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The author has long used Torkoal and wanted to push it beyond a pure Trick Room attacker into a flexible lead that can trade against Basculegion and Garchomp's super-effective hits, fight Floette evenly, and punish the Kingambit that opponents bring to stop Trick Room. Since Torkoal still loses to Garchomp and Charizard, they borrowed an Ice Fang Mega Aerodactyl plan, then paired Torkoal with Venusaur after seeing how strong the "Venu-Coal" lead is — Sleep Powder plus spread fire lets it handle PJCS-winning teams and support builds, with Mega Aerodactyl as the follow-up. A Trick Room sub-plan with Mega Blastoise (Dark Pulse/Aura Sphere hitting Froslass, Archaludon and Tyranitar), Farigiraf using Psychic Fangs to break screens, and Sylveon for chip vs Archaludon/Politoed covers the weather matchups Venu-Coal struggles with. Author's self-assessment: Torkoal's output is shockingly stable, Sleep Powder is so strong it tempts misuse against Froslass, and Aegislash plus accuracy rolls are the main worries.Build article →

The author had been running big6 across M1–M3 and found the highest win rate when using Floette as the Mega. Since the mirror and Charizard+Toxapex matchups were too tough at the top of the ladder, they swapped Charizard for Blaziken and rode that build to Champion tier. Floette is the true core: reliable, high-power single and spread Fairy moves under Fairy Aura hit hard and never miss. Whimsicott with Focus Sash is the perfect partner, throwing Tailwind and Encore. Kingambit with BlackGlasses is dedicated anti-Basculegion insurance. Garchomp uses the classic Sitrus HB build with Dragon Tail specifically to blow up setup and support teams. Basculegion is a Life Orb physical nuke with just enough Speed to creep 80s. Blaziken is actually the backup plan with the lowest pick rate—the author admits its wins leaned heavily on Speed Boost flinches. Weak spots are the mirror and Charizard+Toxapex, which is exactly when Blaziken has to come out.Build article →

This doubles team grew out of a previous season's Tailwind Glimmora plus Staraptor article, which he found genuinely strong and easy to reach a top-100 finish with, but three things bothered him: Whimsicott died instantly, games where Toxic Spikes let Staraptor grind out damage were rarer than expected, and Garchomp was too slow to fit into his picks. So Whimsicott became a max-Speed Focus Sash set with Encore and Charm, and the Glimmora slot became Kingambit — that slot's job is killing Staraptor's natural predators, the Ghost, Fairy, Flying and Poison types that shrug off Close Combat but can kill it back, and Kingambit locks down Fairies under Tailwind, beats Ghosts, matches up fine into Flying and Poison, and has strong priority so it never becomes dead weight. The trade-off is being far worse than Glimmora against Charizard and Pelipper-Archaludon rain. Garchomp became Life Orb MimiBuild article →

The team is built around Mega Dragonite as a rain-dance-plus-tailwind setter, using the argument that mid-speed threats dominate the meta and Mega Dragonite's bulk plus Roost lets it set tailwind multiple times rather than just once. The core game plan is farming Charizard matchups (estimated 80%+ win rate below 2300) while aiming for 50% against everything else. Pelipper and Archaludon provide rain-amplified damage (Weather Ball and Electro Beam); Sneasler uses Sash plus Poison Touch to pressure Fairy-types; Aegislash drops Shadow Sneak for Iron Head specifically to pressure Florges; Heliolisk handles special-heavy and Blastoise matchups via Glare to neutralize opposing special attackers. Weak points include Froslass teams (30-40% win rate), and Medicham-backed Snorlax is acknowledged as near unwinnable.Build article →