Pokepaste
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 244 HP / 252 SpD / 12 Spe
Careful Nature
- Protect
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Facade
Despite being overshadowed by it's utility set, I still think swords dance Gliscor is a very strong threat in this meta. It can find free turns to set-up against opponents expecting hazards, and with full HP and SpDef investment it's practically impossible to ohko, especially with tera water to cover it's weaknesses. Earthquake and facade gives you almost perfect neutral coverage against the meta, and protect scouts choiced mons and squeezes more recovery out of Poison Heal. It rarely sweeps, but its very good at punching holes early game. It does gets completely stonewalled by air balloon Gholdengo, so you want to scout for its item before attempting to set up.
Empoleon @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Competitive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 248 HP / 52 Def / 208 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Ice Beam
- Roar
- Stealth Rock
Empoleon offers a lot of utility in one teamslot, and synergizes very well with gliscor. It's bulk, especially on the special side, lets it switch in and set rocks reliably, further bolstered with longevity from roost. Roar ensures that sweepers like Ogerpon-Wellspring, Kingambit, and Manaphy can't exploit its relative pacificity to set up in its face. Ice beam hits a lot of the meta, most notably gliscor, but also lets it actually check one of the most prominent special attackers, Dragapult. Speaking of which...
Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- U-turn
Probably the singular best special breaker in the tier. Tera ghost makes shadow ball even more spammable and draco meteor is a nuke nothing barring fairies wants to switch in on. I opted for fire blast over flamethrower to pick off Kingambits switching in from higher healths, and u-turn keeps up momentum against other offensive teams. Being the fastest unboosted pokemon in the tier, Dragapult also offers some defensive utility, able to revenge kill other fast frail attackers.
Gholdengo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Make It Rain
- Focus Blast
- Trick
Shadow ball spammer #2. Trick gives Gholdengo more utility than Dragapult, able to trick a choice scarf onto setup sweepers and defensive mons alike. The scarf also lets you outspeed every unboosted pokemon, letting it clean up weakened teams with ease. The combination of shadow ball, make it rain, and focus blast hits the entire metagame for neutral damage. Having both Ghold and Pult on a team might seem redundant, but the lack of ghost resists makes the onslaught of shadow balls hard to withstand, and they can each punch holes for the other to exploit.
Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 248 HP / 104 Def / 156 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Volt Switch
- Hurricane
- Tera Blast
This is the mon I'm the most unsure on. Zapdos offers defensive utility, able to pivot in teammates safely with volt switch. With tera ice tera blast it can bait in and ohko Gliscor, and along with hurricane to ohko Great Tusk, lets it volt switch freely. However, I've found it can't withstand strong physical hits from the likes of Kingambit and Ogerpon-Wellspring even before they've swords danced, so if someone has recommendations for a sturdier physical mon that fits into the team that would be great.
Kingambit @ Leftovers
Ability: Supreme Overlord
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 232 HP / 252 Atk / 24 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Kowtow Cleave
- Low Kick
Kingambit is clearly one of, if not the best Pokemon in the game. I opted for low kick over iron head for opposing Kingambits, which my team is quite weak to. With the absence of Baxcalibur, tera flying is even better, letting it set up on metagame staples like Great Tusk and Gliscor easier. Kingambit offers so much utility, from checking threats like Ghold and Pult early game, to breaking down walls, to cleaning late game. Not having iron head means you struggle even more with Valiant though, so you can't rely on this Pokemon to always save the day.
Overall Thoughts
This is my first attempt at teambuilding post-dlc. I used a Baxcalibur-Glowking core for basically the entirety of the pre-dlc, so building without him was hard. I'm also not a very good player at all (I'm hovering around the 1550s), so I'm sure I missed a glaring weakness of the team. I would appreciate any suggestions or advice. Thanks for reading!
. You have 
as your physical sweeper and making Gliscor a defensive wall will give more support to Zapdos as you said that you needed a more solid defensive wall. Toxic is to put things on a timer while Gliscor stalls it out, great for punishing hazard removal like 
. Spikes is hazards, really good chip damage overtime as Gliscor forces alot of switches and pairs well with Toxic for massive chip damage. Protect is to scout for Choiced mons like 
and to stall for more healing. Earthquake on the last slot for damage, prevents it from being too passive but you can also run Knock-Off for removing items like 
.
for 
. With Booster Energy, its faster than all mons in the tier, and is a better source of speed control as it can check a bigger range of scarfers (
). It also helps vs the Kingambit matchup as running double ghost is really weak 
for Flip Turn. Your team is a bit stiff so adding a pivot helps get your mons into position instead of sacking or hard reads.
for Flamethrower. Just more consistent, the extra power is not worth the miss chance.
for Thunder Wave. Comitting your tera is not worth it to kill 