NOTE: I havent been following teams used in tours, just pikalytics and my ladder experience.
Hello RMT section, today I wanna share and ask for help with a VGC team that I have been having a lot of fun with :)). Im normally a smogon UU player trying to get more into VGC which is why I don't have a lot of experience in the format, so here it is.
Building Process:
This is the core which I decided to start as the name implies, the plan is getting screens up so we can tank hits to boost our stats and the power of rage fist, this mon really gets insane bulk with grimm support.
I wanted another support for a possible annihi sweep, maushold is perfect with the beat up combo to self boost rage fist and bring some redirection to some attacks we might not want to take w ape. I like it cus it works both with and without screens.
Now that I had redirection I wanted to add some other setup threat to wallbreak vs the opponent for the things annihi might not like, for example stuff like gholdengo. At first I had Garchomp but I didn't like taking my own eqs and had some trouble vs opposing annihi, crit hydreigon fit the bill perfectly, letting me bypass those awkward annihi vs annihi wars while being a strong attacker not weakened by dondozo and opposing screens.
I am using the standard tera fire sets on hydra and annihi to remove their fairy weakness, however I noticed that now people are using stuff like tera water sylveon to beat them, all of my previous mons do badly vs stuff like pelipper and palafin which can muscle past me even with screens. Gastro comes in specifically to counter those mons, preventing water tauros from breaking our screens is really really nice while also redirecting dondozos wave crash.
The team was REALLY slow, idk if I wanted Tailwind because I felt I didn't have the mons to abuse it. So I just went with a really fast mon, in this case Choice Scarf Gholdengo. It also shored up the team with a fairy resist that didn't need to tera and something that completely beats amoonguss, which could get annoying sporing everyone, while bringing a little bit more of offense.
The Members In Depth:
Annihilape @ Leftovers
Ability: Vital Spirit
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 76 Def / 164 SpD / 12 Spe
Careful Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Rage Fist
- Protect
I honestly have no problem revealing ev spreads cus I do want to get some opinions. Anyways the moveset is just the standard 2atks with BU and Protect, Tera Fire again standard to resist fairy and avoid burns, this sweeper gets in tanks hits, boosts up and kills everyone, its so good that's why I built around it. I wanted ape as fat as possible so I just put some speed creep to then max out the HP and get a lot of spdef to help vs stuff like Dengo, hydra and Volcarona since we don't boost that stat. I kinda just slid the ev sliders but I found a pdef benchmark that I liked
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 76 Def Annihilape: 69-82 (31.7 - 37.7%) -- 0.3% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 76 Def Annihilape: 90-107 (41.4 - 49.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
These calcs actually happening should be rare as we have screens and friend guard but I did know that I didn't want an uninvested ape, so this works for me.
Grimmsnarl @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 SpD
Impish Nature
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Spirit Break
- Parting Shot
Screen setter of the team, its job is to make the opponent as weak as possible and all of its attacks help in that goal. Prankster screens are awesome and Light Clay ensures they stay up basically all the match, Spirit Break is mandatory so we arent a passive blob all game while also weakening oppos and the last move Parting Shot keeps making them weaker while pivoting out to bring another mon, this is the only move that could be replaced, since the team is quite slow there is a big merit on using Thunder Wave (or scary face if we really wanna target chomp), Fake Out is never a bad option and other stuff which we don't have like Terrain Control or priority could be remedied with Misty Terrain and Sucker Punch respectively, but honestly I am not sure what would be optimal so Ive sticked with Parting Shot cycling. I never tera this mon, so I just put Fairy to get stronger Spirit Breaks in case we wanna do more damage (never). BTW I have no idea how to EV Grimmsnarl so I just invested a lot in Pdef since it seemed useful vs Dondozo and Meowscarada
252 Atk Meowscarada Flower Trick vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Grimmsnarl on a critical hit: 157-186 (39.8 - 47.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Maushold-Four @ Wide Lens
Ability: Friend Guard
Level: 50
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Atk / 28 Def / 4 SpD / 188 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Population Bomb
- Follow Me
- Protect
- Beat Up
Super straight forward mon, Its job is to make Hydra and Annihi get a safe setup when facing really strong attackers. Follow Me is necessary, Protect for flexibility, Population Bomb for damage and Beat Up to setup the combo with annihi. The Wide Lens ensure we get many hits and I use Tera Normal in case this mon needs to do some damage, rare but it has happened. The appeal of smth like tera ghost to redirect fighters could be nice but i find it even rareer tbh. EV Spread is just faster than Garchomp, Max HP for Bulk with some attack cus this mon gets huge boosts with just a little investment, rest in Pdef cus its lower than its Spdef.
36 Atk Maushold Population Bomb (10 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 120-150 (71.8 - 89.8%) -- approx. 2HKO
36 Atk Tera Normal Maushold Population Bomb (10 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 160-200 (95.8 - 119.7%) -- approx. 87.5% chance to OHKO
Taunt or Encore could make my life easier vs certain setup sweepers and also vs Amoonguss which sounds nice but I do end up sacking this mon a lot of the time and Beat Up strats are really nice for some cheese wins, however my opportunities to use Beat Up on myself have been getting lower and lower the higher on the ladder I go so that might be a reason.
Gastrodon @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 108 SpA / 60 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Yawn
- Protect
This mon is the designated Rain, Tauros and (some) Dondozo counter. Its redirection is a god send for all of those water moves that threaten our tera fires, I rarely bring this mon but when it gets in it REALLY pulls its weight vs otherwise really hard mus. I choose to run it with a really neutral coverage options that hits almost everyone for at least neutral if not SE, Yawn is just annoying to deal with forcing switches and inabilitating mons, protect to last longer and outplay the opponent and Sitrus for longevity. Tera Flying just cus it resist grass (useful vs Meowscarada) and we could end up completely walling a Wave Crash + Fissure/EQ Dondozo which lol. The EV Spread is made bulky to live a variety of hits, the spdef is for Gholdengo benchmarks, Pdef is for Dozo Benchmarks, Rest in Spatk to make ourselves a little stronger.
252+ SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 60+ SpD Gastrodon: 114-135 (52.2 - 61.9%) -- (Should be 3HKO after Sitrus)
252+ SpA Choice Specs Tera Steel Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 252 HP / 60+ SpD Gastrodon: 85-100 (38.9 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
+2 252+ Atk Dondozo Order Up vs. 252 HP / 84 Def Gastrodon: 102-120 (46.7 - 55%)
+3 252+ Atk Dondozo Order Up vs. 252 HP / 84 Def Gastrodon: 127-150 (58.2 - 68.8%)
Ice Beam could be replaced for Muddy Water to hit Tera Fire Hydreigon, even over Yawn if we just wanna do dmg, but I do like the utility it brings. Tera Fairy to really try to catch Hydra but that would also need muddy. I also tried Clear Smog to mainly clear Dozo but I honestly didn't like it, as it felt useless a lot of times and oue CritDreigon kinda doesn't care abt it anyways.
Hydreigon @ Scope Lens
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Focus Energy
- Draco Meteor
- Heat Wave
- Protect
This is the second damage dealer of the team, it can really do massive damage thanks to crits bypassing debuffs, screens and boosts. Focus Energy and Scope Lens is necessary to get those 100% crits, Draco forms a perfect synergy with this strat letting us spam its full power, Heat Wave is useful as a spread move that gets stab from Tera Fire, Fire in general is chosen to resist Make it Rain, Heat Wave and Hyper voice, letting us get setup opportunities with the help of Maushold as our partner as we also are immune to Earthquake. After all those specific ev spreads I just go for a simple Max Spatk and Speed. This mon has been the goat and I honestly dont think that much if anything could be replaced? Mayb a Tera Fairy/Steel to match up better vs opposing Hydreigons and Garchomps, with the possibility of also completely walling (almost) all Dozo variants when next to Gastrodon, but it could compromise the Gholden/Volcarona mu. (we also lose stab)
Gholdengo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Good as Gold
Level: 50
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 60 HP / 252 SpA / 196 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Make It Rain
- Dazzling Gleam
- Trick
And finally we have Gholdengo, its job is be fast and strong to revenge kill mons like Meowscarada or even clean up after hydra/annihi broke holes in the opponents teams. We use Choice Scarf for this with an EV Spread that just outspeeds Meowscarada, Max Spatk and Modest nature with the rest in HP for a little bulk. Shadow Ball and Make it Rain are mandatory as our strongest STAB moves, Trick to potentially get rid of our scarf and cripple a setup sweeper is rly nice. The last move could honestly be whatever, I just use Dazzling as a way to OHKO Hydreigon before it teras, however Power Gem hits it super effectively AFTER it teras to fire while terablast water can OHKO it. Thunderbolt hits Dozo before tera, Focus Blast for Kingambit, Flash Cannon for single target steel stab. You could honestly get REALLY niche with stuff like twave, protect, recover, nasty plot because it only needs its 2 stabs to be one of the most functional Pokemon ever. Tera steel give big Make it Rain and nukes stuff, Ghost for strong sballs is also okay and after that the only id consider would be water with terablast.
The Weaknesses
I haven't gone very far on ladder with this team (skill issues) hovering around the high 1500s low 1600s but I have noticed some annoying stuff
We are in fact weak to Crit Dreigon, other sets normally just get walled by everyone's but especially annihis massive bulk with screens to the point they cant do much but Crit Dreigon just nukes everyone especially since it kinda owns our grimmsnarl. Defo the toughest mu, from the original paste some stuff could help vs it mainly Muddy Water, Tera Water Dengo, Thunder Wave Grimm and Taunt/Encore Maus, I am a bit unsure of which of these change could actually stay as I haven't tested all the possibilities. It would still be a bit tough tho
Honestly I am not even sure if the team is weak to this duo (mainly the wp variant) and most of the time I do face them I win, but it still feels super awkward to face and I do think a lot of the time my opponent misplays. With our spread moves that dont scare armarouge and just the nuking power it poses its a bit scary, Misty Terrain grimm sort of invalidate the strat almost fully it but that's a bit of a tough change to make.
Dread it, run from it, Dondozo always arrives.
(I hate this mon, on paper I think it shud be fine but use twave grimm and fairy hydra do bring security)
We can also get overwhelmed by some super fast offense, picking the lead vs teams that could throw us something like Meows + Dengo T1 is very important.
TYVM for reading and I hope I can make this team better, It is very standard but I like it.
Hello RMT section, today I wanna share and ask for help with a VGC team that I have been having a lot of fun with :)). Im normally a smogon UU player trying to get more into VGC which is why I don't have a lot of experience in the format, so here it is.
Building Process:
This is the core which I decided to start as the name implies, the plan is getting screens up so we can tank hits to boost our stats and the power of rage fist, this mon really gets insane bulk with grimm support.
I wanted another support for a possible annihi sweep, maushold is perfect with the beat up combo to self boost rage fist and bring some redirection to some attacks we might not want to take w ape. I like it cus it works both with and without screens.
Now that I had redirection I wanted to add some other setup threat to wallbreak vs the opponent for the things annihi might not like, for example stuff like gholdengo. At first I had Garchomp but I didn't like taking my own eqs and had some trouble vs opposing annihi, crit hydreigon fit the bill perfectly, letting me bypass those awkward annihi vs annihi wars while being a strong attacker not weakened by dondozo and opposing screens.
I am using the standard tera fire sets on hydra and annihi to remove their fairy weakness, however I noticed that now people are using stuff like tera water sylveon to beat them, all of my previous mons do badly vs stuff like pelipper and palafin which can muscle past me even with screens. Gastro comes in specifically to counter those mons, preventing water tauros from breaking our screens is really really nice while also redirecting dondozos wave crash.
The team was REALLY slow, idk if I wanted Tailwind because I felt I didn't have the mons to abuse it. So I just went with a really fast mon, in this case Choice Scarf Gholdengo. It also shored up the team with a fairy resist that didn't need to tera and something that completely beats amoonguss, which could get annoying sporing everyone, while bringing a little bit more of offense.
The Members In Depth:
Annihilape @ Leftovers
Ability: Vital Spirit
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 76 Def / 164 SpD / 12 Spe
Careful Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Rage Fist
- Protect
I honestly have no problem revealing ev spreads cus I do want to get some opinions. Anyways the moveset is just the standard 2atks with BU and Protect, Tera Fire again standard to resist fairy and avoid burns, this sweeper gets in tanks hits, boosts up and kills everyone, its so good that's why I built around it. I wanted ape as fat as possible so I just put some speed creep to then max out the HP and get a lot of spdef to help vs stuff like Dengo, hydra and Volcarona since we don't boost that stat. I kinda just slid the ev sliders but I found a pdef benchmark that I liked
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 76 Def Annihilape: 69-82 (31.7 - 37.7%) -- 0.3% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 76 Def Annihilape: 90-107 (41.4 - 49.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
These calcs actually happening should be rare as we have screens and friend guard but I did know that I didn't want an uninvested ape, so this works for me.
Grimmsnarl @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 SpD
Impish Nature
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Spirit Break
- Parting Shot
Screen setter of the team, its job is to make the opponent as weak as possible and all of its attacks help in that goal. Prankster screens are awesome and Light Clay ensures they stay up basically all the match, Spirit Break is mandatory so we arent a passive blob all game while also weakening oppos and the last move Parting Shot keeps making them weaker while pivoting out to bring another mon, this is the only move that could be replaced, since the team is quite slow there is a big merit on using Thunder Wave (or scary face if we really wanna target chomp), Fake Out is never a bad option and other stuff which we don't have like Terrain Control or priority could be remedied with Misty Terrain and Sucker Punch respectively, but honestly I am not sure what would be optimal so Ive sticked with Parting Shot cycling. I never tera this mon, so I just put Fairy to get stronger Spirit Breaks in case we wanna do more damage (never). BTW I have no idea how to EV Grimmsnarl so I just invested a lot in Pdef since it seemed useful vs Dondozo and Meowscarada
252 Atk Meowscarada Flower Trick vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Grimmsnarl on a critical hit: 157-186 (39.8 - 47.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Maushold-Four @ Wide Lens
Ability: Friend Guard
Level: 50
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Atk / 28 Def / 4 SpD / 188 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Population Bomb
- Follow Me
- Protect
- Beat Up
Super straight forward mon, Its job is to make Hydra and Annihi get a safe setup when facing really strong attackers. Follow Me is necessary, Protect for flexibility, Population Bomb for damage and Beat Up to setup the combo with annihi. The Wide Lens ensure we get many hits and I use Tera Normal in case this mon needs to do some damage, rare but it has happened. The appeal of smth like tera ghost to redirect fighters could be nice but i find it even rareer tbh. EV Spread is just faster than Garchomp, Max HP for Bulk with some attack cus this mon gets huge boosts with just a little investment, rest in Pdef cus its lower than its Spdef.
36 Atk Maushold Population Bomb (10 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 120-150 (71.8 - 89.8%) -- approx. 2HKO
36 Atk Tera Normal Maushold Population Bomb (10 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 160-200 (95.8 - 119.7%) -- approx. 87.5% chance to OHKO
Taunt or Encore could make my life easier vs certain setup sweepers and also vs Amoonguss which sounds nice but I do end up sacking this mon a lot of the time and Beat Up strats are really nice for some cheese wins, however my opportunities to use Beat Up on myself have been getting lower and lower the higher on the ladder I go so that might be a reason.
Gastrodon @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 108 SpA / 60 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Yawn
- Protect
This mon is the designated Rain, Tauros and (some) Dondozo counter. Its redirection is a god send for all of those water moves that threaten our tera fires, I rarely bring this mon but when it gets in it REALLY pulls its weight vs otherwise really hard mus. I choose to run it with a really neutral coverage options that hits almost everyone for at least neutral if not SE, Yawn is just annoying to deal with forcing switches and inabilitating mons, protect to last longer and outplay the opponent and Sitrus for longevity. Tera Flying just cus it resist grass (useful vs Meowscarada) and we could end up completely walling a Wave Crash + Fissure/EQ Dondozo which lol. The EV Spread is made bulky to live a variety of hits, the spdef is for Gholdengo benchmarks, Pdef is for Dozo Benchmarks, Rest in Spatk to make ourselves a little stronger.
252+ SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 60+ SpD Gastrodon: 114-135 (52.2 - 61.9%) -- (Should be 3HKO after Sitrus)
252+ SpA Choice Specs Tera Steel Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 252 HP / 60+ SpD Gastrodon: 85-100 (38.9 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
+2 252+ Atk Dondozo Order Up vs. 252 HP / 84 Def Gastrodon: 102-120 (46.7 - 55%)
+3 252+ Atk Dondozo Order Up vs. 252 HP / 84 Def Gastrodon: 127-150 (58.2 - 68.8%)
Ice Beam could be replaced for Muddy Water to hit Tera Fire Hydreigon, even over Yawn if we just wanna do dmg, but I do like the utility it brings. Tera Fairy to really try to catch Hydra but that would also need muddy. I also tried Clear Smog to mainly clear Dozo but I honestly didn't like it, as it felt useless a lot of times and oue CritDreigon kinda doesn't care abt it anyways.
Hydreigon @ Scope Lens
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Focus Energy
- Draco Meteor
- Heat Wave
- Protect
This is the second damage dealer of the team, it can really do massive damage thanks to crits bypassing debuffs, screens and boosts. Focus Energy and Scope Lens is necessary to get those 100% crits, Draco forms a perfect synergy with this strat letting us spam its full power, Heat Wave is useful as a spread move that gets stab from Tera Fire, Fire in general is chosen to resist Make it Rain, Heat Wave and Hyper voice, letting us get setup opportunities with the help of Maushold as our partner as we also are immune to Earthquake. After all those specific ev spreads I just go for a simple Max Spatk and Speed. This mon has been the goat and I honestly dont think that much if anything could be replaced? Mayb a Tera Fairy/Steel to match up better vs opposing Hydreigons and Garchomps, with the possibility of also completely walling (almost) all Dozo variants when next to Gastrodon, but it could compromise the Gholden/Volcarona mu. (we also lose stab)
Gholdengo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Good as Gold
Level: 50
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 60 HP / 252 SpA / 196 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Make It Rain
- Dazzling Gleam
- Trick
And finally we have Gholdengo, its job is be fast and strong to revenge kill mons like Meowscarada or even clean up after hydra/annihi broke holes in the opponents teams. We use Choice Scarf for this with an EV Spread that just outspeeds Meowscarada, Max Spatk and Modest nature with the rest in HP for a little bulk. Shadow Ball and Make it Rain are mandatory as our strongest STAB moves, Trick to potentially get rid of our scarf and cripple a setup sweeper is rly nice. The last move could honestly be whatever, I just use Dazzling as a way to OHKO Hydreigon before it teras, however Power Gem hits it super effectively AFTER it teras to fire while terablast water can OHKO it. Thunderbolt hits Dozo before tera, Focus Blast for Kingambit, Flash Cannon for single target steel stab. You could honestly get REALLY niche with stuff like twave, protect, recover, nasty plot because it only needs its 2 stabs to be one of the most functional Pokemon ever. Tera steel give big Make it Rain and nukes stuff, Ghost for strong sballs is also okay and after that the only id consider would be water with terablast.
The Weaknesses
I haven't gone very far on ladder with this team (skill issues) hovering around the high 1500s low 1600s but I have noticed some annoying stuff
We are in fact weak to Crit Dreigon, other sets normally just get walled by everyone's but especially annihis massive bulk with screens to the point they cant do much but Crit Dreigon just nukes everyone especially since it kinda owns our grimmsnarl. Defo the toughest mu, from the original paste some stuff could help vs it mainly Muddy Water, Tera Water Dengo, Thunder Wave Grimm and Taunt/Encore Maus, I am a bit unsure of which of these change could actually stay as I haven't tested all the possibilities. It would still be a bit tough tho
Honestly I am not even sure if the team is weak to this duo (mainly the wp variant) and most of the time I do face them I win, but it still feels super awkward to face and I do think a lot of the time my opponent misplays. With our spread moves that dont scare armarouge and just the nuking power it poses its a bit scary, Misty Terrain grimm sort of invalidate the strat almost fully it but that's a bit of a tough change to make.
Dread it, run from it, Dondozo always arrives.
(I hate this mon, on paper I think it shud be fine but use twave grimm and fairy hydra do bring security)
We can also get overwhelmed by some super fast offense, picking the lead vs teams that could throw us something like Meows + Dengo T1 is very important.
TYVM for reading and I hope I can make this team better, It is very standard but I like it.
