📈 Ladder Top Builds

Built around wanting to use Mega Metagross, the author's snappy single matchup team reached final rank 163. Metagross is the clear core with Bullet Punch and Ice Punch locked, plus Psychic Fangs against screens teams and Thunder Punch for the surging Gyarados, balancing bulk and power. The other Mega slot is Pyroar, which nullifies Ghost moves and outspeeds Mega Staraptor and Mega Metagross; it's the go-to against Aegislash and uses Yawn to disrupt. Archaludon packs physical and special bulk plus power, running Foul Play for Meowscarada, Greninja and Scizor. Hydreigon breaks Umbreon defensive cores, tanking Yawn with Lum Berry then Nasty Plot plus Draco Meteor to blow them away, unread since most Hydreigon carry Scarf. Mystic Water Basculegion is a star that shreds Hippowdon (the author claims 300 kills), and Choice Sash Garchomp leads to set Stealth Rock. He admits a final-day collapse Build article →

The author reached final 2431, rank 164 and his first Champion tier with an Iron Defense BatonPass Scolipede plus matchup Gardevoir core. Max-Speed, max-HP Scolipede tanks Mega Metagross Psychic Fangs and Mega Starmie Psycho Cut after Iron Defense, giving near-startless passes; its last slot runs Earthquake to break Sashes and clean up. Ceruledge receives the pass and uses Flash Fire to switch into Mega Charizard Y and Delphox for free setup. Gholdengo is the main pass recipient, snowballing off Hippowdon, with Curse Amulet to chip Skeledirge. Mega Gyarados runs standard Dragon Dance with Ice Fang for Dragonite. Meganium was a long-debated slot, able to outspeed and remove opposing Meganium. Sash Gardevoir is the matchup piece with strong STAB Psychic plus Fairy coverage, and Trace lets it steal Speed Boost, Lightning Rod or Swift Swim to flip games — the author calls it his best fit forBuild article →

The author is a veteran weather-team player who locked in a Pelipper rain squad the moment Mega Swampert became legal in M-3, building around Pelipper setting rain and Swampert sweeping with rain-boosted Wave Crash plus Bulk Up. The support is tight: a bulky Garchomp lays Stealth Rock and spikes while soaking Electric moves; Aegislash walls the Alolan Ninetales, Vanilluxe and Floette that rain struggles with; Mega Staraptor flips its nature via Contrary to pressure Sharpedo, Blaziken and Meowscarada; and a Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales closes games, punishing Hippowdon-style pivots with Freeze-Dry after chip. He admits Greninja and lead Dragonite are his worst matchups, and just seeing Clefable makes him wince since the line changes on whether it Megas.Build article →

The author kept the same core for three straight seasons, leaning on high familiarity with Mega Dragonite plus Kingambit to post steady results. Dragonite is the brain of the team: with Multiscale intact it tanks Greninja's Ice Beam and answers with a Draco Meteor OHKO, with top-tier power and bulk. Kingambit runs Leftovers to blend cycling and sweeping, healing as it Swords Dance and Sucker Punches. Hatterene is his personal favorite, bouncing Stealth Rock with Magic Bounce and 3-0ing with Calm Mind plus Trick Room. The rest are targeted: a Choice Scarf male Basculegion sweeps late and beats Delphox via Adaptability, Mega Venusaur mops up Primarina and Floette-style fairies, and Volcarona with Quiver Dance and Whirlwind counters Baton Pass and hazard-stacking teams. He credits the polished core, and admits the Scarf-less speed drop on Dragonite makes the mirror shaky.Build article →

The author built a pure offense team with no defensive pivots, running all attackers to avoid draws and sending Glalie through when a wall core is too tough to crack. The core is Mega Kangaskhan, picked for tanking Dragon Dance Gyarados and Trick Room Mawile then killing back, with Body Slam, Earthquake, Fake Out and Sucker Punch; Body Slam's paralysis rolls twice for a high chance and ignores Minimize. The support is direct: a Life Orb special Aegislash smashes the Hippowdon and Archaludon that trouble Kangaskhan, nearly OHKOing Hippowdon with Iron Head; a Sitrus Primarina wins matchups and walls Blaziken; a Scarf Garchomp lays rocks and surprises Lopunny; a Sash Gengar handles Toxic Spikes, paralysis and Icy Wind speed control to set up Glalie. Glalie closes with Moody, Substitute and Sheer Cold to grind walls, and with Toxic Spikes can KO Blaziken on Protect-Sub alone. He names ScizorBuild article →

The author runs a Trick Room team where Mega Audino supports the slowest possible Basculegion via Trick Room and Healing Wish, reviving the ace over and over to keep smashing. Audino's Regenerator and solid typing let it set Trick Room against all kinds of foes, and Encore locks opponents down; he stresses only the Audino line can juggle Trick Room, Healing Wish and Encore while cutting off Ghost moves. The ace Basculegion runs a Spell Tag with max Attack for terrifying Grave Rush damage: it comes in on a faint, wrecks the field, then gets revived by Audino to rampage again, muscling through its own counters. Support-wise: a Sash Empoleon lays Stealth Rock and chips Dark-types with Vacuum Wave to open lanes, exploding via Competitive; a Leftovers Hydreigon uses Umbreon and Mega Scovillain (Basculegion's banes) as setup fodder; and Mega Mawile is a second Trick Room sweeper for Venusaur aBuild article →

The author thinks Hippowdon is the strongest mon and built around a Gen 7 Hippowdon-Salamence-Aegislash style, with newly unbanned Mega Staraptor as the ace. Hippowdon handles terrain with Stealth Rock, Yawn and Slack Off, has by far the highest usage, and can fight everything when piloted well. Mega Staraptor flips matchups with Contrary Close Combat and Brave Bird, and Whirlwind pushes back Stealth Rock Garchomp and resets setup, though the author flat-out calls it a fraud since a foe swapping to a Ghost anytime makes Close Combat a coin flip. The Steel slot is a Leftovers Gholdengo with Golden Body for recovery, chipping Primarina and Delphox. The rest fills gaps: a Scarf Meowscarada stops Basculegion and Mega Starmie, a Mystic Water Primarina beats Delphox and forces 50/50s on Hydreigon, and a Mega Delphox fakes out Charizard Y cores by dropping SpA with Mystical Fire. He admits the Build article →

The author set out to build the strongest possible Mega Staraptor, which has great coverage and power plus Cosmic Power, but can't boost its own Attack and Speed, so the whole team feeds it via Baton Pass. Hatterene is the passer: absurdly slow, so even after Agility it passes from underneath, and Magic Bounce blocks Dragon Tail, Whirlwind, Taunt and other annoying status and pivot moves. Dragapult sets dual screens and doubles as a Dragon Dance passer, linking flexibly with Hatterene. Gyarados is the sub-ace with Taunt to punish the Skeledirge, Clefable and Metagross that Staraptor lures, and it ended up the most-picked. Swords Dance Archaludon was the MVP, tanking hits with Solid Rock and using Earthquake to smash steels that underestimate it. The author admits it's a first-encounter surprise team that folds once opponents learn it, or the instant a perfect play is made against it.Build article →

The author finished S3 at rank 182 with this Hippowdon + Gyarados + Aegislash core, unchanged since S1 apart from two flex slots: a Special Defense Hippowdon to handle lead Delphox and Mega Raichu Y, and a Mega Scovillain to scrape past Primarina, Stealth Rock Garchomp, and Archaludon. The plan is simple: Glimmora sets Stealth Rock plus Toxic Spikes, Mega Gyarados rampages, Aegislash closes. This Gyarados runs Adamant with Taunt over Ice Fang, wrecking the now-everywhere Hippowdon and stalling Iron Defense Archaludon. Aegislash sticks to a Special Defense-based Swords Dance shield build since a pure-Attack spread gets shredded by Foul Play. The author admits Glimmora speed ties are a coin flip, and opposing Mega Gyarados and Will-O-Wisp Rotom are basically unwinnable.Build article →

The whole plan is one line: use Orthworm's Shed Tail plus Blastoise to blow the opposing team apart. The author got crushed last season by an opponent's Shed Tail into a full-HP Water Spout Blastoise, decided the core was solid, and when Hydreigon, Metagross, Delphox and Mawile spiked late in M-3, judged Blastoise would thrive and jumped in. Orthworm stacks Iron Defense then Shed Tails a full-HP Blastoise in; at full HP Water Spout is monstrous, punching through Mega Charizard Y, Floette and Primarina in one hit, and even unboosted it one-shots Hippowdon and Mawile. Glimmora is the second core, Rock Polishing to sweep Delphox and Greninja from above when Blastoise stalls. Hippowdon supports the pass with Whirlwind, Protean Sash Meowscarada handles Gengar/Primarina cores, and Curse Mimikyu covers Minimize, Glalie and Baton teams. The author flatly can't beat Bellibolt, and finds Lucario aBuild article →

The author loves Charizard and built around Mega Charizard X winning the damage race in one-on-one matchups. They chose X over Y because X's higher Defense lets it combine the Speed to move first with the bulk to eat priority moves without compromise. The moveset is Flare Blitz, Outrage, Flame Charge and Swords Dance: Flame Charge sweeps offense teams with minimal chip, while high power plus Swords Dance forces through physical walls against cycle teams. Mega Gyarados is the complement, its point being to make opponents misread Charizard as the Y form, baiting them to swap a physical wall for a special wall and opening a free turn for a game-ending Swords Dance. The core lead is Sash Garchomp or Primarina for guaranteed action to grab a numbers lead, then Charizard X sweeps. Archaludon plus Primarina forms a defensive type-cycle, and bulky Life Orb Mimikyu covers the Garchomp that CharizBuild article →

With Light Clay unbanned, screen-based setup teams spiked, so the author figured Perish Song Gengar—which wins without attacking—had legs and picked it first. Gengar hates Mimikyu, so Leftovers Unaware Clefable comes in behind it; fearing Mega Charizard Y and Volcarona, they added Garchomp. The second Mega needed high stats and raw slugging power, so newly-unbanned Metagross got the nod—but not the usual all-out build. Instead it invests in Defense with Iron Defense plus Substitute so the sub tanks Hippowdon's Earthquake; trial runs showed Iron Defense Metagross was so often the win condition that it became the core. Support is bulky Foul Play Heat Rotom, which trades with Charizard Y and Gengar and absorbs physical threats like Garchomp, Mimikyu and Metagross. Mystic Water Torrent Greninja handles the Aegislash and Gholdengo that Metagross can't hit. The author says the off-meta builds Build article →

The author tried the new Pokemon but none clicked, so he brought back last season's face-to-face team almost unchanged, only tweaking items and EVs, and made Champion rank again (207th, plus 231st on an alt). The core is Vivillon, which sets up on slower foes and sweeps, and even when benched it baits out Gholdengo so Mega Lopunny or Greninja can punish. Mega Lopunny sweeps after Swords Dance and handles Vivillon's headaches like Hippowdon, Meowscarada and Mimikyu, while a Life Orb Mimikyu tanks priority and hits back. Espathra leads with a boosting beam to clear the way, Greninja's switch-reading Water Shuriken shreds Steel/Fairy pivots, and Archaludon patches Espathra's weak spots. He says the team plays fine any way you send it out, but struggles against Mega Venusaur plus Umbreon plus Skeledirge, and against Mega Scovillain plus Tyranitar.Build article →

Wanting a setup-cycle team, the author started from Blastoise, which newly learned Shell Smash, then paired Sneasler that can set up on Primarina and Meowscarada, the two things Blastoise struggles with. To make those setups, the front is Toucannon (burns physical attackers, has Encore) and Hisuian Samurott (breaks Focus Sash, also has Encore), rounded out with Metagross to check Fairies and Hydreigon to beat stall. The plan is to boost, hit from above to steal luck wins, and avoid getting worn down by playing reactively. Blastoise runs Water Pulse, Aura Sphere and Ice Beam to cover Steel and Garchomp; Sneasler doubles its attack and speed for a turn off Sitrus, setting up on Mimikyu and Primarina that wall Blastoise. Toucannon's Beak Blast is absurd, OHKOing Mega Gengar and burning on contact. Hydreigon was the hidden MVP, mistaken for Scarf, cleaning up Umbreon, Bellibolt and Toxapex wBuild article →