3 days until the evil ass rock deer arrives. man time flies. i gotta get to shiny hunting it
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Pokemon Legends: Z-A Combat/PVP Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Count Bleck
- Start date
Am I wrong to think that any Mega with access to one of the omniboost moves (Ancient Power, Ominous Wind, Silver Wind) should be running it over Calm Mind or Bulk Up? They have a 60% buff rate as Plus Moves, so there's a substantial risk of whiffing... but they also have significantly less startup than the pure boost moves and have a very short cooldown if you want to try again. They also deal damage to everything around the user, which might be important to you. In addition, the + omniboosts seem to last 18 seconds, compared to the 15 seconds you'd get from + Calm Mind.
Biggest downside is that the user has to approach a target to launch those moves, but since you have better-than-even odds of getting a movement speed buff in exchange...
____
Everything above that line was typed while I was still confirming some of the wind move mechanics. Further timed testing suggests that the boost activation roll is performed for every instance of damage these moves deal, and that a single attack that damages more than one target can stack multiple omniboosts: using + Omnious Wind on a rooftop with several crystals and some wild Pokémon in the move's AOE resulted in 45 seconds of buffed stats.
So if you can hit two targets with the same + Ancient Power, you have a 36% chance to get an omniboost that lasts longer that a + Nasty Plot.
Biggest downside is that the user has to approach a target to launch those moves, but since you have better-than-even odds of getting a movement speed buff in exchange...
____
Everything above that line was typed while I was still confirming some of the wind move mechanics. Further timed testing suggests that the boost activation roll is performed for every instance of damage these moves deal, and that a single attack that damages more than one target can stack multiple omniboosts: using + Omnious Wind on a rooftop with several crystals and some wild Pokémon in the move's AOE resulted in 45 seconds of buffed stats.
So if you can hit two targets with the same + Ancient Power, you have a 36% chance to get an omniboost that lasts longer that a + Nasty Plot.
they could very well do so but consistency is the reason why something like mega chandy would want to go calm mind over ominous wind. on the one hand, just roll the omniboost every time lmao, but on the other hand giving yourself a buff you know for certain is going to go through and being able to pick up more kills that way is more consistent and just as relavent of an option. i prefer the more consistent options but let it be said that omniboost gambling has the potential to be a very real thing down the line
I'm also in the camp that stat-boosting moves are better options than the omniboost attacks, but if a Pokemon has access to the latter, but not the former, I believe there's reason to consider them. Take Mega Charizard Y for example.
Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Blast Burn
- Solar Beam
- Ancient Power
Mega Charizard Y doesn't have Calm Mind or Nasty Plot, but it does have Ancient Power. Rock coverage is nice for opposing Fires like Armarouge (granted after it uses Meteor Beam lol), opposing Charizard, Chandelure, Talonflame, etc. I think if you primarily use it for its Rock coverage and not just for the omniboost, you could get some decent mileage out of it.
I mention Mega Charizard Y because I think it has a shot at being pretty decent in Season 5. With the powerful Steel-type Legendaries being introduced, being a Fire-type with a Ground-immunity and access to +Solar Beam for the Ground-types aiming to take advantage of said Steel-types sounds pretty good. Ancient Power boost procs will only make this guy even stronger and faster. If you're not about Ancient Power, Focus Blast or Protect should be viable alternative 4th slots.
Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Blast Burn
- Solar Beam
- Ancient Power
Mega Charizard Y doesn't have Calm Mind or Nasty Plot, but it does have Ancient Power. Rock coverage is nice for opposing Fires like Armarouge (granted after it uses Meteor Beam lol), opposing Charizard, Chandelure, Talonflame, etc. I think if you primarily use it for its Rock coverage and not just for the omniboost, you could get some decent mileage out of it.
I mention Mega Charizard Y because I think it has a shot at being pretty decent in Season 5. With the powerful Steel-type Legendaries being introduced, being a Fire-type with a Ground-immunity and access to +Solar Beam for the Ground-types aiming to take advantage of said Steel-types sounds pretty good. Ancient Power boost procs will only make this guy even stronger and faster. If you're not about Ancient Power, Focus Blast or Protect should be viable alternative 4th slots.
Last edited:
Tbh I’m not sure about the mega chandy case
Mega chandy already is worse than base chandy, a mon that is worse than arma in general. I think, if you’re going to use mega chandy, ominous might be the niche. Ominous hits a lot of the prevalent fires, and I mean it’s better than shadow ball
One of mega chandes problems is that the sp.atk boost is normally not needed, but with ominous wind, a very low bp move, the damage increase may be important.
I think if u wanna use mega chandy, ominous would prob be the reason ig
chandy / mega chandy was the example case for ominous, yeah; i prefer sash chandy much more though
Soon...
Attachments
Ladder came out a few hours ago and I've already hit A, and can share the team I had the most success with overall, as well as give my very very early thoughts on the format based off what I've seen and what I expected to be good.
Garchomp @ Focus Sash
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Rush
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
It's your standard Garchomp set, and unsurprisingly, it's a bread and butter slot for many teams. It matches extremely well into the format and checks the ever present Armarouge, and the many new Steel types this format has added, except Melmetal. We'll get to that later, but for now, its Garchomp, you know it, you love it, and you already know what it does so I don't have to glaze this slot.
Armarouge @ Life Orb
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
- Meteor Beam
- Heat Wave
- Psychic
- Solar Beam
Unanimously agreed as one of the best and most dangerous Pokemon of the previous season, Armarouge also slots extremely well into the format with many Steels added and as a general sniper, as well as one of the only remaining prominent Solar Beam+ abusers into the format, which slots well into the rising Ground alternatives seen on ladder, notably Swampert and Marowak. While previously, Armarouge's 4th slot move was whatever you wanted it to be, I strongly believe that Psychic as your last slot is now mandatory due to this seasons newest and most problematic threat of Marshadow! We'll talk about it later, but Marshadow is a dangerous check into Armarouge, and Psychic while at +1 Special Attack gives it a chance to actually take out Marshadow before it becomes a problem!
Melmetal @ Assault Vest
EVs: 108 HP / 252 Atk / 148 SpD
- Heavy Slam
- Double Iron Bash
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
Without a shadow of doubt, the star of the show for this team, Melmetal's bulk allows it to be a massive sponge into opposing brawlers and even tank Heat Waves from Armarouges without a care in the world, allowing it to trade and 1v1 most Pokemon in the format and not care at all. As already labbed by both Mugenman88 and Vengeance417, this particular spread allows it to have immense staying power into the field and deny several checks with Heavy Slam as your gap closer, and Double Iron Bash as your primary STAB option with massive range and a very high likelihood to flinch and deny a cast entirely. Most Garchomps will spot a Melmetal and believe that due to their type advantage, they can win this engagement, but that couldn't be further from the truth. An important lesson for Melmetal is that it WANTS other Pokemon to engage and start a fight with it, if you choose to ignore it, it loses. If you don't intend to use Melmetal, you should at least take this nugget of information with you as you will almost surely see many on the ladder! While Vengeance417 suggested Thunder Punch, I believe that most Pokemon you need to hit with Thunder Punch (Skarmory / Corviknight) are already supplemented with Armarouge's Heat Wave, and with there being an even larger influx of Garchomps on ladder, Ice Punch is extremely warranted, even if Heavy Slam+ into Double Iron Bash+ gets your kill into Garchomp.
With that out of the way, I also wanted to briefly talk about some of the Pokemon I saw on the ladder, both good, bad, and somewhere in between, and what I think about them going forward.
The Good:
I've already commented a good amount on Melmetal as is, as it was featured on the team, it's worth noting that you're going to continue seeing these guys constantly due to the sheer staying power and 1v1 capabilities it has. However, as hinted earlier in the team writeup, Marshadow is seemingly taking this format by storm and being a real nuisance about it too. Marshadow with Spectral Thief homes in on your target, this move cannot be outrun and needs to be properly i-framed with a swapout to avoid it, as well as the move use granting some i-frames for Marshadow on use. It also teleports Marshadow to its target, just like Phantom Force does, serving as an ideal gap closing move while also stealing boosts. This Pokemon essentially dissuades other Pokemon from setting up in front of it, and is quite small and easy to miss. With Ice Punch and Spectral Thief, this is actually one of the most obnoxious leads to see as a Garchomp lead, as it can easily outbrawl you, steal your set up, and snag a kill on you. It of course, also can punish Armarouges too, and can run its own Focus Sash to deny Psychic from ever killing it to begin with. I find Marshadow and Melmetal to be early Pokemon to look out for and may have the format develop around them this season. Or, they might fall off entirely! We'll have to see!
The Somewhere In Between:
While there weren't many Terrakions on ladder, there were certainly plenty of Magearnas and Heatrans. I saw many players opting to run these as Megas and I believe that ultimately, they make better use of an actual item slot than they would a Mega slot. Both these Pokemon have lots of promise but being forced to commit to a Mega Evolution seems limiting. Most of the time they struggled against Garchomp and couldn't lock in a kill in return. I think these two have promise but it needs further research and exploration onto how they can deviate away from Mega as the season progresses. As for Terrakion, I used it at the start of my climb initially and had a fair amount of fun with it, but quickly realized that constantly trading with Head Smash was actively harming me, as I spent more and more time being down and out rather than making a forced lead gap between the other players in the lobby. With Head Smash trading, I'm always going down and giving somebody a point on the scoreboard, while giving myself one. Eventually, this is how players catch up and how I choke my 1st place entirely, which ideally is something I want to avoid. I think it has potential but with Marshadow currently being a nuisance, I find it hard to work with, and would be something to look into down the road, just not right now.
The "Bad"
Realistically, no, they aren't actually bad and it's literally impossible to say that they're strictly "bad" outright, it hasn't even been a day yet, but I saw multiple of these on the ladder and saw them all repeatedly struggle to find the matchups they were supposed to win but still lost either way. Both Latis wanted to check Garchomp but could never get around the sash, and found themselves at the end of a Dragon Rush+ and a free KO on the scoreboard. Darkrai was just First Impression food for the most part and I didn't really see it get to make any splashes beyond feeding people free KOs. They are all also large targets that Marshadow and Melmetal want to engage with as they cannot consistently retaliate back in any capacity. Currently, I'm a bit averse to exploring these Pokemon at the moment, but hey, if they pop off down the road, I'll be more than glad to eat my words!
Bonus Segment: The "they never left but hey, they're back!"
While climbing, I saw these two everywhere and they always forcibly made large impact on the field the second they hit it, they became dangerous and with a dramatically large decrease in the amount of Solar Beam+ Spammers and snipers in the format beyond Armarouge, these two really hit everything neutrally or super effectively to a dangerous degree, and can be very easily splashable over Garchomp. Swampert made have had issues last season, but Marowak didn't have many problems, and it has even less currently. With so many ground weak Mythicals and new Legendaries, I think these two are really worth looking out for and slotting on a team!
Notable Mentions:
Volcanion has pretty good potential as a sniper Heat Wave, Steam Eruption, Solar Beam AND Earth Power. Water is a bit underutilized in both last season and the start of this one, so having a strong Water sniper with a high burn chance would very likely fit decently into this format, just be wary of Garchomp. As for Meloetta, it seems people are ALREADY adapting Meloetta on ladder as I was writing and finishing this post to combat against Marshadow being annoying, so that might be something to be on your radar too!
Garchomp @ Focus Sash
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Rush
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
It's your standard Garchomp set, and unsurprisingly, it's a bread and butter slot for many teams. It matches extremely well into the format and checks the ever present Armarouge, and the many new Steel types this format has added, except Melmetal. We'll get to that later, but for now, its Garchomp, you know it, you love it, and you already know what it does so I don't have to glaze this slot.
Armarouge @ Life Orb
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
- Meteor Beam
- Heat Wave
- Psychic
- Solar Beam
Unanimously agreed as one of the best and most dangerous Pokemon of the previous season, Armarouge also slots extremely well into the format with many Steels added and as a general sniper, as well as one of the only remaining prominent Solar Beam+ abusers into the format, which slots well into the rising Ground alternatives seen on ladder, notably Swampert and Marowak. While previously, Armarouge's 4th slot move was whatever you wanted it to be, I strongly believe that Psychic as your last slot is now mandatory due to this seasons newest and most problematic threat of Marshadow! We'll talk about it later, but Marshadow is a dangerous check into Armarouge, and Psychic while at +1 Special Attack gives it a chance to actually take out Marshadow before it becomes a problem!
Melmetal @ Assault Vest
EVs: 108 HP / 252 Atk / 148 SpD
- Heavy Slam
- Double Iron Bash
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
Without a shadow of doubt, the star of the show for this team, Melmetal's bulk allows it to be a massive sponge into opposing brawlers and even tank Heat Waves from Armarouges without a care in the world, allowing it to trade and 1v1 most Pokemon in the format and not care at all. As already labbed by both Mugenman88 and Vengeance417, this particular spread allows it to have immense staying power into the field and deny several checks with Heavy Slam as your gap closer, and Double Iron Bash as your primary STAB option with massive range and a very high likelihood to flinch and deny a cast entirely. Most Garchomps will spot a Melmetal and believe that due to their type advantage, they can win this engagement, but that couldn't be further from the truth. An important lesson for Melmetal is that it WANTS other Pokemon to engage and start a fight with it, if you choose to ignore it, it loses. If you don't intend to use Melmetal, you should at least take this nugget of information with you as you will almost surely see many on the ladder! While Vengeance417 suggested Thunder Punch, I believe that most Pokemon you need to hit with Thunder Punch (Skarmory / Corviknight) are already supplemented with Armarouge's Heat Wave, and with there being an even larger influx of Garchomps on ladder, Ice Punch is extremely warranted, even if Heavy Slam+ into Double Iron Bash+ gets your kill into Garchomp.
With that out of the way, I also wanted to briefly talk about some of the Pokemon I saw on the ladder, both good, bad, and somewhere in between, and what I think about them going forward.
The Good:
I've already commented a good amount on Melmetal as is, as it was featured on the team, it's worth noting that you're going to continue seeing these guys constantly due to the sheer staying power and 1v1 capabilities it has. However, as hinted earlier in the team writeup, Marshadow is seemingly taking this format by storm and being a real nuisance about it too. Marshadow with Spectral Thief homes in on your target, this move cannot be outrun and needs to be properly i-framed with a swapout to avoid it, as well as the move use granting some i-frames for Marshadow on use. It also teleports Marshadow to its target, just like Phantom Force does, serving as an ideal gap closing move while also stealing boosts. This Pokemon essentially dissuades other Pokemon from setting up in front of it, and is quite small and easy to miss. With Ice Punch and Spectral Thief, this is actually one of the most obnoxious leads to see as a Garchomp lead, as it can easily outbrawl you, steal your set up, and snag a kill on you. It of course, also can punish Armarouges too, and can run its own Focus Sash to deny Psychic from ever killing it to begin with. I find Marshadow and Melmetal to be early Pokemon to look out for and may have the format develop around them this season. Or, they might fall off entirely! We'll have to see!
The Somewhere In Between:
While there weren't many Terrakions on ladder, there were certainly plenty of Magearnas and Heatrans. I saw many players opting to run these as Megas and I believe that ultimately, they make better use of an actual item slot than they would a Mega slot. Both these Pokemon have lots of promise but being forced to commit to a Mega Evolution seems limiting. Most of the time they struggled against Garchomp and couldn't lock in a kill in return. I think these two have promise but it needs further research and exploration onto how they can deviate away from Mega as the season progresses. As for Terrakion, I used it at the start of my climb initially and had a fair amount of fun with it, but quickly realized that constantly trading with Head Smash was actively harming me, as I spent more and more time being down and out rather than making a forced lead gap between the other players in the lobby. With Head Smash trading, I'm always going down and giving somebody a point on the scoreboard, while giving myself one. Eventually, this is how players catch up and how I choke my 1st place entirely, which ideally is something I want to avoid. I think it has potential but with Marshadow currently being a nuisance, I find it hard to work with, and would be something to look into down the road, just not right now.
The "Bad"
Realistically, no, they aren't actually bad and it's literally impossible to say that they're strictly "bad" outright, it hasn't even been a day yet, but I saw multiple of these on the ladder and saw them all repeatedly struggle to find the matchups they were supposed to win but still lost either way. Both Latis wanted to check Garchomp but could never get around the sash, and found themselves at the end of a Dragon Rush+ and a free KO on the scoreboard. Darkrai was just First Impression food for the most part and I didn't really see it get to make any splashes beyond feeding people free KOs. They are all also large targets that Marshadow and Melmetal want to engage with as they cannot consistently retaliate back in any capacity. Currently, I'm a bit averse to exploring these Pokemon at the moment, but hey, if they pop off down the road, I'll be more than glad to eat my words!
Bonus Segment: The "they never left but hey, they're back!"
While climbing, I saw these two everywhere and they always forcibly made large impact on the field the second they hit it, they became dangerous and with a dramatically large decrease in the amount of Solar Beam+ Spammers and snipers in the format beyond Armarouge, these two really hit everything neutrally or super effectively to a dangerous degree, and can be very easily splashable over Garchomp. Swampert made have had issues last season, but Marowak didn't have many problems, and it has even less currently. With so many ground weak Mythicals and new Legendaries, I think these two are really worth looking out for and slotting on a team!
Notable Mentions:
Volcanion has pretty good potential as a sniper Heat Wave, Steam Eruption, Solar Beam AND Earth Power. Water is a bit underutilized in both last season and the start of this one, so having a strong Water sniper with a high burn chance would very likely fit decently into this format, just be wary of Garchomp. As for Meloetta, it seems people are ALREADY adapting Meloetta on ladder as I was writing and finishing this post to combat against Marshadow being annoying, so that might be something to be on your radar too!
I sure hope HOME support drops next week, because a ranked ladder format in which Marshadow is pulling its weight is the dream, but I want to use my lil' buddy during the story too. In the SwSh ladder formats that Marshadow was legal in, all of the restricteds were legal as well.Ladder came out a few hours ago and I've already hit A, and can share the team I had the most success with overall, as well as give my very very early thoughts on the format based off what I've seen and what I expected to be good.
Garchomp @ Focus Sash
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Rush
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
It's your standard Garchomp set, and unsurprisingly, it's a bread and butter slot for many teams. It matches extremely well into the format and checks the ever present Armarouge, and the many new Steel types this format has added, except Melmetal. We'll get to that later, but for now, its Garchomp, you know it, you love it, and you already know what it does so I don't have to glaze this slot.
Armarouge @ Life Orb
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
- Meteor Beam
- Heat Wave
- Psychic
- Solar Beam
Unanimously agreed as one of the best and most dangerous Pokemon of the previous season, Armarouge also slots extremely well into the format with many Steels added and as a general sniper, as well as one of the only remaining prominent Solar Beam+ abusers into the format, which slots well into the rising Ground alternatives seen on ladder, notably Swampert and Marowak. While previously, Armarouge's 4th slot move was whatever you wanted it to be, I strongly believe that Psychic as your last slot is now mandatory due to this seasons newest and most problematic threat of Marshadow! We'll talk about it later, but Marshadow is a dangerous check into Armarouge, and Psychic while at +1 Special Attack gives it a chance to actually take out Marshadow before it becomes a problem!
Melmetal @ Assault Vest
EVs: 108 HP / 252 Atk / 148 SpD
- Heavy Slam
- Double Iron Bash
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
Without a shadow of doubt, the star of the show for this team, Melmetal's bulk allows it to be a massive sponge into opposing brawlers and even tank Heat Waves from Armarouges without a care in the world, allowing it to trade and 1v1 most Pokemon in the format and not care at all. As already labbed by both Mugenman88 and Vengeance417, this particular spread allows it to have immense staying power into the field and deny several checks with Heavy Slam as your gap closer, and Double Iron Bash as your primary STAB option with massive range and a very high likelihood to flinch and deny a cast entirely. Most Garchomps will spot a Melmetal and believe that due to their type advantage, they can win this engagement, but that couldn't be further from the truth. An important lesson for Melmetal is that it WANTS other Pokemon to engage and start a fight with it, if you choose to ignore it, it loses. If you don't intend to use Melmetal, you should at least take this nugget of information with you as you will almost surely see many on the ladder! While Vengeance417 suggested Thunder Punch, I believe that most Pokemon you need to hit with Thunder Punch (Skarmory / Corviknight) are already supplemented with Armarouge's Heat Wave, and with there being an even larger influx of Garchomps on ladder, Ice Punch is extremely warranted, even if Heavy Slam+ into Double Iron Bash+ gets your kill into Garchomp.
With that out of the way, I also wanted to briefly talk about some of the Pokemon I saw on the ladder, both good, bad, and somewhere in between, and what I think about them going forward.
The Good:
I've already commented a good amount on Melmetal as is, as it was featured on the team, it's worth noting that you're going to continue seeing these guys constantly due to the sheer staying power and 1v1 capabilities it has. However, as hinted earlier in the team writeup, Marshadow is seemingly taking this format by storm and being a real nuisance about it too. Marshadow with Spectral Thief homes in on your target, this move cannot be outrun and needs to be properly i-framed with a swapout to avoid it, as well as the move use granting some i-frames for Marshadow on use. It also teleports Marshadow to its target, just like Phantom Force does, serving as an ideal gap closing move while also stealing boosts. This Pokemon essentially dissuades other Pokemon from setting up in front of it, and is quite small and easy to miss. With Ice Punch and Spectral Thief, this is actually one of the most obnoxious leads to see as a Garchomp lead, as it can easily outbrawl you, steal your set up, and snag a kill on you. It of course, also can punish Armarouges too, and can run its own Focus Sash to deny Psychic from ever killing it to begin with. I find Marshadow and Melmetal to be early Pokemon to look out for and may have the format develop around them this season. Or, they might fall off entirely! We'll have to see!
The Somewhere In Between:
While there weren't many Terrakions on ladder, there were certainly plenty of Magearnas and Heatrans. I saw many players opting to run these as Megas and I believe that ultimately, they make better use of an actual item slot than they would a Mega slot. Both these Pokemon have lots of promise but being forced to commit to a Mega Evolution seems limiting. Most of the time they struggled against Garchomp and couldn't lock in a kill in return. I think these two have promise but it needs further research and exploration onto how they can deviate away from Mega as the season progresses. As for Terrakion, I used it at the start of my climb initially and had a fair amount of fun with it, but quickly realized that constantly trading with Head Smash was actively harming me, as I spent more and more time being down and out rather than making a forced lead gap between the other players in the lobby. With Head Smash trading, I'm always going down and giving somebody a point on the scoreboard, while giving myself one. Eventually, this is how players catch up and how I choke my 1st place entirely, which ideally is something I want to avoid. I think it has potential but with Marshadow currently being a nuisance, I find it hard to work with, and would be something to look into down the road, just not right now.
The "Bad"
Realistically, no, they aren't actually bad and it's literally impossible to say that they're strictly "bad" outright, it hasn't even been a day yet, but I saw multiple of these on the ladder and saw them all repeatedly struggle to find the matchups they were supposed to win but still lost either way. Both Latis wanted to check Garchomp but could never get around the sash, and found themselves at the end of a Dragon Rush+ and a free KO on the scoreboard. Darkrai was just First Impression food for the most part and I didn't really see it get to make any splashes beyond feeding people free KOs. They are all also large targets that Marshadow and Melmetal want to engage with as they cannot consistently retaliate back in any capacity. Currently, I'm a bit averse to exploring these Pokemon at the moment, but hey, if they pop off down the road, I'll be more than glad to eat my words!
Bonus Segment: The "they never left but hey, they're back!"
While climbing, I saw these two everywhere and they always forcibly made large impact on the field the second they hit it, they became dangerous and with a dramatically large decrease in the amount of Solar Beam+ Spammers and snipers in the format beyond Armarouge, these two really hit everything neutrally or super effectively to a dangerous degree, and can be very easily splashable over Garchomp. Swampert made have had issues last season, but Marowak didn't have many problems, and it has even less currently. With so many ground weak Mythicals and new Legendaries, I think these two are really worth looking out for and slotting on a team!
Notable Mentions:
Volcanion has pretty good potential as a sniper Heat Wave, Steam Eruption, Solar Beam AND Earth Power. Water is a bit underutilized in both last season and the start of this one, so having a strong Water sniper with a high burn chance would very likely fit decently into this format, just be wary of Garchomp. As for Meloetta, it seems people are ALREADY adapting Meloetta on ladder as I was writing and finishing this post to combat against Marshadow being annoying, so that might be something to be on your radar too!
I'm also happy to hear that Spectral thief has a dodge effect. From Serebii's move page it sounded like it had limited range, but it looks like that might have been an error on the page when I looked at it (I recall the distance was originally 0.5-2, but now it's 0.5-8, same as phantom force).
I think I need to preface this post by saying that Season 5 doesn't seem to have any restrictions on how many Mythical Pokemon you can bring to your team. You can have as many as three if you really wanted to.
I used this team to climb up to rank A for Season 5, 20-2-0-0 placement ratio.
I think Marshadow is a great alternative to Garchomp as the lead at the start of matches. It doesn't have the ability to run up and piledrive into ongoing fights like Garchomp can with Earthquake and Dragon Rush; instead, it's a potent duelist that has a solid matchup against opposing Focus Sash Garchomp and the ability to rob stat boosts from Pokemon like Armarouge and Gholdengo, which can prevent their Trainers from grabbing a point against another opponent. I treated it more like I how I played Focus Sash Lucario during Season 2 in that it might be wise to choose its fights a bit carefully, as it doesn't have the bulk and movement speed that lets Garchomp maneuver through potentially dangerous situations.
Meteordash already went over how powerful and bulky Melmetal is and what its biggest weakness is. All I'll say is having it in reserve allows me to help it position near ongoing all-out brawls, letting its combat ability shine while offsetting its sluggish movement a bit. Melmetal's overall bulk is also helpful to just sponge an attack aimed at its allies. Saving some Mega meter for its Plus Moves would probably be wise.
Given the item choices for the other two, I figured using Life Orb would be a natural choice for Armarouge. Having the item boost particularly guarantees the KO on Terrakion and non-Focus Sash Marshadow with Psychic+, as well as non-Charti Berry Volcanion with Meteor Beam+. EVs minimize Life Orb recoil.
Some notes during my climb:
(Z) 
Ghost / Fighting coverage feels particularly troublesome for this team. Opposing Marshadow is a given threat, but I've seen foes like Close Combat Mega Absol Z and Annihilape during my last few matches that felt a bit awkward to deal with. I should note that none of the Annihilape used Rage Fist; they seem to operate similarly to Marshadow with Phantom Force + Close Combat.
Although I've only seen a few, Volcanion's STAB typing and coverage made it hard to work around with this team. It also doesn't help I autopiloted on wrong plays by going for Solar Beam+ with Armarouge instead of Meteor Beam+.
These are some Pokemon I took note of during my own; given my lack of experience playing Season 4, I'm not sure if the former two would stay prevalent in the next three weeks. Mega Garchomp felt a bit harder to fight one-on-one than its base forme with both Marshadow and Melmetal given the invuln frames from Mega Evolving and its higher bulk. Porygon-Z seems like it can still snipe other teams that don't use the newly introduced Pokemon. Terrakion didn't have much impact in nearly every game I've seen it; there was one game on Quasartico where the opponent paired it with dual screens Ampharos and didn't get many KOs anyway.
I used this team to climb up to rank A for Season 5, 20-2-0-0 placement ratio.
I think Marshadow is a great alternative to Garchomp as the lead at the start of matches. It doesn't have the ability to run up and piledrive into ongoing fights like Garchomp can with Earthquake and Dragon Rush; instead, it's a potent duelist that has a solid matchup against opposing Focus Sash Garchomp and the ability to rob stat boosts from Pokemon like Armarouge and Gholdengo, which can prevent their Trainers from grabbing a point against another opponent. I treated it more like I how I played Focus Sash Lucario during Season 2 in that it might be wise to choose its fights a bit carefully, as it doesn't have the bulk and movement speed that lets Garchomp maneuver through potentially dangerous situations.
Meteordash already went over how powerful and bulky Melmetal is and what its biggest weakness is. All I'll say is having it in reserve allows me to help it position near ongoing all-out brawls, letting its combat ability shine while offsetting its sluggish movement a bit. Melmetal's overall bulk is also helpful to just sponge an attack aimed at its allies. Saving some Mega meter for its Plus Moves would probably be wise.
Given the item choices for the other two, I figured using Life Orb would be a natural choice for Armarouge. Having the item boost particularly guarantees the KO on Terrakion and non-Focus Sash Marshadow with Psychic+, as well as non-Charti Berry Volcanion with Meteor Beam+. EVs minimize Life Orb recoil.
Some notes during my climb:
(Z) Ghost / Fighting coverage feels particularly troublesome for this team. Opposing Marshadow is a given threat, but I've seen foes like Close Combat Mega Absol Z and Annihilape during my last few matches that felt a bit awkward to deal with. I should note that none of the Annihilape used Rage Fist; they seem to operate similarly to Marshadow with Phantom Force + Close Combat.
Although I've only seen a few, Volcanion's STAB typing and coverage made it hard to work around with this team. It also doesn't help I autopiloted on wrong plays by going for Solar Beam+ with Armarouge instead of Meteor Beam+.
These are some Pokemon I took note of during my own; given my lack of experience playing Season 4, I'm not sure if the former two would stay prevalent in the next three weeks. Mega Garchomp felt a bit harder to fight one-on-one than its base forme with both Marshadow and Melmetal given the invuln frames from Mega Evolving and its higher bulk. Porygon-Z seems like it can still snipe other teams that don't use the newly introduced Pokemon. Terrakion didn't have much impact in nearly every game I've seen it; there was one game on Quasartico where the opponent paired it with dual screens Ampharos and didn't get many KOs anyway.
Sat out most of S4 due to the holidays, but now, I have more time + a desire to play again, and S5’s meta looks pretty fun!
1st - 18 | 2nd - 4 | 3rd - 3 | 4th - 0 with this squad.
Blaziken @ Scope Lens
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Blaze Kick
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Focus Energy
Blaziken is the special mememon of the team, tho it’s more legit than it looks. S5 has introduced Pokémon that are prime targets for it, such as Melmetal, Magearna, Terrakion, Heatran, and Darkrai. Blaze Kick is strong and fast, of course, and Close Combat serves as your gap closer of choice, and it has some nuclear power when it crits. This STAB combo already dispatches a lot of common stuff like Gholdengo, Baxcalibur, and Porygon-Z, and I decided to pair this with Stone Edge for its ability to patch up the matchups against Armarouge and Golisopod, and beats random ladder bullshit like Dragonite and Charizard. Ken’s movement speed is also great, which means it can choose when to gap close with CC + run from the usual bullshit like EQ, and bc this is a crit set, it can just choose to ignore screens as well!
Its biggest weaknesses are its Garchomp matchup (not great), and its frailty and vulnerability to snipers.
I’d also consider SD over Stone Edge, which is more nuclear power at the cost of some matchups + having to be more selective with when you click. A special set also seems interesting with options like Heat Wave, Focus Blast, Solar Beam, and even Work Up.
Meloetta @ Life Orb
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Hyper Beam
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Calm Mind
Meloetta is a mon that not many people theorized or played with, with only Jibaku trying it after I brought it up on the Discord. It’s essentially a bulkier, slower P-Z that offers a better Marsh matchup. It’s pretty nuclear and does similar things to P-Z, so I won’t dive into much detail there. Shadow Ball was chosen to specifically help it in its matchups vs Gholdengo, and stray Psychics that can live Hyper Beam like the Lati twins, and Arma, though it’s more of a defensive move that you cast when they get in front of you. Tbolt is an option if you want to take full advantage of the sniper angle, or want to delete an unaware Pod before it deletes you.
Its slowness is annoying; and it can get dived by physical attackers easily, but it consistently farms kills due to winning against most special attackers anyways.
Golisopod @ Silver Powder
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Leech Life
- Waterfall
- Swords Dance
Golisopod is your breath and butter. I hadn’t used it before; pretty fun and super potent as expected. I missed LO quite a bit tbh.
This team’s Chomp matchup is pretty suspect, so I don’t think it’s the best long-term, but it was pretty fun to pilot!
___
Not a lot of trends to note that haven’t already been said above: there’s less snipers (which is pretty nice), and the bulk of the format has increased quite a bit with all of the 580-600 BST demons. Nothing new seems super commanding - Marshadow was noticeably very absent during my climb, Melm commands respect but you can choose to not engage with it, Gear is “fine” as far as snipers go, Terrak trades too much, Heatran’s Magma Storms end lives but otherwise gets farmed, etc. Garchomp loves all this new shit that’s weak to it, and it seems much stronger than it was at the beginning of S4. Obv early impressions, but it decisively feels like the best mon in the format.
Let’s see how the meta shapes up!
1st - 18 | 2nd - 4 | 3rd - 3 | 4th - 0 with this squad.
Blaziken @ Scope Lens
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Blaze Kick
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Focus Energy
Blaziken is the special mememon of the team, tho it’s more legit than it looks. S5 has introduced Pokémon that are prime targets for it, such as Melmetal, Magearna, Terrakion, Heatran, and Darkrai. Blaze Kick is strong and fast, of course, and Close Combat serves as your gap closer of choice, and it has some nuclear power when it crits. This STAB combo already dispatches a lot of common stuff like Gholdengo, Baxcalibur, and Porygon-Z, and I decided to pair this with Stone Edge for its ability to patch up the matchups against Armarouge and Golisopod, and beats random ladder bullshit like Dragonite and Charizard. Ken’s movement speed is also great, which means it can choose when to gap close with CC + run from the usual bullshit like EQ, and bc this is a crit set, it can just choose to ignore screens as well!
Its biggest weaknesses are its Garchomp matchup (not great), and its frailty and vulnerability to snipers.
I’d also consider SD over Stone Edge, which is more nuclear power at the cost of some matchups + having to be more selective with when you click. A special set also seems interesting with options like Heat Wave, Focus Blast, Solar Beam, and even Work Up.
Meloetta @ Life Orb
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Hyper Beam
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Calm Mind
Meloetta is a mon that not many people theorized or played with, with only Jibaku trying it after I brought it up on the Discord. It’s essentially a bulkier, slower P-Z that offers a better Marsh matchup. It’s pretty nuclear and does similar things to P-Z, so I won’t dive into much detail there. Shadow Ball was chosen to specifically help it in its matchups vs Gholdengo, and stray Psychics that can live Hyper Beam like the Lati twins, and Arma, though it’s more of a defensive move that you cast when they get in front of you. Tbolt is an option if you want to take full advantage of the sniper angle, or want to delete an unaware Pod before it deletes you.
Its slowness is annoying; and it can get dived by physical attackers easily, but it consistently farms kills due to winning against most special attackers anyways.
Golisopod @ Silver Powder
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Leech Life
- Waterfall
- Swords Dance
Golisopod is your breath and butter. I hadn’t used it before; pretty fun and super potent as expected. I missed LO quite a bit tbh.
This team’s Chomp matchup is pretty suspect, so I don’t think it’s the best long-term, but it was pretty fun to pilot!
___
Not a lot of trends to note that haven’t already been said above: there’s less snipers (which is pretty nice), and the bulk of the format has increased quite a bit with all of the 580-600 BST demons. Nothing new seems super commanding - Marshadow was noticeably very absent during my climb, Melm commands respect but you can choose to not engage with it, Gear is “fine” as far as snipers go, Terrak trades too much, Heatran’s Magma Storms end lives but otherwise gets farmed, etc. Garchomp loves all this new shit that’s weak to it, and it seems much stronger than it was at the beginning of S4. Obv early impressions, but it decisively feels like the best mon in the format.
Let’s see how the meta shapes up!
It's not impossible, but I'm finding it harder to teambuild with Mega Evolutions this season. Megas need full mega meter to activate, and with how bulky most of the new legends and mythicals are, I'm feeling I need all the plus power I can get. If I'm using a Mega, that means I need to reserve meter for it, which results in less plus moves, and damage ranges aren't being met in fights.
I think the best way to use a Mega now is alongside Pokemon that generate meter really quickly, whether it's through dual Screens or alongside other strong setup Pokemon that don't always need to use plus moves. Tbf, Megas always paired the best with those mons, but I feel it's more necessary than ever to run pseudo-batteries alongside them.
I think the best way to use a Mega now is alongside Pokemon that generate meter really quickly, whether it's through dual Screens or alongside other strong setup Pokemon that don't always need to use plus moves. Tbf, Megas always paired the best with those mons, but I feel it's more necessary than ever to run pseudo-batteries alongside them.