Pokémon Rate My Team
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Hey guys! So I've never really built a VGC 2021 VGC team before (my first attempt using an unburden weakness policy Sceptile tanked me on the Showdown Ladder), but I've been getting pretty decent results with this one. Any and all advice is appreciated!
What I like about this team is how varied it is. I can go for Coaching Hawlucha boosts, Tailwind boosts from Whim, or just use all 4 of my attackers to do some real damage. Since many Pokemon are on the slower end, Trick Room teams aren't very scary. It feels very 'ani-meta'.

Here's the team:

Garchomp @ Choice Band
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide

Garchomp is my favorite Pokemon of all time, so it was going to make it into this team no-matter what. Thankfully, I think it synergizes quite well with them. It's here to deal raw damage and be a potential receiver of Hawlucha's Coaching.
Originally I had Aegislash here... until I realized it does basically nothing for me. I wish Aegislash were better.

Rillaboom-Gmax @ Assault Vest
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Fake Out
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Really standard Rillaboom set. Not much to say here except that it synergizes really well with Hawlucha and having access to G-max Strike lets it outspeed most threats under most circumstances.

Hawlucha @ Grassy Seed
Ability: Unburden
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Ally Switch
- Coaching
- Protect

I've been seeing this Hawlucha on a few teams and I think it's super under-played. The most important move here is coaching. Since Rillaboom and Garchomp (even in G-max form) tend to miss out on KO's on some of the bulkier Pokemon, it becomes an essential and powerful tool. Acrobatics is a powerful attacking move and Ally Switch catches everyone off guard, it's kind of hilarious, actually.

Whimsicott @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Encore
- Tailwind
- Helping Hand
- Taunt

Really standard Whimsicott set except for Encore. I think Encore is a super underrated move. It can mess with the opponent in so many ways, force them to undo their own trick room, if they're stat boosting it locks them into it, or lock them into a not-very effective move, forcing them to switch out. I've never actually used taunt, though I'm not sure what I'd replace it with. An attacking move maybe?

Primarina @ Life Orb
Ability: Liquid Voice
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 212 SpA / 4 SpD / 40 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Protect
- Moonblast
- Scald

Here's the star of the show, though honestly I didn't think that she would be. I originally had this team as a G-max Lapras team, but the damage output was super underwhelming and not being able to use G-max Geyser to change the weather made some matchups really hard.
I EV'd Primarina to out-speed most threats under tailwind. I'm not convinced I need both Hypervoice and Scald, but it's been a shockingly useful to have access to G-Max strike to lower the opponents speed.

Marowak-Alola @ Air Balloon
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Poltergeist
- Thunder Punch
- Protect

Marowak was added because I sick of having Primarina get nuked by Rotoms and Regielekis and because I've realized that you absolutely need a strong fire-type on this kind of team so you don't get walled by steel-tanks. The main points here are Thunder Punch and the Air Balloon. I'm not sure what if I need Thunder Punch and the air ballon is there so that I can switch it into a Garchomp Equake if necessary, it adds some nice synergy.

Thanks for looking at it! Any and all advice is appreciated. Like I said before, I'm pretty new to team-building, though not to the VGC format.

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If you want to use Garchomp, I'd recommend getting inspiration from this high-performing team: https://pokepast.es/2345fca0d49abe3f
It consists of 2 flying types to help Garchomp spam earthquake, and the Thundurus/Incineroar lead is so good at reducing damage and stalling out dynamax for a reverse sweep. A more detailed team report is linked in the paste if you want to learn more.

1 Answer

3 votes

With a lot of Physical Attackers and no Defiant / Competitive Pokemon this team is very Intimidate weak. To fix this, I think you could replace Hawlucha with Galarian Zapdos. Zapdos also gets Coaching which is useful, and also access to a higher Attack Stat, stronger STAB Brave Bird, and possibly Taunt to shut down Status or Trick Room. I'll go over that later, but first:

Garchomp

Garchomp is my favorite Pokemon of all time, so it was going to make it into this team no-matter what. Thankfully, I think it synergizes quite well with them. It's here to deal raw damage and be a potential receiver of Hawlucha's Coaching.

Well... technically it doesn't synergize well at all with Rillaboom's Grassy Terrain halving the power of its Earthquake. Instead, probably run Stomping Tantrum instead. As well, Outrage is pretty bad in Doubles, especially outside of Dynamax, as you don't get to choose your target. Instead of Choice Band you could also run Life Orb with Protect + Stomping Tantrum + Dragon Claw / Outrage / Swords Dance + Rock Slide to maintain the Damage output while also not locking yourself into a move. Also I'm not going to replace this with Landorus-T because
1. You wanted to keep it lol
and
2. Landorus-T literally only learns Earthquake as physical Ground STAB ‍♂️

Rillaboom

So I'm looking at the set and the moves seem to me like they would work better for a supportive Rillaboom, however the EVs and your description say otherwise. For an offensive Rillaboom, why not try:

Rillaboom-Gmax @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer / Knock Off
- Fake Out / Protect

Swords Dance can be extremely threatening to boost Rillaboom's Attack to sky-high levels and turn it into an great sweeper. Wood Hammer can be used if you want a strong non-Max move that can hit harder than Grassy Glide whereas Knock Off can remove Eviolites, Berries and more that would otherwise be scary to deal with. The last move is mainly chosen if you want more supportive capabilities or if you just want to Protect Rillaboom for a turn.

Hawlucha --> Galarian Zapdos

Like I said before, this thing completely counters Intimidate and is much better than Hawlucha.

Zapdos-Galar @ Adrenaline Orb / Life Orb / Assault Vest
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly / Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Taunt / Stomping Tantrum / Throat Chop / Blaze Kick
- Coaching / Detect / Throat Chop / Blaze Kick

A lot of choices of moves to choose from, but I think Taunt is good if forgoing Taunt on Whimsicott to shut down Trick Room. Rest are coverage for things like Celesteela, Spectrier, Dragapult, Regieleki, Torkoal, Metagross, etc. If you're running Life Orb on Garchomp maybe run Assault Vest + 4 Attacks or Adrenaline Orb? I don't know lol.

Whimsicott

Focus Sash + Defensive investment is usually not good. Instead, try Max SpA + Max Spe with Moonblast + Tailwind + Helping Hand + support move of your choice (e.g. Taunt, Charm, Encore, Protect (to avoid Fake Out), U-turn, etc.)

Primarina

I'm not sure why you would use this over Tapu Fini; it provides Misty Terrain support for Garchomp as well as being able to turn into a devastating sweeper with Calm Mind.

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Def / 196 SpA / 4 SpD / 52 Spe
Modest Nature
- Muddy Water
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind
- Protect

Pretty straight forward; EVs from Smogon:

Its HP maximizes recovery off of a single turn of Leftovers healing. ... Tapu Fini's Speed allows it to outspeed common base 100 Speed Pokemon such as Charizard and Zapdos when at +1, often from a partner's Max Airstream or Regieleki's Electroweb.

Marowak-Alola

I don't see that much of a problem with Rotom, as most of them are Rotom-H to combat sun. It is pretty much ruined by Garchomp. Alolan Marowak's only niche is its signature item Thick Club, which doubles its Attack. You did not give it that, so why don't we try something else?

This team lacks much Intimidate support, and if you want to keep the Fire-Water-Grass core, Incineroar is a great option to have.

Incineroar @ Sitrus Berry / Safety Goggles
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 244 HP / 76 Def / 188 SpD
Careful Nature
- Fake Out
- Flare Blitz
- Parting Shot
- Taunt / Darkest Lariat / Snarl

Again, EVs from Smogon allowing it to survive +2 GMoltres (Goltres?) Max Airstream and -1 Urshifu Close Combat.
If no Taunt on other Pokemon, probably use it on Incineroar to shut down Trick Room. Otherwise, Dark STAB is also nice. Safety Goggles if you want to better combat sun, or Sitrus Berry to avoid 2HKOs.

Those are all the comments I have for your team. I hope I helped! :)

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edited by
good answer! i would upvote if i had enough points lol
"Landorus-T literally only learns Earthquake as physical Ground STAB ‍♂️"

I don't want to be the party pooper but Lando TECHNICALLY learns Sand Tomb, Bulldoze, and Dig. (This is a joke as is not meant to be taken seriously. Lando would run eq every time.)