I have a wonderful fun team that has spent a lot of time evolving in response to threats it's encountered. The battle starts at team preview. People's teams are normally fairly predictable about which pokemon they're gonna bring out first, which is something you can use to your advantage. Predicting right early on can pay off hugely. My overall strategy is lead with the right pokemon, poke holes in their lineup early, bait sleep, defog as soon as possible (which is only really a concern because I have 2 focus sash pokemon), and sweeeeeeep (for the purposes of this team, toxic stalling is considered sweeping).
Fidgeting (Arceus) @ Fist Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Mild Nature
- Judgment
- Defog
- Extreme Speed
- Sludge Bomb
My defogger. I am very much aware of the fact that it is not a recommended type for this arceus and I had an ekiller that left my team really weak to steel and dark types. Fighting was an excellent choice because it takes half from stealth rock and hits steel, dark, and normal super-effectively. I like to take it out when their hazard setter dies and defog. People like to burn it, which is great since the bulk of my damage is special, and it's also a great way to lure out xerneas and surprise it with sludge bomb once it's defogged.
Steak Tartarezard(Charizard) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower
- Air Slash
- Solar Beam
- Dragon Pulse
I like to lead with this one a lot of the time. It can typically outspeed and 2hko groudon with solar beam even when non-mega, and if they bring in kyogre it can put in some serious work with mega-evolving and solar beaming. I also will often, depending on the makeup of the rest of the team and the amount of health groudon has left, switch to a non-solar beam attack so if kyogre comes in I'm not stuck charging a solar beam. Air slash can most of the time make Ho-Oh flinch at least once, and it can outspeed a lot of palkias/other dragons with dragon pulse.
Lugia @ Leftovers
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SpD
Bold Nature
- Toxic
- Ice Beam
- Roost
- Whirlwind
Lugia is in kind of an island. I blatantly stole this set directly from smogon and it's served me well so far. I normally bring it in on something that can't really hurt it much if rocks are up, and toxic and heal spam. Occasionally someone will bring in a rayquaza or something, so that's a relatively easy kill. But in general, toxic, heal, and whirlwind if someone tries to bring in geoxern or something. It very slowly wins against lucario and over the course of a battle the probability of you freezing something, if you use all your ice beams, is about 71.5%.
physical wall(Gengar) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunder
- Clear Smog
- Energy Ball
- Shadow Ball
This guy. This fukken guy. He can do 60% to a sweeping geoxern, kill a mega gengar (and probably hit whatever comes next super-effectively before dying), make kyogres cry, finish off groudons, switch into extremespeeds, make aegislashes waste turns setting up and shadow sneaking just to die, trick people into thinking earthquake is a good idea... He's really fast and really strong and unexpected. Even if people realize he's not mega, they often aren't expecting a focus sash. And as an added bonus it screws over Baton Pass teams once substitutes fade.
no steel plz(Cloyster) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Ice Shard
This other guy. This fukken other guy. I occasionally lead with it. It's a great way to screw over deoxys-s; they always taunt, but they're 2hko'd with a non-shell-smash icicle spear. After a shell smash, it can ko mewtwo (normal or mega y), palkia, groudon, deoxys (other than d), mega-kangaskhan (theoretically, anyway, if they don't have sucker punch), darkrai, yveltal, zekrom, ho-oh, rayquaza, and probably lots more pokemon I'm missing. Hell, it can ohko a couple of those before focus sash. If you add in crits, which aren't that unreasonable since you have about a 14.7% chance of critting with a 5-hit move, you can probably expand this list even further. The metagame is full of birds and dragons, and except for skarmory and dialga every single one of them is hit super-effectively by this set. And it wins against baton pass teams, if you're into that.
Poonblast(Xerneas) @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast
- Psyshock
My goal with xerneas is simple: geomancy and sweep. After priority users are dead, I can switch to xerneas on pretty much any special attacker and do just fine. Moonblast is for whatever doesn't resist it, focus blast is for steel types, psyshock is for fire types (which basically means ho-oh) and poison types.
So there you have it, a hilariously unorthodox team that kind of struggles with Mega Kangaskhan (and apparently Chansey) but performs solidly against most teams that have neither.
Fidgeting (Arceus) @ Fist Plate
Ability: Multitype
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Mild Nature
- Judgment
- Defog
- Extreme Speed
- Sludge Bomb
My defogger. I am very much aware of the fact that it is not a recommended type for this arceus and I had an ekiller that left my team really weak to steel and dark types. Fighting was an excellent choice because it takes half from stealth rock and hits steel, dark, and normal super-effectively. I like to take it out when their hazard setter dies and defog. People like to burn it, which is great since the bulk of my damage is special, and it's also a great way to lure out xerneas and surprise it with sludge bomb once it's defogged.
Steak Tartarezard(Charizard) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower
- Air Slash
- Solar Beam
- Dragon Pulse
I like to lead with this one a lot of the time. It can typically outspeed and 2hko groudon with solar beam even when non-mega, and if they bring in kyogre it can put in some serious work with mega-evolving and solar beaming. I also will often, depending on the makeup of the rest of the team and the amount of health groudon has left, switch to a non-solar beam attack so if kyogre comes in I'm not stuck charging a solar beam. Air slash can most of the time make Ho-Oh flinch at least once, and it can outspeed a lot of palkias/other dragons with dragon pulse.
Lugia @ Leftovers
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SpD
Bold Nature
- Toxic
- Ice Beam
- Roost
- Whirlwind
Lugia is in kind of an island. I blatantly stole this set directly from smogon and it's served me well so far. I normally bring it in on something that can't really hurt it much if rocks are up, and toxic and heal spam. Occasionally someone will bring in a rayquaza or something, so that's a relatively easy kill. But in general, toxic, heal, and whirlwind if someone tries to bring in geoxern or something. It very slowly wins against lucario and over the course of a battle the probability of you freezing something, if you use all your ice beams, is about 71.5%.
physical wall(Gengar) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunder
- Clear Smog
- Energy Ball
- Shadow Ball
This guy. This fukken guy. He can do 60% to a sweeping geoxern, kill a mega gengar (and probably hit whatever comes next super-effectively before dying), make kyogres cry, finish off groudons, switch into extremespeeds, make aegislashes waste turns setting up and shadow sneaking just to die, trick people into thinking earthquake is a good idea... He's really fast and really strong and unexpected. Even if people realize he's not mega, they often aren't expecting a focus sash. And as an added bonus it screws over Baton Pass teams once substitutes fade.
no steel plz(Cloyster) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Ice Shard
This other guy. This fukken other guy. I occasionally lead with it. It's a great way to screw over deoxys-s; they always taunt, but they're 2hko'd with a non-shell-smash icicle spear. After a shell smash, it can ko mewtwo (normal or mega y), palkia, groudon, deoxys (other than d), mega-kangaskhan (theoretically, anyway, if they don't have sucker punch), darkrai, yveltal, zekrom, ho-oh, rayquaza, and probably lots more pokemon I'm missing. Hell, it can ohko a couple of those before focus sash. If you add in crits, which aren't that unreasonable since you have about a 14.7% chance of critting with a 5-hit move, you can probably expand this list even further. The metagame is full of birds and dragons, and except for skarmory and dialga every single one of them is hit super-effectively by this set. And it wins against baton pass teams, if you're into that.
Poonblast(Xerneas) @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Geomancy
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast
- Psyshock
My goal with xerneas is simple: geomancy and sweep. After priority users are dead, I can switch to xerneas on pretty much any special attacker and do just fine. Moonblast is for whatever doesn't resist it, focus blast is for steel types, psyshock is for fire types (which basically means ho-oh) and poison types.
So there you have it, a hilariously unorthodox team that kind of struggles with Mega Kangaskhan (and apparently Chansey) but performs solidly against most teams that have neither.
