I'm still relatively new to teambuilding and am trying to make a team that is fit for high ladder with pokemon that I personally like. Any tips are greatly appreciated. I think i've made a successfully balanced team which doesn't have any glaring weaknesses. The idea of a hazard stack team was just one of the more interesting team formats to me and seemed to fit well alongside the two mons that I wanted to use; Latias and Sinistcha.
Garganacl
Garganacl @ Leftovers
Ability: Purifying Salt
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 204 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Salt Cure
- Recover
- Protect
Knowing that I was creating a team with Sinistcha and Latias, I wanted a mon that could help to successfully chip down opposing mons, set up rocks and just be a general nuisance. Garganacl is the perfect mon. This set allows for it to survive for ages, constantly chipping away with salt cure. Being able to set up rocks allows for it to gain value even in situations where it may not be able to stay around as long. It helps with the kyurem matchup as the team can be noticably weak to a specs kyurem without scizor. This is why I chose to lean towards tera fairy opposed to tera water, making it so that I can't be freeze dried to death. It also helps with any pesky grass types such as rillaboom - where they still have a beneficial matchup opposed to neutral against your garg.
Scizor
Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 120 HP / 252 Atk / 136 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Dual Wingbeat
Standard EVs for scizor. You may notice that it is a generally slower team. Scizor helps to counteract that with those choice band bullet punches just absolutely slapping. Once again it helps to guarantee chip with its priority bullet punches. I choose to run dual wingbeat as it catches many tuskes off guard as well as some lead araquanids. Knock off helps to get rid of them lil boots that stop them hazards from doing their job. Scizor also helps to function as a pivot for the team which can prove to be quite useful. Good for dealing with things such as dpult and kyurem.
Ting-Lu
Ting-Lu @ Leftovers
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Payback
- Whirlwind
- Spikes
This is our second hazard setter. Is able to get spikes up in the face of any special attacker with whirlwind to throw them into hazards. I chose payback opposed to ruination as it seems to catch many players off guard. It tends to frequently catch out air balloon gholdengo's. Some people tend to forget it has a base attack of 110 meaning that it can still get enough chip on anything immune to ground. I chose leftovers opposed boots or red card just so it can stay in for longer. I chose to give it more defensive evs to allow for it to still set up spikes in front of more physical mons.
Great Tusk
Great Tusk @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
- Ice Spinner
- Headlong Rush
Tusk serves to be our hazard removal. It helps to be an additional physical check for the team. The 12 Atk EVs help with sun matchup, giving Tusk an attack boost opposed to speed. Knock off once again to remove boots. It also gives us a slightly more offensive mon opposed to other hazard removers. I found the team too slow when used with other hazard removers and lacking in overall offensive pressure.
Sinistcha
Sinistcha @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Heatproof
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Matcha Gotcha
- Shadow Ball
- Strength Sap
It's a very standard set for Sinistcha allowing it to out speed things such as gambit and being relatively bulky. It is able to set up calm mind and with the healing from Matcha Gotcha and strength sap, it is able to effectively end up clean up mons when they have been chipped down. It helps to wall some of the mons that would be strong into the team elsewise such as zama or tusk, both of which it can just set up in front of. It also serves as a spin blocker. I experimented with gholdengo on the team and replacing scizor with w-oger. However, the team was then quite weak in terms of faster mons and if ogerpon got chipped down the team struggled with tusk.
Latias
Latias @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Agility
- Stored Power
- Aura Sphere
Latias being the main focus of this team. It serves as a fantastic clean up. It has the standard EVs for the weakness policy set. It can bait u-turns and other weaker moves to activate the weakness policy and clean up. The speed investment allows for it to outspeed scarf darkrai with its agility boost. Aura sphere helps with matchups into dark types that it can't cleanup with stored power.
Garganacl
Garganacl @ Leftovers
Ability: Purifying Salt
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 204 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Salt Cure
- Recover
- Protect
Knowing that I was creating a team with Sinistcha and Latias, I wanted a mon that could help to successfully chip down opposing mons, set up rocks and just be a general nuisance. Garganacl is the perfect mon. This set allows for it to survive for ages, constantly chipping away with salt cure. Being able to set up rocks allows for it to gain value even in situations where it may not be able to stay around as long. It helps with the kyurem matchup as the team can be noticably weak to a specs kyurem without scizor. This is why I chose to lean towards tera fairy opposed to tera water, making it so that I can't be freeze dried to death. It also helps with any pesky grass types such as rillaboom - where they still have a beneficial matchup opposed to neutral against your garg.
Scizor
Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 120 HP / 252 Atk / 136 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Dual Wingbeat
Standard EVs for scizor. You may notice that it is a generally slower team. Scizor helps to counteract that with those choice band bullet punches just absolutely slapping. Once again it helps to guarantee chip with its priority bullet punches. I choose to run dual wingbeat as it catches many tuskes off guard as well as some lead araquanids. Knock off helps to get rid of them lil boots that stop them hazards from doing their job. Scizor also helps to function as a pivot for the team which can prove to be quite useful. Good for dealing with things such as dpult and kyurem.
Ting-Lu
Ting-Lu @ Leftovers
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Payback
- Whirlwind
- Spikes
This is our second hazard setter. Is able to get spikes up in the face of any special attacker with whirlwind to throw them into hazards. I chose payback opposed to ruination as it seems to catch many players off guard. It tends to frequently catch out air balloon gholdengo's. Some people tend to forget it has a base attack of 110 meaning that it can still get enough chip on anything immune to ground. I chose leftovers opposed boots or red card just so it can stay in for longer. I chose to give it more defensive evs to allow for it to still set up spikes in front of more physical mons.
Great Tusk
Great Tusk @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
- Ice Spinner
- Headlong Rush
Tusk serves to be our hazard removal. It helps to be an additional physical check for the team. The 12 Atk EVs help with sun matchup, giving Tusk an attack boost opposed to speed. Knock off once again to remove boots. It also gives us a slightly more offensive mon opposed to other hazard removers. I found the team too slow when used with other hazard removers and lacking in overall offensive pressure.
Sinistcha
Sinistcha @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Heatproof
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Matcha Gotcha
- Shadow Ball
- Strength Sap
It's a very standard set for Sinistcha allowing it to out speed things such as gambit and being relatively bulky. It is able to set up calm mind and with the healing from Matcha Gotcha and strength sap, it is able to effectively end up clean up mons when they have been chipped down. It helps to wall some of the mons that would be strong into the team elsewise such as zama or tusk, both of which it can just set up in front of. It also serves as a spin blocker. I experimented with gholdengo on the team and replacing scizor with w-oger. However, the team was then quite weak in terms of faster mons and if ogerpon got chipped down the team struggled with tusk.
Latias
Latias @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Agility
- Stored Power
- Aura Sphere
Latias being the main focus of this team. It serves as a fantastic clean up. It has the standard EVs for the weakness policy set. It can bait u-turns and other weaker moves to activate the weakness policy and clean up. The speed investment allows for it to outspeed scarf darkrai with its agility boost. Aura sphere helps with matchups into dark types that it can't cleanup with stored power.
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