VGC Tailwind Bag of Tricks

[Cobalt314]

This is the first VGC team I've created. The original focus was Grimmsnarl, but it has sort of evolved into a Tailwind team, with Grimmsnarl there to provide utility that will be mentioned in the summary below. I've tried it out on showdown, and I feel like there are some obvious changes that should be made that I am missing. I am also not completely sold on all my EV spreads or items, as I took those suggestions from other sources. Feel free to be as harsh with this team and/or your changes as you'd like; as long as the team comes out better than it originally was, I accept all criticism. Now, onto the team:

Importable

Grimmsnarl @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Spirit Break
- Taunt

Rotom-Mow @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch
- Protect

Dragapult (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Infiltrator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Darts
- Phantom Force
- Dragon Dance
- Protect

Corviknight-Gmax @ Figy Berry
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Tailwind
- Iron Head

Coalossal @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Steam Engine
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Lonely Nature
- Burn Up
- Rock Slide
- Flare Blitz
- Protect

Dracovish @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Strong Jaw
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Ice Fang
- Psychic Fangs
- Outrage

Grimmsnarl @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Spirit Break
- Taunt

Grimmsnarl's function on the team is to provide utility through its dual screens and taunt. He mainly functions as a lead, to set up screens early and shut down possible setup threats; however, sometimes I choose to keep him in the back until the optimal opportunity to set up screens comes in. Spirit Break serves as an offensive option to take down opposing Dragon-types that may threaten my own. I noticed that sometimes I am tempted to lead with both Grimmsnarl and Corviknight, but that leaves me with lots of setup options, yet few offensive options to do any damage in return.

Rotom-Mow @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Will-O-Wisp
- Volt Switch
- Protect

I enjoyed having Rotom on my last VGC team, and given the current composition of the rest of my team, I feel that Mow-tom has the best typing of all the appliances to complement the team. Leaf Storm allows it to muscle through Seismitoad and and other Water Absorbing water-types, the biggest hindrance to a Fishious Rend sweep. Will-O-Wisp cripples opposing physical threats, and I chose Volt Switch over Thunderbolt as a means of pivoting into Dracovish cleanly once the aforementioned roadblocks were removed, along with general pivot utility. I've always held a Sitrus Berry on Mow-tom, and I believe it is the optimal form of healing for this Pokemon given its bulk and average field time.

Dragapult (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Infiltrator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Darts
- Phantom Force
- Dragon Dance
- Protect

Dragapult is one of the two main offensive options on my team. I chose a Dragon Dance set because, after one Dance and a Tailwind, it's effectively at +1/+4, a prime position to sweep with or without Dynamaxing. I've seen many people run Dragon Claw, but I chose Dragon Darts for its unique property of automatic control: it's already strong enough even as a spread move, but if one of the opposing Pokemon is a Fairy-type, vanished, or otherwise makes the spread a waste, both hits are redirected at the other Pokemon. This means that switching to a Fairy-type or using a 2-turn move is detrimental to the other Pokemon. Phantom Force, on the other hand, gives the opponent a turn to switch to another Pokemon that is better suited to take the Ghost-type move, but this has a hidden effect of giving Dragapult almost perfect switch control, allowing it to cover its options. A Life Orb was chosen to allow Dragapult to give the most power to its moves, given that it has a setup move.

Corviknight-Gmax @ Figy Berry
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Tailwind
- Iron Head

Corviknight serves as the means to set up Tailwind on the team. With Tailwind, my team receives benefits they otherwise would not, such as Dragapult outspeeding everything else and a higher chance for Grimmsnarl to outspeed opposing Prankster users. I chose Corviknight as, while it is slow, it does have the bulk to almost guarantee setting up a Tailwind, and it provides some needed coverage with its offensive STAB. Figy Berry and Roost further its longevity against opposing Pokemon that look like they can be pressured out of their moves, and it has the option of Gigantamaxing if it has an opportunity of clearing the opponent's Screens.

Coalossal @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Steam Engine
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Lonely Nature
- Burn Up
- Rock Slide
- Flare Blitz
- Protect

Since this team is all about maximizing speed, I chose to add to my team Coalossal, whose ability literally maximizes its speed. Coalossal also provides additional offensive coverage with its Fire and Rock typing. Combined with Weakness Policy and Tailwind, Coalossal looks to be a Pokemon capable of punching big holes in the opponent's team, should they use the wrong move against it. I opted for a Physical Coalossal to make the most of STAB Rock Slide, which can also be boosted by a Max Phantasm that Dragapult may throw out after its dynamax. I also gave it Burn up to help mitigate the weaknesses of its Fire typing.

Dracovish @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Strong Jaw
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Ice Fang
- Psychic Fangs
- Outrage

Last, but not least, we have Dracovish, known well for scraping its gills against any and every Pokemon without Water Absorb or Storm Drain. I feel that Dracovish is an even better fit on this team, as Tailwind allows it to outspeed and empower Fishious Rend against a wider range of opposing Pokemon. In reality, Fishous Rend and Choice Scarf are all it needs for 90% of games, so the other three moves must be chosen for their utility after Dynamaxing. Max Hailstorm hits opposing Grass-types and can summon hail to provide chip damage against Pokemon just out of KO range, and Max Mindstorm adds Psychic Terrain to empower future Psychic moves and stop priority moves against Dracovish. Max Wyrmwind, on the other hand, stops or hinders opposing physical sweepers, whilst simultaneously offering a backup STAB Max Move.

And that's about it for my team. Let me know what you think, and I'll apply your feedback to make this a more perfect team!

 

[Hello Fellow Human]

Okay, honestly this is a pretty solid team overall, but I do think it could be improved on quite a bit.

Minor Edits:

1. Dragapult

If this were a normal Dragapult, you’re doing everything right, but I think synergy wise, you should change this set up a bit. Currently you’re running Coalossal, but have no reliable self setup (typically Weavile / Coalossal). Some variations of this use Surf Dragapult > Surf Weavile though. I haven’t done any calcs on this, but do make sure it isn’t a one shot onto yourself. If you add this, you can consistently gain the +6 speed and +2 attack boosts.

2. Dracovish

Choice Scarf -> Choice Band. It’s a pretty small edit, but on my Tailwind team this is what has been working for me. Since damage is Dracovish’s main niche, maximizing it is what I find to be the best set. Also at 92 speed EVs under Tailwind you can outspeed a max speed Dragapult. If you’ve been finding success with Choice Scarf though, this edit is completely optional.

3. Rotom-Mow

I like your set overall, but if you want to (another optional step), you could try replacing Protect with Helping Hand. This is super unique and I’ve had fun running a fully support Rotom on my team (no one expects this at all). If you end up opting for Whimsicott (see Major Edits), I would just stick with Protect.

4. Corviknight

I would use regular Dynamax Corviknight > Gigantamax Corviknight. While getting rid of screens is nice, your team is based on speed control, so having the speed boost from Max Airstream would benefit your team a lot more.

An optional change I have here is Figy Berry -> Occa Berry. I originally had a Figy Berry on my Corviknight, but kept getting shut down by fire type moves, so I changed it to an Occa Berry. Since this change I’ve found a lot more success on my own team.

5. Grimmsnarl

I would personally run Thunder Wave over Taunt since you’re not really going to be running into any other Prankster users you outspeed (besides Grimmsnarl, but that doesn’t work since it’s a dark type). Thunder Wave helps with speed control + has a chance of the opponent not moving. You could also swap to a fully support Grimmsnarl and swap Spirit Break -> Thunder Wave and keep Taunt (it’s a super useful move).

If you use the next suggestion (see Major Edits), I would definitely switch Taunt -> Thunder Wave unless you don’t find yourself using Spirit Break a lot, in which case - ignore this and just get rid of Spirit Break still.

Major Edits:

1. Corviknight -> Whimsicott

Honestly I don’t really see Corviknight being that big of a win condition for this team. The only thing it has going for it is it’s ability and Tailwind. For your team, I would personally recommend a Whimsicott because of the amount of support value it adds to the team. On the set I’m going to give you, you have access to Taunt, which shuts down other Whimsicotts, Tailwind (which with Prankster becomes a very consistent setter), and Helping Hand to boost your attackers (Dracovish, Dragapult, and Coalossal). Keep in mind that this edit is optional, but I would recommend it given the team that you have.

Copy / Paste: https://pokepast.es/b431f50d8e7016b9

The main issue with this version of the team is that all of your attackers are physical attackers. I would recommend changing either Coalossal or Dragapult (leaning more towards Coalossal here) to a special attacker so that you’re not destroyed by Intimidate and so you don’t get walled by physically defensive Pokémon.

Good luck with your team! I tried not to change too much since this is your team, but hopefully I was able to at least improve on it.

 

[Level 51]

Hi! Rating this team as requested :)

In general I think the team is going in the right direction as far as picking a good spread of Pokemon, but I'd probably suggest some changes in a different direction from Hello Fellow Human.

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This change is probably the most pivotal one to decide on. Corviknight is generally more applicable on teams that want to switch around and have a solid defensive backbone, and don't necessarily need Tailwind up all the time; Whimsicott is for hyper-offensive teams that want an immediate speed advantage with which to pile on damage. Depending on how you envision your team concept to develop, you could pick either one. Here's a quick list of suggestions for each option:

Bulkier build (Corviknight):

Definitely change this to a normal Corviknight instead of Corviknight-Gmax; as Hello Fellow Human points out, hazards and screens aren't super common and the speed boost from Airstream is more likely to come into play. I think you could also try Body Press over Roost or Brave Bird, since it gives you a much stronger way to check the ever-present Sand core of Excadrill / Tyranitar (+ Togekiss, sometimes), which otherwise can trouble a lot of your team. Finally, consider fitting Taunt on the set, since (spoiler!) we might be removing Grimmsnarl later.

Corviknight

Corviknight @ Figy Berry
Ability: Mirror Armor
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Atk / 60 Def / 132 SpD / 68 Spe
Impish Nature
- Iron Head
- Body Press
- Tailwind
- Taunt / Roost / Brave Bird

Providing this spread because Corviknight is a pretty tough Pokemon to EV; this one survives a Life Orb Thunderbolt from Timid Rotom, and under Tailwind, it outspeeds Adamant Scarf Dracovish. The remaining EVs are dumped into Defense in order to make it bulkier and make Body Press do more damage.

→
This is probably the major question mark I have regarding your team. I don't think Coalossal is a fantastic Pokemon by any stretch of the imagination, even if you do put Surf on Dragapult (which I believe is suboptimal for reasons I'll mention later). I notice you do have sort of a FWG core going on with Rotom-Mow and Dracovish, so I'd suggest Arcanine, which has Intimidate and Snarl to help soften blows to your team, especially Dragapult (making it easier for you to get Dragon Dances off).


First off, you want Clear Body on Dragapult—one of the factors that makes Dragapult so strong is its ability to ignore stuff like Intimidate and continue to attack at full power all the time. You're far more likely to run into Intimidate in any given game than screens or Substitute, so Clear Body has a better payoff in the long run.

That aside, I feel like Dragon Dance might be a bit hard to set up, even with Grimmsnarl's screens, without dedicated support like Togekiss or even any form of Intimidate; Dragapult is a major threat which does draw in a lot of opposing attacks, so it may be hard to squeeze in a Dragon Dance, at least in theory. You could either opt for a simple Life Orb 3 attacks set, with Dragon Darts, Phantom Force, and Steel Wing / U-turn, or, if you feel Dragon Dance works well for you, consider the following swap:

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This feels sort of bad on my part since as I understand the team was originally built around Grimmsnarl. However, I think Togekiss might be a better selection for this team; it can directly support both DD Dragapult and Dracovish with Follow Me, as well as boost Dracovish's speed with Max Airstream if it comes to that. It also gets some neat techs like Yawn or Thunder Wave which you can fit on to make it play a similarly support-heavy role to Grimmsnarl.


If you do replace Grimmsnarl with Togekiss, Reflect or Light Screen could be worth a look as a last-slot option on Rotom. Additionally, 252+ SpA EVs aren't super necessary on Rotom-C; Leaf Storm still picks up most of the KOs you want (Gastrodon, non-dmax Rhyperior) without so much investment, so you can move more EVs into speed and bulk to get the jump on some threats. Here's a bulkier EV spread instead:

Rotom-C

Rotom-Mow @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 68 SpA / 4 SpD / 172 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect / Reflect

Survives Icicle Crash from Jolly -1 (Intimidated) Darmanitan-Galar; outspeeds Adamant Dracovish; rest of EVs put into Special Attack but can be moved into Special Defense too

The bottom line:

Hyper-offensive build (Whimsicott):
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Same deal as above. However, this time, the Fire-type I'm recommending is Solar Power Charizard, which creates a very strong hyper-offense-style pairing with Whimsicott which is great at cleaning up in the late game or just chunking holes in an opposing team during the early game; keep in mind, however, that a lot of its effectiveness relies on you Dynamaxing it so it can use Max Airstream to go even faster and Max Flare to really just delete individual Pokemon off the field, as well as activate its Solar Power from the next turn on (you can even make Whimsicott Sunny Day to skip this 1-turn wait and get going at full power from turn 1). Of course, when running this Sun-ish core, beware of nerfing your own Dracovish's damage output.


Since Tailwind is up a lot of the time, especially in the early game, Dragapult could potentially be relegated to a late-game cleaner, where Dragon Dance may be somewhat de-emphasized in the way you play Dragapult. You could consider running a 3-attack LO set, as described above, or even a Choice Band set! (Or, if you still like Dragon Dance, it's perfectly fine to run it too, for the times when you struggle to get offensive pressure going for whatever reason.)


Probably a similar strategy to above—especially with the change of Corviknight to Whimsicott, you're looking significantly weaker to Sand teams, so having a bulkier Rotom-C with Will-O-Wisp to reduce incoming damage from Excadrill and Tyranitar would be great. On the other hand, you could truly go all out and use Nasty Plot Rotom-C, though I've literally never used that so I don't know how good it is, if it's good at all.


Since we're relying so heavily on Tailwind going up, Dracovish can probably run a Choice Band, as Hello Fellow Human mentioned, to further increase its (already ridiculous) damage output. 92 Speed EVs is a reasonable benchmark to outrun Dragapult in Tailwind, but I'll point out that with 244 Speed EVs and in Tailwind, you can outspeed +1 Base 100s (in other words, Charizard after an Airstream) and everything below it. Given the commonness of Airstream and other Speed-boosting factors in battle, I'd suggest that sticking to max or almost max Speed might be a good option on Dracovish too.


This paragraph is just here to explain that I'm not changing Grimmsnarl on this build, since the screens it sets are maybe even more valuable on hyper-offense builds than on others, and the rest of your Pokemon are so powerful that it can make up for Grimmsnarl's slight lack of offensive presence. If you find you're having too much trouble with Fairy-types, though (since Corviknight was your main check to them), you could potentially axe this slot and replace it with Duraludon for a strong Steel-type attacker that naturally fits in on hyper-offensive teams.

The bottom line:

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You'll see that there's a lot of choices to make with this team, which is part of the fun of teambuilding! I'd encourage you to try out some of the changes in this post and Hello Fellow Human's rate and see how they work for you. The format is still relatively young, so things do change pretty quick, and nothing's really "set in stone" yet. Good luck and have fun experimenting with the team!