VGC 2016 Team Building Guide

[ResonatingOctave]

Hello everyone. Today I am currently writing a team building guide for the VGC 2016 format. For this guide, instead of writing out boring pokemon that you have to check for and tips for building a team, I figured it would be more interesting if I walked you guys through what I did for building my old tournament team. So without further ado, here's the guide.

Disclaimer: This is the VGC 2016 tier, and the team was meant to be a tournament team. I do not want any comments that talk about the use of legendaries or the core of the team, since they are unproductive and only stir up issues between people. Thank you.

Deciding the Core:
So for me, the first part of building my teams is deciding what core of pokemon I would like to use. Since this team was meant to be used in tournaments and such, I decided that I wanted to start with a poke that has been tearing up the VGC tier, which is Xerneas.




Xerneas @ Power Herb  
Ability: Fairy Aura  
Level: 50  
- Geomancy  
- Dazzling Gleam  
- Moonblast  
- Protect

Xerneas is a popular pokemon because of its ability to geomancy which will increase its Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed by two stages after being charged a turn. The catch to this is with the power herb, it allows the move to be used right away in one turn, so in one turn it gets +2 in all three of those stats, which allows it to hit hard and fast.

After figuring out my first restricted pokemon I like to find another one that allows me to compliment it. In Xerneas’ case it's usually commonplace to pair it with a Groudon due to it’s immense attack stats (base 180 Attack, and base 150 Special Attack) and its ability to hit multiple targets with a stab move as great as Precipice Blades. To me, I opted to not run the Groudon along with Xerneas due to its popularity and instead I opted for Kyogre to counter it.




Kyogre @ Blue Orb  
Ability: Drizzle  
Level: 50  
- Origin Pulse  
- Thunder  
- Ice Beam  
- Protect

With my Kyogre set I made a couple tweaks compared to the commonplace set, but nothing too out of the ordinary. The difference between this Kyogre and the more common ones is that instead of running Scald I ran Thunder, and instead of running Water Spout I ran Origin Pulse. The reason for these changes was because Thunder allowed me better matchups against other Kyogres and with the rain it would always land, and for Origin Pulse it was for the more consistent damage even if it wasn’t always guaranteed to hit.

Deciding on the Mega:
After deciding on my core of restricted pokemon, I find a mega pokemon that compliments the team. In the first iteration of the team, I decided that I was going to run Mega Salamence to allow me to have a good answer to Amoonguss which was a popular answer to Kyogre, as well as Ferrothorn and Aegislash, as both are popular answers to Kyogre and Xerneas respectively.




Salamence @ Salamencite  
Ability: Intimidate  
Level: 50
- Hyper Voice  
- Double-Edge  
- Protect  
- Flamethrower

The Salamence set is rather standard, with the exception of Flamethrower. Usually the last slot is Draco Meteor which allows it to hit pokemon that resist flying and allows it to have an answer to Mega Rayquaza since Mega Salamence Outspeeds, but I opted for flamethrower because it allowed me to check Ferrothorn and other popular steel type pokemon that checked my Xerneas.

After extensive testing I found that the Salamence was rather lackluster, and while it did check threats against my opponent’s, it wasn’t giving me the big results I wanted. With this in mind, I took Salamence off the team and looked towards other pokes to provide a better core. Now that I was open to another mega, I decided to play around with the idea of Kangaskhan because of its ability to fake out so Xerneas could get a free Geomancy.




Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite  
Ability: Scrappy  
Level: 50
- Fake Out  
- Double-Edge  
- Low Kick  
- Sucker Punch

Overall, this Mega Kangaskhan set is pretty standard. I opted for Low Kick instead of Power up Punch for maximum damage against Ferrothorn and the ability to answer other Mega Kangaskhans. Double-Edge was used for powerful stab, and Sucker Punch was there for priority in certain matchups.

Filling the team:
After my core and my mega is found, all that is left is to fill the team with other pokes. After looking into past tournament results, there was one set that caught my eye that I really wanted to try out on this team, which was based around thundurus.




Thundurus @ Life Orb  
Ability: Prankster  
Level: 50  
- Wild Charge  
- Superpower  
- Thunder Wave  
- Taunt

More commonly, Thundurus is used as a support pokemon with Taunt and Thunder Wave, which this set has, but then afterwards its main use is as a special attacker. This set stood out to me because with the right EV spread (you guys can do calcs if you want them), then Thundurus could OHKO Primal Kyogre with Wild Charge, and Superpower allowed for good coverage against multiple pokes in the league. The original set opted for Protect instead of Taunt, but I opted for Taunt to allow me answers to pokes like Smeargle, and other popular prankster or support pokemon.

After adding Thundurus to my team, I looked over my team and found that I had a terrible matchup against other Xerneas. To allow me better matchups against Xerneas, I looked for a strong steel type pokemon that would allow me to do tons of damage against Xerneas. In the end, after running multiple calcs and digging for the right fit, I went with Aegislash.




Aegislash @ Iron Ball  
Ability: Stance Change  
Level: 50  
- Gyro Ball  
- Shadow Claw  
- Wide Guard  
- King's Shield

Aegislash was an important part of the team for multiple reasons. For starters, with the right EV spread (again, you can calc) it would OHKO Xerneas with Gyro Ball, and in other scenarios it would hit other Fairies hard with Gyro Ball. Aside from this, it also had a great matchup against Gengar due to its bulky Defenses which would allow me to have an answer to it. Then with it’s King’s Shield move, it allowed me scenarios where I could play around predictions where people would double into a slot since they figured I would King’s Shield, and in other scenarios I could allow other pokes to lose attack. Above all else, Aegislash had the ability to use Wide Guard, which is a huge move since it counters Xerneas’ Dazzling Gleam, Kyogre’s Origin Pulse and Water spout, Groudon’s Precipice Blades, as well as any other AoE moves.
The final slot was a tough decision, since I knew I wanted a bulky threat, but there were multiple pokes that I could use for that role. At first, I opted for Lapras due to its bulky build and its move Freeze Dry.




Lapras @ Assault Vest  
Ability: Water Absorb  
Level: 50
- Freeze-Dry  
- Hydro Pump  
- Ice Shard  
- Icy Wind

Lapras, in theory, was a good pokemon for the team. This was due to its Freeze-Dry and Water Absorb which gave it an amazing matchup against most Kyogres, since they opted for Scald instead of Thunder, and even if they ran Thunder, Lapras’ Special Defense and HP allowed it to take the hit. Another pro was that it had the ability to use Icy Wind which allowed for speed control against the opponent. After testing, I found that the Lapras was a little lackluster though, and it didn’t give my team enough of an edge to really do well.

After Dropping Lapras from the team, I decided that I would play around with the potential of redirection along with bulk. This led me to one of the best redirection pokemon in the format, which is Amoonguss.




Amoonguss @ Focus Sash  
Ability: Effect Spore  
Level: 50  
- Spore  
- Grass Knot  
- Rage Powder  
- Protect

Amoonguss was a very bulky pokemon that had one of the best moves of the format in the form of Spore. Spore was huge because it allowed me to put potential threats to the team asleep, and then deal with them while they are unable to answer back. Grass Knot also hit Kyogre hard, and the potential for redirection with Rage Powder allowed my Offensive pokes to have the ability to hit the opponent for free.

Conclusion:
Thank you for reading my Team Building Guide. I know that the guide was rather long, but I wanted to provide as much info as possible. I hope that this gives everyone a better idea of how to go about building their teams not only for VGC 2016, but for any tier, and I hope you guys enjoyed it. If you have any questions for me, please feel free to ask me any time.

[Flint]

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