I really like Rillaboom's ability to singlehandedly invalidate lots of HOs and gimmicks by virtue of having a really strong priority move, and with the new tools SS has, it's really easy to pivot Magnezone into position to trap + take out the Steel types that hard check Rillaboom. I'm also not the most flashy player ever so I usually like playing a balance to minimize the amount of predictions I need to make within a game. RillaZone offenses typically take a more offensive lean than balance, but with this team, I wanted to see if I could make a RillaZone balance.
The team:
Rillaboom @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Obviously you want a Rillaboom for a RillaZone team. It's an amazing wallbreaker, revenge killer, and wincon with the ability to singlehandedly shut down most rain offenses, gimmicks, and the unprepared HO team and even prepared HO teams with a couple good reads. 91 BP priority is unmatched and even better, it works as priority when you want it to and not priority when you don't want it to (Lele switching in). Sadly, I don't think there's much room to change the last 3 moves, which sucks because I'd really like to fit Drain Punch/Superpower somewhere. But Wood Hammer is essential for breaking walls, Knock Off to remove Heavy Duty Boots from common Flying type switchins, and U-turn to pivot. Adamant to nuke 10% harder, and just hope you don't run into Jolly Choice Band Mamoswine Ice Shard
Magnezone @ Chople Berry
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Iron Defense
- Thunderbolt
- Body Press
- Substitute
Obviously you want a Magnezone for a RillaZone team. I really experimented around with Magnezone. In terms of sets, there's only two options - Iron Defense Body Press or Specs. Specs doesn't beat Ferrothorn, which is both really common and very punishing to Rillaboom by virtue of Iron Barbs and possibly Rocky Helmet, so I went with Body Press. There's a lot of possibilities for items but the one I really ended up liking was Chople Berry. Chople Berry lets you come in on opposing idefense Magnezone and usually win (more on this later), switch in on Kartana SD and tank +2 Sacred Sword + do heavy damage back, comfortably 1v1 bpress Ferro, and I think most importantly always switch into Hawlucha SDing, tank +2 CC, and do enough damage that Rilla can RK with Grassy Glide regardless of what seed the Lucha is. It gives Magnezone a lot of defensive utility which is great, because I found that if there wasn't a Skarm, Corv, or Ferro when using Lefties or Air Balloon, Mag was doing pretty much nothing in the battle.
Set is EV'd to creep Adamant Crawdaunt and cook it with Tbolt, maximize Def for bPress, and rest into HP. Creeping up to 211 could be fine to creep Corviknight creeping Crawdaunt. I don't think there's much point in going past that.
Zeraora @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Knock Off
- Close Combat / Grass Knot
- Volt Switch
Originally this was Tapu Koko but I had a pretty glaring weakness to pivot Dragapult so I wanted an offensive check to it. I also needed an electric immunity since I wasn't able to find space for one. Zera fits these while also retaining the pivoting capability of Koko (to a lesser degree). Pretty straightforward set - Plasma to hit Flying types hard, Knock to knock off Lando's lefties, CC for Ferro, Excadril, Heatran, Blissey. Close Combat could be changed to Grass Knot I guess. A well played Swampert is fairly annoying to the team, and you don't really need CC for Ferro and Excadril given the other members of the team. I wouldn't recommend changing to Naive nature though to better pivot into Koko. Blissey and Heatran do become more of a problem so weigh this carefully.
Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald / Ice Beam
- Future Sight
- Slack Off
- Teleport
Everyone hates Slowking, but unfortunately it's really good at what it does. Just a great pivot into passive mons like Pex and FuturePort breaks teams. It's an alright pivot into Torn and then port out to Zera. You can also scout out any Specs Lele move and, with the rest of the mons, make the appropriate pivot, which is great considering how much of a menace Lele is. Unfortunately this is the closest thing to a special attacker on this team (oops) so you're gonna need the future sight to break stuff like Tangrowth.
Tyranitar @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Blast
- Earthquake
- Rest
Pretty glaring weakness to Specs Draga and other special attackers that Slowking can't handle, not to mention Heatran, so spdef TTar seemed like a suitable next choice. In reality people just click U-Turn with Draga so you have to play this carefully. Rock Blast is an accurate stop to Volcarona and a good way to get some chip onto Lando switching in, especially if lefties have been knocked, along with flying types in general. Earthquake nails Heatran. Given that this will get easily worn down, I opted for Rest as last since there's actually a lot you can Rest on. HDB since you're not really going to be removing hazards all that much.
Corviknight @ Shed Shell
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
Corviknight stops this team from being overrun by Kartana, Rillaboom, and SD Lando while offering a way to get rid of Hazards if they become too unbearable. This team does not win against literally any opposing RillaZone so Shed Shell is really the only option here. You can switch out Corviknight into Magnezone against opposing Magnezone trap, and with Chople berry there's really no way you're losing the 1v1 barring ungodly crit. Heavy Duty Boots would be really nice so I guess if you're good enough to avoid the trap/U turn on the right turns you can go for it. Not me though
. You will have to play this somewhat proactively if you want to avoid Rocks chipping you into the point where you lose.
Results:
Here's a replay of the team against Storm Zone where I get great matchup and I manage to grab the win. Rillaboom doesn't really do anything tho LOL, but had the Ferrothorn not been shed shell and Azu been CB/BD, I think this would've showcased how well this team can handle offensive threats while also tearing apart defensive backbones. Had I known the Ferro was Shed Shell I would've been much more inclined to preserve my Zera at the start of the game, but it didn't seem terribly necessary to the matchup before that. I also thought the Azu was BD/CB so Rillaboom would've been fine to handle that, but it was Trapper so I really did need the Zera.
Things I struggle with:
- Slow turn Lando + breaker: huge problem given how popular defensive lando is. there was a game where I pretty much just lost because Lando would u-turn on my corviknight into specs dragapult, I would switch out to Ttar while they click uturn, repeat. Actually, I won because they miscalced Volc gigadrain but in a real setting I'd either have to make a play or just lose.
- Hydreigon: didn't run into it much but it's pretty tough to deal with it, with TTar being the only good switch. Hydras run earth power anyway so it's definitely something that needs to be played aggressively around.
- bisharp: didn't run into it much but it's a huge threat. Corv can just take +2 Black Glasses Knock after rocks but any chip and it's a big problem.
- Blissey: zera's god awful and doesn't even kill with CC, which is amusing and sad. The only way you're killing this from full on this team is Rilla Wood Hammer, which does 50% in recoil. I think it's much better to try to position it so that you can either reduce the amount of recoil or can use Glide to get the kill.
- tangrowth: honestly not awful considering the best special attacker on this team is slowking, but a well played tang will stop you from making any progress. be sure to scout out the odd specs set and otherwise keep pressure up with sand + burn + future sight.
- Heatran: there's two p good defensive checks (slowking and ttar) and a meh offensive check (CC zera) and Heatran is still an issue, which should just speak volumes about how oppressive Heatran is. Especially if it's running Flame Body. It can really fuck with your game, so a little careful pivoting might be a good idea instead of going for Knock.
- Birds that aren't steel type: always a problem. Another reason for Zera > Koko is the additional Knock on Zapdos, which especially throws a wrench into things by paralyzing Rilla. Torn is somewhat dealt with with Slowking being able to pivot in on anything and Teleport out on anything.
- Creative slowking-g sets: you can probably deal with AV slowking by pivoting in slowking, porting out to Rillaboom and Knocking. CM colbur is a set that I've run into that forces you to give up Zera if you don't manage to kill it with TTar. Doesn't sound threatening but it's something to watch out for.
I feel like this team is alright but definitely some weaknesses that I could use some help on...so rate my team pls :3
The team:
Rillaboom @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Magnezone @ Chople Berry
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Iron Defense
- Thunderbolt
- Body Press
- Substitute
Zeraora @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Knock Off
- Close Combat
- Volt Switch
Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Future Sight
- Slack Off
- Teleport
Tyranitar @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Blast
- Earthquake
- Rest
Corviknight @ Shed Shell
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Magnezone @ Chople Berry
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Iron Defense
- Thunderbolt
- Body Press
- Substitute
Zeraora @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Knock Off
- Close Combat
- Volt Switch
Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Future Sight
- Slack Off
- Teleport
Tyranitar @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Blast
- Earthquake
- Rest
Corviknight @ Shed Shell
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
Rillaboom @ Choice Band
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Obviously you want a Rillaboom for a RillaZone team. It's an amazing wallbreaker, revenge killer, and wincon with the ability to singlehandedly shut down most rain offenses, gimmicks, and the unprepared HO team and even prepared HO teams with a couple good reads. 91 BP priority is unmatched and even better, it works as priority when you want it to and not priority when you don't want it to (Lele switching in). Sadly, I don't think there's much room to change the last 3 moves, which sucks because I'd really like to fit Drain Punch/Superpower somewhere. But Wood Hammer is essential for breaking walls, Knock Off to remove Heavy Duty Boots from common Flying type switchins, and U-turn to pivot. Adamant to nuke 10% harder, and just hope you don't run into Jolly Choice Band Mamoswine Ice Shard
Magnezone @ Chople Berry
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Iron Defense
- Thunderbolt
- Body Press
- Substitute
Obviously you want a Magnezone for a RillaZone team. I really experimented around with Magnezone. In terms of sets, there's only two options - Iron Defense Body Press or Specs. Specs doesn't beat Ferrothorn, which is both really common and very punishing to Rillaboom by virtue of Iron Barbs and possibly Rocky Helmet, so I went with Body Press. There's a lot of possibilities for items but the one I really ended up liking was Chople Berry. Chople Berry lets you come in on opposing idefense Magnezone and usually win (more on this later), switch in on Kartana SD and tank +2 Sacred Sword + do heavy damage back, comfortably 1v1 bpress Ferro, and I think most importantly always switch into Hawlucha SDing, tank +2 CC, and do enough damage that Rilla can RK with Grassy Glide regardless of what seed the Lucha is. It gives Magnezone a lot of defensive utility which is great, because I found that if there wasn't a Skarm, Corv, or Ferro when using Lefties or Air Balloon, Mag was doing pretty much nothing in the battle.
Set is EV'd to creep Adamant Crawdaunt and cook it with Tbolt, maximize Def for bPress, and rest into HP. Creeping up to 211 could be fine to creep Corviknight creeping Crawdaunt. I don't think there's much point in going past that.
Zeraora @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Plasma Fists
- Knock Off
- Close Combat / Grass Knot
- Volt Switch
Originally this was Tapu Koko but I had a pretty glaring weakness to pivot Dragapult so I wanted an offensive check to it. I also needed an electric immunity since I wasn't able to find space for one. Zera fits these while also retaining the pivoting capability of Koko (to a lesser degree). Pretty straightforward set - Plasma to hit Flying types hard, Knock to knock off Lando's lefties, CC for Ferro, Excadril, Heatran, Blissey. Close Combat could be changed to Grass Knot I guess. A well played Swampert is fairly annoying to the team, and you don't really need CC for Ferro and Excadril given the other members of the team. I wouldn't recommend changing to Naive nature though to better pivot into Koko. Blissey and Heatran do become more of a problem so weigh this carefully.
Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald / Ice Beam
- Future Sight
- Slack Off
- Teleport
Everyone hates Slowking, but unfortunately it's really good at what it does. Just a great pivot into passive mons like Pex and FuturePort breaks teams. It's an alright pivot into Torn and then port out to Zera. You can also scout out any Specs Lele move and, with the rest of the mons, make the appropriate pivot, which is great considering how much of a menace Lele is. Unfortunately this is the closest thing to a special attacker on this team (oops) so you're gonna need the future sight to break stuff like Tangrowth.
Tyranitar @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Blast
- Earthquake
- Rest
Pretty glaring weakness to Specs Draga and other special attackers that Slowking can't handle, not to mention Heatran, so spdef TTar seemed like a suitable next choice. In reality people just click U-Turn with Draga so you have to play this carefully. Rock Blast is an accurate stop to Volcarona and a good way to get some chip onto Lando switching in, especially if lefties have been knocked, along with flying types in general. Earthquake nails Heatran. Given that this will get easily worn down, I opted for Rest as last since there's actually a lot you can Rest on. HDB since you're not really going to be removing hazards all that much.
Corviknight @ Shed Shell
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
Corviknight stops this team from being overrun by Kartana, Rillaboom, and SD Lando while offering a way to get rid of Hazards if they become too unbearable. This team does not win against literally any opposing RillaZone so Shed Shell is really the only option here. You can switch out Corviknight into Magnezone against opposing Magnezone trap, and with Chople berry there's really no way you're losing the 1v1 barring ungodly crit. Heavy Duty Boots would be really nice so I guess if you're good enough to avoid the trap/U turn on the right turns you can go for it. Not me though
. You will have to play this somewhat proactively if you want to avoid Rocks chipping you into the point where you lose.Results:
Here's a replay of the team against Storm Zone where I get great matchup and I manage to grab the win. Rillaboom doesn't really do anything tho LOL, but had the Ferrothorn not been shed shell and Azu been CB/BD, I think this would've showcased how well this team can handle offensive threats while also tearing apart defensive backbones. Had I known the Ferro was Shed Shell I would've been much more inclined to preserve my Zera at the start of the game, but it didn't seem terribly necessary to the matchup before that. I also thought the Azu was BD/CB so Rillaboom would've been fine to handle that, but it was Trapper so I really did need the Zera.
Things I struggle with:
- Slow turn Lando + breaker: huge problem given how popular defensive lando is. there was a game where I pretty much just lost because Lando would u-turn on my corviknight into specs dragapult, I would switch out to Ttar while they click uturn, repeat. Actually, I won because they miscalced Volc gigadrain but in a real setting I'd either have to make a play or just lose.
- Hydreigon: didn't run into it much but it's pretty tough to deal with it, with TTar being the only good switch. Hydras run earth power anyway so it's definitely something that needs to be played aggressively around.
- bisharp: didn't run into it much but it's a huge threat. Corv can just take +2 Black Glasses Knock after rocks but any chip and it's a big problem.
- Blissey: zera's god awful and doesn't even kill with CC, which is amusing and sad. The only way you're killing this from full on this team is Rilla Wood Hammer, which does 50% in recoil. I think it's much better to try to position it so that you can either reduce the amount of recoil or can use Glide to get the kill.
- tangrowth: honestly not awful considering the best special attacker on this team is slowking, but a well played tang will stop you from making any progress. be sure to scout out the odd specs set and otherwise keep pressure up with sand + burn + future sight.
- Heatran: there's two p good defensive checks (slowking and ttar) and a meh offensive check (CC zera) and Heatran is still an issue, which should just speak volumes about how oppressive Heatran is. Especially if it's running Flame Body. It can really fuck with your game, so a little careful pivoting might be a good idea instead of going for Knock.
- Birds that aren't steel type: always a problem. Another reason for Zera > Koko is the additional Knock on Zapdos, which especially throws a wrench into things by paralyzing Rilla. Torn is somewhat dealt with with Slowking being able to pivot in on anything and Teleport out on anything.
- Creative slowking-g sets: you can probably deal with AV slowking by pivoting in slowking, porting out to Rillaboom and Knocking. CM colbur is a set that I've run into that forces you to give up Zera if you don't manage to kill it with TTar. Doesn't sound threatening but it's something to watch out for.
I feel like this team is alright but definitely some weaknesses that I could use some help on...so rate my team pls :3
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