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Redbull gives you Wings
The Team Concept: I've used Tauros in the past as a breaker to great success, however now in the current metagame it may struggle to pick up those raw, fast 2HKO's it was known to achieve in the past. To help Tauros muscle through walls it would otherwise miss KO's on, such as Vaporeon, Mudsdale or Weezing, I decided to pair Tauros with Future Sight Xatu and Spikes Garbodor.
Among the few Pokémon who learn Future Sight, I decided to use Xatu because of its ability to deflect status inflictions and residual damage that Tauros is notably weak to; Wil-o-Wisp from Talonflame, all forms of hazards, and Strength Sap from Vileplume. Xatu also matches up nicely against Mudsdale, which is arguably the best Tauros check in the tier. Night Shade allows Xatu to hit walls with consistent damage such as Rest Bronzong, Diancie, and Mudsdale, who take more from Night Shade than a potential coverage move Xatu would use instead. Xatu Teleport allows it to pivot Tauros in safe from aformentioned status moves or on Pokémon who switch out vs Xatu for free momentum, and Roost is for recovery (duh).
Gunk Shot is Garbodor's best (and only) STAB move and allows it to offer an offensive presence even in the face of hard checks like Xatu. Stomping Tantrum prevents Garbodor from being set-up fodder vs Steel and Poison types such as Salazzle, Drapion, and Doublade, who are otherwise extremely problematic for the team. Pain Split with less than max HP allows you to steal huge pools of HP vs tanky Pokémon such as Guzzlord, Vaporeon, and Copperajah, letting you stick around far longer than they would like you to. Spikes are broken and force at least 12% damage on Pokémon even when they're not being hit by an attack. 176 Speed allows Garbodor to outpace adamant Sirfetch'd, meaning you can always beat it 1v1, especially with Rocky Helmet and potential Aftermath damage; I opted for max Defense over max HP to get more HP from Pain Split as mentioned previously.
Tauros is so oppresive in credit to its wide coverage, high speed tier, and Sheer Force + Life Orb being broken. Body Slam 2HKO's almost all of the tier and Tauros has respective coverage for every Normal resist in the tier. Standard Tauros runs Close Combat however we opted to use Earthquake instead to ease our matchup against Garbodor, who forces a lot of recoil onto Tauros via Rocky Helmet and Aftermath, and also nearly OHKO's Drapion, which again, is very problematic for the team. Nothing much else to say, Tauros is pretty straight-forward.
Dhelmise was put on the team due to its hazard-related role compression in blocking Rapid Spin, providing its own Rapid Spin, and threatening opposing spin-blockers with its Ghost STAB. I experimented with Anchor Shot but lacking either Ghost or Grass STAB frequently gave me trouble vs Pokémon such as Xatu, Mudsdale, or Vaporeon, depending on which STAB I dropped. The EV's avoid the 2HKO from a +2 Silvally-Ground, live a hit from +2 Ice Beam from Blastoise and OHKO it back, and outspeed NASCAR Diancie™ after a Rapid Spin.
I needed a Steel type on the team that could sponge special attacks without relying on Assault Vest like Copperajah and wasn't passive like Bronzong. I decided to use Iron Head as my STAB move because Bug coverage didn't do much for my team, although Mega Horn would work just as well I think. Knock Off means that Escavalier beats Talonflame in the long game and removing Leftovers on physical walls like Mudsdale lets Tauros win late game as well. I initially had Toxic Protect, but I switched to Swords Dance to beat Snorlax (suggested by
daniYSB) (ban Lax so I can run Toxic again). Shell Armor also lets you reliably take crits, especially from Kingdra.
Here's the NASCAR Diancie, which outspeeds max Speed Guzzlord, Heal Bells its status-prone partners, and sets Rocks vs Xatu. I opted for a full special set because Diancie Diamond Storm often gets PP stalled and I get very unlucky with its boosts and got tired of it. Moonblast Power Gem is just hard to switch into outside of Steels.
Results:
Replays:
vs PDT (temporarily taken down upon request)
DaniYSB vs Abejas
I will add more but I'm bad about remembering to save them :[
Shoutouts to
Pawwz for laddering w me :)