[RATE MY TEAM] pls help me to fix my vgc17 team

[hellhunter91]

hello guys! I'm building and testing my vgc17 team from two days, i think there is lot of potential and i really like how i play with it, but i need to know from you (yeah you are more expirienced than me) if there is any problem or if i need to fix something in my team. I start to build it from golisopod and than i came up with this, here you are:

Golisopod @ Assault Vest
Ability: Emergency Exit
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Atk / 156 SpD
Brave Nature
- First Impression
- Aqua Jet
- Poison Jab
- Liquidation

AV is for make him bulkier and allow to survive more hits, poison jab for the fairies.

Garchomp @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Protect

probably i'll change rock slide or dragon claw for ironhead. Lum berry is for recovering from status like burn.

Xurkitree @ Air Balloon
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Thunder
- Protect
- Tail Glow

air balloon is necessary to avoid my garchomp EQ, the rest of the set is pretty standard, thunder over thunderbolt to make big damage in the rain

Tapu Bulu @ Life Orb
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Horn Leech
- Wood Hammer
- Protect
- Stone Edge

I don't really know wich is the best item for tapu bulu, i first used grassiumZ but i changed in favor of the life orb to have more power output and kill tapu lele. The problem is the recoil... stone edge is for the flyng type.

Pelipper @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tailwind
- Scald
- Protect
- Hurricane

the big surprise of my team, is fast and powerful, but i don't know if the item is the right one. pretty solid i used the Aaron Zheng spread.

Togedemaru @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Spiky Shield
- Fake Out
- Zing Zap

last but not list the lighitning rod user. I chose thunderbolt over nuzzle as a way to use the possible bonus in sp. attk. The big problem is that i haven't a steel move so i was thinking to change him with marowak.

the main strategy is to use rain and tailwind with the help of the grassy terrain. I started building from golisopod, i wanted to cover his weaknesses so i added tapu bulu to cover his rock weakness and garchomp for the electric one. Than i started to think about my way to control speed, i decided to run the tailwind because golisopod has a lot of priority and other pokemon was pretty fast, so the TR was pretty hard to use. First i wanted to use crobat, but i changed in favor of pelipper for two reason: 1 his new ability help me to nerf the fire moves that threaten tapubulu 2 he is very fast and pretty bulk and he can be helpful against fire pokemon and grass\bug. Next step was to make full use of the rain and i decide to add Xurketree with thunder (can't miss in rain). After that i was looking for some good partner to protect pelipper and i decided to use a lighting rod so i put togedemaru because of his steel typing.

lead: garchomp xurketrre\ pelipper xurketree \pelipper garchomp \tapubulu pelipper\ pelipper togedemaru.

garchomp is a good partner for xurketree because i can spam discharge and EQ thanks to the air balloon. Also Pelipper is good with Xurketree because of the rain. The rain also nerf fire so the lead tapu bulu- pelipper is pretty solid.

[hellhunter91]

anyone can help me?

[Black117]

Got an interesting team right there @hellhunter91 given you are using Togedemaru and Golisopod who both are rather unexplored. Do like the idea of having Togedemaru "protect" its partners from Electric-type hits from things like Tapu Koko or Alolan Raichu. Note the only concern is players are using Discharge now to counter balance this redirection. Going to review each mon individually

Golisopod @ Assault Vest
Ability: Emergency Exit
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Atk / 140 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Aqua Jet
- Poison Jab
- Liquidation

Adamant nature suits Golisopod to at least take advantage of the slight Tailwind boost, but still rather slow. Do like First Impression in theory, but the problem is that players can just protect turn 1 similar to protect themselves from Fake Out. Its is a strong Bug-type STAB and can catch players off guard for a time, though note Tapu Lele's Psychic Terrain can prevent all priority on the field. Only added a bit of Attack to get a +2 increase in its stat points, but nothing else.

For Garchomp, I feel the set is ok for now, though at least consider having either Poison Jab or Iron Head to hit the Fairy-types like the Tapus. Just careful EQing when in Grassy Terrain.

Xurkitree @ Air Balloon / Sitrus Berry
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 4 Def / 4 SpA / 12 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Thunder / HP Ice / Energy Ball
- Protect
- Tail Glow (Either one of the moves at the second slot.

If you are going to utilize the move Tail Glow, then I highly suggest to give Xurkitree some bulk similar to the EV Spread shown above. Don't run Mono-Electric moves given the fact Xurkitree can get walled by Ground-type like Garchomp or Krookodile. Also don't understand the point of using Air Balloon without some way to hit Ground-types. Did Change the nature to Timid to outspeed some of the base 80s and speed tie with opposing Xurkitree.


Tapu Bulu @ Life Orb
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 60 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Horn Leech
- Wood Hammer
- Protect
- Superpower

Well this Tapu Bulu takes advantage of the Tailwind and the speed investment it to outspeed Adamant Pheromosa + Tapo Koko in Tailwind. Adjusted the HP Investment to be a Life Orb number, and the set itself is fine with the recovery from Grassy Terrain and Horn Leech. Superpower was added to hit Porygon2 harder so that's another option to consider.

Honestly not going to change the Pelipper set, but consider Focus Sash to at least guarantee one turn of Tailwind. Try out Waterium Z with Pelipper to have an powerful attack that can inflict massive or straight out OHKO a target.

For Togedemaru, remove Thundebolt for Encore to lock down your opponents into unfavorable moves. Air Balloon can be used to allow Togedemaru be immune to Ground-type hits until the item is destroyed. Nuzzle is another option to consider with a 100% paralysis chance, but it can still be redirected or rather blocked by the appropriate Pokemon.

Overall the team does look weak to opposing Tapu Bulu so make sure Pelipper can get off the Hurricane or inflict enough damage for the other mons to faint it.

[hellhunter91]

thanks for all the precious advices... i'm running pelipper with flynium z to counter other tapubulu with the flying z moves.
I'll make the spread changes and I'll also swap the items between xurketree and togedemaru. I was running t.bolt on togedemaru just to be able to use the bonus of the lighting-rod, but I'll go for encore... thank you so much!