https://pokepast.es/91802cf2437739df CalyZac by My friend and Icegod777 (Me)
Prelude:
So when vgc 2022 started, I saw a video talking about it from an early prospective. I saw a comment that completely changed how I viewed the series. I saw a comment that said something that Calyrex-Shadow + Zacian-C was gonna be really good because Max Phantasm and Behemoth Blade KOed lots of things. So I got an idea and I started to build a team with CalyZac.
Early Version of the team
So when I started thinking about CalyZac, I quickly figured out that Defiant Assault Vest Thundurus was going to be good for the team since it has good special bulk with the AV, it has Max Airstream speed control, counters Kyogre, is decent against opposing Calyrex-Shadow and, most importantly CHECKS INCINEROAR.
With that done, I felt like I needed more speed control, so I wanted to use Whimsicott because it has Tailwind speed control and also because Helping Hand + Zacian Behemoth Blade / Calyrex-Shadow Astral Barrage was insane. I put a Mental Herb on Whimsicott so that it can deny Taunts and Encores from specifically, opposing whimsicott.
I felt like I needed a better way of checking Calyrex-Shadow and Calyrex-Ice, so I added Urshifu-Single Strike to the team because it ohkos Calyrex-S with Sucker Punch and Calyrex-I with Wicked Blow. I also realized that it was very weak to Zacian-C, so I added a Focus Sash to live at least for one turn unless it’s double targeted. Finally, I also figured out that Tailwind Whimsicott + Protect Urshifu made a very good lead because next turn I could use Helping Hand + (Strong Move
Finally, I knew that I wanted Incineroar because it was a good Zacian-C counter and that it was just an amazing utility mon in general. So finally, I
was done with the early version of this team.
Mid Stage
Once I realized how bad my team was after some testing for about 1 month, I decided to ditch the team and just go with a standard team. I was looking for good CalyZac teams and I saw Neil VGC’s Caly Zac Thundurus Blastoise team, I was impressed with it’s performance and decided to use it, and it was pretty good, I got more wins and I think I improved as a vgc player in general.
After about another month with the team, I felt comfortable with it and liked it, so I used it to get high results in Pokémon Showdown room tours.
Current Stage
I remember that I just won one of my first vgc 2022 room tours with Willy’s YvelZac team and then my friend messaged me on Discord discussing “a cool idea” that Grimmsnarl + LO Calyrex-S is broken because you get screens, you Dmax Caly-S and go crazy with that.
He told me that the core works well with Zacian-C because it very much benefits from screens and Max Calyrex-S. He also added Gastrodon because it was good against Kyogre, Palkia, Blastoise, Barraskewda, opposing Gastro and more. He also added Incin because it was great utility, taunt shut down trick room, and was good against the mirror match up. Finally, he added Thundurus because it naturally wad a great partner for CalyZac because of reasons described before. After a while of testing that team, he told me that Eleki would actually be better than Thundurus for the mirror match up. He described that Eleki is faster than max speed Caly-S and max speed Zacian-C, so you could outspeed them and go crazy with your max moves like max lightning, max darkness and max airstream and he added that AV Eleki is still a great counter to Kyogre and other big special attackers like Yveltal and Charizard.
Team Breakdown
Nature: Adamant
-Behemoth Blade
-Close Combat
-Substitute
-Protect
This Zacian set is a standard substitute set. Behemoth Blade does massive damage to lots of mons and is very important as a counter measure to many Dynamax abusers such as Yveltal, Lando-T, Caly-I, Palkia, Eleki, Venu, Zard, etc. Close Combat is a very cool move that OHKOS Incin at +1 and also does more damage to many steel types such as ferrothorn, kartana, and dialga and in general rounds out Zacian’s coverage. Protect is there because it’s protect, let’s you not take damage for a turn, letting you stall out turns of TR, opposing Tailwind, Etc. Substitute is an interesting move that is especially good for stalling turns against Trick Room teams like Palkyrex-I and it also gives you freedom to freely attack because the substitute is protecting you.
Nature: Timid
-Astral Barrage
-Mud Shot
-Hyper Beam
-Protect
This is a very… different Calyrex-S set. Most Caly-S run Focus Sash with Astral Barrage, Snarl/Psyshock, Will O Wisp, and Protect but this set uses more interesting moves but for a good reason. Astral Barrage is there because it’s a very strong stab spread move that can snowball late game or do massive damage early game as a dmax abuser alongside Zacian-C. Hyper Beam is there because when you Dynamax, it turns into max strike at 150 power, which does massive damage to stuff like Urshifu and Yveltal but more importantly, it gives you speed control. Mud shot is there because when you Dynamax, it turns into Max Quake, which ohkos Incin without Shuca Berry and it also gives you a Special Defense boost, which can be very important sometimes. Life Orb was chosen because since it’s partnered with screens Grimmsnarl, it wont need the Focus Sash and also the power boost is crucial in getting some key KOes like OHKOing Zacian-C with Max Quake.
Nature: Adamant
-Wild Charge
-Bounce
-Assurance
-Electroweb
Standard Physical AV Eleki Set. This set helps you against the CalyZac mirror due to Max Darkness OHKOing Caly-S and Max Lightning having a 37.5% chance to OHKO 108 HP 4 Def Zacian-C after electric terrain was already set up from a previous Max Lightning and if any other move was used against the opposing Zacian-C, It most likely gets KOed. This Regieleki is also good as support with Electroweb, supporting especially Zacian-C and Caly-S and it is also a great answer to Kyogre, since physical Max Lightning obliterates it.
Nature: Careful
-Spirit Break
-Reflect
-Light Screen
-Scary Face
Just a standard Grimmsnarl set. This Grimmsnarl is great against a lot of things because it has speed control, damage reduction and damage itself. Spirit Break is just an amazing move, making special attackers weaker but also doing stab damage. Grimmsnarl is my best Palkia answer because it uses Light Screen to reduce Palkia’s attacking power and then next turn just Spirit Break, lowering Palkia’s special attack and also always 2HKOing Palkia. This Grimmsnarl is also good against opposing Calyrex-S, Kyogre, Charizard, and Yveltal. Light Clay was chosen so that the screens can last for basically the whole game unless they stall, which the screens will last for most of the game.
Nature: Careful
-Flare Blitz
-Taunt
-Parting Shot
-Fake Out
Can’t go wrong with classic Incin. This Incin is good against stuff like Zacian-C, Calyrex-I, Charizard and Caly-S. Flare Blitz is there because it’s a good, strong STAB move that does lots of damage to lots of things like Zacian-C, Calyrex-I, Venusaur, Kartana, Rillaboom, Ferrothorn, Amoonguss and more. Taunt is an amazing countermeasure to stuff like Trick Room and Spore. Parting Shot is a great move because it allows you to pivot and also reduce opposing damage. Fake Out is there as a great way of redirection, letting Zacian-C set up Substitute for example, Fake Out just gives you a free turn basically. Safety Goggles was chosen so that if the opposing Trick Room was set up, I would Protect my partner and Taunt the Amoonguss so that they can’t spam Spore and just go crazy with attacking to Win the game. Also the extra bulk from not taking weather damage is nice.
Nature: Modest
-Earth Power
-Icy Wind
-Yawn
-Protect
Me and my friend decided to add Gastrodon as the last Pokémon because it counters water types and Zacian really well. At first it was a bit of a toss up with weather we should get Gastrodon or Blastoise because they both had their own unique advantages. We finally settled on Gastrodon because we saw that Blastoise was passive for an offensive mon but not that good in defense. Earth Power is there as a stab that does lots of damage to Zacian-C, Incin, Dialga, and Eleki and it does chip damage to Kyogre, Palkia, opposing Caly-S and Gastrodon, etc. Icy Wind is a great way of getting speed control on both foes and also doing chip damage in the process. Yawn is an amazing way of stalling the opponent’s Dynamax and combined with Protect, you don’t take much damage next turn and they go to sleep because of the yawn that you set up previously.
Thanks for reading the team report, try the team out, the team very fun to use and the team is also strong against the current meta. Hope you have a good day! Bye!
Blastoise hits very hard and setups greatly the endgame for restricteds
