Pyramid Peril
Introduction
I originally made this team 2 years ago, and despite really liking the team structure I never really used it. I recently started using this team again and its a pretty well made and fun team, so I'm deciding to write about it for what will probably be my last RMT of the current generation. This is by far my most creative and probably my favorite build, at least out of the teams that I've frequently considered bringing in a semi serious/tournament setting, and I've never actually given this team an accurate description for how I play it and why its good, so i figured i may as well write a big and flashy RMT for it. Before we get into the meat of this post, I'm just going to explain the name here instead of dedicating a section to it, as there's really not much to it. I've been playing Cuphead a ton recently, and despite not really liking the aeroplane levels, I had a blast playing through Pyramid Peril, so I decided to name this team after it. There's the obvious reason with it being a sand team and all, but each of the pokemon sort of remind me of the different attacks throughout the fight. I usually name teams after songs/video games i like, and i had yet to give this team an official name before writing this (it was just sitting in my builder as "vish v1" for the longest time) so naming it after one of my favorite levels from one of my favorite games seemed appropriate. With all of that out of the way, lets get to what you came here for, the team itself:
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Team Description
Normally i would talk about my teambuilding process first, but being completely honest here, its been 2 years and a lot of the smaller details about my thought process while building this team have long since been forgotten, and the last thing i would want is to say something misleading or inaccurate, so I'll just get right into talking about the individual members (i also have a bazaar post that briefly explains my thought process if you want to go read that) I'll be going over their sets, why I chose them, what they do, and how to use them in this section.
Dracovish
Dracovish is the main reason I even built this team. It's been DOU by usage since the start of the generation pretty much and has stayed there since, so I decided to build with it. Crunchman Suggested Mystic Water Dracovish with Substitute and Protect, so I tried it and it turns out it's actually amazing. It still kills everything it needs to without band because Fishious Rend is busted, and Substitute is great for punishing switches. In a lot of games, I'll use Dracovish to trade with fast threats like Genesect and Pheromosa, but it can also sweep late game once its threats are removed (which isnt hard to do with this team). Stone edge was chosen to hit Kyurem Black and Volcanion. It doesn't do very much damage, it does about half to both, but in some cases its enough.
Tyranitar
Tyranitar was chosen because I needed a sand setter for Dracovish and Tyranitar is the only viable Sand Stream user. Crunchman also suggested Choice Band on Tyranitar, and i fell in love with band ttar after trying it. In my opinion its the best set but a lot of people disagree, which is fine. Tyranitar's role is primarily a sand setter here, but it does a bunch of other things that are much more important than a simple ability bot. Firstly, with choice band it does very sizeable damage with Stone Edge to basically everything in the tier (All of my Choice Band Tyranitar calcs can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ye0dOG-qOV_S-30LLxj4eiXe7glSODCqh0PgndhchvU/edit) while still having good special bulk. This makes it a major source of damage for this team. A lot of teams in the current meta just don't have rock resists, and Tyranitar abuses that quite well. Secondly, its dark typing allows it to stand in the way of popular psyspam teams, and combined with Snarl Mew, can halt progress entirely in some cases while still dealing amazing damage. This Tyranitar set provides good immediate damage while also providing great defensive utility
Heatran
Heatran was added as a check to common grass types like Rillaboom that beat Dracovish and Heatran. I chose Life Orb because flash cannon for diancie and kyurem black seemed more valuable than being able to click eruption, especially when heat wave is still a respectably powerful spread move, especially when boosted by Life Orb. Heatrans role here is to provide immediate damage to the team through its powerful heat waves as well as a bit of defensive utility with it being able to switch into a myriad of attacks due to it's amazing defensive typing and great natural bulk.
Mew
Mew is a blanket check to a lot of things through its Snarl + WIll-o-Wisp set, as well as providing speed control with Tailwind. I chose Safety Goggles for its item here as a sleep check, and gave it Ice Beam to help with the Landorus matchup. Mew is often times a lead and on this team is generally used to slow opposing progress, allowing you to weaken things and make progress towards your win condition of a Dracovish endgame. It can also be used to remove key threats and provide some much needed speed control in the form of Tailwind. For example, you can use mew in the rain matchup to burn Ferrothorn and Urshifu to allow more of your pokemon to take hits from it, or throw off an ice beam into Zygarde or Landorus to remove or severely cripple them.
Tsareena
Tsareena deters moves like Fake Out and Grassy Glide which would otherwise be very annoying for this team due to the lack of pokemon with Protect. I chose the Assault Vest set because i didn't need Taunt on Tsareena and I valued the ability to repeatedly switch into things more than having a second taunt, though running Taunt is definitely an option here. The Tsareena spread allows it to OHKO Dragapult with Triple Axel as well as live Incineroar's Flare Blitz from full HP. Feint and High Jump Kick are both usable, but after testing both I personally prefer Feint here
Zeraora
Zeraora provides more immediate speed as well as some extra damage and utility. Taunt helps with the Trick Room matchup and you also have the option of Taunting Tailwind users, as even adamant Zeraora is faster than every relevant tailwind user other than Whimsicott which outspeeds due to its Prankster ability. Expert Belt along with an Adamant nature allow Zeraora to OHKO Dragapult with Knock Off as well as Urshifu with Plasma Fists. Zeraora can be used as a lead for its fast Fake out and access to Taunt, but it also helps remove threats like Dragapult which would otherwise be difficult to remove.
Problematic/Bad Matchups
Incineroar is more of a mild annoyance than a bad matchup. A lot of your damage output comes from physical damage, so anything that can nerf physical attackers, such as intimidate or will o wisp is naturally going to be an annoyance
Just the Shift Gear set though, scarf is manageable. If Shift Gear Genesect gets set up, it can straight up OHKO everything on this team except for heatran, and most Shift Gear Genesect teams use Zygarde or Fini for fire types
This team can struggle with fast fighting types like Pheromosa, Scarf Urshifu, and even Galarian Zapdos because mew, your only fighting resist, just gets u turned on until they can close combat everything. Its definitely a playable matchup, you have dracovish and zeraora which can trade with a lot of these mons, but they can be a little annoying
This matchup is playable, its just sort of annoying because of how bulky cress is, making it very difficult to actually break. Unlike Porygon2, it can also afford mental herb, so using taunt to prevent trick room doesn't even consistently work. Its playable between zeraora and ttar as well as snarl mew weakening it, but it definitely can be annoying
Closing Thoughts
I really like this team, its one of the most original teams I've built that i would call good. It's not the easiest thing in the world to use, but it's very fun when it works and i would definitely recommend giving it a try. It has a 0% winrate in osdt, but that's mostly due to me being dumb than any issues with the team. Speaking of which, here are some replays where i'm not dumb:
Replays
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1585990726
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1631631056
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1631782505-cvlvb17penhm3jjwccanr6je3kfcho6pw
Importable
https://pokepast.es/3f5fdc7069b0c71f
I'll do shoutouts as well because I've seen others do it and I also just kinda want to as this is (probably) my last RMT of the gen
Shoutouts
If i missed anyone, i deeply apologize, it wasnt intentional my memory just sucks
I hope you enjoy the team, I certainly enjoyed making and using it. Also listen to the Pyramid Peril music, it's really good. Cuphead music in general is amazing
Introduction
I originally made this team 2 years ago, and despite really liking the team structure I never really used it. I recently started using this team again and its a pretty well made and fun team, so I'm deciding to write about it for what will probably be my last RMT of the current generation. This is by far my most creative and probably my favorite build, at least out of the teams that I've frequently considered bringing in a semi serious/tournament setting, and I've never actually given this team an accurate description for how I play it and why its good, so i figured i may as well write a big and flashy RMT for it. Before we get into the meat of this post, I'm just going to explain the name here instead of dedicating a section to it, as there's really not much to it. I've been playing Cuphead a ton recently, and despite not really liking the aeroplane levels, I had a blast playing through Pyramid Peril, so I decided to name this team after it. There's the obvious reason with it being a sand team and all, but each of the pokemon sort of remind me of the different attacks throughout the fight. I usually name teams after songs/video games i like, and i had yet to give this team an official name before writing this (it was just sitting in my builder as "vish v1" for the longest time) so naming it after one of my favorite levels from one of my favorite games seemed appropriate. With all of that out of the way, lets get to what you came here for, the team itself:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Team Description
Normally i would talk about my teambuilding process first, but being completely honest here, its been 2 years and a lot of the smaller details about my thought process while building this team have long since been forgotten, and the last thing i would want is to say something misleading or inaccurate, so I'll just get right into talking about the individual members (i also have a bazaar post that briefly explains my thought process if you want to go read that) I'll be going over their sets, why I chose them, what they do, and how to use them in this section.
Dracovish
Dracovish is the main reason I even built this team. It's been DOU by usage since the start of the generation pretty much and has stayed there since, so I decided to build with it. Crunchman Suggested Mystic Water Dracovish with Substitute and Protect, so I tried it and it turns out it's actually amazing. It still kills everything it needs to without band because Fishious Rend is busted, and Substitute is great for punishing switches. In a lot of games, I'll use Dracovish to trade with fast threats like Genesect and Pheromosa, but it can also sweep late game once its threats are removed (which isnt hard to do with this team). Stone edge was chosen to hit Kyurem Black and Volcanion. It doesn't do very much damage, it does about half to both, but in some cases its enough.
Tyranitar
Tyranitar was chosen because I needed a sand setter for Dracovish and Tyranitar is the only viable Sand Stream user. Crunchman also suggested Choice Band on Tyranitar, and i fell in love with band ttar after trying it. In my opinion its the best set but a lot of people disagree, which is fine. Tyranitar's role is primarily a sand setter here, but it does a bunch of other things that are much more important than a simple ability bot. Firstly, with choice band it does very sizeable damage with Stone Edge to basically everything in the tier (All of my Choice Band Tyranitar calcs can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ye0dOG-qOV_S-30LLxj4eiXe7glSODCqh0PgndhchvU/edit) while still having good special bulk. This makes it a major source of damage for this team. A lot of teams in the current meta just don't have rock resists, and Tyranitar abuses that quite well. Secondly, its dark typing allows it to stand in the way of popular psyspam teams, and combined with Snarl Mew, can halt progress entirely in some cases while still dealing amazing damage. This Tyranitar set provides good immediate damage while also providing great defensive utility
Heatran
Heatran was added as a check to common grass types like Rillaboom that beat Dracovish and Heatran. I chose Life Orb because flash cannon for diancie and kyurem black seemed more valuable than being able to click eruption, especially when heat wave is still a respectably powerful spread move, especially when boosted by Life Orb. Heatrans role here is to provide immediate damage to the team through its powerful heat waves as well as a bit of defensive utility with it being able to switch into a myriad of attacks due to it's amazing defensive typing and great natural bulk.
Mew
Mew is a blanket check to a lot of things through its Snarl + WIll-o-Wisp set, as well as providing speed control with Tailwind. I chose Safety Goggles for its item here as a sleep check, and gave it Ice Beam to help with the Landorus matchup. Mew is often times a lead and on this team is generally used to slow opposing progress, allowing you to weaken things and make progress towards your win condition of a Dracovish endgame. It can also be used to remove key threats and provide some much needed speed control in the form of Tailwind. For example, you can use mew in the rain matchup to burn Ferrothorn and Urshifu to allow more of your pokemon to take hits from it, or throw off an ice beam into Zygarde or Landorus to remove or severely cripple them.
Tsareena
Tsareena deters moves like Fake Out and Grassy Glide which would otherwise be very annoying for this team due to the lack of pokemon with Protect. I chose the Assault Vest set because i didn't need Taunt on Tsareena and I valued the ability to repeatedly switch into things more than having a second taunt, though running Taunt is definitely an option here. The Tsareena spread allows it to OHKO Dragapult with Triple Axel as well as live Incineroar's Flare Blitz from full HP. Feint and High Jump Kick are both usable, but after testing both I personally prefer Feint here
Zeraora
Zeraora provides more immediate speed as well as some extra damage and utility. Taunt helps with the Trick Room matchup and you also have the option of Taunting Tailwind users, as even adamant Zeraora is faster than every relevant tailwind user other than Whimsicott which outspeeds due to its Prankster ability. Expert Belt along with an Adamant nature allow Zeraora to OHKO Dragapult with Knock Off as well as Urshifu with Plasma Fists. Zeraora can be used as a lead for its fast Fake out and access to Taunt, but it also helps remove threats like Dragapult which would otherwise be difficult to remove.
Problematic/Bad Matchups
Incineroar is more of a mild annoyance than a bad matchup. A lot of your damage output comes from physical damage, so anything that can nerf physical attackers, such as intimidate or will o wisp is naturally going to be an annoyance
Just the Shift Gear set though, scarf is manageable. If Shift Gear Genesect gets set up, it can straight up OHKO everything on this team except for heatran, and most Shift Gear Genesect teams use Zygarde or Fini for fire types
This team can struggle with fast fighting types like Pheromosa, Scarf Urshifu, and even Galarian Zapdos because mew, your only fighting resist, just gets u turned on until they can close combat everything. Its definitely a playable matchup, you have dracovish and zeraora which can trade with a lot of these mons, but they can be a little annoying
This matchup is playable, its just sort of annoying because of how bulky cress is, making it very difficult to actually break. Unlike Porygon2, it can also afford mental herb, so using taunt to prevent trick room doesn't even consistently work. Its playable between zeraora and ttar as well as snarl mew weakening it, but it definitely can be annoying
Closing Thoughts
I really like this team, its one of the most original teams I've built that i would call good. It's not the easiest thing in the world to use, but it's very fun when it works and i would definitely recommend giving it a try. It has a 0% winrate in osdt, but that's mostly due to me being dumb than any issues with the team. Speaking of which, here are some replays where i'm not dumb:
Replays
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1585990726
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1631631056
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1631782505-cvlvb17penhm3jjwccanr6je3kfcho6pw
Importable
https://pokepast.es/3f5fdc7069b0c71f
I'll do shoutouts as well because I've seen others do it and I also just kinda want to as this is (probably) my last RMT of the gen
Shoutouts
Crunchman for suggesting the Dracovish and Tyranitar sets, he's also just a good player and person in general. Playing against Crunch earlier in my "career" as a mons player has helped me improve a lot
Actuarily and zee for giving me a chance in Doubles World Cup (i was not very helpful or good back then, sorry lol) and also just being great, friendly people. Actuarily specifically has helped me improve a lot, and a lot of my inspiration for teams and even the way i build/play is inspired by him
NinjaSnapple and That Dude for helping me build/test teams. I've known NinjaSnapple since i started taking pokemon seriously, That Dude i havent known for as long but he's still a pretty cool dude and has also helped me improve a lot
Memoric for helping me with some of my earlier teams. I don't know Memoric as well as some of the other people here, but they were and still are a massive part of my mons journey, so i'm going to include them (sorry for ghosting you in osdt btw)
MADARAAAA for helping me test teams and being relatively friendly towards me. They're a very cool person and has been a massive part of my motivation to improve, theyre also really good at mons imo :D
dnagerbdager for being an amazing person and great part of this community. They're also co-hosting the teambuilding comp with me and were on my World Cup team, and they've been amazing to be around both times (not like physically be around, this was over discord, but you know what i mean!)
RelicanthPrimal for being a major part of my motivation to improve. Relicanth is pretty epic, and so is the person who has Relicanth in their smogon username, what a coincidence!
Actuarily and zee for giving me a chance in Doubles World Cup (i was not very helpful or good back then, sorry lol) and also just being great, friendly people. Actuarily specifically has helped me improve a lot, and a lot of my inspiration for teams and even the way i build/play is inspired by him
NinjaSnapple and That Dude for helping me build/test teams. I've known NinjaSnapple since i started taking pokemon seriously, That Dude i havent known for as long but he's still a pretty cool dude and has also helped me improve a lot
Memoric for helping me with some of my earlier teams. I don't know Memoric as well as some of the other people here, but they were and still are a massive part of my mons journey, so i'm going to include them (sorry for ghosting you in osdt btw)
MADARAAAA for helping me test teams and being relatively friendly towards me. They're a very cool person and has been a massive part of my motivation to improve, theyre also really good at mons imo :D
dnagerbdager for being an amazing person and great part of this community. They're also co-hosting the teambuilding comp with me and were on my World Cup team, and they've been amazing to be around both times (not like physically be around, this was over discord, but you know what i mean!)
RelicanthPrimal for being a major part of my motivation to improve. Relicanth is pretty epic, and so is the person who has Relicanth in their smogon username, what a coincidence!
If i missed anyone, i deeply apologize, it wasnt intentional my memory just sucks
I hope you enjoy the team, I certainly enjoyed making and using it. Also listen to the Pyramid Peril music, it's really good. Cuphead music in general is amazing
