Specs Pelipper kindof fire rn. There's not a lot of good special water resists in the tier, and some of the ones that do exist get evaporated by hurricane. It's pretty easy for Pelipper to do some serious damage.
Ladder rating proof:
I'm not really done using this team, maybe it'll go higher, maybe it won't, but i'm done for the night so for now this is the peak,.
The Team
Ting-Lu @ Leftovers
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind
Tera water ting lu is so very useful. Excellent for absorbing a specs chi yu fire blast that would kill you and OHKOing with EQ, and seriously eases the time you're having against chien pao, who one shots nearly the whole team. Lead this into grimmsnarl to get hazards up and whirlwind out espathra or whatever they have in back. If rain is up, specs fire blast chi yu does nothing to you. Scarf Gholdengo will always try to trick this, see if you can make it give amoonguss the scarf, as amoonguss functions fine with a choice scarf on it.
Pelipper @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Surf
- Ice Beam/Roost
Walmart Kyogre himself. Come in on stuff like fat grounds that can't hurt you and click hurricane or surf, or uturn. Can 1v1 annihilape if you don't let it stack up rage fist. I don't really rate sun that highly but in any case pelipper comes in for free against torkoal, removes sun, and almost always nets a kill on something. Your matchup vs sun is about as bad as it can get for sun teams. Blasts apart cores made of stuff like corv, clodsire, skeledirge, dozo, amoonguss, garg, great tusk, ting lu, etc. A lot of the stuff that can come in on Peli like spdef roaring moon really don't appreciate hurricane, and you can always fish for confusion. I've won more than a couple games doing that. Modest still outspeeds rotom-w.
Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet/Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Foul Play
- Grass Knot
- Sludge Bomb/Clear Smog
- Spore
Excellent Pivot. Comes in on rotom which can get momentum on pelipper. Handles dragonite, iron valiant, etc. Grass knot pressures garganacl a lot more and really everything you're hitting with giga drain is heavy anyway, like ting lu and dondozo. The only thing you really lose out on is rotom, and fishing for poison with sludge bomb is usually more productive anyway. Spore is among the best moves in the game.
Dragapult @ Choice Band
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Dragon Darts
- U-turn
- Tera Blast
- Sucker Punch/Will-O-Wisp
If rotom eats a uturn from this, pelipper will 2hko it the next time it tries to come in on it. Revenges dragonite, ignores screens shed tail, spinblocks and generates momentum. If you're not using tera for anything else, this is where it goes. Tera ghost spam is a pretty solid wincondition once stuff like corviknight and dozo have face tanked surf.
Iron Treads @ Air Balloon
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Volt Switch
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
Air Balloon lets it beat counter Glimmora leads and come in safely on ting lu and clodsire. The biggest thing it has on it's brother Great Tusk is volt switch, which while flawed is an excellent momentum tool, and a lot of the stuff that absorbs volt switch like ting lu is free pelipper real estate. Does more damage than you think, is perfectly capable of closing out some games, but is frequently death fodder. I have tera type ghost in the event spinblocking is a wincondition but i've used it exactly never.
Iron Valiant @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Aura Sphere
- Thunderbolt
- Trick
Surprisingly excellent iron valiant set. Tears offense apart, and can trick fat stuff a scarf. Very useful. Caught out more than one dragapult lead. This is your chien pao check.
Threats:
Chien Pao can be a big threat to this team. Just save your tera for amoonguss or ting lu and you should be able to manage it. Tera also gives you an element of surprise, letting you spore it when they expect to force a sack with ice stab.
Annhilape gets crippled by trick and really isn't tanking specs pelipper or banded dragapult, but it can be a problem if you let it stack up rage fist. Phase it with water ting lu if it really goes that badly. If it's taunt and not rest amoonguss poisoning it with sludge bomb will probably whittle it down to the point where valiant or dpult can kill it.
Garganacl is irritating but specs pelipper will one shot it so don't give it free turns to fire off salt cure. Even if it tera fairies it's taking so much damage it'll more or less cease to be relevant for the rest of the game. Amoonguss can also pressure it down with grass knot.
Kingambit can be a serious problem late game if they've held on to tera, take notice of it at team preview and preserve health on iron valiant or hold spore back on amoonguss. If they've burned tera, just throw iron treads at it, whatever. Any kind of serious chunk into it's health pool means it ceases to be a problem. If they do tera flying, foul play hurts it bad. If it's tera fairy sludge bomb also hurts.
Despite imo not being close to it's best set, dragon dance roaring moon can be a problem, as it can set up on pelipper and can't be revenged by valiant unless it's adamant. Preserve ting lu to phase it out, then deal with it later. Both your cleaners one shot it so it's less of a problem in late game.
*Edit:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1738291587
i went and obtained a replay of the kind of damage pelipper can do to a relatively well made team that isn't expecting it. I even played poorly into trick gholdengo and it didn't matter.
[Disclaimer: At the end of the day, it is indeed a pelipper so mileage may vary.]
*Edit 2
https://pokepast.es/93e6ee5bc1ccf5a6
a pastebin courtesy of SetsuSetsuna, a wonderful human who we should all be thankful for. Apologies for my critical inability to pay attention to my own posts.
Ladder rating proof:
I'm not really done using this team, maybe it'll go higher, maybe it won't, but i'm done for the night so for now this is the peak,.
The Team
Ting-Lu @ Leftovers
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind
Tera water ting lu is so very useful. Excellent for absorbing a specs chi yu fire blast that would kill you and OHKOing with EQ, and seriously eases the time you're having against chien pao, who one shots nearly the whole team. Lead this into grimmsnarl to get hazards up and whirlwind out espathra or whatever they have in back. If rain is up, specs fire blast chi yu does nothing to you. Scarf Gholdengo will always try to trick this, see if you can make it give amoonguss the scarf, as amoonguss functions fine with a choice scarf on it.
Pelipper @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Surf
- Ice Beam/Roost
Walmart Kyogre himself. Come in on stuff like fat grounds that can't hurt you and click hurricane or surf, or uturn. Can 1v1 annihilape if you don't let it stack up rage fist. I don't really rate sun that highly but in any case pelipper comes in for free against torkoal, removes sun, and almost always nets a kill on something. Your matchup vs sun is about as bad as it can get for sun teams. Blasts apart cores made of stuff like corv, clodsire, skeledirge, dozo, amoonguss, garg, great tusk, ting lu, etc. A lot of the stuff that can come in on Peli like spdef roaring moon really don't appreciate hurricane, and you can always fish for confusion. I've won more than a couple games doing that. Modest still outspeeds rotom-w.
Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet/Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Foul Play
- Grass Knot
- Sludge Bomb/Clear Smog
- Spore
Excellent Pivot. Comes in on rotom which can get momentum on pelipper. Handles dragonite, iron valiant, etc. Grass knot pressures garganacl a lot more and really everything you're hitting with giga drain is heavy anyway, like ting lu and dondozo. The only thing you really lose out on is rotom, and fishing for poison with sludge bomb is usually more productive anyway. Spore is among the best moves in the game.
Dragapult @ Choice Band
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Dragon Darts
- U-turn
- Tera Blast
- Sucker Punch/Will-O-Wisp
If rotom eats a uturn from this, pelipper will 2hko it the next time it tries to come in on it. Revenges dragonite, ignores screens shed tail, spinblocks and generates momentum. If you're not using tera for anything else, this is where it goes. Tera ghost spam is a pretty solid wincondition once stuff like corviknight and dozo have face tanked surf.
Iron Treads @ Air Balloon
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Volt Switch
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
Air Balloon lets it beat counter Glimmora leads and come in safely on ting lu and clodsire. The biggest thing it has on it's brother Great Tusk is volt switch, which while flawed is an excellent momentum tool, and a lot of the stuff that absorbs volt switch like ting lu is free pelipper real estate. Does more damage than you think, is perfectly capable of closing out some games, but is frequently death fodder. I have tera type ghost in the event spinblocking is a wincondition but i've used it exactly never.
Iron Valiant @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Aura Sphere
- Thunderbolt
- Trick
Surprisingly excellent iron valiant set. Tears offense apart, and can trick fat stuff a scarf. Very useful. Caught out more than one dragapult lead. This is your chien pao check.
Threats:
Chien Pao can be a big threat to this team. Just save your tera for amoonguss or ting lu and you should be able to manage it. Tera also gives you an element of surprise, letting you spore it when they expect to force a sack with ice stab.
Annhilape gets crippled by trick and really isn't tanking specs pelipper or banded dragapult, but it can be a problem if you let it stack up rage fist. Phase it with water ting lu if it really goes that badly. If it's taunt and not rest amoonguss poisoning it with sludge bomb will probably whittle it down to the point where valiant or dpult can kill it.
Garganacl is irritating but specs pelipper will one shot it so don't give it free turns to fire off salt cure. Even if it tera fairies it's taking so much damage it'll more or less cease to be relevant for the rest of the game. Amoonguss can also pressure it down with grass knot.
Kingambit can be a serious problem late game if they've held on to tera, take notice of it at team preview and preserve health on iron valiant or hold spore back on amoonguss. If they've burned tera, just throw iron treads at it, whatever. Any kind of serious chunk into it's health pool means it ceases to be a problem. If they do tera flying, foul play hurts it bad. If it's tera fairy sludge bomb also hurts.
Despite imo not being close to it's best set, dragon dance roaring moon can be a problem, as it can set up on pelipper and can't be revenged by valiant unless it's adamant. Preserve ting lu to phase it out, then deal with it later. Both your cleaners one shot it so it's less of a problem in late game.
*Edit:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1738291587
i went and obtained a replay of the kind of damage pelipper can do to a relatively well made team that isn't expecting it. I even played poorly into trick gholdengo and it didn't matter.
[Disclaimer: At the end of the day, it is indeed a pelipper so mileage may vary.]
*Edit 2
https://pokepast.es/93e6ee5bc1ccf5a6
a pastebin courtesy of SetsuSetsuna, a wonderful human who we should all be thankful for. Apologies for my critical inability to pay attention to my own posts.
Last edited:
