Team building process
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I started the team off with flamigo + iron treads beacuse their typings roll off eachother and can get some very good damage across the board with their diverse move pools + good typings
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Tailwind helps with flamigos lack of bulk by helping it outspeed most mons so I chose talonflame because its a consistant tailwinder + has other great utility moves
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I felt dondozogiri would pair well with flamigo to sell the scrappy gimmick as you usually see costar ran with dondozo and they're just fantastic pokemon all round
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I opted for gholdengo as my last mon because its just strong and I had a spare slot so why not bring it
Team breakdown
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Flamigo @ Life Orb
Ability: Scrappy
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Detect
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Essentially this thing is an offensive beast in tailwind- outspeeding most things whilst dealing masses of damage inside of tailwind KO-ing many things unexpectedly with scrappy most notably Gholdengo and Pult- inside of tailwind it outspeeds and KOs photosynthesis speed fluttermane as the most notable KOs however this thing is just purely an offensive monster.
- EV spread is pretty self explanatory, Brave bird does significant recoil if you're doing significant damage so for me there's no point in running any bulk and you need <200 speed to outspeed +speed flutter mane to the point where it's not useful investing in other areas and the defences are pretty bad anyway.
- Close combat is my main move, 120 base power + stab hurts a lot killing or doing significant damage to most mons in the tier, with the only drawback being -def and spdef which aren't great on flamigo anyway and it rarely survives a strong move, on top of that, they can’t kill you if they’re dead. Brave bird is there in case close combat isn’t viable, if possible, I’d rather click cc as the recoil on brave bird + life orb adds up fast but alike cc, Brave bird hurts a ton as well.
- Tera flying removes fairy and psychic weakness whilst boosting brave bird so on the off chance I survive a fairy or psychic move I can hit back hard with a tera, STAB and life orb boosted brave bird which kills practically anything that doesn’t resist it.
- I chose Life orb over any other item such as focus sash which is probably the most popular item on flamigo excluding white herb with a dondozo set because I had a mon which in my opinion makes better use of a sash and on top of that brave bird breaks it nonetheless so half the games I play it would practically not be there.
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Iron Treads @ Assault Vest
Ability: Quark Drive
Level: 50
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 188 HP / 92 Atk / 124 Def / 20 SpD / 84 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Volt Switch
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Ice Spinner
- I feel like Iron treads is heavily underrated, it's a gen 9 lando-t with pivot, hazards, high speed and a high attack STAB earthquake. The thing is, close combat + headlong rush is too tempting for most people to resist, so I decided to give it a go because why not? A pokemon with those stats can’t be bad and trust me, it's not. On top of all that, it pairs well with flamigo due to its incredible typing.
- Let’s start off with the evs, I decided with base stats that good, I wanted a defensive set as even with a lower attack evs, it can still comfortably pick up KOs. Let's start off simple, 84 speed with a timid nature allows it to outspeed a fully invested + speed nature gholdengo and anything of a lower speed tier and in tailwind it outspeeds almost every mon around and the 92 attack gives it some more offensive presence and was the spare ev dump for what I had left in the end. The rest of the evs are spread around to survive a various amount of super effective most helped out by assault vest, I won’t call myself a professional at EV training and this is the first time I have really cracked down on them so if any EV experts want to tweak it around to give it more EVs, feel free so anyway, lets take a look at what it survives
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- 252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 134-158 (70.8 - 83.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252+ SpA Gastrodon Muddy Water vs. 188 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Iron Treads: 116-140 (61.3 - 74%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252+ SpA Gastrodon Earth Power vs. 188 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Iron Treads: 116-140 (61.3 - 74%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 158-188 (83.5 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 158-188 (83.5 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 Atk Iron Treads Earthquake vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 120-144 (63.4 - 76.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 0 Atk Arcanine Flare Blitz vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 116-138 (61.3 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 Atk Arcanine Flare Blitz vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 140-168 (74 - 88.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252+ Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 128-152 (67.7 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 0 Atk Coalossal Flare Blitz vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 86-104 (45.5 - 55%) -- 53.5% chance to 2HKO
- 252 SpA Quark Drive Iron Moth Fiery Dance vs. 188 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Iron Treads: 164-194 (86.7 - 102.6%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
- 252 SpA Rotom-Heat Overheat vs. 188 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Iron Treads: 168-198 (88.8 - 104.7%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
- 252+ SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 188 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Iron Treads: 116-140 (61.3 - 74%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 0- SpA Talonflame Flamethrower vs. 188 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Iron Treads: 62-74 (32.8 - 39.1%) -- 99.3% chance to 3HKO
- 252+ SpA Charcoal Torkoal Eruption (59 BP) vs. 188 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Iron Treads in Sun: 132-156 (69.8 - 82.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
(After a low roll earthquake)
- 252 SpA Volcarona Heat Wave vs. 188 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Iron Treads: 146-174 (77.2 - 92%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- +2 252+ Atk Dondozo Earthquake vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 162-192 (85.7 - 101.5%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
- 252+ Atk Choice Band Palafin Jet Punch vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 90-108 (47.6 - 57.1%) -- 79.7% chance to 2HKO
- 252+ Atk Choice Band Palafin Flip Turn vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 90-108 (47.6 - 57.1%) -- 79.7% chance to 2HKO
- 252+ Atk Choice Band Palafin-Hero Jet Punch vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 152-182 (80.4 - 96.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 0 SpA Pelipper Hydro Pump vs. 188 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Iron Treads in Rain: 158-188 (83.5 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 52 Atk Life Orb Quaquaval Aqua Step vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 133-156 (70.3 - 82.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 SpA Rotom-Wash Hydro Pump vs. 188 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Iron Treads: 140-168 (74 - 88.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 Atk Choice Band Tauros-Paldea-Water Raging Bull vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 158-188 (83.5 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 SpA Tatsugiri Surf vs. 188 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Iron Treads: 128-152 (67.7 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 Atk Annihilape Drain Punch vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 92-110 (48.6 - 58.2%) -- 93.8% chance to 2HKO
- 200+ Atk Choice Band Iron Hands Earthquake vs. 188 HP / 124 Def Iron Treads: 146-174 (77.2 - 92%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- Now of course there are still some ways to OHKO it but it firms a lot of hard hits from popular pokemon in the meta whilst still being able to dish out a lot of damage.
- Earthquake and Iron head are two very solid STAB moves dishing out a good amount of damage, ice spinner makes sure that it has coverage over other types and volt switch makes it a solid pivot.
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Talonflame @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Gale Wings
Level: 50
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Tailwind
- Taunt
- Brave Bird
- Will-O-Wisp
- Tailwind is in my opinion one of the most valuable moves you can have on a team and to have a mon that can consistently set up tailwind is incredibly valuable. One of the first mons that came to mind when wanting a tailwind setting was murkrow but it just seems to have lost its magic and having used both, I can confirm talonflame is just better. Gale wings make tailwind priority anyway so even though it has a fantastic base speed, it can still get off tailwind with covert cloak meaning that it ignores fake out flinch and sets up tailwind anyway.
- On top of running TW, it has some fantastic utility moves in Will-O-Wisp and taunt. Taunt stops set up mons and can even help against trick room and will-o-wisp checks the seemingly infinite amount of physical attackers that seem to be spawning in every battle. It's not just a utility move either, STAB brave bird isn’t something to joke about, it does a ton of damage and means that it can win the talonflame match up if the other talonflame is a flare blitz user. It's not just talonflame though, I find it can deal 50% or more on most of the mons in the tier even without any investment into attack.
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Dondozo @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Level: 50
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rest
- Order Up
- Sleep Talk
- Wave Crash
Dondozo @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Level: 50
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rest
- Order Up
- Sleep Talk
- Wave Crash
- Dondozo is a fantastic mon and thrives off murkrow dropping in usage. With less and less haze being seen every day, dondozo is becoming more and more of a threat able to clean up or sweep teams when it has tatsugiri in its mouth. As you probably know however, I wouldn’t go for a lone dondozo as it does become fairly useless on its own.
- Tera steel is here to counter clear smog amoonguss because that can absolutely cripple this mon, tera steel is the perfect counter as on top of just being a good defensive typing, it means clear smog deals no damage so its secondary effect doesn't work. Furthermore, any ground or fire pokemon that type to counter the steel tera type can get easily melted by wave crash.
- Originally, I chose safety goggles on ‘dozo as spore is very annoying as it allows the opponent to slowly chip you down while you do nothing but on learning that it learns sleep talk, I swapped to leftovers. 244 hp evs allow it to reach 256 hp which is a leftovers number meaning it gets the most value out of it and if you are slept you can just press sleep talk and with its +2 on every stat and order-up boost it can frequently pick up KOs with any move and survive long enough to wake up most of the time. Lefties also make it a lot harder to chip down dondozo as the regen health adds up over time especially when mons generally don’t do much damage to it.
- Order up + wave crash do neutral damage to every type in the game, on top of being naturally strong moves, order ups secondary effect (+atk) means it can sweep teams in the back after it orders up even when 1v2 and wave crash allows it to spit on fairy types even when out of tera. With its tremendous damage, sometimes I find wave crash doing the most damage to dondozo hence why I have rest as it fully cures status and hp. This negates burn slowing down the sweep and also para from cheesing turns. Even whilst asleep, I can still pile pressure on using sleep talk which can often pick up KOs.
- Unaware is one of the best abilities in the game. It ignore stat raises on defence and offense. This means that mons can’t just set up and kill it as ‘dozo just doesn’t care about stat changes and also means that mons can’t iron defense up so ‘dozo can’t kill it and chip it down. The only negative effect is that it ignores for example close combat defence drops but being the absolute unit that ‘dozo is, it doesn’t really matter.
- Whilst more of a niche point, dondozo reinforces the scrappy bait on flamigo as usually when you see dondozogiri, most of the time people use costar flamigo to get the +2 on flamigo as well which is a very good combo. This means that occasionally, people forget that scrappy exists and switch in ghost types into flamigo and get brutally assaulted by the bird but of course at the end of the day, this isn’t the deciding factor for dondozo because it just is an absolute unit.
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Tatsugiri @ Focus Sash
Ability: Commander
Level: 50
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Protect
- Helping Hand
- Icy Wind
- Tatsugiri is fairly self explanatory, it helps dondozo become an absolute beast. I opted for attack boost over speed as dondozo is already bulky enough with its boost so I value boosting damage more than bulk.
- I went with focus sash as it ensures that tatsugiri survive a turn as unlike dondozo, this mon can actually do a fair amount when on the field alone and also means that once it pops out of dondozos mouth, it can survive a turn and occasionally win battles.
- Due to running sash over other items, I ran max special attack and speed so it has a presence on the field without ‘dozo, this also means that Draco meteor actually does a fair bit of damage and can sometimes pick up KOs. Icy wind is a great form of speed control as it can also put damage on both mons to help pick up KOs. Helping hand is surprisingly useful, on top of sash making tatsugiri surviving a turn, it also means that it can most of the time freely get off a helping hand if ‘dozo isn’t on the field to help pick up a KO before swapping dondozo in. Protect is a fairly standard move and allows tatsugiri to stall another turn before swapping ‘dozo in.
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Gholdengo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Good as Gold
Level: 50
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 164 HP / 4 Def / 20 SpA / 68 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Make It Rain
- Shadow Ball
- Power Gem
- Dazzling Gleam
- I felt I had a solid team at this point so I just wanted something to put out pure damage. I used iron valiant, fluttermane, garchomp and other mons known for being absolute units but none of them stuck like this golden wind sock. I’m not sure how much more I can say that is new about Gholdengo but even amongst paradox mons, this thing is still the undefeated champ for me.
- Gholdengo doesn’t just put out damage, it takes a good amount as well. Steel-Ghost is one of the best defensive typings in the game and in tera, raw steel type is the single best defensive typing in the game. With its investment, some of the most notable things it survives are 252 atk Meowscarada Knock off and 252+ SpA Gholdengo shadow ball on top of outspeeding anything that's not fully invested + nature with lower than 84 base speed and can often win the gholdengo match up with its bulk and natural damage output.
- Specs is one of the best items for Gholdengo, a base SpA of 133 and specs mean that this this is a formidable threat for any mon especially with its vast move pool and solid spread moves of dazzling gleam and probably the most broken new move of this generation- Make it rain. Make it rain and Shadow ball are two of the best STAB moves to have while power gem and dazzling gleam can catch your opponent off guard every now and then and pick up KOs with its raw power and coverage.
Leads
Dondozo + Tatsugiri
Dondozo + Tatsugiri
- It may seem obvious that the broken combo is a solid lead but this can pick up some very easy KOs and can occasionally fully sweep. Even if the big whale dies, tatsugiri should not be underestimated on its own, its not exactly the best but considering its main use is to beef up dondozo, its not bad and even if it doesn't go for raw damage, it can still helping hand to help out with KOs further down the line.
Talonflame + Iron Treads
- Insta-Tailwind to make Iron-Treads already good speed stat even better, STAB earth quake with a side mon that doesn't get effected by ground moves, what more could you want? Iron treads can do a very good amount of damage and so can Talonflame but more often than not I find myself clicking will-o-wisp to stop mons that threaten Treads.
Talonflame + Flamigo
- Insta-tailwind + a mon that can KO most things in the tier allow for fast starts both literally and metaphorically. The bird should not be underestimated, it easily picks up KOs on the bulkiest of mons and if you target correctly, you can make it survive more than 1 turn despite it terrible bulk if you get the mon that targets flamigo off the field.
Flamigo + Iron Treads
- Like talonflame + treads, STAB earthquake + a side mon that doesn't get effected by ground moves is very useful to have and both mons have enough capability to pick up frequent KOs and get you off to a good start.
Threats
Trick room
Trick room
- Trick room isn't an impossible match up, Treads and Gholdengo can tank hits, talonflame burn can help out a ton and dondozo is just dondozo, but nonetheless, 9 times out of 10 I find myself losing this match up
Surprise clear smog/ crits
- Both have the same idea, catching dondozo off guard and either removing its stat boosts or ignoring them and dealing a ton of damage for the other mon to finish off. This is pretty rare as I know most clear smog users and tera accordingly and crits still don't always deal enough damage to the whale half the time.
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