Resource Scarlet & Violet BSS Discussion

Is minimize Drifblim worth countering? I'm having a hard time trying to find something that hits that boosted, plus beats yawn/sing Skeledirge. 196 Spe Dragalge works, except then it's frail. Some flash fire sub Mon might work, but then I give up on drif completely(all I can do is trick it, and that has to hit.)
 
Is minimize Drifblim worth countering? I'm having a hard time trying to find something that hits that boosted, plus beats yawn/sing Skeledirge. 196 Spe Dragalge works, except then it's frail. Some flash fire sub Mon might work, but then I give up on drif completely(all I can do is trick it, and that has to hit.)
Funny, I had hardly seen any of these and then encountered two yesterday. One used batton pass too.
Didn't have too much trouble with the drifblims, but have been mucking around with Grafaiai as lead so can get taunt off pretty quick, and they don't seem to have much to offer if double team doesn't work
 
Is minimize Drifblim worth countering? I'm having a hard time trying to find something that hits that boosted, plus beats yawn/sing Skeledirge. 196 Spe Dragalge works, except then it's frail. Some flash fire sub Mon might work, but then I give up on drif completely(all I can do is trick it, and that has to hit.)
Kowtow Kingambit OHKO him.
 
good drifblim sets should be running tera fighting


edit:

here’s what i’ve been using

View attachment 486887
Well that's informative. I was trying to think of a better Tera type, and that makes sense. You resist rock and dark without shared weaknesses with base, water resists ice but stays weak to electric for instance. If dark doesn't work I'll definitely change.

Um, I'm using Clear Smog Drifblim for the mirror lol. It did work at any rate.
 
How is preparation for Paradox in BSS going? Im curious to see how many paradox pokemon will be getting used and whether it will be viable to win without any.

Im considering making a team that is largely geared towards countering paradox (and some of the most common non-paradox threats) as I'm assuming there will be a lot of them. So far it looks like Scizor and Sylveon will be able to counter multiple each.


* PS: Not sure if this a question or discussion prompting, but the question thread seems dead so here I am.
 
How is preparation for Paradox in BSS going? Im curious to see how many paradox pokemon will be getting used and whether it will be viable to win without any.

Im considering making a team that is largely geared towards countering paradox (and some of the most common non-paradox threats) as I'm assuming there will be a lot of them. So far it looks like Scizor and Sylveon will be able to counter multiple each.


* PS: Not sure if this a question or discussion prompting, but the question thread seems dead so here I am.
I think paradox pokemon are very good. Roaring Moon, Iron bundle, Flutter mane, and Iron hands are tier S for me. Iron Valiant has interesting things. and Great Tusk I see it very resistant with Bulk Up.

Looking at the stats, they have many weaknesses in terms of type and defenses. I think that if they are counterable with defensive pokemon like Dondozo, Chansey, Hippowdown, etc.

Also offensive pokemon that have access to raise their offensive stats like Dragonite, Volcarona, etc.

scizor and sylveon have good type compatibility, which helps a lot when playing switch, they work very well.

Regards!.
 

Pearl

Romance は風のまま
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis the 7th Grand Slam Winneris a Past SPL Champion
I promised a RMT if I managed to accomplish my goal for the end of Season 2. Unfortunately, that did not happen, so a single post will suffice once again (maybe I should start a blog for this type of stuff, as that seems to be a common trend among BSS players in general. I'll think about it)

First things first, here is the main team I built this time around:


(note: Taunt on Hydreigon was changed in favor of Focus Blast towards the end of this team's lifespan, but I never made an updated Rental Code with this change)

Build was originally inspired by a Dudunsparce team that accomplished a very respectable result at the end of Season 1 and that I used in Season 2 to reach a single digit peak earlier in the season. My own team peaked somewhere around rank 56 on cartridge and also broke past the 1800 plateau on Showdown (and since the Series 1 ladder was taken down, that means I finished as the rank 1 player there, although that's honestly only worth so much). During this time, Pawmot and Dragonite's sets were changed to include Ice-type moves, while Dudunsparce was given Glare in order for it to have a safer move to click against Tera Garchomp (and also Hydreigon, as well as other Pokemon that have to be respectful of coverage options or run Tera Types that can abuse Normal-type moves).

The premise behind my own team was to use the lead Pokemon (which would usually be either Pawmot or Dudunsparce) to do one of the following two things (or sometimes even both):
1. Force a trade against the enemy lead Pokemon
2. Chain paralysis in order for the 2nd Pokemon (Hydreigon or Gholdengo usually, sometimes also Dragonite) to set itself up into a favorable position against the rest of the opposing team

This worked out very nicely at the beginning of the team's lifespan, and while Dragon Dance Dragonite seems like an intuitive fit on a concept like this, I was honestly tired of losing to Air Balloon Gholdengo on the spot, as well as offensive Garchomp (since the team is extremely slow in general) and opposing Dragonite that either don't Tera or Tera into the Flying-type, so a 4 attack set was employed. It was also used as a lead often after this change, and the team's strategy instead became to use the 2nd Pokemon (Pawmot or Gholdengo) to trade and/or paralyse, while Dudunsparce took a more discrete role against specific match ups. Dondozo seems a bit out of place within this whole concept, especially because even with paralysis it's still slower than most Pokemon. However, it was a very solid glue Pokemon (especially since Assault Vest allows it to bait and duel many scary Pokemon, such as Special Dragapult, Volcarona and Gholdengo) and as much as it might disgust some people, Fissure came in very handy a lot of times during the season. Similarly to offensive Dragonite, it ended up being used as a lead a decent amount of times.

Not to toot my horn too much, but I did manage to keep a decent placement on the cartridge ladder throughout most of the season (hovered around 100-300 for the most part with some top 100 appearences along the way). However, at the end of the season I wanted a top 100 finish, which caused me to play more and drop down a lot on the last day. Ultimately it's not something I regret because it allowed me to learn a lot about the Series 1 metagame and also about how people go about tackling the volatile period that is the end of the season and also teambuilding in BSS as a whole (I'll try to develop my thoughts on this later on in the post).

Unfortuntely, by that time I had pretty much entirely lost confidence in my own team (mostly due to the fact that Offensive Gholdengo became a Defensive Gholdengo switch in and games with a team based around Defensive Gholdengo felt miserable to play) and decided to try other things as an attempt to stumble upon a good metagame call, which technically worked for a short period of time. At first, I went back to the other Dudunsparce team that had served me well previously. However, I felt myself piloting it way differently than I did during my original run with it, with Dragonite coming out way less and Breloom coming out to battles way more (on that note, this Pokemon's bulky set was incredible and I'm very sad it took me so long to realize it, although if I were to build with it myself I would probably run a Tera Fairy set paired with a good Gholdengo switch in).

After that, I delved into forbidden technology and grabbed myself a team with a Pokemon that I'm pretty sure my main teams were winless against: Glalie. Despite the team I grabbed being outdated, it also served me very well considering how little experience I had with it. Even though I probably won't make many friends by banking on Moody to win games, this period allowed me to discover some stuff about Series 1 that I probably would not have gotten to experience first hand otherwise.

With that said, here are my primary realizations:

1. Toxic Spikes were INCREDIBLE in Series 1 and I wish I realized that earlier

This might sound like an elaborate troll when considering that the metagame was filled with Pokemon that didn't care for these being down, namely Dragonite and Gholdengo. However, this move single handily forced a lot of cheesy set ups to be a lot more humble in their Pokemon selections and overall gameplan, more specifically dedicated Dual Screens set ups (usually with Espathra) and teams like the Moody set up I was using. Having an answer to most cheesy teams that only requires a spare moveslot on Meowscarada is honestly crazy, and looking into that might've secured me a better placement at the end of the season.

I don't know if this will apply to Series 2 due to the fact that Iron Moth is looking like a very strong and splashable Pokemon, and its ability to absorb Toxic Spikes might make them less valuable as a whole.

2. Dragapult was the best Pokemon in the whole format by a wide margin (in Team Preview, mostly)

This is something I knew subconsiously due to my team choices throughout the whole season. However, having a Dragapult on my own team really helped driving the point across: what I'm trying to say is that seeing teams without Dragapult was basically a free pass to get away with crimes in my Pokemon selection, more concretely when it came to checking Focus Sash users and faster, frailer Pokemon. There is also the set diversity this Pokemon has and how accounting for everything it can do, both as a lead and as a back Pokemon is basically impossible (even Choice Scarf Dragapult, which was employed by some of the top rated teams has to respect Sucker Punch). Shoutouts to that one guy I faced at the very end of the last day that was using a Dragapult with both Substitute and U-turn.

The main lesson here for me here is that most BSS builds get more value out of having a concrete, somewhat linear gameplan involving 3-5 Pokemon with a Dragapult in the back to keep the opponent humble than they do out of having 6 Pokemon that come into play every now and then. This might be a really obvious thing to read for more seasoned players of formats like this, and honestly I feel a little stupid for realizing something like that so late, but it's a genuine realization of mine and it would be dishonest of me not to bring it up.

3. Offensive Tera Fairy Garchomp was obscenely good, and I also feel like an idiot for sleeping on it for so long

But I don't really feel the need to elaborate upon this since it's relatively self explanatory.

Despite the less than ideal end to my Season 2 (tanked my ranking down to around 5k in the last couple hours between some flip flopping with teams and autopiloting some games that were honestly winnable if I was in a better mindset after realizing a 2 digit finish was no longer attainable), Series 1 was still the most fun I've had with Pokemon in an extremely long time and I'm very much looking forward to what the future of Scarlet and Violet has in hand for us. I also hope that I can use this experience to better myself as a player. Post got a little longer than I was expecting, so I'd also like to thank everyone who's had the attention span to sit through it.
 
I promised a RMT if I managed to accomplish my goal for the end of Season 2. Unfortunately, that did not happen, so a single post will suffice once again (maybe I should start a blog for this type of stuff, as that seems to be a common trend among BSS players in general. I'll think about it)

First things first, here is the main team I built this time around:


(note: Taunt on Hydreigon was changed in favor of Focus Blast towards the end of this team's lifespan, but I never made an updated Rental Code with this change)

Build was originally inspired by a Dudunsparce team that accomplished a very respectable result at the end of Season 1 and that I used in Season 2 to reach a single digit peak earlier in the season. My own team peaked somewhere around rank 56 on cartridge and also broke past the 1800 plateau on Showdown (and since the Series 1 ladder was taken down, that means I finished as the rank 1 player there, although that's honestly only worth so much). During this time, Pawmot and Dragonite's sets were changed to include Ice-type moves, while Dudunsparce was given Glare in order for it to have a safer move to click against Tera Garchomp (and also Hydreigon, as well as other Pokemon that have to be respectful of coverage options or run Tera Types that can abuse Normal-type moves).

The premise behind my own team was to use the lead Pokemon (which would usually be either Pawmot or Dudunsparce) to do one of the following two things (or sometimes even both):
1. Force a trade against the enemy lead Pokemon
2. Chain paralysis in order for the 2nd Pokemon (Hydreigon or Gholdengo usually, sometimes also Dragonite) to set itself up into a favorable position against the rest of the opposing team

This worked out very nicely at the beginning of the team's lifespan, and while Dragon Dance Dragonite seems like an intuitive fit on a concept like this, I was honestly tired of losing to Air Balloon Gholdengo on the spot, as well as offensive Garchomp (since the team is extremely slow in general) and opposing Dragonite that either don't Tera or Tera into the Flying-type, so a 4 attack set was employed. It was also used as a lead often after this change, and the team's strategy instead became to use the 2nd Pokemon (Pawmot or Gholdengo) to trade and/or paralyse, while Dudunsparce took a more discrete role against specific match ups. Dondozo seems a bit out of place within this whole concept, especially because even with paralysis it's still slower than most Pokemon. However, it was a very solid glue Pokemon (especially since Assault Vest allows it to bait and duel many scary Pokemon, such as Special Dragapult, Volcarona and Gholdengo) and as much as it might disgust some people, Fissure came in very handy a lot of times during the season. Similarly to offensive Dragonite, it ended up being used as a lead a decent amount of times.

Not to toot my horn too much, but I did manage to keep a decent placement on the cartridge ladder throughout most of the season (hovered around 100-300 for the most part with some top 100 appearences along the way). However, at the end of the season I wanted a top 100 finish, which caused me to play more and drop down a lot on the last day. Ultimately it's not something I regret because it allowed me to learn a lot about the Series 1 metagame and also about how people go about tackling the volatile period that is the end of the season and also teambuilding in BSS as a whole (I'll try to develop my thoughts on this later on in the post).

Unfortuntely, by that time I had pretty much entirely lost confidence in my own team (mostly due to the fact that Offensive Gholdengo became a Defensive Gholdengo switch in and games with a team based around Defensive Gholdengo felt miserable to play) and decided to try other things as an attempt to stumble upon a good metagame call, which technically worked for a short period of time. At first, I went back to the other Dudunsparce team that had served me well previously. However, I felt myself piloting it way differently than I did during my original run with it, with Dragonite coming out way less and Breloom coming out to battles way more (on that note, this Pokemon's bulky set was incredible and I'm very sad it took me so long to realize it, although if I were to build with it myself I would probably run a Tera Fairy set paired with a good Gholdengo switch in).

After that, I delved into forbidden technology and grabbed myself a team with a Pokemon that I'm pretty sure my main teams were winless against: Glalie. Despite the team I grabbed being outdated, it also served me very well considering how little experience I had with it. Even though I probably won't make many friends by banking on Moody to win games, this period allowed me to discover some stuff about Series 1 that I probably would not have gotten to experience first hand otherwise.

With that said, here are my primary realizations:

1. Toxic Spikes were INCREDIBLE in Series 1 and I wish I realized that earlier

This might sound like an elaborate troll when considering that the metagame was filled with Pokemon that didn't care for these being down, namely Dragonite and Gholdengo. However, this move single handily forced a lot of cheesy set ups to be a lot more humble in their Pokemon selections and overall gameplan, more specifically dedicated Dual Screens set ups (usually with Espathra) and teams like the Moody set up I was using. Having an answer to most cheesy teams that only requires a spare moveslot on Meowscarada is honestly crazy, and looking into that might've secured me a better placement at the end of the season.

I don't know if this will apply to Series 2 due to the fact that Iron Moth is looking like a very strong and splashable Pokemon, and its ability to absorb Toxic Spikes might make them less valuable as a whole.

2. Dragapult was the best Pokemon in the whole format by a wide margin (in Team Preview, mostly)

This is something I knew subconsiously due to my team choices throughout the whole season. However, having a Dragapult on my own team really helped driving the point across: what I'm trying to say is that seeing teams without Dragapult was basically a free pass to get away with crimes in my Pokemon selection, more concretely when it came to checking Focus Sash users and faster, frailer Pokemon. There is also the set diversity this Pokemon has and how accounting for everything it can do, both as a lead and as a back Pokemon is basically impossible (even Choice Scarf Dragapult, which was employed by some of the top rated teams has to respect Sucker Punch). Shoutouts to that one guy I faced at the very end of the last day that was using a Dragapult with both Substitute and U-turn.

The main lesson here for me here is that most BSS builds get more value out of having a concrete, somewhat linear gameplan involving 3-5 Pokemon with a Dragapult in the back to keep the opponent humble than they do out of having 6 Pokemon that come into play every now and then. This might be a really obvious thing to read for more seasoned players of formats like this, and honestly I feel a little stupid for realizing something like that so late, but it's a genuine realization of mine and it would be dishonest of me not to bring it up.

3. Offensive Tera Fairy Garchomp was obscenely good, and I also feel like an idiot for sleeping on it for so long

But I don't really feel the need to elaborate upon this since it's relatively self explanatory.

Despite the less than ideal end to my Season 2 (tanked my ranking down to around 5k in the last couple hours between some flip flopping with teams and autopiloting some games that were honestly winnable if I was in a better mindset after realizing a 2 digit finish was no longer attainable), Series 1 was still the most fun I've had with Pokemon in an extremely long time and I'm very much looking forward to what the future of Scarlet and Violet has in hand for us. I also hope that I can use this experience to better myself as a player. Post got a little longer than I was expecting, so I'd also like to thank everyone who's had the attention span to sit through it.
Hi Pearl,

I'm new to BSS and was wondering what common movesets & items offensive tera-fairy Garchomp would run?

I really enjoyed this write-up!
 

Pearl

Romance は風のまま
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis the 7th Grand Slam Winneris a Past SPL Champion
Hi Pearl,

I'm new to BSS and was wondering what common movesets & items offensive tera-fairy Garchomp would run?

I really enjoyed this write-up!
Hello! Thanks a lot for the positive feedback :)

Garchomp in general is a very flexible Pokemon when it comes to items and EVs. Items such as Choice Band, Life Orb and Sitrus Berry (even on more offensive sets) were all somewhat prevalent among top players/teams from what I've seen from my games, as well as on Twitter and hatenablog posts. As for moves, a simple Earthquake / Outrage / Tera Blast / filler set up should do the trick. The rental team I used had a CB set with Rock Tomb as the last move, but non choiced sets can run Stealth Rock, and all variants can run moves like Iron Head, Dragon Claw, Bulldoze and so on depending on what you're looking to cover with it. I'd also argue Tera Blast isn't necessarily mandatory, but Fairy-type is so reliable as a whole that it's a good option to have even if you don't end up Tera-ing Chomp every game.
 
I promised a RMT if I managed to accomplish my goal for the end of Season 2. Unfortunately, that did not happen, so a single post will suffice once again (maybe I should start a blog for this type of stuff, as that seems to be a common trend among BSS players in general. I'll think about it)

First things first, here is the main team I built this time around:


(note: Taunt on Hydreigon was changed in favor of Focus Blast towards the end of this team's lifespan, but I never made an updated Rental Code with this change)

Build was originally inspired by a Dudunsparce team that accomplished a very respectable result at the end of Season 1 and that I used in Season 2 to reach a single digit peak earlier in the season. My own team peaked somewhere around rank 56 on cartridge and also broke past the 1800 plateau on Showdown (and since the Series 1 ladder was taken down, that means I finished as the rank 1 player there, although that's honestly only worth so much). During this time, Pawmot and Dragonite's sets were changed to include Ice-type moves, while Dudunsparce was given Glare in order for it to have a safer move to click against Tera Garchomp (and also Hydreigon, as well as other Pokemon that have to be respectful of coverage options or run Tera Types that can abuse Normal-type moves).

The premise behind my own team was to use the lead Pokemon (which would usually be either Pawmot or Dudunsparce) to do one of the following two things (or sometimes even both):
1. Force a trade against the enemy lead Pokemon
2. Chain paralysis in order for the 2nd Pokemon (Hydreigon or Gholdengo usually, sometimes also Dragonite) to set itself up into a favorable position against the rest of the opposing team

This worked out very nicely at the beginning of the team's lifespan, and while Dragon Dance Dragonite seems like an intuitive fit on a concept like this, I was honestly tired of losing to Air Balloon Gholdengo on the spot, as well as offensive Garchomp (since the team is extremely slow in general) and opposing Dragonite that either don't Tera or Tera into the Flying-type, so a 4 attack set was employed. It was also used as a lead often after this change, and the team's strategy instead became to use the 2nd Pokemon (Pawmot or Gholdengo) to trade and/or paralyse, while Dudunsparce took a more discrete role against specific match ups. Dondozo seems a bit out of place within this whole concept, especially because even with paralysis it's still slower than most Pokemon. However, it was a very solid glue Pokemon (especially since Assault Vest allows it to bait and duel many scary Pokemon, such as Special Dragapult, Volcarona and Gholdengo) and as much as it might disgust some people, Fissure came in very handy a lot of times during the season. Similarly to offensive Dragonite, it ended up being used as a lead a decent amount of times.

Not to toot my horn too much, but I did manage to keep a decent placement on the cartridge ladder throughout most of the season (hovered around 100-300 for the most part with some top 100 appearences along the way). However, at the end of the season I wanted a top 100 finish, which caused me to play more and drop down a lot on the last day. Ultimately it's not something I regret because it allowed me to learn a lot about the Series 1 metagame and also about how people go about tackling the volatile period that is the end of the season and also teambuilding in BSS as a whole (I'll try to develop my thoughts on this later on in the post).

Unfortuntely, by that time I had pretty much entirely lost confidence in my own team (mostly due to the fact that Offensive Gholdengo became a Defensive Gholdengo switch in and games with a team based around Defensive Gholdengo felt miserable to play) and decided to try other things as an attempt to stumble upon a good metagame call, which technically worked for a short period of time. At first, I went back to the other Dudunsparce team that had served me well previously. However, I felt myself piloting it way differently than I did during my original run with it, with Dragonite coming out way less and Breloom coming out to battles way more (on that note, this Pokemon's bulky set was incredible and I'm very sad it took me so long to realize it, although if I were to build with it myself I would probably run a Tera Fairy set paired with a good Gholdengo switch in).

After that, I delved into forbidden technology and grabbed myself a team with a Pokemon that I'm pretty sure my main teams were winless against: Glalie. Despite the team I grabbed being outdated, it also served me very well considering how little experience I had with it. Even though I probably won't make many friends by banking on Moody to win games, this period allowed me to discover some stuff about Series 1 that I probably would not have gotten to experience first hand otherwise.

With that said, here are my primary realizations:

1. Toxic Spikes were INCREDIBLE in Series 1 and I wish I realized that earlier

This might sound like an elaborate troll when considering that the metagame was filled with Pokemon that didn't care for these being down, namely Dragonite and Gholdengo. However, this move single handily forced a lot of cheesy set ups to be a lot more humble in their Pokemon selections and overall gameplan, more specifically dedicated Dual Screens set ups (usually with Espathra) and teams like the Moody set up I was using. Having an answer to most cheesy teams that only requires a spare moveslot on Meowscarada is honestly crazy, and looking into that might've secured me a better placement at the end of the season.

I don't know if this will apply to Series 2 due to the fact that Iron Moth is looking like a very strong and splashable Pokemon, and its ability to absorb Toxic Spikes might make them less valuable as a whole.

2. Dragapult was the best Pokemon in the whole format by a wide margin (in Team Preview, mostly)

This is something I knew subconsiously due to my team choices throughout the whole season. However, having a Dragapult on my own team really helped driving the point across: what I'm trying to say is that seeing teams without Dragapult was basically a free pass to get away with crimes in my Pokemon selection, more concretely when it came to checking Focus Sash users and faster, frailer Pokemon. There is also the set diversity this Pokemon has and how accounting for everything it can do, both as a lead and as a back Pokemon is basically impossible (even Choice Scarf Dragapult, which was employed by some of the top rated teams has to respect Sucker Punch). Shoutouts to that one guy I faced at the very end of the last day that was using a Dragapult with both Substitute and U-turn.

The main lesson here for me here is that most BSS builds get more value out of having a concrete, somewhat linear gameplan involving 3-5 Pokemon with a Dragapult in the back to keep the opponent humble than they do out of having 6 Pokemon that come into play every now and then. This might be a really obvious thing to read for more seasoned players of formats like this, and honestly I feel a little stupid for realizing something like that so late, but it's a genuine realization of mine and it would be dishonest of me not to bring it up.

3. Offensive Tera Fairy Garchomp was obscenely good, and I also feel like an idiot for sleeping on it for so long

But I don't really feel the need to elaborate upon this since it's relatively self explanatory.

Despite the less than ideal end to my Season 2 (tanked my ranking down to around 5k in the last couple hours between some flip flopping with teams and autopiloting some games that were honestly winnable if I was in a better mindset after realizing a 2 digit finish was no longer attainable), Series 1 was still the most fun I've had with Pokemon in an extremely long time and I'm very much looking forward to what the future of Scarlet and Violet has in hand for us. I also hope that I can use this experience to better myself as a player. Post got a little longer than I was expecting, so I'd also like to thank everyone who's had the attention span to sit through it.
I definitely battled you a few times on the last day and I really liked your Dudunsparce! Dealing with paralysis was truly a nightmare and it felt like I was going up against paralysis or toxic spikes Meowscarada every other match. The huge increase of glalie/scovillain made the final day insane, but I don't think those teams will be as bad anymore due to the massive speed creep with paradoxes. I hope to see more of your creativity and strength in season 3!
 
I've theory crafted this set for awhile now but since BSS2 is finally out I can confidently say that I have a very promising anti-paradox pokemon.

Baxcalibur @ Loaded Dice/Assault Vest
Ability: Thermal Exchange
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Tera Type: Poison
Jolly Nature
- Glaive Rush
- Icicle Spear/Icicle Crash
- Earthquake
-Ice Shard/Tera Blast/Dragon Dance

So what's so special about this set in particular? looks pretty average in all honesty, and it is to be honest. However, Baxcalibur in it's current ability has a very unique placement amongst tera users imo as its base form +tera Poison resists 90% of all Paradox pokemon when you factor in Tera Poison. Base form hard walls non weird tera blast Iron Bundle sets and has fun interactions with Iron moth that tries to fiery dance on it. With Tera Poison, it hard walls Iron Vaillant and can easily KO Flutter Mane, as well as "typically" counter Great Tusk and Iron Treads match ups (more on that later) and can often trade with Swords dance Iron Hands depending on turn order.

I want too be clear that this is a purely defensive tera type, which while isnt ideal, has a place in many team building sets. Essentially, the Poison tera type covers for both of Baxcaliburs major fighting and fairy weaknesses. Whats unique about this set is that it CAN have two immunities too status, while bluffing a third and checking a 4th. Thermal exchange gives an immunity too burn while the poison type gives an immunity too poison from mons like toxapex and clodsire (assuming t-spikes arent up). Additionally, Tera Ground Bax is very common as of last series, so it is not often that players would opt too Nuzzle or use T-wave into Bax in fear of a ground tera. And currently, outside of random Hypnosis users running around, there is not a single Spore user that appreciates a Loaded Dice STAB icicle spear from Baxcalibur due to him outspeeding all of them.

My preferred set is the first set of options on my list for moves, because I believe Loaded dice is such a powerful item on Bax and the set also appreciates the priority ice shard gives. While this set typically doesn't run Tera Blast, it can, however I feel EQ is far better for hitting targets for neutral, as well as Steel types, which would otherwise wall this set.

I've found this set is great as a lead as it typically dissuades lead Garchomp and encourages lead Great Tusk, which this set has a solid match against. In my experience, a lead Great Tusk never goes for EQ due too the fact that no person would Tera Fire/Steel Against it, so they often go for CC or Stealth rocks predicting either a switch or a DD set up. With this, you can net a comfortable KO with Icicle Spear or if that isnt enough, clean up with ice shard.

I have found that typically the only mon I have found consistent problems fighting is Hydregion. The big reason is simple, that the most common tera types for him are Steel and Fire. Due to levitate, EQ can't hit Steel vairent and Fire walls all but Glaive Rush, which immdidetly revenge kills Bax next turn.

Bottom Line, the comindation of STAB Ice and Dragon hits the meta game for solid damage, while the defensive properties of the Poison type negate Bax's 2 major type weaknesses while also giving it a solid secondary status immunity. While it is a shame that it cannot (imo) capitalize on tera blast as well for this type, its Ice/Dragon stab can typically punish anything not named Tinkaton comfortably. I believe this variation of Baxcalibur in this current format is the best defensive variant of the set, allowing for the walling of common Paradox pokemon and allowing for suprise KO's due too it's Tera Type. I cannot attest as of yet too the best partners for this variant, however I have had success with Clodsire for defensse as well as Iron Valiant for offense.
 
I'm thinking special boomburst Dudunsparce, without a flinching move do I still go Serene Grace? Seems like rattled is the way.
 
Is Air Balloon worth considering on Iron Moth? It makes Iron Moth a solid check to Great Tusk and may allow it to start boosting, depending on the set. Iron Moth's typing also kind of begs for an Air Balloon (or Tera Flying, I suppose).
Maybe heavy duty boots could be solid for hazards as well.
 
Simple questions is even more dead, so I have to ask her. Is lock on at all viable? More to the point...

"Lock-On will fail is the target is behind a Substitute."

From Bulbapedia, will it still fail on sub if you have infiltrator? Was looking at dragapult for this niche use, of locking on to minimize Drifblim behind a sub. Fighting Tera was brought to my attention earlier for drif, that may well be that so I can't necessarily rely on kingambit. Maybe with my own Tera...but no cause they still resist Kowtow as a fighting. Curse is the alternative, maybe the only one. I'll use that If the answer is still no
 
Minimize Drifblim
Lock-on is a meme move 9/10 times. Of all the mons in Scarlet and Violet, only 1 mon would even think too run it and that would be Magnezone just to mess with evasion boosting mons. But overall, it provides little utility as its too gimmicky.

Speaking of Magnezone, let me mention its paradox brother Sandy Shocks. The annoying air balloon is a menace at setting up evasions, however rather than worry about a gimmick like Lock on where it Only applies for 1 turn, why not use Gravity Instead? It is a field effect so you don't need too worry about substitute, it lasts for 5 turns (essentially 4 in singles), and the prime user of the move, Sandy Shocks, usually opts for a support move as it's forth move if it isn't running a tera blast set.

While it's a niche, it is far more reliable than Lock on and has a multitude of secondary effects. It's not something I would use regularly, but it does provide an out too evasion, surprise Flying Tera's if your trying too use a ground move, and will impact Cinderace's ability (when it is legal) too use Hi Jump Kick as the move fails under the effect of Gravity.
 
Gravity doesn't sound awful, but it takes a turn to switch in the setter if it isn't there already, and a turn to set. So Drifblim could already be +4 evasion, not that easy to hit even in gravity. Less so when the point of gravity is to use low acc moves. Someone else suggested phasing, I plan to use that on a mon I've used before, Bombirdier. Rocky Payload is a good ability, but for my purposes Keen eye makes more sense(I can phase regardless of their evasion if they have a teammate, otherwise I need Keen Eye to go offensive.) I guess I'd still like to know about Lock On in case this doesn't work, certainly Pult is much ore established in this or any meta it's allowed in. But I'll probably actually use Haze Vaporeon if it doesn't work, for the rain match-up.
 

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