I do realized this is getting published at the time of Regulation M-B ongoing. With how much meat is left on the bone with the Champions' competitive formats I don't think we are going to revisit this format anytime soon. This post is just a dump of most of my tinkering around in regulation M-A at the start of the Champions era. The format is coming to a close in a few days so I am deciding to dump most of my work here. Including the serious teams and all the messy (and sometimes insightful) anti meta team tried out.
First Serious Build:
Garchomp by its side (which when i started out with the team, was a Mamoswine and Tsareena in the back) ultimately was giving me more flexibility especially vs Zard Y teams, in case we match tailwinds, Mamoswine still has to get down to its sash anyways or being forced to run a choice scarf to get to move before Charizard.
Basculegion was something I realized very early on in the format as one of the best pokemon. Endgame last respects picks up everything. That was the theory of this team. To do offense early on and pick up weak mons with last respects or just outright win the 1v1.
To not get into 1v1 scarf basculegion late games and avoid or be able to go toe to toe with Kingambit, I added my own.
I still needed a mega so floette was there and it was put on, it was great vs… well the entire format, as late in the format (NAIC is happening as i write this) Floette is back to be on the top of the charts. Mine here had psychic to pick off non focus sash Sneaslers easily.
Last mon was supposed to be extra assurance vs Kingambit and patch up more on my sand matchup, Corviknight fit in really well here. I used unnerve here to be able to pick up Chople berry Kingambit also as early format had alot of resist berries, this trick was a bit unexpected and could give me some edge in a few matchups.
A Lopsided Affair:
Out of the blue mon here is Garbodor. Garbodor was there for Floette matchups. The correct mon here, looking back, was Galarian Slowbro, so that I could run a trick room + imprison to patch up the horrendous hard trick room team matchup. But I persisted with Garbodor because it was kinda fun to roll along with the meme. The funny thing is most of the games I brought Garbodor vs Floette in any matchups I only hit like 1 or 2 Gunk shots, mostly I would set up toxic spikes as they switch around and its the added poison damage + drain punch vs their Kingambits took me to the win.
The funniest part is .This was the point in this format that I felt like alot of the teams were 5 mons with 1 specific niche mon that is only brought in 1 or 2 matchups.
Trying to Find A New Team
Post that team I tinkered with hard trick room compositions only to realize the Farigaraf + Incineroar teams weren’t working. They felt a bit too passive. Now technically in this format, the pieces were there… There’s alot of slow, hard hitting mons and some really solid trick room setters. Oranguru was an interesting one to look at given its ability to double the damage output of your mons by repeating moves on the same turn.I was also looking into Belibolt as it can recover a fair bit with electrophoresis and parabolic charge + can work as a standalone option in the endgame. I paired it with both Mega Steelix and Mega Camerupt for partners.
I liked Mega Blastoise for a bit and the rain dance farig + Blastoise composition was working well vs Zard Y teams so I wanted to build an anti meta team. Zard Y was not going anywhere so my next teams was with a Focus sash, Tailwind Kleavor with Blastoise, ofcourse I kept the trick room option in the back. I was very much loving that Blastoise had Aura Sphere and Dark Pulse, perfect coverage vs the best duo in the format in Kingambit and Basculegion, something that was spread across all different archetypes, not JUST zard Y.
Those were the few concepts I picked up here. But the team wasn’t a success.
In another effort to replicate this success, I tried looking into what works vs Zard Y. Choice scarf Rotom Wash was really good in theory and its best partners were right there too. My next Metagame team was the next one. Again I tried to add a twist to this, make this super Anti Zard Y (which was the repeating theme throughout this format for me) Ceruledge was something I explored alongside Ninetales, the latter being a perfect counter vs Garchomp, one of Ceruledge’s biggest threats + setting up an aurora veil helped it tons to help set up Ceruledge.
Branching off of the same concept, a friend of mine going by #1Miraidonhater was interested to explore Mega Venusaur which was really effectively picking up. We messed with the same base concepts, picked up from the teams we had used a bit. So it was a bit of a mish mash of different meta teams. The final thing we got stuck on was the Zard Y matchup where bringing Venusaur could be a liability, so we tried a dual mega option between Skarmory to Aerodactyl, though I felt like I needed to switch over to something new. Given Whimsicott just got reintroduced as the new bestie for Charizard Y metastuffs, it felt like I couldn’t pick up just enough momentum to keep up with them.
TR KANG:
A Stupid idea of mine was to use kangaskhan in trick room settings and make it pack hammer arm to help it achieve a slow enough speed stat to be termed a trick room sweeper. I am pretty sure i remember seeing this tech in a 2014 VGC us nationals top 4 team. A hard trick room team with a hammer arm kangaskhan as the mega (pretty sure mega abomasnow was also on there) I choose crunch here over sucker punch and switchup mindgames, aqua jet mindgames and going for setup are all too common vs trick room players so crunch gives me more consistent ability to land damage with a base 10 higher power on the attack
It was time to choose a partner for kangaskhan to set up trick room. In my previous attempts to try farigaraf, it felt extremely mediocre. So i wanted something new, something that could help me counter whimsicott’s encore. I entered the teambuilder thinking oblivious is also the same ability that allows me to bypass encore and taunt but it was aroma veil and the only pokemon that gets it is aromatisse… you might be thinking… game over for the squad right??? No! Aromatisse could serve the team really well here. Garchomp’s rough skin is kind of a huge barrier for kangaskhan’s longevity, aromatisse can actually OHKO it. While trying to calc for this spread i was surprised by how bulky i could make it here all the while being able to OHKO garchomp with fairy feather boosted moonblasts.
This was the starting point and it immediately took away my fear from the past experience of trying farigaraf + incineroar‘what do do immediately once trick room is set up? There’s no major need to immediately reposition now. I have 2 damage dealers ready to go.
Now i needed 2 sweepers in the back and with a weather heavy metagame, i need some help of my own. Torkoal gets a free pass to function in zard y sun matchups, is excellent vs froslass’s snow, turns the damage rolls vs rain teams on their heads and va sand it can threaten the usual corviknight and excadrill as it takes away tyranitar’s sdef boost. Torkoal’s damage reliability is also excellent here I later realized most are running heat wave and earth power but i choose weather ball and solarbeam on mine. Weather ball is here as a reliable, consistent damage source over heat wave’s shaky accuracy (more on it later) and also coutneracts wide guards. Solar beam is excellent coverage vs walls like rotom wash, milotic and basculegion. The speed here on torkoal helps it move after aromatisse, in case it needs to break a potential substitute or reset the sun before torkoal goes for its eruptions. Torkoal’s big counters in dragonite and garchomp are well covered by aromatisse. But what if aromatisse goes down?
I needed a secondary sweeper here. Most trick room teams are using crabominable here, my mega is set in place. I went with rampardos. It started out as a let’s test out this concept but boy is it the right mon! I was again trying to see what coverage helps torkoal. Torkoal gets stumped by the aforementioned dragons as well as water and fire types. Rampardos can more than cover up for it. Rampardos has really weird base stats here. So i went with focus sash here and enough investment in its special attack, which paired with its sheer force ability can OHKO no bulk garchomps. It sadly doesn’t get ice punch and the other ice coverage it gets in avalanche is a -1 priority move which results in a 100% 1v1 losing scenario as they knock me down to sash, i avalanche and i go down to rough skin too… this is counterproductive to anything i was trying to achieve with the slot.
The last 2 slots used to be oranguru, obviously makes the most sense to maximize the damage from rmapardos and torkoal and the last mon was filled up by glalie for no other purpose than to serve as a distraction for oranguru. It orked partially vs farigaraf, vivilon and blastoise teams to distract farigaraf from going for imprison so i could explode alongside my oranguru (who had telepathy) and set up trick room ready to go into my torkoal or rampardos. However… in other MUs particularly vs sneasler when i lead this duo, i felt like i needed inner focus on oranguru and if i hadn’t hammer armed on the same turn tr goes up or before (which never really happened) it was anti synergy with oranguru not being able to go for instruct combos. This, faster fake outs than kang, chople berry mons like kingambit, mid trick room opponent’s priority like fake out, sucker punch, basc’s aqua jet were adding up. Scarf vivillion team MU’s were a roll of the die for waking up in time with a wasted glalie lead if they hadn’t lead farigaraf of their own. So i needed a change
Something that deals with fake outs, something that deals with farigaraf’s imprision, mid game priority and most importantly vivillon. The idea of a late game sweeper like scarf basc was around in my head but i never but it to reality. I rechecked and dex and found my answer.
Choice scarf hisuian typhlosion paired with farigaraf. A farigaraf with little speed investment to out Imprison the opposing Imprison farigarafs and still give me the ability to go for my own trick rooms. This also solved the mid game priority shenanigans vs the standard MU’s that oranguru couldn’t
https://pokepast.es/992817076e7cca95
TOXIC DOZE:
The concept started with the use of a Yawn trap team, much like Ting lu and Dondozo in the S/V era. This is something I had the idea for at the start of the format but seeing the offense focused nature of the format, I didn’t bother following through. Going through the theory there were a few clear contenders. In my imagination before putting pen to paper I was thinking its Infestation Araquanid and Yawn Hydrapple, the latter getting regenerator and giga drain to keep up. However when theorizing for real, I noticed Thick Fat Snorlax was kind of the bulkiest we could get with it. I paired it with Gliscor at first as a natural segway to break up Garchomp’s earthquake spamming and secondarily to counter Sneasler with dual wingbeat, but it seldom worked. Sand tomb wasn’t the most accurate. The team, including the lead felt too passive given how sleep had been nerfed. I could either put them to sleep to bring out the other setup pokemon and i always lost steam trying to set my mons up. I needed something more sure of itself.
Amongst the mid to bulky megas that got Yawn, Emboar felt perfect especially given how well it performs vs the cornerstone archetype of Zard Y, I replaced Gliscor with Toxapex as with Wide guard and its amazing typing and bulk, it can live ALOT. this duo could alone stand the Zard Y archetype in most games. To avoid the ‘too passive’ issue I ran in the first iteration the mons in the back were choice scarf Hydreigon and Alolan Ninetales, both patch up offensively and defensively to almost 100% most Zard Y comps. Other teams? This squad couldn’t pair up well against. Mega venusaur picking up was also trouble for this team. Rain was kind of also a shaky matchup as I couldn’t bring this lead whatsoever against it. Its good to see this idea resurface after a while and people having success with it. Its kind of validating to know sometimes I can stumble across something useful…
Mega Heracross:
To round out the team and have extra insurance vs Zard Y I paired it on instinct with rain, put kang with last resort and fake out, which was another perfect segway between the tailroom strat I was aiming for, and lastly mega aggron. The last 2 slots taught me some lessons I took to the next few builds.
2-2-2 Rain
Next Team was a 2-2-2 Rain, Zard Y: still the most common archetype, Mega Floette: picking up again, what works? Rain with a steel type mega. I also really wanted to try out Sabelye + Archaludon for myself and see what this duo could do. I put Politoed here to pack icy wind and Ice beam and counter Garchomp much more effectively.
A stupid tech i came across while trying to build a Mega Heracross team earlier was that base form Aggron with Heavy Metal and Heavy Slam can pick up Mega Floette with Little investment. Aggron was better than I expected with Body Press and Iron Defense, even though the team started off with Mega Scizor, Gambit was something I felt a bit unsure of. Aggron could stay, Scizor kept getting pivoted around.
I also replaced Basculegion (my favorite mon this format) with Hisuian Samurott for having a much better typing vs late game Basculegion and the aforementioned beast called Kingambit. Though this second version lost its offense, and I didn’t really pursue it further.
11 Atk Heavy Metal Aggron Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 26 HP / 2 Def Mega Floette: 176-210 (100.5 - 120%) -- guaranteed OHKO
-1 11 Atk Heavy Metal Aggron Helping Hand Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 26 HP / 2 Def Mega Floette: 176-210 (100.5 - 120%) -- guaranteed OHKO
11 Atk Mega Aggron Helping Hand Heavy Slam (80 BP) vs. 26 HP / 2 Def Mega Floette: 212-252 (121.1 - 144%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 0 Def Mega Aggron Body Press vs. 32 HP / 14 Def Incineroar: 242-286 (119.8 - 141.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Point to note that aggron is really fast here to outpace Kingambits and Incineroars when they least expect it, having adamant nature be shown in team sheets hides this fact, this is something that can be used.
After Marco Silva’s Perish trap team win at Turin Regionals, #1MiraidonHater pointed out if we should revisit Mega Gardevoir, this was a mon he extensively used at the start of this format and thought it would do good knowing how nice on paper it can be vs that Perish trap team. We explored this idea again. I was winging this concept, again wanting to stick to the tailroom team, Gardevoir isn’t the fastest, neither is it the slowest. What if Garvedoir runs trick room with a partner that can use Tailwind. Volcarona was the best natural partner given it takes care of the steel types Gardevoir falters against.
To finish the tailroom duo, I suggested we slap on standard Kangaskhan as the fake out last resort set really has no real answers, with steel types being handled a bit by Volcarona, Kangaskhan could work in theory. Conkeldurr was something I added on as an extra bit of insurance vs Kingambit, it can also pick up Archaludon well if played correct. Rock slide is perfect coverage vs Charizard Y as Wide guard is one of the best supportive moves, something I picked up trying anti meta across the format.
These 4 were kind of a solid core here to begin with. We initially came to mega gyarados as the secondary mega with tools to set up dragon dances and sweep, but I didn’t bring it much so it was switched to, my favorite Choice Scarf Basculegion which did ALOT better, as it always does. Last slot was originally choice scarf meowskarada for coverage, but it didn’t get brought out alot, so it needed a switch. As of writing now and few days left in the format, we settled on Mega Gengar as Sneasler and Whimsicotts were kind of a trouble MU.
Lessons Learned:
I also replaced Basculegion (my favorite mon this format) with Hisuian Samurott for having a much better typing vs late game Basculegion and the aforementioned beast called Kingambit. Though this second version lost its offense, and I didn’t really pursue it further.
11 Atk Heavy Metal Aggron Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 26 HP / 2 Def Mega Floette: 176-210 (100.5 - 120%) -- guaranteed OHKO
-1 11 Atk Heavy Metal Aggron Helping Hand Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 26 HP / 2 Def Mega Floette: 176-210 (100.5 - 120%) -- guaranteed OHKO
11 Atk Mega Aggron Helping Hand Heavy Slam (80 BP) vs. 26 HP / 2 Def Mega Floette: 212-252 (121.1 - 144%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 0 Def Mega Aggron Body Press vs. 32 HP / 14 Def Incineroar: 242-286 (119.8 - 141.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Point to note that aggron is really fast here to outpace Kingambits and Incineroars when they least expect it, having adamant nature be shown in team sheets hides this fact, this is something that can be used.
Making a Mega Gardevoir Team with #1MiraidonHater
After Marco Silva’s Perish trap team win at Turin Regionals, #1MiraidonHater pointed out if we should revisit Mega Gardevoir, this was a mon he extensively used at the start of this format and thought it would do good knowing how nice on paper it can be vs that Perish trap team. We explored this idea again. I was winging this concept, again wanting to stick to the tailroom team, Gardevoir isn’t the fastest, neither is it the slowest. What if Garvedoir runs trick room with a partner that can use Tailwind. Volcarona was the best natural partner given it takes care of the steel types Gardevoir falters against.
To finish the tailroom duo, I suggested we slap on standard Kangaskhan as the fake out last resort set really has no real answers, with steel types being handled a bit by Volcarona, Kangaskhan could work in theory. Conkeldurr was something I added on as an extra bit of insurance vs Kingambit, it can also pick up Archaludon well if played correct. Rock slide is perfect coverage vs Charizard Y as Wide guard is one of the best supportive moves, something I picked up trying anti meta across the format.
These 4 were kind of a solid core here to begin with. We initially came to mega gyarados as the secondary mega with tools to set up dragon dances and sweep, but I didn’t bring it much so it was switched to, my favorite Choice Scarf Basculegion which did ALOT better, as it always does. Last slot was originally choice scarf meowskarada for coverage, but it didn’t get brought out alot, so it needed a switch. As of writing now and few days left in the format, we settled on Mega Gengar as Sneasler and Whimsicotts were kind of a trouble MU.
Lessons Learned:
Basculegion is Broken:
By far my failsafe mon to go to this format. Last respects with choice scarf in the late game is wayyy to good to ever be overlooked.Don’t doubt stupid ideas:
Given Toxapex was something that picked up later on and really successfully so, Top 4 at NAIC is not joke, I would like to not immediately write off my anti meta ideas, that’s the most enjoyable part of the game for me to begin with.Techs matter:
In the era of OTS and now with ability reveals, the importance of hidden techs still hold really well. When your anti meta mons have their moves revealed, they still don’t know the calcs, make that count!Ant that would be a wrap on this post. Again! I know it feels rather pointless to share this here and perhaps its just catharsis for me, but I wanted to talk about it here once and for all. So hope everyone here enjoyed the ride and perhaps found some useful inspo for Regulation M-B
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