SM CAP enthusiast pannu "yung cotta" racotta FKA pannuracotta here to talk abt some sets / teams / techs whatever I wanna talk about because I like this tier
Firstly, Id /like/ to think that jumbao isn't nearly as popular as it previous was, meaning IMO at least you're more free to run
A. teams that use "softer" bao checks like Gastrodon, Volcarona, or non-AV Torn-t.
B. Breakers that would usually struggle a lot into jumbao (Garchomp, Ash-gren, CB Kart.)
This is something i personally had in mind when building this season, for example
this team that i used against billy uses gastrodon to sponge non leaf storm variants, and heatran / torn-t to scout leaf. I also experimented a lot with some breakers that usually struggle into Defensive bao, this team went unused but
i tried building with caribolt, inspired by its SS and SV success. In Jay's w1 game i also passed him a squad with Z-dragon
Chomp, a mon i had previously sworn off using due to how terrible it is into Bao, levitate libra, argh, etc.
Secondly, HO has been on a rise recently, with teams like Test HO and my "kartana+lele+4" styles of offense being used a lot, i think this is cool as it sorta swerves away from the previous "reunitar meta solved kekw" the tier was in for a year or so. I've also been more cautious about HO in the builder, having checks to the play style like Priority Spam, Scarfers, Argh, etc when building.
Here i use Argh to handle set up sweepers, Twave Chansey to handle special attackers that would pressure Argh, as well as scarf Kart (on balance? cotta's genius truly has no limit) to revenge kill / clean up. And
here's an example of a team where i use a lot of naturally fast pokemon as well as load up on priority users.
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 152 HP / 176 Atk / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Fly
- Superpower
SD Landorus is a set I've been really into for the past year or so, i think i came up with the idea but never used it and then i saw i jay use the set vs jordy later that same week and went "yeah, this is a good set". Superpower is what makes it so good because now you actually pressure shit like Skarm, Levitate libra etc and don't just turn into set up fodder, I've liked Rockium-Z quite a bit to catch stuff like Zapdos and Rotom-W on the switch but overall i find that if you're gonna use A Z move Z fly is the one which gives you the most merit (or you can run Zfight/ground on a dual dance set), you don't nessecerily need a Z move on this guy to make him work tho, personally I've used similar sets with custap/lefties/yache/soft sand etc. Personally I'm pretty big on Doing Damage and living hits so i opted for quite a bulky spread that still outspeed alot of stuff, you could def go jolly on this set tho.
I think volc is very very overlooked in the current meta, it preys so heavily on the common defensive walls we use like Torn-T, Equilibra, Jumbao, Toxapex (smoked by z psyc), and Arghonaut (also a Z-psyc victim) its a really good breaker that also has good defensive utility and can be changed to fit on whatever team its on,
Here i run it on a more BO team with Mega Diancie, running Z psychic to lure Pex and allow Scarf Bao to sweep.
Here i run it on a more standard offense build, with sitrus to help it set up as it doesn't really need a damage boost due to Tapu Fini and Mega Mawile wearing down its checks so easily. Speaking of fini,,,
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 56 Def / 12 SpA / 96 SpD / 96 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nature's Madness
- Whirlpool
- Taunt
- Scald
One day i was thinking "wait tapu fini preys super heavily on alot of common team structures in this tier especially with stuff like taunt and natures madness to make it really annoying to switch into, also doesn't it pressure / check equilibria as well as potentially force chip onto stuff like Jumbao and Torn?", so i tried it a bit. Idt we ever bought it but its a super cool mon that i def wanna explore more in the future.
Examples of teams w/ fini:
1 2 3 4
Rotom-Wash @
Rocky Helmet
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch
- Pain Split
Moves can really be whatever but, ever since the last CAPPL I've really really loved Rocky Helmet on Rotom-W, the main thing that made me want to run it is that you punish Equilibra for rapid spinning on you, which it sorta freely did otherwise due to munching hydro pumps for breakfast as if it were a ice spice stan. However after using it as my go-to item ALOT i noticed a plethora of other cool benefits, due to the fact that you rarely invest SpA on your washtoms it can sometimes barely miss KO's and 2hkos against alot of naturally bulky-ish mons like MegaTar, Exca, Mlop etc, the chip from Rocky Helmet helps a ton. It also helps wear down mons that love to spam U-turn like Lando-T and Torn-T,
in this CAPPL replay after a Torn takes chip from knocking my helmet + volt switch its forced to die to megatar pursuit which basically wins me the game because of some RH chip. With how prone rotom is to taking hits from stuff like Chansey and Scizor, or choice locked breakers like Kartana also can get forced to take chip from Rotom, helping it immensely. I think rh tom is cool and more ppl should use it
woo teamdump + short descriptions (other people should dump their teams too I wanna get samples updated)
Ive really wanted to experiment with suicune so i built some teams with it, personally I prefer the first team because its less passive but idk if its any better.
I love kartana alot and i think it enables Scizor pretty nicely, SD Fly lando also enables both of these mons pretty nicely. 2 waters + scarf pajan = finished team
A team i built pre-tour when i had the realization that "hey, maybe ash-gren isnt all that bad", unfortnately we never got around to using it but i think this team is pretty cool. I think alot of the merit ash-gren brings is being able to spike up as your opponent goes into Av torn / pex / bao / whatever, so i decided to put some of my favourite spikes abusers; Gliscor and CM mage, on the build to round it out.
I rlly, rlly like current meta mawile, i think this team is a pretty cool :O
Necturna is like, by FAR my fav CAP to use (more on that if i decide to make a similar post about oras :OO), its such a stupidly good breaker to enable scarf kartana sweeps and mega mawile just compliments this offensive core rlly nicely.
Idr if we ended up bringing this but i passed this as an option for jay to use in finals, this has such an amazing mu vs fat and is rlly restricting vs HO and offense too.
A HO i rlly like taking advantage of some of my favourite breakers to run in current meta.
Tangrowth is a mon ive played with alot as an idea in both oras and sm, basically these tiers are owned by av torn because its the most splashable check to their tiers respective broken, what tang does is put av torn to sleep / paralyze it for the rest of the team to profit. Also consider running Z move jumbao on this team, or rocks glisc > lando.