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The author is a pure meta-team player who anchored on Mamoswine plus Starmie plus Scizor this season, finishing rank 92 for a second straight double-digit result. Mamoswine leads to set Stealth Rock and uses its Ground/Ice coverage to pressure lead Glimmora, Garchomp and Archaludon, while Endeavor plus priority lets it turn bad matchups around. Scizor is the physical and Fairy wall, strong against Mimikyu, Meowscarada and non-Body-Press Metagross, and uses U-turn and Knock Off to fight Umbreon and Hippowdon's Yawn loops. The real engine is Huge Power Mega Starmie, whose Liquidation hits harder than Garchomp's Outrage. A Choice Scarf Hydreigon exists to answer Bodypress Metagross and serve as a third U-turn pivot; Glimmora's Corrosion poisons Corviknight and Toxapex to break stall and also checks Dragonite and Mega Charizard Y; Gallade handles Umbreon, Archaludon and the Primarina that coBuild article →

The team is built on a structural concept: in a meta where defensive Pokémon are dominant, simply run a strong defensive core rather than trying to break through it. The backbone is Mega Scizor plus Galarian Slowking plus Ditto, provided by co-builder pkt. Scizor uses Knock Off to strip items and pivots into Ditto to copy whatever the opponent just set up; Galarian Slowking stalls with Toxic and Flamethrower, avoiding draws; Ditto hard-counters all setup sweepers by becoming them. Garchomp with Focus Sash covers electric immunity and pressures offensive threats, and Mega Dragonite was the final addition as the ground-immunity slot with Ice Beam and Extreme Speed for clean-up. Key weaknesses include Aegislash, Basculegion, and Glimmora requiring careful positioning. This was the author's culminating team before a planned break from competitive play, finishing 92nd.Build article →

The author is a die-hard Sceptile fan and anchored the team on it the moment it unlocked, finishing rank 93. To push Mega Sceptile through, they run a physically-and-specially-bulky Hippowdon for Stealth Rock and Yawn, plus a Flame Body Bulk-Up Ceruledge to cover Sceptile's problems like Floette, Mega Charizard Y, Corviknight and Scizor; Ceruledge also takes Sceptile's Baton Pass off Substitute and sweeps after boosting. The second Mega slot is Mega Scovillain, specifically to cover the Steel types and Mimikyu that Sceptile can't beat in a straight face-off. Scovillain plus Primarina pressures the Hydreigon-Metagross and Alolan Ninetales-Garchomp teams that were popular early to mid season. The last slot switched from a Curse Mimikyu to a Scope Lens Archaludon that answers Calm Mind Clefable, and is versatile enough to also handle slowed Mega Dragonite. The author notes Sceptile still loBuild article →

The team is built around Mega Florges, chosen as the sole S-tier Mega of the M-A format for its ability to push special Fairy damage in cycle play while recovering with Synthesis. Spikes Garchomp (Sitrus Berry, physical-bulk spread) handles leftover Aegislash by tanking Poltergeist twice and slowly wearing it down with entry hazards. Archaludon runs Stealth Rock, Dragon Tail, and Thunder with Rest + Chesto Berry, making physical-heavy leads unable to grind it down. HD Aegislash buffers Fairy threats; Mega Charizard Y eliminates water-move coverage against the team; Choice Scarf Meowscarada cleans up physical accumulators from above. The author highlights that the Rest strategy lets Archaludon force win-or-draw outcomes against stall teams, which was the core rating-climbing mechanism. The notable weakness is handling fast, high-power Water-types when Archaludon cannot be deployed.Build article →

The author built this team by reviving their best Gen 7 framework centered on Mega Charizard X. Focus Sash Greninja (Torrent ability) handles the Garchomp matchup that Charizard struggles with and opens holes from the front. Mimikyu with Focus Lens provides a reliable lead piece. Mega Lucario runs Ice Punch, Bullet Punch, and Fire Punch to cover Garchomp and Dragonite that opponents nearly always bring. Corviknight (Sitrus Berry) acts as a cushion, using Taunt and U-turn to strip Sashes and hand off to Lucario. Choice Scarf Garchomp covers the opposing Charizard matchup and adds a Ground pivot. The team's main strength is straightforward gameplan execution and clear win conditions; the author flagged Primarina as the most uncomfortable matchup.Build article →

The author has run Floette for four straight seasons and this time refined the framework that already worked well at the end of the previous split, landing a first-ever top-100 finish (95th, 2468 rating). The team carries two mega options, Floette and Mega Starmie, picked per matchup: Starmie's Huge Power hits hard into Delphox and Lucario, and against Scizor it chips with priority pivoting before finishing with its water move. Corviknight replaced Hippowdon as the physical wall to better handle the rising Mega Lopunny and Mega Greninja, Archaludon shifted from hazard-setting into a Dragon Fang wallbreaker running Thunder Wave for speed control, and Choice Specs Samurott was added to plug the Gengar weakness and let Floette come in more freely against Delphox teams. The author admits screens teams, Toxic Spikes stall, Mega Gengar and Greninja are still rough matchups, and the next goal iBuild article →

The author started building from the widely-agreed-strong Mega Metagross, valuing its high attack, bulk and priority for face-off duels, plus the fact it beats the wall teams that grew after Light Clay unlocked. With Metagross fixed, they locked Hydreigon, Primarina and Hippowdon alongside it for clean offensive-defensive typing that answers almost anything. Slots five and six were originally Mimikyu and Mega Charizard Y, but the team lost to Umbreon, Slack Off Hippowdon cycles and stall, while Mega Charizard Y could never get past Garchomp. So they swapped Hydreigon off Choice Scarf into Substitute plus Nasty Plot, using its Dark-resist and Ground-immunity to hard-beat Umbreon and Hippowdon and break stall. Mimikyu became a max-speed Gengar as the second Mega with Will-O-Wisp and Destiny Bond so it isn't dead weight even un-Mega'd; the last slot is a Mold Breaker Excadrill to cover the Build article →

The author set out to build something that looks like a stall/cycle team but is actually a setup team. Samurott, Garchomp and Hippowdon lay hazards, Slowking and Hippowdon put threats to sleep with Yawn, and Lopunny sweeps. The default lead trio is Samurott + Slowking + Lopunny. Bulky Samurott handles opposing Garchomp leads with Icy Wind into Ceaseless Edge, using Knock Off to pivot out against bad matchups like Primarina, Floette and Archaludon. Slowking runs Future Sight + Sludge Bomb + Yawn + Toxic, looping Yawn pressure and using Future Sight + Toxic + Lopunny Close Combat to crack stall cores. Lopunny's role is to Encore status moves or setup the opponent throws at Slowking, then sweep with Swords Dance; Triple Axel is there to hit Mimikyu and Dragonite checks. Sash Garchomp covers Gyarados and Charizard leads, Hippowdon is the sturdier swap-in, and Mega Charizard Y is a Scizor lure that rarely sees the field. The author feels the team breaks stall well but suffers from shaky accuracy and risky 50/50s on Sash Garchomp.Build article →

This team is built around Mega Gyarados as the primary sweeper. The author chose it because the format's limited item pool and generally low damage output let its pre-evolution defensive typing and raw bulk shine. Mega Gyarados sets up Dragon Dance and relies on coverage moves rather than STAB to hit a wide range of threats. When Mega Pixie proved too easy for opponents to answer, it was replaced by Mega Delphox, which outspeeds and OHKOs Charizard Y, Mega Gengar, and Mega Lucario, and snowballs with Nasty Plot. Scizor uses Lum Berry to shrug off sleep, burn, and other status, plus the newly learned Wicked Blow. Archaludon leads most games, stacking Stealth Rock and using Roar plus Stamina to stall physical-heavy lineups. Primarina provides Encore and pivot utility to tighten win conditions. The author notes the absence of Leftovers on anyone as a resource regret, and identifies Gyarados requiring hazard support before reaching KO ranges as the team's main structural weakness.Build article →