Introduction
Hello everyone, I am ICGO. I have recently been getting back into Competitive Pokemon after not playing for a couple years, and I'm currently focused on my VGC team. I originally took inspiration for the core of this team from the youtuber aDrive, and have been looking to differentiate it and improve upon it for a about a week at this point and I've become pretty hardstuck.
I have tried many different iterations that I will go over in the one of the next sections, but honestly I am not very good at teambuilding yet, and I am hoping someone with more experience can give me some assistance.
Main Strategies
The main core of this team (which I'm sure you've seen before, I run into it often on PS!) revolves around Indeedee-F, Hatterene, and Torkoal. Turn 1 Hatterene will set Trick Room, with the assistance of Indeedee-F's Follow Me to guarantee it. Turn 2 has two main options, the 1st being Indeedee living Turn 1, in which Indeedee-F will support with Heal Pulse/Helping Hand while Hatterene does AoE with Dazzling Gleam in most cases, or other damage options. If Indeedee-F KO's turn one, in most cases you swap to Torkoal and STAB, Charcoal-boosted, Drought-boosted Eruption which does insane damage to just about everything, and when paired with Hatterene's Dazzling Gleam to finish off everything that lives, this generally will sweep most things that cant hard counter it.
The secondary strategy to this team relies on Torkoal and Shiftry. This strategy strays away from Trick Room for the most part, taking advantage of Torkoal's Drought to allow Shiftry to set up using Chlorophyll and sun-boosted growth. I'll explain the rest in the movesets for each Pokemon.
Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
Gengar functions as a strong damage source with minimal set up, allowing more focus on the main cores of each strategy to do the setting up, while Gengar covers the weakspots. One of the biggest weaknesses I noticed throughout my testing was problems against Fairy types, namely Togekiss, who with most sets I've played against will live a Dazzling Gleam/Eruption combo from Hatterene/Torkoal.
I'll start with item. The first item I was running was Scarf, allowing him to reach 525 speed, effectively allowing him to outspeed who I assumed to be some of his bigger more common threats, being Scarf Dracovish, and Specs Dragapult. After testing I found that when I would run Gengar it generally wouldn't be into these two, and I also found I was lacking damage into a lot of mons who I had hoped to be countering by using Gengar in the first place.
Nothing to special when it comes to EV's, special sweeper set.
Same with moveset, pretty common. Sludge Bomb allows me to hit fairy types hard, focus blast will cover things like Excadrill/T-tar lead, help with any random normal sweep mons like Follow Me/Belly Drum Lax, or the occasional Oranguru/Greedent cheese. Shadow Ball for things like Hatterene, G-Cursola, and other ghost types if encountered like Dragapult and also surprisingly Chandalure which my team had a lot of trouble against. Dazzling gleam provides coverage, especially if Hatterene isn't taken into battle.
Throughout my testing, the main problem I have with Gengar is his fragility, dying to just about anything that chooses to hit him. Out of all the things I'm looking for help with, replacing Gengar is probably one of the things I am most open to.
Shiftry @ Focus Sash
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Growth
- Leaf Blade
- Throat Chop
- Heat Wave
Starting with items, I originally had Shiftry life orbed, but I very quickly noticed he was one shot by many things. Any fighting type, fire type, bug type, and often even just strong attackers could just completely remove this whole mon instantly. Sash allows Shiftry that extra turn needed in order to set up in most cases, or if he is doubled first turn, allows Torkoal a strong eruption and another chance the next turn with another partner mon.
Chlorophyll brings Shiftry up to a staggering 518 speed, outspeeding everything I've ran into so far. It also allows Shiftry to go adamant nature, aiding his damage.
Nothing really to say about EV's. I run physical in this set because it personally looked better than special to me.
Growth is somewhat the core of this set if its allowed. Sun-boosted growth brings Shiftry to x2 in both attack and special, really giving him the extra oomph he needs to hit hard and sweep. In most cases I'll turn one growth if I think I can live the turn, because he only needs 1HP to do the damage he needs to be a valid damage source. It also gives him max guard in dyamax, which is important because in this strategy he is the main user of dynamax. Guard allows him to bait with his many weaknesses while allowing Torkoal or other mons to stay healthy and fire off damage with him.
Leaf Blade and Throat Chop are his main STAB moves. The combo allows him to hit most mons hard and at at least neutral damage. Having a strong fast grass type also provides much needed coverage into water types, namely water-ground mons like Gastrodon and Seismitoad.
Heat Wave is kind of interesting, but the main use of it is to reset sun for himself. I mostly found myself using this into T-Tar Excadril leads that dynamax to reset sand. It also still hits hard due to x2 special from Growth.
Hatterene (F) @ Babiri Berry
Ability: Healer
EVs: 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Dazzling Gleam
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Mystical Fire
Hatterene was originally a Life Orb user, but with the many steel type leads (Excadril, Corviknight, Duraladon, Ferrothorn) Babiri is insanely useful, allowing it another turn in ALL cases against any of these mons who would usually one shot her.
Healer may not be the desired ability when Magic Bounce exists, but I have reasoning for Healer. I found out the hard way that Magic Bounce will bounce back Heal Pulse, which I have found to be insanely strong due to reasons which I will talk about in Indeedee-F's giant block of text.
To explain the EV's simply, 16 SpD will allow one specific thing, a scarfed or life orbed shadow ball from the very common Dragapult. Although it doesnt allow her to live Spec, it has still come in handy from time to time, without much of a trade off.
Min speed obviously to compliment trick room, I won't mention this in the other 0iv mons because I don't this its necessary.
Dazzling Gleam will be the main sweep move, with AoE decently hitting into just about everything.
Psychic allows STAB high damage single target, generally useful with Helping Hand allowing to to take down most mons, especially when paired with turn two dynamax.
Mystical Fire is coverage for the previously mentioned steel types, most notably used turn two if Torkoal does not come out. In pairing with helping hand it will kill most steel types, but notable Sashed Excadril will also need a psychic from Indeedee-F.
Torkoal @ Charcoal
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Heat Wave
- Protect
- Solar Beam
Charcoal simply boosts his eruption damage, pushing it to disgustingly high numbers.
Pretty simple EV's, tanky special attacker.
His moves are pretty simple also.
Eruption if hes high HP, Heat Wave if hes low.
Protect is actually quite useful on this mon. I often find people seeing Torkoal as an easy target, underestimating his defense. Protect almost feels double useful, because often you can predict the opponent to double into Torkoal, and even beyond that, if they try it again generally his bulk allows him to live another turn.
Solar Beam allows that important coverage into water and water ground types when he isn't paired with Shiftry.
Conkeldurr @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Rock Slide
First I will explain how he is countered by his own team. Psychic Surge and Max Starfall just limit this mon and make his good niches become bad.
His usefulness as a revenge killer with Mach Punch is hindered if you have to use a Max Starfall at any point prior to bringing him out, and his guts can't be activated if he's brought out after Indeedee-F. You have to almost trade between which disadvantage you want him to have.
But man when he's not disadvantaged, hes useful. Guts full HP Atk allows him to hit insanely hard while also maintaining bulk and taking advantage of trick room.
Drain Punch is good at keeping him topped off with damage to match, especially after the activation of guts on turn 2.
Mach punch allows him to take out other priority users, and trade kill especially in situations where trick room runs out.
Thunder punch and Rock slide are two coverage moves, hitting water types and flying types with thunder punch, and hitting ice types and also hitting AoE with Rock Slide when needed.
I had previously run Poison Jab over rock slide before adding Gengar to the team. It helped cover common fairy types, but couldn't punch all the way through Togekiss.
Indeedee-F (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Follow Me
- Psychic
- Heal Pulse
- Helping Hand
She functions primarily as a mon to allow trick room with the help of follow me, like in most trick room teams. But I feel like I have found so much use beyond that.
Firstly, It's completely fine if she dies turn one, allowing fast Torkoal turn two. But if she lives, her support with Helping Hand and Heal Pulse are game winning.
The main thing is, no one wants to waste a turn hitting Indeedee when your other carries are destroying with damage. Going defensive allows Indeedee to live a surprising amount of hits, and leftovers compliments this because shes not often targeted unless she uses Follow Me, allowing her to heal up and live more hits.
This is also why I feel Heal Pulse gains more value than protect, no one wants to have to waste turns hitting into the Indeedee. Heal Pulse not only allows her to assist her carries who are generally the ones being targeted, it allows Torkoal to continue firing off eruptions at max damage.
Psychic is useful for lead sash-mons like excadril and whimsicott, who will live without the extra hit. It also hits surprisingly strong with her 289 SpA.
Other Tested Mons
In this section I will briefly go over other mons I've tested and why I chose not to use them.
Dragapult/Dracovish over Shiftry/Gengar
This was my initial answer to teams that I couldn't run trick room into. I figured fast, hard hitting, no setup sweeps as a lead would be face roll. Sadly, it worked surprising well as a lead, but in a format where you only have four mons, it just didn't synergize well enough with the other 2 mons to be useful.
Cursola over Gengar
This also worked relatively well. The problem I began facing was too much reliance on trick room, and no options when it came to leads, which in turn made shiftry useless.
Oranguru/Rhyperior over Gengar/Conkeldurr
I tried Weakness Policy Rhyperior paired with Wiki Berry/Symbiosis Instruct Oranguru, but it just didn't work for so many reasons. While the second trick roomer was nice, having two support mons was just underwhelming. Also in most cases, Oranguru would eat his berry before he could pass it. On Rhyperiors side, he would literally just die to just about anything super effective even through Solid Rock, never taking advantage of the whole strategy. It also just had too much set up when the other mons on the team also required set up.
Conclusion
In conclusion, my team allows for two strong strategies, allowing either torkoal/hatterene to sweep with AoE with conk in the back to clean up, or Torkoal/Shiftry to tear a hole in the early game and gengar and another mon to finish strong.
The main mons on this team I am looking to improve upon are Gengar and Conkeldurr. While they both can sometimes shine, it feels like they're few and far between. Thank you for taking the time to read this very long post, any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Cursed Body
Happiness: 160
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
Shiftry @ Focus Sash
Ability: Chlorophyll
Happiness: 160
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Growth
- Leaf Blade
- Throat Chop
- Heat Wave
Hatterene (F) @ Babiri Berry
Ability: Healer
EVs: 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Dazzling Gleam
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Mystical Fire
Torkoal @ Charcoal
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Heat Wave
- Protect
- Solar Beam
Conkeldurr @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Rock Slide
Indeedee-F (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Follow Me
- Psychic
- Heal Pulse
- Helping Hand
Ability: Cursed Body
Happiness: 160
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
Shiftry @ Focus Sash
Ability: Chlorophyll
Happiness: 160
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Growth
- Leaf Blade
- Throat Chop
- Heat Wave
Hatterene (F) @ Babiri Berry
Ability: Healer
EVs: 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Dazzling Gleam
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Mystical Fire
Torkoal @ Charcoal
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Heat Wave
- Protect
- Solar Beam
Conkeldurr @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Rock Slide
Indeedee-F (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Follow Me
- Psychic
- Heal Pulse
- Helping Hand
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