Don't feel like making a full team dump this time around, no matter what it would feel pretty incomplete with how many ideas we ended up tabling and the sheer number of teams
miltankmilk and I pumped out. Some of them were uh... better than others, but I'm definitely in a place where I can be sure that building throughout a team tour is a wonderful, transformative, creative, exhausting, and sometimes emotional experience. Maybe I'm being dramatic or hyperbolizing a little there, but my point stands. Anyway, here's a few of my favorite teams miltankmilk used this tour, along with some sets that I think had a lot of potential but either ended up on suboptimal or unused teams.
Importables are all linked in the sprites, with spread notes at the bottom!
This was a team milk showed me almost entirely set before the tour started that we fine-tuned together. We agreed that Mence was something a lot of people were underestimating and wanted to use its ability to wall Kart/Bulu as something that pairs well with Gastro, using Roost to reliably check them throughout the game. There are a few unorthodox sets in this team, including Scarf Energy Ball Gene, which covers the Gastro hype that was happening around the beginning of the tour. It also has decent neutral coverage and can be decently strong with the Terrain boost and it came in clutch this game thanks to Ezrael bringing Mega Swampert rain. The last niche set milk had was Dragonium Z DD Zygarde - this works for a few different things. First, it lures Mega Salamence and Kyurem-B, which could both have a decent time against the team otherwise. The other more obscure use if Z-Outrage wasn't needed in the game was Z-Dragon Dance, which removes any Intimidate / Icy Wind drops before boosting.
After fiddling around with a bunch of teams that never quite felt right, we tried to reinvent / revamp a fullroom. The starting point and one of the stranger sets was Gravity Porygon2. This was originally to let Mega Camerupt OHKO Zapdos before it could Whirlwind out Porygon2 but also just made Earth Power a much safer move to click. It also happened to make our more inaccurate moves on the team (Super Fang, Will-O-Wisp, Play Rough, Stone Edge) much more reliable. Unfortunately, I was very sad when I remembered that you can't use High Jump Kick in Gravity, so my hopes that we could avoid the accuracy issue were dashed. The real key to this team though was one that miltankmilk thought of, and that's this Mimikyu set. At first glance, it seems like your standard Z-Mimikyu TR setter, potentially Mimikium. However, running max Speed and After You, the entire team gained the ability to be faster than Kyurem-B in a pinch, letting something like Stakataka wreak havoc even outside of TR. Despite some unfortunate luck, I'm still happy with the way that the team turned out.
I had a rough week irl this week, but milk threw together a Volcarona + Alolan Persian squad that might be my favorite team from the whole tournament. He wrote about it a bit
here for the Teambuilding Comp, but the gist was Volcarona kind of walled a lot of the common Landorus-T sets, which are the most common SR setters, letting it circumvent the SR issue. Bug Z Swarm is a super powerful set right now, and having Tapu Fini meant losing Flame Body wasn't especially impactful anyway. Alolan Persian is the true team player cat, Fake Out + Taunt + Parting Shot + its Speed and physical bulk are so incredibly helpful for supporting Volcarona. The rest of the team is fairly standard, but we didn't need to deviate. I wish we could have fit Heal Pulse on Fini, but the team needed a backup wincon if Volcarona fell.
We were coming off a few rough weeks in teambuilding, play, luck, morale, you name it. However, after Ruiners picked DOU, we brought
MajorBowman into the team chat really dedicated ourselves to being as ready as possible, and the three of us made this. Funnily enough, the team started out built around DD Mega Salamence + Milotic. Eventually, we changed Milotic into Z-TW Kart + Tapu Fini for Heal Pulse and a different form of circumventing Intimidate. AV Kyurem-B with HP Fire provided speed control and a surprise Gene lure, Lando-T was great for Knock/pivoting/Intim/SR/everything, and then we got sorta stuck. Finally, we settled on a bulky support Volcarona, which had so many different moves on it throughout the building process - Rage Powder, Overheat, Bug Buzz, Tailwind, Whirlwind, Protect, Struggle Bug, HP Ice, String Shot... you get the picture. With those 6, the team was working okay, but milk had a burst of inspiration when he realized our struggles with Koko/Ttar/Zapdos could all be fixed by replacing DD Mega Mence with a DD Mega Tyranitar. Ojama had also been asking us to bring out the Mega Tyranitar the whole tour, and so finally getting it in our potentially last game felt right. I came up with this absurdly bulky DD set - Mega Tyranitar's bulk is insane, so we wanted to work with it instead of trying to turn it into some speed demon. Running Stone Edge instead of Rock Slide gave it some power even if we were unable to get up a DD, and a few other set edits made this team ready. Despite the smaller preparation window, I think this was our best-prepped team and it worked beautifully.
- used in Week 6 vs fespy
Latias-Mega @ Latiasite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 32 SpA / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Icy Wind
- Calm Mind
- Recover
This Latias set was sort of built to be Icy CM Cress, but fast. The added resistance to Grass also helped with some of Cress's potential issues against Kart/Bulu, though opposing Ice-types become a little scarier. Most of the team around this set was fairly standard, but this set really impressed me in testing and in the game.
- used in Week 7 vs SMB
Tapu Bulu @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 7 Spe
- Wood Hammer
- Horn Leech
- Superpower
- Nature's Madness
Leading into the game against SMB, he hadn't used many actually bulky Steel-types, so we wanted to take advantage of that with Stakataka + CB Bulu + Mega Gardevoir. Unfortuantely, we ran into a Mega Metagross and had some bad luck with a Horn Leech miss, but the sheer power of CB Bulu is absurd. After Stealth Rock, it OHKOes Lando-T with -1 Wood Hammer and offensive Kyurem-B with -1 Superpower. Nature's Madness is so good right now, and it worked as a decent filler/support move with Stakataka looking to claim raises with Beast Boost. This team also had a few other cool sets like Knock Off HP Fire Zeraora, but ultimately it was too focused on trying to beat SMB's previous builds and sacrificed general versatility. The HP / SpD split ensures that Bulu takes a +1 Genesect Ice Beam.
Kyurem-Black @ Psychic Seed
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Atk / 60 Def / 16 SpA / 8 SpD / 80 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Ice Beam
- Fusion Bolt
- Substitute
- Roost
On paper, this set is an absolute monster. At +1 SpD, Kyurem-B's Substitutes take a Landorus-T Earth Power or a Zygarde Thousand Arrows. It also still OHKOes Zard Y with Fusion Bolt and outspeeds most Tapu Fini while still having a decent amount of investment for Ice Beam and even Roost to keep itself healthy. Unfortunately, in practice, you end up clicking Sub and Roost more than either of your attacks and it's hard to really get Kyurem-B into a situation where it thrives like it theoretically should. This set obviously paired with a Tapu Lele, and despite attempts for facing both SMB and emforbes, I could never really get the rest of the team to still feel okay against Mega Metagross. Someone out there might be able to make SubRoost Kyurem-B work though, so I'm sharing it now so that I can (kind of) say I was ahead of the curve like I (sort of) was for Mega Venusaur, which I mentioned in the sets linked in my Snake team dump.
Tapu Lele @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 224 HP / 72 Def / 112 SpA / 100 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Protect
We somehow went the whole tour without using Lele once, but if we had, I would have pushed for this set. With a Pixie Plate and 112+ SpA, Moonblast becomes a guaranteed OHKO on both Zygarde and Kyurem-B, and Moonblast in general becomes a lot more spammable - this is especially nice with how much more popular the other Island Guardians are, since your Psychic STAB is often weaker than Fairy STAB. This particular set takes a -1 Iron Head from Mega Metagross and outspeeds most Zapdos to Taunt them before TW, but the set in general should be fairly flexible.
Tapu Koko @ Electrium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 136 HP / 188 SpA / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Nature's Madness
- Taunt
- Protect
This set was my attempt to combine offensive and utility sets. With the given spread, Tapu Koko can OHKO Mega Metagross with Gigavolt Havoc and outspeed Naganadel, which was picking up some steam at the time. Aside from that, the set focuses on fast Nature's Madness which is so powerful right now and slightly more bulk. There's theoretically some flexibility to be had here (I paired this set with a Kyurem-B, which appreciates both Metagross being removed and various threats chipped), but the team I'd built with it never really clicked.
Looking forward to DPL and all the metagame development / creative advances that may come!
