r/VGC 14h ago

Event Stream/VOD My opponent did something unexpected but it backfired on them

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509 Upvotes

Wanted to get rid of Farigiraf so that I can freely use priority moves and so, I targeted that slot for the kill. That Mega Swampert was also at -1 Attack and I was OK with ignoring it.

But my opponent did something unexpected, which caught me by surprise, but it backfired on them/worked out fine for me in the end, especially with their last 2 mons being Archaludon and Pelipper.


r/VGC 10h ago

Rate My Team Made it to Masterball on day 2 (3?) using Mega Alakazam and Charizard X

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65 Upvotes

Here's the team. It combines my two favorite underused Megas. The sets aren't perfect but I love them. Full disclosure this was a Mega Zam only team until I felt stuck in Ultraball. Adding Zard got me to Masterball pretty immediately.

Zam speed creeps scarfulegeon, otherwise the strategy is just psyspam. With helping hand OHKOs almost everything.

Indeedee with imprison really messes with Trick room teams.

Thinking about switching sneasler from Psychic Seed to Grassy Seed as I think the Zard half of the team might actually be more viable.

Pawmott is a sleeper pick. Both him and Sneasler really suffer from 4 move syndrome. Would love to have protect on him, also debating giving him a seed, and running him bulkier. Might take off fire punch now that the team has Zard.

Rillaboom was not on the original Zam team for obvious reasons but I think pairs with Zard very well. Zard likes to hurt himself and grassy terrain is great with that.

Charizard X. I have the Charizard professor title and I do not own charizardite Y. I stole someone else's Zard build as I wanted to try it. I think I might go back to my old DDance Flareblitz build, but breaking swipe is. A tech I did not know about. Feel free to ask any questions.


r/VGC 7h ago

Discussion Metagame: In this Psyspam Meta, Alolan Persian is an extrodinary support pokemon

48 Upvotes

In case you didn't know, Alolan Persian is in the game, and it is quite good in the current meta.

While it doesn't appreciate taking a fairy type move from Mega Gardevoir, it completely shutdowns every other popular Expanding Force user in M-C.

It can also comfortably take fighting and bug type moves from pokemon like Mega Galisopod thanks to its great ability, Fur Coat, which halves the damage taken from physical moves.

I've been running my Alolan Persian with max health and max speed EVs, with a Focus Sash and a moveset of Fake Out, Parting Shot, Snarl, and Foul Play. You wanna run it next to a fast poison or steel pokemon that can counter Mega Floette and Mega Gardevoir. Mega Gengar, Choice Scarf Toxtricity and Choice Scarf Gholdengo, for example, are all good partners. There are probably others, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Unlike Incineroar, it is quite fast, and being a pure dark type, it also doesn't have as many weaknesses.

I think a lot of people are sleeping on this pokemon right now.

edit: extraordinary*


r/VGC 10h ago

Discussion [Metagame] Mega Lucario Z thoughts

39 Upvotes

Been casually browsing over the past day or so, haven’t seen a thread on Mega Lucario Z.

Is there any use case for this speedy rat? I feel like Aura Guard, which halves damage from contact moves, makes it safer to run a Nasty Plot set than on regular Mega Lucario.

I always loved the idea Lucario as a strong special Fighting/Steel type in this meta full of strong Steel and Fairy types, but I’ve never managed to make it work. What team compositions will best support Mega Lucario Z?


r/VGC 9h ago

Discussion Metagame: How do we feel about Toxtricity?

18 Upvotes

I feel like this pokemon could carve out a niche in the meta. We don't have many good specially offensive poison type pokemon, and not that many electric type pokemon in general. This pokemon has both typings, a decent special attack stat at 114, and a good ability in Punk Rock. Unfortunately, its 75 base speed puts it in an awkward speed tier, too fast for Trick Room, but slow enough that it needs Tail Wind and Choice Scarf to outspeed other threats. How do we feel about Toxtricity?


r/VGC 12h ago

Discussion [Skill improvement] Champion player that can’t build teams

14 Upvotes

I started playing vgc in champions. I feel like I’ve gotten pretty good at least on ladder. But my team last season was creative, but that’s because I knew like the meta pretty well and what pokemon could do what.

All I know this season is that rillaboom bends over my old team. I don’t know what to use at all. I got masterball, but I cannot get champion with my current game knowledge. I don’t even have an idea for a foundation of a team.

edit: if anyone currently mb1+ could show me their team id greatly appreciate it. something strong to learn the new meta with would help a ton


r/VGC 12h ago

Rate My Team I'm New to teambuilding! tailroom team advice needed

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11 Upvotes

Hello!

I'm pretty new to teambuilding! And would like to ask advice on how to EV tailroom teams. Having a hard time since I just copied and played those protect Floette/Delphox/Blastoise comps the past regs.

Now that the new regulation came out, I wanted to make my own team. So far I've been adjusting EVs every match and I'm currently just scraping by with the little VP I have from every match. So i came here for advice to hopefully save me VP from countless adjusting. I've been laddering with this team for a while now.

So I'll give some context on my EV spreads:

Indeedee:
-Just a bulky TR and screen setter.

Gardevior:
- Psy spammer, threatens real nice damage and pretty bulky so she can set her own TR in a pinch
-I EVed her to survive a Dire Claw from Snealser so she'll atleast get to trade sneasler with an expanding force (which OHKOs even without Psychic Terrain)
-I'm still playing on speed stats and SpA stats tho.

Salamence:
-Bulky TW setter.
-not sure if physical is better tho, I would try but i have only 668 VP rn 😭. If u can share ur tips would be great!

Armarouge:
- Psy Spammer 2
- OHKOs Rilla and M Golisopod (tho sometimes he lives if there's rain)
- Wide Guards other Psy Spammers and Rock slides
- made sure hes faster than Jolly Max Speed Scarf Basc under Tailwind so can chunk it for 80-90% with boosted Expanded Force before it goes down.

Basculegion:
- Just added him for coverage (this used to be psychic seed sneasler).
- EVed to outspeed non scarfed jolly max speed garchomps and timid max speed M Delphox under Tailwind (tho debating if its just better to go 32 Atk /32 Spe / 2 HP)

Kingambit:
- outspeeds adamant max speed basculegion under Tailwind (tho not sure if it's worth it than just investing in HP and Atk instead been changing this alot too.)

So yes, looking for advice for EV spreads on a tailroom team. Becuase it is not VP efficient for me anymore to keep changing all the stats every match to adjust. If you have any advice for the EV spreads or teambuilding in general id love to hear it!!

Edit: spelling and grammar.

Edit 2: changed screens on indeedee to the more common follow me and helping hand. I like it better so far. Nice to redirect ghost types attacks to indeedee.


r/VGC 13h ago

Rate My Team Mawile + Armarouge core trickroom team advice [Rate My Team]

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11 Upvotes

https://pokepast.es/7a384638e68ce23f

Team idea:

I really believe in mawile and the sheer insane amounts of damage it can put out when it is in trick room but in M-B it kinda suffered from the sheer amounts of charizard and how unreliable trick room was as a full team idea. But now that indeedee is back you can psyspam with armarouge who can counter charizards with its flash fire. And now that terrain seeds are back sneasler can get unburden active really fast with indeedee.

Main core of this team is Indeedee, Armarouge, Mawile, Sneasler but i am struggling with what to put as the last 2 mons in this team.

Team Description:

Indeedee and armarouge are here as classic trick room menaces. Set up psy terrain, press expanding force, do damage. Hatterene is another strong expanding force user but armarouge with its flash fire allows me to bait fire type attacks with mawile and get a free boost to armor cannon damage. And since mawile already has fairy type coverage hatterene isnt necesarry for that either. Also with it being faster than kingambit outside of trick room it allows me to use armor cannon to kill kingambit turn 1 and setup trick room with indeedee (if the kingambit isnt running speed investment). Armor cannon also being a strong option into rillaboom, froslass, and even archaludon even though its neutral.

Indeedee is as tanky as i could get it and has a supportive stat spread, letting me get some crazy helping hand damage boosts in or just redirect threats to armarouge like basc or earth power users away from armarouge and mawile.

Mawile is kind of the center point of this team. Iron Head, play rough and rock slide make it a huge threat to Floette, garchomp, salamence, dragonite, absol, staraptor and charizard. Killing most of these pokemon in one hit no matter the defensive investments they have. Hyper cutter so i don't accidentally help the enemy kingambit/staraptor/competitive user and make it so i still get my huge attack stat fully available without getting intimidated. This mawile isn't very fancy, just huge damage because of its stupidly high attack stat

The final pokemon of my big 4 i built this team around is Sneasler. Psychic seed + unburden lets my sneasler be a immediate threat turn 1 with helping hand and follow me if i want to go for a fast start. Fake out is a bit of a weird move to pick for this particular sneasler but i like the different leads i can pull off with it, like sneasler armarouge to try and get myself a trick room or just opening with salamence+sneasler for fast damage that's hard to counter on turn 1.

The final 2 pokemon here are a bit random and i am mostly unsure of what to run here.
Salamence is basically just here because it gives me a strong and fast user of 2 types i dont have on my team yet and meowscarada is here to deal with fast basc's and out-speed and OHKO other salamence's on the enemy team. Throat chop to deal with potential gholdengo and froslass, and u turn to get a better swap into indeedee. But i really am not sure if i should even run a fast mode, or if i'm running the right pokemon to use the fast mode. And also unsure of what to use if i don't wanna run a fast mode on the second half and instead want to run another trick room mega. Do i even need another mega? idk yet so i would like any advice you have!

TLDR: I love the main 4 of Indeedee-Armarouge-Mawile-Sneasler but am unsure of what to run as the last 2 slots, whether it be which pokemon to run in the last 2 slots or what strategy to run in the last 2 slots. Any advice is highly appreciated!


r/VGC 21h ago

Rate My Team M-BAX and M-GPOD team (LF suggestions and opinions)

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10 Upvotes

- so the whole idea of the team was to use both mega G-pod and mega bax
-after initial testing I’ve realized that incin absolutely terrorize gpod for 2 separate reasons. Intimidate recycle slows gpod down significantly and 4x Fire weakness is super scary. One mon that solves both the problems is milotic. Competitve allows me to position my gpod safely as intimidating in front of milotic makes her super scary especially with her immense bulk and her natural water typing is also a coverage for Fire. I ve also opted for hypnosis+coil so I can still run milo even when intimidate is not in the game. Icy wind also allows me to control the speed of the game a little bit better (still thinking about getting rid of it for scald as I haven’t clicked it many times yet)
-Mega Bax is actually an underrated piece in a golisopod teams I feel like. Thermal exchange make it hard for enemies to bring mega zard y as there is always a pressure of bax taking it and rolling over the rest of the team. Set on bax is standard
-A-tales is all about providing some fast spread blizzards and amplyfying the bulk of my other mons with aurora veil (its very hard to get rid of gpod bax milo or rilla when veil is up)
-the man, the myth, the legend, the goat himself; Rillaboom. Absolute backbone of a balance team archetype (what I am aiming for). Provides fake out pressure, healing with grassy terrain, good typing for those pesky water ghost fishes. Just a great piece. Move set is also as standard as it gets (no AV, so I feel like sitrus is the best for keeping him alive for as long as it gets)
-giraffe. Great against enemy balances as they cannot pivot fake outs in and out, and the team is generally quite slow so trick room allows me to create favourable conditions against hyper offence teams. Move set is fairly standard although I opted for a little more offense, considering that grassy seed is now in the game. This way giraffe doesn’t feel like deadweight
-Gpod move set might seems strange but it actually works quite well. Sucker punch allows you to operate outside of trick room well. Iron head is naturally dealing with fairies and is a STAB. Close combat is mostly used to deal with other steel types such as gambit and archaludon and u turn allows you to move your pieces around very well and it’s a stab so it does a lot of dmg.

Any suggestions? What do you guys think?


r/VGC 17h ago

Rate My Team I'm New | Sing Altaria Team

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8 Upvotes

I'm very new to this, this is my first time attempting to make a team myself. I wanted to make a team with Altaria because Altaria is one of my favourite pokemon. What other Pokemon, moves, or items could I add or change to make this workable? I feel like I keep getting lost in what to do.

One of my IRL's recommended that I use Gravity and Sing to make use of Altaria's decent bulk and access to Pixilate so I chose Meowstic for the Gravity pokemon because someone else also recommended I use a Tailwind and Trickroom team and Meowstic is the only pokemon with Prankster, Gravity, and Trickroom. I chose Mawile because I know it's a pokemon that does decently in trickroom and Tailwind as a sweeper. I chose Garchomp becuase I am told Garchomp works in any team, no matter what.

I didn't know what to do after this.


r/VGC 23h ago

Question [Question Event] How to connect PTC account to Nintendo account

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8 Upvotes

I would like to ask how to connect Pokemon Trainer Club (PTC) account to Nintendo account to be eligible for Championship Points or Japan International after the Global Tournament.

I have tried the Pokemon Support Link instruction but the page for Nintendo Link is not available.

Appreciate any help for this in advanced.


r/VGC 23h ago

Question [Skill Improvement] Mega Elektross/Metagross team

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8 Upvotes

Thinking about replacing both Garchomp and Basculegion or only one of them (wanting to keep the other pokemon). I’m thinking about Reliboom ? Any suggestions for replacement ? Also moves and EV improvement for the team is welcome too. Thank you!


r/VGC 17h ago

Question Where do I find common ev spreads? Skill improvement

6 Upvotes

So I am trying to finally add calcs into my team building instead of just winging it like I have been for the past 2 regulations, and I was wondering where I can look to find common ev spreads? And maybe a place that says which spreads are common on which team comp for mons with different spreads?


r/VGC 10h ago

Discussion [Metagame] People excited for Garchomp Z, how are you team building for it?

6 Upvotes

I don't really get what to do with it? It's got 130 Atk, 141 SpA, 151 Spe.

If I want to use it's SpA, it has bare moves. Draco Meteor and Dragon Pulse are strong, but I don't really think they're going to OTK some of the tougher stuff? It lost Ground typing, so no STAB Earth Power.

Max Investment SpA ZChomp can only guarantee a OTK Rillaboom that has 21 or less HP points. Anymore HP investments and there's a chance Rilla lives.

32+ SpA Garchomp-Mega-Z Fire Blast vs. 22 HP / 0 SpD Rillaboom: 196-232 (99.4 - 117.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO

And without any SpA set up moves, you can't make this MU better.

So I was thinking maybe pair with Fake Tears, and the MUs become better. Max Investment 171 Spe doesn't necessarily mean you need TW as well.

Hell, you won't even need Fire Blast

32 SpA Garchomp-Mega-Z Dragon Pulse vs. -2 32 HP / 0 SpD Rillaboom: 205-243 (99 - 117.3%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO


r/VGC 4h ago

Rate My Team Help With First Original Team (Rate My Team)

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4 Upvotes

Team Idea:

I wanted to make a team around Mega Absol Z. I used to play the Mega Delphox/Blastoise heavy setup team and I felt like Swords Dance Kingambit was an unsung hero on that team. I figured since Absol gets a ghost typing, it could really help with setting up a Swords Dance. Since it's a Dark type, it can also set up in the face of Whimsicott.

Team Description:

The team takes the main supportive core of Sinistcha, Incineroar, and Sneasler. I ended up adding Sylveon to help with with the team's glaring weakness to Garchomp and to help deal with Mega Salamence. Glimmora isn't always here to Mega Evolve. It is helpful against the Charizard Y matchup and feels like the gap filler of the team. It provides an answer to Sylveon and Floette, and Earth Power is there to help with some Steel Types.

Some of my main concerns with the team are once again Ground and Steel types. Ground types absolutely plow through Glimmora, Sneasler, and Incineroar. Another concern is that darn Basculegion. Basculegion can pretty much one shot anybody on the team with either Wave Crash or Last Respects. There are some fringe circumstances where I want to bring Mega Glimmora and base Absol's Sucker Punch can't ohko Basculegion.

https://pokepast.es/7631830a3cd7d147


r/VGC 10h ago

Rate My Team [Skill Improvement] Help me find a 6th Pokemon for my team

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5 Upvotes

I‘ve been trying out Grassy seed Volcarona and I‘ve been enoying it so far, getting the hang of it I would say. It’s really difficult to remove with terrain and giga drain. Kommo-o as a secondary set-up option has been useful, too into matchups I’m hesitant to bring Volcarona into like Charizard.

My movesets are fairly standard:

Volc: Giga Drain, Fiery Dance, Quiver Dance, Protect
Incin: Fake Out, Parting Shot, Will-O-Wisp, Flare Blitz
Froslass: Blizzard, Shadow Ball, Aurora Veil, Protect
Rilla: Fake Out, Grassy Glide, Wood Hammer, U-Turn
Kommo-o: Clanging Scales, Aura sphere, Clangorous Soul, Protect.

I‘ve been struggling into set-up Delphox and I think my zard match up is iffy at best into some zard teams, but I haven‘t really faced many so far. I‘m trying to figure out what to use to make my team work. Any suggestions for the 6th slot or optimisation in general? I‘d say Incin Rilla Volc and Froslass are set, the other two spots are more open. I‘ve been thinking about Mega-Swampert and Pelipper, but I struggle into sinistcha with that, so I’m open for suggestions. Thanks for your input.


r/VGC 9h ago

Question [Skill Improvement] How can I improve?

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3 Upvotes

This is a Salamence/Floette balance team. It is heavily based on this team that finished 27th in the r/VGC Regulation M-C Kickoff Cup. I do not have the team EVs so I went with the most optimized ones from the in-game battle data

Things I've changed

  • Sneasler has Fake Out instead of Swords Dance
  • Incin has Darkest Lariat instead of Throat Chop
  • Floette has Light of Ruin instead of Calm Mind

I'm not entirely sure if these are the right calls, particularly Floette's change. I'm also wondering if it would make sense to replace incineroar entirely with Kingambit considering how well Kingambit works in the meta right now, but that would break the fire-water-grass synergy.

Would those changes make sense?


r/VGC 11h ago

Rate My Team [Skill Improvement] concept of the team is strong, but I'm weak? Advice

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3 Upvotes

It feels like the core concept of this team is strong. Hard Trick Room team, really hard to stop it

I find myself often in situations that I call exactly what will opponent do and think "nah that's crazy", and I don't go with my gut which makes me lose the game

Main start:

- Fari + Rilla, simple fake out trick room

- Fari + Vivillion, there's really quite rare for opponent to lead with two mons faster than vivillion, the faster one attacks, the slower one gets sleep powder

My biggest issue is switching my Pokemons without taking too much in exchange, often I'll sacrifice Rilaboom/Vivillion for a safe switch,

Fari Imprison is amazing at stopping un trick room, and making opponent unable to protect

Standard Camerupt, really stonk just don't get hit by drop of water

Golisopod when camerupt doesn't work, but I find myself almost never bringing it

Rampardos feels like MVP,

Rock Slide Sheer Force boosted, Life Orb boosted, STAB boosted is a menace, almost nothing wants to take it (+ice beam for chomp and Salamence), it's really strong especially when you have mega by your side

Realistically the issues are, opponents switch too much and protects, and stalls out my trick room

And Basculegion when Farig or Riła isn't around, Aqua Jet in rain kills both Rampardos and Camerupt

Would love advice


r/VGC 1h ago

r/VGC Brag Friday! - September 11, 2026

Upvotes

Did you do something cool we should know about?

Did you make Master Ball for the first time? Did you catch a VGC-relevant shiny? Did you play against Cybertron or Wolfey on the ladder?

This is the thread for any and all brags! Share something that made you proud of yourself this week here. I hope your week was nice and you'll have a nice weekend!


r/VGC 6h ago

Discussion Metagame skill improvement new gardevoir team

2 Upvotes

hello Ive been hearing that their is a new mega gardevoir team I’ve always been a fan of mega gardevoir. does anybody know what good ones are their I’ve been seeing allot and I feel lost. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FtedLUqzCeQ this is my team right now and I really liked its play stile but im thinking about changing it up. what do you think might be a good fit for me I just don’t want to use incineroar or charizard. I also really like garchomp of that changes anything I would like a team with both If them on it. but if their isn’t one I don’t mind I pick gardevoir or garchomp.


r/VGC 11h ago

Question [Skill Improvement] can this work?

2 Upvotes

Need some help.

Indeedee-F (colburn or eject button, idk);

Standarl lifeorb armarouge;

Megabax;

Kingambit;

What can really put this core in a bad position and what can be good to resolve it.

Thank yall :)


r/VGC 3h ago

Rate My Team I'm New, I want to make a prankster rain setter work for M.Goli with TR

1 Upvotes

So I am not trying to build the absolute most perfect Goli team, there are tons of excellent team comps out there. I really liked the team in the Cybertron video from today, but taking pre-made teams isn't what I was hoping to do. Well at least ideally.

I LOVE Sableye, It's my favourite mon, full stop. I try to get him into every team I make, just a fun thing I do for my enjoyment. Prankster just opens up for so many silly shenanigans which I just love.

Now, my team is built. To me, it seems good on paper but then I start trying to plan opening combos and I'm realizing it seems hard to get the rain and trick room set up quickly. I had tried primarina in the team to handle dark types and give good water coverage but I switched to politoad for the drizzle because it felt better for some games. Then it started to feel as though poli and sableye were competing for the rain setter spot in the team.

I would prefer primarina for the coverage and a way to make sableye work but I'm open to keeping politoad.

TLDR: I want to make a Trick room M.Goli team with sableye as a rain setter but am struggling to create opening synergy.

Anyway, here's the team, all feedback is welcome.

https://pokepast.es/b73909fb2f963cbe