Hi! This is my first ever RMT so i'd appreciate any inputs/improvements on my team!
with that lets get straight into it.
Team Building process:
I was watching a couple of OU games on the ladder and saw choice scarf Dracovish put in a lot of work. I realised that this could be utilised just as well in Gen 8 DOU as well and with that in mind i built a team around Dracovish. Initially although with choice scarf, Dracovish did outspeed a lot of Pokemon and was able to pick up some KO's with Fishious Rend, given the nature of doubles, it wasn't doing enough to the opponent and put less pressure on the other teams than i imagined. so i decided to go another way and give my Dracovish choice band and come up with ways for the team to support its low speed. with that in mind i came up with the following team.
The Team:
Braviary (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Tailwind
Braviary with its very good movepool paired with its ability defiant is a good Pokemon to have for speed control and opposing Dynamax Pokemon. with tailwind for speed control and life orb to power up its moves, Braviary can act as support to give your slower teammates that extra boost in speed to pick up the KO's. with the new mechanic that speed updates mid turn in SwSh it can really come in clutch in the late game or throw your opponents team into a loop at the start. Braviary is a also a good choice to Dynamax as it can help stall out opposing Dynamax Pokemon with max guard but can also boost your speed with Max Airstream, and boost your attack with Max Knuckle which helps choice band Dracovish put a lot of pressure on your opponents.
Grimmsnarl-Gmax (M) @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Thunder Wave
- Darkest Lariat
Grimmsnarl is an amazing Pokemon to support both Braviary and Dracovish. Reflect and light Screen improves the defensive capabilities of the team and gives the team time to set up or tank super effective hits and eliminate threats. thunder wave offers another form of speed control in order to let Dracovish later come in and sweep. Darkest Lariat is very useful to have against trick room teams and also helps get that extra chip damage when needed. alternatively you could run spirit break or sucker punch for more speed control, but I've found darkest lariat to be useful against physical set up walls like Corviknight and Mudsdale. Grimmsnarl isn't the most ideal Pokemon on this team to G-Max however if you are pushed to the brink and forced to G-Max Grimmsnarl, I've found that the G-max form is more useful than the regular Dynamax form as max snooze puts your foes to sleep (works like yawn so they sleep the next turn) so G-Max helps tank hits and once you're out of the G-Max form, Darkest Lariat can pick up KO's while the opponents are asleep.
Chandelure @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Imprison
- Trick Room
- Heat Wave
This set can be considered niche, but considering it's worked successfully majority of the time when i used it, i kept this for my final version. Chandelure's main role is to curb trick room as well as possible while also providing chip damage and potential burn in heat wave to let your offensive Pokemon do big damage. Given that there's many ways to ensure Trick Room goes up, such as Sleep Powder Butterfree, Follow Me with several Pokemon, and slightly more rare but still existent Fake Out, Chandelure with its ghost typing and the move imprison that isn't affected by follow me, is a very good and slightly surprising way to stop trick room from being set up. given its Speed which is on the lower end, it can also be a good offensive Pokemon given its high Special Attack stat, against semi Trick Room teams. It can also set up its own Trick Room to help Dracovish get speed control against faster opponents.
Dracovish @ Choice Band
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Psychic Fangs
- Leech Life
- Earthquake
The main event Dracovish does not disappoint when i say it can break walls. with Choice band to increase its already decent attack stat, paired with speed control provided by its team mates, it can break most opposing Pokemon with one hit including a lot of Dynamax Pokemon. Its STAB move Fishious Rend does double damage when Dracovish moves first and is further boosted by its ability strong jaw. psychic fangs is also an excellent option against teams that run Indeedee since it gets a boost from both psychic terrain and its ability. Leech life might not look that good on paper but it has helped me before in a battle of attrition against slightly bulkier Pokemon like Gastrodon. alternatively Crunch or Outrage are good options as well, outrage especially against opposing Dracovish. earthquake provide Dracovish with a way of targetting both opposing Pokemon when it comes down to it. Majority of the time though Fishious Rend should be the move that you click. Dynamaxing is a decent option here to set up rain and psychic terrain if needed but Dracovish does more damage with Fishious rend so you need to consider your options before clicking Dynamax. One thing that you might notice on this set is the lack of speed investment. The reason for this is, I noticed that Dracovish with its base speed and tailwind support outspeeds most Pokemon in the meta currently, and also with its low speed stat can function better under trick room if needed. the investment into HP also lets Dracovish tank some special effective hits like Dazzling Gleam and such.
Arcanine @ Figy Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Iron Head
- Close Combat
- Protect
Why justified Arcanine over intimidate? Intimidate in the current meta isn't as helpful as before, since there are no Pokemon for which intimidate is absolutely necessary anymore, and the fact that it can backfire against Corviknight and defiant Pokemon made the choice much easier to run justified instead. Justified also helps when paired with the last Pokemon in the team which i will be getting to a bit later. Extreme Speed helps clean up Pokemon while iron head close combat provide good coverage. Arcanine is also an ideal Pokemon to Dynamax as Max Strike provides another form of speed control and Max Steelspike increase your defense and your ability to tank hits. Figy berry also gives you the chance to let Arcanine stay on the field for an extra turn or two to put in as much work as it can. Close Combat is a good choice because it helps hit opposing Arcanines, Gastrodons and Duraludons for big damage and Max Knucle helps improve its Attack along with your partners but Flare Blitz is also a good choice as a STAB move and to deal with Corviknight. However Max Flare sets up soon and isn't very synergetic with Dracovish and i prefer running close combat.
*note: Why justified Arcanine over Justified Lucario? Arcanine is faster than Lucario and hits almost just as hard while being much bulkier. with a very similiar movepool and a slightly better defensive typing Arcanine to me was the better choice.
Whimsicott @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Beat Up
- Tailwind
- Moonblast
- Energy Ball
Whimsicott has proven before to be one of the best utility Pokemon and it does it just as well on this team. with its very high speed stat as well as its ability Prankster it will almost always move first. Beat up is used solely to target Arcanine and activate its ability Justified. when hit by a dark move Justified increases the Pokemon's attack stat by one. and since beat up hits 6 times it effectively from turn 1 increases Arcanine's attack stat to the max. Tailwind paired with Prankster is excellent speed control and given the new mechanic where speed is updated mid turn, Whimsicott is free to come in whenever and give you the immediate speed control. Moonblast and Energy Ball help take out Dracovish's two main walls, opposing Dracovish and Gastrodons respectively. They can also provide good chip damage when necessary. Focus Sash allows it to almost always either set up Tailwind or set up Arcanine.
Importable : https://pokepast.es/63a8c58f26cde688
How to use the team*:
From my experience i took this team all the way to the 12th position on the ladder and i'm currently sitting somewhere in the top 50. So with all the games i played that there are no hard threats to this team so far in the meta but there are certain teams that require you to run this team most effectively. i'll explain multiple ways and options to use this team in the following section.
Ideal way to run the team:
The most ideal way to run the team I've found is to lead with either Grimmsnarl + Braviary where Grimmsnarl sets up screens and provides speed control with thunder wave and Braviary Dynamax's and sets up right off the bat, or the more threatening combo of Whimsicott + Arcanine where Whimsicott either beats up Arcanine or sets up tailwind while Arcanine attacks, or protects while Whimsicott sets up Tailwind. after this has been done while the opponent is struggling to deal with your offensive Pokemon which has set up, Dracovish can come in and pick up some KO's for free and the rest of your team is there to help support and clean up the rest of the Pokemon once Dracovish has done its job.
Certain Possible threats and how to play against them:
Trick Room : Trick Room has always been a standard meta and it seems SwSh also has some good trick room potential. the best way to stop Trick room is by using the lead Chandelure and Dracovish. Chandelure can use imprison and stop trick room while Dracovish can KO and limit the utility Pokemon from doing anything with Fishious Rend. Butterfree can be slightly annoying to play against because of Sleep Powder however if Dracovish targets the Trick Room setter instead of Butterfree, the Trick Room setter will either be KO'd or stopped by imprison depending on Butterfree's target. Alternatively depending on the team Braviary can also be used instead of Dracovish as the lead. However it is important to remember that Trick Room cannot be fully stopped always and preserving Dracovish's HP and using screens Grimmsnarl is another ideal way to be effective against trick room teams.
Excadrill sand : Excadrill sand hard stops the Arcanine + Whimsicott lead however this is when the Grimmsnarl + Braviary lead flourishes. Grimmsnarl can use reflect to weaken the incoming physical attacks and Braviary can Dynamax and set up / KO your opponents.
Rain teams : Just like sand, most rain team variants halt Arcanine + Whimsicott but again Braviary + Grimmsnarl are very good against them. however here instead of setting up a screen, Grimmsnarl should be Targetting the Swift Swim Pokemon with Thunder Wave to let Braviary go first and KO with a max move. Additionally due to the existence of rain Dracovish can come in earlier in the game and Whimsicott can put more offensive pressure against rain teams as well.
G-max Lapras teams : G-max Lapras teams are particularly annoying due to the fact it can set up aurora veil early in the game and reduce your offensive presence. But there is a pretty effective way to deal with it. By leading with Whimsicott + Arcanine and using beat up on Arcanine turn 1, Arcanine can get +6 attack and KO g-max Lapras with Close Combat. its important to remember that Max Knuckle doesn't KO most Lapras' so its ideal to not Dynamax turn 1.
Semi Trick Room teams: given how versatile these teams can be you need to first evaluate if trick room is helpful for your team or harmful to it. but the most balanced lead against a semi trick room team is with a Grimmsnarl + Chandelure lead which gives you options against Trick Room setters with Chandelure and Grimmsnarl can either set up screens or Thunder Wave opposing pokemon.
*These are just suggestions on how to play with the team in the current meta and might not be suited to your playstyle so use these strategies under your own discretion.
Finally i think this is a pretty solid built which carried me pretty high up the ladder early in this generation, but i am open to criticism and suggestions on how this team can be improved. thanks for reading!
with that lets get straight into it.
Team Building process:
I was watching a couple of OU games on the ladder and saw choice scarf Dracovish put in a lot of work. I realised that this could be utilised just as well in Gen 8 DOU as well and with that in mind i built a team around Dracovish. Initially although with choice scarf, Dracovish did outspeed a lot of Pokemon and was able to pick up some KO's with Fishious Rend, given the nature of doubles, it wasn't doing enough to the opponent and put less pressure on the other teams than i imagined. so i decided to go another way and give my Dracovish choice band and come up with ways for the team to support its low speed. with that in mind i came up with the following team.
The Team:
Braviary (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Tailwind
Braviary with its very good movepool paired with its ability defiant is a good Pokemon to have for speed control and opposing Dynamax Pokemon. with tailwind for speed control and life orb to power up its moves, Braviary can act as support to give your slower teammates that extra boost in speed to pick up the KO's. with the new mechanic that speed updates mid turn in SwSh it can really come in clutch in the late game or throw your opponents team into a loop at the start. Braviary is a also a good choice to Dynamax as it can help stall out opposing Dynamax Pokemon with max guard but can also boost your speed with Max Airstream, and boost your attack with Max Knuckle which helps choice band Dracovish put a lot of pressure on your opponents.
Grimmsnarl-Gmax (M) @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Thunder Wave
- Darkest Lariat
Grimmsnarl is an amazing Pokemon to support both Braviary and Dracovish. Reflect and light Screen improves the defensive capabilities of the team and gives the team time to set up or tank super effective hits and eliminate threats. thunder wave offers another form of speed control in order to let Dracovish later come in and sweep. Darkest Lariat is very useful to have against trick room teams and also helps get that extra chip damage when needed. alternatively you could run spirit break or sucker punch for more speed control, but I've found darkest lariat to be useful against physical set up walls like Corviknight and Mudsdale. Grimmsnarl isn't the most ideal Pokemon on this team to G-Max however if you are pushed to the brink and forced to G-Max Grimmsnarl, I've found that the G-max form is more useful than the regular Dynamax form as max snooze puts your foes to sleep (works like yawn so they sleep the next turn) so G-Max helps tank hits and once you're out of the G-Max form, Darkest Lariat can pick up KO's while the opponents are asleep.
Chandelure @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Imprison
- Trick Room
- Heat Wave
This set can be considered niche, but considering it's worked successfully majority of the time when i used it, i kept this for my final version. Chandelure's main role is to curb trick room as well as possible while also providing chip damage and potential burn in heat wave to let your offensive Pokemon do big damage. Given that there's many ways to ensure Trick Room goes up, such as Sleep Powder Butterfree, Follow Me with several Pokemon, and slightly more rare but still existent Fake Out, Chandelure with its ghost typing and the move imprison that isn't affected by follow me, is a very good and slightly surprising way to stop trick room from being set up. given its Speed which is on the lower end, it can also be a good offensive Pokemon given its high Special Attack stat, against semi Trick Room teams. It can also set up its own Trick Room to help Dracovish get speed control against faster opponents.
Dracovish @ Choice Band
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Psychic Fangs
- Leech Life
- Earthquake
The main event Dracovish does not disappoint when i say it can break walls. with Choice band to increase its already decent attack stat, paired with speed control provided by its team mates, it can break most opposing Pokemon with one hit including a lot of Dynamax Pokemon. Its STAB move Fishious Rend does double damage when Dracovish moves first and is further boosted by its ability strong jaw. psychic fangs is also an excellent option against teams that run Indeedee since it gets a boost from both psychic terrain and its ability. Leech life might not look that good on paper but it has helped me before in a battle of attrition against slightly bulkier Pokemon like Gastrodon. alternatively Crunch or Outrage are good options as well, outrage especially against opposing Dracovish. earthquake provide Dracovish with a way of targetting both opposing Pokemon when it comes down to it. Majority of the time though Fishious Rend should be the move that you click. Dynamaxing is a decent option here to set up rain and psychic terrain if needed but Dracovish does more damage with Fishious rend so you need to consider your options before clicking Dynamax. One thing that you might notice on this set is the lack of speed investment. The reason for this is, I noticed that Dracovish with its base speed and tailwind support outspeeds most Pokemon in the meta currently, and also with its low speed stat can function better under trick room if needed. the investment into HP also lets Dracovish tank some special effective hits like Dazzling Gleam and such.
Arcanine @ Figy Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Iron Head
- Close Combat
- Protect
Why justified Arcanine over intimidate? Intimidate in the current meta isn't as helpful as before, since there are no Pokemon for which intimidate is absolutely necessary anymore, and the fact that it can backfire against Corviknight and defiant Pokemon made the choice much easier to run justified instead. Justified also helps when paired with the last Pokemon in the team which i will be getting to a bit later. Extreme Speed helps clean up Pokemon while iron head close combat provide good coverage. Arcanine is also an ideal Pokemon to Dynamax as Max Strike provides another form of speed control and Max Steelspike increase your defense and your ability to tank hits. Figy berry also gives you the chance to let Arcanine stay on the field for an extra turn or two to put in as much work as it can. Close Combat is a good choice because it helps hit opposing Arcanines, Gastrodons and Duraludons for big damage and Max Knucle helps improve its Attack along with your partners but Flare Blitz is also a good choice as a STAB move and to deal with Corviknight. However Max Flare sets up soon and isn't very synergetic with Dracovish and i prefer running close combat.
*note: Why justified Arcanine over Justified Lucario? Arcanine is faster than Lucario and hits almost just as hard while being much bulkier. with a very similiar movepool and a slightly better defensive typing Arcanine to me was the better choice.
Whimsicott @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Beat Up
- Tailwind
- Moonblast
- Energy Ball
Whimsicott has proven before to be one of the best utility Pokemon and it does it just as well on this team. with its very high speed stat as well as its ability Prankster it will almost always move first. Beat up is used solely to target Arcanine and activate its ability Justified. when hit by a dark move Justified increases the Pokemon's attack stat by one. and since beat up hits 6 times it effectively from turn 1 increases Arcanine's attack stat to the max. Tailwind paired with Prankster is excellent speed control and given the new mechanic where speed is updated mid turn, Whimsicott is free to come in whenever and give you the immediate speed control. Moonblast and Energy Ball help take out Dracovish's two main walls, opposing Dracovish and Gastrodons respectively. They can also provide good chip damage when necessary. Focus Sash allows it to almost always either set up Tailwind or set up Arcanine.
Importable : https://pokepast.es/63a8c58f26cde688
How to use the team*:
From my experience i took this team all the way to the 12th position on the ladder and i'm currently sitting somewhere in the top 50. So with all the games i played that there are no hard threats to this team so far in the meta but there are certain teams that require you to run this team most effectively. i'll explain multiple ways and options to use this team in the following section.
Ideal way to run the team:
The most ideal way to run the team I've found is to lead with either Grimmsnarl + Braviary where Grimmsnarl sets up screens and provides speed control with thunder wave and Braviary Dynamax's and sets up right off the bat, or the more threatening combo of Whimsicott + Arcanine where Whimsicott either beats up Arcanine or sets up tailwind while Arcanine attacks, or protects while Whimsicott sets up Tailwind. after this has been done while the opponent is struggling to deal with your offensive Pokemon which has set up, Dracovish can come in and pick up some KO's for free and the rest of your team is there to help support and clean up the rest of the Pokemon once Dracovish has done its job.
Certain Possible threats and how to play against them:
Trick Room : Trick Room has always been a standard meta and it seems SwSh also has some good trick room potential. the best way to stop Trick room is by using the lead Chandelure and Dracovish. Chandelure can use imprison and stop trick room while Dracovish can KO and limit the utility Pokemon from doing anything with Fishious Rend. Butterfree can be slightly annoying to play against because of Sleep Powder however if Dracovish targets the Trick Room setter instead of Butterfree, the Trick Room setter will either be KO'd or stopped by imprison depending on Butterfree's target. Alternatively depending on the team Braviary can also be used instead of Dracovish as the lead. However it is important to remember that Trick Room cannot be fully stopped always and preserving Dracovish's HP and using screens Grimmsnarl is another ideal way to be effective against trick room teams.
Excadrill sand : Excadrill sand hard stops the Arcanine + Whimsicott lead however this is when the Grimmsnarl + Braviary lead flourishes. Grimmsnarl can use reflect to weaken the incoming physical attacks and Braviary can Dynamax and set up / KO your opponents.
Rain teams : Just like sand, most rain team variants halt Arcanine + Whimsicott but again Braviary + Grimmsnarl are very good against them. however here instead of setting up a screen, Grimmsnarl should be Targetting the Swift Swim Pokemon with Thunder Wave to let Braviary go first and KO with a max move. Additionally due to the existence of rain Dracovish can come in earlier in the game and Whimsicott can put more offensive pressure against rain teams as well.
G-max Lapras teams : G-max Lapras teams are particularly annoying due to the fact it can set up aurora veil early in the game and reduce your offensive presence. But there is a pretty effective way to deal with it. By leading with Whimsicott + Arcanine and using beat up on Arcanine turn 1, Arcanine can get +6 attack and KO g-max Lapras with Close Combat. its important to remember that Max Knuckle doesn't KO most Lapras' so its ideal to not Dynamax turn 1.
Semi Trick Room teams: given how versatile these teams can be you need to first evaluate if trick room is helpful for your team or harmful to it. but the most balanced lead against a semi trick room team is with a Grimmsnarl + Chandelure lead which gives you options against Trick Room setters with Chandelure and Grimmsnarl can either set up screens or Thunder Wave opposing pokemon.
*These are just suggestions on how to play with the team in the current meta and might not be suited to your playstyle so use these strategies under your own discretion.
Finally i think this is a pretty solid built which carried me pretty high up the ladder early in this generation, but i am open to criticism and suggestions on how this team can be improved. thanks for reading!
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