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

To anyone using Team Q i missed giving whims a timid Nature so add that if your gonna use it. Also considering how late Zeefable waited to submit you waited to get team Z didnt you?
E A B L H I Z O
Yuki with some Round heat
E Mienshao gamering.
B Nexonus im sad to say may have made something more heat than round spectrier
H Love sand + spectrier i tried sand + caly s in s8.
Heat Crash stakataka and Iron ball Torkoal with Bulldoze
Non Sash Mienshao does sound cracked
 
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I am voting:

A - How can a round of voting not include the team with Round?
Z - Zeefable's team is a team that covers all of Spectrier's weaknesses in great fashion, and I could argue that it is one of the most competitively viable teams this round.
T - Disable Spectrier is a really creative use that sticks out, so kudos to CrystalNinetales.
U - Despite the literal trash in Garbodor, that team is not trash. At all.
L - This team has many modes, and is overall quite solid.
J - The addition of Clefairy to a team with Spectrier, Cinderace and Lando-T gives a lot more offensive potential to the team in general and makes it much more terrifying.
Q - The idea of Spectrier, Terrakion, and Whimsicott enabling them to do massive amounts of damage very quickly is very appealing.
R - Was actually a bit skeptical at first about the viability of this team, but it turns out that in the right hands, this team can really make a splash. And Weak Armor Omastar with Double Kick is a really creative idea for Spectrier.
P - He's got the horses in the back. What else can I say?
O - Shell Smash Blastoise done right. I'm in.

Honorable Mention(it was incredibly tough to decide between this and my 8th, 9th, and 10th choices for their spots): V - Talonflame is definitely a not-very-used core in general, and the overall core of Spectrier + Glastrier + Urshifu-R is incredibly strong and hard to break through.
 
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yuki

Huh? Me? Not this time...
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Time for my votes

1: Z - Z is for zee. zee had mentioned Weakness Policy Entei to me before their match in NPA, and I verified it as heat but also just a good idea. Dmax Entei isn't to be taken lightly by any means, especially with Inner Focus shrugging off Intimidate. Spectrier fits in this team well, just for being Spectrier at the end of the day.
2: S - S is for Ston. Regirock is one of my favourite Pokemon in the metagame, and I think that Bulldoze Spectrier is a super consistent option with it. Add in Grimmsnarl and a solid Sun core, and you've immediately got a good team. This is a team I could see myself playing.
3: Y - Y is for... I give up. This is just an undoubtedly strong team. I remembered the Baars team from HexaCup in talking to a couple of people, and I'm not surprised to see Jomatoes go for it. Also having a top cut at Zelda Challenge isn't shabby by any means.
4: N - I've seen Walrain working with this VenuToed core for a bit now, and conceptually and from what I've seen of it, it just works. I think all in all, Spectrier fits with this core very well in its supportive role, really just adding another good 2 mon core to what is essentially a weather goodstuffs.
5: K - The first of the Double Horse teams. I think that this core really complements Blastoise quite well, and I'd be interested to try it out at some point.
6: E - Gfazzo, your infatuation with Mienshao astounds me. Coaching + Glastrier is good already, and Spect Clef is just dangerous in the right places. Moltres-G covers things nicely. Hard to argue with that.
7: V - I like the thought processes that went into this team, and it's clear there is a good amount of things going on. I think the Talonflame is quirky, but not necessarily the choice I would have gone for. I think I would also have gone for a different idea knowing I want to bring Tailwind in. Perhaps going into NP Spect + SD Chomp, good redirector, decent Tailwind setter that answers Sun and then stuff that can just take advantage of it like a CB Urshifu or Dracovish. It would have maybe pushed it up a place or two.
8: Q - I like the idea of using something that's been popular as of late (Terrakion) with this thing and they work surprisingly well together. A couple things did hold this back though. I liked the option of going Beat Up into WP Spectrier. I think the Mamoswine and Kartana's items are really the wrong way around, and maybe one of the Taunts is unnecessary. Still a decent little team however.
9: X - Yeah generally quite a solid effort here. For me, it just felt like it wanted a bit more integration. Or rather, Gastrodon didn't feel super rooted and I didn't know if AV Incin did anything better than regular Incin and giving the bulk to Rillaboom. I think a TR mode wouldn't have been amiss, and that might have bumped it up a bit.
10: K2 - I think this one is decent on merit of its parts. But it's lacking a touch of cohesion for me. It's not entirely sure if it wants to go into the HO route, setup with Spect or just solidify in certain positions. Definitely functional, but I think that's more due to the parts it uses in this case.
 
And that wraps up week 2 of the Teambuilding Competition! I want to thank everyone participating as this very thread has brought a massive spike in activity in the VGC subforum, which is awesome! Anyhow, with all the votes being counted, we have our winner. Please congratulate Raineko for winning this week, making it back-to-back wins for them! They were able to acquire an astonishing 96 votes with their very creative Round based team, using a fast Round from Spectrier to power up Sylveons Round. This was an excellent week with a lot of interesting teams, and I will announce next week's Pokemon in a bit, so stay tuned and let's keep this competition rolling!
 
Just a little sidenote sorta post, but it should be said. A solid amount of teams that are submitted are creative, or "heat".

While I am in no way going to discourage the building on creative teams, I am going to give a tip on how you can build both creatively and efficiently, as well as gain the attention of more competitively minded voters such as myself.

So what is this tip that can help you build creatively, efficiently, and grab the attention of competitively minded voters? It is quite simple actually, what you do is answer these questions when you add a Pokemon to your team, or really anything (EVs, items, etc.), and then use the answers to make a description for each of your Pokemon.

1. Why is the Pokémon a core part of the team? Why is it important?
2. How do the other Pokémon support this? Very brief description of what each Pokémon offers (typing/special moves/etc.)
3. What does the team need to do in order to win? Identify win conditions of any kind.
(thank you to Human by the way, he is the original person to post these questions)

Not only will adding a description using these questions help you build better because you aren't just randomly slapping on Pokemon for no reason, but it also shows me personally that you are a smart player and builder, able to recognize holes in teams and Pokemon to fix those holes.

Now, this doesn't necessarily just apply to creative teams, although it should be a much higher priority. Even the most standard of standard teams should consider these, going in-depth helps your case for the best team here, which is of course the goal of this competition.

If you need examples of good posts that use this method, here are a few in this very thread

Firstly, thanks for making this competition! I had a ton of fun making this team, and I'm quite happy with what I came up with.

Now, without further ado, I present to you, Rain's Rain Team:
View attachment 334721View attachment 334645View attachment 334646View attachment 334647View attachment 334648View attachment 334644

PokePaste: https://pokepast.es/192050dfc0f6c39b

Team Breakdown:

Politoed:
Politoed is here to set up rain with its Drizzle ability and then assist its allies by using Helping Hand to boost the power of allies' attacks or Icy Wind to reduce the enemies' speed. The team has both+ fast and slow attackers, so the speed control may or may not be necessary depending on which mons were brought and what the opponent is doing. In the event where it is not needed, Scald is an option to provide some decent damage and possibly a burn. The last move is Protect because Protect is good. Politoed's item is a Damp Rock to extend the duration of rain, and its EVs are specially defensive, which might help it to survive a Thunderbolt here and there. Politoed cannot do much on its own, but it plays a pivotal role on the team by setting up rain, which the rest of the team is poised to abuse.

Celesteela & Rhyperior:
I found this to be a very powerful pairing, but Celesteela is the real star of the show on this team. It has very good bulk and only two weaknesses, both of which can be completely covered up by its allies. It's Fire weakness is effectively eliminated due to the fact that rain halves the power or Fire moves, and it doesn't need to worry about Electric attacks at all due to Rhyperior redirecting them with its Lightning Rod ability. Its considerable offensive strength and proper support can turn it into an unstoppable juggernaut while Dynamaxed. Rhyperior can make quick work of mons such as Torkoal and Regieleki with its STAB Earthquake, and in turn, Celesteela takes out many of Rhyperior's potential threats, such as Rillaboom, with its STAB Max Airstream. The rest of the moves are fairly standard; I chose a physical set for Celesteela, but a special set would probably work almost as well. Celesteela's EVs are focused on Attack and HP to improve its damage and bulk respectively; Rhyperior has done the same, except it invested in its somewhat poor Special Defense instead of HP. Celesteela holds a Weakness Policy (more on that later) and Rhyperior holds a Focus Sash, which allows it to survive a 4x effective hit and fire off one last attack that the opponent was likely not expecting. The only things this duo of colossi fear are strong water attacks, which is somewhat ironic due to their presence on a rain team. However, this is not a problem at all, thanks to the next member of our team.

Regieleki:
Regieleki's role on this team is very simple - to nuke everything with 100% accurate STAB Thunder. It does this job very well thanks to its blistering speed and Transistor ability. It has a Timid nature and EVs fully invested into Special Attack and Speed, and it holds a Magnet to further boost the power of its Electric moves, making them powerful enough that they can even take out foes that resist them! In addition to Thunder, Regieleki has Electroweb for more speed control and Volt Switch to pivot out while doing damage. The final move is, of course, Protect. It's important to note that while Regieleki does an excellent job of covering up Rhyperior's 4x water weakness, it should not be on the field at the same time as Rhyperior. Although it may seem to be a glaring counter-synergy, it is actually surprisingly easy to work around while playing, and will virtually never be a problem as long as you are careful.

Incineroar:
Of course I had to include Incineroar; it's not without reason that he is present on nearly every VGC team. My Incineroar set had one slot taken up by a more unusual move choice, however - Ember. This is here to activate Celesteela's Weakness Policy while dealing minimal damage to it. The other moves are standard support: Fake Out, Snarl, Parting Shot. It doesn't have Flare Blitz because its effectiveness would be reduced by rain, and it doesn't have Darkest Lariat just because that slot was taken up by Ember, which is vital because the Celesteela/Rhyperior duo is so good at covering its own weaknesses that the WP doesn't usually get activated by enemies. EVs and Nature are configured to give it good physical and special bulk, and it holds a Sitrus Berry to stay alive longer. Similar to Politoed, it's role on the team is vital, subtle though it may be.

Kingdra:
I wasn't originally planning to bring Kingdra, but as we all know, it synergizes incredibly well with Politoed and rain, so I decided to run it after all as a secondary Dynamax option. Kingdra has the standard Life Orb set with Hurricane (100% accurate in rain), Scald, and Draco Meteor. It has all its EVs invested into Special Attack and Speed to make it hit as hard as possible, and a Modest nature because I'd rather have more damage over more speed. Ability is of course Swift Swim, which will make it fast enough that a Timid Nature isn't necessary. Last move slot is Protect to help it stay alive longer. It's a very good option for an attacker in the event that the Celesteela/Rhyperior core isn't suitable, and although I call it a fallback option, it isn't by any means a downgrade. Kingdra is also very good against Sun teams, which the rest of the team tends to struggle against. In the event that the enemy sets up sun, you can easily turn the tables with a Max Geyser from Kingdra, hopefully killing the sun setter in the process.

Playstyle:

As a whole, the team is pretty balanced, with a mixture of glass cannons and bulky attackers. It can hold its own inside of TR, and even against enemy Tailwind. Like most rain teams, it struggles a bit against sun teams, but the disadvantage is not so large that it can't be surmounted. The general strategy is to lead with Politoed and Kingdra, Eleki, or Incineroar. The former two provide a good offensive pressure, and the latter can take the edge away from aggressive enemy teams. Often, the opponent will predictably target Politoed with a Grass attack, which makes for the perfect opportunity to safely switch into Celesteela. When you switch into Steela, you will generally want to have either Incineroar (for WP activation) or Rhyperior (for attack redirection) as a partner. If you didn't Max Kingdra, then you will usually want to Dynamax Celesteela as soon as possible to start stacking up boosts with Airstream, Knuckle, and of course its ability Beast Boost (its EVs are such that it will receive an Attack boost after KOing a foe). If you have Rhyperior as a partner, then you can take advantage of Celesteela's Max Knuckle to fire off some powerful Earthquakes and pick up any KOs that Celesteela missed. The more defensive alternative is to keep Incineroar in, using Snarl and Parting shot to neutralize potential threats to Celesteela. Once Celesteela goes down, it is probably time to switch into your secondar attacker (Eleki or Kingdra) and sweep through the remains of your enemy's team.

Replays:

Against another rain team. Rhyperior's Sash was essential to winning here. (I accidentally used an older version of my team which had Kartana instead of Incineroar, but that doesn't matter because I didn't bring it and all of the movesets are the same.)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1326914948

In this match, a WP-boosted Celesteela singlehandedly smashed through the entire enemy team with its powerful Max Moves.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1326997426

In this match, the Celesteela and Rhyperior duo worked exactly as intended Rhyperior redirected super-effective moves and finished off weakened foes, while Celesteela dealt out provided boosts with its Max Moves.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1327182085

Against a sun team. No time to write anymore description because the submission deadline is in 2 minutes!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2021series9-1327183013

Thanks for reading!
After spending a few days thinking and rebuilding, I created this wonder of a team:
:politoed: :kingdra: :zapdos-galar: :raichu: :porygon2: :landorus-therian:
https://pokepast.es/9d330887eb54a8bf

Lets run through the team:
Politoed @ Salac Berry
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Endeavor
- Endure
- Muddy Water
After looking through to see what Politoed had in it's moveset, I saw Endeavor and realized I needed to make it work. Then I saw Endure and it all came together. No bulk besides the four spare Ev's because you want to get to 1 HP asap. Click Endure to live the hit, eat Salac to boost your speed, and then click Endeavor to take things to 1 HP. Even when you are not taking things down to 1 HP, it still chunks opposing pokemon like nothing else, allowing you to break holes in a team that you might not have been able to do. My main idea was to try and break out of the traditional supporting Politoed, so why do what I have always done and make Politoed bulky, when I can make it frail and fast? Drizzle is important to unleash the next team member, and as long as it gets the rain up I see Politoed as doing half of it's job. Endeavor let's it do a ton of damage, and Muddy Water for the last slot to take advantage of rain the rain with a boosted spread move. Protect is there to help Politoed take Dynamax hits and live, further enabling the Salac + Endeavor combo to flourish.
Kingdra @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 20 HP / 252 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Muddy Water
- Draco Meteor
- Hurricane
- Protect
Boring and standard with Politoed, but it is because Kingdra is probably the best Swift Swimmer in the game. It has good enough bulk, decent attacking stats, and can be faster than Regieleki in rain. There's not much else really worth using off of that point alone, Regieleki is everywhere. Muddy Water again because its a spread water move that lowers accuracy. 85 Accuracy sucks, but paired with Politoed's Muddy Water gives you a decent chance of lowering something's accuracy. Draco Meteor is the standard Dragon move to go for here. Using Hurricane gives a nice speed boost while maxed, a 100 percent accurate move in rain, and hits Rillaboom. When selecting what to Dynamax, Kingdra's always a solid choice to go for, and is the initial Dynamax target for this team. Ev's were taken from my PC4 qualifier team. you can optimize the Ev's a bit more to reduce Life Orb recoil, but I prefer the added damage and little extra bulk to make some rolls a little more favorable.

Zapdos-Galar @ Black Belt
Ability: Defiant
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thunderous Kick
- Brave Bird
- Stomping Tantrum
- Detect
I selected Zapdos-G next because: (a) I like it, and (b) needed something to hit Ferrothorn. With Intimidate everywhere Defiant give Zapdos-G so many opportunities to boost itself, not counting all the other Max moves and the miscellaneous stat lowering moves. Zapdos-G is the secondary Dynamax option, giving the team a hard hitting physical Pokemon that can also boost it's speed nicely. I was afraid of ferrothorn walling the team, so Zapdos-G fills that weakness nicely. I preferred Thunderous Kick over Close Combat because when Dynamxed Close Combat is only 5 BP stronger and Thunderous Kick avoids the drops from Close Combat. Brave Bird as the main Flying attack, but if you want longevity outside of Dynamax substitute it with Drill Peck. Stomping Tantrum is mainly there to hit Electric-Types and to clean up things like Metagross. Detect because you want to protect yourself sometimes. I used Black Belt because Life Orb was taken by Kingdra, and Zapdos-G appreciates the slight power boost to Thunderous Kick, bringing it closer to Close Combat. Safety Goggles are another good alternative, letting Zapdos ignore Spore, Rage Powder, Sand, and Hail, but I like damage.

Raichu @ Focus Sash
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Electroweb
- Nuzzle
- Fake Out
- Charm
This was where I made my biggest breakthrough. I spent a lot of time worrying about how Regieleki would just shut this team down, but then I realized all I needed to do was to shut Regieleki down instead. In came Raichu, with Lightning Rod it harmlessly absorbs pesky electric moves, boosting it's own Special Attack in the process. From here, Nuzzle and Electroweb slows down teams further, and Fake Out gives a free hit along with serving as a priority move to take advantage of Politoed's Endeavor plummeting the opponent's HP. Charm is the preferred last move here, as it offers a way to weaken physical attackers cleanly. Max Speed and 252 HP for speed and overall bulk, with the Focus Sash there to ensure Raichu takes two hits. While Lightning Rod can't absorb Electroweb entirely, it serves as a deterrence against clicking Thunderbolt and tearing through the Water-types on the team.

Teambuilding Note: From here, I realized I did not necessarily need to fit an Incineroar on this team anymore, I had something that could handle Ferrothorn in Zapdos-G and I had Fake Out utility from Raichu. I just needed a option to handle Trick Room and an Intimidator.

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 240 HP / 196 Def / 72 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick Room
- Eerie Impulse
- Recover
- Ice Beam
I've really grown to love Porygon2, and I found it fit on this team really well. The set is pretty basic, Trick Room to reverse opponent's Trick Room, Eerie Impulse to lower Special Attack, Recover to heal, and Ice Beam for damage against everything, especially Dragon and Flying Types. EV's let Porygon2 have a 75% chance to live a Jolly 252 Attack Close Combat from Urshifu, with the rest dumped into Special Defense. A solid, consistent Pokemon to help out against Trick Room and offer some utility against Special Attackers.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Fly
- U-turn
Now it was time to round out the team with a Intimidator. Landorus-T immediately came to mind, offering the team a third Dynamax option, a solid all around attacker, and a Intimidate user with the ability to pivot. I Selected the finest 252/4/252 EVs to maximize speed and power, with the four spare Ev's placed carefully into Special Defense to tie into Landorus's item, Assault Vest. Assault Vest lets Landrous-T take the special hits that the rest of the team does not want to take, and pairs nicely with Intimidate to improve Landorus's overall bulk. Moveset is nothing special, Ground and Flying STAB for when Dynamaxed, Rock Slide for the main non-Dynamax attacking move, and U-turn to pivot.

Teambuilding Thoughts:

In my opinion, I like the team, but its probably just alright all things considered. I think I should have spend more time finding something with priority to complement Politoed better, I thought of something with Urshifu-RS, but my team began to feel a little too gimmicky and reliant on Raichu to not get overwhelmed. I went through a lot of other variations and options, notably one with Metagross + Stakataka as a option to deter / abuse Trick Room and take advantage of Rain halving Fire moves. Like I mentioned, Urshifu-RS was an option with Assault Vest, turning it into an better all around pokemon, but it never felt like it was working right on the team. Tornadus was on a few teams as a Tailwind user mainly to help Politoed get of Endeavor's more consistently, but again it dived into the gimmick territory too much rather than being a solid team. Gyarados was heavy considered as an option, giving Intimidate and when paired with Tornadus it was fast enough, but again discarded it earlier on before I settled on Raichu because of the insane Electric and Grass weakness my team was then exposed to. I almost selected Salamence instead of Landorus because I have wanted to build with it for some time, but it does not have the utility that Landorus brings to the table (if only Salamence got Tailwind...).

In terms of the final team, it does not take as much advantage of the rain as some of my other ideas did, but it allows Kingdra to get into positions to take KO's every turn. Raichu protects the water types, letting Kingdra do it's thing without being hit by Electroweb. Zapdos-G serves as the other offensive option, being able to unleash a surprising amount of damage to either cleaning up at the end or Dynamaxing and dealing damage itself. Porygon2's necessity against Trick Room teams / cores can not be understated, having something solid that can disrupt Trick Room can save matches. Landous-T serves as the Intimidator when needed but does not always need to come to the match. Offensively, it is no slouch, giving the team a better option against Steel types allowing you to overwhelm them with neutral Water + super effective Ground attacks. Raichu was the star of the team building process, partially reliving my weakness to Electric moves. Electroweb is still an issue, but with Raichu and Landorus-T both being immune to Electroweb it becomes less of a concern.

Early on, I realized I wanted a different supporting Politoed to build around, and Salac + Endeavor is so fun to pull off and use. It really can open up teams that are harder to chip down, bringing key opponents down to ranges where anything on the team can KO them. For me, Kingdra was a give in, and while Helping Hand / Icy Wind are great supporting options, I've found that taking things HP down is just as good. Who needs Kingdra to do extra damage from Helping Hand when your opponent was brought to 15% last turn by Endeavor? That's the main benefit of Endeavor in my eyes, even if you are not taking your foe down to 1 HP, you still can take a huge chunk of HP away, commonly enough to KO something else the next turn. The team is weaker to Rillaboom than I would like, but there is enough there to handle Rillaboom between Zapdos-G, Raichu, and Porygon2. I mainly wanted to use a more interesting Politoed set and fit in Zapdos-G, and overall I'm happy with the result, and feel free to let me know what you all think about this team.
^ This one is a good example of backing up creativity with these questions
:ss/spectrier: CRACKED - AN UNSTOPPABLE OFFENSE :ss/spectrier:
:spectrier: :mienshao: :entei: :whimsicott: :regieleki: :urshifu-rapid-strike-gmax:
When building offense in VGC, my favorite kind is one that builds to cover all of the things typically considered roadblocks to offense. In this case, I wanted to build a team capable of disrupting all of Fake Out, Intimidate, Screens, Trick Room, Redirection, and Max Airstream; I genuinely believe this is something the team does quite well.

This team also brings me back to some of my ultra series days, and I really appreciate it for doing so.
View attachment 337175

:spectrier:
As a shock to literally no one, I started at Spectrier. I actually built my NPA week 8 team around (but later dropped) Nasty Plot Spectrier with Clefairy support, but I figured there would be multiple versions of this so I decided to brainstorm for something different. I settled on a 3 Attacks + Protect set because I feel like that's the one that will allow Spectrier to find effective Dynamaxes on a team without redirection. I think having Protect is super important because there are definitely times where it can get pinned by speed control and a max move and you really just need to get a partner in to nab a fake out or answer back with some speed control of your own.

:mienshao:
Mienshao has excellent synergy with Spectrier. Fighting and Ghost is unresisted coverage, neither one of the two can be affected by Fake Out, and Mienshao can capitalize off of the Defense drops from Max Phantasm. Taunt and Helping Hand ensure it has adequate utility for slowing down the likes of Porygon2 and Helping Hand for securing KOs that Spectrier would otherwise fall just short of. Not being afflicted by Intimidate is excellent for bopping Incineroar

:entei:
Entei rounds out my core of Pokemon that really get the offense train going. I liked the idea of having a WP abuser on offense and it's also a great alternative Dynamax option, really my best when it comes to physical attackers. Fire coverage is useful for stuff like Amoonguss and Glastrier that threaten HO a bit. The other moves are really nice with the EdgeQuake + speed control option, never felt like I needed Protect when I'm not disrupted by Fake Out anyway.

:whimsicott:
At this point I've set my mind on ridiculous HO and as such need to use the Pokemon that enables ridiculous HO. I elected for Coba Berry because I knew I'd need the sash for Urshifu. Helping Hand lets Whimsicott get some mileage before getting hit with Fake Out and supports my physical attackers which is groovy. Not really a ton else to say about it. This is offense and I have a Whimsicott, who saw that coming.

:regieleki:
I think every team needs an Electric these days or they'll just get ruined by Tapu Fini. I decided to go with Regieleki because it's a great balance of not too reliant on Dynamax and being quite aggressive still. Fast Electroweb is cool for shutting down things that are attempting to Max Airstream through you. 3 Electric moves just makes the most sense, don't really need Hyper Beam on something I'm not intending on maxing often and I think special sets are still the most bang for your buck currently.

:urshifu-rapid-strike-gmax:
Pretty much the glue mon on this team. Surging Strikes lets it warp through Reflect and chunk Incin/Heatran/Lando, Aqua Jet is good but also activates my Entei's Weakness Policy which is even more good. Two fighting types just seemed like an excellent idea for rounding out a team like this as well, I think it keeps the team really flexible and ultimately rounds out an already multi-layered offense.

If someone steals my thunder as the lastpost I will be upset.
That's it for now, enjoy your building and maybe consider these questions. See you later!
 
:dracozolt: :tyranitar: :thundurus: :tapu-fini: :metagross: :gothitelle:

Sorry boys, the tournament has gotten me into a serious mood, so no meme mons this week.

I'm a big fan of Tyranitar Dracozolt. While it has some rough spots dealing with Incin and Landorus (two of the most common mons in the format), the combination is still remarkably fantastic. Thanks to decent base stats, as well as good and wide spread movepools, neither are forced to max to be effective either. I knew from the start I wanted to work around that, so I built the team around that pairing: but not excessively so. As usual, it was still important to have multiple different modes and options to work with.

:ss/dracozolt:
Relatively standard Sandzolt. Jolly over Adamant to outspeed Regieleki, and Pluck over Aerial Ace since i'm not Hustle. In case you were unaware, Pluck is the same BP as Aerial Ace, and unlike Aerial Ace, has useful utility in the form of berry stealing and consumption. While no dragon move can be awkward at times (for example, in the beat up matchup), Protect is just too valuable to pass up, and there are other things on the team to beat Dragons regardless.

:ss/tyranitar:
While I enjoy tyranitar, it just feels so...awkward this series. Almost everything has some form of coverage for it, and while you want weakness policy on it to capitalize off that, the significant amount of fighting coverage makes it hard to actually pull off. In addition, intimidate is everywhere. So, rather than that, I shifted my focus to a different kind of Tyranitar: Choice Banded. This set allows it to hit extremely hard without maxing, and also functionally ignore 1 cycle of intimidate. The speed evs allow not only for it to outspeed Charizard at +1 (off a Zolt Airstream or a Thundurus airstream), but to also get assurance off after almost everyone on the team for optimal damage increase. Attack evs 2HKO frail maxed venu with ice punch, with remaining evs thrown into general bulk.

:ss/thundurus:
Here I wanted something to discourage Incineroar and Landorus from showing up, that also could hit venusaur, urshifu, and tapu fini more guaranteed. In addition, it also outspeeds terrakion. Max speed with slight bulk to help better take advantage of that av, and brutal swing for weakness policy procing on my metagross.

:ss/tapu-fini:
Fini is just too good to pass up on sand. It helps out so much in a ton of matchups, from coal to lando to pult to urshifu, and with a multitude of set options, is hard to guess at team preview. For this particular fini, I wanted the dual stabs it provides, but I also wanted screens on the team: and as I was building this, I was hard pressed near the end to fit screens on. Eventually, however, I found a set that did the trick. Speed evs creep my own metagross, as well as my tyranitar, with the rest dumped into SPA to get as much damage out as possible since i'm not calm mind. HP evs hit 175 so as to round down sand damage.

:ss/metagross:
Here I wanted another Ice resist, as well as a grass resist. A Steel type immediately stood out to me, and with tyranitar already on the team to cover dragapult and spectrier, Metagross seemed like a no brainer. Enough speed evs to creep my own tyranitar, with the rest dumped in bulk and attack. Ice punch to help hit landorus, although I was tempted by zen-headbutt at one point for the venusaur matchup: though I found an alternative.

:ss/gothitelle:
From here, I had a decent looking team. What I needed was a form of speed control, as well as disruption and damage assistance. Gothitelle slotted into that perfectly: Fake Out and Shadow Tag for trapping and disruption, Trick Room as an alternative speed control, and Helping Hand to help increase damage or functionally ignore intimidate when needed. Psyshock was a cherry on top, providing more consistent damage against venusaur. While Porygon2 was my first consideration when building this, the utility and pressure Gothitelle can offer proved too much to ignore. The evs hit 93 speed, tying 100 incin, where as the colbur + bulk evs live banded urshifu decently, and regular urshifu comfortably. Remainder dumped into special defense to help out general bulk.

This one is loads of fun, and competitive enough to attract some of you more competitively minded individuals towards it. I encourage you to give it a go!
 
:Tyranitar::Charizard-Gmax: :Whimsicott: :Mamoswine: :Heatran: :Tapu Koko: - :Tyranitar::Charizard-Gmax: :Whimsicott: :Mamoswine: :Metagross: :Tapu Koko:
https://pokepast.es/4ed404a108a0abd5 - https://pokepast.es/729c1333cfc81a02 Second team Version.
There are a few things you must account for when building with Tyranitar. Its fighting weakness being obvious along with its Steel, Ground and Grass-type weaknesses. Charizard is able to cover all of these options at once except Ground-types which is easily covered by other team elements. Charizard has proven to be good alongside Tyranitar in the past many times too.

This was actually an old team i took from my teambuilder and updated it the old version was made with. misticMd

:Tyranitar: :Weakness Policy:
Tyranita provides crucail defensive backbone for the team. Being able to check primarily Spectrier but also Charizard, and Zapdos. Having a reliable Spectrier check is very important on this team as most of the other Pokemon can't handle it well. Tyranitar is able to threaten Fire-types who would trouble other members of the team like Charizard, Heatran, and Torkoal. This Tyranitar has Taunt which helps immensly in dealing with Trick Room.

:Charizard-gmax: :Safety Goggles:
Charizard has great synergy with Tyranitar. Being able to offensively check Grass-Types, Urshifu, and Steels. Charizard is a fine pokemon even without sun but this team has Sunny Day Whimsicott to power up Chariard. Charizard has Safety Goggles allowing it to deal with Sun and Amoonguss.

:Whimsicott: :Focus Sash:
Whimsicott is able to provide Tailwind, Sunny day, and an Urshifu check. Tailwind makes Pokemon like Life Orb Mamoswine extremely thretaning as its STAB combination hits so many pokemon. Tailwind also helps Charizard deal with Regieleki as it can outspeed and OHKO non sash variants. The Urshifu check is greatly appreciated by this teams fighting weak Pokemon. Sunny Day is also very useful vs Rain allowing Pokemon Like Tapu Koko or even Mamoswine to check the rain team.

:Mamoswine: :Life Orb:
Bulky Life Orb Mamoswine has been one of my favorite Pokemon in the format right now. its STABS in threaten just about everything and rock slide hits Rotom-H. Mamoswine's role on this team is to deal with Ground-types like Landurous-T and Garchomp. It is also able to threaten Rock types that may trouble the team like Regirock and Nihilego.


:Heatran: :Shuca Berry:
I really needed a Steel Type that did not lose to Hatterene so while i wanted to so could not use Kartana. Metagross and Celesteela were the other options having a more reliable Glastrier answer is appealing but Dynamax torkoal in Trick Room is quite threatening to this team so in the end i Picked Heatran. with Shuca Berry its Glastrier matchup is good enough so long i carefully position myself i should be good vs Glastrier.

:Tapu KoKo: :Assault Vest:
Tapu Koko is used over Regieleki thanks to this teams Spore Vulnerability however its ability to better check Urshifu is much appreciated by this teams fighting weak Pokemon. Tapu Koko makes a nice offensive Combination with Mamoswine who threatens its Ground-type checks where as Koko in return threatens Water Types. Assault Vest was chosen as the item with lets Tapu Koko best check Rain and the many flying types of the metagame better.


:Terrakion: and :Stakataka:
Two pokemon i do find a bit concerning to the team being Stakataka and Terrakion. Terrakions STABs threaten the whole team. However the majority of the team can threaten Terrakion back. So with your own Tailwind and so long you can stop or thwart beat Up set up. its much easier if the Beat Up user is Dragapult as Life Orb Mamoswine can outspeed and OHKO Dragapult or Max Quake Terrakion which wtih minimal chip is a guranteed OHKO and can straight up OHKO 75% of the time. Also if you know they are not White Herb you can Electroweb with Tapu Koko.

132+ Atk Life Orb Mamoswine Max Quake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dynamax Terrakion: 320-377 (96.3 - 113.5%) -- 75% chance to OHKO

Stakataka you need to be very careful about your positioning as it does threaten the entire team in Trick Room. Generally you'll want to try and get into a position where you can 2hko or 3hko it with Heatran Max Quake. if its Shuca Berry it takes much less from Max Quake but that means its not Policy which would take much more. you do need to be very careful in this matchup as you rely very heavily on Heatran. Heatrans defense boosts from Max Steelspike can also help, and when TR is over you can have Mamo positioned to finish it off hopefully.

The second team with Metagross helps with these issue's a lot but is worse VS torkoal.
 
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https://pokepast.es/58f4280b1075840c
:tyranitar: :mandibuzz: :tapu-lele: :excadrill: :regieleki: :porygon2:

The tyranitar/mandibuzz/tapu lele core is one I've used in the past and it's a really cute one, full of a bunch of little synergies.

:tyranitar:
AV tyranitar reaches a whopping 279 SpD in sand, meaning it can go toe to to with tapu fini fairly easily, even taking the super effective hits like the champion godzilla is.
( 252+ SpA Tapu Fini Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 28 SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 66-78 (31.8 - 37.6%) )
It's up to question as to whether you want a special move on tyranitar, but giving it dark pulse gives it an avenue for attack through burns, as max darkness will snowball in power with the SpD drops. Tyranitar's dark typing also complements tapu lele well as it avoids giving opposing psychic types any real advantages against the team. People are also afraid to sink super effective hits into tyranitar to avoid proccing weakness policy.

:mandibuzz:
when using tyranitar, I prefer mandibuzz over moltres-g, both because of overcoat and because of ttar's constant desire to dynamax. Additionally, while this is minor, sand damage won't trigger berserk, leaving moltres in a really bad spot. It comes up more often than you'd think. Overcoat protects mandibuzz against sleep powder and rage powder, which would be better on any other mon, but it still comes in handy.

:tapu lele:
I'm going to put this in every single team and you're going to like it.

:excadrill:
I think you need a sand sweeper and I prefer excadrill because it's less linear than the fossils and it's also got a crucial electric immunity for rogue regieleki speed debuffs. Weakness Policy excadrill is an oldie, but a goodie. This specific spread outspeeds +1 urshifu and adamant dracovish, then dumps the rest into bulk to make WP a little safer to proc.

:regieleki:
offers a more offensive form of speed control vs teams that can abuse mandibuzz' passivity (aka taunt lol), but also combines its electroweb well with other teammates' foul play to make short work of thundurus-t. This could also just be goggles incineroar if I'm being honest.

:porygon2:
p2 is just a solid mon and a good answer to trick room teams and tailwind teams alike. Tyranitar's speed is minimized to function better in trick room, but excadrill out of sand and mandibuzz will both be able to underspeed a significant chunk of the metagame, especially if they're trying to airstream or tailwind.

ultimately the reason I like this team so much is because of all the little synergies that each member has with other members, and there's a huge diversity in what kind of leads this team can effectively run.
 

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