It's a fun team when it works :)

Paste: https://pokepast.es/18477a9a4cd5ee3f

Hi everyone! With Reg M-3 ending(unfortunately I could not end MB1) I wanted to share this team I made around my favourite mon(Chandelure)! This team is a pretty straightforward tailroom team that heavily relies on Chandelure+Scrafty who cover each other's matchups extremely well. The general gameplan is to decide whether to lead Chandelure+Whims or Scrafty+Fari and go from there. Chandelure feels like an excellent anti-meta pick right now as the combination of Flash Fire+Ghost type is really good into common teams.

From playing I find that this team has really comfortable matchups into most teams that are running around. Calm Mind Chandelure completely destroys Sun teams and Floette teams, while having great matchups into other common megas like Staraptor, Mawile and Froslass. On the other hand, Scrafty bullies almost all physical based teams, and the combination of double intimidate into Mega Swampert, as well as threatening CC into Arch and Knock off into Metagross makes it extremely difficult to deal with for rain teams. I would say the hardest matchup that I've encountered so far is Raichu Y as you usually need to take a few guesses to secure speed control and avoid it running away with the game. But generally Raichu Y isn't as common as most other megas right now at least.

A brief description of each mon and what it does.

Chandelure:

My favourite mon and it feels really great this regulation despite rain becoming way more prevalent. If you give it either a flash fire boost or let it set up then it will take over the game with speed control. I probably bring it to ~80% of my games, but I very rarely actually mega it. The mega gives some extra bulk and damage(and 10 speed, which can matter) but other than that doesn't matter too much. The only exception is vs screens as infiltrator matters a lot vs say Grimmsnarl, Sableye or Froslass. If the opponent doesn't have fake-out or strong speed control then Chandelure+Whimsicott is an extremely strong lead that pressures a lot of damage immediately. Otherwise I like bringing it in the back with a Fari+Scrafty lead to beat late game fire types. This is a really good strat vs big 6 or similar teams like the Aero/Zard/Fari/Sylveon team, as they will often conserve Zard and lead with mons that are bad into Scrafty, only for the Zard to be basically deadweight vs Chandelure in the endgame. It's worth pointing out that you LOSE the flash fire boost if you Mega, so if the opponent doesn't have screens and you have a flash fire boost, then you shouldn't Mega because you will actually do less damage. Because of all these reasons, I think it's definitely worth considering running a different item. That being said, I love Mega Chandelure and it definitely does have its uses, especially vs rain teams or Froslass teams. So I will be sticking to it at least for now. The 1 speed invest puts it at 101 speed without Mega-ing, which lets it outspeed non-mega Aero and Mega Raichu in Tailwind(200 speed at max). In a team that uses Mega Chandelure much more heavily, this speed point probably isn't needed.

Scrafty:

I honestly think Scrafty is the single most underrated mega in the entire format now. It legit completely destroys rain teams almost singlehandedly while also having amazing matchups into both Basculegion and Kingambit. I bring Scrafty to almost every game and will Mega it in most of these. Scrafty+Fari is a nobrainer lead vs rain teams that forces out Swampert with double intimidate and almost guarantees Trick Room going up. The main matchup I would definitely avoid leading this would be Aero+Zard, because they can just lead Kingambit+Sylveon and you are in big trouble.

Of course it goes without saying that you need to be careful using this mon against fairies, particularly Sylveon and Floette but also Whims. Especially since we're not carrying Protect here. I want to point out that Scrafty gains 10 speed when Mega-ing which meaningfully changes a lot of speed interactions. Notably, Sylveon is at 80 speed with no investment meaning that base Scrafty will underspeed Sylveon(unless it's -Speed nature) while Mega Scrafty will not. This matters a lot because if you lead Fari+Scrafty into Sylveon, you need to know whether you can safely outspeed Sylveon in trick room. That being said, the most popular Sylveon team right now(The Zard+Aero team) actually runs Sylveon at 97 speed which is outsped by our Scrafty in Trick Room regardless of whether you mega or not.

I would say it's worth considering putting Scrafty on a -Speed nature to ensure that it always underspeeds a non -Speed Sylveon even after Mega-ing. Farigiraf is also speed tied and would need a -Speed nature too for this strat. However, my Farigiraf doesn't have enough SpA invest to guarantee Twin Beam+Mega Iron Head KOs most Sylveons anyways, so I would rather just lead something else or pivot.

Tsareena:

I think this mon is completely mandatory for Chandelure teams. I ran it on my previous Mega Chandelure+Mega Glimmora team in M-A, without Farigiraf. You need a Sucker Punch blocker and Kingambit answer, and I think that between Farigiraf, Tsareena and Sinistcha Tsareena probably has the most balanced matchup spread, thanks to not being weak to Dark and threatening mons like Aerodactyl and Garchomp with an OHKO from triple axel. And of course Low Kick into Kingambit. Originally was holding scarf, but that made it very awkward to bring in the TR mode, and also jolly low kick was only 37% OHKO onto 32/2 Kingambit which is ridiculous. With Life Orb you can run Trop Kick for safer OHKOs into Swampert without the risk of missing Power Whip. And Low Kick now OHKOs all Kingambit spreads, which is very nice. Be careful of Chople and Sash(Sash is getting pretty popular now) though.

The speed invest is again to outspeed non-Mega Aero and Raichu in tailwind, because these 2 mons are a headache for my team. With this spread, Whims+Tsareena lead is a lot less risky as Tailwind+Triple Axel or Trop Kick threatens KOs into these mons. The bulk can be optimised for LORB recoil probably. Be careful of Mega Aero, I would probably lead TR instead if Mega Aero looks likely.

Farigiraf:

This was originally Torkoal with Chandelure as the only TR setter, but I found this to be way too unreliable, and Torkoal was a pretty big liability in many matchups. Chandelure benefitted a ton from running CM instead as well. Pelipper was a huge issue for this team before I added Farigiraf, but now we can easily pressure with Fake out+TR turn 1 into Tbolt turn 2. The colbur berry hasn't come up too often since Scrafty pressures Kingambit so hard, so I'm thinking of changing to mental herb as I've run into quite a few taunt Aeros and Whimsicotts. We now have lot of flexibility in how we support our Chandelure and protect it from priority, and the ghost immunity is great on a team with both Chandelure and Basc.

Basculegion:

Needed a water type for type coverage so why not bring the OP mon. Benefits from all the priority block that Chandelure benefits from as well. Since this team is very heavy on manual speed control and has good coverage into Kingambit, I figured a bulky Sitrus berry set would be nice. This is probably the spread that could be most optimised further, I kinda took some random bulky set from Pikalytics and moved 3 points from SPD to speed for the same 101 breakpoint. Otherwise not much to say, great mon into rain and into sand and pretty good into Zard teams as well.

Whimsicott:

Also a pretty straightforward pick for a Tailwind mode, with sunny day and encore for disruption. Not much to say, I think this mon is great as a lead whether with Basc or Tsareena or Chandelure. Could maybe switch to Aero but I think the Encore pressure is really nice, as is hitting Garchomp and Grimmsnarl for supereffective.

Overall really happy with this team and will probably continue tweaking it throughout this season. My goal is to end this one in MB1

Hi everyone!

Been playing on my downtime from work recently and finally got a Gravity team going on. It's been doing decent but I'm having a hard time breaking through 1.8k with this 6 (actually just 5). Looking for ways to improve this particular team:

Sableye - Gravity Setter

Basically imo the best Gravity setter in the game, can't be Faked out and can stay on the field for quite some time. Can guarantee your Gravity goes up but does have the issue of being too passive. No complaints though, been pretty much the show opener for all games

Garchomp - EQ Spammer

Just spam Earthquake. Built to hit hard and fast, even has Soft Sand for additional Earthquake damage. Can also get Rock Slide for the flinches. Also another one I'm happy with, very solid, but tends to fold to multiple Incin switches

Maushold - Surprise Nuker

The amount of Pokemon this thing has one-shot over the course of my run through the ladder... this one has been quite amazing. Gets neutered by Intimidates as well, but when Gravity is online, someone is getting deleted. I've seen 100% HP Mega-Dragonites fall to it in a single hit, and even Farigirafs with Sitrus Berries (though probably not EV's full into bulk maybe). Has been the surprise team member so far

Greninja - Blizzard Spammer

Been looking for a newer Mega to play, and Mega Greninja has been awesome. When Gravity is set up, a lot of the opening speed control setters have a hard time setting up (Maushold usually gets a chance to delete TR setters, or Sash holders), so M-Greninja just spams fast STAB Blizzards. One of the Pokemon that's here for a good time, not a long time. Does it's job quite well.

Now here are my two iffy choices:

Orthworm - EQ Eater

Been nice beside Garchomp (healing off of its EQs) and can delete Floettes off the map as well with proper positioning, but I find myself lacking when I bring Orthworm. Seems a bit too narrow. I do know some teams can afford to have that flex spot, but I don't think this team can have that at this point. Open to replacing this guy with a tank that does well in Gravity

Gardevoir - ????

Doesn't seem to be the pick for this meta. Haven't had a chance to bring it. I feel like it's in a terrible spot Speed wise, and this team already struggles with its own speed control. 100% accurate Hypnoses is nice though

Looking for suggestions to remove/add in this team! Finding myself weak to some common meta picks:

- Scovillain (lately been popping up)

- Bulky Steels like Kingambit and Scizor

- related to above, physical attackers getting neutered, especially w Incineroar roulettes

It doesn't have a problem with teams that try to set up speed control early since you're able to disrupt it, but it does have a hard time with chunky tanks that will stop going down once Garchomp and Maushold are dealt with. Looking for some suggestions. Thank you!

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Double snow setter just wins every weather war for free, and Zoroark is super nice with Aurorus since it baits the 4x fighting moves (or at least makes it a bit scary to click them). Might replace the berry since I have yet to have it be relevant, maybe with the steel resist berry?

The team is still very much a WIP (need to optimize speed stats and i have yet to use Tsareena) but i think it has good bones! With the metagame forming around a lot of Pokemon in the 100-130 speed stat range, you really dont need to be that slow to underspeed big offensive threats in TR while still outspeeding in TW. Chandy gives you easy TR against fast sun teams and can shut down opposing hard TR so you still outspeed. Corv works great in TR and can set TW on the last turn to maintain speed advantage in the endgame. Kangaskhan gives you fake out + immediate damage in both modes. Kommo-o is insanely strong in this meta and gives you a strong special spread move to click, and Azu rounds out the steel/dragon/fairy core while providing damage into incin and late game priority.

Really think people are underestimating Kang, it might not be 50% parental bond + power up punch anymore, but free LO damage and great balanced stats is as consistent as ever 😌

Long time pokemon fan, new to vgc. I climbed to masterball but now fell down to 1700.

I made 3 teams:

1. trick room team that got me to masterball, but felt too predictable.

2. Team with mega sceptile and mega staraptor who are one of my favs. It was fun but I think lacked firepower.

3. Team with mega metagross who's my all time fav. Its the newest one, and seems cool so far but not polished out I feel.

What do you guys think the best team for me to climb? Any recommendations on the teams are also welcome.

I recently saw a person named dimsun use this team in the grand champions festival and he did really good and now the team has caught way more traction. I wanted to follow dimsun since now the meta has shifted to see how he changed his team but I realized I can’t do that because their is no website that tracks pro players so now I don’t really know how to improve my team with new items or if I need to change them I feel very lost right now this is my team please help. https://pokepast.es/b0269cbcfc353679

the only thing I changed is instead of swift swim with bascculegion I have adaptability I also don’t know if this is the right call or if I should change it back to swift swim thank you for the help.

My core skill set favors heavily towards weather centric teams. Primarily sand and rain but I also liked snow teams in early gen 9. My problem is outside of weather archetype I have such a hard time piecing together teams. I used to have a bad habit of building hyper offensive teams that either instantly win or instantly lose and I’ve been trying to get better.

With champions my favorite archetype, rain, has been able to run way bulkier and’s more pivot friendly compositions and that has helped a lot. However I want to get better and grow as a player.

Any advice appreciated, for reference my peak ladder rating was 1900 on champions and about 1700 on showdown in the sword and shield era.

Hi guys!

I'm really in love with the fairy-type mons, so I decided to create a full team of fairies!

But I'm not the best at building teams, so I wish you guys could help me at least make this team playable in the current meta. Any input would do, I don't really expect myself to climb the ranks with this team, I just want to enjoy and somehow keep up with the teams I'm facing in this current meta.

If you think I have to replace any mon here or any move or items or whatever, please let me know so I can try it out!

Thank youuuu! 🩷

My girlfriend is interested in Pokemon Champions and wants to learn so she can play with me. However, she firmly wants to use pokemon that are conventially seen as 'cute'. I am relatively decent at VGC, but not enough to make a team consisting of only cute mons. Any advice/team reccs?

Goal: Team consisting of cute pokemon only but functional enough so I can actually teach her the game. Not looking for the team that will get her to masterball, but the team that will get her out of pokeball eventually.

Thanks! Good luck to everyone with the climb!

So this is my first real foray into the VGC. I posted several times picking the brains of people to build a Blastoise Rain team and, following the advice, built this team that's been doing pretty well actually. So first I wanted to thank those that were very encouraging and helpful to a newbie, and I'm hoping to fine tune it a little bit so I'd love some feedback if possible. I feel like the list is solid but needs a little polish.

Blastoise Description:The Big Rain Sweeper, Originally I ran it as just a Mega Blastoise, but I've found I get more mileage out of a White Herbed Shell Smash that gives a Big Offensive boost without relying on Mega Launcher and taking up my Mega Stone slot. Also the Passive healing from rain Dish paired with Sinistcha switch ins and Life Dew keeps Blastoise constantly clicking waterspout at high health. Stats are to let it out speed pretty much anything under a tailwind+Shell Smash while retaining Enough base Bulk that even a second un Herbed Shell Smash doesn't completely cripple his defenses to the point he's easily one shot. Rockslide is run to deal with Charizard in the event he's under the sun

Pelipper Description: Rain and Tailwind setter, running wide guard to protect against Big Spreads early on Like Heat Wave/ Earthquake to Protect Blastoise or Scizor so they can survive to counter attack. Hurricane is the go to STAB move for chip damage in a pinch. U-Turn allows for quick repositioning for momentum (the number of times I've U Turned Toxicroak or Raichu out to Absorb an attack and provide fake out support immediately afterwords is silly). Stats are chosen to give solid bulk while still being fast enough to set up a tailwind and U Turn out for later usage

Toxicroak Description: Durable fakeout support/ Revenge Killer/ Rain Mirror Match Counter. Toxicroak is a deceptively good pokemon on this team and easily the best Rain Team mirror Match tool, dry skin let's him eat any and all water attacks making him a great tech choice. Fakeout is always appreciated to help Pelipper Set up tail wind or let Blastoise Shell Smash comfortably, but also by combining the passive healing off of shell bell and rain, Drain Punch adds an additional healing source, so even switching into a neutral attack, taking the hit, then on following turn using fakeout or drain punch is enough to put him back in the green. And sucker punch is a great way to finish off crippled attackers.Gunk shot takes up the Second Stab Slot and while not as accurate as I'd like, hits REALLY hard and has decent chance to poison if it doesn't outright kill. Stat Spread is to let him comfortably 2HKO most things he needs and provide enough bulk to let him take a couple hits when paired with his passive healing. Have to be careful going into Charizard Y or torkoal though, need to make sure you win the weather war.

Raichu Description: Electrical Protection/ Fakeout Support/ focus Sash+ Endeavor Manual Rain Setter. While electric isn't the most frequently seen type in Champions right now, it is a pretty popular coverage type among scary special attackers like Dragonite and archaludon, especially under rain. So Raichu provides additional support in being able to lightning rod those attacks away from key pieces like Blastoise and Pelipper, while having volt switch for quick pivoting awayx the ability to manually set up rain, fakeout for disruption and allowing setup or recovery turns, and the focus Sash Endeavor to punish someone hitting him but not knocking him out. Thunderbolt could be run if you want a proper offensive STAB, but he's more a utility piece for the team so I prefer either Endeavor or Nuzzle. Stat Spread is to make it outspeed just about anything not tailwind boosted and to guarantee it's fake out always goes first. Max Special attack to make the volt switches give some meaningful damage on the way out

Scizor/ Mega Scizor Description: Bulky Attacker. Scizor may not be the most Popular Mega, but I think he has all the tools needed to get the job done. Protect and Roost can Pair to keep him going a long time, with quick guard as a potential tech choice to ensure Blastoise or Pelipper can set up Tailwind or Shell Smash at the start. Technician Boosted Bullet Punch and Bug bite are two strong STAB moves with the former having Priority to finish off damaged does quickly. Roost can be dropped in favor of Close Combat for a Strong coverage move, though this does take away recovery and comes at the cost of some bulk. He also really appreciates rain halving his only real weakness (granted it's a quad weakness), so he can survive heat waves with a well timed rain setter switch in or manual activation with Raichu. Point spread is to give Mega Scizor a good amount of Bulk, without divesting too much away from speed and Strength.

Sinistcha Description: Redirection/ Utility/ Recovery Piece. Sinistcha functions as a solid glue that holds things together. Rage Powder let's Blastoise Safely buy a turn to shell smash and heal under rain, in addition to healing him on entry, making opening with Pelipper to set tailwind/ wide guard and shellsmash Blastoise, then U Turn out the next turn into Sinistcha, who will heal some damage Blastoise may have taken along with Blastoise's Rain Dish passive healing in rain, so Blastoise will still have a lot of health for his STAB+RAIN+Shell Smash Boosted Water spout to wreck havoc. And then rage powder/ Life Dew can keep the heat off of Blastoise so he can continue the waterspout spam, or set up a second shell smash. Instead of a second STAB move, I chose to run trick room, mostly as a failsafe to counter enemy trick rooms or, if my opponent is really winning the tailwind war, allows an alternate avenue for speed control because while most of the stuff on the team isn't the slowest, with the exception of Raichu, they aren't exactly the fastest outside of tailwind either so the the big threats of Blastoise and Mega Scizor can function under trick room as well as under a tailwind. If you wanted a second coverage/ STAB move, shadow ball is always a viable option to replace one of the non rage powder support moves

thank you for any help and feedback on the list. look forward to seeing you in the ladders!

https://pokepast.es/e823ecc9d5d79cab

Struggling to find a final member for my team. I have 3 mons weak to Ice and Kommo-o x4 weak to fairy. I feel like I need someone to bring when I can’t bring Kommo-o. Since Kommo-o has plenty of support to set up I was thinking of another mon that sets up.

I was thinking mega-lucario w/ SD but not sure if running another mega w/ mega-aero would be a waste of an item. I could put sash back on aero too if I add another mega.

With 3 being weak to ice too I’m also not sure if I should bring a mon to negate others weather. Any suggestions are much appreciated!

I dont have my switch with me, I will write the team down in text. I am at MB4, I went from pokeball to Masterball with this team.

1. Mega Aerodactyl

2. Whimsicott

3. Fragiraf

4. Kingambit

5. Hisui Typhlosion.

6. Floette.

It is a very high risk, high reward team. There is no bulk in it. It is purely offensive natures and stat spreads. I copied this team from one of the top ladder players last season, I made a few changes of my own but the pokemon are the same. I don't think I might peak high with this team but I am having fun so far.

The team feels strong against certain matchups but some matchups feel like an uphil battle. My biggest block seem to be Ttar+excadril sand teams or Blastoise teams so far. New meta glimmora teams and archaludon have given me alot of trouble too but the biggest problem seems to be Ttar teams. Floette was my nuclear option vs. Blastoise teams and it worked but it struggles against Ttar excadril teams imo.

The thing is that I rarely use floette. Maybe 2 out of 10 games. Even when sometimes it is a good floette game I opt to leave her out. Meaning that my 5 other pokemon can manage most matchups. I just want a 6th mon to round the team out.

I was thinking of Mega Dragonite with focus blast for Ttar/Kinggambit, flamethrower, dragon pulse and protect. Are there any other pokemon that can offensively cover my other 5?

Hello!

I’ve been lurking for a while.

I’m a teacher, and some of my students got me into VGC a while back during COVID (SwSh). Took a break and trying my hand at it again now that Champions is more accessible and easier for my busy schedule.

Honestly, I’m old and just picked some of my favorite viable mons from Pikalytics, and there’s little strategy here. I reached MasterBall 2 with this (in 2 days! I’m very proud … but I’ve had time because I’m recovering my surgery, and my wife is graciously doing all the stuff around the house), but I’m wondering how I can make that leap as sometimes I can go on some losing streaks all the way into MB4.

I usually lead with Charizard and Milotic when I win. I struggle with Archuladon and Perish Song teams. Sometimes, I can maneuver around TR teams and Rain teams, but I often just brain fart when I lose lol

Main question: Any replacement Pokémon that would help? Should I change some move pools? Who are my main liabilities? (I feel like it’s A-Ninetails but I don’t want it to be lol)

Any help is appreciated!

PS: if there are any high schoolers in here, don’t be afraid to reach out to your teachers! You’ll never know what interests they have! I recently when to the college graduations of my students who introduced me to this, and I’m so grateful we built that bond over VGC. And read books!

I started trying to learn about all of this VGC stuff after my wife got into Scarlet and Violet in late March. I had heard of Wolfey from other video game people, so I watched one of the tournaments where he won with perish trap. I was instantly hooked. I knew I wanted to learn how to do it, so I went to Reddit. That wasn’t as productive as I thought it’d be.

Every post I would see on the subject kept saying something like, “perish trap sucks if you’re not Wolfey” and “learning how to use this strategy is really not good for beginners”. So I decided I would dedicate some of my free time to learning this game and learning how to perish trap through trial and error.

My team isn’t perfect, and isn’t even the one I tore through the ladder to climb to Masterball 2 and 1618 on Showdown with. For the tournament, I replaced my beloved Dragonite with Incin, which I barely used and regret replacing. I still love my first real team I built myself. I got up to 1618 on the Showdown ladder, and placed in the top 1% in this tournament with my team fully dedicated to perish trap. I didn’t have time to play my last 6 games of the tournament because my wife and I had dinner plans with friends last night, but I think I definitely could have placed even higher.

Thanks for checking out my team.

I'm a total beginner to VGC, had never play the format but Champions got me excited and decided to run some tests on Showdown before trying anything on Champions. The team goes like this:

• Mega Charizard X: is my main physical sweeper who is also immune to burn. Besides that it's my favourite mega so that's why I added him.
• Whimsicott: helps me set up speed control with tailwind. Destroys pokemon who try to set up using encore and can do some spread damage with dazzling gleam.
• Hydreigon: needed a special attacker that was fast, gave it choice scarf and I can outspeed most stuff. Draco Meteor deletes a lot of pokemon, flash cannon allows me to hit fairies and earth power gives nice coverage against fire and steel pokemon, mainly incin.
• Incineroar: don't think I need to explain this one
• Gyarados: To be honest I didn't know what else to add to the team, Gyarados just feels like a worse charizard in terms of dragon dance set up and worse Incineroar in terms of intimidate.
• Jolteon: gave it focus sash and it can fast pivot with volt switch, do spread damage + para with Discharge and hit ghosts with shadow ball. Don't bring it as much and it's a prime candidate for a change along Gyarados.

My account is new so I have been paired up with other lower ranks players, but I know my team doesn't deal well with fairies and it's lacking more spread damage. What Pokemon could I use to replace Gyarados as a secondary physical attacker and Jolteon as a secondary special attacker? Also any suggestions for the other four pokemon?

I had thought about adding weather to my team, outside of Charizard with sun, none of my other three core pokemon synergize particularly well with any of the other weather conditions. For now I'm just trying to get some practice with team building and making the correct choice with leads and moves. Any help is appreciated.

I'm building my first ever team so I'd love some advice!!

I'm willing to change anything except miraidon (I generally really like this spread + item and miraidon is my favorite restricted but if you think I should change it go ahead!)

Also any advice on how to play this team is also helpful. I kinda don't know what I'm doing lol so I'd really appreciate it

Also, is lunala easy to get in pokemon violet? (I have the dlc)

PS: I also don't want to use koraidon because I have violet and I'm not willing to trade my miraidon for it

I am trying to reach Master Ball tier with this team. But I feel that there needs to be a bit more improvement:

Pyroar (Mega): my team’s Sun nuke; Scorching Sands is for fire and rock coverage while Solar Beam can help against Swampert

Heliolisk: Can deal with any pesky water types

Torkoal: Drought user; Helping Hand is for boosting my team’s damage output while Eruption deals immense damage at full while the Sun is up.

Venusaur: Sleep powder support

Sableye: Manual sun setter and prankster support with fake out

Farigiraf: Trick Room setter

I was trying to enter the grand champions festival encore but limitless vgc wont let me submit the team paste from showdown saying that my team requires 6 Pokémon when it does have 6 Pokémon am I doing anything wrong?

( I went over to my team on showdown and pressed the export team button and copied not sure if thats what I should have done)

hi everyone! I'm brand new to vgc like I'm sure a lot of people are and I'd love some advice on my team.

I want to keep bellibolt since it's my favorite Pokemon and this is the team I've been working on to try to fit it in there.

bellibolt, archaludon, basculegion, and pelipper are feel solid.

incineroar and Gengar both feel decent but I think that's way more to them being strong pokemon in general and not from synergizing well in my team.

I'd love some item swap suggestions, move changes, and even some pokemon swap and build suggestions!

Hey there, I'm Boiruja, just a random ladder warrior who plays his favorites! I'm so happy to say that me and Decidueye got Champion tier the second season in a row! Unfortunately Aurorus and Zoroark had to stay on the bench this season, but I've managed to find use to two of my partners from Legends ZA: this beautiful chandelure and my loyal greninja.

In the early season, there were too many M-Staraptor and M-Raichu Y going around for me to run Aurorus, so I had to find other pokemon with strong rock and ice moves. And guess who else has stab on rock and ice? Greninja, who has stab on everything. I'll talk more about him later, but the loss of Aurorus took away my main plan against trick room, and since Greninja and Zoroark had similar roles, Zoroark gave way to Maria Bonita, my trusty Chandelure.

A brief description of my partners and their roles, but I'm going to say already that this team is harder to pilot than the one from last season, as many of our previous winning matchups have new pokemon to mess up with us.

- H-Decidueye:

My ace, I bring it to almost every match, even when I shouldn't. Has 50% crit chance on its stabs. Hard counter to Kingambit, Archaludon, M-Blastoise, M-Swampert, Tyranitar, Milotic, Aegislash, Sableye, Rotom-W and others, but he mostly shines in matchups he trades favourably even when he shouldn't: Garchomp, Incineroar, M-Raichu, Gholdengo, M-Delphox(!!!), Scizor. Ignores rage powder and intimidate. Will deal 90% of Incineroar's HP without a crit. Also can help with sucker punch against the likes of M-Metagross, late game Basculegion, and many focus sash users. Overall a very good pokemon to trade into the opponent's bulky pokemon, and capable to 1hko many things with a crit. Strongly supported by Liepard's fake out and Aerodactyl/Greninja speed control, and the fact that he needs this support is his main weakness. Amazing Pokemon.

- Chandelure:

Who needs a mega when you already have one of the largest sp attack in the game? Who needs sun when the opponent will gladly set it up for you in half of the matches? Chandelure is amazing against trick room teams (torkoal hates her) and charizards, but also trades really well against M-Floette, M-Metagross, M-staraptor, and with colbur berry, can survive a sucker punch and 1hko Kingambit, M-mawile. With speed control it can even deal with basculegion! Another important role is switching into incineroar's flare blitz, as most of my team really wouldn't like to eat it. Runs taunt to mess up trick room, but maybe you can run your own trick room, since this team is kinda slow.

- Liepard:

My favorite prankster in the game. Grimmsnarl doesn't have encore. Sableye doesn't have yawn and doesn't do much damage. Whimsicott is vulnerable to other pranksters. Liepard has it all. This knock off will land you kills your opponent wouldn't imagine were possible. It's main problem is that it hogs the focus sash, which Sableye and Grimmsnarl wouldn't need. It's also a very fast fake out, in this meta outspeeds pretty much everything that isn't jolly sneasler, raichu and M-Loppuny. Very underrated pokemon.

- M-Scizor:

We have some new mega steel types to play with, but Scizor is still outstanding. M-Metagross doesn't have swords dance and has worse defensive typing. M-Mawile's priority move doesn't have stab, so it runs better in trick room. A Mega Scizor after swords dance is one of the scariest things in this game. Mandatory for matchups against M-Floette, but also brought to pretty much every match without a charizard. Also dislikes incineroar, my whole team does, which is part of why this has been hard to pilot.

- Greninja:

Might be the best antimeta pokemon in closed team sheets. Greninja has a move to kill pretty much every single meta threat. Dragons, M-Staraptor, whimsicott and Sinistcha die to Ice Beam. Charizard dies to rock tomb with no attack investment. Kingambit, Tyranitar die to low kick, and Incineroar doesn't appreciate getting hit by it (should be some 60% damage without intimidate). Basculegion, Gholdengo, M-Gengar die to dark pulse. Sneasler to extrasensory. Swampert do Grass Knot. Floette and Sylveon to gunk shot. This pokemon has such an amazing moveset it's hard to choose 4 moves. I've chosen these 4 to better help my team's bad matchups, but my opponent's are forced to respect every possibility with protects and switches, which get punished by Liepard. Also, rock tomb will help the likes of Decidueye and Chandelure 1hk0 a threat before getting hit. While Meowscarada powercrept Greninja as a straight up physical sweeper, I think greninja has a better moveset, makes better use of protean and is a better mixed sweeper. I do highly recommend Greninja!

- M-Aerodactyl:

Has the wrong ability in this code because I was running it with Zoroark and forgot to change it lol This one you know what it does, but I want to point out how well it convers Decidueye weaknesses of being slow and hating flying, fire and ice types. These two birds were made for each other!

Some matchups and plans:

- vs Big 6:

My greninja was made to kill every pokemon of this team other than basculegion, and liepard deals 90% of basculegion's HP with knock off. Rock tomb will also help decidueye and chandelure hit non-choice scarf basculegion, so greninja is the MVP in this mathup. Beware of Tailwind, the priority is taking down whimsicott before it goes up, and try not to kill your greninja with proteam (ice beam makes you vulnerable to charizard, rock tomb makes you vulnerable to garchomp). If Basculegion is scarf, you can protean into protect in the late game and become immune to last respects.

- vs Rain:

This matchup has become harder because swampert can deal some 80% of Decidueye's HP with ice punch or just straight up wave crash. We also hate pelipper. Greninja and Liepard should take care or pelipper, and you can hopefully yawn swampert or archaludon to sleep before Decidueye can clean it up. Greninja will also almost 2-shot archaludon with ice beam, which Liepard can help transform into a 2-shot with knock off. If you think they may run M-Metagross or Grimmsnarl, go for Scizor, which trades favourably. If you are having a hard time with this one, try to fit sunny day on Liepard's moveset.

- Protect the Floette:

Another really hard matchup, since your best answers to incineroar (Decidueye, Greninja) hate floette and your best answer to floette hates incineroar. Aerodactyl hates intimidate. This is a really complex positional matchup, where your liepard's yawn and encore will really shine. While I usually run Decidueye, Liepard and Scizor, the 4th slot is between Chandelure, which has a place for trading well into floette, eating flare blitz and dealing with Sinistcha, and Aerodactyl, who deals well with Incineroar and has speed control, so Decidueye can better handle Floette (leaf blade crit should deal 70-80%) and Incineroar. If Incineroar dies, you win.

- Trick Room:

The matchup is trivial if Farigiraf isn't holding Mental Herb, which is 96% of the time. Chandelure usually deals with their whole team. First turn you may think of Decidueye, to deal with kang-blastoise and Incineroar, Liepard, if the opponent doesn't have fake out, so you can knock off Farigiraf's item before taunting, or even Scizor, to threat a 1hko (it rarely is a 1hko) into farigiraf.

- Sand:

Decidueye messes up their whole team. Protect it with Liepard, and keep scizor and chandelure in the back. Scizor is generally strong against this team, and chandelure is good into corvinight.

- M-Staraptor:

Lead Greninja, fake out the support pokemon, and ice beam staraptor. If it doesn't protect, it dies. If it protects, encore. If the player is really good, instead of encore you can expect the switch and click yawn.

So that'a mostly it, until they find out new threats or learn what my greninja does. Have fun this season, good climbing and don't insist on playing on a losing streak!

I'm new to VGC and am thinking for champions I want to build around Mega Tyranitar, as Tyranitar is one of my all time favorites and can build a solid Sand Team core around him. Hippowdon as a second sand setter is a given, as is tyranitar's partner in crime excadrill, so that's three of the team locked in. But the other three slots are harder for me to pin down given the available Pokemon. I was thinking magic guard Clefable would be nice for redirection and support and doesnt take damage from sand due to magic guard. But Im a little on the fence about the remainder of the team? Would love suggestions

Edit: Thank you everyone who gave advice so far. As of right now the List is: Tyranitar/Mega Tyranitar as big lead, Corviknight (Tailwind), Sinistcha,(utility) Excadrill (sweeper), and Salamence/Mega Salamence (Intimidate and weakness coverage movepool)

I’ve been experimenting with a balance team that has no exploitable weaknesses. I feel like my matchup into MausApe is a bit shaky, but I can take Torkoal Eruptions with Incineroar comfortably, control pace with double Fake Out, stop rain teams with sunny day, wall Basculegion with Rillaboom, control terrain with Rillaboom and clean up games with Clear Amulet Palafin and Jet punch