First, I’d like to apologize to those who wanted the rental code for the teams I posted a couple of days ago. As promised, I’d like to provide an in-depth analysis of that team and others I built as the meta evolved. As a gamer, I’ve always liked playing outside the meta in different games, and in Pokémon, my way of doing that is by building teams with mons I like the most. As hard as it is, playing with monotype teams can be pretty fun and very rewarding once you manage to beat meta teams on the ladder.
The first team I want to introduce is the one I used to reach Master Ball. It was a time when Aerodactyl wasn’t common yet. We have:
Goodra / Archaludon / Dragapult / Kommo-o / Dragonite-Mega / Noivern
Goodra – Played as support for Archaludon. Some of you asked, “why regular Goodra instead of Hisuian?” and the answer is Speed and typing. Regular Goodra is much faster than Hisuian, and as you can see in Goodra’s movepool, it has Acid Spray and Rain Dance. The main goal here is to set rain or drop SpDef before Archaludon attacks to optimize its damage output or guarantee SpAtk boosts with Electro Shot. When it comes to typing, both Hisuian Goodra and Archaludon are Steel/Dragon, which makes this duo extremely vulnerable to Earthquake and Fighting-type attacks such as Sneasler’s Close Combat or Kingambit’s Low Kick. On this team, I initially ran Gooey but switched it out because that ability gives free boosts to opposing Kingambit, which we definitely don’t want.
Archaludon – One of the cores of this team, with a pretty standard movepool to guarantee boosts and nuke opposing Pokémon with Draco Meteor.
Dragapult – Built as a physical attacker, immune to Fake Out and stat drops via its Clear Body ability. The idea was to deal damage while gaining momentum with Phantom Force. I normally paired it with Choice Scarf Kommo-o to boost its Attack via Coaching.
Kommo-o – Played as a fast special attacker with a support option in Coaching. Kommo-o’s signature spread move deals decent damage, and Scarf lets it outspeed many Pokémon, including our own Dragapult. However, since it’s too vulnerable to Fake Out, this combo doesn’t work often.
Dragonite-Mega – Pretty standard set that I was testing at the beginning of the month, but the truth is Mega Dragonite is kinda underwhelming, so I changed its role on my more recent teams. The idea was to use it in the mid–late game to pick up KOs while abusing Multiscale.
Noivern – Used as the Tailwind setter and a fast Taunt user to shut down Trick Room matchups. Later, I decided to replace it because Noivern doesn’t have high damage output.
As I said, I built this team early in the meta. The spreads were pretty standard (except for Goodra and Archaludon, to ensure Goodra moves first and to compensate for Archaludon’s lack of SpDef), and it struggled against some common threats like Mega Froslass, Mega Floette, and Aerodactyl as a faster Tailwind setter. So I made some adjustments that led to the second team in this post.
This time, we have:
Dragapult / Dragonite / Archaludon / Garchomp / Altaria-Mega / Goodra
I kept Archaludon & Goodra because I liked their synergy, but I realized that, in order to beat Floette, Froslass, and Aerodactyl teams, I needed more bulk and Speed. So I made some changes:
Dragapult – Now built as a fast special attacker with support moves. Since the most common Ice and Fairy types are special attackers, I chose Light Screen to boost the team’s overall survivability. Will-O-Wisp lets Dragapult cut physical attackers’ damage output, and Helping Hand gives Dragonite the ability to OHKO non-HP-invested Mega Floette with a single Iron Head. I also ran Shadow Ball as a STAB move that can lower the foe’s SpDef.
Dragonite – Now a fast physical attacker with Inner Focus to prevent Attack drops from Intimidate and immunity to Fake Out. Since Dragon-type Pokémon don’t have access to meta moves like Fake Out or Trick Room, my strategy to deal with that was to lead Dragonite paired with Dragapult. This solved Fake Out, and since both surpass Aerodactyl’s 200 Speed, I could KO it before Tailwind goes up. The only issue is that Choice Scarf locks Dragonite into one move, which can sometimes be problematic since we don’t have many pivot options when the team shares common weaknesses.
Garchomp – When I finally got it, I had to put it on the team hahaha. Garchomp is amazing, and I used a pretty standard set with White Herb to prevent stat drops. It could be paired with Dragonite to have access to Tailwind + fast Earthquake hitting both opponents, or to take advantage of teams without Fake Out.
Altaria-Mega – As a Dragon monotype player, it’s kinda hard to get the most out of the available Mega Evolutions. I chose a special Mega Altaria with Hyper Voice as the main STAB, Hyper Beam as a nuke, and Rain Dance as another Archaludon enabler.
When it comes to EV spreads:
Sitting at 201 Speed, Dragapult can outspeed Aerodactyl. Dragonite has 22+ Speed EVs to reach 201 Speed with Scarf, making it faster than Aerodactyl. It also has full Atk investment to maximize damage output. The 9 HP EVs bring it to 175 HP, reducing Sandstorm damage.
This team had a lot more success on the ladder, but it still struggled against some meta Pokémon like Kingambit. I tried to climb in Master Ball, but it was pretty hard to get consistent wins against top teams. So I made another team that I’ll show later this week. I believe this last team, although it isn’t a full monotype (I’m currently using only four Dragons), solves the main problems I faced during the meta’s development. And that’s pretty much it! Feel free to discuss and use it to have fun!!