Out of the comfort zone (Mono Shell Smash)
Nothing beats staying in your warm blanket in a cold, snowy day, or turning on the air conditioner during the scorching period of summer. Even windy days can discourage you from going outside, and that's totally understandable. After all, the sun, as grand and important as it is to lives on this planet, carry with it dangerous doses of electromagnetic waves at times. Sunburn and skin cancer are not comfortable to deal with. Similarly, the unforgiving cold has swallowed many unlucky wanderers. Indoor activities are not exactly safe either. Accidents can happen, and on the internet, random internet users can hurl insults at you without warning, which can severely damage your mental health. Yet, as days go by, people can still find the joy in trying out new hobbies even in the face of failures and mockeries behind their back. All we need is proper preparation for all the lurking threats on our path and an environment that fosters new birds striving to take flight. And that's the only way we can overcome life as new challenges unexpectedly come at us.
Much of the same can be said in Pokemon. It is justified to be afraid of the threats that can wipe out your members in an instant, leaving you question your decision to use this novel idea. Little by little, one takes into account too many threats at once and comes to the conclusion that a defensive structure is the light to follow. For further safety nets, they choose to worship offensive powerhouses that can also shine with their utility, such as good old reliable Great Tusk. However, overreliance on the rigid rules we were taught only results in inevitable demise, as others seek to exploit your glaring flaws that don't seem that apparent. Instead, forget what you learned, and witness how things can still function as rules are thrown out the window. Safe setup options like Swords Dance and Calm Mind just won't cut it, we shall go all out.
Wish upon a star (Minior) @ White Herb
Ability: Shields Down
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Endeavor
- Acrobatics
- Earthquake
Minior fulfills a role few Shell Smashers can accomplish. It can lure in tough Pokemon to deal with, namely the Unaware foes that couldn't care less about the boosts that Minior's teammates accumulate. A well-timed Endeavor can completely ruin their required HP to answer all threats to your team. But of course, it can still do what all Shell Smash Pokemon want to when the time is right. With 105 HP from Rayquaza, Minior is not easy to bring down, so Focus Sash is not necessary. As Endeavor occupies a moveslot, the two moves chosen for offensive purposes are Acrobatics and Earthquake as Stone Edge is too unreliable and Ground/Flying provides adequate coverage against most Pokemon in the tier.
Minior is also immense against the common Clodsire, which frequently runs Earthquake/hazard/Toxic/Recover and thus has no way to touch this set if Shields Down is up. In general, Shields Down shuts down a lot of status spreaders like Slowking-Galar, which adds to Minior's setup capabilities. Max Speed is still run to speed tie Adamant Sneasler at +2, and Tera Ghost helps against Maushold, Ekiller and some other like Rayquaza, Pikachu and Conkeldurr.
The world is your (Cloyster) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Skill Link
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Shell Smash
- Ice Shard
Cloyster is your best friend at early breaking. Water STAB is not necessary as even though Ice/Rock is resisted by Steel, most Steel-types in GG don't actually resist Ice or Rock. Notable examples include Heatran, Skarmory, Iron Treads and Corviknight. The most relevant Steel-type that will put a stop to this is Necrozma-DM, in which case you need to assess whether Cloyster is better reserved for late game once it's weakened or weakening it early for other teammates depending on the opposing team. Ice Shard does give some safe emergency answers against weakened threats, but you will find it the most helpful against Scarf mons like Meowscarada. Cloyster is also pretty good at forcing Tera. Tera Ghost does the same job as it does for Minior, however, for Cloyster, Tera Ghost also helps it beat IronPress Skarm which can beat Minior with Rocky Helmet but not against Cloyster. Unfortunately King's Rock is banned by the people (democracy sucks...) so we gotta go with Focus Sash. Either Adamant or Jolly is fine depending on your needs.
Unlocked potential (Polteageist) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Weak Armor
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Shell Smash
- Stored Power
- Shadow Ball
- Tera Blast
Polteageist is very frightening at cleaning, especially against physically focused teams that struggle to avoid proccing Weak Armor. At +4, the only thing that outspeeds Polteageist is like Speed boosted mon with Eleki speed. Stored Power is another tool that really helps against Unaware, especially since they ignore your Defense drops. Shadow Ball for STAB, Tera Blast Fighting for Dark-types. A bulky variant that has been on the rise in UU might be good here as well thanks to the boosted Defense but I haven't tried it out yet. I guess I tried bulky Polteageist in GG MnM before and it performed well but that's a different meta. Here however, you still want Sash as your bulk is not enough even with increased Defense.
Ting-Lu can still Whirlwind this out and take hits with relative ease so just like Cloyster, you need to make sure you have enough resources before committing to the Tera. You should consider Smash twice against Unaware mons because you might not 2HKO/3HKO them without, allowing them to spam recovery moves.
Slowly but surely (Blastoise) @ White Herb
Ability: Torrent
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shell Smash
- Rapid Spin
- Surf
- Dragon Pulse
150 Special Attack makes Blastoise pretty threatening, but it's here not just as a potential sweeper but also as a spinner. With 2 Sash, you really want to keep entry hazards off the field, especially when Rayquaza also hates Rock. Surf and Dragon Pulse provide the best coverage for the myriad legendary Dragon in the tier, with Tera Dragon helping both offensively and defensively to flip weaknesses. Since Blastoise has good natural bulk and will usually take hazard damage, White Herb is preferred.
Reach for the sky (Rayquaza) @ Life Orb
Ability: Air Lock
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Extreme Speed
- Dragon Ascent
- Fire Blast
Rayquaza is the god of choice for this build, as both offensive stat donations are needed to truly sport enough power to blast through the common walls and the bulk donations are not as necessary. Rayquaza itself is a terrifying wallbreaker while also serving as a revenge killer with Extreme Speed. Draco Meteor is fantastic to blast through Unaware Dondozo and Skeledirge, Dragon Ascent is the most reliable physical STAB, and Fire Blast targets Steel-types, in particular Skarmory. Longevity is not needed so Life Orb is the best item to wallbreak more efficiently. You can also consider Iron Head and Tera Steel for Clefable and Comfey. Naughty can be considered if you really value 37.5% chance to OHKO Lokix from full with Tera Normal Espeed.
Overall, Rayquaza is very important to get going early if the opposing overall defensive structure requires big holes before you can get going. Against offensive builds, Rayquaza should be preserved to revenge kills threats like Greninja.
Grow and mature (Torterra) @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Shell Armor
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Bullet Seed
- Rock Blast
- Headlong Rush
While Grass/Ground is not usually seen as a good STAB combo because Grass doesn't help Ground offensively against the resists at all, it is very good in this particular case. The most common Unaware Pokemon in GG are Dondozo, Clodsire and Skeledirge, which all happen to be weak to one of these types. This makes Torterra very valuable to force heavy damage, Tera or a KO outright. Bullet Seed and Rock Blast both benefit from Loaded Dice and are more reliable than Wood Hammer and Stone Edge for sweeping potential. A Speed donation lets Torterra outspeed all unboosted Pokemon at +2 which wouldn't be the case otherwise. Headlong Rush is preferred over Earthquake as Rillaboom is fairly common and you really want a strong Ground attack. Shell Armor allows Torterra to take Wicked Blow and Surging Strikes better. Tera Fire avoids burn while flipping some weaknesses and provides safety net against Comfey. Tera Rock is also viable to boost Rock Blast and flip Flying and Fire.
Threats
Unaware Pokemon:
Even when I went to great lengths to cover for them, they still end up being really problematic. The first reason is because they can Tera, and Tera Dark is getting more common to get around all the different Stored Power. Clefable especially can wall this team hard with Cosmic Power set even if that set is only really seen on lower ladder, which is why Rayquaza can viably run Iron Head with Tera Steel for it. Others are more managable, but you absolutely need to put enough pressure on them before they get enough boosts. A well-timed Endeavor, Rayquaza breaking early, Torterra forcing Tera, Stored Power Polteageist are different options to really force their hands.
Priority attacks:
While Espeed and Mach Punch can be covered by Tera Ghost and Polteageist, Lokix, Greninja and Comfey are the most dangerous threats by far. Lokix can repeatedly revenge kill boosted sweepers, Greninja can bypass Sash, flinch and snowball with Battle Bond, Comfey hits most of the team hard and can even outrun Extreme Speed. Against them, you should be careful before trying to set up as the defense drops can really be exploited hard. Good prediction is required and Sash needs to be intact to deal with Lokix. For Greninja, Rayquaza can revenge kill after Battle Bond to make sure it can't outspeed your Pokemon more than once. However, the key is to apply constant blows so that your opponent can't repeatedly get the favorable position.
Very fast Pokemon:
Unburden, Booster Energy and weather attackers are all faster than +2 Smashers. For Booster and Unburden, they only activate once so you can win if you bait them out and force them to switch. Alternatively, Polteageist can outrun them at +4. Weather attackers can be somewhat answered by Rayquaza. An aggressive switch in against Solar Blade or Solar Beam is death sentence for them. Preserving Sash for them is key if all else fails.
Entry hazards:
You really want Blastoise to stay alive if Cloyster and Polteageist are in the back, but not necessarily always the case. Sometimes you can just take advantage of their setter to set up yourself. Sticky Web is usually too problematic, but you can at least force Tera Ghost from Ribombee in those instances.
Importable: https://pokepast.es/0ad4ba4073ca3f4a
Team showcase: Thank you Suave Form for using this team and laddering with it.