VGC improve a very mediocre team from a challenge?

[lucienzeal]

A friend challenged me to make the best team out of six mons she picked for me, ive been working with it for a while and as much as i really want to swap half this lot for better ones, i have to stick with them. Id like any advice on making what i have a bit better and strategies to use it, i dont expect to have a particularly good win/loss ratio with this haha

Toxtricity-Low-Key @ Black Sludge
Ability: Punk Rock
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Modest
Moves: Boomburst / Protect / Volt Switch / Overdrive

I dont usually take toxtricity along unless theres a good chance to use overdrive well, and boomburst is a good move but it also hurts teammates which makes me a bit hesitant to use it most of the time. it isnt very good at staying alive though, especially against things like groudon. i havent played with it as much as the others so i dont have so much to say

Obstagoon @ Focus Sash
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Moves: Gunk Shot / Knock Off / Close Combat / Obstruct

The combination of defiant ability, focus sash and close combat has got me in a routine for dealing with incineroar if i lead with it and weavile: defiant flips incineroars intimidate to boost obstagoons attack, weavile does fake out so only one move can ever hit obstagoon so focus sash keeps it alive, and with the attack boost close combat can take out the incineroar in the first turn. its a pretty niche tactic i guess but ive used it a lot as there are a lot of incineroar leads going around. I gave obstagoon gunk shot to deal with fairy types like whimsicott, which has also worked pretty well. However with the 4x weakness to fighting, obstagoon also goes down pretty quick unless i spam obstruct and get lucky. i usually lead with obstagoon and either weavile or aegislash.

Weavile @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant
Moves: Agility / Fake Out / Foul Play / Triple Axel

Fake out is great to remove a bit of attacking power from the other side, and cause a bit of damage as well. i gave it agility because theres quite a lot of common mons it doesnt outspeed, though i usually dont use it because this thing also goes down quickly. as long as weavile doesnt die almost immediately, triple axel is pretty good and can take out or cause good damage to things like zacian, rayquaza and dragapult that i dont have any other counters for.

Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
Moves: Draco Meteor / Shadow Ball / Sucker Punch / U-turn

Dragapult is useful to have around thanks to its speed, and i gave it speed evs too so it will outspeed anything. i usually spam shadow ball with choice specs and sometimes draco meteor, and if im going to dmax anyone it will be dragapult usually. I picked clear body instead of infiltrator because it relies on speed and lowering speed stat on it can mess things up. its not so great defensively though and, like most of this lot, can get taken down fairly quickly.

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Nature: Adamant
Moves: Swords Dance / Shadow Sneak / Shadow Claw / Close Combat

swords dance really helps aegislash boost moves like shadow sneak which i use to get around its not-so-good speed. shadow claw is a bit stronger and it can be convenient to keep it in shield form a bit longer to keep defense up, without that higher defense its usually one-shotted by things like incineroar. when its in shield form though it can usually survive supereffective moves and raise stats a bit thanks to weakness policy. combine that with a few swords dances and shadow claw or close combat become really strong

Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Nature: Bold
Moves: Energy Ball / Psyshock / Focus Blast / Recover

Reuniclus is bulky especially with recover, i gave it energy ball to deal with things weak to grass like kyogre as i dont have any other strong coverage for that, though ive debated swapping it for grass knot. leftovers really helps with keeping it alive without losing an attack on recover so knock off is a big problem for it, and its also very slow. the rest is pretty self explanatory i guess

thats all, thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

[Omastar68]

One thing that made Toxtricity stand out to me is resisting all Zacian's moves. I did decide against using it, but since you have to maybe put some EVs in bulk to capitalize on resisting Zacian.

Weavile has only 1 reasonably strong attack that uses its own atk stat. So either run different moves(probably,) or change EVs since a 1 attack mon doesn't need max attack.

I'm not sure Lowering Spe, besides T-Wave what isn't blocked, is common. Pult's ability therefore may be wrong. It needs T-Bolt imo for kyogre-as you say you have -pretty much nothing for it. Fire coverage for your team might be good, but since you have much fighting for Ferro you MIGHT be able to skip it.

The other 3 mons kinda look ok, but idk. This team is so frail besides Aegislash(kinda) and Reuniclus(still not that bulky.)

 

[Gross Sweep]

Obviously not going to have a lot of success in the current format without using the allotted two restricted Pokemon which typically play a major part in shaping a teams identity, but you already know that. With that said I'll try and throw out a couple ideas or concepts that may be decent in helping the team mess around a bit more successfully.

First I would look at Life Orb over Heavy Duty Boots on Weavile. Heavy Duty Boots doesn't do a ton for Weavile in VGC since it isn't often switching into things like rocks. Also I would rather take advantage of Weavile's offensive presence and use a move like Knock Off over Foul Play which utilizes the opponents attack stat.

I would consider running Air Balloon on the toxtricity, that way Pokemon like Groudon and Landorus-T can't simply threaten an OHKO right out of the gate.

Next would be Trick Room. I think you have the cool option on this team of running Trick Room Reun + Aegislash and taking advantage of this strategy vs faster teams, while also leaving it on the bench when the match up isn't great. This would basically just be Trick Room Reun + zero speed Aegislash. This suggestion more stems around the idea of taking advantage of teams that haven't prepped for Trick Room, which could make for a couple of fun games.

These changes should probably help out a bit. Obviously if you want to get serious with the team you'd have to replace most of the selected mons, but hopefully you can pick up a few extra wins with these changes.

 

[Omastar68]

While Black Sludge may be good for the Toxtricity I suggested(I know I didn't give an actual set, but I mean bulkier,) why do you have it w/ your current set? Also, I think Snarl is worth a thought. Anyways, since I did revisit this I will try to find a set for it.

EDIT: I think bulky w/ Snarl is your best bet since you just can't do that much damage w/ spread move mechanics. 252 HP/ 92 Def/ 164 SpD takes Zacian almost all the time if they're Jolly(some chance w/ Adamant,) and lives Kyogre Water Spout often if it's not Mystic Water, LO, or Specs(this is a Calm Toxtricity.) This does 2hko Caly-S that don't run bulk, w/ Snarl. So it at least has that and the Zacian resistance over Incineroar. Not that it's better but you're locked into these mons.

If you still want offensive then I agree go Air Balloon. I wouldn't go bulky balloon-you need Black Sludge to help w. Zacian. If you're ok w. the Ogre ohko you could put the SpD in SpA and be Modest.

2nd EDIT: Idk if you want to run some Spe after changing, or how much if any you should. I think this team needs Spe control, the tr suggestion seems good. At which point you could even run -Spe nature on Toxtricity. Nuzzle is another option, but probably not w/ Trick Room.