Introduction
Hey its Ika here. Anyone who knows me well knows how much of a fan I am of the old gens of BSS, to the point that I've spent far too much time looking through archival footage and Japanese Blogs so I could understand the tiers better. I've been wanting to post long form old gen team builds for the longest time as there is little to no resources about the Gen 5-6 Battle Stadium Singles Metagame and how to build decent teams on Smogon but until now I haven't really had the opportunity to. Now that I have a brief period of free time, where really is better to start than one of my favourite and probably most infamous GBU teams. I've pulled it out at BSPL twice, both being victories and several other players have used to tournament success. I wrote a little about how this team functions here, this post will go into a lot more detail on specific teambuilding aspects.
Theorycrafting
During BSPL V, I wanted to push the boundaries of what one could build in GBU and showcase team compositions that had never been seen before. A large inspiration for this team came from Ohou-San (Blog Link), who used a similar team composition to win a 150 man in-person GBU Tour in February 2013 and was kind enough to write a team report. I actually used this team as well in BSPL, but ended up losing due to misplaying two 50-50 situations in a row. Anyways, it had this particular core that I wanted to build around. Thundurus-I, Sub-SD Garchomp and Minimize Chandelure. Then I added Breloom, Volcarona and Cloyster, another hyper offence core that had real popularity back in late GBU that I didn't really see being used by anyone and could be used against matchups that the first core struggled with. You can see a variant of this pairing here, except with Jellicent (Blog Link) and one with Suicune (Blog Link). It's difficult to find concrete GBU usage stats due to the lack of information in those days but to demonstrate what I'm talking about with Breloom/Volcarona/Cloyster and how ubiquitous it was. I've put some usage stats that I found from another Tournament around the same time period just under 5 months before the release of X/Y. These would have been teamlock tours ala VGC with a group stage/championship bracket and this is the team breakdown. Out of 44 Cloyster teams, 23 of them contained Volcarona or Breloom. Funny enough a dual team with Abomasnow + Walrein and Tyranitar + Gliscor ended up taking 1st place but that's a team for a different day.
There isn't many people who play GBU well and most of them were my opponents, so I used to playtest vs. myself and go through different leads and cycles and came to a conclusion that Chandelure wasn't working quite as well as I liked as it overlapped significantly with Volcarona and had a look around for a potential replacement which ended up being a lesser used Pokemon Starmie. Despite being less functional when you want to lead Breloom than Chandelure, its access to recovery, natural core, water typing and speed made it a more stable choice than Chandelure for the team.
My main goal in terms of the individual pokemon sets was to have a way to process as much as I could from lead matchup either from Thundurus-I or Breloom and then be able to put in work with my hyper offensive sweepers. One might say that Starmie isn't a hyper offense sweeper and it's difficult to class minimize as a hyper offence strat, but it's much in the same vein as Glalie from USUM where the opponent gets into really big trouble if they give it a single turn due to the probability you will miss an attack.
Lead Metagame
When it generally comes to building HO, you have to be super cognizant of the lead, especially in 3v3 where getting the wrong lead/receptions can instantly lose you the match. Thundurus-I and Breloom are individually probably the two best leads in GBU and cover a large portion of the metagame, though there are matchups where they can falter in and I aimed to flowchart some of these. Sash Mamoswine in particular is a big pain for this team on paper to deal with, especially in matchups where you want to bring Garchomp or Cloyster/Volcarona since it can set up rocks that severely hampers Volcarona/Cloyster or just Icicle Spear T1 vs. Breloom. Even if you bring Mamo down to sash in exchange for a Mamo KO, you cannot set up on Mamo with any pokemon due to its immunity to paralysis and its strong Dual Stab and therefore you lose the momentum Turn 3 after you revenge kill since the opponent gets to send in their counterpick. This is where the Thundurus Set chosen comes in, to punish both Turn 1 plays. Another issue is Tyranitar lead, more specifically Tyranitar T1 into a Sleep Absorber should Breloom be led. This is why the Thund -> Garchomp Route is also there as an option so I am not forced to lead Breloom. Its generally rare you'd use both Breloom and Thundurus together, the major exception being vs. Rain.
Individual Theory
Thundurus-Incarnate
Thundurus (M) @ Jaboca Berry
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave
- Grass Knot
The main aim of Thundurus-I as a a suicide lead is just to get a Paralysis off on a Pokemon and then process from there. I think if I was to go back and playtest this team again, I'd probably consider an Eject Button on the Thundurus, but Jaboca was a very cool tech at the time that I wanted to show off. The idea is that vs. Mamoswine, you can Grass Knot T1 and Jaboca Berry will proc on their Icicle Spear therefore breaking Focus Sash and KOing them on the first hit and then you are able to Twave the next pokemon coming in. HP Ice is for Garchomp, Dragonite and the Rare Landorus-Therian. I found Max/Max to be fine, but if you want to make specific adjustments, you can adjust for Garchomp non-gem Outrage which with a little investment from SpA -> HP lives other than on 1 random number. I've put the calc down below. Prime targets for the Yellow Colour include Latios, Kingdra and opposing Thundurus. It can be pretty tough if the opposing Thund is both taunt + Twave in that case just finish off with Garchomp if you don't win the speed tie if going that route or you can finish with Starmie even if you get Twaved you can utilise natural cure.
252 Atk Garchomp Outrage vs. 44 HP / 0 Def Thundurus: 136-162 (85 - 101.2%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
Garchomp
Garchomp @ Dragon Gem
Ability: Sand Veil
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
Garchomp is there as the Anti-Tyranitar reciever. The theory behind Sub - SD Garchomp is to use Tyranitars Sand against it when it counterleads Thundurus-I. The set itself is pretty standard, but has the opportunity to Substitute in that matchup. Outrage over Dual Chop is mainly due to the power of Dragon Gem so that you can actually break through Suicune/Cresselia and OHKO opposing Paralysed Thundurus-I from full health if need be. Obviously Outrage has its drawbacks, but it's one of those things. I don't think you need to use Swords Dance the majority of the time but it is nice to have there vs. very fat teams.
Starmie
Starmie @ Bright Powder
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 60 Def / 4 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Minimize
- Substitute
- Recover
- Scald
Starmie is probably the most infamous member of the team, with the Minimize there. After 1 Minimize in conjunction with Brightpowder, the opponent only has a 54% chance of hitting an Attack so sometimes you can get lucky even. This is even less if it is not an 100% accurate move such as Latios's Draco Meteor or from a paralysed opponent. That isn't the main aim though and more of a hail mary that is common with such Pokemon. A good example of the hail mary potential is Sub + Hypnosis Mega Gengar. The main reason Starmie is on the team is its matchup vs. Conkeldurr and its ability to take advantage of it with Sub + Minimize. Starmie can struggle with certain pokemon, such as Bullet Seed Breloom or Ferrothorn as well as CM Rest variants of Suicune which can PP Stall. In terms of the EV Spread, speed is the main priority so you outspeed Thund-I and then the rest is placed in bulk. The HP allows you to live a Modest Specs Dragon Pulse from Latios and the Defence allows you to live a +2 Rock Blast from Cloyster. If Latios chooses to go for Draco, you can either win the Substitute game at which point you can PP stall or it can miss, either ways you have a good chance.
252+ SpA Choice Specs Latios Dragon Pulse vs. 188 HP / 4 SpD Starmie: 135-160 (84.9 - 100.6%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Cloyster Rock Blast (5 hits) vs. 188 HP / 60 Def Starmie: 140-165 (88 - 103.7%) -- approx. 6.3% chance to OHKO
Volcarona
Volcarona @ Life Orb
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Fire Blast
- Quiver Dance
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Giga Drain
The Volcarona comes from here (Blog Link) and the main aim is just to have as much breaking power as possible. Fire/Ice/Grass Coverage has been a good Volc Spread forever, only really lacking ways to deal with Heatran and Tyranitar once it gets going. Garchomp above works as a good partner to dissuade and take advantage of these brings, although the two pokemon are not perfect brought together. Giga Drain there is for Suicune which this team is admitted a bit weak to. Without Water Gem Boosted Hydro Pump, Suicune often struggles to deal with Volcarona despite the type matchup. It's also a pretty good trader since when it wins a 1v1 most priority in GBU is physical hence flame body can potentially hax pokemon trying to revenge with Mach Punch/Quick Attack/Extremespeed such as Conkeldurr, Breloom, Scizor and Dragonite.
Cloyster
Cloyster @ King's Rock
Ability: Skill Link
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Shell Smash
- Rock Blast
- Ice Shard
The Cloyster is a standard Cloyster set with enough speed to outspeed Jolteon at +2, the rest is put in HP. Cloyster is the teams option vs. Multiple Dragon pokemon such as Dnite/Latios/Garchomp spam which otherwise cannot be dealt with. For example, Garchomps outrage does not 2HKO Cloyster allowing you to switch in. Asides from that, Lum is a possibility for an item vs. Sand such as Hippowdon, I don't think it matters too much so I've just put kings rock on as a way to potentially get a win vs. Suicune/Cresselia.
252 Atk Garchomp Outrage vs. 172 HP / 4 Def Cloyster: 61-73 (41.4 - 49.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Breloom
Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Rock Slide
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch
This Breloom is completely standard asides from the Rock Slide and is just there as an alternative lead to Thund-I. Rock Slide is just an anti-Thundurus-I and to a lesser Extent Salamence Tech so they can't freely do their thing against you. Rock Slide into Mach Punch KOs non-bulky Thund-I the vast majority of the time. Breloom is needed in particular vs. Rain as Rain Kingdra can quickly sweep over this team without Sash Loom. Jolly is always the preference so you can at least speedtie other Loom. When you can't lead Thund-I safely or you want it in the back, then you can lead Breloom. Technically you can go a Sporeless variant of Loom here, but I think its always nice to have that move just in case.
252 Atk Breloom Rock Slide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Thundurus: 114-136 (74 - 88.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Technician Breloom Mach Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Thundurus: 34-41 (22 - 26.6%) -- 17.1% chance to 4HKO
Pokepaste
https://pokepast.es/c75161153e443c4f
Selection Screen
Thundurus - Garchomp - Starmie
This is probably the most standard trio to bring to battle. Generally you Tbolt or Twave turn 1 depending on the matchup or use Grass Knot/HP Ice vs. Grounds. One thing important to note in the earlygame is that Starmie can be used to absorb status such as Vs. Yawn Hippowdon or even opposing Twave and then pivot out with natural cure. I mention above the opposing Thundurus matchup which is probably the most troublesome matchup you'll face when bringing these three (in matchups you'd actually be willing to take). The ideal situation is you suicide your Thundurus and get in Garchomp or Starmie vs. a weakened Paralysed pokemon and then go from there. This is particularly good vs. Goodstuffs.
Breloom - Volcarona - Cloyster
This would be the second main mode and really you just trade, ideally getting off a spore and then recieve Volcarona/Cloyster depending on the matchup. Breloom can also start vs. opposing Cloyster since they tend not to be max speed Jolly and it is fine trading with Cloyster Turn 1. Breloom always puts in some element of work and Rock Slide allows it to have impact in some of its worse matchups as opposed to Rock Tomb or Stone Edge which have more accuracy issues.
Breloom - Thundurus - Garchomp
This is mainly for rain. Either you lead Thundurus-I or Breloom, but the main two tools you have are the Twave from Thundurus onto Kingdra and Sash on Breloom, utilise these tools and you will have a decent fighting chance. Non Kingdra rain is not as threatening, but the choice selection remains the same for the most part. Garchomp is a decent speedy mon that can be used once pokemon have been paralysed.
Other modes
The three modes I say above are the main ones, but honestly you can also just pick and choose stuff based on the matchup. Essentially just use your brain and pick stuff that looks good. A good one is Breloom - Cloyster - Starmie. If the opponent has Latios, you can chip Latios into range of Ice Shard from Cloyster and go from there. One thing in general is to keep pressure on the opponent so they lose the game in the turn they want to set up stealth rock for Cloyster/Volcarona which is relatively easy to do given how many threats this team has.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading if you've managed to get this far. Shout out to all the guys who play GBU and my homies, they know who they are :3. I hope I can bring more oldschool teams to Smogon in future.
Ika
Hey its Ika here. Anyone who knows me well knows how much of a fan I am of the old gens of BSS, to the point that I've spent far too much time looking through archival footage and Japanese Blogs so I could understand the tiers better. I've been wanting to post long form old gen team builds for the longest time as there is little to no resources about the Gen 5-6 Battle Stadium Singles Metagame and how to build decent teams on Smogon but until now I haven't really had the opportunity to. Now that I have a brief period of free time, where really is better to start than one of my favourite and probably most infamous GBU teams. I've pulled it out at BSPL twice, both being victories and several other players have used to tournament success. I wrote a little about how this team functions here, this post will go into a lot more detail on specific teambuilding aspects.
Theorycrafting
During BSPL V, I wanted to push the boundaries of what one could build in GBU and showcase team compositions that had never been seen before. A large inspiration for this team came from Ohou-San (Blog Link), who used a similar team composition to win a 150 man in-person GBU Tour in February 2013 and was kind enough to write a team report. I actually used this team as well in BSPL, but ended up losing due to misplaying two 50-50 situations in a row. Anyways, it had this particular core that I wanted to build around. Thundurus-I, Sub-SD Garchomp and Minimize Chandelure. Then I added Breloom, Volcarona and Cloyster, another hyper offence core that had real popularity back in late GBU that I didn't really see being used by anyone and could be used against matchups that the first core struggled with. You can see a variant of this pairing here, except with Jellicent (Blog Link) and one with Suicune (Blog Link). It's difficult to find concrete GBU usage stats due to the lack of information in those days but to demonstrate what I'm talking about with Breloom/Volcarona/Cloyster and how ubiquitous it was. I've put some usage stats that I found from another Tournament around the same time period just under 5 months before the release of X/Y. These would have been teamlock tours ala VGC with a group stage/championship bracket and this is the team breakdown. Out of 44 Cloyster teams, 23 of them contained Volcarona or Breloom. Funny enough a dual team with Abomasnow + Walrein and Tyranitar + Gliscor ended up taking 1st place but that's a team for a different day.
There isn't many people who play GBU well and most of them were my opponents, so I used to playtest vs. myself and go through different leads and cycles and came to a conclusion that Chandelure wasn't working quite as well as I liked as it overlapped significantly with Volcarona and had a look around for a potential replacement which ended up being a lesser used Pokemon Starmie. Despite being less functional when you want to lead Breloom than Chandelure, its access to recovery, natural core, water typing and speed made it a more stable choice than Chandelure for the team.
My main goal in terms of the individual pokemon sets was to have a way to process as much as I could from lead matchup either from Thundurus-I or Breloom and then be able to put in work with my hyper offensive sweepers. One might say that Starmie isn't a hyper offense sweeper and it's difficult to class minimize as a hyper offence strat, but it's much in the same vein as Glalie from USUM where the opponent gets into really big trouble if they give it a single turn due to the probability you will miss an attack.
Lead Metagame
When it generally comes to building HO, you have to be super cognizant of the lead, especially in 3v3 where getting the wrong lead/receptions can instantly lose you the match. Thundurus-I and Breloom are individually probably the two best leads in GBU and cover a large portion of the metagame, though there are matchups where they can falter in and I aimed to flowchart some of these. Sash Mamoswine in particular is a big pain for this team on paper to deal with, especially in matchups where you want to bring Garchomp or Cloyster/Volcarona since it can set up rocks that severely hampers Volcarona/Cloyster or just Icicle Spear T1 vs. Breloom. Even if you bring Mamo down to sash in exchange for a Mamo KO, you cannot set up on Mamo with any pokemon due to its immunity to paralysis and its strong Dual Stab and therefore you lose the momentum Turn 3 after you revenge kill since the opponent gets to send in their counterpick. This is where the Thundurus Set chosen comes in, to punish both Turn 1 plays. Another issue is Tyranitar lead, more specifically Tyranitar T1 into a Sleep Absorber should Breloom be led. This is why the Thund -> Garchomp Route is also there as an option so I am not forced to lead Breloom. Its generally rare you'd use both Breloom and Thundurus together, the major exception being vs. Rain.
Individual Theory
Thundurus-Incarnate Thundurus (M) @ Jaboca Berry
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave
- Grass Knot
The main aim of Thundurus-I as a a suicide lead is just to get a Paralysis off on a Pokemon and then process from there. I think if I was to go back and playtest this team again, I'd probably consider an Eject Button on the Thundurus, but Jaboca was a very cool tech at the time that I wanted to show off. The idea is that vs. Mamoswine, you can Grass Knot T1 and Jaboca Berry will proc on their Icicle Spear therefore breaking Focus Sash and KOing them on the first hit and then you are able to Twave the next pokemon coming in. HP Ice is for Garchomp, Dragonite and the Rare Landorus-Therian. I found Max/Max to be fine, but if you want to make specific adjustments, you can adjust for Garchomp non-gem Outrage which with a little investment from SpA -> HP lives other than on 1 random number. I've put the calc down below. Prime targets for the Yellow Colour include Latios, Kingdra and opposing Thundurus. It can be pretty tough if the opposing Thund is both taunt + Twave in that case just finish off with Garchomp if you don't win the speed tie if going that route or you can finish with Starmie even if you get Twaved you can utilise natural cure.
252 Atk Garchomp Outrage vs. 44 HP / 0 Def Thundurus: 136-162 (85 - 101.2%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
Garchomp Garchomp @ Dragon Gem
Ability: Sand Veil
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
Garchomp is there as the Anti-Tyranitar reciever. The theory behind Sub - SD Garchomp is to use Tyranitars Sand against it when it counterleads Thundurus-I. The set itself is pretty standard, but has the opportunity to Substitute in that matchup. Outrage over Dual Chop is mainly due to the power of Dragon Gem so that you can actually break through Suicune/Cresselia and OHKO opposing Paralysed Thundurus-I from full health if need be. Obviously Outrage has its drawbacks, but it's one of those things. I don't think you need to use Swords Dance the majority of the time but it is nice to have there vs. very fat teams.
Starmie Starmie @ Bright Powder
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 60 Def / 4 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Minimize
- Substitute
- Recover
- Scald
Starmie is probably the most infamous member of the team, with the Minimize there. After 1 Minimize in conjunction with Brightpowder, the opponent only has a 54% chance of hitting an Attack so sometimes you can get lucky even. This is even less if it is not an 100% accurate move such as Latios's Draco Meteor or from a paralysed opponent. That isn't the main aim though and more of a hail mary that is common with such Pokemon. A good example of the hail mary potential is Sub + Hypnosis Mega Gengar. The main reason Starmie is on the team is its matchup vs. Conkeldurr and its ability to take advantage of it with Sub + Minimize. Starmie can struggle with certain pokemon, such as Bullet Seed Breloom or Ferrothorn as well as CM Rest variants of Suicune which can PP Stall. In terms of the EV Spread, speed is the main priority so you outspeed Thund-I and then the rest is placed in bulk. The HP allows you to live a Modest Specs Dragon Pulse from Latios and the Defence allows you to live a +2 Rock Blast from Cloyster. If Latios chooses to go for Draco, you can either win the Substitute game at which point you can PP stall or it can miss, either ways you have a good chance.
252+ SpA Choice Specs Latios Dragon Pulse vs. 188 HP / 4 SpD Starmie: 135-160 (84.9 - 100.6%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Cloyster Rock Blast (5 hits) vs. 188 HP / 60 Def Starmie: 140-165 (88 - 103.7%) -- approx. 6.3% chance to OHKO
Volcarona Volcarona @ Life Orb
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Fire Blast
- Quiver Dance
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Giga Drain
The Volcarona comes from here (Blog Link) and the main aim is just to have as much breaking power as possible. Fire/Ice/Grass Coverage has been a good Volc Spread forever, only really lacking ways to deal with Heatran and Tyranitar once it gets going. Garchomp above works as a good partner to dissuade and take advantage of these brings, although the two pokemon are not perfect brought together. Giga Drain there is for Suicune which this team is admitted a bit weak to. Without Water Gem Boosted Hydro Pump, Suicune often struggles to deal with Volcarona despite the type matchup. It's also a pretty good trader since when it wins a 1v1 most priority in GBU is physical hence flame body can potentially hax pokemon trying to revenge with Mach Punch/Quick Attack/Extremespeed such as Conkeldurr, Breloom, Scizor and Dragonite.
Cloyster Cloyster @ King's Rock
Ability: Skill Link
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Shell Smash
- Rock Blast
- Ice Shard
The Cloyster is a standard Cloyster set with enough speed to outspeed Jolteon at +2, the rest is put in HP. Cloyster is the teams option vs. Multiple Dragon pokemon such as Dnite/Latios/Garchomp spam which otherwise cannot be dealt with. For example, Garchomps outrage does not 2HKO Cloyster allowing you to switch in. Asides from that, Lum is a possibility for an item vs. Sand such as Hippowdon, I don't think it matters too much so I've just put kings rock on as a way to potentially get a win vs. Suicune/Cresselia.
252 Atk Garchomp Outrage vs. 172 HP / 4 Def Cloyster: 61-73 (41.4 - 49.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Breloom Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Rock Slide
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch
This Breloom is completely standard asides from the Rock Slide and is just there as an alternative lead to Thund-I. Rock Slide is just an anti-Thundurus-I and to a lesser Extent Salamence Tech so they can't freely do their thing against you. Rock Slide into Mach Punch KOs non-bulky Thund-I the vast majority of the time. Breloom is needed in particular vs. Rain as Rain Kingdra can quickly sweep over this team without Sash Loom. Jolly is always the preference so you can at least speedtie other Loom. When you can't lead Thund-I safely or you want it in the back, then you can lead Breloom. Technically you can go a Sporeless variant of Loom here, but I think its always nice to have that move just in case.
252 Atk Breloom Rock Slide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Thundurus: 114-136 (74 - 88.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Technician Breloom Mach Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Thundurus: 34-41 (22 - 26.6%) -- 17.1% chance to 4HKO
Pokepaste
https://pokepast.es/c75161153e443c4f
Selection Screen
Thundurus - Garchomp - Starmie
This is probably the most standard trio to bring to battle. Generally you Tbolt or Twave turn 1 depending on the matchup or use Grass Knot/HP Ice vs. Grounds. One thing important to note in the earlygame is that Starmie can be used to absorb status such as Vs. Yawn Hippowdon or even opposing Twave and then pivot out with natural cure. I mention above the opposing Thundurus matchup which is probably the most troublesome matchup you'll face when bringing these three (in matchups you'd actually be willing to take). The ideal situation is you suicide your Thundurus and get in Garchomp or Starmie vs. a weakened Paralysed pokemon and then go from there. This is particularly good vs. Goodstuffs.
Breloom - Volcarona - Cloyster
This would be the second main mode and really you just trade, ideally getting off a spore and then recieve Volcarona/Cloyster depending on the matchup. Breloom can also start vs. opposing Cloyster since they tend not to be max speed Jolly and it is fine trading with Cloyster Turn 1. Breloom always puts in some element of work and Rock Slide allows it to have impact in some of its worse matchups as opposed to Rock Tomb or Stone Edge which have more accuracy issues.
Breloom - Thundurus - Garchomp
This is mainly for rain. Either you lead Thundurus-I or Breloom, but the main two tools you have are the Twave from Thundurus onto Kingdra and Sash on Breloom, utilise these tools and you will have a decent fighting chance. Non Kingdra rain is not as threatening, but the choice selection remains the same for the most part. Garchomp is a decent speedy mon that can be used once pokemon have been paralysed.
Other modes
The three modes I say above are the main ones, but honestly you can also just pick and choose stuff based on the matchup. Essentially just use your brain and pick stuff that looks good. A good one is Breloom - Cloyster - Starmie. If the opponent has Latios, you can chip Latios into range of Ice Shard from Cloyster and go from there. One thing in general is to keep pressure on the opponent so they lose the game in the turn they want to set up stealth rock for Cloyster/Volcarona which is relatively easy to do given how many threats this team has.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading if you've managed to get this far. Shout out to all the guys who play GBU and my homies, they know who they are :3. I hope I can bring more oldschool teams to Smogon in future.
Ika
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