[RATE MY TEAM] 0kamii's April International Challenge Team

The idea I was going for was a bulky offense play, as I see a lot of VCG Teams doing straight offense. I thought if I could tank a few hits while I formulated a strategy, I would be in a good position to win. And I was right! About 55% of the time... I am already aware that Bulu/Muk is an established core, I just added Marowak to it to try and offset the Fire-Type damage against Bulu. Not only that, but Muk covers any and all Ghost-Type damage that combatants tried to throw at Marowak. Overall, I really enjoyed playing with these three, and while they compliment each other well, clearly the synergy isn't perfect. I'm open to any advice you can give.

Strengths:

I will say that Bulu's Grassy Surge really offset any damage from major Earthquake users, and it let the rest of the core set up or strike when it mattered. Other strengths that I observed was the ability to have Marowak switch into any potential Electic-Type attacks that were intended for Gyarados. Having Protect on most of my team made Earthquake a safe play in almost any situation, and Garchomp used it to great effect! Speaking of Garchomp, you may be wondering why it's running Crunch instead of Rock Slide. To put it simply, the popular Fini/Lele + Drifblim has really been on the rise, and I wanted to be prepare for this team. As such, I gave Garchomp Crunch to take out this threatening mon with high single target damage, and it came in handy more often than not. One of the final strengths I observed over my 36 battles was the staying power of my core. Tapu Bulu actually managed to win a 56 turn battle when someone tried to stall the game. Thanks to Leech Seed and his bulk, he outlasted the bulky Mandibuzz to secure my first Day 3 victory, and that's not something I thought I'd say. Another strength I observed is that it's very useful to have a mon that does super-effective Ghost-Type damage. I came across a lot of Metagross, Drifblim, Mimikyu, and Tapu Lele, and they all went down in a single hit thanks to Shadow Bone. The last thing I want to mention is that with Grassy Terrain up, Tapu Bulu, despite being a bulky variant, hits quite hard. I usually 2HKO other Garchomp and Tapu Koko, and I even OHKO-ed a Tapu Lele. Bulu also came in handy against common VGC 2017 walls like Tapu Fini and Gastrodon. Sure its got a number of weaknesses, but I think its usability made up for it.

Weaknesses:
Frankly, as I battled, there were a lot more weaknesses within my team than I had initially noticed. One of the first things that I realized, admittedly too late, is that Lightning Rod apparently forces all single target moves to target the mon with Lightning Rod. This means that every time Porygon2 and Marowak were on the field together, I couldn't use Thunderbolt, and if I did, I wasted my move. And if I'm to be honest, I made this blunder more than once. Another weakness I noticed was that Tapu Bulu's Grassy Surge hindered the damage from my own Earthquake user, which I admittedly forgot while building the team. On at least one occasion, this cost me the game, as I failed to knock out a Tailwind-ed Lele and it used Psychic. Moving into the problems with my Garchomp, not having a STAB Dragon-Type move came into play several times, especially against other Garchomp. I thought Porygon2's bulk and use of Ice Beam would be enough, but it wasn't. Garchomp, even with its Assault Vest often went down to a Moonblast or two, and there was even a case where I was knocked out my a +1 Comfey using Draining Kiss. Sure it was fast, and it could OHKO almost any Tapu it came across, but my Garchomp was almost always OHKO-ed right back. A last weakness I want to mention is that giving Gyarados a Waterium Z didn't hit that many opponents for super-effective STAB. It was mainly there to target mons like Torkoal, Arcanine, and Gigalith, but I didn't come across enough of those to warrent its use. Usually I was hits mons like Garchomp for neutral damage, and that wasn't enough to KO. And lastly, I want to talk about Porygon2. I'm starting to think that Porygon2 isn't the best VGC 2017 Trick Room setter anymore. Usually during my higher tier games, my opponents had Buzzwole, a Close Combat Mudsdale, or even a Brick Break Grachomp specifically to combat Porygon2's arrival. The use of Porygon2 is starting to become far more common, and people are preparing for it. So in my opinion, it's time for a different Trick Room setter.

Well, that's everything I can think of for now. Like I said earlier, I would love advice and tips on how I can improve my team! This isn't the only VGC team I'm working on right now, and when I come up with more I'll be sure to post that one as well. Thank you all to everyone that read my post, and I thank you in advance for any advice you have to offer me! Thanks again, and battle onwards!

- 0kamii