edit: aaand I still can't figure out how to make titles bold.
This is my first serious attempt at a nat dex team, built around using using defensive pivots slowbro and tapu fini to get my powerful choice item attackers the chance to fire off their moves. The team has no boosters and two of the three attackers are choice locked, but I've still had a lot of success by overwhelming people with the raw power of 130 base power stabs coming off 600+ attacking stats, followed by lopunny's incredibly fast cleanup.
Lopunny-Mega @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Quick Attack
- Return
- High Jump Kick
Lopunny is my mega of choice, and is here to prevent the team being overrun by faster offense (especially dragon dance users). Lopunny's stab combination is incredible (everything that resists return is hit super effectively by high jump kick), and lopunny outspeeds basically everything but dragapult. Fake out is an incredible move made better by stab and scrappy, and return is the only real option for normal stab. I prefer high jump kick to close combat as you'll be outspeeding almost everything so the return attack would be boosted by close combat's defense drop, and scrappy mostly negates the drawback of HJK (your opponent switching to ghost and forcing the crash damage). The last slot is more flexible, and I've tried a lot of things; drain punch helps a lot in long games, especially if your opponent is trying to wear you down with rocky helmet chip, power up punch lets you boost one of your attackers, but I've settled on quick attack for revenge killing dd dragapult and scarf dracovish, as well as annihilating mega beedrill in the 1v1.
Lopunny is easily the most important member of the team; generally the other mon's main job is to put out damage until everything on the enemy team is in fake out + return range.
Magearna-Original @ Choice Specs
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Focus Blast
- Flash Cannon
- Fleur Cannon
Specs Magearna, the "haha fleur cannon go brrrr" pokemon. Fleur cannon is incredibly difficult to switch into, 2 hit ko'ing even most resists. Often an opponent will have only one pokemon which can realistically switch into this absurd attack, usually a steel type or toxapex. Focus blast allows you to punish a steel switch in and volt switch crushes pex. I have flash cannon for the case where I want to sweep late game with soul heart boosts (which this set is not very good at taking advantage of otherwise). Basically every time magearna gets in, your opponent has to take a 50/50 or worse chance of losing a mon, either to a stupidly powerful fleur cannon or to a coverage move (volt switch won't ko on it's own, but allows you to get massive tempo with one of the team's other "just get me in" pokemon). The fact that I've seen people deal with this on a regular basis by sacking something to the first fleur cannon and then switching to magnet pull magnezone (at the cost of about 70% of that mon's health) is a testament to the absurd power of this move.
The original form is a purely asthetic choice; though it is technically weaker, I've never seen a magearna hit itself in confusion and foul play still does trivial damage.
Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Teleport
- Thunder Wave
- Scald
- Future Sight
Regenerator + teleport is a perfect combination for this team, and slowbro is the best physical wall with access to that combo. Slowbro's main job is to come in on a physical attacker and immediately teleport out to whichever of my offensive mons deals with it, but it can also threaten out certain targets (most notably lando-t) on it's own, and spread status with scald and t-wave. Paralysis is particularly devastaing on mid-speed mons who will no longer outspeed even the plodding magearna, or on very fast mons that could previously outrun cinderace. Future sight is my only real walbreaking tool, as none of my mons have boosting moves. Against defensive pivoting, my play is generally future sight -> teleport to magearna or cinderace -> click a 130 power attack. Very few things want to take a banded pyro ball and a 100 sp. attack future sight in the same turn.
Slowbro is also my only real check to scarf dracovish; thunderwave paralysis completely neuters that mon, which otherwise tears through my entire team. The minus speed nature and iv's allow me to underspeed many trick room sweepers, and there's literally nothing in the meta that slowbro can outspeed, so I don't see a real drawback.
Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Outrage
As good as slowbro is at pivoting in my dangerous pokemon, it's typing and limited offensive presence give it an unfortunate weakness to teams that give it a taste of it's own medicine with volt switch and u-turn, both hitting super effectively. Garchomp is responsible for covering that weakness. Ground typing negates volt switch and physical defense, rough skin, and rocky helmet combine to make u-turn hurt the user more than the target. You may notice this is my only ev spread which isn't naiive (I just copied it from the strategy dex, it outspeeds base 80 attackers). Stealth rock is a really good move, and garchomp threatens out enough things that it finds plenty of opportunities to set them up. Even totally uninvested, garchomp's attack is high enough that it's stab earthquakes and outrages have to be respected. Fire blast is here to deal with corviknight and ferrothorn, but mainly because I couldn't think of any really valuable use for this last slot.
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Moonblast
- Scald
- Nature's Madness
Tapu fini is my specially defensive pivot, which also checks status users. Defog is my only hazard control, which is needed on a team with no boots, no levitate, and no flying types. Rocks alone aren't too bad, but if my opponent starts stacking spike or toxic spikes the defog becomes crucial. Moonblast and scald are stab attacks that let me put pressure on whatever I pivoted in to check, and natures' madness is great for taking a chunk out of anything that tries to switch in; almost nothing at 50% continues to check my choice attackers, and many offensive mons can be put into lopunny range by this single attack from a defensive mon.
Overall, though, tapu fini is probably the mon I'm least comfortable with. The fact that both my defensive pivots are weak to electric (and grass) often comes back to bite me, as garchomp has very limited longevity; I sometimes have to start using magearna as my switch in to thunderbolt, which puts my team on a serious clock. That said, I don't know what else can fill the role of hazard control + special tank + status blocker. One thing I've considered is a specially defensive excadrill, maybe with assault vest, who's typing blocks two of the most common kinds of status (poison and paralysis).
Cinderace @ Choice Band
Ability: Libero
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Zen Headbutt
- High Jump Kick
- Pyro Ball
Everyone knows what cinderace does; it's a fast libero attacker that uses it's incredible coverage to outspeed and put moderate offensive pressure on almost everything. Except when it's an adamant choice band attacker that 2hko's tyranitar with pyro ball (after stealth rock damage). Adamant band cinderace fills a similar roll to specs magearna, throwing out devastating attacks with no reliable check. It's also a sweeping threat, as even adamant cinderace still has a quite respectable 337 speed, and even resists don't want to take two hits from it's banded attacks. There are basically two targets in the meta that can tank both pyro ball and high jump kick; toxapex and slowbro. Banded stab u-turn deals 60-70% to max defense slowbro, meaning it can't check cinderace repeatedly with regenerator healing, and zen headbutt likewise forces out toxapex (70%-83% to 252/252 bold pex)
Obviously, there are drawbacks to not using the standard cinderace spread. Stealth rock puts serious pressure on your switches, and this all-out attacker doesn't carry court change. Adamant cinderace is also outsped by other fast mons, although I've found this to be less of a problem than I expected. Finally, choice band doesn't play nice with sucker punch, meaning my cinderace has no priority. Fortunately, lopunny is possibly the best priority user in the tier, which makes up for this some.
I've had a lot of success with this team, reaching 1500 on the ladder (which is high for me, I'm bad), but I have very little experiance in the nat dex meta, so I don't really know how to refine it. This team excels against bulky and balanced offense teams that it can tear apart with powerful attacks. It currently struglles with stall, as I have no real recovery and no boosters to threaten full defensive mons like gliscor and blissey. I have actually done well against hyper offense, but suspect this is because they were piloted poorly on the low ladder; if they can pressure enough to prevent a defog from ruining their setup, they would roll me, but I've often been able to get tapu fini in to undo their hard work.
In terms of specific strengths, this team preys on offensive megas like beedrill and medicham, as well as greninja (either ability) and landorus.
Threats:
Scarf vish outspeeds the entire team and ohko's most of it. If slowbro goes down without paralyzing or at least burning it it's pretty much gg; your only chance is to wear it down with repeated fake outs (sacking a teammate each time) which is very difficult if your opponent just switches out of lopunny, or to catch it with a powerful hit on the switch.
Tapu koko is fast and it's typing terrifies this team. Garchomp is the only reliable answer to fast electric attacks, and it gets shredded by dazzling gleam (or hidden power ice, which every mon in the entire meta seems to run). Fortunately it's relatively frail; your best answer to this is to repeatedly hit it on the switch with scald or moonblast (or basically any move from your actual offensive mons, who it can't switch into at all).
Gliscor beats all my physical mons 1v1, and it's rapid healing through roost and poison heal make it difficult to wear down like the team is designed to. It's also hard to pressure with magearna, as gliscor's earthquake is not appreciated even through her natural bulk. Substitute sets (with either swords dance or toxic) are very frustrating and difficult to deal with. Future sight or catching a switch are your only real options against a well-played gliscor.
I'm new to both teambuilding in general and nat dex in particular, so any advice or refinements would be appreciated!
Lopunny-Mega @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Quick Attack
- Return
- High Jump Kick
Magearna-Original @ Choice Specs
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Focus Blast
- Flash Cannon
- Fleur Cannon
Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Teleport
- Thunder Wave
- Scald
- Future Sight
Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Outrage
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Moonblast
- Scald
- Nature's Madness
Cinderace @ Choice Band
Ability: Libero
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Zen Headbutt
- High Jump Kick
- Pyro Ball
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Quick Attack
- Return
- High Jump Kick
Magearna-Original @ Choice Specs
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Focus Blast
- Flash Cannon
- Fleur Cannon
Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Teleport
- Thunder Wave
- Scald
- Future Sight
Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Outrage
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Moonblast
- Scald
- Nature's Madness
Cinderace @ Choice Band
Ability: Libero
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Zen Headbutt
- High Jump Kick
- Pyro Ball
This is my first serious attempt at a nat dex team, built around using using defensive pivots slowbro and tapu fini to get my powerful choice item attackers the chance to fire off their moves. The team has no boosters and two of the three attackers are choice locked, but I've still had a lot of success by overwhelming people with the raw power of 130 base power stabs coming off 600+ attacking stats, followed by lopunny's incredibly fast cleanup.
Lopunny-Mega @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Quick Attack
- Return
- High Jump Kick
Lopunny is my mega of choice, and is here to prevent the team being overrun by faster offense (especially dragon dance users). Lopunny's stab combination is incredible (everything that resists return is hit super effectively by high jump kick), and lopunny outspeeds basically everything but dragapult. Fake out is an incredible move made better by stab and scrappy, and return is the only real option for normal stab. I prefer high jump kick to close combat as you'll be outspeeding almost everything so the return attack would be boosted by close combat's defense drop, and scrappy mostly negates the drawback of HJK (your opponent switching to ghost and forcing the crash damage). The last slot is more flexible, and I've tried a lot of things; drain punch helps a lot in long games, especially if your opponent is trying to wear you down with rocky helmet chip, power up punch lets you boost one of your attackers, but I've settled on quick attack for revenge killing dd dragapult and scarf dracovish, as well as annihilating mega beedrill in the 1v1.
Lopunny is easily the most important member of the team; generally the other mon's main job is to put out damage until everything on the enemy team is in fake out + return range.
Magearna-Original @ Choice Specs
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Focus Blast
- Flash Cannon
- Fleur Cannon
Specs Magearna, the "haha fleur cannon go brrrr" pokemon. Fleur cannon is incredibly difficult to switch into, 2 hit ko'ing even most resists. Often an opponent will have only one pokemon which can realistically switch into this absurd attack, usually a steel type or toxapex. Focus blast allows you to punish a steel switch in and volt switch crushes pex. I have flash cannon for the case where I want to sweep late game with soul heart boosts (which this set is not very good at taking advantage of otherwise). Basically every time magearna gets in, your opponent has to take a 50/50 or worse chance of losing a mon, either to a stupidly powerful fleur cannon or to a coverage move (volt switch won't ko on it's own, but allows you to get massive tempo with one of the team's other "just get me in" pokemon). The fact that I've seen people deal with this on a regular basis by sacking something to the first fleur cannon and then switching to magnet pull magnezone (at the cost of about 70% of that mon's health) is a testament to the absurd power of this move.
The original form is a purely asthetic choice; though it is technically weaker, I've never seen a magearna hit itself in confusion and foul play still does trivial damage.
Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Teleport
- Thunder Wave
- Scald
- Future Sight
Regenerator + teleport is a perfect combination for this team, and slowbro is the best physical wall with access to that combo. Slowbro's main job is to come in on a physical attacker and immediately teleport out to whichever of my offensive mons deals with it, but it can also threaten out certain targets (most notably lando-t) on it's own, and spread status with scald and t-wave. Paralysis is particularly devastaing on mid-speed mons who will no longer outspeed even the plodding magearna, or on very fast mons that could previously outrun cinderace. Future sight is my only real walbreaking tool, as none of my mons have boosting moves. Against defensive pivoting, my play is generally future sight -> teleport to magearna or cinderace -> click a 130 power attack. Very few things want to take a banded pyro ball and a 100 sp. attack future sight in the same turn.
Slowbro is also my only real check to scarf dracovish; thunderwave paralysis completely neuters that mon, which otherwise tears through my entire team. The minus speed nature and iv's allow me to underspeed many trick room sweepers, and there's literally nothing in the meta that slowbro can outspeed, so I don't see a real drawback.
Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Outrage
As good as slowbro is at pivoting in my dangerous pokemon, it's typing and limited offensive presence give it an unfortunate weakness to teams that give it a taste of it's own medicine with volt switch and u-turn, both hitting super effectively. Garchomp is responsible for covering that weakness. Ground typing negates volt switch and physical defense, rough skin, and rocky helmet combine to make u-turn hurt the user more than the target. You may notice this is my only ev spread which isn't naiive (I just copied it from the strategy dex, it outspeeds base 80 attackers). Stealth rock is a really good move, and garchomp threatens out enough things that it finds plenty of opportunities to set them up. Even totally uninvested, garchomp's attack is high enough that it's stab earthquakes and outrages have to be respected. Fire blast is here to deal with corviknight and ferrothorn, but mainly because I couldn't think of any really valuable use for this last slot.
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Moonblast
- Scald
- Nature's Madness
Tapu fini is my specially defensive pivot, which also checks status users. Defog is my only hazard control, which is needed on a team with no boots, no levitate, and no flying types. Rocks alone aren't too bad, but if my opponent starts stacking spike or toxic spikes the defog becomes crucial. Moonblast and scald are stab attacks that let me put pressure on whatever I pivoted in to check, and natures' madness is great for taking a chunk out of anything that tries to switch in; almost nothing at 50% continues to check my choice attackers, and many offensive mons can be put into lopunny range by this single attack from a defensive mon.
Overall, though, tapu fini is probably the mon I'm least comfortable with. The fact that both my defensive pivots are weak to electric (and grass) often comes back to bite me, as garchomp has very limited longevity; I sometimes have to start using magearna as my switch in to thunderbolt, which puts my team on a serious clock. That said, I don't know what else can fill the role of hazard control + special tank + status blocker. One thing I've considered is a specially defensive excadrill, maybe with assault vest, who's typing blocks two of the most common kinds of status (poison and paralysis).
Cinderace @ Choice Band
Ability: Libero
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Zen Headbutt
- High Jump Kick
- Pyro Ball
Everyone knows what cinderace does; it's a fast libero attacker that uses it's incredible coverage to outspeed and put moderate offensive pressure on almost everything. Except when it's an adamant choice band attacker that 2hko's tyranitar with pyro ball (after stealth rock damage). Adamant band cinderace fills a similar roll to specs magearna, throwing out devastating attacks with no reliable check. It's also a sweeping threat, as even adamant cinderace still has a quite respectable 337 speed, and even resists don't want to take two hits from it's banded attacks. There are basically two targets in the meta that can tank both pyro ball and high jump kick; toxapex and slowbro. Banded stab u-turn deals 60-70% to max defense slowbro, meaning it can't check cinderace repeatedly with regenerator healing, and zen headbutt likewise forces out toxapex (70%-83% to 252/252 bold pex)
Obviously, there are drawbacks to not using the standard cinderace spread. Stealth rock puts serious pressure on your switches, and this all-out attacker doesn't carry court change. Adamant cinderace is also outsped by other fast mons, although I've found this to be less of a problem than I expected. Finally, choice band doesn't play nice with sucker punch, meaning my cinderace has no priority. Fortunately, lopunny is possibly the best priority user in the tier, which makes up for this some.
I've had a lot of success with this team, reaching 1500 on the ladder (which is high for me, I'm bad), but I have very little experiance in the nat dex meta, so I don't really know how to refine it. This team excels against bulky and balanced offense teams that it can tear apart with powerful attacks. It currently struglles with stall, as I have no real recovery and no boosters to threaten full defensive mons like gliscor and blissey. I have actually done well against hyper offense, but suspect this is because they were piloted poorly on the low ladder; if they can pressure enough to prevent a defog from ruining their setup, they would roll me, but I've often been able to get tapu fini in to undo their hard work.
In terms of specific strengths, this team preys on offensive megas like beedrill and medicham, as well as greninja (either ability) and landorus.
Threats:
Scarf vish outspeeds the entire team and ohko's most of it. If slowbro goes down without paralyzing or at least burning it it's pretty much gg; your only chance is to wear it down with repeated fake outs (sacking a teammate each time) which is very difficult if your opponent just switches out of lopunny, or to catch it with a powerful hit on the switch.
Tapu koko is fast and it's typing terrifies this team. Garchomp is the only reliable answer to fast electric attacks, and it gets shredded by dazzling gleam (or hidden power ice, which every mon in the entire meta seems to run). Fortunately it's relatively frail; your best answer to this is to repeatedly hit it on the switch with scald or moonblast (or basically any move from your actual offensive mons, who it can't switch into at all).
Gliscor beats all my physical mons 1v1, and it's rapid healing through roost and poison heal make it difficult to wear down like the team is designed to. It's also hard to pressure with magearna, as gliscor's earthquake is not appreciated even through her natural bulk. Substitute sets (with either swords dance or toxic) are very frustrating and difficult to deal with. Future sight or catching a switch are your only real options against a well-played gliscor.
I'm new to both teambuilding in general and nat dex in particular, so any advice or refinements would be appreciated!
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