Dog Barker
Banned deucer.
Click on the sprites for the team
The Teambuilding Process:
Hazards are busted this gen. I decided to use a two-lead system that incorporates Spikes + Taunt, SR + Rough Skin, and a spinblocker / defog blocker + 2 Terra ghosts. There's Chien Pao as the main breaker and potential cleaner along with Dragonite, and one defensive pivot Quaquaval; Gholdengo does a good job with its own bulk and defenses, too.
TheFlagIsRaised (Meowscarada) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Overgrow
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flower Trick
- Knock Off
- Taunt
- Spikes
- Overgrow + Focus Sash makes Flower Trick super powerful in general, and is a welcomed nuke vs Great Tusk and Rotom; not making contact makes the lead Garchomp matchup better as well.
- Versus a lead Chien Pao, it's a coinflip if Flower Trick OHKOes: 50% chance to OHKO; and that's praying you don't get flinched. I'd still go for it lol.
- Overgrow also means you retain your STAB attacks, so a following Knock Off retains full power.
- Don't use Taunt to prevent opposing hazards; you have spin in the back, and it's not that important anyways. Use Taunt to prevent recovery from say Toxapex and Defog from Corvinite.
- Tera Ghost for the following:
- 1.) Block Rapid Spin from anything, or;
- 2.) Win the lead matchup versus Focus Sash Breloom.
- Almost always lead Meow (unless chomp is better), and play agro with it; if you want to keep it, the best reasons are the following:
- 1.) The fast taunt vs Cinderace, or;
- 2.) Flower Trick to nail the limited––or nonexistent––Grass-resistant-foes.
Ability: Rough Skin
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Draco Meteor + Fire Blast will nail pretty much everything that Earthquake can't.
- You want max Special Attack to nuke physical walls like Great Tusk and Rotom-W.
- Tera Ghost for spinblocking, but note that versus some foes like Great Tusk, the damage from Draco Meteor will cause it to KO itself from Rough Skin and prevent spin; if not, you more than likely will outright KO it with Draco Meteor; or you face Assault Vest.
- Use Garchomp early and agro when their hazard removal / prevention loses to it. That would be the following: Great Tusk, Corvinite, Iron Treds, and Cinderace.
- Versus Hatterene, you'll nail it with Earthquake damage, and the following Gholdengo is a safe bet.
- Keep Garchomp for the late-game when it is necessary to revenge kill with its coverage; beating Paldean Taurus formes is a huge asset for Chien-Pao, as is nuking Rotom-W for Dragonite.
Ability: Sword of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Icicle Crash
- Sacred Sword
- Ice Shard
- Tangent: this mon is insanely broken and should have been banned a while ago.
- Use it as the primary revenge killer AND wallbreaker.
- Sacred Sword is its best coverage and will allow you to OHKO the mirror; not necessary with this team but still a good backup.
- Ice Shard is better than Sucker Punch because you avoid the awful lock into no damage and you still OHKO Dragapult most of the time.
- Use Tera Dark liberally; not only is the damage insane, but you'll take half damage from SR and as a result, you double your turns on the field and rely less on spin.
- If you already popped Tera and the opponent goes into a wall that is vulnerable to your coverage (Skeleridge, Garganacl, ect.), then expect a defensive Tera to follow.
Ability: Torrent
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 240 Def / 20 Spe
Impish Nature
- Aqua Step
- Rapid Spin
- Roost
- U-turn
- If there's one set I didn't steal from anyone, it's this one.
- Defensive Quaquaval uses its unique typing and recovery in Roost to check notable physical attackers like Chien-Pao, Kingambit, and Scizor.
- Because these three and others like Greninja and Cinderace struggle to get past it, Quaquaval finds a lot of great switch-ins to the metagame's revenge killers.
- This makes it a perfect defensive pivot with U-turn, bringing in the team's wallbreakers like Chien-Pao and Garchomp.
- The physical bulk and typing also makes it a good user for Rapid Spin, as you can beatup the likes of Great Tusk, Clodsire, and Ting-Lu.
- The Speed EVs are somewhat arbitrary; you outspeed Dragapult at +2; if that even matters.
- Quaquaval, despite its investement, really isn't that bulky; use it to deter STAB attacks that it resists, but not much else.
- Don't be afraid to either sack it or spam U-turn over Rapid Spin / Roost; the more momentum you secure from it is better than keeping this around for the end-game.
Chaos Follows (Gholdengo) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Make It Rain
- Nasty Plot
- Recover
- In hazard offense, you always need Gholdengo to block Defog and spin.
- Air Baloon softens the switch-in versus Great Tusk and Iron Treds when spinblocking, and it also means Clodsire and Ting-Lu have a harder time dealing with you.
- Tera Fighting as a means to resist Sucker Punch and Crunch while not being vulnerable to the STAB attacks of the mirror.
- Nasty Plot helps with stallbreaking and cleaning in some late-game scenarios where it outspeeds the foe
- The bulk + Recover is necessary so Booster Energy Iron Valiant doesn't run away with the win.
- Note that Gholdengo will need to transition from wall to wallbreaker depending on the matchup and what foes remain; feel comfortable knowing this double-role and when it applies; you wouldn't trade with Gholdengo early on when the preview shows like the likes of Iron Valiant and Breloom still around.
Heaven Sings (Dragonite) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Hurricane
- Dragonite is the primary cleaner of the team, using the damage done from entry hazards and the previous wallbreakers to ease its way to wins.
- Hurricane is the coverage of choice because it pairs exceedingly well with Chien-Pao; eliminating Great Tusk and Paldeon Tauros formes is too good; but it's not only those two; physical walls like Dondozo and Amongus don't fancy the damage either; you even avoid the adverse contact effect from Volcorona and Garchomp; what's not to love?
- There's not much else to say about Dragonite other than that it too is busted and this team supports it sweeping perfectly.
Replays:
Ladder Topping Game: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1786407032
Versus Lead Breloon: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1786350057
Versus Toxic Spikes (they stay up the whole game: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1786329762
Versus Thunder Powell: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1786321931
Versus Tera Dragapult: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1786308962
I also goobed blunder
