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He used to run a Mega Venusaur pivot team but switched to a matchup-focused build as the metagame shifted and, by his own account, his thinking got slower. Mega Meganium was trendy at the time so he built from it: Araquanid came out of the box to set Sticky Web and make it work, Sableye and Stealth Rock Garchomp were lifted from his old Mega Gengar team to give him a matchup axis, and while Corviknight was tried for the Steel slot the team had too few attackers, so Mega Skarmory fit better. Focus Sash Sableye is what repeatedly saved his rating: everyone assumes Mega Sableye or reads past it to his back line and clicks a special move, which Metal Burst punishes for an immediate numbers lead, and he deliberately lowered its Special Defense so Mega Dragonite's Air Slash and Mega Blastoise's Dark Pulse return near-lethal damage, while Prankster Encore beats the popular setup teams and buys Build article →

The team centers on Mega Clefable's Unaware ability to wall setup sweepers and Life Orb Mimikyu, with Magic Mirror post-Mega blocking Taunt and Encore. Sneasler leads to spread Toxic Spikes and recover opposing Toxic Spikes as a Poison type; Mega Blaziken pairs with Clefable as a secondary Mega for offensive Fire-Fairy coverage. Garchomp lays Stealth Rock, Gholdengo beats stall with Substitute plus Nasty Plot, and Choice Scarf Ditto handles Mega Gyarados and other boosters. The author notes Clefable's base stats are modest and it can be KO'd by two strong hits before accumulating enough Cosmic Power, making precise play essential.Build article →

Player 'Suzuki Kei' built an M-1 singles rain team around Mega Starmie, also reaching top 8 at the Thunder Strike #7 tournament with the same team. The central concept: if Starmie can take a hit, max-Speed Archaludon gets to act second while still threatening fast opponents, making Pelipper + Starmie + Archaludon the rain core. Starmie runs physical-attack-oriented moves in the rain for devastating output. Archaludon holds a Shuca Berry and max Speed/SpA to lure Gyarados — letting it set up Dragon Dance before OHKOing with Thunderbolt. Pelipper provides priority U-turn and Weather Ball damage. Sableye with Mega Stone handles Gengar and Umbreon via Will-O-Wisp stall; Kingambit counters Basculegion; Espathra with Calm Mind and Leftovers sweeps at the end. The author notes Starmie felt stronger than expected, but the final day saw so much Starmie-targeted counterplay that it became hard to use.Build article →

The team is built around Mega Delphox as the ace of a dual-screens setup. With a base Speed of 134 in the current meta and Light Clay Grimmsnarl setting up both screens, Mega Delphox becomes unstoppable after one Nasty Plot. Primarina with Focus Sash handles leads like Garchomp and Staraptor while Encore disrupts setups; Archaludon checks Mimikyu and various special threats with great type synergy alongside Delphox; Mega Gyarados serves as a backup sweeper whose Mold Breaker ignores Mimikyu's disguise; and Scarf Meowscarada was added last to deal with water-types. The author notes that Mega Delphox had excellent matchup spread, but Hydreigon and Kingambit were persistent problems, and the dual-Mega restriction made team preview decisions difficult.Build article →

Player 'zawa' finished M-1 singles at rank 898 and rating 2455 using a cycle team centered on Dragonite, Hippowdon, Glimmora, and Mega Lopunny. The motivation was that Lopunny covers exactly the Pokémon that Dragonite struggles with — Umbreon, Greninja, and Meowscarada — while Mach Punch provides reliable late-game priority. The team adopted the Dragonite/Hippowdon/Glimmora framework from another player and added Lopunny plus Aegislash and Scarf Meowscarada. Lopunny's key technique is setting up Swords Dance in non-Mega form to avoid accumulating weaknesses before committing; Mega Kick is the high-damage finisher. Glimmora acts as the special wall and sets up toxic spikes for attrition cycling. Aegislash specifically targets Archaludon. The author notes weaknesses against Mega Venusaur as a lead, Dragonite mirror matchups, and Scarf Meowscarada creating dangerous King's Shield timing decisions against Aegislash.Build article →

The author is a veteran of the Mega era who wanted to use their most comfortable Venusaur and a beloved Gyarados; they love cycle teams but got crushed by setup last season, so this time they went for a matchup-based, low-brainpower plan, referencing a respected player's 19th-place build from last season. Mega Venusaur is the core, built for physical bulk to wall Lopunny, Kangaskhan, and Garchomp, then forcing Sleep Powder on a favorable matchup and grabbing advantage during the unexpected sleep turns; the author just calls it strong. Volcarona is a Sword/Shield-era mon, a bulky build that outspeeds Lopunny after one Quiver Dance, able to sweep or set up for teammates and even beat Charizard Y. Mega Gyarados is brutal even used carelessly, dancing and smashing, often coming out as a double Mega with Venusaur. Aegislash is the reliable cycle veteran, filling holes against Floette, ArchaluBuild article →

The hyper-offense team is anchored by Life Orb Mimikyu, whose Disguise ability ignores Stealth Rock damage and allows it to function as a lead, mid-game breaker, or late-game cleaner. Mega Delphox runs Substitute to bait switches and create openings, tolerating Stealth Rock chip better than Charizard. Sash Meowscarada leads against screens and Gyarados teams, also Knock Off to disrupt opponent setups. Mega Lucario surprised opponents with Rock Slide and Bullet Punch and ended up the team's strongest individual performer. The author acknowledges fast Sneasler and Mega Metagross as persistent threats the team struggles against.Build article →

The author felt a three-attack Mega Dragonite with Roost could be selected into anything and felt great, so it became the axis with a near-total selection rate. The Dragon, Ice and Fairy threats Dragonite dislikes — Garchomp, Mimikyu, Meowscarada, Greninja, Metagross — are absorbed by a physically defensive Scizor, which pivots with U-turn and clears Stealth Rock and screens with Defog. Scizor alone could not handle Rough Skin Earthquake and Fire Fang, so a physically defensive Primarina was added, which also covers Hydreigon, Hisuian Samurott, Hippowdon and Lopunny. The Ground slot is Focus Sash Mamoswine, strong into Hippowdon and Garchomp with Ice Shard to finish weakened targets, and its team-preview pressure makes the opponent's picks very readable. Choice Scarf Meowscarada cuts Water, Ghost and Psychic coverage, with Throat Chop reliably killing Delphox and Gengar. On the final dayBuild article →

This is the selection-and-piloting companion piece after the author took over a friend's Garchomp + Umbreon + Gengar team; the build details live in the original author's separate article. He lays out his selections: the core three play a slow cycle aiming for wins or draws, with stable-but-high-roll potential from Stealth Rock plus the occasional Garchomp Stone Edge or Rock Slide flinch, used about half the time. Against Lopunny, Venusaur, Hippowdon + Mega Glimmora, or Blastoise that the core struggles with, he swaps to Garchomp + Meowscarada + Scizor; with Hippowdon-Glimmora cores common late season, this saw the most use. Against setup teams like Espathra baton or Vivillon, he brings Skeledirge to answer head-on. His own take: running Umbreon Yawn/Wish openly signals he is fishing for draws, so high-roll means full aggression and low-roll means going for the tie. With clean play one oBuild article →

kuru wanted to abuse the new-meta megas with an offensive Trick Room core, landing on Mega Mawile. Since Mawile is slow, Mimikyu sets Trick Room to fix its speed and packs a Life Orb to snipe with Shadow Sneak, while a Focus Sash Torrent Greninja gives a safe, flexible lead. Because Mawile and Mimikyu are both Fairy and hate Fire, Ground and Steel, kuru added a Stealth Rock/Spikes Garchomp and a Leftovers Milotic as two pivots to chip away, with Mega Charizard Y in the back for Water and Grass coverage. There is no fixed lead; it is all about reading the switch to land free Play Rough with Mawile. He rates the matchup pressure highly but says bulky walls and combos like Meganium, Mega Blaziken plus Corviknight, or Bellibolt are very hard to break.Build article →

Setsuna built the whole team around his partner Sylveon and deliberately ran a single mega for cleaner selection. Sylveon holds Leftovers, tuned to survive Garchomp Earthquake and to fire off Yawn from underneath plus Quick Attack to finish. A Choice Scarf Meowscarada applies Knock Off pressure, Archaludon is a pure Stealth Rock lead, and Focus Sash Torrent Greninja is the MVP that carried him into the top 999 thanks to a scary priority Water Shuriken. The only mega is a max-speed Metagross for offense up top, with a non-mega Life Orb Blaziken in the back that he calculated actually hits harder than the mega. Selection is just two shapes: mega plus two, or Stealth Rock plus Sylveon's Yawn loop plus a sweeper. He says it handles offense and cycle teams but struggles against bulk and setup like Corviknight, Minimize Qwilfish and Mega Clefable, and finds Mega Charizard Y annoying.Build article →