With a newfound incentive to enter the recent VCG tournaments for the pokemon community at large in access to the exclusive shiny forms of the galar birds for participants, I've thrown my own gauntlet into the ring to give vcg a try, as while the birds just need 3 games to play, why not try it out while i'm at it where is the harm? With that in mind, I got a team ready for the Articuno even in feb and have altered it very little since then but with the change of lando-t to zapdos-galar. Through the teaam is set for the zapdos event, there is one event to go for the shiny galarian moltress, so I'm posting my team to get the thoughts of others to improove for future events and see how my team fairs up from me a player that normally plays ss ou going to make his own firts vsc team.
Necrozma-DM @
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 116 Spe
Impish Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Morning Sun
- Sunsteel Strike
- Earthquake
With the allowance of 2 typicaly "uber" pokemon in the format one of those pokemon that is going to be seen time and time again is the infamously now banned from our own ss uber tier is zacian-c. I wasn't really wanting to use Zacian myself for the team so i needed to make sure my team was ready to face the brute. One of the ways I prepped for zacian is my choice of necrozma-DM. Necrozm-dm is a big bulky hulking brute of a tanky pokemon. Able to withstand physical punishment from the likes of zacian with relitive ease and set up in his own right for potential game ending plays, with even healing thrown in that also helps with the first topic of dicussion the itme choice. Naturally VCG has item clause, so slapping lefties on every pokemon and calling it a day is not an option, for dusk mane rocky helmet presents it's self as a solid choice for dealing with the lieks of zaccian, for example if zacian tries to hit inciniroar with sacred sword after it's been hit with intimidate duskmane can come in on the predicted move for a nice wee bit of chip wearing down zacian further. The eves allow for DM to be pretty bulky as possible to take these strong hits, with 116 in speed to make up for it's very lackluster 77 base speed and outpace things after a dragon dance while keeping it's bulk. The move choice is for a bulky dragon dance set,- morning sun helps dm heal off any wounds in the absence of leftovers, dragon dance boosts it's speed and attack to dangerous levels for s weep with little chance of getting past necrozma's sheer bulk, sunsteel strike hits the likes of zacian and fairies of all kinds with super effective stab, earthquake is areliable coverage move thta can hit the likes of grounded steels such as fellow dusk mane, that SSS has little chanc eof denting alone.
Yveltal @
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 236 HP / 4 Def / 68 SpA / 12 SpD / 188 Spe
Timid Nature
- Oblivion Wing
- Snarl
- Foul Play
- Sucker Punch
Another pokemon to watch out for is of course Calyrex -SR and find no better answer to the snow rabbit on his dark steed than assult vest yvetal. Yvetal makes for a great special tank with it's great typing and importantly movepool. Being stuck with assult vest to boost special defence leaves it's acess to roost null and void, it cannot use roost with AV, but not to fear yvetal has access to the powerful stab flying move in oblivian wing, it can heal off his move as a method of recovery, which is also neat with the item clause in effect. A Timid nature is chosen to allow yvetal to outpace slower threats such as necrozma with 188 speed to hit the threshold required as well, the rest go into making yvetal bulky with 236hp, 4 defn and 12 in spDef with spd having the luxuary of not requiring hevay investment because of av, the 68 in special attack allows yvetal to net some more damge for healing and hitting some threats more hard. The move choice is pretty standard - oblivian wing is reliable flying stab that helps yvetal heal, snarl allows yvetal to further support the team with making special attackers hurt less with both oposing pokemon with stab as a bonus, foul play allows yvetal to hurt physical attackers hard and sucker punch allows yvetal to pick off weakened threats in a pinch.
Incineroar @
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpD
Impish Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Fake Out
- Parting Shot
- Darkest Lariat
Thanks to it's acess to intimidate, great typing, decent bulk, fantastic movepoool for doubles and finally it's raw attacking power it's no wonder that inceroar has becoem a stabple in doubles of all formats. With thretas like zacian lurking around the corner the wrestling tiger come sin as a solid way to distrupt their sweeping efforts thanks to it's move pool, ability and typing in which enable it to tank hits, switch out while reducing attacking stats, fake out to skip a turn for non dynamaxed digimon to help a team mate gain some time and of course reduce the enmy's attack comming in. The eves give incineroar some decent mixed bulk with most in defence to make it for a solid physical tank th max hp eves 156 in defence and 100 in special defence with an impish nature to allow it to be even more physically bulky. The move choice is your standard bread and butter set for incineroar- flare blitz is powerful fire stab that wrecks the lieks of zacian fully down or enough for other pokemon to finnish these dangerous pokemon off, fake out bys the team mate of roar some breathing room while a pokemon is unable to do anything unless ability or dynamax prevent it, parting shot weakens targets as incineroar switches out to weakene a targets offencies to make it more mangable or just force it out, finally dArk stab darkest lariat is reliable doesn't hurt roar and destroys the calyrexes with little fuss, ice after some damage.
Zapdos-Galar @
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Stomping Tantrum
- U-turn
With an imesnse amount of intimidate pokemon and attempts to lower stats in the doubles metagames, Zapdos-g standads defiantly against them. Not only does the grounded thunderbird have a fantastic coverage in it's stab alone that under dynamax makes for excellent moves to spam and this teams best choice to max when the time comes,but it can U-turn out in a pinch and stomping tantrum helps it hit threats under dyna or out of it for additional threats and a lack of draw backs in stat reduction and recoil damage. The set chosen for this team is the choice band set, dynamax allows it to free up it's item and attack with impunity at the cost of it's effects but it lets zapdos be flexable in how it attacks with dynamax in the minds of both plays and band boosting the bird attack sky high koing threats that assume they can stomach a dyna knuckle only to face cc or bb to the face. The nature chosen is jolly to outpace up to base 100 speed pokemon with many pokemon not reaching the threshold and falling short like kyogre or yvetal, so naturally the evs go into speed and attack to make zapdos as fast as it can be as well as hitting as hard secondary. The move choice is another case of your bread and butter set- close combat is powerful fighting stab, brave bird is powerful flying stab and both of them boost attack and speed which can be used to aid it's parters too like the slow necozma and roar, as well a sboosting their attacks for a two pronged blitz agaianst the enemy team, stomping tantrum is ground stab that allows zapdos to hit some niech threats, act as a no cost move to hit threats that are koed by it anyways instead of cc ect. the set is rounded out by U-turn to get out in a pinch while causing damage.
Tapu Fini @
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 244 HP / 60 Def / 204 SpD
Calm Nature
- Moonblast
- Nature's Madness
- Icy Wind
- Heal Pulse
A premier bulky supporting pokemon of VCG, tapu fini can tank and cripple a variety of threats with their powerful mainly special attacks with impunity and isn't a pushover thanks to nature madness ability to chip off a large chunk of health for a teammate to later kill the threats. With a mix of Eves mAinly in special defense to tank special attackers hits more reliably, a calm nature for further special bulk and 60 in defence to tank the odd physical hit with the rest in hp for greta mixed but especially special bulk. The move choice and again i am repeating myself is pretty standard - moon blast is a reliable fairy stab, natures madness allows fini to hit really hard by halfing hp so a teammate can finish it off after, icy wind allows fini to act as a way of controlling speed, and heal pulse allows a teammate to be heale din a pinch.
Regieleki @
Ability: Transistor
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Electroweb
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Protect
Joining the team is the demon of speed regieleki. With a rediculously high speed stat of 200, regieleki is able to outpace many threats and destroy them or act as away of speed control in it's own right, namely destroying kyogre. With that said naturally in order to be the fastets in the meta and hit hard all eves are in special attack and speed with a timid nature meaning that eleki is only going to at worst tie with other eleki or be outsped by boosted threats, whcih still struggle to outpace this monster of speed, so a timid nature is chosen to achieve this. The move set is another standard one - volt switch allows eleki to get out of a bad match-up, electro web allows eleki to reduce enemy speed for eleki and team mates, thunderbolt is reliable electric stab and protect allows eleki to scout and avoid an Eq if it's partnered with necrozma as an example.
