VGC (Anti) Trick Room versatility (Weezing oriented team)

[therealJames]

The Team


Building the Team
#1
In a 2v2 format like VGC moves that hit multiple targets are very strong. Weezing can learn Dazzling Gleam and Sludge wave for STAB boost and learns Heat Wave to hit the Steel-types that resist his STAB moves. Because of this I wanted to build a team around him.

#2
Rhyperior and Weezing are a perfect duo. Rhyperior also learns STAB moves that hit both opponents, these being Earthquake and Rock Slide. Weezing being immune to Earthquake due to Levitate makes these two a perfect fit. Two bulky picks that hit both opponents.

#3
Weezing has a middle-of-the-road speed. This means he moves later than most opponent’s both in a regular set-up as well as against Trick Room teams. I decided to add Chandelure to set Trick Room against Tailwind teams and use Imprison against Trick Room teams. This way Weezing can take the sweet spot.

#4
This is not a Trick Room team. Chandelure is a counter option against certain teams and will not always be part of the team. Which means that the team needed some speedy options as well. The team also needed a main Dynamax pick since Weezing and Rhyperior loose their option to hit both opponent’s if you max them. I decided on Durant for this.

#5 and #6
Both these mons serve a utility role for the team. Picking either of these for the final four adds a 100 accuracy Paralyze or Sleep. Both mons do this in very different ways though. Boltund is a fast mon with some nice damage output. Shiinotic is a slow mon with Strength Sap.


Damaging both opponents at once
As explained earlier building around Weezing abuses moves that hit both opponents. To go all-in on this, every mon in this team has at least 1 move that hits both opponents.
Dazzling Gleam, Sludge Wave and Heat Wave
Earthquake and Rock Slide
Heat Wave
Rock Slide
Snarl, Discharge and Hyper Voice
Dazzling Gleam



Speed tiers
As this team is build around the different kinds of speed tiers that can be run in a match you will be able to see that there is a nice balance in speed tiers on this team.
and
Very slow, making them perfect to run with Chandelures Trick Room.
and
Very fast. Doing well in most match-ups and being your go-to picks when using Chandelures Imprison to counter Trick Room.
and
Mid-tier on speed. Both of these can outspeed Trick Room teams when Imprison is used to counter it and can outspeed speedy sweepers when using Trick Room yourself.


Leads
and
This team will regularly lead with Weezing and Rhyperior.
They have great coverage and might even knock out both opponents in the first turn, winning you the match instantly.

Chandelure will lead the team against Trick Roomers and Tailwinders.
The second lead should be based on the opponent’s team and their most prevalent typings.

Another option is leading with Dynamax Durant. In this case Boltund will more often than not be your best second pick.
Boltund can quickly Nuzzle one of the opponents while Durant lands massive damage on the other.


Items, Abilities, Stats and Movepools

Weezing @ Assault Vest
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest

- Dazzling Gleam
- Sludge Wave
- Heat Wave
- Thunderbolt

Weezing is the backbone of this team. HP EV’s combined with Assault Vest gives it amazing bulk. SpA EV’s combined with it’s multi-target movepool gives it amazing damage output. Heat Wave even covers the Steel-types that can easily survive it’s STAB-moves.

Rhyperior @ Figy Berry
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant

- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Hammer Arm
- Protect

Rhyperior was added for strong synergy with Weezing. It also has two multi-target STAB moves and doesn’t hit Weezing with Earthquake due to it’s levitate ability. HP EV’s, the Solid Rock ability and Figy Berry help it survive hits.

Chandelure @ Mental Herb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest

- Imprison
- Trick Room
- Heat Wave
- Shadow Ball

Chandelure is a counter-strat pick. Trick Room turns Tailwind into a setback instead of a powerboost while Imprison stops opponents from using Trick Room. It’s EV’s are put in HP and SpA because Chandelure needs to be mid-tier in speed. Speed EV’s would be counter-productive on this version. Heat Wave gives it a multi-target option to uphold this synergy within the team. I gave it a Mental Herb to counter Taunt.

Durant @ Choice Band
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly

- X-Scissor
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Superpower

Durant is the team’s main Dynamax option. Choice Band and Jolly skyrocket it’s damage output. It knows the multi-target move Rock Slide in case Durant survives it’s Dynamax turns and shrinks back to it’s original size.

Boltund @ Focus Sash
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid

- Nuzzle
- Snarl
- Hyper Voice
- Discharge

Nuzzle and Snarl are the main reasons for this mon to be on the team. It’s also the teams second high-speed pick. Discharge and Hyper Voice further increase the multi-target synergy in the team. Competative will obviously be a better ability for this movepool but I will have to wait until this is released.

Shiinotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest

- Spore
- Dazzling Gleam
- Energy Ball
- Strength Sap

Shiinotic is mostly here for Spore. When using Trick Room Shiinotic will be on a similar speed-tier as Boltund would be in a regular setting. Energy ball also adds some coverage to the team that was still missing. Dazzling Gleam further increases the team’s multi-target synergy.


Not been tested much yet
In all honesty, I have hardly tested this team yet. I don't have the game yet (Switch is expensive) and I can't really get into the low quality of showdown. Even though I have hardly tested this team I was really excited about it, so I decided to post it anyway.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this team and if someone who's more able/willing to properly test this team and tell me which issues they ran into I would be very grateful. Right now this is the team I want to build when I finally get my hands on the game.​

 

[Marzbar]

Just some quick feedback after skim reading it. Both Weezing and Shiinotic have poor offensive stats and should not be used as special attackers. They are defensive and supporter Pokémon respectively. Weezing is also not that reliable under trick room because many Pokémon are slower than it. Basing a whole team around Weezing doing moderate spread damage at best doesn’t seem like a good idea. And then there’s the fact that your entire team is extremely prone to Wide Guard, and most players will realize your move sets from game 1 and then spam Wide Guard and pick apart your team at will.

 

[therealJames]

Just some quick feedback after skim reading it. Both Weezing and Shiinotic have poor offensive stats and should not be used as special attackers. They are defensive and supporter Pokémon respectively. Weezing is also not that reliable under trick room because many Pokémon are slower than it. Basing a whole team around Weezing doing moderate spread damage at best doesn’t seem like a good idea. And then there’s the fact that your entire team is extremely prone to Wide Guard, and most players will realize your move sets from game 1 and then spam Wide Guard and pick apart your team at will.

You already mentioned that you only skim read it. I'd like to address some of the things you said with criticism. I hope not to come off as close-minded or defensive in this because I'm mostly trying to argue my point of view on these things and am open to discussion and being proven wrong.

Using Weezing under Trick Room is a very situational thing for this team. I explain in the description of how the team functions that Chandelure is to be used in specific situations. Being: counter trick room with Imprison, in which case the enemies will mostly have lower speed than Weezing, or using Trick Room against a very high speed enemy team like Tailwind synergy. In these cases most enemies will be faster than Weezing.

Wide Guard is a move I've never seen utilized in any of the games I've played or any of the video's I've seen. If Wide Guard is actually a move that is being used in a moderate to high amount of teams I will concede that that is indeed a huge threat to this team.

Your case for Weezing and Shiinotic not having the stats to be attackers is mostly right but I still quite disagree. They are not Sweepers by a long stretch but in both cases they actually only have 1 defensive stat that is higher than their attacking stats. Weezings SpA sits at a base 85 which is above average and only get's beat out by his 120 Def and 90 Atk. Therefore I believe a bulky build that deals damage to both targets with high power moves is actually a pretty good fit. Shiinotic sits at a 90 base SpA and will be utilized mostly when the team wants to utilize Trick Room, which means it's speed actually becomes it's best stat. Shiinotic was also never supposed to be a straight up Special Attacker, it's supposed to Spore enemies to sleep and even has Strength Sap. I'd personally rather think that it's weird that I'm using Boltund as kindof a utility pick where that mon has very damage oriented stats.

So to sum up, I actually disagree with most of what you said BUT I am aware that I might be the one who's making the wrong assessment here. If I'm being an ignorant dumb dork here I'd love to hear a more specific explenation to why my reply to your feedback is wrong. Again, I've hardly tested this team but the few games I have tried actually went very well, especially Weezing.


I am doubting this response as I write it but I felt I needed to say this to get some feedback that would be of more help to me personally (no offense, just personally for me your feedback felt more like differing opinions than hard facts).

Please understand that I appreciate your feedback but just don't see a good enough reason to hold your opinion over my own at this time.


ps. I'm not sure about Shiinotic, kinda want to find a better replacement for it anyway.