Twitter: AlcadeiasVGC
Hey everyone, I’m back again for the second week in a row, with another team report! I used this team to reach Nr. 2 on the ladder three times and I also got second place in the Mt. Silver online tournament with it.
After I published my last team report, I left my old team on the shelf and went back to the team building lab shortly after. The result was this team, and it actually turned out to be one of the more fun and one of the better teams I have made/used. While it’s also one of the teams I’m most proud of from a team building perspective.
Because I was so happy with the team, and because I enjoy writing these team reports for you guys, I thought I might as well just write another one. Let’s jump right into the background of the team and all that good stuff!
So if you follow me on twitter(@AlcadeaisVGC), you may know that I really liked this team after using it for a few days. I therefore sat down almost an entire day to try and grind my way to another placing at the top of the ladder.
However, I struggled harder with this than I have done before, not because I was playing bad or that the team was bad, but simply because everytime I got to Nr. 2 on the ladder, I couldn’t win the last deciding game. I reached Nr. 2 on the ladder three times in one day(one of the times winning 3 times without moving up(-_-), but I could never get that first place.
It then hit me that getting Nr. 2 three times in one day actually speaks more of the consistency and the level of this team, than just getting to the top once. I also managed to place second in the Mt. Silver weekly Tournament, which I was overall very happy with. After reaching second on the ladder three times and also getting second in an online tournament, I realized that this team probably just isn’t meant to reach Nr. 1 on the ladder anyways, although it’s capable of it.
Team Building Process
After building my last team, I was trying to come up with a core or something specific I wanted to build my team around. I began looking at some of the teams that did well at the very beginning of the format for inspiration. I was interested in this because many of the trends that were big then, are returning now. Like the big usage of Dragapult and Rotom-Wash.
I looked at an old team made by Paul Chua, where he used Arcanine, Corviknight, Gastrodon and Dragapult. I have never been a huge fan of Gastrodon personally, but I liked the other three, so I decided to swap Gastrodon out for Milotic, which is a very strong pick in the meta right now and can pretty much win games on its own. So at this point, I had nailed down these four picks.
I started wondering what the last two picks could be, and my first thought was that Mimikyu would be an excellent fit for this team. The first reason for this is that I already have a shiny Mimikyu, that I have used to get Nr. 1 on the ladder two times before. (Hence a soft spot in my heart for that specific Mimikyu) The second and slightly more important reason, is that Mimikyu is a very strong partner to Dragapult.
I’m sure most of you know the power of the Triple Ghost teams, which has been a massive threat in the meta over the last couple months. Dragapult and Mimikyu is pretty much the centerpieces of that archetype. Mimikyu supports Dragapult by having Shadow Sneak, which allows you to activate your own Weakness Policy on Dragapult. While Dragapult supports Mimikyu, by giving it speed boosts from Max Airstream, and also lowering the opponents defense with Max Phantasm, making Mimikyu hit super hard and fast (especially with a Swords Dance boost).
Now that I had most of the team figured out, I only had one more spot to fill. I took a look at what my team did well, and what it struggled with. After experimenting with a couple different things, I realized that Rotom-Wash could be very annoying for my team. Especially because it really messed up Corviknight and Milotic’s stall antics.
This made me realize that I needed some form of Grass coverage, not only because of Rotom-Wash, but also because of Gastrodon. Adding a Rotom-Mow seemed like a very good option because of this. Both Rotom-Wash and Gastrodon, can’t really touch Rotom-Mow in any serious way, while getting hit super effectively in return.
I had now filled all the 6 spots, and the addition of Rotom actually made it so the team had the Fantasy core (Fairy, Dragon and Steel). While also having the more traditional core (Water, Grass and Fire). Which gives this team excellent coverage options, on both the defensive and offensive side.
This team can be played in a couple different ways. The main way is the triple ghost approach, in this case double ghost where you try and overpower your opponent with a Dragapult and Mimikyu lead. Either by activating Dragapults Weakness Policy with Shadow Sneak or start setting up speed boosts and Swords Dance with Mimikyu. This mode is generally great in a bunch of different matchups. You also have the option of running a more set up based game plan, where Milotic and Corviknight are centerpieces. This is particulary good against more passive teams, like against a Trick Room lead.
Over all I am very happy with the team, although it felt a bit out of my comfort zone at first, having neither Fake Out or Follow Me support. Despite this, I found the team to be working very well, and that each team member had its place. Anyways, now that you know the basic premise of the team, I will start discussing each individual team member.
Team Members
Dragapult @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 236 HP / 196 Atk / 4 Def / 20 SpD / 52 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Phantom Force
- Dragon Claw
- Fly
- ProtectSo the one we’re taking a look at first is Dragapult, one of the more central members of the team. Dragapult’s main task in this team is to sweep, often next to Mimikyu. With an activated Weakness Policy, Dragapult becomes a lightning fast and very deadly sweeper. It is generally not brought unless I plan to dynamax it.
This moveset is generally a pretty standard Weakness Policy set. Phantom Force is a no brainer, and I prefer Dragon Claw over Dragon Darts just because I find it to be more consisent, but Dragon Darts is also a very viable choice.
Fly is pretty much only there to give you Max Airstream while Dynamaxed, which is important for speed control on this team. I personally think Protect is a must have on Dragapult. A lot of people run Dragon Dance over protect, but I personally prefer Protect.
The EV spread is a pretty standard Weakness Policy Dragapult set, and allows you to live a bunch of important hits. The speed investment is for outspeeding max speed Whimsicott, and the attack investment is to OHKO Venusaur with Max Airstream. I’ll list some other calcs below.
252+ Atk Rhyperior Max Rockfall (130 BP) vs. 236 HP / 4 Def Dragapult: 160-190 (41.4 - 49.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO252+ Atk Tyranitar Max Darkness (130 BP) vs. 236 HP / 4 Def Dragapult: 312-368 (80.8 - 95.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage252 Atk Dragapult Max Phantasm (140 BP) vs. 236 HP / 4 Def Dragapult: 284-336 (73.5 - 87%) -- guaranteed 2HKO252+ SpA Togekiss Max Starfall (130 BP) vs. 236 HP / 20 SpD Dragapult: 284-336 (73.5 - 87%) -- guaranteed 2HKO252+ SpA Lapras Max Hailstorm (120 BP) vs. 236 HP / 20 SpD Dragapult: 206-246 (53.3 - 63.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Mimikyu @ Life Orb
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Phantom Force
- Play Rough
- Shadow Sneak
- Swords DanceSo Mimikyu is by far my favorite member of this team. Not only because it’s one of the very few shinies I have actually hunted for in this game, but also because it has been with me on two other journeys to Nr. 1 on the ladder.
Like I said, I do have some sentimental bias to this Mimikyu, however that doesn’t take away from how useful Mimikyu always is when I use it on a team. Mimikyu often comes in and does the job, when no one else can. Which it really showed in the Mt. Silver tournament, where it often turned into the main sweeper of the team. Even more then Dragapult did at times. It really clutched out a lot of games for me, especially against Trick Room teams and in close late game situations. I’m very happy that it was my favorite that rose up, and took responsibility in the close games.
Disguise is obviously an amazing ability, which gives you a lot of freedom, allows you to set up Swords Dances and generally allows you to stay longer on the field. Some of the complaints I have seen about Mimikyu is that it doesn’t do enough damage. I have at times found myself thinking the same thing, but that was before I tried it with Life Orb. The 1.3x damage boost makes it, so that Mimikyu can pick up a lot of KOs it normaly can’t. Combine this with Swords Dance and potential defense drops from Dragapult and Mimikyu hits like a truck.
Mimikyu’s move set is very standard. Shadow Sneak is necessary for activating Dragapults Weakness Policy, while also being a good move to have in general. Play Rough is a no brainer, and I like Phantom Force over Shadow Claw, because it gives you the ability to completely dodge max moves.
The combination of Disguise, Swords Dance and Mimikyu’s good speed is honestly the reasons Mimikyu is so good in my opinion. Especially if you’re able to set it up without losing your disguise.
Corviknight @ Lum Berry
Ability: Mirror Armor
EVs: 244 HP / 100 Atk / 100 Def / 44 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Iron Head
- Roost
- TauntCorviknight is in my opinion a very underrated Pokemon, and is a very important piece in this team. One of its biggest strenghts is its survivability with roost and its natural bulk. It’s possibly the second most dynamaxed Pokemon on the team, due to offering speed bosts and defense boosts, while also doing pretty solid damage. It also functions very well with Milotic, especially against Trick Room.
Brave Bird and Iron Head is just strong coverage moves that are both needed, and also gives very useful max move effects. Roost is pretty much in the same category, where it really helps Corviknight with its survivability. I wish I could have both Taunt and Bulk Up, however I have found Taunt to be really good as well, especially against Trick Room teams. This is of course something you can see for yourself, and decide if you like Taunt or Bulk Up better.
This is a very bulky Corviknight, as well as being quite offensive. You obviously lose a bit of speed because of this, but you can’t have everything I suppose. I’ll list some calcs below.
252+ SpA Togekiss Max Flare (130 BP) vs. 244 HP / 44 SpD Corviknight: 168-198 (82.3 - 97%) -- guaranteed 2HKO252+ SpA Rotom-W Thunderbolt vs. 244 HP / 44 SpD Corviknight: 158-188 (77.4 - 92.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO252+ SpA Torkoal Heat Wave vs. 244 HP / 44 SpD Corviknight in Sun: 162-192 (79.4 - 94.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO252+ Atk Tyranitar Rock Slide vs. 244 HP / 100 Def Corviknight: 46-55 (22.5 - 26.9%) -- 35.5% chance to 4HKO-1 4 Atk Incineroar Flare Blitz vs. 244 HP / 100 Def Corviknight: 90-108 (44.1 - 52.9%) -- 18.8% chance to 2HKO
Arcanine @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- Extreme Speed
- Close CombatArcanine serves as both an offensive threat and as Intimidate support in this team. For those of you who remember my older teams, you know I enjoyed using Choice Band Arcanine, and it’s making a return here.
There isn’t really all that much to explain about this Arcanine as it is pretty straight forward. It hits very hard and can do solid damage to a big portion of the meta game. Flare Blitz is an obvious move and Wild Charge is great for water or flying threats such as Togekiss or Milotic. Close Combat is also useful coverage for stuff like Tyranitar, and Extreme Speed can also come in very clutch with the +2 priority.
Arcanine fills a few gaps in this team with its coverage, such as destroying Tyranitar with a banded Close Combat or outspeeding Excadrill and at least taking it down to a sash with its Flare Blitz. Arcanine is over all a very solid offensive member of the team, while also providing Intimidate support whenever that is needed.
Rotom-Mow @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Def / 36 SpA / 4 SpD / 220 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Thunderbolt
- Nasty Plot
- ProtectLike I talked about in the “Team Bulding Process” section, Rotom-Mow helps a lot in few matchups I had issues with before. The biggest one of these are the Rotom-Wash matchup, which both Corviknight and Milotic does poorly in. As well as helping with Gastrodon, and all around providing Grass and Electric coverage.
I chose to go with a Nasty Plot Rotom, rather than going for Ally Switch or Will-O-Wisp. Although I think all of these are solid options, I went for Nasty Plot because I wanted Rotom to have a bit more offensive pressure, and once you get the Nasty Plot boost Rotom becomes very dangerous. This combined with a potential speed boost from Corviknight/Dragapult and Rotom is very deadly. Thunderbolt and Leaf Storm are just the obvious STAB moves, while protect is a useful move on Rotom in general.
The EV spread is nothing fancy. I wanted a pretty fast Rotom, so you can outspeed opposing Rotoms, and this speed investment also allows you to always outspeed Togekiss, Braviary and Gyarados. I invested the rest in HP, and I put 4 in both defenses to ensure some bulk. I put the little I had left in Special Attack, which at times make you rely on setting up a Nasty Plot to hit hard enough, but this shouldn’t be too difficult to do with the bulk investment and the Sitrus Berry.
Milotic @ Wiki Berry
Ability: Competitive
EVs: 228 HP / 156 Def / 84 SpA / 36 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Muddy Water
- Coil
- Hypnosis
- RecoverLast but not least we have Milotic, another important piece in certain matchups. Milotic pretty much just does what Milotics does best, stalling and putting things to sleep. Combined with Corviknight, Milotic can set up and stall out the opponents attacks, most importantly in the Trick Room matchup.
I know I previously said that Mimikyu was an important piece on the road to the finals(which is true), however I wouldn’t be truthful if I said that it was more important than the sea serpent. Milotic really won me games all on its own, and at times it almost felt like cheating. It’s close to unkillable, especially if you get a coil up. Which again lets you put the opponents to sleep over and over. Even when your opponent thinks they can focus down Milotic, they end up activating your Wiki Berry and suddenly they’re screwed again. This is a really busted Pokemon at times.
I chose to go with the Coil/Hypnosis route over the Life Orb full on offensive variant, that has seen popularity lately. Firstly because I already wanted to use Life Orb on Mimikyu, but also because I felt that I already had the straight offensive pressure I needed and I also felt this version is better with Corviknight.
Milotics main task is just hanging around and being annoying. It does this with Coils, putting the opponents to sleep and healing up with Recover. Muddy Water can also potentially make it even more difficult for your opponent to attack, with accuracy drops. There’s definitely a couple other moves that would be appreciated on Milotic such as an extra coverage move, but I feel like all the moves on this Milotic is necessary in different situations.
I originally got the EV spread from a team made by Jose M. Sanchez, but it turned out to have some inefficient EV investment as pointed out by my friend James Eakes (check out his Twitch/Youtube channel at EakesTV btw). So this spread is an upgraded version of Jose’s original spread. I’m not entirely sure what this spread was designed to do, but I’m gonna leave some calcs I found to be interesting below.
252+ Atk Life Orb Iron Fist Conkeldurr Thunder Punch vs. 228 HP / 156 Def Milotic: 159-187 (79.8 - 93.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO252+ Atk Rhyperior Max Rockfall (130 BP) vs. 228 HP / 156 Def Milotic: 130-154 (65.3 - 77.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO252+ SpA Choice Specs Rotom-W Thunderbolt vs. 228 HP / 36+ SpD Milotic: 158-188 (79.3 - 94.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO252 SpA Solar Power Charizard Max Overgrowth (140 BP) vs. 228 HP / 36+ SpD Milotic in Sun: 154-182 (77.3 - 91.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Strategy and matchups
As I talked about earlier, this team genereally has two main modes. Although you’ll often find yourself having to improvise your game plan a bit depending on what you’re up against. Either way, the two main routes for this team is either the Dragapult route or the Corviknight route.
The Dragapult route is probably the more common one I go for, where I try to blow away the opponent with dynamax Dragapult. Which again provides speed boosts and Defense/ Attack drops. Dragapults main partner in crime is Mimikyu, although Rotom can also take great use out of the speed bosts, especially if you can set up Nasty Plots at the same time.
The Corviknight route can be pretty similiar to the Dragapult, as it revolves around Dynamaxing Corviknight to get speed and defense boosts. I don’t always Dynamax Corviknight though, as it often works better outside of dynamax. Generally because it has more survivability with Roost, and also because Taunt is often needed in specific matchups. Corviknight is also a very solid partner to Milotic as I have stated earlier.
When it comes to matchups, leading Dragapult and Mimikyu is gonna be what you want to do a lot of the time. However, it’s not always gonna work perfectly, so I’ll go over a couple matchups where you’re gonna have to be a bit more creative.
Trick Room
This is the matchup where Corviknight and Milotic really shines. Most of the time I will lead them against Trick Room teams, due to how good they are at disrupting and stalling out the Trick Room turns. Turn 1 I usually try and Taunt the Trick Room setter, while also setting up a coil with Milotic.
Even if the Taunt gets redirected, it’s alright because then you’ll have at least stopped the opponent from being able to redirect any of your other attacks. This leaves your opponent in an awkward position, where they have to potentially switch out their Trick Room setter or redirector to bring in their threats, which gives Milotic time to set up a couple Coils and put whatever comes in to sleep.
Corviknights job is pretty much just to spam Taunt and stay alive with Roost. After you feel that you have good control over the situation, you should be able to finish the game with either just Corviknight and Milotic, or whatever you brought in the back.
This strategy works really well if your opponent leads a TR setter and a redirector like Indeedee, just because of how passive that lead is, and the time it gives Milotic to set up. It’s even better if they don’t lead a redirector, because then you can just prevent them from setting up Trick Room at all with Taunt
In the Mt. Silver tournament, I played against two Trick Room teams. The first one was in one of the deciding swiss rounds, where I played against a Dusclops and Lapras team. Milotic and Corviknight handled this matchup very well, with the excact strategy I explained above. Mimikyu and Arcanine in the back helped clean up.
The second Trick Room team I played against was a Hatterene and Indeedee team in top 8. This proved to be a bit more annoying, due to the whole confusion factor from Hatterene. Luckily I snapped out of confusion fairly quickly, and I managed to clutch out the set using Milotic + Corviknight with Mimkyu + Dragapult in the back.
Sand
Although Dragapult can do well in this matchup if you call all the shots correctly, it’s a lot easier to go with an alternative route. Corviknight is famously known to be good against Tyranitar and Excadrill, and even though having a more set up oriented Corviknight would be better for this specific matchup, my Corviknight can still be very useful.
Both Tyranitar and Excadrill are gonna struggle taking you out due to how physically bulky you are, and also because of Roost. Arcanine also helps in this matchup with Intimidate and hard hitting super effective moves. Rotom is also solid against both Tyranitar and Excadrill and same goes for a Milotic with Coil and Hypnosis. Tyranitar and Excadrill will often struggle a lot with keeping up with both the offense and defense you’re putting out, and you should be able to comfortably beat a lot of the sand teams with the aforementioned four.
Sun Teams
The sun matchup is a difficult matchup for this team. The Combination of fast sleep and powerful fire moves can at times be too much for the team to handle.
Charizard in itself can be annoying with its hard hitting fire moves, but Dragapult actually deals with it quite well. The real problem occurs when you have to deal with both Charizard and Clorophyll boosted Venusaur at the same time. The presure Venusaur (or really any Sleep Powder user) provides requires immidiate attention, and is generally hard for the team to handle.
The matchup is not unwinnable. Lum Berry on Corviknight helps, because it’s going to let you Taunt Venusaur without risking being put to sleep. This still isn’t a great solution, due to the fire types being able to just destroy your Corviknight. If the opponent leads a sun setter plus Venusaur, you have an advantage because that pretty much garantues that Corviknight can set up a Taunt (because the sun setter won’t be able to OHKO your Corviknight).
Then again this is a strategy that’s gonna be far from optimal in BO3 games. In fact, the team I lost to in the finals of the Mt. Silver tournament was a sun team, and even though I managed to make both game 1 and 2 close, the matchup was the deciding factor at the end. Unfortunately, for this matchup to be winnable, you’re either going to have to get a taunt off on Venusaur, or Venusaur is going to have to miss a Sleep Powder.
There are a couple things you could do to improve the matchup. First off all, both Fake Out and Follow Me support would help a lot in dealing with Venusaur. The second option that I have ended up going for myself, is changing the Arcanine set to a more supportive variant, with Safety Goggles and Snarl. Although you lose some offensive power, you gain a small edge that makes the sun matchup that much better.
Coalossal + Dragapult
This is an annoying matchup in all honesty. In fact, two of the games I lost while being at Nr. 2 was against Coalossal teams. Not because it’s a partiuclary bad matchup, but just because how much of a guessing game this matchup always is. Milotic is gonna be your best answer in a lot of cases, due to Coalossal barely being able to 2HKO Milotic with Max Overgrowth, while Milotic can OHKO Coalossal back with a Max Geyeser (after surf damage).
You may think that this sounds like an easy answer, just dynamax Milotic turn 1 and destroy Coalossal, which in a way is true. However when you factor in that the opponent might not even lead Coalossal, and also that the opponent probably has a Gastrodon to switch in, it becomes more complicated. Not to mention that Milotic generally isn’t a great candidate to dynamax in general either. All of these things turns the matchup into a guessing game a lot of the time, where you just have to pray you went with the right move.
I did actually play a Coalossal team in the Semi-Finals of the Mt. Silver tournament and Milotic and Arcanine was pretty much what got me through it. Interestingly enough, I actually dynamaxed my Arcanine in the deciding game, which got 2 attack boosts with Max Knuckle. After dynamax had ended, I was able to Extreme Speed my way through the rest of my opponents team, with the added bonus of +2 Attack and the Choice Band.
Rotom-Wash
Lastly, I want to quickly talk about Rotom-Wash. Like I have already said, Rotom-Wash can be really annoying for this team, especially for Corviknight and Milotic. However, that problem is pretty much completely solved with Rotom-Mow.
So if you’re up against a team where you think Milotic and Corviknight can put in a lot of work, but they also have a Rotom-Wash. Make sure to bring your own Rotom so you can protect Corviknight and Milotic.
Conclusion
While this team isn’t nearly as standard as my last team, I fully believe this team can compete just as well as the last one. This team is also to me more fun. Mostly because I think it allows for you to come up with creative win conditions by controling the tempo of the game, but also because it’s more my own idea than the last one was.
I’m also very happy that I managed to do well in a best of 3 format. The whole team pulled their weight, although I would probably say that Milotic, Mimikyu and Corviknight were the ones that really shined this time around.
I’m curious to see if Pokemon like Corviknight will see a rise in usage, because I do think it’s very good and underrated at the moment. Same with Rotom-Mow, it was really popular a couple months ago, but it suddenly fell off. Maybe it will see a rise in usage, considering the upsurge in Rotom-Wash and Gastrodons. Anyways, it’s gonna be exciting to see how the meta evolves in the next months before the first expansion in June.
As always, I hope you enjoyed reading about another one of my teams and I hope you enjoy trying it out as well. Feel free to ask me questions on twitter or anywhere else.
