📈 Ladder Top Builds

The team starts from Focus Sash Basculegion, the author's most trusted Pokemon across SV. Mega Floette was added after seeing a shared rental team, paired with Choice Scarf Garchomp as the speed-and-pressure core. Archaludon provides Stealth Rock and pressures opposing Floette with Roar to stop Calm Mind stacking. Mega Gyarados is the second Mega slot to deal with steel and poison types that threaten Floette; Volcarona with Lum Berry is specifically there to handle Umbreon and Corviknight. The author rates the team's chief strength as Floette's overwhelming selection pressure, which forces predictable opponent teambuilds; the main weakness is that meta-awareness of Floette grew rapidly over the season, making it progressively harder to bring it safely to battle. Final peak 2686, final placement 55th.Build article →

The author enjoyed piloting Mega Lucario last season, so this team is built around it. Meowscarada and Rotom were picked as ideal partners, with a Sitrus Garchomp added to cover Aegislash and fill the Ground slot. To handle Blaziken, opposing Mega Lucario and Scizor, a physically bulky Taunt Gyarados was slotted in, and Galarian Slowking closes the team as a special wall and slow pivot into Mega Dragonite, Mega Floette and Primarina. The core plan: Mega Lucario walls Archaludon, switching in even on Draco Meteor and Flash Cannon; Muscle Band Meowscarada with four attacking moves exploits opponents assuming Scarf Protean; Scarf Rotom sets Stealth Rock, Volt Switches and locks foes with Trick. The author admits Gengar and Mimikyu are heavy matchups (Bullet Punch would have been safer than Earthquake on Lucario), and WoW Mega Gengar, Life Orb Dragapult and Lucario-hitting Meowscarada are the toughest threats.Build article →

Nann took 56th building around Mega Charizard Y, chosen because it steals every weather and beats Steels, which mattered against the three dominant cores: Swampert rain, Metagross steel teams, and Delphox fire teams. Stealth Rock was solved by running Defog Scizor, and Timid Charizard Y was picked to out-speed and out-turn bulky support Garchomp. Scizor was the MVP, cutting Garchomp's momentum alongside Charizard and clearing both rocks and screens with Defog. Sash Swords Dance Garchomp leads or cleans up, Primarina hard-answers Hydreigon and Hippowdon, and Hisuian Samurott adds a Dark type to handle Delphox teams, Archaludon and Kingambit while walling Basculegion. Mega Gengar with Shadow Tag and Perish Song mops up Glimmora Toxic Spikes and Baton Pass teams. His toughest matchups: Stealth Rock plus Mega Gyarados, a faster Swords Dance Garchomp that sets up first, and an accurate sleep Build article →

The team is built around the author's favorite Pokemon, Gardevoir, as a lead designed to gain numerical advantage. Hippowdon handles physical attackers including Basculegion and Starmie; Hydreigon removes ice-type vulnerabilities and checks Floette; Aegislash cuts the ice-type line and counters Lucario. The final two slots took the longest to settle: Mega Glimmora disguises itself as a defensive set before revealing its wallbreaking nature, handling Garchomp that would otherwise trouble Hippowdon; Mega Gyarados gives the team a second Mega slot to cover water-type threats. The main selection pattern is Glimmora plus Hippowdon with one backup. The author notes Mega Gyarados's type ambiguity generated easy wins; but Gardevoir's lead rate crashed to 19% and win rate to 13% on the final day as the metagame adapted against it. Final placement: 56th.Build article →

Based on a standard Kangaskhan team the author found comfortable mid-season, he swapped Mega Kangaskhan for Mega Lopunny and replaced Primarina with Gyarados to counter opposing Primarina. Mega Glimmora was added last as a wallbreaker and generally flexible slot. Lopunny leads aggressively — against Garchomp it goes straight to Ice Punch rather than fake-out, tanking Choice Scarf Garchomp's Outrage plus rough skin to win the trade; Hi Jump Kick over Close Combat was chosen specifically to pressure Archaludon. Choice Scarf Hydreigon outspeeds fast water-types like Starmie and Basculegion. Gyarados and Aegislash form a reliable cycle core, with Aegislash achieving the highest usage rate. The team's weaknesses are opposing Lopunny, Gengar, and Delphox; Venusaur is also a known problem. Final placement: 58th at 2685.Build article →

The team is built around running cycle battles with Mega Florges or Mega Delphox as the core. The author borrowed Hippowdon and Archaludon from a friend's build and filled the rest with mons he was comfortable on. Mega Delphox uses Mystical Fire plus Will-O-Wisp to handle both physical and special threats, with Encore locking opponents down. Because he hated facing Primarina, he added the bulkier Mega Florges, which he felt was off-meta enough to surprise people and snowball with Draining Kiss. Archaludon, once Stamina pops, basically can't be broken and dismantles teams with Dragon Tail. Lum Berry Swords Dance Garchomp sets up on Hippowdon and eats one layer of Toxic Spikes. Meowscarada runs Sash with Overgrow, Taunt and Sucker Punch — the unusual Taunt blanks bulky leads. The author lists Mega Clefable, Mega Lucario, Protean Greninja and Mimikyu as his worst matchups, which caused his late-day losing streak.Build article →

pHpoke finished 58th around Leftovers Aegislash, prized for its Ghost/Steel typing, King's Shield plus Leftovers longevity, and Shadow Sneak cleanup so it never sits dead in a game. Dragonite used to be its partner but got broken by Scale Shot Swords Dance Garchomp, so this season he switched to newly unlocked Mega Staraptor, which outspeeds Garchomp, pivots into Swords Dance Chomp thanks to pre-Mega Intimidate, cycles cleanly with Aegislash, and complements its Ghost coverage with Fighting via Close Combat. Since Charizard and Delphox fire types are tough, a Careful bulky Sitrus Garchomp handles special attackers and lays Stealth Rock and Spikes to extend the offense. These three fear Greninja and Primarina and wanted Toxic Spikes, so Sash Meowscarada was added. Mega Gyarados covers hard-to-pivot Dragonite and Gholdengo teams and sets up on Ghosts, and Perish Song Primarina rounds it ouBuild article →

This team was built around the author's shiny GO Mega Lopunny, used ever since starting Champions ranked. After two seasons on Swords Dance Lopunny, this season they switched to a bulky cycle build, avoiding Triple Axel and valuing a priority move that isn't blocked by Ghost-type immunity. The core trio is Mega Lopunny, Corviknight, and Galarian Slowking: Corviknight runs a bulky physical wall set and pivots Lopunny in safely with U-turn, Galarian Slowking is the special wall that lays Toxic Spikes, Garchomp sets Stealth Rock and patches team coverage, Ceruledge with Focus Sash handles 1v1 duels and cleanup, and Greninja was added late to check threats Lopunny struggles with. The author rates the team's feel very highly, saying just pivoting around often won games outright, but flags too many low-accuracy moves as the season's biggest weakness.Build article →

The team revolves around Mega Starmie (swapped on the final morning for Mega Lucario), Umbreon, Corviknight, Primarina, and Garchomp. The core design insight is that Floette and Archaludon force opponents to bring steel, poison, or fire types — all of which Primarina beats handily. Umbreon provides physical bulk and wish support to handle Basculegion and Gyarados; Corviknight counters Mega Lopunny and Mega Scizor. Focus Sash Garchomp sets Stealth Rock and pressures with scale shot. On the final morning the author decided that Archaludon was rendering Starmie unusable, so he replaced it with special Mega Lucario: Aura Sphere reliably KOs Archaludon, Vacuum Wave picks off Mega Lopunny and Greninja. The team's strength is its flexible selection options; the weaknesses are an incomplete answer to opposing Mega Gengar and Iron Defense-Body Press Corviknight. Peak 2697, final placement 59th.Build article →

Note-chan finished 59th with the goal of squeezing the most out of Hippowdon and stacking many win conditions. The core is Leftovers Protect Hippowdon, strong against the new Mega Metagross, Blaziken and Mawile, plus the now-common Mimikyu. Its three weaknesses (slow execution, low damage, no answer to Lum-plus-setup) are solved by Sash Glimmora's Toxic Spikes, which also burns opposing Lum Berries so Yawn can force switches. Water types are rough, so among Venusaur, Victreebel and Meganium he chose Mega Meganium for its damage, immunity to his own sand, and a hit on Corviknight. These four can't touch Staraptor, so Spell Tag Aegislash was added as a breaker that pairs with Toxic Spikes and steals games via both Swords Dance and King's Shield. Mega Gyarados is the backup Mega, disguised as a non-Mega to catch opponents off guard, and Dragon Fang offensive Archaludon punches through the hBuild article →

The author built around Mega Metagross for its top-tier one-on-one stats and looks. Since Metagross struggles against defensive cores, Mega Gengar fills the second Mega slot with Perish Song + Protect to break stall and stop gimmick teams; both Megas cover Fairies, making teambuilding synergy easy. Choice Scarf Hydreigon switches into Ground/Dark/Ghost hits and revenge-kills from above. Primarina is the glue, handling opposing Hydreigon, Umbreon, Mega Delphox, Mega Blastoise and Hippowdon, and this season she's bulked up to survive Mimikyu's Wood Hammer. Hippowdon is the physical wall with Leftovers + Yawn + Slack Off + Protect, beating Choice Meowscarada and Basculegion 1v1. Sash Garchomp runs Jolly max Attack with Stealth Rock, Dragon Tail and Stone Edge to cover matchup, wallbreaking and revenge duty. Weak points: variable-move Meowscarada, Greninja, Umbreon, Mamoswine, fast Mega Charizard, and special Aegislash.Build article →