📈 Ladder Top Builds

The team is built around Trick Room, a format the author has long favored. The main damage-dealers are Camerupt and Crabominable. Farigiraf sets up Trick Room reliably thanks to its Armor Tail ability blocking fake-out in a crowded fake-out meta; Camerupt under Trick Room hits with massive power — a helping hand-boosted Earth Power KOs Garchomp and Basculegion outright, earning the description of a Therian Landorus-equivalent ace. Crabominable cleans up after Trick Room with priority Mach Punch, Ice Hammer covers Garchomp, and drain punch handles Kingambit. Gallade is the secondary ace, cutting through Archaludon with Sacred Sword and hitting Water-types with Leaf Blade. The team's strength is that Farigiraf plus Camerupt is almost unbeatable under Trick Room; the weakness is that Camerupt collapses when Trick Room expires. Final placement: 54th at Rating 2557.Build article →

Takoyaki's doubles Trick Room team finished 57th. A longtime TR fan, he built around Wide Lens Maushold's Population Bomb, using Follow-Me-plus-Trick-Room setups so that Maushold alone handles both spread-plus-priority offense and Calm Mind setup teams. Newly unlocked Mega Mawile became the TR attacker after he found it absurdly strong. The TR setter is Malamar, which he raves about: a Dark/Psychic type weak only to Fairy and Bug, it ignores Intimidate, punishes Incineroar via Contrary, and disguises the team as a support build alongside Maushold. Sash Basculegion cleans up. The last two slots rotate with the meta; on the final day he ran Life Orb Meowscarada and Mega Staraptor against support teams. Meowscarada ignores Intimidate and Rage Powder, and a Helping Hand Population Bomb wipes the support Pokemon so Staraptor can sweep Incineroar, Sinistcha, Sneasler and Kingambit. This line tBuild article →

This doubles team uses two Mega evolutions that both have access to spread moves, with a Ghost-type Mega being another stated requirement alongside a way to trap Incineroar. Mega Floette and Sneasler form the core front row; Floette's Moonblast and Dazzling Gleam deal reliable damage and the exclusive move Oblivion Wing one-shots Kingambit and Basculegion. Mega Froslass under snow weather can survive Mega Charizard Y's Heat Wave and return a Shadow Ball to eliminate opposing Ghost Megas. Sneasler leads with fake-out into Rock Slide for Charizard pressure. Kingambit runs Black Glasses and outruns Mega Gengar under tailwind. Basculegion holds Namo Berry for physical bulk. The author rates the double Mega spread combination as the team's chief strength; weaknesses are limited fire power against opposing Charizard and slow Kingambit matchups. Final placement 61st, and the team also cleared the Global Challenge.Build article →

This is a doubles-ranked season result-and-impressions post; in the back half the author reused last season's six without a fresh build writeup, only explaining a few move changes. The core was tuning against popular Milotic and Ceruledge: Farigiraf swapped to Psychic Noise so Ceruledge can't touch it, also handy versus Floette support teams; Sylveon's Hyper Beam, riding a 1.5x Special Attack, reliably OHKOs bulky Milotic and rolls to KO full-HP Kingambit, giving it good utility. Incineroar took DDL to punish Ceruledge stacking Bulk Up, moving points from Attack into bulk; Sneasler added Fake Out for a more stable line against Aerodactyl-plus-Kingambit leads. The author says he lacks top-tier knowledge and skill so he just plays a lot to gain rating, reaching 2400 over 500-plus games for his first Champion-level finish. The trade-off was becoming weaker to Kommo-o and Perish Song teams, Build article →

This was the team used for the Global Challenge and PJCS qualifiers, built around Sash Glimmora as the entry point. Glimmora reliably pressures the meta's key Megas in Charizard Y and Florges, uses Killer Spin to shut down redirection strategies, and covers wide offensive angles with Power Gem plus Earth Power. Kingambit exploits poison chip damage with Sucker Punch to clean up. Mega Froslass deals unavoidable damage with its never-miss Blizzard while lowering opponent speed for cleaner priority follow-up. Sneasler and Basculegion add multiple layers of priority attack to seal games. Dragonite with Dragon Fang closes out with Dragon Claw plus Extreme Speed. The author notes the flexible team has no fixed lead formula, which requires adaptable decision-making.Build article →

The author wanted to build around Tyranitar + Excadrill because the pair handles two top-meta threats, Charizard and Floette, very well. He first tried Mega Dragonite as the Garchomp answer, but rising Garchomp speeds (169) outran it and moveslots got tight, so after seeing another player's list he slotted in Dragapult as the lead — Draco Meteor OHKOs Garchomp, it walls Sneasler, ignores Fake Out, and its Will-O-Wisp plus Light Screen shut down the physical-heavy meta. The Mega slot moved to Dragon Dance Tyranitar, which under sand + Light Screen support from Sinistcha is bulky enough to survive Mega Floette's Ruination and sweep back. Excadrill on Sash covers Fairy/Steel, Sylveon adds a special hitter that ignores Incineroar's Intimidate, and Bulk Up Body Press Corviknight closes games against Kingambit. Weak spots: special Basculegion is rough, and the Corviknight set is admittedly unrefined.Build article →

The team is built around Mega Blastoise as the sole win condition, using Shell Smash followed by Hydro Cannon. The core lead is Meowstic plus Orthworm: Orthworm's Tail Whip brings in Blastoise behind a Substitute, while Meowstic's Yawn buys the turn needed to safely use Shell Smash. Sneasler acts as sub-attacker and support, with Feint to destroy Wide Guard and break Focus Sash users. Sinistcha recovers Blastoise's health with Rage Powder to redirect attacks. Scizor was added last to handle Farigiraf and Sylveon. The author considers the team's overall quality solid but acknowledges that high execution difficulty led to key misplays that cost a Preliminary qualification.Build article →

The author's concept is simple and explosive: Shell Smash Mega Blastoise blasting everything with Water Spout, backed by Rain Dance and Rage Powder support. The standard lead is Blastoise + Sneasler or Blastoise + Vivillon, using Fake Out or Sleep Powder to lock the opponent down, popping Shell Smash, then nuking with Water Spout boosted by Sinistcha's Hospitality and Pelipper's rain — strong enough to one-shot full-HP Rotom-W and Froslass behind screens. Sinistcha heals Blastoise and soaks Sucker Punch / Electro Ball, while Choice Scarf Pelipper doubles as a surprise rain-setter and late-game sweeper, and Archaludon serves as a second rain win-con covering Grass, Electric and Rock Slide pressure. Hidden tech includes Sneasler's Gunk Shot for Maushold/Floette lines and Mega Venusaur, plus Scarf Pelipper. The author openly admits the team folds to Whimsicott — every Blastoise move is resisted, status gets Encored, and Tailwind outpaces it — leaving Vivillon's Sleep Powder or Sneasler Fake Out + Hurricane as the only answers.Build article →

The team funnels Calm Mind plus two Speed Boosts from Espathra into Archaludon via Baton Pass, then has Politoed copy those stat boosts with Heart Swap to double the payoff. The author used rain during the qualifying grind but found it underwhelming in Championship-tier play; Shandhi's streamed version of this Baton Pass concept convinced them to switch. To shore up weaknesses against Trick Room and Flying types—especially Talonflame—the final two slots went to Sylveon (Calm Mind anti-Trick Room) and Mega Aerodactyl (Whirlwind to break Shadow Tag). Even when the combo fails, the team can still fight on raw stats. The author's regret was sleep deprivation hurting execution during the main event.Build article →