Project RarelyUsed Teambuilding Competition: week 28: Magnezone

[FlamPoke]

Given I strong armed my way into getting Bellibolt into the teambuilding competition, it's only fair I submit a team for the fans:


This submission is a slight modification of a team I used in RUPL in week three, which is a ParaSpam team that tries to get Gengar behind a substitute and win by spamming boosted Hex's. I'll explain some of the sets below:

Bellibolt - Bellibolt uses a standard Rocky Helmet Static set to punish U-Turns and physical attackers. I EV'd to outspeed Hippo to allow me to Muddy Water / Toxic it if needed, and I also run Volt Switch for slow pivots.
Cyclizar - We know what this does, though I run a Dragon Tail set here to phaze setup mons like Slowbro.
Gengar - Encore and Substitute, when coupled with ParaSpam, is insanely good for a mon so naturally strong and fast.
Infernape - This slot was always my most indecisive, but the monke is generally good and can break a lot of teams through its strong STAB's or Switcheroo shenanigans.
Jirachi - Another RU staple, Jirachi serves a support role here, EV'd to outspeed Mimikyu with Tera Normal for if I need it into HO. Standard Rocks / Twave - could maybe opt for Wish over U-Turn but 4mss is real.
Slowbro - Anotherrrr RU staple, Slowbro is another support mon here. I tested CM sets over Thunder Wave but felt like it wasn't nearly as valuable, though it might be different now in a meta without Thundurus-Therian, Iron Leaves and Enamorus-Therian.

 

[Heatranator]

Bellibolt HO team


So, I decided to something a little bit differently then everybody else is going to do (maybe because some people in the RU discord were eyeing up this idea lmao) and make a Bellibolt HO team. Bellibolt is a mon that can output a suprising amount of damage if left alone, so this team capitalises on that.

The subject of this week, bellibolt on this team has quite a unique set. I found out in testing that 252+ special attack evs is needed to deal good damage as otherwise you don't hit hard enough. Shuca berry is vital as otherwise stray e-quakes decimate it to oblivion and means that ground types which are a nuisance can't do as much. Tera water helps with the rain matchup and can let it take a e-quake if shuca is consumed. Parabolic charge allows bellibolt to do great damage and heal itself up, slack off means bellibolt can stall out opponents that try to wittle it down with passive damage, acid spray can make the opponent switch out if they have high special bulk and soak allows belli to hit ground types for big damage by changing them into a water type.

Horoark is quickly becoming one of my favourite mons in the tier as an anti cheese option. Simply put, any final gambit or cloyster shell smash team get decimated by horoark. Scarf horo outspeeds most of the meta and can deal good damage with its stab moves. Flamethrower deals with steel types and trick while it may not be used a lot, can cripple a wall. Tera normal means hyper voice deals great damage to anything in the tier.

Our suicide lead of choice, ferrothorn is able to get hazards up reliably and keep them off. Stealth rocks and spikes are the hazards, while rapid spin keeps them off. Explosion combined with custap berry can pick up a suprise ko while making sure the opponent can't use defog or stone axe against forre.

A HO team wouldn't really be a HO team without yanmega. This is a simple set, with throat spray and bug buzz to boost your special attack while attacking. Air slash as stab and tera blast ground to beat ground types. Protect is in the final moveslot protect to guarentee a speed boost. Bread and butter set.

My anti ho tech for the mirrors, bisharp can be a really deadly late game cleaner. The set is standard for bisharp, so I don't think I need to explain it much. The main tech is tera water, which helps deal with rain teams quite well and means that fire types can be walled by it instead of being good against it. SD allows bisharp to boost itself, throat chop and iron head are good stabs and sucker punch can revenge kill a lot of faster threats.

Our other lategame cleaner, revavroom is a dangerous mon that is also common on HO teams. The set for this is standard, with shift gear to boost itself, iron head and gunk shot as stabs and high horsepower+tera ground to hit steel types. Lum berry means rouge status doesn't stop a sweep.

 

[Elec-ant1234]

I saw this team in my dreams. Bellibolt has infiltrated the deepest recesses of my psyche.

- - - - -

The Squad





The man, the myth, the legend, the wanted criminal in all 50 US States, wielding a standard Electromorphosis set w/ chilling water to have a greater matchup into physical attackers and be able to wall easier. Toxic helps wear down anything that resists Parabolic Charge, and helps Cobalion's role as a wincon, wearing down the things that would resist Body Press.


The deep cut of the team, on here for the amount of role compression Gligar offers, being a ground immune, an electric immune (although that's less relevent due to the only good electric type in Thundy-T being mildly banned), offering hazard control, and knock off support, along with u-turn. Gligar is really bulky, and can take a lot of hard hits, but due to being an eviolite gamer, cannot heal off the damage it often switches into, which is where the next Pokemon comes in. The hazard support offered in Toxic Spikes is also beneficial to Cobalion, again helping with the IDBP endgame, wearing down creatures such as Chestnaught, Slowbro (assuming no HDB), Basc-F, most of the CM Psychics minus Fez and Reun, and anything that doesn't wear Boots.

Off topic for a second, but Fezendipiti I've noticed beats a lot of counterplay that broadly applies to most CM sweepers, as mentioned in my Deoxy-D post a while back, and now it seems to be able to beat Toxic / T-Spikes (obviously). Is he up next out of Atlanta...? Is CM Fez the future of gaming!? More at 6.


Here for wish support, which helps the bulky core of Bellibolt + Gligar, and helps Cobalion not perish from repeated switchs in due to Cobalion runnin' Rocky Helmet as opposed to Lefties.


The primary wincon of the team, with Rocky Helmet to assist in the HO matchup. Uses the standard set, no SD CC or whatever is it going on here, so just run it as you usually do.


You already know. Dragon Tail helps you not instantly lose to anything that has a calm mind.


The dedicated speed control of the team, with standard set. Trick helps against bulkier Stall teams that this team can struggle against, and helps in the matchup vs. setup sweepers that are slower than it, since you can trick on a scarf the turn they click their boosting move, locking them into it as long as they get the scarf before the move goes through. Healing Wish helps generally to keep up pressure and heal status conditions, which allows you to play Cobalion more aggressively, even with Moltres existing.



Replay Zone;
A longer game, but I survived (why did they forfeit just click shell smash + bullet seed it's not that hard)

Vs. a fellow belligoat enjoyer
(252+ SpA Adaptability Tera Water Basculegion-F Surf vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Bellibolt: 236-279 (55.9 - 66.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO)
I love my weird frog creature and his insanely stacked stats

 

[fluff!!]

Bellibolt/Meloetta VoltTurn BO

(click sprites for paste!)


The first thing that comes to my mind with Bellibolt is VoltTurn. A slow pivot will always be decent in any game no matter what and allows anything a free entry on the field, which broadens the array of mons you can choose from and have fun teambuilding with. Unsurprisingly, I pair it up with Crawdaunt, which I will talk about later. The ability to spread paralysis on contact attackers like Galarian Zapdos and Cobalion variants is great when building a team with limited speed control options too. Tera Water is mandatory for the Rain matchup.


This one is for you, Elec-ant. Our 2nd VoltTurn mon, Meloetta enjoys Bellibolt paralyzing faster threats. It's basically Gardevoir but with U-turn, which is the one niche it has over her. I tinkered with Tera Blast + random Tera types but you're basically never Tera'ing Meloetta anyway so I didn't go with that. Trick is always a good move but I have 2 Knocks on this team so if you want to play it, feel free to have whatever you want in that 4th slot.


Cyclizar


Krookodile is a top 3 mon currently in my opinion, the Enamorus ban allows it to finally forgo Gunk Shot for good and run Taunt instead, while easing the Dark/Ground Spam. Sets Rocks, emergency checks DD Salamence and others with Intimidate, Knocks, it does it all.


Hariyama is back from early RU with a classic set of his. I believe Hariyama is a pretty decent mon right now, with a few elements setting it apart from Conkeldurr in trading a bit of physical bulk for better special bulk and having priority Bullet Punch over Mach Punch, which is great against the Tera Ghost sweeper spam from our beloved hated ladder. You may have noticed that the team has 4 Fairy weaknesses, but Gardevoir is really the only Fairy in the tier and Tera Steel turns her into setup fodder / a free KO with Bullet Punch. It's crazy how fast and unexpectedly Hariyama turns into an unstoppable force.


My favorite mon in the tier. Aqua Jet hits quite hard and bails you out of many situations, while helping in the speed control department. Crunch is chosen over Knock Off because of Cyclizar and Krook already carrying the move, which allows you to run a STAB with a consistent 80 BP over 65 and is usually the difference maker when trying to break that pesky Slowbro, especially if you Tera Dark.

calcs

252+ Atk Choice Band Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 300-356 (76.1 - 90.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Adaptability Crawdaunt Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 368-436 (93.4 - 110.6%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tera Poison Slowbro: 150-178 (38 - 45.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Adaptability Crawdaunt Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tera Poison Slowbro: 184-218 (46.7 - 55.3%) -- 71.1% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Adaptability Tera Dark Crawdaunt Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tera Poison Slowbro: 207-245 (52.5 - 62.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

the sus matchups:
With an Intimidate mon and no Fighting type faster than it, it can easily go out of hand if you play passively against it. Luckily, some combination of Crawdaunt, Hariyama and Bellibolt can usually get you through. Just don't press Close Combat if it hasn't Tera'd yet.

4 Fairy weaknesses, only 1 psychic immunity who is weak to Fairy, no Fairy resistance. It doesn't take a world champion to understand that it can be tough. However, as I stated before, Tera Steel Hariyama can just take the advantage to make it a quick 6-0 sometimes. Meloetta can also tank 2 hits.

It's not necessarily a weakness of the team, but I'll use this occasion to tell you to watch out for the new shenanigans Cobalion is up to with its CM + Tera Blast sets that are starting to pop out left and right. That's it. :]

CM + Tera Fairy is veeeeeeeeeeeery scary. Do your best :]

try to bait it with one of your Tera Fairies and hit it very hard so Crawdaunt/Hariyama can revenge kill, or Tera Steel on Hariyama to tank something and hit it back hard. Dragon Dance sets are easier to handle, but Specs just takes a kill every time it comes in.

replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2133627368 Against Bisharp and Gardevoir, just a liiiiittle bit of luck and you can win even against a combination of bad matchups.
??? More to come? (don't count on it too much, I have played enough ladder for today... I want to play Party Project with the boys anyway and I'm working tomorrow and

 

[Sir Tetris]

After mulling over possible Bellibolt HOs for a while and giving up out of despair for Bellibolt not getting any worthwhile set-up moves (HOW does it not get stockpile??), I decided to against my nature and build an honest Balance team for once. I present to you:

Bellibolt+Okidogi StatusSpam Balance



As much as I love Electromorphosis Belli and its ability to deal unreasonable amounts of damage for a tank and sometimes even solo rain teams, I had to pick the standard status spam static set (hey, alliteration!) for this one. Rocky Helmet + Static is great for punishing the abundant physical attackers in the tier - particularly those who are greedy enough to click u-turn immediately upon spotting Wo-Chien. Slow Volt Switch + Muddy Water allows it to safely bring in the offensive threats of the team like Okidogi while also being able to chip down those pesky grounds that try to prevent the pivot. Tera flying also enables Belli to stomach scary banded CCs from the likes of Zapdos-Galar and Mienshao and hopefully killing it in return. Belli acts as the centre of the team, absorbing hits like a fat sponge and spreading status to make the job easier for the rest of the squad.


Bellibolt + Mr. Live Slug Reaction himself make a solid defensive core by covering each other's weaknesses; Wo-Chien slugs shrugs off Bellibolt assassination attempts such as EQs and strong special attacks, while Belli acts as a punisher and strong deterrent against strong physical attackers. It is great and slowly making progress with Knock Off and Leech Seed, while foul play allows it to banish set-up sweepers such as The Car and Blastoise. Its greatest weakness - its typing - is completely solved with Tera Poison, turning Wo-Chien from a mildly annoying seeder to an impossible-to-kill monster.


It's Cyclizar. Dragon Tail is great for phazing out bulky set-up sweepers.


Rhyperior is the resident rocker of the team, and provides defensive insurance whenever Belli or Wo-Chien aren't up to the task. Its bulk allows it to tank even physical super-effective attacks and strike back with a strong Earthquake, while the ground type enables it to act as the volt switch blocker of the team. Swords Dance enables it to function as a strong and threatening late-game wincon, especially with the help of Tera. I chose Rock Blast as its second STAB instead of Stone Miss as it's more reliable and also allows it to deal damage and possibly OHKO Mimikyus without getting red carded. Finally, it is speedcrept to be faster than uninvested base 50s such as Muk-Alola and Vileplume, but more importantly it becomes faster than Bellibolts that try to sneak up on you with unreasonable investments in speed (I'm looking at you FP).


Okidogi is my wallbreaker of choice. It can make great progress with strong Knock Offs while also being able to spread delicious status with its ability and Poison Jab. Its middling speed tier lets it take advantage of the Paralysis spread by Bellibolt and take massive chunks out of the opposing team by coming in after a Volt Switch. Considering that my game plan involves staying alive and spreading status as long as possible before cleaning up, I opted for Drain Punch over CC for longevity. Finally, Psychic Fangs gives it an instant kill button against opposing Okidogis and enables it to deal good damage to annoying Tera Poison set-up sweepers.


I chose Noivern in the last slot after a lot of deliberation over Scarfers and other speed control options for a few reasons. The defensive utility offered by its typing, particularly the ground and fighting resist, is much appreciated. Roost assists in longevity and allows it to perform better in its role as the primary pivot in order to not let Cyclizar get chipped too much, which used to be a big problem for the team. Air Slash is a very spammable STAB, being more reliable than Hurricane (you can probably tell by now that I don't like low acc moves) and able to take good advantage of the status spread by the other members of the team (paraflinch go brr). Lastly, Flamethrower acts as much needed coverage for steel types such as Jirachi.


Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2133618056 vs FP's Team
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2133630997 (IK it's the same guy, look I'm out here in the ladder thirsting for games like a nomad in the desert thirsts for water let me have this)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2133916679 vs Elecant
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2133917357-ltpoldjtq9x9f1bvf8we1fcn2awsn4wpw vs FP

 

[MachJacob]

Hex Basculegion Para Spam


An idea I've had in the back of my head for a while was a Hex Basculegion + several Pokemon able to inflict paralysis, taking advantage of the powerful move boosted by Basculegion's Adabtability. The team itself has gone through many iterations, and probably needs more work but I'm out of time.


The star of the show, Basculegion uses the same moveset as her scarf set, swapping Shadow Ball for Hex. A Modest nature is used to maximise damage and because she will already outspeed all paralysed opponents, and allows Ice Beam to 2HKO AV Cyclizar (after rocks).


Mr Belli himself, his role is as a simple defensive wall with Static. Soak allows Belli to apply its statuses to anything, remove STABs anre allow super effective Volt Switches.


The stunning snail is our second para spammer, adding Knock Off and Leech Seed support, as well as notably a Dark resist.


The third and final para spammer is none other than the face of ParaFlinch itself, Jirachi. Providing Stealth Rock, Wish support, valuable resistances and everyone's favourite 60% dice rolls, Jirachi is a core part of the team capable of anything with enough luck.


Salamence takes the team as the third member, proving a ground immunity and a mixed breaker to take advantage of scenarios that Basculegion doesn't thrive in.


The team is lacking one crucial thing: hazard control. The team is kinda passive so far, and the RU bike won't deal the damage we want it to, so we need a remover with a bit more offense. Enter Conkeldurr, who kept Defog after the move was purged from most Pokemons' movesets. With enough speed to beat paralysed base 100s, and the huge attack allowing Drain Punch to keep it healthy, Conk is one of our sturdiest hazard removers, and is a set that many people don't expect.

 

[FlamPoke]

Edit: submissions are closed, it's now time for us to vote which of the good boys is the best:

ParaSpam HexGar by FlamingoPokeman
Bellibolt HO by Heatranator
TSpikeStack Balance by Elec-ant1234
VoltTurn BO by fluff!!
StatusSpam Balance by Sir Tetris
ParaSpam HexBascu by MachJacob
CB Lycan-D SpikeStack by Forest Guardian
Specs Vern Balance by THE_CHUNGLER

First and foremost, appreciate the turnout this week, we love Bellibolt. My vote would go towards everyone if it could but I'm leaning towards Elec-ant given their double Steel plus TSpikeStack seems like a really cool core.

 

[Heatranator]

Fluff!! For once agan making a really weird team, I am going to make a lower tier team for this competition at some point to emulate them

 

[lars]

I thought I was on to something...
...only to find that MJ was on to the same thing. Wo-Chien, rachi, belli, conk core is legit. I had been playing around with combos of Gyarados, Menace, Moltres, Gastrodon, and air balloon Rev in the other slots. Lots of decent iterations, but nothing felt just right to me. Was also playing around with AV (and even specs) Belli. I think it might have potential? I should have nailed it down earlier.

In any case,
Mach Jacob

 

[Tsuki]

Voting for JachMacob VOTING FOR THE_CHUNGLER

 

[Forest Guardian]

OK apparently FlamingoPokeman has given me the ability to submit my team whether it is in the voting stage or not.

https://pokepast.es/53d06a8c31ea09ff



This team focuses on Lycanroc Dusk's immense breaking potential thanks to choice band and tough claws. With Gastrodon + Cobalion as the spikestacking core which further enhances Lycanroc's breaking ability. Stone Edge and Accelerock are STAB moves and the latter is boosted by Tough Claws. Close Combat crushes Cobalion as well as dealing good damage to hippowdon. While Psychic Fangs lashes out on Okidogi. Crunch can be used in the last slot to ruin psychics like slowbro and reuniclus as well as palossand.
Bellibolt provides great team support thanks to it being a slow pivot as well as a Mon that can paralyze faster mons which, alongside accelerock makes speed control a lot less necessary. It creeps pokemons trying to creep pokemon that creep hippowdon.
Scarf Gengar provides excellent speed control to the team. But remember the last where I said speed control isn't necessary. That is why Gengar is a lot more free to simply trick it's scarf to ruin opposing cyclizars and friends.
Gastro provides more support to lycanroc by bringing spikes to the table. Spikes soften the opposition for easier breaking from lycanroc. Its also the water immunity and volcanion answer on the team.
Woo amazing Mon. Its also naturally fast outspeeding the likes of Mienshao. A special set allows for easier chip on Palo and hippo which makes lycanrocs job easier. Thunder Wave is great team support but volt switch is great to threaten moltres harder. Rocks r rocks.
it does moltres stuff.

 

[THE_CHUNGLER]

Given I strong armed my way into getting Bellibolt into the teambuilding competition, it's only fair I submit a team for the fans:


This submission is a slight modification of a team I used in RUPL in week three, which is a ParaSpam team that tries to get Gengar behind a substitute and win by spamming boosted Hex's. I'll explain some of the sets below:

Bellibolt - Bellibolt uses a standard Rocky Helmet Static set to punish U-Turns and physical attackers. I EV'd to outspeed Hippo to allow me to Muddy Water / Toxic it if needed, and I also run Volt Switch for slow pivots.
Cyclizar - We know what this does, though I run a Dragon Tail set here to phaze setup mons like Slowbro.
Gengar - Encore and Substitute, when coupled with ParaSpam, is insanely good for a mon so naturally strong and fast.
Infernape - This slot was always my most indecisive, but the monke is generally good and can break a lot of teams through its strong STAB's or Switcheroo shenanigans.
Jirachi - Another RU staple, Jirachi serves a support role here, EV'd to outspeed Mimikyu with Tera Normal for if I need it into HO. Standard Rocks / Twave - could maybe opt for Wish over U-Turn but 4mss is real.
Slowbro - Anotherrrr RU staple, Slowbro is another support mon here. I tested CM sets over Thunder Wave but felt like it wasn't nearly as valuable, though it might be different now in a meta without Thundurus-Therian, Iron Leaves and Enamorus-Therian.

THE SWAMP

https://pokepast.es/a4b1a70edb688eca

Better descriptions to come but I had toget this in before belliweek is over. Basic premise is Belli can volt to loom to start doing damage, and loom baits in fezandipiti/dogi/poisons that Belli wants weakened by smacking them with facade. Belli facilitates offensive teams so well with volt it’s easy to get in Vern and Loom

 

[Forest Guardian]

Voting for MachJacob

 

[Seed Sower]

MachJacob

 

[FlamPoke]

Congratulations to this week's winner MachJacob with his ParaSpam HexBascu submission, and thank you to everyone for participating!
Week 13 will be posted shortly.

 

[FlamPoke]

Week 13:Regidrago

​

Given the recent departure of Enamorus-Therian, RU has pretty limited options in the builder when it comes to Fairy types; this is exactly the type of environment for a strong, fast Dragon type to excel in...

Always a tough mon to switch into given its ability to run physical or special sets, Regidrago is the choice this week for our teambuilding competition. Among the best Choice Scarf users in the tier, Regidrago can annihilate opponents with an absurd 150 base power Dragon Energy, 130 base power Draco Meteor or 120 base power Outrage, all STAB attacks that are boosted by Dragon's Maw. On top of this, it gets decent coverage options in Ground moves and can use Tera Steel or Poison to give it the tools to beat otherwise would-be checks like Gardevoir or Tera Fairy mons.
Will you build around a physical set with DD, a special set with Scarf, or even a Specs set that aims to deal 100 minimum to most non-immunes?

Teambuilding criteria:
Your team submission must be legal in SV RU and have a Regidrago on it.

Submission deadline: Teams should be submitted by 11:59 PM (GMT-4) on Friday, June 7th, voting will then go until 11:59 PM (GMT-4) on Sunday, June 9th.

 

[fluff!!]

Regidrago Wish Balance but it's actually Amoonguss being an S-tier mon

https://pokepast.es/e093477dda6dd1f5
(you can click the sprites for paste too!)

Back to the lab for another week of Teambuilding Competition, and after a few weeks of submitting borderline troll teams, I think an actual solid, serious team from yours truly is due. (To the dismay of Heatranator)

The teambuilding process went smoothly, everything fell in place naturally and the first draft of the team already worked beautifully.


I went for Scarf Regidrago since DD is cringe + Scarf leads to streamlined, simple teambuilding. The set is very classic, with 3 STABs to choose from depending on the situation + Earth Power. Tera Ground for Thunder Wave immunity + powers up Earth Power. Tera Blast Steel is a waste of Tera, you shouldn't be looking to deal with Fairies with your Scarf Regidrago in the first place.


Jirachi is an obvious partner for Regidrago, dealing with Fezan and Gardevoir beautifully while providing any support you may need. Since we end up running rocks Krook, I went for Wish and Encore for the support slots. Wish allows you to heal Regidrago for more opportunities to spam Dragon Energy + 200 base HP is nothing to scoff at, so you can actually use Regidrago to tank some hits, esp from stuff like Volcanion. Encore is a general anti-setup tool that helps dealing with fat Calm Mind mons.


Since Regidrago really hates hazards, I figured going for the reliable Defog was most likely the better option over Cyclizar (ew). I didn't want to stack Dragon types, so I picked Talonflame over Noivern. Talonflame brings Defog support, a Fairy and Fighting resistance, and a Ground immunity, which fits nicely in a Regidrago+Steel core. Gale Wings Brave Bird can help pick off a weakened DDer/Maushold/Blastoise/Armarouge in a last resort situation.


Amoonguss is an amazing mon currently and fits very well into this comp. Amoonguss brings a second fat Fairy resistance, a huge Water resist for Rain, a Krookodile switch-in, can screw over plenty of setup sweepers with both Clear Smog and Foul Play, and spreads Toxic, all in one slot. It is the central piece of the team and keeps everything together for the entire game, absorbing every big hit thrown it its direction and helps pivoting into resistances. Tera Water plays a vital part here, allowing you to bait mons like Zapdos-G or Volcanion thinking they just ran into the freest matchup of their life, just for their attack to bounce off and get poisoned by Toxic, putting them on a timer and effectively neutering their most important piece to break through your team. It is common for Amoonguss to win turn 1 by simply Tera'ing and clicking Toxic. EVs let Amoonguss live a +2 Ice Beam from Modest Blastoise from full.


Krookodile is really, REALLY good currently. Sets Rocks, has Knock, Taunt, Ground/Dark is extremely difficult to switch into, and Intimidate helps alleviating pressure off of Amoonguss when facing teams just stacking physical setup sweepers one after the other. Not much to say about him, he's just a strong mon. He also likes Wish support from Jirachi. Tera Fairy helps against Conkeldurr.


I really just wanted to try out Bisharp, I've heard it did great against HO, and I figured another Ghost resist couldn't hurt. Now I understand the hype. This typing+bulk+attack stat+Swords Dance+Sucker Punch feels kinda broken sometimes. It did super well against HOs as promised, too. The fact that it benefits decently from Wish is the icing on the cake. This Bisharp runs Tera Fire to help against Armarouge, but it can also surprise Moltres and Talonflame too as an added benefit.


Replays
Thank you Forest Guardian for the games! (fuck ladder)
Against Hyper Offense - Bisharp wins
Against Okidogi Balance - A classic game where everyone gets to play their part (and where I almost throw turn 35, Amoonguss still wins if my Jirachi gets Knocked but it makes it an rngfest against the opposing Ice Punch Jirachi)
Against Spikes Stacking - Defog > Rapid Spin, Amoonguss does the thing where it doesn't die

 

[Heatranator]

Scarf Regidrago BO (I think, might also be a hazard stack team as well)


Had fun building this team (sarcasm because ladder decided to screw me over every time I made a change) and I think it turned out pretty well. This team is able to wall quite a lot of the meta and can slowly chip them down while not being passive by having quite good offensive pressure. (also, aside from empoleon, all of these mons are not in RU rn. I did not intend this tbh).

Of course, the subject of this week, regidrago I feel like unless you are using a sticky web team, scarf is the way to go. It simply isn't fast enough to outspeed relevant threats to pick up the ko's it needs. But I decided to do something a bit differently. Usually, drago uses tera steel and tera blast to catch opposing fairy types that switch in. While this is good, I decided to do something differently. By swapping out tera blast for dragon pulse and using tera dragon, regidrago can have the power of specs and the speed of scarf at the same time. Of course, now fairy types counter the hell out of this, but nothing else can switch in. If you can remove fairy types, then drago dominates. Also pulse being a consistent stab move is nice.

The one mon I didn't switch out after the first draft, empoleon is the rocker of the team that can be a good defensive and offensive piece. The combo of surf+knock can deal with most mons in the meta, as something like volcanion or salamence that might switch into surf doesn't like taking knock off. Roost of course is for healing and rocks is to allow empoleon to always make progress. 112+ special attack is to always OHKO armarouge from full (though I never encountered one while testing).

The special tank of the team, muk alola was chosen purely to counter gengar since they showed up so much on ladder (and then when I added a-muk, ladder decided to drop it :] ). Anyways, this is the standard rest talk set that allows it to wall quite a lot of special threats while using the item removal of knock off and the poison chance from its moves to slowly chip down the enemy. Not much more to be said.

The physical tank of the team, rhyperior can deal impressive damage while walling quite a lot. Tera dragon of course is to patch up its water and grass weaknesses, making it a lot better against rain. Roar is the unique innovation, allowing rhyperior to force things out and acquire hazard chip. This is especially good for hippowdon who the team otherwise struggles a bit against if the opponent is even a bit careful in making sure hippo isn't switched into anything (which is most opponents). Rock blast can deal with focus sash leads quite well, e-quake is a good stab move and megahorn can deal with the pesky psychic types of the tier.

The hazard removal of the team, noivern was initially tsareena and while it did work well, it ultimately had to be swapped for noivern to exert more offensive pressure to a few mons. This noivern set is a more offensive set in order to not let things in for free while still being able to defog. Draco meteor is good stab for it, allowing it to deal great damage. Flamethrower allows noivern to deal with steel types that wall draco meteor and with tera fire can deal solid damage to neutral targets. U-turn can help noivern pivot around targets that switch in to wall it while defog helps remove hazards for the team. Overall, a good fast mon that can do offensive and utility jobs.

Finally, the spiker of the team, mew has a really weird set that actually works pretty well. Most people either make mew a dedicated lead or a sweeper, but I decided to do something inbetween. The ev spread allows mew to be quite bulky while having a lot of firepower. Spikes of course is to gain progress against bulkier teams and gives mew a button to click that always makes progress. Future sight can set up some nasty combos with teammates by allowing them to hit a target for big damage. Power gem was chosen to deal with moltres, talonflame and yanmega especially by sniping them, but it can work against other flying or fire types. Focus blast may seem weird as draining kiss or dazzling gleam can also hit dark types, but focus blast can snipe any cyclizar that stays in, which from my testing all of them do stay in. It has an 87.5% chance to OHKO cyclizar, which is big for dealing with that annoying bike. Well, if you hit it of course, but I never missed it during testing.Tera fighting boosts the power of f-blast while also resisting bug type moves so yanmega is easier to deal with.

 

[Sir Tetris]

DragMag SpikeStack BO



The star of the show. Going for the traditional scarf set here with Tera Steel Tera Blast to threaten Gardevoirs in case your opponent wants to greedily prevent a revenge kill. Dragon Pulse over Draco Meteor allows Regidrago to spam its STAB even at low health and clean-up chipped down teams in the endgame.


Magnezone combos with Regidrago to form the iconic DragMag offensive core, with Magnezone threatening any steels and fairies that try to stop Regidrago's reign. It either kills Jirachi or forces it to U-Turn out, and can take off massive chunks off the opposing team in case they switch into a Dragon Energy with one of the few Fairies left in the tier.


Chesnaught is the spiker of the team, and one of the best physical attack absorbers in the tier. With Krookodile stocks rising, Chesnaught does incredibly well in the Meta and frequently nabs free Spike layers and Knock Offs after switching into the common physical attacking support mons such as Cyclizar and Jirachi. Tera Ghost allows it to serve as an impromptu spinblocker, as well as improving its odds against the likes of Mienshao and Zapdos-Galar.




Jirachi provides great support to the team with Wish and can allow you to fast-pivot into the breakers in Drago And Zone without sacrificing much of their health in the process. It also provides a secondary Fairy resist, which can be immensely important in matchups against Gardevoir.


Assault Vest Basculegion-F is the final pick, for a number of reasons. It acts as Specially Defensive insurance against matchups against Gardevoir, Moltres, or other strong special attackers which this team often struggles with. Ice Beam isn't necessary as you are always switching out on Cyclizar, and it opens up space for an emergency priority move in Aqua Jet.

Replays

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2139143509-zo6dbx7ocpisuwe7s4ncrlis2sgbqp1pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2139170197-fx15iyly9min7di3ls69hj6j36eblkypw

 

[lars]

Ok ok, I'm back. I have something so I might as well throw it down even if it's not quite up to my (admittedly very dubious) standards.

Dragons with a side of Bish Bug



https://pokepast.es/785ad628670d9b9b
​

Some quick notes (I'll add an edit for specific thoughts):
I found Regidrago similarly difficult to build around as I did Salamence. It's probably a style thing. It's probably a disdain for Cyclizar thing. I probably need to learn2build. In any case, I consistently found Regidrago the weak link going through my iterations and at the end of the week, I essentially ended up with the first draft after all...

team versions

​

Not much to say about this specific Conkeldurr anymore. It seems to be reasonably common when you don't want your hazard removal option to have the durability of wet paper. Also it actually can hurt things. Wow! Novel!


Somewhat typical idea with slightly different implementation. Wanted Crunch and Tera Dark for anti-prankster utility (this did actually come in handy a few times with thundy-i and t-wave running around these days). Then I was basically pigeon-holed into D-Edge so I wasn't walled by Chesnaught of all things... Blah Blah, always Jolly, Blah Blah speed tiers. NO! Moar powah! (I mean alter as you see fit if you're trying it out)


Auto-cheese please. Insane role compression. Haxxster of all trades. Master of none. Basically it's more or less required on this team to be a blanket check to a lot of stuff. Sometimes it actually can do it's job. Sometimes it just iron heads 20 times in a row from a hopelessly lost game state and... well you know.


Standard bisharp doing mostly bisharp things, but it can't have throat chop because I probably needed rocks and dumb Jirachi can only have 4 moves like a total chump! To it's credit, Bisharp forces tons of switches (especially under webs support) so rocks are easy to get up. This double strong priority with Conk really helps shore up some very bad match ups.


A ZU staple fighting with the big boys! What can I say? I needed a ground immune and webs were nice? Yeah, it's actually surprisingly good sometimes. Enam-T spatk levels and such. If you're using this team, use energy ball or whatever coverage and t-bolt over volt switch if you want. Air Slash you ask? It was specifically to make predictions vs yanmega with potential tera a little less ify. Also nice to catch some fighting types. Tera water to survive random fire coverage and get the webs down.


Meh... this isn't the set I did most of my testing with, but I'm sure it's the most consistent vs good opponents. I really do like to come up with creative (non strategy dex) sets, but it can lead me down unoptimized roads. I had D.Meteor, D.Pulse, Earth Power, and Sub (modest w/ lefties). Sub to ease predictions and avoid status. The basic idea is that base speed Regidrago with webs support is like Scarf Regidrago, but it can change moves! I actually briefly talked to Fluff about this. I had to admit, this choice was somewhat arbitrary and probably wasn't consistent against well-constructed and piloted teams. So I ended up going back to scarf. It's tried and mostly true. With webs support, you can even afford to take a weak knock off and still potentially clean late game. Lastly, tera Ghost because Jirachi attracts Knock off like none other and then Maus and Cob could just auto-win.


Ok, there it is!

Have a great weekend (see you at the Super Live Tour! shameless plugs! )

 

[FlamPoke]

And with that we conclude the submissions for this week - thank you to everyone who shared their teams!

Regidrago Wish Balance by fluff!!
Scarf Regidrago BO by Heatranator
DragMag SpikeStack BO by Sir Tetris
Webs Scarf Regidrago Offense by lars

All sorts of great building this week, thanks again folks! I'll be voting for Heatranator this time around given the Muk-A and Empo core that I enjoy piloting a lot. Please vote for your favorites prior to the deadline!

 

[Forest Guardian]

Voting fluff, i will venge all those beatings.

 

[Elec-ant1234]

votin for Sir Tetris, magnezone is goated right now and it looks fun to pilot (on vacation so I can't try it out myself)

 

[Tsuki]

Voting GOAT tetris

 

[THE_CHUNGLER]

And with that we conclude the submissions for this week - thank you to everyone who shared their teams!

Regidrago Wish Balance by fluff!!
Scarf Regidrago BO by Heatranator
DragMag SpikeStack BO by Sir Tetris
Webs Scarf Regidrago Offense by lars

All sorts of great building this week, thanks again folks! I'll be voting for Heatranator this time around given the Muk-A and Empo core that I enjoy piloting a lot. Please vote for your favorites prior to the deadline!

https://pokepast.es/08c8b4ea7175f82b
THE SPIDER’S MAW
/ / / / /
Sorry for being late again! I needed my girls fresh for RUGL.

Webs are an extremely devious playstyle right now supported by the immediately threatening and deceptively bulky Araquanid that can also act as a nice water resist for webs teams in a pinch.

Regidrago is the sweeper of choice, and this set that TsuShirogane cooked up is an incredibly threatening set-up sweeper that is able to threaten pokemon on both sides of the defensive spectrum, except for extremely bulky Tera fairies. Draco gives Regi a nice midground click that still hits fast offensive pokemon hard, doesn’t lock it into Outrage, and is a non-contact nuke for Hippowdon, Chesnaught, and Moltres. Item is team dependent but Dragon Fang and Eject Pack are good options, Lum makes you less weak to tspikes and can heal outrage confusion. Draco Meteor can force a Tera Fairy from stall teams as it hits Quagsire hard repeatedly, and if it’s on the wrong pokemon like this Chansey here, good luck:

+1 252+ Atk Tera Ground Regidrago Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 297-351 (42.2 - 49.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Chansey Seismic Toss vs. 0 HP Tera Ground Regidrago: 100-100 (18.4 - 18.4%) -- guaranteed 5HKO after Stealth Rock

I started with Kleavor on this team, but MeteorBeam rocks Rachi also gives the team better matchup into opposing Kleavor lead while benefitting from webs itself. It also stops Gardevoir from claiming a kill without webs unlike Kleavor. Coverage is team dependent but I like outspeeding and slamming Krookodile and Bisharp in 1 move.

Azelf provides some good immediate speed for pokemon like Thundurus, Zoroark, and Gengar that can be threatening to webs teams if they are boots. Tera fairy draining kiss is broken in the right matchup and flamethrower roasts Jirachi with Life Orb:

+2 252 SpA Life Orb Azelf Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Jirachi: 356-421 (88.1 - 104.2%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

Mimikyu and Bisharp both Anchor this team against opposing cheese such as rain, standard HO, and opposing Webs. They both complement each other very well, one choosing Tera Fire for Moltres, and the other choosing a Tera that benefits the team in other matchups. Bisharp must have Low Kick for opposing Bisharp if you ever want to set webs up, and throat chop is not advisable because Regi already baits Tera Fairy fairly often.