SV OU Curse Garg + Boots Spam (PEAKED #3 2015 ELO)

[Joltinjoe]

Paste: https://pokepast.es/d67e1137be6267ce

Table of contents
1. Introduction
2. Proof of peak
3. The team
4. Threat list
5. Replays
6. Conclusion + paste

1. Introduction

Hey y'all so before gliscor was banned I made this team ( ) which ended up getting to the 1900s, but now that gliscor is banned, I made some edits to the team and ended up getting to #3 on ladder. Its crazy to me that so many teams are just completely unprepared for garganacl and how much it solos. When supported by teammates that abuse its soft checks, garganacl is a terrifying mon to face.

This team has so many boots pokemon because with hazard spam being at an all time high and removal being unreliable, I found that it was easier to just use boots on multiple pokemon to really punish defensive teams that overrely on hazards for making progress. Its works great against lead glimmora/ribombee teams as you are essentially playing 6v5 from the start of the game.

2. Proof of peak:

Username: Joltinjoe18

3. The team


Garganacl @ Leftovers
Ability: Purifying Salt
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpD
Impish Nature
- Curse
- Salt Cure
- Recover
- Earthquake

This is the star of the team. I think people just forgot about garganacl because covert cloak as an item just doesn't exist right now and garg heavily takes advantage of this. However I don't think this point even matters because curse +earthquake is such a devastating set that would destroy teams like this anyways. With curse + earthquake, garganacl is able to beatdown any team that rely on pokemon like slowking or covert cloak users to pivot in on salt cure. After just 1 curse you can nearly solo the entire tier single handedly. This team's gameplan is to remove special attackers that would otherwise be a threat to garg's sweep. We use leftovers because garg is staying in for enough turns on average that leftovers heals more than the hazards do back to garg in most games. Leftovers also helps us sweep better once we do boost up.



Gholdengo @ Air Balloon
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 224 HP / 252 Def / 32 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Make It Rain
- Shadow Ball
- Nasty Plot
- Recover

Defensive gholdengo is an excellent glue piece for teams that doesn't require much support to function. with this ev spread gholdengo checks large swaths of the metagame and is easily able to leverage its bulk to set up on defensive pokemon that can't hurt it much. Notable targets it checks are iron valiant, enamorus, and sneasler which can be quite dangerous without a proper check to them. air balloon lets you spinblock great tusk more safely. Tera fairy allows you to potentially use your nasty plot boosts to blow holes in teams or sweep.



Iron Valiant @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt
- Knock Off
- Close Combat

4 attacks boots valiant is the perfect pokemon to compliment our defensive core. This gives us a great offensive threat that can come in and knock off items, notably boots, to allow our passive damage to hurt even more. Moonblast is a nice neutral strong hit on everything, and helps bluff that you are purely special valiant. thunderbolt also helps with this while hitting flying types like corviknight and water types like dondozo. Knock off is the key move on this set, as it helps valiant both break through its own checks, but helps rack up residual damage by removing boots from key pokemon like zapdos (which we like removed for our water garganacl). Close combat rounds out the set by getting a surprise ohko on heatran and blissey, while being a stronger neutral hit against pokemon with higher spdef than physdef like ogerpon-wellspring. Max special attack makes moonblast more threatening and bluffs pure special valiant even harder. Tera type is fairy for an extra boost of damage vs defensive teams. Of note is that this is usually the team's lead as no item val is very unpredictable and usually gets a lot of value.



Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Ice Spinner

Dragonite is a very useful team member by adding natural resistances to water and grass that the team needs. This is the only way for our team to answer a pokemon like banded rillaboom who 2hkos our zapdos with wood hammer. It also checks ogerpon wellspring lacking playrough. Multiscale helps out the team a lot vs many dangerous setup sweepers like kingambit, sneasler, and ogerpon-wellspring. More importantly though, dragonite acts as a secondary wincon for the team when garganacl isn't able to do it. In most games dragonite should be used to check threats immediately or be held in the back for a late game sweep if you realize garg's chances of winning are low. Ice spinner is chosen over other moves in the last slot to give dragonite ground + ice coverage.



Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Discharge
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave

Specially defensive zapdos is very dangerous for many teams to face. It is an excellent status spreader and it is really good at shrugging off special attacks. This works really well against teams with great tusk as their ground type, as in these games you have completely uncontested paralysis spreading. It is a good initial switch to pokemon like dragapult and iron valiant, which takes a lot of pressure off of garg and ghold to check things on the enemy team. heat wave is chosen over volt switch because I found that I didn't want to pivot around much with this set, and it was usually better to spam discharge in most circumstances. tera dragon is for ogerpon wellspring and various water type attacks, while still maintaining a grass resistance.



Great Tusk @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Knock Off
- Ice Spinner
- Stealth Rock

No rapid spin? We don't need it. Over half the team is spikes immune/stealth rocks immune and rapid spin can sometimes be a momentum sink. Three attacks no rapid spin is the perfect fit for the team, letting us make progress vs defense with stealth rock + knock off and giving us a check to dragonite and kingambit, as well as other physical attackers which takes pressure off of gholdengo. Headlong rush is chosen for a higher damage output against targets that might survive earthquake like gholdengo. max speed is also chosen to outrun gholdengo. Tera Dragon is in case ogerpon wellspring gets out of hand but I never had to use it. I haven't tried it but tera steel/poison might be a good idea for targets like calm mind clefable, which the team struggles with.

4. Threat list



This is the biggest threat to the team in the current meta. Rillaboom it sticks around a long time with its grassy terrain, and banded wood hammer always ohkos garg even at +1. It is very good at crippling the team further using knock off. You need to get turns right vs this and try to play more agressive against rillaboom until you can beat it. stealth rocks are important to beat this, however once this is gone teams with rillaboom usually fail to check garg any further than that.



Greatly threatens the team offensively, make sure stealth rock is up as soon as you can and use dragonite to check it. After an extreme speed it is in range of close combat from iron valiant. ogerpon-cornerstone is also very threatening but not as popular. Leading iron valiant is also a good idea as you beat it 1v1.



you are probably going to need to tera garg to beat this but that's not that big of a deal since garg tera is the team's star anyways.



Specs is Hard to beat however tera water garg helps against this. Try to swap into iron valiant on predicted dragon moves as you will get a lot of momentum with this and its fairly predictable when it will happen. booster sptack is easier to beat as zapdos walls it



Very very threatening if it is choice specs, and you are forced to gholdengo every time. you really need stealth rock up and to wear it down with residual damage. If its boots you can use zapdos to check it and fish for paralysis. Dragonite's extreme speed is also useful here



Only threatening if they tera ice. This is usually the lead on teams that use it and the team has a plan against it. I always lead great tusk and force them to tera and kill me, I may lose great tusk but losing tera that early usually causes them to lose the game in the long run.



It outspeeds every mon on the team and is very threatening offensively Choice band sets can be difficult to beat as they keep momentum with u-turn freely while 2hkoing most of the team with its stabs, you need to get your turns right vs it. Swords dance unburden sets are also really threatening, you need to chip it enough so that dragonite can revenge kill it.



The one defensive pokemon garganacl has a lot of trouble with. Standard magic guard sets can easily pivot into salt cure and generate free turns for clefable's teammates. You might be able to beat this set 1v1 sometimes but it is far from guaranteed, you will lose a lot of pp on recover, and you will probably get knocked off. Sticky barb + trick allows clefable to cripple garg and beat it 1v1. It is quite bad if you get tricked because garg is relied on to check many threats on teams with clefable and when it can't do that things get rough. However the worst set is calm mind by a long shot because it uses garg as setup fodder and can easily sweep the team.

Replays

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1991449545

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1991604353

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1991676708-4tvbjcnpl1rx2ry8is7w98bf4w7l6dkpw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1991683712

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1991679146

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1991464604-8qvwjl01yxup9hnvuqpf0dgz74qx0p3pw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1991442631-wff5h3oqvpjhvp91uylgwj76xnchor8pw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1990755257

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1990751263-t18lf73tyem51p353kyptknxdr4yk0gpw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1990590831-z13e137d7neu011ba4ugrp8nylbyghtpw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1990039657-24tggj3ay62e8qcstihvddze8edt5jlpw

Conclusion + Paste

https://pokepast.es/d67e1137be6267ce

The Garg is back

P.S. If anyone knows how to bold RMT titles I would appreciate it.

 

[1LDK]

 

[RaikouLover]

Congrats on the peak.

Garg is indeed broken. I get flamed by people for saying it. Its main checks are all the suspects lol.

Tail Glow Manaphy with Energy Ball eats this team alive. Somewhat rare rn though.

 

[DaVinci]

congrats on the high ranking on ladder, and thanks for the team, if I had to give a suggestion tho, I personally am liking to run - speed nature and 0 speed iv on garg so you're slower than alomomola and alower than g king after one curse, makes it a lot harder for them to play around garg if you salt cure what they bring in instead of their regenerator, still haven't found a situation where I would've wanted the missing speed, and I think this helps the matchup vs those a lot, another thing I started running is psyshock on gold over shadow ball so I give a harder time to people using clod, also helps vs clefable matchup, because as they calm mind and you nasty plot a lot of times they panic and tera poison, which makes your psyshock ohko them

 

[Joltinjoe]

congrats on the high ranking on ladder, and thanks for the team, if I had to give a suggestion tho, I personally am liking to run - speed nature and 0 speed iv on garg so you're slower than alomomola and alower than g king after one curse, makes it a lot harder for them to play around garg if you salt cure what they bring in instead of their regenerator, still haven't found a situation where I would've wanted the missing speed, and I think this helps the matchup vs those a lot, another thing I started running is psyshock on gold over shadow ball so I give a harder time to people using clod, also helps vs clefable matchup, because as they calm mind and you nasty plot a lot of times they panic and tera poison, which makes your psyshock ohko them

I never thought to use min speed on garganacl, I might have to try that. Thanks for the suggestion and i'm glad you're enjoying the team :)

 

[autumn]

hey, cool team! i think garg is very underrated rn because nobody’s really prepping for it. i just have some minor changes that might help address the threatlist a bit

offensive -> bulkier roost dragonite

dragonite is your main water resist and check to waterpon before tera, so if you ran a bulkier spread with roost, you can bring it in multiple times to check them instead of only really having one shot. now gliscor is gone, i think espeed + fire punch is the best combination because it beats balloon ghold while eq doesnt. the only thing it struggles to hit is pult

Hide

Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 144 HP / 252 Atk / 112 Spe
Tera Type: Normal
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Fire Punch
- Roost

4 attacks -> encore valiant

thunderbolt doesn’t really hit much in this meta that its other moves don’t already cover, so you could try taking advantage of its utility movepool to help with bad mus. encore can lock waterpon and manaphy into setup and force them out, and it’s a nice emergency check to gambit too. to help with rilla mu too, you can go tera steel to give you a resistance to grassy glide so you can emergency revenge kill it. another more niche option is destiny bond to outspeed and take down waterpon with you

Hide

Iron Valiant @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Knock Off
- Close Combat
- Encore

something else small i’d recommend is going 152 speed evs timid on zapdos to outspeed tusk. you’ve talked about how it’s good at punishing teams that rely on tusk as a ground, so being faster will mean that you can kill it without getting knocked first. you can also try defensive evs instead of spdef to better check sneasler too

Hide

Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 152 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
Tera Type: Steel
Timid Nature
- Discharge
- Volt Switch
- Hurricane
- Roost

 

[DaVinci]

hey, cool team! i think garg is very underrated rn because nobody’s really prepping for it. i just have some minor changes that might help address the threatlist a bit

offensive -> bulkier roost dragonite

dragonite is your main water resist and check to waterpon before tera, so if you ran a bulkier spread with roost, you can bring it in multiple times to check them instead of only really having one shot. now gliscor is gone, i think espeed + fire punch is the best combination because it beats balloon ghold while eq doesnt. the only thing it struggles to hit is pult

Hide

Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 144 HP / 252 Atk / 112 Spe
Tera Type: Normal
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Fire Punch
- Roost

4 attacks -> encore valiant

thunderbolt doesn’t really hit much in this meta that its other moves don’t already cover, so you could try taking advantage of its utility movepool to help with bad mus. encore can lock waterpon and manaphy into setup and force them out, and it’s a nice emergency check to gambit too. to help with rilla mu too, you can go tera steel to give you a resistance to grassy glide so you can emergency revenge kill it. another more niche option is destiny bond to outspeed and take down waterpon with you

Hide

Iron Valiant @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Knock Off
- Close Combat
- Encore

something else small i’d recommend is going 152 speed evs timid on zapdos to outspeed tusk. you’ve talked about how it’s good at punishing teams that rely on tusk as a ground, so being faster will mean that you can kill it without getting knocked first. you can also try defensive evs instead of spdef to better check sneasler too

Hide

Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 152 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
Tera Type: Steel
Timid Nature
- Discharge
- Volt Switch
- Hurricane
- Roost

I don't like the zapdos idea here, zapdos is the best swtch we have into most sp attackers, don't think it makes much sense to go phys def zapdos, I also don't like no thunderbolt on valiant cause it makes you get walled by a lot of the water tanks in the meta, dondozo, alomomola, tera water garg, alomomola, the ocasional pex too, the dragonite change could be fine and worth testing but I feel like it might be too big of a momentum sink to click roost on dnite

 

[autumn]

I don't like the zapdos idea here, zapdos is the best swtch we have into most sp attackers, don't think it makes much sense to go phys def zapdos, I also don't like no thunderbolt on valiant cause it makes you get walled by a lot of the water tanks in the meta, dondozo, alomomola, tera water garg, alomomola, the ocasional pex too, the dragonite change could be fine and worth testing but I feel like it might be too big of a momentum sink to click roost on dnite

your two biggest threats you’ve listed are physical, so going physdef zapdos would mean that you’re not rilla weak at all and you can punish waterpon better. its a bit of a trade off on what you’re looking to beat, but it seemed like you struggled more with physical attackers than special. if you stick with spdef, then pretty much need roost dnite to cover those. i wouldn’t call it a momentum sink when you still have the same attack stat but just with a more reliable way to deal with your big threats

with valiant, you’re still 2hkoing mola with moonblast, and you can encore it and dozo and take advantage of them in different ways through forced switches instead of direct damage. that’s gonna help you with the threatlist you have a lot more

 

[Chilln0]

I’ve said this before, but Garg is basically an Uber the millisecond people forget about it

Great team I really like it. Did you consider using Lando-T over Tusk as you aren’t using spin? I feel like it could help with a few of this teams weak MUs, namely Rilla

 

[Joltinjoe]

I’ve said this before, but Garg is basically an Uber the millisecond people forget about it

Great team I really like it. Did you consider using Lando-T over Tusk as you aren’t using spin? I feel like it could help with a few of this teams weak MUs, namely Rilla

I actually had landorus-T over great tusk originally when gliscor was banned but it didn't really do so well so I switched it. The reason I changed it to tusk was for a few reasons. The main reason was that tusk has important moves that landorus lacks. Tusk has a stronger ground stab in headlong rush, the progress making tool of knock off, and a 100% accurate move to directly threaten fliers in ice spinner. Landorus is way worse at making progress overall and has to rely on predictions and inaccurate moves like stone edge. In addition landorus lacks a dark resist and its nice to have a dark resist other than iron valiant on the team. I also already had 2 flying types and an air balloon gholdengo so I didn't really need another flying type.

There's likely more nuance to it than this but these were the big reasons and also tusk just did better in battles so I kept it.