Dragapult @ Life Orb

Ability: Clear Body

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Phantom Force

- Dragon Darts

- Fly

- Protect

Dragapult’s biggest strengths are speed, power and fast Max Airstreams. Allowing it to boost the speed of team members to usually ensure that both of your mons move first.

Dragapult sits in a sweeper role for this team, often brought with Togekiss and often Dynamaxed when brought. Not being affected by any stat drops, especially intimidate makes Dragapult one of the most formidable offensive threaths in the meta game. It’s often very crucial in this team, due to countering Conkeldurr pretty hard, which threatens several of the other team members.

There is really not a lot to be said about the moveset or the EV spread as it is fairly generic. Being max speed allows you to outspeed the majority of bulk invested Weakness Policy Dragapults, and dealing massive damage to them. Which comes in handy against the ever so prevalent Triple Ghost teams.

Togekiss @ Babiri Berry

Ability: Super Luck

EVs: 228 HP / 196 Def / 12 SpA / 12 SpD / 60 Spe

Bold Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Dazzling Gleam

- Yawn

- Follow Me

- Safeguard

Okay, so this is one of the sets I just completely copied from Edu. I usually use my own bulky Togekiss sets, but I figured I might as well just use Edu’s set here. This is a very bulky and supportive Togekiss, that pretty much functions excactly as you would have thought.

Togekiss serves a very important role in this team by supporting the big heavy hitters like Excadrill and Dragapult. Due to this teams lack of general speed control, Togekiss is central in matchups where you need to ensure the protection of your team members, even though they don’t move first, mainly with Follow Me.

One of its main tasks like I said is providing follow me support, but both Yawn and Safeguard have proven to be very useful as well. Yawn can be used on your opponents dynamax to put them in an awkward position, of whether to stay in and sleep or switch out and lose their Dynamax. Safeguard also comes in handy with all the sleep and status in general, being everywhere in the meta. You could consider using Helping Hand or something like Heat Wave instead of either Yawn or Safeguard, however I have found the current move set to be very good.

As you can see, this Togekiss is very bulky and will survive a lot of stuff. Babiri Berry lets it survive any Steel move out there, including Max Steelspike head on from Life Orb Durant. I usually run a bit more speed on my Togekiss sets, which I did miss with this set at times, truth be told. However the set was overall solid, and the extra bulk also came in handy.

Tyranitar @ Assault Vest

Ability: Sand Stream

EVs: 52 HP / 76 Atk / 116 SpA / 12 SpD / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

- Rock Slide

- Dark Pulse

- Fire Blast

- Earth Power

So this Tyrantitar set is probably the most “unique” aspect of this team. I originally started getting interested in a mixed Tyranitar set after being frustrated about the fact that Tyranitar’s max moves often doesn’t give any helpful benefits other than damage. Max Rockfall will usually do nothing, considering that Tyranitar already sets up Sandstorm when switched in. Max Darkness also does nothing for physical Tyranitar, due to lowering Special Defense.

With a mixed set however, Tyranitar can take advantage of the Special Defense drops and effectively power up it’s somewhat mediocre base Special Attack. Another big bonus is that burn and intimidate no longer bother Tyranitar all that much, which is something Tyranitar usually is a magnet for. This will often make your opponent waste their turns on trying to cripple Tyranitar physically.

Tyranitar serves almost as utility in this team, helping the team by filling certain gaps the team normally isn’t filling. It does this with good type coverage on both the special and physical side. It can be very good in certain matchups like against Durant, Corviknight, Ferrothorn, Duraludon and Arcanine. It functions very well both as a potential dynamax candidate and also outside of dynamax. This Tyranitar being max speed allows it to outspeed a majority of the meta game, which is a big advantage against other Tyranitars and most Togekiss sets.

While looking for the best ways to use a mixed Tyranitar, I remembered James Katsaros’s mixed Tyranitar from Oceania Internationals. He was nice enough to give me his set, so I had something to go off. His set originally had a Weakness Policy, so I thought I would change some stuff to make it suit an Assault Vest better. Funnily enough, just slapping an Assault Vest on James’s orginal set actually worked out great, and it showed some great promise while I was doing calcs. While I’m not completely sure on what the offensive investment James did is for, I’m gonna list some of the defensive calcs I did with this Assault Vest Tyranitar.

+2 252 SpA Rotom-W Hydro Pump vs. 52 HP / 12 SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 144–170 (79.1–93.4%) - guaranteed 2HKO +2 208 SpA Lapras Max Geyser (140 BP) vs. 52 HP / 12 SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 152–180 (83.5–98.9%) - guaranteed 2HKO 252+ SpA Life Orb Venusaur Max Overgrowth (140 BP) vs. 52 HP / 12 SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 127–151 (69.7–82.9%) - guaranteed 2HKO Critical Hit 252+ SpA Togekiss Max Starfall (130 BP) vs. 52 HP / 12 SpD Assault Vest Tyranitar in Sand: 152–182 (83.5–100%) - 6.3% chance to OHKO

Keep in mind that these calcs are for Tyranitar when not Dynamaxed. While Dynamaxed, Tyranitar becomes close to unkillable by any Special hit out there.

Excadrill @ Weakness Policy

Ability: Mold Breaker

EVs: 60 HP / 28 Atk / 164 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

- High Horsepower

- Iron Head

- Swords Dance

- Protect

So this is another set that’s not made by me. This is also made by Edu, and like I said earlier, if there is a Weakness Policy Excadrill set out there that is proven to be good, why not use it.

Excadrill is one of the main damage dealers in this team, and is brought in a lot of games. Often in the lead together with Togekiss. Excadrill is an excellent Dynamax candidate, but also functions great outside of it. Having both Weakness Policy and Swords Dance, makes it very easy to get this Excadrill to +2 Attack, giving it the power to deal massive amounts of damage.

The moveset is fairly standard, although it doesn’t have Rock Slide in favour of Swords Dance. This makes Excadrill’s matchup against things like Gyarados and Corviknight very bad, but they were never very good to begin with either way. Edu originally ran Earthquake on his Excadrill, however I like High Horsepower personally.

As you can see I have Mold Breaker on Excadrill over Sand Stream. Although the speed boost would be much appreciated at times, the ability to destroy Rotom and Mimikyu are very important for this team. Especially Rotom, due to not having a grass move or any other reliable way to deal with it. If you decide to build a similiar team to this, feel free to try Sand Storm though. Mold Breaker was just what I felt was the right call for this team.

As you can see, Edu invested a lot into physical defense. This investment combined with Excadrill’s already solid HP stat, makes it surprisingly bulky. I will list some of the calcs I found notable with this set below:

Defensive: 252+ Atk Rhyperior Max Quake (130 BP) vs. 60 HP / 164 Def Excadrill: 306-362 (79.2 - 93.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO Critical Hit 252+ SpA Togekiss Max Flare (130 BP) vs. 60 HP / 0 SpD Excadrill: 326-384 (84.4 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 180 SpA Gastrodon Earth Power vs. 60 HP / 0 SpD Excadrill: 162-192 (83.9 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Offensive: +1 28 Atk Excadrill High Horsepower vs. 252 HP / 132 Def Incineroar: 204-240 (100.9 - 118.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO +2 28 Atk Excadrill Max Steelspike (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 52 Def Togekiss: 384-452 (100 - 117.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO +2 28 Atk burned Excadrill Max Quake (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 140 Def Arcanine: 198-234 (100.5 - 118.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Incineroar @ Aguav Berry

Ability: Intimidate

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 100 Def / 124 SpD / 28 Spe

Careful Nature

- Flare Blitz

- Fake Out

- Parting Shot

- Darkest Lariat

Incineroar serves an important role in this team with the ability Intimidate and also with Fake Out support. It is generally brought in the back when I know the opponent has a very physical team, particulary against other sand teams. It is also good for further increasing Excadrills survivability, making it easier to get away with taking a Super Effective attack and activating Weakness Policy.

This moveset is probably the most standard move set for Incineroar out there. Both Parting Shot and Darkest Lariat are flex moves. U-turn, Snarl, Taunt, Will-O-Whisp and Throat Chop could all be used instead. Flare Blitz and Fake Out are probably more “mandatory” moves I would say. My personal rule for Incineroar is to at least always include Flare Blitz, Fake Out and a pivoting move. I decided to go for Darkest Lariat as well because it lets Incineroar put in some work against Dragapult.

Because Incineroar already has Intimiate to help with the physical moves, I usually opt for a more specially invested Incineroar personally. This Incineroar is designed to live a plethora of different attacks, which I will list below:

-1 252+ Atk Conkeldurr Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Incineroar: 156-186 (77.2 - 92%) -- guaranteed 2HKO -1 252+ Atk Rhyperior Max Rockfall (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Incineroar: 168-200 (83.1 - 99%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 252+ SpA Lapras Max Geyser (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 124+ SpD Incineroar: 170-204 (84.1 - 100.9%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO 252+ SpA Life Orb Duraludon Max Wyrmwind (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 124+ SpD Incineroar: 142-168 (70.2 - 83.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO -1 252 Atk Life Orb Hustle Durant Max Rockfall (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Incineroar: 166-198 (82.1 - 98%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Levitate

Level: 50

EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 36 SpA / 28 SpD / 180 Spe

Modest Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Thunderbolt

- Hydro Pump

- Nasty Plot

- Protect

Rotom-Wash doesn’t need much of an introduction. It has grown very rapidly in popularity over the last month I would say, and for good reason. The water and electric coverage is very good, and the fact that you can set up Nasty Plots makes Rotom even more deadly.

The move set is the most standard Nasty Plot set out there. Hydro Pump and Tunderbolt are mandatory. I personally like protect on Rotom a lot, especially with Nasty Plot. The only issue with this move set is if you end up in a 1 vs 1 against a Gastrdon. In this situation you become litteraly unable to do any damage to it. Some people run stuff like Dark Pulse for situations like that, however I personally think both Protect and Nasty Plot is too good on Rotom to let go of, for that specific match up. Although it would also be good in other matchups like vs a Dragapult.

The EV spread is pretty standard as well. You hit 129 speed with this investment, which lets you outspeed the majority of the meta game. Max HP investment and a bit thrown into both defenses makes Rotom bulky enough to survive a lot of things, and also lets you eat your Sitrus Serry to regain some health. Which synergises well with Nasty plot. Like you can see, this set doesn’t have a lot of investment in SpAtk. It only has +36 to get over the stat gain “bump”. If you manage to set up a Nasty Plot however, Rotom becomes a lot more threatening.