Hi, I'm Aapo, also known as AaPokemon793 on Pokemon Showdown. About a month ago, I got top 8 in the Rose Tower Clash 1 which was my first top cut in a major event. Doing this report now because the last few weeks I've been busy with school so I didn't have time to write this. I've played different competitive formats for about 5 years now, but I got into VGC like 1 1/2 years ago. I played VGC casually in 2017, but I used the same team for the entire season and didn't really try to get high ranks or participate in tournaments. I was more of a Battle Spot Singles player at the time. I didn't play much at all in 18 and 19. I started playing VGC again when SWSH came out and grinded the ladder until in Series 7 I started playing in tournaments.
Team concept
So basically I decided to build around the Terrakion Dragapult core. The idea behind that is well-known and simple: Dragapult activates Terrakion's ability "Justified" with Beat Up giving it +4 attack in 1 turn. Alternatively, Dragapult can Dynamax and drop opponent's defense with Max Phantasm, allowing Terrakion to finish off weakened targets. I liked this core because it beat many of the Glastrier Porygon2 cores that had been dominating late Series 7 and early S9 and was also good against Galarian Moltres and some other meta cores. Most people using this core were using it with a sun mode that had VenuKoal. These teams are very hyper offensive with their defensive options being Porygon2 for the most part. So the idea behind my team is to build a TerraPult team that has these defensive options to give the team more balance. Bulky offense is probably my favourite playstyle and I think I was able to achieve that here.
The team:
Beat Up gaming V2 - Top 8 Rose Tower Clash 1 (pokepast.es)
Dragapult @ Life Orb
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Darts
- Phantom Force
- Fly
- Beat Up
Dragapult is the main Dynamax option of the team. It has a very good base speed stat of 142, allowing it to outspeed most other fast offensive Pokemon aside from Regieleki. Notable things it outspeeds include Spectrier, Thundurus, Kartana and sun boosted Venusaur after an Airstream for example. Max Phantasm lowers opponents defense stat allowing for combos with Terrakion, Kartana and Incineroar. Airstream is great for speed control as well as the sun matchup where Dragapult can Airstream Venusaur and outspeed it in sun after that. With Max Wyrmwind you can lower opponent's attack, making things like Landorus way less threatening. If you switch in Incineroar and go for Max Wyrmwind, you can get physical attackers to -2, neutralizing the threat entirely aside from the chance to get crit. I didn't have room for Protect because all of Dragapult's attacking moves were important. I needed Beat Up as the last move to activate Terrakion's Justified. I chose Life Orb as the item because it makes a big difference in terms of how much damage Dragapult does. Life Orb allows Dragapult to get the most out of it's Dynamax turns by creating holes in the opponents defenses allowing Pokemon like Kartana and Terrakion to finish the weakened team off.
Terrakion @ White Herb
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat
- Helping Hand
- Protect
Terrakion is Dragapult's partner in crime. With Dragapult's Beat Up, Terrakion gets to +4 attack and can ko almost any Pokemon with those boosts. Terrakion completely destroys a lot of the most common defensive Pokemon in the game like Incineroar and Porygon2. However, your gonna be dynamaxing Dragapult more often, and Terrakion works well with that too. With it's powerful Close Combat and Rock Slide, it can abuse defense drops from Dragapult's Max Phantasm to finish off weakened targets. It can also go for Helping Hand to let Dragapult get kos it otherwise wouldn't get, like against Dynamax Garchomp for example. I chose Helping Hand for the 3rd move because it allows you to avoid Fake Out without being forced to Dynamax and can help Dragapult a lot. I also wasn't really needing a 3rd attacking move anyway, so I wanted a support move.
252 Atk Life Orb Dragapult Helping Hand Max Wyrmwind vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Dynamax Garchomp: 424-502 (115.8 - 137.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Another good option is Taunt, but I wanted Helping Hand to get more options on lead. With this, TerraPult on lead has 3 different options on lead that are very hard to cover for the opponent. Predicting the turn 1 incorrectly can put the opponents team in a bad position if they guess the Dynamax incorrectly. I chose White Herb as the item because when I was laddering with this team, many people tried to lower Terrakion's stats, whether it's with Intimidate or things like Regieleki Electroweb. Resetting your own Close Combat defense drops is also nice, as Terrakion is naturally bulky. In my Rose Tower run, Terrakion was able to survive hits like Rotom-Wash Hydro Pump and Landorus-Therian shared target Earthquake.
Special thanks to my friend ApronVGC for helping me with this Terrakion's moveset. When I first came up with these 6 Pokemon, I was running Choice Scarf Terrakion with Coaching. The idea behind this was that Terrakion could let Dragapult get attack boosts with Coaching when opponents would be expecting Dynamax Terrakion + Beat Up. However, this strategy is better done with Helping Hand as it doesn't lock Terrakion into a support move and avoids Fake Out. At this time I did not know that Terrakion gets Helping Hand so thanks to Apron for telling me this.
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
When I started building this team, I knew that I wanted Incineroar and Tapu Fini. They are a great defensive core and beat each others counters. With these 2 Pokemon, you can slow down the opponents offensive momentum with Intimidate cycling and Calm Mind boosts. Misty Terrain blocking status is very useful too. Preventing my physical attackers from getting burned can potentially be huge and the slower mode of the team really appreciates not being put to sleep by Amoonguss. The sun matchup becomes way easier as I don't have to worry about Dragapult or Incineroar being put to sleep meaning there are less mindgames. Forcing Sleep Powder mindgames is one of the biggest strengths of sun teams, so eliminating that is really nice.
I've seen people say that you don't wanna have Dragapult and Tapu Fini on the same team. In some ways I agree but on this team I could justify it because of the crucial role Fini has on this team. On one hand, Fini's Misty Terrain weakens Dragon Darts and Max Wyrmwind so there is that bit of anti-synergy. However, Fini is very good against a lot of Dragapult's worst enemies, like Urshifu-Single Strike and Galarian Moltres. The aforementioned status blocking is also something Dragapult really likes. I found that having both Pult and Fini on this team is fine as long as it's played well. And since Tapu Fini is on over 20% of teams, a lot of the times you will be playing in Misty Terrain set up by opponents Fini. When I practiced with this team, in late game situations you are often going for Phantom Force too for a strong single target attack, so Misty Terrain isn't hindering Pult too much considering what the benefits of having Fini on this team are.
With 68 speed evs, Fini outspeeds 252 speed Modest Celesteela, which is important, because it allows you to go for Calm Mind before Celesteela can attack. 116 Spa with Modest nature hits a softcap, and the HP is optimized for Leftovers recovery. I put the rest of the evs in defense as well as the 4 leftover evs in special defense to optimize this spread. Moveset is standard Calm Mind set, I think those moves are overall the best for Fini, as it allows Fini to be an endgame win condition especially with Intimidate support or defense boosts from Kartana's Max Steelspike.
Incineroar @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 68 Atk / 68 Def / 92 SpD / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Parting Shot
- Fake Out
- Flare Blitz
- Assurance
Incineroar is a great support Pokemon that can fit on almost any team. It's bulky, it has Fake Out and Intimidate and in this gen it even got Parting Shot to make it even better at support. Like I said before, it makes a great defensive core with Tapu Fini and has great synergy with it. For this Incin, I chose to run an offensive set because it lets it do good damage and finish off Pokemon weakened by Dragapult's Max Phantasm thanks to Assurance. Incineroar and Dragapult are already a great pair and with this set, Incin can make the most out of Assurance and the aforementioned defense drops on opponent. In terms of specific targets, this Incineroar set OHKO's no bulk GMax Venusaur in sun. Flare Blitz is also usually an OHKO on Rillaboom even if it's max HP. I wanted Incin to have a Dark attack to hit ghosts, specifically Spectrier. Being able to set up Trick Room and remove Spectrier quickly can often be important. Assurance fit that slot the best because it takes advantage of Dragapult's Max Phantasm and other moves that go before it to also be able to finish off weakened Pokemon with powerful attacks. This means that Incineroar can be a dark attacker on top of being a support Pokemon, something that my team wanted. I chose Shuca Berry as the item because taking ground attacks is something that comes into play pretty often with this Incin. For example, being able to take a Max Quake from Spectrier without investing too much in special defense. With Shuca Berry you can also switch Incin in on Glastrier and take way less damage from Max Quake as you otherwise would. In fact you do survive it even if The defense allows it to take a Metagross Max Rockfall not including sand chip as well as Life Orb Glastrier Max Knuckle. Rest of the evs are compromised between special defense and speed. I wanted to outspeed other Incins that don't have a 90+ speed stat and I think with 85 speed you outspeed most of them. I did not want go for a 90+ speed stat because I wanted Incin to still have some special defense investment.
68+ Atk Incineroar Flare Blitz vs. 4 HP / 4 Def Dynamax Venusaur in Sun: 312-368 (100 - 117.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
68+ Atk Incineroar Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Rillaboom: 194-230 (93.7 - 111.1%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Spectrier Helping Hand Max Quake vs. 244 HP / 92 SpD Shuca Berry Incineroar: 143-169 (71.1 - 84%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Metagross Max Rockfall vs. 244 HP / 68 Def Incineroar: 170-200 (84.5 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Glastrier Max Quake vs. 244 HP / 68 Def Shuca Berry Incineroar: 116-136 (57.7 - 67.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Glastrier Max Knuckle vs. 244 HP / 68 Def Incineroar: 169-200 (84 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Kartana @ Assault Vest
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 244 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Aerial Ace
I chose Kartana for this team because it's a good, bulky Steel type that is also a hard counter to opposing Tapu Fini. In late game situations, Tapu Fini could otherwise cause trouble with it's typing and bulk, being hard to remove. Without Kartana, a lot of matchups vs opposing Fini would come down to Calm Mind wars or I would have to target it immedeatly to prevent it from getting out of control. Assault Vest Kartana stonewalls every Tapu Fini barring it getting to like +3, and can 2hko every variant of it and even OHKO some. It's Steel typing and Ground neutrality also makes it good vs most Glastrier team comps. With Incin and Fini it creates a bulky Fire Water Grass core that can switch around and put the team in a good board position. Kartana is also a fast, strong Pokemon overall that makes it good for this team, while it's bulk allows it to be good in Trick Room against fast hyper offense teams. Since it already has a monsterous base attack stat of 181, it doesn't really need attack investment. Assault Vest and special defense investment makes up for it's normally lackluster special defense stat and makes it decently bulky on the special side. The set is standard Assault Vest Kartana set, but in terms of specific calcs it does survive 2 Magnet Thunderbolts from Timid Eleki, not that it's usually gonna come into play.
252 SpA Magnet Transistor Regieleki Thunderbolt vs. 4 HP / 244 SpD Assault Vest Kartana: 57-67 (42.2 - 49.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 132 Def / 44 SpA / 100 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Trick Room
- Eerie Impulse
Porygon2 was the last member of this team. With Incin and Fini, it makes a 3 Pokemon core that is hard to break through. Eerie Impulse allows it to shut down most special attackers in the game, like Tapu Fini, Galarian Moltres and perhaps most importantly, Spectrier. I chose Ice Beam as the attacking move because I wanted to be able to hit Landorus, Garchomp and ghosts. At the time, Garchomp was getting paired a lot with Tapu Fini meaning that Dragon moves from Dragapult weren't really doing much to it if it's in Misty Terrain so I wanted to hit Chomp super effectively to be able to remove it quickly so it doesn't get a Swords Dance up. Being able to hit Spectrier also means that against Life Orb Spectrier teams, you can potentially play towards an endgame where Porygon2 will beat Spectrier in a 1v1 if it's last move isn't Taunt. I don't remember what this spread does specifically, it's an old spread from S7 but the thought is that this spread makes P2 bulky while still allowing it to do good damage with Modest Ice Beams potentially boosted by Download. Porygon2 was the "glue" member that gave the team a lot of balance.
Gameplans vs common teams
Most Dusclops Glastrier teams can't stop TerraPult from getting either one of it's setups off. Optimal play against a Dusclops is Helping Hand Max Phantasm as it will OHKO Dusclops and Dragapult is a better max option than Terrakion in this matchup due to a possible Urshifu/Eleki in the back. However, your opponent will most likely lead Eleki Urshifu, in which case you can Max Airstream + CC Shifu. Even if it Protects it will go down next turn and Terrakion will pick up Eleki. Defense drops + Kartana will stop the Fini from countersweeping you even if it Dynamaxes. This matchup is overall favorable, though be careful of a potential Banded Urshifu Sucker Punch into Dragapult.
The matchup against Coal is largely defined by who plays and positions their Pokemon better. In this matchup you wanna get Fini in a position where you can Dynamax it against Coalossal and set up Trick Room with Porygon2. The play turn 1 is to always attack Coal's partner with Max Starfall and set up Trick Room with P2. Even if the opponent stalls out your Dynamax, as long as you have P2 out you should be able to cripple Coal with Eerie Impulse and Incineroar Parting Shot.
Celesteela Grimmsnarl is probably the hardest matchup for this team. The strategy here is to go for Calm Mind Eerie Impulse turn 1. Grimmsnarl cannot stop both options so the idea is to stall out Celesteela's Dynamax, ko Grimm with Fini and then win with Dynamax Dragapult late game, or Dynamax Tapu Fini. However, this could be tricky to pull off as Celesteela's Life Orb variants do a chunk of damage even to a +1 Fini. If it is Life Orb Celesteela you want to Protect next turn to stall out 3 turns of max. This gameplan could change depending on Celesteela's teammates, but the best idea will usually be stalling out it's Dynamax.
The standard double horse variant doesn't have any Pokemon that would be a huge threat to Dynamax Kartana on their own. Max Steelspike Clef + Eerie Impulse Spectrier is always a safe play. You can also try to Airstream Clef but that is more risky. With a Trick Room set up, you should be just fine. It is worth mentioning that some offensive Spectriers do run Taunt and I've seen a few double horse teams replace Rilla with AV offensive Incin. These things make the matchup trickier, but vs the standard variant you should be fine. VS the Incin variant a good gameplan could be to force Spectrier to max so you can set up Trick Room and play towards a Dynamax Fini or a Spectrier vs P2 endgame, but I have not tested against this variant. Assurance Incin helps a lot in this matchup too.
I said this earlier, Tapu Fini's Misty Terrain eliminates a lot of mindgames from this matchup. Against a Venusaur Porygon2 lead, switch Dragapult to Fini and Flare Blitz Venu. This covers the option of both Switch to Torkoal + Sleep Powder and Trick Room. Torkoal can be shut down pretty quickly with Calm Mind Fini + Parting Shot Incin and Fini can just win by dynamaxing if there is no Eleki in the back(and if there is, you can ko it under Trick Room). If Venu Dynamaxes, you still have Shuca Berry and you do a lot with Flare Blitz and you OHKO a no bulk Venu in sun. This gameplan is harder to pull off against the new Regirock Zapdos sun team. In that matchup, you might need Kartana to beat the Regirock.
The gameplan vs Metagross teams is to ko Metagross partners and then finish off Metagross. In my experience, you will ko Metagross' partners faster than Metagross without a Weakness Policy boost can respond. The lead and last 2 slots vs Metagross teams can vary tho, as there are a lot of good Metagross partners and many variants of Metagross teams. The Metagross team having a Porygon2 changes the gameplan. If there is a Porygon2, you lead Dragapult Terrakion to cover for a P2 lead and go for Beat Up + Close Combat into P2 If there is no P2 you can switch Terrakion out and attack Metagross partner. You can also try to Helping Hand + Max Phantasm Metagross tho that won't OHKO every Dynamax Metagross(against max hp Metagross you have a 31.3% chance to ko).
/
The matchup vs Life Orb Eleki teams can be hard as Eleki can one shot a lot of things on this team. One change that could be made for this team would be Focus Sash Terrakion so you could survive a hit so that way Eleki can't OHKO you turn 1. In this matchup, you probably want to Dynamax either Dragapult or Kartana to get speed boosts so you can outspeed Eleki and ko it as quickly as possible to prevent Eleki from OHKOing everything. One thing going in your favor in this matchup is that Dragapult resists both Eleki and Water Urshifu.
Some thoughts about the tournament run and highlight games:
In terms of set record, I went 8-2 in this tournament(7-1 in Swiss). I was lucky to avoid this teams hardest matchups in my tour run. The tournament happened a month ago and I didn't document my games so I don't remember my full run, but here are some highlights from the tournament that I remember.
Highlight games:
Round 4 vs LicanNix
I won the game 1 of this set, lost game 2, then had to forfeit game 3 because I had to go for a little while.
The reason why this is a highlight game despite the set not being finished is because in top cut, I faced this exact same 6 Pokemon piloted by a different player. Even though I couldn't play game 3, playing this team in Swiss gave me information about how to play against this team in the future, so in top cut I had clear gameplans on how to play against this team.
Round 6 vs Kamel
was their team if I remember correctly
Round 6 was happening at around 10 pm my time, so I was getting tired. I don't remember too well what happened exactly, but I remember that I won game 1 then lost game 2 to a stupid mistake. At this point, I was getting a little bit tilted. Thankfully, I was able to win game 3 and the set. If I lost this set there is a good chance that I would have tilted and lost my other rounds as well. This is a highlight game because it could have really affected my mindset in the later rounds and it could have gotten really bad for me potentially costing the run.
Top 8 vs Alex Collins (nerdofnowvgc) 
This is where my run ended. Alex was using a team that had the exact same 6 Pokemon as a popular Spectrier rental team by ResuVGC (@Resu_VGC). The Spectrier on Resu's team does not have Follow Me, so I thought that I was fine going with Dragapult Terrakion in game 1. However, Alex's Togekiss did have Follow Me, so Dragapult got OHKO'd Turn 1 and it was honestly game over from there. In game 2, I lead Porygon2 Incineroar and Dynamaxed Incineroar turn 1. His Spectrier despite being an offensive Life Orb set had Taunt, so I wasn't able to get up Trick Room with Porygon2. P2 was forced to spam Ice Beam and I didn't have switch ins for his Pokemon afterwards and Intimidate from Landorus shut down Incineroar, so I lost game 2. This was a hard matchup due to the Spectrier having Taunt, but I could also have played better. I should never have assumed that he doesn't have Follow Me on Togekiss. Instead, I should have lead with P2 Incin in game 1. There is a good chance that I would still have lost game 1 to Taunt Spectrier, but I would have gotten information about his team and I could have come up with some game plans in game 2 and potentially game 3. This is an interesting set to look back at when I think how I could play tricky matchups better in the future.
This was my first major top cut so I felt overall happy about this tournament run. Thanks to everyone who supported me, Rose Tower for organizing the tour and like I said earlier, thanks to ApronVGC for help with the Terrakion's moveset.
Team concept
So basically I decided to build around the Terrakion Dragapult core. The idea behind that is well-known and simple: Dragapult activates Terrakion's ability "Justified" with Beat Up giving it +4 attack in 1 turn. Alternatively, Dragapult can Dynamax and drop opponent's defense with Max Phantasm, allowing Terrakion to finish off weakened targets. I liked this core because it beat many of the Glastrier Porygon2 cores that had been dominating late Series 7 and early S9 and was also good against Galarian Moltres and some other meta cores. Most people using this core were using it with a sun mode that had VenuKoal. These teams are very hyper offensive with their defensive options being Porygon2 for the most part. So the idea behind my team is to build a TerraPult team that has these defensive options to give the team more balance. Bulky offense is probably my favourite playstyle and I think I was able to achieve that here.
The team:
Beat Up gaming V2 - Top 8 Rose Tower Clash 1 (pokepast.es)
Dragapult @ Life Orb
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Darts
- Phantom Force
- Fly
- Beat Up
Dragapult is the main Dynamax option of the team. It has a very good base speed stat of 142, allowing it to outspeed most other fast offensive Pokemon aside from Regieleki. Notable things it outspeeds include Spectrier, Thundurus, Kartana and sun boosted Venusaur after an Airstream for example. Max Phantasm lowers opponents defense stat allowing for combos with Terrakion, Kartana and Incineroar. Airstream is great for speed control as well as the sun matchup where Dragapult can Airstream Venusaur and outspeed it in sun after that. With Max Wyrmwind you can lower opponent's attack, making things like Landorus way less threatening. If you switch in Incineroar and go for Max Wyrmwind, you can get physical attackers to -2, neutralizing the threat entirely aside from the chance to get crit. I didn't have room for Protect because all of Dragapult's attacking moves were important. I needed Beat Up as the last move to activate Terrakion's Justified. I chose Life Orb as the item because it makes a big difference in terms of how much damage Dragapult does. Life Orb allows Dragapult to get the most out of it's Dynamax turns by creating holes in the opponents defenses allowing Pokemon like Kartana and Terrakion to finish the weakened team off.
Terrakion @ White Herb
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat
- Helping Hand
- Protect
Terrakion is Dragapult's partner in crime. With Dragapult's Beat Up, Terrakion gets to +4 attack and can ko almost any Pokemon with those boosts. Terrakion completely destroys a lot of the most common defensive Pokemon in the game like Incineroar and Porygon2. However, your gonna be dynamaxing Dragapult more often, and Terrakion works well with that too. With it's powerful Close Combat and Rock Slide, it can abuse defense drops from Dragapult's Max Phantasm to finish off weakened targets. It can also go for Helping Hand to let Dragapult get kos it otherwise wouldn't get, like against Dynamax Garchomp for example. I chose Helping Hand for the 3rd move because it allows you to avoid Fake Out without being forced to Dynamax and can help Dragapult a lot. I also wasn't really needing a 3rd attacking move anyway, so I wanted a support move.
252 Atk Life Orb Dragapult Helping Hand Max Wyrmwind vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Dynamax Garchomp: 424-502 (115.8 - 137.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Another good option is Taunt, but I wanted Helping Hand to get more options on lead. With this, TerraPult on lead has 3 different options on lead that are very hard to cover for the opponent. Predicting the turn 1 incorrectly can put the opponents team in a bad position if they guess the Dynamax incorrectly. I chose White Herb as the item because when I was laddering with this team, many people tried to lower Terrakion's stats, whether it's with Intimidate or things like Regieleki Electroweb. Resetting your own Close Combat defense drops is also nice, as Terrakion is naturally bulky. In my Rose Tower run, Terrakion was able to survive hits like Rotom-Wash Hydro Pump and Landorus-Therian shared target Earthquake.
Special thanks to my friend ApronVGC for helping me with this Terrakion's moveset. When I first came up with these 6 Pokemon, I was running Choice Scarf Terrakion with Coaching. The idea behind this was that Terrakion could let Dragapult get attack boosts with Coaching when opponents would be expecting Dynamax Terrakion + Beat Up. However, this strategy is better done with Helping Hand as it doesn't lock Terrakion into a support move and avoids Fake Out. At this time I did not know that Terrakion gets Helping Hand so thanks to Apron for telling me this.
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
When I started building this team, I knew that I wanted Incineroar and Tapu Fini. They are a great defensive core and beat each others counters. With these 2 Pokemon, you can slow down the opponents offensive momentum with Intimidate cycling and Calm Mind boosts. Misty Terrain blocking status is very useful too. Preventing my physical attackers from getting burned can potentially be huge and the slower mode of the team really appreciates not being put to sleep by Amoonguss. The sun matchup becomes way easier as I don't have to worry about Dragapult or Incineroar being put to sleep meaning there are less mindgames. Forcing Sleep Powder mindgames is one of the biggest strengths of sun teams, so eliminating that is really nice.
I've seen people say that you don't wanna have Dragapult and Tapu Fini on the same team. In some ways I agree but on this team I could justify it because of the crucial role Fini has on this team. On one hand, Fini's Misty Terrain weakens Dragon Darts and Max Wyrmwind so there is that bit of anti-synergy. However, Fini is very good against a lot of Dragapult's worst enemies, like Urshifu-Single Strike and Galarian Moltres. The aforementioned status blocking is also something Dragapult really likes. I found that having both Pult and Fini on this team is fine as long as it's played well. And since Tapu Fini is on over 20% of teams, a lot of the times you will be playing in Misty Terrain set up by opponents Fini. When I practiced with this team, in late game situations you are often going for Phantom Force too for a strong single target attack, so Misty Terrain isn't hindering Pult too much considering what the benefits of having Fini on this team are.
With 68 speed evs, Fini outspeeds 252 speed Modest Celesteela, which is important, because it allows you to go for Calm Mind before Celesteela can attack. 116 Spa with Modest nature hits a softcap, and the HP is optimized for Leftovers recovery. I put the rest of the evs in defense as well as the 4 leftover evs in special defense to optimize this spread. Moveset is standard Calm Mind set, I think those moves are overall the best for Fini, as it allows Fini to be an endgame win condition especially with Intimidate support or defense boosts from Kartana's Max Steelspike.
Incineroar @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 68 Atk / 68 Def / 92 SpD / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Parting Shot
- Fake Out
- Flare Blitz
- Assurance
Incineroar is a great support Pokemon that can fit on almost any team. It's bulky, it has Fake Out and Intimidate and in this gen it even got Parting Shot to make it even better at support. Like I said before, it makes a great defensive core with Tapu Fini and has great synergy with it. For this Incin, I chose to run an offensive set because it lets it do good damage and finish off Pokemon weakened by Dragapult's Max Phantasm thanks to Assurance. Incineroar and Dragapult are already a great pair and with this set, Incin can make the most out of Assurance and the aforementioned defense drops on opponent. In terms of specific targets, this Incineroar set OHKO's no bulk GMax Venusaur in sun. Flare Blitz is also usually an OHKO on Rillaboom even if it's max HP. I wanted Incin to have a Dark attack to hit ghosts, specifically Spectrier. Being able to set up Trick Room and remove Spectrier quickly can often be important. Assurance fit that slot the best because it takes advantage of Dragapult's Max Phantasm and other moves that go before it to also be able to finish off weakened Pokemon with powerful attacks. This means that Incineroar can be a dark attacker on top of being a support Pokemon, something that my team wanted. I chose Shuca Berry as the item because taking ground attacks is something that comes into play pretty often with this Incin. For example, being able to take a Max Quake from Spectrier without investing too much in special defense. With Shuca Berry you can also switch Incin in on Glastrier and take way less damage from Max Quake as you otherwise would. In fact you do survive it even if The defense allows it to take a Metagross Max Rockfall not including sand chip as well as Life Orb Glastrier Max Knuckle. Rest of the evs are compromised between special defense and speed. I wanted to outspeed other Incins that don't have a 90+ speed stat and I think with 85 speed you outspeed most of them. I did not want go for a 90+ speed stat because I wanted Incin to still have some special defense investment.
68+ Atk Incineroar Flare Blitz vs. 4 HP / 4 Def Dynamax Venusaur in Sun: 312-368 (100 - 117.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
68+ Atk Incineroar Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Rillaboom: 194-230 (93.7 - 111.1%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Spectrier Helping Hand Max Quake vs. 244 HP / 92 SpD Shuca Berry Incineroar: 143-169 (71.1 - 84%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Metagross Max Rockfall vs. 244 HP / 68 Def Incineroar: 170-200 (84.5 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Glastrier Max Quake vs. 244 HP / 68 Def Shuca Berry Incineroar: 116-136 (57.7 - 67.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Glastrier Max Knuckle vs. 244 HP / 68 Def Incineroar: 169-200 (84 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Kartana @ Assault Vest
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 244 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Aerial Ace
I chose Kartana for this team because it's a good, bulky Steel type that is also a hard counter to opposing Tapu Fini. In late game situations, Tapu Fini could otherwise cause trouble with it's typing and bulk, being hard to remove. Without Kartana, a lot of matchups vs opposing Fini would come down to Calm Mind wars or I would have to target it immedeatly to prevent it from getting out of control. Assault Vest Kartana stonewalls every Tapu Fini barring it getting to like +3, and can 2hko every variant of it and even OHKO some. It's Steel typing and Ground neutrality also makes it good vs most Glastrier team comps. With Incin and Fini it creates a bulky Fire Water Grass core that can switch around and put the team in a good board position. Kartana is also a fast, strong Pokemon overall that makes it good for this team, while it's bulk allows it to be good in Trick Room against fast hyper offense teams. Since it already has a monsterous base attack stat of 181, it doesn't really need attack investment. Assault Vest and special defense investment makes up for it's normally lackluster special defense stat and makes it decently bulky on the special side. The set is standard Assault Vest Kartana set, but in terms of specific calcs it does survive 2 Magnet Thunderbolts from Timid Eleki, not that it's usually gonna come into play.
252 SpA Magnet Transistor Regieleki Thunderbolt vs. 4 HP / 244 SpD Assault Vest Kartana: 57-67 (42.2 - 49.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 132 Def / 44 SpA / 100 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Trick Room
- Eerie Impulse
Porygon2 was the last member of this team. With Incin and Fini, it makes a 3 Pokemon core that is hard to break through. Eerie Impulse allows it to shut down most special attackers in the game, like Tapu Fini, Galarian Moltres and perhaps most importantly, Spectrier. I chose Ice Beam as the attacking move because I wanted to be able to hit Landorus, Garchomp and ghosts. At the time, Garchomp was getting paired a lot with Tapu Fini meaning that Dragon moves from Dragapult weren't really doing much to it if it's in Misty Terrain so I wanted to hit Chomp super effectively to be able to remove it quickly so it doesn't get a Swords Dance up. Being able to hit Spectrier also means that against Life Orb Spectrier teams, you can potentially play towards an endgame where Porygon2 will beat Spectrier in a 1v1 if it's last move isn't Taunt. I don't remember what this spread does specifically, it's an old spread from S7 but the thought is that this spread makes P2 bulky while still allowing it to do good damage with Modest Ice Beams potentially boosted by Download. Porygon2 was the "glue" member that gave the team a lot of balance.
Gameplans vs common teams
Most Dusclops Glastrier teams can't stop TerraPult from getting either one of it's setups off. Optimal play against a Dusclops is Helping Hand Max Phantasm as it will OHKO Dusclops and Dragapult is a better max option than Terrakion in this matchup due to a possible Urshifu/Eleki in the back. However, your opponent will most likely lead Eleki Urshifu, in which case you can Max Airstream + CC Shifu. Even if it Protects it will go down next turn and Terrakion will pick up Eleki. Defense drops + Kartana will stop the Fini from countersweeping you even if it Dynamaxes. This matchup is overall favorable, though be careful of a potential Banded Urshifu Sucker Punch into Dragapult.
The matchup against Coal is largely defined by who plays and positions their Pokemon better. In this matchup you wanna get Fini in a position where you can Dynamax it against Coalossal and set up Trick Room with Porygon2. The play turn 1 is to always attack Coal's partner with Max Starfall and set up Trick Room with P2. Even if the opponent stalls out your Dynamax, as long as you have P2 out you should be able to cripple Coal with Eerie Impulse and Incineroar Parting Shot.
Celesteela Grimmsnarl is probably the hardest matchup for this team. The strategy here is to go for Calm Mind Eerie Impulse turn 1. Grimmsnarl cannot stop both options so the idea is to stall out Celesteela's Dynamax, ko Grimm with Fini and then win with Dynamax Dragapult late game, or Dynamax Tapu Fini. However, this could be tricky to pull off as Celesteela's Life Orb variants do a chunk of damage even to a +1 Fini. If it is Life Orb Celesteela you want to Protect next turn to stall out 3 turns of max. This gameplan could change depending on Celesteela's teammates, but the best idea will usually be stalling out it's Dynamax.
The standard double horse variant doesn't have any Pokemon that would be a huge threat to Dynamax Kartana on their own. Max Steelspike Clef + Eerie Impulse Spectrier is always a safe play. You can also try to Airstream Clef but that is more risky. With a Trick Room set up, you should be just fine. It is worth mentioning that some offensive Spectriers do run Taunt and I've seen a few double horse teams replace Rilla with AV offensive Incin. These things make the matchup trickier, but vs the standard variant you should be fine. VS the Incin variant a good gameplan could be to force Spectrier to max so you can set up Trick Room and play towards a Dynamax Fini or a Spectrier vs P2 endgame, but I have not tested against this variant. Assurance Incin helps a lot in this matchup too.
I said this earlier, Tapu Fini's Misty Terrain eliminates a lot of mindgames from this matchup. Against a Venusaur Porygon2 lead, switch Dragapult to Fini and Flare Blitz Venu. This covers the option of both Switch to Torkoal + Sleep Powder and Trick Room. Torkoal can be shut down pretty quickly with Calm Mind Fini + Parting Shot Incin and Fini can just win by dynamaxing if there is no Eleki in the back(and if there is, you can ko it under Trick Room). If Venu Dynamaxes, you still have Shuca Berry and you do a lot with Flare Blitz and you OHKO a no bulk Venu in sun. This gameplan is harder to pull off against the new Regirock Zapdos sun team. In that matchup, you might need Kartana to beat the Regirock.
The gameplan vs Metagross teams is to ko Metagross partners and then finish off Metagross. In my experience, you will ko Metagross' partners faster than Metagross without a Weakness Policy boost can respond. The lead and last 2 slots vs Metagross teams can vary tho, as there are a lot of good Metagross partners and many variants of Metagross teams. The Metagross team having a Porygon2 changes the gameplan. If there is a Porygon2, you lead Dragapult Terrakion to cover for a P2 lead and go for Beat Up + Close Combat into P2 If there is no P2 you can switch Terrakion out and attack Metagross partner. You can also try to Helping Hand + Max Phantasm Metagross tho that won't OHKO every Dynamax Metagross(against max hp Metagross you have a 31.3% chance to ko).
/ The matchup vs Life Orb Eleki teams can be hard as Eleki can one shot a lot of things on this team. One change that could be made for this team would be Focus Sash Terrakion so you could survive a hit so that way Eleki can't OHKO you turn 1. In this matchup, you probably want to Dynamax either Dragapult or Kartana to get speed boosts so you can outspeed Eleki and ko it as quickly as possible to prevent Eleki from OHKOing everything. One thing going in your favor in this matchup is that Dragapult resists both Eleki and Water Urshifu.
Some thoughts about the tournament run and highlight games:
In terms of set record, I went 8-2 in this tournament(7-1 in Swiss). I was lucky to avoid this teams hardest matchups in my tour run. The tournament happened a month ago and I didn't document my games so I don't remember my full run, but here are some highlights from the tournament that I remember.
Highlight games:
Round 4 vs LicanNix
I won the game 1 of this set, lost game 2, then had to forfeit game 3 because I had to go for a little while.
The reason why this is a highlight game despite the set not being finished is because in top cut, I faced this exact same 6 Pokemon piloted by a different player. Even though I couldn't play game 3, playing this team in Swiss gave me information about how to play against this team in the future, so in top cut I had clear gameplans on how to play against this team.
Round 6 vs Kamel
was their team if I remember correctlyRound 6 was happening at around 10 pm my time, so I was getting tired. I don't remember too well what happened exactly, but I remember that I won game 1 then lost game 2 to a stupid mistake. At this point, I was getting a little bit tilted. Thankfully, I was able to win game 3 and the set. If I lost this set there is a good chance that I would have tilted and lost my other rounds as well. This is a highlight game because it could have really affected my mindset in the later rounds and it could have gotten really bad for me potentially costing the run.
Top 8 vs Alex Collins (nerdofnowvgc)
This is where my run ended. Alex was using a team that had the exact same 6 Pokemon as a popular Spectrier rental team by ResuVGC (@Resu_VGC). The Spectrier on Resu's team does not have Follow Me, so I thought that I was fine going with Dragapult Terrakion in game 1. However, Alex's Togekiss did have Follow Me, so Dragapult got OHKO'd Turn 1 and it was honestly game over from there. In game 2, I lead Porygon2 Incineroar and Dynamaxed Incineroar turn 1. His Spectrier despite being an offensive Life Orb set had Taunt, so I wasn't able to get up Trick Room with Porygon2. P2 was forced to spam Ice Beam and I didn't have switch ins for his Pokemon afterwards and Intimidate from Landorus shut down Incineroar, so I lost game 2. This was a hard matchup due to the Spectrier having Taunt, but I could also have played better. I should never have assumed that he doesn't have Follow Me on Togekiss. Instead, I should have lead with P2 Incin in game 1. There is a good chance that I would still have lost game 1 to Taunt Spectrier, but I would have gotten information about his team and I could have come up with some game plans in game 2 and potentially game 3. This is an interesting set to look back at when I think how I could play tricky matchups better in the future.
This was my first major top cut so I felt overall happy about this tournament run. Thanks to everyone who supported me, Rose Tower for organizing the tour and like I said earlier, thanks to ApronVGC for help with the Terrakion's moveset.
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