Introduction
While the standard structures I've seen lean on OU powerhouses being boosted by some of the bigger God's of the tier, such as Eternatus and Calyrex-Ice, I went with a more subtle approach to the team that leans on some standard and niche picks that I think have paid off. I did some digging in the builder and decided on Kyurem-White as the choice for God here as I wanted something that passed pretty solid stats to my defensive mons while providing immense upside offensively on its own and in the special breaker slot.
For a comprehensive breakdown of how Godly Gift works, check out the metagame thread here; to summarize, each team has the option to use one "God" that bestows its stats to the respective Pokemon in the order of HP/Atk/Def/SpA/SpD/Spe. I'll be sure to update the base stats of each teammate below to illustrate how this works!
Proof of Peak
Teambuilding Process
To start, I wanted to build around Kyurem-White due to its solid stat distribution, great offensive typing and coverage, and immense upside as an HP- and Special Attack-passing God. It fulfilled the Speed role on the team because it isn't a particularly fast mon and the rest of the team didn't benefit from the boost.
As funny as it may look, my next two picks shored up my Speed control. Amoonguss has the unique quality of being slower than Calyrex-Ice in Trick Room while also threatening to blow it up with Foul Play, making it quite notable as a bulky Regenerator mon. On top of this, it has great utility against much of the tier, using Grass Knot to dish out massive damage to a lot of God's given their generally high weight along with Sludge Bomb to spread poison, which benefits the special breaker of the team in Basculegion-F. With Adaptability and a boosted 170(!) Special Attack stat, not much can take a hit from the big fish and it has a solid enough Speed tier to wield a Choice Scarf with ease.
I had to fit quite a lot of defensive capabilities on the team to make up for the relative frailty of my two offensive powerhouses, which Tinkaton and Ting-Lu do quite well. Tinkaton also provides a Stealth Rock setter that can get them up against notable HP recipient Hatterene, while also using a solid Attack boost to threaten big damage with its great STAB moves. Ting-Lu is nigh unkillable in vanilla formats and this is exaggerated quite drastically when given a bump in Special Defense - this thing is a great Spikes setter and phazer.
I felt like the team needed a little more juice against bulkier squads, something that can pivot, help keep Trick Room Calyrex-Ice stuff in check, and spread status in one slot. Rotom-W is a common HP recipient and for good reason; this thing takes so little from so much even without investment and can provide a great defensive pivot for the squad. Like Tinkaton, it also has the added benefit of spreading status for Basculegion-F, which can be massively important in mid- and end-game situations.
Team Breakdown
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp
125/65/107/105/107/86
As explained above, Rotom-W is kind of a dynamic pivot for the team, giving us a little bit of added insurance against Calyrex-Ice on top of spreading burns to the plethora of physical attackers in the metagame like Great Tusk, Iron Hands, Tinkaton, etc. The EV spread is pretty standard, I had originally invested in HP but it takes hits well enough to get away with more of an offensive spread to maximize Pain Split potential.Teambuilding Process
To start, I wanted to build around Kyurem-White due to its solid stat distribution, great offensive typing and coverage, and immense upside as an HP- and Special Attack-passing God. It fulfilled the Speed role on the team because it isn't a particularly fast mon and the rest of the team didn't benefit from the boost.
As funny as it may look, my next two picks shored up my Speed control. Amoonguss has the unique quality of being slower than Calyrex-Ice in Trick Room while also threatening to blow it up with Foul Play, making it quite notable as a bulky Regenerator mon. On top of this, it has great utility against much of the tier, using Grass Knot to dish out massive damage to a lot of God's given their generally high weight along with Sludge Bomb to spread poison, which benefits the special breaker of the team in Basculegion-F. With Adaptability and a boosted 170(!) Special Attack stat, not much can take a hit from the big fish and it has a solid enough Speed tier to wield a Choice Scarf with ease.
I had to fit quite a lot of defensive capabilities on the team to make up for the relative frailty of my two offensive powerhouses, which Tinkaton and Ting-Lu do quite well. Tinkaton also provides a Stealth Rock setter that can get them up against notable HP recipient Hatterene, while also using a solid Attack boost to threaten big damage with its great STAB moves. Ting-Lu is nigh unkillable in vanilla formats and this is exaggerated quite drastically when given a bump in Special Defense - this thing is a great Spikes setter and phazer.
I felt like the team needed a little more juice against bulkier squads, something that can pivot, help keep Trick Room Calyrex-Ice stuff in check, and spread status in one slot. Rotom-W is a common HP recipient and for good reason; this thing takes so little from so much even without investment and can provide a great defensive pivot for the squad. Like Tinkaton, it also has the added benefit of spreading status for Basculegion-F, which can be massively important in mid- and end-game situations.
Team Breakdown
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp
125/65/107/105/107/86
Tinkaton @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Gigaton Hammer
- Play Rough
- Thunder Wave
85/120/77/70/105/94
Amoonguss @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Sludge Bomb
- Grass Knot
- Giga Drain
- Foul Play
114/85/90/85/80/30
Okay, the first pick that makes a lot of you go "huh?" actually makes so much sense here - let me break it down. Amoonguss is a decisively great Regenerator Pokemon in this metagame to me; it has excellent typing for the metagame, the aforementioned slower-than-Calyrex-Ice Foul Play, and is a grounded Poison-type that can help our team pick up Toxic Spikes given we lack removal otherwise. It also just takes almost nothing from so many offensive monsters like Hisuian Electrode, Iron Crown, Clefable, Ribombee, etc. while being able to brush off attacks with ease. Tera Steel helps remove the Fire-, Flying-, and Ice-type weaknesses, which covers a majority of the Gods and offensive recipients that might otherwise threaten to break through its immense bulk. This mon here is a hidden gem that makes the opponent pull their hair out trying to whittle it down.
Basculegion-F (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Adaptability
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Surf
- Shadow Ball
- Hex
- Flip Turn
120/92/65/170/75/78
Speaking of whittling stuff down, the big fish does SO much damage to EVERYTHING. Not much can resist its STAB combination, which makes dropping coverage like Ice Beam pretty easy. Hex has the obvious upside of doing one billion damage to anything unfortunate enough to catch a status, something this team has a knack for doing pretty reliably, but we still run Shadow Ball just in case we need it. Flip Turn is not something I click often but can scout for Tera Normal against stuff like DD Dragonite or SD Rayquaza - Surf blows up both of them after you let a teammate take their attack. Adaptability-boosted attacks coming from this high of a base stat is absolutely lethal and forces major concessions each time it hits the field, which is why I chose it as the Special Attack recipient and Choice Scarf wielder, allowing it plenty of opportunities to click buttons and blow up stuff.
Ting-Lu @ Leftovers
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Earthquake
- Ruination
- Whirlwind
155/110/125/55/100/45
Ting-Lu is just really unfair to play against no matter the format. 155/125/100 bulk with Vessel of Ruin means Ting-Lu is taking at most 20% from any attack from any threat... okay not really, but it feels like it. I went with the classic Spikes + Whirlwind set since it helps spread hazard chip damage while removing Booster Energy boosts from stuff that might be a nuisance otherwise, like Iron Hands and Great Tusk. Tera Fairy is pretty safe overall, helps it take less from the big hitters like the two aforementioned booster mons and other threats like Meowscarada and Ogerpon-W.
Kyurem-White @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Turboblaze
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Ice Beam
- Freeze-Dry
- Fusion Flare
125/120/90/170/100/95
As mentioned in the Introduction, Kyurem-White fulfills the Speed role because... it's Speed kinda sucks and we don't need it otherwise. I think the offensive trio of Dragon, Ice, and Fire hits basically everything pretty well, especially since Freeze-Dry helps give us coverage for stuff like opposing Rotom-W. At times I feel like this is kind of underwhelming as a God, but then I click Draco Meteor and whatever is in front of me blows up and I say okay maybe this isn't that bad after all. Tera Fire is mostly a defensive option, though boosted Fusion Flare can come in handy against SD Tinkaton or Iron Crown.
Replays and Summary
paste: https://pokepast.es/9cb78464e0e7a13c
paste: https://pokepast.es/9cb78464e0e7a13c
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Overall, this meta feels really great and balanced, so kudos to those responsible for tiering and such. The idea is very cool, the diversity of mons and creativeness in sets you can express is massive, and this is just something I really want to play more (rip OMPL dream...). I will definitely continue trying out other OMs but this one has left a really great impression on me and I look forward to playing it a lot more in the future.
