Baby Zard - A Regulation M-B Team Report

The only thing stronger than Mega Charizard Y is... regular Charizard?

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Introduction

People who are even peripherally familiar with me will know that Torkoal is my favorite Pokemon, so let me be absolutely clear: this team was built with the singular focus of allowing me to bring Torkoal to as many games as possible, in order to work towards the unlockable “Torkoal Professor” title. Still, I didn't want a one-dimensional Hard Trick Room lineup, because you actually have to win the games to get title progress, and I think that you need at least a little bit of flexibility to do that reliably.

That said, the thing which I suspect most people will find interesting about this team is not the inclusion of Torkoal, but rather the way in which the rest of the team leverages the expectations set by the existing metagame to cause a lot of confusion on team preview. It's a type of camoflage that exists only on ladder, where team sheets do not exist.

Basically, the team is made of various good-stuff staples, but the items are all mixed up and the roles are swapped around; Basculegion’s Choice Scarf goes to Charizard, Charizard’s Mega Stone goes to Venusaur, and Venusaur’s Focus Sash goes to Basculegion. Meanwhile, Incineroar has a White Herb!

These relatively simple changes enable a fairly diverse set of play styles that I feel give me a good plan into most matchups, despite appearing so Sun-dependent on from the outside.

This team took me on a 14-0 win streak through Master Ball during the last weekend of the ranked season, so I'm reasonably happy with it overall. Here's the story. Or, if you'd preferm you can jump to the Paste and Replica Code.

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The Process

As I mentioned, my goal with building was to find a team that allowed me to bring Torkoal a lot and win with her, so I started with a team from one of the winningest guys out there: Wolfey Glick.

He put out a video about a Mega Pyroar team which seemed interesting; it had a compelling fast mode leveraging Mega Pyroar’s exceptional speed stat, as well as Vileplume’s convenient ability to be exactly 2 points faster than the fastest Pokemon in the game while Sun was active. But it still had a solid Trick Room backbone, which is a style that I do enjoy playing quite a lot, despite my jeering comment about it in the opening paragraph.

Both modes leveraged Torkoal's Sun-setting power and thus aligned with my stated goal, so these seemed like great options and a recipe for success!

Take 1 - Mega Pyroar

Ironically enough, almost everything about this Mega Pyroar team felt great except for the Mega Pyroar. Sure, it was extremely fast and was able to stack a lot of damage multipliers to really power though a lot of teams, but it resulted in a one-dimensional, all-in strategy that was so clearly telegraphed on Team Preview, that I ultimately felt like I was caught playing with one arm tied behind my back. I was often giving my opponent way more information about my plan that I was able to glean about theirs.

This team also had Mega-Floette, but I did not feel that the rest of the pieces of the team were coherent in helping support her, with no redirection or healing to speak of. So, at the end of the day, while the Trick Room core of Incineroar, Farigiraf, Torkoal and Vileplume felt were strong, the fast mode felt severely lacking.

To really illustrate this point, consider the matchups against other weather archetypes. Against Rain lineups, I basically had no recourse but to continually jockey for weather control, while trying to get the most out of Mega Floette. Vileplume, meanwhile, had to pull double-duty as the Focus Sash holder as well as being my only defensive switch-in against Water-type damage. If I matched against another Sun lineup, god help me, that was somehow even worse; all of this team’s hardest hitters were resisted by a rival Fire-type. And Sand? We don't even want to mention Sand.

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Take 2 - Rotom Wash

Having the team struggle against the two most popular archetypes of the format wasn’t great! Because my goal was still to bring Torkoal to a lot of games, I sought to keep the identity of the team as being Sun-oriented. Thus, I first tried replacing Floette. I decided exchanging the secondary Mega option for a a Life Orb-equipped Rotom-Wash, running Thunderbolt, Hydro Pump, Volt Switch and Will-o-Wisp.

The theory here was the combination of Electric-type and Water-type coverage gave me excellent options into opposing Water-types and Fire-types, such as Milotic and Ceruledge, who otherwise would wall the team fairly well. Levitate, meanwhile, gave me a defensive switch-in against Ground-type damage, which this team completely lacked a resistance to before, with Vileplume’s Poison-typing doing it no favors in that regard.

I think this could have worked fairly well if I was willing to put in the time to refine Rotom’s stat spread and moveset. But I still kept finding myself not wanting to bring Mega Pyroar to most games, as it still suffered from all of the shortcomings which I had mentioned earlier. This was still not how I wanted to be using my Mega slot, so it was back to the drawing board…

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Take 3 - Solar Power

Which finally brought me here! This is something of a re-invention of the team from first principles, focusing on what worked and how those aspects could best be improved to make a more robust, well-rounded package. Here's the breakdown.

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The Team Breakdown

Going back to Mega Pyroar, let us recount the positives: the ability to outpace most things with a high speed stat, and the ability to stack multipliers in service of doing tremendous Fire-type damage. The drawback, of course, was needing to commit the once-per-game Mega Evolution in exchange. Surprisingly, base-form "Baby" Charizard is able to achieve similar things with a much lower opportunity cost!

With Choice Scarf and maximum Speed investment, Charizard hits a blistering final Speed stat of 250, and with Solar Power active, it hits a final Special Attack Stat of 241 which is even 10 points higher than Modest Mega Charizard-Y! Charizard soars past almost everything else in the game, and people really do not expect this at all.

This element of surprise is a fantastic weapon. According to the in-game stats, only 0.1% of Charizards are holding this item, compared to over 93% of them holding a Mega Stone. Thus, when your opponent sees Charizard on team preview with no supporting Tailwind-setter, they will intuitively expect that any of their Pokemon which can outpace Charizard's unboosted base-100 Speed stat will be able to threaten it before it can move. They will also anticpate that is will be your Mega Evolution, and thus your most valuable piece, making them index incredibly hard on taking it down. They will send out leads like Choice Scarf Rotom and Mega Raichu, thinking that they can strike you first for super-effective damage.

They are wrong. Prey on their conditioning and seize the moment by inflicting a Helping-Hand-Solar-Power-Sun-Boosted Heat Wave upon them. Even if you don't get a double knockout, you will have undoubtedly done severe damage to their team. And if they do take you down you in exchange, well, that's fine. You have likely traded up, because you still have your Mega in the back, and she matches up very well against things which resist Fire-type damage. We'll get to her later.

Possible Alterations

This Charizard runs the Timid nature to assure that it is the fastest thing on the field, but it's possible that Modest nature would still let you be fast enough while getting a little bit more damage on the board. I ran a few calculations and didn't see anything that suddenly became an OHKO, so I left it at that, but feel free to experiment further.

Offensive Calcs To Know

• 32 SpA Solar Power Charizard Ancient Power vs. 2 HP / 0 SpD Mega Charizard Y in Sun: 164-196 (105.8 - 126.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
• 32 SpA Solar Power Charizard Helping Hand Heat Wave vs. 32 HP / 2 SpD Mega Staraptor in Sun: 195-229 (101.5 - 119.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
• 32 SpA Solar Power Charizard Weather Ball (100 BP Fire) vs. 32 HP / 0 SpD Mega Raichu Y in Sun: 205-243 (122.7 - 145.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO`
• 32 SpA Solar Power Charizard Weather Ball (100 BP Fire) vs. 32 HP / 0 SpD Mega Gengar in Sun: 177-208 (105.9 - 124.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO`

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Basculieve in Yourself. Basculegion is still the apex late-game closer. Sash used to be somewhat popular on this mon, but as of recent has fallen signifigantly behind in usage to more offensive items like Choice Scarf, Mystic Water and Life Orb. Basculegion feels like a much more effective Focus Sash holder than Vileplume was on the prior team composition, because you're not relying on him for early-game speed control (Chlorophyll, After You, Sleep Powder) or mid-game defensive properties (being a Grass-type switch-in). This makes it much easier to preserve the Focus Sash until the end-game, letting you reliably get two hits off against the final opponent, which is usually enough to get the KO.

Keep in mind that there's also the potential for anti-synergy if you set up the Sun before sending Basculegion out, as you'll weaken your own water moves. Adaptability helps offset this potential risk a bit, and you'll often find that you're a Last Respects-clicking machine anyway. Plus, Basculegion is at his most effective against the Rain and Sand lineups, where you probably don't want to be struggling to keep Sun up while trying to do Fire-type damage in the first place.

Possible Alterations

I do think that this is the most flexible slot on the team, and if you wanted to substitute it for a different Pokemon that checks some necessary boxes, that would make a ton of sense to me. I have considered Focus Sash Mamoswine and Life Orb Swampert for better matchups against Dragon-types, but in my experience, Basculegion is simply Him.

Offensive Calcs To Know

• TBD

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One thing that was immediately clear to me from the very beginning is that max-Attack White Herb Incineroar felt like a cheat code for Trick Room modes. Having a physical attacker that cannot be burned and also gets to shrug off one stack of Intimidate goes a really, really long way. White Herb also serves the purpose of purging the Defense drop that he naturally incurs from Close Combat. Also, this guy gets Close Combat! Tyranitars never see it coming.

This guy checks a lot of things, namely Ceruledge and Basculegion, though unlike the first iteration of the team, he is no longer the only check to these guys, so some times it's perfectly alright to let him fall after getting a Fake Out off to improve your board position.

Similar to Charizard, you can stack a lot of offensive modifiers on this guy between Helping Hand and Sun.

Possible Alterations

If you wanted to tweak the build a little bit, I think there's an argument to be made for swapping out the White Herb for a Life Orb. While the presence of Farigiraf on your team will very frequently encourage your opponent to bring an Incineroar of their own, it doesn't happen all the time. In games where you do not need to dispel a rival Intimidate, the Life Orb would give you a fair bit more power in your initial punches.

In some of the calculations below, Incineroar comes just shy of OHKOing several things, and Life Orb would push it over the threshold. However, it's impossible to say if you would find yourself at -1 from an undispelled Intimidate in those same situations if you didn't have the White Herb, and would thus still be doing less damage overall.

Offensive Calcs To Know

Close Combat

• 32+ Atk Incineroar Close Combat vs. 32 HP / 0 Def Mega Tyranitar: 196-232 (94.6 - 112%) -- 68.75% chance to OHKO
• 32+ Atk Incineroar Helping Hand Close Combat vs. 32 HP / 12 Def Incineroar: 204-240 (100.9 - 118.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
• 32+ Atk Incineroar Helping Hand Close Combat vs. 32 HP / 0 Def Archaludon: 166-196 (84.2 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Flare Blitz

• 32+ Atk Incineroar Helping Hand Flare Blitz vs. 32 HP / 0 Def Archaludon in Sun: 186-220 (94.4 - 111.6%) -- 68.75% chance to OHKO
• 32+ Atk Incineroar Helping Hand Flare Blitz vs. 32 HP / 20+ Def Farigiraf in Sun: 229-271 (100.8 - 119.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
• 32+ Atk Incineroar Flare Blitz vs. 32 HP / 0 Def Kingambit in Sun: 270-318 (130.4 - 153.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Darkest Lariat

• 32+ Atk Incineroar Darkest Lariat vs. 2 HP / 0 Def Basculegion: 206-246 (104.5 - 124.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
• 32+ Atk Incineroar Helping Hand Darkest Lariat vs. 27 HP / 18 Def Colbur Berry Ceruledge: 111-132 (62.7 - 74.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Against Common Megas

• 32+ Atk Incineroar Darkest Lariat vs. 2 HP / 0 Def Mega Charizard Y: 90-106 (58 - 68.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
• 32+ Atk Incineroar Flare Blitz vs. 32 HP / 11 Def Mega Raichu Y: 144-171 (86.2 - 102.3%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
• 32+ Atk Incineroar Flare Blitz vs. 32 HP / 0 Def Mega Mawile: 170-204 (108.2 - 129.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
• 32+ Atk Incineroar Helping Hand Flare Blitz vs. 26 HP / 2 Def Mega Floette: 169-201 (96.5 - 114.8%) -- 81.25% chance to OHKO
• 32+ Atk Incineroar Helping Hand Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mega Staraptor: 154-183 (96.2 - 114.3%) -- 81.25% chance to OHKO

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Probably the most standard member of the team, this Farigiraf does what Farigirafs do best: blocks Fake-Out and sets up Trick Room.

25 points invested into HP brings her to a nice, even HP value of 220, which is relevant for making sure her Sitrus Berry activates reliably in the face of things like Super Fang from Maushold, or after several turns of percentage-based chip effects.

With a well-placed Intimidate from Incineroar by her side, she can withstand the most heinous attacks imaginable. I'm talking Life Orb Adamant Basculegion Wave Crash in Rain. This was chosen as my defensive benchmark under the rationale that it would be the single hardest hit that could be coming from something that cannot be Faked Out on Turn 1.

On the special side, she can endure a Weather Ball from Modest Charizard-Y in Sun, but it's a roll to survive a Fairy Feather-boosted Hyper Beam from Modest Sylveon or a Fairy Aura-boosted Light of Ruin from Mega Floette. But, like I said, you can Fake Out both of these threats.

Thunderbolt is there to snipe Pelippers and rival Charizards, which is a thing you will find yourself doing surprisngly often. According to the in-game stats, this is also a fairly common move choice, so I don't think it needs much more explanation.

Do not be afraid to click Helping Hand frequently, as every other member of this team is offensively-tuned and designed to do a lot of damage. You will surprise people with how much damage guys like Incineroar can do.

Possible Alterations

Psychic Noise might be worthwhile over plain-old Psychic, if for no other reason than it being really funny to wall out Ceruledge completely, and to make Milotic sweat a bit. Remember, the heal block effect doesn't just remove the healing aspect, it fully disables the ability to use healing moves such as Bitter Blade. That said, the power drop is considerable, and Psychic really does nice neutral damage into a lot of things, even without any special attack investment.

Defensive Calcs To Know

Physical Hits

• -1 32+ Atk Life Orb Adaptability Basculegion Wave Crash vs. 25 HP / 26 Def Farigiraf in Rain: 185-218 (84 - 99%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
• -1 32+ Atk Mega Tyranitar Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 25 HP / 26 Def Farigiraf: 152-180 (69 - 81.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage
• 32+ Atk Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 25 HP / 26 Def Farigiraf: 170-204 (77.2 - 92.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Special Hits

• 32+ SpA Mega Charizard Y Weather Ball (100 BP Fire) vs. 25 HP / 15+ SpD Farigiraf in Sun: 171-202 (77.7 - 91.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
• 32+ SpA Mega Launcher Mega Blastoise Dark Pulse vs. 25 HP / 15+ SpD Farigiraf: 162-192 (73.6 - 87.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery
• 32+ SpA Fairy Feather Pixilate Sylveon Hyper Beam vs. 25 HP / 15+ SpD Farigiraf: 189-223 (85.9 - 101.3%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
• 32+ SpA Fairy Aura Mega Floette Light of Ruin vs. 25 HP / 15+ SpD Farigiraf: 207-244 (94 - 110.9%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO

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What if Vileplume was incredibly bulky? This is question that few dare to ask but for which I have the answer. As discussed earlier, while Vileplume's versatile Speed stat and its Water-resistant typing made it an appealing incusion for a Sun team, it still had a few glaring issues.

Firstly, it would always have its Speed doubled in the Sun, no matter what, resulting in occasional awkward board states once Trick Room was set up. Secondly, it was simultaneously the only Water-resist and the Focus Sash holder, meaning that it would functionally lose its item immediately if you ever needed to make a defensive switch-in.

Venusaur, and more specifically Mega Venusaur, solves all of these problems. A mere 12 points of Speed investment allows her to reach a Speed stat of 112, which is the same as maximum-investment Vileplume. This number is important, because it is still slow enough to be usable inside Trick Room, but when doubled with Chlorophyll, hits the magic number of 224, which is exactly 2 points faster than the base-150s, who are currently the fastest unboosted Pokemon in the entire game.

Importantly, unlike with Vileplume, we have the option of turning off Chlorophyll by Mega Evolving, allowing us to sit comfortably in a Trick Room scenario where Sun has already been set up. And of course, if we don't see Trick Room in the immediate future, you can just delay your Mega Evolution for a little while and enjoy the Speed boost while you need it.

And it's not like she gets a useless ability in echange for Chlorophyll, either. She gains Thick Fat, which nullifies her Fire and Ice-type weaknesses, leaving her only vulnerable to the less-common Psychic and Flying-type damage. This, in addition to the natrually superior bulk stats, allows Venusaur to feel much, much better as defensive countermeasure to the Water, Rock and Ground-type damage that would otherwise completely run over earlier versions of the team. Add restoration from STAB-boosted Giga Drain on top of that, and you have a mon that can really stick around.

And, of course, by being a Mega Pokemon, this frees up the Focus Sash to be held by another member of the team, one which isn't also serving double-duty as a defensive option.

Possible Alterations

Venusaur also has the option of going for Sleep Powder just like Vileplume, but here I have opted to go for a third attack instead, with Earth Power. Special Ground-type damage is at a premium in this format, giving us additional answer into guys like Archaludon, Kingambit and Ceruledge. Overall, I preferred this to the inconsistency of Sleep Powder, but it is by no means definitively the correct moveset.

Offensive Calcs To Know

• TBD

Defensive Calcs To Know

Physical Hits

• TBD

Special Hits

• 32+ SpA Pelipper Hurricane vs. 32 HP / 0 SpD Mega Venusaur: 144-170 (77 - 90.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

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Finally, the star of the show (in my heart): it's Torkoal! What is there to say? She is the Tried and True Trick Room sweeper. On this team, she can play both an offensive and supportive role, with Helping Hand chosen over a third attack. There are a great many leads which you can reduce to ash by simply providing a Helping Hand boost to Charizard.

This Torkoal is my beloved Pokemon and has been with me since Generation 6. She has every ribbon she can get. I am happy that she continues to find new friends to play with, season after season.

Possible Alterations

There is a real argument to be made for replacing Helping Hand with Earth Power so as not to get walled out completely by the Flash-Fire-having Ceruledge. I say you haven't lived until you've won on the first turn with a Helping-Hand-Solar-Power-Sun-Boosted Heat Wave. But I won't deny that the team's Ceruledge matchup is somewhat difficult.

Offensive Calcs To Know

• 32+ SpA Charcoal Torkoal Helping Hand Eruption (150 BP) vs. 32 HP / 12 SpD Farigiraf in Sun: 252-297 (111 - 130.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Defensive Calcs To Know

Physical Hits

• +1 32+ Atk Black Glasses Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 32 HP / 0 Def Torkoal: 111-132 (62.7 - 74.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
• 32 Atk Life Orb Garchomp Earthquake vs. 32 HP / 0 Def Torkoal: 127-151 (71.7 - 85.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

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The Paste

Copy the PokePaste to Clipboard!

The Replica Code at the time of this writing is L9VSPYV70U

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Common Brings

All-Out Solar Offense

Front

Back

Against teams which do not have a meaningful way to resist Fire damageT (such as Alolan Ninetales + Mega Raichu Y), you can just turn up the heat immediately. Leading with Torkoal sets you up in a position to either just click Helping Hand, or hard switch into Farigiraf to block an expected Fake Out. You can also lead with Farigiraf and hard switch in to Torkoal if you are worried about weather control.

From there, you just click Heat Wave for as long as they let you, and navigate for setting up Trick Room in the mid-game. Venusaur can be preserved until the end-game fairly well and clean up either under cover of Sun with Cholorphyll, or by Mega-Evolving. Basculegion is also a fine choice here, as the Sun often expires by the time the game reaches this point, allowing you to rip at least two attacks into something with your Focus Sash preserved.

Sun Room

Front

Back

Against teams which seek to outrun you, this is the bread-and-butter Trick Room composition. The combination of Incineroar and Farigiraf allow for an extremely safe combination of Fake Out + Trick Room, with fairly few ways to stop it. From there, Incineroar can flex its full investment in Attack while Farigiraf can click Helping Hand, fire off neutral hits, or hard switch into a stronger attacker. Against the ever-present Kingambit, who is slower than both Incineroar and Farigiraf, I often find myself switching Farigiraf our for Torkoal while targeting Kingambit with a now-boosted Flare Blitz. Torkoal's base 140 physical Defense will keep it going even against a +1 Kowtow.

This is also the composition I bring against Rain teams (unless they have a manual Rain setter like Sableye, in which case Torkoal often becomes Basculegion). Incineroar can get a lot done against Archaludon, and its Intimidate is valuable against Swampert. Pelipper has to live in fear of Thunderbolt from Farigiraf. Throw down damage early and often, and trust in Venusaur to close it out for you.

I Am Fighting A Sand Team

Front

Back

Against Tyranitar, who does not care if you assert Weather control, and who does not have its super-effective damage output mitigated by said Weather control, you typically do not want to bring your Sun mode under any circumstances. Fortunately, everyone else who isn't Charizard or Torkoal matches up fairly well in to Rock-types.

Incineroar's Intimidate allows Farigiraf to get Trick Room up fairly freely, even in the face of Dark-type damage from Tyranitar's Knock Off. You can then follow up with a Close Combat on Turn 2 for an OHKO, which opponents may not see coming.

From there, your goal is to do damage while waiting out Sandstorm, in service of getting Basulegion on the field without having its Focus Sash chipped. It should be able to close out the game for you.

Garchomp is of course fairly scary, but you can generally just muscle through it with big Giga Drains and other STAB-boosted neutral hits.

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Closing Remarks

Thank you for reading! This team report is almost certainly way too long, but it was my first time feeling truly good about a team I built for a standard format, and my first time sitting down to commit to writing one of these. I love Torkoal and hope that she continues to shine in to Regulation M-C and beyond.