Other Metagames AAA Electric Snow Offense

BreloomBuddy

BreloomBuddy

Slowking is great in Gen 9 with its new support in the form of Chilly Reception. It’s even better in Almost Any Ability, given all of its increased support options through abilities. Gen 9 also gives a lot of support to Electric Terrain, such as the abilities Quark Drive and Hadron Engine. As such, it felt only natural to design a team based on these factors. I call it Electric Snow Offense. The team is built around leading with Electric Surge Slowking and setting up snow with Chilly Reception, then going into one of my four sweepers and making as much progress as I can before I need to set up again.


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Big Dummy (Slowking) @ Leftovers
Ability: Electric Surge
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Chilly Reception
- Slack Off
- Foul Play
- Thunder Wave

This is the guy my team revolves around. I chose Slowking because it is the only thing in the game that learns Chilly Reception, which is essential for supporting Iron Bundle. For an attack, I chose Foul Play to take advantage of heavy attackers like Orichalcum Pulse Ceruledge.
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Santy Clause (Iron Bundle) @ Light Clay
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Aurora Veil
- Hydro Pump
- Freeze-Dry
- U-turn

Usually the first thing I switch to after Slowking has set the stage is Iron Bundle. Quark Drive makes it the ultimate speedster, giving it the chance to set up Aurora Veil with Slowking’s snow. From there, I can begin attacking safely from behind my screens or pivot to another ally.
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Laminator (Dragapult) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Hadron Engine
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Draco Meteor
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt

Dragapult was my preferred choice for an offensive terrain setter due to its blistering speed and specially offensive nature. Hadron Engine is great for boosting his power, and with its great speed letting it outpace nearly the entire meta game, Dragapult is able to force a lot of switches, giving him a chance to use U-turn and bring in an ally to make use of Electric Terrain. For the attacks, I chose Dragapult’s STABS alongside Thunderbolt, as it is powered up by the terrain.
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Baxter (Baxcalibur) @ Life Orb
Ability: Surge Surfer
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Glaive Rush
- Icicle Spear
- Ice Shard

Baxter is my favorite. With Surge Surfer active, I don’t even need a Jolly Nature to out speed everything, so apart from his ability, I can focus entirely on power. For his moves, I chose Swords Dance, dual STABs, and Ice shard because I wanted to get as much power as I could out of Baxter’s main attacks, Glaive Rush and Icicle Spear, while maintaining speed control outside of Electric Terrain by use of priority. As a bonus, he gains 50% Defense from snow, so he is harder to revenge kill.
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Arms (Iron Valiant) @ Magnet
Ability: Transistor
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Thunder Punch
- Close Combat
- Ice Punch
- Swords Dance

Iron Valiant fights with the element of surprise. Originally, this slot was filled by Transistor Pawmot, who I favored for the ability to nuke any non-Ground types it came into contact with under Electric Terrain. However, Ground types exist, and they are what my opponent will always switch to if they suspect an electric nuke. However, Transistor is not the most likely thing to be seen on Iron Valiant, and even without the STAB, it’s Thunder Punches still hit incredibly hard. I chose Iron Valiant for the role for its strong Attack and Speed stats, and its ability to complete BoltBeam coverage, for the instances in which my opponent realizes they need to use Ground Types.
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Midknight (Corviknight) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
Impish Nature
- Defog
- U-turn
- Roost
- Body Press

Corviknight is the team’s defensive backbone. Volt Absorb provides him the ability to easily take Electric type attack from opponents who want to mooch off of my terrain. The team also desperately needed a switch in for Toxics and Earthquakes, as well as hazard control, all of which Corviknight accoplishes easily.


My greatest problem with this team is setting up against offensive teams. I was wondering if Cyclizar would make a good team member for safer pivoting. Any suggestions on different movesets or who to replace (except for Baxter) is greatly appreciated, as I am somewhat new to Gen 9 (but then again, Gen 9 is new to everyone). Thank you.

Here is the PokePaste
 
Hey! Slowking offense is a really cool team idea, and this is certainly an interesting take on it! I just have some notes on a few ways you might be able to improve things!

> The first thing is that Terastallization is banned in AAA, so the Ground Tera Slowking and Electric Tera Iron Valiant unfortunately aren't going to work out.
> Desolate Land and Primordial Sea are decently common and used by very good Pokemon (i.e. Iron Moth, Volcarona, Iron Bundle), so using Snow to set Screens isn't very reliable and will just tank your matchups into those abilities almost irreparably

Moving on to the sets:
Terrain strat

:sv/Slowking:
Big Dummy (Slowking) @ Leftovers
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Chilly Reception
- Slack Off
- Foul Play
- Thunder Wave

:sv/Dragapult:
Laminator (Dragapult) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Hadron Engine
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Draco Meteor
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt

Because of its weakness to Electric (which you can no longer rectify with a nicely timed Tera), Slowking doesn't come off as that great of an Electric Terrain setter for this team. Dragapult is a great Hadron Drive user, but running HDB neuters a lot of its power and makes it a lot more difficult to do meaningful damage to foes like Ice Scales Corvknight.

I'd suggest maybe trading out Slowking for a more offensive setter that still threatens Ground-types, such as Sandy Shocks or Rotom-Wash:
:sv/Rotom-Wash:
Rotom-Wash @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Trick

:sv/Sandy Shocks:
Sandy Shocks @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Earth Power
- Thunderbolt
- Spikes

Either of these are decent alternatives to Slowking, but if you want to take it a step further, you could actually give either of them Hadron Engine and then run this Dragapult set to maintain relatively the same level of power:

Dragapult @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Dragon Rush
- U-turn
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt

You do take Life Orb (and entry hazards chip) with this, but you're still plenty strong and can pivot. Alternatively, you can run your original set but with Magic Guard + Life Orb instead of Hadron Engine + Life Orb, just to better avoid hazards. Just wanted to give you a few more options :P

:sv/Iron Valiant:
(Iron Valiant) @ Magnet
Ability: Transistor
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Thunder Punch
- Close Combat
- Ice Punch
- Swords Dance

---
Iron Valiant
Contrary to what its stat distribution might tell you, Iron Valiant actually tends to benefit most from a special biased set with Close Combat (and sometimes Knock Off) as coverage. This is because of Sheer Force, which conveniently gives more damage amp than your set (without even having to rely on Swords Dance!):

Iron Valiant @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Close Combat
- Thunderbolt / Shadow Ball
- Zen Headbutt / Psychic / Knock Off

I won't rehash exactly why this kind of set is good since there's a very well written analysis on Iron Valiant already uploaded, but the general idea is that in AAA, not having to set up in order to OHKO and 2HKO most of the metagame is very valuable (especially when you have limited screens turns).

---
Corviknight
The only comments I have for your Corviknight are 1) to give it minimum speed (0 ivs and a Relaxed nature) so that you can get the slowest possible pivot for your team and 2) to give it Brave Bird instead of Body Press. In a tier overrun by Ghost-, Steel-, and Fairy-types, you don't want your main switch-in to them to lack a good way to actually do damage. For example, Volt Absorb Corviknight is an Iron Valiant check, but not if your best move to hit it with is Body Press, which it resists. I don't know what the EVs do so I won't speculate, but just make sure you always have enough to never get 2HKOed by Iron Valiant after Stealth Rock (4 Atk Life Orb Iron Valiant Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 168+ Def Corviknight: 157-187 (39.2 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery), which you already have, but just make sure that if you ever change the EVs around you don't miss this benchmark.

---
Baxcalibur
On average, Icicle Spear is very notably weaker than Icicle Crash:
- 252+ Atk Life Orb Baxcalibur Icicle Spear (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Corviknight: 186-222 (46.5 - 55.5%) -- approx. 5.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
- 252+ Atk Life Orb Baxcalibur Icicle Crash vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Corviknight: 207-243 (51.7 - 60.7%) -- 93.4% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

With Icicle Spear, you're missing out on a guaranteed 2HKO, so without Loaded Dice or something, It doesn't seem like it's really worth it.

---
Iron Bundle
Santy Clause (Iron Bundle) @ Light Clay
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Aurora Veil
- Hydro Pump
- Freeze-Dry
- U-turn

If you accept that Snow + Aurora Veil isn't going to be reliable on a tier with permaweather abilities (and opposing Orichalcum users that easily switch into Iron Bundle and nullify it), then that begs the question of what to do with this slot. For this, you could either just run standard Iron Bundle:

:sv/Iron Bundle:
Iron Bundle @ Choice Specs
Ability: Primordial Sea
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Freeze-Dry
- U-turn

Just to have an offensive Pokemon that fries everything in front of it, OR

:sv/Cyclizar:
Cyclizar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 234 HP / 24 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shed Tail
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Rapid Spin

This is where you could slot in your Cyclizar :P. Draco Meteor OHKOes Dragapult with the given investment, and you have your safe Shed Tail pivoting AND entry hazard control.

With these changes, you somewhat eliminate the issue of setting up against offensive teams by giving yourself less of a need to set up to do significant damage, and you can more consistently pressure the opposing team. Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any questions or give comments on anything you agree/disagree with.
 
Thank you for the advice. However, I noticed many of the suggested movesets stray from the use of Electric Terrain. I tried altering the team using your suggestions while keeping the terrain strategy as intact as possible. I think this will help the team’s performance a lot.
 
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