Introduction
As gen 8 comes to a close, I want to share my favourite/most fun team for this tier, having played it for about a year. The final version of the team is halfway between HO and (slightly bulky) offense, leaning heavily into the defensive profiles of the members to find as many opportunities as possible to break holes. This is greatly assisted by spamming taunt, (which 5/6 members could run if you felt like it) to help with the general momentum loss of not being a full HO team. It is inherently flawed since it relies heavily not only on the surprise factor but also inaccurate moves, so I doubt it’s possible to ladder very far with it. That said, its very fun and it’s the most effort I’ve put into making a Pokémon work, plus I did made it to no 65 at one point (gxe is ass but that’s the cost of running power whip and being bad :pensive:)
Teambuilding Process
Nihilegoat
As gen 8 comes to a close, I want to share my favourite/most fun team for this tier, having played it for about a year. The final version of the team is halfway between HO and (slightly bulky) offense, leaning heavily into the defensive profiles of the members to find as many opportunities as possible to break holes. This is greatly assisted by spamming taunt, (which 5/6 members could run if you felt like it) to help with the general momentum loss of not being a full HO team. It is inherently flawed since it relies heavily not only on the surprise factor but also inaccurate moves, so I doubt it’s possible to ladder very far with it. That said, its very fun and it’s the most effort I’ve put into making a Pokémon work, plus I did made it to no 65 at one point (gxe is ass but that’s the cost of running power whip and being bad :pensive:)
Teambuilding Process
Nihilegoat
I started off with Nihilego having seen it mentioned and used in the vr thread nominating it to C, which got my interest. Nihilego has a combination of unique and valuable traits, most notably possessing massive special bulk along with a valuable combination of resistances, especially fire, fairy, and flying, allowing it to compress defensive roles in a unique way. Nihilego's second defining trait is it’s extremely potent meteor beam combined with beast boost allowing it to sweep later in a game. In order for this to happen, however, many things must have aligned beforehand, such as the removal or weakening of a handful of specific Pokémon who completely wall it. I therefore made this team with that single goal in mind, and I believe I have come close to doing it efficiently. Before the other members are shown, the Nihilego set used:
Nihilego @ Power Herb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 88 Def / 172 SpA / 248 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Meteor Beam
- Sludge Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Pain Split / Power Gem / Grass Knot / Thunderbolt / Stealth Rock / Toxic Spikes
Garchomp, and enough defence is run to survive a 
Hawlucha close combat after rocks or a banded 
urshifu aqua jet from full. The fourth moves I have not decided on completely and there are arguments for all of them. Power gem is a good neutral stab that allows you to do more damage to and KO several Pokémon after consuming the power herb that sludge wave cannot, such as 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
and 
. Grass knot hits 
, 
, and 
who otherwise wall Nihilego. Thunderbolt hits pex the hardest and remains a good way to check zard y and corv if the power herb is used. Pain split is my personal choice of coverage move as it allows you to accumulate several meteor beams in front of 
Chansey and pain split back massive amounts of hp. Some stall teams lacking gastro or pex can just lose to pain split nihilego. Stealth rock/tspikes is an option to make progress off a forced switch.From there I essentially slotted nihilego onto a pretty standard HO team, where the members were:
Spikes stacking is something I found extremely effective while using nihilego. Every single one of its checks bar a couple are especially vulnerable to spikes, namely the steels who lack recovery (tran, drill, melmetal, zone, ferrothorn), chansey, tyranitar, and hippo. Slowking g, pex, (when no tbolt) and boots gastrodon (when no grass knot) still wall it fine but there are other ways to deal with them. Having realised this, I wanted to find the most effective spikes setting and maintenance method. This HO team had to go through several iterations until the final team was reached.
Mew -> Greninja
Greninja (M) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Hydro Pump / Grass Knot / Ice Beam
Protean Greninja is one of the best teammates for nihilego, since it invites and removes
Ferrothorn by pretending to be ash with hp fire, and can also remove any 
M Scizors looking to trade damage for the u-turn ko. Taking mew's slot, it was originally a sash lead as well, but as this team shifted away from HO I experimented with z moves (bloom doom/shattered psyche) for the ground types and pex who wall nihilego. I believe that the z move is more important on Lele, however, so I settled on expert belt. It is still one of the 2 Pokémon that will be lead most often. HP Fire and spikes are mandatory, and taunt allows it to prevent defog attempts from Corv, 
Rotom W, and Zapdos, as well as preventing opposing hazards from most due to how fast it is. The 4th move can be many things, but I settled on hydro pump for ohkoing 
lando, 
drill, and volc while still doing good damage to garchomp and zapdos. Grass knot can be used if you feel like there is an outbreak of water/grounds and you need the second grass move.Serperior -> Tapu Lele
Tapu Lele @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Psychic Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast
- Taunt \ Hidden Power [Fire]
Set Details
HP fire hits ferrothorn without burning the z move and mega scizor, while taunt helps 1v1 clefable and chansey and helps with the general loss of momentum that comes with bringing lele in. Rest is standard.
Galarian Zapdos -> Lando T
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
Earthquake
U-turn
Stone Edge
Hidden Power [Ice]
Zapdos-Galar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Defiant
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Thunderous Kick
Both of these Pokémon occupy a scarfer slot on this team, and i think they are almost equally viable on this team, but I prefer using lando. G zapdos provides better revenge killing ability with its speed tier and stabs, e.g. outspeeding adamant
M Swampert in the rain, and checks 
Kart and 
Rillaboom for the one time. It also provides defog punishment, something which is generally synonymous with hazard stack and HO in general, but again as this team shifts away from classic HO I feel it becomes less important. Another thing I dislike about it is that it has to win a lot of speed ties ( , , 
). Lando is better defensively, providing the electric immunity that the team would otherwise lack, but it’s speed tier and cleaning abilities make the team a bit more vulnerable to faster scarfers like Tapu Lele and Kyurem . When using G Zapdos, consider adamant stone edge on m gyarados to lure kanto Zapdos . Sets are mostly standard, hp ice lando helps revenge kill Garchomp and opposing lando.Volcarona -> Melmetal/Corviknight
Having all but abandoned the HO structure at this point, this slot is now occupied by a steel type. AV melmetal was the original choice for a very long time since it provides very high breaking power despite its momentum drain, while checking a large amount of the metagame (most importantly lele, kart, weavile, and rillaboom but also many more). It is of course easy to wear down by these Pokémon it is supposed to check but it’s poor longevity does not matter as much on this team, where checking things twice is all you need most of the time.
Melmetal @ Assault Vest
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 148 SpD / 108 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Double Iron Bash
- Thunder Punch
- Superpower
- Earthquake
Superpower was helpful for denting Ferrothorn to allow Nihilego an easier time and earthquake lets you trade against
Heatran. 108 speed makes you faster than 
Hippo and 
Tangrowth to try for a bash flinch, although being faster than corv means you can’t make the heat eq reads on roost. I used melmetal for the majority of this teams existence, and I still thought it was worth mentioning as a viable (and definitely more conventional) member, but I have recently been impressed by a more eccentric choice:Corviknight @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 28 SpD / 68 Spe
Impish Nature
- U-turn
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Taunt
Corv is seemingly too passive to fit, but as other members changed from staple HO sweepers to wallbreakers, melmetals lack of longevity appears to have caught up as the games got longer. As I said before, there is massive pressure on this slot to check
rillaboom, kyurem, lele, 
weavile, kartana, 
M Lopunny, drill, and 
kommo o. Thanks to roost and it’s mixed bulk corv is probably the only Pokémon able to do this. I tried a bulk up body press set but the team is already matchup fishing as is and the U-turn momentum is appreciated.Set details
I will now try to justify the goofy 4th move: because of how important spikes are to Nihilego, and because of the fact that gren is a not-quite-suicide lead and can therefore not keep its hazard game up for very long, the prevention of opposing hazards and more importantly defog attempts becomes the priority, rather than corvs usual job of removing hazards from both sides. Taunt is therefore the tech here, stopping corv from being both setup fodder and from inviting defoggers like zapdos (on switchin) and opposing corv get rid of the spikes with ease. This move also has the benefit of stopping all walls (
ferro, 
clef, pex, chansey, corv) from healing and setting hazards, allowing corv to either win the 1v1 or uturn to a teammate knowing that they are forced to attack. It is also no longer setup fodder for 
reuniclus.68 speed lets you outspeed no investment m scizor and below, in order to taunt it before it can sd, but you win the 1v1 regardless. The added speed also lets you prevent defog attempts from opposing corv. Brave bird is the chosen attack to beat clef, mega scizor, and rillaboom as quickly as possible, while not being free setup for volcarona. The defence evs allow you live 2 mega lopunny close combats after rocks. Because of the fast nature of the team, progress must be made at all times, which the rocky helmet allows corviknight to do, limiting the amount of attempts that rillaboom, landorus and protean greninja get to switch in and out with uturn. It also helps with chipping a taunted mega scizor, ferrothorn, or chansey.
Mega Gyarados
Gyarados-Mega @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Mold Breaker
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant/Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Power Whip
- Earthquake / Stone Edge / Crunch
Mega Gyarados has been replaced a few times, but I eventually returned to it. The only replacement I would consider is Zard X for the stall matchup, but Gyarados' typing is too valuable. It provides the team with an rain matchup between stone edge and power whip, and checks both
greninjas, weavile, landorus, heatran, volcarona, mega swampert, and urshifu r in at least one of its forms.
Set Details
Waterfall is a required stab, and power whip is necessary to lure the water grounds and fini for itself and its teammates. I prefer the 4th move as earthquake to hit pex but stone edge is helpful to hit/ko zapdos, both zards, 
pelipper, and kyurem. Crunch is another option mostly for the neutral stab hit on ferrothorn but this team is almost completely dedicated to removing ferrothorn without using magnezone at this point, and Gyarados appreciates the coverage. Adamant gives you better rolls on physdef zapdos with stone edge at +1(which is especially beneficial when using g zapdos as previously mentioned) and earthquake on pex at +0, but leaves you slower than 
koko at +1. I reckon it’s personal preference. Kommo o: Lele is not a very sturdy fairy and can't really switch in hard on anything that isnt a hard read on a stab move/soulblaze . After that, kommo can sweep the rest of the team pretty easily using gyarados or gren as setup fodder. It is very prone to spikes and can be checked pretty well by corv, although with the soulblaze defence boost you will not win the 1v1 if it has enough hp. Toxapex: Lele as hard switchin to pex works generally considering longevity is not too important, but the follow up (having forced pex out) must make a lot of progress or lele will be worn down too quickly by toxic or scald + burn. Nihilego can run thunderbolt > pain split to help beat it too. Pex is also vulnerable to spikes and taunt, but if it is allowed to stay too healthy it can be too much to break. Twave chansey: you need taunt Lele to beat it, since nihilego will be crippled too much by twave to make staying in to pain split + stacking meteor beam worth it.
Venusaur: in sun, it can setup on gyarados and is pretty hard to stop. This team has no priority because of how important psychic terrain is, so in general if the opponent has anything faster than scarf lando's speed control can cover, it will be hard to revenge kill it. General counterplay is to outpressure sun by getting +2 on gyarados/nihilego as soon as possible since defensively outplaying all 8 sun turns is pretty hard.Replays
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldex-1647832832-muu3d8alks1wm9kd981gbrykwz4ukcxpw - M gyara v rainhttps://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldex-1664258381-n08rkddn8i5mtwkhvviki406r9vub6npw - pain split nihilego demo
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldex-1669237157-ivj13pd33mq7ctqqeqwzy50cafkcp0ypw - sometimes you just have the right coverage
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldex-1663568069-srflqk6ix3k4p73kr1mlyyvzld956hwpw - using hp fire for steel removal
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldex-1647195731-osfl0ua81wvm7jp2vfu8kn95425p8fdpw - nihilego vs no venusaur sun
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