Resource Scarlet & Violet BSS Discussion

[Omastar68]

I like Mismagius more than Gengar, and certainly more than Gholdengo lol. She has been paying off fairly often, more than most of my team anyway.

I run Scarf, and I'm now re-evaluating Spe investment. She hits 235 scarfed atm, but I'm thinking 5 less Spe(so 7.5 less, 228,) is ok. I don't really need to beat +1 Bax w/ Mismagius(152 Spe stat scarfed ties fwiw,) but it seems good for Rotoms to have this much Spe, beating their scarf sets.

However, lower Spe EVs from 252 Modest to 212 means I no longer outspeed positive max Annihilape. Traditionally they have been a headache for me, so it should help to outspeed and hit hard w/ SE Shadow Ball. But I figure they're often normal tera, and so it won't matter if I outspeed, cause my move will have no effect.

Should I drop the Spe or not? 84 SpA(60 us run atm,) helps a bit w/ ohkoing Hydreigon w/ Dazzling Gleam. Also gives the tiny 6.3% vs. 4/0 or 0/0 Armarouge, so something. I nearly ohkod one, but had too little SpA. That was an annoying loss, too. The other 16 EVs can then go in HP, for w/e that does.

EDIT: Vivillon isn't really a thing, but it ends me. I'll stay fast for it.

 

[TheMantyke]

Hi, returning player who hasn't played since DPP. I'm struggling with:

1. Yawn/Spore spam. Namely Breloom, Hippowdon, and sometimes Skeledirge.
2. Mimikyu setting up.
3. Steels that set up. Swords Dance Scizor, Kingambit.

Any tips? :(

1) I think that we got a lot of cool sleep absorbent Pokémon this Gen. Gholdengo is immune to the status moves with it, and can wall Breloom / Hippo with a Ballooon. Garganacl can’t be statused, but probably wants a Tera-type for Breloom’s Fighting-type moves. Annihilape is a ridiculous Pokémon in general that just happens to come with Vital Spirit and can tank enough Bullet Seeds to usually squeeze by Breloom. Plus, there’s always the “give a lum berry to a set up sweeper” stuff around, particularly Haxorus who doesn’t care about Unaware.

2) Garganacl’s ghost resistance is extremely nice for dealing with Swords Dance Mimikyu sets, particularly if you have the resources to burn your Tera and turn into a type that resists Play Rough, though Iron defense does plenty already. Dondozo is also just enormous, ignores Mimikyu’s boosts, and can set up its own boosts or spam Yawn.

3) I think Kingambit is gonna be scary no matter what, but Dondozo again is a solid check to this sort of stuff from the Steel resistance, Unaware, and its immense physical bulk. You do need to look out for electric Tera on Scizor in particular, though. Water and Fire Tauros are also reasonable answers, though you risk proccing defiant on Kingambit. Outside of that, strong neutral damage doesn’t give them the easiest time setting up, so some more passive “work around it” counter play might just be to avoid inviting them in too warmly on their admittedly pretty vast array of resistances.

Good luck!

 

[Malicious Muffin]

Tera fairy/fire bulky garchomp is on every team now

 

[Aqua Jet]

Inspired by Finchinator's post here

Heya, a few people have mentioned to me that they're having trouble keeping track of what can possibly terastallzie into what so I figured I'd create a comependium for teambuilding purposes, as well as battle purposes. In this compendium, I've included every Pokémon in the analysis list, as well as Pokémon I personally think are viable. Please let me know if you spot any errors, and I'll try to keep this up to date! It should also be noted that all types are ordered in alphabetical order. Less viable terastallize types are in brackets.

A
Amoonguss - Dark / Grass / Poison
Annihilape - (Fire) / Flying / Steel / Water
Armarouge - Fire / Grass
Azumarill - (Fire) / Grass / Water
B
Baxcalibur - Dragon / Electric / Ground / Steel
Bellibolt - Fairy / Grass / Water
Blissey - Dark / Flying / Ghost
Breloom - Fighting / Grass
C
Ceruledge - Fighting / Fire / Normal
Clodsire - Flying / Poison / Steel
Cloyster - Fire / Ghost / Ice
Corviknight - Dragon / Flying / Grass

D
Ditto - Ghost
Dondozo - Grass
Dragapult - Dragon / Fairy / Steel / Water
Dragonite - Fairy / Normal
E
Espathra - Dark / Fairy / Fighting
F
Floatzel - Water
G
Gallade - Fighting / Water
Garchomp - (Fairy) / Fire / Ground / Steel
Garganacl - Flying / Steel
Gengar - Fairy / Flying / Normal
Goldengo- Flying / Ghost / Water
Glimmora - Grass
Grimmsnarl - Grass
Gyarados - Flying / Grass / Ground

H
Haxorus - Electric / Fairy / Steel
Hippowdon - Grass
Hydreigon - Dark / Poison / Steel

K
Kingambit - Dark / Fairy / Flying
L
Lokix - Bug

M
Magnezone - Fairy / Fighting / Flying / Grass / Water
Meowscarada - (Dark) / Fairy / Grass
Mimikyu - Fire / Ghost

P
/ Palafin / Palafin-Hero - Water
Pawmot - Electric
Pelipper - Grass / Ground
Q
Quaquaval - Fighting / Grass / Water
R
Rotom-Heat- Electric / Fairy
Rotom-Wash - Electric / Fairy
S
Salamence - Flying
Scizor - Steel
Scovillain - Fairy / Grass
Skeledirge - Fairy / Water
Sylveon - Fire
T
* Tauros-Paldea-Fire - Fairy / Grass
Tinkaton - Flying / Steel
Toxapex - Grass / Poison / (Steel)
Tyranitar - Flying
U
Umbreon - (Ghost) / Fairy / Poison / Steel
V
Volcarona - Fairy / Fire / Grass / Water

*I can't find the sprite for Tauros-Blaze, so you get regular Tauros.

Changelog

Stellar pointed out that Dragapult was missing Dragon, so I added that.
zapper22001 made some suggestions here, all of which were implemented.

 

[michael calicchio]

Inspired by Finchinator's post here

Heya, a few people have mentioned to me that they're having trouble keeping track of what can possibly terastallzie into what so I figured I'd create a comependium for teambuilding purposes, as well as battle purposes. In this compendium, I've included every Pokémon in the analysis list, as well as Pokémon I personally think are viable. Please let me know if you spot any errors, and I'll try to keep this up to date! It should also be noted that all types are ordered in alphabetical order. Less viable terastallize types are in brackets.

A
Amoonguss - Dark / Grass / Poison
Annihilape - Flying / Steel / Water
Armarouge - Fire / Grass
Azumarill - Grass / Water
B
Baxcalibur - Dragon / Electric / Steel
Bellibolt - Fairy / Grass / Water
Blissey - Dark / Flying / Ghost
Breloom - Fighting / Grass
C
Ceruledge - Fighting / Fire / Normal
Clodsire - Flying / Poison / Steel
Cloyster - Fire / Ghost / Ice
Corviknight - Dragon / Flying / Grass

D
Ditto - Ghost
Dondozo - Grass
Dragapult - Dragon / Fairy / Steel / Water
Dragonite - Fairy / Normal
E
Espathra - Dark / Fairy / Fighting
F
Floatzel - Water
G
Gallade - Fighting / Water
Garchomp - Fire / Ground / Steel
Garganacl - Flying / Steel
Gengar - Fairy / Flying / Normal
Goldengo- Flying / Ghost / Water
Glimmora - Grass
Grimmsnarl - Grass
Gyarados - Flying / Grass / Ground

H
Haxorus - Electric / Fairy / Steel
Hippowdon - Grass
Hydreigon - Dark / Poison / Steel

K
Kingambit - Dark / Fairy / Flying
L
Lokix - Bug

M
Magnezone - Fairy / Fighting / Flying / Grass / Water
Meowscarada - (Dark) / Fairy / Grass
Mimikyu - Fire / Ghost

P
/ Palafin / Palafin-Hero - Water
Pawmot - Electric
Pelipper - Grass / Ground
Q
Quaquaval - Fighting / Grass / Water
R
Rotom-Heat- Electric / Fairy
Rotom-Wash - Electric / Fairy
S
Salamence - Flying
Scizor - Steel
Scovillain - Fairy / Grass
Skeledirge - Fairy / Water
Sylveon - Fire
T
* Tauros-Paldea-Fire - Fairy / Grass
Tinkaton - Flying / Steel
Toxapex - Grass / Poison / (Steel)
Tyranitar - Flying
U
Umbreon - (Ghost) / Fairy / Poison / Steel
V
Volcarona - Fairy / Fire / Grass / Water

*I can't find the sprite for Tauros-Blaze, so you get regular Tauros.

Changelog

Stellar pointed out that Dragapult was missing Dragon, so I added that.

Thanks for this it’s amazing!

 

[zapper22001]

This is a great list. Thanks for making it. Here are some other common Tera type combinations that I have seen while laddering on cart.

-Fire Annihilape
-Fire Azumarill
-Ground Baxcalibur
-Fairy Garchomp (mainly started seeing this in the last few days)

It is up to you whether you wish to add them or not since the list is already fairly comprehensive. The only other similar resource I know about for BSS is the following video which is in Japanese (though pretty simple to follow without understanding the language) and somewhat outdated at this point.

 

[Aqua Jet]

-Fire Annihilape
-Fire Azumarill
-Ground Baxcalibur
-Fairy Garchomp (mainly started seeing this in the last few days)

I haven't really seen any of these and I don't think any of them are particularly viable but I'll add them in brackets since I figure if they're common on cartridge then they might be worth prepping for but not using. Thanks for letting me know!

 

[fissureenthusiast]

This is a great list. Thanks for making it. Here are some other common Tera type combinations that I have seen while laddering on cart.

-Fire Annihilape
-Fire Azumarill
-Ground Baxcalibur
-Fairy Garchomp (mainly started seeing this in the last few days)

It is up to you whether you wish to add them or not since the list is already fairly comprehensive. The only other similar resource I know about for BSS is the following video which is in Japanese (though pretty simple to follow without understanding the language) and somewhat outdated at this point.

I've seen a lot of ground baxcalibur in top 2k-15k range

 

[Omastar68]

I saw a fire Baxcalibur, got me good as I rely on Orthworm to beat those. Not sure what else it does.

 

[Theorymon]

I haven't really seen any of these and I don't think any of them are particularly viable but I'll add them in brackets since I figure if they're common on cartridge then they might be worth prepping for but not using. Thanks for letting me know!

For Fire Azumarill and Fire Annihilape: the big reason those two exist is to dunk on Will-O-Wisp, which has been around more with the rise of bulky Dragapult, and Paldean Tauros starting to become more common. For the analyses, we mainly made Fire a mention on Annihilape because it has pretty serious competition with its other teras, but with Azumarill, it's actually become the main slash in because of Corviknight. With a lot of Corviknight focusing on pivoting, Azumarill Tera Blast does a TON to them (with even AV doing over 50%), especially if using CB Azumarill.

As for Tera Fairy Garchomp: I mostly associate that the hazards setting Garchomp. Basically its to get around really powerful Dragon moves without making it vulnerable to Earthquake. This in particular can give Garchomp the edge against other Garchomp leads (yes seriously, bulky hazards is common enough that mirror leads do happen lol). It's not as common as Steel though, being vulnerable to Gholdengo can be an issue, and there are a lot of offensive Steel dragons like Dragapult and Hydreigon atm too.

Finally, for Ground Baxcalibur: its a thing on AV Baxcalibur, because its a REALLY safe tera against most other Dragons, and the immunity to both paralysis and burns is a nice bonus. AV Baxcalibur in particular is making waves because not only is it really bulky, but you can use Ice Shard to cancel out Glaive Rush's drawback against faster foes!

While I'm here, to add to your handy tera resource: we actually hit 41 Pokemon covered on the Smogon dex for BSS!

Of the Pokemon, 8 of them are currently in the copyediting stage, so they have their threads linked on the dex. And plus, Hydreigon has two extra sets that are linked to since they're in copyediting: Versatile Attacker and Stealth Rock Support!

Finally, in the past day alone we've uploaded a ton more stuff! We've uploaded: Palafin, Focus Sash Meowscarada, Choiced Garchomp, Choiced Volcarona, Bulky Volcarona, Pivot Corviknight, and Bulky Status Dragapult.

 

[Tachipoyo]

Inspired by Finchinator's post here

Heya, a few people have mentioned to me that they're having trouble keeping track of what can possibly terastallzie into what so I figured I'd create a comependium for teambuilding purposes, as well as battle purposes. In this compendium, I've included every Pokémon in the analysis list, as well as Pokémon I personally think are viable. Please let me know if you spot any errors, and I'll try to keep this up to date! It should also be noted that all types are ordered in alphabetical order. Less viable terastallize types are in brackets.

A
Amoonguss - Dark / Grass / Poison
Annihilape - (Fire) / Flying / Steel / Water
Armarouge - Fire / Grass
Azumarill - (Fire) / Grass / Water
B
Baxcalibur - Dragon / Electric / Ground / Steel
Bellibolt - Fairy / Grass / Water
Blissey - Dark / Flying / Ghost
Breloom - Fighting / Grass
C
Ceruledge - Fighting / Fire / Normal
Clodsire - Flying / Poison / Steel
Cloyster - Fire / Ghost / Ice
Corviknight - Dragon / Flying / Grass

D
Ditto - Ghost
Dondozo - Grass
Dragapult - Dragon / Fairy / Steel / Water
Dragonite - Fairy / Normal
E
Espathra - Dark / Fairy / Fighting
F
Floatzel - Water
G
Gallade - Fighting / Water
Garchomp - (Fairy) / Fire / Ground / Steel
Garganacl - Flying / Steel
Gengar - Fairy / Flying / Normal
Goldengo- Flying / Ghost / Water
Glimmora - Grass
Grimmsnarl - Grass
Gyarados - Flying / Grass / Ground

H
Haxorus - Electric / Fairy / Steel
Hippowdon - Grass
Hydreigon - Dark / Poison / Steel

K
Kingambit - Dark / Fairy / Flying
L
Lokix - Bug

M
Magnezone - Fairy / Fighting / Flying / Grass / Water
Meowscarada - (Dark) / Fairy / Grass
Mimikyu - Fire / Ghost

P
/ Palafin / Palafin-Hero - Water
Pawmot - Electric
Pelipper - Grass / Ground
Q
Quaquaval - Fighting / Grass / Water
R
Rotom-Heat- Electric / Fairy
Rotom-Wash - Electric / Fairy
S
Salamence - Flying
Scizor - Steel
Scovillain - Fairy / Grass
Skeledirge - Fairy / Water
Sylveon - Fire
T
* Tauros-Paldea-Fire - Fairy / Grass
Tinkaton - Flying / Steel
Toxapex - Grass / Poison / (Steel)
Tyranitar - Flying
U
Umbreon - (Ghost) / Fairy / Poison / Steel
V
Volcarona - Fairy / Fire / Grass / Water

*I can't find the sprite for Tauros-Blaze, so you get regular Tauros.

Changelog

Stellar pointed out that Dragapult was missing Dragon, so I added that.
zapper22001 made some suggestions here, all of which were implemented.

Based compilation. Thank you for the resource! Off of a quick look, I think there are a couple of types (both major and minor) that went missed especially for the more defensive Pokemon, I'll write down a couple more I think are worth noting:

Steel, Fairy for Amoonguss
Fighting for Armarouge
Ground for Azumarill
Fire for Baxcalibur
Fairy for Bellibolt
Dark for Clodsire
Grass for Cloyster
Water for Corviknight
Flying, Fairy, Steel for Dondozo
Fighting for Dragapult
Steel, Fire, Ground for Dragonite (Ground is way less common though)
Elec for Garchomp
Water for Garganacl
Normal for Gholdengo (if anything, I haven’t seen one Water Gholdengo in-cartridge actually-)
Fairy for Glimmora
Fire for Grimmsnarl
Elec for Gyarados
Steel for Hippowdon
Fire for Hydreigon (outdated type since it’s fallen in number drastically since the first week, but still worth noting Imo)
Fire for Meowscarada
Fairy, Normal for Mimikyu
Fairy for both Rotom forms
Fairy, Fire, Steel, Elec for Salamence
Dark, Fighting for Scizor
Fire for Skeledirge
Rock, Grass for Tyranitar
Rock for Volcarona

 

[Tachipoyo]

Oh actually, while we're at it, I'd also want to recommend Fire for Scovillain since Chlorophyll almost always goes Fire

 

[Malicious Muffin]

It would be cool having maybe some kind of generic tera type compendium that explains why people choose a certain tera. For example Fairy right now is almost always a possibility on leads due to the dragon threats or fire is a huge possibility on any physical attacker that wants burn immunity. I've been bopped by a fairy hippowdon before haha

 

[furyofyuriy]

It would be cool having maybe some kind of generic tera type compendium that explains why people choose a certain tera. For example Fairy right now is almost always a possibility on leads due to the dragon threats or fire is a huge possibility on any physical attacker that wants burn immunity. I've been bopped by a fairy hippowdon before haha

You can essentially break it down into 3 types when considering Tera types: Damage Output, Immunity/Resistance, and Coverage.

Offense threats or fast attackers like to go for the damage output option the most typically, being turning into one of their already existing regular types. You also tend to see this on mons that have Powerful priority abuse like Kingabit or Lokix.

Defensive mons rarely ever use their original types as tera types and usually opt to go for steel or fairy, or anything that gives them a resistance to a x4 weakness. Dragon is also becoming more popular on bulky water defensive mons.

Immunity is the last big one, which tends to go on the middle of the speed tier attackers and set up sweepers. "Immunity" is a loose term as it doesnt just apply to say, Tera Ghost on Tyranitar to avoid fighting moves, but physical sweepers like Annilape and Azumarill like Tera Fire for burn Immunities.

Short Version: Speed and role is key. Fast mons opt for coverage tera types to use Tera blast or too already boost their damage output with one of their types. Defensive mons want to last longer so they never go one of their OG types, and set up sweepers are wild cards that are more move dependent. (Normal Tera Extreme speed dragonite)

 

[Omastar68]

Is Hydreigon or Volcarona more common? I feel like I cover the former much better, but maybe not since I put power gem over dazzling gleam for volc.

But I still dislike volc. I do better with it once it teras I guess, if it does.

What item on Cetitan? I have lo, but not sheer force cause only Liquidation on my set benefits. I'm considering replacing a Mon and running av, thoughts?

 

[furyofyuriy]

Is Hydreigon or Volcarona more common? I feel like I cover the former much better, but maybe not since I put power gem over dazzling gleam for volc.

But I still dislike volc. I do better with it once it teras I guess, if it does.

What item on Cetitan? I have lo, but not sheer force cause only Liquidation on my set benefits. I'm considering replacing a Mon and running av, thoughts?

I find more Volcarona the closer you get to the higher levels in masterball tier while Hydrgeion is pretty consistent throughout.

For Citan I have found that if you aren't running the Slush Rush variant, then a bulky AV is far better than a life orb sheer force set simply because Citans speed is so bad to use a Lo. Add thick fat into the mix with Tera and you can create a monster. And while Iron Bundle hasn't been introduced in the format yet, when it is, an AV land whale walls it hard.

 

[Omastar68]

o ok thanks. I'll rearrange things to make it AV, it's already Thick Fat.

If your only physical attack is Nuzzle, and you're neutral to Foul Play, should Atk IV be 0 or 31? Granted I can't breed for 0, but as is it's low.

 

[Zennistrad]

How good would Outrage be on a Curse Dondozo set? Fissure is unreliable so I'd prefer a good secondary attack, and Water/Dragon seems like it would provide some very powerful neutral coverage — as far as I can tell Azumarill is the only Pokemon in the metagame that can really switch into both these types safely.

 

[Omastar68]

How good would Outrage be on a Curse Dondozo set? Fissure is unreliable so I'd prefer a good secondary attack, and Water/Dragon seems like it would provide some very powerful neutral coverage — as far as I can tell Azumarill is the only Pokemon in the metagame that can really switch into both these types safely.

Use Order Up,

 

[Adelorenzi]

How quickly after the season ends does pokemon home usually put up the battle data?

 

[furyofyuriy]

How good would Outrage be on a Curse Dondozo set? Fissure is unreliable so I'd prefer a good secondary attack, and Water/Dragon seems like it would provide some very powerful neutral coverage — as far as I can tell Azumarill is the only Pokemon in the metagame that can really switch into both these types safely.

Order up is better on Dondozzo because it has no negetive effects. While it is 40 less BP, the lack of confusion is a massive plus on a pokemo you want as a slow set up attacker.

How quickly after the season ends does pokemon home usually put up the battle data?

Usually within 24 hours of the season ending, however Scarlet and Violet aren't going to be compatible with HOME until around March.

 

[Pablo_Wargames]

Season 1 is almost over, and what I expected to be an aggro physical meta, I was far from being right. This, nonetheless, is true for low elos, but in high elo most teams has 1 or 2 aggromons, the rest are bulkies or tanks. Don, Gar and Corvi are, imo, the true kings of the meta, with notable names such as rotom wash, amoonguss, skeledirge... Bulkies as annihilape por King.

What are your opinions on the meta?

 

[Pearl]

Had a pretty good season 1 overall (peaked Rank 8 earlier on, managed to sneak into the Top 50 yesterday but fell back down a little today after some less than fortunate games). Still really happy with how things went all things considered, as it was a very pleasant return to competitive Pokemon and BSS as a whole.

Promised the folks on Discord that I would do a short writeup on the team I used to climb, but since I don't have the oomph to get a whole RMT thread done (and I doubt many people would have the patience to read all of it), a post here should suffice

Things that changed between the two versions of the team:
- Tera Poison on Clodsire: lets it use Tera without taking damage from Black Sludge while still allowing it to check Meowscarada while doing so. Grass was good situationally but I pretty much had to let it tank a Knock Off or a Trick in order to use it without it biting me in the ass. Intuitive change;
- Salamence > Dragonite. Dragonite is the best Pokemon in this format period. However, I personally felt that most sets I could fit onto my team were a bit too slow for its needs. Salamence does a bunch of interesting things, with Intimidate enabling some of the team's bulkier 'mons in their endeavors to stick around for longer, while Mence itself is still a very potent offensive threat (Sub + Dual Wingbeat are this team's makeshift answer to Breloom. The former also catches Dondozo by surprise oftentimes). The idea to use Mence came from a different team I made with a Choice Specs variant, but overreliance on innacurate STABs makes it a subpar option for laddering IMO;
- Choice Band > Choice Scarf on Palafin: also self-explanatory. Had a bad read on what this thing's best set was and fixed it accordingly. Retains its power vs offense while also being a force to reckon with against anybody who's ill prepared for offensive Water-types;
- Choice Scarf Annihilape > Bulk Up: By far the biggest change made to the team. Completely shifts its MO against a lot of the metagame's most popular teams. Discourages the bulky Garchomp sets that have been going around, lures and eliminates Dragonite and can also serve as late game insurance against Kingambit with Fighting Tera and solid bulk. Bulk Up was originally employed on this team to handle slower teams, but it turns out that Tinkaton is already pretty good at that, which ultimately freed this slot up

Tinkaton definitely fell out of grace a little towards the end of the season once people realized they all should be carrying Encore, but it still came out here and there to shut down stall users (also bulkier Dragonite sets that started showing up later on). Not a spectacular Pokemon by any means, but I'm glad that I was able to find a niche for one of my favorite Pokemon designs in a long time.

Clodsire was probably the team's weak link, but its presence tends to discourage specific Pokemon from showing up, which I'd like to believe was important to the team's success. Pairs up well with Palafin and sometimes wins games on its own when counterplay to sleep is lacking on the opposing side.

AV Rotom-Wash is pretty much AV Baxcalibur at home, although access to Volt Switch and the positive Gholdengo match up without having to commit to Tera are pretty cool things to have. Nobody falls for Fairy Tera anymore, but the threat of it is usually enough to keep Dragon-types respetful.

Probably retiring this team since it's had a very good run and I want to play around with different stuff, but I definitely see it remaining a viable option for the folks trying to get to Master Ball tier next season at the very least.

 

[Omastar68]

That's good to know about encore, I thought tinkaton was a pure attacker lol.

 

[vivekp]

Had a pretty good season 1 overall (peaked Rank 8 earlier on, managed to sneak into the Top 50 yesterday but fell back down a little today after some less than fortunate games). Still really happy with how things went all things considered, as it was a very pleasant return to competitive Pokemon and BSS as a whole.

Promised the folks on Discord that I would do a short writeup on the team I used to climb, but since I don't have the oomph to get a whole RMT thread done (and I doubt many people would have the patience to read all of it), a post here should suffice

Things that changed between the two versions of the team:
- Tera Poison on Clodsire: lets it use Tera without taking damage from Black Sludge while still allowing it to check Meowscarada while doing so. Grass was good situationally but I pretty much had to let it tank a Knock Off or a Trick in order to use it without it biting me in the ass. Intuitive change;
- Salamence > Dragonite. Dragonite is the best Pokemon in this format period. However, I personally felt that most sets I could fit onto my team were a bit too slow for its needs. Salamence does a bunch of interesting things, with Intimidate enabling some of the team's bulkier 'mons in their endeavors to stick around for longer, while Mence itself is still a very potent offensive threat (Sub + Dual Wingbeat are this team's makeshift answer to Breloom. The former also catches Dondozo by surprise oftentimes). The idea to use Mence came from a different team I made with a Choice Specs variant, but overreliance on innacurate STABs makes it a subpar option for laddering IMO;
- Choice Band > Choice Scarf on Palafin: also self-explanatory. Had a bad read on what this thing's best set was and fixed it accordingly. Retains its power vs offense while also being a force to reckon with against anybody who's ill prepared for offensive Water-types;
- Choice Scarf Annihilape > Bulk Up: By far the biggest change made to the team. Completely shifts its MO against a lot of the metagame's most popular teams. Discourages the bulky Garchomp sets that have been going around, lures and eliminates Dragonite and can also serve as late game insurance against Kingambit with Fighting Tera and solid bulk. Bulk Up was originally employed on this team to handle slower teams, but it turns out that Tinkaton is already pretty good at that, which ultimately freed this slot up

Tinkaton definitely fell out of grace a little towards the end of the season once people realized they all should be carrying Encore, but it still came out here and there to shut down stall users (also bulkier Dragonite sets that started showing up later on). Not a spectacular Pokemon by any means, but I'm glad that I was able to find a niche for one of my favorite Pokemon designs in a long time.

Clodsire was probably the team's weak link, but its presence tends to discourage specific Pokemon from showing up, which I'd like to believe was important to the team's success. Pairs up well with Palafin and sometimes wins games on its own when counterplay to sleep is lacking on the opposing side.

AV Rotom-Wash is pretty much AV Baxcalibur at home, although access to Volt Switch and the positive Gholdengo match up without having to commit to Tera are pretty cool things to have. Nobody falls for Fairy Tera anymore, but the threat of it is usually enough to keep Dragon-types respetful.

Probably retiring this team since it's had a very good run and I want to play around with different stuff, but I definitely see it remaining a viable option for the folks trying to get to Master Ball tier next season at the very least.

Any interesting spreads on these mons, or are they all about what one would expect?