Dracovish + Rotom-Mow
Bulky Offense
Bulky Offense
Hey there! I started getting interested in competitive Pokemon in gen 6, lost interest in gen 7, but I got back into the game this gen. I've built a few teams far, most of them were kinda terrible, but I'm actually pretty pleased with this one so far. However, I have still suffered some embarassing losses with it and I feel like it still has a few issues, so I wanted to post this RMT so that I could both show it off and ask for feedback. Anyway, here we go!
Teambuilding Process
The idea behind this team was to build behind a Dracovish + Rotom-Mow core. Dracovish is a really interesting Pokemon since there are very common threats that stop it completely, however, once these Pokemon are gone, it often just straight-up wins. However, I noticed that Rotom-Mow destroys all of Dracovish's checks, making it a great partner for it.
After that, I realized I had a massive weakness to Dragapult and Hydreigon. Sylveon seemed like the obvious way to fix it. I also needed a Steath Rock setter, and I chose Seismitoad because it offered great role compression and gave my team a decent physically defensive backbone
At this point, I had more freedom to pick what I want I mostly wanted offensive threats because I tend to prefer a more offensive kind of playstyle. I decided to use Aegisalsh since I wanted a Steel-type that had good offensive presence. And In my last teamslot, I chose Hydreigon because it's an extremely dangerous offensive threat that gives me extra leeway against the bulky Waters that Dracovish hates so much
The Team
Gluttony (Dracovish) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Psychic Fangs
- Outrage
- Crunch
Don't think this set needs much of an explanation. Adamant Dracovish wallbreaks well enough even without a Choice Band, and the ability to oustpeed unscarfed Hydreigon, Rotoms, Excadrill etc is really really valuable. But yeah, this thing is absolutely ferocious but it needs its checks to be gone before it can clean, which is what the rest of the team is for.
Greed (Rotom-Mow) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Leaf Storm
- Nasty Plot
- Substitute
I am honestly kind of amazed at how good this thing is and how opposing players often trip all over themselves to deal with it, probably because they expect a Scarf set. The combination of Nasty Plot, Thunderbolt and Leaf Storm works surprisingly well at ripping through teams, and it's not common for me to stack multiple boosts. I used to have Thunder Wave on it to cripple Dragapult and Hydreigon as they try to switch in, but I started trying out Substitute to prevent Seismitoad and Toxapex from poisoning it as it tries to set, and I've never looked back, Sub is just so useful here.
Lust (Sylveon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 248 HP / 180 Def / 80 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Draining Kiss
- Wish
- Protect
Sylveon is necessary in order to deal with the aformentioned Hydreigon and Dragapult, and its EVs are specifically so that it can deal with Phantom Force Dragapult which is a huge threat to my team otherwise. I feel like this is the team's weakest link, it invites a bunch of things for free and can be kinda hard to keep healthy, which it needs to be to counter what it needs to. I used to have Mystical Fire to hit Steels, but I fit it to be really weak against most of them and really not worth it, so I changed it to Draining Kiss to help me keep it healthy more easily. However I haven't really tested it either. I considered Calm Mind but it seems unecessary given that it's mainly used to deal with opposing Calm Minding Fairies, and Aegisalsh destroys those anyway for the most part.
Sloth (Seismitoad) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Scald
- Toxic
Not much to say about this, you all know what this thing does. I don't like how passive it is at times but it still does its job pretty well and Toxic can be great to nail threats like Hydreigon.
Pride (Aegislash) @ Choice Band
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 192 HP / 252 Atk / 64 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Iron Head
- Close Combat
- Shadow Claw
Choice Band is easily my favourite Aegislash set, and I feel like it fits well on this team for 3 reasons. Firstly, it has strong priority which helps against Dragapult and for handling sweepers in general. Secondly, it has a powerful Close Combat that does a shitton to Ferrothorn, which players like to keep in on Aegislash for some reason. And thirdly, Iron Head is really good against CMing Fairies, and I also find it great againt Dual Screens Grimmsnarl leads which, from experience, usually sets up Light Screen and dies immediately to Iron Head. Really solid set that consistently puts in work. The reason I'm running Shadow Claw over Head Smash is because I'm not particularly concerned about Mandibuzz given that pretty much the entire rest of my team can fuck it over some way or another. Shadow Claw is weaker than my other moves bar Shadow Sneak but it can come in handy when my opponent is packing both Fighting- and Steel-resists and I don't know which one they will go to. Also, I'm currently running enough speed for 4 Speed Corviknight, however I'm really not sure if it's better to go for outspeeding it before it Defogs, U-Turns or Bulk Ups or underspeeding it and CC ing as it tries to Roost on me.
Wrath (Hydreigon) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Draco Meteor
- Flash Cannon
- Fire Blast
Hydreigon is a beast in general, and the NP Draco Meteor set is great at smashing Toxapex, a huge threat to this team, to pieces, as well as non-Dragon move Hydreigon and SubDisable Dragapult to a lesser extent. Fire Blast is specifically for Bisharp who otherwise is a huge threat and forces me to play 50/50s with Rotom (Seismitoad takes like 90% from +2 throat chop lol)
Threats to the team
The big, big glaring weakness this team has is Spikes, both regular and the Toxic variant. It really doesn't help that both are commonly used by Dracovish checks in Ferrothorn and Toxapex, and that Rotom-W and Hydreigon require setup turns to break past them respectiveley, allowing them to setup their nasty nasty hazards. Aegislash really hates Spikes, and Toxic spikes are even worse for my team, completely shutting down both of my defensive Pokemon and making Dracovish way less effective too.
In fact, Toxapex is a huge fucking problem. Vish can't really beat it and Slyv and Aegi are outright walled by it, fortunately the rest of my team can handle it well but Hydrei and Seismitoed really need to watch out for Toxic.
And speaking of Toxic! This has been an issue for me since my only Toxic immunity is weak to the main STAB of the most common Toxic user, Seismitoad. I suppose I can deal with it via clever double switches but it's always a pain in the ass to deal with.
But the biggest threat to my team might be Hydreigon. Which... listen, Hydreigon has basically no counters so this is maybe not a huge surprise. But seriously, Rotom is countered by it, Aegi is hard checked, Seismitoed is fucked unless it hits a Toxic on the switch, Dracovish needs to lock itself into Outrage to beat it which it HATES doing and even then it loses to Scarf, and the only thing that can deal with it is Sylveon which is not too hard to overload, and Hydreigon paired with anything else I need Sylv to beat, like LO Clefable or god forbid Dragapult, just outright beats me completely. The fact that I rely so completely on Sylveon to beat Hydreigon is a really big issue here. I always freak out whenever I see it in team previey, and I see it a lot because, again, Hydreigon is fucking amazing and everyone uses it including me. And tbh, pretty much all of this applies to Dragapult too, but at least Aegislash can revenge a weakened Dragapult with Shadow Sneak. It simply does not have that luxury with Hydreigon.
Corviknight can also be pretty annoying since it can hit most of my threats to it quite hard and stops my bulky mons cold but i'm not really that weak to it, it's just an onipresent threta that is kinda tricky to get around
There are almost certainly other threats to my team, however I can't really think of them right now. In spite of this team's rather crippling flaws, I quite like it, I find it fairly effective and consistent, especially if you're able to use it well and don't just forget to keep Sylveon healthy like I do. But I hope to make it even better, so please give me feedback!
