[MANDATORY] TEAM BUILDING HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

[FighterVGC]

the team is used by 3rd. Mitchell Davies and 9th. David Scott

I always wanted to try Rain but never knew what to use, so i tried to use the Pokemon used by Mitchell Davies and David Scott to build a team

The First member of the team is Tapu Koko and he is here, because in Rain the move Thunder is 100% accurate. it has synergy with the core of Pelipper and Golduck. Tapu Koko is a very good Pokemon so i don't see why you wouldn't want it on your team.

Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Dazzling Gleam
- Volt Switch
- Protect

Thunder is better than Thunderbolt, because it has 110 Power compared to Thunderbolts 90 Power and the only reason not to use Thunder is the fact that it is only 70% accurate and the chance to miss can cause you to lose. Thunder also picks up a KO that Thunderbolt can't (252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Thunder vs. 180 HP / 148+ SpD Celesteela in Electric Terrain: 237-281 (121.5 - 144.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO). Dazzling Gleam provides Fairy STAB and is good for dealing spread damage. Volt Switch will allow for you to switch out and is useful if Tapu Lele or Tapu Bulu switches in on Tapu Koko so you can quickly switch out and switch back in bringing your terrain back on to the field. Protect is used because it is important to have in any Doubles format because Pokemon can use Fake Out or you can Protect and use another Pokemon to KO a threat to Tapu Koko. The EVs are the standard 252 SpA and 252 Spe, but with 4 SpD to give 252+ SpA Goodra Sludge Bomb a 18.8% chance to OHKO compared to the normal 25% chance to OHKO vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Koko since the 4 HP isn't helping it survive anything on the Physical side.

The next Pokemon is Tapu Bulu. Tapu Bulu helps vs. Gastrodon. (252+ Atk Tapu Bulu Horn Leech vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gastrodon: 264-312 (121.1 - 143.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO) Tapu Koko is helped by Tapu Bulu's ability since in Grassy Terrain the damage dealt by Earthquake is halved. (252+ Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Koko in Grassy Terrain: 80-96 (55.1 - 66.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery)

Tapu Bulu @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Horn Leech
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Wood Hammer is a move that Tapu Bulu should always run because it does high damage in Grassy Terrain. Horn Leech gives Tapu Bulu the ability to heal HP when it does damage, and Rock Slide is an option for spread damage. The EVs give Tapu Bulu a HP stat divisible by 4 allowing it to get more HP out of Sitrus Berry. 252 Atk is standard. and 4 Def, 4 SpD, and 4 Spe EVs are what was leftover.

Pelipper is here because you cant have a weather team without a weather setter and Pelipper has Drizzle so now it can set rain. The rain allows Tapu Bulu to survive a Burn Up (252+ SpA Arcanine Burn Up vs. 244 HP / 4 SpD Tapu Bulu in Rain: 104-126 (59 - 71.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery) and a Flare Blitz (252+ Atk Thick Club Marowak-Alola Flare Blitz vs. 244 HP / 4 Def Tapu Bulu in Rain: 144-170 (81.8 - 96.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery). The rain also makes the move Thunder 100% accurate and doubles the speed of Golduck.

Pelipper @ Focus Sash
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Hurricane
- Tailwind
- Protect

Scald and other water type attacks will be boosted in the rain by 50%. Hurricane in rain has 100% accuracy, and Tailwind allows for the Pokemon on Pelipper's side of the field to have their speed doubled. With Pelipper you want to lead with it, set up Tailwind, and then use an attack. Pelipper goal isn't to survive for a long period of time but to help your other Pokemon go on the offensive.

Golduck is on the team as it has Swiftswim and i using the item Waterium Z giving it a fast and powerful attack at the beginning of the game if you decide to bring it then lead with Pelipper and Golduck. Golduck also has ice beam giving it the ability to OHKO Garchomp and Salamence both of which are big threats in VGC.

Golduck @ Waterium Z
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Hydro Pump
- Protect

Golduck in rain is able to OHKO opposing Tapu Koko. (252+ SpA Golduck Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Koko in Rain: 160-189 (110.3 - 130.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO) using a z move it can OHKO major threats that have good bulk. (252+ SpA Golduck Hydro Vortex (185 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Lele in Rain: 187-222 (105.6 - 125.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO, and 252+ SpA Golduck Hydro Vortex (185 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Celesteela in Rain: 210-247 (102.9 - 121%) -- guaranteed OHKO)

Porygon2 exists as the teams Trick Room counter being able to unset Trick Room by using Trick Room.

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 36 SpA / 60 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Tri Attack
- Shadow Ball
- Recover
- Trick Room

The set is the standard set used for setting Trick Room. it has Tri Attack as its STAB and Shadow Ball because it is super effective on the ghost types that are uneffected by Tri Attack. With Download Porygon2 will 2HKO Marowak at +1 (+1 36 SpA Porygon2 Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Alolan Marowak: 118-140 (70.6 - 83.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO)
Porygon2 is also very Bulky.
252+ Atk Tapu Bulu Wood Hammer vs. 252 HP / 156 Def Eviolite Porygon2 in Grassy Terrain: 106-126 (55.2 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
252+ Atk Thick Club Alolan Marowak Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 156 Def Eviolite Porygon2: 102-120 (53.1 - 62.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Tapu Lele Shattered Psyche (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 60 SpD Eviolite Porygon2 in Psychic Terrain: 160-190 (83.3 - 98.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Tapu Bulu Bloom Doom (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 156 Def Eviolite Porygon2 in Grassy Terrain: 165-195 (85.9 - 101.5%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO

Lastly is Muk-Alola and it serves to take out opposing Tapu Koko and Tapu Bulu. it will also take on Tapu Lele and Tapu Fini.

Muk-Alola @ Assault Vest
Ability: Poison Touch
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Poison Jab
- Knock Off
- Shadow Sneak

252+ Atk Muk-Alola Gunk Shot vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Bulu: 340-408 (192 - 230.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Muk-Alola Gunk Shot vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Fini: 170-204 (96 - 115.2%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Muk-Alola Gunk Shot vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tapu Koko: 222-264 (152 - 180.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Muk-Alola Gunk Shot vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Lele: 242-288 (136.7 - 162.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

 

[Ashtray]

I’ve been running a version Ben Kyriakou’s team for a while, so I might as well share it.

Hide

In theory, the team was supposed to be a rather hard Trick Room team with a fast mode, though it proved to be more flexible than expected and I feel is really, really good. Thanks Ben! lol

Kartana @ Assault Vest
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 212 Atk / 4 Def / 44 SpD / 244 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Night Slash

Heavy hitter and half of the team’s fast mode. The idea with Kartana is to keep the pressure on the opponent and punish switch-ins with its surprisingly good coverage; even without max investment its ridiculous Attack stat means it’ll be OHKO or 2HKOing the vast majority of the metagame, specially if it manages to get a Beast Boost:

212 Atk Kartana Smart Strike vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Lele: 188-224 (106.2 - 126.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
212 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 68 Def Milotic: 216-254 (106.9 - 125.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
212 Atk Kartana Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Magnezone: 114-136 (64.7 - 77.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
212 Atk Kartana Night Slash vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Oranguru: 122-144 (61.9 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Also F Gastrodon.
Assault Vest helps patch its admittedly terrible SDef and tank hits it normally wouldn’t:
252+ SpA Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 4 HP / 44 SpD Kartana in Psychic Terrain: 133-157 (98.5 - 116.2%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 4 HP / 44 SpD Assault Vest Kartana in Psychic Terrain: 90-106 (66.6 - 78.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

The 44 SpD EVs turn Modest Max SpA turn Tapu Koko’s Thunderbolt and Tapu Lele’s Psychic under their respective terrain into 3HKOs with Aurora Veil up which might seem very situational but on practice happens way more often than expected.
I took 8 Spe EVs to be slower than Ninetales by one point in case I need to break a Substitute (or Disguise since Mimikyu is a threat) while still being able to outspeed opposing Kartana looking to speed creep Garchomp/Nihilego.

Ninetales-Alola @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 236 SpA / 12 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Freeze-Dry
- Aurora Veil
- Protect

Fast Pokemon number #2. Ninetales gets Aurora Veil up for its teammates and removes opposing weather. A pretty simple role but it does a darn good job at it.
Blizzard chips stuff for the heavy hitters on the back and Freeze Dry because hits Water types who think can switch in and because Moonblast coverage seemed redundant.
The thing about Ninetales its it’s pretty weak so its gotta be played more conservatively than the rest of its teammates unless its done its job and can go down or you’re certain it’ll last the turn (hence the Focus Sash):

236 SpA Ninetales-Alola Freeze-Dry vs. 244 HP / 120+ SpD Gastrodon: 168-196 (77.4 - 90.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after hail damage

I removed a bit of Special Attack since it doesn’t guarantee any relevant KOs and invested them on SpD to survive Scarf Tapu Lele’s Psychic in case the Sash gets broken by opposing weather.

252+ SpA Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 4 HP / 12 SpD Ninetales-Alola in Psychic Terrain: 126-148 (84.5 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Atk / 68 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Bone
- Flare Blitz
- Bonemerang
- Protect

Hit hard, redirect Electric attacks; We all know by now what Marowak does.
Went for the standard Trick Room set. Flare Blitz is a nuke, Shadow Bone is nice coverage and hits stupidly hard, Bonemerang 2HKOs Arcanine thru Intimidate and knocks Focus Sash Electric ‘mons (looking at you, Raichu) and Nihilego.
68 SpD EVs because Tapu Lele is broken.

-1 188+ Atk Thick Club Marowak-Alola Bonemerang (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arcanine: 136-164 (69 - 83.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
-1 188+ Atk Thick Club Marowak-Alola Flare Blitz vs. 188 HP / 60 Def Celesteela: 186-222 (94.8 - 113.2%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

Hariyama @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 128 Def / 100 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Wide Guard
- Fake Out

Admittedly, I’m cheating a bit here since I did know beforehand the set Ben was running. Hariyama is meant to both support the team via Fake Out and Wide Guard while still hitting things hard.
Thick Fat + Wide Guard gives the team an answer to Torkoal, which otherwise pretty much solos the entire team and, defensively speaking, is able to tank pretty much every neutral hit:

252+ SpA Torkoal Eruption (150 BP) vs. 28 HP / 100 SpD Thick Fat Hariyama in Sun: 76-91 (34 - 40.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 28 HP / 128 Def Hariyama: 81-96 (36.3 - 43%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
188+ Atk Thick Club Marowak-Alola Flare Blitz vs. 28 HP / 128 Def Thick Fat Hariyama: 96-114 (43 - 51.1%) -- 3.9% chance to 2HKO

Fightinium Z provides Hariyama a nuke, and is able to OHKO Porygon2, which the team struggles with, especially if I bring the “fast mode”. It also heavily damages Celesteela which is a major threat:

252+ Atk Hariyama All-Out Pummeling (190 BP) vs. 188 HP / 60 Def Celesteela: 154-183 (78.5 - 93.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Hariyama All-Out Pummeling (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 156 Def Eviolite Porygon2: 210-248 (109.3 - 129.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Hariyama All-Out Pummeling (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Muk-Alola: 213-252 (100.4 - 118.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Oranguru @ Mental Herb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 76 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Instruct
- Protect

The Trick Room setter of the team. With Inner Focus and Mental Herb Oranguru is able to set Trick Room 9/10 times and, generally be a pain in the ass by providing Instruct support both in Trick Room and out of it thanks to its speed tier.
The EV spread is pretty simple, Def investment allows it to take a Tapu Bulu’s Wood Hammer with the rest dumped into SpD.

252+ Atk Tapu Bulu Wood Hammer vs. 252 HP / 180 Def Oranguru in Grassy Terrain: 165-195 (83.7 - 98.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Thick Club Marowak-Alola Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 180 Def Oranguru: 160-189 (81.2 - 95.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Milotic @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Competitive
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 84 SpA / 92 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Toxic /Recover
- Protect

Milotic is a very effective Intimidate deterrent, and since the three hard hitters of the team are physical they create multiple opportunities to grab the Competitive boost.
Scald is there because its Scald. Ice Beam provides nice coverage and Toxic is there for Gastrodon because I really, really hate that thing and bulky water types in general. Recover is an option for reliable recovery.
The defensive investment allows Milotic to survive an Adamant Krookodile Tectonic Rage and Life Orb Tapu Koko’s Thunderbolt most of the time with the rest dumped into SpA to hit as hard as possible.

252+ Atk Krookodile Tectonic Rage (180 BP) vs. 252 HP / 76 Def Milotic: 172-204 (85.1 - 100.9%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 92+ SpD Milotic in Electric Terrain: 172-203 (85.1 - 100.4%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

Some replays:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7vgc2017-504829234
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7vgc2017-504808137
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7vgc2017-504788984


Soooooo I wrote all that and then noticed someone else already tried their hand at it; Read the rules and there seems to be nothing about doing a team again.
If I’m somehow missing something I’m sorry and feel free to erase it.

 

[lucariomaster2]

I don't know if I'll ever actually post one of my teams here, but doing this homework will still be good practice for me. I decided to look into Michele Gavelli's 3rd place team since it seems to be fairly solid and it matches my playstyle pretty well.

This team has four very powerful wallbreakers in Tapu Lele, Xurkitree, Marowak, and Araquanid. Porygon2 provides necessary Trick Room support because they are all quite slow. However, it also has a solid win condition in Gyarados, who can set up with Dragon Dance while having Marowak protect it from Electric attacks using Lightning Rod.

In-depth

Tapu Lele @ Life Orb
Ability: Psychic Surge
Timid Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
-Psychic
-Moonblast
-Energy Ball
-Protect

Tapu Lele acts as the team's first hole puncher. A good way to play it is to lead it with Porygon2 and try to trade Lele for one of the opposing Pokemon while Porygon2 sets up Trick Room. Then you can bring in one of the other hard hitters to start doing damage under Trick Room.

Psychic and Moonblast are obligatory STABs. I chose Energy Ball as the 3rd move and the 252/252 spread because of the way I envision this Tapu Lele would be played - it needs to hit hard as many times as possible before it goes down. If it gets at least one KO and Trick Room goes up before it goes down, Tapu Lele has done its job.

Xurkitree @ Electrium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
Modest Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 84 SAtk / 44 SDef / 84 Spe

-Thunderbolt
-HP Ice
-Discharge
-Protect

Xurkitree is the second wallbreaker. It is best brought against teams that don't need Trick Room in order to beat (such as opposing TR teams). In addition to being a solid attacker, it's very anti-metagame at the moment, beating Celesteela, Gyarados, and Salamence, three very common Pokemon at the moment. Again, Thunderbolt and HP Ice are seen on virtually every Xurkitree for STAB and BoltBeam coverage, while Discharge is nice alongside Marowak because of its immunity. Xurkitree has the potential to become very powerful after taking a KO with Gigavolt Havoc thanks to Beast Boost, which then turns it into a massive threat with Discharge.

The given EVs allow it to survive Garchomp's Spread Earthquake and Life Orb Salamence's Draco Meteor. 84 Speed EVs put it at 114 Speed, outspeeding 252 Neutral Celesteela by one point to smack it with Thunderbolt.

Gyarados @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Jolly Nature
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spe
-Dragon Dance
-Waterfall
-Ice Fang
-Protect

Dragon Dance Gyarados is a potential win condition once Trick Room has ended and the hole punchers have done their jobs. As Sejun showed back in 2014 Worlds, DD Gyara is very powerful if played properly. It enjoys support from Marowak, who protects it from Electric attacks while Gyarados takes out Ground-types for Marowak. Gyarados is also the team's Intimidate support, which has always been mandatory in VGC.

Ice Fang is used over Earthquake since this team has no other Ground-immune Pokemon, and I feel like Ground coverage isn't as important as Ice. 164 Speed makes Gyarados faster than 252+ base 130s, most notably Tapu Koko.

Marowak-A @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
Brave Nature (0 Spe)
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
-Shadow Bone
-Flare Blitz
-Earthquake
-Protect

This is just about as standard as you can get. Alolan Marowak is a monster under Trick Room because it gets the Thick Club and excellent STAB moves. Earthquake is used over Bonemerang here because Marowak wants to be sent out alongside Gyarados to spam Earthquake while Gyara sets up or attacks.

Max Attack is obvious, and I'm investing fully in HP because on Marowak it gets a lot more mileage.

Araquanid @ Wacan Berry
Ability: Water Bubble
Brave Nature (0 Spe)
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
-Liquidation
-Lunge
-Poison Jab
-Protect

Fairly standard as well - while Araquanid is obviously intended to be used in Trick Room and as a Rain counter, the Wacan Berry allows it to take a hit from Tapu Koko or Xurkitree and have a good chance of OHKOing back with Liquidation. I feel like in any given battle it's a good idea to bring either Marowak or Araquanid, but not both, since they fill the same role as Trick Room wallbreaker, just with different coverage. Lunge is nice to soften Physical attackers and smack Grass-types, while Poison Jab should never be used against anything except Tapu Bulu since STAB Water Bubble Liquidation hits harder in every other case.

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
Sassy Nature (0 Spe IV)
EVs: 252 HP / 84 SAtk / 172 SDef
-Trick Room
-Ice Beam
-Toxic
-Protect

And, at last, one of the cutest Pokemon in the game in my opinion which is finally a mainstream Pokemon in VGC (Though it did see some use in post-Worlds VGC 2015, but I digress). Anyway, Porygon2 has the most important job of all, which is to set up Trick Room so that the slower team members can power through the opposition. Since it fills a supportive role instead of an attacking one, I went with Trace instead of Download mainly to copy Intimidate.

The given EV spread means it survives 2 of Tapu Lele's Psychics, Specs Salamence's Draco Meteors, and most other Special attacks. Ice Beam is to hit Dragons, and Toxic is nice since Porygon2 has a ton of staying power, so it can get nice residual damage on bulkier Pokemon (though Celesteela is immune, sadly).


Most often, you want to lead with Tapu Lele and Porygon2 with Gyarados and Marowak in the back, try to trade Lele for an opposing Pokemon, and set up Trick Room. Then bring in Marowak and try to take another KO so that Gyarados can clean up. I feel like Xurkitree and Araquanid are techs that are good at countering Celesteela, Rain, and other common strategies, but have limited use outside of that (Though, again, Xurkitree can be a nasty sweeper; the only problem is its middling Speed).

 

[Max_Ibuki]

38th. Ruben Yanguas:

I wanted to try Ninetales-Alola and the rest of the team had pokemon i feel comfortable using so i picked Ruben's team

Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 28 HP / 4 Def / 220 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Discharge
- Protect

Tapu Koko is great for fast attacks. Tapu Koko has the standard moves with Thunderbolt for STAB, Dazzling Gleam for Spread and hitting Ground Types as well as mons with lightning rod.the 28 HP and 4 Def will give 252+ Atk Tapu Bulu Wood Hammer a 6.3% chance to OHKO. The 252 Spe and Timid
Nature allow Tapu Koko to be as fast as possible and 220 SpA is what was leftover.

Ninetales-Alola @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aurora Veil
- Blizzard
- Freeze-Dry
- Protect

Ninetales-Alola can set up Aurora Veil and deal damage with Blizzard. Freeze-Dry does x4 damage to Pelipper and Gastrodon which i feel are threats to the team and in the current meta. 252 SpA is on Ninetales-Alola because it has a Focus Sash so it doesn't need any Defense EVs as it is guaranteed to survive one hit and 252 Spe with a Timid Nature gives it the max speed it can have.

Gyarados @ Waterium Z
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Ice Fang
- Protect

Gyarados provides Intimidate support for the team and after a Dragon Dance has the potential to win games. Waterfall is the main STAB move. Icefang allows it to OHKO Garchomp at +1.

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Bonemerang
- Protect

Marowak-Alola has Lightning Rod and is on the team to protect Gyarados. Flare Blitz and Shadow Bone provide Marowak-Alola with STAB and Bonemerang is a ground type move that combined with Lightning Rod will help against the strong electric types like Tapu Koko and Magnezone. Bonemerang also helps with the mirror match.

Mudsdale @ Assault Vest
Ability: Stamina
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- High Horsepower
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Heavy Slam

Mudsdale is a bulky pokemon and it provides a Trick Room check as well as more bulk to the team. High Horsepower and Earthquake are more ground type moves that will provide answers to any Tapu Koko and Raichu-Alola teams as well as stop Magnezone. Rock Slide is a Spread move and helps against flying types that would be immune to ground type attacks and Heavy Slam does 73.4 - 87% vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Bulu a pokemon who is a threat to Mudsdale because Grassy Terrain reduces the power of Earthquake and it is a guaranteed OHKO vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Lele.

Oranguru @ Mental Herb
Ability: Telepathy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 76 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Instruct
- Psychic
- Protect

Oranguru is a great supporting member providing Trick Room to help vs. faster pokemon and it has Instruct giving it the ability to make Tapu Koko, Ninetales-Alola, and Mudsdale all reuse their spread moves dealing great amounts of damage. Psychic is on Oranguru incase it gets Taunted a second time you aren't stuck with an Oranguru using struggle. 252 HP and 180 Def will cause it to survive a 252+ Atk Tapu Bulu Wood Hammer in Grassy Terrain but the Def can be lowered to 164 EVs giving Tapu Bulu a 6.3% chance to OHKO. the last 76 Evs are placed into SpA because i couldn't think of any reason to put those EVs into SpD other than turning a 252+ SpA Tapu Lele Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Oranguru from a 0.4% chance to 2HKO to a guaranteed 3HKO by adding 4 EVs into SpD. based on my recent experience trying to learn VGC 2017 Oranguru gets left on the field providing little to no offensive pressure if an opponent manages to KO all other mons and even when other pokemon are next to Oranguru it is stuck setting up Trick Room and using Instruct so it was worth it to try a more offensive Oranguru. i tested out other calcs and at +1 Hydro Pump from Tapu Fini is a 2HKO and Tapu Koko is also a 2HKO.

After building the team and writing this i wanted to test it out and here are the results
Warning: I am new to VGC so i might have made some terrible plays the only experience i have had is VGC 2016 and Battle Spot Doubles and i tried Smogon Doubles but that is very different from VGC.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7vgc2017-506019320

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7vgc2017-506022538

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7vgc2017-506027519

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7vgc2017-506030648

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7vgc2017-506033279

Based on the replays it is clear i make bad plays.if i had to do this again with the same team i would make oranguru 252 HP/164 Def and the rest into SpD not SpA other than that i don't know what else would be good to change. maybe give Gyarados a move other than Ice Fang and better EVs because i have Ninetales-Alola for Garchomp.

 

[RlyCoolCat]

I went with Miguel Marti de la Torre's London winning team.

Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 68 Atk / 68 Def / 124 SpD / 4 Spe
Careful Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Substitute

The EV's here allow Celesteela to OHKO Lele with Slam up to investment of 252 HP, 108 Def.
Leech Seed allows me to win versus Gastrodon, which this team doesn't have too many direct answers to.
The Bulk also allows me to live a Max SpAtk Thunderbolt from Xurkitree.
Celesteela can work in a whole manner of situations, or be brought for support to check numerous threats in the meta. Notably Tapu Bulu, which outside of Arcanine and Celesteela the team would struggle with.


Tapu Koko @ Focus Sash
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Discharge
- Protect

Focus Sash Koko makes for a better way of approaching lead situations. Discharge/Thunderbolt duality means the opponent cannot safely go for either a wide guard or protect, and I'm guaranteed to live one hit. Speed control potential with Discharge parahax is a nice bonus too. Dazzling Gleam allows me to have a none electric option, and offers good coverage to get small damage on threats like A-Marowak where electric moves aren't possible. All said and done this is a standard set. Helpful dealing with weather leads like double duck, especially with Gigalith in the back to shut off weather if needed and especially Gastrodon for it's weather redirection potential.

Arcanine @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 132 SpA / 164 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Protect
- Snarl
- Burn Up

This spread lets Arcanine outspeed Timid Xurkitree, Jolly Gyarados and Adamant Krookadile. The Bulk prevents me from being OHKO'd by a 252+ Lele Psychic and Burn Up gives me a strong way of dealing with Tapu Bulu which could be a problem for the team. Good for taking on opposing Celesteela. Its mix bulk, power and speed allow it to fit into many team compositions, dealing with things that hamper Gastrodon or Gigalith such as Lilligant, Bulu or Kartana.

Gastrodon-East @ Maranga Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Protect
- Toxic
- Recover

2HKO's Max HP, 0 SpDef Arcanine and deals over half to A Marowak without a specially defensive nature. This set is 2HKO'd by Shadow Bone however. Gigalith and Garchomp both deal with A-Marowak. Toxic allows for it to poison hard to deal with Pokemon like opposing Gastrodon's and bulky Porygon 2's. With Celesteela having Leech Seed this can open up potential bulky stall opportunities. The Maranga berry allows Gastrodon to not be 2HKO'd by Tapu Lele's 252+ Psychic. This set also deals with Tapu Koko quite well.

Gigalith @ Rockium Z
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 188 Atk / 76 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Heavy Slam
- Protect
- Wide Guard

Wide Guard allows Gigalith to support, whilst the weather setting ability gives it the function of neutralizing the opponents more important weather. The low speed means in situations with Snow or Rain the sand will be set if led with. The investment lets Gigalith OHKO Lele with Heavy Slam without significant bulk investment while needing to take 3 hits to go down to its Psychic. Cannot be 2HKO'd by Koko even with Modest Specs Thunderbolt, whilst the Continental Crush will OHKO without investment. It's Z Move will also allow Gigalith to OHKO Alolan Marowak whilst living a Max Atk Bonemerang.

Garchomp @ Assault Vest
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
- Dragon Claw
- Fire Fang

Assault Vest allows Garchomp to live a HP Ice from Timid Specs Koko. Poison Jab deals heavy damage to Bulu, Fire Fang gives you something to hit Celesteela with. Chomp is pivotal in this team for its ability to hit Alolan Marowak strong and quickly. Which is harder for this team to hard counter, but 4/6 members hit it for super effective damage. Garchomp needs its speed investment at max to deal so it doesn't always lose to opponents Garchomps, in a slower meta like this one I prefer to max the faster mons speed to give me the best chance of outspeeding slower things under tailwind.

 

[C.ViperIsBestWaifu]

28th. David Koutesh

Tapu Lele @ Psychium Z
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 164 HP / 92 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Dazzling Gleam
- Protect

Tapu Lele is a power pokemon that in psychic terrain with 252 SpA and a modest nature will be a threat to almost any team. Psychium Z gives Tapu Lele the potential to pick up OHKOs that it normally wouldn't in Psychic Terrain. Psychic is needed on every Tapu Lele because it is stronger than Psyshock and in Psychic Terrain Psychic moves get a boost.
252+ SpA Tapu Lele Shattered Psyche (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 68 SpD Marowak in Psychic Terrain: 271-321 (162.2 - 192.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ SpA Tapu Lele Shattered Psyche (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 68 SpD Milotic in Psychic Terrain: 195-229 (96.5 - 113.3%) -- 75% chance to OHKO

252+ SpA Tapu Lele Shattered Psyche (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Araquanid in Psychic Terrain: 195-231 (111.4 - 132%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ SpA Tapu Lele Shattered Psyche (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Bulu: 171-202 (96.6 - 114.1%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO

252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 164 HP / 92 Def Tapu Lele in Psychic Terrain: 72-85 (43.3 - 51.2%) -- 6.3% chance to 2HKO

Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Smart Strike
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Protect

Kartana is another powerful pokemon and when put next to each other it and Tapu Lele are going to OHKO a large majority of the opponents team. its Steel Typing is helpful against the Tapus and its Grass Type helps against threats like Gastrodon. Kartana is going to attack and everytime it gets a KO it will gain ATK. Sadly Kartana isn't surviving anything with its low defenses.
252 Atk Kartana Smart Strike vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Lele: 192-228 (108.4 - 128.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 86 Def Milotic: 216-254 (106.9 - 125.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Kartana: 160-190 (118.5 - 140.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Torkoal @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drought
Level: 50
EVs: 116 HP / 252 SpA / 140 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Heat Wave
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam

Torkoal gives the team more power but it also has some defense adding more bulk to the team. Torkoal is a mon that is meant to function in Trick Room to contrast the faster pokemon like Tapu Lele and Kartana. It pairs great with After You Lilligant and Instruct Oranguru.
252+ SpA Choice Specs Torkoal Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 116 SpD Celesteela in Sun: 200-236 (98 - 115.6%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO

252+ SpA Choice Specs Torkoal Eruption (150 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Garchomp in Sun: 101-119 (55.1 - 65%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 116 HP / 140 SpD Torkoal in Psychic Terrain: 142-168 (88.7 - 105%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Thick Club Alolan Marowak Bonemerang (2 hits) vs. 116 HP / 0 Def Torkoal: 136-164 (85 - 102.5%) -- approx. 6.3% chance to OHKO

Oranguru @ Mental Herb
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 20 SpA / 92 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Psychic
- Instruct
- Trick Room
- Protect

Oranguru can set up Trick Room and use Instruct on Torkoal or any other pokemon on the team allowing them to reuse their powerful attacks. It is another slower pokemon that provides speed control.
20 SpA Oranguru Psychic vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Salazzle: 144-170 (100 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Thick Club Alolan Marowak Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 140 Def Oranguru: 166-196 (84.2 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Krookodile Crunch vs. 252 HP / 140 Def Oranguru: 144-170 (73 - 86.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Lilligant @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Chlorophyll
Level: 50
EVs: 124 HP / 252 SpA / 132 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- After You
- Sleep Powder
- Protect

Lilligant is great for supporting Torkoal. when in the sun it will outspeed Choice Scarfed Garchomp. I already used sash so i didn't know what to run.
252+ SpA Lilligant Leaf Storm vs. 36 HP / 0 SpD Krookodile: 290-344 (165.7 - 196.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ SpA Lilligant Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Koko: 138-163 (95.1 - 112.4%) -- 75% chance to OHKO

Silvally @ Life Orb
Ability: RKS System
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Multi-Attack
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Protect

Silvally is a pokemon i don't think is good in Doubles but it was on the team so i gave it a more offensive set. i would replace silvally with a pokemon that can provide intimidate or a pokemon to help the teams typing synergy. i don't know exactly what i would run but i don't see Silvally as good in doubles and a pokemon to cover the first 5 members weaknesses would be good.

 

[blubobebabi]

Tapu Lele @ Life Orb
Ability: Psychic Surge
Timid Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
-Psychic
-Moonblast
-Energy Ball
-Protect

**typo - 252 SpA not Atk**

 

[blubobebabi]

Rebuilding a top team from chille, Yddeon's first place team

Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 156 SpA / 96 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Discharge
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- U-turn

Standard Tapu set with Life orb and SpA to maximize damage potential. Only 156 SpA is needed under electric terrain to OHKO a max SpD Araquanid, and 96SpD to hopefully help tank a sludgebomb

Gyarados @ Waterium Z
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang
- Roar
- Protect

Another standard Gyarados. Taunt instead of dragon dance to deal with trick room setters, as that's this team's biggest problem.

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bonemerang
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Protect

Shouldn't need too much introduction, this is pretty much the same set everyone is using. Thick club shadow bone WILL OHKO tapu lele, which is nuts. Flare blitz for stab and dealing with Celesteela, Bonemerang for dealing with Muk or Koko.

Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Leech Seed
- Heavy Slam
- Flamethrower
- Protect

The crown jewel. Maximizing defense for pure stalling power, heavy slam to kill tapus and flamethrower to take care of other celesteelas. Such a good Pokémon.

Garchomp @ Focus Sash
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
- Rock Slide

Rockslide op, earthquake deals with a lot this meta, but then earthquake is always good. Poison jab to murder fairies and focus dash to make sure it gets an attack off. Dragon claw is for stab and killing salamnence but you can easily switch it for protect

Tapu Bulu @ Grassium Z
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Zen Headbutt
- Stone Edge
- Protect

Grassium Z makes for some insane burst damage off of wood hammer, zen head butt deals with poison types and fighting types. I personally like stone edge,but super power is another option.

Tapu Koko: I don't think Araquanid is that common nor is it that much of a threat to your team that you have to specifically EV Koko to OHKO it, especially since you don't have calcs showing whether or not you would live a Sludge Bomb and from what mon. I would suggest just fully investing in Special Attack and Speed unless you find out what it has to survive. Also, you're better off using Volt Switch over U-turn for STAB if you're not going to run Protect on it.

Gyarados: Questionable set since you have Roar listed but explained with Taunt? If you aim for Gyarados to be a Taunt user shouldn't it be Jolly nature instead so it can outspeed more mons? I don't agree with using Gyarados as a Taunt user in general because it isn't fast enough and you're giving up a potential move slot for Dragon Dance, which could greatly increase its damage output and the pressure it puts on your opponent.

Tapu Bulu: Stone Edge is a risky move and situational so Rock Slide is a better option if you insist on Rock-type coverage. I think Superpower is the better option as it gives you something against Porygon2, but I personally run Swords Dance to set up on turns when my opponent least expects it. Zen Headbutt is unnecessary imo since Garchomp resists Poison and can fire back EQs. Additionally, Fighting-types aren't that common (at all, at least in my experience) and the team already has two fairy types to resist, one ghost type, and one Intimidate user; therefore, Horn Leech should replace it for recovery.

Overall, the team lacks Special bulk (Celesteela can easily be KO'ed or OHKO'ed by special Electric & Fire-type moves) and NEEDS another Special attacker (invest more SpA into Celesteela since Gyarados can Intimidate), considering 5 mons are Physical attackers. But I am a VGC noob so...

 

[blubobebabi]

I have decided to use the pokemon that were used in Miguel Marti de La Torre's team. It has more pokemon I really don't know the sets for.


Gastrodon-East @ Earth Plate
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rain Dance
- Protect
- Scald
- Surf


Gastrodon can set up rain dance if needed which can help out other members of the team. Scald and surf are for STAB and protect is well, protect. Storm drain basically gives it a water immunity and it has an electric immunity which is really nice. I wanted to make him very bulky but with high special attack to dish out a brutal scald and surf.





Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Thunder
- Dazzling Gleam
- Protect



Thunder is 100% accurate under rain which is very nice and helps a lot. Volt switch is so I can get some damage but being able to switch out into a better mon for the current situation. Dazzling gleam is STAB and is good against dragon types. I chose life orb because I want koko to hit hard. I chose special attack so koko can be strong and speed so it could also be very fast.




Gigalith @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Protect
- Stealth Rock




Gigalith could set up sand storm if needed. He is very bulky which can be good. That is why I invested 252 in HP and 252 in Def. Earthquake is a good move that can hit both of the enemies. Stealth rock is good for damage build up and stone edge is good as well.



Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
- Heavy Slam
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Flash Cannon


Celesteela is another tank. The ultimate tank. Heavy slam can do a lot of damage. Leech seed can do damage over time while giving celesteela back health. Flash canon is a good stab




Garchomp @ Assault Vest
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpA
Naughty Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Swords Dance
- Rock Slide
- Flamethrower



Garchomp is the bulky physical sweeper. That is why I gave him the Assault Vest. 252 for more health and 252 for better attack.
Draco meteor is a good STAB move. Swords dance is great for boosting attack. Rockslide is helpful for hitting multiple enemies and flamethrower is good as well for grass types.





Arcanine
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpA
Lonely Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Extreme Speed
- Heat Wave
- Body Slam



Arcanine is another bulky sweeper. Intimidate is useful because it lowers the attack of the opposing mons. I wanted it to be a little bulkier but still pack a punch. Heat wave is good STAB and hits both mons.

Since other users already commented on your sets, I suggest you watch some VGC YouTubers or read some blogs on VGC teambuilding to learn more about VGC in general, such as moves that may be useless in Singles but extremely useful in Doubles and vice versa. Some channel suggestions: CybertronProductions (first VGC channel I found, great player who consistently puts out content), WolfeyVGC (VGC'16 World Champ; love his playing style; released many useful VGC'17 guides), and 13Yoshi37 (although he hasn't posted any VGC'17 content, his past videos have improved my understanding of the game). Of course there are many more channels out there but these are my top 3 favorites.

You've probably heard this before, but Protect is a staple in VGC: it lets you use moves that can also hit your partner, stall out a turn of status/weather damage, or just avoid taking unnecessary damage until you get into a more favorable position, and Arcanine & Gastrodon would probably appreciate having Protect.

There are many useful guides out there for beginners so you should be able to improve and try this assignment again in the future :)
P.S. I'm still a beginner

 

[Karyu]

Hello, I chose 3 pokemon of the following team:

Tapu Bulu / Arcanine / Gastrodon

Team

Dwayne Bulu (Tapu Bulu) @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 116 Atk / 140 Def / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Horn Leech
- Substitute
- Protect

Garchomp (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Veil
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 236 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Rock Slide
- Poison Jab

Muk-Alola (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Poison Touch
Level: 50
EVs: 140 HP / 252 Atk / 44 Def / 52 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Poison Jab
- Knock Off
- Shadow Sneak
- Protect

Arcanine @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 76 HP / 4 Def / 108 SpA / 68 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Flamethrower
- Will-O-Wisp
- Snarl

Milotic (M) @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 172 Def / 60 SpA / 28 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Protect

Cucumber 2 (Gastrodon-East) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 132 SpA / 124 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Scald
- Recover
- Protect

The pokemon aggregates, in my opinion they manage to put a good coverage of the initial core, I do not have much to add on the moveset, are something "Standard" but I think that by now work perfectly for my. I accept any suggestion or change

I apologize for the short description, but English is not my language and I have a hard time explaining better

 

[Ptcdbrown]

FIRST I'd like to point out that WOW getting into VGC is quite difficult. There are a lot of resources, yes, but it is much more difficult to conceptually understand what is going on compared to a card game like Yu-Gi-Oh! (which I play competitively).

THEREFORE, I want to thank the OP for opening up a thread like this to kinda help people like me who are struggling with getting into VGC. While the Pokemon fanbase is much much larger than YGO, I felt that it was much more difficult to get enveloped into it because Pokemon suffers from a sort of information overload given the vast amount of considerations needing to be taken note of when making a team (damage calculations mainly). Furthermore, there is a much higher time investment required for creating a competitive team, while also typically being bad comparatively since I'm a novice. This can serve as a deterance after a failed team experiment, though I am here today in order to "git gud."

BUT regardless, I think that this exercise would be helpful for understanding a little better the fundamentals in VGC, so let's get into my homework assignment.

San Jose Regional, 10th. Alberto Lara:

I picked this team because it looked like the most standard, therefore I could make safer assumptions as to EV and moveset layout on these mons.

Let's move from left to right.

Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Terrain
Level 50
EVs: 4 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Discharge
- Protect
Literally the most standard pokemon with the most standard build. TK is the perfect pokemon to lead in this meta (from what I can understand) and hits like a freight train. Life Orb coupled with STAB as well as E.T. allows TK to OHKO or 2hKO a wide range of idiots it comes across. Timid nature allows it to tie/beat all other speed threats such as another TK. Thunderbolt is the best spammable STAB move, Dazzling Gleam works too when Thunderbolt doesn't, and Discharge works well with Gastrodon and Garchomp in the backrow to switch into. Protect is staple for VGC since it's a double battle format

Tapu Lele @ Psychium-Z
Ability: Psychic Terrain
Level 50
EVs: 252 HP, 36 Def, 120 SpA, 100 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Protect
This one I had a little bit more trouble with, and had to do a little bit of research on. I knew Psychium-Z Lele was most likely the most optimal in this build because the Z-Psychic can be a blowout under STAB and Terrain, and I imagined that using a move slot on Tapu Koko as the Trick Room counter was sub optimal and he should be the all out attacker instead of Lele. So Psychic and Moonblast are staple, we got that straight. The EV spread is designed to make Lele much bulkier, and the 100 Speed Evs allows it to outspeed most threats and trick room setters, so Lele can safely use Taunt and then survive, then blaZt them.

Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Level 50
EVs: 252 HP, 4 Def, 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Heavy Slam
Standard Standard Standard. HP and SpD are prioritized because Celesteela's most common threats are Flamethrower and Thunderbolt. But Celesteela in this build is supposed to be the most obscenely bulky and obnoxious pokemonster on the team. Protect/Substitute backed up with Leech Seed AND Leftovers makes it really tough to kill, and is an excellent answer to Trick Room teams if Trick room resolves.

Gastrodon @ Normalium Z
Ability: Storm Drain
Level 50
EVs: 252 HP, 56 Def, 20 SpA, 180 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Recover
- Toxic // Protect
- Stockpile
Also had a tougher time with Gastrodon, there are not a whole lot of resources to work with. In no scenario can it outlive it's most common threat, Tapu Bulu's wood hammer, even after 2 Stockpiles. I did some research on Gastrodon layouts and came to this spread. From what I understand, Gastrodon is the answer to Rain focused teams by utilizing spammable Scald under Rain for the 50% boost, and cannot be Thundered, given how Rain gives Thunder a 100% accuracy much like how Hail gives Blizzard 100% acc. Scald seemed just better than Muddy Water, the accuracy drop off on Muddy Water was a little bit much. Scald is routinely just a safe WATER spam. Stockpile makes Gast a pain to deal with after a few uses (not attempted if they have bulu). Sassy nature helps buff against Grass Knot and increases utilizing Gast against Trick Room resolutions. The EV spread is optimized in order to just barely prevent being 2hKOd against Grass Knot Tapu Koko after Stockpile, so you can safely use Z-Stockpile the second time around (252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Grass Knot (60 BP) vs. +1 252 HP / 180+ SpD Gastrodon: 88-104 (40.3 - 47.7%)). The only last question with Gast is whether or not to use Toxic or Protect, but since there is no leftovers on him, I would lean more towards Toxic.

Garchomp @ Focus Sash
Ability: Rough Skin
Level 50
EVs: 252 ATK, 4 SpD, 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Protect
Standard. Offensive pressure sweeper with helpful Rock coverage, staple Earthquake and Dragon Claw. Earthquake works well with switch in Celesteela because of her Ground type immunity. Garchomp is a very solid co-lead with Tapu Koko with his wide type coverage and immunity to Discharge. Focus Sash is helpful given the assumed prevalence of Hidden Power-ICE, intended as checks on Salamance and Garchomp. Jolly nature for necessary outspeeds given how he can get ganged up on early on, and can secure an early kill to set you up well on T1.

Arcanine @ Flame Plate
Ability: Intimidate
Level 50
EVs: 252 HP, 252 SpA, 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Burn Up
- Snarl
- Flamethrower
- EXTREME!!!!speed
Also a lack of resources for Sun/Moon format Arcanine. Sad. But judging from the roles covered by the other pokemon on the team, Arcanine best serves as a switch in Intimidate user that has priority for revenge kills and decent type coverage. Therefore, instead of going for speed like Tapu Koko and Garchomp, Modest nature was best and it's best to milk him for his strength. I saw quickly why you should go for Modest instead of Adamant, and it seems to be largely because of Burn Up. Wow, what a move. Flamethrower is for tamer spammable FIRE STAB pre-Burn Up, Snarl has a necessary Special Atk lowering capability for use against opposing threats to Gastrodon or Tapus. Oh, and what a great counter against Celesteela and Bulu. I struggled with the Item on here because Leftovers was better on Celesteela, and Life Orb was better on Tapu Koko, so I opted for a Flame Plate instead for the spammable fire moves. Flame Plate allows Arcanine to barely get over 252 Hp / 252 SpD Celesteela most of the time, and served as a safer pick than Choice, given how locking in for Arcanine would likely back fire (252+ SpA Flame Plate Arcanine Burn Up vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Celesteela: 192-228 (94.1 - 111.7%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO) Flame Plate might be incorrect, would like some feedback on that choice.


I'm only doing one team for now, I'll get to another one later. Please leave feedback or ask for clarification, it did take a lot more work to dissect this than I had originally envisioned. Thanks for the opportunity to share, enjoy!

 

[lucariomaster2]

**typo - 252 SpA not Atk**

Ah, thanks. Just goes to show there's always something that slips through proofreading.

 

[SpectivTechVGC]

Since other users already commented on your sets, I suggest you watch some VGC YouTubers or read some blogs on VGC teambuilding to learn more about VGC in general, such as moves that may be useless in Singles but extremely useful in Doubles and vice versa. Some channel suggestions: CybertronProductions (first VGC channel I found, great player who consistently puts out content), WolfeyVGC (VGC'16 World Champ; love his playing style; released many useful VGC'17 guides), and 13Yoshi37 (although he hasn't posted any VGC'17 content, his past videos have improved my understanding of the game). Of course there are many more channels out there but these are my top 3 favorites.

You've probably heard this before, but Protect is a staple in VGC: it lets you use moves that can also hit your partner, stall out a turn of status/weather damage, or just avoid taking unnecessary damage until you get into a more favorable position, and Arcanine & Gastrodon would probably appreciate having Protect.

There are many useful guides out there for beginners so you should be able to improve and try this assignment again in the future :)
P.S. I'm still a beginner

yeah... I know a lot more than that post made me seem. I have watched all their videos and I have my own team with pretty good success and I have gotten alot better. I just didnt use those pokmeon much or work with them. I also didnt spend that much time putting it together.

 

[Raahxen]

Hi there! I chose this team from the London International Championship:

8th. Nils Dunlop (11-3 Swiss):

Before getting into the details, we can see that this is a really Offensive oriented team. It has 3 fast sweepers, a tailwind setter (Pelipper) and 2 that can check Trick Room teams (Muk and Marowak).
Now let's get right into the sets:

Tapu Lele @ Life Orb
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Protect

Tapu lele sets up Psychic Terrain, which helps against the Hariyama + Porygon2 lead. 252 HP EVs let's you take more hits, because there isn't many Pokémon between the 117 speed and the 147 speed you can reach with 252 speed EVs.
Life Orb makes our moves even more powerful. Psychium Z is an option too, but Raichu-A needs it more than Tapu lele because of his lower Special Attack stat.
Taunt is really good to stop Porygon2 from setting up Trick Room.

Kartana @ Assault Vest
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Leaf Blade
- Protect

Kartana OHKOs Gastrodon, which can be a pain to deal with. Sacred sword is needed to deal damage to Celesteela and to help vs opposing Kartanas. Smart Strike OHKOs opposing Tapu Lele. After a beast boost, Kartana can OHKO Tapu bulu, Tapu koko and Garchomp, so getting a Beast Boost with Kartana may be a win condition.

Assault Vest is there because Kartana has a really poor Special Defense stat. That way it gets 2HKO from Ninetales-A, Porygon2 and Tapu koko.

Raichu-Alola @ Psychium Z
Ability: Surge Surfer
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Encore
- Thunderbolt
- Fake Out

Raichu-A is a really good lead. With Shattered Psyche, it can OHKO Tapu koko and Garchomp. Fake out is bad if you lead Tapu lele + Raichu, but it's really good if you lead Raichu + Pelipper. That way you can set up Tailwind pretty much every time. Encore locks Pokemon on Protect or Status moves, which gives you a lot of advantage, due to their Pokemon being useless until they switch out or Encore finishes. You have to be careful when Raichu and Marowak are both out. You don't want to thunderbolt into you Marowak's Lightning Rod. Because of that, I'd say that Raichu and Marowak shouldn't be on your side of the field at the same time.

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Atk / 4 Def / 132 SpD / 28 Spe
Careful Nature
- Protect
- Bonemerang
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone

Thanks to its Lightning Rod ability, Marowak can counter Tapu koko. This EV spread let's you survive a Psychic from Specs Tapu lele on Psychic terrain, and then you can OHKO it with Shadow Bone. Marowak doesn't need to invest a lot in attack EVs to get the KOs it already gets, like Bonemerang vs Tapu koko, Shadow bone vs Tapu lele and Flare blitz vs Celesteela.

Pelipper @ Focus Sash
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tailwind
- Hurricane
- Scald
- Protect

Pelipper+Raichu will guarantee that Tailwind goes up, thanks to Fake out from Raichu and the focus sash from Pelipper. Hurricane OHKOs Tapu Bulu, and Scald is there as a STAB move. Pelipper also sets the rain, which is really good for Kartana. That way it can survive some fire-type moves, like Flare blitz from Arcanine:
4 Atk Arcanine Flare Blitz vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Kartana in Rain: 112-136 (82.9 - 100.7%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

Muk-Alola @ Figy Berry
Ability: Gluttony
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 108 Def / 72 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Knock Off
- Poison Jab
- Protect
- Curse

Muk counters the Tapus, and it's really good vs Trick Room teams. Curse boosts your Attack and Defense, and the Speed drop is huge, because you can underspeed (outspeed under trick room) some threats like Araquanid.
Knock off helps vs Porygon2 and pretty much every Pokemon. Poison jab OHKOs Tapu koko, and 2HKO Tapu lele. The EV spread maximizes bulk while not losing too much offensive pressure. Figy berry + Gluttony let's you heal 50% of you health when you HP is under 50%, which makes Muk even harder to go down.

 

[okanail]

I went with the

13th. Wolfe Glick

Tapu Bulu Leftovers
ability: Grassy Surge
nature: careful
EVs: 252 hp 252 attack 4 s.def.
-Wood Hammer
-Horn Leech
-Superpower
-Protect

Leftovers + Grassy Surge gives him enough recovery with Horn Leech. Wood Hammer is for Gastrodon. Superpower is for steel, dark coverage. Protect is kinda mandatory. Went with full hp and attack. It is bulky enough already and with good coverage it can take hits. Last one went to s. defense. No speed investment to be fast in trick room.

A-Muk Black Sludge
ability: Poison Tocuh
Nature: adamant
EVs: 252 hp 140 def 112 s. def
-Knock off
-Poison Jab
-Protect
-Shadow Sneak

Again no speed, idea for trick room. Knock off is a great stab. Poison Jab with Poison Touch is around %50 chance to posion. Shadow Sneak is surprisig priority move. It is quite bulky and in grassy terrain EQ doesn`t do very much damage. Great counter to other Tapus.

Magnezone Choice Specs
ability: Magnet Pull
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 Speed 252 S. Att. 4 def
-Volt Switch
-Thunder Wave
-Thunder
-Flash Cannon

Surprise fast attacker of the team. Magnezone is bulky already. Choice Spec and full S. Attack make him hit really hard. Other than protect, stucking in one move doesn`t suck since volt switch, subs you anyway or paralyzing opponents is always good.

Porygon 2 eviolite
ability: trace
nature: calm
EVs: 252 hp 252s.attack 4 defense
-Trick room
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Shadow Ball

Trick Room setter. Bulky with eviolite. Great coverage overall

Salamance life orb
ability: Intimidate-Aerilate
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 248 HP 124 att. 136 spead
-Dragon Dance
-Double Edge
-Draco Meteor
-Earthquake

Dragon Dance is a good boost. It makes double edge quite deadly. Earthquake is good against A-Marowak, A-Muk, Klefki. Draco meteor is a good STAB. Intimidate is useful against Gyarados, Garchomp, Koko

Politoed Sitrus berry
ability: Water absorb
Nature Modest
EVs: 248 HP 8 Def 252 special Attack
-Scald
-Ice Beam
-Encore
-Protect

Bulky Water type with coverage in ice beam. Encore can lock down setups.

My describsions are quite short, soeey for that

 

[Mystical]

I went with the

13th. Wolfe Glick

Tapu Bulu Leftovers
ability: Grassy Surge
nature: careful
EVs: 252 hp 252 attack 4 s.def.
-Wood Hammer
-Horn Leech
-Superpower
-Protect

Leftovers + Grassy Surge gives him enough recovery with Horn Leech. Wood Hammer is for Gastrodon. Superpower is for steel, dark coverage. Protect is kinda mandatory. Went with full hp and attack. It is bulky enough already and with good coverage it can take hits. Last one went to s. defense. No speed investment to be fast in trick room.

A-Muk Black Sludge
ability: Poison Tocuh
Nature: adamant
EVs: 252 hp 140 def 112 s. def
-Knock off
-Poison Jab
-Protect
-Shadow Sneak

Again no speed, idea for trick room. Knock off is a great stab. Poison Jab with Poison Touch is around %50 chance to posion. Shadow Sneak is surprisig priority move. It is quite bulky and in grassy terrain EQ doesn`t do very much damage. Great counter to other Tapus.

Magnezone Choice Specs
ability: Magnet Pull
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 Speed 252 S. Att. 4 def
-Volt Switch
-Thunder Wave
-Protect
-Flash Cannon

Surprise fast attacker of the team. Magnezone is bulky already. Choice Spec and full S. Attack make him hit really hard. Other than protect, stucking in one move doesn`t suck since volt switch, subs you anyway or paralyzing opponents is always good.

Porygon 2 eviolite
ability: trace
nature: calm
EVs: 252 hp 252s.attack 4 defense
-Trick room
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Shadow Ball

Trick Room setter. Bulky with eviolite. Great coverage overall

Salamance Salamencite
ability: Intimidate-Aerilate
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 248 HP 124 att. 136 spead
-Dragon Dance
-Double Edge
-Draco Meteor
-Earthquake

Dragon Dance is a good boost. It makes double edge quite deadly. Earthquake is good against A-Marowak, A-Muk, Klefki. Draco meteor is a good STAB. Intimidate is useful against Gyarados, Garchomp, Koko

Politoed Sitrus berry
ability: Water absorb
Nature Modest
EVs: 248 HP 8 Def 252 special Attack
-Scald
-Ice Beam
-Encore
-Protect

Bulky Water type with coverage in ice beam. Encore can lock down setups.

My describsions are quite short, soeey for that

Megas aren't allowed in VGC this year, bro. This is where you can find this year's VGC rules: http://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/about/tournaments-rules-and-resources/

 

[elnimio]

Also, why would you run protect on a Choice'd pokemon???

 

[okanail]

I went with the

13th. Wolfe Glick

Tapu Bulu Leftovers
ability: Grassy Surge
nature: careful
EVs: 252 hp 252 attack 4 s.def.
-Wood Hammer
-Horn Leech
-Superpower
-Protect

Leftovers + Grassy Surge gives him enough recovery with Horn Leech. Wood Hammer is for Gastrodon. Superpower is for steel, dark coverage. Protect is kinda mandatory. Went with full hp and attack. It is bulky enough already and with good coverage it can take hits. Last one went to s. defense. No speed investment to be fast in trick room.

A-Muk Black Sludge
ability: Poison Tocuh
Nature: adamant
EVs: 252 hp 140 def 112 s. def
-Knock off
-Poison Jab
-Protect
-Shadow Sneak

Again no speed, idea for trick room. Knock off is a great stab. Poison Jab with Poison Touch is around %50 chance to posion. Shadow Sneak is surprisig priority move. It is quite bulky and in grassy terrain EQ doesn`t do very much damage. Great counter to other Tapus.

Magnezone Choice Specs
ability: Magnet Pull
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 Speed 252 S. Att. 4 def
-Volt Switch
-Thunder Wave
-Thunder
-Flash Cannon

Surprise fast attacker of the team. Magnezone is bulky already. Choice Spec and full S. Attack make him hit really hard. Other than protect, stucking in one move doesn`t suck since volt switch, subs you anyway or paralyzing opponents is always good.

Porygon 2 eviolite
ability: trace
nature: calm
EVs: 252 hp 252s.attack 4 defense
-Trick room
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Shadow Ball

Trick Room setter. Bulky with eviolite. Great coverage overall

Salamance life orb
ability: Intimidate-Aerilate
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 248 HP 124 att. 136 spead
-Dragon Dance
-Double Edge
-Draco Meteor
-Earthquake

Dragon Dance is a good boost. It makes double edge quite deadly. Earthquake is good against A-Marowak, A-Muk, Klefki. Draco meteor is a good STAB. Intimidate is useful against Gyarados, Garchomp, Koko

Politoed Sitrus berry
ability: Water absorb
Nature Modest
EVs: 248 HP 8 Def 252 special Attack
-Scald
-Ice Beam
-Encore
-Protect

Bulky Water type with coverage in ice beam. Encore can lock down setups.

My describsions are quite short, soeey for that

Updated, I changed it to life orb but it remained a mega stone for some reason. Protect changed to Thunder to benefit from the rain

 

[blubobebabi]

A-Muk Black Sludge
ability: Poison Tocuh
Nature: adamant
EVs: 252 hp 140 def 112 s. def
-Knock off
-Poison Jab
-Protect
-Shadow Sneak

Again no speed, idea for trick room. Knock off is a great stab. Poison Jab with Poison Touch is around %50 chance to posion. Shadow Sneak is surprisig priority move. It is quite bulky and in grassy terrain EQ doesn`t do very much damage. Great counter to other Tapus.

Magnezone Choice Specs
ability: Magnet Pull
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 Speed 252 S. Att. 4 def
-Volt Switch
-Thunder Wave
-Thunder
-Flash Cannon

Surprise fast attacker of the team. Magnezone is bulky already. Choice Spec and full S. Attack make him hit really hard. Other than protect, stucking in one move doesn`t suck since volt switch, subs you anyway or paralyzing opponents is always good.

Salamance life orb
ability: Intimidate-Aerilate
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 248 HP 124 att. 136 spead
-Dragon Dance
-Double Edge
-Draco Meteor
-Earthquake

Dragon Dance is a good boost. It makes double edge quite deadly. Earthquake is good against A-Marowak, A-Muk, Klefki. Draco meteor is a good STAB. Intimidate is useful against Gyarados, Garchomp, Koko

Politoed Sitrus berry
ability: Water absorb
Nature Modest
EVs: 248 HP 8 Def 252 special Attack
-Scald
-Ice Beam
-Encore
-Protect

Bulky Water type with coverage in ice beam. Encore can lock down setups.

My describsions are quite short, soeey for that

1. Can you explain your reasoning behind the Def & SpD EVs on Muk?
2. If you're aiming for a fast Magnezone, I think Choice Scarf would be the best item since it's still outsped by mons that can OHKO it (Arcanine, Garchomp, etc.)
3. Since you now know that megas aren't allowed, it would be best to remove Double Edge as Salamence is not getting any STAB boost from it and Normal-type attacks aren't super effective against anything. Since its nature is Adamant, it should have Dragon Claw over Draco Meteor, but it doesn't get many more good physical moves. An alternative set would be a special Salamence with max SpA & Spe, holding the Dragonium Z, with a moveset of Protect, Draco Meteor, Hydro Pump, and Dragon Pulse. It is known for being a fast attacker and doesn't benefit much from the HP investment since it will be OHKO'ed or 2HKO'ed by most Ice, Dragon, and Fairy type moves.
4. Overall, the team lacks bulk so Politoed should have more EVs invested into its Def & SpD instead of SpA.

 

[Van0li]

I've recently became interested in VGC after playing 6v6 singles and getting annoyed at how hard it is to find a decent match on cartridge. I've played showdown a fair bit, again 6v6 so this is my first attempt at a VGC team and my first post in these forums! The team I went with is European International 14th place Trista Medine as it had some of the Pokémon I was interested in using in my own team,

14th. Trista Medine:

FirstEverVGCTeam

Tapu Lele @ Life Orb
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Taunt
- Protect

Originally I went with Psychium Z but don't want to go with 2 Z stones on the team and risk one being useless. Went with Life orb over say Twisted Spoon as the boosted Dazzling Gleam OHKOs Garchomp, Salamence and Sableye. Taunt over Thunderbolt or Energy Ball as I found neither of those did all too much that a terrain boosted Psychic wouldn't already accomplish.

Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 220 HP / 36 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Heavy Slam
- Wide Guard

Heavy Slam is almost always 120BP and takes care of fairies. Leftovers, Leech Seed and Protect to help with the sustain. 36 Atk EVs to handle 252 HP EVs Lele with 4 Def EVs. 252 SpD as the majority of Fire and Electric Pokemon are Specially based with the rest in HP. Wide Guard over Substitute / Flamethrower as I believe Celesteela is bulky enough and is one of the few priority moves that can be used given psychic terrain, even if Celesteela being on the field means the opponent probably wouldn't use Earthquake. It also allows for Lele to avoid being OHKO from Garhomp's quake and OHKO in return.

Salamence @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Roar
- Protect
- Flamethrower

4 SpD EVs to avoid SpA rise on Porygon2. Flamethrower over Fire Blast as only additional OHKO is Kartana, whom normally runs a Focus Sash. Roar over Dragon Pulse due to Dragonium Z allowing for 2 dragon nukes already and frequent switches due to Intimidate, making it fairly redundant.

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 202 HP / 156 Atk / 108 SpD / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Bonemerang
- Protect

HP and SpD EVs to take a psychic terrain boosted psychic from a Modest Tapu Lele. As I have no ground mons capable of taking on Muk, Spe EVs used to outspeed and OHKO with Bonemerang to prevent it getting off a Knock Off, while still being plenty slow enough to benefit from a Trick Room. Rest dumped into Atk.

Gigalith @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Heavy Slam
- Stone Edge

Stone Edge gets some good OHKOs over Rock Slide so I chose that over additional coverage with Superpower, as it only OHKOs Kartana, again usually with focus sash, and Persian-A, who's not too common. Heavy Slam hits all the Tapus hard with some OHKOs in the mix and Earthquake for Edgequake coverage. With 2 mons immune to ground and the other 3 with either protect or named Porygon2, seemed like a good coverage choice. 4 Def to survive +1 Gyarados Waterfall. With Lele in the team I decided against running Wide Guard and went with the AV.

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk 0 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Trick Room

Garchomp is an issue for my team hence Ice Beam. 68 SpD to survive Shattered Psyche from Modest Lele. Bulky waters are an issue with this team so went with Thunderbolt for the coverage. Standard trick room setter, which goes well with the fairly slow overall team.

No doubt I may have missed some VGC specific tactics, such as accounting for being double targeted, etc, but I'm looking forward to having a good go and get into the format. Addititionally, Happy New Year all!

 

[Reukyr]

Beforehand, I want to say that this is my first time ever making a VGC team, so all of this might be really shitty,


I decided to go with 21st. Lorenzo Catallozzi team, because I don't like the idea of playing a TR team, which pretty much eleminates over half of teams that were used,
and also because of A-Marowak and Metagross which I really like and always wanted to use.

Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash
Ability: Unnerve
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Tailwind
- Protect / Taunt?
- Rock Slide
- Wide Guard / Taunt?

I think that Aerodactyl is mainly here to support this team with Tailwind and Wide Guard,
Tailwind is definetly very useful for Metagross and A-Marowak with their average speed, Rock Slide hits both enemies so it's also very good, but this team would have a lot of problems against any TR team without taunt and I'm not sure
if I should put it on Aerodactyl instead of Protect / Wide guard or Tapu Koko?

I decided to use Focus Sash, because most common thunderbolt users can OHKO Aerodactyl, and if any of them was scarfed, they would also outspeed him.



Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Volt Switch
- Protect


That's a pretty standard Tapu Koko I guess, Dazzling Gleam and Thunderbolt for STAB and Volt Switch is here to be able to deal some damage when switching ut when's he's got a bad match up.



Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod / Rock Head
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Protect
- Bonemerang

On this one, I'm not sure if I should go with Rock Head or Lighting Rod, Lighting Rod seems way better because of Marowak's immunity and the fact that Aerodactyl, Metagross and Milotic all have weakness to electric, but at the same time,
it would mean that Tapu Koko couldn't be used when he's on the field and also Rock Head would help a lot with Flare Blitz damage.



Metagross @ Assault Vest
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Zen Headbutt
- Meteor Mash
- Bullet Punch
- Hammer Arm


I decided to go Assault Vest on him, because of his decent defensive stats, unfortunately this means that Protect can't be used anymore, so I went with Hammer Arm for more coverage.



Milotic @ Adrenaline Orb / Leftovers
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
EVs: 132 HP / 252 SpA / 120 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Blizzard


With how common Intimidate now is, I think that Milotic on this set could do a lot of work, with Modest nature and +2 Special Attack she deals a lot of damage, while being tanky, counters Intimidators well. This amound of speed EVs lets Milotic outspeed scafed Adamant Garchomp with Tailwind and unscarfed jolly Garchomp after +1 from Adrenaline Orb.


Silvally-Grass @ Grass Memory
Ability: RKS System
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Multi-Attack
- U-turn
- Crunch


I decided to go with Grass, because I noticed that this team has problems with water types when Tapu Koko dies, with Multi-Attack this silvally can OHKO Milotic, Gastrodon and Golduck and can 2 shot pokemons like Toxapex, Pelipper or Gyarados (after -1).
252 speed EVs are enough to outspeed a jolly Gyarados so I went with Adamant nature for more damage.



And that's it, as I said I'm new to VGC so there's probably a lot of mistakes, I guess I could optimize EVs and natures more, because I don't know about the meta and spreads for most pokemons so probably some of these pokemons could live a 1 hit more if I knew what could one shot them and then spread EVs in the defensive stats so that they would barely stay alive instead of getting OHKO.

Also I was thinking about changing Silvally to Lucario because of how popular Porygon2 now is, which Lucario can OHKO with Choice Banded Close Combat when he is Adamant or has 90% chance when using Z-Close Combat and with Inner Focus he is immune to flinch from Incineroar or Hariyama which would deny Trick Room for most teams, would this be viable?


Edit: Spelling errors and changed Metagrossa bit

 

[RebornFX]

Hey guys, blarajan has asked me to look over some of these teams since he doesn't have much free time. Obviously he has the final say whether or not you are allowed to post your RMTs. I also don't have as much free time as I would like right now so don't hate me if I take some time getting through all of your posts. Anyway on to the teams!

Chouru

Some of your decisions are questionable at best but this is a solid attempt. I agree that Garchomp and Krookodile on the same team seems very strange and to my knowledge he is the only person to have done it who placed anywhere near where he did. Maybe he really valued an extra electric immunity for Celesteela, who knows. Any way, I'm not totally convinced about Timid Specs Tapu Lele. That may just be the fact that I haven't tried Timid Specs Lele, but I imagine Life Orb or Psychium Z sets would function a lot better with Timid. Your Garchomp set is incredibly strange, and running Outrage in a Tapu run meta isn't wise, especially considering you can't choose your target (I don't believe). You haven't ran any calcs to show why Poisinium Z is worth running over something more standard like AV or Groundium Z. Rough Skin is also just generally preferred since Sand Veil is incredibly situational and Rough Skin is always a good deterrence to Physical attackers. The Celesteela spread is for the most part ineffiecient, as running no speed will cause you to lose the Celesteela mirror as well as getting outsped by most Magnezone. The standard spread is 188 HP / 4 Atk / 60 Def / 180 SpD / 76 Spe but this should probably be tweaked to better suit your team. And finally I really dislike scarf Grounds in this format. It's just far too restrictive in terms of how you can play them and very easy to play around in bo3 situations.

Nighty

I don't see why you don't run 8 more speed EVs to outspeed base 110s like Gengar. Also how relevant is that calc considering you die to LO recoil anyway? It seems like you'd be better off with a spread of 28 HP / 252 SpA / 228 Spe (Modest) to hit the same speed stat while just generally dealing more damage and getting more out of your life orb. You might as well run a Brave nature on Celesteela since speed tieing with opposing no speed Celesteela is a) pointless as all of them run at least 4 speed and b) unnecessary since you can break the sub with Flamethrower. Are you sure about EQ on Marowak? You only have one partner that you can EQ beside and the spread damage reduction really does affect some damage calcs. The Milotic spread looks like it needs to be optimised in terms of speed stats. I'm not a fan of Bloom Doom Whimsicott at all. It's unlikely the opponent is going to stay in with a Gastrodon on Whimsicott and can easily burn your Z move on a resisted target. I still feel sash is superior in most situations, and it doesn't necessitate the use of Protect, freeing up that slot for something like Encore to punish Protects and setup

blubobebabi

Some interesting choices here. I'm not totally sold on Swords Dance, since the team doesn't really do all that much to support its set up. Substitute on the other hand (which I believe he used if i remember right) is a much safer option as you only risk losing 25% of your health against slower opponents if they don't switch out (less after terrain recovery). Hydro Pump on Salamence is shaky but I definitely see its uses. Dragon Pulse on the other hand I do not. It is a lot weaker, the accuracy difference isn't that big and you can avoid the attack drops if you use Devastating Drake. On a Pokemon that appreciates being switched out to recycle Intimidate I don't see a reason to ever really click it if played correctly. I'm also not sold on Eject button Politoed. It requires mastery of board position as well as correct predictions to be used to its full potential and I feel it gains a lot more from use of a Sitrus Berry. This will more often than not guarantee a perish song as opposed to being switched out before you can use it. It also doesn't benefit as much from other Eject Button users in the past like Hitmontop (Intimidate) and Amoonguss (Regenerator). Without seeing calcs on magnezone I can't say that Shuca is good or bad. What I will say is it may not be all that necessary with Tapu Bulu's terrain and another item may be better (like Leftovers for passive recovery). I don't like how you've disregarded Thick Fat as an ability on Hariyama, especially as a check to hail and Torkoal, though really the decision between Guts and Thick Fat is personal preference. I personally value 2 additional resistances over being less scared of Arcanine and Scald burns just due to how I play. I do feel like there are better choices than Rock Slide, such as Feint and Poison Jab.

FighterVGC

I have less issues with your sets than I do with your descriptions. Saying 'Thunder is better than Thunderbolt' is just straight up wrong. In some situations Thunderbolt is better, in others Thunder is better. Rain isn't all that difficult to remove, either through opposing weather or simply KOing Pelipper and stalling out the turns. Thunder is probably a better fit for this team, but the only calc you provide to say why it is superior to Thunderbolt is just wrong.
252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Thunderbolt vs. 180 HP / 148+ SpD Celesteela in Electric Terrain: 190-226 (97.4 - 115.8%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
That is how much thunderbolt would do. If this is the only calc justifying your use of Thunder, why wouldn't you just run Modest and Thunderbolt since the only things max speed lets you outspeed are Weavile, Salazzle, Talonflame and Aerodactyl as well as the Koko speed tie for the most part, all of which aren't all that important. I don't like Rock Slide Bulu considering there's no reason to ever click it. You don't have issues with things like Marowak and you will hit most things harder with your STAB. Tailwind Pelipper are always Modest nowadays and I don't really see why this one shouldn't be. Golduck doesn't need all that speed, it would be better off with some defnsive investment (for example enough to survive non-LO Timid Koko's Thunderbolt in a neutral terrain). Shadow Ball on P2 seems very unnecessary on a rain team with Muk. AV Muk is just worse than Gluttony + Figy Berry in almost all situations.

That's all I have in me for today, I'll try to work through the others at some time in the future. Next week I won't be active at all however.

 

[blubobebabi]

Hey guys, blarajan has asked me to look over some of these teams since he doesn't have much free time. Obviously he has the final say whether or not you are allowed to post your RMTs. I also don't have as much free time as I would like right now so don't hate me if I take some time getting through all of your posts. Anyway on to the teams!

blubobebabi

Some interesting choices here. I'm not totally sold on Swords Dance, since the team doesn't really do all that much to support its set up. Substitute on the other hand (which I believe he used if i remember right) is a much safer option as you only risk losing 25% of your health against slower opponents if they don't switch out (less after terrain recovery). Hydro Pump on Salamence is shaky but I definitely see its uses. Dragon Pulse on the other hand I do not. It is a lot weaker, the accuracy difference isn't that big and you can avoid the attack drops if you use Devastating Drake. On a Pokemon that appreciates being switched out to recycle Intimidate I don't see a reason to ever really click it if played correctly. I'm also not sold on Eject button Politoed. It requires mastery of board position as well as correct predictions to be used to its full potential and I feel it gains a lot more from use of a Sitrus Berry. This will more often than not guarantee a perish song as opposed to being switched out before you can use it. It also doesn't benefit as much from other Eject Button users in the past like Hitmontop (Intimidate) and Amoonguss (Regenerator). Without seeing calcs on magnezone I can't say that Shuca is good or bad. What I will say is it may not be all that necessary with Tapu Bulu's terrain and another item may be better (like Leftovers for passive recovery). I don't like how you've disregarded Thick Fat as an ability on Hariyama, especially as a check to hail and Torkoal, though really the decision between Guts and Thick Fat is personal preference. I personally value 2 additional resistances over being less scared of Arcanine and Scald burns just due to how I play. I do feel like there are better choices than Rock Slide, such as Feint and Poison Jab.

First of all, thank you for taking your time to review my teambuilding skills XD
At the time I did this assignment, I didn't play many games yet and therefore didn't have much experience or ideas of what the meta was like and what Pokemon were more common. Now that I have played some games and watched videos, I feel that I can reattempt with a better mindset. So I've tested Tapu Bulu with Swords Dance and haven't actually found many chances to click it, plus it's a big risk so I think Substitute is the better option here since the team has Hariyama to deal with Porygon2 (so it doesn't need Superpower); Leftovers + Grassy Terrain makes one bulky mon that can just tank hits and dish out huge damage. For Salamence, I based it on sets that I saw online and I thought that Dragon Pulse is a good alternative to Draco Meteor when you don't want those Special Attack drops yet after a Devastating Drake, but Flamethrower/Fire Blast is definitely viable, especially in games where Salamence is brought but Politoed isn't so it doesn't lose power from the rain. I actually tried Eject Button Politoed after this as my starter rain team and found out that Eject Button is not at all a good item on a set with Perish Song; you are right that it gets switched out before it accomplishes its goal since it is slower and should be bulkier. On Magnezone, Leftovers would make more sense for recovery after a Substitute, but with the right EVs, it can live EQs when Celesteela's partner attacks and in return KO or just bring down Celesteela's HP to where another Pokemon can clean up. Finally, now that I know the main weather setters of the format, Thick Fat gives so much bulk to Hariyama, especially since Torkoal and Ninetales are both Special Attackers and Scald burns actually aren't as common as I thought they would be since I think "Double Ducks" are dropping in popularity with the exception of Tapu Fini; Poison Jab is definitely a better move than Rock Slide because of all the Tapus running around.
Again, thank you for your feedback and I will try to improve and redo this!

 

[Unbreakable]

I have literally no clue where to start in this meta after being local-champ good at 16. For my first team, I'm going to be tackling Collin Heier's second-place team at Dallas.

Hide

Tapu Fini (N) Leftovers
Modest nature, Misty Surge
some kind of bulky special attacker spread (252 HP / 252 Spatk / 4 Speed to creep?)
Hydro Pump
Aqua Ring
Protect
Dazzling Gleam

Aqua Ring doubles up with leftovers to make something that's really hard to get rid of. Modest is chosen over Timid to make its attacks stronger and to underspeed some things in trick room. Hydro Pump is chosen for much needed power since misty terrain blocks scald's burn hax, Protect and Dazzling Gleam are there as safety blankets, and getting back 1/8 guaranteed with protect sounds really good. The idea is to get Aqua Ring rolling first to create a moderately competent special attacker that's hard to KO. When misty terrain expires or is replaced, I'd look for a chance to get Fini out and back in. Stopping status is very important to this team.

Arcanine(M) @Firium Z
Adamant nature, Intimidate
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Speed
Flare Blitz
Morning Sun
Snarl
Extremespeed

Meant to accompany Fini as the lead in most matchups, RK9 offers much needed attack-nerfing support in both Intimidate and Snarl. Firium Z is chosen to create an extremely strong Z-move without the issue of flare blitz's recoil, which lets him do it more later. Snarl can even be used to make an incoming hit survivable, letting him go out in a blitz of glory or even pick off faster foes. Priority isn't too common in this gen of vgc, so Espeed can be an important tool. If you can catch a breather in slower matches, Morning Sun lets Arcanine heal off recoil and keep dealing out the hurt.

Garchomp(F)@ Life Orb
Jolly nature, Rough Skin
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Speed
Dragon Claw
Crunch
Rock Slide
Earthquake

Life Orb's bonus makes up for the multi-target damage penalty, Rock Slide is a solid spread move, has flinch hax, and it has great coverage alongside his other moves? YES. Jolly is chosen to take advantage of Garchomp's amazing speed tier. Earthquake should be saved for special situations due to the collateral damage. Rough Skin is chosen as the ability because sand veil is pretty useless in a weatherless meta. Crunch is a welcome tool Garchomp gets this gen that lets him reduce defense and hit TR setters like Oranguru and Mimikyu hard. This is meant to go alongside Arcanine to wear down physical checks.

Metagross(N) Choice Scarf
Timid nature, Clear Body
can I outrun koko with scarf? if not, outruns next one down, max spatk, rest in hp
Flash Cannon
Psychic
Bullet Punch
Explosion

Metagross has a serviceable 95 Spatk, plus his physical stabs have a nasty miss chance associated with them. So why take the risk when the only knock against his specials are the lack of muscle behind them? Bullet punch is there because fuck Scizor, I can do it too. Keep in mind that you will lose the tiebreak if your Explosion causes it, so make sure you have a protector on the field--this is for when you see something boosting in your face and it needs to die NOW. Flash Cannon is mainly there as an anti-tapu measure, but remember koko and fini are neutral to it. This guy is a beatstick, intended to come in and immediately make a difference. It works with Fini to wear down special checks.

Vikavolt(M) Choice Specs
Modest nature, Levitate
just enough spdef to trigger attack boost on download, max spatk, rest in hp
Thunderbolt
Bug Buzz
Energy Ball
Volt Switch

Again, the moves and nature are chosen for immediate beatstick-like impact on entry. If you can't make up your mind, or if the time isn't right, Volt Switch is a good security blanket. Great if there's a Koko on the field for frying its teammate, or for breaking through P2, or for just wrecking a rain setter.

Porygon2(N) eviolite
something bulky? IDK nature or EVs for this, never used this before in my life, Analytic ability
Thunderbolt
Tri Attack
Magic Coat
Shadow Ball

Thunderbolt for more coverage in case of Koko. Analytic takes away the gamesmanship of raising spdef evs to give it an attack boost, in favor of a smaller damage boost if it moves after its target. with minimum 60 speed that shouldn't be a problem. even in TR it fries araquanid. tri attack and shadow ball have amazing coverage together, and since it's so bulky, people may try to status it...the answer is magic coat to fuck THEM over.

 

[kimlitevin]

Ended up going with my brother's favorite Pokemon from this Dex since mine wasn't on the list (Oricorio).

17th. Andrea Di Francesco:

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At first, it looks like a Trick Room Team, with Porygon2 being the sole Trick Room setter and other Pokemon that work well with Trick Room, being slow. However, there are a few things that came into question.

1 - Gengar is a relatively fast Pokemon, what is it doing on a team like this? A speed base of 110 is unlikely to find much use in Trick Room, right?
2 - All of the other Trick Room sweepers (besides Porygon2) seem to be Physical Attackers. A random Intimidate or two out of nowhere can shut a good portion of the offense down.
3 - Besides Tapu Bulu, whose Grassy Terrain halves Ground Damage, the entire team seems to have no defensive answer to strong Ground attackers like Garchomp.
4 - This is more personal, but I like having Trick Room teams that have two Trick Room setters that fulfill different roles. Porygon2 is probably the best one defensively, but due to needing to hold Eviolite for survival it's very vulnerable to Taunt. Because of how this team is set up, if I can't outspeed a Prankster Taunter like Whimsicott or a Fake Out user Trick Room can be delayed a turn, which can cause me to just straight up lose if I'm reliant on it.

So how do I solve these issues?

1 - Find a role for Gengar that lets it perform at a high speed but also pose a high enough threat that it's not clear if Trick Room is going to be used that turn or not.
2 - Araquanid can be utilized safely as a Special Attacker if need be, and Porygon 2 can use some back-up.
3 - Tapu Bulu may be the only anti-ground, but besides Marowak and Gengar nothing needs to be really protected from a Ground attack.
4 - This team can be made to not rely on Trick Room immediately by leading out with Gengar and Porygon2 or Tapu Bulu if need be. In a best of 3, there is (very) little flex room, but it's possible to work with it.

With all that said, here's what I think can be done.

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Gengar

Gengar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Cursed Body
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 52 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp

Summary: Gengar has the odd role of being a Pokemon that is too fast for a Trick Room Team. As such, Gengar's role is that he should outspeed and kill as many threats as possible on the opening turns, especially on a team where he seems to have no synergy.

Moveset:
- Sludge Bomb OHKOs Tapu Koko and Tapu Bulu, and can OHKO Tapu Lele in a pinch, though it's unlikely to.
- Hidden Power Ice OHKOs Salamence and while it can't OHKO Garchomp reliably, it can pressure it out and handily survive an Earthquake with Tapu Bulu's help.
- Thunderbolt is for Water or Flying types other than Gastrodon and lets Gengar have something it can hit Celesteela with.
- Every other coverage move is for specific meta reads (Energy Ball for Gastrodon, Shadow Ball for other Gengar). Since I don't know the outlook on the tournament in question, I run Will-O-Wisp as a general tool, stopping heavy damage from Physical Attackers while also providing inevitability. The Choice Scarf doesn't conflict because Gengar usually gets switched out or defeated within two turns and WOW saves me from a bad prediction or read in case I get caught out without an OHKO move.

EV Breakdown: 196 HP makes Gengar's HP a multiple of 16, providing the best benefit for Grass Terrain. 52 Speed with Choice Scarf lets Gengar hit 205 Speed, which outspeeds all non-Choice Scarf Pokemon at max speed. 252 Special Attack and Modest are for hitting as hard as possible, and the remaining 8 go into Defense and Special Defense due to having no other place to go.

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Porygon2

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 124 Def / 36 SpA / 92 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Ice Beam
- Tri Attack
- Protect

Summary: Porygon2 is the star of the team, being the active ingredient in making the rest of the team function. Because of this, his best role is surviving attacks long enough to get off a Trick Room off. Once that's done, the other team members assist it with taking out as many Pokemon as possible before Trick Room expires.

Moveset:
- Trick Room is the reason for the Pokemon lineup and thus should be a staple.
- Tri Attack is its best STAB move and each potential status ailment is relevant.
- Thunderbolt is the best secondary move it has, especially for Pokemon that resist Tri Attack. Thunderbolt works better on more Rock and Steel Pokemon than Ice Beam does, and while Ice Beam works better on Alolan Golem, Kartana, and Togedemaru, and has a wide range of uses outside of just Rock/Steel Pokemon, Thunderbolt is my choice.
- Protect is for those times when you feel a Fake Out is coming. It's best not to take unnecessary damage before the exposure turn of Trick Room.

EV Breakdown: With 252 HP for reaching a multiple of 16 HP, 124 Defense is enough to survive the maximum non-crit damage from a Choice Band Tapu Bulu max Attack Wood Hammer in Grassy Terrain. 60 Special Defense is enough to survive the maximum non-crit damage from a Tapu Lele max Special Attack Shattered Psyche in Psychic Terrain, but making it 92 lets opposing Porygon2/Z miss their Download with an Attack Boost instead of a Special Attack Boost. The rest was thrown into Special Attack, with 4 Trash EVs deposited in Attack rather than Speed because of Trick Room. There is another way to distribute them to survive both of Bulu and Lele's attacks (more into Def/SpD), but that would result in less EVs for SpA (124 HP / 4 Atk / 220 Def / 12 SpA / 148 SpD) and not avoiding an opposing Download effect. Quiet is over Sassy because of a bigger stat gain.

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A-Marowak

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 252 Atk / 60 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Bonemerang
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Protect

Summary: Marowak fulfills two roles. Not only does he hit hard as a premier Physical Attacker, he also neutralizes Normal, Fighting, and Electric moves. With three immunities and a generally powerful moveset, his main goal is to disrupt and cause havoc.

Moveset:
- Shadow Bone is the Alolan Marowak main weapon. Hits hard without relying on recoil damage and is powerful against some key threats like Tapu Lele. It's a great neutral move otherwise as well.
- Flare Blitz is for real power and the desperate weapon of the Alolan Marowak. Nothing much else to say.
- Bonemerang is a Marowak staple. Doesn't get bodied by Focus Sash, hits just as hard as Earthquake BP wise, provides some Ground coverage, and is a great filler move.

EV Breakdown: 196 HP gives Marowak an HP that recovers in Grassy Terrain well, and 252 Attack with Brave lets it hit hard. The rest was put into Defense, giving up on Special Defense entirely. Due to this, on some occasional scenarios, a resisted Flare Blitz from this Marowak, followed by an Earthquake from an opposing Garchomp, can still allow this Marowak to survive as long as Garchomp doesn't have a damage booster item equipped. If that Garchomp is Jolly, it can even potentially take the Rough Skin hit as well.

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Araquanid

Araquanid @ Waterium Z
Ability: Water Bubble
Level: 50
EVs: 132 HP / 252 SpA / 124 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Protect

Summary: Araquanid is our stall breaker. With Protect being common in every team, Araquanid is the Z-Move user to break through Protect. With Water Bubble making our Water attacks very powerful, breaking down their walls should be easy. Also, since this Araquanid is a Special Attacker due to lacking a secondary Trick Room Special Attacker (the base stats are only 20 apart, the lowest of any of the Trick Room sweepers), it'll surprise a lot of people since you can cloak your moveset in Game 1 with the Z-Move.

Moveset:
- Scald is the main move to utilize Hydro Vortex as well as being a reliable Water attack. With the chance of Burn and a Special Araquanid being a complete surprise, its intended targets are varied.
- Ice Beam is its best coverage move, intended to take out Dragons and Flying types.
- Utilizing a Special Moveset lets Araquanid take advantage of Hidden Power to cover for its poor type coverage. Hidden Power Grass is there to stop Araquanid's one and only playstyle weakness: Gastrodon. There can be an argument to let Tapu Bulu deal with Gastrodon and run Hidden Power Fire or Electric instead, but Tapu Bulu is punishable by way too many Pokemon to keep on the field too long, and Araquanid handily survives more threats than it would look like.
- Protect is a given.

EV Breakdown: 132 HP lets Araquanid take advantage of Grassy Terrain healing for the minimal input, and 252 Special Attack raises our damage to respectable levels. The rest go into Special Defense, along with Sassy, to tank hits Araquanid has no business surviving. Outside of Electric Terrain, for instance, Tapu Koko can't 1-shot it with Thunderbolt, and if Tapu Koko doesn't have a Life Orb, it can even survive a Critical Thunderbolt. Don't worry about Defense, Jolly Garchomp can't kill it with a Stone Edge.

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Tapu Bulu

Tapu Bulu @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Horn Leech
- Wood Hammer
- Protect
- Substitute

Summary: The hulking physical presence people look to when trying to survive Physical Attacks, Tapu Bulu is here to straight up destroy. With Grassy Terrain and the lowest speed among the Tapus, it makes sense that Bulu hits hard. In Trick Room, this means a world of hurt.

Moveset:
- Horn Leech is a recovery option as well as utilizing both Miracle Seed and Grassy Terrain to their fullest.
- Wood Hammer is the beatdown, especially when you need to get rid of something. It's difficult to take one of these and not be crippled.
- Protect allows this Bulu to survive incoming threats or check for moves.
- Substitute is an alternative Protect that lets Horn Leech be even more of a dangerous threat by "overhealing". Utilizing one of these when an opponent switches is all about prediction but can make a very powerful tech in the right situation.

EV Breakdown: 244 HP lets Tapu Bulu recover well from Grassy Terrain as well as set up 44 HP Substitutes. These can't be broken by any Pokemon's Fake Out, which can matter. 252 Attack with Brave lets it hit hard like it's well known to do. The remaining 12 EVs don't actually have any significant relevance calculation wise, so they're thrown into the weaker defensive stat (Special Defense) as is my default.

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Sableye

Sableye @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 152 HP / 152 Def / 204 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Fake Out
- Foul Play
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Summary: Sableye functions as an annoyer. Assuming that Priority isn't negated or there isn't a Fake Out user on the opposing team, Sableye's Fake Out can stop an opposing Pokemon from Taunting Porygon2, allowing it to use Trick Room safely. It then inflicts status ailments and can stall those ailments out, all while using the fact there isn't an Intimidate on the team to use an opponent's power against them.

Moveset:
- Fake Out is key for stopping non-Prankster Taunts. It's less about the damage and all about that flinch.
- Foul Play lets Sableye deal damage without needing to invest in Attack EVs so it can stat defensively to survive.
- Will-O-Wisp lets Sableye cripple Physical Attackers without Guts and inflict residual damage.
- Protect lets Sableye survive Tapu Lele Moonblasts while awaiting Trick Room.

EV Breakdown: 152 HP gives enough HP to heal evenly in Grassy Terrain. 204 Special Defense lets it survive anything a Life Orb Tapu Koko can throw at it, and the rest go into Defense. Relaxed gives more of a stat boost than Sassy.

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That should be it. Apologies for the long post.