VGC VGC Regulation I Team - Rayquaza + Zamazenta-C

Riza-Lynn

Riza-Lynn

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to share a Regulation I team I’ve been having a ton of fun with. It’s centered around Rayquaza, my favorite legendary of all time and the Pokémon that inspired this team. I really wanted to make it work. And as it turns out, with the right support, Rayquaza can get pretty nasty and sweep through teams in true Dragonite fashion.

The rest of the squad is built to support Rayquaza with bulky redirection, speed control denial, and some unique tools to handle the format’s biggest threats. Overall, it's a mix of personal flair (shoutout to the green noodle) and competitive backbone, and it's been performing well for me so far!

Here’s the paste:
:rayquaza: :zamazenta-crowned: :clefairy:pokepaste :ursaluna-bloodmoon: :farigiraf: :rillaboom:

Team Breakdown​

:rayquaza: Rayquaza @ Clear Amulet
Ability: Air Lock
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Def
Nature: Adamant
  • Extreme Speed
  • Protect
  • Swords Dance
  • Dragon Ascent
Rayquaza isn’t common in Reg I, but with Swords Dance and Tera Normal Extreme Speed, it becomes a scary sweeper. Air Lock is a clutch ability that negates weather boosts, particularly against Kyogre and Koraidon. Clear Amulet helps it stay intact against Intimidate. Dragon Ascent is your nuke option when priority won’t cut it or in a situation against immune targets like Calyrex-Shadow.


:zamazenta-crowned: Zamazenta-Crowned @ Rusted Shield
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 204 HP / 252 Def / 52 SpD
Nature: Bold
IVs: 0 Atk
  • Snarl
  • Body Press
  • Wide Guard
  • Iron Defense
Zamazenta-C shores up the team’s physical bulk and becomes a real threat with Iron Defense + Body Press. Snarl chips away at special attackers, and Wide Guard is great insurance against spread-heavy teams. Tera Grass improves matchups into Earth Power, Water-types, and Spore. It's also my go-to answer for Miraidon, opposing Zamazenta-C, and Dondozo.


:clefairy: Clefairy (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Friend Guard
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 116 SpD
Nature: Calm
IVs: 0 Atk
  • Dazzling Gleam
  • Encore
  • Follow Me
  • Helping Hand
Rayquaza’s primary support. Friend Guard boosts the whole team’s bulk, letting Rayquaza set up Swords Dance more safely. Follow Me is the usual redirection tool, and Encore can clutch into Protect or setup moves. Helping Hand enables Ray's Extremspeed to reach OHKOs on threats like bulky Kyogre or Koraidon or the Genies. Tera Dark is a niche tech to block Prankster Taunt—super useful.


:ursaluna-bloodmoon: Ursaluna-Bloodmoon @ Life Orb
Ability: Mind’s Eye
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Modest
IVs: 0 Atk
  • Blood Moon
  • Protect
  • Earth Power
  • Hyper Voice
My primary answer into Miraidon and bulkier defensive cores like Opposing Zamazenta or Dondozo teams. Tera Normal + Life Orb makes Blood Moon hit ridiculously hard, and the surprise factor from max Speed catches opponents off guard. Great for breaking defensive lines that Rayquaza can’t get through.


:farigiraf: Farigiraf (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Armor Tail
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Nature: Sassy
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
  • Hyper Voice
  • Protect
  • Imprison
  • Trick Room
Farigiraf is a great anti-meta support. Imprison + Trick Room locks out opposing Trick Room users, and Armor Tail protects from priority like Fake Out and Grassy Glide. Tera Ghost helps it wall certain threats and Sitrus Berry improves its staying power.


:rillaboom: Rillaboom (F) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Grassy Surge
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Atk / 12 Def / 124 SpD / 4 Spe
Nature: Adamant
  • Fake Out
  • Knock Off
  • Wood Hammer
  • Grassy Glide
Classic AV Rillaboom. You’ve got Fake Out pressure, terrain control against Miraidon and Indeedee teams, strong priority in Grassy Glide, and item disruption from Knock Off. The EVs give it solid mixed bulk. Tera Fire helps it that flips matchups against Fire-type and Fairy-type moves, super useful into Incineroar or Flutter Mane.

Final Thoughts​

The team has been performing consistently well, but I know I can optimize it more. I'm not super confident when it comes to EV spreads or fine-tuning movesets, so any advice there would be appreciated!
In most games, I find myself bringing the core of Rayquaza, Clefairy, Zamazenta, and Rillaboom, while Ursaluna and Farigiraf are more situational. Some tough matchups I’ve noticed:
  • Opposing Farigiraf can shut down my whole gimmick with Armor Tail
  • Screens Grimmsnarl, which I'm considering addressing by running Psychic Fangs over Snarl on Zamazenta but then I'll reduce my answers to Lunala and Calyrex-Shadow teams
  • Dondozo teams are also a challenge to break through
I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback and thanks in advance for reading!
 
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Heyo! Since I’m on my phone right now, I will update this later. All these issues you have listed can all be fixed by one singular Pokémon…

:sv/weezing-galar:

Weezing, with Neutralizing Gas, is able to safely remove your opponent’s abilities, shutting off things like Armor Tail, letting Rayquaza roam free and spam Extreme Speed.

This also shuts down Grimmsnarl’s screens from getting up first thanks to the removal of Prankster, allowing for you to KO it before screens get up.

Again, it shuts off Commander, so Dondozo and Tatsugiri will never combine when Weezing is on the field.

You said this will weaken your Lunala and CSR MU. Well now you can keep Snarl! Also, if it is still a hassle, you can use Tera Dark on Weezing (and maybe even Dark Pulse! Doesn’t come up all that often but works in a pinch!)

I also recommend dropping your two Trick Room Pokemon for Chien-Pao and Urshifu-R. Pao in particular allows for more damage across your physically-leaning team, and Urshifu-R is just goated.

Maybe swap Rillaboom for Incineroar? Your choice, but Rilla doesn’t really slot in nicely here.

On Zamazenta-C, I’d suggest dropping Iron Defense because it will grant you an opportunity to use Behemoth Bash/Heavy Slam which allows you to OHKO and hit things like CSR and Grimmsnarl.

Clefairy largely benefits from Tera Grass to deny Spore and Miraidon. Dazzling Goeam should probably be dropped for either Icy Wind or Protect. Encore can go for After You, because Encore generally, on slower Pokemon, has to be used as a read tool. After You lets your pieces move right after Clefairy, which can be life saving in TR matchups. For this reason, you would also benefit from using a Sassy Nature and 0 Speed IVs.

Rillaboom, if you are keeping it, generally doesn’t use Knock Off. if you want to keep it, go for it! It isn’t terrible by any means. But from a positioning perspective, U-turn tends to work better. Or High Horsepower to hit Miraidon and Zamazenta-C for decent damage.

I think the EVs are fine for now, you can change them as you practice more and more.
 
hi! a few changes here,

1. replace ursaluna-bm with chien-pao, this gives you a way to boost the damage of both zama and ray, allowing them to pick up kos that you’d miss out on otherwise while also being able to hit farigaraf with crunch- i’d go sash with icicle crash/crunch/sucker punch/protect- it gives you some more miraidon counter-play while supporting the team more
2. drop snarl and iron defense on zamazenta for behemoth bash and protect. having a steel move allows you to hit fairy and ghost types for significant damage that you wouldn’t be able to otherwise and protect is a vital positioning tool
3. drop farigaraf for choice scarfed chi-yu. chi-yu gives the team some much needed speed control and obliterates farigaraf and steel/ghost types + gives you snarl into special attacking restricteds (i.e. terapagos and csr)
use this spread:
Zamazenta-Crowned @ Rusted Shield
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Level: 50
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 100 HP / 4 Atk / 236 Def / 4 SpD / 164 Spe
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- Behemoth Bash
- Wide Guard
- Protect
4. drop knock off on rillaboom for u-turn or high horsepower (i would suggest hhp here). you already have a lot of counterplay into calyrex-shadow and knock off is excessive- high horsepower hits zacian and miraidon super effectively which is really nice since your team seems pretty weak to it
5.
 
Hey again everyone! First off thank you all so much for the helpful responses and feedback. I've made some changes to the team based on your suggestions and did some testing, and it’s definitely feeling more consistent now. Turns out :chien-pao: Chien-Pao was the missing puzzle piece I didn’t know I needed.

Here’s the updated version of the team:
:rayquaza: pokepaste :zamazenta-crowned:

That said, I still feel like something is missing, but I can’t quite pinpoint what it is. Maybe it's just a me thing, I’m definitely not the best pilot, and I’m sure there’s more potential in the team than I’m bringing out right now.

Some personal thoughts on the new build:
  • Losing Iron Defense on Zamazenta has definitely taken away one of my previous win conditions. As nice as Protect has been, I now struggle a bit more into opposing Iron Defense Zamazenta, which can become a real wall without my own to match.
  • Weezing has been useful, especially for shutting down things like Armor Tail, which gave me trouble before. But the issue I’m seeing is that when Weezing is on the field, Rayquaza’s damage output drops noticeably. Without Helping Hand from Clefairy or the damage boost from Chien-Pao, Ray often falls just short of scoring the important KOs even after a Swords Dance. It makes Ray feel much more vulnerable in those spots, compared to when it's supported properly.
  • I’ve also been thinking about running Haze on Chien-Pao. It might be helpful in certain setup matchups, but I’m not sure if it would end up being redundant with Weezing’s Clear Smog. That said, Haze might actually be the better option overall, since Clear Smog doesn’t work on key threats like Tera Steel Dondozo or the Sword and Shield doggos. Maybe it’s worth removing Clear Smog from Weezing and giving it something with broader utility, while Chien-Pao takes over as the anti-setup tool.
I’m going to keep refining the team, and I’m definitely open to more feedback or suggestions if anyone has ideas to push it further. Appreciate all the help so far (how do you EV things anyway all I know is 252/252/4 ).

On that note, what are the important EV benchmarks in this meta? Like, what attacks do people usually EV to survive, and which speed tiers are worth aiming for?

Thanks again for all the help, everyone~!
 
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