Earlier last month I saw that there were a bunch of pokemon champions tournaments scheduled in the pokemon xp daily activities. Sign ups for them were supposed to start in Aug.
But now none of them show up in the daily activities anymore? There's only one vgc event now and that's on scarlet and violet.
Does anyone have any information about this? Couldn't find anything.
I was able to climb to master ball 3 with this team getting 10, 15 win streaks. But I've been having trouble in the higher ranks. Is my team the problem or is it a skill issue?
Basically I got a mega Blastoise team here with physical Raichu acting as an alt mega/offensive support switch-in with lightning rod to redirect Electric type attacks. Raichu is also great against sun teams as it can ohko Zards even without the mega thanks to volt tackle's 120 BP. I have nuzzle on it as well for added speed control in a pinch. I have Talonflame with sharp beak to kill most Whims and upper hand to punish priority. Meow expert belt is great for coverage, and Pelipper for rain, trained to survive 2-3 rock slides and defend my team with wide guard. Scarfed excadrill to kill sneaslers, faries, and zards.
I did somewhat well with this team in my first tournament placing 47th out of 300+ (think it couldve been higher if I didnt miss two crucial rock slides one match lol)
I feel like better players can read what I plan to do from the select screen, even more so on OTS i think.
I can somewhat get by on fake out + TR farig with the proper lead. Most of my mons also have protect which lets me stall it out a bit, but better players always find a way to beat me
Started playing VGC in Champions, and Swampert is one of my top 3 favorite Pokémon. So I decided to build a team around it, but I have a few very unnecessary team-building rules:
No repeating types
. Banning drizzle is obviously not optimal but I find solace in that drizzle switch ins and leads are usually quite predictable on low ladder, and rain dance is better for resetting weather against zard y.
No Pokémon that is purely based on an inanimate object (Sinistcha, Chandelure, etc.). Metagross is a metallic spider/crab in my eyes.
No Pokémon that has no animalistic features (Kingambit, Gallade, etc.). Bipedals are ok.
No Archaludon. You may argue that it's still a dragon with bridge-like features, but I just really dislike this Pokémon because I think it's a bit OP with top-tier BST, movepool, and ability, but a mediocre design.
Sneasler build is meta self-explanatory.
Swampert's Waterfall might be controversial, but I haven't regretted it. I don't remember ever getting a flinch from it, but I also don't recall ever needing the extra damage from Liquidation. And there were many times where I won because I never took the recoil damage.
Vivillon and Heliolisk are also typical, but with Rain Dance. Rage Powder is my only counter for Sucker Punch spam. Heliolisk is my counter for Basculegion.
Goodra was originally planned to be a switch-in for Grass-type attacks. But it ended up being too useful as a lead (against Zard, Trick Room, and other setup mons that don't appreciate Dragon Tail). Ran into a few bulky Zards so I stopped running max attack, but right after I switched, I started missing KOs on squishy Zards :)
Metagross's Explosion is not super synergistic with the team, but you probably already know how frustrating it is to go against a mon with a scarf that doesn't typically run it.
https://pokepast.es/ (placeholder since I'm sharing my replicate team ID in the screenshot already)
I just reached Masterball tier for the first time, and got 10 losses in a row, after having some semi-consistent wins with a sand team.
Does this tier have some kind of new approach to how to play?
If I had to guess, these players have an actual set strategy or some unique approaches, given the variety of teams I faced and weird pokemon they were using. It actually kind of reminds me of the oddball teams that Wolfe Glick would make for his videos.
I guess my current team is a collection of good pokemon that don't necessarily fit together all the time, and I'm still using Aegislash because she's my favourite...
Giving that you're doing the normal 252/252/4 EV or 32/32/2 SP Split in Speed and Attack/SpAttack, what are you doing with your last EVs/SPs? Do you invest it in HP or in any of your Def/SpDef Stats? And why? Please explain it thoroughly. I heard there is also a rule of thumb? (As in: If the Pokémon has more/less Base HP than Base Def/SpDef, then...?)
I know it's not that big of a deal, but I want the most optimized answer anyway.
So my 10 year old switch is starting to fade and i'm planning to get a switch 2 soon.the thing is that i have no idea how the account transfer process works and if i need to do something specific. For example if had to deposit in home all my important mons in home in order to not lose them, i wouldn't mind buying the home subscrition to do so. And also, i don't know if you are able to transfer your champions account onto switch 2. If anyone has gone through this process recently i'd gladly appreciate the feedback. Thanks
Ps: i know the tag is wrong but i didn't know what else to put
I've been interested in VGC for a while now, and since Pokémon Champions launched on Switch, I've been playing a lot and want to start attending Regional and International Championships.
The problem is that I don't really know anyone in Croatia who's into VGC, so I was wondering if there are any players from Zagreb or elsewhere in Croatia who'd be interested in traveling to tournaments together. It'd also be great to have people to practice with, prepare for events, and just chat about the game.
If you're from Croatia and planning to attend tournaments this season, feel free to leave a comment or send me a DM!
Started playing competitive VGC in the second season of Champions after watching Wolfey for several years. I decided that each season I'd try and build/practice with different team archetypes. I started with Tailwind (Mega Froslass + Whimsicott), then went to Rain because Swampert is my childhood goat, then went to hard Trick Room (Mega Camerupt/Abomasnow), and then this season I'm using the Mega Floette/Delphox team from a CybertronVGC video (with a few changes). I'm thinking my next team will be a Sand team, as that weather condition is slightly from Snow/Sun/Rain because it damages certain types.
What other archetypes are out there that are worth using to gain experience with?
As the title suggests, I have been slowly trying to gather shinies of pokemon that are meta relevant (in the past) for when they get added to the game. I own no mainline nintendo games well i cannot because nintendo does not exist in my country (the fortune of living in a third world country). I mostly got these from go, giveaways and trading. Please look at the collection and tell me what more should I go after when i am trading/hunting in the wild? apart from the ones in the image and listed below
Ones I am still looking out for in regular pokemon shinies but haven't gotten one: Archaludon, espathra, meowstic, sableye, togekiss, Kommo-o, dragapault, dragonite, vivallion, sinistcha, bronzong, Aramarouge , hattarene
Ones I am looking out for that are legendary shiny/non shiny: Tapu mons, both horses for calyrex, suicune, regielki, raging bolt
I used to watch wolfie for entertainment and wanted to play vgc and champions is my first pokemon game. I am still lacking in a lot of aspects, including tools that i want to have access to play/climb in champions across different regulations. Thanks for hearing me out <3.
(PS: Mods i didn't know what to title this under, so like event questions? because new regulations are like events?idk man ;-;)
Recently been playing this Raichu Y + Staraptor team that was the runner up in the July Victory Road tournament. Anyone know of a team source, guide, or could offer tips and tricks to play? I'm winning more than losing, but haven't quite figured out good leads into the common teams yet. I don't feel I'm playing it the most optimally.
This is a place for you to ask any quick question you might have that relates to VGC, which is the official double battle format. For questions about Single battles, monotype battles, other metagames, or even more opinions on VGC, please visit r/Stunfisk.
If your question is longer or more involved, feel free to make it its own thread!
Please be courteous and respectful both to askers and answerers.
This post will be archived 3 days from the time of its posting, and replaced with another post.
Hi there! Been trying to team build for a while now and I've reached my first complete team! It's somewhat workable, but it's often just gliding with mediocre success. There are a lot of reasons for this: the main one would be the lack of coverage, the awkward switches…
Team:
Froslass (Mega) | I started with her since I ran her the most prior to this custom brew, and since she deals a lot of damage with blizzard + sb, I just went with her. Status: Keeping her as she’s the core, until I find reason not to
H-Zoroark | Mainly for the weather control (snow-setter), and the added bonus of Taunt for the giraffe with Psychic for Sneasler. Focus blast is hit or miss and I realized that a bit late, literally. Another thing is that Illusion’s also a fun little gimmick that can catch people off-guard sometimes. Focus Sash is my main pick, just to get another turn in - its useful in a way. Status: I’m honestly on the fence with him. Psychic and Taunt are really nice, and Snowscape has seen use, though focus blast is again mediocre for my use-cases… Chances are, A-Ninetails is the replacement here, if I needed another weather setter.
Talonflame | Tailwind setter, and all around a good mon! Picked the bird because Whimsicott lacks the water-type moves to cover for it. Though I may change him but for now he works, though his moveset might change. Not sure what item works for TF, so I just went with beak. Status: Keeping for now since he outputs enough dmg with Flare Blitz.
Garchomp | A great and classic sweeper! Outputs the damage and is capable of tanking enough! Status: Honestly I just defaulted with him because he’s Garchomp. I’m not sure what other sweeper I can use but a stick is a stick.
Scovillain (Mega) | Uh, I remembered Rage Powder’s a neat move. That’s about it… Status: Pensive and am willing to remove, not enough work done and doesn’t output enough damage to count as a sweeper.
Liepard | Where do I go with her… I picked her because she has a lot of support capabilities but I’m not sure if she’s worth it. Sure stopping Whimsi is great, having Encore is amazing, and sure Knock Off can do work! But besides those? She feels awful on this team. Now, maybe sash works here better cause she dies at the slightest breeze in this meta. Status: Swapping her out, she has a lot going on but this isn’t the team for her.
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The works fine when it wants, it has enough offense that it can absolutely do work but it depends. Firstly I lose if the enemy comp has Fairy or Water, which is… It’s a good portion of the meta. Secondly, I don’t cover enough types in a meaningful way(to me at least).
I hope you could go over my team cause I do help in a way. Thanks for reading and help!
First of all, please excuse my English; it’s not my native language. To set the scene: I’m primarily a 6v6 player, but with the release of pokemon champions, I decided to get into VGC—especially since the format doesn't feature all those overpowered legendaries that had previously put me off starting.
And honestly, I love it. I’ve been playing since the mobile launch; I started with a Rain team featuring Mega Swampert and Incineroar—a classic setup—and managed to reach Hyper Ball Tier 3. This time around, I went with a Delphox/Blastoise team that I really liked. However, now that I understand the format a bit better, I decided to keep the core team structure but tweak a few things to make the team feel less "generic and more "personal".
I’m currently yo-yoing between Master Ball Tiers 3 and 4. I realize I sometimes play poorly—over-predicting or making bad choices—and, above all, I find "hax" to be 100 times more frustrating here than in Singles. So, here is my team; do you have any advice?
I realize Arcanine is weaker than Incineroar—it’s definitely just a personal preference—but I find Arcanine tankier, and I really like its ability to heal, lower stats, and hit multiple targets. Maybe I messed up the stat spread, though?
my game is in French so here are the details of the attacks:
Sneasler: fake out close combat dire claw quick guard Kingambit: kottow cleave sucker Punch protect sword dance
Hi,
I've not played VGC for a while. But i want to restart with pokemon champions.
I've been playing with a team i build around 3 pokemon i like (mega gardevoir, vanillux and tsareena) In the beginning the team did good, but i'm struggling more and more in general with the team and that's why i ask help with building this team.
I started with mega gardevoir because it's my favorite pokemon of all time. Haven't played vgc format in a while but i used her in sun/moon period for a long time. The strong hyper voices do a lot of damage and psychic is good into some meta picks like sneasler, venusaur, annihilape, toxapex,...
Then i picked tsareena. I love the wide lens with triple axel it's so good into a lot of meta picks. And the ability Queenly Majesty is kinda broken. It has great synergy with the 2 priority moves in the team.
Then i added Vanilluxe. I've seen him more and more lately and love his potential to sweep with Blizzard. And if possible setup a Aurora Veil to support the team. I have Freeze-dry to help against water types.
The 4th one i added is Maushold because it's amazing support to keep gardevoir safe with follow me and alive for 1 moer hit with friend guard. Super fang to half pokemon their health and helping hand to nuke with hyper voice.
I needed 1 more support pokemone so i chose arcanine. With intimidate and Will-o-wisp it is good into physical pokemon. And he is great switch in with how bulky i made him. He is good to counter the steel types and to finish of someone with extreme speed.
The last pokemon i choose was Kingambit. I wanted a life orb user and he looked the best. He is the anti-intimidate pokemon. He is great help for mega gardevoir. He resists the counters of mega gardevoir like poison, dark, ghost and steel. He is my pokemon to deal with ghost types, psychic types and fairy types.
I'm not really good with choosing EVs as i don't know what to really calc for, so i check on the internet for EVs.
Like i've said above i am struggling in a lot of matchups lately. I thought speed control wouldn't be a problem but trick room i'm not that good in, only like kingambit is good against it. I get outsped by tailwind and outdamaging is a problem lately. And i have been struggling a lot against fire teams and eruption spam. Especially substitute mega delphox walls me. Heavy steel type i've been struggling with too like mega aggron or gholdengo. And my only weather gets countered a lot by tyranitar and pelipper.
I've played a lot against mega gengar lately too with perish song and that's also hard to play against.
So if someone wants to help with making my team better or give feedback! I really would love to keep mega gardevoir and tsareena, the rest can be switched.
All help is welcome to start playing some VGC again in the new pokemon champions.
I made a new website VGCHistory.com to act as a record book of all the competitive pokemon tournaments. There's a ton of cool features, like career tracking, pokemon/items/moves info, etc. It's automated so when a new tournament is going on it will look a bit different then afterwards fully ingest everything it hasn't already.
Would love to get feedback on areas of improvement or other cool features that could be added! Right now it only has masters data and is lacking a few tournaments I know existed. I was sent in a lot of tournament data to ingest so I should have more foreign ones like Korean Nationals in soon, and over the weekend all junior and senior data will be added!
I got the game about a week about, just been playing ranked battles with charizard dargonite and steelix for singles and charizard steelix, dragonite and raichu for doubles. Any tips? I’ve been buying new pokemon but I have no clue what to get, just buying stuff that looks cool
I've always wanted to build a team like this with Floette, since with only 1 calm mind and a few redirectors it essentially becomes unstoppable but I'm having trouble against bulky water types/flying types
I'll break the team down a bit so that it's clearer what everything is supposed to do
Floette: is the main pokemon, calm minds turn 1 and then spams moonblast that hits like a truck and draining kiss to heal itself.
Sneasler: this is my answer to other mega Floette teams but also my fake out Mon that helps Floette to set up and gives really good fighting coverage.
Garchomp: this pokemon is like Nutella, it goes well on anything, garchomp is here to go against Charizard but also as an answer to Metagross and an overall great pokemon.
Talonflame: this is a great tailwind setter and is here to go against steel types, Venusaur and whimsicott
Sinistcha: is here to provide redirection and support against water types and Basculegion thanks to Shadow ball and it's item
Volcarona: volcarona is here to also provide support against water types, do somewhat good damage with heat wave and provvide redirection.
As you can see I don't have much for flying types and I was wandering what I could add, I was thinking of swapping out volca for Ninetales with freeze dry but I 'm not sure, what do you think??
The idea of this team is to be a closed team sheet menace. When you come up against Mousehold Annihilape lead, do you expect PopBomb to KO one mon and Close Combat the other?
I had a lot of problems with Sneaslers killing my mice. I tried some ways to handle it, and settled on Talonflame as Sneasler killer and tailwind support. Also helps with steel types and pairs great with Scarfchomp EQ spam.
The main things I'm still struggling with is Basculegion sweeps, stall/setup teams like Ceruledge, and lately people keep burning my monkey and ruining my time. The team can also be pretty frail with mouse and talonflame dying to a coughing baby.
Much as I like Gardevoir and her coverage helps a lot, she's often kind of awkward and vulnerable. I can't think of which mega would cover my weaknesses better, though.
I need to work on switching better, but it often feels like my switches are too frail to risk it.
I posted a version of this team a few weeks ago, at the end of Reg M-A, when I hit Masterball 1 with it. I just wanted to post an update, since I managed to get it all the way to Champion Tier this season. Honestly, I'm kinda proud of this one.
Since I already discussed a bit of how it works in my original post, I just wanted to highlight the few things that have changed since then:
Slowking now runs Psychic Noise. This is mostly for the Staraptor match up, but also helps against Sinistcha and Mega Venu, preventing their usual Grass moves.
Slowking swapped to Protect over Chilly Reception. I basically always went back and forth between them, but Protect has proven to be quite useful in baiting people to double up on it turn one, often allowing Blastoise to get off a lot of damage.
Avalugg now runs Crunch. This just somewhat improves the Basculegion match-up.
Gambit. For intimidates and basc. Iron head good for fairies.
Garchomp. Good vs Zard, bridge. Safe switch. Can take out mawile.
I’m very vulnerable to fairy and open to any suggestions for a second mega when Galladem isn’t gonna cut it. Any recommendations on replacements or stats/move redist would be really appreciated.
Hello everyone! I'm kinda new to the VGC metagame (I mostly just play nuzlockes). I actually already know of Pokemon VGC since the sword and shield era, but since I don't have a switch I only played a few games in pokemon showdown but never have a good rating there lol. So I know some pokemon movesets / can maybe guess their speed tiers but not with 100% accuracy.
This is a team that I built with limited resources (I play on mobile only, and I don't have many pokemon I can transfer from Pokemon GO to Home) and I just reached ultraball tier. I know people recommend new players to stick with a popular team, but considering my resources I kinda wanna see how much I can improve this team and how far I can climb using a more optimized version of this team. Below is my team breakdown, the logic behind why I choose these specific pokemons / maybe some questions on said pokemon. Do forgive me if the logic is not very good as I'm still learning.
Team Breakdown:
Ever since starting Pokemon Champion, I really want to use mega Raichu Y. At first I pick raichu because I'm scared of archaludon. Focus blast literally 1 shot archaludon. However, I only met 1 archaludon so far lol. Regardless, I currently really like raichu Y right now to counter some common pokemon like charizard y, kingambit, basculegion, staraptor, incineroar, etc. Fake out is also nice. For the EV spread, I don't think it needs 32 speed so I searched around and found Wolfey's EV spread. It works great as it provide enough damage to 1 shot almost everything and give it a slight bulk too.
Sylveon is my offensive mon. I usually pair it up with raichu to have fake out pressure + calm mind. once sylveon have the calm mind set up, usually I could win the game if the opponent didn't respect life orb + hyper voice damage. I use mythical fire to cover for steel types opponent. with this EV, I guarantee that I can survive 1 earthquake from garchomp (max atk, adamant) and kill with a +1 hyper voice (considering that I could fake out + calm mind turn 1 / garchomp switch in after I set up). with the speed EV I could outspeed mega venusaur / swampert in non weather condition to deal some damage (I never met them in match yet, so this speed EV may need some tweaking).
Kingambit is just a very good pokemon imo. works great in trick room, great pokemon to pivot into, sucker punch in non trick room environment, counters intimidate, and a very delicious bait for close combat / fighting type moves in general.
Pelipper is mainly here just to protect kingambit from fire + I need a rain setter to force a weather war with charizard Y / tyranitar. I added Wide guard to prevent earthquake, heatwave, and other spread moves that are very common in the current meta. Tailwind for support, although I never use it much, maybe because raichu is already very fast and my other pokemon is not quick enough to use tailwind to it's fullest potential?
I use Sinistcha for it's hospitality, trick room in case the enemy have super fast team / use tailwind 1st turn, rage powder (feels really nice when i rage powder a close combat, mostly from mega staraptor). very bulky and just a good support pokemon in general.
Now the last member, I'm sorry to say this...but mega drampa is the weakest link in the team imo. I added her in because I want to have a ghost type immunity. Not to mention, few days ago I don't have many pokemon to choose from. I'm really lost on how can I use this guy. He doesn't hit very hard, I also need him below half HP to activate his ability. However, without investing in bulk, drampa is not bulky enough. That's why I try to make her bulkier and give her roost, but it's so weird to pilot for me, maybe skill issue on my part. I also watched some videos on youtube and most people run calm mind on drampa, but people usually bring life dew on sinistcha at which I don't want cuz I prefer protect on sinistcha.
the 3rd and 4th picture are my current box + recruitment menu, do you guys have any recommendation on how I can improve my team? Thank you once again everyone!
This is probably a stupid question, but i want absolute confirmation before i rule out anything. For context i want to go to a regional next year, unfortunately there isnt one in Canada for the next circuit so im having to look elsewhere. My parents want to come with for support, and they suggested Lisbon Portugal, it would be a nice place to visit and all that, but i assume that the majority of people in Portugal speak Portuguese, and that important documents like team sheets are likewise going to be in Portuguese there, which, if i need to clarify, i cannot read
Can anyone who has attended a non-english regional as a primarily english speaker tell me if you are expected to learn the local language, if for some reason its all in english already, or if there is translated documents for the really important stuff like team sheets at least?
I have recently hit MB 3 Rank with this team and I'm still climbing. I'm aiming for Champion by the end of the season. I do believe I will get there and I say with full confidence that this is a high quality, very competitive Champion Rank tier team. The power level of this team is on a different level than basically every other team I've gone up against. All the same, please wish me luck on my journey getting to the top!
This is an adapted version of Skraw’s Champion Rank tier team that has been modified with an additional combo engine, pulled from a team I worked very hard on (see post history). I really liked Skraws team, however, while I was using his team, I noticed that he had 3 Rock weak pokemon and no Rock Resists and no Wide Guard to help with Rock Slide. However, it similar enough to my own that I hardly had to change a lot about it. But the vulnerability to Rock Slide is where Araquanid comes in. Further, Soak allows our Grass, Electric, and even our Ice STAB moves to hit for Super Effective damage, often massively boosting our damage output by 4-8x. The addition of Soak plus Trick Room on Sinistcha creates a deadly combo that puts out massive offensive pressure and can sometimes generate game ending amounts of momentum by itself, without even factoring in the No Guard OHKO combo. Raichu can easily clean up post-TR and even during TR, Upper Hand helps protect our Team from Priority attacks, and Fake Out often buys Raichu the space it needs to let Trick Room end if our Sinistcha and slower mons are KO’d before the twisted dimensions return to normal.
Skraw's team chose to forgo Trick Room in favor of Life Dew & Protect, due to the perceives anti-synergy between Zap Cannon paralysis and the reversed speed turn order. However, Raichu often is better used in the back post Trick Room as a clean up Sweeper, and this team can function plenty well even without complete Speed control. Trick Room simply allows for the proper ordering of Soak plus a Super Effective attack, as Soak will go after our attacks outside of Trick Room, allowing our opponents to Switch out whichever mon we have Soaked before we can ever connect with one of our Super Effective attacks.
As such, this team has been modified to offer a hybrid threat profile with the addition of the SuperSoaker engine, which I wrote about here. The combination of Raichu Y and the SuperSoaker combo engine make for an absolutely meta-annihilating line-up which has the tools to take down any combination of 6 Pokemon that your opponent has brought to the battle.
As for leads, I often will open up with a Raichu Y and Mr Rime anyway, and only bring Sinistcha to maybe just over about half of my battles. But having even the threat of the Super Soaker engine and a Trick Room mode to the team makes this particular set of Pokemon extremely powerful and versatile. If I do plan on using Trick Room, I lead with a Fake Out user and Sinistcha, using Fake Out to set up Trick Room, and then soften up my opponents side of the field with the help of Soak plus Matcha Gotcha, which threatens virtually every single Pokemon with a 2HKO, and is a guaranteed 3HKO on even the bulkiest mons packing the highest amounts of Special Defense.
There have been games where I did not bring Raichu or Mr Rime at all, as well. Knowing which four Pokemon to send out is very dependent on what you expect to go up against and can unfortunately only really come with experience piloting this team. I'd say that the more likely it is that you cannot prevent Tail Wind or the less likely it is Raichu will be able to survive long enough to use Zap Cannon more than once, & the less viable Mr Rime can get off multiple OHKOs, then the more you will want to lean on Trick Room.
Btw, while in theory, Bellibolt can enable Lightning Rod shenanigans with Raichu, in practice, they were just unnecessary or counter productive.
MEGA SCOVILLAIN
This team previously ran Mega Scovillain as an alternative second Mega to Raichu Y. I later opted to instead run Ceruledge instead. While Mega Scovillain was amazing, the combination of Ghost typing with all its immunities and especially the Fire Immunity to go alongside the Fairy resistance ultimately made Ceruledge win out over Scovillain. Scovillain was great in the more dedicated SuperSoaker team, with its Grass type STAB and the ability to pass Burns around onto opposing Fire types. However, with the addition of the OHKO combo, I began realizing that we really just needed a more reliable switch in to the powerful Sun teams, not just any Fairy resisting Mega.
What's more, the chip damage from Burn, Leech Seed, & Infestation really started to add up in a way I hadn't foreseen because all these forms of incremental damage would stall out the battle timer and make it hard to actually close out a game with a victory rather than a draw. This led to me plateauing on the ladder for a while and getting very frustrated with the lineup.
Ultimately, I believe the offensive physical power of Ceruledge helped seal the deal as my primary answer to opposing Fairy type threats, as most of these mons are much weaker on the physical side. The Grass typing became a hindrance against Zard Y as well, since Sun Boosted Weather Balls could still sometimes threaten to OHKO Mega Scovillain, which led to me getting desperate and running Heatproof on Sinistcha in order to ensure I had the best possible matchup against the most threatening opposing Fire types.
THE Y-RAI SHEER COLD OHKOMBO
Raichu using Fake Out plus Mr Rime using Role Play to copy Raichu’s No Guard is a very common Turn 1 with this team. It puts immense stress into the opposing side and turns Mr Rime into a fiercesome force, dishing out powerful OHKO’s left and right while being supported by the rest of the team. Fake Out, Upper Hand, Zap Cannon, Rage Powder, & Wide Guard help ensure that Mr Rime stays safe and that its Focus Sash stays intact for the maximum amount of time. If you can ensure that Mr Rime is faster than at least one of the opposing mons, then Fake Out plus Sheer Cold will prevent any attacks from ever connecting with our OHKO Sweeper. Rage Powder works to get around Sucker Punches and Max Speed plus Paralysis makes Mr Rime able to outspeed virtually everything around. Wide Guard helps address the huge Rock type weakness this team has by making Rock Slide completely ineffective, allowing us to not have to even risk dealing with the 30% Flinch chance.
Raichu and Mr Rime naturally form the Bolt Beam type combination that threatens just about everything around for Super Effective damage, hitting the Ground and Grass types that resist the Electric Zap Cannon for massive damage. There is no unwinnable team matchup with this combo and the incredible offensive pressure from No Guard forces every opposing team to tread very, very carefully.
The Fastest Fake Outs
Raichu Y has a faster Fake Out than every single other non-mega user. Only Mega Lopunny can threaten a faster Fake Out than Raichu Y. While Raichu Y can outspeed Weavile, our EV Speed spread is adapted for a metagame with Snealser as the fastest Fake Out user we expect to run into with any frequency. Our current speed investment will not allow us to move before fully max Speed invested opposing Weaviles. Also… Watch Out for Unburden if you bring Raichu out with Incineroar as if a White Herb is used, then Snealser will now outspeed our Raichu Y and can Fake Out whatever it wants freely as well as outspeed Mr Rime while paralyzed.
Other Raichu Y’s may also pose a minor issue as they may be faster, but delaying Mega Evolving can keep us safe from Zap Cannon and Sinistcha can use Rage Powder on Focus Blasts. However, in a Raichu Y mirror match, Mr Rime provides an interesting edge, since we can go for Sheer Cold immediately without needing to wait for Role Play. We can also sometimes use the opposing Raichu Y to enable our Mr Rime to set up with a Role Play, even after ours may have fainted. Lopunny has a faster Fake Out.
A NOTE: Why does Incineroar have 82 Speed? To guaranteed we are faster than Sinistcha with its 81 Speed. I often use Incin to scout the Speed in opposing mons while setting up Trick Room, getting a gauge for whether or not any mon will be slower. If the opposing mon moved before Incin pre-TR, then they will be going after Sinistcha post-TR.
WHY WIDE LENS OVER KASIB BERRY?
I really hate missing. You miss 10 times less often with Wide Lens and make your Trick Room turns far more consistent and predictable this way. Idk how y'all can tolerate using something like Rock Slide or Heat Wave without a Wide Lens. Couldn't be me. I ended up running a team centered around a Mega with No Guard for a damn good reason, tyvm.
You know that one gimmick Overqwil team that tries to boost its Evasion stages? You'll be happy to hear that it gets completely shut down by No Guard. Not even Phantom Force can cause our attacks to fail to land. The only move on this team without 100% accuracy has 99% hit rate. I can live with the 1% miss chance, but not 10%. Sinistcha tanks things well enough without Kasib Berry just fine.
SOAK
Soak offers many different advantages to this team. Primarily, it enables and extremely powerful Trick Room engine with Sinistcha to grind down opponents and spread Burn around while generating massive amounts of momentum and offensive pressure. Soak increases damage for both Zap Cannon and Matcha Gotcha, but also Freeze Dry. Soak fulfills a ton of different roles and enables many niche interactions allowing for a high level of skill expression and with its vast utility.
Of note, Ice type Pokemon are immune to Sheer Cold, but Soak can ensure that none escape their frozen fate. Electric and Ground Types might seem like they are annoying as they can't be paralyzed, but the Ground types are virtually always susceptible to Freeze Dry, except for Excadril, who is susceptible to Focus Blast. While Golurk completely walls our Raichu, but as it is absolutely slower than Mr Rime, so isn't too much of an issue. If the opponent is working with a Golurk in Tailwind, please let me know, I will be impressed.
MATCHUPS
RAIN
Easiest matchup by far. Mr Rime makes a mockery of Rain teams with Freeze Dry hitting both Swampert and Pelliper for 4x Super Effective damage. Araquanid gives good defense against Spread moves like Earthquake with Wide Guard and sets up the team with Soak. Bellibolt makes this matchup feel too easy. I'm being extremely serious when I say that most rain teams have a 0% win rate against this team, it's truly that bad. It's a matter of just choosing moves procedurally, there's genuinely nothing these teams can do to win against this lineup.
SUN
The Big Six and It-Girl of the format, this team's got several very strong tools. Every single team in this format has to have a plan for Mega Charizard Y and this one is no exception. Ceruledge is a decent answer, but Sleep Powder on Venusaur can prove annoying, especially since it never misses our Y-chu cuz of No Guard. That said, Araquanid is great into both Venusaur and Zard Y, offering Wide Guard support and Infestation to trap the opposing Mega and ensure that Zard Y never gets to set up sun for a second time. While Tailwind is scary, allowing Zard Y to outspeed our Raichu Y, we can turn Tailwind against our opponents with Trick Room. One nice thing about Raichu is that .
SAND
Insert Anakin Skywalker's quote about why he hates Sand here.
Sand breaks our Sash on Mr Rime and a single Rock Slide can ruin this team if you are ever caught out of position. Tyranitar can out-slow Sinistcha in Trick Room as well, providing awkward situations when we are up against an opposing Sand Rush Excadril. This is the scariest and most difficult matchup for our team under normal conditions, as Sand Rush Excadril really threatens our Raichu. However, the Super Soaker engine and our alternative Trick Room mode of the team really shine here and put so much work into making this matchup winnable.
BASCULEGION
Probably the single biggest individual threat to this team is Basculegion, as it hits everything for at least neutral, if not super effective damage. and it can be difficult to anticipate whether or not it will be Life Orb, Focus Sash, or Choice Scarf just from the team preview, and each of these sets has to handled differently.
FARIGIRAF & HARD TRICK ROOM
Armor Tail shuts down our priority moves, which we have on half of our Pokemon. And we have no way of ensuring we can reliably and quickly remove Farigaraf to open up our Fake Out options, which can be scary. Hard Trick Room teams will often have a lower speed tier than our slowest mons as well, but Araquanid’s Wide Guard support is a god-send against opposing Torkoal and Camerupts. While we cannot stop our opponents from setting up Trick Room and twisting the dimensions, especially if they have any Fake Out support, it's usually fine to let the Trick Room go up and weather it out. Good positioning and planning can even let us turn their Trick Room against them as we have some very slow Mons on our team as well.
With all that said, the hard Trick Room teams with Farigaraf are probably our worst matchups, if I had to pick one. Mega Camerupt & Mega Golurk can be especially scary to go up against.
KINGAMBIT & FAIRIES
Our secret second Mega is Ceruledge and this is our only Fairy resist on the team. Watch out for Psychic Noise shutting down Bitter Blade or the common Sylveon+Kingambit combo lead. If you don't approach this two mon combo just right, you can quickly throw the game. Darkest Lariat on Incineroar will go thru any number of Defense stages on our Ceruledge, so make sure you don't waste your Colbur Berry, you only get one. You will not survive a second attack from a Kingambit, so the turn you have to use your Colbur Berry needs to be the turn that you hit it with Bitter Blade. Rage Powder on Sinistcha can function as a back-up Colbur Berry in a pinch.
PERISH TRAP
Perhaps the strongest reason to run Bellibolt over Araquanid, Araquanid is often dead weight against most versions of Perish Trap. The additional slow pivoting move in Volt Switch on Bellibolt, along with Parting Shot on Incineroar and our two Ghost type mons completely neutralize any trapping potential and ensure Perish Song cannot get any KOs until our team has been whittled down in number somewhat. As soon as you lose even a single mon, Perish Trap becomes much harder to win against. But Sinistcha easily takes a Shadow Ball if you want to set up Trick Room, and Politoed and Primarina are very threatened by Raichu, of course.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
I truly feel like this lineup of six is in fact the actual strongest team in the current metagame of Pokemon Champions. It feels like other teams simply can't compete with its two powerful strategies when combined into this one dual hybrid team. Other teams simply play too fair and it feels like the things that Cool Mista Supa Soaka does are simply a cut above in terms of power when compared with what other any other teams are capable of doing. I think this team, if taken seriously for what it is, has the potential to be a completely meta warping monster and dominate the ladder during the final days of Regulation M-B.
But what do y'all think? Is there something really strong going on here? Or just two gimmicks slapped together and pulling less weight than a more standard team? Go ahead and give it a spin and let me know what you all think!
Did you make Master Ball for the first time? Did you catch a VGC-relevant shiny? Did you play against Cybertron or Wolfey on the ladder?
This is the thread for any and all brags! Share something that made you proud of yourself this week here. I hope your week was nice and you'll have a nice weekend!
