Ok for this answer I’m going to go through the notable team archetypes first and then talk about some of the more meta defining Pokemon and how to counter them. Also note that most of the more offensive items are not available right now causing the meta to be more defensive.
Team Archetypes
Mega Charizard Y Team
Mega Charizard Y teams are some of the most instantly threatening and easy to use teams you will find in M-A. They typically include a tailwind setter like whimsicott or Aerodactyl to set Tailwind (Note that sometimes people run mega Aero so watch out for that) and several hard hitting Pokemon with the goal of brute forcing their way through the opponent. These Pokemon typically include Charizard Y,(Duh) Sneasler, Scarf Basculegion, Garchomp, Sylveon and Kingambit. In addition to these Char Y teams often include either Incin, Venasaur or both of them to give their attackers more opportunities to do easy damage. The best way to deal with these teams it to try to avoid letting them set up tailwind for free and not letting your Pokemon get chipped into range of Charizard’s heat wave and having a plan for dealing with Scarf basc in the end game. Good Pokemon for dealing with these teams include Garchomp for killing mega char and getting game changing Flinches with rock slide, Kingambit primarily for dealing with basc and Mega Delphox which out speeds most of the Pokemon on Char teams and take Charizard’s sun and uses it to boosts its own heat waves and cause a lot of problems for mega Char and it’s team.
From a strategy perspective the best way to go about fighting these teams is to figure out how your opponent plays. Like so they go for the obvious close combat into Kingambit or do they call the obvious protect and doubles target your other Pokemon. Once you figure out how you opponent plays take advantage of that and use the opportunities you get from predicting their moves to deal with their team and due to the fast paced nature of mega char teams they likely won’t be able to adapt their play style to deal with you predicting their moves before the match is over.
Mega Floette Teams
Mega Floette teams are built around mega Floette and can really vary in how they play. With some teams moving at a slower pace building up boosts on Floette and then sweeping while other teams use Floette for the raw dammage that it deals. Due to the varying ways of using Floette there are a LOT of Pokemon that work with it and rather than typing them out I’m just going to give you a link so you can see its top partners for yourself pikalytics.com/pokedex/gen9championsvgc2026regma/floette-mega
Good Pokemon for dealing with these teams include Mega Scizzor, Scarf Basc, and any bulky steel poison or fare type. The best way to deal with these teams is generally to keep pressure on with something that threatens super effective damage on Floette so it cant fire off powerful dazzling gleams. Also be wary of getting yourself in a spot where Floette can fire neutral attacks at all your Pokemon safely without fear of a incoming attack.
Rain Teams
Rain teams are built around the rain wether condition with the goal of abusing the rain. They typically also include a Tailwind setter due to the slower base speed of a lot of the rain users. The main rain setter include Pelipper and Sabelye though Politoad can be used a niche rain setter aswell. The tailwind setter is typically either Aerodactyle or Pelliper though I have seen tailwind dragonite aswell. Common Pokemon on these teams include Scarf Basculegion, Archaraludon, Dragonite Mega, Sneasler, Sinistcha, Kingambit, Iciniroar and Scizor Mega.
Good Pokemon for dealing with these teams include rotom wash, Kingambit and dragonite mega. The best way to deal with these teams is winning the Weather war if you are also using a weather setter or taking advantage of the weakness overlap to deal consistent heavy damage.
Sand teams
Sand teams function quite similarly to rain teams except they typically have more bulk , better sun team matchup but less offensive power. They use Tyranitar/Tryranitar mega as the sand and sometimes include Corvinight as a Tailwind setter. Common Pokemon on these teams include Xcadrill, Corvinight, Iciniroar, Scarf Basculegion, Sinistcha, Sneasler, Milotic, Kingambit and Rotom-Wash Pokemon with a good matchup into these teams include Sneasler, Rotom-Wash and Garchomp. When playing into sand teams make sure you don’t lose all your special attackers early as Bulk up Corvinight can cause a lot of teams endgame problems. Also keep in mind that Tyranitar can carry fighting and ice type coverage (something a lot of people forget about).
Mega Gengar
Mega Gengar teams are yet another relevant archetype. They aren’t as common as a lot of the other archetypes because they require a lot more skill to use but they payoff for using them can certainly be worth it. These teams use Gengar as main damge dealer and then support it with bulky Pokemon that provide redirection and fake out support. They also typically lead Incin plus Gengar if it’s a perish trap Gengar. Also keep in mind that if the opponent is using politoad plus Gengar it’s most likely perish song politoad and then Gengar drops perish song for disable, substitute or some other support move. Common Pokemon on these teams include Inciniroar, Sinistcha, Sneasler, Basculegion, Garchomp, Politoad Archaludon and Kommo-oh. Garchomp, Milotic and Kingambit are all have a pretty good matchup into these teams. The big thing to watch out for with Gengar teams is that they typically try to perish trap you and if you lose your first 2 Pokemon to this then there isn’t much you can do to stop them from perish singing your last 2 Pokemon and stalking you to death. Good ways to get around this are leading with 2 Pokemon that threaten Gengar so that the opposing Incin can only fake out 1 of your Pokemon and the other can try to kill Gengar. If you fail to kill Gengar you probably won’t get another chance till Incin does a slow parting shot to bring Gengar back in but by then it’s often to late to deal with Gengar.
Trick room teams
Trick teams can be a little awkward to play into if your team isn’t properly prepared to deal with them (more on that later). Typically these team use Farigiraf or Oranguru as the trick room setter as both of them are fake out immune and bulky though I have seen people have success with the Galarian Slowking aswell. These team often lead with their trick room setter plus blastoise or another Fakeout / Redirection Pokemon. Once they get trick room up they try to sweep you or wear your team down to the point where something like Basc can come in and finish the game off. Common Pokemon on these teams include Farigiraf, Oranguru, G-Slowking, Camerupt mega, Torcoal, Blastoise Mega, Basculegion, Crabominable Mega, Kingambit Sinistcha and alot of other slow Pokemon that can deal a lot of damage under trick room. Good Pokemon into these team include Kingambit, Sinistcha and taunt users. The first 2 turns are often the most important and can often determine the course of the battle. On the fist turn you should be trying to either stop you opponent from setting tricks room up with something like taunt or putting yourself in a position where you can make it awkward for them to get their sweepers on the field undamaged (most T room sweepers use eruption or water spout and dont enjoy being chipped). An example would be I lead Simipoar plus mega Floette and my opponent leads mega Blastoise plus Farigiraf He fakes out my Simipoar (to stop taunt) and then I set up calm mind on Floet while he sets up trick room. I’m now in a spot were both of his active Pokemon are under threat of big dammage and he can’t get any of the Pokemon in the back of his party onto the field because of the threat of loosing most of their Hp to a dazzling gleam.
Answer continued bellow because I’m close to character limit
