😭 😭 😭

hi!! so i'm a noob to competitive, only been playing champions the past couple months with zero prior vgc experience. i've definitely learned a fair bit already since starting through both experience and watching videos, but i could totally use some advice on how i should build a team around eelektross - a mon i've really grown to love using lately, especially with its new mega.

here are the two teams i've been messing around with: first one is just a bunch of my fave mons in general (i know my basculegion should be male but i just love the fem design so much 😭), second is a water-based team using more conventional meta options.

i've had decent success with both, ESPECIALLY with my eel knowing both a ground type move and a good phys electric move. been able to take down charizard, raichu, and the occasional bellibolt pretty reliably. i always have him out first with toxapex, who can take a hit and protect when needed.

that being said - i've been stuck in ultra tier and today had a bad losing streak that got me down to great 💀 i think archaludon is one of my biggest threats, since not only can it basically blast through my water team, but it's extremely beefy and hard to grind down even with super effective moves. cannot STAND that stupid bridge. sinistcha is also a thorn in my side.

and my latest loss.....was with my first team (specifically escher, flurry, tropica, and caliburn, in that order) against an oranguru with trick room and instruct, mega blastoise that used protect first thing (so my supercell slam missed and gave me a lot of recoil), and torkoal. didn't even get to see what the fourth mon they had was lol.

what could i do better with my teams? how do i better strategize? do i really need to wipe the slate clean for the team of just my faves, or can i make them work? who, if anyone, should i switch out on either team? again, i'm a noob to vgc so i'm very much still learning. tysm for ur patience w me in advance!!! 🙂‍↕️💙

😭

Is this lineup okay?

Hey! I’m the new Steel Gym Leader and I need your help to upgrade my teams. Overall they're pretty cool, but if you see any flaws, feel free to drop your thoughts!

​Team 1: Orthworm used to be great, but now feels a bit outdated. Fighting-types are giving me a really hard time here. You can either swap just 1 Pokémon to keep the exact same core skeleton, or swap 2-3 Pokémon to build a fresh synergy/tactic (just don't change everything!).

👉 https://pokepast.es/60721f71f7f07766

​Team 2: This one is actually pretty solid as it is, but let me know if you’d make any minor tweaks.

👉 https://pokepast.es/bf8513469f80bf30

​Let me know what you think! 🦾

( Ofc im ready for everything now, just need your opinion)

im opting for blaziken to use close combat, i just have'nt changed it yet

𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗞 𝗥𝗢𝗢𝗠 — 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗬𝗦𝗜𝗦

This team originally came from a team I found through this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk1IWKkbm0k

Since then I’ve changed a lot. Moves, spreads and how I use certain Pokémon have all evolved, but the idea behind the team has stayed pretty much the same.

Reliable Trick Room without sacrificing offense.

𝗙𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗔𝗙

Farigiraf is the safe Trick Room setter.

It’s bulky, reliable and Armor Tail is huge for this team. Trick Room controls Speed, but priority doesn’t care about Speed order. Farigiraf fixes that.

Once TR is up, it can Protect and keep Armor Tail active while something next to it does the damage.

The downside is that Farigiraf can be passive, which is something I’ve tried to balance with the rest of the team.

𝗛𝗔𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗘

Hatterene is the other side of double TR.

Farigiraf gives me safe TR. Hatterene gives me offensive TR.

Hatterene can set Trick Room without giving up offensive pressure. The opponent still has to respect the damage coming from that slot.

For me, Hatterene + Torkoal are a massive part of what makes hard Trick Room actually worth playing.

A good example of the style:

https://youtu.be/bqgUiZcJYQw?si=y_vPE_pBGTJ4CsDA

𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗞𝗢𝗔𝗟

Torkoal is the payoff.

Get it onto the field healthy under Trick Room and Eruption can take control of a game very quickly.

The team does a lot to create that opportunity.

Sometimes the game plan really is as simple as:

Get TR up → keep Torkoal healthy → Eruption.

𝗗𝗥𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗔

Drampa is probably the glue of the team.

It has huge Special Attack, great Speed for TR and some really useful resistances.

But the biggest reason I love it is Cloud Nine.

It creates some awesome switches against weather teams. Against rain, for example, I can Intimidate something like Swampert with Incineroar and bring Drampa in to shut down the benefits of rain.

It also means Torkoal can Eruption into rain without the usual Fire damage reduction while Cloud Nine is active.

Drampa doesn’t need to beat everything either. What it can’t kill, Hatterene or Torkoal often can.

Those three work incredibly well together.

𝗜𝗡𝗖𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗥𝗢𝗔

My Incineroar is intentionally unconventional.

I found that bulky Incineroar + bulky Farigiraf was simply too passive. I could reliably establish TR, but sometimes there wasn’t enough immediate damage behind it.

So Incin became much more offensive.

I still get Fake Out and Intimidate, but now the slot can actually threaten serious damage.

It keeps the reliable Farigiraf mode without turning the lead into two Pokémon that just sit there.

𝗠𝗔𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗘

Mawile is more of a specialist.

I don’t bring it nearly as often as the main HTR core. I like it most against slow, passive or screen-based teams.

If someone gives me a turn to set screens, I can sometimes use that opening to Swords Dance + Trick Room and suddenly Mawile becomes a huge problem.

The set is unconventional too.

I stopped relying on Play Rough because the misses weren’t worth it. Iron Head gives me reliability, Thunder Punch hits things Iron Head can’t, Sucker Punch gives priority and Swords Dance punishes passive turns.

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗠𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗦 𝗜𝗧 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞

The funny thing is that I don’t always Mega Evolve.

The Mega isn’t what makes the team work.

The strength is the HTR core and how everything supports it:

Farigiraf — safe TR and priority protection
Hatterene — offensive TR
Torkoal — huge TR payoff
Drampa — weather control and special pressure
Incineroar — Fake Out, Intimidate and physical damage
Mawile — situational physical win condition

The team has gone through plenty of changes, but the philosophy has never really changed:

Get Trick Room up reliably, don’t give away offensive pressure, and make every TR turn count.

Hi, , I'm the dragon gym leader, but I'm ns how to structure these teams. I'm basically trying to build them effectively, but not having much luck. As u know, we're allowed two non-type, non-mega pokemon for our teams. For those of you not aware, there's talks of putting a restricted list in place. Currently the plan will be that everyone will be allowed one Mon from the list. I have suggested that gym leaders get two, but can only bring one to a battle. But this hasn't been set in stone yet. The first team is a team designed to be fast, while the second is a tr team. Thoughts on my teams?

I made some changes for the Fox Wing team! I could need some little help for some experience. What do you think?

yooo so i want to make a mono team like the gym leaders i can battle them on fair footing. i’ve started w this do you guys have any tips or things i may need to have coverage for?

Swampert @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Wave Crash
- Protect

Raichu @ Raichunite Y
Ability: Lightning Rod
Modest Nature
- Zap Cannon
- Protect
- Volt Switch
- Focus Blast

Pelipper @ Focus Sash
Ability: Drizzle
Timid Nature
- Protect
- Weather Ball
- Hurricane
- Tailwind

Sinistcha @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Hospitality
Calm Nature
- Matcha Gotcha
- Trick Room
- Protect
- Rage Powder

Gholdengo @ Kasib Berry
Ability: Good as Gold
Timid Nature
- Make It Rain
- Nasty Plot
- Shadow Ball
- Protect

Archaludon @ Leftovers
Ability: Stamina
Calm Nature
- Electro Shot
- Flash Cannon
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect

:) I wanna share what I've been thinking about too :) teehee

Current state of affairs with this team. Any substitutions and/or other changes y’all would recommend? Would be preferable if this was good for the gym challenge as well.

I have almost completed my Raichu X team but I don’t know what mon I should use as my final mon. I also made two bases to build on and if I should change the moves or the mons please say it. Also please don’t recommend me incin, sneasler, kingambit, farig, gholdengo, archaludon or pelipper

I can offer it with shiny littleo and shiny thievul ik its not much but I rly need floette

We need help to beat blaistoise with our current team
Any game plans changes and others are welcome

blaziken with baton pass is replaceable with any coverage move. my other plan is like i give gambit a middling speed investment so that i can actually benefit from baton pass but can also play inside trick room with like for example a hundred speed stat. garchomp will definitely benefit from speed aswell, i tested it a bit and it actually is good with vivillion for sleep powder support and this is like a cheap reiteration of swampert vivillion interaction. will it be any good? thanks!

I'm entering a local tournament so I'm trying to make a team that I feel the most experienced with
That being ttar excadrill sand
So I'm gonna need some partners to make sure my team can be as successful as possible(preferably w/ dual megas)

Im looking for help to bulid a fresh team outta these mons in my box or if theirs any teams that use some of these mons
The mons i would like to use or to get a team of are gyrados grimmsnarl raichu mawile or gholdengo
All help would be appreciated!

I want to try out that special mega garchomp set that's been making the rounds recently and I have most of it down but I could use the help, especially in the 6th slot (meowscarada is a placeholder pick)

attached is the current team and all the pokémon I have rn

I’ve had pretty good success with this team but I have had a lot of trouble with Big 6 (or teams with Charzard Y and/or Garchomp) or Rain, or bulky water types in general (Milotic, Mega Blastoise)

Some changes I’ve previously made:
- Primarina instead of Sylveon to have a stronger matchup against Sand/Rock Slide users
- Sash Kingambit to help with the Charzard Y and Fighting moves
- Rock Slide/Tomb on Mega Kangaskhan (Ice Punch is too important against Garchomp)
- Sunny Day on Whimsicott to help with Rain and boost Chandelure’s damage (I’ve found it inconsistent and generally locks my team into Tailwind mode)

I feel like this team has been really good but I have hit a block around Master Tier 3, any help would be amazing thank you!

THIS THREAD IS TO SERVE AS EXAMPLE FOR WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN POSTS REQUESTING ASSISTANCE

This is not an exhaustive list, nor are all of the below items required. This is only as a reference to what we would like to see to best help you.

If you do not provide a description of what you are looking for, the staff team will ask you to delete your thread and repost using these guidelines.

If you are a newer player just starting out, a screenshot of all of your available Pokemon and a description of the archetype you would like to use are acceptable alternatives to the below example. Examples of archetypes include, but are not limited to, rain, sun, sand, stall, trick room, balance, or hyper offense.

"Hello, , I am looking for assistance with my team to brush it up. I am playing a defensive archetype and it just feels off.

My team is centered around Mega Aggron. I am using it's bulky defenses as a backbone of the team. Aggron has a lot going for it. It's ability filter weakens super effective hits and allows it to stay on the field for longer. With body press and heavy slam, it can push out consistent damage that threatens most mons and keeps it a target. Super defensively bulky, I knew it needed some assistance as it was soaking up hits.

This lead me to Hisuian Goodra, the opposite counterpart to Mega Aggron. Super specially bulky, not only does it threaten water Pokemon that give Aggron trouble, but it also provides much needed support with life dew. Getting both super bulky pokemon an extra 1/4 health at any given time provides plenty of time to either set up an iron defense, or allow a protect and get free health back with little drawbacks. Goodra has enough damage output to make the opponent second guess who they need to target in a given turn.

Next up is Galarian Slowking. The knockoff toxapex, regenerator keeps him healthy and he is able to utilize his psychic to take out quick fighting type threats. Super bulky and chips away at the opponents health with toxic strats. I paired it with muddy water. While very inaccurate and lead to a few unclutch misses, it provides wiggle room with its accuracy drops, especially when the opponent is running more inaccurate moves like heat wave.

At this point I realized I was just super slow and had to hope to keep my damage output high enough that it didn't matter. That wasn't going to work. Which brings me to my next Pokemon of choice.

Typhlosion was brought on the team for fast consistent pressure with its eruption. Paired with Hisuian Goodra, not only could I be one of the faster pokemon on the field with a very powerful spread move, I could also use Goodra as a health pack to keep the eruptions going at full power.

Something I did not have a tool for at this point, even with Typhlosion was soaking up fire types. This is where Aqua Tauros comes in. Decently fast and hits unbelievably hard, Tauros is used for a quick priority aqua jet or a complete deletion with wave crash or close combat.

To round out my team, I picked Mega Altaria. Not only does it threaten dragon, fighting and dark types, of which I have very little answers for, it also gives me a useful tailwind against teams with more middling to slightly above average speed. Many times I utilize it's pixilated hyper voice combined with Typhlosion's eruption to give heavy pressure. This allows me to frequently control the boardstate of tougher matchups, as very little Pokemon could resist both attacks at once. I could also use this to predict a pivot and launch a draco meteor into a slot with a clear switch."

I have been trying to renovate my Raichu X team and I have a base of 3 mons but I don’t know who to put as my remaining team members or if I should change Raichu’s move to volt switch or electro web. Also please don’t recommend me incin, sneasler, archaledon, kingambit, farig or gholdengo