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Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 180 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
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We started out with a pretty unique core, but we decided to add a Flying-type staple. Our Electric Immunity cam in the form of Agility Thundurus-therian. Weather ball is an additional piece of coverage not often found on flying teams.
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Celesteela is an amazing pokemon capable of stonewalling types that could otherwise beat flying, such as ice and rock.
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Zapdos-galar is a hard hitting Fighting-type Pokemon that acts as our speed control with a scarf.
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Landorus provies Stealth Rock support and is another Electric immunity. Its ability Intimidate can also help slow down setup sweepers while they are worn down by Toxic or Leech seed.
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We started out with an off with a good offensive core with hazards, so naturally we decided to compliment it with a good Regenerator pivot core. Toxpex is a staple on Poison-type teams thanks to its amazing longevity. Amoongus completes the Regen core and can take powerful Ground and Electric-type attacks directed at Toxapex. Similarly, Toxapex takes fire type attacks directed at Amoongus. 8 evs in sp.def on amoongus allow it to tank one Psychic from Life Orb Landorus-I.
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The next mon was our Psychic immunity. Drapion fills this role nicely with its special bulk and phsyical attacks. Toxic spikes allow Drapion to apply extra pressure to psychic type teams who might be forced to switch when facing Drapion.
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The final Pokemon on our team finishes the immunity core as our Ground immunity. U-turn and Defog allow Crobat to pivot for Nihilego and remove hazards such as Sticky Web. The Speed EVs allow Crobat to outspeed max speed Weavile.
I first made this core when calyrex-ice was running around in the meta and I been a fan since. Blacephalon uses scarf because beast boost will give it a special attack boost to potentially sweep the opponent and spectrier is a specs set to partner up with its 145 special attack and 130 Speed. Shadow ball is a must but the other 3 moves are just filler since spectrier has a terrible movepool
Steel has its loved by all and hated by none core back so why not to try it? I decided to go for a more stallier version with Toxic + Sub and Protect spam in them to slowly worm down the enemies team and their desire to keep playing. Opted for Magma Storm in Heatran to trap intoxicated things, Flamethrower in Celesteela to not be completely walled by any Steel-type. Aegislash set is very self explanatory. This core seems a bit hard to break for some types in conjunction with some other mons that Steel has.
Zygarde-10% @ Choice Band
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Thousand Arrows
- Outrage
- Rock Slide
These 2 dragons are exceptionally good at breaking the bulkier cores in this meta, like that steel one up there^. They both cover each other's weaknesses and have a fairly wide range of coverage, allowing you to build virtually anything around them. Plus I haven't seen a lot of Zydog on dragon so having a team with it would be cool.
Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Grass Knot
- Dazzling Gleam
Water is a pretty nasty type right now, so why not dismantle it with this Water-killing duo. Heavy Duty Boots lets Tapu Bulu come in on Toxic Spikes much more freely in order to set up and sweep. Superpower gives it helpful coverage for the Steel matchup, while Zen Headbutt does more damage to Toxapex outside of terrain, while also hitting Amoonguss. Adamant's nice for the extra power, but a Jolly nature also works for outspeeding mons like Pelipper and Jolly Bisharp. Tapu Koko's movepool is a little more limited with the removal of HP Ice, but Specs Dazzling Gleam will still hit hard against Landorus and Thundurus-T, while giving it a useful STAB option for the Dragon matchup as well. Fairy has a lot of room for team variety, so it'll be interesting seeing what can be built around this.
Diancie @ Choice Specs
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 68 HP / 252 SpA / 188 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Terrain Pulse
- Moonblast
- Mystical fire / Power Gem
- Earth Power / Power Gem
Choice Specs Diancie with Terrain Pulse can threaten many Pokémon due to its type change depending of the Terrain and its Power boost if used in one of them. Some examples are Celesteela, Corviknight, Toxapex, Amoonguss, Hippowdon, and Swampert, in Electric Terrain, Psychic Terrain, and Grassy Terrain, respectively. Moonblast is Diancie's main STAB, Mystical Fire, Earth Power, and Power Gem are good coverage options to deal with Pokémon like Ferrothorn, Heatran, and Volcarona. The EVs spread allow Diancie to outspeed Adamant Azumarill and some Pokémon that run EVs in Speed to speed creep it, like Mandibuzz.
Been laddering with this core and have been having mad success in addition to passing it around in Tundra Cup.
Choice Specs Regieleki, its most potent and dangerous set being able to maximize upon its one-dimensional playstyle. All 4 of these moves being boosted by Transistor and Choice Specs and potentially Electric Terrain, and being able uniquely be used in certain situations. Volting around in terrain, Thunderbolting outside of terrain and still maintaining a high damage output, Nuking something in terrain with Rising Voltage and Being able to dish out massive damage to slower foes with Electro Ball. In addition to outpacing base 110 scarfers Regieleki is a force to be reckoned with once a Ground-type is removed.
Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Grass Knot
- Thunderbolt
Classic Specs Set. It indeed was Terrain Extender before it was banned. Not much else to say besides it aids Regieleki in swaying the Dragon MU. Provides terrain support and Grass Knot to hit Grounds.
Swampert gained Flip Turn this gen, cool right?? Pairing Flip Turn Swampert with U-turn Pelipper allows both defensive Pokemon to bring in weather abusers in safely. Maximum defensive EVs on Swampert so you get a chance to Roar Kyurem-Black out once or twice (behind Substitute or after a Dragon Dance) if needed along with tanking other physical attacks. Stealth Rock is still nice to run for Pokemon that tend to not run HDB, which supports neighboring Rain abusers. Damp Rock on Pelipper is pretty much glue I feel right now because why use 5 turns of rain over 8?? Pairing this with Roost gives it recovery (taking rock damage isn't too pretty). Everything is adjustable except bolded words.
Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
- Flip Turn
Runerigus @ Choice Band
Ability: Wandering Spirit
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Poltergeist
- Toxic Spikes
- Trick
Ok so I had the idea for cb trick rune, as two big weaknesses is its inability to punish any walls that may want to come absorb tspikes or just absorb eq for their teammates. The main reason you'd even run rune would be to either run hazard stack with froslass or as a regieleki check but I honestly feel palossand overall is better for regieleki, but on nice thing about rune is its tspikes. But the problem stated before is still there, it's still a rock that can't do crap. CB is nice, as you can either hit switchins a lot harder cuz nobody expects cb rune, and ur attack is high enough uninvested, but I think the evs do need some work, no attack cb is wack LOL. But the idea is you can trick it away to a defogger/wall and then stack tspikes freely, and when you have stuff like hex spectrier running around on ghost I think tspikes are pretty good. you could even run venoshock gengar or smth but I don't really have any partners I absolutely want to see.
So the idea behind this is pretty simple. Ground has problems with a lot of the new releases such as Kartana and Bulu, as well as other fast and frail mons such as ninetails-aloha and Modest Swift Swim Kingdra. Scarf Dugtrio outspeeds all of these and does massive damage with Final Gambit, paving the way for the ground's other mons to win the game.
VS Kartana: Dugtrio Final Gambit vs. 0 HP Kartana: 274-274 (105.7 - 105.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO: Just switch Garchomp into Karatana, breaking the sash if there is any with Rough Skin, and KO with Final Gambit.
VS Bulu: Switching into Garchamp, getting chip damage with Rough Skin, and getting dugtrio out KOs bulu:
Dugtrio Final Gambit vs. 4 HP Tapu Bulu: 274-274 (97.1 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
VS Ninetails: Assuming sand is up (or tails is chipped in any way), dugtrio KOs with final gambit, ensuring hail is never set back up:
Dugtrio Final Gambit vs. 0 HP Ninetales-Alola: 274-274 (95.4 - 95.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
VS Kingdra: Easy OHKO with final gambit if Kingdra is chipped by rocks:
Dugtrio Final Gambit vs. 0 HP Kingdra: 274-274 (94.1 - 94.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Obviously this team appreciates a way to keep Dugtrio's health full, so Spin Exca is a good teammate for this core. Ideally a team built around this would consistently beat Steel and Fairy, and I'm curious to see how the community builds around it if it chooses to.
Oh boy, we have a lot of submissions this week! That means you can vote for your 3 favorite cores! You may also vote for your own core. The cores this week are: