Hello everyone! I have returned from my little holiday from graduating! It still feels unreal to be done with University. Me and Snorlax have a new team to showcase that I actually built in about 3 days since I wanted to have a new rental out for everyone to help you get that Masterball rank! The results were pretty surprising for me.
Pro tip: Do take breaks, it does wonders for your mental state when playing Pokemon or teambuilding. Inspiriation strikes when you least expect it!
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To start things off: ignore the name, I tend to just slap whatever first thing comes to mind. The word "Blight" means to be a thing that spoils or damages and have a detrimental effect upon something. The team has a lot of tools that are either annoying and "detrimental" to the opponent, and difficult to remove too, hence the team name choice. Catchy too, maybe?
Teambuilding Process
As a relatively quick teambuild, it did have a base coming from an idea I had about a month ago just before my travels. The base was to build off the Fantasy Core (Dragon, Steel, Fairy) that had a lot of safe switches to put yourself in a position to then ramp up the pressure with strong offensive options like Regidrago. At the same time, I also wanted to follow my favourite formula of Set-up > Speed Control > Close. So the initial roster looked something like this:
Spectrier was my set-up of choice with Maushold, while Corviknight and Iron Hands were the glue that provided the space for the rest of the team to do what they need to do. Corviknight also had great horizontal synergy with Regidrago, being able to threaten Flutter Mane with Heavy Slam while providing speed control for Regidrago.
I quickly then realised a few things:
- I did not in fact, round out the Fantasy Core (I keep forgetting F for Fairy)
- Spectrier as a main sweeper option was pretty terrible
- Heavy Slam on Corviknight provided very little value for a whole move-slot commitment into one of the most common matchups around.
- Weak Trick Room matchup.
I then decided to add Sableye over Spectrier to improve some of the TR matchups and keep Maushold as I felt it still had value, and also quickly realised that there really was no reason to keep Maushold at all. Maushold had an overlapping role with Sableye as it was also an additional control option with Encore.
The new roster then became EXTREMELY weak to Flutter Mane AND Chien Pao, so I kind of gave up on it for a bit.
Fast forward to a few days ago, I realised the answer to my problems would be just to slap Rain on the team (I also got a neat Basculegion phone charm for nothing which TOTALLY did not influence my decision for this).
Rain added the following benefits:
- Strong closer options and strong immediate pressure
- Speed Control against faster teams
- Covered one of Corviknight's weaknesses
- Works as a self-contained core that can flex either one of my pivot options in Corviknight or Iron Hands.
Which gives us our final roster, which plays far differently to what we initially had:
https://pokepast.es/6ebd738c1bc61178
I managed to get on the top 500 ladder (1700s with ~70% GXE) on Showdown fairly quickly and into Masterball for the month as well. Not too deep of a ladder run since I currently have other priorities in my life at the moment!
Sets
Corviknight @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Mirror Armor Tera Type: Dragon EVs: 252 HP / 108 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SpD / 132 Spe Adamant Nature Tailwind Brave Bird - Bulk Up Roost
Corviknight stayed on due to bias and it makes for a strong end-game choice with it's bulk, set up and recovery. Safety Goggles was chosen as I valued having another switch in to Spore and I didn't really need the Rocky Helmet chip due to other options being available to pressure Urshifus. Initially this was calc'd for the first draft of the team with Heavy Slam over Bulk Up to KO Standard Bulk Flutter Mane through Screens at a 13/16 chance:
- 108+ Atk Corviknight Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 68 HP / 116 Def Flutter Mane through Reflect: 136-160 (97.8 - 115.1%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
Again, Heavy Slam had relatively little value afterwards and you can achieve similar results using Brave Bird after one Bulk Up. 132 Speed means you outspeed Iron Bundle after Tailwind.
Iron Hands @ Assault Vest
Ability: Quark Drive Tera Type: Grass EVs: 156 HP / 100 Atk / 252 SpD Adamant Nature - Fake Out - Heavy Slam - Wild Charge - Drain Punch
As it turns out, the same Iron Hands set I built was pretty optimal when I decided that living the Chi-Yu/ Flutter Mane double up was important. Notably:
- 100+ Atk Iron Hands Wild Charge vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Urshifu-Rapid Strike: 162-192 (92 - 109%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
So sometimes you want to be proactive with chip damage to ensure the above KO. Another thing of note is that some people have been running Speed on their Iron Hands to win Fake Out mirrors as well as be able to deal damage first. There are pros and cons to moving last, and I personally prefer to try and maximise the returns on Drain Punch, hence why I don't think the speed investment is necessary in general.
Sableye @ Roseli Berry
Ability: Prankster Tera Type: Grass EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SpD Bold Nature - Quash - Will-O-Wisp - Disable - Encore
Calcs:
- 252 Atk Mystic Water Urshifu-Rapid Strike Surging Strikes (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 36+ Def Sableye on a critical hit: 126-153 (80.2 - 97.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 SpA Choice Specs Flutter Mane Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 220 SpD Roseli Berry Sableye: 133-157 (84.7 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
I vaguely remember a different calc set but I must have misremembered or made some error since. If I were to adjust it I would probably alter to be 252/100+ Bold for the following calc:
- 252 Atk Tera-Dark Urshifu-Single Strike Wicked Blow vs. 252 HP / 100+ Def Sableye on a critical hit: 132-156 (84 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Although it does then mess with the Moonblast calc, so something to be wary of. Quash and Will-O-Wisp helps you avoid and deal with some of these interactions, Sableye helps pick up any mid-game slack with it's level of control within the moveset to better develop your late-game, or give you a quick early game advantage with Quash (For example, Quashing Flutter Mane to allow Iron Hands to KO it immediately.)
Tera Grass allows you to still exert this control when the opponent also has Amoonguss (who is DEFINITELY going to be more common considering it just won Worlds).
Basculegion @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim Tera Type: Water EVs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 236 Spe Adamant Nature - Aqua Jet - Wave Crash - Last Respects - Protect
Basculegion is probably one of the hardest hitters in the current metagame due to one of its STABs being rain-boosted Wave Crash, and the other being Last Respects, which realistically can get up to 200 BP (No, I am not counting the Revival Blessing gimmicks).
The Speed investment is for outspeeding Choice Scarf Urshifu in Rain. *1
It is important to observe the speed tiers as for certain matchups, you are attemping to use Swift Swim to execute Aqua Jet before Pranksters/other priority users.
Pelipper @ Focus Sash
Ability: Drizzle Tera Type: Ghost EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe Timid Nature Tailwind Hurricane - Wide Guard - Hydro Pump
It's a pretty standard Pelipper build. The difference here being Tera Ghost, which can allow you to dodge Fake Out when you have to. This means you can capitalise and get a free turn. Wide Guard also walls Tornadus/Thundurus, and can be extremely useful against Landorus, Armarouge, Torkoal, Ursaluna and others.
Focus Sash also lets you use Pelipper as a closer, as it deals a surprising amount of good damage!
Rapid-Strike Urshifu @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Unseen Fist Tera Type: Water EVs: 252 Atk / 36 Def / 220 Spe Adamant Nature - Surging Strikes - Close Combat - U-turn - Aqua Jet
Calcs:
- 252+ Atk Choice Band Sword of Ruin Tera-Normal Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 0 HP / 36 Def Urshifu-Rapid Strike: 147-174 (84 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Doubling down on the damage that Urshifu can deal despite resists, Rain just takes it to the next level. Don't be afraid to just keep clicking Surging Strikes.
Gameplan and Leads
Sableye and Iron Hands
You have a variety of options with this lead which I prefer into Physical heavy teams. Will-O-Wisp allows Iron Hands to chip away at your opponents resources while making Hands extremely hard to remove, or Quash can allow Iron Hands to pick up immediate KOs while minimising damage in return.
Pelipper and Urshifu/Pelipper and Basculegion
Your big guns lead, you can essentially delete any non-resisted slot. I tend to lead this into Trick Room based teams or teams that don't appear to have any immedate speed control. This set also consists of your Rain core and you can decide what your 4th choice can be.
Corviknight + 1
Rarely do I lead Corviknight as I prefer to have it as a switch in for Spores, unless you see a team you can Bulk Up freely in front of such as Cresselia-Ursaluna. Here Urshifu can act as a safe U-Turn Pivot while Corviknight does what it needs to do.
Disadvantageous Matchups
I noticed that sometimes Indeedee-F can provide some trouble as a lot of your control is Priority dependant. In this case I would try to pick up strong KOs using the Rain mode and hopefully be able to stall out the Psychic Terrain.
Gastrodon can also be mildly annoying due to your nature of being a Rain team, but Last Respects/CC can make quick work of it, and Sableye can help control the other slot while you reposition.
Rental
I hope you enjoy this team! It definitely has a bit of room to tweak but I think it's pretty solid already. Thanks for reading!
*1:I realise doing calcs at like, 3 AM, leads to some mistakes, where I did not need as heavy of an investment to outspeed Choice Scarf Urshifu x)
