Project VGC Teambuilding Competition - Week 15 (almost here) - Building (undetermined)

[TyphoeusVGC]

E>J>k>O>P

 

[He-who-is-not-to-be-named]

The Smogon VGC Series Voldy Builds Teams could not continue this week due to technical difficulties, but I can still vote hehe.

EDIT: Voting goes top-down - Team G gets the most points, and Team P gets the least.

G - Latias Ally Switch is a really cool idea, especially when considering that psychic resists the type that Tyranitar hates. and I can definitely see the team doing quite well on ladder.

H - Togekiss is a mon that works quite well with Ttar due to its redirection, as well as the fact that both of its STABs hit Urshifu for SE damage.

O - Again, Ally Switch on a psychic type, and an overall solid team. 'Nuff said.

E - Slurpuff Unburden support is definitely something fresh, and pairing it with mons like the Vish is pretty terrifying.

C - Mandibuzz is interesting, and the team as a whole does have a lot of synergy. Also no unpaid furry tax this time.

B - Double weather with Charizard is definitely a really nice idea, and the team seems to work quite well so it's getting my vote.

M - Pheromosa by itself might not be very scary, but when put next to a bunch of slow, bulky pokemon with Speed Swap, the entire team suddenly seems a whole lot more terrifying.

A - The team works well, and it's got a bit of a Gothic touch.

 

[Bananers]

Almost deadline vote.

A > K > G > E

 

[Netherious]

J
H
K
M

interesting stuff this week, tyranitar is a bit harder to build around so I definitely voted based on builds that best utilized tyranitar itself as a niche (without relying on sand rush).

 

[Bananers]

VOTING HAS CLOSED

 

[Bananers]

That wraps up Week 3, and our winner is, not Raineko , but Helios of Sun! Congrats, your team came it with 58 votes while Rainekos came in with 54, so it was a close one. Week 4 will be announced shortly.

 

[Bananers]

Your Pokemon for Week 4 will be, Celesteela! As always deadline is Friday 11:59 PM EST. Good luck all!

 

[shadowurshifu]

https://pokepast.es/0bba5fe6820a7ab8 so lets over this team the stats and stuff. Celesteela the stats
Celesteela @ Power Herb
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 228 SpA / 20 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flash Cannon
- Flamethrower
- Meteor Beam
- Protect
the power herb for the meteor beam with the boost of sp attack meteor beam has a high chance to ohko so if it does ko the oppents pokemon it gets the boost from beast boost. next we have lando a pokemon that is used every where lets look at the sets
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 100 Atk / 12 Def / 4 SpD / 180 Spe
Incineroar @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Parting Shot
- Flare Blitz
- Taunt
i needed a pair for lando so why not double intimidate fake out is almost for all roars and a basic that is going to be the main attack lol.
then the pair for celestellas fire weakness tapufini
Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind
- Taunt
- Hydro Pump
the support for the main mon steela moonblate for a strong fairy type move and hydro pump in some cases it is good to have a sec taunt and calm mind for idk why i put it lol.
Grimmsnarl @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 116 Def / 148 SpD
Careful Nature
- Spirit Break
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Fake Tears
for the screens just in case. then the clean up mon
Cinderace-Gmax @ Life Orb
Ability: Libero
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Pyro Ball
- High Jump Kick
- Gunk Shot
to take care with fini we have gunk for psycic mons u turn high jump kick with pyro ball for steels and there the team.







Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- Fly
i wanted a def lead to inimdate so i thought roar but then you get lando and it is not that def so lets give him the vest with no dance so there we slap the the lead. next we got the incinaroar

 

[AaPokemon]

Teambuilding competetion Week 4 - Celesteela Garchomp (pokepast.es)

Celesteela @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flash Cannon
- Air Slash
- Meteor Beam
- Protect
Standard Celesteela set, nothing really special there. I like having rock coverage on Steela to quickly get rid of Incineroar. Hitting Thundy is also very good.

Raichu @ Focus Sash
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fake Out
- Volt Switch
- Nuzzle
- Charm
Raichu keeps Celesteela safe from Electric attacks and provides speed control with Nuzzle. Volt Switch is kind of a must have on Raichu to get a good attacking move that also provides board positioning. For the last move I was debating between Charm and Eerie Impulse but I think Charm is probably better considering that I have Incin Snarl and Grimm Spirit Break.

Garchomp @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 220 HP / 92 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Stomping Tantrum
- Swords Dance
- Protect
I think Weakness Policy Chomp is a very unexplored set for Garchomp at the moment. It takes advantage of it's good natural bulk, Screens and Fini's Misty Terrain to be able to activate it's Weakness Policy and take those big hits well. With Screens up it also has a lot of opportunities to get up a Swords Dance boost. And in a bo3 open sheets tournament, seeing Weakness Policy on Garchomp makes the opponent afraid to attack it giving it even more opportunities to set up. It has enough speed to outspeed base 252+ base 80 speed mons. I think this set gives Garchomp a good amount of bulk while not taking away too much from it's power, as Adamant 92 atk is almost as much as Jolly 252 atk. It doesn't have a dragon move bc Fini's Misty Terrain would weaken it's power making it not really worth running over it's other options. I also want Chomp to have both Swords Dance and Protect.

Grimmsnarl-Gmax (M) @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 212 HP / 4 Atk / 124 Def / 156 SpD / 12 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spirit Break
- Fake Tears
- Reflect
- Light Screen

Screens Grimm is a very good partner for Celesteela. It makes it pretty much unkillable in Dynamax form while allowing Steela to get through the opponents defenses more effectively thanks to Fake Tears. 12 Speed means that at +2 speed, Grimm outspeeds 252 Jolly Urshifu which is actually an interaction that comes to play surprisingly often when using Grimm + Max Airstreamer mon. Being able to be faster than Urshifu and hit it with a Spirit Break is definently worth those 12 speed evs considering how dangerous Urshifu is to many teams.

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 76 Def / 116 SpA / 4 SpD / 68 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Muddy Water
- Calm Mind
- Protect

Fini fits on almost any team, including on this one. Misty Terrain support is amazing for Garchomp, protecting it from status and weakening Dragon moves. Bloking Amoonguss Spore and Venu Sleep Powder is very valuable too. It can also take advantage of screens and set up Calm Mind to win in a late game situation, or just do a lot of damage with boosted attacks and be really hard to take down. 68 speed allows Fini to outspeed Modest 252 speed Celesteela by one point, meaning it can get up a Calm Mind before an opposing Steela can hit it with a powerful max move. Spa hits a softcap and the rest of the evs are in HP and defenses.

Incineroar @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Atk / 68 Def / 108 SpD / 84 Spe
Careful Nature
- Parting Shot
- Fake Out
- Flare Blitz
- Snarl

Incineroar rounds out the team by giving it a good defensive option. The moveset is standard Incin set so it's pretty self explanatory tbh. I chose Snarl as the last move so Incin can just stay there and spam Spa drops even through redirection and cripple the opponents Dynamax Pokemon. I can also do the classic Grimmsnarl Incineroar lead and stall out opponents Dynamax allowing Celesteela to sweep late game. 244 hp 68 allows Incin to take a Max Quake from Metagross 100% of the time. 84 speed evs allows it to outspeed max speed Timid Amoonguss and also speed creep over other Incins. Rest is in special defense to take hits like Life Orb Venusaur Max Quake.

 

[Gfazzo]

https://pokepast.es/9662c648d3911f72
I know what your thinking, "this isn't VGC 2017" and you're right it is not. the core of p2 steela marowak and tapu koko was very common in the ol days of vgc2017 so I thought to myself how can I make that core work in todays format. Marowaks ability in lightning rod allows celesteela to not worry about super effective electric type attacks meaning most of the time celesteela is free to set up a leech seed and become very annoying for other players to deal with.

Marowak and Celesteela

The main combo of the team, as I explained in the beginning celesteela and Marowak were a very good duo in vgc2017 with maros lightning rod ability being able to redirect electric type attacks that celesteela doesnt appreciate. Marowak does absurd amounts of damage while holding the thick club. Marowaks job on the team is to help set up steela for the end game where its opponents are weakened so it can set up leech seeds and stall out the opponent. Marowak checks mons like zapdos and thundurus which are a real pain in the rear for celesteela. Steela becomes very annoying once it gets a leech seed up in the late game its incredible defensive stats along with typing make it very difficult to take down without electric type attacks.

Porygon2

Good ol p2, can never go wrong with it its insanely bulky and if your able to get a spatk boost with download it does good damage with ice beam. The thought process behind choosing p2 as my tr setter was "I need a mon who can hit landorus and garchomp" Porygons ice beam scares those 2 off quite easily. The 4th move on p2 is always a toss up I tend to like using ally swithc or eerie impulse. I decided on ally switch because I thought it'd be funny to lead p2+maro into spectrier/dragapult mus and ally switch t1 while my opp goes for a max phantasm into the marowak slot, thus giving me a free shot to ohko the spectrier/dragapult with a max phantasm of my own."

Tapu Koko

To round of the core I added tapu koko as Marowak and porygon2 don't really like facing down either urshifu form. Tapu koko destroys both forms with ease being able to outspeed the 2 and hit them with super effective attacks. Tapu koko also helps us match up better against tapu fini who otherwise could give the team a bit of trouble. The 4th move on koko was kind of a toss up I couldnt decide between electro web/volt switch or taunt. i decided to go taunt help vs pesky mons like amoongus and other redirectors along with being able to stop my opponents trick room set up most of the time

Mienshao

Would it really be a gfazzo team without mienshao? Mienshao provides the team with fake out support and the ability ohko incineroar who poses quite a threat to both marowak and celesteela. Yes I'm probably aware that urshifu would be a better choice in this slot but I couldn't pass up the chance to put one of my all time favorite mons onto the team. Mienshao speed tier is very helpful being able to outspeed urshifu. I felt the team wanted a safe way to get tr up along with a helping hand user to better help our dynmax mons secure kos.

Garchomp

Another personal favorite of mine, Garchomp and Celesteela cover eachother almost too perfect being able to hit electric types for super effective damage and switch into fire type attacks that celesteela normally wouldn't wanna take. As u can probably tell from most of my teams Garchomp+Mienshao is one of my favorite combos being able to brush off an intimidate by giving garchomp a coaching boost and then doing so again gives garchomp the ability to just steamroll thru teams.

Calcs

252 SpA Life Orb Kingdra Helping Hand Max Geyser vs. 244 HP / 148+ SpD Eviolite Porygon2 in Rain: 153-183 (80.1 - 95.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ Atk Thick Club Marowak-Alola Helping Hand Max Flare vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Dynamax Glastrier: 458-540 (110.6 - 130.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252+ Atk Thick Club Marowak-Alola Helping Hand Max Rockfall vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Dynamax Zapdos: 404-476 (121.6 - 143.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252 Atk Mienshao Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 116 Def Incineroar: 192-228 (95 - 112.8%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

I had a lot of fun making this, hope you guys enjoy!

 

[TechPug VGC]

Yes this is a team. Does it work, yes it does and heres the paste. https://pokepast.es/61accce9f0824aac

Who's TechPugVGC

Looking at this team i bet you might think i'm joking, but for whoever knows my name, being TechPugVGC or NitePug you know that even if I might have a dumb idea ill make it work, and those dumb ideas have made me been shown in multiple Youtube videos, some of which you may of watched. So as much as this might look like I don't know what I'm doing at all in teambuilding, I am, and ill gladly participate in more of these, trying to place first.

Snorlax

Yeah. As you saw in the paste there was a lot of weird things, Like Gmax Snorlax for example, but why do I have it here. Ill be honest, it has no important niche to my team, except that, its there. Now if you looked closer it had 2 interesting things going on with it. It has Self-Destruct and Custap berry. First off, If i where to belly drum turn one, I can do 2 things. Number 1, I could max Snorlax with +6 attack hitting enemy pokemon EXTREMELY hard or Number 2 if my Redirection dies, I could use explosion which then leads into INSANE DAMAGE, like STUPIDLY INSANE damage.

Spectrier

Why Spectrier, and to that I say, because it pairs well with snorlax as well with Celesteela. Back to the Snorlax thing, If I where to Self-Destruct snorlax and I had spectier on the field, well I could max it, mabye picking up a KO if the enemy pokemon has a sash (But if they dont its worthless, so most of the time i go for option 2 which is nasty plot after snorlax killed everything on the field, then max next turn doing ALOT of damage.

Landorus-Therian

Lando doesn't have a huge role really. It's there for the sun match up, Intimidate and a fighting resist.

Celesteela

Celesteela, being the pokemon that I built this team around, then putting fun elements around it is like everyother basic offensive celesteela set. There is nothing that special about it, so some may argue its a snorlax team, when I actually started using Celesteela first because originally today I was gonna do something with Corviknight, but celesteela is just better so I was just gonna settle with that, then I found this fourm and here we are. However it is running the Power Herb which is pretty sick because i like chunking thundurus.

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike

Interesting choice people told me when they saw this, But it has its place. First off Lando and incin are a problem for this team a bit, inclduing Urshifu-Single-Strike, so by adding Urshifu-Rapid-Strike, I kinda have a check for them

Amoonguss

Do I even need to explain. Its for Redirection and Trick room Support.

Anyways this is my celesteela team, I hope you like it. Really am hyped for next week, hoping for a fun pokemon

 

[Duck-Monke]

This is my Celesteela and Dugtrio team, enjoy !



The Team :)

(Celesteela)
Iron Defense makes it more bulky on the physical side and nearly unkillable, while leech seed and lefties provide recovery.
Sadly The Rotom’s, Eleki, Zapdos, Heatran, etc. ruin Celesteela’s stalling potential.
(Move Choice)
Iron Defense - (Gives me the ability to add more SpDef EVs + Air Slash isn’t really needed)
Leech Seed - (Heals me and chips enemies)
Heavy Slam - (Nice Damaging Move)
Protect - (Allows me to abuse leech seed healing)

(Dugtrio)
This Dugtrio is meant for the sole purpose of outspeeding (With Scarf) killing eleki right off the bat. Rock Tomb provides nice speed control against Zapdos, and Rock Slide is for Thundy.
(Move Choice)
Earthquake - (More Accurate High Horspower)
High Horsepower - (Very Situational, but to avoid procking Wp in certain situations)
Rock Slide - (Hits Thundy and Zard)
Rock Tomb - (Speed Control)

(Thundurus)
Thundurus is here to serve as a partner to Dugtrio, Dugtrio can only kill eleki if at nuetral, so we have to have an intimidate counter thus Thundurus.
(Move Choice)
Wild Charge - (Good Stab)
Fly - (Good Max Stab)
Superpower - (Good Max Move/Coverage)
Protect - (Good, well Protection)

(Spectrier)
This horse of awesomeness is here cause I need a special attacker and this is a very solid one, spec makes taking out 2 mons much easier.
(Move Choice)
Shadow Ball - (Nice Stab)
Hyper Beam - (Nice Max Move/Coverage)
Nasty Plot - (Allows for insane hits)
Protect - (To stall things/Nice Protection)

(Entei)
Entei helps this team out a lot not only does it chunk zapdos which my team is very weak to, but also finish’s off many Pokémon with espeed.
(Mover Choice)
Scared Fire - (Nice Stab)
Stomping Tantrum - (Kills Heatran when Dugtrio is dead)
Stone Edge - (Destroys Berds and Charizard)
Extreme Speed - (Very nice priority/revenge kill)

(Lapras-Gmax)
Lapras is a very nice tr counter and Gmax move makes Celesteela even MORE bulky, I needed a bulky member for the team and Lap fit in there just right.
(Move Choice)
Hydro Pump - (Sets Rain in Max/Great Stab)
Thunder - (Good Coverage)
Freeze Dry- (Resonance)
Protect - (Good Protection)

 

[Abhi]

Hello there

Celesteela and Garchomp; uhh idk what archetype this falls under
Hi, I built this team around the core of Celesteela and Garchomp because they form a very good offensive core. From there I included a Grimmsnarl for Fake Tears and dual screens support which makes Celesteela very bulky and very threatening to the opposing team. From there I included a Porygon2 to abuse Grimmsnarl's Fake Tears support and for speed control with Trick Room. Rotom-H for a better match up against Glastrier TR teams and to abuse Fake Tears further. And lastly since this team is rather weak to Water-types I included a Rillaboom to offensively pressure them and because m o n k e. Thats all I have to say about this team, thanks zeefable for helping me build it UwU.
Bye! ​

 

[TyphoeusVGC]

Hey Gamers ,I was super excited to see celesteela in week 4 as i had an idea for it so after a lot of consideration, hours of testing and help from some friends , I present to you Coal-Steela. Forgive me if this team is not as off meta or wonky as other teams but i have put a lot of work into this one and every EV ,Move and pokemon has been added with careful meta consideration.
https://pokepast.es/750507f0c8db5bf2

Celesteela

Breakdown

Celesteela:the Obvious focus for this week , Celesteela .The reasoning behind its pairing with coalossal was to cover some of coalossals worst mu's, namely Fini-CHomp,lum/av landorus,Mamoswine(with clef),TerraPult and tr sweepers like glastrier, Stakataka and Regirock .
It really surprised me how well celesteela covers so many of coalsproblems as well as providing a bulky ground immunity that doesnt immediately melt to opponents hard reads.
I opted for a life orb offensive celesteela , while the life orb chip might seem somewhat redundant on such a slowand bulky mon as steela ,the immediate damage output is absolutely woth it .
The ev spread is comparatively simple,but quite effective.252 SpAtk evs with a modestnature allow an insant damage output which grows only more powerful with its beast boost.100 speed ev's allow it to speed creep 100 speed incins to prevent partingshots and flare blitz before getting an attack off .It also outspeeds standard rilla boom andd fini sets afeter a speed boost.the rest of the ev's are dumped into hpwith 4 in def and spdef for optimization.
252+ SpA Life Orb Celesteela Max Airstream vs. 252 HP / 140+ SpD Incineroar: 121-142 (59.9 - 70.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Celesteela Max Overgrowth vs. 132 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Fini: 148-177 (91.3 - 109.2%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Celesteela Max Airstream vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian: 165-196 (100 - 118.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Celesteela Max Steelspike vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Dynamax Glastrier: 252-299 (60.8 - 72.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ Atk Glastrier Max Hailstorm vs. +1 148 HP / 4 Def Dynamax Celesteela: 169-201 (44.2 - 52.6%) -- 20.7% chance to 2HKO

Coalossal

Breakdown

coalossal:The primary Dynamaxer of the team,Coal is self explanatory.Volcalith is broken and this set is simple 252/252 in SpA and speed with a modest nature.
iwanted max speed for the potential ties and a simple spread works wonders for it.

Dragapult

Breakdown

Dragapult: Coalossals main way of getting steam Engine boosts,Pult is a necessity i've implemented Wolfe's BUlkier version with helping hand over will-o-wisp as
will-o-wisp is much more unreliable in bo1 where the opposin landorus might have lum .Helping hand also helps Celesteela
steamroll games Quicker
.The rest of the set is standard with a colbur berry to alwys take urshifu hits and breaking swipe it down.
+2 252 SpA Moltres-Galar Max Darkness vs. 180 HP / 92 SpD Colbur Berry Dragapult through Light Screen: 139-164 (74.7 - 88.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Landorus-Therian Max Quake vs. 180 HP / 68 Def Dragapult: 153-180 (82.2 - 96.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Gmax Sucker Punch vs. 180 HP / 68 Def Colbur Berry Dragapult: 103-123 (55.3 - 66.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Tapu Fini Moonblast vs. 180 HP / 92 SpD Dragapult through Light Screen: 108-128 (58 - 68.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Urshifu-RS

Breakdown

Urshifu :the secondary coal proccer ,Urshifu is as good as ever , abusing rain from opposing max geysersand setting up coalossal.
rshifu is also an axcellent partner for steela ohko'ing threats like incineroar,rotom-h and other steels which steela has a tough time breaking through.
252 Atk Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Surging Strikes (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Dynamax Rotom-Heat on a critical hit: 186-222 (59.2 - 70.7%) -- approx. 2HKO
-1 252 Atk Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Surging Strikes (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 116 Def Incineroar on a critical hit: 198-240 (98 - 118.8%) -- approx. 93.8% chance to OHKO

Rillaboom

Breakdown

Rillaboom:Rillaboom is the bread and butter grass type for coal teams.ITs powerful grassy glides boosted by a miracle seed
and fake out pressure are extremely valuable in endgames.i opted for miracle seed as it feels like a nice middle ground beween
AV and choice band.The set is rounded off with knock off for p2 and dusclops and uturn for repositoning.

Incineroar

Breakdown

Incineroar :This set is probably the one that changed the most,but i finally settled on a nice anti sun spread .The atk investment allows it to ohko dynamax
venusaur in sun with a flare blitz as well as ohko non dynamaxed metagross .its spdef allows it to live two quakes from
sash venusaur.and the rest has been dumped into def to take lando and garchomp hits better.parting shot and fake out provide better positionin while taunt helps
shut down eerie inpulse users as well
60+ Atk Incineroar Flare Blitz vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Dynamax Venusaur in Sun: 312-368 (100 - 117.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Venusaur Max Quake vs. 180 HP / 100 SpD Incineroar: 122-144 (63.2 - 74.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
-1 252+ Atk Landorus-Therian Max Quake vs. 180 HP / 156 Def Incineroar: 164-194 (84.9 - 100.5%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
-1 252 Atk Garchomp Max Quake vs. 180 HP / 156 Def Incineroar: 138-164 (71.5 - 84.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

And thats the team.
I also tested the team extensively on the ladder and was able to get 1450 rating .Here are some replays.

Replays

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1338373548-lvwfgcatcoxhryqgvhnacfdwt8os4h0pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1338365666-0p8prmsgktbn1ndgd6m3b9sofhul2ndpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1337728862-8wllf8rufnha2ql2t9rcdbzz98woxhspw

Thank you for reading the report and i hope u like it . :)

 

[pinky tries to VGC]

Hi, this is Pinky, and i'd like to introduce you to my Celestall team.

Firstly, this is the pokepaste of Yo.v2 ™: https://pokepast.es/0810d27b3af3ebde

Secondly, i will give a brief explanation of how the team works in general before explaining you the role of each pokemon. As you already understood, the team centralises around Celesteela and its ability to wear down opponents while recovering its own HP, having an impressive bulk and maintaining only two weaknesses: electric and fire. I personally single out three "game stages": debut, midgame and endgame. We will talk about those a lot throughout my article. So, in theory, all that u need to do for Celesteela to seal the deal is remove all pokemon that threaten our main pokemon, such as Glastrier, different Rotom forms, Thundurus, Cinderace, Entei, Coalossal and many other strong pokemon/cores. As u've noticed, there are plenty of threats to Celesteela. The team is built for resisting/killing/lowering offensive presence of these pokemon while setting up leech seeds and winning the endgame.

Now, let's get a full picture of the team.

Before we start, i want to explain why am i using Protect on all pokemon on my team? The answer is both simple and dedicated. Of course, to scout out your opponent's actions, to stall out different mechanic's turns (such as terrain, Dynamax, Trick Room and other), and also to gain a mental advantage over your opponent. For example, not everyone expects a Protect Incineroar. You can use that fact to bait your opponent into an action which will, probably, lose them the game or give you a chance to win using your opponent's misplay.

Shall we move on?

The Main support aka The Burn Spreader, Milotic

Milotic is used, well, as a support to Garchomp because of its ability Competitive, which punishes intimidaters who want to come in on Chomp, while boosting Milotic's own power, as it can be really effective against a non-careful trainer using the double intimidate core or stat-lowering max moves (max wyrmwind, max phantasm, max strike etc.). Scald is an incredibly useful move because of its 30% burn chance, which, with a hax god's blessing, can really cripple opponent's physical attackers upon switching (not only this way), while providing important chip damage (-6%) to opponent's bulky pokemon, which are hard to ohko (Dusclops, Moltres-g, Porygon-2 etc.). For example, a Celesteela vs burned Porygon-2 endgame will force Porygon to Recover because of tons of passive damage (12% from seeds + 6% from burn) combined with Celesteela's 120 BP Heavy Slam, therefore winning the PP war and as a result, a game. Milotic is also an incredibly bulky pokemon, with the spread i've developed being able to survive Metagross's +2 Max Quake, +2 Moltres-g's Airstream/Darkness, and afterwards being able to Haze. This is another role of Milotic on this team, as it allows you to disrupt your opponent's Weakness Policy strategies, therefore gaining a tactical advantage, as many players expect Milotic to be the Coil+Hypnosis set, but this is not the case for my team. Recover is used for general longevity, and i've already explained the importance of protect for this team above. In conclusion, Milotic is used for being a disruptive, bulky support pokemon which can also hit hard under special conditions.
Some useful calculations:
-1 252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 196 HP / 196+ Def Milotic in Grassy Terrain: 146-174 (74.8 - 89.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
+2 252+ SpA Moltres-Galar Max Airstream vs. 196 HP / 108 SpD Milotic: 154-183 (78.9 - 93.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ Atk Metagross Max Quake vs. 196 HP / 196+ Def Milotic: 147-174 (75.3 - 89.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

The Main Rotom Killer aka The Shark, Garchomp

Garchomp is simple. Kill all fire and electric types. Kill everything. Boost up yout SpDef with STAB Max Quakes! Chomp is chosen for it's immense power and ability to remove electric and fire types for Celesteela, while clearing opponent's team to limit switching, which can disrupt leech seed stall. Stone Edge is chosen over Rock Slide for more power out of Dynamax, and high crit ratio can help sometimes. Earthquake is chosen over Stomping Tantrum for incredible spamming ability when paired with Celesteela on the field. Even though Garchomp doesn't have any bulk investment besides 4 HP Evs, he is bulky enough to take 1 or 2 super effective moves. In conclusion, Chomp is used to get past pokemon with which other teammates have trouble dealing.
Some calcs:
+2 252+ Atk Metagross Max Steelspike vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Dynamax Garchomp: 261-307 (70.9 - 83.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ SpA Moltres-Galar Max Airstream vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Dynamax Garchomp: 232-274 (63 - 74.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Life Orb Garchomp Max Rockfall vs. 212 HP / 4 Def Dynamax Moltres-Galar: 208-247 (54.1 - 64.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
-1 252 Atk Life Orb Garchomp Max Quake vs. 244 HP / 72 Def Incineroar: 198-234 (98.5 - 116.4%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO incredible :)

The Celesteela Defender aka Rat the Parahax, Raichu

Raichu is a very important part of the team. It is, obviously, a Lightning Rod pokemon, which supports Milotic and Celesteela, protecting them form super effective electric-type moves. It also offers incredible speed (110 isn't bad), Fake Out, which is an amazing tool, which is able to force your opponent into protecting mindgames, and generally pressure him hard enough to open a room for your teammate to attack/set up. Next important tool on Raichu is Nuzzle. I mainly use it when opponent doesn't have an intimidater on the team, and their team is built rather offensively (no long-paced strategies such as Trick Room and others based on set up), as an example i can refer to weather-based teams as they usually replace Incineroar for Entei, and Garchomp naturally outspeeds and OHKO's (in Venuzaur's case 2HKO's) all of weather-reliant attackers (Kingdra, Venusaur), but when weather is up they pose immediate threat to Chomp, and such cases are why I need Nuzzle on my Raichu, as it offers 100% accurate speed control, and can hinder other pokemon who pose threat to Garchomp (Dragapult, Kartana etc.), as them having their speed halved lets Chomp outspeed and OHKO them. Volt Switch is used mainly for momentum and tricky situations, such as using Max Quake into a Volt Switching into Celesteela Raichu baits opponent's Max turn. Protect is, once again, being used for mental advantage over opponent and general longevity (bad explanation, idk is i can even use a word "longevity" to describe a non-av Chu, lol), although some players expect Raichu to have protect nowadays. Focus Sash is the chosen item for giving Raichu "the second chance", as its bulk speaks to it, and for kamikaze switch-ins. In conclusion, Raichu is one of key pokemon both for supporting offense and defense.
There are no interesting calcs for Raichu, sadly.

The Ussr Boi aka Omfg Why is That Thing So Bulky, Celesteela

Celesteela is the star of the team, able to win literally any endgame if there is no Rotom-Heat/Regieleki/+2 Dynamaxed Glastrier, or the team's player didn't misled/misplayed heavily. Benefits of using celestall as an archetype are: 1) literally no one builds to counter you in this meta 2) a well-composed Celesteela team as answers to everything that can beat Celesteela and everything that it struggles to deal with. So, let's look at set details. Many players now tend to use offensive (Life Orb, WP, Power Herb) Celesteela set, but this is not the case for me. I like more slow-paced games, where u have to think twice before clicking a button and have control over your opponent's actions. So, i chose celestall as an archetype, which is closer to "Balance", than to complete stall, as u can't use complete stall in vgc (u can, but I don't think u'r going to win higher 1100). Leech Seed is a move which many players love and many players hate, it "drains" 10%-12% of "infected" pokemon's HP, while regaining stolen health to the Active Slot it has been used on (rather right or left slot). For example, if u seeded a pokemon on the right slot, any active pokemon on that slot will drain/recover HP while on that slot, but only on that slot, so Leech Seed doesn't work like Sand Tomb or Magma Storm. We can use this to passively heal any pokemon on our team, providing u can switch it in. Protect is used in conjunction with Leech Seed to recover 36% of health every "Celeturn" (Celeturn is both a turn when u had your non-protective move used followed by a Protect turn) (12+6+12+6=36%), while passively draining 24% off any seeded pokemon. So, if any of Celesteela's attacking moves deals at least 26% of damage and your opponent has no recovery moves/passive healing (Leftovers, Grassy Terrain), u can beat any pokemon in 2 celeturns providing that both conditions are fulfilled. I think it is enough of complicated things, let's move to our attacking moves. Heavy Slam is a powerful STAB option, which also has a benefit of boosting Celesteela's Defense through Max Steelspike, and if u KO a fairy with it (which is quite simple) u will get +1 in both defenses thanks to Celesteela's ability, Beast Boost, which makes it even tougher to defeat when let out of control with defensive boosts. Flamethrower is used as a tool to OHKO Kartanas (without Flamethrower Celesteela would've really struggled against Kartanas) and deal +70% damage to Ferrothorn, another pokemon Celesteela would've struggled against without Flamethrower. It also has more effect on Glastrier since our premiere attacking move is only 40 BP against him . In conclusion, i could write a book about how good Celesteela is at seeding, but this is it for now.
Interesting calcs:
252+ SpA Life Orb Venusaur-Gmax Weather Ball (100 BP Fire) vs. 244 HP / 92+ SpD Celesteela in Sun: 172-203 (84.7 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Glastrier Max Hailstorm vs. 244 HP / 172 Def Celesteela: 142-169 (69.9 - 83.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Thundurus Wild Charge vs. 244 HP / 172 Def Celesteela: 151-182 (74.3 - 89.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Kingdra Max Geyser vs. 244 HP / 92+ SpD Celesteela in Rain: 144-172 (70.9 - 84.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Torkoal Heat Wave vs. 244 HP / 92+ SpD Celesteela in Sun: 168-198 (82.7 - 97.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

The Best Pivot aka OMG PROTECT INCIN?, Incineroar

sorry for this one being this big it speaks to how important it is xD
Incineroar is my tool for dealing with strong physical attackers, such as Glastrier, Urshifu-D, Kartana, Rillaboom and many others. It offers, well, Intimidate, which is known to be one of the best abilities in the game, and Parting Shot to lower offensive presence on opposing side of the field, while gaining switch momentum. This momentum can be used similar way as Raichu uses his Volt Switch in order to gain advantage of Celesteela's incredible typing. The reason i love PhysDef Incin is that it easily switches onto Glast and Lando's super effective moves, acting as a pivot into Glastrier's Max Hailstorm used into Garchomp, as an example. I already wrote about Fake Out above, so let's move on to Flare Blitz, a STAB, strongest move available to Incineroar(u can see the calc below to make sure it is powerful). Protect. I've (once again repeating) already wrote about importance of Protect on any mon above, but in Incineroar's case it enables better longevity and, once again, a turn-waste for your opponent which u can use to your advantage. I use Iapapa Berry as a hold item because i already have Sitrus Berry used, and this Incineroar set is brought below 1/3 of its HP more often than to 1/2 of its HP. In conclusion, Incineroar is used for its immense bulk and ability to control offensive momentum on the other side of the field, while countering one of the most threatening pokemon in the metagame, Glastrier.
Some calcs:
252+ SpA Venusaur Max Quake vs. 244 HP / 36 SpD Incineroar: 144-170 (71.6 - 84.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (50% chance roll with life orb Venu)
+1 252 Atk Life Orb Thundurus Max Airstream vs. 244 HP / 124+ Def Incineroar: 173-204 (86 - 101.4%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
+1 252 Atk Life Orb Thundurus Max Knuckle vs. 244 HP / 124+ Def Incineroar: 169-200 (84 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
-1 252+ Atk Life Orb Glastrier Max Quake vs. 244 HP / 124+ Def Incineroar: 133-159 (66.1 - 79.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
4 Atk Incineroar Flare Blitz vs. 244 HP / 4 Def Glastrier: 122-146 (59.2 - 70.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

The Stupid Monke Jokes aka No Water Types Available Rn, Rillaboom

Rillaboom's role in this team is to use Taunt, as there are, unfortunately, no moveslots for this wonderful move on my team (protect incin, remember?). He uses it solely for dusclops/amoonguss combo, which is led quite often on hard-tr teams, as Spore ruinis both Celesteela and Garchomp. He also destroys pokemon such as Gastrodon, Urshifu-W, Rotom-Wash and generally weakened pokemon. And he has Fake Out. "Wait Pinky, is this triple Fake Out?" - u'r going to ask, and i'll answer - yes, it is. Because pressure and momentum. One thing i want to add is that G-Max Drum Solo is a f*ucking NUKE. It 2HKO's literally everything, as after STAB+Miracle Seed+Terrain+Boosted Max Power it reaches 249.5 Base Power. This is like 2 Bloom Dooms right to the face in one turn. And u can use it 3 turns in a row. Crazy. It is Eved 148 Speed to reach 124 Speed, which is enough to outspeed max Speed Life Orb Lapras, which team kinda struggles against. In conclusion, Rillaboom is kind of a nichepick, because he is only used for certain matchups.
The One And Only Calc:
252+ Atk Miracle Seed Rillaboom-Gmax G-Max Drum Solo vs. 252 HP / 116 Def Dynamax Lapras in Grassy Terrain: 474-560 (100 - 118.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

The team reached 1807 (top 100 on ladder)

I'll also leave some replays for those who are interested in how the team is actually behaving on the field, i hope u enjoy!

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021-1247621422
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021-1249678444-n696l4uw53wwuxllzjo7ubli28fy94bpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021-1249686916-imop2wxt83s1xh6kktyra7cvxbu6tzcpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021-1250121626-od6ct27e7xiuen5dk44ejwsvdjdd20bpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021-1254585646
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021-1254624340
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021-1289640623-b1k7l1uol35vmezdsht2y7smpwg7q7npw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021-1318343322
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021-1318345501
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1322758426
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021-1322882668

Thank you all guys who read this whole (and to everyone who haven't) article, i'd really appreciate if you leave a positive reply for this article, as i spent a lot of time and patience writing this. I hope u liked the team!

 

[Yourwelcomethanku]

https://pokepast.es/dbb2238e87ada948
Having 2 Steel-types and one of them being Excadrill might seem bad. But Excadrill and Celesteela only share one weakness which is alleviated by rain. having two steels ends up fine as they have different role compression and Weaknesses. They beat different pokemon, Celesteela deals with Kartana, Landorus-T and Garchomp, while Excadrill handles Pokemon like Tapu Koko, Regieleki and Stakataka. Celesteela is great on rain having its one Weakness alleviated and checking many Grass-types for the rain team.

Breakdown

Celesteela with Safety Goggles is able to provide a much needed answer to sun. Celesteela is also capable of checking Glastrier, Mamoswine, and Rillaboom. Glastrier and Rillaboom being especially key to check for this team. Celesteela has no Meteor beam as that is not needed on this team which is very anti Fire-types.

Breakdown

Politoed and Kingdra are able to alleviate Excadrill and Celesteela of their usual issues by checking Fire and Ground-types like Landorus-t Rotom-H, and Incineroar. I chose Icy Wind over Perish Song due to the teams general lack of speed control, Sitrus Berry is the item for some more longjevity helpful vs things like not being 2HKOd by Urshifu's Wicked Blow.

Breakdown

Kingdra is fairly self explanatory on rain. i ran a bulky Life Orb set as i felt pretty confident vs Regieleki. 100 speed evs outspeeds +1 Moltres-g in rain.

Breakdown

This Excadrill set is bulky Weakness Policy with Swords Dance. Excadrill has a very high HP stat and when invested its defenses aren't bad especially when factoring Dynamax and boosts. Excadrill loves Rain and Celesteela handleing Landorus-T, Garchomp, and Incineroar. in Return Excadril checks Regieleki, Stakataka, Tapu Koko, and Togekiss. Excadrill has no Rock slide which while that could hurt vs Zapdos and Thundurus it can still beat them thanks to Weakness Policy and the fact that they can be forced to activae it as Excadrill resists their STABs. Excadrill has enough Speed EVs to outspeed Minus one Spectrier.

Calcs

252+ Atk Landorus-Therian Max Quake vs. 52 HP / 172 Def Dynamax Excadrill: 312-368 (81.2 - 95.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Glastrier Max Quake vs. 52 HP / 172 Def Dynamax Excadrill: 270-320 (70.3 - 83.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 52 HP / 172 Def Dynamax Excadrill in Grassy Terrain: 147-174 (38.2 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
252+ SpA Rotom-Heat Max Flare vs. 52 HP / 4 SpD Dynamax Excadrill: 318-374 (82.8 - 97.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Breakdown

Rillaboom is a staple on rain teams able to handle opposing Bulk Water-type Pokemon, Regieleki, Fake Out, and Priority. Rillaboom loves Rain+Excadrill handling many pesky Fire and Flying-types. Rain can also deal with Bulk steels like for Rillaboom like Celesteela, and Metagross. Assault Vest is the item this helps Rillaboom in checking Regieleki and Lapras along with takeing a weak Max Airstream.

Breakdown

Regieleki is able to provide speed control for this team. I Chose Focus Sash to make Regieleki more consistant in giving this team speed control. Regieleki also has good offensive synergy with rain liking its ability to remove Ground-types and force in Bulky water resists like Tapu Fini. Regieleki also has decent synergy like it does with most ground-types with Excadrill hitting annoying Water-types for it.

Sprites are sick

 

[WettestTowelVGC]

Howdy fellow Celesteela builders, this is my team: https://pokepast.es/a00ab6e477518e51

Rotom-Heat

So obviously it's Celesteela building so the first member of the team was Rotom heat. For the idea of Rotom I knew exactly what I wanted it to do, as I have been using it on my Rhyperior team. With the 244 EVs in it's special attack (and modest nature) it can OHKO the standard max Venusaur set with Overheat in the sun, as well as Safety Goggles protecting it from Sleep Powder. The 228 speed is to outspeed a max speed Metagross, in case of Spectrier shenanigans. I just put the rest of the EVs into HP. Overheat is there because it's the best, and only, Fire type move option. I like Volt Switch over Thunderbolt for the pivot. Nasty Plot helps get back to neutral after Overheat, or just to get the boost. Protect is there because it's VGC. The nickname Rotom Oven came from watching an old VGC match, where one of the commentators said Rotom Washing Machine, and I thought that was funny.

Milotic

The next pokemon I added was Milotic because water types go with Rotom heat very well. This is my all time favorite Milotic set that I've used, except the EVs used to be different. With the defense it can live a choice banded Grassy Glide from Rillaboom with the Rindo Berry. With the special defense it can live a +2 max overgrowth from Coalossal with the Rindo Berry. The special attack is so that it can OHKO the standard max Coalossal with max geyser. Muddy Water is a good spread move, with decent power, but it does have the drawback of 85 accuracy. Blizzard is another decent spread move, again with the drawback of lower than convenient accuracy. Hypnosis is a very good move that puts the target to sleep, but again there's the problem of a bad accuracy. All these moves with worse than usual accuracy may seem bad, but there is a way to fix it, which is the last move Coil. Coil not only boosts accuracy, but it also boosts defense. With the Coil boost Muddy water becomes 113.3% accurate, Blizzard becomes 93.3% accurate, and Hypnosis goes from the abysmal 60% to a decent 80% accurate. The nickname is because I couldn't think of anything more clever, so Milotic has the drip.

Celesteela

The next pokemon I added was Celesteela, and this took me the longest. The EVs were the longest part due to me wanting it to survive things, while also being a hard hitter. I quickly found out I couldn't do both, unless I dropped Leftovers for a Life Orb, or Weakness Policy. I lost all my calcs for what the EVs did, but I do remember it can survive a choice specs thunderbolt from Tapu Lele. Flash Cannon is a solid STAB move. Air Slash is also a solid STAB move. Flamethrower is good because it hits the steel types that Air Slash and Flash Cannon can't touch. Protect is there because it's VGC. The nickname is a Little Einsteins reference.

Excadrill

I was looking at Celesteela teams and saw many of them had an offensive ground type. While it was very tempting to add Drilbur, I realized I should probably build a legit team, and even with a Choice Band it missed important KO's, so I took a step up and added Excadrill. The EVs are a simple 252/252/4, and I gave it Focus Sash. I gave it Adamant Nature because I don't think it needs the extra speed. High Horsepower in my opinion is better than Earthquake, because 1) it's single target, and doesn't get the drop, and 2) grassy terrain powers down Earthquake, and Rillaboom is everywhere. Iron Head is a very solid move, with a chance to flinch. I also like Rock Slide for the max rockfall, and it also has a small chance to flinch. Protect is there because, again, it's VGC. The nickname is because I wanted to pay homage to Drilbur.

Gigalith

Obviously with a Sand Rush Excadrill you need a partner. I chose Gigalith. I lost the Calcs for this one too, but I'm pretty sure it can OHKO a Porygon2 with Superpower, after an attack boost (foreshadowing). Choice Band is the item I chose, but Assault Vest would've worked too. Stone Edge is there because it's a very good STAB move, though it does have 80 accuracy. Superpower is there because with this team I don't want trick room going up, and Porygon2 is the most common trick room setter. I put Rock Slide on there because I like the Rock Slide spam with Excadrill, which is also another way to deny the trick room. Explosion was originally Heavy Slam, but I already had enough steel type moves. The nickname is obvious, but if you don't know who Dwayne Johnson is, he's The Rock.

Hitmontop

I had 3 major problems that needed patching up. One was Incineroar, which wasn't to big of a problem. The next was the strength of physical attackers in the meta was too strong, also relatively easy to patch up. The last thing was trick room denial. The pokemon I came up with was Hitmontop. Due to the Intimidate that deals with Physical attackers. The White Herb lets it deal with Incineroar effectively. Lastly it gets a very good move to support some of the members of my team. That move was Coaching, which I put on there so Gigalith could pick up a KO on Porygon2 with Superpower. Next is Close Combat which is obviously the STAB move of choice for most Fighting type pokemon. Fake Out is very good so you can also make something flinch and get a KO, or apply pressure. Finally Quick Guard is another good Incineroar counter, to deal with its fake out. The nickname is because there's a popular show called Beyblade where you let it rip, and the Beyblade spins like a top.

I hope you enjoyed my explanations.

 

[Bananers]

Super busy this week but I still wanted to get a team out, so here you go, 10-minute teambuilding with Naners.

(click on sprites for paste)





I went with the Weakness Policy Leech Seed set that my good friend Oddball_Otter used in week one. I wanted Celesteela to work in non-max Celesteela games, and Leech Seed allows it to do just that. I'm too lazy to check right now so I'm not sure if we have the same EVs, but eh I'll explain anyway. 52 HP evs minimizes the residual chip damage from the Kanto starters max moves. Special Attack evs are maxed because duh. 172 speed and a Timid nature allow me to outrun Base 102's and below at plus one speed. The defense EVs were just extra but they also happened to line up perfectly for Download manipulation, which is always cool.



I added the sun bros because Celesteela really struggles with Tapu Fini if it can get a Calm Mind up and Steel-types. These two absolutely destroy those two, so they were a perfect fit. The Venu set is pretty standard, HP is optimized for Life Orb and Speed outspeed Regieleki when in Sun. No Sludge Bomb has been picking up lately, and for good reason, as you can hit most poison weak Pokemon with Leaf Storm/Weather Ball/Earth Power, but gain extra coverage. Torkoal is standard support, HP optimized for Sitrus Berry recovery and defense evs 2HKO most Incineroar sets with Body Press. Rest dumped into Special Defense.



Ahhhh, the third time I've used Garchomp here. I love this thing, and it works pretty well here. It provides a Thundurus check as my team kind of struggles with it. It also provides a Regieleki counter, which is good on every team as the stupid thing dominates every team ever ( I really hate eleki if you couldn't tell). I went with the standard two attacks Swords Dance set, with Stomping Tantrum over Earthquake as I have only 1 ground immunity. EV spread maximizes bulk in HP and minimizes Kanto starter chip damage. 244 Speed ouspeeds base 100's. Rest dumped into attack.



Went with Raichu here to provide Fake Out support as well as some damage reduction, and also because to Regielekis everywhere. Raichu is also able to pull off a weak Weakness Policy proc on Celesteela, which is of course useful. EVs are very self-explanatory, and I went Focus Sash because look at that things defenses.



Finally, we have Grimmsnarl. I went with Grimmsnarl because it provides leeway for Garchomp to set up, as well as let Torkoal Yawn or just let my attackers attack in general. The spread is able to survive a Metagross Max Steelspike with Reflect up, with the rest dumped into Special Defense. Dual Screens and Spirit Break because duh, and Fake Tears is very helpful for making my special attackers potent, especially with speed boosts from either Sun or Max Airstream.

Overall I really like this team, and yes I did build it in 10 minutes. Bye.

 

[Crunchman]

Physical Celesteela WP + Coaching/Speed Swap
- - - - -
I’ve never really done VGC before so I had no reason to do this, but I was bored and decided to do it. As a former chad who grinded randbats singles, I understand the importance of a plug and chug airstream spammer. However, while special Celesteela sets are incredibly potent in addition to leech seed sets, I felt like Celesteela had a wider physical movepool, and so I built around that. It needed a little oomf, and weakness policy does just that. Also, running a physical set means electrics and fire could be taken care of with Earthquake/Rock Slide. Celesteela by itself is pretty slow, and I also wanted a way to boost its stats against tankier opponents. Pheromosa was a perfect fit for this: access to coaching helped make Celesteela a stronger threat, and speed swap means Celesteela can outspeed almost everything with a max airstream, including Regieleki and weather boosted pokemon. This also means I don't need to invest in speed on Celesteela - everything can go into bulk and offense. Ice beam and close combat allow pheromosa to threaten landorus-t and incineroar (it ohkoes uninvested lando), both big problems to a physical set. Speaking of those, an assumption that a celesteela is special can discourage choosing an intimidate pokemon. In order to cover its fire and electric weaknesses, I added politoed and raichu. Raichu is pretty self-explanatory; it runs volt switch, eerie impulse (can be switched to charm if physical proves to be a problem, but most threats are special attackers), fake out, and nuzzle. Raichu is max speed to be able to nuzzle/eerie impulse faster opponents, and volt switch can be used for a self-proc weakness policy. Politoed brings rain to the team; its main purpose is to provide rain against sun teams and helping hand celesteela. Icy wind provides some speed control, and brings another answer to landorus (scald as well), and perish song serves as a potential late game win condition. I tested using pelipper as well; it can hit decently well and tank hits, as well as catch people by surprise with wide guard, but politoed is probably more solid in general (playing against eleki is very clunky; you can Raichu the tbolt or wide guard the electroweb, but you cant do both). Indeedee is generally just a follow me slave; safety goggles alleviates spore/sleep powder pressure. Heal pulse can help keep the celesteela sweep alive, and expanding force can dish out some damage when necessary. Indeedee also helps deal with prankster shenanigans like thunder wave/eject button. The final pokemon is Garchomp, another pokemon that can deal with electrics, as well as being a good answer to fire type pokemon such as coalossal. Swords dance allows it to slightly alleviate the matchup against intimidate. I originally had Zapdos-G in this slot as a secondary coaching user, but I never found it necessary to bring over pheromosa.

Below are some replays:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1338788746-vwu0i6h6bt982mo71p6ik9oee4en0hfpw (testing)

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1338789215 (lost because of system auto-moving as I timed out… probably winnable, room tour also)

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1338794918 (room tour)

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1338796090 (room tour)

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1338801925 (room tour)

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1338805616 (room tour finals, lost) (for some reason I feel like he knew what was coming)

After this I played a bit of ladder to get some more testing in:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1338845584-952moua3lny43zd29nes5t26z8uu9jxpw Added garchomp and ptoed, over pelipper and gapdos. Garchomp ate this matchup.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1338847860 classic celesteela sweep.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1338849129-y8hr89m5b0g8o6zcda8on8lonw50dmipw celesteela does celesteela things

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1338850553 celesteela does more celesteela things

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1338853992 messed up the positioning, but it worked

(threw a game because torkoal was obvious but I kept ptoed in for some reason. Oops)

Went 7-2 on ladder with it at around 1300 elo, which I think is pretty good for someone who doesn’t play vgc.

Shoutouts:

Thanks tqew for playtesting and help with movesets/evs and suggesting Garchomp. Thanks Gfazzo for help with movesets and evs. Thanks to RKD for playtesting. Thanks to Sole Survivor for suggesting Politoed. Thanks to Jomatoes for, like, moral support or something?

This is my first time building a team and I have never played VGC seriously. (This probably isn’t that serious either). I hope you enjoy, I think the team is pretty cool; I'm bad at VGC so I only know how to d-max celesteela, but I'm sure some of the other mons can be potential d-max targets too.

 

[KachiVGC]

Hello! I introduce you to my week 4 Celesteela team, I hope you enjoy it!

Celesteela Raichu Archetype; Garchomp Clefairy
(Click above to see pokepaste)
Celesteela
As the main star of the show, Celesteela is simple, it hits hard and gets activated by Weakness Policy from Raichu. It has many great matchups against the metagame. It has great bulk and good power if used greatly.
Garchomp

It´s pretty clear, I wanted a way to resist the types of fire and electric while having an option to beat it. Garchomp wasn´t my first answer it was actually Rotom-Heat but I thought having a blend of a physical and special attacker, Garchomp crossed my mind mainly because I haven´t tried it. Garchomp seemed like a perfect fit for me, the second pokemon I was thinking of before Garchomp was Rhyperior for several reasons. It is a physical attacker, gets Lightning Rod. Has a rock typing so, Celesteela does not need to run Meteor Beam, it also freely stand up to Tapu Fini because Celesteela has access to Wide Guard allowing it to attack freely. There could be many more reasons but I´ll keep it short. Anyways I picked Garchomp because it´s a fast-paste pokemon, or I might as well run Trick Room. Lum Berry is great because I can have a great one-turn with no status and have to Follow Me, Fake out, or Nuzzle to prevent me from getting a status.
Raichu

Raichu was pretty obvious, even if we already had Garchomp that doesn't mean we´re completely safe from Regieleki or Rotom-Heat, Raichu solves this problem very easily. It WALLS Regieleki and can effortlessly disrupt Rotom-Heat Clefairy strategies, with the addition of still walling Regieleki without Hyper Beam or being the physical variants with Assurance. Fake Out just disrupts pokemon While eerie impulse ruins special attackers the only problem is physical ground types. Volt Switch is a great pivot because it´s a great way to get of tight situations, for example, if Landorus-Therian uses max quake on Raichu you can Volt switch to get in a Rillaboom / Celesteela. While maintaining a great way to activate Weakness Policy. That's pretty much all that Raichu does on the team.

Clefairy

Clefairy is for supporting Garchomp and sometimes Celesteela, it´s Follow Me support is very effective and useful with the addition of Helping Hand. Moonblast is useful for special attack drops and ohkoes Urshifu-d while hitting other Pokemon for super effective damage. Friend Guard is also very useful to take less damage from the opponent. This basically sums up what Clefairy does.
Incineroar

Incineroar is pretty standard I had a bad Glastrier Match-up so Incineroar just fills in that role almost perfectly, with the addition of Parting shot and Taunt to support the team to a great extent. Also, it's just the best option because we don´t have that much of a choice. With the addition of Shuca Berry, it can get a Parting Shot off Landorus-Therian.
Rillaboom

Rillaboom was pretty obvious, to beat ground, rock, and water to cover Incin. That´s Pretty much it, Rillaboom also can give me more priority over the opponent. I wanted to try Choice Band for a change over the usual Miracle Seed surprisingly, it´s fun. It can ko Raichu, Urshifu-R, Politoed, Regieleki, Tapu fini, Landorus-Therian, Spectrier, Indeedee-f, Torkal, and much more.
​

Calculations/Notes: +2 236 Atk Garchomp Max Quake (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 124 Def Tapu Fini: 175-207 (98.8 - 116.9%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
244 speed with a Jolly nature out speeds under base 100-speed pokemon.


+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Spectrier Max Phantasm (130 BP) vs. 12 HP / 12 SpD Dynamax Garchomp with Friend Guard: 288-339 (77.8 - 91.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Life Orb Dragapult Max Wyrmwind (130 BP) vs. 12 HP / 4 Def Dynamax Garchomp with Friend Guard: 213-252 (57.5 - 68.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+3 252+ SpA Life Orb Moltres-Galar Max Darkness (130 BP) vs. 12 HP / 12 SpD Dynamax Garchomp with Friend Guard: 278-328 (75.1 - 88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu-Single Strike Wicked Blow vs. 12 HP / 4 Def Garchomp on a critical hit: 160-189 (86.4 - 102.1%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Metagross Max Hailstorm (130 BP) vs. 12 HP / 4 Def Dynamax Garchomp with Friend Guard: 261-309 (70.5 - 83.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 252+ SpA Tapu Fini Max Starfall (130 BP) vs. 12 HP / 12 SpD Dynamax Garchomp with Friend Guard: 330-391 (89.1 - 105.6%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO

+2 252+ Atk Landorus-T Max Quake (130 BP) vs. 12 HP / 4 Def Dynamax Garchomp with Friend Guard: 205-241 (55.4 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Life Orb Glastrier Max Hailstorm (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Eviolite Clefairy: 140-165 (79 - 93.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
It is also able to survive with the addition of hail chip damage.

252+ Atk Metagross Max Steelspike (130 BP) vs. +1 252 HP / 172+ Def Eviolite Clefairy: 134-162 (75.7 - 91.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 252 Atk Landorus-T Max Quake (130 BP) vs. +1 252 HP / 172+ Def Eviolite Clefairy: 130-154 (73.4 - 87%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Life Orb Venusaur Max Ooze (90 BP) vs. 252 HP / 84 SpD Eviolite Clefairy: 151-182 (85.3 - 102.8%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

If you want to know the names of the pokemon since it only makes sense to use my language now and then, click

here

Bamboo Cutter, Dragon Shark( very simple), Fairy from the moon, Tesso, Tiger Mask, and Monkey Kikazaru. Bamboo Cutter is what Celesteela is based off, Dragon Shark is what Garchomp is, Fairy from the moon because it is a fairy from the moon, Tesso is a rat yokai, Tiger Mask because Incin is a wrestler, and a tiger, monkey Kikazaru because Kikazaru is from the phrase ¨the three wise monkeys, can´t speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil.¨ Kikazaru is can´t hear no evil.

Well, that's all. I hope you enjoy using the team because when I started it was kind of hard to pilot. When I got more used to It I had fun with it and got to use Garchomp a lot as well as the other pokemon. I think I´ve become fond of using it, possibly I could get this team on cart. If you like the team and like to give your opinion dm me in Pokemon Showdown. My PS username is Kachi1954, you´ll probably see me talking in the VGC room.
That is all, bye!









​

 

[ChrystalFalchion]

Just beat the deadline. Here’s my Celesteela rain team.

Importable

Breakdown

Celesteela is the star of my team. I went with a physical set, as it has two strong STABs in Heavy Slam and Acrobatics. Stomping Tantrum rounds out it’s coverage, while Protect guards against Fake Out and let’s me scout. Celesteela also lets me threaten Venusaur, a big threat to rain.

Politoed sets Rain for my team, weakening Celesteela’s Fire weakness and triggering Kingdra’s Swift Swim. It’s the standard support set, providing power and Speed control With Icy Wind.

Next up is a Rain staple in Kingdra. In Rain it hits like an absolute truck, and Politoed can assist it further with Helping Hand. Hydro Pump is used over Muddy Water for a stronger Max Geyser. Draco Meteor is a backup STAB, Hurricane hits Grass types and Protect blocks Fake Out and lets me scout.

Now with 2 Electric weak mons, Raichu gave me a redirector. It also lets Celesteela reliably proc its Weakness Policy. Fake Out and Nuzzle are nice support, Volt Switch lets it safely bring in a teammate and Eerie Impulse lets it trip up stuff like Spectrier. Focus Sash is necessary as Raichu is frail AF, and the EVs are in bulk becpause it doesn’t need to hit hard.

Now, how to slaughter opposing Water types? That’s right with Rillaboom! A secondary Fake Out user gives Volcarona and Celesteela space to set up. Grassy Glide is useful priority, Knock Off hits the likes of Dusclops while Wood Hammer gives it a powerful STAB. It only attacks, and therefore appreciates the bulk of an Assault Vest.

Last but not least, one of my favourite Pokemon in Volcarona is here to complete the trio of sweepers. Quiver Dance gives it amazing power, with Heat Wave as a spread move and Bug Buzz for when I can’t afford to miss. I used Volcarona as it wrecks most of the Grass types that threaten Rain. EVs let it outrun Moltres-G with more Defence to give Grassy Seed a bit more oomph.

 

[Br0Sk1llz]

Hello everyone! You may or may not know me from VGC chat and discords, but if you don’t, I think you live under a rock. Anyways, I was building for a tournament, and I saw that steela building competition was open, so I put 1+1 together and got 6 (Pokémon). So, without further adoo, here is the team!


NUKE (Celesteela) @ Power Herb
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 20 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 228 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Flash Cannon
- Air Slash
- Meteor Beam

I love meteor beam Celesteela as it has the opportunity to KO a lot of its threats such as Thundurus/Zapdos, Rotom-Heat, and Incineroar (and others which I’m not going to mention for the sake of time). I also EV’d it very speed oriented so after an airstream it can outspeed the aforementioned Thundy and do some serious damage with Rockfall or Meteor Beam. With helping hand (wait for my next ‘mon) it kills all the time. Just in general a great set.


COME (Clefairy) @ Eviolite
Ability: Friend Guard
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Def / 60 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Protect
- Follow Me
- Helping Hand
- Icy Wind

Clef is great as a partner for Celesteela as it can redirect threatening attacks while also giving Friend Guard support and Helping Hand boosts in times of need. The spread lets it live life orb spectrier hits very well (the calc has disappeared from my head from the moment, feel free to screw around with the damage calc). I also put icy wind over Moonblast and the like because of the aforementioned speed EVs with Celesteela. Just in general great support for a great mon.


EAT (Garchomp) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 244 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Swords Dance
- Stomping Tantrum
- Rock Slide

Lum SD chomp is a set I have been loving the more I use it. It’s natural bulk along with Clefairy’s friend guard and Follow Me makes it super easy to SD up, and after that, there’s no stopping it. Lum also stops annoying Sleep Powders and Will-o-Wisps among others, which are always a pain in the butt. Protect was slotted over dragon claw just because in testing Protect helped in more scenarios. Garchomp also pairs really well with Celesteela by covering its weaknesses (it covers electric and fire quite well) and likewise Celesteela for Chomp (great switch in for dragon, destroys ice types and fairy types). Anyways, this was a no brainer.


PUNCH (Urshifu) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Unseen Fist
Level: 50
Gigantamax: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Detect
- Wicked Blow
- Close Combat
- Sucker Punch

Literally no need to explain, it’s an amazing cleaner for the first two as well as just an overall powerhouse. Sash is kind of necessary in the meta (unless you are running it with a fast speed control mon) because of the sheer amount of things that OHKO it. Anyways, moving on!

:ss/rotomh:
BURN (Rotom-Heat) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 4 Def / 244 SpA / 4 SpD / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Nasty Plot
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat

The best sun answer/plotter there ever was (or is) in the format. It pairs well with CeleChomp, again offering defensive and offensive coverage for their weaknesses. Also, it’s an amazing glastrier/metagross answer and pairs well with Clefairy, so I guess that worked out well :> The spread is dedicated to deleting glastrier as well as living its hits. And now for the final mon!


BANG (Rillaboom) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
Gigantamax: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Atk / 84 Def / 148 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Fake Out
- Knock Off
- U-turn

What were you expecting? It’s just a standard Wolfe AV rillaboom. Helps out with fini and is just a great overall support mon. Also offers fake out which we didn’t have before this. Just a GOATed mon, and it coincidentally fit onto this team, which is nice.

Anyways, that was the team! It got really good results on ladder where I got to 1500s, and in the tournament I joined, where I placed 4th. I hope you try it out and enjoy it while you’re at it!
https://pokepast.es/ffc0a56146c56dce

 

[DJWT64]

https://pokepast.es/07c63506e1fad835
I really wanted to create a Celesteela sand team and this is the final product. I wanted to use Excadrill with Celesteela, but others had already done this so I decided I wanted to do something different. This is my first reviewed teambuild, so bear with me as I try my best to explain everything.

Celesteela @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 148 HP / 24 Def / 252 SpA / 84 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flash Cannon
- Air Slash
- Flamethrower
- Protect

Celesteela was the mandatory Pokemon needed for this teambuilding competition and the starting point for the building process. I wanted to go all out offensive for this build so I just made it max Special attack with the rest in bulk. I did not invest in speed because I wanted to make sure that It was still usable under TR, but not minimum speed so that It could still make use of max airstream. I originally was going for an assault vest build for this Celesteela, but changed to Safety Goggles in order to have a better matchup against amoonguss and venusaur.

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 132 Def / 44 SpA / 84 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tri Attack
- Shadow Ball
- Recover
- Trick Room

A very basic P2 set and a much needed member of the team as Gigalith is present. I knew that I wanted TR in combination with sand, and P2 is the one of the best setters in the game. Not much else to say here.

Dracozolt @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bolt Beak
- Dragon Claw
- Aerial Ace
- Protect

Dracozolt was not originally the sand abuser that I was using. I first started this teambuild out using a sand rush Dracovish, but my team was really weak against any water types. I needed better electric coverage so I switched to Dracozolt. This Dracozolt is meant to go fast under sandstorm and get some damage down. It also supports the team with max airstream to boost speed further.

Gigalith @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Heavy Slam
- Protect

Gigalith is an interesting pokemon and I chose to go with it over Tyranitar because it is much better under trick room. Gigalith is also a much better answer to Glastrier, who easily takes out Tyranitar. I really like Gigalith on this team and it definitely earned its spot on the team.

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Def / 196 SpA / 4 SpD / 52 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Muddy Water
- Calm Mind
- Protect

This team really enjoys having a status blocker, and this is where Tapu Fini comes in. Fini is such a good pokemon and can find a place on most teams. There is nothing special about this set, but it works great on this team. Originally I was using a Grimmsnarl instead of Fini, but I prefered to have a status blocker and swapped.

Garchomp @ Assault Vest
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Stomping Tantrum
- Rock Slide
- Brick Break

Garchomp was a late addition to the team as originally I was using Landorus-Therian instead. Garchomp and Celesteela have great synergy, and it came to be that Garchomp was a better fit to the team. This is an interesting set because I am running Assault Vest instead of the preferred lorb due to the fact that zolt really wants the lorb. Brick Break allows me to self proc my weakness policy on Gigalith as well as git rid of my opponents screens.

This is a rough overview of the team and I had a fun time in the teambuilding process. Huge shoutout to Yourwelcomthank for helping me during the teambuilding process and always helping me out if I ever have any questions.

 

[ToastNoButter]

https://pokepast.es/d9049002e7ef8fa6
I don't have time to do a team report, but I'm just glad I'm getting a team in this time. The short version is using trick iron ball from grimmsnarl onto thundurus, zapdos, and the rotom forms so they get hit by supereffective max quake from garchomp in order to allow celesteela to do its thing late game.

 

[PinkiePat]

I wasn't really feeling Celesteela but I wanted to throw my hat in the ring
Team-o
How it works: If your opponent isn't running powerful fire or electric types, you max Celesteela. If they have Incineroar, you apply pressure with Coal and Urshifu. If they have sun, Coal does stuff.