First time posting, please go easy on me!
Hi there, I'm ScorpioN, been lurking on Smogon and on Pokémon Showdown! for a long time now, and with the release of SV I've been getting back into playing competitive. I've never been a great Team Builder, and almost always battle with other people's Sample Teams, however after taking a while to understand the metagame, I decided to give it a try using some of my favorite Pokémon of this new generation.
I have been watching a lot of SPL recently and saw a lot of cool tech on there for inspiration. For the main idea, the goal was to create a strong wallbreaking core centered around Choice Band Baxcalibur and Choice Specs Iron Moth. I will try to explain my thought process for each mon and their sets as best as I can. Any advice would be greatly appreciated (especially regarding different Tera Types or more specific EV spreads).
Small side note:
I made an alt account on Showdown! to test the team out, managed to go 15W/3L so far, at 1316 rating. I don't have as much time on my hands to peak really high unfortunaly, but I think this is a decent start.
With that being said..
The Team
Poképaste:
Baxcalibur @ Choice Band
Ability: Thermal Exchange
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Glaive Rush
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
The strong physical wallbreaker on the Team, Baxcalibur is pretty much the premier Ice-type wallbreaker now that Chien-Pao has been banned. And honestly, I've been loving using this mon, its power is insane. I could sit here and list calcs all day, but I'm sure we all understand how this set works. Come in on a good matchup, and click buttons. With some prediction, this thing easily blows huge holes in opposing teams. Icicle Crash and Glaive Rush are its main attacks, with Tera Dragon to turn Glaive Rush into an absolute nuke. Earthquake is great coverage against Skeledirge, Iron Treads, Kingambit and so on, while Ice Shard provides some great speed control vs. DD Roaring Moon, DD Dragonite (especially pre-Tera) and Dragapult. The latter in particular is a very important target for this team.
Iron Moth @ Choice Specs
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fiery Dance
- Sludge Wave
- U-turn
- Tera Blast
I'm already a massive simp for Iron Moth as it is, but it makes for a great addition to the team. Choice Specs Iron Moth has been particularly nasty due to the surprise factor. Iron Moth typically carries Booster Energy or Heavy-Duty Boots, but the immediate raw power of Specs has managed to catch so many checks off-guard, mainly Garganacl, Dondozo and Dragapult. Tera Ground with Tera Blast was a very interesting tech I saw in SPL that I wanted to try for myself to completely blow Toxapex, Clodsire and Skeledirge out of the park. With this set, Iron Moth has very little switch-ins and also easily blows holes in teams. That being said, some walls still do well, like SpDef Garganacl, Blissey and Ting-Lu. Especially for Pokémon like the latter two, that's where U-turn comes in. Baxcalibur and Iron Moth complement and threaten each other's switches very well, allowing them to keep on gaining opportunities to fire off extremely powerful attacks.
Meowscarada @ Focus Sash
Ability: Overgrow
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Taunt
- Leaf Storm
This Meowscarada set caught my eye the second I saw it from a top player in a sample team. Don't know exactly who came up with it (props to you), but I thought I'd be a great addition to this team. Its usually my lead to prevent opponents hazards with Taunt, and set up some Spikes, which this team really appreciates. Knock Off is mostly just a move to cripple other leads with, and Leaf Storm is an amazing tool for dealing huge damage to Rapid Spinners, most noticeably OHKO'ing Great Tusk. I have Tera Fairy on it to prevent Banded Dragapult from bypassing the Sash with Dragon Darts and getting a completely free KO, although I usually barely click Tera on this.
Great Tusk @ Eject Pack
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Close Combat
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
Alright, here comes the boring stuff. The six millionth team you've seen with Great Tusk on it. Look, its an amazing mon, okay? Great Tusk is mainly here to provide me the Stealth Rocks alongside Meowscarada's Spikes, and Rapid Spin support. I originally had Knock Off and Focus Sash on it with Tera Fighting, but the Sash wasn't getting me any value, so I decided to try an Eject Pack set I saw in the SPL. Its worked really nicely so far, being another decent wallbreaker, potential sweeper, but most importantly just being great hazard control. Eject Pack gives me some really crucial pivots since this team is not the best at switching into other attacks. I changed its Tera Type to Water mainly to counter Rain sweepers, since they otherwise easily run over this team, especially Walking Wake, the most recent addition to the tier.
Gholdengo @ Air Balloon
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Make It Rain
- Focus Blast
- Nasty Plot
Another boring and simple one, but hoo boy do I love Air Balloon Gholdengo. On offensive teams, all it really has to do is deny Rapid Spin and its doing its job already. With the Balloon it easily switches into Great Tusk, Iron Treads and most Defog users. I put Tera Fighting and Focus Blast on it mainly for Kingambit, since the only other check I have to it is Great Tusk, and Great Tusk is already tasked with handeling quite a few other Pokémon, so its mostly just a panic button. It's also a really handy tool against Sucker Punch Libero Cinderace. The other three moves should be self explanatory, choosing Nasty Plot over Recover because of the team's natural playstyle.
Quaquaval @ Leftovers
Ability: Moxie
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Aqua Step
- Close Combat
- Ice Spinner
So this team has a lot of wallbreakers and hazard control, but who's the cleanup crew? In most games, this is where Quaquaval comes in. I've had plenty of games where this thing just comes in, clicks Aqua Step, gets a Moxie boost, and just straight up wins. The set itself is pretty standard. Tera Steel is a great way to flip Quaquaval's weaknesses upside-down, allowing it to get a crucial free turn to set up easier, and the rest of the moveset is just STABs, coverage, and Swords Dance to take advantage of certain walls. Maybe a scarfer would be a better idea in this slot, but this seems to be getting the job done most of the time, and Quaquaval in general is just a monster when a path is cleared for it, which is exactly what this team excels at.
Threatlist
Outspeeds most mons on the team and deals heavy damage to most members. Bax can take advantage of it with Thermal Exchange, but it can't switch into Cinderace's moves, and it still needs to be very wary of High Jump Kick variants. Cinderace is frail and will have limited switch-ins against this team, but its speed and coverage usually results in looking for paths to take it out while minimizing the damage it does and taking it out. Court Change and Zen Headbutt sets make it even more problematic as it puts your hazards back and allows it to actually threaten the main counter, Quaquaval.
In both weathers, this thing is a problem. You almost always have to use your Tera on Great Tusk to beat it and get a powerful attack off, and even then, under Rain, you're not exactly guaranteed the KO still. On Sun its a bit more manageable as Protosynthesis boosted Headlong Rush/Close Combat can take it out with the slightest chip, but it almost always forces a KO with its STAB combination. Baxcalibur can also take a Specs Hydro Steam decently well, especially after Tera, but its dead meat against the non-Choice variants. Iron Moth also outspeeds and threatens a near OHKO, but it cannot switch in, meaning something has to be sacrificed first.
Outspeeds everything on the team and KOs most things with just its STABs. Meowscarada can Tera Fairy against the banded set, but if you predict wrong you completely waste your Tera. Baxcalibur threatens heavy damage with Ice Shard, but that's predictable, and it gets destroyed if Pult decides to Tera.
The Dragon Dance variants aren't as scary since they're not immediately threatening and you kinda need that against this team, but the CB variant in particular is a bit of a problem, since it 2HKO's nearly everything, and Gholdengo is basically the only answer. Dragonite is always a threat to offense and its not impossible to deal with, but you have to play carefully if you see it in Team Preview.
This one is not as threatening, since it needs all of its coverage to run over the whole team, but Booster Energy variants typically carry a lot of it, and only Gholdengo can really safely check it until the set is revealed.
Replays
I am currently still laddering with the Team, but forgot to save some replays. Once I have a couple, I will post them here. Please feel free to try the Team out in the meantime to get a general feel for it.
And that's it! Looking forward to a Rating soon! Thank you so much for your time and advice in advance, and I hope you have a fantastic day!
Hi there, I'm ScorpioN, been lurking on Smogon and on Pokémon Showdown! for a long time now, and with the release of SV I've been getting back into playing competitive. I've never been a great Team Builder, and almost always battle with other people's Sample Teams, however after taking a while to understand the metagame, I decided to give it a try using some of my favorite Pokémon of this new generation.
I have been watching a lot of SPL recently and saw a lot of cool tech on there for inspiration. For the main idea, the goal was to create a strong wallbreaking core centered around Choice Band Baxcalibur and Choice Specs Iron Moth. I will try to explain my thought process for each mon and their sets as best as I can. Any advice would be greatly appreciated (especially regarding different Tera Types or more specific EV spreads).
Small side note:
I made an alt account on Showdown! to test the team out, managed to go 15W/3L so far, at 1316 rating. I don't have as much time on my hands to peak really high unfortunaly, but I think this is a decent start.
With that being said..
The Team
Poképaste:
Baxcalibur @ Choice Band
Ability: Thermal Exchange
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Glaive Rush
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
The strong physical wallbreaker on the Team, Baxcalibur is pretty much the premier Ice-type wallbreaker now that Chien-Pao has been banned. And honestly, I've been loving using this mon, its power is insane. I could sit here and list calcs all day, but I'm sure we all understand how this set works. Come in on a good matchup, and click buttons. With some prediction, this thing easily blows huge holes in opposing teams. Icicle Crash and Glaive Rush are its main attacks, with Tera Dragon to turn Glaive Rush into an absolute nuke. Earthquake is great coverage against Skeledirge, Iron Treads, Kingambit and so on, while Ice Shard provides some great speed control vs. DD Roaring Moon, DD Dragonite (especially pre-Tera) and Dragapult. The latter in particular is a very important target for this team.
Iron Moth @ Choice Specs
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fiery Dance
- Sludge Wave
- U-turn
- Tera Blast
I'm already a massive simp for Iron Moth as it is, but it makes for a great addition to the team. Choice Specs Iron Moth has been particularly nasty due to the surprise factor. Iron Moth typically carries Booster Energy or Heavy-Duty Boots, but the immediate raw power of Specs has managed to catch so many checks off-guard, mainly Garganacl, Dondozo and Dragapult. Tera Ground with Tera Blast was a very interesting tech I saw in SPL that I wanted to try for myself to completely blow Toxapex, Clodsire and Skeledirge out of the park. With this set, Iron Moth has very little switch-ins and also easily blows holes in teams. That being said, some walls still do well, like SpDef Garganacl, Blissey and Ting-Lu. Especially for Pokémon like the latter two, that's where U-turn comes in. Baxcalibur and Iron Moth complement and threaten each other's switches very well, allowing them to keep on gaining opportunities to fire off extremely powerful attacks.
Meowscarada @ Focus Sash
Ability: Overgrow
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Taunt
- Leaf Storm
This Meowscarada set caught my eye the second I saw it from a top player in a sample team. Don't know exactly who came up with it (props to you), but I thought I'd be a great addition to this team. Its usually my lead to prevent opponents hazards with Taunt, and set up some Spikes, which this team really appreciates. Knock Off is mostly just a move to cripple other leads with, and Leaf Storm is an amazing tool for dealing huge damage to Rapid Spinners, most noticeably OHKO'ing Great Tusk. I have Tera Fairy on it to prevent Banded Dragapult from bypassing the Sash with Dragon Darts and getting a completely free KO, although I usually barely click Tera on this.
Great Tusk @ Eject Pack
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Headlong Rush
- Close Combat
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
Alright, here comes the boring stuff. The six millionth team you've seen with Great Tusk on it. Look, its an amazing mon, okay? Great Tusk is mainly here to provide me the Stealth Rocks alongside Meowscarada's Spikes, and Rapid Spin support. I originally had Knock Off and Focus Sash on it with Tera Fighting, but the Sash wasn't getting me any value, so I decided to try an Eject Pack set I saw in the SPL. Its worked really nicely so far, being another decent wallbreaker, potential sweeper, but most importantly just being great hazard control. Eject Pack gives me some really crucial pivots since this team is not the best at switching into other attacks. I changed its Tera Type to Water mainly to counter Rain sweepers, since they otherwise easily run over this team, especially Walking Wake, the most recent addition to the tier.
Gholdengo @ Air Balloon
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Make It Rain
- Focus Blast
- Nasty Plot
Another boring and simple one, but hoo boy do I love Air Balloon Gholdengo. On offensive teams, all it really has to do is deny Rapid Spin and its doing its job already. With the Balloon it easily switches into Great Tusk, Iron Treads and most Defog users. I put Tera Fighting and Focus Blast on it mainly for Kingambit, since the only other check I have to it is Great Tusk, and Great Tusk is already tasked with handeling quite a few other Pokémon, so its mostly just a panic button. It's also a really handy tool against Sucker Punch Libero Cinderace. The other three moves should be self explanatory, choosing Nasty Plot over Recover because of the team's natural playstyle.
Quaquaval @ Leftovers
Ability: Moxie
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Aqua Step
- Close Combat
- Ice Spinner
So this team has a lot of wallbreakers and hazard control, but who's the cleanup crew? In most games, this is where Quaquaval comes in. I've had plenty of games where this thing just comes in, clicks Aqua Step, gets a Moxie boost, and just straight up wins. The set itself is pretty standard. Tera Steel is a great way to flip Quaquaval's weaknesses upside-down, allowing it to get a crucial free turn to set up easier, and the rest of the moveset is just STABs, coverage, and Swords Dance to take advantage of certain walls. Maybe a scarfer would be a better idea in this slot, but this seems to be getting the job done most of the time, and Quaquaval in general is just a monster when a path is cleared for it, which is exactly what this team excels at.
Threatlist
Outspeeds most mons on the team and deals heavy damage to most members. Bax can take advantage of it with Thermal Exchange, but it can't switch into Cinderace's moves, and it still needs to be very wary of High Jump Kick variants. Cinderace is frail and will have limited switch-ins against this team, but its speed and coverage usually results in looking for paths to take it out while minimizing the damage it does and taking it out. Court Change and Zen Headbutt sets make it even more problematic as it puts your hazards back and allows it to actually threaten the main counter, Quaquaval.
In both weathers, this thing is a problem. You almost always have to use your Tera on Great Tusk to beat it and get a powerful attack off, and even then, under Rain, you're not exactly guaranteed the KO still. On Sun its a bit more manageable as Protosynthesis boosted Headlong Rush/Close Combat can take it out with the slightest chip, but it almost always forces a KO with its STAB combination. Baxcalibur can also take a Specs Hydro Steam decently well, especially after Tera, but its dead meat against the non-Choice variants. Iron Moth also outspeeds and threatens a near OHKO, but it cannot switch in, meaning something has to be sacrificed first.
Outspeeds everything on the team and KOs most things with just its STABs. Meowscarada can Tera Fairy against the banded set, but if you predict wrong you completely waste your Tera. Baxcalibur threatens heavy damage with Ice Shard, but that's predictable, and it gets destroyed if Pult decides to Tera.
The Dragon Dance variants aren't as scary since they're not immediately threatening and you kinda need that against this team, but the CB variant in particular is a bit of a problem, since it 2HKO's nearly everything, and Gholdengo is basically the only answer. Dragonite is always a threat to offense and its not impossible to deal with, but you have to play carefully if you see it in Team Preview.
This one is not as threatening, since it needs all of its coverage to run over the whole team, but Booster Energy variants typically carry a lot of it, and only Gholdengo can really safely check it until the set is revealed.
Replays
I am currently still laddering with the Team, but forgot to save some replays. Once I have a couple, I will post them here. Please feel free to try the Team out in the meantime to get a general feel for it.
And that's it! Looking forward to a Rating soon! Thank you so much for your time and advice in advance, and I hope you have a fantastic day!
