Mega Charizard X & Staraptor VGC Team Guide

M-Staraptor gives is just a really dominant force in this meta, and works very well with grimmsnarl, as well as providing tailwind for the team in situations where setting up a Ddance seems impossible to pull off. Staraptor also works great in its non mega form when paired with ZardX in handling threats like archaludon, garchomp, and tyranitar.

Next in our supporting package is Sinistcha. It is ev'd to survive a hurricane from Pelliper in the all important rain matchup, allowing a rage powder to deflect both foes. Hospitality works tremendously with prio parting shot from grimmsnarl, and supports both of our setup sweepers excellently. Life dew over trick room because of the recoil moves on both our megas, and because trick room setters will fear us soon enough (mon 6), even the giraffe.

Sneasler here is very traditional, Fake out, Dire Claw, Rock Slide. But we are going to use coaching in our last slot, dropping the close combat, in order to create explosive turn ones into players who opt to double protect and wait out fake out.

Lastly, we need some more damage, and we don't want to add a 3rd ice, ground, or fairy weakness. Additionally, we have no way to remove trick room once it goes up. Normally, trick room shouldn't be that concerning with double fake out, however, that thing exists and we need a new set of giraffe skin boots. Scizor fixs both these issues. Choice Scarf with a max speed investment allows scizor to out speed sneasler and mega staraptor. Bug bite does massive damage to every trick room setter not named audino or cofagrigus, along with stealing any sitrus berry or type resist berry lying in the wait. Dual wingbeat reliably kills focus sash sneaslers and whimsicott, Bullet Punch is priority STAB, and trailblaze helps deal with mega swampert really is just here for swampert, but the speed boost is nice against other scarfers and tailwind.

Worst match-ups right now are Sand and Raichu. Raichu makes setting up on either mon more difficult with fake out and powerful special attacks. Sand's consistent chip wears down this slower pace team, as well as having an abundance of checks for ZardX. Also Corviknight is a particular nuisance, as the team can only hope to knock it out before a single iron defense goes up, because once it is up, even 130 Base tough claws flare blitz feels dinky. Opposing mega raptor is also a volatile matchup, but it still feels like my game to lose.

I would like to find a spot to add a special attacker to plug the glaring holes in the team that is physical walls and enemy screens. Sneasler feels like the best candidate to remove here, but I could be conviced that there is another mon that could fill scizor's role on this team and hit on the special side.

So I don't have time for this just yet, but balance is right up my alley so I will be back later to help. I just wanted to say thank you for being so in depth in your analysis and knowing what you want and what you currently have. This is an excellent write up

Thank you very much, and I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

Ok so I have a very very unorthodox final mon to add to your repertoire here. Not something you'd expect and it solves a lot of TR issues that you may be facing as well if you just don't want to face down torkoal with Scizor

Mega Golurk. Fully walls Raichu, increased spdef in the sand, hits like a damn truck and works in TR. Naturally very bulky and your team pretty well covers the rest of the threats that you may be facing

Like I said as unorthodox as it gets and will probably see very little play, but it handles your worst matchups with grace. Because of its natural bulk, you don't even need to mega it to get pressure either. Pairing it with mega Staraptor, sinistcha and grimmsnarl vs sand teams and you have a defensive powerhouse with screens that just make it impossible to remove, even without TR

Vs Raichu, it completely walls the mouse. There is nothing that they can do because most people aren't running grass knot

It also walls opposing Staraptor and Yard teams when paired with grimmsnarl for screens

The downside here is you'd need to either make Grimm 100% support or drop fake out, so it may not be worth it vs yard

I know it's super unorthodox having three megas on a team and that coaching is super nice to have, so this may be something you're not super interested in. Your team is very cohesive as is but I think the only thing you're losing out on is attacking pressure with xard from coaching as well as a fairy resist, which is needed but not necessary with Scizor around

Are you suggesting drop scizor for m-golurk or sneasler?

if i drop sneasler for golurk, i have no more rock coverage for opposing zard/aero

Its a neat idea though, and i think that with the changes you suggested it could work very well. I

Oh!

It has put a thought into my head. What do you think about Farig in place of sneasler. Trick room/Thunderbolt/Twin Beam/Psych up.

takes speed boosts of zard, cc boosts off staraptor, and gives me a special attack into corvinknight. Blocks fake put for the rat too.

With both sitrus and colbur in use already, it could use sash.

Zard X has such a good matchup into Y already, that maybe the rock coverage isnt all that important.

Golurk giving ground stab is pretty tempting though

Farig is always nice to have on the team but I don't think it helps vs your Raichu matchup in any significant way

You still are outsped and at risk of zap cannon

right. My hesitation on the golurk is that it doesnt fix the issue of a full phys attacking team.

I'm struggling really to find something to swap here tbh. You could always swap into a focus sash glim instead of Sneasler but that doesn't help with your matchup into ground all that much and it needs to be protected from fake out

Your team is too physically offensive but how much is this really mattering in the long run for you? I'm not sure if it really matters as much as we are thinking besides vs Corviknight

Crazy idea but yache regenerator hydrapple with earth power? It comfortably lives a earth power, provides utility with yawn and pollen puff to slow down trick room teams, and idk what move last, probably protect but fickle beam could be nice.

Which could throw off your opponent

You could also go with Gholdengo. Not as specially bulky but still usually good enough, immune to fake out and provides some solid coverage moves in psychic or shadow ball,

Bulky water types become more of an issue but with a guaranteed outspeed on non swift swim basc and sinsitcha on the team, I feel pretty safe into rain.

Yeah, fr?

I was worried I burnt down the kitchen

Team has 0 fairy resists, but thats fine...probably

Love the team but check the bulk in the yards

Moste people are running the bulk that u survive a chomp rs

Without life orb

lol, as you sent that, i just played my first practive game and zard survived with 30%

Intimidate is nice, but I already have an intimidator with staraptor, and moxie lets me pivot into defiant mons like ape and gambit

rock tomb has it but only on high rolls

Yeah that's pretty standard to expect

damn

Yard

Not xard

yeah for sure

But they are not trained in the special side

Ok lemme read all that because I'm a HUGE fan of Zard X, I'll definetly try to help you

I am the resident Raptor spammer, lemme help! Need a few minutes to catch up :3

Ngl this is one hell of a team, I really like it and I don't see any weakness except indeed Raichu Y because you're definetly lacking a ground type here.

Another pokémon that could 4-0 you would be M-Camerupt under trick room. I was thinking about Mega Golurk and then I read the messages below and saw that Owsteen suggested it too, so let me join to insure you that Mega Golurk could do wonders for you, it checks sand + raichu + camerupt + arch + everything itw. You also wanted to put Farigiraf over Sneasler, that would allow you to have a slow mode and a fast mode for late game maybe, but I'd just drop life dew on sinistcha and go for trick room in that case, this way you can keep Sneasler + ZardX + Grimmsnarl core, with sinistcha in the back (may lack damage), and bring Sneasler + Sinistcha + Golurk for Sands and Raichu matchup.

But then you're stuck with a full physical damage team, and that sucks, I have a bunch of options for that, and that'd mean replacing Scizor for a special attacker revenge killer :

Scarf Eternal Floette : can one shot with light of ruin or deal enough damage to allow your ZardX to finish the game
Scarf H-Zoroark : Snarl + Icy Wind, has positive matchup against Sneasler
Scarf A-Ninetales : Brings Weather control + can easily allow your ZardX to DD in front of Garchomp, good matchup against rain too due to freeze dry
Scarf Lucario Final Gambit : Inner Focus means no fake out and Final Gambit to take care of Raichu Y immediately, + can deal a good chunk of damage to Farigiraf, which means your Zard X will be able to kill it
Milotic : good matchup vs sand, can coil + hypnosis to gain momentum with ZardX, but still weak to Raichu (depends if you have Golurk in your team or nah)

Imo FG Lucario could be very good as it takes care of Raichu Y, Ttar, weakens a lot of threads etc..

Ninetales looks good for Staraptor, Chomp and Weather War

Eternal Floette Scarf beat them all 😭

so yeah that'd be my top 3

and yeah for grimmsnarl you can run careful 32/0/19/0/15/0, it'll be bulky enough to survive almost anything, for sinistcha I usually run Bold 32/0/14/0/20/0 for massive bulk too

Ty for the spreads, I wasn't sure what was best on snarl and sini is ev'd to live hurricane in the rain matchup, idk how much i want to fiddle with sini.

Trying to figure the best way to approach this

cause M-Golurk def works here, but i cant replace only one mon with it and still fix the phy issue

is it ever M-Golurk over raptor and grab a special attacker with flying coverage?

but then you gotta use hurricane most likely

I'm not that sure that having only physical attacker is a real issue in VGC tbf

Instead of Sneasler/Scizor
M-Golurk Headlong Rush/CC/Heavyslam/protect
Scarf Rotom-W thunderbolt, dark pulse, trick

or perhaps keep sneasler, drop raptor/scizor and grab a gambit and golurk to be able to lean harder into TR