Metagame SWSH Little Cup Teambuilding Competition

[TheShoddyStrawman]

https://pokepast.es/5312af5c3be051aa

I'll start off the teambuilding with a doubles team based around Purrloin and Frillish, which I'm calling Rescue Cats.

Teambuilding Process

Turns out Scarf Frillish is really good in doubles, and I figured it'd be a good idea to base a team around it. I mentioned how good Purrloin seems on paper in the Doubles Metagame thread, stating that it would be around Tier 3 due to its access to quite a few pretty great moves, such as Fake Out, Knock Off, Copycat and Fake Tears while being pretty decently bulky with Eviolite. So it worked quite nicely when paired with Frillish due to softening checks that would otherwise take Water Spouts. Copycat is also anti Trick Room Support, as you can use it again yourself the following turn to cancel it out due to its low priority.

Intimidate is much better in doubles than singles, so I brought Litten due to its 17 speed tier, plus removing grass types that would wall Frillish. Having a second Fake Out user is also pretty alright, and Will-o support means the opponent can't hit back as hard. Gastly was chosen because of Fake Tears supporting it as well as covering one of Frillish's main threats, Grookey . Vullaby was helpful for a variety of reasons, namely that Tailwind support is invaluable, Knock Off weakens opponents for Gastly and Frillish, and Vull covers both Grookey and Pawniard , Frillish's main threats. Finally, because I have two Ground immunities, I thought to use Mudbray due to its great physical attack and covering Pawniard.

In total, Frillish Gastly and Mudbray are my offense, with Vullaby, Litten, and Purrloin being the support. The goal of the team is to remove the opposing Water and Ground Resists (Such as Grass types which are threatened by Vullaby and Litten) while preventing the opponent from controlling speed via 2 Scarf mons, Vullaby's Tailwind, and Purrloin's Copycat. This is a really fun team to play with, so hopefully you have the same amount of fun I'm having with it.

Good luck to everyone else!

 

[aleaniled]

I'm not a regular (or even a good) doubles player, but I developed this team mostly as a way to cheese wins in room tours. Presenting: Manual Sun, ft. Riolu!

https://pokepast.es/4046de2f71544d9c

Teambuilding Process

So, this team was born out a frustration with hail. With a-pix able to easily set up veil, it's really hard to break hail with a weatherless team. So, to counter it, I decided to build a sun team. k-pix is banned, so I decided to enlist Riolu, with a prankster sunny day. I also decided to give it follow me, helping hand, and eviolite to facilitate my devastating sun sweepers, and rounded it out with brick break for STAB and to destroy any stray screens.

Next, I needed to select my sun abusers. With a massive x2.25 boost to fire moves when sun is up, Charmander was an obvious choice. Choice scarf gives it the speed to beat the entire metagame and most scarfers, while overheat is capable of OHKOing every non-resisted target short of defensive porygon. Heat wave was added as an invaluable spread move, while weather ball serves as reliable STAB, and sleep talk makes it the bane of foonguses everywhere.

To improve my matchup against water types, I chose Bulbasaur as a combination water and fighting resist. Eviolite, along with redirection support, allows it to easily grab a growth against a majority of targets. Sleep powder gives my team much-needed utility, while energy and weather ball provide reliable STAB and coverage, respectively.

After this, it was time to fill out the rest of my team. Mienfoo was almost a given, to provide fake out and knock off support. HJK is a powerful STAB move, while U-turn allows me to more easily position my sun half.

Speaking of knock support, Pawniard was next on the list. Defiant allows it to grab a boost on the many intimidates flying around the tier, while sucker punch is one of the most useful moves in doubles. iron head provides a "hard" counter to ice-types trying to set up, while thunder wave is the team's crucial speed control.

Lastly, I decided to use one of LC doubles' exclusive mons. Gastly, as well as dissuading stray high jump kicks, carries insane power with choice specs, helping with mienfoo with dgleam and litten with dual STAB. trick also allows it to cripple a physical or defensive mon in a pinch.

All in all, this is a fairly offensive sun team, with multiple modes but not a lot of room for error. notable weaknesses include tailwind, entry hazards, fire types, and specially defensive mons, especially litten and porygon.

 

[Actuarily]

Here’s a fun little team based around choice scarf trick Gothita:

https://pokepast.es/197aaac9e7cba0d8

Description

Tricking a choice scarf onto an opponent that clicks a non-damaging move can really put your opponent on the back foot. And if they’re trapped into that move? It’s GG.
Rest of the team is built around taking advantage of this set of events, Litten pivots to spread lowered stats so that Goth can trap, and DD Moxie Scraggy is excellent at capitalizing on the advantages created by Goth & Litten. Spritzee/Foonguss/Mudbray is a fantastic TR combo, so you can also focus on tricking the choice scarf onto your opponent’s TR check to neuter it.

Goth still has fake out and protect to still provide great utility after it has tricked its choice scarf. Even if you choose not to trick it, choice scarf psychic is still great at surprising and taking out Mienfoo and Gastly.

Here’s a tour replay of this team at work versus our glorious TL: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doubleslc-1536993679

 

[Drifting]

Sorry for the delay, not as many submissions this time around because it's doubles but there are still some good ones.

Team 1 - Rescue Cats by TheShoddyStrawman

Team 2 - Manual Sun by aleaniled

Team 3 - Scarf Trick Goth by Actuarily

Because of the limited number of options, please only vote for one of these teams.

Voting ends at 11:59pm Sunday 7th August AEST

 

[PyProd]

Team 3

 

[Bella]

Team 1

 

[Shandeur]

Team 3

 

[Dead by Daylight]

Team 3

 

[rarre]

Team 3

 

[Acehunter1]

Whoops, kinda forgot to submit my team, I'll just post it anyway for fun


https://pokepast.es/3bb738a3a98bc6ad

Team Description

I built this team around the newly legal Vulpix-Alola. I decided to make it Life Orb to take full advantage of its superior speed tier compared to other Hail setters like Snover to hit hard right off the bat. It also has Moonblast to beat Scraggy. I also have two Flying types with Tailwind for Speed control, and Foongus as a dedicated Trick Room answer. Wingull is cool because it's the second fastest Tailwind user after Cottonee (well theoretically third fastest after Fletchling too but not rlly), and Wide Guard is useful against opposing hail and some other spread moves like Electroweb. Quick Guard on Mienfoo is useful to block Grassy Glide and slower Fake Outs, I like that move a lot in Doubles LC. Finally, Foongus is useful to help Sandshrew-Alola set up with Spore and Rage Powder. After You on Foongus is extra anti-Trick Room tech, to allow a faster teammate to attack first even in Trick Room.

 

[Drifting]

Thanks for your votes, the winner with 4 Votes is:

Trick Scarf Goth by Actuarily


Congratulations, this team will be added to the hall of fame.

***

Week 4

Obviously we got some doubles haters in the thread

So we'll be going back to basics this week. The theme this week will be Fire-Water-Grass. This is a classic staple in competitive Pokemon teambuilding, so there are a lot of options here

Your team must contain at least one Fire-type, one Water-type and one Grass-type.

As always, the round will end at 11:59pm Friday August 12th AEST

 

[Colin]

so when experimenting with Larvesta builds to see how good Drilbur fit on them, I ended up making this team, which incidentally fits the parameters. The goal of this build, is to hazard stack with Drilbur and Ferroseed, and then pressure their walls with pivot spam and Staryu. Its weaknesses include rock slide Diglett, and certain cheese builds, as well as mixed walls such as trace Porygon when I cannot get hazards on.

The foo check, and it can uniquely gain momentum off of Mienfoo and Grookey while deterring u-turn. its very good at getting chip damage on water types, and enjoys hazard stack chipping down Staryu and Frillish especially.

Recent trend mon, its pretty decent and can set rocks vs Natu, preventing it from reliably stuffing Ferroseed long term. It also spins, but it doesn't pivot into Pawniard knock off well. as a decently bulky ground type, it beats Tyrunt, provided that they aren't ice fang. Although it hits hard, it cannot make direct progress vs Eviolite grookey, and other variants are still great stops to it and prevent EQ spam.

Mandatory on larvesta builds, this provides reliable hazard prevention vs Ferroseed, and it is great at utilizing hazard stack in conjunction with U-turn to prevent typical stops, such as agility Porygon, from being able to switch into it safely in the future.

Mandatory on most BO, it pivots into a variety of attacks, including knock off, while being able to throw off knock offs of its own and pivot. with hazard stack, it is very quick at breaking koffing.

This is the best role compression pokemon in the tier imo, and here it pivots into water types and most SpA threats. it also provides spikes, which it is actually able to threaten thanks to Drilbur's stealth rocks hitting Natu hard. even if it guesses wrong and its spikes get bounced back, the team's strong hazard control will make one layer manageable until it can be removed.

I needed something to contest fire types including Magby, so Offensive star was the only option that I saw. in testing, Drilbur wasn't always able to get the spinning job done alone, so I slotted spin on star. Another option that I didn't see then but do now is scarf Frillish. Frillish has a much worse Ponyta matchup, but it is the gold standard cheese slayer. using it would allow me to have a very favorable matchup into screens, shellos, and opposing larvesta (worst spinblocker but it does spinblock), in exchange for a worse Mareanie and Ponyta matchup. the Mareanie matchup could be improved by giving up will o wisp in exchange for coverage, which isn't too big considering I have Tyrunt pivots. Overall, Staryu is more consistent into bulky offense, while Frillish boasts an amazing matchup into everything else.

 

[Kipkluif]

Presenting a bulky 6 without a real wincon other than staying alive longer than your opponent. Mareanie has idef to get trapped less easily as the defensive core falling apart can hurt this team a lot.

 

[reggg]

A real simple, fun hyper offense team based on screens and hazard stack. Lead dwebble for your hazards, them go to LO Abra to clean and take some easy KO's, or go to Staryu and set up screens. Magby, and Tyrunt two of the best to take advantage of screens, and LO swords dance grookey to function in or out of screens. I also messed around with LO Staryu to commit to just pure offense, but I found screens more useful in this structure. HO teams are probably the most enjoyable for me to play on ladder so I'm glad the fire water grass trio works with this!

 

[Shandeur]

Behold: My newest Spike Stack creation. It follows my standard spike stack idea: Dwebble, Wallbreakers, (Ponyta and Stunky) Sweepers, (Grookey and mfing Binacle) and a scarfer. (Farfetch'd)

It's played like most spike stacks, lead dwebble or counter-lead the opponent's lead. Try to start breaking early game, and leave enough room for your other mons to clean up.

Nothing to say here, just a dwebble to set hazards. The evs can reliably live Mienfoo's HJK.

The first breaker. Flame Charge provides some speed control and Flare Blitz is pretty strong vs neutral targets.

The first sweeper. SD + Acro can break through Mienfoo, which is appreciated by Binacle and Stunky. Grassy Glide is also able to provide priority.

The second sweeper. After a Shell Smash, TC Cross Chop can break through Ferroseed, which is appreciated by Grookey. Liquidation is also p spammable and can clean up weakened teams.

The scarf mon of choice here. It's taken over my previous choice, Mudbray, because it wasn't weak to Grassy Glide and can destroy Grookey with Brave Bird.

The second breaker. Crunch and Play Rough have good coverage, and Fire Blast can destroy Ferroseed for Grookey. Sucker Punch is also able to help vs Diglett.

Hopefully this "innovates" the spikes archetype.

 

[TheShoddyStrawman]

https://pokepast.es/0b5a2484c43092bb
Congratulations, we have yet another spike stack team. This time its monoblue if you count shiny Drilbur's nose. Plus there's one thing here that the others don't have, namely Toxic Spikes.

The idea is that you bring out your opponents Koffing/Poison type a lot in order to wear them down via Spikes from Ferroseed and Stealth Rock from Drilbur. Once they're gone, you set up Toxic Spikes and wait. Frillish is the spin blocker, as well as status spreader. Although Will-O and Toxic Spikes can end up not working out together, Frillish's Hex, Ghost typing blanking Rapid Spin attempts and good bulk with Recover means you can attempt to stall out your opponent.

Ponyta is Berry Juice because its a good cleaner that can destroy weakened teams. Mienfoo is... its Mienfoo we all know why its good. Specific interaction of note on this team is that Fake Out wastes a turn, so you can get even more poison damage on your opponent, as well as forcing in opposing Koffing to ensure you get your Toxic Spikes up. Drilbur was chosen over something like Diglett because its a good Koffing switch-in and with the bulky Spread, it can come in a few times and threaten it out. It can also Spin hazards off of your side of the field. Unblockable Stealth Rock due to Mold Breaker is also a bonus.

Good luck to everyone else.

 

[Coconut]

Starter Sun!

Not much to say because it's a sun team, but Grookey does a great job of revenge killing and removing key threats with its prio grassy glides. Squirtle is a role compression monster with its ability to rapid spin, phase and sleep with Yawn, slow with Icy Wind and fire off weather balls for extra swag. Rest of the team is the extremely standard sun HO. Sun sweeper Charmander, Sun setter Pix, Evio Diglett, and a Turn Natu.

 

[Iynhe]

https://pokepast.es/6c0dec9118b72946

An almost double FWG core.

Team description

I started by deciding that my FWG core would have to gain momentum. I like that, it's an easy and noob-proof way to have the advantage (i'm still really bad at switching manually 1+ times unless I have a hard wall). Therefore I checked which FWG mons were able to do so. Larvesta was an easy one for fire, I love using it as an almost all-catching physical wall. I then decided that the rest of the core was going to be offensive, so I simply chose Carvanha and Grookey. Then I started looking at teams and remembering my knowledge about LC for ideas. Natu is another mon that grabs momentum and it's fast. It also, mainly, checks ferroseed and mareanie, who stop 2/3ds and ALL of my core respectively. Staryu forms a nice hazard removal core with Natu. Thunderbolt to further check Mareanie, Natu, other waters. Ferroseed is the last member and the one I'm most skeptical about, but I needed hazards. Probably the most expendible teammate.
Larvesta is a classic wall. Blitz is stab, WoW exists because 30% burns are cool but not enough, Morning Sun ensures survivability and it's great in a format without good weather (what a nice thing) and u-turn is stab AND grabs momentum. Slow turn to ensure Carvanha and Grookey enter the field unscathed.
Carvanha is the classic set, but Flip Turn over Psychic Fangs because momentum is cooler than having a supereffective attack against Mienfoo and Timburr.
Grookey is the classic eviolite set. I never had much luck with LO SD and I hate the single time use of Grassy Seed.
Natu is again classic, with Psychic and Heat Wave to check the mons it has to check (including Pawniard). Roost keeps it alive, Turn is momentum.
Staryu is my spinner and a great one. Usually Rapid Spin is much much worse than Defog since it has zero really useful users, but LC is a great format also because we have at least one spinner that can survive for long, with Recover. Scald is stab and Thunderbolt checks stuff.
Ferroseed's set does not convince me that much but whatever. Spikes are hazards, KOff support is i'd say mandatory in this format, Giga Drain is a nice move to recover some health, TWave helps with faster mons if needed.

Threats and weaknesses

Ponyta. Which is a stupid idea to be weak to it, I know, and probably should be accounted for better on the team. Flame Charge + FBlitz + Wild Charge is the most problematic set and is the one I encountered the most. Spikes are fundamental to keep it in check. Ferro can survive one Flame Charge and TWave it but i'm not really sure Ponyta is going to use it instead of Blitz. And Ponyta can always use another Charge.
I'm not sure about Porygon, Ferro can check it but I didn't really meet that many during my testing.
Abra si another mon that i'm putting here because I met it once, but it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[PyProd]

I wanted to submit a FWG HO but since some people have already taken the spot...


I don't know if this qualifies as setup spam but it was one of the ideas behind the building of this team.

Description

A team based on the offensive FWG core of SD Grookey, Flame Charge Larvesta and LO Staryu which also takes advantage of the defensive utility they bring to the table. Trap an opposing Pokémon with Diglett to get one of the FWG Pokémon from the core going. Then take advantage of some of the members of the core sharing answers and/or forcing answers out to weaken the opposing team until it can't answer this team anymore.

Teambuilding Process

Our FWG core is based around the fact that our FWG Pokémon share checks or can force checks to the other members out, so that these checks can be broken down and struggle to do meaningful damage in return. Grookey is checked by Koffing and Fire-types, which Staryu sets up on. Staryu is checked by Grookey and Ferroseed, which have a tough time against Larvesta, and Larvesta is checked by bulky Water- and Rock-types which are answered to by Grookey, and by Stealth Rocks which Staryu can spin away on forced switches. Moreover, some of these Pokémon share middle-ground answers, so they can weaken those for each other. For instance, Ferroseed can be damaged by Grookey for Staryu or by Staryu for Grookey ; Larvesta and Grookey can damage Mienfoo for each other, and the list goes on. Defensively, Grookey is our Staryu and Ground-type switchin, and Larvesta is a very potent Grookey and Mienfoo in, while Staryu's speed allows to check some threats. Additionally, Grookey's Grassy Terrain protects Staryu from being KOed by Diglett's Earthquake, while Larvesta's Flame Body generally helps. As such, this core packs both offensive prowess and defensive presence, which is appreciated.

However, some Pokémon such as Mareanie can be very annoying to get going with the core. Generally, Water-type Pokémon are better to be rid of as early as possible due to Larvesta not carrying coverage to hit them. Moreover, not using an Eviolite Staryu means the team is opened up to opposing Ponyta (and Fire-types in general). These issues mandated Choice Scarf Diglett on the team which can take care of a plethora of problematic Pokémon to get our core going more easily. It also counter traps opposing Diglett more easily to enable LO Staryu better. Rock Slide is chosen on it as opposing Larvesta are a pain for Grookey.

Mienfoo was added because why not? The main reason behind this choice was to create the great Mienfoo + Grookey core, which aims to weaken shared checks such as Koffing or Larvesta more easily so that Grookey can break more effectively later in the game. Mienfoo can land key Knock Offs on opponents to weaken the opposing team, and use U-turn to force one of our FWG members or Diglett in.

Pawniard is our mandatory Steel-type, with access to Knock Off and Stealth Rock which are great tools to help the team. Additionally, it helps answer Natu. With Mienfoo and Grookey, it is another priority user as well, which is great to take on opposing offensive threats.

Of course, shuffle for good measure! (Here, it conceals Larvesta's use of Flame Charge and maybe Staryu's set.)

 

[Pamplona]

Vulpix - Shellos - Ferroseed for the 3 typings.

This was my main tournament squad this year and posted a 5-1 record all while not revealing its biggest secret since I did not encounter a trapper on the main stage...

Vulpix - Shed shell on vulpix is actually an incredibly underrated option. Anyone who tries to revenge KO with trapinch or gets baited after an overheat with diglett is going to find themselves in a world of disadvantage. Same goes for individuals who believe that maybe Vulpix is heat rock/eviolite/BJ after it clicks 2 separate moves and shows it isn't scarf -- you also can freely bluff that you're scarf until that point comes up. Hypnosis is a great option as well as you can potentially land sleep on pokemon who give vulpix trouble (ex. mareanie) or vs a sucker punch pawniard. Overheat spamming is encouraged ;3.

Diglett - So let's say an opposing diglett or trapinch came in to finish off vulpix. As they're clicking earthquake thinking they are breaking my squad down, diglett comes on in to do the exact opposite with the help of air balloon granting him ground immunity! This also allows my stunky to actually play the game and fire off sludge bombs/defogs. It's also great for trapping pokemon. Larvesta can pivot vs pokemon like mareanie who give vulpix problems. A sludge bomb into sucker punch can also KO LO grookey which can be very useful for shellos who gets broken by that. Overall it has great synergy with my shed shell trap and allows my team to really be annoying for those carrying a trapper as it can also serve as a revenge killer.

Shellos - Amazing sweeper that can win games alone if my team pulls out a bad MU. Also great for midgame to just serve as a recover tank as I try to break my opponent down without sweeping with shellos. I win a fair amount of matches without resorting to setting up shellos. Very nice vs opposing sun and ponytas.

Ferroseed - A very useful pokemon to handle stuff like porygon and staryu. A Spike sets up a wildcharge 2ko for larvesta vs frillish which can help shellos sweep after.

Stunky - Really useful pokemon all around that can 1v1 Mienfoo with sludges and aftermath. Really annoying for people to play against since it can break down a plethora of pokemon like frillish, natu, grookey abra, ferroseed, pawniard, and the list goes on. Once my diglett traps their diglett it goes to town. 18 speed is also very useful for removing rocks for larvesta and it beats the setters bar onix who is rarely used. Can also handle carvanha with sludge + aftermath.

Larvesta - I love the burns and pivot ability it provides as well as a wild charge lure. 1 burn on grookey may very well be a gg for my shellos to claim victory vs ill-prepared teams, and the ability to beat mienfoo-pawniard is pretty nice.


Threat: Tyrunt can be pretty annoying but it's winnable for my team whether it be a twave by ferroseed, aftermath ko and sucker punch damage on weakened tyrunts, shellos not getting crit, or hypnosis into trapping. Experienced players should be able to navigate through the MU.

If I had more time to enter more tournaments this year this would be my main squad. Very enjoyable team once you get used to it. Also I find my best teams happen to be fighterless but they take a while to craft.

 

[Kazeiyuu]

Alright, here comes one of my favorite tournament team...
The PonyKey + LO Digglet

Description

The team is based on the offensive core of Ponyta + Grookey, which is very effective in LC, Grookey's grassy terrain compensates for Ponyta's weakness to trappers, and the two combine well offensively. In the current meta, Mienfoo is a must-have in almost every team that wants to be competitive, and therefore becomes a reserved slot in most builds. Mareanie allows you to check Pokémon like Mienfoo and Ponyta, which would otherwise be problematic for the team. It also brings utility with knock off, and allows to open the way for Ponyta to clean at the end of the game. Pawniard is the Psychic/Normal check. Steel is, like Mienfoo, almost mandatory in the meta, and Pawniard, in addition to its offensive utility, is more suited to this team, with Berry Juice offering a much more interesting recovery than Ferroseed's Giga Drain in the short term, and its type being more interesting defensively in the meta. Finally, Diglett LO works well in this team despite the use of Grookey, thanks to his access to Stomping Tantrum, which ignores the grassy terrain. His ability to Trap Abra LO or Ponyta that could quickly become dangerous if they win a tie is greatly appreciated, and his ability to Trap and OHKO most Mareanie is also a big plus, given the difficulty the team may have in breaking a defensive core that includes it.

Difficult MUs

- Porygon: Porygon can quickly become overwhelming in this MU, the Trace set being one of the best Switch-in in the tier to both Flash Fire Ponyta and non-Balloon Diglett. The MU is clearly not impossible, Mienfoo and Pawniard handling most of the Porygon very well (Mienfoo loses to the Scarf after 1 spike), but you still have to be very careful with this MU which can quickly become impossible, especially if the Porygon is accompanied by a trapper (which is almost always the case)

- Stack Hazard: Probably the most complicated MU for this team. The absence of Hazard removal is not necessarily troublesome in most MUs, but Stack Hazard can quickly become unmanageable. However, the team is prepared for most of the threats in this type of team, like Carvanha and Ponyta for example. In this MU, you should try to finish the game as quickly as possible in most cases, with the opponent having the advantage of only having to stall by forcing switches to win.

Detailed explanations

Ponyta

Cleaner/Wallbreaker
Can be used as a last resort switch, its natural bulk, its access to Berry Juice, and its excellent offensive stats allowing it to come on the field easily enough to deal a lot of damage with either Flare Blitz or one of its excellent coverage option. However, you have to be careful against trappers, Flame Charge allows you to outspeed Diglett and OHKO it (unless it has a Choice Scarf or Focus Sash), but Ponyta can't OHKO Trapinch, unless it has a Flash Fire boost. Flash Fire also allows Ponyta to become the centerpiece of the Sun MU, which would otherwise be rather complex, and can also secure a revenge kill with Diglett on an opposing Ponyta by preventing it from using Flame Charge.

Grookey

Revenge Killer/Offensive pivot/Cleaner
Grookey's ability is its main asset, giving it a huge priority in Grassy Glide, and allowing it to deal quite effectively with the ground weakness rather present in this team. Grookey can also be useful to his team, either thanks to Knock Off or U-Turn. His presence is also essential because of the presence of Carvanha in the tier, a MU that would otherwise be absolutely impossible without it. Grookey uses eviolite in order to take full advantage of the passive recovery of its terrain, but especially to serve as a Switch in to TMudbray, who could otherwise kill him quite easily and avoid the field thanks to High Horspower. Drain Punch allows Grookey to break through steel types that might otherwise be problematic for it, but also makes the team less weak to Porygon, who gets 2HKO'd by Drain Punch after getting koffed.

Mienfoo

Offensive Pivot/Wallbreaker
There is no reason not to play Kungfouine in the tier, except in some HO teams. Despite the lack of attacking investment, Kungfouine'sHigh Jump Kick is one of the scariest moves in the tier, doing massive damage and being able to easily break through opposing cores, potentially killing them with High Jump Kick once they are weakened and deprived of their eviolite. Mienfoo also offers a great defensive utility due to its investment and eviolite, as well as its more than correct defensive typing. U-turn allows Ponyta, Grookey and especially Diglett to come on the field for free and inflict a lot of damage, Diglett being able to trap and kill Mareanie which is one of the best Switch in Mienfoo in the tier.

Mareanie

Wall
As mentioned above, Mareanie is one of the best fighting checks in the tier, a role that is absolutely essential in any team that wants to be competitive because of Mienfoo's omnipresence. Mareanie can also check Ponyta, which could otherwise be very problematic, although you have to be careful not to get koffed. Overall, its good bulk, excellent talent and dual typing defensively as well as offensively (in LC) allows Mareanie to be useful in all MUs, also having the advantage of providing an extra Knock Off user, being able to permanently weaken the opposing team, and being indispensable to clean up with Ponyta in the late game.

Pawniard

Bulky Attacker/Revenge Killer
Pawniard is an excellent switch-in to almost every psychic type, with the exception of some Abra sets. Its single weakness to Galarian Ponyta Fire coverage (Galar's Ponyta's Mystical Fire incidentally activating Pawniard's ability) and Natu's Heat Wave making him much more viable in this team than his grass/steel counterpart, who takes much more damage due to its double weakness. Sucker Punch is one of the best priorities in the tier, and Pawniard's ability to effectively Koff troublesome Pokémon like Mienfoo or Timburr often proves to be very useful. The investment in Special Defense, along with Berry Juice, also allows Pawniard to hold off a Natu Heatwave or Smogo Fire Blast and then heal itself completely.

Diglett

Trapper/Cleaner
Its talent and speed tier make Diglett extremely powerful in the tier, and in this team, its presence proves itself to be more than profitable. Diglett being able to Trap and OHKO most Mareanie, which is great considering that Mareanie is a rather problematic Pokemon for Ponyta and Mienfoo, it can also trap and deal with Larvesta thanks to Rock Slide, which otherwise could easily wall and punish Grookey and Mienfoo thanks to its ability. Diglett proves to be an important piece in the offensive core of the team, but we must be careful not to handicap it with our own Grookey. Stomping Tantrum however, allows to compensate for the Grassy Terrain, not being affected by the negative effect of the latter. However, one must be aware that Stomping Tantrum never OHKOs Mareanie with eviolite, and that it has only a 6% chance of doing so after a U-turn from Mienfoo, whereas Earthquake always OHKOs classic Mareanie, except under Grassy Terrain.

Replay

LC Open Round 7 game 2 VS czim (I was not running Stomping Tantrum at the time)

Yes, that's a lot of writing, thanks for reading if you did!

 

[LC_Cool]

https://pokepast.es/a36f9b41b572f9a2

Description

Treeco is one of the fastest Pokémon in LC and can take care of diglets very easily, it also has unburden so after it uses berry juice is gains more speed.
Charmander is a good wall breaker and beats foongus and pawniard.
Tirtouga is very defense and has solid rock to take less damage from super effective moves.
Porygon has recover and agility to heal and speed up to take out most treats.
Diglet has life orb to change moves because it can challenge Mienfoo, hurt Grookey, and Pawniard if you have substitute set up.
Mienfoo is the best Pokémon in LC and is a good attacker but I gave is inner focus so you can avoid fake outs from other mienfoo and then use knock off on them

Strengths & Weaknesses

This team is super offensive and deals with most threats but is not defensive so if they set up screens you will probably lose

 

[BlueWollyWog]

So this is a team I have named "Heading to Battle but Taking a Volt Turn to Go Burn Fishing Instead."
That name describes the basic game plan of the team; pivot around and fish for burns instead of putting in another day at the proverbial Pokémon Showdown Office Building.

Team Explanation

Larvesta fishes for burns, stops Grookey for Staryu, and pivots with U-turn.
Staryu removes Stealth Rocks for Larvesta, fishes for burns with Scald, and pivots with Flip Turn.
Ferroseed does what Ferroseed does.
Magnemite is scarfed and serves as the team's main win condition once Grounds have been eliminated.
Porygon runs Trace to eliminate the Arena Trappers for Magnemite, absorbs special hits, spreads paralysis, and pivots with Teleport.
Mienfoo does what Mienfoo does, but with a twist! The twist is just that Fake Out has been dropped to run Stone Edge in order to get rid of Larvesta for the Steels.

Problems for the Team

Tyrunt can be a problem for the team, but if it comes in on Larvesta expecting free setup Larvesta runs max speed in order to burn it.
Grounds like Mudbray, Onix, and Drilbur that Porygon cannot trap can also be troublesome.
Frillish is a strange case because it walls much of the team if it runs Water Absorb, but it can be dealt with by Magnemite.
Carvanha can cause problems if the team gets worn down.
Timburr if Guts can cause problems since the team is built to spread burns.

This team tends to win very hard or lose very hard in my experience, but as that old fisherman's saying goes:
"The fishing was good; it was the inflicting burns that was bad."

 

[Drifting]

Good to see a lot more submissions this week, some cool ones too. You guys knows the drill:

Team 1 - Larvesta Twin Spin by BeardedDrakon

Team 2 - Bulky Six by Kipkluif

Team 3 - FWG Screens HO by reggg

Team 4 - Binacle Spike Stack by Shandeur

Team 5 - Monoblue Spikes by TheShoddyStrawman

Team 6 - Starter Sun by Coconut

Team 7 - FWG Carvesta by Iynhe

Team 8 - FWG Setup Spam by PyProd

Team 9 - Shedding Off The Heat by Pamplona

Team 10 - PonyKey + LO Diglett by Be Like Bisharp

Team 11 - FWG Offense by LC_Cool

Team 12 - Heading To Battle But Taking A Volt-Turn To Go Burn Fishing Instead by BlueWollyWog

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, 14th August AEST

 

[reggg]

hey Drifting my team isn't the correct one, its Kipkluif's

Also, Team 6 Team 9 Team 10