VGC My S2 VGC team! :) My 2nd RMT post

[hi1080]

Hello! I decided to try my hand at VGC last season and wanted to improve on a time that I enjoyed using. This is a Meowscarada Balance team or a possible HO/Balance Hybrid team.

The thought process was that I wanted to make a VGC team from an Idea of my own, and that'd be around Two of the strongest attackers this gen, Meow and Gholdengo

Gholdengo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Good as Gold
Level: 50
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Make It Rain
- Trick
- Dazzling Gleam
- Shadow Ball

I wanted to start with Gholdengo first as the Idea arose with him since I had seen him in competitive a few times and saw his amazing SpA stat and his relatively well speed stat. I used a specs attacker set, putting his EVs into SpA and Speed and having a timid nature. In certain situations, I gave it trick just to possibly take down a booster energy or even snatch a Lorb. I put 0 IVs just to help with Foul play Murkow or other Foul Play users.

Meowscarada (F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Protean
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Flower Trick
- Play Rough
- U-turn

Later on, I saw HO was popular this meta and wanted to try my hand at it and failed. The only good thing I got out of it was an idea for meow, giving relatively nice offensive pressure on the other team. I had decided to go with another choice build, as I saw STAB moves with Protean and decided to add more to that with 252 Attack EVs and 252 Speed EVs with the leftover 4 into HP as the extra point could possibly help. The Tera type, I stayed with grass for STAB CB Flower trick, which hits like a truck.

Iron Hands @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wild Charge
- Drain Punch
- Fake Out
- Earthquake

I had gotten a recommendation from a friend to replace iron hands with a bulky support donbozo, and I was skepticle but decided o follow with it. So far its done me well, but the moveset could use some tweaking. I had made it bulky to survive a hit or so from powerhouses this gen. The tera type, I didn't know what to do with it personally, but I kept fighting for STAB Drain punch to get extra health.

Arcanine (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Atk
Impish Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Extreme Speed
- Roar
- Protect

For Arcanine, it was another suggestion from a friend, and I decided to follow with it as I wanted to replace maushold for something more reliable as a support. I made it defensive to help with other Meow's and some of the paradoxes this gen. Will-O-Wisp to help with Iron Valiant possibly and the rest to mess up game plans or provide some longevity and chip damage. I decided to make it Bulky in HP and Def but Im thinking of making it SpDef instead if more SpA rise up in this season.

Murkrow (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 124 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tailwind
- Foul Play
- Haze
- Taunt

I had decided to stick with Murkow as he's such a reliable support with Eviolite bulk, and prankster status moves that are popular this gen. Taunt helps out with set up moves and other things such as Talonflame tailwind users and the extra speed to potentially outspeed other prankster Murkrows. The split defense EV's to help with both IH and other potential threats such as TB Fluttermane and Gholdengo.

Skeledirge (F) @ Throat Spray
Ability: Unaware
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 116 HP / 252 SpA / 140 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Torch Song
- Shadow Ball
- Slack Off
- Yawn

For skeledirge, I had wanted a Bulky pokemon that can resist some things this gen and provide some good swap out bulk, The EV's may be a little weird but I wanted to put more on Skeledirge's amazing HP Stat and its Torch song move. Unaware helps with setups and possibly Annihalape Beat-up Rage fist. Other things to note is the Tera Fairy typing, put that on to help with dark types and deal with RM this gen and Iron Valiant as potential encounters and its a decent defensive tera.

That's all that I have for this team to explain, so I hope I can get some advice from people. :) Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 

[Omastar68]

Is Iron Moth problematic for you? It has the highest SpA stat of this region's dex, and I find it scary. It is weak to Iron Hands EQ, but only 2 of your mons can expect to take an EQ(well, Murkrow is immune so even better, but still.) This means you may have to do lots of damage to a teammate just to try to get rid of iron moth, and it may protect or get wide guard support, thus making that teammate get hurt for little/nothing.

That said I don't play VGC, so while I'd expect most any paradox to be decently common, idk how common iron moth is. Even if it's all over the place I'm no good at solutions, it's rare enough I can find a problem:/ But hopefully knowing this could be one helps. I think if it's a huge deal you could replace something, as specs power gem from Gholdengo does not ohko 0/4 Iron moth, hile even w/ modest odds would be against you slightly.

 

[Gross Sweep]

Hey hi1080, pretty cool team you've cooked up. My first team for season 2 actually had a couple of the same mons. Personally, I think it's to early in the metagame to do an actual rate and go about changing mons and trying to balance out a team for the current meta. Mainly because as all players start to play we can expect the meta to shift fairly quickly. That said there are a few set suggestions I'd like to make that might help you find a bit of extra consistency within the squad.

I really like Skeldirge, and even though it was a little better in season 1 than it has been in season 2 I think it's still a solid choice in the metagame. Personally I prefer Protect over Yawn, but that comes down to preference so I'll leave that decision up to you. A change I would make is Covert Cloak > Throat Spray. Garganacl has the potential to be problematic. Depending on the Tera Type Taunt Murkrow might end up as your only real defense against it. The combination of Covert Cloak + Slack Off allows Skeldirge to easily bypass any Garganacl. I understand the want to power up Skeldirge as fast as possible, but I believe it's better suited at slowly breaking fat + absorbing a few hits and hitting back decently vs offense.

I'm not sure how effective Roar will be on your Arcanine. I would suggest trying out Snarl > Roar. This will give you better supporting options in a wide array of matchups. Between Snarl and Intimidate and Arcanine's natural bulk you can really slow down the opponent. Also with no Fire-type stab to speak of there is zero reason for a pure Fire-type like Arcanine to use it as its Tera-type. I would try out Grass as a Tera-type. It will allow you to resist Water and Ground-type attacks, which will help with Aracnine's longevity.

I really like Iron Hands in this format. Also while I understand its your only Paradox Pokemon I feel like 4 attack sets are better off running Assault Vest right now because of the increased bulk. If you really want to keep it as your Booster Energy user I would suggest playing around with a Swords Dance set, that will allow you to apply a lot of pressure. With SD sets I've been leading Tera Fire since it allow Hands to bypass mons like Arcanine consistently thanks to the burn blocking. If you do try out AV I would consider Tera Ground since it could help power up that fourth slot. Also as Omastar68 mentioned your team doesn't mesh super well with EQ, so maybe try Stomping Tantrum > Earthquake.

That's all I wanted to touch on for now. The team is still far from perfect and needs more tweaks, but I feel like this is a good start and with some more testing I think you'll make this team really great!

 

[hi1080]

Hey hi1080, pretty cool team you've cooked up. My first team for season 2 actually had a couple of the same mons. Personally, I think it's to early in the metagame to do an actual rate and go about changing mons and trying to balance out a team for the current meta. Mainly because as all players start to play we can expect the meta to shift fairly quickly. That said there are a few set suggestions I'd like to make that might help you find a bit of extra consistency within the squad.

I really like Skeldirge, and even though it was a little better in season 1 than it has been in season 2 I think it's still a solid choice in the metagame. Personally I prefer Protect over Yawn, but that comes down to preference so I'll leave that decision up to you. A change I would make is Covert Cloak > Throat Spray. Garganacl has the potential to be problematic. Depending on the Tera Type Taunt Murkrow might end up as your only real defense against it. The combination of Covert Cloak + Slack Off allows Skeldirge to easily bypass any Garganacl. I understand the want to power up Skeldirge as fast as possible, but I believe it's better suited at slowly breaking fat + absorbing a few hits and hitting back decently vs offense.

I'm not sure how effective Roar will be on your Arcanine. I would suggest trying out Snarl > Roar. This will give you better supporting options in a wide array of matchups. Between Snarl and Intimidate and Arcanine's natural bulk you can really slow down the opponent. Also with no Fire-type stab to speak of there is zero reason for a pure Fire-type like Arcanine to use it as its Tera-type. I would try out Grass as a Tera-type. It will allow you to resist Water and Ground-type attacks, which will help with Aracnine's longevity.

I really like Iron Hands in this format. Also while I understand its your only Paradox Pokemon I feel like 4 attack sets are better off running Assault Vest right now because of the increased bulk. If you really want to keep it as your Booster Energy user I would suggest playing around with a Swords Dance set, that will allow you to apply a lot of pressure. With SD sets I've been leading Tera Fire since it allow Hands to bypass mons like Arcanine consistently thanks to the burn blocking. If you do try out AV I would consider Tera Ground since it could help power up that fourth slot. Also as Omastar68 mentioned your team doesn't mesh super well with EQ, so maybe try Stomping Tantrum > Earthquake.

That's all I wanted to touch on for now. The team is still far from perfect and needs more tweaks, but I feel like this is a good start and with some more testing I think you'll make this team really great!

tysm! I appreciate the advice alot lol, Ill add the tweaks and ill try out the AV set!

 

[hi1080]

Is Iron Moth problematic for you? It has the highest SpA stat of this region's dex, and I find it scary. It is weak to Iron Hands EQ, but only 2 of your mons can expect to take an EQ(well, Murkrow is immune so even better, but still.) This means you may have to do lots of damage to a teammate just to try to get rid of iron moth, and it may protect or get wide guard support, thus making that teammate get hurt for little/nothing.

That said I don't play VGC, so while I'd expect most any paradox to be decently common, idk how common iron moth is. Even if it's all over the place I'm no good at solutions, it's rare enough I can find a problem:/ But hopefully knowing this could be one helps. I think if it's a huge deal you could replace something, as specs power gem from Gholdengo does not ohko 0/4 Iron moth, hile even w/ modest odds would be against you slightly.

I havent really encountered it like that tbf, but I think IH w/ Stomping tantrums deals w/ it. + Snarl Arcanine