In preparation for this month's International Challenge, I decided to prepare a VGC team. My first one, actually, so I'm open to any suggestions you may have for improvement (as long as I can breed it on cart, of course)
At first, it was a complete coincidence (I did not check, and the teambuilding began while talking with my also VGC-unexperienced friend who wanted to run Z-Belly Drum Hariyama), but the team shares five members with the one that won the San Jose regionals, though one could potentially drop.
Anyways, here's the team:
Mimikyu @ Mental Herb
Ability: Disguise
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Shadow Claw
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
I frankly love Mimikyu's capabilities as a Trick Room setter. Between Disguise, its immunity to Fake Out and a Mental Herb, practically nothing outside of double-targeting Mimikyu (which is impossible without immunities to Hariyama's Fake Out) or delaying the move by leading with a phazer (forcing it to Taunt) can prevent a Trick Room, and this is why I prefer leading with it instead of Porygon2.
I'm torn between Shadow Claw and Play Rough as the attacking move. Both moves have similarly good coverage, and with Mimikyu's underwhelming attack, the difference in Base Power does not matter that much... right? Shadow Claw lets Mimikyu threaten Tapu Lele in exchange of not being able to touch Oranguru (which it cannot beat anyways), while Play Rough... really, I'm not so sure how it can help - most Dragons are neutered with Will-O-Wisp badly enough, and most Dark-types are supporters, therefore threatened by Taunt, while Play Rough is resisted by Steel-types.
Will-O-Wisp is mostly for use under Trick Room, and helps the team deal with some physical attackers that could otherwise have a good matchup against the team - for example, Garchomp.
Originally, I had Destiny Bond in the last slot, but I sucked so much at predicting when to use it (not because of Mimikyu not being targeted, but because I underestimate Mimikyu's Rotom-A-like defenses) and I noticed some people run phazers such as Mandibuzz to stop Trick Room, and Taunt stops them in their tracks.
The EV spread is very generic but it does well enough - Mimikyu's decent base Defenses and low base HP makes it quite optimal. Brave nature and 0 IVs are even more mandatory than usual due to Mimikyu's high base Speed.
Hariyama @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Def / 124 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Heavy Slam
- Knock Off
At first, I ran Shuca Berry Incineroar over Hariyama - it disappointed me very quickly, so I swapped it with what seemed to be the most common Hariyama set, and boy now I know how well it works.
When not against particularly dangerous opponents, I lead with Mimikyu-Hariyama. Hariyama uses Fake Out on the most offensively threatening Pokemon (or the phazer if Trick Room could be stopped) and safely gets the advantage of both the Flame Orb and Trick Room.
Under Trick Room and burned, Hariyama also works (and was actually the reason I ended up picking it, thanks to how well Scarf Gengar worked on the Alola Friendly) as the main Tapu check for the team, as Heavy Slam deals very serious damage to almost everything that does not have a secondary typing that resists the move - Tapu Fini needs full physical defense investment to avoid the 2HKO, as a sample of how it deals with Tapus.
Close Combat destroys Snorlax, which is also a major threat thanks to Belly Drum, while Knock Off is general utility - or for when Trick Room is not yet set, and the opponent leads with Oranguru - Knock Off always OHKOes it, and prevents that silly case in which both Mimikyu and Oranguru use Trick Room, cancelling each other. It also prevents dangerous Instruct pairings.
Other than Max Attack, I'm unsure about the spread. Right now I'm just splitting it on defenses but if there's some cool benchmark, then I'll go all over it :D
Gigalith @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 180 Atk / 92 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Stone Edge
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
Gigalith is a last minute addition due to me noticing the team had some issues with weather (particularly Torkoal+Oranguru or that annoying Focus Sash Ninetales), as well as the fact the slot for the special attack sponge not working as well as I wanted (first tried with Assault Vest Metagross, then with Magnezone). Gigalith also works as a secondary Fairy check with its access to Heavy Slam, which easily 2HKOes Tapu Koko and OHKOes Tapu Lele, while avoiding the 2HKO of everything bar a Z-Boosted move + STAB combo.
Rock Slide gives me a safe physical spread move (which I originally lacked), while Stone Edge and Earthquake are mostly fillers because of Gigalith's terrible movepool, but on the occasion I encounter Wide Guard users or (usually heavy) Rock-types, they work. I could run Explosion over either move, if necessary.
The spread is the one in the yet uncomplete analysis (with the 8 missing EVs given to HP because they wouldn't really work much elsewhere) so that it can survive one Liquidation from Araquanid, another annoyance due to how it can abuse Trick Room against my team.
Drampa @ White Herb
Ability: Berserk
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Draco Meteor
- Hyper Voice
- Flamethrower
- Protect
Drampa is the main special attacker. Fantastic Special Attack and movepool, decent defenses, terrible Speed scream Trick Room special attacker.
Originally, Drampa was carrying Dragon Pulse and a Wiki Berry, but between the disappointing damage output of Dragon Pulse and... well... the fact recovery berries are actually counter-producing for Berserk, I switched to Draco Meteor + White Herb - at first I was considering a Dragonium Z, but that could make some conflicts if I ran it alongside Araquanid, and there are not many things a Draco Meteor does not hit hard enough to. On a similar note, Drampa at first had Fire Blast instead of Flamethrower, but the extra power does not seem to give any significant KOs. There's not much to say about Hyper Voice and Protect - a lovely spread move and the generic protection move (which can work if I have to reset Trick Room and Drampa is in the field).
As with Mimikyu, the spread is a generic offensive Trick Room one. As to the Modest nature... well, that's what I have on cart =/. But Drampa is already extremely slow so it shouldn't matter unless fighting other extremely slow Pokemon.
Araquanid @ Waterium Z
Ability: Water Bubble
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Liquidation
- Leech Life
- Protect
- Wide Guard
While to a certain extent Gigalith and Hariyama work as the physical attackers of the team, Araquanid is the one tasked to break through bulky Pokemon, all of this thanks to a Hydro Vortex from Liquidation OHKOing that disgusting Arcanine even at -1. Even so, Araquanid provides some support with access to Wide Guard, which is actually very convenient as Araquanid attracts Rock Slide like crazy. When protection from spread moves seems unnecessary, and given Araquanid's lack of need for coverage, Protect comes out and makes sure things don't go awry.
Given Liquidation's absurd power, Leech Life is mostly filler and it's pretty much only for use on Pokemon that take super-effective damage from it and resist Liquidation - or, on extremely situational circumnstances (such as knowing both Pokemon can Protect), to take HP from a partner such as Porygon2.
As explained above, Waterium Z is mandatory to break through Arcanine, though more often than not it's not used straight away, to lure it in using Protect one turn too early.
The spread is the same as Mimikyu's, thanks to similar-behaving stat distributions (comparatively low HP in relation to its defenses).
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 76 Def / 188 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Recover
And yet again, just like in the Alola Friendly, Porygon2 is the Pokemon I almost never use. Even if it's technically the secondary Trick Room setter, Mimikyu is so good at doing it the secondary setter is almost never needed, and Download almost always gets Attack boosts so I can't really take advantage of it to hit hard with Porygon2.
I'm thinking that it could be the fact I want it to do so many things at the same time and Porygon2 cannot cope with it, which could definetly be the case - I wanted a secondary Trick Room setter, a powerful special attacker and something that could simply take a lot of hits. Not everything can be accomplished, of course. I hear suggestions for replacements. I've been thinking of reintroducing Magnezone to improve my matchup vs Celesteela, which I had to compromise by adding Gigalith.
For now, the set is entirely standard - Trick Room, typical BoltBeam coverage and Recover being generally used after Trick Room vs offensive teams that don't have anything particularly weak to Thunderbolt and Ice Beam.
The spread is also standard - as according to the analysis, it survives the most powerful weather combo one can find, but since Gigalith checks weather (though admittedly not as well vs rain), it also looks redundant.
I hope I explained it well enough. I simply don't want to make any major mistake before breeding :P
