Team 1: : 
Team 2: 
Weeks prior I made a team, with the sole idea of not using zapdos or cloyster, more of a creative exercise for myself. The team was obviously suboptimal, and even in my playtesting I found myself really craving zapdos. That being said, I got a lot of (somewhat constructive) criticism, and I used the team base as a challenge to make an actual decent team that coalesces with my playstyle. I relaxed the zapdos + cloyster constraint, because I just wanted to build something I would actually use. Heres my process, throughout the whole thing.
I really wanted to build around a core with these two explosions in mind. With cloyster being much more common, more offensive teams are more prepared against a potential cloyster explosion than a foretress explosion. Exeggutor and Forry are unique in that they dont necessarily bait certain pokemon, but can explode through essential pokemon to a team structure like Zapdos or Snorlax.
At this point, realizing that foretress has much more longevity than cloyster, I wanted to play to those strengths and focus very hard on the spikes game. I opt for gengar as it is easily the best offensive spinblocker, the best utility mon, and another explosion to work with. For rapid spin support, I opt for starmie, as it covers the machamp + vaporeon weakness, while also being a spinner that has gotten the spotlight taken from it via golem. Due to my ideas for the last pokemon on the team, I didn't want to use golem, as double rock types is pretty redundant.
These are the six pokemon I decided to post in my recent RMT, with mixed results. The team is focused on winning the spikes war vs offense and uses curseTTar + explosions to break stall, but at this point the lack of zapdos was very felt. The team gets run through by certain nidoking and marowak team comps, and hard loses to baton pass. Snorlax was forced into a sleeptalk set, which is very hot in the meta right now but feels like a crutch. I would rather have a much more fun snorlax set, so I wanted a viable sleep talker and nidoking counter, which leads us to final product A:
The best spikes abuser and sleep talker in the metagame joins the team, and now we have a very viable team composition. As an ex-nidogartar spammer, This team composition immediately feels comfortable and tailored to my interests. Immense control over the spikes war as an offensive team, CurseTTar is often not prepared against, and at any given time the team can give up the spikes war, and both the spiker and spinblocker turn into valuable explosion assets. Here the team is below, with sets:
TEAM 1:
arti (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
- Thunder
- Hidden Power Ice
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Classic zapdos, just one of the most dominant threats in the metagame. Blanket everything check, and a powerful spikes abuser. With the rest of the team the way it is, one win condition is spikes control + zapdos being zapdos. Not much else to say here.
Laxative (Snorlax) @ Leftovers
- Double Edge
- Earthquake
- Curse
- Rest
This was THE lax set when I was younger, but alas, people are using much more sleep talk now. Sleep talk works, no question, I just hate the lack of power snorlax has without any boosting moves. EQCurse absolutely fucks offense these days, especially now that curseless lax is more or less the standard, and people are preparing for eqcurse less and less. The electric check and also glue to the team, pretty standard.
$pikes (Forettress) @ Leftovers
- Spikes
- Hidden Power Fire
- Toxic
- Explosion
Foretress is the designated spiker of the team, but has surprising utility outside of that. As it is a steel type, by toxicing cloy, you essentally guarantee an early explosion from cloyster, which is really good to either explode something more important or win the spikes war. Foretress also has the potential to run more sets, such as spin, hp ghost, etc. By running a seperate dedicated spinner, Foretress can run hidden power fire, which obliterates other Foretress, which other teams are less likely to run because of four moveslot syndrome.
misty (Starmie) @ Leftovers
- Surf
- Psychic
- Recover
- Rapid Spin
Starmie spins. The tiers premier dedicated spinner, and helps with the machamp/vaporeon offense matchup. Surf + Psychic ensures that you also have something against steelix/wak, as by not running cloy we would like some powerful water moves.
GENGHIS (Gengar) @ Leftovers
- Hypnosis
- Explosion
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch
Pretty standard gengar set, but it works. Gengar is honestly my crutch pokemon, it is so hard to build without this pokemon for me. Provides spinblocker support while also giving us an explosion and (innacurate) sleep moves.
T_T (Tyranitar) @ Leftovers
- Rock Slide
- Curse
- Rest
- Roar
As stated in the previous RMT, this set is often not prepared for at all. Completely runs through most teams if the right explosions are hit or if the correct pokemon get worn down via spikes, and some other teams lose against this pokemon turn one. Also the snorlax check on the team. Even if Tyranitar doesnt sweep, it can often chip certain pokemon to uncomfortable health for spikes/zapdos/snorlax to make short work of, putting us ahead.
This is the current updated Team with the same ideas and wincons as the original team, but after getting here I noticed that these 6 pokemon could do something completely different. Without starmie, and if we loosen up on the spikes war, The team looks eerily reminiscent of NidoGarTar. With that in mind, instead of CurseTTar, we could use pursuit TTar with monolax, zapdos with spikes support and explosion support from gengar and foretress, and we have one more pokemon to work with. Looking through all the options we have, many offensive pokemon can fill Nido's slot on typical NidoGarTar and have success, but the one I chose I think perfectly works with this team to accomplish offensive pressure and remove key pokemon.
This is Team 2, and an explanation will be below.
arti (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
- Thunder
- Hidden Power Ice
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Zapdos is zapdos, and without a spinner, this it serves as a more offensive glue and bulky pokemon, countering other would be threats like nidoking and spreading paralysis.
RISE AND GRIND (Muk) @ Leftovers
- Sludge Bomb
- Curse
- Fire Blast
- Explosion
Without curseTTar, the team is wide open for another offensive threat, and I wanted something that could potentially hurt skarmory/steelix for a curselax win, and also lure snorlax for a zapdos win, as well as late game sweep and work well with spikes. This narrowed it down to two pokemon, Tentacruel and Muk. If you would like to build the team with tentacruel, some of these sets will need to change, especially the gengar set, but the rest of the concept still works. But with Muk, you specifically lure in important pokemon, because the tier is not often prepared for the UUBL threat that is Muk. The set is standard curse muk. Sludge bomb's poison chance is also really nice, because one of the sure fire counters to most muk is golem, and golem HATES status, and with golem removed, curselax has a much easier time and spikes are now fully down, which is awesome.
GENGHIS (Gengar) @ Leftovers
- Hidden Power Water
- Psychic
- Ice Punch
- Explosion
An explaination for this monstrosity is probably in order, so here goes. I wanted hidden power water to hit certain ground types as a suprirse, and then run through them with muk later. Treat hidden power water kind of like explosion, because once its revealed, its never going to hit. Psychic hits other gengar pokemon like machamp and heracross hard, which would otherwise completely obliterate the team. Ice punch is mostly here for zapdos/exeggutor, but also to bluff a sense of normalcy for this otherwise absurd gengar idea. Explosion is explosion. This gengar also gets hard trapped by TTar, but thats not the end of the world, because with HP Water into explosion, it becomes Snorlax food.
Laxative (Snorlax) @ Leftovers
- Double Edge
- Curse
- Sleep Talk
- Rest
Once upon a time, the most common snorlax set. Now that we have pursuit support, this set is free to go absolutely nuts. Not only a very nice defensive glue because of sleep talk, but beats every other snorlax (on paper) and also a lot of offensive teams after the necessary pieces fall. I like this guy a lot.
$pikes (Forretress) @ Leftovers
- Spikes
- Toxic
- Explosion
- Hidden Power Fire
Its the same Forretress as before, but here the explosion is slightly more important than before, and the spikes are less important as before. HP ghost is also not needed because our Tyranitar specifically fucks ghost types. That being said, once its coverage is revealed, serves as an effective lure to lure in gengar, to trap it with tyranitar and win with muk or snorlax.
T_T (Tyranitar) @ Leftovers
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Roar
- Rock Slide
Double dark move tyranitar gets rid of Gengar and Exeggutor, while sacrificing how threatening it is to steel types like skarmory, which is okay for this team. Also functions as an effective phazer and snorlax check, and rock slide can get some game winning flinches. Pursuit support is essential to work against ghost types though, so this pokemon is more or less necessary.
I hope you liked these two teams, and as always criticism is welcomed! Happy building
Team 2:
Weeks prior I made a team, with the sole idea of not using zapdos or cloyster, more of a creative exercise for myself. The team was obviously suboptimal, and even in my playtesting I found myself really craving zapdos. That being said, I got a lot of (somewhat constructive) criticism, and I used the team base as a challenge to make an actual decent team that coalesces with my playstyle. I relaxed the zapdos + cloyster constraint, because I just wanted to build something I would actually use. Heres my process, throughout the whole thing.
I really wanted to build around a core with these two explosions in mind. With cloyster being much more common, more offensive teams are more prepared against a potential cloyster explosion than a foretress explosion. Exeggutor and Forry are unique in that they dont necessarily bait certain pokemon, but can explode through essential pokemon to a team structure like Zapdos or Snorlax.
At this point, realizing that foretress has much more longevity than cloyster, I wanted to play to those strengths and focus very hard on the spikes game. I opt for gengar as it is easily the best offensive spinblocker, the best utility mon, and another explosion to work with. For rapid spin support, I opt for starmie, as it covers the machamp + vaporeon weakness, while also being a spinner that has gotten the spotlight taken from it via golem. Due to my ideas for the last pokemon on the team, I didn't want to use golem, as double rock types is pretty redundant.
These are the six pokemon I decided to post in my recent RMT, with mixed results. The team is focused on winning the spikes war vs offense and uses curseTTar + explosions to break stall, but at this point the lack of zapdos was very felt. The team gets run through by certain nidoking and marowak team comps, and hard loses to baton pass. Snorlax was forced into a sleeptalk set, which is very hot in the meta right now but feels like a crutch. I would rather have a much more fun snorlax set, so I wanted a viable sleep talker and nidoking counter, which leads us to final product A:
The best spikes abuser and sleep talker in the metagame joins the team, and now we have a very viable team composition. As an ex-nidogartar spammer, This team composition immediately feels comfortable and tailored to my interests. Immense control over the spikes war as an offensive team, CurseTTar is often not prepared against, and at any given time the team can give up the spikes war, and both the spiker and spinblocker turn into valuable explosion assets. Here the team is below, with sets:
TEAM 1:
arti (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
- Thunder
- Hidden Power Ice
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Classic zapdos, just one of the most dominant threats in the metagame. Blanket everything check, and a powerful spikes abuser. With the rest of the team the way it is, one win condition is spikes control + zapdos being zapdos. Not much else to say here.
Laxative (Snorlax) @ Leftovers
- Double Edge
- Earthquake
- Curse
- Rest
This was THE lax set when I was younger, but alas, people are using much more sleep talk now. Sleep talk works, no question, I just hate the lack of power snorlax has without any boosting moves. EQCurse absolutely fucks offense these days, especially now that curseless lax is more or less the standard, and people are preparing for eqcurse less and less. The electric check and also glue to the team, pretty standard.
$pikes (Forettress) @ Leftovers
- Spikes
- Hidden Power Fire
- Toxic
- Explosion
Foretress is the designated spiker of the team, but has surprising utility outside of that. As it is a steel type, by toxicing cloy, you essentally guarantee an early explosion from cloyster, which is really good to either explode something more important or win the spikes war. Foretress also has the potential to run more sets, such as spin, hp ghost, etc. By running a seperate dedicated spinner, Foretress can run hidden power fire, which obliterates other Foretress, which other teams are less likely to run because of four moveslot syndrome.
misty (Starmie) @ Leftovers
- Surf
- Psychic
- Recover
- Rapid Spin
Starmie spins. The tiers premier dedicated spinner, and helps with the machamp/vaporeon offense matchup. Surf + Psychic ensures that you also have something against steelix/wak, as by not running cloy we would like some powerful water moves.
GENGHIS (Gengar) @ Leftovers
- Hypnosis
- Explosion
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch
Pretty standard gengar set, but it works. Gengar is honestly my crutch pokemon, it is so hard to build without this pokemon for me. Provides spinblocker support while also giving us an explosion and (innacurate) sleep moves.
T_T (Tyranitar) @ Leftovers
- Rock Slide
- Curse
- Rest
- Roar
As stated in the previous RMT, this set is often not prepared for at all. Completely runs through most teams if the right explosions are hit or if the correct pokemon get worn down via spikes, and some other teams lose against this pokemon turn one. Also the snorlax check on the team. Even if Tyranitar doesnt sweep, it can often chip certain pokemon to uncomfortable health for spikes/zapdos/snorlax to make short work of, putting us ahead.
This is the current updated Team with the same ideas and wincons as the original team, but after getting here I noticed that these 6 pokemon could do something completely different. Without starmie, and if we loosen up on the spikes war, The team looks eerily reminiscent of NidoGarTar. With that in mind, instead of CurseTTar, we could use pursuit TTar with monolax, zapdos with spikes support and explosion support from gengar and foretress, and we have one more pokemon to work with. Looking through all the options we have, many offensive pokemon can fill Nido's slot on typical NidoGarTar and have success, but the one I chose I think perfectly works with this team to accomplish offensive pressure and remove key pokemon.
This is Team 2, and an explanation will be below.
arti (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
- Thunder
- Hidden Power Ice
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Zapdos is zapdos, and without a spinner, this it serves as a more offensive glue and bulky pokemon, countering other would be threats like nidoking and spreading paralysis.
RISE AND GRIND (Muk) @ Leftovers
- Sludge Bomb
- Curse
- Fire Blast
- Explosion
Without curseTTar, the team is wide open for another offensive threat, and I wanted something that could potentially hurt skarmory/steelix for a curselax win, and also lure snorlax for a zapdos win, as well as late game sweep and work well with spikes. This narrowed it down to two pokemon, Tentacruel and Muk. If you would like to build the team with tentacruel, some of these sets will need to change, especially the gengar set, but the rest of the concept still works. But with Muk, you specifically lure in important pokemon, because the tier is not often prepared for the UUBL threat that is Muk. The set is standard curse muk. Sludge bomb's poison chance is also really nice, because one of the sure fire counters to most muk is golem, and golem HATES status, and with golem removed, curselax has a much easier time and spikes are now fully down, which is awesome.
GENGHIS (Gengar) @ Leftovers
- Hidden Power Water
- Psychic
- Ice Punch
- Explosion
An explaination for this monstrosity is probably in order, so here goes. I wanted hidden power water to hit certain ground types as a suprirse, and then run through them with muk later. Treat hidden power water kind of like explosion, because once its revealed, its never going to hit. Psychic hits other gengar pokemon like machamp and heracross hard, which would otherwise completely obliterate the team. Ice punch is mostly here for zapdos/exeggutor, but also to bluff a sense of normalcy for this otherwise absurd gengar idea. Explosion is explosion. This gengar also gets hard trapped by TTar, but thats not the end of the world, because with HP Water into explosion, it becomes Snorlax food.
Laxative (Snorlax) @ Leftovers
- Double Edge
- Curse
- Sleep Talk
- Rest
Once upon a time, the most common snorlax set. Now that we have pursuit support, this set is free to go absolutely nuts. Not only a very nice defensive glue because of sleep talk, but beats every other snorlax (on paper) and also a lot of offensive teams after the necessary pieces fall. I like this guy a lot.
$pikes (Forretress) @ Leftovers
- Spikes
- Toxic
- Explosion
- Hidden Power Fire
Its the same Forretress as before, but here the explosion is slightly more important than before, and the spikes are less important as before. HP ghost is also not needed because our Tyranitar specifically fucks ghost types. That being said, once its coverage is revealed, serves as an effective lure to lure in gengar, to trap it with tyranitar and win with muk or snorlax.
T_T (Tyranitar) @ Leftovers
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Roar
- Rock Slide
Double dark move tyranitar gets rid of Gengar and Exeggutor, while sacrificing how threatening it is to steel types like skarmory, which is okay for this team. Also functions as an effective phazer and snorlax check, and rock slide can get some game winning flinches. Pursuit support is essential to work against ghost types though, so this pokemon is more or less necessary.
I hope you liked these two teams, and as always criticism is welcomed! Happy building
