[TEAM REPORT] Here's Maw Team; First VGC 16 Team Report + Thoughts on the upcoming season.

[Pokeventurer]

Hi guys today I’m back and now will be discussing something I wanted to share so bad, however I couldn’t have done that due to some internet connectivity issues in the past few days, this post will contain my first team built in the official VGC 16 format, the team was completely built by me from scratch no ideas copied and only my own weird brain was involved in the build. Saying so as I think this was way too meta to be called a team of mine. So let’s get started with a very strong, ok, funny team:

Thoughts on the upcoming season:
So this season is surely gonna be really interesting and right from the start we stand on a 2-sided argument; nope it won’t need the metagame or CHALK’s 2016 version to create such a fuss but we have the surprising ruleset to blame! Really… I MEAN REALLY PEOPLE!! I can’t stand this the whole season. Well if you really still don’t get what the argument is then you probably weren’t present here. Well… now we have the ‘why are legends allowed’ arguments, while the other side thinks the thing like ‘legends I’ll be fun’ surely the side I stand with and accept the new season; and also plan to have tons of fun. Dark void’s argument is worse * believe me, im not taking you on that side rn*
Now for a bit of a real talk, I think of some upcoming trends being: A hyper offensive metagame and a season being less blamed towards RNG, why? Because everyone is using mons that are fast and can go before rock slide users. In such a hyper offensive format there is no room for gimmicky luck based strats. Other things I am looking forward to are the usage of things like skill swap users, role play thingies as well as shadow tag increasing popularity, why? Primal groudon and primal kyogre’s weather wars summon these to plague upon us and yes I am using such a tactic in my very first 2016 team. Other things like mega mawile especially rise in usage as they can beat kang 1-v-1, fit perfectly w/ p-kyogre and can also beat m-ray and xerneas easily; aren’t all these reasons enough, funny enough and spoilers, this is included into my own team as well :P

Teambuilding thought and process:
So what do we do now when we get slapped in the faces right by TPCi who tell us that legends are all allowed; my brain wasn’t surely working as properly as It should’ve, I took some deep thought into it and then went back into what I had thought to myself earlier, legends being allowed, perfect opportunity to do it, not just do it… but JUST DO IT!!!!!!!!!11111 *yeah, that one probably got to old….* where do I start? With their being no meta I putted together some mons, first ideas were to abuse weather and use goth to trap others and prevent unfavorable weather, well the first prototype of my first ever VGC 2016 Team looked as the following:



And I think you just realize something… there was no weather setter, yes, in all my excitement I had forgot to put a weather setter on the team i was using. I wanted to have a bit of a more sensible thought to build a better team than that, I thought of some solid ideas that could give me success in the no-meta situation of the early days of VGC. So I built a team around some proven ideas that cold basically work on their own giving me some solid options against what I thought might be thrown at me. The following is what I ended up with:

 

First of will be mawile one of the best megas in this format from my view, why? it just gets so much mobility in the format with presence of things like primal kyogre to back up the fire weakness as well as it’s ability to beat mega rayquaza and kangaskhan on 1v1 situations it can and will d a lot. Another big benchmark this mon completes here is to counter xerneas at it’s best. Loved to use it, simple and effective; definitely becomes meta in this format, already has almost; mark my words with this mon. So next up is the coolest looking thing usable in VGC, well next to yveltal, you know it! Rayquaza; rayquaza was sure in my mind to be the most used pokemon and already seems typing wise it is quite of a meh-ish choice to go for.mega rayquaza was one of the least used pokemon on this team, I just kept it to make the team look cooler, it does counter amoonguss by some possible means or so, wasn’t really there for this purposes. GAWD! THIS FLYING TYPE CLOSE COMBAT IS STRONK!Cresselia bounds this team like glue though, being one of the best pokemons to support this team with a bunch of moves, like trick room, I tried to run gravity 8idk if it even learns that but yea whatever. Parasect alo worked a bit, but in really I had only just started to realize what worked in VGC, P-ogre is not the primal I was looking for :/ . don’t even want you guys to have a glace at the EV spreads as I think that they were completely trash, by which I mean 252/252/4 and some even without reason; examples are my cresselia had a ev spread to creep 4 speed invested rotoms, in trick room *so yeah, they were quite senseless*. Also not discussing team trash. I just said this team was trash, so was it.
What do we do next? i legit did reject this team at this point, now I needed a more solid build for a team, this was bad; so where do I start? I looked up some combinations in the restricted legendary slots and found the pairing of primal-groudon and xerneas to be like almost picture perfect. That was it! I got my starting point, from there on the team went something I am super comfortable with and it still does somewhat work former n, lets get an in-depth analyses on each member:

Problems with this team:
p-don’s threat, loses to gravity, weaknesses in common

The Team:


PHABULAAAS (Xerneas) @ Power Herb  
Ability: Fairy Aura  
Level: 50  
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  
Timid Nature  
- Geomancy  
- Dazzling Gleam  
- Psychic  
- Protect

So first up is xerneas, the most Phabulaaas pokemon ever in VGC, seriously, it’s beauty is unmatchable, such colors and much power! Now for the moveset and spread I was really stuck between options and wanted to run something more than it already does, in short wanted a physically bulky spread, with coming up next, mawile being present on this team, I didn’t felt any need for physical bulk to be invested. Also I did thought that taking out any offense or speed from this mon will make it much closer to 2015’s metagame, where I didn’t had access to this much power, 252 timid speed investment is here to possibly speed creep an modest or tie with timid xerns and take the 50-50 roll. As for the third moveslot after geomancy I chose psychic over grass knot, why? I originally had grass knot on that slot of the team, however after a few matches playing I realized that it wasn’t OHKO’ing primal kyorgre so was it getting me neutral damage on a primal groudon. Now I decided to choose a better move, as in the presence of gengar, amoonguss or crobat on the field + partner, xern couldn’t do very much, psychic gives me a shot at 2hko’ing a primal kyogre or primal groudon, as well as makes me able to hit a lot of mons that usually resist it’s attacks.


Kyogre-Primal (Groudon-Primal) @ Red Orb  
Ability: Desolate Land  
Level: 50  
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 52 SpD / 196 Spe  
Careful Nature  
- Earthquake  
- Precipice Blades  
- Fire Punch  
- Protect

Next up will be primal groudon, one of the biggest restricted slot threats in this game. I will say that the reason that pdon outclasses p-ogres is because of it’s ability to hit p-ogre in it’s weather of favor through precipice blades. I know what is gonna be thrown at me here… I know that the spread looks really strange to be honest and is the only thing to discuss for this groudon here, let’s get to the reasoning I had for it. So primal groudon is just so much basic power under the primal weather of desolate land, and I agree with that; but for this metagame rn I thought I had problems while playing the primal legends. Their speeds were really confusing to me. People are using up to 0 spe quiet natured kyogre, on the other hands the chances of groudon being 252 spe timid or jolly are also very high. So what speed do I run? I just found out that 252+ groudon’s earth power OHKO’s opposing groudons. So for the benchmark at first I wanted to survive that; then, I did it. This groudon of mine was still able to 2hko the mons, and running any further investment in the attack stats would make it go a waste; also with such speed investments I do outspeed positive natured base 70’s. I didn’t wanted to run a special set because it’s spa atk stat is lower compared to its physical attack.


Maw Jaw (Mawile-Mega) @ Mawilite  
Ability: Intimidate  
Level: 50  
EVs: 244 HP / 148 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 108 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Play Rough  
- Iron Head  
- Sucker Punch  
- Protect

Mawile is love for me this format, I was sure to keep this pokemon just my imagining all the good things it could do in this format, definitely a worth-it choice to keep. It was overall really mobile and easy to play, in a format creeping with so many mons that it can beat. Mawile is simple and I don’t have regrets from it. The only and one thing that might look deceiving is the EV spread, so yea I am running a speedy mawile, to be more specific it is better behind tailwind. The speed mark I chose for it was to outspeed jolly/timid 252 speed rayquazas so it can OHKO it tailwind before it gets to go ahead and damage any of my mons, which was handy. Mawile’s loss of attack wasn’t significant at all when discussing it’s damage output *so far*


Fruitbrat (Crobat) @ Safety Goggles  
Ability: Inner Focus  
Level: 50  
EVs: 252 HP / 116 SpD / 140 Spe  
Timid Nature  
- Super Fang  
- Tailwind  
- Taunt  
- Quick Guard

Next up is a modified slot, this was originally a thundurus, but soon due to speed control problems against teams, mainly because I wasn’t able to negate opposing groudon’s speed stats with thunder wave, to which my own pdon was inferior. Crobat is a pokemon which surprisingly fit my team better than a thundurus * surprisingly* and though I am happy that every moveslot it has is extremely useful to the team’s success and isn’t just a throw-on. So let’s discuss the moves first, super fang I think is a better moveslot for a poison or flying type move, how? The growth in usage of eruption groudon and kyogre is at height and is dangerous, it puts a clear stop to all that. Next up would be tailwind, clearly a way better moveslot for this mon on this place, because the whole team relies on it and it makes the best speed control for the team. So I have been seeing a lot of opposing groudons w/ tailwind, so giving mine access to such speed it is able to take on opposing groudons way better than you think. Taunt is staple seriously, on a crobat you need it to stop opposing xerneas’ as well as other pesky supportive pokemons that this metagame might try to run. Quick guard is better than ever in such a priority support based metagame, by that I mean things like whimsicott and liepard, definitely a really useful slot  now for the EV spread, a lot of people are running 252hp/ 252 spe for now, however I tried to modify that as I didn’t wanted to run into opposing crobats and keep playing that ‘I’ll taunt you first’ game. My spread makes it outspeed 252+ spe m-ray to avoid horrid damage output by it and do something useful beforehand. Safety goggles is here to keep a complete check on redirection + hp based power move from the primals combination apart from kang+ primal.


Levi- (Landorus) @ Life Orb  
Ability: Sand Force  
Level: 50  
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  
Timid Nature  
- Earth Power  
- Protect  
- Hidden Power [Ice]  
- Gravity

Next up is a golduck of mine, not really, as this guy does one thing better surely than just a golduck. So right off the bat you guys do notice a very unusual move on a lando-I especially; we’ll discuss it’s role later, first dive into gravity and it’s reasoning: my team ended up with tons and tons of RNG reliant moves, examples include: crobat’s s-fang, maw’s play rough, most importantly, primal groudon’s signature move precipice miss blades  also not to forget how inaccurate can a ferrorthorn be, leech seed and power whip are some examples of how blind it can go. There was my reasoning for gravity. Now for why I chose this mon: a person on twitter told me that lando-I was amongst the few mons that could get a shot at OHKO’ing a primal groudon *not the bulkiest versions of it* well I had to try it for that. Also for gravity *ofc* and then HP-ice was able to do decent work to m-ray and other grass type stuff. Overall this was a mon I was happy with.


Fe (Ferrothorn) @ Lum Berry  
Ability: Iron Barbs  
Level: 50  
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Atk / 124 Def / 112 SpD  
Brave Nature  
IVs: 0 Spe  
- Leech Seed  
- Power Whip  
- Gyro Ball  
- Protect

Now ferrothron will finally make the last member for my team, something that has a butt tons of potential in this format and that surely is why many people are using it as it became a part of the metagame lately. Ferrothorn adds utility-ish roles to this slot and is a back up mon for many threats that this team might face. Firstly ferrothron can beat the redirection+ geomancy smeargle, if crobat is not; it can take care of primal-kyogre, if pdon is not around; in addition to that it can rid of gimmick plays like golduck, shedinja as well as any smeargle that I might face. Ferrothorn is also able to beat kangaskhan with annoying iron barbs damage + leech seed combinations. Lum berry is a extremely rare item on this mon. now for why? In my experience most of the smeargles ran are w/ a choice scarf, in that situation gyro ball probably takes it out, as I can safely escape the dark void’s effect. Now I seriously don’t remember why is this the EV spread that I am using :p forgive me guys; however it worked out for me and I never got any problems.

Conclusion:
So this was it for sort of a long report from me, I hope that you guys liked it and enjoyed going through it, and alsohope that you guys *probably not* learned something from my content. Now for some of my upcoming content in VGC 16 season as well as for concluding 2015. On Xmas comes out my team-showcase and on New year’s celebration comes out my ‘early look into the 2016’s metagame’ *hopefully it’s not too terrible* as I wish for the internet to stay intact. Bye for now!

[Slec]

Nice team you have there man. Although it has many flaws with this new meta game we have. For example it has no means of recovery, it also doesn't have an answer to Primal Kyogre and opposing Primal Groudons. Mega Mawile doesn't fit this team because you doesn't have speed control or rain. You have a common weakness to Ice, water, fairy, and fire. Once sun gets taken away this team is a sitting duck to water types, even when sun is up youre a sitting duck fire types. You may want to look this team over and find some more threats in the meta game, start from scratch.

[Marcusube]

Kick off Lando, use Cress, implement TrickSwitch and this team should perform better. The point you made on Xerneas doesn't match your EV spread. You want to outspeed Modest Xerneas right? Lower the EVs to outspeed it by one point then invest defensively. Even then, if opposing Xerneas is a problem, you have two Steel types, a poison type and a P-Groudon, all who resist Xerneas' attacks so you really would be better off going Modest for damage output.

What's your reason for running both Earthquake AND Precipice Blades? There are better coverage moves such as Iron Head, Thunder (when faced with P-Kyogre), ThunderPunch, Dragon Claw, Swords Dance and Rock Polish).

Surviving opposing P-Groudon's Earth Power is a goal in itself but consider that a majority of the time, prior damage will be done to your own Groudon before you get to attack.

Good core though with the Xerneas/P-Groudon

[Akae47]

I wish he posted this in Marcusubes thread. Also this team core was posted a few days ago in the smogon vgc 16 forums. Imma post the link soon

[Pokeventurer]

(Dec 19, 2015, 05:36 PM)MudkipLegend Wrote: Nice team you have there man. Although it has many flaws with this new meta game we have. For example it has no means of recovery, it also doesn't have an answer to Primal Kyogre and opposing Primal Groudons. Mega Mawile doesn't fit this team because you doesn't have speed control or rain. You have a common weakness to Ice, water, fairy, and fire.  Once sun gets taken away this team is a sitting duck to water types, even when sun is up youre a sitting duck fire types. You may want to look this team over and find some more threats in the meta game, start from scratch.

First of all, READ THE DAMN POST AGAIN!!!!!!!!111
I did said that the team wasn't perfect and had weaknesses in common. i d have means of recovery (ferrothorn) answer to primal kyogre (ferrothorn and groudon) opposing groudons (my own and landorus-i) mawile is good, to stfu, don't argue me on that, it's just so good. i have speed control (tailwind) against sun i have lando and my own don mon and ferro for water types. Nyc insulting me very much appreciated! *don't forget to repeat in my next thread, stay tuned i have tons of grimer content coming out *

[Marcusube]

(Dec 20, 2015, 09:06 AM)Pokeventurer Wrote:

(Dec 19, 2015, 05:36 PM)MudkipLegend Wrote: Nice team you have there man. Although it has many flaws with this new meta game we have. For example it has no means of recovery, it also doesn't have an answer to Primal Kyogre and opposing Primal Groudons. Mega Mawile doesn't fit this team because you doesn't have speed control or rain. You have a common weakness to Ice, water, fairy, and fire.  Once sun gets taken away this team is a sitting duck to water types, even when sun is up youre a sitting duck fire types. You may want to look this team over and find some more threats in the meta game, start from scratch.

First of all, READ THE DAMN POST AGAIN!!!!!!!!111
I did said that the team wasn't perfect and had weaknesses in common. i d have means of recovery (ferrothorn) answer to primal kyogre (ferrothorn and groudon) opposing groudons (my own and landorus-i) mawile is good, to stfu, don't argue me on that, it's just so good. i have speed control (tailwind) against sun i have lando and my own don mon and ferro for water types. Nyc insulting me very much appreciated! *don't forget to repeat in my next thread, stay tuned i have tons of grimer content coming out *

Criticism well taken if I do say so myself...

[Slec]

(Dec 20, 2015, 09:06 AM)Pokeventurer Wrote:

(Dec 19, 2015, 05:36 PM)MudkipLegend Wrote: Nice team you have there man. Although it has many flaws with this new meta game we have. For example it has no means of recovery, it also doesn't have an answer to Primal Kyogre and opposing Primal Groudons. Mega Mawile doesn't fit this team because you doesn't have speed control or rain. You have a common weakness to Ice, water, fairy, and fire.  Once sun gets taken away this team is a sitting duck to water types, even when sun is up youre a sitting duck fire types. You may want to look this team over and find some more threats in the meta game, start from scratch.

First of all, READ THE DAMN POST AGAIN!!!!!!!!111
I did said that the team wasn't perfect and had weaknesses in common. i d have means of recovery (ferrothorn) answer to primal kyogre (ferrothorn and groudon) opposing groudons (my own and landorus-i) mawile is good, to stfu, don't argue me on that, it's just so good. i have speed control (tailwind) against sun i have lando and my own don mon and ferro for water types. Nyc insulting me very much appreciated! *don't forget to repeat in my next thread, stay tuned i have tons of grimer content coming out *

I get you said the team wasnt perfect, but if you dont want to see criticism or help fixing it, dont post it on this site...

[Podfighterninja123]

(Dec 20, 2015, 12:01 PM)MudkipLegend Wrote:

(Dec 20, 2015, 09:06 AM)Pokeventurer Wrote:

(Dec 19, 2015, 05:36 PM)MudkipLegend Wrote: Nice team you have there man. Although it has many flaws with this new meta game we have. For example it has no means of recovery, it also doesn't have an answer to Primal Kyogre and opposing Primal Groudons. Mega Mawile doesn't fit this team because you doesn't have speed control or rain. You have a common weakness to Ice, water, fairy, and fire.  Once sun gets taken away this team is a sitting duck to water types, even when sun is up youre a sitting duck fire types. You may want to look this team over and find some more threats in the meta game, start from scratch.

First of all, READ THE DAMN POST AGAIN!!!!!!!!111
I did said that the team wasn't perfect and had weaknesses in common. i d have means of recovery (ferrothorn) answer to primal kyogre (ferrothorn and groudon) opposing groudons (my own and landorus-i) mawile is good, to stfu, don't argue me on that, it's just so good. i have speed control (tailwind) against sun i have lando and my own don mon and ferro for water types. Nyc insulting me very much appreciated! *don't forget to repeat in my next thread, stay tuned i have tons of grimer content coming out *

I get you said the team wasnt perfect, but if you dont want to see criticism or help fixing it, dont post it on this site...

What Alec said, Also you do realize with Sun, you have your ferro as a MAJOR weakness to other Primal Groudons, a major problem, you need rain, not sun. Even if you have a Rain counter, Sun is more common then rain atm. Also Mawile is good I agree but don't be a butt about it like really? Hes trying to help you cause you posted in PUBLICLY. You have tailwind yes, But Tailwind doubles speed and most Pokemon still outspeed Mawile in tailwind

You are also acting very rude to Marc for suggesting changes, it was very uncalled for especially since you are very calm most of the time. So I hope you think of this when people are jerks to you, What comes around goes around, I am sorry if I offended you, but you do not need to act like this for a post of a public forum where we HELP PEOPLE.

[Slec]

(Dec 20, 2015, 12:32 PM)Podfighterninja123 Wrote:

(Dec 20, 2015, 12:01 PM)MudkipLegend Wrote:

(Dec 20, 2015, 09:06 AM)Pokeventurer Wrote:

(Dec 19, 2015, 05:36 PM)MudkipLegend Wrote: Nice team you have there man. Although it has many flaws with this new meta game we have. For example it has no means of recovery, it also doesn't have an answer to Primal Kyogre and opposing Primal Groudons. Mega Mawile doesn't fit this team because you doesn't have speed control or rain. You have a common weakness to Ice, water, fairy, and fire.  Once sun gets taken away this team is a sitting duck to water types, even when sun is up youre a sitting duck fire types. You may want to look this team over and find some more threats in the meta game, start from scratch.

First of all, READ THE DAMN POST AGAIN!!!!!!!!111
I did said that the team wasn't perfect and had weaknesses in common. i d have means of recovery (ferrothorn) answer to primal kyogre (ferrothorn and groudon) opposing groudons (my own and landorus-i) mawile is good, to stfu, don't argue me on that, it's just so good. i have speed control (tailwind) against sun i have lando and my own don mon and ferro for water types. Nyc insulting me very much appreciated! *don't forget to repeat in my next thread, stay tuned i have tons of grimer content coming out *

I get you said the team wasnt perfect, but if you dont want to see criticism or help fixing it, dont post it on this site...

What Alec said, Also you do realize with Sun, you have your ferro as a MAJOR weakness to other Primal Groudons, a major problem, you need rain, not sun. Even if you have a Rain counter, Sun is more common then rain atm. Also Mawile is good I agree but don't be a butt about it like really? Hes trying to help you cause you posted in PUBLICLY. You have tailwind yes, But Tailwind doubles speed and most Pokemon still outspeed Mawile in tailwind

You are also acting very rude to Marc for suggesting changes, it was very uncalled for especially since you are very calm most of the time. So I hope you think of this when people are jerks to you, What comes around goes around, I am sorry if I offended you, but you do not need to act like this for a post of a public forum where we HELP PEOPLE.

Could not have said it better myself, thank you Owen.

[Pokeventurer]

(Dec 20, 2015, 12:38 PM)MudkipLegend Wrote:

(Dec 20, 2015, 12:32 PM)Podfighterninja123 Wrote:

(Dec 20, 2015, 12:01 PM)MudkipLegend Wrote:

(Dec 20, 2015, 09:06 AM)Pokeventurer Wrote:

(Dec 19, 2015, 05:36 PM)MudkipLegend Wrote: Nice team you have there man. Although it has many flaws with this new meta game we have. For example it has no means of recovery, it also doesn't have an answer to Primal Kyogre and opposing Primal Groudons. Mega Mawile doesn't fit this team because you doesn't have speed control or rain. You have a common weakness to Ice, water, fairy, and fire.  Once sun gets taken away this team is a sitting duck to water types, even when sun is up youre a sitting duck fire types. You may want to look this team over and find some more threats in the meta game, start from scratch.

First of all, READ THE DAMN POST AGAIN!!!!!!!!111
I did said that the team wasn't perfect and had weaknesses in common. i d have means of recovery (ferrothorn) answer to primal kyogre (ferrothorn and groudon) opposing groudons (my own and landorus-i) mawile is good, to stfu, don't argue me on that, it's just so good. i have speed control (tailwind) against sun i have lando and my own don mon and ferro for water types. Nyc insulting me very much appreciated! *don't forget to repeat in my next thread, stay tuned i have tons of grimer content coming out *

I get you said the team wasnt perfect, but if you dont want to see criticism or help fixing it, dont post it on this site...

What Alec said, Also you do realize with Sun, you have your ferro as a MAJOR weakness to other Primal Groudons, a major problem, you need rain, not sun. Even if you have a Rain counter, Sun is more common then rain atm. Also Mawile is good I agree but don't be a butt about it like really? Hes trying to help you cause you posted in PUBLICLY. You have tailwind yes, But Tailwind doubles speed and most Pokemon still outspeed Mawile in tailwind

You are also acting very rude to Marc for suggesting changes, it was very uncalled for especially since you are very calm most of the time. So I hope you think of this when people are jerks to you, What comes around goes around, I am sorry if I offended you, but you do not need to act like this for a post of a public forum where we HELP PEOPLE.

Could not have said it better myself, thank you Owen.

Well i think once again i have been misunderstood....
Mudkip, i know that everything i'll ever do you will try to prove wrong *not being rude here, infact my reply was sort of a joke* also ifyou read the category under which the team is posted is 'TEAM REPORT' and not 'RATE MY TEAM'. Again to prove myself, the post contained my very first VGC 2016 team and i wanted to share it with you guys as it felt special to me; my teambuilding skills are trash and my teams are worse. so don't mind me posting weird stuff
*OH GAWD I AM ALWAYS TAKEN WRONG!!!!1111 LIKE WUT!, AH WHATEVER.....*