📈 Ladder Top Builds

He kept the Mega Charizard Y, Hippowdon and Meowscarada he was comfortable with from last season, added the Mega Lucario he regretted not using, brought in Gyarados as a switch-in and cushion against the newly added Mega Swampert rain teams, and finished with Mimikyu for its Disguise. He reached rank 600 mid-season with almost no changes, then lost a string of games down to 1800 and reworked the spreads. Mimikyu went from a bulky set to Adamant max Attack, max Speed with a Life Orb, giving it real damage without setting up at the cost of having essentially no bulk once Disguise breaks. Mega Charizard Y changed the most; he lists three problems — Stealth Rock hurts too much, high-power pivots like Starmie and Basculegion force it out with the choice entirely on the opponent's side, and specially defensive Hippowdon became common enough that even Overheat can't kill it. His fixes were swapBuild article →

The author dislikes cycle teams because they demand too much reading and thinking, so they built a straightforward face-off squad for M-4 and finished at rank 971. The core is Mega Metagross + Mamoswine + Hisuian Samurott, with Mega Dragonite as the second Mega option. Focus Sash Mamoswine is the MVP, leading almost every game and grabbing 1–2 KOs with Icicle Crash, Rock Tomb and Ice Shard. Mega Metagross cleans up with Tough Claws Psychic Fangs and Bullet Punch, while Choice Scarf Hisuian Samurott handles the Delphox, Mega Greninja, Basculegion and Kingambit matchups Metagross struggles with. Mega Dragonite runs a special CS spread with Flamethrower for Aegislash and Gholdengo, plus Extreme Speed to close games while keeping Multiscale. Archaludon with Scope Lens + Focus Energy + Draco Meteor is the tech piece that shreds Baton Pass, Mega Clefable and stall. Serperior fills the last slot to answer Primarina, Rotom-W, Hippowdon and Yawn loops. The author admits Primarina, Rotom-W, Umbreon and Scizor remain very tough matchups.Build article →

The concept is one line: make Mimikyu work. He started from a matchup team he'd actually want to bring Mimikyu on, and listed the four things that stop it hardest — Hippowdon, Archaludon, Scizor and Corviknight. Beating Scizor and Corviknight means a Fire-type Mega, and by feel he chose Mega Charizard X; Charizard strongly baits Garchomp, so he added a Ground-resist Berry Ice Beam Empoleon that beats both Garchomp and Hippowdon, then Hisuian Samurott, strong into Hippowdon and Archaludon, for games where the opponent has no Garchomp. Leading Empoleon or Samurott to out-tempo the opposing hazard setter and then winning one-on-ones with Charizard and Mimikyu is his default three. That left Mega Gyarados, Lopunny, Baton Pass and screens teams painful, so he added the Mega Venusaur plus Umbreon pair he was already practiced with. Mimikyu is deliberately max Speed out of fear of the mirror; hBuild article →

From last season until about ten days before the final day he cycled through a different top-cut team roughly every week to see what suited him, and the physically defensive Garchomp plus Umbreon plus Gengar shell he'd been running since the previous ruleset felt best in hand and matched up reasonably into the popular Hydreigon plus Metagross, so Umbreon and Gengar became his axis. Playing it, he found Umbreon's Yawn plus Stealth Rock plus poison chip excellent, so he reassigned roles: the setup slot went from Sitrus Berry Garchomp to Glimmora, and Garchomp became a Choice Scarf attacker to hit the Steel-types poison can't touch, plus the Blaziken and Raichu that Umbreon can't hold. The whole plan is to stack chip from poison, Yawn and Protect until the opponent is in Mega Gengar's kill range, then trap with Shadow Tag and finish; Gengar runs Will-O-Wisp plus Hex since his first three haBuild article →