SV OU Zarude + Fezandipiti Sun (Peak #5, 2001 ELO)

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fezandipiti.png
heatran.gif
ninetales.gif
greattusk.png
walkingwake.png


Intro:
I was initially intending on doing a :whimsicott: Whimsicott or :comfey: Comfey RMT and been playing with them on and off for the past couple weeks but idk actually trying to peak and paying attention to my ladder placement burnt me out or something... Until I had a fit of inspiration last night and made like a dozen of the most heat sun teams you've ever seen, building with a lot of unconventional mons, sets and structures. So yeah literally made this Zarude team yesterday and have only play tested it today but I peaked 2001 (first time I reached the 2000's) and I was able to stay around 1975+ once I got there with this team so that's good enough for me to finally just get to making a RMT otherwise I'll put it off forever. Will probably try and test my other teams out and do RMTs for them if they're good as well.



Pokepaste: :zarude: :fezandipiti: :heatran: :ninetales: :great tusk: :walking wake:

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zarude.gif

Zarude @ Life Orb :life orb:
Ability: Leaf Guard
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 56 HP / 252 Atk / 200 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Solar Blade
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Synthesis

Most people seem to have forgot that Zarude does actually get an ability - Leaf Guard. With it, Zarude cannot get statused while the sun is up. Combine this with a sun boosted Synthesis and naturally fantastic 105/105/95 bulk, Zarude has an incredible resilience that let's it switch into passive mons that rely on status/other means of dissuading mons from switching into them.

On top of it's resillience, Zarude can threaten immediate damage/KOs vs shit like :garganacl: Garg, :ting-lu: Lu, :alomomola: Alo, :slowking-galar: Glowking and :dondozo: Dozo while having the power to bust through the birds (:moltres:, :zapdos:, :corviknight:, :skarmory:) that they're usually paired with while never worrying about getting haxed to make Zarude a nightmare for fat teams to deal with, IMO, on par with shit like Solar Beam + Taunt Heatran or modest Specs Wake, which is no small praise.

Even vs offense, it has the ability to outspeed and threaten immediate KOs on common mons like :gholdengo: Ghold, :samurott-hisui: Hamu, :primarina: Prim, :great tusk: Tusk and :iron crown: Crown, can use the likes of :glimmora: lead Glimm as setup fodder and makes for an effective tera abuser with it's bulk and power - for example, if you can force Zama in initially to burn Dauntless + ideally knock it off early on/helmet chip it then Zarude can usually 1v1 :zamazenta: Zama later on with tera.

Spread is pretty simple, enough speed to outpace Crown, max attack and rest into hp. Moves are pretty self explanatory too. I opt for tera fairy as just a good all around type that gives you a fighting and U-turn resistance, but other options like poison, water and ghost all seem perfectly fine to me too. Life Orb is used as Synthesis counteracts chip and the damage increase from it is necessary to push Zarude into unwallable levels. Here are some calcs for reference:

:great tusk: Solar Blade vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 398-471 (107.2 - 126.9%)
:iron valiant: Solar Blade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Valiant: 274-324 (94.8 - 112.1%)
:garganacl: Solar Blade vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 398-471 (98.5 - 116.5%)
:dondozo: Solar Blade vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 330-390 (65.4 - 77.3%)
:ting-lu: Solar Blade vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 416-491 (80.9 - 95.5%)
:alomomola: Solar Blade vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Alomomola: 416-494 (77.9 - 92.5%)
:gliscor: +2 Solar Blade vs. 244 HP / 36 Def Gliscor: 402-473 (114.2 - 134.3%)
:tinkaton: +2 Solar Blade vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tinkaton: 311-367 (83.1 - 98.1%)
:weezing-galar: +2 Solar Blade vs. 252 HP / 240+ Def Weezing-Galar: 160-188 (47.9 - 56.2%)
:kingambit: +2 Solar Blade vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Kingambit: 214-252 (62.7 - 73.9%)
:roaring moon: +2 Solar Blade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 331-390 (94.3 - 111.1%)
:slowking-galar: Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 16 Def Slowking-Galar: 463-546 (117.5 - 138.5%)
:kyurem: +2 Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kyurem: 425-500 (108.6 - 127.8%)
:raging bolt: +2 Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Raging Bolt: 419-495 (107.1 - 126.5%)
:corviknight: +2 Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 270-320 (67.6 - 80.2%)
:moltres: +2 Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Moltres: 300-355 (78.3 - 92.6%)
:zapdos: +2 Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Zapdos: 312-368 (81.4 - 96%)


fezandipiti.png

Fezandipiti @ Rocky Helmet :rocky helmet:
Ability: Toxic Chain
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 44 SpD / 64 Spe
Careful Nature
- Play Rough
- U-turn
- Taunt
- Roost

Mixed defensive Fez is a fantastic pivot that can switch into a whole litany of common offensive mons like :darkrai: Rai, :iron valiant: Val, :zamazenta: Zama, :dragapult: Pult, :raging bolt: Bolt, :primarina: Prim and even :ogerpon-wellspring: Wellspring while the sun is up (Ivy Cudgel vs. 252 HP / 148 Def Fezandipiti in Sun: (24.4 - 28.6%))

Toxic Chain is a really funny ability, letting you potentially badly poison an opponent even while U-turning out. However, it's not too often Fez can make use of this as Fez does struggle to keep steel, poison and status immune pokemon out - which is where Zarude comes in. Zarude happens to apply massive amounts of pressure on stuff like :garganacl: Garg, :gliscor: Glis, :slowking-galar: Glowking, :gholdengo: Ghold, :iron crown: Crown etc that Fez tends to invite in and in exchange Fez comes in vs a lot of the faster offensive threats that can scare Zarude as well as punish U-turns making Zarude + Fez a really effective core.

The speed lets you outpace Bolt while the spdef investment let's us avoid the 2hko from it's Thunderbolt. Rest goes into phys def to let us handle foes like Zama and Wellspring as best as possible. Rocky helmet let's you punish U-turns and let's you chip down foes like Zama. Taunt is used to deny things like recovery from Corv and Chilly from Glowking. Never tera'd this thing while playing so tera can be whatever you like, I just put flying in as filler.



heatran.gif

Heatran @ Air Balloon :air balloon:
Ability: Flash Fire / Flame Body
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 140 SpA / 40 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Will-O-Wisp
- Stealth Rock

While Zarude + Fez is really nice, neither of them can really handle fire types, particularly :iron moth: Moth, and with how much of a threat Moth tends to be for a lot of sun teams, Heatran makes for a nice partner. On top of it's defensive utility, it can also slot in rocks to let Tusk run Bulk Up while also further support Zarude by acting as a secondary source of breaking to allow for some more flexibility in your game plan.

Because we don't need to rely on Heatran as our primary source of breaking, we're not running a typical Solar Beam + Taunt set and instead are running a fairly bulky Wisp set instead. This set is nice for letting Heatran act as an emergency check to another offensive threat that typically terrifies sun - :roaring moon: Moon. The bulk lets you guaranteed live a +1 Knock Off from after rocks and get a Wisp off on it to allow for Tusk to then beat it afterwards, but a lot of Moon's seem to try to directly set up in front of Heatran anyway not knowing we have Wisp.

Finally, the speed is to outpace Gambit and the rest just goes into SpA to make sun boosted Magma Storms as strong as possible. Tera bug is crucial to let Heatran act as an emergency check to :great tusk: Tusk, which is important because CC Tusk is a big threat to this team as it can get an immediate KO on both this and Zarude while nothing else wants to take a Headlong Rush.

Flame Body can be considered an alternative option that forfeits your ability to put a complete stop to Moth, relying heavily on either AV Wake or a defensive tera for it, in exchange for allowing you to consistently cripple physical sweepers and attackers like Moon and Tusk. A fire resist tera can be considered to still allow for Heatran to still check Moth in a pinch.


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Ninetales @ Heat Rock :heat rock:
Ability: Drought
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 20 Def / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Weather Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Encore
- Healing Wish

Ninetales is of course our setter and additionally is super good for making endgames vs :kingambit: Gambit trivial as between Wisp, Encore and H-Wish there's typically no way for the Gambit player to reverse sweep once they're down to their last 1-2 mons and is one of the biggest reasons I never use :torkoal: Tork.

Only other thing I will say is that I was a Ninetales believer from very early on with my first attempts at building more unconventional sun teams around the end of 2023 making use of it (though I think I was using scarf Tales initially, honestly should probably try it again cause it's sun boosted moves were decently strong.) I was also using Heatran back then too (even without Eruption it was still the goat of sun.)

Very standard set, nothing much to say. Speed lets us outpace Crown and rest into bulk, tera ghost maybe as an emergency button for Zama in case I fucked around too much.


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Great Tusk @ Leftovers :leftovers:
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Ice Spinner
- Rapid Spin
- Bulk Up

Bulk Up tusk provides some speed on the physical side as well as providing an incredibly strong wincon vs offense. Zarude makes for a perfect partner for Tusk for it's ability to pressure bulky waters like :dondozo: Dozo and :alomomola: Alo while either greatly weakening or outright removing any of the birds (:moltres:, :zapdos:, :corviknight:, :skarmory:) that could put a stop to this thing.

The set itself is pretty classic, don't need to talk too much about the set itself other than tera ice. I've really come to like ice as my tera as it provides a decent neutral typing that isn't weak to EQ or Earth Power which makes it a more consistent check to DDancers like :dragonite: Dnite, :kyurem: Kyurem and :roaring moon: Moon. In particular, a stab Spinner does enough to Moon to let helmet chip pick it off if you absolutely need to. The extra power also comes in useful vs :sinistcha: Sinistcha with it allowing you to usually 2hko a standard spread (stab Ice Spinner vs. 252 HP / 160+ Def Sinistcha: 164-194 (47.3 - 56%) -- 80.1% chance to 2HKO) which is nice considering you otherwise would never be able to spin vs stuff like Hamu + Sinis or Lu + Sinis teams.


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Walking Wake @ Assault Vest :assault vest:
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 124 Def / 56 SpA / 80 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Steam
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Flip Turn

This was initially a pretty boring standard 12/244/252+ Wake with Wise Glasses but as suggested by Leng Loi below, AV is a fantastic item that just gives Wake a lot of extra bulk to trade with and lets Wake do things like check :iron moth: Moth in case you're running Flame Body on Heatran or keep it's balloon in tact even if you're running Flash Fire. I went a step further and made it a super bulky in general because with the added ability to switch into random attacks along with Flip Turn, Wake suddenly becomes a very annoying mon that never lets the opponent get into comfortable positions, especially if they lack a :ogerpon-wellspring: Wellspring to disrupt Flip.

This Wake is quite weak so don't rely on it for sweeping or anything but it does it's job of being an offensive pivot that can force out and pivot on mons weak to it's stabs like :landorus-therian: Lando, :cinderace: Cind, :moltres: Molt, :raging bolt: Bolt and :dragapult: Pult among others that usually try to pivot themselves. Keep in mind you won't usually be doing things like getting KOs vs neutral targets though.

The phys def investment allows you to usually eat a +1 Knock after rocks or usually a +1 tera flying Acro without rocks from :roaring moon: Moon and get a hit back on it. Dtail can be run over Flame to handle Moon if you think it's necessary while also providing a means of phasing in general. The extra bulk also lets you comfortably eat two Rush's from no attack :great tusk: Tusk or comfortably eat one from proto attack (4 Atk Headlong Rush (38.9 - 45.8%), 252 Atk Proto Headlong Rush (60.8 - 71.8%)) giving you further options vs it. The speed lets you outpace Tusk and we have the most amount of SpA we can while still maintaining proto speed.

I opt for tera water because this Wake is quite weak and the option to boost it's power is very nice, particularly when trying to pick off fatter targets like :zamazenta: Zama that can otherwise eat up everything you have to offer. Tera fairy is also an option to further help with Moon and Zama while providing a nice dragon immunity.

Side note, initially the team didn't have an AV pivot which made me sad because I love using AV pivots but now we've got one so that's how I know this is a good team now.



Replays:
Vs. 1931 Offense
:primarina: :glimmora: :roaring moon: :kingambit: :zamazenta: :dragapult:
- Early tera on Zarude to remove Zama and greatly weaken Prim to allow for either Wake or Tusk to sweep (which Tusk does)

Vs. 1846 Stall
:blissey: :clefable: :gliscor: :ting-lu: :dondozo: :amoonguss:
- The replay everybody wants to see, Zarude 6-0ing stall

Vs. 1873 Offense
:kyurem: :landorus-therian: :hatterene: :iron moth: :kingambit: :zamazenta:
- U-turn Fez and Flip Turn Wake never let the opponent into a position to achieve anything leading to a near 6-0

Vs 1887 Offense
:pecharunt: :moltres: :deoxys-speed: :great tusk: :primarina: :kingambit:
- Zarude tera's turn 2 and proceeds to get 6 kills
 
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This is very cool, congrats on your new peak! I actually did try Fezandipiti sun earlier in the meta because I also found that it walled a lot of great things for sun, but I was using tera dark beat up to take advantage of Gking switchins and prevent Chilly Reception. My team never came together in any sort of consistent way, so props to you for making it work.

I do have some suggestions for making this work a little better. Having played you on ladder, the team suffered a bit against Bulky Offense teams that could position in a bulky breaker against one of your sun sweepers. You have very few pivots (I would say 1.5 between defensive fezi and offensive wake), and this is somewhat un-optimal for a sun team, though you compensate for it by one of your sun breakers having synthesis.

To remedy this slightly, I'm going for a less game-ending set on tusk and opting for the booster speed eject pack set. This was popularized by vert sun (prayers for the goat) around last olt qualifiers, and I think it will be very strong on this team. I'm running head smash on it because I don't want to have to rely on knock off zarude + rocks to beat moltres, as opposing tusk can spin vs fezi and our own (previously more passive) tusk.

My second edit is to drop Heatran for a different Fairy resist. I don't like Heatran rn and I especially don't like it on sun because, even though magma storm is strong with sun, you are punished harder on sun for wasting turns with magma storm misses. We can accomplish opening up this defensive hole by spreading out defensive utility elsewhere. I've been using AV Wake on sun to great success because not only does it destroy many offenses by switchin moves, it acts as a very acceptable Iron Moth check. (It can be tera'd past with tera fairy but Heatran can be tera'd past as well).

After dropping our stylish glasses for a more utilitarian vest on wake, our fairy resist mon of choice here will be the much more offensive Iron Moth. Moth will act as a secondary check to other iron moths with psychic, it will form a potent offensive core with wake against offense, and can snowball very hard in or out of sun. I'm putting Dazzling Gleam as the last coverage move on this moth for a reason that I will highlight next.

This team HATES tera moon. Tera flying acro, bulky tera ground eq, tera fire, everything dies if it is afforded the opportunity to set up. So, I'm going to add a bit of priority here to hit tera'd moon, since it has to tera to set up on anything on the team if sun is up. (besides wake at -2 SpA). Unfortunately, this means dropping Zarude, but I think you might like his replacement. Brute Bonnet accomplishes similar results to Zarude against fat teams but is a more immediate threat with tera blast fire and sucker punch. Zarude is forced out or forced to tera vs corv and molt, whereas Bonnet can tera and kill corv or set up a growth on molt.

These changes make you weaker against Garg, but I don't think it weakens your matchup into much else. I will fiddle with sun archetypes myself as I'm curious and let you know what I come up with. Try these changes out on ladder and let me know how you fare.
 
Thanks for the reply - I think AV Wake is absolutely a fantastic option here and I don't know why I didn't consider it when I'd already used it in some of the other teams I built. From playing, Wake did often just feel like an obligatory sun mon at times and I think the additional special bulk giving you the option to do stuff like switch Wake into Rai or keep Wake in on Val instead of a telegraphed switch into Fez in both cases etc could definitely go a long ways in giving you more flexibility in your play and keeping threats like opposing Tusk's in check by limiting their opportunities to try and double in on the Fez.

Acting as a secondary check to Moth is also fantastic as it gives you the option to keep Heatran's balloon intact which can be important in maintaining options vs DDancers instead of sometimes having to rely solely on tera Tusk. In fact, you could maybe then even run Flame Body Heatran and switch around some of the other member's teras to be a litte more anti-Moth to make scary shit like Moon and Tusk even less of a threat. And while I agree that Moon is scary and it had swept me on a couple of occasions initially, after getting used to the team I think Tusk + Wisp Heatran provided me enough consistent counterplay to it (and I also don't appreciate the Heatran slander.)

If Moon is still incredibly scary, then I also think another tech you could run is Dtail on Wake (maybe over Flame or Flip) to act as an additional emergency button vs threats like it. A spread like 248 Hp / 124 Def / 56 SpA / 80+ Spe lets Wake usually live a +1 Knock from Moon after rocks while also usually living a +1 tera flying Acro if rocks aren't up. While less powerful, I don't think I ever really need Wake to do anything beyond threaten things out it already super effectively hit + Rkill weakened foes so this set is definitely something I'll have to try and I really have to thank you cause I honestly thought I was done with the team but you suggesting AV Wake inspired me to think up of a heat set for a mon that otherwise had a bit of a boring set.

However, I think replacing Zarude, Heatran and BU Tusk with Bonnet, Moth and pivot Tusk I think changes the team structure a little too much for it to still feel like the same team - this was meant to be a Zarude team after all and BU Tusk was chosen precisely because it's an effective sweeper that needs bulky waters and birds to be weakened or removed.

I think the criticism that Zarude can be forced out by Corv or Molt without tera is valid but after played the team a bunch this isn't really an issue because of how effective of a tera user I found Zarude to be vs balances who can now suddenly no longer force Zarude out wtih stuff like AoA Zama just straight up flopping or Hex Pult being unable to touch you at all while vs more offensive teams that carry a casual bird then just trading Zarude for the bird is absolutely a perfectly fine play because of how scary BU Tusk tends to be for these types of offensive teams. Vs Corv and Skarm specifically, you don't even necessarily need to tera to kill them because while helmet + LO + Press will leave Zarude very low, it won't kill it meaning that even without tera'ing you can often bring Zarude back in later on to click Synthesis and recover all of that hp back.

I think that it could definitely still be a strong team, with Bonnet + Moth sun having proven itself before, but the only issue I would take with it is that Fez kind of feels like dead weight in this scenario as Bonnet's inability to neither outspeed or threaten an immediate KO on Tusk make you even weaker in a way that keeping Fez becomes too hard to justify IMO not to mention that if you're game plan revolves around sweeping with Moth vs offense then a mon like Fez who's job is to switch into offense mons then U-turn out into a strong breaker feels a bit null, especially as Moth doesn't enjoy switching into annoying mons who spam status or other means of chipping you unlike Zarude can that Fez can't really handle either. With that, you would probably need to switch Fez out and then you just end up having a completely different team altogether.

But anyways thank you a lot for the feedback, particularly the AV Wake suggestion!

EDIT: Played a couple of games just now - yeah bulky Wake is great. Updating the RMT now
 
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Hey Kittenlasers, came back from my hiatus just to say lovely team. I didn't expect Zarude but it honestly makes sense since with sun up, he becomes Garg but with more immediate power, letting you break fat and freeing up Wake and Tran. I also really like your inclusion of Fez. When I saw the list of mons fez deals with, I was like "wait a minute, all those mons are extremely dangerous for sun typical structures. Why didn't I think of this?".

As the meta evolves, I feel like sun teams will have to experiment more and more with atypical choices since shit like dragon spam, and Hatt eject offense are getting punished more and more with the rise of bulky pivots like Slowking or general AV pivots but also the moveset and tera variety progressions of opposing dragons like Dragonite, Bolt and Moon having the potential to win outright and stripping a lot of your resources so choiced items like choiced Wake will become less appealing to those who crave consistency against a variety of MUs. But a non-choiced Wake will suffer from lower power(with one of suns appeal being able to fire off high powered attacks so that sucks).

Don't be mad but I have seen some replays of yours where you also used some wild stuff. Besides the growth Comfey and Whim, I have also seen stuff like solar blade Rillaboom and physical Moltres. I am honestly shocked at how creative you are while making things work on high ladder. You honestly deserve more recognition cause I feel you are a really talented builder.

Also a few things I want to mention. I saw leng loi say how she doesn't like Heatran on sun since that playstyle punishes magma misses even more then normal, which I absolutely agree with. However, I would recommend a eject pack Overheat Heatran+Magma Storm so you get to have the best of both worlds(consistency+trapping ability+ the ability to pivot once to get a breaker). Sun boosted overheat also hits extremely hard and pivoting is useful against offense as well. On your team, it doesn't work as well because you really need that balloon for tran as your team doesn't have any ground immunes and zarude is flimsy switch in to offensive tusk. Just something fun for another team idea.


Ninetales is of course our setter and additionally is super good for making endgames vs :kingambit: Gambit trivial as between Wisp, Encore and H-Wish there's typically no way for the Gambit player to reverse sweep once they're down to their last 1-2 mons and is one of the biggest reasons I never use :torkoal: Tork.

Only other thing I will say is that I was a Ninetales believer from very early on with my first attempts at building more unconventional sun teams around the end of 2023 making use of it (though I think I was using scarf Tales initially, honestly should probably try it again cause it's sun boosted moves were decently strong.) I was also using Heatran back then too (even without Eruption it was still the goat of sun.)

Very standard set, nothing much to say. Speed lets us outpace Crown and rest into bulk, tera ghost maybe as an emergency button for Zama in case I fucked around too much.

Honestly yeah, the majority of my sun teams have been Ninetales with only a very few being Torkoal ones(with some just being eject pack overheat Tork). The fact that she denies Gambit a reverse sweep alone should put her on Torks equal footing but combine that with being able to outspeed Crown, Kyurem, Gambit, Nite, Encoring bolt and provinding breakers a 2nd chance via HW actually makes her more consistent. You were cooking with the early Ninetales.

Btw if you ever feel like building with Tork, you should always add another encore mon so you dont get fucked by a suprise setup mon or gambit. I recommend Dragonite as she also has a ground immunity that Sun really needs. Anyway, I wanna say so much more but I don't wanna bore you, sorry for the ramble. Congrats on the peak, GOAT. You are sun's strongest soldier. I will look foward to what you will be cooking up next.
 
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Thanks, it means a lot to me. I'll definitely have to try and build with eject Heatran and Dnite too, encore Dnite in particular I wasn't thinking about but I can now see absolutely working with a certain team structure I was trying to figure out how to make work.

EDIT: Alright, I've just built what is probably going to be my next RMT after I test/refine it. It doesn't have a Dnite but uses the exact same structure I would use Dnite on and will include a Dnite variation at the end
 
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I must also say I really like this team and the creativity behind it. Fezandipiti's often a mon that seems awkward to fit on teams, but as mentioned above actually covers many weaknesses really well, while even using its higher attack stat on this set. Zarude too benefitting 3x from sun is really cool and makes for an amazing stallbreaker with all of its traits combined, while even viably running life orb due to the huge synthesis healing and status immunity and reliable stab in solar blade instead of the inaccurate power whip (while also having knock as both a strong secondary stab and boots remover). The AV Wake suggestion above actually surprised at me first for both being taken seriously and it actually working, but alongside the larger defense investment it makes sense and also makes it a better zama rkiller due to better taking its boosted body presses (the lack of power vs bulkier stuff can suck but that's what zarude's there for). Mostly standard stuff otherwise, both also seconding ninetales's encore being a life saver vs gambit, which tends to make all kinds of weather feel miserable otherwise (tusk is at the mercy of the wrong tera, even with bulk up). I'd say that I have slightly missed having taunt on tran instead of wisp upon getting walled by a latios of all things but it's ultimately a preference thing. Tusk can admittedly feel a bit awkward to use, between headlong rush drops compromising its sweeping capabilities and it not even ohkoing bulkier balloon ghold from full, but I think I just suck at using it lol (especially with so many barbs knock rocks clefs these days wtf). Anyway this team was so good and creative it actually got me to give it a spin myself (which is a rarity since I normally prefer building/using my own teams, but this one seemed so well crafted together I couldn't find much else to tweak otherwise). I even gave it a spin in a tour, and even won with it after 3 matches (my first 3 matches with it too, haven't actively played in a while):

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-800122 zarude owning stall as usual, nothing special to see here

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-800133 after a bunch of awkward moments and a lucky no fiery dance spa boost, av wake clutches the whole thing by living a moth dazzling gleam at the very end and flipping the win in my favor

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-800139 the finale, tera'd zarude with some bold plays cleaves balance almost by itself. The sheer genius behind such a seemingly simple set still amazes me even now.

Overall one of the better/best teams I've seen here so far especially again in terms of creative choices. Thank you so much for sharing! :sphearical:
 
Thank you for using the team, amazing Zarude games by you as well. Also I will just say that a +1 Dazzle wasn't likely to kill anyway (+1 132 SpA Iron Moth Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Walking Wake: 198-234 (49.2 - 58.2%) -- 6.3% chance to KO from 58%) so you actually pretty much had the end of that game guaranteed.
 
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