Amir
Banned deucer.
Hi, I am Amir, a competitive singles player who has been playing competitive Pokemon since 2007. I also have an interest in VGC and in fact used to play VGC way back in the DPP era of 2008 and HGSS in 2010, I returned to VGC in 2011 to try BW VGC, and I made another return in 2013-2016 playing both the XY and ORAS VGC metagames. Now we are in a new period of VGC with a fresh new metagame Scarlet and Violet, I thought I would make another return to see what's it like.
TEAM PREVIEW:
Annihilape @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Vital Spirit
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Atk / 76 Def / 156 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Bulk Up
- Rage Fist
- Drain Punch
Annihilape is an amazing pokemon in the tier. It is a headache to deal with if not properly prepared for, thanks to access to rage fist and great natural bulk allowing it to be one amazing breaker, in addition to bulk up to further increase its bulk in combination with intimidate support and struggle bug.
Vital Spirit and Tera Fire allows you to be immune to both Sleep and Burn status, and Weakness Policy grants a way to punish stuff like Garchomp by tanking the hit, obtaining the boost, and retaliating back with a +2 base 100 Rage Fist. The speed is to be 1 point slower than Baxcalibur and an interesting interaction can be shown.
252 Atk Life Orb Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 76 Def Tera-Fire Annihilape: 179-213 (82.4 - 98.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 156 SpD Tera-Fire Annihilape: 183-216 (84.3 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 156 SpD Annihilape: 158-188 (72.8 - 86.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Baxcalibur (F) @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Thermal Exchange
Level: 50
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 204 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Glaive Rush
- Icicle Spear
- Ice Shard
- Protect
Kingambit (F) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Defiant
Level: 50
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 188 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 44 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Tera Blast
- Kowtow Cleave
- Sucker Punch
Kingambit is on the team to improve the MU tailwind teams, more specifically vs Gholdengo + Mukrow. by having Kingambit on the field, it forces either a switch or forces the Gholdengo to tera steel to remove the ghost weakness. Tera Water is for fire types such as Arcanine, Ceruledge, and Armarouge, It can be used both as a defensive or offensive tera. The EV spread ensures you live a Tera Fire helping hand boosted Heat Wave from Hydreigon, as well as eating a tera boosted earthquake from Clear Amulet adamant Garchomp. Tera Blast (water) is for predicting pokemon to turn into tera fire as a defensive tera (such as Sylveon, Hydreigon) which try to avoid the Iron Head and get punished, as for the speed it outspeed Quiet nature 0 speed IV Armarouge as well as other Kingambits.
252 SpA Life Orb Tera-Fire Hydreigon Helping Hand Heat Wave vs. 188 HP / 44 SpD Assault Vest Kingambit: 166-198 (83.4 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Helping Hand Earthquake vs. 188 HP / 4 Def Kingambit: 164-194 (82.4 - 97.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Tera-Ground Garchomp Earthquake vs. 188 HP / 4 Def Kingambit: 160-192 (80.4 - 96.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Volcarona (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 244 HP / 196 Def / 4 SpA / 60 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Struggle Bug
- Rage Powder
- Protect
Support Volcarona helps provide the team with an additional backbone, by supporting the team with Rage Powder and Struggle Bug, Rocky Helmet in combination with Rage Powder is to handle Mauhold's population bomb, redirect fighting types such as Hariyama, Annihilape, and punish Meowscarada's flower trick / U-turn by pivoting in and out. Overheat is used to OHKO Amoonguss and tera steel pokemon. The bulk allows you tank 2 Dark Pulses from Life Orb Hydreigon 100% of the time from full, it can also tank a brave bird from Talonflame. 4 Special Attack EVs gives you a good roll to OHKO Meowscarada with struggle bug.
252 Atk Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 244 HP / 196+ Def Volcarona: 152-180 (79.5 - 94.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 244 HP / 60 SpD Volcarona: 78-94 (40.8 - 49.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
4 SpA Volcarona Struggle Bug vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Meowscarada: 148-180 (97.3 - 118.4%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
Tauros-Paldea-Water @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 244 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Raging Bull
- Protect
- Tera Blast
Tauros-P-W has been recently gaining popularity thanks to access to intimidate, amazing typing that doesn't fear Kingambit, and great speed, and the new move Raging Bull which gives it a base 90 base power stab brick break, removing screens. Close combat is used for pressuring Hydreigon (it doesn't care about Tera steel or fire variants). I chose Tera Grass mainly for the defensive backbone vs Dondozo, Meowscarada, Rotom-W and create a pseudo Fire, Water, Grass core. Terablast helps remove opposing Rotom-Wash and supports teammates such as Baxcalibur, Kingambit, and Annihilape (when tera'd). Speed EVs are made for outspending Hydreigon and the rest is put into power, Safety Goggles is the item of choice to ignore redirection from Rage Powder Amoonguss.
Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 236 HP / 68 Def / 124 SpA / 4 SpD / 76 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Protect
- Nasty Plot
Rotom-Wash acts as a glue to the team, It's also an excellent way to maintain offensive pressure with nasty plot. Tera Electric is the tera of choice as you can abuse it once Baxcalibur, Tauros removes the bulky ground types from the field such as Gastrodon and Garchomp. It helps improve the MU vs Dondozo + Tatsugiri teams, Rain and Tailwind offensive teams. the EV spread allows you to tank a Terablast (grass) from Ceruledge, The special attack investment gives you a 93% chance to OHKO Garchomp after a nasty plot with Hydro Pump, and the speed is to outspeed uninvested bulky Arcanine.
Optional Change: a Bulkier version with Will-o-wisp can be used to improve MU vs Dondozo, Dragonite and Garchomp.
OTS & TEAM IMPORT:
Gracias.
