Proof of Hitting Master Ball

I started getting into VGC with the release of Sword and Shield, but I haven't played much Pokemon in recent months due to burnout. However, I decided to give Series 10 a shot since I never played a prior VGC format without Dynamax and with a Restricted mon, so I thought it would be a nice change in pace. Unfortunately, I had to begin at Beginner 1 since I haven't played for so long, but I never really cared about ranking up honestly.

My initial team was literally the top 6 Pokemon in a Hyper offense team, but after a couple of losses and three wins, I realized it wasn't my style. It was then I noticed I could easily build a janky stall team to have some fun on ladder without caring about my rank, and it could potentially work better in a format without Dynamax all over the place. Using Pikalytics and a desire to produce an unkillable tank, I built this team.

The Team with Rental Code

Team with EV Spreads

It is a pretty standard Chansey stall team with little innovation (really, I just looked up the common moves and partners on Pikalytics, picked the best moves for the job, and made a couple of changes). Without Dynamax, most teams theoretically have very few (if any) perfect accuracy moves that can guarantee hit Chansey once she uses Minimize, and I saw very few stat boosting moves being used to make threats hit hard enough to dent her if she does get hit. Couple that with the surprise factor of using an off-meta team and some good prediction skills, and the climb was surprisingly carefree. Once I started winning consistently, I decided to see how far I could get without changing the initial team, and by the grace of Arceus, I achieved Master Ball with a 20-3 record, a sadistic smile on my face, and many gleeful maniacal laughs. With all of this in mind, I wanted to highlight what I think about the team, how it all played out, and potential improvements I want to try to attempt to optimize the strategy for the current meta.

Pokemon and Their Roles

• Chansey

Does this look like the face of mercy?

While you rarely open with Chansey, it is the central pillar of the whole team. The ideal end game is to have a Chansey with maxed out Evasion using Minimize, sky high defenses thanks to Shuckle, and then suplexing any leftover enemy Pokemon with Seismic Toss. Everything before that is meant to achieve this goal or to remove any threats that can stop it pre-emptively (i.e. Physical Attackers and Ghost types). Also, if you can successfully remove the Physical threats, Chansey can still tank Special hits without Shuckle back-up. Most of my games ended with an unkillable Chansey and a concession, and more than a few of them were due to my opponent losing on timer. I even had to almost 1v4 a couple of people with Chansey, and I eventually came out on top.

If achieving the endgame is difficult, Chansey can also be a fantastic support Pokemon due to my one obnoxious tool: Ally Switch. With Minimize and some predictions, an unsuspecting opponent can fall for the Ally Switch, and with a bit of evasion luck, you essentially use both Protect and Follow Me in the same turn. It also works nicely with the likes of Mimikyu and Eternatus since they pair up better against Fighting moves, and Chansey can generally take the hits aimed at them even better. Couple that with the psychological factor, and your opponent may quit out of frustration. There are times when the opponent suspects a switch and aims a Ghost move at my Chansey and a Fighting move at the other Pokemon, wasting their whole turn.

• Mimikyu

When you really, really want to get Trick Room up (which we do to make Shuckle usable and for Speed control). Having the Disguise, Mental Herb, and Indeedee-F (redirection and Psychic Terrain) means Trick Room is almost guaranteed to go up. Once it is up, Mimikyu can either Burn potential physical threats or start dishing out strong hits itself. I originally had Shadow Sneak on the team before remembering my own Terrain existed, and I wanted to ensure Calyrex-Shadow went down after Trick Room was up.

There are a number of teams that struggle once a Trick Room is in place, so there are times when we are on the aggressive plan and still want to set-up Trick Room. If your opponent is also on the Trick Room plan, I tend to not use Mimikyu and replace it with one of the spare mons.

• Indeedee-F

Psychic Terrain is a must with all the priority moves in the format right now. Fake Out can hurt us by stopping key set-up turns, but stopping Prankster Taunt users is the biggest boon since Taunt essentially ruins our entire late game plan. The redirection also helps absorb an extra hit from Chansey when trying to get one or two Minimize in before endgame and to ensure Trick Room goes up.

However, even without any offensive investment, it should be of no surprise that you should not underestimate the power of Expanding Force. There were multiple games where I set up Trick Room with Mimikyu and just started sweeping with both of my leads without needing any of my Pokemon in the back. I would like to switch out her item with something else (potentially the Focus Sash currently on Urshifu), but I am still undecided.

• Shuckle

Pretty easy to understand this one if you know the team. Shuckle's sole job is to simply give Chansey (1) an actual defense stat to tank hits better and (2) to boost her Special Defense to comfortably handle multiple hits from the likes of Kyogre and Xerneas before healing. You can potentially Guard Split to other threats on your team (primarily Eternatus and possibly Urshifu), but Chansey gets the most mileage out of it due to Eviolite. If Shuckle actually survives after using Guard Swap, you can either Power Split to nerf an attacker or Struggle Bug to drop SpAtk. I almost wanted to put Rock Slide on instead of Struggle Bug to maximize the potential frustration on my opponents, but I decided against it for consistency.

Custap Berry is to ensure you move first if Shuckle survives a hit due to Sturdy. Truthfully, I have only had it trigger once (and it was in my very last game against a Kyogre), but it is a nice alternative if Trick Room is a poor or nonexistent option. Since Mental Herb is already on Mimikyu, I am not sure if there is any other item that would work well on Shuckle.

Unfortunately, Shuckle is obviously a terrible Pokemon outside of this one role, so I only brought him in about 50% of the time when I knew I could set-up easily. If Trick Room matches up poorly against the enemy team or you suspect a Water type Urshifu, Shuckle should probably be benched with one of the other threats. Also, if I understand the interaction correctly, redirection can attract the Guard Split to accidentally buff up your opponent’s Pokemon and not Chansey, so be wary if you see a common Follow Me or Rage Powder user.

• Eternatus

I like to call this one the back-up Chansey. Cosmic Power Recover is super nice combination, and Pressure means low PP moves are worn down quickly. Eternatus does have a few common weaknesses that hold it back (Landorous, Psychics, Kyogre Ice Beam, etc.), but it can actually hurt Pokemon with the two STAB moves. As mentioned above, Eternatus does resist Fighting moves, so it is a fantastic partner with Chansey as a switch-in or a Ally Switch target. There may be a better restricted mon to replace Eternatus, but he serves a nice niche for the team.

Also, this is one of the few teams where you are not required to bring in your restricted Pokemon. If a match-up looks rough for Eternatus, you can always not bring it in and go with any of the other five Pokemon.

• Urshifu-Dark

Oddly enough, I feel Urshifu is the worst member of the team, although that is possibly because I may have it built sub-optimally (I had it pre-built as a physical sweeper for other teams without changing it up for this one). It works fantastically as an honorary Ghost-buster, but I saw very few of them during my climb. Calyrex is easily eliminated with Trick Room plus Mimikyu's Shadow Claw, and the only other one I saw was Dusclops (which was still pretty rare). I feel like he can be replaced with a Pokemon that works better in Trick Room, possibly one that fills a similar offensive role.

One potential change I want to try is Assault Vest and a fourth move, likely Drain Punch. If I understand the interaction correctly, Guard Splitting Shuckle’s SpDef with Urshifu would be boosted even further by the Assault Vest, and then Drain Punch can keep you alive while dealing with the opposing team.

Potential Innovations to Test

Now that I hit Master Ball and my rank doesn't really matter, I want to try innovating a bit with the team. The first four Pokemon are pretty core to this strategy, and I am happy with their move pools and item choices (for the most part). Here are the biggest problems that I would like to fix or at least have a better plan against:

• A better answer for Zacian - the premier physical restricted threat in the format, we really have no good answer for it besides praying Chansey gets set-up on time, and even then, I am not 100% confident. Eternatus does resist the common Zacian sets, but the current build can do literally nothing to the sword dog. One potential option to remedy this is to turn Eternatus into a more offensive Pokemon with Flamethrower (or changing one STAB move to Flamethrower), although something like Ho-oh could be a sweet answer.

• Once again, I want to test out a different threat in place of Urshifu to better answer our bigger threats. I'm thinking an Intimidate or another Will-o-Wisp Pokemon would be nice to better check physical Pokemon, and potentially something that works better under Trick Room. I would also want something that ideally resists or is immune to Fighting to synergize with Chansey, so I am reluctant to try the likes of Incineroar. My initial thoughts are Landorus-T, Entei, or even Jellicent, but I am open to suggestions.

• One of my losses was to a Rapid Strike Urshifu that one-shot three of my Pokemon with zero set-up. I never saw him outside of that one game, but he is a potential threat that should be addressed. Even Eternatus, who resists both STAB moves, cannot last very long against this terrifying bear.

  At this point, I am testing out Jellicent with Water Absorb, Strength Sap, Scald, Will-o-Wisp, and Protect with maximum physical bulk and Leftovers. Common Zacian and Urshifu-Rapid Strike sets get walled by it, and it can provide passive burn damage to speed up the match. My first test run with it went amazing, but it could just be beginner’s luck.

• I never came across it during my climb, but Amoongus is possibly one of the best answers to our endgame. Rage Powder can redirect the Guard Split, and Clear Smog will remove the Evasion boosts on Chansey. We likely want at least one more threat to take it down quickly.

• Finally, Knock Off can be a major problem since we are reliant on Eviolite to maximize bulk and other items to set-up. I did not come across it much during my climb, but it is something to keep in mind when team building and identifying threats.

Hope everyone got some additional insight into this janky off-meta team, and may anyone testing out the team on ladder have many rage quits. If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment and I will attempt to reply quickly.