Pult + Kyurem double dragon balance
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Proof of Peak
3.0 Teambuilding Process
4.0 Pokémon Breakdown
5.0 Difficult Matchups
6.0 Conclusion and Replays
Click here for the pokepaste
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1.0 Introduction
About five minutes before my round 3 OST match, I realized I had no team I felt comfortable bringing, so I did the unthinkable and decided to speed build a team without Hisuian Zoroark for once in my life, instead building around another mon I knew I liked using, Choice Band Dragapult, and pairing it with a very simple but effective balance structure I had been having fun with on ladder in Glowking + Great Tusk + Specs Kyurem. I ended up winning the set, though not before completely throwing game 2 in a last coping attempt with Hisuian Zoroark.
2.0 Proof of Peak
3.0 The Teambuilding Process
As stated before, I was building around Choice Band Dragapult, which can take many teams by surprise and output huge neutral damage with its great stabs in Dragon Darts and Tera Blast Ghost while maintaining momentum with strong U-Turns and providing all the speed I'll need. Next up is defensive earth power Landorus, which patches up matchups like Zamazenta and, at the time legal, Archaludon and is the first line of defense against most physical attackers in the tier; Glowking + Specs Kyurem was then added: the core has natural offensive and defensive synergy as Glowking switches into fairy moves aimed at Pult and Kyurem and sets the snow for Kyurem to boost defense and make Blizzard perfectly accurate, helping break what Pult can't and overwhelm what, on paper, neither can. Heatran then serves to patch up the Tera Dragon Volcarona and stall matchups, and finally, in the previously mentioned state of rush, I originally added Kingambit for powerful priority and Ghost resist, but after quickly realising how I had missed to slot in hazard removal on a team with Specs Kyurem, I instead opted for Great Tusk, which apso provides another line of defense into physical threats while also being a decent late game sweeper; this does mean the team lacks a Ghost resist, however the meta doesn't have many powerful Ghosts moves flying around and this structure is bulky enough to withstand the few that are there.
4.0 Pokémon Breakdown
Dragapult @ Choice Band
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Darts
- Tera Blast
- Sucker Punch
- U-turn
As the second fastest unboosted relevant mon in the tier, Dragapult is amazing to have on balance as it automatically patches up most speed issues these structures can tend to have. This set is fairly uncommon, letting it grab a lot of surprise KOs on mons like Primarina, Volcarona or Clodsire as it hits much harder than the Specs set. A hard hitting U-Turn also comes in very handy, as it chunks a lot of hp on would be checks like Hisuian Samurott, Ting-Lu or a Kingambit switching in, as well as annoying grass types Rillaboom and Ogerpon. To round things out, Sucker Punch provides useful priority as a failsafe against opposing priority and boosting threats; I originally had Phantom Force over it to not entirely rely on Tera for Ghost stab, but the rest of the team doesn't rely much at all on Tera so Pult can use it reliably enough for Sucker Punch to provide more value on a game to game basis.
Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- U-Turn
- Grass Knot
Landorus is an extremely versatile physical sponge that not only checks otherwise extremely hard to withstand threats such as Gouging Fire or Zamazenta, but thanks to intimidate it's helpful in slowing down any physical attacker in the tier while punishing them with Rocky Helmet chip, which is especially helpful against U-Turn users that these kinds of balanced structures tend to struggle against. Grass knot hits Great Tusk hard, and Earth Power over Earthquake makes it much better at handling Iron Defense Zamazenta and Breaking Swipe Gouging Fire and it also prevents Landorus from caring too much against random Will-O-Wisp or Flame Body burns from U-Turn; Tera Water flips its weaknesses and is especially helpful in the rain matchup to shut down Barraskewda spamming Flip Turn.
Slowking-Galar (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SpD
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Ice Beam
- Chilly Reception
- Sludge Bomb
- Thunder Wave
Glowking is by far the best defensive pivot in the game and is a central piece of almost every balance team as it blanket checks close to every special attacker in the tier, even throwing off crucial Thunder Waves on some that hit it supereffectively if at full HP like Choice Specs Dragapult or unboosted Darkrai. It's extremely important as an out to Sun with tera Water, special or mixed Iron Valiant, Calm Mind Hatterene, Enamorus, Primarina and Serperior and safely pivots on the likes of Clefable, Garganacl, Raging Bolt to bring in a more threatening teammate, all while beinga grounded Poison type to absorb Toxic Spikes, which every team needs in my opinion. Most Glowking sets run Future Sight alongside either Sludge Bomb or Ice Beam, but while playing I felt that Future Sight wasn't really coming into play all that much while the Gliscor matchup was a very annoying one, so instead of dropping Sludge Bomb on my main Fairy type counter, I chose to get rid of Future Sight; this made the Stall matchup much easier as Gliscor doesn't have a free entry point anymore and has to take significant chip every time it wants to stop Heatran from grabbing a KO without being able to easily heal it back.
Kyurem @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Freeze Dry
- Blizzard
- Earth Power
Triple Ice move Kyurem is a favourite of mine, as I don't find myself clicking Draco Meteor that often, while Blizzard under Snow is absolutely impossible to switch into, with the following calc being the only one I feel I need to show to sell this move choice:
252 SpA Choice Specs Tera Ice Kyurem Blizzard vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey: 210-248 (32.2 - 38%) -- 95.8% chance to 3HKO
Ice Beam is then there for a strong stab outside of Snow, Freeze Dry for Water types and Earth Power for Steel types. Specs Kyurem is one of, if not the best wallbreaker in the tier outside of Black Glasses 5 allies fainted Tera Dark Kingambit and fits this type of team style perfectly, especially thanks to its synergy with Glowking's Snow, which makes it deceptively bulky as well and a great answer to Ogerpon-Wellspring. Another Tera type to consider is Fairy for a more defensive approach, letting it stay in on faster dragons and resist Sucker Punch, but I personally value the damage boost more especially in the Stall matchup, though it's worth to point out to absolutely refrain from clicking Tera when facing Waterpon, as the team's matchup would go from pretty manageable to an actual nightmare.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 212 SpD / 40 Spe
Calm Nature
- Magma Storm
- Taunt
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
Heatran serves both a defensive and offensive role depending on the matchup: not only does it make for a great sponge for Draco Meteor and Make It Rain, switching well into Shadow Ball as well, but the Fire immunity is key in handling Volcarona or Iron Moth (which becomes susceptible to Kyurem if they opt to Tera Blast Ground) and absorbing Will-O-Wisp from the likes of utility Dragapult and Cinderace; on the flip side, it's one of, if not the best tool this team has in making progress against bulkier structures like Stall and opposing Balance thanks to Magma Storm's partial trapping and Taunt shutting down healing and Chilly Reception pivoting, which has great synergy with Kyurem as removing special walls allows it to blow through the rest of the opponent's team and completely shuts down some variants of Stall that rely on Clodsire to threaten it out when opting to Terastalize into Flying. Having Stealth on both Heatran and Landorus makes it very easy to keep them up through the course of the game in any matchup, however Protect is also an option over Rocks, trading better hazard control for more Leftovers healing and scouting on Choice locked mons.
Great Tusk @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Protosythesis
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Ice Spinner
- Bulk Up
- Rapid Spin
The combination of Landorus and Great Tusk allows this team to comfortably answer almost every physical threat in the tier both offensively and defensively: Tusk is particularly important in the Dragonite and Kingambit matchups thanks to the tradeoff between bulk and power letting it threaten them out, even after Tera in Kingambit's case, or even just limit their set up, as a low hp Tusk would still not allow Dragonite to grab more than one Dragon Dance, letting Dragapult still outspeed and revenge kill it. Great Tusk's main purpose is however, shocking nobody, removing hazard, and doing so it doubles as a pretty scary win condition thanks to Rapid Spin's speed boost alongside Bulk Up, becoming especially scary for Sun teams with the right positioning. A Tera type of Ground makes it able it to shed some crucial weaknesses while boosting damage output as a wincon, pretty useful against Roaring Moon in particular, but other options include Poison to turn the tables on Iron Valiant, Ghost to set up on Zamazenta or fire to resist Ice and flip the weavile matchup while gaining immunity to Burn, with the latter probably being the best option overall.
5.0 Difficult Matchups
The following matchups, while being harder to deal with than others, are not automatic losses in the slightest and are still relatively simple to play around with a bit of experience with the team.
Weavile is able to threaten every member of the team before Terastalization, especially if carrying Low Kick, since it has a great matchup into the team's defensive core, however Tera Water on either Glowking or Landorus allows them to check it and Tera Ghost on Dragapult lets it live Ice Shard to revenge kill, not to talk about how Ice Shard over Low Kick would mean Kyurem and Heatran could both take it on semi-reliably.
Webs teams can be really annoying for their volatility, as it means even the smallest positioning mistake can turn into a game loss if you aren't able to spin with Great Tusk, though that isn't unreasonable with Boots preventing the speed drop. An easy way to patch this matchup could be changing Tusk's Tera as well.
With Tera Flying, Moon goes from Landorus food to a Landorus wall, and it can find easy set up on Glowking as well. By preserving Tera, good Kyurem positioning or Thunder Wave reading Dragon Dance as it comes in on Glowking, this isn't an unwinnable matchup at all, but still probably the hardest one.
6.0 Conclusion and Replays
VS Hyper Offense
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2078520844?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2078505388
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2077769124
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2069135585
VS Bulky Offense
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2078072969
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2076544291
VS Balance
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2075799599
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2072040958
VS Stall (not very high on the ladder as I couldn't match into many stall players at all)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2076556024?p2
Honestly I did not expect this team to turn out as good as it did and it is very fun to use, though it does take much more precise play than the common explosive HO teams and especially against those HO teams as it attempts to dictate the pace of the match and failure to do so can easily result in the loss of a crucial piece, especially as it has to make the most out of every team slot. What I really like about it however is that when you do succeed, it's a team that makes you feel very much in control of what's going on even around the countless threats in this metagame, having every (almost) every match be a result of the player's skill and every win feel earned, which is a gripe I otherwise have with a lot off the best teams in the metagame, which just feel like they rely on matchup fishing making them too volatile for me.
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