Hi, welcome to my final sword and shield rate for my team for the 8th generation of pokemon. for my final team, I felt like going with a bulky offensive team that started with corviknight my favourite new pokemon this generation, and going from there. the team itself is built with many familiar faces that find a good home on the bulky offensive archetype and gel well together into making a cohesive team that can tank hits and dish them back out.
Tapu Koko @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Roost
- Dazzling Gleam
On the suggestion of 3D in order to patch up some issues with the team the pivoting Tapu tapu koko joins the team to help deal with various threats such as weavile and deal with them before they get out of hand before quickly pivoting out in the face of a would-be counter. With this said the set chosen is the pivoting set for that a timid nature and 216 speed are a must for taking full advantage of koko's speed while taking a little off for bulk as koko's speed tier of 130 is shared by a few people and still makes it faster than weavile at 125 speed so it isn't hit by triple axel, the rest in special attack to hit as hard as it can on the special side. The set move choice is straight forward, using it's duel stab to hit relevant pokemon such as weavile with fairy stab and taking advantage of terrian with it's other stab too, so- volt-switch allows tapu koko to pivot out with an extra boost from the terrain and stab unlike with u-turn, thunderbolt is powerful electric stab boosted again by terrain, dazzling gleam is the secondary stab that allows koko to deal with weavile for the team and finally roost allows for reliable recovery.
Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Toxic
Lando-t is the king of ou since its introduction in BW2 no question and was first in mind after corviknight for the team. Thanks to their unique typing they share no weaknesses, and lando-t can take the heat away from corviknight from pokemon like heatran and zeraora. The set for lando-t is a good old bread and butter bulky defensive build. Eves go straight into hp 252, 164 defence eves allows lando to be physically tank as much as possible along with said hp eves and a defensive boosting nature in impish, and the rest are 92 in speed to allow lando-t to outpace some slower uninvested threats or low invested threats such as heatran with a quick eq to the face. The move choice is standard but chosen for the team in the last slot is toxic which helps greatly wear down threats to the team and is despised by counters to lando-t like slowbro that take having their longevity hampered, the other moves are standard - stealth rock for hazards, U-turn to pivot oput in a pinch and earthquakew for reliable stab.
Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Scald
- Future Sight
- Slack Off
- Teleport
Slowking joins the team after i was looking at it and slowbro, as the team at this point wanted something that could handle the likes of nidoking and some other special threats a tad better, slowking was chosen as the future porting pivot that loves a place on bulky offensive. The eves are staight out max special defence and hp with the remainder in defence to make slowking as specially bulky as possible, with a sassy nature 0 speed ivs to make this possible and to make sure slowking is as slow as possible to tank hits and port out to bring in a teammate as safely as possible. We have another bread and butter set - it's a future porting set so naturally teleport and future sight are included to pivot slowking out and future sight an oponet later with it's stab psychic move dealing damage enough to put something inrange for volcanora + dragonite to off in a pinch, scald is solid stab that has a chance of a burn, and slack off is reliable recovery.
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD
Calm Nature
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Wish
- Heal bell
Clefable is a solid tanky fairy-type pokemon in large part to its even stat spread, lone fairy typing, fantastic ability in magic guard, as well as its endless movepool, making the sky the limit for this bulky fairy in terms of options it brings to the table. The set uses another standard spread in it's eves - maxing hp allows for maxium mixed bulk, as celfable has much better special defence than defence, as well as a desire to handle some physical threats 200 defence eves are used to keep it bulky physically, 56 are used in special defence with a calm nature to bulk out that special defence without investing more into it over defence. The move choice is straightforward for clefable -moonblast is a reliable fairy stab, softboiled allows clefable reliable recovery, wish is a bit more interesting as it's here to help pokemon that can't reliably heal like lando-t in a pinch and doesn't hurt to throw out when a threat switches in and you switch out to heal that check/counter, heal bell rounds things off as a way of preventing the many bulky pokemon on this team that absolutely hate status with a passion in dragonite, volconora and lanto-t.
Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 156 Def / 16 SpA / 88 Spe
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Roost
- Flamethrower
- Psychic
Volcanora came back with the isle of armour update and while it misses being able to break it's counter with the powerful z moves it had last gen, this generation gave it a gift it a gift it could only dream of, the hazard protecting item heavy-duty boots making a poke 4x weak to sr and vulnerable to the other two now immune to both. Now the firey moth is able to switch in with much more impunity and set up with it's amazing set up move in quiver dance along witha greta stat distorubtion, offensive typing, and a great move pool to boot the moth is enjoying generation 8 ou pretty comfortably for the most part. The set chosen was the bulky offensive set of volcarona for that the standard spread of 248 HP / 156 Def / 16 SpA / 88 Spe is used to capitalise on it's decent natural bulk, speed and special attack in a way thats balanced across the bord to reliably set up a quiver dance only making it bulkier and offensively inclined. For the mnove set - Quiver dance is reliable epic even set up move that makes volcarona more bulk, faster and stronger, roost is reliable recovery for the bulky set, flamthrower is a reliable fire stab and psychic is mainly coverage to middle finger any topapex switching in especially if weakened and after a boost that puts in it ko range so volcanora isn't poisoned.
Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 184hp / 72atk / 252
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dual Wingbeat
- Earthquake
- Roost
Another pokemon that joined this gen later on in the crowned tundra is dragonite, not only that but dragonite finally got a relible stab for it's flying typing to use in duel wing beat in the dlc before the CT, and much like volcanora heavy-duty boots patching up that vulnerability to stealth rock. I wanted a dragon on the team, bulky and able to handle threats and tnak some hits and hydregion came to mind along with garchomp but ultimately dragonite with it's reliable recovery Duelwing beat earthquake coverage and access to dragon dance as well as typing felt the better fit. For this an adamant nature is chosen to boost dragonites attacking stat as it has more priority over the others to hit harder as they get their own investment the spread of 184hp/72atk/252 spe was suggested by 3D to better capitalize on dragonites speed to outpace threatsd it would struggle to otherwise even after a boost, while keeping the hp on a number that helps with potential Sr chip should it loose it's heavy duty boots. For the move choice - dragon dance sets up aditional attack power and speed, duel wingbeat is reliable flying stab, earthquake is great coverage and allows dragonite to take on threats like heatran it could not otherwise with only a stab combination, and roost allows dragonite to heal in a pinch.
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