Projects National Dex DOU Teambuilding Competition!!!!! (Week TwentyOne: MHera)

Congratulations Smudgerox for winning the week!

Next up is Marshadow!
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Despite being a fairly powerful legendary, it feels like I've been seeing less Marshadow than I'd expect. Ghost/Fighting is an excellent typing, and Marshadow has a movepool that can back it up. Additionally, Technician synergizes with Shadow Sneak, giving Marshadow a stronger than average priority option that can scare out opposing Psychic types. Additionally, Marshadow has access to Spectral Thief, giving it the unique ability to steal opposing boosts, making it potentially risky to set up with a Marshadow on the other side of the field. However, Marshadow's Flying type weakness can leave it vulnerable to Tornadus, and it can have problems with opposing Flutter Mane depending on the set. Still, this Pokemon has access to strong options, and can potentially make a team extremely threatening by its presence alone.

im excited to see what you come up with


The deadline for building is on the 26th, at 2:30am UTC, and voting will last 48 hours after that. We'll be using ranked voting again. This week, you WILL be allowed to include yourself on the ranked ballot.
 
So here's my entry for the weekly teambuilding competition!
:zeraora: :tapu-fini: :rillaboom: :marshadow: :salamence-mega: :volcanion:
Here's some of my reasoning for the building process:
Origin Story
With the duo of Dondozo and Tatsugiri getting banished to the shadow realm lil' poor Marshadow really lost its most impressive niche as a powerful check able to steal the catfish's omniboost thanks to its signature move Spectral Thief and it's very difficult to justify its presence in a team when a Pokémon like Annihilape exists*. Not only Ape is a little bit bulkier but its access to the incredibly busted Rage Fist crowns the monkey as the better Bulk Up user too. What I wanted to do then was to try playing around with a set and some synergies that make more use of Marshadow's higher speed and access to a boosted priority move in Shadow Sneak.
The Team
To put it very bluntly, the team is conceptualised to be a goodstuff that finds in the combination between solid, bulky but offensive mons and Coaching its main capstone. Vulcanion, Tapu fini and Mega Salamence are good answers to Sun, Zeraora, Rillaboom and Vulcanion are able to cause havoc into Trick Room-based teams, the dual terrain is able to shut down Psyspam and the match up against Rain is generally favorable.
Zeraora
:Zeraora:
Zeraora is definitely the star of the team: it presents itself as an incredibly fast lead rich in utilty that is also able to preserve its Coaching boosts for later thanks to the wonderful combination of anti-Fake out Cover Cloak and fast Volt Switch. Its ability Volt Absorb synergises quite well with the Electric-weak Tapu Fini and Vulcanion and can be used for interesting mind games.
Tapu Fini
:Tapu-Fini:
Fini's Ability Misty Surge is quite useful while facing sporers and Will-o-Wispers that can really ruin your opportunity of snowballing while relying on Coaching. The latter move combined with Calm Mind can really create an impressive defensive tank given the circumstances and its typing makes it a natural companion for Marshadow.
Rillaboom
:Rillaboom:
Quite the straightfoward choice: strong fake-outer, incredible Coaching abuser thanks to its two signature stabs, ground resist, my only hope to hit supereffectively Water and Ground types without many logistical issues.
Marshadow
:Marshadow:
Clearly the Dark horse of the team thanks to its very unique set and item choice: after terastralising against its counters and/or after one Coaching from Zeraora (depending on the circumstances) it's gonna be not only a very fast and strong enough mon able to cripple the other side of the field with a vaste coverage of moves no matter the match up but it will also be quite complicated to K.O., even for its natural counter like Flutter Mane and Tornadus that now cannot stand a 1v1 against it. Its access to Shadow Sneak can also be used effectively as part of a Priority Spam combo with Rillaboom or as a tool to help Salamance, Vulcanion and Tapu at being more technical with the outputs of their spread moves.
Mega Salamence
:salamence-mega:
Salamence, in switch-in and before mega-evolving, is quite useful to reduce the damage of phyisical threats against Marshadow and/or Zeraora and its Tailwing is the main form of Speed control of the team, quite the important condition to let Fini and Volcanion snowball more easily. Even with just one boost of Coaching its Double Edges are gonna 1 to 2hko pretty much everything in sight and Breaking swipe is quite useful as a late game alternative to Intimidate.
Volcanion
:Volcanion:
Tera Grass Volcanion is quite the strong, one-for-all Trick Room answer and its large coverage of special stabs is exactly what I needed as this team lacks other powerful and immediate special attackers. Heavy Slam can be quite useful against opposite Fairy types, especially in situation when it's not possible to teracristalise Marshadow.

*Team was clearly made before the quickban, please understand >.<
 
:marshadow: :zapdos: :chien-pao: :dragonite: :metagross-mega: :kleavor:
marsh + dnite pao HO
Not a whole lot to say about this, its just HO. kleavor sets up tailwind, rocks, and dies
Marshadow, Chien-Pao, Mega Metagross, and Dragonite create a very strong offensive core that hits basically everything super effectively aside from waters, which is why i chose zapdos as well. Its a great secondary tailwind setter and provides a great electric and flying stab. The team is obviously not without flaws, has a not so great matchup into sun and stakataka TR, but definitely not unwinnable.
 
Hey there!
It's time for another teambuilding competition!
This week....
Venusaur/Mega-Venusaur!

003Venusaur_Mega_Dream.png

Mega Venusaur is a particularly interesting Pokemon, with Thick Fat removing two weaknesses that are often troubling for Grass types. Mega Venusaur is admittedly weaker than other Megas, but it presents an interesting option with solid defenses and the ability to be useful even in its non-Mega form. Additionally, Mega Venusaur can provide a solid option against Fairy types and Water types, both of which have strong options currently in the format. Additionally, Mega Venusaur's enhanced defensive profile means that it can survive extremely threatening moves and respond with large damage -- with defensive investment, Mega Venusaur can even survive Ursaluna's Facade. This combined with Leech Seed can make it potentially an extremely difficult Pokemon to remove with the right support, but it needs to remove its threats before it can really shine. Mega Venusaur really struggles against Bleakwind Storm and Psychic coverage, and might not be able to break through Steel types.

On the other hand, Venusaur has been an iconic Sun Pokemon for quite some time, but hasn't gotten as much love in National Dex, despite being reunited with its ideal partner MCharizardY. Fast Sleep Powders can create space for other Pokemon and make Venusaur a difficult Pokemon to deal with.


You can choose either Mega Venusaur or Venusaur, so choose whichever one you find most interesting! Part of the reason I wanted to handle this competition in this way is because Tera provides an interesting bonus to non-Mega Pokemon, and oftentimes National Dex Doubles teams don't run a Mega at all, so I'm excited to see what types of teams people prefer to go for, and which people prefer which option. Is Mega Venusaur worth the cost of being a Mega, or do you prefer running it in its non-Mega form? Either way, I'm excited to see what you come up with!



The deadline for building is on July 10th, at 2:30am UTC, and voting will last 48 hours after that. We'll be using single-vote ballots this week.
 
Here's my entry, I went for base venusaur + zard Y and had a lot of fun laddering with this click-buttons HO team.
https://pokepast.es/249678952f98cd01

Venu puts everything to sleep while the rest of the team goes to work. Band rilla is hilarious, doing huge damage to resists and snagging lots of kills against opponents who assume vest. Kingambit and Basculegion offer great late game cleanup.

Took this team up to #15 on the ladder on my alt
Screenshot 2023-07-07 at 4.18.27 PM.png



And here's some replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexdoubles-1899548530
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...-1899559268-qlpdwhji15pb2yjyyjr52s934zrfusipw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexdoubles-1899577130
 
:venusaur-mega: :blastoise: :chi-yu: :flutter mane: :iron hands: :kartana:

I built this team a while back around Grassy Pledge + Water Pledge. The swamp effect quarters your opponent's speed, which lets you win the speed control war against Tailwind teams. The team itself is also has a number of bulky pokemon that can withstand Trick Room (you can also side attack with the pledge combo to lower your own team's speed if the opponent sets up Trick Room).
 
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