Band Geeks
This team functions very offensively in general while having a safety net for the most common threats in the metagame, giving some room for error and allowing you to play your way out of a bad matchup by putting huge amounts of offensive pressure on your opponent, stacking hazards to continuously weaken their team, and having very reliable methods of revenge killing threats.
The team building process for this team was pretty interesting, starting off as a fat balance featuring Celebi and Alomomola over Sceptile and Swampert before turning into the aggressive punch fest it is today, but the process was kind of long so I'll skip the details and get right to the team.
The Team
Conkeldurr @ Choice Band
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Hammer Arm
- Knock Off
- Mach Punch
- Thunder Punch
Conkeldurr acts as my main breaker on the team and the first of the dual band core, adding huge power to the team and 2hkoing half the tier. It provides priority with mach punch and utility with knock, but you normally don't notice because you're too busy clicking hammer arm and watching things drop. I run thunder punch mostly to catch stuff like Crobat or Tentacruel which are normally big pains to the team. For Evs I put just enough speed to speed creep base 60s like Swampert and Empoleon and dumped the rest in HP. You have to play pretty carefully with Conk and keep it alive for the majority of the game, and usually you can get one or two heavy hits off in early-mid game to cripple your opponents core before it gets too weakened and you need to save it for mach punch spam in the back.
Entei @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
- Flare Blitz
Entei caps off the second part of the band core, helping to break Sylveon, Crobat, and other problems for Conkeldurr and Sceptile. Entei naturally forces alot of things out letting you aggressively double around and forces your opponent to take damage from hazards. Entei also gives priority extreme speed and has the chance to burn and 2hko weaker waters like Blastoise and Tentacruel, and hits Arcanine with stone edge after it switches into Conk.
Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect
Sceptile provides a nice cleaner for the team as well as an answer to mons the core struggles with like Swampert, Gyarados, and Krookodile. I'm running the protect set specifically to counter Gyara (unless its ice fang) and to easily scout choiced mons that tend to come in on Sceptile, and decided against focus blast since the stuff it hits doesn't bug my team too much anyway, and having a reliable answer to Gyara and a decent answer to Suicune is important to this team.
Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Damp
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
Swampert fits every team I swear. Swamp gives me a good physical sponge with offensive prescence as well as an answer to Entei, Aerodactyl, stealth rocks, and roar for troublesome setup sweepers all in one. This is the first part of my standard water fairy steel core on this team, and it really relies on Sylveon to wish pass and tank special hits while Sylveon relies on its physical bulk.
Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Hyper Voice
- Heal Bell
Sylveon is my teams cleric and provides alot for the team. It protect stalls M-Swampert down for Sceptile to revenge kill, heals Swampert and Conkeldurr of burns and has a strong hyper voice. You have to play really carefully with Sylveon on this team, as not only does it have a lot of pressure to take on hits and gets whittled really easily, but it also lets in things that this team hates and thus you really shouldn't stay in too long with it since it drains precious momentum.
Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Pin Missile
- Heavy Slam
- Rapid Spin
- Spikes
Forretress rounds out the team and provides a lot of the things the team needs, spin, a defensive fairy check, something to kill Celebi, and most importantly spikes. Spikestack turns this team into a nightmare for anything that tries to face it and is one of the things you have to focus on in order to win, as you can use all the forced switches to set up layers of spikes and then apply offensive pressure and eventually get rid of all counters to whatever your main win con is and sweep, as well as turn would be 3hkos to 2hkos so that every time you come in with one of your threats your opponent is forced to sack off another member of their team.
Threats
Spikestack + Spinblocker
Ironically enough one of the biggest weaknesses this team has is opposing spikestack (toxic or regular) especially when paired with a spinblocker. My only course of action really is to never let whatever their spiker is in and playing really aggressively around it. Common toxic spikers like Nidoqueen and Tentacruel are quite annoying and I usually end up beating them with Swampert, but if played well it can be quite annoying.
Tornadus
On paper this thing blows me back since I lack a flying resist and it can go to town on my team quite easily considering I have no switch ins for it. In practice its not as bad so long as I keep rocks up and get in with Sylveon on the switch or never give it a free turn to come in.
Chicken pass
Not a really big deal since its far from common but +2 speed Nidoqueen 6-0's this team, with my only real option being breaking the sub with one of my breakers and going Swampert tanking a hit and either roaring or scalding so I can revenge kill it with Entei.
Conkeldurr @ Choice Band
Ability: Iron Fist EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Hammer Arm
- Knock Off
- Mach Punch
- Thunder Punch
Entei @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
- Flare Blitz
Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect
Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Pin Missile
- Heavy Slam
- Rapid Spin
- Spikes
Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Damp
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Hyper Voice
- Heal Bell
ConclusionThis team has been super fun to play with as of late and its been doing really well against most team archetypes, though of course I'm always open to suggestions.
Shout out to Aquadext, Warzoid, and Rojava for help with the build, as well as the rest of the amazing people on UU chat for being cool.
Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed!
Notewire