Glitter and Gold: Encore Iron Valiant Booster HO
Intro
Here we are, another RMT. This is a cool ho that I built a few weeks ago for NDFL and it surprisingly has worked better than I thought. I passed this team to Slikkles for NDFL, but it also got used in some other games including one in ndpl. This is not the original version; I included some of the edits that Omarsgarciav made when I passed the team to him so it’s not completely my work but I wanted to shout him out for that lol
Idea / premise of the team
The idea when I originally built this was based on the opponent Slikkles had that week. This team is supposed to be sort of an “Anti-HO” HO, meant to use the variety of booster energy users, including encore iron valiant for threats like Dragonite and Kyurem, and speed boosting sweepers like Dragonite and Kyurem to overwhelm opposing ho and hyper offense teams. This was done because the opponents in the scout loaded ho a ton but also loaded standardish BO so a fast paced HO looked like the perfect idea.
Now, onto the team itself!
Teambuilding process
This is the starting core. I wanted a ho team with encore mixed iron valiant to be good into opposing ho teams. Diancie was the ideal lead since most of my hos love to use rocks weak mons, and I expected the same principle to apply. I also think it’s the best HO lead at the moment.
The steel is always mandatory on every team. Iron crown is one of the most threatening and splashable setup sweepers on a ho team, and it also has great defensive utility in checking Tapu lele and iron valiant which is quite useful later on when your main wincons in a lot of games are fairy weak. Booster speed also acts as another form of speed control.
This is also quite an obvious choice. Dragonite is arguably even more splashable than iron crown, being the glue that holds ho teams together against monstrous threats like mega Charizard Y, Volcarona, Urshifu-r, ogerpon-W, rain, full sun, iron moth, and many others if multiscale is active. Scale shot is the set of choice because it’s a good fit on mdia HO teams and it’s good vs. offense teams while also exploiting a ton of defensive pieces like landorus-t, Ferrothorn, and Alomomola.
I’m skipping over a mon for now since it will make more sense at this point in the team’s structure. Kyurem is simply an amazing win condition, shredding through multiple teams that use the wrong steel type like heatran, Corviknight, and Ferrothorn. It also helps overwhelm pokemon like Garchomp, Corviknight, iron crown, Toxapex, and Dondozo with Tera electric which is appreciated for iron crown, iron valiant, and dragonite. Besides that, it’s just an amazing sweeper that can bust holes in teams so dragonite or iron valiant win easier.
This team looks to be incredibly hazard weak, and Pokémon such as dragonite and mega lopunny can also be problematic. Great tusk fixes all these issues while also aiding in the endeavor of overwhelming walls like Toxapex and Garganacl. Yeah this guy is mainly here to spin, but it has a ton of defensive utility along with it, such as being a check to the problematic Pokemon above and being a ground type which is nice when against foes like Tapu Koko and raging bolt.
The Team
Iron Valiant @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Encore
- Close Combat
- Moonblast
- Knock Off
This Iron valiant set is a more recent development in ndou, becoming popular in nd invitational as a way to prevent certain setup sweepers from spiraling out of control. This was the main way to have the team not crumble against opposing ho sweepers like Kyurem, Dragonite, Volcarona, and other things. Knock off is good to smack Pokémon like Iron Crown and Galarian slowking. It also just synergizes well with Diancie’s rocks, removing items from things like Alomomola, Zapdos, and Tera Fairy Garganacl. Encore is useful against setup sweepers like the aforementioned dragonite, Volcarona, and most importantly, kyurem. Close Combat is used instead of focus blast to smack heatran and pink blobs harder, which is very useful for an iron crown late game.
Diancie-Mega @ Diancite
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Moonblast
- Stealth Rock
- Endeavor
With (almost) every HO, you need a lead, and Diancie is probably one of if not the most consistent lead for Hazard Hyper Offense at the moment. Magic Bounce is vital for keeping off stealth rock for the main 2 wincons, Dragonite and Kyurem. Substitute with Endeavor is also quite the annoying combo for any non Tera ghost pokemon, chipping things like Landorus-T and Toxapex so then something like Great Tusk or Iron Valiant have an easier time cleaning up games. Make sure to not mega in front of potential anti leads like Serperior, Urshifu-r, mega Scizor, elec z Tapu Koko, and choice specs iron valiant to guarantee rocks go up. Besides that it’s a pretty standard lead. If I recall correctly, the EVs on diancie are to live a max attack ev’d lando eq in non-mega form which is useful for guaranteeing rocks against scarf lando.
Iron Crown @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Water / Dragon
EVs: 84 HP / 172 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 20 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Stored Power
- Tachyon Cutter
- Iron Defense
Iron Crown can steal away games with its great defensive utility, allowing it to setup much easier and accumulate multiple boosts; this defensive utility is mainly being a moonblast and ice resist, useful against kyurem, Tapu lele and iron valiant. Stored power gets dangerous when iron crown has setup a few calm minds and iron defenses, at which point it’s nigh unkillable if positioned correctly. Tachyon cutter is very useful against multiple Tera fairy pokemon like garganacl and raging bolt as well as Tapu lele and Tapu koko. Tera Water is the initial tera to gain water and fire resistances while not being weak to fairy type attacks, but dragon is what I recommend to have those same resistances while also being able to setup on Tapu Koko and ogerpon-w, and it’s also resistance to raging bolt’s thunderclap. The EVs activates a speed boost from booster energy.
Dragonite @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Multiscale
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 48 HP / 252 Atk / 208 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Scale Shot
- Fire Punch
- Substitute / Encore
Dragonite is in contention for the best defensive utility on Hyper Offense teams, checking a bevy of threats no other Pokemon can truly replicate. Dragon dance, in tandem with substitute, can easily snowball through offense teams and can even give dragonite opportunities to set up vs. passive Pokémon like Ferrothorn and Alomomola, and it also takes advantage of heatran, lessening the need for earthquake. Encore is another option to be incredibly annoying to iron defense Garganacl and toxapex. Scale shot helps it to outspeed choice scarf Tapu lele, mega Swampert in rain, choice scarf Urshifu-R, and booster energy iron valiant. Tera fire allows dragonite to boost its usually weak fire punches while also gaining a fairy resist against iron valiant. It can also come in clutch if you end up needing to avoid a burn from a cinderace or something. The EVs outspeed mega lopunny after +1 speed.
Kyurem @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 52 HP / 224 Atk / 232 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Substitute
- Icicle Spear
- Tera Blast
Kyurem, after NDPL is starting to conclude, has now been noticed as one of the tier’s defining sweepers. Dragon dance + substitute is basically the same idea as dragonite, setting up on almost every defensive piece that can’t hit it for major damage. Loaded dice makes icicle spear actually have chances to ohko great tusk and ogerpon-W after a boost and makes it more reliable. Tera electric with Tera blast is pretty insane because you hit so many targets like ID Corviknight, Tera water garg, Dondozo, Slowbro, and Alomomola while also having the defensive typing to setup on Zapdos and tornadus t and resist hits from mega scizor and iron crown, making it perfect to overwhelm teams with dragonite. The EVs outspeed great tusk and makes blissey seismic toss not break subs, pretty much ending the game against stall.
Great Tusk @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Rapid Spin
- Bulk Up
- Ice Spinner
Great tusk is a solid way to round off the team, providing hazard control in rapid spin that helps the main wincons in dragonite and kyurem not be hindered by stealth rock, which in tandem with mega Diancie and the fast paced nature of the team makes stealth rock almost irrelevant in most games. Headlong rush is powerful stab and slams mega scizor, kyurem, and ferrothorn harder. Rapid spin boosts speed, which while at first glance doesn’t seem useful with booster energy giving a speed boost, is useful for outspeeding multiple Pokemon like Booster energy iron moth, iron valiant, and iron crown and choice scarf users in Urshifu-R and Tapu lele. Ice spinner is needed to hit landorus-t, zapdos, tornadus-T, Gliscor. and dragonite. Tera poison gives great tusk a fighting resistance, useful against urshifu and mega lopunny, although Tera steel is another valid option to use. The EVs activate a speed boost from booster energy.
Replays
This team has been used solidly in tournament by other players, so that’s what my replays will consist of.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldex-799565 - used by Bodi in NDFL, where kyurem shows how broken it is lol
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-2206530546-71u1bburdo01by37dlgg70uceo7d2ezpw - Used by Slikkles in NDFL, iron crown going crazy late game
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldex-792795 - used by Omarsgarciav in NDPL, pretty simple for a ho-on-ho slugfest and it uses encore dragonite over sub but the team still did its job.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-2231486313-z07eb8742ky2d3b5q54wnt210qc6yq1pw - Used by Entrocefalo in Round 11 of ND summer seasonal, shows the team doing well against standard BO
Closing thoughts / Shoutouts
As the hype of the ND tour season begins to die down, with the endings of NDPL, summer seasonal, and NDFL near, I thought showing off this team in a RMT was a solid idea. I hope you like this team, it works very solidly if you can pilot mdia ho and I highly recommend you give it a try.
Of course, I needed to do some shoutouts because it’s been over a year at this point of me playing (and kinda sucking lmao) at mons and I’ve met a good number of people that I want to recognize for being there for me in the community I’m in.
Lameflame Gotta shoutout the goat first, ever since like January of this year you were basically my teacher and I’m grateful for all the support, teambuilding advice, test games, and other things you have helped me with. Gave me the confidence to continue playing mons and I’m glad I got to learn from you; otherwise idk where I would be lol
ARTYMASION You are probably one of my best friends on the website, really like how you play and your team choices and just being a good guy in general. Prepping for tours with you these last months have been a blast and you have been a great co-manager for our NDFL team. Let’s win this tour bro
@natdex room (you know who you are!) Although I dog on the room for being brainrotted I kinda wouldn’t be here without you guys since being a room mod has basically been my only achievement LMFAOOOO hopefully that can change soon. Most of you guys are fun to hang around with and it’s great helping out newer members of the community.
Also want to give a huge shoutout to the members of the ND community in general. I’ve learned a lot from you guys and watching most of you has given me new perspectives on the game, allowing me to build and play better. Hopefully I can be of greater assistance to you all in the future and can do something great for you all like you have done for me.
Lameflame Gotta shoutout the goat first, ever since like January of this year you were basically my teacher and I’m grateful for all the support, teambuilding advice, test games, and other things you have helped me with. Gave me the confidence to continue playing mons and I’m glad I got to learn from you; otherwise idk where I would be lol
ARTYMASION You are probably one of my best friends on the website, really like how you play and your team choices and just being a good guy in general. Prepping for tours with you these last months have been a blast and you have been a great co-manager for our NDFL team. Let’s win this tour bro
@natdex room (you know who you are!) Although I dog on the room for being brainrotted I kinda wouldn’t be here without you guys since being a room mod has basically been my only achievement LMFAOOOO hopefully that can change soon. Most of you guys are fun to hang around with and it’s great helping out newer members of the community.
Also want to give a huge shoutout to the members of the ND community in general. I’ve learned a lot from you guys and watching most of you has given me new perspectives on the game, allowing me to build and play better. Hopefully I can be of greater assistance to you all in the future and can do something great for you all like you have done for me.
I’m probably taking a break from mons after NDFL and nd last chance are over for me, cya’ll later.
