Introduction/Teambuilding
Hi everyone. So I've been casually playing VGC formats from the end of VGC15 to mid VGC17 until I stopped playing competitive Pokemon until very recently to focus on studying. Since I basically have nothing but time for a while I thought I might as well get back in to VGC. I wanted to post my first team here to see if anybody can spot any glaring weaknesses or have any recommendations. There have been some pretty big changes to the game that I'm still getting used to, like Dynamaxing and instant speed changes. Since I didn't really have any idea of where to begin, I thought it would be best to see what other players were finding success with and get a better idea of the current meta. I read a bunch of team reports and tested their teams and found the most success with Alexandre/Radium H3's 2nd Place Malmo Regional Sand Team.
I really thought the core of Excadrill, Tyranitar, Togekiss and Rotom-W felt solid and had a reasonable matchup against a variety of teams. The fact that each mon was able to function with and without Dynamaxing was very appealing. Tsareena was also surprisingly good in certain matchups, blocking Mach Punch from Conkeldurr, as well as Prankster Thunder Waves, Scary Faces, Fake Tears, etc
However, I wasn't loving the Arcanine as I found it would often just sit on the field and not do a whole lot, and I found that the Sash on Excadrill was often unnecessary. I tried replacing Protect with Will-o-wisp which I felt was an improvement, but not a massive one. I wanted to try out the bulky SD Weakness Policy Excadrill that many players had switched to. After just switching the weakness policy over to Excadrill and making Tyranitar banded I really fell in love with the bulky Drill. It was just quite easily living things it had no business living and after a swords dance it was a huge threat in the sand. I found myself 9 times out of 10 dynamaxing Excadrill and it always put in work. However, I wasn't really loving Tsareena any more. The fact that it needed to remain on the field to block priority wasn't the best, and no longer having weakness policy Tyranitar meant that U-turn suddenly became a lot less useful.
I decided to swap Tsareena for Indeedee, as it had a bit better of a matchup against Conkeldurr, its priority blocking remained long after it was removed from the field, it kept the Helping Hand support and also provided further redirection. I also decided to replace Arcanine with Sash Imprison Chandelure, as it improved the trick room matchup somewhat and was still able to beat Durant. I'm still not massively confident about Chandelure as it's not like it auto wins the trick room matchup and its usefulness outside of those particular matchups is limited.
The Team
Excadrill @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 12 Atk / 132 Def / 60 SpD / 132 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Swords Dance
The star of the show in the majority of games. The moves are pretty self explanatory, STABs provide defensive boosts when Dynamaxed, Max Rockfall sets up the sand and smacks things like Rotom. There have been times after my dynamax turns have ran out that I wish that I had Protect over SD, but those times are greatly outnumbered by the times I have clicked Follow Me and SD on turn one and practically won there and then. It's also very helpful to mitigate Intimidate drops as this team doesn't have a Competitive/Defiant mon.
The spread is an adaptation Yuki Zaninovich's Excadrill spread. It hits the same defensive benchmarks (lives a Timid LO G-Max Wildfire after Dynamaxing and a max attack Adamant Excadrill EQ) with less EVs while hitting a 16n-1 HP stat to minimise burn/hail damage. I moved the EVs that I had saved in to speed to both speedcreep Yuki's Excadrill and to outspeed Jolly Tyranitar which some players have started using.
252+ Atk Excadrill Earthquake vs. 172 HP / 132 Def Excadrill: 176-210 (85 - 101.4%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Charizard Max Flare (140 BP) vs. 172 HP / 60 SpD Excadrill: 354-421 (85.5 - 101.6%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 124 HP / 124 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Assurance
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
The supporting cast. I had decided on Banded Tyranitar after seeing Jamie Boyt use it on his Rose Tower team, as well as his Kingler team. I was very impressed after looking at the Assurance calc on Dusclops (with Rock Slide from Excadrill), as well as the Stone Edge calc on no bulk Charti Berry G-Max Charizard and Superpower on offensive faster Dynamaxed Tyranitars, all just OHKOing. This thing is incredibly strong. As for the spread, I stuck with the same speed as Alexandre's Tyranitar, as I figured I wanted I wanted to at least speed tie with it and figured going Jolly was quite inefficient and unnecessary. The HP stat is another 16n-1 value, and the attack conveniently hits the 'bump' where you get 2 stats for the 8 EVs rather than just the 1.
Togekiss @ Scope Lens
Ability: Super Luck
Level: 50
EVs: 116 HP / 4 Def / 108 SpA / 28 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Follow Me
- Air Slash
- Dazzling Gleam
- Heat Wave
Pretty much Alexandre's Togekiss entirely copied and pasted. I felt no reason to make any changes to the set or the spread, it functioned brilliantly as it was. I was considering replacing Heat Wave with Yawn as it would put pressure on opposing Dynamax mons and Togekiss doesn't exactly have the best Durant matchup, but it's still a nice option to have. Togekiss when Dynamaxed is also unfortunately the only form of speed control the team has. The HP stat was already a 16n-1 value and I definitely feel fast Togekiss is a better fit for this team, especially considering I already have another bulky redirection user. I just moved a few EVs from special attack in to special defence to better improve the chance I live opposing Timid LO Rotom's Thunderbolt.
Rotom-Wash @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 28 HP / 4 Def / 220 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Protect
Again, pretty much Alexandre's Rotom-W. Life Orb Rotom-W is so strong, and Water and Electric STABs hit so much of the current meta, like Togekiss, Excadrill, Tyranitar, Incineroar etc. Due to the lack of dragons, there are also very few mons that resist both types. I was considering replacing Dark Pulse with Nasty Plot or Will-o-wisp, but both felt kind of redundant as most of the time I would just rather fire off Life Orb boosted attacks. The spread is just max speed and sp.atk with a HP stat on 10n-1 to minimise Life Orb recoil.
Chandelure @ Focus Sash
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 244 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Imprison
- Trick Room
- Shadow Ball
- Heat Wave
My least certain member of the team. Imprisoning Trick Room in theory seems very strong in theory, but in reality Trick Room players expect it and play around it. Still, for now it's here and it does also somewhat help against Durant (unless they lead Durant + Whimsicott and double target Chandelure...) I don't really have much else to say about it really. The set and spread are super standard.
Indeedee-F (F) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 188 Def / 4 SpA / 36 SpD / 44 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Follow Me
- Helping Hand
- Heal Pulse
The member change I'm much more confident about. Goggles Indeedee vastly improves my matchup against Venusaur, allowing me to Follow Me and KO the Torkoal against a Venusaur + Torkoal lead. I found that Indeedee performs both a support role and being an offensive threat in its own right better than Tsareena did. The main downside to Psychic Surge is that it does not protect Rotom-W and/or Togekiss from Fake out, though from my experience playing Alexandre's team, Tsareena would rarely prevent this either, and it usually didn't matter either way. The first 3 moves were a no-brainer, but I was a little torn between Protect and Heal Pulse. I did ultimately decide to use Heal Pulse as with Excadrill providing itself and other team members defensive boosts, Heal Pulse can often make your partner unkillable.
The spread again hits a 16n-1 HP stat. The Sp.Def is just enough to hit the 'bump' where you get 2 stat points for the price of 1. I have just enough speed to speedcreep Sejun Park's AV Passimian, and consequently his Togekiss. The rest is dumped in to Defence.
Conclusion
So there we have it. I'm still very new to this format, so I'm not sure if there are any glaring weaknesses to this team. In practice, Dragapult + Coalossal has been annoying to deal with, as well as hard trick room. If anybody has any suggestions/criticism I would love to hear it. Thanks for reading everybody.
Hi everyone. So I've been casually playing VGC formats from the end of VGC15 to mid VGC17 until I stopped playing competitive Pokemon until very recently to focus on studying. Since I basically have nothing but time for a while I thought I might as well get back in to VGC. I wanted to post my first team here to see if anybody can spot any glaring weaknesses or have any recommendations. There have been some pretty big changes to the game that I'm still getting used to, like Dynamaxing and instant speed changes. Since I didn't really have any idea of where to begin, I thought it would be best to see what other players were finding success with and get a better idea of the current meta. I read a bunch of team reports and tested their teams and found the most success with Alexandre/Radium H3's 2nd Place Malmo Regional Sand Team.
I really thought the core of Excadrill, Tyranitar, Togekiss and Rotom-W felt solid and had a reasonable matchup against a variety of teams. The fact that each mon was able to function with and without Dynamaxing was very appealing. Tsareena was also surprisingly good in certain matchups, blocking Mach Punch from Conkeldurr, as well as Prankster Thunder Waves, Scary Faces, Fake Tears, etc
However, I wasn't loving the Arcanine as I found it would often just sit on the field and not do a whole lot, and I found that the Sash on Excadrill was often unnecessary. I tried replacing Protect with Will-o-wisp which I felt was an improvement, but not a massive one. I wanted to try out the bulky SD Weakness Policy Excadrill that many players had switched to. After just switching the weakness policy over to Excadrill and making Tyranitar banded I really fell in love with the bulky Drill. It was just quite easily living things it had no business living and after a swords dance it was a huge threat in the sand. I found myself 9 times out of 10 dynamaxing Excadrill and it always put in work. However, I wasn't really loving Tsareena any more. The fact that it needed to remain on the field to block priority wasn't the best, and no longer having weakness policy Tyranitar meant that U-turn suddenly became a lot less useful.
I decided to swap Tsareena for Indeedee, as it had a bit better of a matchup against Conkeldurr, its priority blocking remained long after it was removed from the field, it kept the Helping Hand support and also provided further redirection. I also decided to replace Arcanine with Sash Imprison Chandelure, as it improved the trick room matchup somewhat and was still able to beat Durant. I'm still not massively confident about Chandelure as it's not like it auto wins the trick room matchup and its usefulness outside of those particular matchups is limited.
The Team
Excadrill @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 12 Atk / 132 Def / 60 SpD / 132 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Swords Dance
Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 124 HP / 124 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Assurance
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
Togekiss @ Scope Lens
Ability: Super Luck
Level: 50
EVs: 116 HP / 4 Def / 108 SpA / 28 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Follow Me
- Air Slash
- Dazzling Gleam
- Heat Wave
Rotom-Wash @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 28 HP / 4 Def / 220 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Protect
Chandelure @ Focus Sash
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 244 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Imprison
- Trick Room
- Shadow Ball
- Heat Wave
Indeedee-F (F) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 188 Def / 4 SpA / 36 SpD / 44 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Follow Me
- Helping Hand
- Heal Pulse
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 12 Atk / 132 Def / 60 SpD / 132 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Swords Dance
Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 124 HP / 124 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Assurance
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
Togekiss @ Scope Lens
Ability: Super Luck
Level: 50
EVs: 116 HP / 4 Def / 108 SpA / 28 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Follow Me
- Air Slash
- Dazzling Gleam
- Heat Wave
Rotom-Wash @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 28 HP / 4 Def / 220 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Protect
Chandelure @ Focus Sash
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 244 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Imprison
- Trick Room
- Shadow Ball
- Heat Wave
Indeedee-F (F) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 188 Def / 4 SpA / 36 SpD / 44 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Follow Me
- Helping Hand
- Heal Pulse
Excadrill @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 12 Atk / 132 Def / 60 SpD / 132 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Swords Dance
The star of the show in the majority of games. The moves are pretty self explanatory, STABs provide defensive boosts when Dynamaxed, Max Rockfall sets up the sand and smacks things like Rotom. There have been times after my dynamax turns have ran out that I wish that I had Protect over SD, but those times are greatly outnumbered by the times I have clicked Follow Me and SD on turn one and practically won there and then. It's also very helpful to mitigate Intimidate drops as this team doesn't have a Competitive/Defiant mon.
The spread is an adaptation Yuki Zaninovich's Excadrill spread. It hits the same defensive benchmarks (lives a Timid LO G-Max Wildfire after Dynamaxing and a max attack Adamant Excadrill EQ) with less EVs while hitting a 16n-1 HP stat to minimise burn/hail damage. I moved the EVs that I had saved in to speed to both speedcreep Yuki's Excadrill and to outspeed Jolly Tyranitar which some players have started using.
252+ Atk Excadrill Earthquake vs. 172 HP / 132 Def Excadrill: 176-210 (85 - 101.4%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Charizard Max Flare (140 BP) vs. 172 HP / 60 SpD Excadrill: 354-421 (85.5 - 101.6%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 124 HP / 124 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Assurance
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
The supporting cast. I had decided on Banded Tyranitar after seeing Jamie Boyt use it on his Rose Tower team, as well as his Kingler team. I was very impressed after looking at the Assurance calc on Dusclops (with Rock Slide from Excadrill), as well as the Stone Edge calc on no bulk Charti Berry G-Max Charizard and Superpower on offensive faster Dynamaxed Tyranitars, all just OHKOing. This thing is incredibly strong. As for the spread, I stuck with the same speed as Alexandre's Tyranitar, as I figured I wanted I wanted to at least speed tie with it and figured going Jolly was quite inefficient and unnecessary. The HP stat is another 16n-1 value, and the attack conveniently hits the 'bump' where you get 2 stats for the 8 EVs rather than just the 1.
Togekiss @ Scope Lens
Ability: Super Luck
Level: 50
EVs: 116 HP / 4 Def / 108 SpA / 28 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Follow Me
- Air Slash
- Dazzling Gleam
- Heat Wave
Pretty much Alexandre's Togekiss entirely copied and pasted. I felt no reason to make any changes to the set or the spread, it functioned brilliantly as it was. I was considering replacing Heat Wave with Yawn as it would put pressure on opposing Dynamax mons and Togekiss doesn't exactly have the best Durant matchup, but it's still a nice option to have. Togekiss when Dynamaxed is also unfortunately the only form of speed control the team has. The HP stat was already a 16n-1 value and I definitely feel fast Togekiss is a better fit for this team, especially considering I already have another bulky redirection user. I just moved a few EVs from special attack in to special defence to better improve the chance I live opposing Timid LO Rotom's Thunderbolt.
Rotom-Wash @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 28 HP / 4 Def / 220 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Protect
Again, pretty much Alexandre's Rotom-W. Life Orb Rotom-W is so strong, and Water and Electric STABs hit so much of the current meta, like Togekiss, Excadrill, Tyranitar, Incineroar etc. Due to the lack of dragons, there are also very few mons that resist both types. I was considering replacing Dark Pulse with Nasty Plot or Will-o-wisp, but both felt kind of redundant as most of the time I would just rather fire off Life Orb boosted attacks. The spread is just max speed and sp.atk with a HP stat on 10n-1 to minimise Life Orb recoil.
Chandelure @ Focus Sash
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 244 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Imprison
- Trick Room
- Shadow Ball
- Heat Wave
My least certain member of the team. Imprisoning Trick Room in theory seems very strong in theory, but in reality Trick Room players expect it and play around it. Still, for now it's here and it does also somewhat help against Durant (unless they lead Durant + Whimsicott and double target Chandelure...) I don't really have much else to say about it really. The set and spread are super standard.
Indeedee-F (F) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 188 Def / 4 SpA / 36 SpD / 44 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Follow Me
- Helping Hand
- Heal Pulse
The member change I'm much more confident about. Goggles Indeedee vastly improves my matchup against Venusaur, allowing me to Follow Me and KO the Torkoal against a Venusaur + Torkoal lead. I found that Indeedee performs both a support role and being an offensive threat in its own right better than Tsareena did. The main downside to Psychic Surge is that it does not protect Rotom-W and/or Togekiss from Fake out, though from my experience playing Alexandre's team, Tsareena would rarely prevent this either, and it usually didn't matter either way. The first 3 moves were a no-brainer, but I was a little torn between Protect and Heal Pulse. I did ultimately decide to use Heal Pulse as with Excadrill providing itself and other team members defensive boosts, Heal Pulse can often make your partner unkillable.
The spread again hits a 16n-1 HP stat. The Sp.Def is just enough to hit the 'bump' where you get 2 stat points for the price of 1. I have just enough speed to speedcreep Sejun Park's AV Passimian, and consequently his Togekiss. The rest is dumped in to Defence.
Conclusion
So there we have it. I'm still very new to this format, so I'm not sure if there are any glaring weaknesses to this team. In practice, Dragapult + Coalossal has been annoying to deal with, as well as hard trick room. If anybody has any suggestions/criticism I would love to hear it. Thanks for reading everybody.
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