This was the team I used during Season 11, the first season of Regulation E, to reach a rating of 1878.
Grotle
The starting point for this team. Grotle has gained many tools over the years that allow it to be a better wall, such as Terastallization, Eviolite, and Shell Armor. Unfortunately, this meta is unusually cruel to Grotle, with the most used Pokemon being a Fire-type that is flat out immune to Leech Seed, and with the fact that Dragonite abounds on nearly every team and can not only outpace a Stockpile set with Dragon Dance and Roost, but also carries Encore. In fact, in this meta, everything and its grandma gets Encore!
Despite this, I was able to bring Grotle very rarely and pull out a few wins. For most of the season this Grotle was a Stockpile set, but by the end of the season, I had discovered its true niche: if you manage to eliminate the third Pokemon, Grotle can very easily wall Cresselia + Ursulana-B Trick Room (be warned, Ursaluna-B with 0 speed IVs under-speeds 31 IV Grotle in Trick Room, so you need to switch in on Cress as it Trick Rooms). However, it needs to ramp up faster to achieve this because Silk Scarf Tera Normal Blood Moon hits very hard, so it needs Amnesia over Stockpile. On the very last day I replaced Stockpile with Amnesia. On the very last battle of the season I was able to bring Grotle vs the exact type of Cress-Ursaluna Trick Room it beats and pull out a win, successfully testing the set. Although Stockpile won me the rare battle during the season, most of the time it was just doing what Amnesia was doing but worse, so I think Amnesia is overall an improvement.
Anyway, I was mainly using Grotle for nostalgia reasons and not because it's a very good Pokemon. Although I am very glad I was able to discover a niche for it, this means I was not bringing it very often at all. This means the other 5 team members had a lot of weight to pull. I consider Grotle to be a good luck charm, as Season 11 was the first season in this generation which I was able to finish in the 1800s.
Grotle was named Cherry Bloom for its pink Tera. I would have named it Cherry Blossom, but it didn't fit the character limit! I had to walk around a lot with Grotle because I wanted a Reliable Partner mark for it!
Rillaboom
Named Gigapithecus, short for Gigantopithecus. Rillaboom was originally chosen to support Grotle with Grassy Terrain, as Grotle can not hold Leftovers on its own. The Grassy Terrain support was also meant for Toxapex, who stayed on the team until I reached 1800 the first time, but was eventually replaced with Sneasler. I also eventually found out I wasn't bringing Rillaboom and Grotle together very often. Still, the Grassy Terrain increases Avalugg's and Ursaluna-B's longevity, and that combined with Rillaboom's Grass priority was just good enough that Rillaboom managed to stay even in the team's final iteration. Grassy Terrain can also help my Tera-Steel Roaring moon survive Earthquake in a pinch. I often wanted U-Turn for Dragonite, but Swords Dance is really good, and you need both Grassy Glide for Priority and Drum Beating to hit harder, so I kept Swords Dance. I actually bred this shiny Rillaboom in Gen 8, but it had Overgrow. I'm glad I was able to capsule him and give him a good home in gen 9!
Ursaluna-Bloodmoon
Only you can prevent forest fires. I named him Smokey because of his Fire Tera. Originally, I made him a Fire Tera because my team is otherwise pretty vulnerable to Corviknight. However, the fire Tera came with benefits against Ogerpon-Hearthflame, Flutter Mane's Moonblast, and Nasty Plot Gholdengo. It also came in particularly useful against Scizor and the rare Bronzong! I gave it 68 Speed EVs to outspeed most other Ursaluna-B, as well as outspeeding uninvested base 60 Pokemon. The rest is standard. Assault Vest helps against Flutter Mane and opposing Ursaluna-B. This pokemon is very strong!
Roaring Moon
Roaring Moon was sadly a little better earlier in the season, when everyone was trying out Offensive Ogerpon-H, which gets OHKOd by unboosted Outrage. Nowadays literally everyone is running bulk, allowing them to survive an Outrage (badly). Fortunately most people run Rock Romb now over Play Rough, allowing you to set up on it (although I never tried it personally and still went for Outrage against them). Still, there's a lot to be said for Pokemon whose attack is boosted by booster energy and has access to both the powerful STAB Knock Off and the ridiculous power of Outrage. Iron Head completes the set, and you can try for a lucky flinch! Roaring Moon forms part of a core with Ursaluna that antagonizes Gholdengo pretty heavily, allowing Avalugg to get away with being walled by it completely. I was hesitant to name my Roaring Moon Eclipse until an actual solar eclipse happened in my region this season and I decided to name it that anyway.
Avalugg
Avalugg is a ridiculous physical wall, held back only by its typing. It stops Chien-Pao really hard, as well as stopping Dragonite, which are both incredibly common. Steel Dragonite is annoying but a well-timed Tera Fighting can stave it off, and fortunately they aren't usually fully invested in attack so they don't 2HKO at +1 unless they're the Scale Shot variant. The real threat is the rare Draco Meteor Dragonite. Avalugg can notably kill Chi-Yu on the switch in with non-STAB Body Press. Furthermore, Avalugg can hilariously KO defensively uninvested Flutter Mane on the switch if it gets five hits with Icicle Spear, which has sniped several Flutter Mane in my run. Loaded Dice also helps you KO Dragonite with weakness policy who decide to stay in on you. I've gotten fairly lucky against Air Slash Dragonite in my run, as these usually aren't invested so they don't 2HKO and they don't tera, and I usually didn't flinch, so I could OHKO them with Icicle Spear. Avalugg's physical bulk has helped me immensely in my run. I just wish it wasn't so weak to Stealth Rock, but Loaded Dice is essential to my set, so I didn't run Heavy-Duty Boots. Avalugg is named after the brutalistic architecture of this building in particular, which looks a lot like a turtle to me (just like Avalugg!):
0 Atk Avalugg Icicle Spear (5 hits) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Flutter Mane: 135-165 (103 - 125.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Def Avalugg Body Press vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Chi-Yu: 158-186 (120.6 - 141.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Sneasler
The last Pokemon to be added to my team. After I got 1800 with a Toxapex named Christ (because Toxapex wears a crown of thorns and has Regenerator), I found that Toxapex didn't fit too well on my team, being too idle against Ursaluna-B. I needed a Pokemon with a decent matchup against Flutter Mane, so I chose a focus sash Sneasler. Tera Ghost helps out against Gholdengo who would otherwise wall this set, as well as theoretically stopping Extreme Speed from Dragonite (although every player I've run into has been too smart to Extreme Speed this thing even with Tera not yet revealed). It also helps against lead Annihilape, bursting it down and stopping Final Gambit. I run zero IVs in HP and the Defenses to activate Focus Sash so I can get the Unburden Boost, especially against Flutter Mane. I'm glad I put Sneasler on the team as it has gotten many game-saving sleep statuses with Dire Claw.
Seeing that I could hit 1800, I wanted to see if I could hit 1900 with Grotle on the last day (Halloween). However, with less than an hour on the clock until the end of the season, after a battle against Cress-Ursaluna-B where Amnesia Grotle did exactly what it was supposed to do (it was my first-time using Amnesia over Stockpile), despite my opponent nearly giving me a heart attack with Skill Swap Cresselia (I could get critted by Ursaluna-B now) and trying to timer stall me with 2 mons vs 1 (fortunately Leech Seed eventually wore Cresselia down and it had no recovery), I was exhausted. I hit 1878, which is one victory from 1900, and decided to call it quits. I still wonder if it was the right choice or if I should have tried to win one more battle for 1900, but I also didn't want to lose and end up under 1850. I think the Grotle version of this team could reach 1900 if piloted by a better player.
However, not all is lost! There was a version of the team that actually did make 1900, two days before the last day.
I was really happy to reach 1900, as it's my first time ever reaching it. This version of the team sadly replaced Grotle, though... on my Violet file, I started playing with a new team member, specifically designed to destroy stall (which my team otherwise loses to). Like Grotle, this new team member was someone I rarely bring... Haxorus.
Haxorus
Right in time for the Halloween season, it's an axe murderer! Haxorus's set is simple; Tera Dragon with Swords Dance and Outrage to break past stalling pokemon, Iron Head to deal with Fairy Teras, and Guillotine in case somebody is carrying Ability Shield or Iron Defenses with Garganacl. Mold Breaker is what sets Haxorus apart, allowing it to ignore Unaware. Jolly Nature allows it to outspeed Gliscor. I wanted to give Haxorus Scale Shot over Outrage but Avalugg was already holding the Loaded Dice.
Anyway, I don't think the change to Haxorus really made that much of a difference, as I rarely brought Haxorus (stall is very uncommon in BSS). I think the real difference is that the meta got a lot more hostile to my team over the last two days of the season, and on the 29th (two days before the season ended) I was able to get a lucky win streak I was just unable to replicate. Landorus-T increased in usage, Wo-Chien increased in usage, and so on.
Team Threats:
Urshifu (both formes): Really hard to deal with. If it's Tera Poison Dark Urshifu with Bulk-Up, you're pretty much screwed.
Wo-Chien: This thing walls the team very, very hard. Theoretically Roaring Moon can deal with it, but it's usually paired with Landorus, who can just screw you with Intimidate. Tera Poison is particularly hard for Sneasler to deal with.
Landorus: This mon is so annoying. It's less that what it does on its own and more what it does to support the team. It can set Stealth Rocks, which makes it a lot easier for Flutter Mane to sweep past Sneasler. Furthermore, its Intimidate is very harsh against my team, most of whom are physical attackers, and it can just Intimidate my mon and U-Turn into a favorable matchup.
Flutter Mane: Charm Flutter Mane often finds a way to be super annoying. Flutter can also sweep through my team very easily if Stealth Rocks are up.
Grotle
Code:
Cherry Bloom (Grotle) (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Shell Armor
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Amnesia
- Seed Bomb
- Leech Seed
- RestDespite this, I was able to bring Grotle very rarely and pull out a few wins. For most of the season this Grotle was a Stockpile set, but by the end of the season, I had discovered its true niche: if you manage to eliminate the third Pokemon, Grotle can very easily wall Cresselia + Ursulana-B Trick Room (be warned, Ursaluna-B with 0 speed IVs under-speeds 31 IV Grotle in Trick Room, so you need to switch in on Cress as it Trick Rooms). However, it needs to ramp up faster to achieve this because Silk Scarf Tera Normal Blood Moon hits very hard, so it needs Amnesia over Stockpile. On the very last day I replaced Stockpile with Amnesia. On the very last battle of the season I was able to bring Grotle vs the exact type of Cress-Ursaluna Trick Room it beats and pull out a win, successfully testing the set. Although Stockpile won me the rare battle during the season, most of the time it was just doing what Amnesia was doing but worse, so I think Amnesia is overall an improvement.
Anyway, I was mainly using Grotle for nostalgia reasons and not because it's a very good Pokemon. Although I am very glad I was able to discover a niche for it, this means I was not bringing it very often at all. This means the other 5 team members had a lot of weight to pull. I consider Grotle to be a good luck charm, as Season 11 was the first season in this generation which I was able to finish in the 1800s.
Grotle was named Cherry Bloom for its pink Tera. I would have named it Cherry Blossom, but it didn't fit the character limit! I had to walk around a lot with Grotle because I wanted a Reliable Partner mark for it!
Rillaboom
Code:
Gigapithecus (Rillaboom) (M) @ Terrain Extender
Ability: Grassy Surge
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Drum Beating
- Swords Dance
- High Horsepower
- Grassy GlideUrsaluna-Bloodmoon
Code:
Smokey (Ursaluna-Bloodmoon) (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Mind's Eye
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 180 SpD / 68 Spe
Modest Nature
- Blood Moon
- Earth Power
- Tera Blast
- Vacuum WaveOnly you can prevent forest fires. I named him Smokey because of his Fire Tera. Originally, I made him a Fire Tera because my team is otherwise pretty vulnerable to Corviknight. However, the fire Tera came with benefits against Ogerpon-Hearthflame, Flutter Mane's Moonblast, and Nasty Plot Gholdengo. It also came in particularly useful against Scizor and the rare Bronzong! I gave it 68 Speed EVs to outspeed most other Ursaluna-B, as well as outspeeding uninvested base 60 Pokemon. The rest is standard. Assault Vest helps against Flutter Mane and opposing Ursaluna-B. This pokemon is very strong!
Roaring Moon
Code:
Eclipse (Roaring Moon) @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Level: 50
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Dragon DanceAvalugg
Code:
Wean Hall (Avalugg) (F) @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Recover
- Icicle Spear0 Atk Avalugg Icicle Spear (5 hits) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Flutter Mane: 135-165 (103 - 125.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Def Avalugg Body Press vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Chi-Yu: 158-186 (120.6 - 141.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Sneasler
Code:
Once-ler (Sneasler) (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Unburden
Level: 50
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
IVs: 0 HP / 0 Def / 0 SpD
- Dire Claw
- Swords Dance
- Tera Blast
- Close CombatSeeing that I could hit 1800, I wanted to see if I could hit 1900 with Grotle on the last day (Halloween). However, with less than an hour on the clock until the end of the season, after a battle against Cress-Ursaluna-B where Amnesia Grotle did exactly what it was supposed to do (it was my first-time using Amnesia over Stockpile), despite my opponent nearly giving me a heart attack with Skill Swap Cresselia (I could get critted by Ursaluna-B now) and trying to timer stall me with 2 mons vs 1 (fortunately Leech Seed eventually wore Cresselia down and it had no recovery), I was exhausted. I hit 1878, which is one victory from 1900, and decided to call it quits. I still wonder if it was the right choice or if I should have tried to win one more battle for 1900, but I also didn't want to lose and end up under 1850. I think the Grotle version of this team could reach 1900 if piloted by a better player.
However, not all is lost! There was a version of the team that actually did make 1900, two days before the last day.
I was really happy to reach 1900, as it's my first time ever reaching it. This version of the team sadly replaced Grotle, though... on my Violet file, I started playing with a new team member, specifically designed to destroy stall (which my team otherwise loses to). Like Grotle, this new team member was someone I rarely bring... Haxorus.
Haxorus
Code:
Axe Murderer (Haxorus) (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Swords Dance
- Guillotine
- Iron HeadAnyway, I don't think the change to Haxorus really made that much of a difference, as I rarely brought Haxorus (stall is very uncommon in BSS). I think the real difference is that the meta got a lot more hostile to my team over the last two days of the season, and on the 29th (two days before the season ended) I was able to get a lucky win streak I was just unable to replicate. Landorus-T increased in usage, Wo-Chien increased in usage, and so on.
Team Threats:
Urshifu (both formes): Really hard to deal with. If it's Tera Poison Dark Urshifu with Bulk-Up, you're pretty much screwed.
Wo-Chien: This thing walls the team very, very hard. Theoretically Roaring Moon can deal with it, but it's usually paired with Landorus, who can just screw you with Intimidate. Tera Poison is particularly hard for Sneasler to deal with.
Landorus: This mon is so annoying. It's less that what it does on its own and more what it does to support the team. It can set Stealth Rocks, which makes it a lot easier for Flutter Mane to sweep past Sneasler. Furthermore, its Intimidate is very harsh against my team, most of whom are physical attackers, and it can just Intimidate my mon and U-Turn into a favorable matchup.
Flutter Mane: Charm Flutter Mane often finds a way to be super annoying. Flutter can also sweep through my team very easily if Stealth Rocks are up.
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