I like Glalie a lot and I personally was experimenting with it in my builder this past mushi league season, but I don't believe I ever got the chance to actually bring it. I came up with this lead-tailored set that I believe gives you good opening sequences against some very common leads, but I've been struggling to actually fit it on any teams, which I think may just be a symptom of Glalie being... not that great.
Glalie @ Leftovers
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 12 SpA / 92 SpD / 28 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Ice Beam
- Explosion
- Earthquake / ???
VS
One of the opening sequences I tailored this towards was Zapdos. At the time I was prepping to face sheik who had decently high zapdos lead usage, and I found that glalie could be EV'd to always live two Timid Zapdos thunderbolts while always KOing with two ice beams.
252 SpA 30 IVs Zapdos Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 92 SpD Glalie: 163-192 (44.7 - 52.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
12- SpA Glalie Ice Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Zapdos: 173-204 (53.7 - 63.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
The opening sequence I anticipated was a turn 1 tbolt vs ice beam, in which the Zapdos user is forced to swap out or sac their zap, giving the glalie a turn to spike or explode against another enemy.
vs
This is the other opening sequence I had envisioned, EVing Glalie to always survive an Adamant Tyranitar's Rock Slide and be able to set up a spike, living sand damage as well to lead to an explosion turn or another spike if deemed necessary. 223 Speed also helps speed creep 252 neutral tar and mons that aim to speed creep it (like many base 70s). The unfortunate side of this set is that it always loses against bandtar, but considering glalie typically loses against Tyranitar anyway, I don't think that's much of a detriment. Outside of these two lead matchups, I think this set performs about as well as any other Glalie, maybe a bit weaker than hard physical sets like the one in the quoted post above or other sets that aim to use ice beam as a main attack.
252+ Atk 30 IVs Tyranitar Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 124 Def Glalie: 287-338 (78.8 - 92.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage and Leftovers recovery
Before sharing the teams I built around glalie, I'd like to say that I'm still a novice builder and these should be treated moreso as ideas rather than fleshed-out ready-to-play teams.
https://pokepast.es/727fa7e7ee1ba749
On to the teams that I attempted to build around Glalie, first is this glalie physoff team. This team capitalizes on the fact that Skarmory is a primary switch-in to a lead glalie, and also benefits from a very unique opening line in the Glalie exploding on a Skarmory (or its protect), leaving it open to a magneton trap. Apart from this opening sequence, this is a standard physically offensive team, packed with members such as agiligross and curselax that really benefit from skarmory going down.
https://pokepast.es/be6f5ccb3630309f
I think this takes the shape of a more traditional HO team that glalie may be found on, with Charizard and Jolteon acting as offensive pressure towards Skarmory. Rather than an aggressive explosion opening line, this moreso benefits from the fact that the Glalie set is tailored to beat lead Zapdos, whose offensive and defensive power can check Charizard and Metagross. I had more success testing this over the prior team, but that may have to do with mixoff's ridiculous mu against the general ladder.
Glalie is definitely a mon that I think is worth experimenting with, as I think it has a lot of potential to fit on teams that don't necessarily represent its expected HO playstyle. As for best partners, I think Agiligross and offensive Swampert are incredible, as they can take advantage of chipped Skarmory and other mons that come in to soak up explosions like opposing Swamperts. Finally, one last mon that I've been trying to build around with Glalie is Pursuittar, as I think it can lead to some interesting guaranteed Gengar traps because of Glalie's telegraphed gameplan. The team structure I had in my head was Glalie / Pursuittar / Moltres / Starmie, but I think it needs some work to get off the ground.
You really cooked with the EV Spread. I will be trying to make a team around this. Thanks you the great build!