https://pokepast.es/bcc011e510138c6d
Table of Contents:
- Introduction + Proof of Peak
- Teambuilding Process
- The Team
- How to Play
- Replays
- Threats
Hello people of Smogon :D, this team I created has recently facilitated my push up to a peak of #3 on the SV OU ladder (for proof of peak see below) with an ELO of 2025, and a peak GXE of 82.6% (also see below, this did not coincide with my peak).
This team primarily makes use of Levitate in order to deal with the hazard-centric meta that SV OU revolves around currently. This frees up item slots on pokemon that are are usually forced to run
to allow 
and 
to run items that better help address other meta threats.
The teams natural resistance to hazards further removes common teambuilding restrictions regarding consistent hazard removal allowing more appropriate pokemon to be used on the team instead of the usual suspects (*cough*
*cough*).
Anyway, I'll keep this introduction pretty brief, feel free to skip the teambuilding process part if you are not interested in that, and get right into the main part of the RMT :).
This team primarily makes use of Levitate in order to deal with the hazard-centric meta that SV OU revolves around currently. This frees up item slots on pokemon that are are usually forced to run
to allow and to run items that better help address other meta threats.The teams natural resistance to hazards further removes common teambuilding restrictions regarding consistent hazard removal allowing more appropriate pokemon to be used on the team instead of the usual suspects (*cough*
*cough*).Anyway, I'll keep this introduction pretty brief, feel free to skip the teambuilding process part if you are not interested in that, and get right into the main part of the RMT :).
Teambuilding Process
I wanted to include a section on my teambuilding process because 1., I wanted to vent about balance (that is not hazard stack) as an archetype in generation 9 being super bad, and 2., as an instructional/educational section for new players to maybe get to know and understand the building process and how it can sometimes be very laborious, with the finished product often looking nothing like what you initially had in mind when first creating the team. So without further ado, let's get into it.
After coming back from a 6 month-ish hiatus from playing but still watching and following the meta develop, I decided to try and build a balance team because this is the style of team I felt I was best with and the style of team I liked building the most. The first team I built consisted of
. This team had numerous problems but most pressing of all was its reliance on defog (because I was 
on and 
on ) to remove hazards in the balance vs balance matchup (if the opponent had 
as a removal blocker also, my team would often lose on preview). I did have wish in order to try and counteract the hazard stack and keep my breakers healthy, but often times it was not enough. The team also struggled with threats like taunt 
as well as other set-up sweepers that would outspeed , this is because of the lack of speed control or priority on this team. I tried to fix the team by replacing with a 
with trick to help with the speed control issues as well as provide a little bit more utility. This improved the team and allowed me to reach the 1900s for the first time in a while, however the team still had big problems with HO and hazard stack despite the substitution.
Naturally then, I went back to the drawing board, but not entirely because at this point I still believed in balance as an archetype in this meta and I did like certain aspects of the above team. This led me to create the following team:
. This team faired better into hyper offence mainly because of and it's ability to extreme speed and take one hit due to multiscale and it's incredible bulk mixed with 228 evs invested into HP. Also with Dragon Dance (later changed it to Dragon Tail to help with 
) it became super threatening to HO due to tera normal. I changed into the more standard defensive set with Will-O-Wisp and Pain Split. I also made rest-talk because of its tendency to be worn down in games. I also found that with Defog I would be the one more often than not pressured into removing hazards and so setting up my own became often redundant. I changed to the 
set to give it some much needed bulk and also do better into stall. I also had Acid Spray on in place of Flamethrower in order to help against bulky setup sweepers like 
etc. The last pokemon I added to the team was which was supposed to be the stall breaker and fast guy on the team. I was using a Nasty Plot set with Psycho Boost, Focus Blast, and Ice Beam. This set is super good into stall teams, but only if you literally get every single play right, predict the defensive tera, and hit all your Psycho Boosts and Focus Blasts. Still though, I was ready to except a pretty subpar stall matchup because of its decline in popularity in generation 9, if this meant that my matchup into every other archetype was solid. However, this was not the case. For one, my team would get instantly 6-0ed on preview by Calm Mind tera-steel or simply just 
Calm Mind in order to block Acid Spray special defence drops. This was something I was obviously not very happy about, but I guess if this was one of the few flaws of my team I could live with it. Still though, I found that my team was far from fool proof into the HO matchup, and bulky offence turn-turn teams (the combination of 
and 
especially) would destroy my passive and reactionary defensive walls and I would find myself getting stuck in the vortex of U-turns and Flip Turns with no means of counterplay besides heavy prediction. Furthermore, Defog would struggle against all teams, and because a passive rest-talk was the only pokemon that would reliably threaten out I would not be able to properly capitalise on the very obvious switch-in on my corviknight. Finally, my team also struggled with the usual balance breaking suspects such as 
with Knock Off and U-turn, and Nasty Plot
. Anyway, this team managed to peak at around the 1930s, which while is pretty decent, is still not what I was looking for and I felt that my team was far from good enough to be consistent in this metagame. Because I talked so much about this team I think I might as well leave a pokepaste of it (https://pokepast.es/83c27e19a5501387) for anybody that wants to try it, and I am still pretty proud of this team because of the tweaks that I made to it in order to mitigate some of the teams inherent problems, however ultimately the team was not good enough and so once again we go back to the drawing board.
After this team I made this weird
balance that used defensive rest-talk 
with tera-fire to check , and also 
to break. Ultimately, despite again seeing some moderate success on mid to high ladder, this team suffered the same fate as most balance teams: being an instant loss to some pokemon with the right tera-type, not defensive enough to sit on hyper offence teams, yet too passive to pressure offence teams at the same time. Furthermore, despite having very good physical defence, it is still super frail on the special defence side and lacks reliable recovery thereby rendering it too inconsistent for my liking.
Anyway, at this point I had basically given up trying to build a balance team that was not hazard stack simply because it was not working no matter what I tried. I'm sure it's still possible to make a balance team despite the metagame doing everything it can to kill the archetype, but unfortunately for me it was not working, and so I tried something else using everything I had learnt from the innate problems of balance in the current SV OU meta: bulky offence.
At first I started making a bunch of generic 
bulky offences that were decent inherently because of I was using a bunch of super standard, strong OU pokemon, however I knew it was not much to write home about. However I could instantly feel the difference when playing due to the ability of bulky offence to offensively release the pressure put on it instead of trying to wall and pivot around every pokemon.
Eventually however, I landed on this team: 
. This team despite having no hazard control, was inherently not very weak to hazards given levitate on double on and , being immune to spikes, and and being resistant to Stealth Rocks. It was also pretty offensive which allowed it to pressure balance teams to the point where they couldn't just get up max layers on you instantly at the beginning of the game and win immediately assuming they made a few good plays to keep hazards on. I immediately started seeing a lot more success with this team, catapulting me back up into the high 1800s, low 1900s. However still, despite being incredibly good into stall courtesy of tera-steel and with Moonblast, Close Combat, Knock Off, and Thunderbolt (tera-fairy), this team had a glaring problem against hyper offence because of it's lack of priority and speed control. Furthermore, the team lacked super strong wallbreakers and so often times defensive setup pokemon like the one's mentioned above would destroy the team.
Nevertheless, I could feel like I was onto something with the team above, and so I tried simply switching out with levitate, in order to remain pretty resilient to hazards but add some speed control to the team. After playing quite a few games I came to the conclusion that this substitution was definitely better than the original team. However again, there were still some inherent structural problems with the team against strong hazard stack (mainly because and would get chipped) and the team was a little fragile leaving it open to hyper offence or hyper offence-style teams such as sun, or trick room, etc.
Finally, I decided to make my bulky offence team a little bit more bulky/balance-y because of the tendency of the previous team to have tough matchups into hyper offence. That's when I decided to incorporate a bit of the hazards route into my build, utilising
paired with to keep up hazards, allowijng to break. I could feel that this team was actually really good, it just had one problem, it would get destroyed by tera-normal Swords Dance 
. What I needed was something strong that would outspeed even the max speed set, however I also needed something that could offensively threaten , since bulky was a super annoying pokemon for to break...
This was the final iteration of my team before I landed upon the one that this RMT presents. I dropped for in order to matchup better into while at the same time staying hazard resilient while threatening. Despite actually removing the whole hazards component of the team, the team still worked super well together and at this point I felt like I had struck gold finally...
Anyway, if any of you did actually read all of this, thank you so much! Usually I do not put a long part about the teambuilding process in my RMTs, however because it took me so long to land upon this team, as well as all the things I learnt along the way I felt like having this part in would be instructional/educational for any new players thinking about building their own team. Sometimes it takes forever before you actually build something worth anything, but when you do it is super worth it, and that is what I wanted to convey here :D. Once again, thanks so much for reading, now let's get into the rest of the RMT.
After coming back from a 6 month-ish hiatus from playing but still watching and following the meta develop, I decided to try and build a balance team because this is the style of team I felt I was best with and the style of team I liked building the most. The first team I built consisted of
. This team had numerous problems but most pressing of all was its reliance on defog (because I was on and on ) to remove hazards in the balance vs balance matchup (if the opponent had as a removal blocker also, my team would often lose on preview). I did have wish in order to try and counteract the hazard stack and keep my breakers healthy, but often times it was not enough. The team also struggled with threats like taunt as well as other set-up sweepers that would outspeed , this is because of the lack of speed control or priority on this team. I tried to fix the team by replacing with a with trick to help with the speed control issues as well as provide a little bit more utility. This improved the team and allowed me to reach the 1900s for the first time in a while, however the team still had big problems with HO and hazard stack despite the substitution.Naturally then, I went back to the drawing board, but not entirely because at this point I still believed in balance as an archetype in this meta and I did like certain aspects of the above team. This led me to create the following team:
. This team faired better into hyper offence mainly because of and it's ability to extreme speed and take one hit due to multiscale and it's incredible bulk mixed with 228 evs invested into HP. Also with Dragon Dance (later changed it to Dragon Tail to help with ) it became super threatening to HO due to tera normal. I changed into the more standard defensive set with Will-O-Wisp and Pain Split. I also made rest-talk because of its tendency to be worn down in games. I also found that with Defog I would be the one more often than not pressured into removing hazards and so setting up my own became often redundant. I changed to the set to give it some much needed bulk and also do better into stall. I also had Acid Spray on in place of Flamethrower in order to help against bulky setup sweepers like etc. The last pokemon I added to the team was which was supposed to be the stall breaker and fast guy on the team. I was using a Nasty Plot set with Psycho Boost, Focus Blast, and Ice Beam. This set is super good into stall teams, but only if you literally get every single play right, predict the defensive tera, and hit all your Psycho Boosts and Focus Blasts. Still though, I was ready to except a pretty subpar stall matchup because of its decline in popularity in generation 9, if this meant that my matchup into every other archetype was solid. However, this was not the case. For one, my team would get instantly 6-0ed on preview by Calm Mind tera-steel or simply just Calm Mind in order to block Acid Spray special defence drops. This was something I was obviously not very happy about, but I guess if this was one of the few flaws of my team I could live with it. Still though, I found that my team was far from fool proof into the HO matchup, and bulky offence turn-turn teams (the combination of and especially) would destroy my passive and reactionary defensive walls and I would find myself getting stuck in the vortex of U-turns and Flip Turns with no means of counterplay besides heavy prediction. Furthermore, Defog would struggle against all teams, and because a passive rest-talk was the only pokemon that would reliably threaten out I would not be able to properly capitalise on the very obvious switch-in on my corviknight. Finally, my team also struggled with the usual balance breaking suspects such as with Knock Off and U-turn, and Nasty Plot. Anyway, this team managed to peak at around the 1930s, which while is pretty decent, is still not what I was looking for and I felt that my team was far from good enough to be consistent in this metagame. Because I talked so much about this team I think I might as well leave a pokepaste of it (https://pokepast.es/83c27e19a5501387) for anybody that wants to try it, and I am still pretty proud of this team because of the tweaks that I made to it in order to mitigate some of the teams inherent problems, however ultimately the team was not good enough and so once again we go back to the drawing board.After this team I made this weird
balance that used defensive rest-talk with tera-fire to check , and also to break. Ultimately, despite again seeing some moderate success on mid to high ladder, this team suffered the same fate as most balance teams: being an instant loss to some pokemon with the right tera-type, not defensive enough to sit on hyper offence teams, yet too passive to pressure offence teams at the same time. Furthermore, despite having very good physical defence, it is still super frail on the special defence side and lacks reliable recovery thereby rendering it too inconsistent for my liking.Anyway, at this point I had basically given up trying to build a balance team that was not hazard stack simply because it was not working no matter what I tried. I'm sure it's still possible to make a balance team despite the metagame doing everything it can to kill the archetype, but unfortunately for me it was not working, and so I tried something else using everything I had learnt from the innate problems of balance in the current SV OU meta: bulky offence.
At first I started making a bunch of generic
bulky offences that were decent inherently because of I was using a bunch of super standard, strong OU pokemon, however I knew it was not much to write home about. However I could instantly feel the difference when playing due to the ability of bulky offence to offensively release the pressure put on it instead of trying to wall and pivot around every pokemon.Eventually however, I landed on this team:
. This team despite having no hazard control, was inherently not very weak to hazards given levitate on double on and , being immune to spikes, and and being resistant to Stealth Rocks. It was also pretty offensive which allowed it to pressure balance teams to the point where they couldn't just get up max layers on you instantly at the beginning of the game and win immediately assuming they made a few good plays to keep hazards on. I immediately started seeing a lot more success with this team, catapulting me back up into the high 1800s, low 1900s. However still, despite being incredibly good into stall courtesy of tera-steel and with Moonblast, Close Combat, Knock Off, and Thunderbolt (tera-fairy), this team had a glaring problem against hyper offence because of it's lack of priority and speed control. Furthermore, the team lacked super strong wallbreakers and so often times defensive setup pokemon like the one's mentioned above would destroy the team.Nevertheless, I could feel like I was onto something with the team above, and so I tried simply switching out
with levitate, in order to remain pretty resilient to hazards but add some speed control to the team. After playing quite a few games I came to the conclusion that this substitution was definitely better than the original team. However again, there were still some inherent structural problems with the team against strong hazard stack (mainly because and would get chipped) and the team was a little fragile leaving it open to hyper offence or hyper offence-style teams such as sun, or trick room, etc.Finally, I decided to make my bulky offence team a little bit more bulky/balance-y because of the tendency of the previous team to have tough matchups into hyper offence. That's when I decided to incorporate a bit of the hazards route into my build, utilising
paired with to keep up hazards, allowijng to break. I could feel that this team was actually really good, it just had one problem, it would get destroyed by tera-normal Swords Dance . What I needed was something strong that would outspeed even the max speed set, however I also needed something that could offensively threaten , since bulky was a super annoying pokemon for to break...This was the final iteration of my team before I landed upon the one that this RMT presents. I dropped
for in order to matchup better into while at the same time staying hazard resilient while threatening. Despite actually removing the whole hazards component of the team, the team still worked super well together and at this point I felt like I had struck gold finally...Anyway, if any of you did actually read all of this, thank you so much! Usually I do not put a long part about the teambuilding process in my RMTs, however because it took me so long to land upon this team, as well as all the things I learnt along the way I felt like having this part in would be instructional/educational for any new players thinking about building their own team. Sometimes it takes forever before you actually build something worth anything, but when you do it is super worth it, and that is what I wanted to convey here :D. Once again, thanks so much for reading, now let's get into the rest of the RMT.
The Team
The main idea of this team is to take advantage of Levitate spam. Because hazards are so good in this metagame due to the prevalence of ghost types (created by a lack of pursuit), a lack of good removal options (due to move restrictions compared to other generations), creation of new moves that make it ever-easier to set up hazards, and
, I felt compelled to build a spam team. However, I was finding it incredibly hard to create solid spam teams because of the opportunity cost associated with using . This opportunity cost is exacerbated most on offensive pokemon because of the importance of items on them. I found that a lot of my teams where I was running many pokemon would lack power (due to the inability of my pokemon to run or 
) or would lack speed (due to not running ). Usually, in previous generations you would obviously circumvent this problem through hazard control, however I found that whenever I would try and use hazard control, there would always be a critical problem with it. In this generation it is almost impossible to keep off hazards consistently. 
court change cannot consistently remove hazards if once you switch them onto their side they put them up again; rapid spin can get blocked; mortal spin can get blocked; Defog gets blocked by ; and there are no viable tidy up pokemon. The solution to the hazards problem then becomes, run an offensive team that does not have to switch as much, thereby limiting the effectiveness of hazards; use hazards of your own; or my solution: Levitate spam. But now let's get into the team...Latios, a criminally underrated pokemon at the moment. This was the first innovation (obviously, it's not like I created but I do not see it used much in OU [usually 
or ]) I came up with in response to the hazard-centric metagame. Speed control is often a problem for balance/bulky offence teams. Usually, pokemon are hard-pressed to run due to the prevalence of hazards chipping them down over the course of the game, but obviously because of Levitate this becomes much less of a problem for , enabling it to still consistently check offensive threats despite not using .
In terms of moves, Draco Meteor is a staple on allowing it to revenge kill bulkier pokemon or just dish out a load of damage.
I considered using Psychic instead Luster Purge on because against bulky teams you can sometimes run out off pp, but I think Luster Purge is too good not to use. Flip turn is simply for momentum. Trick allows you to cripple a pokemon against bulky teams where the added speed is not necessary, and is a good last ditch check for setup sweepers if you can lock them into a move. You could consider running coverage such as Aura Sphere, Mystical Fire or Surf on it to potentially catch common switch-ins, but because on this team is , it cannot hit as hard thereby maybe mitigating the effectiveness of said coverage options, however I have not tested them as I am happy with the performance of with only STAB coverage.
Max, max, timid is preferred to maximise speed and power, with tera-dragon the tera of choice in order to more effectively revenge kill.
but I do not see it used much in OU [usually or ]) I came up with in response to the hazard-centric metagame. Speed control is often a problem for balance/bulky offence teams. Usually, pokemon are hard-pressed to run due to the prevalence of hazards chipping them down over the course of the game, but obviously because of Levitate this becomes much less of a problem for , enabling it to still consistently check offensive threats despite not using .In terms of moves, Draco Meteor is a staple on
allowing it to revenge kill bulkier pokemon or just dish out a load of damage.I considered using Psychic instead Luster Purge on
because against bulky teams you can sometimes run out off pp, but I think Luster Purge is too good not to use. Flip turn is simply for momentum. Trick allows you to cripple a pokemon against bulky teams where the added speed is not necessary, and is a good last ditch check for setup sweepers if you can lock them into a move. You could consider running coverage such as Aura Sphere, Mystical Fire or Surf on it to potentially catch common switch-ins, but because on this team is , it cannot hit as hard thereby maybe mitigating the effectiveness of said coverage options, however I have not tested them as I am happy with the performance of with only STAB coverage.Max, max, timid is preferred to maximise speed and power, with tera-dragon the tera of choice in order to more effectively revenge kill.
This is another super underused pokemon in my opinion. This, and the + Trick set are really good. My bold prediction is that will soon get promoted to OU. In terms of this there is nothing crazy about it, it is just the standard defensive set.
is the item on choice for defensive because it does not need to run due to it's ability Levitate.
Volt Switch is the electric move of choice for because of how good it is for momentum, and especially so coupled with water coverage for ground types, allowing you to get free volt switches for momentum against most teams. Hydro Pump is the only water move that learns and so not much to say here. Pain Split is good for longevity and Will-O-Wisp is mandatory to help it wall and cripple physical attackers. The only move you could probably consider swapping is Pain Split for something like Nasty Plot, but because on this team serves as the main physical pivot, there is a lot of pressure on it to remain healthy. It is also super nice to have Pain Split against in order for to switch in on Ruinations and Pain Split back the health.
For EVs, it is again pretty standard, with 52 speed EVs invested to outspeed jolly + a few more points put in for speed creep. The tera-type I chose for is steel. This is super good in the stall matchup to absorb Toxic's from 
and 
. It is also super good into as it walls practically every set.
+ Trick set are really good. My bold prediction is that will soon get promoted to OU. In terms of this there is nothing crazy about it, it is just the standard defensive set. is the item on choice for defensive because it does not need to run due to it's ability Levitate.Volt Switch is the electric move of choice for
because of how good it is for momentum, and especially so coupled with water coverage for ground types, allowing you to get free volt switches for momentum against most teams. Hydro Pump is the only water move that learns and so not much to say here. Pain Split is good for longevity and Will-O-Wisp is mandatory to help it wall and cripple physical attackers. The only move you could probably consider swapping is Pain Split for something like Nasty Plot, but because on this team serves as the main physical pivot, there is a lot of pressure on it to remain healthy. It is also super nice to have Pain Split against in order for to switch in on Ruinations and Pain Split back the health.For EVs, it is again pretty standard, with 52 speed EVs invested to outspeed jolly
+ a few more points put in for speed creep. The tera-type I chose for is steel. This is super good in the stall matchup to absorb Toxic's from and . It is also super good into as it walls practically every set.Gholdengo is the third member of this team. Not as cool as the first two UU pokemon, but still a necessary and important part of the team. Once more this is a pretty standard set, just the normal bulky, Thunder Wave, set.
is the ideal item for on this team to allow it to generally just be super annoying to common metagame threats like Knock Off-less , etc. It is also good to often not have an item on in order to not power-up opposing Knock Offs. Other items I have considered running is and , these would potentially be worth testing.
Hex is preferred over shadow ball for doing considerably more damage against as well as anything paralyzed by Thunder Wave or burned by . Thunder Wave is super good into offensive set-up sweepers to allow or to outspeed it. But at the end of the day it is just Thunder Wave and cannot really be bad unless you miss. Recover is here to give a means of recovery to keep it healthy throughout the game in order to check threats like etc. Finally, Make It Rain is here to round out the STAB coverage and give a super powerful option to hit pokemon that resist, or do not take a lot from Hex.
For EVs it is again pretty standard, with maximum investment in HP and defence with enough speed to outspeed jolly + speed creep. For the tera-type of I have elected for the standard tera-fairy as it is allows to resist dark moves in a pinch as well as just be a super good defensive typing.
is the ideal item for on this team to allow it to generally just be super annoying to common metagame threats like Knock Off-less , etc. It is also good to often not have an item on in order to not power-up opposing Knock Offs. Other items I have considered running is and , these would potentially be worth testing.Hex is preferred over shadow ball for doing considerably more damage against
as well as anything paralyzed by Thunder Wave or burned by . Thunder Wave is super good into offensive set-up sweepers to allow or to outspeed it. But at the end of the day it is just Thunder Wave and cannot really be bad unless you miss. Recover is here to give a means of recovery to keep it healthy throughout the game in order to check threats like etc. Finally, Make It Rain is here to round out the STAB coverage and give a super powerful option to hit pokemon that resist, or do not take a lot from Hex.For EVs it is again pretty standard, with maximum investment in HP and defence with enough speed to outspeed jolly
+ speed creep. For the tera-type of I have elected for the standard tera-fairy as it is allows to resist dark moves in a pinch as well as just be a super good defensive typing., the face of the OU tier right now, however a necessary evil in order to balance the rest of the incredibly offensive and borderline overpowered metagame threats. What can this pokemon not do? It is almost impossible to kill this pokemon in one hit, it sets up hazards, chips all your switch-ins with Ruination and can sometimes even stall you out with it's rest-talk set. There is almost nothing special about this specific set and so I'll just quickly go over everything so we can skip past it to the more exciting pokemon.I prefer
over on this team because in most matchups max Spikes should not go up due to the offensive nature of this team, however sometimes max Spikes do go up, especially against hazard stack and so in those cases would be preferred, so I think it really is up to the preference of the user. Other items that could be considered include 
and 
.I think Stealth Rocks is better for this team instead of Spikes because there is no other pokemon to set up Rocks on the team. However, because most pokemon weak to Rocks use
maybe it Spikes could be better instead of Rocks, I have not tested this. I personally like Stealth Rocks though because on a team that is more offensive you do not really want to have in for many turns setting up Spikes, as well as chipping pokemon like and on the switch is super nice (the latter being moderately annoying for this team to deal with). Earthquake is basically a necessity on . I like Whirlwind on in order to phase set-up sweepers as well as Booster Energy pokemon such as . Ruination is the final move on which is used to considerably chip its checks such as etc. Other moves that you could consider is Heavy Slam, Body Press, Payback, or Spikes in place of Whirlwind.In terms of EVs, just the standard max, max, careful. However I have 8 EVs in speed to creep opposing
, which is a big annoyance to the team. The tera-type I have chosen is poison. I usually go for water but because this team can lack fairy resistances I think poison (you could use steel also) is the way to go. I usually do not tera however.This guy might be one of my favourite pokemon right now. It's coverage, mixed with super good physical and special attack stats allows it to destroy stall and be a super good breaker. It also quad-resists Sucker Punch and so is a good check.
is the item of choice on this team because it allows to come in multiple times per game to break. There is really no other item you could use on this set to allow it to perform the same, but I guess some other options could be 
or .
I do not know if this moveset is used by other people, it probably is because it does not seem like anything crazy, but I made this set to beat stall. The only thing that walls this combination of moves on stall teams is and , the latter of which is super passive and you can stall out of recovers just by hitting it on the switch everytime. Moonblast is its main STAB option that just hits everything super hard, nothing much to say here. Close Combat rounds out the STAB coverage as well as being a super powerful physical option that will OHKO 
and . Knock Off is used to remove items (the team has no other Knock Off user), allowing to break through its own checks by removing and etc. Finally, Thunderbolt is here to hit 
and many others. I feel like this is the perfect set and so I strongly suggest keeping these four moves, however a fourth option instead of Thunderbolt could be Encore or Calm Mind.
Another max, max pokemon once again. The nature I am choosing to run is naive, in order to maximise the physical bulk and allowing Close Combat to hit as hard as possible. I think tera-fairy is best for so that it can overpower its switch-ins such as 
. An alternative tera-type that you could run is steel, I have not tested this however but it is the default option on the regular mixed set, and so I am sure it is at least decent on .
check. is the item of choice on this team because it allows to come in multiple times per game to break. There is really no other item you could use on this set to allow it to perform the same, but I guess some other options could be or .I do not know if this moveset is used by other people, it probably is because it does not seem like anything crazy, but I made this set to beat stall. The only thing that walls this combination of moves on stall teams is
and , the latter of which is super passive and you can stall out of recovers just by hitting it on the switch everytime. Moonblast is its main STAB option that just hits everything super hard, nothing much to say here. Close Combat rounds out the STAB coverage as well as being a super powerful physical option that will OHKO and . Knock Off is used to remove items (the team has no other Knock Off user), allowing to break through its own checks by removing and etc. Finally, Thunderbolt is here to hit and many others. I feel like this is the perfect set and so I strongly suggest keeping these four moves, however a fourth option instead of Thunderbolt could be Encore or Calm Mind.Another max, max pokemon once again. The nature I am choosing to run is naive, in order to maximise the
physical bulk and allowing Close Combat to hit as hard as possible. I think tera-fairy is best for so that it can overpower its switch-ins such as . An alternative tera-type that you could run is steel, I have not tested this however but it is the default option on the regular mixed set, and so I am sure it is at least decent on .This is the final pokemon I added to the team, like I said previously this spot used to be taken by , however I found that the team was a little weak in terms of immediate damage as well as a little slow (I wanted something that could hit hard but also outspeed max speed, jolly, Swords Dance , because as it stood that was a big threat to the team). This is the pokemon I substituted in to deal with those problems, and boy did it not disappoint. I am super, super happy with the performance of on this team. It really was the perfect fit to glue the whole team together. Instead of going the hazards route with and I went with a more traditional breaker that could punch holes in teams with it's raw power. The fact that it is all the way down in RUBL as well makes it even cooler that it has done so well with this team, another reason why I love this team so much. Anyway, without further ado, let's get into the set :D.
is the item of choice on this . This allows it to hit as hard as possible and have the easiest time breaking. It is preferred over a Nasty Plot set for example because you can have more immediate power this way. Furthermore, would chip you down every single attack you throw out and 's ability to take a hit, live, and kill you back is a big reason why it is so good for this team.
Draco Meteor is the obvious STAB option to go for. Paired with it hits like an absolute truck. Dark Pulse completes the STAB coverage and allows you to threaten out ghost types as well as just hit a lot of pokemon for neutral damage incredibly hard. Flash Cannon is the third move I chose to go for because it allows you to hit fairies. Without Flash Cannon, your dual STAB would be completely walled by basically any fairy type you could think of, and so I think that it is a necessity for this to use Flash Cannon. Finally, for the fourth move slot I chose to run U-turn. You actually have quite a few options here, all of I think would work pretty well, especially on the set. You could use Focus Blast, Earth Power, Flamethrower or even Surf. However, I think for an offensive team like this to be able to keep up momentum is super important, especially because having the aforementioned coverage options forces you to make hard predictions which can sometimes be risky against good players that make good midgrounds. If you were to make a hard prediction and get it wrong, not only could you potentially lose your if they stay in, but you also lose all momentum if you click the wrong move. For a team that is mainly relying on knocking out the opponents pokemon before they do the same to you, it is important that offensive momentum is maintained. Using U-turn is a safe option to maintain momentum even if your opponent makes a play that you do not expect. It is also better into stall because you can U-turn into in order to chip it and pivot back into .
For EVs we have again just gone for max, max, timid. I so badly want to run modest on this but because outrunning 
is so important in this metagame, I think running timid is most definitely the way to go. With the tera-type I have chosen steel. This is because like I have said previous the team is kind of weak to fairy moves as is the only resist. Furthermore, tera-steel Flash Cannon hits so much harder allowing you to become a greater threat to fairies while also going from quad-weak to their attacks to resisting them. Tera-steel is also useful against because paired with Levitate you wall basically all of its sets so long as you are relatively healthy.
, however I found that the team was a little weak in terms of immediate damage as well as a little slow (I wanted something that could hit hard but also outspeed max speed, jolly, Swords Dance , because as it stood that was a big threat to the team). This is the pokemon I substituted in to deal with those problems, and boy did it not disappoint. I am super, super happy with the performance of on this team. It really was the perfect fit to glue the whole team together. Instead of going the hazards route with and I went with a more traditional breaker that could punch holes in teams with it's raw power. The fact that it is all the way down in RUBL as well makes it even cooler that it has done so well with this team, another reason why I love this team so much. Anyway, without further ado, let's get into the set :D. is the item of choice on this . This allows it to hit as hard as possible and have the easiest time breaking. It is preferred over a Nasty Plot set for example because you can have more immediate power this way. Furthermore, would chip you down every single attack you throw out and 's ability to take a hit, live, and kill you back is a big reason why it is so good for this team.Draco Meteor is the obvious STAB option to go for. Paired with
it hits like an absolute truck. Dark Pulse completes the STAB coverage and allows you to threaten out ghost types as well as just hit a lot of pokemon for neutral damage incredibly hard. Flash Cannon is the third move I chose to go for because it allows you to hit fairies. Without Flash Cannon, your dual STAB would be completely walled by basically any fairy type you could think of, and so I think that it is a necessity for this to use Flash Cannon. Finally, for the fourth move slot I chose to run U-turn. You actually have quite a few options here, all of I think would work pretty well, especially on the set. You could use Focus Blast, Earth Power, Flamethrower or even Surf. However, I think for an offensive team like this to be able to keep up momentum is super important, especially because having the aforementioned coverage options forces you to make hard predictions which can sometimes be risky against good players that make good midgrounds. If you were to make a hard prediction and get it wrong, not only could you potentially lose your if they stay in, but you also lose all momentum if you click the wrong move. For a team that is mainly relying on knocking out the opponents pokemon before they do the same to you, it is important that offensive momentum is maintained. Using U-turn is a safe option to maintain momentum even if your opponent makes a play that you do not expect. It is also better into stall because you can U-turn into in order to chip it and pivot back into .For EVs we have again just gone for max, max, timid. I so badly want to run modest on this
but because outrunning is so important in this metagame, I think running timid is most definitely the way to go. With the tera-type I have chosen steel. This is because like I have said previous the team is kind of weak to fairy moves as is the only resist. Furthermore, tera-steel Flash Cannon hits so much harder allowing you to become a greater threat to fairies while also going from quad-weak to their attacks to resisting them. Tera-steel is also useful against because paired with Levitate you wall basically all of its sets so long as you are relatively healthy.How to Play
This team, as is all bulky offences, does not take rocket science in order to play. Basically the name of the game is getting in your breakers (
and to a lesser extent ) as often as possible in order to take out your opponents pokemon before they can take out yours. The way you do this is by playing aggressively and using your pivots to come in, take a hit, and then switch out again. This being said however, it is also important that you keep your pivots healthy because without them, the team is super frail and can get exposed to things like 
etc.Remember, the reason this team works and is so good is because Levitate allows both the dragons to outspeed or outpower a lot of the metagame because most pokemon are forced to use
, and and are not. Therefore, by extension you have to get these two guys (as well as ) in as much as possible.Even though
is the strongest (and coolest) pokemon on the team, a lot of the time due to the coverage options on and ability to force progress through Knock Off, I like to position myself to bring in as much as possible. Removing items like or early on in a game is super important because it allows the rest of the team to have an easier time breaking.Playing aggressive early on is also important as this team does not have an super strong defensive core. The team is basically on a kind of timer to win. This is the case against a lot of balance teams or other bulky offences that have superior longevity. This does not mean that you try and make hard reads at every single opportunity, still mix up your play and be unpredictable, but if we were to take an average of every single move that you make in the game I feel that in most matchups it would tend towards being more aggressive than not.
Against stall you have a super, super good matchup. I have a 100% win rate against stall with this team. The only thing you have to worry about against stall is them catching you on an aggressive play and crippling or damaging one of your breakers that lack recovery options. You are able to play super aggressive with your , Knocking Off a lot of items. I also like prioritising Stealth Rocks in this matchup, even if it means getting Knocked or taking a Toxic. This way becomes a much bigger threat with tera-fairy. Another way I like to beat stall with this team is by using and tera-ing it to steel. This way you sit on and forever and can pivot in safely and threaten them out. is super important against stall due to Pain Split. The only thing you have to look out for is running out of Hydro Pump pp, and so just make sure you are not spamming those into Protects. You can also Trick away the from in order to cripple a pokemon. Apart from that, I'll have a bunch of replays in the next section showing you how easy it is to break stall with this team so let's get onto the next playing style.
, Knocking Off a lot of items. I also like prioritising Stealth Rocks in this matchup, even if it means getting Knocked or taking a Toxic. This way becomes a much bigger threat with tera-fairy. Another way I like to beat stall with this team is by using and tera-ing it to steel. This way you sit on and forever and can pivot in safely and threaten them out. is super important against stall due to Pain Split. The only thing you have to look out for is running out of Hydro Pump pp, and so just make sure you are not spamming those into Protects. You can also Trick away the from in order to cripple a pokemon. Apart from that, I'll have a bunch of replays in the next section showing you how easy it is to break stall with this team so let's get onto the next playing style.Balance/hazard stack can sometimes be a little tough if the opponent pivots well around and and manages to stay alive long enough for Stealth Rocks and Spikes to take their toll. Yes, the team is resistant to hazards, but that does not make them immune. Like I said previous, the team is on a de facto timer against balance and so you have to play aggressive and get some turns right in order to win. Often times this means playing aggressive with in order to Knock Off and for example. This all being said, if you play aggressive you should be able to out damage the opponent because definitionely this team will be more offensive than theirs.
and and manages to stay alive long enough for Stealth Rocks and Spikes to take their toll. Yes, the team is resistant to hazards, but that does not make them immune. Like I said previous, the team is on a de facto timer against balance and so you have to play aggressive and get some turns right in order to win. Often times this means playing aggressive with in order to Knock Off and for example. This all being said, if you play aggressive you should be able to out damage the opponent because definitionely this team will be more offensive than theirs.Against opposing bulky offence or offence it basically comes down to who plays better / who gets more turns right. A lot of the time both teams are evenly matched in terms of power and both defensive cores get equally exposed to said power. This means that a lot of the nuance in these games comes down to the individual matchup, however one thing I can say that will help you navigate these matchups is to make a lot of midgrounds. My favourite midground I like to do is going on . This works especially well on this team because opponents are basically never going for Headlong Rush into three Levitaters and an . This means they will usually click either Rapid Spin, Ice Spinner or Knock Off into you. If they Spin you can always then Pivot out into on the Headlong Rush and outspeed and kill them because of . But, if they go for the other two moves you basically have a free Moonblast or Knock Off into a switch in. This is just one example where making an aggressive midground can open up avenues for progress to be made whether that be picking up a kill, or Knocking an item.
on . This works especially well on this team because opponents are basically never going for Headlong Rush into three Levitaters and an . This means they will usually click either Rapid Spin, Ice Spinner or Knock Off into you. If they Spin you can always then Pivot out into on the Headlong Rush and outspeed and kill them because of . But, if they go for the other two moves you basically have a free Moonblast or Knock Off into a switch in. This is just one example where making an aggressive midground can open up avenues for progress to be made whether that be picking up a kill, or Knocking an item.Hyper offence is kind of scary for this team as and can get pressured hard. I feel like I cannot really give much help against this play style, you just kind of have to survive the onslaught of a lead + five setup sweepers. One thing you can do is Whirlwind with in order to burn the Booster Energies. Pain Splitting with is nice to keep it at decent HP allowing it to kind of check things like late game such as and . Often times defensive teras can come in clutch. The main guys that you want to defensive tera on is and . Not usually just because often times I find gets weakened throughout the course of the battle to the point where using tera on would be a waste. Apart from that though like I said previous, you kind of just have to survive the gauntlet of setup.
and can get pressured hard. I feel like I cannot really give much help against this play style, you just kind of have to survive the onslaught of a lead + five setup sweepers. One thing you can do is Whirlwind with in order to burn the Booster Energies. Pain Splitting with is nice to keep it at decent HP allowing it to kind of check things like late game such as and . Often times defensive teras can come in clutch. The main guys that you want to defensive tera on is and . Not usually just because often times I find gets weakened throughout the course of the battle to the point where using tera on would be a waste. Apart from that though like I said previous, you kind of just have to survive the gauntlet of setup.Replays
Stall (opponents ELO: 1993) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2293826394-x6us6ulgsg9idq13woobwu8jh2xcvvepw Stall (I played bad but got lucky) (opponents ELO 1852) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2293292382(I beat a lot of stall when I was using the
variation of the team. It should basically play the same though, you do not need Spikes to beat stall, it's really just + that does most of the heavy lifting).
+ 
Balance (opponents ELO 1912) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2294586377-c2i0okvpyfgx67y4sl5cboojra19d0vpw Balance (opponents ELO 1982) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2294554418-onhlnlis0amytwgste9ery16h749ma7pw?p2
+ 
Balance (opponents ELO 1934) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2294073750-hy965r2x7r1k9tn74qdw510tnt7j95ypw
+ Balance (opponents ELO 1780) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2293316869 Offence (opponents ELO 1993) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2293993601?p2
Offence (opponents ELO 1893) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2295991693?p2 Offence v2 (opponents ELO 1829) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2293395682
Hyper Offence (opponents ELO 2082) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2293433005-c3kyiyhpchkdj3dcwownhkttyeqxrfxpw?p2 Hyper Offence (opponents ELO 1849) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2294472460-tfcepjmnijs4421gsvyty9qd82jls81pw?p2
Hyper Offence (opponents ELO 1908) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2294016359-sp32v20u82prj1ddhajxneh92xsomexpw?p2
Hyper Offence (opponents ELO 1840) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2294037254?p2 Offence v2 (opponents ELO 1829) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2293395682(I did not ask for permission to post these replays, if anybody in these replays wants me to take theirs down, I will just message me)
Threats
Unfortunately, just like all teams, this team is not perfect and there are quite a few things that are problematic for it. Fortunately however, I have yet to encounter a matchup which is a loss on preview, which is generally the gold standard I feel like for any good team.
is a major problem for this team. You usually have to make an educated guess to whether it is the Taunt, or regular set. If it is not Taunt you can try and burn it, or Whirlwind it out to get rid of the Booster Energy. If you think it is Taunt and has not Dragon Danced yet you can go hard into on the Taunt and kill it. If it does start to set up though you basically need to tera out of the situation with either or . If they predict the tera then you basically lose so sometimes it is literally a 50/50 whether you lose to or not.This is a major, major threat to the team. You have to play super aggressive against teams otherwise they will run through you. Sometimes I tera-dragon just to take it out, hoping they stay in. There is no getting around it, it is a big problem and so you must play aggressive.
teams otherwise they will run through you. Sometimes I tera-dragon just to take it out, hoping they stay in. There is no getting around it, it is a big problem and so you must play aggressive.Similar to , most bulky offences/balances struggle to deal with Nasty Plot . can take some hits, but since is the only thing that outspeeds it, it is most definitely a threat. With tera you should be able to deal with it though.
, most bulky offences/balances struggle to deal with Nasty Plot . can take some hits, but since is the only thing that outspeeds it, it is most definitely a threat. With tera you should be able to deal with it though. is a major annoyance to the team because it walls both dragons unless you predict it on the switch with and click Flash Cannon. Even though it walls it would not be a bad idea to sacrifice some of its health to Ruinate it or chip it with Earthquake. Furthermore, not going hard into could also be useful as to decrease the chance that they predict you on the switch and hit you with a Nuzzle.Like I have briefly mentioned previously, , but specifically the Swords Dance variation is especially annoying to deal with. However, between and you should have enough options in order to deal with it.
, but specifically the Swords Dance variation is especially annoying to deal with. However, between and you should have enough options in order to deal with it.Most teams get annoyed by in some way, and this case is no different. is the only pokemon that can threaten while also being able to switch in on a Ruination without getting permanently chipped. can also set up max Spikes pretty easily which hurts our and (once it loses its :air balloon).
in some way, and this case is no different. is the only pokemon that can threaten while also being able to switch in on a Ruination without getting permanently chipped. can also set up max Spikes pretty easily which hurts our and (once it loses its :air balloon).A late game once and others are weakened and possibly tera is exhausted can be extremely threatening.
once and others are weakened and possibly tera is exhausted can be extremely threatening.Most teams are at least a little bit weak to and if you play too passive it will slowly wreck your entire team. Sometimes the best defence is a good offence though, and that's how you have to play against .
and if you play too passive it will slowly wreck your entire team. Sometimes the best defence is a good offence though, and that's how you have to play against .Anyway, that is the end of my RMT, thank you very much for reading and I hope you enjoy playing the team if you decide to try it out. I put a lot of work into building the team, using it and also writing this RMT, and so any and all feedback is greatly appreciated. Again, thank you for reading, let me know what you guys think :D. Bye bye :D.
The End :D.
