SP Shared Power - Survey at post 418

[Bobsican]

I've been playing around with this meta for a while now, it's pretty fun. I've been mainly running a poison team, started out with merciless and toxic debris and built up from there. I've been running into a few troubles with stall teams becoming more prominent, and while I'm aware this team won't ever be competitively viable I'm wondering if there are any tweaks I can make to give it a bit more power.
Glimmora @ Focus Sash
Ability: Toxic Debris
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Mortal Spin
- Power Gem

Toxapex @ Leftovers
Ability: Merciless
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Venoshock
- Recover
- Surf

Salazzle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Corrosion
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Protect
- Flamethrower
- Sludge Bomb

Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flash Cannon
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- U-turn

Gengar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cursed Body
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Toxic
- Toxic Spikes
- Shadow Ball

Golduck @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cloud Nine
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flip Turn
- Aqua Jet
- Knock Off
- Encore

Glimmora, Toxapex, and Salazzle provide the necessary abilities to make the gimmick work, being Toxic Debris, Merciless, and Corrosion. Glimmora is the usual lead, getting rocks and a few layers of spikes, while keeping rocks off with Mortal Spin. Keeping rocks off is central for this team to function, as I'm running 4 sashes to maximize poison turns. I've found that keeping up with the offensive power of the meta is almost impossible when 3 ability slots are dedicated to poison, so using sashes and protect helps maximize toxic damage and put targets into good ranges for kills.

Hydreigon can probably have it's set tweaked a little bit, but levitate is a great ability when you have this many poison types. As well, it gives you a built in spikes immunity, which allows you to sac Glimmora against some electric terrain teams that only have Pincurchin's spikes for hazards. Scarf is useful for outspeeding basically the entire unboosted meta, and Merciless + T-Spikes giving infinite crits allows for Draco Meteor to sweep weakened teams. Hydreigon is the pokemon that's given this team the most success, and Levitate has definitely caught a few people off guard, and can make Toxapex and Glimmora incredibley tanky against certain movesets.

Gengar could probably use some tweaks to it's set as well. Having manual toxic spikes is necessary against special spam teams, and another toxic spreader can take pressure off against levitate teams. As well, shadow ball does decent damage when it's guaranteed to crit, and Cursed Body has clutched up a few games, particularily against multi-hit teams or anything featuring Maushold. Gengar could definitely be replaced, I'm not sure what with though.

The final team slot is still up in the air, I'm currently running Golduck, but I've had Fezandipiti and Wo-Chien as candidates before. Another sash user can provide some extra chip from poison, and potentially score a K.O. against weakened teams, but Golduck often lacks the power to take kills cleanly. The only reason I'm using Golduck is because of the insane number of weather teams I've faced on ladder recently. It seems like 2 out of every 3 battles is against some sort of sun or rain team. Before Golduck, Leaf Guard + Drought was an unplayable matchup, and same with Hydration + Drizzle. It still can't help against Natural Cure + Levitate, but thankfully that archetype is a bit more uncommon on ladder. I'm sure that there's some other pokemon that would fit a lot better here, I'm not sure what it is though. Any advice would be great!

You could try to fit a Sniper mon (for example, benefits from Draco Meteor always having 130 BP out of critical hits ignoring the SpA drops) so Merciless can do even more damage, you could also want some more special breakers over trying to Toxic stall without any proper defensive backbone whatsoever, especially as that's part of the appeal of Merciless.
Psychic Terrain from (male) is also really potent in offensive teams as it prevents just losing to priority semi-consistently over trying to cheese with Cursed Body, and is a good mon to enable bulk at all, which is worth experimenting with as there aren't many picks to buff SpD with abilities besides .

Don't worry if your team feels inconsistent, by going over unusual stuff sometimes you can find gems, you're also welcome to discuss any thoughts on the current metagame.

 

[KaenSoul]

Mewtwo and Iron Crown are now banned from Shared Power!
With Ice Scales restricted, it was to be expected that multiple high power special attackers would stop being OK, Mewtwo had some crazy synergy with Psychic Terrain as is an extremely fast Psychic Type that packs some serious destructive power, leaving little defensive and offensive counterplay. Meanwhile, Iron Crown has synergy with both Psychic and Electric terrains, making use of Agility or Quark Drive to make up for its average speed and more importantly, it got a signature move that may be compatible with the highest amount of strong abilities available, with Technician, Steely Spirit and Sharpness all giving it a x1.5 damage boost on top of whatever else you may want to run, extremely limiting its defensive counterplay even before clicking CM.

We are voting on some more stuff, but the full slate will come later this week.

 

[Bobsican]

While we're onto high multipliers, I'd like to talk about the following:

It's no secret that Population Bomb looks like an OP move between Skill Link, No Guard or Compound Eyes making it have netically 200 BP + Sharpness, + Adaptability + its own Technician reaching over 4 times that (including its innate STAB), but even that doesn't go as far as 's Tachyon Cutter, let's show some calcs:

252 Atk Choice Band Technician Adaptability Sharpness Maushold Population Bomb (10 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mew: 740-880 (183.1 - 217.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Technician Adaptability Sharpness Steely Spirit Iron Crown Tachyon Cutter (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Mew: 760-896 (188.1 - 221.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

To put that into perspective:

252 SpA Choice Specs Technician Adaptability Sharpness Steely Spirit Iron Crown Tachyon Cutter (2 hits) vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Eviolite Vessel of Ruin Chansey: 368-436 (52.3 - 62%) -- approx. 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Technician Adaptability Sharpness Steely Spirit Iron Crown Tachyon Cutter (2 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Heatran: 182-214 (47.1 - 55.4%) -- approx. 75.8% chance to 2HKO

Do note that Iron Crown sets abusing Quark Drive do use slightly less SpA to have it trigger on Speed to shred offensive teams as well, although SpA Quark Drive doesn't sound too bad to raise OHKO odds.
I've also emulated the ability stacking with stat changes, namely a single boost to Atk/SpA, and a single drop to Def/SpD on the opponent, plus a compatible Tera type for Adaptability.

Indeed, it can 2HKO the bulkiest special wall in the entire metagame even with the sole SpD kind-of boost compatible that isn't restricted, ever thought was broken?

Tera Water Chansey does wall , but being required to Tera it early so it can't be overwhelmed long-term compromises the rest of the team, let alone that limiting stall teams, and more importantly that only fitting in stall, so it's no wonder it got quickbanned.

However, while in raw damage output does almost as much damage as , you now may ask, why isn't banned? And the answer lies on a funny dog, namely .

Population Bomb is a contact move, and therefore it can be boosted by Tough Claws to do even more raw damage output than , but Fluffy straight up halves that damage, add to that being fairly common as well to stack that into an effective x2.5 defensive multiplier and you get:

252 Atk Choice Band Technician Adaptability Sharpness Maushold Population Bomb (10 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tablets of Ruin Fluffy Mew: 300-360 (74.2 - 89.1%) -- approx. 2HKO

Which still sounds quite scary on paper, but between Ghost-types limiting teams centered around Maushold to carry a Scrappy or Mind's Eye user, and some Skill Link, Compound Eyes or No Guard, Maushold team structures have quite minimal synergy between its allies, which isn't the same for between , and some offensive lead like or complementing each other well. In total Rock- and more notably Steel-types still comfortably come into Maushold, and more importantly all of that leaves no space to fit to avoid dying to priority, which is relevant as strong priority users are fairly common, or for to ignore Fluffy, thus quite limiting teambuilding, and Maushold has no relevant resists to really sponge much at all compared to , so it's easy to revenge kill even by , and by extension if it doesn't OHKO it often is KOed in return as well. I do have to admit that Tidy Up sets may have potential to be too much, but that will only be known as the meta develops with now gone.

Don't get me wrong, is still very formidable overall and for a reason it's high on the VR, but I thought it'd be interesting to do a comparison between and .

 

[abemaster5]

I just fell onto my knees in the middle of walmart


I knew crown was gonna go after ice scales got banned due to the insane modifiers it held with tachyon cutter, technician? sharpness? steely spirit? adaptability? quark drive? I've seen this thing OHKO too many things even when ice scales was allowed. Imagine if steelworker was allowed then shit would really get insane.

 

[TeamRocketBboi]

Thank goodness Crown is gone, but with Mewtwo having to pack their bags with it, let's hope Harvest teams don't make a comeback. I suppose there's still good substitutes in Calyrex and Weavile, but Mewtwo's immediate power in conjunction with Pressure was really useful.

 

[EyeWasBored]

I feel like restricting the one thing that could easily beat special attackers maybe wasn't a good idea

 

[woodgoldtwo]

I feel like restricting the one thing that could easily beat special attackers maybe wasn't a good idea

That’s why the council is banning the newly broken special attackers

 

[EyeWasBored]

It just feels like none of this would have been a problem in the first place if frosmoth wasn't banned in the first place yk?

 

[Bobsican]

Please avoid posting one-liners here, that sort of discussion is welcome in the Discord server, however.

As for Ice Scales being banned, it was a tough decision in general, but ultimately it was for the best as it was making stall teams way too dominant on the metagame, let alone restricting teambuilding as basically any team that wanted a defensive backbone had to run it.

A metagame of "broken checks broken" is not often balanced, and this is clearly one of those cases.

 

[KaenSoul]

Mewtwo and Iron Crown are now banned from Shared Power!
With Ice Scales restricted, it was to be expected that multiple high power special attackers would stop being OK, Mewtwo had some crazy synergy with Psychic Terrain as is an extremely fast Psychic Type that packs some serious destructive power, leaving little defensive and offensive counterplay. Meanwhile, Iron Crown has synergy with both Psychic and Electric terrains, making use of Agility or Quark Drive to make up for its average speed and more importantly, it got a signature move that may be compatible with the highest amount of strong abilities available, with Technician, Steely Spirit and Sharpness all giving it a x1.5 damage boost on top of whatever else you may want to run, extremely limiting its defensive counterplay even before clicking CM.

We are voting on some more stuff, but the full slate will come later this week.

Full slate is here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dxRhNu5ZbewZ5Xr6Ci8ZDKzcgTJL9VcDZOkZv_UY9zg/edit?usp=sharing, nothing else got enough support for a ban so no need to say much about it. Ponchlake is in a loa so he couldn't vote, meanwhile Clefable is leaving the council because of personal reasons, but we are thankful for everything they did. And finally, we welcome Bobsican to the council!

 

[excitedly ava]

so i've been playing around with some interesting setups (i am by no means good at this pixel game) and i've happened upon a team that works pretty well for me (at like 1200 but still if people who r better than me wanna give me feedback that'd be great

)


https://pokepast.es/64a3a61173965124
it's by no means revolutionary but still

the team is a galvantula lead for webs since this team does have a bit of a problem against some scarfers of higher base speed tiers. unnerve is for berry teams because they SUCK for this team. i've tried infiltrator instead and it just doesn't do the job so unnerve it is

Sylveon is a suicide because it doesnt really do much with everything else's abilities it kinda just passes on pixilate and hopefully kills something in the process. also pixilate is good bc it means that zan, squawk and gliscor's facades all become even fucking stronger lmao

guts pivot + toxic boost quick attack/facade is self explanatory i think

wind rider bramble for hazard removal + fighting immunity since mach punch breloom scares me (even w quick attack on zan) as well as providing an attack boost to gliscor provided it lives a hit

and last but not least, gliscor
tera fairy + guts + pixilate + toxic boost + poison heal + wind rider tailwind facade.
it does some stuff i think (it does a lot of stuff i think)
i've tried putting u turn in case zangoose ends up being a better late game wincon but tbh zan is better as an early-middle game damage spreader
defensive evs and speed since scarf scawy and attack boost from wind rider means that it has enough attack to safely invest into bulk without giving up anything really
(i just use attack investment because it makes his attack stat 420 after wind rider lmao)

yeah das it ok bye

 

[vnmmv]

I recently started playing this tier and to my surprise was able to top the ladder, reaching a little over 1700 with this Electric Terrain Balance team.

Proof of peak

I'm zdzd zdzd. The GXE is not gaudy, but my GXE was 50% before I used this team, lol. The climb was swift and consistent, and I think I could get a good GXE on a fresh account.

This team uses Electric Terrain for a variety of offensive and defensive purposes. It matches up quite well into the physical offense stack teams while still having outs to play to against other team styles. From what I saw on the ladder, both Electric Terrain and balance teams have plenty of room to develop. I'll break down the team in the spoiler, but what I really want to talk about is Zamazenta.

Short descriptions

Pincurchin @ Leftovers
Ability: Electric Surge
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Scald
- Spikes
- Discharge
Pincurchin has decent Defense with Quark Drive but doesn't quite have the BST to hold up in the late game. It spreads paralysis and Spikes, though. I never used Tera Dark, but it's theoretically supposed to give the team a switchin to Expanding Force.


Iron Bundle @ Choice Specs
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flip Turn
- Freeze-Dry
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
Provides Quark Drive and speed control. The STAB combination is absurd and doesn't need any boosts to deal damage. Bundle covers the matchup against Urshifu and Kyogre, which can otherwise blow through the rest of the team.


Houndstone @ Choice Band
Ability: Fluffy
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Poltergeist
- Trick
- Body Press
- Will-O-Wisp
Donates Fluffy and hits hard enough with Band. Wisp provides easier setup for Zamazenta or Ursaluna. Trick is important for Harvest teams. I am not proud of this, but the Tera Ground is specifically to avoid Electro Shot from capb's Archaludon rain team.


Glimmora @ Focus Sash
Ability: Toxic Debris
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Mortal Spin
The set is weird, but I didn't miss strong attacks. Glimmora is here for hazard control. Quark Drive boosts speed and helps get off an extra round of rocks or spinning.


Ursaluna-Bloodmoon (M) @ Custap Berry
Ability: Mind's Eye
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Calm Mind
- Moonlight
- Earth Power
Hyper Voice bypasses sub and helps with the Harvest matchup. Mind's Eye allows Body Press to hit ghosts. Custap Berry is also meant to help with Harvest. It changes the turn rhythm and helps land surprise KOs on what otherwise might be a Protect turn. Quark Drive boosts Special Attack.


Covered more below, but the EVs make Quark Drive boost Defence. The extra 4 SpD are a mistake, but I want to present the team as it was when I peaked.

Zamazenta @ Electric Seed
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD / 192 Spe
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- Iron Defense
- Agility
- Heavy Slam

With an Electric Seed and Quark Drive, Zamazenta hits the field with 947 Defense. Further support from Fluffy and Tera Steel makes this mon a one-stop shop for countering the myriad combinations of Tough Claws, Technician, Steely Spirit, Guts, Toxic Boost, Hustle, etc that are all over the ladder. I do not know how Body Press interacts with Quark Drive and Fluffy, but even +2 Defense exerts instant offensive pressure. Many games against phys stack offense are won at preview.

I don't think anything else in the meta offers this kind of role compression as tank, breaker, and cleaner. It beats phys spam, has OHKO power for breaking Harvest teams, and can outrun Psychic Terrain teams with Agility and Tera Steel. I tailored my team around it, sure, but I still have a hard time picking anything but Zamazenta as the best mon in the tier.

With Iron Crown gone, there are hardly any special attackers on the ladder. The ones that do appear give this set a lot of trouble, which is why I don't think Zama is broken. Stuff like Scarf Kyogre, Walking Wake, and Tera Fairy Heatran can reliablly check Zamazenta. Houndstone can also consistently come in on Zamazenta and wisp it.

I have some miscellaneous first impressions of the meta:
- The mode seems well balanced, with a variety of playstlyes being viable. Very impressive!
- Special attackers seem undervalued. Defensive teams are lasered in on stopping the physical powerhouses to a point where a special attacker only needs one or two boosting abilities.
- Balance seems undervalued. Everyone is running an offense or Harvest.
- Harvest teams are annoying to face sometimes but give the tier flavor. There's not much like them in other metagames. I had a good time facing them by the end of my run.
- I am not very impressed by the unga-bunga physical spam teams. Stacking all of those abilities leaves no room for a defensive core, and bad matchups seem to go exceptionally poorly.
- No one can afford to run boots, so hazards are in a great spot. Toxic Debris won me a few games at preview.
- Ursaluna-BM is a better Scrappy donor than Flamigo, imo.

 

[KaenSoul]

Hey fellas, the format is more stable now and there isn't action planned anytime soon, so it may be a good time to set up C&C for the tier, if anyone is interested in being a QCers just pm me, we are looking for people that know the tier, anyone with around 1500+ elo on ladder should have a good chance to be accepted.

 

[InkyDarkBird]

I've shifted to using a special team focused around Flare Boost after being unsuccessful with replacing Zamazenta-Crowned with Zamazenta.
https://pokepast.es/e8ac4e88e2a62044

Flare Boost and Mental Herb so it doesn't get Taunted.


Honestly, I really don't know what Sheer Force Pokemon is best for this as they are all physical attackers, so I chose the bulkiest one.
You could argue using Feraligatr since it has Flip Turn, but Galvantula's relevance scares me.


Same situation with Conkeldurr. I chose Dragalge over the other Adaptability Pokemon due to it being able to wall special attackers if necessary. Choosing Basculegion-F could add another setup sweeper, but it is relatively slow.


Psyterrain


Darkrai simply serves as a backup win condition if Jolteon gets KOed. I tried to use Deoxys-Speed, but it was too weak to effectively KO anything. Darkrai has enough power to do this.


Quick Feet and Flare Boost synergizing super well was the main inspiration for this team. Pre-DLC, Jolteon lacked Alluring Voice, which gave it few coverage options. Alluring Voice now allows Jolteon to attack more Pokemon effectively, mainly Dragons.

 

[Raoul Sanchez]

I recently started playing this tier and to my surprise was able to top the ladder, reaching a little over 1700 with this Electric Terrain Balance team.

Proof of peak

View attachment 610061
I'm zdzd zdzd. The GXE is not gaudy, but my GXE was 50% before I used this team, lol. The climb was swift and consistent, and I think I could get a good GXE on a fresh account.

This team uses Electric Terrain for a variety of offensive and defensive purposes. It matches up quite well into the physical offense stack teams while still having outs to play to against other team styles. From what I saw on the ladder, both Electric Terrain and balance teams have plenty of room to develop. I'll break down the team in the spoiler, but what I really want to talk about is Zamazenta.

Short descriptions

Pincurchin @ Leftovers
Ability: Electric Surge
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Scald
- Spikes
- Discharge
Pincurchin has decent Defense with Quark Drive but doesn't quite have the BST to hold up in the late game. It spreads paralysis and Spikes, though. I never used Tera Dark, but it's theoretically supposed to give the team a switchin to Expanding Force.


Iron Bundle @ Choice Specs
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flip Turn
- Freeze-Dry
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
Provides Quark Drive and speed control. The STAB combination is absurd and doesn't need any boosts to deal damage. Bundle covers the matchup against Urshifu and Kyogre, which can otherwise blow through the rest of the team.


Houndstone @ Choice Band
Ability: Fluffy
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Poltergeist
- Trick
- Body Press
- Will-O-Wisp
Donates Fluffy and hits hard enough with Band. Wisp provides easier setup for Zamazenta or Ursaluna. Trick is important for Harvest teams. I am not proud of this, but the Tera Ground is specifically to avoid Electro Shot from capb's Archaludon rain team.


Glimmora @ Focus Sash
Ability: Toxic Debris
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Mortal Spin
The set is weird, but I didn't miss strong attacks. Glimmora is here for hazard control. Quark Drive boosts speed and helps get off an extra round of rocks or spinning.


Ursaluna-Bloodmoon (M) @ Custap Berry
Ability: Mind's Eye
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Calm Mind
- Moonlight
- Earth Power
Hyper Voice bypasses sub and helps with the Harvest matchup. Mind's Eye allows Body Press to hit ghosts. Custap Berry is also meant to help with Harvest. It changes the turn rhythm and helps land surprise KOs on what otherwise might be a Protect turn. Quark Drive boosts Special Attack.


Covered more below, but the EVs make Quark Drive boost Defence. The extra 4 SpD are a mistake, but I want to present the team as it was when I peaked.

Zamazenta @ Electric Seed
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD / 192 Spe
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- Iron Defense
- Agility
- Heavy Slam

With an Electric Seed and Quark Drive, Zamazenta hits the field with 947 Defense. Further support from Fluffy and Tera Steel makes this mon a one-stop shop for countering the myriad combinations of Tough Claws, Technician, Steely Spirit, Guts, Toxic Boost, Hustle, etc that are all over the ladder. I do not know how Body Press interacts with Quark Drive and Fluffy, but even +2 Defense exerts instant offensive pressure. Many games against phys stack offense are won at preview.

I don't think anything else in the meta offers this kind of role compression as tank, breaker, and cleaner. It beats phys spam, has OHKO power for breaking Harvest teams, and can outrun Psychic Terrain teams with Agility and Tera Steel. I tailored my team around it, sure, but I still have a hard time picking anything but Zamazenta as the best mon in the tier.

With Iron Crown gone, there are hardly any special attackers on the ladder. The ones that do appear give this set a lot of trouble, which is why I don't think Zama is broken. Stuff like Scarf Kyogre, Walking Wake, and Tera Fairy Heatran can reliablly check Zamazenta. Houndstone can also consistently come in on Zamazenta and wisp it.

I have some miscellaneous first impressions of the meta:
- The mode seems well balanced, with a variety of playstlyes being viable. Very impressive!
- Special attackers seem undervalued. Defensive teams are lasered in on stopping the physical powerhouses to a point where a special attacker only needs one or two boosting abilities.
- Balance seems undervalued. Everyone is running an offense or Harvest.
- Harvest teams are annoying to face sometimes but give the tier flavor. There's not much like them in other metagames. I had a good time facing them by the end of my run.
- I am not very impressed by the unga-bunga physical spam teams. Stacking all of those abilities leaves no room for a defensive core, and bad matchups seem to go exceptionally poorly.
- No one can afford to run boots, so hazards are in a great spot. Toxic Debris won me a few games at preview.
- Ursaluna-BM is a better Scrappy donor than Flamigo, imo.

So I got to rank 4 on the ladder using this team and honestly rank 1 feels possible too if more people were playing. This team is a super hyper offense version of vnmmv's team. And they did and excellent job highlighting and summarising each mons role on the team. So I'll only talk about the two substitutes I made.

https://pokepast.es/f085ed068385ab73

Esparthra is my favourite Pokémon to use in this om. I will always look for balance and offensive builds to abuse the Opportunist ability. It punishes setup Pokémon and forces opponents to either donate boosts or forgo trying to setup to kill the mons in front of them (which they usually fail to do).

Basculegion needs no explanation, I lead with it 99.99% of the time and click flip turn. Adaptability is a great ability as it's a natural power boost that can't be nullified or reduced.

 

[excitedly ava]

havent seen enough attention on sand teams because goddamn excadrill is strong

ive been messing around with it and unfortunately it kinda falls into the category of "phys spam which loses on preview to zama teams" since volcanion is the only special attacker that seems to fit into the team comp

still working on it but this is the general idea
https://pokepast.es/98e21598c42c1e26

descriptions n stuff

Hide

Pincurchin: spikes setter + electric surge, potential status spreader, decent lead against rain teams specifically

Hippowdon: phys wall + rocks. self explanatory i think (also body press with quark drive defense is nuts)

A-Dugtrio: Passes sand force and usually dies, but does hit pretty friggin hard, so does have some potential in mid-late game + sucker punch for priority

Volc: water absorb. thats about it. it's too slow to really do much, and flame charge is flame charge, so yeah. (should be noted: earth power can be interchangeable with weather ball. i just prefer weather ball for the unpredictability. Also, Gastrodon is also an option in this slot for storm drain, but nothing is a special attacker so it's not rly worth + 4x weak to Grass instead of neutral.)

Iron Treads (aka sigma male grindset): holy SHIT this thing is bonkers. Late game, it's a fast, bulky, insanely strong attacker that has the potential to sweep teams on a whim (excluding physdef teams).

Excadrill (aka my pookie wookie shmookums love of my life Simon): same as treads but better, since quark drive boosts attack and sand rush means it's actually as fast as Iron Treads anyway. Sand Force takes its STABS to a new level. very very strong

have had some fun w this; currently trying to figure out an alternative to Volc since it's kinda just a punching bag. Sand is easily my favorite team archetype (not biased because of Excadrill) and I'm glad it's been as strong as I've seen it be in the few test games I've done w this team, although the weather competition is stiff, with Harvest and Rain teams running around.

edit: found a potential volc replacement like really friggin quickly

taco bell

Bronzong @ Assault Vest
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flash Cannon
- Power Gem
- Future Sight
- Body Press
physically bulky, levitate for the steel types, beats zama (i hope). yeah

 

[LuffyWasTaken]

hello everyone its ya boy luffy and today im here to share my latest invention, im like 15-0 with it i hella fixed my gxe with it so im gonna share it

pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/84001217fcd71adc

i saved 1 funny replay with the team this time: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9sharedpower-2094096768?p2

current ranking:

this team really carried, undefeated since using it

team explaination:

speed control, can drop some very powerful water spouts and overall it setups rain for dry skin which is the main thing of the team
the BOY, knock is cool to annoy stuff but overall its a setup guy, tera dark to dab on indeedee and also boost sucker punch in general
idk why fluffy is still allowed but we'll gladly abuse it, will annoy mons, roar to screw zamazentas and dbond to trade vs crawdaunts and even possibly a calyrex-ice if they are taken by surprise, tera fairy for dragapult mostly
big chonky guy, pretty bulky considering the fluffy boost too but its mostly our scrappy user for the boss, tera psychic to counter fighting moves and indeedee too
the best mon in the tier, it can easily decimate teams with the right support, roar takes care of opposing zamazentas and other setup mons, sub to ignore will o wisp but its also free on some situations, tera poison is to ignore toxic but also take less dmg to opposing zamazentas so we can get in when they setup already, tera and just roar em out easily
mostly our special wall, good switch in into thunders and stuff, our hazards guy with rocks and spikes. whirlwind to both chip mons with hazards and also take out setup mons, ruination is for chipping stuff, rocky helmet in case of scarf mausholds and whatnot its a good chipping item, we get healing from rain anyway

overall the team focuses on dropping hazards and supporting zamazenta, ursaluna can also do pretty well vs some teams, see yall again next time when i come up with more cool ideas

 

[Dawn of Ares]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...-2095534352-jqgeavqqhytlkpa1ji6x2377j5yo9vzpw Minor client bug: Annihilape's defiant activated when it should've been its insomnia gained from Ariados.

 

[excitedly ava]

havent seen enough attention on sand teams because goddamn excadrill is strong

ive been tweaking this team (with some help from CandyBirch) and i've figured out a few things
1. ALWAYS loses to Iron Boulder, unless you pick a defensive tera type (smthn to live an eq)
2. Also always loses to Zama carrying Agility. This one's a given I think.
3. Holy balls it is strong. Like, REALLY strong. Like 2HKO on a physdef invested toxapex with IRON HEAD. That strong.
4. Works very well with Defiant, so I've been using Thundurus in place of Bronzong, since it also can (hypothetically) beat Zama.

 

[excitedly ava]

ive been tweaking this team (with some help from CandyBirch) and i've figured out a few things
1. ALWAYS loses to Iron Boulder, unless you pick a defensive tera type (smthn to live an eq)
2. Also always loses to Zama carrying Agility. This one's a given I think.
3. Holy balls it is strong. Like, REALLY strong. Like 2HKO on a physdef invested toxapex with IRON HEAD. That strong.
4. Works very well with Defiant, so I've been using Thundurus in place of Bronzong, since it also can (hypothetically) beat Zama.

another update

APPARENTLY, Lugia is legal in this format for some reason.

big bird

woosh (Lugia) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure / Multiscale (either works, multiscale might be a bit better tho)
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 248 Def / 12 SpA
Serious Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Whirlwind
- Psychic Noise
- Recover
- Earth Power

Psychic noise for zama on Harvest teams, whirlwind for forcing it out after a setup, and a quad resist on Body Press plus providing a very low base power for Heavy Slam. Earth Power for tera Steel, and recover for obvious reasons. Also, something I forgot existed but is pretty nice - Sand Force negates sand chip. Something I forgot about but I guess is pretty important lmao.

Yeah. This definitely beats Thundurus and Bronzong in terms of usefulness as a Zama counter. Really surprised I haven't seen it more, as it feels like a nearly complete shutdown to the strongest mon in the meta atm.

9/10, tonky birb, highly recommend.

 

[excitedly ava]

me n CandyBirch be COOKING

(credits to the core go to them, Ribombee and Kyogre were me tho)

https://pokepast.es/93d43356a590d243

descriptions

Hide

Clawitzer is strong, not sweeping though. Early game damage dealer at most.

Drago is crazy strong. That's it. Dragon pulse + Mega Launcher is nuts.

Palkia-O is just, yeah. Yeah. I don't think i need to explain this one.

Basculegion is always a solid option, and band is crazy.

Ribombee for webs/tailwind, also shield dust is useful

Kyogre: drizzle, crazy strong, great coverage.

My earlier version:
https://pokepast.es/fbef0471d3d5311a

or CandyBirch's version:
https://pokepast.es/6dd678a8eb8b96b3

Speed boosting QD is useful for a lot of things, but Kyogre and Basc completely outclass Pin/Jug in this regard.

Obviously Palkia-O is the star of the show here, with Mega Launcher, Adaptability, Rain boost, Dragon's Maw pushing it to an absurd amount of damage output and pretty fast, but still benefitting from webs. But the other members of the team also benefit greatly. Def a strong comp. (rain is busted, so is Kyogre)

yeah thats it prob

 

[CandyBirch]

me n CandyBirch be COOKING

(credits to the core go to them, Ribombee and Kyogre were me tho)

https://pokepast.es/93d43356a590d243

descriptions

Hide

Clawitzer is strong, not sweeping though. Early game damage dealer at most.

Drago is crazy strong. That's it. Dragon pulse + Mega Launcher is nuts.

Palkia-O is just, yeah. Yeah. I don't think i need to explain this one.

Basculegion is always a solid option, and band is crazy.

Ribombee for webs/tailwind, also shield dust is useful

Kyogre: drizzle, crazy strong, great coverage.

My earlier version:
https://pokepast.es/fbef0471d3d5311a

or CandyBirch's version:
https://pokepast.es/6dd678a8eb8b96b3

Speed boosting QD is useful for a lot of things, but Kyogre and Basc completely outclass Pin/Jug in this regard.

Obviously Palkia-O is the star of the show here, with Mega Launcher, Adaptability, Rain boost, Dragon's Maw pushing it to an absurd amount of damage output and pretty fast, but still benefitting from webs. But the other members of the team also benefit greatly. Def a strong comp. (rain is busted, so is Kyogre)

yeah thats it prob

I wouldn’t really recommend male Basculegion w outrage in this team, it works but female is most likely better.

Water pulse does about the same damage than outrage while having none of the drawbacks.

Water pulse with all the boosts is 270 base power with a 20% chance to confuse, while outrage is 180 Im not really sure where to add the band to the equation, but if you add band to the base power its 270 so equal you also don't get stab with it unless you Tera dragon, but then you lose out on your Tera for a move that could or could not make it up.

I feel like it’s better to have a move that has no drawback, and has a chance to confuse, and is about as strong as the other option, over a move that locks me into using it without the ability to switch out and confuses me at the end of it.

In the end all that matters is what works for you, but i wanted to show that there is an option that works about as well, if not better, than the other one.

 

[excitedly ava]

the problem of the team is speed control as it relies too much on the web that as pointed out just doesnt do anything vs most good teams so the team has a dead slot being ribombee and the rest of the team is slow as hell so in the competitive space this has no way of working because there are too many things that deal normally with the gimmick of the team, not trying to bash the team or the idea but i just wanted to say why it doesnt work

here's what i'm thinking then:

use pult instead of ribombee.

Hide

Dragapult @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Clear Body
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Dragon Pulse
- Shadow Ball
- U-turn
- Thunder

speed control, more offensive stuff, plus benefits from adap, rain, mega launcher, dragon's maw. Also, pivots r fun.
idk i feel like webs can be kind of ignored with this instead of bee, since clear body, and rocks n spikes aren't too much of a problem either, given how the team is mostly sweepers that WANT to stay in and be able to dish out as much damage as humanly (pokemonly?) possible. It should be noted though that without webs, Basc needs Scarf instead of Band.

cant test rn bc wifi is going nuts but idk i feel like its p good

 

[excitedly ava]

me n CandyBirch be COOKING

(credits to the core go to them, Ribombee and Kyogre were me tho)

https://pokepast.es/93d43356a590d243

just realized that 4/6 mons on this team r choiced, plus 1 if pult instead of bee, so like i doubled down

https://pokepast.es/cfcdf4f51b9060e6
alt basc set:

Hide

mafiosa (Basculegion-F) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Adaptability
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flip Turn
- Water Pulse
- Shadow Ball
- Ice Beam

choice scarf is funny
yeah thats it i just thought it was funny, also i fixed the evs

 

[vnmmv]

I have thoughts on a few cores I like and will pose a question about each of them.

+
How the core works:
Glimmora belches hazards, and Houndstone spinblocks. Houndstone appreciates Glimmora's ability to remove hazards, keeping the threshold for taking a OHKO high. Fluffy lends bulk to the rest of the team, buying more turns of toxic chip. I like this core because it helps against the extremes of the meta. Glimmora puts bulkier structures on a timer, while Houndstone wards off many HO teams.
The question:
With better hazard control and Levitate rising on the ladder, will this core maintain its effectiveness? Or are Toxic Spikes a relic of a more offensive meta?

+
How the core works:
Iron Bundle only wants to click STAB, so Crawdaunt provides Adaptability. Between Aqua Jet and Bundle's freakish speed, this core serves as speed control. I don't actually like any of the Adaptability mons. They're all frail, slow, and bring almost nothing to the table besides their ability. I went with Crawdaunt here because of the utility of Knock Off.
The question:
In general, which Adaptability Pokemon performs the best?

+
How the core works:
Jirachi's Serene Grace gives Ninetales a Blizzard with a 20% freeze chance alongside 100% accuracy. Teammates like Iron Bundle appreciate a Blizzard accuracy boost and can continue to roll for freezes throughout the game. If you can fire off five Ice moves in a game, then you have an expected value of one freeze. In fact, you have near coinflip odds (48.8%) to land a freeze after just three Blizzards. Ice Fang is another move to note, since it adds a flinch chance on top of the freeze. Good partners should be prepared to take advantage of free turns, so powerful setup mons like Baxcalibur or even Zamazenta pair well. This core is closer to "funny" than "good", but I took it to mid 1500s, so it's decent enough for ladder play. The downside is that Scizor eats your lunch.
The question:
Is Freeze a viable strategy, or does it top out as cheese?


I am a fan of the teams in posts above here and love seeing the meta stretched in new directions.