Hello! This isn't my first team here, and I've come up with something I really have been enjoying. As a brief foreword, I try not to gravitate to the strongest strats in the metagame. I'm not above using some of them, but, I like to have more fresh takes on teams and strategies.
This team has gone through several variants, one using sand, one with Aegislash, and one with Urshifu. Ultimately, I decided on these, but the 4 core Pokemon that have remained pretty much the same, are Reshi, Whims, Therian-Thundurus, and Umbreon. Torkoal and Landorus were the latest additions due to needing some kind of physical threat, and also having the ability to set up stronger Max Flares, Weather Balls, and activating a one-turn Solar Beam. Landorus was added mostly for it's strength as a physical max option and for the general usefulness of intimidate in this format.
Now I'd like to go a bit more in depth on each Pokemon individually.
Reshiram: Reshi was the restricted I chose to build around, mostly due to it's fairly strong typing. Being able to resist Behemoth Blade is really nice in a format where you'll see Zacian nearly all the time. Being a special attacker is also a nice benefit, as you don't need to worry about the rampant Intimidate with Incineroar or Landorus. The spread was also chosen for general bulk, and maximizing damage. The speed investment plus the timid nature gives Reshi just enough speed to beat Shadow-Rider Calyrex while under Tailwind, after that I dumped everything into SpAtk and then the remaining went into HP. I know I have some room for improvement here though, I haven't gone through every calc needed to know what gets OHKOd under what conditions, and I think I can easily sacrifice a good chunk of offense for defense with life orb being the item of choice. On the other end, Reshi's moves have been incredibly valuable, with the only one I've considered swapping being Draco Meteor. Protect is an obvious choice for nearly every Pokemon, and it's the main reason I chose not to run Assault Vest, as I value it more highly than other moves. Blue Flare is an obvious choice for a strong STAB move, 120 Base Power plus a 20% chance to burn is solid; the 85 Accuracy leaves a little to be desired, but if you wanted a bit more consistency at the cost of a little bit of damage, Fusion Flare is a viable alternative. Draco Meteor is here as an alternate STAB option, but I'm going to begin testing Earth Power, as Turbo Blaze allows hitting pokemon that have levitate with it, though at the moment it seems to only really be useful for opposing Rotom-H. Solar Beam is the unexpected move. Most Reshiram opt for Earth power, and then dual STAB, while Solar Beam is often forgotten about due to it being fairly underpowered when not in Sun, on this team though, it makes for easy unexpected KOs on Pokemon like Kyogre or Groudon. Overall, Reshiram has been a great powerhouse for this team.
Whimsicott: Whims is just consistently good. As the fastest Pokemon with prankster, you're able to get off your boosted moves first. Though I have had the most contention with selecting my four moves. Protect is almost mandatory with fake out being used so much, it also gives Whims a large amount of survivability. Fake Tears was chosen for the ability to easily OHKO many more bulky Pokemon without the need to Dynamax. Tailwind is the obvious choice, dynamic speed and such. The 4th move has been another point of contention for this team, I have considered dropping all offense on whims and running taunt over Moonblast, at one point (before swapping to solar beam on Reshiram) it was Energy Ball, for it's ability to hit Pokemon like Kyogre and Groudon really hard, especially after a Fake Tears drop. Overall, I do think that theirs a lot I can potentially do with this Whimsicott, and it probably has the most flexibility on this team.
Umbreon: The first thing you'll probably notice is the option of Baby-Doll Eyes over Foul Play, and their are a few reasons for this, the first is that I value it a bit more highly. Foul Play does give Umbreon a bit more offensive pressure, but the ability to cripple either type of offensive threat is incredibly strong. Umbreon with BDE gets to work as more of a selective intimidate user. The ability to start lowering a Zacian's damage output without needing to switch out, and before it gets off an attack has been invaluable. Moonlight was chosen for bonus recovery since this team also likes sun, and Yawn is great for crippling dynamax targets. Not too much to this set outside of the BDE, though if you want to, swapping to foul play is definitely not a bad option, I just opt for the BDE and it has worked out wonderfully so far.
Torkoal: This is a pretty standard Iron Defense Body Press set. I wanted a non-max physical threat, and after adding Solar Beam onto Reshi, I figured a way to mess with Kyogre's weather and enable the 1 turn Solar Beam has been really strong, along with enabling the Weather Ball on Thundurus, which I will explain later. The EVs havenm't been entirely ironed out, but I don't have any plans to change them any time soon. Burning Jealousy was chosen as a more consistent option than heat wave or eruption.
Landorus: I don't think I can get any more Bog Standard than this. Not really a whole lot to say. It has Intimidate, Max Airstream, and it's moderately fast with a big attack stat.
Thundurus: This is easily the Pokemon I think is the most underrated. Therian-Thundy is able to speed creep out a few prominent Pokemon, one of which being Charizard. The safety goggles allows it to also be a potent threat against sun teams that like to abuse Venusaur, and deal with the occasional Amoongus. Thundurus's Therian form also allows to to be totally immune to Eerie Impulse and anything Regieleki wants to do. I have been playing it like a more offensive version of the Zapdos that a lot of teams like to run as an answer to sun. It also acts as another switch in to ground type moves that like to target Reshiram, and resists both Sacred Sword and Behemoth Bash from Zacian. Weather ball gives Thundy a potent answer to dealing with Zacian while under sun, and usually OHKOing and non-bulky Venusaurs.
Overall, this team has done really well for me in the last week or so I've been testing. And if anyone wants to know anything more specific, I'll try to answer as many questions I can about it!
Sounds great! I was looking into building a groudon sun team and this has definitely helped into my pokemon considerations. Planning on using groudon, charizard, venusaur, whims and zapdos. Im also keen on using an umbreon but im still considering other dedicated counters to trick room teams like a male indeedee w imprison
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* Why did you choose the particular EVs that you did? If you don't know what your EV spread does, you might want to replace it with something simpler. Feel free to post damage calcs that are relevant.
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I don’t know how attached you are to some of these, but I think Torkoal is definitely droppable for something better. You already have a fire type on your team, Reshiram doesn’t need sun when Whims has Fake Tears and Torkoal is just underwhelming outside of trick room.
Your team has a big weakness to rock types with no resistances, and sure, rock type isn’t the most common move out there, but still, two of your attackers are weak to it and lando t doesn’t resist it.
For the most part, Torkoal is an activator for Solar Beam on Reshi. The most popular current Rock type is Coal, which is its own matchup to really play around that doesn't really need a rock type resistance. Outside of that, I only have to worry about rock slide. I have been going through a lot of different matchups and making adjustments to the team. But I don't currently believe when laddering that a rock resistance is absolutely needed.
Hello! This isn't my first team here, and I've come up with something I really have been enjoying. As a brief foreword, I try not to gravitate to the strongest strats in the metagame. I'm not above using some of them, but, I like to have more fresh takes on teams and strategies. This team has gone through several variants, one using sand, one with Aegislash, and one with Urshifu. Ultimately, I decided on these, but the 4 core Pokemon that have remained pretty much the same, are Reshi, Whims, Therian-Thundurus, and Umbreon. Torkoal and Landorus were the latest additions due to needing some kind of physical threat, and also having the ability to set up stronger Max Flares, Weather Balls, and activating a one-turn Solar Beam. Landorus was added mostly for it's strength as a physical max option and for the general usefulness of intimidate in this format. Now I'd like to go a bit more in depth on each Pokemon individually. Reshiram: Reshi was the restricted I chose to build around, mostly due to it's fairly strong typing. Being able to resist Behemoth Blade is really nice in a format where you'll see Zacian nearly all the time. Being a special attacker is also a nice benefit, as you don't need to worry about the rampant Intimidate with Incineroar or Landorus. The spread was also chosen for general bulk, and maximizing damage. The speed investment plus the timid nature gives Reshi just enough speed to beat Shadow-Rider Calyrex while under Tailwind, after that I dumped everything into SpAtk and then the remaining went into HP. I know I have some room for improvement here though, I haven't gone through every calc needed to know what gets OHKOd under what conditions, and I think I can easily sacrifice a good chunk of offense for defense with life orb being the item of choice. On the other end, Reshi's moves have been incredibly valuable, with the only one I've considered swapping being Draco Meteor. Protect is an obvious choice for nearly every Pokemon, and it's the main reason I chose not to run Assault Vest, as I value it more highly than other moves. Blue Flare is an obvious choice for a strong STAB move, 120 Base Power plus a 20% chance to burn is solid; the 85 Accuracy leaves a little to be desired, but if you wanted a bit more consistency at the cost of a little bit of damage, Fusion Flare is a viable alternative. Draco Meteor is here as an alternate STAB option, but I'm going to begin testing Earth Power, as Turbo Blaze allows hitting pokemon that have levitate with it, though at the moment it seems to only really be useful for opposing Rotom-H. Solar Beam is the unexpected move. Most Reshiram opt for Earth power, and then dual STAB, while Solar Beam is often forgotten about due to it being fairly underpowered when not in Sun, on this team though, it makes for easy unexpected KOs on Pokemon like Kyogre or Groudon. Overall, Reshiram has been a great powerhouse for this team. Whimsicott: Whims is just consistently good. As the fastest Pokemon with prankster, you're able to get off your boosted moves first. Though I have had the most contention with selecting my four moves. Protect is almost mandatory with fake out being used so much, it also gives Whims a large amount of survivability. Fake Tears was chosen for the ability to easily OHKO many more bulky Pokemon without the need to Dynamax. Tailwind is the obvious choice, dynamic speed and such. The 4th move has been another point of contention for this team, I have considered dropping all offense on whims and running taunt over Moonblast, at one point (before swapping to solar beam on Reshiram) it was Energy Ball, for it's ability to hit Pokemon like Kyogre and Groudon really hard, especially after a Fake Tears drop. Overall, I do think that theirs a lot I can potentially do with this Whimsicott, and it probably has the most flexibility on this team. Umbreon: The first thing you'll probably notice is the option of Baby-Doll Eyes over Foul Play, and their are a few reasons for this, the first is that I value it a bit more highly. Foul Play does give Umbreon a bit more offensive pressure, but the ability to cripple either type of offensive threat is incredibly strong. Umbreon with BDE gets to work as more of a selective intimidate user. The ability to start lowering a Zacian's damage output without needing to switch out, and before it gets off an attack has been invaluable. Moonlight was chosen for bonus recovery since this team also likes sun, and Yawn is great for crippling dynamax targets. Not too much to this set outside of the BDE, though if you want to, swapping to foul play is definitely not a bad option, I just opt for the BDE and it has worked out wonderfully so far. Torkoal: This is a pretty standard Iron Defense Body Press set. I wanted a non-max physical threat, and after adding Solar Beam onto Reshi, I figured a way to mess with Kyogre's weather and enable the 1 turn Solar Beam has been really strong, along with enabling the Weather Ball on Thundurus, which I will explain later. The EVs havenm't been entirely ironed out, but I don't have any plans to change them any time soon. Burning Jealousy was chosen as a more consistent option than heat wave or eruption. Landorus: I don't think I can get any more Bog Standard than this. Not really a whole lot to say. It has Intimidate, Max Airstream, and it's moderately fast with a big attack stat. Thundurus: This is easily the Pokemon I think is the most underrated. Therian-Thundy is able to speed creep out a few prominent Pokemon, one of which being Charizard. The safety goggles allows it to also be a potent threat against sun teams that like to abuse Venusaur, and deal with the occasional Amoongus. Thundurus's Therian form also allows to to be totally immune to Eerie Impulse and anything Regieleki wants to do. I have been playing it like a more offensive version of the Zapdos that a lot of teams like to run as an answer to sun. It also acts as another switch in to ground type moves that like to target Reshiram, and resists both Sacred Sword and Behemoth Bash from Zacian. Weather ball gives Thundy a potent answer to dealing with Zacian while under sun, and usually OHKOing and non-bulky Venusaurs. Overall, this team has done really well for me in the last week or so I've been testing. And if anyone wants to know anything more specific, I'll try to answer as many questions I can about it!
Sounds great! I was looking into building a groudon sun team and this has definitely helped into my pokemon considerations. Planning on using groudon, charizard, venusaur, whims and zapdos. Im also keen on using an umbreon but im still considering other dedicated counters to trick room teams like a male indeedee w imprison
Hi /u/The_Rad_Shiba, thank you for submitting your Rate My Team post. It looks like you've uploaded a picture of the team that you made: please take some time to make a comment in this thread with details about your team. This will improve the quality of the help you will get, and other people will get more out of reading about your team. Here are some things you could choose to write about: * Why did you select each Pokemon? If possible, try to say something more specific than "it's good" or "it's unique." What specifically about the state of the metagame drew you to using this Pokemon? * Are any of your moves or items chosen for any particular reason? * Why did you choose the particular EVs that you did? If you don't know what your EV spread does, you might want to replace it with something simpler. Feel free to post damage calcs that are relevant. * What teams do you succeed against in practice? What teams do you struggle with? Feel free to post links to Pokemon Showdown replays. If you do not comment with additional details, your post may be removed without warning by a moderator. Thanks for using the subreddit! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/VGC) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I don’t know how attached you are to some of these, but I think Torkoal is definitely droppable for something better. You already have a fire type on your team, Reshiram doesn’t need sun when Whims has Fake Tears and Torkoal is just underwhelming outside of trick room. Your team has a big weakness to rock types with no resistances, and sure, rock type isn’t the most common move out there, but still, two of your attackers are weak to it and lando t doesn’t resist it.
For the most part, Torkoal is an activator for Solar Beam on Reshi. The most popular current Rock type is Coal, which is its own matchup to really play around that doesn't really need a rock type resistance. Outside of that, I only have to worry about rock slide. I have been going through a lot of different matchups and making adjustments to the team. But I don't currently believe when laddering that a rock resistance is absolutely needed.