Hello everyone, welcome to my latest installment of 'writing a bunch of stuff I've been thinking of lately'.
In this post, I plan on covering some general guidelines for people to consider when building in the current iteration of SV RU. While the Thundurus-Therian (likely) ban will happen soon and render some of this moot, the points I discuss should still hold up until at least the next tier shifts.
The first specific rule to address is to have a way to stop the bulky Psychic setup mons such as Cresselia, Reuniclus and Slowbro. These three can be incredibly annoying because of their utility, having access to Calm Mind, consistent recovery, naturally good bulk and the ability to hinder opponents through the use of Thunder Wave. These three also benefit greatly from using Tera in a defensive manner, such as Cresselia or Slowbro using Tera Poison to prevent their setup from being thwarted by Poison. Reuniclus is a bit more open in what it can run but has been seen using Tera Electric recently to stop Jirachi in its tracks.
While there aren't a ton of great answers to this Psychic problem we face (all the good Dark types were too good), you can still apply pressure offensively using the litany of options available or you can phase them with something like Dragon Tail Cyclizar or Roar Empoleon.
Rule number two for me is to have answers to the generic Hyper Offense's that run the tier. The usual HO consists of some combination of the following:
While the above list doesn't cover all of the threats you may see, these are the main ones you'll encounter and the main things to focus on. A recurring theme about the above list is that a lot of them are physically oriented, and you'll often see structures that run four or five physical attackers, such as or 
A great item to load on all structures is Rocky Helmet, usually given to Cobalion, Hippowdon or the occasional Amoonguss. You also want to maintain a Speed control of at least Iron Leaves at +1, which means you should ideally have a Choice Scarf mon with a base Speed of 105 or greater, such as Gengar, Infernape or Mienshao.
Rule number three revolves around some of the highest-usage mons in the tier: Cobalion, Cyclizar, Hippowdon, Jirachi and Moltres.
This rule is fairly simple; be able to break the common defensive structures. Too many people are comfortably loading three, four or all five of the listed and playing longer games that have lots of safe switches and aim to wear your team down gradually through hazard chip and fairly weak attacks.
While this Bulky Offense / Balance approach is a generally safe way to play and has lots of upsides in terms of matching up into Offensive and HO structures, they are susceptible to plenty of structures such as:
SpikeStack cores of Chesnaught, Cyclizar and Palossand that abuse how reliant teams are on their own Cyclizar to maintain hazard control
VoltTurn cores of Cyclizar, Thundurus-Therian and Zapdos-Galar that force progress through means of gradual chip damage
StatusSpam cores of Bellibolt, Jirachi and Slowbro that hinder the opponent and allow you to buy turns to get something in and setup
ChoiceTrick options such as Gardevoir, Infernape or Munkidori that force a Choice item on something that doesn't like having it
My fourth and final rule relates to ladder largely - have ways to beat Rain. While Rain is generally classified as HO, the specific structures you'll see are relatively straightforward but really potent. The obligatory trio of Rain abusers are Barraskewda, Basculegion-F and Politoed, with plenty of teams opting for also running Cobalion or Jirachi as a Steel type Stealth Rocker that can pivot or spread Paralysis, Overqwil as a Poison Type SD Swift Swim sweeper and Kilowattrel/Thundurus-Therian as Ground- and Volt-immune Electric type pivots. While the sets on these types of teams are easy to predict in preview, having reliable switches (and making good reads) into the onslaught of immediate power available to these teams isn't so easy.
Some of the better mons that also matchup well into Rain are Gardevoir, Slowbro and Volcanion, as all three of these can reliably matchup into Rain while also providing general value into other matchups. Empoleon, Suicune and Wo-Chien also see adequate usage in the tier and can be headaches for these types of mash-buttons HO. The best way to handle these teams is to maintain hazard control and force gradual chip throughout the course of a game, although that is easier said than done.
- One of the better Stall breakers in the tier that can reliably clean games. Takes advantage of a lot of U-Turn spam with Cyclizar and can chunk a lot of stuff with CM + 3 Attacks.
- Big fan of this guy in general. Matches up into HO and Rain really consistently, can go the distance in longer games against BO and Balance, can spread Paralysis and Toxic. Genuinely good mon that is kinda memed for being a funny guy.
- One of the forgotten broken Fighting types. Deals insane damage and can revenge kill most of the tier, ignore Moltres as a Flame Body Physical Defense mon, has STAB priority... really really strong mon.
- The forgotten Toxic Chain Trio mon. Fast enough to outrun +1 Leaves with Scarf, can Trick fatter mons, Spread Toxic and deal lots of damage into the tier as a whole. Super fun thing to use.
- A standard SpikeStack mon, super good at abusing Cyclizar removal teams (which is, like, all teams). Scorching Sands is fun to click.
- A reliable switch-in to CM Enamorus-Therian and Thundurus-Therian, which is hard to find right now. NP Pain Split sets are still good.
- Fast mon, can Toxic anything, nukes most of the tier with NP Encore sets.
In this post, I plan on covering some general guidelines for people to consider when building in the current iteration of SV RU. While the Thundurus-Therian (likely) ban will happen soon and render some of this moot, the points I discuss should still hold up until at least the next tier shifts.
General Rules of Team-Building in SV RU
As always, the standard 'rules' regarding team-building should be followed. This includes having a Ground immune, a Volt immune, Hazard control (both setting and removing), and having a form of Speed control.
The first specific rule to address is to have a way to stop the bulky Psychic setup mons such as Cresselia, Reuniclus and Slowbro. These three can be incredibly annoying because of their utility, having access to Calm Mind, consistent recovery, naturally good bulk and the ability to hinder opponents through the use of Thunder Wave. These three also benefit greatly from using Tera in a defensive manner, such as Cresselia or Slowbro using Tera Poison to prevent their setup from being thwarted by Poison. Reuniclus is a bit more open in what it can run but has been seen using Tera Electric recently to stop Jirachi in its tracks.
While there aren't a ton of great answers to this Psychic problem we face (all the good Dark types were too good), you can still apply pressure offensively using the litany of options available or you can phase them with something like Dragon Tail Cyclizar or Roar Empoleon.
Rule number two for me is to have answers to the generic Hyper Offense's that run the tier. The usual HO consists of some combination of the following:
While the above list doesn't cover all of the threats you may see, these are the main ones you'll encounter and the main things to focus on. A recurring theme about the above list is that a lot of them are physically oriented, and you'll often see structures that run four or five physical attackers, such as
or A great item to load on all structures is Rocky Helmet, usually given to Cobalion, Hippowdon or the occasional Amoonguss. You also want to maintain a Speed control of at least Iron Leaves at +1, which means you should ideally have a Choice Scarf mon with a base Speed of 105 or greater, such as Gengar, Infernape or Mienshao.
Rule number three revolves around some of the highest-usage mons in the tier: Cobalion, Cyclizar, Hippowdon, Jirachi and Moltres.
This rule is fairly simple; be able to break the common defensive structures. Too many people are comfortably loading three, four or all five of the listed and playing longer games that have lots of safe switches and aim to wear your team down gradually through hazard chip and fairly weak attacks.
While this Bulky Offense / Balance approach is a generally safe way to play and has lots of upsides in terms of matching up into Offensive and HO structures, they are susceptible to plenty of structures such as:
SpikeStack cores of Chesnaught, Cyclizar and Palossand that abuse how reliant teams are on their own Cyclizar to maintain hazard control
VoltTurn cores of Cyclizar, Thundurus-Therian and Zapdos-Galar that force progress through means of gradual chip damage
StatusSpam cores of Bellibolt, Jirachi and Slowbro that hinder the opponent and allow you to buy turns to get something in and setup
ChoiceTrick options such as Gardevoir, Infernape or Munkidori that force a Choice item on something that doesn't like having it
My fourth and final rule relates to ladder largely - have ways to beat Rain. While Rain is generally classified as HO, the specific structures you'll see are relatively straightforward but really potent. The obligatory trio of Rain abusers are Barraskewda, Basculegion-F and Politoed, with plenty of teams opting for also running Cobalion or Jirachi as a Steel type Stealth Rocker that can pivot or spread Paralysis, Overqwil as a Poison Type SD Swift Swim sweeper and Kilowattrel/Thundurus-Therian as Ground- and Volt-immune Electric type pivots. While the sets on these types of teams are easy to predict in preview, having reliable switches (and making good reads) into the onslaught of immediate power available to these teams isn't so easy.
Some of the better mons that also matchup well into Rain are Gardevoir, Slowbro and Volcanion, as all three of these can reliably matchup into Rain while also providing general value into other matchups. Empoleon, Suicune and Wo-Chien also see adequate usage in the tier and can be headaches for these types of mash-buttons HO. The best way to handle these teams is to maintain hazard control and force gradual chip throughout the course of a game, although that is easier said than done.
High-Value Underrated Mons
A little bonus segment I'll include is listing a few options in the builder that I would consider underrated or underutilized. - One of the better Stall breakers in the tier that can reliably clean games. Takes advantage of a lot of U-Turn spam with Cyclizar and can chunk a lot of stuff with CM + 3 Attacks. - Big fan of this guy in general. Matches up into HO and Rain really consistently, can go the distance in longer games against BO and Balance, can spread Paralysis and Toxic. Genuinely good mon that is kinda memed for being a funny guy. - One of the forgotten broken Fighting types. Deals insane damage and can revenge kill most of the tier, ignore Moltres as a Flame Body Physical Defense mon, has STAB priority... really really strong mon. - The forgotten Toxic Chain Trio mon. Fast enough to outrun +1 Leaves with Scarf, can Trick fatter mons, Spread Toxic and deal lots of damage into the tier as a whole. Super fun thing to use. - A standard SpikeStack mon, super good at abusing Cyclizar removal teams (which is, like, all teams). Scorching Sands is fun to click. - A reliable switch-in to CM Enamorus-Therian and Thundurus-Therian, which is hard to find right now. NP Pain Split sets are still good. - Fast mon, can Toxic anything, nukes most of the tier with NP Encore sets.