National Dex Gliscor Is Underrated! (Swords Dance Gliscor)

[_Spooky]

Swords Dance Gliscor Is Underrated​

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________

_____________________________

​

Background:
I wanted to use a team with Swords dance Gliscor since over the generations Gliscor has been reduced to only defensive capabilities, and I wanted to show that Gliscor can be just as great on offense, as it is on defense.

Teambuilding: (Skip ahead if you don't want to know why I chose what Pokemon)

As stated in the background, the goal was to create a competent team with Gliscor, specifically Swords Dance Gliscor.

With an offensive physical Setup-Pokemon, it is usually customary to counterbalance with a strong offensive Special attacking Pokemon. It is also great to set up to increase it's bulk & power.

To keep momentum going throughout the team, and posing immediate pressure to the enemy without having to setup.

Neutral wall to defog & to discourage physical hitters, as well as pesky Scizors and Ferrothorns.

Reliable priority & Strength as well as terrain control, especially to shut down Tapu Lele Specs/Choice Scarf. It also serve as a neutral wall in a sorts as well.

Stealth Rocks & Reliable counter to opposing Stealth Rocks Pokemon such as Landorus-Therian, Great Tusks, Garchomp and Glimmora.
​

The Team: (https://pokepast.es/852443f5105fe701)

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 152 HP / 252 Atk / 104 Def
Adamant Nature
- High Horsepower
- Crabhammer
- Fire Fang
- Swords Dance​

Gliscor is the main star of the team, I gave it Swords Dance to setup. High Horsepower for stab ground type move, and to be able to pair it with Rillaboom, so it's not losing 50% base attack every time grassy terrain is active. Crabhammer for unique coverage, good against opposing ground types like Landorus-Therian, as well as Fire Fangs to have full coverage over Pokemon like Heatran, Scizor and Ferrothorn. The Stat spread is set to maximize attack, and provide just enough HP for Iron Valiant Specs to 2KO Gliscor, and the rest I dumped into Defense since Gliscor excels against physical mons and needs time to set up in front of them. Tera type water to mix with Crabhammer and to counteract it's 4x and 2x weakness of Ice and Water.

Raging Bolt @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Water / Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 20 Atk
- Thunderclap
- Draco Meteor
- Thunder Wave / Thunderbolt / Volt Switch
- Calm Mind​

This is your typical Raging Bolt setup, Thunderclap for priority. Draco Meteor (for strong burst damage) over Dragon Pulse. Thunder Wave to cripple opponents, Thunderbolt for reliable electric damage, or Volt Switch to keep momentum. When I was doing testing and getting this team up the ladder I personally used Thunder Wave allowing Gliscor and other Pokemon to bolster their physical presence. As well as Calm Mind for more damage if needed, especially against Pokemon that might try and wall it such as Ferrothorn and such, whom can't really do much damage, but can easily tank off normal attacks. I added Booster Energy as the item because with a lot of calcs, it can usually 2KO or OHKO a lot of Pokemon, giving it immediate pressure. Tera type water for a more general defensive typing, or tera type ground to usually force Water type mons to come in against it.

Lopunny-Mega @ Lopunnite
Ability: Scrappy
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Return
- Close Combat
- U-turn​

This is your most generic Mega-Lopunny set. I couldn't say anything about it other than describe it. Fake Out for priority + Flinch (Free Damage Usually). Return for a strong stab move. Close Combat for a strong stab move. U-Turn to keep momentum for the entire team, as well as giving it an out (great for predictions and mind games). Max Speed and Attack with the remaining 4 in Special Defense. (I am totally not stalling by typing this so this post meets the SV Other Teams rule of at least 3 lines of text- Also while I was looking for an image of Mega Lopunny for this forum, I would make sure Safe Search is active ).

Moltres @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Hurricane / Air Slash
- Roost
- Defog​

For Moltres, I have Flamethrower for Stab & because this team desperately needs some kind of Fire-type move to pressure and reliable KO Steel type Pokemon. Hurricane is for big damage, but if you want to play a safer roll Air Slash is also viable. Roost to recover HP and keep it alive. Defog to get rid of hazards. I spec'd this Pokemon for max survivability with max HP and neutral (enough) Defense and Special Defense, but I think in reality it should 90% be just a defensive wall, since that's what I used it as in testing. I didn't really do much calcs so I can't tell you why it only has 100 Def and 156 Sp.Def, it could be more optimized. Same with the Tera type, I honestly never needed to Tera this mon, but thinking about it, Bug is a terrible Tera type. Heavy-Duty-Boots to come in on Stealth rocks and Defog.

Rillaboom @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 100 Def / 156 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Hammer Arm
- Grassy Glide
- U-turn​

Like the past 2 Pokemon, this is also your standard Rillaboom set. Wood Hammer for large reliable Damage. Hammer Arm for coverage. Grassy Glide for priority. U-Turn to keep momentum, and for predictions (mind games). I wanted to give this Pokemon Max attack to give it an offensive presence, but I also wanted to take advantage of it's defense, to keep it generally bulky. I then realized during testing that I am using this mon to stop Tapu Lele from setting up terrain and sweeping or being an issue, so I allocated some defense EVS to Special Defense. I didn't calc anything, but just put a number and found it reliable enough to not calc. It could probably be optimized. Tera Type ground for defensive coverage.

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald / Toxic
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Stealth Rock​

For this Gastrodon set, I personally used Scald, but found that Toxic was also viable. Ice Beam counters a lot of other Stealth Rocks Pokemon, especially Landorus-Therian where depending on the EVS, it could OHKO. Recover for longevity. Stealth Rocks for momentum. This is my Specially defensive wall, with Max HP and a lot of Special Defense. I didn't want to give it no defense, because in testing I sometimes also used it as a pivot against physical Pokemon. I didn't calc anything, so it can be optimized. Tera type Grass for a more defensive nature. Leftovers for longevity.

Threatlist:

Alomomola on stall teams is pretty hard to counter, especially when Raging Bolt is dead. Despite Rillaboom being another counter, usually it is easy to predict and switch out, or to wear Rillaboom down with toxic, or to bait Rillaboom in and Flip Turn out. Overall Alolamola has the tools to play around a lot of Pokemon on this team, and in the late game is usually unkillable.

Samurott-Hisui overall is pretty nasty to deal with, since it counters my physical wall Moltres, and it can deal pretty serious damage to Rillaboom depending on the sets with Ceaseless Edge. This is pretty bad since Rillaboom is genuinely great late game and can easily be played around and or worn down.

Ogerpon-Wellspring is a pain to deal with, since Gastrodon can not do much, and the physical wall Moltres cannot do much. Usually the ways I've delt with them is to just outplay the opponent with mind games between Gastrodon and Moltres, until I get Flame-Body to activate, but I have lost games against Substitute + Swords Dance variants.

Potential Optimizations:
Overall, I think a lot of optimization for this team will come by the EV's and or Tera Types being changed. I mentioned above on certain Pokemon that I hadn't done calcs on many of them, and that they could be optimized, or that for Moltres, the Tera type and EV's should ultimately be changed to fully reflect a Physical Wall rather than a neutral wall. If you find better success by swapping out mons, feel free to reply with your changes.

Outro:
Overall this is a team I just whipped together in a day, and only had time to test until I reached ~1550 on the ladder. It did really well Early and Mid ladders, and then kind of cut off around 1500s, where you had to think and calculate turns way more often. I think this team, and in essence, Swords Dance Gliscor has a lot of opportunity, especially due to the surprise factor as well, but I know at least this team can be better. Please reply with any thoughts or changes. If you need replays to see how this team is played, just ask and I'll reply with some I saved.

 

[Oculars]

Interesting team here spooky, Id suggest a few changes to mainly sets and EV spreads to optimize this team further and fix a few issues you will encoutner using it as is.

1. Wallbreaking
This team in its current form will thud up against more defensive teams such as stall and balances featuring , one of the first changes you can make is to fix the EV spread to add speed which is vital for wallbreaking vs mid speed balance teams that often carry several mons in the 200-260 range and add knock off over hammer arm, a consistent form of item removal will help you tremendously in longer games and almost every team should carry knock somewhere, even with mons that cant break it will still help your team progress by being able to knock something, should also be running tera grass 99% of the time to maximize wood hammer and grassy glide damage. Heres the new spread I suggest:

Rillaboom @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer - Knock Off - Grassy Glide - U-turn

I agree with you that SD is underrated but one of the main abilities has is to come in on mons such as consistently and wall out scalds while also setting up. SD + 3 attacks is not a viable set and the ev spread doesnt work either as SD still wants to keep its defensive abilities while also being able to setup. The new set I would suggest is

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 244 HP / 228 SpD / 36 Spe
Careful Nature
- High Horsepower - Facade - Roost - Swords Dance

This set will allow you to cause a lot of problems for fatter teams and especially against opposing gliscor, 244 hp evs maximizes the poison heal recovery and 36 speed evs lets you hit 235 speed which is vital since many mons like other and are all trying to hit around 231-234 right now. Roost is important on any gliscor set for longevity and should be run 100% of the time. Ive dropped coverage moves for facade as it is overall better and a stronger neutral coverage to help break anything immune to ground. Ive also added tera fairy as you already have a defensive water + another tera water and having a team with no fairy type will open you up to being instantly 6-0'd by Z move

Calm mind will find it very hard to take advantage of its setup with the current moveset being only thunderclap and draco-meteor, as draco will instantly drop you from +1 to -1. Booster energy also being only a one time item doesnt synergize well with a draco-meteor set. Along with changing the EV's on to also creep the important speed tiers I listed for , Ive changed the set to include thunderbolt over thunderwave and changed the item to dragonium Z, allowing you to maximize the calm mind boost and hit something for massive damage, which you can then still follow up with more boosted attacks. The new spread I suggest is

Raging Bolt @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 64 HP / 252 SpA / 192 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 20 Atk
- Thunderclap - Draco Meteor - Thunderbolt - Calm Mind

These three set changes will allow you to much more easily deal with defensively oriented teams, while your triple priority core of should be able to handle offense very well also.

2. Defensive Core Tweaks to Fix Waterpon and Fairy Weakness
The only mon I would like to change on this team is , as it has proven to be relatively unviable in the national dex metagame since gholdengos ban, after losing its niche there is no reason to use it over defensive which accomplishes much of the same tasks and isnt as weak to water types such as the you mentioned, The Zapdos spread I would suggest is:

Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 184 Def / 76 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch - Hurricane - Defog - Roost

This spread can physically check a majority of the same mons can while having a better matchup vs and having tera steel to handle since your team currently lacks a defensive steel, 76 speed evs allow you to outspeed rockers such as modest and other mons creeping around 254 speed.

The set is almost perfect the only things I would change are dropping ice beam for toxic since your team has no toxic and it can provide lots of value by toxicing common water switchins like and adding 4 speed evs (just to be faster than other ) and changing tera grass to tera dragon so you can keep your fire resistance while also resisting stabs from
The new spread I suggest is:

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 248 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald - Toxic - Recover - Stealth Rock

3. Minor Changes
The last change I would recommend is a very minor one to
Frusration should be used over Return for the scenario where you are fighting a scarf which defaults to max happiness. Running 0 Happiness Frustration over Return ensures that has a low BP move if it copies you.
New set:

Lopunny-Mega @ Lopunnite
Ability: Scrappy
Happiness: 0
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out - Frustration - Close Combat - U-turn

Conclusion
Overall the team is very solid and has good type synergy, and should be good into a wide variety of common archetypes you will encounter in national dex. I hope these changes and tweaks can help you push it even further than you already have
Paste for new version:

 

[_Spooky]

Thank you so much for the reply, I've played with the new setup and it has gotten me as much success if not more. I personally wanted to note for anyone curious, The new loadout struggles heavily against Mega-Scizor (roost version) and Ferrothorns, so I changed some minor things to compensate.

Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 184 Def / 76 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Heat Wave
- Defog
- Roost
Getting rid of Hurricane in favor of Heat Wave provides a better way to deal with Mega-Scizor and Ferrothorn.
Some more things to take in account with this team is that it sort of struggles against Sun Teams, specifically Venusaur

Venusaur @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest / Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Weather Ball
- Earth Power
- Growth

 

[Nashrock]

Hi, I think the overall structure of the revised team is very good now, but it has a severe issue that 4 mons in this team is weak to ice type, which means that foes like Weavile and Ice Beam Darkrai is extremely hard to deal with, and you might appreciate adding a steel type to check ice-type as well as fairy and psychic.
-> and -> so when you face stuff like weavile, darkrai, tapu lele, and iron valiant you would have less trouble.
(Another possible way is -> Heatran has great synergy with grassy terrain and zapdos, and it generally covers various threats including tapu lele and ival. but the zapdos slot is still a little questionable to me)

Also something minor is that you can save some EVs on Rillaboom with 112 HP / 252 Atk / 144 Spe, so you still outspeeds common defensive mons.

 

[Miyoko]

Hi! I am here to make ur team work better. Your team is pretty solid but making some changes would make it better.

Changes​

1) Change into
Corviknight is a much safer U-turn option and is very useful Pokemon as well. It fits well with balance teams and is immune to poison unlike zapdos. So i suggest u using corviknight cuz volt switch can't hit grounds. My suggested set is
/
Corviknight @ Leftovers / Rocky Helmet
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 244 HP / 128 Def / 136 SpD
Impish Nature
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost

2) Change into
I suggest u using slowking-galar because of a few reasons

• Firstly, it has much more special bulk as it is much more bulkier than gastrodon which means u take hits nicely and can poison ur oppo back. With Tera dark coverage it is unkillable
• Secondly, u have access to Chilly Reception which means u can switch out freely, one thing that gastrodon can't do. So i suggest u using this mon instead.

My suggested set would look like this

Slowking-Galar @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Future Sight
- Sludge Bomb
- Chilly Reception
- Flamethrower / Toxic / Ice Beam / Surf

3) (Optional) Change into
Now this is not a mandatory change but after looking at the team u will realise that ur team has very less special attackers so just to balance it u can try using volcarona. So this is an optional change basically. U may look at this or u can just avoid this. My suggested set is

Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Hidden Power: Ground
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Flamethrower
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ground]

Alternative Options​

/

Zama (Band)

Zamazenta @ Choice Band
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Ice Fang
- Heavy Slam

Zama (Lefties)

(Zamazenta) @ Leftovers
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 24 SpD / 232 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Substitute
- Heavy Slam

Serperior

(Serperior) @ Leftovers
Ability: Contrary
Tera Type: Rock / Ground
EVs: 56 HP / 200 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Tera Blast
- Glare

Darkrai

(Darkrai) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Bad Dreams
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Focus Blast
- Sludge Bomb
- Trick / Ice Beam / Blizzard

/

Heatran

Heatran @ Leftovers / Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt / Protect
- Stealth Rock

/

Lando (Lefties)

Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Toxic
- Defog

Lando (Helm)

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- U-turn
- Grass Knot

Ogerpon

Ogerpon-Wellspring (F) @ Wellspring Mask
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ivy Cudgel
- Power Whip / Horn Leech
- Encore / Knock Off / Superpower / Low Kick
- Swords Dance

Garchomp

(Garchomp) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 220 Def / 40 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Dragon Tail

/

Ferrothorn

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers / Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Def / 216 SpD
Impish Nature
- Power Whip
- Iron Head
- Leech Seed
- Stealth Rock

Pokepaste​

Mine :-

Conclusion​

Overall the team looks good and I like the balanced structure of the team. Consider the changes I suggested and good luck laddering. Thank you!
Bye