Hey all, it's been a while since I've posted in this section. Since I last posted here, I guess a few things have changed here and there. I think the most important thing is the fantastic group of friends that have kept me around, even making a pretty cool nickname in curi. I've also had the chance to pick up another project, which allowed me to meet a lovely co-host and even a badge to boot. I've somehow managed to become a voice in the now Trainer's school room (formerly the RMT room) too, which is pretty cool. I guess I wanted to share this team to give my thanks to everyone who i've met so far before putting aside smogon and showdown for exams. This team is nowhere near perfect, but I believe this is a pretty accurate representation of my building style that also satisfies everyone's expectations of me.
The core above faced several issues; mainly its weakness to common wallbreakers such as Mega Alakazam, Tornadus and Kartana, so Celesteela was the obvious option. Celesteela provided the team with a crucial answer to said wallbreakers, as well as providing the team with a much more comfortable matchup versus offence and balance, thanks to its ability to simply come in on the vast majority of the meta and simply remove any and all momentum from the opposing team, also forcing many switch-ins to take additional leech seed damage, which complemented the toxic spikes support that Toxapex provided and further aiding in Reuniclus' ability to break past offence.
Since Reuniclus was running a dual dance set, the team struggled with bulkier builds, specifically stall, which really annoyed this team. Furthermore, the lack of Stealth Rock and the general (dare I say) passivity (although I don't believe that each of these individual 'mons are particularly passive, but from a general stance, you're not going to be breaking anything with these three 'mons, especially considering that Reuniclus was a Double Dance set rather than its traditional stallbreaker set) of the team really hindered many common matchups, so I had decided to add Heatran to the team. Offensive Heatran condensed everything that the team needed into one convenient team-slot that amplified the team's ability to take on stall, while also improving the matchup versus Tornadus, (an unboosted) Mawile and Magearna, which really threatened the team at this point in time.
At this point, the team was lacking a volt switch immunity, in addition to speed control, so I immediately added Landorus. Much like Heatran, it offered an unparalleled role compression that the team, by providing the team with the aforementioned speed control, a crucial volt switch immunity (to prevent the core of koko + breaker from becoming troublesome) and a blanket check to many threatening breakers, most notably Mawile, Zygarde and Tapu Koko, which would otherwise be a losing matchup. The team also appreciated the ability to remove breakers such as Reuniclus and Calm Mind Latias with punishment, as this team wasn't particularly weak to hazards then, so I stuck with that.
So at this point, the team was not only looking quite slow, but I was also quite weak to Heatran and Heatran immensely pressured, as it was the only breaker present on the team, so I added Alakazam to the build. Modest Alakazam gave the team a much needed breaker that improved the team's matchup versus rain which the team was incredibly weak to, as well as improving the balance matchup, which really solidified the team. However, it was at this point where I began to notice some flaws with the team. The Zygarde and Tapu Koko matchup was incredibly lacklustre, as well as the stall matchup becoming increasingly difficult thanks to other trends (see Moltres), I was forced to make the following change, although I honestly do prefer this variation of the team.
As you can see, I had replaced Celesteela with a Tangrowth, which - admittedly is not the best change - did improve the glaring Zygarde matchup that the team possessed, while still blanket checking many notable threats to the team, which included Zygarde, Swampert, Magearna and Tapu Koko, in addition to providing the team with another "win condition" versus stall. Because I had replaced Celesteela, I was forced to drop Punishment for Defog on Landorus, due to the new hazard weakness that the team had developed (although not as prominent as other builds, spike stacking is annoying) which also sucked. In addition to that, I concluded that I absolutely hated Double Dance was not to my liking, so I had changed its set to a standard stallbreaker set, although I have gone on record by switching between the two variants to attempt to actually find good use of Double Dance Reuniclus, although I never found good use of that. I'll admit that I'm not happy with this variant as much as the former, but I have had my fun with this team.
This was an incredibly late change, but I ended up reverting back to the original change simply because I was pressured too much by the likes of Alakazam, Gliscor and Tornadus to name some threats that consistently annoyed the team. While I did lose the triple blue fat core, It does help out with many matchups, including the aforementioned, as well as the offence matchup, which was slightly reduced with the fact that Celesteela is honestly the best way to strip momentum versus offence, although the change did leave the team weaker to certain variants of Zygarde and Tapu Koko, although that was a change I was willing to make, considering the more difficult matchups such as the Mega Alakazam and Tornadus have been drastically improved, allowing this team to simply thrive.
@
Ability - Regenerator
EVs - 252 HP | 216 SpD | 40 Spe
Nature - Calm
Scald | Recover | Toxic Spikes | Haze
Even as the meta shifted over several months, Toxapex continues to be a quintessential pick on balance. While it has accumulated several new checks (with said checks increasing in usage throughout the past several months, including Mega Alakazam, Mega Latios, Gliscor and even Reuniclus it has remained as a incredibly consistent wall, being able to invalidate a notable number of the tier's breakers while having fantastic defensive synergy with Reuniclus and Celesteela, which has the ability to essentially wall the entirety of the of the meta. Toxapex particularly walls some notable threats to the team, including both formes of Greninja, Mega Mawile and Tornadus, as well as heavily improving many other matchups, including the stall matchup. I'll begin with this, as it's generally unheard of that Toxapex is able to improve a stall matchup, but in practice, the combination of Reuniclus and Alakazam's Magic Guard, entry hazards and Toxapex's Regenerator, you can infinitely switch without consequence, wearing down the opponent's team while you regenerate HP with pex and avoid damage with Reuniclus and Alazakam. Toxapex provides multiple forms of fantastic utilities to this team, with the most significant being Toxic Spikes, which immensely aids Reuniclus' ability to break past the large majority of its usual checks with Toxic Spikes support, as well as just being helpful for basically the entire team, as Celesteela is able to wear down its targets much quicker, while Alakazam and Heatran appreciating the ability to wear down checks faster than it already can. Toxic can be used to punish Alakazam and Tornadus in particular (or just anything that wants to hard switch in) but it's generally easier to abuse Toxic Spikes with this build. Scald is also used to deter and punish breakers from switching in breakers such as Mawile, Gliscor and Zygarde that want to switch into pex, whether the opponent excepts a layer of Toxic Spikes to be set or just the recovery, although it is incredibly luck reliant. Haze alleviates the team's weakness to 'mons such as Calm Mind Clefable, Mega Mawile, Reuniclus and Volcarona, although the latter does have to be played around very carefully. The speed investment allows Toxapex to outspeed Reuniclus, allowing it to Haze before it can attack, therefore nullifying it.
@
Ability - Beast Boost
EVs - 252 HP | 104 Def | 152 SpD
Nature - Relaxed
Protect | Leech Seed | Heavy Slam | Flamethrower
Celesteela is another one of my "guilty pleasures", in the sense that I absolutely love using whenever I can. In this instance, the ability to negate wallbreakers such as Mega Alakazam, Mega Latios, Tornadus and an entire spectrum of wallbreakers is absolutely crucial for this particular build, as it ensures that this build doesn't automatically lose the tier's most dominant wallbreakers. As a result of this, Celesteela provides the team with an excellent matchup versus both balance and offence, where it is simply able strip momentum from the opponent in many scenarios. This is especially important when considering how important momentum is in the offence matchup, so gaining it is incredibly helpful. This is aided by the combination Leech Seed, Protect and Toxic Spikes, which is able to really annoy pivots on offence, including Greninja, Zygarde, and Gastrodon, which would want to pivot into Celesteela. It also has the ability to punish 'mons such as Tornadus, Tapu Bulu, Toxapex, Magearna and Tangrowth which would pivot into Celesteela, even though these pivots have the ability to avoid the combination of Toxic Spikes and Leech Seed. Heavy Slam is pretty nice for hitting some of these pivots, in addition to Clefable, Weavile and Alakazam, invalidating them both before either can do anything is incredibly useful, as it prevents them from becoming overly threatening. Flamethrower is nice to hit 'mons such as Mawile and Kartana and is also incredibly useful when fishing for burns versus other breakers such as Gliscor, Zygarde, and Tyranitar, although it's generally the worst play to go for in these instances.
@
Ability - Flash Fire
EVs - 252 SpA | 4 SpD | 252 Spe
Nature - Timid
Magma Storm | Earth Power | Taunt | Stealth Rock
In a similar vein to Reuniclus, Heatran is something that I essentially idolise, thanks to its ability to immensely pressure everything from offence to stall. I'll keep this short because I've shared my opinion on Heatran on many different occasions, but Heatran's dominance in the meta has only increased as the metagame stabilised throughout the year. Similarly to Reuniclus, the metagame has drastically changed within several months. However, unlike Reuniclus, the metagame simply revolves around Heatran, where threats such as Mega Alakazam, Mega Latios, Gliscor and Gastrodon have risen to prominence as a direct response to Heatran's presence in the tier, and in the case of Gastrodon, fallen back down to obscurity thanks to people realising how pressured it is by its checks, but it has somehow managed to adapt to the presence of these sets with multiple creative sets which allows Heatran to break past them. Unfortunately, I'm not here to showcase to any of these innovations, rather, I've decided to showcase the set that has remained consistently fantastic throughout the entirety of the generation. Firium Heatran provides this team with an excellent breaker, which vastly improves the team's matchup versus both balance and stall, possessing the ability to trap and remove common defensive threats, such as Toxapex, Celesteela, Chansey and Tangrowth, through Magma Storm, which grants Alakazam more breathing room to operate. Stealth Rock is a necessity to absolutely every viable competitive team, while taunt shuts down many of its targets, while providing stallbreaking potential to Heatran. Finally, I've opted to go with a Firium Z here to boost Magma Storm's power into absurd levels, allowing Heatran to break past Gliscor and Chansey without too much prediction, although you should definitely be conservative with your Z Crystal, considering that the meta is dominanted by 'mons that can abuse that Z move.
@
Ability - Intimidate
EVs - 80 HP | 148 Atk | 84 Def | 196 Spe
Nature - Naive
Earthquake | U-Turn | Hidden Power Ice | Defog
While I do believe that Landorus has become somewhat worse within the past several months, it still remains as one of the meta's best picks. Because of the near-ubiquity of Landorus, I won't describe it's position in the meta, but I will emphasise the fact that it has been consistently fantastic, and will continue to be fantastic. Landorus offers this team excellent role compression, with the most significant role being that of the dedicated form of speed control, which allows Landorus to consistently check Tapu Koko, Mega Alakazam and Mega Mawile with Earthquake, or to gain momentum through U-turn. Because of Landorus' ability to force incredible amounts of switches, Landorus is able to consistently utilise Defog. Landorus' ability to remove hazards is only emphasised by the fact that it is immune to both forms of spikes, while also taking neutral damage from Stealth Rock, meaning that it is able to frequently Defog for minimal drawbacks. On the topic of Landorus' typing, its ground typing grants the team a volt switch immunity, preventing the combination volt switch abusers and a wallbreaker core from becoming a notable threat to the team. Hidden Power Ice is used solely to punish Zygarde thanks to its threatening nature and can be used to hit Gliscor, although it is generally the suboptimal play to do so. Knock Off can also be used over Hidden Power Ice, but Zygarde is simply too threatening.
@
Ability - Magic Guard
EVs - 4 Def | 252 SpA | 252 Spe
Nature - Timid or Modest
Psychic | Shadow Ball | Focus Blast | Recover
Alakazam has undoubtedly changed the most throughout the past few months, initially rising as a consistent wallbreaker with fantastic defensive utility through Trace, which allows Alakazam to check a notable portion of the metagame, with prime examples being Heatran and Mega Latios, which are both completely walled unless running two uncommon moves in the form of Flash Cannon and a Steelium Z and Draco Meteor, as well as taking advantage of other notable 'mons, including Tornadus, Toxapex and Tangrowth, which provides Alakazam with Regenerator, while also reverse trapping Magnezone that are locked into HP Fire, Swift Swim from the likes of Swampert and Kingdra and an entire spectrum of abilities, including Beast Boost from Kartana and even Poison Heal from Gliscor. To further add to its extensive resume, Alakzam's offensive capabilities are near unparalleled, as it is able to simply tear through common balance builds, with only walls such as Celesteela, Tapu Bulu, Magearna, and Chansey being able to prevent Alakazam from simply winning versus stall and balance. These difficult matchups can be made easier with Toxic Spikes and Leech Seed support, which afflicts enough support in order for Alakazam to further break past these 'mons. Shadow Ball and Focus Blast round out Alakazam's coverage, allowing it to punish 'mons such as Mega Latios, opposing Mega Alakazam, Heatran and Tyranitar for super effective damage, while Recover allows Alakazam to consistently check 'mons such as Heatran and Latios, which would otherwise annoy it with chip damage. Against the stall matchup, avoid having to mega evolve until you're forced to, as you're able to infinitely switch between both Reuniclus and Toxapex for an easier matchup versus the playstyle. Knock Off can be used over Shadow Ball, but it's generally not worth it, even if Knock off support is invaluable. I should also mention that a Modest Nature can be used for additional breaking capabilities, but you do lose out on outspeeding Zygarde, although it is entirely preference.
Swords Dance Mawile is incredibly threatening, even with multiple dedicated checks to it. While it isn't given too many opportunities to freely setup, once it does, it becomes unwallable. Knock Off Variants have no reason not to click it versus this build, as there team lacks a proper dark resist, while Thunder Punch variants can be played around with through scouting with Landorus. Heatran and Landorus both dislike being Sucker Punched, so it might be worth it to cycle between Landorus and Toxapex to utilise Intimidate, however, due to the lack of Wish Support, you'll be finding that Landorus will be getting worn down incredibly quickly, so you have to be incredibly conservative with Landorus.
The lack of electric resists on this variation of the build is incredibly annoying, as the team's sole volt switch immunity dislikes having to pivot into Tapu Koko, as it is not only able to pivot out with u-turn, but it also can just use Hidden Power Ice to effectively 2hko it, so even then it is discouraging to switch into directly into koko. It also has the capability to get a minimum of a single kill per game, thanks to the lack of electric resist, but it does have more forms of counterplay than the previous threats, so there's that.
As I've previously mentioned, this particular build has no dark resist, although that isn't a large factor when considering the breaking capabilities of Tyranitar and Hoopa. Tyranitar is simply able to spam both of its stab pretty liberally, as nothing on this build wants to take a banded stone edge (or a banded crunch for that matter), although Landorus can be used as a makeshift check. While you may argue that Reuniclus is able to abuse Tyranitar locked into pursuit, there's essentially no drawback to simply using crunch or stone edge versus this team. Hoopa is always going to be a pain for balance, as nothing appreciates coming into any of its attacks (neither physical or special variants have any consistent defensive counterplay), although nasty plot variants can be forced out by doubling straight into Landorus, although that play generally only works once. Hydreigon is simply able to sit in front of everything not named Celesteela and freely spam dark pulse with little consequence, although it should be noted that it is considerably weak. The team is able to quite easily deal with these 'mons, considering that Alakazam simply comes in after a sack and uses Focus Blast to remove something, while Landorus can also simply click U-turn and remove the threat, especially if it has taken some prior damage.
While one may do the best they can to pressure stall, stall has many variations that allow it to overcome common stallbreakers. This build's particular stallbreakers are Heatran and Reuniclus, which heavily rely on moves with limited PP, so pressure or PP stalling is an incredibly viable countermeasure versus this build. Moltres in particular is a gigantic threat, as it as able to simply PP both Heatran and Reuniclus, although it must be weary of Taunt from Heatran. Other Pressure abusers such as Zapdos and Articuno (shoutouts to asa) are also incredibly threatening due to their ability to their ability to basically PP stall both breakers, even having the ability to PP stall with the entire team in certain situations. Quagsire should also be mentioned as it is able to wall both Reuniclus and Heatran while also preventing Alakazam from coming in, as you risk Earthquake doing notable damage.
Teambuilding Process
Throughout the OLT, many had decided to utilise the combination of Acid Armour Reuniclus alongside Toxic Spikes. This particular trend intrigued me, as Reuniclus is normally classified as a fantastic stallbreaker, but when utilising a Double Dance set, it becomes a ferocious win condition versus offence, sacrificing its ability to wallbreak to wall out its usual checks and use them as setup fodder. At that point, I hadn't used this particular combination, so I decided to give it a try. I ended up pairing it with a Toxapex thanks to the fantastic defensive utility that the two possess - Reuniclus is able to wall a significant portion of Toxapex's checks (and vice versa) while Toxapex granted it the Toxic Spikes support that I had wanted, in addition to possessing the ability to slowly wear down many of Reuniclus' checks through forced switches and Scald, so it was an obvious no-brainer here.
As you can see, I had replaced Celesteela with a Tangrowth, which - admittedly is not the best change - did improve the glaring Zygarde matchup that the team possessed, while still blanket checking many notable threats to the team, which included Zygarde, Swampert, Magearna and Tapu Koko, in addition to providing the team with another "win condition" versus stall. Because I had replaced Celesteela, I was forced to drop Punishment for Defog on Landorus, due to the new hazard weakness that the team had developed (although not as prominent as other builds, spike stacking is annoying) which also sucked. In addition to that, I concluded that I absolutely hated Double Dance was not to my liking, so I had changed its set to a standard stallbreaker set, although I have gone on record by switching between the two variants to attempt to actually find good use of Double Dance Reuniclus, although I never found good use of that. I'll admit that I'm not happy with this variant as much as the former, but I have had my fun with this team.
A Closer Look
@
Ability - Magic Guard
EVs - 252 HP | 212 Def | 52 Spe
Nature - Bold
Calm Mind | Recover | Psyshock | Focus Blast
Anyone who's ever read my posts on the forums or even talked to me in the OU room should know that this is my absolute favourite 'mon in the tier. While stall has certainly adapted to the presence of Reuniclus, with the recent surge of 'mons such as Pyukumuku, Pressure abusers such as Moltres and Zapdos which exploits the limited PP of both Psyshock and and Heart Swap Magearna, I still believe that Reuniclus is one of the tier's best stallbreakers, as it is able to consistently break through many staples, including the omnipresent Chansey, Celesteela and Tangrowth. Reuniclus serves as the team's primary stallbreaker, breaking down the aforementioned, specifically serving as the initial switch-in to the majority of these 'mons, particularly Ferrothorn, which would otherwise be problematic, as leech seed severely hinders Heatran's capabilities to break, as you put it in range of many common attacks, such as a Chansey Seismic Toss and two Toxapex Scalds. In addition to that, it serves as the team's dedicated switch-in to breakers such as Medicham and Lopunny, comfortably turning them into setup fodder, while also providing the team with an emergency blanket check to the likes of Zygarde, Landorus, and even Mega Latios. The set itself is quite standard, although it deviates slightly through Focus Blast, which grants the team the ability to deal with Ferrothorn and Tyranitar, which would otherwise be rather annoying to deal with, although the latter does lack any consistent defensive counterplay other than abusing a mis-prediction, which is incredibly unreliable. There's not much I can honestly say without repeating myself, so I'll pull a Finch and link previous posts where i've discussed Reuniclus, although you should note that some of my opinions have changed, thanks to my growth as a player and experience in the meta. 
@
Ability - Magic Guard
EVs - 252 HP | 212 Def | 52 Spe
Nature - Bold
Calm Mind | Recover | Psyshock | Focus Blast
@
Ability - Regenerator
EVs - 252 HP | 216 SpD | 40 Spe
Nature - Calm
Scald | Recover | Toxic Spikes | Haze
@
Ability - Beast Boost
EVs - 252 HP | 104 Def | 152 SpD
Nature - Relaxed
Protect | Leech Seed | Heavy Slam | Flamethrower
@
Ability - Flash Fire
EVs - 252 SpA | 4 SpD | 252 Spe
Nature - Timid
Magma Storm | Earth Power | Taunt | Stealth Rock
@
Ability - Intimidate
EVs - 80 HP | 148 Atk | 84 Def | 196 Spe
Nature - Naive
Earthquake | U-Turn | Hidden Power Ice | Defog
@
Ability - Magic Guard
EVs - 4 Def | 252 SpA | 252 Spe
Nature - Timid or Modest
Psychic | Shadow Ball | Focus Blast | Recover
Threatlist
This matchup is arguably the most difficult, as you are forced to scout the set prior to establishing a gameplan versus it. Sub + Glare and wcar variants simply just win without consequence, while the majority of other variants can simply be played around, although it's admittedly incredibly difficult. Although the matchup was easier with both Acid Armour Reuniclus and Tangrowth, sacrifices had to be made in order to accomodate other threats, which has only resulting me in having a terrible matchup versus one of the most dominant 'mons in the tier, although it is somwhat ironic considering how much I stress normally reserving multiple consistent Zygarde checks per team. The most common way i've dealt with Zygarde is to afflict it with either a burn or poison to wear it down at a faster rate, but this will require a bit of luck in your favour.
Last edited:
