Hey, its me, 1LDK, back in gen 9, did somebody miss me? No? Okay then, I'm used to getting this amount of negative reaction anyways. Back to what it concerns us, recently, BKC made a video about trapping in general, and while something cool, I have never made a team that was based around trapping stuff and decided to do something around it, now, if I have to be honest, I'm not good at playing or trapping stuff, I haven't even gone fishing in my life, and the city where I live is a costal one, but I have been having fun with the team and I really wanted to show something again in this gen, so I guess for the first time I'm going to show the team building process, this is particularly important since this is my first solo project in a long time, the last solo project I had was with the Donphan team, which I do have a fond memory, but It's now HORRIBLY OUTDATED LMAO.
At first, I wanted to do a stall team or a fat balance at least, so I was with something ultra defensive, but didn't truly felt comfortable with the idea, if YOU, want to make a trapping spam stall team, be my guest, and I hope it gets lots of likes and support, as for me, I decided to do BO since its the playstyle I'm most comfortable with, idk why to be honest, but it just clicks for me.
After deciding the direction of the team, I added the mandatory Great Tusk that is gonna do additional tanking duty. Garganacl and Toxapex are the stars of this team, both can trap different Pokémon and cripple them, not to mention both have a good amount of survivability, besides Garganacl is broken and never going away so might as well abuse the fuck out of it am I right boys?
After having a good base of defensive mons that are not 100% passive, I realized that I needed a ground immunity and some power, so after looking at the horrible pool of birds we have right now, Dragonite seemed like the best choice overall, for its ability to tank thanks to Multiscale, and sweep, priority is always a nice side tool to have
I decided to add scarf Gholdengo, It's not only a good cleaner, but it adds a team a good stall breaker, second status absorber, steel type, revenge killer, much needed overall speed control and now that I'm looking at it well, it combines with the color scheme of the team, maybe its just me tho.
I needed a last member, I wasn't too sure on what to add exactly, but I knew that I needed another ground resist, so after looking at the also horrible pool of grass types, I decided to go with Iron Leaves as a filler mon that added another ground resist just in case, and unlike Meowscarada, it doesn't add a Fairy weakness. And made it Choice Band to give it immediate breaking power to break balance, which my team kinda lacked
So this is all cool and all, but how does it translate in practice, well, let's see the team in depth so you guys can see my descend into absolute madness
Garganacl @ Leftovers
Ability: Purifying Salt
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Curse
- Salt Cure
- Recover
- Block
When using this team, the first thing you have to remember, is that Garganacl is TOTALLY BALANCED, since he is one of the 2 trappers, and most of the time, the wincon for the match, I went with this trapping set, first you make sure it is safe to Block, then Curse spam, and throw a Salt Cure from time to time, Recover also helps a lot, this time I decided to go with tera Dark because it CHEESES HO, you literally cockblock Grimmsnarl, and Armarouge, and most of these fuckers, spread is for maximun survivability on both sides of the spectrum
:Please pretend that:
:These are Covert Cloaks:Toxapex @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 52 SpA / 200 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Infestation
- Toxic
- Surf
- Haze
Now, you might be looking at this set and ask yourself "1LDK, WTF IS THAT", well, let me tell you, its my new degenerate pex set, from the creators of the 52 Attack Gunk Shot pex, and the 152 special attack and 4 speed evs acid spray pex, here comes, the 52 special attack with 4 speed trapping pex. I'm gonna make it clear right now, 52 special attack does not reach any threshold I know, but its a personal joke that my pex sets have to be weird, speaking of weird, pex with no Recover is something that actually takes some skill to use, because you no longer have the ability to brainlessly spam it and keep yourself alive. Infestation + toxic is a true combo that guarantees something is going down, I used to have Acid Spray instead of toxic because I thought I could tank more, but these are hard times, and the instant reward of Toxic is better for what I'm trying to do. tera fairy is particularly important because it helps with the Walking Wake matchup, Haze is for an emergency sweep denier, and Surf is a useful stab. As for the EVs: 4 speed is to always win against Garganacl, Quagsire, Toxapex, Dondozo and 52 speed Hatterene. Max HP and 200 SpD with Calm is for Walking Wake. And Corvert Cloak is for Garganacl and his bullshit.
Great Tusk @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
Hey, did you know that Great Tusk in almost 60% usage rate, fucking hell man, the absolute state of the meta, anyways, this is literally standard defensive tusk with some Spe for opposing Tusk, it knocks off stuff, is the rocker, and has stuff, tera fire is for emergency valiant trolling, it helps with burns in general, especially from Skeleridge, and yeah that's basically it, since tusk at this point doesn't need an explanation, and I'm struggling to fit the 3 line rule of the RMT, I wanna do some filler and ask everyone how you guys doing, remember to drink water.
Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 144 HP / 252 Atk / 112 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Roost
After having the 2 stars of my team and the mandatory Great Tusk, I realized that I needed offensive power, Dragonite helps a lot in being a Ground immune mon that is bulky thanks to its good bulk and multiscale, so I took the standard Bulky spread provided from Smogon dot com trademark, he is half the time the one finishing the games when Garganacl is not your game's wincon, so be sure to analyze the game and all that stuff that good players do that I do not because I'm bad, also remember to spam roost and when using dragonite, there's a high chance that EVERYTHING will be Tera Flying, Idk why, but I have only seen tera flying stuff whenever I think this is sweeping time, fuck
Gholdengo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Make It Rain
- Trick
- Focus Blast
Gholdengo is a key part of the team because it offers A LOT, its a cleaner, speed control, revenge killer, steel type, ghost type, stall breaker and can potentially be another ground immune Pokémon thanks to the tera flying I gave him, this is especially funny when trolling great tusk out of spinning, since stuff like Clodsire, Toxapex, Blissey, Sylveon and Slowking are on the rise, you should have a ton of opportunities to trick your scarf away, fish for the shadow ball drops or maybe throw a Focus Blast, and as always, Make It Rain when you're not sure
Iron Leaves @ Choice Band
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Psyblade
- Wild Charge
- Close Combat
Okay so, I'll be completely honest with you, when I put Iron Leaves as the last member of the team, I wasn't too inspired, I mean, its a grass type so its a ground resist that is bulkier than Meowscarada and doesn't have a fairy weakness, I threw a Choice Band at it, so it could have something to do and was thinking "If I need to change this, I'll do it eventually", but man, this thing, PUTS IN WORK, holy fuck grass as an offensive type is kinda underrated, and most things tend to drop from one leaf blade, sure, its quad bug weakness means that there's no way this thing stays in OU, but if I'm not staying in after killing something, then might as well do the most of my stay, the moves are stab, Close Combat for steels and Wild Charge for Corviknight. Tera Type is grass because I don't think I'm gonna tera this mon.
Mean things that are gonna totally ruin your day
specifically the set, it has NO counters, the best thing you can do is try to deny entry with Iron Leaves or revenge kill with Iron Leaves, but you're not beating this thing.
/ 
Somebody decided to materialize Psyspam as a thing (I still love you Andviet but man, this is the 5 teapot spam I fight today wtf), and now this new flavour of HO is doing Terrorism on the tier we know and love, you are now watching teapots fly everywhere and cursed Terraria armors sweeping. So your plan is basically you need to cheese it with Dark Garganacl, Iron Leaves can OHKO Indeedee and Polteageist with Leaf Blade, but Polteageist has Focus Sash so try to either trick your choice scarf with Gholdengo or well time a haze with pex. You also have to do the impossible task of getting Stealth Rocks in against Hatterene. You could theoretically win with literally perfect play but if you're not a god at the game you are probably losing Alright so, the question is, how the fuck do you make a team weak to the most common and important piece of the metagame, and the answer is, idk man, I just spent 5 minutes without any caregiver on the teambuilder. I have 2 ground weak mons (both stars of the team) and 3 Pokémon scared of knock off, try to give him a Toxic and just go to war with your own Tusk, if garganacl gets a +1 before it arrives then I think you have a fighting chance with it, and if not switching into a knock off, Iron Leaves does 65% minimun to max defense impish with leaf blade I think so thats cool I guessConclussion, Pokepaste and Replays
https://pokepast.es/6a7aa88120717e9c
So this ends my new back to solo project, I really wanted to showcase something new and its been a long time, I know it's probably a horrible team, but I do like it, had some fun with it, and it probably can be wielded better, I really hope this gets lots of attraction and fun stuff, who knows if an actual good player decides to take inspiration of this and make an actual good team, and now he takes the glory and title of meta game changer. and to rub salt on the injury he puts a Booster Energy Valiant set.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1821260224 (vs sun, Goat Tusk coming in clutch)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1821271810 (Doing some trolling with Garganacl against Psyspam HO)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1821601527-vra0n3glo1j50jwjbwomx67zr09aoxfpw (Least bloodlusted Azumarill)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1821608572 (Shououts to the Iron Leaves hater who whopped my ass to prove a point)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1821612925 (Garganacl is totally balanced and has no restrain in the metagame)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1821718228 (GARGANACL IS TOTALLY BALANCED AND HAS NO RESTRAIN IN THE METAGAME)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1822040606 (Idk who you are but im sorry for stalling you out of reqs, I hope you got them in the end)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1822018575 (Adamant Sand Force Choice Band Hippowdown does not care about your feelings)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1821271810 (Doing some trolling with Garganacl against Psyspam HO)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1821601527-vra0n3glo1j50jwjbwomx67zr09aoxfpw (Least bloodlusted Azumarill)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1821608572 (Shououts to the Iron Leaves hater who whopped my ass to prove a point)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1821612925 (Garganacl is totally balanced and has no restrain in the metagame)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1821718228 (GARGANACL IS TOTALLY BALANCED AND HAS NO RESTRAIN IN THE METAGAME)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1822040606 (Idk who you are but im sorry for stalling you out of reqs, I hope you got them in the end)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1822018575 (Adamant Sand Force Choice Band Hippowdown does not care about your feelings)
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