Never Gonna Peter Out - VGC17 RMT

> Never Gonna Peter Out - VGC17 RMT <

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Introduction

Hey guys, after having seen the metagame evolve quite a bit since my last RMT after the London Internationals and San Jose regionals, I thought I would make an RMT for my newest team. The initial core that I had behind this team was Aerodactyl + Specs Tapu Lele while attempting to have a good combination of power and bulk which I feel Tailwind support allows me to afford, while also allowing me to take advantage of the general lack of speed control in the format.

The Team


Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash
Ability: Unnerve
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Tailwind
- Wide Guard
- Sky Drop

So...Aerodactyl. Honestly there's not much to say that hasn't been said in another thread, so instead of repeating myself I'll just link you to it. A quick tl;dr would be its fast, is one of the only good tailwind setters, guarantees that an opponent will not Protect or switch out the next turn with Sky Drop, is a sasher that doesn't care about sand and can cockblock Ninetales' Blizzard with Wide Guard and just generally works well with Specs Tapu Lele in my experience. For the team, it provides a teammate for Krookodile to EQ beside, protects Krookodile from Dazzling Gleam with Wide Guard and provides speed control. The spread is obvious so I don't really feel calcs are necessary.


Tapu Lele @ Choice Specs
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 252 SpA / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Dazzling Gleam
- Thunderbolt

After seeing JackTheBattler peak no.2 on the showdown ladder using this thing, I knew I had to try Specs Lele out. It’s a monster. Psychic really is the only move you ever need to click regardless of typing for the most part. It just blasts through so many walls and nothing appreciates switching in. Most things calc to live Scarfed or Life Orb Psychic just to get blown away by specs and naturally picking up surprise KOs aids in my Perish Song win condition. This set also allows me to invest much more into bulk, allowing me to survive certain attacks that I wouldn’t be able to otherwise, such as 2 -1 Poison Jabs from Garchomp. The set is very basic, the moves are for the most part not important other than Psychic. The spread is adapted slightly from Jack’s, as I have invested enough speed to outspeed Modest Pelipper and Adamant Sandslash outside of Hail, and as a result enough to outspeed Sandslash in hail with Tailwind and Pelipper when we both have TW up, as well as simply speedcreeping the 4 EV Tapu Leles and Arcanines. This thing just 2HKOs the entire format seemingly and picks up some very nice OHKOs with Psychic + Sky Drop. The following calcs in many cases are the worst case scenario and will often be doing more damage
252+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Garchomp in Psychic Terrain: 144-171 (78.6 - 93.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 244 HP / 252+ SpD Gastrodon in Psychic Terrain: 156-184 (71.8 - 84.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Arcanine in Psychic Terrain: 157-186 (79.6 - 94.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 252 HP / 156+ SpD Milotic in Psychic Terrain: 127-150 (62.8 - 74.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 252 HP / 76+ SpD Politoed in Psychic Terrain: 160-190 (81.2 - 96.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Bulu: 133-157 (75.1 - 88.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 252 HP / 244+ SpD Gigalith in Sand: 108-127 (56.2 - 66.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


Tapu Koko @ Assault Vest
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 12 SpA / 140 SpD / 100 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Nature's Madness

Ripped this set entirely from Markus Stadter’s London International team and man this thing is crazy specially bulky. Tapu Koko provides the team with another answer to opposing Celesteela while also dealing with bulky waters for my Marowak. I feel like I almost don’t need to justify Koko’s presence on the team, it’s just ridiculously fast and hits incredibly hard with the terrain advantage. An AV set gives me with more options for defensive switching, while at the same time freeing up moveslots. Having room for Volt Switch is incredible at times, allowing me to gain switch initiative and reset my terrain while getting off very respectable damage. The rest of the moves are self explanatory for the most part. Nature’s Madness is great for bringing things into KO range and works incredibly well against Pokemon that think they hard wall you. A long with Specs Tapu Lele, Nature’s Madness + Psychic in Psychic terrain KOs 252+ sp.def Porygon-2, providing me another option vs TR. The EVs to my knowledge allow Koko to survive a Modest Z-Hydro Pump from Golduck in the Rain and a max attack Poison Jab from Muk, while outspeeding base 110s. The first defensive calc alone is very confincing considering how bad my double duck matchup is otherwise. Here are some calcs that I ran, some more relevant than others.
252+ SpA Golduck Hydro Vortex (185 BP) vs. 252 HP / 140 SpD Assault Vest Tapu Koko in Rain: 150-177 (84.7 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Muk-Alola Poison Jab vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Koko: 150-176 (84.7 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 252 HP / 140 SpD Assault Vest Tapu Koko: 60-72 (33.8 - 40.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252+ SpA Arcanine Inferno Overdrive (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 140 SpD Assault Vest Tapu Koko: 99-117 (55.9 - 66.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Gengar Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 140 SpD Assault Vest Tapu Koko: 110-132 (62.1 - 74.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Koko in Electric Terrain: 146-174 (82.4 - 98.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Koko: 147-174 (83 - 98.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

156+ SpA Goodra Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 140 SpD Assault Vest Tapu Koko: 68-80 (38.4 - 45.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 SpA Life Orb Nihilego Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 140 SpD Assault Vest Tapu Koko: 140-166 (79 - 93.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


Krookodile @ Groundium Z
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 188 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Taunt
- Protect
Here’s a member I’m not totally sold on. Krookodile provides the team with an electric immunity, Intimidate, a single target Ground move, a dark type STAB for good neutral coverage and good damage versus Oranguru, a Psychic immunity for Lele and the occasional Metagross and a Taunt user. It also provides another decent answer to Marowak as well as slower Arcanine, as well as Magnezone for my Celesteela and Muk for my Tapus. The moveset choice is fairly straightforward, I felt Taunt provided the most utility over any of the alternatives. Groundium Z is important for picking up KOs to support my perish song win condition as well as KOing things hoping to live an EQ. Initially I was testing Adamant Krook for added bulk and damage, but being outsped by a lot of Lele’s really sucked, as well as those trying to speed creep it. This spread is very straightforward, it is just enough to outspeed things hoping to speed creep Modest Tapu Lele, as well as max speed neutral Mimikyu and Arcanine, as well as Timid max speed Xurkitree, with the rest in Attack and HP. I felt max speed was unnecessary considering it doesn’t really hit any important benchmarks, considering neutral Salamence and Garchomp aren’t common and most Timid Arcanine are running max speed to guarantee the outspeed on Krook anyway. No real calcs here since it doesn't really hit any specific offensive or defensive benchmarks.

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 92 Atk / 4 Def / 84 SpD / 84 Spe
Impish Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Perish Song
- Protect

So here’s my fairly interesting Marowak set. The Marowak + Celesteela core is very common and the synergy is fairly obvious. Other than to protect my potential win condition from electrics, Marowak provides the team with another answer to Celesteela and Magnezone and an answer to opposing Marowaks. I chose to forgo Bonemarang mostly for the fact that I just generally find the move rather underwhelming. It didn’t really hit all that much that my STAB options didn’t already do decent enough damage to besides Incineroar, Muk and I suppose Gigalith, though Incineroar isn’t all that common and I still don’t 1 shot Muk with Bonemarang after Figy berry recovery and I still deal decent damage with Flare Blitz. I’m still iffy about Perish Song, but it does provide me with a very cool win condition after I have taken 2 KOs. In practice it has only secured a handful of games which I would have likely won anyway, but I feel it is still a fairly strong option. The EV spread is an adapted version of Till Bohmer’s Marowak from his London International team. The defensive calculations are the exact same, being 2HKO’d by -1 EQ from Garchomp and living a Modest unboosted Psychic from Tapu Lele, while the speed is essentially to outspeed the fastest Marowaks I have seen other than the Jolly ones, which speed creep the 68 speed Marowaks hoping to outspeed Modest Tapu Lele in Tailwind. This assurance that I will usually have the fastest Marowak even if I don’t have Tailwind up allows me to play a lot more aggresively versus opposing Marowak. I’m not aware of any KOs that are too important that I miss out on by running little attack investment.
-1 252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 244 HP / 4+ Def Marowak-Alola: 68-84 (40.9 - 50.6%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO

252+ SpA Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 244 HP / 84 SpD Marowak-Alola in Psychic Terrain: 138-163 (83.1 - 98.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 68 Atk / 60 Def / 12 SpA / 180 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Leech Seed
- Flamethrower
- Protect

Celesteela is just such a great mon in this format really functions well as a Tapu Lele check/counter (depending on whether or not they are running Tbolt) and a general win condition once its checks are dealt with by other members. Celesteela provides another partner for Krookodile to EQ beside, great defensive typing and stats for defensive switching and just a difficult Pokemon to take down playing well into my Perish Song win condition. The moveset is standard and the spread was basically stolen from Till Bohmer’s team report. It was the spread that I had been playing with for a while and what I am comfortable with. The attack EVs KO 164HP, 92 Def Tapu Lele, while surviving a modest z-Hydro Pump from Golduck in the rain and beating Koko 1v1 outside of Electric terrain at +1 sp.def.
68 Atk Celesteela Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 164 HP / 92 Def Tapu Lele: 168-198 (101.2 - 119.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ SpA Golduck Hydro Vortex (185 BP) vs. 188 HP / 180+ SpD Celesteela in Rain: 160-189 (81.6 - 96.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

164 SpA Arcanine Flamethrower vs. 188 HP / 180+ SpD Celesteela: 92-110 (46.9 - 56.1%) -- 22.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Thunderbolt vs. 188 HP / 180+ SpD Celesteela: 156-186 (79.5 - 94.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Thunderbolt vs. +1 188 HP / 180+ SpD Celesteela: 86-101 (43.8 - 51.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Xurkitree Thunderbolt vs. 188 HP / 180+ SpD Celesteela: 158-188 (80.6 - 95.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Conclusion

And there we have it! By no means do I believe this team is perfect, but I have been having a lot of fun using it and have had some success. On a somewhat fresh alt I wanted to see how quickly I could reach the 1500s with this team from the 1100s. I got there roughly with a record of 30-5 (I'm not quite sure exactly, it was about a week ago and I'm not sure what my record was before using this team). The losses were mostly down to misplays, poor calls or just poor luck in some cases, but there weren't too many matchups that I felt I just auto lost against. Double duck is a bit of a scary matchup since before Tailwind Golduck outspeeds my entire team and I don't have a water resist, but the fact that Koko should live a z-Hydro Pump does somewhat mitigate this issue, though certainly not entirely. Let me know what you guys think!
Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash
Ability: Unnerve
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Tailwind
- Wide Guard
- Sky Drop

Tapu Lele @ Choice Specs
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 252 SpA / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Dazzling Gleam
- Thunderbolt

Tapu Koko @ Assault Vest
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 12 SpA / 140 SpD / 100 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Nature's Madness

Krookodile @ Groundium Z
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 188 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Taunt
- Protect

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 92 Atk / 4 Def / 84 SpD / 84 Spe
Impish Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Perish Song
- Protect

Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 4 Atk / 60 Def / 180 SpD / 76 Spe
Careful Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Protect
 
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RebornFX Have you considered replacing Aerodactyl with Mandibuzz and putting Wide Guard on Celesteela instead of Substitute? I can understand why you would like Aerodactyl, however I like bulkier mons, but that's just me.
 
RebornFX Have you considered replacing Aerodactyl with Mandibuzz and putting Wide Guard on Celesteela instead of Substitute? I can understand why you would like Aerodactyl, however I like bulkier mons, but that's just me.
Aerodactyl has a lot of attractive qualities that I think justify me using it over Mandibuzz on this particular team. Its speed makes it a far more reliable Tailwind setter as it outspeeds/speed ties with common Taunt users such as Tapu Lele, Koko, Krook, Gengar etc. Sky Drop as I explained in my Aerodactyl write up guarantees that the target cannot Protect or switch out, allowing me to eliminate counters to my Pokemon in the back. For many matchups I find Sky Drop can be more valuable than setting up Tailwind for this team. Honestly a lot of the time Aerodactyl's frailty can at times be a bonus since after it has set up Tailwind and broken sashes with Rock Slide I want it to faint to give me a free switch in to something in the back. I thin Mandibuzz can be great on the right team, but I feel Aerodactyl fits on this team far better. I'm also not the biggest fan of Wide Guard Celesteela. Often the moves I'm hoping to avoid are from Pokemon I wouldn't want to stay in versus anyway, like Koko and Torkoal. I do think however that Sub can be replaced with Flamethrower due to the massive rise in Kartana usage.

I've changed the Celesteela spread, removing the speed investment and placing it in attack and special attack. The attack EVs allow me to OHKO 164HP, 92Def Lele. And I've replaced Sub with Flamethrower. I didn't feel the speed was necessary since Celesteela usage has seemingly died down recently due to the spike in Kartana + Fini usage, and with Flamethrower the mirror is less of an issue.
 
I've been experimenting with tailwind as speed control recently and have found it quite effective when you can exert immense offensive pressure.

My main question is how do you deal with trick room? I see that you have Taunt on Krook, and Skydrop on Aerodactyl, which may very well work.
Have you considered a mon like Snorlax instead of Celesteela? It is also incredibly bulky, and really discourages the setup of TR - especially the Curse/Recycle set. Celesteela just can't take advantage in the same way, and Marowak, while slow, is simply beaten by popular TR mons like Gigalith, Mudsdale, Snorlax and Araquanid.

My only other suggestion would be to try out a slightly bulkier Krookodile spread - I'm a big fan of this one:

Krookodile @ Groundium Z
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 148 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Taunt

It always lives a Leaf Blade from Kartana at -1 and unboosted P2 only has a 16% chance to 2hko with Ice Beam. With the tailwind support, I don't believe that always outspeeding arcanine is super important, as the only moves that Arc can carry that threaten Krook anyways are Close Combat or Bloom Doom, and they're both rather uncommon.

All of that being said, if you find that you don't struggle against TR, it doesn't really matter.
 
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Adamant Zoroark

catchy catchphrase
is a Contributor Alumnus
Yeah, I don't see what this team does against P2 + Spider, aside from simply losing. You have three Pokemon weak to Water and a grand total of zero resists. If your Taunt + Sky Drop combo with Krook and Aero fails to stop Trick Room from going up, you just lose, and even without Trick Room, you're not gonna be able to switch anything in (best you can do is pressure Spider with Tapu Koko, but since you're using Assault Vest your damage output won't be so great).

You could put Kartana somewhere so you can have some way of taking Water-type attacks, but running it would either mean dropping the Sash on Aerodactyl (which would mean dropping Aerodactyl altogether as I can't see any other item working on it) or Assault Vest on Tapu Koko (which you could probably get away with). If not Kartana since it's admittedly hard to fit on the team, you could run Gastrodon somewhere so you can redirect those Liquidations, making it a lot harder for Spider and other Water-types to pressure your team.

Side note: Marowak can run Detect now, which allows it to protect itself even against Imprison users. Your Marowak has enough Speed to beat Muk before it can use Knock Off, so you can get quite a bit of mileage out of running Detect > Protect for Imprison Muk (unless Muk has started running at least 52 Speed EVs these days)
 
Yeah, I don't see what this team does against P2 + Spider, aside from simply losing. You have three Pokemon weak to Water and a grand total of zero resists. If your Taunt + Sky Drop combo with Krook and Aero fails to stop Trick Room from going up, you just lose, and even without Trick Room, you're not gonna be able to switch anything in (best you can do is pressure Spider with Tapu Koko, but since you're using Assault Vest your damage output won't be so great).

You could put Kartana somewhere so you can have some way of taking Water-type attacks, but running it would either mean dropping the Sash on Aerodactyl (which would mean dropping Aerodactyl altogether as I can't see any other item working on it) or Assault Vest on Tapu Koko (which you could probably get away with). If not Kartana since it's admittedly hard to fit on the team, you could run Gastrodon somewhere so you can redirect those Liquidations, making it a lot harder for Spider and other Water-types to pressure your team.

Side note: Marowak can run Detect now, which allows it to protect itself even against Imprison users. Your Marowak has enough Speed to beat Muk before it can use Knock Off, so you can get quite a bit of mileage out of running Detect > Protect for Imprison Muk (unless Muk has started running at least 52 Speed EVs these days)
This team looks weak to Porygon2+Araquanid. What is your gameplan against that?
i agree RebornFX is using a team weak to P2 + Spider and that his teams shouldnt be but maybe he didnt build it for the most recent meta
 
i agree RebornFX is using a team weak to P2 + Spider and that his teams shouldnt be but maybe he didnt build it for the most recent meta
P2 + Araquanid has been a common core before the London Internationals, not noticing the teams weakness to it was just a mistake on my part. Really I think it was just at the time I was testing it I didn't face much of it for whatever reason and when I did my opponent opted not to bring it or I was able to pressure them to not set up trick room.

Really the main plan against Trick Room was either land a surprise KO with Nature's Madness + Psychic on P2 (which certainly isn't consistent and wouldn't work in a BO3) or hope to Sky Drop P2 and take care of the partner, again flawed in many ways. I guess if worst came to worst I hoped I could stall out TR turns with Protect and defensive switching, but without a water resist that isn't exactly an option.

Some changes I've considered are replacing Krook with Gastrodon, allowing me to run a more offensive Koko without fearing the rain matchup so much, replacing Marowak with Arcanine as a more solid switch in to Kartana and to replace the lost Intimidate and replacing Celesteela with Z-Earthquake Metagross considering I really value the single target ground option for the likes of Muk and Arcanine. I really haven't thought through all the details or tested it yet due to lack of time but I think that somewhat sorts out the issues without screwing my other matchups too hard. I'll give it a think when I have more time. Thanks everybody for your feedback!
 
P2 + Araquanid has been a common core before the London Internationals, not noticing the teams weakness to it was just a mistake on my part. Really I think it was just at the time I was testing it I didn't face much of it for whatever reason and when I did my opponent opted not to bring it or I was able to pressure them to not set up trick room.

Really the main plan against Trick Room was either land a surprise KO with Nature's Madness + Psychic on P2 (which certainly isn't consistent and wouldn't work in a BO3) or hope to Sky Drop P2 and take care of the partner, again flawed in many ways. I guess if worst came to worst I hoped I could stall out TR turns with Protect and defensive switching, but without a water resist that isn't exactly an option.

Some changes I've considered are replacing Krook with Gastrodon, allowing me to run a more offensive Koko without fearing the rain matchup so much, replacing Marowak with Arcanine as a more solid switch in to Kartana and to replace the lost Intimidate and replacing Celesteela with Z-Earthquake Metagross considering I really value the single target ground option for the likes of Muk and Arcanine. I really haven't thought through all the details or tested it yet due to lack of time but I think that somewhat sorts out the issues without screwing my other matchups too hard. I'll give it a think when I have more time. Thanks everybody for your feedback!
Z-Earthquake Metagross is the best thing I have ever added to my team, I would SO recommend it!
 

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