch holes into teams that I can use for the Pokémon in the back to clean up.

TalonTusk:

A staple for the series 2 metagame does wonders for this team as well. It applies great pressure as a lead to the mausape combinations or teams that particularly lack a ground immunity or resist. What is more is that you are able to bait out defensive terras from your opponents which makes doubling down on offense much easier.

Gothitelle’s Trap:

An amazing Pokémon that I will say after using; is a bit underrated. Gohitelle can quickly pins  bad combination of Pokémon from your opponents then you can use to spread burns, encore or set up with nasty plot against. Ot works wonders against trick room teams both being able to reverse trick rooms all the while using heal pulse on its partners.

The choice of psychic is never dead weight either. Considering it can do very significant damage to Pokémon like Iron Hands, Annihilape and Great Tusk, it goes a long way in picking up KO’s later.

Small Adjustments on the team:

Dropping hydro pump on Iron Bundle was such a good choice as encore trapping with Gothitelle or punishing defensive plays in the late game gives great advantage to the team.

The Calcs might seem a bit different for Talonflame than is the actual spread. This is because I went to use the initially leftovers evs to invest into the speed stat making it outspeed a non speed boosted roaring moon. Keeping flare blitz is a much intentional choice as Talonflame here is basically replacing Arcanine and I found offensive fire coverage to be of significant use in the prior iterations of this team.

Gothitelle spread was inspired from the experience of being lead against a flutter mane and maushold. The maushold uses super fang and flutter mane goes for shadow ball. Gothitelle couldn’t survive the highly offensive variants either way coupled with that I didn’t find myself using any other defensive typing either. The clear, yet niche answer I found was to keep tera dark for the times I do need this defensive wall against ghost or dark type attacks.

Talonflame 100 SpA Talonflame Overheat vs. +2 252 HP / 0 SpD Tera-Grass Dondozo: 96-114 (37.3 - 44.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO 100 SpA Talonflame Overheat vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Gholdengo: 144-170 (88.3 - 104.2%) -- 25% chance to OHKO 100 SpA Talonflame Overheat vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Iron Bundle: 97-115 (74 - 87.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 100 SpA Talonflame Air Slash vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Great Tusk: 126-150 (65.9 - 78.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 100 SpA Talonflame Air Slash vs. 180 HP / 4 SpD Annihilape: 84-98 (40.3 - 47.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery 100 Atk Talonflame Flare Blitz vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 134-162 (82.2 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 100 Atk Talonflame Flare Blitz vs. +2 252 HP / 0 Def Tera-Grass Dondozo: 60-72 (23.3 - 28%) -- 59.7% chance to 4HKO 100 Atk Talonflame Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Bundle: 58-69 (44.2 - 52.6%) -- 16% chance to 2HKO 100 Atk Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Great Tusk: 102-122 (53.4 - 63.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 100 Atk Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 180 HP / 20 Def Annihilape: 152-180 (73 - 86.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery 252+ Atk Choice Band Tera-Normal Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 204 HP / 4 Def Talonflame: 151-178 (84.3 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ Atk Life Orb Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 204 HP / 4 Def Talonflame: 140-165 (78.2 - 92.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ Atk Mystic Water Tera-Water Palafin Jet Punch vs. 204 HP / 60 Def Talonflame: 148-176 (82.6 - 98.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 Atk Sharp Beak Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 204 HP / 60 Def Talonflame: 109-130 (60.8 - 72.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 SpA Choice Specs Flutter Mane Shadow Ball vs. 204 HP / 4 SpD Talonflame: 141-166 (78.7 - 92.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ SpA Life Orb Armarouge Expanding Force (120 BP) vs. 204 HP / 4 SpD Talonflame in Psychic Terrain: 185-218 (103.3 - 121.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252 SpA Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 204 HP / 4 SpD Talonflame: 242-288 (135.1 - 160.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252+ Atk Mystic Water Palafin Wave Crash vs. 204 HP / 4 Def Talonflame: 236-282 (131.8 - 157.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO Gothitelle 70% hp 4+ SpA Protosynthesis Flutter Mane Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Gothitelle: 114-134 (64.4 - 75.7%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO 252 SpA Flutter Mane Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Gothitelle: 96-114 (54.2 - 64.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 100% hp 252 SpA Choice Specs Flutter Mane Shadow Ball vs. 244 HP / 252+ SpD Gothitelle: 144-170 (81.8 - 96.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ Atk Tyranitar Crunch vs. 244 HP / 0 Def Gothitelle: 162-192 (92 - 109%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after sandstorm damage and Sitrus Berry recovery 252+ SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 244 HP / 252+ SpD Gothitelle: 156-186 (88.6 - 105.6%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO 252 Atk Life Orb Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 244 HP / 0 Def Gothitelle: 142-168 (80.6 - 95.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery +2 124+ Atk Iron Hands Wild Charge vs. 244 HP / 0 Def Gothitelle: 169-201 (96 - 114.2%) -- 75% chance to OHKO +2 252 Atk Dondozo Wave Crash vs. 244 HP / 188 Def Gothitelle: 148-175 (84 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery +2 124+ Atk Iron Hands Wild Charge vs. 244 HP / 188 Def Gothitelle: 141-166 (80.1 - 94.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery 252+ Atk Tyranitar Assurance vs. 244 HP / 188 Def Gothitelle: 102-120 (57.9 - 68.1%) -- 90.2% chance to 2HKO after sandstorm damage and Sitrus Berry recovery 252 Atk Life Orb Tera-Ground Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 244 HP / 188 Def Gothitelle: 156-185 (88.6 - 105.1%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO 252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Throat Chop vs. 244 HP / 188 Def Gothitelle: 162-192 (92 - 109%) -- 50% chance to OHKO   Tyranitar 252 SpA Choice Specs Tera-Fairy Flutter Mane Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 152-180 (73.4 - 86.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252 SpA Choice Specs Tera-Fairy Flutter Mane Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 92-112 (44.4 - 54.1%) -- 37.5% chance to 2HKO 252 SpA Tera-Fairy Flutter Mane Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 100-120 (48.3 - 57.9%) -- 93.8% chance to 2HKO 252 SpA Tera-Fairy Flutter Mane Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 64-76 (30.9 - 36.7%) -- 46.3% chance to 3HKO +2 252 Atk Dondozo Wave Crash vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tyranitar: 318-374 (153.6 - 180.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252 SpA Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Tera-Flying Tyranitar: 80-96 (38.6 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after sandstorm damage

To conclude; I’d say it was quite a fun ride for me. Even thought I didn’t climb to the point of ladder I had hoped for my main takeaway was that at least I made a team that got progressively better with every iteration. I also took the experience of playing with a single strategy for a prolonged time all the while finding inspiration from the well built archetypes.

I am quite excited to go for a team and maybe even build more Antimeta teams that could pack the trick to climb the ladder with the newly announced regulation C format. Moreover I am quite excited for the DLC content coming to Pokémon scarlet and Violet in forms of the hidden treasure of area zero. Munkidori is a Pokémon I have taken quite a liking to due to its somewhat unique design for a monkey based Pokémon.

Let’s wrap this up and let us move on to the new format! I hope you’ve found this read entertaining and helpful. I’d be back with more!