Battle Spot Doubles Sample Teams

Gonna do this one from scratch, actually, most teams I see for VGC15/doubles are outdated.

Pokemon Global Link has been shut down to upgrade features for Sun and Moon. Battle Spot no longer exists as a metagame. These can still be used on Pokemon Showdown, however.

PART 2 IS HERE

This thread will be for full, complete, tested teams for the Battle Spot Doubles metagame. These are to help new players get a feel for the metagame, or even more experinced players looking for ideas. I'll be posting my two finest teams to kick things off. A few guidelines:

1) Full, complete, and tested:
Full means 6 pokemon, 4 moves each, legal for the metagame
Complete means you're not actively swapping out 1-2 team members or actively experimenting a new mon/set for less than 5 battles. I understand that teams change and adapt over time: that's fine and 100% acceptable.
Tested: I want to make a minimum standard of how much you've used the team; 30 battles should be enough to have a feel for a team without setting some absurd "1700+ ranking, 100+ battles" bull. As for BS Doubles Ranking / PS! scores, I don't know how PS! runs but a Peak Ranking of 1600+ on BSD would be adequate for me. No, I'm not demanding or even requesting proof: just don't post a team you just made yesterday and played 5 battles with is all I ask :P

2) Explain your team, with a short paragraph for each mon explaining what it does, what your EV spread does if it deviates from a 252/252/4 spread, and move choices (ie, why did you choose Fire Blast over Flamethrower on Hydreigon, or Knock Off over U-Turn on Scarf Landog?). Identifying your core(s) if you have one may also be a good idea but not required (ie, "Charizard formes a FWG core with my Venusaur and Blastoise"). A blank importable with no explaination whatsoever isn't that helpful to people. As for formatting... I don't really care, as long as it's readable.

3) This is not an RMT Thread. If you have a suggestion for someone's team ("Your team is weak to Ferrothorn, try running Fire Blast and LO on Garchomp"), VM/PM them, or if you're trying out the team, just make the change(s) yourself and see if you like it. This isn't the Teambuilding Workshop or the RMT forum. You can discuss the teams/ask questions, that's fine. ie: "I like the team! But would Virizion over Breloom work?" and "I tried this team with Entei over Rotom-H, it works pretty nice" is fine imo. Asking "My team seems weak to Mixed MegaMence, any suggests on how to fix that?" is a no-no.

And now that we've got the buns and cheese, here's the meat of the sandwich:



Charizard-Y is the primary Mega of the team, while Venusaur functions as a Chlorophyll supporter alongside it, or as a Mega Venusaur against vulnerable opponents / bad team matchups for Charizard like Rain. Swampert supports both, demolishing common answers to both Megas. Rotom-H acts a secondary blanket check to MegaMence, Talonflame, Charizard, Mega Metagross, etc. paired with Mega Venusaur and hits hard in Sun as well. Heracross smashes Khan, Terrakion, Gengar, cresselia, and many other threats while exerting offensive pressure and revenge killing. Togekiss is the main support, boosting Speed with tailwind, hampering opposing Tailwind via T-Wave, and Follow Me support to open attacking opportunities for teamates. Used this a long time; this is the current, complete team.

Charizard @ Charizardite-Y
Timid, 140 HP, 4 Def, 164 Sp. Atk, 4 Sp. Def, 196 Speed
Ability: Blaze [Drought]

- Heat Wave
- Protect
- Fire Pledge
- Ancientpower

The fiery death-dealer himself, spamming a STAB + Sun boosted Heat Wave until everything dies. Against faster threats, such as Scarfed Landorus-T, the combination and mechanics of Fire + Grass Pledge allows Charizard to outspeed and nuke anything slower than ChloroSaur (which is 98% of the entire metagame). Ancientpower smites opposing Char-Y and Talonflame, which are very threatening to Venusaur, Togekiss, Swampert, and Heracross. Protect because Doubles.
EVs allow excellent mixed bulk, tanking Timid Mega Manectric's Thunderbolt (and by extension, nearly every common unboosted Thunderbolt like Thundurus-I), and the combination of Jolly Mega Kanga's Fake Out followed by Sucker Punch. Speed outruns max Speed Krookodile, in order to outrun all Landorus-T + those that creep it by a point. Remainder in Sp. Atk to shove harder.

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Bold, 252 HP, 132 Def, 4 Sp. Atk, 36 Sp. Def, 84 Speed
Ability: Chlorophyll [Thick Fat]

- Grass Pledge
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Sludge Bomb

Complicated, please forgive.
Non-Mega is primarily a bulky, blisteringly fast supporter, tossing around Pledge comboes left and right and Leech Seed against bulky mons like cresselia. Sludge Bomb is there to do something to opposing Amoonguss and Fairies. Protect because Doubles.
Mega is used when Char-Y has a very bad matchup, such as a Rain team or Japan Sand. It's incredibly bulky and acts as a win condition, outlasting and KOing everything once the foe's counter is down (most teams have 2 pokemon, max, that can hit MegaSaur for decent damage). Lack of Giga Drain is sad, but Leech Seed goes and Poison residual damage adds fast. Sleep powder is ommited because it misses very often, 1 turn sleeps are useless, and you completely lack recovery. Trust me, Leech Seed works much better. Also, Saftey Goggles.
EVs hit 222 Speed with Chlorophyll active (or Mega in Tailwind), outrunning Max Speed Gyarados after a Dragon Dance, and Scarfed Adamant Darmanitan/Landorus-T. Bulk survives max Attack Adamant Mega Kangaskhan's Double-Edge and LO Modest Hydreigon's Draco Meteor - all in Non-Mega form. As a Mega, it lives pretty much everything that isn't SE or insanely boosted.

Swampert @ Life Orb
Modest, 188 HP, 4 Def, 236 Sp. Atk, 4 Sp. Def, 76 Speed
Ability: Torrent

- Water Pledge
- Wide Guard
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power

Defensively, Swampy covers Char-Y perfectly by virtue of being a Ground type, resisting Rock and immune to Electric. It also doesn't care about BoltBeam coverage from Thundurus/Zapdos. Offensively, it checks Mega Salamence, Mega Mawile, Landorus-T, Aegislash, Zapdos, Thundurus, Talonflame (only if it's not in Sun though), Rotom-H, Garchomp, Heatran, Terrakion, and Mega Metagross: all major threats to one (or both!) Megas. Water + Fire Pledge is useless and should never be used, but Grass + Water creates a powerful Grass attack (far more damaging than Venusaur itself, despite lack of STAB) that demolishes Suicune, Milotic, Rotom-W, TTar, etc. while crippling the foe with a Swamp effect, halving the Speed of the entire opposing team. Very devastating and has turned around entire matches several times. Perfectly usable with both Mega and Non-Mega Venusaur.
Wide Guard is very niche for Swampy, but keeps Rock Slide off of Charizard while making Landorus-T/garchomp very useless and pairing decently with Togekiss (Follow Me mons bait Spread moves). Ice Beam and Earth power are the reason Swampert KO's so many important threats, much like Mamoswine, but with no fear of Intimidate/Burns.
EVs and Life orb achieve many vital KOs, in addition to buffing neutral damage on switchins, a notable flaw of Expert Belt. Speed outruns max Speed Thundurus-I and Gengar in Tailwind, and the rest goes into bulk for nothing specific (since LO recoil makes defensive benchmarks moot).

Rotom-H @ Expert Belt
Modest, 252 HP, 196 Sp. Atk, 60 Speed
Ability: Levitate

- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- Hidden Power Ice
- Overheat

Rotom-H helps take pressure off of Swampert, kills opposing Grass/Steel/Flying types for Mega venusaur (since an essentially itemless, non-mega Charizard should not be brought to battle), and generally is just useful as heck in most any match regardless of Mega choice.
Thunderbolt is simple and reliable STAB, Protect because Doubles, HP Ice smites Mega Salamence (a HUGE threat to the team), and Overheat because it's a Rotom-H.
EVs hit 114 Speed, to outrun most Cresselia/Suicune/Milotic variants, max HP because Rotom's bulk is godawful without max HP, and remainder in Sp. Atk to increase the hurt.

Heracross @ Choice Scarf
Adamant, 252 Atk, 4 Def, 252 Speed
Ability: Moxie

- Megahorn
- Knock Off
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat

Yes, I'm serious. Heracross is a really solid answer to Kangaskhan, Cresselia, Gengar, Heatran, Hydreigon, Char-Y, Terrakion, Greninja, and many common pokemon on BSD that this team needs specific cover on. Moxie is chosen because of psychology: when people think of Guts, the first mon to pop into mind is Conkeldurr Heracross, and 99% of foes will very much hesitate to Burn it. Heracross is often in the back, hops out after a teamate faints, and unleashes havoc; after revenging a foe, a +1 Scarfed Heracross locked on any of its four moves it amazingly dangerous to at least 1 foe and draws a lot of attention, opening the field for its partner. Megahorn and Close Combat are powerful STABs (even if megahorn is a bit unreliable at times), Knock Off demolishes Ghosts and at worst can be used to rob opponents of items, while Rock Slide flinches your way to victory nails Flying and Fire types and does something to Sylveon (Gardevoir cringes at Megahorn). 4 def increases the odds of tanking certain Psyshocks, rest of the spread is simple as knives.

Togekiss @ Sitrus Berry
Calm, 252 HP, 60 Def, 4 Sp. Atk, 116 Sp. Def, 76 Speed
Ability: Serene Grace

- Air Slash
- Follow Me
- Tailwind
- Thunder Wave

My stalwart pillar of support, Togekiss provides much needed Tailwind support, redirects powerful/annoying attacks with Follow me (can't have Talonflame clicking Brave Bird against Heracross and Mega Venusaur, now can we?), and winning Tailwind wars with Thunder Wave. Air Slash is there to do something against Taunt, troll Amoonguss / anything unfortunate enough to be Paralyzed or slower, and hit Conkeldurr/Scrafty.
EVs outrun max Speed Speed, + 1 Gyarados with Tailwind, and the bulk survives a huge list of hits, the main three being Mega Khan / Mega Mence's max attack Adamant Double-Edge, and max Sp. Atk Modest Char-Y's Overheat in Sun. Also makes the team literally immune to Hydreigon. Sitrus lets you dodge a lot of 2HKOs and tank Kangaskhan much better, I do not reccommend Rocky Helmet with this specific spread.




Fantasy Core (Fairy + Dragon + Steel) combined with a FWG core, all in 5 mons, with Thundurus for speed control. Team's generally pretty fast, reasonably bulky, and just synergizes really well. No complicated Pledges, no obscure niche sets or mons. Just pummel your foe to death with a variety of power, speed, bulk, support, and disruption.

Metagross @ Metagrossite
Jolly, 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Ability: Clear Body [Tough Claws]

- Iron Head
- Protect
- Ice Punch
- Zen Headbutt

The 8-armed flying battering ram itself, Mega Metagross is, imo, pretty anti-meta against a lot of currently popular (at time of writing) cores on BSD. Mega Salamence, AV Landorus-T, Mega Gardevoir, Terrakion, Rain teams in general, Amoonguss/Mega Venusaur, there is simply no shortage of things MegaGross excels at killing. Iron Head is chosen over Meteor Mash for accuracy, lack of notable KOs for MM, and a great hax chance for a bonus. Zen Headbutt is meh on coverage, but Water / Fire types take a good chunk and there's not a lot of reason to run something else. Ice Punch creams common, Ice-weak adversaries like Mence/Landog/Chomp/Zapdos/Thundy and thanks to Clear Body, you don't fear Intimidate / Icy wind much upon leading. Decent enough to actually leave non-Mega in the face of Milotic, etc. spamming Icy Wind. EVs are simple as axes. Great at cleaning too, thanks to high Speed and good power is good to pick off weakened teams. Just don't try to beat Khan with it. Sucker Punch wins, every time.

Garchomp @ Lum Berry
Jolly, 252 Atk, 4 Sp. Def, 252 Speed
Ability: Rough Skin

- Dual Chop
- Protect
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake

Slight variant of Garchomp's ancient, tried-and-true offensive set. Dual Chop + Lum Berry beats Smeargle, Sash variants KO'd outright by Dual Chop's two-hit attack, Scarf countered by Lum and Dual Chop again. Beyond that: you don't really lose anything from Dragon Claw.
Rock Slide is a staple on Doubles Garchomp, for coverage and flinch-fishing. Protect because doubles, EQ for spread STAB.
Simple EV spread, again.

Azumarill @ Mystic Water
Adamant, 212 HP, 252 Atk, 44 Speed
Ability: Huge Power

- Waterfall
- Protect
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough

Odd set, I know, but Belly Drum just didn't work well for me.
Azumarill is an excellent partner and switch option for MegaGross, resisting Fire+Dark and slamming most of its counters hard. Waterfall hits accurately and powerfully, and Aqua jet is a decent Priority attack to pick off / break Sashes and weak foes, both boosted by Mystic Water for a significant damage buff at no cost, especially for a one-two punch (ie Waterfall + Aqua Jet). Just remember: against neutral foes like Cresselia, Waterfall hits harder than Play Rough and won't miss. PLay Rough offers great neutral coverage alongside Waterfall, and smashes Dragons with no discrimination. Protect lets Chompy use EQ and it's in Doubles. Main reason for Azumarill is just an amazing partner to MegaGross, and a hard answer to Dark types, especially Hydreigon and Weavile, which beats both Chompy and MegaGross.
Spread invests some Speed for creeping purposes (outruns a Paralyzed, Scarfed max Speed Jolly Aerodactyl, specifically), max Attack, and HP is even for Belly Drum sets.

Rotom-H @ Choice Scarf
Modest, 156 HP, 164 Sp. Atk, 188 Speed
Ability: Levitate

- Thunderbolt
- Trick
- Hidden Power Ice
- Overheat

The primary softener for the team, Scarf Rotom-H is specifically used to snipe lower ladder threats to Metagross like Greninja and Weavile, while slapping around MegaMence, Thundurus (both formes), Amoonguss, Char-Y, Talonflame, Milotic, Gyarados, Zapdos, and a few other things.
Thunderbolt is reliable STAB, Overheat is it's only reasonable STAB option for Fire, Ice checks many Ice-weak foes and offers great coverage, while Trick allows you to shed the burden of a Choice lock when desired. Support mons simply cringe when they see it, it's outright hilarious when the target uses Fake Out, and it's kinda funny on an obvious TR setup. Hell, Scarf your own Garchomp if you want.
Speed outruns max Speed, Jolly Weavile, HP/Sp. Atk isn't actually specific to anything but has worked fine so far.

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Relaxed, 100 HP, 252 Def, 156 Sp. Def [0 Speed IV]
Ability: Regenerator

- Giga Drain
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Protect

Amoonguss is a nice supporter and a good check to Water, Ground, Fairy, and Rock types.
Set is very standard: Giga Drain for STAB / something to do other than Struggle when Taunted, Spore is 90% of the reason Amoonguss even exists in any Metagame and threatens everything that isn't a Grass type, or holding Lum Berry/Saftey Goggles. Rage Powder funnels hits into the bulkiest mon on the squad, punishing contact moves with Rocky Helmet and plauging Mega Kangaskhan just in case Thundy and Chompy don't give it enough of a headache. Protect punishes double targets, and lets Chompy use EQ.
EVs tank max Atk Adamant mega Khan's Double Edge, and reduces Specs Hydreigon's Draco Meteor to a 25% chance to OHKO on the Special side. Regenerator is used to heal, since Effect Spore is useless against anything not using a contact move + Rocky helmet is more than enough in that field. Very fun with Azumarill and Rotom-H.

Thundurus-Incarnate @ Sitrus Berry
Timid, 252 HP, 120 Def, 108 Sp. Def, 28 Speed
Ability: Prankster

- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt
- Hidden Power Ice

Thundy is a second EQ immunity, and a Speed control force with Prankster T-Wave and Taunt to deny opposing Speed control (bar Icy Wind). Thunderbolt offers reliable STAB and chip damage, HP Ice nails Ground, Dragon, and Grass types.
Spread allows Thundy to outrun max Speed Jolly Gyarados, bulkier Thundurus for Taunt wars, and neutral 95's like Adamant Arcanine. Bulk tanks... a gaping hole in my notes but it's been a reliably bulky spread; will fix once I figure out where my calcs are.
Taunt is iffy, so I may go back to Swagger > Taunt as it's really funny with T-Wave and Lum Berry Chompy.




The Toad (Politoed) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 76 SpA / 84 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Icy Wind
- Helping Hand
- Encore

Rain needs a Rain setter, and the only usable one (aside from manual Rain) was Politoed. A bulky support set was the optimal choice when the team was built due to Sand's popularity, I needed to survive long enough to maintain the weather advantage, which often meant switching Politoed in. The moveset is pretty simple, Icy Wind was used over Ice Beam because the team has so much Ice coverage as is and does appreciate the Speed control. Encore over Protect is an odd choice given how much emphasis I put on keeping Politoed alive, however it proves crucial against Aegislash (if I can't bring Rotom for some reason) and Mega Gardevoir TR teams(this Politoed underspeeds min Speed Gardevoir, so it can actually Encore the TR before Gardevoir launches an attack). I've never really needed it, Politoed's partner is targeted more often anyways and it can still switch in a decent number of times.

The Pineapple (Ludicolo) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Energy Ball
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Protect

Ludicolo was he chosen Rain sweeper, nothing else has nearly as great coverage against the whole metagame. Life Orb is not the most common item choice, but I am stronly of the opinion that AV Ludicolo has no place on Rain teams. Assault Vest is great on non-Rain teams, but Rain typically relies on overwhelming the opponent with offence and AV does not help this at all. Life Orb gives Ludicolo insane power after a Helping Hand from Politoed and also allows Ludicolo to run Protect. Protect is used because Ludicolo is so important to the team's overall offence, so keeping it alive is a top priority. Protect also catches many opponents off-guard do it can really save me in a pinch. The rest of the moves are fairly obvious, Energy Ball and Hydro Pump were used over Giga Drain and Scald respectively for more power, Giga Drain's recovery wasn't all that helpful and the power drop was noticeably against Rotom-W. Scald vs Hydro Pump was quite tricky but I decided on Hydro Pump because it hit so many KOs (1HKO on Aegislash after HH, 1HKO onto Mega Gardevoir after HH, 1HKO onto Mega Kangaskhan), although the accuracy is often a letdown.

The Dragon (Salamence) (M) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 44 Atk / 212 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Draco Meteor
- Protect

Some Rain teams just slap a Talonflame in this spot to effectively check both Mega Venusaur and Ferrothorn, and while this wouldn't be a bad option, I dislike Talonflame because it struggles not just to deal with the previously mentioned threats, but most of the metagame as well. I knew my checks for both those Pokemon had to be flexible and not entirely reliant on their presence, and also not have one Pokemon that needs to check both. After considering my options, Mega Salamence seemed like a strong pick to deal with Mega Venusaur, but it also demolishes AV Conkeldurr (who is tough to beat with Rain), does a lot to Ferrothorn and is nice and powerful by itself, so bringing it never feels like an obligation due to certain threats. This is a standard MixMence so I don't have much to say about moves or EVs, but MixMence was the chosen set because it combined the nuking power of Physical sets with the cleaning abilities of the Special set.

Rotom-Heat @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 44 HP / 228 SpA / 236 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect

Rotom was the Pokemon I chose to deal with things that were currently problematic such as Talonflame, Ferrothorn and Charizard Y. The set's a bit odd but it's easily my favourite thing on the team. The reason I decided on an Expert Belt set was simply to get 1HKOs on relevant targets such as Ferrothorn while Rain is up and Charizard-Y. Overheat and Thunderbolt are pretty self-explanatory, but HP Ice is something I've gotten questions about a lot in the past. Firstly, yes, this team already has quite a bit of Ice coverage. The reason I chose it was Will-O-Wisp didn't really have a place on an EBelt set because it was almost always spamming attacks. HP Ice gives another check to Mega Salamence (while the Rain duo does this well enough, if Rain goes down, which it often does in the late game, Salamence can be a huge problem) and also is great against standard Sun teams, because usually if I lead Rotom+Salamence, Charizard switches into Landorus, and I've nailed countless of them like this. Rotom has consistently been my neat little surprise and has probably won the most games out of anything here.

The Sword (Aegislash) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 100 Def / 60 SpA / 92 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield

I seriously can't build a team without this thing on it. Threats to the current team members were Cresselia, Kangaskhan and Fairy-types (especially under TR), and that just screamed Aegislash. Bulky Aegislash with WP is my preferred set as it lets Aegislash take advantage of both its bulk and offensive power. The EVs focus on Bulk because Aegislash has more than enough power after a WP boost, and anything that needs to be removed quickly can be double-targeted. Wide Guard was originally on the set, but I eventually took it off for Shadow Sneak because I was rarely using WG and Shadow Sneak makes Aegislash less prone to revenge killing after it gets a WP boost. WG was only helping against Sand in some cases, but the team's Sand matchup was strong enough without it.

The Thing (Conkeldurr) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Guts
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 244 HP / 180 Atk / 84 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 29 Spe
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch

I played for a bit on Showdown with just the above 5, and by far the biggest problem was opposing Rain teams, but Sand was still tricky as well and I wanted a bit more insurance against Thundurus. After watching some of Alex Ogloza's videos on Youtube, I decided AV Conkeldurr would be a great fit on this team. It's also a pretty standard set, Ice Punch may seem redundant with all the other Ice coverage on this team, but it's very useful against double Genies (Rotom shouldn't stay in on Landorus, Ludicolo hates being paralyzed). Conkeldurr rounds out the team very well, it completes a nice balance of 2 Physical Pokemon to 4 Special and also gives me another bulky Pokemon to switch into things, so a loss in momentum isn't catastrophic.


I first built this team a few months before US Nationals, and for those of you who don't remember, that was when "Japan Sand" was hugely popular, so this team definitely had that in mind. It's a pretty offensive build, but it still requires quite a bit of prediction to be used due to the team's reliance on single-target moves. So like I said, when building the team I knew Sand was priority #1 to beat, and just looking at the common Sand builds, it was apparent that they were all (as well as many other teams) incredibly weak to Rain, so that was my starting point. After that I built around Rain's common checks such as Mega Venusaur and Ferrothorn and rounded the team off with some bulkier Pokemon to give it some decent Pokemon for making switches. Despite the large metagame shifts that took place after US Nationals, the team still held up very well against the rising Mega Gardevoir teams and the post worlds CHALK craze. In general Ludicolo just blasts stuff and then the rest of the team can clean up, whether it be Salamence picking things off with Hyper Voice or Conkeldurr just outlasting everything.


Dreams (Salamence-Mega) (M) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 44 Atk / 212 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Draco Meteor
- Protect

Faith (Virizion) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Close Combat
- Quick Guard
- Protect

Beauty (Milotic) (F) @ Maranga Berry
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 228 HP / 164 Def / 92 SpA / 12 SpD / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Icy Wind
- Recover
- Protect

Love (Rotom-Heat) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 116 SpA / 4 SpD / 132 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Power (Tyranitar) (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Ice Punch
- Protect

Loyalty (Aegislash) (M) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 100 SpA / 156 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield


Rose (Gardevoir) (F) @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
Level: 50
EVs: 108 HP / 124 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Hyper Voice
- Trick Room
- Protect

Volcano (Heatran) (M) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 44 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 204 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Ancient Power
- Protect

Cybertom (Rotom-Wash) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 60 SpA / 36 SpD / 140 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Michaella (Scrafty) (F) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 236 Atk / 52 Def / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Fake Out
- Stone Edge

Amanita (Amoonguss) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Protect

Halvard (Terrakion) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Quick Guard
- Protect




Kangaskhan-Mega @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Parental Bond
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Low Kick
- Double-Edge
- Sucker Punch
- Fake Out

Kangaskhan is one of the best megas in the tier. This set isn't anything special as it is just used for hitting hard and fast. It has Low Kick>Power-Up Punch because I felt without any redirection or support Kangaskhan worked better as an offensive attacker right off the bat.

Blaziken @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 68 Atk / 196 SpA / 244 Spe
Naive Nature
- Overheat
- Superpower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect

Blaziken is really good for doing lots of fast damage to some of the most common pokemon in the tier. It is useful with Kangaskhan to help get rid of pokemon like Terrakion and Landorus-T. The EV spread allows Blaziken to outspeed Choice Scarf Landorus-T at +1 and KO the standard Salamence. I went with the standard moves because they were best at doing lots of damage right away as Blaziken is quite frail and doesn't last on the field for too long.

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Atk / 52 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Protect

Ferrothorn works well with Blaziken to help get rid of fairies and bulky waters. There isn't really much too say about this set as it is just ripped off the smogdex. The Atk allows it to KO 252 HP, 44 Def Rotom-W. The rest is just put into bulk.

Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 140 Def / 100 SpA / 12 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Protect
- Toxic

Now the team had 3 pokemon using physical attacks to it was a bit weak to Intimidate so I added Milotic. Milotic also helps check opposing fire-types. Now this spread is a little bit different but the Def EVs allow Milotic to live an Adamant Kangaskhan Double-Edge while the SpD allows Milotic to take some special attacks like Thunderbolts slightly better. The rest of the EVs are thrown into SpA and Spe. The moveset is fairly standard except for Toxic. I decided to use Toxic as I felt I was a bit weak to CM Cress.

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 108 Def / 60 SpA / 68 SpD / 28 Spe
Calm Nature
- Swagger
- Thunderbolt
- Taunt
- Thunder Wave

Thundurus helps to give the team some speed control and further help with bulky waters. This spread may not be the best but I believe it just hits the same benchmarks as the smogdex spread would but with 31 Def IVs. The extra EVs were just thrown into SpA. I'm using Swagger>Hidden Power Ice because I felt I had enough ice coverage on the team already and Swagger can win games.

Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 116 HP / 148 Atk / 44 Def / 12 SpD / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Knock Off
- Superpower

Landorus is a good partner for Thundurus and just a good pokemon overall. I stole this EV spread from Steven Stone and I think it works fairly well. The speed allows you to outspeed Jolly Breloom and it can live a LO Hidden Power Ice from Thundurus. The moveset is the standard AV Lando moveset. I'm using Knock Off over U-Turn because I don't think U-Turn is very good on slower Landos.


This is the team I used most of last season. I ended at 1772 but I probably could have finished above 1800 if I wasn't so lazy at the end (didn't even play 50 games). This is a variant on what has been one of the most popular and consistently good teams throughout the VGC 15 season.

Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Double-Edge
- Power-Up Punch
- Sucker Punch

Cresselia (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 12 Def / 236 SpA / 4 SpD / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Helping Hand
- Thunder Wave

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 108 HP / 172 Atk / 28 Def / 12 SpD / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Knock Off
- Superpower

Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 116 Def / 4 SpA / 76 SpD / 76 Spe
Calm Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Swagger
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt

Heatran @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 44 HP / 4 Def / 204 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Flash Cannon
- Protect

Milotic @ Maranga Berry
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 156 Def / 4 SpA / 52 SpD / 52 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic


he team is an adaption of the CHALK that has been widely used since Worlds. I altered it to what I was more comfortable with so feel free to customize it. I added Thundurus to the core because I love to spam paralysis and have the speed advantage. I removed Amoonguss for Milotic because I don't like Amoonguss and I wanted a way to deal with Landorus and Salamence.

Kangaskhan's spread hits hard and fast. This is the type of Kang I personally have the most experience and am most comfortable despite my highest ever rating coming from bulky Kang. I use Fake Out over Protect to help support the team and PUP over Low Kick or Ice Punch to let Kangaskhan become very threatening. Double Edge to have the most power possible.

Cresselia's spread ohkos 4 hp Mega Salamence and outspeeds 12 speed Rotom while reaching a Sitrus number. I like Thunder Wave as speed control because it helps give you a more rng rolls that could go in your favor. I like Helping Hand because it can help you make big plays and get unexpected kos.

This team was partially built to help me become more used to using AV Lando-T. EV spread outspeeds Jolly Breloom with defense explained in the calcs. I chose Knock Off to deal more damage to Cress.

Thundurus is one of my favorite pokemon to use due to how it can help quickly turn a game around with a few Paralysis or Swagger rolls. I chose Swagger over HP Ice because I have 2 other Ice moves on the team. The spread is actually a Sitrus spread but it's what I'm used to and I was too lazy to change it. The speed investment outspeeds max Smeargle because no one likes Smeargle. I sometimes change its item to Safety Goggles or Rocky Helmet.

Heatran is the team's main Fairy and sun check and has amazing defensive typing and synergy with a lot of common pokemon. Flash Cannon was chosen because the team struggles against fairies.

Milotic scares Landorus and Salamence at team preview while also checking Heatran. Toxic along with Recover allows it to beat pokemon like Cresselia. Maranga Berry is used to make Milotic extremely difficult to take out on the special side. It outspeeds 4 speed Rotoms.
  • 236+ SpA Cresselia Ice Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Salamence: 172-204 (100.5 - 119.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
  • +1 252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 108 HP / 28 Def Landorus-T: 149-177 (83.7 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  • 252+ SpA Pixilate Mega Gardevoir Hyper Voice vs. 108 HP / 12 SpD Assault Vest Landorus-T: 76-91 (42.6 - 51.1%) -- 5.5% chance to 2HKO
  • -1 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 236 HP / 116 Def Thundurus: 99-118 (53.8 - 64.1%) -- 0.6% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery (As I mentioned this is a Sitrus spread)
  • 252+ Atk Landorus-T Stone Edge vs. 236 HP / 116 Def Thundurus: 156-184 (84.7 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
  • 252+ SpA Pixilate Mega Gardevoir Hyper Voice vs. 236 HP / 76+ SpD Thundurus: 97-115 (52.7 - 62.5%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
  • 252+ Atk Landorus-T Earthquake vs. 44 HP / 4 Def Shuca Berry Heatran: 144-170 (83.7 - 98.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  • 252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Solar Beam vs. +1 244 HP / 52 SpD Milotic: 84-100 (41.7 - 49.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO




Charizard @ Mega-Y
Timid, 140 HP, 4 Def, 164 Sp. Atk, 4 Sp. Def, 196 Speed
Ability: Blaze (Drought)

- Heat Wave
- Protect
- Solar Beam
- Ancient Power

Garchomp @ Life Orb
Jolly, 4 HP,252 Atk, 252 Speed
Ability: Rough Skin

- Dual Chop
- Protect
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake

Cresselia @ Rocky Helmet
Calm, 252 HP, 188 Def, 4 Sp. Atk, 4 Sp. Def, 60 Speed
Ability: Levitate

- Psyshock
- Moonlight
- Calm Mind
- Icy Wind

Klefki @ Sitrus Berry
Bold, 252 HP, 108 Def, 148 Sp. Def
Ability: Prankster

- Foul Play
- Thunder Wave
- Swagger
- Safeguard

Heracross @ Choice Scarf
Jolly, 252 Atk, 4 Def, 252 Speed
Ability: Moxie

- Megahorn
- Knock Off
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat

Rotom-W @ Expert Belt
Modest, 252 HP, 196 Sp. Atk, 60 Speed
Ability: Levitate

- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- HP Ice
- Hydro Pump


Char-Y outruns Max Speed base 92 Pokemon (aka, Jolly Mega Chompy) in order to outrun 252+ Jolly Lando-T and everything that creeps it. Works out very well; there's nothing relevent to Charizard in the 93-100 deadzone of Speed since Hydreigon wins regardless, and Jolly Mega Khan / Salamence (turn it Megas) also win. Solarbeam smashes into Water types like Suicune, Milotic, Toed, and Rotom-W that threaten Chompy, often enough to KO after Chompy attacks, or a Solarbeam + Protect followed by a Solarbeam next turn. Ancientpower demolishes Talonflame and Char-Y, while also nibbling Mence, Gyarados, and other Fire mons like Rotom-H. Heat Wave and Protect because, well, It's Char-Y in doubles.
Bulk tanks fake Out + Return from Jolly Khan, and most Thunderbolts lacking LO / boosts. Sp. Atk is a remainder, does plenty of damage.

Garchomp is very straightforward: fast and brutal, and pairs well with Char-Y to spam strong spread STAB attacks that basically nothing wants to take. It also resists Rock, is immune to Ground, and handles Fire types like Entei and Heatran. "Why no Landoggy?" ye say? I just prefer Chompy's speed, Fire+Rock resists, and the fact that it yells "GarCHAMP!!" every time you see it. I guess you can use AV Landog too, I haven't tried it yet but I see no reason why it wouldn't work; just watch out for Milotic and Bisharp.
Set is extremely obvious, max speed, max damage, and the same old 3 move coverage Chompy has been spamming since DPP. Dual Chop is particularly effective with LO, since the damage bonus allows you to KO Sash Gengar and Sash Smeargle (along with other similar Sashmons like Liepard) along with tapping the utterly obscure Dragonite harder. I guess it has double the crit rate too? It's mostly just for Gengar.

Cresselia is stupidly bulky, synergizes with CharChomp, and is our primary answer to mega Salamence, Terrakion, Conkeldurr, Hariyama, and pretty much any Special attacker not named Hydreigon or Aegislash. Speed outruns max speed Garchomp after Icy Wind, bulk allows you to out-heal 252+ mega khan's D-E in Sun while the fat bitch KO's herself with recoil / Rocky Helmet. After that, Calm Mind makes you stupidly hard to kill (especially if physical threats are KO'd or unable to break Cress) and makes her exist in the damage department. I've had a fair few matches where Cress was able to simply set up, heal as needed, and sweep 2-3 mons herself against a team unable to break it. Psyshock specifically is used to win CM wars against Sylveon, while Icy Wind actually becomes quite painful Spread damage at +2.
Remaining 4 Sp. Atk/Sp. Def gives a bonus point to Sp. Atk / Sp. Def on every Calm Mind by virtue of being divisible by 3, Nikola Tesla be praised.

Klefki performs outright miracles in terms of resistances: it sponges Rock for Charizard, Ice/Dragon/Fairy for Chompy, Dark/Bug for Cress, walls Mega Khan, Mega Salamence, AND Mega Gardevoir all at once. Prankster T-Wave is, as I am sure we all know by now, annoying/broken/useful as fuck, and Klefki will happily spew it everywhere while walling 75% of a team. Swagger adds even more misery to the mix, rendering Special attackers into a 50/50 coinflip, or alternatively, doubling Chompy/Heracross' Atk to unleash absolute fucking murder. Safeguard also blocks T-Wave, Dark Void, HypnoBat, SwagPlay, WoW, and the odd Toxic Stall douchebag for 5 turns, for your whole team, even after Klefki dies/switches out. Foul Play and Swagger kill stuff, and is Klefki's most reasonable damage output. Also lets you beat mega Metagross too, because why not.
Bulk tanks 252+ LO Hydreigon's Earth Power and 252+ Heatran's Heat Wave. Rest is in Def, to torment Khan and Mega Mence. Klefki's typing synergizes with Charizard far better than Thundurus, and that is 80% of the reason it is here (Safeguard is the other 20%, fuck cheese teams).

Heracross. This thing is so inexplainably succesful for me I can't even comprehend it. After testing many Fighting mons, like Terrakion/Mienshao/Blaziken/etc, most had a marked weakness to Cresselia, were utter shit against Rain, etc. Mienshao was ok though, definetly the first mon I'd pick for a replacement. Anyway, Heracross fills an odd niche: he outruns and decimates Khan, Heatran, Cresselia (rarely packs enough power to KO), LO Ludicolo in Rain, Gengar (sash AND Mega Perish Trap), Weavile, Bisharp, and in general is a fantasic revenger that easily and reliably nets a +1 Atk boost and usually smashes half a team alone. Moveset is optimal coverage; Poison Jab is trash. EVs, the Def. specifically reduces Cresselia's Psyshock damage, rest is max speed and power. Adamant and Scarf outruns 99.9% of the unscarfed metagame (Mega Aerodactyl, mega Alakazam, and Mega Sceptile do not exist) and you NEED the power output of Adamant for a few KOs. This is also our primary Hydreigon killer, btw: Scarf cannot KO you without Sun-boosted Fire moves, and non-Scarf sets are, well, outran and turned into a free +1 atk.
You can swap this out for Terrakion and such, as it's mostly a khan/heatran check, but you'll be pretty meek against Rain, or be forced to change Chompy's item to accomodate LO Virizion.
Moxie because Guts + Safeguard is just dumb, and most people will not even attempt to WoW/Toxic Heracross simply because it is LEGENDARY for running Guts since Gen 3. Also used as a revenger, so it often nets a KO anyway, so why not get a free +1 for a subsequent KO?

Rotom-W, I finally found a damn set that works. Speed outruns 252+ Garchomp after Icy Wind, just like Cresselia, +1 point to creep my own Cress; this adds the illusion that both are uninvested, and creeps most other Rotom-W, Suicune, Cresselia, and Milotic. Moves are simply STAB + HP Ice for SE coverage and hitting Mega Salamence / Landog in Sun for a KO (OHKO's 4/0 AV Landog, specifically), and biting into Thundurus (2-3HKO, depends on spread+item). It also lays a beating on Gyarados, rare as it is, an enormous threat to the team (notice it walls + KOs EVERYONE between non-Mega and Mega forms?). It also patches up Flying, Water, Ice, and Fire weaknesses a bit better, while helping against Rain. Weak only against Grass, which is vey heavily covered by the entire rest of the team.


Charizard, cress, and Klefki are the main lead choices, Heracross is always best in the back, Chompy can either open up and weaken shit early, or clean up after the foe is cracked open by the rest of the team. Rotom-W is rarely picked, but works well against certain combos (Landog + Mence, Milotic + Khan, Heatran + Mence) and usually leads when picked. Cress and Klefki can work together: Cress sets up with CM, and Klefki's sheer hax and dickery with Foul Play keeps damage output up while Safeguard + hax covers Cress and opens free turns for setup, so don't be afraid to bring both. Chompy spams EQ very easy with 3 immunities, but Klefki/heracross lacking Protect sucks sometimes. Don't try going out of your way to set up SafeSwag Heracross / Chompy; Heracross is scarf locked and thus wallable, and Chompy can't EQ next to Klefki. Fucking hilarious when you get a shot at setting it up as a secondary win condition though, not gonna lie, +2 Atk Scarf Heracross is unholy once it can spam a move with no resists left and I won a game like that once.
Pretty fast, lots of reliable speed control, and every mon is capable of good damage output either immediately, or after setup. Klefki is mostly just an asshole, though.


Here's a Semi Trick Room team that I've been working on. It got me to 1802 so it's at least decent. I wouldn't recommend full TR because it's bad even though my highest ever rating came from using it

Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 20 Atk / 236 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Draco Meteor
- Protect

Gothitelle @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Psychic
- Helping Hand
- Protect
- Trick Room

Politoed @ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 36 SpA / 52 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Perish Song
- Protect

Ludicolo @ Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 148 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fake Out
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
- Scald

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Atk / 52 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Sucker Punch
- Protect
- Brick Break

Rotom-Heat @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 60 Def / 60 SpA / 124 SpD / 20 Spe
Calm Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect


First off this team can be very difficult to use because the many different modes present, so I would recommend trying a different team to get more comfortable with BS Doubles before this one. Calcs are in a different place to not clutter the description. Ludicolo speed creeps other Ludicolo outspeed Adamant Scarf lando-T in rain.

This team has three main modes in Fast Rain Offense, Trick Room Offense, and Perish Trap. Salamence+Ludicolo+Politoed is the Fast Rain Offense. Mawile is the main form of offense under Trick Room(TR) with Gothitelle as the setter. Gothitelle traps opponents while Politoed's Perish Song knocks them out. Rotom-H is used as the last slot because it can be used on all modes and gives needed Talonflame and Amoonguss checks which is why it runs Safety Goggles.

When I use the team I tend to use Perish Trap with one of the other modes. When you use Perish Song is usually dependent on the opponent's lead and team. If the opponent leads with a pair that can not significantly threaten Politoed and Gothitelle a Perish Song can be set to KO them and the offensive pokemon can usually beat the remaining two. If the opponent's lead greatly threatens Gothitelle especially or they lead with a Ghost-type (which can switch out of Shadow Tag) the offensive portions of the team can be used to KO two pokemon and the Politoed can use Perish Song if you have three remaining pokemon or the slowest pokemon on the field.

Some threats to the team are Amoonguss, Talonflame, and Heatran. Amoonguss does not take too much from the Ice Beams and Gothitelle's Psychic. It can redirect attacks away from dangerous set up sweepers like Kangaskhan and Volcarona and allow Heatran to set up free Substitutes. If Politoed and Ludicolo go down or are not brought Heatran is a major problem. Rotom-H can wall most sets for a while but deals little with T-Bolt. Heatran is the reason Brick Break was chosen over Iron Head on Mawile. It allows Mawile and Gothitelle to threaten Heatran which otherwise wouldn't be the case. Talonflame deals major damage to most of the team but it can be more easily played around than Heatran. Bisharp and Milotic can also be troublesome due to there being two Intimidators on the team which give them free boosts.


  • 20 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Amoonguss: 222-264 (100.4 - 119.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
  • -1 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 212 Def Gothitelle: 92-110 (51.9 - 62.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
  • 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Politoed: 169-199 (85.7 - 101%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
  • -1 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 252 HP / 164+ Def Politoed: 88-106 (44.6 - 53.8%) -- 0.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
  • -1 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 164+ Def Politoed: 97-115 (49.2 - 58.3%) -- 2.6% chance to 2HKO after Poison Heal (two turns of recovery from leftovers)
  • 252+ SpA Heatran Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Mega Mawile: 132-156 (84 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  • 252+ SpA Heatran Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Mega Mawile in Rain: 66-78 (42 - 49.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
  • 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 244 HP / 60 Def Rotom-H: 135-160 (86.5 - 102.5%) -- 5.9% chance to OHKO
  • 60 SpA Rotom-H Thunderbolt vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Talonflame: 152-182 (98.7 - 118.1%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
  • 252+ SpA Ludicolo Scald vs. 244 HP / 124+ SpD Rotom-H in Rain: 134-162 (85.8 - 103.8%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
 
Last edited:

Pigeons

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Nice to see some rebooted VGC 15/BSD stuff! Really cool sun team btw, lots of unconventional stuff so I'll try to balance it out with the rain team I ran for most of the VGC 15 season that also has some neat stuff (in my opinion).


The Toad (Politoed) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 76 SpA / 84 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Icy Wind
- Helping Hand
- Encore

Rain needs a Rain setter, and the only usable one (aside from manual Rain) was Politoed. A bulky support set was the optimal choice when the team was built due to Sand's popularity, I needed to survive long enough to maintain the weather advantage, which often meant switching Politoed in. The moveset is pretty simple, Icy Wind was used over Ice Beam because the team has so much Ice coverage as is and does appreciate the Speed control. Encore over Protect is an odd choice given how much emphasis I put on keeping Politoed alive, however it proves crucial against Aegislash (if I can't bring Rotom for some reason) and Mega Gardevoir TR teams(this Politoed underspeeds min Speed Gardevoir, so it can actually Encore the TR before Gardevoir launches an attack). I've never really needed it, Politoed's partner is targeted more often anyways and it can still switch in a decent number of times.

The Pineapple (Ludicolo) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Energy Ball
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Protect

Ludicolo was he chosen Rain sweeper, nothing else has nearly as great coverage against the whole metagame. Life Orb is not the most common item choice, but I am stronly of the opinion that AV Ludicolo has no place on Rain teams. Assault Vest is great on non-Rain teams, but Rain typically relies on overwhelming the opponent with offence and AV does not help this at all. Life Orb gives Ludicolo insane power after a Helping Hand from Politoed and also allows Ludicolo to run Protect. Protect is used because Ludicolo is so important to the team's overall offence, so keeping it alive is a top priority. Protect also catches many opponents off-guard do it can really save me in a pinch. The rest of the moves are fairly obvious, Energy Ball and Hydro Pump were used over Giga Drain and Scald respectively for more power, Giga Drain's recovery wasn't all that helpful and the power drop was noticeably against Rotom-W. Scald vs Hydro Pump was quite tricky but I decided on Hydro Pump because it hit so many KOs (1HKO on Aegislash after HH, 1HKO onto Mega Gardevoir after HH, 1HKO onto Mega Kangaskhan), although the accuracy is often a letdown.

The Dragon (Salamence) (M) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 44 Atk / 212 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Draco Meteor
- Protect

Some Rain teams just slap a Talonflame in this spot to effectively check both Mega Venusaur and Ferrothorn, and while this wouldn't be a bad option, I dislike Talonflame because it struggles not just to deal with the previously mentioned threats, but most of the metagame as well. I knew my checks for both those Pokemon had to be flexible and not entirely reliant on their presence, and also not have one Pokemon that needs to check both. After considering my options, Mega Salamence seemed like a strong pick to deal with Mega Venusaur, but it also demolishes AV Conkeldurr (who is tough to beat with Rain), does a lot to Ferrothorn and is nice and powerful by itself, so bringing it never feels like an obligation due to certain threats. This is a standard MixMence so I don't have much to say about moves or EVs, but MixMence was the chosen set because it combined the nuking power of Physical sets with the cleaning abilities of the Special set.

Rotom-Heat @ Expert Belt
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 44 HP / 228 SpA / 236 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect

Rotom was the Pokemon I chose to deal with things that were currently problematic such as Talonflame, Ferrothorn and Charizard Y. The set's a bit odd but it's easily my favourite thing on the team. The reason I decided on an Expert Belt set was simply to get 1HKOs on relevant targets such as Ferrothorn while Rain is up and Charizard-Y. Overheat and Thunderbolt are pretty self-explanatory, but HP Ice is something I've gotten questions about a lot in the past. Firstly, yes, this team already has quite a bit of Ice coverage. The reason I chose it was Will-O-Wisp didn't really have a place on an EBelt set because it was almost always spamming attacks. HP Ice gives another check to Mega Salamence (while the Rain duo does this well enough, if Rain goes down, which it often does in the late game, Salamence can be a huge problem) and also is great against standard Sun teams, because usually if I lead Rotom+Salamence, Charizard switches into Landorus, and I've nailed countless of them like this. Rotom has consistently been my neat little surprise and has probably won the most games out of anything here.

The Sword (Aegislash) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 100 Def / 60 SpA / 92 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield

I seriously can't build a team without this thing on it. Threats to the current team members were Cresselia, Kangaskhan and Fairy-types (especially under TR), and that just screamed Aegislash. Bulky Aegislash with WP is my preferred set as it lets Aegislash take advantage of both its bulk and offensive power. The EVs focus on Bulk because Aegislash has more than enough power after a WP boost, and anything that needs to be removed quickly can be double-targeted. Wide Guard was originally on the set, but I eventually took it off for Shadow Sneak because I was rarely using WG and Shadow Sneak makes Aegislash less prone to revenge killing after it gets a WP boost. WG was only helping against Sand in some cases, but the team's Sand matchup was strong enough without it.

The Thing (Conkeldurr) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Guts
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 244 HP / 180 Atk / 84 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 29 Spe
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch

I played for a bit on Showdown with just the above 5, and by far the biggest problem was opposing Rain teams, but Sand was still tricky as well and I wanted a bit more insurance against Thundurus. After watching some of Alex Ogloza's videos on Youtube, I decided AV Conkeldurr would be a great fit on this team. It's also a pretty standard set, Ice Punch may seem redundant with all the other Ice coverage on this team, but it's very useful against double Genies (Rotom shouldn't stay in on Landorus, Ludicolo hates being paralyzed). Conkeldurr rounds out the team very well, it completes a nice balance of 2 Physical Pokemon to 4 Special and also gives me another bulky Pokemon to switch into things, so a loss in momentum isn't catastrophic.

I first built this team a few months before US Nationals, and for those of you who don't remember, that was when "Japan Sand" was hugely popular, so this team definitely had that in mind. It's a pretty offensive build, but it still requires quite a bit of prediction to be used due to the team's reliance on single-target moves. So like I said, when building the team I knew Sand was priority #1 to beat, and just looking at the common Sand builds, it was apparent that they were all (as well as many other teams) incredibly weak to Rain, so that was my starting point. After that I built around Rain's common checks such as Mega Venusaur and Ferrothorn and rounded the team off with some bulkier Pokemon to give it some decent Pokemon for making switches. Despite the large metagame shifts that took place after US Nationals, the team still held up very well against the rising Mega Gardevoir teams and the post worlds CHALK craze. In general Ludicolo just blasts stuff and then the rest of the team can clean up, whether it be Salamence picking things off with Hyper Voice or Conkeldurr just outlasting everything.

I might post another team that revolved around WoW Charizard X later, but we'll see :)
 
Nice to see some rebooted VGC 15/BSD stuff! Really cool sun team btw, lots of unconventional stuff so I'll try to balance it out with the rain team I ran for most of the VGC 15 season that also has some neat stuff (in my opinion).



I first built this team a few months before US Nationals, and for those of you who don't remember, that was when "Japan Sand" was hugely popular, so this team definitely had that in mind. It's a pretty offensive build, but it still requires quite a bit of prediction to be used due to the team's reliance on single-target moves. So like I said, when building the team I knew Sand was priority #1 to beat, and just looking at the common Sand builds, it was apparent that they were all (as well as many other teams) incredibly weak to Rain, so that was my starting point. After that I built around Rain's common checks such as Mega Venusaur and Ferrothorn and rounded the team off with some bulkier Pokemon to give it some decent Pokemon for making switches. Despite the large metagame shifts that took place after US Nationals, the team still held up very well against the rising Mega Gardevoir teams and the post worlds CHALK craze. In general Ludicolo just blasts stuff and then the rest of the team can clean up, whether it be Salamence picking things off with Hyper Voice or Conkeldurr just outlasting everything.

I might post another team that revolved around WoW Charizard X later, but we'll see :)
Added, thank you :3

PoliColo + Gardevoir/Mence teams were what spawned my MegaGross team, ironic enough. Never seen Rain with Rotom-H on it though; no idea why. You're right on it though: Talonflame is pretty easy to subdue, and once it's down Mega Venu/Ferro just have a field day. MegaMence is a whole other story.
 
Good to know there is people trying to keep '15 alive, because let's be real '17 is going to be like '15 just that with a new game coming, duh?

This is a team project that i didn't really use at any live event, but i would like to see if someone likes how this team plays. It just happens to feature one of my favorite cores in the entire game so...

Dreams (Salamence-Mega) (M) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 44 Atk / 212 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Draco Meteor
- Protect

Faith (Virizion) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Close Combat
- Quick Guard
- Protect

Notes: Quick Guard as filler helps against Prankster Thunder Wave and Swagger which are somewhat troublesome for Salamence.

Beauty (Milotic) (F) @ Maranga Berry
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 228 HP / 164 Def / 92 SpA / 12 SpD / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Icy Wind
- Recover
- Protect

Notes: The defensive investment allows you to take Mega Kangaskhan's Double Edge 100% of the time.

Love (Rotom-Heat) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 116 SpA / 4 SpD / 132 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Notes: 132 Spe creeps neutral nature base 70s by 1 point. Rotom-H was chosen over Heatran because with Aegislash and Tyranitar on the team, a 3rd Ground weakness was definitely not something i was looking for.

Power (Tyranitar) (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Ice Punch
- Protect

Notes: Tyranitar was added because of the need to somehow manage to control weather. This was needed to make the rain matchup better. Tyranitar, together with Aegislash, make the team not so vulnerable to Trick Room

Loyalty (Aegislash) (M) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 100 SpA / 156 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield

Notes: Classic Specs Hydreigon's Dark Pulse benchmark. Wide Guard because of an awful mega gardevoir matchup.


I also revamped one of my old RMT teams so i'll share it here so i don't have to go back to those old threads and you can still use it:

Rose (Gardevoir) (F) @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
Level: 50
EVs: 108 HP / 124 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Hyper Voice
- Trick Room
- Protect

Volcano (Heatran) (M) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 44 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 204 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Ancient Power
- Protect

Cybertom (Rotom-Wash) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 60 SpA / 36 SpD / 140 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Michaella (Scrafty) (F) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 236 Atk / 52 Def / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Fake Out
- Stone Edge

Amanita (Amoonguss) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Protect

Halvard (Terrakion) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Quick Guard
- Protect
 
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Good to know there is people trying to keep '15 alive, because let's be real '17 is going to be like '15 just that with a new game coming, duh?

This is a team project that i didn't really use at any live event, but i would like to see if someone likes how this team plays. It just happens to feature one of my favorite cores in the entire game so...

Dreams (Salamence-Mega) (M) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 44 Atk / 212 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Draco Meteor
- Protect

Faith (Virizion) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Close Combat
- Quick Guard
- Protect

Beauty (Milotic) (F) @ Maranga Berry
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 228 HP / 164 Def / 92 SpA / 12 SpD / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Icy Wind
- Recover
- Protect

Love (Rotom-Heat) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 116 SpA / 4 SpD / 132 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Power (Tyranitar) (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Ice Punch
- Protect

Loyalty (Aegislash) (M) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 100 SpA / 156 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield


I also revamped one of my old RMT teams so i'll share it here so i don't have to go back to those old threads and you can still use it:

Rose (Gardevoir) (F) @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
Level: 50
EVs: 108 HP / 124 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Hyper Voice
- Trick Room
- Protect

Volcano (Heatran) (M) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 44 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 204 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Ancient Power
- Protect

Cybertom (Rotom-Wash) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 60 SpA / 36 SpD / 140 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Michaella (Scrafty) (F) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 236 Atk / 52 Def / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Fake Out
- Stone Edge

Amanita (Amoonguss) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Protect

Halvard (Terrakion) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Quick Guard
- Protect
2) Explain your team
What do the EVs do on [every non-max/max set]? Why'd you pick Rotom-H over Heatran (Other than "Rotom-H is fucking amazing, Heatran isn't nearly as cool", that much is obvs)? Do I have to smack you with a fish? ;)
Rotom-H + Virizion is awesome though, can attest. I added Azumarill as the water type on mine and holy fuck, the synergy. Milotic sounds great too though.
 
What do the EVs do on [every non-max/max set]? Why'd you pick Rotom-H over Heatran (Other than "Rotom-H is fucking amazing, Heatran isn't nearly as cool", that much is obvs)? Do I have to smack you with a fish? ;)
Rotom-H + Virizion is awesome though, can attest. I added Azumarill as the water type on mine and holy fuck, the synergy. Milotic sounds great too though.
LOL well EV spreads are pretty much Smogon's sample spreads so i guess there's that.
Bar milotic
 


Gengar-Mega @ Gengarite
Ability: Shadow Tag
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 4 SpA / 28 SpD / 180 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Perish Song
- Disable
- Shadow Ball

Amoonguss @ Eject Button
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 140 HP / 180 Def / 188 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Rage Powder
- Protect
- Spore
- Giga Drain

Scrafty @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 164 Def / 100 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 2 Spe
- Fake Out
- Protect
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off

Gothitelle @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 244 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Protect
- Trick Room
- Heal Pulse
- Psychic

Politoed @ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 220 HP / 172 Def / 4 SpA / 92 SpD / 20 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Scald
- Perish Song
- Encore

Arcanine @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 4 SpA / 100 SpD / 68 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Snarl
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
- Overheat


This is Wolfe Glick's Perish Trap team that he used to win a Regional Championship somewhere. The way Perish Trap functions in most matches is by having Gengar use Perish Song turn 1 while its ally redirects damage or uses Fake Out on the opponent, then using a combination of Protect and switching bewteen Shadow Tag users to keep the opponent in so Perish Song can knock out both Pokemon. Once the first two Pokemon go down, use Perish Song again on he remaining two Pokemon and stall once again, and provided you have more than 2 Pokemon left you should be able to win with the same Protect spam combined with the team's general bulk. Mega Gengar and Gothitelle are the most important Pokemon in the first stretch of the game as they keep your opponent from switching, so they must be preserved however possible. Gothitelle is much bulkier than Gengar and doesn't have a Perish Song of its own, so generally you can let it tank a few hits. The rest of the Pokemon support this strategy in various ways, Scrafty can stall for turns or help an ally get up a Perish Song with Fake Out, while the Intimidate support it provides makes your Shadow Tag users much harder to KO. Amoonguss is great at stalling for turns by putting opponents to sleep with Spore, and can also use Rage Powder to protect your Shadow Tag Pokemon. Eject Button makes for an interesting choice on Amoonguss, but it allows you to switch out one of your Shadow Tag users, tank a predicted attack and switch back in the same turn, making it easier to keep your Shadow Tag Pokemon alive. Politoed is a second Perish Song user who also has access to Encore, which when combined with Gengar's Disable is incredibly potent when stalling for turns. Lastly, Arcanine has Intimidate, Will-O-Wisp and Snarl to weaken opposing attackers as much as possible to ensure your Pokemon stay alive as long as needed. This team is very difficult to use, so if you're new to the format I'd recommend trying something else first. If you can manage it correctly though, this team is incredibly powerful and can win even against skilled opponents. Things to watch out for are Ghost types, who can ignore Shadow Tag entirely and threaten both Gengar and Gothitelle, and also U-turn/Volt Switch Pokemon that can also pivot out. Sorry for the lack of specificity about the EV spreads, I didn't make most of them so I don't really know what specific benchmarks they're built around but they're all quite bulky.




Not A Real Dragon (Charizard-Mega-X) @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
Level: 50
EVs: 156 HP / 100 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Flare Blitz
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Charizard-X is something I'd tried before with a Dragon Dance set, but it ended up dying to quickly. This set on the other hand can stick around for quite some time thanks to decent bulk and Will-O-Wisp to cripple attackers. I decided to run both STAB attacks so Charizard would be a threat outside of just burning things, Dragon Claw and Flare Blitz hit fairly hard even with little investment and have neutral coverage on almost everything in the game, the notable exception being Heatran. Will-O-Wisp is the defining move of the set and lures Physical attackers that would prey on Charizard-Y and cripples them. Protect is Protect, but if you're Protecting Charizard and it hasn't mega evolved yet, don't do so until you're attacking or using WoW to keep up the illusion that it's Y. The EV spread balances bulk and power very nicely, it survives an Adamant Landorus's Earthquake (assuming spread damage) and a Kangaskhan's Double Edge while being able to 1HKO Amoonguss almost all of the time, as well as Aegislash and many Mega Gardevoir. I opted for max Speed to tie with opposing Kangaskhan at worst and outspeed all non-Scarf Landorus.

Meme (Swampert) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Torrent
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 228 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Wide Guard

Swampert does an excellent job of protecting Charizard from the spread moves it hates, and it also beats Double Genies and Heatran for Charizard. Scald isn't used super often but STAB and a decent burn chance make it useful on occasion. Earth Power hits Heatran and Aegislash very hard, often being able to underspeed the latter and hit it in Blade form. Ice Beam deals with the Genies and the various Dragon Pokemon in the metagame. Wide Guard is crucial for supporting Charizard and is always a good move to have on a team. The EV spread was stolen from a Nugget Bridge report but it's essentially a slightly fancier version of max HP max Special Attack. Expert Belt increases Swampert's damage output against most relevant threats without compromising its decent bulk.

Thorny Bastard (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Atk / 84 Def / 72 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Protect

Ferrothorn quickly became one of my favorite Pokemon in VGC 15, it checks Rain very efficiently and is an incredible Pokemon late game, with Leech Seed, Leftovers and its decent bulk, Ferrothorn is a potent win condition against teams with only one answer to it. Power Whip hits the Water types that would give Charizard and Swampert issues, though it does fail to 1HKO most of them because of Ferrothorn's low Attack stat. Gyro Ball hits Fairy types for superffective damage, but scores a solid hit against many faster Pokemon because of Ferrothorn's low Speed. Leech Seed is what enables Ferrothorn to win games, it gets a large amount of recovery (especially if both Pokemon are seeded) and can essentially go back to full HP with the combination of Leech Seed, Leftovers and Protect, and can still tank attacks with its great bulk. The EV spread ensures Ferrothorn lives a Terrakion's Close Combat from full, and is able to KO most Mega Gardevoir. The rest was put into Special Defence to help deal with Rain. I opted for Leftovers over Lum Berry because in most endgame situations a burn doesn't matter due to Leech Seed recovery, and Leftovers's additional recovery has been helpful in the past.

FlinchFlinchFlinch (Landorus-Therian) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 132 HP / 116 Atk / 28 Def / 4 SpD / 228 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Superpower
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- U-turn

Landorus is a solid Pokemon on any VGC team, here the Intimidate support is much appreciated, as is the ability to check Sun. Superpower is pretty much only there to hit Kangaskhan, but given how relevant a target that is it's worth the move slot. Rock Slide is incredibly skillful with a 30% chance to flicnh and gets the KO on Talonflame and less bulky Charizard-Y. Earthquake hits Heatran specifically but does quite a bit to most neutral targets. U-turn is great for Intimidate shuffling and gaining momentum on predicted switches, and can do a nice amount of damage to Cresselia. The EV spread lives an Overheat from Charizard-Y in Sun most of the time and a +1 Sucker Punch from Adamant LO Bisharp. It outspeeds neutral natured base 100s and everything slower, with the remaining EVs placed in Attack.

LOUD NOISES (Sylveon) @ Life Orb
Ability: Pixilate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 92 HP / 116 Def / 248 SpA / 52 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Helping Hand
- Protect

The main offensive muscle of the team, Sylveon's Hyper Voice is absurdly strong and it can help teammates net KOs with Helping Hand. Hyper Voice is pretty much the reason to use Sylveon, it does a huge amount of damage to neutral targets and KOs pretty much anything weak to it. Hyper Voice is also the team's best answer to bulky Fighting types that give many of the other members trouble. Hidden Power Ground hits Heatran very hard and can do a decent amount to Aegislash, otherwise it doesn't hit much. Helping Hand can allow a teammate to get an important KO in a pinch, though often spamming Hyper Voice has the same effect. The EV spread is the one used by Aaron Zheng with slightly more Speed, the extra bulk may be contradictory with Life Orb but it often is needed and the EVs wouldn't be put to great use anywhere else.

RNGesus (Thundurus) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 248 HP / 48 Def / 84 SpA / 52 SpD / 76 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt

Thundurus, in my opinion, is the most solid Pokemon in the VGC 2015 metagame given how much utility it provides on any given team. Thunderbolt is a given on Thundurus, it gives another option for hitting bulky Water types like Suicune and hits Charizard-Y and Talonflame as well. Hidden Power Ice has great coverage with Thunderbolt and lets Thundurus do a lot of damage to Landorus and Mega Salamence. Thunder Wave is the team's Speed control, and has that delicious 25% chance to paralyze which can end up winning games, especially paired with Landorus's Rock Slide. Taunt shuts down Amoonguss, non Mental Herb Trick Room setters and other shenanigans. The EV spread survives an Adamant Kangaskhan Double-Edge and an Adamant Landorus-T Stone Edge, and a Timid Charizard-Y Flamethrower. The Speed outspeeds Smeargle with 1 point of creep and the rest was put into Special Attack.


So a little thing I like to do before Worlds each year is build a team that I think would do well at Worlds itself based on team matchup alone, and what resulted this year is arguably the most solid team I've ever built that isn't some variant of CHALK. I knew I wanted to build a much more balanced team than my Rain team to ease predictions and switching. I didn't really have a solid start to the team until I was reading some stuff on the OU forum and saw things about a Defensive Charizard-X set with Will-O-Wisp, which seemed like an interesting lure to non-Scarf Landorus and Kangaskhan. I built a FWG core around it, with Sylveon to give the tam some offensive presence and Double Genies to improve my matchup against the entire metagame. Generally when using this team it's important to identify which Pokemon will be able to do the most damage to the opposing team and base plays around keeping that Pokemon around while crippling opposing Pokemon in any way possible, be it through a burn or a large amount of damage. This team has a very solid matchup against most threats in the metagame, the one notable thing that can be hard to deal with is strong offensive Fire types, but those can be beaten with smart plays. This team is admittedly quite tech oriented, so it's also not the best team to start with but if you've got a decent grasp on the metagame and want to try something a little different then give this a shot.


Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Assurance
- Ice Punch
- Low Kick

Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head
- Protect

Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Dragon Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Protect

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 132 Def / 140 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield

Azumarill @ Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Knock Off


Gardevoir (M) @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Psychic
- Protect
- Magic Coat

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 220 HP / 212 Def / 76 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Protect

Gyarados @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Dragon Dance
- Protect

Thundurus @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave
- Protect

Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 164 Atk / 92 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
- U-turn

Heatran @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 20 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 228 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power
- Protect




Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 180 HP / 252 Def / 36 SpA / 4 SpD / 36 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Psychic
- Energy Ball
- Protect

Firstly, lets talk about the teams mega pokemon and crown jewel Gardevoir.

Gardevoir here is the teams designated dragonslayer and check to pokemon like amoonguss, conkeldurr and to a degree thundurus-I. And along with 2 other next pokemon it forms the teams rain checking trifecta. The EV spread and nature choice will probably look weird to most players but the spread here lets this Gardevoir live a double edge from a jolly Mega Salamence 100% of the time and Mega Kangaskhan only has a small chance to get the OHKO. 36 spatk investment is enough to get the OHKO on most Mega Salamence and the 36 speed outspeeds the neutral nature base 70 pokemon namely Bisharp.

Now onto the moveset Hyper Voice for the obvious STAB and spread damage, Psychic is there to hit pokemon like amoonguss and fighting types also it can be used to get around wide guard pokemon while dealing some damage. Energy Ball was chosen as a backup for hitting pokemon like Mega Swampert and Gastrodon just in case the matchup didnt favour virizion too well. And Protect is Protect :)

Virizion @ Expert Belt
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Protect

The next pokemon on the team is Virizion.

Virizion here is the teams main way of dealing with Mega Kangaskhan and it also forms part of the rain checking trifecta.

The ev spread here is a simple 4/252/252 so Virizion can hit hard and fast. The Expert Belt was chosen as the item since a boosting item is required to OHKO Mega Kangaskhan with Close Combat and the Life Orb was taken up already. The moveset is a standard one, Leaf Blade for the Grass STAB, Close Combat for Fighting STAB and Stone Edge for coverage against pokemon like Thundurus and Mega Charizard-Y.

Aegislash @ Life Orb
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 188 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 60 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 Spe
- King's Shield
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Next up we have Aegislash.

Aegislash here was the teams designated Fairy Counter and a secondary check to Mega Kangaskhan. It is also here to help check Calm Mind Cresselias since it can pretty much 1v4 a battle if left alone.

The EV spread was generally designed around the Life Orb which Aegislash is holding, 188 HP investment hits a stat of 159 which lets aegislash avoid taking 16 hp in recoil per attack. Max special attack is for hitting as hard as possible and the 60 speed investment was for creeping pokemon around aegislash's speed tier mainly sylveon and opposing aegislash.

The moveset is generally a standard one outside of Hidden Power Ice. King's Shield so Aegislash can actually use its Stance Change ability. Shadow Ball for Ghost STAB, Flash Cannon for Steel STAB and hidden power ice was a backup way to hit pokemon like Garchomp and Landorus-Therian.


Thundurus @ Yache Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 212 HP / 116 Def / 60 SpA / 20 SpD / 100 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- Taunt

The next pokemon on the team is Thundurus-Incarnate.

Thundurus is the teams check to gimmicky/memeish strategies namely minimize and smeargle's dark void spam it also forms the last part of the teams rain checking trifecta it is also one of the teams main forms of speed control with thunder wave.

The EV spread lets this thundurus avoid the 2HKO from Landorus-Therian Rock Slides if they dont have a boosting item. The 100 speed investment is mainly for creeping other thundurus but it also outspeeds max speed Landorus-Therian so i can use Thundurus as a speed checker to see if a landorus is choice scarfed.

The moveset is pretty standard Thunder Wave for the Prankster abusing speed control, Thunderbolt for Electric STAB, Taunt for halting gimmicks/set up strategies and Protect since thundurus is generally a prime target for Fake Outs and double targets.

Suicune @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 212 HP / 60 Def / 156 SpA / 60 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Tailwind
- Protect

Next up we have my favourite bulky water type, Suicune

Suicune was the teams designated Landorus-Therian Check and speed control user it also helps against pokemon like Heatran, Terrakion, Mega Salamence, Mega Metagross and the general Sand Teams.

The ev spread has quite a lot going on under all of the numbers. The 212 HP investment lets the sitrus berry activate if Suicune gets hit by a Super Fang mainly from pokemon like Crobat and potentially Scrafty. The 156 Sp Attack investment was to make sure this Suicune could OHKO some of the bulkier non-AV Landorus-Therian's with Ice Beam and get the 2HKO's on common Heatran with Scald. And the 20 speed lets Suicune outspeed Adamant Scarf Landorus-Therian in Tailwind.

The moveset is pretty standard Scald for Water STAB damage and the potential for burns, Ice Beam for coverage against Landorus-Therian, Mega Salamence and Grass Types like Amoonguss and Venusaur.
Tailwind was the teams main speed control option and protect to stop Suicune getting double targeted.

Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Tomb
- Knock Off
- Superpower

And finally we have Landorus-Therian.

Landorus here was the teams designated Mega Charizard-Y check, Intimidator and it also acts as a check to Heatran, Mega Mawile, Aegislash and Mega Kangaskhan.

The EV spread is a simple 4/252/252 one so Landorus-T can hit as hard and as fast as possible. The moveset is relatively standard Earthquake for Ground STAB, Knock Off to hit Ghost pokemon like Aegislash and Gengar while getting around wide guard. Superpower for hitting Mega Kangaskhan and other fighting weak pokemon and Rock Tomb was used mainly for hitting Mega Charizard-Y while avoiding Wide Guard from some of its common partners namely Aegislash and sometimes Conkeldurr it also acts as a form of speed control should a game call for it.

And the Assault Vest was chosen to help landorus take special attacks in general a little better. It also lets Landorus live Hidden power Ice's from thundurus and the weaker ice beams from pokemon like Suicune and Cresselia.


Metagross @ Mega
Jolly, 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Ability: Clear Body -> Tough Claws

- Iron Head
- Protect
- Zen Headbutt
- Ice Punch

Azumarill @ Mystic Water
Adamant, 212 HP, 252 Atk, 44 Speed.
Ability: Huge Power

- Waterfall
- Protect
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough

Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Modest, 4 HP, 252 Sp. Atk, 252 Speed
Ability: Levitate

- Draco Meteor
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse

Thundurus-I @ Sitrus Berry
Timid, 252 HP, 120 Def, 108 Sp. Def, 28 Speed
Ability: Prankster

- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
- HP Ice

Virizion @ Life Orb
Jolly, 252 Atk, 4 Def, 252 Speed
Ability: Justified

- Leaf Blade
- Protect
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat

Arcanine @ Rocky Helmet
Bold, 252 HP, 148 Def, 36 Sp. Atk, 12 Sp. Def, 60 Speed
Ability: Intimidate

- Flamethrower
- Morning Sun
- WoW
- Snarl

Metagross was the team's first mon to build around; after some theory and a lot of testing I've established that Metagross + Azumarill + Hydreigon was a fantastic and beautifully simple core, that laid outside the omnipresent cores of CHALK, Standard Rain, and Japan Sand to add some fresh air.
The team is a picture-perfect "Goodstuffs": no reliance on setup at all, and has a generally positive matchup against common archetypes while not really giving a shit about any form of Weather.

Metagross is very strong against Landorus-T, Mega Salamence, and Gardevoir, while also offering formidable battlefield presence in most situations by virtue of high Speed, sheer bulk, great power, and even has a sprinkle of flinch spam to win matches you have no business winning. Weaknesses to Dark, Ground, Fire, and Ghost to a smaller extent are painful, but a solid list of resistances really help out your type chart. Set is very simple: Max Speed, max power, STABs + Protect because it's Doubles, and fo the 4th slot we have the "common but for some reason surprises people" Ice Punch that Metagross has used since Gen 3 to crush Salamence, Landorus-T, Thundurus, and many other random foes with an Ice weakness.

Hydreigon is also very straightforward and simple: Go fast, smash shit with raw power and excellent coverage, while also checking off all of Metagross' weaknesses and 90% of its checks. Hydreigon acts as our softener, revenge killer, and general check to just about anything that isn't a Fairy type. Dark Pulse is the best move in 95% of cases, while Fire Blast is specifically used as an extra check to Amoonguss, Ferrothorn, Scizor, non-Mega Venusaur, and a few others. Draco Meteor is used to smoke opposing Dragons that Metagross doesn't want to bother with (Garchomp, Fire Blast MegaMence, Hydreigon, Scarf Haxorus) and emergency "I need THAT dead, right now" moments. Earth Power should be used sparingly, as a choice-locked EP is very easy to abuse thanks to a large number of common immunities. Threats like Gengar (Sash, Mega, whatevs), Aegislash, Cresselia, Heatran, Rotom-H, Rotom-W, and more are removed for Metagross to clean house; Metagross supports by absolutely murdering every Fairy in the game for Hydra, along with support against Dragons, as well as smashing bulky Fighting types such as Conkeldurr.

Azumarill acts as a switch option for both of the above: it resists Fire and Dark for Metagross, and Fighting/Ice/Bug for Hydreigon. It's a bit of an odd moveset, I admit, but works very well. Belly Drum doesn't work on a team with no Fake Out / Redirection support whatsoever. The little blue bunny completes our Dragon/Steel/Fairy core, adding an extra layer of doom for Heatran, Conkeldurr, Landorus-T, Scrafty (very big threat to HydraGross), and generally just smashes into everything not named Ferrothorn or Amoonguss very hard. Waterfall is the main STAB, while Aqua Jet is adept at finishing off Sashes or those bastards that randomly live with 10% HP. Waterfall + AJ is a nice 1-2 punch to remove a lot of HP from anything lacking a resistance or very strong Defense. Opposing Rain teams make Azumarill excessively dangerous as well. Protect keeps Azumarill safe while its faster teamates remove dangerous foes like Thundurus. Play Rough is weaker than Waterfall (very important to note on neutral hits like cresselia) and prone to missing at crucial moments, but bites into common Water resists like Politoed hard while adding the final nail to our massive Dragon-hate, and our best option against opposing Hydreigon and Weavile. Spread is bulky and strong, with a bit of Speed creep; there's not really a specific benchmark. I'll fine-tune and update if it becomes needed but has so far worked fine.

Thundurus is our first line of support. The giant flying dick spams T-Wave against anything faster than our very fast team that Hydra doesn't like (Weavile and Mega Lucario for example), neutering Tailwind teams, all while adding yellow magic to the battle, creating para-flinch opportunities that Metagross, Hydreigon, and Azumarill have zero issues abusing, so don't hesitate to spam it against random things like Sylveon either. Beyond that, he annoys Kangaskhan, helps break bulky Waters such as Suicune and Milotic, and HP Ice helps bust Landorus-T/Garchomp (won't OHKO, but hurts a lot) and most things that Thunderbolt sucks against. Protect is uncommon on Thundy, but is pretty great since he lures Fake Out and double-targets like no other mon in the meta. Outspeeds Max Speed Gyarados to bomb it before it can Taunt, Ice Fang, etc. and outpaces most "bulky" Thundurus spreads. Bulk lets it survive Khan's Double-Edge, with a 75% chance to tank LO Draco Meteor from Modest Hydreigon. Again, it's not a perfected spread, but it works. Oh, and is answer #4 to Mega Mence. Seriously, do not ever bring Mence into this team.
Can be switched with an offense, LO Thundy or any variant of Zapdos; fills the same role at the end of the day. Speed control, kills Waters.

Virizion is quite impressive for it's rather underwhelming stats and usage. The big green deer is our fast KO on Kangaskhan, which we needed a solid answer for at this point; "T-Wave and hope it skips a turn" isn't the best game plan.
Virizion checks a long and useful list of foes for us, including Milotic (even at +2!), Heatran, Tyranitar, Azumarill (chip it first, seriously), Politoed, Kingdra (Meta/Hydra flop against this one), and is especially adept at the nasty Amoonguss+Khan combo by ignoring Spore/Rage Powder, and outspeeding + OHKOing Khan. Stone Edge is a bit unreliable, but the mere threat of it makes Talonflame hesitate to switch in and Char-Y shits a brick over it. Also helps weakne Gyarados, Zapdos, and Thundurus, and I guess it's an excessive hit on Mence?
Simple spread: Max Speed, Max Attack, 4 Def to help eat Psyshock. Special bulk is absolutely amazing: outside of Char-Y and Hurricane Dnite it'll eat any Special attack coming at it, and slam back. Secondary Hydreigon check, and excels against Rain along with Thundurus. Singlehandedly massacres Japan Sand as well; Mence obviously has no hope against this team so no worries.
Arcanine, our final slot and typical "tech" option, acts as a cold stop to Kangaskhan and virtually any physical attacker. Intimidate support makes Virizion much safer, and makes the rest of the team difficult to bring down. Snarl and Fire typing helps break down Sun teams and Gardevoir, and while Milotic is a huge, huge threat, Virizion, Thundy, and Azumarill go miles to help. While he is rather slow on damage output, he is a powerful crippler that no ones enjoys facing. Our safest Heatran and Char-Y switchin, while also adding coverage against Bisharp, Aegislash, Weavile, and others that this team needs. Considering a CB set for shock value and keeping the damage flowing, but so far am very impressed with BulkyCanine.
Spread is the BSD standard; though it loses the Sitrus berry to Thundy. Morning Sun + Rocky Helmet make it even more disgusting against Khan, because there's no such thing as "too much Khan coverage"; fat baby momma is on every other team at minimum. Outspeeds and OHKO's Bisharp with Flamethrower, tanks Hydreigon's DM on the Special side, and common high-power hits like Terrakion's Close Combat are a 3HKO with Sitrus but Morning Sun helps maintain HP.
Morning Sun is vulnerable to Rain / Sand, so he's often paired with Virizion.



Metagross-Mega @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Zen Headbutt
- Iron Head
- Hammer Arm
- Protect
Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
Entei @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 36 HP / 124 Atk / 44 Def / 52 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Snarl
- Stone Edge
- Protect
Zapdos @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 52 SpA / 148 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost
- Tailwind
Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Earth Power
- Protect
Down the Drain (Gastrodon-East) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 100 Def / 196 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Protect

I started with Metagross and Lando-T because I wanted to build around Metagross and Lando helped remove fire and steel such as Charizard, Heatran and Entei for Metagross. I added Entei next because I felt it would be useful as another sun check and could help support Metagross by spreading Sacred Fire burns and using Snarl. I needed speed control so I thought Zapdos would be useful for the team. I was originally using Sitrus Berry and a less defensive spread but I felt later that Rocky Helmet would help a lot more with my Kangaskhan matchup. Hydreigon was added mainly to beat Aegislash and do decent damage to Cresselia, it also added another fire resist to team team which helped with Charizard. Lastly I added Gastrodon as it was a great check to Thundurus and Landorus-T which were still a bit of a problem.




Suicune @ Wacan Berry / Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
Modest Nature
EVs: 116 HP / 252 SAtk / 140 Spe
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Tailwind
- Protect

Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
Jolly Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Protect

Chandelure @ Flame Plate
Ability: Flash Fire
Modest Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
- Heat Wave
- Shadow Ball
- Will-o-Wisp
- Protect

Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace -> Pixilate
Modest Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
- Hyper Voice
- Psychic
- Imprison
- Protect

Landorus-T @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
- Protect

Crobat @ Lum Berry
Ability: Inner Focus
Timid Nature
EVs: 48 HP / 40 Def / 168 SDef / 252 Spe
- Tailwind
- Taunt
- Quick Guard
- Super Fang


Here is the full team description and process; I'm hitting character limits.




Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 116 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psychic
- Hyper Voice
- Protect
- Trick Room

Heatran @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 196 HP / 56 Def / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Heat Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earth Power
- Protect

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 76 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Protect
- Rage Powder
- Spore

Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Double-Edge
- Sucker Punch
- Low Kick

Milotic @ Maranga Berry
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 180 Def / 78 SpA / 4 Spd / 76 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Recover
- Icy Wind
- Protect

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Superpower

HERE is the description and discussion of the team




HERE are the sets + discussion of the team.
 
Last edited:

Mishimono

mish mish
is a Top Tiering Contributoris a Past SCL Champion
DPL Champion
Here is a cool team I've been using on Battle Spot recently. I'm currently in the low 1700s with this team so I guess it works alright.


Kangaskhan-Mega @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Parental Bond
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Low Kick
- Double-Edge
- Sucker Punch
- Fake Out

Kangaskhan is one of the best megas in the tier. This set isn't anything special as it is just used for hitting hard and fast. It has Low Kick>Power-Up Punch because I felt without any redirection or support Kangaskhan worked better as an offensive attacker right off the bat.

Blaziken @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 68 Atk / 196 SpA / 244 Spe
Naive Nature
- Overheat
- Superpower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect

Blaziken is really good for doing lots of fast damage to some of the most common pokemon in the tier. It is useful with Kangaskhan to help get rid of pokemon like Terrakion and Landorus-T. The EV spread allows Blaziken to outspeed Choice Scarf Landorus-T at +1 and KO the standard Salamence. I went with the standard moves because they were best at doing lots of damage right away as Blaziken is quite frail and doesn't last on the field for too long.

Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Atk / 52 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Protect

Ferrothorn works well with Blaziken to help get rid of fairies and bulky waters. There isn't really much too say about this set as it is just ripped off the smogdex. The Atk allows it to KO 252 HP, 44 Def Rotom-W. The rest is just put into bulk.

Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 140 Def / 100 SpA / 12 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Protect
- Toxic

Now the team had 3 pokemon using physical attacks to it was a bit weak to Intimidate so I added Milotic. Milotic also helps check opposing fire-types. Now this spread is a little bit different but the Def EVs allow Milotic to live an Adamant Kangaskhan Double-Edge while the SpD allows Milotic to take some special attacks like Thunderbolts slightly better. The rest of the EVs are thrown into SpA and Spe. The moveset is fairly standard except for Toxic. I decided to use Toxic as I felt I was a bit weak to CM Cress.

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 108 Def / 60 SpA / 68 SpD / 28 Spe
Calm Nature
- Swagger
- Thunderbolt
- Taunt
- Thunder Wave

Thundurus helps to give the team some speed control and further help with bulky waters. This spread may not be the best but I believe it just hits the same benchmarks as the smogdex spread would but with 31 Def IVs. The extra EVs were just thrown into SpA. I'm using Swagger>Hidden Power Ice because I felt I had enough ice coverage on the team already and Swagger can win games.

Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 116 HP / 148 Atk / 44 Def / 12 SpD / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Knock Off
- Superpower

Landorus is a good partner for Thundurus and just a good pokemon overall. I stole this EV spread from Steven Stone and I think it works fairly well. The speed allows you to outspeed Jolly Breloom and it can live a LO Hidden Power Ice from Thundurus. The moveset is the standard AV Lando moveset. I'm using Knock Off over U-Turn because I don't think U-Turn is very good on slower Landos.
 
I'm currently in the low 1700s with this team so I guess it works alright.
My lifetime peak is ~1620, 1700 is a pipe dream to me, yo. I'm far too vulnerable to shiteams and hax to ever rise out of the gutters despite my known skill.

Added; if anyone doesn't like the "team titles" I've been using in the OP's hide tags I can easily edit it.
 

Demantoid

APMS Founder
is a Top Tiering Contributor
This is the team I used most of last season. I ended at 1772 but I probably could have finished above 1800 if I wasn't so lazy at the end (didn't even play 50 games). This is a variant on what has been one of the most popular and consistently good teams throughout the VGC 15 season.
Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Double-Edge
- Power-Up Punch
- Sucker Punch

Cresselia (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 12 Def / 236 SpA / 4 SpD / 28 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Helping Hand
- Thunder Wave

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 108 HP / 172 Atk / 28 Def / 12 SpD / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Knock Off
- Superpower

Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 116 Def / 4 SpA / 76 SpD / 76 Spe
Calm Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Swagger
- Thunder Wave
- Taunt

Heatran @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 44 HP / 4 Def / 204 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Flash Cannon
- Protect

Milotic @ Maranga Berry
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 156 Def / 4 SpA / 52 SpD / 52 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic


The team is an adaption of the CHALK that has been widely used since Worlds. I altered it to what I was more comfortable with so feel free to customize it. I added Thundurus to the core because I love to spam paralysis and have the speed advantage. I removed Amoonguss for Milotic because I don't like Amoonguss and I wanted a way to deal with Landorus and Salamence.

Kangaskhan's spread hits hard and fast. This is the type of Kang I personally have the most experience and am most comfortable despite my highest ever rating coming from bulky Kang. I use Fake Out over Protect to help support the team and PUP over Low Kick or Ice Punch to let Kangaskhan become very threatening. Double Edge to have the most power possible.

Cresselia's spread ohkos 4 hp Mega Salamence and outspeeds 12 speed Rotom while reaching a Sitrus number. I like Thunder Wave as speed control because it helps give you a more rng rolls that could go in your favor. I like Helping Hand because it can help you make big plays and get unexpected kos.

This team was partially built to help me become more used to using AV Lando-T. EV spread outspeeds Jolly Breloom with defense explained in the calcs. I chose Knock Off to deal more damage to Cress.

Thundurus is one of my favorite pokemon to use due to how it can help quickly turn a game around with a few Paralysis or Swagger rolls. I chose Swagger over HP Ice because I have 2 other Ice moves on the team. The spread is actually a Sitrus spread but it's what I'm used to and I was too lazy to change it. The speed investment outspeeds max Smeargle because no one likes Smeargle. I sometimes change its item to Safety Goggles or Rocky Helmet.

Heatran is the team's main Fairy and sun check and has amazing defensive typing and synergy with a lot of common pokemon. Flash Cannon was chosen because the team struggles against fairies.

Milotic scares Landorus and Salamence at team preview while also checking Heatran. Toxic along with Recover allows it to beat pokemon like Cresselia. Maranga Berry is used to make Milotic extremely difficult to take out on the special side. It outspeeds 4 speed Rotoms.

  • 236+ SpA Cresselia Ice Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Salamence: 172-204 (100.5 - 119.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
  • +1 252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 108 HP / 28 Def Landorus-T: 149-177 (83.7 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  • 252+ SpA Pixilate Mega Gardevoir Hyper Voice vs. 108 HP / 12 SpD Assault Vest Landorus-T: 76-91 (42.6 - 51.1%) -- 5.5% chance to 2HKO
  • -1 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 236 HP / 116 Def Thundurus: 99-118 (53.8 - 64.1%) -- 0.6% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery (As I mentioned this is a Sitrus spread)
  • 252+ Atk Landorus-T Stone Edge vs. 236 HP / 116 Def Thundurus: 156-184 (84.7 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
  • 252+ SpA Pixilate Mega Gardevoir Hyper Voice vs. 236 HP / 76+ SpD Thundurus: 97-115 (52.7 - 62.5%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
  • 252+ Atk Landorus-T Earthquake vs. 44 HP / 4 Def Shuca Berry Heatran: 144-170 (83.7 - 98.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  • 252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Solar Beam vs. +1 244 HP / 52 SpD Milotic: 84-100 (41.7 - 49.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
 
This is the team I used most of last season. I ended at 1772 but I probably could have finished above 1800 if I wasn't so lazy at the end (didn't even play 50 games). This is a variant on what has been one of the most popular and consistently good teams throughout the VGC 15 season.

<snip>
The OP did not like me editing that team in, lol.
Added; I always liked CHALK teams, I could usually beat those and they usually didn't revovle around some retarded Gravity HypnoBat shit or "yes, my Trick Room lasts 8 turns, wanna fight about it?". They actually tend to fight clean.

I ended at a sad 1576 myself, with a 37:33 W:L (a pathetic 52.8% winrate) and never peaked above 1612. Rotten luck got the better of my Sun team, and a catastrophic ~15 loss straight streak pretty much demolished all hope.

Clean season means I don't have the horrifying wreck of aftermath from my Sun team's meltdown, so the new team(s) can start anew and maybe even earn a rating it's actually worthy of. Work, SRing, and a quick runthrough of X have kept me off BSD since Friday though :/
 

Mishimono

mish mish
is a Top Tiering Contributoris a Past SCL Champion
DPL Champion
The OP did not like me editing that team in, lol.
Added; I always liked CHALK teams, I could usually beat those and they usually didn't revovle around some retarded Gravity HypnoBat shit or "yes, my Trick Room lasts 8 turns, wanna fight about it?". They actually tend to fight clean.

I ended at a sad 1576 myself, with a 37:33 W:L (a pathetic 52.8% winrate) and never peaked above 1612. Rotten luck got the better of my Sun team, and a catastrophic ~15 loss straight streak pretty much demolished all hope.

Clean season means I don't have the horrifying wreck of aftermath from my Sun team's meltdown, so the new team(s) can start anew and maybe even earn a rating it's actually worthy of. Work, SRing, and a quick runthrough of X have kept me off BSD since Friday though :/
I finished 1743 I believe mostly using the team I added here a Blastoise+Garde team and my Trick Room Salamence RMT. I peaked at 1801 which is my highest peak so I'm happy about that
 
Poor doubles threads. They're dead.

Ironed out the last few kinks thanks to the RMT forum, and have been pretty much demolishing BSD ever since so I have... ANOTHER FUCKING CHAR-Y TEAM since I'm me. Might try a cooler team later, inspired by a 1667 Japanese player I shall eternally respect despite 2-0ing him without even Mega Evolving my Charizard but I'm still brainstorming it. Currently standing at 11-2 W-L and 1648 ranking on BSD, by far my highest ranking ever.



Charizard @ Mega-Y
Timid, 140 HP, 4 Def, 164 Sp. Atk, 4 Sp. Def, 196 Speed
Ability: Blaze (Drought)

- Heat Wave
- Protect
- Solar Beam
- Ancient Power

Garchomp @ Life Orb
Jolly, 4 HP,252 Atk, 252 Speed
Ability: Rough Skin

- Dual Chop
- Protect
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake

Cresselia @ Rocky Helmet
Calm, 252 HP, 188 Def, 4 Sp. Atk, 4 Sp. Def, 60 Speed
Ability: Levitate

- Psyshock
- Moonlight
- Calm Mind
- Icy Wind

Klefki @ Sitrus Berry
Bold, 252 HP, 108 Def, 148 Sp. Def
Ability: Prankster

- Foul Play
- Thunder Wave
- Swagger
- Safeguard

Heracross @ Choice Scarf
Jolly, 252 Atk, 4 Def, 252 Speed
Ability: Moxie

- Megahorn
- Knock Off
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat

Rotom-W @ Expert Belt
Modest, 252 HP, 196 Sp. Atk, 60 Speed
Ability: Levitate

- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- HP Ice
- Hydro Pump


Char-Y outruns Max Speed base 92 Pokemon (aka, Jolly Mega Chompy) in order to outrun 252+ Jolly Lando-T and everything that creeps it. Works out very well; there's nothing relevent to Charizard in the 93-100 deadzone of Speed since Hydreigon wins regardless, and Jolly Mega Khan / Salamence (turn it Megas) also win. Solarbeam smashes into Water types like Suicune, Milotic, Toed, and Rotom-W that threaten Chompy, often enough to KO after Chompy attacks, or a Solarbeam + Protect followed by a Solarbeam next turn. Ancientpower demolishes Talonflame and Char-Y, while also nibbling Mence, Gyarados, and other Fire mons like Rotom-H. Heat Wave and Protect because, well, It's Char-Y in doubles.
Bulk tanks fake Out + Return from Jolly Khan, and most Thunderbolts lacking LO / boosts. Sp. Atk is a remainder, does plenty of damage.

Garchomp is very straightforward: fast and brutal, and pairs well with Char-Y to spam strong spread STAB attacks that basically nothing wants to take. It also resists Rock, is immune to Ground, and handles Fire types like Entei and Heatran. "Why no Landoggy?" ye say? I just prefer Chompy's speed, Fire+Rock resists, and the fact that it yells "GarCHAMP!!" every time you see it. I guess you can use AV Landog too, I haven't tried it yet but I see no reason why it wouldn't work; just watch out for Milotic and Bisharp.
Set is extremely obvious, max speed, max damage, and the same old 3 move coverage Chompy has been spamming since DPP. Dual Chop is particularly effective with LO, since the damage bonus allows you to KO Sash Gengar and Sash Smeargle (along with other similar Sashmons like Liepard) along with tapping the utterly obscure Dragonite harder. I guess it has double the crit rate too? It's mostly just for Gengar.

Cresselia is stupidly bulky, synergizes with CharChomp, and is our primary answer to mega Salamence, Terrakion, Conkeldurr, Hariyama, and pretty much any Special attacker not named Hydreigon or Aegislash. Speed outruns max speed Garchomp after Icy Wind, bulk allows you to out-heal 252+ mega khan's D-E in Sun while the fat bitch KO's herself with recoil / Rocky Helmet. After that, Calm Mind makes you stupidly hard to kill (especially if physical threats are KO'd or unable to break Cress) and makes her exist in the damage department. I've had a fair few matches where Cress was able to simply set up, heal as needed, and sweep 2-3 mons herself against a team unable to break it. Psyshock specifically is used to win CM wars against Sylveon, while Icy Wind actually becomes quite painful Spread damage at +2.
Remaining 4 Sp. Atk/Sp. Def gives a bonus point to Sp. Atk / Sp. Def on every Calm Mind by virtue of being divisible by 3, Nikola Tesla be praised.

Klefki performs outright miracles in terms of resistances: it sponges Rock for Charizard, Ice/Dragon/Fairy for Chompy, Dark/Bug for Cress, walls Mega Khan, Mega Salamence, AND Mega Gardevoir all at once. Prankster T-Wave is, as I am sure we all know by now, annoying/broken/useful as fuck, and Klefki will happily spew it everywhere while walling 75% of a team. Swagger adds even more misery to the mix, rendering Special attackers into a 50/50 coinflip, or alternatively, doubling Chompy/Heracross' Atk to unleash absolute fucking murder. Safeguard also blocks T-Wave, Dark Void, HypnoBat, SwagPlay, WoW, and the odd Toxic Stall douchebag for 5 turns, for your whole team, even after Klefki dies/switches out. Foul Play and Swagger kill stuff, and is Klefki's most reasonable damage output. Also lets you beat mega Metagross too, because why not.
Bulk tanks 252+ LO Hydreigon's Earth Power and 252+ Heatran's Heat Wave. Rest is in Def, to torment Khan and Mega Mence. Klefki's typing synergizes with Charizard far better than Thundurus, and that is 80% of the reason it is here (Safeguard is the other 20%, fuck cheese teams).

Heracross. This thing is so inexplainably succesful for me I can't even comprehend it. After testing many Fighting mons, like Terrakion/Mienshao/Blaziken/etc, most had a marked weakness to Cresselia, were utter shit against Rain, etc. Mienshao was ok though, definetly the first mon I'd pick for a replacement. Anyway, Heracross fills an odd niche: he outruns and decimates Khan, Heatran, Cresselia (rarely packs enough power to KO), LO Ludicolo in Rain, Gengar (sash AND Mega Perish Trap), Weavile, Bisharp, and in general is a fantasic revenger that easily and reliably nets a +1 Atk boost and usually smashes half a team alone. Moveset is optimal coverage; Poison Jab is trash. EVs, the Def. specifically reduces Cresselia's Psyshock damage, rest is max speed and power. Adamant and Scarf outruns 99.9% of the unscarfed metagame (Mega Aerodactyl, mega Alakazam, and Mega Sceptile do not exist) and you NEED the power output of Adamant for a few KOs. This is also our primary Hydreigon killer, btw: Scarf cannot KO you without Sun-boosted Fire moves, and non-Scarf sets are, well, outran and turned into a free +1 atk.
You can swap this out for Terrakion and such, as it's mostly a khan/heatran check, but you'll be pretty meek against Rain, or be forced to change Chompy's item to accomodate LO Virizion.
Moxie because Guts + Safeguard is just dumb, and most people will not even attempt to WoW/Toxic Heracross simply because it is LEGENDARY for running Guts since Gen 3. Also used as a revenger, so it often nets a KO anyway, so why not get a free +1 for a subsequent KO?

Rotom-W, I finally found a damn set that works. Speed outruns 252+ Garchomp after Icy Wind, just like Cresselia, +1 point to creep my own Cress; this adds the illusion that both are uninvested, and creeps most other Rotom-W, Suicune, Cresselia, and Milotic. Moves are simply STAB + HP Ice for SE coverage and hitting Mega Salamence / Landog in Sun for a KO (OHKO's 4/0 AV Landog, specifically), and biting into Thundurus (2-3HKO, depends on spread+item). It also lays a beating on Gyarados, rare as it is, an enormous threat to the team (notice it walls + KOs EVERYONE between non-Mega and Mega forms?). It also patches up Flying, Water, Ice, and Fire weaknesses a bit better, while helping against Rain. Weak only against Grass, which is vey heavily covered by the entire rest of the team.


Charizard, cress, and Klefki are the main lead choices, Heracross is always best in the back, Chompy can either open up and weaken shit early, or clean up after the foe is cracked open by the rest of the team. Rotom-W is rarely picked, but works well against certain combos (Landog + Mence, Milotic + Khan, Heatran + Mence) and usually leads when picked. Cress and Klefki can work together: Cress sets up with CM, and Klefki's sheer hax and dickery with Foul Play keeps damage output up while Safeguard + hax covers Cress and opens free turns for setup, so don't be afraid to bring both. Chompy spams EQ very easy with 3 immunities, but Klefki/heracross lacking Protect sucks sometimes. Don't try going out of your way to set up SafeSwag Heracross / Chompy; Heracross is scarf locked and thus wallable, and Chompy can't EQ next to Klefki. Fucking hilarious when you get a shot at setting it up as a secondary win condition though, not gonna lie, +2 Atk Scarf Heracross is unholy once it can spam a move with no resists left and I won a game like that once.
Pretty fast, lots of reliable speed control, and every mon is capable of good damage output either immediately, or after setup. Klefki is mostly just an asshole, though.
 

Demantoid

APMS Founder
is a Top Tiering Contributor
Here's a Semi Trick Room team that I've been working on. It got me to 1802 so it's at least decent. I wouldn't recommend full TR because it's bad even though my highest ever rating came from using it

Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 20 Atk / 236 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Draco Meteor
- Protect

Gothitelle @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 44 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Psychic
- Helping Hand
- Protect
- Trick Room

Politoed @ Leftovers
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 36 SpA / 52 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Perish Song
- Protect

Ludicolo @ Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 148 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fake Out
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
- Scald

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Atk / 52 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Sucker Punch
- Protect
- Brick Break

Rotom-Heat @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 60 Def / 60 SpA / 124 SpD / 20 Spe
Calm Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect


First off this team can be very difficult to use because the many different modes present, so I would recommend trying a different team to get more comfortable with BS Doubles before this one. Calcs are in a different place to not clutter the description. Ludicolo speed creeps other Ludicolo outspeed Adamant Scarf lando-T in rain.

This team has three main modes in Fast Rain Offense, Trick Room Offense, and Perish Trap. Salamence+Ludicolo+Politoed is the Fast Rain Offense. Mawile is the main form of offense under Trick Room(TR) with Gothitelle as the setter. Gothitelle traps opponents while Politoed's Perish Song knocks them out. Rotom-H is used as the last slot because it can be used on all modes and gives needed Talonflame and Amoonguss checks which is why it runs Safety Goggles.

When I use the team I tend to use Perish Trap with one of the other modes. When you use Perish Song is usually dependent on the opponent's lead and team. If the opponent leads with a pair that can not significantly threaten Politoed and Gothitelle a Perish Song can be set to KO them and the offensive pokemon can usually beat the remaining two. If the opponent's lead greatly threatens Gothitelle especially or they lead with a Ghost-type (which can switch out of Shadow Tag) the offensive portions of the team can be used to KO two pokemon and the Politoed can use Perish Song if you have three remaining pokemon or the slowest pokemon on the field.

Some threats to the team are Amoonguss, Talonflame, and Heatran. Amoonguss does not take too much from the Ice Beams and Gothitelle's Psychic. It can redirect attacks away from dangerous set up sweepers like Kangaskhan and Volcarona and allow Heatran to set up free Substitutes. If Politoed and Ludicolo go down or are not brought Heatran is a major problem. Rotom-H can wall most sets for a while but deals little with T-Bolt. Heatran is the reason Brick Break was chosen over Iron Head on Mawile. It allows Mawile and Gothitelle to threaten Heatran which otherwise wouldn't be the case. Talonflame deals major damage to most of the team but it can be more easily played around than Heatran. Bisharp and Milotic can also be troublesome due to there being two Intimidators on the team which give them free boosts.


  • 20 Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Amoonguss: 222-264 (100.4 - 119.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
  • -1 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 212 Def Gothitelle: 92-110 (51.9 - 62.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
  • 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Politoed: 169-199 (85.7 - 101%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
  • -1 252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 252 HP / 164+ Def Politoed: 88-106 (44.6 - 53.8%) -- 0.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
  • -1 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 164+ Def Politoed: 97-115 (49.2 - 58.3%) -- 2.6% chance to 2HKO after Poison Heal (two turns of recovery from leftovers)
  • 252+ SpA Heatran Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Mega Mawile: 132-156 (84 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
  • 252+ SpA Heatran Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Mega Mawile in Rain: 66-78 (42 - 49.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
  • 252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 244 HP / 60 Def Rotom-H: 135-160 (86.5 - 102.5%) -- 5.9% chance to OHKO
  • 60 SpA Rotom-H Thunderbolt vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Talonflame: 152-182 (98.7 - 118.1%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
  • 252+ SpA Ludicolo Scald vs. 244 HP / 124+ SpD Rotom-H in Rain: 134-162 (85.8 - 103.8%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
 
Here's a Semi Trick Room team that I've been working on. It got me to 1802 so it's at least decent. I wouldn't recommend full TR because it's bad even though my highest ever rating came from using it
Will add tommorow, I've been offline for a few days because shifucktons of work and class.
Rotom-H belongs on every team because it is Rotom-H. Neat Calm set though, LO/Expert Belt/Scarf is all I ever see and think of.

edit: Added.
edit #2: The massive hidetag usage makes the op cringe when I edit anything, I may be nearing the character limit too. Hmm.
 
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Do we have any recent teams? I still seem to lose even with these teams. My main problems is that the opponent is able to KO my Pokemon!
 
Do we have any recent teams? I still seem to lose even with these teams. My main problems is that the opponent is able to KO my Pokemon!
Depends on your definition of "recent", lol.
My teams for example, are odd and complicated; as much as I adore them I can't recommend them if you're just trying to get into the feel of doubles.
Yuga's rain team is a great start if you like Rain, Mishimono's MegaKhan team really highlights some fairly simple, but effective offense, balanced out with some tanks. Demantoid's MegaKhan team is pretty balanced and bulky across the board if fast and frail offense isn't your thing. Steven Stone's Gardevoir + Heatran team is absolutely dedicated to killing the Top 4 megas (Khan, Gardevoir, Mence, Char-Y).
Starting off though, I would try a fast Thundurus / Liepard / Whimsicott / Lum+Safeguard Terrakion to combat the low-ladder haxspam. Not even joking when I say "Klefki exists on my team only to torment the <1550 players".

I'll post my updated, 1700 team later; I've been in a massive <non-Pokemon game> mood lately so have not tended much. :P
If you have issues with specific stuff though, hit up the SQSA thread or PM me, lol. The teams here are solid but can also be customized however you like. If you like someone's core, but not the supporting cast much, it can totally be worked around.
 
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Okay, that makes sense. BTW, wasn't Sam VGC's team in here? It seems to be gone somehow. It had Assault Vest Landorus and Lum Gyrados, I believe.
 
PumpedAaron, you can continue to look at Worlds and post-Worlds VGC teams, as most of them still play perfectly competently in this format depending on the strength of your piloting. I had success at an event using Scar's Trick Room Gardevoir team from Worlds, and it peaked somewhere in the 1700s on Wi-Fi. The other team that got well into the 1700s for me post-Worlds involved throwing together goodstuffs with Belly Drum Azumarill (such that it could benefit from either Adamant Kangaskhan's Fake Out support or redirection), and a number of reports on better thought-out versions of that went up for fall regionals.

CHALK variants are still the most flexible in the format, if you can tweak one to work for you.

I'd post my higher ranking teams, but they're just Worlds copies or CHALK variants that don't reflect proper from-scratch team-building. My all-time high in Battle Spot Doubles is 1820-something, but that was with a regionals team from last year that's well out of date now. It could never get that high in a bulkier, more mature meta.
 
PumpedAaron, you can continue to look at Worlds and post-Worlds VGC teams, as most of them still play perfectly competently in this format depending on the strength of your piloting. I had success at an event using Scar's Trick Room Gardevoir team from Worlds, and it peaked somewhere in the 1700s on Wi-Fi. The other team that got well into the 1700s for me post-Worlds involved throwing together goodstuffs with Belly Drum Azumarill (such that it could benefit from either Adamant Kangaskhan's Fake Out support or redirection), and a number of reports on better thought-out versions of that went up for fall regionals.

CHALK variants are still the most flexible in the format, if you can tweak one to work for you.

I'd post my higher ranking teams, but they're just Worlds copies or CHALK variants that don't reflect proper from-scratch team-building. My all-time high in Battle Spot Doubles is 1820-something, but that was with a regionals team from last year that's well out of date now. It could never get that high in a bulkier, more mature meta.
What is a CHALK-team btw? I know about THALK-teams: thundurus heatran amoongus landorous kanghaskan.
 
What is a CHALK-team btw? I know about THALK-teams: thundurus heatran amoongus landorous kanghaskan.
Cresselia | Heatran | Amoonguss | Landorus-T | Kangaskhan
CHALK + Thundy is basically half the meta. Gardevoir and Toed are the other half.
That said, if anybody has it laying around, I would adore seeing a few things:

1) Japan Sand. It would be nice to have an example of the archetype.
2) Mega Swampert. Very low usage but imo viable, a standardish rain team running a double-mega core with Mence and Swampy perhaps?
3) Perish Trap. It's too fucking good to call it a gimmik.
4) We have one good semi-TR team, but could use another example of TR. Dedicated team maybe?

However, the OP is very near the character limit, and you do not want to see the massive labyrinth of [tag] [/tag] so I may have to reserve a second post for it. :/
my Char-Y team has seen some significant revamp so I might toss it up later.
 
CHALK + Thundy is basically half the meta. Gardevoir and Toed are the other half.
That said, if anybody has it laying around, I would adore seeing a few things:

1) Japan Sand. It would be nice to have an example of the archetype.
2) Mega Swampert. Very low usage but imo viable, a standardish rain team running a double-mega core with Mence and Swampy perhaps?
3) Perish Trap. It's too fucking good to call it a gimmik.
4) We have one good semi-TR team, but could use another example of TR. Dedicated team maybe?

However, the OP is very near the character limit, and you do not want to see the massive labyrinth of [tag] [/tag] so I may have to reserve a second post for it. :/
my Char-Y team has seen some significant revamp so I might toss it up later.
Can't remember if it's exactly the original 'Japan Sand', Quick Sand sounds cooler, but it should be very close. It's the version I liked the most, people built on it but I feel a lot of the variants drifted from the original core concept of the team, or at least what I saw to be the central idea. That is Assurance; eveything on the team is either faster than Scarf Tyranitar with spread moves (Excadrill and Mega-Salamence), has priority (Azumarill and Aegislash) or has redirection + Rocky Helm (Amoonguss). Everything has the capability to setup for the boosted Assurance.

Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Dragon Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Protect

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Assurance
- Superpower
- Ice Punch

Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Drill Run
- Iron Head
- Protect

Azumarill @ Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 17 Spe
- Waterfall
- Play Rough
- Knock Off
- Aqua Jet

Aegislash @ Life Orb
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Energy Ball
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect
 
Can't remember if it's exactly the original 'Japan Sand', Quick Sand sounds cooler, but it should be very close. It's the version I liked the most, people built on it but I feel a lot of the variants drifted from the original core concept of the team, or at least what I saw to be the central idea. That is Assurance; eveything on the team is either faster than Scarf Tyranitar with spread moves (Excadrill and Mega-Salamence), has priority (Azumarill and Aegislash) or has redirection + Rocky Helm (Amoonguss). Everything has the capability to setup for the boosted Assurance.

Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Dragon Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Protect

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Assurance
- Superpower
- Ice Punch

Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Drill Run
- Iron Head
- Protect

Azumarill @ Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 17 Spe
- Waterfall
- Play Rough
- Knock Off
- Aqua Jet

Aegislash @ Life Orb
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield

Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Energy Ball
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect
TTar + MegaMence + Excadrill is "Japan Sand" lol, so yes this counts :P
Funny enough, I saw a similar team do this once, but used Bisharp, of all things, as the Assurance mon.
Didn't work for him though, Char-Y + Garchomp didn't give a fuck. Anyway, adding this in a bit; what does 17 Speed IVs do on Azumarill?

edit: "Quick Sand" LOL I love it. xD
 

Demantoid

APMS Founder
is a Top Tiering Contributor
TTar + MegaMence + Excadrill is "Japan Sand" lol, so yes this counts :P
Funny enough, I saw a similar team do this once, but used Bisharp, of all things, as the Assurance mon.
Didn't work for him though, Char-Y + Garchomp didn't give a fuck. Anyway, adding this in a bit; what does 17 Speed IVs do on Azumarill?

edit: "Quick Sand" LOL I love it. xD
17 speed iv's under-speeds min speed Aegi... by 2
 

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