VGC 2018 Teams

A Compilation of Common VGC 2018 Teams!
If you are just starting out, I recommend learning how to play CHALK
-CHALK is a bulky team that helps you to learn the basic mechanics
If you ever need help or pointers, don't be afraid to ask for help! I'll probably be online.


CHALK
http://pokepast.es/b172a04b8a32ecf9




Team Notes:
-All of the Pokemon on this team are in the middle speed tier (low 100’s)
-You have the option of Tailwind or Trick Room to outspeed opponents
-Cresselia carries Icy wind, and after one Icy Wind,
-Landorus will outspeed Timid 252 Tapu Koko and Gengar
-Tapu Fini will outspeed Mega Metagross and Alolan Persian and Kartana
-Zapdos will outspeed Mega Salamence
-Kangaskhan will outspeed Positive Nature Base 100 Pokemon (Max Speed Kang)
-Cresselia Underspeeds Heatran by One point, allowing it to move first in Trick Room
-Especially useful in setting up Sunny Day and using Firium Z on the same turn
-Kang + Zapdos / Cresselia is the most common lead, allowing for Fake Out + Speed Control

LeleLand
http://pokepast.es/424a41109ee6e418




Team Notes:
-A combination of two powerful two-mon cores (MetaLele + Zappy Lando), this team is tied together with the addition of Amoonguss and Tyranitar
-Against Sun Teams, a lead of Landorus and Zapdos is often optimal to threaten Rock Slide as well as set up Tailwind
-Tyranitar should be brought in the back to negate Sun, Mega can remove sun as well
-If the opponent has Cresselia + Snorlax, leading Tapu Lele + Metagross / Zapdos is optimal
-Taunt stops potential Trick Room from going up, while Metagross provides a large amount of coverage and Zapdos can set up Tailwind
-Against Rain Teams, leading Tyranitar + Tapu Lele protects against Fake Out and often negates Rain outright, as Tyranitar is slower than Pelipper
-Always bring Amoonguss in the back as a switch in for Z Hydro Vortex
-Against Sand Teams, lead Landorus + Zapdos with Amoonguss and Metagross in the back
-Landorus Intimidates and provides immediate pressure while Zapdos sets up Tailwind
-In this matchup, try to preserve Landorus as much as possible, cycling in as many Intimidates as you can
-Meta Lele / Meta Fini Mirrors are very tricky
-Against Tapu Fini variants, leading Meta Lele with Zappy Lando in the back often produces the best results (or vice versa)
-Against Tapu Lele variants, Amoonguss is both pivotal and potential deadweight
-If able to get a Spore off, Amoonguss can single handedly win a mirror
-However, it is incredibly weak to both Tapu Lele and Metagross

Sejun Sand
http://pokepast.es/c7b0bf482d135e07




Team Notes:
-Because Tyranitar is scarfed, it outspeeds every other weather setter in the game. If you lead Tyranitar turn 1 into a team with opposing weather, the opposition will get their weather up
-Salamence Hyper Voice + Tyranitar Assurance deals incredible amounts of damage
-It is often not a good idea to lead with Tyranitar and Excadrill, as many teams carry Landorus, which can easily neuter and threaten KOs on both Pokemon
-Instead, lead Salamence + Tyranitar / Thundurus to set up Tailwind or threaten knock outs with HP Ice
-Another common lead will be Azumarill + Clefairy; if Azumarill gets Belly Drum up it can often just sweep through opponents with Aqua Jet
-Clefairy uses Follow me to redirect attacks while Azumarill sets up
-However, be wary of Tapu Lele and Gastrodon, as these Pokemon can both render Aqua Jet ineffective
-Try your best to not allow opponents to get Trick Room up, as this team is generally very speedy
-If Trick Room does go up, Clefairy can Encore the Trick Room user into using Trick Room to reset the field, or Encore Snorlax into Belly Drum

Kommo-No
http://pokepast.es/99d96f9b77a3f3c6



Team Notes:
The crux of this team revolves around the synergy between Gengar, Kommo-o and Whimsicott
-Kommo-o sees usage this format because of its new Z Move, Clangorous SoulBlaze
-Based off the move Clanging Scales, this spread Dragon type Z Move deals massive damage to both opponents, while giving Kommo-o a guaranteed +1 to all stats
-HOWEVER, if Kommo-o Z moves into Pokemon that are immune to Dragon type damage or the move itself (e.g. Fairy Types, Soundproof Pokemon), Kommo-o will neither deal damage nor get the buff
-Kommo-o therefore pairs well with Gengar and Whimsicott, the most annoying offensive core in existence
-Shadow Tag allows Gengar to trap in Pokemon, while Whimsicott has the option of setting up Tailwind or using Fake Tears
-Fake Tears combined with a move from Gengar often picks up KO’s
-This team has no Trick Room counter because it relies instead on Fake Tears + Shadow Ball to KO Trick Room setters
-Opponents can not risk using Fake Out or Protect against this core, because Whimsicott and Gengar can Encore and Disable opponents, forcing them into Struggle
-This two mon combo allows the user to get rid of potential Kommo-o threats, set up Tailwind, and use Fake Tears on opponents to boost Kommo-o’s Z Move damage
-Kommo-o should be brought in after setting up aforementioned moves, or after significant threats have been removed (Fairy Types)
-If you’re new to using this team, 99% of the time you will want to lead with Gengar and Whimsicott, as the two have so many offensive options you can play around with
-Other viable leads include
-Whimsicott + Landorus (Intimidate Pivot / threatening Char Y)
-Landorus + Celesteela (Earthquake Spam, useful against Sand teams)
-Tapu Koko + Whimsicott (Also hyper offensive, Fake Tears + Tbolt spam)

Char Y Standard
https://pokepast.es/f2dd292b3943eab3

Team Notes:

 Hard Rain
http://pokepast.es/63ae4be303e86bf8


Thanks to Tlyee for writing this!
While Hard Rain was generally considered unviable in past VGC metagames, the numerous buffs that it received allow it to perform much more successfully.
These buffs include but are not limited to
- The advent of a new Rain setter in Pelipper with coverage that allows Rain to break through its usual counters (Grass-types such as Amoonguss and Mega Venusaur)
- The sheer differences in typing amongst common Rain abusers (Ludi - Grass / Kingdra - Dragon / Pelipper - Flying etc.) allows for a strong amount of coverage and a surprising amount of switching potential, even for a hyper-offensive team like this one
- New Mega Evolution speed tier mechanics allowing Mega Swampert to move first if rain is already active on the field
- Z moves providing a nuke to quickly pick off Pokemon and support the hyper offensive lockup playstyle that Hard Rain is characterized by. They are most commonly seen through Ludicolo's Waterium, Seismitoed's Poisinium and Thundurus / Politoed's Fightinium. A Waterium-boosted Hydro Pump is used as a generally strong attack that picks up KOes on a solid portion of the metagame when boosted by Rain. There also exist uncommon Z moves aimed to pick up a surprise KO on common rain checks. Fightinium Z is commonly boosted by Focus Blast as a hard counter to Ferrothorn, whereas a Sludge Bomb helped by Poisinium was used on Seismitoed earlier in the season because it enabled a knockout on opposiing Ludicolo in the Rain mirror matchup while also outspeeding Ludicolo. We can see an example of both types of Z moves on the sample team listed above, with the general nuke being on Kingdra and the teched choice being present on Thundurus.
Team Notes:
- Unless you suspect that you're against a manual weather setter or a Mega that can reset the weather after Turn 0 when Mega-evolving (Charizard Y, Tyranitar, Abomasnow), you usually want to lead with Pelipper
- In the case of facing a Charizard Y or Pokemon with Taunt, Kingdra is advised to be lead because Z-Rain Dance can bypass the Taunt user (which will most likely be faster than Kingdra) and Kingdra will most likely not be at risk of being OHKOed by any support members of the Charizard team (unlike Thundurus)
- If you're up against a Sand team, Thundurus is advised. While this may seem odd to be bringing a Flying type against the large amount of Rock Slides, having Rain Dance be guaranteed is extremely useful when our beloved move has the ever-present flinch chance. In addition, common Sand teams at the time of writing usually have both Tyranitar and Excadrill and once Sand is down, the Fightinium Z is really useful for dealing damage to them, despite Intimidate (usually seen on an accompanying Salamence) or even through Protect!
- If you do end up leading Pelipper + Swampert, you can Mega with Swampert on turn 1 and be virtually guaranteed to move first unless an opposing Pokemon has another sort of speed modifier (i.e. Choice Scarf).
- Pelipper's speed hits 102 which is a point above 101 (the speed that 252 Speed boosting nature Base 80's reach), allowing it to set Tailwind up relatively safely. Under Tailwind, it doubles which allows Pelipper to outspeed a majority of the metagame, with the most notable Pokemon being Mega Metagross, Mega Tyranitar after one Dragon Dance, Kartana, Landorus, Charizard Y, Tapu Koko and Mega Gengar.
- The speed stats on Ludicolo and Kingdra serve to outspeed the same threats in the Rain, while also getting the jump on all Choice Scarf Tapu Lele, Scarf Landorus, Volcarona after one Quiver Dance, Charizard X after one Dragon Dance and Mega Sceptile. (Outside of rain, Ludicolo's speed stat is an arbitrary dump of stats). However, Kingdra's speed outside of rain allows it to be 2 points above a 122 stat, which is the number for 252 EV Base 70's without a boosting nature. Since 123 is such a common speed creep that players like to calculate for (especially on more Bulk-invested Pokemon), having a 124 stat on Kingdra is vital to be able to manually set up rain.
- Thundurus serves as another Rain setter while also checking Ferrothorn with its powerful Z move. An alternate Pokemon that fits a similar bill would be Politoed. This is because it has the ability to set rain through Drizzle and also gets Focus Blast, which can be used in tandem with Fightinium to nuke Ferrothorn. However, using Politoed comes at the cost of having worse type synergy and therefore, less safe switch-ins to Grass and Electric hits. Nonetheless, due to the infrequence of switching as a result of Hard Rain's offensive playstyle, Politoed is a viable choice.
- Ferrothorn thrives in the rain due to its weakness to Fire being neutered. It stacks up against Rain's checks (bulky teams with a good amount of switching synergy that are able to resist the heavy Water-type onslaught). It is able to do heavy damage to Tapu FIni, Suicune, Gastrodon, Milotic, Jellicent and many other Psychic-type Trick Room users.
Playing against this Team:
-As mentioned before, bulky teams with lots of different resists can easily stall out Rain's offensive nature. Furthermore, a well-timed Protect can easily kill Hard Rain's momentum by effectively wasting a turn.
-Winning the weather war is also very hard since rain lacks a setter that is able to automatically proc weather upon Mega Evolving (such as Sun's Charizard Y and Sand's Mega Tyranitar). Due to the frailness of Pelipper, it is really hard to switch it in and out of the board repeatedly. This is why the team is augmented so many manual setters.
-Setting up Trick Room is also really strong because many of its setters and abusers usually end up being very bulky (able to take a Ludicolo Hydro Vortex) and reverse the Speed Tiers, making Swift Swim very bad.
Other options:
There are many offensive Pokemon that fit into rain's playstyle, so there is a ton of flexibility if you are a player who loves offensive teams!
Tapu Koko: Can easily threaten a Charizard Y lead, volt switching into Pelipper is a very strong play because most players will mega-evolve turn 1, can spam Thunders in the rain.
-Scizor: takes care of many of the bulky Trick Room Pokemon that threaten rain, appreciates the pressure on Landorus-T's Intimidates and the weakening of Fire types
-Tornadus: another manual rain setter, has access to Taunt to stop Trick Room and can spam Hurricane in the rain.
-Seismitoed: access to Swift Swim, can use Poisinium to kill opposing Ludicolo and also provides different typing / coverage
-Salamence: oddly enough, can use Rain Dance as a very quick and unexpected manual setter (which basically hard counters the Charizard Y Tyranitar duo popularizard by soma-ru and Carson)
-Mega Metagross + Tapu Lele: this hyper offensive duo enjoys the pressure on Aegislash + Landorus + Heatran but one must be careful when facing Ferrothorn or Seed-boosted Celesteela!
-Gothitelle + Mawile (with optional Incineroar): GothMaw is usually used alongside Politoed as a setter because of the optional "PerishTrap" mode (Politoed's Perish Song + Gothitelle's Shadow Tag)
- GothMaw also appreciates the pressure against Tyranitar and Landorus; who threaten their Trick Room setup. Ludicolo's Fake Out can help set up Trick Room too.

This core of Poli Ludi Goth Maw is usually seen with Incineroar because of its shaky matchup vs LeleGross and Aegislash. This core of 5 has been used to extensive success by Maura (KillerQueenVGC), so be sure to consider it!

Intimidate Cycle 
http://pokepast.es/c414f0f5e1f97398





Team Notes:
As the name sounds, this team revolves around cycling Intimidates to allow your Pokemon to set up or simply chip opponents down into KO range of certain moves.
-Because Landorus and Manectric both have moves that allow them to deal damage while switching out, the two Pokemon are able to consistently cycle in and out of the battlefield
-This allows them to apply multiple stacks of intimidate on opposing Pokemon
-With the likes of Gothitelle and its ability Shadow Tag, Manectric and Landorus can keep opposing Pokemon stuck on the field with numerous stat drops
-Gothitelle also provides both Trick Room and Heal Pulse support; when your opponents are doing minimal damage, Gothitelle can heal partners back up to full
-None of the Pokemon on the team do massive amounts of damage, save for Specs Fini, a Snorlax that has gotten Belly Drum off, and Ground Z from Landorus
-The goal of this team is therefore to:
-Weaken opponent’s attacking stats enough that you can set up Trick Room + Snorlax, or stall them out with Celesteela and Leech Seed
-Chip away at opponents enough so that Tapu Fini, Landorus, or even Manectric can pick up KOs
-Common Leads for this team are Manectric + Gothitelle / Snorlax / Tapu Fini, as this allows for the flexibility of cycling Intimidates
-In most games you want to bring Snorlax and Tapu Fini to be able to sweep through the opposing team while protecting Snorlax from status moves such as Spore and WoW
-Landorus is a useful switch in for Manectric, as it can nullify Groundium Z moves that would have gone into Manectric's slot. It also is a useful pivot against Sand teams
-Celesteela does well against Rain / Sand teams, as it can sit there withstanding many attacks while sapping away HP with Leech Seed









Comments

  1. SlhiJune 19, 2021 at 7:34 AM

    I really appreciate your support on this.
    Look forward to hearing from you soon.
    I’m happy to answer your questions, if you have any.


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