Hello everyone, I'm still retired but I wanted to help Multi out during WCoOMs, so I went on 4 building sprees and built 40 teams in 4 days :) You can find them all in
this post.
I've decided to post my favorite team separately, however, to do it some more justice, and maybe to submit it as a sample, if you will.
(Importable in the image :3 This boomer's slowly learning!!)
The team revolves around
Gyarapex: a reliable Lunala and Eternatus counter, this set can also support the team against Ho-Oh and Entei by delaying its mega-evolution. It spreads status even against Sablenite walls, and it can remove important items such as Heavy Duty Boots and Metronome to more effectively cripple Ubers. I recommend Mega-evolving Pex only when you believe that Mold Breaker Toxic/Toxic Spikes is going to be essential during that very turn, or when gaining the Dark typing/losing the Water typing is an absolute defensive necessity.
Zygarde is there as the main Toxic Spikes abuser. It heavily hits several of the mons that are not grounded or immune to Poison (Corviknight, Magearna, Landorus, Toxapex, Eternatus...). Substitute helps it to avoid Intimidate and Will-o-Wisp, and also to rack up Toxic turns. Dragon Tail might not be the most ideal 4th move, one could prefer Pain Split or Outrage; I enjoyed the idea of spreading status more effectively, though. I do not believe the Blissey match-up to be so bad as to warrant it, but one could allocate 188 EVs to HP to create 101HP subs and use the blob as set-up bait.
Lunala's set is easily explained: I was going for a secondary physical wall that could provide momentum, and it does this quite well. Will-o-Wisp allows it to cripple some physical attackers, as well as Steel and Poison types, and Hex has good synergy with it and TSpikes. However, the lack of offensive investment means that it will not hit very hard, so the spread might need some finer tuning.
Regieleki was a mon upon which I looked with extreme skepticism. However, I have to say that it fits really well on this team. I wanted Rapid Spin to avoid fogging away my precious TSpikes, and it gets it. I desperately needed immediate speed control, and Regi provides it in spades, with ESpeed on top of its monstrous Speed stat. Volt Switch pressures Flying-types and bulky Water-types while also providing momentum, and Altarianite grants it Pixilate, with which it can scare off Fighting-types and Zygarde. Finally, Explosion is a one-time nuke that, if used timely, can bring you back from a bad position.
Pinsirite
Magearna pulls off work against Ground-types such as Excadrill and Landorus-T, spreading status with Tri Attack in the process. Furthermore, it can freely exploit Blissey as set up bait. If allowed to set up, it is usually bulky enough to threaten a sweep.
There is something enjoyable in Calm Mind sweepers coupled with TSpikes, and that is why my
Slowbro also follows down that path, while providing bulk and more status chances. You may think it redundant, with a Toxapex, but Slowbro allows Pex to Mega-evolve with less opportunity cost, doubling down as a Ho-Oh and Entei counter while also covering Zygarde and Terrakion; plus, a double Regenerator core pre-mega is really convenient, at times.
I feel like the ban of Urshifu-S made this team more reliable, as it lacked a true counter to it, and had to resort to Gyaradosite guessing games. Threats that are still relevant include:
-Noivern: it hits everything quite hard. Taunt sets obviously screw over Toxapex and Magearna, invalidating their countering attempts. It hits Zygarde through the sub, and nothing but Regieleki can retaliate immediately.
- Electric-types: Weirdly, while Zeraora is manageable thanks to Lunala (unless Pinsirite Facade), other mons such as Zapdos, Tapu Koko, and opposing Regieleki require careful plays, and can force a preemptive Toxapex Mega-evolution. Pinsirite Regieleki and Zapdos can remove TSpikes while being immune to it, so they are hard to whittle down.
-Poison-types: The team has means to threaten them, of course, but since they remove TSpikes by merely coming on the field, the match-up is immediately more tedious when facing Eternatus, Toxapex, or even Toxtricity. Toxapex is hard to whittle down but fails to threaten back. Eternatus can be quite problematic until Metronome is knocked off. Toxtricity is very hard to stop if given a chance to set-up.
I hope you enjoyed this post! Do not hesitate to give this team (and more importantly, this metagame!) a try :3 Gman loves you all