I got bored pretty quickly with the “meta” team used to complete the Challenge Championship: pretty repetitive, if you misclick, fail some part of the process or the AI does some moves that block your strategy, you will most definitely lose.
So I tried to build different teams, and now I’ve found something particular but effective.
The team I’m using right now is:
D-Amoongus
Nature: Bold / Ability: Prankster / 248 EV Hp - 168 EV Def - 92 EV Sp.D / Moveset: Tailwind - Will-O-Wisp - Light Screen - Destiny Bond / Item: Light Clay (can be changed for Mental Herb or Lum Berry, will explain why later).
D-Ambipom (yes, you read that right)
Nature: Adamant / Ability: Technician / 252 EV Atk - 4 EV Def - 252 EV Spe / Moveset: Achille’s Heel (not joking) - Shadow Punch - what you think will be useful for the other two moves / Item: Choice Band.
D-Volcarona
Nature: Modest / Ability: Levitate / 4 EV Def - 252 EV Sp.A - 252 EV Spe / Moveset: Sludge Wave - Dark Pulse - U-Turn - Defog / Item: his armor.
How does it work? You start with D-Amoongus, and use Will-O-Wisp most of the time, it depends on what Pokémon you’ll face first. This way you’ll put a DoT on the opponent and halve his Atk damage if it’s an offensive physical attacker. If not, it’s still a DoT and it’s useful to break possible Sash/Multiscale/Sturdy. In the meantime, you can set up a bit with Light Screen and Tailwind to make sure your other Pokémons will take the hit without dying and will attack first. Whether D-Amoongus is almost dead and you didn’t apply the burn - maybe you thought he could handle more hits and started to set up -, you can use Destiny Bond, taking away their Pokémon.
D-Ambipom will be the main sweeper. Achille’s Heel will handle pretty much anything it isn’t a Ghost-type; if you face a Ghost team, use Shadow Punch. It may seem stupid to use a 45 Base Power move, but you have to add 50% more damage for the STAB, 50% more damage due to Technician (boosting every damaging move with 60 or less Base Power), and lastly 50% for the Choice Band. Given its ability to always be supereffective except on Ghosts, it can usually One Shot or Two Shot anything that stands in its way. That’s the reason why you can complete its moveset however you like because you will practically use only two moves.
D-Volcarona is a utility/revenge killer pick. If the opponent starts to set up Stealth Rock, Spikes, etc., Defog will clean the battlefield to make sure D-Ambipom can take more hits. U-turn is used for switching Pokémon right after the Defog, placing D-Amoongus if you have to set up again something; if not, go for D-Ambipom.
The main problem for this team - mainly learned from experience - are Taunt and Paralysis. Taunt will shut down D-Amoongus completely, forcing you to switch to something else, while Paralysis could block D-Amoongus from taking action and will make D-Ambipom or D-Volcarona slower, and that will most certainly make you lose. That’s why I suggest if you do not like the Light Clay for D-Amoongus, use Lum Berry to avoid Paralysis or Mental Herb to negate Taunt.
Hope this can be useful to anyone facing the Challenge Championship.
[I have probably made some errors, it’s pretty late while I’m writing this, and my English skills may be affected by it. Sorry for that :P]
- D-Ambipom can be replaced with Garchomp: use the same EV spread and item, Jolly nature, Rough Skin, and moveset EQ / Dragon Claw / Rock Slide / Iron Head or whatever you see fit.