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The author built a fairly standard Mega Dragonite + Aegislash team, borrowing heavily from a prior season's top-29 list. The concept is simply "win with typing and raw stats." Aegislash with Leftovers is the centerpiece — after a Swords Dance, its Sacred Sword blows past everything except Umbreon and Sitrus Skeledirge, and a double SD Sacred Sword even OHKOs specially-defensive Hippowdon. Mega Dragonite abuses immunity to Ground, outspeeds neutral Garchomp, and stalls unset-up foes with Toxic Spikes + Roost while cycling cleanly into Mega Charizard variants. Sash Glimmora leads for pressure, Scarf Meowscarada uses Thunder Punch to handle Gyarados, physically-bulky Hippowdon exists to beat Lopunny and lay Stealth Rock, and max-Speed Mega Lopunny leverages High Jump Kick to punch through Umbreon, Snorlax and the mirror. The author admits the team plays more like offense than cycle, and Garchomp with X-Scissor + Earthquake is still very rough to face.Build article →

The author reused the skeleton that felt good in a previous season: Orthworm passes a Baton with Shed Tail so Mega Blastoise can Shell Smash safely and then sweep. Post-Smash Water Spout hits absurdly hard, powering through the bulky Pokemon opponents bring specifically to check it, and max Speed regularly beats things that look like Choice Scarf users. Orthworm runs minimum Speed for a slow Shed Tail and uses Earth Eater's odd resistances to switch in and steal tempo; Body Press became Heavy Slam this season, which sharply raised the pressure it puts on Fairies. Aegislash goes against the grain with a Focus Sash, which behind a Shed Tail substitute is close to double insurance, and its unexpected Speed catches people out. Mega Glimmora is the second Mega at max Speed for Charizard and Dragonite, with Magical Shine swapped to Energy Ball for the rising Water types; Choice Scarf Garchomp Build article →

This is a matchup team built around Mega Feraligatr. Vanilluxe and Staraptor pull opponents into predictable picks and Feraligatr itself baits Fairies, which makes team preview unusually easy. Only Gengar or Staraptor ever lead: Staraptor's job is to chip the opponent into range of the back line's priority moves, and even if Final Gambit gets blocked by a Ghost that is fine, because it lets Snorlax or Vanilluxe come in and start a Yawn sequence. Snorlax is the key pivot — Thick Fat plus huge bulk erases bad openings entirely — and it also uses Yawn, Gunk Shot and Ice Punch to push targets into Feraligatr's range, with Fissure often just solving the game. Un-Megaed Feraligatr is already bulky enough to find Swords Dance windows, after which Aqua Break and Aqua Jet are nearly unstoppable, and that is how most Primarina and Sylveon died. Hydreigon is a specialist that uses Umbreon and BelliBuild article →

The author has a personal rule that Sneasler must be on the team, so its set came first: Focus Sash and Life Orb both lose to Megas and Choice Scarf runs into Poison and Fighting immunities, so it ended up on a Sitrus Berry Swords Dance ace set. To make Sneasler easier to bring, Basculegion and Mega Delphox were added to bait out opposing Dark types. The lead is a max Speed, max Special Attack Sturdy Archaludon holding a White Herb so it can throw Draco Meteor freely and still trade one-for-one with a teammate's priority even when it loses the exchange. Mega Victreebel started as a placeholder second Mega but its ability to drag opponents down with it, plus enough raw power, made it a de facto second core, and it happens to be strong against the Hippowdon and Garchomp that Sneasler hates. Mimikyu covers setup teams and Staraptor. The author says the intended baiting worked and Sneasler sBuild article →

This is a Ghost mono team built around Trick Room. Mimikyu is the TR setter, and the main hitter is Adamant Basculegion holding Spell Tag: with Adaptability its Curse-boosted Haunted Fortress one-shots uninvested Mega Blastoise and Mega Charizard X, while Substitute blocks status and Sucker Punch. Houndstone is the second TR sweeper, packing Play Rough to punch through dark cores like Hydreigon/Metagross/Mimikyu that Basculegion can't. Mega Banette runs Prankster with SpDef tuned to survive Hydreigon's Dark Pulse, leading against special threats like Greninja, Gengar, Char-Y and Gholdengo; Swords Dance was added because Sitrus Primarina teams often tank a second Poltergeist. The main lead is Banette + Mimikyu + Basculegion/Houndstone, swapping to a Mega Sableye + Annihilape + Basculegion stall core against bulky builds. Author says the burst damage and special-lead matchup are strong, but healing walls like Primarina blunt the follow-up. Finished 840th.Build article →

A committed Umbreon loyalist, the author only had two requirements: build around Umbreon and play the Stealth Rock plus Yawn game. Umbreon and a hazard-setting Garchomp were locked in first, with Garchomp on Sitrus running Stealth Rock, Spikes and Dragon Tail specifically to chip the physical walls Umbreon cannot break. The other four slots were chosen purely from Umbreon's bad matchups: Primarina with an Electric-resist berry for Blaziken, Swords Dance Aegislash for Bellibolt and Corviknight, Mega Metagross for Mimikyu and Lopunny, and a Clear Smog Gengar for special setup sweepers like Primarina, Volcarona and Clefable. Aegislash is tuned to outspeed Venusaur, and once it gets a Swords Dance off it clears anything slower. The Gengar slot was originally Mega Greninja, but it lacked the damage to actually kill things; with Gengar the Garchomp plus Umbreon plus Gengar trio became much easBuild article →

The author built around Mega Mawile, a favorite since Sun/Moon. Adamant AS Garchomp with Poison Jab handles Mega Meganium (which usually walls Mawile) and sets Stealth Rock, while Milotic sponges both sides and resets setup sweepers with Haze. Life Orb mixed Meowscarada leads for immediate pressure—Aura Sphere blows up Archaludon and Trick against special Garchomp/Dragonite is huge. Mega Delphox is the Mega Venusaur killer and also covers Gengar and Mega Metagross. The last slot is Cotton Guard Whimsicott, brought in the back to beat the surge of Gyarados—one boost usually wins. The author feels every member ambushes something specific; weaknesses are rain teams (no Thunder Punch on Mawile, no Scarf on Meowscarada), lead Floette, and speed-boosting Protean Scovillain.Build article →

The author had not planned to play seriously this season, but while messing about with teams the Mega Mawile plus Choice Scarf Heat Rotom pairing felt good, so they borrowed a top player's six almost unchanged. Mawile drops Swords Dance for max HP and Attack, raising its general matchup quality through Sucker Punch coverage; even without Swords Dance opponents still have to respect it, which forces a lot of setup-avoidance plays and handed over easy wins. Heat Rotom is the core, using Scarf speed to lock down the Scizor, Metagross and Corviknight that Mawile cannot beat, and chipping with Volt Switch and Overheat while cycling — though Stealth Rock costs it a quarter of its HP, so switching has to be minimised. Sitrus specially defensive Hippowdon sets Stealth Rock and Yawn to open a path for Mawile, Lum Berry Swords Dance Garchomp breaks Hippowdon cycles and Will-O-Wisp teams, and physiBuild article →

He wanted to use Mega Sceptile purely because it's his favourite Pokemon, and since last season he'd tried a pile of partners that didn't work — he's bad at piloting Charizard Y, Sceptile never got selected on rain teams, Garchomp stacks weaknesses, Mawile survived nothing, Hydreigon plus Metagross was wrong — with only Mega Blaziken feeling decent. The one thing he was sure of was Hippowdon, which covers Sceptile's lack of raw damage and is simply an outstanding Pokemon. One Mega wasn't enough, so the second slot went to Mega Lucario, which converts Hippowdon's Stealth Rock, sand and Yawn position into an explosive sweep. Both of his Megas fold to Choice Scarf Garchomp, so Basculegion came in as the stopper, also strong into Mega Delphox and Mega Staraptor, then Kingambit to handle the Choice Scarf Meowscarada that Sceptile invites, and Archaludon last because he had no other way to beaBuild article →

Up until a week before the season ended he was running Aegislash plus Dragonite, but its strengths got figured out and it became a metagame target, so he moved on. His requirements for the replacement were that it keep broad coverage and enough power to beat any archetype, and that its wall-breaking be self-contained within his default three — which led him to Garchomp plus Sylveon. Bringing no Mega in the default three seemed far too casual, so he picked Mega Gyarados for its Dragon Dance synergy with Yawn and its coverage. That made him hazard-dependent, so Glimmora joined as a backup lead and Toxic Spikes setter. What remained was the Steel attackers like Lucario and Scizor, plus Corviknight, which Gyarados can't beat no matter what, hence Mega Delphox, with Aegislash last for typing synergy with Sylveon and because he was practiced with it. Sylveon is the core and his MVP, absorbing Build article →

He used to run a Mega Venusaur pivot team but switched to a matchup-focused build as the metagame shifted and, by his own account, his thinking got slower. Mega Meganium was trendy at the time so he built from it: Araquanid came out of the box to set Sticky Web and make it work, Sableye and Stealth Rock Garchomp were lifted from his old Mega Gengar team to give him a matchup axis, and while Corviknight was tried for the Steel slot the team had too few attackers, so Mega Skarmory fit better. Focus Sash Sableye is what repeatedly saved his rating: everyone assumes Mega Sableye or reads past it to his back line and clicks a special move, which Metal Burst punishes for an immediate numbers lead, and he deliberately lowered its Special Defense so Mega Dragonite's Air Slash and Mega Blastoise's Dark Pulse return near-lethal damage, while Prankster Encore beats the popular setup teams and buys Build article →

The author felt a three-attack Mega Dragonite with Roost could be selected into anything and felt great, so it became the axis with a near-total selection rate. The Dragon, Ice and Fairy threats Dragonite dislikes — Garchomp, Mimikyu, Meowscarada, Greninja, Metagross — are absorbed by a physically defensive Scizor, which pivots with U-turn and clears Stealth Rock and screens with Defog. Scizor alone could not handle Rough Skin Earthquake and Fire Fang, so a physically defensive Primarina was added, which also covers Hydreigon, Hisuian Samurott, Hippowdon and Lopunny. The Ground slot is Focus Sash Mamoswine, strong into Hippowdon and Garchomp with Ice Shard to finish weakened targets, and its team-preview pressure makes the opponent's picks very readable. Choice Scarf Meowscarada cuts Water, Ghost and Psychic coverage, with Throat Chop reliably killing Delphox and Gengar. On the final dayBuild article →