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The author started building around Floette's Light of Ruin power and finished around 670th. Floette is the high-damage fairy that moves first via Grassy Glide and works well as a lead or backline threat, paired with Charizard Y as the Mega slot to beat the steels it fears and swing weather. Choice Scarf Garchomp is valued for its play against Charizard and steels, running max Speed to at least tie opposing Garchomp. He originally ran Hippowdon for Stealth Rock and rain control, but rarely got to bring it, so he swapped to a HP-invested Archaludon that survives Mega Swampert's Earthquake on a good roll and uses Metal Burst to punish Gyarados and Staraptor. Corviknight clears Stealth Rock so the Charizard plan can function, and Focus Sash Greninja handles Sash Glimmora and is the team's only priority. He admits Archaludon is opponent-dependent and inconsistent.Build article →

This season the author chased hit-rate consistency, and once Light Clay was added they committed to a dual-screens team. The core is Gholdengo as the screen-setter: its ability blocks Encore, Curse, Taunt, Defog and Trick, and it can drop Memento after screens, tuned to survive key hits. Annihilape leads with Stealth Rock, Taunt and a speed-drop rock move, and it walls Charizard leads well. The real sweeper is Gyarados, whose Mold Breaker ignores Unaware and Mimikyu's disguise, and its Taunt turns Altaria, Hippowdon and Skeledirge into setup fodder for two or three Dragon Dances. Blaziken's Speed Boost applies selection pressure, baiting counters that Gyarados then eats. Hippowdon handles Mega Raichu and Ceruledge, and Vanilluxe covers rain. The author's admitted weak spots are the late-game rise of Starmie and Meowscarada, plus no answer to Ditto.Build article →

The team builds a Hippowdon + Mega Gyarados defensive-offensive core alongside a Mega Staraptor + Aegislash pressure axis. Hippowdon runs standard Impish HD with Sitrus, spreading sand plus Stealth Rock, Whirlwind and Yawn to grind the opponent down; the author notes Charizard Y feels heavy and full SpDef could have been better. Aegislash with Leftovers and Swords Dance covers Ice/Psychic/Fairy threats Staraptor dislikes. Mega Staraptor's Contrary combined with Substitute snowballs once Toxic Spikes are set. Mega Gyarados uses Mold Breaker with Ice Fang, Power Whip and Crunch to handle stuff like Archaludon. Meowscarada is the Focus Sash lead laying Toxic Spikes, though the author says brute-forcing with Overgrow Trick Flower actually won more games than committing to hazard setup. Scarf Floette acts as a hidden speed piece, using Trick as a setup tool and sweeping. The author admits many matchups feel rough centered on Meowscarada and is puzzled by the ladder result, blaming several misplays.Build article →

The team is named for its Garchomp, Mega Gyarados and Hawlucha. Unburden Hawlucha isn't strong on its own, but with Brave Bird, Drain Punch, Taunt and Bulk Up the usual physical walls can't stop it; once it eats its berry and triggers Unburden it outspeeds even Scarfers and fast Megas, making it the team's number-one finisher. The bulky Primarina, Bellibolt and Rotom that Hawlucha can't dent go to max-Attack Mega Gyarados, which removes them with Ice Fang, Earthquake, Power Whip and Dragon Dance. Max-speed Sash Garchomp lays Stealth Rock with guaranteed action, and Dragon Tail Archaludon phazes and chips the whole team. On the final day the author found Gengar, Clefable, Sylveon and Meowscarada hard to handle, so Mega Delphox and Basculegion were swapped for physical Mega Lucario, which breaks Sylveon and Umbreon, and Misty Terrain Primarina, which denies Yawn even on the switch and beatBuild article →

He first saw the Overqwil plus Mega Staraptor pairing while helping a friend review games, and was struck by how good Overqwil is as a lead and by the elegance of blanking Ground moves with Staraptor while fortifying it. Running the pair exposed two flaws: breaking depended entirely on Toxic Spikes, so floating physical walls like Corviknight were untouchable, and once a Ghost-type blanked Close Combat, anything faster with a super-effective move, like Meowscarada, ran him over. His answer was a special Aegislash, which brings special damage, complements Staraptor's typing and resists most of what hurts it. Laddering then showed that Gholdengo and Aegislash — immune to Toxic Spikes and resistant to Brave Bird — were unbreakable, so Kingambit came in as a switch-in to both that also pairs Sudden Strike with hazard chip. Mega Delphox is the fifth slot with Nasty Plot, letting even hazard rBuild article →

This is a matchup-offense team built around Dragonite and Lopunny as twin face-up threats. Mega Lopunny runs Swords Dance, Mach Punch, Megaton Kick and Close Combat as the physical ace and usually comes out alongside Slowking. Slowking with Leftovers carries Sludge Wave, Psychic, Flamethrower and Freeze-Dry as a special tank that handles the team's problem mons Sneasler, Floette and Scizor. Sylveon has the highest usage, with Leftovers plus Hyper Voice, Magical Flame, Yawn and Protect; nearly every Dragon gets thrown at it, as do Lopunny, Charizard and Scizor teams, and its Yawn-Protect loop is genuinely annoying. Multiscale Mega Dragonite is the Mega slot that breaks the Aegislash and Venusaur that Lopunny fears, while Scarf Basculegion is the second wincon, usually saved to spam Last Respects at the end. The team struggles with Mega Charizard X, Sneasler paired with Mega Floette, and SBuild article →

The author centered the team on Mega Heracross, reasoning that the absence of Mega Aggron and Mega Ninetales in this generation gives Heracross more room than in Gen 6 or 7. HB Aguav Pelipper and Scarf Adaptability Basculegion formed a rain backbone, with rain both powering Basculegion and reducing Heracross's Fire weakness. Sash Kingambit handled Ghost and Fairy threats that trouble Heracross, changing from Black Glasses to Sash after unexpected 4x KOs and Mirror issues. HB Mega Florges countered Mega Dragonite and Dragon-types broadly, while managing physical attackers like Mega Lopunny. Lum Swords Dance Garchomp with Fire Fang quickly dispatched Scizor and Umbreon teams drawn out by Florges. Mega Pidgeot was the final addition for Corviknight and Moody Scovillain, using Substitute-Roost to stay safe, Hurricane for Garchomp in two hits, and Heat Wave for Steel-types. Florges was selected ~70-80% of games; Corviknight was the primary culprit in losses on the final day. Final: peak 2620, ended 2497, 675th.Build article →

Short on time and, by his own admission, weaker at in-game decisions than most, the author chose a support-the-ace setup team. Mega Gyarados got the ace slot for being strong into the popular Metagross and Delphox builds, with Alolan Ninetales as the enabler because it puts up Aurora Veil in one turn, has Encore, hits Garchomp and Hippowdon with Ice moves and answers rain, and Sitrus Berry Garchomp third to set Stealth Rock, cushion hits and check the Raichu and Charizard the team finds heavy. Mega Blaziken is the backup ace, Gholdengo with a Ground-resist Berry breaks the Hippowdon, Corviknight and Umbreon walls that block a sweep, and Focus Sash Araquanid sets Sticky Web. Eight turns of doubled bulk from Aurora Veil plus Intimidate makes two or more Dragon Dances easy. He calls it a flawed build full of shaky accuracy and too many concessions: Choice Scarf Archaludon and Ice Fang GarchBuild article →

The team is built around three dedicated dual-screen setters, with Espathra acting as the Speed Boost pivot that passes boosts into the main Mega-evolution sweepers. After one Quiver Dance boost, Espathra outruns even Mega Greninja, and its Lumina Crash sometimes closes out games without needing to pass at all. The two Mega aces are Mega Clefable (Calm Mind breaker that can overwhelm physically bulky builds after two boosts) and a Mega Espathra itself as backup. The author highlights the team's simplicity—just pick the right wall-setter and ace per matchup—while noting players still need solid damage intuition. Final standing: 2495 / 679th.Build article →

The author is a longtime sand player who built out from a sandstorm core. Tyranitar sets sand and doubles as a pivot, switching in on Alolan Ninetales, Vanilluxe and Pelipper; holding Smooth Rock it extends the sand turns to feed Life Orb Excadrill, the main gun, which OHKOs Meowscarada with Iron Head plus Stealth Rock chip. For the lead Mega, they first ran Mega Scovillain, whose Grass/Fire coverage synergizes with sand, cycling with Tyranitar to rack up burn, sand and rock chip until things fall into Excadrill's range. But it struggled against Garchomp, so the author swapped to Mega Meganium, which can pivot in safely and beats Garchomp on typing. The rest: Mega Dragonite covers Fire and Poison blind spots, Hippowdon handles Mega Blaziken and Mega Staraptor, and Aegislash beats Corviknight as the back-line core. The author admits the final day was full of Poison Jab Garchomp that brokeBuild article →

The Espathra / Greninja / Mimikyu core felt good last season so the author kept it, but Espathra struggled badly against Meowscarada, Kingambit and Aegislash, which shrug off its signature Psychic move, and against Mega Starmie and hard-hitting priority. Scrolling the dex he landed on a bulky Snorlax that is immune to Ghost moves and can take almost anything down with Selfdestruct, and it worked better than expected; Mega Charizard Y was added because Greninja without a Water move struggles with Steel-types, and Substitute plus Nasty Plot Hydreigon came last to turn Umbreon into setup fodder and handle stall. Encore on Snorlax is a set nobody runs, but locking Stealth Rock, Spikes or Yawn and then exploding on whatever comes in next was very strong, and even the team's worst matchup Mega Lopunny gets tanked with a Berry then blown up. Espathra's usage fell from 80 percent to 10-20 percenBuild article →

This is a genderless mono team built around Maushold, which the author says woke up hard this season now that Wide Lens is legal: Technician Population Bomb spams big damage from turn one, lands reliably, and knocks out roughly half the Megas. He lists Maushold's three weak spots plainly: it does zero to Ghosts, dies to anything faster before it moves, and is scary to actually bring. So he pairs Choice Scarf Ditto to copy whatever Mega KOs Maushold and swing back, plus Iron Defense/Agility Mega Metagross as a Choice-Scarf-proof sweeper that answers the Hydreigon+Metagross core. Physical Ice Spinner Mega Starmie OHKOs bulky Garchomp and handles Mimikyu, Wash Rotom uses Will-O-Wisp and Electroweb on Ghosts like Ceruledge and Aegislash, and Polteageist covers the team's bad matchups into Corviknight and Delphox. The author admits the team is very physical, so Corviknight got heavy and leaneBuild article →

A longtime rain player, the author committed to rain from day one. Testing Pelipper and Mega Swampert with various partners, he found Swift Swim Overqwil surprisingly easy to use and its Ground weakness neatly covered by Pelipper, so those three became the core. When the meta shifted and he stopped winning, he re-examined Overqwil and realised its real value wasn't offense but its ability to poison things — Toxic Spikes control — so he swapped in Meowscarada, which also handles the Primarina, Wash Rotom and Gyarados that rain hates, and finished with Garchomp for Mega Raichu, Mega Meganium and Charizard. The team now baits opponents into rain-proofing their picks and wins with hazards: Meowscarada leads and lays Toxic Spikes, Aegislash grinds turns behind Substitute and King's Shield, and max-Attack, max-Speed Mega Staraptor cleans up while the opponent shuffles, taking out most Mimikyu Build article →

A cycle team built around Mega Starmie as a high-power breaker, replacing an earlier Mega Lopunny core after finding that Hippowdon-heavy matchups were too difficult and Lopunny lacked immediate firepower. Mega Starmie uses Mighty Cleave to dish out enormous damage, and Aqua Jet to clean up faster threats or late-game sweeping. Corviknight handles physical attackers via U-turn and Iron Defense, while Bellibolt acts as the special-defensive pivot. Hisuian Samurott covers Gengar, Basculegion, and Aegislash. Mega Gengar is the alternate Mega for difficult matchups involving Archaludon or Scovillain. Key weaknesses: Mimikyu (narrow removal routes), Araquanid's sticky webbing disrupting speed tiers, and Ceruledge's wide coverage leaves no reliable answer. Final result: 691st / 2488.Build article →