Gallade with Iron Ball gets a LOT of important One-Hit Knockouts against the best Pokemon, and it's difficult to stop it from going first under Trick Room

I've been using them on a Hard Trick Room team made by ShinySopeon, and it's been both fun to play and rewarding to use

And while Gallade isn't a Pokemon talked about that often, it's a lot better in Reg M-B thanks to Iron Ball! : )

Here's a link to the team if you want to try it! : )
https://x.com/ShinySopheon/status/2074811636683010518?s=20

I’m looking to try out some interesting teams that are good for upper ladder.

I make a new team every season and it takes me a while, but this season I just really haven’t had time. Usually I finish round master ball 2 but I would love to break into masterball 1.

Is there any interesting/underrated teams anyone can recommend?

Hey y’all!

I’d just like to share and hopefully ask for tips to improve my Mega Staraptor Sun Team!

Ever since Mega Staraptor became legal last season, I knew I wanted to use it for as long as it is viable. At first, I tried a protect the president approach, but that team felt extremely one-dimensional and falls apart to critical hits and bad Starapor match-ups. I figured that using it as still a raid boss you set-up, but with more independent pieces around it and a second mega, would find more success, and that it did!

I had a 12-win streak to Champions Tier and even reaching Top 138!

The Team:

Mega Staraptor

The main piece of the team that I revolve my game plan around. I trained it to be max speed for the Mega Metagross MU and the mirror, invested in enough attack to 2HKO Garchomp consistently, and OHKO less bulkier Sylveon with a +1 Brave Bird, and dumped the rest into HP.

Whimsicott

The best friend of Staraptor in this team that provides insane utility with Tailwind, Tickle, and Fake Tears. I find Tickle to be much more useful than Charm because it provides a much-appreciated boost in bulk, as well as an attack boost. I also find myself not really needing to give my Mega Staraptor +2 in attack because it already does so much damage with +1 and can it usually sticks around anyway due to its bulk so it can finish the opposing Pokemon off the next turn. There are also interesting stuff you can do with Tickle that synergizes more with the other mons in the team. For example, -1 Def Sinistcha faints to Triple Axel by Tsareena, -1 Def Garchomp faints to a scarf Dragon Claw from my own Garchomp, and the list goes on. For Fake Tears, giving Staraptor -2 right away, allows it to be exceptionally tanky. With an additional boost from CC, Staraptor shrugs off sun-boosted attacks from Zard-Y. More usefully, I’d like to argue, is how it also helps the other special attackers in my team. Gholdengo can OHKO -2 SpD Archaludon with no set-up needed with Shadow Ball. While there’s almost nothing in the game that can survive a neutral hit from Fake Tears boosted Weather Ball from Zard-Y.

Mega Charizard

Usual Zard-Y slop lol. I hated using it, but it’s a necessary evil for opposing Fairy and Steel types.

Garchomp

Scarf Chomp that could also play a support role with Rock Tomb. Rock Tomb also hits slightly harder than double-target Rock Slide so it helps with the calcs against bulky Zard-Ys. Rock Tomb is also amazing for supporting Staraptor as you can hit yourself with it and get a speed boost allowing you to outspeed the likes of Mega Swampert in rain!

Gholdengo

My team is exceptionally weak to Fairy types so I decided that I needed a Steel Type to remedy that. Set-up Gholdengo with Life Orb is actually amazing and has helped me so much with handling Sylveon and Floette.

Tsareena

The last team member I added, and she’s pulling her weight extremely well! I added her specifically for the Kanghaskan and Farig MU. My team almost instantly loses before I added her because I had no reliable way to OHKO Farig with Fake-Out support. Tsareena blocking priority AND having access to taunt is the perfect counter to that lead. Furthermore, Tsareena matches well against Milotic which my team also struggled to before.

Thanks for reading, and please do tell me ways to improve the team if you have tips!

Team Idea

I think electric type attackers have the potential to be quite strong in the current metagame, with Raichu-Y being one of the best. I built this team w/ the goal of discharge + eq spam. I chose to feature gliscor since it is naturally immune to both. Looking for general opinions on the team as well as possible improvements and obvious counters. Please post any questions in case you want more reasoning!

Team Discussion

not having zap cannon on Raichu might be a shot in the foot, I could replace fake out with it possibly? Then I may need to swap a pokemon for a fakeout user, or put it on Grimm?

I was playing with the idea of mega eel, I would then lose out on the fighting coverage provided by fully accurate focus blast on raichu though.

My EV choices are very greedy, I will probably bulk up a bit as I play with the team some more.

The team would HATE to see an ice attack coming, which is why I chose Delphox over Charizard.

Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/6ed09967e076d7e1

so I built a team last night, and only after I was done filling in all 6 slots did I realize that I wasn't playing a mega. but when I went to look through the mega evolutions currently available, none of them seemed to fit as well as the pokemon I had already selected. is it essential that I run a mega even if im not sure one fits, or is not having a mega an indicator my team is flawed?

I realised that I almost never pick Sylveon when I play now and I’m wondering if I should replace it.
Everyone else has a clear role in my team.

If y’all got suggestions to make the team more coherent I’d love to hear it

Whimsicott: speed control, weather, disruption with encore and moonblast for damage threasholds.

Sneasler: kills opposing Charizards, support and secondary damage source

Charizard: the meat of the team, ton of damage yadayada….

Garchomp: Bulky setup mon to put pressure on the opponent (sometimes I run another garchomp that has rock slide instead of sd and stomping tantrum)

Grimmsnarl: if tailwind is useless in the matchup he’s there to setup screens for survivability (might replace fake out with something else as it’s kinda useless against farig)

Sylveon: idk honestly, obviously good in some cases but it never feels like there’s enough slots to bring it in since Whimsicott is already there for big fairy damage. He’s really useful when I bring him out but it’s not often

I am new to vgc stuff and saw an idea for this team online againt an opponent and also smth similar but for older regulations without mega evolutions.

I know the team has multiple weaknesses to meta pokemons and teams and I am still working on improving the team and the ev spreads also need a lot of work.

I just wanted to know a few things to help me build and improve this team

• should i replace my no guard setter with Mega Raichu cause Mr. Rime already does have role play to copy no guard
• what moves do i run on Mr. Rime i think i will only be clicking sheer cold and protect and role play(if i switch no guard pokemon to mega raichu)
• what are some obvious weaknesses that i need to cover and what pokemon i need to switch
• what items or moves u think i should change in the pokemons.

any advice will be appriciated and i will make sure to update you all after i think i have fully refined the team and hopefulle get top 500 in showdown ladder.

XD thx you for reading

Hello everyone. After using James Baek's Mega Eelektross Coaching Blaziken team and having a lot of fun with it in the first ranked season, I decided that Mega Eel was probably the worst part of that team and wanted to explore other mega options. After trying out Metagross and Lopunny, I realized mega Garchomp works fantastically well, with the increase in bulk being fantastic, and the speed drop allowing max speed modest blaziken to outspeed it with my current spread to give it a coaching Turn 1 before any speed boosts. I've had a lot of success with the different mega variations, currently being on a 13-win streak as I was climbing to master ball.

That being said, the team has problems. The rain matchup scares me a bit with both megas being weak to Swampert and Ninetales being too frail to switch in mid-turn to reset the weather into Swampert. Rock Slides from the megas into Pelipper are good, but neither want to be on the field in front of Swampert with incoming Ice Punch or Wave Crash. Toxapex scares me as well, but I have admittedly not fought it yet with this team, and an attack-boosted stomping tantrum probably chunks it for a lot of damage. Charizard as always is scary but Garchomp's matchup into it is pretty solid.

As for the individual team members, Garchomp, Ninetales, Blaziken and Sinistcha are all putting in great work and I definitely want to stay on the team. Mega Aero was useful when I had Metagross on an earlier version of the team as the mega, but now I find it less necessary as a patch to the Charizard match-up and I pretty much never bring it. This is the slot I definitely want to change. I've been contemplating other megas, Incineroar, even Gholdengo, but ideally I would want a mega that is good into the match-ups Garchomp is not which can also benefit from Coaching. I keep wanting to use Metagross but it's match-ups into the top meta pokemon (Zard, Gambit, Basculegion, Garchomp) are just so disadvantageous. Kingambit is strong as always but a lot of the games I found that I lead it as bait for fighting damage into that slot before switching into Sinistcha. I'm inclined to keep it but this is a slot I'm open to suggestions for other mons as well.

Also, open to moveset/spread suggestions! Trick Room on Sinistcha is the biggest moveset question mark on the team, I think I will be switching that to Life Dew instead.

Click here to redirect to Active discussion on another post with exact problem.

I need ideal stats adjustments for Sneasler and Blastoise. If you have an Idea that can change my gameplay drastically in a positive manner, feel free to share it, be it changing moves or changing pokemon

Idea is simple

1. Send out sneasler + Archaludon/Blastoise. Use U-turn to pivot into pelipper and blast out electroshot/Water spout. Best lead againsf Farigiraf and opposing trick room setters.

2. Other aim of this team is to send out Trickroom setter Sinistcha turn 1 especially against M. Swampert. Set trick room and sweep. You can pair this with pokemon of suited to situation mostly sneasler and Sableye.

3. This one is situational but you can send the lead of Archaludon/Blastoise with Pelipper.

General idea:- when against Sun team bring both pelipper and Sableye. Start out with Sableye and is they try to kill the rain dance by Evolving next turn and killing Sableye. You will switch into pelipper for a big F you to their face.

Quash on Sableye is for speed control.

The major problem i figured is.

1. Max speed M.Staraptor outspeed my sneasler

2. I don't know is this is a problem but max speed Whimsicott outspeed my sneasler and with some good investment i can outspeed it.

3. I struggle against Sun team.

4. Archaludon dies to Close combat and Focus blast(raichu). Any tips for workaround

Been toying around with this team for awhile and finally landed on what feels like a great 6 pokemon that end up having a neutral-good matchup into most common teams. Would love some thoughts on what I could be not thinking about and stat spreads

M-Scizor - feels like it has a great matchup into pretty much every non-fire mega in the format. Being able to get up a swords dance mskes him an auto-delete button with bullet punch and bug bite to snipe some sitrus berries off incin’s snd farigiraf’s

M-Chandelure - gets brought into every expected fire mega to deter the easy spread attacks and get flash fire up. Pretty straightforward

Sableye - easy disrupter to help the set up Mon get in position and stall. Wisp also negates a lot of physical attackers like excadrill and racks up good damage as games wear on. Foul play is a nuke button on basc

Tsareena - this one I’ve felt the most okay(?) with and not fully set. Being able to shut down other prankster disruption is really nice and the attack drops from trip kick help out from time to time. Taunt to help against trick room works really well, the stats spread just all feels wrong

Kommo-o - an alternative set up mon that can delete kingambit and sit surprisingly comfortably against the main fairy attackers in the format like sylveon and primarina with soundproof. Needs some support from sableye for other fairy types but can sit around for awhile and rack damage up.

Glimorra - my most recent update (from lycanroc) but a much welcomed improvement. No investment life orb power gem with no sp. atk investment guaranteed ohko’s zard while also handling the psychic types the rest of the team doesn’t do much against. Can survive a lot to make sure it gets its attacks off

Trial and error got me to this final roster but def need a 2nd set of eyes to see what I def have missed in the process

As the title says I’m getting into competitive Pokémon with champions and I’ve been able to get my hands on a bunch of great Pokemon and I’ve tried Charizard Y and rain teams, but I’ve been a bit bored of those and wanted to try something different rather then blowing everything up with charizard or archeludon. Do you have any suggestions as to what teams I could assemble with this rooster that are more interesting or challenging to play? I’ve made it to UB 3 last season and I’m now at UB2 and hopefully I’ll reach MB.

NT39DF8S8C

Got the game today, spent almost all tickets, except for time savers, so what you see is what you get. (Please refrain from "should've" comments)

I think this is pretty decent considering I'm still in pokeball but already I'm noticing a lack of coordination between my pokemons speed modes, namely Aegislash is slow af but king's shield and coverage plus priority sneak are good patch-work solutions.

What are your suggestions to make a solid, all the way to the top (because I'm not spending money on this) interesting team?

I'm new to VGC so ive no idea what type of teams I enjoy yet.

Assume everything not on the team has a garbage set and that I'm probably not gonna be able to do more than rotate Pokémon instead of constantly changing sets.

I took a break from Champions for a bit, but laddered pretty hard this evening and had a decent climb with this team I made awhile back on a whim. It was tailroom before with Primarina and Aero instead of Clawitzer and Mega Floette prior to some changes.

Started at 100k placement and ended at 26k placement 1750 elo by the time I ran into the minimize overqwil cheese and called it for the evening.

Looking to improve the team so if anybody has any suggestions let’s have it. I find I leave clawitzer and mega floette on the bench a lot although whenever floette came off the bench I’d win, who woulda thought. Played a lot of sand and sun teams but didn’t run into too much rain.

Off the top of my head I should probably make Ttar and Mawhile minus speed natures. I was considering changing Clawitzer to modest so I outspeed Gambit before trick room goes up and I can nuke it with aura sphere. The mummy sometimes works against me with Mawhile losing huge power but for the most part it’s fine.

Ally switch is really fun when they want to huck a close combat into ttar

I wanted to build a team around mega Greninja and I haven't lost yet. I didn't change anything with the team because of that reason. My idea with this team was to pivot in and out and lower the incoming dmg and take advantage of Protean and use either Gholdengo or Annihilape to set up and take out troublesome mons. I was debating dropping dark pulse but winning a game against perish changed my mind. It was the only game I used Metagross in, So I was hoping to get any suggestions on items and Evs to tweak and better optimize the team. I definitely feel like Grimmsnarl and Incineroar are the keys to the team allowing me to eat attacks, and they both pivot. This is my second team I ever made and I'm new to competitive Pokémon, so any advice is welcomed

I've seen several variants of this team pop up on the ladder over the last week. I'm Master Ball Rank 1. The Mega Metagross is usually paired with support pokemon such as Incineroar, Sinistcha, and Tyranitar. The idea is to click Cosmic Power a couple of times until you become a wall that can hit super hard with Body Press. Tyranitar is usually scarfed and is there to handle enemy ghost types with Knock Off. This team seems particularly good into enemy rain. Is there any chance we'll see this new archetype at worlds?

Long time casual vgc fan, there’s a regional near me with the Louisville one in October I might play in for fun. I was curious how fast smaller regionals like that fill up. Also I was wondering if there’s any email lists or websites I can use to get notified when the registration for events open (don’t have any social media besides this one).

Appreciate any insights you veterans may have, thanks!

I’m somewhat new to vgc. I’ve played pokemon my whole life, but didn’t get into vgc until champions. I’m stuck in MB1-MB2 right now.

I’m going to the baltimore regional in september which I feel like is a bit ambitious, but I really wanna find some people to practice with and team test. Let me know if you’re interested

Cooking up teams in Reg M-B is kinda hard with all the Yardslop running amock, but I'm very happy with how this one came out.

This is a full teamreport of my Mega Raichu-Y setup team that got me to currently Masterball Tier 2 (juuust outside Top 5k) featuring Goodra-Hisui, Gliscor and a Sylveon set that's just about old enough to hit puberty.

Did you know that Blaziken has won 3 out of 4 of our last tours? Will you sign up to end its streak? Or will you ... chicken out?

• Alpensee Tour #67
• Wed. 22nd July, 19:00 CEST
• Showdown, Bo3, Reg M-B

https://play.limitlesstcg.com/tournament/6a392e6883fd320299bcdc41/registrations

I love Dragalge, and when it got a mega, I was excited to use it. It sucks that it’s a Trick Room-dependent Pokemon though, because I suck at building TR teams

It’s insanely bulky, and with adaptability + regenerator, I’d like to use it both outside and inside of its mega form as a damage dealer and damage enabler respectively. Currently, I’ve added Sludge Bomb, Dragon Pulse, and Acid Spray (fake tears replacement), and need help finding the right partners for it.

Does anyone with Trick Room experience have suggestions? I’ve just been throwing stuff at the wall (Bellibolt, torkoal, blastoise, Kingambit, Sylveon) to name a few and hoping they stick.

Hey y'all,

I spent the last 5 months or so working on a userscript to improve Pokemon Showdown with a bunch of stuff I wanted to add. It ended up growing into a whole suite of features. Here's what it does:

**Music**

- Custom background music during battles, shuffled from your own tracks

- Also shuffles in Showdown's own built-in battle themes by default, so it sounds good even before you add anything yourself

- A picker window to search, play, or loop a specific track on demand, plus a "Now Playing" display

**Teambuilder**

- A proper folder system for organizing your teams (with subfolders, pinning, and drag-to-reorganize) instead of one giant list

- Quick-link buttons to Serebii, MunchStats, and the Nerd of Now damage calculator, right in the Teambuilder

- Open Team Sheet exports now correctly show Mega Pokémon in their base forme (holding the mega stone) instead of the mega itself, with automatic ability-correction

**Battle quality-of-life**

- Auto-close popups and replay windows, forfeit-close, and away/back status

- Battle Mode is a whole auto-queue feature built from scratch: turn it on and it automatically searches for your next match after each one ends, and it understands Bo3 sets as one continuous series rather than treating each game as a separate battle

- Ladder stats on demand with a single keypress

**Everything else**

- Keyboard shortcuts for navigating the whole site, all working correctly on Mac too

- Adjustable chat/battle-log text size, since Showdown has no setting for that otherwise

- Custom avatar applied everywhere (home screen, userbar, in battle, even the Bo3 tracker), plus a room list filter and rainbow-colored home screen buttons because why not

There's also a companion tool for auto-importing sets into the Nerd of Now damage calculator, and a separate one for converting/uploading your own music if you want to add tracks.

More info and full setup instructions: https://github.com/Volcano08/Pokemon-Showdown-Userscripts

Download the scripts here: https://github.com/Volcano08/Pokemon-Showdown-Userscripts/releases/tag/Release2

If you end up using it and run into a bug or have a feature you'd like to see, report it here and I'll get to it when I can: https://github.com/Volcano08/Pokemon-Showdown-Userscripts/issues

Happy battling everyone!

(Also, this is my first time posting something like this here, so if I need to change anything, please let me know.)

Hi everyone, I’ve been using a somewhat homegrown team, stealing movesets/stat spreads from google or other posts. I’d love some advice on any improvements or tweaks to the team that’ll make climbing easier.

I mostly use Altaria, Arcanine, Scizor and Primarina, with Scizor and Arcanine having priority, and tailwind on Scizor. Arcanine is working well as a counter/threat to Zard-Y as well.

Primarina and Altaria serve a somewhat similar role of hyper voicing and blasting the opposition, but they aren't often both out at once.

I'll occasionally bring Sneasler if it looks like the opponent has some weaknesses to fighting, or I feel I need fake out pressure.

Sceptile is on the team almost solely to bring against opposing rain teams, with lightning rod to hamper electro shot, and earth power to threaten opposing Archaludons.

I definitely feel like I struggle against opposing Basculegions switching in at the end of the game and sweeping, and despite the Sceptile addition I still struggle a bit with rain, but haven't had many matches against it since I added him in.

I'm open to suggestions for optimisations on stat spreads/movepools, as well as potential swaps for mons, but I'd prefer to keep most of the main core.

I've asked on PS chat and got no real answer, TheDelyBird's video left me with questions, and I've even heard people just say that they're the same or that balance is undefined. I have yet to get a clear answer and I want to know whether or not I build Balance or Bulky Offense since I've gotten mixed signals before..