Building a Competitive VGC Team: Duo Synergy Strategies
Summary
At Pokémon Champions | VGC Battles & Tournaments, members are diving deep into competitive team building by utilizing duo-based synergy. This announcement explores a core featuring Maushold, Annihilape, Sneasler, and Ceruledge, while seeking community advice to round out the team's defensive weaknesses. It is a great resource for players looking to refine their strategies and learn how to balance type coverage in the current VGC meta.
Saw the synergy Maushold + Annihilape has, as well as Coaching Sneasler + Ceruledge, and remembered seeing a while ago that while building teams in low power formats, it can help to think of Duos, 2 pokemon who together can Run Wild, so I decided to put the four of them on a team together
However I'm having trouble figuring out what the final duo should be. I tested aero and floette, and I didn't like the feel of it. they're strong together, but they didn't click with the team the way I'd like them to. Currently, with the 4 mon core, the team suffers heavy weaknesses to flying, psychic, and ground. (ghost too but with maushold and follow me it's less of an issue) so I need a good duo that can fill the back of whatever I bring, or be the lead, and that ideally are good answers to those 4 types.
Obv Dark types come to mind since I'm struggling with psychic and ghost defensively, but the problem is the two main dark types in the format, incin and gambit, both amplify the already glaring ground weakness. I thought about something like eelektross and corviknight, these two help with flying and ground, and corv resists electric, but the two just don't really click together the way I'd like
I was running Ice Punch on Annihilape for while as a ground answer, but honestly I wasn't feeling it and I like the guaranteed crit from storm throw to get around bulky set up pokemon
the sets I've selected for the core four are below; lemme know if you have any ideas
Sneasler @ Focus Sash
Ability: Poison Touch
Level: 50
EVs: 15 HP / 18 Atk / 1 SpD / 32 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dire Claw
- Fake Out
- Coaching
- Close Combat
Ceruledge @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 32 HP / 32 Atk / 2 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bitter Blade
- Bulk Up
- Shadow Sneak
- Protect
Maushold-Four @ Chople Berry
Ability: Friend Guard
Level: 50
EVs: 32 HP / 2 Def / 32 Spe
Timid Nature
- Beat Up
- Super Fang
- Follow Me
- Protect
Annihilape @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Defiant
Level: 50
EVs: 2 HP / 32 Atk / 32 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rage Fist
- Drain Punch
- Storm Throw
- Protect
Discord sent us an expired image link.
Shuca berry incin maybe
Grimsnarl also works
i really like unburden white herb close combat sneasler
just my opinion idk if its rely good or not
Not for coaching sneasler
White herb cc needs protect
We have frail sweepers,we probably want our mega to be bulkier
Scizor, dragonite, ttar, venusaur are the standout options
And 6th slot should be a secondary mega or a support option
flying type incin
that's the standard set but I like this one more tbh :)
Closest thing would be support staraptor
https://klipy.com/gifs/gyarados-water-1
I hate gyrados
I do like Scizor and Venu quite a lot actually, I had honestly forgotten how much I enjoy coaching sneasler and mega scizor
Poison touch is significantly better for sash sets. I’d even recommend poison jab over dire claw to get 60% at poison
Scizor was my favorite mon in M-A. Clicking one swords dance then getting a 60bp stab priority move was incredible
I was actually thinking about gyra because it becomes a dark type after mega evolving, and flying is defensive type I could use beforehand fs
Sciz needs charizard answers to support it, and ceruledge is pretty good at that
ye that's kinda where Ceruledga came from tbh, and then I remembered coaching shenanigans
An option for the final 2 could just be sciz and ttar since that gives you bulk and high damage from both megas
Would just need to fit a special attacker somewhere
also bug bite is super underrated in this reg full of berries
especially on farig, I remember OHKOing farigs using coaching Bug Bite because NONE of them run the bug resist berry
Yep, and cc as a coverage option (not needed here since we have sneasler)
Yeah, bug resist is useless
I think I might've been running roost even just to keep it around for longer
that is is the problem yeah, I've honestly come to dislike physical attackers in general because there's just so much common counterplay around them like intimidate
unrelated but a niche move I like running on talonflame is feather dance because it''s prio with gale wings and lowers attack by two stages
anyway these are great ideas thanks y'all :)
I was on bullet punch / bug bite / swords dance / protect every time I ran him
It was mostly because I was leaning hard into coaching like sneasler would almost NEVER attack when I ran the two back in MA
Ofc but swords dance is just so good on him
Since he has so much bulk
what about frosslass? not exactly bulky but it would add a special attacker to the team
a bulky support with tailwind might be better tho
and it bring the weather control t-tar provides
Folds to yard as well
- is your third ghost
true true 3 ghosts
I think it has to be ttar + secondary mega
less worried about yard because t-bolt
I'm bringing scizor fs I like it
a water mega maybe then?
Test out ttar + sciz
The issue is yard sets sun
wish we had a drizzle mega 😞
Also like no water megas are good besides swamperts
Drampa ❤️
Mega has a dex entry that says he summons rain btw
damn that's tragic
t-tar I like tho the more I think about it
Yeah he covers the team well
just a little concerned about 6 physical attackers
- we have 2 ghost switch ins for fighting moves
Yeah test it out and see who needs the cut
Or use the optimal coaching mon
Blaziken @ Focus Sash
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 2 HP / 32 SpA / 32 Spe
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Aura Sphere
- Coaching
- Detect
😭
Its really good I stole it from james baek’s team
I was actually thinking about changing the coaching mon, but my mind was on hawlucha, since it's immune to ground and neutral to rock and my main coaching duo at the time was cereludge who's weak to both of those
Definitely an option but not a special attacker sob
true damn I didn't even think about the fact blaziken can run SPA
but it's two fire types next to eacher other 🫠
Yeah this is tough
Try out scizor and ttar and see how bad physical counters are
see my biggest concern for physical counters is simply intimidate, but there's also reflect you see a lot of that now, it'd be cool if something on the team learned psychic fangs but that's asking for a lot atp and I'd have to start sacrificing the core concept just to cover for every little thing
plus
annihilape has defiant so
Yeah ape is your main answer
Just test it out
will do
Lmk how it goes
This is just a quick analysis from me quickly getting to great ball before I fall asleep, if something's gotta go, it's annilhape. It gets hard walled by mega staraptor and as ot stands my team does not have a good answer for the bird, replacing it for SPA is my best move probably
I'm thinking about meha glimmora
actuall am going to try this out with tailwind and helping hand as a partner for mega gardevoir
