Hello! I'm someone new to competitive Pokemon, I've always been a casual fan who played the story and never really touched online, but I got interested from listening to competitive videos in the background while drawing, and then buying the DLC showed me how fun double battles were, something I never did outside of the very few mandatory battles during the story of previous games. This is the first team I built in mind for taking on the Battle Stadium, please let me know what I am doing wrong and what I am doing right.
The Thought Process
I started building this team when I encountered a shiny Larvesta in Asado Desert. Volcarona has always been a pokemon I really liked, when I first saw it as a kid I assumed it was a legendary and even after I found out it wasn't it stuck with me as a really cool pokemon. From there on I built the rest of the team around Volcarona, shifting things around as I fought casual and ranked matches until I found something I felt worked well.
The Party
Larveno (Volcarona) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Flame Body
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Fire Blast
- Bug Buzz
- Quiver Dance
Larveno is the foundation the team is built upon. He's built around his already high Special Attack and Speed stats becoming even higher to blitz through opponents. I had considered using Fiery Dance in place of Fire Blast but I figured the bigger number would require less set up, letting Larveno get into action faster. An initial problem I had when testing was Urshifu Rapid Strikes so I decided to slap on Giga Drain for some coverage, and it really did make a difference. And to bring the damage even higher I put a life orb on him, which Giga Drain helps recover! But even in its glory it needs help, which I primarily get from
Bowie (Clefairy) (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Friend Guard
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Follow Me
- After You
- Helping Hand
- Thunder Wave
Bowie is a Pokemon I did not expect to be using. When I first found out Clefairy was not only usable but kinda good in Competitive Pokemon I was flabbergasted, yet Bowie here preforms great as support to Larveno! Follow me is for letting Larveno set up a quiver dance, after that there's not much that can out-speed it unless trick room is active, in which case after you lets Larveno act 2nd after Bowie. Helping hand is in case I feel Larveno needs a boost to guarantee a KO, and thunder wave is great for slowing down other Pokemon and having a chance to prevent something like protect or fake out from happening.
Baruri (Incineroar) (F) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 244 HP / 108 Def / 156 SpD
Impish Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Knock Off
- Parting Shot
- Fake Out
One of the things I learned from the videos I had in the background was that Inineroar was kinda overpowered. As one of my favorite starters I decided to bring it into the team for additional support. Will-O-Wisp burns foes if they aren't already hit by flame body and parting shot + intimidate shuts down just about any attacker. Not to mention fake out being so useful with how often Baruri is switching in and out. When I used Baruri for my BlueBerry Academy team I had put Flare Blitz on her as she was my main source of fire type damage, but with Larveno here I decided knock off would provide even more support for the team.
Friggy-Riggy (Farigiraf) (M) @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Armor Tail
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 244 HP / 128 Def / 76 SpA / 56 SpD
Modest Nature
- Psychic Noise
- Dazzling Gleam
- Helping Hand
- Trick Room
As one of my favorite Pokemon designs, I was so excited when I found out Girafarig was getting an evolution, and Farigiraf has climbed up to one of my favorites as well! With it's slow speed and nice defenses I set it up to use trick room in case I encounter any prankster tailwind users, speed control is one of the first things I learned was important to have when battling online for the first time. Psychic Noise shuts down healing, something I always find rather annoying whenever I encounter it. Dazzling Gleam helps it with a bit of coverage against dark types that can put some real damage on Friggy, helping hand is for boosting a partners damage whenever I feel it needs help. Side note armor tail is so great I would have never discovered how great the ability is if not for double battles.
Yoshifu (Urshifu-Rapid-Strike) @ Mystic Water
Ability: Unseen Fist
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 60 HP / 172 Atk / 20 Def / 188 SpD / 68 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- Aqua Jet
- Ice Spinner
Urshifu was a Pokemon I heard a lot about. I skipped gen 8's DLC and when I got this one I decided I wanted to try it out. As the first real physical attacker on the team I gave it aqua jet to patch up its speed, something I was incredibly surprised by I honestly thought Yoshifu would be a fast hitter, Close Combat is great for taking out an enemy that's really giving the rest of my team trouble, and surging strikes always surprises me with it's damage numbers. Ice spinner is here mostly for taking out Miraidon's electric terrain, something that I always find deadly. Water Tera is of note here, as I changed it's type after a rather depressing match where Yoshi was my last mon against the enemy's last mon, zamazenta. I was out-sped and my aqua jet didn't do enough damage to take out the last bit of HP in the red. If I was tera water it would have KO'd, so immediately after the match I went and changed that.
Crozo (Necrozma-Dusk-Mane) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Prism Armor
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Def / 200 SpD
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Photon Geyser
- Sunsteel Strike
To be completely honest I picked Crozo cuz I was looking for an restricted mon as to not get completely run over in the format. But I really like the synergy I found! Crozo isnt' the fastest, so he's usually second in trick room, and with 2 STAB moves with high base power he hits a lot of things for neutral that either do really good damage or just KO. Earthquake is for coverage, and knock off lets me remove items safely, as Crozo is rather bulky and stays around long enough to take a few items from the opposing team.
Closing Statements
This team was built around Volcarona and with 2 fire types it does struggle a bit with rain teams, when that happens I usually just bench Larveno, even though he's the star of the team, and focus around brute forcing with Crozo, So any tips on dealing with those kind of teams, as well as any other tips for improving the team, would be appreciated. Thank you!
Thank you for reading!
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