Genesis:
https://pokepast.es/7f1d5c7760b9f7da
When building this team, I was tired... TIRED of trying to use heat sets, TIRED of trying to use shit pokemon, TIRED of getting rolled on the ladder by kids abusing a random assortment of the 12 most used pokemon. I had finally been pushed to my breaking point, I had had enough... *what happened next will shock you*
BOOM!!! I concocted a terrible, awful, DISGUSTING team in spite of all my prior woes, the only thing which could save me from my 1700s purgatory. And as the old proverb goes, 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em', and join them I certainly did.
After the 7 days of creation, what was left was the following:
And on this 7th day, I stared at the brainchild of my frustrations as it stared back at me - indeed, it was very good - so I rested; preparing myself for what would be an intense laddering session culminating in this very moment...
The First Day:
In the beginning there was nothing, and then I said, "let there be Choice-Banded Chien-Pao", and there was CB Chien-Pao...
Chien-Chien (Chien-Pao) @ Choice Band
Ability: Sword of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Crunch
- Ice Shard
- Sacred Sword
Summary: This was the first pokemon I added to the team. Simply put, this is a no-nonsense mon, AKA, it's broken. Anyway, ignoring that small disclaimer, this mon is amazing, it's anti-stall, its anti-offence, it's the best breaker in the tier. Chien-Pao really does it all. As I said previous, I was tired of constantly getting beaten down by all the bullshit on the ladder (including this very guy), so I decided to make a team with it :).
Details: It's basically a standard choice-banded Chien, however there are a still four important features that I must briefly mention.
1.
I believe that you should NEVER use JOLLY Chien. Adamant just hits so much harder it feels like, and the only notable thing you outspeed going jolly is Roaring Moon, and Cinderace. One of which you kill with ice shard anyway, and the other which doesn't switch in and will half the time get scared out by sucker punch (we don't have it but they cannot really attack into sucker and risk getting blown up).
2.
Ice shard is my preferred priority on CB Chien. There is no worse feeling in the game than locking into a CB sucker punch as they click a passive move, and you're forced to switch out as they recover and set-up in your face. CB ice shard is insanely strong, and often times you can sweep a team with ice shard in the end-game. CB adamant ice shard also OHKOES dragapult from full, making it so you don't have to risk blowing up your computer after you sucker punch a will-o-wisp and lose your breaker in 1 turn.
3.
Tera-dark is preferred over tera-ice because while tera-ice ice shard is obscenely strong, tera-dark is what allows you to really break stall, otherwise your tera-boosted icicle crashes are just going to bounce off dondozo, pex, etc.
4.
I personally prefer icicle crash over ice spinner. Not only is it slightly more powerful, but it also has a 30% chance to flinch, which always gives you an out in games that you have no business winning. Furthermore, crash is not a contact move which means you aren't killing yourself trying to kill helmet corviknight and garchomps... However, if you do choose to run crash, you gotta live and die by the sword. No complaining when you miss :).
The Second Day:
On the second day, I said, "let there be a Great Nose which separates the items and hazards from the field", and as such I spun forever, and it was so...
Great Nose (Great Tusk) @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
Summary: What does banded Chien-Pao struggle with most? Hazards. What is the best hazard remover in the tier? Mr. Tusk. He's also one of the only reliable knock off users in the tier, and is ALSO a very reliable rocker. Like Chien-Pao, this guy is everything you want in a defensive pivot. This is Lando-T's left cousin. This is role compression to a Tee. There's not much else to say about this guy, everybody knows what he does, and he does it well.
Details: Just like with Chien-Pao, there are a few things to mention when using the Great Shmeller.
1.
I originally had body press instead of rocks on Tusk, and had rocks on Clodsire, however I found that you basically are never clicking press, and anytime you would be clicking press, earthquake would basically also work almost just as well. So instead of press, we have rocks. This also frees up clodsire and allows it to run spikes, so you have another pseudo-win-condition with hazard stacking.
2.
A few Evs are dropped into speed to not only creep on other defensive tusks, but to also outspeed things like Jolly azumarill and gambit, as well as modest magnezone etc.
The Third Day:
On the third day, I said, "let there be the giant fuckoff Moth which burns everything known to mankind 1000% of the time", and thus I clicked will-o-wisp on every chien-pao and it never missed, not even once, and it was so...
(Volcarona) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 248 HP / 212 Def / 48 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Morning Sun
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
Summary: Iron Valiant was looking like a threat to the team at this point, as well as other guys like Corviknight, opposing Chien-Pao, KingGambit, etc. Defensive Volcarona serves as a decent physical wall, and paired with Tusk allows both of them to never get overwhelmed by mons such as Gambit. It is also gives the team a true win-condition.
Details: Again this is a pretty standard set, but there are some changes that I made to the most common spread.
1.
I chose to not run the giga drain tera-grass set. Instead I put on will-o-wisp as it provides a way to consistently chip down certain pokemon like rotom-w and toxapex, putting them into range of Cb crunch and +1 espeed etc. More importantly though it provides a consistent way to burn threats to the team such as kinggambit, great tusk, dragonite, chien-pao, etc.
2.
Tera-fairy is what I like running on this volcarona as it allows you to setup on dragon tail garchomp, and dragons in general locked into their stab moves. It's also an amazing defensive typing, and often times you can tera-fairy into chien-pao to avoid getting rolled by crunch and you can burn them or just kill them outright.
3.
I like running flamethrower over fiery dance just for the extra power. Fiery dance could be a bit better but I haven't tested it, so I'll just say that flamethrower is better for now.
4.
48 speed Evs are important to not only speed creep opposing defensive volcarona's but it also allows you to outspeed jolly roaring moon and cinderace after +1.
The Fourth Day:
On the fourth day, I said, "let there be a huge swamp monster that has an unusually wide mouth", so I created Clodingtons to look amusing and do nothing and effectively ignore every special attacker in the game, and all was well...
Clodingtons (Clodsire) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 248 SpD / 8 Spe
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Recover
Summary: I decided to add Mr. Clod. to fill some holes in the team which were present up to this point. For 1 we had no special walls, so any special guy would be running up on our team. Secondly, tspikes would be a problem for the team to get rid of considering Tusk is not boots, and without leftovers Tusk would get widdled very quickly. Clod also provides spikes support which can be instrumental in some matchups. It also has unaware which can be very useful against mons such as gholdengo, skeledirge and volcarona.
Details: Unlike the previous pokemon, there is actually a decent amount to talk about here :).
1.
I chose to run unaware over water absorb, even though the team does not have the best water resist (dragonite). This is mandatory for pokemon which would otherwise prove to be quite a large threat to the team such as the guys stated above. So while water absorb might be nice to run for mons such as rotom-w, pelipper, azumarill and quaquaval, all those mons have ways you can beat them with the rest of the team, however volcarona and dirge for the most part cannot be beaten without unaware.
2.
I like spikes over tspikes on clodsire just because of the prevalence of poison types atm in the tier, meaning most of the time they aren't really doing anything.
3.
8 Speed Evs are used to creep opposing clodsire's in the earthquake war.
4.
I'm actually running Gunk Shot over toxic on Clodsire for Hatterene mostly. But it is also useful to catch azumarill and breloom and stuff on the switch. It also functions as a stronger alternative to earthquake in a pinch. However, I've realised that gunk shot does not necessarily beat skeledirge and will-o-wisp volcarona, so toxic might be necessary to take on those massive threats to the team.
5.
Always use black sludge over leftovers on Clodsire. And by extension that means the tera-type should be poison (it also boosts up gunk shot if you choose to use that). There should be basically no reason for you to tera with clodsire, as any tera basically means you don't wall the actual pokemon you should wall. More importantly though, hella gholdengo's think they're hot on the switch when they trick your clod. That's when running black sludge actually becomes important, because you put the gholdengo on a timer permanently for the rest of the game (just be careful they don't recover on your choice scarf spike, and then trick the black sludge to one of your other pokemon).
The Fifth Day:
On the fifth day, I said, "let Kid Cudi (D&Nite) get ocky on 'em and cosplay as the God of Pokemon, and blitz everything with espeed", so Kid Cudingtons 'hmmmmmed' on everybody, and I saw it was good...
KidCudi (Dragonite) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 140 HP / 252 Atk / 116 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Roost
Summary: This pokemon with multiscale and tera-normal extreme speed basically becomes a backup check to everything. It's hyper-offence's worst nightmare. But it also provides a rare ground immunity for the team, as well as being a check for Tusk if things get shiesty. It provides the team with a second win-condition as well as the only other form of speed control outside of CB ice shard. However the speed control being tera-normal espeed is almost better than any scarfer could be. This is also the teams water resist, however it is not the best water resist despite having multiscale and reliable recovery simply due to the specific prevalent water types in the tier (Rotom-w, which burns Dragonite, Pelipper, which this doesn't switch into, and Azumarill, which it also doesn't switch into). Despite this, since water types are the least dominant they have ever been, this weakness of the team is not as exposed as it would otherwise have been in other gens.
Details: Once more this is as pretty standard bulky dragonite, the only minute difference being 4 more speed Evs are dropped into speed (from hp) to allow KidCudi to outspeed any opposing Dragonites with espeed.
The Sixth Day:
On the sixth day, I said, "let there be the most obnoxious Gholden Boy who's ready to SPIN YOUR BLOCK whenever, and wherever", and with that statement, not only was GODengo brought into this plane of existence, but also was the greatest SV OU team to ever be conceived, created, and so it was good...
GODengo (Gholdengo) @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 152 Def / 104 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Make It Rain
- Nasty Plot
- Recover
Summary: This is the last pokemon I decided to add to round out the team. It provides the team with a third win-condition (but it functions more as a setup breaker) as well as an amazing defensive utility and removal blocker. This is the pseudo-Rotom-w check, as well as a check to mons such as Iron Valiant, Hatterene, Azumarill, Breloom, Toxapex and of course Garganacl (if the Cloak is not knocked).
Details: You have a few other options Ev and item-wise you could potentially choose to use:
1.
You could choose to use leftovers instead of covert cloak, however the team does struggle with hatterene (especially if clod is not gunk shot) as well as garganacl.
2.
You could also decide to run more or less speed (more to outspeed Breloom, or less to increase bulk), however I like hitting 230 as it allows me to outspeed most defensive Tusk's, specs Pelipper, most defensive rotom-w, etc.
3.
Tera-water is useful when you are in a pinch as a back-up water resist (mainly for rain - floatzel), as well as blowing up chien-pao with make it rain after tanking a crunch. You could run tera-fight or tera-steel or even tera-ghost, but personally I like the surprise factor of tera-water, and it can really save you and put you in an advatnageous position if you need to remove the biggest threat to their team.
(A calc just to show tera-dark CB Chien-Pao crunch: 252+ Atk Choice Band Sword of Ruin Tera Dark Chien-Pao Crunch vs. 252 HP / 152+ Def Tera Water Gholdengo: 294-348 (77.7 - 92%) -- guaranteed 2HKO)
The Final Day:
On the seventh day, I rested, and so will you to prepare for laddering with this goated team...
Threats: We have a few...
1. Specs Pelipper: A huge giga threat, especially without water absorb on clodingtons. To mitigate pelipper you basically have to sack a mon, or pivot into Clod/Gholdengo on a hurricane (assuming they believe you are water absorb clod) and go kill for kill. However if they do have a specs Pelipper, keeping rocks up should be a priority to limit Pelipper, and to help put it in range of shadow ball and espeed.
2. Chien-Pao: Not much to say here, it's basically a threat to every team. Do your best to pivot between Volcarona and Tusk, and do not be afraid to use your tera to kill it or burn it.
3. Espathra: Against Espathra type teams, every time it comes out you basically have to go hard into Dragonite, and make sure to keep it's multiscale alive. Otherwise stored power will cook you. If Espathra is dazzling gleam instead of tera-fight, you can wall it with Clodsire, however if it is all of 3 and no protect, then making sure to hit it on the turn it calm mind's is necessary to make sure you have enough chip to kill it with espeed into ice shard. Gholdengo is also somewhat of a check, but multiple calm mind's will basically make shadow ball do no damage.
4. Dondozo: Against Dondozo, your best way to beat it is to knock it off, and get up hazards, that way you force it to rest a bunch and prevent it from really being able to setup. If it does setup you can toxic it with clod and switch out, or spam shadow ball with Gholdengo and fish for spdef drops.
5. Cinderace: If the Cinderace player reads you correctly and u-turns on your Dragonite, or Pyro's on your Volcarona, Cinderace + breaker can get out of hand pretty pretty quickly, however chipping it on switch in with flamethrower with Volcarona for example and some predictions should allow you to hopefully mitigate the turn-turn.
Advice In Battle:
Most of the time when you are playing with this team it is about chipping the opponent's team, removing items, statusing, getting up hazards all so one of your sweepers can break through. This can look like knocking off Garganacl or opposing Tusk's, switching Volcarona into Tusk and Gambit to try and flame body them, firing off shadow ball's, earthquakes and flamethrowers on the switch to chip incoming pokemon. This DOES NOT mean play passively however, you still need to play somewhat aggressive to position your pokemon appropriately, this is not a stall team. What this could look like is make some conditioning plays in order to lull your opponent into a false sense of security all so you can break the cycle of safe plays and double, or make an aggressive play to force progress.
In some matchups if they have a big threat, it might become necessary to play this team more like an offence instead of a balance, and double switch around a lot more than you would otherwise, in order to not get steamrolled by the threat.
Most of the time I find it useful to hold the tera until the end of the game for one of your sweepers, (most of the time it will be Dragonite, however fairy Volcarona can some times outright sweep teams). However against stall you basically always want to tera Chien-Pao in order to break. Like I mentioned previous, basically never tera clodsire. Apart from this, if there is a threat getting out of hand, tera-ing may be necessary to just eliminate it before it kills your entire team.
Proof of Rank + Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1769912225 (vs. Leftiez)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1769927733 (vs. Rain)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1771123203 (vs. Dondozo)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1771088648-wtuo5b632kqyb7909ln6pos7sdmn0yapw (vs. Bulk-Up Tusk)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1772799126-bf1u378c3oj53ftonvhkg3awcx2hx5mpw (2050-rated battle vs. Specs Pelipper)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1773805606-u49hc2lfcnkssw4dd5tn3zryhgh217xpw (Battle for #1)
Finally, thank you everybody for reading and rating, I appreciate it, and I hope that it goes well for anybody who wants to try out the team :).
https://pokepast.es/7f1d5c7760b9f7da
When building this team, I was tired... TIRED of trying to use heat sets, TIRED of trying to use shit pokemon, TIRED of getting rolled on the ladder by kids abusing a random assortment of the 12 most used pokemon. I had finally been pushed to my breaking point, I had had enough... *what happened next will shock you*
BOOM!!! I concocted a terrible, awful, DISGUSTING team in spite of all my prior woes, the only thing which could save me from my 1700s purgatory. And as the old proverb goes, 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em', and join them I certainly did.
After the 7 days of creation, what was left was the following:
And on this 7th day, I stared at the brainchild of my frustrations as it stared back at me - indeed, it was very good - so I rested; preparing myself for what would be an intense laddering session culminating in this very moment...
The First Day:
In the beginning there was nothing, and then I said, "let there be Choice-Banded Chien-Pao", and there was CB Chien-Pao...
Chien-Chien (Chien-Pao) @ Choice Band
Ability: Sword of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Crunch
- Ice Shard
- Sacred Sword
Summary: This was the first pokemon I added to the team. Simply put, this is a no-nonsense mon, AKA, it's broken. Anyway, ignoring that small disclaimer, this mon is amazing, it's anti-stall, its anti-offence, it's the best breaker in the tier. Chien-Pao really does it all. As I said previous, I was tired of constantly getting beaten down by all the bullshit on the ladder (including this very guy), so I decided to make a team with it :).
Details: It's basically a standard choice-banded Chien, however there are a still four important features that I must briefly mention.
1.
I believe that you should NEVER use JOLLY Chien. Adamant just hits so much harder it feels like, and the only notable thing you outspeed going jolly is Roaring Moon, and Cinderace. One of which you kill with ice shard anyway, and the other which doesn't switch in and will half the time get scared out by sucker punch (we don't have it but they cannot really attack into sucker and risk getting blown up).
2.
Ice shard is my preferred priority on CB Chien. There is no worse feeling in the game than locking into a CB sucker punch as they click a passive move, and you're forced to switch out as they recover and set-up in your face. CB ice shard is insanely strong, and often times you can sweep a team with ice shard in the end-game. CB adamant ice shard also OHKOES dragapult from full, making it so you don't have to risk blowing up your computer after you sucker punch a will-o-wisp and lose your breaker in 1 turn.
3.
Tera-dark is preferred over tera-ice because while tera-ice ice shard is obscenely strong, tera-dark is what allows you to really break stall, otherwise your tera-boosted icicle crashes are just going to bounce off dondozo, pex, etc.
4.
I personally prefer icicle crash over ice spinner. Not only is it slightly more powerful, but it also has a 30% chance to flinch, which always gives you an out in games that you have no business winning. Furthermore, crash is not a contact move which means you aren't killing yourself trying to kill helmet corviknight and garchomps... However, if you do choose to run crash, you gotta live and die by the sword. No complaining when you miss :).
The Second Day:
On the second day, I said, "let there be a Great Nose which separates the items and hazards from the field", and as such I spun forever, and it was so...
Great Nose (Great Tusk) @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
Summary: What does banded Chien-Pao struggle with most? Hazards. What is the best hazard remover in the tier? Mr. Tusk. He's also one of the only reliable knock off users in the tier, and is ALSO a very reliable rocker. Like Chien-Pao, this guy is everything you want in a defensive pivot. This is Lando-T's left cousin. This is role compression to a Tee. There's not much else to say about this guy, everybody knows what he does, and he does it well.
Details: Just like with Chien-Pao, there are a few things to mention when using the Great Shmeller.
1.
I originally had body press instead of rocks on Tusk, and had rocks on Clodsire, however I found that you basically are never clicking press, and anytime you would be clicking press, earthquake would basically also work almost just as well. So instead of press, we have rocks. This also frees up clodsire and allows it to run spikes, so you have another pseudo-win-condition with hazard stacking.
2.
A few Evs are dropped into speed to not only creep on other defensive tusks, but to also outspeed things like Jolly azumarill and gambit, as well as modest magnezone etc.
The Third Day:
On the third day, I said, "let there be the giant fuckoff Moth which burns everything known to mankind 1000% of the time", and thus I clicked will-o-wisp on every chien-pao and it never missed, not even once, and it was so...
(Volcarona) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 248 HP / 212 Def / 48 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Morning Sun
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
Summary: Iron Valiant was looking like a threat to the team at this point, as well as other guys like Corviknight, opposing Chien-Pao, KingGambit, etc. Defensive Volcarona serves as a decent physical wall, and paired with Tusk allows both of them to never get overwhelmed by mons such as Gambit. It is also gives the team a true win-condition.
Details: Again this is a pretty standard set, but there are some changes that I made to the most common spread.
1.
I chose to not run the giga drain tera-grass set. Instead I put on will-o-wisp as it provides a way to consistently chip down certain pokemon like rotom-w and toxapex, putting them into range of Cb crunch and +1 espeed etc. More importantly though it provides a consistent way to burn threats to the team such as kinggambit, great tusk, dragonite, chien-pao, etc.
2.
Tera-fairy is what I like running on this volcarona as it allows you to setup on dragon tail garchomp, and dragons in general locked into their stab moves. It's also an amazing defensive typing, and often times you can tera-fairy into chien-pao to avoid getting rolled by crunch and you can burn them or just kill them outright.
3.
I like running flamethrower over fiery dance just for the extra power. Fiery dance could be a bit better but I haven't tested it, so I'll just say that flamethrower is better for now.
4.
48 speed Evs are important to not only speed creep opposing defensive volcarona's but it also allows you to outspeed jolly roaring moon and cinderace after +1.
The Fourth Day:
On the fourth day, I said, "let there be a huge swamp monster that has an unusually wide mouth", so I created Clodingtons to look amusing and do nothing and effectively ignore every special attacker in the game, and all was well...
Clodingtons (Clodsire) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 248 SpD / 8 Spe
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Recover
Summary: I decided to add Mr. Clod. to fill some holes in the team which were present up to this point. For 1 we had no special walls, so any special guy would be running up on our team. Secondly, tspikes would be a problem for the team to get rid of considering Tusk is not boots, and without leftovers Tusk would get widdled very quickly. Clod also provides spikes support which can be instrumental in some matchups. It also has unaware which can be very useful against mons such as gholdengo, skeledirge and volcarona.
Details: Unlike the previous pokemon, there is actually a decent amount to talk about here :).
1.
I chose to run unaware over water absorb, even though the team does not have the best water resist (dragonite). This is mandatory for pokemon which would otherwise prove to be quite a large threat to the team such as the guys stated above. So while water absorb might be nice to run for mons such as rotom-w, pelipper, azumarill and quaquaval, all those mons have ways you can beat them with the rest of the team, however volcarona and dirge for the most part cannot be beaten without unaware.
2.
I like spikes over tspikes on clodsire just because of the prevalence of poison types atm in the tier, meaning most of the time they aren't really doing anything.
3.
8 Speed Evs are used to creep opposing clodsire's in the earthquake war.
4.
I'm actually running Gunk Shot over toxic on Clodsire for Hatterene mostly. But it is also useful to catch azumarill and breloom and stuff on the switch. It also functions as a stronger alternative to earthquake in a pinch. However, I've realised that gunk shot does not necessarily beat skeledirge and will-o-wisp volcarona, so toxic might be necessary to take on those massive threats to the team.
5.
Always use black sludge over leftovers on Clodsire. And by extension that means the tera-type should be poison (it also boosts up gunk shot if you choose to use that). There should be basically no reason for you to tera with clodsire, as any tera basically means you don't wall the actual pokemon you should wall. More importantly though, hella gholdengo's think they're hot on the switch when they trick your clod. That's when running black sludge actually becomes important, because you put the gholdengo on a timer permanently for the rest of the game (just be careful they don't recover on your choice scarf spike, and then trick the black sludge to one of your other pokemon).
The Fifth Day:
On the fifth day, I said, "let Kid Cudi (D&Nite) get ocky on 'em and cosplay as the God of Pokemon, and blitz everything with espeed", so Kid Cudingtons 'hmmmmmed' on everybody, and I saw it was good...
KidCudi (Dragonite) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 140 HP / 252 Atk / 116 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Roost
Summary: This pokemon with multiscale and tera-normal extreme speed basically becomes a backup check to everything. It's hyper-offence's worst nightmare. But it also provides a rare ground immunity for the team, as well as being a check for Tusk if things get shiesty. It provides the team with a second win-condition as well as the only other form of speed control outside of CB ice shard. However the speed control being tera-normal espeed is almost better than any scarfer could be. This is also the teams water resist, however it is not the best water resist despite having multiscale and reliable recovery simply due to the specific prevalent water types in the tier (Rotom-w, which burns Dragonite, Pelipper, which this doesn't switch into, and Azumarill, which it also doesn't switch into). Despite this, since water types are the least dominant they have ever been, this weakness of the team is not as exposed as it would otherwise have been in other gens.
Details: Once more this is as pretty standard bulky dragonite, the only minute difference being 4 more speed Evs are dropped into speed (from hp) to allow KidCudi to outspeed any opposing Dragonites with espeed.
The Sixth Day:
On the sixth day, I said, "let there be the most obnoxious Gholden Boy who's ready to SPIN YOUR BLOCK whenever, and wherever", and with that statement, not only was GODengo brought into this plane of existence, but also was the greatest SV OU team to ever be conceived, created, and so it was good...
GODengo (Gholdengo) @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 152 Def / 104 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Make It Rain
- Nasty Plot
- Recover
Summary: This is the last pokemon I decided to add to round out the team. It provides the team with a third win-condition (but it functions more as a setup breaker) as well as an amazing defensive utility and removal blocker. This is the pseudo-Rotom-w check, as well as a check to mons such as Iron Valiant, Hatterene, Azumarill, Breloom, Toxapex and of course Garganacl (if the Cloak is not knocked).
Details: You have a few other options Ev and item-wise you could potentially choose to use:
1.
You could choose to use leftovers instead of covert cloak, however the team does struggle with hatterene (especially if clod is not gunk shot) as well as garganacl.
2.
You could also decide to run more or less speed (more to outspeed Breloom, or less to increase bulk), however I like hitting 230 as it allows me to outspeed most defensive Tusk's, specs Pelipper, most defensive rotom-w, etc.
3.
Tera-water is useful when you are in a pinch as a back-up water resist (mainly for rain - floatzel), as well as blowing up chien-pao with make it rain after tanking a crunch. You could run tera-fight or tera-steel or even tera-ghost, but personally I like the surprise factor of tera-water, and it can really save you and put you in an advatnageous position if you need to remove the biggest threat to their team.
(A calc just to show tera-dark CB Chien-Pao crunch: 252+ Atk Choice Band Sword of Ruin Tera Dark Chien-Pao Crunch vs. 252 HP / 152+ Def Tera Water Gholdengo: 294-348 (77.7 - 92%) -- guaranteed 2HKO)
The Final Day:
On the seventh day, I rested, and so will you to prepare for laddering with this goated team...
Threats: We have a few...
1. Specs Pelipper: A huge giga threat, especially without water absorb on clodingtons. To mitigate pelipper you basically have to sack a mon, or pivot into Clod/Gholdengo on a hurricane (assuming they believe you are water absorb clod) and go kill for kill. However if they do have a specs Pelipper, keeping rocks up should be a priority to limit Pelipper, and to help put it in range of shadow ball and espeed.
2. Chien-Pao: Not much to say here, it's basically a threat to every team. Do your best to pivot between Volcarona and Tusk, and do not be afraid to use your tera to kill it or burn it.
3. Espathra: Against Espathra type teams, every time it comes out you basically have to go hard into Dragonite, and make sure to keep it's multiscale alive. Otherwise stored power will cook you. If Espathra is dazzling gleam instead of tera-fight, you can wall it with Clodsire, however if it is all of 3 and no protect, then making sure to hit it on the turn it calm mind's is necessary to make sure you have enough chip to kill it with espeed into ice shard. Gholdengo is also somewhat of a check, but multiple calm mind's will basically make shadow ball do no damage.
4. Dondozo: Against Dondozo, your best way to beat it is to knock it off, and get up hazards, that way you force it to rest a bunch and prevent it from really being able to setup. If it does setup you can toxic it with clod and switch out, or spam shadow ball with Gholdengo and fish for spdef drops.
5. Cinderace: If the Cinderace player reads you correctly and u-turns on your Dragonite, or Pyro's on your Volcarona, Cinderace + breaker can get out of hand pretty pretty quickly, however chipping it on switch in with flamethrower with Volcarona for example and some predictions should allow you to hopefully mitigate the turn-turn.
Advice In Battle:
Most of the time when you are playing with this team it is about chipping the opponent's team, removing items, statusing, getting up hazards all so one of your sweepers can break through. This can look like knocking off Garganacl or opposing Tusk's, switching Volcarona into Tusk and Gambit to try and flame body them, firing off shadow ball's, earthquakes and flamethrowers on the switch to chip incoming pokemon. This DOES NOT mean play passively however, you still need to play somewhat aggressive to position your pokemon appropriately, this is not a stall team. What this could look like is make some conditioning plays in order to lull your opponent into a false sense of security all so you can break the cycle of safe plays and double, or make an aggressive play to force progress.
In some matchups if they have a big threat, it might become necessary to play this team more like an offence instead of a balance, and double switch around a lot more than you would otherwise, in order to not get steamrolled by the threat.
Most of the time I find it useful to hold the tera until the end of the game for one of your sweepers, (most of the time it will be Dragonite, however fairy Volcarona can some times outright sweep teams). However against stall you basically always want to tera Chien-Pao in order to break. Like I mentioned previous, basically never tera clodsire. Apart from this, if there is a threat getting out of hand, tera-ing may be necessary to just eliminate it before it kills your entire team.
Proof of Rank + Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1769912225 (vs. Leftiez)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1769927733 (vs. Rain)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1771123203 (vs. Dondozo)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1771088648-wtuo5b632kqyb7909ln6pos7sdmn0yapw (vs. Bulk-Up Tusk)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1772799126-bf1u378c3oj53ftonvhkg3awcx2hx5mpw (2050-rated battle vs. Specs Pelipper)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1773805606-u49hc2lfcnkssw4dd5tn3zryhgh217xpw (Battle for #1)
Finally, thank you everybody for reading and rating, I appreciate it, and I hope that it goes well for anybody who wants to try out the team :).
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