Heliolisk VGC Strategy: Building Sandstorm & Trick Room Team
Summary
At Pokémon Champions | VGC Battles & Tournaments, members are diving deep into competitive team building. This discussion analyzes the viability of Heliolisk as a glass cannon in sandstorm and trick room hybrid teams. The community provides expert feedback on move sets for Farigiraf, Raichu, and Snorlax, helping players refine their strategies to climb the Ultra Ball ranks and improve their competitive play.
I'm still new to VGC (got to ultraball 1 and am probably ending the season there) and my main team is a sandstorm/half trick room team. I had some trouble with rain so added heliolisk because
- electric
- dry skin
- interesting speed that outspeeds some important things but still underspeeds others important things in trick room
- shed tail (though I dropped it for grass knot because helio is too fragile so the subs are too fragile if they can even come out, also needed help in mirror match)
- volt switch
And it seems to be doing really well as a life orb glass cannon/wallbreaker. But like I said I'm still new so what am I missing? Full team below with some move notes for weird picks and things I could use advice on:
Farigiraf (armor tail, sassy, 2def, 32spp, 32spdef)
[Lum berry]
- psychic (nice to have but I can't find good times to use)
- trick room
- hyper voice
- thunder (anti-rain + synergy with non-mega raichu lightningrod)
Hippopotas (sand stream, adamant, 32hp, 32att, 2 def)
[Smooth rock]
- high horsepower
- rock slide
- yawn
- slack off
Steelix (sheer force, relaxed, 2hp, 32att, 32def)
[Steelixite]
- high horsepower
- heavy slam
- protect
- rock slide
Snorlax (thick fat, brave, 32hp, 32att, 2def)
[Leftovers]
- double edge
- heat crash
- heavy slam (heat crash seems better most of the time)
- yawn (probably gonna change this)
Raichu (lightningrod, timid, 2hp, 32spatt, 32spd)
[Raichunite X]
- rising voltage
- fake out
- knock off
- trailblaze (completely useless what should I use?)
Heliolisk (dry skin, modest, 2hp, 32spatt, 32spd)
- thunderbolt
- volt switch
- protect
- grass knot
Farig: Just right off the bat I'd take two attacks off farig (whichever you 2 you want) and replace them with helping hand and protect. Farig works best as a sweeper when throat spray is available (from what I know) most farigs that want to set up trickroom want to be as bulky and slow as possible, and want to be more support oriented
hippopotas: I see what you're going for, when I use it I tend to prefer to run stealth rock over rock slide so Yawn gets more value but that's just personal prefrence :) also for setting sand T-Tar is typically better, iron ball helps t-tar work inside trick room, and fling does a lot of damage using Iron Ball as well, it catches people off guard on the ladder
Steelix: you should make use of it's high defense stat with body press, probably again replacing rock slide, some trainers will take it a step further and give it iron defense over a steel move, but again just personal prefrence
Snorlax: should probably have protect (most things should) other than that it looks pretty solid, I also like using Stockpile on snorlax, just to make it that much more bulky (but once more that's personal preference)
Raichu: if youre looking to get rid of trailblaze, protect. it realistically should be on every pokemon that isn't holding a choice item, but the minimum should be 4 members of your team should have protect. other than that, seems like a good raichu set with some good utility and the capability to do heavy damage with rising voltage
Heliolisk: you said you like how heliolisk feels, and this is a good set, so keep it as is
At the end of the day a lot of this teambuilding stuff is dependent on how you want to play, and your particular preferred playstyle, which you won't always know from the get go. the best thing you can do is keep experimenting, and keep playing, figure out what you enjoy using, and the types of teams you can pilot best. just a brief personal example, I've learned over the couple months I've been playing that I don't like hyper offense and tailwind, it's not a team comp that I, personally, can pilot efficiently and effectively, and that's fine because there's other conditions that I find myself working much better under, it just took trial and error to figure it out :)
I don't have t-tar yet but thanks for the rest of your advice
of course! While I was away I also realized your team has 3 weaknesses to fighting and no resistances, so some fairy or flying pokemon might be beneficial :D
good luck and congrats on getting to ultra ball!
