SVBH RMT
Peaked 9th with 1628 Elo and 81.9 GXE.
The Team:
Peaked 9th with 1628 Elo and 81.9 GXE.
The Team:
(click for paste)
The Gameplan
The team has a few main paths to victory.
The first is to use Trick to cripple the opposing walls and force through enough damage to win with Eternatus, Necrozma, or Arceus-Ghost to overwhelm them and win.
The second path is to beat their offensive threats with the defensive core, and then simply whittle away at the enemy while they're unable to hurt you back.
The final route is to simply just go ham with Etern/UNecro if the other team doesn't have any good resists for them, and then clean up whatever's left with Arceus and Zamazenta.
The Sets
Eternatus @ Choice Specs
Ability: Adaptability
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Clanging Scales
- Shell Side Arm
- Armor Cannon
- Trick
The first of two Dragons, and the inspiration for my team. Etern's a fantastic offensive pokemon, its Dragon/Poison STAB combination shreds through the meta, but it suffers from being walled by Scales mons like Meloetta, or fat SpDef mons like MG Blissey. The solution? SSA to put the hurt on Blissey, and Trick+Specs to cripple walls, while also letting you shred through teams once their Fairies die and their Steels are weakened. Armor Cannon lets it threaten non-WBB/PSea Steels, to allow it or UNecro to break easier later.
Imp-Proofed by Magearna and Meloetta(if necessary).
Does not Imp-Proof anything.
Necrozma-Ultra @ Choice Band
Ability: Dragon's Maw
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Glaive Rush
- Draco Meteor
- V-create
- Trick
The second Dragon, and one of my favorite mons in the tier. Dragon's Maw+Choice Band allows you to do some ridiculous amounts of damage with Glaive Rush, including 2HKOing FC Arceus formes after minor chip, or 2HKOing non-FC Celesteela. Draco Meteor is mainly used after you Trick away your Choice Band, and it's mainly used to snipe FC mons that think they're safe because you were Banded. You could switch out DMeteor to NTorque or Gunk Shot to snipe MGarde or MAud though. V-Create is just to beat Steels and to not totally thud into Fairies, and Trick is to cripple walls you can't muscle past.
Imp-Proofed by Magearna.
Imp-Proofs Meloetta in a pinch.
Magearna @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Well-Baked Body
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Calm Nature
- Revelation Dance
- U-turn
- Shore Up
- Spikes
The last star of the show, Magearna does a lot for the team. It's one of the stopgaps against Fairy threats like Pixilate MGarde or PixSpeed Zac/Fairyceus, it's a perfect Imp-Proof for both of my dragons, and it's able to take advantage of Imp to set up Spikes, which it also helps to keep up thanks to blocking Mortal Spin. It also helps stop any Entrainment shenanigans thanks to Rev Dance, walls standard MGLO Etern entirely, helps check MScept, and gives the rest of the team slow pivoting with U-Turn, so my breakers can get in safely.
Imp-Proofed by Arceus-Ghost.
Imp-Proofs Arceus-Ghost(sorta), Eternatus, Meloetta, and Necrozma-Ultra.
Arceus-Ghost @ Spooky Plate
Ability: Magic Guard
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Judgment
- Torch Song
- Rapid Spin
- Shore Up
The Arceus forme and set I chose for this team is not the standard SNR Ghostceus you'd see on ladder, because I needed a stronger defensive backbone for the team than SNR would provide. Ghostceus is both my spinner and a spinblocker, a Status absorber(as long as the status isn't Paralysis), and a knock absorber that abuses the fact that Knock is most commonly seen as a non-STAB utility move to force progress, giving it chances to set up with Torch Song and Rapid Spin. It serves double or triple duty as both a defensive backbone that helps keep my team alive, and an offensive threat that forces in pokemon like Meloetta and Audino-Mega to TTurvy the Arceus, giving me a pretty clean switch out to an offensive threat, or a clean spin to help the rest of the team stay alive longer. It's also not afraid of Spooky Plate Imposter because of Meloetta, and it's a second check to Entrainment shenanigans because of Judgment.
Imp-Proofed by: Arceus-Ghost(assuming not Spooky Plate Imposter and you're high HP), Meloetta, and Magearna(assuming not Spooky Plate Imposter).
Imp-Proofs Magearna and itself.
Meloetta @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psystrike
- Topsy-Turvy
- Shore Up
- Teleport
A classic check to any Special Attacker looking to set-up, Meloetta is mainly here to defensively check pokemon like MGarde, Take Heart Arceus formes(especially SSap variants, they lose 1v1 to Melo), MSceptile, Eternatus, and SNR Ghostceus. Cloak lets it stop all sort of bullshit, and makes it annoying for defensive pokemon to easily force progress against if they don't have Knock. Teleport also is another option for slow pivoting, which helps get in my breakers to continue breaking.
Imp-Proofed by: Magearna and Necrozma-Ultra(in a pinch).
Imp-Proofs Eternatus(if necessary).
Zamazenta @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Fur Coat
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Triple Arrows
- Knock Off
- Shore Up
- Haze
Last but not least, we have the do-it-all dog. Good generic check to physical pokemon, good Knock user because of it forcing switches vs a lot of common defensive pokemon, Haze lets it annoy anything trying to boost with VD or Shift Gear, and TArrows is a deeply unserious move. Cloak lets you come in on a lot of stuff, like Mortal Spin, Salt Cure, and Nuzzle. Knock is also very good on Zamazenta because it outspeeds the most common Entrainment user, Flutter Mane, so it can Knock FMane's Plate, making FMane useless until Arceus-Ghost goes down. Zama also outspeed Ash-Greninja, making it a good check to physical Ash-Gren, because it can switch in on their attack and force them out, giving Zamazenta either free knock opportunities or free turns to recover, while also forcing Ash-Gren to take hazards chip, ideally putting it in range of a Judgment from Arceus-Ghost.
The Issues.
If this pokemon successfully gets off a SNR boost without being tricked a Choice item, click the X in the top of the screen. SPower+PTrip OHKOs the entirety of the team. The only things that it can SNR in front of without you losing immediately are: Arceus at +2 Speed and +2 SpA, or Etern/UNecro that can trick a Choice item onto it.
You have to play incredibly careful when this pokemon is on the other side, because if Melo or Mag get too low, it's game over for you.
Pixilate being a problem for a team with 2 Dragons and a Fighting-type, what a surprise. Your FC mon is weak to Fairy, so be incredibly cautious when Zacian is around, you need to keep Mag at full HP to have a chance of checking it, and if Zac gets a SD off, you're swept.
If this is a Sniper set, it's able to be beaten with Zamazenta fairly easily, but if it's a Special/Mixed set, or it has a Rain boost, you're likely getting swept.Summary.
Overall, this team is very fun to pilot, Trick is one of my favorite moves, and I love Dragons, so being able to use both of them is always going to be a fun time. The team has a good/neutral MU into almost all of the tier, and the bad MUs are able to be mitigated. It isn't a perfect team by any means, but it's a good one, and a fun one.