SV NU Pink Pony Club (RANK 1 TEAM)

APOGRAPHA · Mar 12, 2026

Pink Pony Club: Bulky Offense For The Super Graphic Ultra Modern Battler

Hi. Paladin here (Smogon name change #pending), and today I have a ladder-smashing, momentum-stopping, cheese-eating, progress-focused bulky offense team for your forays into the dark depths of the NU ladder. This team was built around the idea of Wish Scream Tail + AV Copperajah, maximizing Pony's value in such a specially-oriented format, and using Scream Tail's excellent utility and physical bulk to complement it. This team holds a special place in my heart, as every inclusion to this team is related to deeply cherished competitive Pokemon memories.

I've been playing competitive singles on and off for years, and my first "serious" attempt at laddering was in Gen6 UU. My favorite team was a balance build with a dastardly Sylveon + M-Aggron core, and was one of the first teams I ever took to Top 500, which was huge for 15-year old Paladin. I'll be taking a few sentences in each Pokemon breakdown to highlight each relevant memory, but believe me, this team is fine-tuned to wrestle the NU metagame and come out on top.

The Pink Pony Club has gone through rigorous checks and balances from some of the greatest minds in NU, with a few test matches to finalize spreads. I then went on an 11-1 stomp fest to 1537 (at the time of writing) to prove its merit, I unfortunately do not have replays as I rarely think to save ladder matches. You will have to take my word that I didn't just farm 1100s with this.

~~UPDATE:~~ ~~I peaked Rank 4 with this team! (Ignore my bad GXE, spent a lot of time playing bad teams in the 1300s with this ID)~~
MEGA CHUNGUS UPDATE: r-r-r-r-r-RANK 1!!!!

Good Luck, Babe! (Scream Tail) @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 220 Def / 40 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Encore
- Psychic Noise

Scream Tail is a really cool Pokemon in NU, it has a ton of viable sets, Tera Steel is always a headache to deal with, and a quad resistance to Fighting will always make your opponents think twice about what they click, and considering most Fighting-types in NU run a Band or Scarf, you can abuse this advantage heavily. Wish is the crux of the set, utilizing Scream Tail's bronze medal HP pool to heal itself or your teammates. Protect of course guarantees the Wish heal the following turn, but it also acts as scouting and Leftovers recovery. Since Scream Tail will be staring down plenty of choiced mons, Protect gets clicked a lot to give you the information you need to make the best play. Our Scream Tail is 220+ Defense to give it as much padding as possible, with 40 speed EVs allocated to speed creep Modest Toxtricity, +1 Defensive Tsareena, etc.

Encore is a brutal, brutal move. Lock Flygons into Dragon Dances or Earthquakes, lock Gligar into Spikes, lock G-Articuno into Calm Mind, the world's your oyster. Encore essentially guarantees you the ideal scenario every time into other passive Pokemon, while being a last resort for tricky 50/50s against setup sweepers. It's exceptionally good at simplifying endgames, and will always flip the momentum in your favor if used successfully early on.

Special-type Poison coverage is quite rare, and the usual culprits in Munkidori and Toxtricity are very telegraphed. Since 9/10 Munkidoris are choiced, Protect solves that for you. Toxtricity is evidently a bit of an issue for our pink puff here, so that's why we pair it with...

The Pony (Copperajah) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sheer Force
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Play Rough

Copperajah is simply ridiculous in NU. Ridiculous base HP, access to every Big Attack you'd want in a physical slab, and best of all, it just shrugs off almost every special attacker in the tier thanks to Assault Vest. Sure, Stealth Rocks + Leftovers is cool and whatever, but have you ever switched in Copperajah to take 18% from [insert special move here] and click Heavy Slam or Knock Off for 67-85% in return? Hell, it even outright kills the aforementioned Munkidori and Toxtricity. It also one-taps Chandelure, Espeon (it needs to be >220 Def and +1 from Grassy Seed to eat Heavy Slam), Raikou, and Meloetta after Rocks. Now it's rare that these KOs will come easy, but don't fret, Knock Off still hands out significant chip to the rest of NU and Heavy Slam will be dishing out 30-45% right after.

Most of my games I spent clicking Knock or Slam, I either got my item or there was no reason to overpredict the switch-in. Earthquake is your obvious coverage, hitting other Steel-types and getting you real damage on Rhyperior, Incineroar, and Bellibolt. Play Rough is your second coverage, hitting Flygon, Goodra, Heracross, and Scrafty for outright KOs on the switch, and Paldean Tauros Aqua eating a cool 62-75% after Intimidate.

Tera Flying might seem egregious with two Ground immunities on the team, but with Tera Fairy being largely overkill, Tera Fly lets you dodge Earthquakes from opposing Copperajah or pesky Flygons and eliminate them in return. Assault Vest still gives you lots of SpD to tank most Thunderbolts, even after Tera Fly.

Lastly, Copperajah struggles mainly with pivot and chip damage wearing it down, as does any Assault Vest user. While you do have Wish, it's crucial you aren't letting Pony eat random Knock Offs or try and go 1-for-1 with your opponent's fat physical attacker. Use the Pony to force progress via Knock, or claim a KO after shrugging off [insert special move here]. I only am happy going 1-for-1 if I'm claiming a Flygon.

Red Wine Supernova (Flygon) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 100 Atk / 156 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Stealth Rock

Every Steel/Fairy core needs a Dragon-type. Also every team needs a Ground type. A ground-immunity for Rajah would be helpful. Would be great if said mon was a legit threat, and could hit every Steel-type in the tier. All these reasons (and one more) is what solidified Mixed Flygon on this team. 100 Atk Life Orb Earthquake is still amazing STAB, with 156 Spa Fire Blast giving you OHKO chances against 252HP/0SpD Brambleghast, Decidueye, and Thwackey. Tera Fire lets you blow up 0HP Tsareena, Magnet Rise Klefki, and cleanly 2HKO Bronzong. The investments also let Draco Meteor hit like a truck.

The mixed coverage gives you immense offensive depth to support the very distinct roleplayers on your team. Stealth Rocks are more valuable here than U-turn, as you have many hard switch candidates and plenty of Knock Off support. Rocks ease you into a lot of Copperajah and Flamigo's KO ranges, while also baiting in those pesky Grass-types to then break with Fire Blast.

Once you reveal Draco Meteor, you can see scenarios where you can Fire Blast opposing Flygons on the Tera Steel setup turn. Otherwise, most of Flygon's job is to claim kills with STAB, and catch its common checks off guard with Fire Blast.

This set is almost 1:1 to a Regenerator Garchomp set I used in AAA tournaments, I got the idea from Ivar57, and paired with a Scarf/Life Orb/Yache Berry, it was one of the most versatile threats I've ever seen. While this Flygon pales in comparison, it reminds me that there's always a set that fits your needs if you look or cook hard enough. Most teams were unprepared for it, or couldn't afford to be beyond your usual Boltbeam coverage. NU is severely lacking in that, so outside of the random Ice Beam Swampert, even the repeat opponents on ladder will struggle to work around this Flygon set, especially when its bolstered so well by Scream and Copperajah.

HOT TO GO! (Incineroar) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 248 HP / 212 SpD / 48 Spe
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Flare Blitz
- Will-O-Wisp
- Parting Shot

I liked Incineroar here so I pulled the Smogon sample set, Import, Export, move on to slot 5.

I'm not going to regurgitate the analysis, but what I can tell you about Incineroar is it patches a lot of tricky situations the three mons above it run into. Enemy Incineroars, the move Flare Blitz, Knock Off in theory and in practice, and Ghost moves. I also will give you a lukewarm take in STAB Knock Off is ridiculously valuable in NU, and especially in Bulky Offense/Balance.

Incineroar slows down the opposing offense, gets rid of Boots and Leftovers, burns Cincinno, Tsareena, Swampert, and whatever else likes to stay in on the cat. I went with Tera Fairy to resist Dark/Fighting if necessary, but the only time I hit the Tera button on Incin the enemy missed Focus Blast anyways.

Parting Shot is the perfect pivot move for this team, letting you bring in Flamigo and Flygon much more safely, or give more breathing room to Scream to heal up your team. Don't be like me and use it on G-Articuno, Copperajah took 60% from +4 Hurricane!! Scary!!

Incineroar has taught me so much about competitive Pokemon, inside and out. He was a staple in my DOU team that I piloted to Top 50, which at the time 20-21 year old me thought was absolute godlike battling ability. Incineroar usage in doubles and singles taught me more about turn-by-turn pivoting, ranges, and setting up for endgames more than any other Pokemon. I also briefly mained him in Smash Ultimate, but I'm awful at Smash.

The Pink (Tatsugiri-Droopy) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Storm Drain
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 56 HP / 252 Def / 16 SpA / 184 Spe
Modest Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Surf
- Rapid Spin
- Draco Meteor

Okay I need you to stay with me here. The Tatsugiri is not a meme. It's not a gimmick. It's genuinely a really good fit here. Tatsugiri is somewhat frail, but Storm Drain lets you completely ignore Vaporeon, Swampert after a burn, and anything locked into a Water move that you scouted with Scream Tail. Nasty Plot lets you exacerbate the issue further, getting +3 off a clueless Vaporeon looking to Scald burn your Pony, and threaten the biggest Drop A Draco the tier has ever seen.

Hazard removal is definitely necessary with the amount of hard switching you will find yourself doing, but Ghost-types spinblocking you can be quite the issue. Thankfully you have multiple answers to Brambleghast, and Fluffystone accomplishes little. Basculegion? Results may vary. Regardless, Tatsugiri gives you sweep potential, Water immunity, hazard removal, and demands immediate answers if given even one free turn.

You've probably noticed the very specific spread, and here's the logic: You need 200 speed to be faster than Modest Tox, thankfully Rapid Spin covers the rest. At +1, you outspeed the entire tier save Kilowattrel and Barraskewda, but Kilowattrel is fake and Bandakewda can't KO you with Close Combat thanks to your defensive investments, and you send it to Saturn with Draco anyways. If you're somehow able to get +2, you'll naturally outspeed most scarfers as well. Since your team is designed to handle Scarf Munki and ShiftSpray Tox, trying to match them is pointless. I decided to go with Modest nature as the extra SpA made +1 Surf and Draco Meteor find kills it normally wouldn't with no investment, and it shouldn't be a shock that +3 Surf/Draco will obliterate anything not named Chansey. +3 0+ SpA Tatsugiri Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Vaporeon: 466-549 (100.4 - 118.3%). How convenient!

I think Tatsugiri is really fun and fits a very special niche on this team, but I can definitely see why this mon will be in PU forever. The moves I run are its only real moves, and outside of a solid SpA stat, it offers little. The defense invesments definitely give it some well-needed armor, and one Scream Tail Wish will literally restore 70%. You can also very easily threaten really lopsided endgames with Tera Fairy, abusing Storm Drain alongside eliminating the glaring Dragon weakness. I love Storm Drain, abusing immunities is always fun, but using them to force doubles or give yourself initiative at any time was a concept that I only fully grasped in early AAA, a format littered with Well-Baked Body, Earth Eater, etc. Honestly, I think I just miss Gastrodon.

The Club (Flamigo) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Scrappy
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Roost

Janitor by day. Ghostbuster by night. This is the Club.

If you've played NU, you're acutely aware of Scarf Migo. Scarf Migo works two jobs on this team, and is more than happy to pull overtime. This is an extremely standard set, and you get Flamigo in on Encore victims, Ground-types trying to hit your Pony, or a well-timed Parting Shot.

Click button. Something breaks or faints. You'll find yourself in a lot of Tera Fly Brave Bird endgames. Knowing this, I play to keep Flamigo as healthy as possible. It's not impossible to get a Wish onto the bird, but it's rarely a feasible solution to overextension. Your team is more than happy to come in after a safe U-turn. Don't worry about just getting chip with Close Combat, you'll be back later.

It's also a Fighting resist. A Ground immunity. Hits Steel types hard. You know this. You're smart, you read this whole write-up after all!

I keep Roost as a fourth move for post-Knock scenarios, but it's a really rare click. Run whatever you want. I have a soft spot for Flamigo because it was a SD set that got me to 2100s in Random Battles a few months ago. Then I went on a loss streak and let the elo decay. Stupid randbats.

Well, that's all 6. Thanks for reading.

See you around,
Paladin

Mixed Flygon walks into a bar. The bartender looks at him and says, "This isn't a cocktail bar." The Flygon laughs and says, "I'm just waiting for my friend". Later, Tatsugiri walks into the same bar, and the bartender says, "The asian fusion restaurant is next door." Tatsugiri laughs and says, "I'm just here for my friend, Flygon. Can I have a water to start?" The bartender pours Tatsugiri a water. Storm Drain procs, and then Tatsugiri clicks +1 Draco Meteor on the bartender for being an asshole. Mixed Flygon Fire Blasts the building to start a fire and cover the evidence. They were never caught.