Project RarelyUsed Teambuilding Competition: week 12: Bellibolt (submissions open until May 31st)

[FlamingoPokeman]

Given I strong armed my way into getting Bellibolt into the teambuilding competition, it's only fair I submit a team for the fans:


This submission is a slight modification of a team I used in RUPL in week three, which is a ParaSpam team that tries to get Gengar behind a substitute and win by spamming boosted Hex's. I'll explain some of the sets below:

Bellibolt - Bellibolt uses a standard Rocky Helmet Static set to punish U-Turns and physical attackers. I EV'd to outspeed Hippo to allow me to Muddy Water / Toxic it if needed, and I also run Volt Switch for slow pivots.
Cyclizar - We know what this does, though I run a Dragon Tail set here to phaze setup mons like Slowbro.
Gengar - Encore and Substitute, when coupled with ParaSpam, is insanely good for a mon so naturally strong and fast.
Infernape - This slot was always my most indecisive, but the monke is generally good and can break a lot of teams through its strong STAB's or Switcheroo shenanigans.
Jirachi - Another RU staple, Jirachi serves a support role here, EV'd to outspeed Mimikyu with Tera Normal for if I need it into HO. Standard Rocks / Twave - could maybe opt for Wish over U-Turn but 4mss is real.
Slowbro - Anotherrrr RU staple, Slowbro is another support mon here. I tested CM sets over Thunder Wave but felt like it wasn't nearly as valuable, though it might be different now in a meta without Thundurus-Therian, Iron Leaves and Enamorus-Therian.

 

[Heatranator]

Bellibolt HO team


So, I decided to something a little bit differently then everybody else is going to do (maybe because some people in the RU discord were eyeing up this idea lmao) and make a Bellibolt HO team. Bellibolt is a mon that can output a suprising amount of damage if left alone, so this team capitalises on that.

The subject of this week, bellibolt on this team has quite a unique set. I found out in testing that 252+ special attack evs is needed to deal good damage as otherwise you don't hit hard enough. Shuca berry is vital as otherwise stray e-quakes decimate it to oblivion and means that ground types which are a nuisance can't do as much. Tera water helps with the rain matchup and can let it take a e-quake if shuca is consumed. Parabolic charge allows bellibolt to do great damage and heal itself up, slack off means bellibolt can stall out opponents that try to wittle it down with passive damage, acid spray can make the opponent switch out if they have high special bulk and soak allows belli to hit ground types for big damage by changing them into a water type.

Horoark is quickly becoming one of my favourite mons in the tier as an anti cheese option. Simply put, any final gambit or cloyster shell smash team get decimated by horoark. Scarf horo outspeeds most of the meta and can deal good damage with its stab moves. Flamethrower deals with steel types and trick while it may not be used a lot, can cripple a wall. Tera normal means hyper voice deals great damage to anything in the tier.

Our suicide lead of choice, ferrothorn is able to get hazards up reliably and keep them off. Stealth rocks and spikes are the hazards, while rapid spin keeps them off. Explosion combined with custap berry can pick up a suprise ko while making sure the opponent can't use defog or stone axe against forre.

A HO team wouldn't really be a HO team without yanmega. This is a simple set, with throat spray and bug buzz to boost your special attack while attacking. Air slash as stab and tera blast ground to beat ground types. Protect is in the final moveslot protect to guarentee a speed boost. Bread and butter set.

My anti ho tech for the mirrors, bisharp can be a really deadly late game cleaner. The set is standard for bisharp, so I don't think I need to explain it much. The main tech is tera water, which helps deal with rain teams quite well and means that fire types can be walled by it instead of being good against it. SD allows bisharp to boost itself, throat chop and iron head are good stabs and sucker punch can revenge kill a lot of faster threats.

Our other lategame cleaner, revavroom is a dangerous mon that is also common on HO teams. The set for this is standard, with shift gear to boost itself, iron head and gunk shot as stabs and high horsepower+tera ground to hit steel types. Lum berry means rouge status doesn't stop a sweep.

 

[Elec-ant1234]

I saw this team in my dreams. Bellibolt has infiltrated the deepest recesses of my psyche.

- - - - -

The Squad





The man, the myth, the legend, the wanted criminal in all 50 US States, wielding a standard Electromorphosis set w/ chilling water to have a greater matchup into physical attackers and be able to wall easier. Toxic helps wear down anything that resists Parabolic Charge, and helps Cobalion's role as a wincon, wearing down the things that would resist Body Press.


The deep cut of the team, on here for the amount of role compression Gligar offers, being a ground immune, an electric immune (although that's less relevent due to the only good electric type in Thundy-T being mildly banned), offering hazard control, and knock off support, along with u-turn. Gligar is really bulky, and can take a lot of hard hits, but due to being an eviolite gamer, cannot heal off the damage it often switches into, which is where the next Pokemon comes in. The hazard support offered in Toxic Spikes is also beneficial to Cobalion, again helping with the IDBP endgame, wearing down creatures such as Chestnaught, Slowbro (assuming no HDB), Basc-F, most of the CM Psychics minus Fez and Reun, and anything that doesn't wear Boots.

Off topic for a second, but Fezendipiti I've noticed beats a lot of counterplay that broadly applies to most CM sweepers, as mentioned in my Deoxy-D post a while back, and now it seems to be able to beat Toxic / T-Spikes (obviously). Is he up next out of Atlanta...? Is CM Fez the future of gaming!? More at 6.


Here for wish support, which helps the bulky core of Bellibolt + Gligar, and helps Cobalion not perish from repeated switchs in due to Cobalion runnin' Rocky Helmet as opposed to Lefties.


The primary wincon of the team, with Rocky Helmet to assist in the HO matchup. Uses the standard set, no SD CC or whatever is it going on here, so just run it as you usually do.


You already know. Dragon Tail helps you not instantly lose to anything that has a calm mind.


The dedicated speed control of the team, with standard set. Trick helps against bulkier Stall teams that this team can struggle against, and helps in the matchup vs. setup sweepers that are slower than it, since you can trick on a scarf the turn they click their boosting move, locking them into it as long as they get the scarf before the move goes through. Healing Wish helps generally to keep up pressure and heal status conditions, which allows you to play Cobalion more aggressively, even with Moltres existing.



Replay Zone;
A longer game, but I survived (why did they forfeit just click shell smash + bullet seed it's not that hard)

Vs. a fellow belligoat enjoyer
(252+ SpA Adaptability Tera Water Basculegion-F Surf vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Bellibolt: 236-279 (55.9 - 66.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO)
I love my weird frog creature and his insanely stacked stats

 

[fluff!!]

Bellibolt/Meloetta VoltTurn BO

(click sprites for paste!)


The first thing that comes to my mind with Bellibolt is VoltTurn. A slow pivot will always be decent in any game no matter what and allows anything a free entry on the field, which broadens the array of mons you can choose from and have fun teambuilding with. Unsurprisingly, I pair it up with Crawdaunt, which I will talk about later. The ability to spread paralysis on contact attackers like Galarian Zapdos and Cobalion variants is great when building a team with limited speed control options too. Tera Water is mandatory for the Rain matchup.


This one is for you, Elec-ant. Our 2nd VoltTurn mon, Meloetta enjoys Bellibolt paralyzing faster threats. It's basically Gardevoir but with U-turn, which is the one niche it has over her. I tinkered with Tera Blast + random Tera types but you're basically never Tera'ing Meloetta anyway so I didn't go with that. Trick is always a good move but I have 2 Knocks on this team so if you want to play it, feel free to have whatever you want in that 4th slot.


Cyclizar


Krookodile is a top 3 mon currently in my opinion, the Enamorus ban allows it to finally forgo Gunk Shot for good and run Taunt instead, while easing the Dark/Ground Spam. Sets Rocks, emergency checks DD Salamence and others with Intimidate, Knocks, it does it all.


Hariyama is back from early RU with a classic set of his. I believe Hariyama is a pretty decent mon right now, with a few elements setting it apart from Conkeldurr in trading a bit of physical bulk for better special bulk and having priority Bullet Punch over Mach Punch, which is great against the Tera Ghost sweeper spam from our beloved hated ladder. You may have noticed that the team has 4 Fairy weaknesses, but Gardevoir is really the only Fairy in the tier and Tera Steel turns her into setup fodder / a free KO with Bullet Punch. It's crazy how fast and unexpectedly Hariyama turns into an unstoppable force.


My favorite mon in the tier. Aqua Jet hits quite hard and bails you out of many situations, while helping in the speed control department. Crunch is chosen over Knock Off because of Cyclizar and Krook already carrying the move, which allows you to run a STAB with a consistent 80 BP over 65 and is usually the difference maker when trying to break that pesky Slowbro, especially if you Tera Dark.

calcs

252+ Atk Choice Band Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 300-356 (76.1 - 90.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Adaptability Crawdaunt Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 368-436 (93.4 - 110.6%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tera Poison Slowbro: 150-178 (38 - 45.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Adaptability Crawdaunt Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tera Poison Slowbro: 184-218 (46.7 - 55.3%) -- 71.1% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Adaptability Tera Dark Crawdaunt Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tera Poison Slowbro: 207-245 (52.5 - 62.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

the sus matchups:
With an Intimidate mon and no Fighting type faster than it, it can easily go out of hand if you play passively against it. Luckily, some combination of Crawdaunt, Hariyama and Bellibolt can usually get you through. Just don't press Close Combat if it hasn't Tera'd yet.

4 Fairy weaknesses, only 1 psychic immunity who is weak to Fairy, no Fairy resistance. It doesn't take a world champion to understand that it can be tough. However, as I stated before, Tera Steel Hariyama can just take the advantage to make it a quick 6-0 sometimes. Meloetta can also tank 2 hits.

It's not necessarily a weakness of the team, but I'll use this occasion to tell you to watch out for the new shenanigans Cobalion is up to with its CM + Tera Blast sets that are starting to pop out left and right. That's it. :]

CM + Tera Fairy is veeeeeeeeeeeery scary. Do your best :]

try to bait it with one of your Tera Fairies and hit it very hard so Crawdaunt/Hariyama can revenge kill, or Tera Steel on Hariyama to tank something and hit it back hard. Dragon Dance sets are easier to handle, but Specs just takes a kill every time it comes in.

replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2133627368 Against Bisharp and Gardevoir, just a liiiiittle bit of luck and you can win even against a combination of bad matchups.
??? More to come? (don't count on it too much, I have played enough ladder for today... I want to play Party Project with the boys anyway and I'm working tomorrow and

 

[Sir Tetris]

After mulling over possible Bellibolt HOs for a while and giving up out of despair for Bellibolt not getting any worthwhile set-up moves (HOW does it not get stockpile??), I decided to against my nature and build an honest Balance team for once. I present to you:

Bellibolt+Okidogi StatusSpam Balance



As much as I love Electromorphosis Belli and its ability to deal unreasonable amounts of damage for a tank and sometimes even solo rain teams, I had to pick the standard status spam static set (hey, alliteration!) for this one. Rocky Helmet + Static is great for punishing the abundant physical attackers in the tier - particularly those who are greedy enough to click u-turn immediately upon spotting Wo-Chien. Slow Volt Switch + Muddy Water allows it to safely bring in the offensive threats of the team like Okidogi while also being able to chip down those pesky grounds that try to prevent the pivot. Tera flying also enables Belli to stomach scary banded CCs from the likes of Zapdos-Galar and Mienshao and hopefully killing it in return. Belli acts as the centre of the team, absorbing hits like a fat sponge and spreading status to make the job easier for the rest of the squad.


Bellibolt + Mr. Live Slug Reaction himself make a solid defensive core by covering each other's weaknesses; Wo-Chien slugs shrugs off Bellibolt assassination attempts such as EQs and strong special attacks, while Belli acts as a punisher and strong deterrent against strong physical attackers. It is great and slowly making progress with Knock Off and Leech Seed, while foul play allows it to banish set-up sweepers such as The Car and Blastoise. Its greatest weakness - its typing - is completely solved with Tera Poison, turning Wo-Chien from a mildly annoying seeder to an impossible-to-kill monster.


It's Cyclizar. Dragon Tail is great for phazing out bulky set-up sweepers.


Rhyperior is the resident rocker of the team, and provides defensive insurance whenever Belli or Wo-Chien aren't up to the task. Its bulk allows it to tank even physical super-effective attacks and strike back with a strong Earthquake, while the ground type enables it to act as the volt switch blocker of the team. Swords Dance enables it to function as a strong and threatening late-game wincon, especially with the help of Tera. I chose Rock Blast as its second STAB instead of Stone Miss as it's more reliable and also allows it to deal damage and possibly OHKO Mimikyus without getting red carded. Finally, it is speedcrept to be faster than uninvested base 50s such as Muk-Alola and Vileplume, but more importantly it becomes faster than Bellibolts that try to sneak up on you with unreasonable investments in speed (I'm looking at you FP).


Okidogi is my wallbreaker of choice. It can make great progress with strong Knock Offs while also being able to spread delicious status with its ability and Poison Jab. Its middling speed tier lets it take advantage of the Paralysis spread by Bellibolt and take massive chunks out of the opposing team by coming in after a Volt Switch. Considering that my game plan involves staying alive and spreading status as long as possible before cleaning up, I opted for Drain Punch over CC for longevity. Finally, Psychic Fangs gives it an instant kill button against opposing Okidogis and enables it to deal good damage to annoying Tera Poison set-up sweepers.


I chose Noivern in the last slot after a lot of deliberation over Scarfers and other speed control options for a few reasons. The defensive utility offered by its typing, particularly the ground and fighting resist, is much appreciated. Roost assists in longevity and allows it to perform better in its role as the primary pivot in order to not let Cyclizar get chipped too much, which used to be a big problem for the team. Air Slash is a very spammable STAB, being more reliable than Hurricane (you can probably tell by now that I don't like low acc moves) and able to take good advantage of the status spread by the other members of the team (paraflinch go brr). Lastly, Flamethrower acts as much needed coverage for steel types such as Jirachi.


Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2133618056 vs FP's Team
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2133630997 (IK it's the same guy, look I'm out here in the ladder thirsting for games like a nomad in the desert thirsts for water let me have this)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2133916679 vs Elecant
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2133917357-ltpoldjtq9x9f1bvf8we1fcn2awsn4wpw vs FP

 

[MachJacob]

Hex Basculegion Para Spam


An idea I've had in the back of my head for a while was a Hex Basculegion + several Pokemon able to inflict paralysis, taking advantage of the powerful move boosted by Basculegion's Adabtability. The team itself has gone through many iterations, and probably needs more work but I'm out of time.


The star of the show, Basculegion uses the same moveset as her scarf set, swapping Shadow Ball for Hex. A Modest nature is used to maximise damage and because she will already outspeed all paralysed opponents, and allows Ice Beam to 2HKO AV Cyclizar (after rocks).


Mr Belli himself, his role is as a simple defensive wall with Static. Soak allows Belli to apply its statuses to anything, remove STABs anre allow super effective Volt Switches.


The stunning snail is our second para spammer, adding Knock Off and Leech Seed support, as well as notably a Dark resist.


The third and final para spammer is none other than the face of ParaFlinch itself, Jirachi. Providing Stealth Rock, Wish support, valuable resistances and everyone's favourite 60% dice rolls, Jirachi is a core part of the team capable of anything with enough luck.


Salamence takes the team as the third member, proving a ground immunity and a mixed breaker to take advantage of scenarios that Basculegion doesn't thrive in.


The team is lacking one crucial thing: hazard control. The team is kinda passive so far, and the RU bike won't deal the damage we want it to, so we need a remover with a bit more offense. Enter Conkeldurr, who kept Defog after the move was purged from most Pokemons' movesets. With enough speed to beat paralysed base 100s, and the huge attack allowing Drain Punch to keep it healthy, Conk is one of our sturdiest hazard removers, and is a set that many people don't expect.

 

[FlamingoPokeman]

Edit: submissions are closed, it's now time for us to vote which of the good boys is the best:

ParaSpam HexGar by FlamingoPokeman
Bellibolt HO by Heatranator
TSpikeStack Balance by Elec-ant1234
VoltTurn BO by fluff!!
StatusSpam Balance by Sir Tetris
ParaSpam HexBascu by MachJacob
CB Lycan-D SpikeStack by Forest Guardian
Specs Vern Balance by THE_CHUNGLER

First and foremost, appreciate the turnout this week, we love Bellibolt. My vote would go towards everyone if it could but I'm leaning towards Elec-ant given their double Steel plus TSpikeStack seems like a really cool core.

 

[Heatranator]

Fluff!! For once agan making a really weird team, I am going to make a lower tier team for this competition at some point to emulate them

 

[lars]

I thought I was on to something...
...only to find that MJ was on to the same thing. Wo-Chien, rachi, belli, conk core is legit. I had been playing around with combos of Gyarados, Menace, Moltres, Gastrodon, and air balloon Rev in the other slots. Lots of decent iterations, but nothing felt just right to me. Was also playing around with AV (and even specs) Belli. I think it might have potential? I should have nailed it down earlier.

In any case,
Mach Jacob

 

[TsuShirogane]

Voting for JachMacob VOTING FOR THE_CHUNGLER

 

[Forest Guardian]

OK apparently FlamingoPokeman has given me the ability to submit my team whether it is in the voting stage or not.

https://pokepast.es/53d06a8c31ea09ff



This team focuses on Lycanroc Dusk's immense breaking potential thanks to choice band and tough claws. With Gastrodon + Cobalion as the spikestacking core which further enhances Lycanroc's breaking ability. Stone Edge and Accelerock are STAB moves and the latter is boosted by Tough Claws. Close Combat crushes Cobalion as well as dealing good damage to hippowdon. While Psychic Fangs lashes out on Okidogi. Crunch can be used in the last slot to ruin psychics like slowbro and reuniclus as well as palossand.
Bellibolt provides great team support thanks to it being a slow pivot as well as a Mon that can paralyze faster mons which, alongside accelerock makes speed control a lot less necessary. It creeps pokemons trying to creep pokemon that creep hippowdon.
Scarf Gengar provides excellent speed control to the team. But remember the last where I said speed control isn't necessary. That is why Gengar is a lot more free to simply trick it's scarf to ruin opposing cyclizars and friends.
Gastro provides more support to lycanroc by bringing spikes to the table. Spikes soften the opposition for easier breaking from lycanroc. Its also the water immunity and volcanion answer on the team.
Woo amazing Mon. Its also naturally fast outspeeding the likes of Mienshao. A special set allows for easier chip on Palo and hippo which makes lycanrocs job easier. Thunder Wave is great team support but volt switch is great to threaten moltres harder. Rocks r rocks.
it does moltres stuff.

 

[THE_CHUNGLER]

Given I strong armed my way into getting Bellibolt into the teambuilding competition, it's only fair I submit a team for the fans:


This submission is a slight modification of a team I used in RUPL in week three, which is a ParaSpam team that tries to get Gengar behind a substitute and win by spamming boosted Hex's. I'll explain some of the sets below:

Bellibolt - Bellibolt uses a standard Rocky Helmet Static set to punish U-Turns and physical attackers. I EV'd to outspeed Hippo to allow me to Muddy Water / Toxic it if needed, and I also run Volt Switch for slow pivots.
Cyclizar - We know what this does, though I run a Dragon Tail set here to phaze setup mons like Slowbro.
Gengar - Encore and Substitute, when coupled with ParaSpam, is insanely good for a mon so naturally strong and fast.
Infernape - This slot was always my most indecisive, but the monke is generally good and can break a lot of teams through its strong STAB's or Switcheroo shenanigans.
Jirachi - Another RU staple, Jirachi serves a support role here, EV'd to outspeed Mimikyu with Tera Normal for if I need it into HO. Standard Rocks / Twave - could maybe opt for Wish over U-Turn but 4mss is real.
Slowbro - Anotherrrr RU staple, Slowbro is another support mon here. I tested CM sets over Thunder Wave but felt like it wasn't nearly as valuable, though it might be different now in a meta without Thundurus-Therian, Iron Leaves and Enamorus-Therian.

THE SWAMP

https://pokepast.es/a4b1a70edb688eca

Better descriptions to come but I had toget this in before belliweek is over. Basic premise is Belli can volt to loom to start doing damage, and loom baits in fezandipiti/dogi/poisons that Belli wants weakened by smacking them with facade. Belli facilitates offensive teams so well with volt it’s easy to get in Vern and Loom

 

[Forest Guardian]

Voting for MachJacob