Team Overview:
Well folks, I’ve officially done it. I have well and truly peaked as a builder. I do not say this lightly, but it takes a truly innovative mind to cook up a team this special. I started with four of the top ten pokemon in the format and added… two of the top thirty pokemon. For a little bit of spice. And to absolutely no-one's surprise, the team is fantastic. Who would have guessed that Toxapex is like… kinda good.
In all seriousness what this team lacks in originality it more than makes up for in sheer ruthless efficiency. This team is awesome, and way more fun to play then it has any right to be. I was legitimately getting hyped when I realized that the optimal play was to swap between Toxapex and Mola for 30 turns in a row. I would be popping off Hungrybox style when I managed to run your average Gliscor out of its 24th defog. Watching a helpless Melmetal break itself upon the iron shore of my rocky helmet Ferrothorn is a rush beyond words. And oh man, when the moment finally comes, 150 turns in and it's finally time for Zamazenta to descend like a mechanical reaper upon the swaths of battered wheat that my opponent calls pokemon… It’s ecstatic.
This may sound crazy but I actually adore this team. It’s the most fun I’ve had throughout this entire challenge. It turns out I’m a disciple of small stall. This team rocks. It's about time that I stop glazing and actually explain how this team works. The first five pokemon serve together to form an iron core that most teams are entirely incapable of breaking through without suffering near cataclysmic attrition. Attrition that the final mon, Zamazenta is there to capitalize on. Do not be fooled, the goal of this team is not to stall indefinitely. It is to slowly and methodically break down any opposition Zam might struggle with so that it can emerge in the late game and truly end teams with its insane speed tier and godly coverage and at that, it excels.
The Teambuilding Method:
In my journey to learn high level team building I’ve committed to a method that ensures each idea gets the exploration and testing it deserves. I start with a rough concept of a team, typically the core members with unoptimized movesets, spreads and supporting cast. I then create a new alt and initially planned to ladder for 100 games, making any changes deemed necessary and honing the team over the course of those games until it emerges on the other side polished and prepared against the metagame. Unfortunately I’ve come to realize that it is just not possible for me to play 100 games of pokemon each month, especially not with a team like this. To help with this I have a second cutoff, 1650 elo and 30+ games, this ensures the team is competently tested, competitive and not life consuming for me. The record and final elo of each team will be recorded and compared against each other in order to both gauge the success of the individual team and also my skill and journey as a teambuilder. I believe that as these threads continue the progress in my building will be seen by how quickly the final form will be achieved. It is my goal to become one of the top team builders in this tier. In order to pursue that I will be completing this process with a new team every month next year. Be on the lookout for these threads to see how I get along. I do not intend to compete myself, however I would love to make teams for competitors one day. Please let me know if you have any team idea suggestions or would like more info on any of the teams I have put together.
This Teams Results:
This team made it to a peak of 1633 ELO and had a win/Loss of 31/4 (Damn you decay)
This team does not lose.
This team does not lose.
The squad:
药片 (Ting-Lu) @ Leftovers
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Ruination
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind
Ting Lu may not be the best pokemon to start this team explanation with. Aside from the obvious role of getting stealth rocks onto the battlefield it's mostly here for redundancy. It is your fall back special wall when Moltres is weakened or unable to cut it, your fall back phaser when Pex runs up against a boosted earthquake and finally your fall back offensive threat if zam is fully walled. I’ll quickly give some info on exactly how to best utilize this offensively before using the segment to discuss this team's philosophy towards hazards in general. Just because Ting-Lu is primarily here to switch in, get hazards, whirlwind and soak up some mola wishes, doesn’t mean you should ignore its offensive potential. It is one of two mons on your team that can reliably make offensive progress. Even without attack investment 110 base attack earthquakes are a fairly strong threat and are your number one way to deal with Gholdengo. Not to mention ruination. Your main game plan should always be weakening the team for Zam, and pretty much every pokemon slower than zam can be killed from half health. Most things are slower than Zam. Do not be afraid to apply offensive pressure with Ting-Lu, the fact that its redundancy means that you're able to play a lot more aggressive with it then your other pieces.
Now for the elephant in the room. Hazards. First of all, this team has zero removal. Second and more alarmingly this team runs three different types of hazards and no ghost type to spin block. To address the zero removal allegations, they’re entirely unneeded. Four of the mons run boots and the other two resist rock. This does come with two caveats. The team kinda hates opponents' spike stacking, and you have to play cautiously around knock off. Opposing spike stack sucks, Ferrothorn and Lu lose a sizable amount of their defensive bulk when they take 25% on every switch in. This is an intentional and acceptable tradeoff. Spike stack becomes a 30/70 match up against you, but if they’re not as built for the long game as you it swings back to at least even if not favoured. Mola, Moltres and Pex are more than capable of blocking teams and Lu and Ferro can reliably trade their 4/5 entries in order to wear down the one opposing eclectic type that threatens the core. The trade off is that you become exceptionally resilient into the regular structures only relying on rocks. Lu feels near unkillable with lefties supplementing Molas Clerical work and rocky helmet is soooooo gross, almost acting as a reliable form of offense all in of itself. Given that spike stack is only 20ish percent of games, the trade off is so worth it for how much it increases your average win rate.
Now for the no blocker allegation. Or false allegation. You see this team does technically have a blocker. It has multiple. Mola, Pex and Ferrothorn can handle every single setter in the tier between them and every time they click defog against you, that's one less time they can click it. Who cares if they clear your hazards, you’ve got more spikes than they’ve got ways to get rid of them. No-one ever said this team was playing the short game. Slowly wear down the setters you can like Tusk and stall the hell out of the setters you can’t like Gliscor by just switching, hazing and leech seeding. Either roost or defog has to give eventually, and you can damn well bet it's gonna be before Ting Lu does.
Now for the elephant in the room. Hazards. First of all, this team has zero removal. Second and more alarmingly this team runs three different types of hazards and no ghost type to spin block. To address the zero removal allegations, they’re entirely unneeded. Four of the mons run boots and the other two resist rock. This does come with two caveats. The team kinda hates opponents' spike stacking, and you have to play cautiously around knock off. Opposing spike stack sucks, Ferrothorn and Lu lose a sizable amount of their defensive bulk when they take 25% on every switch in. This is an intentional and acceptable tradeoff. Spike stack becomes a 30/70 match up against you, but if they’re not as built for the long game as you it swings back to at least even if not favoured. Mola, Moltres and Pex are more than capable of blocking teams and Lu and Ferro can reliably trade their 4/5 entries in order to wear down the one opposing eclectic type that threatens the core. The trade off is that you become exceptionally resilient into the regular structures only relying on rocks. Lu feels near unkillable with lefties supplementing Molas Clerical work and rocky helmet is soooooo gross, almost acting as a reliable form of offense all in of itself. Given that spike stack is only 20ish percent of games, the trade off is so worth it for how much it increases your average win rate.
Now for the no blocker allegation. Or false allegation. You see this team does technically have a blocker. It has multiple. Mola, Pex and Ferrothorn can handle every single setter in the tier between them and every time they click defog against you, that's one less time they can click it. Who cares if they clear your hazards, you’ve got more spikes than they’ve got ways to get rid of them. No-one ever said this team was playing the short game. Slowly wear down the setters you can like Tusk and stall the hell out of the setters you can’t like Gliscor by just switching, hazing and leech seeding. Either roost or defog has to give eventually, and you can damn well bet it's gonna be before Ting Lu does.
墙 (Alomomola) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 8 HP / 252 Def / 248 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Flip Turn
- Toxic
- Wish
- Knock Off
Goated pokemon. It’s so good and easily the best general defensive piece on the team. It is your first switch into any physical threat without boosting moves and your first switch into half of the physical threats that do. Between it and Pex pretty much nothing that isn’t a strong electric type can break through. And when you run into a strong electric type, ferro and Ting Lu are there for that.
Outside of providing service as a general physical check Mola also provides free healthcare to all the pokemon on the team that aren’t blessed with the best ability in the game. Typically this will be Ting Lu a few times, Ferro a few times and in some matchups where you want to leverage Zam early as a breaking threat, Zam. Do not let this die unless you know for a fact you are in a position to outlast with the remaining pieces. Mola is the goddamn river styx, if it dies, 4 other pokemon on your team suddenly become mortal so you better be damn sure that exposing their ankles is worth it.
Protect is forgone as you typically rely on regen to heal the fish and pass wishes to something else and there is always something you can switch into. When in doubt click knock off. Toxic anything you can and flip turn liberally.
Outside of providing service as a general physical check Mola also provides free healthcare to all the pokemon on the team that aren’t blessed with the best ability in the game. Typically this will be Ting Lu a few times, Ferro a few times and in some matchups where you want to leverage Zam early as a breaking threat, Zam. Do not let this die unless you know for a fact you are in a position to outlast with the remaining pieces. Mola is the goddamn river styx, if it dies, 4 other pokemon on your team suddenly become mortal so you better be damn sure that exposing their ankles is worth it.
Protect is forgone as you typically rely on regen to heal the fish and pass wishes to something else and there is always something you can switch into. When in doubt click knock off. Toxic anything you can and flip turn liberally.
海胆 (Toxapex) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Def / 124 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic Spikes
- Haze
- Recover
If Mola is the generalist, Pex is the specialist. Pex doesn’t switch in nearly as often, and it certainly isn’t providing much to its teammates but what it does do is utterly invaluable and totally irreplaceable. You’re a slow ass team without any priority which means setup sweepers are scary. Toxapex handles them. There is very very very little that can boost up and one shot Pex before you can get a haze off. And if it can’t beat you boosted, it sure as hell ain't once you’ve reset them.
Not having toxic is kinda rough, but once again this team isn’t meant to do anything quickly. And if you can beat them with toxic you can beat them with scald. Toxic spikes provide an added utility that is just awesome in some matchups. Poison types aren’t hard for Ting Lu and Ferrothorn to handle and once they’re gone, even just one layer of toxic spikes provides an inevitably that justifies the inconvenience of slowly having to stall some enemies out.
Due to pex’s hyper specialized role it is often one of your expendable pieces. Should there not be a Volcarona or other such threat and you find yourself in a position where something needs to die to get mola its regen health back, or to stall out just a bit more toxic damage, consider Pex. With how unkillable it typically is I can only assume it craves the sacrificial death you can now provide it.
Not having toxic is kinda rough, but once again this team isn’t meant to do anything quickly. And if you can beat them with toxic you can beat them with scald. Toxic spikes provide an added utility that is just awesome in some matchups. Poison types aren’t hard for Ting Lu and Ferrothorn to handle and once they’re gone, even just one layer of toxic spikes provides an inevitably that justifies the inconvenience of slowly having to stall some enemies out.
Due to pex’s hyper specialized role it is often one of your expendable pieces. Should there not be a Volcarona or other such threat and you find yourself in a position where something needs to die to get mola its regen health back, or to stall out just a bit more toxic damage, consider Pex. With how unkillable it typically is I can only assume it craves the sacrificial death you can now provide it.
鸡 (Moltres) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Serious Nature
- Roost
- Mystical Fire
- Toxic
- U-turn
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Serious Nature
- Roost
- Mystical Fire
- Toxic
- U-turn
Default special wall, requisite answer to non grounded steels and the weakest link on this team. Mystic fire full spdef is a cool set and it does end up being a pretty good answer to a lot of what you need it to be, but I found it being the mon I went to the least. Even in the situations it was added to handle I found myself going to ting-lu far more often. That being said, I think it's still optimal. Flying steels are the only thing this team can’t handle and Moltres handles them. Pressure is chosen over the more traditional flame body as Tres is never your switch into physical attacks and pp stalling is unironically something you’re going to do consistently. The occasional switch up of going Tres instead of mola on a defog is a 95th percentile play on this team. Seeing two pp bleed out in one turn gets the juices flowing. I don’t have more advice for this mon beyond that. You just don’t go to it very often. Maybe experiment with like magnezone in this slot.
松果 (Ferrothorn) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Toxic
- Gyro Ball
Ability: Iron Barbs
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Toxic
- Gyro Ball
The great Ferrowall and the answer to everything that somehow gets past your other walls. Electric types and grass types quiver at its… does it have feet? Well whatever you’d call those grass antenna things, you’ve certainly got mons quivering at them. Ferro is a solid wall that trades self sustainability for being able to make real progress. Leech seed and toxic eat through teams and gyro ball has a way of catching opponents entirely off guard. Plus with its incredible typing it finds no shortage of moments to enter and catch one of Molas legendary wish passes.
Leech seed is so spamable, there are very few real grass types on ladder rn as the pons have seemingly gone extinct on ladder. It forces mad switches and keeps Ferro surprisingly healthy. Toxic is good to tag anyone trying to set up on you. Switch this into physical moves and watch someone deal more damage to themselves than you. Man, my analysis really peaks early, I am so out of creative stuff to say about Ferrothorn. Do y’all even read this far? Please let me know if you’re reading this part so I know if I can phone it in next month.
Spikes and stealth rock can be interchanged between this and Ting Lu depending on what you find has a better chance of clicking spikes repeatedly in your local Meta. I like it on ferro because it's easier to spam it into Gliscor.
Leech seed is so spamable, there are very few real grass types on ladder rn as the pons have seemingly gone extinct on ladder. It forces mad switches and keeps Ferro surprisingly healthy. Toxic is good to tag anyone trying to set up on you. Switch this into physical moves and watch someone deal more damage to themselves than you. Man, my analysis really peaks early, I am so out of creative stuff to say about Ferrothorn. Do y’all even read this far? Please let me know if you’re reading this part so I know if I can phone it in next month.
Spikes and stealth rock can be interchanged between this and Ting Lu depending on what you find has a better chance of clicking spikes repeatedly in your local Meta. I like it on ferro because it's easier to spam it into Gliscor.
狗 (Zamazenta) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
- Ice Fang
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
- Ice Fang
The main and sort of only offensive threat and the defining force behind how your games should be played. There are three types of approaches this team can take, and all of them are determined by how Zam is positioned. First, and simplest is the case where Zam is useless. This is very rare, but sometimes it just won’t work. There’s a Pecharunt or a Dondozo or some other such rare but overwhelming wall. In these cases congratulations, you’re now playing a big stall, here's hoping you can toxic your way through an entire team.
Second is using Zam as a cleaner. Early on, even from team preview in some games you’ll recognize that with some key chip and a few mons removed Zam just straight up wins. This mon is stupid powerful and most pokemon cannot 1v1 it, hell most pokemon can’t even 3v1 it. In these matchups keep it safe in the back right up until you want to bust it and its defense boost out and sweep the remnants of a team.
Finally is leveraging Zam as a weakening force of its own. Sometimes just repeatedly getting the dog in and clicking more close combats than Bruce Lee is enough to win. Typically this is into other Balance teams where the 1.5x defence is not nearly as valuable to hold onto, and something like Skarmory can only switch in so often. Boots add to this game plan though it does put some more pressure on Mola as there's another pokemon to cleric up. This is an exceptionally powerful mode, but if you lose Zam too early, you lose all your speed and most of your firepower so consider carefully.
A final note is that occasionally you will have to use Zamazenta as a pseudo phaser. Boosted Dragonite was the most common case in my climb, but occasionally something will be strong enough that neither Mola nor Pex can realistically come in. Here’s where Zam clutches up. That 1.5x boost to defenses is clutch as hell, and it will do enough damage to kill whatever frail ass threat dared threaten the bulky waters.
Second is using Zam as a cleaner. Early on, even from team preview in some games you’ll recognize that with some key chip and a few mons removed Zam just straight up wins. This mon is stupid powerful and most pokemon cannot 1v1 it, hell most pokemon can’t even 3v1 it. In these matchups keep it safe in the back right up until you want to bust it and its defense boost out and sweep the remnants of a team.
Finally is leveraging Zam as a weakening force of its own. Sometimes just repeatedly getting the dog in and clicking more close combats than Bruce Lee is enough to win. Typically this is into other Balance teams where the 1.5x defence is not nearly as valuable to hold onto, and something like Skarmory can only switch in so often. Boots add to this game plan though it does put some more pressure on Mola as there's another pokemon to cleric up. This is an exceptionally powerful mode, but if you lose Zam too early, you lose all your speed and most of your firepower so consider carefully.
A final note is that occasionally you will have to use Zamazenta as a pseudo phaser. Boosted Dragonite was the most common case in my climb, but occasionally something will be strong enough that neither Mola nor Pex can realistically come in. Here’s where Zam clutches up. That 1.5x boost to defenses is clutch as hell, and it will do enough damage to kill whatever frail ass threat dared threaten the bulky waters.
Threats:
Spikes:
Flying Steels:
Gliscor:
Spikes:
See the Ting Lu Section.
Flying Steels:
Hope they keep it in on Moltres or get a scald burn and pp stall the hell out of it. Ferrothorn is super clutch in these situations.
Gliscor:
It can’t kill you, doesn’t mean you can kill it. If you want to try and leverage Zams ice fang go for it, but Mola + Ferrothorn can repeatedly switch between each other, throwing out the occasional wish, spikes and leech seed to stay healthy and drain defogs.
Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-2324946197 (Quit early)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-2324950201-09kf0n8w0bnt8mu9a8gc5nus9yn7r9mpw?p2 (Big Stall)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-2322902946?p2 (Fighting through disaster)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-2322900994 (Zam Progress)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-2316845382?p2 (Where this team started)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-2324950201-09kf0n8w0bnt8mu9a8gc5nus9yn7r9mpw?p2 (Big Stall)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-2322902946?p2 (Fighting through disaster)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-2322900994 (Zam Progress)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-2316845382?p2 (Where this team started)
Conclusion:
After the absolute struggle that was last months team, this one felt like a breath of fresh air. A small wrench was thrown in the works in both my inability to actually play 100 games this month as well as the original mon I built the team around, Pult getting banned. I hope you all will agree that getting a thread at all is better than me sticking to my originally far too ambitious goal. As for the team, I hope it came through in my writing how much fun I had with this one. Semi-stall is a comfortable place for me, and using a ton of tried tested and just good pokemon is way too sweet. I really do understand why Mola is so meta defining now, I think I love the stupid mega Luvdisk. This month is unequivocally a success in my boat.
As for the monthly hint, I know last month I hinted at Clefable and they're nowhere to be seen, but next month I promise you there is no better substitute. I've been tasked with building around something very specific, and its certainly not top 30. Get ready for the rise of Mega Ampharos
Thanks for reading,
Moon Jelly
Moon Jelly
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