Mega-Gallade Teambuilding *Editz*: Core Selection!

[Pokeventurer]

*If you have stopped by the thread before, read the edit*
Hi guys i am being annoying constantly and posting alot right into your faces. hope you can handle the load of this one. even after reading the title you came here, you know what's gonna be thrown at you so just bear this pain with me, hope you live till the end to give back suggestions:

So i was just sitting around brainstorming my next team, the idea was to use a bulky gallade. i did came up with some core conclusions around it, but one was too weak to sylveon, other failed to too much meta around it, so i want see pokemon that can form a solid core around it and support it up well support it up well. i'll explain the spread that i built to start with, it would be the following:


Gallade-Mega @ Galladite
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Atk / 12 Def / 4 SpD / 180 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Drain Punch
- Zen Headbutt
- Skill Swap
- Protect

So this was a bulky gallade spread as from an instance. gallade needed to be invested 252 HP to be even called bulky, the speed investment is significant for outspeeding max speed base 100's for example mega kangaskhan though. drain punch for making it last longer on the field, Zen headbutt to nerf out mega venusaur and amoongus' and skill swap to switch into mega-kang's parental bond and steal useful abilities like pixiliate from both sylvie and gardevior. i love the set personally as for how wide spread it is and how much can it utilize. fighting type in general hits many popular picks of the meta extremey hard and easily picks up OHKO'es. especially after kang dominating at worlds, it's usage would be quite more increased though and gallade was created to counter the stuff from nature.

Core one: Gallade, heatran, hydreigon (murder by HP ground sylveon, which is becoming common in VGC)
Core two: Gallade, Rotom-h, ??? *god knows what it should be* (unfinished)

So there you guys go, you have had my opinions on mega gallade and probably you pack some types and cores to pack u with it.meta and no-meta suggestions really don't vary especially to me, so please feel free to type in suggestions, as far as my playstyle goes i can adapt to many type of teams, though there isn't really alot of criteria for a team to be qualified as "mine-ish", i do like to go by the element of surprise usually. Bye for now! *i know i am lazy to build a team, just for now*

*BIG EDITZ* IMPORTANT
So first of all i would like to thank everyone who gave me ideas on using it, though critique for set wasn't really requirred as i wanted to build off of that thing, so let's get into the real talk:

i am interested to use this strategy for the team around gothitelle, tough it requires too much and needs some time to be put to perfect it. i saw many gothitelle played beautifully at worlds, with strategy's locking up with intimidate (basically stat drops which are valuable) recently someone posted to build a team around arcanine and gyarados, with respective support roles, this caught my interest and i found out that both these formed an amazing core around mega gallade. to further support the core i added amoongus. all that load of intimidate and snarl + icy wind (as a first idea for gyar) forced many switch in's from opponents which was pretty annyong, so a gothitelle had to be added to this team, rounded it off with a bisharp, which handled ghost types well, both defensively and offensively. Rougue's core is something i was previously using around with hydreigon (tailwind variant), he fixed it with zapdos, and i'll look into that and maybe post another update to the post.

The Core:

Arcanine @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 20 SpA / 60 SpD / 60 Spe
Modest Nature
- Flamethrower
- Protect
- Snarl
- Will-O-Wisp

U know what it does, simple and effective. it's good against aegislash, amoongus that are bulky and fast mons like mega salamenceand even good against slower, bulky attackers like sylveon and well.... anything. speed investment outspeeds standard bisharp, flamethrower and safety goggles deal well with venu and amoongus, even breloom.

Gyarados @ Wacan Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 92 Atk / 4 Def / 164 SpD / 12 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leer
- Protect
- Waterfall
- Thunder Wave

Gyarados is weird and stuff, and it also changed with gothitelle. so i did made a lead combination around gothitelle. gyarados, uses intimidate, goth locks in, gyarados used leer, goth protects, or either goes for a psyshock to deal damage and heavy damage to anything at a minus one (this is basically works like a tickle in a single turn). waterfall also counts in as an advantage in the case. t-wave is a better counter to offensive rain modes. bulk investment to survive LO 252 thundurus' thunderbolt for once. rest is dumped into attack.

Gothitelle @ Leftovers
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 244 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Protect
- Psyshock
- Skill Swap / Helping hand

Gothitelle glues arcanine and is extremely important. gothitlele was given a bulkier spread, than it should have. though i wan't to invest in offense (can i please get a usual specs hydreigon set nowdays other than 252+ sp.atk investment) gothitelle is something i am confused about goth's spread and set but i know it would fit right in. trick room for sometimes speed control *especially to turn amoongus into a monster* and then psyshock as you just read, protect at it becomes already an attack magnet and confused over skill swap (into my own intimidate and passing over shadow tag to members) and helping hand to help out the team which has overall weak offense mode.

The rest for now is amoongus, extremely specially defensive and a bisharp with quick guard to stop incoming taunt threat from thundurus. hope you guys have some suggestions on these picks of mine. Thanks in advance for any help. Bye for now!

[Marcusube]

Skill Swap Gallade is interesting indeed. To be honest, one caught me with my pants down and stole Pure Power from my Mega Medicham and swept me. The move Skill Swap in itself is very gimmicky in my opinion, which is why I tend to avoid it and all the opponent needs to do is switch out and come back in to have their ability reset. As for team synergy, I can imagine Skill Swapping Huge Power from Azumarill/Diggersby, then sweeping with Gallade, although that isn't really possible in a VGC situation.

Bulky Gallade is interesting as well. Normally the bulky variant is ran in Singles (very rarely at that) so I'm not sure how it would work in a VGC situation especially seeing as how Drain Punch doesn't pick up kills and Gallade is an easy 2HKO for most mons

[Pokeventurer]

(Aug 25, 2015, 05:22 PM)naitre Wrote: Skill Swap M-Gallade is commonly used in singles, but I question its viability in doubles. Here is a replay that might inspire you. It's gimmicky at best, and I'm curious as to why you chose to drop Close Combat/Low Kick entirely.

M-Gallade/Bisharp is a pairing that I see pretty often. A Wide Guard user is also always wise to incorporate because Hyper Voice is so ubiquitous.

Thanks for some suggestions on this mon. as i mentioned skill swap is extremelyviable in doubles, though not many learn it it isn't used widely. pokemon like heatran, m-kang, m-mawile,m-salamence,-gardevior- talonflame,- venusaur, m- ludicolo and more than ever you can think of are half reliant on their abilities, skill swap is able to steal them with grace and turn it in their loosing condition.
as for you question of close combat, i wanted to use a bulky gallade and close combat just isn't the idea for it's being. low kick sucks against many mons and gets to conditional (as for reference to my playstyle and comfort ability, though many still use it better than me) drain punch makes useful recoveries as well as keeps it longer on the field. after stealing parental bond with ease it is going down for sure.

[Black117]

If you are looking to build a team around Mega Gallade, you definitely want Pokemon to beat the likes of Aegislash, Mega Gengar, Talonflame, Mega Salamence, Sylveon, and even Mega Gardevoir (basically Ghost, Flying, Fairy). Mega Gallade is a Mega Pokemon that has some potential in VGC but its just how common these Pokemon are in almost every team that makes it near unviable. If it gotten a better ability than we see Mega Gallade more often but it can't even one shot an Amoonguss since Zen Headbutt while Mega Metagross, thanks to tough claws at least can with a damage roll. That's how important an ability can be to a Pokemon at times.

You definitely need bulky Electric Pokemon like Thundurus, Zapdos, or Rotom-W who can at least take on Flying types. For Fairy type Pokemon. steel types like Heatran, LO Scizor, and even Aegislash can help beat them for Mega Gallade to finish them off.

[Rogue]

I built a team around M-Gallade with Gallade, Heatran, Zapdos. I actually plan on posting this team later, so look for that if you want.

Similar to your first core with Hydreigon, and I think it worked very well. Zapdos filled a role of tailwind, which hydreigon could fill in as well. Tailwind works especially well since you could outspeed things like mega gar, salamence, fast m-metagross, and even scarfed mons like Landorus. Which could really be a clutch move to use with skill swap. Taking mence's aerliate, gengars shadow tag (or hitting it hard with zen headbutt), gross's tough claws, or landorus's intimidate can be huge.

Interesting use of Gallade. However I wouldn't really call it a "counter" to m-kang as M-Kang can OHKO this spread with double edge, and 2HKO with double edge even without parental bond. Ontop of drain punch not being able to KO kang. That being said it could still put in work with this.

Edit: Basically what black said, he beat me to it. Definitely recommend heatran and zapdos too. It worked great for me.