Metagame SWSH Little Cup Teambuilding Competition

[Kazeiyuu]

Alright, here comes...
The Sweet Surprise!

featuring
THE GOATS

(click here for the past)
and them as well

Description

This team is a classic screen offense, but with a little twist to it, in the presence of not one but 2 suicide leads, allowing you to get both stealth rocks and a bunch of Screen Turn on the field with ease, Sandshrew-Alola being the fastest Aurora Veil user under Hail. Then, our sweepers can come in and break through opposition! Also, Sandshrew-Alola can still act as a win condition against some MU, which is always a plus. Overall, there's not a lot to say about this team, it's kinda classic, but this "suicid core" works well and is an original way to exploit hail.

Threats

One of the worst MU for this team is Timburr, denying your suicide lead with ease. Your option in the MU is to lead with Natu and try to either force Timb out or kill it. Another difficult MU is sun, which is why both our hail abuser use hail as well (it is also helpful on Sandshrew if Amaura is already KO and the hail isn't active).

 

[Shandeur]

Goofy Veils

This is probably the weirdest team I've ever made.

Teambuilding Process

I wanted to build Veil, a team-style I had never tried before, and I needed a lead. Sash Inner Focus Pawniard helps a lot vs Fighting Types, as it can Paralyze the Fighting Type and get Stealth Rock up. Rock Polish is in case I need to get rocks up vs a team with Diglett, or generally faster Pokemon. Knock Off is for Item Removal and deters Natu from coming in.

Then, I needed a veil setter. Amaura has both Aurora Veil and Snow Warning, which perfectly facilitates my first sweeper, Alolan Sandshrew. With good play, you might be able to get several rounds of Aurora Veil up.

Alolan Sandshrew is a serious threat with hail up, and can easily break down or clean teams. Sandshrew also has good bulk and access to Rapid Spin, which can clear hazards for Pokemon such as Magby. AxelQuake is a good combination of moves, and Swords Dance jacks up its attack to chilling levels.

I then needed a second veil abuser and a Pokemon that puts more pressure on Bulky Water Types. Magby perfectly fits this role. Alolan Sandshrew clears Bulky Grounds for Magby, and Magby can deal with Ponyta, which Sandshrew doesn't like too much. Thief is an interesting choice here, as it steals items, and can give Magby some extra bulk if it steals an Eviolite. It also notably One Hit KOs Frillish at +6, which can comfortably take Alolan-Sandshrew's attacks.

A second abuser of hail needed to be selected. After thinking for a while, I selected Tyrunt to overwhelm Bulky Waters even more. I had many options to hit steel types, so I decided to use Three Fang moves. Thunder, Fire, and Psychic Fangs were chosen. I also had plenty of options to hit Ground types, and did not choose Ice Fang for that reason.

I then noticed that I am horribly, horribly weak to ground types. I added Grookey to put more pressure on Ground Types, and provide the healing and Earthquake weakening Grassy Terrain. It also gave me more assurance against Carvanha.

Threats

Mudbray forces Grookey to switch in everytime it comes in, which can be exploited. If they lead it into Pawniard, Rock Polish first to see if it's Scarf Mudbray. If it is, Knock the Scarf off immediately. Rocks aren't worth it when you risk getting 6-0'd by Mudbray. However, if you're set-up with say, Alolan-Sandshrew, you should be okay.

If you load into FightSpam, give up. You just lose. Timburr doesn't allow any set-up due to Mach Punch and Drain Punch, while Scarf Mienfoo beats down this team easily. The only way you win is to either: Get Lucky and have Foo miss HJK, Pray your opponent is an idiot, or outplay them entirely.

Ponyta is a threat to this team due, since nothing can hit it super-effectively bar Sandshrew, which does not want to switch in at all. Your best bet is to Paralyze it with Pawniard or pray they don't lead it. Alternatively, drop Thunder Fang for Rock Blast on Tyrunt.

Good Luck to everyone.

Edit: Didn't realize BLB made a team pretty similar to this, as I was typing this post when he made his post.

 

[Kipkluif]

From the depths of LPL5 LCUU, I present you:

Choice Band Larvesta Sand

Team Description

The main gameplan is to either punch holes with the strongest U-turn in the game for your sand core to clean up, or weaken bulky neutral targets with Sandshrew until everything drops to Flare Blitz. Since sand hinders Morning Sun, defensive Larvesta isn't as effective here. Hippopotas has Rock Tomb and Yawn to force as many switches as possible, preventing it from being a complete momentum sink. Sandshrew lives one LO Grassy Glide from Grookey 15/16 times, and can beat it with Leech Life. Mienfoo is here to do Mienfoo things, Staryu has Flip Turn to let Larvesta in on a Ferroseed. Natu is another switchin to Grookey, as well as another Mienfoo check and another mon with momentum.
Main weaknesses are Abra and Carvanha; we don't have good switchins for either, and their high speed makes them hard to revenge kill. Try to maintain pivot momentum to deny them any chance to get in safely, Abra is more susceptible to Rock Tomb whereas Carvanha will get worn down by sand, Life Orb and hazard damage.

 

[Bella]

welcome to the dumbest team you will ever see.
(If ill feel like it, ill put a drawing here later)
I noticed no one (bar Shoddy) has made manual rain yet, so uh... here we are

Description

So, this is a manual rain team. Im running 3 setters (Riolu and Purrloin, and a backup in Croakgunk), 3 abusers, (Wingull, Croagunk, and Kabuto), and a Defensive Support in Ferroseed. Basically your idea is to set up rain and just go ham with your abusers. Grookey of course is a major problem for this team, but ill get to that later.

Teambuilding Process

I started off with these two, mainly for the fact they are the only prankster pokemon in Little cup with Rain Dance. (GIVE COTTENEE RAIN DANCE IT WOULD BE SUCH A STEPUP FROM PURRLOIN.) I reccomend starting off games with purrloin, as all it needs to do is rain dance and then it can go away. As such, Purrloins other 3 slots are really just a pivot move (uturn), and 2 other utility moves (knock off and thunder wave), which are good to annoy teams. Riolu has rain dance to set up, HJK as a powerful stab to chunk anything, Thunder punch to hit staryu / mareanie / natu / whatever, and copycat, which i actually really like as a fun gambit move, as you can use it to set up your own spikes or stealth rocks on something, or hit back something hard with a priotity move it used before. Definitely replacable, but fun nonetheless.

So i really like Wingull for two reasons: A: Life Orb Hurricanes and Scalds are frankly insane, B: It can hit 19 HP, allowing it to really abuse Life orb to its fullest without losing 10% of its HP, and C: Rain dish can offset the Life Orb Recoil. Also, only getting outspeed by the rare Elekid and Diglett, which you can just switch out of, is great. Basically, Just Hurricane + Scald everything in site and Uturn out of walls. Ice Beam can hit whatever Scald and Hurricane wouldnt hit, and is just there as a 4th slot, which is interchangable. you can run rain dance or something in that last slot, really dosnt matter at the end of the day.

Gunk is actually really cool. Dry Skin to abuse the weather, a priotity move in vacuum wave, and nasty plot access makes it really fun to use. Also, softchecking Grookey is great. Sludge Bomb and Nasty Plot can be used to sweep late game, along with Vacuum wave to revenge kill and beat Carv and Pawn. Rain dance can help set up in case both your normal setters go down.

This is definitely the main abuser to this team. Swift Swim Rain Boosted Waterfalls chunks everything hard, and Stone Edge + Knock off give another stab choice and support for the rest of the team, which is helpful. I found that adding rapid spin to Kabuto not only helps with hazard removal, but also allows it to be a threat outside of rain in the late game. Basically: this thing bonkers

This team needed some defensive support, and ferroseed does just that. getting its fire weakness negated is great, and a stealth rocker was greatly needed for this team, as well as a grookey check. Thunder wave is especially helpful, as it can slow down Grookey for something like Croakgunk to beat it.

Problematic Pokemon

the Grassy seed set can 6-0 if you cant get a para off on it. You want to get this thing out of the game as fast as possible so Kabuto and Wingull can wreck safely. Basically get a para on it via thunder wave and keep croakgunk around to kill it off.

also problematic. Hurricanes from wingull will break through, just be mindful of this thing.

Basically: any Grass Type is a problem.

Dont run this if you want to win, run this if you want to make some kid on the ladder tear his brains out :)

 

[Coconut]

Why Choose Just One?

description

The concept is simple, why go with one weather when 3 does the trick so much better? Going to go over the decisions I made on everything super quick. Hippopotas is a super-physically oriented tank. Decided it doesn't really need rocks, so giving it yawn as a way to force out setup sweepers. It packs Crunch for Natu, and Slack Off and EQ are pretty self-explanatory. Vulpix is a standard Eject Pack set, with Overheat pivoting into Trapinch. The rest of the moves don't need much explanation, don't need Fire Blast on this team because chances are I'd rather either Overheat or the sun will be up. Wisp is another emergency option that I'll never need to click, but it's nice to have it on the rare occasion that I actually do need it. Amaura is the fun set of the team. Amaura is a cheese counterteamer. Berry Juice Pawniard is OHKO'd by LO Rock Smash from full, Sash dies after Hail chip; once Natu comes in, simply set up your own screens or just delete it with a LO Rock Blast. Aurora Veils allow you to set your own screens and SR is just because we've got an extra slot. Timburr is a stupid cheese team staple, and if you're not running it on a weather team, you built it wrong. Mach Punch safety net, fat Drain Punches, and I opted for a BU set because I wanted an actual wincon for this team. Slowpoke is your typical Block and Teleport set, trapping whatever pivots in, only for you to pivot with Teleport to Trapinch, who removes it for the rest of the team. Trick Room is an emergency option, in case you need a late game clean or something like Tyrunt gets too far ahead. I couldn't decide what attacking move to go with on Slowpoke, so Weather Ball seemed like the best fit given the team (this also fulfills the requirement). Finally, Trapinch is a max attack, max speed set because it really isn't going to be taking hits, and it changes some pretty important rolls on stuff like Agility Porygon and Frillish.

 

[Wes8888]

https://pokepast.es/186e1f5b54a7ac6c​

Teambuilding

Started out with a basic hail core. Snover sets up hail, can do decent damage with blizzard, and can occasionally pick off severely weakened foes with ice shard. Sandshrew is the star of the show here. Slush Rush gives it a great speed tier, triple axel is immensely powerful on neutral targets, and it has respectable bulk with evio that allows it to function as the steel of the team.

Both Snover and Sandshrew are very susceptible to fighting types, so koffing rectifies this. It can wall both mienfoo and timburr, and also use it's coverage to chip away at other opposing pokemon, which helps Sandshrew KO them down the line.

This team also desperately needed a fire resist, so Ponyta was added. High Horsepower deals good damage to opposing Ponyta, and it can also burn annoying mons like Mienfoo and Grookey.

Scarf Pory can revenge kill Mienfoo, a mon that poses a very large threat to my hail core. +1 Tri Attacks hit hard and put many mons in KO range of Sandshrew. The coverage allowing it to snipe a wide range of mons is also nice.

Diglett compresses a handfull of things the team still needed to round it out. It can trap and finish weakened mons, set up rocks, and remove ponyta, who is very annoying for this team to deal with. The spread is to survive Ponyta's Flare Blitz 93.7% of the time. It can also use Final Gambit to remove problematic mons in emergencies.

Threats

Sun is extremely hard to face with this team. It's nigh impossible to bring Snover in to get hail up, and even if you do they can simply switch in Vulpix. Diglett can trap certain fire types, but can quickly get overwhelmed. Versus a competent player it's nearly always an autoloss.


Fight spam beats this team from preview, as Koffing can't check multiple fighting types on it's own. Timburr is especially troublesome, as mach punch bypasses Sanshrew and Porygon's speed and it can quickly demolish this team if it manages to get burned.

 

[reggg]

Didn't get a chance to make a team for last week so I'm glad I got to this time, featuring a rain team with the Lilly Pad and the Bug!

Description

The main rain setter for this team is Purrloin, which is the main lead. Idea is to rain dance turn 1, and if Mienfoo uses fake out then encore u-turn into one of the rain sweepers, Lotad and Anorith. These guys are on the team because they don't auto-lose to grookey's grassy glide lol. The idea is to SD with anorith or substitute with Lotad as Mienfoo is forced to switch out. Lotad's great coverage lets it hit everything for at least neutral damage, while I went back and forth with including rock blast over knock off on Anorith, up to you.

Carvanha is our secondary rain setter, but also serves as a dangerous sweeper with rain boosted liquidations. Depending on the situation, carv can protect then get a rain dance off for the team, or if rain is already up then just start wrecking havoc. With rain up, Carv actually has a 56% to OHKO Mienfoo from full with eviolite, and will always OHKO if you get rocks up via Natu magic bouce

196+ Atk Life Orb Carvanha Liquidation vs. 0 HP / 196 Def Eviolite Mienfoo in Rain: 19-23 (90.4 - 109.5%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO

Possible damage amounts: (19, 19, 19, 19, 19, 19, 19, 21, 21, 21, 21, 21, 21, 21, 21, 23)


Natu and Timburr are our glue mons, keeping the team together and covering weaknesses. timburr gives us a way to actually beat ferroseed, as well as being a great late game option. Natu can help finish off ferro too as long as rain isnt up, and gives us a pivot mon to work with.

Really enjoyed seeing Lotad put in some work, even if rain really sucks lol.

 

[Hacker]

DANCING IN THE RAIN

(click on for pokepaste)

Teambuilding

The main idea behind this team is the fact that I think rain can have decent potential in this metagame with a lot of teams being pretty weak to water spam especially if they opt for pawniard over ferroseed as their steel type as well as when building I found some pretty insane calcs like +2 omanyte in rain ohkoing staryu which I thought was really cool. Now onto what each of the individual pokemon on this team do.


Unfortunately in this tier there are no automatic rain mons so if you wanna make a rain team work it will have to be with manual rain and I opted with purrloin over riolu because it can help with psychic types like abra because my diglett doesnt trap it consistentally and switch into natu. Also has the option of thunder waving stuff opening my opponent up to my setup threats like omanyte and croagunk.

One of the biggest weaknesses that come in my mind when building rain is grookey, so the next two pokemon on this team are dedicating to primarily helping with grookey. So i put on a protect sludge bomb diglett to trap grookey and possibly set up rocks. This thing also can trap stuff like mareanie which would otherwise be annoying for this team to break.

This will function at the teams primary grookey switchin while otherwise being the fighting type answer on this team as the croagunk later on in this team is a fake fighting resist. I opted for eject button to have a pivot to get in stuff like my wingull or croagunk easier as this team has no real solid great pivoter.

Omanyte is this team first weather abuser and the original mon I had in mind when deciding I wanted to create rain. This is a normal shell smash sweeper which with t wave purrloin and effect spore natu you can cheese a lot of games out of or you can set up on stuff like natu. This thing also can get a lot of cheeky kos on stuff like mienfoo in the rain as well as the calc vs staryu I mentioned earlier. This mon also functions as the teams normal resist so you have at least an out vs porygon.

Up next is this teams secondary weather abuser, earlier on in this meta I found a lot of success with croagunk on the ladder as I felt like it had a lot of potential in this meta with a great offensive typing with a decent defensive typing in this meta especially alongside with its ability. Croagunk works as this team water resist as eject button morelull doesn't really tank hits as well from stuff like staryu who croagunk should be able to help with a decent amount. It also works as this teams best out vs the almost mandatory steel types in the tier.

Wingull is a pokemon I used a lot when I first started learning this tier and it benefits a lot from rain having 100% accurate hurricanes and a boosted scald. Wingull functions as this teams way to revenge the prominent fighting types in this tier and also is in the base 19 speed tier so you can usually set up rain with it so it can function as this teams second rain setter if needed. Also has rain dish to cancel out the life orb damage you take if rain is up.

Weaknesses

I actually think this team can match up decently into a lot of the common threats if played right. The hardest ones to play against with this team is porygon as you don't really have a great normal resist but with omanyte + croagunk I think it is playable and sd grasy seed grookey who you rely on diglett to kill.

TLDR

The goal of this team is usually to overload your opponent with your 3 rain abusers on the team and use diglett and morelull to beat some of rains biggest traditional weaknesses like grookey.

 

[Iynhe]

I called this team My Weather is Weathering. Vaguely a pun, more of a random string of words that is not that funny.
I also thought I was going to be the only one to try more than one weather, but I have been ninjad. I also have to thank you, Coconut, because I now have decided to actually send this team (that actually won games lmao)
https://pokepast.es/db233efdc0985674

Teambuilding process

I hate weather as a strategy, so why not meme hard? I also hate overused stuff, so Sun was out of the question. Rain is manual, aka as memey as Trick Room is everywhere. Bleh. Hail and Sand both hurt mons, so I have decided to try a "stall" approach of "let passive damage finish the job." Snover was selected over Amaura because I wanted to have a rock mon to help sand make more sense. Plus it's a Staryu check. Leech Seed is the only move that could be changed, maybe to toxic. Sandshrew Alola is the obligatory weather utilizer. Spin because hazard removal is mandatory, STABS, EQ because I don't always manage to ko fire/water/steel mons on the other side of the field. Hippo is the only sand autosetter, luckly it's not a bad mon. Huge defence, rocks, can recover the damage and whirlwhind both helps with racking up hazard damage and save from a random setup mon. Omanyte is here to provide toxic spikes, spikes (as a treat), a rock mon that can have its spdef made GINORMOUS, scald and knock off as utiliy moves. Koffing is the mandatory physical wall (it could use Thunderbolt, change whatever move you want accordingly), Porygon is a nice special wall. Also here it could have Thunderbolt but usually Ice Beam is better. Not always, though. Have fun memeing on the low ladder!

Threats and weaknesses

Apart from being a "meme" team (in practice, not in intentions) created by a not so good builder? Sun is still annoying, but it's not impossible. Balloon Diglett laughs in the face of our walls and must be worn down in other ways. Sandshrew is adamant and not jolly, so at +1 it's slower than diglett outside of hail, by ONE point. That means that you might choose to make it jolly to add to the marvelous world of speed ties. Pory is not really a catch all special wall, so it might be overwhelmed by too many special attackers. Two weathers and only one utilizer of one of them might make some plays difficult, but I trust your skills.

 

[yellowfin]

i made a team for last week but i forgot to do a writeup. anyway here’s manual rain but good

teambuilding process(?)

i wanted to mess around with rain awhile ago and built some p ugly teams with it. eventually i sent people the teams and they were like “this fucking sucks,” with which i agreed. and then i built a team that kinda looked like this and was told to use wimpod by my good friend collette. shoutout acehunter1 for innovating wimpod in like gen 7.
anyways, the team is real simple: set rain with the mons that do so, break with the rain sweepers, clean with the sweeper that didn’t die, try not to lose to the five or six mons you’re trying to not load into along the way (see threatlist).

wimpod is epic and the sauce of the team: gives u some rain turns, gets itself out of the way, sets spikes, real cool mon.

wingull and omanyte do water type things: hit hard, get ohko’d by grassy glide, and their best. omanyte can run a different last move; knock off is cool to give wingull an easier job cleaning up, shell smash is a win more option and lets you be useful outside of rain, etc. i went with protect because getting chipped by first impression or fake out is a little bit annoying.

trubbish is a funny tech so you don’t have to sack a mon to grookey to give diglett a free switch-in to trap grookey; it also does the same things it does on sun (free switch into a breaker with sticky hold eject button) but it’s on rain now, which makes it much more cool and swag. opted for rain dance over spikes and thief over rock blast because wimpod already sets spikes and thief utility makes omanyte/wingull marginally stronger. diglett traps grookey. usually, this set can’t trap eviolite grookey; however, if grookey comes in on wingull or omanyte, stalling a turn of terrain with their protect allows you to trap, as then trubbish burns one turn of terrain and diglett burns three turns of terrain with protect and its focus sash, allowing you to outspeed grookey even if it survives sludge bomb. dig can also trade for ferroseed if you really need it to.

timburr is so you don’t lose to screens and spikes on team preview. it is guts because i think it is funny to get an attack boost from ferroseed. guts also lets you serve as half of a staryu check (EVs in sp. def also to do that). defog over tpunch for spikes and wingull HP but either one is probably fine (you should run 12 speed if you’re thunder punch). the slot was originally a mienfoo but i think that’s dumb. if you think wingull and omanyte are too weak you can make it feint mienfoo for carvanha and knock off utility i guess.

threatlist

priority is hard to beat (try not to let your sweepers get chipped), opposing water types (staryu/mareanie) are annoying (knock them off, staryu can be gambitted if there’s nothing else you need to trap), tyrunt can be annoying (try not to leave trubbish on the field), porygon is annoying (you kill with omanyte, timburr can kinda beat it). carv is hard to beat but putting a morelull on this is like chansey hyper offense so nty. you can sometimes win faster than the carvanha can kill you. obviously grookey is hard but diglett is usually able to trap it. you no longer trap it if your opponent gets a single spike up, but rain is bad and fishy anyways so it’s chill + u have timburr. ferroseed is also annoying, but you have gambit diglett and trubbish to make it less so.

click here if you’re cool

hope y’all enjoyed this. this team is bad but it’s fun to use and i had a lot of fun writing this. shoutout collette for being really cool and being much better at pokemon than me and being pretty. shoutout fiend hound for . shoutout acehunter for using wimpod. thanks for reading. shoutout you. i love u. <3

 

[PyProd]

I'm having a tough time choosing... Oh well.


Grookey Sun ft. Kabuto

Description

This team takes a more original approach to patch Sun's normally hard matchups in Pokémon such as very bulky Water-types (Frillish and Slowpoke notably) or Ground-types (Mudbray), while also addressing other miscellaneous issues such as opposing Tyrunt or Carvanha. This team originally used Teleport Porygon over Kabuto to find a way to get Grookey in for free against opposing Frillish, but this approach implied a fair share of problems, which Kabuto was the only choice to address in one slot.

Teambuilding Process

The story begins with the usual Sun core consisting of Vulpix, the sun setter, and of the two best sun breakers in Charmander and Ponyta. This core doesn't need to be introduced to most of you, but for the ones in the back, just keep in mind that Charmander's Fire-type attacks threaten even some resists under the Sun while Ponyta's great coverage makes it a nightmare to switch into under the Sun. Scarfed Charmander and Ponyta are also both incredibly fast.

However, these three have a tough time against a plethora of stuff such as Carvanha, Mudbray, Frillish or even Slowpoke, which are tough matchups. Enter the Grookey + Porygon core, which allows to keep all of these in check and to threaten them easily! They were therefore the natural additions, with Grookey being able to use a non-recoil Wood Hammer in Solar Blade under the Sun, while Porygon's Teleport and Grookey's U-turn help bring our breakers onto the terrain safely.

I still needed another way to generate momentum as well as a Fighting-type switchin. Running a Trapper to handle annoying stuff such as Mareanie was impossible due to the already limited number of slots in Sun teams, so my attention naturally shifted towards Koffing. Eject Button Koffing acts as a Fighting-type switchin which can also help handle Mareanie thanks to its Neutralizing Gas ability, its access to Thunderbolt, and the pseudo-resistance to Scald that the climate offers. It can furthermore help soften enemy Pokémon up thanks to Thief, and its Fire Blast is harder to answer to under the Sun. This Koffing surprisingly does not pack Pain Split, as I find its other moveslots more valuable and it being short-lived is not a big issue on Sun teams.

However, the team had big problems: first, the lack of entry support and hazard removal hurt very much, as Stealth Rock on the opposing side would help the team break more easily, while unremovable Stealth Rocks on our side limits our three Fire-type Pokémon. Since the team cannot use Diglett in this slot because the aforementioned hazard removal problem would still be unaccounted for, Ponyta becomes a threat as well if it can win the Speed tie against our own Ponyta. Enter Kabuto, the choice I made for this team. While it is arguably a Pokémon that is not very great, Kabuto offers both Stealth Rock and Rapid Spin at once, and even packs Knock Off utility to boot. Furthermore, its Weak Armor ability helps answer opposing Ponyta, as the boost lets it outspeed even a speed-boosted Ponyta. For what it's worth, Kabuto also ties back to the former week's slate, as it is currently unranked on the VR. This is a funny piece of trivia, isn't it?

 

[Kowasabii]

POLIWAG (DESTROYER OF WORLDS) RAIN HO
​

Description

The team is honestly pretty brainless. lead and try to get up rocks. Rock blast is to help with /. Then you send in and get rain up. After that if your opponent hasn't knocked you below half health go for spikes. When your wimp out(same as emergency exit) ability activates, send in and use hypnosis into belly drum. You out speed everything in rain and waterfall does huge damage even on resisted hits when boosted by rain. and are standard HO mons that cover 's weaknesses like and . is on the team as an offensive pivot. Even if your opponent switches in a counter to , it is still often worth keeping it alive for its excellent speed tier at 18. I am running adamant because I didnt find the 19 speed very necessary considering the rain boost. This team honestly suprised me with how well it preformed on the ladder. Shoutout to wesh papillion for telling me to make a team. Its a good pretty decent HO team for quick games and can suprise a lot of opponents. Definitely a very fun team and a great twist on standard HO.

Threats and weaknesses

very big threat as it deals well with our HO leads and can ohko poliwag. and can play around it pretty well but be careful as using flare blitz or flame charge from is weakened by the rain.

most people get scared out by but this thing is a big threat as it can prevent hazards as well as hypnosis with magic bounce. Try to predict if its coming in and you can go straight for belly drum. can also set up pretty freely vs .

hail is a very bad match up, get rocks up, try to win the weather war, use 's speed boosts, and keep healthy and with its eviolite. Thief on can also allow it to live a triple axel from full if you steal an eviolite.

very rare, but if it has cotton guard it can sweep the team easily, gotta get lucky with and switch around carefully.

Replays

vs. ranked 76 on ladder(1511 elo):https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8lc-1626874819-3rrsm9dyuwc64uwepfmgne9ykf7cot8pw
vs. grass spam:https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8lc-1626877894-gnjxuiqqym0f46quft44vjzc2yy1n15pw
vs. sun: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8lc-1626161179-zdz0dayuh7jfooxwf03zxc7nogkbrhppw
vs. Mareanie + ferroseed defensive core (salty):https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8lc-1626881400-xtqusd4f5hp2v15ix14j0hrrdai23lapw
vs. porygon + grookey + abra:https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8lc-1626414651-ob7gm8da0s2qxrsqkpww6wa1ajzzz92pw

 

[Vynxpro]

Meteor Beam Omanyte Rain​

Description

The first thing I started with was Riolu as my rain setter, I like Riolu because it can beat Mienfoo leads most of the time, and copycat prankster opens so many options. You can copy hazards, status, switch moves, or even your own HJK, and do all this at +1 priority. EV spread is to maximize attack and bulk while giving Porygon a attack boost. Next, I started thinking about weather abusers, and I thought up meteor beam Omanyte. I use this in most of my LC teams, as meteor beam nails all of its switch-ins (except Ferroseed). Does more than half to Foongus, kills Koffing, Grookey, and basically anything that doesn't resist. Does a lot to resists too, hitting Mienfoo for 70-80%. It's an extremely safe move to click, as you will almost always make progress by clicking it. The other abuser is Corphish who has some powerful priority in adapt aqua jet and just general utility in knock and rain dance. This slot is the most flexible as you can run swords dance or dragon dance if you want. Then I started on the defensive core, Mar and Ferro just have really nice resistances together, and Morelull covers anything else while packing strength sap, which lets it counter almost every physical sweeper and provide good healing because of LC's low HP stats. Mar can also serve as a backup weather setter.

Threatlist

- Ferroseed is a really hard matchup for this team, so make sure to conserve Riolu when you see it a team preview. If you don't have Riolu, brute forcing it with Morelull and Corphish is your best bet.

- Grookey can be a bit hard to deal with once the walls are weakened, just keep Morelull at high health and you'll be fine.

- Other weather is actually a pretty good matchup as prankster Riolu can reset the weather easily.

- Ponyta runs moves that can threaten most of the team, remember Omanyte can live a wild charge but not a high horsepower and you can play around it

Other options

Trapper Magnemite is a good option to deal with ferroseed, and provides an alternate wincon if weather is not up.
Other swift swim abusers can be used over the walls to turn it into more of a rain HO team like Anorith, Lotad, Kabuto etc.
Omanyte (reflect type, earth power), Corphish (dragon dance, swords dance), Morelull (effect spore) and Riolu(work up, nasty plot, thunder punch, aura sphere) have a pool of different options they can run.

Overall, this team isn't really that good but is really fun to use and has a lot of opportunities for personalization.

(also this is my first real post on smogon)

 

[Drifting]

Good to see a good amount of cool teams moving forwards into our second week. Here are the candidates

Team 1 - Alolan-Diglett Sand HO by bdov

Team 2 - Finding the All Blue by TheShoddyStrawman

Team 3 - Bring Me The World by Dead by Daylight

Team 4 - The Sweet Surprise by Be Like Bisharp

Team 5 - Goofy Veils by Shandeur

Team 6 - Choice Band Larvesta Sand by Kipkluif

Team 7 - Manual Rain by uhBella

Team 8 - Why Choose Just One? by Coconut

Team 9 - Scarf Pory + Evio Diggy Hail by Wes8888

Team 10 - Bug on a Lily Pad by reggg

Team 11 - Dancing in the Rain by DOOR MONEY

Team 12 - My Weather is Weathering by Iynhe

Team 13 - Wimpod Rain by yellowfin

Team 14 - Grookey Sun + Kabuto by PyProd

Team 15 - Poliwag (Destroyer of Worlds) Rain HO by Kowasabii

Team 16 - Meteor Beam Omanyte Rain by Vynxpro

I recommend reading through people's write-ups if you haven't already, some very insightful stuff that could aid in your decision.

To vote, please post with the three teams that you think should win. For example, if I thought that Team 735, Team 90 and Team 129 were the best, I would post this:

Team 735, Team 90, Team 129

Very simple. After voting is finished the team(s) with the most votes will win. Good luck!

The voting period will end on Sunday 11:59pm, 31st July AEST

 

[Shandeur]

Team 8, Team 15, Team 4

 

[Kazeiyuu]

Team 5, Team 1, Team 7

 

[Dead by Daylight]

Teams:

15
16
4

 

[PyProd]

Team 13, Team 5, Team 9

 

[reggg]

Team 8, Team 14, Team 15

 

[Bella]

Team 8, team 9, team 4

 

[risi]

hi so im really late, but i just wanted to get this posted anyways
slowpoke hail is what i brought to my first lcpl game and it really did not go well, but more than anything else i just kept hearing people say over and over again "it was the slowpokes fault, slowpoke is not good, etc etc." however, i really think slowpoke hail has potential as a new hail structure, slowpoke gives a clean pivot out to amaura/a-shrew, and baits pawniards to trap them with diglett to remove one of the most annoying amaura checks. In the past vullaby meta, it baiting vullaby in worked out really well for hail too, since it gives either amaura or sandshrew a free turn. people who hate slowpoke just really like copying the ancient freezai hail build with snover and mareanie, i guess, .

The original slowpoke hail:

https://pokepast.es/264f2537d91daae6

description

Bulky pivot with Regen so you don't have to stop and recover as many times, which loses momentum which you don't want to do when playing hail. It also serves as a very good ponyta check, pawniard bait, vullaby bait, mudbray check, a very nice glue mon in general.

I believe Amaura to be much better than Snover offensively, it has more utility as well in Aurora Veil, Stealth Rocks, and Thunder wave if you want to go for a support role with it instead. Snover really just does not do anything at all except be able to take a grassy glide from Grookey and then die to drain punch or uturn. It is so bad by itself that people run icy rock with it, because it's so bad it can't do anything but set hail, and personally I don't see the appeal of that. In contrast, Amaura can be a great endgame cleaner with Blizzard, it's also one of the trickiest mons to switch into. It has epower to punish Pawniard/Ponyta, Ancient power for larvesta, Blizzard just 2hkos most mons that don't resist ice, and Freeze dry to trip up water types. Alolan Sandshrew on this team is life orb instead of the traditional swords dance evio/wide lens set, because I don't believe in swords dance Sandshrew. It really doesn't set up on many mons, the only safe things you can set up on are porygon and mareanie if you want to take your chances in getting burnt, and it wastes hail turns. Wasting hail turns is less of a problem when you use icy rock snover, but as I said earlier, icy rock snover also does nothing except set hail, so I would rather not have to use it. Scarf Amaura gives you 4 turns of hail, in that time you have to get the sandshrew in safely, which is already quite a chore, by the time you try to swords dance you probably have literally 1 turn of hail left, it's really not worth it. Wide lens sandshrew doesn't miss triple axel, true, but wide lens sandshrew also can't kill anything without a swords dance boost, which we don't have the time for with scarf amaura, so that is why I opted for life orb. At least you get kills 72% of the time, instead of 0% of the time .

picks up the slack for fight resist since slowpoke really isn't a good fight resist. I like Koffing instead of mareanie because opposing mienfoos get free momentum from pivoting off your mareanie all the time, and can follow up with trapping your mareanie with diglett, which is even worse for a hail team with no other fight resists. Stopping regen is also nice, so once the opposing foo is in either amaura range or shrew range, you don't have to worry as much about it recovering all of that health with a couple of pivots.

traps most annoying mons, such as Ponyta, Mareanie, Staryu, Ferroseed, Pawniard, Abra, Larvesta, weakened Mienfoo, you get the idea.

a slightly bulkier foo than normal, in order to absorb hits better, provide slow uturn support, and also beat opposing lead mienfoos if they try to stay in. Stone Edge for Larvesta because I didn't feel fake out was that useful, plus this hail team struggles to switch into larv.

https://pokepast.es/74f237dedb0af776
slowpoke i mean PORYGON hail!!!
the only difference is that the team is now sporting a porygon instead of slowpoke.
Why?
As much as I loved the original idea of tp slowpoke unfortunately has a problem which hasn't changed since last year's train wreck. it gets owned by dark types, which is fine if the dark type is a vullaby or a pawniard, because you want to bait those in, but scraggy and carvanha are a different story.

here is a demonstration of against scraggy:

(and the replay if you wanna see the game too)

Luckily scraggy is now out of the picture, but carvanha has kind of replaced it as the threatening dark type, and I think every single hail team is going to have a problem with carv, because what a hail team hates the most (other than munchlax i guess) is being out offensed and outsped. 2 speed boosts is enough to steamroll through your offensive core of amaura and a-shrew. Many good carvanha checks just don't fit really well on hail, such as morelull (relying on synthesis when your goal is to keep hail up at all times is probably not a good idea), ferroseed (why would you want a slow steel type on a hail team that gives up momentum, if you were to use one, just use pawniard), grookey (doesn't offer any defensive utility, its okay if you are going for full out hyper offense but on this team, it just can't fit). So that leaves porygon as the only option, unless you want to use spritzee. Porygon is as close to a perfect replacement for slowpoke as I think you can get, it still has teleport to provide the pivoting utility, does probably an even better job of baiting pawniard and ferroseed, to let you trap them with diglett, and tanks almost any attack, so like slowpoke, it can help absorb attacks from mons like abra, ponyta, and staryu.

thanks for reading if anyone got this far, really just wanted to make this as a redemption post for slowpoke hail, and to explain to people that no, I was not completely crazy when I first made this team. instead im just slightly crazy

 

[Kowasabii]

Team 2, Team 13, Team 8

 

[Kipkluif]

Team 11, Team 3, Team 14

 

[A Welcome Guest]

Team 14, Team 6, Team 8

 

[Drifting]

The votes have come in, and the winner with 5 votes is:

Why Choose Just One? by Coconut


As always, congratulations, this (very cursed) team will be added to the Hall of Fame.

***

Week Three:

After a couple weeks of building LC teams it could be getting a bit stale, so I wanted to switch it up and put some attention towards Little Cup's 2v2 sister format, LC Doubles

This week, you will be building the best teams you can for the current LC Doubles format

Other than that, you have complete freedom over your creative choices, good luck in researching and building a meta based on the collaborative efforts of our baby pokemon.

As usual, the deadline is Friday 11:59pm 5th August AEST.