Intro
I’m back after a long time with a new RMT. I was thinking about stupid G-Weezing who is a guy I despise. People who know me on discord will know I do not use ugly pokemon. As I have improved as a player I have learnt to tolerate some ugliness, but guys like Mola and G-Weezing are beyond what I can tolerate. Plus it’s unfun to play against, I will not tolerate counterplay being found to all the hazard stacking teams I’ve been spamming for the last few months. Team is not too crazy different, but has a couple interesting synergies and changes from standard so I think it’s worth sharing. I found success with it despite building this in a work meeting and playing distracted so there is definitely potential here.
Paste
https://pokepast.es/83737db2eb04bc10 (on twitter last year I feel like I saw something that was meant to be the pokepaste replacement. What happened? It looked cool)Team Building
When thinking about how to beat these cores I needed a strong attacker who could deal with Lu and handle Mola (both common partners of G-Weezing). Volcarona came to mind, but unfortunately my goat is banned (rightfully so). But another bug and fire type attacker exists. Cinderace, despite being relegated to a more supportive role due to the Libero nerf, can do both respectable damage to G-Weezing and has a strong stab u-turn into Ting Lu and its checks. My biggest issue with libero Ace is that it is Moltres fodder, so I went to check if it got any rock coverage, and there it was - the glorious 50 base power smack down. No one knows Ace has this. I can only imagine it kicks rocks at people. This is an awesome surprise option and I thought for a funny troll team it would be good. I went for 4 attacks ace because I want ace to leverage all its coverage to break through balance. It was banned last gen because of attacking sets, so lets stop disrespecting it with HP investment and support options.
Nanachi (Cinderace) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Libero
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pyro Ball
- Sucker Punch
- Smack Down
- U-turn
Set is pretty self explanatory. Pyro ball is an obvious lock, giving ace a high base power move which it needs for neutral hits given its relatively average attack stat. Sucker provides valuable speed control, which I always forget to put on my teams, and lets me beat Pult and chip/play around raging bolt and gambit in a pinch. Smack down is the star of the show, opening up options vs Moltres that otherwise could not work. When I built the team, I did not expect it to be good, and I thought smack down would be useless outside of the Moltres MU. But it’s not too bad at all, it’s a decent mid ground click on occasion. It provides an accurate option when you don’t want to switch out and can provide a useful defensive type change vs iron moth. Obviously its still a 50 base power move, but it has more utility than you’d think. It doesn’t even kill phys def Moltres, just about 65ish%, but that’s enough to take it out of action. It’s not just a cheese tactic either, I’ve beaten players who have played me before and know it's coming. Forcing Moltres out lets you fire off free pyro balls.
Riko (Ogerpon-Wellspring) (F) @ Wellspring Mask
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ivy Cudgel
- Power Whip
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Next is the most natural seeming partner to Cinderace in Ogerpon. That fire, water, grass coverage is nice and Ogerpon naturally comes in on the Molas, Dozos, Garganacls and Gliscors that check Cinderace. Ace handles the grass types and Corviknights that slow Ogerpon down. It's just another awesome breaker with strong neutral hits. Knock off is valuable utility and u-turn is nice to make a pivoting core and to gamble against other Ogerpon players with. Not too much to explain, we all know Ogerpon is kind of crazy. Only thing to keep in mind is that this is a boots spam team without hazard removal. Ogerpon is so good that it will do great work despite this, but play fast early.
Meinya (Landorus-Therian) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 132 Def / 128 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Grass Knot
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock
Now for the mandatory role filler on the team. We need a ground to handle raging bolt and pivot around Zapdos, something to slow down Gambit and Zamazenta and something to at least threaten to hurt Pecharunt. We also need rocks, and on a team without hazard removal I’d like a mon who can avoid boots and provide some item utility. Lando is my guy, and I think is seriously slept on, at least to the extent Lando can be. I’m going to throw out a scalding hot take with no justification or elaboration. Don’t ask in the comments. Great Tusk is highly overrated. Anyway, Lando is goated and this is a very flexible slot. Earthquake and grass knot is my favourite, letting Lando threaten even CM boosted Raging Bolts, and grass knot ensures we can snipe Great Tusks for Cinderace and friends. Earth power (remember to change nature) is a great option if Dragapult (spoilers!!) and rocky helmet aren’t putting a stop to the rampage of Zamazenta. Taunt is also nice to lock down Corviknight for Ogerpon, if you don’t mind chipping Tusk via repeated pyro ball switch ins. I find I get the most milage out of Lando with defensive investment, and just enough speed for modest Raging Bolt. SpDef with lefties is a great set too on other teams, more people should try it. Tera water helps in the occasional rain matchup, as well as sun and is just generally a nice defensive typing. Pretty standard stuff. We're 3 for 3 with pivots, no thinking required.
Gaburoon (Zamazenta) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Atk / 172 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Crunch
- Heavy Slam
- Ice Fang
I love all out attacking Zama, like Ace, just a fundamentally strong mon using speed and coverage to break through and clean. This set maximises its ability to do so. Normally, you have to choose between heavy slam or ice fang which means you’re either walled by Gliscor or Clefable/G-Weezing. But now that Moltres duty is handled by Cinderace, you can run both and really tear through some defensive structures very easily. Tera steel is just a great defensive typing, letting you avoid poison and gives you the extra muscle to break through well played fairy types who have avoided chip. Defensively, Zama provides a lot, checking Kyurem, Gambit, Weavile and Darkrai, while also providing a one time switch to ogerpon. It really appreciates cinderace and ogerpon providing heavy pressure, and can clean up very consistently, even without a boosting option.
Reg (Kingambit) (M) @ Black Glasses
Ability: Supreme Overlord
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Kowtow Cleave
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
Closing out our physical offense gameplan is kingambit. Going back to a classic set in black glasses tera dark, which I feel like has seen less usage recently. The extra power lets you push through checks with even a little chip, and provides some raw wallbreaking power for stall teams that are capable of dealing with the weaker, coverage based attacking of zama and ace. As ever with Gambit, it is a key part of the defensive core, with its awesome bulk allowing it to 1v1 basically anything. It’s ghost resist and a steel type, both of which I feel are mandatory on any team. I ran enough speed to avoid getting chipped by Clefable and the rest in HP to help it on its defensive duties.
Faputa (Dragapult) (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Infiltrator
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 60 Atk / 196 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Dragon Darts
- Hex
- U-turn
- Will-O-Wisp
Final mon is dragapult, who brings some much needed special attacking capabilities to the team to have an instant threat vs pech and dozo. It’s also the team's primary zama answer. I went with dragon darts over draco since pult is the lone special attacker and so being able to break special walls for itself is important. The set is incredibly standard, all I really did was make it shiny and make it a girl so it matches the nickname, you know how this mon works. Wisp supports the team a lot of course, particularly burning Gambit to open up your own Gambit. Dragapult brings us back to pivoting, letting you keep up the offense.
Difficult Matchups
The team is pretty strong and can handle pretty much anything, as any good team should. I don’t think I’ve run into anything that is an auto lose, however a few MUs come to mind that take careful play.
Glimmora Hyper Offense - We don’t have a way to beat Glimmora without letting the tspikes go up and we have no absorber. This is ok, we do have various mons who can beat glimmora, but they're going to take chip, so choose wisely. If you’re earth power lando, MU is much improved, but worth keeping in mind. Only Ogerpon cares, and its already an early game only mon due to hazard chip so playing fast is the solution. Try your best to pressure common knock off users, use lando to absorb when you can, or trade huge damage for the item (i.e. Zama vs Gliscor).
Amoongus Stall - The stall MU is pretty strong generally, we have a lot of breakers and tech. But Amoongus is very annoying, since we don’t have spikes to really pressure it, and ogerpon will die to hazards before it U-turns its way through. Kingambit is your best friend, just leverage it’s excellent stall MU to win and try to snipe gliscor with ice fang when possible.
Zapdos - This is the other mon Zama likes stone edge for and so without it, we need to beat it down. Thankfully, Zapdos cannot stop Gambit, and pyro balls and ivy cudgels hurt a lot.
Closing Thoughts
I think the tier is in a pretty decent spot. Room for improvement of course, but I’ve seen some people talking about unbanning volcarona and moon, which I strongly disagree with. I know fat is strong, but going back is not the solution. Offense can find guys to beat fat without compromising other matchups, and I think there’s room for innovation. I know smack down is kind of cheesy, but relying on cheese is bad but if I can find success with a weirdo set with a 50 base power move even without surprise factor, then more “serious” sets are definitely ready to be discovered. I hope you have fun playing around with this! Be nice to others on the ladder too. Thank you for reading, and any advice or suggestions are really appreciated, I'm always trying to improve!
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