Bandorus, Rank #2 (2028 elo)

Joltinjoe · Apr 15, 2025

Bandorus, Rank #2 (2028 elo)

:sv/heatran:

Paste: https://pokepast.es/3a5f78ffb82ad2f8

Quaquaval over Great tusk: https://pokepast.es/2d40ae2220f9b75c

Luke 19:37-40 NIV
When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
"I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

Introduction

With the recent ban of :Roaring-moon:

, the meta is finally at a state where balance can thrive. After looking at one my failed Banded :landorus-therian:

team from a few months ago, I was inspired to touch it up as I was no longer afraid of getting 6-0ed by tera flying :roaring-moon:

. Previously I had really enjoyed the team, and I knew it would be strong as soon as :Roaring-moon:

left the tier, and my prayers were answered! It turns out, :Landorus-therian:

is really good when it has a choice band and deleting every team that lacks a good flying resist! This team is super fun to use and I'm excited to share it with you all.

Proof of peak
Username: Joltinjoe18

I peaked slightly higher at 2028 however the placement was lower, you can find that here:

The team

:sv/Landorus-Therian:

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Tera Blast

The star of the team, banded :Landorus-Therian:

is the star breaker of this team, and it comes with the benefit of a lot of surprise factor. Earthquake from :Landorus-Therian:

does a lot of damage, being able to 2hko most pokemon in the meta. Earthquake also picks up notable Ohkos against :Samurott-hisui:

and standard AV :primarina:

.

's tera blast flying has great synergy with its Earthquake, able to 2hko every flying type not named :skarmory:

,

, or

. Tera Blast is also able to completely flip the lead matchups on :ogerpon-wellspring:

and

, scoring clean Ohkos on both. It even 2hkos :alomomola:

, breaking open teams that rely on it to pivot around :Landorus-therian:

. U-turn for pivoting and stone edge is for catching flyers like :zapdos:

. Very strong mon and once you position it, it will crack teams open like nothing else.

:sv/heatran:

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 212 SpD / 40 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock

Flash fire :heatran:

is highly underrated right now in OU because of how unprepared for it many teams are. It dominates many top tiers like :gholdengo:

,

(non hjk), :iron-moth:

,

, and

. Unlike most stealth rockers, it also completely dominates :weezing-galar:

and

, able to repeatedly setup stealth rocks against them. Magma storm + taunt and tera bug allows :heatran:

to trap rest talk :ting-lu:

, which is otherwise very difficult for the team to deal with. I have tera type bug because it is the best tera type for beating :great-tusk:

in a pinch, and it also allows you to trap rest talk :ting-lu:

, an otherwise hopeless matchup. Previously I was running a set with lava plume and protect for consistency, however I realized the :ting-lu:

+

or

matchup was just too difficult without the ability to trap things (and leftovers :clefable:

lowkey walls lava plume protect). That version still did very well in the 1900s but it is overall less consistent than the trapper :heatran:

version.

Zamazenta @ Leftovers
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Def / 28 Spe
Impish Nature
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Crunch
- Roar

BULKY :ZAMAZENTA:

! This is a highly unusual :zamazenta:

set but it is FANTASTIC, and is the team's main wincon. By using a ton of HP evs, :Zamazenta:

is suddenly able to muscle its way past bulkier teams way more easily than it could without them. This set is lowkey broken and circumvents a lot of the traditional counterplay to :zamazenta:

. Teams that attempt to chip it down likely won't be able to do it fast enough, and I have had many games where a non-hp invested :zamazenta:

would have failed to sweep because it would have took too much damage. Its great at muscling past :slowking-galar:

,

, and

which

wouldn't outspeed anyways. Tera fire circumvents all attempts to burn :zamazenta:

and roar prevents practically all attempts to phaze by the opponent. Bulky :zamazenta:

has another purpose, and that is being an absolutely fantastic phazer. the added bulk really helps against pokemon boost sweepers who were about to get out of hand like dragon dance :dragonite:

and tera-ground :Iron-moth:

, letting it more easily phaze and then sweep later if needed.

:SV/Dragapult:

Dragapult @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 60 Atk / 196 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Dragon Darts
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- U-turn

wisp hex :dragapult:

acts as the team's form of speed control. Having such a fast mon with status, hex, and uturn is fantastic for the team. :dragapult:

usually comes in on physical attackers to threaten will-o-wisp. The threat of will-o-wisp usually causes the opponent to play predictably, allowing free u-turns into our dangerous pokemon like :landorus-therian:

and

.

acts as a great stopgap for :ogerpon-wellspring:

which otherwise destroys the team and wisps dangerous pokemon like :zamazenta:

and

. It also assists in the effort of chipping down :ting-lu:

as a burnt :ting-lu:

is easy to pivot in on with :slowking-galar:

. Tera fairy is useful in niche situations where you need to live a dragon move, though I only ever clicked it one time against a :hydrapple:

.

Great Tusk @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Ice Spinner
- Supercell Slam
- Rapid Spin

A late addition to the team, this used to be a :quaquaval:

however I found that I really needed something that could spin and also threaten the likes of :zapdos:

and the metal birds :skarmory:

. Enter booster attack :great-tusk:

, which is able to do just that. :great-tusk:

provides rapid spin support for :landorus-therian:

while also being a breaker in its own right. The booster attack is important as it reaches multiple important benchmarks. Ice spinner 2hkos :zapdos:

and tera electric supercell slam KOs :skarmory:

and

after future sight from :slowking-galar:

. I opted for tera electric supercell slam over the similar option of tera fire temper flare for 2 reasons. The first is that tera electric avoids static from :zapdos:

. The second is that supercell slam helps the team's water :garganacl:

matchup.

also provides the additional benefit of being able to tera :landorus-therian:

in a

matchup more easily.

:SV/Slowking-Galar:

Slowking-Galar @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Future Sight
- Chilly Reception
- Sludge Bomb
- Psychic Noise

In my opinion, this is the best :slowking-galar:

set. double psychic move physdef with a shuca berry turns :slowking-galar:

into a menace that allows it to take risks it otherwise could not normally take. running a second psychic move on :slowking-galar:

is huge as it allows it to more quickly and easily dispatch of pokemon like :glimmora:

,

, and

. Shuca berry allows :slowking-galar:

to stay in and 1v1 :great-tusk:

, which is huge as :great-tusk:

would otherwise be a massive threat and shuca removes prediction from the equation. Shuca berry also allows :slowking-galar:

to play way more aggressively against :ting-lu:

enabling it to chilly out on predicted ruinations with more impunity. The physdef investment is important because it allows :slowking-galar:

to live 2 ivy cudgels vs :ogerpon-wellspring:

and either hit it with sludge bomb or pivot out (you should also be able to live 2 knock offs if rocks aren't up). The combination off future sight + psychic noise is also a nightmare for stall to deal with, and lets you annoy :gliscor:

and other members on the stall team like :blissey:

who won't be able to keep switching in on :slowking-galar:

forever. Tera dark lets :slowking-galar:

be a ghost/dark resist in an emergency.

Quaquaval @ Assault Vest
Ability: Moxie
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Aqua Step
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin

The team's original rapid spinner over :Great-tusk:

, the idea is that you can have a rapid spinner without needing to double up on ground types. :Quaquaval:

provides the dual role of hazard support and late game sweeper for the team. :quaquaval:

is especially good at rapid spinning against teams relying on :dragapult:

to block your rapid spin, as aqua step into knock off always kills it. The same combo also will K.O. offensive :gholdengo:

(not defensive though) allowing for an easy moxie boost and a free spin most of the time. In addition :Quaquaval:

provides a strong CC, which synergizes well with Future sight from :Slowking-galar:

and also provides knock off support. :Quaquaval:

also checks many dangerous special attackers that :Heatran:

or

can struggle with, mainly focus blast :darkrai:

and Tera blast ground :Iron-moth:

. Tera electric helps avoid paralysis.

The main reason I replaced it is because I felt that :Great-tusk:

was able to do much better against the bulky squads that my team struggled with. In addition, the stuff that :quaquaval:

beat I just felt wasn't common enough at 1900s+ so I swapped it out. :quaquaval:

is still really good though in my opinion and this set is lowkey underrated in ou right now.

Teambuilding process

This team took many attempts to make and I had to try a lot of different things before it worked. Don't get discouraged from the difficulty of teambuilding, Eventually you'll get it right!

https://pokepast.es/672797072754477a- the current team, swapped over to supercell slam to avoid :zapdos:

para and have a better water :garganacl:

matchup. Hit rank #2

https://pokepast.es/707009a3bce64884- wanted a rapid spinner who could remove :zapdos:

and the metal birds :skarmory:

and

, original strat was temper flare because it one shot balloon :gholdengo:

with tera.

https://pokepast.es/b9d145cc4a3155d7- The final version of the :quaquaval:

squad, extremely consistent and peaked at over 2000 elo at rank #5

https://pokepast.es/2e8db7395503dfeb- changed :slowking-galar:

's set to shuca berry + psychic noise. I also swapped :heatran:

to a lava plume protect set.

https://pokepast.es/2a4136648d410712- swapped to lefties on :heatran:

https://pokepast.es/80e6dd6fe4c40f06- tried :tinkaton:

, but the team was a little too weak to fire types like :cinderace:

https://pokepast.es/f87056c5d80d9ffc- tried :weavile:

, it was bad

https://pokepast.es/40bfa5c11f4817e7- original failed experiment, :raging-bolt:

was the weak link and literally only there to stop :roaring-moon:

from going tera fly and 6-0ing the team LOL.

Gameplans against different archetypes

The Stall Gameplan (IMPORTANT):

IMPORTANT PLEASE READ, THE ENTIRE STALL GAME PLAN IS PREDICATED ON KNOWING HOW TO USE THIS AGAINST A STALL TEAM.

Turn 1: You will always lead :slowking-galar:

against the stall team. This will force the stall player to have to risk their :gliscor:

early on a potential ice beam. This means that on turn 1 you always click future sight since most stall players don't risk their :gliscor:

turn 1. Then because they still don't know they will likely be forced out. You need to do this because otherwise you're gonna have to burn booster on :Great tusk:

to force out :gliscor:

, which is not ideal (we want to save it to bait the stall team's :corviknight:

).
The turns following if lacks eq: you want stealth rocks up with :heatran:

. Once

re-enters you basically just keep going :slowking-galar:

to annoy it and set up future sights and chip it down with psychic noise. Basically if the stall team lacks a way to stop :slowking-galar:

from just using the combo of future sight + psychic noise, you usually just win long term. However :Slowking-galar:

can't do it all because :Corviknight:

and

are faster than it and you because of that you can't stop them from healing if you don't predict them coming in every time. Luckily future sight chilly reception should be able to put on enough pressure to get damage past them.

Supercell slam play on : After the first round with :gliscor:

, you bring in :slowking-galar:

on it again. This time though, you line up the future sight and chilly into :Great-tusk:

. Now if your opponent has a :Corviknight:

they will likely switch into it. On the next turn it will be in range of tera electric supercell slam ohko. From there :Great tusk:

and

have blown the stall team wide open, and they won't be able to keep surviving against the constant barrage of future sight, psychic noise, and the attacks from the rest of the team.

If the stall team lacks a flying resist: well you're going to have an easy time, after forcing out :gliscor:

and hopefully getting up rocks, you might just be able to tera blast flying with :landorus-therian:

and 6-0 their team.

Heatran: :Heatran:

is one of the best mons to use against stall but you have to do it in the right way or else it will take too much damage. Usually the safest way to get a trap with :heatran:

is to combo future sight into magma storm. Also if their :Gliscor:

lacks eq, don't be afraid to use :heatran:

to take advantage of that! :Heatran:

doesn't always work because it specifically has trouble against :Dondozo:

and especially struggles against showdownfail's :Garganacl:

stall.

If has EQ: its going to be harder but its still ok. :Slowking-galar:

lives the combo of first turn knock off into second turn earthquake. You are going to have to go :Great tusk:

earlier than usual to start breaking, and you might not be able to line up the future sight the way you want to.

If is swords dance: these :gliscor:

threaten to end the game constantly against you. Fortunately you should be able to use :Slowking-galar:

to weaken it early game and force it out. You will probably end up with a position where :Great-tusk:

can break one of the stall mons. If :gliscor:

is ever getting out of hand you can always roar it out with :zamazenta:

Note that some really good stall players have realized they need to risk ice beam turn 1 against :slowking-galar:

or they lose too much momentum. In addition earthquake :gliscor:

seems to be having an uptick on stall lately making it harder to take advantage of. The stall matchup isn't free but It's very strong, and is able to consistently beat mid 1900's rated stall teams.

Mostly the same game plans, except now you aim to line up future sights into close combats and knock offs from :quaquaval:

, it tends to be very strong into what most stall teams can do and the constant pressure from knock off, future sight, and close combat will eventually overwhelm most stall teams.

Please refer to the stall section of the replays to see some live examples (I didn't play perfectly but it should give you a good idea on how to beat stall)

Weather

Sun
You should lead :slowking-galar:

against this. By doing this it is very easy to create situations where the sun team cannot get off the combo of sun into eject button :hatterene:

, by denying this you should be able to out-offense them. Note to u-turn on walking wake 1 time with :dragapult:

to ensure darts kills the next time. In addition any attempts to counter-lead you with a :Great tusk:

will be swiftly stopped by shuca berry.

Rain
Fortunately this is quite rare but it is a lot harder of a matchup than sun. There are a few ways you could do this, you could try to anti lead and K.O. :pelipper:

turn 1 with either :Landorus-therian:

or

. You could also lead :slowking-galar:

to make sure that rain doesn't go up and go from there. (In all honesty I didn't fight rain because it is so bad in the meta right now but you should be able to beat it)

Sand/Snow

:Tyranitar:

and

aren't real, they can't hurt you.

Webs

:ribombee:

has fallen out of favor with the webs playerbase especially after :roaring-moon:

's ban. This leaves :araquanid:

to be the default webs setter for these teams, and really the only one you are going to see frequently. If you think your opponent is clueless about the team you can lead :Landorus-therian:

and ohko most :araquanid:

with stone edge or tera blast flying. Although funnily enough, this really isn't even necessary. You shouldn't have any problems beating the webs team even if webs go up because coots :dragapult:

and

are nightmares for a webs team to deal with. In addition, this team has easy answers to most common webs abusers such as specs :enamorus:

,

,

and of course multiple great checks to :kingambit:

. For this reason, other webs setters like :leavanny:

and

won't cause issues. If you face :ribombee:

its not a bad idea to lead :heatran:

and try to get rocks up. Also try to break :Gholdengo:

's air balloon when you can it makes things a lot easier.

You basically can afford to play pretty safe against webs, its a strong matchup for this team. Only :Dragonite:

,

and

will reasonably be able to pose a threat. If you preserve :Zamazenta:

's hp stat it should be able to handle them. All in all, webs is one of the team's best matchups.

Other hyper offense

hazard stack

lead :deoxys-speed:

is annoying because you don't know if it has ice beam or life orb psycho boost, don't risk :landorus-therian:

turn 1 and just lead :slowking-galar:

for a safe 2hko.

lead :glimmora:

is much more annoying because it is often paired with other pokemon that can counterlead you. The problem is that even if glim leads off there is always the chance they switch out because they are running red card. :slowking-galar:

is technically the best lead against this as it prevents Tspike and is safe against most other leads. If you notice the opponent might have something like a :samurott-hisui:

that can threaten :slowking-galar:

on lead, it might be worth it to lead :landorus-therian:

instead. However you can't really make a scripted gameplan against :glimmora:

and you just have to go off of gamestate. Fortunately most of the threats on the HO team should be easy to answer as we have a solid answer to most HO staples which i've already mentioned in the webs section.

note about screens: I didn't play against this at all so unfortunately I don't have a gameplan in mind for this. However I imagine that you can take advantage of all screens setters pretty easily with :heatran:

, and you can stall screen turns by spamming roar with :zamazenta:

Threatlist

:sv/Ting-lu:

The team's worst matchup by far. This is really hard to get through because you need to kill it before it can set too many hazards and win. I usually lead :landorus-therian:

and try to get a big u-turn off, or in some cases using tera blast fly immediately can cause certain ting-lu teams to crumble before they get going. I also pivot through :slowking-galar:

against

because I have a shuca berry and its the only way to stop ruination from destroying my team. You do have to get plays right to win, but it's not impossible to beat standard spikes :ting-lu:

. If the opponent has rest talk :ting-lu:

, you need to tera :heatran:

to beat it, it's the only way.

:sv/zapdos:

This is one of the team's worst matchups because there really isn't a way to lock it down. Just be the goat and hit stone edge on the switch (or you probably lose). You can also try to break it with tera electric :great-tusk:

.

I have really only been relying on :Great tusk:

to bait these. These two are going to be awful to fight if your opponent plays around the bait, usually because they are often paired with :ting-lu:

making getting past them a nightmare. If they aren't paired with :Ting-Lu:

you can probably use :Dragapult:

or

to get damage past them which is fine. But if they are, you're gonna need to use tera bug to trap the :ting-lu:

to beat that core.

:Sv/garganacl:

Water Garg is rough. Non-curse sets are easy to deal with however, as you can just spam future sight into psychic noise with :Slowking-galar:

on it and easily break it. The problem is that most :Garganacl:

are curse sets with earthquake, these are hard to force out and constantly threaten to sweep. The silver lining however is that :Zamazenta:

will halt it's sweeping attempts early game, and this is really the only good way to consistently force it out.
Once it's forced out usually :Landorus-therian:

can start clicking moves to make progress, as :Garganacl:

may be the only solid flying resist the opponent had. (remember if they have a zapdos you gotta hit the stone edge or force past it with :Great tusk:

).

A big threat if running the :Great tusk:

version. The switch in is :heatran:

but it can be bad if :darkrai:

is running focus blast (try to preserve :zamazenta:

for late game if you can). The best play is to usually lead :dragapult:

against it so you can u-turn for early chip on it, the next time :dragapult:

gets in on :darkrai:

, dragon darts will pick up the kill.. Just try to play to deny it entry.

Specs shadow ball/band tera blast ghost users
:SV/Gholdengo:

If these guys are running a choice set they are going to be hard to deal with. CB :dragapult:

kinda runs through this team in theory (but I haven't fought it, I imagine you're going to need to go for game with :Great-Tusk:

or

before it does too much damage). Specs :gholdengo:

and

are also hard but :heatran:

can at least answer :gholdengo:

temporarily. Worst case scenario against specs :dragapult:

we have tera dark on :Slowking-galar:

.

So actually this guy is pretty easy to beat but I just want to point out that it isn't worth risking it having ice beam or life orb psycho boost turn 1 on :landorus-therian:

, just lead :slowking-galar:

or

for a safe 2hko.

Replays
Great-tusk version :Great tusk:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342785307-dtklpv5cnmbxd2tca5i3ge2fjyrxa5vpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342776902-l0jnfj16u0246yvkxi9s6p7o7k4sup3pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342642351-p4phmvjt4vw1xi6kofbo4o0hn3b0s3dpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342639252-uhoybj6kda7j2emfu427frjpnmx6tvwpw - duckular goob
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342206125-rhxcpmegwk3468ek9wxmmln4inpfod5pw - :slowking-galar:

clutches up
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342202217-f2mulv1bueiltg95rpm4cwt7aaojpappw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342192813-2bf3iy2p1iqgwo9i3791076oy95quhopw - a bit haxy but shows how good the extra :zamazenta:

bulk is.

quaquaval version :Quaquaval:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342163589-ic6xfdpup8po99hbc23jdxaa7ttqq53pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342151882-ewsj13dbgj23pghg6fap3asy9kit73apw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342012404-iy4y71ue31b42rixu9kqt37oqedv9uypw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342001520-oerc95kunm2iaqtxanacxy809x1mcvxpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2341567310-2b240y48sc916qhin06sdx917biakngpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2341548740-0icvg6gj3vp31b1slh4fad8boi72cp7pw - another great example of :zamazenta:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2341531204-1rgr2rwqjqhpjdc7f9g8dbpybmp07kopw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2341482624-2lyy7yo7jckphpi8b6jpfwah0lg1j7dpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2341477271-rv6jupfe3jpn84lrlhd5ndxxe3y1tt6pw

Featured stall destructions: (because I know yall like to see stall beaten)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342606610-dbq5ytkwqg6ybimy6extjrr0pu97bcnpw - same idea as tera electric :great-tusk:

but with tera fire temper flare
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342155418-xgfo0v7r25spyacku3ndrvk0f1ew3atpw - particularly difficult team to beat cause he had no :gliscor:

to take advantage of and a hard counter to future sight
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342003874-yguubv0xuxveehnewa8ratx5f0dkyf5pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2341997367-47q2qr3lny6g8w31d6ay96cqupsal69pw - trapping :ting-lu:

with tera bug :heatran:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2341986940-0frt11vjvvx2woxsjceh0bxmnkmrpckpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2341570266-bexm4k3emxytjtdslw14l3s9g36ibnxpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2342714728-jcl7l06likew3iuymnfhu10iijkcrqjpw -bro didn't wanna play no more

Special thanks

TO EVERYONE WHO BANNED THIS TEAM WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT YOU!!!

THANKS FOR READING! GOD BLESS AND HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!

Duckular · Apr 15, 2025

CAUSE YOU MAKE MY EARTHQUAKE

gephicka · Apr 15, 2025

sheist zama set NGL

toshimelonhead · Apr 15, 2025

Well done! Congrats on the peak.

As for Tusk vs Quaquaval--one thing to try is Choice Scarf Quaquaval in that last slot. The current team has some speed, but not enough to get past threats with 400+ speed that litter the tier. Darkrai, Pult, and Scarf Gholdengo have openings if played correctly as your threat list correctly points out. The set below outspeeds Dragapult and OHKOs back with Knock Off post Tera Dark. It is very tricky to handle once the Moxie and Aqua Step boosts start kicking in. Assault Vest is nice and I get why it works, but Quaquaval isn't built to absorb special attacks. It wants to waddle waddle, and Choice Scarf enables that. It works especially well on this team because Choice Band Landorus-Therian softens up a ton of targets and enables clean entry.

Quaquaval (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Close Combat
- Aqua Step
- Knock Off

252 Atk Tera Dark Quaquaval Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 380-450 (100.2 - 118.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Tera Dark Quaquaval Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 314-372 (99.6 - 118%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Tera Dark Quaquaval Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 16 Def Slowking-Galar: 356-420 (90.3 - 106.5%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO

I'm not touching the rest of the team as the peak speaks louder than any "advice" I could give.

Pengu · Apr 15, 2025

the absolute GOAT back at it again, gz on the peak and great team!

Simisage1080p · Apr 15, 2025

They say pigs can't fly, but they never said anything about cats.

Scarlet Firefly · Apr 15, 2025

Your team is sick and certainly has a lot of creative sets built in. Certainly couldn't copy it simply by observing 1 battle against you, thanks for sharing the team. I hope that I would be able to achieve 2000 ELO like you did.

Can you share the gameplan against Webs, HO, and Screens?

Thanks!

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2343575109

How could I have played this game better?

Joltinjoe · Apr 15, 2025

Scarlet Firefly said:
Your team is sick and certainly has a lot of creative sets built in. Certainly couldn't copy it simply by observing 1 battle against you, thanks for sharing the team. I hope that I would be able to achieve 2000 ELO like you did.

Can you share the gameplan against Webs, HO, and Screens?

Thanks!

I updated the RMT to include these, thanks for the suggestion

Scarlet Firefly said:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2343575109

How could I have played this game better?

Not gonna lie that was a tough miss, but good on you for still playing to win. I would have definitely gone for the same kill on :skarmory:

.

Commentary on a few turns
On turn 5, why no rocks? Your opponent had no removal and it would have helped break the :skarmory:

and help confirm :enamorus:

's set. You would have killed :skarmory:

when you predicted it on Turn 13 if stealth rocks were up.

Turn 11 you are behind here so now would be a good time to make a play, you can try to make the play to go :landorus-therian:

here and preserve :slowking-galar:

's hp. I don't blame you though this was a tough turn to get right and if they toxic :landorus-therian:

you probably just lose. Just remember that when you're behind you need to make some riskier plays to get back into the game.

On turn 16 I would have doubled back to :landorus-therian:

, I'd just make the play if you were planning to go back to it anyways since its a hard play for them to make, and low odds that it goes wrong. This is different from turn 11 as your opponent loses less for getting it wrong.

2 major gameplan things
1. I would have used :Dragapult:

a lot more this game, your opponent really didn't have a great answer to it. After the unfortunate miss, If you were to go :dragapult:

, wisp on

, u-turn to :slowking-galar:

, future sight chilly into :dragapult:

, your opponent basically just loses.
2. I am surprised that :Zamazenta:

won this game. At team preview I saw 2 excellent defensive answers to :Zamazenta:

and one excellent offensive check. I would have decided that instead of trying to wincon with :Zamazenta:

it should be used more defensively in that game. I would have planned to used it as an answer to :Dragonite:

and

earlier in the game to preserve the hp of my other team members, because its role was less valuable.

I don't think you made bad plays and a lot of this is subjective it definitely still had the possibility of going wrong, this is just what I would have personally done. BTW there's no way you could have known that :sinistcha:

was iron defense instead of calm mind you probably won guaranteed if it was a standard one. You def got justice for that miss though

.

Iznamakin · Apr 15, 2025

fun team !
love the great tusk tech, allows lando to go crazy after removing steel birds, they work really well with each other

congrats on the peak !

AndreBenito · Apr 16, 2025

This dat heat

Scarlet Firefly · Apr 16, 2025

Joltinjoe said:
I updated the RMT to include these, thanks for the suggestion

Not gonna lie that was a tough miss, but good on you for still playing to win. I would have definitely gone for the same kill on .

Commentary on a few turns
On turn 5, why no rocks? Your opponent had no removal and it would have helped break the and help confirm 's set. You would have killed when you predicted it on Turn 13 if stealth rocks were up.

Turn 11 you are behind here so now would be a good time to make a play, you can try to make the play to go here and preserve 's hp. I don't blame you though this was a tough turn to get right and if they toxic you probably just lose. Just remember that when you're behind you need to make some riskier plays to get back into the game.

On turn 16 I would have doubled back to , I'd just make the play if you were planning to go back to it anyways since its a hard play for them to make, and low odds that it goes wrong. This is different from turn 11 as your opponent loses less for getting it wrong.

2 major gameplan things
1. I would have used a lot more this game, your opponent really didn't have a great answer to it. After the unfortunate miss, If you were to go , wisp on , u-turn to , future sight chilly into , your opponent basically just loses.
2. I am surprised that won this game. At team preview I saw 2 excellent defensive answers to and one excellent offensive check. I would have decided that instead of trying to wincon with it should be used more defensively in that game. I would have planned to used it as an answer to and earlier in the game to preserve the hp of my other team members, because its role was less valuable.

I don't think you made bad plays and a lot of this is subjective it definitely still had the possibility of going wrong, this is just what I would have personally done. BTW there's no way you could have known that was iron defense instead of calm mind you probably won guaranteed if it was a standard one. You def got justice for that miss though .

Thanks a lot for your detailed commentary! I really appreciate it. I've managed to rank up to 1600 on the ladder, which is a great achievement.

I seem to be having problems with Sinistcha, its Sap Sipper keeps disrupting my Great Tusk even with +1, preventing me from spinning. Also, it tends to win 1v1 vs Zamazenta by virtue of being Ghost Type, and a special attacker. Help! Could I trouble you to review the following game:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2344173247-seoltkxhx5dwyp9saifkac918kweaflpw

Also, I just got 6-0'd by a degenerate set: Iron Valiant Booster Speed, with Tera Steel, CM / Shadow Ball/ Moonblast/ Close Combat. It Tera Steeled on my Glowking and got to +2 and I lost the game. Would you have handled it differently?

Dead by Daylight · Apr 16, 2025

wonderful team as always mate. Will definitely steal this one for later use

ant4456 · Apr 16, 2025

Thank

you

for

this

excellent

team!

Joltinjoe · Apr 16, 2025

toshimelonhead said:
Well done! Congrats on the peak.

As for Tusk vs Quaquaval--one thing to try is Choice Scarf Quaquaval in that last slot. The current team has some speed, but not enough to get past threats with 400+ speed that litter the tier. Darkrai, Pult, and Scarf Gholdengo have openings if played correctly as your threat list correctly points out. The set below outspeeds Dragapult and OHKOs back with Knock Off post Tera Dark. It is very tricky to handle once the Moxie and Aqua Step boosts start kicking in. Assault Vest is nice and I get why it works, but Quaquaval isn't built to absorb special attacks. It wants to waddle waddle, and Choice Scarf enables that. It works especially well on this team because Choice Band Landorus-Therian softens up a ton of targets and enables clean entry.

Quaquaval (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Close Combat
- Aqua Step
- Knock Off

252 Atk Tera Dark Quaquaval Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 380-450 (100.2 - 118.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Tera Dark Quaquaval Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 314-372 (99.6 - 118%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Tera Dark Quaquaval Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 16 Def Slowking-Galar: 356-420 (90.3 - 106.5%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO

I'm not touching the rest of the team as the peak speaks louder than any "advice" I could give.

Personally I disagree with this change. The problem is that you are running rapid spin on a choice scarf pokemon which is a complete no go because there are multiple fundamental issues with this.

There is literally nothing to stop something like :skarmory:

,

and practically every other stealth rocker/spiker, from just staying in and resetting hazards on you if you click rapid spin. And if you click rapid spin and they have a ghost type, it is now just a guaranteed block for them + you now need to switch into a ghost move (which this team has no resist to) The problem of needing to switch into ghost types also happens if you click cc into them, probably leading to a swift loss. Also if the stealth rocker has rocky helmet they don't even need a ghost type to keep laying hazards.

In addition, If your opponent sends in a ghost type, EVEN IF YOU PREDICT IT, you at the minimum need to bring :quaquaval:

in twice to get a rapid spin off and that's just too much of a momentum sink. :gholdengo:

also just lives your hit and can come back in later.

So basically, scarf is too hard to get a spin off with, and even if you get the spin you're in a losing position anyways. Besides choiced :dragapult:

and

are very uncommon right now, neither being able to safely switch into :quaquaval:

for fear of aqua step into knock off koing them both ( :gholdengo:

can live if its air balloon but it won't kill you back). As for :darkrai:

you just threaten it with u-turn with :dragapult:

, because if u-turn hits, :darkrai:

gets put in ohko range of dragon darts.

Remember that the strength of :quaquaval:

comes from being able to boost its speed with aqua step and then threaten rapid spin, which is almost impossible to stop without a :pecharunt:

,

, a physically defensive :gholdengo:

with recover, or completely burning tera. And of course these can get knocked off with almost no prediction needed on your part with the assault vest set.

toshimelonhead said:
Assault Vest is nice and I get why it works, but Quaquaval isn't built to absorb special attacks. It wants to waddle waddle, and Choice Scarf enables that.

But you become a worse sweeper because now you can't switch up moves...

Scarlet Firefly · Apr 17, 2025

Sinistcha is a very irritating threat to the team. If Lando-T is gone, nobody else on the team can 1 shot the demonic cup of tea and it can sap sipper + shadow ball everyone. I just got reverse swept even though I had the upper hand.

Tera CM Iron Valiant is also highly problematic, if it sets up on Glowking the team is done. Moonblast + Shadow Ball takes out all my mons especially if Heatran wasn't kept healthy.

Enamorus too can be a problem if Shuca Berry on Glowking was disturbed. It can spam moonblasts and sweep the team.

I also don't have a solution to the latest cheese technique with CM Draining Kiss Stored Power Hatterene.

How do you deal with the above problems?

I managed to climb to 1700 with the team but I am beginning to struggle.

For example, I did the early game right, but then got 6-0'd by Specs Walking Wake in Sun: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2344666099-rl0jgy1wtw33q3byl6q2us34tf6csjppw. How would you have avoided this?

Thank for your detailed comments, as always!

Joltinjoe · Apr 17, 2025

Scarlet Firefly said:
Sinistcha is a very irritating threat to the team. If Lando-T is gone, nobody else on the team can 1 shot the demonic cup of tea and it can sap sipper + shadow ball everyone. I just got reverse swept even though I had the upper hand.

Tera CM Iron Valiant is also highly problematic, if it sets up on Glowking the team is done. Moonblast + Shadow Ball takes out all my mons especially if Heatran wasn't kept healthy.

Enamorus too can be a problem if Shuca Berry on Glowking was disturbed. It can spam moonblasts and sweep the team.

I also don't have a solution to the latest cheese technique with CM Draining Kiss Stored Power Hatterene.

How do you deal with the above problems?

I managed to climb to 1700 with the team but I am beginning to struggle.

For example, I did the early game right, but then got 6-0'd by Specs Walking Wake in Sun: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2344666099-rl0jgy1wtw33q3byl6q2us34tf6csjppw. How would you have avoided this?

Thank for your detailed comments, as always!

you could try putting tera water on :slowking-galar:

if walking wake is a major issue. You shouldn't lose too much by doing this

:hatterene:

you just need to chip into range of :landorus-therian:

eq or tera blast.

:sinistcha:

you should also just preserve :landorus-therian:

. If you're using the :quaquaval:

version you can use it to knock :sinistcha:

off and beat it with hazard chip. You can also predict it coming in against :great-tusk:

(not hard) to 2 shot it with ice spinner.

If tera cm :iron-valiant:

is getting out of hand, that's where emergency button tera fire :zamazenta:

comes in to roar it out.

I never had a problem with choiced :enamorus:

, you really just need stealth rocks up and then :slowking-galar:

+

should stop any moonblast sweeps. However I imagine sometimes you need to just make the :landorus-therian:

play on earth power. If you're really in a pinch, scarf :landorus-therian:

lives a hit from 70%+ health. Calm mind sets I imagine are pretty rough but I haven't fought one yet since they are so rare (aka. I don't worry about it and go next).

metagrossower · Apr 18, 2025

Man I love trick room and somehow completely forgot about Lando-T. Insipired me to make my own team. Thanks a lot!

Bandorus, Rank #2 (2028 elo)

Great tusk or Quaquaval version?

Great Tusk

Quaquaval

Joltinjoe

Duckular

Tournament Banned

gephicka

scorsese baby daddy

toshimelonhead

The path was never linear, but it was always mine.

Pengu

he...he...

Simisage1080p

Scarlet Firefly

Formerly Metal Sonic

Joltinjoe

Iznamakin

AndreBenito

Scarlet Firefly

Formerly Metal Sonic

Dead by Daylight

Drugs You Should Try It

ant4456

Joltinjoe

Scarlet Firefly

Formerly Metal Sonic

Joltinjoe

metagrossower