VGC what IS speed? (trickroom/speedswap with a sun secondary core.)

[TheGreyFencer]

g'day.

So for the first time since i became interested in Pokemon as a competitive game with sandstorm and scarf Jirachi cheese, VGC seems interesting for me. MY cousin and I have been playing around with a core of Snorlax, Cofagrigus, and Ribombee. The main idea is always having the right way to max lax goes first. Let's get into it.

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds"
-J. Robert Oppenheimer
​

We wanted to start with a strong basis to work from. Originally we had also looked at Braviary and thanks to the prevalence in the early VGC ladder of Intimidate. But as we played around, we noticed that intimidate became far less preferred and Snorlax release happened to coincide with that realization.

Snorlax-Gmax @ Figy Berry
Ability: Gluttony
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 188 Atk / 68 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Belly Drum
- Double-Edge
- Heat Crash
- Darkest Lariat​

Snorlax is the build around for the team, for fairly obvious reasons. Snorlax brings a huge amount of power to the table. Even uninvested, Snorlax can drum and kill most pokemon without issue. Gmax gives it the ability to reuse it's berry and keep chugging. Double edge is the most powerful STAB snorlax can use and give it's max move a huge power base. I've chosen this move over facade and body slam for the extra power. Heat crash and lariat both offer decent coverage while offering some utility. lariat gets to ignore defensive boosts while max flare gives us another way to set sun if needed. The EVs allows set up snorlax to OHKO 252/252+ arcanine after burn and intimidate. Honestly, i don't know if that's necessary, and it's certainly not come up for me yet.

“Direction is so much more important than speed.
Many are going nowhere fast.”
-Unknown
​

Speed control is already a very valuable portion of VGC and something I already highly value from my usage of volt-turn and webs teams in singles. We were looking for mons to compliment snorlax and these two have complimentary resistances to fighting to discourage

Ribombee @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sweet Veil
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Pollen Puff
- Speed Swap
- Helping Hand
- Protect
​

Ribombee is a full support mon here, primarily using speed swap on snorlax or torkoal to outspeed, and possibly using it again to slow something else down. Pollen Puff and Helping hand enable longer and stronger sweeps. protect is protect, we all know why it's valuable. Bee is specially invested, as it is sashed and not very bulky even invested, which allows pollen puff to have more use offensively. sweet veil has use in preventing sleep moves that would normally cripple a mon.

Cofagrigus @ Mental Herb
Ability: Mummy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Def / 8 Spe
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Body Press
- Will-O-Wisp
- Trick Room
- Haze​

Cofagrigus forms the second half of our speed control core. Rather than speed, this set utilizes trick room, which Cof is fairly well known for. Bee can outdo a lot of options, but generally loses out to notable mons like dragapult, hawlucha, and weavile and various forms of boosting like tailwind, max airstream, weather boosters, and scarf. Cof is one of the best setters in the metagame. It has a natural immunity to fake out and when equipped with a mental herb it cannot be taunted either, leaving its only vulnerabiltes to imprison or being knocked out. Haze and will-o-wisp are here to counter set-up and cipple physical attackers respectively. The EV spread serves a few purposes. Firstly, most threats in the game are physical, so this gives cof a good chance to survive to set trick room and it powers body press. We are also running 8 speed IVs since i don't want to breed out 2 IVs, which allows cof to haze before snorlax belly drums, or after it attacks in trick room. Hatterene is another similar mon that could be considered here.

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant"
-Louis Brandeis
​

I begin to differentiate from my cousin here, with the sun core. I believe he's looking towards a rain core with jellicent. If i can get him to do a write up on his three, I'll append it later. These last three are the most subject to changing. In that event, I will likely still choose to keep a weather core.
I chose a sun core for the lack of residual damage to my main core, the ability to set with snorlax if needed, another threat to fall back on in place of lax with the speed core in torkoal.

Leafeon @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Chlorophyll
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Quick Attack
- Solar Blade
- Double-Edge
- Swords Dance
​

Leafeon forms the abuser portion of of the sun core. Leafeon has the best base stats among the chlorophyll users, but unfortunately lack coverage option Leafeon has a weakness policy and SD to give the opprotunity to boost. Double edge and solar blade are both extremely hard hitting attacks and quick atack means we still have a bit of relevance if it comes in with trick room still active.

Torkoal @ Charcoal
Ability: Drought
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Heat Wave
- Eruption
- Earth Power
- Solarbeam
​

Torkoal is the setter for the sun core. It's a good stat set for slotting into Snorlax's position combining natural bulk with low speed. It's mediocre Special attack is augmented by drought and the massive base power of eruption, allowing it to come toe to toe with most other pokemon. Heat wave allows it to still have a STAB after eruption loses power to having low health. Earth power and solar beam are both strong coverage moves. I may swap either out for sludge bomb for access to max ooze or shell smash to boost Torkoal's special attack. most people are running specs, but charcoal is nice since it allows me to switch moves and catch potential checks unaware.

If there was a trick, there must be a trickster.
-Dorothy Richardson

Whimsicott @ Eject Button
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 164 SpA / 92 Spe
Modest Nature
- Switcheroo
- U-turn
- Moonblast
- Trick Room
​

Whimsicott was the final addition to the team and adds some utility. switcheroo can case general chaos, but more improtantly can switch an eject button onto a dynamax to force them out. 92 speed IVs means it's always going to move before leafeon, allowing for eject button to be procced immediately. U-turn
can bring momentum, as well as proccing leafeon's weakness policy. Moonblast isfor general offensive presence. Trick room gives us a second possible setter if needed, as well as countering opposing trick room teams with slower threats.

paste

Snorlax-Gmax @ Figy Berry
Ability: Gluttony
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 188 Atk / 68 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Belly Drum
- Double-Edge
- Heat Crash
- Darkest Lariat

Ribombee @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sweet Veil
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Pollen Puff
- Speed Swap
- Helping Hand
- Protect

Cofagrigus @ Mental Herb
Ability: Mummy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Def / 8 Spe
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Body Press
- Will-O-Wisp
- Trick Room
- Haze

Leafeon @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Chlorophyll
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Quick Attack
- Solar Blade
- Double-Edge
- Swords Dance

Torkoal @ Charcoal
Ability: Drought
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Heat Wave
- Eruption
- Earth Power
- Solar Beam

Whimsicott @ Eject Button
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 164 SpA / 92 Spe
Modest Nature
- Switcheroo
- U-turn
- Moonblast
- Trick Room