Please Rate My VGC 2020 Team

Question

Palossand @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Water Compaction
EVs:244 HP/12 SpA/252 SpD
Calm Nature
-Earth Power
-Shadow Ball
-Protect
-Shore Up
Palossand's ability water compaction and his naturally good defense has really caught my eye. Basically, if he's hit by a water move, the weakness policy and his ability will give him +2 in attack, defense, and special attack. Shore Up allows him to heal, and earth power and shadow ball are his two STAB moves.

Goodra @ Assault Vest
Ability: Hydration
EVs:252 HP/252 SpA/4 SpD
Modest Nature
-Sludge Bomb
-Dragon Pulse
-Thunder
-Muddy Water
Now, Palossand's defense is pretty great but special sweepers absolutely destroy it. So, since Goodra has the second best special defense in the game, it is a really good substitute for special teams. Sludge Bomb covers pesky fairy types, dragon pulse is stab, and thunder+muddy water is for coverage.

Accelegor @ Damp Rock
Ability: Hydration
EVs:252 HP/4 SpA/252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Rain Dance
-Water Shuriken
-Acid Spray
-Yawn
The centerpiece of the team, accelegor can support both palossand and goodra. Rain dance allows for Goodra's ability Hydration, Water Shuriken activates water compaction every time it hits, allowing palossand to get up to +6 defense in a single turn, and acid spray lowers the enemy's special defense by two, which essentially doubles the damage output and in most cases is a better support move than helping hand. Plus, he's the third fastest pokemon behind zacian(banned) and ninjask(whom no one uses).

Porygon-Z @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
EVs:4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Recover
-Protect
-Hyper Beam
-Tri Attack
If one of my main sweepers die before they dynamax, Porygon-Z is a really good sweeper for the job. Recover heals, and tri attack plus hyper beam is adaptability boosted STAB damage.

Sabeleye @ Lum Berry???? plz help
Ability: Prankster
EVs:252 HP/4 Atk/252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Quash
-Shadow Sneak
-Fake Out
-Helping Hand
Sabeleye is my second support that is much more flexible. Quash is for speed control, shadow sneak is really good for finishing enemies, fake out for the extra damage, and helping hand for the extra damage.

Edit: Using clefairy instead, here's the moveset:
Clefairy @ Still don't know
Ability: Friend Guard
EVs:252 HP/252 SpD/4 Spe
Careful Nature
-Ally Switch
-Follow Me
-Helping Hand
-Moonlight

Incineroar @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs:252 HP/4 Atk/252 SpD
Careful Nature
-Darkest Lariat
-Will-O-Wisp
-Parting Shot
-Fake Out
Despite Palossand having a crazy amount of defense at this point if my opponent sets up too much or has a move like darkest lariat then I'm in trouble. So, by spamming will-o-wisp and parting shot I can basically undo however much setting-up they've done, plus fake out for extra damage and darkest lariat for actually doing damage.

Edit:Didn't know about the VGC series 6 ban list, so using arcanine instead, with most of the same moveset but snarl instead of parting shot and extreme speed w/ flare blitz. Same EVs, nature, ability, and held item.

Comments

Mental Herb or Focus Sash on Sabeleye.

Answer 1

Hey! I have some thoughts.

Palossand is good, most people will run more special attack investment but with weakness policy and acid spray, it shouldn’t matter too much. Also, make it minimum speed for trick to matchups.

Hydration on Goodra is pretty gimmicky as no one uses toxic in VGC and special Goodra doesn’t care about getting burned, so I’m going to suggest removing it.

Accelgor is good, but drop rain dance for struggle bug, and give it unburden and a focus sash.

Porygon-Z is a strong offensive mon, but is usually way too frail to get a recover off. I’d give it dark pulse to hit ghost types, and also to lower special defense. You can consider using thunderbolt over tri attack as well, but this makes it much less threatening outside of Dynamax.

For clefairy, Protect is very valuable to avoid a fake out on Clefairy and KO onto Porygon-Z. I’d use Protect/Follow Me/Helping hand/Moonblast. Also, always use eviolite on Clefairy.

I think that you don’t really need Arcanine ether, Darkest Lariat isn’t that common of a move to be worried about, especially with Incineroar banned. I’d use Gastrodon instead, it offers great support, especially with Lapras Teams as Palossand does NOT want to take a Max Geyser from Lapras. I’d use:

Gastrodon @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Recover
- Protect

Item can be swapped for whatever.

Finally, Both Palossand and Gastrodon are pretty slow, so Trick Room is probably good. I think that slowking is a great Pokémon to use as it can also boost Gastrodon and Palossand with surf.

Slowking @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Serious Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Surf
- Psych Up
- Psychic

Psych up can copy partner’s boost, but is a little gimmicky and recover/Protect is probably better. Oblivious helps against taunt, but regenerator is okay as well.

PokePaste

I hope this helps!