Raichu-Y VGC Team Help: Countering Garchomp | Pokémon Champi
Summary
The Pokémon Champions | VGC Battles & Tournaments server hosts a deep dive into optimizing a Raichu-Y core team. This announcement explores tactical adjustments to handle Garchomp threats, including potential replacements for Froslass and move-set refinements for Tsareena. It is a vital resource for players looking to strengthen their competitive VGC lineups through community-driven theorycrafting and strategic advice.
Hi All,
https://pokepast.es/8cb196f075807769
Raichu-Y is the core of the team, and the number of times I've managed to sit it on the field and just click the funny buttons into people is very high. When it can do that, its a scary mon.
Froslass was added to help with garchomp, or to deter garchomp. What I've discovered is that this does not work, people just bring garchomp anyway. They bring it upfront and laugh in my face. Most of the time I'm facing chary and since my answer to chary is mostly ychu they just ignore froslass. This is probably what I'm swapping.
Gambit/Basc, just too good not to use
Talonflame, I wanted priority tailwind that could resist fire and fairy, and I wanted it to do damage as well. Life orb talonflame can hit like a truck, and I've been happy with it, but could see changing to sharp beak + dual wingbeat. I could also imagine swapping this, but its honestly felt very good in most matchups.
Tsareena, honestly the glue, triple axel is an answer to garchomp, stops fake out/prio which is nice for ychu and talonflame, grass attacks for dealing with rain and basc. I'm running low kick, but maybe high jump kick is better, with 9 atk it will OHKO gambit, and deal a lot to mega ttar. The problem is that it outspeeds adamant garchomp, but since life orb's addition there's been a shift to jolly. I ran choice scarf initially but I don't like relying on all 3 triple axel hits without wide lens.
I'm open to other ideas, but I really want to use ychu, and I think the ychu, tsareena, talonflame core is solid, and basc completes the fire-water-grass core, and gambit is just strong. Maybe there's an obvious solution I'm missing. Thanks for any help!
To save a click:
Raichu @ Raichunite Y
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 2 HP / 32 SpA / 32 Spe
Timid Nature
- Zap Cannon
- Focus Blast
- Fake Out
- Protect
Froslass @ Froslassite
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 50
EVs: 11 HP / 32 SpA / 23 Spe
Timid Nature
- Blizzard
- Protect
- Shadow Ball
- Aurora Veil
Kingambit @ Chople Berry
Ability: Defiant
Level: 50
EVs: 30 HP / 25 Atk / 11 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Kowtow Cleave
- Protect
- Swords Dance
Tsareena @ Wide Lens
Ability: Queenly Majesty
Level: 50
EVs: 32 HP / 2 Atk / 32 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Triple Axel
- Low Kick
- Power Whip
- Protect
Talonflame @ Life Orb
Ability: Gale Wings
Level: 50
EVs: 7 HP / 32 Atk / 27 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Tailwind
- Protect
- Flare Blitz
- Brave Bird
Basculegion @ Focus Sash
Ability: Adaptability
Level: 50
EVs: 2 HP / 32 Atk / 32 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Last Respects
- Aqua Jet
- Liquidation
- Protect
You have enough counterplay to garch
Like garch is just a good pokemon, so even if you have powerful mons who can ohko garch you just have to outplay them
I don’t need to run frosslas to counter chomp
Same with basc, I could have 3 dark types and they might still bring it cuz its broken
Could u speak us about how did u find the members in orden?
My team has 2 pokemon who can hit it for supereffective and its very dealable, one of which is dnite who gets destroyed by it if I missplay
The other is whims who is prob the best common answer to garch that isn't gimmicky
Despite having many answers to chomp, I often feel like I am being beaten by it solo because its faster. Its possible to suicide lead talon to set tw, but I find that a bit risky sometimes, especially if they also lead TW where I'm back to square one. What I'm also finding is that I never bring froslass and if I do, I often wonder if it was correct. I didn't like whims because I didn't like farig but needed good counterplay to priority, which lead to tsareena. The team started very different basically just Raichu/Basc/Gambit are from the original design, I've tried a few different megas through the time, but this felt the closest to a successful team for me.
Ya don't like farig? Thats the first time I have heard someone say that
I think farig is very good, but not on this team
But regardless if you are worried abt priority there is like quick gard, encore from a fast pokemon, etc
I've used tsareena bfore and I liked it but it was much worse and stopping priority than farig cuz its noticably less bulky and has worse defensive typing
Tsareena hasn't felt like the problem tbh, while I wouldn't expect it to win worlds, I think for the team it is better than farig because it just does more for raichu's issues. It deals with chomp and ground types in general, it's very good into Aerodactyl as well bypassing the focus sash. Farig would bring armor tail, helping hand, and not much else. Twin beam is good enough for dealing with sneasler I suppose, but talonflame is setup for that. It can reverse a trickroom but against any team that doesn't have TR it's just a wasted slot. I wanted an actual grass type attacker for rain teams, and adding a grass attack to whims feels like a downgrade most of the time. Most of my issues are just how to deal with earthquake effectively, and the most prolific users are swampert and chomp which tsareena is fairly good into. I could see some sort of encore to solve the priority issue, quick guard is a bit awkward because I want to be attacking, not necessarily protecting since I have no bulk, but maybe quick guard talonflame could be an option
Ik you like the talon option, but maybe you could consider c9 anti dragon berry defensive Altaria. It can comfortably tank a hit from chomp, set up tailwind. Gets helping hand, and has other decent coverage options.
I ran mine with breaking swipe, tailwind, protect & roost
But that was because i didnt need the flying coverage, could run bravebird instead of swipe
Or yknow, the sane option of dnite
If you're tryng to make solve the chomp issue, Sylveon can work REALLY well
It's on my RaiY team atm
In general slow TWs didn't feel great because a lot of teams bring so much offense immediately. I could see dnite, I'm also thinking swapping froslass for wisp, draco, shadowball, focus sash dragapult.
Sylveon isn't bad either and something I've been seriously considering, again replacing froslass and giving me a single mega team
Dont chomps run pjab specifically for sylvs?
Not as common anymore, but is possible. I'd probably want fast Sylveon to out speed under TW
uhhh not really
I very, very rarely see it
84 speed is enough
I use 95 to outspeed sneasler
Id go with sylv then
I think it's better that way but maybe not
Clearly the best option is max speed choice scarf sylveon since it'll outspeed w/o tailwind and can ohko with moonblast (on min bulk on a roll). But really probably just a bit of speed. 95 seems like a good benchmark
Nah man scarf floette
It's worked super well for me lately
I'll try it today and see how it feels, thanks!
looking at 23/0/18/10/0/15 spread, survives jolly dire claw, and life orb poison jab and gets the nature bump
I used the sylveon and instantly wasted every garchomp
Yeah true
Sylveon kinda like that
