NOUVELLE VAGUE
SUBSWARM VOLCARONA + SUBSTITUTE GROUNDIUM Z DRAGONITE HO
I. INTRODUCTION
i didn't mean to make another rmt so soon but this team turned out much more successful than i thought it would be, this is probably one of the most fun teams i've ever created
II. TEAMBUILDING PROCESS
knew i wanted to build around this little fucker cause subswarm is obscenely broken in so many mus and can totally run away with the game if you don't have the right switch in to it. allows you to fish extremely well and is one of the better cheese sweepers in nd imo
uh i honestly have no idea what i was doing here tbh i think i wanted like spikes mew with taunt and like flash cannon for some reason and so i added a chomp for rocks and z move breaking power
quickly realized that idea is utter shit and gets fucked over by like mdia and any fairy type so i slapped on lead mdia as always and added a standard dnite
this is where i decided to start being evil bc i had like flash cannon again on mdia for opposing mdia and also changed to this absolute fire dnite set and then a terapagos so we can ensure rocks hopefully don't go up
realized we lost to idbp zama pretty easily and flash cannon dia is possibly the most stupid thing i could've ever put on a lead dia so i decided to switch it up and do 3a rocks lead so it can still hit dia with ep, booster encore val to patch up the zama mu and give us some extra utility alongside the dual crutches between dnite and terap. sucker punch from gambit adds another added layer of security, and is also just kgb which needs no explanation
III. THE TEAM
sunburn (Volcarona) @ Leftovers
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Flamethrower
- Bug Buzz
- Substitute
first cheesemaxxing sweeper, subswarm is possibly the fishiest set you can run on volcarona and it can be stupidly successful at breaking down teams that lack the proper check. qd+sub takes advantage of a lot of mons in the tier such as twave ghold, gking, terap, even heatran, and allows you to basically farm quiver dances on them and become a huge threat. this also means that with the right positioning, you can break through even hard counters like toxapex due to the recovery from leftovers. swarm lets you further benefit from the hp you're losing via sub, as after some quiver dances, swarm boosted bug buzzes do a shit ton of damage especially to soft checks like alomomola and spdef chomp. here, it also provides a fire typing alongside flamethrower terap that can check non boosted hslam id zama, mega scizor, and dengo for the team
pink horizon (Diancie-Mega) @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 228 HP / 28 Def / 252 Spe
Naive / Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Earth Power
- Explosion / Diamond Storm
lead mdia is one of the most effective leads at denying hazards from being set up, because obviously, you have magic bounce to your disposal. sr is crucial for a lead, moonblast is a good general stab for tusk and rbolt and stuff. instead of running the usual sub+endeav though, i have a 3a mdia but with edited lead mdia evs. this allows me to still scout if a lando is offensive or not, allows me to live defensive msciz bp, meowscarada flower trick, live shifu ss, etc. while also being able to still hit things like heatran or pecharunt that assume they wall the lead set. more importantly, earth power hits opposing mega diancie and gholdengo. dia storm is just nice stab in general but explosion with a naive nature over timid can somewhat turn the tides versus a stall matchup by luring clodsire, while also denying rapid spin from terapagos and generally dealing more chip damage versus various threats such as mega venusaur and tapu fini. it's not much of an issue to forgo endeavor dealing a ton of damage to a wall, because this team is focused around taking advantage of those walls either way
nouvelle vague (Dragonite) @ Groundium Z / Icium Z
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Ice Spinner
- Substitute
our secondary cheesealot sweeper. i was interested in a little sub znite action after seeing volcarona have success with a similar concept, as it adds another layer of fishiness to this team which is the entire concept of this HO. this allows dragonite to take advantage of supposed checks like toxic lando-t, alomomola, and toxapex, notably often blowing up the gliscpexferro structures that can take care of volcarona pretty easily. mamo coverage with groundium z allows us to burst past some of sub nite's checks, such as mega scizor, since we're not running fire punch, and melmetal, but icium can beat tusk, ting lu, max hp chary, etc but worsens our mu into gyro ferro, fini, and failure to ohko volcarona. multiscale also helps us in denying opposing sweeps, and is also especially useful in the opposing HO matchup as the crutch versus sweeprs like iron moth and batk moon. dnite's typing is also useful here for a medley of threats such as ogerpon and shifu, though that will be explained in more detail in the threats & usage tips section.
+3 252 Atk Dragonite Tectonic Rage (180 BP) vs. 252 HP / 80+ Def Ferrothorn: 339-399 (96.3 - 113.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+3 252 Atk Dragonite Tectonic Rage (180 BP) vs. 248 HP / 112+ Def Scizor-Mega: 312-368 (90.9 - 107.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+1 252 Atk Dragonite Tectonic Rage (180 BP) vs. 220 HP / 0 Def Melmetal: 442-520 (94.8 - 111.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
peach eyes (Iron Valiant) @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
EVs: 108 Atk / 148 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Encore
a tried and true ival set, booster encore is great utility for the team with a typing that lets us check kommo and dragz moon. this set can threaten and procure chip on a ton of different mons, such as alomomola, to the benefit of our main two sweeprs. with encore, this can help check idbp zama lacking heavy slam, and locks threats like raging bolt and toxapex into setup or otherwise similarly debilitating move(locking toxapex into recovery actually helps volcarona cheese through it in an endgame!) also a great knock off spreader than can do so more effectively than kingambit. also is our main form of speed control.
evening glow (Terapagos-Terastal) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Tera Shell
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tera Starstorm
- Ice Beam
- Flamethrower
- Rapid Spin
a crucial member of the team as terap here is the only way to remove hazards, especially rocks, if they do get up. fortunately, with tera shell, it's one of the most consistent spinners in the tier and only really fails to do so versus like msab ttar and mismagius..? either way, this is the best supporting member for our two sweepers, great crutch for HO, spins for us, and can also procure chip when necessary. not much to say here i think.
dried flower (Kingambit) @ Black Glasses
Ability: Supreme Overlord
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
kingambit. oh, my love, my life. can be a sweeper fs but that isn't its main role for this team. gives us kinda a pseudo steel here and another knock spreader, also gives us a shit ton of power because we can easily start swords dancing on passive shit like toxapex and ferro. sucker punch, very nice priority for the team, another knock user, and iron head which is crucial for dealing with clefable and ivals that try to set up. mdia too if you're at full. helps with roaring moon in the case that terapagos has been neutralized, and abuses choice locked lele.
IV. THREATS & USAGE TIPS
this team has no effective switch in to mdia. ep from our own mdia can chip it into range for kgb or ival, but generally wearing this down with sacs+chip can weaken it enough for swarm volc to KO. extremely potent threat, you often need to trade for it as early as possible to ensure it can't prevent volcarona from winning
specifically, id corv is able to forever wall dnite, and with toxapex, volcarona will have a tough time cracking through as well. setting up rocks and spreading knock off with our two users is the best way to open up a hole for volcarona to bust through by cheesing through toxapex; that is the main way to beat this structure
this mon in particular prevents dia from getting rocks up and can pretty easily set up rocks of its own, very annoying for this team but ep dia+terap can at least prevent its rocks from staying up, even if it means preventing our own
probably the worst possible matchup you can have; especially if your mdia is dstorm. if not, then try to position mdia versus clodsire so you can blow it up and bust holes for volc or ival to potentially overwhelm, otherwise there's nothing you can do. generally a horrible mu either way
i'd like to warn that this team needs to be played in a precarious way to ensure that you can effectively set up your sweepers in a position to win; this team is not easy to pilot
- volcarona and dragonite are your main sweepers; your endgame should be focused around one or the other and the other slots on the team are built to support them. they're both broken and much more suited for sweeping that the other team members, and should be played as such
- adding onto the point above, either sweeper’s typing looks really helpful for checking various threats, but try not to exhaust their resources early. usually dragonite likes having its multiscale intact when it goes for sweeps, volcarona doesn’t like losing excess hp, etc. try not to exert your sweepers early and find other ways to beat the threats(eg. ival lives any hit from +0 waterpon)
- this team doesn't really have very solid checks to a lot of different threats; mega diancie has no solid switch in, the ogerpon situation looks rough, roaring moon looks dangerous, etc. one thing that you will notice as you play this team is that even while some attackers can threaten to get out of hand, they get close to no opportunity to actually get to that level if you play correctly. there are several crutches set it place to prevent a sweep from occuring: tera shell terap, encore val, sucker kgb, multiscale dnite. acknowledge that you have threats to check and play using your crutches to ensure that you can sweep before they can
- one of the very very most important parts about this team is that rocks cannot be up for our sweepers to function. lead mdia can help prevent rocks in the early game, but terapagos is the one hazard denier that needs to kept intact for this team to work at all
V. REPLAYS & PEAK
VI. CLOSING & SHOUTOUTS
ty BrisingrDraconis dewfew Ineros yo mama
SUBSWARM VOLCARONA + SUBSTITUTE GROUNDIUM Z DRAGONITE HO
I. INTRODUCTION
i didn't mean to make another rmt so soon but this team turned out much more successful than i thought it would be, this is probably one of the most fun teams i've ever created
II. TEAMBUILDING PROCESS
knew i wanted to build around this little fucker cause subswarm is obscenely broken in so many mus and can totally run away with the game if you don't have the right switch in to it. allows you to fish extremely well and is one of the better cheese sweepers in nd imo
uh i honestly have no idea what i was doing here tbh i think i wanted like spikes mew with taunt and like flash cannon for some reason and so i added a chomp for rocks and z move breaking power
quickly realized that idea is utter shit and gets fucked over by like mdia and any fairy type so i slapped on lead mdia as always and added a standard dnite
this is where i decided to start being evil bc i had like flash cannon again on mdia for opposing mdia and also changed to this absolute fire dnite set and then a terapagos so we can ensure rocks hopefully don't go up
realized we lost to idbp zama pretty easily and flash cannon dia is possibly the most stupid thing i could've ever put on a lead dia so i decided to switch it up and do 3a rocks lead so it can still hit dia with ep, booster encore val to patch up the zama mu and give us some extra utility alongside the dual crutches between dnite and terap. sucker punch from gambit adds another added layer of security, and is also just kgb which needs no explanation
III. THE TEAM
sunburn (Volcarona) @ Leftovers
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Flamethrower
- Bug Buzz
- Substitute
first cheesemaxxing sweeper, subswarm is possibly the fishiest set you can run on volcarona and it can be stupidly successful at breaking down teams that lack the proper check. qd+sub takes advantage of a lot of mons in the tier such as twave ghold, gking, terap, even heatran, and allows you to basically farm quiver dances on them and become a huge threat. this also means that with the right positioning, you can break through even hard counters like toxapex due to the recovery from leftovers. swarm lets you further benefit from the hp you're losing via sub, as after some quiver dances, swarm boosted bug buzzes do a shit ton of damage especially to soft checks like alomomola and spdef chomp. here, it also provides a fire typing alongside flamethrower terap that can check non boosted hslam id zama, mega scizor, and dengo for the team
pink horizon (Diancie-Mega) @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 228 HP / 28 Def / 252 Spe
Naive / Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Earth Power
- Explosion / Diamond Storm
lead mdia is one of the most effective leads at denying hazards from being set up, because obviously, you have magic bounce to your disposal. sr is crucial for a lead, moonblast is a good general stab for tusk and rbolt and stuff. instead of running the usual sub+endeav though, i have a 3a mdia but with edited lead mdia evs. this allows me to still scout if a lando is offensive or not, allows me to live defensive msciz bp, meowscarada flower trick, live shifu ss, etc. while also being able to still hit things like heatran or pecharunt that assume they wall the lead set. more importantly, earth power hits opposing mega diancie and gholdengo. dia storm is just nice stab in general but explosion with a naive nature over timid can somewhat turn the tides versus a stall matchup by luring clodsire, while also denying rapid spin from terapagos and generally dealing more chip damage versus various threats such as mega venusaur and tapu fini. it's not much of an issue to forgo endeavor dealing a ton of damage to a wall, because this team is focused around taking advantage of those walls either way
nouvelle vague (Dragonite) @ Groundium Z / Icium Z
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Ice Spinner
- Substitute
our secondary cheesealot sweeper. i was interested in a little sub znite action after seeing volcarona have success with a similar concept, as it adds another layer of fishiness to this team which is the entire concept of this HO. this allows dragonite to take advantage of supposed checks like toxic lando-t, alomomola, and toxapex, notably often blowing up the gliscpexferro structures that can take care of volcarona pretty easily. mamo coverage with groundium z allows us to burst past some of sub nite's checks, such as mega scizor, since we're not running fire punch, and melmetal, but icium can beat tusk, ting lu, max hp chary, etc but worsens our mu into gyro ferro, fini, and failure to ohko volcarona. multiscale also helps us in denying opposing sweeps, and is also especially useful in the opposing HO matchup as the crutch versus sweeprs like iron moth and batk moon. dnite's typing is also useful here for a medley of threats such as ogerpon and shifu, though that will be explained in more detail in the threats & usage tips section.
+3 252 Atk Dragonite Tectonic Rage (180 BP) vs. 252 HP / 80+ Def Ferrothorn: 339-399 (96.3 - 113.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+3 252 Atk Dragonite Tectonic Rage (180 BP) vs. 248 HP / 112+ Def Scizor-Mega: 312-368 (90.9 - 107.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+1 252 Atk Dragonite Tectonic Rage (180 BP) vs. 220 HP / 0 Def Melmetal: 442-520 (94.8 - 111.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
peach eyes (Iron Valiant) @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
EVs: 108 Atk / 148 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Encore
a tried and true ival set, booster encore is great utility for the team with a typing that lets us check kommo and dragz moon. this set can threaten and procure chip on a ton of different mons, such as alomomola, to the benefit of our main two sweeprs. with encore, this can help check idbp zama lacking heavy slam, and locks threats like raging bolt and toxapex into setup or otherwise similarly debilitating move(locking toxapex into recovery actually helps volcarona cheese through it in an endgame!) also a great knock off spreader than can do so more effectively than kingambit. also is our main form of speed control.
evening glow (Terapagos-Terastal) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Tera Shell
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tera Starstorm
- Ice Beam
- Flamethrower
- Rapid Spin
a crucial member of the team as terap here is the only way to remove hazards, especially rocks, if they do get up. fortunately, with tera shell, it's one of the most consistent spinners in the tier and only really fails to do so versus like msab ttar and mismagius..? either way, this is the best supporting member for our two sweepers, great crutch for HO, spins for us, and can also procure chip when necessary. not much to say here i think.
dried flower (Kingambit) @ Black Glasses
Ability: Supreme Overlord
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
kingambit. oh, my love, my life. can be a sweeper fs but that isn't its main role for this team. gives us kinda a pseudo steel here and another knock spreader, also gives us a shit ton of power because we can easily start swords dancing on passive shit like toxapex and ferro. sucker punch, very nice priority for the team, another knock user, and iron head which is crucial for dealing with clefable and ivals that try to set up. mdia too if you're at full. helps with roaring moon in the case that terapagos has been neutralized, and abuses choice locked lele.
IV. THREATS & USAGE TIPS
this team has no effective switch in to mdia. ep from our own mdia can chip it into range for kgb or ival, but generally wearing this down with sacs+chip can weaken it enough for swarm volc to KO. extremely potent threat, you often need to trade for it as early as possible to ensure it can't prevent volcarona from winning specifically, id corv is able to forever wall dnite, and with toxapex, volcarona will have a tough time cracking through as well. setting up rocks and spreading knock off with our two users is the best way to open up a hole for volcarona to bust through by cheesing through toxapex; that is the main way to beat this structure this mon in particular prevents dia from getting rocks up and can pretty easily set up rocks of its own, very annoying for this team but ep dia+terap can at least prevent its rocks from staying up, even if it means preventing our own probably the worst possible matchup you can have; especially if your mdia is dstorm. if not, then try to position mdia versus clodsire so you can blow it up and bust holes for volc or ival to potentially overwhelm, otherwise there's nothing you can do. generally a horrible mu either wayi'd like to warn that this team needs to be played in a precarious way to ensure that you can effectively set up your sweepers in a position to win; this team is not easy to pilot
- volcarona and dragonite are your main sweepers; your endgame should be focused around one or the other and the other slots on the team are built to support them. they're both broken and much more suited for sweeping that the other team members, and should be played as such
- adding onto the point above, either sweeper’s typing looks really helpful for checking various threats, but try not to exhaust their resources early. usually dragonite likes having its multiscale intact when it goes for sweeps, volcarona doesn’t like losing excess hp, etc. try not to exert your sweepers early and find other ways to beat the threats(eg. ival lives any hit from +0 waterpon)
- this team doesn't really have very solid checks to a lot of different threats; mega diancie has no solid switch in, the ogerpon situation looks rough, roaring moon looks dangerous, etc. one thing that you will notice as you play this team is that even while some attackers can threaten to get out of hand, they get close to no opportunity to actually get to that level if you play correctly. there are several crutches set it place to prevent a sweep from occuring: tera shell terap, encore val, sucker kgb, multiscale dnite. acknowledge that you have threats to check and play using your crutches to ensure that you can sweep before they can
- one of the very very most important parts about this team is that rocks cannot be up for our sweepers to function. lead mdia can help prevent rocks in the early game, but terapagos is the one hazard denier that needs to kept intact for this team to work at all
V. REPLAYS & PEAK
VI. CLOSING & SHOUTOUTS
ty BrisingrDraconis dewfew Ineros yo mama
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