Gholdengo’s
Aquarium
Aquarium
By Paradox Dragonite
Introduction
Hello everyone! Welcome to my new VGC RMT! I was really enjoying using Ruinous Rage (my previous RMT) but I noticed it was growing dated. So, I knew I wanted to make a new team, and picked rain. Rain is pretty strong at the moment, and this team in particular uses the pretty standard
+ physical rain abuser + 
+ special attacker to strong affect. Let’s take a trip to Gholdengo's Incredible Aquarium!Teambuilding Process
Team Overview
Flyogre (Pelipper) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 4 SpA / 148 SpD / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Hydro Pump
- Tailwind
- Protect
Role: Pelipper is our rain setter. It also does damage, but it usually does support. It's a common lead for this team, to get rain up and start sweeping. It’s also our only ground immune, so keep that in mind when facing earthquake teams.
Item: Safety Goggles helps us annoy Amoonguss. Hurricane allows for Pelipper to be our best Amoonguss counter on the team.
Tera Type: Dragon isn’t the most common Tera with Flutter Mane running around, but our team is pretty good on to Flutter. Gholdengo and Azumarill take down Flutter pretty easily, and the Electric resist is really important.
Moves: Hurricane is a must for Pelipper, as in rain it cannot miss. Hydro Pump is another strong move with huge power in rain. Tailwind is nice support for the rest of our team. Protect is just all around an important move in doubles.
EVs and Nature: This Pelipper is really bulky. Modest helps us improve our damage with Hurricane and Hydro Pump. No Sash Pelipper, we're a bulky support set.
Other Options: You can use Chilling Water over Hydro Pump. We have no Intimidate user on this team, so the Attack drop from Chilling Water could be useful.
P4L4F1N (Azumarill) (F) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 156 HP / 228 Atk / 4 Def / 20 SpD / 100 Spe
Careful Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Liquidation
- Play Rough
- Ice Spinner
Role: Azumarill is our rain abuser of choice. If you know how to use Palafin, it’s similar with Azumarill. The advantage of Azumarill over Palafin is that you don’t have to switch out to get set up to sweep. Also, not as many people are prepared for Azumarill compared to Palafin. Finally, Azumarill is just a bit more bulky.
Item: There are a couple good items for Azumarill. Life Orb and Choice Band are both good. I went with AV though, because it makes Azumarill just a bit bulkier. Azumarill can just keep sweeping for one extra turn with AV and it’s a decent counter to Flutter as well.
Tera Type: Water is basic, similar to Tera Water Palafin. It gives us an extra boost to Aqua Jet and Liquidation for even more damage.
Moves: Aqua Jet, Liquidation, and Play Rough are all standard Azumarill STAB moves. Ice Spinner gives us an answer to Dragonite and Indeedee (getting rid of Psychic Terrain)
EVs and Nature: We want bulky a Azumarill that can dish out damage, and these EVs accomplish that. Careful ups our special bulk making AV as an item even stronger. Nothing too out of the ordinary here. Also, shoutout to Clementine for helping me with these!
Other Options: Facade… why not? Ice Spinner could be replaced Facade to deal with burns and do some damage. Ice Spinner is still probably better, but Facade could be an interesting tech.
Dwight (Iron Hands) @ Leftovers
Ability: Quark Drive
Level: 50
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 140 HP / 76 Atk / 4 Def / 252 SpD / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thunder Punch
- Drain Punch
- Swords Dance
- Protect
Role: Iron Hands is a secondary physical attacker, one with a setup option. I really like Swords Dance Iron Hands. Hands can normally 2HKO a lot of Pokemon, and SD lets it take some OHKOs. Hands is bulky and compliments Azumarill well, both being bulky physical attackers and together taking down threats.
Item: Leftovers just increases our bulk. Always nice to have a bit more HP.
Tera Type: Grass just annoys Amoonguss. We don’t have a great way to beat it with Iron Hands, but we can prevent it from hurting us.
Moves: This is a pretty standard SD Hands set. Swords Dance gives us setup, Protect is self-explanatory, and Drain Punch gives us recovery. Thunder Punch is our other main STAB move, taking down electric-weak Pokemon like Gyarados or Palafin.
EVs and Nature: Like Azumarill, we area bulky physical attacker. The 36 speed EVs are just a bit of speed creep. Other than that, just a pretty standard bulky offense Iron Hands. Adamant Nature increases our damage output a bit as well.
Other Options: You can run Wild Charge over Thunder Punch if you're OK with taking recoil. Honestly, both are good, and just pick whichever one you like most.
Don't Say It (Amoonguss) (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 244 HP / 100 Def / 164 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Pollen Puff
- Clear Smog
Role: Amoonguss is one of the best and most consistent Pokemon in the meta. We've seen many Pokemon rise and fall, but Amoonguss is always there. Amoonguss provides general support for the team. It redirects attacks, heals allies, puts enemies to sleep, and removes stat changes.
Item: Sitrus Berry is pretty normal for Amoonguss. We just get a bit of extra recovery.
Tera Type: Normally we see Tera Water which turns a fire weakness to a resistance. But with rain, fire-type damage is cut in half. So, a Tera Steel Amoonguss gets rid of its weakness to fire from the rain, and steel is just such a strong type defensively.
Moves: Nothing to unusual here. Rage Powder, Spore, and Pollen Puff are all must-haves on Amoonguss. Clear Smog just improves our Dondozo matchup, as otherwise we have no clear way to beat it.
EVs and Nature: We always want Amoonguss to be really bulky, and this spread accomplishes just that. Relaxed Nature increases our defensive bulk and drops our speed, which improves our trick room matchup.
Smiles Back (Chi-Yu) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beads of Ruin
Level: 50
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Dark Pulse
- Nasty Plot
- Protect
Role: Chi-Yu does 2 things for this team: Offense and Support. Offensively, Chi-Yu is a strong special sweeper with Dark Pulse and Heat Wave. It can also set up with Nasty Plot. Chi-Yu support-wise helps Gholdengo in particular. Beads of Ruin boosted Make It Rain, anyone?
Item: To be honest, at first I wasn't a fan of Chi-Yu. It always felt a bit too slow or a bit too frail to me. But Sash Chi-Yu seems really nice. Amoonguss + Chi-Yu, Rage Powder + Nasty Plot, free setup, sweep. Of course, it doesn't always work out this well, but it sure can sometimes!
Tera Type: Since we do have Sash, ghost makes sense as a Tera Type to stop Fake Out and Extreme Speed from breaking the Sash and then getting KO'd.
Moves: The moveset is pretty self-explanatory, nothing to crazy here. Heat Wave and Dark Pulse STAB attacks, Nasty Plot setup, and Protect.
EVs and Nature: Again, nothing too weird here. Max Sp. Atk, Max Spe, just outspeed and damage. Timid ups our speed further.
Other Options: Snarl can replace Nasty Plot if you want a more supportive Chi-Yu.
Monetigo (Gholdengo) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Good as Gold
Level: 50
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 156 SpA / 12 SpD / 84 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Make It Rain
- Shadow Ball
- Thunder
- Trick
Role: Saving the best for last, here it is, Gholdengo! Gholdengo is this team's special attacker and has something rather unique about it in this set: Yep, that's Tera Electric Thunder! When designing this team, I wanted a strong Electric-Type Special Attacker to take advantage of the rain. Unfortunately, Regieleki isn't available yet, so I figured the hunt for an Electric Type Thunder user was a dead end. Enter: Terastallization. I realized that I didn't need to find an Electric-Type, I could make one! I initially went with Flutter Mane, then switched to Gholdengo. Gholdengo is our special sweeper and hits hard with Make It Rain, Shadow Ball, and of course, Tera Electric Thunder!
Item: Gholdengo's speed is, to be honest, a bit sub-par. Choice Scarf fixes that, allowing us to keep pace with much faster threats.
Tera Type: Tera Electric, as outlined above, turns Gholdengo into a Thunder-Spamming Electric STAB sweeper. What fun!
Moves: Make it Rain and Shadow Ball are both standard Gholdengo moves. Thunder is incredibly strong in rain, and trick can annoy opposing Pokemon by locking them into one move.
EVs and Nature: Bulky fast special attacker. Take hits, and more importantly, deal damage. Modest adds more damage.
Other Options: Gholdengo does have one other set I think works well for this team: Air Balloon. Air Balloon + Protect > Trick makes Gholdengo even more defensively strong, removing its weakness to ground and rain removes its weakness to fire. The Ground immunity is helpful to stop TalonChomp teams.
Team Usage Tips:
- Know when to avoid rain - sometimes you can just bring Chi-Yu, Gholdengo, Amoonguss, and Iron Hands.
- Play aggressively. This team is somewhat frail, so try to take them down before they defeat you.
- Don’t underestimate setup. Chi-Yu or Iron Hands + Amoonguss can easily sweep unprepared teams after a Rage Powder and Swords Dance or Nasty Plot.
- Leading Rain isn’t necessary. We can keep Pelipper and Azumarill in the back and use them as an endgame.
- Sometimes, simplicity is best. You don’t really need to play very fancy, just use rain or balance modes.
- Be flexible. There isn’t a single best way to play this team. Decide how to play it based on the matchup.
This team isn’t great into ground-types. Now, most ground-types get taken down by super-effective water attacks, but Garchomp only takes neutral damage from them thanks to its dragon-type. Bring Pelipper (and Air Balloon Gholdengo if you have it) and set up tailwind, then take it down with an Ice Spinner from Azumarill.
These Pokemon aren't threats per se, but they are annoying. They pretty much force a weather war. Bring Pelipper in the back, take them down quick, then switch in Pelipper. It doesn’t always work this well, but it’s our best game plan.
Hands has an offensive typing that’s just really annoying into our team. Try to hit it with Chi-Yu and Gholdengo then finish it off with another attacker. You can also do an Iron Hands mirror because you have Swords Dance.
Replays:
None for now! Will add some soon.
Importable:
https://pokepast.es/669b119fd80a32ce (Nicknames)
https://pokepast.es/7f75a7af75ca8908 (No Nicknames)
Other Teams:
Ruinous Rage - VGC Reg. C Annihilape Maushold MAY BE OUTDATED
Conclusion
Thank you for reading! Enjoy using this team to wash away the competition, and may your Hydro Pumps never miss!
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