Approved by EviGaro and Feliburn
IntroductionHello, and welcome to the first installment of Top Chef RU. I’m your host, btboy, and this series will focus on teambuilding in Gen 9 RU. Each installment will feature a prominent player in the community who will act as a guest celebrity chef. I will give them an ‘ingredient’ – in this context, a Pokemon – and they will be required to 'cook' a team with it.
The object of this series is not necessarily to challenge the builder, but to instead provide deep insight into their teambuilding process from start to finish. Rather than a synopsis of a finished product, we’re going to be looking at all the considerations a player makes as they construct their team. With that in mind, my goal as the host is to prompt our guest chef with a Pokemon that is both viable and interesting.
Just as a utility Pokemon like Mudsdale is not a compelling centerpiece of a team, some outclassed NU mon would restrict the builder and prevent us from seeing a practical and more organic process.
Ultimately, the goal of this project is to provide a more robust look at teambuilding. Each player has their own, unique way of building, and gaining insight into perspectives and thought processes that are different from our own can be both interesting and instructive.
Our guest chef will do most of the heavy lifting here. I am not interviewing them; I am merely providing them with a starting point and then moderating their stream of consciousness. It is not my place to provide suggestions or to ask leading questions, and I will only interject to ask for clarification or further elaboration. I am simply here to facilitate the documentation of their process and then organize the transcript at the end.
Now that that’s out of the way, I'd like to welcome our first guest chef, RU tier leader and UU Open Winner, Feliburn. Feliburn, congrats again on winning UU Open and thanks for taking the time to be here with us today.
Feliburn: Thanks for having me. UU Open was fun, but I'm excited to be an RU main again.
btboy: And we're excited to have you back. Alright, well let’s get started. We got some drops recently, and everyone’s new favorite Water-type is Tauros-Paldea-Aqua. But today, you’re going to be cooking with another Water-type that dropped alongside it: Inteleon.
Feliburn: Alright, so first I have to determine what set I want to use. Without Focus Energy, non-Choiced sets feel underwhelming. You can still get away with an all-out attacker (AoA) set with a Tera type to lure stuff, but I’m going to use Specs Torrent Inteleon. This meta is filled with strong Water-types, but almost all of them are physical attackers, and Inteleon can catch teams off-guard with a Specs set and do a lot of damage.
My main concern using this mon is facing a Vaporeon. Inteleon has coverage to get past conventional Water resists like Brambleghast, Tsareena, and even Tatsugiri, but Vaporeon is perhaps its hardest counter. I could try using Electric or Grass Tera Blast, but I don’t really want to make this mon Tera-reliant unless I have to.
btboy: So are you gonna roll with Electric or Grass Tera, or decide on a Tera type later?
Feliburn: I might ultimately change its Tera typing, but Specs Tera Water Surf breaks Florges easily, so I’m inclined to stick to Water Tera for the time being, and just pair it with partners that can deal with Vaporeon naturally, and go from there.
btboy: Got it. So who are you thinking?
Feliburn: It may not be optimal, but my first instinct is to try Bellibolt as a partner. It’s a really tanky pivot that allows me to get slow Volt Switches and get Inteleon in for free, while also being quite a decent check to Vaporeon. It also works as a general physical answer to most threats. I’m gonna be using Electromorphosis this time around to maximize Volt Switch damage, as the goal is to let Inteleon clean up their team.
btboy: I like it. What’s next?
Feliburn: I was thinking Tsareena would be a good fit, as I’m really looking for a Water resist (since I’m already using Inteleon as my Water-type, and it’s far from a bulky one ROFL), and Tsareena offers Rapid Spin, and U-turn for the team. It’s tempting to make a VoltTurn core with Inteleon and Bellibolt, but my main concern now becomes that both Aqua Tauros and Barraskewda are super common, and Tsareena is far from the best answer to both due to strong hitting Close Combat. Brambleghast is an obvious alternative, as it’s immune to Tauros’s CC but is still a Grass-type that can spin. In terms of utility, we are trading U-turn for Spikes, which are really good for chip damage and help Inteleon to pick up kills. Brambleghast now provides the benefit of working as a Ground resist, a Spinner, and a counter to Tauros-Paldea-Aqua and Barraskewda.
btboy: As you’re building, are you looking for role compression, or is it more that you’re looking for a specific thing and incidentally find a mon who checks multiple boxes?
Feliburn: I always have specific roles I’m looking for to fill in a team, but it's not that I was looking to have a slot that compressed all these roles. It’s more about the fact that we have options that fill in different roles you can have per slot. For example, Toedscruel instead of the other two would have worked as a Grass-type spinner (even though it doesn't resist Water-type moves), potential Spiker, and Knock Off user, which this team also lacks.
Once you go down one of these paths, the team’s construction changes dramatically, as you are trying to complement what you already have. With Tsareena, I would have probably gone for something like Altaria to help with Fighting-type moves, while if I had gone Toedscruel, I would have maybe tried to use Qwilfish as the next slot.
But now that I’ve settled on Brambleghast, I need to add a rocker.
btboy: What made you go from Brambleghast to “now I need a rocker?” What’s the logical transition here?
Feliburn: Whenever I build, I find myself using a ‘hazard core,’ which includes both a setter and a remover (unless it’s a rare instance where I feel like the team doesn’t need removal). I prioritize the hazard game a lot when building, so if I’m thinking about the remover, I’m also thinking about the setter, and vice versa.
btboy: Are you thinking about them in tandem because you’re trying to create synergy, or is it simply just the fact that you’re already thinking about hazards?
Feliburn: Creating synergy would obviously be ideal, but it feels like a job done in retrospect. For example, I could be building a team with Cryogonal and Orthworm as my hazard core, realize later that I need a Water resist, change Cryogonal to Brambleghast, and adjust the other slots accordingly.
btboy: Okay, so who are you thinking about as a rocker here, then?
Feliburn: For my rocker I am torn between Orthworm and Bronzong. With the team structure that I’m going for, Krookodile becomes a massive problem if I’m aiming to use Bronzong.
or 
?
btboy: Could you elaborate on this?
Feliburn: Mainly seeing how the 3 members of my team so far (Bellibolt, Brambleghast & Inteleon) are all poor switchins to Krookodile. Adding Bronzong would just compound the Krook weakness, and at this point in the build I'm looking to have a setter (which are all slow in our tier, unless it's my own Krook); a Steel-type (for a better switch-in to the Fairies, and excluding Orthworm, they are all weak to Krook as well); and some sort of fast hitter to make the team less passive (usually fast but frail mons in general). I just knew Krook would be an issue, so I want to patch the weakness with my next member.
I could EV an Iron Defense + Body Press Bronzong set to tank one Crunch, ID up that turn, live the second Crunch, and KO with Body Press, but it would be incredibly situational, and even then, I know Bronzong will never be at full HP to get away with that. Orthworm handles Krook quite well, but I have to be careful about special attackers like Dragalge and both of the Fairy types (Florges and Sylveon).
I’ll be going with Orthworm, as my next member kind of alleviates most of the issues I mentioned, while also working as one of my primary Delphox answers: Umbreon. I’ll be using Curse Tera Ghost Umbreon, because not only does it help check Delphox somewhat, but it’s also really good at forcing a lot of weird interactions when using Tera Ghost, such as forcing the Tauros to click CC as you click Tera + Curse, and you can just outlast them quite easily.
btboy: Did you feel you were weak to Tauros at this point in the build?
Feliburn: Yeah, mainly Fire Tauros as Brambleghast helps with Aqua Tauros pretty well. I knew I'd have to play it super safe with Bellibolt, but knowing I can do some tera stuff with Umbreon helps quite a bit.
It also helps keep Orthworm healthy with Wish support, and it works as a secondary Kilowattrel answer. It’s just a solid special tank, just like how Bellibolt is a physical one. It probably looks like a very passive option for how momentum-based the team should aim to be, but sometimes you just gotta take some risks to handle stuff. Curse before Tera is also really solid for getting your defense up, making you harder to kill after you do get the Tera off.
The team lacks better speed control than Inteleon, and an Electric type immunity, so the obvious answer is to use Kilowattrel. I think I can get away with using Volt Switch as my momentum move, as I already managed to get some good answers to the Ground types in Orthworm and Brambleghast. For the other moves, I’ll just be using an AoA set with STABs+ Tera Water Tera Blast.
btboy: Is the STAB Hurricane? And why Water Tera Blast > Roost?
Feliburn: Yeah, it's Hurricane. I don't really mind not being able to hit opposing Brambleghast as I have Umbreon, and my own Bramble which runs quite a bit of speed. Also, I personally prefer the option to hit Ground- and Fire-types super-effectively with Tera Blast in case I really need to, as I don't really play Kilowattrel in a way that forces it to take many hits, so Roost doesn’t feel that important. (Not that it can take more than two anyway).
btboy: Can you clarify how you're designating Tera types as you build? Are you deciding Teras as you go along, or do you look at the team at the end and use Tera typings to solve problems with the overall comp? Or is it a mixture of both?
Feliburn: Well, I'd say I decide on the Tera types at the very end of the build. Excluding obvious hitters like Inteleon or Barraskewda, I usually prefer Tera as a defensive option. After the team is done, I just see what Tera types help me alleviate certain matchups, such as having a shaky Fire and Water resist in this case, meaning I'd prefer for my bulky mons to be able to resist those as well if needed. There are some scenarios where I come up with some insanely random Teras on mons that I barely tera with in practice, but that decision comes after testing the teams. I’m also using Normal Tera on this in case I need to come up with a better Oricorio-Sensu answer on the spot.
The team itself is pretty weak to offensive Fire Types, as that is a risk you have to accept when using a Water Type as frail as Inteleon. It’s also why you see me try to indirectly have answers to all of them in Umbreon and Bellibolt and all the Water Tera spam I have going on. Fighting types could also be annoying, so you’d have to play Umbreon in a way that always lets Bellibolt be healthy.
btboy: Gotcha. And what about EVs?
Feliburn: To get into specifics, I’ll be trying out some wacky EV spreads. I’ve EVd Bellibolt to be able to tank a +2 Fire Blast from Delphox at full, while still trying to prioritize physical bulk. And again, I’m using Water Tera on this one, as I’m running less physically defensive bulk than usual, so it’s a good emergency button vs. Barraskewda and Tauros in case something happens to Brambleghast. While my Brambleghast is EVd to be faster than Mismagius after a Rapid Spin. I feel like it’s a good point to reach, as this also allows you to outspeed Delphox, and you can still do over half to both with Shadow Ball in case you see yourself in a tricky situation.
Orthworm is EVd to be faster than Modest Arboliva because that mon can still be quite annoying, even if the current meta isn’t that kind to it. I’ll be using Coil + Heavy Slam + Earthquake with Tera Water on this team, as I don’t want to give pokemon like Salazzle, Delphox or even Dragalge free switchins by going with Body Press over Earthquake. The speed is also pretty cool, as you can handle Sylveon way easier, and if it is Steel Tera, then you still have Earthquake to hit it.
The team could 100% be optimized to perform better, but the Inteleon + Bellibolt core was really speaking to me.
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btboy: Excellent. I'll be sure to hit the ladder with this soon. Thanks again for your time, Feli.
If you have any questions or comments for Feliburn, let him know below!
Introduction
The object of this series is not necessarily to challenge the builder, but to instead provide deep insight into their teambuilding process from start to finish. Rather than a synopsis of a finished product, we’re going to be looking at all the considerations a player makes as they construct their team. With that in mind, my goal as the host is to prompt our guest chef with a Pokemon that is both viable and interesting.
Just as a utility Pokemon like Mudsdale is not a compelling centerpiece of a team, some outclassed NU mon would restrict the builder and prevent us from seeing a practical and more organic process.
Ultimately, the goal of this project is to provide a more robust look at teambuilding. Each player has their own, unique way of building, and gaining insight into perspectives and thought processes that are different from our own can be both interesting and instructive.
Our guest chef will do most of the heavy lifting here. I am not interviewing them; I am merely providing them with a starting point and then moderating their stream of consciousness. It is not my place to provide suggestions or to ask leading questions, and I will only interject to ask for clarification or further elaboration. I am simply here to facilitate the documentation of their process and then organize the transcript at the end.
Now that that’s out of the way, I'd like to welcome our first guest chef, RU tier leader and UU Open Winner, Feliburn. Feliburn, congrats again on winning UU Open and thanks for taking the time to be here with us today.
Feliburn: Thanks for having me. UU Open was fun, but I'm excited to be an RU main again.
btboy: And we're excited to have you back. Alright, well let’s get started. We got some drops recently, and everyone’s new favorite Water-type is Tauros-Paldea-Aqua. But today, you’re going to be cooking with another Water-type that dropped alongside it: Inteleon.
Feliburn: Alright, so first I have to determine what set I want to use. Without Focus Energy, non-Choiced sets feel underwhelming. You can still get away with an all-out attacker (AoA) set with a Tera type to lure stuff, but I’m going to use Specs Torrent Inteleon. This meta is filled with strong Water-types, but almost all of them are physical attackers, and Inteleon can catch teams off-guard with a Specs set and do a lot of damage.
My main concern using this mon is facing a Vaporeon. Inteleon has coverage to get past conventional Water resists like Brambleghast, Tsareena, and even Tatsugiri, but Vaporeon is perhaps its hardest counter. I could try using Electric or Grass Tera Blast, but I don’t really want to make this mon Tera-reliant unless I have to.
btboy: So are you gonna roll with Electric or Grass Tera, or decide on a Tera type later?
Feliburn: I might ultimately change its Tera typing, but Specs Tera Water Surf breaks Florges easily, so I’m inclined to stick to Water Tera for the time being, and just pair it with partners that can deal with Vaporeon naturally, and go from there.
btboy: Got it. So who are you thinking?
Feliburn: It may not be optimal, but my first instinct is to try Bellibolt as a partner. It’s a really tanky pivot that allows me to get slow Volt Switches and get Inteleon in for free, while also being quite a decent check to Vaporeon. It also works as a general physical answer to most threats. I’m gonna be using Electromorphosis this time around to maximize Volt Switch damage, as the goal is to let Inteleon clean up their team.
btboy: I like it. What’s next?
Feliburn: I was thinking Tsareena would be a good fit, as I’m really looking for a Water resist (since I’m already using Inteleon as my Water-type, and it’s far from a bulky one ROFL), and Tsareena offers Rapid Spin, and U-turn for the team. It’s tempting to make a VoltTurn core with Inteleon and Bellibolt, but my main concern now becomes that both Aqua Tauros and Barraskewda are super common, and Tsareena is far from the best answer to both due to strong hitting Close Combat. Brambleghast is an obvious alternative, as it’s immune to Tauros’s CC but is still a Grass-type that can spin. In terms of utility, we are trading U-turn for Spikes, which are really good for chip damage and help Inteleon to pick up kills. Brambleghast now provides the benefit of working as a Ground resist, a Spinner, and a counter to Tauros-Paldea-Aqua and Barraskewda.
btboy: As you’re building, are you looking for role compression, or is it more that you’re looking for a specific thing and incidentally find a mon who checks multiple boxes?
Feliburn: I always have specific roles I’m looking for to fill in a team, but it's not that I was looking to have a slot that compressed all these roles. It’s more about the fact that we have options that fill in different roles you can have per slot. For example, Toedscruel instead of the other two would have worked as a Grass-type spinner (even though it doesn't resist Water-type moves), potential Spiker, and Knock Off user, which this team also lacks.
Once you go down one of these paths, the team’s construction changes dramatically, as you are trying to complement what you already have. With Tsareena, I would have probably gone for something like Altaria to help with Fighting-type moves, while if I had gone Toedscruel, I would have maybe tried to use Qwilfish as the next slot.
But now that I’ve settled on Brambleghast, I need to add a rocker.
btboy: What made you go from Brambleghast to “now I need a rocker?” What’s the logical transition here?
Feliburn: Whenever I build, I find myself using a ‘hazard core,’ which includes both a setter and a remover (unless it’s a rare instance where I feel like the team doesn’t need removal). I prioritize the hazard game a lot when building, so if I’m thinking about the remover, I’m also thinking about the setter, and vice versa.
btboy: Are you thinking about them in tandem because you’re trying to create synergy, or is it simply just the fact that you’re already thinking about hazards?
Feliburn: Creating synergy would obviously be ideal, but it feels like a job done in retrospect. For example, I could be building a team with Cryogonal and Orthworm as my hazard core, realize later that I need a Water resist, change Cryogonal to Brambleghast, and adjust the other slots accordingly.
btboy: Okay, so who are you thinking about as a rocker here, then?
Feliburn: For my rocker I am torn between Orthworm and Bronzong. With the team structure that I’m going for, Krookodile becomes a massive problem if I’m aiming to use Bronzong.
or ?btboy: Could you elaborate on this?
Feliburn: Mainly seeing how the 3 members of my team so far (Bellibolt, Brambleghast & Inteleon) are all poor switchins to Krookodile. Adding Bronzong would just compound the Krook weakness, and at this point in the build I'm looking to have a setter (which are all slow in our tier, unless it's my own Krook); a Steel-type (for a better switch-in to the Fairies, and excluding Orthworm, they are all weak to Krook as well); and some sort of fast hitter to make the team less passive (usually fast but frail mons in general). I just knew Krook would be an issue, so I want to patch the weakness with my next member.
I could EV an Iron Defense + Body Press Bronzong set to tank one Crunch, ID up that turn, live the second Crunch, and KO with Body Press, but it would be incredibly situational, and even then, I know Bronzong will never be at full HP to get away with that. Orthworm handles Krook quite well, but I have to be careful about special attackers like Dragalge and both of the Fairy types (Florges and Sylveon).
I’ll be going with Orthworm, as my next member kind of alleviates most of the issues I mentioned, while also working as one of my primary Delphox answers: Umbreon. I’ll be using Curse Tera Ghost Umbreon, because not only does it help check Delphox somewhat, but it’s also really good at forcing a lot of weird interactions when using Tera Ghost, such as forcing the Tauros to click CC as you click Tera + Curse, and you can just outlast them quite easily.
btboy: Did you feel you were weak to Tauros at this point in the build?
Feliburn: Yeah, mainly Fire Tauros as Brambleghast helps with Aqua Tauros pretty well. I knew I'd have to play it super safe with Bellibolt, but knowing I can do some tera stuff with Umbreon helps quite a bit.
It also helps keep Orthworm healthy with Wish support, and it works as a secondary Kilowattrel answer. It’s just a solid special tank, just like how Bellibolt is a physical one. It probably looks like a very passive option for how momentum-based the team should aim to be, but sometimes you just gotta take some risks to handle stuff. Curse before Tera is also really solid for getting your defense up, making you harder to kill after you do get the Tera off.
The team lacks better speed control than Inteleon, and an Electric type immunity, so the obvious answer is to use Kilowattrel. I think I can get away with using Volt Switch as my momentum move, as I already managed to get some good answers to the Ground types in Orthworm and Brambleghast. For the other moves, I’ll just be using an AoA set with STABs+ Tera Water Tera Blast.
btboy: Is the STAB Hurricane? And why Water Tera Blast > Roost?
Feliburn: Yeah, it's Hurricane. I don't really mind not being able to hit opposing Brambleghast as I have Umbreon, and my own Bramble which runs quite a bit of speed. Also, I personally prefer the option to hit Ground- and Fire-types super-effectively with Tera Blast in case I really need to, as I don't really play Kilowattrel in a way that forces it to take many hits, so Roost doesn’t feel that important. (Not that it can take more than two anyway).
btboy: Can you clarify how you're designating Tera types as you build? Are you deciding Teras as you go along, or do you look at the team at the end and use Tera typings to solve problems with the overall comp? Or is it a mixture of both?
Feliburn: Well, I'd say I decide on the Tera types at the very end of the build. Excluding obvious hitters like Inteleon or Barraskewda, I usually prefer Tera as a defensive option. After the team is done, I just see what Tera types help me alleviate certain matchups, such as having a shaky Fire and Water resist in this case, meaning I'd prefer for my bulky mons to be able to resist those as well if needed. There are some scenarios where I come up with some insanely random Teras on mons that I barely tera with in practice, but that decision comes after testing the teams. I’m also using Normal Tera on this in case I need to come up with a better Oricorio-Sensu answer on the spot.
The team itself is pretty weak to offensive Fire Types, as that is a risk you have to accept when using a Water Type as frail as Inteleon. It’s also why you see me try to indirectly have answers to all of them in Umbreon and Bellibolt and all the Water Tera spam I have going on. Fighting types could also be annoying, so you’d have to play Umbreon in a way that always lets Bellibolt be healthy.
btboy: Gotcha. And what about EVs?
Feliburn: To get into specifics, I’ll be trying out some wacky EV spreads. I’ve EVd Bellibolt to be able to tank a +2 Fire Blast from Delphox at full, while still trying to prioritize physical bulk. And again, I’m using Water Tera on this one, as I’m running less physically defensive bulk than usual, so it’s a good emergency button vs. Barraskewda and Tauros in case something happens to Brambleghast. While my Brambleghast is EVd to be faster than Mismagius after a Rapid Spin. I feel like it’s a good point to reach, as this also allows you to outspeed Delphox, and you can still do over half to both with Shadow Ball in case you see yourself in a tricky situation.
Orthworm is EVd to be faster than Modest Arboliva because that mon can still be quite annoying, even if the current meta isn’t that kind to it. I’ll be using Coil + Heavy Slam + Earthquake with Tera Water on this team, as I don’t want to give pokemon like Salazzle, Delphox or even Dragalge free switchins by going with Body Press over Earthquake. The speed is also pretty cool, as you can handle Sylveon way easier, and if it is Steel Tera, then you still have Earthquake to hit it.
The team could 100% be optimized to perform better, but the Inteleon + Bellibolt core was really speaking to me.
-----btboy: Excellent. I'll be sure to hit the ladder with this soon. Thanks again for your time, Feli.
If you have any questions or comments for Feliburn, let him know below!
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