A team I built around the core of Regigigas + Weezing with Zacian for series 8. The idea came from a video posted by MoxieBoosted right before the beginning of the season, where he suggested the idea of running a Regigigas + Weezing core with Zacian. His reason being is that it basically granted the team 2 restricted Pokémon for the price of 1 due to Regigigas' stats and Neutralizing Gas from Weezing enabling it's fantastic wallbreaking capabilities, which is then combined with Zacian's phenomenal late game cleaning potential. This trait of Zacian goes like bread and butter with a Regigigas' team playstyle, which is to Dynamax Regigigas on turn 1 of the game to put a big hole on the opposing team so that a fast and strong Pokémon in the back can come in and clean up in the late game. The fact that Zacian itself can't Dynamax further leans into this playstyle and makes it perfect for this role. I decided that the best way to complement these 3 Pokémon was the by this time classic sun core of Gmax Venusaur + Torkoal which has been running rampant in the SWSH VGC metagame for a long time. Gmax Vine Lash is a phenomenal tool to have acces to, as it causes residual damage to opposing non grass-type Pokémon for 4 turns (1/6 of their max HP), which is an amazing effect that pairs up really well with Zacian, as the damage racks up to further weaken the opposing team. Meanwhile, Torkoal is a Pokémon that I personally did not expect much from initially. I thought it would end up fullfilling a similar role to Weezing, in that it just exists on the team to support their main Dynamax partner and not much else, but I'm so glad I was wrong. Torkoal has always been a favourite of mine, and I couldn't be happier with how effective it has been at doing the things I wanted it to do. I opted for a physically defensive set as opposed to the more common offensive variant since I felt that fitting Trick Room into the team was a pretty big problem with Zacian being my main late game option and Dynamax being expended in the early game on Regigigas/Venusaur, as well as the fact that space was getting tight for me to put in more stuff on the team, so I wanted Torkoal to be as bulky as possible to stick around but at the same time, I had to find a way to give it offensive capabilities so as to not have another passive member on the team in addition to Weezing. Burning Jealousy + Body Press + Iron Defense is an amazing combination that gave me exactly what I needed. Burning Jealousy is a great tool to punish opponents who Dynamax recklessly, and the burn damage greatly supports your Gmax Vine Lash gameplan. Meanwhile, Body Press + Iron Defense allows Torkoal to apply offensive pressure while being very bulky, preventing it from being passive. This way, Torkoal can play both an offensive role and a support oriented role (mainly) for Venusaur at the same time without losing bulk. With the addition of the sun core, the team now had 2 modes: a sun mode, which deals mainly with rain and steel types and it's actually more flexible when it comes to leads, and a "yolo mode" which basically takes care of everything else but it's much more linear as a tradeoff. Both these modes support Zacian very well, heavily denting common Pokémon that give it trouble making it's job much easier. They also share a few checks between them, which forces the opponent to have those members on their team take damage to fend of Regigigas/Venusaur, leaving them exposed to Zacian in the late game. Tapu Fini was the last member I added to the team. I really wanted to complete a Fire-Water-Grass core with Venusaur and Torkoal, and I also felt that the team would greatly benefit from Misty Terrain to stop status (most importantly paralysis and burns), as well as a great and reliable bulky pivot that can come in when needed. I decided to give Tapu Fini Calm Mind to prevent it from being too passive following my mindset with Torkoal.
https://pokepast.es/201682b8f16d097a
