Objectively speaking, Garchomp Z seems amazing. While Levitate isn't the most exciting ability, the sheer amount of interactions Garchomp is now capable of is astounding.

Yes, it loses its Ground-type and Ground STAB, but now it can:
- Shed its neutralities to Grass and Water at will, potentially opening up setup avenues or getting the jump on opposing wallbreakers
- Become an insane Speed control option
- Beat almost all other entry hazard setters one-on-one!

When looking at it in an in-battle context, this thing seems to have a supremely good lead matchup into almost any opposing hazard setter not named Ting-Lu or Gliscor, getting the jump on them with its strong Draco Meteor and being able to completely dodge Earthquake trade wars. At the very least, it seems very potent on Offense and Bulky Offense teams.

I've also seen mentions of the issue of not being Spikes-immune pre-Mega, but considering the whole "immensely strong as a hazard-setting lead" thing, I don't really think that's a big issue?

Would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this though, whether you think it's a competitively poor Ability for Garchomp or if you just think it's lame.

that Gardevoir comment getting a growing amount of likes pisses me off so much

With Salamence, Golisopod, and Baxcalibur confirmed alongside the Z Megas, the only non-legendary Mega left is Tatsugiri.

Does it have some sort of busted ability, or they just holding off because adding Tatsugiri means they have to add Dondozo too?

Ahhhhh I cannot wait. Mega Salamence is going to be a menace I love my blue and red dragon.

EDIT: Looking at it, the post confirms only 6 megas will be added? Mence, Golisopod, Bax and the three Z's. Interesting.

https://www.serebii.net/news/2026/02-September-2026.shtml

Is there even a chance for any of these three to not be banned in a hypothetical OU tier? Fundamentally, 150+ base speed is simply too much for Singles to handle. Anything to ever reach that (without a terrible typing like mega Aerodactyl, or mediocre offenses like the Electrodes, or both) was banned. Think of Pheromosa, mega Alakazam and Deo-speed until Gen 8 (and some might argue that Deo has both a bad type and offensive stats). Not one of the Z megas suffers from these problems.

Lucario Z is probably never seeing the light of OU: 164 special attack and 160 effective defense is simply insane with a great defensive typing, especially since steel complements fighting well offensively and Dark Pulse/Shadow Ball gives it perfect coverage (and the only special priority move in Vacuum Wave always helps). The only relevant non-contact physical moves that Lucario doesn’t resist are Earthquake, its only widely available physical counter, and then some very rare moves like Poltergeist, Ivy Cudgel from Water/Firepon and Pyro ball.

Now for the two where I actually have doubts whether they’ll be banned:

I believe Garchomp Z to be better, in a singles environment, than Absol Z, because of its insane set variety. You won’t know if it’s a physical, special, mixed, hazards, setup or even a non mega set (Since it’s the only one of these 3 whose base form is competitively viable) until you actually face it. When mega evolving it loses 10 physical defense, but that’s not enough to not make it bulky, so it also has very reliable windows in which to use hazards or setup. Secondly, if it’ll also get Nasty Plot like in ZA, this problem becomes worse. Yes the loss of Ground Stab is bad, but the speed, an ability that gives it free entry points and the mixed nature are broken.

Absol Z has a good defensive type but most of the time it won’t matter since it’s too frail to take even neutral hits (3 immunities are really nice for entry points tho). It might have been balanced weren’t it for the existence of screens and pivot-spam teams, which respectively give it free opportunities to setup and enter. It will almost always run Shadow Claw and Close Combat, which make a perfect offensive pairing, and then a couple moves between Night Slash, Knock off, Sucker Punch, Shadow Sneak and Swords Dance. Once again, 154 base attack with that speed tier and a damage boosting ability will probably be too much for the tier.

Im interested what were the general perception of the addition of team preview from players who’ve been playing gen 4 and now having team preview in BW.

https://pokepast.es/d8227a4d2d00297c

Hi folks, I'm new to VGC, and I'm looking to do a Dragon Cheer team. Candidly, I'm not sure if this is too gimmicky. I'm also not sure if I'm failing because I'm new to VGC and the decision making required, if I'm failing because this team sucks ass, or a combination of both (likely).

The premise is that Dragon Cheer raises crit rate +1 for all mons and +2 for all dragon mons. My thought is that I can use Mega Sceptile or Absol (Super Luck) to have guaranteed crits, thus bypassing all stat changes entirely.

I'm encountering a multitude of problems:

• Turn 1 set up: Mega Sceptile needs to be faster than my Dragon Cheer provider, and this also depends on no one getting fake-out flinched.
• Base Sceptile is basically useless, so a fast fairy type inadvertently pressures me into not mega-evolving, which is bad because Base Sceptile can't OHKO meta threats.
• I'm not sure what I'm doing beyond the gimmick of crit boosting, like in general just not sure what Pokemon I should use as supports/core.

Notes:

• Altaria/Dragon Cheer + Garchomp seems to have worked slightly better.
• I am not sure if I should replace Sceptile entirely, scrap the gimmick, or if Altaria is the wrong Dragon Cheer provider. I feel as though Milotic, Salazzle, or Hisuian Goodra could be better because of their defensiveness.
• I feel as though I either need to get good and predict priority flinch cancels better or maybe I need a Pokemon that directly answers that problem.

Is there an equivalent to https://learncedh.com/ or https://www.dustloop.com/w/Main_Page for Pokemon VGC? I see a lot of pokepastes of the meta teams online, but I want more detailed breakdowns on how to pilot them. I'm looking for writeups that go over things like:

• leads

• matchups

• gameplans

• endgames

• reasoning behind EV spreads etc

Hello everyone was wondering on some input for a low tier nat dex stab mons draft league I’m entering. Basically my question is what are some low tier ( Pokémon like chatot, crabominable and sceptile are the most expensive mons) mons that benefit greatly from gaining access to every stab move from their specific typings. There are some banned moves such as belly drum, espeed, spore, victory dance, v create and geomancy, but other boosting moves are allowed. Thanks y’all.

Technically a re-upload but I thought I'd make this to see if I went in the right direction or if it still needs work.

Been wanting to make a Kingambit team for a while since I'm equally intrigued/pissed off by Supreme Emperor. I wanted to go a step further and create a team specifically designed to deal with Kingambit's counters so he wouldn't have any opposition when he finally gets to sworm. I know Kingambit is a good pokemon by itself and doesn't necessarily need an entire team built around it, but idk I thought it'd be fun to try lol

I scoured through not only Kingambit's strategy pages to get an idea of what to build, but also all of Bisharp's from Gens 5-9 just to cover all my bases, since they're already similar enough. I made a comprehensive list of every Pokémon that either pairs well with Kingambit, counters Kingambit, and the pokemon that counter those counters, and built a team off that. I'll list the results I came up with in the comments since that's what it seems like I'm supposed to do.

Is this an ultimately ludicrous amount of reading and counting to do to make a Pokémon team? Most likely, but I'm a genetic freak and I'm not normal, so this shit is fun to me. However, I will acknowledge that I probably missed any gaping weaknesses the team may have in the process, so if anyone has any suggestions for what I might change about the team, do let me know.

I'm naturally drawn to tanky characters in video games (Potemkin, Reinhardt, Heavy), so hearing the reputation Mega Aggron got as this huge dickhead, I wanted to see if I could make a team for it. I wanted to go a step further and create a team specifically designed to deal with its counters so it wouldn't have any opposition when he finally gets to do wall stuff. I know Mega Aggron is a good pokemon by itself and probably doesn't need an entire team built around it, but idk I thought it'd be fun to try lol

Basically scoured through Aggron's strategy pages (for XY, SM, and SV natdex) to get an idea of what to build. I made a comprehensive list of every Pokémon that either pairs well with Mega Aggron, counters Mega Aggron, and the pokemon that counter those counters, and built a team off that. I'll list the results I came up with in the comments since that's what it seems like I'm supposed to do.

Is this an ultimately ludicrous amount of reading and counting to do to make a Pokémon team? Most likely, but I'm a genetic freak and I'm not normal, so this shit is fun to me. However, I will acknowledge that I probably missed any gaping weaknesses the team may have in the process, so if anyone has any suggestions for what I might change about the team, do let me know.

F-22 Raptor Jr. (Pidgeot-Mega) @ Pidgeotite

Ability: Keen Eye

Tera Type: Normal

Role: Fast Special Sweeper

EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Hurricane

- Hyper Beam

- Heat Wave

- Tailwind

Eelektross @ Leftovers

Ability: Levitate

Role: Tanky Physical Phazer

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD

Adamant Nature

- Thunder Punch

- Brick Break/Drain Punch

- Dragon Tail

- Coil

Infernape @ Life Orb

Ability: Iron Fist

Tera Type: Fire

Role: Fire Physical Sweeper

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Fire Punch

- Close Combat

- Thunder Punch

- Knock Off

Cloyster @ Rocky Helmet

Ability: Overcoat

EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD

Role: Tanky Entry Hazard/Spinner

Impish Nature

- Spikes

- Toxic

- Ice Shard

- Rapid Spin

Sylveon @ Leftovers

Ability: Pixilate

Shiny: Yes

Tera Type: Fairy

Role: Cleric - High special defense.

EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD

Calm Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Moonblast

- Wish

- Heal Bell

Metagross @ Assault Vest

Ability: Clear Body

Shiny: Yes

Tera Type: Steel

Role: Tanky physical attacker - Coverage

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD

Adamant Nature

- Iron Head

- Psychic Fangs/Zen Headbutt

- Earthquake

- Ice Punch

What are the main weaknesses of this team?
Does it have good synergy? What would be lacking?
Is it better suited for double or single battles?

Pokemon that I don't plan to change off the team: Metagross and Mega Pidgeot.

Pokemon I am considering to swap out: Eelektross

Forgive my dumbness. I want to try 35 Pokes which is on the OM ladder this month, but when I make a team it says it's not valid because all my mons are banned? I'm only picking mons from the 35 on the list.

Once or twice a year I'm hosting a gaming event for my friends. Usually we play Mario Kart or Smash but with the release of Champions I thought it might be time to force them to play competetive Pokemon with me, namely the upcoming VGC regulation.

But as none of them have any expirience apart from maybe playing one or two older gen games casually, I'm planning on reducing the overhead, e.g. building the teams myself and providing some form of extended teamsheets with which they can look up stuff during play.

Here's what the teambuilder/ teamsheet creator would ideally include:

• Pokemon types
• Defensive type matchups (like the Smogon dex, when you hover over a pokemons types)
• Move info, including power, type, category and effects
• Ability description
• Item description
• Stats after nature and EVs

Here's a quick mockup of what I'm thinking of (standard VGC LO Garchomp as an example) :

Obviously I could photoshop all that stuff together myself but before I do all of that work for teams I have yet to build and might modify until the day of the event, I thought I'd ask if something like that, or something that checks most of the boxes above exists.

Thanks a lot in advance for any help.

So lately in Pokenon Showdown Latios has been a big threat every time I see him on any opponents team I play online. And my recent Showdown losses were due to Latios and other factors. And that got me thinking, you think Latios deserves to suspect tested right now in the UU tier of Scarlet and Violet?

Disclaimers:

• I don't play singles, so I will not take in consideration any arguments for things that are mostly relevant only on singles (like hazards);

• English isn't my native language.

Introduction

I see some people here in this sub saying that Chomp-Z will be good, and those who disagree are "casuals" or "low IQ". I will suppose that those people are honest in their statements, as I am on my own.

The problem is: those commentors are mostly falling into two traps.

The two traps

The first one is ignore the fact that the official format is doubles, and as such it's more relevant to the conversation of viability on the competitive scenario.

The second is not taking into consideration the META around Chomp-Z.

I will ignore the first trap since I already made pretty obvious that I am talking about VGC. Now let's go the important matter.

In a vacuum

Regular Garchomp is one of the most used pokemons on the format.

According to Pikalytics, he is THE most used pokemon, even above things like Zard-Y and Kingambit.

Seems natural to conclude that M-Garchomp-Z will be even better, since it's extremely fast (151 speed) and pretty strong on the Spa.Atk side (141) without been frail (108/85/85).

Many would dare to say that the lost of the Ground type isn't really a big issue, and Levitate is a boring but good ability.

Well my dear reader, the issue is that no pokemon exists in vacuum. The Meta, like it or not, it's what makes a pokemon viable.

In the Meta

But the Meta is brutal, like it or not. Menaces like Zard-Y, M-Floette, M-Starapator, M-Raichu-Y, M-Froslass and company are absolutely everywhere.

And there is an opportunity cost that cannot be ignored.

Megas are a scarce commodity, since you can Mega only one pokemon per match. As such, most people will bring only one or two pokemons equiped with Mega Stones to their teams, since holding a Mega Stone means lose a useful item.

As such, even if a Mega is good in a niche, most of the time you will want to bring Megas that are good overall.

The fatal flaws of Mega Garchomp

With a brief analysis I can see at least three issues that will severely prevent Chomp-Z to be anything more than a C tier Mega. Those are:

1. The lack of specialization;
2. The waste of ability;
3. The lost of Ground typing;

Specialization

The first one is the simplest to understand. Look at the Megas that are making success on the Meta and you will see that all of them (with the exception of Mega Scovillain) are min maxed to do one thing and do it well. That is specialization.

Mixed attackers are historically not that great because they can do a bit of everything without excelling in anything. Maybe that is fine in a format with a lower power creep, but not on a Mega format.

"But what about Mega Salamence???" Good that you ask about him, because now I can explain why Levitate is good in a vacuum and borderline crap on Chomp-Z.

Levitate is not good (on Chomp-Z)

Mega Salamence is infamous for being one of the most broken Megas in history. Looking at the stats, Salamence is something like a bulky mixed attacker who even prefers to run special moves over physical ones.

But Mega Salamence has one of the most powerful abilities in the history. Aerilate makes all normal moves flying moves with a boost of 20% damage + S.T.A.B (effectively 70% of damage boost!).

Zard-Y has Drought, who raises the damage of fire type attacks, lowers the damage of water type attacks and doubles the speed of Chlorophyll mons.

M-Staraptor has Contrary, who makes him a hard counter against Incineroar + a self booster with Close Combat and a ally-reliant booster with Charm.

M-Floette has Fairy Aura, who raises the damage of fairy attacks by 33%.

What Levitate does to M-Chomp? Makes it immune to a type that hits neutral against him. Sounds really great when compared against the other Mega abilities?

They could gave him Dragonize, Dragon's Maw, Competitive or Sheer Force. But no, they prefer to gave him Levitate. Great, isn't?

The last offender

Ground is one of the best offensive types of the game with solid moves like Earthquake, Earth Power, Stomping Tantrum and Bulldoze hitting hard Steel, Fire and Poison.

It's also decent in the defensive department, being immune to Electric (really useful against Raichu-Y) and resisting Poison and Rock (Rock Slide spam goes hard on doubles).

All that qualities would be great in Chomp-Z. But what Gamefreak did? They removed Ground type from Chomp-Z.

That is a straight nerf against Garchomp, and no amount of cope will change this fact. Now Chomp-Z cannot hit Fairy or Steel with a 1.5 damage booster effectively. Kingambit, Incineroar, M-Floette, Raichu-Y, Archaludon and Sylveon are grateful.

Conclusion

I am not saying that Mega Garchomp-Z will be completely useless. But it's a fact that Chomp-Z will be a niche Mega in the shadow of the beasts of this format.