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The team is built around a Calm Mind-free, Amnesia Mega Clefable: after getting swept by one, the author judged it as the strongest Mega and chose Amnesia over Cosmic Power or Calm Mind because a single Amnesia lets it tank most special attackers reliably, even in non-Mega form with Natural Cure. Moonlight ensures longevity and Thunderbolt handles Primarina and mirrors. Volcarona has been in the team throughout the entire season; Volt Switch with Rotom-style pivot play and exchange-reading Will-O-Wisp produce the cleanest wins. Garchomp with Haban Berry lets it take a Dragon attack from Charizard and counter without checking damage first; Stomping Tantrum replaces Mud Shot for status-clearing coverage. Empoleon leads to suppress Basculegion-based setup teams using Roar and Stealth Rock. Umbreon limits Basculegion, using a Toxic on the switch. Corviknight is necessary for Mega Charizard and Dragonite; Power Whip for Venusaur was swapped in but Venusaur almost never appeared, and the author believes Defog or Iron Defense would have been better. The team's biggest headaches are Mega Delphox's Nasty Plot plus Psyshock combination, and Ceruledge's combination moves.Build article →

The team starts from Focus Sash Basculegion, the author's most trusted Pokemon across SV. Mega Floette was added after seeing a shared rental team, paired with Choice Scarf Garchomp as the speed-and-pressure core. Archaludon provides Stealth Rock and pressures opposing Floette with Roar to stop Calm Mind stacking. Mega Gyarados is the second Mega slot to deal with steel and poison types that threaten Floette; Volcarona with Lum Berry is specifically there to handle Umbreon and Corviknight. The author rates the team's chief strength as Floette's overwhelming selection pressure, which forces predictable opponent teambuilds; the main weakness is that meta-awareness of Floette grew rapidly over the season, making it progressively harder to bring it safely to battle. Final peak 2686, final placement 55th.

From last season until about ten days before the final day he cycled through a different top-cut team roughly every week to see what suited him, and the physically defensive Garchomp plus Umbreon plus Gengar shell he'd been running since the previous ruleset felt best in hand and matched up reasonably into the popular Hydreigon plus Metagross, so Umbreon and Gengar became his axis. Playing it, he found Umbreon's Yawn plus Stealth Rock plus poison chip excellent, so he reassigned roles: the setup slot went from Sitrus Berry Garchomp to Glimmora, and Garchomp became a Choice Scarf attacker to hit the Steel-types poison can't touch, plus the Blaziken and Raichu that Umbreon can't hold. The whole plan is to stack chip from poison, Yawn and Protect until the opponent is in Mega Gengar's kill range, then trap with Shadow Tag and finish; Gengar runs Will-O-Wisp plus Hex since his first three haBuild article →

The author simply loves Gengar, so he made Mega Gengar the axis and built outward: when Gengar loses a matchup it retreats to an HP/Def Hippowdon, which is very effective in this mega-heavy meta. Alolan Ninetales was added to handle the rising Sitrus Garchomp and to set screens so selection rarely goes to waste, then Mega Delphox as a second mega that pairs well with Ninetales as a setup finisher. Because Hippowdon, Hydreigon and Umbreon were all heavy, a Rest-Chesto Primarina was added, and finally an Endurance Archaludon with Stealth Rock to withstand the late-season Focus Sash Greninja while supporting Hippowdon's Yawn. Mega Gengar takes broad roles with Will-O-Wisp and Pain Split, Hippowdon is a rock-solid Protect plus Leftovers pivot, Archaludon does work just being thrown out first, and Primarina can 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 from near-losing positions, crushing teams that wall it with BeBuild article →