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Resource SS OU Good Cores
- Thread starter Tysonslayer
- Start date
Howdy! First time posting in the OU forums, here to drop some cores i've been enjoying a lot as of recent!
Balance/Defensive Cores
These two function well together, with Chomper providing Rocks and plenty of handy resistances, and Tornadus giving teams a Defogger and Knock Off, as well as a fast bulky pivot which grabs momentum easily. This partnership is able to handle a range of threats such as Heatran, Rillaboom, Kartana, Urshifu-R and Magnezone. Weavile is a massive threat to this core, so it is absolutely recommended you bring something for it.
These two work fantastically, thanks to Skarmory's sky-high Defense stat and Slowking's ability to handle special threats like Bulkarona (without Giga Drain), Tapu Fini and Heatran. This core can be used on both Bulky Offense and Spikes Offense, as Teleport + Future Sight pressures defensive switch-ins incredibly well on top of Spikes chip.
A great balance core, probably my favourite of the three. Tapu Koko is an incredible pokemon right now thanks to its speed tier, access to Roost and U-turn, with Slowking doing what it does best and providing Teleport + Future Sight support to teams. This core can work on a range of teams due to how splashable these two are, providing a solid VoltPort backbone to Bulky Offense/Balance teams.
Offensive Cores
These two together overwhelm the hell out of Landorus, Toxapex, Corviknight, Slowking and Tapu Fini and Zeraora's excellent speed tier allows it to get the jump on Dragapult. With Pult gone, Specs Lele is much more free to click it's powerful STAB moves and poke major holes into teams with easy momentum provided by Zeraora.
I couldn't find the bw sprite for urshifu i'm sorry
, anyways, These two also work brilliantly together, with Zeraora being speed control and Urshifu being an extremely powerful force in the current metagame, being able to form a VoltTurn core together well. Most Ground-types or other Zeraora checks dislike taking a hit from Urshifu-R, and Zeraora can help handle defensive walls such as Toxapex, Corviknight and Tapu Fini that are able to take strong hits from Choice Band Urshifu. This core struggles the most with Zapdos, even if doesn't want to take a Knock Off.
Both extremely potent wallbreakers, Assault Vest Melmetal is capable of taking plenty of hits, especially thanks to the Grassy Terrain support that Rillaboom gives it, weakening most Ground-type moves including Earthquake. Choice Band Rillaboom will always be a great Pokemon due to it's access to Knock Off, U-turn and extremely powerful priority in Grassy Glide. This core does struggle a tiny bit with Zapdos as well but Melmetal's Ice Punch does pressure it enough for it to be scared.
That's all for now! I hope to post again here soon!
Balance/Defensive Cores
These two function well together, with Chomper providing Rocks and plenty of handy resistances, and Tornadus giving teams a Defogger and Knock Off, as well as a fast bulky pivot which grabs momentum easily. This partnership is able to handle a range of threats such as Heatran, Rillaboom, Kartana, Urshifu-R and Magnezone. Weavile is a massive threat to this core, so it is absolutely recommended you bring something for it.
These two work fantastically, thanks to Skarmory's sky-high Defense stat and Slowking's ability to handle special threats like Bulkarona (without Giga Drain), Tapu Fini and Heatran. This core can be used on both Bulky Offense and Spikes Offense, as Teleport + Future Sight pressures defensive switch-ins incredibly well on top of Spikes chip.
A great balance core, probably my favourite of the three. Tapu Koko is an incredible pokemon right now thanks to its speed tier, access to Roost and U-turn, with Slowking doing what it does best and providing Teleport + Future Sight support to teams. This core can work on a range of teams due to how splashable these two are, providing a solid VoltPort backbone to Bulky Offense/Balance teams.
Offensive Cores
These two together overwhelm the hell out of Landorus, Toxapex, Corviknight, Slowking and Tapu Fini and Zeraora's excellent speed tier allows it to get the jump on Dragapult. With Pult gone, Specs Lele is much more free to click it's powerful STAB moves and poke major holes into teams with easy momentum provided by Zeraora.
I couldn't find the bw sprite for urshifu i'm sorry
, anyways, These two also work brilliantly together, with Zeraora being speed control and Urshifu being an extremely powerful force in the current metagame, being able to form a VoltTurn core together well. Most Ground-types or other Zeraora checks dislike taking a hit from Urshifu-R, and Zeraora can help handle defensive walls such as Toxapex, Corviknight and Tapu Fini that are able to take strong hits from Choice Band Urshifu. This core struggles the most with Zapdos, even if doesn't want to take a Knock Off.Both extremely potent wallbreakers, Assault Vest Melmetal is capable of taking plenty of hits, especially thanks to the Grassy Terrain support that Rillaboom gives it, weakening most Ground-type moves including Earthquake. Choice Band Rillaboom will always be a great Pokemon due to it's access to Knock Off, U-turn and extremely powerful priority in Grassy Glide. This core does struggle a tiny bit with Zapdos as well but Melmetal's Ice Punch does pressure it enough for it to be scared.
That's all for now! I hope to post again here soon!
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Balanced & Defensive Cores
& 
slowking and dragapult are a great core because slowking can bring in dragapult with teleport and forces progress with future sight and in tandem with regenerator and teleport, slowking stands long on the field and outlast pokemon such as tapu lele, nidoking, and can softcheck heatran for dragapult. both can check urshifu-r and both are able to pressure defensive cores such as toxapex and heatran. in overall this is a great core, as they're able to pivot around rather safely and bring in each other and their teammates in safely.
& 
clefable can check dragapult, kyurem, hydreigon, and can weaken skarmory and corviknight, and toxapex with thunder, and thunder hits heatran neutral, which is pretty valuable right now. thunder also hits volcarona for neutral damage. landorus-t whereas can check garchomp, excadrill, and zeraora for clefable. both can forme a good knock off-core and they're able to check most pokemon in the current metagame.
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heatran checks tapu lele, kyurem, dragapult, and choice locked-kartana / rillaboom, while it can threaten corviknight and skarmory and is able to hit targets such as garchomp and slowking with toxic upon their switch. landorus-t is a great defensive stealth rock setter with checking the aforementioned garchomp, excadrill, and zeraora for heatran. both, landorus-t and heatran are a valuable core in the metagame right now, with their valuable defensive traits.
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dragonite and heatran are a great core, as dragonite relieves a lot of pressure from heatran with checking urshifu-r, rillaboom, kartana, and opposing heatran, while dragonite is also able to threaten landorus-t for heatran. dragonite can opt between heal bell to keep its teammates unstatused with being an effective, long lasting cleric, or it can make use of defog, to remove entry hazards for heatran such as stealth rocks and spikes. heatran on the other hand is able to take on ferrothorn and toxapex with its set.
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heatran and rotom-w are a good core, as they're able to check most of the metagame, pokemon such as scizor, tornadus-t, landorus-t, toxapex, and its able to check excadrill as well. heatran on the other hand checks rillaboom, kartana, tapu lele, volcarona, and both can check melmetal rather effectively.
Offensive Cores
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bisharp and dragapult forme a great partnership, as both are pretty tough pokemon to deal with together with bisharp using its strong knock off and threating pokemon such as slowking, toxapex, and blissey, which dragapult values. dragapult on the other hand threatens most of the metagame with its strong stab shadow ball and with flamethrower it is also able to burst through ferrothorn, magnezone, and corviknight. bisharp and dragapult offensively pressure pokemon such as heatran, urshifu-r, and clefable, which are always super common pokemon in the metagame.
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dual choice-locked but double the trouble with bisharp and kyurem as a great offensive core, with bisharp threatening dragapult, blissey, and also pokemon such as heatran and melmetal with low kick to help kyurem wallbreaking in the later game. kyurem meanwhile threatens a wide range of pokemon with its ice-type stab moves in ice beam which is a pretty spamable move and freeze-dry to hit the likes of rotom-w, tapu fini, swampert, and slowking for super effective damage.
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great offensive core: swords dance bisharp and bulky quiver dance volcarona are a great fit on offensive teams as partners. bisharp threatens common pokemon such as blissey, clefable, and it acts as a freat defog deterent as well, with being able to threaten a knock off on most pokemon in the metagame and removing items such as heavy-duty boots and leftovers are pretty valuable to disrupt the longevity and to help volcarona with breaking past corviknight, toxapex, and skarmory better. furthermore, volcarona can deal with kartana and rillaboom pretty safely and is able to setup infront of them with its setup move in quiver dance.
& 
effective, offensive core on offensive teams with urshifu-r being able to threaten blissey, ferrothorn, heatran, and landorus-t with its respective stab moves in close combat and surging strikes. urshifu-r values garchomp with swords dance and fire fang to get past corviknight and skarmory, which urshifu-r dislikes. both can handle defensive cores pretty well with their offensive capabilities and urshifu-r is also able to bring garchomp in safely with u-turn on supposed checks such as toxapex, so garchomp can abuse it as setup fodder. alternatively, stone edge can be an option, to dent through corviknight, skarmory, and landorus-t with a neutral hitting move wearing them down. also stone edge is able to hit volcarona and urshifu-r is also able to revengekill volcarona with aqua jet.
& 
both, urshifu-r and tornadus-t are able to u-turn on their supposed checks and wearing them down in the long haul with their offensive presence; urshifu-r can threaten heatran, blissey, as well as volcarona with aqua jet, whereas tornadus-t threatens rillaboom and kartana for urshifu-r. tornadus-t also provides a ground immunity, which is very valuable in the metagame right now. both can overwhelm a majority of the pokemon in the metagame with their effective presence on offensive-oriented team structures.
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choice specs tapu lele and physical zeraora are a great couple, because they can take on pokemon such as blissey, heatran, ferrothorn, skarmory, corviknight, magnezone, and clefable effectively. zeraora offers alsoe great speed control with its superb speed tier in 423 outspeeding pokemon such as tornadus-t, weavile, and dragapult, which the latter has to fear a strong knock off. both can also threaten melmetal and kyurem offensively, and psychic from tapu lele in general is a great effective spamable move, with zeraora being able to handle slowking and galarian slowking for tapu lele.
& Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Future Sight
- Teleport
Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Flamethrower
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Future Sight
- Teleport
Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Flamethrower
slowking and dragapult are a great core because slowking can bring in dragapult with teleport and forces progress with future sight and in tandem with regenerator and teleport, slowking stands long on the field and outlast pokemon such as tapu lele, nidoking, and can softcheck heatran for dragapult. both can check urshifu-r and both are able to pressure defensive cores such as toxapex and heatran. in overall this is a great core, as they're able to pivot around rather safely and bring in each other and their teammates in safely.
& Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Thunder
- Knock Off
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Knock Off
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Thunder
- Knock Off
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Knock Off
clefable can check dragapult, kyurem, hydreigon, and can weaken skarmory and corviknight, and toxapex with thunder, and thunder hits heatran neutral, which is pretty valuable right now. thunder also hits volcarona for neutral damage. landorus-t whereas can check garchomp, excadrill, and zeraora for clefable. both can forme a good knock off-core and they're able to check most pokemon in the current metagame.
& Landorus-Therian (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Knock Off
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 128 SpD / 128 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Toxic
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Knock Off
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 128 SpD / 128 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Toxic
heatran checks tapu lele, kyurem, dragapult, and choice locked-kartana / rillaboom, while it can threaten corviknight and skarmory and is able to hit targets such as garchomp and slowking with toxic upon their switch. landorus-t is a great defensive stealth rock setter with checking the aforementioned garchomp, excadrill, and zeraora for heatran. both, landorus-t and heatran are a valuable core in the metagame right now, with their valuable defensive traits.
& Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 128 SpD / 128 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Ice Beam
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Heal Bell / Defog
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 128 SpD / 128 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Ice Beam
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Heal Bell / Defog
dragonite and heatran are a great core, as dragonite relieves a lot of pressure from heatran with checking urshifu-r, rillaboom, kartana, and opposing heatran, while dragonite is also able to threaten landorus-t for heatran. dragonite can opt between heal bell to keep its teammates unstatused with being an effective, long lasting cleric, or it can make use of defog, to remove entry hazards for heatran such as stealth rocks and spikes. heatran on the other hand is able to take on ferrothorn and toxapex with its set.
& Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 128 SpD / 128 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 Spe
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp / Thunder Wave
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 128 SpD / 128 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 Spe
Bold Nature
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp / Thunder Wave
heatran and rotom-w are a good core, as they're able to check most of the metagame, pokemon such as scizor, tornadus-t, landorus-t, toxapex, and its able to check excadrill as well. heatran on the other hand checks rillaboom, kartana, tapu lele, volcarona, and both can check melmetal rather effectively.
Offensive Cores
& Bisharp @ Black Glasses
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Flamethrower
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Flamethrower
bisharp and dragapult forme a great partnership, as both are pretty tough pokemon to deal with together with bisharp using its strong knock off and threating pokemon such as slowking, toxapex, and blissey, which dragapult values. dragapult on the other hand threatens most of the metagame with its strong stab shadow ball and with flamethrower it is also able to burst through ferrothorn, magnezone, and corviknight. bisharp and dragapult offensively pressure pokemon such as heatran, urshifu-r, and clefable, which are always super common pokemon in the metagame.
& Bisharp @ Choice Band
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Low Kick
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
Kyurem @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Freeze-Dry
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Low Kick
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
Kyurem @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Freeze-Dry
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
dual choice-locked but double the trouble with bisharp and kyurem as a great offensive core, with bisharp threatening dragapult, blissey, and also pokemon such as heatran and melmetal with low kick to help kyurem wallbreaking in the later game. kyurem meanwhile threatens a wide range of pokemon with its ice-type stab moves in ice beam which is a pretty spamable move and freeze-dry to hit the likes of rotom-w, tapu fini, swampert, and slowking for super effective damage.
& Bisharp @ Black Glasses
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Roost
- Flamethrower
- Psychic
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
Volcarona @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Roost
- Flamethrower
- Psychic
great offensive core: swords dance bisharp and bulky quiver dance volcarona are a great fit on offensive teams as partners. bisharp threatens common pokemon such as blissey, clefable, and it acts as a freat defog deterent as well, with being able to threaten a knock off on most pokemon in the metagame and removing items such as heavy-duty boots and leftovers are pretty valuable to disrupt the longevity and to help volcarona with breaking past corviknight, toxapex, and skarmory better. furthermore, volcarona can deal with kartana and rillaboom pretty safely and is able to setup infront of them with its setup move in quiver dance.
& Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- Aqua Jet
- U-turn
Garchomp @ Life Orb
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang / Stone Edge
- Scale Shot
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- Aqua Jet
- U-turn
Garchomp @ Life Orb
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang / Stone Edge
- Scale Shot
effective, offensive core on offensive teams with urshifu-r being able to threaten blissey, ferrothorn, heatran, and landorus-t with its respective stab moves in close combat and surging strikes. urshifu-r values garchomp with swords dance and fire fang to get past corviknight and skarmory, which urshifu-r dislikes. both can handle defensive cores pretty well with their offensive capabilities and urshifu-r is also able to bring garchomp in safely with u-turn on supposed checks such as toxapex, so garchomp can abuse it as setup fodder. alternatively, stone edge can be an option, to dent through corviknight, skarmory, and landorus-t with a neutral hitting move wearing them down. also stone edge is able to hit volcarona and urshifu-r is also able to revengekill volcarona with aqua jet.
& Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- Aqua Jet
- U-turn
Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- U-turn
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- Aqua Jet
- U-turn
Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- U-turn
both, urshifu-r and tornadus-t are able to u-turn on their supposed checks and wearing them down in the long haul with their offensive presence; urshifu-r can threaten heatran, blissey, as well as volcarona with aqua jet, whereas tornadus-t threatens rillaboom and kartana for urshifu-r. tornadus-t also provides a ground immunity, which is very valuable in the metagame right now. both can overwhelm a majority of the pokemon in the metagame with their effective presence on offensive-oriented team structures.
& Tapu Lele @ Choice Specs
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast
- Psyshock
Zeraora @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Volt Switch
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast
- Psyshock
Zeraora @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Volt Switch
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
choice specs tapu lele and physical zeraora are a great couple, because they can take on pokemon such as blissey, heatran, ferrothorn, skarmory, corviknight, magnezone, and clefable effectively. zeraora offers alsoe great speed control with its superb speed tier in 423 outspeeding pokemon such as tornadus-t, weavile, and dragapult, which the latter has to fear a strong knock off. both can also threaten melmetal and kyurem offensively, and psychic from tapu lele in general is a great effective spamable move, with zeraora being able to handle slowking and galarian slowking for tapu lele.
these are some core suggestions from me. hopefully you like them and have a great day!
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Balanced/Defensive Core
Hippowdon is a crazy good mon to have on balanced teams and corviknight (or skarmory if you prefer a spikes stacking team) is the prime mon to go with it. Hippo checks Volcarona, Zeraora, Tapu Koko (without grass knot), Heatran and Magnezone for our steel bird. On the other hand, Corviknight checks Rillaboom, Kartana, Garchomp, Landorus and other physical threats that I certainly missed. These two are also an amazing backbone for balanced teams since the sand's slow chip damage and pressure are great weapons for slow and grindy games.
Threats
hazards and sand can slowly bring pult down but flamethrower/fire blast deals with corvi and draco meteor 2HKOs hippo
pretty self explanatory
this one too
most annoying mon in ss ou
hits like a truck
also every physical fighting spam pokemon such as
is something to keep in mind when building
Teammates
The first thing that is important to notice is that you want teammates that can ignore the sand's chip damage, such as
checks kyurem and dragapult, both the cleric set and the calm mind set are super useful (you don't want some pesky toxic to ruin your hippo and the cmind set provides a solid win condition)
the prime answer to kyurem and lele and an amazing pokemon overall, I would never feel safe building a scizorless balanced team
another balanced/defensive staple, a prime close combat switchin (and the prime urshifu counter), rocky helmet can punish those pesky u-turners, regerator makes up for the sand's chip dmg, and toxic/toxic spikes is an amazing weapon for grindy games
as for offensive partners, nasty plot tornadus-t is a great choice as it serves as speed control and provides a solid wincon
this mon is awesome, it threatens so many things, it's fast as hell, and thanks to roost it has an amazing longevity
checks bisharp and heatran, nasty plot is a wincon and roost makes up for sand vulnerability
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Toxic / Whirlwind
Corviknight @ Leftovers / Shed Shell / Rocky Helmet
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
Impish Nature
- Body Press / Brave Bird
- Roost
- Defog
- U-turn
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Toxic / Whirlwind
Corviknight @ Leftovers / Shed Shell / Rocky Helmet
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
Impish Nature
- Body Press / Brave Bird
- Roost
- Defog
- U-turn
Hippowdon is a crazy good mon to have on balanced teams and corviknight (or skarmory if you prefer a spikes stacking team) is the prime mon to go with it. Hippo checks Volcarona, Zeraora, Tapu Koko (without grass knot), Heatran and Magnezone for our steel bird. On the other hand, Corviknight checks Rillaboom, Kartana, Garchomp, Landorus and other physical threats that I certainly missed. These two are also an amazing backbone for balanced teams since the sand's slow chip damage and pressure are great weapons for slow and grindy games.
Threats
hazards and sand can slowly bring pult down but flamethrower/fire blast deals with corvi and draco meteor 2HKOs hippo pretty self explanatory this one too most annoying mon in ss ou hits like a truckalso every physical fighting spam pokemon such as
is something to keep in mind when buildingTeammates
The first thing that is important to notice is that you want teammates that can ignore the sand's chip damage, such as
checks kyurem and dragapult, both the cleric set and the calm mind set are super useful (you don't want some pesky toxic to ruin your hippo and the cmind set provides a solid win condition) the prime answer to kyurem and lele and an amazing pokemon overall, I would never feel safe building a scizorless balanced team another balanced/defensive staple, a prime close combat switchin (and the prime urshifu counter), rocky helmet can punish those pesky u-turners, regerator makes up for the sand's chip dmg, and toxic/toxic spikes is an amazing weapon for grindy games as for offensive partners, nasty plot tornadus-t is a great choice as it serves as speed control and provides a solid wincon this mon is awesome, it threatens so many things, it's fast as hell, and thanks to roost it has an amazing longevity checks bisharp and heatran, nasty plot is a wincon and roost makes up for sand vulnerability
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Offensive Cores
+
Tapu Lele is a strong breaker being able to blow holes through many teams and and when paired with Volcarona, they can overwhelm shared checks they have notably being Heatran and Slowking. Thanks to Psychic Terrain from Tapu Lele it is able to block priority moves that can revenge kill Volcarona, and boost the power of Psychic of Volcarona. Since Tapu Lele can break through many teams, Volcarona can then proceed to sweep teams after it's checks are gone. Volcarona is able to cover steel types like Scizor, Melmetal, Kartana, and Rillaboom that can otherwise change the terrain whenever switching in,however, Volcarona must watchout in switching into a Knock Off and can potentially lose Heavy-Duty Boots making it more vulnerable to haazards. Since Tapu Lele can remove Toxapex with ease, Volcarona can forego to drop Psychic for other moves for better coverage, or Safegaurd to not get crippled by status moves.
+
Urshifu-R and NP Tornadus-T form a nice offensive core that are able to lure in each others check while being able to form a good momentum grabbing core bringing each other into favorable matchups. Urshifu-R strugglesin breaking against Tangrowth and Ferrothron, and gets forced out by Kartana and Rillaboom all of which Tornadus-T is able to take advantage of for the former two and can switch into with the latter two for Urshifu-R. This gives free opportunities for Tornadus-T set up and greatly appreaciates Urshifu-R in removing Tyranitar, Heatran, and Blissey allowing for Tornadus-T to run Heat Wave here instead of Focus Blast hitting Ferrothorn and Kartana harder with better accuracy, while also hitting Corviknight and Skarmory at the same time.
+
This core is the definition of punching through wholed through teams with some of the best wallbreakers in the tier. Urshifu-R invites things like Bulky Water and Grass types which Urshifu-R can bring in Kyurem with U-Turn and can break through them easily. This gives free opportunities especially against Toxapex, Tangrowth, and Slowking for Kyurem to take advantage in forcing switches and be able to ease predictions by forcing those or removing them for Urshifu-R making it easier to break against teams as well. Urshifu-R is able to either remove some of Kyurem's best switchins like Scizor, Tyranitar, and Blissey this opens up for Kyurem in not having to rely on missing Focus Blast in removing them.
+
A really simple core similarly to that of Rillaboom instead of Tapu Bulu, however when paired with Tapu Bulu who is able to break past through Flying-Types with its coverage of Stone Edge, allowing for Kartana to be able to overhwhelm teams once they are removed. Kartana is able to remove Heavy-Duty Boots from Dragonite making it easier for Tapu Bulu in removing it after chip, and greatly benefits the boost of Grassy Terrain.
+
Tapu Koko invites things like Ferrothorn ,Landorus-T, and Blissey all which it can U-Turn out on and bring in Tapu Bulu which takes advantage of them being able to use them as set up fodder and possibly forcing out. In return Tapu Koko is able to switch into Tornadus-T, Corviknight, and Skarmory for Tapu Bulu. This core has some defensive quality thanks to their typing where they are able to check things like Zeraora, Rillaboom, and Urshifu-R, though their terrains will be overlapping with whenever they are brought in will constantly be changing it.
Balanced/Defensive Cores
+
/
Rotom-W pairs well with either Kyurem set as it is able to bring it in safely with Volt Switch most importantly against things Rotom-W wants to be removed like Ferrothorn or Tangrowth while also being able to pressure Ground-types even more for Rotom-W be able to spam Volt Switch later. Kyurem enjoys Rotom-W being able to check and cripple things against Scizor, Melmetal, and Urshifu-R, while Thunder Wave is able to cripple faster threats along with defensive checks like Dragapult, Kartana, Clefable, and Heatran. Kyurem greatly benefits Rotom-W ability to remove hazards with Defog providing longetivity for Kyurem.
+
Similarily like Scizor, Corviknight pairs really well with Rotom-W once again another VoltTurn core in bringing in bringing offensive teammates in safely, and have a great defensive synergy with their typing. These two are able to cover handful of things in the tier notably physical attackers with Rotom-W being able to cripple physical attackers with Will-O-Wisp, making them check things like Urshifu-R, Landorus-T, and Garchomp. Corviknight covers Rotom-W grass weakness in being able to switch into Kartana and Rillaboom, while also being able to act as Knock Off absorbers for Rotom-W. Rotom-W is able to act as a soft check to Heatran and Tornadus-T and greatly aids Corviknight in checking offensive Grass-types and other physical attackers with its ability in crippling them with Will-o-Wisp and is free to run Pain Split with Corviknight being the hazard removal for teams.
+
Gastrodon and Bulkarona are a good pair for fat defensive teams and having a great defensive synergy being able to cover each other weakness. Gastrodon is able to handle Heatran for Volcarona, while also being to cover opposing Volcarona, Tornadus-T, and Dracozolt. Though Storm Drain works well here as well, being able to be immune against Urshifu-R and Rotom-W Water attacks for Volcarona, but Sticky Hold is a great ability as well being able to act as a Knock Off absorber against Zeraora, Weavile, and Landorus-T for Volcarona. Volcarona is able to take advantage of Ferrothorn, Tangrowth, and Kyurem for Gastrodon which it invites in, and can also switch into moves from Rillaboom and Kartana for it as well.
+
This core has been around for a while now, and though it was famously known for being a triple core decided to only mention these two themselves for now. Corviknight covers plethora of things for Clefable such as Scizor, Kartana, Rillaboom, and Landorus-T, it also able to soft check against Urshifu-R punishing it when using Surging Strikes from Rocky Helmet. In return Clefable is able to switch into Dragapult, Kyurem, Hydreigon, and even against both to Tapu Koko and Zeraora to some extent that can switch into and take advantage of Corvikngiht. This core is also being able to provide both a hazard setter and remover, while also being a great defensive backbones for many balanced and bulky offensive teams.
+
Just like the core above this works around the same, but it greatly is able to cover Volcarona and Heatran a bit better though it comes at a cost in being harder to deal against Zeraora and Tapu Koko. Tyranitar huge weakness are all mostly covered Coviknight in handling Grass, Ground, Fighting, while also being able to force mind games on Tapu Lele from not wanting to be locked into a wrong move. Tyranitar can handle things like Zapdos, Tornadus-T, Volcarona, and Heatran for Corviknight while also being able to check Kyurem and Dragapult as well. Once again this core also provides hazard seter and remover, this core especially strong for sand teams as the main defensive backbones for those team.
Tapu Lele is a strong breaker being able to blow holes through many teams and and when paired with Volcarona, they can overwhelm shared checks they have notably being Heatran and Slowking. Thanks to Psychic Terrain from Tapu Lele it is able to block priority moves that can revenge kill Volcarona, and boost the power of Psychic of Volcarona. Since Tapu Lele can break through many teams, Volcarona can then proceed to sweep teams after it's checks are gone. Volcarona is able to cover steel types like Scizor, Melmetal, Kartana, and Rillaboom that can otherwise change the terrain whenever switching in,however, Volcarona must watchout in switching into a Knock Off and can potentially lose Heavy-Duty Boots making it more vulnerable to haazards. Since Tapu Lele can remove Toxapex with ease, Volcarona can forego to drop Psychic for other moves for better coverage, or Safegaurd to not get crippled by status moves.
Urshifu-R and NP Tornadus-T form a nice offensive core that are able to lure in each others check while being able to form a good momentum grabbing core bringing each other into favorable matchups. Urshifu-R strugglesin breaking against Tangrowth and Ferrothron, and gets forced out by Kartana and Rillaboom all of which Tornadus-T is able to take advantage of for the former two and can switch into with the latter two for Urshifu-R. This gives free opportunities for Tornadus-T set up and greatly appreaciates Urshifu-R in removing Tyranitar, Heatran, and Blissey allowing for Tornadus-T to run Heat Wave here instead of Focus Blast hitting Ferrothorn and Kartana harder with better accuracy, while also hitting Corviknight and Skarmory at the same time.
This core is the definition of punching through wholed through teams with some of the best wallbreakers in the tier. Urshifu-R invites things like Bulky Water and Grass types which Urshifu-R can bring in Kyurem with U-Turn and can break through them easily. This gives free opportunities especially against Toxapex, Tangrowth, and Slowking for Kyurem to take advantage in forcing switches and be able to ease predictions by forcing those or removing them for Urshifu-R making it easier to break against teams as well. Urshifu-R is able to either remove some of Kyurem's best switchins like Scizor, Tyranitar, and Blissey this opens up for Kyurem in not having to rely on missing Focus Blast in removing them.
A really simple core similarly to that of Rillaboom instead of Tapu Bulu, however when paired with Tapu Bulu who is able to break past through Flying-Types with its coverage of Stone Edge, allowing for Kartana to be able to overhwhelm teams once they are removed. Kartana is able to remove Heavy-Duty Boots from Dragonite making it easier for Tapu Bulu in removing it after chip, and greatly benefits the boost of Grassy Terrain.
Tapu Koko invites things like Ferrothorn ,Landorus-T, and Blissey all which it can U-Turn out on and bring in Tapu Bulu which takes advantage of them being able to use them as set up fodder and possibly forcing out. In return Tapu Koko is able to switch into Tornadus-T, Corviknight, and Skarmory for Tapu Bulu. This core has some defensive quality thanks to their typing where they are able to check things like Zeraora, Rillaboom, and Urshifu-R, though their terrains will be overlapping with whenever they are brought in will constantly be changing it.
Balanced/Defensive Cores
Rotom-W pairs well with either Kyurem set as it is able to bring it in safely with Volt Switch most importantly against things Rotom-W wants to be removed like Ferrothorn or Tangrowth while also being able to pressure Ground-types even more for Rotom-W be able to spam Volt Switch later. Kyurem enjoys Rotom-W being able to check and cripple things against Scizor, Melmetal, and Urshifu-R, while Thunder Wave is able to cripple faster threats along with defensive checks like Dragapult, Kartana, Clefable, and Heatran. Kyurem greatly benefits Rotom-W ability to remove hazards with Defog providing longetivity for Kyurem.
Similarily like Scizor, Corviknight pairs really well with Rotom-W once again another VoltTurn core in bringing in bringing offensive teammates in safely, and have a great defensive synergy with their typing. These two are able to cover handful of things in the tier notably physical attackers with Rotom-W being able to cripple physical attackers with Will-O-Wisp, making them check things like Urshifu-R, Landorus-T, and Garchomp. Corviknight covers Rotom-W grass weakness in being able to switch into Kartana and Rillaboom, while also being able to act as Knock Off absorbers for Rotom-W. Rotom-W is able to act as a soft check to Heatran and Tornadus-T and greatly aids Corviknight in checking offensive Grass-types and other physical attackers with its ability in crippling them with Will-o-Wisp and is free to run Pain Split with Corviknight being the hazard removal for teams.
Gastrodon and Bulkarona are a good pair for fat defensive teams and having a great defensive synergy being able to cover each other weakness. Gastrodon is able to handle Heatran for Volcarona, while also being to cover opposing Volcarona, Tornadus-T, and Dracozolt. Though Storm Drain works well here as well, being able to be immune against Urshifu-R and Rotom-W Water attacks for Volcarona, but Sticky Hold is a great ability as well being able to act as a Knock Off absorber against Zeraora, Weavile, and Landorus-T for Volcarona. Volcarona is able to take advantage of Ferrothorn, Tangrowth, and Kyurem for Gastrodon which it invites in, and can also switch into moves from Rillaboom and Kartana for it as well.
This core has been around for a while now, and though it was famously known for being a triple core decided to only mention these two themselves for now. Corviknight covers plethora of things for Clefable such as Scizor, Kartana, Rillaboom, and Landorus-T, it also able to soft check against Urshifu-R punishing it when using Surging Strikes from Rocky Helmet. In return Clefable is able to switch into Dragapult, Kyurem, Hydreigon, and even against both to Tapu Koko and Zeraora to some extent that can switch into and take advantage of Corvikngiht. This core is also being able to provide both a hazard setter and remover, while also being a great defensive backbones for many balanced and bulky offensive teams.
Just like the core above this works around the same, but it greatly is able to cover Volcarona and Heatran a bit better though it comes at a cost in being harder to deal against Zeraora and Tapu Koko. Tyranitar huge weakness are all mostly covered Coviknight in handling Grass, Ground, Fighting, while also being able to force mind games on Tapu Lele from not wanting to be locked into a wrong move. Tyranitar can handle things like Zapdos, Tornadus-T, Volcarona, and Heatran for Corviknight while also being able to check Kyurem and Dragapult as well. Once again this core also provides hazard seter and remover, this core especially strong for sand teams as the main defensive backbones for those team.
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Sorry if this was already posted and I missed it
The basic concept here is simple: Substitute Kyurem is arguably the most reliable counterplay to FuturePort strategies in the game due to it completely stuffing out the Slowtwins and setting up Substitute on the turn that they attempt to pass off a Future Sight. This is one of the most reliable Toxapex cores in the format right now imo and can prove very difficult for a lot of FuturePort builds to challenge reliably, especially if they rely on the FS+Urshifu option select as their primary way of challenging Toxapex teams. The core is further bolstered by Kyurem and Toxapex’s natural synergy, as Kyurem+Toxic spreading is extremely horrible for defensive teams to deal with.
The best counterplay to this on FuturePort teams is to run a breaker that can challenge Kyurem when it is behind a Substitute. Melmetal heavily benefits from Future Sight versus Toxapex, especially if the team relies on it as their primary Melmetal counterplay. As such, Steel-types like Skarmory Corviknight that can easily stuff out DIB while Future Sight is active are valuable partners for this core. Tyranitar doesn’t fear PP stall from Kyurem due to Rock Blast being both a super-effective multi-hit and a high-PP move, and it can force progress versus Kyurem even without having to hit it directly thanks to the Sandstorm it summons, though it needs to be wary of switching in repeatedly if Kyurem is paired with Spikes/TSpikes and Tar is not holding HDB. Additionally, if paired with Slowbro (and, as such, often forced to hard into Kyurem if Bro decides to use FS>Port as Kyu comes in), it will need to be wary of Kyurem chipping away at it directly and fishing for freezes instead of brainlessly Subbing every time, especially considering Tar doesn’t put out enough offensive pressure to make FS even remotely threatening. It is also worth noting that uninvested Rock Blast will almost never break an undamaged Substitute with its first hit, meaning 2-hit RNG will lead to Kyurem only taking FS damage, though this will rarely come into play because the risk:reward of staying in is not in Kyurem’s favour most of the time. Dragapult is as obnoxious to deal with as ever and forces Kyurem out with Infiltrator, which lets it take advantage of Future Sight option-selecting Toxapex on a consistent basis, though it can only do this reliably alongside Slowking due to Freeze Dry stopping Slowbro Porting after Kyurem pivots in on Future Sight. The counterplay to this is generally very inconsistent and temporary, so you’re kinda on your own here to figure out the best way to approach that matchup.
This same logic can be extended to other Substitute walls that take less than 1/4 from Scald, but Kyurem is probably the most viable user in the format and the one you’ll see the most, so it’s the only one I’ll showcase here. Experiment with this and other Toxapex partners to see what clicks for you and your playstyle, and don’t forget that Toxapex is broken and doesn’t actually give many fucks about FuturePort’s popularity if in the hands of any remotely competent builder—despite what all the sleeper takes I’ve been reading over the past few weeks about how Toxapex is “not that good” (lol…) may lead you to believe. Toxapex+VinCune, for example, is an interesting concept that I’ve not got around to messing with much that uses Protect to completely fuck Future Sight over vs any breaker other than Urshifu at the cost of not having immediate recovery like the other main SubPressure stallers (Kyurem, Zapdos, and Moltres) do, which may cause problems without good clerical/GTerrain support due to burn nullifying Leftovers.
Toxapex @ Black Sludge / Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / Literally any Def/SpD combination
- Recover
- Knock Off
- Haze / Toxic / Toxic Spikes
- Scald / Toxic / Toxic Spikes
Kyurem @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 56 HP / 200 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Roost
- Freeze-Dry
- Earth Power
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / Literally any Def/SpD combination
- Recover
- Knock Off
- Haze / Toxic / Toxic Spikes
- Scald / Toxic / Toxic Spikes
Kyurem @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 56 HP / 200 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Roost
- Freeze-Dry
- Earth Power
The best counterplay to this on FuturePort teams is to run a breaker that can challenge Kyurem when it is behind a Substitute. Melmetal heavily benefits from Future Sight versus Toxapex, especially if the team relies on it as their primary Melmetal counterplay. As such, Steel-types like Skarmory Corviknight that can easily stuff out DIB while Future Sight is active are valuable partners for this core. Tyranitar doesn’t fear PP stall from Kyurem due to Rock Blast being both a super-effective multi-hit and a high-PP move, and it can force progress versus Kyurem even without having to hit it directly thanks to the Sandstorm it summons, though it needs to be wary of switching in repeatedly if Kyurem is paired with Spikes/TSpikes and Tar is not holding HDB. Additionally, if paired with Slowbro (and, as such, often forced to hard into Kyurem if Bro decides to use FS>Port as Kyu comes in), it will need to be wary of Kyurem chipping away at it directly and fishing for freezes instead of brainlessly Subbing every time, especially considering Tar doesn’t put out enough offensive pressure to make FS even remotely threatening. It is also worth noting that uninvested Rock Blast will almost never break an undamaged Substitute with its first hit, meaning 2-hit RNG will lead to Kyurem only taking FS damage, though this will rarely come into play because the risk:reward of staying in is not in Kyurem’s favour most of the time. Dragapult is as obnoxious to deal with as ever and forces Kyurem out with Infiltrator, which lets it take advantage of Future Sight option-selecting Toxapex on a consistent basis, though it can only do this reliably alongside Slowking due to Freeze Dry stopping Slowbro Porting after Kyurem pivots in on Future Sight. The counterplay to this is generally very inconsistent and temporary, so you’re kinda on your own here to figure out the best way to approach that matchup.
This same logic can be extended to other Substitute walls that take less than 1/4 from Scald, but Kyurem is probably the most viable user in the format and the one you’ll see the most, so it’s the only one I’ll showcase here. Experiment with this and other Toxapex partners to see what clicks for you and your playstyle, and don’t forget that Toxapex is broken and doesn’t actually give many fucks about FuturePort’s popularity if in the hands of any remotely competent builder—despite what all the sleeper takes I’ve been reading over the past few weeks about how Toxapex is “not that good” (lol…) may lead you to believe. Toxapex+VinCune, for example, is an interesting concept that I’ve not got around to messing with much that uses Protect to completely fuck Future Sight over vs any breaker other than Urshifu at the cost of not having immediate recovery like the other main SubPressure stallers (Kyurem, Zapdos, and Moltres) do, which may cause problems without good clerical/GTerrain support due to burn nullifying Leftovers.
Hippowdon @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Whirlwind
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Body Press
- Spikes
- Toxic/Iron Defense
- Roost
This is a standard defensive core featuring a classic physical wall and special wall duo in this case specially defensive hippowdon and skarmory, they synergise well with each other since hippowdon can check special attacking fire types such as heatran, volcarona, and tapu koko, while skarmory handles problematic grass types like Kartana and rillaboom, and they can rack up insane amount of passive damage with the combination of toxic, and Spikes from skarm and sandstorm and Stealth rocks from hippo while being able to Whirlwind and wear down offensive Pokémon
https://pokepast.es/e521f0824a0075e7
Hydreigon and toxapex pair very well together. Hydreigon covers for its ground and electric weakness while toxapex covers the fighting, and fairy weakness that is so hydreigon is so exploited of. Toxapex can make it easier for hydreigon to break via toxic spikes, scald burns, toxic, and knock off against pokemon like tapu koko, weavile, clefable, and corviknight, and tapu lele that otherwise threaten hydreigon. Hydreigon breaks through common pokemon that defeat toxapex such as heatran, slowking, and zapdos.
+ G-Slowking + Hydreigon
Seeing the above core made me think of this duo. I feel that Galarian Slowking and Hydreigon cover each other’s weaknesses pretty well. Galarian Slowking is a nice counter to Tapu Koko which threatens Hydreigon and packs a strong sludge bomb to hurt the other fairies. By setting traps with Future Sight, G-Slowking helps Hydreigon snag surprise KOs. Whereas Hydreigon can come in on mons that G-Slowking dislikes such as Heatran. Keep in mind that Galarian Slowking does not have access to teleport (weird I know)
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I just wanted to let you know that in the + core zera has U-turn in the paste:
https://pokepast.es/e3d6c772f3eaf06b
+ core zera has U-turn in the paste:https://pokepast.es/e3d6c772f3eaf06b
coming at you with two solid cores and a fun one.
sd leftovers chomp + specs lele is a powerhouse breaker+sweeper core, with the spicy thunderbolt for corviknight and just being a good midground vs slowking/pex+corvi/tran structures. you can go modest + thunder if you feeling even spicier as it straight up destroys corviknight after rocks. chomp with the scale shot + ffang variant to sweep teams as psychic terrain temporarily protects it from ice shards and resets opposing misty or grassy terrain which annoy big chomper. be cautious when using these two because they are too powerful they may break your pc, let alone your phone if you use that to play. bring a metal bird with this core or rillaboom/weavile mercilessly murder you.
i've seen this all over the place rn as scarf fini is a demon that speed controls stuff like pult, zera, shifu and weavile for volc, checks heatran and tricks annoying volc checks like blissey, pex etc. also brings background safeguard with its misty terrain for volc to use psychic in the last slot. bulkarona is a big threat rn capable of setting up on a lot of stuff thanks to the boots. also checks grass types for fini and discourages praying on its weaker defense w flame body. fini spread hits 284 to outspeed zera w scarf (283 is enough but i didnt wanna change the pokepaste so f it), max hp for bulk and the rest in spatk to improve rolls. volc spread reaches the same speed tier, has 16 spatk to alway cook rillaboom with flamethrower and rest improves physical bulk.
zap+future sight is diabolical but putting kanto slowking is boring so i went with its galar variant to have a spicy double galarian core. aside from the beauty of double galar core, glowking is valuable with gzap for the same reason it is with shifu: abuses koko's matchup against your fsight abuser infinitely better than regular boring slowking. also, the sinergy here is a bit better since zap can come in on dark as well as ground moves aimed at glowking, turning the tables if fsight has been clicked the turn prior. bring some knock offs and some pivots and go click buttons. glowking spread lives two sballs from specs pult with minimal investment and rest in spatk to bring the pain.
rules bad
+ 
Bisharp removes any pesky fairies attempting to stop Zapdos from rampaging through a team; Zapdos destroys fighters. They together can overwhelm stuff like Corviknight and Heatran, and since Landorus runs special defense instead of physical defense, either one will blow through it easily.
lol imagine using bw1 strats in 2021
+ 
wash sciz. that is all.
on a more serious note wash sciz is insane imo. It’s a great pivoting core which threatens its checks. Plus, if paired with future sight from Galarian Slowking, it can blow through Pex and ignore toxic spikes.
+ Bisharp removes any pesky fairies attempting to stop Zapdos from rampaging through a team; Zapdos destroys fighters. They together can overwhelm stuff like Corviknight and Heatran, and since Landorus runs special defense instead of physical defense, either one will blow through it easily.
Gapdos-Zalar (Zapdos-Galar) @ Choice Band
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Taunt
sharp bitch (Bisharp) (F) @ Black Glasses
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Taunt
sharp bitch (Bisharp) (F) @ Black Glasses
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
lol imagine using bw1 strats in 2021
+ wash sciz. that is all.
on a more serious note wash sciz is insane imo. It’s a great pivoting core which threatens its checks. Plus, if paired with future sight from Galarian Slowking, it can blow through Pex and ignore toxic spikes.
gamer bath water (Rotom-Wash) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Will-o-Wisp
- Defog / Pain Split
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
yee haw wild west (Scizor) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Roost
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Will-o-Wisp
- Defog / Pain Split
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
yee haw wild west (Scizor) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Roost
- Knock Off
- U-turn
With WCoP wrapping up, I'm aiming to get a slate live shortly. Shoutouts to Tysonslayer for giving me a helping hand! Locking for now
Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well today,
WCoP was a time of great development for the metagame; with it, came quite a lot of innovation that changed not only the landscape of the metagame but also our perception of it. It's for this reason that a lot of the cores that may have been good last update have fallen out of favor in the current metagame, and it's for this reason that we have a giant update on our hands and a fundamental overhaul to a lot of what defined good cores.
It's for this reason I'm going to take a different approach to explaining these cores. Instead of separating them as a whole by "Offensive" and "Balanced/Defensive", I'm going to separate them by sections of relevancy and give a little fun spin to it. You'll see what I mean below:
Chapter 1: Dastardly Kingdom of Weavile and Rapid Strike Urshifu
A long time ago, in an SS OU metagame far far away... the metagame was ruled by tyrants. Single Strike Urshifu, Cinderace, and Magearna ruled the metagame with an iron fist. They single-handedly defined what happened around them, laughing as their subjects scrambled to combat them. But alas, to no avail. Cinderace and Urshifu laughed and exploited their defensive answers by giving room for their enforcers to crush them down to size, pivoting around Pokemon that thought they could take the heat. Magearna, on the other hand, took all names. The few Pokemon who dared endure its onslaught were met with the binding fate of Choice items, and sometimes Magearna even turned to her own enforcers in a pinch.
The gods above chose to bless their subjects, realizing the chokehold these monarchs had on the SS OU kingdom. With a snap of their fingers, they vanished, and for a while, all was calm. Some tried to rise and take their place as the next great rulers of the kingdom. Dragapult came close but fell short as Pokemon banded together to keep it in check.
One day, Single Strike Urshifu's younger brother, Rapid Strike Urshifu, rose from the grave of his elder brother, tears laden in his eyes and fists clenched as he eyed the kingdom ahead. It was large, terrifying; how was it to compete in a kingdom ridden with Dragapult and Toxapex? Grief turned to anger; who had the right to take the place of someone--his older brother, no less--for their own, selfish desires? Rapid Strike cracked his knuckles, grit his teeth, and got into position. If the kingdom thought it had the right to desecrate the grave of Rapid Strike's brother, it would have to think twice.
Perhaps with less nobility, Weavile was a thief that laid in the rural streets of the kingdom, though rather impressive with his premium offensive typing, speed tier, and access to Knock Off. Magearna was an old friend that stabbed his back upon her arrival to the kingdom, and upon hearing of her death, Weavile felt no pity. For so long, Weavile had been held back by her. He craved for the day he could leave his mark, even turning to the streets for some moniker of a niche, but every time he tried, Magearna made sure to break his spirit. To those passing by, he was a name that commoners feared, but those who knew of his weaknesses shrugged Weavile off as his timely failures shed shame upon his name. However, upon news of Magearna's sudden disappearance, Weavile broke into laughter. He was transformed into an agent of chaos, and he was a terrifying, calculating one, at that. The metagame was an arena of chaos, and one he now knew how to make his.
___
These two Pokemon have arguably had the greatest results of any Pokemon in WCoP. There have been a great variety of games that demonstrated the sheer power that these two Pokemon have, in addition to other fantastic traits that make them some of the hardest Pokemon to reliably check in the current metagame between their incredible STABs, great options, and great natural characteristics such as their types defensively or stat distribution. There are several cores that help to highlight the strength of these Pokemon, while also helping to enable them by exploiting or helping to overload shared checks, even making a phenomenal pair in of themselves. There are also quite a few cores with the intent of checking them in mind.
Rapid Strike Urshifu and Weavile were two incredibly dominant, newfound figures that clashed quite a bit. Their morals conflicted; they both wanted to get to the top, yet for different reasons. However, in spite of Pokemon in theory being able to take them down, they had a lot on their side to either exploit or rip them apart. Rapid Strike had the art of pivoting on his side, passed down by his ancestors, while Weavile's dastardly, yet articulate nature gave him the cunning strength of Swords Dance and a powerful Ice-type STAB in Triple Axel to overwhelm his checks. However, in spite of this, the citizens did their best to take them on, even taking on new partners and new tools to keep them in check, while providing stable answers against other threats such as Dragapult.
Heavylifter Buzzwole, generally relegated to the duty of checking Kartana, now had a greater role to play with his superb Physical bulk and great power, taking on the role of an offensive check for the first time since the olden days of Generation 7. Moreover, Spikes became a very common tool that several Pokemon began to employ, provided by a local, quiet bartender named Mew which exploited Slowking rather well, and pairing fantastically with Buzzwole in spite of their drastic differences in character, and an old friend in Clefable.
On the other side of town in Bulky Water Street, Toxapex quit his lazing about and came back to provide a check to the two newcomers too, also bringing a classic tool in his lethal Toxic Spikes, making Hydreigon and SubRoost Kyurem fairly difficult to check in the long term. With Slowking starting to be taken a peg down, harassed by the new top dogs and techs designed to exploit it, Toxapex started to care less about what came his way. Tapu Fini came into her own as well, providing a great blanket check to both newcomers on top of other threats such as Heatran and Dragapult with a gorgeous Choice Scarf, or satisfying her cravings with Leftovers, Taunt, and Calm Mind to create for a rather great win condition on Spikes teams.
___
These Pokemon have all surged in use in WCoP as fantastic blanket checks to the aforementioned Weavile and Urshifu, while having great role compression in checking other dangerous wallbreakers or providing things like hazards, a win condition, or speed control.
Chapter 2: Fissures of Time
In spite of the newfound rule of Weavile and Urshifu-R over the landscape of the metagame, bulky Ground-types maintained their incredible influence over the metagame. Landorus-T still sat at the top of the food chain, holding a golden chalice laced in intricate patterns and the tears of the commoners. In spite of the changing metagame around him, he held an incredible talent none other came close to possessing: adaptability. Between his versatile stat spread, vast movepool, and incredible typing, Landorus-T set the trends as a bulky Ground-type on nearly every archetype, save for the fatasses sitting in Weenie Hut Jr; he wanted nothing to do with them, for he was superior.
However, he did acknowledge that there were some problem children running around; Dragapult--an imposter and mockery of his infinite rule--did admittedly have a rather captivating, yet obnoxious set of traits that many Pokemon struggled to check alone. Moreover, Heatran and Volcarona were pains, too. He rose from his throne, with a plan to keep them in line: Special Defense. So, adopted Landorus-T Special Defense investment. With his intimidating demeanor, he merely needed minimal physical bulk and Toxic to keep the insolent Zeraora, Garchomp, and Dragonite in check, while providing an added option against most Fire-types and Dragapult.
Many Ground-types, in his image, chose to adopt something rather similar. Special Defense on a Ground-type was genius to the Ground-types below. Hippowdon was a Pokemon that struggled to set itself apart; it was incredibly exploitable and many Special wallbreakers feasted on it... without investment, that is. With Special investment, however, Hippowdon's problems melted away, performing as an incredible Volcarona, Heatran, Dracozolt, and Dragapult check with a caveat Landorus-T could only dream of--longevity. Rarely could it be overwhelmed by these Pokemon, or god forbid Zeraora, lest it was poisoned. Gastrodon was a pick that also benefited from this new trend, boasting the unique caveat of a Trick and Knock Off immunity and helping to boost the residents of Weenie Hut Jr to Weenie Hut, however mostly paled in comparison to Hippowdon who found more success with his access to Stealth Rock and Sand Stream.
___
These two Ground-type Pokemon are still kicking it in modern day SS OU, however instead of Physical investment, these Pokemon are seen far more nowadays with Special investment thanks to the innovations of WCoP players. These Pokemon have either Intimidate or the natural bulk in order to check the Physical Pokemon they're aiming to check, so more often than not investment proves to be redundant except in certain matchups (offensive Grass-types and Melmetal respectively) whereas Special bulk gives them far greater value as walls in comparison, being able to alleviate a lot of pressure from allies to check them while furthering on role compression. We've been seeing a major rise in Hippowdon as well, which has come back to relive its former glory with its incredible defensive stats and a fantastic kit as a bulky Ground-type.
Zeraora was a Pokemon acclaimed, thrown to the streets, acclaimed again, thrown to the streets again, and then acclaimed again. Zeraora has seen the top of the food chain, but lived at the bottom of it, too. However, in recent times, Zeraora finds itself back in the upper echelons of the metagame thanks to Landorus-T's incredible proneness to overload. It still greatly struggles against them, but then it rediscovered an old toy: Toxic. It was a toy that was employed best by Heatran, who was in the upper parts of the food chain, but not quite at the top. Heatran observed it and chose to create a pact with Zeraora to help lure and punish bulky Ground-types, in exchange for taking charge of the team once the bulky Ground-types were dealt with. Zeraora accepted this offer.
Heatran was not quite mutually exclusive to Zeraora, in fact, her wares were rather popular with a wide variety of Pokemon. Tapu Koko appreciated her ability to punish bulky Ground-types with dastardly status, with a similar requirement for Tapu Koko to clean up the rubble with Calm Mind. Dragonite was also a common stakeholder, which had risen to fame in recent times for its amazing role compression against Urshifu-R, Kartana, and Volcarona, as well as his potency as a win condition. Magnezone attempted to replicate this fame with its own Toxic, which found rather great success with Dragonite and occasionally a desperate Garchomp.
Local botanist and mad scientist Galarian Slowking was another rising star with a rather fantastic offensive and defensive profile that gave his original counterpart a run for his money, combating Tapu Fini, Tapu Koko, Kyurem, and occasionally Heatran with superb results. As a result of his own mad experiment, his coverage, access to Future Sight, Regenerator, a spammable Sludge Bomb, and incredible Special stats made Galarian Slowking a rather attractive tank with anything but passivity to boot. It reaped upon the Ground-types that depended on consistent HP thresholds to do their job, spreading poison, and even exploiting Heatran's propaganda and attempts to block his disgusting Sludge Bomb to set up a Future Sight.
Corviknight did what it always did against these pesky Ground-types. It won Defog wars with Pressure, but was always an incredibly reliable Pokemon respected by many in the kingdom. It soaked Toxic, it took Knock Off, and provided a blanket check to a wide variety of Pokemon in the tier such as Tapu Lele, Landorus-T, Kartana, and Garchomp, while soft-checking Weavile and Urshifu-R. It paired well with a wide variety of Pokemon, including Buzzwole, Rotom-W, and Clefable.
___
Many of these Pokemon have adapted to and even have started to take advantage of the adaptations of Ground-types in the tier. While Poison spam tends to be one of the better ways of applying pressure to Hippowdon and Landorus-T cores, there are a wide variety of unique interactions that these Pokemon tend to have with one another that allows them to prosper in the metagame in spite of shared issues against bulky Ground-types, providing coverage against other top threats like Kyurem and Dragapult while providing great role compression for teams in need of their other great, unique traits.
Chapter 3: A New Day
The metagame is fierce and unforgiving at its core. Role compression is more important than ever, however, in spite of that, many Pokemon have taken to working together and carving their own path to the top without turning to the corruption of the higher-ups, or Heatran's wares. Commoners walking down the street see a wide variety of wallbreakers and pivots doing their best to work together in the harsh climate, utilizing their unique attributes and interactions to pave their path and make their niches heard.
Pivots such as Scizor and Rotom-W are fantastic pairings with other Pokemon such as Victini and Kyurem, while Hydreigon works as an offensive Heatran check and providing what it can to those around it with its access to longevity, a Shadow Ball resistance, and Nasty Plot wallbreaking. It turns to Aromatherapy Clefable as an option to offset Heatran's marketing mania of Toxic spam. On the other hand, we see Pokemon playing to terrain setters like Tapu Bulu and Tapu Lele to help with overloading Physical and Special walls alike, between the beastly Buzzwole and the corrupt Heatran.
We see the metagame evolve every day... and with it, new, unique innovations of the people to rise to the top and make their mark.
___
This is pretty much the miscellaneous section that I couldn't fit into its own section without seeming facetious! Explanations on these cores will be in their respective pastes.
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___
And this concludes the incredibly long update post. Did you like this kind of style? Please let me know! Upon this post going live, the thread will be available for submissions. Let me know if you have any questions, and happy posting! The thread will now be unlocked.
I will be chain linking pastes and updating the OP throughout the night; if you aren't directed to any Pokepastes at the time of reading, that will be handled shortly.
WCoP was a time of great development for the metagame; with it, came quite a lot of innovation that changed not only the landscape of the metagame but also our perception of it. It's for this reason that a lot of the cores that may have been good last update have fallen out of favor in the current metagame, and it's for this reason that we have a giant update on our hands and a fundamental overhaul to a lot of what defined good cores.
It's for this reason I'm going to take a different approach to explaining these cores. Instead of separating them as a whole by "Offensive" and "Balanced/Defensive", I'm going to separate them by sections of relevancy and give a little fun spin to it. You'll see what I mean below:
Chapter 1: Dastardly Kingdom of Weavile and Rapid Strike Urshifu
A long time ago, in an SS OU metagame far far away... the metagame was ruled by tyrants. Single Strike Urshifu, Cinderace, and Magearna ruled the metagame with an iron fist. They single-handedly defined what happened around them, laughing as their subjects scrambled to combat them. But alas, to no avail. Cinderace and Urshifu laughed and exploited their defensive answers by giving room for their enforcers to crush them down to size, pivoting around Pokemon that thought they could take the heat. Magearna, on the other hand, took all names. The few Pokemon who dared endure its onslaught were met with the binding fate of Choice items, and sometimes Magearna even turned to her own enforcers in a pinch.
The gods above chose to bless their subjects, realizing the chokehold these monarchs had on the SS OU kingdom. With a snap of their fingers, they vanished, and for a while, all was calm. Some tried to rise and take their place as the next great rulers of the kingdom. Dragapult came close but fell short as Pokemon banded together to keep it in check.
One day, Single Strike Urshifu's younger brother, Rapid Strike Urshifu, rose from the grave of his elder brother, tears laden in his eyes and fists clenched as he eyed the kingdom ahead. It was large, terrifying; how was it to compete in a kingdom ridden with Dragapult and Toxapex? Grief turned to anger; who had the right to take the place of someone--his older brother, no less--for their own, selfish desires? Rapid Strike cracked his knuckles, grit his teeth, and got into position. If the kingdom thought it had the right to desecrate the grave of Rapid Strike's brother, it would have to think twice.
Perhaps with less nobility, Weavile was a thief that laid in the rural streets of the kingdom, though rather impressive with his premium offensive typing, speed tier, and access to Knock Off. Magearna was an old friend that stabbed his back upon her arrival to the kingdom, and upon hearing of her death, Weavile felt no pity. For so long, Weavile had been held back by her. He craved for the day he could leave his mark, even turning to the streets for some moniker of a niche, but every time he tried, Magearna made sure to break his spirit. To those passing by, he was a name that commoners feared, but those who knew of his weaknesses shrugged Weavile off as his timely failures shed shame upon his name. However, upon news of Magearna's sudden disappearance, Weavile broke into laughter. He was transformed into an agent of chaos, and he was a terrifying, calculating one, at that. The metagame was an arena of chaos, and one he now knew how to make his.
___
These two Pokemon have arguably had the greatest results of any Pokemon in WCoP. There have been a great variety of games that demonstrated the sheer power that these two Pokemon have, in addition to other fantastic traits that make them some of the hardest Pokemon to reliably check in the current metagame between their incredible STABs, great options, and great natural characteristics such as their types defensively or stat distribution. There are several cores that help to highlight the strength of these Pokemon, while also helping to enable them by exploiting or helping to overload shared checks, even making a phenomenal pair in of themselves. There are also quite a few cores with the intent of checking them in mind.
made you look
Rapid Strike Urshifu and Weavile were two incredibly dominant, newfound figures that clashed quite a bit. Their morals conflicted; they both wanted to get to the top, yet for different reasons. However, in spite of Pokemon in theory being able to take them down, they had a lot on their side to either exploit or rip them apart. Rapid Strike had the art of pivoting on his side, passed down by his ancestors, while Weavile's dastardly, yet articulate nature gave him the cunning strength of Swords Dance and a powerful Ice-type STAB in Triple Axel to overwhelm his checks. However, in spite of this, the citizens did their best to take them on, even taking on new partners and new tools to keep them in check, while providing stable answers against other threats such as Dragapult.
Heavylifter Buzzwole, generally relegated to the duty of checking Kartana, now had a greater role to play with his superb Physical bulk and great power, taking on the role of an offensive check for the first time since the olden days of Generation 7. Moreover, Spikes became a very common tool that several Pokemon began to employ, provided by a local, quiet bartender named Mew which exploited Slowking rather well, and pairing fantastically with Buzzwole in spite of their drastic differences in character, and an old friend in Clefable.
On the other side of town in Bulky Water Street, Toxapex quit his lazing about and came back to provide a check to the two newcomers too, also bringing a classic tool in his lethal Toxic Spikes, making Hydreigon and SubRoost Kyurem fairly difficult to check in the long term. With Slowking starting to be taken a peg down, harassed by the new top dogs and techs designed to exploit it, Toxapex started to care less about what came his way. Tapu Fini came into her own as well, providing a great blanket check to both newcomers on top of other threats such as Heatran and Dragapult with a gorgeous Choice Scarf, or satisfying her cravings with Leftovers, Taunt, and Calm Mind to create for a rather great win condition on Spikes teams.
___
These Pokemon have all surged in use in WCoP as fantastic blanket checks to the aforementioned Weavile and Urshifu, while having great role compression in checking other dangerous wallbreakers or providing things like hazards, a win condition, or speed control.
+ 
Chapter 2: Fissures of Time
In spite of the newfound rule of Weavile and Urshifu-R over the landscape of the metagame, bulky Ground-types maintained their incredible influence over the metagame. Landorus-T still sat at the top of the food chain, holding a golden chalice laced in intricate patterns and the tears of the commoners. In spite of the changing metagame around him, he held an incredible talent none other came close to possessing: adaptability. Between his versatile stat spread, vast movepool, and incredible typing, Landorus-T set the trends as a bulky Ground-type on nearly every archetype, save for the fatasses sitting in Weenie Hut Jr; he wanted nothing to do with them, for he was superior.
However, he did acknowledge that there were some problem children running around; Dragapult--an imposter and mockery of his infinite rule--did admittedly have a rather captivating, yet obnoxious set of traits that many Pokemon struggled to check alone. Moreover, Heatran and Volcarona were pains, too. He rose from his throne, with a plan to keep them in line: Special Defense. So, adopted Landorus-T Special Defense investment. With his intimidating demeanor, he merely needed minimal physical bulk and Toxic to keep the insolent Zeraora, Garchomp, and Dragonite in check, while providing an added option against most Fire-types and Dragapult.
Many Ground-types, in his image, chose to adopt something rather similar. Special Defense on a Ground-type was genius to the Ground-types below. Hippowdon was a Pokemon that struggled to set itself apart; it was incredibly exploitable and many Special wallbreakers feasted on it... without investment, that is. With Special investment, however, Hippowdon's problems melted away, performing as an incredible Volcarona, Heatran, Dracozolt, and Dragapult check with a caveat Landorus-T could only dream of--longevity. Rarely could it be overwhelmed by these Pokemon, or god forbid Zeraora, lest it was poisoned. Gastrodon was a pick that also benefited from this new trend, boasting the unique caveat of a Trick and Knock Off immunity and helping to boost the residents of Weenie Hut Jr to Weenie Hut, however mostly paled in comparison to Hippowdon who found more success with his access to Stealth Rock and Sand Stream.
___
These two Ground-type Pokemon are still kicking it in modern day SS OU, however instead of Physical investment, these Pokemon are seen far more nowadays with Special investment thanks to the innovations of WCoP players. These Pokemon have either Intimidate or the natural bulk in order to check the Physical Pokemon they're aiming to check, so more often than not investment proves to be redundant except in certain matchups (offensive Grass-types and Melmetal respectively) whereas Special bulk gives them far greater value as walls in comparison, being able to alleviate a lot of pressure from allies to check them while furthering on role compression. We've been seeing a major rise in Hippowdon as well, which has come back to relive its former glory with its incredible defensive stats and a fantastic kit as a bulky Ground-type.
made you look
Zeraora was a Pokemon acclaimed, thrown to the streets, acclaimed again, thrown to the streets again, and then acclaimed again. Zeraora has seen the top of the food chain, but lived at the bottom of it, too. However, in recent times, Zeraora finds itself back in the upper echelons of the metagame thanks to Landorus-T's incredible proneness to overload. It still greatly struggles against them, but then it rediscovered an old toy: Toxic. It was a toy that was employed best by Heatran, who was in the upper parts of the food chain, but not quite at the top. Heatran observed it and chose to create a pact with Zeraora to help lure and punish bulky Ground-types, in exchange for taking charge of the team once the bulky Ground-types were dealt with. Zeraora accepted this offer.
Heatran was not quite mutually exclusive to Zeraora, in fact, her wares were rather popular with a wide variety of Pokemon. Tapu Koko appreciated her ability to punish bulky Ground-types with dastardly status, with a similar requirement for Tapu Koko to clean up the rubble with Calm Mind. Dragonite was also a common stakeholder, which had risen to fame in recent times for its amazing role compression against Urshifu-R, Kartana, and Volcarona, as well as his potency as a win condition. Magnezone attempted to replicate this fame with its own Toxic, which found rather great success with Dragonite and occasionally a desperate Garchomp.
Local botanist and mad scientist Galarian Slowking was another rising star with a rather fantastic offensive and defensive profile that gave his original counterpart a run for his money, combating Tapu Fini, Tapu Koko, Kyurem, and occasionally Heatran with superb results. As a result of his own mad experiment, his coverage, access to Future Sight, Regenerator, a spammable Sludge Bomb, and incredible Special stats made Galarian Slowking a rather attractive tank with anything but passivity to boot. It reaped upon the Ground-types that depended on consistent HP thresholds to do their job, spreading poison, and even exploiting Heatran's propaganda and attempts to block his disgusting Sludge Bomb to set up a Future Sight.
Corviknight did what it always did against these pesky Ground-types. It won Defog wars with Pressure, but was always an incredibly reliable Pokemon respected by many in the kingdom. It soaked Toxic, it took Knock Off, and provided a blanket check to a wide variety of Pokemon in the tier such as Tapu Lele, Landorus-T, Kartana, and Garchomp, while soft-checking Weavile and Urshifu-R. It paired well with a wide variety of Pokemon, including Buzzwole, Rotom-W, and Clefable.
___
Many of these Pokemon have adapted to and even have started to take advantage of the adaptations of Ground-types in the tier. While Poison spam tends to be one of the better ways of applying pressure to Hippowdon and Landorus-T cores, there are a wide variety of unique interactions that these Pokemon tend to have with one another that allows them to prosper in the metagame in spite of shared issues against bulky Ground-types, providing coverage against other top threats like Kyurem and Dragapult while providing great role compression for teams in need of their other great, unique traits.
Chapter 3: A New Day
The metagame is fierce and unforgiving at its core. Role compression is more important than ever, however, in spite of that, many Pokemon have taken to working together and carving their own path to the top without turning to the corruption of the higher-ups, or Heatran's wares. Commoners walking down the street see a wide variety of wallbreakers and pivots doing their best to work together in the harsh climate, utilizing their unique attributes and interactions to pave their path and make their niches heard.
Pivots such as Scizor and Rotom-W are fantastic pairings with other Pokemon such as Victini and Kyurem, while Hydreigon works as an offensive Heatran check and providing what it can to those around it with its access to longevity, a Shadow Ball resistance, and Nasty Plot wallbreaking. It turns to Aromatherapy Clefable as an option to offset Heatran's marketing mania of Toxic spam. On the other hand, we see Pokemon playing to terrain setters like Tapu Bulu and Tapu Lele to help with overloading Physical and Special walls alike, between the beastly Buzzwole and the corrupt Heatran.
We see the metagame evolve every day... and with it, new, unique innovations of the people to rise to the top and make their mark.
___
This is pretty much the miscellaneous section that I couldn't fit into its own section without seeming facetious! Explanations on these cores will be in their respective pastes.
___
And this concludes the incredibly long update post. Did you like this kind of style? Please let me know! Upon this post going live, the thread will be available for submissions. Let me know if you have any questions, and happy posting! The thread will now be unlocked.
I will be chain linking pastes and updating the OP throughout the night; if you aren't directed to any Pokepastes at the time of reading, that will be handled shortly.
Last edited:
I mean this with as much respect as possible, but this thread is supposed to be a resource and frankly no one is going to sit down and read walls of text that are not direct, to the point, and easy to understand. The effort is cool, and I understand that forum contribution is a thankless job, but I don't think this should be the format going forward.Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well today,
WCoP was a time of great development for the metagame; with it, came quite a lot of innovation that changed not only the landscape of the metagame but also our perception of it. It's for this reason that a lot of the cores that may have been good last update have fallen out of favor in the current metagame, and it's for this reason that we have a giant update on our hands and a fundamental overhaul to a lot of what defined good cores.
It's for this reason I'm going to take a different approach to explaining these cores. Instead of separating them as a whole by "Offensive" and "Balanced/Defensive", I'm going to separate them by sections of relevancy and give a little fun spin to it. You'll see what I mean below:
Chapter 1: Dastardly Kingdom of Weavile and Rapid Strike Urshifu
A long time ago, in an SS OU metagame far far away... the metagame was ruled by tyrants. Single Strike Urshifu, Cinderace, and Magearna ruled the metagame with an iron fist. They single-handedly defined what happened around them, laughing as their subjects scrambled to combat them. But alas, to no avail. Cinderace and Urshifu laughed and exploited their defensive answers by giving room for their enforcers to crush them down to size, pivoting around Pokemon that thought they could take the heat. Magearna, on the other hand, took all names. The few Pokemon who dared endure its onslaught were met with the binding fate of Choice items, and sometimes Magearna even turned to her own enforcers in a pinch.
The gods above chose to bless their subjects, realizing the chokehold these monarchs had on the SS OU kingdom. With a snap of their fingers, they vanished, and for a while, all was calm. Some tried to rise and take their place as the next great rulers of the kingdom. Dragapult came close but fell short as Pokemon banded together to keep it in check.
One day, Single Strike Urshifu's younger brother, Rapid Strike Urshifu, rose from the grave of his elder brother, tears laden in his eyes and fists clenched as he eyed the kingdom ahead. It was large, terrifying; how was it to compete in a kingdom ridden with Dragapult and Toxapex? Grief turned to anger; who had the right to take the place of someone--his older brother, no less--for their own, selfish desires? Rapid Strike cracked his knuckles, grit his teeth, and got into position. If the kingdom thought it had the right to desecrate the grave of Rapid Strike's brother, it would have to think twice.
Perhaps with less nobility, Weavile was a thief that laid in the rural streets of the kingdom, though rather impressive with his premium offensive typing, speed tier, and access to Knock Off. Magearna was an old friend that stabbed his back upon her arrival to the kingdom, and upon hearing of her death, Weavile felt no pity. For so long, Weavile had been held back by her. He craved for the day he could leave his mark, even turning to the streets for some moniker of a niche, but every time he tried, Magearna made sure to break his spirit. To those passing by, he was a name that commoners feared, but those who knew of his weaknesses shrugged Weavile off as his timely failures shed shame upon his name. However, upon news of Magearna's sudden disappearance, Weavile broke into laughter. He was transformed into an agent of chaos, and he was a terrifying, calculating one, at that. The metagame was an arena of chaos, and one he now knew how to make his.
___
These two Pokemon have arguably had the greatest results of any Pokemon in WCoP. There have been a great variety of games that demonstrated the sheer power that these two Pokemon have, in addition to other fantastic traits that make them some of the hardest Pokemon to reliably check in the current metagame between their incredible STABs, great options, and great natural characteristics such as their types defensively or stat distribution. There are several cores that help to highlight the strength of these Pokemon, while also helping to enable them by exploiting or helping to overload shared checks, even making a phenomenal pair in of themselves. There are also quite a few cores with the intent of checking them in mind.
made you look
Rapid Strike Urshifu and Weavile were two incredibly dominant, newfound figures that clashed quite a bit. Their morals conflicted; they both wanted to get to the top, yet for different reasons. However, in spite of Pokemon in theory being able to take them down, they had a lot on their side to either exploit or rip them apart. Rapid Strike had the art of pivoting on his side, passed down by his ancestors, while Weavile's dastardly, yet articulate nature gave him the cunning strength of Swords Dance and a powerful Ice-type STAB in Triple Axel to overwhelm his checks. However, in spite of this, the citizens did their best to take them on, even taking on new partners and new tools to keep them in check, while providing stable answers against other threats such as Dragapult.
Heavylifter Buzzwole, generally relegated to the duty of checking Kartana, now had a greater role to play with his superb Physical bulk and great power, taking on the role of an offensive check for the first time since the olden days of Generation 7. Moreover, Spikes became a very common tool that several Pokemon began to employ, provided by a local, quiet bartender named Mew which exploited Slowking rather well, and pairing fantastically with Buzzwole in spite of their drastic differences in character, and an old friend in Clefable.
On the other side of town in Bulky Water Street, Toxapex quit his lazing about and came back to provide a check to the two newcomers too, also bringing a classic tool in his lethal Toxic Spikes, making Hydreigon and SubRoost Kyurem fairly difficult to check in the long term. With Slowking starting to be taken a peg down, harassed by the new top dogs and techs designed to exploit it, Toxapex started to care less about what came his way. Tapu Fini came into her own as well, providing a great blanket check to both newcomers on top of other threats such as Heatran and Dragapult with a gorgeous Choice Scarf, or satisfying her cravings with Leftovers, Taunt, and Calm Mind to create for a rather great win condition on Spikes teams.
These Pokemon have all surged in use in WCoP as fantastic blanket checks to the aforementioned Weavile and Urshifu, while having great role compression in checking other dangerous wallbreakers or providing things like hazards, a win condition, or speed control.
Chapter 2: Fissures of Time
In spite of the newfound rule of Weavile and Urshifu-R over the landscape of the metagame, bulky Ground-types maintained their incredible influence over the metagame. Landorus-T still sat at the top of the food chain, holding a golden chalice laced in intricate patterns and the tears of the commoners. In spite of the changing metagame around him, he held an incredible talent none other came close to possessing: adaptability. Between his versatile stat spread, vast movepool, and incredible typing, Landorus-T set the trends as a bulky Ground-type on nearly every archetype, save for the fatasses sitting in Weenie Hut Jr; he wanted nothing to do with them, for he was superior.
However, he did acknowledge that there were some problem children running around; Dragapult--an imposter and mockery of his infinite rule--did admittedly have a rather captivating, yet obnoxious set of traits that many Pokemon struggled to check alone. Moreover, Heatran and Volcarona were pains, too. He rose from his throne, with a plan to keep them in line: Special Defense. So, adopted Landorus-T Special Defense investment. With his intimidating demeanor, he merely needed minimal physical bulk and Toxic to keep the insolent Zeraora, Garchomp, and Dragonite in check, while providing an added option against most Fire-types and Dragapult.
Many Ground-types, in his image, chose to adopt something rather similar. Special Defense on a Ground-type was genius to the Ground-types below. Hippowdon was a Pokemon that struggled to set itself apart; it was incredibly exploitable and many Special wallbreakers feasted on it... without investment, that is. With Special investment, however, Hippowdon's problems melted away, performing as an incredible Volcarona, Heatran, Dracozolt, and Dragapult check with a caveat Landorus-T could only dream of--longevity. Rarely could it be overwhelmed by these Pokemon, or god forbid Zeraora, lest it was poisoned. Gastrodon was a pick that also benefited from this new trend, boasting the unique caveat of a Trick and Knock Off immunity and helping to boost the residents of Weenie Hut Jr to Weenie Hut, however mostly paled in comparison to Hippowdon who found more success with his access to Stealth Rock and Sand Stream.
These two Ground-type Pokemon are still kicking it in modern day SS OU, however instead of Physical investment, these Pokemon are seen far more nowadays with Special investment thanks to the innovations of WCoP players. These Pokemon have either Intimidate or the natural bulk in order to check the Physical Pokemon they're aiming to check, so more often than not investment proves to be redundant except in certain matchups (offensive Grass-types and Melmetal respectively) whereas Special bulk gives them far greater value as walls in comparison, being able to alleviate a lot of pressure from allies to check them while furthering on role compression. We've been seeing a major rise in Hippowdon as well, which has come back to relive its former glory with its incredible defensive stats and a fantastic kit as a bulky Ground-type.
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Zeraora was a Pokemon acclaimed, thrown to the streets, acclaimed again, thrown to the streets again, and then acclaimed again. Zeraora has seen the top of the food chain, but lived at the bottom of it, too. However, in recent times, Zeraora finds itself back in the upper echelons of the metagame thanks to Landorus-T's incredible proneness to overload. It still greatly struggles against them, but then it rediscovered an old toy: Toxic. It was a toy that was employed best by Heatran, who was in the upper parts of the food chain, but not quite at the top. Heatran observed it and chose to create a pact with Zeraora to help lure and punish bulky Ground-types, in exchange for taking charge of the team once the bulky Ground-types were dealt with. Zeraora accepted this offer.
Heatran was not quite mutually exclusive to Zeraora, in fact, her wares were rather popular with a wide variety of Pokemon. Tapu Koko appreciated her ability to punish bulky Ground-types with dastardly status, with a similar requirement for Tapu Koko to clean up the rubble with Calm Mind. Dragonite was also a common stakeholder, which had risen to fame in recent times for its amazing role compression against Urshifu-R, Kartana, and Volcarona, as well as his potency as a win condition. Magnezone attempted to replicate this fame with its own Toxic, which found rather great success with Dragonite and occasionally a desperate Garchomp.
Local botanist and mad scientist Galarian Slowking was another rising star with a rather fantastic offensive and defensive profile that gave his original counterpart a run for his money, combating Tapu Fini, Tapu Koko, Kyurem, and occasionally Heatran with superb results. As a result of his own mad experiment, his coverage, access to Future Sight, Regenerator, a spammable Sludge Bomb, and incredible Special stats made Galarian Slowking a rather attractive tank with anything but passivity to boot. It reaped upon the Ground-types that depended on consistent HP thresholds to do their job, spreading poison, and even exploiting Heatran's propaganda and attempts to block his disgusting Sludge Bomb to set up a Future Sight.
Corviknight did what it always did against these pesky Ground-types. It won Defog wars with Pressure, but was always an incredibly reliable Pokemon respected by many in the kingdom. It soaked Toxic, it took Knock Off, and provided a blanket check to a wide variety of Pokemon in the tier such as Tapu Lele, Landorus-T, Kartana, and Garchomp, while soft-checking Weavile and Urshifu-R. It paired well with a wide variety of Pokemon, including Buzzwole, Rotom-W, and Clefable.
Many of these Pokemon have adapted to and even have started to take advantage of the adaptations of Ground-types in the tier. While Poison spam tends to be one of the better ways of applying pressure to Hippowdon and Landorus-T cores, there are a wide variety of unique interactions that these Pokemon tend to have with one another that allows them to prosper in the metagame in spite of shared issues against bulky Ground-types, providing coverage against other top threats like Kyurem and Dragapult while providing great role compression for teams in need of their other great, unique traits.
Toxic Heatran/Magnezone Cores
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Galarian Slowking Cores
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Galarian Slowking Cores
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Corviknight Cores
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Chapter 3: A New Day
The metagame is fierce and unforgiving at its core. Role compression is more important than ever, however, in spite of that, many Pokemon have taken to working together and carving their own path to the top without turning to the corruption of the higher-ups, or Heatran's wares. Commoners walking down the street see a wide variety of wallbreakers and pivots doing their best to work together in the harsh climate, utilizing their unique attributes and interactions to pave their path and make their niches heard.
Pivots such as Scizor and Rotom-W are fantastic pairings with other Pokemon such as Victini and Kyurem, while Hydreigon works as an offensive Heatran check and providing what it can to those around it with its access to longevity, a Shadow Ball resistance, and Nasty Plot wallbreaking. It turns to Aromatherapy Clefable as an option to offset Heatran's marketing mania of Toxic spam. On the other hand, we see Pokemon playing to terrain setters like Tapu Bulu and Tapu Lele to help with overloading Physical and Special walls alike, between the beastly Buzzwole and the corrupt Heatran.
We see the metagame evolve every day... and with it, new, unique innovations of the people to rise to the top and make their mark.
This is pretty much the miscellaneous section that I couldn't fit into its own section without seeming facetious! Explanations on these cores will be in their respective pastes.
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And this concludes the incredibly long update post. Did you like this kind of style? Please let me know! Upon this post going live, the thread will be available for submissions. Let me know if you have any questions, and happy posting! The thread will now be unlocked.
I will be chain linking pastes and updating the OP throughout the night; if you aren't directed to any Pokepastes at the time of reading, that will be handled shortly.
Whats the problem? You dont have to read the (very cool) story ausma wrote to see the new good cores. You can literally just ignore it (which i dont recommend) and go directly to the spoilers man. Also who said this was the new format? You should just sit down and read what you want, no one is forcing you to read the story.
Btw, i think its very disrespectful saying "no one is going to sit down and read walls of text" when a lot of people liked the story and ausma put a lot of effort into it, even if you say "with as much respect as possible".
Let's not derail this thread into an argument about the format; IPF's criticism has been heard and I'll be sure to consider it for the next slate. Thank you though Windingsss, I appreciate your words a lot.
Additionally, I have updated the OP with every updated core and removed outdated ones. There are also now linked pastes from Chapter 1, with some others giving me a hand for the rest of them. If anybody has any more concerns, be sure PM them to me from this point forward. Thank you!
Additionally, I have updated the OP with every updated core and removed outdated ones. There are also now linked pastes from Chapter 1, with some others giving me a hand for the rest of them. If anybody has any more concerns, be sure PM them to me from this point forward. Thank you!
I have a core I would like to share.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 8 Atk / 248 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Knock Off
- Gyro Ball
Hawlucha @ Electric Seed
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Acrobatics
Tapu Koko @ Light Clay
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Thunderbolt
Tapu koko gets the terrrain up allowing hawlucha to come in, and use the electric seed to activate its unburden. It can use substitute and swords dance to set up. Tapu koko has screens to help hawlucha set up. Ferrothorn and koko help check some of the counters to hawlucha that it cannot handle using sub like mandibuzz, and they can also provide stealth rock support.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 8 Atk / 248 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Knock Off
- Gyro Ball
Hawlucha @ Electric Seed
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Acrobatics
Tapu Koko @ Light Clay
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Thunderbolt
Tapu koko gets the terrrain up allowing hawlucha to come in, and use the electric seed to activate its unburden. It can use substitute and swords dance to set up. Tapu koko has screens to help hawlucha set up. Ferrothorn and koko help check some of the counters to hawlucha that it cannot handle using sub like mandibuzz, and they can also provide stealth rock support.
+Surprised no one mentioned this core.
Rillaboom provides scizor pseudo recovery in grassy terrain covering walls like toxapex with sd and Rotom-W. In return scizor helps rilla as a kyurem check with grassy terrain recovery provided it as well while also forcing out weavile,non fire punch dnite as well as giving rillaboom safe opportunities to switchin through u turn so it could also act as a volturn core. Since this core fares poorly against fire types,zapdos and corvi, furtherpairing this core with dragons like your own kyurem or nasty plot hydreigon is recommended as this core goes bonkers with these threats removed while also acting as a good defensive core at the same time. Sy if this core sounds unimpressive but to me personally,they complement each other nice enough to deserve a mention here.
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Zeraora @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bulk Up
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Plasma Fists
Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Toxic
- Recover
Buzzwole @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs:12 HP / 168 Atk / 144 Def / 184 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
- Roost
This is a pretty interesting core to build around,but its pretty good.Quagsire is good at killing Grounds,and Buzzwole with Ice Punch coverage is great at it.This paves the way for Zeraora to Plasma Fists to victory.Quagsire can come in even after its killed the Grounds to sponge hits and annoy with Toxic and Scald Burns.Buzzwole does what Buzzwole does,taking on like half the tier and winning 1-on-1.Buzzwole can also get rid of Grasses that Quag is terrified of.Overall,this is a quite nice Offensive Core.
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I've seen this spammed everywhere but not in this thread, so it's time to fix that.
Slowking-G + Buzzwole (or as I like to call it, "GloWole") is an increasingly popular bulky offensive core adorned with stellar offensive and defensive presence and sinergy. Glowking sets up Future Sights and has colourful coverage to pick its checks and lure stuff, while being a blanket check to many key special attackers. Buzzwole has the bulk to switch into physical threats that try to take advantage of Glowking setting up Future Sight and then immediately abuse it with its vicious STAB Close Combat. Dark- and Ground-resistances are really key in this meta and Buzzwole isn't weak to particularly widespread types or coverage moves on physical attackers, so it acts as a great blanket check on the physical side, complementing Glowking really well.
As far as moves go, the 4th slot of each is where you can get creative. EQ helps Glowking dealing with Heatran which is a big threat to this core. Alternatively, Ice Beam can be run to stun Dragapult (which is another threat to the core) and smack Ground types, while Scald/Hydro Pump are midground options for said Grounds and Heatran. Leech Life on Buzzwole gives in a great hit against common threats such as Weavile while providing recovery. Earthquake itself is an option for hitting Toxapex and Ground has pretty good neutral coverage overall. Thunder Punch or Poison Jab are valid alternatives to hit Tapu Fini hard.
mad scientist spread almost always 2hko spdef tran with eq (93%), takes two sball from specs pult, 2 earthpowers and 3 ice beams from timid kyurem. rest in spatk for damage.
roid mosquito spread outspeeds adamant bisharp, timid zone and 92 lando, has enough bulk to tank two cb smart strikes from full hp and rest in atk for damage.
mad scientist spread almost always 2hko spdef tran with eq (93%), takes two sball from specs pult, 2 earthpowers and 3 ice beams from timid kyurem. rest in spatk for damage.
roid mosquito spread outspeeds adamant bisharp, timid zone and 92 lando, has enough bulk to tank two cb smart strikes from full hp and rest in atk for damage.
due to the nature of FS dragging in Psychic resists/immune Pokémon and Buzzwole's ability to pulverize special walls with the help of said FS, Dragapult blends itself pretty nicely as threats involved into this FS+Buzz cycle are relevant checks to Pult OR Pult itself can take advantage of them. Also Pult provides a valuable source of speed control and helps wearing down Heatran.
reliefs some pressure off of buzz in checking physical threats, provides much needed momentum and a great knock off sponge since these two really want to keep their items and removes pesky hazards that glowking hates. since these two are slow and don't provide neither sr/defog nor ground/electric immunity, lando-t is a great role compressor that can glue the core together and provide crucial support deals reliably with shifu, pult and tran, very dangerous opponents for this core, while providing item displacement with knock/trick, potentially defog support, temporary status protection especially for buzzwole. in a similar vein to pult when it comes to FS cycle, but with more defensive utility vs heatran and, alongside the pivoting capabilities of glowking, pult itself. this pick, however, makes building the rest of the team a big hassle due to certain necessities yet to be fulfilled.
on slower builds this is a great partner to snuff heatran, pult, volcarona and especially ruining tapu fini's life with the combination of clear smog and sticky hold bc glowking really needs its AV.
Garchomp Cores :
I have been using SD + Scale Shot Garchomp a lot on my team nowadays, hence I have this Gachomp core dump.
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Zeraora and Garchomp can form a devastating double sweeper core, overloading their checks like Buzzwole, Tangrowth, Landorus-T, Tapu Bulu etc. effectively. Zeraora can Knock off valuable items such as Heavy Duty Boots and Leftovers from them early in the game, which helps Garchomp pressure them better with SD and its coverage moves. In return, the offensive pressure Garchomp applies on these checks brings them in Zeraora's range. If running Bulk up, Zeraora needs only a boost or two to outlast and win against these checks, thanks to Garchomp's prior breaking/sweeping. If running Toxic, it statuses all these checks early-game, making it easier for Garchomp to sweep and further helps itself clean late game. Moreover, Zeraora helps Garchomp by revenge killing its offensive checks like Dragapult, Weavile, Tornadus-T etc.. while 2HKOing Tapu Koko with Plasma Fist at +1
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This is another double sweeping core, offering each other easy opportunities to set SD and help break past each other's checks such as Buzzwole, Corviknight, Landorus-T etc.. Scizor U-turns out of Zapdos, Heatran and Toxapex, whom Garchomp forces out and this allows the land shark to gain an easy opportunity to setup. Moreover, Scizor switches easily into Garchomp's checks like Clefable (lacking a Fire move), Rillaboom, Kartana, Weavile etc.. which, in turn, grants the metal bug a setup opportunity.
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Tapu Fini's Misty Terrain enables Garchomp to dodge status, enabling it to fearlessly setup in front of Heatran and Toxapex. Tapu Fini can also check Garchomp's revenge killers like Weavile and Urshifu-R, and alleviates pressure on Garchomp to check Heatran. Further, Tapu Fini can inflict massive damage on Garchomp's defensive checks like Quagsire, unaware Clefable and Corviknight with Nature's Madness, and denies these bulky mons the option to recover using Taunt. Choice Scarf Tapu Fini provides speed control against Dragapult and Weavile, while being able to cripple the former bulky Pokemon with Trick. An awesome part of using Tapu Fini with Garchomp is that Garchomp is a Dragon who is not crippled by Misty Terrain - it requires higher Scale Shot damage mainly against Flying types like Zapdos; Earthquake and Fire Fang/Stone Edge provide terrific type coverage, and is usually enough against grounded opponents. In return, Garchomp pressures Ferrothorn and G-Slowking for Tapu Fini.
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Buzzwole switches into Garchomp checks like Weavile, Rillaboom etc.. and chips them using Rocky Helmet. Further, Buzzwole can lure in and damage Garchomp checks like Clefable and Tapu Fini with Poison Jab, opponent Buzzwole and Tangrowth with Dual Wingeat and Slowbro with Leech Life. These ensure progress against Garchomp's checks, helping it sweep later in the match. In return, Garchomp can switch into Zapdos and Heatran for Buzzwole.
I have been using SD + Scale Shot Garchomp a lot on my team nowadays, hence I have this Gachomp core dump.
Zeraora and Garchomp can form a devastating double sweeper core, overloading their checks like Buzzwole, Tangrowth, Landorus-T, Tapu Bulu etc. effectively. Zeraora can Knock off valuable items such as Heavy Duty Boots and Leftovers from them early in the game, which helps Garchomp pressure them better with SD and its coverage moves. In return, the offensive pressure Garchomp applies on these checks brings them in Zeraora's range. If running Bulk up, Zeraora needs only a boost or two to outlast and win against these checks, thanks to Garchomp's prior breaking/sweeping. If running Toxic, it statuses all these checks early-game, making it easier for Garchomp to sweep and further helps itself clean late game. Moreover, Zeraora helps Garchomp by revenge killing its offensive checks like Dragapult, Weavile, Tornadus-T etc.. while 2HKOing Tapu Koko with Plasma Fist at +1
This core needs pivoting support to function at it's best (no Volt Switch on Zeraora because all it can do is pivot Garchomp into Tangrowth, Buzzwole etc.., which isn't the best scenario) to make their sweep easier. This core also appreciates wallbreakers like who can help soften up their checks early-game. Buzzwole gets a special mention because it checks Rillaboom, who poses a threat with Grassy Glide to this core
This is another double sweeping core, offering each other easy opportunities to set SD and help break past each other's checks such as Buzzwole, Corviknight, Landorus-T etc.. Scizor U-turns out of Zapdos, Heatran and Toxapex, whom Garchomp forces out and this allows the land shark to gain an easy opportunity to setup. Moreover, Scizor switches easily into Garchomp's checks like Clefable (lacking a Fire move), Rillaboom, Kartana, Weavile etc.. which, in turn, grants the metal bug a setup opportunity.
Since Scizor U-turns on Zapdos, and Garchomp attempts to setup on Heatran and Toxapex, this core needs protection, from status. This makes Tapu Fini an excellent team mate. Similar to Zera-Chomp, wallbreaking and hazard support is much appreciated
Tapu Fini's Misty Terrain enables Garchomp to dodge status, enabling it to fearlessly setup in front of Heatran and Toxapex. Tapu Fini can also check Garchomp's revenge killers like Weavile and Urshifu-R, and alleviates pressure on Garchomp to check Heatran. Further, Tapu Fini can inflict massive damage on Garchomp's defensive checks like Quagsire, unaware Clefable and Corviknight with Nature's Madness, and denies these bulky mons the option to recover using Taunt. Choice Scarf Tapu Fini provides speed control against Dragapult and Weavile, while being able to cripple the former bulky Pokemon with Trick. An awesome part of using Tapu Fini with Garchomp is that Garchomp is a Dragon who is not crippled by Misty Terrain - it requires higher Scale Shot damage mainly against Flying types like Zapdos; Earthquake and Fire Fang/Stone Edge provide terrific type coverage, and is usually enough against grounded opponents. In return, Garchomp pressures Ferrothorn and G-Slowking for Tapu Fini.
Both these Pokemon dislike facing Rillaboom and Tapu Koko. Hence, checks to them like Buzzwole for the former and G-Slowking and Ferrothon for the latter are much appreciated. Pivoting and Wallbreaking is again much appreciated
Buzzwole switches into Garchomp checks like Weavile, Rillaboom etc.. and chips them using Rocky Helmet. Further, Buzzwole can lure in and damage Garchomp checks like Clefable and Tapu Fini with Poison Jab, opponent Buzzwole and Tangrowth with Dual Wingeat and Slowbro with Leech Life. These ensure progress against Garchomp's checks, helping it sweep later in the match. In return, Garchomp can switch into Zapdos and Heatran for Buzzwole.
This core needs protection against Dragapult, Tornadus and Tapu Koko, hence Clefable is a splendid partner who can also setup rocks, spread status like Thunder Wave etc..
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These 2 pokemon pair very well, and form the infamous skarm bliss core. Blissey helps counter threats that otherwise would pressure skarmory, such as tapu koko, kyurem, and dragapult. While skarmory helps check pokemon like weavile, Tapu Lele locked into psyshock, tapu bulu, and buzzwole. They can both apply pressure via hazard stacking and spread status via toxic or thunder wave to cripple threats such as heatran, kyurem, dragapult, and weavile.
Offensive Cores :
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Zeraora baits in Specially Defensive Grounds like Lando-T, Gastrodon and Hippowdon, as well as other walls like Clefable for a Toxic. Then, Dragapult shreds these checks with Specs Hex. In return, Dragapult's Ghost attack spam softens up opponent Pokemon to prepare a smooth endgame for Zeraora and itself.
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Dragapult pivots out of Blissey, Tyrannitar and Heatran, all of whom Buzzwole can force out or eliminate. Then, Buzzwole dents shared checks like Clefable and Tapu Fini with Poison Jab, or Toxapex with Earthquake. This ensures that Dragapult and Buzzwole make progress against shared checks. Dragapult further provides a secondary switch-in to Urshifu-R. Buzzwole, in return, can switch into Pokemon that can Revenge Kill Dragapult like Zeraora and Weavile.
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Scizor lures in some of biggest Volcarona checks - Heatran and Toxapex. With Sand Tomb, it can eliminate both these Pokemon, while also being able to chip Swampert and Tapu Fini, opening up a pathway for Volcarona Sweep.
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Similar to Dragapult, Tapu Koko pivots out of Special Walls like Blissey, Tyrannitar, Heatran etc.. whom Buzzwole can take advantage of, and force out or eliminate. Buzzwole can then proceed to 2HKO its switchins like Toxapex, Tapu Fini, Slowtwins etc.. with Terrain-boosted Thunder punch, hence forcing progress. Tapu Koko, moreover, deals with Buzzwole checks like Tornadus-T, Zapdos etc.. while Buzzwole deals with Koko annoyers like Rillaboom etc..
Defensive/Balanced Cores :
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Utility Tornadus-T is an exemplary partner to as it can scout for flying type attacks aimed at Buzzwole from Kartana and Rillaboom, knocks items off from Buzzwole's checks such as Tapu Fini and can bring in Buzzwole safely with a fast U-Turn. Moreover, Tornadus-T can defog away hazards, which enables Buzzwole to go for Rocky Helmet instead of Heavy Duty Boots. If running Taunt, Tornadus-T denies Buzzwole annoyers like Hippowdon, Skarmory, Mew and Clefable from recovering, making it easier for Buzzwole to wallbreak.
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Ferrothorn and Tapu Fini form an exemplary backbone on Bulky Offense teams that is able to chip opponents due to exceptional defensive synergy and lack of passivity thanks to Spikes + Nature's Madness. Ferrothorn's weaknesses are covered by Tapu Fini and Vice-Versa. This enables them to switch into each others' offensive checks effectively to set up Spikes or chip away with Nature's Madness respectively. This makes it easier for their offensive teammates to clean more effectively in late-game, especially against fat teams. The core, however, needs to be careful of Kartana, hence partners like Tornadus-T and Zapdos work well with this core.
Zeraora baits in Specially Defensive Grounds like Lando-T, Gastrodon and Hippowdon, as well as other walls like Clefable for a Toxic. Then, Dragapult shreds these checks with Specs Hex. In return, Dragapult's Ghost attack spam softens up opponent Pokemon to prepare a smooth endgame for Zeraora and itself.
Dragapult pivots out of Blissey, Tyrannitar and Heatran, all of whom Buzzwole can force out or eliminate. Then, Buzzwole dents shared checks like Clefable and Tapu Fini with Poison Jab, or Toxapex with Earthquake. This ensures that Dragapult and Buzzwole make progress against shared checks. Dragapult further provides a secondary switch-in to Urshifu-R. Buzzwole, in return, can switch into Pokemon that can Revenge Kill Dragapult like Zeraora and Weavile.
Scizor lures in some of biggest Volcarona checks - Heatran and Toxapex. With Sand Tomb, it can eliminate both these Pokemon, while also being able to chip Swampert and Tapu Fini, opening up a pathway for Volcarona Sweep.
Similar to Dragapult, Tapu Koko pivots out of Special Walls like Blissey, Tyrannitar, Heatran etc.. whom Buzzwole can take advantage of, and force out or eliminate. Buzzwole can then proceed to 2HKO its switchins like Toxapex, Tapu Fini, Slowtwins etc.. with Terrain-boosted Thunder punch, hence forcing progress. Tapu Koko, moreover, deals with Buzzwole checks like Tornadus-T, Zapdos etc.. while Buzzwole deals with Koko annoyers like Rillaboom etc..
Defensive/Balanced Cores :
Utility Tornadus-T is an exemplary partner to as it can scout for flying type attacks aimed at Buzzwole from Kartana and Rillaboom, knocks items off from Buzzwole's checks such as Tapu Fini and can bring in Buzzwole safely with a fast U-Turn. Moreover, Tornadus-T can defog away hazards, which enables Buzzwole to go for Rocky Helmet instead of Heavy Duty Boots. If running Taunt, Tornadus-T denies Buzzwole annoyers like Hippowdon, Skarmory, Mew and Clefable from recovering, making it easier for Buzzwole to wallbreak.
Ferrothorn and Tapu Fini form an exemplary backbone on Bulky Offense teams that is able to chip opponents due to exceptional defensive synergy and lack of passivity thanks to Spikes + Nature's Madness. Ferrothorn's weaknesses are covered by Tapu Fini and Vice-Versa. This enables them to switch into each others' offensive checks effectively to set up Spikes or chip away with Nature's Madness respectively. This makes it easier for their offensive teammates to clean more effectively in late-game, especially against fat teams. The core, however, needs to be careful of Kartana, hence partners like Tornadus-T and Zapdos work well with this core.
+ Zeraora @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Volt Switch
- Knock Off
- Close Combat
Rillaboom @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- U-turn
- Knock Off
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Volt Switch
- Knock Off
- Close Combat
Rillaboom @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- U-turn
- Knock Off
These two make a really good offensive core where they can wear down each others' checks until one of them is able to pull off a sweep. Rillaboom is able to threaten the majority of Ground types in the tier, such as SD
etc. with its STAB Wood Hammer and Grassy Glide, whereas Zeraora is able to KO or heavily chip stuff like 
and 
that may switch into one of Rillaboom's Grass STABs. Spamming Knock Off will remove Leftovers from :Landorus-Therain: , and boots from , allowing for them to be chipped down even more easily. Good Partners:
-
- It walls and cripples bulky , who could switch into these two and threaten a burn. It can also threaten , which can be a big annoyance until it's switched into several Close Combats from Zeraora. Also, it baits in mons that would try to come in such as and the rarer tank and cripples them with Toxic, and in tandem with Rocks and Knock Off removing their leftovers, will heavily limit the number of times they can switch into this core
- It walls and cripples bulky
- Slow Bulky Pivots ( etc. )
- These guys can switch into strong offensive mons that Rilla and Zera can't switch into, like , and bring them in safely. Also, they can prevent Rilla and Zera from getting chipped too much which allows them from surviving crucial priority hits. For example, standard SD
deals roughly 50-58% to Zeraora with Ice Shard at +2, and CB 
does around 40-46% with Aqua Jet. Rillaboom takes 39-48% from non boosted 's Ice Shard and can KO it back
- These guys can switch into strong offensive mons that Rilla and Zera can't switch into, like